Transfer 8 Week 2

Well this week went pretty fast. 

On Monday we were able to go to Devil's Lake and have a nice little hike to the top. It was pretty chilly but not too bad.. We were the only people it seemed like in the whole state park. This week actually hasn't been very cold. Apparently there was a record broken that it was 56 degrees on one day and it hasn't been that warm so late in the season since 1910. Pretty Crazy! I'm not complaining.. haha I would like to  have a white Christmas though..

On Saturday we went with Brother Hyzer up to Portage, a town that we haven't been able to go to for a very long time due to mileage restrictions. In fact that was the first time I've been to Portage.. It was great, we were able to visit a lot of Less active members with him and establish contact with some others. It was really awesome to spend a lot of the day with Brother Hyzer and him being willing to drive us around.

While we were out knocking doors during the week we knocked into this older couple who the guy is actually a Less active member and they used to have weekly meetings with the missionaries for a while until like a year ago. So we were able to establish contact with them and set up a time to meet with them weekly now which is awesome.

Anyways it was a good week, we were able to get a lot of missionary work done.

Love you all! 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 8 Week 1

Welp Transfers were this past Wednesday and Elder Pounds left for Milwaukee and I got Elder Tunstall who just came from Milwaukee.

Elder Tunstall and I are getting along great. Hes from Calgary Canada where a member in Baraboo actually served and happened to teach and Baptize his mom. Elder Tunstall knew of this member and has been hoping his whole mission to come to Baraboo to meet Brother Dance. We had dinner with the Dances last night and the whole dinner was Elder Tunstall and Brother Dance talking about his mission experiences, it was pretty cool. We also watched the Christmas Devotional and the Dances. It was a great meeting.

On Monday it was our Neighbor Mima's Birthday so we decided to buy her some Poinsettias and she just adored theme it was great. The very next day she brought us Dinner and was so loving, and this morning she brought us some donuts. Shes so sweet. Then on Tuesday Brother Ricks had his Birthday Party at Wizard Quest, the place he owns. Most of the ward was there and they had some of their employees wait on us and it was pretty awesome. haha.

On Saturday we helped a member move into his grandparents home in the Dells from West Bend and we talked with his grandparents who actually used to have the missionaries stop by her all the time so it was really cool. We set up a time to come back and visit all of them so that should be good. Their house has soo many nick nacks everywhere the walls are covered in collectibles and cool items its really neat. 

Anyways it was a really good week. We were able to talk with and meet a lot of really nice people. I'm excited for this next transfer with Elder Tunstall.

Peace!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 7 Week 6

Welp this was the last week of the Transfer, on Saturday we received word that E. Pounds was being transferred and today we just found out that ill be here in Baraboo with Elder Tunstall.

This past week has been great with Thanksgiving and what not. President Cutler has been pushing us to get into members homes to have a Family Home Evening with them and the best thing about FHE is the activity after the lesson.. We were able to have FHE with 2 different families this week and we were able to play a quick board game with each of them. It was great haha. Im really looking forward to having more FHEs with members! haha

Thanksgiving was a great day as well! We started off by playing football with a few families in the ward and once everyone was tired out and left, we played 9 holes of disk golf with Brother Andrew, our ward mission leader in the rain. We then went home and cleaned up then went to our 1st thanksgiving meal at the Dances home. That was very delicious. We stayed there for a little while and then headed to our 2nd dinner with the Andrews. It was a great day. On Saturday we helped one of Brother Ricks employees move and then he took us to UNO's afterwards. Its always exciting to go to a nicer sit down restaurant because we cant afford going there on our own.  I had the cheapest thing on the menu which was a $10 BBQ Burger and it was amazing. hah

Yesterday during the 5th Sundays 3rd hour we were asked to talk for 25 mins on the Atonement with everyone. It went pretty wellIi think. Anyways I'm excited for the next 6 weeks with Elder Tunstall!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 7 Week 5

This week went by pretty fast, we were able to stay busy most of the week. We were able to meet with Alberto in the Ricks' home and have a great lesson on temples. Nate canceled again due to him getting sick, and we weren't able to meet with Leslie because she's been too busy with packing to move. The first snowfall of the season hit us on Friday, we got about 3 inches. It seems like the cold weather came unto us all of the sudden because earlier this week it wasn't that cold but these past few days have been below freezing. The freezing weather has made a noticeable difference in peoples receptiveness to talk to us on their doorstep.. Were going to have to find a better way to contact people in this weather. It was pretty funny how many people thought we were crazy for being out in that weather and them slammed their doors. haha Oh well. 

On Thursday we spent the whole day in Milwaukee, we left at 9 in the morning for Madison to pick up the Mad Spanish B Elders because they're in a bus area and then we headed for Milwaukee. Elder and Sister Schwitzer of the 70 addressed us and gave us a training. It was a great mission tour/zone conference but it was kind of upsetting that they didn't bring up us receiving ipads.. They've been telling this mission they would get them for like 3 years now and everyone thought this might be they day since now they're saying we are getting them early 2016.. oh well haha. Good meeting anyways. And it was great being able to see some previous companions and lots of other missionaries. We find out who is getting transferred this upcoming Saturday. Elder Pounds is most likely leaving but you never know.. we could stay another one together. 

Happy early Thanksgiving! So far we have 2 dinners planned for thanksgiving so it should be good!

I love and miss you all!

 

Elder Stevens

Transfer 7 Week 4

Another week..

This week I was able to go on exchanges in Madison with Elder Bennett. We've been going on weekly exchanges with the Mad 3rd elders which is pretty weird but its all good. We were able to talk with a couple really nice people and set up a few new appointments for them. We went to this place called Jason's Deli and I had this amazing honey mustard sandwich.. it was great.. hahah

We have this survey with 10 questions on it about Families and Faith which we can use as a finding method by transitioning to the Book of Mormon. Its been in the mission for about a year now but we just started using it a lot this week and its a good way to find and talk to people. We were able to talk with a lot more people this week using it. 

We were able to meet with Leslie again on Saturday. We taught her the plan of salvation. It was a decent lesson. I think she understood it fine, however she didn't come to church yesterday. Were planning on meeting with her twice a week now. She is actually planning on moving in a couple weeks though. She's moving in with her mom somewhere up by Appleton so hopefully she'll be able to meet with and have discussions with the missionaries up there so she can keep progressing. 

 

 

We've been doing this really cool activity with members where we have a block of wood with a single nail stuck in it, sticking out quite a bit, and then we hand them 9 other nails and tell them to try and balance all 9 of these nails on top of the single nail in the wood. Only using the nails. Most families haven't been able to do it but there actually is a way to balance them all just using the nails. We relate it to having many different challenges and things going on in life that can seem impossible but with Gods help we are able to balance our life and "do the impossible"

Next week we have a Mission Tour in Milwaukee with Elder and Sister Schwitzer of the 70. I'm excited for that. Those are always fun. Being able to see other Missionaries and what not.

