Everyone:
This has been a pretty interesting week. For one thing, it's been raining--actually RAINING!!!!--so that's different. Let's see... on Tuesday after e-mail we did some good tracting and visited the familia Vasquez. They're doing pretty well--we just picked up the forms for them to get married today.
On Wednesday we visited a referral named Kathleen, and she seems really good. She has that hunger to know more about God that is so needed. We also tracted a bit, visited Sandra, a less-active who called in as a ref a while ago, had Anne's second baptismal interview, and had Wilshire ward correlation.
On Thursday we had our normal planning, and then we worked on contacting referrals. I guess people must have been staying in more because of the rain, because we actually got a hold of several of them. In the evening we visited Karla & family. The only thing that's really holding them back from baptism is that we want Karla and Brandon to get baptized at the same time, and Brandon's had so much homework recently that it's been hard to teach him very much. But, we're working through it.
On Friday we had Zone Conference, and then in the afternoon we tracted a bit and visited Hermano Vasquez. On Saturday we had our normal Adams ward correlation, tracted, and visited Karla again.
On Sunday we had our normal meetings, we visited the Morales family, and in the evening Anne got baptized! The baptism went very well, but then at the end of it one of the Stake Presidency members who was there announced that he had just recieved word that President Hinckley had died. Apparently he died not long before we started the baptism. It was a bit of an odd note to end the baptism, but... we know the Plan, so it's not so bad.
At Zone Conference, President Blackburn shared something that Elder Holland had said to the mission presidents in the MTC, and I'm going to quote it all to you.
"Why is this [missionary work] so hard... I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation was never easy... why would we believe, why would we think that it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? In turn, how could we possibly bear any moving, lasting testimony of the atonement if we've never known or felt anything of such an experience?
As missionaries we are proud to say we are disciples of Christ, and we are. But mark my word, that means you must be prepared to walk something of the path He walked, to feel something, a little of the pain He felt, to at least occasionally, sometime during your mission shed one of the tears of sorrow He shed... I believe that missionaries... to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to come to repentence, to come to know something of the price that has been paid will have to pay a token of that same price. It will only be a token... I don't believe missionary work has ever been easy... I believe it is supposed to require something of our soul.
If Jesus could plead in the night, falling on His face, bleeding from every pore and crying "Father... remove this cup from me", little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for a missionary. This is the living Son of the Living God saying, "Isn't there some other way?" They [missionaries] should remember they are not the first ones to ask that--Someone a lot greater... asked it a long time ago.
As missionaries can come to love and appreciate it, the atonement will carry them... when they struggle, when they are rejected, when they are spat upon and cast out... they are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known... they have every reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Savior and Redeemer of the world knows all about their sorrows and afflictions and that for a moment or two in their lives they will understand what He went through for them. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane. The only victory is the victory at the summit of Calvary. Welcome to the journey of the Disciples of Christ."
What's a little rain after all that?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Finally a victory
Jed, Cally and Harvey finally got a win in court on Friday. The Utah judge refused to enforce the Idaho custody order because Jed and Cally were not allowed to participate and were essentially denied their rights of due process.
Here are links to the latest stories:
Jan. 25
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247067,00.html
Jan. 26
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247418,00.html
This probably means another court hearing in Idaho in the near future. If they lose, then there will still have to be another hearing in Utah. In the meantime, LDS Family Services is trying to fast-track the appeal through the Idaho Supreme Court.
The birth mother, Cammie, was here for a couple of days and we had a nice visit with her. We were all very happy with this victory, but we know it is just one small battle.
We have a new batch of sick people. Creed and Cally are both really sick. Anette is still sick. Luckily the children all seem to be better. Jacob and Lindsay are going to bless Tagg this Sunday. He looks more and more like Grandpa Stephens every day (not me, the old Grandpa).
Here are links to the latest stories:
Jan. 25
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247067,00.html
Jan. 26
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247418,00.html
This probably means another court hearing in Idaho in the near future. If they lose, then there will still have to be another hearing in Utah. In the meantime, LDS Family Services is trying to fast-track the appeal through the Idaho Supreme Court.
The birth mother, Cammie, was here for a couple of days and we had a nice visit with her. We were all very happy with this victory, but we know it is just one small battle.
We have a new batch of sick people. Creed and Cally are both really sick. Anette is still sick. Luckily the children all seem to be better. Jacob and Lindsay are going to bless Tagg this Sunday. He looks more and more like Grandpa Stephens every day (not me, the old Grandpa).
