Ultima Semana

Have you ever wondered what its like to not have use in your right thumb?? or left if you are left handed?? welp i know the feeling now..you never realize how much you use something till you cant use it... yeah. remember how hermana olsen sprained her middle finger playing volleyball a couple of weeks ago?? well it must run in the family because the same exact thing happened to me except to my thumb....oh goodness. so this email is gonna take a while.. typing is so hard!!! and it hurts. anywaayyyy heres the story... sooo we were playing volleyball, the usual. i was doing so good! oh ya i gotta tell you this first... so this was saturday, elder houmand told me he would give me 10 pesos if i spiked it over him... because hes really good at blocking, because you know hes tall! and then guess what... i did it!!!whaaat!!1 hahaha i was so happy, and yes he did pay up.hahaha. but ya after a wonderful 45 minutes of playing so good... the ball has just been bumped and i can tell its gonna be a little short from going over.. so i go and jump up to tip it over... and im jumping up backwards. welllll then i see this hand from the other side coming over to spike it.. and then i hear a huge disgusting gross loud crack as i see the first joint on my thumb bend all the way backwards. I land on the ground as elder raymond is cheering about his spike... and i am literally in shock and say um i think you broke my thumb. so yeah i guess elder raymond and houmand had both jumped up and spiked that ball. pretty sure it was raymonds hand that did it but it doesnt matter because they both still feel terrible. so yeah at first i was in a lot of shock.. we went to the enfermery and finally the pain started coming in on it so i started crying. the doctor said he couldnt tell yet but he thinks its just a sprain... he gave me a splint and lots of pain meds and told me to come back monday to see if we needed to go to the hospital and get it xrayed!!! can you believe this?? i never get hurt... havent been hurt like this since like age 8!! but then at the ccm... wow ya. so yeah then we went to class and i was really emotional.. i felt so dumb but i was just in so much pain and still in shock. but me being emotional made raymond and houmand feel even worse!!! i cant even tell you how many apologies i have gotten from them... hahaa they feel soooo bad. but i keep telling them that it is okay! i know that everrything happens for a reason. i dont know the reason, but i trust the lord. but yeah. saturday it hurt really bad and i was getting really frusterated. sunday too... i can still write, its just crappy handwriting and writing makes my hand SOO sore. so sunday i was really worried about it but then i asked raymond for a blessing, and i wasnt sure what kind of blessing to get so i asked him to pray about it. later that night he told me he felt to do a healing blessing... it was a beautiful blessing. that really is the word for it. like it was just amazing. exactly what i needed to hear. and ever since that blessing, my thumb hasnt hurt!!!!! it only hurts when i have the splint off or when i accidentally hit it. but yeah... i love the priesthood so much! the lord is amazing!! elder raymond says its cuz of my faith. i know that my thumb is going to heal fast(: it better, because i seriously am so frusterated with it all the time. haha  but im trying to be grateful.

 

I would send pictures but i still dont have a cord... it looks pretty sweet... suuuper swollen. the joint is huge. haha maybe next week.(:

 

ITS MY LAST WEEK!!!!! whaaaaat!!!! got my flight stuff today. wanna hear the saddest story ever??? my whole district leaves sunday night and  monday night... i am the ONLY one that leaves tuesday night... so like 3 am wednesday morning... ugh. i am terrified. i have to leave mexico ALONE!?!?! im freaking out. i will be find once i am on the plane leaving mexico... but until then.. im sooo scared. please pray for me, because i dont know how ill make it. i also dont like that im the one getting left behind. ill just hang with the district below me... but yeah tuesday will be an emotional day.

 

So thursday was AMAZING!!!!! ahhhh! we taught 4 people!! all 4 were amazing. one was agustin, which was amazing as always. the next was hermano carmonas good friend who isnt a member. jessica. it was amazing!!! first bom placed to a real person!!!! the spirit was amazing y i knew exactly what to say and was remembering spanish!! it was amazing! we even got her to pray! and it was supposed to be a one time thing but she asked to meet with us again!!! ahhh i love her. then we taught two lessons for TRC. one to two cousins who are members who wanted to know how to share the gospel to their friend! it was over skype... it was awesome!!! and then we met with michelle... one of hno carmonas best friends. she is coming on a mission to the ccm today]!! but she was really struggling last week with her decision.... so we talked to her. most amazing experience of my life.wow. the spirit was so strong. we shared some great experiences with her and scriptures.we had her give her testimonio at the end and it was amazing!!! wow. it was an amazing experience. hno carmona told us she talked in church on sunday and shared her experience she had with us!!! ahh i love her!! so yeah thurs was the best day of my mish so far.

