March 31st, 2014

HEY!

What a week

I sent some recordings so hopefully they went through.

BIG NEWS- I'm getting TRANSFERRED! This is crazy. 8.5 months later...

I'm headed to Anthem stake which is the one I was dreading the most because it is the richyrich people but I think it will be really good for me. My companion is one of the funnest sisters on the mission so i'm STOKED about that. And she looks just like Jessica. Our area is about the size of my thumb nail, so that will be exciting. We have already decided to park our car and bike everywhere. We are getting double transferred in (meaning neither of us have been in the area prior) which will be a challenge at first, but I think it will be a good fresh start with the ward. But I'm still a little nervous.

We are teaching the most amazing girl in the nation. 

She actually just got out of rehab/juvie and is ready to change her life. It is crazy to see how much she has changed. She is 17 and I love her dearly.

Also, I'm turning into mom. I eat either salad or green smoothies for breakfast. I use olive oil instead of salad dressing. And I put the weirdest things in my smoothies. Thanks mom!

Sorry this one is short and sweet. LOVE YOU! 

March 24th, 2014

Ok this has been the craziest week.

I can't even decide what happened, but it was such a miracle week! People were coming out of the woodwork...we found 12 new investigators and there are some really solid ones. I actually just realized why it has been such a good week. It's because transfers are coming up and I am probably leaving. It always works that way.

We find out about transfers on Saturday...which will be crazy. I am SO ready to leave this area and yet I don't want to go at all. I love it too much. We are having a ward BBQ on Saturday though so I'll be able to say goodbye to everyone there. Yeah don't worry they were planning on having it closer to Easter but when they found out when transfers were they scheduled it to this weekend so I would be there. Haha. It will be good though to leave- Sister Onorato is doing well in the area and I think she is ready to lead it without me. Plus the Neiders told us they are going to start putting Sister Training Leaders together so hopefully that will happen. I have loved training but it gets pretty tiring after a few months. 

We had a few miracle finds this week. I think I sent a recording about John, but he went to the LDS chapel one day to pray and we showed up later that day. Love it when that happens. We had a follow up lesson with him and taught him how to give a formal prayer and he prayed at the end of the lesson! It was so beautiful. Afterward he looked up and said that was the first time he had ever done that. THIS is why I'm on a mission

 We taught Sheryl again- the one who is a minister/ theology major and oh boy was the spirit strong in our lesson. I just love teaching her because she gets it! She understands the restoration and the Priesthood and what it would mean if the Book of Mormon actually were true. When we got there she had invited her neighbor to sit with us and had brought her husband and they all had their books out and had been reading 1 Nephi 1-2. She loved learning about the visions and compared Nephi to Joseph of Egypt which I thought was an interesting comparison. She studied more on the Melchizedek Priesthood and said "It just makes sense. If the Apostles had this priesthood and then gave it to Joseph Smith, the Mormons must have the authority!" It was so cool.

Gotta head..we have a date with some older ladies in the ward later. We are going thrift shoppin! Can't wait :)

LOVE YA!
Sister Stoker

March 17th, 2014

Heyyyy! I sent some recordings because I knew I wouldn't have much time to email. Highlights:

-I'm going to be in the Deseret News! WHAT UP!

-We taught a religious scholar and she accepted the invitation to be baptized! Guys. The church is true

-I went on a couple exchanges this week and could really feel the Lord working through me as I tried to help the Sisters through their trials. It was so great and I realized that  I have been stressed out of my mind since I've been called STL because I forgot who I was working with. I know it's through Him I can do what He asks of me. 

-We are teaching this really old  guy who is essentially deaf because his hearing is so bad and it is one of the most entertaining things. He yells at us in his quiet voice because he can't hear himself and everytime we come over he is like "HEYYY STOKERRR!!" haha. We have to write down just about everything we say to him and just give him pamphlets to read then we discuss them when we come by. It is a crazy way to teach but it works. 

-Oh and today marks 11 months. I don't want to taco about it.

LOVE YOU!
Sister Stoker

March 10th, 2014

Hello! Those voice recordings were from last week- I'm glad I got it all figured out. Not that you probably noticed though since you are all in FLORIDA! I don't want to talk about it. Haha just kidding. But really.

We have had another great week. This past fast Sunday we fasted to find a family. So many people we teach are single or young couples and we just WANT A FAMILY! So all week we were trying to find one- we were seriously talking to EVERYONE. Even the inconvenient ones. And I'm telling you it wasn't the best experience. We got some pretty hard core rejections. Some lady told me to "shoo" with the hand motions and everything. And some guy tried to convert us to be born again Christians. He made us stand there and tell him what makes us so special. It was my companion that started the conversation so he looked right at her and she just stared at him. Poor thing. But like a good ol trainer I left her hanging out to dry for a good 10 seconds until she looked at me and just said "I have no idea what to say." So I quickly testified and got us out of that situation while we headed out to find more people. Seriously nothing came of the whole day (this was the last day of the week and we still had yet to find our family.) But the thing is you already know how this story is going to end because we ALL know the power of my fasts. Seriously Heavenly Father knows how hard it is for me to not eat for 2 whole meals- miracles are always comin my way after a fast. So we found our family. at 8:30 at night. Just half an hour before we were supposed to turn in. It was so crazy! There are 4 kids in the family, they live right next to some members, and allowed us to come back and share more with them next week. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!

Also, here is a crazy story. Elizabeth came to church last week (the one I talked about on the recording) on fast Sunday. Now Fast Sundays in the Palo Verde ward are great, but always super sketch. Meaning you never know what will be said at the pulpit. So a dear sweet old lady got up to bear her testimony last week and it started out great and sincere, but oh boy by the end...

