September 24, 2012

Eyy Yo:

Que pasaria si les escribiera in puro español? Nah jk not gonna do it. I've decided that English is a much better languague to write in. Much easier to flow and really express yourself in English. Haha but another week has gone pretty fast. I can't believe it's already been nine months since I left for the MTC. Time really does just keep cookin, huh? Sounds like everything is pretty much same old good life back at home. Yes I do remember very vividly the back to school cold season. How is the weather back in Fallon? Has it started to cool off yet or not much?  We got a couple cooler days up here one weekend and then it just cranked right back up to burning. From what everyone says here, Elder Hubbard's mish is the place to be for really nice weather all year round. It should start to cool off a little more now that were heading into October, but that's what I thought about September as well, haha. Best of luck to my Boy Costen Colburn! I'm so excited for him, he's going to have incredilbe experiences and he will be an awesome missionary. I hope he lives up every moment because it goes soooooooo fast.

 

So this week starts a new transfer! I can't believe Elder Garry and I have been together 6 weeks already! I also can't believe that I've been up here in Victoria for three months now.  I still feel like I just got here haha. I'm straight loving it though, not even gonna lie. These last few weeks have been like drop dead busy, to the point where we don't ever have enough time to accomplish everything that we wanna get done. But that's a really good spot to be in because if by chance we have a cita that falls, we've got plenty of back up plans and we don't end up just knocking doors. This last transfer really taught me a lot in organization as well, seeing as we have two wards, it's a pretty big area.  Planning appointments that are close together is super important because if you don't, you end up walking almost as much as you're teaching, so it's been a really good lesson in thinking things through and planning well. Another thing that I've really started to realize more and more, over the whole course of my misison but especially in the last few weeks, is truly the power and authority of our calling as full-time missionaries. This last week we saw experience after experience where we arrived in the exact moment that people needed us, asked some good questions, let them talk and share their problems, and then let the Spirit work through us to help and lift them. It's such an awesome feeling to know that you were where the Lord needed you to be, as his servant, at the exact moment he needed you to be there. It's something bold to say, but legitimately we are the only two people in our our area who are commissioned of Jesus Christ, with his authority, to prepare and help people recieve the ordinance of Salvation, aka Baptism. That's a huge huge task, and it is for that exact reason, for that exact purpose, that we as missionaries must be removed from the world. You couldn't live at home, with your family, friends, and facebook and do what we do in the way the Savior needs it to be done. You must be completely removed from all those things in order to truly honor the call that we have been given. It's a lot to ask but as we do that, the blessings and power that come from honoring that call are incredibly real and tangible. I have had experiences here that are incredible, that I couldn't have done if I hadn't been comissioned of Christ to do so. It's interesting: What makes missionary work hard, aka the separation from the world, is also what makes it possible.

 

So that's been the biggest thing I've learned this week. I'm so excited for this next change that is coming, I love working with Elder Garry, he is an incredible companion and I'm so happy I have another change with him. I know that the next six weeks are gonna fly by just as fast as the past ones did, and probably even faster. I'm really trying to live up every moment that I possibly can here in Victoria, it's seriously such a great place to serve, I wish you all could see the mountains here. They aren't quite as big as the Utah mountains, but they totally look like someone yanked em fresh out of the Land of Zarahemla. You guys should google earth Colonia Mainero calle 9 y canales in Victoria. It's our chapel, and then turn opposite of the chapel and you will see the super sick mountains that I wake up to every morning.

 

Well, Victoria is still the Promised Land, don't worry Momma I'm taking lots of pics. I can still say that I miss you all cuz I do, but I really don't think about it all that much. I can legitimatly say I'm to the point where I love the mission. When you work with faith, every day is an adventure. I can honestly say as well that I feel very confident that you guys are going to get me back much better than how you sent me off. Christ truly changes those that allow him to do so. I love you all so much. thanks so much for all your prayers and support. #143 #SpecialK #Jakeheaps

 

Love,

Elder Stockard

September 17, 2012

Mommmma:

