Wednesday, April 29, 2009

29 April 2009

Thanks for the letter as always. This one is going to be a short one, I'm in Downtown Denver and we're about to go watch the Padres beat the Rockies. haha
Its been a good week, we got some service done for one of our investigators and playing in rosebushes is always fun! And we're doing service for an investigator on Friday too. We're moving her into her fellowshipping family's house, because shes like a second daughter to them. She is one step closer to baptism, we taught her the power of prayer and she was getting into tough times with her boyfriend who she was living with, and she prayed and found out that he wasn't a good person for her to be around. That should be fun though, because one of the RMs whos been her good friend since before he went on his mission is dirving us and we're all moving her, so it should be good.
I love you guys. Thanks for all you do for me. I will write again, and I guess I'm calling you from the Sinquefield's a week from Sunday. Take care of yourselves. I'm glad Eliza got to go to the temple. Make sure she keeps going before she leaves!

Your son,
Elder Thomas Stevenson

Sunday, April 26, 2009

17 April 2009

Mom & Dad & Everyone,
Thanks for the letter, and definately thanks for the Subway card! Mom, I love you & everyone else too! Congrats on Eliza's mission call, I'm excited for her.
Oh goodness. I wish it would stop snowing. We got over a foot today & had thunder-snow. I have a cold that I'm trying to get over, but I went to Walgreens & got medicine, so hopefully that helps.
So yesterday I gained a stronger testimony of the Word of Wisdom. We got a call from the Bishop on our way home from District Mtg. & had our member friend who was driving us take us there. It was sad, a member has been having a hard time with unemployment & we had to help him to their car to go to rehab because he drank so much the night before he couldn't stand on his own. It was so hard to see the shame in his eyes, he has such a deep respect for missionaries. But you could also tell he trusted us 100% as we supported and guided him to the truck so he could be driven to rehab. I almost cried when we were helping him & he just pulled me close & hugged me, because he had that trust to me. It's so hard to see good people fall! He's a great guy. I hope the rehab program works!
Everything I do & see testifies to me that the gospel is true, and that knowledge & faith is what gets me through the tough days. Can you believe I've been on a mission for 10 weeks. That's as much as a full term at school.
Well I can't wait to hear all your voices in a month. That's gonna be awesome! We're probably using the Sinquefield's phone to call you that evening. I love them, they take such good care of us. She brought us chowder in the storm tonight because we didn't have a dinner appointment. Well, I'll talk to you guys on Wednesday again! I love ya tons. Take care of yourselves.
Love ya,
Your son,
Tom (Elder Stevenson)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

22 April 2009

Mom, Dad, I'm going nuts!
The snow melts way quick here, its already all gone. We are allowed to wear slacks now! yay. But yesterday we had a Zone Conference and then I went on exchanges with the zone leaders, so I went to their area and one of them rode my bike. I am so angry, because I already patched two holes and its still leaking air, so I have to go to a bike shop, because tubes that are 28x1 5/8 are not standard. I have concluded that no one is borrowing my bike again. He rode three-quarters of a mile and he must have run over a razor blade to get a gash like that. And we have no transportation until I get a tube. A mission is stressful... I hate those days.
We have had some good days though. We have been visiting with Kenin, the guy who we tracted into his wife. He still reads the Book of Mormon ever night and is excited about how family focused the book is. He is going through some hard times because he has a son with downsyndrome in Texas with his Ex-wife, who his ex-wife cannot handle, so he is planning on going to pick him up on Thursday now. We ran into him one night and he was crying and down and out, and we prayed with him, and then on Sunday we were actually going to visit someone else, and we were biking through the trails to the park and going to lock our bikes there and he was parked in the parking lot, we talked to him and prayed with him again, and we were told that we're angels and the answer to his prayers. So I have concluded that I like normal days way better than P-days... P-days kill me, because you barely have time to get things done and then you want to do fun things too, and sometimes its hard. Next week we might be going to a Rockies, Padres game for Pday though, that would actually be exciting.
I miss home! I miss the security of being able to leave and cool off, or talk to people about things, it just makes life so much easier. Oh well... I hope you guys have a great week, congrats to Eliza and John, I love you all, and take care of yourselves... talk to you soon.

Love TOM

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

15 April 2009

Hi Family,
Its been a good week, we had a lot of investigators that we lost this week, but its for the better i guess! Tomorrow we have 4 lessons scheduled and about three who told us to drop by, and it should really be awesome, however yesterday we did less active visits and tracted for 5.5 hours, it was a hard day, but we talked to a lot of people, first door I gave out a book of mormon, and we'll be following up on saturday. It is way exciting! We had the most amazing teaching appointment on last thursday... There's this awesome family in the ward and their daughter's best friend who is 20, and has been like an addition to their family for the longest time is always over for dinner when the missionaries are, and she asked us to teach her last Monday bc she wants to learn more, so we taught her on Thursday, but the family actually ended up teaching half the lesson, and a lot of people cried and the spirit was there, and tomorrow we'll be teaching her again, so we're pretty excited. Easter was fun. A few members got us easter baskets, and I've eaten too much crap... lol I'm hoping though that we can wear slacks in the next few weeks so I won't be afraid of sweating on the bike, and then I'll start to lose weight again... hehe Oh and I guess I'm officially a missionary... we were told 2 minutes before class that we were teaching gospel principles, but it went well. We are getting fed way too much, the people out here are amazing... and the support from the wards for missionary work is great, everyone is always is asking when they can come visit people with us and be fellowshippers. Well I gotta go. I love you guys so much.
Love ya,
Elder tom

