Charity never faileth

Dear people.

Okay so sorry I didn't tell you guys my scripture for last week.. it was Words of Mormon 1:7.

But this week my scripture is 1 corinthians 13:2-3.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity,it profiteth me nothing.

 I love these scriptures.  I love that Charity never faileth.  It really is the most amazing concept.  And these scriptures make me think a lot.. even if we are good at a lot of other things.. if we have not charity.. we are nothing! It's crazy. But it is so powerful.  

Things are going well here in Brentwood.  (:  I love the work.  We are teaching a lot of people who like to bible bash us right now.. haha one of them is Brother Ferrier.  His wife is a less active member.  He has a lot of religious background and does not believe in the church at all but is open to learning.  Last night we had this awesome lesson with him.. It is good because Hermana Hilton knows the bible really well.  So she was able to show him a lot in the bible. But also, it was really cool because as we were teaching this quote from PMG came to me by Brigham Young:“If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like smoke which arises only to vanish away. But when I saw a man without eloquence or talents for public speaking, who could only say, ‘I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord,’ the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and a light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them,filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true”  Then it was so cool, we were able to testify so powerfully.  And I don't know if he felt the spirit because you have to be willing to be able to feel it.. but I felt it so strong.  It's just so cool that the promise is real that the spirit will testify of what we say. (:

Theresa is doing great, the Montiels as well! We didn't see Isaac this week.

I also went on exchanges with Sister Tata! It was a wonderful day. (:

We also gave two trainings this week!  one at antioch zone and one at concord. it was fun. (:

Here is an awesome video link.. you should all watch it. (:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-10-01-apostle-testimony-montage?category=prophets-and-apostles/prophets-and-apostles-sub-category&lang=eng

Also, here is a picture of us and our roommates! I realized you guys have never seen them.. they aren't even in our zone and we aren't in our apartment much so we don't see them all that often. But they are the tongan sister in the area and are awesome. (: sister Mataele and sister Jones or Sonasi(her tongan name.)

and also here is a picture of the concord zone.. and us! it's the other zone we cover. did I tell you? we got two more sister companionships this transfer.. so that means two more exchanges(: 

Love you all! 

Hermana Stokes

life is good

Hello!!!

This week was good. We went to the visitors center with Theresa!! That was so good. We were able to attend the Why I believe fireside as well. for english. It was really good! She is doing really well and is progressing.  We just are trying to figure out how to strengthen her even more by November 7th.

The Montiels are doing well as well... he came to church!!!! and is going to be coming every sunday!!!! we are so excited about that. Ah they are awesome, and we feel so close.. we just need to figure out how else to help them.

Isaac is awesome!! So we had a lesson this week and we watched the conference talk by elder Martino.  It was awesome. Isaac at the end was like, "I actually felt impressed to fast and pray about the church this past week. I am going to soon... I feel like I was the same way.. before I was just praying out of curiosity. Now I really want to know what God wants me to do."  Ah it was so awesome!!! We are hoping he can overcome the temptations of Satan though. Because he is really close with his pastor at his church and we are worried that when the pastor finds out he will try to stray him.  But, that's when Isaac just needs to learn to listen to God rather than man.

Everyone is doing well!! Sorry this email is short.. not much else to tell. but the church is true!!! I love you all so much, have a great week!!!

Hermana Stokes

pictures: our last district picture before elder martin went to his mission in india! and the second one is us at the temple with Theresa(:

life would be nothing without conference

Oh my goodness I love conference so much. (: SOO MUCH. 

What talks did you all like? 

all of them I'm sure. 

Okay so this week was good! We had MLC. That was really good. 

