Week 47: F A I L

Dear Friends and Family,

          Wow, what do I say about this week?  It was hard...really, really hard. But it was also awesome. I don't know how that can happen, but it's possible. My companion was really struggling, which in turn made me struggle. We just kept pressing forward and working hard. We are constantly trying to find people to teach. Last Monday, we were walking away from a potential investigator's house when we ran into a man listening to his iPod.  Of course, we ran up and shook his hand and introduced ourselves. He was like, "You guys are Mormons? Can you teach me right now?" Um, yes? Yes, we would love to! So we walked with him to a park and taught him the whole Restoration.  Nikolay is from Bulgaria, but has lived in the U.S. for over a decade so he has really good English. He has never been religious, but he has recently had these desires to know if there is a God so he joined a Bible study group. He easily accepted the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We have already taught him two lessons and took him on a church tour. He came to Sacrament meeting yesterday, but he left a little early.  He at least came.  He is a really cool guy and we are so blessed to teach him!  And he is on date for June 20!!!! So exciting!

          This week we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council). We received training from the APs and the mission presidency. I can't believe that President and Sister Choi only have a month left here!  All of Seattle is going to miss them.  I had a few things that really impressed upon me.  One of them is that I am prideful and selfish.  I need to help people when they need help and not when I have time.  I have always had that desire to help those around me, but I always want to do things in the way I want them done.  I need to put the Lord's timing first and everything will work out the way it is suppose to.  

          I also loved the acronym that President Choi taught us:

          First

          Attempt

          Is

          Learning

In other words, there is not failure unless you quite trying. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and our merciful Heavenly Father, we have an unlimited amount of times that we can stand back up, brush off our knees and try again.  We can always repent, or in other words, we can always change for the better. 

          I am also excited to see how my new mission president lives his life and runs the mission. I really look up to President and Sister Choi and many of my leaders, but I have found that I am trying to conform myself to them.  That's why I am so frustrated with myself all the time. I am not suppose to be them.  I am myself for a reason. I have always pictured that everyone in the Celestial Kingdom is so perfect that they are the exact same only they look different. But that's not true.  We are going to be our perfect selves. My perfect is going to be different than everyone else's perfect.  I want to be perfect for Christ and not conform to anyone else. This is why we have different personalities and life experiences. We are all unique and special.  I love looking at people in this new light.  I know that God loves each and everyone of His children perfectly. Sometimes it's hard to feel that love for myself, but I know it's there because I have felt that love that God has for the people that I meet on the streets. It's truly incomprehensible. 

           I was realizing all this on Saturday when I went on exchanges with a Sister who is from Myanmar (Burma). Sister Kyaw is new to the mission and to English. The first time she ever rode in a car was when they picked her up from the airport in Seattle. She is learning English so fast even though it is frustrating for her. We taught people in her area, Seatac. As sketchy as the ghettos are, I really love being a missionary there. There are so many people to talk to.  I was just in awe of how many people from different nations we taught in one day.  People from Africa, Turkey, India, Mexico, everywhere really!  As we were teaching a Burmese family in a very humble, run down apartment, I couldn't help, but feel so much love for these people that could barely understand my English, but let me speak because they love to feel the spirit. I felt Heavenly Father's unconditional love for them and it helped me understand the love He has for me. Life is so hard,  but incredibly beautiful. This is the gospel of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I am  humbled to be chosen as His servant to proclaim it to the world. 

I love all of you. Be happy! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

P.S. Shout out to Caitlin Hargis who wrote me such a sweet letter:) Thank you and see you in Seattle! 

Week 46: Body, Mind and Soul

Dear Friends and Family,

         

Hermanas Oliphant and Stoddard
Seattle Temple

           The work as been a little slow and a little rough the past week or two. Lots of doors that wouldn't open, lots of doors that opened for a few seconds than closed rather abruptly. I have committed myself to be the nicest person that Jehovah's Witnesses and various salesmen have ever met when they come to my door one day. In my old area, I felt good when I put someone on date for baptism. Here, I am so grateful when someone smiles at us and lets us at least pray with him. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of kind people here, but not so many who are fond of our religion. The cool thing is that most of these people either know or are related to Mormons and they have talked to missionaries a handful of times. They are given many opportunities by our loving Heavenly Father to listen and to change. 

Hermana Stoddard & Zorin

          Our only really solid investigator, Carol, is going back to China this week so that's kind of a bummer, but she will be back to the United States within the year and she will get baptized!  She cannot attend church in China because she is not a member yet.

