Sunday, December 5, 2010
...
Thanksgiving was GREAT! We froze playing turkey bowl at 9am. We then had lunch at the mission home with the office staff and other missionaries. President and Sister Merkley actually were in Branson. (Yes, mom that's in the mission. Maybe I'll hit it before I'm done!) After that we went with some other elders to a home of a less-active man for a while where we ate again. He had the Saints and Cowboys game on. Needless to say, we had to look through Black Friday Ads for a while to not watch the game! That was an interesting household to say the least! We then had an activity at the church with the branch. It was a "Thanksgiving Dinner." But, there was no turkey in sight. I took a picture of the plate of food that they gave us. I'll have to print it off and send it to you. There was a good turn out. Thanksgiving day just felt like a regular preparation day. But it was good.
I have to tell you a story. We had an appointment set up with Laticia and Angie on Friday night. But----- we couln't find an exchange for the life of us! We called seriously EVERYONE on the ward roster and no one could help us. It was about an hour before we were supposed to be there and I jokingly said, "Too bad President is in Branson!" Well, my companion took that and decided we were going to call President Merkley to see if he could help us. Elder Holmes called him and President said, "Ya I'm back in Tulsa. I'm ready. Do you want me to pick you up?" So we went on exchanges with President Merkley on Friday night!!!! He doesn't speak a lick of spanish, but he still sat there. He had us tell Laticia that she has a beautiful daughter and that she's lucky that she'll be bi-lingual when she grows up! She told him- in broken english- how it was a priveledge to have him in their home. It was a good experience. President told us afterwards to keep him informed on how they are doing and to get him their address. He wants to send them something for Chirstmas. He said, "It's always fun to get something in mail!" He thanked us afterwards for calling him and that he enjoyed going with us. I love President Merkley! But Laticia and her daughter Angie are both on track to be baptized on December 11th- the same day Salvador and Roxanna go thru the temple! That will be a good day!
Yes.... We heard about the Holy War. Elder Holmes doesn't let me forget about the outcome! It was a lot closer than I thought it would be. It sounds like Kyle Whittingham hired those refs! The funny thing is that hispanics don't care too much about football- it's only soccer with them. But we heard from some members in another ward about it. Needless to say Tulsa was pretty dead Saturday night. That was the night that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State played. Out here everyone is either an OU fan or an OSU fan. There's no in the middle. You love the one and hate the other. I never realized how big of a deal football is out here. It's HUGE!
Yesterday at church we had 4 investigators that showed up. So it was another good week. Each week we teach the most lessons in our district- we taught 14 this past week. Yesterday I played a musical number in Sacarement meeting and also played the piano in primary. I was assured by one of the primary kids that I did a good job. So it was a confidence boost! It's funny though--- they do everything in primary in ENGLISH! But, it made for a good day at church. Elder Holmes and I were both dragging after a LONG ER night, but all was well.
Well- I had better run. My time here is about to run out. Have a good week!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Life is Good...
Life here is a whole lot better here. Let's just say Elder Holmes and I get along SO well. Elder Holmes is from Layton Utah and is a GREAT missionary. He only has 6 weeks left before he goes home. He goes home about 5 days after Christmas. The great thing about it is that he and I are having to learn the area together! We would NOT be able to live without the GPS. But, I couldn't ask for a better companion to go through this process with. Life here is GREAT!
I totally had a paper with some things that I was going to tell you about, but I left it at the apartment. So this email may be a bit scattered.
Yesterday was a great day for us at church. We had 6 investigators show up. Laticia and Angie, Manuel, Jorge, and a couple others we found this week. This "couple" we found this past week is....... INTERESTIING..... to say the least. To back track for a second. Elder Roberts and I were trying to see a family that is Less Active but they weren't home. So as we were leaving their apartment there were about 7 Honduranian men drinking away at the bottom of the stairs. We started talking to them and it was probably the funniest conversation I've ever had in Spanish in my whole life! They all said they love Jesus and yadda yadda. So we gave them a pass along card for a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. Well a couple days went by and we recieved this referral from BYU saying someone wanted the DVD. So we went over and guess who it was? One of the Honduranians! His name is Antonio and he has been kicked out of his last apartment. So he is now living with a PURE white American lady who doesn't speak a lick of Spanish and he doesn't speak a lick of English. Any who we've been teaching them for a week and they also came to church. Quick story though- On Thursday (transfer day) I was without a companion and was in a 3 some with the other English elders that we live with. Well at noon we had an appointment with Antonio. So therefore, I was the only one in the home that spoke spanish and I had to teach him by myself. That was an experience and a half. But I KNOW that the gift of tongues is real and is possible to obtain. I know that I said some things in that home that I couldn't say now. I know that the scripture in D&C is sooooooo true. About not worrying before hand what to say but that the Lord will tell you in the very moment that you need it what to say.
Laticia and Angie are progressin along very well. They both have a date for the 11 of December. But, they're definently ready. Manuel is "progressing" he still has not yet recieved that answer about the Book of Mormon. He believes that the Bible and BOM both teach the same things of God. So why does he need another book. We are still working with him. He came to church yesterday.
On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we are going to play Turkey Bowl with one of the Wards here. (Football). Later that day we get to go to the mission home to eat Thanksgiving dinner with President and Sister Merkley. They invited all the missionaries in the area to come over. So that will be a neat experience. We also have someone from the ward signed up to feed us that day and a Branch party at the church at 7. So it will be a good day. It's definently going to be different not being at home for it this year. But, all will be well.
Elder Holmes and I had quite the experience tracting the other day. We were knocking doors and all we were finding were white people. So we decided, that if the next door wasn't "hispanic" then we were going home. We knocked on the door and a kid answered and said that, "Now's not a good time. We just had a tragedy in the family." So we asked what had happened and he said that his uncle was walking down the street in Mexico along the border and was shot and killed. So we talked with him about the Plan of Salvation on the door step. We asked if we could go in and share more about it with him. He said another day because his parents only speak Spanish. We told him how he was in luck that we speak spanish. He said, "A little or a lot?" So we went in and everyone is just bawling. It's a family of 5 or 6 and the man that was there is the brother to the guy who was killed. We shared the scripture in Alma about the spirit world. We had him read it, but he started to cry and had to have his wife finish reading it. After we shared it they thanked us and said how we had come just at the right time and that was just what they needed. We have an appointment to go back and teach them this week. It's one of the most spiritual experiences I've had while I've been here. It just reminds me that things may be tough for me to be away for so long, to not know anyone, to struggle with the language, but experiences like that add fuel to the fire of missionary desire. It's what keeps me going.
Overall, things here are going well. I LOVE serving with Elder Holmes.
But, all here is Well. Week after week we teach half of the lessons in our district. The past week our district taught 40 lessons.... we taught 18 of them. The next closest was 8 for our district. Elder Holmes and I should also be having a couple of batisms here soon. So life is definentley better. The only thing that I have to complain about is Elder Holmes is a Ute fan. And you know what this weekend is... The Holy War. Be sure to let me know who wins. Hopefully he and I will still be talking Sunday.
Well, I don't have too much time left so I had better run. Thanks again for the emails. They make my day/week.Take Care- Feliz Dia de Accione de Gracias!
Love----- Elder Stoddard
I totally had a paper with some things that I was going to tell you about, but I left it at the apartment. So this email may be a bit scattered.
Yesterday was a great day for us at church. We had 6 investigators show up. Laticia and Angie, Manuel, Jorge, and a couple others we found this week. This "couple" we found this past week is....... INTERESTIING..... to say the least. To back track for a second. Elder Roberts and I were trying to see a family that is Less Active but they weren't home. So as we were leaving their apartment there were about 7 Honduranian men drinking away at the bottom of the stairs. We started talking to them and it was probably the funniest conversation I've ever had in Spanish in my whole life! They all said they love Jesus and yadda yadda. So we gave them a pass along card for a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. Well a couple days went by and we recieved this referral from BYU saying someone wanted the DVD. So we went over and guess who it was? One of the Honduranians! His name is Antonio and he has been kicked out of his last apartment. So he is now living with a PURE white American lady who doesn't speak a lick of Spanish and he doesn't speak a lick of English. Any who we've been teaching them for a week and they also came to church. Quick story though- On Thursday (transfer day) I was without a companion and was in a 3 some with the other English elders that we live with. Well at noon we had an appointment with Antonio. So therefore, I was the only one in the home that spoke spanish and I had to teach him by myself. That was an experience and a half. But I KNOW that the gift of tongues is real and is possible to obtain. I know that I said some things in that home that I couldn't say now. I know that the scripture in D&C is sooooooo true. About not worrying before hand what to say but that the Lord will tell you in the very moment that you need it what to say.
Laticia and Angie are progressin along very well. They both have a date for the 11 of December. But, they're definently ready. Manuel is "progressing" he still has not yet recieved that answer about the Book of Mormon. He believes that the Bible and BOM both teach the same things of God. So why does he need another book. We are still working with him. He came to church yesterday.
On Thursday (Thanksgiving) we are going to play Turkey Bowl with one of the Wards here. (Football). Later that day we get to go to the mission home to eat Thanksgiving dinner with President and Sister Merkley. They invited all the missionaries in the area to come over. So that will be a neat experience. We also have someone from the ward signed up to feed us that day and a Branch party at the church at 7. So it will be a good day. It's definently going to be different not being at home for it this year. But, all will be well.
Elder Holmes and I had quite the experience tracting the other day. We were knocking doors and all we were finding were white people. So we decided, that if the next door wasn't "hispanic" then we were going home. We knocked on the door and a kid answered and said that, "Now's not a good time. We just had a tragedy in the family." So we asked what had happened and he said that his uncle was walking down the street in Mexico along the border and was shot and killed. So we talked with him about the Plan of Salvation on the door step. We asked if we could go in and share more about it with him. He said another day because his parents only speak Spanish. We told him how he was in luck that we speak spanish. He said, "A little or a lot?" So we went in and everyone is just bawling. It's a family of 5 or 6 and the man that was there is the brother to the guy who was killed. We shared the scripture in Alma about the spirit world. We had him read it, but he started to cry and had to have his wife finish reading it. After we shared it they thanked us and said how we had come just at the right time and that was just what they needed. We have an appointment to go back and teach them this week. It's one of the most spiritual experiences I've had while I've been here. It just reminds me that things may be tough for me to be away for so long, to not know anyone, to struggle with the language, but experiences like that add fuel to the fire of missionary desire. It's what keeps me going.