Oh I guess I should say, I'M STAYING IN BRENTWOOD!!!!!!!! I'm going to end my mission here and Hermana Hilton is going to send me off(:  I am happy beyond belief!!!!! Oh my goodness this is a dream come true. It's so nice because Me and Hermana Hilton can just work super hard this last transfer.  I was scared to have to go through another adjustment then have it be over before I knew it.  But I am so glad that I can just stay with her. Plus, Brentwood is the BEST. We get so spoiled here. (: So I am so happy to stay.  Hermana Hilton and I will have spent 4 transfers total together! only 3 in a row. But total, that is 6 months together! So it's fun. (:

I love conference. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk.  I think it is so important that we remember what he said.. THE GOSPEL WORKS. It just does.  Do what he told us, think about your time in the gospel? what good has it done for you?  We were talking about this with the Westons a while ago.  The gospel is so awesome. And even if it weren't true, it would be okay like that. Because I mean, think of everything you have done while being part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... thing of everything you have learned... do you regret any of that? probably not. so it's so worth it. but you wanna know what makes it even better? IT'S TRUE. (: I am so grateful for that. (: We are so lucky to be a part of it.

I also loved the ponderize talk. (: I strongly encourage all of you to take Elder Durrants advice! Ponderize a scripture a week. I know you can do it, it won't be hard I promise.  I already started doing it today.  My scripture of the week is D&C 103:36 

 36 All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith.

My MTC teacher gave this to me the day I left, but I have never really taken the time to learn it and remember where it is. So I figured this will be a good start.  I love it because on my mission I have learned how important diligence, faithfulness, and faithful prayers are.  The Lord really cares about us, and he is willing to help us in anything. But he does expect us to do something as well.

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. AND I LOVE THE MISSION. (: life is good. I love you all! I invite you all to go over your conference notes and choose a goal that the spirit whispers to you to work on.  I promise it will make you happier. (:

Hermana Stokes  

Sorry, I took no pictures. So here's some cool quotes/pictures I found. (:

i am so excited for conference.

It was a good week everyone. (:

Theresa is doing AWESOME!!!!! oh my gosh we had this awesome lesson with her where she said "I know the church is true. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet. I got my answer, and I know this is the church God wants me to go to."  We were soo excited.  It's amazing! She has been through so much, and she was someone that honestly, we struggled having faith she would make it. It just testifies that the promise in Moroni 10 is open to anyone. I know more than ever that God loves her so much, just as much as he loves anyone else.  Her baptism is scheduled for November 7th, but we think we are going to move up. (:

The Montiels are also doing awesome! We had an amazing lesson at the Elizondo's with them. They had tons of questions.  Then a couple days later we went and did a church tour with them. It was awesome! The spirit was sooo strong. Soooo strong. And while we were sitting in the chapel they recognized it and said that they know this church is good. and they know they will be baptized one day. But they expressed to us that they just struggle with Faith, and they don't feel like they have enough Faith to get baptized.. since they still have some doubts. We are planning and helping them through that though. I know they will accept it soon. (:

I also went on exchanges this week with Sister Su! I went to her area. It was a good day.

Also, womens conference was amazing! AH I cannot wait for conference. It's all me and Hermana Hilton talk about. yayayayy.

Also, I have to tell you about Jason real quick. He is this worker at Winco and he is awesome! ha he talks to all the missionaries that shop there. Every Monday we go talk to him and he asks us more questions about who we are and what our religion is. He has no religious background but a bunch of his high school friends are on missions right now. (: it is so awesome! he claims he doesn't have time to be taught but some of the sisters gave him a book of mormon and he has been reading that and then today we gave him some pamphlets.  Seriously, it's amazing the different people the Lord puts in our paths. It just shows how much he is watching over his children.  We even meet people grocery shopping. Ah it's so awesome! Jason will definitely accept the gospel one day. 

I love the gospel. Yesterday was sad because we missed Porque Yo Creo:((( our investigators cancelled last minute, so we couldn't go. We missed our monthly reunion:( But it's okay! next month hopefully. (:

I love you all! transfer calls are this weekend so send things to the mission home please!

Love, Hermana Stokes

pictures: oh you know.. just classic bathroom selfies. haha. i love her. 

RAIN

it rained this week. it made my entire life. i miss the rain so much.  especially utah summer thunder storms.

