July 26th 2011, E-mail

Thank you so much for your email! :) I LOVE hearing from the family! :) It adds such a booster to my week hearing from you all and knowing i'm still part of the family ;) haha Ok i dont feel that left out when you forget to write, but it really is good to hear from you all and the experiences you've been having at home :) I'd love for you to send all those picts! I cant get enough pictures :) They dont make me homesick at all! I was just thinking that the other night too, i was looking through the little album that mom sent me of the family and thinking I needed some more. Its fun to see the kids growing so dramatically, and all the fun that you are having together :) So pictures are always a good thing :) They dont make me think about missing out on anything or wanting to be home so dont even worry about that :) It just makes me feel bad for you all that you cant be here on my mission experiencing what I'M going through! ;) hahaha Cause lemme tell you, mission life is rockin my socks off! Definitely no other place i'd rather be right now :)

 

It sounds like the kids are loving summer and thats exactly how it should be :) Being a kid and just playing everysingle day was a BLAST! Dont you wish that we could do that again? Not worry about work or cleaning the house or running errands or anything? We just get to play outside in the sun all day long, without a care in the world :) haha being a kid was the best! But being an Adult has its adventures as well so i'm grateful for those too :)

 

 I'm learning a lot about what i want to be like when i get home, and the missionary work that i can still do as a "ward Missionary". My eyes have really been opened to the opportunities that you can share with those around you, even if they are members of the Church already. Our goal as missionaries and even as members is to "invite others to come unto Christ".  OTHERS means EVERYONE! :D So we should be looking for misisonary experiences ALL the time! :) Thats something that never occured to me till I got here, and its a goal I now have to get that drilled in my head and never forget.  Its something that I encourage all of you to do as well :) keep looking for ways to serve those around you and help bring them closer to Christ. It brings some pretty SWEET blessings :)

 

Mk so lemme tell you a little bit about the miracles that happend this week :)  On to more important things. Last week was a really good week! I'm still loving my Book of Mormon reading! I just Finished ALMA today!! :D Captain Moroni is soooo LEGIT!! Man i never realized how powerful some of his Letters are to the leaders around him! SO BOLD!! And you see so many of the blessings from those who are faithful! The 2000 Stripling warriors are super awesome too!! Facing many battles and none of them are killed because of their faithfulness?? So COOL!! BAH i just LOVE the book of mormon!!! its soooo powerful! and there are SO MANY lessons to be learned from it! :D Its just the bomb :) My goal is to finish reading it in two weeks!! I've been crusin through it so far and thats my plan until i'm done :) And then i'm gonna start it all over again :) Cant wait! haha and i'll prob rave about it over and over again so you better get used to this ;) If you wanna see what i'm talkin about then ya'll better read it! You'll know exactly what i mean! :D

 

The work in my area is going SO WELL!! we had an excellent week teaching people and this week will be even better!! My comp and I and rockin it and learning better ways to teach together :) She is awesome and i love it when we get along and really work together and teach with the spirit :) I've been given the great privilige to drive the car, so i'm just LOVIn that! :) Things are just going so great!! I wish that i had time to write more and more details, but my time is short and my Prep day just keep gettin shorter :-/

 

All in all i Just love everyone of you!! :D:D i have the best family ever and think the WORLD of you!!! EACH ONE OF YOU TOO!!! thanks for all you do for me and the examples you are!!! you make my life happy! :) I hope you have a great week and can feel my love BURSTING through this email!! :D Hugs and love comin your way!!! :D

 

xoxoxo Hma Stevens :)

Wow! I was way behind! Sorry!

Sorry folks I didn't realize how behind I was with posting the e-mails. I posted 7 e-mails today dating from June 7th!  So there ya go. Hope you all have a great day!

