6 months down

Elder Stephan has now been out for 6 months, crazy huh? In one of Josh's letters it says, "Gosh i can't believe how fast time really does fly by when you're not thinking about it and doing the lords work!" He is doing amazing up in Canada.
This Transfer he was made District Leader!!!

His District!!

 Josh is very excited about having the leadership position and will serve well. He will continue to serve in Okotoks but he loves it there so he is very happy about that, and his companion is still Elder Fitamant!! He loves his companion, he is from France so he is still getting used to he American ways.

An amazing view of Okotoks! Elder Stephan with his companion Elder Fitamant

Elder Stephan has had amazing opportunities for baptism's these past few weeks! He has had 6 baptism's in a place where they hadn't had any for 9 months! "I feel like the Lord is putting those people in my path that are ready to receive the gospel! Everyone up here just keeps telling me, "oh Elder Stephan you are tearin it up here!!" i just say, "no the Lord is putting people in my pathway that are ready to receive his Gospel!!" -Elder Stephan

Melchor 3/17/12
 We had a baptism on Saturday for Melchor! He had been bailing on me all week long so Friday comes along and finally I'm like I'm going to hunt this man down!! So we hunt him down and end up talking to him and for the first 10-15 minutes he just sat there and told us how he was just going to stay in his religion and he was happy!! Well elder stephan, jsteph, call me what you want was not about to walk out of that household without him committing to baptism!! So the spirit just took over for the next hour!! I just told him that he knows its true but Satan is telling you that it's not!! We talked about the priesthood authority, i just throw down on him while the French man just sat and looked at me with such a blank look....it was honestly priceless!! So then an hour later after I had honestly just gone off I said " Now Melchor will you be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of god!!" and he was like "what time tomorrow!!" it was absolutely sick!!!! So anyways because he had bounced on us all week long we still hadn't taught the word of wisdom so we taught the word of wisdom to him and we were like will you live the word of wisdom and he was like "yes!! Yes I will!!" so I was like "well do you have a problem with any the word of wisdom?" and he was like "nope I drink tea once a month and coffee like once every two weeks and I'm fine with drinking hot chocolate or warm soup!! I just drink it to warm my body up!!" so then I was like "well when was the last time you drank coffee?" and he sat there for a minute and was like well on Sunday I drank it!" In my mind I was like "oh no!!" because they have to be living the word of wisdom for at least 1 week! So it would of been 6 days!! So all I said is okay well let's do the baptismal Interveiw tonight, but keep your phone near by so we can call you and tell you what time to come! Because at this point I was going to go talk to the Zone Leaders and see if he could, and I didn't want to tell him that he couldn't because he broke a commandment that he didn't know about! So anyways I go to the church and talk to the Zone Leaders , and they were like " well sounds like a great man, I can't wait for his baptism next week!!" and I was like "wait hold on here, the lord provides a miracle for this man to be baptized tomorrow and you two are going to sit here and tell me that he can't be baptized!!!" I was so mad!!! They were like "elder stephan he has to be clean for 7 days!!" all I said is "ya it's been sick and he didn't know about that commandment when he broke it!!" they were both like "no he isn't getting baptized!!" I felt like saying then get your butt home because our whole purpose is to invite people to come unto christ through baptism!! So anyways they left and I was just like this is not right!! So I just was like I'm just going to call the AP's and see what they think! So I call them up and they were like "well we both had investigators with the same problem and president let us baptism he so go ahead and give president a call and see what he says!! So I called up Big President Archibald and just told him what was going on! You want to know what he said....? EXACT WORDS..... "BAPTIZE THAT MAN TOMORROW!!!!!!" I was like thank you president!!

Veronica, 3/10/12.
Everyone came to this baptism because it was the only baptism in the entire mission!!
Josh was very excited about that because President and Sister Archibal, the AP's, Zone Leaders,
 even Zone Leaders from other zones with investigators, and the senior missionaries
that work in the office got to be there!!

Josh is loving his mission!! He tell's us all the time how happy he is and how much he is truly enjoying serving in Canada! Here are some more pictures from his mission!!

Elder Shertliff (old companion) and Josh at the Cardston, Alberta Temple

Now he is a real canadian:)

just chilling on a horse, pretty normal!

