Here is a picture of Isaac learning to solder. He is working on a kit to build a telephone. You may notice some new additions to the blog, such as the NASA picture and the game. Scroll to the bottom to play a parking game.Thursday, November 27, 2008
Isaac Learning to Solder
Here is a picture of Isaac learning to solder. He is working on a kit to build a telephone. You may notice some new additions to the blog, such as the NASA picture and the game. Scroll to the bottom to play a parking game.
Samuel's Mission E-mail November 24, 2008
Everyone:
Well, the weather's been a little bit more moderate this week, but it's still a lot warmer than it is back in Indiana. It feels more like early October then late November.
As for the week, on Tuesday I was with Elder Yuill. Unfortunately, that was one of the days he was sick on again, so we didn't get out to work much. We did visit Maria Luisa, Beatriz, and Blanca again. We're probably going to have to drop them because they're not keeping their commitments. We've been debating about maybe just going over once a week to help them with English as a continuing service project.
On Wednesday, we had interviews with the Mission President in the morning, and then we tracted a bunch to make up for the lost time on Tuesday. On Thursday, we had our normal weekly planning, and then we tracted and street contacted.
On Friday, I was on exchanges with Elder Heughly over in San Pedro. We tracted a good bit, helped clean the Cabrillo Branch building, and visited a family that was getting baptized on Saturday. Then on Saturday, I was on splits with Elder Weber. We tracted a lot to help make up for Elder Yuill being sick a lot.
On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings, and then in the afternoon we went to the baptism of one of Elder Yuill and Elder Weber's investigators, street contacted a bit, and taught Leo in the evening.
Today we had a "Turkey Bowl" football game with another zone for our preparation day activity.
Well, I think that's it for now.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, the weather's been a little bit more moderate this week, but it's still a lot warmer than it is back in Indiana. It feels more like early October then late November.
As for the week, on Tuesday I was with Elder Yuill. Unfortunately, that was one of the days he was sick on again, so we didn't get out to work much. We did visit Maria Luisa, Beatriz, and Blanca again. We're probably going to have to drop them because they're not keeping their commitments. We've been debating about maybe just going over once a week to help them with English as a continuing service project.
On Wednesday, we had interviews with the Mission President in the morning, and then we tracted a bunch to make up for the lost time on Tuesday. On Thursday, we had our normal weekly planning, and then we tracted and street contacted.
On Friday, I was on exchanges with Elder Heughly over in San Pedro. We tracted a good bit, helped clean the Cabrillo Branch building, and visited a family that was getting baptized on Saturday. Then on Saturday, I was on splits with Elder Weber. We tracted a lot to help make up for Elder Yuill being sick a lot.
On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings, and then in the afternoon we went to the baptism of one of Elder Yuill and Elder Weber's investigators, street contacted a bit, and taught Leo in the evening.
Today we had a "Turkey Bowl" football game with another zone for our preparation day activity.
Well, I think that's it for now.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Samuel's Mission E-mail November 17, 2008
Everyone:
Well, this has been a pretty good week. I'll start with last Thursday. On Thursday of last week, we had an extraordinarily long weekly planning session (for some reason neither of us could stay focused so it took longer than usual), and we went and helped Maria Luisa y hermanas with their English.
On Friday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Johnson down in San Pedro. I found out there's a Stephen Street down there. There's also a Samuel Street just north of my area. Too bad they don't intersect. I'll still have to get some pictures of them. There is a Madison street in my area. Anyways, while I was with Elder Johnson, we tracted for a good while, visited a less-active (who was Spanish-speaking, and Elder Johnson is a sign language elder, so that was interesting), and taught a man named Skip Hand (Yes, that is actually his name).
