Week of June 8:
"on Wednesday, we had a lesson with S. honestly when we were planning on what to teach her, we were wondering if she was even progressing or if we needed to do a drop lesson. We invited a sister from our ward, Hermana Sanchez to come with us to the lesson. We have had other Hermanas come with us before but Hermana Sanchez finally clicked with her! S completely opened up! We decided that in this lesson we were going to come right out and say that she needs to ask for a change in her schedule or find a new job. Its hard to ask that of someone because that is her source of income right now and she makes more on sundays than any other day but ultimately she will not progress if she cannot make it to church! so a couple weeks ago, we invited her to fast so that she could get an answer for her question "is this church true". we fasted along side of her. We asked her if she had done it and SHE HAD! she remembered and she fasted! that alone showed to us her desire to do this. she wants an answer and she wants this or else she wouldn't have done that! so we had a lesson with her and faith. we talked about how sometimes we have to act in faith knowing that God will take care of things and that he will never have us sacrifice something without blessing us for it! We then popped the big question "will you ask your boss for a change in your schedule or find a new job?" she said she would do what she could. Then Hermana Sanchez stepped in "I will personally help you find a job! I will look for you. I will watch your kids. whatever you need. we are going to get you a new job." (shes amazing!) our branch president has a lot of "in's" and so we invited her to come to our activities (again) for Thursday so we can talk to president about helping her find a job. unfortunately when we talked to him about it, he wasn't able to make it so we told S that he wasn't going to be there but she was still very welcome to come to our activities. When Thursday came around, we decided to stop by activities for a second and right when we walked in, S's daughter was standing in the hallway. at first I didn't recognize her and had to a double take. But S came to the activity with all of her kids! it was awesome! it was a big deal for her and we are so excited that we are seeing the desire in her and watching her progress. What we need now is lots of prayers so that she can find a new job!
We picked up a new investigator, M. we found her through a long story. We went by her house to find a man named R. We set up an appointment with roman and went and he wasn't home but found his daughter N. We set up an appointment with N and went back and she wasn't there but found her sister V! so we set up an appointment with V and she wasn't there... but we went back anyway and found her and taught her for a little bit and while we were there, her mother M walked in and said she wanted to learn more so she is great and progressing and everything!
Remember aunt C? well we had two lessons with her this week! last Monday, we went for family night and we taught the restoration. We asked C if she would say the closing prayer for us and she said no because she doesn't know how. We taught her and SHE DID! I didn't know that people would truly be so afraid to pray! but almost everyone is! nobody knows that there isn't a bad prayer! so that was great. when we left we said "is there anything else that we can do for you?" and she said "come back and teach me more!" so we are really excited for her and we will be seeing her this week as well!
on Saturday we had our interviews which were awesome! I got some really great council on what I should do to help certain people and how I can become better as a missionary. Honestly the biggest thing, I think is to remember President Hinkleys fathers words and I know they are said every day but THEYRE TRUE! "forget yourself and go to work!" it reminds me of something one of my mtc teachers said to me. he said "right now you represent 3 things what are they?" I said "Jesus Christ, Myself....." big pause. he says read your name tag. it reads " Hermana STEVENS. THE CHURCH of JESUS CHRIST of latter daysaints." right now I represent my family, my church and my Lord. this work is not in the slightest about me. I know that is true! I am just lucky enough to get something out of it! this work is about the people of sacramento and the Lord. I just have to make sure I am doing everything I can to make it happen. so that I am not prohibiting anything from happening!
after my interview, I went and talked to sister Jardine. she shared with me a scripture. it is Alma 56:48. "48. and they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We don not doubt our mothers knew it." then she asked me "what does your mother know?" I took a moment to think and said "a lot of things!" so this is a little shout out to my momma! :D thanks for always being so supportive of me and so believing. your "you can do anything you put your mind to" and "don't limit yourself" speeches may have driven me crazy but they were burned in my brain I guess because often, I find myself believing those things! truly I am so thankful for my mother and all that she has done for me! love you! :D
ultimately it was another wonderful week with lots of learning! lots of miracles! and lots of teaching! im excited for another one! thanks so much for everything! love you all!
We picked up a new investigator, M. we found her through a long story. We went by her house to find a man named R. We set up an appointment with roman and went and he wasn't home but found his daughter N. We set up an appointment with N and went back and she wasn't there but found her sister V! so we set up an appointment with V and she wasn't there... but we went back anyway and found her and taught her for a little bit and while we were there, her mother M walked in and said she wanted to learn more so she is great and progressing and everything!
