The Last Post - 16 January, 2015

No one can quite understand the entertainment that can be found on Temple Square 
until they have served a year and a half there. Just a few of my favorites:

-Watching countless people wait for the automatic doors to open on the wrong side 

of the door, then look around to see if anyone saw that

-People asking me if we have real cows in the baptistry

-Large groups of Asians and their audible gasps and glances around the 

building as they watch the pin drop demonstration

-Guests asking us if we are Christians after listening to us talk about Christ 

for a few minutes

-Listening to the homeless peoples' stories. They really just want people 

to listen

-And of course watching the change in people's views about the church, 

or their views about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

Just an update on my investigators:

We received a new investigator this week! He is so cool and he is from 

Saudi Arabia. He is currently attending the U. He has been to church only 

twice, but he is definitely willing to learn more. We start teaching him 

tomorrow!

We meet with our Iraqi investigator Sunday afternoon. He is going to bring 

his 6 kids and his wife!! Woah! He is so excited to learn more. We hope the 

Spirit will guide us during that tour. 

We are making appointments left and right with our people and are seeing 

lots of miracles!!

I hope that you all are continuing your missionary work. The work of the 

Lord is so special. Anyone can do it. It doesn't have to be scary. It can be 

done on a bus, in a grocery store, when a telemarketer is calling, when the 

Jehovah's Witnesses come to the door, when the lawn guy comes over, 

at the doctor's office etc. I know that this work is true. Ninety thousand 

18-26 year-olds all out from 10am-9pm each day doing the work of the 

Lord? It shouldn't work. But it does work because it is the work of God. 

I hope you all remember the resources we are all given to be happy. 

The mission will still commence even after I'm released this next week. 

Love you all! 

Sister Steenhoek OUT!

Jump picture on Ensign Peak on P-Day

Last District team photo

Thoughts from January 9th, 2015

We watched Meet the Mormons as a zone for zone activity! I posted pictures 

below. We walked to the Square to a theater in presentable clothing, but 

underneath, we wore pjs!

The ladies in their PJ's for the Zone Activity

We are hiking Ensign Peak today as a Zone (Zone unity!)

We have this awesome Temple Square regular (he is a recent convert) that always 

visits the square. In just a few months, he converted a Jewish man! The first day 

he met him, he committed him to learn more, and now he is baptized! David is just 

awesome because he speaks Hebrew and Latin, so he is able to understand how 

the Jews think and comprehend truth.

We are teaching a member that is struggling to gain a testimony of the Book of 

Mormon. When we taught him last week, we weren't sure if he would actually 

read the Book of Mormon. But this week, he read up to 1 Nephi 13 and underlined 

what meant the most to him! We were so happy! This week, we not only committed 

him to read, but we also committed him to attend institute to gain more friends.

Alejandra. She is a very strong girl who has decided to go on a mission. Her dad 

is an antii-mormon and she also has depression. We were walking home at night 

when we found her sitting on a bench crying. We taught her by the Spirit. I know 

that the Spirit knows all of God's children.

We met Safaa from Iraq. He has 6 children and he is thinking of coming to our 

church on Sunday with his wife and kids.

Not too much time today. But have a wonderful day! Talk with you next week!

Sister Steenhoek

PS. "Don't pray to change your circumstances, pray to change yourselves."

Happy New Year - 2 January, 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I have many good goals to start of this new year. I want to attend the Temple 

every week. I want to continue my personal study each week. I LOVE to study! The key to studying 

is studying what interests you. 

I have learned so much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ while on my mission. I am very excited to 

continue learning more about the gospel after my mission!

Miracle story. So I had been calling a convert named Rob nearing the start of my mission, 

but stopped calling him right before outbound the start of Summer. We called him last night, 

and he had told us he stopped going to church because he had gotten offended by someone. 

We talked through alot of his concerns, and Rob decided to go back to church because we 

called him! I know that the Spirit will prompt us at the right time, but only as long as we are 

showing our willingness to follow God. I know that God wanted Rob to receive the blessings 

of going to church and partaking of the sacrament.

We met another Robert in the Tabernacle. Such a funny man! He was saying that when people 

are mean to him, natural disasters happen on the other side of the world. Woah! 

I saw Cathy from my home ward. She is so nice! Thanks so much Cathy for all of your love!!