On Saturday I went with Elder Weber for a while and tracted because his companion was sick again, and then in the evening Elder Mijares did a baptismal interview for some of the Zone Leaders' investigators. On Sunday we had church, and afterwards we had the very great opprotunity of watching the Mexico City Temple Rededication broadcast. It was interesting being able to understand both the English and the Spanish translation of the talks given by President Eyring and President Monson. Translating would be a hard job, even if you are natively bilingual. In the evening we taught Leo.
Well, this is the other poem that came to me the other week. I was thinking of 3 Nephi 11 when I started this one. This one's a bit more introspective, so, well... you've been warned.
If Christ Came to Your House Today
If Christ came to your house today
Would you ask for Him to stay?
Would wonder keep your words at bay?
Would you bathe His feet with tears?
Would His words silence all your fears?
Would you let Him stay for years?
Or would He make you feel uneasy?
Some mem'ries make you feel queasy?
Would your thoughts make you ashamed
When you saw Hands for you maimed?
Would what you had done yesterday
Make you wish he'd go away?
Or would you recognize His voice?
Would you thank Him for His choice
Which made the morning stars rejoice?
Would your eyes ask Him to wait
When He said, "I can't be late
To go prepare the righteous' fate"?
Or, with apologies profuse,
Would you start to make excuse?
Would you say your daily chores
Meant He had to go out the door?
Would you start to feel relieved
When He no more could be perceived?
May we live in such a way
That if Christ came here today
We would plead for Him to stay.
So, like I said, a little bit introspective. A lot of the phrases are meant to call to memory passages of scripture. There's still a couple lines that don't quite roll right, but... poetry's never really come easily for me, but this one did.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, this has been a pretty good week. I'll start with last Thursday. On Thursday of last week, we had an extraordinarily long weekly planning session (for some reason neither of us could stay focused so it took longer than usual), and we went and helped Maria Luisa y hermanas with their English.
On Friday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Johnson down in San Pedro. I found out there's a Stephen Street down there. There's also a Samuel Street just north of my area. Too bad they don't intersect. I'll still have to get some pictures of them. There is a Madison street in my area. Anyways, while I was with Elder Johnson, we tracted for a good while, visited a less-active (who was Spanish-speaking, and Elder Johnson is a sign language elder, so that was interesting), and taught a man named Skip Hand (Yes, that is actually his name).
On Saturday I went with Elder Weber for a while and tracted because his companion was sick again, and then in the evening Elder Mijares did a baptismal interview for some of the Zone Leaders' investigators. On Sunday we had church, and afterwards we had the very great opprotunity of watching the Mexico City Temple Rededication broadcast. It was interesting being able to understand both the English and the Spanish translation of the talks given by President Eyring and President Monson. Translating would be a hard job, even if you are natively bilingual. In the evening we taught Leo.
Well, this is the other poem that came to me the other week. I was thinking of 3 Nephi 11 when I started this one. This one's a bit more introspective, so, well... you've been warned.
If Christ Came to Your House Today
If Christ came to your house today
Would you ask for Him to stay?
Would wonder keep your words at bay?
Would you bathe His feet with tears?
Would His words silence all your fears?
Would you let Him stay for years?
Or would He make you feel uneasy?
Some mem'ries make you feel queasy?
Would your thoughts make you ashamed
When you saw Hands for you maimed?
Would what you had done yesterday
Make you wish he'd go away?
Or would you recognize His voice?
Would you thank Him for His choice
Which made the morning stars rejoice?
Would your eyes ask Him to wait
When He said, "I can't be late
To go prepare the righteous' fate"?
Or, with apologies profuse,
Would you start to make excuse?
Would you say your daily chores
Meant He had to go out the door?
Would you start to feel relieved
When He no more could be perceived?
May we live in such a way
That if Christ came here today
We would plead for Him to stay.
