Don't forget the pizza..

Hello my lovely family!
Well...I´m in Arequipa again. I got fired as sister training leader. Haha. Just kidding...The first P day of every month all the sisters training leaders and zone leaders come to the mission home for a leadership conference. I am so happy to be back here in Arequipa even if it´s only for a few days. And I am writing this email from the computer in the mission presidents office...talk about WEIRD. Haha. But my trainer Sister Chavez is here and I almost cried when I saw her. She is the sweetest!

This weeks email is going to be all over the place. It was a hilarious/quick/spiritual week in Para Chico!

Firstly...today we traveled in a bus at 5am from Tacna to Arequipa, and they were playing movies the whole way. Listening to Remember the Titans in Spanish was the highlight...then I woke up from my nap JUST in time to see the tsumani part of the movie "The Impossible". It was definitely not as good as the six zone leaders cheering when Remember the Titans started in our little first class cabin. Never traveled so comfortably in my life. Our seats were these huge recliners. BLESSING! P.s...nobody will understand or think this is funny except Chandler, but Chan...two words that came to my mind during remember the titans...Schoolwork soccer. HAHAHAHAHA. I'm sorry you´re all confused, but you can ask chandler about that. Some of the best moments of our lives. Miss you Chan!

Anyway...We didn't have a baptism this week, but we found some amazing sisters that are the sweetest. (One of them has red hair...like...Carli Stone red...and everyone thinks shes white, but shes from Peru.) We had the most incredible lesson with them and invited them both to be baptized and they said, (after 2 asistencias)..."We know your church is true because we have never felt so peaceful...we want to get baptized as soon as we can". HOLY MOLY RIGHT? I was so happy I didn't even know what to say and my Spanish was ALL over the place. I had English words coming out of no where and I was just laughing of JOY!

Next...let me tell about our ward mission leader. He is a convert of 1 year, and is preparing to go on a mission...(I´m praying he gets sent to Roseville, CA) But seriously...Ricsto is 18 and probably the strangest most hilarious and awkward boy on the planet and we love him so much. He has a extremely weird obsession with bagpipes, and his eyes water, and he makes this girly high pitched screaming noise whenever he hears music with bagbipes. HAHAHA. Yeah...he also came to our house at 10pm last Monday (on his bike in the freezing cold) and fixed our shower.

Next thing. We had divisions this week with HERMANA KAHLE! It was so fun to see her, and see how she is working in her mission. She is so sweet, and we had a blast...even if it was only for 24 hours and I had to evaluate her. Ha

Oh...okay this is hysterical. So...our bishop is the best and always talks about how he is going to order pizza for us one day that we have ward counsel. We didn't believe him, so we were walking by his house the other day and pulled out a sticky note and wrote "Bishop...don´t forget the pizza tonight for the sister missionaries". and signed our mission leaders name...then we stuck it on the door...rang the doorbell and ran away. Well...that night at ward counsel the bishop said, "Sisters...I just ordered a pizza. It should be here any minute, but you should know that I have cameras outside my dentist office and saw you running away after you rang my doorbell." HAHA. It was hilarious. He was dying laughing.

Anyway...This week was so awesome with our sweet investigators who are going to get baptized this week. I am seriously loving my area, and loving working with the sisters in Tacna! Hope all is well at home.

OH....PS...KITTY CARTER! Thank you thank you THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for the package. I looked so popular getting a package full of yummy treats...I have pictures of my excitement. I was laughing so hard reading all your cards. I LOVE AND MISS YOU CARTER FAMILY!

First day of Spring!

Firstly...I cannot believe that Colton broke his thumb. Gosh darn it buddy. I will pray for a quick recovery for you. And congrats daddy and Summer on your prize winning costumes for the daddy daughter date. The best part of the picture that dad sent of the tacky tourists is that the outfit that dad is wearing isn't a costume...it is exactly what dad wears when we go to Hawaii. Hahahah.