 

hno soto makes fun of me and my splint... hahahaa its sooo funny. today my district was playing volleyball and im not gonna lie its reallllly hard for me to sit it... i miss it so much. but my district is so sweet and always making sure im okay.

 

but yeah thats me! heres to the last week at the mtc!!! i am sooooo excited to go back to america, i cant even tell you. ahh and i cant wait to be in my mission. okay wellllll love you all so much!!!! adios!!!!

 

ps met an hermana who the skousens told to look for me... haha that made my day. i guess she was really good friends with tanner. also met an elder from lehi who went to lehi that i didnt even recognize!!! preston higgins. it was fun seeing someone from home even though we didnt know each other at all.(:

 

ALMA 32.

 

Hermana Stokes

I borrowed a couple of photos from my niece Brooke's blog since Sadie's camera cord is lost.  They are cute splinter cousins! - Paul

hola

Hola everyone!! 

wow, this week flew by. but actually.... the days are weeks and the weeks are days. probably the most acurate description of this place. yeah, this week was a WONDERFUL week. wow. i feel like so much happened but at the same time...nothing. so here it goes.

first of all.. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!! love you so much dad. i hope you had an amazing day.(: you really deserve the best, i thought about you a lot on sunday.

did I tell you guys that i gave a talk in spanish last sunday? like a week ago?? i cant remember if i told you or not... but yeah that happened. it went well!!! you dont find out if you are giving a talk until he anounces them during sacrament meeting, so everyone prepares one. but yeah i have given one so far and i wont be surprised if i speak again on sunday. also, im teaching sunday school on sunday!! wish me luck! its on laws and ordinances. but its just with my district so i get to speak english... so yeah im not worried(:

OH MY GOSH, i almost forgot. last week... do you guys watch mexico citys weather at all??? AHHHH. last tuesday, at night... WE HAD A FLOOD. probably one of the coolest experiences of my life. ive never seen so much rain. i mean it storms every day here.... like down poors. but this time we were all sitting at devo, which was broadcasting from provo.. when we see everyone at the front being told to move to the back... the auditorium was flooding!!! but you know president pratt... devo went on. but then this is how you know it was bad... after devo THEY SENT US HOME EARLY!!!!! crazy huh!!!! i cannot believe it!!! that never happens. but yeah they told us to go straight to our casas... not even stop at the clase. there was about a foot of water in the street, so we all took our shoes off to walk home. it was soooo fun oh my gosh. my dress was sopping wet. ive never seen so much water in the street. haha it was crazy!! i will try to send pictures... funny story... i lost my camera cord... can you send me a new one with the other stuff to the mission home?? but my companion said i can use hers so hopefully that works.(: but yeah. the pictures dont do it justice though, it was crazy.. wish you guys couldve been here!

so this week was amazing and i know why. i remembered grandpa telling me a story where my dad was having a hard time and then said it changed because he started being exactly obedient.... so i decided to try the same thing. i mean of course i was being obedient, but there is a difference. ever since i made that decision, and have been having specific prayers, i have been sooo happy. like the change is amazing. this really is gods work, and im so grateful to serve him. and its funny because right after i made that decision, elder houmand lead bom discussion with that topic, and it was basically everything i needed to hear. man the spirit is cool that way.

