Transfer 14 Week 5

This week went by super fast!

Monday was our Pday. We had a lesson planned with the Gentz family at 6 but they were sick, so the lesson fell through. We spent the rest of the night visiting and setting up some appointments.

Tuesday we Park contacted in the morning. Theres a nice trail that goes along the little bay that makes up Escanaba that we are able to walk on and talk to people. Its always pleasant. We stopped in the Family History Center in the afternoon to talk to this lady that always comes in to help with the family history center. She wants to learn more about the church but her schedule is busy for the next couple weeks so we'll set something up when we see her next. Tuesday night we went to Jims Music to fellowship this less active named Dusty. He put together a little free ukulele class that anyone can attend. So we stopped in and played some uke with him and others from the community. It was a really awesome environment that we were able to talk to and meet a lot of people. He has the class every 2nd and 4th tuesday of the month so we'll most likely be stopping in again.
 Later that day, we were out visiting less-actives on the ward roster. We knocked on the door of the address for a Joseph Ivie. Instead, a different man answered and angrily told us to never come back. We still hadnt gotten the information if Joseph lived there or not but went on with our night laughing about the experience. Jump ahead to Saturday evening, we were out tracking a street that we had knocked on a few days earlier but decided to finish off the street with a few remaining houses we had yet to knock. One of the houses, a nice man opened up and started talking to us. He went on to say that he had went to our church as a kid and was actually baptized when he was younger. We asked him his name and he said Joseph Ivie! We talked with him for a while and told him about the experience with his previous address. (The man that cussed us out turned out to be his father in law) We invited him (Joseph) and his non-member wife and kids to church and they actually came! What a miracle! 

Anyways, back to Wednesday. We helped out at the Soup Kitchen in the morning and spent most of the day Weekly planning because we would be spending the next two days in Green bay. Our appointments canceled on Wednesday so that night after a member took us out to dinner, we packed up and drove down to Green Bay and stayed the night at the zone leaders place. 

Thursday we spent the day working with the Zone Leaders. I spent the day with Elder Bartholemew, we were able to teach and meet sooo many nice people in Green Bay. The Zone Leaders are actually spanish elders so we were able to get in with and teach a lot of hispanic families. For those lessons i just had to sit there and smile.. haha It was a great day though. 

Friday we had Zone Conference in Shawano. It was a really good meeting. President got into some deep doctrine about the plan of salvation and it was really enjoyable. We went out to dinner with the Marinette elders afterwards and then drove all the way back up to Escanaba, getting there at 10pm. The Zone Leaders stayed the night with us in Esky and in the morning they would drive a couple more hours north to do some work with another set of elders. 

Saturday we went and visited a Referral that a member gave us, with the member. They family they refferred to us is having a super hard time and so we mostly just went, dropped off some food and showed our love and support for them. We had a good lesson with Sherry later in the day. Really focusing on the importance of church. We stopped by the Gentz family to see if they were feeling any better. (They Werent) but they said we were still on for our appointment tonight.. We finished off the day with a really good lesson with Jeremy and Cindy. Weve been trying to get into their home for some time now, so it was great to finally sit down and share the restoration with them. They honestly seem like they could go somewhere! Were excited to start meeting with them regularly. 

Sunday we had Joseph and his wife unexpectedly show up to church! Which i mentioned earlier. After church we went around visited tons of people since we couldnt visited them throughout the time we were in Green bay. We finished off the day seeing Josh and giving him the sacrament. 

It was a really good week that just flew by! 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 14 Week 4

This week went super fast with Pday being on Tuesday.

Tuesday night we were able to see Thad and Stephanie Gentz (The family that we have on date for Nov 5th) We went over the restoration with them with Brother Berry. It was an amazing lesson. Brother Berry was perfect for them. Lots of there concerns already came out and we were able to talk to them about them. They are just truly seeking for truth and it'll be great working with them towards Nov 5th. 

Wednesday we helped out at the Soup Kitchen, cleaning all the dishes for 2 hours. That was fun. After that we had District Meeting and then went on Exchanges. I stayed in Escanaba with Elder Miservy. We were able to have an awesome lesson with this Less Active Part Member family named the Razmus's. We were able to set soft bap dates with their 3 kids. It went really good. We also were able to contact a referral to give her the bible and Book of Mormon. She really wants to come closer to Christ and were excited to start meeting with her. 

