Happy Mothers Day in 6 days!
So we played some basket ball today at this awesome court right next to the ocean side. It was really awesome and beautiful I have some cool pictures. The bad part was that it began to pour while we were playing. I guess I wouldn't say that was bad though because it felt amazing to play in. We played for a good bit in the rain but then it started getting pretty bad and we hid under the bleachers for a bit. It was pretty awesome though but I sucked it up and hardly scored any. Basket ball is really cool but I did not grow up playing it so sometimes I don't like it. After the rain stopped I was so wet and soaked I thought the sun was going to evaporate me up into the clouds, I think that's actually what happens when people get translated.
The work is going really good here. We got a ton of new investigators this week. We have also been teaching a lot of couples and families which is cool but sometimes I feel like a lot of them don't really have interest they just tell us they will listen to our message just to be nice. Only one of the new families we found came to church this week and it was just the mom. She is way cool though we talked to her a couple weeks ago and she didn't come to church and we couldn't get in contact with her for a while but some how she came in contact with 2 members of the church and they invited her. Finally we got a hold of her on Saturday and she came to church. She is way cool but super shy. We will get rid of that though. We 2 freakin awesome American missionaries of the Lord no one can deny this!
Also a couple came with some members to church this week so we will teach them and see how they are. We taught a couple this week and it was really cool they asked us what were some of the rules in the church so we decided to explain Law of chastity and find out if they were married and of course their not but they both said they are willing and told each other they love each other. I think that is the first time I have seen that in this country. Sadly the wife is an illegal Haitian so it makes marriage super hard and expensive but they say they want to be a part of the church.
Our old couple missionaries finished a while ago so I think the mail system is getting backed up without their help so I haven't seen a letter from Kate yet but I will write her. And yes you may change anything in my room if you want I don't mind.
Cant wait to talk to you all on Sunday! I think we are going to do it later at night so probably about 6 o clock your time.
Sorry my letter is so boring I cant remember anything cool that went on really
--
E. Creed Stephens
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Business Trip to Sweden
The second picture shows a Scania truck on a Stockholm street. If you look closely at it, below the headlamp you can see a round lamp that is lit up. That is the LED daytime running lamp that I helped design after my last trip to Sweden in 2007. This time I was there to discuss a quotation we are making for 4 more LED lamps that will go on the next upgrade of the truck.
You can see a few more pictures on my facebook page, but we only had a couple of hours to play tourist.
And it is 75 degrees here in Madison today. We did a lot of work outside and planted tomatoes and green peppers. Our garden is almost all in. The rain has finally stopped, but there is a lot of flooding along the Ohio river. You can see it a little bit with the webcam they have set up to watch the bridge construction.
http://www.miltonmadisonbridge.com/gallery/live-bridge-cam/
-Newel
My complaint
Actually, I've got a couple of complaints. The first is that I woke up to four inches of snow today. It's gone now, but it is still pretty cold. I have a fire going in the wood stove right now. Where is that global warming everyone complains about? Bring it on!
My second complaint is that there is not much activity on this blog. I want to know what is going on with everyone on a more regular basis.I want more detail about everyone's lives, even if it is mundane and boring. I get the feeling that no one wants to post anything unless they have been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
We spent several days in Wyoming and when we got home Brandon and Jenine came up and spent a couple days with us. We brought Katie and Tagg with us so we had all the grandchildren together for a day. Now we are back to our quiet, normal existence except that Anette is sick with a cold and I am trying hard not to catch it.
