Week 93

Dear Friends and Family,

If you didn't notice i didn't send this email last week, I forgive you for not thinking of me. HAHA I am totally kidding. I couldn't help but put that line in there. 

Last week we were unable to finish writing our emails due to certain circumstances, so I decided to write this weeks email on a paper and then type it today! So this week there will be two weekly emails from your favorite elder in Tallahassee Florida!

I know I've never been very good at giving details of my day to day routine as a missionary, though it could be because my memory is not the best. THough my simple spiritual thought for today comes from our investigator Gloria. Gloria is a single mom with % kids. SHe lives with her sister, who is also a single mom with five kids, who both live together in a small double wide trailer. Whenever one sister is working, the other is at home with the 10 kids. I dont think I have to say much for all of you to know that her life is rough, hard, stressful, busy and frightening. Despite her circumstances, Gloria shows an extreme amount of faith, hope and Charity. SHe constantly expresses her great faith in the Lord and her hope for a better future for her kids. As we visited with her I noticed one thing in particular about the way she secretly shows her charity. That is through her faithful and meaningful prayers. We were following up with her to see if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. She had read, and had prayed, but felt a little guilty because she had not thought very directly about the BOM in her prayers. She said she had fallen asleep praying and that it often happens as she prays for other people. She shared with us how in her prayers, she prays for her kids, then for everyone else who she meets throughout her day. I thought to myself, if my personal prayers were the same and if I was truly praying for others. LEts just say I made the commitment to do better. That day I learned from Gloria not only should we pray for people, but we should have more charity towards everyone and do as many wise friends have told me, "look at them through Christs eyes."

As I focus on looking at those around me through my Saviors eyes, I stop criticising them and start seeing their true identity of a child of god, a brother, and a human with unique characteristics that god had given them. I hope to never forget to have charity towards others and look at them through Christs eyes~!

I thank you all for being tremendous support and examples for me! And I wish you all a wonderful week!

Elder Stonely

Week 92: YUP!

My fellow friends and family, 

My heart is full of love towards all of you and hope you all had a good week as such did i. We had lots of missionary work and zone conference to lighten our spirits! If any of you want to know specifics of my weeks feel free to throw in a request! 

I recently picked up the habbit of writing poems in my free time so here is this weeks poem. Dont judge for bad grammar, spelling, rhyming, or bad poetry in general. I obviously didnt pay too much attention to my school teachers. HAHA Though I hope you enjoy it.

My Shadows Path:

By Elder Riley Paul Stonely

I once walked through

A dreary way.

There was no sun

There was no ray.

I could not see

Nor cared to know

My every step

Or way to go.

I told myself

There was no end,

Nor happiness,

Nor any friend.

Though said to me 

Along my way

A secret phrase

As not to stray.

There was a friend

Who cared to be

A loving heart

That shared with me.

You will perceive 

What cant be seen

Through Christ the Lord

He'll be your beam.

I now walk not

By fear alone

For I have one

Whom I can phone.

His name be Savior, 

Reedemor, King.

To Him I'll praise 

With joy and sing.

He is my rock

With Him concrete,

I will not fall

Or be defeat.

I follow Him

For hopes to see

His grace applied

To all of me.

I said at first 

I once walked through,

A dreary way

I now outgrew.

Behind me now

Is all the wrath,

I like to call

My shadows path.

I don't know why i felt inspired to share that with you all, though I hope you all know just how much your heavenly father loves each and everyone of you. He knows you, he knows your paths, he knows your sorrows, your pains, your joys, and success. He jumps up and down with you as you score an A on final exams and he weeps with you through your darkest of moments. He has provided a way to comfort you with peace and love through His son, our savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ. We have the Atonement within hands reach. All he asks is that we fold our arms, bow our heads, kneel to him and offer our souls in prayer to make the commitment to follow his sons example and strive every day to repent and serve others so we can "always have the spirit to be with us." -D&C 20:77,79. 

My fellow Brothers and Sister, do we remember to pray to him? Do we remember to study his Holy word to receive inspiration and feel of his love? I have a testimony of daily prayer and scripture study. That is the way we talk and listen to him.

