More news stories

We had a nice Christmas. Mom and Dad came down and we had everyone else at our house. Luckily the storms cooperated and they were able to sneak through in between. We have a lot of snow and it has been very cold.

Here are some links to recent news stories about Cally, Jed and Harvey. Currently the birth father's attorney has filed to have the Idaho custody ruling enforced in Utah. Obviously we are working to prevent that. The Idaho legislature convenes this week and we have assurances from several legislators that they will be investigating.

Dec. 22
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695238175,00.html


Dec. 27
http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/12/28/news/news02.txt


Dec. 29
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695239852,00.html

More Vacation Pictures

These two pictures are from the Space Center in Houston. The first one is the old mission control that was used for all the Apollo missions. The current mission control is in the same building, but they don't take tours through that part. The second picture is a complete Saturn V rocket that they have on display. The capsule on top is from Apollo 17, if I remember right.

-Newel

Vacation Pictures

Here are some pictures from our vacation. We got back late last night after an uneventful trip back home. The weather forecast was for thundershowers but it was sunny and clear all the way back.

The first picture shows Isaac and James manning the guns on the Battleship Texas, which we visited in Houston.

The second picture is the family in front of the Manatee tank at the Dallas World Aquarium.

-Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail December 24, 2007

Everyone:

I'm not sure when you'll be getting this e-mail. As for me, right now it is a nice, warm, sunny Christmas eve that feels a lot like mid-September to me. All the trees are still green, you can walk around outside in short sleeves and feel just fine, and it just overall feels nothing like the Christmas season.

Anyways, starting with Tuesday last week, we visited Karla again. She's doing all right. Her oldes son, Brandon, was asking some questions about baptism that we answered, and we've taught her everything she needs to know. We want to get the whole family there, though, and she's quite honestly not ready to be baptized yet, so we've still got some work to do. We also visited Anne and dropped by some less-actives named the Diaz family.

On Wednseday I was on splits with Elder Backenstoss, one of my zone leaders, down in his area in Hawthorn. It was a good day, and some good work was done back in my area, too.

On Thursday we visited Karla and did some service for her (we kind of tutor her kids some). We also visited some other people, but I don't remember who it was.

On Friday we had our district meeting, and we did our planning since we hadn't done it on Thursday. We called our referrals that we still hadn't been able to contact and were able to deliver one of the items one of them had requested.

On Saturday we had our normal correlation meetings, tracted a bit, and talked with Miguel's sister, who isn't a member.

On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, we visited Karla because she hadn't come to church (she had had to drive her husband to pick something up for his work). We also visited Santos, who is a recent convert in the Spanish 6th ward.

Well, that's it for now. I'd like to close with the words of one of the less-sung Christmas songs in our hymnbook:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play
and wild and sweet the words repeat
of peace on earth good will to men

I thought how as the day had come
the belfries of all Christendom
had tolled along th'unbroken song
of peace on earth good will to men

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
of peace on earth good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
"God is not dead nor doth he sleep!
The wrong shall fail the right prevail
with peace on earth good will to men."

Then ringing, singing on its way
the world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
of peace on earth good will to men.

--Hymn #214 (I think)

Elder Samuel Stephens
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Some recent picture for your information.

Jed Harvey and Calley









Our back yard 21 Dec. 2007


Ruth Nov. 2007

Merry Christmas

Sammy's Mission E-mail Dec. 17th

Everyone:

Well, it's getting pretty close to Christmas, so all the requests for Joy to the World DVDs are starting to come in. Hopefully we'll be able to get enough for all the people here--apparently they had some troubles with that last year.

Anyways, I don't have my planner with me, so I'll try to go off of memory as to what we did last week. On Thursday we had two of our tires replaced on our car, so we ended up waiting at Pep Boy's for quite some time. We did, however, teach some people that day, including Karla, I think. Karla is doing pretty well, and she said she wants to get baptized sometime in mid-January. Brandon, her oldest son, will probably get baptized with her, but we'll need to talk more with the father. If it's necessary, we may delay things a bit so they can all get baptized at the same time.

On Friday we did our planning, since we hadn't done it on Thursday, and we went to the wedding reception of Elder Zemp's trainer (don't worry, he asked permission). We did teach someone that day, but I don't remember who.

Saturday was a day of meetings and such. In the morning we had our district meeting, then we had our correlation meetings, and then we delivered a Joy to the World video, and then we helped out with the Adams Ward Christmas Social.

On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, we took Miguel and one of the Feesago's sons with us tracting for a bit, and we visited the Aguilars.

Well, that's it for this week. Remember what this season is all about. It's Chirst-mas!
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
John 4: 37-38

Cally and Harvey home for now

Cally and Harvey came home Monday. Much is still up in the air but there doesn't appear to be an immediate threat that Harvey will be taken.

Here is a link to the latest news story.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695237263,00.html

We are still very nervous, but hopeful. LDS Family Services is providing all the legal counsel now and there are a lot of skilled lawyers working on this. I think the goal is still to try to get jurisdiction moved to Utah and to get someone appointed to speak for Harvey's interests in Idaho and Utah.

I mailed Christmas letters today. This fight has been consuming all our time and energy. We haven't done any shopping yet.

Flint

Samuel's Mission e-mail Dec. 12, 2007

Everyone:

Well, I forgot again that we were having our temple day this week. I'll probably finally remember to mention it the last one I have on the mission.

Anyways, starting with Wednesday of last week, we did some tracting and visited Anne. Anne has been investigating for a while now, and the two main things that have held her back from getting baptized are 1: she smokes and 2: while she knows the Church is good, she still hasn't gotten the confirmation that it's true. So, we're working on those things with her.

On Thursday we had our normal planning, and in the afternoon we visited Donald (who then moved away over the weekend) and Karla and her family. Karla & family are probably our best investigators--there's not a whole lot standing between them and baptism. Only one of the three children is old enough for baptism, but he's a pretty cool kid. The one problem is that we have difficulty teaching the father since he works nights and sleeps during the time we're working, so progress with him is slower, but he is progressing.

Friday we tracted a while, we visited Christi and her sister again, and we had a couple of people who missed their appointments.

Saturday we had our correlation meetings, we visited Karla & family again, and we visited the Aguilars, who are less-active.

Sunday we had church, we visited Karla because we hadn't seen her at church (they got confused because next month the Spanish ward will be starting at 11:00 AM and they thought it was now so when they showed up late they were embarresed and went home), and in the evening we helped out with a fireside/concert thing where a bunch of musical groups, not all of which were from our church, sang Christmas songs. It was really good--we must have had over four hundred people there.

Monday we had lunch with a semi-active member of the Barrio Sexto (LA 6th Ward) named Luis, we tracted some, and we checked on some referrals and actually contacted some. Tuesday we helped Karla out some more with one of the kid's rooms, tracted a bit, and visited Anne again. And today we went to the temple.

Elder Samuel Stephens

On the run

Here is a link to the latest story on Jed, Cally and Harvey. Cally and Harvey are currently hiding out in Smithfield until they can get some type of injunction to stay the custody order.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695235367,00.html

LDS Family Services has agreed to pay for their Utah attorney and has hired an outside attorney to handle the appeal in Idaho. I suspect that decision was helped along by four days of front-page news coverage.

Flint

More about Jed, Cally and Harvey

The rest of the temporary custody hearing will take place in Idaho tomorrow. Jed and Cally won't be there, since they have been denied representation. So that means there is essentially no chance they can win.

But....

