It's Been A Wet 'N Wild Week!!! March 5, 2018

Hola Familia!

  

  Hello from South Florida!!! It was hot a few days ago, and has since cooled off, and it is so nice right now! I hope every has had an amazing week, and if not, choose today to make this one 10X better! "Choose righteousness and happiness, no matter what your circumstances!!!" That sits on my desk everyday! 

    So to address the title, last P-day we had a water balloon fight zone activity which was so fun! It was a little rainy too, which was hilarious! We played ultimate Frisbee with water balloons quititch style, if any of you know what that means, haha. Basically we had "bludgers" on each team that would throw water balloons at the person holding the frisbe, and if they hit them, the other team would get the Frisbee. Needless to say, it was super fun! 

   Then later that week while knocking, the sky opened up and it DUMPED on us! Haha, we tried knocking a few more doors, and then booked it to the car(we were unprepared, its dry season!) a few streets away and got soaked haha. We took a few pictures :)

   Now this next part gets a little more serous, I just feel like I need to share this with all of you (whoever reads this anyways, haha).

    I am reading in the beginning of Ether right now, and I love it! I just started chapter 3 today, but the last 3 verses of chapter 2 got me thinking. They say, 

"23 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.

24 For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.

25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?"

   It was impressed upon my mind as I read these last few verses, especially verse 25, that the challenges and trials we face are from God, and that He has prepared them for us for our good. They are the means to the end of us one day becoming like our Heavenly Father. Another scripture that has been on my mind the past few days is found in 1 Peter 1:7,

 " That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ[.]"

   Really that whole chapter is amazing, but it is where Peter speaks of how the trial of our faith is worth more than gold, though it be tried with fire, that really stands out to me. All of these amazing scriptures have helped me to take a step back and ask myself, what is God trying to teach me here? What am I to learn? We face so many trials in this life as part of our time here upon the Earth, and sometimes we might question why we need to face such difficulties. I know that God's plan for us is perfect, and that when we trust in Him and His Power to lift us, comfort us, strengthen us, and change us, we remember His promises to us, as the righteous, as promised in Mosiah 2:41. LOOK IT UP. I know that scripture is true, and that those promises are REAL.  

   Here is an experience I had this past week with facing and overcoming trials. When we were knocking in a gated community up in Weston, I was afraid of being yelled at and having the security guards called on us before we could knock more than 3 doors, so I was praying so hard that the people we knocked into would at least be kind to us. I was essentially telling God that here is my tiny little mustard seed of faith, and that though that is all I could muster in the moment, You have said that that is enough to work miracles in Your name, and that is all I want to do here. I just want to help these people. And you know what happened? Every Single Door we knocked that someone answered, the people were SO NICE to us, I wanted to cry, and later I did in a comp study our district leader gave us on Saturday. It reminds me of the story of the Brother of Jared and the 16 stones. The finger of the Lord touched those stones one by one, and each time the Brother of Jared saw a stone light up, his faith was strengthened. So much so that the veil was taken from off his eyes and he saw the Lord, and His faith became knowledge! In a much smaller sense for me, with my experience, at each door, when we were kindly turned away, I could trust more and more in God's power and how faith in Him brings down that power into our lives. This area truly has been a refiner's fire for me, and I am grateful for what I have learned, felt, and for the conversations I have had with God. I have had to completely rely of Him, because I am weak, and I feel fear, but I know He can take it away and make more of me than I could ever have been. That is the hope I hold onto. I hope my experience can help strengthen each on of you, because God can manifest His Power in your life, too. It is not just available to His missionaries, it is available to EACH ONE OF US AS CHILDREN OF GOD. "Doubt not, but be believing" is what Moroni exhorts us to do. We are here to be tested. Once we understand that, our course is set in an undeviating path toward the Love of God. Hold to the word of God, cherish it, and never let it go, and we will all make it back to our Heavenly Home.

   I love you all so much, I wish I had the words to describe how much. You mean everything to me. Keep holding on, we are all in this battle together, but the secret is, God Always Wins. 

Love Always,

Hermana Stokes

​

February 26, 2018

February 26, 2018. 16 Months

¡Hola Familia!

   Hey everyone! I hope you have all had a great week wherever you are! Always know that God loves you, no matter what!:) This past week has been pretty fun. We weren't able to find any new investigators, but we are always searchin' haha. 

    We sure g happy birthday to Doris, a friend of a member who turned 93 years old this week, she is super cute! The cake was yummy, too! I'll include a picture for you guys. 

    We had exchanged with the sister training leaders, and it was so fun! So my first area in the mission was Doral South, and last May the Doral ward dissolved into the Hialeah ward because they were both struggling so much. Well, our STL's work in the Hialeah South Area, which includes all of Doral, my first area!!! It was SO fun to go and work in my trainee area after an entire year! We were able to go to Breadman Miami(my FAVORITE Cuban Bakery EVER!) And knock on the door of my former investigator Pedro. We talked with his mom, but he went back to Peru, but hey, we tried. It was SO fun to knock in Doral, every door is Spanish! We knocked into Yoraxi and her grandson Gabriel(9) and they are from Venezuela. For those of you who don't know, Venezuela is having a lot of problems and the people are suffering, and it was so good to be able to comfort Yoraxi who has been here 2 years. She still has family and close friends in Venezuela, and so we prayed for them and for Yoraxi and hee familynhere in the States. It felt so good to finally really gave a good conversation in spanish with such sincere people, Venezuelans have my heart, I love them so much!

   I miss proselyting in Spanish, I really do, but I know that God has a reason for me being in an English area. I really want to find those people that I am meant to serve and help in this area, and I hope the Williams and their family is someone we can help bring back to the Gospel. We weren't able to visit with then this week, but we invited them to the Pig Roast ward activity on Saturday. It was really fun, and we were able to talk yo lots of members and help one who has recently gone through a divorce. We have several members in our ward who are struggling with specific challenges that I know Sister Wingert and I can help with(offering support wise/personal experience). Its just frustrating when schedules don't work out, but we will figure it out. 

