Hello everyone and Happy Easter! I hope you all had fun like we did on Easter. It was a good day and a fun weekend. We had some great things happen in our area and have some great things happening in the district which I’m pumped for! I talked with President Trayner Friday night and he gave me some interesting news. He told me that I will be training this upcoming and last transfer of mine out here in the field. He also called me Sunday night and explained that there will be a new district leader coming into the district so I will help get him going and then be able to focus solely on helping my new greenie out. I’m excited for that, although I am bummed about not being a DL, I’m excited to be able to train again! I want to be able to help this new missionary out as much as I can and help him learn some of the things I learned in my mission.
Elder Barrionuevo is leaving to the valley which is a bummer, but it’ll be good for him. I will miss him, but he’ll tear it up wherever he is. It’ll be good; the transfer is coming up in a week from tomorrow. It’s crazy to think about how fast the time has flown by! I feel like I just got to Laredo, I feel like I just got into Texas. It makes me think a lot and gives me a lot of fire just to get out and work, no matter how tough it gets. This past week was great and we started to teach a couple of cool new people!
We started to teach the mom of a current investigator we have. We had some great lessons with them this week. The investigator, son, is on probation but he’s a stud and not going to give up for anything! His mom is a very humble open hearted lady who wants the best for her family. We explained how baptism into this church will bring peace in her life that she is looking to have. She is preparing for May 6th. The next lesson we went by and talked about the Book of Mormon and what it is and what it implies. We explained how it will bring her more peace in life and how it will bring them all together and all closer to God. The lesson was great and we explained the promise given in the intro of the book. We then all kneeled down and they prayed and asked God if it was true. After she prayed, we stayed on our knees and stayed quiet. The spirit was testifying strong and as we asked her what she felt, she started to cry and told us how she can’t explain what she was feeling and how she knew it was from God. Super cool! She explained how she knows it’s true. They weren’t able to make it to church because of some health issues, but we went by Sunday night and had a great lesson with them and committed them for this upcoming Sunday! They are excited.
I was excited to get your letter this week. Conference was great last week and I received lots of needed revelation. It’s great how much the church focuses on family because that is something we see out here that is struggling a lot. We teach some broken homes and families and it is sad to see, but it’s great to see how the gospel can change their lives in an instant, they just have to act on it! Like I’ve said in the past, that is the hardest thing, when people don’t accept the message we share. It makes me want to cry when these people turn away from the gospel.
So for your questions from the letter this past week. Rio Bravo is in my district but not my area, it's about a twenty min drive south. There are some members out there and some less-actives. It hasn’t been worked too much, but it is going to be worked more because the elders out there just received some referrals for people out there. There are a lot of fences out here, I think every house has a fence. If they are closed we usually bang on it with a rock and make sure no dog comes and then we head in. If it’s locked then they usually aren’t home, but we’ll knock sometimes anyway with a rock. There are dogs everywhere as well. Pretty much everyone owns a dog, and lots of them are mean. There is a high crime and drug rate out here so that’s why people keep things locked up and protected. The church we go to is in our area. We try to have lessons there as much as possible. The church in Zapata wasn’t doing so well so the missionaries were taken from there. I always wanted to go there, but it’ll be reopened soon enough. The building we go to is pretty small, we got some new trailers that we are going to start using as well. The Spanish branch here is large and they have to have classes in the hall ways and the kitchen, but that’s good, it means we are growing things out here.
We got a cool phone call this week! This couple we taught a while ago randomly called us and want to meet again. We had taught them and set BDs with them and they were all pumped and excited but then all the sudden fell off and we didn’t know what had happened with them. We were bummed and it has been about three weeks now and they called us. They explained how they missed us and want to meet now. Pretty sweet! So we are excited to see what happens today.
The district is doing well. As a DL we get the chance to interview people before they are baptized to make sure they are ready for baptism. I was able to give two interviews yesterday. I love them because the spirit is so strong. It is amazing to see these peoples testimonies and how much they have a burning desire to take the step of baptism. In our area we should be having our next baptism on April 29th. I have a goal in May to be able to baptize every week in May. Something I haven’t done and I think it would be cool to do, but of course it is all up to the Lord and His will.
It was Elder Cullen’s birthday Saturday. He is an elder in our district who lives with us. I made him a cake and we all had cake Saturday night. Then today we all went out to lunch for his birthday. We went to chili’s and it was fun. Sunday was great as well. We struggled with church attendance but we were able to get this new guy there. He is preparing for baptism and we are pumped for him. Sunday night we went by all our peeps who didn’t show up to church. At seven we went to a members house and had dinner and played with cascarones. Which are egg shells colored and filled with confetti and you run around and break them on each other’s heads and stuff. It was fun.
Trials are great and don’t forget that. That is where we become purified, that is where we get a glimpse of how the Lord sees us. The hardest part about a trial is knowing why, but when you try to find the lesson in each one, they become exciting and fun. Trials are unavoidable, it is part of life, we knew that when we agreed to come down here. The Lord knows us perfectly and knows how to refine us.
I love you all.
-Elder Stone
