Monday, October 30, 2017
Family!!! 1st week in Washington :)
Hi everyone!! I can't believe it's P-Day already! Time has gone by so fast, I feel like I just got here! We woke up from the MTC at 2:30 AM and left the MTC around 4 I think. It was a crazy day that day. We got on the plane at 7:15 and landed at 9:30. Our mission President and Wife met all 12 of us at he baggage claim, they are so nice! We stopped at the Seattle Temple and it is beautiful, the fall colors here have been amazing! It was funny, when I got to the MTC, the fall colors were so amazing, by the time I left the MTC, the leaves were pretty much all fallen off. But when I arrived in Washington, it's like I get to go through the whole Fall experience again! it's great haha. After the temple, they took us to the mission home which is just a church building that has the mission office in it. They fed us Café Rio style food, it was so nice! They had so much food, and there was only 10 of us! We then picked out our bedding which is all new and good quality. After we were just given instruction on everything and all the missionaries that were going to train us came down and we played a get to know you game. Sister Murdock and I were the only two English speaking sisters, the other three were Spanish so there was only two options for who would be our trainer and they were both super nice! At 5 PM, they announced who our new companion was going to be and our new area! There are 8 different Zone's in our mission, the farthest being a 2 hour drive up towards the Canadian boarder. And I was one of the Lucky ones to be going there! I am in Bellingham and serving in a YSA Ward! My companion is Sister Porter, she is awesome! Our apartment is right off of the Western Washington University and we're right on the ocean! I couldn't believe I was going to serve in YSA, it has been amazing! It is so beautiful here, It has only rained one day this week, every other day has been blue skies, today is a very nice day as well! Hoping it will stay like this a little longer. After we found out where we were going, we had to leave right away because we has a dinner scheduled at 7 with a girl named Megan, she served a mission and got back 5 months ago. She has been struggling with her testimony though and taking lessons from us. She's awesome.
My first official day in the mission, we had four different lessons, it was a busy first full day. We taught our investigator Montana, right after, taught a recent convert named Shane, he is amazing! He has been investigating the church for three years, he is super logical and so smart! He just gave a talk in church on Sunday on his conversion story. We then had a referral named Evan, so my first investigator on my first day! It was such a cool lesson. I couldn't believe how prepared he was to here our message. He accepted a baptismal date for dec. 16 our first lesson! He is amazing. Our last lesson was with Justin Clause, we had dinner with him and his family, He is a less active, but he has been doing better recently. His family is so amazing, they always feed us when we come over. We now have 9 investigators were teaching! We found three of them this week!
Every Tuesday and Thursday, we go to the food bank, we sort lots of food for two hours. it's really fun because our whole district gets together and does it. On Thursday, We had Dinner with Bishop Slesk and his wife. They are super nice, They live out in farm country, which is really beautiful. We do This thing with our district called OYM's or Open Your Mouth, and you have a goal of normally 10 a day. it's anyone on the street you come in contact with a share the gospel. We had a competition with it on Saturday and since were by campus, there are always so many students to talk to. We were able to get 22 OYM's that day and a total of 84 as a district! one of our OYM's was a less active we didn't know about, but we invited her to church and she came! it was so cool, she brought a friend. We do so much everyday, I can't say everything we do each day or I'd be here for hours! My first Sunday was great, I was able to get to know the ward better, we had 2 investigators come to church, Teresa and Montana. Ryan pulled in the parking lot, but ended up not coming in, he is a little interesting, he lives in his truck with three giant lizards not because he can't afford somewhere to live, but because he just lives a different lifestyle. And Evan hurt his back lifting stuff. But We saw so many miracles Sunday night! one of our new investigators requested a Book of Mormon and we delivered it to her that night and we were able to give her an overview of the first lesson. She isn't religious at all, has no background on who Jesus Christ is and his story, so we are going to explain that a little better. She was really confused how Mary was able to give birth to Jesus and things like that. and our second new investigator we found trackting the same night! Sunday Miracles are real! She accepted a Book of Mormon so willingly and was excited to learn more, it was super cool. Being on a college campus and it being Hallow weekend was definitely an experience. There were so many doors we knocked on that people were super stoned. We had lots of weird experiences with that haha. There are definitely some interesting people that go to Western.
We Hit our Mission standards this week! Our standards are 1 baptism every two months, 2 on date for baptism, 2 at church, and 2 new investigators every week. The great thing is we had 3 new investigators this week! (Evan, Natalie, and Molly).
I love being our in Washington! It has been such a growing experience for me. I have learned so much in just a week, This week is going to be awesome, we have Zone conference Tuesday, so tomorrow, but I'm so nervous because I put on my papers that I will sing solo, duet, or trio in church, and the assistants called us last week and asked if sister Porter would play the piano, and I sing a solo! I was freaking out! There will be around 60 missionaries there! President Wilding asked me in our meeting about singing and I told him I was more willing to do a duet or a trio, but not a solo, I regret putting that on my papers so bad! But we asked another Sister and we are going to do a duet. So pray for me tomorrow! We're singing I know the My Redeemer Lives.
I hope all is well back home. Sorry this email is all over the place, my thoughts are everywhere haha. I'm grateful to be out here sharing the gospel with others, there is no other experience like it. I know this gospel is true, and as we strive to live as Christ lived, we will be happier and find more joy in this life. I love you all, have a great week!
Sister Stokes
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