   When on the exchange Friday with Sister Brown, we had a US A blitz on the FIU Biscayne Bay campus, and there was this little path several students were going down that has this beautiful spot that overlooks the water, so we took advantage of the scenery and took some pictures:) 

  This morning we went to a bakery and ate the little treats at a Gazebo looking over a canal, it was beautiful! There was even a Swan haha! It was fun, we took some jumping pictures but none of them quite worked out haha. We tried! 

   That is something I've been learning a lot in this area. I thought I knew that before, but this has been a refiners fire. No matter what, we just have to try, to put our best foot forward and place everything else in God's hands. In Hebrews 10:31 it says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." To me, I understand that verse to be saying that although we can't see the bigger picture that God sees, to be in His hands is the best place that we could ever be. To be the instrument in His hands, the pencil He holds as He carries out His plan for us, is where I always want to be. That is where we find Peace, a peace that can be found nowhere else. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful for the privelge they have given me to serve them by serving the people of South Florida. Though we don't know the end from the beginning, I know that God does, and He will help us go down the right path if we let Him help us. And He wants to, that's the thing! He WANTS to help us, we are the ones who pull away, who think we can do it on our own, but I testify it is 100x better with His Divine Help. I love my mission, it really is the best thing I could do with my time. I hope all of you have an increased desire to serve someone, to turn outside of yourself. I love you all, have an namazing week!

Con mucho Amor,

Hermana Stokes

February 19, 2018

February 19, 2018. It's P-day Again!

¡Hola Familia! 

It hasn't been to long since I last emailed, haha, so I don't h
ave too much to add:)
Saturday we started working on figuring out how to transfer our paper records to the phone, it is going to be a long process, but a great help and facilitator of the work.
Sunday was fun, we had ward conference and we were asked to speak to the youth for 20ish minutes and help then find ways they can share the gospel in their spheres of influence. Haha, we did a role play of how you can mention church when your nonmembers friends ask about your weekend, it was fun. That night we had a meal appointment with a member who's YES son is LA, and we shared a message about family history work around a fire pit they had bought for Christmas. It was awesome! 
We had dinner with the Williams on Saturday night which was awesome! They are so fun to talk with, I am excited for them to come to church hopefully soon. They have family in town from Utah this week, so hopefully they can be a good influence on them, we don't know all the details. 
So yeah, that's about It! Haha, it's weird because we just had Pday 2 days ago, but it's fun. I know that this work really is important and that we can each pray for opportunities in our own life to help people grow closer to God and on day accept the fullness of the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ. I invite all of you to do so! I love you, and I know from personal experience that turning outward and serving someone else lightens our own burdens. That's just how it works!  
Have a great week!
Love, 
Hermana Stokes

February 16, 2018

Temple Trip.... SmartPhones. February 16, 2018

Hola Familia!

   Hey Everyone, how are you doing?

   This past week has been really good, we went to the temple this morning, and it was amazing!!!! I LOVE the temple, and am so glad for that rule change with President and Sister Garns. So earlier this week, we visited our part-member less active family the Williams we have been trying to work with, but haven't had an actual lesson or anything with them yet. We visited them Tuesday night with the primary president again, but this time, with 5 activity day girls who brought Valentine's Day cards and presents for their two daughters, one 9 (Reese, not baptized) and the other 3(Olive, and she has QUITE the personality haha). It was really fun! Then, our assistant ward mission leader and one of the stake high councilmen visited with them Thursday night, which we didn't know about until after, but that, too, went really well!!! Our assistant WML told us that they hadn't even brought up church before the dad mentioned wanting to come back!!! We are SO excited, and the mom texted us last night inviting us over for dinner tonight! I have such a good feeling about them, I love them so much, and I've been praying so hard that we could figure out why they haven't been responding as well as we had hoped to us staying in contact with them and what was holding them back from church when they clearly want more good friends here in Florida, but here is the evidence of that work! It just took a little longer than we had thought, but God's timing is PERFECT! We still have a lot to do, I am just really excited that we are finally seeing some forward momentum, haha. 
   We were asked to substitute Seminary this morning, and the lesson was on Helaman 8-9, where Nephi had just taught the people in Zarahemla about Repentance and now the wicked judges are persecuting him. One of the principles the lesson highlighted was how we need to support our prophets and how that truly blesses our lives, which I thought was really important. It got me thinking about how we are focusing so much more on teaching from General Conference addresses, and valuing that form of modern scripture more. We truly are so blessed to have a modern-day prophet and apostles, and thought their counsel and guidance is not accepted by the rest of the world, I know it to be true council given from God, and the His Spirit helps us understand the warnings and guidance they give us! 

   Zone conference was amazing! We had a member from the Stuart stake come and speak to us on the power of the word of God and as well on missionary work, and he shared an experience from his mission where he baptized an amazing young man, and then the punchline hit---that man's son is currently serving in our mission, and he called him up to the pulpit and that moment was absolutely beautiful for them and for all of us privileged enough to witness it! They were both in tears, it was SO COOL!!!!  This truly is God's work, and He does work in mysterious ways, but I know those ways are the best ways, and that our leaders are truly inspired to send us to our specific missions, and in every other facet of their work!!! 

   I Don't remember if I wrote about this or not, but last P-Day (like 10 days ago, haha) we went to the beach and got ice cream! We also puffed hair luau flowers for service at Flamingo Gardens, which was fun, haha. Either way, the past week and a half has been great, I love you all, the church is true!!!!

Love,

Hermana Stokes ​