Anyways. We climbed a tree to catch the sunrise. 

Have a good one!

Peace.

Transfer 7 Week 3

Welp this week was pretty average, but we had a really great miracle where this Recent Convert of about 2 years now called us and told us how she had this friend who is going through a lot and she wants to meet with us. We had dinner at the members home on Saturday and had a AMAZING lesson with Leslie. She totally opened up and told us her concerns and challenges and all her spiritual experiences she's had recently. I don't wanna get too personal but she fainted at work a few weeks back and she saw an outline of these 2 people and when she woke up, the amazing feeling she had was gone. And while we were going over the Restoration and turned to the page where it shows Joseph Smith and the First Vision she got all excited/amazed because she said that is exactly what she saw when she fainted. She understood and took the lesson very well. The spirit was so strong, and she came to church yesterday also. I'm excited for her! 

We were also able to meet with Alberto. The only thing stopping him from getting Baptized is this female that's living with him.. he cant just kick her out because its a favor for a friend.. Its just a sucky situation. We need a miracle! Some way this girl can move out or an exception to be made! We also met with Nate and had a really good discussion on Temple and Eternal Families with him. It was great. We had a lot of other appointments cancel on us this week but these were the main ones. :)

Elder Bedgisoff and I were able to go on exchanges again this week. We were able to help this lady move across town. It was just the 2 of us helping out. Luckily it wasn't a very big move.. hah. We were also able to meet with this less active member we haven't seen in a while and set up a Family Home Evening with him and his family for next Monday.

We've been finalizing our plans for the December 6th Open house tour thingy. We've made fliers and hopefully the ward will get pumped for it and invite a lot of friends so it will go well. 

Anyways. Hope you all have a great week.

Love and Miss you all!

Transfer 7 Week 2

This week the Madison 3rd Ward Elders came to Baraboo and worked with us in our area most of Tuesday and Wednesday. Elder Pounds and Elder Bennett were able to meet with Alberto while Elder Begisoff and I went to another appointment which ended up falling through. Apparently the lesson with Alberto went great. He just won't be able to be baptized anytime soon due to a female living with him in his apartment. Hopefully she'll move out sooner than later but it might take a while so yea...

We were able to meet with Nate, we watched Mountain of the Lord with him at the church. We had popcorn and everything, it was great. Most of our lessons fell through this week but we were able to set up another appointment with this guy named Jordan we met a few weeks ago. His kid had the flu so he had to cancel this week but we'll be meeting with him again on Tuesday. We ran into him in Walmart during the week and he says he's still excited with meeting with us so that's a good sign!

Our ward had a trunk or treat on Wednesday and Elder Pounds and I dressed up as a half skater half missionary. I was the bottom half of the skater with Black Jeans and Skate Shoes on while Elder Pounds had the top half of the skater where he wore a normal shirt, had a wig on and a snapback. The members loved it so that's cool! hahah For Halloween we weren't allowed to be out working while kids were out trick or treating so we had a dinner appointment and stayed at the members house the rest of the night playing board games. That was fun.

It was pretty rainy all week so it made it hard to find a lot of people this week. Apparently we should be getting snow in the near future so its not going to get any easier..

Anyways, hope you all have a great week!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 7 Week 1

This was a pretty average week I guess. On Monday we were able to see Alberto. We had to drop his baptismal date due to some reasons. Were looking at at least 3 weeks ahead for now. We will set a solid date in the future. On the bright side we were able to meet with this 17 year old kid named Nate. He had been talking to the missionaries for about 6 months before I got to Baraboo, but his phone number had changed and we weren't able to get in contact with him until last week. He's been taught mostly everything but his mom is against him being baptized so we'll have to work that out somehow. We're going to start meeting with him weekly again. Hopefully his moms heart will be softened though. 

 

This week we were able to get a lot more new investigators, especially on Wednesday, more specifically on this certain street.. We were knocking doors in the afternoon on this one street and we were able to get 4 new investigators/return appointments in less then an hour. It was pretty Crazy! That like never happens.. So it was pretty cool..

 

We had dinner on Saturday night with The Gilletts (Bro Gillett is the one who lost all his memory from the concussion) He is doing so much better! He is already back at work and being his normal self. He remembers everything fine now and doesn't seem to be having any trouble now so thats great! We were able to help this really cool family move into their new home. They moved into a really old home right next to an abandoned hospital which is kinda creepy but the house is really neat! It used to be owned by the Ringling Brothers cousin! Haha fun fact..

 

Yesterday I gave my first 15 minute talk in church! I used to think filling up 5-7 mins was hard... hah but nah it wasn't that bad.. I think it went really well. I got lots of good jobs and a bunch of the Dance and Jones kids thought the story I shared was reallly funny! haha A story a member told us about repentance.. long story sorry. lol Oh and we got to play with a 1200 dollar drone thingy with a camera on it.. I want one. 

 

Anyways, pretty good week. Next week should be good with all the appointments we got from last week! Love and miss you all!

 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 6 Week 6

Transfers are this Wednesday, ill be staying in Baraboo with Elder Pounds at least for another six weeks. These transfers just keep going faster and faster..

Halloween is coming up so during our dinner hour Elder Pounds and I decided to go out and buy some pumpkins and carving tools to make jack-o-lanterns. While at the pumpkin patch we were able to meet this really nice guy who actually went to the University of Utah. He's had the missionary discussions before but he said he would like to meet with us again sometime. Pretty cool how you run into people sometimes.. We haven't been able to carve the pumpkins yet but that'll be fun to do in the next few days.. haha

We got a call in the middle of the week to go give a blessing to a member that we have dinner with every Saturday. He got hit in the head by a cherry picker (a little hand crank crane that lifts car engines) it slipped and cracked him on the head.. He got knocked out for 10 mins and then was fine for a few days until he started slurring his words and not making any sense. They took him to the E.R. and by the time we got there he couldn't remember ANYTHING. Not even his wife, his boss, his address, Pepsi (which he loves) Elder Pounds and I, nothing. It was pretty scary. We were asking him all these questions and he couldn't remember anything. We finally asked him if he knew who Jesus was and he paused for a few seconds and thought.. he was like uhhh, I think so? He helped us out in some way right? Woww.. Elder Pounds and I were shocked. He couldn't fully remember him but he knew him better than anything else! Pretty cool. Later we found out he has a severe concussion and he was cleared to go home, he'll regain his memory within the next 2 weeks or so. Pretty Crazy experience though!

We had the opportunity to attend a Pentecostal church last night. We were invited by these people we met a couple weeks ago. It was very interesting! They had a live band and spoke in "tongues". It was a great building experience. They were sooo nice to us and they recognized us during the service and thanked us for spreading the word of God and for our sacrifice. (even though it was wrong they said..) xP Cool experience though.

Anyways, Alberto's date is being pushed back a couple of weeks. We aren't sure exactly what day yet but it'll happen. I'm giving a talk in church next week on Preparing for the Eternities. That should be fun.. haha Welp. I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 6 Week 5

These weeks keep flying by...