Yo so check it! Another sick week up here in Ciudad Victoria. I say that all the time, but it is legitimately the truth! I straight love this place so much.  I would be so content serving the rest of my mish here. Part of this comes from serving with Elder Garry because we get along so well, but a lot of this comes with time and hard work as well, but in these last probably 5 or 6 weeks, I've transitioned from the attitude of, 'I love my mish but I miss my fam and friends and I will be happy when I can see them again,' to the attitude of, 'I love my mish so much and every day is a challenge but it's straight SICK WIT IT everyday up in here.' I seriously love it so much. There are some days where I wake up, pray, think about the plans we have for the day and just can't wait to get out there. It's been pretty cool. I think this also comes as I learn more and more about the eternal laws that govern all happiness that it just so happens that we as humans many times make the choice to ignore. Those laws are the commandments, they don't change and they always bring us happiness, it's a very simple process, the problem is that Satan has dressed up and twisted disobedience to the commandments in such a way that many people have been misled as to what really brings happiness. The good thing is that the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, have that guide for us as to what really brings happiness and our obedience the these principles will always keep us on the path of joy here in this life and eternal life in the next. Pretty good plan I'd say.

 

So the best thing this week happened with Lorenzo's family, la Familia Villanueva. Their whole family lives together, and when I say whole family, I'm talking like 3 generations, lots of people. Not all of them are members, but all of the sudden a ton of them want to listen to us. We now have 7 investigators in that fam and 5 of them want to be baptized really soon! #Blessing. Two of them have already been to church a lot and are going to be baptized in two weeks and the rest is a work in progress as we are going to have to help get two of them married. This is usually somewhat of an obstacle due to the cost, but not to worry, one of our super awesome member neighbors has the government hook ups and has a way to get it done for free! So that's pretty sick, we should be baptizing an awful lot in these next couple of weeks with all these part member families. Something I've really seen a lot of success with with these less actives is to always start with some questions about how they met the missionaries, their conversion process, and their baptism day. This serves two purposes: 1, It gets them talking about themselves, which everyone wants to do, it gets them telling experiences which they will almost always ending up telling you why they are menos activo, and 2, it gets them remembering, thinking and feeling some of the same spirit that they felt at the time of their conversion. My ability to get people to talk about themselves has been something that has really grown and it's a really great tool in missionary work, not gonna lie. Remember all you future missionaries slash car salesmen, EVERYBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES, and if you let them do it for long enough, you will know what you need to teach, read, say, or do... I promise.

 

Another super sick part of this last week was that I had my first dia de independencia here in Mexico!!! The stake had this huge fiesta with a focus of getting investigators and menos activos out to it... And we did. There was over 1000 people there, tons of food, games, and Mexican music. We had like 8 investigators there and a ton of less active families. The Elders were allowed to go if we had investigators there and so I got to see the Mexican version of 4th of July. Not quite as good as a good ole patriotic 4th of July with Booner Ray Giles, but still it was fun. Plus one thing is that Mexican people just flat out know how to cook, that's for sure. It was a really fun time though and a successful activity for our investigators and menos activos.

Well, the church is true, it's something I feel every single day in my heart. And even if I didn't, I could just look at their financial records and I think that would be sufficient evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel. Hahah jk, but like for real.

Love you all to death. #DYT #143

Love,

Elder Stockard

September 10, 2012

 Yes, my name is Elder Stockard and yes, I do serve in the best city on Earth.

 

My neck has gotten a little bit smaller, haha.

Elder Garry and I at Lorenzo's baptism.

Familllllllliaaaaa

Wow, OK so first off, so so so stoked for Elder Travis Woodburn to be serving a mish!!! ¿Hong Kong? That is so, so dope. Elder Garry has been to Hong Kong quite a bit actually. His Grandpa was the Area President there for a long time when he was in the Quorum of the 70 and he loved it! That is so sick! Yo but momma, you totally left me hanging on when he leaves for the mish, haha. So hit me up with that next week. So good to hear from all of you clowns once again. Sounds like everything is going really well back in the US. Yes momma not gonna lie, it does kinda seem like all you guys do is go to Midway and I don't blame you haha. That's all I will be doing for prob the first six months when I get back along with #ElderSpecialK and T Hubbs. We're gonna be living the dream up there at BYU and hopefully making the trip up to Midway quite often. 

So its been another super great week up in Victoria. A few weeks back, President Jordan introduced a plan that Presidente Johnson, the Area Pres of Mexico, had come up with and that a lot of missions have been doing. It's called the Obra de Salvacion and it's a reactivation/find through the members/ baptize like it's hot plan. It's all centered on teaching these part member menos activo familias in the homes of members, in a joint effort between the Ward Counsels and the Missionaries. Basically, we are teaching these familias all of the investigator lessons again from the beginning in a way to really get them excited again and help them remember why they got baptized.

