Sister Stone

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry I dont have alot of time to write each of you back! I will try to work at writing everyone back each week, today is just crazy because we have been at the doctors all morning and then we still have laundry to do, clean our car for car inspections and then go teach a few lessons. Anyway, I will try handwriting you letters. So... We met with the doctor this morning. He said that my gallbladder is working at a 27% and that it needs to be at a 35% for it to be completely clear. He doesn't want to do surgery yet because of my pain and the bleeding that has been happening. So he took some blood tests and if that comes back clear he thinks he wants to send me home for surgery and to get things cleared up there where I can have you guys support me in getting recovered. He says that it would be his first option because out here it would take longer because of other comlications that I didn't really focus on. I dont know what I think about this and it isn't for sure yet so I dont want to focus on it. He will call me and sister Morby tomorrow morning with the blood results. He will also call the mission doctors and let them know the path he think would be best. I hope Sister Morby calls you or that President does so that you know everything already. Thank You for fasting for me and for all of your prayers! Tell Everyone else who has prayed for us Thank You as well. I am grateful for a family who supports me and cares about me!

My week has been really good with investigators. We had 3 people commit to baptism for this month!! :) One the 16, 23, and the 30! My companion and I are so excited! We haven't taught the lady I tracted into, Sandy, yet just because of me being sick and then her sister has Cancer so she had to take her in for chemo during one of our lessons. We are hoping that all will work out with her on Thursday and that we can get in and teach her. Maybe we will even have another baptism this month? :) I can only hope! It would be awesome though! I always thought it was cheesy when people would say that we will feel disappointed when someone tells us "no" to baptism but I really did feel that way this week. We are teaching a 10 year old, Dusty, and his sister was baptized last month and she is so excited for him to be baptized but he keeps telling us he hasn't had the answer to his prayers that its the right thing to do right now. I felt sad for him when he told us this and I pray for him to get that answer for himself! I want him to be able to have that joy that comes from the gospel for himself! We also had Stake Conference yesterday and we had 2 of our investigators come! They both really enjoyed it and stayed awake for the whole thing! haha. I was shocked when they said they enjoyed it and couldn't wait for church next Sunday. I struggle at Stake Conference and so I was so excited for them when they actually enjoyed it and didn't feel overwhelmed!

I cant believe Chelsea is getting baptized!!!!!!!! I started crying when I read that! I wish that she would write me and tell me about it! Will you have Kelci get on and email her for me. Tell her to either email me or write me. I'm so excited for her!!! I wish that I could just be there for it. Oh my goodness I am just so excited!

Tell Whit CONGRATULATIONS and I told her so! :) You will need to go buy her an adorable outfit for me!

I have a video I want Pepper to see on Mormon Messages. will you tell her to go watch Daytons Legs and then the Bonus edition of it. I watched it the other day and just thought of her the whole time. Thanks!

I also watched 17 miracles with a member while I was down on Saturday and you guys need to go watch it as a family! It was amazing!

Well I better go but I will write everyone tonight or this week at some point! Tell Jaden good luck in his next game. Tell him to play hard for me!

I love you guys and I will keep you posted on the medical stuff and if all goes well, hopefully it does, I will just write you next week :)

LOVE YOU SO MUCH and miss you!