Even if the judge orders custody to go to the birth father, he then must get a Utah court to order Cally and Jed to relinquish Harvey. In order to do that, he will have to file suit against them in Utah and hire a Utah attorney. In the meantime, Jed and Cally will be working with a Utah attorney to file motions and make the process as drawn out and as expensive as possible. The object will be to delay any change in custody until the appeal on the father's paternal standing can be heard.

The church attorney and Jed and Cally's attorney have been surprised by how this has developed. The decision to not allow them to intervene in the custody hearing is unprecedented.

I spent the weekend sending emails to every legislator in Idaho.

The process is emotionally draining, frustrating, and exhausting, but we are going to keep fighting.

In the meantime, Harvey is growing like crazy and is the happiest baby I have ever seen. He laughs and squeals constantly. He loves the dogs and will watch them for hours. The only challenge is getting them to stay by him for that long.

Lindsay and Tagg came home Saturday. They are both doing well. Jake said Tagg cried all night last night so no one got any sleep. I'm not sure I remember what a good night's sleep feels like, so I am not too sympathetic.

I need to get a picture of Tagg so I can post it. He looks like Grandpa Stephens (the old one, not me).

Samuel's Mission e-mail Dec 4, 2007

Everyone:

Well, I've now been transferred to an area called Windsor Hills. It's still kind of South-Centralish in LA--kind of in between and to the north of my other two areas. You really start to realize how small this mission is when you start looking at where your areas are in relation to each other--and then I start thinking about how distant they are from one another in demographics and economic situation, etc, and it's just an even stranger thought.

Anyways, my companion's name is Elder Zemp. He's from Cardston, Alberta, Canada, which makes him my first companion from outside the US (although only just barely so). Our area leans more towards African-Americans in terms of demographics, though there is still a significant Latino population. In terms of wards, I cover the Adams Ward, which is English-speaking and fairly racially mixed, and the LA 6th Ward, which is Spanish-speaking.

So, Tuesday was my last day in Watts with Elder Bartholomew, and I can't really separate what we did that day from the other days because I don't have my planner with me from last transfer. On Wednesday, I transferred up here to Windsor Hills and we started working. We taught Christi and her sister, who are from Belize, as well as a couple other people.

Thursday we planned of course, and we also tracted some, contacted a ref named Manuel Guerrero who is the cousin of one of the members of the Spanish ward here, and in the evening we visited Carla and her family. Carla is probably our best investigator right now, and her husband has also come to church (he just works a lot so it's hard for us to meet with him as often as Carla).

On Friday we had our Zone meeting, and then we painted a room and a hallway for Carla. In the evening I met Miguel, who is a fairly recent convert in our area who we work with a lot to help fellowship and such in our area.

On Saturday we had our correlation meetings with both the Adams Ward and LA 6th Ward Mission Leaders, and Elder Zemp had an interview with the President. In the afternoon, our appointment to finish the painting for Carla fell through, and I don't remember what we did instead.

On Sunday, we had our meetings of course, and we took Miguel and one of the 6th Ward members, Hermano Carlos, with us and tracted both sides of a street at the same time. In the evening we actually had dinner with President Turley, who is a counselor in the mission presidency, and his wife, and watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional with them. Then we visited the Aguilar family (no relation to the Aguilar family in Westchester), who are some less-actives in the 6th Ward we're working with.

Yesterday, we had our special Christmas Zone Conference, which is why I'm writing on Tuesday instead of yesterday. It took virtually all day, but we did get back into our area in time to visit a referral named Jaime and teach him and his children a good lesson.

Today for our zone activity we went to the Getty Center, which is a large art museam here in LA. We've also washed our car.

Well, I think that's enough for this week. Just remember, everything in the Gospel is about Christ--if our teaching of the Gospel isn't Cristocentric, we're off the mark.

Elder Samuel Stephens
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
John 4: 37-38

Back from Stockholm

Everyone:

This week I had my trip to Sweden. As is usual for trips like this, it was mostly business without much time for sightseeing. I did get out of the hotel once or twice and take a few pictures. The first one that I have included here is the view from just outside my hotel. Downtown Stockholm is built on an archipelago, so our hotel was on a small peninsula jutting out from the mainland. What you see in the picture is the old town, situated on a small island across from the peninsula. The palace is just to the right of the buildings in the picture.

When he made our hotel reservations, our salesman had a hard time finding any hotels with rooms available, so he ended up getting us a more expensive hotel than we would normally stay in. We ended up in the Grand Hotel, an older hotel patronized by the Swedish royalty etc. When we asked why everything was so full, the answer was obvious: December 10 is the day the Nobel Prizes are awarded. It turns out that our hotel was the one the prize winners and their entourages were staying in. We saw lots of college professor type people wandering around, but had no idea which ones were the actual prize winners.

On Wednesday evening we walked to a nearby restaurant that served traditional Swedish food. For an appetizer I sampled something similar to an egg roll that had a paste made with raw salmon wrapped around shredded cabbage and dipped in horseradish sauce. My main dish was also Salmon, roasted at a very low heat for 4 or 5 hours. The food was all quite good.

The second picture is a statue of a horse that was in the middle of a street just behind my hotel. There were several streets in the downtown area that were set aside for pedestrians, with many small touristy shops along the sides.

Our meetings were held at the Scania headquarters about a 20 minute train ride from the hotel. They went very well and we seem to be establishing a good relationship with this company. We were all impressed with the way the company was run and with their manufacturing setup. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures of the production line. Of course, we came away from the meetings with a lot of urgent work to do, so I am going to be under a lot of pressure to get everything done before leaving for our Texas trip in two weeks.

We were disappointed along with the rest to hear how the hearings for Harvey went. We are continuing to pray for thier family.

-- Newel

I'm a grandpa again

Jacob and Lindsay had a baby boy yesterday afternoon. He weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches. They have named him Tagg Jacob. Mom and baby are doing fine. Katelyn has already staked out her position as primary baby holder.

I'm including links to a couple of news stories about Jed and Cally. We're still fighting but I am too mad and frustrated to give details right now.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695233957,00.html

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=bb61df03-3340-43eb-94a4-6f5f60bc07d3

Latest court update

Cally and Jed got back from their latest trip to Idaho yesterday evening. The custody proceeding did not get finished, so there will be another court date around Christmas. The judge would not allow Jed and Cally to intervene in this case, meaning they have no legal standing and are basically on the outside looking in. This is a very bad development and leaves little chance that they can win this battle.

However, they have still not lost the war. Their attorney and the LDS Family Services attorney believe they have a very good chance to win the appeal on the case that allowed the birth father to retain his parental rights. Unfortunately, that appeal could take up to a year.

But we are going to have to start thinking outside the box if we want to make certain they don't lose him between now and then. We might be going after some media attention soon, because they are running out of money and time.

We are so thankful to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. This whole situation is very surreal. I never imagined we would be in this situation.

Flint

What about Sammy?

OK, what does Samuel need for Christmas? Just realized I really need to get moving on the few Christmas packages I do have to send out this year.

Lynette and Rachel were both sick for more than a week (separate weeks), and as soon as they were well, I was sick for a week. So, now I am finally feeling better and am starting to think about Christmas again. And Craig is off to Europe for a week, but gone for two weekends, so I don't know when I am going to get any shopping done!

Flint, you are one up on me. I haven't even dragged the decorations out yet. I keep telling my kids that growing up, we didn't decorate until the 15th, and maybe we should start that tradition. They aren't going for it!

I am also in charge of my Quilt Guild's "Stocking Project" this year, and I'm in the midst of several hundred stockings that I need to fill and deliver to the local city hospital (which wants three hundred to pass out on Christmas day alone. And that is just to the siblings of babies born that day!)

