July 25, 2011
Greetings from Edinburg, TX - TX McAllen Mission

Hey Hey Hey everyone!

So this past week was great in some aspects, but tough in others. For our companionship we did well. Yesterday we had twelve people at church. And out of them seven got interviewed for their baptism. So that was awesome! But we should have five baptisms at the end of this week. Our investigators are doing really well. We have one lady that was interviewed and supposed to get baptized on Sunday, but she is having doubts because of her family. All she wants is for all her family to come as well. We had a powerful lesson, and in her prayer she said she knows it's true. We are taking time out of our p-day to go teach her daughter today because she is super important to us. We did see a great miracle though, it was all because of a fast and our faith.

So this family of five we are teaching, the Dad is a less active member that has been coming back to church. The mom isn't a member, but she works a ton. We've been teaching the five girls and preparing them for baptism. We needed the dad's signature on their forms before they were interviewed. And we had talked to him about two weeks ago and he and the mom kept saying they need more time and stuff, but they don't. They know all they need to know and they've been coming to church. We were worried. We decided to fast for them again. And we came up with an idea that elder Wells, a district leader who is doing the interview, could go by and talk with the family. So Saturday we did mini exchanges, and Elder Wells went with my comp, Elder Simmons. They were there for a super long time. But they came back and the mom and dad had a change of heart and they signed the papers. It was a miracle from the Lord. The story is a lot longer but that's the short version. It was great. Also one investigator got interviewed and is getting baptized on Saturday. We are super excited for him! So we are doing well and working hard with the Lord's help. We also had a bunch of less active families come to church, which is great to see.

The zone is kind of struggling. We were supposed to have six baptisms as a zone, but only two went through. It's really disappointing that those souls fell off. The missionaries need to do all they can to make sure that doesn't happen. Right now we are a little behind on our goal, but we are looking like we will make it with a miracle. We have eight people set up to be baptized this coming week and we need nine. We have people who are ready and can be baptized, and now it's time to put our faith in the Lord and understand his will and try our hardest to do it. I'm excited!

We found a couple of really cool people this week. One guy lives in these really small ghetto apartments and cuts lawns for work and does random jobs because that's all he can do. I admire it because he is down, but not out! He is not giving up trying to find work and stuff. We've sat with him outside and we sit on these rusty fold up chairs and he sits on his porch and we have great lessons. He really wants to know and has a bd for August I. I love being down here. It's very humbling. We teach a lot outside and you get used to the heat and the sun. So many times I've taught a lesson sitting on the ground, or on a mini chair or on a bucket and I love it. The people don't have much, but whatever they have they'll try and give it to you. It's a huge learning experience. So I feel sometime my emails are really short, sorry about that. I'll try and make them longer. But i love it down here in Texas. The food is too good and i need to exercise a lot.

I love you Mom and Dad and Chelsea and Matthew and Scarlett!

July 18, 2011
Hey Hey Hey everyone!

How are you all? I miss you guys. So here in Edinburg everything is going great. We played soccer today and some basketball. For the rest of the day, we are just going to relax. We have interviews tomorrow with President Trayner and we are giving a training on the power and authority of your calling as a missionary. I hope it goes well and has some effect on the zone. We are struggling with being bold. We are working hard this month, but we need to find people for August. President Trayner has invited us to invite everyone to be baptized first lesson. And as we've done this, we've seen lots of success. So that’s good. We are finding a lot of people who are ready and those who aren't, and this way we can focus on the people who are ready.

Yesterday, Elder Simmons and I had a great day at church. We had 9 investigators there, which was great. Three people that we are teaching and a family of five that we are teaching, and also this boy that got baptized yesterday. It was great to see so many people there. The Spanish ward was really full and they even had to open up the overflow, so that was pretty cool. We are working hard down here. This one family we are teaching of five, we are super excited for, I think I’ve talked about them before, but the Dad is a less active member and he has five daughters who want to get baptized. I love it when they come to church because they bring in a great spirit. He usually comes with his 8 kids and his cousin. They all live in one small trailer and they are a very humble family. They come to church in one car and all pile in and out. We have to save almost a whole middle row for them. It’s awesome. They are getting baptized the 31st, so we are super excited. We are also working with this man. He is so humble and just ready to change. I’ve talked about him before also. But almost every time he prays, he cries and he says it’s because he feels it. I gave him one of my white shirts and a couple of my ties. He was so so so happy. It was so humbling to see. As I gave it to him he walked in and stopped, and held it out just to look at it, and had a huge smile. It was great. He came to church and we were so happy. He used to be a famous luchador, which is a Mexican wrestler.

The zone is doing good, I’m running out of time. By the end of next weekend, we should be up at 11 baptisms. And so that leaves the last weekend to reach our goal of 16. And we will. The Lord wants us to. We are super excited. A missionary that I really look up to is leaving on Saturday and I won’t see him till after. He's going to play football for BYU. I’m bummed he's leaving. It’s weird to think. But he taught me a lot. Everything is going great. I love being out here and I would trade it for anything in the world, I can honestly say that at this point. I stress so much though because we are dealing with salvation on a daily basis. But I’m out of time. We found five new people this past week and set bds with all of them so that was cool.

I love you all
-Elder Stone

 July 11, 2011
Hey Hey Hey guys!

