Alright well this week was really great!  We did some good things this week.  On Tuesday we had a lesson with another one of Jésus´s friends.  We met him at the church and we definitely had a weird experience.  He shows up and he has a HUGE beard, it was so big and he had one section greased down and it went all the way down to his belly button. (It was a different color than the other part of his beard so it may have been an extension but anyway super weird).  But he starts talking to us and he seemed really normal and we actually had a really good first lesson.  But maybe after 25-30 minutes into the lesson he just starts going off about conspiracy theories way randomly.  He goes "Have you ever noticed that the church has a black cross, the hospital has a red cross, and the pharmacy has a green cross. They have to be connected somehow!" Then just went off about his conspiracy theory about how they are connected and how are there are people above the governent that control everything.  So after that rant I think we just ended the lesson haha because he went off for a long time.  The best thing he said though was when we were talking after the lesson was over he says "True religion to me is waking up naked in the morning in the woods and kneeling down and praying to God."

This week we started family home evenings in the branch where we bring investigators to the houses of the members and we wanted to see if that could get the branch excited and it´s a way for the branch to be involved in the missionary work.  This week we took Stephanie and Luigi to our branch mission leader Heberson´s house.  It was a real success!! They got along great and I feel like it went really well.  

Yesterday was stake conference so the branch got together and rented a bus to go to sevilla.  It was about an hour bus ride and almost all the active members went so it was a great turnout by the members!  Stake conference was really good.  One of the stake president´s counselours was a little low on sugar during his talk and just passed out right up there in front of everyone.  Lucily the other counselour ran up and caught him before he hit the ground.  It definitely freaked a lot of people out. 

After stake conference Elder Turley and I ended up staying in Sevilla.  He is going home next week and there is a bunch of cool sites to see here in Sevilla.  So we got permission to stay here Sunday and spend our p-day up here in Sevilla.  So that´s why I´m writing in the morning because this afternoon we´ll be cite seeing and taking a train home.  But it was a great week and the mission really is just a blast.

Hello everyone! Hitting exactly 5 months in the field today! I didn´t even realize it until I started writing this email haha but it´s weird how so much has happened in this short-ish amount of time.   I have learned so much and I´m so grateful for the time I´ve had on the mission so far even with the lack of success.  I say a lack of success but if you look at what a successful missionary is in preach my gospel I would actually say it´s been a successful 5 months.  Even though I haven´t produced a lot of "numbers" I think I´ve done some good things.  Like this last week we got into a house of a young couple from Ecuador named Mikaela and John.  At the end of the lesson John said the first prayer he´s ever offered in his entire life.  It was small and short but seeing a man pray for the first time in his life was really neat and even though it won´t be another number to send to the zone leaders it really made me feel like I was doing my job as a missionary.

This week started off with an exchange because my companion went to Málaga for district training.  So Elder Lelegren came in to work in my area for a day, and we had a great time!   So Elder Lelegren came in Tuesday afternoon and we dropped off his stuff at our apartment and went to work.  We got in two good lessons in the first little bit both with Nigerians. The whole time I was with him we literally non-stop talked the entire time about our experiences from high school (he just graduated from Alta) and our experiences from the mission and we definitely had a good time.  In the morning we had a lesson with a women named Diana from Columbia who´s been receiving lessons for a long time.  She told us she believes the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, but she won´t get baptized because she was already baptized in the Catholic Church..... UGH WHY! I explained the importance of authority and it´s frustrating because I swear I was explaining it so clear but she didn´t understand and won´t change her mind.  And it´s hard because she can´t come to church because of her work.  So I´m kind of stuck on what we can do to help her if she already has a testimony and she can´t come to church and doesn´t want to get baptized... ugh

Well Elder Turley eventually came back and we had a good rest of the week! We placed two baptismal dates this week! One is with a Spaniard named Antonio. He´s a friend of a recent convert named Jesús and he is really smart but you can tell there is something wrong with his social abilities.  He understands about the gospel and everthing, so if everything goes right that will happen in two weeks! And Jésus just got the priesthood yesterday so if I had to guess Jésus we´ll be the one to baptize his friend. The other is a Nigerian named Kingsley.  It was our second lesson and we need to make sure he understands everthing before we go through with the baptism.

My companion and I found a couple other people that I don´t have time to talk about but we´re working hard and trying to get SOMETHING to excite the branch here for missionary work.

Love you all and say hi to Josh for me!!! Can´t believe josh come´s home this week!!!!!!!!!  I know he´ll be great to have back in the SLC and hope the homecoming goes exactly the way he/mom wants it. 

Besitos!!

Elder Stephens

hello everyone! This week was more of a "finding" week and less of a "teaching" week.  On Wednesday we had "Diamond Day" which is where our whole mission dedicates one entire day to a day of contacting.  So everyone canceled all their appointments if they could and we just contacted people on the street all day long.  Our goal as a mission was to get 2015 futures (people who we got their contact info and said they´d listen to us).  And we ended up getting over 2400 so it was a really good day!  Here in Córdoba we did splits for the day and I went with Elder Móran.  We went to a big walkway close to the train station and we basically walked up and down it the entire time because it was the best place to find people.  It was really fun! We had a ton of success in the morning but after lunch we only got 2 people´s info (nobody wanted to talk haha).  But I still enjoyed it!  It was a good day and hopefully the mission will see some fruits from all those people!

