The LAST TRANSFER has begun

And you know what I keep telling myself?

"Breathe"

Besides that, I had an absolutely AMAZING week! This last week we had many miracles! We had 2 people get on date for baptism!!! Stephanie walked up to us in the hallway at church and said that she'd picked June 30th as the date that she wanted to be baptized on and that she was ready to meet with us however often she needed to stick to that date! It was incredible because we hadn't recommitted her to pray about another date since the last one fell through! It was awesome! Also, on Monday, we were able to get Quinn on date for June 20th! It's just been one miracle after another and it's been super cool to see their progression!

Sister Gross and her sons are more involved at church now. They've come to church the last 4 weeks in a row and the difference in their home now compared to what it used to be is night and day. The spirit is there and they've even signed up to feed us several times this month! It's been amazing! They are some of my favorite people! We even made up a special handshake for Michael to use with all of the missionaries.

We met with Brother Cortina this week and he is doing much better! He hadn't been to church for a while, but one of the members went to visit him and the member invited him to come back to church. Well, he's been coming to church the last 3 weeks in a row and has been attending all three meetings! It just goes to show that member missionary work is so effective because we've been trying to visit him for months and that invitation just needed to come from a member of the ward. It was a miracle!

We were able to meet with Kaitlin and Kyle twice this week and we were able to talk about her commitment to baptism and we were able to have an actual "sit down" lesson with them. It's been so cool to see their commitment to learning more! It's been amazing to see how much has changed from when we first started meeting with her to now. The gospel really does change lives and it's so cool to see how it effects lives for the better.

This week I lost Sister MacKillop (sad day) but I got Sister Isert! Andrew, that name might be familiar to you. Why? Well, Sister Isert (or Becca, as she was known at that time) life-guarded with Andrew and I at Seven Peaks for 2 summers! She got called here right after I did and I thought, "We'll never be companions because I knew her before the mission." and look what happened?! She gets to be the person that sends me back to Provo! It's going to be a fun/crazy transfer, but there's a lot of things happening and we'll be super busy! I'm so excited, I love this work so much and it'll be a sprint to the finish because I have so little time left to wear this badge, so it's going to be exciting!

Also, as a side note: we got ipads this week. No biggie ;D Just kidding. It was a huge deal and the meeting we had was absolutely amazing! We had Elder David F Evans, Brother Allen and Brother Warner come and talk to us. THey wanted to shake our hands and Brother Allen looked at me and said, "Hi Hermana Lee! Didn't know your call is being changed to Spanish, did you?" I about had a heart attack. Thus, I have now downloaded the approved duolingo app and am now studying Spanish. My call hasn't changed yet, but I'm not taking any chances, especially when the head of the missionary department makes a comment like that.

Anyway, I love you all and will talk to you all next week!

Love,
Steph

Honey is Bee vomit

This week was full of little "light bulb" moments. We had several really good lessons, especially with Quinn and Stephanie. With Quinn, we taught him about the reason we are baptized and why it's so important. It was really cool to see his eyes light up when he understood it. With Stephanie, we got visit her AT HER HOUSE (no one gets to go to her house!) and we were able to talk to her for a while and answer tons and tons of questions. It was awesome to be able to help her understand the gospel better and it was wonderful to see her eyes light up.

We had a really good lesson with Kaitlin this week! We were able to clear up a lot of questions that she had from Sunday School last week  and we discovered that it's easier for her to focus when she's multitasking, so we taught the lesson while crocheting a blanket! Yep, we thought outside the box! It was super effective and now we're learning how to crochet while teaching her about the gospel. It's a win-win situation. 

There was an amazing thunderstorm this week and it poured for a couple of hours and the streets were completely flooded. When we were walking, I kept getting puddles of water in my shoes, so I finally took them of whenever we had to cross through the massive puddles and just put them back on when we were back on the sidewalk. Thank goodness for sturdy shoes. It was so cool and I was reminded of how much I love extreme weather! I was in heaven, especially because it cooled everything down to about 75 degrees, so that was wonderful :)

We had a miracle happen this week. There was a family that I was teaching in Mesa that moved to Scottsdale... In this ward!!! And we got to have a lesson with them this week! It was good to see them all again and we re-committed them to have family scripture study every night that week. It's funny how people are continuously put in our path. It's interesting how the Lord knows us and knows where we need to be. It was incredible to find out on Mother's Day that the person that donated the money for my sister's thesis trip is in the ward that I'm currently serving in. And we have dinner with them next week. It's really amazing how the Lord works. 

We had an interesting experience this week where I got to call on my rusty tech skills (as well as Heavenly Father) to help a less-active in our ward fix her dish hookup. She was super nice, but she kept forgetting who we were. It was especially funny that after we fixed her dish hookup and were trying to share a message, she kept turning the tv on to see if it still worked. We finally were able to change the channel from the Billboard music awards to BYU-TV and left her happily dancing to a really old and hilariously ridiculous movie that was playing (Bullwhip Griffin or something like that). She was a gem and she really brightened up our evening.

