#ilovemissionlife

Hello!!

How are you all doing? my week was great!

but really though. this week was great.  We started off the week with exchanges!!! which was amazing.  I stayed in the area. with my comp sister story. and the sister training leader sister knight. WHAT. yeah. you read that right. i was incharge of a spanish area for a day. i was TERRIFIED. seriously, i dont think ive ever been so scared in my whole life.  but... it was amazing. i made it! i found out that i actually know a lot more than i though.  so yeah. it was amazing.  it was kind of sad, because all of our lessons fell through. but... we did a loooot of contacting! something that is a struggle in the mission for almost everyone is talking to everyone. because we are supposed to do it... but its hard. but this day. i talked to EVERYONE.  it was amazign! i dont know what happened, but all of the sudden all of my fear was GONE. it was seriously the most amazing thing ever.  I was so happy.  i learned so much on exchanges.  mostly my potential.  and then... it was cool because the next day we had interviews with president. and i had no problems so it was a quick happy interview.  but something that he said that caught me off guard was "well yeah sister stokes, i mean, you are ready to be senior companion.  it could happen at any time now."  WHAT. this is only my 3rd transfer in the mission field!!! so yeah. that freaked me out a little. but we will see what happens.

Another thing i wanted to mention about this week.  We started this new program called just serve.  which, basically, we now have a key indicator of service hours. and we are to try and get 10 a week. so to help accomplish that, we started serving at kindred care! its a rehab center, and i loooove it.  oh my. these people are so sweet! we really just go and visit all the women.  and we just walk into their room and talk to them and sing to them.  it makes me soooo happy.  there is one named salvation.  shes from the phillipines. and i love her so much.  she tells us we sound like angels. and theres also doris, she is hillarious.  yeah. all these people are just amazing.  i love kindred care.  old people are the cutest.(:

Also, miracles are always happening here.... one we had yesterday was that... WE SET A BAPTISM DATE WITH THE GARCIAS!!!! just the mom and the daughter, but still. the dad will come one day.  we did it in a different way though. we challenged them to just try, try living the gospel for 3 weeks. and we said that at the end of the 3 weeks, if they feel like this is the life for them, they will get baptized.  and well they agreed, and then hermana garcia told us that she feels ready. that she wants to get baptized because she knows these things are true and she knows that this is the path for her.  but she told us that she wont get baptized until her daughter brenda does. and brenda is the hard one. shes the reason they dont come to church.. and so we now decided to go through her. so we are hoping she really does try and live the gospel for 3 weeks, and that she will get the answer that yes, this is the path for her. its just hard because shes a stubborn 13 year old girl. she wont come to church because she doesnt want to leave the house.. and stuff like that. shes reallly stubborn. so please, pray that her heart will soften.  and i know that if these two make it, the dad will come with time.  (: 

Also, I just wanted to talk about something i studied this week. for one of our less actives, dagoberto, we were studying about the temple. because he wants to prepare to recieve his endowments! anyway. i was studying ordinances and covenents.  its amazing.  if you read in true to the faith, both those topics, its amazing how important those things are.  Then go read Moroni 10:33.  It talks about God's covenant with us.. that actually, when heavenly father sacrificed his son for us.. he was making a covenant with us.  isnt that amazing?  He was willing to let his son be crucified for US.  for our remission of sins.  Thats how much he loves us.  if you ask me... i think its pretty amazing.  and compared to what He did, we really got nothin.  We just need to follow him.  And in my opinion.. it is totally worth it.  Oh man, how would it not be?  Heavenly Father has made these amazing covenants with us... why wouldn't we follow in his path to show him our love in return?  man.  I wish I had more time to explain more. but I challenge you all to go study these.  Also read DyC 82:10; 97:8; 98:13-15.  Those scriptures are amazing.  I also challenge you all to make and keep covenants with out heavenly father.  Because it is worth it.  He has an amazing plan for us, and we need to show him that we love him.

Thank you all for reading, i hope you have an amazing week!! 

Hermana Stokes

pictures.. just me and my comps having fun.  and mom, in one of the pictures you can see our apartment! you wanted to know what it looks like. well thats basically it. hahah and a kitchen and bathroom and study room. 

Another conference passed?

