Monday, September 29, 2014

Week 13: And Then My Brain Ran a Marathon....‏

Familia y Amigos,
          I just want to thank you all for all the love and support. This is such a hard thing to do and it's so nice to know that I have so many loved ones at home who are praying for me and thinking about me all the time. I appreciate every email, letter, postcard and package. A special thanks to my Grams, my mom and the Beehives of the Lake Creek Farms Ward for the awesome package!  So stinkin' cute.  Hermana Boley was like, "Well I want one."  And I was like, "Your ward isn't as cool as mine!"  haha.  The Plan of Salvation cards and everything was just genius. Genius. 
          This week has been a little bit slower. A little bit colder as well. The Seattle rain is starting to set in for real. So transfers happen every 6 weeks. Every 6 weeks I have the potential for going anywhere in the mission, speaking any language. Our mission president is famous for changing everyone's language. We have everything from ASL, Samoan, Tongan, Korean, Russian, Spanish and English in my mission. I think there is also Mandarin and there might be others I don't know of yet.  Hopefully I stay Spanish! I like my area just because there are so many Hispanics to talk to, but it's getting harder now that the sun goes down earlier. I don't like to be out walking around once it gets dark so we are trying to have member lessons or set appointments after the sun sets.  A lot more sketchy...I have never felt truly in danger yet, but it's kind of scary when native Seattlites are always telling us to go home and that we shouldn't be walking around that late. I will be careful though. It has been a huge motivator for me to always be in tune with the spirit. 
Yes, this is a toilet
being used as a pot right outside someone's front door.
Ghetto fabulous!
          We live by the Event Center and the Airport in SeaTac. This week there is some kind of comicon thing going on. Basically it is super entertaining to watch all these fanatics wear really funny costumes. Most of them look like normal people but they have these big, cartoony talks coming out of the back of their pants. Hermana Boley and I get a kick out of it!
          This week we got Elders in our Branch. Can you believe that there are enough missionaries in the world that they can put 4 missionaries in one Branch? It's so awesome! Elder Lutes has been out for 20 months and his companion. Elder Suh, is a brand new greenie. This week our Branch put on a play about El Libro de Mormon. It was the cutest thing in my whole life! Especially, they had the little primary kids be the sheep in the story about Ammon! It was my favorite. 
          Just when I get comfortable, a new challenge always arises. This week I had 2 new challenges... hence the title of my email.  Number one is that I started driving this week. It's not that bad, but I am use to small town driving where this is like traffic, city driving. Kind of stressful.  Another was on Friday we spoke Spanish all day. We have an investigator, Guadalupe, who is fully prepared for baptism except that she has never been to church because she works on Sundays. We offered to do a fast with her, but she has diabetes so she couldn't fast that way. She came up with the idea to have language fast. She spoke only English for a day and we spoke only Spanish and fasted that she would find a new job, or that her boss would soften his heart and let her go to church on Sundays. My Spanish is about as good as her English so...not very good. But we all were able to do it! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was just hard when Hermana Boley was giving me directions in the car and I couldn't respond back very fast. We are trying more to only speak Spanish to each other, so yeah the language is coming along. 
          In other news, I should probably talk about what I do all the time which is teaching people. My heart was broken this week when our investigator, Karen, dropped us. She was so solid, but she wasn't willing to give up her lifestyle to feel comfortable at church. She said she felt like a hypocrite, sinning on Saturday and then going to church on Sunday. But aren't we all hypocrites? We told her that, but she didn't want to waste our time. I don't think that was the end of the road for her though. We planted a seed and she is going to come around one day. Our investigator Virgilio is still progressing! I am praying that he will chose a day to be baptized this month. He went to a baptism with us and he has been to church 4 times. He sends texts everyday with scriptures in them! The only thing is that it is so hard to teach him because we have to find another woman to be there with us. Sometimes mission rules are hard to comply with, but I know they are their for our protection. 
The Burien Sister's baptism of Blanca
Elder Song, Elder Newman, us, Sister Nielson, Sister White, Blanca
          We got to go to the Women's Session of General Conference at our stake center. I loved that it was centered on temples! Love, love, LOVE! We get to go to the Seattle Temple in December and I am so excited! Before General Conference, I hope you all will write down some questions you have. Not just gospel questions, but personal real life questions and pray about them. Then enjoy watching conference!  Receive some good ole personal revelation. I know it will bless your life. This is my challenge to all of you for the month of October! I still love all of you so much. So, so very much.