Investigator wise we still haven´t seen Carlos.  I called him almost everyday and he never answered until finally he did Saturday! It was his birthday this week so I guess that means not to answer Elder Stephens´s phone calls ever but it´s all good I understand he said he´ll see us this week.

Stephanie´s baby is so cute! His name is Liam and he is a cutie.  We´ve talked to Her and Luigi a few times but they are always really tired so whenever we go we try to make it real quick.  We gave them a lesson on the Book of Mormon and how if they want a testimony they need to read it and pray about it.  Then Stephanie said that she wants us to read it with her because sometimes it´s hard for her to understand.  We said we won´t be able to read the whole book with her but we´ll love to read a couple times a week with her and Luigi!  So that will be fun.

Also last Tuesday Elder Turley and I got invited to a man named José to eat lunch with him.  He makes the best food ever!!!!! He made us the classic spanish paella which is basically rice and chicken but amazing. He is homosexual so I was praying that nothing weird would go down hahah.  But he is really nice and funny! I feel so bad because he is not happy with his life at all because he has no kids and no family.  I was thinking about how the Plan of Happiness and the Proclamation to the Family. We have been given the model of how we can achieve having a family that´s close and united and it´s through the gospel and following this plan that God has given us.  I know this is true because on the mission I´ve seen families that have followed this model and families that don´t.  I´m greatful for having a family that wants to follow this plan and one day I´ll have my own family and we will be close and united through following the teachings of Jesus Christ! Love you all and until next week

Hello! This week was pretty crazy! At the start of the week we were saying good bye to all the members and our investigators because Elder Wilson was leaving and he´s been in this area for a long time.  So it was a lot of fun and a lot of eating!

So then I welcomed my second companion in the field Elder Turley from Mesa, Arizona!  He is really awesome.  He is actually going home after one transfer so I´m having super experienced companions! haha so this week was actually really hard when Elder Turley came in.  We couldn´t get a hold of hardly any of investigators until Saturday when we saw Stephanie and Luigi.  Stephanie gave birth on Wednesday to a baby boy! So we couldn´t get in to see her until Saturday because she was recovering.  But it was really good to see them! Overall though this week was hard, our investigator Carlos with a baptism date won´t answer his phone and we can´t get a hold of him.  I´m praying that it is only because he is super busy with week.... Anyways we did a lot of contacting this last week and we have plenty of people to see this week so I´m hoping something will happen!  

Overall I´m still super happy and I love being here in Spain!! I love my new companion Elder Turley.  We wake up 45 minutes early everyday to do workouts.  He has a bunch of p90x videos so i´m excited to get super jacked this transfer! haha love you all and have a good week!

This week was a lot of finding and contacting! This year president Deere wants the mission to contact two or three times more people than we did in 2015!  So me and Elder Wilson did a lot of that this week and we had some good success! We have a couple appointment this week so there is a lot of potential!  And also we found a old investigator named Ana!  She is in her 60s I think and she is so awesome!! She said she doesn´t really know why the missionaries stopped coming to her house.. Kind of sad but we are going to take charge of that! There will be plenty of work when my new companion gets here!

Yesterday Victor and Marina invited over to play some board games and they invited some other friends and it was a great time!! I´m sure at first their friends thought it was weird that two mormon missionaries were there but we got a long great!  I felt like my job was to let them know that Mormons aren´t crazy weird haha

My new companion is going to be Elder Turley from Mesa, Arizona.  He´ll get here to Córdoba Wednesday afternoon. Until then basically Elder Wilson and I will be in a bunch of eating appointments because Elder Wilson is leaving! So I´m excited for that! There is a lot of potential here so hopefully we´ll get a baptism here soon! Love you all!

Hola!! This last week we finally got a baptismal date! His name is Carlos and when we contacted him a month ago he was smoking 2 packs a day and now he hasn´t smoked at all the last couple days and wants to be baptized!  His baptism was supposed to be this upcoming Sunday but he didn´t come to church yesterday so now we´re going to have to post-pone it a week.  Sad because if it would have gone as scheduled Elder Wilson, my comp, would have a baptism his last Sunday in the mission because he goes home in 10 days.. But it´s all good he´ll be happy as long as Carlos gets in the water! SO this week we are going to try really hard to get Carlos to church! Because we gave him all the questions for the baptismal interview and he passed them all so he just needs to go to church!!

And also our favorite bro and sis finally came back to Córdoba! Their names are Victor and Marina and they are seriously Elder Wilson and I´s best friends.  They´re studying here in Córdoba and we didn´t see them in weeks because they were with their family in Málaga.  They are so funny and awesome and little by little we´re trying to convert them to the gospel haha.

There is plenty of the potential here in Córdoba! I had intercombios this last week and Elder Ferrell the zone leader came and was impressed with our investigators Stephanie and Luigi.  We had a really good lesson with them and we found some good futures together too so it was a great experience! I love the mission and this is the last week for my comp in the mission so we´re going to make it a good last week!