The highlight of this week I would say was that Elder Garry and I set some goals for what we feel we can accomplish in our two wards in these coming months before the end of the year. We really hit it hard (as part of these goals) this week with la Obra de Salvacion as well. We taught the Restoration a TON of times this week and almost all of them were a little bit different but they were all really great spiritual lessons. Elder Garry and I feel that we can increase the average attendance here in Barrio Victoria and Barrio Mainero by 25 people each through convert baptisms and reactivation between now and the end of this calendar year. So this past Tuesday we wrote out some really specific goals of what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it, and then we got our Ward Mission Leader on board with our plan of how to do so this last Tuesday at our meeting.  We presented it at Ward Counsel yesterday. What we want to do is pick 5 familias that are part member or menos activo and start with them, and we want to combine that with a ward effort to give the visits every week until the end of the year. We mapped out a lot of potential families and the auxiliary organizations that they would be involved in and brought all this stuff together to our ward counsels. Then together with the ward counsel we picked 5 that we wanted to start with from this list and are hitting the pavement with it. It was a really great meeting and I feel like were really going to have success with this. The mission is teaching me the importance of goal setting as a way to truly achieve full potential. I really like it and have gotten so much better at it. It also gives you a better mapped out way of how we're going to do things and, when goals are set under the direction of the spirit with righteous intentions, it's a great way to enlist the spirit's help in your life. That's my opinion.

Also, believe it or not, the mission is teaching me the importance of having a plan. This is a struggle for me as Elders Christiansen, Adams, Faught, and I have always been complete fly by the seat of our pants kind of people, but planning really does have it's benefits. My problem is that I've always had a plan, I just don't usually voice it, I just get it done.  Working in a companionship has really taught me to have a good, well-understood, well mapped out plan. That being said, I'm still not perfect, considering that we got assigned to speak in Church this last Wednesday and yesterday I just totally got up and winged it for 15 minutes hahaha. #Classic

I'm not gonna lie, I straight love serving with Elder Garry. He's a super cool Elder and he reminds me a lot of myself when I was with Rindy. I hope I remind him of Rindy cuz that dude is just a total boss, but we are having a super fun time. It's really funny having an American trainee because all the cultural differences that I don't even notice anymore, he totally notices, which in turn makes me notice.

Life is straight good. The work is good, really hard, but good. The comp is good, the food is good, the city is good. I hope all of you are having as good of a time in the US as I am down here in Mexico. I really do mean that. I have really arrived at a point where I straight love the people down here, I love teaching, I love the mish right now. I love you all so much. Shout out to Elder Faught heading down to Chile #DYT. Love you all and I truly do feel your love and support. #143 #JakeHeaps

Love,

Elder Stockard

September 3, 2012

Mi Querido Familia:

Whats goooooooooooooood??? Yo so another super sick week here in Victioria! Seriously such a good week in such a good area. We had a ton of success this week and some good ups and downs which really make you appreciate the ups, that's for sure.

We taught like 25 lessons this past week, with 11 new investigators and 2 of our recent converts went to the temple in Tampico to do baptisms this last Saturday as well!!! I was so stoked for them. One of them is Christian who is straight on fire right now! He loves working with us, has institute classes almost every night, reads the scriptures daily, is making tons of good LDS friends, and cannot wait to serve a mission. It's been so awesome to see his progress. Other than that for sure the highlight of the week was Lorenzo Villanueva's baptism this Saturday. Lorenzo has been one of my favorite investigators and seeing his change and progress has been absolutely incredible. Lorenzo is a 55 year old man whose wife and grandson joined the Church about two years ago, but shortly after went inactive. We found them through the help of the Obispado and over these past two changes, we first reactivated his wife and Grandson, and since then have been teaching, reading, and trying our best to invite the spirit to work within him and their entire family. We have had some wonderful experiences with their family over the past month and Lorenzo's conversion has been an incredible testimony to me of the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion and also of the Book of Mormon. A month ago, Lorenzo wanted nothing more than to just listen in (he actually only started listening because we insisted on having a man in the room in all the lessons, haha) and nothing more, but the Book of Mormon intrigued him. As he started to read he was engulfed in it; and something incredible happened: the teachings of the Book of Mormon changed him. Well, mejor dicho, the spirit that he felt as he listened to us and read the Book of Mormon changed him. Pretty soon he quit drinking, he hasn't done that in a long while, and he actually did that even before we taught the Word of

