Transfer 11 Week 2

This week was slower but still really good!

 

On Tuesday we were over in Manitowoc for District Meeting and around 4oclock we received a call from Vince asking if we could meet up sometime that night. We met up with him back in Chilton at the church at 5. He has been going through a lot over the past couple of weeks. He was able to let out all that has been on his mind. We felt it was right to stay with him for a while. We went over and played some basketball to get his mind off some stuff and we called the Branch President to come over and talk with him. He is officially getting divorced and looking for a place to live and a job. Hes got a lot going on and he truly needs Gods love and support. Its good to be back in contact with him now. 

 

We met with Granny again this week. She put us to some hark work! She had some of her barn fall apart due to a recent storm and we helped her haul all of the wood off for her. We had a good lesson with her. She told us she knows the Book of Mormon is true but she doesnt get the acting on that knowledge part. She is strong into Indian Spirituality and she says that we are the closest to what she believes.. Idk. Shes awesome but quite stubborn! hahah I wish you all could meet her..

 

We met with John yesterday. Hes really stressed out, he has a lot of people influencing him to go one way and then theres us influencing him to go another.. Hes just really confused right now. He sincerely wants to follow Christ and so we helped him understand that his answer wouldnt come from us or his friends, but to truly feel what was right, he would have to go to God and get the answer from him. The lesson was amazing, the spirit was so strong and we think it finally clicked in his mind. Pray for him! Hes so close! 

 

We had dinner with the Guest family and we had freshly slaughtered Rabbit! It was really good! We had BBQ Rabbit sandwiches. After we ate, they brought in some other pet rabbits and had us hold and pet them. Rabbit fur is so soft! 

 

We did a lot of finding this week as well and we were able to find a really solid lady named Janet! She is super prepared as well but she wouldnt accept a return appointment or stop bys.. We gave her our number and the church address and she said she would call us. Really hoping she does because she is super solid! 

 

Anyways. Those were the main points of the week. Time flies! Hope you all have a good week! Love you all!

 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 11 Week 1

So this week was full of knocking knocking and more knocking. Because of all the knocking we were able to teach a lot of lessons and find a few more investigators and a lot of potential investigators. There's not much to update on.

We met with John twice this week. Once on Tuesday and then at the normal time on Saturday. John is sooo close to joining the church. He knows he has to make his decision soon if he really wants to go through with his Baptism date on May 14th. He is stuck between his old church and our church. All of his friends are at his old church but he knows that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He came to church yesterday and he really enjoyed it. After everyone had left, Elder Amann and I went out to the car to leave, and we found him still in his car crying.. We went up to his car to see if we could help him out at all. He got out and gave us both hugs and just talked about that he reallyy doesn't know what to do. We comforted him and he said that he would make his final decision by next week. So he needs a lot of prayers! I know he'll come through and make the right decision. He's soo solid. I'm excited for him.

We met with other less actives and had some really good Restoration lessons this week. But nothing to really point out on.

Last update on Vince: He's in Appleton, his wife isn't being to faithful to him so he's just trying to find peace right now. Supposedly he's looking for the church and a job in Appleton. Pray for him!

We've had lots of great weather this week! in the 70s!

Yea! Sorry for the short letter, I'm doing great! Lots of Miracles happening every day! Love you all!

Elder Stevens.

Cool pic I snatched.

 

Transfer 10 Week 7

So due to English Missionaries going from being in the MTC for 12 days to now 3 Weeks, we had an extra week this transfer. So transfers are this Wednesday. Elder Amann and I will be staying together in Chilton.

This week had its highs and lows.. but of Course the Highs outweighed the lows.. To start off, Last week I mentioned how John P. had texted us while we were emailing, asking us what he had to do to join the church. We replied and told him and since he was at work, he didn't reply. That night we called him over the phone to read the Book of Mormon with him. After reading a chapter, we asked about his question. He talked about how he is honestly considering joining the church, So we were able to set a Baptismal date with him for May 14th! (My Birthday) We've talked with him everyday this past week and were able to visit him on Saturday. I'm really excited for John. 

Wednesday morning we were out tracting and we knocked into this lady named Lindy. She let us in to do the survey with her. Long story short, SHE IS GOLD. Without being too personal, she expressed heartache about how her mother had died 13 years before and has always wondered if she would be able to see her mom again. She even talked about how she had never been baptized and said she wanted to be when she found a church.. We were obviously prompted to teach the Plan of Salvation.. We talked about how she would be able to see her mom again and live with her family forever. You could tell this news came with such peace and comfort to her heart. She said that she would start balling once we left. She also said that in the little time we were there with her she felt so much love and peace. Were going to see her again Tuesday morning. She honestly is so prepared.. its ridiculous. 

