August 6, 2018

Happy Monday everybody!! I hope you all have had a great week! It has been great here in WA let me tell you. We are starting our last full week of the transfer, I don't know where the time went, but it is crazy. We have no clue what is going to happen with transfers so we are in for a surprise! We will find out who will be training on Thursday so we will see if I will be training a Russian sister.

We went down to Bellevue on Tuesday to have a lesson with a Less Active Russian member, it went really well, she is such an amazing women, just super busy. She is a Gymnastics coach and is always working, but wants to come back to church!

We had service at a farm this week, we primed a door and it was raining lol, but we also got to pick blackberries and take them home. 

So our apartment is not the best, so we were able to get some different furniture this week and some of the elders came and helped us. They tried to fit some of the dressers in their car but would not fit😂

We had lessons with some of our investigators, they area all doing good. We taught Victoria, who is from Russia the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized, she said she would, but she still has a problem with Joseph Smith and the Polygamy thing. But she asked us about The temple sealing and if she and her husband could be sealed before baptism so it shows she is still interested and believes in eternal marriage! haha, just trying to help her gain a testimony of Joseph smith first.

Megan our one English investigator came to church the past two weeks! She is so awesome, just scared to commit to baptism, but we will get there with her, she is practically Mormon already.

 

#oneWORDtheWORD

 this weekend was the onewordtheword event and it was awesome! So many people posted a picture of them with the Book of Mormon and what it means to them in one word. It got so big, over 10,000 people were interested in "attending" the event! All because these two elders in my district had an idea and put it into action! such a cool experience. 

I know we can all make an impact on others even in the smallest ways. We just have to be willing to share what makes us happy, even just describing one word the Book of Mormon means to you. People will want to know why this book has changed your life, so don't be afraid to share it!

 I want to leave you with a scripture since I haven't for a while.
Alma 26:37
"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

I know this is true, he is aware of each of us wherever and whatever situation we may be in. We are here to help one another and I have seen that in my mission. I am here to help so many people I didn't know needed my help, and there are people here I have needed to help me. I am grateful for the Lord and how mindful he is, this doesn't mean there aren't going to be trials ahead, there always will be, but just like Ammon and his brethren, we can do all things in the strength of the Lord. I hope you all can look to see who needs you this week, even if it is just a phone call, it makes all the difference. 

Love,

Sister Stokes

July 30, 2018

The Russians are Coming!!! July 30, 2018

Well everybody, This week has been great. we have had some funny experiences that I am excited to share with you all.

so we had over 14 lessons this week which is real good for us, one of them was with a less active women sister Vandelac. she is so cute, after our lesson with her, she told us she has a huge watermelon she got from the dentist and wanted us to cut it up so we could eat it together. so we start heading to the kitchen and she is trying to get up. we ask her if we can help her, but she said she's got it, so we keep walking, next thing we here is her gasping really loud and I turn around and she is falling! She falls and luckily the couch we were sitting on breaks most of her fall. We sit her up and she says she's okay. We tried to lift her up, but we just could not get her up. So she tells us that she just needs to call 911 because this happens all the time. So we get her the phone and the first thing she says is, "Hi, I have fallen and I can't get up." Then 4 min. later and firetruck pulls up and 3 huge men walk in and in 3 seconds lift her off the floor and into her wheelchair. After they left she goes, "They were cute huh. I called them for you." 😂 we were dying! then she goes alright, lets go cut the watermelon! Oh my goodness all of that just so we could have watermelon. 

So we had interviews this week and president said he still doesn't know what the plan is going to be with the 2 Russian sisters coming in the next 2 weeks. He told me that I will most likely be training one of them, but not sure where. But Sister P loves working out and because we drive so much all the time, she asked if we could start running after 9:00 pm before it gets dark. President told her yes and asked if i'm okay with that and I said yes and so we have been running every night and working out in the mornings as well! It has been so nice, I am sore and it is great! But we ran to a park and sister P wanted to swing for a second. there was a man sitting on the swing and we got talking with him. He told us all about his life and we told him about how were missionaries and he was super interested. He has never heard anything about Mormons, but we were able to make him an investigator! It was so funny because we found someone after our day was already over. On the job 24/7. 