Thursday, April 9, 2009

8 April 2009

Thanks so much for your letters! This letter is for all of you... Mom Dad Cathy Eliza John Christy everyone... I appreciate all the letters, but I only really have time to write one to all of y'all. So Elder Mayes and I are staying in Highlands Ranch for at least six more weeks. Exciting too, we are having people show up out of nowhere to teach again. There is this lady I tracted into on exchanges with another elder and we went back to visit. We really haven't talked much with her in return visits, but we have spoken a lot with her husband. He loves our visits! He told us we're always welcome at his home and whenever we're in the neighborhood at all, we're expected to drop by. He started reading the Book of Mormon and he loves it. He reads a bit from it every night before he prays and goes to sleep. We have had some great spiritual disscussions with him, and we are going to start teaching his family. We dropped by and they weren't home a couple days back and the son answered and he's about 12. I told him "god bless you" or "god be with you" or something like that as we were leaving and he just was so touched. He talked to his dad and he told him it was the most awesome thing ever. He said to his dad they said this and they really meant it. His dad told his son yes we did, and he recognizes us as ministers of Jesus Christ, so that is awesome with the respect he talks to us with when we visit.
We have also been teaching a young man who is planning on starting his schooling in fall in Texas to become a baptist minister, and he is starting to question and to accept some of the truths of the restored gospel.
There is also a family that is absolutely amazing in one of our wards, they do like everything and really live the religion, and one of their daughter's friends has basically become a part of the family and is there everytime we eat with them,and this last week she asked us to teach her about our church, so we're teaching her at their house tommorrow night, and aside from being told daily we're going to hell and all that quite entertaining stuff, we are actually finding some people to teach. its a wonderful blessing. And the members out here are amazing! they are so willing to help with absolutely anything. The church is way strong out here. (An interesting fact: Douglas County is the 5th richest county in the USA according to Forbes).
By the way, the snow ain't all that bad, it melts completely a day or two after, even if its cold, because there is a ton of sunshine here! Well it kind of stinks while its snowing, because as I have learned the wind is never ceasing here, and so the snow doesn't pick a direction to come down, but the wind here is nowhere near as bad as the Santa Anas. I love you guys so much, and thanks so much for the postcard dad, even though it looks as though our lovely postal service ran over it and taped it back together, but it was still exciting to get. My address will remain the same:
Elder Thomas Stevenson
C/O Drake Family
9345 Princeton Cir
Highlands Ranch, CO 80130

Yes conference was amazing and I just finished the Gospel of Matthew the day of E. Holland's talk, so it was awesome to get his reinforcement of my reading, and I've almost finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission, I'm in the end of Ether. Well I love you guys! Take care and have an awesome Easter!

Love ya all,
Tom

Sunday, April 5, 2009

5 April 2009



Hi Stevensons and Mayes,
We just had your cute Elders over for breakfast. My husband is dropping them off at the Stake Center right now to watch conference with all the Elder's in this Zone. They are great Elders and awesome companion's!!!!
Sinquefield's

1 April 2009

Hi,
Its been a rough week. We had a blizzard going all day on thursday, so we walked all over with the snow pelting us in the eyes, we got about 14" at the house that day, and it was almost melted on Sunday and then we got a good 6" on Monday, and its supposed to snow again today. Boots are AMAZING! lol Javier is in Montana for now :(, but his wife and kids are at home, we walked and shoveled their driveway on Monday. Transfers are next week, and I might be getting moved. :( President wants our numbers higher, and none of our investigators seem to ever open the door or answer the phone. There is one lady we talked to yesterday, shes leaving on vacation with her family, but told us to come by the day after she gets home. She went from telling us we're going to hell and we're evil and all that to feeling the spirit and I think she might be baptized. We have a baptism between conference sessions on Saturday at 12:30. And we will be setting a baptismal date on Friday for a recent converts son. Things are falling in line now, but the last two weeks we seemed to just be aimlessly travelling, because no one would answer. We got rebuked by president and told to teach 12 lessons last week, because we had a bit, or a lot, less. We worked as hard as we could and only got 7. Anyways... you might want to have correspondance to the office until I find out if I'm leaving next Tuesday:
2001 E. Easter Ave Ste 303
Centennial, CO 80122

I really hope we can find people to teach. We have a ton of tracting time lately, because we cannot get appointments, or even drop by visits to follow through. I guess the best we can do is pray, and hope for better. We got to go to the 5:30am session at the temple again, and this time we had breakfast at the temple, I still think the concept of food in the temple is kind of weird, but oh well. We normally email a bit later, but we wanted to shop and email before the storm hits this afternoon. We talked to the bike lock company, and they apologized and they sent us two high security Ulocks with $1500 insurance on each. So we got $90 worth of locks for free. I still have to file with the company to activate the insurance, and I have to call Sports Authority and activate the service plan on my bike. We have members that feed us most of the time, and way too much, and when we dont have dinners the members we live with take care of us. We dont have a dinner tonight, but thats kind of nice, because it makes P-Day longer. I am so tired. They are having a party for the Presidents birthday today, but we cannot find a ride, so we cant go... :( A cool experience: we got into an inactive family's home on Saturday, and they gave us some cocoa, and we just talked and shared a scripture, and guess who came to church, they hadn't in like 6 months. That was way exciting. Well I cant wait until it gets hot again! I hate biking home in 10 degree weather with a wind chill of 3... It was 70s a couple weeks back, what the heck? Well anyways, I gotta go and write my letter to the president. Talk with you soon.

Love ya,
Tom