Transfer week!

Hey all!!!

Bree is PREGNANT?! Wow!!! Haha that is crazy! Congratulations to them :):)

We had a super busy week, which is good. We have so many wonderful people to see, it is hard to see them as much as we should! Which is good and bad! We are so thankful to be finding so many wonderful people.So it is transfers again. Elder Fernandez will be leaving me and going to Manteca! That will be good for him, but I will miss him, it was a great transfer!! Elder Sanhueza will be coming down here! He is from Chile, and I have heard great things about him, so it should be great.Not much time this week. I love you all. Stay strong and have a good week! Pray for rain :) Miss all you beautiful people. Stay safe and healthy! No storms yet unfortunately. I heard that on Wednesday we are supposed to get some maybe? The fast is this sunday. We need it bad bad!The bike and everything is working perfectly! The shirts are wonderful! I may need another pair of pants...but that isn't anything urgent!Cassandra is doing well! We just need to get a good lesson with her! It was hard this week. But we are confident she will receive a date!!!Damian is just...wow. He is going to get translated any second. He is incredible. And I am pretty sure his wife will be baptized soon! :) She is amazing!!! Their baby has been born yes! Matias!! Matthias! He is awesome :)Sorry... no pics this week :)Love you all,Elder Stone

Service and tacos

Hey all!
So this week was a little hard and disappointing but that happens!

 I finally got to eat from the Picosita, like the best taco truck in the Sacramento area! So good. They are everywhere down here and I love it.

We got to do some unexpected service this week helping an investigator clean their house. It was super filthy and infested with cockroaches and such...but after a couple hours it was a little better! It was good to do service. It always brings the Spirit when we do good things for others.

 Our investigator Cassandra is amazing and super smart. Hopefully we can get her to church next week! She is super sensitive to the spirit which is great. It is interesting to see how the devil works against us. When we went to have a lesson with her, as soon as we started the next door neighbor started blasting linkin park, and then the baby was crying and going crazy, then some other guys pulled up and were blasting their mariachi music. It was so distracting and not a good environment to have the spirit there to testify. But we did the best we could, and it ended up ok! The adversary tries hard, but we just have to try harder!

The weather while the sun is up has been absolutely perfect. Gets cold at nights though on bike! Especially when there is no time to go get your jacket for the evening!

We didn't see the progress that we had hoped for last week, and we are looking for a fantastic week ahead. Last week of the transfer, which blows my mind. We are going to be challenging and testifying missionaries and talking to many many people! The Lord puts them in our path.

If I could ask you all to do anything this week, it would be to read the talk "Creating a Gospel-Sharing Home" by Elder Ballard. It is incredible! I promise you will feel the spirit of missionary work as you read!
I hope you all have a good week and are safe and warm. We are hurting for rain here badly. The whole state is going to have a fast! I hope you are getting the moisture you need.

Love you all! Thank you for your support and love. God bless :)

Elder Stone

Zone training and interviews!

Hey you all!

Well this past week was a great one. We had zone training and interviews and training with President Lewis and Sister Lewis. They are amazing. It will be sad to see them go in July! 

 We saw the great blessing of being able to add quite a few new people this week. The Lord has been blessing us as we try to talk to everyone and run from house to house to find those who are ready to receive the gospel! And there still is a lot of room for improvement. We have a challenge to contact at least 20 people per day and talk about the gospel with them. That is a pretty big task, but we know we will see awesome blessings come from that. Elder Ballard has promised us we will find those who are ready!

 It is fantastic to see the faith of the youth, and their intelligence. We are talking to two separate young women, Edith and Cassandra. They are both very smart but super humble. They are soaking up the gospel like a sponge, and have such real intent and faith. We are excited to continue working with them. 

 This week I had the opportunity to try tacos de tripas! Which is pig intestines! They weren't bad at all. Just really chewy and a little rubbery. One of our investigators fed us amazing tacos last night of potatoes and pork. They were like heaven. Then we were able to teach a really powerful lesson with her. The spirit was super strong and we will be working hard with her to have her come to church so she can feel the spirit testify to her. She was on course to get baptized  a while ago, but then randomly left for LA for a couple weeks, and now doesn't feel like she is ready. But she is so strong and she just needs to get in the groove again.

 Thank you all for your love and support! Stay warm and safe this week. The Lord is hastening the work. God's prophet has said "This is the time!" I hope we can all work harder this week to help others closer to Christ. Love and miss you all,

 Elder Stone

Wonderful weather!!

Hey all,

Well things are going fantastically in Lodi. It is pretty chilly at times here! Really only in the mornings and while on bike! But the weather is wonderful.

If I had to describe the general scent of Lodi/Cali, it would be marijuana. Ha. So much of it. mmmm :P

Damian is receiving the Priesthood very soon, which is awesome. He is so strong and sensitive to the spirit. We taught him and his wife about the gospel of Christ this week, and he just testified so powerfully. He is like a prodigy. We are happy to be able to teach his wife Erika, although it will be on hold for a little while because she is about to have a baby boy, which is great to see them so happy and excited.

Something that Elder Fernandez and I have been doing a ton is singing hymns. Before or after we teach a lesson, we will sing a simple song like I Am a Child of God, or Families can be Together Forever. They bring the spirit so strongly and give us an opportunity to testify and teach very simple and beautiful truths. It is something that President Lewis and Elder Baxter have asked us to do, and it is bringing great blessings.

Owing to the shortness of time between preparation days, not too much to talk about! But I love you all and I hope you have a great week as we get going on this new year! Stay safe and warm.

 Elder Stone

Baptism!

Damian, on the left, with Sergio who baptized him on the right.

Cow lard and miracles!

Hey all! First off, happy new year! I hope we can all rededicate ourselves to be better this year! I sure need to!

Well we had the fantastic experience of seeing the baptism of Damian on Saturday. He is so humble and meek and sensitive to the spirit. It was amazing to see him so happy. His wife is coming along as well, and we hope to teach her soon!

Today we went over to an older lady's house, Hermana Gauna, to have menudo. We were expecting it to be cow stomach, but I guess they didn't have any. So it ended up being cow feet! Haha. Terrible. It really wasn't that bad, just extremely spicy and basically pure lard. But it wasn't too bad tasting with enough lemon!

I hope you all have a wonderful start to 2014. Time is going by so quickly!

Something that stuck out to me this week, is the importance of our role of strengthening the people's faith in Christ. As we do, they gain a greater desire to follow Him, and they are prepared to repent and eventually show that willingness to repent by entering into baptism. Seeing someone's faith in the Savior increasing is an amazing blessing of this work.

I love you all and I thank you for your support. Keep praying and going strong! Stay safe this week.

Love,

Elder Stone