Another transfer bites the dust.......

Hi all,

Well yesterday we got transfer calls, which is always an interesting experience. Elder Sanhueza will be leaving to be a zone leader where I started my mission in El Dorado, which is awesome! I will be staying in Lodi forever! I will find out who my new companion is tomorrow. He will be fresh from the MTC and it will be fun to see how the next 12 weeks go. It will be a big challenge but hopefully it will all be well. I will end up being in Lodi for about 8 months. That is a while.

 

We had a good week and really enjoyed Easter. We had a very small branch activity and got to hide eggs in the cherry fields and the kids all had a great time. It was fun. Unfortunately, no investigators came, but it was a great activity.

Time is up, but I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Remember the reason for the season. I love our Savior and I know that He lives. Go on mormon.org and watch "because of Him".

 

I love and miss you all! Have a blessed week.

 

Love,

Elder Stone

Mucho Bueno!

Hello all, I hope you all had a wonderful week! We had a good one. We have seen some wonderful blessings this week.

 Through the great work of members we have been able to find two fantastic families. We see awesome things coming from them. It is so amazing to see a desire to change and improve and become closer to Christ in these people. We are really here to testify and teach to the meek and humble, who are willing to do the will of the Lord. In the same way, me must make sure that we are meek and humble as well so the Lord can guide us and teach us. Missionaries are God's investigators. As Jeffrey R. Holland put it (more or less) "You want your investigators to pray differently, more fervently and with real intent? Well God wants you to pray differently. With more love and intent and fervently. You want them to study and change their lives, well God wants you to study and change your life." Serving a mission is such a wonderful opportunity.

 We went on exchanges with Galt again this week. I had never proselyted in Galt, and it was a pretty good time. They are hard up there. We went to the flea market and talked to some really good people. They like to run away right when things are getting good, it was crazy. But it was great to be with Elder Crook and learn from him. He is a great example of a quiet leader and true man.

 

We had stake conference this past weekend, which is always a little harder to work with investigators, it is much more member-centered and hard for them. But we had one investigator Luis come. He is an awesome young man that had talked to missionaries about a year ago, but for some reason, he stopped being able to come to church and wasn't baptized. He is super cool. Hopefully we can have a great visit with his parents this week.

 The Saturday Night session of stake conference was great. It was all about missionary work. President and Sister Lewis cam and spoke and it was great. We also had interviews with them which is always a good opportunity.

 I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. What a great time to remember our Savior and that He lives and is right by our side if we let Him. I know that He pulls with us and he will make our burdens light by strengthening us. There is nothing that we cannot overcome. I love you all and I hope you all stay safe and healthy this week! Look for missionary opportunities. Invite all to hear this wonderful message, especially in this season. Love,

 Elder Stone

La Conferencia General!

Hello all!

 I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with General Conference. I know we had an amazing experience here listening to these men of God. What a blessing it is to have a Prophet and Apostles of Jesus Christ in our day.

 We had a pretty normal, busy week. The work is moving along at lightning speed. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up! We know the Lord is blessing us. It is an exciting time to be a missionary.

 Something cool that we got to do was play some soccer with a young man in the ward and some of his friends. The weather was just about perfect, and we played some 4 vs. 4 soccer for about an hour and a half, which made riding a bike the rest of the day a very sore experience ;) Luckily my soccer skills are improving thanks to Elder Sanhueza's sound training, and the gringo didn't completely embarrass himself in front of team Mexico. We had a great time, and ended by teaching about prayer and having one with them. It was awesome, and hopefully when we go see some of those friends later, we will see a lot of success with them. They were all really cool guys.

 Conference, of course, was fantastic. We watched the majority of the sessions at the church. We watched the Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions in Spanish, but the rest in English. For the last session, we were going to go over to a recent convert family's house to watch it with some of their family members who we are going to begin teaching, but when we got there there was totally no one there. Totally got ditched. :P  So then we walked over to Sergio's house to watch what we could catch of it with him, which was good because we haven't seen him in what seems like forever! Ever since he got a job it is like we don't exist anymore ;) But it was great and he is doing well. Luckily I was able to understand most all of the Spanish sessions. Pretty cool being able to listen to it in the language of God ;)

 I really enjoyed conference. We really need to strive to be examples and disciples of Christ in every moment. We must love, be kind, humble, meek, and always hoping and acting. This is a gospel of peace and hope, and we must believe in Christ, and believe Him. He is there for us. We must do what we can, and remember that he is always there to help us. We are pulling with Him on our side. We can rely on His strength as we press forward.

 Time is short! I love you all and I hope you have a great next week. Thank you so much for your love and support and prayers. This is the Lord's work. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. His gospel and authority is found in it.  I hope you all have a blessed week! Love,

 Elder Stone

Two brothers and a baptism!

Hellos everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week.

 This week will mark 9 months that I have been out on my mission. That is insanity, but I suppose that is how it will always be.

 We had a good week! We got very busy the past week and lost some of our habits of talking to everyone. But in the past week we refocused and were able to find some wonderful people that we are super excited about. The Lord puts those who He is preparing in our path.

We had a pair of exchanges this week. I had the opportunity to go with one of our zone leaders, Elder Taphous. He is a solid, knowledgeable, and efficient missionary. It was good to be with him and learn from him. We also got to do an exchange with the Elders from Galt (a small town just north of Lodi). I got to be with Elder Snapp, who is just a transfer younger, in our area. It was fun and he is a great missionary as well. Solid Elder.

 This week we had a cool opportunity to have a mission-wide Spanish missionary conference! We received special training that was really applicable to the needs of Spanish work and learned a lot. Both of the counselors of President Lewis speak Spanish and one is Latino, so we have a great opportunity to learn how to work with these wonderful people. It was a great time and Sis. Lewis and Sis Martinez prepared a divine lunch for afterwards. Chicken, rice, beans, the works!

 My thumb still hurts. It might have been broken.

It rained a good deal this week. We got super wet on Wednesday, and we lucked out a couple other days and had wonderful members to drive us around!

 We taught a couple of awesome brothers this week, Roberto and Luis. I may have mentioned them earlier. But they are great! When we came for our appointment, Roberto had read in the Book of Mormon all the introduction and testimonies. He had some things highlighted in the testimony of Joseph Smith and asked some great questions! That was super exciting. Luis had not read yet, but he came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was a great fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was strong. They are awesome. They always volunteer themselves to say the prayers at the beginning and end of the lessons. They are both on date for the 19th of April! :)

 Yesterday after church we had an awesome activity that our ward mission leader put on at his ranch. All the people that come to Gospel Principles were invited (recent converts and investigators) and it was great. A TON of carne asada and rice and beans and cake and of course constant joking. Being funny in Spanish is way easier than being funny in English. They are such loud people ;) Everyone's a comedian. It was an amazing time! The Timalach family, who are converts of a couple months, brought some of their family members who were super chill, and now we have an appointment with them on Tuesday! They are a super cool young couple. They also came to church with them! It was so amazing to see the Timalach family all excited about bringing them and sharing the blessings that they have seen from the Gospel.

 Well, I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week. Think of those around you that the Lord is preparing to hear this gospel. This message brings way too much happiness and peace and joy to be kept to ourselves. I love and miss you all. Stay strong!

 Elder Stone