One of the Happiest Weeks of my Life

Roman and Me

 Hey Family!

We had a REALLY good week this week. The members didn't help us much but we are meeting with Leo & Alejandro a ton!

They basically don't do much in the afternoon and love us so they always let us come over. They have really good desires and ask very good questions. They are also very good at keeping commitments, reading, praying, church. They do it all happily with desires to know. They are growing immensely. We put them on a baptismal date for the 6th of December. 

Valentin is also doing really well. Met with him a couple times this week but it's a little more difficult to meet because the mom is usually working but we will be going over tomorrow. It's really nice to be teaching these youth because we can bring the other youth to the lessons to help strengthen them too. A lot have desires to serve missions so we are showing them how it is. Plus all the youth need some help. It's a weird time in their lives.

Our Branch President is still doing really well with helping us. Every Sunday he zips us around in his car so we can visit a lot of people because we aren't walk everywhere. We have also started doing splits with the members and that is helping a ton. Our Branch President was with us when we were talking about the somewhat low number of member present lessons we had this week. He asks us how many we want and we have a goal of ten because we have gotten 9 a good number of times but never 10. Then he asks what days we get the most and it's Sunday when he comes with us. He told us he wants to do it more than just Sunday then. This week he wants us to get 15 with a member so we will see how it goes! 

I think with all the investigators we have coming to church, they are seeing that we actually work well and now they want to help. 

On Saturday, we went to a village outside of Lugo called Sarria to visit a less active family that is coming back into activity. They want to baptize there daughter so we went to teach about the baptismal covenants. It was a good visit. Because of the bus schedule we had to wait there for a while and so they made us food. It has been one of the days that I have eaten the most on my mission. First they bring out a HUGE pot of lentejas or I think it's lintels in English. Not sure never ate them before the mission but I love them. Anyway, 2 big bowls of that and I was pretty full. I thought that was all we were going to eat. but then they bring out probably the biggest pizza I have seen in my life! Gave us a huge slice. I struggled to finish. Then of course there is always room for dessert. Bring out cake. They left the room while we were eating it and Elder Hathaway had to have me finish. He was dying! I was pretty dead after too. Sarria is the country, a lot of crops grown there. So they gave us a couple things to take home. First was a fruit that if you eat it while its green or yellow and not when it's orange, it's one of the spiciest things ever. 

Second they gave us eggs that every single one has two yolks. We ate eggs Sunday morning and it is true. Super funny.

This week was probably one of the happiest of my life. Andrea, who was just baptized a little over a month ago, went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms and confirmations. This is true happiness.

 

Anyway, that was our fun week. Hope everyone had a good one too.

 

Love you!!

-Elder Stevenson 

 

 

Some pics with the Halloween Mustache



pensive English Gent?

 

 

I also set up the Christmas tree and Spain is super cool!

 

 

Hey, I did get the package. Thank you sooo much!! I am wearing the socks right now.

I hung up the Advent Calendar. = )

 

 

FINALLY!!!!

Hey everyone!

We had an amazing week full of miracles! We have been waiting for a couple weeks now. After weeks of 0 to 1 investigators coming to church, we had 5 this week! We have been working so hard and it finally paid off.

During our zone training and conferences we have had the past two weeks, we talked a lot about getting people to church and how we can better it. So Elder Hathaway and I worked really hard. One thing that changed that hadn't even caught my attention much, but I feel like was the key was Preach My Gospel says make plans of things we need to do EVERY DAY to get them to come. So that's what we did. We talked about church attendance every day with them.

Plus the miracle family helped us out. About a month ago, we got a reference for a lady who lived on the 3rd floor of a building. We hit the button outside to get in the building and it opened. We go up to the 3rd floor the person isn't there. We start wondering who opened the door. So we decided to talk to all the people in the building and a lady on the first floor named Fatima opened the door and was busy but said we could pass by a different day and gave us her number. Well for a month we passed by and called and weren't able to meet. Saturday morning, we had some plans but I put the back up plan to pass by her house. She was there and let us in! We didn't want to take much time so we taught them about the Book of Mormon and invited them to read pray and come to church. We set up with them to call and come by in the morning and they were ok with that and they came! They enjoyed  church a lot. We are meeting with them again on Tuesday and plan to work really hard with them. 

We are also working hard with that part member family. The daughters only come on the weekend so we try and meet everyday. They are doing really well. They also came to church. = )

We lost a lot of our baptismal dates this week. We found out Oscar, Margarita's son, is going to stay in Valencia for a while then go to Colombia. Valentin wasn't able to come to church so we have to change that date. And Graciela, I guess is done with us. We had a lesson planned for Friday and we go over she's not there. I call her she realizes who it is and hangs up on me! So we went and visited Andrea and she gave us a member reference of a lady that lives below her and she came down and introduced us to her. It was really cool. But anyways than I call Graciela the next day she answers and then hangs up again when she realized it was us again. So we are working hard with thess new people to get them on dates.