Wisdom. One of the defining moments in his conversion was the first time that he came to church. It was Elder Castillo's last day here in Victoria and the whole family came to church. That night we went by to see how they felt and literally, Lorenzo's countenance had changed. He actually looked different. He talked all about how great all the members had been (such a blessing to serve in maybe the friendliest ward on the planet), how much he learned and how he had felt. Lorenzo has become a true student of the scriptures and is learning and growing everyday. It has been an experience that makes me proud to be a missionary.

Yesterday I taught both Priesthood and Gospel Doctrine classes and it was soo fun. I taught Gospel Doctrine on Temples, the importance the reason etc... and it went really well. I have become such a better teacher over the course of my mission, the Lord has really blessed me with that. The key to good teaching I am convinced is in the questions that you ask, and your ability to let your students learn the truths for themselves (as much as possible) instead of just handing them all this info. When people can arrive at knowledge themselves, or self commit to do things, instead of having it given it to them, the information sticks so much better. The key is to ask good questions that help the truths of the gospel really click inside people's heads as they answer logically and let the spirit work inside them. Well, at least that's my opinion, haha.

So sounds like a super sick week for the Stockard fam as well. I love hearing about all the good times up in Midway. I hope you guys will all go skiing or snowboarding up there sometime this winter. Yes, I definitely remember all the good old Kelly reunions up there. One that I remember especially was when right after, Grams, Ry and I took off in the old '03 white accord and drove to California and stayed the night in Beaver Utah. #GoooodTimes. I really can't believe it's been a year since I got my mission call and that Travis will be getting his sooo soon! Really use this time well to prepare Travis cuz the hour is hastening on. Oh and also, I love hearing from Elder Adams, Elder Faught and of course #ElderSpecialK's letters. Haha I read Elder Adam's first letter from when he got to Belgium, apparently he didn't get the memo about how you don't write home about all the crazy things that happen during the week, hahaha. So glad school is going so well and that everyone is having such a great time. I miss you all so much but that doesn't change the fact that Victoria is the Promised Land. #143 #DYT #JakeHeaps

Love,

Elder Stockard

August 27, 2012

Familia:

¡Ey Que Onda! Whats up errbody?  Yeah, Momma it really is crazy the difference a year makes. Now all those teenagers that were always at our house are or will be sharing the gospel on almost every continent. I've been thinking a little about that and I seriously can't believe that it's been a year since I started school at BYU. That seems like yesterday. You guys are all starting up school and in a ton of different parts as well. BYU, CCSD, The Charter School, etc... but I'm super excited for you all, the start of school is always pretty fun, especially for Ryan I'm sure who will be driving to school haha.

Our week down in Victoria was a ton of fun. One thing I've found out about my missionary style is that I'm here to find the people that are prepared to hear the gospel. If we are teaching someone and they aren't showing forth a lot of interest, I'm not gonna keep coming back to them, it's not their time and if they're not going to keep commitments and progress, they're wasting our very valuable and short time. This is good, but sometimes it means that we have a few days or weeks where our investigator pool isn't huge, haha. This happened last week at the beginning of the week so Elder Garry and I had some good solid bonding time while contacting in the sweltering midday Mexico sun, haha. President has put a big emphasis on improving the way we contact and find people and I'm all for that. Contacting is incredibly ineffective, but sometimes it's necessary if there's not another option available at that hour of the day, so Elder Garry and I have been putting a big emphasis on contacting looking for specific people or houses, etc. What we've been doing is praying very specifically during our nightly planning, asking for specifics in where and how and when we're going to find these specific golden investigators, and then going and looking for them. One time this week we found exactly who we were looking for and they accepted us! It was a super cool experience and we're going to see what happens with him. It's also been kind of good because at the beginning of the week Elder Garry was getting lots of good practice with his Spanish and contacting people and talking to them in the streets. Man, after serving a mission, I'm very convinced that I will never have an awkward date because I have so much practice with talking to random people about nothing, hahaha. For example, when I door contact, usually I just pick the first thing I see and start talking with the people about it till I can make a joke, they laugh, and then if it's a sincere laugh, I have 2 minutes, if it's fake I have 30 seconds. Haha. Just a note from how we contact down here.

