Gag Reflex

September 23, 2013

This week has been the CRAZIEST! Holy cow. Remember that 15 mile bike ride Sister Remund and I were going to go on? Yeah that didn't turn out. Well we went for like 5 miles and rode along the lake and through old railroad tunnels and stuff so that was fun. But then we started home (and didn't realize it was 108 outside- yeah that seems like nothing to us now) and my head went nuts and I almost passed out so a nice couple from michigan drove us home. So that was sad. But we had fun while it lasted. I brought my iPod so we stuck it in a grocery sack and I blasted efy music along the way. 

On Saturday we ate dinner with our investigator Jasmine (the 8 months pregnant one) at a member in our ward's house- the Gillespies. Who by the way happen to be my favorite people in the world. We ate pizza and Jasmine hardly ate any because she wasn't feeling well so we proceeded on with the lesson. Jonah and the Whale is our current favorite Bible story so we were telling that one and I kid you not as soon as we get to Jonah 2:10 where it tells us that the whale vomitted up Jonah Jasmine leaps up from the couch and runs to the bathroom...except she didn't quite make it to the toilet on time. You better believe what little pizza she had eaten was plastered all over the bathroom. Miracle of the week: Heavenly Father spared my gag reflexes as Sister Remund and I cleaned up that bathroom with Clorox wipes and TONS of Febreeze. Haha. I felt so bad for her but apparently that is just what she needed and she felt fine and dandy for the rest of the day. 

Yesterday we had a lesson with the world's most prepared new investigator. His name is Jason and he just recently moved in with a family in the ward. We talked a lot about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ at the beginning of the lesson and somehow we all got talking forever and couldn't finish the whole lesson. Before we left though he asked why there were so many churches since there was just one Bible. He also wanted to know about what will happen when Christ comes and where we will go and it took all I had not to answer his question in full detail. So we gave him the short sweet answer and he seemed excited for our next lesson to learn the rest. It is so cool to see how the Lord is preparing these people! 

LOVE YOU!

Sister Stoker

Best Week EVER!

Hola Familia!

Sometimes I pretend like I speak Spanish to people on the street. It usually doesn't work out that well. But it's cool- Sister Burrup teaches me a little here and there. This week has been the BEST week so far! Holy cow it was such a blessing!

On Tuesday Elder Neal L. Anderson came to speak to our mission! We had a conference with the Las Vegas West mission and ours. He was only supposed to talk for 2 hours and ended up going for 3 and thank goodness he did! We learned so many great things from him. He told us that he wants us to serve in our areas for 6-8 months at a time now so we can get to know the ward better and gain their trust. That means sisters will probably only be in 2 or 3 areas their whole mission! Crazy. He really emphasized the atonement and the power of bearing testimony at all times. Elder Tad R. Callister of the presidency of the 70 also came and talked about not just changing our behavior as missionaries but changing our nature. The whole meeting just empowered us for the rest of the week. It was fun to see all the missionaries too- there were about 500 of us in the stake center. I saw Elder Perrins and Elder Titus was there too.

Yesterday church was magnificent. We had SO many people there and the whole meeting was just awesome. Sister Remund and I were a little worried about having our investigators and less actives in the ward feel welcome, but the ward completely reached out to them. The investigators are already a part of the Relief Society and have lots of friends there. The kids loved Primary too so that always helps. Our Primary program is coming up in a couple weeks and it looks like our investigator (Jasmine)'s nephew and an inactive family we are working with will be in it! So we are excited.

We are working with so many amazing people right now- 2 of our investigators are SO ready for their baptism and it has been fun to help them prepare for that. Jasmine is still doing so great and is such an example to me. We are teaching another Lady- Sister Rahim- and we had the coolest experience with her yesterday. We took her to a Why I Believe fireside which is a mission-wide fireside where converts come and tell their conversion story. It was so great and the spirit was CRAZY strong there. Right when the fireside finished she said "Alright I want to be baptized this week" and she couldn't stop talking about the "overwarming feeling" that was there. She said that as she was sitting there she didn't even crave cigarettes and she wanted to sleep in the chapel so she wouldn't ever pick up a cigarette again. Haha I love her. We then taught her that she can have that warm feeling any time she wants- she didn't need to go to a chapel or hear someone's testimony. When we read the Book of Mormon we allow the spirit to come into our lives and the spirit is what helps us keep the Word of Wisdom.

