September News

September 17 -- This Fantastic Week!

Well, hello! It's wonderful to hear from you, as always. We had a great week here. A very long week with no P-day last Monday, but a great week even so.

So, where shall I start? The temple celebration? It was fun! It was very well done - I can't even imagine how much work it must have taken to put it together. I bet the leaders of the project are relieved that it's over. There was lots of singing and lots of dancing. We even had a part, marching onto the field singing the 4 verses of Llamados a Servir (Called to Serve). 

The celebration took place in a futbol stadium (er, soccer stadium), so they made good use of the giant screens and camera resources that they had.The whole thing looked pretty professional! (Except for maybe the small children, who would smile and wave every time they saw the camera point at them.)  But I think the best part was just being there for such an event. It was good to be with a group of saints gathered together to celebrate the dedication of a temple.

We spent almost all that night traveling, and arrived in Chivilcoy in time to get a couple hours' sleep before heading to the temple dedication. I was actually kind of sleepy and had a hard time focusing for the first couple talks, but when President Eyring got up to speak and then offer the dedicatory prayer, I was wide awake and able to appreciate it. I felt the Spirit there very strongly. I felt that God was watching us, and I felt close to Him.

So, that was the 2nd part of our special weekend! After the dedication, we returned back to Bragado, finished up our week, and then went straight into the next one! And, we had quite a bit of success this week. We found a total of 15 new investigators, which is more than I've ever found in a week with just me and my companion working. And even better, we were able to go back and visit quite a few of them during the week. (Sometimes you have a first lesson, but they disappear and you never get to have a second lesson.) We were very blessed.

[We have had a lot of contact with a very nice family.] They're some of my favorite ward members here - they occasionally feed us lunch, and they are always eager to help out and to share the Gospel. They bought a new pair of nice shoes as a gift for my companion because he was needing some new ones. And the other day, I asked them if they knew a good place to get a haircut. They directed us to a barber, and after I got my haircut I found out that it had already been paid for. They're a cool family. 

Anyway, my companion wanted to do something nice for them, and so with some of his birthday money he bought them an asado, which is a huge, delicious Argentine barbecue. They cooked it, and we all went yesterday after church to eat it. But! They also arranged for us to teach a lesson to [a relative] and her boyfriend. So after the asado, we got to teach what turned out to be the best lesson of my mission so far. 

We taught about the Plan of Salvation - Where we came from, why we are here on this earth, why badness exists in the world, and what happens afterward. They were very interested, very attent (is that a word? My English is suffering) to what we were teaching. They asked good questions and really understood the message. Afterward, we transitioned the lesson into our purpose as missionaries and invited them to investigate the church to the end of being baptized. We then talked about the Book of Mormon and its role in helping us know whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ. We explained what it was and gave them a copy. Then we asked them to read and pray about it. Then Jonathan surprised us by saying, 'But I don't need to pray. I already know this book is true.' He and his girlfriend then expounded on what he had said. How? They said, 'Because we can see it in you. You two are illuminated! There is something different about you. And it's not like it's you, but it's like God is with you.' Wow! How great to have someone recognize that, and trust in that. It gives me confidence that the Spirit is with us. It was a good lesson.

And I'm out of time already, but other experiences, in brief, were:

Following a prompting of the Spirit to go contact a certain family on the street, we found a fantastic family of 6 to teach, who have baptismal goals set and are progressing nicely.

Rain was predicted for Sunday, but we prayed hoping that it would be sunny so our investigators would come. And, it was!

I love you all! Stay strong, enjoy life!
Love, Elder Stockton

September 24

Hello, family! I´m having a good day today - hope you are, too. It was nice to read your letters.

Well, this week we had the traveling zone leaders with us again, but for the whole week this time. Elder Wells and I were on splits with Elder Griggs and Elder George this time. Elder George is fun. He was in the marines, but converted to the church and a year later came on a mission. He´s in his last few weeks already and will soon be heading home to Mesa, AZ.