Overall, things here are going well. I LOVE serving with Elder Holmes.
But, all here is Well. Week after week we teach half of the lessons in our district. The past week our district taught 40 lessons.... we taught 18 of them. The next closest was 8 for our district. Elder Holmes and I should also be having a couple of batisms here soon. So life is definentley better. The only thing that I have to complain about is Elder Holmes is a Ute fan. And you know what this weekend is... The Holy War. Be sure to let me know who wins. Hopefully he and I will still be talking Sunday.
Well, I don't have too much time left so I had better run. Thanks again for the emails. They make my day/week.Take Care- Feliz Dia de Accione de Gracias!
Love----- Elder Stoddard
Staying Put...
Well.... I'm staying put in Tulsa for a while.... Probably until February. We recieved a call from the Assistants on Saturday night saying my companion is being transferred to Springdale Arkansas and I will be staying here with Elder Holmes. (Also from Layton, Ut). He has been the trainer of my MTC compainon up in Rogers Arkansas. Elder Holmes will also be the District Leader down here. The thing that scares me the most is that I will now basically have to run the area for a bit. I'm still trying to find my way around! Thank goodness that you sent out the GPS! It's a lifesaver! This next transfer will go until December 30th, but I'll most likely be here until February. Elder Holmes only has 6 weeks of his mission left and then he's done so I'll be his last companion. Since he'll only be here for 1 transfer President Merkley probably won't shotgun the area out. So that means I would stay here for a while to keep at least one familliar face with the area. (If this all makes sense!)
We had Stake Conference here this past weekend. We were able to attend the Saturday night session and the Sunday afternoon session as well. They have so many members of the stake that they have to have 2 general sessions on Sunday to accomidate everyone. One at 10 am and one at 1am. The stake president is pretty young. He has a cattle ranch and is probably in his early 40's. MAYBE if that. It was all about Putting our Faith in the Lord and coming unto Him. It was a bit not hearing from my stake president!
We also had Zone Conference on Friday. It's probably been my favorite part of the mission thus far. (Apart from singing at conference). The piano solo went well. I made it through! President Merkley gave me a hug afterwards and told me to keep it up because he'll probably use me in the future for mission tours, etc. So Erica, any music that you like or wouldn't be too dificult to learn would you mind sticking in the mail sometime? I'm sorry to bug you. I tried out the Come Thou Fount that you sent out with me, but it was a bit out of my league! We had to run to the Mission Home yesterday and President again told me how he can't get over how good the musical number was! So it seems that he liked it! But, that man is a GENIUS! I don't know if you remember but he was a pilot for Fed-Ex. (Yes I did get the Fed-Ex and garments! Thanks! All is well!) But, in one of his couple of talks that he gave he related being obedient to flying. It's too long of a story to type, but he's brilliant at how he can compare the two. He also told us how each time we enter an investigator's home we are taking the runway. By the way, guess who was at Zone Conference? Bro and Sis Clough. He's the one that used to be in our ward. I took a picture with them and am hopefully going to send some home today. Hopefully.
Well.... Miracles happen. We borrowed a DVD from President Merkley yesterday called "Journey of Faith" it is basically hard, physical evidence of the Book of Mormon. It's a documentary made by BYU basically proving that the story of Nephi and his family is true. You should try and find a copy of it and watch it sometime! We took it over to Manuel's house (along with a paper with some scriptures that President gave us to prove it's correct) as a last ditch effort with Manuel. If he didn't accept this we were going to dump him. First, when we got there Manuel was all dressed up. So we asked him, "What did you do today?" Because it's the clothes he usually wears to church. He said, "Nothing much. Just went to church." WE thought, "Crap. he's going back to his original church." So we asked him where he went and he said he went to ours! On his own! When before he told us that he wouldn't come to church unless he knew the Book of Mormon was true. We felt like jerks because we didn't invite him last time because he told us in the past that he wouldn't come to church any more. And 2 because we didn't tell him it was at 1pm so he walked in to church and saw it was English, didn't see anyone he knew, and went home! We could have died when he told us all this! But, the good thing is that something has happened to change his heart a bit. He was a totally different person yesterday. WE watched the Journey of Faith DVD with him and he said that he knows that it couldn't have been made up. That it's got to be a good book. So now we just have to help him realize what a spiritual answer to his questions about it are. But this was all a miracle. The Lord answers prayers!
WE also set a baptismal date with Laticia this past week for December 11th. She's doing GREAT! Her and her daughter came to Stake Conference yesterday and she's making a TON of friends in the Branch. We hope to set a baptismal date for her daughter to be baptized on the same day when we visit them tonight. But all with her is going well.
I CAN NOT believe that GHS is in the state championship football game. I couldn't be happier for Millward. It's about time something went his way! I believe I have his address. But if not, I may write him a quick note and mail it home. So maybe Arda can run it up to him at the school. but tell him congrats for me and keep me posted!
The weather out here is crazy. You'd think it's September or October because the leaves are just beginning to change. One day it's in the 70's and pretty warm, but the next day it's cold! I haven't been able to quite figure out the weather pattern here! But one thing is for sure. When it rains here... It rains! It was SO Loud the other night that it woke us all up in our apartment. The storms are pretty crazy. You'll be driving along and lightnig will strike th rode a few feet in front of you. But, it's not too cold here yet.
Well, my time here is about up. We have to go and return the DVD to President Merkley and my companion wants to go and see some members to say goodbye before he leaves. So it will probably be a wasted preparation day by the time it's all over with, but i'm just going along with it. Thursday couldn't get here fast enough! (That's when my new companion comes in.) But all here is well.
Take care until next Monday!
Love- Elder Stoddard
We had Stake Conference here this past weekend. We were able to attend the Saturday night session and the Sunday afternoon session as well. They have so many members of the stake that they have to have 2 general sessions on Sunday to accomidate everyone. One at 10 am and one at 1am. The stake president is pretty young. He has a cattle ranch and is probably in his early 40's. MAYBE if that. It was all about Putting our Faith in the Lord and coming unto Him. It was a bit not hearing from my stake president!
We also had Zone Conference on Friday. It's probably been my favorite part of the mission thus far. (Apart from singing at conference). The piano solo went well. I made it through! President Merkley gave me a hug afterwards and told me to keep it up because he'll probably use me in the future for mission tours, etc. So Erica, any music that you like or wouldn't be too dificult to learn would you mind sticking in the mail sometime? I'm sorry to bug you. I tried out the Come Thou Fount that you sent out with me, but it was a bit out of my league! We had to run to the Mission Home yesterday and President again told me how he can't get over how good the musical number was! So it seems that he liked it! But, that man is a GENIUS! I don't know if you remember but he was a pilot for Fed-Ex. (Yes I did get the Fed-Ex and garments! Thanks! All is well!) But, in one of his couple of talks that he gave he related being obedient to flying. It's too long of a story to type, but he's brilliant at how he can compare the two. He also told us how each time we enter an investigator's home we are taking the runway. By the way, guess who was at Zone Conference? Bro and Sis Clough. He's the one that used to be in our ward. I took a picture with them and am hopefully going to send some home today. Hopefully.
Well.... Miracles happen. We borrowed a DVD from President Merkley yesterday called "Journey of Faith" it is basically hard, physical evidence of the Book of Mormon. It's a documentary made by BYU basically proving that the story of Nephi and his family is true. You should try and find a copy of it and watch it sometime! We took it over to Manuel's house (along with a paper with some scriptures that President gave us to prove it's correct) as a last ditch effort with Manuel. If he didn't accept this we were going to dump him. First, when we got there Manuel was all dressed up. So we asked him, "What did you do today?" Because it's the clothes he usually wears to church. He said, "Nothing much. Just went to church." WE thought, "Crap. he's going back to his original church." So we asked him where he went and he said he went to ours! On his own! When before he told us that he wouldn't come to church unless he knew the Book of Mormon was true. We felt like jerks because we didn't invite him last time because he told us in the past that he wouldn't come to church any more. And 2 because we didn't tell him it was at 1pm so he walked in to church and saw it was English, didn't see anyone he knew, and went home! We could have died when he told us all this! But, the good thing is that something has happened to change his heart a bit. He was a totally different person yesterday. WE watched the Journey of Faith DVD with him and he said that he knows that it couldn't have been made up. That it's got to be a good book. So now we just have to help him realize what a spiritual answer to his questions about it are. But this was all a miracle. The Lord answers prayers!
WE also set a baptismal date with Laticia this past week for December 11th. She's doing GREAT! Her and her daughter came to Stake Conference yesterday and she's making a TON of friends in the Branch. We hope to set a baptismal date for her daughter to be baptized on the same day when we visit them tonight. But all with her is going well.
I CAN NOT believe that GHS is in the state championship football game. I couldn't be happier for Millward. It's about time something went his way! I believe I have his address. But if not, I may write him a quick note and mail it home. So maybe Arda can run it up to him at the school. but tell him congrats for me and keep me posted!
The weather out here is crazy. You'd think it's September or October because the leaves are just beginning to change. One day it's in the 70's and pretty warm, but the next day it's cold! I haven't been able to quite figure out the weather pattern here! But one thing is for sure. When it rains here... It rains! It was SO Loud the other night that it woke us all up in our apartment. The storms are pretty crazy. You'll be driving along and lightnig will strike th rode a few feet in front of you. But, it's not too cold here yet.
Well, my time here is about up. We have to go and return the DVD to President Merkley and my companion wants to go and see some members to say goodbye before he leaves. So it will probably be a wasted preparation day by the time it's all over with, but i'm just going along with it. Thursday couldn't get here fast enough! (That's when my new companion comes in.) But all here is well.
Take care until next Monday!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Another week...
THEY'RE HERE! Wow I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the FED-EX from mom and saw pictures of the boys. Tankers! I just hope Boston doesn't get beat up for his initials (BS) and Tate doesn't get beat up for being Tate Frank! Just kidding! I'm glad all is well and that they're doing good. Hopefully they get to come home soon! How's Heidi? Where was the one picture of Jer, Heidi, the boys, Shelby and Gage at? It looked like a house? Just curious. Is Heidi still in the hospital as well? I will admit that I shed a couple of tears when I saw their pictures through FED-EX. You have no idea how much I want to just hold them! In 20 plus months! Maybe they'll be out of the hosptial by then. But don't worry about sending pictures! I love them.
