First Week in Lugo

 

Hey Family!!

 

Everything is going great up here in Lugo. The temperature is definantly wwaaayyy better than Madrid. That's for sure, it's like 60 degrees right now. But there is a ton of rain!

 

We have some pretty solid investigators up here right now. There is one whose name is Margarita. She is Colombian and super cool. She came to the church a couple weeks ago looking for someone to teach her about the Bible and now wants to get baptized. We just don't know a date yet cuz she wants her sons to be here so shes planning that out. She's super cool though, already a member of the branch basically. She planned a branch activity for this Friday. Soo we're excited for that.

 

 

Then we have another, her name is Angie. She's 19 and from Colombia also. She's super solid, accepts everything but her mom is super Catholic and so her mom won't let her go to church. Even though she is 19 the mom says as long as she lives in that house she can't go to our church. super lame. We are trying to set up an appointment with the mom so we can just talk to her. We hope all goes well.

 

We met a really cool person named Jaqulyn this week. On Wednesday, we decided to pass by one more house before going in and she was there and invited us in. Her son was there but didn't want anything really. Anyways we taught the first lesson and explained a little more about the Book of Mormon because she already had one but she hadn't even opened it. She told us after that she then understood the importance of the book and that she would read. We are going by there tonight so hopefully she read. We are going to try and set a baptismal date. I'm excited.

 

We are working with a ton of less actives right now. The attendance this week was 22 so we really need to retain the people we have so were working with them and it's good cuz some came to church. It doesn't help that our branch mission leader got offended and doesn't want to come to church.

 

We had some pretty funny lessons with the less actives this week though. Last night we went and visited a lady named Esther she lives on the way outside of town in a super run down house and has about 15 cats!! They were every where!! Then we visited another member the day before and he is a huge Venezuelan dude that speaks Spanish super quick so my comp has a really hard time understanding him. So I basically have to answer for my comp. The man asked if my comp liked the dessert he made and I told him no, jokingly, so he goes along with it and starts asking my comp all these questions and he just doesn't know what's going on. We got a good laugh out of it.

 

 

We spend a lot of time in the street contacting and not many people want to listen to us. Even though people are baptized Catholic, they are all athiest and don't want anything to do with God. So it's a bit tough but we still keep going strong and we will find the people that are ready.

 

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!

-Elder Stevenson

Hasta LUGO Madrid

Soooo transfers came and Dad I finaly have your answer. When am I going to leave Madrid? Last night at 10:30 to be exact. Hopped on a nine hour long night train  and got to Santiago in Galicia the north of Spain. Then we to a 2 hour bus ride to Lugo. It's a tiny little town in the north but it's Super Cool1 It's an entirly different world up here, nothing like Madrid. On the train it seriously looked like Italy. Super cool!!!!! 

My new companion is Elder Gorge and.... I'M TRAINING HIM! I'm super excited!! He already had 6 weeks up here with another elder but I get to finish up. He's from Indianapolis and plays football for Butler. Pretty cool.

 

We had a pretty tough week this week. With school ending and summer starting all of our people left town and we have the added world cup. Even though Spain is out, everyone still watches. 
 

Saying good bye

But with the people we were able to meet with, we had some great lessons. Joy and Tristian are still doing really well. Good News! Joy is actually starting her papers so she can get divorced. that means in like 3 years they can get baptized. But they are super good. It was a little tough saying bye to them because I have been visiting them for 6 months now. Hope one day to see the picture of their baptism.
 

Maverick is still doing really well. He has a date still for the 12th. He's working hard to reach that goal. Just a little problem with alcohol still. 

This week we talked to Veronica's friends and family. Nobody knew they, she and Natalia, were baptized and so on Thursday they invited us to go meet with them all and announce the baptism. The friends were all fine and excited that she did it. But her mom and sister freaked out. The sister has wierd thoughts about our church and so that's why but the mom is majorly catholic and so she was in shock. She calmed down a couple days later though. It was suuupppeeer hard saying bye to that family. They are all my best friends and I have gotten to know them super well. 

It was a great six months in that area. I saw a ton of miracles, got to know great people, and brought more souls unto Christ. I'm excited for this new area and hope I'm able to do the same.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Love you!

-Elder Stevenson









         My new Area: Lugo, Galacia, Spain

Cathedral de Lugo, Galicia

Roman Aquaduct

 

Natalia's Baptism!

 

Hey family!

This was a great week!

Natalia was baptized on Saturday and it was so great!! The spirit was so strong in the baptismal service. They invited some friends to come which was really cool! I went outside of my comfort zone a little bit and sang the song from The Children's Songbook, 'When I Am Baptized' but in Spanish. It turned out really well! Over all super great day! So happy that I was able to baptize her. Now we are just waiting on Karla but transfers come this week and I have been here for 6 months so we will see if I'm here for that baptism.

