Isaac at State Science Olympiad Competition

Isaac went to the State Science Olympiad competition this past weekend. He participated in 4 events-- Rocks and Minerals, Herpetology, Robot Ramble, and Write it, Do it. His team did pretty well, with several of the students earning medals. Isaac and his partner got First Place in the Write it, Do it event.

Today, (Sunday) Isaac was ordained a Priest at church. He got to bless the sacrament shortly thereafter, when he and I took the sacrament to a sister that we home teach who is homebound with a badly broken ankle.

--Newel

More Pictures

Harvey and Katelynn

It looks like I can only send two pictures at a time otherwise it ells me that I lose the connection or that the Blogger is busy.

Dad

Samuel's Mission e-mail March 17, 2008 and March 24, 2008

Everyone:
Well, we only have a few days of winter left. Of course, people here in LA don't know what winter is, but I just felt like noting that.
Tuesday of last week, we tracted, visited Melva, visited Morelia and Elsi (they're the non-member relatives of Mario), and taught Gabriela.
On Wednesday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Harper. We tracted a bit, and then we picked up Miguel to go visit some people... and none of them were there, so we tracted more. We also visited the Vasquez family. They're doing ok--we set a date for their marriage and for Luz's baptism, but they couldn't get the marriage license on Saturday and they weren't at church on Sunday, so we're going to have to see what's happening with them.
On Thursday, we had interviews with President Blackburn, we tracted, visited someone we'd met tracting a week ago (and dropped them), and planned.
On Friday, we had District meeting, we tracted, and we visited the Vasquez family.
On Saturday, we helped out with the Roots Conference, a genealogical conference aimed mostly at the African-Americans in Southern California, that is hosted in the LA Stake Center. I was happy because I got to play computer technician to some of the teachers. In the evening, we visited Anne and the Aguilars.
On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings and visited Gladis.
Well, I don't have anything deeply philisophical that I want to add on today, so I'll just end here.
Elder Samuel Stephens

March 24

Everyone:
Well, this has been a week that's had some ups and downs. Let's see...
On Tuesday we helped Miguel's family remove a small tree from their yard, we visited Melva, we tracted a bit, we visited the Vasquez family, and we visited Gaby.
On Wednesday, we visted a person named Tanara, who apparently has met with missionaries before, we tracted for a while, we visited Gladis Matute, we visited a guy named Juan Alvarango we met on the street a couple weeks ago, and we tracted a bit more.
On Thursday, we had our weekly planning and we tracted. On Friday, we had our district meeting like usual, and then after that I was feeling sick with a fever so we went back to our apartment and I rested for a while. Once I was feeling up to it, we went out and stopped by Sandra's house, and then in the evening the Luz and Sidonio Vasquez got married! Huzzah! Luz is planning on getting baptized next Sunday.
On Saturday I still wasn't feeling too hot, but we went to our correlation meetings and checked some refs, and then visited Anne in the evening.
On Easter Sunday, we had our church meetings like normal and we tried to visit some people, but the only person who was home was Kimberly, who recently moved in next to another member of the LA 6th Ward.
Today in the morning we finally got some plumbers over to our apartment (we've had this wet spot in the carpet next to our kitchen that's been slowly growing that we called the apartment managers about a couple weeks ago), so we now have a hole in our wall, but the leak has a temporary fix on it. Hopefully, the management will give the permission for them to do what's necessary to make a permanent fix soon.
Elder Samuel Stephens

Easter weekend

We spent the week end at Flints. Flint , Jacob and I along with some of Flints friends went phesant hunting on Saturday morning. I didn't carry a gun and Jacob was there to provide the dogs. Flint did shoot a couple of birds.

We spent Sunday visiting family. Katelynn showed off her new dress, Harvey was busy crawling all over the house and Tagg was just being a baby with two new teeth. I had several moor pictures I was going to include but for some reason I cann't seem to get them to load.

Dad






Monday Ruth, Kaye and I went to the burial of Ruth and Kays Aunt Alta McCombs. She was burried in Smithfield.