We mailed a package for Kristen and we hope she likes it! Kristen has 2 young kids and 1 on 

the way. Her and her husband were not able to make Christmas happen for their kids, so we 

sent them a cute little package and we hope they like it!!

We met Mr. Sweden from Iran. He is so prepared!! He is not a member, and 

he is currently living in Idaho right now. Both him and his wife are Physicians in Boise. We briefly 

talked with him and he said he is so interested in learning more about the church and reading the 

Book of Mormon. The gospel is truly being spread to all nations as it says in Matthew 28.

We took a tour with 4 people from Macedonia! The couple was visiting a friend and brought their 

12 year old autistic daughter. We know they felt the Spirit as we explained about eternal families 

by the temple model.

We talked with a group of YSAs (Young Single Adults) who were at Temple Square for family 

home evening. We met a couple who had been dating for 25 years. Twenty. Five. Years on 

and off. I pulled the man aside and gave him some advice. It went something like this, but 

as the Spirit directed: "Brother, God trusts you to make your own decisions. He will let you 

know what is right, but only when you make a decision first as it says in Doctrine and 

Covenants 9:7-9. God trusts you. I invite you to make a decision within the next week. 

Will you do that?" Here is how the conversation played out afterward:

Man I told that to: "What did you say???" (to his girlfriend of 25 years)

Girlfriend: "I said nothing!"

Me: "It was the Spirit"

couple: (kisses)

Deed is done.

My departing class had a class today on how to relate the mission to finding a job by LDS 

Business College professors. Okay. Our mission is great I will hopefully interview like a pro!

No more Christmas lights. What a sad time!

Someone asked if we sell hot chocolate in the Visitor's Center? We are a church all about 

refreshments, but not that much!

Love you all! You only have 2 more pdays to repent and write me an email:)

Sister Steenhoek

"Today I obey, tomorrow I understand."

Christmas on Temple Square 2014

Mostafa is SO great!! Two days ago, he took the initiative to ride the bus to church just 

to take a look at it. He walked in, and no one was there. He found a Gospel Principles 

book and read it for 2 hours in the church building. For my DC North friends, this was 

at the Chevy Chase Chapel. Well we called him last night on Christmas, and we 

started teaching the Plan of Salvation. We asked him what he knew about the 

Pre-Earth life, and he told us all about it from what he had learned in the Gospel 

Principles book! Incredible!! He is loving the Book of Mormon as well. He is starting

his conversion process. He told us he knew it was a sin that he hadn't been to 

church the past 3 weeks, and he wants to repent and go this Sunday.

So Temple Square is a blessing for many reasons. But one reason is that sisters are 

in such a close proximity from one another. I taught an English class for 4 international 

sisters the other day, and it was so fun! We are going to have a combined language 

study from now on.

We had a white Christmas! Pictures attached!

So we saw this guy was walking his leashed cat around Temple Square 

showing him the Christmas lights. Get this: He was living across the street 

from Adam-Ondi-Ahman at the time, and one stormy night he was bringing 

groceries into his house when this stray cat ran in! He has kept him ever 

since.

A few nights ago, we walked by this guy that had a big art folder. For those of 

you who know me, you know I love art. We asked why he was here, and he told 

us to serve others! Don gave us 2 of his drawings of Joseph Smith and also of 

the Christus Statue. We are going to call his wife in a few weeks and teach her 

more about her divine nature. She has been in and out of the hospital for weeks, 

and her self-esteem is quite low because of her poor health and the way she 

looks because of her health.

We had a Christmas Devotional yesterday, and my favorite part was the recitation 

of the Living Christ at the end. Our mission president recited the first 2 paragraphs 

at the start, but then random sister missionaries in the audience would stand up 

one-by-one and each recite a paragraph. The Spirit in the room was tangible. If 

you haven't read the Living Christ document, here is a link to read it:

https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/36035_000_25_livingchrist.pdf

We met a family that came to Salt Lake for Christmas to give service to a hospital 

instead of celebrating with presents. How beautiful!

I was able to call home! So fun that the family is almost all together again.

For Christmas, we were also able to attend Music and the Spoken Word this 

past Sunday! It was just beautiful listening to the Choir sing the traditional 

Christmas Hymns.