Hola family and friends.

This week was great!! we definitely saw a lot of little miracles, and I don't know about you guys, but I LOVED CONFERENCE. You should all watch it if you didn't get the chance to watch it this weekend.  I was blessed to be able to watch it in spanish.  We watched it at the chapel, and they had english in the chapel and spanish in the relief society room.  Since we didn't have investigators.. we watched it in english. except the last session our investigator carlitos came, but he wanted to watch it in english of course so yeah still english. but it was great! we actually went into the spanish room when they guy spoke spanish so we could actually hear him and not a translator. but that was really cool, even though i didn't understand much of it. hahah i got some of it, its just a lot harder to understand over tv for some reason. but yes, conference was so great!  it was so fun watching it with carlitos.  He was so interested and sat by me asking me questions the whole time.  "what does member of the seventy mean?"  "oh so hes an apostle?"  "when do we get to hear the prophet speak" "this is in utah?"  "can we go there?" hahah it was so funny.  he also lovees the music. like when the motab sang, he would ask me to find it in the hymn book, and he would follow along, whispering the words. he loves to sing, its adorable.

We also had an interesting day on Friday.. we were asked to go speak at a funeral. in spanish. me and sister cefalo. so yeah. now let me explain.  There was this boy, Nacho.  Yes, that is his name. Well its Ignacio, but they call him Nacho.  Anyway, he was 22... and got stabbed.  So sad.  But he was a member of the church, he got baptized 5 years ago into the Tongan ward. (they convert EVERYONE and just get translators)  soo yeah anyway, his family is mexican so they only know spanish.  They are actually former investigators in our area! but yeah, the tongan bishop called and asked if we would speak in spanish at the funeral about the plan of salvation, so that his family could understand.  Tongans are so sweet, they all knew where Nacho is, and they just want his family to know that too. So anyway, it was an amazing funeral.   It was in english, tongan, and spanish. haha bet you not many people can say that. anyway. sooo the program was in english, but all the music was in tongan, and then i gave a talk in spanish and so did sister cefalo.  The spirit was so strong. I was so scared to speak becasue of my spanish and stuff, but as i was looking at the congregation, even the tongans who couldnt understand me were looking at me so intently.  the spirit was so strong. it really was a beautiful funeral, and a cool experience.  we are going to go try and visit the family this week.  hopefully their hearts have been opened and maybe they will want to talk with us.  I think that Nacho definitely died for a reason, as tragic as it is.  we are going to ease into things though, by first just asking if there is any service we can do for them.

Also, a highlight of this week! the church is actually having all the missionaries see Meet the Mormons before it comes out! so we got to watch it this past week! it wasawesome! i don't know if you have heard about it, but it is a movie that goes around and shows 6 mormon families, just how they really are.  it is an amazing movie!! i suggest it to everyone! i want to see it again! ha it is funny, because they do things that you just laugh because you know it is sooo true.  also, its awesome because you can definitely feel the spirit a lot.  I think it's a great way to really show the world who we are.  So yes, everyone, go see it. it's awesome.

But yep that was this week! we also saw some great miracles.  Had some good finding miracles with actually setting up returning appointments! and we added a new investigator yesterday, who was a referral form our other investigators, the garcias! that was awesome. Her name is Gabby, and she actually has a lot of family that are members down in mexico! its pretty awesome! also, the missionaries visited her when she was little in mexico, and she wanted to get baptized when she was 9, but her mom wouldnt let her. she also dated a guy that left on a mission. so yeah shes really prepared. we just have to work through some drinking problems, but i am praying that it will all work out. she is awesome.

So yeah, that was our week! thank you sso much for all your love and support! i love you all!!! 

Also, I realized as we were leaving this morning that we havent took any pictures this week. so we quickly took some selfies this morning. hahah enjoy.(:

HELLO

Hello everyone! 

We had a great week here in concord!!! I love my new companion.  She is visa waiting to go to argentina buenos aires west! pretty cool.  She is awesome! she is my age, her name is sister story, and she is from nampa, Idaho! pretty cool.  II love her so much! her spanish is amazing! I'm impressed.  She was in the Provo MTC in the intermediate program. and she did two mini missions before her mission.. so shes basically pre trained.  

