Week 17: Soggy Waffles

Querido Familia y Amigos,

          If you are wondering what the soggy waffles are I am referring to, it is not a reference to food...it is a representation of what my companion and I looked like this week. Hermana Boley disagrees and thinks that we look more like drowned rats....fabulously dressed drowned rats. The weather has turned into the Seattle that I have been hearing about. Grey skies. Very, very grey....like there is no sun grey. And rain. Loads of it! There even was a nice hail storm while we were tracting some trailer parks. Luckily there was a nice Hispanic family that let us come in so we wouldn't be pelted to death. We tried teaching them and singing to them, but the hail was so loud on their trailer that they couldn't hear us. So it was just an awkward moment of smiling at them.  If you want to be a missionary, you just gotta learn to love those beautifully awkward moments. And to whoever let me believe that it's not in cold in Seattle, it's all lies!!! I'm freezing ALL THE TIME!!! But don't worry, I sleep with 2 pairs of socks and every blanket in the apartment. I wear tights, legging, socks and boots. I don't think I thought it through fully when I got my mission call. I guess rain+winter= a frigged cold sister missionary. But it's all good. So grateful to have a car!!!

          Something rather funny that happened this week was Hermana Boley breaking and entering. These two girls were locked out of their apartment and they were trying to get to a window that was about 8 or 9 feet off the ground. Hermana Boley is always so willing to help other people, so she just scaled up the side of the wall in her boots and climbed through the window to unlock their door. The girls were laughing so hard! They didn't think a 'nun' could do that. They were all like, "Where did this chick come from?" I said,  "I don't know what they teach kids in Wyoming!" hahaha!

          The most fulfilling thing this week was having one of our less active members, Monica, come to a lesson with us. She made the lesson. We seriously couldn't have done it without her. At first we were worried that she didn't have a testimony and would be uncomfortable sharing it, but she jumped right in and bore a beautiful testimony about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Members are so important during lessons. They are so hard to arrange and it causes major stress, but if it all works out, it is so worth it!

          The most exciting thing that happened this week was that all the Spanish missionaries in our mission got permission to go to a part of the annual Spanish Conference. It is a cultural and spiritual all day conference that the Seattle, Everett and Federal Way Missions do for all the Hispanics in the area every year. We went to a Fireside, a dinner and a cultural talent show and had so much fun! About half of the Hispanics in Washington are Mexican and the other half are from all over Central and South America. It was so cool to see all of them in traditional clothing and dancing in the styles indicative of their country. So beautiful. You know that I was in 7th heaven! Pretty much the whole Relief Society of our branch did a dance performance together.   Those chicas can move! It was such an amazing experience and I am so grateful that we got to be a part of it. I am looking forward to traveling after my mission to Central/South America to speak to those people in Spanish. Let me know if you want to come with me!

          The thing that touched me the most spiritually this week was something I learned from the fireside.  "What we do out of habit creates who we are. Excellence is not an act, it's a habit." We aren't perfect, but we were sent to this Earth to practice being perfect. We need to receive personal revelation often and strive to better ourselves daily through the Atonement in order to achieve our divine potential.  It's a rocky road. That's what it was designed to be. This Earth life is the refiner's fire. We all were just rocks or lumps of coal in the pre-earth life. We had to come to Earth to be put under extreme pressure and heat. But we still have our agency to chose whether we want to be squashed to become shards of black dust or to change and become something beautiful and pure. We all chose this course because we knew that it would be worth it to become a diamond.

           This mission isn't easy either. I just tell you guys all the good parts. This whole experience, especially the part about exact obedience, has been really hard for me, but I am already experiencing many changes for the better and so many blessings. 

Dios les bendigas.

Week 17 Challenge:

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

Week 16: Miracles, Maria's and Muslims

Querido Familia y Amigos,

           This week....what can I say about this week....it was different. Definitely learning about many cultures even though I am here in the U.S.  Normally our Seattle Saturdays are filled with hectic running around craziness. This week we found ourselves actually having some tracting time. Tracting= the most interesting of stories. We went to this apartment complex that we thought would be chuck full of Hispanics. Wrong. It was full Muslims. We actually had a really good conversation with a Muslim family. We talked about the similarities about our beliefs. To be honest, I don't know a lot about their beliefs so we asked them a lot of questions, especially about baptism. We invited them to be baptized, but of course, they weren't interested. But we left with mutual feelings of respect. "Kill 'em with kindness" is pretty much my new motto. Now Hermana Boley and I are determined to convert all the Muslims that live in our apartment complex. Haha. Too bad we aren't English speaking or else we really would! 

          We also have had the cravings to do more service and ended up starting an English class. So far we have one student that we haven't had time to teach yet. She is from Iraq and doesn't speak one lick of English. Hermana Boley has taught an English class in one of her areas before, but I don't think we really know what we are getting into. Oh well. It's an adventure. It's service. I thinking it's radical and exciting! 

