First week in Florida :) Week 7

!Hola Familia! (Writing on an English keyboard now, haha)

So, I made it safely to Florida! Which is a feat in and of itself, if I say so myself, which I do, haha. We met the Mission President after getting off the plane in Ft. Lauderdale. He remembered me! (Only after I told him I had met him before, haha. That's okay, he's a busy guy.) We were traveling in a really big group, which was awesome. We had 10 missionaries from the CCM, and we met up with more from the Provo MTC in Atlanta. There were a few English, but I am pretty sure everyone else was Spanish. We also saw a few elders going home in both airports. President Richardson drove us four sisters in his car to the mission home. He talked to us on the way about Ft. Laud and Miami. We met another senior couple and Sister Richardson at the home. We talked for a little bit, but pretty quickly started the interviews. I went first! It was really simple, he just asked a few questions to get to know me better, told me what he wanted in the weekly email, etc. and then I was done. I prayed in Spanish in front of him though, which made me a little nervous haha. We had dinner (They had all arrived and had prayed while I was in the interview) and then we had a bit of training by the APs and then went to the hotel to wind down. I got to bed at 9, which was awesome. I have pretty much been tired every day here, but that okay! I was told I would be, haha. The President didn't get to talk to us that night bc of how many missionaries there were to interview, but he talked to us in the morning at transfers where we met our trainers.

Which leads me to the next topic: My Trainer! She is really nice, her name is Hermana Rosario and she is from the Dominican Republic. She has been out for 11 months, and I am her first baby! We have a lot in common which makes me happy, and she thinks its funny. She sings all the time, which is so great, bc Hermana Tyrrell almost never sang, so I always felt that I was annoying her in the CCM. But here, we sing together! And we can listen to music! Ah, I have missed music. I thought it was really funny, the first morning I woke up at the house we live in (we live alone, she was in a trio before) I guess she woke up and looked over at me, and we were in the same sprawled out position! Haha, I thought it was a funny observation, and she thought it was funny that we slept in the same position. We are serving in the Doral South area, and our ward is all Spanish. We have two elders in our ward too, one is the district leader, and the other is Elder Jackson from district 5D in the CCM. I role played a few times with him. We don't live in our area though, which is kind of funny. Sister Rosario said that Elders lived there before her and her two companions, so they had to pink wash the area.(And do a lot of cleaning, as you can imagine, haha)

I just want to thank everyone who has supported me thus far, and who have written me such inspiring letters. They really help boost my moral. I really appreciate it. Missionary work isn't easy, especially when you don't have any progressing investigators(which is where we are right now..) We don't have a lot of members in our area, and the ones we have tried to MMGP(Member Missionary Game plan) they are either relatively new to the area and don't know anyone they could share the Gospel with, or they just don't have and referrals or friends they themselves could introduce to the church. We are praying for two really good families in the  ward, the Diaz and Fuentes family, that they will have people they can share the gospel with. Any prayers on your guys' end would be greatly appreciated, too. I am hoping to get the work flowing better in out ward and area.

I am grateful to be a missionary, and I know that even if we do not get any baptisms any time soon, we are planting seeds. I know that this Gospel is true, and that by following the example of Jesus Christ, serving and loving others, we can have missionary opportunities arise in our own lives. We read Jac 5:71, 75 to the members to encourage them to do missionary work, I invite you all to read it as well. This is the time to work in the Vineyard of the Lord! We can do it!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Hermana Stokes