Agustin is baptized!

Hey all,

 

Well on Saturday, we had the amazing experience of seeing Agustin get baptized. He was so prepared by the Lord to come unto Christ and receive the gospel. He has a determination to become better and to obey that is a great example to me. Made me so happy to see him make those covenants. It was very humbling to be able to help confirm him. So thankful for the opportunity to be a part of that. :)

 

We had a few investigators come to church yesterday! It was great to have them there and to see the members come and see and get excited about the work. 

 

We had a transfer dinner that the stake puts on for all the new missionaries. It was nice not feeling like the new guy ;)

 

I am sorry to hear about Grant and Jack. I will keep them in my prayers for sure and I hope everything works out.

 

Ooooh it amazes me every time hearing about how fast Emmie is growing. She is so cute!

I am excited for general conference! While I will miss the cinnamon rolls BAD, it will be an amazing thing to watch it on the mission. And it will be hard to watch it in Spanish! But I am very excited and it is a great opportunity for investigators as well.

I will send pictures pronto k? Thank you all for your support and love and prayers. It is a great experience to be in this work. The Lord really does call the weak things of the world, and I am a testimony of that! But I know who He calls, He strengthens and qualifies if we are willing. I love the gospel and my Savior. This truly is His work!

 

Love,

Elder Stone

Lots of rain!!

Lizard we found in our house!

First transfer already done!

Sorry I forgot to mention that transfer week p days are on Tuesday!!

 

I can't believe it has already been a transfer. Almost 3 months. wow.

This week was a very good one! We really saw the Lord's hand in His work.

Sometimes when you thing something goes wrong, it is really a blessing.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders and we were going to go visit an old investigator that had been dropped. I ended up getting the address wrong and the lady was totally white, uninterested, and had no idea who the people were that we were looking for. Oops! But as we were walking back to the car a spanish family pulled up. We talked to them, left them a card, and set up a return appointment! We went to the appointment and they weren't home, which isn't uncommon, because love them to death, but Spanish just never remember. So we were a little frustrated but as we were leaving we saw the sister missionaries helping someone move some stuff. We went and helped them and they said they had jsut tracted into a spanish family nearby! We went to see them and they are amazing. We ended up seeing the family we were trying to see later anyways, and had a great lesson with them. They should be coming to church this sunday and they are incredible. Even when things fall through, I know the Lord will provide. He put you in that spot for a reason.

 

We got rain a couple days ago all day! It was freezing and I definitely need a jacket. Bleck.

I will probably have to write more later and send pictures!

We have been finding all kinds of critters up here. There are spiders everywhere, so no surprise there, but there was a scorpion in my bathroom and we found a lizard in the house last night. Fun times!

 

I love you all. Thank yo uso much for the packages and letters and all. As of right now I don't need anymore snacks :P We have a ton, and I love them :) But probably not much more for a little while....!

 

I really appreciate it though. Thank you for the music Grandma and the games! And thank you all just for your love and support. I miss you all, and I love you so much. 

We ran into a guy this week who told us that he had an addiction to gambling and it destroyed his life. We told him about the plan of salvation and he just said he didn't really care about that because he doesn't love his wife and he is only there so the kids can have money to live. He has basically given up on life and doesn't care, and it all started from that gambling addiction. It is so interesting to meet so many people and learn so much, and sometimes very sad. But I am trying to take advantage of being able to meet so many people! It is an incredible opportunity.

I love you all. Thank you for everything. Keep telling me how you all are, I love hearing about all of it. 

 

Love,

Elder Stone

Pictures of the hiking activity!

Feels like Utah!

Hey guys!

This week has been a pretty slow one. We failed to meet a lot of our goals which was frustrating. But we have an amazing week planned and I am very excited for it. 

 

Agostin is still going strong! He has quit smoking and coffee, and it just on fire. It is incredible to see someone growing and increasing in faith. He participated a ton in the gospel principles class, and I just stood there like a proud parent. It was awesome. 

 

We have a couple more people that we are very excited about. I love meeting people that are just incredible. You see them in terms of potential and love and it is so rewarding. Hopefully we will kill it this week!

 

Mom and Dad, I am pretty sure it takes about 6 days or so to get here, which is frustrating. But I am still getting them I think! Not the one from the 10th yet. I got the pictures and everything and thank you so much! Made me super happy and I love looking at them all. 

 

That is crazy how fast Emmy is growing. She is the best.

Spanish is coming along. El Dorado area is really hard to keep up spanish on because you don't get to speak it much, so it has been hard, but still progressing! Some people are still almost impossible to understand. But getting there!

 

Today we went up to do a hike as a zone activity or whatever. As we got in the higher elevation I felt like I was back in Utah, which is great, but not at the same time! We went on a short hike and it felt really good. The air has been much cleaner. 

 

I am so glad to hear that things are going well with school and all. Keep up the good work! :) I will send pictures and anything else if I can remember! (Always forget when I get on here)

Love,

Elder Stone

Pretty cool miracle!

Hey everyone!