We are looking forward to seeing Newel and his family!

And we are keeping Cally and Jed in our prayers. I just can't imagine any judge in his right mind taking Harvey away from them to give him to an accused rapist.

LaDawn

Calendar response

We think the calendars are great, but I know they take a lot of work and effort. So I will leave it up to you if you have the time and energy.

With all the stuff going on with Jed and Cally we are having a hard time focusing on much else. We dragged our Christmas decorations out of storage yesterday but haven't got them up yet. Anette is babysitting Harvey until Tuesday evening, and that is pretty much a full-time activity.

Christmas Calendars

With Mom, Dad, and Flint's family going for a non-materialistic Christmas this year, and with our visit to Texas, we thought it would be good to send our usual family calendars out after our trip. That way we can include some recent pictures of the Dalleys, Moores, and Stephens together at Christmas time. Am I right in assuming the calendars are still wanted, even though we have decided to cut back on gifts?

-- Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail Nov 26, 2007

Everyone:

Well, transfers are this Wednesday, and there's a fairly high probablility that I'll be transferred, so we'll see where in LA I am next week.

As for this week, it was really, really foggy Monday evening and Tuesday morning. You know, take-out-a-knife-and-cut-it type thickness. Anyways, on Tuesday I was on splits with our Zone Leaders, and I was the one who stayed here in Watts, so, we ended up tracting for a bit and met some good people, and then in the evening we visited a couple people and had the Libro de Mormon clase. You know, it's kind of odd--I've become so accustomed to being bilingual that it'll be kind of strange for me when I come home to be speaking only English. I guess I'll have to ask Brother Reyes to help me keep in practice.

On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Blackburn, and then we visited several people. We visited Maria Hernandez and helped clean up her house a bit as we often do, we visited Veronica and her family, and we also tried to visit Marcelino. Marcelino has been sick this whole week, so we haven't been able to speak with him. We're praying that this will pass quickly, because it's the last thing he needs on top of all his other problems.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, so we had a two-zone Turkey Bowl football game, and then we visited Norman and planned. In the evening we visited Hermana de la Torre. She's doing pretty well. We've actually been seeing a good bit of sucess with less-active work recently, which has been heartening, given how none of our investigators showed up at church this Sunday. Pues, asi es la obra misional. After that, we cooked our Thanksgiving feast of baked chicken and stuffing and other such stuff(Elder Bartholomew's parents included some stuffing and dehydrated potatoes and such for Thanksgiving in his birthday package).

On Friday, we had our zone meeting, and then we visited Cindy. Cindy is having trouble feeling like she's getting an answer to her prayers about the Book of Mormon, and she has a friend who's inviting her to Catholic mass, so she's kind of divided right now. We also finally contacted Lisa, a referral we've had for a while. She seems to be earnest, so she should be a good investigator. That doesn't mean she'll be baptized soon, of course--one thing I've learned about missionary work is that a lot of times your work is more ploughing and preparing the soil so that some time later the seed can take root in them.

On Saturday we visited Tammie, who was one of the people I contacted while on splits, and she also seems good. We also taught Lola, and she seems to be doing pretty well. She's just one of those people that it's difficult to teach since she tends to leap from subject to subject with her questions. We also taught Rosario, who was a referral that we'd just gotten from Elder Thurston and Elder Kite. It turns out she's the sister of some members that live in our area, and she just recently moved from Mexico. The main issue with her is that she is one of the many people who just believes that all churches are good and everyone gets at the same point, anyways. That's a problem we run into a lot--a whole lot of people seem to believe that you can go to whatever church and believe whatever as long as it's about God. Doesn't matter how contradictory the doctrines are or what they say the requirements for salvation are, if they teach about Christ, they're good. Which is half-true--any church that teaches true doctrine about Christ does have goodness in it, it's just that only one can have it all, and a lot of people don't see that. Anyways, off of my tangent...

Sunday we had church, we visited Hermana Smith since she's going into the hospital tomorrow, we visited Irene, and we visited Hermana de la Torre again.

Well, everyone, I think I've already interspersed enough random musings in the body of this e-mail, so I'll end now.

Elder Samuel Stephens
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
John 4: 37-38

Getting ready for Christmas

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving and were glad that mom and dad could be there. We liked there idea for Christmas of making a donation rather than giving gifts and we decided to do that as well. So instead of sending extended family gifts this year, we will be donating to the Perpetual Education Fund. Please don't worry about sending anything to us.

Jed and Cally are bound for court in Idaho again on Sunday for an appearance Monday. Once again we anticipate that the custody hearing will be postponed, but they can't take a chance on not being there. So it ends up being a $3,000 trip for nothing.

Harvey is such a good baby. He virtually never cries. I was talking to Cally on the phone this morning and could hear Harvey laughing and giggling and making happy screeching sounds at the top of his lungs. It was really quite distracting.

I'm picking up Creed's moose meat from the processor tonight, so we'll be having moose roast for Sunday dinner. I wish you could all be here to share it with us.
Flint

We had a great Thanksgiving with Flint and Anette and family. We wish we could all be together for the holidays but that might be too much. We had so much fun watching Katelynn at the zoo. The elephants had a 650# pumpkin and it took only one stab from the tusk to break that and then no time at all for the elephants to eat it. It didn't look like much of a dinner for several large elephants. Katelynn was also fascinated with the snakes especially the Green Tree Boa.

We had a great dinner as well. Flint and Anette know how to cook a turkey just right so it is moist and good. We even had some left overs for our lunch yesterday after the temple.
Harvey is getting cuter and cuter. He laughs out loud and is really good. He slept through the zoo experience but that was ok it was really cold.

Samuel's Mission e-mail Nov 19, 2007

Everyone:

Well, things have been feeling slightly more Novembery around here recently, so we'll have to see if the trend continues.

In terms of the week... Tuesday we had a day of a lot of people not being home, but I did teach the Libro de Mormon clase in the evening. On Wednesday, we met Lola, who is an old friend of Brother Harris in the SWLA Branch. She seems honestly interested and willing to do what is required to find the truth--she said she's been searching for "something more". She also had a question about the salvation of small animals (on behalf of her grandson), which made me grateful for D&C 77. We also visited Reina again, as well as Marcelino. With Marcelino right now we're mostly just working to keep him faithful while he works through the problems he's having with his daughter until things are settled enough for him to separate if that's what's required to obey the Law of Chastity, since the woman he's living with is unwilling to marry.

On Thursday we had our normal planning and visit with Norman, and then we visited Veronica and met some of her family and taught them, too. They also seem interested, although all of them seem to have unpredictable schedules.

On Friday, we had our normal district meeting, a visit with Marcelino, and a Thanksgiving dinner with the SGII ward. I find it interesting how Thanksgiving seems to have several names in Spanish--probably since it's something that only exists here in the US so they have to make up their own name for it in Spanish.

On Saturday, we finally contacted a referral named Mario Rivera that we've been playing phone tag with for weeks. He seems like he has some promise--unlike a lot of people around here, he doesn't seem to have problems with reading comprehension, so our work should be more focused on his testimony of the Book of Mormon rather than his understanding thereof. We also visited Kandy Levine and a couple less-actives.

On Sunday we had church, of course, and we were happy to see Lola and several of the less-actives we're working with there. We also visited Hermana Smith and taught a bit to some of the people who were also visiting her at the same time. We also went to the baptism of one of the children of a family Elder Bartholomew was teaching in his first area. We visited Marcelino because he wasn't at church and found out it was because he'd gone to pick up Lupe (his daugther) from the hospital. We also taught Cindy again. She's doing fairly well--she didn't come to church yesterday because she'd promised one of her Catholic friends that she'd come to mass with her, but she's going to come next week, and she's still reading in the Book of Mormon.

