Feb. 27, 2018 pictures

Feb. 27, 2018

Hola y'all,

This week pretty normal. Which was really nice because last week was for sure not normal. Here is what happened:

Tuesday: We got to help the Food Bank at our church building then we did regular P-day stuff and we went up to the stake center in El Centro to meet up with the other missionaries in the valley. Elder Cowley and I got stranded up there because the other Elders had to go to a different town to do a baptismal interview so we got home at like 845. That was a weird day.

Wednesday: During the day it was kind of a normal day. In the evening we had our scripture class. We had a record 6 people there which was so awesome! We learned about of Jesus Christ is the God of the Old and New Testament as well as the Book of Mormon. After the class we taught one of the members of the class named Arturo. That was a super cool lesson.

Thursday: Thursday was just kinda alright. Not a whole lot happened we spent a lot of time preparing for Friday

Friday: Mauricio (who a month ago told us to stop teaching him because he was an atheist) was baptized! That day was so cool. Elder Cowley, in the past had promised Mauricio that on the day he was baptised that he would know for a fact that God exists. After he was baptized, he had the opportunity to bear his testimony and all he talked about was how God exists and how this church is true and it was amazing. However we were both so excited that we forgot to take pictures with the man. Shame on us. We preformed a rendition of the song I Believe in Christ with our guitars. It was super cool.

Saturday: Just a normal day with normal missionary work. We got to teach Denise and Maria and they are awesome. They have a lot of work to do but they are so willing and awesome!

Sunday: Mauricio was confirmed in sacrament meeting by Elder Cowley and that was super amazing but we were not able to get pictures on Sunday either cuz he had to help his son out last minute. Lame. But still a super good day. 

Monday: Yesterday we had someone take us to Famous Dave's and I ate way too much then we visited Mauricio and he gave us brownies and milk. I just about died. 

I learned a lot from the scriptures about Grace this week. Through Grace and only through the Grace of Christ can we return to our place in heaven. All we have to do to receive this Grace is obey God. He wants to badly to give us Grace. It's such a cool relationship. I don't quite have the words to express it yet. I'm working on that. Anyway.

Love y'all!

Elder Stephen

Feb. 20, 2018

Hey Yall,

So this week has been so long. I'll give you all a quick run through 

Tuesday: Elder Cowley bought a bolo tie and taught a lesson about knowing enough to act on faith

Wednesday: I got some stuff to fix my tires on my bike and poured like 15 dollars and 2 hours into it. We had our weekly class and I learned so much from it. It was about how Christ gave us everything. Super cool. 

Thursday: We went to help the food bank hand out food. That was fun then we had regular studies and then weekly planning. That night we gave Hermana Castillo a blessing and that was really cool.

Friday: So that day we woke up and there was water falling from the ceiling. Not good in an already not very high quality appartment. So we got the landlord and he called his friend and they looked at it and he started hitting stuff with a roofing hammer then left. The landlord said that his friend went to Mexico to get stuff. Then the landlord came back and said that he will be gone all day and will come back tomorrow. So we had to leave everything unlocked and we went out. That night we had dinner with a recent convert and so we hid out bikes behind her car and we were sitting right inside the door with the door open and we walked out after the dinner and my bike got jacked. We got home and our carpet smelled rotten.

Saturday: Started like a normal day and was pretty good. At the end of the night I was vacuuming and this devil cat jumped out from under my bed and attacked me and the vacuum and the wall. I screamed and threw the vacuum and ran out of the room. Then I returned to the room with a tennis racket and fought off that dang cat. Elder Cowley ran into the room with his cowboy hat on and said Que Pasa.  Finally the cat left after about 15 minutes. And we were getting ready for bed and then Elder Cowley and I realized that we are both allergic to cats so we slept in the other Elders appartment. It was not good sleep anyway but to make it better, one of the other Elders got up and sleep ran then yelled and freaked Elder Cowley and I out! Out of no where he ran and yelled "IT'S GOING DOWN!"

