Hello friends and family! I hope all is well on your end, because it sure is great over here! To start off with my investigators: 

Sarah, the hilarious 72 yr old who lives in SLC, was supposed to meet both her local Elders and Sister Park and I at the North Visitor's Center on Wednesday, but she never showed up. We did get to introduce ourselves to the Elders who will be teaching her though, so that was good. We will need to call her and address her concerns.

We have committed Anthony and Josh to meeting with the local missionaries. This is HUGE because they are sooo prepared and have both been taught the 1st and 2nd lesson from us, so we hope all goes well with that. 

Miracle of the week: So on my online area book, I had come across Bettye, a woman who I had begun teaching with my trainer who seemed soo interested, but I ended up dropping her because she stopped answering any of my calls. I had a feeling I needed to call her again a few days ago, and she answered! She said she was going to meet with the Elders that evening, and that she really needed our call. Her son has had quite the hard time with the only father figure he's known get up and leave his mom. We told her this Gospel would not only help her keep the faith, but her son would enjoy the youth programs that are offered. We are going to keep in touch with her and cheer her on!

Our less-active who lives here in SLC is going to meet us tonight with his family to receive tickets from us for tonight's showing of Savior of the World, a wonderful Christmas production in the Conference Center Theater. We hope it'll more fully unite his family!

Well every Thursday morning we have Relief Society as a mission. Yesterday, we had it in the Relief Society Building, and guess who spoke to us? Linda K. Burton, the General Relief Society President! She had MANY wonderful things to say. Her dad would always say to her: You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you cannot count the number of apples in a seed. This means there are an ENDLESS number of possibilities and many chances for progression in this life. We do not know what we are meant to become, but God does. She also said that the mission is the MTC for the rest of our lives. Our work ethic in the mission will determine the course of our lives. Don't waste any moment! Serve at all moments that come about. This goes for full-time missionaries, as well as member missionaries.

We went to the Salt Lake Temple for a session this morning as a zone, and our Zone Leaders told us to bring our patriarchal blessings so we could read it in the Celestial room. It was a neat experience. I recommend doing that. It helps you look at it in a different manner.

Tuesday morning, we had the opportunity to go on an organ tour. We were able to go on the Conference Center Stage and sit at the organ,

go behind the scenes of the organ and tour where the pipes are located, as well as do the same for the tabernacle organ. 

We were also able to see the office for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which is a dream of mine to be in when I grow older. This was a neat experience doing this tour! Not very many people get to have a look at where the pipes are located, so I felt fortunate. The spaces were quite small, so someone as tall as I am has difficulty travelling through there!

While being on desk in the North Visitor's Center Wednesday night, I met a couple, the man was from Boston, the Woman from Holland. They are recent converts (baptized in October) and they live in Park City. They used to be Catholic. I asked them what the main difference was that they saw from the Catholic Religion to the Mormon religion: they said Catholicism was based upon fear of going to Hell, whereas Mormonism is based upon love, families, progression. The woman from Holland has agreed to be a member present with our investigator who lives in Scotland. We think that will be a perfect fit!

Well I want to end with a story:

"A youngster was assigned by his father to see to the moving of a large rock. He tugged and pushed, and he lifted and struggles without avail. Some friends were enlisted, but together they could not move it. Reluctantly he reported to his father that her could not budge the rock.

"Have you done all you could?" Asked the father.

"Yes," said the little boy.

"Have you tried everything?" persisted the father.

"Yes," said the boy. "I've tried everything."

Why do so many of us, "heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ," fail to go to him, to keep in touch with our father? He is anxious to help. But he wants us to learn our need for him. to open the door to him.

Linda K. Burton mentioned that if the work wasn't bigger than us, we would think we can do it oun our own. We cannot. Only with the Lord's help are all things possible. (Luke 1:37)

Happy a wonderful Merry Christmas,

Sister Steenhoek

Okay! Lots to say. First off, my investigators are doing well. GOOD NEWS! Our investigator, Jacqui, from England emailed us a few days ago and said She has a rough baptismal date for December 28th!!!! Oh my goodness! My first real baptism! My trainer had one my first week, so I didn't think I could really count that. But I knew she was so prepared. She is ready to receive the truth. The gospel reminds me of one of the grocery store brands of cereal. It's inexpensive and looks appetizing. But when you taste it, you realize it is twice as better than the over-priced cereal! The gospel just gets better and better the more you experience it, and I am so glad Jacqui will get to experience it more.