Love, Kenzi

Elder Stone

Hola Madre y Padre y familia!
Como estan? Come es todo en Hurricane? Estoy muy feliz esta manana! Life has been great for me this week. I just read McKenzi's email and I am so excited for her! I was so worried about how things were going for her and I'm glad to hear that all is going great.
Well the field is white, already to harvest! You think that is a metaphor but it's not. The fields really are all white. There is snow everywhere! Haha sorry, I couldn't resist.
So classes are going really good for me this week! I feel like I have been able to focus really well and learn a lot. The teachers have been talking in Spanish a lot more to us and it's awesome because I can understand most of what they are saying! Crazy how that works. When I first got here and they spoke Spanish to us I thought I was going to be confused forever! I'm excited that I am getting to the other end of the stick, slowly but surely. "Vale la pena." One of my teachers said that to us and I decided I am going to make it my motto. It translates into "It's worth the pain" or "It's worth it". All of things that in life are hard and painful are the things that are worth it in the end. So I set a goal. I'm going to work my very hardest on my mission so that when I get done I will look back and say it was worth it. Last night there was a devotional that talked about how to overcome sadness and homesickness at the MTC. Any guesses? The number one thing that helps sadness is to find someone to serve. I have found this to be so true. Our district has set goals to find someone to serve everyday and to serve the other districts in our zone. It feels good to help somebody in need.
Last night after the devotional we were able to go watch a movie of our choice. (We get to watch one every Sunday after the devotional.) Most the time they are recorded talks from Apostles that have come to the MTC but this week we got to watch the Testament. I think that's the most action packed movie I have seen in a while! Probably the most intense movie I will see in the next two years. I love that movie though. You've seen it right? I love how at the end the dad (Helam) doesn't have his sight and he is telling his son to describe Jesus to him. As he is describing the Savior you see a hand reach out and touch Helam and say his name. The last scene you see is of him healed, looking at the Savior. I lost it at that point. It's just so cool to me that the Savior does know each of us by name and He wants to help us. It really was a Testament to me.
Well it's weird for me to think that I am on the down hill slope of my time at the MTC. This Thursday we get out travel plans to head to our missions. It's crazy! In 2 and a half weeks I am going to be in my first area trying to understand Spanish and speaking with people! Exciting right?
I probably better get off and finish my laundry but I think I am able to get on later today. If you are able to write me back before I get on that would be awesome! Did you get my letter that I sent a few days ago? I think I had everything right on there so I hope it got there. Also, could you ask Kelci to ask Paisley if she got my letter? I've never really written letters to people so I'm not sure I did it right! So how is Jaden's soccer coming? Has he had any games yet? Tell Kelci and Jaden that I am writing you each a letter today. There just never seems like there is enough time to write. I wish I could write you each a 10 page letter but that probably still wouldn't cover everything!
I love you all and I am praying that all is well!
Love, Elder Stone
P.s. I saw Sister Stone put a scripture and I want to share one that I love also. Alma 26:12 is amazing. The whole chapter is but this is my favorite verse. Read it!

Elder Stone

Dear Madre y Padre y familia,
Hola! Como esta? Come fue su Domingo? Mine was so amazing! Yesterday was our second fast Sunday at the MTC so our Sunday schedule was a little different. Instead of going to Priesthood Meeting we got to go to mission conference! During mission conference we get to listen to most of the MTC presidency speak and then a District President also spoke to us. They are all spiritual powerhouses so it was really good to hear from them! I got to bare my testimony in Spanish again this week also. It's crazy how much more I was able to talk about in my testimony than that first week where I knew next to nothing. I also had that opportunity to bless the Sacrament this week in Spanish also. It is cool to hear it in Spanish! Last night was a really awesome devotional that we went to. The Provo Temple president came and talked to us about the temple. He was so powerful!! He talked about how the Lord has walked every hallway and has seen every room in the temple. He said that that is the only place where we can really take upon us Christ name. He also said that is the place to get power for the next two years of our mission. It gave me a completely different perspective on Temples and today when I go I am going to be a lot more focused on that.
After the devotional we always either get to watch a church movie or listen to a recorded talk by an apostle. This week my companions and me decided to go listen to President Holland talk about being forever a missionary. I felt like I needed to buckle up from the start to the finish. It was so intense! I went in there expecting intense but it still caught me off guard. He told us to take advantage of every single possible opportunity to be a missionary because this is the only time in our life that we will be able to. He said that this is the closest calling to being an Apostle that there is. We both teach the Gospel 24/7 and focus on bringing people unto Christ. I'm wondering if it is online somewhere that you could go look up? I want to have a copy of it to keep with me but it's not on Lds.org. It's called Forever A Missionary. Also, if you could send me the Characters of Christ talk by Elder Bednar that would be amazing also.
So I am starting something that I heard about and it might be cool for you to try out. I bought a new Book of Mormon and I wrote a few questions on the first page of it and now I am going through answering those questions throughout the rest of the book. I am only through 1 Nephi chapter 3 and I have so much highlighted to help me with the questions! I call it my own Magic 8 ball. Except this magic 8 ball is more correct than any other ball or book in the whole world.
I have two items of very exciting news for you. The first one was President Ballard came and spoke to us last Tuesday!! It was soo awesome! We were all sitting in the conference room singing the prelude hymns when everybody started standing up. The Spirit was so amazing because we were singing "I know that my Redeemer lives" when he walked in. The whole time he talked about that our message is that Jesus is the Christ and that he does live. It was so amazing! I started crying before he ever started talking because of the song. I love the song "I know that my Redeemer lives" I feel the spirit every time I hear it.
So the second item that is super exciting is (drum roll please) Are you ready? We got our travel plans on Thursday!!!! I am leaving next Tuesday at 5:00 in the morning to go to the airport and then I leave at 8:37 for Long Beach! How exciting is that?! It feels like I have been here forever and no time at all! I am so excited to go though. I am in my last full week here at the MTC! I will write you next week before I go to let you know a few more details about it but I had to let you know! I'm so excited. I've said that a few times but it is true! Well I should probably get off considering that my laundry is done and I should go get ready for the temple. Exciting stuff though, right? I love you all soooo very much! I am writing Kelci back today because that is the only letter that I have been able to get yet but I will try to write you all! You are in my prayers every day.
Love, Elder Stone
p.s. I just barely finished emailing Mckenzi so I hope she has time to email me again before the day is over. Sorry I wrote her first, I just assumed I would take longer on this email.
p.p.s. Do you think you could send me a copy of my Patriarchal Blessing? I only have a copy of the first page. The second page would be nice to have.

