I-PADS!!!!

 

Hey family!

We have had a pretty crazy week here in Telde.

First off to explain the title, today in our email we got the mission bulletin. In it was  a letter from President Jackson saying our mission is now an ipad mission! On may 7th as an entire mission we are going to meet in Madrid to be trained on how to use them! So we get to fly back to Madrid next week! Super crazy! It should be interesting! 

Well other than that, we had an amazing week here in Telde! A few really cool miracles. First is what happened on Wednesday. We were passing by some old investigators here and the last one we find is for a guy named Paco.  But it didn't have an address or number so we wondered why it was still there. But on the back we found a description of the man and it said he was always at Parque San Juan. But that park is closed right now so we decided to go walk around the outside of the Parque. We said a prayer just to help us find the man and right as we walk all the way around the park and when we get back to where we started, we see a man that matched the description! He sees us and starts waving so we looked at each other and were like "Yep! It's him!" So we went and sat with him on a bench and started talking.

This is where miracle number 2 starts. While we were talking, a man walked up and said hi to Paco for just a minute then walked away. I literally got to say 5 words to him. Well, Sunday we get to church and he was sitting down right there in the chapel!!! I was stunned! We talked to him and his reason for coming was just that he saw us and he saw Paco was happy to be with us so he wanted that too. We will be meeting with him tonight. His name is Luis.

Then, miracle number 3 happened Sunday as well. Last week a drunk guy stopped us in the street and asked me for my Book of Mormon. I gave it to him with a restoration pamphlet and took his number to meet another day when he wasn't drunk. We tried to meet last Monday but he didn't show up. Anyway, yesterday he called us saying he wants to meet. So we met! and it was really amazing what happened. He has investigated about every church known to man. We sit down and he pulls out the pamphlet and flips to the picture where Peter, James and John are restoring the priesthood. He then says this is the best thing I have ever heard. He was really grateful someone has been given the same priesthood Jesus has. He really wants to start learning more and he will be at church on Sunday.

On Saturday, we were given permission to go to Las Palmas for a stake activity where the youth from all the islands went contacting with the missionaries so they needed our help. We were able to take some of the kids from our branch contacting with us. It turned out really well, they seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Well that has been our week. We are going to have a fun p-day. We are going to check out come caves that are here in Telde then we get to wash the mission cars. None of the areas have cars any more so we need to go wash them so they can sell them. Should be fun.

LOVE YOU ALL!

-Elder Stevenson

P.S. We get to skype on the 10th so what time is church for every one so I can try and pick a good time. Should be easier because I am an hour closer.

Week One in Paradise!

Dear Family,

This area is so amazing! The city is pearched on a hill so we can see the ocean everyday and the mountains are right behind us. We always have a great view. It's kind of deserty but also very green with lots of palm trees. So to answer some of mom's questions. Telde is a branch of about 50 active members. We just need a little more to have a ward so that is the goal for this year. With the Spanish they still speak normal-ish Spanish. There is no dialect but words are a little different. Like in Madrid potato is patata but here it's papa just like in South America. Also bus in Madrid is bus but here is guagua pronounced wawa. They also don't talk with the lisp on the ce ci and z like they do on the peninsula. In fact they hate it and make fun of it. They do have some famous phrases though like. They say 'chacho' a ton and 'venga mi niño' all the time. They are a mix between Spaniards and Dominicans to me. 

They also have some different food out here, like mojo which goes on potatos (super good) as well as they have a drink called gofio which is basically corn flour mixed with milk. It's pretty weird. They have a soda here only sold on the Canary Islands called clipper. They have a passion fruit flavor that's really good. A nice change because on the peninsula all they sell is lemon or orange fanta or coca cola.

The work is going pretty well here. We have a couple investigators but could only meet with 2 of them this week. The rest either couldn't meet or failed the appointment. It's pretty hard to work with the members because we need to focus in the city and only 4 members live there. The rest live in small towns around the city that take about 30 minutes to walk to or we can take a guagua but the schedule is pretty difficult. The stake president lives in our branch and feeds us every Friday and we have started to talk to his neighbors so he can maybe help us there. The houses here are way different than Madrid. They are like actual houses so we can knock doors like American missionaries. It's pretty weird. We found one that said we can come by this week in the morning so we are excited to teach them. They will have a nice strong member friend right there close.