Shelby and Gage- thanks for the package of the BYU pens and notebook! Thanks also for the letters! Jer- I believe it was you who said that you were looking for my apartment on Google Earth and wondered what we lived by. We live right behind the Home Depot. There's also an Ultimate Electronics, Krispy Kreme, etc right around there. Hope that helps. I'm glad you've already gotten the boys decked out in BYU stuff. I also loved the picture of the sign on their door!
Well, this week has been---- different. We're probably going to have to drop Manuel Estrada. We've already dropped his baptism date. No more on the 20th of November. Everything was going great until this past 2 weeks. I don't understand. But, the past two weeks he's gone DOWNHILL. He won't read, and has a hard heart. It's almost as if he doesn't want the Book of Mormon to be true. He wants evidence of the truthfulness of it. We've shared a ton of scriptures, personal experiences, prayed with him about it, etc but nothing works. He wouldn' come to church yesterday because he said, "Why would I go to your church if I don't believe in your book?" It's almost if he won't do his part. We are going back over there one more time to watch a DVD about the Book of Mormon with him and hopefully that helps. It's just kind of discouraging. I half wonder if he's being hassled about it by some of his co-workers. Who knows!
Laticia and Angie (Laticia's daughter) are great! They came to church yesterday and loved it again. Although we had a lesson in Sunday School about Eternal Marriage. So we may have a few questions to answer tonight! We have another appointment with them tonight and are going to try and set a date with them for 11 December. But, they are getting close and are really neat. Laticia's aunt was a nun in the Catholic church for years, but ended up joining our church. So Laticia told us that if her aunt saw something in our church that was good and changed her life becuase of it we must have something good. But they are way good. All is well with them!
Well last night was quite a humbling experience. We had just gotten out of an appointment and it was around 6:30. We had dinner with a member family at 7:00 and didn't really know what to do. So we pulled over (yes Jason we have cell phones.) and made a few phone calls to set some appointments for the next few days. We couldn't get a hold of anyone. If they did answer they said they were too busy. We had planned to go and see a family that lives right by us (the Azuara family) and I mentioned something to Elder Roberts of maybe calling them to see if they would be home at 8. He said, "No they'll be home." Well, just a couple minutes after that guess who called? Sister Azuara! She called and said that she had a friend in the hospital that needed a blessing that night and wondered if we'd come and give her one. So we agreed, but told her it would have to be around 8ish because we had dinner, etc. To make a long story short, Elder Roberts wrote down the anointing prayer for me in spanish so that I could memorize it in spanish during dinner. After dinner, we went to the hospital and gave her a blessing. (luckily I had oil on me!) I have never been so scared in my life as to do that annointing in Spanish! I ended up having to read it, but I somehow pronnounced everything right and got through it! It just goes to show that the Lord blesses you AFTER the trial of your faith!
Well, this week is transfer calls. (Saturday night). We'll know Saturday night if we are being transfered or not and who our companion will be, where we're heading, etc. So I'll let you know next Monday. Transfers aren't until NEXT Thurs (the 18th) though. So you can still send mail to the address of my apartment. I'll let you know next week though where I'll be. This Friday we have Zone Conference. The Zone Leaders called me Saturday and asked me to play a musical number for it because, "I hear you play like Mozart!" So hopefully I can resurrect my Onward Christian Soldiers from memory!
I hope everything goes alright for Kallie on Thursday. I fasted for her yesterday and she's in my prayers every morning and night. But, everything will be fine. I know it!
Dad, we have Stake Conference here this week. But we only get to go to the General Session on Sunday afternoon. We can go Saturday night, but only if we have an investigator taht wants to go. But our session isn't until 1 pm on Sunday afternoon. I don't know why, but the elders that live with us and cover the same Stake have their meeting at 10 am on Sunday. I don't know if they are splitting the spanish and english members up or what.
Well, my time here is about up. I had better run. Give the twins a squeeze for me and know that I wish I could be there but I think about them all the time! I hope everything goes alright with them! Keep me updated. Good luck with Kallie this week as well. I'll keep praying for her.
Until next Monday.
Elder Stoddard
PS. I'll keep you updated with Transfers.
Shelby and Gage- thanks for the package of the BYU pens and notebook! Thanks also for the letters! Jer- I believe it was you who said that you were looking for my apartment on Google Earth and wondered what we lived by. We live right behind the Home Depot. There's also an Ultimate Electronics, Krispy Kreme, etc right around there. Hope that helps. I'm glad you've already gotten the boys decked out in BYU stuff. I also loved the picture of the sign on their door!
Well, this week has been---- different. We're probably going to have to drop Manuel Estrada. We've already dropped his baptism date. No more on the 20th of November. Everything was going great until this past 2 weeks. I don't understand. But, the past two weeks he's gone DOWNHILL. He won't read, and has a hard heart. It's almost as if he doesn't want the Book of Mormon to be true. He wants evidence of the truthfulness of it. We've shared a ton of scriptures, personal experiences, prayed with him about it, etc but nothing works. He wouldn' come to church yesterday because he said, "Why would I go to your church if I don't believe in your book?" It's almost if he won't do his part. We are going back over there one more time to watch a DVD about the Book of Mormon with him and hopefully that helps. It's just kind of discouraging. I half wonder if he's being hassled about it by some of his co-workers. Who knows!
Laticia and Angie (Laticia's daughter) are great! They came to church yesterday and loved it again. Although we had a lesson in Sunday School about Eternal Marriage. So we may have a few questions to answer tonight! We have another appointment with them tonight and are going to try and set a date with them for 11 December. But, they are getting close and are really neat. Laticia's aunt was a nun in the Catholic church for years, but ended up joining our church. So Laticia told us that if her aunt saw something in our church that was good and changed her life becuase of it we must have something good. But they are way good. All is well with them!
Well last night was quite a humbling experience. We had just gotten out of an appointment and it was around 6:30. We had dinner with a member family at 7:00 and didn't really know what to do. So we pulled over (yes Jason we have cell phones.) and made a few phone calls to set some appointments for the next few days. We couldn't get a hold of anyone. If they did answer they said they were too busy. We had planned to go and see a family that lives right by us (the Azuara family) and I mentioned something to Elder Roberts of maybe calling them to see if they would be home at 8. He said, "No they'll be home." Well, just a couple minutes after that guess who called? Sister Azuara! She called and said that she had a friend in the hospital that needed a blessing that night and wondered if we'd come and give her one. So we agreed, but told her it would have to be around 8ish because we had dinner, etc. To make a long story short, Elder Roberts wrote down the anointing prayer for me in spanish so that I could memorize it in spanish during dinner. After dinner, we went to the hospital and gave her a blessing. (luckily I had oil on me!) I have never been so scared in my life as to do that annointing in Spanish! I ended up having to read it, but I somehow pronnounced everything right and got through it! It just goes to show that the Lord blesses you AFTER the trial of your faith!
Well, this week is transfer calls. (Saturday night). We'll know Saturday night if we are being transfered or not and who our companion will be, where we're heading, etc. So I'll let you know next Monday. Transfers aren't until NEXT Thurs (the 18th) though. So you can still send mail to the address of my apartment. I'll let you know next week though where I'll be. This Friday we have Zone Conference. The Zone Leaders called me Saturday and asked me to play a musical number for it because, "I hear you play like Mozart!" So hopefully I can resurrect my Onward Christian Soldiers from memory!
I hope everything goes alright for Kallie on Thursday. I fasted for her yesterday and she's in my prayers every morning and night. But, everything will be fine. I know it!
Dad, we have Stake Conference here this week. But we only get to go to the General Session on Sunday afternoon. We can go Saturday night, but only if we have an investigator taht wants to go. But our session isn't until 1 pm on Sunday afternoon. I don't know why, but the elders that live with us and cover the same Stake have their meeting at 10 am on Sunday. I don't know if they are splitting the spanish and english members up or what.
Well, my time here is about up. I had better run. Give the twins a squeeze for me and know that I wish I could be there but I think about them all the time! I hope everything goes alright with them! Keep me updated. Good luck with Kallie this week as well. I'll keep praying for her.
Until next Monday.
Elder Stoddard
PS. I'll keep you updated with Transfers.
Monday, November 1, 2010
3 Down and 21!
Well another week has come and gone. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. Somedays are faster than others, but when you think about it I still have 21 months to go. This Thursday will be my 3 month mark! It's not too big of a milestone, but It's a bit of a one. This past Saturday night we got excited because we thought we got to turn our clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep, but we then found out---- not til NEXT week! Man! We are always needing extra sleep as a missionary!
Things here have been pretty good this past week. Although, we've ran into a bit of a hurdle with Manuel that we can't get him up and over yet. He LOVES his Bible and reads it 24/7. He read only 25 pages in Matthew and it has changed his life. He's only read 25 pages in the Book of Mormon and hasn't felt anything yet and now he won't read anymore. He says that he needs "evidence in the Bible that talks about the Book of Mormon." So we read Isaiah 29 with him, John 10:16, Ezekiel about the sticks, etc.... but he won't bite. We just keep bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave him some of our favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon to read to hopefully strike a chord. He hasn't been to church in two weeks which is also hard. So he's kind of taken a step backwards, but we're working with him to help him with his concerns.
We have also started teaching this lady named Laticia this week and her daughter Angie. We had actually started teaching them a couple of weeks ago, but had lost contact with them because they moved, got a new job etc. But we picked them back up this week. Laticia is the sweetest mother you've ever seen. She's a single mother with 2 kids (Angie-9 and a 17 year old son who doesn't like us). She's doing all she can to keep food on the table and works like crazy as a waitress. But her kids are her pride and joy. The great thing is that her and her daughter came to church yesterday. (for the primary program.) I hoped they liked it. They sort of seemed up tight and nervous. We have another appointment with them tonight so we'll see how they felt. Sunday school was really good for Laticia to hear though. It was about the responsibilities of the members of the families. Sister Serna (sunday school teacher) kind of took her under her wing and gave Laticia a framed copy of the Family Proclomation. Laticia asked her, "Is this like the 10 commandments for the family?" So that was pretty neat. They seem pretty promising. She has even started sharing the gospel with those in her apartment complex!
