June 23, 2014 – ¨Yo soy Hna Bautista, y yo estuve allí en la misión Quetzaltenango.¨ – Rey Henry V

  

Dear Family,

I love the mission!! Can I just tell you?? We had so many wonderful and funny experiences this week. Like we visited Cony and there were 17 thousand niños there who all clapped very exuberantly after we sang ¨Más cerca Dios de ti.¨ You´d think we were MoTab. 🙂

We had a beautiful last multi-zone conference with Pte Bautista and Hna Bautista. It´s so sad they´re making like a tree and leafing. 😦

Update on recent converts: Élida prays to Padre Celestial now instead of to Señor! She just learned that solita! And Luís is now 2nd counselor in the Young Men´s presidency and probably soon will be called as a ward missionary. He´s doing a great job hermanaring all our investigators. I love seeing people progress and change their lives!!

Thoughts:

– Alma 36 is all about remembering and forgetting.

– Alma 37 – Professional counterfeit-money-recognizers (that´s a real thing) don´t study the counterfeit bills; they study the real bills.

We saw a lot of small miracles. María and Paola came to the Father´s Day activity. We finally contacted Ana the reference of tortillería Aracely, just randomly passing by and felt like we should go talk to Aracely and cabal allí estaba Ana.

I love the Gospel. I know that God has a perfect plan and He fulfills His promises. When we align our will with His we come to recognize His hand in all things.

I love you all. Have a fantastic week!

Hermana Stephens

June 16, 2014 – more fotos :)

June 16, 2014 – more fotos :)

June 16, 2014 – more fotos :)

more more more!

June 16, 2014 – MOST INCREDIBLE WEEK EVER

Dear Family,

 

I wish there were sufficient time to write about all of the incredible miracles we saw this week. En sí, Luís Mendoza and Élida Vásquez were both baptized on Saturday and it was so beautiful. Seeing them making covenants with the Lord was one of the sweetest most spiritual moments of my mission. They have both overcome so much opposition to be baptized in the true church of God, and their testimonies are so strong. They both cried during the baptismal service. Storms and wind make roots grow stronger. The most incredible miracle with Élida happened on Wednesday: her husband (who lives in the States) told her ¨bueno, si te queres bautizar, bautizate.¨ When she bore her testimony at her baptism she started crying when she spoke of her husband´s permision. Luís visited investigators with us on Friday and wants to serve a mission so badly. Luís has really repented of everything (especially drinking) and he loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church.

 

Saturday morning we FOUND RUDY! Do you remember him?? The Rudy that was going to be baptized and then disappeared for 3 months? Well we found him, and he came to the baptismal service on Saturday.

 

Then yesterday Luís and Élida were both confirmed. And we went and visited Élida in the tarde with Hna Claudia and Claudia offered to teach her to read!!! And that´s all Élida has been telling us for so long, how badly she wants to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible and the hymnal.

 

On Thursday we visited our investigators with Pte Bautista and Hna Bautista and it was just wonderful! We had the most beautiful and perfect lesson with Luís about Lehi´s dream. (I was just about to type ¨Luís´s dream¨ haha. That too.) I love and will miss President so much!

 

ALSO Thursday was Richards`s birthday! ¨hap-hap-hap-happy birfday!¨ Pao and her family gave us cake yesterday at lunch. 🙂 QUE LO MUERDA!

 

Also, do y´all remember like two years ago when I tweaked my knee and couldn´t walk for a couple days? That happened on Tuesday. So we did divisions and I stayed in the casa and BORED MYSELF OUT OF MY MIND while Richards got to go teach people. Then Wednesday we were in the house too, but Wednesday night Pte Mendez and Ronaldo came and gave me a blessing and Pte told me I would be able to walk the next day. And I could. A crippled swollen easy-to-make-fun-of walk, but I walked. Thank goodness God has given men the Priesthood.

 

This was just the best week. How very many small and great miracles God worked. I love Him and this work and I`m so grateful to be a witness and a small part of it.

 

Love,

 

Hna. Stephens

 

p.s. In this picture I`m eating small hormigas. I don`t remember what they`re called but they were delicious. Gracias, Guicho.

June 9, 2014 – ¨Por qué tienen algunas personas ojos claros y otras ojos oscuros?¨ – Yaki Ríos

Dear The Fam,

Yesterday we had a neat experience. We were a little sad because we had just found out Luís had drunk (read: we were very sad) (also, why do things like that always happen on Sunday?), and we were walking to visit someone, when I thought to knock a door I hadn´t knocked before, so we went over and knocked it. They didn´t answer. All the lights were off. We knocked again, and a little voice said ¨sí?¨ through the window. so we presented ourselves and the window of the door opened. We explained who we were, and that we wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ. She said she already goes to a church and she couldn´t let us in because she´s afraid of robbers (okay…that´s the lamest excuse ever). So normally I would´ve just peaced, but something whispered to share something anyway. So we sung a hymn, talked about the Book of Mormon and gave her one. She wasn´t that interested. Then I offered to say the prayer at the end and I asked if there was anything she would like me to pray for and she said yes and started crying and talked to us about her family and all their problems. She told us that she had just been praying for them when we knocked her door. So we prayed and promised her blessings if she reads from the Book or Mormon. We´ll see what happens.