July 19, 2011 E-mail

Well hello family and friends! We are on to week three of my second transfer! :) Nothin changed for me during transfers cause I am still in the Pilot training program. But things are going really well so i'm glad that i'm staying in Barrio :) Sister L and I are really starting to get along super well now, so the working isn't so stressful, we have had some good times and some good laughs :) This transfer is only 5 weeks though, so its gonna go by so quick!

 

I dont really have any exciting news about my investigators this week.. This week we also had our first interviews with President Clayton :) That was pretty fun to have a one on one talk with him, tell him how the mission is going. Him and Sis Clayton are both so nice! Sis Clayton is so sweet. haha during interviews she found out about Sis. L's infected toe, so she took a pict of it and sent it to her son who's a pediatrist :P She ended up calling him and Sis. L talked to him about what to do to get it better. After everyone there got a chance to see it, she gave us permission to go buy some medicine and epsome salt so she could start soaking it. Later that day, after one of our appts, we found out she called the mission Doc and had him go to the MoBAt so he could look at it! But she never told us that!  :P She tried calling us and leaving a msg, but we were scheduled to be in our area that day. Luckily we didnt have any appts so we ran back home to have it looked at. hahaha that was a pretty funny " appointment" I'm so glad Sis L knows about Brian Regan! :) hahaha we kinda felt like her appt went like that :P "Oooo and that moles lookin a little weird..."   "well thank you... " haha so funny. Well after that fun appt, we had to make ANOTHER trip to Target to get her a perscription for her toe. What an adventerous day that was!

 

BUT THEN she got sick yesterday cause her dosage was too high!! :-/ so Poor sister L has been sick throwing up TWICE since we have been comps! :( i feel so bad for her.... She is a pretty good sport though when it comes to not feeling well... all i know is I'd be stayin in bed all day if i was her. She took a few naps here and there and just stayed close to the bathroom :-/ So i got a lot of study time in yesterday which was kinda nice :)

 

I'm half way through Alma in the Book of Mormon!! :D i LOOOOOVE READING!! The missionary chapters are sooooo awesome!! They just blow my mind!! :):) The sons of Mosiah and Alma are just SOLID missionaries!! And everything they teach is exactly what we are to teach from Preach my Gospel :) They just knew what they were doing and did it so well! I'm striving everyday to be like them! :D I'm trying to finish the BOM this transfer so that I can start reading it in Spanish :) So only three weeks left to do it! :) Gotta keep reading! :)

 

Speaking of Spanish i'm sure you're all wondering how its coming :) hahaha well.... its coming :D I still have SO much to learn, but I'm doing what I can and trying to be diligent at it. I'm trying to get my tours down in spanish so that i can start taking more of them :) Oh and speakin of tours, I took my 100th english tour on sunday!! :D So that was pretty exciting!! I'm keeping track of how many i give on my mission so i can keep that in my Journal :)

 

Thats all for this week! i hope all is going well at home! the picts are great i love to see them! I was lookin at the lil album i have of the family and just remembering how great you all are :) I'm so blessed to have such an AWESOME family!! :) I look up to you all so much and think about you often :) Thanks for all your love, encouragement and support :):):)  Have a wonderful week!! Hugs and Love comin your way!!

 

xoxox Hma. Stevens :):)

July 12, 2011 E-mail

So its transfer week!! I can harldy believe we are in the second week of July!! We find out who is getting transfered tomorrow, I'm guessing I wont be getting transfered because I'm still in the pilot training program, and I'm pretty happy about that cause i really LOVE the area and ward that I'm in! Plus after weekly planning and getting our goals all set, i feel like this week is going to be a really good week :)

 

