August 12-19, 2013

August 12, 2013
One More Week!

Hello, family! Happy to hear about your weeks! Incredible that Charlie already is going on a mission... You guys all will be shipping off younger now. We`re receiving some stud 18-year-old missionaries here. (Including one from Canada, which is fun.)

I`m not sure what happened - I must have had a Harry Potter confundus curse put on me, because for the last few weeks I`ve been happily telling people that I have 17 months in the mission. Then, this week, I got to thinking about it and realized I had made a mistake. I have20 months! Wow. Suddenly I`m the oldest one in my district... and maybe even my zone! Time does fly on wings of lightning.

We had another really good week this week! No migraines, and lots of miracles. We`re working really hard and finding some great people.

This week I learned to better recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit while contacting. We had numerous experiences where we felt a prompting to knock a door, went to do it, and found a person who was ready to receive us. I`ll tell about the first.

We were knocking doors earlier in the week - we hadn`t found anyone new to teach yet, and our investigator pool was pretty low. We had been knocking doors for about an hour and had gotten some harsh rejections, and I guess our spirits might have been a little down - but not to the point of discouragement. As we walked to see if a backup plan was home, we passed an open door - I looked inside and made eye contact with someone inside, and I had an impression to stop and knock the door. But here`s the thing I`m learning: Spiritual impressions are very easy to ignore. Usually the Spirit doesn`t shout at us, and if we choose to ignore it, we can. I did, in this case - I thought `Well, I don`t think that was probably an impression... and if it was, we already passed the house... we`ll just keep walking.` And then I thought about how we had asked that morning for God to lead us to the elect who needed the message. And I thought about how I had felt an impression to knock. And I thought about how, if God had indeed guided us there to meet that person, then to keep walking didn`t even make sense - where would we be walking to? By the time I thought those things, we had already walked 3 blocks... but I decided we would go back and knock the house. Good thing we did.

We knocked the house, and a nice lady came out and smiled warmly at us - a far different reception from what we had gotten so far that morning! We talked to her, and found out that the missionaries had met her a year ago and made an appointment to go back and visit her, but that she wasn`t there for the appointment and they never had come back. But she seemed very open and invited us to come back and teach her.
From that experience, I learned a few things:

1) It always pays to follow the promptings of the Spirit - God knows better than us how to find success.
2) Spiritual impressions come when we ask for them.
3) It`s better to be alert and prepared to act on the impressions right when they come... and not have to walk 3 blocks back.

And, really quick, the other news:

Elder Moterroso and I each bought a pound of ice cream!

Love you all so, so much. Have a good week!
Elder Stockton


August 19, 2013
Wow...

This was most probably the fastest week of my mission. Days passed in the blink of an eye. Which I guess is because we were busy! We had a very good week this week, even better than last week! Some investigators progressed, others fell off the map, and we found some new ones.

We had some experiences with faith this week. During our district meeting on Tuesday, we discussed some missionary success stories that President had shared with us. I noticed a common theme in all of these stories: In each one, the missionaries refused to give up and accept failure when things didn`t go the way they wanted. They kept working until they weren`t allowed to work any more - and there, during that `extra mile` they found success - after demonstrating their faith by continuing to work hard to reach their goals, even after it seemed impossible. 

Well, this week we put high goals for ourselves, and worked hard, hard hard all week to try to achieve them. We saw many miracles during the week and made a lot of progress. 

On Sunday, we needed 4 more lessons to meet our goal. We had one lesson after church, but then... nothing! From 3:00 in the afternoon to 6:30 in the afternoon, we walked from plan to backup plan, knocking houses and looking for people to teach. After a few hours, we were tempted to let our faith wane and decide not to worry about the goal - next week. But, we didn`t. We knew we had been working very hard all week to meet our goals, and we trusted that God would help us complete our goals. 

Well, then we had 2 more lessons - we knocked a door and found a new investigator teach (great lesson), and then taught a pre-set lesson with our investigators who had come to church that day. 

We needed one more lesson to meet our goal, and we only had about 20 minutes left before time to head back to the apartment. We had no idea who else we could visit, but we prayed that we would find someone to teach. I pulled out the phone and started scrolling through names, and I found J and A, who we hadn`t been able to see during the week. I called them, and they said we could come by. We ended up teaching a great lesson with them as well, and met with our goal, feeling grateful and happy.