Sister Stone (first email from oregon)

Dear family,

Holy cow! I am in my first area! It has been such a good 3 days of learning and growing. Monday morning I woke up at 330 with the girls in my room and we finished packing and boarded the the bus at 5. I sat with Sister Christensen and next to us was Sister Ellett and Sister Eldredge. Can I just say I miss all the girls in my district from the MTC and also Sister Hale and Sister Renslow! I am so grateful I got to know them before we came into the field. Anyway. So we landed around 10:30 Utah time and thats when it hit me... that this is really happening. All the things we were being taught in the MTC and everything they tried to teach us is all needed NOW. As we got off, us girls went straight into the restroom to fix ourselves and try and help eachother stay calm and not freak out (cry actually) We came back out and gathered with the others, which there were 26 of us entering the Portland mission on Monday, and we saw President and Sister Morby! It was an amazing day! President Morby is definitely a stick to the rules president but I love it! He is such a great man and I already have so much respect for him! Sister Morby is very loving as well! After taking all of us over to the temple and getting some pictures, we headed to the stake center by the temple and had a quick lesson on the rules in the mission field and things we need to remember. At 2 we had the nerve racking experience of meeting our trainers! My trainer is awesome though and I love her already! her name is Sister Poulson and she is from Salt Lake. She will be leaving in June to go back home so in May after my 12 weeks of training she will go back to the Visitors Center, where she was originally called to, and finish up the last month of her mission. President Morby doesn't like having the new missionaries stay in the mission home that first night, I dont know if it is because they have missionaries leaving on those transfers as well or if he just likes us to get out and get to work, but thats what we did; We went out and got to work!

So... My first area is about an hour and a half from Portland. I am in a small town called Rainier, up at the top of the state. We have 4 towns that we cover. Rainier has I believe 2 gas stations in it and a few small restraunts by our apartment. Just picture like Parowan or Beaver without the grocery stores in it and that is the size of Rainier. It is so small. We actually have to go out of our mission to go grocery shopping because there is no where in our area to shop. Its pretty crazy. Our apartment is right off the main road and across from us is the Columbus River. I'll send a few pictures of that. The other 2 towns are about a 15 minute drive from our apartment and we cant go tracting too easy there because they are all farming communities. Clatsanie is the name of another town we cover, which is also 15 minutes away, and they are the size of Fillmore. It has a Safeway there but because it is so expensive we aren't suppose to go there. Anyway, I'm pretty much in the farming communities right now but I am loving it! It is so green here and my first day it was sunny :)

