Monday, March 31, 2014

¡Me quedo! (I'm staying)





Hey family!
I'm still in the same area with Elder Anderson no changes. We have to help other missionaries change though so I'm just sending a quick note while Elder Anderson signs up for college classes. 

Mom Elder Gillam ended his mission today so if you could add him on Facebook and keep me updated I would like that.

I'll send more later.

-Elder Stevenson


New Soccer Jersey

 
 
Hey Family! or "Because God is our Heavenly Father, we are all brothers and sisters. We would like to refer to you as brothers and sisters." (PMG How to Begin Teaching)

Things are still going well here in Madrid. As you already know I'm staying here with Elder Anderson. It got cold again here and now it's raining. Rained pretty hard the other day and completely soaked my jacket. We had to change because we were so wet! Super exited that I'm staying because we are going to have a ton of success! 

Proselyting wise our week went pretty well!

 
Marco is still a machine. We had a very powerful and bold lesson with him on Tuesday talking about General Conference and how there he will know that these men are prophets and apostles of God. Therefore testifying to him that the church is true. It was a super powerful lesson and probably the most bold I have been. He now has a new date for the 13th of April. We are super excited. We also talked about tithing. He has officially received all of the lessons. Just needs an answer! 
 
Joy and Tristan are still well. We are going to start treating them more like members and get them more involved in the ward. Just keep them coming and growing their testimony until they get married and baptized. Triie had her third birthday this week so that was pretty fun. She was super excited. They're such a great family.

We found a super amazing new family this week. They were from the area book. We passed by and the only reason they stopped investigating was because the hermanas a while ago left and contact was never regained when the new ones came. They are 3 people from Bolivia. Said they already feel like a part of the church. They just need a little push to do the things they are supposed to to get an answer. We are more than willing to help them out with that. We are going to set a date with this family and baptize them Elder Anderson's last day in the field. Ending strong.

Patricia is doing really well. She read the chapter we left with her and liked it a lot. We had a kinda different lesson with her this week. We brought a member that no one had taken before beause we need to get the ward more involved here. So we took him and he would interupt at the most awkard moment and say the most random comments. It was super tough. Sometimes it's tough with members because they don't know what to teach nor how. EVERY MEMBER SHOULD READ PREAH MY GOSPEL. You will know the dotrine in really simple teachable terms. You will know what the points are that we teach so you can stick along with topic the during the lesson, know what we are talking about,  what we are going to talk about, and they will learn the teaching skills they need. I highly recomend it. 
 
Me!
 
Other then that I don't really remember some of the other lessons we had. It was a long week with the rain. We had a zone training too so that took some time. Then half of Tuesday, I was with Elder Ward while our comps were at a meeting.

Hope everyone had a good week and has a good week!
LOVE YOU!!
-Elder Stevenson 


Regular Doner Kebab



  So this is doner kebab in a cup and what a regular kebab looks like. Don't know what that was you ate in Utah :P
Doner in a cup
 

Monday, March 24, 2014

Temple!

Narcisos at the Madrid Temple
Hey Family!

We had a pretty good week this week!

Marco decided to still meet with us so we are still working with him trying to gain a testimony. We watched the Joseph Smith Movie with him which he really liked.             http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lds.org+joseph+smith+movie&FORM=VIRE4#view=detail&mid=56BA2BE5A9358F93980B56BA2BE5A9358F93980B
Then we read the scriptures one day. He still came to church this Sunday so that's good. Tonight we are going to do a FHE with him tonight and our ward mission leader. hopefully it goes well! We want to get him baptized before the end of the transfer. 

Joy and Tristian are still doing pretty well. We went to visit them and their friend that just moved into the ward. When we got there they had a ton of friends over! It was super cool! We taught all of them and they promised to come to church. We are going to pick them up Sunday morning. I'm excited! Right before that lesson we had just gotten done eating with a member who fed us a ton. Right as we get there, they had a buffet of food set out... I thought I was going to die! Then right after we got fed again! Yesterday was a struggle for us.
 

We found a super cool guy on Wednesday. His name is Jorge. The beginning of the transfer we were passing by some people and in one we met a man named Richard he gave us his number and then said come back later. We did but this time Richard wasn't there but Jorge was so he invited us in. We had a super good lesson about the Book of Mormon. Then Friday, a member comes up and asks us if we are teaching Jorge? We say yes turns out a member lives in that piso too! Now hopefully he will help us out while we're not there!

We also met with a lady named Marilena. She has a super cool family and is super interested. She's from Venezuela and super awesome. Hopefully things go well there.

We met with Johnathan a couple more times this week. At first he seemed super solid and so Wednesday we invited him to be baptized. Friday we were going to put him on date but he came with a ton of scriptures in the Bible about the Godhead. He was just basically Bible bashing. We are going to try and meet one more time and see if he is reading or not.
 


