Mission Conference

Well we had a great week here in Vancouver. It has been super raining
and windy and that has been pretty fun to walk through. Thankfully the
members are super awesome and make sure that we had rides to and from
places. And we just try to stay warm. Which works pretty good most of
the time. And this week we were able to teach more lessons than we
have previously. So that has been a huge miracle.

Hawaii and Tonga are doing great. Hawaii went to the temple this past
week and she loved it. Which she already had gone but we are working
on them both getting through and sealed. Which will be so awesome.
Nikita has completely disappeared. We haven't been able to get a hold
of her in weeks. So we have dropped her. We were teaching a lady named
Shannon a few weeks ago but she moved to Colorado. We were singing in
the choir practice before church and she walks in! Apparently she has
moved back and now we get to teach her again. That was a huge miracle.
We also taught a man named Peter and his wife Jessica. They were found
earlier in the year but stopped because they were having a baby. We
talked about the restoration and he has a little difficult time
understanding the priesthood and prophets so we are going back again
with a different approach. Hopefully that works out well.

We found some awesome people this week as well. The first one is
Katie. She has a three year old daughter and really wants to come to
church and start to learn more about Christ. She is busy for the next
few weeks but we are really excited to teach her. She already had a
Book of Mormon and has been thinking about coming to church on her own
before we met her. We also tracted into a man named Pete. He is trying
to find a different church to take his family to so we invited him to
ours :) he said we could come back and teach them next weekend. Then
we found a lady named Courtney. She let us in to her home last night.
She grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and then left the church and feels
like something has been missing in her religious quest. We taught her
the first lessons and left her with a Book of Mormon. She wants to
meet with us in January....which is a long time away but at least she
didn't shut the door on us! So. Lot of cool miracles here :)

We were able to have mission conference this last weekend. And elder
Johnson of the 70 came to speak to us. We talked a lot about the
nature of God and the restoration. He challenged us to ask Heavenly
Father five questions and the experience we have we will remember for
the rest of our lives. I did it and it is awesome so now I'm extending
that challenge to all of you. Ask Heavenly Father tonight these
questions, 1. Do you really have a body of flesh and bones 2. Are you
really there 3. Are you really listening 4. Am I really your child and
5. Do you really love me. I know they are pretty basic but that
knowledge is so essential for us to progress and pray in a way where
we have faith to receive the answers that God wants to give us. It's
amazing knowing that Heavenly Father is real and has a body and is in
the details of our life. It's the greatest.

I was also able to see Sister Michaud at the mission conference. It
was awesome. I miss her. And this week we did a service project for
the city of Vancouver and helped them plant 270 trees along Vancouver
lake. It was a lot of fun. And this week we are going to be doing a
lot of service as well. And for thanksgiving we are going to
different members houses to spend it with them. And president Taylor
invited our zone over for pie that night as well. It'll be great. And
then transfer letters come in two weeks. It's been a fast transfer
that's for sure.

I'm glad things for Tyler's court of honor went well and that the
Christmas tree is up! If I had a car we would be listening to
Christmas music....but I don't. Oh well...maybe next transfer :) well
I hope you all have a great week and a wonderful thanksgiving!

Love,
Sister Stephens

                                                              I saw sister Michaud at mission tour!!!!

                                                    We planted trees this weekend!