So I guess i didnt realize that I never told you about meeting President Clayton?? I could've sworn i did... but i prob forgot cause i was so excited to tell you about the 4th of July last week ;) Ma bad... So we met President Clayton last week with his wife, and two of his daughters came to help them move in. So they are here for the summer :) It was really fun to meet them! He's different compared to President Donaldson, but that was expected :P  He is going to bring a lot of good to this mission i can tell :) He's super smart! He graduated from COLLEGE when he was 18! He works as a Anesthesiologist and his wife is a RN. Oh and speaking of his wife, dont even worry... she is just the Daughter of Elder Ballard!!! WHAT?!?! :D SO COOL HUH!? hahah after i found that out you can see that they are related. Talk about a sweet family though, we got to see a slide show of all his kids, grandkids and parents. Then his daughters gave us a musical number, their whole family is musically talented which is great cause i LOVE music! :) We got to hear a little bit about Him and his family, then we were open to ask questions. I'm excited to have him as my mission president and know that he was Called of God to be here in San Diego :)

 

Sunday was QUITE the eventful day! We FINALLY had some investigators come to church!! We hadnt had ANYONE come the whole transfer! Then everyone decided that they all wanted to come on the same Sunday...What an event. Saturday we had one of our investigators, that we "dropped" or just didnt see as often, cause he was making NO progress, he called us and told us that he was coming to church and he needed the address to the building. That was a surprise, but we were happy to help him and find out he was coming. This was the first time that i would be meeting him since i got here. :P Then we invited another Lady Amelia to bring her two sons to church so they could start learning. She was someone that told us to never invite her to Church cause she had a bad experience once at a church. So we thought we'd just get her two kids to come then. Well turns out when she got there, we asked if she wanted to stay and she did! :) She stayed for Sacrament Mtg. and even the Gospel Principles class :) So that was WAY cool!  She seemed like she really enjoyed it too, she was participating in class and everything.

 

And lastly, we had ANOTHER investigator that showed up after Sacrament Mtg. with her FOUR kids!! haha and her kids have a LOOOOTTTT of energy!!! The most energetic kids i've EVER been around :P So that was an EVENT in itself to get all those kids to class and to sit still for the two blocks. BUT we did it, i dunno how but we did it :P We did have to make some adjustments and have one of her little boys come to class with us, but the miracle was he actually sat still and colored with me for the WHOLE hr! :) So that was perfect cause his mom was able to participate in class and pay attention. haha Good thing I've had all that bbsittin experience so i know how to handle kids ;)

 

The weather sure is warming up here in San Diego! It got sooo HOT over the weekend! Its one thing to enjoy hot when you are on vacation and going swimming or wearing shorts... but its a whole other HOT when you are on a mission knockin doors and wearin mission clothes. :P I'm SO GRATEFUL that we have a car and it has air conditioning!! I definitely dont have it as rough as walking missionaries, plus 1/2 of my day is at the Battalion, and its air conditioned there... haha so i really have NO room to complain. But all i'm sayin is that its Hot here :P Our apartment especially will be no fun in the summer, no A/c and just some fans blowin around hot air and we are on the 2nd floor so as you walk up the stairs you can feel the temp getting hotter :P haha THATs fun to sleep in at night lemme tell ya :P i'm glad i had the blanket sent to me so i can be nice and toasty at night ;) hahaha Na i'll use it in the winter, but as of now its just sheets for me! At least im not in the Hottest part of California though, or in other states. People come to the Battalion from AZ and its like 120 there!! I dunno HOW people do it there, Amazing....

 

The work is going good here, I'm learning so much everyday and just try to do my best to be the missionary i'm supposed to be. I'm learning a lot about trying to work with a companionship and become unified. Its a different experience being the newbee. I just remeber my whole life trying to be the leader and to be independent, but now its a new expereience starting at the bottom and workin your way up. :P I guess thats life right?? gotta start somewhere :) haha So i've been learning a lot my first transfer and am sure that i'll be learning a whole lot more as this 2nd one comes and goes :)

 

