This week: 20th birthday & 1 year out?? WHAT!!

Hello my fellow friends and family! well, as many of you know I have been booted out of the beloved Russian work and am back in English. I think President wants to keep an eye on me so he put me in an area where I will see him all the time, plus I am serving in his ward, haha. But my new companion is Sister Jones! We go wayyyy back, all the way back to last year around December I think? She was my Sister Training leader while I was in Bellingham and we have been around each other a lot throughout our missions. It has been a blast already! She is from Enoch Utah and will be going home in December! 

But lets go back to Tuesday, the day before transfers, That was a crazy day! Sister Pryshchepchuk and I started out the day going to the doctors for both of us haha, all is well. we then had checked out this food bank that we possibly could do service at, but didn't really feel like going our last day together, but I felt like we needed to go! So we did and there are always a lot of Russians who go there, but there was a volunteer named Anna who was from Russia! We get talking with her and she has been looking for a church to attend. She was very much interested in what we had to share and even asked for a Book of Mormon and wants to come to church! we swapped numbers and they will start sharing more with her! Miracles!

So my ward I am now over is the Mays Pond Ward, and It has been on fire! They have been teaching someone named Aaron, who is actually from Hong Kong, but he is super cool! Long story short, He met a member on a plane and it started with a "fart joke" lol. It's easy as that Folks! Just opening your mouth and talking with people. Everything relates to the gospel haha! But we taught him his last lesson this week, lesson 5 and He was baptized this Saturday! It was an amazing service, He even gave a testimony/speech and it was awesome. 

Really cool miracle,

We were teaching our Friend Laurie and she is on date for December 1st. she is an older women and has been through a lot in her life. Her husband passed unexpectedly in the night about 5 years ago and it has been really hard on her. But we were talking out front at a table about the Book of Mormon and how it connects to the bible and everything, and while we are just having this lesson, a guy who was painting her neighbors house comes up to us and says, "I just wanted to say thank you, I've been over here listening and just wanted to say thank you, I am a believer, God bless." Laurie goes, "Come and Join Us!" but he was on the job painting haha. we sadly couldn't find him after her lesson, but one day we will!

This Sunday was 5th Sunday and we were asked to give the lesson to all the adults about how they can share the gospel through technology. It went surprisingly well for not preparing for it at all haha. We helped out a lot of members who aren't the best at using their technology to know how simple it really is to use technology to share the gospel to our friends. We later had a lesson with some members in our ward and went through the restoration with them. It was super cool though, the wife's dad goes to the ward that President Nelson went to when he was here and so they went, her dad also gave the opening prayer to the meeting.They were all able to meet him, but the 9 year old son was grabbed by President Nelson and he gave him a big hug! they said he bent down to his height and told him he loves him. I couldn't even imagen. The wife was saying how sweet President Nelson's eyes are, like you could tell from pictures and things, but being that close to him was unreal the spirit that he carries.

We had the Come See For Yourself Fireside That happens every 3 months put on by President Wilding and The O'Hara's were two out of the 4 Recent converts who spoke! I love them so much, they are up in Oak Harbor, but the spirit was so strong that entire meeting. I Love this Gospel and the impact it makes on our lives as we live it. I am way excited for General Conference this upcoming weekend and hope you all can do something to prepare for it! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Stokes

September 24, 2018

Russian work coming to an end September 24, 2018

This has been a fast last full week of this transfer. Sad to say I will be leaving and going back to English work, but I am excited at the same time. It has been one for the books, and I can say that I love Russian culture, they are so nice and love to feed you everything they have! But a little bit about this week:

We have been trying to find new people to teach, but it's hard when our Russian potentials live all over the place and driving takes up most the time. The last potential we tried one day was named Rustik, we first off couldn't find where he lived, and we're about to leave, but right before we left the complex, I saw his apt. number! So we go but he wasn't home, but while were at his door, someone comes up behind us and it was Rustik! He just got home from work haha. He was super cool and said that he could probably meet another day. So that was a blessing.

Another miracle was at church yesterday, we are setting up translation and one minute before sacrament starts this man grabs my attention and asks for translation and so I give him one, but don't have time to talk. So afterwards, he says that he actually is just trying to learn Russian because his parents are from Russia, and that he is interested in learning more about this church! We asked him lots of questions and he has a long time ago gone to a church service before and talked with missionaries, but has had a feeling he needs to make this apart of his life. He thought he was taking too much of our time and said "Sorry, I just have one more question, during this meeting I was having this feeling over me, it was a very good feeling, may I ask you what it was?" and so we explained to him it was the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to us. But it was way cool! He also said his parents are wanting to learn more too, so the Lord is blessing this work!