She talked about how she got in a fight at the Senior Center (not an uncommon occurrence) and someone asked her what she believed (I think they were arguing over religion and politics. What a great combo) She stood up and declared "I believe in the resurrection because King Husein is now in the White House! 

Yeah. We just hope in moments like that that the spirit gives our investigators a "stupor of thought."

LOVE YOU!!
Sister Stoker

February 24th, 2014

We had another crazy week. I can't even decide if it was the worst or the best- lots of growing that is for sure

This morning, though, we went to the Hoover Dam! Hence the pictures. We went with this family who I still can't figure out how we know them. The very first week I came to this area (forever and a day ago) Sister Remund had planned for us to go visit the Rickard family who just moved in. We stopped by the  house and the husband was home but told us his wife wasn't there so to come back later. Well to make a 7 month story short, we continued to visit them and would just chat for 15 minutes or so, sometimes read from the Book of Mormon, la ti da. Then we realized that there was no Rickard family in our ward directory, and no family lived at the address of this family we had been visiting. It was crazy and when Sister Nilson came into the area I had her casually ask them if they were members of the church. They aren't. I still have no idea what led us there besides the spirit, but now we are good friends and they took us to the dam! And it is the perfect weather outside.

Being a Sister Training leader  is a whole lot harder than anyone cared to warn me about. Mostly it is just inner feelings of having to have a "model area" with the highest finding teaching and baptizing numbers of all the sisters i'm over. And now I'll be giving a lot of trainings/ going on exchanges which can be stressful. But most of all I'm excited and very humbled to be in this position.

I am obsessed with teaching our golden investigator Valerie. She doesn't have a baptism date nor has she been to church because she is handling the situation very cautiously. I love her. She came to the Relief Society activity this week and met a lot of ladies in the ward, which was really good. She was turned away from the Catholic church because the members were hypocrites, and is having a hard time trusting organized religion again, but LOVES the Book of Mormon. "The Book of Mormon, combined with the spirit, is your most powerful tool in conversion" I'm pretty sure it says that in PMG. While we were there her dad was over and started bashing the Book of Mormon and she stuck up for it, telling him it was like Volume 2 of the Bible.

We found out last minute last week that we had to move apartments- we went from our super posh 3 bedroom, 2 story townhouse to a stinky old elder's apartment. It actually wasn't too bad though after we introduced it to our good friends clorox and windex. We are now closer to our area and can walk to church and district meetings so it is a blessing.

LOVE you!
Sister Stoker

February 17th, 2014

Hey! I can't even remember what happened this week. I didn't record anything though- sorry you'll have to go 2 weeks without hearing my voice. It has been crazy. We got transfer news on Saturday- I'm staying here to finish Sister Onorato's training. President actually called me and asked if I was burnt out in this area yet since this will be my 6th transfer (a transfer is 6 weeks. NUTS I know) I told him I could stay one more, but after this I need to get the heck out of here. It is pretty hard to stay for so long because honestly half the people we pass on the street I've already contacted them. All the "former investigators" in the Area Book are ones I found. I know all the members, their kids, their life story, and all their dogs' names. And I'm sure they are getting sick of me too. But at the same time, this is HOME to me. These members mean the world to me and are so aware of us sisters. They will text just to let us know they are thinking about us, they are so thoughtful and love to come to lessons with us. At least most of them do. I hope. The relationship missionaries have with the members will determine the effectiveness of the work in the area. THAT is doctrine. 

We are teaching a guy from Tunisia right now. I would tell you where that is but I am afraid I'll get it wrong and feel like an idiot. So look it up. He is Muslim and just the nicest guy. He is engaged to a member in the ward and came to church with her last Sunday so, like the good little missionaries we are, we pounced. I never realized how similar our religions are, especially when comparing Mohammad to Joseph Smith. I have so much respect for those people. We ordered him an Arabic Book of Mormon and it is beautiful. It looks like it was copied straight from the Gold Plates.

I've probably gotten a total of 4 hours of sleep ever night. Ok that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I just want to tell you my companion snores like none other. In fact, I'm sure you can hear her in Washington. Haha. Just kidding. And I love her so it's ok. But I am seriously investing in quality ear plugs today. Hopefully they will help get rid of those bags under my eyes. Which reminds me, some lady stopped us today at the grocery store and said she wanted to take our picture and send it to our parents. Please don't judge me. It has bee a weird morning and since it's P day make-up/ doing my hair wasn't a priority. And feel free to delete that picture.   

We had Stake Conference this weekend. I was squeamish the whole time because someone spilled the beans that I was on the "who to call up from the audience at random" list. Guess that's what happens when you've been in the Stake longer than half the members though. Luckily though I wasn't called up. After the meeting though some lady came up to me and said she was a Stoker so in a split second I whipped out my pedigree chart to see where we were related. #youknowyou'reamormonwhen...

Turns out she is related to David Stoker from the 1700s. There are quite a few Stokers out here in fact.

Favorite quote from Stake Conference:

Adversity is mandatory but misery is optional. 

Ok i'm getting kicked off the computer. LOVE YOU. Oh but really quick this week we had a crazy encounter in some DRAMA at a super ghetto complex and the cops were called on an investigator and we were in the middle of a fight and had to get the heck out of there. Don't worry mama we have the spirit to protect us. And I think the 3 Nephites stand behind us to bodyguard us. 

Love,

Sista Stoker