This week we had a MIRACLE! We always have them, but this week was so awesome. Our miracle baptism Shiomara! It was the craziest busiest day on Saturday because she wanted to be baptized, but her parents wanted her to wait...and after a loving, but very direct lesson with her mom, she was BAPTIZED on Saturday night at 9pm. It is the most incredible moment in the whole world when someone comes up out of the water after their baptism and you can see them glowing. Ah! Such a blessing.

We had a ton of divisions with the sisters this week cause of problems within certain companionships and I was so sad cause I wasn't with my companion very much...but when we were reunited we were super happy, and that was another blessing.  I am learning Spanish. Another miracle! Haha. Last night we had an activity with all our ward missionaries and I taught a lesson in Spanish... I taught a lesson!! It wasn't a discussion, or a testimony...a lesson...to members of the ward. AH! After I sat down I thought..."Oh my gosh...I just taught a lesson in Spanish...and they understood me." I LOVE THE LORD!

I am seriously loving my mission. Every week I love it more and more. Every week I have more challenges than the last, but I am learning to better recognize the good, and appreciate more the BLESSINGS that I have in the mission...and it makes the hard moments bearable. I am truly starting to learn about opposition and how we would NEVER be able to fully enjoy the moments of joy in our lives if we didn't experience the sorrows. Push through the hard moments...there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  Do everything you can to strengthen your relationship with your Heavenly Father, and make him your best friend. He knows us, He loves us, and He lives. I know these things without a doubt in my mind.

Love you all so much! Have a good week!
Today is the "día de la juventud" here in Peru...also known as the first day of SPRING! Enjoy your winter in America! :)

COW LIVER... and I ate every bite!

Hello!

This week was awesome. I absolutely LOVE my companion. Her name is Sister Cordova and she is from Chiclyo which is way way NORTH in Peru. She is 22, and hilarious. She reminds me a TON of Elise Ellison and we just laugh all day long. She is so great.

So this week I had my first divisions with two different companionships of sisters, and let me tell you...WOW have I been blessed with the gift of tongues this last week. I prayed so much that my Spanish would get better so the sisters would actually respect me and I have been blessed beyond belief! I have also received a lot of revelation this last week in how I can help the sisters that are struggling. I was reading a blessing that dad gave me last fall before I started school back up at BYU, and dad said, "Your influences on the sisters in the gospel specifically will be great if you are obedient" I remember when he said that, I was super confused, but I know that was revelation, and that through my obedience I will be an example to these sisters.

So...this week we had some interesting food. Firstly...yesterday I ate duck...and it was DELICIOUS. Who would have thought?! Come to find out it is cooked in beer...so...that was quite the shock. But...the thing that wasn't delicious?...COW LIVER! And to make it even worse...I ate every BITE because I didn't know what it was until after.

Yesterday we had a stake conference, but it was for the whole country of Perù and was a broadcast from Salt Lake...and guess who spoke? Elder Richard G. Scott (in Spanish) and Elder Bednar tambièn. And what made it so cool for me was that Elder Scott, and Elder Bednar were the two apostles that I got to see while I was in the MTC. Elder Bednar spoke about repentance, and Elder Scott talked about the sanctity of women. It was incredible to be able to hear the words of the apostles ONLY for the people I am teaching here in Perù.

I sent a picture of my companion and I with a little old lady. Her name is Julia and she is probably my favorite member in the ward so far...she is great. She is JUST like Grandma Woolf (cami`s grandma) and we just laugh whenever we are with her. The other day we were going into a lesson and she was sitting on the curb outside this investigators house just...hanging out, so we asked her to come in and listen to the lesson and the whole time she was talking about the most random stuff, and during the prayer she was telling the investigator that he needed to close his eyes, and I was praying trying SO hard not to laugh.

Things in my new area are going well, and I am so happy and grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord at this time in my life. 

Love you all!

Hermana Carli

Sister training leader!

Hello my dear family!