Well hope you all have a great rest of the week! Sister Remund and are off to this crazy 13 mile bike trail along a mountain and apparently there are railroad tracks involved? I don't really get it but I'm excited. Thank you for the prayers- they really are helping me.

Love,
Sister Stoker

September 9, 2013

Hey Family!! 

This week has been the greatest. We had one of the coolest experiences yesterday with a lady named Janet. We met her on the street about 2 weeks ago and she told us we could come back in a few days but she wasn't there. So sad. So we kept going back like 4 times a week and no one ever answered the door. We were pretty sure the house was vacant but tried one more time yesterday and there she was! She let us in to teach her right then (which hardly ever happens) and we had the world's most spiritual first lesson with her. She was just soaking in everything we said. Before we started she wanted to know how long we would take because she was pretty busy preparing her house for something so we started teaching very briefly, but then she kept  asking questions and was sincerely interested in what we were telling her. By the end of it, she was so excited to read the Book of Mormon and asked how much it was so she could buy one. She asked us if we could come back and talk about what she had read with her family. What a blessing! 

Jasmine is doing fantastic still. She cannot wait for her baptism and when we went over there on Saturday she had read 4 chapters in the Book of Mormon that morning. We taught her the Word of Wisdom this week and she was so ready to give up coffee by the end of it. She said she is addicted to it and has it all the time but realizes why she needs to stop drinking. She didn't put up a fight or anything! 

So we have a super sketchy apartment complex that we tend to frequent often- mostly because that is where all the humble are. It was built on an ancient indian burial ground though and is crazy. When we were there on Friday though 3 people came up to us and asked if we could come teach them about Jesus. 3! That never happens! Haha. Guess the word on the street is that the girls in the skirts do a Bible study there. Sister Remund and I have been asked just about every single day if we are sisters. Like the related kind. I guess we look the same. I'll have to send you a picture of us one of these days. 

This week there was a lady in our ward who had a friend who really wanted the missionaries to come teach him but she didn't know how she could get a hold of us since she attends another ward and had never met us, and we showed up the day she prayed for missionaries, right before she was going to see him. I love being a tool in His hands! I have been reading in the New Testament in the mornings and am in the book of Acts and am just blown away by Paul! What an amazing missionary. I thought it was crazy in Acts 16 when it talks about Paul and Silas being beaten and then thrown into prison and yet in verse 25 they are singing praises to God. You better believe when it is 110 degrees outside and we are biking up a hill after people have rejected us on the street the last thing I want to do is sing praises. But Paul did it and so I have implemented it! My companion thinks i'm nuts.

Hey I love you all! Thank you for the emails and God Bless!

Sister Stoker

September 2, 2013

Hey family!! I'm soo sorry I wasn't able to email last week! Life has been nuts. As expected. We have transfers this week- Sister Remund and I are both staying here! I'm so excited. Mostly because we just found the most GOLDEN investigator named Jasmine. She is SO ready to hear the gospel and is so willing to listen to us! People like that are hard to come by these days. She wants us to come by like every day. What a blessing. Also did you hear about those two guys who dressed up as missionaries here in Vegas? I heard it made national news, but then again you can't really trust what most people tell us on the street. Anyway they beat up some old guy then robbed him when he let them in. So sad. Luckily most people just joke about it to us- we haven't had anyone not trust us because of it. Plus most people don't know we are associated with the boys on the bikes. So that helps too. 

This week was the end of the month, so naturally we were on bikes for 4 days. Don't worry though- I now haves thighs of steel. And permanent helmet hair. AND it was monsoon weekend so we got caught in the rain a couple times. That was crazy. But it has been fun. We like riding because we can talk to more people on the street, so I think we are going to do it more often. We will see though. Tell the Mowers and the Mengs thanks so much for the letters! I love hearing from the home ward.

I have been focusing a lot on Charity this week- I realized it should be my main motivation behind everything I do as a missionary. I love 1 Corinthians 13 where it talks about how you could have faith to move mountains, but without Charity it really doesn't matter. As a missionary (with or without the black badge) we could have faith that we will bring ton of people to the gospel, but if we don't love them the way Christ does or do it because he atoned for us, it really means nothing. Sorry. Wish I could go into more detail but alas we have to head to WinCo and buy the dried mangos! 

Love you all and thanks for the prayers!

Sister Stoker