Called To Serve: Wonderful General Conference!

Wow what a week! I just loved general conference. We watched it mostly at the stake center and then on Sunday morning we went to the Renslow's house and watched it with Ashleyanne. I was extremely grateful to hear President Monson speak. Even if it was just for a few minutes, it strengthened my testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My favorite highlights from conference was first from Elder Hallstrom of the 70. I loved that he talked about our identity and how we need that to be our first and foremost defining factor about us. We really all are children of God. And I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk about the lost sheep. I loved how he addressed how the savior knows where we are at and will carry us home! Oh man it was all just so great. Just really uplifting so if anyone hasn't watched it yet, do it!!!

We had an awesome lesson this week with Ashleyanne and her family. It was on a blanket outside because it was so so warm outside. But we were outside and so a bunch of children wanted to join in on the "picnic" so we had like three other young girls come and listen to the restoration. We taught it using cups and so it was a really fun lesson. And we had dinner at a members house this week and we read from the Book of Mormon with all of them. It was awesome. And we are seeing them all again tonight.

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with Katie or Patrick this week so that was sad. But we did have some great miracles this week. Yesterday we were walking in woodland and saw a couple down the street so we went to talk to them. The lady said she was a member of the church already but they had just moved to Woodland. Her boyfriend isn't a member but he went to church and really liked it. We got their phone number and are going to be meeting with them this week. We also taught Alanna and Kaitlin this week. We played a lot of games with them to keep them engaged and focused on the lessons. We taught them about following the prophet and the commandments since general conference was coming up. They are just so cute! And we decided on a new baptismal date for them! April 23rd! It is going to be grand. However it is three days after transfers so hopefully we stay in Woodland or we come back for the baptism.

I was able to go on a mini exchange this weekend with Sister McMullin! I always Love being with her. We went to contact referrals and they weren't super interested but it was still great to have referrals. We did a lot of finding this week because most of our appointments canceled....but we did get to go do service at the thrift store with the Woodland first sisters so that was always fun. And we met with a less active young man named Jared. His family loves Doctor Who and their living room is just filled with posters and figurines of the Doctor. It was amazing. When we first went in. I just loved it all. My companion thought I was crazy haha but I thought it was cool.

So update on housing....we are still living in Longview and may be there until the end of the transfer. But we don't know yet. Even though the drive isn't very fun we love living with the hermanas. So fun. But our room smells so so so bad. We have cleaned and cleaned again trying to find the stench but we can't. So gross. And we burned an entire candle trying to make it livable. And so a member just gave us a cinnamon candle when she found out about our stinky room. Another fun story of the week comes from Saturday. After conference a few of the missionaries went to Five Guys for lunch and two of the elders are super into basketball. And since it is the end of March madness they were making their own team lineup. But used latter day prophets....one was a pre 90s team and the other was a post 90s team. It was hilarious. Gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

I love serving in Woodland and Kalama. The people here are wonderful and so prepared to hear the gospel. It has been a growing place and a place to see the hand of Heavenly Father in his children's life. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Stephens