Life is Good, and The Gospel is True!

This week has been pretty great. We were kind of stressed for part of
it but that comes with the territory of serving a mission! However we
did see many miracles this week. Unfortunately we had to drop some
people, like Chris. It is hard to see people make choices that will
not lead them to the happiness that the gospel brings into our lives.
Debbie and Gladys are doing great and we are teaching them every week.
I'm not sure if Debbie will make her baptism date of the 22nd but it
will be shortly after that. She just needs more time to learn and
really be ready to make the covenant of baptism. Gladys is going to be
baptized on October 11 in Utah with her family.

A huge tender mercy this week was we got to see president Taylor. My
companion really needed some more emotional and spiritual support so
president came down to talk to us. He pulled me in the room after he
talked to her and he just told me to keep on going, and to trust in the
lord. Something he said really stuck out to me was to not beat
ourselves up because there are so many people in life that will beat
us up and we don't need to do that ourselves. President is the greatest
ever. I really felt the love heavenly father has for me when I was in
that meeting.

We talked to a lot of random people on the street and argued with a
Spanish man who was trying to teach us about the Jehovah witness
church...we couldn't understand him and he wouldn't let us leave. So
that was kind of awkward. I survived transfers with Sister Michaud! We
are so stoked to be in this area for another transfer. At transfer
meeting our Skype went out that was broadcasting presidents talk...so
we called sis Taylor and she put us on speaker. So the entire zone was
sitting around a car listening to a crackled transfer meeting through
the blue tooth speakers. It was amazing. But we learned a lot. He
talked a lot about who we are, and who we think we are is who we will
become. I have been thinking a lot about that. Our mind set is so
important in missionary work and especially in life. If we know who we
are as sons and daughters of God then we will act and think as such.

We had a really great sacrament meeting this week with investigators
and less actives coming. It was great. One of our investigators had to
cancel our meeting on Sunday because there was a shooting right
outside her apartment window and the police had caution tape
everywhere.....we saw the lights of the police the night before as we
were driving home. So that was awkward. They literally snuck out of
their apartment to come to church. Way sketchy! But we were glad to
see them at church :)

I love the mission so much and I love hearing from everyone. It is
great seeing miracles and seeing just how much the lord loves us all.
The other day we felt impressed to go see a name in the area book and
we did. It happened to be Debbie's house! We had no idea it was her
house and she didn't come to church that day either. So we shared a
message with her and she said she didn't realize how much she needed
that until we came. Heavenly father truly is in the details of our
life and cares for us so very much. I cant believe i only have a year
left to bring others to Christ! Life is good, and the gospel is true!

Love,
Sister Stephens

All Things are Possible Through Christ

This week has been super awesome. We are seeing a lot of miracles here
in this area. And transfers are on Wednesday but i am staying here in
Portland with sister Michaud. I am super happy about that. We have a
lot of good things coming up in the next couple of months. We found a
few new people to teach this week but all four of them flaked out on
their appointments so that was kind of discouraging. However we will
continue to go and try and contact them to teach them about the
gospel. Our other investigators are doing amazing and are all going
to be baptized in august or September. One is on August 22nd and then
the others are in September but we haven't secured down a date for them
yet. And all of them came to church this week which was just amazing
to have them there. Debbie brought a few of her grand-kids and they
just loved primary and were participating as if they had been there
their entire life! It was so great. And then in relief society we
talked about Tabitha in the bible...aka dorkus...and that made me
laugh a lot. It was a really good lesson where we learned just how
important women are in the work of the Lord and in this gospel.

We had a lesson with a less active couple and it made me so sad to see
how little faith they have. They left the church a while ago and don't
want to come back because they are holding on to the sins they love.
It makes me so sad because whatever sacrifice is necessary is worth it
to enjoy the blessings of this gospel and to return to live with our
father in heaven again. But on the contrast we have a young man who is
coming to church for the first time in 7 years and is really praying
to know if this is all true. He is finally making an effort to come
unto Christ and we are really seeing a difference in him, even if the
difference is attending only sacrament meeting, by small and simple
things are great things come to pass.

