Reporting from the freezing (wait freezing?) city of Mesa Arizona

Hi everyone!

It's official. I've acclimatized. Sad day. Just kidding! The temp during the day is fantastic! It's just that small amount of time that we have to be out after the sun goes down that gets a bit... chilly. I never thought that I'd be breaking out the hot cocoa down here, but when it gets in the 40s and the wind is blowing while we're riding our bikes, I feel that it's perfectly acceptable :)

This week was a week of miracles!! A lot of our time this week has been taken up with exchanges, but our area isn't suffering at all, which is a HUGE blessing! We had a pretty big miracle on Monday. We had been out and about, doing what missionaries do, trying to find an address for a referral. Well, we discovered that it was on the opposite side of Rio Salado, which was outside of our area. So we decided to try to contact another referral. He wasn't interested. (Are you wondering where the miracle is? just wait) Then we were able to talk to a less-active recent convert about returning to the temple. Despite the conversation going well, we were wondering why in the world the Spirit needed us to stay in that apartment complex. So, we stood there and said a quick prayer. We got the impression to go to Teela's old apartment. Teela had actually moved and we weren't sure whether or not someone had moved into that apartment, so we decided to go and check it out. We honestly weren't expecting anyone to answer the door, but then it opened! And we met Olivia who had just moved in and had just gotten back from her sister's funeral in California. The miracle was that we were able to give her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and she wants us to come back!! Yep, major miracle.

Another miracle was that we were able to help Tania (who has been investigating forEVER) set her baptismal date! And she came to church for the second time this week! And THEN.... We had to pass her on to the YSA sisters. We're super excited for her, I'm just sad that we won't get to see her as much anymore. 

The absolute best part about the week has been that Sister Hurst and I have been working super hard the entire 2 transfers that we've been companions and we're finally seeing that work pay off!!

I also had a realization this week. This will be my first Thanksgiving that I won't get to sit around the table and tell everyone what I'm thankful for. SO, I'm going to do it while I'm sitting at this computer.

 I'm so grateful for my family. I'm grateful for our little quirks and that we understand each other so well. I'm grateful for the many many wonderful memories that I have with all of you. From Amy and I singing Disney songs while putting together puzzles, to making pies with everyone the day before Thanksgiving. Honestly, for me, the traditions are meaningless without YOU. I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the hope and the joy that his Gospel gives me. I'm grateful for the knowledge that, because of temples, I have been sealed to my family for eternity. I'm grateful, so incredibly grateful, for the Atonement and the blessing it is, not only to the sinner, but to the person that has been affected by the sin. The Atonement blesses ALL of us, but only when we let go of our past mistakes, resolve to be better, and forgive ourselves. We can feel the true healing power of the Atonement when we forgive ourselves. The Savior and our Heavenly Father will always forgive us. Their love is never-ending and their patience is infinite. But it probably hurts them to know that we won't forgive ourselves even though they freely forgive us of everything. I'm grateful for this wonderful season where we not only REMEMBER to be grateful, but we REMEMBER our Savior. This season isn't about Black Friday. It isn't about turkeys and it isn't about pie and it isn't about football. It's the season of gratitude. It's the season of REMEMBRANCE. And it's the season that prepares us to appreciate the wonderful gift that we've been given. The gift of our Savior. He is what we need to be grateful for. He is the Gift.

Love,

Steph

pics: my camera is basically gone (bulging/bulbous battery that doesn't really hold a charge for very long), so no pics from me, but a member (Sister Wright) that we ate with last night wanted you all to know that she appreciates us! So, here is the pic that she took with her phone last night. Also, here is the picture from the Mission Tour with Elder Lawrence. I'm 2 people behind sister Lawrence, (she's wearing pink) and right in front of the Elder that decided to make a demon face at the camera. Love you all!

This week

Hi everyone!