I haven't planted any garden yet because it has been too dang cold and wet. We have almost 200% or normal snowpack and it is all going to melt at once. Our stake has already stockpiled thousands of sandbags for the expected flooding. Luckily they just put a much bigger culvert under the road down from our house so we don't expect water to back up into our property. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
I can finally see the sun, so I guess I'll go feed the horses and chickens. I'm serious about the more info situation. I'm also expecting to be nominated for a Nobel Prize, just so you know. I'll post more about it when it happens.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Latest from Creed
Party people
We had one partying week this week. It was awesome. We worked super hard and found some really cool people. One day we got a reference and when we went back to contact it we found a family of 10 and they all listened and paid attention to the lesson we taught. The next day we found a little family of a mom and 3 kids and she said she really needs a church or some sort of activities for her kids to go to. She also asked us the awesome question of what do I have to do to be a member of the church? So that was an awesome contact. We had a lot of lessons this week but sadly when Sunday rolled around none of the people we had found came to church. It was a major bummer but I think if we work hard this week we can get them to church next week and then its all downhill to the font from there.
Even though we didn’t have any investigators in church we have been seeing a lot of inactives come which is super cool. One lady named Sister Sosa has come the last two Sundays and we had visited her a while ago with the Relief society pres and she told us good luck with her because they had tried before. Her family owns a bar and they are some of the last people you would expect to be members but I think she is starting to change. Were also visiting a 16 year old inactive who came last week and he has a few friends in the church he is way more interested in the church than you would expect a 16 year old boy to be, I think it may have to do with the girls in the church. Who can blame him?
My comp is pretty cool. He is originally from Columbia and he spent like 10 years there. Then he moved to Alaska and now he lives in Lehi Utah his dad flies Blackhawk helicopters I think so that is also super cool. He is super good at MMA so Jacob better watch out because my comp will teach me how to rip him apart with my fist and heels. He just got back from Aruba and so he also speaks Papiamento so that is also pretty cool.
Today my comp and all the missionaries from the Islands ABC had to go talk to president and pick up some luggage they left in storage before they went out to the islands so that is what we did this morning. Who is that little red head girl in the wagon with Tagg? Those kids look so big and different I can’t wait to play with them.
Anywho I love you all tons and I’m trying to be like Jesus. I still have a lot of time to learn and I need it too.
love you all
Creed
We had one partying week this week. It was awesome. We worked super hard and found some really cool people. One day we got a reference and when we went back to contact it we found a family of 10 and they all listened and paid attention to the lesson we taught. The next day we found a little family of a mom and 3 kids and she said she really needs a church or some sort of activities for her kids to go to. She also asked us the awesome question of what do I have to do to be a member of the church? So that was an awesome contact. We had a lot of lessons this week but sadly when Sunday rolled around none of the people we had found came to church. It was a major bummer but I think if we work hard this week we can get them to church next week and then its all downhill to the font from there.
Even though we didn’t have any investigators in church we have been seeing a lot of inactives come which is super cool. One lady named Sister Sosa has come the last two Sundays and we had visited her a while ago with the Relief society pres and she told us good luck with her because they had tried before. Her family owns a bar and they are some of the last people you would expect to be members but I think she is starting to change. Were also visiting a 16 year old inactive who came last week and he has a few friends in the church he is way more interested in the church than you would expect a 16 year old boy to be, I think it may have to do with the girls in the church. Who can blame him?
My comp is pretty cool. He is originally from Columbia and he spent like 10 years there. Then he moved to Alaska and now he lives in Lehi Utah his dad flies Blackhawk helicopters I think so that is also super cool. He is super good at MMA so Jacob better watch out because my comp will teach me how to rip him apart with my fist and heels. He just got back from Aruba and so he also speaks Papiamento so that is also pretty cool.
Today my comp and all the missionaries from the Islands ABC had to go talk to president and pick up some luggage they left in storage before they went out to the islands so that is what we did this morning. Who is that little red head girl in the wagon with Tagg? Those kids look so big and different I can’t wait to play with them.