With Wilfredo and Maria- we CAN NOT get them to church. Maria can not get out of bed in the mornings. She slept in til 1 oclock in the afternoon yesterday. We think that they just like us to come over and be friends. But, they don't really seem to have a desire when it comes to the church. For example- she invited us to come over on Tuesday for Tilapia with them. (Luckily I'll be on exchanges that day!) But she doesn't seem to want to put in the effort when it comes to church. They are really neat. We don't want to drop them, but we may have to. We're going to talk with them about it soon. We had an appointmenet with them last night, and it basically was a Halloween Fiesta. She just kept making Popcorn, pulling out cookies, drinks, and they didn't really want to hear anything. So that's how our Halloween went. You have NEVER seen so many trick or treaters in your life than out here. They take it as serious as Christmas! They have decorations in the yards, Orange chirstmas lights, etc. There were a ton of kids out last night.
I bet everyone in town is pretty excited again about Grace High football- how many years since they have been to state? Do they get to play on the blue turf in Boise? Tell Millward congrats for me.
I can't believe how much of a soccer fan I've become out here. The spanish people LOVE it! We play every Saturday morning with our investigators and members of the branch. It's pretty interesting. I'm definently not talented enough to play with "the big boys!"
Yesterday, we had the primary program in the branch. I couldn't understand a lot of it, but it was still pretty good. One little kid got up to the mic, saw how many people there were and then said into the mic- (to his teacher right next to him) "I can't do it!" It sure was a lot longer than the Grace 1st ward primary program!
Well- I better run. Things here are going well. I've almos made it through my first transfer. Transfers are Nov. 18th. I'll know the weekend before, but I'll probably be staying here. Thanks again for all your letters. Keep me posted with Heidi. Good luck!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Things here have been pretty good this past week. Although, we've ran into a bit of a hurdle with Manuel that we can't get him up and over yet. He LOVES his Bible and reads it 24/7. He read only 25 pages in Matthew and it has changed his life. He's only read 25 pages in the Book of Mormon and hasn't felt anything yet and now he won't read anymore. He says that he needs "evidence in the Bible that talks about the Book of Mormon." So we read Isaiah 29 with him, John 10:16, Ezekiel about the sticks, etc.... but he won't bite. We just keep bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave him some of our favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon to read to hopefully strike a chord. He hasn't been to church in two weeks which is also hard. So he's kind of taken a step backwards, but we're working with him to help him with his concerns.
We have also started teaching this lady named Laticia this week and her daughter Angie. We had actually started teaching them a couple of weeks ago, but had lost contact with them because they moved, got a new job etc. But we picked them back up this week. Laticia is the sweetest mother you've ever seen. She's a single mother with 2 kids (Angie-9 and a 17 year old son who doesn't like us). She's doing all she can to keep food on the table and works like crazy as a waitress. But her kids are her pride and joy. The great thing is that her and her daughter came to church yesterday. (for the primary program.) I hoped they liked it. They sort of seemed up tight and nervous. We have another appointment with them tonight so we'll see how they felt. Sunday school was really good for Laticia to hear though. It was about the responsibilities of the members of the families. Sister Serna (sunday school teacher) kind of took her under her wing and gave Laticia a framed copy of the Family Proclomation. Laticia asked her, "Is this like the 10 commandments for the family?" So that was pretty neat. They seem pretty promising. She has even started sharing the gospel with those in her apartment complex!
With Wilfredo and Maria- we CAN NOT get them to church. Maria can not get out of bed in the mornings. She slept in til 1 oclock in the afternoon yesterday. We think that they just like us to come over and be friends. But, they don't really seem to have a desire when it comes to the church. For example- she invited us to come over on Tuesday for Tilapia with them. (Luckily I'll be on exchanges that day!) But she doesn't seem to want to put in the effort when it comes to church. They are really neat. We don't want to drop them, but we may have to. We're going to talk with them about it soon. We had an appointmenet with them last night, and it basically was a Halloween Fiesta. She just kept making Popcorn, pulling out cookies, drinks, and they didn't really want to hear anything. So that's how our Halloween went. You have NEVER seen so many trick or treaters in your life than out here. They take it as serious as Christmas! They have decorations in the yards, Orange chirstmas lights, etc. There were a ton of kids out last night.
I bet everyone in town is pretty excited again about Grace High football- how many years since they have been to state? Do they get to play on the blue turf in Boise? Tell Millward congrats for me.
I can't believe how much of a soccer fan I've become out here. The spanish people LOVE it! We play every Saturday morning with our investigators and members of the branch. It's pretty interesting. I'm definently not talented enough to play with "the big boys!"
Yesterday, we had the primary program in the branch. I couldn't understand a lot of it, but it was still pretty good. One little kid got up to the mic, saw how many people there were and then said into the mic- (to his teacher right next to him) "I can't do it!" It sure was a lot longer than the Grace 1st ward primary program!
Well- I better run. Things here are going well. I've almos made it through my first transfer. Transfers are Nov. 18th. I'll know the weekend before, but I'll probably be staying here. Thanks again for all your letters. Keep me posted with Heidi. Good luck!
Love- Elder Stoddard
My Oh My...
Well.... one week down and about 95ish to go! Things this week have been pretty good. I'm still trying to get used to everything that's going on. Luckily, we are in a CAR or else I would die riding a bike everyday. Supposedly, every spanish area here has cars and don't ride bikes much so we'll see. Speaking of bikes-yes my FINALLY came just a couple of days ago.
Right now we have 2 people with baptism dates. Jorge Huejuquilla (sp?) He's one that Elder Roberts and his companion before were teaching- so I can't really count it for me. He's lined up for the 30th of October. He said that he's going to talk to his girlfriend this week about moving out. He said he'll let us know when we go back over on Wednesday. But he's ready. He's been coming to church for 4 months straight now. They even gave him a home teaching assignment yesterday.
Manuel Estrada is the first miracle of my mission. He is the guy that we found the very first day I was here. He came to church again yesterday and has a baptism date for November 20th. He expressed concern though saying that he's committed adultrey quite a bit in the past so he doesn't believe he's good enough to join the church. We assured him though that he can be forgiven through the Atonement. He'll probably have to have an interview with Pres. Merkley before he can be baptized. I have a feeling he's going to have a hard time with the Law of chastity and Word of Wisdom. The other day we taught him about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and he seemed to do alright with that. So we'll see how good he does. But he loves coming to church and LOVES his Bible. He reads from the BOM and Bible every day and says he feels bad when he doesn't.
We are also working with antother couple (once again not married but living together) Wilfredo and Maria. WE can't get them to keep any of their commitments though. They won't come to church because she can't wake up in the morning, they never read on their own (even though we gave them the BOM on CD's to listen to because she can't read), etc. Everytime we go over there it almost feels like they expect us to read to them each time. They are really neat though. Maria is sooooo funny. She definently wears the pants in that house! They invited us over for dinner on Friday and she said she's going to make us the spiciest food we've ever had! Bring on Heartburn city! So if you hear from me next Monday it will be a miracle that I'm still alive!
Someone asked me if I've had to play the piano yet. Well in sacarament meeting---- no. There's an hermana in the ward that plays the simplified hymns every week. It's as if you take the symplified book and symplify it more. I play every week in priesthood however. So, I look forward to that every week. There are no spanish wards in the mission- only branches. However, the branch we are in is so big that it could become a ward, but they don't have the tithing and fast offering funds to become a ward quite yet.
I survived my first earthquake this week. I guess there was one in Oklahoma City on Wednesday- we felt the aftershock of it. It wasn't too bad. Just as we were sitting there during Companionship study our chairs started wobbling and our desk moved a bit. It was weird- but cool at the same time. Everyone that we visited that day asked us if we felt it. The hispanic people have been enthrolled with the Miners that were rescued in Chile. ( I believe that's where it was?) Have you heard anything about it? They ALWAYS had it on this past week as we went over to their homes.
The weather here is different. It's still in the 80's, and is a bit cool in the mornings. There's no humidity so that's one thing that's nice. I've noticed though that my hands get SO dry here. I'm constantly putting lotion on 24/7.
Also once again my address is:
7311 S. 99th Ave. Apt 1305
Tulsa, OK 74133.
I'm sorry if you had the wrong zip code. I hope Heidi can hold off. That's not a good sign if they are trying to jail break early! Good luck with those two in the future! Hear are a few mexican names I've heard of little kids this past week- Renzo, Jose, Josue, Jorge, Manuel, Miguel, Rico, Tomas, etc. Anyone of those will work for names.
Oh another funny thing. WE are trying to get on the good side of the parents of this 9 year old kid (Renzo). They are members, but don't want him baptized for some reason. The mother is NUTS! But we went over to meet them again after leaving them alone for a couple months and she told me I look like I'm 14. Also- everyone asks if I speak spanish because I don't say much because I get lost easily! So hopefully the gift of tongues comes soon!
My first embarrasing moment came this week- We were talking with Manuel about Bro. Americo Gutierrez who takes him to church each week. I was just trying to create small talk and asked him "Do you like Hermano Americo?" Well, I was asking if he thought he was a cool guy and got along with him. I however didn't know that your not supposed to use the verb gustar when talking about if someone likes someone else of the same gender. So basiclly I asked Manuel if he's gay. He said (and my companion had to explain later) "No! I like girls!" Manuel started rolling with laughter... Thankfully he knew what I was trying to ask... Needless to say I won't make that same mistake again! Why couldn't I have aske someone to wash their bananas instead of asking if they're gay? So, I've been a little gunshy when it comes to speaking lately.
But, for the most part things here are good. It's definently hard. My companion and I get along for the most part. WE have our differences and head butt every once in awhile but we're trying to get along.
Things here are good. Just CRAZY! I'm sorry I haven't been able to get as many letters out as I did in the MTC. Here we actually have to shop for food, and other stuff. So that takes up a bit of our day. But I LOVE getting mail. It keeps me going. The first couple weeks have been hard, but I'm hanging in there.
Well, take care until next Monday.
Love- Elder Stoddard
Right now we have 2 people with baptism dates. Jorge Huejuquilla (sp?) He's one that Elder Roberts and his companion before were teaching- so I can't really count it for me. He's lined up for the 30th of October. He said that he's going to talk to his girlfriend this week about moving out. He said he'll let us know when we go back over on Wednesday. But he's ready. He's been coming to church for 4 months straight now. They even gave him a home teaching assignment yesterday.
