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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Miracles Always Come

So. Last monday we take a Sister in the ward's niece with us out tracting who is preparing to serve a mission. We go to some different peoples' homes, including potentials, and 2 different potentials dropped us. Hahah it was hysterically horrible. Well I told The member that sometimes we have those days, but that when we see miracles, it is all worth it. We had about 20 minutes left in the day when this young adult guy comes long boarding down the street. Charles is in his early 20s. As he was riding by, we started contacting him. After stopping and listening to what we have to say, he said, 
"Why hasn't anyone told me about this before??" He was so interested and he accepted a Book of Mormon. We are waiting to see where it will go from there.




Well I got the flu this past week. It was pretty funny though because we were coming home from a service activity so I could be contained, and our roommates walk in like 20 minutes later. One of our roommates was sick too! So we just went on exchanges. I spent that day watching some classics: the Joseph Smith movie and On the Lords Errand.
> We went to the Spanish Night of Music at the Washington DC visitors center last night, and we were lost with what was going on haha. But the members we went with were from Nicaragua, and they really enjoyed it!


We are teaching a family from Honduras- Tegucigalpa. I met them this past week, and they warmed up to me after I told them my brother just got back from serving a mission there recently, and that I went to Roatan and held a Honduran monkey. They have some major concerns with church. Satan is working hard on them, so we hope the a Spirit will touch their hearts and work a miracle inside of them.

So Paula, our awesome investigator with a white mullet and a Chevy van, came to do service with us this past week. We went to help a member unpack boxes in her house. Paula is really opening up to us and is truly seeking to know if this is true. She just drove to Philly to by a Chihuahua so her dog, Pooh, would have a friend. She is just a character. We are going over to see her new dog tonight and to resolve concerns about prophets.


My personal study is currently focused on the children of Israel and why they were a chosen people. Something I read that was so interesting to me was that when the children of Israel were in bondage, it was far from the ideal situation for them, but their needs were taken care of. God wanted to give them the opportunity to act on their squandering faith, or build heir faith through humility by giving them trials. God does that for us as well through trials. He wants to give us the opportunity to grow. How good he is to us.



Sister Steenhoek 

Monday, July 14, 2014

Outbound Mission to Washington, D.C.

Hello from Maryland/DC! Woah. Last week was pretty intense. I couldn't even believe that we were there by the capital on the Fourth of July. It was Soo fun! Here's some fun pics below. So something fun about Maryland is that there's soooo many deer here that keep running out in front of our car hahah. Also, I am loving this country-ish feeling to my area. The ward here is pretty great. We have lots of characters that aren't afraid to be themselves. One of the ward missionaries, Brother Larkin, is awesome! He just takes the initiative and calls some of our investigators that he is fellow shipping to see when we can come over. He also brings copies of the Book of Mormon wherever he goes so he can give them out. What a missionary!!

Right after Sister Taggart and I ate some frozen yogurt in the city on the fourth in DC, a Mormon family chased us down and invited us to eat lunch with them in this way nice Italian restaurant with them. We made some new friends!


So my mission president, President Cooke, acts like Steve Martin and Steve Carrell. He claims that he looks like Leslie Neilson, but none of us missionaries know who that is haha. We did charades last night for a Sunday evening FHE, and his word was "pig." He acted out a gorilla (or that's what it looked like) and we were all laughing sooo hard. No one could guess what he was doing. But he really is an incredible person with great character.
We have an investigator named Paula, and she is quite the character as well. She came to church with us, and when we were singing the first hymn, my companion was trying to turn to the page it was on, but she said, "No. Turn to the next hymn were gonna sing!" I think she just wanted a head start or something. She's definitely a spunky one. She loves yard sales, and LOVES service. So won't join the chin unless we find a bunch of service for her, so we're working on that one.
Tracting is fun! It is a challenge, but it allows us to tweek our door approaches and contacting techniques to become better each day. The challenge we are working with is that we talk with many people while walking/tracting, but they always say, "just come back any time" instead of setting an appointment with us. I know we will figure it out though.
So we have a pretty cool potential investigator. Solange is from Cameroon, and she is a Christian. She just moved here, and she has 3 boys. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we were able to teach her the restoration. We will go back to her house this week to teach her more and answer any questions she has.

Well, l love you all! I always love reading your emails and hearing about your lives. 

Sister Steenhoek

PS: So here is my mailing address for my outbound:
Washington DC North Mission
11700 Falls Road
Potomac MD 20854-2823