Well...this week was pretty crazy and I have some news that will shock you ALL.
Firstly...yesterday was transfers. This whole change everyone has been telling me "Sister Stone...you will be training this next transfer" and well...yesterday when my zone leaders called they had some different news. I have been transferred to Tacna (it´s the furthest south, and right on the border of Chile) and I have been called to be a sister training leader.  I am freaking out a little bit. So...Sister training leaders are new to the missions, but what I am doing here is training all the sisters in the Southern part of the mission. Last night I had quite the cry fest realizing that I will be in charge of sisters with 15 and 16 months in the mission and little Carli with 6 months who barely speaks the language is supposed to train them.  We have divisions twice a week with the companionship in this part of the mission, and I am not really sure what my mission president was thinking. BUT...I feel a lot of peace about this new responsibility that I am going to have and know that I can teach these sisters through my example of obedience and just love them all, and hope they feel that they can learn something from me.

My last week in Independencia with my sweet Hermana Adama was so much fun.  She was the greatest.  The other day we were coming home from an appointment at the chapel and were hungry so we stopped at a little store and missed our bus...then we started walking to wait for the next one, and my companion wanted to buy something else so we went into another store and missed the SECOND bus while we were in the store. Then we looked down at our watches and realized we had 7 minutes to get home, and we were a good mile from our house...we started sprinting home, and got back to our room at exactly 9:30...we are both out of shape so when we got into our room we both crashed on the floor and took off all our coats and sweaters and just laughed about how ridiculous it was that we missed the bus TWICE. Haha.

I honestly don´t have much more to say...but this morning when my companion left for the airport at 6:30 I had to wait in our room alone until 7 for my ride to the bus terminal to come, I prayed out loud and just poured out my WHOLE heart to my Heavenly Father, and I KNOW without a doubt in my mind that He listens. I promise you all with every bone in my body that He listens.  He loves us more than we could possibly comprehend...and we are His children.  Pray out loud, tell your Father in Heaven everything that you think, feel, and need...and He will answer. It may not be in the way you expect, in fact...let me tell you one thing I have learned in this last 6 months...99.999% of the time...it is not how you expect. SEARCH for the answers you are receiving and trust that He will answer. Faith is required...but the blessings will come.

Please pray for me...I could use all the prayers I can get.

I love you all!

-Hermana Stone

Cow On a Leash

Hello my lovely family! 

What a fun labor day you guys had. I always love going up to Tahoe and enjoying the lovely things there.  Speaking of LABOR! Congrats to my piano duet partner, roommate and the lovely Caitlin Anderson Solari on her BABY boy! Ah! I got the pictures and wanted to cry. He is so beautiful.

Nextly, MOM turns 30 this week! Wooo! Sad I'm missing it, but I know that dad will spoil you like he always does...so I don´t need to worry that you won't feel the love.

This week the word got out that Hermana Stone likes cake and I was given...well...a lot of cake this week. Yet some how I have lost a bunch of weight this week too. Sorry. I won't talk more about the food. That's all. Oh wait...no. It's not. Yesterday we got invited to a member's house with the Elders for a birthday dinner and when they brought out the plate it had pig, potatoes, and lettuce. As missionaries we can't eat the pig or the lettuce so the zone leaders had to call the mission president and ask permission. It was hilarious though. Our faces must have looked pretty funny when they set down our food. We all looked at each other like, "Uhh. What do we do?" The pig was delicious though.

A few days ago we were teaching a lesson and my companion asked me to share an experience where I had a prayer answered, and I talked about when I decided to go on a mission. It was the first time that I had shared that experience in Spanish and it was SO cool. I feel like, most of the time, I feel the spirit stronger than the people I´m teaching. It was a really cool experience.  

I have seen some pretty weird things here lately. Yesterday I saw a little boy walking a cow on a leash, a family casually walking down the street with their pet lamb, and the weirdest of all...I am not joking here...I saw a clown driving a car with a bunch of little kids in it. WHAT IN THE WORLD?! As if I wasn't already scared of clowns.  