Carol with Hermanas Oliphant and Stoddard

It's been hard to get in contact with our other investigators lately because there is a lot of illness going on and with the school year winding down everyone is extra busy. We just want to teach them before they all go away during summer break.  Good news though is that we have been talking to more Hispanics lately. Granted all of them are workers and don't actually live in our area, but it's nice to get to use the language and let's just face it, I love Hispanics! 

Mug shot with my Sweet Ride!

          This week we went to our Stake Women's Conference. While I was there I saw some members of the Seahurst branch (my first area) and I almost fell over with excitement!  I was so happy to see them!  I am praying I will get sent back there someday.  I would love that! Back to the Women's Conference....it was all about the connection between the mind and the body. It's so crazy how connected everything is and all of it affects us spiritually. They talked about how your mind is mostly non-cognitive. The cognitive part is the captain and controls the "crew" or the non-cognitive part. If the captain thinks a negative thought the crew believes him and will do everything it can to insure that it happens. That's why it's so important to control our thoughts to be happy.  If the captain is happy, the crew will do everything it can to ensure that it's happy too. 

          They also talked about the essentials of taking care of our bodies: water, exercise, healthy diet, sleep. If we aren't doing these things then our minds aren't going to work properly. It also effects our spirits. But just like our bodies, our spirit has essential things it needs: scriptures, church (sacrament) and prayer. I always thought those things were symbolic, but they literally are the nourishment that our souls need. So, I resolved to take care of myself better both spiritually and physically for the rest of my life.  Moral of the story: all of us need to take care of ourselves! Be kind to yourself! 

Seattle Temple

          Something fun we did this week was we went to the Discovery Center with Don. BYU has this ancestor generator website where you can sign on with familysearch.org and find famous ancestors. I found out that famous ancestors that I am most directly related to are Abraham Lincoln (through mom's side of the family) and King James II. Abraham Lincoln is a first cousin! Maybe that's where my little sister gets her height! I am also related to Elvis Presley and many of the U.S. presidents. It was super cool. 

          I am on page 208 of the Book of Mormon. Keep eating spiritual food family! Have a great week!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Stoddard                                                                 
                                                                      These couldn't grow in Utah!

South Bellevue

Lake Sammamish

Week 45: The Spirit of Elijah (it's a real thing)

Dear Friends and Family,

          It's been another lovely week in Cougar Mountain.  Seriously, it's been really, really beautiful around here. That also means more people are out in their yard and more accessible. But it can also make things more awkward because sometimes they run away from us into their houses....some people and their children....they are just so funny sometimes. It's like they are allergic to religion or something. Being nice to the two Mormon girls might give them the measles or something so everyone must run inside! But that's okay because they are all my brothers and sisters so we go after them anyway.  We ended up singing "I Am a Child of God" at a large, wooden door because the lady didn't want to open it.  Doors, fences, locks, they don't stop us! 

          This week we found a golden investigator named Carol. Problem is she is moving back to China in like 10 days. WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN???? She was so curious to learn about God and Jesus Christ. She asked us question after question and she ended the lesson with a beautifully honest and sincere prayer. I love the way non-members pray because they don't say any of the "Mormon phrases" in their prayers which make them so much more heartfelt. Anyway, she told us that she believes in God now. Teaching Chinese people is the best because once they have a spiritual experience and recognize who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are, they easily accept the restoration and everything else. We took Carol to the Discovery center at our church building. She doesn't have any family history work done yet, but she loved it. She set up a familysearch.org account right then and there and she can't wait to go back to China and do some research. 

          In our zone, there is a couple whose calling it is to educate missionaries about family history. Let's be real, I had no interest in family history whatsoever before. But now, I can't wait to do more work on my family and to help other's with theirs. There are so many people here who are interested in family history so I think that is going to be the way that they will feel the Spirit and want to learn more about the church. Today we were able to go to the temple with half of our mission and most of us took family names. It was literally the best. I love living so close to the temple. I live even closer to the temple here than I ever lived to a temple in Utah! It's also a good conversation starter because people are always curious about the Mormon building with a golden man on top. 