Vince has been going through soo much stuff with his family, wife and situation. His wife is leaving him, he has no money, trying to quit smoking, and just so many things weighing him down. He has the strongest desire to follow Christ that I've ever seen in an Investigator. All these things finally got to him and he decided to do what was best for his family and tell us to stop stopping by.. I know this doesn't seem like the best thing for his family but he just has soooo many things going on right now that he just has to take things one step at a time. This was a hard drop.. Missionaries have worked with him soo much over the past 7 months.. and I know it all wasn't for vain. Once he gets his life straightened out, the missionaries with end up contacting him and he'll be baptized with in a month. Guaranteed. So its sad that we wont be those missionaries. But I believe this is what's best for him.

We were also able to get in contact with Luke and Sarah, and we set up a time to meet with the whole crew this week. (Crystal, Josh, Luke and Sarah) So that's exciting. 

We had a really good Zone Training Meeting this week as well. But yea. That pretty much sums up the week though.. Hope I'm not missing anything. 

So yea, I love and Miss you all! Take care!

Elder Stevens

More pics from last week.. cuz i have so many..

Transfer 10 week 6

This week went by pretty fast.

On Monday, we spent our Pday with the Manitowoc Hmong Elders. We went to this super sick lighthouse out on Lake Michigan. We got some awesome pics that I'll link at the bottom. Monday evening we did some work with the other Elders in Two Rivers and then we spent the night in Manitowoc.

Tuesday we had District Meeting. After that we exchanged companions, Elder Lewis went with Elder Amann and I went with Elder Larose. I know I say this allll the time.. but Elder Larose is the sickest missionary ever. We get along super well. Most of Tuesday we went visiting and teaching Hmong people. So basically I didn't get to say anything.. It truly felt like I was in a foreign mission for a day. Its so cool.

Wednesday, we exchanged back in the afternoon and Elder Amann and I just spent the rest of the day visiting people and trying to set up appointments. Before we exchanged back, Elder Amann and Elder Lewis had a lesson with Brad and with Vince. Vince is slowly but surely making steps towards quiting smoking. We're excited for him.

Thursday morning we went to the car shop to get an oil change. Granny called us and canceled so we spent that time weekly planning. The rest of the day we spent visiting less actives and we were able to get in with the Upshaw family. We talked with them and were able to set up a time to come back and teach their foreign exchange students all the lessons.. We'll see how that goes. In the evening we read over the phone with Vince and John. We've been keeping that up every day.

Friday was April Fools.. I rubber banded the kitchen sink sprayer so that when Elder Amann turned on the sink it sprayed him.. That was about the extent of the fools. Pretty Lame. We spent that day visiting and tracting. We were able to have a good lesson with John. His friend Jens was supposed to come but he got caught up with some stuff and wasn't able to come. He said he'll be there next week.

Saturday, we did our morning studies, then went straight to the church building to watch General Conference. After the first session we had our weekly correlation meeting with Brother Jensen. And also had lunch at McDonalds. After the second session there was a branch BBQ which was really tasty! Then we proceeded to watch the Priesthood Session.

Sunday was basically the same schedule, but John came to the first session of conference. He really enjoyed it, after the session the Reichwaldts invited us to have lunch with them. They invited John along also. So we had a really good lunch and lesson in the Reichwaldt's home with John. John is so awesome.. he has troubles with reading but he's a super good christian. He wasn't able to stay for the second Sunday session. But we were still able to read over the phone with him last night. He really enjoyed the time he spent with us and watching conference. Actually while typing this email, John texted us asking what he has to do to join the church!! We texted back the next steps but he hasn't replied yet.. That's super exciting though! Seems like General Conference really made a change in him.. Later on Sunday we were able to visit the Walkers with Brother Reichwaldt. We invited them to strive to make it to the temple and they expressed desires to do so. So that's awesome!

We really tried to get in with Chrystal, Josh, Luke and Sarah this week but it just wasn't able to happen! Hopefully we can get in with them sometime this week..

Anyways. I love and miss you all! Take care!

Elder Stevens

(There's lots of pics but this one was the best for all of us..)

Transfer 10 Week 5

This week was really good!

On Monday we had 3 appointments during our Pday. Although 2 of them fell through we were able to have a really good lesson with Sarah, Crystal, Josh (Crystal's Boy Friend) and Luke (Their Neighbor) with Brother Reichwaldt. We taught them the Restoration and all of them are super interested! They had soo many questions and we ended up staying there an extra hour just answering all of them.. It was awesome. 

