So blessed

Hey ya'll. (:

I say that because I have a companion from Texas who says that all the time and I think I've started to say that(: hahaha so yes.  My companion!

She is from Houston, Texas, born and raised.  but her mom is from Reynosa, Mexico! (where hunter is serving--what so random!)  and her dad is from El Salvador!  So she basically lived the life of all the kids we teach here.  spanish at home, english every where else.  Her parents don't really speak english, especially not to them.  So yeah, even though she has been in the english program her whole mission, she is fluent in spanish.(: it's fun.  But yeah, I LOVE HER. so much.  oh man.  Hermana Orantes.  We have a lot of fun together, she's actually hilarious.  She just has two transfers left, so she goes home in april.  I hope I get to stay with her till then!  And it's actually funny.. she was actually called spanish speaking.. but this is her first time being in the program.  haha she has been waiting for it her whole mission, wanting to be spanish, so shes really happy now.

Um andddd not much happened this week honestly.  I sent hermana corbitt off, that was sad. she is home now i guess! weird.  And yeah then I picked up hermana Orantes.  oh and news with that!  haha while we were at transfers, the san francisco west zone leader came up to me and was like sister stokes! our new sister training leader!  and i was like what? and he was like oh you didn't know?  you cover our zone now too.  haha so yeah fun.  we now cover two zones, so we are STLs for both.  which means we now cover 9 companionships, 19 sisters.  Which means we do 9 exchanges a transfer.  woo. and i thought 6 was a lot.

And then Saturday!!! guess what we did.  Man, we are so blessed.  So, Elder Neil L Andersen came and spoke to us!!! just our mission.  So we fit all 250 of us in a little chapel and we got to hear from a member of the 12, for the second time in 2 months.  So amazing.  We all got to shake his hand too! It was great!  He actually told us that it is very rare to have multiple of them come so close together.  I'm so grateful.  And it was probably one of the most amazing meetings I've ever been in.  Elder Meynes was there too, a member of the 70.  Both of their talks were so great.  I learned so much.  And Elder Andersen is so awesome.  He was so funny, and his grandchildren were there! It was so cute, when he wasn' talking, his two little grandsons went up and sat on his lap.  It was adorable, i was dying.  Then he had his 6 year old grandson Austin go up to the pulpit and recite the 13th article of faith! and he did it perfect!! it was the cutest ever!! and then he told us what he thought it meant to be honest.. ha it was so cute. 

He also talked a lot about the Atonement.  I loved it.  I love the Atonement so much.  We are so grateful.  He talked about using the book of mormon to testify of the atonement.  There are soo many places in the book of mormon that talk about it.  he talked a lot about 2 nephi 2 and the mercy, merits, and grace of the atonement.  it was amazing.  I really liked how when he was talking about repentance, and how important it is to teach repentance.  If people don't understand repentance, they won't have the desire to change.  An investigator has to have the desire to change. I loved when he said "We are not perfect, but we can be worthy. Worthy to take the sacrament, worthy to serve a mission, worthy to go to the temple."  It is so true.  We, as humans, make mistakes every day!! but guess what!? No one is perfect.  But we can be worthy,  Through repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can always be worthy to follow him.  But that is the key, we have to go through him, because we cannot be worthy on our own.  We need His help.  But we can do it.  We can be perfected IN Christ.  

Ahh so good.  I seriously learned so much that day.  And I am excited to keep studying the Atonement and repentance so I can better help my investigators.(:

Ahh people. The mission is the best. Okay,  for all of you who are deciding whether or not to go on a mission, I am going to answer your question right now.  Go.  Just do it.  Missions are the most amazing things ever.  I have learned things that I honestly don't know if I would've learned without it.  I have started to understand more of the Atonement, and I am so grateful for that.  And on top of that, I have felt a happiness that I have never felt before.  Serving the Lord is the most amazing thing.  I love it so much, and never want to stop.  I think I'll just stay on my mission forever. (:

So yeah, that was my week.  I hope you all are able to remember how important the Atonement is, and how important repentance is.  I love you all so much, have an amazing week! 

Con Amor, Hermana Stokes

Picture:  sorry... hahah me and hermana Orantes realized how lame we were when we realized we didn't take any pictures this week! not even when we looked nice on saturday! ha so we took a quick selfie today.(: