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!