I love to see the temple!

2/24/14

This was the most fun I have ever had at the temple in my life. Pics with my companion, and with part of my zone. They´re hilarious! One of the pics that I have is of me and Elder Quiroga (Argentina) He´s my twin on the mission. We were `born` on the same day in the same area, Santa Cruz do Sul.

Oh, and we ate at the mall (shopping) before we went to the temple.  I was in trunky heaven!  Everything was like at home.  Except the fact that people were speaking Portuguese...  Clothes, shoes, air conditioning!  Oh, and McDonald's and Burger King.  

6 meses...ja?!

2/24/14

6 months...already?!

I can´t even begin to wrap my head around the fact that I've already finished 6 months of the mission. Where has the time gone? Only yesterday I left the CTM! The mission is like the twilight zone, seriously. One minute you´re on the mission, the next your back at home living a normal life. It´s so weird. The next thing I know I'll be living it up at Disney with my best friend Mickey (everyone here thinks that I live at Disney).

This week was a good one. The temperature is back up. It´s not quite as hot as it was, but it´s pretty dang hot just the same. I got to go to the temple with Sister Mariz, I got to celebrate my 6 month mark, and I had my first experience walking in a hale storm. What an adventure!

This was a good week on the mission. I learned a lot of new ways that I need to improve in my life to have peace, joy and purpose. Today I was reading an article in the Ensign with my companion about this very thing. It´s such a great article, I hope that you all will read it!

There are 10 things that we need to do if we want to succeed in life:

Establish principles to guide your life.
Don´t make exceptions to your standards.
Be loyal.
Live so that the Lord can guide you.
Serve others.
Smile.
Don´t complain.
Always have a church assignment.
Worship in the temple.
Follow the Savior´s example.


This article was perfect. If we want to feel like we´re accomplishing something in this life, If we want to realize our purpose here, we need to live a life with purpose. We need to do things that enrich and uplift. That´s something that I´m learning more and more on the mission. These are the things that really matter. The things that have eternal consequences in our lives. We need to think more about the eternal perspective and less on the things in the here and now.

Here´s the link for the article. It´s so good. You should definitely read it!

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/02/living-a-life-of-peace-joy-and-purpose?lang=eng

Other than that, I´m doing well. The work of the Lord is moving forward on the Earth. People are choosing the follow the Savior or not, to live a life of purpose and satisfaction, or not. And I´m here to teach them how to do that. I know that the Lord loves each one of his children. He loves each one of you, and he has a purpose and a plan. Follow it, and you´ll never regret it. I know the gospel is true.


Love, Sister Stevens

Super Stevens

2/18/14

Heeeeellllooo people,

Today I have less time to write because I´ll be heading to the temple and we have to catch the bus when it passes, but I´ll try to think of something exciting to write about...

Hmmmm... I don´t have much of anything...

Tchau,

Sister Emily Stevens

haha just kidding, just kidding.

So this week was an interesting one. First of all, I discovered that I have a super power. When I chant something at least 4 times while pumping my fists in the air, I can make things happen... Yes that sounds weird. BUT IT`S TRUE! I made it rain here for 3 days in a row. And not just rain, I mean pour. It was the most fantastic 3 days of my life. There´s nothing better than tomando um banho na chuva! It was so great. But not only the fact that it was raining made it great, it was the fact that it dropped the temperature substantially! I mean by 20 graus... That´s a lot. We went from dying on the streets to wearing sweaters. The temperature is starting to rise again, but it´s nothing like it was before. I´m in heaven!


Other than the rain, the week was normal. It had it´s ups and downs, it´s dias de Adão, and it´s miracles too. On Friday I recieved my valentine´s package and all of my valentine´s cards! It was fantastic! Thank you everyone for all of the love! 

 

And on Sunday, Sister Mariz and I found someone awesome! His name is Charles and he´s 24. After all of our plans fell through on Sunday, and we still had 3 hours left to the day, I started knocking on doors. And knocking on doors. And knocking on doors. It was horrible, but hilarious. I rang the doorbells on all the chique houses, and I clapped my hands at all the normal houses, but no one let us in. We clapped and clapped and had no success. Until Charles. I made the contact and he opened the gate and let us in. He didn't act exasperated, but he just acted a little bit curious. The lesson was good. It was really interesting because he knew almost nothing about Christ (that´s unusual here because pretty much everyone is catholic or evangelical), so we had to go into a lot more detail. It was really cool to teach someone without a background knowledge. Someone that had an open mind and wasn´t trying to argue with you about trite details like why we don´t observe the Sabbath on Saturday... He was fantastic, and when we made the baptismal invite he said, porque não or why not... He said that if he recieved an answer from the Lord, why wouldn´t he follow it and be baptized. ELEITO, ELEITO, ELEITO! He´s fantastic and I´m so excited to go back to his house this week!

Anyway people, my time is about up and I´ll be headed to the temple, but I just want to let you all know that when things are getting hard, as long as you keep being dilligent, you´ll eventually find gold. You´ll be blessed for your dilligence and obedience. So, just keep knocking on those doors until you find your Charles! haha

I love you all! Don´t forget to help the missionaries, or let them in your house to teach your family or friends, or just give them a glass of water! They need your help. And a perk... The Lord blesses those that help His servants...

Have a perfect week!


Tchau,


Sister Stevens

Cachoeirinha

2/10/14

Oi família!

I hope that all is going well in the land of good weather. First off, let me just tell you that ya'll don´t even KNOW what hot is... Even those of you from Arizona. Because the thing is, it´s not just that the temperature is hot, but the humidity is through the roof as well. This week has been a week of the hottest weather than Rio Grande do Sul has had in the last 100 years... Or so i've heard. On the mission it´s all hear say, ya know. It´s not like I can google this stuff... But anyway, I have never in my life felt as hot as I have this past week. I thought that 32 graus was hot 2 weeks ago, but this week it reached at least 43 graus. I´m dying, the dogs in the streets look like their dying, and everyone else is spending time in their air conditioned bedrooms. If only... I throw cold water on myself at night just to try to help myself fall asleep... It´s bad...

