June 26, 2018

This week has been great! We had interviews with our mission president and he said he still hadn't figured out what areas he is going to combine, but that it is possible our ward, Oak Harbor 2nd will combine with Oak Harbor 1st ward..So if it does, i'm probably getting booted out, but we will see. There are around 20 missionaries going home this transfer and none coming in so we have to combine about 10 areas and won't have the luxury of having missionaries in every ward. But it's exciting, we are welcoming in the Bothel, Shore Line, and North Seattle Stakes into our mission today! We are picking up a couple new languages as well! We will have Russian, ASL, some Chinese language and something else haha! There will be one lucky sister missionary who will have to switch to learning Russian... yikes! Hopefully not me:)  

We went to the temple today!! It was so amazing. We have been on a 2 day 1 night exchange since Monday Morning. I am with Sister Price from Oak Harbor 1st and we were able to work in both our areas yesterday. It was so fun, we both had the feeling to knock a specific door and we were able to meet Zach! He is 17 and just graduated, he is going into the air force, but he is way cool and wants to develop a relationship with Christ! so we were able to set up a return appointment with him, but we forgot to pray with him, so halfway down the stairs I was like, "why didn't we make him a new investigator!?" I was determined to, so we went back up and knocked again. He said, "Back so soon??" haha, so we prayed with him and it was great:)

Updates:

Our investigator John who has read the entire Book Of Mormon and up to D&C 110 is now on date for August 25th! We are way excited for him!

Sad News...5 of our investigators dropped us for some reason or another last week.. it was very heart breaking..But that just leaves room for those that are elect and ready to accept the gospel in their lives.

I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to be inside our Lord's Holy Temple today, It has been 9 months since I have done an endowment session and it was just amazing. Our wonderful member Sister Marriott drove us down and we were lucky enough to be in a live endowment session with a girl who was going through for her first time! Shout out to my family for hooking me up with a name to go to the temple with last minute, it was very special. We went to a farmers market on the way back in Mount Vernon and got the best ice cream in a waffle cone and fresh strawberries and rasberries! I also bought Tayberry Jam:) super fun.

The Gospel is real and will improve the quality of each of our lives and bring us greater purpose in this life. I know that we have a Loving Heavenly Father above who is mindful of us each day, He never goes on vacation, He is there 24/7. His whole purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" Moses 1:39. I love you all, remember that you are watched over every second of everyday, it's up to us to reach out to Him.

Love,

Sister Stokes

June 18, 2017

Happy Father's Day June 18, 2018

We started the week off by hiking up Mount Erie with President and Sister Wilding! President was crazy and started running at the church, which is almost two miles till you get to the base of the mountain, then up the mountain is a  mile and a half straight up! He ran the whole thing! It was awesome. He wrote in his weekly email to all us missionaries about it and I want to share it with you all!

"Last Monday, Sister Wilding and I, along with members of the Oak Harbor Zone tackled an item on my bucket list. I wanted to run to the top of Mt. Erie! There is a paved road to the top which is curvy with very steep inclines. As we started it wasn't too bad. We had some flat and downhill grades, so I thought no big deal, piece of cake. Then the challenge began. We had approximately a mile and a half of steep uphill. It was not easy, in fact, it was difficult and painful. We had to keep pushing and encouraging each other and tried our best to remain steady and consistent. A couple times I ran backwards, sideways and I even tried shuffling with my eyes forward on our goal. The key for me was to keep my feet moving forward the entire time. After a difficult stretch we had a nice flat and even downhill stretch. This was a tender mercy and we were very appreciative of this section of the run. Then came another steep incline! We climbed with greater confidence knowing we had just conquered the beast of the hill minutes earlier. The road is secluded and surrounded by trees. You know you are climbing to higher ground, but you can’t always see the view beyond the trees. Sometimes the path narrowed, and we had to step around, through or over obstacles in our way. Eventually we made it to the top. First, we were happy we made it and congratulated each other. Then we took in the amazing view. It was a clear day and it was so beautiful and breathtaking on top. I am so grateful for that experience!

You may face your “Mt. Erie” at some point in your mission or post mission life. An old proverb states that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Stay true and “in single step” with your covenants. Recognize the tender mercies of the Lord along the way. They are all around us! Sometimes we must look through the trees to find them, but they are there! Celebrate the victories and appropriately reward yourself."

We are so blessed in this mission with the most amazing Mission President and wife, I look up to them so much, and have learned what it really means to be a disciple of the Lord because of their example.

We went on exchanges this week with our Sister Training Leaders (STL's) I went to Mount Vernon With Sister Schill! She is dying this transfer..but we had such a great time together! 

Crazy story!

We went to see this Less Active lady named Ashlie who our ward council told us we should go visit, and so we knock on her door and a lady answers and we ask her if she is Ashlie and she says yes. She lets us in and is very friendly! we get talking, and she asks us if we are from her mother in laws church and we told her no we're from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and she has never heard of it?? about 30 minutes go by and she is just telling us about her life and we are both so confused, so sister Pedersen asks her what her last name is and it was not the same last name as the Ashlie we were looking for! it was so crazy though, we told her everything and she was mind blown as well! She goes, "Well, that was divine intervention." It was really cool, so she told us we could come back another time, when her husband is home and so we did. We taught them part of the restoration and were able to make them new investigators! They are super cool!

We also picked up someone last night named Jean Paul, He is in the navy and is from Africa! He was super friendly and way interested, so we are going back tonight!

Half Mission Conference:

We had Elder Kopischke from the Quorum of the Seventy come speak to us on Thursday! He is from Germany and is so Funny! at the very beginning, he told us to right one question down that we have that we want answered, and at the end of this conference he promised us that it would be answered by revelation we would receive. The spirit was so strong that entire meeting and my question I wrote down was answered in many ways. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and also family history work. We were asked to fill out the family history booklet before coming to the conference and while I was able to fill it out, the spirit was so strong, testifying to me the importance of families and even though I have never met these people I was writing down, I felt so close to them and that I have so much love for them. The spirit of Elijah is real and brings us closer to our families. 

Coree's Baptism!

We had Coree's baptism on Saturday and it was so amazing! We sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" for the musical number and President and sister Wilding did the restoration, it was so powerful, the spirit that they bring is just incredible. Coree bore his testimony afterwards and it was very special. 

We met some interesting people yesterday. We met a Wicken if that is even how you spell it, but they have some interesting beliefs and apparently can cast spells and things.. then we met this lady who was super sweet and let us in, but definitely not interested. At the end, she anointed us with consecrated oil, and put water from the River Jordan on our heads haha, so that was pretty cool!

I am grateful for the experiences I have had on my mission this far, I have come closer to my Savior and can see how he has been strengthening me day by day and helping me in every aspect of this work. I know that the gospel is true, it mends broken hearts and families and brings relief to our weary souls. 

Love,

Sister Stokes 

 

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!

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!