Last Email! I am coming home!!!

Well my mission is coming to an end and my life has changed forever. Serving a fulltime mission has helped me learn and grow. My testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ has increased and will be my firm foundation the rest of my life. I’ve grown to appreciate correction. It has refined me into a new person. I’m so excited to take the things I’ve learned and the experiences I’ve had into my life. My mission has prepared me for the rest of my life to become a good mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend! I’ve seen so many miracles on my mission and I’ve seen so many people’s lives change as they have excepted the gospel. I see them every Sunday at church with so much excitement to learn and progress. I feel like I’m leaving home. I’ve grown to love my mission so much and the people I’ve been able to serve. I know that this is Christ's true church. I’ve felt the confirmation of the spirit multiple times through my 18 months of service and I can’t deny the things I’ve seen or have felt. This is the true and everlasting gospel. I know the book of Mormon is the word of God and that it goes hand in hand with the bible. I know Joseph Smith saw God the father and his son Jesus Christ. I know he was called to be a prophet of the restored gospel and that through him God restored the priesthood authority back to the earth. I know we have a living prophet today Thomas S Monsen and I know that prayer is so powerful. God is truly our father in heaven and he truly loves each and every one of us. I will forever be a missionary!
in the name of Jesus Christ amen

 Me and Hermana Williams

 Me and Elder Bowen

 One of our dinner appointments

 The Elders in my last district

 The sisters in my last district

 Saying goodbye to the Edwards

 This is downstairs where we work out every morning

July 20, 2015

 lol sprinklers are missionaries friends :D

So this week has been really awesome! We got 2 new investigators. One we found through the formers in the area book. She isn’t very happy with me that I found her my last week here but she is slowly forgiving me. lol She love the gospel and believes that most of what we teach is true but she doesn’t think she needs to be baptized. She is deathly afraid of water but we know if she gains a stronger testimony and faith in Christ that she will be able to overcome it. Another investigator we have was a referral from the STLs sister training leaders which was a potential that I had from when I first got here that I could never get in with. Well we got in had a lesson with her and her boyfriend was there and turns out he is a less active member of the church. He is the kind of less active that you wonder why he is less active. He was testifying of the Book of Mormon the whole time. It was awesome. He explained stuff to her that she looked confused about. He was really nice. We are going to have to take it slow with her cuz she doesn’t have a religious background. She was relieved that God loved her enough to forgive her and that her son isn’t going to hell if he dies before he is baptized. He is 4 and people have been telling her he is going to hell if he dies. She is really scared of the end of the world but we assured her that the gospel will bring her peace. We had a new member lesson with Mike and the poor guy just doesn’t look to good :( he couldn’t remember anything and he just looked so sad and kept apologizing. I’m glad we had it in the bishop’s home. The spirit was there and I think Mike felt comfortable and loved. Sometimes I wish I could do more for Mike :( We have been invited to do a 40 day fast as a mission and me and my comp are doing it together. We have to write down all the things that distract us and make it so we are less obedient and pray about it. Also to know what things the Lord thinks is distracting to us and then don’t do them, repent and be better. The more obedient we are the more the spirit of the Lord can be with us. In our missionary work we have been going through the missionary hand book AKA white bible and are writing down things we need to work on to become more exactly obedient. We have a lot to work on but they will make us better. We are really exited and we know this will help the work progress because the Lord will trust us even more :) We are also praying as a companionship to find a family of 5 who is prepared and ready to accept the gospel and that are all baptismal age. I have never taught a family on my mission and if I can find them this week I will have accomplished all that I have desired to on my mission :) Sister Satele is one of the most amazing missionaries I have ever been around. Her desire is to serve the Lord and to become what the Lord wants her to become. She is a powerful missionary who is so in tune with the spirit. I always know when she tells me that we need to go somewhere that she is following the spirit. She is going to do great things in this mission and she will go home just as I will, a better more Christ like daughter of God. The gospel changes lives. It brings you closer to God and Christ. It brings you closer to family and friends and it brings so much peace and happiness. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is Christ’s church. I know we have a living prophet today and that he gets revelation for our days. The world is a scary place but with the gospel and the love I have for Christ I’m truly at peace. I have no fear for the future because I know as long as I’m following Christ that I will be protected and watched over. The gospel brings peace and joy and that is what I feel every day. Yes times get hard and things happen in life that we can’t change or stop but we can overcome any thing with the Saviors help. Through his atoning sacrifice we can be free. Let the Lord lift you up and carry your burdens. Love him enough to trust that he will make it better. I know that Christ truly does live. In the name of Jesus Christ amen

