And so the work continues...faster and faster every day

Hoi!

So this week was one of the best weeks we've had so far, which is awesome because it means that hopefully we'll be finishing the transfer up strong. Transfer calls are next week Sunday or Monday morning, so you'll find out then what I'll be doing for the 6 weeks following July 24th. I will be too. But, now for some updates:

The family that is getting baptized next week (the 27th) is so solid! We had two lessons with them this week and they are the best people ever. I love them so much. This week for ward council Bishop lined up joint teaches (all from the ward council) for all of the rest of their lessons, so that they can be as welcomed and fellowshipped as possible. We had two lessons with another family we've been working with, and although the kids aren't ready to set a date yet, they are excited to have the lessons again and hopefully are all set up to be reading out of the Book of Mormon and Book of Mormon stories. Also, they should be coming to the baptism next week! Which I think will help a lot. Exchanges with Breda this week were awesome--I was with Sister N. again in Heerlen for a day.

Some thoughts for the week. It is our responsibility to open our mouths to teach. It is others' responsibility to open their hearts to listen. Remember that at one point or another we are every one of the people in the story of the Prodigal Son-- both sons and the father. No matter where we are, we can always come back, and those who are waiting for us to do so (the important ones at least) are waiting with open hearts and open arms, and with great joy. The gospel is true.

I gave a talk this week (in Dutch): if you want the most important part, it's in Elder Holland's talk "The First and Great Commandment" from October Conference. (click here to read)

Love love and more love,

Zuster Stevens

The Field is White

Most beloved family (and friends),

This week truly has been a week of miracles!

We've had quite a few appointments fall through this week, which made for lots of patience developing, but we finished off with a bang. Yesterday we went over to visit a family who is new in the ward. It was an adventure getting there, because I didn't realize they could come pick us up from the station (which was a 30 minute train ride to get to), and then they lived about 5 km away. And it was hot yesterday. But we got there, and they were super nice. Almost immediately we found out that the man and the son were not baptized! But the son really wants to be. So we were working on getting the son set up with a date, July 27th, and still talking, and we asked the husband if he would like to be baptized then too, and he said yes! Miracles do very much happen. One of our baptismal dates from last week is no longer going through the day that was scheduled, but we'll see. The other one is hopefully still solid.

We watched the Hastening the Work broadcast last night and it was the best thing ever. EVERYONE should watch it.

I love you all! The work continues!

Love,

Zuster Stevens

The Best Work on Earth

Miracles are definitely occurring daily here! Often they aren't the miracles you expect or hope for, but just remember to hope and trust in the Lord and his promises and be a little flexible with expectations. :) We set two baptismal dates this week!! That is so exciting because it brings so much power into those peoples' lives. And we met our goal in that, which is exciting, but a little funny because we set the dates with people that we didn't expect to and weren't able to set them with the people we had hoped to...so all is well.

Thought for the week from President Uchtdorf's talk from Priesthood Session in October 2012 conference: "Being able to feel the sublime peace and joy that grow from being a small part of this great cause and work, I would not want to miss for anything in the world.  ... [This is Christ's] work, in which we are privileged to assist." He was talking specifically about the priesthood, but it applies to missionary work too! And ALL other church service. I highly recommend reading the rest of the talk. (click here to read)

We're learning lots and loving life and Heerlen! We're busy, which is good, and seeing progress, which is better.

Love you all,

Love love love,

Zuster Stevens

Greetings from Heerlen

Dearest family and friends,

Hallo! Greetings from Heerlen once again! I've got miracles to report this week! One of the biggest miracles was zone conference on Friday. It was with our zone and Den Haag zone in Leiden, and it was wonderful. 

Sis. Aldous (my companion), me, Sis. Nielson (my trainer), Sis. Hoff (her companion)

I learned so much and hopefully I'll be able to apply it all this week. One of the things we talked about was loving the people. Sister Robinson shared with us this idea. If you are having trouble loving someone, it's probably because you can't forgive them for something. Maybe it's that they have tattoos, maybe it's that they smell bad, maybe it's because they kicked your dog, or maybe it's for some other reason. Either way, the fact remains that it's on you to forgive them for whatever it is. She shared the story of Abigail from the Bible, 1 Samuel 25 (specifically verses 24 and 28; synopsis: Nabal rebuffed David and refused to give him food—Abigail interceded, saves Nabal, and gives David a present—David is pacified; verses 24 & 28:  And [Abigail] fell at [David's] feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. ... I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.) Jesus Christ acted as an Intercessory for every one of us just as Abigail did for her husband. When we don't forgive someone, we are really in effect saying to the Lord that we don't forgive Him, since He has asked us to forgive everyone. So, love everyone! And forgive them. As Elder Holland reminded us last conference, none of us are perfect! But that's why we have the Atonement. And I am very grateful for it.

Another miracle of the week: We had a family come to church!  The ward was excited to have them and they all said they plan to come next week! That was truly a miracle.

I can tell every one of you that the gospel is true and that it changes lives, always, always for the better. I'm so grateful for it and for all of you! I love you!

Love,
Zuster Stevens

Missionaries love...Mail, Miracles, and Members

Dearest family and friends,

Thank you so much for all the support. Because of transfers, I got mail! 7 letters, thank you so much everyone for your support. I loved every one of them and I'm glad to hear that you're all doing well.