Okay so much to tell with so little time! Can I just tell about thursday and save the rest for another week? okay. sooooo... thursday i went on an exchange with Sister Rutia! She is from the Philippines.  She came to my area. We had a crazy day together! Probably the craziest day of my mission!

So the beginning was normal.  Then at 4 we went to teach the westons.. so long story short the phone battery ended up in the drain in the street. So we were phoneless and didn't know the address to our 5 o clock dinner appointment.  The weston's looked it up on their computer.. and we also used their phone to call the mission office to tell them what happened. they told us we could come in friday and get a new battery so we thought "okay all is well because all our appointments are already set for tonight, we can totally be fine without a phone till tomorrow." hahaha. um.. yeah. so then we went to dinner.. our GPS took us there and it was a gated community. but we didn't have a phone to call them for the code.. so we prayed. and a car came so we could follow them in! miracle! but then.. the address didn't exist. GPS took us to the wrong place. (side note, this is totally like that mormon message from Elder Holland that the Lord had to let us in so that we could know this was the wrong place.. otherwise we would've sat there waiting forever).  So now that we knew it was wrong and didn't have a phone I just thought okay even though we are far lets drive to the RS president's house and use her phone. So we did. ha she answered the door and the first thing we said was "we need help"  we used her phone to call our dinner appointment Sister Long while we explained what was going on.  I should mention, at this point it was 5:30.. we were already 30 mins late to dinner and dinner was with a less active we have never met. I was praying sooo hard that she would be understanding. We got to the house at 5:40... and had another appointment set at 6.  We ate and taught a lesson in 25 minutes, the family was suuper understanding.. and during the process we figured out only half of the family are members, and we added the non members as investigators!!!! we have been praying for english investigators, and also for a family to teach.. so this is a miracle!!! oh my gosh so exciting! Anyway we were out of the house at 6:05 but didn't get to our next appointment till 6:20... we were supposed to teach Brother Ottem but we needed a women to teach with us... she couldn't get ahold of us so she left:/ so we couldn't teach brother ottem but he was super understanding! Then we drove to the Elizondo's because we were supposed to have a lesson there with the Montiels. Right as I drove up I realized we never gave the montiels their address.. and we didn't have their number to call them.. the elizondos were really understanding and we left to drive 20 minutes to the montiels to tell them what was  going on.  We got there at 7:45.. (we were supposed to meet at the elizondos at 7).. and they were suuuuper worried about us! they had been calling us and thought something happened. So we didn't get to teach them but they were super understanding but just so grateful that we were okay.  we rescheduled and went to Theresa and made it there on time with a member. had a great lesson with her.. and went home to end our exchange. the next morning me and Hermana Hilton went to Oakland to pick up the battery.  All is well now.

It was the craziest day ever but it was amazing because the whole time everything was going wrong.. me and Sister Rutia were able to stay positive and happy. We kept saying.. "Okay this must be God's plan."  For most people.. they would say this was one of the worst and most stressful days of their mission.  But for me, yes I would say it was the most stressful, but I also would say it was the best day of my mission.  I don't know what the purpose was that out of all days, our battery would go down the drain... but I know that I did learn a lot. And that is that this is God's work. Our Heavenly Father is in control and has everything under control.  There is never any use at getting over stressed and being negative.  Because God has this under control.  We need to trust him and what he has planned for us.  I am soo grateful our battery got lost this day so that I could experience this day.  And how great is our Heavenly Father?! Even with all this craziness, he still blessed us with so many miracles.. even new investigators!! I am eternally grateful for all he has done for me.  I love this Gospel so much and am so grateful to have a knowledge of it.  I LOVE THE GOSPEL.

That's it. I have other stuff to say too but I don't really have time today. Went on another exchange with sister Thao as well. (: and we had an amazing day yesterday at church!!! primary program!!!! me and sister hilton were already crying the second the piano started playing for the first song. ha I love the primary program so much. Cory was in it! (theresa's 6 yr old son) and bianca and jocelyn! we were so proud. we also had 4 investigators at church!!! ahh.. I love the Lord. He blesses us so much.

Hermana Stokes

This is me and Hermana Hilton at zone conference. (:

Then me and Sister Thao. 