I have been thinking a lot this week about why we do the things we do
in this church. Why we have faith and why we fulfill callings that are
all voluntary and take up a lot of our time. The simple answer is
Christ. When we come to truly love our savior we will want to do
everything we can to become a better disciple and show our love by
serving him and loving others. Our whole motivation should be Christ.
To study the scriptures everyday and pray everyday and go to church
every week we are becoming more like the savior. And then we can
develop Christ like attributes that will help us so much in this life.
I just love this gospel and how much the savior truly loves us. His
atonement is so real!

We are continuing to become better missionaries and a better
companionship. Which is challenging but all things are truly possible
through Christ! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Stephens

Families Are Amazing!

No worries there was no falling off cliffs this week! We did however
go to Multnomah falls and hiked to the top. It was great. There were
like 20 people that stopped us and said hey sisters!! So we talked to
them and gave them the run down of where we were from. Most of them
were on vacation from Utah. It was pretty awesome. Sister Michaud
loved the falls. So it was nice to be back there again.

Once again the lord has been pouring out his blessings on us this
week. We had a lot of referrals that are golden. We met Debbie this
last week and she is amazing. She is so ready for the gospel and
accepts a baptismal date of August 22nd. Her son is a convert and has
been for like 16 years. She loves learning and asks us good questions
and is just soaking this all in. Seriously amazing. And then we met
this man named Fred who had all of the lessons in Utah. Then he moved
to Portland and has been waiting for missionaries for four months! We had
no idea that he was here. The referral came and we went right over.
He's amazing. Then we had another referral named Gladys and she said she wanted to get baptized! We met her at church and she took a
hymnal home so she could have family home evening. So many miracles.
Those are our real progressing investigators. Everyone else is doing
good. We are just praying for them a lot and helping them in any way
that we can.

It's amazing to see how the gospel changes people. And how much people
just get it when they hear it. We were teaching Debbie the plan of
salvation and we were talking about the temple. She lit up and said
she could be baptized for her mom. And this was even before she agreed
to be baptized! It was amazing. Families are amazing. The gospel is
true. The priesthood has been restored. And then we met this lady
named Amanda. She is amazing. She has never heard of the church before
or the Book of Mormon. Her mother in law is getting assistance from
another ward in the stake. So we went to try and teach them and Amanda
was home! She just soaked it all in and wants us to come back to teach
her family. So many miracles.

It finally rained this weekend! And I realize that my rain coat does
not work in pouring rain. I was drenched. And then that made me
grumpy. And then people were extremely rude that day haha. But it's
okay. The gospel is still true. I've been reading from the book you
sent me! The infinite atonement, and its amazing. I'm learning so much
about the savior and how the atonement is so real. This week I was
reading about the fall and how Christ redeemed us from that in so many
ways. He unconditionally allows us to overcome physical death and we
will all return to the presence of God to be judged. But the second
spiritual death that comes from our own sin is up to us to change. We
have his help, which is the only way to do it, but it is conditional
on how we live this life and how we become. We never try to earn
heaven but reach the potential God has for us.

It looks like you are all having so much fun in Utah! Tell everyone
that I love them and miss them! It's crazy to see how big all of the
cousins are getting! Especially Cody's kids. Utah trips are the best so
have so much fun and send me good pictures.

Remember who you are, and that the lord loves you and I love you!!

Love,
Sister Stephens

Missionary Work is Seriously Amazing!

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and for the many birthday
memes that I received. It was a really great day and I'm really
feeling 22. Also thanks mom so much for the birthday package I really
loved it all. The iPad case it's just great and I love the book and I
bought two new pairs of shoes today so that was awesome. Sorry this is
taking me a little bit to get to you, but we went hiking today, so I
finally have some time. This week has been really great we found six
new investigators. They are all pretty awesome so we will see how they
progress. Jeffrey hasn't committed to anything. So we are still
working on that. We also haven't been able to contact Shay so that's
been discouraging. We finally met her at her apartment and she seemed
to have a lot of reservations and didn't want to talk to us. We aren't
sure what happened but we will keep working hard. The field is white
already to harvest.