We met this bagpipe guy that plays LDS hymns right outside Temple Square. He is 

so cool! He is a member. He learned a few years ago that he has Scottish ancestry 

and decided to learn to play the pipes 5 years ago.

I want to end my weekly email with a few quotes that really touched me this week:

~"When we deny our ability to change, we are denying the atonement."

~"Learning is taking a step closer to Jesus Christ." (Repentance=A Change of 

thoughts, habits, and actions)

~"We are endowed to be healers."

Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Notes from December 19, 2014

Well I think every week on Temple Square has many eventful stories to tell...

We had soup night last week! This super nice ward made us soup and a bunch of desserts (yes,
mission full of sisters!). It was wonderful!

Last night, we also ate at a member's home, the McDougals! They are awesome. They are basically
how I want my family to be when I am older. The mom and dad were working together with
EVERYTHING- cooking, starting conversation at the dinner table, and even when we made nativities
out of clay! The dad was sitting at the table as well making a snow man with his kids. The family was
so unified and it was great to see. Something funny about the McDougals, I went to their house for
Christmas dinner last year! It was pretty funny because they remembered that Sister Park and I were
in charge of all the mission cars last time we came.

So one of our wonderful homeless friends, Evelyn, sang the Little Drummer Boy for us. She told us
that if we printed out the words for her, she would sing it! It is her favorite Christmas song. Evelyn
has a 13-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. 

Calvin wants to be baptized!! We met Calvin at a desk, and he is originally from China, but he lives
in LA and is doing some acting.  Pressure loves the Book of Mormon!! Pressure is this woman from
Liberia. Sister Park transferred Pressure to me before she left. It is pretty difficult to understand her,
but we can tell that she has such strong faith. When we asked if she had her Book of Mormon near
her, she told us she didn't and asked if we could call in 20 minutes. We couldn't and so she said,
"Call tomorrow? Please Please Please Please...!"  She really wanted to read with us. The cutest! Our
mission sent letters to the missions in Sierra Leon and Liberia stating that we would be able to teach
the investigators there that currently cannot be taught because of the Ebola outbreak and
missionaries not being there. We will probably be getting many African investigators in the next few
weeks to call! Exciting!

Okay. Now for the old man and his dinosaur. I was standing at a desk one night during the Christmas
rush when I turned to my left, and this man holding a tattered foot-long toy dinosaur was right next to
me! I asked him about his dinosaur, and he said his name is Dino, and it is his companion. Dino has
been traveling everywhere with him since 1993. I asked him if Dino had ever gotten a bath and he
 said, "Are you kidding me? That would ruin him!" My companion asked him if Dino was Mormon and
I asked if he had been baptized and confirmed. He didn't like our jokes too much.

We got chased twice by odd people in one day only a few days ago!
We are glad we have security.

We had a beautiful testimony meeting during Zone Conference yesterday. The theme was, in 2 minutes
tell about an experience when you felt the Spirit undeniably on your mission. It was so powerful and
the Spirit was tangible in the room. Never deny that you have felt the Spirit.

Love you all!

Sister Steenhoek

Notes from December 12th

Transfers happened just a few days ago, and my fate is.... everything is exactly the same! I am still training Sister Chiu (as expected) and we live in the same apartment and are still on the Square for our assignment. This is my last transfer! Woah has time flown by. Yet, SO much has happened. I am very grateful for all the experiences I have been able to have thus far.

Sister Steenhoek and 10 other Sister Missionaries from around the world start tours from the Conference Center

I announced last Sunday! For those of you who aren't familiar with announcing, it is where 12 sisters who speak various languages will tell a large crowd of people that they can take a tour from us in their native language. Pictures attached!

Two of our investigators have baptismal dates! Mostafa and Patricia. We are super excited. Patricia makes us particularly excited because we actually met her on mormon.org chat last week. She had mentioned that she is an older woman who doesn't have family left and is lonely. She wanted senior couple missionaries to visit her and pray with her. We ended up teaching her and sending missionaries over, and we called and she is already being integrated into her local congregation in Pennsylvania. The church is true!! (:

We are just SO lucky. Sister Chiu and I met President Eyring!! So how it happened. On transfer day, the sisters sign up for different assignments and create their own schedules for that day. It actually works out well. Well we signed up for a certain desk assignment at 3pm. When we arrive there, we find out that the building is closed and security is standing by the doors. They inform us that a member of the first presidency of the Church will be meeting with our mission president to talk about something in the visitor's center. We were able to shake his hand when he passed by us and asked us where we are from. It was the coolest experience! 