Today we don't have a zone activity, which is why I'm writing earlier in the morning than usual.

I want to speak a bit about patience. Patience is a very necessary attribute, not only in missionary work, but also in daily life. A lot of problems are caused by impatience--speeding, arguments, misunderstandings. We need to be slower to anger than our modern society often is, or we'll be heading down the same broad path they are.

Elder Stephens
37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
John 4: 37-38

Samuel's Mission e-mail Nov 12, 2007

Everyone:

Well, this week has been a bit cooler than in the past. I guess even Los Angeles has seasons--just not as much as other places do. This is another e-mail from the internet cafe, since all the libraries and such are closed for the Veteran's Day weekend or something.

Let's see... starting with Thursday, since I wrote last Wednesday... Thursday was a pretty typical Thursday, with planning, visiting Norman, and correlation in the evening. We also visited with Cindy again, and she asked us a couple more questions about the Book of Mormon.

On Friday we had our district meeting, and then we tracted a little bit. We visited Marcelino--his situation is about unchanged right now. We also visited Irene, the less-active who felt let down by and unappreciated at church. She's willing to come back, but her oldest granddaughter that's living with her refuses to come and she doesn't have anyone to leave her with. We also visited David.

Saturday we did some tracting and ended up talking with someone who had lived in Utah for a while and some drunk guys. Alcohol does strange things to people. We also visited Kandy Levine and met her son who just got out of prison. We also visited a couple other people.

Sunday we had church as usual, and then we visited Hermana Smith. Delia was there visiting her at the same time, so we ended up teaching her a bit as well. We worked for a bit on finding out if people on our member list in our area actually live there any more and actually met one guy who asked why it had taken so long, so hopefully he'll want to come back to church. We also visited the Castrejon family because they weren't at church and found out it was because one of their pipes broke so they had stayed home to fix it before it leaked too much.

Today in the morning we missed our zone activity (bowling) because we went with Brother Harris and Sherri to visit a friend of Brother Harris, but she asked us if we could come back another day due to events incident to the holiday, so that's why I'm writing so early today.

Well, since I have a lot of time, I'm going to ramble for a bit. I have this stack of small sticky notes that Elder Allred bequeathed to me when he went home, and I've been using them to write down random quotes I hear or read or that I think up and then sticking them up on the wall in front of my desk. So, I think I'll share some of these quotes that I can remember with you.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work--Thomas Edison

With all your getting, get going!--Elder Packer (before he was President Packer)

A commandment or law is a specific instance of a principle.

And last of all, always remember, hard-heartedness leads to heart disease!

Elder Samuel Stephens
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
-D&C 122:8

Latest from court in Idaho

Just got off the phone with Anette. She and Cally are in Idaho. The judge postponed the custody hearing again. LDS Family Services and Harvey's birth mother are appealing the previous judge's decision to allow the father to retain his parental rights, so the judge does not want to have a custody hearing until that is decided. There is not even a date for appeal and it could take months.

The good news is that Harvey is still with Jed and Cally in the interim. Also, the judge said since Harvey is in Utah and they have petitioned for adoption here, he may let Utah courts decide on custody. Yahoo! Let's see how the other side likes driving for 14 hours each way for a postponed hearing.

I think the longer Harvey is with Jed and Cally the harder it will be to take him away and give custody to a father with two rape charge pending.

Anette and Cally will get back tomorrow. Thanksgiving is going to be wonderful.

Upcoming Trip

After a year of not doing any traveling for work, I now have the opportunity to go to Sweden. Our company is going to be making some lights for Scania, a Swedish truck manufacturer, so I get to go over there for some meetings. If I can stay awake after an overnight flight, I will have about one day to look around Stockholm. Dad, do you know of any ancestors that were from that area?

Newel

Flint's receiving his Wood Badge beads recently reminded me of when I received mine at Camp Bartlet in 1982. Ruth was looking some old picture recently and came across two picture of that Wood Badge experience. I was in the Fox patrol. I'm the little one fourth from the left

Not much happens around here. We did go to a dinner dance last night put on by Smithfield Youth Counsel for those who were over 70 and we have another one tonight for the Stake High Priest. Ruth is at the Stake Center now working on humanitarian packages.

We got Lloyd over last week and he got hearing aids. We hope this will get him to be more socially involved at the nursing home.

We will attend a family reunion wherever it is held but it would be an extra 1,000 miles for all of us to go to Big Bend National Park and with the price of gas it would be quite a burden. We may want to consider something a little more central to all of us. Maybe something in Northern Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado or Arkansas. The year we traveled in Oklahoma with LaDawns family was quite interesting with several attractions.

Love Dad and Mom Stephens

Samuel's Mission e-mail November 7, 2007

Everyone:

Well, sorry I didn't mention that today was our temple day. Or did I? Anyways, that's why I'm writing today instead of Monday (I still haven't died, just in case anyone was wondering...). Anyways, again I am a bit short on time--we kind of forgot today was going to be our Preparation Day and scheduled some appointments for today, so we're kind of busy. As for the week... Tuesday we had a really good day where we were able to meet a lot of people and teach some good lessons. Wednesday, however, not only was Halloween, I was also sick all morning and into the afternoon. I was still a bit shaky in the evening, but I did manage to drag myself out of bed to go see National Treasure with some other missionaries for our Halloween activity.

Thursday I was feeling better, so we planned and visited Norman like usual and tried to contact people we'd missed while I was sick on Wednesday. Friday we had Zone Conference down in Palos Verdes (which is quite a ways south-west of Watts, and in a really rich area, too), so we were gone most of the day for that, but we did meet with Marcelino. He's not doing so well right now--his daughter, Lupe (Guadalupe), who is possibly mentally ill, stole someone's car and crashed it into another car and a van, and everyone has been demanding he replace the damaged parts. Fortunately no truly serious damage was done, but for someone living on the edge of existence like Marcelino, even minor repairs are far, far out of his purchasing power, so he's not in a good situation. It also doesn't help that we've been talking with him about his marital situation and it turns out that he's asked his 'wife' to marry him before and she's refused and she's continuing to refuse right now. He's willing to just separate from her, but 1: now is a really bad time to do that, and 2: we don't want to pull the family apart, so... we have quite a dilemma.

Saturday we visited some people and then in the afternoon into the evening we helped out with a fireside put on by the Saints Unified Voices directed by Gladys Knight. It was pretty neat--hopefully some good missionary work comes out of it. Sunday was a pretty typical day. Monday we visited Marcelino again, as well as some other people. Tuesday we visited Hermana Smith. She's not doing so well--she'd been in great pain, and we'd given her a blessing and the pain left, but she's still pretty ill--and she has to wait until the 26th for her operation.

Well, everyone, that's all I have time for at the moment. I just have one thing to say--some of the less-actives we've met with this week have given me such a testimony of home and visiting teaching. Home and visiting teaching don't get done much out here, and it seems like a lot of these people have gone less-active because of that lack of non-Sunday contact. So no matter how unimportant your home teaching might seem or how strong in the church your families might seem, visit them!!!!! Visit them, visit them, visit them!!!! You never know if you might be the only thing that will turn their course from drifting away from the church to full activity.

Elder Samuel Stephens

Hi from Highland

The weather has been so nice here it is hard to remember it is well into November. Jake and I spent Wednesday looking for pheasants without success. We drove clear down to a state wildlife management unit in Redmond—about a two-hour drive. It looked like a great spot, but we didn’t find a single bird, even with four dogs. Then we tried another spot near Nephi where we have had good success but there were no birds there either. At least Tank didn’t find any skunks. I think next time we’ll head north up toward Cache Valley. I’ve heard rumors of a bird or two still in that area.

