An AP's Life!! Greetings From McAllen Oct 22, 2011

Hey hey hey everyone! How are you all doing? Life is going great here in McAllen Texas. I love it more and more everyday!

This past week was great, well it was busy!!! We didn't have a lot of time to work our area. Tuesday three missionaries finished their missions. All three were missionaries that I had known or been around so it was weird to see them go home. But I’ll explain the week and what went down! Monday we were in the office for a lot of the morning and then we went out. We went by our buddy that is getting baptized tomorrow. He is about 70 yrs old, but he had his interview on monday and passed. So we are super excited for him. The interview took a lot longer than expected, so after we had to go meet with the departing missionaries. They come in the night before and we go to the mission home and have a devotional and dinner and stuff. Dinner was good and Sister Trayner makes great food. Then they all slept at our house that night. Tuesday came and we had breakfast together at the mission home and then took them to the airport. Like I said earlier, it was weird. It’s always a weird feeling to go to the airport. Then after we had something called the specialized sisters training. It was a training just for the sisters in the mission, but we went to help out. It was a cool training and it seemed to have helped the sisters a lot. Then after we went by and had a lesson with this lady we are teaching, OLIVIA and her family. They seemed to have liked church a lot and we recommitted them on their bd. They are working for the 13th of November. Then we quickly went to the house (the lesson ran over) and grabbed our clothes and took off towards Sinton, which is the northern most zone in the mission, about 2 and a half hours away. We stopped by a bbq place on the way and had some super good brisket sandwiches. The drive up was good and we made good time.

Wednesday we were on exchanges with some missionaries up in Sinton. It was cool and a great learning experience. I haven't ever been up to the north so it was cool to go up. The weather was nice too! Windy and only about 75-80 degrees. We worked up in Sinton all day Wednesday and came home Wednesday night. Thursday we were in the office finishing up reports and then we went out to teach ADAUTO, the older man who is getting baptized tomorrow. The lesson went great. He has trouble remember things but we made a list with the steps to prayer on them. Every time he would pray, he would just read the steps and be done. And we would try to explain to him that it comes from the heart. But finally it clicked! It was super great!!! He said his own prayer, without our help at all! The spirit was strong and I was so happy. It was great. The rest of Thursday was kind of tough, but we lasted. And it is always interesting to me when I see the Lord work. He always makes us push ourselves and push ourselves, and then when we've done most we can, He comes in and blesses us. We were having a tough day on Friday with lessons. We brought tons of members to come out and help, but our lessons fell through a bunch. But we could keep trying and pushing to go by someone and finally someone would be home. Then last lesson of the day on Friday was great. It was a member referral and the member came out to help. We had a great lesson on baptism and he said he wants to be baptized but with his whole family. So we'll see how it goes! But it is interesting how the blessings and miracles don’t come until the last push! Today is pday and we are going down to the outlet centers and getting ties and stuff, so that should be fun. Last Sunday we only had five people at church which was a bummer. The families we are teaching didn't come. But we've talked to them all now and they say they are coming tomorrow! As well we found a new great family we are working with! They should be coming to church tomorrow too! Then next week is super crowded busy!

But that’s a little of my life here in the office. The weeks can be tough and exhausting! But that’s ok, it’s all worth it! It’s hard to write emails cuz I don’t have questions to answer! So much is running through my head but I can’t put it all down without direction! But know that I love you a lot and miss you a lot! I love the mission. And maybe you could send some dried mangos? The ones from Costco? supper agradacido por eso!

-Love Elder Stone

Greetings from South Texas!

Hey everyone! How are you?

It's an exciting weekend because it's conference! That gives the people we are teaching four chances to come to church and it's a great time to receive revelation! Super Super excited. This past week was intense. It was pretty busy.  Monday was a little longer day where we got to work a little more. On Mondays we have a devotional where each senior couple reports on how their calling is coming along and we as well report on how the mission is doing. The mission struggled this past month and we have some ground to make up to reach our goal. President Trayner set a big goal at the beginning of the year of 1200. So we are working hard towards that and we are little behind, but nothing we can't do! So we have big goals for the last three months of the year to hit our goal! Suppper excited! But that was Monday and then we went out and worked. We had a cool FHE with a family in the Spanish ward. We talked about the Holy Ghost and read from 3 ne. 19:9 and 13 And then we played a little activity on how we need to be really alert to the promptings of the spirit. We had everyone look at us and then close their eyes and then we would change something on our clothes or something subtle. Then they would have to figure out what we changed. It's pretty fun and helps to teach the importance of being open to the spirit. Also on Monday we taught this great family, the Perez family. They are a big family and the mom and dad and one of the sons are preparing for baptism. We talked about the Holy Ghost with them as well but we did the soap and pepper lesson. Ask the missionaries to show you that one, they should know and it's super cool.

Tuesday we were in the office doing a lot of reports. We have to put in the baptismal records so people can get member numbers and begin to prepare for the temple. So it's a little tedious but it's all good. We also met with president on Tuesday to discuss about three new missionaries that came in on Wednesday. We had to change and add new areas in the mission and decide where these missionaries would go. It was cool to see how President Trayner works. It was cool also to be able to help impact the growth of the mission. We got all that situated and then went out to work.

Wednesday we didn't get to work at all. It was a little tough. But the new missionaries came in Wednesday so we went to pick them up. Then we had a little orientation and then went out to dinner. We went to Poncho's, a Mexican place. It was super good. They have something called a botana which is like extreme nachos but better. It has fajita y chicken and beans and cheese and quesadillas. Super good! Then after that we packed the car up and drove two hours north to Alice to drop the missionaries off in their new areas. After that we drove two hours across to Laredo to go on exchanges with them. It was cool to go to Laredo, that was my first time there. We tried to help them out and the missionaries over there. Then in the evening it started to pour over there! And we left about 7:15 and it was pouring rain and thunder and lightening. We drove all the way home in the pouring rain and it was cool because the lightening was intense! It would light up the sky so much it was brighter than day. It was pretty insane. It was fun though, just me and Elder Vasquez driving back. We stopped and got super good burgers at this little burger shack. We made it back by ten thirty and stopped by president's house and he gave us ice cream and cookies.

Friday we met with President and had a meeting with him about next year's calendar. Things that we hope to accomplish and some things that we are going to change. That was cool. Then we got out to work and went by some people we are teaching. We are teaching a deaf girl. Hopefully she wants to get baptized, but she's cool, a little different. We stopped by her and it was cool cuz I started to remember a lot of my ASL. I was able to speak with her a little, and she's coming to conference which is cool.

So you asked about duties as AP? Well... we do a lot of computer work in putting in people in the church records. We meet with president and talk about changes in the mission. We move stuff. We go to all zone conferences and all mission trainings. We usually train at them as well. We are going to be traveling the mission more because we are going to go on more exchanges and stuff now. We stay with other missionaries when we go travel and work with them. It's pretty cool because I get to see the whole mission. We help with transfers and drive people and spend time with the incoming and outgoing missionaries.

But I got to go! Its cooling down finally. 95! I love you all so much.
-Elder Stone