We have this awesome next door neighbor named Lilian who is probably like 4 foot 5, mid 70's and from some foreign country. I wanna say shes Dutch but I'm not sure. She's been known by all the missionaries here to be a prankster. Apparently the last missionary to serve here didn't get along with her too much so we've been getting to know here more and more. She's so sweet! This week she put a fake spider on our door hoping to scare us.. Apparently she'll start our with the simple pranks but the more she gets into it she can take it more and more seriously. We have to get her back somehow, it'll be fun to see where this goes.. hahaha

There's a returned missionary (Mason) that moved back here after serving in Baraboo and he bought a restaurant in the Dells. We've been helping him fix it up a couple times a week for the past few weeks. We're getting to know him pretty well and he's pretty cool! He says we can eat there free for life for helping him.. hehe

A recent convert couple took us to this Mexican restaurant for her birthday, we thought it was just going to be them and us but Mason was there and a bunch of other people. There were like 14 of us at a table for 8.. It was a blast xP

I went on exchanges with Elder Begisoff this week and we were able to have dinner in Brother Ricks' home with Alberto and teach him a great lesson. I remember when I was really young having Tamesha take the lessons in our home.. The beast lessons always happen in a members home. 

On Friday we had our interviews with President Cutler. That went pretty well. 

We also had a Zone Training meeting in Madison on Tuesday. This week was also Stake Conference so we were able to go to Madison andii was able to see families from all my areas there! It was great to see everyone! This was a pretty packed week looking back at it.. hahaha

Welp, Hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 6 Week 4

We started this week off by going to sports with a bunch of other missionaries in Madison. We're a lot farther away from other missionaries in Baraboo than I have been in my previous areas so it was fun to finally be able to play sports again. We stayed the night in Madison with the Madison 3rd ward elders, and blitzed (worked) in their area Monday night and most of Tuesday. 

 

Every Wednesday morning we help out at this nursing home in town. We bake cookies for all the residents there. All the old ladies adore us its pretty funny.. Everyone is super sweet there, and its great that I'm learning how to bake cookies! We also went to early morning seminary on Wednesday. They have it in the bishop's home and it was really fun! We taught the lesson and they had breakfast there and everything it was sweet! All the kids were awesome and it seemed like they all enjoyed us being there. We did have to wake up even earlier than we normally do though.. that didn't bring back good memories.. haha

 

The Zone Leaders came and worked with us in our area for a couple of hours on Thursday. It's pretty neat how you get to meet and become friends with so many different people out here.. missionaries and members alike. It's sweet. Alberto's baptism date was moved from the 17th to the 24th. The person who is baptizing him will be out of town so he wanted to move it up. Thats alright. Conference was pretty great! Lots of great talks and stories. I liked Larry R. Lawrence's talk the most, where he talked about receiving personal answers from the Holy Ghost.

 

Anyways I Love and Miss you all! Have a good week!

Transfer 6 Week 3

So this week I was able to go on exchanges in Madison with my MTC companion Elder Bennett. It was pretty cool to catch up with each other and see how much we've both Changed.

On Monday we went to Devils Lake again with some other missionaries which was really fun. The lake and trees are going to look so pretty in a couple weeks due to it being fall. We were also able to have another great lesson with Alberto. Talking about a lot of things he would have to do/change in order to be baptized by the 17th. Hopefully he'll be ready! We weren't able to meet with him twice this week due to his work schedule like we normally do. We wont be able to see him until next Thursday but everything should be fine. 

We've been trying to get into contact with a lot more less active members lately and we were able to meet and talk with a lot more of them this week so that was good. A lot of them have unbaptized children so hopefully we can get in there and get them baptized! We were also able to meet a lot more people we could potentially start teaching. 

I'm getting to know a lot more of the ward members here than I have in previous areas. Its great to meet and get to know a lot more people! The members here are awesome. (like everywhere I guess..) There's this sweet older lady that gives us something to eat each week. Yesterday she gave us apples, last week she gave us some peaches and the week before some chocolate milk! So sweet!

Today is my 8th Month Mark which is pretty crazy! Its gone so quick! I'm excited for General conference this next week! Should be good. 

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 6 week 2

This week went really really fast.. It feels like I just got to Baraboo.. I did.. but its already been 2 weeks! Pretty crazy.

We've done a lot of service this week! Even more than last week. It seems like Friday and Saturday was mainly just going from service project to service project. It sure gave Elder Pounds and I we've been visiting Alberto twice a week lately. Were in the middle of teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has a true desire to change his life and come unto Christ. It's pretty neat teaching someone that accepts your message for a change.. hahaha Were hoping that he'll be ready to be baptized by October 17th! If not, that's fine. It might take a little longer but as long as he still gets baptized its all good! We're planning an Open House type event to get non members to come see the church building and to learn more about our faith. Were only in the beginning stages of planning this event but it should be fun and get the ward excited about missionary work! 

Our ward mission leader owns a Frozen Yogurt shop in town. We meet with him every Saturday morning in the store for a meeting. Its a really nice place and always a good meeting but of course the best part is after the meeting when we get to go serve ourselves to as much froyo as we please. All for free of course. It's pretty awesome. Another member in the ward owns a lot of stores in the Dells. We were talking with him and he says he could get us into any place in the dells for free. Anytime. It pays to be a missionary I guess.. ahhahah 

Last Monday we went to Devil's Lake, and hiked up one of the trails that over looks it! I got some really cool pictures and videos. The scenery here is so beautiful! Its great. Were going to Devil's Lake again today. It'll be fun!

Anyways. Love and miss you all! See ya!

Transfer 6 Week 1

Hello Everyone! This was my first week in my new area Baraboo. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a smaller town with rolling hills and lakes and very beautiful scenery! I'm excited for Fall so that I can get some great pictures! Elder Pounds and I are getting along great. He is literally the twin of Lawry.. They look the same, and have the same comedy.. its great. 

We spent a lot of time doing service this week. We help out at a community Restore place, at a food pantry and we helped with a couple members house projects. We have a couple really solid investigators here. Last night we had a lesson with this guy named Alberto. He used to travel the world with the circus! He grew up very wealthy in Armenia and trained at a young age to do what he did. He has lots of stories of the circus and his life. We were able to set a baptism date with him last night for October 17th. We had Brother Ricks in that lesson with us and he owns a couple Rigleys Believe it or Nots and other crazy stores in the Wisconsin Dells. It was pretty neat to sit down and have a lesson with two very wealthy and famous people. We taught Alberto the Plan of Salvation and he says he's willing to do anything to be baptized. We were also able to have a lesson with Jose, Hes been taught mostly everything but he doesn't want to continue without his families support. I havent been able to meet all of the people we are working with yet but so far its going great!

The members here are super nice! I already think I'm gaining weight because of them feeding us here. I really like our apartment, it's smaller than my other ones but it's more open so I like it! This is going to be a great 6 weeks I can already tell!