Backpacking Trip

Isaac and I went on a backpacking trip with a group of the scouts this weekend. We went to Red River Gorge, which is a couple of hours south of here in the Kentucky mountains. It was a beautiful setting with steep ridges and gorges. The area has a lot of sandstone with harder rocks on top, leading to the formation of arches and bridges. After hiking 10 miles in terrain with lots of up and down climbing, I will likely be sore for several days. We don't have the great vertical distances that Utah has, but you can get just as tired going down 500' and back up 500' three times in a row as you can climbing 3000' in one straight shot.

-Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail March 10, 2008

Everyone:
Well, this has been a pretty good week. On Tuesday, I was on splits in Elder Harper and Elder Haws's area. On Wednesday, we tracted for a while, we contacted a couple referrals, we had dinner with the Pereiras, and visited the Barrio Sexto Wednesday activities.
On Thursday, we had our zone conference, contacted some referrals, had dinner with the bishop of Adams ward, and made some calls. On Friday, we planned and tracted.
On Saturday, we had our normal correlation meetings, we tracted, and we visited the Vasquez family. On Sunday, we had church, we attended a baptism, and we visited a couple members that we're working with to help them teach their neighbors. Today, we had a zone barbecue and visited Gladis and her family.
Elder Samuel Stephens
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.
--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

We got snow, too!!

This is the snow we got last week. Ours was the only snowman in the neighborhood because it snowed Thursday night, starting about 9:30. By the time the other kids got home from school on Friday, the snow was completely gone! I love Texas!

Now, one week later, we are supposed to hit 92 degrees! Hopefully, we will have a warm Easter, but in Texas, we never know!

Big Snow in Indiana

We got about a foot of snow last night and this morning. The kids spent the day playing in it and sledding. We don't get this kind of snow around here very often, so they were happy to have the chance for some winter fun. I'm ready for winter to be over.

Here is a picture of a big drift behind our house. It was interesting to watch the snow curl down and defy gravity hanging off the edge of the roof. Hopefully everybody got our new e-mail address. It is nice to be able to call someone on the phone while the internet is in use now.

-Newel

Samuel's Mission e-mail February 27, 2008

Everyone:

Well, I stayed here in the same area with Elder Vega, so we went to the temple today, which is why I'm writing late. So, let's see what happened:

Tuesday and Wednesday I don't have with me in my new planner, and I don't really remember anything particularly special happening on them. Thursday, we planned, tracted a bunch, and we dropped Karla and her family. It's hard to see them go, but I have hope that sometime down the line, they'll be fully prepared.

On Friday we had our zone meeting, and then we visited Joana again. We also tracted some and we did something else but I can't remember what and I didn't write it down, so... oh well.

On Saturday we had our normal correlation meetings, we visited Mario and his family (I can't remember if I've mentioned them--they're some less-actives from El Salvador that got referred recently and have some of their extended family living with them that aren't baptized yet.), we tracted a bit, and we had dinner with Anne. Anne is doing great--she was just called to be a Visiting Teaching Supervisor.

On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings, we visited a referral named Takunba (who is probably the first person I've handed a pass-along card to here on the mission that I've actually gotten a referral for later), we contacted a less-active family (the familia Dones), and we visited the Vasquez family briefly because they hadn't come to church (the kids were sick).

On Monday we had a normal work day, so we tracted for a while, we contacte a ref named Gladis, who turned out to be the mother of a less-active teenager who had been baptized while she was living with her member grandparents back in Central America, we visited the familia Dones, and we had dinner with Miguel. The Wilshire ward is starting up a temple prep class, and Miguel's going to be in it.

On Tuesday we had a really busy day. First, we visited Joana, then Melva, then a referral named Morgan, then Santos, then Mario & Family, then the Vasquez family, and then Gabriela Puente. Gabriela (Gabi) is the older sister of a member in our area who's been investigating for some time, but her work schedule has been getting in the way as of late, so it's only now that we've been able to recontact her.

Today, of course, we went to the temple, and we've washed our car.

I hear the weather back in Indiana has been a bit wintery. The weather here has had its ups and downs--as in, down to 50 and rainy, and up to the 70's and sunny. Right now, it's the latter of the two.

Elder Samuel Stephens
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.
--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland