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

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!

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!

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.