This week has been crazy. I feel blessed and trusted and honored to have the calling I have now. It’s been humbling but I'm super excited to get working and help the great Texas McAllen Mission continue to grow and move forward to great heights. This truly is the Lord's work and this area truly is full of great, loving, ready people. Suuupppper Excited! I got the call from President Trayner Friday afternoon. I expected to get transferred but to where I am now, not as much. What’s super cool is I'm back with Elder Vasquez again. Super excited for that as well. We are ready to tear it up and follow the council given in D&C "Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit." I’m telling you, nineteen year old guys and 21 year old girls facing the world, we may feel weak at times. But we have to always remember this scripture and all the council given throughout the BOM and D&C. I also love the scriptures in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 definitely my favorite. But I've only been here in this area for a week and have already felt some guidance that we are going to apply into our area and into the mission.
Sunday, as I was still in Edinburg, we had a couple baptisms of a girl and her dad. It was super cool because the girl is about 15 and she wanted to give her testimony after she was baptized. But there was another baptism going on, so we had to kill a little time before the ordinance, so we called on her to get up then. She was super nervous but got up, and at first just started saying thanks to us and the church and stuff. But then the words started to really come from her heart, and she began to say how much she likes the church and how it’s helped her. She started to slow down and was all “this is weird I’m getting emotional.” The spirit was strong and it was cool that she felt it once again, but this time in a different way. It’s crazy to see the spirit work and even though we feel it a lot, it never ever gets old. Sunday night, I was picked up to come into my new area and from there the time flew and got super busy. Elder Myers, who I replaced, was finishing up packing because he was going to his new area on Tuesday. The next day, Monday, we woke up and spent some time in the office and then in the afternoon we headed off to the airport to pick up the new greenies. It was weird being there again but exciting because we have the chance to put a big impact on these new missionaries. From that point on, we spent the whole day with them. They had an orientation and then that night we went to the President's house and had a great dinner and some interviews and role-plays and things. It was fun. Tuesday morning we had breakfast with all of them at the Trayner's house and they got their calls for their first areas. Then we trained them with their new comps and then went out to work for a little. We only worked for a little, but we had a great lesson with this girl who they've been working with a while. She's been in and out of reach for the past while but we had a great lesson and we were able to set a bd with her and she's super excited! Then we went back to the Trayner's to have dinner with the departing missionaries. Wednesday morning we went back to the Trayner's and had breakfast and then took the departing missionaries to the airport. That was really weird. We sent them off on their way then met with President a little and then finally got out to work. It was a tough day.
But Thursday we worked a little more, but it was still a struggle. But then Friday we had almost a full day out in the field! We ended up finding this super cool guy. At first I was skeptical about teaching him. But we sat down and we had a good lesson. He had just moved down here because his son is pretty sick. We talked about how God will be more willing to bless him and his family. We related it back to baptism and set a bd with him. So we are super excited for him. We have another lesson with him tonight.
We go to a new gym now and it’s awesome. It’s just a big warehouse and has a bunch of free weights. We go every morning at six and I’m feeling sore which is nice. It’s better than the college because no tvs and usually in the mornings it’s just us and like one or two other people who work out. So it’s private, a little ghetto, but it gets the job done and it’s only going to be ten bucks a month, I hope.
But thanks for all the support. I need questions to answer or my mind goes blank on what to write. I have tons but I need something to jog my memory! But I’m super excited for this new calling and amazed at the trust the Lord has for me. I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best I can. That’s how I've worked my whole mission, I’m going to be the best I can be and the best the Lord expects of me.
I love you all a ton and miss you guys a little too.
Se que la iglesia es verdadera! Se que solamente por medio del bautismo en esta iglesia vamos a poder ir a los cielos con Dios. Esta obra es la obra del Senor. He sentido el espiritu mucho en mi vida. Gracias a mis padres. Si no por ellos no iba a estar aqui. LEs amo muchisimo!
-Elder Stone
