Always Walking and Never Stopping!

Hola Everyone!

Me and the other American sisters that came from the CCM with me!!

Sorry I couldn´t get a letter out last week! We were running a bit late! But here I am, Alive and with the calves of a track athlete I'm SURE!

This week we did a whole lot of WALKING! We´ve made a goal to walk more places instead of taking a bus or moto so that we can contact the families we come across on the street! Our area is HUGE so we have to walk pretty fast in between citas, but its good exercize! Most days I come home with my feet aching and just crash after planning for the next day. It's great! I definately feel like a missionary :)

As for last week, we had the baptism of Kayla! She´s SUCH a sweet girl. Her parents and older sister are miembros but are inactive. We found their family though a reference of a member (MEMBERS ARE AWESOME) and as we taught her the lessons, we also have been working with her family! Her mom, Jessica is the most interested in coming back to church, but with Kayla helping them read and pray every night as a family, they´re all making progress again!

Kayla's baptism!

This week we found this kind older gentleman who stopped us on the street and told us that he´d listened to some of the discussions a few months ago, but was working so he couldn´t come to church. But now his work has changed and wants to learn more! His name is Oswald and he came to church with us yesterday and really liked it! The only difficulty is that he smokes a WHOLE lot. But he really has the desire to change his life around. We have a recent convert in our ward, Juan, who was an alcoholic. So we´re going to introduce him to Oswald this week! A member friend is the greatest thing an investigator can have.

Also, we found familia Orsmeno while walking down the street. They´re SO AMAZING! Rai y Milusca with their little baby Valintina. We taught them  little bit about prayer on Saturday and they were ready to go to church on Sunday. BUT Valintina got sick during the night and they coudn't go! AGH! Satan is very astute and will do ANYTHING to stop the people from coming to church! Talk about a thorn in our side.......

But I love working with these people! The temple in Trujillo is going to be dedicated the 20th of June and EVERYONE is so excited about it! We even had a special meeting (or a training they called it) about what´s going to happen for the dedication. And they actually had me help explain some things because I was one of the only people who´s seen or been to a dedication! It was a bit nerve wracking trying to speak Spanish in front of practically our whole ward, but it wasn't too bad!

A funny moment for the week was the other day when Hermana Flores and I were walking and stopped for a second to check our planners and a bird pooped ALL OVER my companion!!!! We just stood there for a second then burst out laughing. It got all over her shirt, but I was spot free! Then for the rest of the day she was chucking small rocks at all the birds we passed, it was so funny!

I love this work! Even though there are hard times, the Lord is ALWAYS with us! Even when we don´t think he´s there. Through sincere prayer and love for the people around us, he can help lift us out of our darkest moments! The church is true!

Love ya´ll tons!
Hermana Stephenson

MY POLLO DINNER!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!