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Samuel's Mission e-mail January 22, 2008
Everyone:
Well, this one's going to be a bit short. Starting with Thursday: On Thursday we had weekly planning, we checked a couple referrals and in the evening we visited Karla.
On Friday we had our zone meeting and we met with Gaby. Gaby is an investigator we have who's very hard to meet because of her work schedule, so we had to visit her during her lunch break (at 5:00 PM--more like a dinner break), which meant driving down to Manhattan Beach--which, at 5:00PM, took around 45 minutes. So, we spent a lot of time in the car. In the evening we visited the Vasquez family. They're doing very well--they're working on getting married so that Hermana Vasquez can get baptized.
On Saturday we did service at the LA Community Day. For much of the time we were serving food at the Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, and then we helped take down tables and chairs.
On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, we visited Karla because she hadn't been at church--it turned out her husband was sick, so we gave him a blessing--we taught a referral named Gumersindo and found out a couple of the other referrals we had were false, and then we had dinner with the non-member family of one of the members of our ward.
On Monday we had preparation day, so we did our normal preparation day activities. We also had Anne's baptismal interview, which went well, although she does need a second interview which we're having tomorrow. In the evening we visited Karla again and we had a serious talk with her about her reasons (and Brandon's reasons) for wanting to get baptized, and ended up resetting their baptismal date for the 3rd of February.
Today we get to do e-mail since all the libraries were closed yesterday.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, this one's going to be a bit short. Starting with Thursday: On Thursday we had weekly planning, we checked a couple referrals and in the evening we visited Karla.
On Friday we had our zone meeting and we met with Gaby. Gaby is an investigator we have who's very hard to meet because of her work schedule, so we had to visit her during her lunch break (at 5:00 PM--more like a dinner break), which meant driving down to Manhattan Beach--which, at 5:00PM, took around 45 minutes. So, we spent a lot of time in the car. In the evening we visited the Vasquez family. They're doing very well--they're working on getting married so that Hermana Vasquez can get baptized.
On Saturday we did service at the LA Community Day. For much of the time we were serving food at the Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, and then we helped take down tables and chairs.
On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, we visited Karla because she hadn't been at church--it turned out her husband was sick, so we gave him a blessing--we taught a referral named Gumersindo and found out a couple of the other referrals we had were false, and then we had dinner with the non-member family of one of the members of our ward.
On Monday we had preparation day, so we did our normal preparation day activities. We also had Anne's baptismal interview, which went well, although she does need a second interview which we're having tomorrow. In the evening we visited Karla again and we had a serious talk with her about her reasons (and Brandon's reasons) for wanting to get baptized, and ended up resetting their baptismal date for the 3rd of February.
Today we get to do e-mail since all the libraries were closed yesterday.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Samuel's Mission e-mail January 16, 2008
Everyone:
Well, today was another temple day, so that's why this e-mail is a bit later than usual. We're now a week into the new transfer, and I'm a senior companion again, even though my companion has more time in the mission than me. His name is Elder Vega, and he is from northern Mexico. So, I guess my theme for companions in this area is people from outside the US. We've been working on each other's language skills, so we've been enjoying ourselves.
As for what we did, Tuesday was my last day with Elder Zemp. We visited Karla and Anne and taught them. Anne stopped smoking! She's probably getting baptized the 27th. We also visited the familia Vasquez, a part-member family who just recently contacted us because the husband wanted to reactivate and the wife wanted to learn about the Church. On Wednesday we had transfers, so we spent a good bit of the day getting everyone where they needed to go and getting Elder Vega settled and just generallly transferring. We also went to the Wilshire ward correlation, because, due to the boundry change I mentioned last week, we now cover portions of both the Adams and Wilshire wards.
On Thursday, we had weekly planning, we tracted, and Elder Vega got to meet Karla and her family. Both Karla and Brandon have decided they want to be baptized as soon as possible, so now we just need to get the husband David in with them and we could have the whole family!
On Friday we had our district meeting, and then we went and tried to deliver to some referrals we had contacted earlier. Out of all of them, only one was there for her appointment. Her name was Sandra, and it turns out she's actually a less-active member, so we're working with her. We also visited Karen and found out she had been given some old furniture that needed cleaning.
On Saturday, we had Adams ward correlation, we helped Karen clean her furniture, and we visited the familia Vasquez. They're a pretty good family--the wife says she already knows she wants to get baptized, so we're pretty excited about them, as well.