Manuel Estrada is the first miracle of my mission. He is the guy that we found the very first day I was here. He came to church again yesterday and has a baptism date for November 20th. He expressed concern though saying that he's committed adultrey quite a bit in the past so he doesn't believe he's good enough to join the church. We assured him though that he can be forgiven through the Atonement. He'll probably have to have an interview with Pres. Merkley before he can be baptized. I have a feeling he's going to have a hard time with the Law of chastity and Word of Wisdom. The other day we taught him about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and he seemed to do alright with that. So we'll see how good he does. But he loves coming to church and LOVES his Bible. He reads from the BOM and Bible every day and says he feels bad when he doesn't.
We are also working with antother couple (once again not married but living together) Wilfredo and Maria. WE can't get them to keep any of their commitments though. They won't come to church because she can't wake up in the morning, they never read on their own (even though we gave them the BOM on CD's to listen to because she can't read), etc. Everytime we go over there it almost feels like they expect us to read to them each time. They are really neat though. Maria is sooooo funny. She definently wears the pants in that house! They invited us over for dinner on Friday and she said she's going to make us the spiciest food we've ever had! Bring on Heartburn city! So if you hear from me next Monday it will be a miracle that I'm still alive!
Someone asked me if I've had to play the piano yet. Well in sacarament meeting---- no. There's an hermana in the ward that plays the simplified hymns every week. It's as if you take the symplified book and symplify it more. I play every week in priesthood however. So, I look forward to that every week. There are no spanish wards in the mission- only branches. However, the branch we are in is so big that it could become a ward, but they don't have the tithing and fast offering funds to become a ward quite yet.
I survived my first earthquake this week. I guess there was one in Oklahoma City on Wednesday- we felt the aftershock of it. It wasn't too bad. Just as we were sitting there during Companionship study our chairs started wobbling and our desk moved a bit. It was weird- but cool at the same time. Everyone that we visited that day asked us if we felt it. The hispanic people have been enthrolled with the Miners that were rescued in Chile. ( I believe that's where it was?) Have you heard anything about it? They ALWAYS had it on this past week as we went over to their homes.
The weather here is different. It's still in the 80's, and is a bit cool in the mornings. There's no humidity so that's one thing that's nice. I've noticed though that my hands get SO dry here. I'm constantly putting lotion on 24/7.
Also once again my address is:
7311 S. 99th Ave. Apt 1305
Tulsa, OK 74133.
I'm sorry if you had the wrong zip code. I hope Heidi can hold off. That's not a good sign if they are trying to jail break early! Good luck with those two in the future! Hear are a few mexican names I've heard of little kids this past week- Renzo, Jose, Josue, Jorge, Manuel, Miguel, Rico, Tomas, etc. Anyone of those will work for names.
Oh another funny thing. WE are trying to get on the good side of the parents of this 9 year old kid (Renzo). They are members, but don't want him baptized for some reason. The mother is NUTS! But we went over to meet them again after leaving them alone for a couple months and she told me I look like I'm 14. Also- everyone asks if I speak spanish because I don't say much because I get lost easily! So hopefully the gift of tongues comes soon!
My first embarrasing moment came this week- We were talking with Manuel about Bro. Americo Gutierrez who takes him to church each week. I was just trying to create small talk and asked him "Do you like Hermano Americo?" Well, I was asking if he thought he was a cool guy and got along with him. I however didn't know that your not supposed to use the verb gustar when talking about if someone likes someone else of the same gender. So basiclly I asked Manuel if he's gay. He said (and my companion had to explain later) "No! I like girls!" Manuel started rolling with laughter... Thankfully he knew what I was trying to ask... Needless to say I won't make that same mistake again! Why couldn't I have aske someone to wash their bananas instead of asking if they're gay? So, I've been a little gunshy when it comes to speaking lately.
But, for the most part things here are good. It's definently hard. My companion and I get along for the most part. WE have our differences and head butt every once in awhile but we're trying to get along.
Things here are good. Just CRAZY! I'm sorry I haven't been able to get as many letters out as I did in the MTC. Here we actually have to shop for food, and other stuff. So that takes up a bit of our day. But I LOVE getting mail. It keeps me going. The first couple weeks have been hard, but I'm hanging in there.
Well, take care until next Monday.
Love- Elder Stoddard
A Whole New World...
Sorry I'm so slow in emailing you all. We have preparation day on Monday's,, but since yesterday was Columbus Day we weren't able to email becuase the libraries were closed. By the way I'm sitting in the biggest library you've ever seen. Definently puts the good old Grace library to shame. WE only ended up staying in the mission home for one night.
I LOVE President and Sister Merkley. President doesn't believe in handshakes- only hugs. But I loved being with them for only a few short hours. We headed straight to the mission home from the airport and recieved training that night, had interviews with president, ate dinner, and headed to our new areas early the next morning around 7am. Well I'm in Tulsa for my first transfer. It's not downtown, but it's in the South part. It's the Tulsa Spanish South area. Also called Red Bud Valley. I'm still confused so I'm not sure the official name. They say it's the most-if not most 2nd most- spanish speaking area in the mission. I'm with an Elder Easton Roberts from Ogden, Utah. He seems to be a good elder. Always obedient and we spend every minute of our day doing what we should be doing. He's a health freak and we don't eat much. I miss my licorice! He's not much of a 'sweet eater.' But I've got to have my little sweet something every once in a while! But, he doesn't let me buy that kind of stuff. Oh well! He sometimes isn't the most patient with me. Hopefully that will change. But things are going alright.
So my address for the next six weeks:
7311 S. 99th E. Ave. Apt 1305
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74123
I hae NEVER seen so many churches in my life. There's one that looks like the great and spacious building, also one called GUTS church where they scare people to death to repentance. Our first day we went out tracting and guess what? We found a new investigator on the 4th door we knocked. His name is Manuel Estrada. He reminds me SO much of Chicho. WE shared the first lesson with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. WE returned Saturday and showed him the Restoration DVD and answered questions he had and he came to church on Sunday. He seems to be really promising. WE also have another investigator with a baptismal date of October 30th. He's been coming to church for 4 months now. It's just a matter of getting his girlfriend to move out.
The members in the branch are super nice. They ALWAYS feed us, but the funny thing is that I haven't gotten any authentic mexican food yet. The thing I've gotten the most of is Pizza. We've only eaten over at one members home. We usually go and pick up dinner and bring it back to the apartment because the members are busy or what not. But they are super nice and willing to help with the language. The MTC does NOT prepare you in any way to speak the language. People here speak SO fast. But I'm trying to catch as much as I can and then get teh real story from my companion later.
So far as I've been out tracting I've been sworn at, doors slammed, and gotten a double bird a few times. But I know it's all for a good cause. It's kind of hard feeling rejection for the first time. In the MTC when we would practice tracting, they would ALWAYS let us in so we never experienced rejection. The first few days here have been ROUGH. I'm not going to lie. Not getting mail, being in a new place with someone I don't know, trying to understand a language that I've only been learning for 9 weeks was rough. I believe everyone now when the say this is the HARDEST thing you will ever do. I agree! But I'm hanging in there.
It's definently a change from the MTC, that's for sure. But I will be emailing every Monday from now on. Oh, someone asked about a release date- as of now- September 19, 2012. But I'm not thinking about that right now. Just focused on the work ahead of me. I wouldn't be anywhere else at this point. I love seeing the change in people lives. Well, take care and I'll talk to you all next Monday.
Love----- Elder Stoddard
I LOVE President and Sister Merkley. President doesn't believe in handshakes- only hugs. But I loved being with them for only a few short hours. We headed straight to the mission home from the airport and recieved training that night, had interviews with president, ate dinner, and headed to our new areas early the next morning around 7am. Well I'm in Tulsa for my first transfer. It's not downtown, but it's in the South part. It's the Tulsa Spanish South area. Also called Red Bud Valley. I'm still confused so I'm not sure the official name. They say it's the most-if not most 2nd most- spanish speaking area in the mission. I'm with an Elder Easton Roberts from Ogden, Utah. He seems to be a good elder. Always obedient and we spend every minute of our day doing what we should be doing. He's a health freak and we don't eat much. I miss my licorice! He's not much of a 'sweet eater.' But I've got to have my little sweet something every once in a while! But, he doesn't let me buy that kind of stuff. Oh well! He sometimes isn't the most patient with me. Hopefully that will change. But things are going alright.
So my address for the next six weeks:
7311 S. 99th E. Ave. Apt 1305
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74123
I hae NEVER seen so many churches in my life. There's one that looks like the great and spacious building, also one called GUTS church where they scare people to death to repentance. Our first day we went out tracting and guess what? We found a new investigator on the 4th door we knocked. His name is Manuel Estrada. He reminds me SO much of Chicho. WE shared the first lesson with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. WE returned Saturday and showed him the Restoration DVD and answered questions he had and he came to church on Sunday. He seems to be really promising. WE also have another investigator with a baptismal date of October 30th. He's been coming to church for 4 months now. It's just a matter of getting his girlfriend to move out.
The members in the branch are super nice. They ALWAYS feed us, but the funny thing is that I haven't gotten any authentic mexican food yet. The thing I've gotten the most of is Pizza. We've only eaten over at one members home. We usually go and pick up dinner and bring it back to the apartment because the members are busy or what not. But they are super nice and willing to help with the language. The MTC does NOT prepare you in any way to speak the language. People here speak SO fast. But I'm trying to catch as much as I can and then get teh real story from my companion later.
So far as I've been out tracting I've been sworn at, doors slammed, and gotten a double bird a few times. But I know it's all for a good cause. It's kind of hard feeling rejection for the first time. In the MTC when we would practice tracting, they would ALWAYS let us in so we never experienced rejection. The first few days here have been ROUGH. I'm not going to lie. Not getting mail, being in a new place with someone I don't know, trying to understand a language that I've only been learning for 9 weeks was rough. I believe everyone now when the say this is the HARDEST thing you will ever do. I agree! But I'm hanging in there.
It's definently a change from the MTC, that's for sure. But I will be emailing every Monday from now on. Oh, someone asked about a release date- as of now- September 19, 2012. But I'm not thinking about that right now. Just focused on the work ahead of me. I wouldn't be anywhere else at this point. I love seeing the change in people lives. Well, take care and I'll talk to you all next Monday.