Welp thats about it I think..

Love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens

Mission Pics

Transfer 5 Week 6

This past week was my last week in Beaver Dam. Tomorrow I'm headed to Baraboo Wisconsin. Its only about an hour west of Beaver Dam. It's North of Madison. All of my areas are touching each other.. hahah It seems like I'm just circling the outside of Madison.. hahah My New Address is 503 7th St Baraboo WI 53913.

My new companions name is Elder Pounds. He's my Trainer's MTC companion so I've heard a lot about him and I've met him a couple times and were already really cool with each other so it'll be great!

This past week we went down to Madison for Zone Training Meeting. We were asked to bring food for a pot luck afterwards. I was expecting a bunch of treats and appetizers but there was actually some good food there! Elder Atkinson and I brought shrimp with cocktail sauce.. I believe it was a crowd favorite.. ;) After ZTM we stopped at Chris Farleys gravesite.  It was in this church building thingy.  It was pretty neat.

We did a lot of service this week. We were able to go to the Moyer's farm and help out with the kangaroos and what not. We helped a less active move most of Wednesday. We were able to have a great lesson with Kyle again this week.   We've been going around to lots of investigators and members so that I can see them for the last time these past couple days. It's bittersweet. I'm excited to be moving on to a new area but I will miss a lot of the members here. Its crazy to think that I've spent more than half my mission in Beaver Dam. It feels like I just got here..

I'm excited for Baraboo! Sorry for no email last week!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens

FW: train

Transfer 5 Week 3

This week I got Elder Atkinson sick. I was sick for about half the week and then when I started to get better, he came down with the sickness. Theres been something going around here, because it seems like a lot of people have been sick these past few weeks. I'm feeling mostly better but I still have a constant cough.

On Wednsday we had a 6 hour meeting in Madison. It was fun to see a lot of missionaries gathered together in the same building and it was really nice to see some old friends. One thing I liked from the meeting was a remark that Sister Cutler said. The spirit is the same. That hit me because a lot of the time I think, "man it would be great if we could just have an apostle or the prophet in a lesson with us, because they would know everything to say and it would be soo much easier." Well, with that remark it made me realize that the spirit is the same. No matter who its coming from. You could have Elder Eyring in the lesson and he could say and speak all this stuff but the feeling the investigator gets would be the same. Because its the same exact spirit. Pretty neat.

After the meeting we went as a district to Chick Fil A. Perfect. 

We got a Media Referral this week from this 15 year old Hispanic girl named Yosseline. Her aunt and cousins are members of the church and her aunt had her go online and request us to come see her. We had a great first contact lesson with her. Shes pretty interested in learning more and I'm really excited to start teaching her. 

We had a great lesson with Kyle this week at Tonys Pizza. We had a pretty powerful lesson with him over some pizza so it was pretty great.. Lots of people are out of town this week because school starts in like 2 weeks so everyone's on vacation. We've been able to talk with Dorthea but shes been out of town helping a friend so we havent been able to meet with her for a couple weeks. 

We were able to go to The Moyer's farm again this week and play with the goats and kangaroos so that was fun. We also went to Brother Bricketts for his annual Garden Party where he has 300+ feet of model rail road track, where he has a little model train running along in circles.  It was pretty neat... 

Anyways, It was a pretty good week for being sick. I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 5 Week 2

This week was a little slower. Most of the week I've been feeling a little under the weather. I have a progressing cough and I had a sore throat at the start of the week. Thankfully that's gone.

Anyways, we were able to give 4 blessings in 2 days this week. A sister in our branch has trouble breathing, and she's on an oxygen tank thingy, but she stopped breathing Wednesday night and went into the hospital. We went to go see her Thursday night and were able to give her a blessing. The doctors said she would be in the hospital at least until Sunday night. We were in her neighborhood the following day. We were passing her apartment and all of the sudden she comes out the door to say hi! She was soo happy and she said "It Worked! I knew it would!" We were dumbfounded.. we were like uhhh what? What are you doing home soo early!?!? She always has the best attitude and she has such great faith. What a miracle.

We were unable to see Tiffany and Jordan this week, they were super busy this week but we are planning on meeting this upcoming week. Hopefully they will be able to make it to church this Sunday. Dorthea has been out of town for about 10 days now, so we haven't been able to meet with her. She says she will text us when she gets back so were praying everything is still good with her! I'm sure it is, but you never know!

Elder Atkinson and I are still getting along great. We are able to get a lot of work done but still have a lot of fun doing so. Its great.

I don't really know what else to say! So I love and miss you all! Hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 5 Week 1

Elder Websters last day was Tuesday so we spent most of that day, running from person to person for him to say goodbye to investigators, members and everyone else. It was crazy how smooth the day went. He was able to see everyone he wanted and even more with the way things worked out.. Pretty crazy. On Wednesday, we went to Madison for transfers. He was planning on meeting his parents in Milwaukee later that day, but they showed up and surprised him in Madison. They had their reunion in front of 20 missionaries or so and it made everyone soo jealous.. it was pretty funny.

Elder Atkinson and I are getting along great. He has been out for 9 months, he's from Logan Utah and we have lots in common.

We had a lot of our appointments cancel on on this week. We werent able to see Dorthea or Kyle but we were able to have a great lesson with Tiffany and Jordan, Brother Smith works with them and when he referred them to us, he said they're as good as a baptism. We saw them for the first time this week and they are ready.. Elder Atkinson and I are super excited for them. Tiffany is 22 and Jordan is 21, they're married with a baby on the way. Tiffany is an amazing christian searching for truth. The Holy Ghost is huge for her in her life. I wouldn't be surprised if they were baptized by the end of this transfer. We were also able to get back in contact with a couple of our investigators and find a few more.

We were able to go to the Moyer's farm, to help them clean up from the storm that happened about 3 weeks ago. They have lots of animals including goats, kangaroos, horses, pigs, lamas, ostriches, chickens and other stuff. We were able to get up close and personal with the kangaroos, Elder Atkinson and I were able to box one of them. It was prettyyy fun to say the least.

Welp, thats about it, times running out and I can't think of much more!


Love and Miss you all!


Elder Stevens

Transfer 4 Week 6

This week started off with going on exchanges with Elder Larsen again. The same missionary that I went on exchanges with a couple months ago in Madison that I really liked. He came to Beaver Dam this time and we had a really great lesson with Kyle. We talked about the converting power of the gospel and why we care about him. It was a great lesson. Kyle ended up coming to church this week for sacrament meeting and I believe he enjoyed it.

Transfers are this Wednesday and Elder Larsen is becoming the Assistant to the President. Good for him. My new companions name is Elder Atkinson, I don't know anything about him, all I know is that he is coming from Milwaukee and everyone says he's super chill and gets work done. So I should get along with him great. :)

On Wednesday we had a great lesson with Dorthea, the woman from Kenya. We taught about how this is the same organization that existed in the Primitive church. She knows that we were sent to her by God to teach her and share with her these truths. She also came to church this Sunday and stayed for the full 3 hours. She reallyy enjoyed the Sunday school.