I've got a new companion! She is from Provo, UT (sound familiar?), and she is awesome. She is super prepared and has already hit the ground running. I'm so impressed by her! She's going to do great, and we're set up for some really great things in this area.

We've been staying plenty busy! Lots of teaching, which is great, lots of Dutch, which is even better, and lots of successful teaching, more or less in Dutch, which is a miracle. We've had some way good contact with people on the streets and other places, and we are busy, busy, busy, which is the best.

The members are super supportive and feeding us all the time now, which is awesome. We love our ward!

Lots of lessons learned this week, but here are just a few short thoughts from yours truly. First of all, none of us are perfect. As unfortunate as that sounds, that is why we have the Atonement! I am certainly not a perfect trainer, missionary, or person. But I am so so so grateful for the Atonement for that reason. As missionaries/as people, we tend to think that we can fix the world, that any problem we come against is fixable by us. But that's not true. What is true, though, is that the Atonement covers everything. It covers the pain of people whose faith is faltering because of impossible hardships in their lives. It covers the disappointment, hardship, and difficulty in any life-including one of a missionary. It covers the vilest of sinners and their intentional misdeeds. It covers the unintentional hurst that we sometimes as very imperfect humans cause to other people. It covers the hurts other people cause us and the hurts that we bring upon ourselves--whether through sin or mistake. Jesus Christ, in some incomprehensible way, took that all upon Himeslf. He covered it all--even when we don't accept His offering. He is always there to pick us up, lift us when we fall, and love us not matter the cost or what we ever do. He is also there to make any impossible task possible, and believe me, He has done that this week with a few very inexperienced missionaries who are just out to help save the world. He is always there for us, and He loves us all. As 2 Nephi 9:5-7 says, "Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more." The Atonement can fix everything, and I'm so grateful for it!

The Book of Mormon is true. Read it! And try the promise at the end. (Moroni 10:3-5: Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.) I promise it can change any life for the better.

This is the Lord's work, and it is most definitely Him that's doing it! I'm grateful that I get to be a small part of it.

Hope all is well with all of you! I love you all.

Love love love,

Zuster Stevens

And the winner is...me! Heerlen, here I stay!

Dearest of familial ones,

Transfer calls were last night! And, as you might have guessed, I’m staying in Heerlen! Zuster N. will be leaving though, going to Breda. We will miss each other, but we’ll still be in the same district and she will be my sister training leader still, so we’ll be going on exchanges too.

For the potentially bigger surprise, I’m training this transfer! If you’re surprised you’re not the only ones. But I’m excited, it’s going to be an awesome transfer. And I know that the Lord will make it possible as always. Not only possible, but wonderful! This is His work, and I know that He’ll continue to move the work forward. I’m excited to see what this transfer brings. We’ve got some pretty sweet stuff set up for the next few weeks already!

As for this week, it was great. I was given another bike because a member saw mine and said it was too small. Which it was. So she gave me another bike—all rigged out to be a real Dutch bike too. Pretty sweet.

We had some pretty great miracles, the most notable of which being exchanges with Genk. Zuster B. and I (I knew her from the MTC, she was in the other district) were in Heerlen together, and we were able to talk to some pretty cool people, plus give a lesson in Dutch. I will admit I was nervous about the lesson before, but it went really well. At one point a member of the family started telling us something in her native tongue, and I was able to understand a lot of it between my high school Spanish and also some help from the gift of tongues. So that was way cool.

People are prepared for the gospel! And it is true! Share it with everyone you can.

You are all wonderful and I love you!

Love as always,

Zuster Stevens

I think I'll have a week of miracles, with a side of Memorial Day, please

Hallo hallo!

This week, if you haven't guessed, has been very much a week of miracles. Let's just start at the beginning and go through. I might skip some, but you'll get the idea. 

We'll start with a side of Memorial Day. Last P-day some members plus a former missionary who was in this mission but left from this ward, and who just got back so who is now in this ward again (try and figure that one out) came and picked us up and took us to Drielandpunt, the place where three countries meet. It happens to also be right next to the highest spot in Nederland, some lofty 325m or something crazy like that. It was hard to breathe with so little oxygen clear up there. Then we went to Margraten, an American military cemetery. It was sweet.

Tuesday was district meeting and we got ahold of one of our investigators again! We set up an appointment, which happenedon Friday, and he's doing really well. We had dinner with some really great families, our ward is awesome. We were also able to set up appointments for this week with a few less actives and we're really excited about those. Thursday we met with another investigator. She is so so solid and so ready. She's reading the Book of Mormon plus rereading a lot of it. She's about as strong as it gets. We love her. Friday we had 3 lessons! Which is a lot for us so far. All of them went really well. Then last night we went by another lady in the ward who had two friends over. We shared Helaman 5:12 with them and she testified about it and they were both touched. (And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.) They took Books of Mormon and we've got a return appointment! Life is good in Heerlen, and everywhere else, I'd imagine.

Thought for the week is from President Robinson from last week: "You follow this example (talking about the boy who had the loaves and fishes) when you, like the boy, give whatever you have in His service. The Lord magnified the boy's service to feed the 5000 and He will magnify you and your service as you serve your mission."

Keep up the good work, living life and being awesome!

Liefs,

Zuster Stevens