Stole the elders Santa hats! mar
In Lynden, cool tree house
mount Baker
when we walked 5 miles in the rain,
In Everson
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Happy New Year 2018
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
I cannot believe that it is already 2018?? It is mind boggling, well, the past two weeks have been so great! Sorry, I already know this is going to be a long email ha!
- On Monday Dec. 18th, after emailing, Sister P, who opens the family history center for us to email made us crepes with apple, peach, and strawberry fillings! They were so good.
- Later that day, we went to a Referrals house and the mom and dad answered the door and were super nice. They let us in but Nimzy who we were meeting wasn't home, we started talking with the dad and sharing the things that we believe. He loved everything that we were saying, until we brought up Joseph Smith. He is way versed in the Bible let me tell you, he started saying things and Sister Porter and I couldn't get a word in. He talked to us for an hour and a half! We probably got five minutes of talking throughout. He basically believes everything that we believe other than Joseph Smith and the Priesthood. But the daughter came home while we were with the dad, and she came in, said hi, and the dad just kept talking and we never got to talk with her. The dad clearly didn't want us talking with her though. He was a nice man, loved what we were doing, but told us to be careful because the people we convert, if it's not true, their salvation is on our heads lol.
- A funny thing that happened is we were tracting and a man comes out and barley speaks English, so after sharing a little with him, I asked if he would be interested if we sent Spanish missionaries over to teach him more, and he just looked at me and said, "I don't speak Spanish." I just stared at him and realized that he was a Chinese man! He didn't really look Chinese, but Sister Porter was dying! He just closed the door and I could not believe I thought he was Mexican.
- Arroch in our ward Fed us on the 20th some type of meat burrito's and didn't tell us what we were eating until I asked what Kind of meat it was, he said Goose! He shot like 7 Geese that morning and just served us up some goose! it wasn't bad, but it was interesting.
- That same day, we were tracting an apartment, and normally no one is YSA or home because break, but two doors in a row were YSA and we were able to make investigators! it was a miracle! They are way awesome, and later we were able to make Julien, in the same apartment complex an investigator.
- the 21st was our Half Mission Conference!! It was so amazing, President Wilding referred back to his Christmas Conference 31 years ago in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and his mission president had them all stand up and introduce themselves, where there from, where there serving, and how long we've been out. The missionaries by the end were counting in days like they've been out over 500 days and then the older people on the stand said in days how long they have been in their callings for and said like 2,350 days or something and President Wilding points his finger to the crowed and goes, "Beat That!" haha he is so funny. So the Program for the Christmas Conference was someone does a musical number and then it's followed by a testimony, and then we watched some Christmas videos and the Light the World Videos and so on. So our musical number was first, and I sang with two other Sisters in my district, Sister Daul and Iverson and we sung "Away in a Manger." We later went into the Gym and ate Pizza for lunch, then did another musical number with our district in the gym with a mandolin and harmonica and sang Silent night. Our president then had us make 72 hour kits for our apartments in case of emergencies which was awesome. And then we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue with lots of snacks and popcorn! It was so funny, the part when they kiss, all the missionaries (elders) are going "OOOOHHH" and President gets up and runs in front of the screen and starts Jumping! We were dying!
- On Christmas Eve, we had church for an hour and we just shared Christmas Stories and Sister Porter and I both shared something since there wasn't a big attendance there. We later had to weekly plan, but we got tired of it so we decided to go outside and give out the rest of our 23 Light the World cards since it was pretty much the last day to. We just walked wherever we saw people and it was so fun! We only gave out 13 cards, but we talked with some really cool people!
- Later that day, we went Carolling with our district in the hospital to visit a member there. The nurses loved it and said we could sing to others that would probably love it. So we sang to so many people in the hospital, Two different men started crying while we were singing and it was such a tender moment. This probably was my favorite and best Christmas Eve I've had.
- We had dinner with Pam in our ward and her family on Christmas Eve with the Zone leaders and the Hermanas. It was so fun, they fed us Port Roast, Potatoes, salad and other things. They gave us all gifts, We got really cute scarfs and beanies.
- That Night, we opened our Christmas Eve presents and moved our beds by the Christmas Tree in the living room and watched the New Testament videos of Christ.
- Christmas morning, we did our morning studies, opened our presents, then went to IHOP with the Zone leaders and other Elders in our district. We later went to our Bishops and had lunch with them and got to face time our families! The rest of the day was pretty normal.
- We were tracting an apartment complex and every single door that opened was slammed in our face, we were walking down the stairs and a man was walking up to us and Sister Porter immediately asks if we could share this card with him and he goes, "No, actually I work here, There is no soliciting in these apartments" and sister Porter was like oh really? sorry! and super smiley and nice and he goes "Yes, it says it on the sign out front, so I need you to get off the property right now." and sister Porter is still smiling and says, "oh, ok!" She was so offended afterwards! it was so funny, that guy was real mean. That was the first time we have been kicked off the property though lol.
- on Thursday, the Sisters in our district gave us an Investigator who is YSA and then an hour later one of the elders in our district gave us an investigator who is YSA, and then one minute after that phone call, the Sisters again found another Investigator for us who is YSA! it was insane!
- On Friday, we did our "Car Fast" that the whole mission had to do this week one of the days. We probably picked the worst day to do it. It didn't stop raining all day! We weren't aloud to go back to our apartments for anything, so we walked up to the Institute to do weekly planning, and were soaked by the time we got there. After, we had a lesson with one of our investigators, so we go to the bus stop, but we missed the bus we needed to get on my 1 minute, so we had to wait in the rain for 15 minutes. We finally get to the bus station and figure out what bus we need to get on. We make a stop at another investigators house thinking that they live close to each other. Manny our investigator wasn't home, and his apartment number is 3330, and we need to get to 5300, so we start walking and realize that both these investigators were referrals from two different missionaries in different areas! we didn't realize this when we started walking in the rain for awhile, and then the house #'s went up by 10's and were really spread out! We probably walked 5 miles in the pouring rain for almost two hours! Everything that was supposed to be waterproof, was soaked through and my boots had so much water in them. Our investigator Lyssa we went to see wasn't even home, and the next bus didn't come for another 40 minutes. This town we were in is so small, there isn't a restaurant or anything we could go inside. So we called the Sisters (without permission) and they picked us up and took us to a members house and we dried our clothes and my boots. They fed us dinner and they were so nice! But the car fast din't turn out quite how we planned it too...
- We went to a Baptism on Saturday and Ze was able to come! it was the best baptism I have ever attended. It was a girl who turned 18 the day she was baptized, so is now YSA!
- We found another investigator named coree, and he is so solid, he came to church this Sunday and his fiance is Mormon. He is so genuine and nice and we love him!
- Ze also came to church! He is so awesome, We will teach him this week, he wants to be baptized, but still isn't recognizing the spirit, so we are working with him on recognizing and understanding the spirit.
Love,
Sister Stokes
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