We had some really good moments this week. We were finally able to meet with a Pilipino man that we met a couple weeks ago and he is super cool! His name is Axid and he has a family of 5 which is really cool. He is super excited to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon.

We also have a guy named Mark who was at Joy and Tristian's house this week. We are going to start meeting with him so that will be good. Tristian is able to meet again but not for good reasons. He works in a kitchen of a restaurant and was pouring alcohol into a pan and the alcohol caught fire which went up the stream which then made the bottle explode getting fire all over his arms, clothes and hair. He was luckily able to extinguish it fast but his hands have 3rd degree burns. It was pretty bad. 

Maverick, we are not sure what is going on. I called him on Saturday to try and meet that night and he told me that while working he fell in a hole and ''broke his leg.'' Well yesterday we were outside waiting for a member and we see him running into Carrefour, a supermarket, to buy beer right before it closes :(  He loves going to church but still struggles with his the desires. Hopefully all will go well.

Sounds like you all had a good week. Hope all goes well this week.

LOVE YOU ALL A TON!!!

-Elder Stevenson

 

BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!!!

Hey Family!!

We had a super good week this week!

First off.... NATALIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!

We went over Tuesday night to talk about it and she wasn't too sure but then we went again Thursday and she said ok! She had the interview on Friday and passed! We are super excited! That family is still doing super well. On Saturday, Veronica went and helped the sister missionaries with one of their lessons and they said she did great so that was super cool. Then yesterday, we had a super great lesson. Natalia is a little nervous for her baptism and she has to retake some test for school so we went over to give her a blessing. The spirit was really strong there. Then we were talking with them and Veronica has been really stressed because of the tests Natalia has and so I felt like sharing 2 things one was D&C 121:7 and then the other was the Mormon Message ''good things to come." It was exactly what she needed to hear. Such a great lesson.

Melting Pot! (from left to right)
Elder Barahona from Honduras but has lived in Spain his whole life, Elder Vasquez from Peru, Elder Molina from Ecuador, Me from the United States, Elder Larrea from Bolivia

Maverick is still doing really well. We had some really good lessons with him this weekend. He is done drinking coffee but still has problems with alcohol but it's going down. This week the sisters saw him on a bench reading the Book of Mormon! That's super awesome! He is still doing really well and has desires to change and be baptized.

We finished the lessons with Gabi but now we just need to figure out how she can get to church. That is all that is holding her back. 

Mainly, we have just been working with the same people. We are working hard on finding new investigators but they are having difficulty meeting with us. But as we start to meet with them things will go well. 

PIZZA!

 

Hope everyone has a great week! I'll let you know how things go next week with the baptism! We're just super excited.

love you all!

-Elder Stevenson

Paella!

 

Hey Family!

We had a super good week here this week.We started getting more help from members. All the members that helped this week are people that had never gone out with us before so that was awesome!

Our people are still doing really well. 

Gabi is still doing really well but something lame happened right as she ends her work which she gets fired from. She goes and gets another job and has to work sundays :( But shes just babysitting a little girl so with more time the family is fine with Gabi taking her to church with her. We are teaching lesson five to her right now so wrapping up everything. She is super ready to be baptized just have to get work out of the way.
 

Maverick is still super cool! We had a lesson with him on Saturday. Got him started on a plan to live the Word of Wisdom. He really wants to do it because he loves the church and wants to be baptized. He went to a baptismal service with us right after the lesson and he feels great about the decision to be baptized. He came to church on Sunday and our stake high counseler was there who knows Maverick and so they were both super excited to see each other.

We had a cool experience with Lucky Mike this week. he invited us over to eat. (a ton of food I might add. An African meat dish which was really good and a well done paella!) but we were over there eating and one of his friends came later to join us and so we were able to have a lesson with his friend about the Book of Mormon and were able to give her the book. Sadly she lives in a different area but it was a great teaching opportunity.

We had kinda the same experience with a man named Alder. OK get this. Alder is 17 living in Spain. He is Mongolian but lived his entire life in Russia. He speaks Russian, Spanish, English, Greek and Latin. He has super long hair and likes listening to heavy metal music. and he's meeting with the Mormons. When he gets baptized he's going to make a great I'm a mormon message :P  On Friday we had a small activity at the church and he stayed because he was already at English class practicing his English. We were able to have a great lesson with him. but sadly he's not our area. 