Love Sister Steen

After service at PAWS we ran through sprinklers cuz it was so hot. We were just going to run through once but we ended up just getting soaked lol oops ;)

Our tiny room that we rearranged.  I gave Sister Satele my bed cuz its much better than the other one. She always lays on mine when I'm in the bathroom or when I'm just walking around talking to her lol

Got my flight plans in the mail on Friday #TrunkyLetter #Homebydinner

 I finished the book of mormon today woot just in time ;)

lol funny story... so a couple weeks ago we got a text from Elder Sously who is over all the cars in the mission.  Well this is the text we got:

 ok so i was talking to Sister Satele and I was like I feel like I'm a green driver. I kinda made it a goal to be a green driver the rest of my mission so I was kinda disappointed but I was just glad that every one else was struggling to be green too. lol then we got this text:

and then we were freaking out!! We were so excited! I couldn't believe it!! Out of every one in the whole mission, this was before the mission split, I was the only green driver!! I couldn't believe it! haha then we got the last text which I didn't get a picture of.  I forgot but it was just saying that he messed up and that almost everyone is a green driver and to have a good day!! lol it was soooo stinking funny but I felt kinda cool that my name was the only one on every missionaries phone in the whole mission haha missions are soo fun:)

July 13, 2015

Bishop Yosheoka and his awesome family :D 

ok so i wrote this whole email and it was really good in detail and then it deleted grrr lol so sorry but this one isn’t as good cuz I don’t have enough time!!

This week has just gone by soooo fast. We don’t have a lot going on in the area right now but we are trying all our formers and potentials and talking with every one we see.

 On Saturday we had a baptism for Mike :D He did it!! He made it to his baptism.

He was so happy. He tried to go under before Ryan got done saying the prayer. lol We had two recent converts talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost and it was so amazing. A return missionary was able to perform the baptism for Mike. Thank goodness. Everyone we asked was out of town or just couldn’t do it. That was really a trial for Mike. He had no problem with the doctrine at all. He knew it was all true and didn’t understand why everyone didn’t understand that this is the true church. It was a fun and humbling experience to teach him. 

We had interviews with president Ware and mine was the shortest I’ve ever had. lol it was like 5 min and he really just wanted to talk about what we will talk about in departing interviews. lol We had zone training meeting and it was one of the best ones I’ve been to. Most of the trainings were just really led by the spirit :) after words we went to Panda where my comp got a huge discount from this girl because she is Samoan and from New Zealand. It was really cool. Sister Satele really needed that. The sisters haven’t been treating her very well and it’s making me mad. Anyway we have some really awesome plans for this week and we are really hoping that we will have some new investigators we are teaching by the end of this week :)

Well sorry its sooo short. I don’t know why this computer doesn’t like me lol

Well i love you all

See you in 16 days :)



Love Sister Steen

 the GPs took us on the wrong road in Helix so we got a bit lost. lol the road was soft dirt and was really scary to drive on. I thought we where going to get stuck in the middle of no where with no cell service lol it took us about an hour to get out of it. There was no where to turn around with out getting stuck. So we took some pics lol

 its time for the harvest :D 

 What the car looked like. It was pretty crazy. Good thing I know how to drive in that kinda stuff ;)

 You can make anything tie into the gospel. lol Paradise and Prison

July 6th 2015

#HeBrokeIt #TheDistrict2 #ElderMareenoAndElderChristensen #TheLawOfChastety ;)

Hey so we had to be in by 6 on the 4th of July so it was like companion bonding time. lol We watched church movies and we played basketball in our gym down stairs. We live in a tiny room above a member’s garage but we have a massive basketball/dance studio in the basement. It’s pretty sweet and we have a weight machine so I’m getting pretty buff lol

