4th of July

Really rough week for Lisel.  She's having some health problems and lots of pain.  Please keep her in your prayers (and me too!)

This week has been a crazy weeks full of ups and downs as usual. Life seems to push you until you brake sometimes but I am still hangin on by a thread. 

Last PDAY was the 4th of July and we had a zone BBQ which was a blast! Our zone leaders got soooo much meat, more than I have ever seen in my life and we had a huge feast. The other sisters and I made a flag cake. kinda a fail but its the thought that counts haha. Also we accidently made so much cream and my zone leader was like what should we do with this? I grabbed a handful and smeared it all over his face hahah he got me back good though. It made me feel like I was back home with my crazy family!

A miracle this week was we had a lot of our investigators come to church and then this random guy I met on the bus a couple weeks ago just showed up! He loved it and wants to learn more.

This last week we were supposed to have a lesson with a less active, but she called us like 10 minutes before saying she was feeling ill (typical english excuse) so we decided to try by a potential investigator and we ended up having a great lesson and he prayed for the first time! And he said he will continue to try and pray and he wants to keep learning. 

Sorry for the short email! Hopefully more exciting things will happen this next week.

- Sister Stevens 

I am PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

(sorry this is posted on our way to Lake Powell and I'm not sure what I'm doing)

Thanks for the skittles Mom, this is the only American flag we have!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICAN!  Man, all I can say is I am grateful to be an American and to be from such an amazing country where you can get diet coke on tap anywhere you go! Haha seriously I miss that so much! Last night me and Sister Pugsley sang the National Anthem at the top of our lungs for our Asian comps haha and they think we are crazy Americans. Today we are having a BBQ with some of the other missionaries at the chapel so that'll be fun :)

Anyway, this week we met our new mission president! President and Sister Turvey! As soon as I saw them I just felt this love for them. I know they have been called of God and I know they are supposed to be here. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to serve with them for the rest of my mission. 

Transfers came and I am staying in Leeds with my comp Sister T! And the other sisters are staying as well. I feel grateful because I am feeling a lot more comfortable in the area with the people and with directions! It is such a blessing. I looked around the chapel yesterday at church and my heart was full of gratitude that I feel comfortable here and I am loving the ward members. Heavenly Father is blessing me so much! One of the members bore his testimony yesterday and he said something that is so true and amazing! 'Whatever life throws at us we can always have Jesus Christ as our foundation' It is so true! When our lives our centered on our Savior we have nothing to worry about because He will always be there for us! 

One thing I am working on right now is having patience. This is something that is necessary as a missionary you have to be patient with yourself and remember you can't know everything and do everything at once, patient with our investigators and their agency, and patient in God and His timing.  There are so many blessings that come from being patient and remembering that as long as we are trying our best to follow the commandments everything will work out how it is supposed to. Heavenly Father's plan for us is perfect! 

Haha one day this week we had quite the adventure, so first of all we left really early in the morning to meet our new President. So I accidently left the keys in our flat so when we tried to get in after we couldnt because we were locked out... bless my comp. So we ended up having to grab some food and just go back later haha and then a bird pooped on my hair! and we couldnt get into our flat so I was just stuck like that the rest of the day! And then after our last appointment we were waiting at the bus stop and I was distracted singing America the Beautiful and we missed our LAST bus home... haha it was defs a bless. But times like these make for the best mems and we just had to laugh a lot that day. 

Anyway, all I can say is I am truly happy to be here! I am loving the people and loving Leeds! And most importantly, I am loving serving my Heavenly Father!

Thank you to anyone who has sent me a letter! It seriously makes a difference!

Love you all!
Sister Stevens :)

ps enjoy the day in america the beautiful!

Jocelyn Stevens Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:

Today at 5:53Today at 7

Goodbye to The Pilkington's

Hello everyone! This week has been a good one as usual :) I am loving my mission more and more everyday. 

This week we had district meeting with President and Sister Pilkington because it is there last week! It was so sad to say goodbye to them, they have impacted my life so much in this short amount of time I have spent with them. They are such great examples. But I am excited to meet the new pres and his wife on Friday! I have heard amazing things about them as well. 

