Wednesday, July 29, 2009

29 July 2009

Transfers are in two weeks again! Time FLIES! Sorry about last week! It was rough. We biked out to library because we didn't have miles, and the remnants of the hail from midnight were still golf ball size at ten. We had a nasty storm... It killed peoples gardens and the library servers were all down, so they shut down the library last Tuesday. On top of that a load of expenses have hit! I had to buy more cold and allergy medicine, I had to buy jeans before the conference, I tore one pair apart hiking and one doing service, so I had none left. I dry cleaned my second suit and then two days later found out theres a place that wouldve done it for 9 bucks instead of 17, and then I've been out of missionary funds for about a week and a half. And I got new short sleeve shirts at kohls this month too. I've concluded with how a mission is panning out that I would rather have money in my account than packages with candy and stuff for special days.
Thanks for the letters. The encouragement is fantastic.
Zone Conference was awesome. We drove out to ragged mountain, close to Paonia in the mountains. We got there, were assigned cabins, then had huge sub sandwiches for lunch. We then went on a hike to a natural spring, climbed over the fence and got some fresh ice cold water. Then we went out into the wilderness on our own and had personal study. President gave us a packet of talks and scriptures to read, told us to pray for strength, and gave us wooden blocks to write everything thats holding us back from being the best missionaries we can be! We then went back and threw all our blocks in a bag president had hiked in and we sat down and had a sacrament meeting in which we took the sacrament obviously and we talked about the significance of the Lord communicating with his servants on mountains and referenced different occasions. We then leisurely hiked back to camp and took pictures. When we got back to camp we had a little break then we had Prime Rib for dinner. We then went back to the auditorium and had a literal fireside, where we burnt all the pieces of wood with the things that are holding us back from being the best we can be and we got rid of those things. Then we got homemade ice cream and had a testimony meeting about the power of the spirit in teaching. Then we went to our cabins and slept with a sleeping bag over hardwood bunks, which made my neck hurt, and then to top it off the sleeping bag I borrowed from a member had a broken zipper, so I slept in the cold as I was getting over a cold, which is always good, right? haha
The next morning we had breakfast and trainings, then lunch and then we made a quick vidwo then headed home! It was waywayway too fast.
We also got to go to lookout mountain with our stake for Pioneer Day, which was awesome, but we got stuck taking down, so we were in a nasty storm and them members who took us back were old anyway, but I couldn't even see more than a yard or two in front of the car... It was interesting.
Yesterday we helped a part member family clean out the garage to surprise the nonmember husband, by making it so he has a workspace again. He came home in the middle and was very surprised, but very happy. We helped him take a 600 pound granite countertop upstairs at a client of his home too. It was way awesome. Tomorrow we should get missionary funds again thank goodness.

Well anyways, I love you guys... Hope all is going well, hope dad can get his practice sold, and I hope Eliza decides to leave next week! She'll not get fat in the MTC that way! lol
Take care of yourselves and we'll talk with you soon!

Love you guys,
Tom

Saturday, July 18, 2009

16 July 2009

Thanks so much for the letter. We had to email today, because we needed an oil change yesterday, so we went down by my old area, went to the temple, had our oil changed and played sports at the chapel by the mission office. It was way fun, but we didn't have time to email yesterday.
Quick side note... does dad's truck stereo have a button that says "load"? If it does, it's probably a six CD changer like in our corolla. you press load and it says wait, then load on the screen. But anyways...
So I'm glad you guys all had a good time with the family. And by the way my mission covers half of Aurora, so the Stewart's family could very well be in my mission.
I'm loving it here in lakewood, even though in Highlands Ranch we had 4 with a baptismal date when I left. Oh well though. We have one with a date right now, she had a baby girl with a member and they're getting married in a couple of weeks, and baptized a month later. It will be awesome. And we have a couple of part member families we're teaching. We're still trying to get the wards to implement Elder Perry's plan with five names from each auxillery. It's interesting how much work it takes to get members to follow the words of an apostle of the Lord. We still don't have a ward mission leader in one of our wards. but our wards are an ideal situation for a missionary, since they have the youth classes overlap, we have sacrament, gospel principles, gospel principles again, and sacrament again. We get home by 1:45 and still have time to work thank goodness. I'm getting along with this companion very well. We work, and he is down to earth, not self-righteous, or hypocritical like we find some of the missionaries here to be. We've been teaching as much as possible, trying to reactivate a few families, and just focusing on what we can do and not on trying to make numbers look good, and I'm a lot happier this way!
Next week I will be emailing on tuesday, because on Wednesday at around four in the morning we meet at the mission office to travel to a church owned camp below Grand Junction where we'll stay overnight in the cabins and have a 2 day zone conferences and some day hikes, and stuff.
I also just got my checkered suit cleaned and am trying to find a seamstress in the wards who could take the pants in for me. If I was still in Highlands Ranch I'd be going to a Barmitzfa (i spelled it wrong) on Saturday. haha We were invited as we were tracting, and President said we could go, but I'm gone now.
I'm excited though, there's a lot of potential here, even if it is a lot of old people who don't want to listen mainly, we still keep trying and we're finding some people. I've been able to give to blessings since I've been here too, and I love blessings! I feel the power overcome me and realize that it isn't really me talking! So anyways... I love you guys, I hope all is well. Good for you guys on studying for the CBEST and hopefully John can get some substitute jobs, it would be fun and they get paid a decent amount of money. I love you guys! I miss you guys! Keep praying for me, and pray for Eliza. The MTC is a tough experience, I felt totally caged in! haha... We'll talk to you later though.