This week was good, in different ways than last week. I learned a lot of things while on splits with the zone leaders. One thing I learned while I was on divisions with Elder George. He would often stop at a house (seemingly randomly), knock it, and we would find a receptive person there. The first time this happened, we were walking down a street when suddenly Elder George said, ´Wait!´ We turned around and went back two houses, where Elder George knocked. A man named Sebastian opened the door and let us in after hearing our invitation, and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel. Afterward, we talked about how he had looked for the Spirit to know which houses to knock. He told me, ´My goal during me whole mission was to get to the point where I could feel which house before reaching it. But I always seem to get the prompting right after I pass it.´ Then he told me that every single baptism he has had on his mission came from going back to knock a door that he felt prompted to knock. Wow! I wonder how he got so in-tune with the Spirit so as to be able to feel when there was a door he should knock. I sometimes do, but not with the frequency that he seems to. I guess that comes with practice, looking for and knowing how to recognize the promptings of the Spirit, and following the promptings you receive.

At the end of the week, Elder Wells and I each had a private interview with the zone leaders to discuss what we had learned during the week, and where to go from here. They told me that the next hurdle for me to pass on my way to becoming a better missionary is planning. It´s true - I struggle with planning. There´s a lot of information to keep straight. I guess the more organized I can be, the easier planning will be, and the more effective. So, that´s what I´ll be working on in the future!

Well, hmm. It seems that today is an Argentine holiday, which means that we´re being cut short. (Really, I think that Argentina might have the most holidays of any country.)

But I hope that each of you has a fantastic week! Love you much! Thanks for your prayers and your support. Say Hi to my friends for me! And the kitty.

Love you!
Elder Stockton

Events surrounding the Temple Dedication

Last weekend the Buenos Aires Argentina temple of 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 

was re-dedicated. 

Andrew was able to participate in many of the activities. 

Where's Waldo?
I mean Elder Stockton?
Missionaries at the Cultural Celebration

Mission photo
I spotted him!  :)  Second row from front, about 1/3 of the way from the right

Called to Serve!
Missionaries marching in for their part of
the Cultural Celebration

If you are interested, here are some links about the events, with lots of pictures!

Buenos Aires West Mission blog (see the September 7-9 entries)

 (If you spot Andrew in any of these photos ... let me know!!) (Other than the mission picture ... I beat you to that one!)

Article about the cultural celebration

Article about the renovation and re-dedication  and More on the renovation

Elder Ballard's personal connection to Argentina

Counsel given by Apostles

Temple Rededication!

Hello, family!

I'm writing a little early this week, as you've noticed. The reason for this is because of the 3 special events happening this weekend: The meeting with the Apostles last night [Friday], the pre-dedicatory Temple celebration tonight [Saturday], and the rededication of the Buenos Aires Temple tomorrow morning. Most of the missionaries returned to their areas after the meeting last night and will come back today for the celebration, but because of how far away our areas are, the entire zone of Chivilcoy is staying here in Ramos Mejía for the weekend. We'll all travel to Chivilcoy tomorrow morning (early, early morning) to watch the Temple rededication there, and then we'll head back to our respective areas.

Article about the Buenos Aires Argentina temple open house & pictures

So, last night was pretty great. As I said last week, three Apostles came down to rededicate the Buenos Aires Temple. They also decided that while they were here, they would have a meeting with all of the missionaries. (No private interviews, lamentably, but still a fantastic opportunity.) How special to be able to see and hear from Apostles of the Lord. I imagine that it would be like the saints in the primitive church seeing and hearing from Peter, James and John, or Paul, or other apostles. We got to hear from President Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Christensen.

The Buenos Aires West, North and South missions, together with the missionaries from the Buenos Aires MTC, met together in the chapel of Ramos Mejía for the meeting. In total, I think there were close to 700 missionaries. That´s a lot of missionaries! (Sister Carter will probably give you the true facts on her blog.) buenosaireswest.blogspot.com  [Lots of pictures ... can't spot Andrew] 

The talks themselves were spectacular. They focused on how very important this work is that we are doing, and how God has put us here at this time for a specific purpose. My favorite talk was President Eyring's. He talked about doing the work with a smile. He told us that the best way we have to bear testimony of the Savior is through a smile. He said that no investigator that we are teaching or will ever teach will not want the happiness that comes from knowing that you have made covenants with the Lord, and that if you keep the covenants you have made you will be able to live in happiness with your family forever. It was a very touching talk, and inspiring.

President Eyring has always been one of my favorites. I love the sincerity of his words, and the power of them. You know when he speaks that he really knows what he's saying. I'd like to be like him.