So, like I said, a little bit introspective. A lot of the phrases are meant to call to memory passages of scripture. There's still a couple lines that don't quite roll right, but... poetry's never really come easily for me, but this one did.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Samuel's Mission E-mail November 12, 2008
Everyone:
Well, we had our temple day today, so I'll have a little bit more to write about this time than usual. On Tuesday of last week, we did a good chunk of street contacting and tracting, and we also taught Maria Luisa, Beatrice, and Blanca. On Wednesday, Elder Mijares got called on to do a musical number with Sister Inks during Zone Conference on Thursday, so he had to practice a bunch. We also street contacted for a bit.
On Thursday we had Zone Conference, and it was pretty good. I can't say I had any blinding revelations, but each time you learn how to work a bit better. On Friday, we taught Devin in the morning, and then we did our weekly planning. We also street contacted a bit.
On Saturday, I went out on splits with Elder Weber, who is being trained by Elder Yuill, an Elder in our district who's been sick pretty frequently, so I took Elder Weber out so that he could get out of the apartment. We did a lot of tracting and street contacting, and had a meal together at Olive Garden (the sister who was feeding us that evening invited Elder Weber and Elder Yuill, too).
On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings, and we were rather disappointed because Devin didn't show up. We've still been trying to re-contact him. We also street contacted and tracted.
Monday of this week was a normal work day, so we tracted and street contacted for four and a half hours. We taught a lot of lessons but didn't get any return appoinments. On Tuesday we had our car-free day. We helped out in the morning with moving some props and set pieces for a play (some other missionaries got permission to use their car for the service project and picked us up), and then we helped move a couple refrigerators (the members who asked us to help gave us a ride for that), and we taught Maria and crew, and we still had some time for street contacting in the evening. And today we went to the temple.
Well, for some odd reason, I've written a couple poems recently, which is really odd because I never write poetry. I was thinking of this one today in the temple:
Faith lifts us higher,
Repentence brings us low.
in Baptism we take the name of Christ,
and the Holy Ghost makes it so.
I know, not very poetic, but hey. And it still needs a title.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, we had our temple day today, so I'll have a little bit more to write about this time than usual. On Tuesday of last week, we did a good chunk of street contacting and tracting, and we also taught Maria Luisa, Beatrice, and Blanca. On Wednesday, Elder Mijares got called on to do a musical number with Sister Inks during Zone Conference on Thursday, so he had to practice a bunch. We also street contacted for a bit.
On Thursday we had Zone Conference, and it was pretty good. I can't say I had any blinding revelations, but each time you learn how to work a bit better. On Friday, we taught Devin in the morning, and then we did our weekly planning. We also street contacted a bit.
On Saturday, I went out on splits with Elder Weber, who is being trained by Elder Yuill, an Elder in our district who's been sick pretty frequently, so I took Elder Weber out so that he could get out of the apartment. We did a lot of tracting and street contacting, and had a meal together at Olive Garden (the sister who was feeding us that evening invited Elder Weber and Elder Yuill, too).
On Sunday, we had our normal church meetings, and we were rather disappointed because Devin didn't show up. We've still been trying to re-contact him. We also street contacted and tracted.
Monday of this week was a normal work day, so we tracted and street contacted for four and a half hours. We taught a lot of lessons but didn't get any return appoinments. On Tuesday we had our car-free day. We helped out in the morning with moving some props and set pieces for a play (some other missionaries got permission to use their car for the service project and picked us up), and then we helped move a couple refrigerators (the members who asked us to help gave us a ride for that), and we taught Maria and crew, and we still had some time for street contacting in the evening. And today we went to the temple.
Well, for some odd reason, I've written a couple poems recently, which is really odd because I never write poetry. I was thinking of this one today in the temple:
Faith lifts us higher,
Repentence brings us low.
in Baptism we take the name of Christ,
and the Holy Ghost makes it so.
I know, not very poetic, but hey. And it still needs a title.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Samuel's Mission E-mail November 3, 2008
Everyone:
Well, the new transfer has begun now. It's crazy to think that I now only have one transfer after the current one. So anyways, we've had a pretty good week, so I'll get straight to the details.