We went and visited her after church so that Elder Webster could say goodbye and we had a good visit with her and her husband. Her husband is hilarious. He says he sang with R. Kelly back in the day.. ahah

We had a chance to be on Animal Planet this week with the Moyers.. We had to get permission and President Cutler said no. There's too much government issues around the story and he doesn't want to get the church involved. Understandable. Too bad though, we woulda been on tv.. hahah

We have a lot of people we are working with and a lot of potential in those people as well. I plan on burning a tie sometime this week symbolizing 6 months down. Crazy how time flies.

We have a lot of appointments this week for me and the new guy, should be good.

Anyways, Love you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 4 Week 5

Hmm This week was pretty interesting. And just a fore warning, I don't have much time left on the computer so i might have to rush a little..

Last  Sunday Night (a week ago) there was a huge storm that we got hit by, I NEVER wake up to storms and neither does my companion, but we both awoke that night around 3 in the morning to the tornado warning siren that small towns have. We woke up and just nudged it off and went back to sleep, I also had to shut the window because it was raining through the screen door and hitting my bed but that's not important..

Then we woke up this morning and everything seemed to be fine. It was just a bad rain storm it seemed like and so we had our normal Monday activities, and went down to Sun Prairie to play sports with other missionaries. On the way back home, for some odd reason, my GPS took us through a town in between Sun Prairie and Beaver Dam called Columbus. Normally my GPS just keeps us on the highway, but this time it had us go through town. We drove through Columbus and they got hit prettyyy hard by the storm. There were trees down EVERYWHERE, blocking most the roads and miraculously missing many houses. By the time we got there, the roads were semi cleared up but it was still a disaster.

We decided to stop and talk to a couple people who were crowded around this Huge tree about 5-6 feet in diameter that had just split in half, and amazingly just missed the house on both sides. Long story short, we said we could come back the next day and help out. Tuesday we spent a good majority of the day raking, carrying logs to trucks, and all sorts of stuff. The people there were soo thankful and they all wanted to pay us but we refused. They paid us in chocolate which was fine by me..

On Wednesday we attended a Lutheran Service that a guy named Merlin wanted us to come to. It was very interesting, and quite exciting. He took us to dairy queen for a blizzard afterwards which was nice. We know the Pastor that runs the services and they were all very nice and open to us attending.
Throughout the week we did more service in Columbus including helping out some members clean up their yards and haul it off. It was pretty crazy, the destruction from just a wind storm. I mean, they said the winds got up to 100 mph.. so yea. Pretty crazy actually.

The work is going along well, lots of great opportunities are arising and everything is going great. This is the last full week before transfers and then we'll see what happens! I know I'm staying in beaver dam at least for another 6 weeks, because Elder Websters going home next week!

Sorry I can't write more about the week but honestly no time! Love you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 4 Week 4

For the past three weeks, we've spent most of our time finding people to teach. Its basically been just biking around, talking to literally everyone. Well this week, we spent most of our time following up with lots of the people we met over the past three weeks and doing a lot of member missionary work. We had 2 investigators come to church, one would have came but he got called into work and 2 more would have came, but they didn't have a ride. There's a lot of potential in Beaver Dam now. I have a lot to live up to once Elder Webster leaves! That'll be the real test haha.

.

We visit this lady named Erin Shelton, she loves and adores the missionaries. She isn't a member, she just respects us greatly. Well, her son, RJ Shelton is a running back for Michigan State. When Elder Webster was serving in Beaver Dam as a new missionary, he taught RJ, but he's recently been in college and traveling everywhere so we haven't been able to see him. This week he was home and Erin wanted us to get a picture with him to send to our families, so we were like.. uhh Okay! hahah So ill attach it on the bottom. :)

About a month and a half ago, Elder Rupnick and I knocked on this older ladies door, she answered, we told her who we were and what we do and such, and she said her husband would be interested in talking with us. So she called us later that day, setting up an appointment in over a month.. Well that appointment was this last Tuesday. We walked into their home and they were super super nice and they sat us down, gave us water and then just started a casual conversation. After a few minutes it was time to get down to business. So they pulled out there bibles and started trying to prove us wrong and blah blah blah all out of the bible. We were able to explain everything well and (for lack of a better term) prove them wrong. They even invited a friend over to "study" with us. It was interesting. There wasn't a bad spirit, or feel there. They were just honestly seeking it felt like. They had learned a certain way when they grew up and they were just defending it. After the "lesson" They stood us up, shook our hands, began to be super super nice again and set up a return appointment. Pretty fun actually.

Those members who are famous for having the kangaroos in our branch got a call from animal planet. They want to come out and film them! Kinda funny, we were at the church in the morning and the branch telephone rang. A member picked it up and started talking with the Animal Planet people. They called our building, trying to get in contact with them! hahah Pretty crazy.

Welp. It was a pretty good week for the most part.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 4 Week 3

Hmmm So this week started off with me going to DeForest for exchanges. There I was able to test out my new people skills and teaching methods that I've learned from Elder Webster. I think I did a lot better. I'm able to start a conversation with most people now (not awkwardly) and then change it into the gospel somehow. Every day I'm learning and getting better so only time will help.

This week we've been running into a LOT of people who are ready to listen to us and hear our message. People who are upset with their church for a reason, or people who are just on the fence, looking for a church to go to. Its been amazing how the Lord can just lead and guide us to those who need to talk to us.

There are these recent converts in the branch who got baptized about a year ago. Their daughter (Lizzy) never got baptized though because she felt like she didn't know enough. Which she does.. Anyways, we've been praying and fasting for this girl for weeks now, so that she will get that desire to be baptized. I can't even explain the spirit that was felt last night while in this families home. Lizzy said she had this super spiritual experience at church yesterday and that she felt an over whelming feeling of the spirit. We've been super nervous to ask her to be baptized in the past because hard feelings are associated with her being baptized and we don't want to make things uncomfortable or pushy for her. Long story short, we all had teary eyes and we asked her to be baptized and she accepted. Her mom started crying and so did she. She said she didn't want to be baptized until her birthday however. So we set a date for October 24th. What a miracle. God softened her heart and she accepted to be baptized. This might not sound that amazing.. but trust me, if you guys knew the situation.. it's pretty insane.

There is this Reallyyy awesome less active here named Brother Brickett. We ate at his home yesterday, and this guy's house is sooo sweet. He has like 40 cars and 1000s of toys and collectibles everywhere. I was in awe the whole time. It was sweet. I'll have to take pictures in the future.

The 4th of July here was a ghost town. Everyone in Beaver Dam went to a neighboring town to watch the fireworks and we were stuck just biking around.. didn't get to see any fireworks but it was still alright.
Anyways.

There's a good portion of what happened this week.
Love you all!