 

Moral of the story: The Spirit doesn´t normally tell us to do the same thing over and over. Pay attention to the whisperings and you´ll normally end up doing something you haven´t done before. Like I hadn´t ever knocked that door. Or I don´t normally share something messages with people who don´t care enough to even let us in. But God obviously wanted us to be there right then, at that moment, to answer the prayer of one of His confused and burdened daughters.

 

Last week Élida asked us about why she keeps dreaming about her sister who died in January. We told her we´d tell her later, and then a couple days later she reminded us, so this week we taught Élida about vicarious work for the dead in the temples. She cried. She is so so so special. (see foto attached, of her and her daughter Saily).

 

I love y´all so much! I know that this is God´s work. He directs it and all the glory goes to Him. We really are nothing without His guiding hand. I´m so grateful for His mercy and love and I will praise Him forever. Alma 29:9-13.

 

Love,

 

Hna Stephens

 

p.s. The answer I gave to the title was ¨Porque Dios no ama a todos Sus hijos igual.¨ Yaki Ríos is the same loca that thinks my nombre is HENRY.

June 9, 2014 – Foto of missionaries in Huehue when Elder Clark came.

I’m on the front looking like I went to bed at 12_30 and leaving at 4 in the morning to drive 2 hours to take this picture..wait I did!

May 26, 2014 – ¨We want to be a together family of baptized people!¨ -Angelines´s kids to her, paraphrased

I think I´ll just share the most incredible experience of the week just de una vez. Maybe more accurately described ¨one of the most incredible experiences in my whole mission.¨ Or my whole life.

 

Yesterday we had the most beautifully spiritual lesson with Luís. This joven (20 years old) is so sincere and really believes the church is true. We contacted him in the calle and he has now come to church 6 times seguidos, has a TON of friends in church and comes to all the activities. We have taught him L1, L2, L3 and the Word of Wisdom, but he never accepted a fecha (he was baptized 2 years ago in the Evangelical church his family goes to) until last night we taught him in the house of an ex-missionary friend of his. The lesson was kind of impromptu so we didn´t really have a plan, we just knew we wanted to watch ¨Gracias a El¨ (Because of Him), and while we were in there I felt the impression to read a scripture in the Book of Mormon that had hit me really hard a few days ago in my study and that we had then spent a while discussing in companionship: Alma 22:14. So we watched ¨Gracias a El¨ and read Alma 22:14 and explained in detail what Christ´s Atonement does for us (makes it possible for us to be clean of our sins, and be resurrected after this life). 

Then Richards jumps in totally on the same train of thought (talk about the Spirit leading us both in the same direction) and we read Alma 22:15-18 and talked about what Luis can do for Christ now. The member bore his testimony (that lasted like 45 minutes but totally worth it. He discussed Acts 8:31, 36-38 and then Mateo 3:13-17), we asked Luis ¨Seguirá el ejemplo de Jesucristo al ser bautizado por alguien que posea la autoridad de Dios?¨ and he said ¨yes¨ in the most sincere solemn way. First time he has said yes to that question. Before he always said he wasn´t sure yet because he hadn´t gotten an answer about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc. I knew he was going to say yes. We challenged him to be baptized this Saturday and he said he didn´t know…He´s afraid of his family. We got him to pray right then and there in the lesson to ask God if it was right (Richards you genius). Most sincere, humble prayer. He cried. And he´s not a cryer. Afterward we asked if he had asked that question before and he said yes. So we read DyC 6:22-23. He said he felt scared.  We all cried in that lesson, and he wants to be baptized so bad, but he´s just afraid of his family. 

Tonight we´re going to have a Noche de Hogar with the JAS from the barrio who we have always used in lessons with him to hermanar him and they´re now all his best friends. I know he will be baptized this Saturday. It´s hard to see someone struggling with their family in that way but I know that if he is baptized and serves a mission and goes to the temple this will only help his family, even though right now it seems the opposite. He told us that on Saturday there was a fight in his family because he´s been going to the Mormon church. But that didn´t stop him from coming to church on Sunday, much the opposite, he actually llegue´d with a saco. I mean he got there with a suitcoat. Last night after planning and giving and getting dats I asked Richards ¨Why was it so easy for us? Why were we born into such great families?¨ and we came to the conclusion that it´s like with trees: wind and opposition makes roots grow deeper. Luis has some deep roots. Pray for him to have courage.