Veronica and her family are doing SUPER well. They just love going to the church and learning more. Veronica likes reading and so she always wants more books. They didnt have a Bible so Thursday we were at the temple for a zone conference so we got them a Bible and the conference ensign and they were super excited! We are going to try and have the baptismal interview of Natalie this Friday so I hope all goes well!!!!

This week was super good! Hope everyone had a good one too. Love you all and thanks for the support! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stevenson

IT WAS INSANE!!

Hey Family!

We had a pretty good week this week!

Found a lot of good new people.

We were able to meet with these two super cool girls this week. They were a phone number in the area book but were willing to met that same day. One is from Nicaragua and the other Panama. Two countries I have never taught before. That's one of the cool things about Madrid because you have a huge melting pot of people from every country. Anyway they are super cool. One knows nothing about the church and the other recieved all the lessons from the missionaries but didn't get baptized because she was 17 and her parents wouldn't let her. They are super cool hope all goes well.

Gabi is still doing really well. She won't be getting baptized on the 7th though because she has to have surgery and so she would rather wait until after :( But she ended work this week and will be able to come from now on! Super cool. We have a leson with her tonight.

Veronica and her family are still super cool. Natalia still wants to be baptized, she just doesn't know when. She is super shy and doesn't want to have the interview with someone she doesnt know but oh well too bad. They are super cool though. They come and partisipate in all the activities and stuff.

We had a great lesson with our Free Town friend, Maverick. We brought one of the best members to that lesson... wait for it... LUCKY MIKE! Yes his legal name is Lucky Mike. He is from Nigeria and is probably the happiest man I have ever met in my life! We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on baptism. We changed his date to the 21st to better prepare him for baptism because he still has problems with beer. But we are working on it.
 

OK now I will get to what you are all waiting for. How was it being in Madrid Saturday. IT WAS INSANE!! First all day there were people celebrating and the game hadn't even started yet! Then when it did we were in a park with Veronica and her family because all the members were watching the game. When Athletico Madrid scored car horns started honking. The entire city was roaring from the cheers and fireworks were being set off it was crazy. After that lesson we went home and at that point the score was only 1-0 and almost over. So while in the piso doing daily planning we hear the city roar again and we thought it was the end of the game. But then later on in the night it gets worse and so at this point we are super lost but we came to the conclusion that Atletico won. Then the next day walking to church everyone is wearing Real Madrid jerseys in the street. Anyway when we get to church and find out all that happened. We were blown away. Members said the more towards the center of town all night there was a party and parade. Crazy days here in Madrid

 

Anyway, this was our week. It was a good one. Hope everyone had and has a good week. Sean & Hil Happy Anniversary and DAD again Happy Birthday.

Love you all!!!

-Elder Stevenson  

Veronica's Confirmation

Hey Family!

We had a really good week this week! A little bit less help from the members but we were still able to have the lessons at least.

The confirmation of Veronica went great! She's super happy to be a member. and she's super happy to share the gospel. None of her friends or family know about the church and so Veronica wants us to teach them. She gave us the number of one of her friends and we are going to meet Friday. That will be nice. Also her neighbor saw us there an she talked to Veronica and gave her JW magazines and stuff. Veronica told us to talk to her so some day this week were going to knock on her door. Hopefully something good comes from that. We are also going to start teaching her mom and sister. I'm excited for that. They still don't know about Veronica's baptism. The daughters are doing super well. We tried to set another date with them last night but they didn't want to set one yet. Later on though, I was talking to Natali and she said that it's Karla that isn't sure yet. But Natali told me that she has been thinking about baptism and she wants to do it and she wants baptize her. Now we just have to find out when! But everything is super great with them. They love the church!

Everything is still going super well with Maverick. He was able to come to church this week! He loved it a ton! We then had a lesson with him later that day which was super tough for my comp because he doesn't speak English. We were able to teach the Plan of Salvation and right after I bore my testimony Maverick shared his! It was super cool. He still wants to be baptized which is great.

Gabi is also doing super well we only have a little bit left to teach and she is working well towards her date. She ends work this week and so she will be able to come to church. She is super great.

We were able to meet with a new lady yesterday that we found in the street. Her name is Maria. She is from Bolivia. super cool. She is willing to read the Book of Mormon. She is about the same age as Veronica and also has a 16 year old daughter. Hopefully they can be good friends and Maria can feel comfortable in the church.

 

Our District before Elder Anderson went home.

My first District meeting went really well. We have a good district here. Elder Taylor's greenie is actually the best friend of Elder Vasquez so we have some good unity.

Hope everyone had a good week. Chad congrats on your graduation! Mom and Dad sorry about the horrible travel problems. But glad you had a great time with Chad and Ariann and the grandkids-

Have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Stevenson