We had some crazy experiences this week. Mostly pertaining to drunk people in the streets of Madrid. There was one man that was asking why the Book of Mormon wasn't just combined with the Bible? I told him it's because they are two separate records from different parts of the world. He asked why the Americans didn't just tell them what was going on? I asked him how could they do that? He just yells out "Facebook!" I said but they didn't have facebook back then. He insisted that yes they did. He said a lot of thing that didn't make sense. It was pretty crazy.
 

It was nice being able to go to the temple this week. One of the good things about serving in Madrid. Thursday was super long because I was on a train to and back from Villalba because Elder Anderson went on a companion exchange. So that was fun! Other than that we have just been teaching. we had a lot of lessons. There were days we were running from place to place and didn't get a break untill we went home at night. It was crazy but I like it when days are like that.

Hope everyone had and has a great week. I love you all!

-Elder Stevenson

Birthday!
 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Soccer!



Hey Family!

We had a super good/ bad week but I liked it.

The only reason it was bad was because no one wanted to meet with us! But the ones that did meet with us are super good.

We had a family home evening on Monday with Marco at a members home. We  had a really good lesson about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can be forgiven. He seemed to enjoy it a lo.t We are going to do another next Monday. We also met later in the week to read a little of the Book of Mormon with him. Once again he came to church and is still reading and praying. We are hoping that he will feel the spirit a ton at General Conference and will get baptized the next week. We are going to set a new date for the 13th which is also Elder Andersons birthday which will be really cool.

We met with Tristan and Joy again this week. Tristan really wants to be baptized and so we are trying to figure out the fastest way possible for that to happen with the whole marriage thing. Tristan had work but they made him work on Sundays and so he missed one Sunday because of it and then quit! Then he found another job where he doesn't have to work Sunday! Finding jobs in Spain right now is SUPER hard. The unemployment is 25% and so that is a super huge miracle! It's super amazing. 

We got two super cool new investigators this week. Patricia and Rosa both from Ecuador. We taught the Restoration and Rosa had a ton of questions but they were answered very easily. She then started talking about a bunch of other churches she had visited and how she wanted one that baptizes in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I see Elder Anderson quickly change the card that he had marked Alma 7 with and changed it to 3 nephi 11. Hopefully she likes it and feels the spirit we have good faith in them.

Other than that it was just some normal lessons with people that have some interest but don't put forth the effort to know. We are working really hard on finding out people's desires because in the beginning of the transfer we were recieving a lot of references but not many new investigators. From all the phone numbers I have in my agenda, the only one turned into a new investigator was from the street. Others were soccer and English classes. Just finding activities. so we are working hard on that.
 




Now to talk about Tuesday! It was sooooo much fun!! The entire scene was just insane! It was really cool because everything was in Spanish and German. We met some people from Berlin so that was cool. We had pretty good seats. Got to see a sick goal by Cristiano Renaldo right in front of us. Everyone adores him. It's pretty funny. Real Madrid won 3-1 so that was nice. It was such a cool opportunity to go.
 
 
The roar of the crowd! Sooo Crazy!

Hope everyone has a great week! love you all!

-Elder Stevenson

Real Madrid Stadium

Gooooal! Real Madrid!
 

 


 
 

Monday, March 10, 2014

´´I will not fail thee nor forsake thee´´


Plaza de Castilla

Hello family!

We had a tough but good week this week.

First off some sad news. Marco came to church on Sunday and told us how he will not be getting baptized next week. He then tried to drop us but we told him that it's fine if he's not ready by next week. But we still want to work with him to help him gain the testimony he is looking for. We had a very powerful lesson with him and he has felt the spirit. He is just looking for some huge illumination that these things are true and he just hasn't gotten that. It doesn't always work that way. Even David A. Bednar said he has never had that. It's just tough trying to get him to understand that. We are going to be meeting again tomorrow and so hopefully we can help him gain that testimony. 
 

A lot of our appointments also failed us this week. Which was really tough and so by the time Sunday came and Marco told us that, both Elder Anderson and I were feeling pretty down. But the reason I put that title is because Sunday afternoon we went back to work. Still working just as hard even though we were down. Then we get a text saying this ´´Hi would I be able to talk to you a little about your church? You gave me your number the other day and I would like to talk.´´ When we contact, if anyone doesn't want anything at the moment, we try and leave them with the little I'm a Mormon Cards that have the website, church address and our phone number. We got a text message that every missionary desires. The one that everyone thinks is impossible and it just lifted us up and we were super happy. Even when times get hard and people don't keep the commitments they need to or whatever it may be. Just keep going strong and the Lord will take care of the rest.


We had some other really good lessons this week. We taught one in the park on Friday. (Last Monday was one of the coldest days of my life! It was horrible and now it's super hot!! We are working in short sleeves. It's that warm!) Anyway we taught 2 men, named Jonathin & Stalin, one is 22 and the other 27. They just gave up drugs and drinking. We had a great first lesson. Something really kind a funny/cool happened right as Elder Anderson testified about the Book of Mormon. A dove came down and landed on the fountain right in front of us! "...and the spirit descended in the form of a dove." It was pretty awesome. 
 

