Ups and Downs

This week has been full of ups and downs, one minute I feel like I’m doing a great job and I have the Spirit with me and the next I feel like I don’t have the spirit with me and I am not even doing what I am supposed to be doing. But my comp has really been helping me and the other sisters in my flat realize those are thoughts from Satan. Satan is so real and he is trying so hard to get us to give up. Listen to the prophet and take the harder right instead of the easier wrong. I love that man so much. 

We were able to go to a baptism of one of the Sisters investigators with one of our investigators. It was such an great thing seeing her make this amazing change. The talks were simple and perfect for our investigator Cl to hear. 

Hah me and sister pro had an interesting adventure this week.. so we were going to visit some less actives who lived kinda far away, so we took the bus and then got off and on her ipad she had the directions and it said there was a short cut so we took it and all of a sudden we were in the middle of these woods! hah with like a river and everything, so random. It was raining pretty hard and it was so muddy. I, thank goodness was wearing my Hunter rain boots and had no problem, but sister pro wasn’t wearing the best shoes, so she got on my back and I carried her across the muddy parts. And then we realized we needed to cross the river and man that was a strug, seriously it was hilarious. I walked across with our bags and then went back and carried her over but we almost both fell in haha my boots got stuck in the mud but luckily we got out and were able to get over. We were laughing so hard and it was so random. I lost one of my name tags too but it was worth the adventure. 

This weekend was fast Sunday and we taught A about fasting. He is waiting for his visa so he can open up his hair salon!!!! He is a barber so we talk hair a lot I love it :):) he said he wants me to work for him one day ;) anyway, so we all fasted for his visa and then he said he wanted to cook for us when we finished our fast. He made us sooo much food, it was so nice of him! He seems to really be progressing and it is so cool to watch him change and actually notice a difference when he does the things the Lord asks. 

Good news everyone, I finally had a dream about being on a mission! That is a good thing because I feel like I am finally getting stuck in and being able to really focus on the work here. haha my comp was really proud. 

Church was amazing the week, our ward is mostly ysa's and some of them bore the most spiritual, simple testimonies about the atonement. And we had some investigators at church, it was amazing for them to hear. I feel so lucky to be able to meet such amazing people all over the world. I am learning so much! 

I am grateful for all the love, prayers, and support I receive.

For transfers tomorrow, I am staying in Leeds with my comp because I am still being trained. I am glad to stay in the same area. Sister Pro pushes me and I am learning a lot. She’s Russian and sometimes I feel so embarrassed because I am so emotional, but she understands.  She is very nice and helpful.

Cayden is going to Huddersfield zone like 20 mins away from me which is more comforting. I am missing you so much, I would do anything for a hug from you. When the kids are getting out of school is when our next transfer is! 7 more weeks!

I am a wreck of emotions haha but I am learning so much and grateful to be serving the Lord. Sometimes I feel so inadequate and wonder why and how I can do this. I feel stressed because these people's salvation is in my hands! But then I remember, the Lord would not call me to do this if I couldn’t. Our Heavenly Father and Savior know us so well, they will never ask us to do something we can’t. And we all need to remember that we are not doing this alone! Our savior is with us every step of the way. Don’t ever forget that!

I love you all and am so happy to be doing the Lords work, no matter how hard it is. We all can do hard things through Him.

Hope you all have a great week!

Much love from England, sister stevens 

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

Time flies when you are busy

I got this sweet email from Sister Blair, from Provo, who is one of Lisel's flatmates:

subject:  I love Sister Stevens!

Dear beautiful mother and family of Sister Stevens,

I just wanted to quickly share with you how incredible Sister Stevens is. 

She is such a light here in England, she is so dedicated and patient and strong. 

She is a peacemaker, she cooks such good food, she can always make us laugh,

 and she has especially been such a comfort and strength to me here in Leeds. 

It's really special to have someone else from home :) 

I feel like I know and love you all because of her stories and prayers. 