          I think I am becoming more Hispanic by the minute. We were laughing because so many people have asked me this week if I am Hispanic.  "Nope, soy Americana." Then they are like, "No, I meant which country are your parents from?" Then I start the list: Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Scotland... They all seem so confused.  Just wish that they could see my sister, Isabelle! Then they really wouldn't believe our European heritage.  Hehehe. I just think it's funny when they expect me to be the expert in Spanish, but then my blonde haired, blue eyed companion starts speaking and they are like, "Oooo interesante."  Si, Senor!

          Also while tracting this week, we met a Satanist. That was probably one of the more sketchy experiences of my life. She didn't want to talk to us, but we kept asking questions about what she believes. Basically she thinks everything is bad. God's bad, life's bad. Everything. She looked really uncomfortable talking to us so she slammed the door. Just comes to show that evil can not with stand light. It's people like that that make me so sad. I don't even understand. Anyway, we sang "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" as we were walking away, hopefully loud enough so she could hear. 

          Other exciting news --- I saw so many miracles this week, particularly two. Not to dish on my comp and her driving or anything, but we were in two fender benders this week. The first one was her fault. I was even backing her, but she hit a parked car. Luckily there was little damage done and the people were super nice about it. The second time wasn't her fault. I was backing her out and then this other car decided to back out right into her. The first miracle is that I wasn't sandwiched between the two cars. But both of the cars were smashed together. They both pulled back into their parking spots so we could assess the damage. We were trying to keep calm and not panic. Both of the cars were clearly smashed. I turned to look at their car and it had a small dent and a scrap. I looked at our car and the dent had popped right out. I looked back at their car and their dent had popped out. All of us were inspecting the cars and miraculously their was no damage done to either of them. And no one was hurt. Heavenly Father is seriously the best! No worries everyone, we are taking 'backing up' a lot more seriously now!

          In our actual missionary work, things are going well. We finally got a branch mission leader who is 'the bomb' so hopefully things will get better. We always have more than enough people to teach, the problem is is that we want members to be present at as many lessons as possible. This is the challenge: member participation. A lot is asked of members when they join this church, but it's because we are blessed to be doing the work of God. 

          Virgilio is our progressing investigator. We have finished teaching him all the lessons and he has been to church more than 5 times. He is all set and ready to be baptized. The thing is that he hasn't committed to a date. We asked him to pray about this Thursday so we will see if he has gotten an answer yet. I am just praying he will be baptized soon. 

          Also, two angels have been sent into our lives lately. Ironically, both of them are named Maria. The first Maria is only 13 years old, but she looks at us like we are heavenly beings. We love talking with her, but we haven't gotten her parent's permission to teach her yet. But she is amazing! She doesn't just read the Book of Mormon, she studies it like I have never seen before. She actually uses the index. She highlights, researches, ponders. It's incredible. We were reading some Isaiah chapters with her in 2 Nephi. Hermana Boley and I were reading the summaries and scrambling to try to come up with ways to explain what Isaiah is explaining. When we started talking about it, we realized that she understood it better than us.  She makes missionaries look bad! But she is so sweet and so humble. Can I adapt? hehe! The other Maria is probably in her 40s. She has cancer, and she is not only trying to take care of her kids, and also her nephew's kids because their mom abuses them. Every time we talk with her my heart breaks. I would do anything to help her. She calls us her angels. She loves when we pray and sing to her. 

          Sometimes we do things, little, mundane, ordinary things everyday. We get bored of them. We hate doing them. We don't see the point of doing them. But it's those little things that we do everyday that make a huge impact in other's lives. It's the mold of our own lives. To be honest, most days as a missionary are routine. We live by the same schedule everyday. People avoid you. Appointments fall through. But then there is that one person who sees us as representatives of Christ and their whole world changes. There is a really great video called "You Never Know" under Mormon messages at lds.org. I encourage all of you to watch it...Family Home Evening activity! Much love, hugs and kisses from the great city of Seattle!

Week 16 Challenge:

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

Spider Crusade

Week 15: "Jelly Arms of Stress"‏

Dear Friends and Family,

          If you are wondering about the title, it's a quote from my dearest companion, Hermana Boley. When she gets overwhelmed she does this little arm action and I call them her 'jelly arms of stress.' What a funny person. Anyway, this week there were a lot of 'jelly arms of stress.' For example, on Saturday night we had a child of record baptism in our Branch. Pretty much baptisms are the most stressful things to plan and prepare. We didn't realize until the day before that the family hadn't reserved the font, but miracle upon miracle, we were able to use the Stake Center. Then the night of, I had to be the pianist. I was overly confident in my abilities to play the piano. I was very humbly reminded that I am NOT Elton John, and I can't just bust out hymns on the spot. Yep, there was a lot of me just picking out the melody at that baptism. But I think it's okay because I was the only one there who had any idea of how to play the piano.  If there is something I regret not doing before my mission, it's getting better at the piano. Anyway, they all think I am a superstar......I hope! haha

 

The lovely fog in the mornings
It's da best!!

My view of Seattle during the day.
So close yet so far away!

          The weather is starting to  get colder and starting to be more like what I expected Seattle to be like. That includes rain, fog and more rain. It's still not as bad as I was thinking it would be though.  There are a lot of people getting sick right now so all the missionaries were required to get a flu shot. Fun, fun! 

