it's beginning to look a lot like! ...dead trees

October 19, 2015

Happy Anniversary mom & dad! I'm so lucky to have you guys:) Enjoy your day. And happy birthday to my dear Tutu, the grandma who runs Las Vegas town. I love you guys!

It got down to 29 degrees the other night.... AGH. I am not prepared I am not prepared. The humidity brings the cold right to your bones. I am so thankful that I only have to endure 1 full winter here hahaha. I blame my thin blood on being a 4th generation Nevadan. I love heat. But that 's okay, because I can endure my first east-coast winter:) I think..hahah.

This week was pretty fun! We got to do a lot of service which I always love doing... because pants are awesome. But also because serving people is awesomeness. We were able to give 2 church tours to our investigators Cash & Liz. The stake had a pretty cool "Give & Get" activity going on where people bring their stuff to the church gym like it's a garage sale, except everything is free. Sister Melby from our ward is the new stake relief society president. She is so hilarious and it was so fun getting to help set up.

Sister Tyssens invited us over to her granddaughters 2nd birthday party. Sister T. is from Cambodia and has the coolest conversion story ever. She also makes amazing eggrolls and curry:) She is so loving towards the missionaries and invites us over a lot. She is definitely a woman of faith. There are so many amazing people you get to meet out on your mission. I am grateful for these awesome Latter-day Saints who help build up my testimony of the gospel and of the Savior. I am also grateful for the awesome missionaries that I have in my zone! They teach me so much:)

We are also teaching a 10 year old girl who's family is less-active. We got to teach the Restoration using the cups this week which was really fun. Kids are the best!:)

I'm gonna send you guys a link to the new Mormon Message. it is so good. I love how when we put others before ourselves that we are always happy no matter what. That's something I've learned on my mission. True happiness comes from living the gospel and from loving others like He did.

Have a fantastic week! Love you guys!:) xo sister stolworthy

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/reflections

Double Yoke

October 12, 2015

Hello! :) This week flew by, but then again all of these weeks fly by haha. Sister Nakata and I have been having a lot of fun this week. We have seen some miracccccleez!

Funny stuff here: We were looking through our area book and found a referral for "Tania" from the hermanas a couple transfers ago. I totally thought it was a woman and when I was on the phone with her it sounded like an elderly lady. So we set up an appointment and we are at her apartment and we call her to let us in. I see an Indian man getting out of his car and as he is getting closer to me I realize he is the one talking to me on the phone hahahaha. Turns out Tania is a male.... but that's okay because he and Meena his fiancé are now our investigators! Wooho! :) They are from India and they want to know God. They ask a lot of questions which is good and committed to the waters. We also are teaching an elderly woman named Sara now who reminds me so much of Tutu! Her house even smells like Tutu's house :)

This week we had the chance to do service for the neighbor of one of the members in the ward. We mowed her lawn. Sometimes I forget that people don't have flat lawns here hahaha but it is always fun getting to do yardwork:)

Saturday we had the chance to help with the Day to Serve in Mt. Airy! All of the missionaries from the zone got to go. We helped clean out the Mt. Olive cemetery. We chopped down trees and bushes and helped fix gravestones. A lot of slaves were buried their many years ago and the forest just continued to grow over top of them so we were able to help clean it out. There were people there looking for their grandparents- it just reminded me of how lucky we are to do family history:)

Sunday was fun because we went over to see a less active who needed help cleaning out her lawn so we grabbed our gardening gloves and did some weeding and got to know her:) I am grateful for tiny miracles and for the Lord's tender mercies. I know God loves all of His children so much.

Something the mission doctor told me was that God knew all of our weaknesses and struggles before we even came out to the mission field. He knew what we would struggle with, and the hardships/trials we would have to bear. Yet he still calls us because he allows us (the weak/simple) to testify of Him. I would even go so far to compare that to our real lives as well. Before this life Heavenly Father knew we would struggle & need His Son's help, but He still allowed us to come here to learn and grow:) oh man, I sure do love you all. You are constantly in my prayers/heart. Have a great week! Xoxo Sister Stolworthy

Ps - here are the trees mom! Starting to turn!

huuuuuuuurrrycane

October 5, 2015

Hello all:) This week it has been crazy windy and rainy. Hurricane Wakeen was comin' straight for Maryland that the government even declared it in a state of emergency- but after it hit the Bahamas it hit the ocean so we are good over here!

