28 July 2014

Hey everyone!

This week I've got to keep it short, but it's been great! Unfortunately, I had the flu (again) so we didn't go out for 2 days. Honestly, I'm never getting a flu shot again because I've never had the flu as much as I've had in the past 7 months! Anyway, on to bigger and better things.

We had several miracles happen this week! We got to teach Judy (my twin) who was visiting one of the families in the ward for the weekend! She is awesome and she is really seeking the truth, so I'm really excited for her! She went back to the valley on Sunday, but it was really good to meet her and she'll be continuing the lessons down in the valley! Another really cool thing that happened was that this same member had some of her family in town and we were able to share a message with them about how it's the members duty to find people for the missionaries to teach (hint hint). By the way, for ideas on how to share the gospel, I will be sending you all one of the flyers we've been giving to the members. It's pretty awesome. Anyway, while we were talking to them, one of their daughters asked us why we decided to serve a mission and all of us were able to share our stories with them. Afterwards, the husband told me that he had gone through a similar experience to mine and that my story had touched him. That is complete proof that strengthening the members is ESSENTIAL! I also felt really good after he told me that because I was a bit nervous to share my story.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for the son of one of our investigators and we got to meet so many people! We left that party with several service opportunities and we're going back to visit the investigator's grandma who recently had her husband pass away. Really, the Lord blesses us when we are obedient. Also when we're sick and being obedient. He loves us a bit more when that's happening :)

I love you all so much and I am so happy that I'm serving here in New Mexico! It's taught me so much about working with people and how important service is! Also how important visiting and home teaching are. There isn't anything that can replace the fellowship that we can feel from our home and visiting teachers. I hope you all have a great week! Oh, by the way, transfers are next week, so I won't be writing until Wednesday. Until then,

Hasta la Vista!

Steph

PS Jen I hope you got my birthday letter before your birthday. If not, you'll get it soon!

pics: judy and me (my twin), and an amazing rainbow! 

The Plan of Salvation

Hi everyone!

So sad news first: There have been A LOT of funerals this week.

Good news: Prime opportunity to share the Plan of Salvation.

So we've been contacting a lot of people this week. Our schedules are pretty hectic because our area covers around a 200 mile radius... I think. Round trip, it takes us about 4 hours, without traveling the border of our area. That's just hitting the major towns/villages. Anyway, with all of the driving we're doing, I'm slowly overcoming my car-sickness! Yay!

Sorry, back to the work itself. We're getting to know a lot of people through the members and through service. With an area this big, member missionary work is not only essential, it's ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Really, we don't do a lot of street contacting up here because... Well, there aren't a ton of people that just walk around on the dirt roads. This week, however, we were given a rare opportunity to talk to a lot of people at one of the many funerals that took place this week. The funeral that we attended was for the father of one of our referrals. The Bishop of our ward was asked to put together a program and he asked us to sing the opening and closing songs. Which we did acapella and I did the harmony. I'm also slowly getting over my fear of performing. Anyway, after the funeral they had a pot luck (they do a lot of those around here) and we were able to talk to some very friendly people and give them our phone number for any service opportunities. I get the feeling that most of what we'll be doing up here for a while is service.

Speaking of service, we were helping a woman with her yard and found out that she'd taken the discussions back in the 70s! She had a Book of Mormon that had a gold cover with different characters on it instead of the one that says "Antoher Testament of Jesus Christ". I should have gotten a picture of it. It was really cool and had a lot of study application inserts. Anyway, she said that she came across the BYUtv channel and that she loves watching it! She especially was excited for the Work and the Glory movies that they're currently playing. And she agreed to read some of the passages in the Book of Mormon that we'd marked and we'll be visiting her again to answer her unanswered questions. I like her a lot because we both love history. And she liked the story of Porter Rockwell a lot.

Another thing that we were able to do this week was to go and play volleyball with a bunch of members from the community. All of which are not members, so it was a great experience and we've been invited to come back every week! We're slowly but surely integrating ourselves into the community so that the people aren't so wary when they see us driving or walking around. It's definitely a different kind of work, but it's amazing to see how much people have softened toward the church in general and the missionaries specifically. It's been really cool to, kind of, open this area and to see the excitement of the members now that they have missionaries living in their community.

I love you all so much and I hope that you continue to remember and keep your baptismal covenants (Mosiah 18) and that you all remember how much our Heavenly Father loves every single one of us and that, no matter where we are in our lives, he will always be there to help us get back to him.

Steph

The pics are of a New Mexican sunset and of a new species of spider that I have never seen before, but has decided to make our home, it's final resting place (Can I just say that I really really really appreciate bug spray? It's pretty awesome)

Monsoons in Arizona? Yep.

Hi everybody!!! (again)

This week was pretty cool, if I may say so myself. So, a bit of background, a month or so ago, my mission president and his wife were up here for stake conference. At the conference, the stake Young Womens president asked him if the Sister Missionaries could go to Girls Camp... He said YES!!!! So, guess what this week was? GIRLS CAMP!!

We went up to camp on Tuesday with the YCLs and we were part of a rotation of learning (or some such thing) where they basically had 3 or 4 rotations where they listened to people talk and did a craft. We were part of that rotation and we were asked to talk about what we have learned on our missions that would help them come closer to Christ as they graduate high school and go to college. We talked about prayer, scripture study, the Atonement, the Sacrament, and the temple. It was really cool because we basically told them everything that we wished we had done differently in regard to those topics. It was also really cool because several of those YCLs were not members. In fact, there were around 17 nonmembers at camp! Yep, the youth are stepping it up when it comes to missionary work! Seriously, all we really have to do is invite them to activities and it's a great introduction to the church!

