I can't believe it's been more than a month since I updated! Here's a quick catch up on what Elder Stoddard has been up to. I'll post pictures later.
Email from September 21
Well, im not going to lie, this week kind of sucked. First, we have an investigator named Vivian and I think I told you about her. We have been trying to get her to go to the church for a lesson because we want to give her to the other missionaries because she is outside of our boundaries. Her house is too small for all of us to fit. So we always make appointments for her, and she always cancels last minute. So I called her and I kind of got mad at her. I said we do all this stuff for you and you won't even meet with us. We have bought her food and helped her in a lot of ways. And I said we put all this effort in to meeting with her and she doesn't seem to care. Dad said by the end of my mission I will be really blunt and straightforward and I feel like I am already there haha. Anyways, She said she doesn't want to meet with us anymore because she is going to a baptist church that a random lady invited her to. So that really sucks. And then we went to our golden investigator's house, his name is Tony, and he is the one that I was inspired to see. He has been reading the BOM and he has soaked up everything we teach him. So we went to his house and said he isn't grasping the Mormon religion and also dropped us. He said he will still read the BOM, and he wanted all the pamphlets that we hand out, and he even wants to talk to us about the pamphlets next week, but I think he said wants to to be nice. So at this point we have zero progressing investigators. And it sucks because we try and we are seeing no success. It's pretty frustrating. Then on Saturday, we went to another missionaries baptism, and they wanted us to teach the restoration while the lady who got baptized was getting changed. We actually just showed the video of the restoration. And during the video, these ladies in the hall started to freak out and there was a nurse in the room, and the ladies called her into the hall and she ran out there. There was tons of commotion. Then an ambulance came! We went outside and talked to the other missionaries and I guess the lady who got baptized slipped in the changing room and hit her head and busted it open. She started having seizures too. When the ambulance asked her where she thought she was, she said Walmart. So that was scary. And guess what the worst part is... She doesn't remember her baptism! And just before her baptism, the bishop said, don't ever forget this day! So kind of ironic. And pretty sad too. So I will share some good news now haha. We went to help a crippled less active guy move out of his apartment. He is being evicted which sucks. And he doesn't even have a new place yet. But while we were moving, a guy asked if we could help him move a couch in to his apartment since we were already moving stuff. He was really nice and offered to help us move norm out of his house. We said its ok, but that you should let us teach you some time. He agreed so I hope he will be interested. And while we were helping Norm move, there was a huge lizard in his house! Haha so it's just like Australia! ;-)
Email from September 28
Things were a lot better this week! So I went on exchanges with our district leader. Usually the new missionaries go to the other area while the old one stays in the area because they know it better. But I had to take over the area for a day! I was nervous, but we did good. Me and elder Costner did more work than me and Ross do haha, and Costner is pretty quiet, so I did all the teaching which I'm not used to yet, but it was so fun! I'm actually really excited to take over the area! I only have like 2 weeks left of training! And while we were on exchanges, a recent convert called and asked for a blessing. I guess his fiancé just got arrested and his kids were taken by the CPS. His life seems pretty chaotic. He is a super awesome guy though. And so I gave him a blessing, and it was the coolest experience. I have always had a testimony, but after doing that blessing, I don't have a doubt that this church is true. The spirit was so strong. I cried and he cried. After the blessing he looked at me and couldn't believe I cried for him! It's crazy how much love I felt for him, and I hardly know him! He thought it was cool that I cried for him. He said he felt so good after the blessing and knew everything would be ok. Anyways, we met some new investigators and we also met a guy who plays basketball for Butte college. He wants us to come over and talk about the church! So that's pretty cool. We just have been trying to find people to teach! It's rough! But we are hanging in there. We were at a girls house and she is a senior in high school, she lives with her mom, but her mom isn't interested. The girl is a convert of 3 years. She told us about her life and it sounds tough. Her mom just kept dating bad guys. One of them tried to kill her mom and one beat her and her brother and all these other crazy sad stories. But it's so cool to see how their lives have turned around, especially the girl, because of the gospel. She wants to serve a mission too so that's cool! So our car wasn't starting right the other day, so I called the mission office and they told us we needed to drive to a place called grass valley which was 2 hours away. They said we needed to go right away. So we drove the two hours and we got to the repair place, and it was closed on Saturdays. We went down on Saturday. I was so mad. So we called our mission vehicle coordinator and he never called back. So we drove all the way back to chico and it's still not fixed so that was fun.
Oh I don't know if I ever sent you some facts about my mission! So my mission is the 2nd highest producer of rice in the world. China buys a lot of the rice from here. Also my mission is the only place in the USA that grows avocados, pomegranates, almonds, and I think a few other things but I can't remember. We also have the shortest mountain range in the world! The Sutter Buttes. I saw them on the way to chico when I first got here. They are tall but such a short range. There were some other cool facts but I can't remember them all.
