Last Week's Letter

Hi Family!

As always it is so great to hear from you! And to hear from Jeremy finally!!

Your letters and lives are so inspiring and I am so happy to hear from you all.

This week has been a bit more of a struggle, but as always, comforting to see the ways that the Lord helps us overcome our weaknesses little by little, always pushing us to do and be a little bit more. This week I really needed what jeremy said to me in his letter, so I hope he won't mind me sharing: "all of that struggle I have endured has been me pushing forward as hard as I can with God removing just enough of the resistance that I can become stronger...I can thank God for not making it easy for me, but for helping me just enough that it can strengthen me."

This isn't necessarily a new concept, but seeing it applied in the lives of people I know and my life as well, it means a lot more. You have to start learning it with you heart and not just with your mind."I can thank God for not making it easy for me, but for helping me just enough that it can strengthen me," I want to have the strength to be able to say that everyday and everyday mean it--to everyday feel grateful for my challenges and for how the Lord is changing me. There is a song that we listen to almost every morning "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" that has a line "chasten my soul til I shall be in perfect harmony with thee." And I am learning how that process works. This is the plan that we came to the earth to live, the plan that is only possible through our savior and the plan that we can spend every day sharing with our friends and families and everyone around us. I was reading a talk by Pres. Eyring this morning, and at the end he said that this phrase of scripture can more or less sum up the plan of salvation in our lives. "And if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high." Endure it well. Part of the challenge is learning what that phrase means. Its not just sitting through hard times, its staying faithful, continually striving, and knowing that God will give us success, either now or in the life to come--knowing that no effort is wasted.

And just so you know jeremy. You can't be king of the nerds... you can't have a gym analogy and be king of the nerds... sorry, you are and will forever be cool. You have as mom would say, the John cool factor. Man, that phrase is just so mom. Ha ha.

Hannah! you are gorgeous as usual and your faith is even brighter :) New York! That will be amazing. better start saving ;)

I'm glad you taught yourself as you were wrtiting this week because you taught me too. Your crystal clear particle of truth for the week to me was this "God knows where it's going and that of I'm faithful I can fulfill the measure of my creation."

Woohoo!! mom is selling cars! you can do anything. And Dad coaching lacrosse? my family can do anything. I bet Paul loves having you in practice. I will be praying for your interviews to go well this week.

 

 

I love you all very much. Keep the faith.

Steph

The gospels true!

Fight the Good Fight!

Ola Família!

Como estão?

It is raining a lot today. Which is good because I like rain when I get to stay inside and today is P-day so I don't have to be walking around in the rain very much. Hopefully (and probably) it will dry up a bit before we hit the streets again.

Oh man, the Portuguese are really influencing me--I am genuinely talking about the weather. when I only have about 15 more minutes to email my family. People here are good at talking, which definitely has its ups and downs. Ups in that you can get to know someone really quickly and downs in that ... mostly ups I guess. :)

I like the phrase that Dad used at the end of his email this week: fight the good fight.

If we are really living the gospel to its fullest, if we have a sincere testimony that this life has a purpose and one of the most grand purposes is to become better, to be happier, by learning through our challenges and by constantly striving to be more like the Savior, a lot of this life will be a fight, a struggle, and one full of the peace and rest that only comes from giving our hearts and souls over to the Savior.

That phrase at the end of dad's email made me think of this quote from a talk called "a consecrated missionary":

"Parley P. Pratt was such a consecrated missionary. He had served as a missionary for more than 25 years of almost constant labors. He had just returned from his latest mission in Chile. He was hopeful that he could now remain home and enjoy his family, but such expectations were short-lived. President Brigham Young called him to serve yet another mission—this time in the eastern states. One can imagine the feelings that must have swelled up in Parley´s heart. Perhaps he thought, “Haven´t I given all that a mortal could be expected to give? Don´t I deserve to spend some time with my family and friends? Can´t I just relax for a while?” But Parley P. Pratt was a consecrated missionary. On September 7, 1856, shortly after learning of his call by Brigham Young, he offered the following tender reflections and prophetic insights: “I have desired, after travelling twenty-five or twenty-six years, mostly abroad, to stay at home and minister among the people of God, and take care of my family; but God´s will be done, and not mine. If it is the will of God that I should spend my days in proclaiming this Gospel and bearing testimony of these things, I shall think myself highly privileged and honoured. And when the Spirit of God is upon me, I think it matters but very little what I suffer, what I sacrificed—whether I secure the honor or dishonor of men, or where I die, if it so be that I can keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy. I have all eternity before me, in which to enjoy myself.” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. xxv.)"

