Well this week has been a doozy… I’ve been sick, sick, SICK! I have felt sick before I eat, sick after I eat, sick when I wake up… just sick! My headaches have been off the charts as well. So you know what they do in the mission field to cure you? No gluten, no dairy, and magnesium supplements! This girl feels like she’s practically vegan. Which – as history shows – is totally normal. But this is HARD when the majority of your meals are prepared by other people… So pray I don’t die and that this fixes the problem. I don’t know how much more sickness I can take! Woooweee…. I have to eat clean for a month (according to sister crawford) see how I feel, then slowly reintroduce the them to see which one makes the sick. or if they both do. Soooo… I’m a little bummed.
This week was pretty difficult. It’s been the hottest week of the summer. Which, in reality, is really not THAT bad. I don’t feel like i’m going to melt into the pavement, but everyone else does I guess. In fact, Texans hate a Texas summer so much, they flee! No one has been in town this week. No one is ever home! Come to find out… They all flee to the beach, colorado, utah, and even california. The humidity is killing everyone. We haven’t even seen too many bugs! Except roaches… there’s always roaches… We had a HUGE 4 inch long tree roach crawl out from behind our recliner. We were screaming, running, moving all our shoes… It has horrific! Finally, we caught it (those nasty butts are fast!) in a plastic bag, zipped it up, and threw it in the outside trash. When I think about it now, I feel horribly cruel. The poor guy had no idea what he was doing wrong! Unless of course Heavenly Father created them with devilish intentions. WHICH he very well could have. I just think next time I’m going to fling it up on our upstairs neighbors porch thing (:
On Thursday we had our zone conference combined with the summerwood zone. It was pretty good! President talked to us about a lot of good things; how to prepare our investigators during the 10 days leading up to their baptismal date, sister crawford talked about being healthy, and the assistants talked to us about helping our investigators recognize answers to their questions. It was all pretty good… Just a long day. At zone conference lunch they make everyone who had a birthday in June, July, and August all wear cowboy hats and bandanas, sing us the Texas Houston East Mission Birthday Song (to the tune of The Texas Yellow Rose? Something like that) and just have a good time. It was pretty fun! A little embarrassing, but fun (:
This week I’ve just really been reminded that if you pray for something, the Lord will really make it happen. Like… being more christlike? Suddenly – patience is tested, you question how much charity you have towards all human beings, and hope feels almost impossible. So careful what you pray for! You’ll get it one way or another (: I’ve learned a lot! The Lord loves to cast his refining fire upon me! I’m so blessed (:
I can’t remember if I wrote you about Paul Nichols… One of my favorite members, Merrilee Davis, when on a date with a guy she met online. During the date, she called and asked me for scriptures on the apostasy and lost sheep. Uh, what kind of date is this?? We had the pleasure of meeting him last sunday, the 4th. He came to a fireside at the mission home. With whatever sister davis said and what he heard there, he HAD to know more! So we gave him a book of mormon and challenged him to begin reading. The next day he texted sister davis, “There’s no way a 14 year old boy could have written this!” the NEXT day, “I’m in 1 Nephi 15. THIS BOOK IS TRUE!” Since then, he’s almost through Jacob. He’s just attacked it! He came to church yesterday and loved it. In Priesthood, at the end, they asked if anyone had any other comments. He raised his hand, they said ‘be quick’, so quickly he BORE HIS TESTIMONY and just said he knew our church was the only true church on the earth! He floored everyone. Every member we saw yesterday was all, “did you hear about the huge guy in priesthood?” It was AWESOME! We taught him the full restoration lesson last night and had him near tears. He relates to Joseph Smith a lot. We extended the baptismal invitation, which he accepted! The catch? He doesn’t live in our area. We have to pass him off to the Baytown sisters… We can’t baptize someone who doesn’t live in our ward boundaries! Even though he will be coming to our ward every week since he’s dating sister davis. MAN! he is so prepared, so golden, and not even ours. But he tells me all the time, “I bet you daddy just loves you to pieces!” hahaha He’s a really cool guy. He played guitar in a metal band, toured Europe and the USA, did really well for himself… now he teaches guitar at a private school. He loves kids and music! He has the most tender heart. I love this guy! I’m so excited for him. I’m excited to send the Baytown sisters a referrals text… haha “Paul Nichols, 45 yrs old, has a testimony of the church. ready for baptism” Weeehooo! The Lord truely prepares people. It’s incredible.
Today some sisters in our ward let us come to their house and do our laundry for free! They made us smoothies, we studied, and had a jolly old time. THEN they took us to the parking lot to spin donuts Texas style (: I was so stinking excited. I’ve been looking forward to this for 3 or 4 weeks! I was all ready to go, Sister Kaelin was ready to pee her pants, we peeled into the parking lot and came to a screaching stop. They popped the trunk, bailed out of the car, and we sat there SCARED TO DEATH. Then they yelled for us to get out of the car, so we bailed like it was on fire. When we got out, there was a box of Shipley’s Donuts sitting on the ground. “Welcome to spinning donuts TEXAS STYLE!”. I have some pictures… It was pretty hilarious. Niki and Jenn are the most hilarious pair. They are AWESOME! We laughed for a long time and then they said we had to keep our reckless living a secret for the next missionaries to come and be scared out of their minds. hahaha I loved it. Except… I couldn’t eat the donuts. They tried to find gluten free but failed! So sad.
So my day has been great! This week can only be better than the last. The church is true! Thanks for everything y’all do for me (: I miss you each very much!
Love Y’all,
Sister Stockinger
Choose Happiness 