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

Last week of August

This week was the usual, we spent two days at the temple and I worked around the yard. Saturday we went to Star Valley to visit Ruth's uncle on the old Lindberg farm. Uncle Lester is getting quite small and showing the effects of his age but still working the farm. Jackie and Sherri were also there so we had a good visit with them. I have also attached an aerial picture of the Lindberg farm. Lester says that this has been the best year for hay that he has ever had.

On the way home we stopped and took a couple of pictures at Allred Flats; which I will attach. Allred Flats was part of the Allred family holdings (Ruth's birth family). It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky and picturesque clouds.

Yesterday we had a visit from Alice Anderson who served with us on our Sacramento Mission. She brought a book of pictures she had taken of the building of the Sacramento Temple. She and Cleve, her husband, were caretakers of the Mormon Center grounds during the construction.

It was nice to renew our friendship and find out what has happened since we left.

Dad