We found, taught, and had a new part member familia at church today.  They are pretty great. The dad and the daughter that is 13 are not members, but the mom, 23 year old brother and 17 year old daughter are. The mom has a really strong testimony and they came to church, which was stake conference yesterday. The familia Villanueva is still on to be baptized this Saturday and have already had their interview which was sick. Christian esta con ganas. I don't know how to say that in English but he's super on fire with the church and everything right now. He has taught with us and is reading everyday in the BofM. He's also going to three institute classes and has some sick friends that are all members. At first his fam didn't like that he got baptized, but they have all seen huge blessings and changes since he did and we're hoping to maybe start teaching them all real soon.

At stake conference yesterday, I heard something really cool. Estaca Victoria has had 200 convert baptisms in the last year! That is a ton. Also, President Jordan has this really good retention program that we are doing where we have two 20-minute lessons every week with our recent converts and we do this for 20 weeks. In these lessons we review, reteach, or even better, have them teach us, one point from one of the investigator lessons until we have covered them all. I really think this will be killer for retention.

Elder Garry is a super cool Elder. I really like him a lot and we know a ton of the same people. He knows a ton of my friends from school like Maeser and all the Mesa kids. He's a super cool guy from a super strong fam and I really like him a lot.

Well that's what good in our hood for this week. I love you all so much and miss you tons. Thanks for all your love and support and especially your prayers.

#143 #GMC$

Elder Stockard

August 20, 2012

Familyyyyyyy:

Yo, so crazy dope week! Lots of time on a bus, baptizing, teaching, finding, teaching, and eating super good Mexican food as always. So it started out with heading to Tampico last Tuesday. That was super, super fun, four of us from Zona Victoria headed up to Tampico to pick up our new comps. I was so stoked for this generation of new Elders because they got some super sick trainers not gonna lie. Every single missionary there at the trainers meeting is a super good missionary and it was fun to see all of them. When we got to the mission home Tuesday, there were 12 new missionaries. 8 were Americans and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get any of them as my comp, 3 from South America and 1 from Mexico. Well my comp's name is..... Elder Garry, an American from Mesa, Arizona, who one night was taking photos with Elder Faught in the MTC and the next was snappin photos with another member of GMC$ down in Tampico, Mexico! How sick is that?! He's a super cool Elder.  We know a bunch of the same people because he went to BYU too.  So yeah, I was pretty much blown away by that, President Call very rarely gave Americans to American Trainers, but here we are together. Haha. His Spanish isn't too bad, but there's still a lot to learn, so the goal is that we're really trying not to speak a lot of English and so far we've done a pretty good job with it. I'm really focusing on giving him lots of opportunities to teach and contact and learn by trial and error because really that's the only way you learn a lot of times is by personal experience. That was something that Elder Rindy gave me was a ton of chances to contact people in the streets which really helped my Spanish improve quickly, so we're doing a lot of that down here as well.

So I was super happy that Jessica's baptism was this last Saturday because how sick is it to arrive in your first area in the mission and have your comp tell you that you guys have a baptism this coming Saturday and that you're going to do the ordinance?! So yeah, Jessica's baptism was this last Saturday and Elder Garry did the baptizing which was super sweet! He did a great job, he was a little worried about the words in Spanish but he did perfect. It was such an awesome service, her husband came with their little daughter, and Christian, one of our other recent converts, spoke and gave the story of his conversion which was super, super powerful. He is preparing to serve a mission, going to receive Melchezidek priesthood soon, and we made plans for him to go on the ward temple trip to Tampico in two weeks!

We also found of ton of new investigators this week that are super close to baptism already! There's a man named Teodocio in Barrio Mainero that was baptized not too long ago and we found him, taught his wife and his two kids, and they ALL came to church this past week! It was super sick, also the familia Villanueva is progressing well and will be baptized the 1st of September. I've been really happy that Elder Garry is experiencing some good success in his first area because that wasn't really a luxury that Elder Rindy and Elder Castro and I had in Francia for like 9 of my 12 weeks there haha. But it's been a super fun week, Elder Garry is getting used to Mexico pretty well, he hasn't gotten sick yet which is a plus.