Anywho I love you all tons and I’m trying to be like Jesus. I still have a lot of time to learn and I need it too.
love you all
Creed
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Pictures from Creed
Creed sent us a memory card with pictures this week. There were hundreds, but obviously I can only include a few. He sounds like he is doing well. His dog bite is healed. It's amazing to me to see the similarities in Third World countries no mater what part of the globe--garbage in the streets, animals roaming, etc. It is hard to believe he is down to seven months.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Creed's latest
Hello People,
It's a pleasure to be writing to you today also to hear all your wonderful stories and such stuff. Congrats to dad on being able to hatch 6 chickens. That makes me want to ask you how many there are now? Also I feel you should know that my opinion of eggs has changed and now they are a main course of my life. They make me strong like Gaston. How is your book going dad? And Cally´s movie have they started? Is she going to have to be there watching it like every time they film?
This week was all right. The best part was definitely Erick's baptism. He got there at about 6 with his cousin and his cousin's pregnant wife. It was scary for a bit because we were the only ones there because the whole ward almost was in the stake center at different activities. But once the Dominican hour rolled around (30-45 minutes late) people started to show up and we had a beautiful baptism service. My favorite baptism here named Patrick directed the meeting he is a ward missionary so that was cool. He wants to go on a mission but is a bit worried about forgetting all the school he has taken. He's studying to be a computer programmer.
We're super low on investigators lately and its been kind of wearing on us but we just keep working trying to find news. Maybe you guys could pray for us because we could use some extra help. We found a couple people who seemed interested this week and understood our message a bit but they didn't come to church so that makes it harder. Sometimes it feels like we have worked everywhere in our area but then if we just stop and talk to people we realize there are people everywhere we go that we haven't talked to.
Today we played some basketball early this morning with the two other missionaries in our ward and it was fun. Me and Elder Anderson won. He is from my group and is really cool. We also cut our hair this morning. Our electricity schedule is terrible where we are right now we only have it really in the mornings so anytime we want to to laundry we have to do it during study time which I don't like doing.
I really don't have much to tell you all except happy birthday to Brandon I hope everything is awesome there with him. I love sweating in the hot sun all day and meeting new interesting people everyday. Its even better when they understand the awesomeness of our message. I´m trying to tell people how cool it is that we get to listen to Apostles of the Lord in a couple weeks. I am super excited for conference and have been reading a lot to get ready. I hope we can have some good progressing investigators then so they will instantly know our church is true and want to be baptized when they hear those men speak.
I hope you have one awesome week and I hope everyone is happy. I know this is the church of the Lord.
love you all
love
--
E. Creed Stephens
It's a pleasure to be writing to you today also to hear all your wonderful stories and such stuff. Congrats to dad on being able to hatch 6 chickens. That makes me want to ask you how many there are now? Also I feel you should know that my opinion of eggs has changed and now they are a main course of my life. They make me strong like Gaston. How is your book going dad? And Cally´s movie have they started? Is she going to have to be there watching it like every time they film?
This week was all right. The best part was definitely Erick's baptism. He got there at about 6 with his cousin and his cousin's pregnant wife. It was scary for a bit because we were the only ones there because the whole ward almost was in the stake center at different activities. But once the Dominican hour rolled around (30-45 minutes late) people started to show up and we had a beautiful baptism service. My favorite baptism here named Patrick directed the meeting he is a ward missionary so that was cool. He wants to go on a mission but is a bit worried about forgetting all the school he has taken. He's studying to be a computer programmer.
We're super low on investigators lately and its been kind of wearing on us but we just keep working trying to find news. Maybe you guys could pray for us because we could use some extra help. We found a couple people who seemed interested this week and understood our message a bit but they didn't come to church so that makes it harder. Sometimes it feels like we have worked everywhere in our area but then if we just stop and talk to people we realize there are people everywhere we go that we haven't talked to.
Today we played some basketball early this morning with the two other missionaries in our ward and it was fun. Me and Elder Anderson won. He is from my group and is really cool. We also cut our hair this morning. Our electricity schedule is terrible where we are right now we only have it really in the mornings so anytime we want to to laundry we have to do it during study time which I don't like doing.
