Awesome Assen: Take 5

This week has been great. It's always good to start the transfer off well. Sister Andersen and I have been doing really well so far and seeing lots of miracles. The biggest of those miracles is our baptismal date. He is so willing and ready to make the changes in his life necessary. We had a lesson with him about the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday and basically we just told him what it is and he accepted it! He is a smoker now, but when we told him that smoking is against the Word of Wisdom he just said, "Okay, I'll stop." Then yesterday during onderzoekers class he had a question about tithing because he'd heard it being discussed during priesthood and we told him and he just accepted it. He's having a lot of trials right now, so he's really stressed, but we ran into him accidentally the other day and he told us that he's stressed, but also reading, and it helps! That's a miracle in and of itself because reading the scriptures tends to be hard for him. He reads it all two or three times so that he can understand it better! He also said that he wants to go through the lessons twice before getting baptized, which is really cool. The branch loves him and is friendshipping him so well, and we're really excited about it all. Also, we got ahold of some other investigators who have been gone for a long time, and set up an appointment. They were really positive before, so I'm really excited to be able to teach them again.

I learned a lot about diligence this week. We’re doing a Book of Mormon reading as a mission, focusing on a Christlike attribute each week, and this week’s was diligence. One way that I worked on enduring with opposition is by trying to just keep working and looking for the reason. We had a lot of appointments fall through this past week, but we were still able to get a lot done because we always had back-ups and tried to find a reason for why something didn't happen. For example, we were able to set up that appointment with the other investigators (mentioned above) because one of our appointments fell through. It's good to be realistic about your situation, but the best way to do that is to recognize that this is the Lord's work and if something happens outside of our control, it's because He has a good reason for it. Work hard, work smart, and share the gospel.

Also remember that you are a child of God and that He wants to hear from you!

A Happy New Year and a Happy New Transfer

Dear everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope it was great. We had to be inside our apartment at 4 because Nederlanders really love their fireworks, so that's safest. I have to admit, I wasn't sorry to be out with all of the fireworks going off! But it was super cool to see and to hear from inside the apartment.

So, transfer calls came last night. And I'm staying in Assen! That's pretty rare to stay for 5 transfers, especially because Sister Hoff has only been here with me for two. But transfers are inspired and I'm sure that the Lord has His reasons! I'm not complaining--I love Assen with all my heart. It's just a little awkward now because I already told everyone at church good-bye...but that's okay. Komt goed [it's good]. I'm very excited about my new companion. She was just in Apeldoorn, so I've worked with her already a little bit this past transfer. She's great.

One of the big miracles of the week is our baptismal date, as always. He missed his appointment on Wednesday and then we just couldn't get ahold of him. We were pretty worried, but then we ran into him while biking to another appointment. He had some problems come up all of a sudden and had to arrange quite a bit of stuff, but he said that he was coming to church! And he did, all three hours. During investigators class we were able to teach him with three other really great members of our branch, and he just loved all of church. He kept saying that investigating for him (with no religious background) was hard, and when we asked him what was so hard he said that it was that he didn't have a habit yet of praying, so it was hard to remember to do it. The branch has been fellowshipping him super well and we're really excited for him! 

A few more of our huge miracles this week also happened on Sunday. Yesterday we went over and taught a first lesson to a family in the branch. The husband is a member of our church, and the is Christian, but not a member. Their oldest son just turned 8, and so their home teachers are helping them with a lot of things, including making a decision about whether or not their son should get baptized. So we taught the family with the home teachers there, and it went really well, even if it was sometimes a little hectic. Their 3 kids are very active! But they're a lot of fun. 

Then after that we went to another investigator, who we've been teaching for a few months now, and her biggest problem has been that she hasn't felt comfortable praying. But we taught a great lesson on prayer and at the end invited her to pray (again--she always says that she doesn't feel comfortable because she's not good with words). And she did! For the first time ever. It was so sweet and pure and innocent. It was a wonderful moment. It is wonderful to remember why we pray--because we're talking to our Heavenly Father, who loves us more than we can imagine and who wants more for us that we know, and even more than we want for ourselves sometimes. That's why I'm here, to help people realize that! And I love it.

Hope all is well with all of you!

Love,
Zuster Stevens

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!

Forget yourself and get to work

One of my biggest miracles this week was zone training. I had prepared quite a bit for it, but the last couple of days before had been crazy and I just didn't feel very prepared right before. I prayed so much right before, but I just wasn't sure how it was going to go. I also really just don't like talking in front of large groups of people, so basically I was scared. But the Lord helped me so much with it. I was able to feel the Spirit working through me and it went so well, better than I could have imagined. That was not me. I had nothing to do with any inspiring thing that came out of my mouth. It wasn't that I was saying anything unusual or unexpected. It isn't that I was saying anything super profound. But I could feel the Spirit there and I know that the other missionaries felt the Spirit there as well. And that was incredibly powerful and humbling for me. I know that the Lord makes up for us where we fall short. I know that the Atonement covers that part of our service--the part where we've given everything but where we alone are not enough.

We had lots of other really cool miracles this week! We were able to talk to one of the recent converts who was baptized back in March and almost immediately went inactive. He still wants to come back, and even though I don't quite get what's holding him back, I have faith that he will come back. Also, we've had some really incredible experiences finding people! We're booked the rest of the week almost, and that is super exciting for Assen. This is the Lord's work and He is doing it!

In other news, transfers are this week and Sister Hoff and I are both staying! I'm so excited to be here in Assen for another transfer! It's going to be awesome!

I love you all! Stay strong and keep being amazing!