So, this week was pretty crazy! We had meetings all week long, which didn't leave a lot of time for proselyting, but despite the odds, we had a super great week! On Wednesday, we had a mission tour with Elder and Sister Lawrence. The meeting started off with Sister Lawrence teaching us a lot of doctrine about the 12 tribes and the scattering and gathering of Israel. My mind was seriously blown! Multiple times! They talked a lot about the scattering of the tribes and where the tribes had been scattered, etc, but they also had us all stand up for whatever tribe we, the missionaries, represented. We were all either Ephraim or Manasseh: the tribes responsible for the gathering of Israel. Yeah, I felt pretty empowered as a missionary. I can't wait to share my notes with you all from that training because it was really really really INCREDIBLE! It was also followed by an amazing lunch. Seriously, they feed us well down here. I've discovered a love for barbequed pulled pork sandwiches and broccoli slaw with craisins. Yep, that was my favorite part of that lunch! Besides the pumpkin pie, but that's a given.

For out district meeting this week, we had a really good training about pondering the path of our feet and burying our weapons of war. As part of the mission tour, we (the mission leadership) had put together a mission culture. As part of that, there were some specific rules put into place so that the culture would go into effect sooner rather than later. So, it requires a bit of sacrifice, but it's worth it! That's why I really enjoyed the training on burying our weapons of war. Some of the weapons I buried were physical things, like quoting movies with my companion. Others were more spiritual, like concentrating more on the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. Consecration is an act of faith. I love what mom said in her email about creating an environment that the Spirit could dwell in. Consecration isn't just thinking, "I'm a devout follower of Christ." It's listening to music that will invite the Spirit instead of driving it away. It's reading books that elevate our thoughts rather than degrading them. It's spending time with our families and showing our love for them.

The family unit is one of the most sacred things that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I love the story in the Book of Mormon about Captain Moroni when he is confronting Zerahemnah. In Alma 44:5 he tells Zerahemnah that the reason that the Nephites were protected and the reason that they had overcome his armies were that they are fighting for their faith. They were fighting for their freedom. And they were fighting for the "sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children." The family is sacred. Captain Moroni, the man that if all men were like him "the very  powers of hell would have been shaken forever" (Alma 48:17) KNEW HOW SACRED THE FAMILY IS! Satan is attacking the home and he's attacking the family. The only way to combat him is to be consecrated to the Lord and to do everything in our power to remain that way. Sure, we're not perfect and we'll make mistakes, but that doesn't mean that we have to stay down! I see so many people here that have fallen, and rather than accepting the atonement and getting back up, they have allowed Satan to kick them while they're down. They've ALLOWED Satan to win. SATAN WILL NEVER WIN, unless we ALLOW him to. That's what I've been thinking a lot about lately. We are given trials, and Satan capitalizes on those, but when we look to the Savior, our burdens become easy. The trials have an end. And Satan gets absolutely zero satisfaction out of us. And then, wonder of wonders, we become STRONGER!

I love you all so much! Thank you for being a strength to me when I've needed it the most. You've helped me become stronger. Thank you.

Steph

Miracle week

Hello world!

So this last week was pretty... AWESOME! However, THIS week is going to surpass it by being absolutely insane! We had a lot of cancellations last week, which was sad, but at the same time, we were able to meet with everyone anyway which was definitely a miracle. Anyway, we tried something new this week with asking members to come out with us. We had forgotten to send around the sign-up sheet on Sunday (my bad) and so we sent out a mass text to 15 or so of our members to see when they would be able to come out with us during the week. We didn't expect much of a result because no one really signs up to come out with the missionaries, but we were wrong! We had members that volunteered to come out with us almost every day this week! Granted, many of the appointments that we tried to take them to fell through, but we were able to have them participate in at least one meaningful lesson. Also, one of the members gave us butter so that we could make cookies :) That may have been the highlight of my day.

We had a pretty incredible miracle that happened on Friday. I introduced you to Neil last week. Well, we met with him on Friday and had an amazing lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The whole time he was nodding his head and saying, "Yeah, that makes sense." It was phenomenal! Saturday was pretty interesting. They're having us clean up our facebook accounts in preparation for facebook missionary work, so we spent some time going through and deleting old posts. 

Sunday was the best day EVER! First of all, we had a skype lesson! With Ahmad. In Jordan. It was pretty awesome! It's so interesting learning about all of these different religions that believe in Adam and Eve and all of the prophets leading up to Jesus Christ, but they don't view Christ's miraculous birth as the birth of the Savior of the world. They view it as miraculous, yes, but they have failed to connect his birth with the prophecies of the Messiah (even though there are so many that point to that fact). So, we'll be sharing A LOT of scriptures regarding that topic. After our skype lesson with Ahmad, we had church. At church, we sat on the back bench, saving spots for people that we didn't expect to come to church (again) and guess what happened?! They came!!! We had several investigators and less-actives that finally came to church!! It was the busiest and most rewarding Sunday that I have ever had! I was so happy to see them! It was the best day ever!

