Recipe for Personal Revelation

Hola Familia!

A su!! Don't tell me about hiking Payson canyon and "nacho bars" and planting new flowers, ALL OF MY FAVORITE THINGS! haha but seriously, I'm jealous, it sounds like you had a great week! And the pictures look beautiful. I'm pretty sure that the people sitting around me in internet thinks our family is a little hippie, but we're happy nada más haha 

This week has been great! The new temple in "Los Olivos" is super close! It's just outside of our mission boundaries but will be a HUGE blessing to all of the members in our mission! I don't know how long it will take to be built but it should be two or three years no? My companion is doing great. It's fun to have a "daughter". My hair is doing a little better. I bought a baby shampoo and I feel like it's falling out a little bit less so that's good. 

This week was really good. We have a lot of people progressing, just not progressing to baptism just yet. They all have little things to repent of or to understand better or something like that, but I feel happy that God is preparing a lot of people in our path. Something that I have realized and that we have combated a lot this week is this phrase: "Si Dios me permite..." it is an AWFUL EXCUSE. It is to say "If God wants me to go to church I'll go." "If God wants me to get married, I'll get married" Now, these statements aren't bad, but it is bad to sit and wait for God to remove every obstacle that could possibly get in the way of going to church, getting married, etc. GO OUT AND DO IT. FIRM MIND. GOALS. PLANS. I try to have patience with people but sometimes I think it would be better settled like a football coach yelling out orders. The people just need to understand that as it teaches us in D&C 58:27-28, we are our own agents. Our DECISIONS despite our circumstances is what helps us progress or fall back. I was also doing a lot of personal study this week about personal revelation. I have come to find that the recipe for personal revelation is searching, faith, repentance, and our obedience to the commandments. I hope that you guys can receive personal revelation to be able to achieve not only what you want, but what God has prepared for you. Have a good week!

Hermana Stone

 

April 18th, 2016

Hola Familia!

I loved seeing the pictures of the homemade cookies- that was always a Sunday tradition that I loved! In fact, this last P day we taught all of the Latinos how to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were all amazed and needless to say, we only made it to baking half of the dough because everyone ate the rest of it! 

This week was really good, it flew by. We are working hard and finding lots of people to teach. One of my favorite memories this week was sitting outside teaching a family and a few of their neighbors about the restoration. We finished the lesson and called all of the kids playing in the street to come and join us for the closing prayer. They all sat down in a huge circle, probably about 15 people including my companion and I, and we taught them all how to fold their arms, close their eyes, and talk with God. It was really special. Another of my favorite memories this week was when Hermana Antúnez and I acted out Mormon dying and giving the plates to Moroni and Moroni later appearing to Joseph Smith to reveal where the plates were hidden. It was necessary because you've just got to adapt the teaching to the understanding of the person! We all ended up laughing but by the end, the woman understood where El Libro de Mormon comes from! We had our last interviews with President Erickson this week too. The next time we have interviews, it will be to get to know our new President! I have learned SO much from Presidente Erickson and will miss him a lot. We are facing a lot of different problems to help our investigators progress, but with patience and a lot of prayer, I know that things will get better. 

Delaney looks so beautiful for the wedding! Give her a big hug for me. Thanks for everything,

Hermana Stone

    

Alex as a Missionary

Look Familiar??? >>>

My sunrise this morning

Making Cookies!

To BE is different than to DO

Familia!!

It's always so good to hear from you guys. This week FLEW by. I know that missionaries always say that but it's so true, and so weird. You asked if my Spanish is fluent now. I would like to say yes- but sometimes when they talk super fast and don't pronunciate clearly I have to just smile still and agree to whatever they're saying. haha I guess not a lot changes :) I shared with you guys a little bit last week about how the woman who we were going to baptize this week moved away at the last second for a disease recently discovered in her spine. We were heartbroken, I loved her like a grandma. I have come to see her grow so much and to find the Savior. She had attended several different churches but never was baptized because she always felt like something was missing. I know that she will still be baptized, it just might take a while for her to recover, and come back home. While we were praying and fasting to find more people that we can teach and that will progress, a woman came up to me in General Conference (We all watch it in the Stake Center). She told me that she was recently baptized in Huanaco- a provincia en Peru- and that she wants us to teach her husband. We went Monday to her house and taught them together. He is great and accepted a baptismal date, we just need to work with him in a few things before he can be baptized. There was a quote by President Packer that said "God is not a stranger to His servants" I know that this is true. 