We provided service to our investigator Victoria with the twin babies, she needed to go to Costco, but it is way to difficult with her babies, so we came with her and helped her in Costco! It was great.

We met with our other investigator Sophia and she fed us these homemade turkey/chicken meatballs, soup, and lots of other Russian styled antres. She is doing good, her husband has not been health wise. So crazy, Sophia's Husband Leonid was born in Belarus the time when the Nazis were taking over and his parents were in those camps. His mom gave birth to him while they were in hiding and they put a stock of corn in her mouth while giving birth to him so the Nazis wouldn't find them. So he has gone through a lot in his lifetime. Leonid's friend when he was a baby as well while hiding was crying and to make him stop crying his parents choked him so he wouldn't give up their hiding place, and he has grown up the rest of his life with a messed up neck and vocal cords. It is so sad. I think they said he passed away a couple years ago due to the damage from that day as a baby. They showed us the article Leonid wrote about it I'll put it in my pictures. 

We had English Practice with Shahita and her husband from Pakistan, They are the sweetest couple ever. Not interested in the church, but the nicest people you would ever meet. I am so sad to be leaving them and so many others. Her husband, who doesn't speak English very well tells me "give me your hand" and starts reading my palm! he tells me so many things about myself that were actually accurate haha. He told me that the first man that proposes to me or that I love "won't be good" and I was like well that's concerning lol. He also said my 3rd child will be a boy😂 so we will see if this is accurate haha.

We got to help out at our Stake day of service and labeled lots of food which was fun.

So we were in Everett on Saturday and it is pouring rain, we lost where our car was and were running in the rain! by the time we found our car, it looked like we had just gotten out of the shower. We were freezing and had to got to a lesson right after in our wet clothes haha. we're not smart.

It has been such a blessing being in this Russian work, I will remember the people I have been able to meet forever and the impact they have had on my life. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Stokes

A Work and A Wonder

This has been one busy week that I will remember for the rest of my life. I will start off from the beginning. 

We had interviews with our President on Wednesday, Transfers are next Wednesday and the 2 Russian sisters are coming. He told me that he wants to hear my thoughts on what I think would be best with them coming so he can have more of an idea what to have happen. So I might be training one of them English and just do some Russian on occasion, or sister P will train both of them! but we will see, If I train one of them, I would have to white wash somewhere (which means both of us are new in an area we don't know anything about) and that would be a little chaotic haha. But the Lord knows best!  

Exchanges!

We had Exchanges this week and I went to the University of Washington (U-Dub) YSA with Sister Lowry! It was such a blast, that campus is huge and soooo cool! I miss YSA and It was great being able to talk to so many of them. All you have to do is go outside an there are people everywhere and you just got to talk to them! We met some awesome people and even found an awesome potential and got her number. We were visiting Less active members of their ward who they have no idea who they are and the first one lived down town Seattle in this really nice apartment that was locked. We called her room number but no one answered, the front desk person inside asked us who were looking for and told him her name and he goes, "oh you won't find her there, she is on the 10th floor for the wedding reception" and lets us in thinking we are going to that because we're in dresses😂 once we're inside he saw our name tags and looked at us confused and it was a little awkward. He asks, "Is she expecting you tonight?" We go "no" lol and say, "we probably will just text her" and he goes, "Yeah, that's probably best" and walks back to the front desk haha.

We went to Seattle 3 days in a row: for exchanges, visited some referrals in west Seattle, then for President Nelsons Devotional.

President Nelson's Devotional!

We met with another zone at 3:00 to wait for our Bus that would take us down to Safeco Field, but 45 minutes go by and they tell us our bus broke down on the highway. We couldn't get a hold of the manager to send a new bus and so we decided to say a prayer and 30 seconds later the manager calls us and tells us there is another bus on its way! We finally get in our seats right when President Nelson is walking out, we got to sit in the Suites in the mariners stadium which was way cool! The spirit was so strong in that stadium, it has probably never been that reverent in a stadium with 49,000 people before ha! 

Each of the talks they shared with us were so powerful and spirit driven. I learned so much just by the spirit and gained a deeper love for our Prophet. Sister Wendy Nelson's talk was so amazing, She started off her talk saying something like this, "for some reason, the song 'take me out to the ball game' keeps echoing in my mind. I am craving a hot dog. That hasn't happened to me at a devotional before." She talked about her experience of being the wife of a prophet and some experiences she has had. Her witness and testimony of her husband being the Prophet for these last days and was foreordained for this calling was indescribable.  Sister Nelson talked about how her husband has more frequently than ever received revelation in the night time, and when he does, he writes it on his yellow notepad.  she said something on the lines of this, "One time, in the middle of the night, I was awakened by the spirit telling me I needed to go to the other room. 2 hours later, I came back to bed and my husband tells me that he just received the most amazing revelation these past 2 hours." She says she has never looked at what he writes because she knows how sacred it is, but when it happens, she normally will just be silent and listen to him so she doesn't overstep her boundaries. I have so much respect for her, she is an amazing example of what it means to be a women of faith.