On Tuesday we used up our extra Pday time that we didn't use on Monday then since we had a very busy upcoming week we used our free time to weekly plan. We were able to read the Book of Mormon with Vince and John over the phone which we did every day this past week..

On Wednesday there was supposed to be a huge snow storm/blizzard that was coming through so lots of places and people were shutting down getting ready for it.. We spent the day visiting Members and Less actives I hadn't met yet. In the evening we were even able to read with Luke over the phone. By the time we went to sleep there was about 3 inches of snow and it was still going to snow the whole night and into Thursday. 

Thursday morning we woke up and had to drive an hour up to Green Bay for Zone conference. The roads were super snowy but we managed to make it! I'm sure glad we were inside that day having that 6 hour zone conference rather than being outside in that blizzard.. Lots of missionaries ended up staying the night in Green Bay because they weren't able to make it back to their area. Elder Amann was persistent that he wanted to make it back so we drove home and it was scary but we were able to make it back safely.. 

On Friday we went to Granny's again. She wasn't expecting us though due to it being Good Friday but we showed up and was able to have a good lesson with her. She didn't have us do any work because she hadn't prepared anything but we showed up when she really needed us.. She had a rough week and really needed our support. 

We also met with Vince and was able to have a great lesson with him. He's having a really hard time with his marriage and could use prayers. We also met with Crystal, Josh and Luke again. Sarah wasn't able to make it.. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. Crystal and Josh have been reading the BoM together and they say they feel peace and comfort when reading it so that's great! We talked about baptism but didn't set a firm date with them yet. We will do that this week. 

Saturday morning Tai Iualualo took us out to breakfast. Tai moved from Samoa to Chilton when he was 14. His family was super active in Samoa but ever since moving 8 years ago they haven't been too active.. He has sincere desires to come back to church and get his life straight again. He wants to go on a mission but hes totally not prepared too.. Were going to work with him over the next couple of weeks and help him change his life around! 

Later that day, we did some service for our ward mission leader and had a really good lesson with John. We brought Brother Guest along. After our lesson one of John's friends from youth showed up and we were able to talk with him. His name is Jens. (silent J, so it sounds like Yenz) Jens has really been looking for a church and has had a lot of experiences lately that has driven him to want to find Christ. It was PERFECT timing for him to show up. So he's going to meet with us with John next week and were really excited to start teaching him too!

Sunday was really good! We had church and then had an Easter dinner with the Darnell's. We spent the rest of the day studying and visiting less actives. Merlin, an investigator from Beaver Dam managed to get a hold of my number and called to see how I was doing and to wish me a Happy Easter! That was a great surprise :) Merlin is great. 

Anyways. Lots of good stuff going on here! 

I Love and Miss you all!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 10 Week 4

This week was really good!

We had a normal day on Monday, we saw Vince in the evening and we had a really good lesson with him. 

On Tuesday we had District Meeting and after that, Elder Lewis and I went on Exchanges. Elder Lewis is a Hmong missionary. He's been out for about 4 months now and he's pretty fluent in Hmong! (Hmong is a nationality from Vietnam and Thailand... I think) But the exchange was super fun. All of their investigators are native Hmong and they speak little to no English. So pretty much the whole exchange I had no idea what was going on.. hahah Hmong people are sooo nice. They kept feeding us food and stuffing and stuffing us. Elder Lewis didn't know how to use chop sticks so all the little hmong kids were laughing so hard at him because he couldn't eat with them.. it was pretty funny. 

On Wednesday we had more lessons with Hmong people and we eventually exchanged back. Right before we exchanged this Hmong lady stuffed us with food and then we had a dinner appointment right as we got back to Chilton. It was tough eating both meals but I managed to get through it.. hahah

Thursday we saw Granny again and we were able to do more farm work, each week I'm feeling more and more like a farm boy.. its awesome haha

Friday we drove up to Green Bay and had exchanges with the Zone Leaders in their area. I went with Elder Wilcock, the first night they had spots night (To bring investigators to) so we just played volleyball for a couple hours and it was great.

Saturday we spent tracting and we were able to talk to some really nice people. We drove back to our area in time to see John at 6. We had a really good lesson with him, we watched the Restoration Video and we've started to call him and read the Book of Mormon with him over the phone as well.

Sunday we had 3 investigators show up to church that Elder Smith and Elder Amann taught over a month ago. Well, they taught the grandma and then yesterday the grandma (Sarah) brought her daughter (Crystal) and her son (Ethan) to church. They all loved church and had soo many questions. We set up an appointment for today and they said they're super interested and that they're going to bring their neighbors to see us as well! They are super awesome and I'm excited to see how it goes with them! 

Anyways. Sorry if this seemed rushed! Lots of good things are going on! I love and miss you all!