Sorry I don't have much time today, and i still need to write president.  but a couple quick updates!

Sister Story also sings! so yesterday for porque yo creo (why I believe) which is a thing we do every 4th sunday at the temple, recent converts come and give their testimonies! anyway. me and sister story did the musical number! it was super fun. we just sang acapella. but the spirit was sooo strong.

This week has been great.. for some reason, this week, my spanish has really started clicking.  I still have a lot to work on of course.. but like this week something is different. you can ask sister cefalo, she will testify to it. haha she is amazed every time we walk out of a lesson.  I talk soo much now.  but yeah. i love spanish. and yesterday i understood ALL of church. it was awesome. and one day this week we were teaching and i said something in spanish and after i said it i was like wait... i didn't even think about that! it was awesome!! Also, After sister story prayed the other day carlos told me she reminds me of me when i came... and that my spanish is amazing now.  and brother merrill, the High Council for the spanish branch.. yesterday we had a fireside with the stake president and the missionaries of the stake, and brother merrill bore his testimony and talked about how hes seen me grown so much in the past 3 months in spanish and other ways, and how it reminds him of his daughter.(:  so yeah pretty cool.

yeah, we also ate with the merrills yesterday! i love them soo much! seriously, their family reminds me so much of ours. hahah. dad did you get the pictures?  in those, the little blonde boy.. his name is colton. and he reminds me sooo much of benjamin. hes hilarious. they also have a 10 year old, thayne. and he reminds me so much of caleb. obsessed with basketball and knows all the statistics. he started talking about it and asking the elders if they knew certain basketball players and i was like oh my word this is caleb. hahaha so funny.

alright wellll thats pretty much it! we saw a lot of little miracles this week! its awesome.  i love this work sooo much. the church is true people. 

Hermana Stokes

Here are some pictures.

The first is on transfer day.  With the english elders who covered the same area as us.  they got transfered. :( lame. and i also miss hermana zarco soo much.

the second is the bay. we had to drive around oakland last week for something and it was GORGEOUS.

the third is a funny story... we got a referral, went to contact it, no one was there, everything was fine..we left a note. went back a few days later.. and this sign was there. hahahaha people. no worries, we didn't knock. or go back.

Here are the pictures of me and my companions! and some of the merrill kids!! the cute blonde is my new comp, hermana Story.  but yeah.  Here you go people. Enjoy.(:

I'm finally getting a baby sister!!(;

Hello family and friends!

This week was AMAZING.

do you want to know why????

MARCELINO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes, it's true. I have pictures to prove it. oh my gosh and I am sooooo happy. like really. it was a miracle. he told us he still wanted to get baptized on the 20th, which we didnt expect. and then he worked in order for it to happen. when he got to the baptism, i started jumping up and down i was so happy. really though.  it was amazign.  I am so happy.  the baptism went really well. he asked carlos jimenez to baptize him.  it went so well! and then he got confirmed on sunday! it was amazing! I asked him how he felt and he said he felt so happy. after he passed his baptism interview he told hna zarco... "I feel so happy i dont even know how to explain myself. i just feel peace" ahhh and this is amazing for marcelino. he usually never talks. but he just kept saying how happy he was. and when someone asked him who was the missionary who helped him convert, he said "all three of them" that made my day as well. i love him soo much and i am so happy that he took this step to eternal salvation.

Also, funny note... me and my companions got stuck at an investigators house on saturday and soooo the baptismal font overflowed. hahahahahaha. Soooo me and hermana zarco had to put on baptism jump suits and get in the water to pull the drain then put it back in. hahahah it was hilarious and so fun. makes a good story(: hahaha i was laughing so hard.

