12/9/14

I don't have a lot of time to write today so I'm gonna send a lot of pictures.

Temple with Sister Phillips

Sister Martinez! I love her!

 

Our ghetto Christmas wall

Papai Noel. Santa

Sorvete no Shopping. Ice cream at the mall

Subway! But unfortunately it's more expensive here.

Oh, I've become the ward pianist here... That´s right, they think that I know how to play! haha, I´m the worst! But you´ve gotta share your talents whether you think you´re good or not.
 

Drinking chimarrao while playing piano. Oh yeah, I'm a gaucho!

Saved a bird from being eaten by a cat!

Are You Sharing the Gift?

12/2/14

Hello all my dear family and friends!

Can you believe it? Thanksgiving has already gone by and December is here! How fast has this year flown by?!

But how many of you are running around trying to plan your Christmas vacations, your Christmas gift lists, throwing decorations up and stressing out about what to give your children for Christmas...?

How many of us are really stopping to remember the real purpose of Christmas? How many of us are remembering what, or who, the real gift is...?

Have you discovered the gift yet? HE is the gift. Christ. If it weren't for the birth and death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, the holiday season wouldn't exist. It would have no meaning.

I invite you all to remember the new meaning of Christmas this month, and share that meaning with the world!

Go to christmas.mormon.org and watch this 3 minute Christmas video and share it with everyone you know. There´s no reason that the whole world shouldn´t see this video and remember our savior this month. Let´s remember the savior, let´s come onto him, and let´s make this Christmas the most spiritual one yet.

Invite your friends to discover, embrace and share the Christmas spirit.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week, an amazing month and beautiful Christmas.

Love,

Sister Stevens

He is the Gift on the front page of Youtube! Woohoo!

After only a few hours it had over 32,000 views! Woohoo, go Mormons!

It's Been a Hard One

11/24/14

Hello family,

Last week was the week of transfers, and I have to say, it was the longest week of my life. I got a new companion, and we were sent to open a new area for Sisters. We´re in the City São Leopoldo. It´s huge here... My companion is yet again American. Her name is Sister Phillips and she´s from California. She was a visa waiter for 14 months in the Washington Tacoma mission, and she arrived 4 weeks ago here in Brasil. She´s actually going home with me in February. We´re living in an old apartment that years of elders destroyed. We're living with two other sisters, Sister Cabrera from Uruguay, and Sister Veñuela from Argentina. 

 They´re a lot of fun. Ever since we arrived here, something has broken daily. First Sister Cabrera´s study desk broke on top of her, then the door in the kitchen almost fell on top of Sister Phillips. Then the microwave stopped, I broke a glass cup in the kitchen, and the armed chair fell out from under Sister Cabrera... She fell through the chair... Oh, and Sister Viñuela´s bed got soaking wet one day when it rained..

At least this area has a bright side, the ward. The ward is awesome. They´re a lot of fun and the bishop lives in the same apartment complex and always makes us pizza. 

Our first day. Pizza from the Bishop

 

Sister Phillips and are are trying a lot to find the inactive members in the ward (there are over 1000 of them...) and we´re knocking a lot of doors.

It´s been a trying week, but everything will work out. Now we've gotten to know a bunch of members and they´re giving us a bunch of references. So, it´s great.

But I´m getting excited and nervous because I only have 11 more weeks on the mission. It´s gonna go by so fast. Oh, and just so you guys know, next week I´ll be going to the temple, so I won´t write until Tuesday.

I love you all and I´m excited to see you all when I get home. :)

Sister Stevens

Old pic from Sapiranga. I love this couple!

11/24/14

Wow, I found this video on lds.org today. It´s amazing. It´s about how the Lord really refines us through all of our difficulties and challenges. One of my favorite parts, "I thought that I would fail, but the Lord would not allow me to fail."

Sister Stevens a Aventureira

11/17/14

Ola família e amigos,

While all of you are drooling over my cute little niece, I've been working and sweating here in Sapiranga. It´s been an amazing transfer with an amazing companion, great experiences, difficulties and friendships. But sadly I will be transferred tomorrow morning to a new area in Missão Brasil Porto Alegre Norte. I´m not sure where I´ll go. I´m not sure who my new companion will be, but I´m excited to be leaving to start a new experience and see where I´ll be spending my Christmas!

I actually really like that our mission is always moving and changing. It´s weird to always pack your bags, but I´m a free spirit, I like change. I´m an adventurer! Another missionary shared a really "hippie" scripture with me the other day in Abraham 2:

15 And I took Sarai, whom I took to wife when I was in Ur, in Chaldea, and Lot, my brother’s son, and all our substance that we had gathered, and the souls that we had won in Haran, and came forth in the way to the land of Canaan, and dwelt in tents as we came on our way;

16 Therefore, eternity was our covering and our rock and our salvation, as we journeyed from Haran by the way of Jershon, to come to the land of Canaan.