This week I have been studying the talk, "A Consecrated Missionary" everyday in my personal study for 15 minutes, and I have learned so much. One story that Elder Callister shares is about Parley P. Pratt and the missions that he served.  Parley P. Pratt served for over 25 years, most of the time out of the country, and when he returned home from Chile, Brigham Young asked him to leave his family AGAIN and serve for a few more years.  Parley P. Pratt responded and said, "If it is the will of God that I should spend my days in proclaiming this Gospel and bearing testimony of these things, I shall think myself highly privileged and honored...when the spirit of God is upon me, I think it matters but very little what I suffer, what I sacrificed...or where I die, if it so be that I can keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with Joy. I have all eternity before me in which to enjoy myself." WOW! I truly hope that I can have that attitude about my mission, be a consecrated missionary, and not worry about anything but the work of the Lord.

A Little Taste of Home: Peanut butter, RAP and Buttermilk Syrup

Well...it´s Pday again! And I have some stories that seem hilarious (at least to me) ...unfortunately they may not be very funny to you. 

Firstly...This week Sister Zobrist (my Mission Presidents wife) invited me and my companion and the other companionship of sisters to lunch at the mission home. The food we had was INCREDIBLE...and we had chocolate ice cream with chocolate Hershey syrup for dessert. Sister Jacobson and I (she's from Utah) spent the whole luncheon admiring the carpet in the mission home...they don´t have it anywhere else.  Yesterday was Sister Zobrists birthday so my companion and I called her and sang happy birthday...I think it freaked her out a little bit...so I didn´t continue with the Stone family birthday song when we finished. Maybe she didn't want to be reminded it was her birthday. :0

We also had a ward activity this week. It started at 6:30....and guess what time it actually started? Yes...8:40!!! This is classic Peru. Since we are in the ward with the zone leaders they called President and asked for permission for us to stay a little bit later cause it started so late. ..but it was HYSTERICAL! The YSA did a skit, and in a nutshell it was about a a young kid who got into drugs and stole all his dads money to buy illegal drugs...and then he ended up ruining his life and living on the street...but the fact that they were playing super bad rap music every time he went to buy drugs and the Bishop was laughing was probably my favorite part. I don't even think he understood any of the words of the song.  Our ward here is so awesome though...the members help a ton with the missionary work, I hope you guys are giving the missionaries in the ward references. :)

Also...we had FHE with a family in the ward last Monday and guess what we had for dessert....PANCAKES AND BUTTERMILK SYRUP! (A family favorite)  I don´t even want to picture what I looked like eating the buttermilk syrup...but I imagine I looked something like Kendall does when she eats buttermilk syrup cause the Sister asked if I wanted to take some home in a CUP...HOW EMBARRASSING. It´s okay...don´t worry I didn´t say yes. Sheesh! 

So...on Saturday we went on visits with the Primary president. She is probably 60 years old, and this woman can work!!! Holy Moly! We went to visit someone in the middle of NOwhere and we had to climb what felt like Mt Everest to get to their house...and she was moving faster than we were! But it was so awesome cause when we were climbing I was thinking..."Okay...what the heck. Where are we going...this is hard...I don´t want to climb this mountain!¨" But as soon as we got to the top it was the most BEAUTIFUL peaceful place with an incredible view...And it made me think of what I had studied that morning about trials.  We all have them...and even though they may be different...and some may be harder than others...everyone is facing something hard, but if we can just keep going, and keep hiking when we get to the end it is going to be wonderful and beautiful. Heavenly Father understands...I promise he understands...and he doesn´t give us trials that we can´t handle. There is a lesson that we need to learn from every trial that we face...be humble, and let the Lord teach us something new. This concept  I have come to understand so well on my mission.

A quote that I love from President Utchdorf says, "You´re are not alone in this journey.  Your Heavenly Father knows you. Even when no one else hears you, he hears you.  When you rejoice in righteousness, he rejoices with you.  When you are beset with trials, he grieves with you."  Remember that you are not alone! 