This week we were able to build a roof! I got to go to lunch with Hermana Haro and Hermana Eliason (Haro was my second companion and Eliason was my companion in the CCM!) It was so fun to catch up and talk. I got the package of pictures and letters and the new paintings by Sadie are hung on my wall. Tell her thank you from me! Yesterday there was the elections for the new president. There was a TON of people in the streets but it made for good contacting. I also loved the quote by President Monson "May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong" and thinking about the importance of not only our decisions, but our PLANS. The decisions affect the plan, but if we have no plan, the decisions don't matter much. We need to not only plan on what career we study, where we go, and in what we work in, but WHO we are, HOW we will treat others, or react to situations. SER ES DIFERENTE DE HACER. To BE is different than to DO. I hope that we can each have goals, and a plan on who we want to be. And remember the calling from our Lord and Savior: "Be thou perfect" I hope that we can look to the Savior and be perfected in Him. Until next time folks,

Hermana Stone

With Hermanas Eliason and Haro

Ok, I never said we constructed the roof "well"

My "daughter" is cute (and the food is GOOD)

My turtle Pablo found a friend

Found some chicks (And Elder Alder found a conch shell)

Have you never been so happy that you had to weep?

Familia!

Que tal?¿ This week has been super good. So my new companion is MY DAUGHTER! (aka I'm training) It stressed me out a lot at first when I got the news, but now that we're a week in, I feel good and she is really sweet. Her name is Hermana Antúnez from San Pedro, Honduras and say that I'm crazy, but she is the 21 year old, Honduranian version of Vanessa Madsen. It actually freaked me out when I realized it the third day. She is all into natural remedies (we cut savila to put in salads and apparently it's juice will help my hair not fall out??) has a lot of the same body language and a genuine love for everyone. She is one of 5 kids and the first missionary in her immediate family. She's very sweet. There are some perks to training, the first of which was a lunch with all of the trainers and the newbies eating Papa Johns. The garlic sauce for the crust may or may not have brought tears to my eyes. I miss real pizza! 

We also had a special capacitacion by presidente- It's like a mini general conference. I always love his capacitaciones! Unfortunately, our Zone Leaders forgot to tell us and when the assistants called asking where we were and why we were late, I thought it was an April Fools joke. But we got there and only missed about an hour. President talked a lot obedience and decisions that we make (along with the theme of Monson and Uchdorf in the conference!) and said something that really impacted me- "El señor nos da MAS instrucciones de explanaciones", or that God gives us more instrucciones than he does explanations. We can't expect to understand His reasoning in every moment. We are asked to walk by faith, not by sight because His thoughts truly are higher than ours. He has so much information to give us that He has to keep the instrucciones coming- Like a child about to touch a burning oven, you don't yell out "if you touch this stove you will get burned and it will hurt" and some other direction, but "yes", "No" or "Stop". God is often the same. He also talked about how we can not be slaves to our own feelings and thoughts. "Solamente porque algo viene a la mente no quiere que decir que viene de Dios". Why trust in ourselves when we have the Creator of the Universe giving us perfect instructions? This week I got a package of letters written in June. Better ten months late than never. It was funny to see all of the questions about how is the food in the CCM and if if my ping pong is getting any better. haha I don't remember who it was in conference, but there was an invitation to "palpar sus manos" or as it describes in 3 Nephi, thrust your hands into my side and feel the prints in my hands. I know that as we remember our Savior, as we follow Him and remember the prints in his hands, we will develop so much love for Him, that whatever He asks of us, we will willingly obey. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know that he holds the keys of the Priesthood here on Earth and that through God's Holy Temples, we can have eternal families. When the second temple was announced here, I was brought to tears. I remembered a quote I read by James E. Talmage that said- "Have you never been so happy that you had to weep? I have" I can add my testimony to his that the best things in life bring TRUE, not temporary happiness. I love you guys,

Hermana Sav

Con Hermana Antúnez