Love----- Elder Stoddard
Tick Tock...
Tick-Tock my time here at the CCM (MTC in Spanish) is winding down. I have mixed emotions. Here in the MTC you are in a bubble of Zion. You don't hear anything about the outside world because nobody here talks about it, an army of missionaries walk around everyday, and everyone here has the same goal in mind. Yet, I'm ready to get out and see the world and start teaching people.
I do get to call on Wednesday. It will probably be around 9am your time. I will be calling you from Dallas while on our lay over. I will plan to call the shop unless you let me know otherwise! I'm excited to get to hear everyone's voice again! However, I may a bit drowsy since I will be up at 2am that morning!
So the sick bug hit again this week. I guess since it's my last week here I need to get sick one last time. I woke up with a sore-throat Monday morning and didn't think anything of it- used some Mucinex and Flonase. But by the time Thursday rolled around I could hardly swallow. I ran to the health clinic here and I have.........................................STREP! I know.... Thanks again mom for giving me a weak immune system! So I had a blessing last night and have been taking Cephalexin, Mucinex, Vitammin C, and Claratin D so I will be able to sing tomorrow. I won't miss that for the world. Even if I can't hit all the high notes I'll still be there!
So here's our schedule for tomorrow that I thought you might be interested in. We get "inspected" by the MTC presidency tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. If we don't have a missionary haircut, conservative tie, etc. they won't let us go. Then we watch the morning session of conference in the main building together as a choir. AS soon as the morning session gets over we head straight to lunch and eat fast! We load our assigned bus (we are taking 7 busses to SLC) @ 1:15 and leave here @ 1:30. We are going to watch the first bit of the afternoon session of conference on the bus as we go up. We will arrive at the Conference Center at 3pm and warm-up in a little theater that is also in the Conference Center that holds about 1,000 people is all. After we run thru the songs again with the organist that will be playing for us we have a potty break while we wait for the choir from the afternoon session to get out of the main theater. @ 4:45 we get to go in the main "choir loft" and run thru our songs with the main organ until about 5:15 or 5:30 ish. We have to be seated in our seats by 5:45 and ready to go. They won't let us bring anything to take notes on or anything. So when the Ensign with all the conference talks comes out I may have you send me one! After Priesthood is over we get a sack lunch as we get back on the bus and head back to campus! We will get back here around 9:45 ish they said. So it should be an exciting day!
Someone asked me what the MTC is like? Here is my answer---- It's like EFY on Steroids. You eat, sleep, drink church and spanish 24/7. You feel like you are sinning when you are in your pajamas at night or are wearing shorts on pday because you aren't in your church clothes. But- it's amazing the spirit that is here all the time. Just the last two days we taught 16 lessons. I've never been more tired in my life than last night after teaching so much, but it was a good tired.
Well, my time is running out here. The next time you hear from me you will hear my voice! Take care..... Everything here is good. Thanks again for all your letters. They keep me motivated!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Alma 26:12
I do get to call on Wednesday. It will probably be around 9am your time. I will be calling you from Dallas while on our lay over. I will plan to call the shop unless you let me know otherwise! I'm excited to get to hear everyone's voice again! However, I may a bit drowsy since I will be up at 2am that morning!
So the sick bug hit again this week. I guess since it's my last week here I need to get sick one last time. I woke up with a sore-throat Monday morning and didn't think anything of it- used some Mucinex and Flonase. But by the time Thursday rolled around I could hardly swallow. I ran to the health clinic here and I have.........................................STREP! I know.... Thanks again mom for giving me a weak immune system! So I had a blessing last night and have been taking Cephalexin, Mucinex, Vitammin C, and Claratin D so I will be able to sing tomorrow. I won't miss that for the world. Even if I can't hit all the high notes I'll still be there!
So here's our schedule for tomorrow that I thought you might be interested in. We get "inspected" by the MTC presidency tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. If we don't have a missionary haircut, conservative tie, etc. they won't let us go. Then we watch the morning session of conference in the main building together as a choir. AS soon as the morning session gets over we head straight to lunch and eat fast! We load our assigned bus (we are taking 7 busses to SLC) @ 1:15 and leave here @ 1:30. We are going to watch the first bit of the afternoon session of conference on the bus as we go up. We will arrive at the Conference Center at 3pm and warm-up in a little theater that is also in the Conference Center that holds about 1,000 people is all. After we run thru the songs again with the organist that will be playing for us we have a potty break while we wait for the choir from the afternoon session to get out of the main theater. @ 4:45 we get to go in the main "choir loft" and run thru our songs with the main organ until about 5:15 or 5:30 ish. We have to be seated in our seats by 5:45 and ready to go. They won't let us bring anything to take notes on or anything. So when the Ensign with all the conference talks comes out I may have you send me one! After Priesthood is over we get a sack lunch as we get back on the bus and head back to campus! We will get back here around 9:45 ish they said. So it should be an exciting day!
Someone asked me what the MTC is like? Here is my answer---- It's like EFY on Steroids. You eat, sleep, drink church and spanish 24/7. You feel like you are sinning when you are in your pajamas at night or are wearing shorts on pday because you aren't in your church clothes. But- it's amazing the spirit that is here all the time. Just the last two days we taught 16 lessons. I've never been more tired in my life than last night after teaching so much, but it was a good tired.
Well, my time is running out here. The next time you hear from me you will hear my voice! Take care..... Everything here is good. Thanks again for all your letters. They keep me motivated!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Alma 26:12
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Do Re Mi...
Well as you can tell from the subject line...... I GET TO SING AT GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!! Sorry mom, but it is during Priesthood Session. All in all there are 364 of us. Because I get to sing in the choir we had practice this morning during our original temple time. So we went to a later session.... that's why I'm a little slow in emailing today. We are singing Hark All Ye Nations, Called to Serve, and Go Ye Messengers of Heaven (it's in the hymn book). WE have practice almost every morning from 7-8 am.... But I'm excited to have the opportunity to sing! I'll let you know more about what our day will be like that Saturday etc.... when I know, but that's what I know right now.
Well my mission experience is starting to become a reality now. I recieved my travel plans last night. On October 6 we have to report to the travel office at.... wait for it.... 3 AM. Yeah not too excited about that. WE fly out of SLC on American Airlines flight # 416 @ 6:00 am and Arrive in Dallas/Fort Worth @ 9:45 am. We have a lay over there for about an hour and 15 minutes. Then we fly American Airlines again flight # 1328 Leaves Dallas/Fort Worth @ 11:05 am and arrive in Tulsa @ 12:00 Noon. There are 5 of us total going to Tulsa that day. I'm still not sure if they will let us call. It is up to our branch president. He has to give us the go ahead before we leave. So I will find out this week hopefully and let you know. I would have to call you from Dallas because I don't think you would be too happy if I called you @ 4:30-5:00 am from SLC! Plus they don't like us calling from the SLC airport for some reason. If I do get to call (which I believe I will) It will probably be around 9ish your time. I was wondering if you wanted to run up to grandpa and grandma's so I could say hi to you all? Just a thought... let me know what you think about that idea. But I'll keep you posted.
Okay... enough with the boring stuff... This week we taught the Plan of Salvation for the first time in spanish at the TRC and we had to include the Word of Wisdom. It was definently a challenge, but I feel we did pretty good with it. I'm starting to see a tiny bit of growth in my spanish. I'm still pretty hard on myself and beat myself up about how bad my spanish is, but I'm starting to see an improvement. I've been to the tutor twice this week, and that has helped alot. It's also nice to have progress interviews with our teachers to hear their point of view of how they think your spanish is coming. But, I know they are being WAY too nice.
Overall, this week has been GREAT. Between getting in the choir, and recieving travel plans, and realizing that I'm going to have real investigators soon is a nice change. AS the time to head out I'm starting to get nervous. Just because it's going to be a new change, and I have NO IDEA what to expect. But, I can't wait to acutally talk to some real people.There's only so much experience you can get teaching other missionaries 24/7. So I'm ready to get going!
Well, I don't have too much more time. Sorry this email was a bit boring with my travel plans, etc... But that's the extent of what went on this week. Good luck with harvest. I'm glad things have beeenn going good so far. We'll talk to y'all later....
Love- Elder Stoddard
6 Weeks Down
Holy cow.... I don't know what to think of having been out for 6 weeks. Some days it feels like the time flies by, while other days last forever! Como le van? (How are you all?) Estoy bien! How is harvest going? Some days I'm glad I'm not there in the thick of it all, but other days I miss it. The biggest thing I miss about is Arda's fries. Arda, will you FedEx some down??? Gracias!
Things this week have gone pretty well. I still haven't heard anything about the choir thing yet. My guess is it would be for Priesthood Session (Sorry mom!) The people in charge of it thought they would probably let us know through the mail this week. I won't have my mail til later today. If I do get something saying I'm in before the end of the day I'll drop you a quick note in the mail.
We had our 2nd complete spanish TRC this week. We had to contact a "store clerk" on our pday. The clerk tried to jack up prices, and we were supposed to jew him down. It was pretty fun. After we bought our things we were supposed to get to know them and share a message about families. We then prepped a lesson based upon The Restoration for ten minutes and went back and taught for 35 minutes in total Spanish! Next week we will teach the Plan of Salvation in Spanish. Should be fun! The TRC's are great, but I'm ready for some real investigators! The spanish is coming along more and more each day. It's amazing at how much you can learn at the MTC in such a short amount of time. I know that I recieve help from upstairs. I'm not feeling to horrible about my spanish because we have a Mexican in our district that can't catch on yet!
A quick update on my foot- all is doing well. It's just frustrating that I can't play soccer with the rest of my district. The doctor said it will take about 3-5 weeks to heal completely. I just have to rehab everyday during gym time. But talking to the doctor and trainers they seem to think there will be no delay in when I leave!
I'm glad to hear Salvador and Roxanna are going thru the temple soon! Can they do a session in spanish? I wish I could be there for it!
Well, my time is running out. I'm sorry this is a VERY random email. There's not much to talk about life in the MTC. I hope harvest goes well. You're all in my prayers. I'm so glad to be where I'm at right now. I just can't wait to get to Oklahoma... Getting a bit of cabin fever here!