I dunno if i told that i'm trying to read the Book of Mormon through in two transfers? :) haha all done in 12 weeks, think i can do it? I'm in Alma right now, so hopefully i can keep the good reading habits up and will be able to finish this transfer. My goal after that is to then read it all over again, but in Spanish.Boo Ya... I'm stoaked :) I LOVE the Book of Mormon. I've never had it come so ALIVE as I read it!! :D I hope all of you at home, and anyone reading this realizes how GREAT this book is! And if you arent in the habit of reading something in it EVERYDAY, DO IT!! First of all you have NOTHING to lose by putting some effort forth, and second of all this is the BOOK OF MORMON we are talking about! This is the KEYSTONE of our religion here!! Its sooooooo incredible!! :) ah i just really want all of you to grasp how important it is to read every day. I remeber Russell telling me that when he was on his mission and i never did cause i was just plain lazy. Now i look back and realize how much more AHEAD i could've been right now if i chose to read my scriptures every day. Reading is such a good way to bring the spirit into our lives and help us be more open to revelation. READ IT!!!! :) hahaha ok ok i'm off my soap box, but i really hope you all start some good study habits TODAY so the Lord can strengthen you and bless your lives :)

 

I'm so glad i'm a missionary :) I love reading and learning about the Gospel, its changing my life for the better, and i'm sooo happy about it :D I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! The Church is True so what else matters? :) Hugs and Loves comin your way!! :)

 

xoxox Hma Stevens :)

July 5, 2011 E-mail

So remember how the 4th of July is the best Holiday ever?! :) Well the mission just made it even better! :) I thought it would be hard to be away from home and thinking about all the fun traditions you'd be participating in at home...BUT Holidays on the mission are legit, especially at the Mormon Battalion :) Just wait till you hear about my day :P

 

So the day starts off beautifully with a nice breakfast at the Battalion. :D One of the wards in the mission was having a breakfast and so all the MoBat sisters were invited. So OF COURSE I was going  :) if there's food i'm there ;) haha and it was a fantastic breakfast! Eggs, Hashbrowns, Sausauge, Pancakes, the works! Nothing like an American breakfast on the 4th. The morning started off perfectly, and after we ate we were able to get a good study in due to our satisfied stomachs :)

 

We had our full day yesterday so that meant we would be in our area all day. We were told to be in by six though so that meant we really were in our area for about 6 hrs. Our first stop for the day was Lunch with a member. Getting fed twice in one day can you belive it? ;) She wasnt able to have us sit and eat though cause she got off work late, so instead she just bought us a hamburger from Jack in the Box and then gave a whole bunch of other snacks to go with it!  haha WAY more food than we needed, but we graciously accepted and were able to keep the extras for another day :) So a wonderful American meal for breakfast and then we are treated with a Hamburger for Lunch! "Could life get better?? I submit that it could not." hahaha OH but it did!! :D So lunch was bomb. My comp and i actually talked about having a Burger for dinner cause it needed to happen on the 4th.. but the Lord knows us well and just thought he'd check that off the list early! ;)

 

So Lunch was taken care of and it was great that we could eat quickly in the car then conitune on with the day. So we went to visit a less active Linda, who was working on moving into a new appartment. We were able to share a message with them about the importance of coming to church, while they took a break from packing. Then tried to help them find a truck to use to move their bed to the new place. Pretty good visit with them, i just wish they were a little more receptive to the invitation to come back to church... But but the husband isn't that interested. :/ so we'll keep workin on them.

 

We made three more stops to some investigators and one of them we were able to come in a share a lesson :) This lady that we taught is SO CLOSE to being baptized, but she just wont make the commitment. She's does everything that she's supposed to be doing, but she just wont be baptized into the LDS church. :-/ Its so frustrating at times and during lessons too, cause you try so hard to listen to the spirit to find out what is holding her back, but you dont really get anywhere. :( But we still keep her in our prayers and keep teaching her and trying to help her progress. I know that she'll get baptized though, i just wanna make sure it happens while i'm here. Cause she will benifit SO MUCH from the church and living it fully.

