I challenge all of you!!!

Hey everyone!!!! Ok I have a challenge for you to start today!!! I want all of you to go on lds.org website and pick one video on there that touches your heart and post it on facebook along with your testimony.  Do that once a day until the end of August and let me know how it goes.  I can promise you that if you do this, miracles will happen!!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

This is the one I want to share with all of you.  I was able to share this with Ginger, a less active member, and her boyfriend Josh.  It touched their hearts to where they want to read the book of Mormon together.  It was a huge miracle because she does not have a testimony of the book of Mormon and last time we were there she didn’t want to read.  Now they are reading it.  It was one of the best moments I’ve had here in Kennewick.  The next day we had dinner with the Gurny’s and they invited Jen.  She was asking what we do as missionary’s.  We shared with her the story of Josh and Ginger.  We told her about the message of the testimony of the book of Mormon and at the end of dinner we were just going to share a scripter about it but we ended up doing both and after we watched the Mormon message she smiled at us.  The sister Gurny gave her a book of Mormon and Jen took it and said she would read it. She wants us to come over on Wednesday and after she left sister Gurny told us she has wanted to give her that for weeks and it just hasn’t felt right until then.  We gave Jen a lot at once and they were scared that she would just stop talking to them but we went over the next day and they said that Jen called so she still likes them.  It was so funny Jen actually just called us and asked us if we could help her find someone to babysit her kids.  It’s exciting to us because she did that that it means she trusts us and trust in this work is big.  I know that God is blessing me and Sister Peatross for all of our efforts even if they didn’t all work out.  Now we have another new investigator.  I’m soooo exited!  My mission has changed my life forever :)  I just invite you all to do this.  Don’t be scared to share your beliefs with the people you love.  I know this church is the true church of Jesus Christ.  I know the book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith through the power of Christ.  in the Mormon message the testimony of the book of Mormon Elder Holland is so bold and you can see how much he loves us.  We have to be bold in our beliefs but loving.  Show them how much they mean to you and please share with me or my mom your experiences.  I’m exited go see miracles happen :D

Love Sister Steen

August 11, 2014

On the way to email everyone!

Wow my week has been crazy!!!!!

First off I and my companion went to this family’s house to help them do Family Home Evening. Their names are the Hyatt’s. They are an awesome family. I love them. Their youngest son is struggling in his faith which I know must just break his parent’s hearts because its breaks mine. This gospel has changed my life when I really gained a testimony of it. That’s when I really knew and could not deny it. I can’t and I never will as long as I live. The prophet got revelations for families to use preach my gospel in family home evening. When I heard that you have no clue how exited I was. When I got out here on my mission I read preach my gospel every single day and wow I can’t even describe to you how much it has helped me in my testimony about the restored gospel and the plan of salvation or better said the plan of happiness :) and the gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. I’ve been a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints my whole life and it took me swallowing my fears and my pride and deciding I needed to serve a full time mission to actually understand it for my self instead of living my life on my mom and dad’s testimony. I now have my own solid testimony of this church. And I get to share that tonight with this 12 year old little boy who doesn’t know if God even answers prayers. As a little girl growing up I’ve always had the strongest testimony of prayer. I new God loved me. How did I know? I just had faith. I felt Gods love comforting me and God answered every single prayer. I thought I lost my testimony of prayer in junior high school. But because of my amazing mom telling me to pray it was always secretly there and God was just waiting for me to talk to Him, to repent and let Him forgive me. Then when I dropped out of high school after my freshmen year I was scared and a little lost. I know if I didn’t have the support of my mom, dad and sisters then I wouldn’t be where I am today. When I was preparing to take my test to get my GED my mom always told me to pray and in side I said God is mad at me. I haven’t prayed in so long. Why would he even want to help me? So when I took the test the first time, I didn’t pray. I was scared God didn’t love me anymore and he wouldn’t answer my prayers. Well I got the test back couple weeks later and I failed. I was crushed and I felt like I not only failed myself but all the people who were supporting me through it. A while later, after my life kept getting harder and I felt like I would never be happy again, my mom shared a quote with me. I don’t think she knows how much this quote changed my life but it did. I am on a mission because of it!!! When I took the GED test for the second time my mom, like always, said to pray. So before I went in the class room to take the test I sat on a chair and prayed and prayed. I felt an overwhelming feeling of love and peace like God was hugging me. Mom you will never know how much I love you and how much of an influence you are. You helped me get my testimony of prayer back and I passed that test. I’m on a mission and it’s all because of those little things you say like PRAY. This little boy prayed for his dad to get a job and his dad wasn’t getting a job. Well guess what happened this week. He got a job and we get to have a lesson about prayer in preach my gospel. We got to teach a 8 year old boy who is getting ready to be baptized. We watched the restoration film with the family and his grandma who has bone cancer and brain cancer wanted us to do it at her house. she has such a strong testimony and it was so amazing seeing how much she cared about her grandson to be there for him. She wants to talk for his baptism on Sunday. We heard that she when to the hospital and we are just praying for her to be ok. 

