Transfer 10 Week 1

So we started off this week in Baraboo with no car.. We spent our P-Day relaxing at our apartment for the most part (and packing) because we didn't feel like walking anywhere.. and there was nothing really to do anyways.. Monday night we had Dinner at the Ricks home where I was able  to say goodbye and then Mason drove us to the Dance family's home where we went to say goodbye as well. 

Tuesday was spent walking around town saying good bye to people we visit. I wasn't able to get to everyone but it was still good. Brother Andrew's Son had his baptism Tuesday night so we walked an hour and a half all the way across town to see it before we had to have a member drive us down to Madison for transfers. 

Wednesday was transfers. We drove from Madison, up to Oshkosh, had a little devotional, where I was able to see Elder Santos (my trainer) before he was to go home, (he's home now) Then we got on the Car that was going up to Green Bay, Got to Green Bay, and then met our new companions. From there we drove from Green Bay to our separate areas. It took 1 hour to get to Oshkosh, 1 hour to get to GB and then 1 hour to get to Chilton. So it wasn't too bad. 

When we got to Chilton, we had to go to this Care Center that we do service for. We help out the old people by playing games and interacting with them. After that we visited a couple investigators and visited a couple members, went to the Young Women activity to talk about our missions to the young women (there's only one young women in our branch) and then finished off the day by visiting our next door neighbors who are recent converts. 

Thursday we met Vince, Vince has been meeting with the missionaries for about 6 months now and has totally changed his life around. We have his baptism scheduled for March 19th but he has to quit smoking first. He has an amazing desire to quit and to be free from this addiction. So far, he's gone from needing a smoke every 30 mins to about every 4 hours now. We've met with him twice now and he's tried so hard to break the habit. Yesterday he was able to make it 32 hours before he broke. He'll be able to make it soon though. He has a very very hard home life that is on the brink of breaking up so its really really hard for him right now. Hes strong though, he'll be able to do it.

On Friday we had the care center again, helping out with the old people. We were also able to see this investigator named John. John has had a couple of meetings with the missionaries, they've taught him the Restoration and Plan of Salvation so far but he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. When we saw him, we took a step back and explained the BoM to him and really tried to teach at his level and at his pace. We were able to invite him to be baptized during that lesson and we set up a date for him on March 26th. He wants to know if this is all true but he wont be able to know until he starts to read. So hopefully he'll dive into the scriptures. 

Saturday is when we met with Vince again for the second time. Had a really really strong lesson with him. Where he prayed so sincerely for God to help him quit smoking. He gave us his pack of cigarettes and his lighter before we left. He was able to make it 32 hours on that attempt. Later that day we had a dinner appointment with the Guest Family who have us over every Saturday. They're super nice. Also that night we had an appointment with a Less Active that went missing and was just found. His name is Ryan and he is about 26, he said he doesn't remember much about the church and even forgot he was baptized even though it was only like 8 years ago. He agreed to taking the discussions again with his fiance. Where excited for him.

Sunday we had church, members here say its more like a bundle of twigs than a branch, I counted 14 people there including all the kids. Elder Amann says that there normally is more people there than that and that there are a lot of members our of town but they're still lucky if they get 30 people to show up. We rent the building from the local boy scouts in the area. I was informed on Wednesday that I was to be giving a talk on Sunday, so I spoke yesterday on How to Love and Serve one Another. I think I did a pretty good job for so short notice.. We also blessed the sacrament AND taught Sunday school. hahah Lots of duties when there's barely anyone there.. After Church we met with this investigator named Katelyn. They've only met with her once before   I got here. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she had SOO many great questions and even asked us to be baptized! So we set up a Date for her on April 9th to be baptized! She still has a lot to learn and come to know but that's super exciting!

So yea! Chilton is a really small town with lots of little towns surrounding it but there's a lot going on here! We live in a duplex right next to the recent converts so we have a pretty big apartment! The Address is 472 Cedar St Chilton WI 53014. I'm excited for the future in this area and I'm glad to be here! I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens

First Pic is Elder Santos and I (my trainer)

Second pic is Elder Amann

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Transfer 9 Week 6

So this week was really really interesting!

We started off the week on Monday with a normal PDay..

Then on Tuesday we had District meeting down in Madison. After DTM, I went on exchanges with Elder Newren in Mad 3. It was a good exchange, we were able to talk with a lot of nice less actives and teach a lot of people. Well, the exchange with Elder Newren went until Wednesday afternoon.

Right after that exchange we were going to have an Exchange with the Zone Leaders in Mad 2. Well on the drive down from Baraboo, Elder Tunstall and Elder Bedgisoff ran into some massive car problems. They were getting notifications from the car to "turn off the engine immediately" well they drove the rest of the way down to Madison, where we reexchanged back, to then drive to the Zone Leaders area which was only a few mins away. When Elder Tunstall and I got to the Zone Leaders apartment, we told them about the car issues. We switch companions, so I went with Elder Hibbard, and Elder Tunstall went with Elder Christian. Elder Tunstall and Christian took the Baraboo car to the shop and long story short, the car wasn't ready untill today.. Monday.