We also met a new man, named Enri or Eric we're not sure. He told us Enri but we taught him at the church and right as we leave the sisters ask him his name and he says Eric. The lesson we had was pretty tough because he speaks French and has only been here in Spain like a year. So he doesn't speak Spanish very well.
 

Adriana, Mari, and Jannet are doing really well. We invited them to be baptized and they accepted. We are going to set a date tomorrow. Super excited for that, they are a great family. Adriana looks like she could be a Relief Society President some day. When I first met Jannet it felt like I had met her somewhere before. But I really hadn't. They are super awesome.



We also found out that Joys marriage annulment should only take a year now. So hopefully all goes well there! I want to see their baptismal picture in the bulletin before I go home! They are super awesome. Tristan just found work but they make him work Sundays. He told us if they don't give him Sunday for his free day. He is going to find a new one which was super awesome! He really wants to join the church.

 
 

Well, this has pretty much been our week. Writing it out makes it seem better than it felt. It was just super diffacult getting cancelled a lot. But we still had a lot of miracles and good lessons! We get to go to the temple this week. I'm excited for that. We didn't get to go last transfer because of cleaning and the transfer before that we went early in the transfer so I haven't been for months. Should be a good day. We are probably going to a soccer game next week so don't be worried if I don't write on Monday because my p day will be on Tuesday if we go. It's a champeons league game Real Madrid vs. Schalke 04 some German team.

Hope everyone has a great week! I love you all a ton!!!

Love
Elder Stevenson









Monday, March 3, 2014

Mission Tour

Same as home! (kinda)
Hola!

We have had a really good week! 

Marco ceases to amaze me. He is still reading in the Book of Mormon and praying and still coming to church! His date is still for the 13th and we are still working on that. Tuesday, we went over to teach about the spirit a little more because that was the topic Sunday and he said he hadn't felt it. We showed him the patterns of light videos by Elder Bednar. Then we read Galatians 5:22 -23 talking about the gifts of the spirit and he said that he had felt a ton of them while reading expecially in Alma 40 where it talks about the Plan of Salvation. He talked about that a lot and so we showed him step by step that he had felt the spirit. Then Thursday we had a super good lesson talking about the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. Marco drinks coffee but he said he was super willing to drop it so we will check up on that tomorrow. There is also more that happened in that lesson but I will talk about it a bit latter.
 

Joy and Tristan are still doing super well. Just building up their testimony right now. We read with them and showed the longer Joseph Smith movie. It went super well. Tristan came to church Sunday and met Joseph, our high counsel member, and they made good friends with each other which was super good. Then after church we went to Tristian's house along with Joseph the have dinner. Joseph shared some really powerful things with them talking about how goodness isn't rightousness and highly encouraged them to start on the marriage process. We are taking them down to Pavones to see the temple on Saturday and there we will talk more about it.
 

Our new investigator, Celia, is doing well. She works taking care of someone so while the person she watches over sleeps, she reads the Book of Mormon! She went from the intro to 1 nephi 7 in 1 week! She is super awesome but one of my problems is finding people who are not married! But shouldn't be as hard as Joy and Tristan to get married.


We also met with Pablo this week and did our fast. We read 1 Nephi 3 talking about how the Lord will prepare ways so we can do what he needs us to do. We set a date for the 22nd for Pablo to be baptized. Hopefully he talked to them while he was fasting!

We met with Adriana and Mari on Monday. This time their sister was finally there so we got a new investigator with her. We also talked about the spirit with them and just had a super good lesson. We will be going over tomorrow to talk about the rest of the Plan of Salvation. We want to set a date for the 30th of this month.
Mission Tour - Elder Teixeira

On Thursday, we had a mission tour with the area seventy of Europe and had some great training during which I got to help a ton with demonstrations. The one picture you saw was us doing a street contact just introducing mormon.org and really stating a lot of our purpose right there at the beginning and giving a lot of options to really work best with the person. Then later on he asked who had a progressing investigator. Since we have Marco, I raised my hand and he called me up there and asked me a ton of info about Marco. He then asked me how Marco would feel if when we prayed to start or end that lesson if we could pray for certain people in his family. I told him he would probably tell us of people. Then Elder Teixeira said exactly! And talked about that's how we can find more people to teach or just build up the work. When we went to see Marco that day we tried it (President Teixeira was going to acompany us to that lesson but had to fly to the Islands, that would have been a really good member present. with a member of the seventy!) But anyways, we tried it and he told us of his aunt and niece, that are going through hard times and we prayed for them by name. And then later we talked about those people and were able to get a coulpe references, but they live in Ecuador. Hopefully they will accept the gospel also. This way is how President Teixeira was baptized along as 40 other members of his family.

When you find gold don't move to another spot. There will probably be more gold in that same spot!

Hope you all had a great week and can't wait to tell you how this process goes as we use it with more people!

Love you all!!

-Elder Stevenson

Interesting- Another Church is making their pamphlets similar to ours.  = /