We went elk hunting last Saturday. I saw the most elk but I didn’t have a tag. We were with some friends and got into a big herd. Our friends all tried to be polite and wait for someone else to shoot first and in the end no one did and the elk were gone. We’re going again tomorrow and I suspect no one will be polite anymore.

We haven’t heard anything new about Jed, Cally and Harvey. So we’re planning for the 19th, but it’s hard to know if that will actually come to pass or be delayed.

We’re also gearing up for Thanksgiving. I think we might have a pretty big gathering. We might have to start cooking any day.

I’m attaching a picture of Katelynn and Harvey in their Halloween costumes. They were both tigers. Katelynn takes her animal impersonations pretty seriously. She wore her costume to the zoo and roared at the tiger when they got to its enclosure. The tiger roared back, very loudly, and Lindsay waited to see Katelynn’s reaction. Instead of being afraid, she roared again and the two of them stood there roaring for several minutes with the sound echoing all around the zoo.

As far as the next reunion, I read the information on Big Bend. No offense, but since I’ve never been to Texas I’m not sure I want to spend my time in the desert. I’ve seen plenty of those. If we are not going to be in Dallas, is there someplace along the coast that would be nice?

Samuel's Mission e-mail October 29, 2007

Everyone:

Well, in case you're wondering about the subject line, it's a reference to a Norse myth about the end of the world in which ash rains from the sky. Given that we had ash raining from the sky about half of the week, Elder Bartholomew and I decided that it was appropriate to call this Ragnarok week. I don't have much time to write, so I'll be brief. This week was fairly frustrating in some respects, in addition to the ash raining from the sky. We had a large number of appointments, but very few people were actually home for their appointments. Let's see...

Marcelino had his baptismal interview, and it turns out that he actually isn't married to the woman he's living with and who is the mother of his children, so we've been working with him on resolving that situation.

We've met with Cindy a bit more, and she seems really interested in learning more. Her husband has apparently heard some of the stories, but she can recognize that most of them are not true.

Hermana Smith is still hanging in there, and while Delia, who she referred us to, doesn't seem incredibly interested in the Gospel herself, the other couple that lives in the same apartment with her still seem interested.

Well, I think that's all for now, given my limited time. Remember to always keep your eyes and ears open for the needs of others.

Elder Stephens
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
-D&C 122:8

Pictures from LaDawn

Oops,
I guess I didn't get that top photo in correctly. (I fixed it for you - Newel). Oh well, you can still see it! That's doing pretty good considering I've just spent an hour trying to remember how to change the photo size so that I can post them!

Anyway. This past Saturday we were finally able to have Rachel's 4th birthday party after having to postpone it once due to sickness. We thought we might have to cancel it again when Rachel started running a fever on Friday. But, after sleeping all afternoon and all night, she woke up fine and was able to enjoy her "Tinkerbell" party. She had seven friends over, and we made fairy wands and pirate hats and broke open a pinata (with help from the big kids!). Everyone seemed to have a great time.

I just can't believe she's four already!

We had a fun Halloween last night, also. I'll try to get a picture of that posted soon, too!

LaDawn

Results of today's court hearing

Today the judge postponed the hearing on the custody motion until Nov. 19. Apparently the previous post was too optimistic. So far the request for a mistrial has not been granted but the original judge agreed to reconsider his decision.

I think in many ways this just turns into a game of attrition: who can hold out the longest. This five-minute hearing involved the services of four attorneys, three days of travel and missed work for Jed and Cally, and two days of missed work for Anette (she was babysitting Harvey). And we get to do it all again in three weeks.

But at least Jed and Cally still have Harvey. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Samuel's Mission e-mail October 22, 2007

Everyone:

Well, to everyone who might have been hoping I would get transferred *coughlikemymomcough*, I'm sorry to say that I'm still in Watts. But, as for myself, I'm quite happy to be here, since things are really picking up now for us after our hard work last transfer.

I don't have my planner from last transfer with me, so I don't really recall what we did last Tuesday and Wednesday, other than that we did teach Marcelino on Wednesday and set a time for his baptismal interview, which we subsequently had to change to this evening. So yes, that is one reason I'm happy to be staying here.

On Thursday, Elder Bartholomew and I planned a lot for our new week and transfer together, visited Norman and Sherri, and went to our correlation meeting.

On Friday we had ZDM and then visited Hermana Smith. She's not doing so well, and they still haven't operated on her--they ended up just taking a sample of the tumor in her cheek, and when we visited her they still hadn't told her the results. We did have a good lesson with Marcelino in the evening and we also visited the Ayala family, who are less active. David, a friend of Juan Carlos Ayala, told us that he'd told his mom about us and that she wanted us to come over to visit her family, so we set up an appointment to come over on Saturday.

On Saturday, we taught William, the husband of Michelle Armstrong, an interesting lesson involving a lot of analogies. Then we went over to Sherri's house and did some painting and started assembling some new beds she had gotten. Then we stopped by Delia, who is a friend of Hermana Smith, and set up an appointment with her for Sunday, stopped by Sofia's house and ended up teaching one of her sons, and then taught David and his family.

Sunday, we had church, and then we went back and taught Delia and another couple that live in the same apartment with her, Alva and Geovanny. We're not sure how much interest Delia really has, but Alva and Geovanny seem like they'll honestly read and pray. After that we taught Reina, who is a sibling of a man named Nilton (or something like that) that we tracted into a couple weeks ago.

Today we had our traditional first-Preparation-Day dodgeball game as a zone and washed our clothes. This evening we plan to visit Olga, an investigator who was close to baptism but then lost contact with the missionaries before I got here, and to go to a Noche de Hogar that the SGII ward is doing, during which time Marcelino will have his baptismal interview.

Well, I guess the theme for this week was unexpected teaching situations and opprotunities. It's wonderful how the Lord blesses us with these opprotunities and then gives us the Spirit to help us know what to do without any plans or preparation. Of course, that only applies when we couldn't plan--if you have the opprotunity to plan and don't the Spirit usually won't bail you out. And that includes all of us. Remember, the Lord is always bringing people across our paths who are ready to be influenced for good. Keep your eyes open, and remember the Lord's promise, "Open your mouths, and they will be filled..."

Elder Samuel Stephens
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
-D&C 122:8

Mariana's got Braces!

We had a milestone week for Mariana this week. Yesterday she went to the Orthodontist and got her braces put on. Only two years to straight teeth!

We are all happy to hear the good news about Cally and Jed. We will keep praying for everything to be resolved.

A little bit of good news

Yesterday Cally and Jed learned that the judge granted the motion for a mistrial on the hearing to determine whether or not Harvey's biological father can retain his parental rights. The judge also recused himself from the trial. This is essentially an admission of impropriety on the part of the judge. The retrial is set for Feb. 7.

There will still be a hearing on Oct. 29 for the father's motion seeking custody. But it seems unlikely that he would get custody when they still haven't determined whether or not he has properly retained his parental rights. Cally and Jed will still be going to Idaho with their attorney and we still are planning on having a family fast on the 28th.

In the meantime, two underage girls are now pressing charges against the birth father for sexual assault. We hope that proceeds quickly because that would also lessen the likelihood that any judge would grant custody or visitation rights.

Obviously a lot of uncertainty remains, but it is nice to finally get a little bit of good news. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. We really love little Harvey and we want him to be part of our eternal family.