Take Care,
Elder Stoddard
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Lord Answers Prayers
Sorry I'm so late getting to you today. I've been at the doctor most of the day getting my ankle checked out. I'm sorry mom if the phone call from the nurse scared you. Yes I was sitting right there when she called you. To make a long story short I came down on someone else's foot while playing soccer last Tuesday. I dind't think anything of it, but after a few days it kept getting worse and started to swell and I couldn't put any weight on it. I went to the trainers at the gym and they iced for a few days and then sent me to the clinic here. They took X-rays and then said everything looked alright, but they still wanted me to go and see a podiatrist. I just got back from there. He took more x-rays because they thought something was maybe fractured on the side of my foot. However, after taking more x-rays he believes it's a pretty good case of tendenitis. He showed me some stretches to do, gave me a brace to wear, I'm supposed to ice and heat it everyday, and not play any sports whatsoever. He said it should heal within 3-5 weeks. (That's about when I leave this place!) He also said to take some anti-inflamatory for it. So I'm going to take some Tylenol. But, thankfully nothing was broken. I didn't want to go and see anyone about it. I don't want it to slow me down, but I had to give in. It was pretty neat though because the guy that drove us to the doctors office just got back off of his mission to Tulsa and loved it. He said that the spanish missionaries cover 8 areas and are in CARS!
I know the Lord answers prayers. I fasted last week that we would get roommates, and that I would make it through the TRC fine. Prayers were answered.... WE HAVE ROOMMATES! We moved down the hall into another room. We are rooming with Elder Cook from Hawaii, and Elder Montgomery (not quite sure where he's from) both going to Orlando FL spanish speaking. They are both great Elders. It's nice to have someone to lean on.
The TRC in total spanish went really well. I think that I'm my own worst critic sometimes. I got so sick before we went in to do it, but I made it thru. I didn't know I could speak so much spanish! I shared a scripture from Ether 12:4 and then we taught the first lesson in spanish. I'm grateful that I was able to make it through just fine. It amazes me how much the Lord blesses his missionaries. It's just another brick on the stack to show that this is HIS church.
Another thing, they started up MTC choir this week. We went and sang in it on Tuesday night for the devotional. They announced there that they are putting together a choir of Elders......... Wait for it....... for General Conference! they had us fill out a survey about how much background in music/singing we have. I filled one out and then they are supposed to let us know thru the mail. I'll let you know when I do.
This week I gave my first blessing.... Last night as a matter of fact. My comp came and asked if I'd give him one. He hasn't been feeling very well lately and said he needed a blessing from me. Elder Cook, the roommate, annointed him and then I gave the actual blessing. Other than flying, I have never been so nervous in my life! I've annointed before, but have never given an actual blessing. But it was good experience as well. Because he asked for a blessing I believe our companionship has been strengthened.
The spanish is starting to come a bit more now. It's still slow. Somedays I feel like Laman and Lemuel saying, "This is too hard!" and other days I feel like Nephi, "I will go and do the things the Lord commands." Now to answer a few questions: Dad wanted to know who gets to go out and pull the missionaries away from the balling mothers. Usually they let the missionaries who only have a week or two left do that. So hopefully I will get to in a couple of weeks! I can't wait!
Well, my time here is about done. Don't worry about me though. I'm doing good. I'm getting ready for a change of scenery though. It will be nice to see the real world soon.....
Love Elder Stoddard
I know the Lord answers prayers. I fasted last week that we would get roommates, and that I would make it through the TRC fine. Prayers were answered.... WE HAVE ROOMMATES! We moved down the hall into another room. We are rooming with Elder Cook from Hawaii, and Elder Montgomery (not quite sure where he's from) both going to Orlando FL spanish speaking. They are both great Elders. It's nice to have someone to lean on.
The TRC in total spanish went really well. I think that I'm my own worst critic sometimes. I got so sick before we went in to do it, but I made it thru. I didn't know I could speak so much spanish! I shared a scripture from Ether 12:4 and then we taught the first lesson in spanish. I'm grateful that I was able to make it through just fine. It amazes me how much the Lord blesses his missionaries. It's just another brick on the stack to show that this is HIS church.
Another thing, they started up MTC choir this week. We went and sang in it on Tuesday night for the devotional. They announced there that they are putting together a choir of Elders......... Wait for it....... for General Conference! they had us fill out a survey about how much background in music/singing we have. I filled one out and then they are supposed to let us know thru the mail. I'll let you know when I do.
This week I gave my first blessing.... Last night as a matter of fact. My comp came and asked if I'd give him one. He hasn't been feeling very well lately and said he needed a blessing from me. Elder Cook, the roommate, annointed him and then I gave the actual blessing. Other than flying, I have never been so nervous in my life! I've annointed before, but have never given an actual blessing. But it was good experience as well. Because he asked for a blessing I believe our companionship has been strengthened.
The spanish is starting to come a bit more now. It's still slow. Somedays I feel like Laman and Lemuel saying, "This is too hard!" and other days I feel like Nephi, "I will go and do the things the Lord commands." Now to answer a few questions: Dad wanted to know who gets to go out and pull the missionaries away from the balling mothers. Usually they let the missionaries who only have a week or two left do that. So hopefully I will get to in a couple of weeks! I can't wait!
Well, my time here is about done. Don't worry about me though. I'm doing good. I'm getting ready for a change of scenery though. It will be nice to see the real world soon.....
Love Elder Stoddard
1 Down 23 to go...
Wow... I don't know whether I'm shocked that one month has passed or if it has gone by slow. Here in the MTC you have NO concept of time. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. In just 4 and a half weeks I will be on my way to Oklahoma. We got 2 new districts this past week in our zone and there is an Elder from the part of Kansas that my mission takes in. He said to be ready for some rednecks! He also said they have quite the questions about the bible.
Anywho, before I forget... I just barely saw Elder Schenk about 5 minutes ago. He can't get a VISA and is being re-assigned to Eugene, Oregon and leaves on Monday. He said he hasn't learned anymore about his VISA or whether he will be speaking Portugese, Spanish, or English when he gets to Oregon. He just found out yesterday he was being re-assinged for now.
This week we taught our VERY LAST lesson in English. From here on out it's all in Español. I think that this Wednesday will be the scariest day of my life. We will teach our first lesson in Spanish. They say it's your first time to measure your progress with how well you are learning the language. I'm excited and nervous both. So keep me in your prayers that I can make it through Wednesday. Since we have also hit our halfway point we are now supposed to go cold turkey with Spanish. We can't say a word in English in class, and we're supposed to say as much outstide of class in spanish as well. Let's just say I'm glad that we get to come to the MTC for a while to learn the language. Here we can make mistakes and be alright. Everyone will be understanding. I'm glad I'm not out in the field quite yet to be thrown out into the fire without being able to communicate very well yet.
I think my first wave of homesickness MAY hit tomorrow around 5pm. (BYU football game). LES is literally outside the backside of the gates of the MTC so we'll be able to hear everything. We are supposed to have gym while the game is going on. I already informed my comp that we will be doing gym inside that day. No, I'll be fine though.
Well, my time is almost up. This half hour flies by each week! Keep the letters coming! Don't worry I'm NOT homesick. It helps that they keep us pretty busy here 24/7. Hopefully you will be able to cut grain soon. Maybe you'll have to put Erica, Heidi, and Roxanna on the combines during potato harvest to finish up cutting grain! Ha! Well, take care and we'll talk to y'all next week!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Anywho, before I forget... I just barely saw Elder Schenk about 5 minutes ago. He can't get a VISA and is being re-assigned to Eugene, Oregon and leaves on Monday. He said he hasn't learned anymore about his VISA or whether he will be speaking Portugese, Spanish, or English when he gets to Oregon. He just found out yesterday he was being re-assinged for now.
This week we taught our VERY LAST lesson in English. From here on out it's all in Español. I think that this Wednesday will be the scariest day of my life. We will teach our first lesson in Spanish. They say it's your first time to measure your progress with how well you are learning the language. I'm excited and nervous both. So keep me in your prayers that I can make it through Wednesday. Since we have also hit our halfway point we are now supposed to go cold turkey with Spanish. We can't say a word in English in class, and we're supposed to say as much outstide of class in spanish as well. Let's just say I'm glad that we get to come to the MTC for a while to learn the language. Here we can make mistakes and be alright. Everyone will be understanding. I'm glad I'm not out in the field quite yet to be thrown out into the fire without being able to communicate very well yet.
I think my first wave of homesickness MAY hit tomorrow around 5pm. (BYU football game). LES is literally outside the backside of the gates of the MTC so we'll be able to hear everything. We are supposed to have gym while the game is going on. I already informed my comp that we will be doing gym inside that day. No, I'll be fine though.
Well, my time is almost up. This half hour flies by each week! Keep the letters coming! Don't worry I'm NOT homesick. It helps that they keep us pretty busy here 24/7. Hopefully you will be able to cut grain soon. Maybe you'll have to put Erica, Heidi, and Roxanna on the combines during potato harvest to finish up cutting grain! Ha! Well, take care and we'll talk to y'all next week!
Love- Elder Stoddard
Friday, August 27, 2010
Most Spiritual Week...
Hola!
Wow this week has been the best week of this experience so far. We had the PRIME opportunity to hear from Elder Holland from the Quorum of the Twelve on Tuesday. He gets pretty excited when he speaks. I can't remember how many times he used the line, while sobbing, "DON'T YOU DARE GO HOME!" He also told us how his mission means everything to him and how we should not waste 10 seconds of the Lord's time. He also said that the church does not apologize for what they ask of us. "We don't apologize for what is expected of you. Welcome to the church. Welcome to the big time. It's time to grow up!" There's too much that he said that I LOVED to write here, but what a great experience it was to hear from an apostle.
Another event that adds to my spiritual high is one I believe I shared the story with you last week. An elder in our district hurt his knee while playing soccer. They took him to a surgeon this week and did an MRI, took X-rays the whole gammit. When he met with the surgeon on Tuesday the doctor showed him in the MRI and Xray that he had torn his miniscis (sp?) and would need surgery the next morning. As you can imagine, he was pretty down. However, that night his companion E' Erni and the DL's gave him a blessing. The next morning he went in for surgery. Here's the neat part. When they opened him up...... THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG! The miniscis had been healed. There's NO doubt in my mind that the Lord blesses His missionaries. Everytime that story of this Elder is told I get shivers up my spine. It makes me realize that the work I am engaged in is REAL, and how important it is to the Lord.