Oh yeah!,The sister that flew over with me is Russell M. Nelson's  grand daughter.

We also met a man named Cesar. We were walking from an appointment and he called us over so we went and started to talk to him. He has had a pretty messed up life a lot of smoking and surgeries and accidents but he is a good guy. He believes in God but has a lot of doubts about the catholic church. We were able to teach him a bit about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We went back Saturday afternoon and met again and finished teaching the restoration it went really well. As we work with him more he will progress really quick.

We were in the street a lot this week but found some amazing people! One family the wife is Polish and the husband Ecuadorian and we will meet with them on Friday. I'm super excited. We also found a golden Cuban man who has been here for a month and doesn't have work nor is he studying and can meet any day of the week so we are going to be meeting tomorrow. I'm really excited.

It's a good place so the work should go well. Hope you all have a great week I love you all!

-Elder Stevenson

                                              Good Byes!

                                            Two Converts

Martha

Dari

Mario

Valentin

The Hurtado family

Cristina and Osiris

Mara

Telde





Transfers Chacho

 

Hello family!

Soooo we got transfers this week and I got transferred. I'm in a place a bit away from Madrid. In fact about 3 hours in a plane. I'm in the Cannary Islands! I'm in a area called Telde on the island of Gran Canaria! I got here an hour ago and I'm super excited! My comp is Elder Bigelow. He is from Rigby, Idaho. He has been out for about 7 months now. I'm no longer zone leader just a normal missionary out here ready to work!

 

It was really hard to leave Barrio 2 especially since this week was sooo good! We found some good new people. We are working with a lady who used to be less active but lately has reactivated. She is actually our gospel principles teacher. 2 weeks ago she brought a friend to church and we were invited to start teaching her. So we set up a time to eat baleadas (a meal from Honduras) and teach her. We met with They have a ton of interest I hope Elder Hawks can help them get baptized!

 

We also started working a lot more with a guy named Gabriel. We had met twice before but it was spread out over a couple weeks. But he recently has had a lot more interest and so we have been able to meet more which is good because he has potential. We have invited him to be baptised and he is willing to do it if he feels its true. 

We were in the street quite a bit but were able to find a lot of good people that are interested. The work is starting to pick up again and so it should go well.

 

We have also been working a lot to help the members with the ward mission plan. None of them had a single clue about it so we are just trying to help out. The ward is really good. One of the best in Madrid but the members just need to work a little harder but if they do it will keep growing.

It was super hard saying bye to the members yesterday. They are all super nice and really like to help out with the work. And they did feed us pretty well. Don't now how I lost 3 more kilos. 

Well I hope everyone had a good week and spring break. Love you all, take care!! Sorry no pictures the drive slot doesn´t work.

-Elder Stevenson

P.S. You may not want to send stuff to the mission office since it's far away. Packages yes keep sending those there but if you are going to send letters send them to me here in Telde, Gran Canaria.

 

Cuenca!

Hello Family!

This week was just an amazing really good week! Even though we only had few days to work but very spiritual and helpful.

On Tuesday, we had a mission leadership counsel at President Jackson's house that was amazing. We talked a lot about becoming Preach My Gospel missionaries and talking to everyone. It was really what our mission needed because we noticed that only about 20% of the mission uses it daily. Even though in the introduction it says use it daily. And then we talked about talking to everyone because it's really not that hard but not everyone does it. I found a quote that was really good it says. "A consecrated missionary leaves all fear on the sacrifitial altar. They talk to everyone. This will be one of the hardest things in the mission field. It often seperates the consecrated missionaries from the good missionaries." It hit Elder Hawks and I hard and so we have been working really hard  at talking with everyone and it has been amazing. A huge blessing to our area so we are just helping others do the same.

 

Cuenca

The zone training we have Wednesday went really well. We just taught them the same things we learned at President Jackson's house. Then right after I went on a companion exchange to Cuenca, a tiny little city in between Madrid and Valencia. it was a really good one, found a lot of people and saw many Holy Week Processions. 

 

 

Holy Week Procession Cuenca Spain

 

Then right as I get back from Cuenca we did another exchange with the elders in our district. So I wasn´t with my comp for a couple days. But we did get to work together Saturday before going to  General Conference. 