Remember aunt C? well we had two lessons with her this week! last Monday, we went for family night and we taught the restoration. We asked C if she would say the closing prayer for us and she said no because she doesn't know how. We taught her and SHE DID! I didn't know that people would truly be so afraid to pray! but almost everyone is! nobody knows that there isn't a bad prayer! so that was great. when we left we said "is there anything else that we can do for you?" and she said "come back and teach me more!" so we are really excited for her and we will be seeing her this week as well!
on Saturday we had our interviews which were awesome! I got some really great council on what I should do to help certain people and how I can become better as a missionary. Honestly the biggest thing, I think is to remember President Hinkleys fathers words and I know they are said every day but THEYRE TRUE! "forget yourself and go to work!" it reminds me of something one of my mtc teachers said to me. he said "right now you represent 3 things what are they?" I said "Jesus Christ, Myself....." big pause. he says read your name tag. it reads " Hermana STEVENS. THE CHURCH of JESUS CHRIST of latter daysaints." right now I represent my family, my church and my Lord. this work is not in the slightest about me. I know that is true! I am just lucky enough to get something out of it! this work is about the people of sacramento and the Lord. I just have to make sure I am doing everything I can to make it happen. so that I am not prohibiting anything from happening!
after my interview, I went and talked to sister Jardine. she shared with me a scripture. it is Alma 56:48. "48. and they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We don not doubt our mothers knew it." then she asked me "what does your mother know?" I took a moment to think and said "a lot of things!" so this is a little shout out to my momma! :D thanks for always being so supportive of me and so believing. your "you can do anything you put your mind to" and "don't limit yourself" speeches may have driven me crazy but they were burned in my brain I guess because often, I find myself believing those things! truly I am so thankful for my mother and all that she has done for me! love you! :D
ultimately it was another wonderful week with lots of learning! lots of miracles! and lots of teaching! im excited for another one! thanks so much for everything! love you all!
Hermana Stevens"
Week of June 16
"I expect this email to be massive so brace yourselves! This week is been super awesome and so many miracles and have been very blessed in our area! And let me tell you about what is going on with all of our investigators! Well to start off, we had 4 investigators at church on sunday! And the next one starts with S and her family so last week I didn't mention in my email because we were still trying to get things sorted out but now that things are coming, I will tell you everything that has gone on with them. So like I said last week we had interviews with the president. When we were being interviewed Hermana Clark asked him what more she can do to become a baptizing missionary. Every week we make goals and every week for baptisms that week, we have made our goal 0 because we have never had anyone prepared enough to be baptized. He told her that this is our problem. By putting 0 baptisms that week, it shows Heavenly Father that we are not expecting miracles and that we are expecting to not have any baptisms. So the next day that we planned, we looked at our investigators. We greatly considered what president said and wrote down a 1 in the space for how many baptisms we were going to have that week. We were trying to show Heavenly Father that we are expecting miracles if we have the faith for them. We then tried to match a name to our one baptism. At that moment, it was so obvious. G could be baptized that weekend! The date that he was working toward was jun 27 but we both knew how ready he was. Now if you don't remember, G is the son of S. He is 13 years old but he has the maturity of an adult. He is incredibly spiritually inclined and very intelligent. He from the very beginning when we started teaching S was very involved. We made lesson plans according to what he had to learn in order to be baptized that weekend. Their family couldn't make it to church that Sunday so we went over to their house on Sunday and talked to S About what we were planning and how she felt about it all. She gave Her approval so then we had to ask G how he felt about it! He sat down and we said "G, we know that we asked you to be baptized on jun 27 but we feel very strongly that we don't need to wait that long and we feel that you are ready. You are a very special boy..." We were cut off by his gigantic smile. Hemana Clark said why are you smiling? And he said "you guys called me special. Special is just such a big word! I feel so excited to be baptized this weekend!" We talked to him a little bit more about baptism and we said "do you have any questions?" And he said nope! I think you answered them all! Then his sister L said "i have a question!" And we said "okay what is your question?" And she said "can I get baptized on Saturday?" We were shocked! And we said "OF COURSE!" It was amazing now because of a lot of different things getting in the way of the baptism, we weren't able to have it last week but G and L are getting baptized this Saturday at 7:00! :D they are truly amazing and so prepared for this! They understand everything, they have so many questions so we KNOW they understand and they have only missed 1 day of church in the past 6 weeks! This last Sunday, I sat by them in sacrament meeting and their mom was in the foyer with the baby so G was teaching L how to read the hymns. We sang I need thee every hour for our closing hymn and I definitely cried when I heard them trying to read all the words and keep up. They have been such a blessing and they are doing so great! Their mom said she will get baptized and she is going to get baptized after she gets some life things sorted out. But we are giving our last lesson lesson today and have been able to get a member to every single lesson! So we have had grrrreat branch support!
The next one is J! So every time we have a lesson with her, I mean it goes really well and she understands and asks questions and everything but there has always felt like there was a gap. We had a lesson with her yesterday and finally brought a member with us and that was what closed the gap! She opened up! They were chatting and laughing!the lesson was wonderful, hermana Cervantes shared an experience with her and we got her to pray at the end! It was solo good! When we were closing the lesson, she said "so I have a quesion. What are the requirements of baptism?" We told her about the lessons and the commandments again. J has not come to church yet and so hermana Cervantes invited her to come and she said "I don't know... I just don't know what to wear!" A hermana Cervantes explained about how we just try to look our very best! And then she left J with her phone number and invited to our activity that they have on Thursday! I see a LOT of progression with her these next couple of weeks!