Week 13 Challenge:
2 Nephi 31:10
Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Week 12: Adventure is Out There!

Querido Familia y Amigos,

          Como estan?  If you are wondering, yes I am planning on being "fluent" by February, my 6th month mark. There are a lot of Hispanics here in Seattle and we use it a lot. On Sundays, I don't know if I hear any English at all. It's so great!
          So first things first...let every man know that they will not be the first to ask me this question because I officially got proposed to this week. Yup, it's not a lie. We are teaching this guy, Renee from Honduras and we met his roommate. He had a hard time deciding whether to ask me or Hermana Boley so he basically asked both of us to marry him. When we told him 'no,' he asked if we could at least take a ride on his motorcycle with him.  Also, one of our investigators asked us out on a date.  So you can see it was a rather productive week! haha!  No it's fine, we just have to stay out some certain areas at night to stay safe. One of the recent converts mom's told me that I have "the sexy smile."  Now every time we get hit on Hermana Boley always says, "I am telling you, it's that sexy smile."  Wow.  No comment.
They see me rollin, they hatin, just because
I am too white and nerdy!
         Sorry it's transfer week so P-day is Tuesday on those weeks.  Hermana Boley and I survived transfers so we are here in the Seahurst Spanish branch together for yet another transfer. I am so happy! There is so much we want to do and their are so many people that could be baptized this coming month.  Speaking of October, it's starting to get a little cooler and the leaves are changing. Love it!!!
My first Seattle District
Elders Johnson, King, Bier, Gardner and Las Hermanas
Some Missionaries are Goofs!!
          P-days are busy, but we try to take advantage of all the different people living here and get some cultural activities in. There are a lot of Somalians where we live so we went to one of the African boutique shops last week and bought some sweet shirts. Last week we went to the mall to stock up on Seattle souvenirs.  We got Seattle skyline socks and a Christmas ornament.  We got pineapple bubble Vietnamese milkshakes one day.  On Saturday we were crazy busy so at 9:15pm we stopped by an Indian restaurant on our way home and ordered random things off the menu.  And I found that I really like Indian food.
We had a long day...
so naturally we wanted to try Indian food!
On top of that we have had amazing homemade Hispanic food!!! This week we had Salmon with a salsa that had green olives. We had some other fish with rice, tamales and empenadas. I am in heaven. Apparently all these kinds of food have destroyed many missionaries stomachs including my companions. Hope it doesn't happen to me.
           As Spanish sisters, the only Spanish missionaries in my zone, we don't have time to tract. We spend a lot of our time contacting referrals from church headquarters and from other missionaries. We have been teaching a lot of lessons this week and getting a lot of work done. It is getting more normal for me to talk to everyone, but it's still hard. Life as a missionary is one BIG awkward moment. But it's so rewarding. We were trying to contact a referral at this apartment complex and we just had miracle after miracle happen. We met this lady that was baptized Mormon when she was younger. She kept saying that no matter where she goes, missionaries always find her.  She said, "It's like the Holy Spirit actually works." Um, yeah it does! She invited us over for dinner sometime soon. We talked to another Hispanic guy at that complex that wasn't very interested, but we asked him if anyone he knew would be.  He told us to visit the apartment above his. Low and behold the lady gladly let us in and she wants to learn more.  The Spirit is a real thing!
Sometimes we play "Guess Who Lives Here?"
          My testimony of families, family history work and temples already had grown so much.  Hna. Boley and I were able to help one of her recent converts start his family history work on familysearch.org.  His father died last year so he was able to do the work for him.  It was such a touching experience.  Hna. Boley cried the whole way home because she was so happy.  She will get to go to the temple with Ernesto and his family when they get sealed together in less than a year. Baptisms are essential, but the temple is the ultimate goal. So amazing!
           It is so heart breaking to see people be addicted to drugs and alcohol.  There are so many lost people here, and I just want to cry for them.  A lot of them we try helping, but many of them reject us.  That's why I love working with the Hispanics because so many more of them have accepted Christ into their lives so they are more willing to accept us and eventually accept the gospel. 
           Lately the emphasis in our mission is on talents. Find your talents and God-given gifts and use them. They want me to use my talent of piano playing more often.  We have such a merciful and loving Heavenly Father that loves each and everyone of you. I love all of you too! Have a super awesome week!