          In other news, we have only ever found 2 spiders in our apartment, but Washington is just crawling with spiders. I have learned to constantly be looking up before I touch something because they are everywhere! They add a fun little haunted house affect to knocking doors. 

          My favorite member family this week is the Velasquez family. I love them! The fed us twice this week. They also have two of their sons that just finished their mission papers. Exciting things are happening around here. One night they fed us succotash. I thought that was only something that Sylvester from the Looney Tunes said! Anyway, it's super delicious! Yesterday when we were at their apartment half the branch was there because it was one of their daughter's birthdays. I guess it was technically my first "real" fiesta. Kind of crazy for a Sunday and for a missionary...when they busted out the karaoke, it was time to go! I have never been so strongly tempted in my life! They were even singing "Imagine" and "Yesterday" from the Beatles. I just wanted to sing with them so bad, but we had to go.

Our ginormous Mexican sandwiches
some members made for us.  Yummy!
But I thought I was going to die of a
HEART ATTACK!

          I also love this family because they are so willing to help us. Hermano Velasquez and his son Abinadi came with us to a lesson to give one of our investigators a blessing. It was such a powerful experience.

          We have been working with a lot of less actives lately. We have about 300 members in our branch, but less than a third are active. One of our less actives called us one day and broke down in pure testimony of the Book of Mormon. We went to see him and he truly does love that book! He will use his whole lunch break at work to read it. He still hasn't been to church though. Inactivity is like an addiction. Once your hooked, it's hard to let go of it.

          By the way, I loved Bednar's talk as well! We had two investigators listening to Conference with us while he was giving that talk and it really made a huge impact on them. Once again, I love all of you and wish you the very best! You are always in my prayers.

Week 15 Challenge:

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

Celebrating my 'click' day (my monthly bday on the 2nd) at Baskin Robbins
Happy 3 Months to ME!!

Week 14: Spiritual Powerhouse of a Week

Dearest Family and Friends,

          Wow isn't life just crazy and busy!  Yes, always.  Every week there is a new challenge. Like this week I had exchanges which meant I had to be to all of our appointments with an English sister. So basically it was a whole day of me running the show - making all the phone calls, texts, driving, coordinating with members and teaching lessons. You could say I was a little stressed out. Not to mention this was all in Spanish. These are the days when I realize how much I do know...and how much I don't know. But the Lord gives us these experiences so that we have to rely on Him. Because wow. I was praying my heart out all day for the don de lenguas or the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. I think I did alright, but I was very, very happy to have my companion back. During one of our lessons we took out one of our only RM members. Delila is the bomb. She always tells us that we are the best missionaries...after her. She really helped out with the Mencia family and getting them to receive an answer about the gospel for themselves. 

          Another bomb member that we have is this really "ripen" lady named Esmeralda. She can't hear very well, but she has many other gifts...like being bold. She will pound on that door and look through windows to find people. Hehehe I have learned a lot from her. She is such a sweet heart and she is really the only member that we can take out with us for long periods of time and on short notice. One day we just saw her walking down the road and we pulled over to say hi and she just jumped in the car and was like, "Lets go teach, Hermanas." We were like, "Well, ok then!" Love her. 

          So exciting news...my mission and I got to watch the whole "Meet the Mormons" movie!!!!! It was this big secret that no one knew about until President Choi said, "Please enjoy the movie."  We were all overly excited and it was so dang good. So, as part of my missionary work, I am to promote this movie, here and there. So go watch it! Especially this opening weekend. The more people that see it, the more theaters it will go to. It's so inspirational and I even got a little emotional about the candy bomber and the end of the movie. You will have to watch it to see!

          Also, we were able to watch all sessions of conference because they broadcast it at the stake center in English, Spanish, Tongan and Samoan. We watched it in English, though. I'll admit it, I am lazy and I wanted to enjoy Conference. I would have gotten the general ideas in Spanish, but I didn't want to have to think too hard  Anyway, it was AMAZING!  I have never loved conference so much in my life. I felt like a sponge, just soaking it all in. My favorite talk was the one by Elder Uchtdorf, "The process of gathering spiritual light is the quest of a life time." We have to receive small portions of light at a time so that we understand. We are all able to receive our own light and knowledge directly from God.  We need to:

1. Search the scriptures- modern and ancient

2. Consider, ponder, and sincerely strive to believe that there are prophets and revelation.

3. Ask Heavenly Father to manifest the truth to you through prayer.

4. When we do God's will, we will find truth. Seek with real intent. Test and experiment to apply the gospel to you life. 

I bear testimony that if you do these things you will know for yourself that the gospel is true and that you really are a child of our Heavenly Father. 

          I also loved what Boyd K. Packer said about the spiritual strength of individual members is so very important. That's why there is such a big emphasis in reactivation and strengthening members in missionary work now. We need every person's wisdom and insight. Members serve as a testimony of the life of Christ. 

Week 14 Challenge:  Go see "Meet the Mormons!"

 

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard