Washington Everett Mission

Monday, June 11, 2018

Oak Harbor June 11, 2018

Hiked Mount Erie

President and Sister Willing ran the whole thing

June 11, 2018. Oak Harbor

Hey everyone! Sorry This won't be a long email, but this has been such a great week.

So awesome story, we met Phil a little more than a week ago on the street walking his dog. Little did we know he is married to a do not contact member of our ward. He has investigated a little bit before, but nothing happened. So he said we could come by another time to talk to him and his wife. So last night around 7:30, we pull up and he and some friends are all outside sitting around a campfire. It was really awkward at first, by they invited us right in. So we got talking with them about their life and found out that he is related to both Joseph Smith and Brigham young! But they are both open to us coming by every Sunday around 8!

We have zone conference this Thursday and we have a 70 coming! It is going to be grand.

Love you all!

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Oak Harbor

Sister O'Hara in cuffs and brother O'Hara got himself out of handcuffs using a bobypin!

Brother Ray came and taught us all about drugs and how to tell the different affects each type of drug has on a person and how people use them. Then we were given different drugs to hide in the church and T-Bone sniffed them out! We hid meth.

Brother Ray gave sister Pedersen and I these cool medal coins.

Transfer 6 of 13!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!

This has been such a great week! We had transfers and my new companion is the bomb! Her name is Sister Pedersen and she is from New Zealand! She is the only one in our mission from a different country! i swear 90% of the missionaries in this mission are from Utah and they all have a common friend they know, it's weird haha. But Sister Pederson came out with sister Porter, so two transfers before me. She is so fun!

This week has been great!

Before transfers on Wednesday, sister Harris and I went to a lot of the ward members on Tuesday for Sister Harris to say bye.

Investigators!

We are teaching some awesome people in Oak Harbor, we have been teaching Josh for a couple weeks now, he is doing so much better health wise this week and hopefully it is uphill from here! We had an awesome lesson with him and his less active mom and they both came to church this Sunday!

So on Thursday, after doing service at an old folks home, I saw and man and it reminded me on a guy we met a little bit ago and we told him we would come back and we never did, so I told sister Pedersen that we need to go see this guy named Horace. So after that, we were headed to a lesson had 3 minutes to get there. We drove passed where Horace lives and he was outside on the sidewalk just standing there and I go, "Hey! That's Horace!" And sister Pedersen was like "No way! we have to go talk to him!" But we were going to be late to our lesson so I kept driving, but then felt we needed to go back, so I turned around and we pulled in right as he was walking to his door! We start talking with him and he goes, "I wanna come to yall's church." and so we set it all up and got him a member ride and he came to church with us! This is the sad part, after sacrament, he said that he was going to stretch outside for a minute, but then we lost him. We went around the whole church and he was no where to be found. the only thing we could think is he walked home! It was so devastating! we haven't been able to get in contact with him and our members who drove him even tried.

New Investigators!

So the Schere family was baptized the weekend before I got to Oak Harbor, they live with another family in their house. Her name is Maria and her husband is Bob who is a less active and their 13 year old son is Patrick. Maria came to stake Conference a couple weeks ago and loved it, and she came to church yesterday with the scheres. we had our first lesson with them yesterday and it was so awesome! We asked Maria to say the closing prayer and to ask if what we have shared with her today is true. We are so excited to teach them!

Deets back in Bellingham!

Charlotte went to the temple in Canada! (Recent convert). Ze Is going to the temple this Saturday! (Recent Convert). And Jordan is going to the temple in a couple weeks! (Recent Convert). Charlotte is going to go with them both to the temple! They are all amazing.

Coree is for sure getting baptized on June 16th and I am so excited!

Ivan, who was one of our investigators is now on date to be baptized June 30th! He is a really awesome guy, he is 27 and investigated the church a couple years ago because his girlfriend at the time was a member. So much is happening, the church is true!

I love you all and love this gospel, there is no greater joy than seeing people accept the gospel and it change their lives. I hope you all have an amazing Memorial Day!!

Love,

Sister Stokes

1) us with sister Cottrell! She is the best

2)with the O'Haras

3) with the marriotts

4) with the schere's

5) with sister brown her braided our hair! And sister Pedersen!

Monday, May 21, 2018

1: missionaries and Ze <3

2: friends and Ze <3

3: Tawny and missionaries

4: Tawny and I

5: selfie of Taylor and friends

6: Taylor and I

7: Sister porter and Ze and I

8: Sister Murdock and I

9: Sister Nordstrom and I

10: Pam and I

5 transfers in! Where does the time go??

We are at the end of transfer 5! How am I almost halfway through my mission?? All I know is I will forever cherish these past 8 months since I've been on my mission. I have met the most amazing people that I feel like I have known forever, and I have grown closer to my savior than I have ever been. God really does bless us so much when we serve others, even though it's not always easy, somehow you feel like you are the one constantly being blessed.

Ze's baptism!!

Ze was baptized this past Thursday! It was one of the happiest days of my life. He was radiating with the spirit! He is just another example of how God blesses us with people we didn't even know we needed in our lives till we meet them. (And it's not till we get out of our comfort zone we meet some of these people). But Ze has taught me so much about having Faith. He came from a background of not knowing anything about Jesus Christ, to now having Faith in Him and following his example into the waters of baptism. I have learned more on my mission from teaching others than any thing else.

Transfers:

Sister Harris is getting transferred this Wednesday. My 2nd (and hopefully last) one and done it transfer with a companion! I'm excited, but also change is hard, and a mission constantly changes, but it'll be good.

We have been finding a lot of new investigators, but it's the return apointments that have been falling through a lot. But we have Faith that everything will work out in God's timing.

One family that we picked up a couple weeks ago is Natalia, Alex, and Isaac. Alex is Natalia's boyfriend and Isaac is her son, but they are so awesome. Alex grew up in Nevada and had really close Mormon friends. They are super interested in learning more about the gospel, but there schedule is crazy and are moving in a month to bellingham.. but the missionaries there will definitely teach them:)

Josh is the son of a less active family who is not a member. We have been teaching his mom and we were able to pick him up as well. He has a lot of medical issues but wants to be a provider. He is so awesome.

There are a lot more that we will hopefully start meeting with consecutively.

The schere's are a family that got baptized the week before I got here. The mother and two daughters were baptized. The other family living with them is Bob and Maria. Bob is a less active and we were going to pick up Maria yesterday but they had to cancel because Annie Scherer, one of the daughters has the chicken pox. But she has come to church with the schere's and loves it. So we are excited to teach her!

Also! Coree one of my investigator from Bellingham wants to be baptized June 16th! It is way exciting! We finished his lessons when I was there, but he still wasn't ready to be baptized. He Also wanted to finish the Book of Mormon before being baptized, but he is only in Helaman and wants to be baptized! He was also waiting so his fiance could be there for it.

I am grateful for the gospel and for the lives that it changes. I know that this is Christ's gospel restored to the Earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Lord is preparing us for His 2nd coming and we need to prepare now to be spiritually ready for the days ahead. I love you all! Have a great week!