          One other cool experience we had this week was taking Laurels out with us as a part of their mini-mission. One of the neighboring wards holds a mini-mission once a year with their youth. They have to live in the shoes of a missionary for 24 hours. That means keeping all the rules and living the missionary schedule. President Choi even went and spoke to them. Anyway, we went on splits for 4 hours. Hermana Oliphant had 1 laurel and I had 2. It was like having 2 nervous greenies. They did a good job though because most of the time we were tracting and street contacting. Of course when we are on exchanges one crazy thing has to happen. That came in the form of a man with a very curly afro who kept talking about "Kolob" subjects with us. He pleaded with us to stop being Mormons and start being Christians. Sorry Bro, I'm already both! It was a great experience for the youth and I hope that more wards adopt that program. 

          Well, I love all of you and have such a great week!  This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it's true!

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

Hermana Norton is home and sent me this collage of us!

Week 44: Back in Time‏

Querida Familia y Amigos,

          We had a fun week up here in Cougar Mountain.  Hermana Oliphant and I are opening up to each other and we are officially what you would call friends.  I am trying to carry over what I learned from Hermana Norton about having fun while keeping the Spirit. I try to smile when I don't want to and to laugh at myself and all the awkward situations that come along with being a missionary.

Cougar Mountain Photo Shoot

          We had a day of miracles on Friday. I had to give some training to all the missionaries in our zone that morning. It's only intimidating because it was a room full of Elders. We are the only sisters in our zone. But it was fine. Then we met a Mexican American girl right after zone training, and put her on date for baptism. We also met a cool Mexican family and taught them the restoration in Spanish! We were on Cloud Nine because lets be honest, this area is a pretty wealthy so we found the only Hispanics within miles around! We taught them the Restoration and they invited us back for the next day. 

          Later on that night as we were driving along and there were quite a few people out taking walks with their dogs and such. I saw one man pushing his bike up the hill. I just kept driving along, but I just feel like I shouldn't drive any further so I uturned it, pulled up and parked right beside him. We ended up talking to John for almost an hour! He was like, "Whoa, I am being approached by Mormons."  Yes, sir indeed you are! He was a unique, but very prepared, individual. The unfortunate thing is that he is kind of a nomadic person so he couldn't pin point an address where we could visit him, but we have his number and he has a Book of Mormon! 

          We went back to visit the Hispanic family the next day, and what went from being one of the biggest missionary miracles ever turned into a two hour Bible bash. So they ended up being 7th Day Adventists and they had been studying about Joseph Smith and lot of our doctrine on the internet and they were prepared with all the bible scriptures and stuff. They basically told us that we are sinning for not keeping Saturdays holy. I love that even when people bring up points of doctrine and I don't have an answer, I never feel like my testimony is wavering. I know the Book of Mormon is true; therefore, everything else we believe must be true too. I just felt like I had let the Lord down. I am set apart and given power so that I can bring the truth to others. But I did share my testimony and my knowledge of the truth. Beyond that, I can't change their minds. 

           In other great news, Cougar Mountain is so beautiful right now! Last pday we went to downtown Issaquah and had lunch for Hermana Oliphant's birthday. It was so warm and beautiful! It made me so happy! Some members invited us to dinner and we had a BBQ outside. It was great!! I also got to drive downtown on our way to the airport to pick up a Sister.

           












 Anyway, I literally went back in time this week. I went on exchanges this week to my first area, Seatac, where my mission all began.  And I was there with my greenie Sister Barrett. It was the weirdest thing to relive all those memories of things that have happened so far while out here in Washington. I am proud of what I have done and who I have become, but there is still more yet that I need to work on. I want to continue to change and become more Christlike. I want to bring more souls unto Him. I also felt a little guilty for not putting my time and effort into learning Spanish these past few months. I just have this feeling that I need to be fluent. Whether that's for my mission or after, I don't really know, but I have repented and rededicating myself to learning this language. It was also so cool to see how much Sister Barrett has grown and how she has become such a better missionary since I was last with her (not that she was awful before).  

Stoddard & Barrett Reunion!

          Anyway, there are so many experiences and things that I am learning here. "It is less than an 100th part of the record" as it states in the Book of Mormon. I have talked to everyone from a woman who nearly worships Duck Dynasty to people from India this week. I didn't get my mission call to America, I got my call to all the nations of the Earth!  And I love it!  Shout out to my mom...Happy Mother's Day! I can't wait to see my little, baby family in 6 days! Hopefully there will be less crying this time:) I know this church is true. I know that what I am doing is just a small sacrifice for my Father in Heaven who has given me everything. Much love and hope from Washington!

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

The nicest apartment I have had on my mission.