Elaine and Lynette's quilts

Elaine and Lynette once again entered the Keepsake Quilting Kids Challenge.
They didn't win, but their quilts are on the website.
You can see their quilts at: http://www.keepsakequilting.com/challenges/Kentrants5.aspx
If that doesn't work, let me know, and I will try to find the photos we took and post them.

Patriot Games V

Isaac and I went camping with the scouts this weekend. It was a big camporee held at Fort Knox, with Scouts from cub age through Explorers from several councils. They estimated that 6,000 people were there. The boys had a great time. They got to climb in and on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, an M1A1 Abrams tank, and an Apache Helicopter. There were also lots of other fun scouting events.

Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail October 15, 2007

Everyone:

Well, Wednesday is transfers again, so we'll have to see if I'm still in Watts or not this time next week. If I get transferred, it's possible I could be writing on Wednesday next week.

Anyways, this week on Tuesday we started a new tracting pattern where instead of just blocking off time for tracting, we plan to visit someone every hour and then if they're not home we tract instead. One of the people we visited that day was Hermana Smith. She's probably in the hospital having an operation as I write right now, so hopefully next week we'll have news that everything went well for her. We also stopped by the Libro de Mormon clase.

On Wednesday, we continued our new tracting pattern, and we ended up finding this entire family (or, well, parts of an extended family--we're still not quite sure who's related to who and how) who all seem interested in the gospel. I believe they'd all seen missionaries in El Salvador (I think that's where they're from) and one of them in particular had investiagated for a little while when he was there. We also visited Marcelino. Marcelino right now is just about ready for baptism. He's starting to grasp things a bit, and we while praying about what to teach him felt like we should promise him that the Gift of the Holy Ghost will hasten his understanding of the gospel, so he agreed to be baptised soon when we talked about that. Most likely he'll be baptised in a couple weeks.

On Thursday we had our normal planning session and visit with Norman, and then we visited Daisy Cruz in company with Sherri. It went pretty well--Daisy and Sherri seemed to get along pretty well, and Daisy is really concerned about her family, so the Church's emphasis on the family really appeals to her. In the evening we had our normal SGII ward correlation meeting.

On Friday we had our normal end-of-transfer zone meeting, and then we continued our tracting pattern. We also taught Marcelino again in the evening.

On Saturday we had a lot of return appointments, starting with Delia, who was referred by Hermana Smith. She lives with a few other people, none of whom, as far as I can tell, are related to her, but all of whom are willing to listen to us. We also visited Michelle Armstrong again, and had a pretty good lesson with her. Then for most of the rest of the day people weren't there for their return appointments, but we did teach some other lessons that were fairly good. One time when we were praying, I suddenly remembered Silvia, who was a recent convert who had moved to our area that we tracted into last transfer. We went by and visited her and she came to church on Sunday! So yes, we're always grateful for the guidance of the Spirit. In the evening we visited the Ayala family, who are some less-actives in the area.

On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, and then we visited Sherri for a bit and ended up teaching her a little bit about Church history so that she understood better what people were talking about when they referred to places like Kirtland and Nauvoo. We also revisited the family from El Salvador and taught them some more about the Book of Mormon and answered some questions about the end of the world.

Today we bowled in the morning, and later this evening we'll visit Marcelino and the Castrejon family, probably.

Well, I just want to encourage everyone to read the conference issues of the Ensign often. We're out here busy teaching how important it is to have a modern prophet, so we'd better think they're important. I actually read some of the May Conference issue and I was noticing how applicable some of the talks were to our current work. So don't let your conference issues get too dusty in between conferences!

Elder Samuel Stephens
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
-D&C 122:8

Creed fills his moose tag

Our family had a unique adventure the past couple of days when Creed filled his cow moose tag. We made several trips to his hunting area over the past couple of weeks and had only seen bulls. We'd also heard a lot of discouraging reports from other hunters who said the cows all seemed to have disappeared.

Sunday evening after church Creed, Anette and I decided to take a drive to see the fall colors. Creed threw the rifle in just in case, but we weren't expecting to see anything. He was even wearing shorts and tennis shoes. As luck goes, right before dark we were just starting to head home when we spotted a moose on a hillside.

By the time we got turned the right direction the moose had gone over a hill and Creed had to run a couple hundred yards to get to a spot where he could shoot. But he made the most of his chance. It was getting dark so we had to leave her until the next morning.

Monday we spent essentially the entire day getting her skinned, quartered and hauled out. The area does not allow four-wheelers or horses, so we hauled the quarters out in a wheelbarrow.

We took almost 500 pounds of meat the the processor and Creed is getting the hide made into leather.

Samuel's Mission e-mail October 9, 2007

Everyone:

Well, due to Columbus Day, I had to spend another precious three dollars to e-mail all of you, so be happy that I care enough to buy the whole hour we're allowed to have!

Let's see... Tuesday we visited Hermana Smith because she'd just gotten home from the hospital. She's not doing very well, but oddly enough, her being sick like this has resulted in at least two good missionary referrals thus far, so I suppose the Lord must have a purpose for this. We did stop by the referral she gave us that's in our area, Delia, that afternoon, and I taught the Libro de Mormon clase at the ward that evening.

On Wednesday we helped this guy named Larry clean up a bunch of garbage that was around this house he's taking care of, we tracted some, and visited Marcelino in the evening.

On Thursday we had our normal planning time and visit to Norman and correlation in the evening.

On Friday I was on splits with Elder Thurston, so I was over in South Central again, just across the street from our area. We had a pretty good day--it's kind of funny, but split days that I work in someone else's area are some of my most productive days. I guess I just am better at helping out other people's areas than my own. Who knows?

Saturday and Sunday we spent running back and forth from the Stake Center to watch General Conference. In between sessions, we visited Delia again and ended up talking with some of the other people that live in the same apartment with her. That's one thing about around here--the Latinos often live with more than just their own family. Population density is pretty high here due to that. In addition, have I ever commented about garages? Everyone's idea of what a garage is for is either for another room or they make it into a separate house and rent it out. Almost no-one here uses their garage for keeping cars in--that's what the street is for, after all.

Anyways, a couple comments on Conference... Conference was really great! We especially enjoyed all the talks about how everyone should be ready to share the Gospel and read Preach My Gospel. Just a comment on that--one of the general authorities made the point that we have to be careful not to share too much when people show curiousity. Honestly, one of the other topics they covered during the conference should govern our sharing the Gospel--Charity. If you would feel kind of uncomfortable if someone did to you what you're doing to someone else in trying to do missionary work, back off. Sometimes we smother people's interest by jumping on them the moment they show any interest in the church, and forget to respect their agency and ignore how long the Spirit usually takes to work on someone. So yes, we missionaries love getting help, but make sure to follow the golden rule in your own missionary efforts, as in all you do. Don't ignore someone who's interested, but don't smother them, either. Ok, I'll stop rambling now.

Elder Samuel Stephens

Christmas

Dear family,

Ruth and I have all the things that we need. For Christmas this year take any money you would spend on us and donate it to the "Church Continuing Education Fund" or one of the other Church funds. Otherwise just let the kids make some small things that will not cost a lot to mail or just a card will do fine.

We appreciate your thoughtfulness and love all of you, but we just don't have a need for more books, gadgets or other things that we wont really use.

Love,
Dad and Mom

Update on Jed, Cally & Harvey

Hi Everyone,

Denisa called me to ask about a family fast for Harvey.

Here is the current situation to the best of my understanding. I'll post this on the family blog as well. Friday two motions were filed. One was for a mistrial of the hearing that allowed the birth father to maintain his parental rights. The second motion was also related to that hearing and basically asks for a review of the judge's decision. Three different attorneys have told us that the judge made several significant errors, so the chance for a mistrial is good.

