May 4, 2015

 our investigator David

Investigators Mark and Tanya

This week has just been full of miracles and the Lord is just blessing this area so much. We are teaching so many amazing people. Thomas and Lara are still on date to get married and Thomas is still ready to get baptized right after. I’m so happy every time we see Lara. She is just excited. It’s cute. She was able to announce it at church and everyone is so excited for her and wants to help which is good :) We taught a 12 year old, named Aaron, the restoration. He is in a part member family and his grandparents invited us to teach the kids. During the lesson Aaron was asking so many amazing questions :) and he was just really excited about it all. We asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he didn’t so we gave him one and he was just glowing saying “this is mine to keep?” :) After the lesson we were leaving and we heard him say he can’t watch the movie with his sisters because he wants to read the Book of Mormon. We told him he is like Nephi so that made him really excited. He also asked if he could read it at school. It was so cute. We have 7 people on date for baptism! Wooo hooo!! Our lesson with David last time was soooooo funny. We started talking about the word of wisdom and he saw the list of stuff and he was like what??!! Coffee!! I love coffee. I don’t think that should be on the list. It was so funny. He was raging lol he even pretended to flip a table. We were all busting up laughing. It was so cool. He was able to see just right there how coffee was controlling him so he said he will live the word of wisdom. It was funny the member said when his dad was quitting he just took everything and threw it away so there was no temptation and he said maybe he should keep it so it can make him stronger. We explained that it is better to get temptation out of your life. Then he was like yea you’re right. I can just imagine me doing homework and I here a voice whisper” DAVID DRINK ME” lol and he acted it out. It was sooo funny. If these lessons were recorded like on “the district” it would be just way funny ;) He is a good guy. He really wants to do things right. Casey didn’t make it to church again. This is the big thing that’s holding him back. I’m praying really hard he will find that desire. We have invited him to pray for it. So Eli and Brittani are MIA right now and so we are trying to get in with them. Josie’s family has been out of town so we keep trying to set stuff up with them. It’s rough so yea lots of big things happening in this area. We were invited to have a baptism every month and we are really praying for that. We had 2 last month and we have 7 on date this month. If we do all we can I really think 3 of the 7 will make it to their dates :) something I really want to focus on this next transfer is getting the investigators in to the member homes. A guy came to church and shared his testimony. He is from Wales England and I guess he served here a long time ago and he said the investigators that got baptized were the ones that we got in to the member homes and the ones that didn’t get baptized we didn’t get in to member homes so that is my focus. I really want our on dates to progress :) WE HAD MIRACLES HAPPEN AT CHURCH! WE GOT 7 INVESTIGATERS TO CHURCH!!! it was such a long day we had a referral we got on Saturday night and a member was able to bring him to church and he loved it. David was there. Thomas was there. Jamaka was there. Dee and Jane were there and Jessica with her little boys. Aaron was there :) and his little sister who we are teaching also :) Church was amazing. The testimonies were amazing and they heard that elder get up and say “if you are in a members home you will have a desire to be baptized that’s a promise” usually I freak out when people say stuff like that but Dee needed to hear that. Dee told us after church that she wants to come back. All our investigators just felt at home and participated in the lessons in Sunday school it was so cool. I was really emotional. lol my companion was saying good bye to everyone and a lot of our investigators made it to church so I was just crying all day. Sometimes I hate being a girl lol Dee was like “the women in your church cry a lot” my response was “yea the spirit just makes us emotional. We can’t control it” which was 1000% true. Everyone was crying this Sunday. It was different lol in relief society in 2nd ward we talked about honoring the priesthood. It was such an amazing lesson. I thought about my amazing dad and how he has been that amazing priesthood example in my family. That’s the kind of husband I want in my life someone who honors his priesthood calling as a father and a husband. I wish I could tell you all I learned but just know it was really amazing. the lady in our ward, sister Rasmussen lol not my companion, is an amazing teacher and she just taught me a lot :)



ok i can’t hold it in anymore. So i am staying here the rest of my mission. 2 transfers 3 months in Pendleton cuzzzzz............. I’m training a new missionary and the training program goes for 12 weeks. I got the call like on Thursday and transfer calls are on Saturday so when president wear called sister Rasmussen was freaking out because she just thought the president was going to tell her she is a terrible missionary which she isn’t so I don’t know why she was freaking out. He was telling us how happy he was with our area then he was like Sister Steen I have been praying for weeks and at that moment I started backing away from the phone and started crying and saying no no no no lol it was kind of pathetic but i knew what was coming next. So he asked me if I would train a new missionary and as I was shaking my head no I said yes. it was a really strange feeling being so terrified and so excited at the same time. So yep I’m training for the last part of my mission. Ahhhhh!!! pray for me. I can do this!!!!! I know this church is true and that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and the priesthood is fully restored to the earth so that Christ church can be run correctly by that authority of God. I know that Joseph Smith is called of God and restored the church by that same power. the priesthood that was given to him by Peter James and John. I know the book of Mormon to be the word of god and goes hand and hand with the bible and brings the fullness of the gospel. I know that you can know this to be true by reading the book of Mormon with and open heart and a willingness to know the truth and to pray to know if it’s true. I know by the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truth of all things. I know that families are meant to be eternal. I know the temple is the house of the lord. I know that in the temple by that priesthood authority families can be sealed together for time and all eternity I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is the son of god our savior and redeemer. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. let it transform you. This is the lord’s kingdom once again established to the earth and I know Christ will come again. In the name of Jesus Christ amen



Love Sister Steen <3

 waiting and watching

 We had to walk an hour and a half to our car

 Watering for the people we live with.

Just waiting around.