 

haha the last stop that we made was prob the highlight of the day :P We stopped at another investigator house just to see if we could talk to her for a bit, and maybe teach her. Well turns out she's having a party outside her appt! haha music is going and they are just cookin up some food havin a good time! When we get there she invites us in to have some food that they just made :) (Third meal of the day my friends!)  So we accept, thinking that she'll come inside and talk to us while we eat and then we could share a short message with her. hahaha well not quite the case. We sit on her couch and she brings us food then continues with her party with her friends outside! hahaha the only time that she came in was when a good song of hers was on and they wanted to dance inside! hahaha oooohhh my goodness FUNNIEST thing ever!! We are just sitting on their couch while they dance to mexican music in front of us! hahahaha we didnt know what to do! Here are all these grown adults dancing like they are teens again :P  It wasnt bad dancing or anything, just stepping side to side and moving your hands like youre doing the tango or something :P haha it was SUPER FUNNY! but it was just awkward cause it was the last thing we were expecting :P haha i couldn't look at her or i would just bust up laughing! So we ate as quickly as we could and then headed off :) But Three good things came of all that excitement. :) One: we got fed! and it was mexican food so of course it was good :P  Two: we got a potential from one of the people there, so we are gonna visit them this week and invite them to church! and Three: We found out where Linda lives on the way to the car! :) haha her new appt is right by this Lady's place :) so now we can continue to visit them without having to hunt them down :) So who knew!?

 

So the rule was to be in by Six that night, so we headed home and decided to work on organizing our area book :) Very smart thing to do and even though i wasnt a ton of help it was still useful to get it in better shape.  And after that we went to the Battalion to have a 4th of July PARTY!! :D

 

I hate to say it family, but i think this is one of my top favorite 4th of July's I've had :) cause it was sooo cool!! :) we all gathered there and at 9:00 we went to the tower of the MoBat and watched the fireworks!! :):) WOO HOO!! :D and wanna know what was so cool about that?! there were about SIX shows going on that we could see from the tower! :) So from my corner of the tower i was able to watch two shows going off at the same time! :) SO COOL!! I got some good picts that i'll get printed :D It was awesome! We sang the star spangled banner as we watched and i just soaked it all up! :)

 

After fireworks, we went back in the Battalion and grabbed some DELICIOUS s'mores that Sis. E made for us and then went into the campfire room of the MoBat :) How cute huh?!  :):) most of you wont get how cute it is cause you haven't seen the campfire room, but just trust me.. it was cute :) So we had these BOMB s'mores that were made of gram crackes, marshmallows, and BROWNIE in the middle! mmm! and in the campfire room we sang some more patriotic songs and talked about how BLESSED we are to live in SUCH a WONDERFUL Country  it was soo good :)

 

Then we went into the theater rooms and they had some treats prepared for us and we were able to mingle and take pictures until it was time to go in for bed :):) ahh SUCH a great day!!!! it was so eventful and satisfying!! and i wont lie, i'm pretty glad i get to spend one more 4th here! :) I mean i'll definitely love the year i'll spend it with the family again, but this was definitely a 4th of July to remember :):)

 

I absolutely love the 4th of July. I love being a proud American, and taking time to really realize HOW blessed we are! Working at the Mormon Battalion too has opened my eyes even more, to the blessing of this wonderful Country. This place allowed us to worship freely and now we are blessed to freely share the Gospel with SO many people! :) I'm so grateful for all the freedoms that we have here, and the chance I have to share my testimony with people all around the world! This work is great and the Lord knows how to keep it moving! :D I hope you all took some time to count the many blessings that we recieve, and thank our Heavenly Father for giving us so much. I love you all and hope you enjoyed your 4th as much as I did! God Bless America!

