Happy Valentine's Day!!! We definitely had a great week out here in Woodland and Kalama. We had dinner last night with some really awesome members who are coming back to activity. I just love them! They came out to a lesson with us to another less active member and were awesome missionaries and testified like crazy. It was way cool. And the regional stake conference was super great as well. I loved how elder Renlund directed all questions that he has been asked about the church back to the restoration. Because that is the keystone of our religion. Because of the first vision we know that God still speaks and he is continually giving us revelation. For our own lives and for the world. It's great. Yesterday we had to go out and meet with the bishop who lives like forty minutes away from woodland so it was quite a drive but the weird part was to get there you have to drive through part of the La Center Ward boundaries. And it was way weird driving past houses of people I use to teach. But it was a good meeting. On our way back into town we felt prompted to stop at a certain house and it turns out it is an inactive member who joined the church about ten years ago. She wasn't thrilled to see us but once she realized that we didn't know who she was, she opened up to us a little more. It was so hard to see because you can tell that she misses the church but feels guilty because she isn't living a life style that is in harmony with the standards. It's hard to go back after being gone for so long, but we had a good visit with her and hopefully will be able to see her in the future, but she didn't seem too optimistic about that. Just little steps and little seeds being planted to soften people's hearts.
We didn't get to meet with Ashleyanne this week :( we were scheduled today to see her but we also had interviews with President Ferrin. He took a lot longer than President Taylor does so our time kept getting pushed back. We drove out at our time which was 2, but didn't get done until 445 because there were four elders ahead of us. A bummer but we will be seeing her tomorrow. She did go to mutual on Wednesday and told the people there that she is getting baptized in March! So that was cool to hear about.
We also met with a long term investigator named Gary. Our Ward mission leader drove us out to that appointment. He has taken the lessons for two years and had some hurdles to get over. But we are working on the last one so he can get baptized. We asked him to pray specifically if the Book of Mormon is true. I have noticed that being that specific really helps because then it allows for Heavenly Father to give us a specific answer. And with a testimony of the Book of Mormon, it's easier to overcome things and to be baptized. And we are praying that is sooner than later.
We had a lesson with a new investigator named Quincy. He has met with missionaries a lot over the past years but it seems like they mostly just had conversations, rather than teaching the doctrine. So we are going to be doing that. We taught him about the plan of salvation and when we got to the kingdoms of glory he said something pretty cool. He is super into sports and so he connected the celestial kingdom with playing college ball. That in order to play, you have to meet the requirements like doing good in school. It's neat to be able to see people's aha moments when we are teaching. Plus the plan of salvation is my most favorite lesson to teach. All the lessons just intermingle with each other. It's the best. We have the restoration to know about the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ to fulfill the plan. Just shows me how important the basics of the gospel are and the testimony that they give you.
We had another cool experience this week. We found a young man who wanted us to come back over and teach him so we set a time and asked Bro Shaw and Cooper to come with us. When we got there he didn't answer the door but we heard basketballs so we followed the sound. He was back there playing with a neighbor boy. When we first talked to him he was excited to see us, but on that night he was so not happy we were there...even though we confirmed like two hours before. He said his parents weren't home and he just didn't want to talk to us. So Sister Girot was like, well can we play some basketball with you? And that was weird at first but it was definitely inspiration. Because his friend, Aaron, started asking so many questions about the church. And he knows Bro Shaw's son from school. We weren't able to set up another appointment but we will soon. It was just cool to see how Heavenly Father needs us to be in one spot to talk to someone that we didn't even know was there.
We have also been working a lot with the less active members of the wards. We weren't able to have the family home evening last week but it is on so far for today. We are continuing to find people and it's been really great serving here. So update on Pres Taylor: he isn't allowed to do transfers so President Ferrin will be doing them. And to answer your question he was chosen to be an interim president from the brethren. Apparently he has done it before, and was a supervising mission president for 31 missions in Asia to assist the mission presidents. So he's pretty knowledgeable. Interviews were interesting this week with him. He is so awesome and just talked with us for like thirty minutes about a lot of different things. It was just strange not seeing President Taylor on the other side. But it was nice to be able to meet them and see who is running the mission currently.
We have just had an awesome week. But I have been sick so that hasn't been too awesome. I'm super tired all the time and have a cold and stomach thing going on. But we keep pressing forward and pray for strength. There's too much to do as a missionary to be sick! Oh and they are trying to find housing for another set of sisters to cover first Ward. So we might not have to cover two areas next transfer but then they might split up sister Girot and I 🙁 but we will see what happens next week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Stephens
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