On October 29 and 30 there will be a custody hearing and Jed and Cally will be there with their attorney. I think this is for temporary custody and no one anticipates that Jed and Cally would lose custody at that time, but one never knows.

So I think Oct. 27-28 would be an appropriate time for a fast.

So far all of this is just related to whether or not the father can retain his parental rights, so the legal battles can continue when it comes to the actual adoption and permanent custody. Unfortunately this could drag on for many more months.

In the meantime Harvey is growing fast and is as cute as can be. He has those big toothless smiles and makes cute baby cooing sounds now. He is a very good baby and almost never cries, unless you try to hold him like a baby. He likes to be held standing up or at least sitting up so he can see what is going on.

We'll let everyone know more as we find out anything.

Flint

Samuel's Mission e-mail October 1, 2007

Everyone:

Well, I'm afraid that due to technical difficulties with the myldsmail site, I only have ten minutes to write this letter. So, suffice it to say this week went really well. Miguel was confirmed yesterday, so he is now officially a member. We've been working with Marcelino in company with Hermano Francisco, and I want to testify to all of you of the power that a member has in missionary work. So if your missionaries ever ask you for help, help them!

I also want to talk about a principle we've been working on applying better from Preach My Gospel. This principle is listening. The power of simply getting other people to talk to you and then listening intently is amazing. Listening is a labor of love. Really listening to someone implies trying to understand them, and trying to understand them is part of trying to love them. I think a lot of relationship problems in the world would never happen if people applied the simple principle of listening better.

Elder Samuel Stephens

Samuel's Mission e-mail September 24, 2007

Everyone:

Yes, amazingly enough, we did actually have a decent-sized rainstorm Friday evening. It was over by the time we woke up on Saturday, although it did still sprinkle a little bit on and off.

Anyways, Wednesday evening after our preparation day was over we went over and visited Marcelino in company with Hermano Francisco from the SG2 ward.

On Thursday, we, as usual, planned, visited Norman, and had correlation in the evening. In between the two, Miguel Nunez (I found out it's spelled with an e instead of an o) had his baptismal interview.

On Friday, we had our normal district meeting, and then in the afternoon we talked with Ronda Briggs, who was a referral we had been trying to contact for a while. We've slowly been working on contacting all the referrals we got at the beginning of the transfer. It's amazing how hard people can be to get a hold of, sometimes. We also taught Marcelino again Friday evening, and hopefully this time he actually understands a bit about what a prophet is--Marcelino knows that we're good and from God, but it's just taking a long time for him to understand what we teach him.

On Saturday, we tried to visit a bunch of people who had said to come back, but only one of them was there. That's a common problem here, especially among Latinos. Apparently they feel better being nice to us and then not being there when we come back than just saying no to our face. While I appreciate their care for our feelings, I would much rather they just said no to our face. Of course, we always make sure to check back again some other time, since sometimes they did just honestly forget or something.

On Sunday, we had our normal meetings and tried to visit some people, and then in the evening, Miguel got baptized! He had actually requested that I do the baptism for him, so I did my first baptism in Spanish. I only had to redo it once. Marcelino was also there, and I think it was a very good experience for both of them.

Today we actually had a teaching appointment in the morning with a referral named Andre Woods. He apparently talked to missionaries years back in Las Vegas but lost contact with them until he saw some missionaries here in LA. He could be good--in fact, he probably will be. So I'll probably talk more about him later.

Oh, and a quick side note--I really appreciate the birthday wishes from everyone, but mission realities are such that I'm lucky to have half an hour to write to people, so my thank-you letters and such may be a bit slow in coming. So, I just want to say thank you again here so that if it's a month or two before I send something to you you'll know that I still appreciated everything.

Elder Stephens

30 September 2007

This week has been different. The temperature changed abruptly, it snowed at the higher elevations on the mountain on the 24th, warmed up on the 25th and has frozen each of the last three nights. They got an inch of snow in Salt Lake but all we got was rain yesterday. Most of the garden plants have froze except for the things that I covered. I picked apples yesterday and dehydrated them.

I guess fall has finally arrived.

Creed gets his Eagle Award

Creed received his Eagle Scout award at a court of honor Sunday night. The event included all the awards the younger Scouts earned at summer camp so it was well attended. It was a nice ceremony and Creed received lots of compliments. I was able to get my Woodbadge beads at the same time, so that was great. Mom and dad were there, as well as all of our other children and grandchildren.

Creed also had a good day last Saturday (Sept. 15). He had a tag to hunt antelope in Wyoming. His area was between Evanston and Kemmer. We left early in the morning because it is only a two-hour drive from home. After passing up a couple of bucks, he found the one he wanted at about 9 a.m. We made it back home shortly after lunch.

Samuel's Mission e-mail Sept 19, 2007

Everyone:

I realized that I forgot to mention that we were having our temple day today last week, so sorry if anyone was worried. I also realized I forgot to thank everyone for the birthday packages and such. I really enjoyed everyone's cards and gifts (and Grandma Stephens can rest assured that her cookie bar arrived still in one piece and not at all too hard to eat).

Anyways, as for the news this week (I'm going to be a bit briefer since I figure everyone's tired of me saying "we tracted", but if you prefered it more detailed you can tell me)... Tuesday we taught Miguel the third lesson, which is about Faith, Repentence, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, and I taught the Libro de Mormon clase again (we covered 3 Nefi 27-30 and 4 Nefi). Wednesday we taught Miguel about the Commandments and we reviewed about some things with Marcelino.

On Thursday we planned really well for our week and then visited Norman and then got a bit lost... but we obviously eventually managed to figure out where we were again. That is one thing we've been dealing with since I'm driving now--I tend to get lost when we're outside of our area, which happens quite often since a lot of people in the ward who invite us over for dinner live outside our area.

On Friday we had our District meeting and we talked with Marcelino about prophets. We've determined that we're going to have to teach very slowly and review a lot with Marcelino since he seems to have trouble remembering what we teach--although he did remember Alma 8 almost verbatim from reading it the night before. He really enjoys reading el Libro de Mormon.

On Saturday we stopped back by a couple of people we had contacted while tracting, and one of them in particular, Manuel, could be good. We also talked with Miguel about his baptismal service--he wants to have it the 23rd of this month!! We also went to Stake Conference that evening--Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was there, and he spoke a lot about families and marriage, so we took notes down for future reference.

On Sunday we had the general session of Stake Conference, and I went to the Spanish Stake for their conference. Our mission president and his wife spoke (we liked their talks since they talked about member missionary work), as well as a member of one of the quorums of the Seventy. We also delivered some of the items some of our referrals had requested.

Monday was just a normal work day this week, but it was a pretty good one. We taught some good lessons off of tracting--we've been working more on making our first lessons more of a discussion, and it has really been reaping dividends. People open up a lot more when you talk with them instead of present to them.

Tuesday we tried some more to contact our referrals, as well as visiting a less-active hermana (Hermana Bello) and going to the Libro de Mormon clase. Today we went to the temple (after having some adventures with traffic which resulted in us being in a later session than the rest of the zone (other than our district leader and his companion)), and we've done our grocery shopping.

Elder Samuel Stephens

Pray for Cally, Jed & Harvey

Cally and Jed learned yesterday that the judge elected not to terminate the birth father's rights. That means there will be a hearing in front of the Idaho Supreme Court in 20 days to determine custody of Harvey.