Thank you for your sacrifice in letting her come out here--she is already changing lives, starting with mine. 

I can't wait to meet you all some day, and I'm sure it will be sooner than any of us can believe :)

Lisel and Sister Blair

Love,

Sister Blair (from Provo)

D&C 123:17

 hi mom :) thank you for the emails it is so good to hear that everyone is busy and doing well. time flies when your busy I’ve noticed which has been pretty nice. yesterday was a bank holiday so pday got switched. we did some grocery  shopping this morning and we are trying to eat lots healthier so we got loads of veggies and fruits at this cute market. we are also starting to make meals which has been so good! I made french onion soup and pesto pizzas and me and sister blair made taco soup on easter. when i saw the taco soup and tasted it I started bawling. I remember when you made it all the time and it just made me miss you so much! but i am proud of myself because I’M COOKING!! it makes me excited to be a mom. hah being on a mission makes me want like 6 kids! we had an amazing sister meeting on wednesday with the sisters in 2 zones with president and sister pilkington and it was so inspiring. it made me want to work so much harder and put in so much effort because it really is such a short time. I have to admit, this week was rough. at times I felt like I didnt have the spirit with me, I felt like my heart wasnt in the right place, and I was just having so many doubts. but i had an exhange with sister blair from provo yesterday and it seriously was such a blessing. she was so comforting she just sat and listened to me cry and talk and she was just amazing. I realized I knew that heavenly father was there but I didn’t have faith that He could really help me which was so dumb and frustrating! when I realized that I got straight on my knees and asked for forgiveness and I told Him that I really did trust Him and knew He was with me every step of the way. when I did that I instantly felt better and all during the day i had a smile on my face and knew that i heavenly father is with me. Everyone kept telling us that we looked to happy and that they could tell we were followers of Jesus which made me feel so good because i really do have the spirit with me. It was just such a fun day, we got stuck in the rain and just laughed and everyone thought we were nuts because we're trying to stop them on the street but we just laughed haha. and we were told to try an english kebab it was strange but good, so we walked in and were asking people what to get and everything and the whole restaurant was just talking to us (you learn as a missionary to just talk to everyone) and the worker told us what to get his name is Aussie I have a pic, and we ordered and he said this ones on me, you guys are spreading the great word! so he gave us sooo much food and drinks for free it was so nice! missions defs have their perks. people are just so nice here. 

easter was a great day at church, sister pro spoke about the testimony of jesus christ. SO GOOD. read it! we decorated these nasty cookies ha but it made me feel pretty homesick. but i am doing so much better, i am learning how to better focus on the work here. i love you all TOOOO much! why do I have such an amazing family?! its the best and the worst at the same time. but last week i was reading and studying about the atonement for easter and we can all be amazing people with great intentions but really the only way we can return to our father in heaven is through the atonement. it is the most important thing.

One night we didn’t take our whole time for tea and by the end of the night me and sis pro were both starving so we asked people where the nearest mcDs was (we have been craving it…so nast) and we ran there and back to make it to our flat by 9 and it was hilarious and oh my it tasted too amazing hah. 

We were sitting on these steps waiting for our investigator and this random guy comes up to me and gives me this flower and begs me for my number and I told him that I’m only here to talk to people about God and he was like I only want to talk about you haha I just laughed and told him I cant and then he was like please just break the rules once! and he was surprised I didn’t want to. and then we were talking to this other guy on the street and we were having a great convo and then he tells us he has to go so he gives me a huge kiss on the cheek and just walks away hahaha me and sister blair just looked at each other and laughed it was so funny. english peeps are crazy. 

this week has been hard and challenging but has been so rewarding, I have learned to much. I am amazed at how much I am already changing, it is so good!

keep up the great work! and pray always. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH ITS CRAZY. and miss you more than you can imagine. 

love, sister stevens

Aussie the kabob man who gave them all their food for free

Lisel's homemade French Onion Soup

Lisel and Sister Pro

Lisel and Sister Blair

1st McDonalds

Rainy England

HE is leading the way in Leeds

hello fam and friends! 

i have loved hearing about your weeks and the weekend in st.george sounds like a blast. of course with the mom and aunts everything is always a party. i dont even have to be there to imagine what it was like. man, i look forward to those st. george days again. always the best memories!

