First off, I am soooo proud of youuu all for running the half marathon! That is so sick! Fur reallz I am so proud of you alll! Ryan, respect bro, on never training and then just ballin' out on under two hours. Do Yo Thang BOIIII! Momma, Laur, Lys, and Pops, I am so proud of you all.  There is something very satisfying about setting a goal and then accomplishing it. Congrats to you all.  I have loved hearing about the whole training process and now the finished result. Momma, thanks for letting me be apart of it with the Mustang visor as well :)
 
So funny story, for all you tweeters out there. I about died laughing when this happened, so we were in Sacrament meeting getting ready to sing the sacrament hymn yesterday and everything was all good and spiritual right? haha. The sister who was directing the music was directing it off her iPad. She stood up and the piano player started the prelude and then all of the sudden some song starts blaring off of her iPad. Haha, it gets better, so we are all there ready to sing the first note and this other song is playing, the piano player doesn't know what to do so he stops playing and the lady directing the music frantically starts trying to turn off her music as you can imagine. Well, she couldn't get it figured out standing up, so she sits down and tries to figure it out, still can't figure it out till finally the stake pres comes over from the other side of the stand and gets it turned off. As this happened and the spirit left only one thought was in my head: #1stWorldProbs hahahhahaha. I hope that makes y'all laugh cuz it got me good.
 
So yeah, it was a great week this week, we found a bunch a really good new investigators. It's interesting, since all of our work with investigators comes through references from members, I've seen that it really is true that the best source of references are from recent converts and less actives. This week we taught 2 references from Lucero and Omar and a WHOLE family from Hna Teresa and Paloma. We were hoping to have 12 investigators in church yesterday.  Not all of them went, but some did and I'm thinking that we could have 4-6 solid baptismal dates by the end of this week. Also this week President Flores, the stake pres, used my list that I keep for Priesthood holders that we are teaching and assigned each of his high counsel members a certain number of these potential priesthood holders who we've reactivated to be trained and prepared by them to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. Also, 2 more menos activos got callings this week and as a zone we had 85 less actives in church. Overall we've got it bumpin' pretty good here in Chairel, the Lord is really doing miracles every single day.
 
I remember that when I left on the mish, in my farewell talk I talked about how nobody ever said that the mish or this life would be easy and how it shouldn't be easy. Basically I said hard is good. I feel so grateful that throughout my mission the Lord has helped me to recognize that hard is good. That is like half the battle, If we can trust that God has a plan and that hard is good, we can even find joy in the hard times and find joy in the journey.  I feel so blessed to know that. I continue learning more and more and loving more and more the plan of salvation and I am so grateful for that beautiful plan that helps us to know that hard is good. I invite us all to remember that hard is good and to remember that we should look to learn from and love the hard times.
 
I love you all so much. Have a great week this week! Be safe, represent yo hood and give Elder Hubbard a HUGEEEEE HUG for me. Send me a pic of him just like you did of Mitch. Love you all.
 
#143,
Elder Stockard