He doesn't really talk about, or try to explain the reward in the moment, the blesing of feeling the approval of your Father in Heaven, the rest and peace that comes to your soul as a witness that you are doing your best and that you are forgiven for the things that you can't do or don't do quite right and that its ok. I can´t really imagine what it would be like to serve for so long so far away from every normal comfort of life. The daily challenge for me is to remember on a daily in-the-midst-of-your-daily-routine level what the source of our joy should and can be--the Savior and His Atonement.

On a lighter note, happy almost birthday to mom (next week) and to dad later this month. I sent you guys some cards last week so they should show up in the mail in a few days.

I realized once again that I never include details of what is actually going on with the work here... I'm kind of terrible sometimes...

so I will just include the little\big miracle of the week that I sent to Pres. Fluckiger.

Miracle of the week: One of our investigators who was progressing the most disappeared for about a week. Then on Thursday he finally answered the phone and told us that he had stayed home all week with out leaving the house or really talking to anyone to quit smoking and he decided to do this after we had a lesson where we invited him to batism and prayed with him about the date. He didn't accept baptism with a date, but he started taking the steps necessary to be baptized on that date. So even if we didn't know what the results of our efforts were, the Spirit worked on him and helped him see what he needed to be doing.

I love you all so very much!!!

Have a great week. Fight the good fight. I let the Lord fill your heart and life with His love. Its worth it :)

Steph

vou ficar por 6 mais semanas!

Ola familia!!

I am sticking around in Loule, which is really great because I would be sad to leave and because I still have yet to take any pictures of the lovely little streets and general ambient here. Last night the Elders called us about transfers and told us that we would both be leaving and that they would be putting 4 elders in the area and they told us our new areas and companions and everything and being the gullible person that I am I started making a list of all the things I needed to write out for the elders to do when they got here... and it wasn't true. But it was actually really cool because I realized how sad I would be to leave and start all over in a new branch with a new companion and new investigators and everything. And now we are all excited to stay here. So it was good. :)

Hannah! Happy Birthday!!!!! 17! what the heck! it's not possible. You can't be 17 yet. Send me pictures from sweet hearts. I want to see :)

Also, I love your letters and I love that you are having so many opportunities to serve the people around you. I always just want to take the simple, crystal clear nuggets of truth out of your letters and implant them into the lives of the people that I meet here in Portugal (and I should probably start with my own...) I hope you don't mind if I just share this part with everyone:

"Heavenly Father has helped me so much this week, mostly by showing me how to serve the people around me. At the beginning of the week I thought that I was getting no help at all, but after talking to the seminary principal I can see that God has been guiding me a lot. I just don't recognize it because its all for other people and not me. Thinking back on it now, I realize that getting spiritual revaluation telling you how to help others is much better than getting it to tell you how to help your self; because it allows you to serve others and learn what you need to learn."

Sometimes I think I need to remember that the Lord usually works that way. Preach My Gospel tells us to study for our investigators and I think that's one of the reasons. If we want to be taught by the Lord we can't be selfish, and sometimes I just want to hear what will make me feel better or what will answer my questions in my time. But if we are thinking about others we will find the things that we need for ourselves too-- the things we need in order to be the best tool for the Lord that we can be. And consequently, the happiest we can be too. 

And mom, who knew that your selling skills would be just what I needed to help my investigators commit to living the things they are learning and feeling--I think that they will really make a difference this week. We'll see. :) I'll let you know how it goes. 

Dad, I can't think of a better more simple testimony to give than just "I'm going to go pray." Always your actions speak louder than words and I never ever could or can doubt your willingness to do whatever the Lord asks of you. 

Paul, Tom, Will, and Jeremy. Hope everythings going well. :) I love you each so so so much. More than you know. I hope you can feel it. 

I am so glad I have the family that I do! You are amazing. I wish I had a chance to hear grammie's talk. I didn't get a chance to read it last week so I will print it out this week and read it at night or something some time this week. I love how strong the individuals in our family are. Still no one has mentioned where Johnny is going to serve.

Well I'm pretty much out of time... But I love you all so much!

Have a great week.

Steph

"A Shocking Lack of Satin"

As always when I opened each email that I had this week I was overwhelmed by how many truly amazing people I know and love and love me. I don´t think that there is anyone in the world who is more blessed than I am and how quickly I forget it. It doesn´t seem fair, I wish that I could share some of these blessings.. and I guess that´s what we´re supposed to be doing as missionaries. Mom, I can always hear your voice in my head saying,"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And I was reminded that that ability is conditional on our humility and willingness to submit to His will by your statement " If I have to sell cars so I don't forget that, then so be it." You are teaching me how to really trust the Lord and really submit to His will and really trust in His strengthen--not just in theory, but in real life terms.

It is so exciting how many missionaries we are going to have in the family at the same time! Nancy wrote me to tell me that she is going on a mission and that Johnny is getting his call. Crazy! This next transfer--a week from today-- we are getting 30 new sisters in our mission! And we are going to continually have more and more missionaries in the transfers following. Things are changing and growing fast. Pray that we all will be able to learn together quickly and effectively.