 

My P-day is still on Monday! That was just a special occasion because of the spanish activity!

 

Dad, that is awesome you got to meet and see all them. That is so cool and it would be so amazing to be around them. And the concert sounded great too!

This week has been hard and we struggled to get our goals. Agostin is doing great though and he came to church! It was great and we are very excited for him. That couple that we found that were just golden kind of have dropped off. They didn't answer for our last appointment and I am not quite sure what is happening, but we are trying!

We have been trying to find more people in Placerville, so they don't have to drive super far to get to church, and that is supposed to be our area of focus. We have been using a lot of miles, but we have to right now. We have found a couple potential people and areas that we can try so that has been good. It was really a finding week for us and hopefully this next week we can go hard and find those prepared people. 

 

Something really cool happened this week. On Friday, our dinner got cancelled, which was a bummer. But we were both craving Mexican food so we went to the Tijuana Taqueria, where Agostin lives. We were eating there and a kid that works there kept looking at us when he went by. Finally, when he came to clean up, he asked if we were Christian, and we said of course and such. Apparently his grandparents are members! He just barely moved here from El Salvador, used to go to church there, and wants to go to church here! He is young and basically knows no english, so it is just awesome. He is way cool. And he only works on Fridays. Pretty cool miracle and we are so excited to teach him. 

 

It is great to hear how everything is going! I hope the business takes off and that everything continues to be good. I got Grandma Stone's package, which was amazing. :) I do not have any package from you guys yet, and I haven't got anything from anyone but Ashlie for about a week and a half! Not quite sure, maybe they are just backed up. The recorder is good so far! It is on route back to me right now so I don't know exactly yet, but the one correspondence was good :P 

 

We are going to go hard this week and it should be good. I love reading the book of Mormon. I am learning a lot and I love it. 

I am trying to find things to take pictures of :P

 

If you guys could, I would love to get some more music. I would LOVE some soundtrack type stuff. It doesn't have to be church, just uplifting. So maybe Brook could tell you. Just nothing too crazy, but I would love some instrumental or other great stuff. You can send it on here and I can download it. Just whenever,  but just saying!

I love you guys and I am so grateful for your support. Trying to write as much as possible. It is hard to find time to even write you guys but I am trying. It is frustrating to be short on time and not be able to, because I really want to write you all! I love you all and you are amazing. Stay safe and healthy!

 

Love,

Elder Stone

New Pic's!

 It is beautiful here!!

 Me after helping clean up a house that was burnt down! Yuck!

Smokey air here from the fires!

2 Months Already!

Hello everyone!

It is really crazy that I am already two months into the mission. It is even crazier that when I am done with training I'll be over a quarter of the way through. It really is flying by.

We have been having some pretty good days and some pretty crazy ones. I wasn't able to email yesterday because we had a huge spanish activity down at the temple. It was for all the spanish in the whole mission, and we were there most of the day, so our P-day was moved to today. It was fun but very tiring! I was able to communicate almost all the way which was good ha. I am starting to get better at the language and being confident enough to open my mouth! But it is going well and I am learning a lot.

 

We had zone conference which was really great!

 

So apparently backpacks are officially done. I am going to start looking for a side bag for just around 20. I don't want to spend a lot. If you want me to send back the backpack or anything let me know. There is no rush, and you let me know when it is financially good to get one, but eventually I guess. Until then the backpack is amazing and I am trying to use it the most I can! Thank you guys!

I have started to keep a good study journal this week. It has been a huge blessing. It really is true what the apostles have said that when we record the things that God teaches us, He teaches us more and more. I have learned so much as I have written them down and it helps me feel the Spirit, recognize it, and learn more from it.

We have some great people we are teaching. I can't remember if I have told you about Agostin. He is incredible. He has such a great desire to come unto Christ. He lives in a little room in the back of a storage area for a small Mexican Restaurant. (these amazing spanish people make me so grateful). He is very humble and teachable but has almost nothing. It has been a struggle to get him to church because of that, but we are doing our best. He has a baptismal date for this month and I am super excited. He is also an incredible artist, and he lived on the streets just making money off of them for a couple years. He just freehand draws with sharpie markers and they are incredible and professional. He has true talent. He said he is going to draw us the painting of Christ coming to the Americas! I am extremely excited. Waiting for it is like waiting for Christmas. 

The work has been good. We are trying hard to be believing, bold, and baptizing missionaries. We are improving every day and finding amazing people. Great things are happening I can feel it!

I am so glad to hear about how things are going there!! Emily is so big and cute. Goodness. I am glad the fires are out there and that the air has cleared up! We finally got rain yesterday and that cleared up the air really nice! It is starting to cool down hopefully.

I love you guys and I miss you! The Lord really blesses us to not feel homesick or be distracted. But I miss you and I love to hear how everything is going. Thank you so much for your support and love. Happy Anniversary to Grandma and Grandpa!! And happy birthday late Dad.  I hope it was good. 

I love you guys! I will send some pics!

Love,

Elder Stone