Also... mosiah 18:21... i think thats it.. we decided that is our district scripture. we were talking about it... and we seriously are family. these guys are my brothers and sisters. elder houmand said something that really got me thinking, and i totally agree. he said that we were probably all the best of friends in the pre life and that when it was time for us to come to earth heavenly father was probably like okay guys... i am gonna have to split you guys up for a little while,, but ill put you in the same district in the mtc i promise! hahaa i totally believe it. because we just have this bond like weve known each other for eternity. man. the people here are just great. speaking of that... our older district in our zone... 12b... left today:((((( so i had my first goodbye of my mission. it was SO HARD. seriously, i am going to miss those hermanas so much. i love them so much. but they will be great in the field i know it!!! hermana beatty is going to boston soooo olsens if you see her... say hi for me.(: but yeah are these goodbyes in my life ever going to stop?? obviously not. ah but its okay. elder mua'e left us with a quote... "we come as strangers, we leave as family" ahhh so true. but thats a good thing.

ohhh so i forgot to tell you guys! two weeks ago we got a new district right?? well there is a guy that is 26 in it!! how cool is that! seriously, i think its so good for him. i guess he went in active but then came back and barely made it. he turned 26 his 3rd day here... so yeah hes so lucky! but its weird because i know more spanish than him.. but hes like 7 years older than me! but yeah i just thought that was cool. 

oh and me and my companions just got put as the sister trainer leaders! super fun. we really just have to look after the girls in our zone and give them one on ones. we only have 2 right now, but we are getting 2 more this week!!!

friday, my district went on an english fast.. meaning we didnt speak english all day.. solo espanol. it was crazy! but we did it! pretty cool, but crazy hard! i still have soooo much to learn. i was pretty silent all day..

ohhh and we tried the most spicy guac ever in my life. my companions were screaming. some hermanas had us try it.. i cant even explain it to you. i didnt scream or anything, but my mouth was numb for like an hour after it. hahah oh mexico.

okkkayyyy lets talk investigators. mayra is doing great. but lets talk about agustin. we had so many amazing lessons with him this week. oh man, i love that man so much. he is so sweet. he is having a hard time at home and feels like his family and god hate him.. so basically every time we taught him this week out lessons went out and we taught with the spirit. its crazy how the spirit works. yesterdays was especially amazing. i just kept getting random thoughts and would just say them.. and i knew how to say them. agustin (hermano carmona) had tears in his eyes. so that was how real it was. it was amazing. and heres the best part. after it, during lunch.. hno carmona went up to hna simmerman and said "agustin is VERY pleased with you hermanas. you hermanas are doing a really great job." ahhhhh you have no idea how great that felt. when she told me he said that... i almost started crying. i love agustin so much. and i love hno carmona!! its gonna be so hard to leave my amazing teachers. seriously, they are amazing.

okay birthday shout outs! happy birthday to mckenzie this week!!! sunday right?? i think thats the 22. 19 yay! and then also happy birthday to nicole FRY! on monday. wooo love you guys. and also happy anniversary to my amazing parents on monday(: i hope you guys have a great day. you guys are the best.

okay so two chapters in the scriptures kind of changed my life this week, they were exactly what i needed. man. the lord is amazing. so you guys should read them. DyC 6! love that one, it has my mission scripture in it. and also, elder raymond shared this with us yesterday and it was exactly what i needed to hear... so go read it... 1 corinthians 13! both amazing. charity never fails. okay well i love you so much!!! i will try to hurry and reply to you all, you are all so amazing for writing me. les amo mucho!!!

okay sorry i cant get my companions picture thing to work... so i got no pictures for  you today:( lo siento!!!

Hermana Stokes

 

Sadie downloaded one pic from her companion's camera:

 

 

 

4 Semana

HOLA!!!! wow I cannot believe I am half way done. starting my 4th week. ahhh. anyway... this week was... wow so much. okay. ill see what i can remember.

OH!!

TODAY I LEFT THE GATES.

yes i left the gates today!! the CCM is literally surrounded by walls... like we dont see any of mexico city.. we only hear it..(its crazy loud)... pero, today we went to the temple visitors center!! still bummed that the temple is closed.. pero.. esta bien. it was soooo fun. its a 45 minute drive so it was cool to see the city again. its crazzzyyy. hahahaha mexico is crazy guys. oh and there were only two districts going and guess who the others was?? Hermana Olsen!!! So yeah we got to take some pictures in front of the temple together. sooo cool. but yeah the visitors center is GORGEOUS!!! i love it. and the temple is way pretty. so yeah, today has been muy bien. i wish we got to do that more than once.