 Hannah,

You are wonderful and I love you lots. Thank you for you confidence in me. It means a lot and when ever I might want to slow down and not work so hard, I can remember who everyone at home thinks that I am and just try a little bit harder to be that person.

Also, I would love you write your friends! 1. I love writing letters. and 2. I love sharing the gospel. Give them my address, or you could even let them email me and I can just print out their emails and write back later when I have more time.  You have an amazing ability to recognize what´s really important. "Christ literally conquered the impossible so we can be celestial beings! " I wish everyone could have this testimony.

Hannah,

you are a missionary right now! You don't have to wait. One of the most surprising things about the mission was that I didn't magically gain new abilities once I became a missionary. I still had to work by study and faith and I can absolutely say that the Lord given me more ability to speak and learn the language and to remember things in the scriptures that were important for investigators and helped me be more organized at times, but He still is the same and still chooses to teach me in the same way--in His time and in His way-- and He lets me struggle, and I know that it is only because He knows it will be for my good and help me realize that He is really in control.

I love you all and I am out of time so I won't even try to add any conclusion of thought and sorry that once again there is a shocking lack of details about anything solid that is actually happening in my life... its a problem I have to be overly general. But I love you!

--Steph

Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 8:52 AM

On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 8:52 AM, Stephanie Lofgreen <stephanie.lofgreen@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Things I want:

 

music to come thou fount.

conversion stories- your conversion story-how you came to know that Christ is your Savior and that His plan for you is real that the Book of Mormon is true-things like that.

miracles of the week (mom is always really good at this).

Don't feel obligated (besides with the music) but if anything comes to mind I would love to hear about it.

This week has been really really amazing for us here in Loule.

1. Its been really warm.

2. We had a district meeting and mom, thank you for your story of Hannah (not my sister, but the mother of Samuel in the Bible). Your testimony of the priesthood and the power of priesthood leadership in that story continues to shape and change my life and my ability to live the gospel. We have so many people who either a)don't think we need a prophet's guidance\priesthood leadership or 2) think that they can pick and choose from what the prophets teach. I am so grateful that I grew up in a home that "follows the brethren" as well as constantly relies on personal revelation to live day to day. We need both ...but as I was saying... we had a district meeting. And I had recognized that I was not using the blessing of the priesthood leadership that I had to its full advantage. I wasn't anxious to receive direction or to know how to improve--instead I just dreaded having to do a practice in which every one could see how bad I am at ... pretty much everything. How self-centered is that. (we all have our moments.) My companion has no fear of anyone or of looking like a fool or of doing something wrong as long as she's doing all she can and learning all she can. I didn't know how to be like that, so I just prayed for Heavenly Father to help me to be humble enough to learn and to be happy and I don't really remember what else. but that attitude changed how our whole week went.

I hope you don't mind me copying and pasting this from my letter to president.

We have seen a lot of miracles this week (7 investigators in church and 5 present for the sacrament! on top of the Lord giving me the ability to love my leaders and companion and myself).
I want to share this one because it only came about because of the faith of a girl in our branch. We met a man in the street on Friday that was really really sad. We tried to bear testimony that the Lord loved him and had a plan for him and all he could say was that he just couldn't believe in it. And so finally we just said a prayer with him, cried with him, left him with a pamphlet, invited him to church and told him we would call him to remind him, even though he didn't say he would be there. Meanwhile a girl in our ward had been praying for this same man, that she could find a way to invite him to church. She had been really sad that she didn't have the courage to invite him and then he walked in in the middle of the testimonies. Because of this, she gave a really powerful testimony that really touched some of the other investigators we had in church and strengthened my faith that the Lord is in charge of this work and is guiding us when we don't realize it.

Once again I am pretty much out of time. But I love you all. and Hannah, you should send me pictures from sweethearts. And I still have never received a letter of any sort from Jeremy.... just sayin. ;)

I am so proud of you Mom. You are amazing and a living, daily proof of the power of continuing in faith. Thank you.

And Dad, thank you for your testimony in your letters every week, even if its just in the things you recount from the week. I am grateful that I have never had to doubt that you love the Lord and that you love us.

Hannah, keep changing the world, one smile at a time, one testimony at a time. :) Sister Fluckiger said something the other day along the lines of: you serve your mission one day at a time. And you are living your life one day at a time. Its not what it is at the end, but your life is really the decision you are making right now. That's why it is so amazing that in every single moment, at any time, we can turn back to the Savior and start again.

I love you all. The gospel's true. And may we never ever turn back.

Steph

Transfer to Algarve

Ola familia.

Thanks for the letters. I like seeing all of the different points of view of what's going on at home. 