yeah thats pretty much it. this week was really great. a lot of little miracles, the the huge miracle of marcelino.  ahhh i still cant stop smiling. so many blessings have come in these last two weeks from this trio. i love it.(: 

oh Transfer calls!!! i almost forgot! yeah, let me explain my subject of my message. hahah wellll now i am officially done being trained... and my trainer, sister cefalo, got called to train!!! wooo! and here is the best part... we are still staying together!!! woooo!!!! but they are reopening sis zarcos area, so we are back to only covering our area! so my address on fox way is still good! but yes. me and sister cefalo are going to be in a trio with my new sister... we dont know her name yet. she is a visa waiter, thats all we know. thats why we are still in a trio, because president wasnt expecting visa waiters. we pick her up on wednesday and i am so excited!!! so im technically not training.. but at the same time i am. hahhaa president told sister cefalo to have me help train(: so i basically get to learn how to train. haha pretty sweet! i actually really am sooo excited. it will be so great! and since we are back to only our area, i get to start riding my bike! yay!!! yeah, a lot of changes happened. like... me and sister cefalo are the only ones staying from our district. everyone else is leaving including sister zarco:( im so sad.  i am going to miss her sooo much! but we are getting 4 elders in so that will be cool. we will now have 4 elders and 3 sisters in our district! fun stuff.

but yep, thats it. everything is great and i am so excited for another transfer! it will be amazing, i know it! 

oh and i hit my 4 months yesterday... what. weird. hahaha. 

marcelino is the one on the end in the baptism picture. and thats carlos, who baptized him.

the other pictures are when we had to fix the font.. and also when we went to the visitors center again with some less actives and members and carlitos.(:

love you all!!!

hermana stokes

best mission.

Dear Family and Friends,

Ah this week was so good! really, this weekend was so good! hahah. 

So Saturday, we had the latin america independence day party!  with the branch.. it was sooo fun.  I decided I have the best mission in the world.  Because everyone is from different countries.  So this day, is the day that they all get to celebrate their country.  So they all brought things from their country and set up tables, and also brought food from their country! so we just go to go around and try foods from all the latin america countries(: it was awesome!! Really though.  They also were playing music and they were all doing their latin dances.  It was really the best night ever, I couldn't stop smiling.  I love our branch so much.  I will be sure to attach pictures from it.(:

Sunday was also amazing.  Because... it was THE PRIMARY PROGRAM!!!!!! ahhhh favorite thing ever.  There were I think 16 kids.  Including Carlitos, who isn't even a member.   HAhah I was so proud of him.  He did so well!! Really though.. you know how every year the primary program makes me cry because i see my cute little brothers up there? wellll this one made me cry too. becuase i love all those little kids so much.  So every time they started singing i just started crying. they really are the cutest, and touched my heart.  and they sing sooo loud and good.  I think they sing just as loud as an american WARD.  Really though, I was amazed.  

Carlitos' mom... ripped up the permission slip and threw it away when he gave it to her.  So it is still a no on baptism.  BUT it's okay.  We talked to him and we are not going to lose faith.(: Heavenly Father has a plan.

We had 23 lessons this week.. this work with two areas is AMAZING.  We are definitely seeing miracles from the trio.(: I love my companions so much.  AND WE HAVE 4 BAPTISMAL DATES. WOOO!!! they are almost all for after the transfer.. so I don't know if I'll be here, but it doesn't matter! I am so happy that these people are progressing!!!

You should all go read Jacob 3:1-2.  I love them.

Thanks for all the love and support!! Les quiero y les amo muchisimo!!! 

Hermana Stokes

I will attach pictures to another email. its easier(: sorry, it just takes soo long.

This is Sadie's Bike.  She said she hasn't gotten to ride it yet so they must have a car since they are in a Trio and have to cover so much area.

a trio otra vez(:

Hello family and friends!!!

Well. This week was pretty crazy.

I went on exchanges! spent 24 hours in San Ramon with Sister Wiser(: it was fun.  Two highlights of that... we taught an english class to about 20 chinese old people.  it was the best ever. hahhah they are sooo cute oh my heck.  when sister wiser announced me as a guest teacher they just all started clapping.(: hahaha it was so fun.  but yeah, so it was cool.  they all know the basics of english.. i mean neither of us speak chinese. so we just help them, and they have devices to look up things when they dont understand what we are saying. but yes. i loved it.  