Week 12 Challenge:  
A toast to the end of my first transfer in the field.
Complete with toast!

Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard
Seattle at night.
I was standing across the water in West Seattle.
This is the closest I have gotten to the city center!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Week 11: Missions Are a Roller Coaster!

Dear Familia y Amigos,


          You know how on a roller coaster there are lots of ups and downs and twists and turns? And your going so fast you don't know what really happen once it's over? Yep, that's kind of what a mission is like. One moment you are on a Monday, then it's already Sunday. There are high points of divine happiness and then you free fall straight to the ground. This week was like that a lot. Moments where we were seeing so many miracles and beautiful things happening and then the down side. As a missionary you see the two extremes. Everyday I am hearing and seeing some of the ugliest things that happen in the world, yet there are moments when I feel so close to heaven. 
          So to expand upon this...We got a call from a less active member whose husband is Cuban. She wants to change her life around and come back to church. Technically, the English Elders should be teaching her, but her husband is hard to understand in English and frankly she just prefers Sisters. They really opened up their home and their hearts to us. We had an incredible lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It was full of tears from them and from us. She told us about her life, which I won't get into details, but she has been through so many hard things it blew my mind. She has lived among that ugly part of the world her whole life and she feels like she can't even go outside anymore. That's when we taught her about the Atonement. She needs that hope and love from Christ in her life so that she can move forward with her life and know that everything is going to be okay, even though there are bad things in the world. I just love that couple with all my heart, and I want so very much to help them. Hopefully we can help them turn their lives around and get her husband baptized. The cherry on top of that lesson was the amazing Cuban steak and beans they made for us! So dang good!
          I officially found the Mexican Isaiah. His name is Marco and he is a recent convert in our branch. He likes to speak in parables...in Spanish...AAHHHH!!! He kind of has a lisp and he speaks really fast on top of that. So I only get a few words here and there during our lessons. He always turns to me or Hermana Boley afterwards and asks what the significance is behind his story. I just always give him the "deer in the headlights" look because all I heard was that there were 10 guys in a dream and one had a rock tied around his leg trying to lift his arms up! Like what is happening Marco?! Que pasa? He told me that I have lots of faith, but I need to work on my confidence and trust because I am shy. First of all, I have stepped way out of my comfort zone to be on a mission...period. Second of all, how can I respond when I don't even know what he said in the first place? And lastly, why does everyone think that being shy is a weakness. I think it can be a strength when used correctly. But that's Marco, full of philosophical wisdom all the time. He really is fantastic and is the most charitable person ever. 
          We have an amazing progressing investigator right now named Karen. She is just so prepared for baptism, and I hope everything works out. Please pray for her and the ability to have her baptism on the 26th of this month. I really am gaining a testimony of baptism out here. We had an investigator that was suppose to be baptized this weekend, but he has fallen off the face of the Earth! He was so solid in the beginning. He kept all of his commitments and was coming to church. All of the sudden it's like he doesn't answer our texts and calls. There is so much anti-Mormon material out there that people are getting caught up in. We are pretty sure he read something online or talked to someone. When you set a date for baptism, Satan does everything in his power to stop it because it is so important. 
          Can I just say that we have an awesome Branch though. They are so loving and "just the best." Especially the youth. All the youth my age are the auxiliary presidencies and they all either have their mission calls or are working on their papers. For how many active members are in the Branch, it's really amazing how many missionaries they are producing. They are going to suffer when their youth are gone, but that's why it's so important to reactivate members.  Anyway, the Presidente Campbell is the bishop of our Branch and he is awesome to work with. He loves to joke around which is perfect because I do too. And he sincerely loves the people in our Branch. He and his wife spoil us by always giving us bags of food after meetings. The members here are so giving. 
          Anyway, what I learned this week:  I had to give a talk in sacrament yesterday about the things I learned at the CCM about conversion. I have learned that what touches someone's heart and makes them truly converted is different for everyone. So my question for you is, "What has made you truly converted?" Even if you have grown up in the church, you have to become converted which is beyond having a testimony. If you would like, it would be awesome to hear stories about how all of you have personally been converted.  We have also been talking about talents a lot and how to use them. It's a really big emphasis here. I am using the talent that my mom helped give me of playing the piano. I am doing the intermediate hymn next week in sacrament. 
          Well, I am learning to love Washington. It's kind of the struggle though because it's full of spiders! I saw the biggest spider in my whole life outside our apartment. I thought it was a mouse climbing up the wall, but nope. It's HUGE. Last night, Hermana Boley y yo went on yet another spider killing spree. We were running around with brooms, Windex and hairspray, screaming at the top of our lungs. I am surprised none of our neighbors called the cops or something. We looked like mad women, but we got the job done. I think we killed 7 or 8 spiders just last night. So I think you could say we were pretty successful! 
          Well, I love you so much. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about you. I am praying for you health and safety. 