I'm super stoked, tomorrow is Zone Conference so Pres and Hna Jordan are heading up to Victoria. I really like President Jordan, we get along super well and he reminds me a ton of Dad. There are a ton of similarities haha. But he's a super funny guy and I'm sure zone conference will be sweet. Our goal as a zone is even higher this change than the last one. It was 53 last change and 57 this change. I'm super stoked, Victoria seriously is so sweet and truly is exploding right now.

It's still blazing hot here, but everyone tells me that in September it will start to cool off a little bit, that will be nice. This last week has been kinda weird because for the first time is my mission, my Spanish is better than my companion's haha. But it's been really good; I would say I feel 100% fluent, I don't have any real problems communicating and I can finally get some of the jokes the first time haha. The Lord has really blessed me with the language.

Ok, so I need my home girls Logan and Baylee's address up at BYU so if you will hit me with that this next week I would love that.

I love you all so much. Have an awesome time going back to school everyone. I wanted to send a ton of pics this week cuz I have some sweet ones, but my computer won't let me in the Internet Cafe I'm in HASHTAGhomeless. I hope all is well. I miss you all, but Victoria is the place to be at. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support, I really do feel them often.

143

Elder Stockard

August 13, 2012

Familia:

Yo so crazy sick, kinda weird week this week here in Victoria! This was the last week of the Transfer and as a zone we had a super high goal of 53 baptisms here. Our Zone is 22 Elders and that goal was the highest the mission has ever had as a Zone! Our goal as a companionship was 4. Well, as a zone we ended with 50, and as a companionship we ended with 3! Jessica, who is a teacher in a small pueblo wasn't in town this weekend but her baptism is all planned and scheduled for this Saturday. We also have a part member family, la familia Villanueva, that will be all members in two Saturdays. All in all, Barrio Mainero is in super good shape going into the next change with 3 pretty solid baptismal dates for the first two weeks of the next Transfer which is exciting. But let me back it up for y'all a few days first.

So week 6 of the Transfer is like the week leading up to Christmas, but it happens every 6 weeks. You never know what's going to happen and President Call really liked keeping people on their toes so he never told anyone until the Sunday night before. But this Thursday, I got a call saying that I would be going to Tampico Friday morning for a training without my companion. So I went to Tampico, me and 3 other Elders from Victoria, had a bomb breakfast at the mission home, and had a training. Turns out that I'm going to be training again!!! I'm super stoked, my nuevo is going to probably be from South America, but tomorrow I head to Tampico and we will have a meeting, the 11 trainers and the 11 nuevos and I'll find out who is my new comp. I'm super stoked to be training again, I learned so much from doing so with Elder Castillo (who is going to Ciudad Mante). Also, I'll get to meet all the kids from Elder Faught's zone in the MTC which I'm super stoked for. I'll have some stories to tell them about Elder Faught haha. But it should be an awesome experience to train again. Mom, Elder Parry was serving in Victoria as well until yesterday so we would see each other pretty regularly at zone meetings and stuff.
Other than that, Mainero is pretty sweet, still incredibly hot, but pretty sick. I feel really good that we're going to be baptizing like it's hot this next transfer, I feel pretty good about the investigators we have and how they are progressing. Yesterday really built my testimony of the importance of attending church in the conversion process. La Familia Villanueva came to church, and later last night we went by and taught them. Both the parents just appeared almost physically different. They told us how great of an experience they had and how nice all the members were, how great the classes were, and how well the teachers explained everything. The spirit was super strong. Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power that feeling the Holy Ghost in rich abundance has to change the attitudes of those who are prepared to hear the gospel.

So right now I'm gearing up for another 8 hours and a crowded hot bus tomorrow from Victoria to Tampico and back. But all and all I'm super excited. I'm excited for this generation of new elders, they are gonna have some sick Elders for their trainers, there are some really good Elders who know how to baptize that are training.

Lauren, I'm so so so excited for you to go to BYU, it's going to be such an incredible experience for you. I loved every minute of it and made friends that I love to death (Even though I haven't heard from them since the MTC hahaha hashtagouch). Study hard, play even harder, and live it up on the weekends in Midway. You are going to love it so much. Log and Baylee are gonna love it too (Logan I hope is already loving it).

That's about it from South of the Border. I love you all so much and constantly feel and rely on the strength of all of you wonderful examples. I'm so blessed to know each of you and love you to death

143

Elder Stockard