I'm not quite sure what's in store for the Celebration tonight. I'm sure it will be spectacular, whatever it is, because this is a big event! The temple is opening in Buenos Aires again! Actually, I´m mostly excited to be able to go to the temple again. They haven't yet established rules for the missionaries' temple attendance, but it looks like we're going to be able to go do a temple session from time to time, which is great. I came to the mission at a good time!

On that theme, I really can see that I was meant to come to this mission, at this time. Everything seems just right - the Mission President, the new focus in the mission... everything! The missionaries... It's a good time to be in the Buenos Aires West mission.

Well, that may be all I've got today. I love you very much! I'll tell you next Monday about the events of tonight and tomorrow. Give my love to everyone at home! And give Margaret a pat for me.

Much love,
Elder Stockton

September in Bragado

Hi!

As always, I loved reading your letters. I´m sitting here in a cyber right now, next to my comp. It´s raining outside, and the Argentine radio station is playing American music. I will probably buy us an alfajor on the way out.

We had a great week! The ´traveling zone leaders´ came to visit us for a couple days this week. The idea is this: these zone leaders spend weeks at a time working with the Elders in their areas - fortifying the area, meeting the investigators and the members, and helping out with every aspect of the work. Well, this week was our turn. But, because of transfers, they had to cut it short, so we only got 2 days with the zone leaders instead of a week. But still, we did a fair amount of work. During those 2 days, we found 12 new investigators and got 63 names of people to return to. (Most of those will fall, but still - that´s a lot of people who said we come back to teach them!) And, more than that, I learned some things about how to work better:  If you expect to succeed, you are a lot more likely to succeed. Low expectations are a self-fulfilling prophecy, and, if you want to have good results, make good plans. (Makes sense.)

The trick is keeping up the success after the zone leaders are gone, but we´re doing pretty well with that. We did find 7 more new investigators together without the zone leaders. We´re getting a lot better at telling people who we are and what we do -- and why it´s important to them.

There´s a missionary-related quote that´s been coming to my mind recently: ´You cannot convert someone past the level of your own conversion.´ I´m starting to understand that principle. 

When an investigator decides to stop investigating, you have to find out why. You have to get past the superficial and really try to convince them to open their minds to a new idea. And to be able to do that, you have to enter into a discussion that really tests your own testimony and conversion to the truth. It forces you to ask yourself, Do I really know this is true? If God told me that my current set of beliefs was wrong, would I have the courage to follow that answer? Because really, that´s what we´re asking people to do: to accept the possibility that you might be wrong in order to really find the truth. I think that part of asking God with ´real intent´ to help you find the truth means that you´ll follow the answer that He gives, even if it´s an answer you don´t want. It takes courage. You have to really be looking for the truth, not the answer you want to hear. 

Fortunately, I had already asked those hard questions to myself earlier in my life, as a part of gaining the testimony that I have. And I received my testimony. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because I really investigated and found out it is true, not because I was raised to believe it is true. And so, I [am] able to use my own testimony, my own experience, to try to convince [others] to open up to the possibility of new truth, and to really investigate the Church.

I´m getting a lot better at recognizing the voice of the Spirit. Several times this week, I was prompted to stop what we were doing and contact a person, and the person was good and let us teach them. The tricky thing is, it´s not a clear voice that says to me, ´Go back and contact that guy.´ It´s just an impression - very easy to ignore, because we´re on bikes and that would be our of our way. Sometimes it´s easy to follow a prompting, sometimes it´s harder... but every time I follow a prompting, we have results! And then I feel good because I followed the Spirit. So, that´s fun!


My companion and I bought ingredients to make burritos! Mmm, mmm! They´re going to be good. Though, this will be the first time I try cooking with meat here on my mission. I´m a little afraid to do it, but... you have to try sometime, right?

Elder Wells had a birthday (shout hooray)! In honor of the occasion, we bought facturas, which are delicious Argentine donuts. We also found 3 promising new investigators.


This weekend should be pretty exciting! The Buenos Aires Temple is going to be re-dedicated! Three General Authorities (including President Eyring, I believe) are coming down for the dedication. We get to attend the celebration beforehand, and we´ll watch the dedication from our own stake centers. Should be good! But - the other thing I´m looking forward to is that President Eyring is going to have a special meeting with all the missionaries of the Buenos Aires mission. Excellent! I´m secretly hoping for a private interview. I know it´s not likely, but that would be super! He´s my favorite of the first Presidency. Well, with President Monson, of course. ...And President Uchtdorf. Anyway.

I think that might be all for today. I´ve got to get back and wash all of my clothes! And write letters. And, make burritos. Mmm!

I love you all. Thank you for being so diligent in writing me - it´s a great blessing and a great strength to me! Have a fantastic week.

Love, Elder Stockton

August -- Part 3

This week has had its ups and downs. Perhaps I was just too confident after our success last week, but this week we had a harder time finding people to teach. We spent three whole days trying to make second contact with the previous contacts we had made, to no avail. Everyone was either busy or didn´t answer their doors. We would spend 5 - 10 minutes biking to our next potential appointment, park our bikes, knock the door, wait, knock again, wait, knock a third time, and finally give up and start heading to the next name. It was pretty discouraging. After a day and a half, we started wondering, ´what are we doing wrong?´ No immediate answers were available - we should have been having success. But I decided to press on and try to keep a positive attitude, because if you let your spirits fall, you can´t accomplish anything. I figured that maybe this was part of my test, a test to see if I would continue with a happy attitude when times were tough, or be a grumbler. I don´t want to be a grumbler! So I trusted that if I kept my efforts up, things would get better. The lack of success lasted for another day and a half. Then, after the tribulation came the blessings, and things got a bit better!


We are teaching an investigator. And, as sometimes happens, she was listening to our lessons but not keeping commitments. She wasn´t reading, she wasn´t praying, and she wasn´t coming to church. When an investigator doesn´t keep commitments, you eventually have to leave them, because they won´t get a testimony unless they put forth their bit of effort. We had a lesson with her about a week ago in which we explained that if she wanted to really know whether the church is true, she would have to start really investigating. When we came back for our return appointment later, she wasn´t home, and we figured, ´Well, I guess that´s it. We´ll come by next Sunday to see if she´s started reading the Book of Mormon. If not, we´ll have to leave her.´ We had even practiced what we were going to say.


Well, we passed by on Sunday. We talked for a little bit, and then she surprised us by volunteering to say the opening prayer. Afterward, we asked her if she had read the chapter we left her in the Book of Mormon. She had read, and she remembered about what she had read and told us about it. (It was 3 Nephi 11, a particularly powerful part of the Book of Mormon.) I asked if she prayed after reading to know if the book is true. She told us that she had prayed, and then proceeded to describe how she felt. She said, ´I had this feeling. It was strong, and it´s hard to describe... but it wasn´t fear.´ When I asked her to try and describe the feeling, she told me it was like ´peace´ and ´calmness´. I offered her a description of how I feel when I feel the Spirit testifies to me, and she said that yes, that was how she felt. Then I asked her whether she believed that the things we had been teaching her were true. She told us that, yes, she did. And she went on to say that we were the first other church she had ever listened to, and that she thought that God must have sent us to her.


It was very good for me to see an investigator get past the beginning stages of investigating and start to gain a testimony. Very refreshing. It reminded my why I am here, what I am working for. So, that was good!


Other (quick) news:


I ate kumquats, I think. They were sweet on the outside, sour on the inside, and very tasty.


I taught Gospel Doctrines class yesterday, and that went pretty well. We had 48 people in church after the temple open house - more than have been in attendance in years! ( Buenos Aires Argentina temple )


We´re seeing ´popcorn popping´ on some of the trees here! Seems like we´re just about out of winter.


I saw a stuffed (real, stuffed) dog on a stand in a lady´s house. That was kinda gross.


That´s all for today! I love you all, it´s great to hear from you. Take care! Have a great week!
Love, Elder Stockton

August --- Part 2

A delicious (and nutritious, I´m sure) chocolate milk

Bragado from the 10th floor of ´The Tower´

Mighty Missionary!

More rain in Bragado

Another mighty missionary?

Oreo night!

My companion´s morning ´exercises´ 

(not really... they´re usually a little more effective) 

The ´time to clean the pench´ shirt

Dear Family,

Hi! It´s been a quite a week here! Last week, Elder Correa and I were
walking around in campo when we got a call on our phone. It was Elder
Douglass, one of the assistants. Huh? Why would Elder Douglass be
calling? He asked me to pass the phone over to Elder Correa. Elder
Correa listened for a few seconds, then said, ´Yes. Sure. All right.
9:00. Okay, thanks. Bye.´ He then turned to me and said ´Well, I guess
I´ve got to go start packing my things.´ At the time, we had no idea
why Elder Correa was being transferred, nor why it was happening two
weeks before the end of the transfer. But as it turned out, he was
needed in one of the other areas in campo, to fill a gap made my a
change of organization. (Our zone leaders have now become ´traveling´
zone leaders - they will be spending weeks at a time in each of our
other areas in order to train us and help us in our work.) He was sad
to be leaving Bragado, but relieved not to be leaving campo.