Week 11 Challenge:  Start reading Preach My Gospel!

Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard

Monday, September 8, 2014

Week 10: A Day in the Life

Querida Familia y Amigos,
 
          Que pasa? Como estan? It sounds like everyone at home is doing well. Good, good. I am loving all the letters, postcards and packages. You people are too good to me. And Mom, the Friends quotes just completed the whole package. My companion didn't fully appreciate them, but I had a good laugh. And Sydney...that picture of Emma! I seriously have the cutest little niece and I can't freakin' wait to meet her. 
          So I now realize that I haven't given everyone the full run down of what a day for a Spanish Hermana in Seattle, WA is like. The alarm goes off at 6:15, we push snooze until 6:20. Then it's rise and shine. We recite our mission pledge half awake, say companion prayer and then individual prayers. Next we exercise for 30 minutes, shower (sing in the shower- hymns only), get ready and make breakfast by 8. Then we have personal study until 9 and companion study until 10, training until 11 and language study until 12. Lunch until 1. A lot of times we have meetings or set appointments so we can't have full studies, but technically we don't leave the house until 1:00. 
          Since we are Spanish speaking, we have a zillion and one referrals, which is a good thing. We spend a lot of our time tracking these people down. I have only gone door to door tracting once and that was during exchanges with the English sisters. Plus tracting is like the least effective finding tool, but every missionary needs to experience it:) Sometimes we have set appointments with investigators, but we spend a lot of time teaching members, especially less active member families. We thankfully have a car. We wouldn't be very effective Spanish missionaries without one. We are in it...all the time!!!  Hermana Boley is the designated driver because she is the Sr. companion. I am in charge of the phone. I do a lot of work on it in the car...well at least I try to. When some Hispanics call and start speaking so fast,  I chuck the phone at Boley!! Haha no... I can do a lot, but sometimes we do have to pull over so she can interpret.  
Our car - the place where we live!
          I have gotten to the point in my Spanish where I understand what's going on. I don't understand every single word, but I know what we are talking about. Now it's just getting frustrating because I can only say a little bit and not my complete thoughts. Hermana Boley and I are working on speaking Spanish more to each other, but sometimes (ok like a lot of the time) I have just got to vent and say what I am thinking and feeling. 
          And that brings me to my marvelous companion. She is so good to me. Hermana Boley reminds me so much of two great women in my life- my Grams and my mom. She is gives so willingly, charitable and selfless like my Grandma. I have to tell her to put her wallet away and to stop making my bed for me. She always beats me to it! And she is like my mom in that she is such a great listener. She will listen to me for hours just talk and talk and talk. She says she thinks I am funny and we love speaking in different accents! It's da best! I missed her so much when we went on exchanges. I felt like the other sister didn't really get my humor...I am so very grateful for Hermana Boley and we will be friends after the mission. She is from Wyoming, and she is going to hit her year mark this week!
Hermana Boley
We had a very crazy day this week and didn't have time for really anything including dinner.
So we had ice cream at 9 while we were doing our daily planning.
This is how Hermana Boley deals with her stress! haha This is just a beaut!
          More about where we live: The apartments where we live aren't very sketchy. We are the only white females that I have seen so far, but we have never had an incident and I never feel unsafe there. We do have a gate around our complex if that helps to put all of your minds at peace :) They don't seem to be super old. The only thing I hate is our nasty carpets. And I am more than positive that a smoker use to live there.