Haha so this week me and Sister T. were going to visit a member who lives pretty far away and we got on the bus and I started talking to this lady and then I look out the window and saw a sign that said Dewsbury and hurry and took out my ipad and when I looked at the map I realized we were out of our zone and going the completely wrong direction! haha so we got off at the next stop and took the next bus back. But it was meant to be because we met this guy from Ecuador and he wanted to meet again! So we met him later that week and taught him the first lesson and he loved it and loved that we had a book of mormon in Spanish. And he agreed on a baptismal date! It is so cool to see how Heavenly Father is preparing people to meet us! 

I have been struggling lately feeling like I am so inadequate and feeling like I have no idea what I am doing, but I was able to go on an exchange with another sister and she really helped me realize my strengths and the things I am doing well. It was a miracle and she really helped me a lot.

I am loving the people I am teaching more and more and doing my best to help them. Something I am working on this week is studying and applying the book of mormon to my life. I have noticed my testimony grow so much from that. 

Love you all!

Sister Stevens

Church!

oops, we got lost and ended up in Dewsbury, Cayden's old area

Sister T. cooked some AMAZE Thai fried rice!

I tried Ghanaian food this week!!!

Michelle, my fave person

exchanges with Sister Pugsley, my fellow American

Pretty Leeds

We had our last district meeting with President :( so sad!  I can't believe they leave this week.  We cheered ourselves up with some yummy lunch!

lisel.stevens@myldsmail.net

A Week of Faith

Hi everyone :)

This week has been interesting. We have dropped most of our investigators because none of them are making an effort to keep commitments. It kinda feels like a break up haha. It is so sad because you have been working so hard with these people and helping them and you have seen them grow closer to the Lord but they aren't doing anything about it. It can be pretty frustrating but we have put our faith in the Lord and felt like this is the best thing we can do. So we have spent a lot of this week talking to people on the streets and knocking on doors trying to find the selected few that are ready to hear the restored gospel. Yesterday we spent most of the day knocking on doors and it was pouring pretty much all day haha it was so fun. I love being out in the rain and getting soaked. Plus people are always a little nicer when they see 2 girls standing on their porch soaking wet with huge smiling faces :) 

One of our investigators who we haven't seen for a while showed up to church yesterday! When I saw him walk in it was a miracle! He really enjoyed it and even texted us later thanking us for letting him come. And we are going to be able to see him again this week which is so good! 

Another investigator is soooo close to baptism. He has been investigating since he came out of prison 8 months ago. It is difficult to teach him because we never know what we are going to get when we see him. Sometimes he is the nicest person and loves us, and the other times he can be kinda scary.. So we have been really trying to follow the spirit with what to do with him. We had a great lesson with him this week and we were able to bring out a member, which is rare with him because he hates when there are more than 2 missionaries at a lesson haha. We talked about building our relationship with Heavenly Father through prayer. (something that I have also been working on this week) And then after when were talking to him he said he wanted

the member to baptize him! It was so inspired to bring him out and he definitely helped bring the spirit. He also said 'how did you guys know that was exactly what I needed to hear?!' It made me feel so thankful to Heavenly Father for guiding us. It reminded me when we always seek the Lord's help to do what He wants us to do, everything will always work out for good! He will hopefully have his interview with President this weekend and be baptized on July 1st!! (este's bday!!!!) Keep him in your prayers!!

This week I have been working on praying more. With the situation I just talked about there have been many tears and trials with figuring out what to do with his whole situation. And during the day there have been moments where I feel like I can't handle this or its too much pressure and stress. (there is a lot more to the situation but i wont go into detail...) But I have been asking and pleading with help from Heavenly Father and then watched as some how things work out. I am so grateful to always have someone there with me, to help me when I am struggling. And I know He is always there for each of you too! Life isn't easy, and its not supposed to be easy that is why we have prayer and the book of mormon to guide us and help us. I am so thankful for challenges and hard times because they are making me stronger! My relationship with my Heavenly Father is growing and I could not be more grateful.

Hope everyone is enjoying summer! haha defs doesn't seem like summer over here...

Love you all!

Sister Stevens

Lisel and Sister T.

In honor of Father's Day :)

For Keller Atwood :)

a cute cafe that we ate at

The MANY faces of Lisel...selfie time!

