Monday, November 26, 2018
#Light The World
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was one for the books for sure, last one as a missionary, kinda makes me sad.. but the future is awaitin'. Well, This past Monday we had a p-day from 8-12 then began working again, but don't fret! We got all of Thanksgiving off from 8-7 and then just had to go in early. It was a solid Monday though, we had lots of lessons set up and stayed busy!
Tuesday was an awesome day, While visiting people, we were running behind our schedule of who to see so we were going to skip a few names, but I really felt like we needed to go to this less active family, so we tried to get there and then got lost and ended up going the longest way there lol, when we got there no one looked home sadly, so we started writing a note to them that we were just going to leave on their door with the ward Christmas party invite, but sister Jones messed up the first note so she was about to start over, then a truck comes and pulls into the driveway! It was seriously by divine design, let me just say, so we get out of our car and it was the dad of the home who was just dropping something off real quick and then leaving. But he was so nice! I just knew we needed to see him and if we went any other time or didn't go the long way, we would of missed him. After that, we try to go visit a Potential in the area named Candy and on our way, there is a lady putting up Christmas lights and we wave to her and she waves back. I was like, we have to go talk to her! And of course the further away we got, other thoughts in my head come in and say, no, you don't need to go out of your way to talk with her. And so we got to this house and knock the door, no one answers, and i'm still in my head like should we go back to this lady we waved to? and so I was like, we are going back, why wouldn't we! So we walk down the street to this lady and we ask her name and it happens to be Candy! What are the odds of that?? So crazy, turns out she is a descendant of Brigham young and her mom used to be a member, but fell away early in her life. She knows a lot about the church and was super nice. She isn't interested right now, but I was glad we got to talk with her and bring those things back into her memory.
Alright! Thanksgiving was so fun, we started the day off by going on a hike down to the beach with our zone, and guess who came! Charlotte! (someone I had the opportunity to teach in Bellingham!) She was down here with her family and the YSA sisters where she goes when shes down here invited her to come! It was super fun to see her and catch up. After the hike, we had our Thanksgiving dinner at 2 with some members. It was super fun and the food was amazing! Our mission president and Wife invited some of the missionaries who live close to their area for desert with them and it was way fun!
We had dinner at our friend Jennifer's house, she is the sweetest person ever.
Sunday went well, we were very busy, but we had dinner at the Wildings lol, they are the best. We talked about the light the world initiative this year and I am way excited for it! If you haven't heard, this year is a little different than what they did last year. Instead of having 25 ways in 25 days of things to do, they have a focus each week of December. So week one is Light the world, week two is Light your Community, week three is Light your Family, and week four is Light your Faith. if you go on Mormon.org it has a video for each week and a calendar that gives ideas of what you can do each week! I know that the church puts in a lot of time and effort for this Light the world campaign each year, and I know that it is something that helps us to turn outward and focus on what this Holiday season is truly about. I hope you all can invite your friends and family to join with you to serve others and be apart of lighting the world this Christmas. I love you all!
Love,
Sister Stokes
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
What a week! It has been such a great November here in the Pacific Northwest, I am so grateful! The rain has been minimum compared to last year and many more blue skies, which does make it a little more chilly, but otherwise blessed. It's been a solid week here, other than I have had a cold.
ZONE CONFRENCE!
I think this was the most spirit driven Zone Confrence I have been to, what a day it was! who doesn't love 8 hours of spirit led instruction?? It is the best. An overload of the spirit really does drain you though. There are around 18 sisters going home this transfer and 6 of the best were in this Zone conference and gave there "dying testimonies." I think every sister was crying. My companion being one of them who is dying.
But at zone conference we just went back to the basics, TTIPF (Teach, testify, invite, promise blessings, follow-up), we broke it down and did lots of role plays or as we like to call them "Real plays." every role play needs to be real and be a spiritual experience. And I can tell you they were. President was role playing with a companionship and once one of the elders started to testify he couldn't hold in his emotions and began to cry. I wish I could describe the spirit in the room at that moment, but President couldn't hold back his tears. What a testimony builder that was. We talked about the Christlike attributes hope, meekness, and gratitude. I have so much to work on and so much to learn. We also talked about the importance of our morning routines and how it can change our day. Something elder Holland has said, "I frequently say to missionaries, you make or break your mission every morning of your life." I know how true this is!
Another thing we talked about at zone conference is having more "Yelp review" conversations instead of just giving a "description" which pretty much means pouring your heart into what you are testifying and sharing your personal experiences in how these things have affected your life. We can all have more "Yelp review" conversations when it comes to the gospel.
One big change that has happened with all the West Coast Missions is we will no longer have member dinners. We can only have dinners with part member families or less active families on Saturdays and Sundays. We also have been asked to only have dinner at 4:00 throughout the week so we can give all our attention to "Finding" in the hours of 5-7(prime time) and then teaching 7-9. That's the goal. It honestly makes so much sense because normally when most people are home is when we are in a members home sitting and eating. I know that we will see miracles by following this, we already have, every single door we knocked during this time someone answered! blessings! I know this change is inspired and will help hasten the work of the lord.
Exchanges!
I got to go on exchange with my former compañero Sister Pedersen! Oh how I love her. she goes home this transfer as well.. if New Zealand will let her come home.. They have been having trouble getting her passport or whatever so she can go back to new Zealand because it expired. So we were in the mission office trying to straighten things out because she had to be there to talk to the people on the phone, but we were number 304 in line to talk to these new Zealand people, and that aint bout to be happenin! plus it charges us money to call them. So prayers things will work out or she'll be staying in the states! but we had a fun time together in their area. taught lots of lessons! They have 3 friends who should be getting baptized this December so it is real exciting.
I love this work and being a part of it. The Lord needs us to do better and to be better and I know that is why so many changes are needing to take place. We can't just sit and wait for things to happen, we have to make them happen through our efforts! I know the Lord is mindful of each of us and is wanting us to keep doing the best we can! I know we all can contribute in our own way in building up the kingdom of God, With this special sacrament meeting on the 23rd of December we have been asked to invite at least 10 people to come so we can have 25-50 non-members there! I hope you all can ponder on who you can invite so they can be able to remember what this Christmas season is truly about. love you all!
Love,
Sister Stokes
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