This week has been a bit tough but heavenly father is truly blessing me. we have quite a few investigators but this week we had to drop a couple because they weren't progressing and one of them was the one who reminds me of Curt so that was sad :( hopefully one day he can know what we are sharing is true and will understand the blessings that baptism can bring. hahah oh my so we were teaching this guy from Egypt named A and he has a hard time understanding English but he speaks it so well! anyway so we were talking to him about baptism and he ran upstairs really quick and we were like what the heck, and then he comes back down with a baptism card and certificate saying he was baptized. so we were looking at it (ill try and send a pic) and it had an EXPIRY date!!! haha we were laughing so hard i couldn’t help it. he said this guy set up this font thing in town and there was a huge line and he just baptized everyone who wanted to be baptized and then gave them a card haha. so we explained how we need authority and power from God for the ordinance to work and he understood. he came to church so that was a great thing! we are teaching this guy, not sure if ive mentioned him but his name is W and he spent 15 years in prison and he has been taking the missionary discussions from the sisters for a couple months and we have been talking about baptism and he wants to get baptized so bad! it is amazing how willling he is to change his life. we havent set a date yet because he has to work somethings out with president but he is such an example and an amazing guy! hah on a mission you become friends with people you never would imagine youself to be friends with. its amazing, you really see people how god sees them its such a blessing. we have a recent convert from the carribean! he has dreads and like 5 earrings and looks like jack sparrow but black! he is so sweet! we are helping him learn how to read which is hard, im learning patience. but he is so eager to learn everything about our savior and really considers him like a best friend. he is a great example. one of our old investigators plays football (soccer) and he said they shoot a naked calendar every year! haha and he was wondering if we wanted one!!! we were laughing so hard! (dont worry we said no) one of the sisters in my flat said that she and her companion got mooned twice a couple weeks ago! hah so funny. england is a crazy place. this week we talked to a lot of people and did a bit of knocking on doors and its so interesting because you never know whos gonna open the door. some people are so nice and will talk to you and others not so much.. we asked this one guy, what do you think makes someone a good person? and he said, staying away from you! and stormed away. we just smiled and walked away. you do that a lot as a missionary and when you are having a rough moment you just smile and honestly it helps so much. 

we watched a restoration video with one of our investigators A (she added me on insta so accept her request please!) and when i watched it i felt the spirit so strongly! what joseph smith did for God was seriously amazing. and how obedient he was and how hard he worked. i have been reading JSH and its so inspiring and amazing how god prepared him to recieve the knowledge he needed and how willing he was to do what He asked. I was having a really hard morning and i just felt so overwhelmed and homesick (having a family like mine is a blessing and a curse haha) and i was reading d&c 121:7,8 and those 2 verses are so special to me. we can do it! we can get through the hard times. i thank God every night for the challenges he gives me because he is shaping me to be the person my future husband needs, future kids, and friends and family needs. and the challenges each of you are going through each day are making you the people God wants you to be. whenever you are struggling read d&c 121-123 and you will be thankful for what you are going through. look at it through an eternal perspective! life on earth is so short compared to eternity! so endure and make good choices because your ETERNAL LIFE is at stake. stay strong and do all you can to be an example of Christ. we can do all things through Christ! 

i love you all, and miss you all!

life is good :)

love, sister stevens

MADE IT A MONTH!!!!

recent convert J...he is the best!

got to cut Sister Pro's hair :):) Best day ever!

