Sister Lacey 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