Yo what upppp? Hahaha, hearing that Ryan is at the State HOSA tourney brings back some memories for sure. Man, that was 3 years ago that HDF, Miles, Special K, Me and most importantly, our team MVP Mrs. Adams were tearing it up at the State HOSA tourney. Time flies. No but I hope he likes it and that he wins because then he could go visit my old stomping grounds of Lebanon, Tennessee. #TheSouthRocks. Haha. Sounds like Lauren is really killin' it up at BYU. Man, I'm sure like last letter was you telling me that you were taking Lauren up to start school, but that was a while ago. The Lord has really blessed our family in a ton of different ways, that's for sure.
I love hearing about your Sunday School lessons Momma, I've heard incredible things about the new program the church has for teaching the youth. I'm glad to hear that it is really inviting the spirit in the Sunday School lessons for the youth. That is really cool that it's based around the basic doctrines like the Holy Ghost and the Atonement that are so key, but they can also be really hard to understand and comprehend a lot of times. I bet this program is really helping with that. Keep doing great Momma, you are a killer teacher and I can't thank you enough for the way that you taught all of us the scriptures from a young age. That has been an incredible blessing in my mission and in my life, one that I could have never understood or comprehended at 6 am at the table eating breakfast and listening to you and dad read and ask us questions. Thank you both so much for that.
That's way sweet that the 3rd ward and the 4th ward now have separate sets of missionaries. That makes it so much easier when a companionship only has one ward that they can focus on. I bet that will really help missionary work in the ward take off, although it sounds like it's really been taking off since the summer with Sister Diaz' and Christine's baptisms. I'm sure its sooooo hard to be new converts and change everything on a dime, it just goes to show how much power the gospel message really has, to be able to make people living already happy lives drop everything and make changes within their lives. Pretty cool huh?
As for me, I'm loving Tancol. We are continuing with our goal to find, teach, baptize, and reactivate Priesthood holders, or potential priesthood holders. We have one guy that we are reactivating, he is sweet! He is like 50ish, he's a plumber, he really understands the gospel well, he has a strong testimony of the restoration, and he has now attended church for like a month straight after not going for a long time. We have been inviting him to go out and teach with us and he has been loving it. We actually have now met and taught his daughter, Laura who lives close. We have some good goals with him to get the Melchizedek priesthood and to prepare to go to the temple as well. But yeah, yesterday we had 17 less actives attend church which was sweet, it's about half of the less actives that we are teaching the lessons to. We had probably almost 100 people in church... The only bummer, Omar and Paloma, our 2 investigators with a baptismal date couldn't go! Barrio Tancol starts at 8am sharp and it sometimes is a little obstacle, but its also really good to teach the principle of sacrifice to our investigators and less actives. President Jordan taught us, "What does lamb blood on the door have to do with the health of your first born child? Does it cure the flu? Does it take away head pain? No, its the principle that we don't know always which blessings are connected with which commandments/rules, it's up to us to obey, sacrifice, and trust." I really like that and I've been trying to apply it.
So another game breaker, Salt Lake has now changed the rule on communication! Family, immediate and extended, as well as friends can now communicate with missionaries through e-mail! So that's kind of cool.
Well, I'm loving it down here. For Rindy Momma, the person that is progressing the most that he taught is a kid named Danny, who he taught with Elder Priest, you can let him know that he's going to church again. The mission is an incredible chance to learn and grow. The best part of it is that it's the Lord's work, and the only way to fail is to not obey or be diligent. I love you all so much. I am so grateful to have you as my family and friends. I hope to make y'all proud everyday. #143, #GMC$ #JakeHeaps
Love,
Elder Stockard
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