I guess they wanted to see if they could fit in the box!

His favorite place to eat!

6 month tie burning:)

Sweat's he got for christmas from mama steph!!

His Zone!!

Elder Stephan has 4 more weeks of this transfer and than we will know where he will be next!!! We are very proud of Josh and all the hard work he is putting into his mission!!!:) Keep Elder Stephan in your prayers, he needs them!!:)

This is a video of him burning his tie for his six months!!!:) hahaha of course they used gasoline!!!

It's been awhile since i have been able to update Elder Stephan's blog. Here is an update of what has happened in Josh's mission.

-Josh got into the field on September 20, 2011. He arrived and met with the mission President that night. He was suppose to be going somewhere else in the mission, but after meeting with the President he was called to serve in the East Calgary Mission. His companion's were the Zone Leaders, Elder Dastrupt and Elder Hawkins.  He was very blessed to be with the Zone Leaders and get that experience early on in his mission.

Josh and his companions

-His second transfer he was still with the Zone Leaders and in the same area. Elder Dastrupt went home this transfer after serving his two years. His new companion was Elder Madsen.

still going to chilli's with Elder Madsen

Elder Madsen, Elder Stephan and Elder Hawkins
(love josh's slippers, slippers from Disneyland)

-Third transfer he was transfered to a place called Okatoks, which is 20 minutes outside of Calgary. There he would serve as Senior Companion. His companion was Elder Shurtleff who he served with for one transfer.

Elder Shurtleff

- He is previously in his fourth transfer, still in Okatoks. He loves Okotoks, it reminds him of home. Just like Alpine! He is now training just after 5 months. His companion is Elder Fitamita, he is from France.
(picture with him below with Krishna Baptism)

-Elder Stephan has had 5 baptism!!!

Josh and Therese
October 22, 2011

Tamika Allen
October 27, 2011

-Has had a third baptism, but no pictures. Tommy deBakker on January 14, 2012.

Krishna
January 28, 2012

Elder Fitamita, Krishna, and Elder Stephan

 

Jessica deBakker
January 28, 2012

Some other pictures..

merry christmas to josh

his new home, Calgary Canada

josh's new ride

Elder Krogue

Merry Christmas from Elder Stephan

Elder Stephan cleaning:)

Elder Farrell 

cleaning the church

-Josh is absolutely loving his mission. He is working so hard and getting lots of baptism's and blessing many peoples lives up in Calgary. He will be out for six months on Wednesday February 29, 2012!! He say's, "I can't believe how fast time has flown by, how fast is goes when you aren't thinking about it and doing the Lord's work day in and day out". He has been blessed with all of his companions and the people around him. The people of Calgary are loving Elder Stephan!! 

-A couple weeks ago Josh's apartment flooded and he had to move in with a family who travels a lot so they have been "house sitting" for about a month now. They will be there until about two weeks when there apartment is finished getting furnished again. 

- Josh has been very busy with a lot of investigators. He has a baptism in a couple of weeks that he is trying to pull through. He has a transfer in a couple of weeks and he says he will hopefully stay in Okatoks because he loves it so much.

Will keep this blog updated every transfer!! Keep Elder Stephan in your prayers and remember he loves you!!!

The Last Days

Josh left on August 31, 2011

He will spend 3 weeks in the MTC and then it's off to Calgary, Canada

We were able to spend a lot of time together as a family the days before he left.

We all love and miss Elder Stephan and we know he will do an amazing job! 

If you want to write to Elder Stephan in the MTC his address is: 

Elder Joshua Ty Stephan

Mailbox #158

CAN-CAL 0920

2005 N 900 E

Provo, Ut 84604-1793

Joshua.stephan@myldsmail.net

All the Stephan boys decided to put on their tags after Josh was set apart as a Missionary

                                       Chase, Josh, Ryan, Jordan, Sean, Paul

                                          The whole family

             The family + grandma at the Provo Temple before dropping Josh off at the MTC

                                           Mom, Elder Stephan, Papa

                                          Jordan, Elder Stephan, Kristi

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU 

WE LOVE YOU ELDER STEPHAN

I will update more on Monday when we hear from Josh

New Blog

I will be heading out for two years, so my family is going to update this blog so everyone knows whats going on with me! Thanks for all the support
Love Elder Stephan