Our investigators are doing well. We got to take Mara on a temple tour while we were there. She is doing very well still. We're just working with the mom. We got to meet with a guy named Gabriel. We met with him about a month ago but due to lots of work haven´t met since then but this week he was free. He is doing well and he really has desires to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He wants to believe it is because he feels it makes sense. 

 

General Conference was amazing! I really liked Elder Ballard's Talk because I wanted to learn how to take the things I have learned from my mission and use them at home. So I really liked that he talked about magnifying our priesthood duties. Elder Holland's was also amazing as always. Really liked the story he used and how the fall is very important in our eternal progression. I haven´t seen Sunday afternoon yet. I just downloaded it to listen to in the apartment during medio dia so I am excited.

Well hope everyone had a great week. Love you all!

-Elder Stevenson

 

 

Super Good Week!

Hey family!

We had a super good week this week!

Our investigators are still doing well.  This week Franz invited two of his friends to come listen to us. It was a really good lesson. We were able to share The Plan of Salvation with them and the two people that came were really interested. They are going to meet with us again on Friday so we are excited.

I got to do a comp exchange with an elder from our zone this week and it was a really good day. We had some good plans set up and they all went through. Their area has been pretty hard lately and we just had a good day. We saw him yesterday and he seemed way more excited about missionary work. Hopefully he was able to put that fire into his area. 

On Wednesday, we got to do some nice service. There is a man that is in a wheel chair always asking for money on the street. He lives in the house of a member and she has to push him to the hospital every week. We were able to do it this week. He is a really nice guy and he has a good trust in him now.  Hopefully we can teach him here soon.

sancocho- Colombian chicken stew

Friday, we had comp exchanges with the assistants and it was an amazing day. I was with an Elder Ridd. He is in my group of missionaries but I had never met him until now. We were able to do a lot of contacting and we were able to find a lot of people. The better the weather the more willing people are willing to listen I have noticed. Then we ate with our bishop and he made us sancocho one of my favorite Colombian dishes. We were able to meet with a couple investigators as well as some less actives so it was a good all around day.

 

Yesterday was really good for us. The members did very well and invited friends to church each companionship got one reference from it. We are going to start teaching a lady named Dina. She is from Honduras. We are going to meet with her Thursday. Than in the evening we had a devotional with Brad Wilcox. He talked a lot about the house of Israel and it was really good! Learned a lot from it. Then right after we had a Easter concert. Very good day!

This week there is a lot to do. Tomorrow we have the mission leadership council at President Jackson's house, then the zone training on Wednesday, then after I'm going on a comp exchange to Cuenca, a tiny little city in the middle of no where! Kind of excited. Then we have General Conference! (watch it here) And it's Easter on the same day! How great is that! A lot of learning this week, should be good.

I got the package on Friday, we are enjoying the girl scout cookies too much!

 

Love you all. Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Stevenson 

 

                                                    More photos from our P-day in Segovia

 

COLD!!! again???

Hey family,

I don't really know what happened with the beautiful weather we had but this week it took a turn for the worse. This week it's 35-40 degrees and rain and last week it was 80 degrees and short sleeves but its all good. It was cool on the way back from Segovia today. It was snowing!! A lot the cars were covered. 

 

 

Anyways, things are going really well here! Mara is still doing awesome. We have been trying to meet with her mom for forever. She always said she didn't have time but we know she is 100% free on Sundays. So we got a good group of members to come with us and we surprise visited them. It worked! The mom sat down with us and we were able to share the restoration with her to help her understand why her daughter wants to be baptized. The mom just had a lot of doubts and questions. We feel like she was afraid to let her daughter do something she didn't understand so we are finally going to be able to meet with her more.

Franz and Scarlet are doing really well also. They are progressing!!! They read and are praying so we are super happy. We were able to teach the plan of salvation and it turned out really well. They just want to know the truth.

Other than that, we did a lot of contacting and trying to meet with new investigators. But they never showed up so we are still trying to find news. Elder Hawks was on intercambios and went and visited one of our investigators that has not been progressing and they were having a drop talk basically. See if they were willing to start progressing. They started talking because the brother is a member and will be sealed in the temple. They asked if they could go and he had to say no. But if they started doing the things they need to, one day they could go in as a family. They are starting to progress more.

Things are going pretty well here. We just need to find some new investigators. But things are going well. Hope everyone has a great week. Love you!!!

-Elder Stevenson

 

P.S. There are many things I have learned on my mission. One is: If you really have desires, there is time for everything. ;P