​Our 4th of July Celebrations.

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 4 Week 2

This week has been full of Miracles.  Last Monday we were driving to a members home to go play basketball with their kids, and we saw this lady and her kid walking on the side of the road towards the gas station. Elder Webster decided to stop the car and talk with her .  She (Olivia) seemed interested and gave us her address. The next day or 2 we stopped by to find her husband, Leon and her kids at home. He let us in and we shared about who we are and what we do. Before leaving, he told us he had prayed 2 days before asking the Lord to show him what to do and where to go, needing direction in his life. Then two days later, we show up. Crazy. This week, Olivia came to church and she loved it so much, she said next week she would bring Leon and the whole family.

Elder Webster and I were able to get our hands on 2 bikes, so we've been riding bikes around town. It's actually been superrr fun. Its 10x faster than walking and you get to talk to so many more people than in a car. Don't get me wrong, I'm super grateful for the car, but riding bikes around for a change has been awesome. This week we have been able to find soooo many new investigators and people to teach. There's hardly ever any free time now. I'm learning how to plan so much more effectively now when there's actually a lot of stuff going on..

It's crazy how many more miracles and blessings you see when you put your trust in God and be Strictly Obedient. Little things like, wishing I had a carabiner, so a little kid who cant even talk runs up to me during a dinner appointment and hands me a carabiner he found, then runs away. Things like Elder Webster wishing he had some bananas and so we stop by a random potential and they offer us bananas.. Just crazy little tender mercies that show you that God is really there and he loves us and cares for us just like he would his own children. Amazing.

Anyways. Beaver Dam has a lot going on now and a lot of people with the potential to be baptized in the next weeks.

Love you all.

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 4 Week 1

What a week..

Elder Webster. 

This guy is the hardest working, most consecrated missionary ever.. and its sweet. This guy talks with LITERALLY EVERYONE. If there's a guy in his garage, or anywhere out of our way, Elder Webster will drop what he's doing, go out of our way and go up and talk to him. He has his heart and soul into this gospel and the work. Which everyone does, but this guy takes it to another level. He has served in Beaver Dam before, so he already knows everyone, all the members and most of the investigators. The members adore him and he's like a Mormon celebrity to these people. Dont get the wrong impression, this guy is great. Lots of other missionaries look down on him because of how hard he works, but I'm loving it.

This week we have seen sooo many miracles and have been blessed soo much. That week we went for 50 other lessons in the week, we were able to get 45. I've been with Elder Webster since Wednesday night, and we taught over 50 this week..   He eats right, works out hard, and is just a great generous person.. I cant even describe him. We worked straight through our dinner hour like 3 times this week.. he felt bad so he bought me McDonalds later in the night. He makes me breakfast almost every morning and like idk! He's just the most inspiring individual, ever. This might sound weird but I just cant describe this guy.

Anyways, Earlier this week, I was kneeling down saying my nightly prayer, and I just had a strong impression that I was going to talk to an Isaac the next day.. Weird cuz that's my name.. but the next morning, we were looking through our less active sheet, and my eyes went straight to an Isaac Brown. So we called this guy up and started talking with him. Found out his Dad just died a couple weeks ago, he broke up with his girlfriend a couple days ago, and the night before he had been talking to a friend about religion and how he has been thinking about coming back to church. He got soo personal with us and just opened up his feelings to us. Pretty crazy huh? Cool Experience.

I mean, we ran into soooooo many people this week, I couldn't even begin to talk about everyone.. It was a really good week.

We have members in our branch who have kangaroos, and so if you see anyone on Fox News talking about someone bringing a kangaroo into McDonalds.. I know them. :) We have random people talk to us about these people on the news with kangaroos in McDonalds and were just like, yea. We know them. The kangaroos name is Jimmy. I've pet him. hahahah

Anyways, I'm learning lots from my new comp and I'm really excited about the future!

Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 3 Week 6

This week started off with a zone conference in Madison. It was a very good zone conference on Faith leads to Action. The Zone Leaders (Elder Webster and Elder Larsen) did a little object lesson that included me.. They had a food cart on wheels that they had me stand up on, in front of the whole zone, then they had me hold on to one of them while they spun me around in circles, moving me throughout the room so I didn't know where I was. (I was blindfolded)

After about 3 minutes of spinning. They stood in front of me, telling me to follow their directions very carefully. With their voices in front of me, they told me to fall directly backwards. So I fell backwards, off of this food cart and then was caught by like 4 other missionaries. That was pretty fun.. It had me and everyone else laughing! I had to have the faith to fall, when I doesn't know that anyone was there to catch me. It was a pretty good object lesson thingy. hahah (I wish someone would have recorded it..)

Come to find out, that the Elder Webster that had me do this, is now my new companion for the next 6 weeks! So I'm pretty excited about that. :) Transfers are this Wednesday.

We went back to that investigator, who was out in the middle of nowhere. The lady dropped us, telling us she isn't interested anymore, and she said she gave the BoM to Kevin who was going to be in Jail for a while.. She said Kevin was happy to get it. Soo yea.

However, we had a guy named Kyle call us this week. Missionaries about 2 months ago tracted into him and he called us, asking if we could come back and teach him some more! So that was a very pleasant surprise! We taught him on Saturday, He's protestant but he's looking for more direction and purpose to his life. Were coming back next week to teach him again! So that's pretty exciting.

Cant think of much more soo

Hope everything's going well for everyone!

Love you guys!

Elder Stevens

Sunshine Hotdogs (something I used to feed the kids)

Transfer 3 Week 5

Hmm what happened this week..

We have an investigator named Hector, Hector is a Hispanic guy from Equidor or some country like that.. This week he shared with us how he found God. He was a Sargent in the military, during his countries civil war. Long story short, He got hit by and explosion and was in the hospital tent and there he found a lady missionary preaching. It was a very inspiring story, it took him like 40 minutes for him to tell us the full story, so I can't type it all up, but it was a pretty crazy story!

Just thought id share.. even though I couldnt tell the full story.. It was really cool.

We decided to to contact some former investigators this week. One of them lived allll the way out in the country, nothing but farm fields and manure.. We are already tight on miles this month so we were deciding whether or not we should go visit him. We had a good feeling about him, so we decided to go try him. We drove all the way out there, knocked on his door, and this raggedy older lady (maybe 50's but wasn't aging well) came to the door. We asked for Kevin, (the former) and she said he's been in jail for a while. So we ended up talking with her, and she seemed pretty interested and we got a return appointment for next week! It was pretty sweet. Glad we followed the prompting to go try the house!

We accidentally stopped by the same exact potential investigator 2 days in a row.. She wasn't very interested so when we stopped by the second time she wasn't too happy.. We totally forgot, and didn't even recognize the house before knocking! That was pretty embarrassing..

Can't really think of anything else.. Everything's going good! Only one more week till transfers! That's pretty crazy.. Time is going soo fast.

Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 3 Week 4

This week I was able to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders in Madison, Elder Larsen. Madison is just like Waldorf except there's a lot more people.. I haven't seen so many black people since I left Waldorf! It was great! I felt like i was back at home! Where ever you walk, there's always people to talk to.. it was great. Its not like the tiny town I'm in now.. where we walk around for hours and see 3 people..

Elder Larsen is an amazing missionary. He's from California and he's so chill. We would of been great friends back home. He long boards and surfs and he's just really cool. I couldn't believe how he could just go up to random people and just start a conversation with them like he's known them for months.. I got a lot out of that exchange that I can apply to my own missionary work. He's a very inspirational person, it was a great 2 days.

One of the Zone Leaders recent converts, the Shields, were visiting family in Hughesville Maryland! I was shocked when I heard that! I was like, I live right next to that town! They thought it was pretty funny. Who knows, they might have visited the Calvert ward? (or whatever ward that is..)

This Sundays Sacrament meeting was pretty much like financial counseling.. There's nothing wrong with that.. but 3 speakers on the same exact topic, that really had nothing to do with the gospel.. There was a baby blessing in the branch that day, and they had 18 family members there for it.. they were all non-members.. That was a terrible topic with investigators there.. oh well. Just bad timing I guess.  

Welp, thats pretty much it I think.. Not much went on this week. We've been trying to get a lot more solid investigators, that we can sit down and teach. Its harder than you think to get those people who will sit down with you weekly..  We have a few, but not enough to keep us very busy. 

Everything's going good though! Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 3 Week 3

This week was pretty crazy!

Elder Rupnick and I set a goal to teach 50 other lessons this week, and we were able to get 45! We spent most of the week knocking on doors and street contacting people. We would have reached our goal of 50 others if it wouldn't have rained on Sunday! We went out, tracting in the rain, but had no success.. Oh well, we tried! This area doesn't have a lot of promising investigators, so it was really nice to go out and find a lot more people we could potentially teach! Hopefully some of the people we found this week are actually interested and we'll be able to start teaching them the normal lessons! 

Some pretty interested things happened this week..

While we were out tracting, some high school kids were playing basketball on a court across the street, they yelled over to us, asking if we wanted to shoot some hoops. I thought, why not? So we ran over there and started playing basketball with these 3 high school kids. They were reallyy surprised we actually came over and played with them. We were really chill with them and just started shooting hoops and talking. They ended up asking about us, who we were, what we do, why we do it, and all that stuff. So we started talking to them. (I think I'm a lot better when talking to kids that age) We gave 2 of them Book of Mormons and gave them our number and told them to call us. They said if we were in the area on Fridays, to come shoot more hoops with them. So it was pretty sweet!

We also got a referral from Church Headquarters this week. So if someone online, on mormon.org wants missionaries to come talk to them, or they want a free BoM, they can put in their information on the website, and we will get a text, telling us that information and saying what they wanted. Were supposed to contact them within 24 hours. This week we got a text, telling us the name and number of someone who wanted a BoM. I ended up calling the number to see when we could stop by. So I called the number and a lady picked up the phone and said "Dodge County Correctional Jail, how may I help you" I kinda froze.. I was like.. uhhh what? So I eventually told her who I was and that someone probably just gave us a prank number or something, apologized then hung up.. My heart kinda dropped when I heard her say that! I wasn't expecting that at all! So someone either pranked us, or someone in the jail wanted a BoM.... Were not allowed to teach people in jail, however sooo yea. That was pretty funny. 

We live next to Beaver Dam Lake, and one of the nights this week, there was the most amazing looking sunset I've ever seen... Elder Rupnick and I ran back to our apartment and grabbed our cameras. We then went to a public park and took some pictures.. I'll attach one of the pics.. It was crazy good looking. One of the best sunsets I've ever seen!

Anyways, it was a really fun and busy week! 

Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 3 Week 2

This past week was a little slow but wasn't the worst.

First off, next week we will have our P Day on Tuesday, due to Memorial day, which will be a normal proselyting day.

My Birthday was on Thursday and nothing out of the ordinary happened. We had our weekly planning that day, which happens every week. And then after, we visited a couple less actives and some potentials. I did receive a call from the Mission President, President Cutler and his wife telling me happy birthday which was really nice! No cake, or presents but it was totally fine! That's what i was expecting! haha.

We had a dinner appointment last night, and it was the dad's birthday earlier that week, so we had some cake and ice cream for him, (but in my mind it was just a late party for me..)

This week we ran out of Book of Mormons to hand out.. That's pretty awkward.. Its actually really hard to teach new people about a book, if you don't even have any on hand.. So that was pretty weird.. We should be getting a box of BoMs tomorrow.. Hopefully!

We had a lady come up to us while we were walking around town. She told us how her sister joined the church a couple years ago and she has a nephew on a mission. She said her sister has been trying to convert her over the past few years and she's actually might be changing her mind about the church. So we got her address and were going to go visit her this week. Hopefully something good comes out of that!

This week I was able to go on exchanges with the DeForest Elders. I was able to go back to Sun Prairie, and do the normal service we did with Peter at the Sun Prairie museum. He was really excited to see me and he thought I was back for good! but nope! Just for the day.. haha

We also helped the sisters move into our old apartment. Man, I thought I cleaned up that apartment. They cleaned it up real nice in the past week! It was pretty crazy, it barely looked like the same place!

This next week, were going to be doing a lottt of finding. We have a goal of getting 100 lessons taught this week in the district. Its gonna be hard but I'm sure we can do it. Were planning on getting 50 other lessons as a companionship. So we'll see how it goes! Were gonna be superrr busy.. Hope it goes well.

Anyways, i think that's about it!

Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 3, Week 1

This week was pretty good.

I arrived in Beaver Dam on Wednesday, it was a very fast exchange because Beaver Dam is just 15 miles north of Sun Prairie. Beaver Dam has about a 3rd of the people than Sun Prairie, and the area covers a much larger distance. We are very restricted on miles, so its very hard to get to some of the towns that we cover.

Yesterday I was able to Skype with my parents and brother which was really great! It was great being able to see them. It feels like I just left, so talking to them was pretty weird because I feel like I haven't been gone for very long! These last 3 months have flown by!

In this new companionship, I have to do most of the talking, teaching and finding. This is new to me, because Elder Santos would do most everything in the last companionship. I would talk and teach of course, but I was always in my comfort zone. Now I'm having to stretch outside my comfort zone and do most everything. This is good though, because I know that I'm learning and growing soo much quicker now. It stinks, but its good.. I find, that I'm having more fun doing it this way however. You feel better when you're the one handing out the BoMs and getting new investigators, instead of just listening to your companion do it.

Beaver Dam has a small branch, there's about 30 members who attend regularly. This is veryy weird to me, because I'm used to a good solid 150-200 people attending at wards.. They had me get up in the middle of sacrament meeting and introduce myself and bear my testimony. Even though there was only 30 people there I was still nervous because of the short notice.. I got through it though.. haha

Welp, that's about everything I think. Everything's going pretty good! No worries!