M is next she is so great! everytime that we have a lesson with her, she just truly understands EVERYTHING! oh my goodness she is prepared! She usually goes to the English ward because hat is where her sister in law goes but on Sunday, we got a text from her and she said "hey I'm here at your church where do I go?" So we went and found her and she sat on the other side of me through sacrament meeting! We had a lesson with her on Sunday night and she understood and accepted everything that we taught her. She says everything you guys teach me just makes perfect sense! The other thing we talked about was her sister her sister is living out of state and M always shares what she learns from us who her. She said that her sister always says things like "pray for me!" Or " I wish I went back to church!" Or "I want to meet the sisters!they sound so sweet!" So we invited her to have her sister referee to the missionaries. I think it will go well I think hat her sister wants to be a part of it she just doesn't know how to or how to ask but M said she has thought about doing it for a lot time! This is where I challenge you all! INVITE someone! If you are thinking about sharing it with someone but feel nervous, do it anyway! If they say no, that's the worst that could happen but if you know of this great and all powerful blessing, why not share it?! I know it can seem hard and scary sometimes but I promise it's not! ...I know that coming from a missionary doesn't mean much because that's what I do everyday but I promise it won't be as scary as you think! And if you don't know about the church, ask someone! Ask me! I'll send the missionaries right over! :D
The other two are S and R and they are both progressing wonderfully! We are still praying that S can find a new job so that she can come to church! So pray with me!
It has been an amazing week and an incredible 2 transfers here with my pal hermana Clark but here's the sad news: she's leaving me! She is getting transferred to northern Sacramento to be a sister training Leader! I however am staying here! I'm super duper glad I'm staying! The area is in such great shape right now and I intend to keep bettering it! My new companion is sister Bowen and she is great! She was my first STL when I got here and hermana Clarks Mac companion she is super great and has already served this area so she knows a bunch! She is a super hard worker so that will be a blessing for sure! This next transfer will rock! Most of our zone is changing! Practically my entire district! My district leader is going home tomorrow so my new district leader is.....drumroll please!!!!..... ELDER JARAMILLO! Whoooo! I'm super excited about it!!
Thanks for all the letters this week! They really boost my spirits of tougher days and they make good days great!! Missionary life is the greatest!
Hermana Stevens"
Week of June 22
"i don't have a lot to say about this week i mean it was an incredible week! but there just wasn't much to say about it!This week was transfers! Hermana Clark went to northern sacramento and I got Hermana Bowen! Hermana Bowen served in sacramento 7th branch before Hermana clark was here so she kind of knows the area and the branch! I am very excited that she is here and I am excited to see the progression in our investigators and our area! we also moved AGAIN! we moved into the elders old apartment and boy was it nasty!! seriously like toenails and hair everywhere, there was a pot in the back of the cupboard with beef stew in it, about a million elder outfits, it literally has never been cleaned...we had to do a lot of cleaning but a week later, it shines and sparkles! but all of my dear friends who are elders, if I find out that you are living this way, I will personally come punch you in the face. get it together.
this week was also the baptism of G and L!!! I was so great! it went so well! the spirit was strong and there was such amazing support from the branch! we had a lot of people there to support them! G was first and when he went under the water, the look on his mothers face was priceless! Then next was L and she gave her mom a giant hug after. After the service was over, I gave S a giant hug and told her how happy we were for her family and how much we love them and she said "thank you sister! I am next. I am working on getting everything in my life in order but I am next!" so we will continue to see and work with her and help her get ready to be baptized! G can get the priesthood pretty soon too! so that's exciting!
this week was also the baptism of G and L!!! I was so great! it went so well! the spirit was strong and there was such amazing support from the branch! we had a lot of people there to support them! G was first and when he went under the water, the look on his mothers face was priceless! Then next was L and she gave her mom a giant hug after. After the service was over, I gave S a giant hug and told her how happy we were for her family and how much we love them and she said "thank you sister! I am next. I am working on getting everything in my life in order but I am next!" so we will continue to see and work with her and help her get ready to be baptized! G can get the priesthood pretty soon too! so that's exciting!
other exciting things this week were that we got rear ended! luckily we had our bike rack on so it didn't really do anything to our car also we are just fine.
Besides that, everyone else is progressing just great. we added 6 investigators this week so hopefully we see some great prepared people soon! I am so glad that I stayed here! I love it here! I love the branch and the people that we are working with! the mission life is the best life! thanks for everything!!
Besides that, everyone else is progressing just great. we added 6 investigators this week so hopefully we see some great prepared people soon! I am so glad that I stayed here! I love it here! I love the branch and the people that we are working with! the mission life is the best life! thanks for everything!!
also elder Jaramillo says hello!"
Liv with her old friend and new district leader Elder Jaramello!
"me hugging coop"