I'm sorry I've been so bad about pictures. I only have like 2 pictures from my whole first transfer... 

We took some today because the Relief Society President showed us around some parts of our area that are a bit farther away that we aren't so familiar with (we we on the beach! just on in the sand..) But I don't have my cord.. So next week, mom, I will do my best to remember. :) And I will try to snap a few pictures of the streets here too. This area is really pretty and just.. quaint, I would say. Also, I feel like I can understand the people better too. Maybe I've just been here for longer and probably Heavenly Father is blessing me too, but it seems like people are easier to understand down here in the Algarve. And my companion is from France, so we only really speak Portuguese, but the amazing thing is that for the most part I don't have any trouble understanding or comunicating with her. I don't even feel like it inhibits my study time to be comunicating the things I am trying to learn in Portuguese and I always felt like it did during study time with Sister Quebbeman.

My companion's name is Sister Campos da Silva (a very Portugues name) but her doesn't sound at all Portuguese. Sometimes people have an easier time understanding my accent than hers. But she is really amazing. She has an amazing ability to never say or do anything negative. I didn't even know I was ever being negative, until I saw the comparison. I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about her. 

Things are a little bit different here than in Quinta do Conde. We do less door knocking and more street contacting and the people are much... nicer isn't the right word, because the people in QdC weren't mean, they were just more blunt. If they didn't want anything they just said so. I guess less blunt? and really friendly.

The people that stand out to me from this first week here are the amazing members of the branch here. The people here are really involved in the missionary efforts and have really strong testimonies of the work. We have 2 youth that have been brought to the church in the last 2 months by families here and we don't have any trouble getting members to come to lessons with us. This is really great because we have had a few investigators this week who are men that we can't meet with without a member. One of them is a from Ukraine and is about 19 or 20. He has known the missionaries for about 5 years, but always in different cities. The amazing thing about when we met him this week was that he said that he met Pres. Monson when he dedicated the temple in Ukraine a while back. And then when we asked, he said that he believed that he is a prophet. So then we asked if he believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and he said that it seems like he would have to be. And then we asked him about the Book of Mormon and he said he didn't really know what that had to do with anything. So we got to teach him the 1st lesson and explain about the Book of Mormon. And he is really willing to read and learn and he really wants to know for himself. Also, he doesn't really speak Portuguese, only english. So that was interesting. I got a bit lost with out my companion's help. She prayed and bore her testimony, but she didn't really understand everything that was going on.   

And thank you for praying that I will learn to love the work. I think that's the best thing that I person could pray for for me. 

... and once again this in quite a jumbled mess. But I love you all. And I will be praying for carol's family and all of you.

Steph

Getting Transferred Today

Ola familia!

So I'm getting transferred today. And that made me realize that I don't think I have really even told you anything about the area I have been in for the last 6 weeks. It's called Quinta de Conde (which I know I did mention before). And its kind of more rural (for near Lisbon that is) which is nothing like rural in Utah. But basically things are calmer out here and people like to lock themselves in their houses when the sun goes down at like 6 and then we like to knock on them make them come open the door to the cold (which is also not cold compared to utah; the thing about the cold here is that because it doesn't really get that cold, people don't really have heating in their houses. So its never really cold, but people wear their coats in their houses.) Anyways. 
Because its more rural and a bigger area and the chapel is a little bit of a ways away, one of the hardest things for the missionaries here has been getting people to church. But, we had 4 investigators in church on Sunday! Which is really quite amazing.


One was this kid, Marcos. He is great because he has recognized more than once that we always come visit him when he is thinking about what he is going to do with his life, about the hard things that he has going on. And he has really clearly talk about that he feels peaceful when he talks to us and when he reads the Book of Mormon. But his mom is really religious and doesn't like us so much (she was an investigator a while back but now doesn't really want anything to do with us) and he gets into a lot of trouble with his friends. But he really liked meeting the elders at church and he asked lots of questions, so I'm really hopeful for him.
The other 3 investigators that we had in church were Laura (who has accepted baptism and is planning for the end of this month), her husband and son. Her son was not such a fan of church. He's 14 and he stayed up the whole night before playing computer games. Laura was really nervous for chuch and said that it was really really different, but when I asked her about how she felt during the sacrament she said, good and that she remembered lots of good things. She always has really cool ways of describing how she feels the spirit. In our last lesson it was 'like someone giving you a present' and 'a will to just do everything that I need to, even ironing and I hate ironing.' She loves ironing. She also said that she has started to feel like God hasn't abandoned her quite so much since she started meeting with us. Her husband isn't so willing to talk about things, but the first time that we met him he sat down and listened to the whole second lesson and really considered the things we were talking about. So I also have a lot of hope for them as a family. 

Well I better go. The internet place is closing. 


much love. 

Steph