That´s right, I've become a hippie; always journeying. But unfortunately I haven´t had a chance to dwell in any tents yet! Sometimes I think a tent would be better than a missionary apartment though...

It´s really cool to just travel around, always meeting new people, knowing new places, seeing what God had created and what He does in the lives of other people. Knowing their experiences.

I feel blessed for this great "journey" that I´m on, that´s called a mission. For the chance to go from house to house to bless the lives of those who will accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

D&C 75,

18 Yea, let all those take their journey, as I have commanded them, going from house to house, and from village to village, and from city to city.

19 And in whatsoever house ye enter, and they receive you, leave your blessing upon that house.

I love you all and hope that you will let these great journeyers, the missionaries, enter your houses. That you and your families may be blessed.

Have a perfect week! And just remember, only 12 more weeks...

Tchau, 

Sister Stevens

Only One More Week in Sapiranga

11/10/14

What a week. It was a great one here in Sapiranga with Sister Horn. We've been working our tails off here in our area trying to help God´s children come into His kingdom. We worked hard, but also had a lot of fun in the process! Sister Horn and I got to go to another English class this week to talk about American culture. I love to do that because it opens up a lot of doors for the future. A lot of times the kids and youth from the English classes run up to us on the streets and start to talk to us and ask us questions. It´s way cool, and I for sure know that one day when a set of missionaries knock on their doors, they´re gonna invite them in. 

We've also been blessed with a ton of amazing families who love the missionaries. They welcome us in with open arms, big fat hugs, and more food then is possible to eat! I love the mission. I can´t wait to get home and help all the missionaries in the ward. 

One of the amazing families that invited us over for dinner

Sister Horn and I were blessed this week with a miracle. His name is Rodrigo! We found Rodrigo sitting outside of his house a few weeks ago. It was one of those moments when you see someone and you have the impression that you should stop, but then you just pass on by and regret it. You know that feeling? Well, that´s exactly what happened. I saw him sitting on the front porch of his house and I thought about how we should go over there and teach him, but I rationalized not stopping because we were heading somewhere else. Well, that nagging "you should have stopped to talk to him" feeling haunted me the whole time as I walked away down the street, until we rounded the block again and we found him outside. He was awesome. Rodrigo is more or less 40, but he lives at home with his dad because he has a physical disability. He was hit by a car when he was 11 years old, and then 2 more times after that. But other than his physical disability he´s very smart. He accepted the Lord´s invite to be baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ. And yesterday was his special day. I was so happy to see how the Lord works and blesses the lives of the missionaries, and how blessed I am to be one of his representatives.

This is going to be our last week of the transfer, and I´m pretty positive that I´ll be sent to a new area. Only 2 more transfers left now... The time is going by fast.

But anyway. Amo vocês. Tenho saudades, mas é bom. Tenho muito coisa mais para fazer e vou ver vocês logo.

Tchau, Sister Stevens

Pictures

11/03/14

Paragliding (don´t worry, I didn't actually do it)

We went to the mountains last p-day and had a bbq!  Churrasco!

It's a Girl!

10/27/14

Oh my goshhhhhhh!!! I can't believe I'm an aunt!! AAAAAHHHHHHHH I'm so happy! But the only thing I wanna know is why the heck she didn't get my middle name, huh?! ;)  just kidding, just kidding. I'm so excited that my cute baby niece finally came. I just wish that I was at home to cuddle with her.

This week was a great one. I traveled a lot, yet again, but Sister Horn and I still managed to work a lot in our area. We're teaching a lot of wonderful families here. I just hope that I have a chance to be here when these families receive the blessings of the gospel through baptism. The only hard part about this area is that absolutely no one is married! So, here´s to a lot of eventual marriages!

Man, I'm so happy to hear about my new niece that I can't concentrate enough to write more than this. But here's to a week full of happiness!


Tchau,


Titia Stevens

Pictures!

Special American Talents

Wow, what a week it has been! The heat is really picking up and we're on the run trying to help out all of our amazing investigators. We've been teaching various families around here, but unfortunately most of them need to get married before they can prepare for baptism. The families that we're teaching are fantastic and I've never felt so much love and gratitude from so many amazing people. There really is nothing more gratifying then when somebody tells you how much your presence as a missionary means to their family, and how much of a difference you make.

