Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a pretty interesting week this week! First of all thanksgiving
was awesome, and I did get the package :) it was all perfect, thank
you so so much! We started our day doing secret service for a part
member family. We raked their leaves and it was a lot of fun. They got
back from hunting just as we were getting done. So I held two dead
pheasants. It was interesting. And then we had to go and get cleaned
up. Our next stop was with the Kahm family. They are recent converts
and we went to play games with them. Thankfully we only had one dinner
though! After a few hours we headed over to the Carey-fusons house.
They had a lot of people over and we played minute to win it for an
hour before dinner. Dinner was awesome and they do this really cute
tradition. The place setting is an individually picked out ornament
for that person. They are all super personal and after eating we all
took a turn to open them. They bought us each this super pretty
ornament of the Portland temple. So cool. And now it's hanging on our
little Christmas tree in our basement. After dinner we spent some time
with the Turners and had pie with them. And then went to President
Taylor's for pie with the zone! So it was a pretty awesome day.

As for teaching this week we were able to meet with Shannon. She is
struggling with reading from the Book of Mormon, so we read it with
her. She is coming along but needs to gain her own testimony. We also
met with a few less actives. Hawaii and Tonga are out of town so we
didn't get to see them this week. We did our scripture study class and
there wasn't a lot of people there but it was a holiday week. We have
a lot of people coming to this weeks though! Alex Wiese is getting
baptized this weekend! It's a child of record baptism but we have been
working with their family so we get to go to the baptism. We are
excited for that one. And speaking of baptisms.....we went to Portland
this weekend for a baptism on Saturday. Do you remember the McGrath
family? They are a part member family that we taught in Columbia
River. Well we found out that two of the kids were getting baptized
and their dad baptized them!! It was amazing. They were all so excited
to see Sister Michaud and I there. And Debbie was there too!!! There
may have been tears. I just love those people so much. It was a great
weekend.

We have a lot of people to follow up with this week and hopefully
make them new investigators. Only Shannon came to church this week but
we did have quite a few less active members there. We found a new
potential this week but we haven't been able to find any new
investigators yet. But we will! We are making some changes in our
approach so hopefully that will help.

We're able to talk to some people at our service this week about the
church. They just had questions and we were able to help them. It was
really cool. We were teaching someone, so was the other sisters, and
the elders and it was all at the same time and we gave them all a copy
of the Book of Mormon. It was pretty cool to watch.

I was in the store today and it hit me that I am reaching my ten month
mark this week. Ten months. I feel like I just got here. And we find
out about transfers this week as well. There is so much to do in eight
months. I just can't believe it. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel
like days. I have loved it all though. It's been a difficult ten
months but it has all been worth it. I am so glad that I finally
decided to serve, it really is something that i will never regret
doing.

We had an interesting sacrament meeting this week. The bishop wanted
us to focus on the sacrament more. So we had three speakers all
talking about the sacrament and the atonement and a Ward choir number
all before we took the sacrament. It was really awesome. Definitely a
little strange but really made the reason for the sacrament stand out
more. So it was a good Sunday. Also there is a new video that you all
need to check out it is on Christmas.mormon.org it is the new video
for the Christmas season. It's so good.

Well that's all from this side of Washington aka the promised land. I
hope you all had a great thanksgiving and I love you all!!

Sister Stephens