I really don't have much to tell you all except happy birthday to Brandon I hope everything is awesome there with him. I love sweating in the hot sun all day and meeting new interesting people everyday. Its even better when they understand the awesomeness of our message. I´m trying to tell people how cool it is that we get to listen to Apostles of the Lord in a couple weeks. I am super excited for conference and have been reading a lot to get ready. I hope we can have some good progressing investigators then so they will instantly know our church is true and want to be baptized when they hear those men speak.
I hope you have one awesome week and I hope everyone is happy. I know this is the church of the Lord.
love you all
love
--
E. Creed Stephens
Monday, March 21, 2011
Isaac's Mission e-mail
I can hardly believe that my mini-mission is already halfway over. I have just started to get to know people and make friends, and I will have to leave them in only three weeks! :( Oh, well, that's part of mission life too. Anyway, on to the news.
Monday was interesting. Elder Jacobsen had been kept up at night by the sounds of a MOUSE. It had chewed a hole in his corn-filled heat pad and was noisily chewing on the corn under his bed! (I slept right through it, so that is all his account) In the morning he moved his bed away from the wall to discover a big pile of chewed corn in the corner. We set out some traps to try to catch the mouse, did our laundry, complicated but not stopped by a malfunctioning dryer, did our shopping, and went about doing missionary work.
Tuesday was a tracting day. We found a few potential investigators, and did some of our laundry as the dryer had been fixed. We visited Bro. Jones, who is making gradual but consistent progress with his leg, and then tracted some more. We also visited with Bro. Randall, who has a few concerns but is making rapid progress.
Wednesday was a good day. We tracted some, then went to do our service at the Humane Society, which you know of pretty well by now. After that, we went to the ward priesthood dinner. They had good food, and we got to know the priesthood better. Bro. Randall was there too, and it was a good experience for him. After that, we went to talk to Shelby and Shane. Shane left for his deployment in Afghanistan on Thursday, so this was the last chance to speak to the two of them together. In an interesting story, Shane gave Elder Jacobsen his WWI replica trench knife, as a way of thanking him for all he has done to help them. It's a pretty neat weapon, but Elder Jacobsen is going to send it home, as it is WAY too dangerous for missionaries to have lying around. We later found out that Shelby and Shane got engaged right after we left! He had it planned all along!
Thursday, we started out with tracting. after lunch, we went to teach Bro. Randall, which ran over schedule quite a bit, as Bro. Randall had a lot of good questions. He's a golden investigator, not without problems, but with a genuine desire to become a better person. Then we went to Hutsonville, and taught Sis. Skaer, who is coming back to activity. Our appointment with Sis. Bray fell through, but because it did we actually found out that her mother, Sis. Shimko, lived barely a minute away, so we went and taught her. Sis. Shimko is inactive, but would like to return to activity. She just needs a ride to church. So everything turned out well, even if not according to plan.
Friday was also a good day. We helped the Kunzelman's move a very large, very fragile window, part of their preparations to move out in a little while. Then we did our weekly planning. After that, we went to Ste. Marie, did some tracting there, and finally tracked down Mary Lybarger's house. We tracted into her last week where she was visiting her grandma, and it took us this long to find her house. The problem is that it is right on the border between three cities, so it has the address from one, zip code from anouther, and phone number from the third. This had severly complicated the process of finding it. After that, we went to our dinner appointment with the Valberts, and I got to try out lamb for the first time. It tasted pretty good, different from other meats but yet similar. You know how hard it can be to describe tastes.
Saturday, we started out with our district tele-conference. We then went tracting, and checked on a couple potential investigators. Then we headed out to teach Bro Randall. We continue to work with him to overcome problems. Then we went back to the apartment to have our coorelation meeting and apartment inspection. Then we went out to see Shelby, who is always fun to visit because of her personality. After that, our day was done.