Sunday: Sunday was fine. It was a good Sunday meeting.

Monday: Yesterday was a great day. One of our friends in the area called us and asked about some tools that he left at our house. He came by and asked about my bike. Then he decided to give me a bike! Granted it is a beach cruiser bike with no suspension but it's okay I can deal. It has one of those basket racks on the back too.

So basically, the Lord humbles you then will bless. I love you all thank you for the support and prayers! 

Elder Stephen

Feb. 13, 2018- Pictures

Feb. 13, 2018

Hola,

This week was really tiring in a lot of different ways. Elder Cowley and I spent three or four days pushing around old jeeps with flat tires, cutting up fallen trees, pruning trees and working on one family's roof. Neither of us have been that sore for a while! 

We have had a lot of sickness going around here. Elder Cowley was sick for a day like really dang sick. Then he was fine the next day and we went back out to work. Elder Hauge was sick all yesterday but he is okay now. Elder Cowley might come down with round two. One thing I don't really like about missionary work is having to clean up after the messy missionaries. This week I organized the closet that has all of our things like pamphlets or Book of Mormons that took a really long time. 

We the missionaries of Calexico have reached an agreement that missionary work makes us have old people personalities. We now enjoy puzzles of various types, use coupons a lot, get excited about books, drink weird things like pero and herbal tea, and today we spent a lot of time in the vitamin aisle. Its kind bad haha. But it's okay. 

Work has been slow but the other Elders have a baptism this week then we have one next week and they have another the week after. And with how it is looking we might have another the week after. 

I have seen some really cool miricles out here and I will just say that I have seen the hand of the Lord. I have really learned a lot through my studies and I have been grateful to be here on a mission. Not a whole lot happened this week because of all of the service and sickness. 

On Sunday we had church then right after we went over to a family in the wards house and I made some of my mom's signature white chili. So dang good and tasted like home. After that we went to a mission presidents devotional and Elder Cowley and I preformed with our guitars. The whole thing was in Spanish and we asked Angel and another recent convert named Ruben to share their testimonies. That was really cool. I'm grateful to be doing the Lord's work.

Love yall

Elder Stephen 

Feb. 6, 2018 Pictures

Feb. 6, 2018

Hola yall,

This week has been a fair amount of fun. At the beginning of this week we moved Angel (a recent convert) to a city called El Centro. We did that in two or three days using our mom van that the other Elders drive around town. They don't like driving a mom van with a bike rack on the back. They said they get made fun of a lot. Hahaha. While helping her move Elder Cowley got to hold her father's Ashes all the way up there. He was obviously very excited about that. The road up there is really bumpy especially for an overloaded van. He was really nervous the whole time haha. We finished moving Angel and her mother in and introduced them to the missionaries that are up there. It was a pretty good day. 

The next day, the other missionaries took our van in to San Diego for some meeting so the other Elders had a truck for a day. That was better than the mom van haha. We did weekly planning and taught some people on Friday. 

On Saturday we had exchanges. That was a pretty good day. I was with Elder Hauge all day. My bike went flat at the beginning of the day and his went flat at the end of the day haha. It was an interesting day. 

On Sunday we had church and finally got to present the ward mission plan. It got everyone excited to do missionary work and that was super cool to see the ward band together. We also got to confirm Angel in Sacrament meeting. That was super cool. She brought her friend and her friend got up and bore her testimony. Crazy cool! 

Brother Yersley bought a motorcycle and I got to get a picture on it. Super nice! We spent that night at the Yersley house to begin teaching their 7 year-old daughter the missionary lessons. We also had dinner there and watched Ephraims Rescue with the Losonos who were also invited. 

That night we visited someone who wasn't at church and had a sweet experience there. The fall-off-my-bike-like-an-idiot count for this week is 3. I swear something is wrong with me. All in all a good week. 

Love you all, 

Elder Stephen