General Conference was SO GOOD. They call it Christmas on the Mission and now I know why! Oh man, I didn't want it to end. My favorites were Elder Holland, President Nelson, President Uchtdorf and Elder Lawrence. They were all so good:) Saturday we watched both sessions at the stake center. Then Sunday we watched morning session with the Macharsky's and afternoon with the Bowden's. Except for I guess you can't really call them "morning and afternoon session" here because they start at 12 pm and 4 pm haha.

This week there were miracles! We picked up a former investigator Liz who has been really hard to get in contact with. We also were able to teach our investigator George about the Book of Mormon. Wednesday we were able to visit a member who is in a senior living center. She is from France and she is so cute and kind. It reminded me of when we used to go play the piano for elderly homes.

Because of my back, we walked 10 miles on Wednesday instead of biking hahahah. My poor companion, she is the nicest for letting us walk! The doctor told me something really cool- he said that the Lord knew that I would need to be in this mission at this time with what I am going through. I remember when I got my call letter I had a really strong impression this was where I needed to be:) I'm so happy Heavenly Father calls us to where He needs and wants us. I am so grateful for doctors!

Thursday we received a referral from church headquarters. Usually media referrals are people just wanting a free bible because if you search "free bible" on Google then Mormon.org is the first thing to pop up haha. This lady was different though because she let us come in and share some of our message! She invited us back and referred us to some of her friends as well:)

Yesterday we tried by a less-active who told us she had watched General conference! We also are going to start teaching her 10 year-old daughter the lessons:) Then we saw a less-active who is NEVER home ever ever ever. But we finally caught her.. and she said we could come back and do service:)

I love tender mercies from the Lord. Something that stuck out to me in General Conference was that we need to obedient and we need to follow the Holy Ghost. I'm so grateful for the Lord's servants, they are so inspired. I loved Elder Holland's talk on Mothers. Oh how grateful I am for you my sweet mama. I also love how direct President Monson was. His testimony is so powerful and rings true. We need to love and serve each other, there really is no other way...

Oh how grateful I am for this beautiful gospel. A gospel that allows us to constantly change and become closer to Him. God's the only one who knows who we an be, and He leads us every step of the way. We can always start where we are now, in order to become who we need to be.

Love you all, love you all. Sister Stolworthy

Catemas!

September 28, 2015

Happy birthday to the babe herself! I hope your day is great tomorrow Cate:) Congrats to Shannon & Wes! Tell Shannon she looked beautiful at her wedding!

So my new companion is Sister Nakata from Cincinnati! So fun because she actually knows McKell and Erin from back home! Such a small world. She is so funny and awesome to be around, this transfer is going to be so fun:)

The women's session of conference was so, so great! I loved how all of the talks were centered on Faith in different aspects of our lives. "Faith in every footstep." That is something I want to develop. I know that if we have more faith than burdens are much easier to bear and challenges can be met with hopeful hearts. I always feel the spirit when I get to hear from our church leaders. Ahh I hope you all got to watch it:)

This week we picked up an investigator named George! He is from a part-member family. The other week we were seeing his wife and we asked her if he would be interested in taking the lessons. She said, "you should give him that pamphlet!" So we walked outside and gave it to him and asked if we could teach him and he said "sure!" I thought that was pretty funny. God really does soften people's hearts over time :) He used to not be interested at all in religion, but recently with his granddaughter being baptized it has changed his heart. He said he felt chills when she was baptized and that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. It was a pretty neat experience!

So we lost the car this week... so back to biking! :) Haha. I can't complain at all because even though this area is huge, unlike my last area, it is much more bike-able!

We had dinner with Sister Tyssens this week who is from Cambodia and she made the greatest Asian food I have ever had. It was like we were at a restaurant hahah. She also taught us how to make homemade eggrolls, buuuut sadly I forgot already haha.

& then Saturday was the 5k run for the Religious Coalition of Frederick! There were a couple hundred runners there which was awesome. My time was sadly... very, very awful haha but the elders actually ran in the tops of their proselyting clothes which was pretty funny.