Sunday was good. Bro. Randall came to church, and so did Bro. Weber, someone we had never even met before, who knows some of the members. We plan to track him down and follow up soon. Then we did some tracting, and came across Sis. Norton, who accepted a Book of Mormon! She has a hard time reading, but we plan to visit again in the near future. Then we went and taught Shelby, as well as Joey. We had dinner, then went to teach Bro. Randall. We have had to set his babtismal date back a week to Apr. 9, but we are confident that he can make it. He is still a golden investigator.
And Today has barely started!
Monday was interesting. Elder Jacobsen had been kept up at night by the sounds of a MOUSE. It had chewed a hole in his corn-filled heat pad and was noisily chewing on the corn under his bed! (I slept right through it, so that is all his account) In the morning he moved his bed away from the wall to discover a big pile of chewed corn in the corner. We set out some traps to try to catch the mouse, did our laundry, complicated but not stopped by a malfunctioning dryer, did our shopping, and went about doing missionary work.
Tuesday was a tracting day. We found a few potential investigators, and did some of our laundry as the dryer had been fixed. We visited Bro. Jones, who is making gradual but consistent progress with his leg, and then tracted some more. We also visited with Bro. Randall, who has a few concerns but is making rapid progress.
Wednesday was a good day. We tracted some, then went to do our service at the Humane Society, which you know of pretty well by now. After that, we went to the ward priesthood dinner. They had good food, and we got to know the priesthood better. Bro. Randall was there too, and it was a good experience for him. After that, we went to talk to Shelby and Shane. Shane left for his deployment in Afghanistan on Thursday, so this was the last chance to speak to the two of them together. In an interesting story, Shane gave Elder Jacobsen his WWI replica trench knife, as a way of thanking him for all he has done to help them. It's a pretty neat weapon, but Elder Jacobsen is going to send it home, as it is WAY too dangerous for missionaries to have lying around. We later found out that Shelby and Shane got engaged right after we left! He had it planned all along!
Thursday, we started out with tracting. after lunch, we went to teach Bro. Randall, which ran over schedule quite a bit, as Bro. Randall had a lot of good questions. He's a golden investigator, not without problems, but with a genuine desire to become a better person. Then we went to Hutsonville, and taught Sis. Skaer, who is coming back to activity. Our appointment with Sis. Bray fell through, but because it did we actually found out that her mother, Sis. Shimko, lived barely a minute away, so we went and taught her. Sis. Shimko is inactive, but would like to return to activity. She just needs a ride to church. So everything turned out well, even if not according to plan.
Friday was also a good day. We helped the Kunzelman's move a very large, very fragile window, part of their preparations to move out in a little while. Then we did our weekly planning. After that, we went to Ste. Marie, did some tracting there, and finally tracked down Mary Lybarger's house. We tracted into her last week where she was visiting her grandma, and it took us this long to find her house. The problem is that it is right on the border between three cities, so it has the address from one, zip code from anouther, and phone number from the third. This had severly complicated the process of finding it. After that, we went to our dinner appointment with the Valberts, and I got to try out lamb for the first time. It tasted pretty good, different from other meats but yet similar. You know how hard it can be to describe tastes.
Saturday, we started out with our district tele-conference. We then went tracting, and checked on a couple potential investigators. Then we headed out to teach Bro Randall. We continue to work with him to overcome problems. Then we went back to the apartment to have our coorelation meeting and apartment inspection. Then we went out to see Shelby, who is always fun to visit because of her personality. After that, our day was done.
Sunday was good. Bro. Randall came to church, and so did Bro. Weber, someone we had never even met before, who knows some of the members. We plan to track him down and follow up soon. Then we did some tracting, and came across Sis. Norton, who accepted a Book of Mormon! She has a hard time reading, but we plan to visit again in the near future. Then we went and taught Shelby, as well as Joey. We had dinner, then went to teach Bro. Randall. We have had to set his babtismal date back a week to Apr. 9, but we are confident that he can make it. He is still a golden investigator.
And Today has barely started!
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