 

Oooh! Also, we challenged Elida to baptism yesterday walking her home after church and she said yes and wants to be baptized on the 14th, she just has to ask her husband (who lives in the Estados) for permission. She told us she believes that Joseph Smith was the prophet that restored the true church of Christ. Afterward we were like ¨…how does she KNOW that??¨ She can´t read. She´s only been to church once. But we have very thoroughly taught the Restoration to her, using scriptures and examples and we watched the video of the Restoration. In Sunday School the teacher asked her ¨What happened to the church after Christ left the earth?¨ and we said ¨Remember the cups and the spoons¨ and she said ¨oh! La iglesia se cayó!¨ Fácil. That just gave me a testimony of really teaching to the understanding of the people. One time a little while ago we visited her after having taught her about Joseph Smith and she said without us even asking her ¨I was thinking this morning about that joven, and I really think he saw God and Jesus Christ.¨ She has never gone to school before ever. Just goes to show that only faith and real intent matter. Hence why God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to an unlearned 14-year old boy in the first place.

 

So those are a few of the miracles. We visited a family of active members this week whose friends were going to come for a noche do hogar but didn´t end up coming…But it was good to get to know the family, especially Grandpa Francisco, who is maybe the only Chapín I´ve met who has an incredible gift for harmonizing, so we spent a while singing hymns together. So fun! And we read from Preach My Gospel with them; that was really very special. Y´all should read Preach My Gospel. Will you read it every day this week and send me something you learned before next Monday?

 

Love you all SO very much. Allí se cuidan!

 

Hermana Stephens

May 19, 2014 – End of semana de la familia. Obishop relevar´ed.

May 19, 2014 – End of semana de la familia. Obishop relevar´ed.

Dear Family,

 

We had the most incredible experience earlier this week. We contacted this lady selling bread in the street and both felt oddly good about her afterward, and went to visit her the next day though we didn´t know exactly where she lived. The first door we contacted we met this super nice lady named Ana Maria and put a cita for Saturday. The next door we knocked was bread lady, but she wasn´t actually that awesome. We returned on Saturday and Ana Maria wasn´t there but her daughter and her daughter´s husband and their son were there. They let us in their house and we shared a message with them about the Proclamation to the World. We talked about how family relations aren´t meant to end at death, and Ana asked ¨How can we be together forever¨ so we taught the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receive the Holy Ghost, perseverar hasta el fin) and Ana asked ¨how do you know if the person who baptises or marries you has the authority of God? Lots of pastors claim to have that authority, how do you know if they really do?¨ so we taught a mini-Restoration and told them to pray. We invited them to church and they want to, it´s just that Ana goes to the mercado on Sunday. But Jose, her husband, really really wants to come. Puchica, when we taught about ¨until death do you part¨ they both exchanged looks. They had talked about that before. We challenged them to baptism too and they said they just wanted to learn more and meet more members. Yes, all of that was on the first visit. We got out of there and said ¨What just HAPPENED?¨ We have high hopes for this family God led us to.

 

Luis is still SO PILAS! puchicaaaaaaaaaaa. Frustratingly pilas. He says he still hasn´t gotten an answer to know for sure if the church has been restored through Joseph Smith, but oh man is he cumpliendo con sus compromisos. He came to church on Sunday solito, we didn´t even call him, he just came. Late, but he came. We asked him yesterday ¨why are you listeining to us? Why are you coming to church¨ and he said ¨I don´t know…but I woke up this morning and it was already 8:15 and I said should I go to church or not… and I came.¨ We taught him the word of wisdom and he´s going to start obeying it, trying to experimentar with the palabra like it says in Alma 32 as a way of getting an answer. And heloves coffee. But he´s giving it up. Everybody pray so that he can have a ¨clear answer¨ as he says he needs.

 

We saw Felipe yesterday. Remember him? Crazy crazy Felipe? at the end of our conversation he said ¨I only know one thing…what comes down from heaven must go back up.¨ What? Still just as crazy as ever.

 

This picture is of our best menos activa friend Gloria. She loves English and can´t see or hear very well, so we always scream at her in English when we visit her.

 

MARVIN IS SO AWESOME. Did I tell y´all about Marvin??? He´s a miracle. So many miracles! Such proof that this really is the Lord´s work, it´s all in His hands. He´s a reference from forty thousand members (he just got out of prison like almost 2 weeks ago) and he´s going to be baptized on the 31st. So that´s neat.

 

I love Preach My Gospel! We studied chapter 4 this week for Luis and it´s the greatest. I don´t have my notes soooooo maybe next week I´ll tell you specific things. Also I love Ammon. Bien chilero.

 

Something sad happened in our ward, and we don´t have a bishop anymore. Stake Pres came and gave the whole world a machete and started crying at the pulpit…it was really sad. He talked about what Jesus´s response was when he was hit. It wasn´t to hit back, it was ¨por que me pegas?¨ and how Pte Hinckley said once something like how the greatest skill we can develop is self-control.

 

Also something I learned: el abecedario del evangelio es o, b, d, c. Get it?? Super clever.

 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

 

Con amor,

 

Hermana Stephens