So one of my goals to prepare for this Devotional was to read President Nelson's past Conference talks. One talk I read was from October 2001 called, "Set In Order Thy House" and while I was sitting and listening to President Nelson speaking on Saturday, He starts telling a story about a rafting trip he took with his wife and 9 daughters. I was so confused why this story sounded so familiar to me like I have already heard it, and I realized that it was because I just read it this past week in that Conference talk from 2001! It was so cool! He also talked about his experience in a plane and the wing caught fire and they were going down to their death, it is also a Mormon message. I loved all the inspiring words that were said during the devotional. I took away so much from it and am grateful for the Revelation we are able to receive as we listen closely to the spirit and what He wants us to learn. President Nelson at the end says he's grateful for all 45,000 of us who came tonight then sat down, The organ starts playing and he gets back up and stops the music and says, "I Believe repentance works" then said the total number of people in attendance is 49,089! we all laughed and cheered.😂 

Our Recent Concert Sergei and his wife were able to got to the Devotional and at church the next day they're countenance was so different, they were glowing! They were so happy to be there! That was super special. Vanya from our Russian group translated for the devotional to Russian for those there and he said that when he read over the talks they didn't seem special, just normal talks, but once they started giving the talks, it totally changed and the spirit struck him! 

I love this Gospel and am grateful for the many experiences I am given here on my mission. I hope you all will prepare in some sort of way to here our prophet in a short couple weeks in General conference! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Stokes

September 10, 2018

 Sergei Baptism

The Lord's Prophet is coming in 5 days!!!

We have had such a great week here in the Pacific Northwest, The days are getting cooler and the leaves are starting to turn color. More rain is coming our way, getting ready for another winter! well, we started off the week doing a lot of traveling. We went down to Sammamish to visit our investigator Victoria! She always feeds us Russian food and is the nicest lady ever! She is the one with the two month old twins and doesn't have a belief in God. But holy cow, we had such a good lesson with her. We started out just sharing a Mormon message with her about Earthly Father's and Heavenly Father, and it got us talking about so much! She had so many questions regarding the Bible and how they all use the same book but have so many interpretations of it. So we shared the restoration with her. She also asked how come we need Christ to repent, why can't we just forgive ourselves and move on, and we explained His purpose in coming to the Earth. 2 Nephi 2:6-8. She had so many questions and it was great because we had the answers to all of them, even pertaining to life before this life and life after. She told us that we are lucky we have the faith we do and that it makes us so happy. She said it is hard to unlearn what she has already learned and knows, but she is open with us and we are excited to keep working with her!

We went up to Mount Vernon this week to visit some referrals we have had. we had a lesson with one of them named Janna, we met with her before because she wanted help with family history, but we were able to leave a Book of Mormon with her last time. We asked her if she's been able to read it at all and she said she has read some of it! We talked to her more about what the Book of Mormon is and invited her to church. She said she would love to come, but it is just so far away where we have Russian group. But she speaks good English so we might come up with her to a ward up here!

Sergei was Baptized this weekend!!

It was such a great service, it was half in Russian half in English and it was super cool. Lots of people came to support. Our Bishop asked after he was baptized, "How do you feel?" and in English he says, "I'm Happy!" and it was so happy!! that was my first time hearing him speak English! But I am grateful I was able to help prepare him for this covenant, it was a special day.

With President Nelson coming this Weekend, I have been preparing everyday by reading conference talks given by him. He is such an amazing man and I have learned so much by him! I would encourage all of you to do something to prepare for conference coming up! There is always something the Lord wants us to learn.  2 Nephi 28:30- "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

We need to be willing to open ourselves up to receive revelation, and it takes preparation to do so.

We were able to watch the Face to Face Devotional with Elder Cook yesterday at a members house. It was really good! All about church history, you should all take time out of your day to watch it! I am so grateful for those who sacrificed everything for the gospel. The more I learn about them and their history, the stronger my testimony grows. If they were willing to put their lives on the line for a book, then I sure better be willing to take 18 months to serve the Lord and spread this good news. I hope you all can reflect on the sacrifice so many made so we can have the fullness of the gospel on the Earth today. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Stokes