Note: For the duration of Riley's mission, this blog will be produced and edited by his parents, Daisy and Todd Stonely.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Week 95

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

I love you all so dearly! Thank you for all of your support and love. Missionaries tremendously feel it that is for sure. Missionary work is going great! We are knocking doors, teaching investigators and sharing our testimonies! There truly is no greater work than this. 

This week I would like to share with you all my thoughts from this week. Elder Rasband in General Conference talked about following spiritual promptings and this week we saw one of those spiritual promptings.

This week we had an experience where we had a lot of people and places to go. It was Sunday after church and as the events of the day rolled out, we noticed that a lot of them were falling through. I remember in our planning session during the morning, the last person we had put on our list was a potential to try to visit. We had attempted to go by a couple times before with no success, and this was going to be our last time trying her for a while. We knocked and Deisy, the potential, answered the door. I was pretty excited and glad that she answered! First cause she has my moms name, she just spells it differently, and secondly, she was home! We were able to talk to her and then set up a return appointment. Where she lives, is a neighborhood where the majority of the people are African American. So we didn't think that we were going to find many people there. Though, we thought we should ask Deisy if she knew if any of her neighbors spoke Spanish. At first she said no, but then remembered that there were two across the street in a little hidden neighborhood. We were pretty excited so we went to go try them! Long story short, we talked with a lady named Marta who is from Honduras, which by the way is my favorite country behind the united states. HAHA And we talked with her for about 30 minutes and set up a return apt. That may be pretty normal for most missionaries, and it should be. Thought for us, on this Sunday, Marta was the end of many spiritual promptings starting during planning, talking with Deisy, asking for referrals and doing what missionaries should do. I wouldn't say I receive many HUGE spiritual promptings, though I know that the spirit guides us with thoughts and feelings throughout the day and if they are uplifting and good, they are of the spirit and we should follow them "for we know not what lies in our path." 

I am grateful for the constant blessings that I receive daily as well as the opportunity I have to share my testimony with everyone! Again, thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts! Happy Easter to all of you! And ill send you all my love from the great city of Tallahassee :)

Elder Stonely