(I MISS HER FACE!!!...and everything else about her.
Her hugs, her voice, her smile and her sweetness in our home)

Zone Conference

It poured rain this week!
Sister T, Me, Sister Pugsley, Sister Chiu

So this week was zone conference and president lets us write to him and our families about what we got out of it and what we are going to do about what we have learned. I was an ALL day event and so fun because half the mission was there so we got to see a lot of missionaries! Also I gave the opening prayer so that was a big scary haha. Anyway, I'll just copy and paste what I wrote to him :) 

President, 

Well, this was my first zone conference as a missionary and it was amazing! It was great to see all the other missionaries and to think they are sharing the gospel everyday just like I am is so inspiring. 

One thing that stuck out to me was when you and Sister Pilkington gave your talks on Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. I learned so many new things about everything they went though for this gospel. It inspired me so much how they were able to be so selfless and obedient to our Father in Heaven. It makes me feel so grateful to be able to live in a place where we can practice our religion and share it with others. It makes me want to share it more because they went through so much so we can have it today! I felt the spirit so strongly when you and Sister Pilkington bore testimony that you know Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and that he truly was a prophet of God. 

I loved how you related missionary work to war and how we leave our comforts and our homes to go fight this battle against the adversary. It is going to be tough but we have been blessed with this knowledge and blessed with these resources to share it with the people in England. I'm packing up my troubles in my old kit bag and smiling because there is no use in worrying. 

The thing that I felt impressed to focus on is giving. You talked a lot about giving and it is something that I really need to work on. I have been given so much, to grow up in a home where the gospel has always been top priority and to have a testimony of Jesus Christ. My parents have taught me and there is no way I can repay them personally. But with the knowledge that I have I can give it to someone else and help them find answers to their prayers and comfort. We won't ever be able to enjoy life if we do not give what we have received! So I will give my heart more to the people I am working with, the members, the missionaries, and the investigators and help them feel love from me and my Savior Jesus Christ. The same love my parents have always shown me. I will treat everyone I talk to with First Class service and help them feel confident with themselves. I am not here because of myself, I am here to serve the Lord and by loving those I am dealing with I will be serving the Lord. 

This last week we have dealt with a very difficult situation with one of our investigators. He accused me of not caring about him and not liking him. He told me the other sisters would have known how to help him. It was really hard for me because he made me feel like I was an awful missionary and that I wasn't good enough. Which is exactly how satan wants me to feel. But your advice of not going to Carmel really truly helped me and gave me some revelation. I need to forget about myself, who cares if he says those things about me. I will do what Christ would do and be the bigger person. I will handle him with love and care and do my best to serve him. I'm not here to be liked, I am here to help others come closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father. I could forget about him and just let him be, but I am choosing to reach out to him and help him. I forgave him and I will not go to Carmel. So, thank you President, for saving me from going to Carmel. We all make mistakes and do things we aren't proud of but there is always redemption thanks to our Savior who paid the price for all of us. 

Thank you for all the work you and Sister Pilkington put into this conference. It was inspired and so uplifting. You both are such amazing examples of working hard and doing your absolute best. I look up to you and Sister Pilkington with so much respect. Thank you again!

Love, Sister Stevens

this week has been good but slow haha. i'm back in the flat because sister t. is now very sick. we went to the emergency room the other night to see what was wrong. I guess she has like a mix of hayfever and some virus (man, england and their viruses...) but its getting worse so we might have to go back to the doctor.. we will see. so lots of time trying to call former investigators and reading the book of mormon and other books. lots of studing time :):) and a couple naps here and there ha can't complain. but i am excited to get back out there. not sure when though. but things are great in leeds! i love the sisters i am living with now. we are becoming a family again and sister puglsey and i get a long really really well. we are like the same person and i feel like we had the same childhood too. she comes from a family just like ours! and i just love sister chiu so much. we laugh so hard all the time she is hilarious and im learning some chinese words :):)

well, love you so much! I'll email again on monday cant wait to hear from you! :)

love sister stevens
lisel.stevens@myldsmail.net

Outside our flat

Cayden and Sister Pro met!

My new zone leader was Cayden's Trainer