weekly planning board

Best drawer in the house

the bus

Me and Sonya (member) on our way home from church

typical streets in Leeds

when u dye ur eyebs too dark

hi!!! thank you for all the emails. i'm sitting in the library crying as im reading them. its the first time ive cried tho so thats a miracle! i probs look like a joke because last night i colored my eyebrows because i finally had a couple minutes and i left the color on too long so now they are black. hopefully they will fade fast haha. i have loving hearing about your week. life seems busy like usual.

this week went by CRAZY fast. seriously the days felt like minutes which is such a blessing and on the 17th i will be out a month!! only 17 more haha. its already going to fast so i am doing everything i can to enjoy even the hard moments. i am learning how to love every one haha it is hard sometimes there are lots of very interesting people from all over the world in leeds. my fav thing about being a missionary is hearing investigators pray. most of the time its their first time praying and hearing them talk to god for the first time is seriously the coolest experience. we use ipads a lot and it helps because we can show videos and it really brings the spirit so strong. we met this guy named Y on the street the other day and he was so interested about our faith. we taught him and he asked amazing questions and said he would read the book of mormon and pray about it! we will schedule him for baptism for sure. i feel like he is ready. another guy we are teaching his name is Nero. he is from china but believes in god so thats good. most people do not believe in god at all and it is crazy! i cant imagine not believing in god or having a god. but we scheduled N for baptism! he is going out of town so its not til the beginning of may but still he seems ready too! its crazy when you listen with love the holy ghost tells you exaclty what to say. its defs a skill i am still working on but miracles happen when you have the holy ghost. another investigator is named J. She is like our mom haha she had us over for tea this week and fed us chicken kababs and ice cream and was so nice and she drove us to our next appointment which was so nice! she goes to church every week because she loves how she feels when she is at church. we taught her a bit and she was telling me about another sister that taught her. its kwin stahli's sister!!! that was so cool to find out. she loves all the sisters so much. hopefully she can commit to baptism! hahahaha so me and sister pro were walking to a tea appointment (the members feed us like crazy seriously i am already gaining weight it is quite a prob) and sister pro was videoing me and i was just acting like a dork and i fell in this huge pot hole and i swear a broke my ankle hahaa i was dying laughing so hard and so was she. thankfully i am totally fine!! god is amazing haha. me and another sister in my flat sister blair and i have been going running a couple times a week and it has felt so good! there was this lady on the bus the other day who looked soooo much like the queen it was crazy! haha so i started talking to her and she said she gets that a lot. she was so nice and telling me about her life haha. english people like to talk and talk and talk. its hard to bring up religion tho. Michelle is one of the members in our ward we visited this week. she is the sweetest lady ever. and she loves pink. her carpet is pink her walls are pink, she wears pink. seriously everything. she has a cat named princess angelica. quite an interesting lady but so nice. 

there are so many hair salons everywhere and we walk by a lot of them and i see people doing hair and it makes me miss it so much!!! i can't wait to cut my companions hair and the other sisters. 

anyway, time is already flying. heavenly father is blessing me so much. i am able to focus on the work here and i dont feel as homesick. i love teaching people. it is like the highlight of my day, i love sharing my experiences about the savior and how he can bless their lives. i just started the Book of Mormon again. it is such a blessing and truly testifies of the truthfulness.

remember CPR: church, prayer, read. THOSE will keep you on the right path!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! thank you for the prayers.

love, sister stevens

Lisel and Sister Pro, her companion from Russia

Russian Food that is 'quite good'

Outside our flat

Sandwich shop that is seriously the best thing I've eaten besides dumplings and Cosmo pizza.  (If you know Lis, thats saying a lot!)

the 4 flat mates

Pretty Leeds

Fish n Chips

Lisel with Member Michelle

Lisel with Julie, Investigator who's like their 'mom'

Bus rides

haha, this random guy got in our pic

we order milkshakes sometimes at night and they deliver them!  heaven :):)