Terese Baptism :)

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

Went to Edaleen Dairy for Elder Neilsons 

birthday after their Baptism for Naylea

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

Merry Christmas!!! Happy New Year!!!

Stole the elders Santa hats! mar

In Lynden, cool tree house

mount Baker

when we walked 5 miles in the rain, 

In Everson

Happy New Year 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I cannot believe that it is already 2018?? It is mind boggling, well, the past two weeks have been so great! Sorry, I already know this is going to be a long email ha!

• On Monday Dec. 18th, after emailing, Sister P, who opens the family history center for us to email made us crepes with apple, peach, and strawberry fillings! They were so good. 
• Later that day, we went to a Referrals house and the mom and dad answered the door and were super nice. They let us in but Nimzy who we were meeting wasn't home, we started talking with the dad and sharing the things that we believe. He loved everything that we were saying, until we brought up Joseph Smith. He is way versed in the Bible let me tell you, he started saying things and Sister Porter and I couldn't get a word in. He talked to us for an hour and a half! We probably got five minutes of talking throughout. He basically believes everything that we believe other than Joseph Smith and the Priesthood. But the daughter came home while we were with the dad, and she came in, said hi, and the dad just kept talking and we never got to talk with her. The dad clearly didn't want us talking with her though. He was a nice man, loved what we were doing, but told us to be careful because the people we convert, if it's not true, their salvation is on our heads lol. 
• A funny thing that happened is we were tracting and a man comes out and barley speaks English, so after sharing a little with him, I asked if he would be interested if we sent Spanish missionaries over to teach him more, and he just looked at me and said, "I don't speak Spanish." I just stared at him and realized that he was a Chinese man! He didn't really look Chinese, but Sister Porter was dying! He just closed the door and I could not believe I thought he was Mexican.
• Arroch in our ward Fed us on the 20th some type of meat burrito's and didn't tell us what we were eating until I asked what Kind of meat it was, he said Goose! He shot like 7 Geese that morning and just served us up some goose! it wasn't bad, but it was interesting.
• That same day, we were tracting an apartment, and normally no one is YSA or home because break, but two doors in a row were YSA and we were able to make investigators! it was a miracle! They are way awesome, and later we were able to make Julien, in the same apartment complex an investigator.
• the 21st was our Half Mission Conference!! It was so amazing, President Wilding referred back to his Christmas Conference 31 years ago in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and his mission president had them all stand up and introduce themselves, where there from, where there serving, and how long we've been out. The missionaries by the end were counting in days like they've been out  over 500 days and then the older people on the stand said in days how long they have been in their callings for and said like 2,350 days or something and President Wilding points his finger to the crowed and goes, "Beat That!" haha he is so funny. So the Program for the Christmas Conference was someone does a musical number and  then it's followed by a testimony, and then we watched some Christmas videos and the  Light the World Videos and so on. So our musical number was first, and I sang with two other Sisters in my district, Sister Daul and Iverson and we sung "Away in a Manger." We later went into the Gym and ate Pizza for lunch, then did another musical number with our district in the gym with a mandolin and harmonica and sang Silent night. Our president then had us make 72 hour kits for our apartments in case of emergencies which was awesome. And then we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue with lots of snacks and popcorn! It was so funny, the part when they kiss, all the missionaries (elders) are going "OOOOHHH" and President gets up and runs in front of the screen and starts Jumping! We were dying! 
• On Christmas Eve, we had church for an hour and we just shared Christmas Stories and Sister Porter and I both shared something since there wasn't a big attendance there. We later had to weekly plan, but we got tired of it so we decided to go outside and give out the rest of our 23 Light the World cards since it was pretty much the last day to. We just walked wherever we saw people and it was so fun! We only gave out 13 cards, but we talked with some really cool people!
• Later that day, we went Carolling with our district in the hospital to visit a member there. The nurses loved it and said we could sing to others that would probably love it. So we sang to so many people in the hospital, Two different men started crying while we were singing and it was such a tender moment. This probably was my favorite and best Christmas Eve I've had.
• We had dinner with Pam in our ward and her family on Christmas Eve with the Zone leaders and the Hermanas. It was so fun, they fed us Port Roast, Potatoes, salad and other things. They gave us all gifts, We got really cute scarfs and beanies.
• That Night, we opened our Christmas Eve presents and moved our beds by the Christmas Tree in the living room and watched the New Testament videos of Christ. 
• Christmas morning, we did our morning studies, opened our presents, then went to IHOP with the Zone leaders and other Elders in our district. We later went to our Bishops and had lunch with them and got to face time our families! The rest of the day was pretty normal.
• We were tracting an apartment complex and every single door that opened was slammed in our face, we were walking down the stairs and a man was walking up to us and Sister Porter immediately asks if we could share this card with him and he goes, "No, actually I work here, There is no soliciting in these apartments" and sister Porter was like oh really? sorry! and super smiley and nice and he goes "Yes, it says it on the sign out front, so I need you to get off the property right now." and sister Porter is still smiling and says, "oh, ok!" She was so offended afterwards! it was so funny, that guy was real mean. That was the first time we have been kicked off  the property though lol.
• on Thursday, the Sisters in our district gave us an Investigator who is YSA and then an hour later one of the elders in our district gave us an investigator who is YSA, and then one minute after that phone call, the Sisters again found another Investigator for us who is YSA! it was insane! 
• On Friday, we did our "Car Fast" that the whole mission had to do this week one of the days. We probably picked the worst day to do it. It didn't stop raining all day! We weren't aloud to go back to our apartments for anything, so we walked up to the Institute to do weekly planning, and were soaked by the time we got there. After, we had a lesson with one of our investigators, so we go to the bus stop, but we missed the bus we needed to get on my 1 minute, so we had to wait in the rain for 15 minutes. We finally get to the bus station and figure out what bus we need to get on. We make a stop at another investigators house thinking that they live close to each other. Manny our investigator wasn't home, and his apartment number is 3330, and we need to get to 5300, so we start walking and realize that both these investigators were referrals from two different  missionaries in different areas! we didn't realize this when we started walking in the rain for awhile, and then the house #'s went up by 10's and were really spread out! We probably walked 5 miles in the pouring rain for almost two hours! Everything that was supposed to be waterproof, was soaked through and my boots had so much water in them. Our investigator Lyssa we went to see wasn't even home, and the next bus didn't come for another 40 minutes. This town we were in is so small, there isn't a restaurant or anything we could go inside. So we called the Sisters (without permission) and they picked us up and took us to a members house and we dried our clothes and my boots. They fed us dinner and they were so nice! But the car fast din't turn out quite how we planned it too...
• We went to a Baptism on Saturday and Ze was able to come! it was the best baptism I have ever attended. It was a girl who turned 18 the day she was baptized, so is now YSA!
• We found another investigator named coree, and he is so solid, he came to church this Sunday and his fiance is Mormon. He is so genuine and nice and we love him!
• Ze also came to church! He is so awesome, We will teach him this week, he wants to be baptized, but still isn't recognizing the spirit, so we are working with him on recognizing and understanding the spirit.

So much has happened these past two weeks, but so many miracles as well, we have been blessed with so many new investigators that we will be teaching and I can't wait! Our Investigators Montana (maybe)  and Teresa (for sure) will be getting baptized on the 13th! we are so excited for them. Missions are the best, you meet the most amazing people that have the biggest impact on your life! I'm grateful for the gospel and for all those who are riding along with me on this journey and supporting me! I love you all, and I hope you have an amazing New Years!

Love, 

Sister Stokes 

Merry Christmas