Okay so random story. totally saw a bird die the other day.. like it was so sad!!!! me and my companions were walking into our building for class.. when we hear a big thud!!! then i see something fall to the ground!!! I realized it was a bird.. a bird had just ran into the window and fell to the ground dead... it couldnt landed on us!!! so my first reaction was laughter... i was laughing so hard.. the birds are sooo stupid here, its not the first time ive seen one run into a window. but then i hear the trio of elders in our district running toward us.. they saw it too.. then i realized it was dead.. then elder raymond picked it up and put it in my face... and it was soo sad. hahaha poor birdie. but still funny. hahahah. 

okay so I seriously love the people here... i know ive said that a lot.. but i just love them. we had a lot of cool experiences in our district this week. they seriously are my family. and all the latinos here.. okay way cool. like i love mexicans. they are always so happy to see us americans and always love talking in english to us.. i just love it.

okay so i mentioned cool experiences.. well i am not going to lie.. i had a very very hard week. no worries, i am more than okay now. but lets just say i cried i think every day this week... some for just spiritual experiences.. but yes my district just knows im a cryer now. but last p day.. was really hard. after i emailed you guys.. i just felt like crap. and my companion found out her baby brother was born and died 5 hours later. and everyone else was homesick too. so then we had an amazing devotional on faith. then we all went back to our clase and had an amazing discussion which ended in our whole district just crying their eyes out. so yeah we had a crying fest, but it was so spiritual. i think we all felt the love of heavenly father sooo strongly that night. and it was so nice to know everyone was there for each other. but yeah i had a few other hard days... but it got so much better. like sooo much better. i started praying to heavenly father and he seriously helps so much. and i asked him a specific prayer on sunday... guys.. specific prayers work!!! wow. it was so amazing. i just love this work. i am excited to lose myself in it. and i can already feel it happening.. i mean i love you guys.. but i wanna get to the point where i just am thinking of my investigators and companions.

okay so thursday we had our first TRC!!! which is where they kind of teach you how to tract.. they bring people in to act like investigators and we just teach them one short message, one we think they need. but guess what happened at our first TRC.... Hermana Bernall brought in a REAL INVESTIGATOR!!!! like one she stole from the missionaries in her ward... thats how real... and us hermanas got to teach him!!! It was crazy. I cant believe i actually taught a real investigator. his name was ricardo, and he was the sweetest man. he was so sincere and i could just tell that he wanted to know so badly about the gospel. i was bearing my testimony to him and the spirit was sooooo strong. it was crazy. i love him so much even though i will never see him again. its just crazy feeling christs love for people. but yeah that was an amazing experience.

Agustin, and Mayra, our investigators.. are getting baptized!!!! they committed and have stayed committed so it is so happy. haha

some quotes from our amazing sunday. gosh i love sundays. this one was especially good, because it was a million answers to a million prayers. its so comforting to know heavenly father really does here my prayers.. i mean i already knew that.. but its a good reminder.!!

"a positive attitude is an eternal attitude." "if you arent happy now, you never will be. its not your circumstances making you happy, its your choices."

seriously, sunday was soo good. devo was amazing. i cant wait for devo again tonight. ah! okay wellllll i am going to try to figure out this mouse again and see if i can send pictures. i love you all so much!! I really am so happy here. i cant wait to get out in the field!

nos vemos!

goin on week 3!

Hola!!
Wow, you are all so wonderful at writing me. I love you so much. this hour of email time is the most stressful hour of my life... I love it so much.. but time goes by sooo fast!! so if you dont get a reply this week, i am sorry! Im trying my hardest!!!