 

Hugs and Kisses comin your way! :)

xoxox Hma Stevens :)

June 28, 2011 E-mail

Well another exciting week in the misison field! :D To start things off i just wanted to update you on my last prep day. I got to go to the Temple! :):) oooooohhhh MAN alive!! SO AWESOME!! How INCREDIBLE are the temples?! :):) It was a pretty awesome experience, i'm learing SO MUCH about the Temples, sometimes i dont feel like my mind can take it all in!  haha and i've learned more in one month than i thought i'd learn my whole mission! :D the Temple is incredible! no wonder the Prophet encourages us to go as much as we can! its so important!! :D It was so awesome to go do a session and then be able to talk in the Celestial room with the other sisters. :) They had been around Pres. Donaldson longer, so i was able to ask them a lot of questions and hear some of the things they've learned :) ah, the Temple is so cool.... I encourage eveyone to go as often as they can. MAKE time for it, and if you dont understand why its so important, Figure it out! :D Cause it is, and you will be so blessed for serving there  I cant wait till i get to go again, haha only 12 weeks to wait! :D

 

Well the next exciting news i thought i'd mention, is we have a baptism coming up on Sunday! :D Her name is N, and she is a sweet lady. She is quite the woman, and if you met her children you'd think so too! They are WILD children!! Like... W-I-L-D. 8-l  haha the lesson that we invited her to be baptized, i took the role to "bbsit" aka tame her kids while Hma L tried to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Surprisingly it went pretty well, i got the kids to play with domino's on the table with me and actually play quietly! Guess i got those bbsittin skills from home! ;) I cant say i got them to play quietly the whole lesson... Isa spilled juice all over the table and then G wanted ice cream and threw a REALLY big fit when he didnt get it....So we had a few interruptions...   haha but over all the lesson went really well according to Hma L and she accepted the invitation to be baptized :) We are really praying that all goes through this week with teaching her. She wasnt able to come to church last week due to her husband, so hopefully this week everything goes the way its supposed to :)

 

Yesterday I was able to go on exchages for the first time!! :):) I was really scared to have them, i wont lie.... Oh wait lemme quickly explain exchanges: We go on exchages like once a month i believe, and we switch companionships for a day. So you either have a new comp. in your area, or youre going to someone else's area. In my case yesterday i went to a new area. I was pretty nervous cause i was going to be with sister M, who is a native speaker... and i just had lots of doubts and nerves going through my mind. BUT the Lord is amazing and knows what i need and how to help me be a better missionary, and going on splits did just that! :D oooohhh man. it was the best day ever!! :) Hma. M is a SOLID missionary, she knows what she is here to do and she gets right to work, there is no messing around :) We taught two lessons, and BOTH of them i was able to teach with her! :D in SPANISH! haha she was so easy to work with, and really great at following off of what i'd said, so i was appart of the lesson. She was so sweet and complimented my efforts after the lesson she is SO loving to everyone! I'm pretty sure she has All of the Christlike attributes  I would love to be companions with her someday... I def. Love sister L, but Sis. M really brings out the best in everyone, she has so much faith and is not afraid to follow the spirit. Our last 1/2 hr of the night we were able to say a prayer and ask for some inspiration on where to go and who to teach. After we prayed, she made a decision and we drove to the area, once we got there she didnt feel right about it so we drove up the street after we said another prayer we got out of the car and walking across the street we met a lady. We were able to contact her, tell her about what we believe and give us her number. At first she was really closed and not wanting to give any of her information, but by the end of hma M sharing her testimony and her sincire love for her, she actually gave us her number and where she lived! :) It was SO COOL!! This sister just knows how to be bold and do it in a Christlike loving way.  i'm determined to be the kind of missionary she is :) Ah it was the best exchages i could've asked for!! :) I learned so much from her :) That would be so awesome if we could serve together someday, but all in the Lords timing :)

 

This week is also a week of change! President Clayton will be coming in tomorrow! and we will have the opportunity to meet him on Thursday :) I'm really excited to see all the great things he has to bring to the mission :) I was talking to Sis. Livingston about it, and she is really excited to meet him as well and see what blessings he brings to the mission. I'm so grateful that Sis. L. is willing to adjust to this change. i was kinda nervous that she wouldnt be super open to it, and kinda sckeptical of Him. But she had a lot of good things to say about the idea of him coming and taking over, and knows that its all in the Lords plan. :) She is really open to learning new things from him, so that was really great to talk about that together and dicuss our excitement together :) Its gonna be an exciting week!