I want to tell you now about my first real day here. Because we had to drive an hour and a half back to Rainier we didn't get any tracting or teaching appointments in once we left the Transfer meeting, so Tuesday was my first real day. After personal Study and companionship study we had my first district meeting. There are two other companionships in our District and they are Elders. after that we had 4 teaching appointments! Let me tell you, I was soo nervous! but during companionship study we did a role play of how to teach the lessons for that day and it helped ALOT! our first family was the Aberle's. They are less active and their youngest son just moved back home from college. he is 22 and likes to talk about video games during the lessons. After their house we went tracting for about a half hour until our next appointment and guess what.... I got an appointment with a lady named Sandy!! She has been looking around for religions because the catholic church kicked her out for asking questions. next was our 93 year old investigator, Elenore. She is very stubborn, kinda like grandma Tony and thinks that if you believe in Jesus Christ then nothing else matters. her son is a member and she is very frustrated that he referred her to us :) she will be a fun one to teach :) After dinner we went and taught Dusty. he is 10 and his sister Caelyn was baptized before i got here. he is really unsure about religion but i think it is because his dad wont have anything to do with it.

Anyway, Sorry this is such a long email but I wanted to tell you everything! I am loving it so far and we have our first baptism on Saturday and one on the 9th of March! Sister Poulson said that this part of the mission was shut down for awhile and just opened back up in November or December. Everyone is so excited and ready to hear what we believe in here and the mission is having alot of success! I am excited to go teach Sandy on Tuesday as well. Technically I am not suppose to count her as an investigator yet but I am just so excited!

A few questions for you guys now, How is soccer going for Jaden? Did he make the team? ;) and are the guys flocking around Kelci like normal? I hope everything is going good and I miss you guys so much! I loved getting tylers email and I cant wait to hear back from him. I dont know if I should email him or just write him. Thank you mom for the treats and my bedding! I loved getting the cute sayings on them! you are the best!!!

K I better go. My P-day is usually Monday but this week it is Wednesday. So you will hear from me again Monday ok.

LOVE YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH!

sister stone :)

scripture of the week. 2 Nephi 31.

Elder Stone

Hola Madre y Padre (y mi familia)
Don't worry, I'm not good enough to do it all in Spanish yet. But it will be coming one of these days! You'll have to use google translate or something to keep up. Dad, you're going to need to write me a letter in all Spanish! The language really is coming in so fast. I was thinking back on how long it took to get one concept down in Spanish class. I feel like I've already learned more Spanish in the almost 3 weeks I've been here than 2 years of Spanish at school! I was about to say I don't know what it is but I know exactly what it is. It's the Spirit! Also, it's weird how when I am focused on the needs of the investigators we have the language just comes a lot easier. It's starting to make a little bit of sense on how when we lose our selves we find ourselves. Our lessons are still a little bit difficult considering we aren't yet fluent in Spanish but when we teach with the Spirit the lesson goes a lot stronger. In truth, the days that we don't go into our lessons with the Spirit as our guide turn into train wrecks. It was explained to us that going without the Spirit is like going into an important sporting game without using your star player. No real conversion comes without the Holy Ghost. It's amazing how I have felt the Holy Ghost prompt our lessons to go a way that we hadn't really planned. We are now up to three investigators that we go in between every day. We jump from Argentina to Chile and back to Utah within 5 minutes! I think I already mentioned this but the investigators that our teachers are playing are people that they have taught the Gospel to on their missions so they really get into the role of their investigator. It's weird because you start to develop a love for this person when it is just a teacher acting. After our lessons they come in and teach us and then I realize that hey! They actually already know the Gospel. I love my teachers.
Well I can't believe I have been here for almost 3 weeks now! I feel like I have either been here for my whole life or I have been here for just a few days. Some days I will look back on the time I've been here and think wait! It is going by way too fast! I hope my mission doesn't go that fast. There have been times when I have gotten a little bit homesick but it hasn't lasted too long. On Tuesday every body was having a little bit of a hard time and one of our branch presidency came in and talked to us. He seemed to notice that we were having a hard time and he talked about how when we are having our hard times we need to turn to the Lord. He was talking about how every hard time we have is an opportunity to bring us closer to the Lord. This week has been a week that I have been able to do that a little more. There have been songs that have been sung and Mormon messages that I've watched and devotionals that I have listened to that have just brought me to tears. I'm glad our district is a bunch of cry babies because I fit right in!
Yesterday I had to say goodbye to McKenzi. That was hard. It has been such a huge blessing to have her here at the MTC with me. There will be days where I am having a little bit of a rough time and then I see her and it brightens my day. We have been able to go to some of the same devotionals and talks and have been able to visit for a little bit. People always give us weird looks when we hug each other goodbye. We always have to tell people that hey, we're related! But honestly, I am so glad that we were able to be in the MTC at the same time. I am really going to miss looking for her at devotionals and being able to see her at random times. Could you please send me her address? I thought I had brought one of her pictures with me but I guess I didn't.
Well I probably better get off and finish up my laundry so that we can get go to breakfast and get ready for the temple. Really quick, I love the Orem Temple! I think I might have mentioned this but the temple is so beautiful! I have gained an even stronger appreciation for the temple since coming up here. Sorry, that was a quick tangent. Well I love you so much and I'm muy animado (very excited) to hear about everything! I hope that all is well. I pray for you every day and every night! I love you.
Love, Elder Stone