I love you all so very much. My heart aches knowing we are so far, yet I like Moroni have great hopes in our reunion!

"And now I, Elder Stonely, bid farewell unto my family and friends, yea and  also unto my brethren whom I love, Until we shall meet again." -Ether 12:38

I love you all so much! Hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Stonely

Week 91: HEY :)

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week has been one to remember. Though... isn't every week one to remember? I think yes.

We had an opportunity to meet with an investigator about 2 months ago. She was just a potential and we were planning on working with her though we weren't able to see her for a couple of weeks. We didn't think much of it because all of our visits and appointments with her were being cancelled and all. It was pretty sad. Though we finally got into the house to teach her. First off, she is recently divorced, with 5 kids, lives in a small trailer with her sister who also has 5 kids. So yes, its quite the house and she has her work cut out for her. Though we taught the restoration and the plan of salvation and it went pretty well! She asked us lots of questions and she pretty much knows the answers to them, she just wants clarification. So we are expecting great things with her and her family. We both are excited to continue teaching them :)

Well, Other than that, lots of finding and missionary work! If anyone has any questions they want me to answer send me an email, other than that, my ideas of what to share from missionary life are turning into few... HAHA

Spiritual thought of the week comes from yesterday. The first Sunday of the month was stake conference so our stake did fast Sunday yesterday. We decided to fast for this investigator who I mentioned above. We were fasting for her specifically to have the desire to read the book of Mormon and start to keep commitments so that she could be ready to accept the commitment to be baptized. And As we were waiting for a meeting to get started, we got a text from her saying that she read and had a question about being Born again! How ironic... HAHA So we haven't seen her yet, though we are going to visit with her today! Though in that moment one of the first things that I thought about was how the Lord answered our prayers and helped our investigator have the desire to read the book of Mormon. It was something so very simple, though it was so powerful and it made my Sunday one to remember. Brothers and Sisters wherever you are around the world, I know that through fasting we can bring to pass many mighty miracles and receive much strength and guidance. I know that through sincere prayer we can always talk with our celestial friend above who loves us, cares for us and wants to bless us. He is waiting for us to check in and out every day so he can pour out the blessings of heaven. I love you all so very much and am grateful for everyone of you I have been able to meet in this life and learn from. 

Have a wonderful week full of tender mercies and miracles!

Your favorite elder, 

Elder Stonely

we played some cricket ball today! It was pretty fun :)

Week 90: Elder Stonely :)

Well my amazing friends and Family, I again set apart a couple minutes of my time to write you my feelings through an email on this marvelous Monday. I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know what to write so if this is choppy, don't read it and wait till next week :)

How grateful I am for the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit that our Heavenly Father gives us daily. I feel as if we may take for granted the biggest blessing of the companionship of the Holy Ghost almost weekly. Or at least I feel that I do at times. I do not believe that there is any other moment in my life where I am more happy then when I am feeling the spirit. Whether it be in the House of the Lord or walking down a street of a trailer park here in Tallahassee. The spirit will be with us as we ask, knock and seek for his companionship. My wise grandfather who i cherish dearly once told me around the new year season, "make every day a new year." I found that applicable in today's email. In the World Wide missionary broadcast they mentioned how every day starts off spiritually at 6:30 am. How the morning sets a tone for our spiritual days. And no matter how the day goes, the next morning will always come and we will always have a new 6:30. 

Every day we have the opportunity to make our days more spiritually filled and to make every day a new year :) I ask myself these questions frequently:

What do I choose to say? study? listen to? focus on?

Am I choosing to be obedient?

Is what I'm doing enticing the spirit?

If the answers to those questions are not the best, I ask myself:

What can I choose instead? or

What would the Savior have me do?

Now I am no perfect person. I don't believe we can find any perfect person alive, though I have a testimony of striving to invite the spirit into our every day lives so we can be guided in what we say, do, where we go, and what the will of the Lord is. The spirit also is a sign that what we are doing is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord and that he loves us and is happy with us. I know that the spirit is what leads us and guides us and that if we do all we can to invite his presence into our every day lives we will get closer with our Savior and our Father in Heaven. I love you all so very much and am grateful for your prayers and support. No missionary can say that they cant feel answers to prayers from those they love at home. I am eternally grateful!

