Hike pictures :)

                                                                Our whole zone!

Mountain hikes with amazing views!

Hello all,

Not too much went on this week. It was a good one! Elder Idso and myself are adjusting and the Lord is helping us find more success. We have been blessed to be able to find and contact a lot of people. This next week we are going to be more bold and loving in inviting others to come to Christ, and I am excited to see what will happen!

We went on a hike today as a zone, and it was great. Beautiful weather, and it was a fun hike. It went along the American River, which runs through the whole mission. Amazing views, and it was really refreshing to be up in the mountains. I will really miss that when I leave this area!

This is the last week of this transfer, which has flown by. It will be interesting to see what happens for next transfer!

Not too much else going on this week. We will be having a zone activity Halloween evening, along with zone training, and will maybe be carving pumpkins and have approval to watch Ephraims Rescue. Should be a fun evening.

I find myself craving spanish food a lot. It is delicious and amazing. 

It has been a hard couple weeks, but it will always get better! There are always miracles if we have faith and try to see the Lord's hand in our lives. Thank you for all of your support and love. Stay strong there! Love and miss you all!

Elder Stone

Some pic's!

Zone service project.

Me, Elder Martinez and our zone leaders, Elder Lagazo & Elder Williams.

Me learning how to milk a goat! :)

A new companion, challenges and blessings!

Well This week has been crazy. It has been a hard one. Elder Martinez got transferred unexpectedly, and it has been very hard to lead the area. It has been a real challenge, but I have learned a lot from it, and the Lord is helping us to have success despite the fact I have no idea what I am doing!

 

My new companion is Elder Idso. There are still a couple weeks left of this transfer, but I don't know if I will be staying with him for the next one or if I will be out of here soon. We will find out! Elder Idso is great and I am enjoying working with him and learning from him. 

 

It has been hard, as three of our greatest families have dropped us this week. It really hurts to see someone that you have come to care about so much about decide they don't want to hear it anymore. Especially because you can see how happy it could make them. That has been hard, but we are going to work through it and try to find those that the Lord has prepared to receive us, because He will not let us fail. 

 

I have been really blessed to have been given a really nice jacket and a side bag for free. It is good, especially because it is starting to get pretty cold up here.  Some of the trees are starting to change up here, mostly yellows! But it looks beautiful and hopefully I can get a picture sometime soon. The camera that I brought out has bit the dust. The system is messed up and it won't function at all. If I can't fix it, I'll look for something and let you know!

 

I love being in this work. I love studying the gospel and having my testimony strengthened every day. I hope you can have that too, and that you can see opportunities to spread the good news that we have! I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers. 

 

Love,

Elder Stone

Crazy and nice people!

Hello all!

 

Honestly this week was a pretty hard one. The work kind of slowed down as we had a hard time getting with our progressing investigators. A lot of fallen through appointments, but also a lot of blessings! 

One great thing that happened this week really shows how amazing these spanish people are. I like white people too, but they are incredible! ;) 

We had an appointment one night and had about 15 minutes till. We decided to go see a dropped investigator and try to set an appointment with them and maybe share something, so on we went. When we knocked, they opened the door and had just finished getting dinner set up. Just right then, they set two more places, got us in, and had us eat dinner with them. Our appointment ended up cancelling on us not 5 minutes later. These people are so kind. But then after we were done eating, they bring out a cake, and it is their daughter's birthday! They sing, take pictures, all with us right there and in it. We had cake and talked, shared a message, and then left, feeling so loved and blessed. These people are amazing. 

Church was hard, everyone who we thought was coming fell through. But we need to focus and work harder to get them there. That is where they can find the most happiness and they can see what we are all about. It is amazing to have them there, and we will try to harder to do that. 

We met some very interesting people. Being up here in the hills, you see a lot of crazy ones. As we were leaving one appointment, we were about to turn on to the main road, but let a guy cross it first. He came over to my window without me noticing, which scared me real bad. But we rolled down the window, and he proceeded to give a very interestingly-worded, spirited, and hostile religious rant. The whole time I was very confused. I think he was commending us for what we were doing, trying to spread the word. But I am still confused. Haha it was hilarious. He talked to us through the window for about 15 minutes, as we just sat there with our blinker on. The poor guy should find help. But that is okay. 

I am thankful for all your love and support, and I want to write as much as I can. Wish time was not so tight! I miss you all, stay strong and keep on pushing.

Love,

 Elder Stone

Roadblocks and bumps. :)

It has been quite the week. Conference was incredible, and it helps so much for our investigators to see the prophets and apostle and feel that power. We have hit a few roadblocks with some of our investigators but we are going to work harder than Satan is so that we can help them. It has been kind of a rough week, but I have been able to learn a lot, and the opportunity to be involved in such a good work is always amazing!

Agustin is doing well. He has some bumps along the road, like we would expect anyone to have, but he is learning and doing well. After we were done talking to him outside the taqueria the other day, some lady sitting there stood up and asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We said no and explained who we were, and she proceeded to bash all three of us. She was trying to convince him not to listen to us, and we told her he was a member. She told him that she was sorry for him, and that we don't have to earn our way to heaven, Jesus paid for it. It made me sad to see someone being very ignorant of what we actually believe, and then being so unkind to someone who is truly trying to follow Christ. This is a twisted world. Why can't we all just get along? :)

 

Maricela is an incredible investigator we are really pushing for. She is a single mom with two kids, and is so humble and willing to follow Christ. I hope we can help her to continue increasing her faith so she can be happy.

 

We are doing well here, it is flying by. It should be an interesting week with many more adventures! Thank you all for your love and support, and I am so glad things are going well there. I love you all and miss you all,

Elder Stone

Agustin's Baptism!

Agustin's baptism!! (He is the one on the right.)

Brayden's 1st Zone Leaders- Elder Williams & Elder Hernandez