THe other highlight was Rashi, the STLs investigator. shes in her late 20s and came from india a little bit ago.  So her first language is hindi, and she has a very thick accent.  and she is the CUTEST. oh my gosh.  i just loved teaching her.  i think i have the best mission because i get to experience all cultures.  spanish, chinese, indian. yeah. i have it the best way.  but yeah. Exchanges were good.  then i come home and my companion tells me...

oh by the way we have to wake up at 4 in the morning tomorrow and go to oakland and we are going to be a trio. WHAT. so yeah, a lot can happen when you leave your area for 24 hours. hahah. but yeah, sister garcia, a sister in our district, went back to her home in texas.  so now we are in a trio with sister zarco! who is from el salvador! i love her soooo much! really though.  weve just been like this for 3 days, but we work really well together.  i love being in a trio again! its crazy, because we are covering two areas.  so we are always going from appointment to appointment, and stressing trying to get everything done.  but it is so fun, and we are definitely seeing the blessings from it.  i love it so much. plus, i think working this hard is just the best.  i really just love the mission. and there are tons of perks! like we get to teach the people in her area now! like cuco!! we get to teach him as a recent convert. its amazing. also, yesterday we added a new investigator.. one of our less actives sons, yahir. hes 11. I am getting so blessed in this area getting the opportunity to teach so many kids.(: i love teachign kids so much! heavenly father is definitely blessing me.  

also, yesterday we fasted with carlitos, so that his mom will give him permission to get baptized on october 4.  so yes, we have a baptism date.  i have faith that it will work out.

I am doing sooooo well. this week was great.  I am so grateful to be here. everyone is just amazing. thank you for all your love and support!!! my spanish is improving like crazy. it helps having a salvadorian companion.(: but right now, i talk a lot. its going great, i am so grateful.  

thank you all for everything! love you!!

Hermana Stokes

happy labor day(:

Hello my dear friends and family.

Well. This was the hardest week of my mission. but i am okay!!!(: that's the wonderful thing about missions...Even in the hardest times, we can still be happy. We can still do this. 

Some highlights of my week. 

I bought a bike! the bike store is ordering one in for me because i didnt need the newest model(: it should be here this week! woo im excited. now lets hope i stay in a bike area for more than one transfer(:

Dagoberto.  Dagoberto is our less active member who we have decided we want to get him coming back to church.. well. we had an amazing lesson friday night with him.  it had been the hardest day of my mission, and i was really emotional.  but it was 8:30 and i was determined to turn the day around with this lesson.  So then we are about to start.. and i kept getting the impression to sing i know that my redeemer lives.  i kept pushing it away because i knew that if we sang that song, i would start crying... and i didn't want to start crying again.  But i knew i couldn't deny an impression from the Holy Ghost. so i said a prayer in my heart and asked heavenly father that i would be able to sing strong and not cry.  So i suggested that we sing it.. and in this lesson we had dagoberto, carlos(member), and Maria Elena (member). So as we were singing everyone kind of faded away and i was just singing. And I was able to sing strong and clear and not cry(: and the spirit was strong.. and by the end.. Dagoberto was crying. He told us he hadn't felt the spirit like that in a long time. Yeah it was amazing. I'm glad I followed that prompting(:

So some things I forgot to tell you last week... Cuco! Cuco is an investigator of the sisters.. but I wanted to tell you a little about him.  He has been being taught by the missionaries for about a year.  And he has always wanted to get baptized.. but he is 13, and his mom never gave him permission.  Well... last month we all fasted for it.  And the next day we got a call from him that his mom signed the paper.  When he announced it in a family home evening with the branch members.. everyone stood up cheering!!! the spirit was so strong. all the branch members were so excited for him. it was amazing. i almost started crying.  then he got baptized by his dad on saturday.. at the end they just hugged and cried.  it was the sweetest thing ever. Miracles!!!

Thank you everyone for all of your support and love. I love you all so much.  I know this church and I am so grateful to be here doing the lords work.  I love it so much and wouldn't want anything else.  The mission is hard sometimes just because it is so hard to see people reject this amazing gospel.  But when you see it bless someones lives... it is all worth it.  I love this work so much and am so blessed to be sharing it with others.  I love you all! always remember that if you desire it, this gospel will bless your life.

Hermana Stokes

the pictures.. one is taken from the top of the oakland temple.. it is looking over oakland and you can see in the back san francisco.. but the picture doesnt show it nearly as beautiful as it is in real life.(:  and the others are of the temple.(: haha but yeahhh thanks love you all!