Until we meet again,

Your favorite elder in Florida,

Elder Stonely

Week 88: Meeting an Apostle

Dear Amazing Friends and Family,

Well, this past week I got to shake the hand of an Apostle for the first time in my life, "according to my memory." Elder Gary E. Stevenson took two hours out of his busy schedule to come talk with all of us in our mission. Wow, I don't think anyone really know what to expect when they meet an apostle for the first time, but for anyone that doesn't know, They are a normal person! The only difference is you can feel of their divine calling and the spirit that they have with them. The conference with him was from 10-12 on Saturday though we were all in our seats by 9:00 listening to the prelude music and I had some time to think about what was going to happen with this great opportunity! When He entered the room I could just tell he was someone special. Throughout the meeting it felt so normal as he talked with us, it was as if we were talking with someone on the street, though he was obviously talking about gospel stuff and it was more inspired than a street contact. Though he has a sense of humor and is an amazing person. We got to shake his hand and the line felt like forever, then the next thing I knew i was sitting down. HAHA He has a wonderful handshake. Firm, yet gentle, and he has such a wonderful smile. He greeted us all by name and then we shook the hands of the other General Authorities :) It was great!!! So, Now I can say that I shook the hand of an apostle. If you haven't done it, I hope you all get the chance to do it some day!

Alright, so this past week we had a really enjoyable time with finding, tracting, teaching, eating and sleeping :) And today we will be making baleadas as a district as well as a Mexican dessert called,"Carlota" we are all pretty stoked, and so that is what we will be off and doing today! HAHA Just know that I love you all and we are doing fabulous! I thank you all for your amazing support and love in all that missionaries do around the world. Best of luck in all of your adventures, 

Much love,

your favorite missionary in Tallahassee Florida,

Elder Stonely

Ingredients for baleadas.

Week 87: My week in an Email :)

Mis Queridos Amigos y Familia,

¡Los Amo! I love you all so much! I am so grateful for all the prayers and support that we have felt from you all this past week! Keep being amazing!

Three experiences:

Funny:     we had a Valentine party this past Saturday for the branch and we went to go set up all the table, chairs and decorations, well, when we were all done, Elder Leandro and I were on one end of the gym with a couple members and our branch president was siting on the other end by himself. We see this man walk in and start talking to the branch president. They were talking for about five minutes. Then this guy come over to us and mumbles something under his breath, and I asked him, "¿Como le puedo ayudar?" which means, "how can I help you?"  This guy, had this specific look on his face of such great confusion.... and I was waiting for a response, but got none, so for a period of about 10 seconds we stared into each others eyes in complete confusion. Then the bell rang in my head, (the guy didn't speak Spanish... ) HAHAHAHA I had forgotten that our branch president spoke enough English so I thought that this guy spoke Spanish when he came in. He was a little darker, and I didn't understand his mumbling voice. HAHA So anyway, funny moment of the week is that I spoke Spanish to a white guy and then we stared into each others eyes until I figured out I messed up. HAHA then we helped the man out. HAHA So now you all know that Elder Stonely isn't perfect :)

Stressed:     Ok, so this past Sunday we had branch counsel and all of the stake leaders came to our sacrament meeting. Now for those of you who don't know, since we have a Spanish branch, we translate from Spanish to English. You would think its easy, I'm here to assure you that it is, when people don't read stories or general conference talks. HAHA The only talk I had to translate was mostly a story that they read and if any of you realize how different stories are when you read them in your talk compared to just talking, it is like someone is talking a thousand miles an hour. So all these pour English speakers that were listening to me were listing to a made up story of mine about the topic of gratitude instead of what the speaker was saying because I couldn't keep up. HAHAHAHA it wasn't the best, and brought lots of stress! HAHAHA though I lived, and am still here :) Though the spirit was in the meeting and everyone was able to be spiritually uplifted :)

Spiritual:     So we found this really sick family this past week from El Salvador. Her name is Abigail and there are a lot of people in the family. We taught them the plan of salvation, then the restoration in two different visits, and she read the Book of Mormon and prayed to know its true! we are still working with both of them on helping them receive their own testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the restoration. That may not be too big of a spiritual experience, though I don't think words can describe the spirit that we felt in the lesson. It was amazing!!!

