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.(:
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