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.