I was a little more anxious, as one seems to always be before big
changes happen. In the past, Elder Correa has always been there to
´save´ me if I was having trouble communicating with someone, and it
was usually him who was the bolder one in lessons, directing the
lesson and answering the hard questions and that kind of thing. He
just did it naturally, because of his facility with the language and
because that´s how he is. I suppose I´d been guilty of leaning on him
a little too much to guide the area.

But suddenly, leaning on him is no longer an option - I am suddenly
the one who must lead and direct the area - the lessons, the plans. I
am the one who needs to be bold and challenge people to baptism. It´s
like I´ve been pushed into the deep end of the swimming pool, for the
first time without a flotation device, and now I have to sink or swim.
And, know what? It turns out I swim! As I´ve been taking charge of
situations and really leading the area for the first time, I´ve been
blessed to experience much success, and to find out that I can do it!
I´ve found out I can talk to people more than what I thought I could.
I can take control of lessons, I can answer hard questions, and I can
issue baptismal challenges. I´ve found abilities, and confidence, that
I didn´t know I had. I think that this was what I needed to start
realizing more my potential. More evidence that God knows what each of
us need to realize and reach our potential. (And I know that it´s not
just me - I´ve really felt His Spirit in me, directing me, helping me
know what to say, and to helping me to say it boldly and with
confidence.)

My new companion is Elder Wells, from California. We entered the MTC
on the same day. And, know what´s cool? Before getting his visa to be
able to come to Argentina, he served a temporary assignment in, guess
where? The Arizona Tucson mission! Wow! Surprise! So I got to see the
mission notebook that President Killpack gives to the missionaries
there, and photos of some familiar-looking areas. Did you know that
that little office they built on the side of the chapel is the office
for the whole Arizona Tucson mission? I had no idea, but that´s the
case. Kind of cool.

All my love! Have a great week.
Elder Andrew Stockton

August in Bragado

Lots of rain . . .

Things are good here. We´ve had a series of rainy days, with a few surprise days of warm weather in-between. And when it rains here, it really rains! Everything lower than my knees got soaked, but we went around to our various appointments anyway. At one point on Saturday, big chunks of hail started falling. Luckily we were just leaving an apartment building when it started, and could quickly hop back inside. And my industrial-strength umbrella seems to be no match for the Argentine winds, which blew it inside-out on two occasions. It´s fun! Argentine storms are very cool. In terms of strength, they´re like our monsoons, but they last longer and there´s very little lightning.

They´re not too good for the work, though. There´s not a whole lot you can do in the rain, missionary-work-wise, unless you have fixed appointments. 

Last Tuesday we went to pick up my bike from the repair shop, after a week and a half of walking around Bragado. And we probably got to ride around for a full 15 minutes before I looked around and realized that my back tire was going flat. Rats! Rather than take the bike back to the repair shop (which is doing quite a good business with our old bikes), we bought a bike patch kit and did the job ourselves. And, since then, we haven´t had any trouble! Even better, we finally raised the seat on my bike so that I can ride a little more comfortably.


I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting - my first talk in the ward. The theme I chose to speak about was: The righteous influence parents can have on their children, and righteous traditions that strengthen families. With the Book of Mormon and my own personal experiences, I had a lot of sources to draw from. My goal was to help the parents in the ward realize just how important their example is in helping their children develop spiritually, and to inspire them to implement these Gospel traditions in their own homes. The talk went well, and I believe the Spirit touched the hearts of many hearers. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me the ´source material´ to draw from. 

It´s been a good week. A fairly hard week, but a good week. I´ve learned a lot, about daily self-discipline, and obedience, and faith and perseverance, and that kind of thing. Every week we get a little better. Thanks for your letters, and for your love and support. Have a fantastic week! Say hi to my friends if you see them!

Love you all so much!
Elder Andrew Stockton