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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

Stephanie Lofgreen's Letter From Home --I am NOT Dead!!!

December 13,2012

Hey fam!

 

Thanks for all the little lines you´ve dropped me in the last little while. They are wonderful. I´m especially grateful for what you said about love casting out fear. That´s exactly what I needed to hear. I have had a rough week adjusting to everything, but I have definitely felt the strength of the Lord beside me. I am also really glad that you put those verses of Nephi´s psalm that I love in an email to everyone, because then I got to look over them again. and sometimes we just need to be reminded of the things that we already know.  That the Lord loves us. That He is always watching out for us and that His arms are outstretched towards us still. He will never give up on us if we don´t give up on Him; if we keep returning to Him and really do all we can to give Him all of ourselves, He will be the source of our joy and the source of our hope, the source of our rejoicing and this is what we want because His strength never fails. I love how the Lord says in the scriptures so many times that He is faithful.  He is constant and unwavering in His support of us even when we are not always willing to look to Him. He is full of faith in us because He knows exactly what He wants us to become.  He is our creator and who are we to say what He can and can´t accomplish with us.

I am so glad that the Lord loves me enough to ask me to do hard things, to expect more of me and to always give me the opportunity be more, to always give me the opportunity to feel His love. And for the promise we have from Elder Holland, from his talk a few conferences ago, that because the Savior walk that lonely path from the Garden to the cross and suffered for us alone we don´t have to. We will have sorrow and tribulation, but we don´t ever need to feel a lack of His love if we will constantly turn our hearts to Him through constant prayer and just try to take one more step ahead, trusting in His power to guide us.

I don´t know what else to really say besides that I love you all, and I know the Lord is with you.

Good luck with the driving Hannah, and I´m so happy that Jeremy is coming home for Christmas with you all.

 

Also, today is a little weird because we were supposed to have an hour for email 2 days ago, even though we didn´t have p-day because of the christmas conference with our mission on Tuesday. But our leaders forgot to tell us until the next day, when we already had plans.. so we have an hour of email today. but generally it will be on Mondays.

 

My companion is awesome.  Before I got here I had several experiences where I felt certain that Heavenly Father was mindful of both of us and the work He had/has for us to do, and I am more certain of that now than ever.

 

Thank you for your prayers! Keep em comin. We need all the faith we can get on our side.

 

I love you!

The gospel´s true!

 

Love,  Steph/Sister Lofgreen

 

P.S. I don´t really know what´s up with the whole mom being dead thing. Sister Fluckiger is from Provo so... it wasn´t a translation thing... haha. Who knows. I still know she loves me. haha

Stephanie is in Portugal!

Ola Familia!!!

I get to email you to tell you that I’m alive and that I’m in Portugal! Its beautiful, every once in a while I’m scared out of my mind to have to go talk to anyone and others I just can’t wait to get out there, but most the time I’m just happy to take it all in. All the people speaking this language I’m supposed to be able to recognize and the humidity and the beautiful places and the driving and our lovely mission president and his wife.

I have been told the name of my area and my trainer and I don’t remember either. Forgive me.

Also forgive me for the really quick phone call in the airport. I really wanted to be able to say more. And then I tried to call again in Atlanta, but I ran out of time. And just so Jeremy knows I even bummed quarters off of all my elders to call him, but I missed him. I’m so sorry for my inadequate planning, but I love you all. Pray for me! To learn the language, to love the people, and to have faith stronger than my weaknesses.

Also, it is going to take a long time for mail to get here, so we are going to learn how to utilize email really well.

Have the best days and the best week and do your best in everything.

The gospel’s true!

--Steph