We were tracking the other day and this guy came up to us and said are
you taking me to church tomorrow? We were super confused and finally
he said that the city Bible has a bus and they just pick people up for
church. We talked to him some more and he said that we could come back
the next day to teach him. It was super awesome, his name is Chris,
and he has a little girl named Riley. The lesson went really well and
the spirit was super strong. He wasn't quite sure about Joseph Smith
but he had a sincere desire to know. So that's what really
counts. Super awesome guy loves the Bible and is looking for God more
in his life. We are excited to see what comes of this. The other Chris
is MIA we have no idea where he's at. So we just keep trying to call
him and pray for him. His fellow-shippers know where he's at and said
he will contact us in a few weeks. And he still wants to be baptized but we
have to meet with him for that to happen. Also we got a referral today
and the description said I want to take the lessons so I can be
baptized. So we are super pumped about that!

We are just seeing so many miracles here and it's been really great.
They are from meeting super cool people to making appointments to
finding the elect. Missionary work is seriously amazing. It's hard.
But the hardest best thing I've ever been a part of. We are now in the
Gresham zone. Which means we have a new district leader and a new
district and Amazon. They are super cool though and we all went hiking
today. We went to horse tail falls the one that we went to a long time
ago on that Old Highway by Multnomah Falls. It was way fun and I'll
send you some pictures. We were hiking back to the car and I was
talking to my companion and apparently I just lost sight of my feet.
And then I went down the cliff and this couple behind me ran and
grabbed me arms to keep me from falling more. So that was fun. Then we
caught up with the elders and I was crying and shaking and my leg is
all bruised and beat up. But no worries I am alive 😀

I have been studying a lot in Alma and in the war chapters. I have
been so impressed on how Moroni supported his people in God. He
fortified them and always told them to look to Christ for their
support and deliverance. This world is hard, and we have to fortify
ourselves against Satan. He will have as much power over him that we
let him have. So we have to build our foundation on Christ. And we do
that by doing the dailies. Daily prayer and scripture study. As well
as following the commandments and keeping the Sabbath day holy. There
is no time to waste. He gospel is hopeful and brings the most joy in
our lives. I just love it. I love you all so much and feel your
prayers give me strength. Have a wonderful week!

Sister Stephens.

I Love Being a Missionary!

This week has been pretty great! We were not able to see Jeran or
Chris this week so that was sad, we may have to push the baptism date
back because we haven't been able to meet with them. Which means they
need more time to make this a priority in their lives. We did however
see some really amazing miracles. We met with Shay and taught her the
restoration and she said it all made sense and she accepted a baptism
date of August 15th! And we did a church tour with her and she loved
the chapel and felt the spirit so strong. She has been searching for
something in her life and she said she is feeling like she is finding
it. I love being a missionary! Jeffery is doing good, he came to
church this week! And all of the talks were about obedience. So that
was just perfect. We met with him after church and read Alma 32
together. He doesn't have a lot of faith so we are breaking on baptism
for right now to help him build his faith in God and Jesus Christ. He
really liked the seed analogy and how when we are diligent we will
reap the rewards. That's whats amazing about this gospel. If we
sincerely want to know it is true and do the work to find out then we
will always get an answer that it is true.

 On Saturday I was able to go with sister Gomez back to la center!
Hannah and Aaron Glenn, the penders cousins, were getting baptized! It
was so amazing to see everyone from that ward there. It was like a
great little reunion. We left our companions in Portland to work so
that was fun for them! They did a great job without us, it seems like
we are being trained instead of us training them. I'm getting more
settled in my role as senior companion. And not being prideful in
anyway haha just meaning that I'm less stressed about my duties and so
that has been a really great burden lifted.

