August 12, 2013

Tough week, but miracles still happen

Dear Family and Friends,

Remember last week I talked about how challenging missionary work is? Well, this past week was even harder. I have gained a great understanding about how I can and should use the atonement in my life. Through these challenges I am still happy! :) Sister Hoffmeyer and I are seeing miracles and I am so grateful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I see many people who don't have it and don't even seem to want it and it makes me sad for them.

At the beginning of the week we had appointments with Sister G, the M family and a recent convert, Sister D and 5 of her 6 children (her husband and son are not interested in the Church at this point). All of them fell through. Our other 3 lessons this week also fell through. However, we were able to give one impromptu lesson to a lady who let us in on Thursday. We have a follow up appointment with her and her fiancé tomorrow. Her name is Sister C. She has a baby and lives with her fiancé, so we will get them married and baptized soon. :) I will tell you more about that next week.

We knocked on a lot of doors and found a few more potential people to teach. Hopefully they all become investigators--or gators as missionaries call them around here. Ha ha.

This first picture doesn't need much commentary. I will just say, don't worry...we cleaned the stove.

Here is my study cubical. I spend many hours here.

This is my companion and me :) We get along very well.

Finally, this is the senior couple, the Bevans. They are like our parents away from home. Don't worry Mom and Dad, they haven't taken your place.

Well, another sad thing is that the M family's dad said he doesn't like what we teach and he won't approve of his two kids getting baptized. Their mom says he can't stop them when they turn 18. We can't go over there and teach anymore.   But she said she will still bring the kids to church. They are great! I love them and can't wait for them to be baptized.

We also had two appointments with Sister G last week. Both fell through. She is busy with her little girl and said when she knows her schedule she will call us. We think we lost her. So as of now we have one gator and we have only had one lesson with her. We hope her fiancé becomes a gator soon too.

I was reading in Moroni 9 today. Verse 6 is very good. I substituted the word "son" for "missionaries". Very powerful! I am receiving much strength here. I know we will see miracles this week. We saw them last week and it was a difficult one, so we can see miracles anytime we are looking for them.

It was very hot this past week. Every day it was about 95 and humid...ugh! We have a car with AC though, so that's nice.

Please continue to pray for us to be able to find people to teach. The hearts of people here are being softened; we just need to find the people who are ready. Thank you for the prayers. I love reading everyone's letters. If you would like to mail me letters, please do! :) Love you all.

Keep the faith,
Sister Stevens