The Christmas Devotional was so good! If you haven't watched it, I highly suggest doing so. Even though the talks had the usual theme of the birth of our savior, they all were so unique and made me think quite a bit.

We met a man named Brandon who is preparing to serve a mission. When thinking of mission advice to give him, I was going to share my usual, "Read the Book of Mormon," or "Study good scripture references that you could refer to during lessons," but instead I said something that I'd never said before. I told him to think about the experiences he is having or has had so that he can share them with people on his mission. I told him that people he will teach are not hoping that missionaries are perfect, but they are actually hoping that missionaries are similar to them: not perfect! He ended up sharing an experience he recently had where he had applied the redeeming power of the atonement. I love that Heavenly Father allows us to use the gift of the Holy Ghost to discern others' needs. 

"Shun Don Qui Luh!!" I tell Chinese people that when I see them. It means Merry Christmas! I also know how to say, "My name is Sister Steenhoek" and "I am from Texas." (:

We had pizza day!!! Our entire mission was able to get pizza because we had the highest number of baptisms that the mission has ever seen in this past transfer! Woah! 159 souls had entered into the waters of baptism by learning from a sister on Temple Square. Very cool.

Well, love you all! Send me an email, I'd love to hear from you!(:

Sister Steenhoek

Sister Atchu from India, Angelique & Sister Chiu

Sing and Smile - Notes From 5 December, 2014

I met Sister Taggart's parents this past week! Sister Taggart was my companion outbound from 

the DC North Mission. She's great. And her parents were so nice!

Miracle time. This man named Dawn brought his granddaughter Kristen and Kristen's husband 

Alvaro and their 2 little ones to Temple Square. Back story: Dawn is not even a member! He is 

pentecostal. But he testified to Kristen that this church is true and asked Kristen to refer herself 

to the missionaries. We are going to teach Kristen and Alvaro this Sunday! We are so excited to 

teach a family.

Sing n Smile is the most fun thing we get to do around Christmas time! We get to sing Christmas 

hymns and Christmas carols while people are walking by on the Square. If you're ever there for 

the lights and see sisters singing, don't be afraid to join in! There was this one night that an old 

man with a walker named Merlin and his grand daughters were watching us sing. He was getting 

pretty into the songs, so we invited him to sing with us. He sat on his walker chair in the middle 

of the sisters and led us in "O Holy Night." It was so fun!

A statue of President Monson

Okay. The ultimate Relief Society. You will never guess what happened. So we went to the Relief 

Society Building for Relief Society, and guess who was there to speak to us?? All 3 members of 

the General Relief Society, President Linda K. Burton, Sister Stephens, and Sister Reeves, as well 

as the entire General Relief Society Board. They gave each us the Sisters a beautiful card with 

each of their signatures on it. WOW! We even got a picture with Sister Burton! They told us how 

important it is to read the book, "Daughters of my Kingdom." Challenge accepted.

Statue of Heavenly Father and His Son

We ate at the Lion House this past week, and it was 

yummy as always. We then opened packages 

courtesy of my mom. YIPPEE!

We are getting so busy with setting appointments with

investigators! How exciting! I had mentioned 

last week about the total MIRACLE that had happened. 

As we were inviting Mostafa to go to church in one of our 

lessons last week, he told us he was actually going to be 

in SLC that weekend instead of his home city of Washington 

DC! He ended up coming to our sacrament meeting when I 

was going to be speaking. Mostafa came with his son, 

Thomas, and they both really enjoyed sacrament! 

We will call and hopefully start teaching both Mostafa and 

his son very soon.

Something so funny. The missionary department has gotten 

every sister on Temple Square matching white scarves that 

we HAVE to wear every night that the lights are one so everyone 

can distinguish us from the guests. Pretty funny. So if you know 

of any fun ways to tie a scarf, please let me know!

We had a dessert night last night, put on by a Relief Society from a ward in Brigham City. So nice of 

them! We really appreciated it.

I love you all! But more importantly, know how much Heavenly Father loves you. Trials are meant to 

make us stronger and give us more experience in this life to one day prepare to meet God.

Sister Steenhoek