President also met with our Russian leader about what will be best for Russian work but I guess they still aren't sure what is best, so president said he is just going to be praying really hard to see what is best for the two sisters coming in.

So we have been planning an activity as a zone for Saturday the 28th for about a month and what is was is we grouped up with another companionship and made a storyboard something about the gospel. We did family history. The bad thing was we didn't know there was a bike Marathon going on the same time on this trail! 😂 So it wasn't as successful as we would have hoped, but in different circumstances it would have been better. We still were able to get a phone number and a couple people stopped on the trail and talked with us. We were also giving out water. One group of elders before they even were able to set up got cussed out by someone and told them to leave, but that was because they were right where the race ended. It was an experience for us all.

Well everyone, That was my week, It has been great and filled with many memories and great life experiences. I love you all, I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Stokes

Pics:

The elders in the car trying to fit the aisle for their story board😂

July 23, 2018. Bothell Washington. Russian Speaking

July 23, 2018. Russian Speaking 2nd week

This week has gone by so fast, We started off the week going on exchange with our Sister Training Leaders. I went to their area because no way am I being left in Russian land with no one who speaks Russian!😂 But It was good! We walked up to a group of teenage girls sitting in the bed of a truck and start talking to them. They were giving us attitude! wow I don't miss those days at all lol, but we didn't give up, even though it was very uncomfortable, we brought up family history and guess what! They got interested when we told them they can download the app and find their ancestors and then click on something called relatives around me and see how closely related each of them are to each other. Family history works!

We had lessons with three of our investigators, Sofia, Leonid, and Megan. In our zone conference we were asked to start using baptismal calendars for our investigators, which is putting them on date for baptism and having something for them to do each day counting down to their baptism to better prepare them for it. so we tried so hard to put them all on date and showed the the calendar and explained why it's important to set a goal, sadly they all declined the invitation. It was very sad. But it's in God's timing.

We went to a less active Russian members house and made dumplings with her and her family then had dinner with them after, it was super fun! Now I know how to make dumplings! They are way easy, but making them look nice is another story haha.

On Saturday we drove all the way down to Kent, it is south of Seattle, it is next to Federal Way area. We had a lot of referrals from down there that we needed to see. It was actually very successful. Every referral we visited was home except one! Sister P did a lot of talking that day, and I did a lot of just standing there patiently, it is honestly way hard not being able to say anything because they don't understand me and there is no point for Sister P to translate these contacts because it would take too long to get our message across. But the Lord definitely blessed me with patience that day. Sister P gave 3 restoration lessons and one Plan Of Salvation lesson to these people and two of them let us inside to talk. I mean I was able to pitch in here and there, but not too much. 

OH MY GOODNESS, after our last contact before driving back up to Bothell, I go to open the car door and I scream. I look down and there is dog poop on our car handles! I could not believe it! some crazy person thinks it's okay to do that! Oh my it was terrible. so that was our adventure in Kent.

Our investigator Sergey came to church again this week! He is way awesome, we are excited to start teaching him because we have been meeting with his wife, but he I guess doesn't like to be taught by sisters, but that's all he's got, so our Russian Leader Pavel is going to talk to him about it. 

Everything in this ward has been changing since I got here, We got a new Ward Mission Leader, and just yesterday, we got a new Bishop! it was so unexpected. and now we are starting to do English work haha. It is all good though. 

I love the experiences I am having on my mission, I know I am learning what I am supposed to and the things I learn will be valuable later in life as well. I love this Gospel and am grateful to help others strengthen their relationships with their Savior. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Stokes

July 16, 2018 Bothell Washington

 Sister Stokes having muscle checked

possible torn muscle