It makes me think of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 18:

13. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!




14. Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.




15. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!




16. And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

I am so happy here on the mission! I feel so much joy from helping these people know and come unto Christ!

But some other things that were going on this week. So, Sister Horn and I are Americans, right? So sometimes it causes a bit of attention...haha. Our neighbor works at a school where she teaches Portuguese, but her really good friend is an English teacher there. They asked us if we would be willing to come to the school and do a presentation about American culture this past week. So Sister Horn and I decided why the heck not, and accepted the offer! Let me just say, it was the coolest, funniest and best experience ever! These kids just loved us! They asked questions, we made contacts, we developed good community relations, and we received references.

Man, we were celebrities! haha You've probably even seen the pictures on facebook already...haha But the best part of all were the three youth that ran up to us on the street yesterday because they remembered us! It made it all worth it. The whole experience definitely opened up a few doors for the missionaries in the future.

But anyways, I'm doing very well. Sister Horn and I are trying to use our "unique" American talents to bless the people here in Sapiranga, and I'm loving life.

I hope that you are all doing well, and staying strong!

Love you all!



Sister Stevens

Rushing by

9/29/14


What a great and crazy week! This transfer is going by fast, and the weeks are going by faster. Sister Horn and I are working our tails off to help as many children of God as we can! This week was a hard one, because we were traveling back and forth from Porto Alegre to Sapiranga to Lajeado and who knows what other cities. It was a week full of traveling, so it left us with only 3 days to work in our area. But miracles happen when you count on the Lord and after a week of craziness, sister conferences, trips to the police station to renew visas and exchanges with other sisters, we managed to help an amazing young woman enter the waters of baptism.


Yesterday, Amanda Gabriela dos Santos was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was an awesome day! And even though she didn't want to wear the hideous white jumpsuit *haha* she got over her embarrassment and was baptized. The best part though was when we were talking to her in the bathroom and she said that she felt so much better... This is what makes my work worth it. Knowing that I've actually helped these people to feel "so much better."


I love the mission. It´s getting crazier and crazier as the time passes. More and more responsibilities and meetings and exchanges, but i´m loving it!


The transfer is coming to a close, I think that I´ll be staying here in Sapiranga with Sister Horn. At least I hope so!


I´m excited to listen to a prophets voice this weekend for General Conference. I know that it´s going to be amazing and inspired. I can´t wait to hear what has to be said.


I love you all and miss you. Fica firme e feliz sempre!


Tchau,


Sister Stevens

Ficar Feliz

                   

9/22/14

Hellloooo people,

I know, it´s been a while since I've written much, but things have been going crazy around here. There´s a lot to do and not enough time to do it all! But miraculously everything works out in the end.

Last week there was a surprise emergency transfer here on the mission. 3 new Americans arrived, and I received a new American companion. I was really sad to see Sister Loner leave. I really loved being her companion, but the Lord knows what he´s doing, right?! But when I heard that I was getting a new American, let´s just say I freaked out a bit. AN AMERICAN?! WHHHYYYYYYY??? It´s so much harder, and Americans are weird... haha That´s pretty much what I was thinking the whole time! But when I got to the Rodoviária to switch companions, I met Sister Horn from Kirtland, Ohio. She´s amazing! She´s really funny and for 4 days in Brazil she´s speaks really good Português! She was a "visa waiter" for 8 months in the states. She´s doing great, adjusting well and excited to work here in Brasil. It´s a whole new world, new expectations and a completely different mission... But she's ready and willing to change and learn how it is here in Brasil.

Miracles are happening here in Sapiranga. The transfer is flying by fast, but we´re preparing more of God´s children to enter into the waters of Baptism. It´s hard work and we´re fighting against the adversary at every turn, but it´s amazing to see how much more power there is on the Lord´s side.

Please pray for us so that everything works out with our baptism this Sunday. Her name is Amanda and she´s 14 years old. She´s really cute, even with her rebelous nose peircing and all! haha

I´m loving the mission, and just so you know, I´m really thinking about staying here forever! haha I have so much more to learn and so many more people to help! I love it!

I hope that all is going well, and that everyone is happy and healthy!

In the words of my Sister leader companion in her horribly conjugated Português..."Só Ficar Feliz!"

Amo muito vocês e sinto falta! Mas, amo a missão e nunca quero voltar! rsrs Só brincando! Fica bem, fica feliz, e até a próxima!


Sister Stevens

What a wonderful week!

Hello family and friends!  It´s another day here in the Brazil Porto Alegre North Mission.  Today is a super cloudy day, and we´re just hoping that the downpour doesn´t start until we get home!9/15/14

Last week was super long and crazy without a normal p-day.  We went to the temple on Tuesday and didn´t even get back to our area until 9:45 pm.  It was pretty crazy.