We were able to see fireworks on the 3rd outside our house. They didn’t do them on the 4th, they did them before the PBR ( Professional bull riding) started we didn’t get to go to that but that’s fine. lol

We are teaching a 77 year old guy and he is so excited to be baptized on the11th of July. He is a little rugged so our cute bishop bought him a white shirt, shoes and dress pants but he can’t wear ties because of his arthritis but he really wants a bow tie so I told him I would buy him a clip on bow tie. He came to church on Sunday and it looked like he tried to cut his hair on his own. He missed some spots but he looked pretty spiffy :) We are having some of our resent converts talk for his baptism :D it was funny we got him a ride for his baptismal interview and it was a guy that Mike has never met before. We were asking Mike who he wanted to baptizes him and Mike was like “can that guy that drove me here do it?” and we said we can ask him. So Mike went and asked him and the look on the guys face was sooooo funny. He was shocked but he said yes. The work is a bit slow but I’ve been able to do what my mission president invited us to do and I’ve been able to baptize once a month so I know the Lord is pleased with me. Its way hot in p-town ugh lol the members keep telling us that it’s not supposed to be this hot until the beginning of August so it’s only getting hotter here yay tracting in the heat lol

We have some awesome potential’s that we are going to see this week and hopefully we will be able to start teaching them and invite them to be baptized :) we have interviews with our mission president on Wednesday so I’m really excited. It will be my last one before I go home. We had training last night and it’s just to train my new comp for 12 week and she started reading like she was a news reporter so it turned it to an hour of that which was really funny and we watched the district 2 on the law of chastity which was soooo funny lol I had my last fast and testimony meeting yesterday and it made me sad. I’m really exited to give my talk in church on my last Sunday here. I hope I don’t cry. I love my mission so much and the gospel has just changed my life. I’m so grateful for the love the Savior has for me. Exchanges with the sister training leaders were fun. lol all our appointments fell through when I was with Sister Johnson but we had one that didn’t. It was at the end of the night and we had to teach him at his work which was so cool lol the sisters ward mission leader came for the branch brother hubberd and he brought his non-member friend which was sooooo cool lots of respect to him :) the lesson was amazing and the spirit was so strong at the end we had him pray and he was holding back tears. He really felt the spirit and I’m so excited for him to be baptized

Well I love you all see you in 3 weeks!!



Love Sister Steen

June 29, 2015

 this is a really long bridge that we went street contacting on one night yea not a vary safe place at night lol 

 there is a cool river walk that we have been trying to street contact people on and we have realized that no one is on that trail to just walk and talk to people lol most of the people have head phones on and are on a bike or running and the people that are walking see us and either turn around and start running or put there head phones on and act like we don't exist 

My week… where to start Well one of our recent converts moms took him and left town so we don’t know when we will ever see him again. That was really sad. I hope he remembers all that he learned and sets that example for his family.

Mike is doing sooo good. He is getting interviewed on the 4th of July and is getting baptized on the 11th. We have been invited by our mission president to have a baptism every month and so fare I’ve been able to do that with the Lords help. Mike asked us one day if we could somehow get him an electric shaver so that he can look good at his baptism. It was so cute. We had dinner with bishop that night so we asked him if we could do that. He is and he also is getting him some Sunday cloths. Mike is so excited for his baptism. He just keeps telling everyone he can’t wait to be a true Mormon. It was sad the other day we were talking to Lucas and he told us his mom said he was already baptized and he messed up. It was so sad and we couldn’t do anything about it. I told sister Satele that he is going to be another Mike where he wanted to be Mormon so bad but his mom never let him now he is 77 and if finally able to join Christ’s church.

