Monday, April 18, 2016

There is help and happiness ahead!

Hello my peeps,
First of all let me just say missions are a roller coaster of ups and downs and one minute you feel like you are on cloud 9 and the next you feel like you want to crawl in a hole and die haha, but seriously. We have a new missionary from Taiwan living with us so I’m not the newest missionary anymore, which is a good feeling :) there are so many things to learn its so overwhelming sometimes! This week was the toughest yet, I had quite a lot of doubts. Satan almost got to me and I was close to giving up but one of the sisters reached out to me and because of her I was able to get back up and focus on why I am here. The lord would not give us something we can't handle, he knows us individually and perfectly. And we are not alone! Our Savior can be with us every step of the way. I was also able to get some great words of advice from my mission president who said no matter where we are there will be trials and ups and downs and right now I’m in England, so they’re gonna be in England.  I chose to be here and I’m choosing to stay. I also received a blessing from my district leader who said the most inspiring things. He said God is aware of what I am going through, He knows when I need help and He knows how to help me. I just need to trust in Him and keep reaching out to Him. Trust that He is there. Because i can testify He is! He wants to help, He wants us to succeed. We just need to try, that is all He asks, just keep trying there is help and happiness ahead. Missions are tough but they prepare us for what we will have to face in life. I wrote a list of things I want to do in life and because I am serving a mission I will be able to complete most of the things.  Missions are full of experiences and I wouldn’t trade this time for anything.

Me and sister pro taught quite a few lessons this week, we have some amazing people we are teaching and we were able to schedule 2 new people who we randomly met through our other investigators. The Lord works in mysterious ways! 

I am learning so much and growing so much its crazy what we are capable of with the Lord! 
I love you all so much and I know that because of Him we can do all things that we are asked. Just keep swimming like Dori says. 
xoxo sister Stevens 

excerpt from her email to me: she had a tough week :(

I’m not gonna lie, this week was extremely tough. I’ve never wanted you so bad! I cried for hours I literally couldn’t stop and i was seriously considering coming home.  I was planning on what I was going to tell president and what I was going to tell you. I just felt like I couldn’t do this and I didn’t want to do this.  I know you would love me no matter what. I felt like I couldn’t help people and I just wanted to be home. But sister Blair showed me this video of Elder Holland when his car broke down and he prayed and the quote stuck in my head, “you keep walking, you keep trying, there is help and happiness ahead.”  We go through trials because God wants to make us better, He wants to push us because He knows what we can do. And Satan is trying so hard to make us give up and I almost did!  I look back and am so frustrated!  Why do we let Satan get to us?  He is nothing compared to the Lord.  You keep trying mom you keep doing what you are doing. There is help and happiness ahead and the eternal rewards are worth everything we go through in this life! Heavenly Father knew I can do this, and with the Savior I know I can.  Even though it is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to experience. I’m so thankful for prayer. We just need to take things one step at a time. Sister pro called president because I wanted to meet with him and he said we will meet in a couple days and I was angry at first but I got over it. I’m trying to be temperate ;) so I called him the 2 days later and I told him I worked things out and he said there are going to be trials and challenges anywhere I go in the world. He said I’m going to have a harder time adjusting going back home than I did coming here, which made me scared haha.  I am grateful for that inspired man and for my savior.
here's a link to the video she is talking about:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-05-12-good-things-to-come?lang=eng