Monday, April 4, 2016

Conference Weekend

heya fam and friends :)
hope you all had a great week and were uplifted by the words of our prophet and general authorities. it broke my heart to see president monson, he is so weak and fragile he is so amazing and devoted to this work, he is an amazing example. i am so thankful to have a testimony of our prophet and know he is truly called of god. listening to conference is 10x better on a mission, you just soak up everything and i learned a lot. its important that we dont just learn but we make changes and apply what we learned into our lives. that is something i am working on this week. we got to take the train to conference and it was so fun! the trains here are the best, i cant wait to take you on them!! (seriously, there are so many things i want to do and places i want to see!) and we made taco soup and brought it with us to eat in between sessions haha its great being a sister. we got to see all the other missionaries in our zone and talked to them a bit. there are so many amazing people serving here. some of the elders got to serve with cayden and they just love him so much. they have such great things to say about him. i cant wait to (hopefully soon) see him in action as a missionary.  we got to watch conference at the chapel and it made me pretty homesick thinking about watching in on the couch with my fam but i am so grateful to have been able to hear the words of the general authorities. thank you for the quotes. we didnt get to see sunday afternoon which was so sad! but we can listen to it when it comes out on lds.org. i cant wait to hear elder holland. elder uchtdorfs talk really helped me know that the lord is refining me to who he needs me to become. and i have felt an embrace from heaven today reading all your emails, knowing i am so lucky to have all of you and know that you guys are all safe and well makes me feel so blessed. 
it was a good week, cant believe this is the last week of the transfer, time literally flies so im doing my best to enjoy every minute. im halfway done with training and i still cannot navigate the busses and trains or anything so please pray for me ;)
we got to teach Alex this week and commit him to baptism for april 23! we also committed him to keep the word of wisdom and he even gave us his last bottle of whiskey! dont worry we had a nice little ceremony of dumping it out after a few shots of course. (ill send pics) 
april fools day wasnt quite the same as my usual pranks, instead we heart attacked a couple of the members houses who do so much for us. it was fun though they were really happy :) 
missionary life is hard, it is so hard to be away from family and friends, it is hard to keep your thoughts centered on jesus christ, it is hard to care about all these people you just met, and it is hard to be a missionary. BUT it is so rewarding. i see miracles everyday, i get to teach people about simple things that can change their lives, and i get to become friends with people from everywhere, but the most important thing is i get to become closer to my savior and become the person he wants me to become. it is so comforting knowing i am exactly where i am supposed to be and doing what i am supposed to be doing. i am so grateful to be a missionary at this time and experience hard times because they make you appreciate the good so much more. i am so thankful that if we endure to the end, we can live with our father in heaven again. i cannot wait to be reunited with him and expereience that joyful reunion.
hope you all have a great week! 
love you all so much!
love, sister stevens
Leeds

Train Station

No Cheetos in England, so we sent her some on Amazon UK

Lisel and Sister Pro