We also went on exchanges this week and sister Olsen and I basically
just did service all day and that was really fun. We have an
investigator named Jerry who has some health problems so we go and
help him in is yard. The elders came with us to help and we ended up
picking black berries for like two hours. And sister Michaud and I
love black berries. Seriously they are everywhere here. And we just
eat them whenever we are tracting. So we are going to make a cobbler
for district meeting/my birthday. It's gonna be great. And I promise I
won't open anything until Wednesday. But I'm putting sister Michaud in
charge of that because you all know me haha.

So we had to go to this stake meeting last night and we were all very
confused and elder call from the 70 was there as well as three stake
presidents and president Taylor. Which I never complain when the
Taylor's are at meetings. But the purpose was they are dissolving the
Portland east stake. We are now in the Gresham stake. Which we haven't
found out what that means for us, probably next transfer we will be in
the Gresham zone but still be in our areas. We were hoping to get more
people in our ward but that didn't happen, our Ward really needs some
more strong families to help with callings. It's so tiny! But I love
it. This area is just coming alive. There is never a dead area only
dead missionaries. And we have seen it blossom as we have worked hard
and been strictly obedient. And we have also seen a lot more joy in it
as well.

I love you all so much and I pray for you daily!

Sister Stephens

Remember the Importance of Enduring to the End

I am not getting used to being senior companion haha it's tough. But
it's been super great being here with Sister Michaud. She is such a
great worker and we are constantly trying to improve our teaching
skills and our companionship unity. This week has been more tough than
previous weeks but that's life so we keep on working and pressing
forward. We had a lot of people cancel their appointments so we did a
lot of door knocking and street contacting. Which produced some
results! We met a woman named Shay and she was interested in having us
come and teach her so we are going back on Tuesday! And she has read
the things we gave her and that itself is a miracle. We have also had
a lot of people laugh at is this week and slam doors but the good
always out ways the bad. We had a few wonderful miracles. We put Jeran
on date for baptism for the 8th of August and Chris called us and said
he wanted to be baptized. But then he missed his appointment and won't
call us back. So lots of prayers. We taught Marlena and Phil about the
plan of salvation and it went good, they have lots of questions so we
are preparing a lot for their lessons, which we do for all lessons but
even more. Jeffery said he hasn't got his answer yet, which I think he
has he just isn't recognizing it so we are going to work on that with
him.

We met a lot of interesting people this week. One of them was drunk
and she was asking us to pray for her son who had his face ran
over...and we were in the more sketchier part of our area and we heard
these loud noises which sounded like a gun but were fireworks. Both
Sister Michaud and I flinched and she said, "notice I didn't flinch,
but if I duck you get on the ground!" That was rather comforting to
hear haha. So no worries we are being taken care of here in Portland.
We meet a lot of drunk people....on the Fourth of July this guy wanted
help up a hill and he was very drunk so the elders went and helped him
away from us. Portland is truly the greatest.

On the fourth we went to help some people move in and that took most
of the day and then we went to have dinner with Lourdes, a recent
convert, and she took us down to the Columbia river to watch all the
fire work shows in Portland and Vancouver. It was kind of like the
time we all went out to Pasco, but I was glad to be there. The elders
in our district came with us so we all had a great time but we didn't
get to bed until 11:30 and that was just brutal the next morning haha.

We had a lot of meetings this week too, one of them being the
trainer/trainee meeting and president talked to us for a while. Which
is always just amazing. He talked about who we are as Washington
Vancouver missionaries and what that means. It was really hard to
loose 14 elders to the Yakima mission, I served with most of them.
This mission is just a huge family and they will all be so missed. But
the Kennewick mission lost about 100 missionaries so they took even
more of a hit. It's all in the Lord's plan, and as president Taylor
always says, "God doesn't do random" we are getting 30 new
missionaries next transfer and over half of the mission will be under
a year! It's crazy what's happening here, the work is certainly being
hastened.

