You are a Child of God!

We definitely are seeing the hand of the Lord in our work here.
Sometimes it does get discouraging when people are so rude and don't
want to hear this amazing message. But no effort is ever wasted and
the Lord is preparing his people we just have to find them :-) the
stake is redrawing their boundaries so that means the work is growing.
We will find out on Sunday what our new ward boundaries are. It's
really sad because we will probably have a lot of members that we love
out of our ward. But the work of salvation is important :-) so we will
keep on working hard.

Who is the new bishop for your ward? That's awesome that President
call and present LaDow spoke! I love ward conference! We got to help
in the primary in our ward conference so that was super cool. I'm
sorry that you're so sick :-( I hope you start feeling better soon! I
haven't gotten sick lately so that's nice. It's really difficult doing
missionary work and being so sick. So I'm glad that time has come and
gone! It's been so nice here!! We are going to go hang out with some
members for the rest of our pday and have dinner with them. It's like
80 degrees outside and is suppose to rain again on Wednesday so we are
soaking up this sun!! Our zone went for a uphill today but we couldn't
go with because we wouldn't have time to get to the members house. I
wish we could go though. We saw them all gathered in the Safeway
parking lot and it was an amusing sight. I really have a great zone so
it's fun spending time together.

This week is been pretty cool. We haven't been teaching as much as we
were last week but we have been doing a lot more finding. We had zone
conference this week which was super awesome. We talked a lot about
working better with the members and being able to listen to the
spirit. Having the spirit is so important because without it we can't
be effective or help anybody receive the gospel. But we did have some
good solid lessons. We met this lady named Caroline and she asked
where in the book of Mormon she could read to help with her family
issues so we gave her a couple chapters in Mosiah. We were going to
see her again on Friday but she canceled and said that she really
wanted to reschedule. So that's hopeful. We have a super busy week
planned this week though. We really want to get people on date for
baptism and help them make covenants with heavenly father and Jesus
Christ. We do have a baptism Saturday it is for Kimmy Carter. She
lives in our ward boundary but is being taught in a different stake.
It's made everything a little confusing but she was being taught at
her future in-laws house. The important part is that she's getting
baptized and wants to make sacred covenants. So we actually haven't
met her yet but we will be meeting her tomorrow. And we will teach her
the new member lessons. So we have a baptism but it wasn't by any of
our work. Which is okay the work is still progressing. Hopefully we
have a lot of progression in our investigators this week so keep us in
your prayers :-) sibyl is still on date for baptism for May 9 and we
are so excited about that. The Penders are taking the temple prep
class and are so excited to get to the temple. They are such a
wonderful family.

Nothing else super exciting happened this week. But I'm learning a lot
more about coming unto Christ. And it is all been from daily scripture
study. I can't believe how much of a difference that has made my life.
It helps you remember the Savior and remember to keep the
Commandments. It really makes a huge difference. I feel so much more
happiness and joy in my everyday life. I know that scripture study is
a commandment for a reason. Just from reading the book of Mormon I've
Felt the spirit so much stronger in my life. When we have faith we
have to act on that and part of that action is scripture study. Take
some time every day even if it's only 10 minutes to be in the
Scriptures. I know life is so crazy and everyone has so much stuff
going on but we need that extra strength. It is given me so much more
strength that I can't even explain it. That's why we tell people to
read the book of Mormon because just by reading it and not even
applying it yet you feel the spirit. And then when you apply what you
read your life begins to change.

I love you all so much and you're in my prayers. Have a wonderful week
and remember that you are a child of God and you are so loved.

Sister Stephens