Love you all so much! 

Until next week.

Hermana Stone

oh this is too classic....

my companion gave me a full on foot massage and said "its like jesus..." as she washed my feet.

how great is she?? hahaha 

also....my zone leader gave me PEANUT BUTTER this week....i haven´t been that happy in...at least a week. haha

I shave my legs in the toilet!

Hello my lovely familia!

This week was a tough week work wise, but I am seriously so gosh darn happy here in Peru.  Sometimes when we drive in the bus and they are blasting Spanish music and I can't move because I’m being smashed by a bazillion people and can’t feel my hands from holding onto the handles on the ceiling so hard, I just die laughing realizing that I am a missionary serving in a foreign country...and it’s just SO awesome.

We had a multi-zone conference with President Zobrist this week and it was wonderful. I love my mission president. He is hysterical and his accent is horrible so I feel a little better about my Spanish whenever I talk to him. Haha.  He talked to us about our calling as missionaries and it was amazing. I was sitting there in the front row writing (like a mad woman) all the revelation I was receiving. 

We didn’t have a baptism, but we taught about 60 lessons this week. My companion and I are on fire in this new area and I am loving it!

We had one investigator named Alex. Unfortunately they changed the boundaries of our area this week and he no longer is in our area. But I have to tell you about him because he was SO awesome. The only reason he didn’t get baptized with us was that he wasn’t married. Plus his wife-person didn’t want to get married. His mother-in-law is a member so we went to visit. The first time we talked with him he was super unresponsive but we decided to go back again anyway. The next lesson was a little better and at the end we gave him a Book of Mormon. When we came back 2 days later he was in 1 Nephi 8! It was sweet and we truly saw SUCH a change in him from when he started reading the Book of Mormon. We invited him to the baptism we had last week and he showed up 30 minutes early. Then he stayed after and helped the elders clean up. Then he was at church the next day for the confirmation. From that point on, he was SOLID: reading the Book of Mormon everyday. It was amazing. And honestly, up to this point in my mission, I haven’t felt the spirit work through me more strongly than it did when we taught him. When we told him the boundaries changed and we couldn’t visit, it was so sad. For the first time since I got out here, I cried while speaking in Spanish. It was awesome. I could hardly contain myself cause the spirit was so strong. Then my companion started crying and then HE started crying and I was just trying to bear my testimony without sounding like a complete FOOOL. But, it was okay because the spirit was there and that is really all that matters.  It is the most amazing feeling in the world when I have a thought come into my mind of what I should say in a lesson and I follow it, and see the results.  I seriously love the spirit. AH! 

Speaking of that, this was awesome. Yesterday we were teaching a girl named Janeth who is one of our investigators. She had a baptismal date for 31st of August but lately she hasn’t been meeting with us and totally avoiding us. We weren’t sure why. My companion is just the sweetest person ever, so she doesn’t really know how to be direct with people. BUT, thanks to the gift of tongues and a prompting that I should be direct with her, I had an idea come into my mind and followed it. I said to her, "Look Janeth, we are here as missionaries to teach you. If you have any questions or doubts, you need to ask us. More importantly than you being baptized, is you having a desire to be baptized and knowing WHY it’s important. We want to help you and know that this message can bless your life, but you need to do your part or we can’t help you." It was like a huge wave of the spirit and she said..."I want to learn more. Can you come back this week and answer my questions?" WHHHATTTUP! It was sweet! 

Anyway, things are going so well here for me. I am used to our bathroom now and I actually enjoy being able to use the toilet to my advantage…like when I shave my legs. It’s wonderful. Haha. I love Peru more and more everyday, and now that I can understand people I seriously love them all so much!

Good luck starting school this week. I always loved the first week because I felt like I was starting fresh. Enjoy seminary Summy-sum. I miss seminary so much. My junior year I had the best teacher EVER! Ha.

LOVE YOU and miss you ALL! 

Ps. ZONA STONE! Sweet huh?