Thanks John and Denisa

Just got a box of delicious Texas salsa. I can't wait to try it. Thanks.

NOT a Tsunami

This is not quite like what they are experiencing in Japan, but it has been very rainy for the past couple of weeks and the Ohio river is above flood stage.  The sidewalk where Mariana is standing is usually about 15 feet above the level of the river, and there are several rows of benches totally submerged below the one you can see.

I'm glad we don't have to deliver a paper to this restaurant!

Isaac's Mission e-mail

Dear family,


Well, this is the first e-mail I have ever sent to home. So forgive me if the format is a little clumsy.

The package you sent me hasn't yet arrived, so I am still nametag-less. Robinson is a lot like Madison, except maybe a little smaller. Robinson Branch is pretty small, it looked like about 20-30 people were there this time.

So, on Monday I was in the mission home. I didn't sleep very well because of all the other people snoring.

On Tuesday I met my companion, Elder Jacobsen. He's a good missionary, and is training me in how to be a missionary. He has a back problem that makes it so he can't ride a bike, and the Robinson area has a car, so my bike is actually just stored in a shed back in Louisville. We travelled to Robinson, which is 2-3 hours from Louisville, by getting a ride with the Weese's, a nice member family here. I put my stuff down, got ready, and then we set out for a couple appointments. We visited a couple members and an investigator.

Wednesday, we went to do service at the local Humane Society. We helped with cleaning up, filling food dishes, and taking dogs out for exercise. I had to get used to having cats and dogs all over, variously meowing, barking, and sniffing. We went back to the apartment, got cleaned up, and went out to see some potential investigators. We had dinner with the Valberts, a member family, and then went back to the apartment to do training, plan, and sleep.

Thursday, we went tracting. We found a couple of potential investigators, but our other plans fell through, so we ended up going back ot the apartment early.

Friday, we did a litttle tracting, and some training. Bro. Brock, a member who is leaving soon, took us out for lunch. We did our weekly planning, had dinner, and went to some appointments. We got a couple new investigators, and checked up on a couple of investigators who are planning to be baptised. One was Bro. Jones, a nice older man with one leg. He is currently learning how to use a prosthetic leg, and wants to be able to walk before he gets baptised. The other was Shelby, a young woman who wants to join the church, but her parents won't let her. She plans to be baptised once she turns 18, and is engaged to Shane, a member who is in the military.

Saturday, we had a district meeting, actually via tele-conference. We went to help Bro. Ellison, a member, move, only to discover that he wasn't ready to move quite yet. We ended up having lunch, then going out to visit some less-actives and potential investigators. We also visited the Scotts, a member family, and discovered that one of them was my EFY roomate two years ago!

Sunday, we fasted, and went to church. I met all the members I hadn't already met, but can't remember who is who yet. We tried to visit some potential investigators, with little sucess. We visited some of the members, then went to a CES fireside. Only two others showed up, but it sounds like that is fairly typical here. Robinson Branch is pretty small.

And today has hardly gotten started yet. It is my companion's birthday, and he got a new backpack and a new copy of Preach My Gospel. We also have a cake that one of the members gave us yesterday.

Mariana:

Keep practicing! I want to see you hit a bullseye when I get home!


Sam:

I now understand why your e-mails were so short.

Mom:

I am still getting used to being called Elder, but am adjusting quickly.



That's all I have time for!

Isaac Stephens

Isaac's Mini-mission

We dropped Isaac off at the mission home on Monday so he could start a mini-mission.  He will be serving in Robinson, Illinois for one transfer (6 weeks).  His address is: 

Elder Isaac Stephens

Kentucky Louisville Mission

1325 Eastern Parkway

Louisville, KY 40204-1509



Home from Las Vegas

We’re back from Vegas after having a wonderful weekend with Brandon, Jenine and Laila. The only bad part was that Laila had a pretty nasty cold while we were there. She was still happy and sweet, though. When we left Monday it sounded like Jenine was starting to come down with a cold, too.

Laila loves her grandma. She would run to her with a big smile and her arms outstretched to be picked up. It made Anette very happy—except when it came time to leave. It was hard for Anette to tear herself away for the drive home.

While we were there we drove to see some red rock mountains outside of Vegas. They were very scenic and they had a fresh coating of snow. It was windy and pretty cold most of the time we were there. I was hoping for 70s and sunshine. But at least the roads were clear in both directions for the drive.

We came home to wet, cold weather. Today (Friday) we are getting pounded by snow. We had about eight inches when I left for work and it snowed hard for a couple hours after that. I am ready for spring. I have too much outside work to get done.

Creed is doing well. Here is an excerpt from his last letter:

I will start with an list of things from awesomest to a little less awesome. First we got to listen to E. Nelson on saturday, definately super awesome. It's always just so cool to be able to shake an apostle's hand and be in his presence. A lot of elders gave a lot of really good talks. E. Coleman from the area presidency is way cool and I always enjoy his talks. We also heard Elder Snow from the seventy I think. I think all of them went over different parts of the bible story of Gideon which is an awesome story. Its about the captain who has a big army going against a gaint one and the Lord commands him to make it smaller and smaller until there only 300 vs like 100,000 super cool. Of course they win. They just went over obedience and how the Lord doesnt need many he just needs obediance and worthyness. It was way cool.

Also as you can see we are emailing Wednesday instead of Monday. That's because we just got back from the temple, super cool. I love the temple it's like the only place in this country where there is hot water from a foucet and you can drink water out of a fountain. Plus the bonus of the spirituality thing is pretty good too.

So here is a funny story combined with a spiritual one. So we visited this member a while ago that we hadnt visited before and it was really good because she has a lot of family that lives close and lots are inactive members she also gave us the refrence of her brother and his family. They have recieved the lessons before but didn't get baptized. We started teaching them again and it was going pretty good.

This week we were teaching some of the family in-out of the member's store house thing (colmado) and we had just opened the scriptures and were about to share when some crazy lady approached. She is tall and skinny and looks like she was wearing 10-year old clothes, her hair was in some ridiculous little girl style that I dont know how to explain.

I was in the colmado kind of in the corner but my comp was sitting outside so he got most of the attack of this crazy lady. She just started franticly yelling to herself and pointing at our scriptures and paceing around yelling and talking in some form of jibrish mixed with spanish and directing most of this hilarous act at my companion. She was doing it for like 10 minutes, the member got so embarassed. They ended up having to threaten her with the belt to get her out. I thought it was funny but my comp was scared.

The spiritual part of that story is that the brother's family of the member has a daughter that got really sick mentally lately and last Sunday he came to church with her and got a blessing from the bishop. After that day the father of the family has been a lot more receptive to us and even is thinking about baptism now. That would be a great family, I think they are even married. The sick daughter is an inactive member. so it was a pretty good week all in all.

I know this is the true gospel of Christ and He has restored his power. I'm greatfull to be in an eternal family and I am blessed to be an American and I'm proud of it too.
love
E. Creed Stephens

ISMA Competition for Mariana

Mariana went to the Indiana State Music Association singing competition yesterday.  She sang very beautifully and got a gold medal.

Snow picture

This is a snowasauras.