Maybe it could seem like we were more worried about numbers than about teaching people, but it`s not so. At first I felt a little like that too, but then I realized that the numbers are there to give us a goal of what to aim for. They aren`t the end in and of themselves, but they help us exert greater efforts to be more effective in the work. Anyway, it was a good experience for us that strengthened our faith.

The members are so good here. Well, really, all the Argentine people. They always give us food. Sometimes we have more food than we can even eat, because in about half the houses we go by they give us food to either eat there or take home. Good people.

We had interviews with President Carter on Tuesday. It was an excellent interview, as always. He told me that he wants me to see these last 4 months as the best time of my mission. And, really, these last 3 weeks have been. We`ve been working really hard and seeing lots of results, and it`s satisfying.

This week we found an investigator named M. We were walking down the street during the early evening, and I wasn`t thinking about contacting people at the moment - my mind was concentrated on something else - but I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, and looked over to see a cute young pup jump up and put his paws on a fence, looking at us. As I looked over, I looked past the dog and saw a man building a chair in the yard. As we walked, the words, `Talk to that man` came to my mind, and almost felt a mental push to go do it. We immediately turned back and talked to the man, and after talking to him for a minute he let us in to teach him. He`s a great guy, who years ago felt he was let down by the churches he had attended and reverted to worshiping God in his own house. As we got to know him more, we found out that his greatest desire is to live in a place like Zion, where the people care about each other and watch out for each other and work together for the good of everyone. We told him about the church, and he became eager to investigate and find out for himself whether it is like that. 

He`s a good guy. I believe that God used Sancho (the dog) to get my attention so that we could contact M.

It`s an exciting and tense time in the mission - the new missionaries are finally arriving. We have more missionaries than ever before, and the younger missionaries are being called upon to prepare themselves faster and better than ever before so that they can lead the areas as the more experienced missionaries are going home. My companion`s going to be one of those who receives extra responsibilities, I know. He`s a stud!

We made barbecue wings today... and now we`re going to go play soccer with some kids in the ward. I`ll probably watch. But who knows, I may play a little. I like basketball better. A good P-day.

It`s been a good week. And of course, it`s fantastic to read your letters and know how you all are doing... I`m happy for you! Hope it`s a great week this week. 

Thanks for your prayers and your love. We have the best family in the world.
Elder Stockton

Ituzaingo Week 7

August 5, 2013

Well, hello! It sounds like a pretty good week all around! (Well, for most. Hope you get better soon, Krista!) As you saw, I`m still in Ituzaingo 2, with a new companion: Elder Monterroso, from Guatemala. It`s shaping up to be a good transfer. Elder Leatham went to... wait for it... Bragado. What!? And my current Zone leader also just came from... Bragado. I have a lot of connections to that area.

I`m really quite pleased and happy as I`m writing today, for a number of reasons. I`ll start at the least important, and work my way up to the good stuff.

I inexplicably woke up this morning with `Minnie the Moocher` playing in my head. (Tee dee hee dee hee, Sir?) (Jeeves and Wooster, for those poor souls not yet P.G. Wodehouse fans.)

Dad, you would be proud of Elder Monterroso and me - we just made some burritos that tasted almost like what you make. The secret was that we used `comino` - I`m not sure what spice that is or how to say it in English, but I smelled it and it smelled like the tacos you make, so I put it in. And oh, what a sumptuous feast! It truly was a fiesta o` flavor. Tacos are the taste of home.

I had a new experience this last week - while my companion and I were having companionship study, a neon spot appeared in my vision, like the afterimage that is left after you look at the sun. It stayed for a little while and then went a way, and a short time later I was hit by a serious headache and nausea. After resting a little bit, I called Dr. Brunt, the mission doctor, and he told me I was having a... migraine! Woo hoo! He told me that it`s nothing very serious, and that there`s some medicine you can take to stop them when you feel them coming. He also told me that most people who get migraines start getting them around mission-age. Lucky me! And apparently migraines are hereditary. Does anyone else in our family get migraines? So... that was fun. It passed after I took some Ibuprofen, and we were able to go out to work.

So, now to the good stuff -

On Wednesday we went to transfer meeting. It was one of the best meetings I`ve ever been to. The testimonies of the missionaries going home, and the video testimonies of the missionaries who`ve already gone, touched me, and I re-committed to put my best into the work. It was a nice meeting also because I was able to briefly reconnect with some old mission friends - Elder Correa, Elder Wing, Elder Hougaard, and others. Good friends. It`s great to see them progressing.