On Sunday, we had Stake Conference--specifically, we had a big combined stake conference where President Hinckley, one of the Quorum of the Twelve (Elder Hales, I think), and some other general authorities spoke to all of Southern California. It was very good. We also tracted a bit, and visited Carlos Morales and his family. We had tracted into Carlos a week before and he seemed good, and when we went back we did have a good discussion. The only issue is his wife is one of those people who can dominate the conversation if you let them, so we do have some work to do there.
On Monday we had a normal work day, so we painted part of Karla's son Henry's room and visited the familia Vasquez. Yesterday, we did some tracting, visited a referral named Silvia and found out she's Seventh-Day Adventist, talked with Anne about her baptismal interview and the program for her baptism, and visited Karla to teach her instead of do service (although I did end up helping Henry with his reading and writing while Elder Vega taught her).
Today, we've gone to the temple, of course, and washed our car.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, today was another temple day, so that's why this e-mail is a bit later than usual. We're now a week into the new transfer, and I'm a senior companion again, even though my companion has more time in the mission than me. His name is Elder Vega, and he is from northern Mexico. So, I guess my theme for companions in this area is people from outside the US. We've been working on each other's language skills, so we've been enjoying ourselves.
As for what we did, Tuesday was my last day with Elder Zemp. We visited Karla and Anne and taught them. Anne stopped smoking! She's probably getting baptized the 27th. We also visited the familia Vasquez, a part-member family who just recently contacted us because the husband wanted to reactivate and the wife wanted to learn about the Church. On Wednesday we had transfers, so we spent a good bit of the day getting everyone where they needed to go and getting Elder Vega settled and just generallly transferring. We also went to the Wilshire ward correlation, because, due to the boundry change I mentioned last week, we now cover portions of both the Adams and Wilshire wards.
On Thursday, we had weekly planning, we tracted, and Elder Vega got to meet Karla and her family. Both Karla and Brandon have decided they want to be baptized as soon as possible, so now we just need to get the husband David in with them and we could have the whole family!
On Friday we had our district meeting, and then we went and tried to deliver to some referrals we had contacted earlier. Out of all of them, only one was there for her appointment. Her name was Sandra, and it turns out she's actually a less-active member, so we're working with her. We also visited Karen and found out she had been given some old furniture that needed cleaning.
On Saturday, we had Adams ward correlation, we helped Karen clean her furniture, and we visited the familia Vasquez. They're a pretty good family--the wife says she already knows she wants to get baptized, so we're pretty excited about them, as well.
On Sunday, we had Stake Conference--specifically, we had a big combined stake conference where President Hinckley, one of the Quorum of the Twelve (Elder Hales, I think), and some other general authorities spoke to all of Southern California. It was very good. We also tracted a bit, and visited Carlos Morales and his family. We had tracted into Carlos a week before and he seemed good, and when we went back we did have a good discussion. The only issue is his wife is one of those people who can dominate the conversation if you let them, so we do have some work to do there.
On Monday we had a normal work day, so we painted part of Karla's son Henry's room and visited the familia Vasquez. Yesterday, we did some tracting, visited a referral named Silvia and found out she's Seventh-Day Adventist, talked with Anne about her baptismal interview and the program for her baptism, and visited Karla to teach her instead of do service (although I did end up helping Henry with his reading and writing while Elder Vega taught her).
Today, we've gone to the temple, of course, and washed our car.
Elder Samuel Stephens
New pictures
We had everyone over for Sunday dinner, so we took some family pictures. Too bad we can't get Jake and Lindsay on the same 11 a.m. church schedule as everyone else.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Next court date
The next court date for Cally, Jed and Harvey is Jan. 25. This will be in a Provo court and is a hearing for a motion by the birth father to get the temporary custody order in Idaho recognized in Utah. Cally and Jed's attorney feels confident that is not likely to happen, but we are all a little gun shy since none of the court rulings have gone in our favor.
In the meantime, everyone around here has been sick. Anette, Harvey, Katelynn and Tagg have all had croup. Jenine and I both had head colds. Everyone is in recovery mode now but Tagg still has a ways to go. It's so sad when those little ones get sick.
The temperature has dropped and we are in the deep freeze now. It was about 5 degrees out by the barn this morning.
Here is a picture of Harvey and Creed playing the guitar.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Dalley Christmas photos
Here are some of the photos Craig took during Newel and Carolyn's visit to Texas. The one where the kids (except Lynette) are sleeping is at the Dallas World Aquarium. Could it be they were tired because we could never get them to sleep?! I don't know why Kjirsti or the twins aren't in this picture. They were there with us, too.