last week there was sooo much i forgot to tell you... so i wrote things down this week. hahahah here it goes.
Okay so everyone speaks spanish here... even the bugs and animals. hahaa it is the weirdest thing. they all sound so different. 
I forgot to mention where my companions are going!! They are headed to antofagasta, chile! Pretty cool. I havent met anyone going to my mission.. but there are tonsssss of people going to cali here. elder raymond and elder houmand from my district are going to san fernando! pretty fun. Oh and another thing thats different here.... the food....wow. its amazing. hahah the candy is to die for. and their diritos are sooo much better here. oh they have this candy bar called a bueno bar and it is amaaaaazzzzingggg. I seriously wish you could all try it. but yeah I like the comedor food. Sometimes its weird.. and its funny cuz sometimes they try to make american food but they do it alllll wrong. hahahha. ohhh but they have a nutella and peanut butter bar and it is amazing. i eat a sandwich from there all the time. its probably bad.
So I love my branch. we just have two districts but we are getting another tomorrow!!! love love love the hermanas in it. we are all great friends. i also love our branch because we sing every night together... spanish hymns are amazing wow. I love them. my district is ALWAYS singing. and we have alll the harmonies too.. I think heavenly father put us together knowing we all love music. wow Its just amazing. I love it. We are singing for devo tonight, Im pretty excited. We also are almost all whistlers... hahahahha so we are always whistling. its great. usually im the only one like that.
We also probably pray at least 20 times a day... and thats not counting personal prayers.. .and every time we pray we kneel. the only time we dont kneel is when we are in the comedor.. which is because we are all eating. but yes we kneel every time and I actually love it.
I think my spanish is doing really well!!! I dont know.. remember Susi?? yeah well come to find out she grew up in the US and speaks PERFECT english. she is now Hermana Burnell and is our night teacher.. haha and now shes also Mayra, our new investigator who we havent taught yet. but yeah. I love here, and she asked me where I learned my spanish and I said school and she says its reallly good. then also we played a game for class the other day.... and we had to translate things and I was doing SO good!!! I was so happy. I was with Elder Gorham and Elder Raymond and after, Elder Raymond told me he was way impressed and that my spanish is really good. So yeah I think it's going well!! 
We stilll play volleyball all the time, and a lot of the guys tell me im really good so... you know... hahah jk. no but really its sooo fun. Today was way fun, I had sand all over me. haha.
OH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU. While teaching an investigator I had the most embarrassing moment of my life.. I said you will be clean of all your pescados instead of pecados.... for those of you who dont know what that means.. I said you will be clean of all your fish instead of your sins. so yeah. everyone still makes fun of me for that, and I will never ever make that mistake again. hahahaha. But I decided I speak perfect spanglish... thats what all my prayers are.. I talk in spanish till I don't know it. hahah we all do it its so funny.
I bore my testimony IN SPANISH on Sunday!!!!! and the Branch pres came up and told me after how great my spanish is. I WAS SO HAPPY. Its amazing how much ive learned in two weeks.
DyC 6:36... my mission plaque scripture... has ended up being quoted allll the time. hahaha i love it. its a great one to live by.
Ahh but yeah I love it here so much. I love my comopanions... and I love my district. Someone once told my that your district in the MTC will be your best friends for the rest of eternity.. even if you dont see them again till the next life.. I totally believe it. I love them with all my heart. these guys are my family. Its definitely going to be bitter sweet when I leave. Its only been two weeks and I trust them all with my life. And I love my teachers. oh!! Hermano Soto has been our night teacher for the past 4 days!!! love him so much. but he is leaving us for the greenies that come tomorrow:((( But its okay cuz we will still see Him. I seriously just love everyone here.
The mission is so hard. I mean we are working straight 16 hour days.. with no breaks. our break is our 7 hour sleep.. if we are lucky. sometimes I find myself thinking what have I gotten myself into.. or I wish I was english speaking because then I could say all I wanted to say. But.. Then we have moments.. amazing moments.. that remind me while I'm here. Yesterday was amazing. We taught our new investigator, Augustin (Hermano Carmona).. and the spirit was so strong. Then later that day.. we had a BOM discussion with Hna Burnell and Hno Soto... it was amazing. I started crying haha. But the spirit was so strong... Gods love was felt sooo strong.. and I realized.. you know what. This is why Im here. This feeling is too good not to share with everyone. I cant wait to help people accept the love of God.. because they are missing out. 

Well I love you all so much!! Sorry for all the craziness... hahah like i said, its a stressful hour. okay love you and miss you xoxo!!

Hermana Stokes

Also the pictures are me and Hermana Olsen.. for those of you who dont know.. my cousin.. and a district selfie.. super fun.. and me and my comps before volleyball