Ere zij God (Glory to God): Missionary work and Christmas

Merry Christmas allemaal! (everyone)

So one of the highlights of this week was the stellar member missionary work going on at our branch Christmas party. We invited several people, including less active members, and none of them showed up (including a few that told us that afternoon that they'd be there). But three of our members brought friends and the less active sister of another member came, with her nonmember boyfriend! And a few other less active members came too and had a good time. Sister H. and I were actually able to teach lessons to two of the friends that members had brought during dinner, just because they were asking questions about us and about the church. So that was super cool!

We also had some cool miracles yesterday that came from "looking for the reason." So often we get discouraged about things that fall through in missionary work, or things that don't go as we planned. And what we are forgetting is that we need to always look for the reason that it didn't go through. Why? Because the Lord is the one who is in control here. It's not us. He is more concerned about our success than anyone else, including ourselves most of the time because we don't really get what's at stake. When something goes "wrong," it's because something else needed to happen. Yesterday all of our appointments fell through, and one of the potentials we were excited about had actually given us the wrong address and then when we did find her, wouldn't talk to us. But we were able to find two potential families that we're even more excited about now! There's always a reason.

 

The Lord knows and loves each one of us and He will never leave us alone. The Lord has commended us to have peace and to be of good cheer. Why? Because He wants us to be happy and He's given us every reason to be because of His Son, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate! I love missionary work and I love life and I'm excited for Christmas!

And I love all of you and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season.

Love,

Sister Stevens

President Texeira and the Great Christmas Conference

President José Texeira, who is the president in the Area Presidency for Europe (and thus a member of the first quorum of the 70), came on a mission tour this week. I got to spend two days with him: first at zone conference, and then at mission leader council.

This week was fantastic. It was one of the craziest weeks of my mission: I went on two exchanges plus zone conference and mission leader council, so I left Assen Monday night and got back to Assen Friday night. Lots of sleep-overs! But it was good. I learned so much from this week, especially from President and Sister Texeira, and we were able to finish off the week with some really cool miracles.

I think that one of the biggest things that I learned from President Texeira was how to change. He talked a lot about repentance, and about how ultimately what that requires is a change of our thoughts and feelings, which will then lead to a change in behavior. If we change our belief/priority system, then we will also change our behavior. We cannot make the change that needs to happen in our stewardship if we do not make changes in ourselves. And what it comes down to is working harder, and better, and with more faith in God that He can and will give us the success that He is asking if we leave EVERYTHING on the altar and then act in complete faith. Ultimately it requires a mighty change of heart and a mighty change of mind. Our focus needs to be totally on our mission and our responsibilities here! These trainings from him have been exactly what I needed. We learned so many things from him in terms of doing missionary work better. I'm excited to implement them! But what was more important is how it inspired us to do better: to work harder and with more faith. And we've already seen the miracles from it!

This week, like I said, was pretty crazy, but we also had some amazing miracles the last few days too. We were able to find 3 new investigators still, and teach several lessons, some of which were not even scheduled appointments. And our branch president's wife came with us on joint teach last night even though she lives 20-30 minutes away and it was in the evening, and the lesson went super well! We're staying busy and we're very happy.

Keep being awesome and share the gospel!

Love

Sister Stevens

No Such Thing as a Dead City

First of all, I would just like to say that there is no such thing as a dead city. I guess I don't know a ton about the history of Assen and the missionary work here, but from what I have heard and seen, particularly the fact that it's been opened and closed so many times, this place was a challenge for a lot of missionaries in the past. Ten minste, lijkt het zoals voor mij [at least it seems like to me]. And I have to admit, I sometimes had my doubts as well, despite our baptism, because of the dip that we had afterwards. And I have been told by members before that Assen is one of the difficult cities in the mission.  I don't understand it, because I have to say I couldn't possibly deserve it, but things have exploded over the last two weeks. We have had so many new investigators and been teaching so many lessons. It's taken awhile to get going, and if I've learned one thing here it's that change takes a lot of time, but we are busy busy busy and I couldn't ask for anything more (except for all of those new investigators to start progressing and for a lot more baptisms. I'll put it on my Christmas wishlist...). We've got potentials, we've got investigators! We're getting dropped sometimes too, but that comes with the territory. The Lord has asked us to do something, and as we do our part of what He's asked, He will provide the miracles. Punt. We can always do our part better. But He understands that and that's why we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He loves us no matter what and forever. He's happy when we do as much as we can. And He'll take care of the rest. That I know. That doesn't mean that it'll be easy. But let's be honest, none of us signed up for this because we thought it would be easy. But we did because we knew it would be worth it. And we had faith in Jesus Christ that it would be possible. The gospel is true! And so is 1 Nephi 3:7 (I will I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.). I just wish that will all understood that better. Moses 1:39--this is the Lord's work, and He's doing it! (For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.)

One of the biggest miracles of this week was meeting a super cute couple -- he let us into this student-type housing so that we could try to teach another guy that we had made an appointment with a few days before. We went up to try to teach him, but we weren't sure how to find him, but this other girl who lived there helped us look for him (he wasn't home) and then we taught her a lesson. Then we went back to our appointment's apartment, who was there and we made a new appointment with him because we didn't have a joint teach. Miracle, especially because if we'd had a joint teach that other lesson with the girl wouldn't have been possible. But then we went back down and ran into to guy who had let us in. He said we could come back with a Book of Mormon. When we did, we taught him and his girlfriend and invited them to baptism. They are actually going out of town for a month for the holidays, but they're very positive and we've got an "appointment" to meet with them when they get back. They are awesome!

Life is good and the gospel is true! I love you all!

A Time to Thank

Nederland doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I have much to be thankful for.

First, I'm thankful for miracles. This week was the most successful week on my mission in terms of finding and teaching. We really got this transfer started off well with getting a lot of new investigators! One of the miracles that happened this week was on Tuesday. We had already taught 3 other lessons that day, and we had an appointment with another potential in the evening. But we went over there and it fell completely through. So we knocked a few doors around there, and I felt prompted to knock a specific street. The first door we knocked on that street was these super cool people. They let us in and we were able to give them a first lesson with a baptismal invitation. His health problems would hold him back with some things, but he is definitely open to learning more. In many ways he is very prepared to hear the restored gospel. 

We also had a couple of really good lessons (with members present) with some investigators who hadn't been making a lot of progress, but those lessons went really well and I think that they'll both start progressing soon! Also, on Saturday we found a Chinese woman who we were able to teach the Restoration to that day (with the DVD in Cantonese). And we gave her the Book of Mormon in Chinese and have a follow-up appointment set up!

Second, I'm grateful for lessons learned. The biggest thing I think I was reminded of this week is that God hears and answers prayers. I didn't earn the success that we saw here this week. But the Lord blesses us when we try our best and when our will is in line with his will.

Third, I'm grateful for you. I love you all so much and I am so grateful to be a part of your lives, whether we are family or friends.

And fourth, I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement and for His restored gospel on the earth, and that I have the privilege to share that with people every single day!

I love you all!