So we spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with the Zone Leaders. What was supposed to be a 24 hour blitz, turned into a 3 day blitz.. We were able to make it back to Baraboo Friday night because there was a stake fireside in Madison that some members drove down to go to. So we rode back up to Baraboo with them but we have been car-less since then. The car is down in the shop in Sun Prairie (my first area!) and wont be done until sometime today. We will get the car back when were down in Madison for transfers on Wednesday. None of this probably made any sense.. so sorry. But yea. Basically we are car-less in Baraboo until Wednesday. We've had to walk everywhere, and the members have been nice enough to drive us to places that are too far to walk.. 

But we were able to get a LOT of work done in Madison with the Zone Leaders! It was reallyy great! I was with Elder Hibbard the whole time and we have a Lott in common. He's a reallyy great missionary and we had a lot of fun experiences. We were able to teach this Spanish lady that couldn't speak English at all. Her 7 year old son was able to translate everything for us. It was really neat. We tracted by going along and saying prayers with people. Just straight up asking if we could say a prayer with them on their doorstep, and if they let us, we knew they were someone worth talking to.. We got a lottt of rejection doing it that way, but the people we were able to talk to and teach were superr awesome. 

Anyways. So I'm being transferred from Baraboo. I'm going to a place called Chilton. Its up in the Green Bay stake so I'm finally making it out of Madison! haha. I'm excited.

I Love and Miss you all! 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 9 Week 5

This was a slower week, but still good.

Transfers are on Wednesday the 24th, ill most likely be leaving Baraboo but we we will know for sure net week. I've been in Baraboo for 6 months (my longest area yet) It'll be sad to leave but I'm ready. :)

On Tuesday we had a really good Zone Training Meeting where they talked a lot about Diligent Planning to make our areas more effective. I remember when I was serving with Elder Webster, he would say that the most missionary work gets done in planning and I saw that for sure. Elder Tunstall and I have been trying to apply what we've learned. 

On Wednesday we were able to help out with the cub scouts which was pretty exciting. It was ridiculous how hard it was to get those kids to pay attention. We were learning about static electricity and doing little science experiments with them. It involved balloons and they just ended up whacking each other with the balloons like half of the time.

On Thursday we had a Family History Workshop where a bunch of members got together in the church building to do Family History. We were able to talk with some less actives that came and we helped everyone with working the computers and familysearch.org. The Family History Workshop is going to be a monthly thing now so it could be a very good thing to bring investigators to in the future. We were able to make it out to Portage this week. We aren't able to make it to that town very often so it was great to be able to go and get back in contact with some people.

We also had a great family home evening with the Gilletts. We talked about overcoming trials and then played some jenga! It was really good. They came to church yesterday as well which is great. 

Anyways. Everything's still good, I'm excited to maybe get a new area in the upcoming week. I love and miss you all! Take care!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 9 Week 4

So this was a pretty solid week.

We were able to go down to Madison for Sports and to Blitz with the Mad 3 Elders. It was snowing pretty hard but we were still able to talk with a lot of good people. We Stayed the night at Mad 3 and then had a really good District Meeting the Next Morning. We then had a Blitz with the Mt Horeb Elders while we were done in Madison aswell.  Later in the week we had a very quick Exchange with the Zone Leaders where I was able to stay in Baraboo with Elder Christian. We had a lot of fun together and was able to meet some really nice people that Elder Tunstall and I will be able to try back at. The rest of the week was filled with normal missionary duties like visiting people and knocking doors.

We've been working with these less actives for the past couple weeks and they made it to church this week which was great! We're really excited for them and some other Less actives and Investigators that were working with.

This week we seemed to focus a lot on prophets with members and people we were visiting. Its truly great that God would bless us with a Prophet in these days as he did in days past. It's also so amazing that we can truly find out truth just by praying and asking. That is such a simple concept that not too many people know..

Sorry for the shorter letter but were running short on time today!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 9 Week 3

So this week went by crazy fast. We started off the week by going to a museum in the Dells for P-day. When we got out of the museum, to our surprise it had started snowing and there was already almost an inch and a half on the ground. When leaving the Dells to head back to Baraboo we decided to stop at a gas station to pick up a drink for the ride home. As we were checking out, some guy came up to us asking if we could  help push his car into the gas station as he had just ran out of gas just outside the lot. Although VERY slippery we were able to push his car to the gas pump and he was able to fill up. We were able to help him and then talk with him for a little while and gave him a card.

Most of this week our messages have been towards this Mormon message called I'll go where you want me to go. Its about providing service when opportunities arise. I like this quote that goes something like: Always preach the gospel and sometimes use words. We were able to share this experience how God placed this opportunity in front of us and we were able to serve and bless this guys life along with our message this week.

Because of the Snowfall, lots of Tuesday was spent shoveling various peoples driveways and what not. Wednesday and Thursday was spent in Mt. Horeb as I was on exchanges with Elder Anderson. We had a lot of fun and was able to talk to a lot of really nice people. 

The Richland Center Elders had a baptism this past Saturday, that since they don't have a baptismal font in their building they had to come and use our buildings font. We were able to set up the room and fill up the font for them as they had to drive an hour to get there. It was a great service.

Mike and Cindy (the 2 that came to the open house) Came to church yesterday. They stayed the full 3 hours and seemed to Really enjoy it. We will be able to meet with them soon. I have high hopes for them. 

Last night the bishopric held a youth fireside that we were invited to attend. The fireside was about Decisions that you make in life and how they affect your life. It was really great to sit in and discuss with them all about our different decisions and why you should choose the right. 

 

Anyways, it was a pretty good week.  Hope you all have a good one!

 

Elder Stevens.