So that's the stuff I remember from this week:) Dr. Kearl emailed me about my back, so mom expect a call for my MRI stuff pretty soon.  I also forwarded you guys what he sent me.

love you love you!:) Xo Sister Stolworthy

"girl joseph smith ain't on her name-tag!"

September 21, 2015,

So transfers are this Wednesday! Sister Waite is getting transferred, so I will now be on my 4th companion in my 4th transfer haha. I can't believe I've been out about 5 months already, time flies:) I am staying in Braddock.

I really love Braddock Heights. You get the city type feel of Frederick, but then the open space of Middletown and Meyersville. The green is really pretty here. You guys would love downtown Frederick because there are just a ton of cute old brick buildings and one-way streets. The shops are super fun as well:) There is also a ton of Civil War history that I would love to check out one day.

This past week we had Zone Training and then we went on Exchanges again! I got to stay here with Sister Sessions. She is really funny but sadly goes home this transfer :( We also had Stake Conference which was awesome. President and Sister Christiansen spoke. They always do such a great job and I am grateful every time I get to hear them speak. The First Presidency has been putting a huge emphasis on Sabbath Day observance in order to help Hasten the Work so if you have already had Stake Conference I bet you had similar themes:) This was my second one out in the field so it was cool to see how it was portrayed and talked about. I think it's easy to forget how sacred the chapel is. It is an ordinance room, and a room where we get to renew ourselves spiritually and with Christ. That was something that stuck out to me:)

I want to give a shout-out to the Young Women for the sweet letters, the sunday school class for the letters, and to the Deacons Quorum for the hilarious package they sent me. I love and miss Eldorado Estates! Thank you so much for the love:)

I want you all to know that Christ lives. And that He is just waiting for us to call on Him. I call on Him everyday, and He never fails me. Love you love you!!:) Sister Stolworthy

rolling hillz

September 14, 2015

Sister Waite & I had a really awesome week this week:)) We have a new investigator! She is living with a family in our ward. She came up to us last Sunday and said, "I want to be baptized." It was after our whole Zone had fasted for our goals this transfer. We taught her the Restoration this past week.

Today was a really cool day! Sister Vandre in our ward took her 5 daughters + us to hike at Sugarloaf :) She's from the west so we were laughing at how 1,000 feet is considered a mountain here! Haha. We like to call them rolling hills. It was really cool because you can see Leesburg, Gaithersburg, West Virginia, Virginia, and Frederick all from up top. It was really pretty. Their nonmember friends came too and were asking us why we go by "sister" because they thought we were nuns. It wouldn't be the first time I was mistaken for a nun... haha! It was a cool experience :)

Saturday was amazing because Elder Cook from the quorum of the 12 came and spoke to us along with Elder Gerard from the 70. Our mission is pretty small so we all fit in the chapel in Annapolis. When he walked in, I felt the spirit so strong. It's so rare that I feel it that strong. They both took the time to shake all of our hands. He gave us really great advice on missionary work, but a few things stuck out to me. Elder Cook said, "I want you to know that you can have full confidence that this church is true."

He spoke to us about how we personally are the message that we are sharing because we all have been converted at some point. He also talked about building up our wards/branches wherever we serve, and making finding a more spiritual experience. I wish I could write down everything he said. Something else that stuck out to me was that he promised us that we would always be equal to the task because of the Savior.  At the end he started crying and left us with a blessing. I definitely had questions in my heart answered. I will never be grateful enough for the Lord's chosen servants and for the priesthood. I know that they are personal witnesses of the Savior. I know that they know His work better than any of us. Right before the prayer he got up again and said he wanted to tell us something that the Spirit whispered to him 4 times. He said to be mindful of the non-member teenagers who's friends are going on missions at 18. They have been having a significant impact on them lately since the age change. It was a special meeting I will always, always remember.

Also, Annapolis is so beautiful! The Naval Academy is really cool too. It reminded me of Meet the Mormons haha.

Well, I just love you guys so much. I finally finished the Book of Mormon again and my goal is trying to finish Jesus the Christ by the end of my mission haha. That thang is huge, but is so, so good. I want you to know that God really does answer our prayers, and He never leaves us out to dry. He really is there, and He knows a lot more about our potential than we do. We just need to have trust in Him. Have a great week! Xo :)

Love,

sister Stolworthy