2 June, 2014 - Going to the Temple is Great

SO much to talk about. So first of all, we are teaching this adorable black woman that lives in Mississippi. Brenda is a grandmother of 2 grandchildren, whom she is now the guardian of. Her daughter died about 1 year ago, so she has been overcoming that hurdle as well. When we committed her to be baptized a few days ago, she told us she would love to but that she needs to overcome smoking. The only problem is that she lives FAR away from the church building, and we are thinking that there aren't any missionaries in her area anymore. That means we cannot find her rides to church without the local missionaries... But nothing is impossible(:

Sister Lopez and I took our first Hospitality tour! That is where people come on a tour bus or with some sort of group. They may purchase a fancy dinner on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. So we are not able to give them commitments after the tour. There were 17 on this tour. I think larger tours are super fun because it means more questions and more interaction.

So Relief Society was so special this week (kinda like every week:)) We had Reeve Nield, CC Lundgreen, and Lolly Maritz come and speak to our mission. They have been professional women's golfers and have competed in SO many tournaments around the world. The neat thing is that they are members of the church! They have an incredible charity called Eyes for Zimbabwe that helps people in Zimbabwe receive cataract surgery, which isn't too long of a procedure. They were POWERFUL. To make things cooler, when our Zone went to the Temple this morning, they were IN OUR SESSION. Our District Leader asked them what their plans were afterwards, and they told her they were going to teach President Uchtdorf how to golf today. What. So cool.

That reminds me. We talked with a man on the Square a few days ago who was waiting for a meeting with President Uchtdorf. He thought he would be called as a sealer for his local temple.

Oh goodness, this guy that we met by the Christus introduced himslef like this: "Hi. I'm Jesus Silva. But not the Jesus that walked on water." He thought he was so funny and was laughing at his own joke. I think he was drunk, but it was a perfect opportunity for me to get his phone number and let him know I would be calling him to teach him more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ(:

It makes me so happy to talk to so many people from the Netherlands since our line traces back pretty far to Holland. It's also a great way to link to family history and the gospel. Almost every day this week I have talked with people from the Netherlands. I love showing them my tag because they say, "Oh, Stain-ook! How do you pronounce it?" They don't like that I don't pronounce it correctly, but they enjoy that our last name still has the Dutch spelling.

I took my first Mandarin tour when we were on exchanges with Sister Tsang from Hong Kong!

Sister Tsang from Honk Hong, Str. Cuevas & Str. Lopez from Mexico with Angelique

We took these 2 Catholic gentlemen around, and they told us how they admired how we live our beliefs. These 2 New Yorkers also told us how they enjoyed that we are dressed so professionally because of what we represent. Nothing but the best for the Lord!

Last but not least, we asked this lady where she was from, and she said "God. G-O-D. Heaven" And she was quite serious about this! Then she walked away. We asked another man where he was from (member) and he said, "Kolob. First star to the right." Of course I said, "Oh I thought that was Peter Pan." I didn't know he knew Disney movies better than I did and corrected me by saying, "NO. Neverland is the SECOND star to the right and straight on til morning." Whoops.

Well have a wonderful week! And just know that the sacrifices for missionary work are ALWAYS worth it. Elder Holland said something like, "Missionary work isn't easy because Salvation isn't cheap. It wasn't easy for Him, why would it ever be easy for us?"

Love you all!
Sister Steenhoek