 

I cant believe that we are in the Last week of June!! BAH! i looked at the calendar yesterday and couldn't believe that the month is over!! Time is so crazy! It feels like my last prep day was  AGES ago, yet the 2nd of June was just yesterday :P haha so weird!! The 4th of July is just around the corner too! i'm pretty excited about that! i hear is a pretty exciting day and super busy at the Mobat! So i'm ready for that to come up! Plus i think there is fireworks that we get to watch?? i'm not positive, but i'll be finding out :) If we dont go anywhere, i can always just watch them out the front of the Battalion. You can see the fireworks at Sea World form there :P So lots of fun exciting things to come in the next couple weeks!  Then before i know it i'll be in my second transfer!! :-O Crazy..

 

But i love the mission and am enjoying every single day here!! there so many blessings from serving, i get to see them everyday! There is no other place that i would rather be, than here in San Diego serving the Lord. :) I'm having the time of my life and am so grateful for this decision i've made. Thank you to all who read this, for your love and support :) The Church is true so what else matters?? I know that our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ LIVES. He payed the ulimate sacrifice so we would can get through anything in our lives. He has an infinite love for us and wants us to be happy! :) and i know that the way to have that happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His church is on the earth today! :) We are striving to live it!  and WHAT A BLESSING! :):) I love this work, and the opportunity to wear this tag everyday to bring people salvation <3 Hope you all have a wonderful week and take the time to realize how blessed we are :) Love you all! Hugs and Kisses comin your way!!! :)

 

xoxox, Hma. Stevens :)

 

P.S. District 35B :) I love the fwds i get from you! keep sending me your addresses if you haven't already. I will get a letter written soon and send it off to you!! have a great week!! keep workin towards those PUEBLOS!! :) Te AMo!!

June 21, 2011 E-mail

I loved hearing all about Ragnar!! :) I thought about you all this morning when i was running :) I'm sorry to hear about all of the injuries though!! SHEESH! How much training did you all get in before the race?? I hope for the Vegas run you dont have as many problems. :-/ But that's so awesome to hear you got the free pass! :) Way to go Adam for being so awesome!  :) What an example to everyone there, the Stevens family is going to make history in Ragnar! :) I'm so excited for the day I'll get to run with all of you again!! :) you better believe this is a new family tradition, so keep signing up!! :D I'll have plenty of money saved and time to train when I get home, so i Dibs a spot when i get home! :)

 

So I finally got some sun this week!! haha Yes this is the first thing I want to mention about the week :P I served at the Temple on Saturday and it was during the day so i finally got a little bit of color! Well... red is a color right? ;) hahaha ya i got a little burnt, but its faded pretty nicely into a good tan. I'll be sure to wear sunscreen next time, but i was just so anxious to not look like a Ghost that i refused to wear any. haha So just thought i'd share the good news with everyone :) I dont look pasty anymore! :)

 

Second thing, i hope Dad had a wonderful Fathers Day! If he didnt get my card yet, its on the way. I'm not sure how long mail takes to get there?? So sorry if it came late, but i hope you had a wonderful day and know that i was thinking about you! :) Oh thank you for the Package too!! :D i LOVE getting mail or pkgs! <3 All of the memorial day weekend picts were FANTASTIC! eveyone looks so good! Its so weird that everyone is growing up too! haha i saw LilyMae and kinda freaked out cause she looks so BIG! I just keep thinking that everyone is staying the same while i'm serving and time has just stopped at home ;) hahaha obviously that isn't the case... But eveyone looks so good and it was awesome to see all the picts :) well done mom <3