We also have a wonderful investigator named Sarah Ray, the 72 year old who lives in SLC. We have only talked with her on the phone, but we LOVE her! She is so hilarious and I can tell she enjoys our lighthearted conversations. She is quite interested in the values of Mormons, as well as getting into the temple. Last night we talked with her about the steps to be able to enter the house of the Lord, which included baptism, and she seems quite interested. She thinks the architecture is simply stunning, but our goal is to help her see that it is more than just a beautiful building, but that it has so much meaning with what is performed inside. She is meeting with Elders for the first time on Temple Square, so we are going to join the lesson and meet her as well this-coming Sunday!

We have another less-active who lives in Salt Lake who we are trying to get on track. We invited him to a wonderful performance called "Savior of the World", which occurs in the Conference Center. The tickets have to be purchased and are actually all sold out, but we as missionaries have the special privilege of obtaining tickets for those we teach. We hope this uplifts him and his family!

Something pretty cool: Elder Cook came to our sacrament meeting this past Sunday. Our ward is made up of our Mission Presidency, who presides each week, the senior couples and ushers around Temple Square (the priesthood holders bless and pass the Sacrament), as well as the Temple Square Sisters. Elder Cook and his wife just randomly decided to attend our service. Ya know, just another normal day.

So we had a mission tour this week, which means our Area Seventy and his wife came and spoke to us for quite a few hours. It was Don R. Clark. He is quite a bold man. He told us to stand up if there was someone in our lives who we cared about so much who could use the Gospel. He then told us that Heavenly Father has children (well, all of us) whom he cares about perfectly who need help that are in our reach right now. If we are NOT doing our part to help those precious souls, he will be hesitant to help those who are dear to us. Somethign he also said which really hit me was that Satan does NOT have a P-day. He works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are NOT here to waste time. We need to live in the present and do the very best that we can. The same goes with member missionaries. We are not here to waste time, but to bring others unto Christ. If something isn't going your way and is making you unhappy, focus all of your attention on others, and you will see the light.

Fleet stuff is going good. We are re-doing the fleet bulletin board. We went pro and bought fabric from Joann's and everything. We spent so much time yesterday cutting it to fit our board. When we pinned it up, we realized that there were still a few wrinkles that stuck out like sore thumbs. We went home and grabbed my handy dandy hand-held steamer and started steaming the half-tacked on fabric on our bulletin board. Hey, as long as it turns out good right??

Well I saw Lauren Morris on the Square this past week as well as President Allen, my former stake President in Katy TX. Sorry if I missed ya!

We also were privileged to be able to go to the first presidency Christmas Devotional in the Conference Center. It was phenomenal. We are also lucky to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert this Saturday in the Conf Center as well. I am beyond excited.

Well, friends and family, I hope all is well! Send me your Christmas Cards and emails! I would love to hear from you(:

Sister Steenhoek

December at Temple Square

Snow at Temple Square

Angie and Sister Park

So, this week has been pretty crazy. The fleet end is just endless. But on the bright side, we got 3 new cars and traded in 3 older ones. And guess what their names are?? (Sister Park and I named them ourselves) Tenderheart is our medical car (the main bear on Care Bears, so cute!), and then Flounder and Mufasa are our other 2 new cars. We take pride in our car names.

I saw quite a few people I knew this week for the lights! I saw Garrett Hall's mom from Texas.  I saw Eric Pearson and his family, Melody Chow (a good friend last fall semester at BYU), and Paige Peterson. I also heard that Heather Bown was looking for me, as well as Laura Johansen, who should be reporting on her mission to the SLC South mission, meaning she'll be able to take some of her investigators here to Temple Square!  So great to see everyone.

Well, if fleet isn't keeping us busy, our investigators sure are! Jacqui is doing so well. We finished teaching the Plan of Salvation with her, but she is wondering about prophets. We sent her 2 beautiful talks by President Monson, and we think her outlook will definitely change. Funny story time: We have a new investigator who lives in Glasgow, Scotland named Heather. She had such a thick accent. On our first phone call with her, she had asked us where the nearest "church hall" was to her. Both Sister Park and I hadn't a clue what she said, but Sister Park started explaining what our church believes Hell is like. I was glad she couldn't really understand us either because it was a funny misunderstanding of words.

So this week is definitely the most busy week in terms of lessons throughout my whole mission! It is a good but sad problem to have of like you have almost too many investigators and less-active to teach. We are trying to do our best keeping up with all of them!

My companion and I work so well together. We just laugh all. Day. Long. It definitely helps with the craziness going on in our lives! We are so supportive of each other, and we are even the same when it comes to being okay with the seemingly super big stressful things, but stressing about the little things, such as figuring out what we're going to wear or eat that day.

Overall, things are just going so well! My favorite question to ask people on the square is, "If Jesus were here right now, what gift would you give him for Christmas?"

I would love to hear from all of you! Send me your favorite scripture/lots of your favorite scriptures. I always love hearing of uplifting ones to share with everyone I come in contact with. Have a wonderful week, and remember John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Love,

Sister Steenhoek