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!

Transfer 10 Week 3

Pretty good week, we started it off by having an appointment on Monday with a kid named Austin. I say kid but he's actually our age.. 19. So yea.. a kid. But we were assigned as his home teachers because the branch felt like the missionaries could fellowship him the best to get him to come to church. That appointment went really well. 

Tuesday we went to Manitowoc for District meeting. After DTM E. Amann and I did work in Two Rivers and we were able to talk to a lot of really nice people. The weather was so nice that we were able to just contact people on the street all day instead of knocking doors. 

Wednesday we had a full day planned with lots of appointments. We had a wonderful breakfast in the morning with the Abendroths, we came back to the apartment and studied and we basically had every appointment fall through... we had a great dinner with the Darnells, I think I'm really going to come to enjoy that family. So it was a great day but it kinda stunk because all of our plans dropped.

Thursday we helped out with "Granny" again. We shoveled and cleaned horse stalls for her which made our hands smell like horse urine for what seemed like days.. but that was fun and we were able to have a really good lesson with her about daily scripture study. She said she knows that everything/anything we say comes from God. So hopefully we'll see some good progress with her!

We had our appointment with Katelyn drop later that day but we were able to see Vince and have a good discussion with him. He's gone from smoking every 4 hours to every 12 hours now so that's great!

Friday we were able to stop in and see Brad before we helped out at the care center. We explained why the Book of Mormon and Restoration is important and he promised to read and pray about its truthfulness.

Saturday we had correlation with Brother Jensen and he took us out to lunch afterwards. We were able to contact a really awesome former investigator named Deb that was super excited to see us and start meeting with us again. In the evening we had a lesson with John. We read more out of the Book of Mormon with him and shared Spiritual CPR with him. If you do CPR (Church, Pray, Read) It'll keep you spiritually alive. We had to drop his baptismal date of the 26th because he wouldn't be able to make it in time but were still shooting for baptism with him.. of course haha

Sunday we had 2/2 of our appointments fall through.. but we were able to go home teaching with the Elders Quorum President which was awesome. We stopped by a Potential investigator named Morris that we were able to sit down with and teach him the restoration. He's an older guy that is truly trying to find happiness and peace in his life and he believes that our message and Christ can help him find happiness so it was great. He was asking a lot of questions and could honestly use the gospel in his life. We're excited to work with him in the future. 

So yea, it was a good week. We had lots of appointments drop but we were still able to get a lot of good work done. Anyways hope you all have a good one!

Elder Stevens.

Transfer 10 Week 2

This week was really good!

 

On Monday, we did our normal Pday stuff, which isn't much.. We have a walmart.. and that's about it. But we were able to see an investigator named Byron. He's an older gentlemen and as soon as I walked in and said hello he was like WOOAHHH where's that accent from!? (while he is clearly the one with the strong Wisconsin accent....) But yea, he's a super super nice guy, missionaries have been meeting with him for a while so we talked a lot about other missionaries and what not. We also had a Family Home Evening with the Roeders, the members that live next door. That went really well. The Roeders and awesome. Brother Roeder has some wild stories..

 

Tuesday we went over to Manitowoc to have District Meeting. President Cutler told Elder Amann and I that he wanted us to do work in Manitowoc/2 Rivers while we are there for District meeting. There are Hmong missionaries covering that area now. So he wants us to do English work there once a week. We were able to talk with a lot of super nice people there. Tuesday night we have a weekly Bible Study that we put on at the church building. They normally get a decent turn out but no body showed up this week due to so many people being out of town. 

 

Wednesday, it snowed over night so we spent the morning shoveling ours and some neighbor's driveways. We were able to have an awesome lesson with this guy named Brad. We helped out at the Care Center, then in the evening we had a lesson with Vince. The lesson went very well, we were able to resolve a Lot of concerns and misconceptions he had found on the church. He was really understanding on things. He needed to start reading the Book of Mormon more so every night since then we will call him up and take turns reading a chapter over the phone. We've really seen a difference since we've been reading with him every night. He's still working on quitting smoking but as soon as he does he'll be baptized 2 weeks later. 

 

Thursday we started off the morning by having a lesson with and doing service for a former investigator that were going to start working with named "Granny" Sharron. She lives out in the sticks and is your classic Farm Grandma. She runs a horse rescue farm. Missionaries have met with her and helped her out in the past but they stopped meeting with her because they said she works us too hard.. She fed us lunch then we went out and stacked hay for her in her barn and talked about Jesus with her and then when we finished we went back inside and had a sit down lesson with her. She's Very opinionated but super nice and fun. We're going to start helping and meeting with her weekly now. We also met this super nice guy named Jay whose wife happened to be a less active member.. he agreed to let us come back and teach them. We're seeing them today at 2.

 

Friday we helped out at the care center again and had a lesson with John with President Enszer there. That went pretty well. 

 

Saturday we spent the morning shoveling again because it snowed, we had a correlation meeting with Brother Jensen who took us out to lunch after. We spent most of the day tracting. Not much success but we met some good people. 

 

Sunday we had church in the morning. It was a pretty nice testimony meeting. Lots of awkward long silences just because there wasnt enough people to fill the whole hour but it was good. We had a couple good stop by lessons with people and talked to a lot of nice people tracting in the evening. But yea. Lots of good stuff going on at the moment!

 

Hope you all have a good week! I love and miss you all!

 

Elder Stevens.

 

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.