We were dying from lack of sleep.  I think that I had to wake up before 6:30 almost every day last week!  All I wanna do is sleep in.  aka- all I want to do is sleep until 6:30!  

It was a great week though.  We worked and sweated a lot.  The heat is starting to set in, but we have a lot of great people that we´re helping.  I can´t believe that it´s already the 4th week of the transfer.  It´s going by way too fast.  

Yesterday the other Sisters had a baptism!  They baptized an amazing family!  It was a crazy adventure helping them get to baptism, including helping them get married on Friday morning.  It was the first time I had ever seen a courthouse wedding.  Sister Loner and I are hoping to help one of our families do the same thing this transfer. They´re really awesome, but we need a lot of help and prayers to get them there.  

Something really cool happened yesterday.  We were walking down the street and a woman working at a pharmacy stopped us and asked us if we were Mormons.  We said yes, and she told us that she had had a dream recently that she was inside of a huge, beautiful mormon church... She told us that her friend recently got baptized in Bahia(it´s a city in another state in Brazil), and that she wanted to visit this 'huge, beautiful Mormon church"  when she goes to visit him.  We marked a visit with her today.  It´s just really cool how the Lord works, and how so many times, out of the middle of nowhere people show up and ask you about the church.  We´re hoping and praying that she´s our golden investigator this transfer!   

But anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well.  I´m so excited for General Conference that´s coming up.  It´s gonna be great.  I´m so happy to be here in Brazil, working and sweating and helping all of my brothers and sisters.  Have a wonderful week, and don´t forget to help the missionaries!  

Have a perfect week!  

Sister Stevens

I'm going to the Temple!

9/09/14

Hello Family! How are you all doing today?! I didn´t write yesterday because today is my p-day. We're going to the temple! Woohoo!

This was a good week! I did my first split as sister leader. So, a sister leader trainer is different from a regular trainer. I´m not actually training the new sisters or anything, but I watch over the sisters on the mission. We make splits with them, we help them if they´re not doing well. We visit, call, etc... Then we talk about what´s going on with them for President if there are any serious problems going on.

My first division was good. Sister Lourenço, my second companion, came to my area to work with me for the day. It was weird doing a split with my "step mom" that´s for sure. Me and Sister Martinez take care of 10 sisters and then our companions (who we´re training). It´s really interesting to be a sister leader, but its stressful too, because you´re always leaving your area and your investigators. But I think I'm starting to get the routine down.

Everything´s going great here. This ward is awesome!

Anyway, have a great week! I love you!

Sister Stevens

My hair dryer doesn't work here because the voltage is different...

so I have to use the mini heater to dry my hair

GIANT CHIMARRAO!

Video

9/01/14

Wow, I loved this video! The beginning is in Portuguese, but you get the idea.

It really puts into perspective how important the gospel of Jesus Christ is, and how grateful we should be to have this restored gospel in our lives.

I´m so grateful to be here on the mission, teaching the world about this wonderful truth, That God loves us so much that he has called his holy prophets to lead and guide us on our journey through this life. I am so grateful for the true gospel of Jesus Christ.


Sister Stevens

Sapiranga

9/01/14

Wow, what a week it has been. I´m in a new area, with a new companion, with new responsibilities. My new companion is Sister Loner from São Paulo! She´s amazing! She´s on her second transfer, so we´re finishing up her training together. We´re serving in the Sapiranga ward with 2 other sisters. One is from Ecuador and the other is from Argentina. They´re a hoot!

Our apartment is full of a lot of crazy and hilarious moments, that´s for sure!

This week was full of getting to know a new area. The area is pretty big, and it´s full of my favorite, HILLS! Lots and lots of hills! haha Nah, it´s really not that bad. The members here are amazing. They love missionaries! They love to fatten us up that is. They give us cake, and pizza and soda... Wow, it´s a lot of stuff. Let´s just hope that the giant hills make up for the side effects of the food...

I´m doing really great here in Sapiranga. This week starts all the fun. We have our first leader meeting this week in Porto Alegre, then we have interviews with President Wright, and then Sister Martinez (the other Sister Leader) and I are going to do our first divisions with the sisters in Novo Hamburgo. They´re about an hour away from us.

I´m excited to see how this week goes. It´s gonna be interesting!

I hope that you´re all doing well and that you´re happy. Time is flying by here on the mission. I have so little time, and so much left to do!

But anyway, until next week!

Sister Stevens

A photo from last week's baptism!