The other two photos are at the gulf. Do you notice that crazy child of mine? Barefoot in the water? With a winter coat on? Lynette wanted to wade too, but she at least listened to reason!
Well, Elaine's ballet performances start tonight. I had to get her put on antibiotics yesterday to try to get rid of her cough and congestion that has been going on for two weeks now. Fortunately you don't have to sing in a ballet performance!
And Craig comes home from yet another trip to the French Riviera tonight. He's been gone for a week.
LaDawn
The other two photos are at the gulf. Do you notice that crazy child of mine? Barefoot in the water? With a winter coat on? Lynette wanted to wade too, but she at least listened to reason!
Well, Elaine's ballet performances start tonight. I had to get her put on antibiotics yesterday to try to get rid of her cough and congestion that has been going on for two weeks now. Fortunately you don't have to sing in a ballet performance!
And Craig comes home from yet another trip to the French Riviera tonight. He's been gone for a week.
LaDawn
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Samuel's Mission e-mail January 7, 2008
Everyone:
Well, this one's going to be a bit short since it hasn't been long since I wrote the other one. Transfers are this Wednesday, so we'll have to see what happens at transfers. I can almost guarantee our area boundries are going to change--we have more missionaries going out than coming in for the next while, and the boundries of the Adams ward just got redrawn so that our area is part Wilshire ward and part Adams ward. If you can read the street names on the map pictures I've sent, what happened is that the boundry between the two wards used to be Pico and now it's Western. So now the western part of our area is in the Wilshire ward and the eastern part is still in Adams. The LA 6th ward boundries are still the same, though. They just switched from starting at 9 to starting at 11 AM.
As for what we did the few days since I last wrote, on Friday I was on splits with Elder Alexander in my area. We had our district meeting, took care of some of Elder Alexander's district leader business, and then we visited a referral named Gloria Rose, tracted a bit, visited Karla, and had dinner with the Laurents.
On Saturday we had our normal correlation meeting with Brother Bolingbroke, we took Miguel out tracting with us for a while, and we called up and finally contacted several referrals.
On Sunday we had our different schedule for our church meetings (Wilshire ward & Adams ward had a combined ward conference at 9:30 for the boundry changes), and then we tracted a bit more. One of the things that always saddens me about tracting on Sunday is how many people use "I've already been to church today!" as an excuse to not talk to us. It seems like part of the fulfillment of the prophecy in 2 Nephi 29: " Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?"
Today we had zone dodgeball, bought groceries, and such stuff.
Elder Samuel Stephens
20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all-- they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
Alma 53:20
Well, this one's going to be a bit short since it hasn't been long since I wrote the other one. Transfers are this Wednesday, so we'll have to see what happens at transfers. I can almost guarantee our area boundries are going to change--we have more missionaries going out than coming in for the next while, and the boundries of the Adams ward just got redrawn so that our area is part Wilshire ward and part Adams ward. If you can read the street names on the map pictures I've sent, what happened is that the boundry between the two wards used to be Pico and now it's Western. So now the western part of our area is in the Wilshire ward and the eastern part is still in Adams. The LA 6th ward boundries are still the same, though. They just switched from starting at 9 to starting at 11 AM.
As for what we did the few days since I last wrote, on Friday I was on splits with Elder Alexander in my area. We had our district meeting, took care of some of Elder Alexander's district leader business, and then we visited a referral named Gloria Rose, tracted a bit, visited Karla, and had dinner with the Laurents.
On Saturday we had our normal correlation meeting with Brother Bolingbroke, we took Miguel out tracting with us for a while, and we called up and finally contacted several referrals.
On Sunday we had our different schedule for our church meetings (Wilshire ward & Adams ward had a combined ward conference at 9:30 for the boundry changes), and then we tracted a bit more. One of the things that always saddens me about tracting on Sunday is how many people use "I've already been to church today!" as an excuse to not talk to us. It seems like part of the fulfillment of the prophecy in 2 Nephi 29: " Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?"
Today we had zone dodgeball, bought groceries, and such stuff.
Elder Samuel Stephens
20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all-- they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
Alma 53:20
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Samuel's Mission e-mail January 3, 2008
Everyone:
Sorry this e-mail is so late in the week. The computers at all the libraries we usually use are down, so we've had to do some searching to find somewhere with a working computer. But, we finally did find one, so now I'm writing to you.
I'll start with Christmas. Christmas morning we got together as a district to open our presents (thank you to everyone who sent me things--I really appreciate all of it. I'll try to get individual thank-yous out as soon as possible), and then we called our families. We played some basketball and such with the other missionaries, and we had two dinners. At the second one, we were with a polynesian family, and they gave all of us lava-lavas, which are the kind of loose, kinda-skirt-like things they sometimes wear.