But anyway, here I am sitting on a computer in a new area with my new companion! I, Sister Stevens, am now serving in Cachoeirinha, in Zona Gravatai, with my companion Sister Mariz from Recifi Brazil! She´s so awesome! She has one year on the mission, and she´s HILARIOUS! We live in an apartment with 2 other sisters, Sister Peixoto and Sister Stratton. I already lived in an apartment with Sister Straton in Santa Cruz. It´s been a lot of fun, because everyone in our apartment is really funny. I don´t think that it could get much better than 2 Brazilians and 2 Americans. We laugh our heads off every day. We work in the same ward, and the area is a lot bigger than my last area in Fernandes. But that´s normal, because Fernandes was unusually small...

But anyway, I love my new area. It´s been a rough week because of the heat, but we've meet some really amazing people.

This week we were walking down the street, not having much luck, when all of a sudden this woman stopped us and said, SISTERS! She told us that her name was Shaela, and that she was an inactive member. She said that she had been praying to run into someone from the church, because she´s been feeling `saudade da igreja`, kind of like homesick for the church. She´s been inactive for 10 years, but has a testimony like none other. She stopped going to church after she moved here because she felt like she didn't have any friends. But anyway, she was so excited to have run into us, and she knew it was an answer to her prayers. She was practically crying on the street. We visited her the next day, and we had the most amazing time. She´s so talented. She has a testimony of The Book of Mormon. She´s been teaching her children all about the church, primary, family home evening, etc... We were sitting in her air conditioned bedroom, listening to her desire to return to the church, listening to her stories of how she was baptized and the callings that she had helping the missionaries. She loves the church, and she wants to return. We went there again with the Relief Society president on Saturday, and when we left the apartment, the Relief Society president said that she had been praying and praying for a person to be her new secretary, and that she feels like Shaela might be it...

 It´s amazing how the Lord answers prayers. He answered the prayers of at least 2 different people in just one encounter of a woman on the street... And on Sunday, who was walking down the street with two little kids? Shaela... She had taken a taxi because her husband wouldn't drive them to church. She´s amazing. I love her to death! I know that she´s going to do amazing things here in the ward and help the missionaries like none other. If only everyone could have a testimony of The Book of Mormon like hers. Yes, she left the church, but she´s never denied the truthfulness of the gospel. I know that´s because of her powerful testimony of The Book of Mormon. If only every person would set aside the time to read and pray about it, the whole world would know that it´s the word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ.

There´s an amazing talk about The Book of Mormon that I want all of you to watch. It´s the General Conference talk by Jeffery R. Holland called Safety for the Soul from the 2009 October General Conference. THEN, I want all of you to start reading The Book of Mormon. It will change your lives!

I miss you all, but I´m doing well. I have an amazing companion, and Heavenly Father is watching out for me, sem duvida.

I love you and hope you all have a perfect week. Don´t forget to place the Lord in your busy lives, and you will be so much better off than you could have ever imagined.

Love, Sister Stevens

  Here are two more pics from my last day in Fernandes.  Eventually, I´ll take some pics of my new area...

So Many Fotos!

2/03/14

The Last Supper

From today. I found a Jesus wall of all things...

From today

Tainara our Assembleia investigator.  One day she´ll be baptized. 

Avó Geci.  Grandma Geci

Cris, member extrordanaire!

MELANCIA com membros

Zona Canoas

I wanna keep him!

So Long and Thanks For all the Fish

2/03/14

Well, another transfer has come and gone, and tomorrow I will have a new companion and a new area. So long Vila Fernandes, it´s been real.

Usually we don´t find out if we´re being transferred until Sunday night on the phone or Monday morning when we read our emails, but Sister Rodrigues and I are special...

We got a call late Saturday night. From whom, you ask? None other than the assistants on the mission. THE ASSISTANTS. Of course Sister Rodrigues happened to be taking a shower at the exact moment that the assistants called us(at 10:00 at night), so I answered a little anxiously, and had the most interesting 54 second conversation that I was definitely not expecting. He told me that Sister Rodrigues and I were going to be transferred.

O QUE?! Transferida? Nós duas?!

Actually, that´s exactly what I ended up saying...

He continued on and told me that we needed to know about transfers early, because we needed to let our ward know the next day, that Vila Fernandes was closing for Sisters, and that Elders would be replacing us.

WHHHHAAAAA???? Oh no they didn't!

It´s been about 2 years since Fernandes has had Elders, so it was a bit of a shock. I knew Sister Rodrigues was going to be transferred, but I honestly didn´t think that this would happen. And of course, as always, it´s right when I´m starting to feel a little more comfortable and confident with the people. I mean, c´mon! I had just had a day full of member bonding experiences and then I was told that I was being transferred!

This is all pretend outrage, of course. Because I have complete confidence that President Wright receives revelation for our mission, and that Fernandes really does need a change. It´s a really difficult area, because everyone and their mother(literally) have received the sisters already.

But alas, I´m excited for the change. A little bit sad, because we have some fantastic investigators right now. But the Elders will have some really amazing baptisms in the next few weeks. I know that for a fact!

Anyway, I don´t have much time to say anything more, but I have a lot of pics of members and random stuff that I´ll send.

I love you all and miss you! Don´t forget that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It´s here on the earth. Also, don´t forget that through your obedience and dillegence to God´s commandments, you receive blessings!

I love you all!

Tchau! 

  4 Brasileiros, um Argentino e uma Americana = One Awesome District!