Shock

8/25/14

Wow, I just have to say that I am writing this email completely in shock. Let´s see if I manage to write in a way that makes sense... I just received a call from President Wright. It was pretty strange, especially because the first thing he said was, "Sister Stevens, sabe que eu tenho muito confiança em você..." (I have a lot of trust in you)... First off, you KNOW that something hard is about to happen when Pres. Wright says that to you. And let me just say, the next thing he told me was, Sister, you are going to be the new Sister Leader Trainer... WHAT?! I´m dying inside!

Tomorrow is transfer day, and I've been feeling for days that I would be transferred. So, when I saw my name on the transfer list, I was completely calm. But then came the shocker, the call from President. So, Sister Leader Trainer is a little bit (or a lot a bit) different from just being a normal trainer. A Sister Leader is almost like an assistant to the president. We have so many sisters serving missions now in the world, that we need to have leaders that watch over and make divisions with the sisters. So, I guess for some reason the Lord wants me to do this for the next little while.

I´m in shock, and I´m freaking out a little bit!

But anyway, other than that, Sister Sallum and I had a really great last week together. We had another miracle! A baptism! His name is Luã and he´s 14 years old! He´s amazing. Sister Sallum made a contact with him on the street 2 weeks ago, he went to church with us on Sunday, and last Sunday night he went to Evandro's baptism saying that he would like to be baptized too. He´s so cool! We visited him every day this week, talked to him mom, and "taught" him everything he needed to know before baptism. What I mean by "taught" is that he already knew everything, and he didn't have a problem with anything! He came prepared. He´s a really sweet kid.

His baptism was yesterday afternoon. A hot "winter" day here in Rio Grande do Sul... Everything went as well as possible for a baptism day (nothing ever goes smoothly), and he had a great experience. I´m so happy for Luã, and that we were blessed to know him this last week here. It was a miracle baptism!

I´m excited and scared for this next transfer, but I honestly know that I´m heading where I need to be. I know that President Wright receives revelation, and if he felt that I needed to be challenged with this new responsibility, vou la! Just send a lot of prayers my way! I´ll be needing them!

I love you all, and I love the mission. I know that Christ lives. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and that when we listen to his voice, and follow his councils, we´ll be blessed.

I hope you all have a perfect week! I love you all


Sister Stevens

Adventure Time!

8/18/14

Wow, what an adventure this week has been. It was full of deathly illnesses, almost broken bones, and trying to break into apartments. Oh, and not to forget, pajama parties and robbery too. Oh, let´s just say, it was a pretty exciting week here in Brazil...

It all started off with the thing that all missionaries LOVE. Our investigator, Evandro, was sick. Sicker than a dog, sick. And we were trying to visit him for DAYS. Starting on Monday, we went to his house trying to see how he was doing, we tried to visit him, invite him to Family Home Evening, etc, and we heard nothing. It´s the worst when your golden investigator disappears for days, especially on the week that you planned a baptism. It was a rough one. Sister Sallum and I felt like maybe he was avoiding us... Which was super sad, because he´s such a cool guy. So anyway, Sister Sallum and I just continued on. Trying and trying to visit, but by the time that Wednesday came around we just about gave up on the idea of a baptism.

On Thursday we had a miracle division. 2 young women from the other ward said they wanted to help us out. It was an intervention from God. Sister Sallum made contacts on the street with a million different people, and I had a chance to go and visit Evandro. Wow, let´s just say, the adversary really didn't want us to get to his house, especially because I sprained my ankle really bad when we were turning the corner to get to his street. But it´s a good thing that we didn't give up, because when we got there, Evandro was feeling a lot better. And even more miraculously, he had prayed while he was cooped up inside his house... he told us that when he was praying about if he should be baptized, he felt a really great feeling deep down to his core, and that he knew it was an answer from God... It was so amazing to be there at that moment. I just asked him if that means that he would be baptized, and he said yes. He was telling us more about his sickness, and how it was to be stuck at home, and I just marveled at how Heavenly Father works. Because of his sickness, he was stuck inside his house alone, and he finally prayed. Because of his sickness, he couldn't smoke for days. I had been so worried because we hadn't talked to him since Saturday, but Heavenly Father was taking care of him for us! Heavenly intervention is so interesting at times, isn´t it? Evandro is amazing! We visited him every day for the rest of the week and on Sunday night at 6:30 he was baptized. He cried, he was so happy. I couldn´t stop smiling. I knew that I returned to Fernandes for a reason. And if I´m transferred from here next week, I know that this was it. To help Evandro prepare for baptism. He was my investigator the last time I was here.