Love,
Tom

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

8 July 2009

So I'm in the Green Mountain area of Lakewood Colorado now. I don't exactly have the address with me because I don't have my planner, because I forgot it after we weight trained and played basketball all morning long. It was so awesome! But tomorrow after Zone Meeting we'll drop by the library and I'll send it to you. The week after we have a big zone conference in the mountains, where we'll stay overnight in some church-owned cabins. Should be exciting.
My new companion has been out for just as long as the last one was when we were paired up. He's got two transfers left after this one. He, however, is a lot more chill in that he isn't a my way or the highway type guy. I like that. He's from Benica, CA just outside of San Francisco. I am also living with the parents of the bishop of Heritage Park ward in Highlands Ranch. It is a way awesome place out here though.
As for the fourth, we were instructed to be in by 9 and were planning on sitting on our members roof and watching fireworks, but it poured down rain so hard that we could barely see the road on the way home. haha So we just lifted weights and went to bed.
I like the members we live with too, they buy us milk and bread... dang, so good! haha
So anyways congrats to Eliza and to Justin Freeman who both go to the MTC next week. I hope Liza gets promoted early because she knows the language well enough though. 9 weeks there would be tough.
Missionary life is tiring. Best advice for the MTC is go to sleep asap, and wake up at 6 or earlier, otherwise you'll be late to everything!
Man, I hope dad finds a good offer, or the counteroffer is accepted... and I'll keep y'all in my prayers so you'll find a good offer and be able to decide whether to move or not. Too many decisions in life. SCARY!
I'm glad you guys had fun on the fourth. One thing that's going to take a while to get used to, is its a poorer area here than the Ranch, and its harder to fill up the dinner calendar. Feed the missionaries as often as you can. It stinks when you have to make or buy dinner. I am about to go, but I'll shoot off a quick email tomorrow too, when I have the address, since the library is on the way home from our zone meeting.
By the way, we just committed two investigators to a baptismal date here and two were just committed in my last area, so thats the exciting news for now!
Love ya guys, Take care, and by the way the See's was amazing!

Love,
Elder Stevenson

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

1 July 2008

Hello family,
Thanks so much for the gift certificate! We're going to see's later on today, bc I found out there are only two of them in our mission, and they're both close to here, so if i get transferred out west then I can't use it. I'm also going to go bowling later on today, and I officially hate packing!
I'm so excited to go somewhere new, but its kinda lame, because we have good stuff going on right now. One of our recent converts got baptized because his wife found the church to be true when she was 17, but she hasn't wanted to give up smoking so she hasn't joined. We went over and had a heart to heart, and set a baptismal date as a goal to work towards and challenged her to read scriptures daily, and shes been keeping that! We're also going to invite her to the church addiction recovery program, because she expressed interest in that and the same day we had seen them the guy we had dinner with is a senior missionary over the addiction recovery program and training for it for Colorado and New Mexico. So that should be good.
Clora, the girl who broke her nose, broke her arm wrestling last week, she progressing towards baptism, but we're handing he over to the sisters, because she's been going to their ward, the singles ward, and some of the comments she's made have shown too deep of an attachment to us which is a situation that needs to be avoided in my opinion!
Tracting has been lame the past week! 0 new investigators! :/ I hope i go to a place where we get to teach more lessons.
I'll be happy no matter what though if I get a companion who works hard and wakes up on time. Dang, I need that motivation! haha
Thanks for the letters, they help keep me going. And thanks for the money on the account. I'm trying my hardest not to tap into that.
As for my bike situation, the rim had broke again, and I called the guy in our ward, he's pretty angry and the poor service to us is going to be discussed in the corporate board. But he took the rim in and they replaced it with a rim that had a hub half the size of the hub I need, and then when we went back, even with a guy from corporate standing next to me weren't going to help, until he got the manager and the manager made them give me a rim off of a bike on the showroom floor, so I got a new rim, new tire, new cassette, and the bearings are smoother than either of the other wheels were, so its moving pretty well, and I'm happy.
I hope fourth of july will be fun. We were supposed to go to the rockies game with 3rd row above the dugout seats and get to go lay on the field for fireworks, but president didn't approve, so whoever is coming here is gonna go to a park in our area with an investigator. That should be fun for them. I hope we have a fun time whereever I am! I don't know what else to say really. I'l pray that dad's practice can sell, and we'll hope it'll be soon! I love you guys. You're an awesome family. Thanks for all you do. You have a fabulous week. I'll write when I get to my new area on Thursday.

Love ya,
Tom