Pictures!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all :) I hope that this email finds you all filled with the Spirit of Christ today. What an incredible time to be a missionary. I love and appreciate you all, and I am so grateful for all your support and love. I miss you all, especially at this wonderful time of the year, but I know there is no greater time to serve the Lord.

Well, I am loving Lodi. It is truly a blessed place. Biking is a new adventure, and I love it! It brings a great feeling to  missionary work.

 We have a baptism coming up this Saturday with a man named Damien. He is such a humble man with such true intent. And God truly answers his prayers. He has strengthened my testimony of this church and of the Holy Spirit. He is amazing and we are so excited to see him enter the waters of baptism and receive the Holy Ghost, and feel the joy and blessings that come from that.

I am meeting so may wonderful people down here and loving it. Elder Fernandez is fantastic, and I am so excited for this transfer. We are going to do a lot of work here.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!! Be safe, and remember that I love and miss you, and that your Heavenly Father does even more :)

Elder Stone

                                       Some wonderful families who feed our missionaries!

Transfers!!

Hello all!  

Well it has been quite a week. On Tuesday, we had the wonderful blessing of going to temple Christmas conference. It is such a blessing to have a temple so close. They had a wonderful program with a lot of music and some talks all by missionaries which brought the spirit of Christmas so strongly. Then we had an amazing lunch. Then President Lewis spoke to us for a little bit about the temple, how sacred it is, and the covenants we make there. Then we got to go to the temple! It was amazing to be in there with so many amazing missionaries. President and Sister Lewis welcomed each one of us individually in the celestial room. It was incredible! The spirit of the temple cannot be beat.

This week, Elder Idso and myself tried to focus on doing better with the first moments with our investigators. We asked better questions, and really tried to listen and let the Spirit work. It was amazing, and we saw some wonderful blessings from it.  

Well this transfer has officially ended. Tomorrow I will be moving to the Lodi 4th Branch! I will be in Lodi, and on bike! It will be a very different experience. I will be companions with Elder Fernandez, who I think just got finished getting trained. It will be fun, and I am sure I will learn so much! It will be fun. 

I hope that you all are getting into the wonderful spirit of Christmas! What a blessed time of the year. It is no wonder that by celebrating the birth of our Savior, and focusing on giving rather than getting, there can be a happier spirit in the air. 

I love and miss you all. Stay safe and warm. 

Elder Stone

Miracles and snow!!

Well we got some snow this week! So that was exciting! I got to drive in the snow because Elder Idso is from Arizona and would've killed us! So that was fun. Pretty sketchy at times in the icy hills!

We had a good week and we really saw the hand of the Lord! It is the small miracles that we need to look for and be grateful for! We had an unexpected on this week. We went to our appointment with one of our main investigators and he wasn't there unfortunately. He is in a trailer park, and there are a few spanish families as usual around, so we decided to try a couple! First we caught another person home and set an appointment! He was like 17 or 18 and loved talking about missionary work and what we do! And we walked back around to move on, and there was a lady moving things into a truck, and so we helped her out! "You guys came just at the right time!" It is the best thing ever to hear those words. So then we talked to her mother! A lot of her family are members but she doesn't really know much about the church! She was white, but it was a cool little miracle. And then right after that, our appointment pulled up! And we had an awesome lesson. The Lord works through mysterious ways! 

Well I hope you are all staying safe and warm. I hope you can all feel the spirit of Christ this Christmas season. What an amazing time. I love and miss you all. Have a blessed week!

Elder Stone