 

This week was a good week in the mission :) We had an investigator with a date! haha we dunno exactly how serious he is about getting baptised, but he is willing to prepare and so prepare him we will! :) His lessons are always very interesting... but the last one was good cause i actually said something :P I got to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and how I found out for myself that it was True :) haha the spanish was very broken, but i got the point across and thats what matters :) Sister L was so sweet too, she gave me some sweet compliments about it that night too :) Us two are really getting along more and more each week and i'm so grateful for that :) Not that we have ever not got along, but i just feel we are growing closer as a companionship and thats what i've been working towards. She starting to have a lot more of her happy funny side come out and i love it! :) She has a great sense of humor, and that keeps the work happy and cheerful :) So we are headed in a good direction!

 

On Friday we had a ward activity for Fathers Day :) So awesome and so funny!! :) the theme was Hawaiian, so we had people dressed up and took picts behind some cute Hawaiian patterns. We had dinner together then for the entertainment we had dancing! The primary Children all dressed up and danced and it was so adorable!! :) They all did some numbers that were Hawaiian music then some mexican music :) The mexican music was sooo cute! hahaha all of them with there sombreros and mustaches drawn on their faces ;) I'm excited to send some picts! I wish i would've brought my camera cord so i could send some now, but i forgot it... So in my letter or next week i'll send em.

The best part of the night i'd say though were the missionaries and the relief Society :) We had a good group of Elders that learned the Haucka... (have no idea how to spell that) but that was way sweet! i have a little video of that i'll try and send too :D All of the ward LOVED that! in fact, they made them do it again later in the program :)

But for me i think the absolute best part was when the women did the Hula!! :D haha not just your slow motion relaxed hula.. i'm talking about hip shakin hula! hahaha with the hippy skirts and everything!! hahaha it was so funny!!! and some of them were actallly pretty decent at it too :) There was a really sweet old grandma that was dancing too and that was just adorable :) I love that all Hispanics just love to dance and arent afraid to show ya their moves! ;) haha What a ward party, DEFINITELY nothing like our ward parties back home! ;)

 

The Battalion is going really well. I'm learning new things there everyday, and see miracles all the time :D I love giving tours with Kids! <3 It makes me think of all my nieces and nephews and how much they would love this place! :) All the kids are so interactive and just love the tour! :) I highly recommend planning a vacation here someday and taking the kids to see this, cause they will love it :) This week I took a tour with about 8-10 kids, and i asked if anyone wanted to dress up like a soldier or laundress, and i had three raise their hands, so they came up and the next thing i know.. all their siblings came up too! haha so i dressed like four laundresses and three soldiers! :) it was so cute! the little girls were my favorite cause they were SO excited to dress up :) bah kids are just so fun! The MoBat is a wonderful place to serve <3

 

Last bit of exciting news before I have to go.... I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE TODAY!! :D:D and actually go inside and do a session!! :):) WOO WHOO!!!!!!! :D I'm sooo excited!!!  We get to go every other transfer, and luckily this is the transfer i get to go! :) There is SOOOO MUCH that i have learned about the temple since being here, so i'm STOKED to go and learn a whole lot more!! President Donaldson is a genious when it comes to temple stuff, so my mind has just exploded with stuff he's talked about :) He's studied Hebrew and Greek and knows a lot about Old Testament stuff. :) Its incredible. So i'm way happy to go to the Temple today, and talk to the sisters that have been around President longer, and have learned more than i have :) I already know its going to BLOW my mind :D Cant wait! 

 

Well family and friends i love you all!! :) I hope you are all taking the time out of you busy lives to realize how GREAT the gospel is. Take time to do the important things like pray and read!! Do it everyday! Its SO important! and so EASILY there for you, so take advantage of it! :)

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! :) The Church is True so What else Matters? :):) Love you all, hugs and kisses comin your way!

 

xoxoxo, Hma Stevens <3