Email from October 5
So this week was pretty good! We found some new people to teach which is what we really needed. We found this black guy named Chris. He is awesome, he said he wants to read the whole Book of Mormon. He plans on playing basketball for Butte college so I said we should play sometime haha. He lives in these slum apartments though. They are super sketchy. The apartments are all really tight together and just so torn apart. Everyone there are druggies and everyone yells and stuff. It's hard to feel the spirit there. These girls were moving a mattress and they were yelling and freaking out that no one was helping them, so we went and offered to help and they got mad we offered to help haha. So whatevs. Anyways, Chris seems kind of interested so that's good. And do you remember the guy I gave a blessing to last week? And his girlfriend was in jail? So she had a seizure in jail and hit her head, so she went to the hospital and they just gave her swap, which means she basically gets a job and works off her jail time which is good for her. She thought it was all Gods hand through it, and for sure it is, and now she wants to get baptized really bad. It's pretty cool to see the change of heart. Before jail, she didn't really care, but she was going insane because she didn't have a Book of Mormon! Haha. She really wanted to read it! So we are going over the lessons with her and we have a baptism date for November 7th! We are so excited about it! But Elder Ross will probably be gone before then. But she is struggling with smoking and prescription drugs, and she's been off for a couple weeks, but she still struggles so she asked for a blessing. I gave her one, and she started crying and after the blessing, she said she had never felt so at peace! I was always so nervous to give blessings, but now they are my favorite! You can feel the spirit so strong and it's cool because of the things you say in a blessing, it's not even my words if that makes sense. I have seen the power of the priesthood change lives. It's so amazing and I feel so honored to hold it! Anyways, she was so happy about the blessing and she wants to keep meeting with us. She is staying with a member right now so the member is helping her a lot with getting her back on her feet. So we went to this recent convert families house, and the mom and two of the kids got baptized. The older kids aren't interested and the dad is a hard core Catholic. He is Mexican. So we went over, and the dad was extremely drunk, so we had a lesson with Evan, the 14 year old, outside on their porch. Their dad came outside and he hates missionaries. He actually was kind of nice to us, but he was saying that he likes when we come and teach his kids to pray and stuff, but he doesn't want us to come over to have sex with his wife. So I dot know why he was saying that but it was really weird. He basically said the same thing for 2 hours. It was really annoying. Anyways, we hung out with the Spanish missionaries this week, and I could understand everything they were saying! I have an app on my iPad and it helps teach language, so I've been studying! The missionaries were really impressed and said I should have been a Spanish missionary! Haha. It was pretty cool.
Email from October 12
This week was pretty good! The work is staring to pick up a little. We stopped by this girls house and she just let us in. We were surprised! Apparently she has grown up Mormon but never got baptized and she was excited to see us, and she wants to get baptized! Unfortunately, she is YSA age so we have to transfer her over to the YSA elders. It's so annoying, we keep finding all these golden investigators and they are all YSA age! We found a kid a few weeks ago and we taught him a little and then transferred him and now he has a baptism date! 2 baptisms that should be ours! Haha. It doesn't matter who baptizes them though, just matters that they are getting baptized! I can't remember if I told you this last week, but I went on exchanges with the Spanish missionaries. I went into their area and I could understand a lot of what they said! It was fun. We also found some limes so we made some lime aid haha. So there is this guy we are teaching and we saw him riding his bike down the street so we flagged him down to talk to him. He was doing alright, but I guess he is in to some pretty bad drugs now. He is paranoid of us, he thinks we are going to tell the cops. So that sucks, he doesn't want to meet with us. He didn't tell us that but we can tell.
Email from October 19
So this week was pretty good, we taught a lot of lessons! But mostly to inactive people. We are just trying to find new investigators! My birthday was fun! We went to Panda Express, and later some members took us to a steak house (it wasn't very good but it was nice of them to take us) and then we went to a members house and they threw cupcakes on my face. It was pretty fun. After district meeting on Tuesday, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, it was 70 cent wing day, so that's when I bought lunch for them. So the other day, we went to this guys house, he's what we call an eternigator. Which means he has been investigating the church for a long time. He has been investigating for over 30 years. Anyways, we went to his house to teach, and he is a masseuse, and he gave us free massages so that was cool. So we dropped this investigator a while back, and it's the one who would never come to church and then she went to a baptist church when she was invited once by a stranger. We stopped by to see how she was doing and she wanted us to come back, and her neighbor was out while we went over and he freaked out at us and said we were going to hell. And elder Ross just asked if he wanted to be taught and he didn't seem to like that haha. Anyways, we went into the investigators house and she finally agreed to praying about the church. I just hope she prays with sincerity! So there's this awesome family who joined the church a year ago, the husband was inactive. Anyways, they are the Pasowisty family. I can't remember if I told you about them, but they are super cool, hey always have us over for dinner and lunch and they play games with us and stuff.
Email from October 26
I've probably already told you, but we have an investigator on date so that's exciting. We might have to push it back though because she is living with her boyfriend now and that means she will have to get married before she is baptized. And we have another investigator who is going to be baptized, we don't have a date, but it should be pretty soon! I'm excited for them! And we went on another exchange with the Spanish missionaries. It makes me wish that I would have spoke Spanish. I can understand everything they say, I just can't speak back very well. But it's really fun to go with. On Tuesday, three missionaries did the Blazin wing challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings. Two of them did it, one of them only ate one wing haha. I tried of the wings, they are pretty hot. But it was pretty funny to watch them. So this week,mi noticed that everyone calls us when they have problems. They call us when they need like counseling. It's super stressful! It's not our job! And I also notice that everyone uses us as a free moving service. Whenever someone needs to move they call us. I don't mind, but it's especially annoying when they have us do everything and don't help and they aren't active in the church so they take advantage of us.
Well I hope you're doing good! I miss you guys a lot! It's going by pretty fast for me though! And I will be talking to you guys in two months! Can't wait till then! Haha. Love you tons! Keep being awesome!
There! Now you're all caught up! Haha! Love to hear from my boy! Love to see his testimony grow! Love that kid to pieces!! Pictures coming later today, and I will be better about keeping this updated!