Anyway, I hope that you all are continuing to have fun every week and that you're drinking plenty of hot chocolate (with ice cream) and eating lots of soup! Ah, warm food, how I miss it ;) Talk to you all next week!

Love,

Sister Lee

PS sorry no pics today. So my embarrassing moment happened when I was practicing the piano before a meeting and all of the sudden I hear a voice directly behind me say "heeeellloooooooo". I yelped and jumped away from the piano in a very undignified way. Turns out that there is a little mail slot from the outside of the building that opens in that corner where I was playing the piano. The Elders had gotten locked out, so they decided to talk into the mail slot, to get us to open the door, but it scared me to death. Yep, I was just a bit embarrassed.

73 degrees?!!! WOOHOO!!! NOW it feels like fall :)

hola mi familia y mi amigos!

Yep, I know. My Spanish is terrible. But, regardless of that, we talked to a Spanish guy for about 5 minutes when we went street contacting at a park! It was pretty cool. I've decided that I love the Spanish people. They're much kinder than the English are.

Anyway, this week was pretty great! On Thursday we were able to have an amazing lesson with Mary and Donny. They were part of the group that we took to the Phoenix Temple Open House and so we got to follow up with them on what they felt and if they wanted to be sealed in the temple. Of course, they said yes! And that got them one step closer to setting a baptismal date! I'm so excited for them to have the blessings from the Gospel in their lives and I'm ecstatic for them to go through the temple! It really is one of the happiest and most peaceful places that we could ever go. I'm so excited for them!

The only real downer about the week is that we weren't able to skype-teach Ahmad. That was a little sad because we're trying to get everything arranged so that he can be taught in Jordan and in his native language, but in the meantime, we don't want him to feel like he's been forgotten.

On Friday, Halloween, we got to go to the temple!! It was amazing! I was able to do baptisms and confirmations before going upstairs to do a session and it was the coolest thing ever! There really isn't a way to describe it. Inside the temple I felt the same peace and holiness that I normally feel, but at the same time, because all of the missionaries were there, it was a really powerful experience.

The highlight of the week was on Saturday. First, let me introduce you to Neil. He was raised Catholic but now believes in reincarnation and nirvana and, at the same time, is atheist. We had a lesson with him on Saturday. We weren't quite sure how to teach him, but armed with the Spirit and Alma 42, we forged ahead! I honestly don't remember all that we said, but I know that the Spirit was directing us. We were able to find out why he was atheist and we were also able to help him understand that we have a loving Heavenly Father. By the end of our lesson with him, he acknowledged the existence of a higher being and he wants us to come back and teach him more!!! Specifically about Joseph Smith because he hasn't heard much about him and the only things that he knows are based off of a South Park episode (yikes). But he wants to learn more!! Oh yes, the Spirit is amazing. As is my companion. Sister Hurst is a boss :)

So, sorry that I don't have any pics today, but I'll tell you a funny story.There I was, sitting in a meeting with the zone leadership and they started to write decimal points on the board for tracking our progress in regard to lessons taught, etc. Well, I was a bit confused and asked "why the decimal points?" Sister Hurst sighed and started to say "Well, we add the numbers for each week and then..." (me interrupting) "you average them, right?" For some reason everyone started yelling "YAY! She gets it!!" pretty dramatic, huh? Well it turns out that the Sister before me didn't understand the whole averaging thing, and she asked them to explain it to her every meeting, so they would dedicate 10 or more minutes each meeting to try to explain it to her. So they were sincerely excited when I understood it so quickly. Thank you college statistics! And I don't care if you didn't find that funny. I thought it was hilarious. Especially when they had me repeat what I'd said so that everyone could hear it. The expression on those Elders' faces changing from complete dread to excitement was comical :)

Anyway, I love you all and I hope you're having a fantastic time getting ready for Thanksgiving!

Love,

Steph