My sinuses have been hurting so bad this week and my eyes are so itchy. I’m pretty sure I have itched them raw. Sister Satele has been taking really good care of me. I love her. She is such an amazing missionary she definitely knows her purpose as a missionary and she has such a strong desire to work hard to do the Lords work. I feel like when missionaries really want to do the work satan makes it hard and tries to discourage us. We are so unified in are companionship but some of the missionaries think we are struggling. Sister Satele asked me if she is just blind to it and I told her no we really aren’t having any problems. It’s kind of frustrating when they make her feel like that. She is going to do amazing things on her mission. She has such a desire to teach people the gospel. In our weekly planning and monthly planning we prayed to know what the Lords vision for this area is and then we had the impression to call all the less actives that our bishops want us to see. We have some ste appointments that we are going to bring members to and help reactivate them. I truly think most people just need a friend in the gospel. Then came a miracle. We got a call just around the end when we were trying to fill in the rest of the hours in the week and it was a member who was just talking with one of our former investigators. He said she is ready to learn more. When he told us her name I got really excited because I’m the one who dropped her when I first got to this area. I’m so excited to start teaching her again. We have some awesome referrals we have gotten and we are excited to start teaching them too and invite them to come unto Christ and be baptized :)

I love my mission I have 4 weeks to do as much as I can :D



Love Sister Steen

 this is the bowl that we live in :) it doesnt even show most of it but its pretty cool

 This is Elder Tiwi lol the only elder that is allowed in our car. we got him like 2 or 3 months ago lol in a zone conference and i forgot to take pics lol soo here it is. This little black box is going to make us missionary's better drivers. It watches our speeding our seat-belts and if we are driving recklessly. I went over a massive speed bump a couple weeks ago and I was going like 4 MPH lol and the bottom of the car just hit the speed bump and i got called out on reckless driving. oh man! I was so not happy. I will never go that way again. I have to go the long way now lol

June 22, 2015

At the library. Time to email our families :D

ok so my week has just been really slow and we are just trying to find new people. The beginning of the week was crazy. Lol We finally had are lesson with Mike he is about 70 and is kinda deaf lol so we have to talk really loud. He was in the back yard helping Lucas set up the pool. We started the lesson and decided that we should just read the restoration pamphlet with him and then ask some questions to see how much he got out of it. so we did that and the first thing we asked is about prophets. We said do you believe we have a living prophet today and he was like yea that’s how it’s supposed to be. So we got really excited and kind of caught off guard so we moved on and went into how Christ set up his church and the apostasy and he was just nodding his head yes. So we went into the first vision and we asked him if he believes that Christ’s church has been restored to the earth and he was like yeah it’s already been restored that’s what is supposed to happen. we were just like blown away so we went on and asked do you believe that the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints is Christs restored church and he was like yea of course it is everyone should know that. I think they just choose not to. Then we invited him to be baptized on the 11th of July and he just had a huge smile on his face and was like I can do that? I was going to ask. Whooo!!! I can finally be a true Mormon hallelujah!! After that Lucas was like I want to be baptized. So we looked at him and smiled and asked him if he wants to get baptized on the same day as Mike and he said yes and then he was like what is baptism. So I went over to him and showed him a picture of Jesus being baptized and then explained it and he said yeah Ii want to do that. We asked him if he would read and pray to know if it’s true and he said yes. Then after that lesson we just were tracting and street contacting. trying to find new people.

A couple days later we went to do our lesson with Mike and we knocked and no one answered but we both felt like we needed to stay so we waited and knocked again still no answer. We tried by our back up who live across the street and we were able to set up a church tour with her. Sister Satele said she thinks she sees Lucas the boy we are also trying to teach whose family Mike lives with. So we drove by them and it ended up being the older sister and her dad Shad. We talked to her and she was able to go get Mike who was upstairs and just didn’t hear us knocking. lol We had the lesson in the back yard again. It was really short but we mostly taught about the fall and after we explained it really simply he understood why the fall had to happen. It was so cool to see it click :D After that lesson we had a lesson with a Andrea and talked about temples and helped her do laundry. Then on our way to dinner we almost got hit by a truck with a big trailer on it. I don’t know how it didn’t hit me. I saw it at the last second out of the corner of my eye. It was merging in my lane. We were at a stop light so I knew they saw me in the other lane. I don’t know why but it shook me up a bit. My companion was like yeah you would have died. I would just be hurt but you … gone! lol I was like thanks! lol so the rest of this week we have felt like someone is out to get us because we knocked on peoples doors and they let their dogs out to chase us. It was dumb lol and got a water balloon thrown at us. Rude!! All I can do is laugh though because its all just so ridicules and you can just see Gods had in keeping us safe. it’s so hard to find people right now. I don’t know why the second we open our mouths they say not interested or put their hand up or just ignore us. Wow! I think it’s because we found Mike and he is soooo elect. I’m not going to get discouraged. We are also going to start working with less actives and with the wards to help reactivate :) I’m so excited. We are working hard. looking at the numbers we send in is discouraging but we keep pressing forward cuz the Lord knows we are working hard. We saw Vicky and Tory the other day walking some dogs and I pulled over and they said they were hoping to see us there. We invited them to church but they didn’t show up. Mike got there though thanks to the Bagglies and got home safe because of Lara Crowder and her future husband lol they are so cute. We are going through our phone and area book and trying to look for all these potentials and former investigators. It’s going to be hard work but I know it will all pay off in the end. I was asked to give a talk in church on the 26 of July which is my last Sunday in the mission field and I get to pick my topic. I’m going to do it on “As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten” by D. Todd Christofferson. I’m really exited because this has helped me throughout my whole mission. its changed my life :)