Steph, I'm still waiting for the spanish dream to take place hopefully one of these days. Someone asked if we have any roomates yet.... Unfortunately 3 weeks in.... NO. I wish so bad we would get some.
I loved hearing of the experience of Salvador being made an Elder. Dad, you wouldn't have wanted me to be your translator. My spanish is still pretty weak. I'm hoping to have experiences like that on my mission of meeting people like Roxanna and Salvador. People that will be humble enough to let us in and teach them.
Well, I better take off. They called me to be the Branch Music Coordinator this past week. I need to pick out the hymns we are going to sing for Priesthood, and Sacarament, get someone to lead, ask an Hermana to play etc. I'm going to play Onward Christian Soldiers for the musical number in sacarement meeting. It's going to be interesting to see how I do without the music. I've been practicing all week though.
Thanks again for all your letters, boxes etc. They make my day when my feelings are down. I LOVE the MTC. I LOVE gettting to serve the Lord. I'm hoping the Spanish will come more this week. I'm glad you all liked the pictures. I'm going to write a letter to Bishop and Sis. Wilker, but will mail it to the house. Can you get it to them for me? They wrote me this past week, but I didn't have an address to send it back to them. Have a great week!
Love---- Elder Stoddard
Illness Strikes...
Well as you can tell from the subject line an illness has struck: Double ear infection. Yah I don't quite know how I got this one. However, everyone in our district has been sick for about a week, and because I am a Stoddard I picked it up. However, I must push forward!
Things this week have been GREAT! (Other than being sick). I saw Elder Dimond the day he got here. I had written him a note and stuck in his mailbox and another one in his classroom. (We are on the same building/ same floor for class!) Then at dinner that night I went and talked to him. Let's just say that is the best hug I have ever given/recieved. It felt like I was good to see a familiar face besides my district and those already here. He was pretty pail, but so was I the first day I came in. He said he felt pretty overwhelmed, but I assured him that everything is going to be fine. By the way he is in the same zone as Elder Lower. I can't believe that I've been here 2 weeks. Somedays it seems longer than that other days it only seems like a few days.
We had our 2nd TRC appointment this week. It actually went pretty well. We went knocking doors and had to carry on a conversation in spanish for 7 minutes and ask someone about their family, hometown, work, religious beliefs, etc. We then had ten minutes to prepare based upon the info we had about her and taught her about the restoration for 40 minutes. They record you and then you can go back and watch yourself and recieve feedback. Watching yourself teach is the weirdest experience ever!
I still have no roomates. Just me and my companion in our room. However, we are supposed to get a new district this coming Wed. so we'll see. However, things with the companion have gone pretty well this week. However, from playing soccer for gym everday he has started fracturing his legs. (Stress fractures.) So we can't go out and play soccer anymore with our district. He has to ice his legs for 10 mins everyday and then we go and ride the bike/ lift. So it's working out good that way. However, I've come to love him for who he is. That's what the Lord expects of me. It seems like our whole zone is falling apart. One kid tore his ACL and MCL playing soccer. He has to spend an extra 5-6 weeks here. Another Elder in our district tore his miniscis playing soccer as well. He will find out this week wether or not he has to have surgery. It's pretty sad how many Elders/Sis here are on crutches. We saw a companionship the other day that one Elder had his arm in a sling and the other one was on crutches. Sad! Soccer is a dangerous sport!
This week our district has had the prime opportunity of getting to 'test run' a new program the church is thinking about implementing. We are the only district in the MTC that is doing it. We get to go online and chat with 'investigators' about the church. Here's the catch----- in SPANISH! It's pretty funny because it takes me a couple minutes to respond because the guy I'm talking to uses big words. So I'm madly flipping through my dictionary to try and answer him back. It's a great opportunity though. Right now he wants to know what we do in the temple so we have been talking about that.
This Sunday I get to play the piano for sacrament meeting. The district in our zone that is leaving is singing a song and asked me to play for them. Wish me luck!
Well... I can't say I'd rather be anywhere else right now. I love the spirit that is here. I also LOVE going to the temple every Friday morning. The spanish is still a bit hard but I know I can do it. One thing that we were told in a devo this week by a guy from the 70 was that the Lord didn't ask us as individuals to do this work, but he called Elder or Sister so and so. He reminded us that we have been set apart and therefore have extra help from the Lord. I keep reminding myself of that.
Well my time is down to 1:20 so I better run. I love you all. keep the letters coming. They make my day! See y'all next Friday!
Love, Elder Stoddard
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Hola from the MTC!
We just got back from the temple. We went through the 7:00 am session. Therefore, we were up at 5am. I LOVE the spirit in the celestial room!
Well, the spanish is starting to click a little more each day. I especially have taken to heart the quote that someone told me about how it's a marathon not a sprint. I have to keep reminding myself of that. But the teachers here are great and are willing to help you until you get it. The hardest thing for me is I'm sort of having to teach myself the correct way to speak English before I can learn Spanish. Spanish is alot about Past Participles, Perfect Tense, etc...
Now to try and answer some of the questions you all had. Jeremy, NO there isn't room service. The cafeteria food isn't the best but it will do. By the way they said that there are around 2,500 missionaries here with over 800 teachers. Aslo by the end of August over half the missionaries here will be speaking spanish. I agree that Shelby and Gage should start getting up at 6am for school.... That's when I get up! I am in building 13M on the top floor. I would tell you but room number but I can't have visitors. (mom!)
The only missionary in my district that is going to Tulsa is my companion. However, everyone in the district, all 12 of us, are going in the US, and no there are no sisters in our dist. WE actually only have 4 in the whole zone. Someone asked if I had been to the referral center. The answer is no. They don't do that anymore. The church is now doing more advertising online. As of right now Elder Swanger and I are the only ones in our room. Hopefully we will get some roomates next week. Kim, I haven't seen anything outside of the MTC walls so I'm not too sure how Provo looks. How are Erica, Heidi, Bailey, Shelby, Gage, Kallie, and Ty? I haven't heard anything from Erica and Heidi. I hope they are still alive!
The only missionary in my district that is going to Tulsa is my companion. However, everyone in the district, all 12 of us, are going in the US, and no there are no sisters in our dist. WE actually only have 4 in the whole zone. Someone asked if I had been to the referral center. The answer is no. They don't do that anymore. The church is now doing more advertising online. As of right now Elder Swanger and I are the only ones in our room. Hopefully we will get some roomates next week. Kim, I haven't seen anything outside of the MTC walls so I'm not too sure how Provo looks. How are Erica, Heidi, Bailey, Shelby, Gage, Kallie, and Ty? I haven't heard anything from Erica and Heidi. I hope they are still alive!
I'm going to try and mail some pictures out today. Oh by the way I saw Elder Schenk today! Just as we were leaving the temple he was going in. We didn't get to talk long. He seemed like he's doing great! He said he hasn't heard anything more about his VISA. He's been here for 6 weeks now. Elder Lower seems to be doing good.
Overall, I LOVE the MTC. One of my favroite things that I like to do here though, as I meitnioned earlier, is to contact people. The funnest people to contact are those who are speaking Mandarin, Chinese, or Japanese. Even though you don't have a clue what they are saying you can tell it's sincere. I love getting to teach 2 lessons a week as well. Getting to share my testimony and hear the testimonies of other 19 year old kids is amazing. It amazes me how much trust the Lord puts in 19-20 year old's.
Well, the clock on my screen is running low so I better hit send before I lose this all. I love you all. Until next Friday Adios!
Love- Elder Stoddard
PS. Keep the letters coming! They make my day!
Monday, August 9, 2010
I'm Alive...
Si! I am alive! I only have 30 minutes to write so I will try to answer as many questions as I can. It may be filled with random things, but I'll try to inform you of everything. Right now I am sitting in the laundry room waiting for my clothes to wash. My companion is Elder Swanger from Kennewick Washington. (One of the tri-cities up by Othello). He is different. has German roots and so sometimes it is hard to understand him. It's also hard because he isn't one who likes to work too hard. He sometimes gets off task and I have to keep prodding him along. He's not the most spiritual person. We had our first opportunity to teach the first lesson in English to our DL and his comp. I could have died because during the part of the lesson where you are supposed to teach about the BOM he started bashing the Bible saying, "Well do you know that the Bible was written in so and so?" It was a good 3-4 minutes before he stopped talking that I could finally get the lesson back on track. I believe the Lord is trying to teach me humility and patience. Defenitley to be patient with him but also to be patient with the language. Learning spanish stinks. Everyone in our district, but my comp and I have had some kind of experience in spanish before. Therefore, we are sort of behind and it's frustrating. Jordan I think asked me about learning the language and how much time they give us. We harp on it for about 5-6 hours a day while we have a teacher in the room. We then can do more during our MDT time where we get to pick what we get to study.
Someone asked about the first day. I think the curb side drop off, sorry mom, was great! At least on this end of things. Sure it was hard to say goodbye for a few minutes, but they wisk you away and throw you right into the fire. The Elder that took me in to a large room where they give you your name tag, etc... After that he took me up to my room and told me to get my PMG, Scriptures, and something to write with and we were off! They kept us busy right up til bedtime. So it was great. As long as I stay busy I don't think about home too much. And they sure do keep you busy here alot! We are scheduled out to the minute! I don't know what I would do without my planner.
For the most part, besides my companion, I love it here. The spirit is so strong. I love my district and teachers! Hermano Nelson and Zundel are awesome! By the way, my District Leaders hate you all. They are in charge of getting the mail everyday, and I have had multiple letters everyday! Muchas Gracias everyone! I love getting mail! Dear Elder is amazing! We usually get those after dinner. Dad thanks for the candy. The fish are gone! And yes I shared them with Elder Swanger. (pronounced Elder Swanner. Like the bird with and er on the end.)
I have had a couple of rough days the past couple of days, but I know this is where I'm supposed to do. It would be so much easier if I could do it in English, but the Lord called me to learn spanish. Please pray that I can learn it! Well my time here is running out, but thanks for everything. Keep the letters coming. They help keep my spirits high. To end I want to bare my testimonial in Espanol. Yo Soy Que Jesucristo es mi salvador y que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta hoy. Well that's part of it but I'm down to the end of my time. I will share the rest later! I love you all.
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