Thanks and Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 2 Week 6

--
Well this week was my last week in Sun Prairie. We just found out this morning where everyone is getting transferred. I'm being transferred to Beaver Dam. Its a small town just north of Sun Prairie. It consists of a lot of smaller towns, spread out everywhere so we will be doing a lot of driving! My new Comps name is Elder Rupnick, he has one more transfer till he goes home.

Serving with him will be interesting because he has Asbergers. I'm sure ill be doing most of the teaching and interacting but that'll be good for me as it will make me grow and learn much faster! I've been to the Beaver Dam apartment before and I'm excited because I'll have a dish washer and I nicer apartment than the last three months!

I'm not sure what my new address is yet so ill make sure to have that to you all next week.

This last week we were mostly just preparing our area for the sisters to take it over. We did a lot of organizing and prioritizing a lot of investigators and cleaning and scrubbing the apartment for them, to make the transition as smooth as possible. We weren't allowed to tell any of our investigators that we wouldn't be coming back next week, and that the sisters would be coming back. So that was pretty weird.

I am super excited for this new area though, I'm going to try to make it the best area in our district and get the work moving there a lot more.

Welp that's about it! I'm excited for the new area and new comp and just getting a fresh start I guess!

This was an interesting week, just getting everything ready for the sisters.  I'm excited to call home for mothers day on Saturday! So that'll be exciting!

Hope everything is going well for all of you guys!
Love you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 2 Week 5

Soo this week was a little slower but very interesting!

First off, the baptism was able to go through on Saturday! The service was pretty short but we had a decent amount of members come to support Erik. He was confirmed yesterday and is very excited about receiving the priesthood in due time! So that's pretty awesome!

On Tuesday, we had our Mission President, President Cutler, come to our weekly district meeting for interviews. Every other transfer you get interviewed by the mission president. The interview went really well and he told Elder Santos and I some upcoming news for Transfers coming up next week. Due to upcoming transfers, the mission will be loosing a lot of missionaries going home. (About 70 Missionaries are going home in the next 3 months) So they are combining 2 areas. So there were 6 missionaries in Sun Prairie. But as of next week, there will only be 4. The Sun Prairie Sisters are going to be taking over our area. They will be taking all of our investigators and everything. They are even moving into the apartment we are staying in currently. President Cutler said, However one of the Sun Prairie A Elders (Elder Santos and I) will be transferred to DeForest (The other set of missionaries in the ward), so that we could still help the sisters in the huge transition. So Sun Prairie A is closing, due to not enough missionaries in the mission. Pretty Crazy News. However, President Cutler told me personally that due to all these missionaries going home, I will be able to serve in a leadership position a Lot sooner than most other missionaries. So that's pretty exciting!

Transfers are coming up next week and they are going to be very very interesting. So my address is going to change this upcoming week. I'll give out my new address as soon as I find out!

Other than that crazy news, and the baptism, this week was pretty slow. We've been deep cleaning our apartment (again) for the sisters to move in and organizing our area so that they wont have as hard of a time taking over our area.

Something cool that happened this week, was that we decided to stop by this guy named Holman. Elder Santos didn't really want to stop by this guy because he's really sketchy but i decided we should knock anyways. He opened the door and we had to introduce ourselves again to him because he had forgotten who we were. Then he asked if we could get rid of evil spirits. And we said yea? all hesitantly. Long story short, We ended up going into this guys home and Blessing his home. He felt a lot better after we did that. He proceeded to give us a 30 minute pep talk on faith and staying strong which was pretty cool! He told us that we were amazing and that we were doing the right things and that we should never allow anyone to get us down. This guy started talking about things that are talked about in the D&C and we had no idea how he knew that information. But all in all it was pretty cool and he made us late to our dinner appointment but oh well.. hah

I think that's about it! Love you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 2, Week 4

This week was pretty interesting.. :)

We've been going to Wednesday night activities for the past couple of weeks because the ward would like us to for some reason. This week we were with the Teachers. The teachers in this ward are sooo smart.. its kinda scary how smart they all are..

Anyways, this week they had a "Missionary Ramen Noodle Cook Off" So we all got one packet of ramen and we had to use anything we could find in the kitchen to make it. They had judges, and there were 3 categories that were being judged. Taste, Presentation, and Creativity. Welp, long story short, Elder Santos and I ended up winning the Taste category. (the only category that really matters..) Which was pretty crazy. We were so surprised.. it was pretty funny. I guess were good missionaries after all..

This week we ran into some reallyy nice people. We ran out of paper plates in our apartment so we ran over to the gas station to grab some real quick. And the plates were really expensive so we ended up deciding not to get them. As we were leaving this random lady came up to us and offered to buy us what we needed. We thanked her for the offer but declined. She insisted.. She wouldn't take no for an answer.. so we ended up getting 2 large bags of chips, the paper plates and some fruit from this random lady.. We felt bad because we had no idea who this lady was and she spent $16 dollars on us.. oh well. Thank you who ever you are!

The next day we were out tracting.. The very first door we knocked on, a lady opened the door really quick and said to hold on, she had brownies in the oven, so she shut the door before we could say anything and she came back out with some brownies. She gave us a brownie each and then said that we would need some liquid to help wash the brownies down. Before we could say anything again, she was back inside. She came out juggling some cups, water, and milk. She poured us a glass of water then headed back inside. This next time she came out with a ball of cash and stuffed it into Elder Santos pocket. She asked us if we had been to a Salvators Pizza that was in town. We said no and she said, "welp! You're going there tonight! Do you need a ride?! My daughter works there! She looks like Emma Stone and you need to tell her I sent you.." and all this stuff. Then she started talking about how she loves Mormons and she used to have LDS friends in Kentucky when she lived there and how they were the nicest people she's ever met and all this stuff. We hadn't even said anything yet and we already knew this ladies life story!

Long story short, were going to go back this week and help her with some yard work. And we ended up going to the Pizza place because she wouldn't take the cash back.. As soon as we got there, her daughter ran up to us and told us her mom had called saying we were coming. She was super excited to seat us and have us there. It was pretty crazy! Some super nice people! We didn't know how to thank her!

I guess if you run into too many nice people in one week, you have to run into some not too nice people as well.. We ran into an Anti Mormon when we were tracting and that wasn't very fun.. He was cussing us out and trying to put us down. I personally thought it was kinda funny because everything he said didn't make any sense and he wouldn't even let us talk back.. It was a good faith builder! I tried to shake the guys hand but he refused.. lollllll

We also got to help build part of the Millers driveway on Saturday. I got to ride in Brother Millers tractor with him while he went and drove to his farm to haul some dirt to the driveway. That was pretty fun. Dont think I've ever done that before..

Welp all in all it was a great week. Erik has his baptismal interview on Wednesday and the baptism is on Saturday! Hope that is able to go through!

Love you all!

Elder Stevens