Mini Utah

Hi, I live in mini Utah. Seriously, we see so many mormons here. It's weird! Ha our lunch got paid for again today. (:

We had zone conference this week! We gave a training on Sabbath Day observance.  It was taken from the same training that is being given in Ward Council.. so It was cool to give a training received straight from head quarters!  But I learned a lot.  Keeping the sabbath day holy is so important! I have enjoyed evaluating how I make Sunday's most sacred and making goals to improve.

I also went to the spanish branch for an exchange with Hermana Heyn! She is from Spanish Fork, Utah, but was born in Colombia.  She is super sweet. I love her. (: We had a fun day today in 108 DEGREE WEATHER. ha it was so hot and we were outside for like 2 hours. I have an awesome tan line! It was cool though because we were able to still be diligent and work hard even in the heat. (:

The rest of the week was good! Sorry, this is a shorter email.  We went to english Why I Believe yesterday! It was weird. so different than spanish Porque yo creo. but we enjoyed it a lot. We brought the Westons.  I love sister Weston, she is a recent convert in our area and is amazing.

So yeah, a good week! I love Brentwood! and I love my companion. And I love my mission. And I love the gospel.  What more could I ask?

Hermana Stokes

This is us and Cory and Monte. And then there is Leon.  Leon and Cory are Theresa's kids and Monte is their friend. We love them. They love us. It's great. (: haha

I love this church

Hello everyone. (:

This week we had MLC, that was great. I always love meetings with President.  We also were able to have some awesome lessons. Yeah... I don't really know what to talk about this week though. Our investigators are moving a little slower it seems, but still moving! This week I feel like we had some awesome lessons that the spirit completely lead.  It was amazing. I am so grateful for the spirit. I am also grateful for members and their help with lessons. They are amazing. I just love this area.  

We had an exchange this week! I was with Sister Tata.  She is amazing.  We were in my area. She is from New Zealand/Australia.  And I learned so much from her! Seriously, she is just an amazing missionary. Oh and I should point out she is only in our mission for two transfers:( im super sad about that. But it's because she is a missionary at temple square! So i got to learn how their mission works. that was cool! But yes I love her so much. We had a great day and had some amazing miracles and lessons! 

This week I have a question for you to all think about:  "WILL YOU KNOW CHRIST WHEN YOU SEE HIM? WILL YOU RECOGNIZE HIM?"  My companion was talking about that in a lesson the other day and it really hit me.  When we die and we see Christ, will we know him? or will we just know a bunch of facts about his life and teachings?  Obviously, everyone's dream is to actually know Christ when the time comes.  But how do we do that? I honestly believe it is first by reading the book of Mormon and having a testimony in it.  The Book of Mormon holds the fullness of the gospel.  That with the New Testament can help us come to know Christ more than ever.  But also, reading the scriptures is nothing without prayer.  While reading the Book of Mormon, we need to pray to know if it is true, even if we have done it before.  I promise you all that if you read the Book of Mormon fully, and pray to your Heavenly Father, you will receive an answer of it's truthfulness, and you will come to know Jesus Christ.  And then to make it all complete, it's your actions.  It's going to church, serving others, paying your tithing, keeping&fulfilling your covenants.. and doing anything that The Lord asks you to do.  I know that as we do these things, we won't have to worry for when we see Christ.  We will know him, and we will recognize him as our Brother, our Savior, and our Redeemer. 

I know the Book of Mormon is true. And through that, I know so many other things.  I know that Christ is our Savior, I know that Heavenly Father restored the church through Joseph Smith, I know the Atonement is real, I know that families can be together forever.. I know that the church is true.  

I love you all so much, and I hope you can all ask yourselves these questions and evaluate your relationship with God. Remember: He answers prayers. He loves you. And he wants to hear from you.

Have a great week!(:

Hermana Stokes

I love snakes. Our less active Taji has one. I was a happy sister that day. (: and this is Sister Tata!  haha even though she is from Australia.. she was scared to hold it. (:

and a district picture!