This week is transfer week! Which means a lot of fun news :) We
didn't know if Elder Moore would be leaving or not because he is right
on the fine time line of going and staying. Though, calls came in, and
Elder Moore went out the another zone as a zone leader, and I will be
training an elder from Brazil here in Tallahassee!! I still don't know
what his name is, but he is 6 foot 6 inches and plays volleyball! I'm
not sure if he speaks Spanish, but he should be able to understand it
cause the languages are pretty similar. Though he has lived in the
states for about a year so he may know English. Either way, I'M GONNA
LEARN PORTUGUESE! I'm excited! HAHAHAHAHA I was a little scared to
train, but then I realized that I have already done it so its not that
hard. And if he picks up Spanish fast then it will be easy! I'm still so
excited to be here and to keep pressing forward!!!
This week was quite the shortest, it seemed to fly by, but the
spiritual highlight of the week comes from a trade off we did with our
zone leaders. Elder Birch, is one of the sickest missionaries ever! He
comes from a family where his dad left his family at age 16 and he was
put into the father role. With 8 other siblings, he provided for the
family, they moved around almost yearly, and he never was able to serve a
mission till now since his mom re-married. Despite these difficulties,
he decided to serve a mission at age 25 and dedicate two years. I talked
to him and got to know him and one of the greatest things that I
learned was the lesson of "Magnifying your calling." All of Elder
Birches family is less active and he mentioned it was hard for him to
always go to church. Though after every move, he would go directly to
the bishop and asked for home teaching assignments and a calling. I saw
in his example of how that prepared him to be an amazing missionary. As I
thought about him I began to ponder of how I am doing at "magnifying my
calling?" I know there are always things that seem to get in the way of
fulfilling our duties, though I realized that as we do our very best to
serve the Lord and those around us in our callings, we will be blessed
:) I am very grateful for all the examples around me :)
Thank you all for your amazing love and support in all you do for missionaries around the world! Much love and appreciation,
Elder Stonely