It was a great week and i am happy to be serving here in Tallahassee! The weather is slowly getting warmer which means spring is coming!!!!!!! wahooo!!!!!!! I love you all so much! 

Your Elder,

Elder Stonely

Blowing you my love and kisses!

 

A sick jeep with a wench in the church parking lot.

 

Week 86: Heavenly Father Loves You

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was amazing :) Truly one to remember :) So we went to a baptism of a 8 year old girl, did a lot of finding, and had a wonderful Sunday.

Baptism: 

There is a wonderful young girl in the branch named Ali who got baptized this past Saturday. It was a very special experience for her, though for all who attended. I sat listening to the prelude music. The pianist was playing hymns in a soothing sort of way that invited the spirit into the service. I looked at all the children and started reflecting on my own baptism. Honestly, I do not remember much of how the service went, who spoke, or who was there, though Alis baptism was similar to mine in the way i felt. As I listened to countless people tell Ali to remember what she is feeling I wish that I would have written my feelings when i got baptized. Of course an 8 year old isn't normally the BEST at expressing their feelings, though it would be cool to reflect back on what my 8 year old mind thought. I may not be able to account the story of my baptism, though I could tell you what i felt because i felt the same that i feel at every baptism i attend. There is a feeling of peace, comfort, endless love, joy, happiness and everlasting hope. The room was filled with smiles. The children seemed to be more in tune with those special spirits that were in the room as well. Oh how i wish to be a child again. I want to know what is going on in their minds. What would they think? What would they tell us about what they feel. I am grateful for the joy that the gospel brings to every single on of us. I know it to be true!

Finding:

I have a testimony of prayer. I know that our heavenly father listens to us and is always willing to bless our lives. We had a special experience this week with finding many potential people to teach and to share our testimonies with others. Though, as many missionaries experience, we meet many people, though not all of them let you come back again. So we were feeling a little bit of discouragement. (just random thought, there is a difference from feeling discouragement and being discouraged.) And In these moments of discouragement is when our Heavenly Father wants us exercise our faith a little more in him and increase our dependence on him. So, we prayed together as a companionship that we would find success in our finding. Though we didn't find success in "finding" we did find it in something great!

We have a LA whom i will call, Susy. Susy has a rough life, she isn't a resident here in the states, she has two kids ages 5 and 3 who are constantly needing help though are a joy of her life. She has a rough working situation which makes it hard for her to work, which means a rough life financially. She comes to church on and off, though has a strong testimony. She has suffered a lot from depression which we didn't know before. Anyhow, we decided to go over on Sunday since she didn't come to church. We went over and started talking to her. Her appearance wasn't usual and she looked worn out and exhausted both spiritually, emotionally and physically. We asked her how she was doing and told her we missed her at church and that led us into a conversation about what was going on in her life. It was very cool to see her open up, though I felt really sad for her situation. We felt inspired to talk about Joseph Smith and prayer. She really enjoyed it and went on to tell us that there have been two really bad moments in her life where in the deepest darkest parts she has received a knock on the door and who have they been? The missionaries... HAHA She told us that when we came by this day that it was one of those moments where god was telling her that he was still there and he was listening. We felt special knowing that we were instruments in heavenly fathers hands. It was definitely a testimony builder for us.

As well as being a moment in her life where she knew that her Father in Heaven was with her and heard her, it was a testimony builder for us that our Heavenly Father hears our prayers, he knows our desires, and he has a will for each and every one of us. Let us put our faith in our Heavenly Father and in his son, Jesus Christ. I love you all so much and enjoy feeling the love from your prayers and your support. Have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Elder Stonely

Used wine bottle corks put to a useful purpose.

Good doggy, it is okay to eat that mail.

Tallahassee water tower.