We had exchanges this week and it was just half a day but it was amazing. We met a guy named Gn and we gave him a book of Mormon. We were explaining where it came from and what it’s about and you could just see in his face how exited he was. So we got his address and we are going to try back with him. on Tuesday we were trying by potentials in la Serena apartments and there was this really drunk lady who was kind of freaking out. We asked her if she needed help and she said she asked a guy to help her get her keys out of their dumpster and he wouldn’t help her. I felt bad, walked up to the dumpster and looked inside. I said “your keys are in here?” she said” yes and no one will help me get them out.” the dumpster was really tall so I told her if she wanted I could try to get them. She pushed us away and said” no you need to go share the gospel with people.” I felt so bad and I wanted to help but it was cool to see she knew who we were and what we do and that we were willing to go dumpster diving for her keys if we had to. I hope someone came around to help her.

Most of our week we have tried by people’s houses and they are either not home or not interested which it’s hard especially on bikes. haha But that’s ok. The members see us working and you know that is all that matters is us gaining that trust from the members. Me and my companion work well together. We both really want to help the work here pick up :) on Sunday we have two wards that we go to. So we went on splits with ladies in our wards. I stayed in Windsong and we had 3 investigators in church. It was amazing!!!! I was soooo happy but the lady that was with me didn’t have the time to talk to the investigators so I only got to talk to two of them which was really sad and frustrating. But it’s ok. Josh our investigator was there and this lady and her mom where there and we don’t know them so we got her address and she said we could come by. The last investigator that was there that I didn’t get to talk to was welcomed by the members and that made me happy. We are going to see her and her husband who is a less active this week. We set up a ride for him so he can stay for all three hours because she goes home after sacrament. It is cool that our members are helping. We can’t do this work without the members. The members are KEY!!!! :) we had a lesson with Josh our investigator and Ginger his girlfriend who is way less active and who went on a mission. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Josh had a lot of questions. I felt the spirit soooo strong when I was sharing my testimony about the Book of Mormon. Ginger would interrupt me. it was just so hard for me to see a return missionary not have a testimony about the Book of Mormon. I just wanted to cry. Then I realized I had a testimony of prayer and I lost it for a bit because I stopped praying. I know why God put me here and I’m being so humbled !!! This area is sooo hard but its sooo awesome and I love it!!!!! We had a mini missionary come for 2 days and can I just say it is so worth going on a mini mission. It helps you really understand what a mission is all about. I felt so bad for ours. She is 20 and she wants to go so bad because our area is so dead right now. We had a lot of stop buys and we were riding our bikes all day. She had flip-flops and they broke and her back up shoes were other flip-flops with heels. I felt so bad for her. It was a vary humbling experience for me.

I just want you to know that I do know this church is the one true church here on this earth today. It is the same church that Christ established when he was on the earth. I know Jesus suffered in the garden of gethsemane and felt all of our sins, shortcomings and pains. He can be there for us because He understands the pains we feel every single day. He died on the cross for us, all of his children. He loves us that much. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know it goes hand in hand with the Bible. I know God hears us and loves us. I know that God wants us to talk to him, to repent and ask for forgiveness and I know we have to except his forgiveness because I can promise you he has already forgiven you. You just have to except it. I know we have a living prophet here on this earth today, Thomas S Monsen, who receives revelation from God for his people. I know God is the same yesterday, today and forever. I’m so grateful to be a member of Christ’s true church. And better yet I’m grateful to be called as a missionary for His church to help others come closer to Christ and gain a testimony of this restored gospel. I’m grateful to be a servant of Jesus Christ and to be able to strengthen my relationship with not only him but my earthly family who I am sealed to for time and all eternity. In the name of Jesus Christ amen

Love Sister Steen

  doing work!!!

 Bikes!!

  balling it up last pday

 look how tall elder weeks is compared to me

 kinda blurry but me aginst elder wilcox he is tall too

 3 teams of 3 it's so fun!!

 me and elder week he is the tallest elder and they always put me against him haha

this is how i box out cuz im a sister and i cant box elders out haha rough life 

  it is so hot in that gym i was dying

  lol me being a dork haha 

 lol me shooting

 i gave my district leader elder wilcox a bow haha

August 4, 2014

This week has gone by so fast ahhhh!!! Getting doubled in has been good even though we have to start all over. Its helped me to really understand why updating the books is so important and why planning is so important. If we don’t do these things it just makes us look like bad missionaries.

We have met so many amazing people and we have a new investigator, Miles, in the Ridgeview ward. Bikes are so nice to have but if we had a car we would get so much more done. haha oh well. It’s really just been try by after try by. It’s a little discouraging cuz half of them don’t open the door and the rest aren’t interested. Once in a while we get someone :) and it’s all worth it in the end. There’s this newlywed couple in our ward and the wife wants to be my friend so bad. It makes me feel good hahah cuz so many people don’t like us here and knowing someone does just makes me happy. hahah umm I wish I had some amazing stories but right now i don’t. We get to teach at a FHE tonight. We will teach this mom and dad how to have FHE and we are going to get them in to preach my gospel cuz one of their sons is struggling in the gospel. It’s kind of scary being the one that has to help them be more active. I don’t want to mess up but we will be guided by the spirit.

I love it here in Kennewick :) we got to go in the 14 and 15 year old class during 2nd hour at church and we shared with them why we went on missions. Every time I share that I get really emotional. I can only imagine how my life would be if I hadn’t gone on a mission. I’ve grown sooo much :) thanks mom for that quote. It’s changed my life.

Love Sister Steen

President Ezra Taft Bensen



“men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life to God will find he has eternal life.”

 Zone Conference

" I cut my hair!"

"Just kidding!"