And, I received a new companion: Elder Monterroso! Like I mentioned, he`s from Guatemala. And he`s a stud! He was baptized a little more than 2 years ago. He came on the mission because he loves the Lord, and it shows in everything he does. He`s a very good teacher for the 3 months he has in the field (3 weeks in Argentina), and he teaches with sincerity and love for the people. He`s a good example to me of humility and reliance upon the Lord for blessings. And he works super hard. I always wanted to have a companion like him.

And this change is giving me the chance to find an even better me, to forget about old things that may have been holding me back and to be someone better. And that`s what I`ve been doing. I`ve been working hard, having faith in the Lord and doing the very best I know how. And we saw a lot of miracles this last week.

On the way back to our area just after the transfer meeting, we began talking to driver of the taxi we were in. After a little while the conversation turned to religious things. She told us that she had long ago lost her faith in God because of the bad things that had happened to her. But, she told us, she wished she could find that faith again. In fact, just yesterday she had said a prayer and asked God for some way to believe and to be happy again. We had a very good conversation with her and invited her to know more about the church - she gave us her number and we sent it to the Elders who live in her area. Who knows? Maybe she`ll be the next convert.

We had some very good lessons this last week. One was with L, in which we talked to him and his mom and helped them set goals for their future. She really wants for him to grow up strong in the Gospel, and knows that she must do her part to establish a Gospel-centered home. 

We had another, similar lesson with M and her semi-active mom. Her mom began sharing a beautiful testimony with us about how her faith in the Lord had blessed her. As she was talking a question came into my mind, and I asked it: `Sister, you have a beautiful testimony. What of that testimony would you like to transmit to your daughters?` (Not sure if that makes sense in English - it`s ok in Spanish.) She thought about it, and then she spoke to us with conviction about how she wanted to help her daughters have faith in Christ. We were able to help them set a goal to return to church and be an active, gospel-centered family, and for M to be baptized, whereas in other times she hadn`t been as receptive. After the lesson, Elder Monterroso told me that that question had opened her up and changed the tone of the lesson. I knew it had come from the Spirit. God will give us what to say in moments when it`s really important, if we are worthy and looking for His help.

And, some of the best news for last:
During transfer meeting I talked to Elder Merino, who just came from Bragado. He gave me the joyous news that a few weeks ago, M and K (a family whom Andrew was able to teach the gospel, but moved away before they could be baptized) were married and baptized, and are now faithful members of the Bragado branch. I was overjoyed. I`m so happy for them!! It`s great to know that they`ve made it this far, and that they`re on the road to their goal: being sealed in the temple. It`s true - sometimes on the mission, one Elder plants, another Elder cultivates, and a different Elder harvests. I`m okay just as long as they get harvested, no matter who does the harvesting. Elder Merino showed me some beautiful pictures of the wedding and the baptism, which I must later get him to pass to me.

So, I`m good. My joy is pretty full. And it`s great to have such a fantastic family to tell all of this to. I`m looking forward to the time when we can be all together again, at home. Have a fantastic week! Love you all so much.

Elder Stockton

July 2013

July 15 already!

Hello, family!

A pleasure to read your emails, as always. Tall Ships (Jacob's Scouting adventure) sounds like fun, Oregon (Krista's adventures) sounds like fun too! The figs sound delicious, and the most recent painting (Ken's adventure) is beautiful.

There`s actually not much to tell this week - it rained from Tuesday to Friday, making the missionary work a little tough. Elder Leatham and I had almost cleared out our pool of investigators last week, and we didn`t find any new ones this week. Hopefully with clear skies, we should have more success this week.

I bought a bunch of bananas to eat this week! Pretty tasty!

We had a surprising experience a few days back. We had received a referral from the offices to visit a part-member family who was wanting to come back to church, with a son named F who needed to be baptized. However, when we visited the family, we found that the Sisters who work in the area next to ours had been visiting the family for several months, and that the family had already been activated (and F baptized) into another ward. We weren`t sure what to think about that at first, but later we found out that the sisters had gotten permission to teach the family - their records were already in the Padua ward. Why we got the reference 2 months later, I could not say. But at least that mystery was cleared up!

S is having trouble coming to church - he finishes his job driving taxis and arrives at home at 8:00 Sunday morning. The spirit is willing, but 2 weeks in a row he`s fallen asleep before making it to church. We would appreciate your prayers for him.

