Pembroke Pines March 19, 2018

Snippet from Sister Colton's Email

Sister Colton wrote about the meeting with Elder Uchtdorf, I left my notes at home..

"We had the most amazing mission wide conference!!!! Elder Uchtdorf came and spoke to us (for those of you who may not know, he is an Apostle of the Lord, like the same calling as the original 12 the Jesus Christ called when he was on the Earth) I learned SO much from him! He talked about so many things that its hard to put it all into 1 email. But here are some of the things that he taught us:

"We are not the message, the Gosple is the message!"  (meaning there is nothing you do that helps some one become converted, we need to teach pure doctrine, and use the scriptures to teach)

He taught us that Satan will try and make us remember the mistakes in the past, and make us feel as though we have not been fully repentant, but when you have truly repented the promise is that God remembers our sins no more, and that as we continue to be obedient to God that we will be able to claim the holy ghost (meaning we will be able to have it as a constant companion always.)

He spoke of how our goal is to return home totally and completely converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we left as teenagers be we will return as men and women of God.

He encouraged us to remember that we are changing lives and that we should make sure that we keep in contact with those whom we have taught because those are relationships that will last for the eternities.

He encouraged us to be courageous and taught us to use the Book of Mormon because there is power in that book.

One of my favorite things that was said by him was "Whether you are and the beginning or the end of your mission, you need to work as though you are in the middle of your mission."

There was so much more that we were taught and I wish I could just transmit everything that I learned and felt so that you could have the same experience that I did. Because it was just amazing. "

Revelatory Experience This Past Saturday!!! March 19, 2018

Hola Familia!

   Hey Everyone!

   This past week has been amazing!

  

 We saw miracles in Pines and were able to find not only new investigators, but a family! We found the Brookes family this past week, who we knocked into Tuesday night. They invited us in for a prayer and we testified of God's love and how we can turn to Jesus Christ to overcome our weaknesses and become better. They loved it and invited us back on Thursday. They are from the island of St. Kitts (One of the islands in the island chain off of Puerto Rico)! So we went with our Relief Society President to the lesson on Thursday, and her comments and testimony really deepened the lesson on the Plan of Salvation, it was great! It just feels so good to be teaching!  

   We hit our finding goal this past week, which was 45 new investigators, and we found 49 as a zone!!! To celebrate, we are having a zone wide Pizza Party on the Zone Leaders, haha. Each Zone needs to find 45 new investigators weekly to hit our mission goal of 400 New Investigators weekly, and it is really cool to feel the momentum and urgency building throughout the mission! 

  We were privileged to hear from Elder Thompson (area seventy I think for our region), Elder Lynn G. Robbins (Presidency of the Seventy, also the author of 100% Responsibility, which is big in our Mission with President Garns) and Elder Uchtdorf!!!!!! It was so funny, because we had to be there by 3:00pm (most missionaries showed up between 2:30-2:45pm) reading our scriptures reverently, and about #pm President Garns gives us the low down of what is going to take place. It was really sweet, because he started telling us how much he loves us, and he got all choked up and told us that if he ever started telling us how much he loves us again, to give him the sign of crossing our fingers as in an X to say no, and not go there because he got so emotional. Haha, it was funny. We love him!!!

   We all went and organized ourselves by height for the picture before Elder Uchtdorf and security got there, and it was so cool when he walked in the room all smiley and friendly. Two elders on the front row had to move to let him and the others in to sit on the chairs behind them, and he went to pat one one the shoulder and the elders gave him a big hug!!! It was hilarious, haha. After the picture we all got to shake his had as he thanked us for our service. It went by so fast!!! 

   The meeting was by far the best part, President Garns again got emotional when he said Elder Uchtdorf, an Apostle of the Lord, would be presiding at out meeting. That doesn't happen too  often! First President and Sister Garns spoke to us (love them SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!) then Elder Thompson. He talked about how the members are our comrades on either side of us to help us in the work (military metaphors, love them!), Elder Robbins opened the meeting up more for discussion and so we as missionaries answered questions and made comments, which was super cool but also a little scary, haha. I accidentally left my notes back home, but his message was powerful! Then, we hear from President Uchtdorf,(Sister Garns accidentally called him that when she spoke, and he got a big grin on his face!!! He is adorable!) and it was so good! It felt surreal, because at first I felt like I was just watching a conference talk from him over the podium, but he was 6 feet in front of us! He talks with his hands a lot, haha, it was great! 

