Monday, January 15, 2018
January 15, 2018
Another 6 weeks with my trainer!!!
Just got transfer calls this morning!! Sister Porter and I will be staying together for another transfer! We cannot believe it, everyone in our mission has been telling us that Sister Porter is gone, no one stays in their baby area for 7 in a half months, which is true. It's also not likely that I would stay with my trainer for 3 transfers either! But the Lord knows best and we proved everyone wrong haha! The only person leaving from our district in one of our zone leaders Elder Kesler. So our district will be pretty much the same which is great.
So many miracles this week! the Lord is blessing this area tremendously. This past week, Teresa and Montana got their baptism interviews and both passed. Montana didn't end up getting baptized this weekend because her work wouldn't let her take the day off, so hopefully in the next 2 weeks we will be able to figure out a day before she leaves to Iowa with her Grandma.
Teresa Was Baptized!! She is the most golden investigator you will ever know! I love her so much. Her Baptism was amazing and so many people came out to support her. Her boyfriend is a member and can play any instrument you throw at him, he played the piano for the musical number and the first part of the song was an arrangement of I Love To See The Temple, and then the rest was his own arrangement and I have never heard anything more beautiful. President Neilson, who is the stake president and also the institute teacher and the most intellectual man you would meet baptized Teresa. Teresa was able to be confirmed on Sunday even through it was stake conference, they just did it after the YSA fireside devotional, which was amazing! But we are so excited for her, we are aloud to go to the temple with our recent converts for the first time, so we are so excited to go with her to do baptisms!
Our investigator Jordan is so amazing! He came to church with us Sunday, came to FHE on Monday, went to a self reliance class at the institute Tuesday, went to Institute on Wednesday, and met with us on Thursday! He was going to come to both sessions of stake conference, but work called him in last minute, he works at the Jiffy Lube, but he told us that he will read extra chapters in the Book of Mormon haha. He has already changed so much from the first time we met him, we invited him to be baptized and we set a date with him for February 24th. We are so excited to be teaching him.
Our other super solid investigator Coree we met with on Friday is so amazing, we love him so much! We invited him to be baptized also, but he doesn't want to be rushed and feels he needs to read the whole Book of Mormon before he is baptized. He came to Stake conference with us and President and Sister Wilding wanted to meet him because they are family friends with his fiance's family. The wildings are going to take him to dinner sometime and also come up to a lesson!! I'm excited, but also a little nervous haha. I love the Wildings so much, we got to see them so much this weekend because of Stake Conference. I love our YSA Ward, I feel like I have known them all my life, they are amazing.
Something really cool that happend this week is we were out visiting potentials, and when we get out of the car, we say a prayer, and it was my turn to pray, and I prayed specifically that we would get one OYM, and an OYM is just to open your mouth to someone on the street. And after we visited that potential, there was no one on the street near us, I was determined to talk with someone because I prayed specifically for this OYM and way across on the other side of the busy street, a man was walking. I started heading towards him, and he ended up crossing the road right into our path and I was able to share with him a card. He ended up being a less active member who has been wanting to come to church, and we were able to give him the information he needed. He was so grateful and told us, "Keep doing what you are doing, you missionaries are amazing and are making a difference." it was a tender mercy that made my day so much better. God really does put people in our paths, and if we have specific prayers, we will receive specific answers, I know that to be true, we just have to be willing to open our mouths.
Love Sister Stokes
January 8, 2018
Hi everyone!! This week flew by! So much has happened..
this work is truly a divine work, the work we do out here would not be effective if it wasn't for the Holy Ghost that works through us. We are instruments in God's hands, we have to be in tune with the spirit to lead and direct our thoughts so we can know where we need to go, and what we need to say to those that our directed in our paths. I see tender mercies from the Lord everyday, and one of those was meeting Jordan.
Jordan was a referral one of our elders, He has done a lot of things in his life that he isn't proud of, but he has been trying to find God. He had read the Bible cover to cover and many other religious books, but he says that there is something missing still. The only book that he has not read is the Book of Mormon. As he has been reading the Book of Mormon, he says that many of the verses he reads, he gets chills down his spine, (which he also felt while reading the Bible) and thinks that our church makes the most sense of them all. He came to church for the 1st time and he bore his testimony! He shared how this is his first time here, and already he feels so welcomed and the love that each of us have for each other is amazing. He has already changed so much in this short time of knowing him. His heart has been softened and is wide open to excepting this gospel.
We had a lesson with Montana, who has been investigating for a while now. She has been going through a lot lately. Her baptismal date is for the 13th, and she really wants to be baptized. She has bore her heart to us and she has such a strong testimony of this gospel. Her good friend Josh Slesk came to the lesson and I had a prompting to ask if Montana would like to receive and priesthood blessing. She has never had one these whole 9 months of being an investigator! She immediately said yes I would love one. So Josh was willing to give her that blessing, and it was one of the most powerful blessings I have witnessed. The spirit was so strong. We talked with her at church to see if she decided, but she still has not told her parents, and that was the only thing holding her back. We had a really good conversation with her and our investigator Teresa who is getting Baptized on the 13th as well talked to her because her family is not supportive at all either. They are both so amazing, they are so strong and have such desires to do what is right. Just keep them both in your prayers this week :)
Coree, one of our new investigators is so amazing, you would think he is already a member, he is so solid. He is just trying to build his testimony of the Book of Mormon and knows that as he keeps reading, he will begin to know for himself.
Ze is so amazing, He came to church this week as well ( All five of them came to church this week!) and he just loves the environment. He has come so far, it is the coolest thing to witness the change this gospel makes in people's lives. They just seem genuinely more happy.
I love Bellingham so much, this ward is so amazing and these people will forever have a spot in my heart. Transfers are next week, I don't think that I will be transferred, but you never know. I am so greatful for our amazing investigators, they truly have made an impact on my testimony that this gospel changes lives. I know this church is true will all of my heart, there is so much love, peace, and joy that comes from it. I hope you all treasure up the words of the scriptures daily. As much as we need to nourish our physical bodies daily, we also need to nourish our spirits. Love you all!
Love,
Sister Stokes
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