Hey family! It has been another great a week! We finally made it to 100 degrees- it's all uphill from here:) we were of course biking all week so you would think I would have a tan by now. Turns out the sun makes me whiter. Probably. I think I sent you the picture, but jake Myers is serving in sister lakes ward! She just went home a couple months ago and is in Palm Springs. Tiny tiny world.
We saw this awesome miracle this week. We have been finding a lot of new investigators lately (9 this past week- The Lord is so good to us) but we have had a hard time retaining them. We teach a lot but the people here are so well off, they don't think they need anything else in life. So we prayed real hard one afternoon to be led to someone who was searching for something more in their life and no joke as soon as we got out of the car we contacted the most golden lady of my life. We have had a couple lessons with her and basically she and her husband have fallen away from churches because they have seen corruption and are seeking for truth. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she read way more than we anticipated- love it when that happens! We have been going on tons of exchanges- we had a crazy emergency this week again so we have just been exchanging all the time, but it is fun. Makes the mission exciting:)
Thank you for all the emails and letters they mean so much! There was a sister in our zone who just lost her grandfather and i was able to use the hard experience I had a few months ago to help her and I was so grateful to turn my trial into a strength as I comforted those that stand in need if comfort.
CANT WAIT TO TALK ON SUNDAY!!!
Love, Sister Stoker Jr.
May 12, 2014
I feel like I just talked to you yesterday. Weird.
Updates:
1. THE REYES FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!! It was the best. They looked like Mormons. AND last week this recent convert came up to us and said her son wants to be baptized- the work is blowing up.
2. We are staying in ANTHEM for another 6 weeks!!! That was an answer to like 3 of my prayers.
3. We were in a trio for the past 7 days and it has been so fun! I am obsessed with trios. One night we went on 3 way splits (we each had a different companion) and got triple the work done! Oh yeah
Sorry we don't have a lot of time to email but I LOVE YOU!! Thanks again for the wonderful skype conversation :) I love you so much!
Love,
Sister Stoker
May 19th, 2014
Hey family!
This week has been a fun one. We are in another trio- not sure if I told you that last week but we had another sister with us for about 10 days then two days after she left we inherited another sister for about 5 days now. Guess we are just the transition sisters. We enjoy it though and get SO much work done! What a blessing.
Guys. We had the BEST experience of my life this week. There we were, all three of us strolling down the street contacting people we have been trying to teach. We were actually on a street where we already have 9 investigators. It's crazy when God prepares entire streets at a time. But we passed by a house and I looked at it and had this burning desire to wait outside until someone came out so we could talk to them. Apparently it did not cross my mind to just knock on the door, but we don't typically tract in this mission. I said something out loud to my companions about wanting to sit and wait and Sister Fields said "I was just thinking about how much I wanted to baptize that house!" It was cool. So we decided to visit who we had planned and then came back to the house and there were now two cars in the driveway! We practically ran to the front door and knocked. The man who answered looked at us and said "Honey, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is here!" I think we were all thinking, "Great. One of those guys." But without us even introducing ourselves he let us right in. He announced to his wife that God had sent some angels to his house and he sat us right down and started sharing stories with us. He claims to be the most powerful businessman in Nevada- guess he is pretty high up there (their house is one of the big ones in a gated community) and he has traveled all over. He brought us into a room with tons of Native American artifacts and actually presented us with an ancient Jesuit crucifix...we are working on taking care of that still. But he told us of a sacred experience he had on a reservation one time and how it completely changed his world and I know the whole time we were all thinking about how much he is going to devour the Book of Mormon. So we left him with a prayer and set up a return appointment for later that week and came back with our ward mission leader. Ed told us at that second appointment that when we had knocked on his door two days before he saw the "gaze of Christ" in our eyes and that is why he let us in. We had a powerful first lesson with him and his wife Janine and have another appointment this week so I'll keep ya posted! I have such a testimony of inspired knocking though. It works!
The Reyes family are still doing great- they were out of town this weekend so they didn't make it to church, but we had some great lessons with them. We brought a couple to the lesson and when the man (B. Zitzmann) testified of the difference the gospel has made in his life, B. Reyes looked at him and said "and how has the Book of Mormon blessed your family?" It was the spiritual high. I LOVE THE GOSPEL.
ok one more story. We had another one of those"we have been waiting for the right missionaries to come into the ward to share the gospel with our friends and family" experiences with a ward member. She invited us to dinner when her less active grandparents were over and their nonmember step aunt...or something like that. Anyway we shared the restoration with them and had the most powerful experience- grandpa started crying and we found out later that his granddaughter has never seen him cry. Ever. The step aunt lives in Cali and allowed us to send missionaries her way- she was so intrigued by the Book of Mormon. Spiritual high of the lesson was when we looked straight at grandma and testified of the healing power of the BoM and she teared up. We later learned that she has been struggling with all kind of health problems- mostly emotional- and has needed somewhere to turn for help.
I'm never coming home. I'm going to be a missionary FOREVERRRRRR!!
Just kidding. It is crazy how the time is creeping up on me! And the weather. We are getting HOT down here!!!
Love ya!!
Sista Stoker
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