So, an explanation of the title of this email. We had dinner this last week with a lady that's in her 80s and that's a 4th degree black belt. Yep, pretty legit. But she had a great-grandson that ate with us (he's 7) and he's a very precocious child. He kept firing off all of these random facts about sharks and THEN (as we're all enjoying our ice cream and brownies) he suddenly bursts out saying "DID YOU KNOW THAT HONEY IS BEE VOMIT?!" We all laughed as his grandma tried to tell him that he shouldn't say those things at the dinner table. To which, he replied, "but we're done with dinner!" It was hilarious.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy to temperate weather because I'll be down here, biking around in the extreme heat. Talk to you all soon!

Love,

Steph

Showers of blessings

So, I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Mother's Day! I know that I did! The call was awesome and I'm glad that I got to see most of you. I think that's been the thing that I miss the most: seeing your faces and hearing your voices. So it was awesome and I feel super rejuvenated!

We had so many miracles this week! First off, we finally met Kyle! Kyle is the husband of Kaitlin (one of our investigators) and in the whole time that I have been here (which has been almost 5 months) I have never met him... Until this week! It was so good to meet him and talk with Kaitlin AND him. Also, they both came to church on Sunday!!!!! AND, after Sunday School, HE said that they would be coming back next week!!!!! That there, folks, is a bona fide MIRACLE!!!!! 

We also had several less-actives that came to church that we haven't ween in a while! And we had a wonderful Sunday School class and then we stayed for Young Womens and got cheesecake.

Yes, it was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.

Now for the sad news. Sister Thomas is not with us any longer. She left early this morning for the land of eternal PDays. We're all a bit sad.

Well, I'm not sure what else to talk about.... So, here's my testimony. I know that this is the Restored church of Jesus Christ and that God has again called a prophet to lead his children in this day and age. I know that the Book of Mormon is sacred scripture and that it gives us another witness, next to the Bible, that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that God has restored his priesthood to the earth and that we're lucky enough to have the blessings of that power in our lives. I'm grateful for the opportunity to dedicate 18 months of my life to serving my Savior and helping others find the same peace and happiness that I have in my life. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my family. I know that because of the Restored Gospel and that restored priesthood power that I can be with them FOREVER. The temple is where that happens and it is an amazing place where we can feel closer to our Heavenly Father. I exhort (yep, I just said exhort) you all to accept the blessings of the temple and to remember those blessings by continuing to go to the temple. Not only will you bring yourself greater peace, but you will also bless the lives of those who have passed on. I love you all and I pray for you all EVERY DAY.  

Love,

Steph

pic: This is a statue in Old Town Scottsdale. I thought it was cute :)

Another crazy crazy week

Hi everyone!

This week went really well! We had some struggles but, all-in-all, it went really really well. We had some really good lessons this week with the DeBoards and the Gross family. And the Gross' came to church on Sunday! Granted, they were late and they left during Sunday School, but they came! We're finally clearing that hurdle! 

We had an amazing lesson with Heather this week! We had the lesson at one of our returning less active's house and it went so well! They were able to relate to each other on so many levels that we'd never anticipated! It was incredible!

Tsahai is making so much progress. We all fasted for her this Sunday that she'll have a miracle happen that will help her quit smoking. I've been praying so hard for her. But she seems a lot happier and our lessons with her have been giving her the added boost to keep trying instead of giving up. We discovered that she absolutely loves the Mormon Messages, so we've been looking into a lot of those for her. I've also discovered a love for Mormon Messages as well. They are so good! It's so nice that they're so short, but they seem to be just what you need when you watch them! They're awesome!

We met with Kaitlin this week and watched Meet the Mormons with her! She absolutely loved it and wants to watch it with her husband this week, so we're super excited to meet him! I love Meet the Mormons. It's such a good movie! It was funny watching it this week because the Navy football one made me reminisce about all of the football games that we went to as a family. Good times, good times :)

We had a pretty good lesson with Ana Rivera this week. Sister MacKillop was able to teach her in Spanish and it was so cool to hear the lesson in Spanish! I could follow most of the conversation, so I'm that much closer to speaking it! In a month, she'll be able to change her work schedule, so she'll be able to come as well! We also did service for Chip and he was a lot more friendly with us! He still declined joining in on our discussions, but he's warming up. He made us some pretty fantastic biscuits and gravy for breakfast after we weeded his yard. It was so good! My taste buds were singing!! The awkward moment was when he said that I looked just like his wife... I just laughed and said that it's so funny that I have a twin.

Last night, we were able to have a really good lesson with the Roses and we got to know them better and taught them the Restoration, so we'll hopefully be able to clear up any questions that they may have and get them ready to go to the temple! They had such a nice home and they gave us a ride back to our bikes in a really really nice Mercedes. Like, super nice.

I love the work here! It's so nice (despite the hot weather) and I truly love being able to spend this time serving  my Father in Heaven. Thanks for all your support!

Love,

Steph

Sister MacKillop had some pretty epic crashes this week... They had to be documented. None of these were staged and, please, don't do this at home :)