  I remember how he talked about how it doesn't matter is you are at the beginning of your mission, at the end, or anywhere in between, but that you are always in the middle of your mission! That helped me a lot because I am at the end and you start to wonder if you did all you were meant to, but the mission doesn't have to end once you are released. I can be a Forever Missionary, and plan to be! There was a common theme throughout about Repentance, and our purpose is the prophetic priority to Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts! Elder Uchtdorf talked about how when we repent, we feel that feeling of forgiveness and peace, but we don't forget what we did wrong. We might think that because we remember our sins, we did not fully repent, but that is a ploy of the devil to make us feel unworthy! He admonished us to CLAIM that feeling of forgiveness! Claim the Spirit to be with you as a promised blessing you are worthy of receiving in your life! There was a lot more that really stood out to me during his talk, particularly the promised blessings at the end that also included our families back home (the Powers of Heaven are coming down to bless EACH ON OF YOU!!!) and when I bring my notes next week Ill highlight a few more thoughts I had.

   I am out of time, but I love you all so much!!! Have an amazing week, and turn outward and serve someone this week!!!

Love,

Hermana Stokes

Pictures

A Florida Sunset

Relief Society Activity, I iced the cookies😂

My Last Transfer! (I celebrated with a Face Mask, you are all welcome for the terrifying Picture, haha)

Flamingo Garden's

Last Transfer before returning Home. Transfer #12 :)

Hola Familia!

   We had Transfers this week, and it was so hilarious because we made a tent out of our flat sheets to hang out under last night during the transfer call, and I am finishing my mission in Pines!!! I knew I was staying, and Sister Wingert is also staying! We are going to have lots of fun these next 6 weeks. I can't believe this is my last transfer! It's like when the time finally came for me to take out my mission papers, so surreal because it was always something so far into the future as to never happen, and yet here it is! Time is a funny thing, haha. 

   We found 3 new friends this week!!! It was a huge blessing, because we hadn't found anyone this entire transfer. They are a potential family that Sister Bohlen and I knocked into and had gone and visited the two kids (21 and 16) once before, but they didn't become new investigators then. Joey, who is 21, is so elect! We messaged his Mom, who loves it when we come by but whose schedule is crazy because she is in real estate, and she told us when we could come by to again visit with Joey and Maddie, so we did! It was so funny because Joey got so excited, and even though he had to take his friend James to work right then, we were able to share "Because of Him" with them and get a return appointment that very next day! We brought a young woman from the ward, Juliana, to the appointment, and we shared a Mormon Message about the Hope we can feel through Jesus Christ and living His Gospel. That opened up a wonderful conversation about the Atonement, Repentance, and Hope and Trust in God. It was amazing!!! We told Joey about YSA and he is interested in going, but couldn't this past Sunday because he had to take his sister to a soccer game, but he told us his goal for this year was to be baptized!!! He will do great in YSA, and I m grateful for the Lord's hand in guiding us to their family my first transfer in the area.

  

   I studied Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life the other day for a family home evening(that sadly didn't end up happening, but next time!), and I thought it was really interesting the more I thought about it. I feel like there are different times where we are able to reach out to more people who aren't holding fast to the Iron Rod in our life, or even found it yet. In the mission, we talk to so many different people each and every day. We OYM as many people as we see on the street. In my mind's eye, I can see this little stretch(my mission) along the strait and narrow path as a part of my life where it has taught me to reach out to everyone I see along the wayside and tell them of the safety found in grasping the Iron Rod that leads to the Tree of Life. It was fun for that to play out almost like a movie in my head as I read Lehi's account coupled with Nephi's interpretation of his father's dream.

   Sister Thurman, who is living in the same house with us(I served with her my 4th transfer!) will be training these next two transfers, so it will be fun to have a brand new missionary in the house with us! We are excited! Sister Mercado is straying in the Zone, just moving on over to Hollywood Hills South, which Sister Osborne and I pink washed into that ward my 3rd transfer. So fun! 

    We are all very excited to be hearing from Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Lynn G. Robbins from the Presidency of the Seventy this next Saturday, so stay tunes, it'll be life changing! Haha. 

 I love you all so much, have an amazing week!!!

Love,

Hermana Stokes​

March 5, 2018

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

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