          As the only Spanish speaking missionaries in our zone, we cover the whole stake. That includes West Seattle, Beverley Park, Normandy Park, Seatac, Burien and Des Moines. It's a big area and we have to be careful not to rack up the miles. This week was really the first time I have spent really any time in West Seattle and Des Moines. They are definitely the more wealthier parts of our zone. So beautiful! In West Seattle you can see the water and the city center. If I were to move here, this is where I would live. If I could afford to live here! Des Moines is also near the water and has a nice harbor. We spend most of our time in the less wealthy parts of Beverley Park, Seatac and Burien. Especially Burien. 
           Haha so something that I have learned this week. All the white people either tell you they are not religious or Christian and all the Hispanics tell you they are Catholic. They always tell us they are Catholic and look at us like that's going to detour us or something. Hermana Boley and I were joking around the other day that we should make a scale. On a scale of 1 to 10, how Catholic are you?  Most of them are around a negative 1, but we did get ourselves into a Bible bash this week. We kept just baring testimony and walking away, but that guy was not having it. After walking away all frustrated 45 minutes later, we found our district leader and his companion and found out that they had been watching us most of the time and not even helping. Elders! Well, I guess only one of them would have been able to help us since we were speaking Spanish, but still.  I swear before I was a missionary, I only saw missionaries like twice in my life. Here, I can't go a day without running into a set of them! It is awesome though because almost every person in Seattle has talked to missionaries before so we get to follow up on commitments and talk to them again! 
           This week the Tongan and Samoan Elders gave us so many referrals that are on date! Go Elders! So right now we have 8 investigators with baptismal dates, but only 1 is progressing. She is a 17 year old girl and she is really into the gospel. We are super excited and praying all will go well so that she can be baptized on the 27th.
          To be honest, I just feel like a stalker sometimes. Hermana Boley and I sing, "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya! I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha, gitcha!" A pro-stalker, that's what I am going to be after my mission! 
          Okay, so I am going to reinforce that challenge I gave you guys last week because I am serious. Every member needs to be involved in missionary work! Especially helping less actives! 
1. Buy a Preach My Gospel
2. Study it (preferably during Family Home Evening)
3. Have Family Home Evening
4. Every week, report to me what you are learning in PMG
5. Use what you are learning
          There is so much work to be done and to be honest, I didn't realize that members have a stronger influence on the work than missionaries until I came out here. To retain converts, to teach with power, to keep a ward running, to do everything we need members. This is the challenge we are giving all the members in our Branch. It's harder in Utah to do this kind of missionary work, but there are inactives, less actives and non-members in our neighborhood.  Also there is so much that everyone can do through the media. Elder Bednar just gave a talk about the media and you can find it at lds.org. I encourage you to read it so that you can know how to use the media. Also the talk "Following Up" by Elder Ballard is a really good tool as well. President Choi has made a really big emphasis on doing work here in Seattle as well as having my friends and family doing work at home. Just always remember to put the Lord first. 
          This week I learned about Saints. I looked it up in the Bible Dictionary after reading about it in Mosiah 3:19. As members of the church, we take upon the name of a saint. That means we are set apart and holy for God. Pure for God. I have been set apart as a missionary and a representative of Christ at this time, but all of you have been set apart from the world as Saints. To be a Saint you must be pure and worthy. Keep being faithful members and go to work. I love you all so much and have a lovely week!
Week 10 Challenge:
Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard

Monday, September 1, 2014

Week 9: Ode to Hermana Deagostini

Querido Familia y Amigos,

          Lo siento everyone for last week. The internet at the library crashed so writing home came to an abrupt stop. (Check Week 8 for some additions.)  Now I will attempt to at least somewhat fill you in on everything that has happened in the past two weeks.
          Okay, so almost two weeks ago we were trying to find a referral when this Polynesian guy started yelling at us from inside his apartment. He was like, "What kind of missionaries are you guys?" We started explaining and he said, "Will you come in here and teach my family?" As soon as we walked in he gave us a warm hand shake and was like, "Aw, I am just messing with you guys. We are all members here!"  Haha, of course all I could think of is Tony.....It was definitely a "wait what?" moment for me! They are a fantastic Tongan family. We were able to share a short scripture with them and we sang "I Am a Child of God". We sang the first verse in Spanish, they sang the second in Tongan and we sang the last verse all together in English. It was so beautiful, I was almost in tears. The spirit was bursting through the room. Just then one of their friends walked in. The husband was like, "This is Miguel. He needs the gospel and he speaks Spanish. And he lives upstairs." So right then and there we went upstairs and taught Miguel and his son. Perfect member/missionary work.
          So we had our first baptism...sort of. We have been teaching a less active family and we got them active enough to have the desire to have their 8 year old baptized. Technically it's a child of record baptism, but we had to work hard for it to actually happen. We had to plan, organize and arrange the whole thing. We didn't even get to go to it because we had a member/missionary fireside in Bellevue that night. It was all good though, because that fireside was awesome!
Hermana Deagnostini, Hermana Stoddard & Hermana Boley
Following the Member/Missionary Fireside in Bellevue
All the missionaries in our mission were there. We sang a few numbers and recent converts bore their testimonies. There are so many languages in my mission and it was so cool to see so many missionaries translating all the languages.  One of my companions' recent converts spoke an Hermana Boley had to translate on the spot!  She did a great job!
          The other super exciting thing is that we have a set baptism for Sept. 13! His name is Virgilio from Honduras and he is the only one who has been keeping his commitments. During our last lesson with him, his first question wa,s "What do I need to do in order to be ready for baptism?" Golden! Pure gold! Honestly, this is why missionary work is so fantastic!
          This Saturday I had many new experiences. It started off with my first exchange with one of my sister training leaders, Sister Nielson. And yes we were speaking English! But I spent the night at their sketchy apartments in the Heights. I haven't seen anything there, but I have heard stories. And yes, I now know what pot smells like. I got my first taste of Seattle rain that day. And fog. It was glorious! I also officially went tracting for the first time. Some people are super appreciative of what we do, but aren't interested. But some people are just flat out rude. Oh, well.

Our glorious view of the harbor in Des Moines.  
We had dinner with some members here.  Hooray Members!!
Can you see Mt. Rainier in the back?
          Hermana Deagostini left us early Thursday morning. It was weird having a companion die when I was just born. She was so nervous to go home! But I know she will do great things. Her parents are from Brazil so she made us some pan de queso (its that cheese bread) before she left and we might have eaten 2 batches in 24 hours....
Hermana Deagnostini
But Hermana D. was a huge example to me. She gave me the best words of advice. She was so good at talking to people and she had such a strong testimony. I already miss her, but I am so lucky to still have Hermana Boley here cause she is fantastic as well.
Our weapons of war.
We are going on a spider crusade.
          Well the biggest problem we are facing at the time is inactive and less active members. They have their agency, but we really need them to come back to our branch.  My challenge for all of you this month is to buy a Preach My Gospel (if you don't have one) and read it with your families during family home evening (and if you don't have FHE, then repent and rededicate yourselves:) Also, Elder Bednar recently gave a talk about flooding social media. Tell the world through videos, sharing scriptures, ect... text a friend, post on Facebook, spread the word. One of President Choi's favorite quotes to use is "Stop looking around and look up". Stop listening to the world. Put our Father in Heaven first. I love you all so much!

Week 9 Challenge:
Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard

My apartment in Burien, Washington.
Lugar para estudiar
Our sort of sala!
Our cocina
Some inspirational thoughts and okay funny pictures posted in our apartment:


Thanks Barney!  Words to live by!!