On Tuesday, we did a fairly good-sized chunk of tracting, and in the evening we got transfer calls. As suspected, Elder Mijares and I stayed together, so I guess I'll get to see what a last transfer is like (again) right before I have my last one.
On Wednesday, we tracted even more, and we got a referral for Devin, who had been being taught outside of the mission (he has a girlfriend who's leaving on a mission soon who lives in Northridge, whereever that is). On Thursday, Elder Mijares went to the Zone Leadership Meeting, so I tracted for a bit with Elder Webb, one of the other district leaders' companions. We ended up getting the assignment to make a Book of Mormon costume, so we spent most of the rest of the day making that. We also met briefly with Devin to show him around the ward building.
On Friday we had our normal zone meeting in the morning, in which we introduced the Book of Mormon costume, we tracted, and then in the evening, since we had to be in early for Halloween, we planned. The Zone Leaders actually street contacted with one of them wearing the costume and apparently had a good bit of success.
On Saturday, we tracted a bunch more, and we met a man named Leo. He seemed really prepared--he'd been asking God about why there weren't prophets and apostles around any more and things like that, so we taught what was probably the most detailed first lesson I've had with someone. We're pretty excited about going back this week.
On Sunday, we had our normal Church meetings, we stopped back by a couple people we'd taught that seemed interested but couldn't make a return appointment, and we visited the Reeds, a part-member family, and found out that Brother Reed was recovering from some back surgery.
Well, we're pretty excited about the couple of new investigators we have. I've been joking with Elder Mijares about how we'll find all these investigators right before he goes home and then I'll baptize all of them right before he goes home. We'll have to see if it works out that way. Here's to making my last couple transfers my best!
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, the new transfer has begun now. It's crazy to think that I now only have one transfer after the current one. So anyways, we've had a pretty good week, so I'll get straight to the details.
On Tuesday, we did a fairly good-sized chunk of tracting, and in the evening we got transfer calls. As suspected, Elder Mijares and I stayed together, so I guess I'll get to see what a last transfer is like (again) right before I have my last one.
On Wednesday, we tracted even more, and we got a referral for Devin, who had been being taught outside of the mission (he has a girlfriend who's leaving on a mission soon who lives in Northridge, whereever that is). On Thursday, Elder Mijares went to the Zone Leadership Meeting, so I tracted for a bit with Elder Webb, one of the other district leaders' companions. We ended up getting the assignment to make a Book of Mormon costume, so we spent most of the rest of the day making that. We also met briefly with Devin to show him around the ward building.
On Friday we had our normal zone meeting in the morning, in which we introduced the Book of Mormon costume, we tracted, and then in the evening, since we had to be in early for Halloween, we planned. The Zone Leaders actually street contacted with one of them wearing the costume and apparently had a good bit of success.
On Saturday, we tracted a bunch more, and we met a man named Leo. He seemed really prepared--he'd been asking God about why there weren't prophets and apostles around any more and things like that, so we taught what was probably the most detailed first lesson I've had with someone. We're pretty excited about going back this week.
On Sunday, we had our normal Church meetings, we stopped back by a couple people we'd taught that seemed interested but couldn't make a return appointment, and we visited the Reeds, a part-member family, and found out that Brother Reed was recovering from some back surgery.
Well, we're pretty excited about the couple of new investigators we have. I've been joking with Elder Mijares about how we'll find all these investigators right before he goes home and then I'll baptize all of them right before he goes home. We'll have to see if it works out that way. Here's to making my last couple transfers my best!
Elder Samuel Stephens
Monday, November 10, 2008
Winter comes to Utah
Creed and I made our last attempt at elk hunting for the year on Saturday. He had a permit in the Solider Summit area at the top of Spanish Fork Canyon. We saw a few elk when we first got there, but as the sun came up the roads started to turn to slippery mush. There was several inches of snow above the 8,000 foot level. We had to back down several hills when we could not make it all the way up even in four-wheel drive.