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

-Elder Stevenson

Birthday Packages and Tuesday P-Day

The Zone

 

Hey Family!!

 I didn't write yesterday because this week our p day changed to Tuesday because we have a zone conference. I just forgot to mention it last week.

We had a SUPER crazy/ scary week this week! Wellington almost got deported!

Headed to Zone Conference

Wellington has been working on his papers recently but they have been giving him some trouble. He has been telling us all about it. Anyways Wednesday we were going to meet with him and we go by and he isn't there. Which is weird, he is always there. I jokingly said to my comp maybe he Got deported. Thursday we go to teach his girlfriend's mom and there is his TV and computer and PlayStation at her house. She then asks if we know Quepi (his nickname) and we say yes. She says well he's getting deported. Leaves today at 9. Elder Hathaway and I are just freaking out and shocked and sad. He had been doing so well and then he was gone just like that... or so we thought. That night at like 9:30 we try calling one last time and the phone's off. So we thought he is for sure gone. Well Friday morning we decided to try him one more time and it starts ringing!! We were freaking out then he answers!! I was just like. "Wellington, where are you?" and he said "in the street" and just to be sure I asked, "of what country?" Luckily it was Spain! He told me he was scared too and he prayed and it turn out well. He told me on the phone that he did it like Nephi! We were pretty amazed. Apparently his boss gave him the papers he needs.
 

We got to ride in 1st Class again!

 

Other than that it was a normal week. We are working really hard with Valentin, the 14 year old that came to English class. We put him on a baptismal date on Sunday for the 29th of this month. He is progressing really well. Loves the church. Friday we had a branch activity where we watched the Joseph Smith Movie. He loved it, said he felt really good. He is praying and reading and everything. When he started meeting with us he didn't have that much faith and we can really see it growing right now. We are excited for him.

We are also working with a part member family. the 2 daughters live just outside of Lugo but are here on the weekend. So when they are here, we teach them and they are starting to progress a lot too.

We are also helping a woman in the branch come back to church and get her daughter baptized. Even though it's not a convert baptism, it's ok because we are helping this family come back to church by teaching the daughter about baptism.
 



Look at the size of this Shrimp!

We had a really cool experience this week. On Sunday, a member asked for a blessing to help him feel calm because he doesn't have work right now. In the blessing Elder Hathaway mentioned work would come soon. And yesterday a member calls us asking if there is anyone who needs work. We just quickly thought of him so it was very nice seeing that come through.

Hope you all had a great week. Thanks for the prayers and support. love you all!

love

-Elder Stevenson

 

"OOOOooh The CHOSEN One!

I did get the packages. I got them last Wednesday and thank you soooo much!! My comp is loving it a lot too. I was super excited when I saw the macadamia nuts! I love the shirt too! Very funny! Halloween was way more normal here in Lugo so that was nice.

love 

Elder Stevenson (the chosen one)

 

Feliz Cumpleanos Elder Stevenson!

Hey Family!

Thanks for the birthday wishes!  I had a very fun birthday. For lunch, I decided to make a tradicional dish of Galicia because it's really good! We made Octopus! It went on sale so we said why not and turned out really well! I have gotten into cooking a lot recently. Especially South American food. Super good! My comp keeps asking if he will have other comps that know how to cook these things. He really likes it. We then had a really good ward activity. A couple of our miracle families came and the members did a great job fellowshiping them!

 

One of these families is Alejandra, the mother of Wellington's girlfriend. She and her son came and loved it. We met with them a couple times this week. They are doing really well but couldn't come to church because the son got really sick. But they are awesome.

 

The other family walked into the church one day asking about our English classes for her son, Valentin, who's 14 years old. Later he lets us come to his house and we were able to share a message. They are very prepared. The mom basically has the same beliefs just doesn't want to change. But Andrea was talking to her and just flat out said, "Don't miss out on the blessings in store for you. Make the change!" She is really thinking about it and the son is super willing to be baptized. He loves the church. We are really excited to work with them.

 

We are basically still at the same point with the other people. Can't progress until they come to church.

But this week, it wasn't just members that came to church. A family that has 2 daughters that live outside of Lugo. The 2 daughters came and a guy we met in the street one day came and really liked it. So we want to work a lot with these people!

Hope everyone has a great week love you!!!

-Elder Stevenson