Thursday we were able to have a lesson with Sherry. Sherry knows that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true but she still feels like she needs to go to her church. We've been trying to stress the important of Priesthood and what the knowledge of knowing the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith was a prophet means.. Were getting there though. When we exchanged back we were able to have a good FHE with the Gould family and then have Dinner at the Cunninghams. Brother Cunningham is a recent convert of 3 years, hes the Captain of the State Patrol outpost in Gladstone Mi, he has a big ole farm that he showed us around and hes just a really solid guy. It was fun going there.

Friday we spent a lot of the day doing a very thorough weekly planning. The most effective missionary work gets done with great planning. So we really tried to implement that on Friday. We were able to try by a lot of people as well and try to set things up. 

On Saturday it was Pouring rain most of the day so our service project canceled in the morning and we found ourselves visiting people as much as we could, but eventually we just had to knock doors in the rain. It wasn't too bad, didn't get too wet, we were able to talk to a couple people and set up some appointments so it wasn't a failed day. 

Sunday we had President and Sister Williams come all the way up to Escanaba to speak to the branch about Missionary work. Their talks were super powerful and motivating. Later that day we had a couple of appointments fall through so we knocked doors and visited people. We finished off the day by taking the sacrament to Josh, a medically less active paraplegic guy. Josh is awesome. He has such a great spirit to him. 

Anyways, it was a really good week! Theres lots of work to be done here and were trying our best to get it done! Hope you all have a great week!

First Pic is a Picture I took with a little Disposable camera I've had for a few months and just finished off and had developed. Second is Brother Jacobson here in the Escanaba Branch. Hes sooo funny, with all of his stories. Elder Hill wanted a picture with him for his family so I thought I might as well also. 

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 14 Week 3

Soo, my first week up in the U.P der aye. (They don't really talk like that.. well at least most don't) This was a good week!! Classic first week in a new area. Getting to know people and what not.

On Monday we spent the second half of the day (after emails) driving around in Milwaukee traffic for 2 hours to get to ChikFilA, which from there we had to leave to take the trek up the Escanaba. So we spent the rest of the day driving the 5 and a half hours to our apartment. We arrived at 9:15, I spent some time unpacking and then hit the hay.

Tuesday morning we had District Meeting, which from there I went on an exchange with Elder Miller in Marinette WI. I love Elder Miller, he replaced me in Beaver Dam, and I've served a lot around him. So that was super fun, being able to see him and do some work in their area. We taught this less active lady with no front teeth, who thought Canada was in the US.. and I definitely knew from there on out that i was no longer in Milwaukee.. Its different country out here.. hahah

The Exchange went into Wednesday and then I finally got back to Escanaba Wednesday evening. We spent the rest of the day contacting and visiting people.

Thursday we had our correlation meeting with Brother Ollero, Weekly planned a bit, Set up for an unexpected funeral (someone in the branches brother died) and Tracted. A lot. We met some super nice people and got some return appointments so that's good! :)

Friday we did our monthly service at St Vincent De Paul's Thrift Store, had Lunch with an Elder Moffett that went home about a year ago, who was back visiting his mission with his parents, Went to the funeral to fellowship and support the member whose brother died. Then spent the rest of the day Contacting and Visiting people. While tracting we ran into this less active member from Alabama that just so happened to be in town for a few weeks. We were able to talk to him a lot about why he stopped going and he expressed feelings that he wanted to go back when he gets back to Alabama. Hopefully he does!

Saturday we had a wide open day so we spent the whole day visiting and contacting people. We were able to get into various peoples houses and set up some return appointments. People are super nice here in Escanaba. Its nothing like Milwaukee, but there's Pros and Cons..

Sunday we had Church, there's about 40 people that attended and so we all had to participate in one way or the other. I gave the opening prayer, We blessed the Sacrament and both bore our testimonies so that there wouldn't be silence the whole meeting. (It wasn't that bad, just back to the branch life I suppose)

We definitely aren't as busy here as we were in Milwaukee, I'm sure its due to the fact that there's nearly not as many people here, but I'm adjusting to being wide open again. While i was on Exchanges in Marinette, Elder Hill and the other Elder set baptismal dates with this family. Which is super awesome. So don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great things going on here, lots of potential for success. We just have to work for it! It ll be fun doing so.

Labor day we spent park contacting, getting yelled at by a Lutheran who told us we would both burn in hell, and driving an hour one way to go visit a referral! It was a fun day in all honesty. I like it here. :)

Pics are of some random abandoned building off the side of the road and some random ranch.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Stevens

Transfer 14 Week 2

This was yet another event filled week.