Everything was going perfectly, right? Our baptism ended, we were heading out the church doors and down the street, when all of a sudden we realized that we didn't have our keys with us... Oh no! We ended up calling the Bishop, returning to the church, removing everything from our bags, and nothing. We didn't have a single key! There was no way for us to return home. But there was a little girl that we've been teaching for a long time that was at the baptism. She´s about 10 years old, and she had been playing in our things. I knew she had taken them, because she has a really bad habit of lying and stealing... So we ran to her house, and she told us she had given them to one of the brothers of the church. So we ran to that brother´s house, just to find out she was lying. Then we ran to someone elses house and they didn´t have the keys either. Then we ran back to the girls house and she said that one of the other brothers from the church had them. Then we called, and they didn't have them... So all in all, she was lying! And we were stuck without keys... This is where the pajama party comes into play. Sister Sallum and I ended up sleeping at a members house! Woohoo! It was actually kind of fun and exciting really. We were on such a high from our amazingly amazing baptism that it almost didn't bother us that we would probably have to spend hundreds of dollars (or actually reais) to replace all 10 of our stolen keys.

Let´s just say, this p-day was full of a lot of fun and interesting key searching parties, and activities and wild goose chases! But all in all, the mom of this little girl picked her up from school, and we brought her to the church to "find" the stolen keys. But even though she stole and lied about the keys, we were just relieved to finally have them back. And now, I´m super tired, and I hope that my email makes sense!

But anyway, I feel so blessed that my amazing friend Evandro was finally baptized! It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I know that the Lord really does watch over us and bless us. Everything always works out for our good if we just put our trust in the Lord. Even when things are going crazy! Just have faith.

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love, 

Sister Stevens

Ps - Best. Baptism. Ever. I´m still smiling!

6 More Months to Live

8/11/14

Hellllooooooo!

How is everyone doing this fine Monday afternoon? I just realized that as of today I have exactly 6 months left of the mission. I will be returning home and stepping my feet back in the good ol' USA on the 11th of February 2015. It´s so crazy to think that i`ll be coming home so soon. But anyway, This week was a great one. We had the privilege of going to Porto Alegre for a mission tour. Elder and Sister Leal of the seventy came and gave a conference for all of the missionaries. It´s always amazing to spend time with the other Elders and Sisters and learn new things. I love being on a mission, because I feel like I've learned and grown so much spiritually and mentally.

This week was full of the same old same old. But Sister Sallum and I are really doing our best to apply the amazing things that we've been learning and start some miracles up in this sad little town!

We learned a lot about faith and obedience this week. When we really trust in the Lord and do all that we possibly can to be righteous, the Lord will then bless us with miracles. But if we feel like we´re asking the Lord something with faith and it doesn't come to pass, many times it´s because we´re not really in accordance with the teachings of God. Because like the scriptures say, "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." But the only way that blessings (and miracles) are predicated in our lives is upon our obedience to the laws of God.

So many people ask and complain and wonder and say, "Why hasn't God blessed me? I´m a good person, I do this, I do that..." But since we believe in a perfect God, he literally can´t bless us completely without our obedience. We have to obey all the commandments, not just some if we want miracles to happen in our lives.

I´m grateful for my new perspective this week. I feel like I´m getting to a new level of spirituality that I didn't really know was possible for me, but is! It´s so cool how much you learn and change and grow on a mission.

I´m so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I know that this is the only true church on the face of the Earth, because we only have one God, we only have one Christ and they only have one path. This is the same path that leads us to Eternal life and happiness, and we can only find that true path in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know these things are true, and I know that you can know through prayer, scripture study and going to church. These three fundamental things bless us with the spirit of the Lord, and lead us to his true path.

I hope that you can all learn this for yourselves, and that you can gain a testimony of these things. There only exists one church that is true, because Jesus Christ only established one church that was true.

I love you all, and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,


Sister Emily Stevens

I Feel So Loved!

I just LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE all you guys so much! Thank you everyone for the birthday cards, emails, presents, wishes and love! You are all so amazing. It´s hard to believe that it´s actually my birthday tomorrow, because it´s so stinking cold here! I´m still not used to the whole switched seasons thing. But anyway, I´m so grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life. Thank you for everything.

It was another good week here in Vila Fernandes. We walked, and walked and walked and walked, you know, like the pioneers. Which is fitting, since this week was Pioneer day in the USA. We talked and talked and talked and talked. And I also thought of a new way to make a contact with rude people... It´s called the "oh, if you´re going to ignore me and keep on walking, I have every right to walk right along side you and say what I was going to say!" Yeah, it´s kind of a long title, but you get the idea.

