We got a wonderful new companion

Dear Family and Friends,

We are still teaching tons and loving Conway. I have been here almost 5 months now...can you believe it?? I can't! :) I love it here.

Sister Allison and I are still together. We got another new companion. Her name is Sister Thompson. She is from Salt LAKE AREA. HERE IS A PICTURE OF US.

I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME TODAY. SORRY! HAVE A GREAT WEEK. I HOPE YOU HAVE SNOW. WE HAVE 80 DEGREE WEATHER HERE AND I WISH I COULD HAVE SNOW. HA HA. LOVE YOU ALL.

KEEP THE FAITH,

SISTER STEVENS

Wedding and baptism week (sorry I cannot get the pictures to attach)

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week was my first 2 baptisms. It was amazing! We had a wedding that was supposed to start at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The couple was a half hour late and then the marriage license was lost for about an hour. They were barely able to get married before they were baptized at 7 p.m. The Lord answers prayers, even if it takes an hour and fifteen people searching. Ha ha. It was a wonderful meeting and I am so happy for Jose and Audrey.

Sister Payne is getting transferred tomorrow. I am very sad about that. I will still be with Sister Allison and we will be getting another companion. :) It is interesting to be in a trio, but lots of fun!

I am attaching a picture from Thanksgiving with a family that we ate with. Also, here is a picture from the wedding.

Happy December! I am so excited that it is Christmas time. What a great time to be a missionary and a good time for each of you to share the gospel with your friends. :) I hope you have a blessed week. Love you all.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens

Few words say it all this week!

Dear Family and Friends,

This is a short letter because we had a district activity today. We went to Ripley's Believe it or not musium. Here are a few fun pictures!

The work is going so well. Thank you for the emails. Sorry, I didn't have time to respond to those of you who wrote this week. Know that I love you all. Keep smiling.

The Lord cares about us each indivitually. I saw that this week. I am grateful for the priesthood. It is one of the best parts of this Gospel. :) We are doing very well and will do even better this week.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens

Sorry about last weeks letter not going through

Dear Family and Friends,

I am so sorry that my email from last week did not go through. I just resent it. I don't have much time left to email today, so this is going to be a little short. Sorry!

I am doing absolutely great! The weather is cooling off and the work is progressing so much. We are teaching like crazy and trying to make time to do things such as eat. Ha ha. We are doing our best to keep up! The Lorde is blessing us to focus on what is most important.

We went on exchanges this week. I went to Lake Nona with Sister Higley, Here is a picture. This is a new area of Orlando that is pretty rich. Most of the neighborhoods are gated and have guards. It was a great day!

We sang in the ward talent show on Friday. It was fun and the members absolutely LOVED it! We sang a song called blessings. Here is a blurry picture. Sorry.

I am ready and excited to see the hand of The Lord in the lives of our gators this week. Keep smiling and counting your blessings. I love you all.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens

November 11

Dear Family and Friends,

I cannot even begin to tell you all what a great week we had last week. We taught 25 lessons and received 5 referrals from members. We also got 2 new investigators. We now have 14 investigators. We don't even have time to teach all of these gators. What a greawonderful problem to have...right?

Last night I had a really cool experience that I want to share with you. We were teaching this really nice 14 year old boy on his porch. It was dark. We were teaching the restoration. I was talking about President Monson and how much I love him. I had this brilliant idea (directly from the Spirit). I made the analogy of the prophet being like a light in a tunnel. I said, "he helps us see the rocks and bumps,so we don't stumble." It brought such a great spirit and helped him understand it very well. It was one of the only things he remembered at the end of the lesson. The Holy Ghost works! I promise. I tried it. You should try it too!

We had Zone Conference last week too. Elder William R. Walker came. I was so excited to see him and his wife. They are so loving and kind. He gave us some great advice and showed some awesome role plays. Here is a picture. They even told all the missionaries that they know me and some of them think I am a Celebrity now. Ha ha.

We came home early on Halloween and had some candy and planned for this week. Here is a picture of us having fun!

Also, we went on a temple tour around the grounds with a sweet couple from Colombia (I told them you served there, Dad.) She is less active and he is not a member of The Church. What a spiritual experience that was. I loved it. My eyes are mostly closed. Sorry!

Well, I am so excited and ready for an even better week this week. Love you all. Keep doing the Lord's work.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens

October 28

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been awesome! We have lots of investigators, 2 of which are progressing and will probably be baptized at the end of the month. We used to spend lots of time knocking on doors. Now we are trying to fit in time when we can knock on doors. We are so incredibly busy and it is a huge blessing. This week we are going to go on splits so we can cover more appointments. This is a huge blessing, but we are having a hard time staying balanced with contacting, visiting members, teaching less active members, and teaching investigators. This week we will do better.

Last week we taught 19 lessons. It was a miracle. One of our lessons was with a family who are members of the church and their step dad who is not yet baptized. We were talking about the plan of salvation and they had some great questions. It was a very spiritual experience. He asks us lots of questions like, "how do you know that's true?" I have many opportunities to share my testimony about the Holy Ghost. It is wonderful.

Sister Allison and I got a new companion, Sister Payne. She is great! She went to BYU-Idaho too. :) I love how happy and bold she is. We laugh a lot and have tons of fun doing the Lord's work. That's how missionary work should be, right? Here is a picture of us at the Bevans.

Well, zone conference is this week. Elder Walker of the 70 is here for it. I'm excited to get some revelation tomorrow. I am loving this area, Conway. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love and pray for you all. Keep smiling and looking for ways you can help the missionaries in your area.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens

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Miracles come after we exercise faith!

October 14, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Missionary work is awesome! We have a progressing gator (my first one on my mission). Yay. She is the one who has a reading disability. Someone has been reading to her from the Book of Mormon. Last week we bought her an audio version on CD. She is simple and I don't know how much of what we teach she understands. I do know that she feels the spirit though.

We are also teaching a sister's husband in our ward. He has some good questions and I think he will progress quickly.I'm super excited about him.

The topic of Fast Sunday seemed to be follow the prophet, which is perfect since we just had conference. I love the prophets and apostles. I would be lost without their counsel. I don't know how people live without knowing there is still a prophet. That is one of my favorite things to testify about.

No pictures this week. Sorry. Next week I will send some.

The elders in the ward had another baptism yesterday. It was a wonderful experience. She has MS, so I was reminded of grandpa Casper. It was a sweet experience. They are baptizing a lot. Our area touches theirs, but for some reason it's been a lot slower here. We see miracles every day. It is wonderful.

Have a great week. Don't forget to smile every day. Love you all and I pray for you.

Keep the Faith,

Sister Stevens