Monday was of course Pday, we did the usual, which consists of emailing, then going to play sports with the Zone at the church building. It was fun as always. That evening we were able to see an inactive member named Caleb. He works on his aunts farm and he came out and gave us a huge bag of corn and potatoes. Super nice of him. 

Tuesday morning we had a nice lesson with this lady named Jo. She requested a Bible, so we were able to deliver that to her and we also shared the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with her. It went really well. We then went to another lesson with this lady that also requested a bible. We did the same thing with her. However she lives out of our area so we had to hand her over to some other elders. We had a nice dinner with the Diefenbachs and then finished off the day seeing Janice williams with Brother Diefenbach. We talked about Family History and B. Diefenbach was perfect for that topic. He was able to talk and testify so strongly on the subject. So much that he actually talked for 45 minutes straight about it and practically stole the lesson from us.. Its okay though. Janice is solid and it was really good for her.. hah

Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with Brother and Sister Courson. Sister Courson has her appointment scheduled to get a Patriarchal blessing and is on her way to get her endowments. Were super happy to be helping her do this. We also had a really good lesson with Nikia and Nikel with Brother Young. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and were able to testify super strong to her about the importance of Priesthood Power. It went well. We finished off the day with a super good dinner with the Mackay family. They're awesome. 

On Thursday we had a Mission tour with Elder Ringwood and Elder Courdon of the 70. They spoke to us for most of the day. It was a super good meeting. We talked a lot about Faith and looking at people and investigators at who they could become, rather than where they are now. We also had a Q&A with them and discussed Moroni 7 for a while. It was awesome. Later that day we saw Mark and read the Book of Mormon with him. Then finished off the day with a nice dinner with Bishop Chaplin and his family.

Friday we met with Chivarlo for the second time. We watched the Restoration video with her, however she didn't have a DVD player, so we had to stream the video from her phone and watch it there. However her connection wasn't very good so the video had to keep buffering and right as Joseph was walking into the forest to pray (the best part) it cut off and we weren't able to finish the video.... So we just spoiled the ending for her and shared the first vision again. But it was all good though. The spirit was still there and we were able to set a date for her to be baptized on the 8th of October! Were excited for her. Later, we helped out at the Widmans like normal and then saw Janice again and read the Doctrine and Covenants with her. We had lots of good discussion and it went great. 

So on Saturday we got an unexpected call from the Assistants, they said that the had some bad news for us and to put the phone on speaker. They said that there was an Elder up in Escanaba Michigan that was going home early and that I would have to have my bags packed by Sunday night to go replace him. Sooo, I'm being ETed to Escanaba.. We went throughout the rest of our day as planned but i had to start packing that night. 

Sunday, we went to church as normal, saw the Tracers and then had to be at the mission home at 5 to pick up Elder Hill (my new companion) who had just driven down from Escanaba to drop off his companion who was going home early. We then picked up Elder Smith (who will be replacing me here in Milwaukee) and then went through with the rest of our day. However for the Dinner appointment and the lesson we had after dinner, Elder Smith went to, since we couldn't have 4 missionaries at those events and he was replacing me anyways. So last night I had to finish up packing while the 4 of us stayed at our apartment.

So today, Monday, were emailing in Milwaukee and then after we email, Elder Hill and I have a 4 and a half hour drive up to Escanaba Michigan. This will be the most North I've been on my mission, ill also be in another time zone than the whole rest of the mission. Ill be back to Eastern standard time, and my new address is: 806 S 16th St #1 Escanaba Michigan 49829. So yea! I'm pretty excited, even though I'm getting cut super short in Milwaukee.. These things happen though. It'll be great.

So yea, Hope you all had and have a good week! 

Elder Stevens

Transfer 14 Week 1

This week was really good. We were able to teach a ton of people and really get the work going in the Milwaukee 1st ward. There's soo much potential and tons of people could be baptized here, we just need to harvest all of these people. Bishop Chaplin was able to make it into Janice Williams home and talk to her and her boyfriend. The intent of this meeting was to bring up marriage and how he could marry them however Bishop used this meeting as a get to know you, not wanting to be too pushy. Were really focusing on Janice and Ronnie, as Janice would be baptized this Saturday if they were married.

We were able to dedicate this recent converts apartment, as there has been quite a scare there since the riots occurred only 1.5 miles from there. There has been a number of break ins and sketchy stuff happening. We were glad to be able to help out there. All in All it was a really good week. We saw and taught a lot of people. 

Sorry for the shorter letter.

Hope everything is going good with you all! 

Elder Stevens