Well I love you all and will see you in about 39days :)



Love Sister Steen

I made this sweet game for our recent converts ;-)

June 15, 2014

 

 

 My District

Me and Sister Satele

me and Heramana Harsten

Aaron Royer's baptisum :) 

last pday we had a sisters pday :) my sister training leaders sister Jonson and Hanson

our district except the district leader and his companion lol

This week has been slow. We just got a new ward mission leader and he is going to be so good for the 1st ward :) We had a meeting with him and his wife yesterday. We have set up meetings for every week and then a big meeting once a month with one person in all the axillaries :) I’m so excited. I think we might be getting a new one in the 2nd ward to cuz he is moving soon but he is so great. We want to have meetings like we are doing in first ward to so that the work really grows in this area. It’s gotten slow but we still keep seeing miracles every day :) We got a referral for an older guy named Mike. He is a little hard of hearing. We set up a ride for him to come to church and he didn’t end up coming. After church we ran to his house and he was just sitting in the grass. When he saw us he said the ride never showed up and he looked soooooo sad. We felt terrible. He has read the Book of Mormon multiple times and reads every night. We invited him to pray to know if it’s true and we are going to have are first real lesson with him tomorrow :) He is so prepared. He told us that he has always wanted to come to our church and he was just waiting for someone to invite him. He is so elect and I think the adversary is doing all he can to make sure that Mike doesn’t have the opportunity to make covenants with the Lord but the spirit is so much stronger then satan so I know he is going to make it :) We have been praying specifically for a lady over ager 75 to 85 to baptize. Then we met mike lol so we think he is the one even though he is a guy. That’s fine with us :) All we seem to know is how to teach men, mostly single father’s haha kind of funny. Phil is still doing good. He is still living the WOW. (word of wisdom) ;) and I’m still strong and not drinking pop :) woot we had a baptism on Saturday for Aaron Royer. I got to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. I was really nervous at first but once I got up there the spirit just took over :) it was sooooo cool. The baptism went so good. A lot of Aarons family is less active so they were all there and it was hard not to feel the spirit soo we will see ;) I love this area and I’m staying for the rest of my mission. Woot!! I love my companion. We had a really good talk last night and we are so excited for this area. We have some really good ideas that we are going to share with our ward mission leaders :)

I know this is Christ’s true church. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the priesthood was also restored to the earth. I know that we have a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monsen and I know that he is given revelation for all of God’s children in the modern day world. I know because God loves us that all men everywhere will have the opportunity to accept or reject Christ’s gospel. I know that Christ lives and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon goes hand and hand with the bible and that Christ’s gospel is simple doctrine and anyone who is a true seeker of truth can know that this is the true church. I know all this to be true. I’ve prayed multiple times a day for almost 18 months and I can say for myself that this is true. I invite you member or non-member to act in faith. Come unto Christ. Read the Book of Mormon with an open heart and pray to know if it’s true. Christ’s teachings are simple. They are not complicated. Just ask God. He is your father and He loves you and wants you to come back to Him.