So we ended early and went home to rake leaves. Most have fallen and we filled the back of the pickup a couple of times.
Katie and Harvey spent much of the day at our house. We played outside and Tank would bring a stick to Harvey, Katie would take it away from him and give it back to Tank. This went on for a long time until Toby finally took the stick and played keep away. It was very entertaining.
It is pouring rain right now and the snow is building in the mountains.
Jed and Cally are doing well. It won't be long before we have another grandson. I feel a little sorry for Cally because Harvey is a handful. I think it will be a real challenge to keep up with two little ones. Jed is very busy, in spite of the weak economy. He is doing cabinets as well as countertops now.
On the other hand, care sales have been very slow and Jake is looking for a new job. Lindsay has gone back to work and is in training at 1-800-CONTACTS. After the training she might get to work from home.
Jenine and Brandon are plugging away at school and work. Brandon can see the end of his undergraduate work now and is thinking more about starting his dental school. We still see them often but miss having them downstairs.
Creed is just working full time and making preparations for his mission. This will be his last holiday season at home for quite awhile.
We hope all of you are well.
So we ended early and went home to rake leaves. Most have fallen and we filled the back of the pickup a couple of times.
Katie and Harvey spent much of the day at our house. We played outside and Tank would bring a stick to Harvey, Katie would take it away from him and give it back to Tank. This went on for a long time until Toby finally took the stick and played keep away. It was very entertaining.
It is pouring rain right now and the snow is building in the mountains.
Jed and Cally are doing well. It won't be long before we have another grandson. I feel a little sorry for Cally because Harvey is a handful. I think it will be a real challenge to keep up with two little ones. Jed is very busy, in spite of the weak economy. He is doing cabinets as well as countertops now.
On the other hand, care sales have been very slow and Jake is looking for a new job. Lindsay has gone back to work and is in training at 1-800-CONTACTS. After the training she might get to work from home.
Jenine and Brandon are plugging away at school and work. Brandon can see the end of his undergraduate work now and is thinking more about starting his dental school. We still see them often but miss having them downstairs.
Creed is just working full time and making preparations for his mission. This will be his last holiday season at home for quite awhile.
We hope all of you are well.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Calendar Pictures
We need pictures to make our annual family calendar. If each family would send us 4 or 5 pictures of their family doing things this past year, it would help a lot. If we download pictures from the blog, they will not be of a high enough resolution to look good in a printed calendar.
Thanks,
Newel and family
Thanks,
Newel and family
These are our Halloween photos. Elaine's pumpkin is carved with Pointe shoes, in case you can't tell. In the second photo, the middle witch is a friend of Lynette's. James dressed as a Starfleet officer, for a Teen Halloween party, but we didn't get a picture of him. Elaine just put on a black shirt and a Halloween cape from a previous year and called it a costume.
Our teens did not go trick or treating, but in our neighborhood their were huge groups of teens going door to door! Most of them were dressed up, too, though not usually very modestly! I have never seen so many teens trick or treating. I guess there's no "too old" around here.
Our weather got cold for a few days. Just long enough to start the illnesses up. We've been passing around several viruses in our house. James got a cold, which turned into a secondary infection. He was off the antibiotics for two days before he got sick again (right after Halloween). He graciously shared with me, so I've been miserable all week. I think in the past three weeks, everyone in the family has been sick except Craig. I don't know how he has missed it.
LaDawn
robotics
James competed in the robotics match with his school this year. They came in 5th out of 13. In the second picture, James is the driver. Unfortunately, while he was the driver, one of the wheels quit working, so he really couldn't do much at all except get frustrated! Still, he had a great time and is planning on doing it next year, too.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Halloween Costumes
After seeing all the cute pictures of kids in costumes on Jacob's and Cally's blogs, I thought I should post some of our pictures. Our kids are too old for trick or treating now, but we had fun at the ward Trunk or Treat. The girl in the Wonder Woman costume is Abbi, Mariana's best friend.
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