This week I was able to have an awesome split with Sister Betti, Sister Leader Trainer. She´s from Argentina, and super funny. We got to strengthen our relationships with even more families here in Fernandes, and we had an awesome Family Home Evening with American pancakes and peanut butter last night! I love this area, with all of it´s difficulties and all!

I´m excited to celebrate my first and last birthday on the mission. It´s sure to be great, and just like any other day on the mission! Maybe my district leader will switch it up and bit and call to wish me a happy birthday or something! haha

But nothing incredible really happened this week. We taught a lot of lessons, but nobody is really progressing. We´re in that stage of just getting to a new area, and trying to weed out the people who actually want to hear our message or not. But we´re really learning a lot.

But anyway, I love you all and I hope that all is well!

Have a perfect week, and thank you again for all the love!

Love,


Sister Emily Stevens

Me, Sister Betti, My companion (Sister Sallum), and Sister Oliveira

Sister Betti and Me

It's a Little Bit Old...It's a Little Bit New

7/21/14

WOOOOWWWWW, it´s crazy how things work and change here on the mission. Transfer happened last week and, as always, I had to drag my suitcases by bus and train to get to my new area. Or maybe I should say, my old area.... I returned to FERNANDES! I was in shock for about two days that I returned here. Actually, I think that I´m still in shock! I closed this area for Sisters, and here I am a few months later opening it for Sisters again! I´m feeling a bit trunky, because I feel like I've returned back home.

It´s really cool though that I can be back here for a while. I guess Heavenly Father is giving me another chance to do something that I didn't do when I was here the first time. I´m finishing up the training of my new companion, Sister Sallum. She´s from Florida too! And she´s super sweet.

This week were doing our best to help my old investigator Sergio. He´s been receiving the missionaries for at least the past 20 years, but he´s never been baptized because of his problem with smoking. He never manages to stop smoking! But this time, I've got the faith, and we´re going to help him stop. Please pray for him, because it´s gonna be a tough one! But thanks to my birthday package that I got this week, I gave him 2 (inspired) packages of gum that he can chew when he has a craving.

Anyway, I´m loving my new old area, and I´m so excited for my chance to work here with my new companion. She fresh and full of faith! haha

I hope that everyone is doing well, and blessing the lives of the missionaries!

Have an amazing week!

Love, 

Sister Stevens

Oh, and thank you for all the cards and the birthday package! I love you all!

 

The Gospel in Brazil

7/14/14

The church in Brazil has grown in remarkable numbers since it first began here. There´s an awesome talk in the Ensign this month about the growth of the church in Brazil. You can find the article here.

 It started with just one family that moved to Brazil, and look where it´s come. If all of us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ would share the gospel with those that we know the church would grow even more. Look at what can happen in just a little bit of time, and with just a little bit of effort.

"The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible..." Russell M. Ballard

Love you all. Share the gospel. Be like Brazil!

This is why I love Brazil. It's so pretty!

It's Transfer Time...

7/14/14

Hello, I´m going to write a short letter for all of you today, because the computer that I´m using is having a lot of problems and keeps shutting down.

But just so you know, this transfer has come to an end. And what is the fate of Sister Stevens? Sister Stevens will be.............Drum roll.......................

Transferred! Again! Woohoo! And I´m not training! Woohoo (again)!

This was an interesting transfer, that´s for sure, but Sister Oliveira Souza and I learned a lot. And, we were blessed with a miracle too! I´m grateful for the time that I spent here. It wasn´t easy, but nothing in life is. But even though it felt like I didn't have much success, I know that the Lord was helping me to understand more about the Atonement, and about patience.

I´m excited for this new transfer. It´s going to be another opportunity to learn and grow.

I hope that everyone back home is doing well.

Love you all!

Sister Stevens

Life on the Mission

6/30/14

What an interesting experience a mission is...

This week was full of ups and downs. Sister Oliveira Souza and I are improving our teaching abilities and teaching more people than ever. Most of these people aren't interested in more than a "hi, how are you," but such is life on the mission. We still open our mouths and testify that there is one true church on the face of the Earth, even if they don´t want to hear it or if they don´t have "time". It´s our responsibility to talk to everyone we meet. They have to know, and then they can choose to ignore it.

This week we had some sad events happen. We were preparing yet another baptism here in Lajeado. We were super excited, because President Wright challenged us to work hard and have at least one baptism before the end of the transfer. We took the challenge seriously, because we know that like the scriptures say, "The Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I know that President Wright is inspired and that he receives revelation for us and our mission. So, if he challenged us to baptize before the end of the transfer, he knows that it´s possible.

Anyway, Sister Oliveira Souza and I were crazy excited because Reni, our investigator since my first week here, accepted to be baptized. Everything was going great, everything was perfect.I made an amazing chocolate cake and everything! But then Sunday happened... a member went to pick up Reni and his family (they live in the other city), but when he got there, the family said that the river overflew (I don't know if this is even a word anymore...), and that he was at his sisters house helping with the flooding... It was awful news, but understandable. We didn´t have a baptism... But it got worse than that. Sister Oliveira Souza had a really strong impression during sacrament meeting that she needed to return to his house and invite him to church. So she rounded up a ride and she went, and you know what happened? He wasn't at his sister´s house, he was at home, and he ran away... He said that he was going to grab a pair of pants that were hanging outside, and when she looked a few seconds later he was literally running away... WHAT?! How crazy is that?! Never on the mission have I experienced anything like this... It was so sad to hear when she told me what happened. We love him and his family so much. We've spent so much time teaching and helping them, and then something like this happens... I was so sad.

But I know that everything happens for a reason, because after all of this trauma, miracles started to happen. We had 4 investigators at church! Our group in Encantado had 2 more people this week! A married couple that we´re trying to reactivate went to church for the second week in a row (the wife is a member, but the husband isn't), we had an amazing devotional at night, and receive the most amazing referral from our friend Samuel (They came to our devotional)! Her name is Ana Paula, and she told Samuel that she felt a peace that she has never felt before. She was even asking me questions about baptism! She´s so cool! We´re going to teach her tomorrow night.

Man, even though everything seemed to be going wrong, the Lord blessed us so much yesterday.

We always have trials and burdens in our life, Sometimes in life we ask why things go wrong when we´re trying our best to do everything right... but it´s like Alma explains in The Book of Mormon, these trials are to test our patience and our faith.

I´m so grateful for this area. It´s been a real challenge. We have troubles in a lot of different ways here. We have problems with the ward, the cold, the rain, the crazy closed off Germans, the river overflowing, lunch falling through. Everything! But the Lord always shows us that He has something greater in store. And that there´s always someone to help. If anything, this area has shown me how I want to be after the mission. This area has strengthened my testimony in the importance of member missionary work. This area has strengthened my testimony in the atonement of Jesus Christ. He suffered more things than this. More pains, more disappointments more hunger and thirst. He went beneath it all. And because of His stripes, we are healed.

I feel so blessed, because even if some of the members hate us, even if the people reject us, even if we don´t baptize a single person. I blessed the lives of at least 3 people here. I helped 3 of my friends - Rose, Samuel and Leonardo - prepare for missions. They will receive their calls soon, and they will baptized and bless the lives of more people that I can even imagine.

I´m so grateful for this area. I´m so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only through the gospel, can we return to live with our Heavenly Father and with our families again one day.

I love you all. Remember that our trials really do make us stronger if we let them. They´re to test our patience and our faith. But in the end, if we keep strong, the Lord will show us His wonders.

I love you all.

Sister Stevens

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

6/23/14

Hellooooo my friends! I hope that you´re all doing well!

So, yesterday I heard that the USA was winning the game, but then Portugal made a goal at the last minute... BOOOOOOO!! I really don´t care very much about soccer and The World Cup, but it would be nice for the USA to win a bunch...ya know, while I´m here in Brasil.

This week we had interviews with President, Divisions with the Sister leader trainers, rain, and vomit! Woohoo!

This is the second time here in Lajeado that I've had a nice case of the vomits... It was a pleasant 10 month anniversary for me. I threw up a bunch and I slept all day. So overall, it was good. But my companion is the best! I didn´t even remember that it was my 10 month anniversary, but when I left the room, I saw a cute little note that she made for me. She´s always so thoughtful!

This week we tried our best to work hard, and the hard work really paid off. We taught a ton of people this week, found a whole bunch of new investigators, and we found a family that´s been inactive for at least 14 years. The son is 18, and I know that if he comes back to church, he´s going to be an amazing missionary. They invited us over for lunch this week. I´m super excited to see them again.

We had another miracle yesterday as well. Our awesome friend Cibele who hasn't been to church for the past 14 years went with us to help the group in Encantado! She loved it. She´s left the church 14 years ago after she got home from her mission, and we've been working with her for at least a month. She finally returned! It was such a great day!

Anyway, I want you all to know that I´m doing well. I´m not throwing up anymore! haha I´m happy and things are looking up. We´re helping a lot of families return to church, which makes me really happy. They need the blessings of the gospel.

I hope you all have a perfect week!

Love,

Sister Stevens