How is everything? I hope all is well. This past week here in Edinburg has been great. We've further learned the importance of members in missionary work. We've seen success and that’s because we've worked with the members to become better and as well to give our investigators fellowship they need. The zone as well picked it up this past week and we were excited to see that. This past week we had a bunch of meetings Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The meetings were pretty much all day and just for the leaders in the mission. It made it tough to work our area, but that’s ok. We still saw some miracles and really helped some of our people to progress. Super excited! We learned a lot at the meetings. And now we need to take what we learned and apply it and help the zone apply it. Since we are zone leaders, we have to give trainings at every training we get. So this past one we gave a training on the importance of teaching people and not lessons. We focused on asking inspired questions and listening. We used the story of Aaron from Alma 22. It was good. Aaron was successful because he asked inspired questions, listened and opened up the scriptures. And so that’s what Elder Vasquez and I applied and that’s what Elder Simmons and I are applying. We've seen lots of success from it. The scriptures are powerful and it’s like having a Prophet with you to teach. A missionary here that I really look up to, who goes home next week, once said "a successful missionary knows how to ask questions and knows their scriptures." That’s very true. So that’s something I’ve worked on ever since. But we've taught a lot this past week and have tried to bring a member from the ward with us every second lesson.

We've been teaching this lady. She's older and she's studied with tons of different religions and been baptized twice. She reads from the BOM every time we leave a chapter, and she likes it. But she has lots of stories and likes to talk. We felt that she wasn't really progressing and when we went by Saturday, we tried to have a good focused lesson. She just kept saying how she didn’t want to baptize again and how she learned all this other stuff from other people. Stuff that doesn't show too much interest. So at the end of the lesson it turned into a drop lesson. We told her if she didn't come to church tomorrow that we couldn't keep coming by. She said she probably wasn't going to come. It was a big bummer. But we called her yesterday before church and she said she was coming. We called the member for her ride and the member said Aurora had already called her and everything. That was great to see and she came to church yesterday which was awesome and we are going to keep teaching her.

We ended up having 12 people at church, just me and my comp. That’s a huge week that we received a ton of help from the Lord. The coolest thing is, out of those twelve people, 11 have bds so they’re not just random people. We are teaching this big family right now. The dad is a less active member and he has like 8 kids, five of which have bds for the 31st. They've came to church twice, but they are worried. They are all girls and so we think it’s just a little shy doubt kind of thing. We are hopefully going to clear that up so we can help them come unto Christ. It was cool to have them all at church again and sitting by all them. As well we found this guy, who is super cool and progressing a ton. He was a blessing from the Lord because he is just super ready for the gospel. The second lesson we had with him we brought a member and ever since then he's been great. The member went by his house without us and got his number and picked him up for church and everything! That’s how we need every member to be! It’s awesome. Hel loves everything we teach and share and can’t wait for his baptism. He used to be a luchador (mexican wrestler) so thats cool too. We are also teaching this member’s little sisters who are 11 and 9. They have bds for the 24 of July. It’s so great to see the success and feel the Lord's trust and love. Most of the people we teach and talk to are in spanish. Out of the 12 people at church, 9 of them were in Spanish, so that’s really cool, too.

As well, we have a baptism coming up next week. Another miracle that the Lord gave us. It’s this boy. His parents were baptized about a year ago and he was eight. His mom didn't feel he was ready then. But he just turned nine on Saturday and we are going to help him get baptized next Sunday. Super excited for that!

Edinburg is great. The zone is getting better and we are super excited. But oh, we get fed a lot now. My comp is awesome. And I Miss you all and I love you all.

-Elder Stone

July 6, 2011
Hey hey hey guys!
How is everything? So the library was closed yesterday and we are emailing today. How was fourth of July? I cant believe its already July. Time is flying by. Did you all do anything special?  We had a great day. It was P-day and there was a breakfast from the ward. We served breakfast and sang at the activity. Then we went to a members for a bbq. Then we had to be in early so we had an activity with president at the chapel. We also watched Legacy the movie. It was a cool day.

Sunday was kind of tough for church. We've found lots of great people recently. And we set a few new baptismal dates. But we only had one at church, which was a bummer. But we had a zone meeting last Wednesday after transfers and had a good talk with the zone. We felt we got them pretty motivated and then they set a ton of bds. As a zone this past week, we had the most bds we've ever had. So that’s pretty awesome. We have a high goal of 16 for the month of July and 18 for the month of August. July is done and now it’s time to help these people through. We are finding people now for August. We found this really cool guy the other week. We had a lesson with him last week and the spirit was strong. We read from Moroni 6 and talked about baptism. He was super interested and we set a bd for the 31st of July. When we knelt to pray, we invited him to pray. And as he was praying, he started to cry. He said he felt the spirit and he's never felt that before. That was pretty cool. We also set two more bds with some other people we had found. It was a successful week in that sense.

We also learned the importance of being patient. We went by a former, which is someone who used to investigate the church but stopped, and as he answered and he came out battling. He was saying “I don’t believe in Joseph Smith. I don’t agree with you all on that one,” and all this stuff about him. We just sat there and smiled and said we are here to help you to follow Jesus Christ and His teachings. And the guy came out and we all sat down. We ended up having a great lesson on the doctrine of Christ. We extended a bd invitation, and he said he wants to get baptized when he learns more. We were able to be patient and not jump to conclusions and we had a great lesson.

So overall, the week was ok. We know it’s time to step it up. I love being out here in Edinburg. My comp, Elder Simmons, is a great missionary. He’s from Utah and he's a very bold missionary which is good. We had a lot of changes in the Zone here and we got lots of new missionaries. They are all super excited to get out and work so we are excited for that. Um we've had a lot of rain down here. It gets hard to see when we are driving and the roads down here suck and get super flooded. When we were ending a lesson, it started to pour, of course right when we are about to leave, and walking from his house to the car we were completely soaked. We drove around the corner and the rain stopped. Haha it’s funny how it works like that.

I feel like i just go on and on about the same things and that it might get boring to you all... Oh Well. How was Cameron's birthday yesterday? Did you guys go to the beach?

I’m out of time! I’ll try to remember more next week. I love you guys and I miss you guys!
-Elder Stone