The regional director from LDS Family Services came to their home yesterday and said they were pulling out of the case and if Cally and Jed want to pursue it they need to get their own attorney. (They tried to get their own attorney many weeks ago and the same director told them if they did that the baby would immediately be taken from them and placed with another family.)

We think LDS Family Services botched this process from the start and ever since have just been protecting their own interests.

We since have been in contact with the commissioner of LDS Family Services and he is supposedly going to check into the situation. Their ineptness and their treatment of Cally and Jed during this process is shocking. The birth mother and her parents are also totally disgusted.

Neddless to say, right now we are all a little shellshocked. Losing Harvey at this point would be emotionally devestating to all of us and especially to Cally and Jed.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Flint

Father and Sons Campout

We had our stake father-son campout this past weekend. It got switched away from the usual May time in hopes that we wouldn't get rained on this year. We camped in a state forest in an area North of Louisville known as the Knobs. The picture is from the top of one of the knobs, looking east. Isaac is closest to the camera. The other people in the picture are a father from our ward and his two sons. We did manage to stay dry for the first time in several years, though we would have been happy for the rain this time. The trees are losing their leaves early this year because it has been so dry here.

- Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail Sept 10, 2007

Everyone:

Well, the first thing I'll mention is that I got a new companion, since Elder Allred finished his mission. My new companion is Elder Bartholomew, from a town a bit west of Kansas City in Kansas. He actually came out a transfer after me, so yes, I am a senior companion now. Which means that I get to drive in LA traffic for probably the rest of my mission. We get along very well--he likes to write, and would probably like to write books after his mission, although he is realistic enough to realize that it probably won't be his day job.

Well, anyways, on Tuesday we took Elder Allred up to the mission home and then I spent the rest of the day in South-Central with Elder Hoskin and Elder Thurston.

On Wednesday, Elder Bartholomew transferred in, so we spent some time organizing the apartment and helping him get settled in, and then tracted a bit and visited Marcelino and his daughter.

On Thursday we planned for the week, visited Norman, tracted a bit, visited Sherri and gave her a blessing since she wasn't feeling well, and had correlation for SG2.

On Friday we had our zone meeting, and we also picked up and dropped off another companionship in our district whose car needed maintenence. Then we had several appointments, including one with Judith, who was someone Elder Hoskin had started teaching who moved into the projects in our area. She seemed pretty good, but she didn't come to church, so we'll have to see how she turns out. We also tracted a bit. In the evening, we found out Sherri is in the hospital. Fortunately, it's not anything life-threatening--we went and visited her on Saturday, and she seemed to be doing pretty well. We also visited Marcelino again.

On Saturday, we made our visit to Sherri, and then tracted and worked on contacting the eight referrals we received Friday evening. We taught Miguel Nunoz about daily prayer and scripture study. In the evening we also visited Hermana Smith.

On Sunday we went to our church meetings, and I actually went to all of the SG2 meetings. Marcelino came with his daughter and wife, and Miguel also came. Marcelino's daughter Lupe is talking about getting baptized, but we want to make sure she actually understands what it is before planning a time with her. We also tracted for a while and worked on contacting those referrals.

Today we played dodgeball as a zone, and have been doing our normal grocery shopping and such.

Elder Stephens
For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. --D&C 88:33

12 Sept. 2007

For your information, I had another minor surgery last Monday to remove the rest of the Basal Cell Carcinoma that the doctor didn't get the last time. Basal Cell Carcinoma is the least aggressive form of skin cancer. The report today was that it was all removed. This is the third time they have removed a leasion from this same area of my forehead.
Just let this be a warning to all of you to wear a hat and avoid excessive exposure to the sun. It may catch up with you many years down the road.

I'm glad you got the picture thing figured out in the blog LaDawn.

Happy birthday to all of you Sept. kids.

Dad

Fun Photo of Rachel

I just couldn't resist adding one more photo of Rachel wearing her "buppylo" hat.

Here are two pictures of the kids wading up Smithfield Canyon.
I will try to get you a CD of all the pictures, Mom and Dad. We almost lost all of ours, too, when our hard disk crashed. Fortunately, Craig was able to figure out how to save them (after spending a couple of hundred dollars on repair software.

OK, I really have to go do something useful now!
LaDawn

Finally figuring it out

Ok, I'm trying to do this now. I've wanted to get on and send you some vacation photos. I'm not sure if I can figure that part out, though.
Right now, we are just trying to get into the whole school routine again.
James is back at Williams High School, and he enjoys it, but he did not make the tennis team this semester and that has him a bit bummed. He is enjoying the honors and AP classes more than the regular classes he took last year.
Along with school starting and seminary, we have the first illnesses of the year. Rachel and Lynette have had a fever.
My birthday yesterday kind of went by unnoticed. Too busy to notice. We'll celebrate on Saturday, and then Sunday Lynette. The kids did give me presents right before bed, and it was nice to have a long chat with Newel. I'm looking forward to seeing his family at Christmas. We're planning on taking a day or two to go down to the Houston Space Center.

I guess I'm going to keep this short right now until I see if it works. I'll see if I can figure out the photos.

Well, it looks like it worked. This is a photo of the cousins we met at Martin's Cove. And, of course, I can't remember their names right now, but this Sister says she is a grand-daughter of Louisa Mellor. She remembers playing at Dad's house a lot when she was young, but she doesn't remember Dad.

LaDawn

Mission Pictures

Samuel sent us a package with a picture CD in it. Here are a few pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Samuel's Mission e-mail Sept. 3, 2007

Everyone:

Well, my companion, Elder Allred, is finishing his mission this Wednesday, so this was his last week in the mission. Unfortunately, I don't have my planner with me, so my memories of what went on this week may be a bit sketchy. And yes, this e-mail is coming from an Internet Cafe since the Libraries are closed for Labor Day.

Monday was a pretty normal Preparation Day, and we visited Marcelino in the evening, I think. On Tuesday, I think we tracted for a while, but I don't remember what we did in the evening.

On Wednesday we had our interviews with the mission president for the transfer. They went pretty well--President and Sister Blackburn are starting to get into the groove of being mission president and wife. In the afternoon we had some appointments, but I don't remember specifically with whom. I do think that was the day we visited Sherri again, though. Sherri's doing really well--she even has a calling now as a Primary teacher! We're starting to work on teaching her children.

Thursday was our normal planning day, and then we visited Norman. In the evening we visited a couple people. Friday we had our District meeting, and then we took Jesus, a young man from the SG2 ward, with us and tracted for a while and visited Marcelino again. Marcelino is doing pretty well--I think his main issue is just that he is kind of slow to understand what we're teaching. He knows we're bringing him something good and of God, but it takes time for him to understand what it is.

On Saturday we had some appointments that fell through, so we ended up visiting the Castrejon family, a less active family in the SG2 ward. It turns out they're having a difficult time right now, so we kind of talked about it with them, and some of them actually came to church yesterday!

On Sunday we had our normal meetings, though the SWLA Branch was a bit smaller than usual due to people visiting family and such for the Labor Day weekend. In the evening there was a baptism that we invited Marcelino to, and he came!

Today Elder Allred has been packing, and we had a Zone barbecue--which reminds me of a bit of news. Elder Hawker, one of our Zone Leaders, got called up to be an Assistant to the President to replace Elder Allen, who will be leaving with Elder Allred, so we've had only one Zone Leader, Elder Howell, this week. But anyways, everyone was kind of saying goodbye to Elder Allred at the barbecue. And then we came here to this Internet Cafe to e-mail.

I suspect the next e-mail will find me still here in Watts. I'm interested to see who my next companion will be.

Elder Samuel Stephens
For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. --D&C 88:33