May 12, 2014

I got to talk to my family yesterday on skype for mother’s day and it was so fun. I miss you all so much. I was trying to figure out what to say to you this week and I just want you all to know I love my mission. I love getting out of my comfort zone even when at times it makes me sick to my stomach. lol I love knowing I was called of God to do this amazing work, to find his children, my brothers and sisters and teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. the church that was on this Earth when Christ was here, the one true church that has all the fullness of the gospel. I know it’s true. I’ve been told personally by God multiple times that the holy ghost helps you know for yourself by helping you feel peace and happiness. When you pray and ask God for help and guidance and truth. The way you will know is by the holy ghost. He only gives you the good feelings. I’ve learned this on my mission. Things happen on your mission that make you second guess yourself. I did that and it scared me. I second guesses God and it made me feel sad. so I prayed and asked God if what this person said true and why do i feel so bad in side and i realized during our lesson that the spirit couldn’t be present because of the anger. We couldn’t have the holy ghost with us so the adversary was there full strength and i didn’t know what I was feeling. I now know only truth is followed by comfort and peace, happiness and warmth. I know that God answered my prayers and I know this church is the one true church on this earth today. it’s the only church that has no confusion. we go to church to worship our Father in heaven not to bash other churches. I’ve heard lots of people that we run into on the streets say our church teaches about the Mormons and how bad they are and that makes me sad. I know other churches are good. I know that we all worship the same God and we all strive to get to the same place. I just wish I could be home in Illinois being a missionary there. Teaching them what i teach 100s of people a day. Teaching them about the restoration of the gospel and how God called the prophet Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon by the power of God. When i watch the Restoration DVD i just feel so much peace and I am able to be converted to the gospel myself and help the testimony I have to grow. I know if I didn’t serve a mission i wouldn’t have had the opportunity to really strengthen my understanding about the gospel. and my testimony would not be as strong as it is now. When we teach the plan of salvation I always wish I could just really know what people are thinking because it’s so amazing. we actually have a purpose on this earth. We actually have a reason to have a body. i didn’t really know what our purpose was here. i mean i knew we all want to get to heaven and we all have to be the best we can to get there. but what if you mess up. What if you fall away then you’re done for! Right? wrong!!!! God sent his son to suffer in the garden of gethsemane, to die on the cross for us, every one of Gods children So that we can have Christ’s atonement. I never knew what the atonement really meant. As a teen i didn’t know. I thought that, well I’m going downhill fast and i can’t get out of it so I’m done. i give up. I’m glad i never gave up or i wouldn’t be where i am now. By reading in the book of Mormon i found out what the atonement was for and how to us it. i don’t know if it was just me or if all teens feel this way but it’s so nice to find out for yourself truth and what things really are as you grow to have faith in God. to really show him you trust Him and will follow Him. you will be able to repent of sins of small and big mistakes that happen in your life. Not one person in this world is perfect. We all sin. We all mess up but that what the atonement is for. This is where you show God you have faith in Him. Where you show him you trust him enough to ask for forgiveness. I promise you He will forgive you. i was reading in a talk i got from my eye doctor, Brother Winters, about the atonement and i realized i wasn’t using the atonement really at all. i wasn’t showing God i had faith in him. i was trying to do all this on my own and basically he told me i can’t do missionary work on my own. if i want success i need God to be on one side and Christ to be on my other side and like my mom told me the other day i need to let them carry my load. all the worries I’m holding. I need to give it to them. God wants to help me. He wants me to trust him enough to carry my burdens and I’m starting to. it takes time. it doesn’t happen overnight. my whole life I’ve known God is my Heavenly Father and my dad on this earth is my earthly father and my mom is my earthly mother but I’ve never trusted anyone enough to carry all my problems or to help me through the hard times life throws at you. Until now until today really i finally trust God. How sad does that sound? but it’s hard giving everything bad you have to carry and everything hard and just ask God. Okay i can’t carry it anymore please help me. Guess what. He will He will carry every bad hard scary thing you have going on without hesitation because He loves us so so much that we can’t even imagine the love He has for us. i finally trust myself and God enough to get help and now I’m able to really have faith and I’m able to repent of short coming and when i partake of the sacrament on Sundays i remember my baptism and i am able to renew my baptismal covenants that i made. When i partake of the sacrament I’m able to have the Holy Ghost with me more. I’m able to do my calling a lot better when i use the atonement :) and the last step that we teach and that we all have to do is endure to the end. It doesn’t just end when you get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. You have to keep going through the steps. Keep having faith. Keep repenting and remember the covenants you made when you were baptized. When you take the sacrament seek to have the holy ghost in your presents always and keep enduring to the end keep trying all you can to be more like your Father in heaven then at the end of our lives here on the earth the plan of salvation continues and your sprit goes to the spirit world where you are able to live in rest and peace. You are able to be in that state of rest and peace if you follow the steps of faith repentance baptism by emersion by someone with the priesthood authority of God receive the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. After the spirit world we go to judgment where you are judged for what you did on this earth. then after you are judged you are placed in a kingdom of glory which i want to go in so much detail because it’s so amazing. basically its celestial terrestrial telestrial. the celestial kingdom is like the glory of the sun. it’s amazing. You are able to live in the presents of God and your with your family for eternity and you will just be so happy. terrestrial kingdom is like the glory of the moon. the second brightest kingdom of glory where people go that are good people that lived there lives on earth with God always on top but they didn’t accept the gospel. They didn’t accept Gods church and this kingdom is still amazing. your just not in the presents of your God and you are not with your family for eternity. Last the terestral kingdon is the glory of the stars and it’s the lowest kingdom of heaven. It’s where people go that lived pretty terrible lives and don’t accept God , kill murder and all the bad things about the earth but it’s still heaven. The cool thing about all of this i was reading about this in a talk i told my mom and dad to read. It talks about how we are all put in the kingdom we are comfortable in. we choose the kingdom we are in because that’s where we are most comfortable. how amazing is that? we always have are agency. I’m so excited to be a daughter of God and I’m so happy to be called of God to serve in the Kennewick, Washington mission. To teach people all about the amazing plan we have and where we are going and why we are here. I hope I didn’t just ramble on I just want you to know this is my testimony. This is what i know this is the truth and what God wants for all of us. He wants us to accept his true gospel and we will have eternal life and be so happy in the life to come. I love each and every one of you. Members of this church and not. I Accept you in all you do. I just want you to know what I believe and this isn’t even the half of it. I wish I could be the missionary to teach you my best friends but I know that any missionary has a testimony of this church and they love you just as much as i do. i love the people i teach so much. they truly are my brothers and sisters. i hope i can hear from all of you soon. you mean the world to me and I’m grateful to all that read this and ask God for yourself if what I wrote here is true!!

Love forever and always



Your missionary Sister Steen

Sister Lacey Catherine Steen
Kennewick Washington Mission
8202 W. Quinault Ave. Suite #D
Kennewick, WA 99336