Week 55: Spiritual Fireworks

Dear Friends and Family,

I always start off by saying that "this week was one to remember" or something like that, though the only thing that remembered my week was my journal. HAHA There wasn't too much that happened. 

One big thing that happened was our mission said goodbye to President and Sister Smith, and welcomed another President and Sister Smith! We had the opportunity to welcome in the new Mission President and His wife and get to know them a little more. He seems SUPER energetic and crazy! I'm excited to get to know him a little more. :) And sister Smith is VERY quite and calm. They are a perfect pair for each other! And I think that we are going to enjoy them a lot out here. It was a humbling experience for me to see just how humble of people they are and it was nice to get to know them. :) We will miss the old President and his wife, though its going to be a blast with the new one!

This Sunday we also had an investigator at church. Domingo is his name and he is 17. We love him and were supper excited that he wanted to come to church! So when we showed up, there was another less active member who was there named Robert. In the same grade at Domingo. We got super excited cause Domingo would have a friend to talk to his age instead of sitting next to a 70 year old woman! HAHA So we approached Robert and asked him if he knew Domingo before we introduced them, and when he found out who he was he went off about how big of a trouble maker he thought Domingo was and how bad he was at school. HAHA So we got a little worried about how the friendship thing would work. Though to our surprise, Robert helped him feel welcome! It was great. :)

I wish you all a Happy 4th of July!!! I envy all of you who get to watch amazing fireworks and have a blast, though I'm a little prideful of the spiritual fireworks that us missionaries get to set off every day!!! Totally kidding. HAHA We can all have spiritual fireworks :0 And I hope you all enjoy your week! 

I love you much! :)

Elder Stonely

Zone Conference with new Mission President and wife.

Week 54: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit...Blessed are the Meek

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was yet again another great week! Full of more and MORE learning. And so much work to be done. I wanted to share with you all something that I learned this week in my studies and throughout the days. 

On Sunday afternoon, right after church I was studying in the scriptures. One of the speakers who spoke during sacrament meeting had been assigned to give a talk based off of a couple chapters in the book of 3 Nephi 12-14. Chapter 12 includes the "Beatitudes." His talk fascinated me to the point where that day I decided to dive deeper into each "Beatitude" and study them a little bit more. Though as I studied them I found my mind dwelling on two in specific. They are found in Verses three and five.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" verse 3.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" verse 5.

I probably spent a long time pondering these two because time was flying by during the hour of study that I had. These two touched me a bit harder than the rest because these past couple of weeks many challenges, difficulties and what you could call "trials" seem to have been never ending. I found myself most days with feelings of anger, envy, regret, and feeling in a way entitled to some help from above. 

My studies have been recently focused on Christlike attributes, though until now I didn't quite apply what I had been learning. After reflecting the two scriptures, I realized that I was personally holding in a lot of personal pride. I thought of how I could become "poor in spirit" and "come unto him" which led me to becoming more humble and meek. I realized that in so many ways, I was feeling "entitled" to help when the help was already here. Becoming meek and humble is submitting yourself to the savior and letting him teach and help you. I Learned that If I was a little more humble and meek in what I was doing and how I interacted with others, the help I thought I was "entitled" to, could be given to me in any needful moment. I also realized that If i were to have any of the blessings of the gospel or "the kingdom of heaven" or "inherit the earth" I was to become more Christlike. Especially humble and meek. 

Now I apologize for the crazy spread of thoughts! Though I hope that if any of you are experiencing the same feelings that I felt this week that you too can experience the blessings that come from forgiving others even when you weren't in the wrong or by looking at things that happen in a different perspective. There is no pride in the heart of the humble. and those who are humble and "come unto him" shall inherit the "kingdom of heaven" as well as the fruits of the atonement and the blessings of the gospel. I am so grateful for our savior, Jesus Christ, and all that he has shown me, taught me and especially for his amazing example. I know that he truly did suffer for our sins, how we feel and the sorrows around us. I am grateful as well to serve the people around me:)

I thank you all so much for the support you are to all the missionaries around the world. Have a great week this week and enjoy your summer :) 

Much love,

Elder Stonely

P.S. I left my camera at home, so pictures will have to wait another week.

Week 53: Fathers Day

Dear Friends and Family,

I seem to have lost track of the weeks out here. It could be week 1 or week 100, I'm not sure. Though time seems to be flying by WAY too fast. I will hopefully get to work as hard as I can to get lots done!

 

This week has been a great one! As far as blessings, we have been seeing a lot of them. We showed up to church and the branch president told us that he had received a call from a man named "Adam" who said he was going to come to church. Well, Adam came to church and it turns out he is a Hispanic! And he is such a legit member! So, we FINALLY have a Hispanic member to take out to lessons where they will understand! We had planned on taking a bunch of the white old folks to our lessons and just translating everything. Don't get me wrong, we are still gonna do this. Though we have someone who speaks Spanish who can help us! He is awesome. :) And we are going fishing today; :) we are excited.

Well also, Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful father! And my wonderful grandfather! I am so proud of both of them for who they are and what they have done to help a kid like me. :) Thank you! 

Elder Valenzuela and I gave talks in sacrament meeting yesterday on the topic of fathers and they were amazing talks! The Branch President told us to tell our fathers that they would have been proud of us. Its very prideful of me to say that, though I love my dad! And I know you would be proud of me. :) We had a great Sunday! All the fathers received a gift for fathers day and they gave us both a gift and called us, "prospective fathers!" HAHA that was pretty fun. :)

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! A lot of love is coming your way from an elder who lives next to a bunch of cows! Love you all!