Wednesday I got the flu. We still got out and visited Karla and Anne, but by the time we were done with our dinner appointment I needed to go home. On Thursday I still wasn't feeling to great, so I rested a good bit and then in the evening none of our appointments were home so we just spent a while with Miguel after having dinner with him.
On Friday I was in better shape, which was fortunate because we did service in the morning. We went with a lot of other missionaries all the way out to Malibu (the farthest point north-west in our mission, almost) and helped tear down a member's garage which had been damaged in the fires. After that we had our district meeting, and then we went out and visited a couple referrals and Karla.
On Saturday I was on splits with Elder Chadwick, who is my district leader's companion. I was actually back in Westchester, which was my first area. First we had a baptism for one of their investigators (she had actually been a referral from when I was in the area, but we had never been able to contact her), after which we went out and tried to contact several people, and suceeded in a couple of cases.
On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, tracted some, and then went with Anne to another baptism in Westchester. It was a good experience for her--she shared with us a dream she had about being baptized, and she's aiming to stop smoking by the 8th of this month, after which she will be baptized.
On Monday, New Year's Eve, we had our normal preparation day necessities, and we played some basketball with the other missionaries. In the evening we were allowed to watch a movie and play some board games, but we still had to be back in our apartments at 9:00.
Tuesday, New Year's Day, we again spent some time with the other missionaries and then spent the evening with Miguel.
Wednesday, we got back to work. We visited Karla and Karen and Anne and the Aguilars.
Well, that should catch everyone up. Remember to keep Christ in mind throughout the year, even though Christmas is over now. Follow Him--that is the whole law and the Gospel.
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
Sorry this e-mail is so late in the week. The computers at all the libraries we usually use are down, so we've had to do some searching to find somewhere with a working computer. But, we finally did find one, so now I'm writing to you.
I'll start with Christmas. Christmas morning we got together as a district to open our presents (thank you to everyone who sent me things--I really appreciate all of it. I'll try to get individual thank-yous out as soon as possible), and then we called our families. We played some basketball and such with the other missionaries, and we had two dinners. At the second one, we were with a polynesian family, and they gave all of us lava-lavas, which are the kind of loose, kinda-skirt-like things they sometimes wear.
Wednesday I got the flu. We still got out and visited Karla and Anne, but by the time we were done with our dinner appointment I needed to go home. On Thursday I still wasn't feeling to great, so I rested a good bit and then in the evening none of our appointments were home so we just spent a while with Miguel after having dinner with him.
On Friday I was in better shape, which was fortunate because we did service in the morning. We went with a lot of other missionaries all the way out to Malibu (the farthest point north-west in our mission, almost) and helped tear down a member's garage which had been damaged in the fires. After that we had our district meeting, and then we went out and visited a couple referrals and Karla.
On Saturday I was on splits with Elder Chadwick, who is my district leader's companion. I was actually back in Westchester, which was my first area. First we had a baptism for one of their investigators (she had actually been a referral from when I was in the area, but we had never been able to contact her), after which we went out and tried to contact several people, and suceeded in a couple of cases.
On Sunday we had our normal church meetings, tracted some, and then went with Anne to another baptism in Westchester. It was a good experience for her--she shared with us a dream she had about being baptized, and she's aiming to stop smoking by the 8th of this month, after which she will be baptized.
On Monday, New Year's Eve, we had our normal preparation day necessities, and we played some basketball with the other missionaries. In the evening we were allowed to watch a movie and play some board games, but we still had to be back in our apartments at 9:00.
Tuesday, New Year's Day, we again spent some time with the other missionaries and then spent the evening with Miguel.
Wednesday, we got back to work. We visited Karla and Karen and Anne and the Aguilars.
Well, that should catch everyone up. Remember to keep Christ in mind throughout the year, even though Christmas is over now. Follow Him--that is the whole law and the Gospel.
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
Friday, January 4, 2008
And even more news
Here are a couple of today's stories. It would be nice to slip back into obscurity, but the media coverage puts pressure on the legislators who will hopefully pressure the judges. Cally is holding up quite well, all things considered.
Jan. 4
http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2008/01/04/news/news01.txt
Jan. 4
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695241195,00.html
Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.
Flint
Jan. 4
http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2008/01/04/news/news01.txt
Jan. 4
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695241195,00.html
Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.
Flint
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