I love each and every one of you. I miss you!!
Love Sister Lacey C Steen

June 8, 2015

We helped Sister Follet tear down their deck, then she fed us hot dogs yummmm!

hey everyone! :D wow its already Monday wow! lol So me and Sister Satele have been tracting a lot. There have been lots of nice people but nothing truly miraculous. it’s been cool. As we act in faith to go find we get referrals. Phil was a referral from the STLs and he is on date for the 20th. He is living the word of wisdom. When he came to church you could see it on his face. He was still staying strong. He looked so tired. He went to primary with his kids for the first Sunday because they are so used to getting dropped off places that there dad didn’t want them to think he was going to drop them off and leave forever. It was sad but a lady in the primary came up to us 3rd hour and told us during singing time Phil was crying. We had a lesson with him that day and followed up on his commitment card. He said he loved it and that he has been doing it. I knew quitting drinking coffee was going to be hard for him but he has been doing it. I also committed to something that day. I will never drink pop the rest of my life. Sister Satele made me 2 commitment cards that I signed. I gave one to Phil to have. He really liked that and the spirit was really strong. Aaron is preparing for this Saturday to be baptized. He is so exited :)

The bishops are getting excited with all the work that is going on here in Pendleton. On Saturday we had a cool experience doing role plays. I was in Elder Jenson, Elder Shougart and Hermana Reeses group and the spirit was so strong. We taught by asking inspired questions. the spirit was so strong and it gave me a source of confidence that I didn’t know I had :) When we got home that day we ran home and decided that our commitment cards needed to be more inspired and so we prayed and the lay out was Goals Action then commitment it was really cool and now it’s not like a home work assignment but its something that will help them come closer to their Savior and accomplish their goals :)
Church was really good. I got to share my testimony in both wards. I’m going to make it a priority every fast Sunday for the rest of my life to share my testimony every fast Sunday :)

 my commitment to live the rest of my life to support Phil in living the word of wisdom

The girls in the YW put cute notes on our car

June 3, 2015

Training is a bit hard lol. The hardest part is that my comp has an accent and i never know what she is saying. I think it’s starting to get on her nerves. i feel really bad.

The work has slowed down a bit in this area. All our investigators got baptized but David. Thomas got the priesthood on Sunday and Kevin is getting it next Sunday :) Thomas, David and my comp are talking in church the following Sunday with an RM who just got back from his mission 2 weeks ago. Phil is doing good. He came on a church tour on Saturday and loved it. He said if they ever need a sub he would love to help out. It was sooo cool. I love his kids. they are so cute and they love when we come over. We had a lesson the other day on the lawn because we couldn’t get a member to come out with us on a Monday night but we had a cool lesson on the plan of salvation and used the visuals and we just basically taught like we were teaching the kids and he loved it :) He said it made so much sense then as we were saying the prayer we heard thunder in the back ground and as we were walking to our car it started pouring. They had a huge lightning storm. People were just walking in it too. I was like “they are going to die!” lol but every house we drove past on are way home people where putting chairs on their porch and just watching it. It was soo cool. We tracted almost all day yesterday and we decided to street contact and we talked to 3 drunk guys and they were sooo nice. One guy we talked to at a bus stop and he wasn’t drunk but it was really hard to understand him. He told me he spoke 4 languages. He asked me if I was married like 3 times and asked if I was going to marry a Mexican. He said I had a pretty accent and face. When I first started to talk to him he said he didn’t believe in God and that he respected me but doesn’t believe. Then in the middle he was laughing and told me he was just kidding and that he was catholic. lol it was so funny. The guy that was sitting right next to him was talking to my companion and she got his info so we can go and teach him. He lives out in Mission. we were walking to our next appointment and saw this guy just sitting there so I was like ok I got to talk to him so we talked. He was hard to understand. a little drunk but he just talked quiet. We were talking and at the end I asked if we could pray and he started crying. It was sad. I testified of the atonement and got him to smile before we left. :) a drunk guy walked passed us with a dog and said it’s the sisters missionaries lol he introduced himself and shook our hands. He told us he didn’t believe what we believe said he likes to get drunk he said but ladies I love the HELL out of you!! He smiled and walked across the street without even looking. I was a little scared for him. He was really nice. We had our last lesson with Aaron before his interview. I’m so excited. The work is doing good.

 I got to go to the temple today it was so fun. I love the feeling of being in the temple :D 

 

well I love you all

love sister steen