Anyway, that leads into my miracle of the week. Like I had previously said. several of the YCLs were not members. One of them happened to be in our ward and, on the last day of camp, she came up to Sister Christensen, Sister Pass, and myself and told us that she wanted to be baptized!!! Yep, the miracle of Girls Camp. It really made me regret not going to Camp the last few years that I was in Young Womens. Hey, maybe I'll get to go back as one of my future callings! It could happen.

 Another miracle that happened this week goes by the name of Veronica. We met Veronica when we were looking for one of our referrals. She was super nice and really excited to meet us and invited us to come by again. Which we did; last night. We had an amazing discussion with her and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she said that she would read the chapter that we gave her. She is one of the strongest and most amazing people that I've ever met! She has gone through so much in her life and she's only 18! It just gives me hope. Hope that she could have such terrible things happen to her and still be so positive and still pray and believe in God. And she's only 18. She's Jen's age. I've never been so grateful for the Gospel as when I thought about Jen potentially going through what Veronica did. It made me cry.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us so many blessings! The commandments don't restrict us, they protect us from the evil and the heartache that the world is full of. The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the hope that we need to make it through the rough spots in our life. And the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us to be clean. Clean of the guilt and anguish that sin brings. Clean of the remorse that follows our mistakes. And clean of the shame that comes from any atrocious act that someone may inflict upon us.

The Gospel helps us in so many ways, and I'm so grateful that I got to be raised in a family that has the Gospel as the centerpiece of our home. We have so much peace that others don't. Thank you all for being such amazing examples and for loving me despite my faults and for helping me continue on the path that brings eternal joy. I love you all so much and hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Love,
Steph

Miracles of the week

Dear everyone,

SO. Update on the area? It's going great! Update on the members? They're fantastic! Update on investigators? Still none, BUT we had some major miracles this week.

We were able to contact quite a few of our referrals and we talked to one of our less-active young women about going to Girls Camp. Can I just say something about listening to the Holy Ghost? When we were doing our weekly planning for the week, we felt prompted to visit Alpine on a certain day and to visit this girl Anaiah on that day. This inspiration didn't come on the spur of the moment: it happened a week in advance! God knows what's going to happen and so he may give us inspiration days, weeks, or even years in advance! That's why, whenever we receive inspiration to talk to someone who isn't interested, we're just part of the process to prepare them for that day in the future when they will accept the Gospel. Anyway, it was super cool because we were able to talk to her without her older siblings around and we were able to get to know her better.

Another miracle that happened this week was centered around referrals. We had been trying to contact the Judge and his wife for about a week, but we finally found her at home on Friday! When she initially opened the door (after we'd asked about service projects) she was really hesitant and said, "Just so you know, I'm not a witness." And we said "Neither are we! We're Mormons!" and she got a big smile on our face, opened her door wider and invited us in to sit on her couch. We got 7 different service referrals from her and she invited us to visit her again. Yep, the miracle of not being a Jehovah's witness ;) But isn't it interesting that as soon as she found out we were LDS, she invited us right in and was super friendly. People can really recognize the Spirit about us. They may not know why, but they trust us. Yep, the church is SO true :)

The next miracle we had was pretty intense Sister Christensen and I were in Pie Town (Sister Pass was on exchanges) and we were at our trailer which is right next to the church. The branch has been trying to set up the power on the trailer for a while, so we were asked to check the meter number on the power line/pole located right next to the trailer. Now, before I go any further, I need to tell you all that it's monsoon season here. Which basically means that it rains off and on throughout the day every single day. So it had rained a little bit earlier and we could still hear some thunder in the distance when we went to check for the meter number. We were right next to the pole and were actually touching the metal box (looking for the meter number), and suddenly you could feel the electricity in the air. The next thing we knew was that the power line (connected to the pole that we were TOUCHING) lit up and was sparking and we heard thunder almost immediately afterward. Luckily enough, nothing happened to us, but we ran as fast as we could back to the church. So yeah, the Lord protects his missionaries from lightning. And elk. He definitely protects us from elk. Especially at night :)

I know that the work I'm doing up here is extremely important. I'm grateful that I'm up here because I'm definitely getting pushed out of my comfort zone and I'm learning a lot. Not just about the Gospel or the people, but about myself. I'd been struggling to love the people up here and to feel comfortable in the role I've been placed in. When I was thinking about it the other day, I realized that I loved the people in Eagar because I was praying for them constantly. I didn't love the people up here yet because I was only praying for myself and my own benefit. As soon as I started praying for the people up here, I felt this overflowing feeling of love for them and for this area. I know that, when we ask God for charity, that he will bless us with it and he will help us to love everyone. I know that this Gospel is true and that God will ALWAYS answer our prayers; even when we don't think we are worthy. I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Steph

the sky from the Vernon fire,
branding 1 from last week
'Merica (they gave everyone at the parade flags!) yes, we got permission to go to the parade in Eagar.
A massive spider that we found this morning. It was in the throws of death, so we covered it with a pink cup so that it would die in a happy place :