Sister Stone

Hey Family,

I know I just talked to mom on the phone yesterday but I think if I didn't send an email mom might get mad at me. So first off, the spirit is amazing here! I just read Tyler's email and since him and I were both at Elder Bednar's devotional, that saves time on what to say about that. Tyler sat in the row in front of me so we got to talk all about it afterward. The spirit was so strong there and Elder Bednar did an amazing job of helping us understand what it means to be converted and what it means to be converted and to have a testimony. Like he said, go look it up! its amazing!the second most amazing thing happened as well this week too. do you remember how I wrote you about the girl whose friend committed suicide? she wasnt a real investigator but it was so cool to teach her. Well on Saturday we had another TRC and it was a volunteer again. We didn't know until we got into the room that she was an ACTUAL investigator!! Here is her story. She was born here in the US, Texas actually, and then her family moved to Jerusalem for her and her siblings to grow up. I dont know why they moved there? but anyway, so after she graduated she decided to come to BYU for the program they have for the FBI. well, about 6 months ago she got a phone call saying that her family had been killed in a car crash! As she struggled to realize what was going on, one of her friends started talking about her religion, the LDS church. The only thing that she knew before this was that she couldn't get a second date with any of the guys who asked her out because she didn't belong to this religion. (NO ONE HAD EVER EVEN TRIED TO EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL! SO SAD!) anyway, so her friend works here at the MTC and just last week she decided that she needed something to help her get past the loss of her family. The spirit in the room was incredible when she was telling us this story! Me and sister Eldredge had planned on teaching her about the restoration, the first lesson, but like we have been taught, follow the spirit on this! we taught her about how our Heavenly Father loves her, He would love to hear from her and we taught her to pray. We also felt the need to teach her about Joseph Smith and the first vision and she just started crying thru all of it. not like a sad cry but she just kept wiping away tears. it was amazing! We committed her to reading the book of mormon and as we left she was so grateful for our message! after that, I went in the bathroom and cried for her! I wish that I was able to stick around and see what happens. thats the only bad part about leaving Monday :/ did president robinson call you about coming up friday? or is whitney able to? dearelder me and let me know what is going on with that so i can prepare myself. also, did you get Morgans birthday card? give luke and her a hug for me, I miss them so much! sister Christensen and I talk about our nannying jobs and how much we miss the kids. oh, and another thing that I noticed as I went to the doctors. for my ultra sound I had to go off campus, which was so weird, and as we were coming back, sister christensen and I both realized how the spirit wasn't fully with us at the drs like it is at the MTC. it was an awesome witness that we really do have it with us all the time if we recognize it!anyway, we are all having fun and learning so much! I am grateful to be here and I am loving it! i miss you and hope all is well. tell dad, kelci and jaden I have their letters in the mail. also tell shauni to tell kaylyn i wrote her but the letter came back?
love you, sister stone

