February 2, 2015

This was a really good week. Andrea is doing so well. She is going to move so the elder’s quorum is going to help her on Saturday. She told us she is going to marry a member. I think she is battling with herself on that. She really wants to do the right thing and go through the temple. It’s so cool when she reads the book of Mormon you can see a difference when she doesn’t. We usually can tell the moment we walk in her house if she has been reading or not. She has been doing really good keeping commitments and doing all she needs to to get baptized. We might move her date up if she keeps progressing :)

we were trying by people in this apartment complex and I had a feeling to go try our referral we got last time we were there. It ended up being a really less active lady her name is Lacy. She has some drug problems but she is going to get help and wants to come back to the church. It was a really interesting lesson but the spirit was there. In a way I was able to understand how she feels. I mean I never did any of that but the trials I had to go through from the choices I made really helped me help her out. She had a really rough life and I can’t tell you everything that was said but the spirit was strong and I know she can come back. It was a really emotional lesson and after it Sister Rasmussen asked why I was crying. I told her that I just felt the spirit and that I didn’t know what to say to Lacy but when I opened my mouth it was filled. I said what she needed to here and that’s it. I told her how grateful I am that we have trials in our life so we can understand some of what people go through and it really helps you be more sensitive to their needs. We got 2 new investigators Tawna is dating and investigator mark and he hasn’t been home so we started reading with her and her granddaughter and the spirit was so strong so we set up a time to go back she has opened up to us a lot and it’s been cool to see them change :)

So I’m almost done reading the Book of Mormon I’ve listened to it but I’ve never read it by myself so I’m in 3 Nephi and wow my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown. I never realized how strong the adversary is until I got to Alma and all the wars that happened because people stopped looking to good and they got prideful and selfish and all they cared about is the things they had, the wealth. But when they did that they weren’t protected by God anymore because they decided they didn’t need God. Wow its crazy to see that now how so many people don’t even believe there is a God. I talk to about 20 people a day or more and literally more than half either don’t believe there is a God, don’t care if there is a God or not or just don’t love God enough to talk about it. And they wonder why their lives are so rough. I really have a strong testimony that if you have a faith in God if you love God enough to testify of Him he will protect you. He won’t stop bad things from happening to you but he will protect you if you have faith and trust Him. You don’t have to be Mormon to love God to worship Him to acknowledge all the things He has done for you, to fear Him and not man. Man is nothing compared to God. I wish more people had the courage to say I AM A CHILD OF GOD and really mean it because that’s what we are. We are children of God. He loves us. He gave us this opportunity to gain a body and to progress in this life to make choices and to learn from our mistakes. God loves us enough to cut us down to make us grow from our trials. It’s our choice to learn form that trial or blame God. I promise if you try to learn from them and not blame God you will be so much happier and you will grow from it and you will eventually be the daughter or son of God that he wants you to be. The question is are you willing to let God cut you down to the stump first? Do you love God enough to learn from your trials?. wow I’m pretty sure every transfer He cuts me down over and over and let me tell you.. The day I decided to learn from the trials is the day I really started to grow on my mission. You can’t progress if you don’t let yourself. I love my mission. I love the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of this restored gospel. I’m grateful for a living prophet that leads and guides Gods children just like in the Bible and Book of Mormon. Why wouldn’t God still call prophets? God still loves us doesn’t He? God still wants us to learn new things. We are constantly progressing. That is God’s gift to us, progression. We choose to use it or lose it. I’m grateful for a loving family who supports me on my mission and an amazing friend, Alyson Taus that has always been there to cheer me on. I’m grateful for all of you that have read my emails and are with me in my adventures. I will never be an amazing speaker but when I go home you with see the light of Christ in my countenance. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. I know it’s the one true church with the priesthood authority in it. In Preach My Gospel in the first vision Christ tells Joseph Smith that all the churches were wrong and all their creeds where an abomination. I was thinking I would never tell someone that when I was a greeny fresh out in the field but that just shows that I had no faith in my Savior or in my church, in this gospel or in myself and I just want to share a simple powerful testimony that God lives and Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. That Joseph Smith did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in the flesh and that Christ bore a powerful testimony to Joseph that the churches on the earth were an abomination. He said in His own words that they draw near to me with their lips , but their hearts are far from me. He goes on to say that they teach from doctrine the commandments of men having a form of godliness but they deny the power there of. I know this is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the restoration and was given the priesthood (power and authority given to men to act and speak in God’s name!) I know that you can know this is true by reading the Book of Mormon and asking God if it is true and by acting in faith you can know the truthfulness of all things. amen

Love Sister Steen

 my district

 me being a dork

  cutting down a blackberry bush for a potential investigator :) 

 put that in by my self it hurt lol 

 after we got it all cut :)

 we were meeting a less active lady at the library and sister Rasmussen took a pictire of me talking to her on the phone.  I was by this sign lol kinda funny :) 

  Transfers calls are on Saturday and so we as a district did transfer predictions. That's is my district leader Elder Ojeda.  He is pretty cool!

 Sister Rasmussen the first time she has ever held a fish. it was so funny :

 Alyson sent me a birthday/Christmas package and she made me an L with memories of us on it. 

I LOVE IT!!!!!

in this picture there is a cloud of fog that we are heading towards.  it looks really sketchy and its funny in Milton free water where we had district meeting it was so foggy you could hardly see and in Pendelton it was a sunny day lol