Elder Stonely

Week 52: Being sick is no fun. Building ramps rocks! :)

Dear Friends and Family,

This week has been such a long one! Elder Valenzuela and I both got sick from some virus and have been in and out all week! The funny part was that every day there was something that popped up that made us get out of the house and do missionary work or try to get something done, like building a ramp... HAHA so we never got better! Though today we are feeling just a tad bit better. :)

But like I said, We built a ramp this week! Well parts of a ramp. Since we are the only young people in the branch, the man who was in charge of building the ramp had us over three times this week to try to get this ramp done. This has been a 7 year long service activity that has been going on where this couple needs a ramp. Though its been all talk and no action until Brother Day moved in and he got put in charge of building the ramp! It has been an awesome service opportunity for us though. :) And we are looking forward to the finished product. I will have to send pictures once it comes through. :)

Other than that, we have had a slow week this week! I love you all so much and hope you keep care. :) I had a spiritual highlight to share then forgot it... So you all will have to wait till next week. :)

Love you much!

Elder Stonely

Week 51: Fried catfish is amazing, but our investigator is Boss

Dear Friends and Family,

I've been out a year and it doesn't feel like it... It has gone by TOOOO fast.

This week was quite the week! For those of you who have seen the pictures of the Catfish and are wondering if I have eaten them or not, YES! I have. :) They are amazing! I don't like seafood, but freshwater catfish is amazing! It doesn't even taste fishy! HAHA Or maybe it was just the way we cooked it. So our landlord said we could fish all we want and catch all we want and eat all we want. So it looks like we have a fresh market in our backyard ;) It will be good eating the next few weeks!

As far as missionary work goes, I had two really great experiences this week. One, I was able to go on a trade-off (which is where we switch companions for a day) with our zone leaders. And I really learned a lot from them on how to better my teaching and help my area and I am truly grateful for the leaders that we have! I know that they are inspired to help us every day and throughout our own responsibilities. :) And the second, was that we found a really sick investigator! His name is Jason. And Jason is 18 and just graduated from high school. He is a Boss. And we are teaching him and hoping that it will lead to baptism so he can liven up this old branch! He has gone through a lot of struggles in his life and took meeting us as a sign. I know that we were inspired to meet him and to help him out! Updates may be given to you all if I can remember :) Just know that he is awesome!

Other than that, I just wanted to bear my testimony of the Gospel. It is amazing and truly is a plan for us to receive the happiness here and the eternal life after death. I am grateful for all of you who have taught me the ways to become a better person. And I look forward to more. ; )

Much love from Elder Stonely,

Cairo GA.

Fried catfish. Yum!!!

Ramp building service project.

One of these things is not like the others...

One of these things is still not like the others...

Week 50: Our plans fall through but not the Lord's

Dear Friends and Family,

First off, just wanted to let you all know that since it is memorial weekend, I do not have much time to email. :) So, you will all be receiving this great email from me this week! I will get back to all the other emails next week when we have more time :) I love you all!

This week we had a hard time with finding people to teach and things to do. Though it was a huge testimony builder for me in the idea that when we go out and put our faith to the test, things happen and blessings come. We had multiple days where we had our plans fail on us or things were not happening, though when we went to try to visit someone else, we were blessed. This past Friday we had a great day planned! Everything was set and ready. We showed up to the first appointment with a less active member that was pretty solid, though he was not there and had forgotten. The whole day continued like that... It was around 4 o'clock and we had no plans left... so we decided to go see a potential investigator in the area, though they were not home either. We sat there and were deciding on where we could go when we got a phone call from a member who asked if we could come over and help bust through some concrete to start digging wholes for a ramp that we are putting in. We were so happy that we were given the opportunity to serve and help the members out. Plus, it was extremely fun! I now know how to break through concrete with a sludge hammer. HAHA 

This Sunday was also a great one! We were bummed because our plans yet again had fallen through. We were on our last planned activity around 6 pm and were wondering what we were to do. So we decided to go visit a former investigator. We looked for the house, but the address that we had did not exist. We decided to keep going around the neighborhood and scout things out. We felt that we should knock on a specific door that we had passed about three times. We knocked, and a Hispanic from Mexico answered the door. We got talking with him and expressed our feelings about the message that we shared and asked if we could teach him what it was. He gladly accepted and we taught his family. It was cool because we came in and he rounded up his whole family. Including his wife who had delivered a baby two days previous. It was a great lesson! And he really enjoyed it and the questions that he had were amazing. It was a huge testimony builder for us! Oh, and he also invited us to a party that he is going to hold for his daughter next week. So there are a lot of potentials for baptism right there! HAHA

Well, I am grateful for all of you and for all of you who support us as missionaries. We are truly blessed as we go out and try to find and we are grateful! I am seeing miracles in this little branch, though rough at times, there are many blessings hidden behind the walls. I wish you a great week this week and best of luck in all you are to accomplish! Much love from Cairo! 

Elder Stonely

Fishing at the pond.

I think I've got this mastered!

"And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." Mark 1:17

Week 49: Short and Sweet

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm still alive, haven't eaten a fish yet, and we are doing awesome!

This week was a great one for us all! Though there was a lot of slow time that we had to fill with knocking on doors and talking with people. It was a joy to try go out and find people despite how hard it was. We are hoping that it will get better! Only blessings from here!

Well one funny thing that happened this week was that I was riding on my bike and we stopped to visit someone. They weren't home, so we got right back on our bikes and headed out. Though when I got on my bike, I noticed that my front tire was completely out of air... and it was popped... HAHA So we were about 4 miles away from the car and did a lot of walking. HAHA So, that was my week! Sorry for the short email this week, Its a busy day today so its ganna be a short one. I love you all much!

Next week email hopefully will be better :) Love you all!

Elder Stonely!

Welcome to Georgia, Elder Stonely!

Look at my new friends...