Elder Stone

Dear Mom and Dad and Family,
Well the week mark of me being here came and passed! It was fun seeing the new missionaries come in on Wednesday and thinking how quick they are going to grow. It's always fun to welcome people into the MTC. Funny experience. I was walking out of a building with my companion and there were like 10 Hermanas (sisters) walking toward us. As they got closer I noticed that they were taking up the whole pathway that we were headed on. Knowing me, you might have thought how excited I was that there were girls walking our way but the first thought I had as they got closer was "don't touch me, don't touch me." Haha now you know how far gone I really am.
Well I feel like either my mind is going to explode from so much knowledge or my heart is going to explode from so much feeling the Spirit. This week has been really powerful again. We had a substitute teacher come and teach us and she was so powerful! I'm going to put one of her quotes in here because I loved it so much. "You are not eating for you anymore. You are eating so you have the energy to bring souls unto Christ. You are not sleeping for you anymore. You are sleeping so you have the energy to bring souls unto Christ. You are not going to the gym for you anymore. You are going so that you can be fit to bring more souls unto Christ. If you are doing these things just for you, you are only on a mission. You're not a missionary." It was so powerful when she said it. After she was done talking we watched a video of a family who joined the church and then a year later went through the temple and the lady was talking about how she felt the Savior's love so much. At that moment I had a reassurance that our Savior does love us and the Spirit was so strong. I might have cried a little. It's a good thing real men cry, right? There has been so many things that have changed my perspective on life. I seriously feel like I will be writing something down and then mid sentence they will say something else that hit's me and I'm thinking wait! Let me finish my sentence before you saying something else inspiring! I do feel my knowledge increasing by leaps and bounds. I've learned that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not some deep doctrine that is hard to understand. It is meant to be simple! I love that fact. I wish I could tell you everything I've learned in one email but I highly doubt that I would ever finish it. Just last night I had a life changing lesson by David A. Bednar about the Character of Christ. It was one of the coolest talks I have ever read. I'll give you a few points I liked but you should go look it up. It will change you're perspective. He talked about the difference between conversion and testimony and how if you just have a testimony you will fall away from the church, but if you are converted then nothing can take you away from the church. Conversion is an every day process that never ends. He also talked about losing yourself in the work and how you will find yourself. Basically the character of Christ was to turn outward and not be selfish and that is something we all desperately need to start doing. I'm not doing it justice so you should look it up!
So I didn't get to my companions in my last email so I will try to get to them now. First off, my companion's names are Elder Robinson and Elder Bainter. Elder Robinson was my companion to start off with and he is a really cool guy. We are a lot the same in our personality so it works out really well. Elder Bainter didn't use to be our companion but his companion went home because he needed to get some stuff cleared up. I really hope he is able to get back out here. It was a little bit difficult trying to work out a trio companionship because we were already bonded but it seems to be doing loads better now. Elder Bainter is a really smart Elder who knows the Gospel. We are all still super excited to be here and it is fun getting to know them. Well I love you all so much! I pray for you every day that you will be happy. One thing that we all have in common up here at the MTC is that we can feel the Spirit so strong and I hope that you guys will be able to feel it too. Please write me and tell me all the happenings down in Hurricane. Whether it is big or small I really love hearing about everything. Also, if you could tell people about Dear Elder that would be awesome. It's fun hearing from everybody! Well I hope that you guys are having loads of fun! Enjoy that cruise that you are going on this Spring Break. You guys are the one's missing out! I'm gonna try to write a letter today but our preparation day seems to end up being super unpreparational because of all the meetings that pop up. I love you guys so much!
Love Elder Stone