That`s all the news I have this week. But next week`s will be longer. ;-) I love you all so much! Enjoy your activities this week.
Elder Stockton

Week 5 Ituzaingo

Well, hello! I hope the weather`s good up there! We`ve had some really weird weather here, with 2 very hot days and then the coldest day in my whole mission. And now, it seems as if the cold`s here to stay. I`m bundled up with everything I`ve got. Scarves are a blessing. My feet have gone to sleep in the cyber where we`re writing.

Some good things happened this week. We found some very good `future investigators` to go back and visit this week. One man, when we knocked his door, asked us what had led us to knock his door. He had always seen the missionaries pass by since the time when he was a kid and had wondered what we teach, but none of them ever knocked his house. We met another man named M who loves... Elvis. His first son is named Elvis... his daughter is Pricilla, for Elvis`s wife... and his dog is Aaron, for Elvis`s brother. He seems like he really has interest, too, and it will be good to go back and teach him this week.

S gave us a scare this week. We arrived for our appointment, talked for a bit like normal, and then he got really serious and said told us that he had made up his mind that he would be continuing in the Catholic church with his son. (Some backstory: for the last few weeks S has been praying and praying to know whether the Book of Mormon is true, and whether he should be baptized.) It`s devastating whenever an investigator tells you he doesn`t want to investigate anymore, and more so when it`s someone like S who has experienced such a big change in his life since knowing the Church. So naturally we tried to find out what it was that had made him reach his decision. We found out that he felt bad because he was going to both the Catholic church and our church at the same time, and thought he needed to choose one or the other. But we explained to him that there is nothing wrong with going to multiple churches at the same time as he is investigating, if he is being honest with both parties - which he is. We talked about the Alma 32 seed of faith analogy and about the testimony he already has. (Because, he already has a pretty big testimony.) And we encouraged him to keep investigating until he was sure, one way or another, what God was telling him. 

S took it very well, actually looking rather relieved as he told us that he would keep investigating. His worries were eased, and he told us that he didn`t felt like he had been convinced, rather that he had been given another opportunity. I think that he was looking for an excuse to keep investigating. Afterward we talked again about the process of receiving an answer, and I shared my experience of coming to know that the Book of Mormon was true. At multiple times in my life I have studied and prayed wanting to know whether the BOM is true, but at first the only answer that I got from God was that the book was good... it was only later in my life, after continued studying and earnest seeking and living according to my faith that I received the answer that the book is true. That helped S. I really see that the experiences that I have had in my life have prepared me to teach people here. 

And, S came to church this week! He came back from work at 8:00am, came and picked us up, and went to church. He loved the first 2 meetings, it was like they were just for him... and then he fell asleep during a long talk in Sacrament meeting, so we woke him up and told him he could go home if he wanted. He`s a great guy. I have no doubt that he`ll get his answer and be a firm, converted member of the church. I love him!

And, I love you all. Hope you have a very good week this week, and that you feel God`s love and my love!
Elder Stockton

Week 6 Ituzaingo
Hello! Sounds like a packed week, and a good one! It`s been a good week here, too. I don`t have much time to write, but here are the highlights!

We found 3 new investigators this week. In one instance we had left a pamphlet with a lady to read. When we passed by later on, she hadn`t read it - but her sister had, and was interested in learning more. So we taught both of them, and left the sister with a Book of Mormon, which she began reading.

This week was Ward Conference, and we had some pretty good meetings. There was also a nice musical number, and... surprisingly, to me, a big lunch afterward! Apparently this ward has a tradition of always doing a ward lunch after every 5th Sunday.

And, on the same food theme, several families prepared us really good meals this week - including an asado (big Argentine barbecue) . Pretty special! There are some very nice members in this ward.

Elder Leatham and I went to a special individualized training on Tuesday, along with some others in our district. It was a good training. We had to teach a full lesson to two missionaries (both had been my zone leaders in the past) assuming the identity of two investigators, while President Carter watched in the background. After the practice, they gave us some really good tips, we re-practiced, and they sent us on our merry way. I love things like that, that help us identify ways to improve. Sometimes they`re a little nerve-wracking, but always very helpful.

Well, that`s about all the news I have this week! This week is transfers - we`ll see what happens.


I love you all very much! Thanks for your great letters. :)
Elder Stockton