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