I'm so glad to hear that everyone is doing good! I hope you all
remember the importance of enduring to the end and how much we are
strengthened by the lord everyday.

Love,
Sister Stephens

Obedience Brings Blessings, But Strict Obedience Brings Miracles!

I know I always say how many miracles we have during a week. But wow what a week. It has been amazing. Like probably the best since I have been on my mission. My new companion is Sister Michaud and she is from Mesa Arizona. And she is awesome! We get along so great and are helping each other become more and more consecrated and dedicated to our purpose as missionaries. I still have no idea how I am going to train her but hopefully the meeting that we are going to on Tuesday will help out! But she came trained! Seriously its so great being here. It is interesting because a lot of our set appointments canceled this week so we didn't get to meet with Chris, Mia, or Arem. So that was sad but we did get to meet with Jeffery. He is coming a long slowly and steady. He recognizes that he feels good while he is with us and while he is reading from the Book of Mormon but doesn't feel like he has gotten an answer yet. He told us that he thinks something is missing from his life and that other places and churches haven't been able to fill that. And he said that he feels complete when he meets with us but he doesn't want to get baptized!! It was so heart breaking! But we aren't through yet. We asked him if he would when he knew it was true and he said yes but he wouldn't commit to a date. He said that he just doesn't want to have his life defined by religion and that he is conflicted because he doesn't know if he will be happier if he stays the same or is baptized. So he is going to pray with real intent this week and we are praying like crazy for him! 

So another amazing miracle this week was we went at like 8:50 to go follow up with a potential investigator and we knock on his door and he was so happy to see us. Him and his wife invited us in right away. They said that they had a surprise for us so naturally we were a little sketched out haha. But out walks this young man named Micah and he is a returned missionary and just moved in with them. Apparently they met at orientation for funeral director school and Phillip asked if he had a place to live and he said no so he invited him to stay with them. So we talked to them about the restoration and they have heard a lot of rumors about the gospel and about Joseph Smith. We taught them part of the restoration and they were open to learning more about it all and we are meeting with them tomorrow! But when we walked out Micah told us that he had been praying and reading his scriptures that night asking for a way to share the gospel with them soon. And then like 10 minutes later we knocked on their door. The Lord works in mysterious ways but it was the coolest thing ever. 

Then on Friday night this week we went to the church to finish our weekly planning and we saw these people who were just sitting by the church. We went and talked to them and they said they just come to sit at the church everyday because they like the way they feel while they are there. They are from the pacific islands and their names are Jeran and Fancy. They asked how they could get to heaven so we started to talk to them about the plan of salvation and the restoration and the priesthood. They absolutely loved it. They set up a time to meet with us the next day and sadly they never showed up. But yesterday we went to the church and we saw them in the parking lot again! They said that they had a family thing going on and they felt so bad that they couldn't call us or tell us they weren't going to be there. But we were able to give them a tour of the church and they felt the spirit so strongly. It was amazing. We talked about Joseph Smith and all of the pictures in the church. Then we showed them the chapel and talked about the sacrament. They took their copies of the Book of Mormon and were just so happy. They said that they feel something. And that it is good. Its hard to put into words the feelings there because the spirit was just so strong and I am so excited for them. They told us they would get baptized once they knew it was true. We will see them again on Wednesday. 

We have just been working hard and trying to do our best out here in Columbia River. We had to say goodbye to 11 of our Elders because they are leaving to go to the Yakima Mission. And that was really sad. We all sang to them at transfer meetings and President cut the song short because he was about to cry. Our mission is so close, it really is a family and I feel SO blessed to be here in the best mission in the entire world with the best mission president ever. The gospel is true, the work is good, and the miracles are many. Obedience brings blessings but strict obedience brings miracles. In the mission field and in our life. I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember that I am always praying for you! 

Love, 

Sister Stephens