Aug 27th

....alo!!!! Ok first before I go into my letter I have a couple things of business to attend to. Numero uno: I need to know how much is in my account... I am flying blind and need to buy some stuff haha like winter gear because it's going to start getting cold and I am going to freeze muh bunz off (could I get an update weekly or something?)Numero Dos: Use one of the nice pictures from the photo shoot and scripture 2 Nephi 22:2 for my plaquethressss: When sending packages or letters send them to the mission office and they will get forwarded to mwah. And when sending packages Use the United States Postal Service not UPS or FEDEX because they dont forward and then it takes a really long time to get to me. Like the next time I or someone goes to the mission office which who knows when that would actally be :)and lastly for this awesome list before my week update which feels like a day/month is: any super sinple easy recepies I can make that are fast and yummy :) spanks! OK ONTO THE LETTER! Oh my goodness this week has been amazing! I didn't even know so many amazing miracles could fit into one week! God is so great! Oh and my bike has decided to OWN me! Straight up own me. On monday after my letter and getting back into the day, it was raining and we were wet and biking in the rain and going to a members house to get some keys for a meeting for the next day when my bike decided it didn't want me riding it anymore. I was going through a tight fit and my handle bar caught the brick wall next to me [I was going down hill and quick might I add] when all the sudden I was flying over my handle bars and face down in the street! I somehow caught myself from smashing my face and I didn't get any dirt on my white shirt [miracle!] got up brushed myself off [was a little shaken] fixed my glasses, got back on my bike and kept riding. haha Sister Rozsa felt so bad and kind of laughed but was concerned at the same time, and hahaha it was just funny bike: 2 Sister Stones: 0 (I should probably stop while I'm ahead... nah) But honestly Heavenly Father blessed us with the most amazing experience that night when we were doing a pass lesson (handing off one of Sister Rozsa's old investigators to the Elders). We taught Almaz the plan of happiness and she was so touched, recieved a blessing [because work and health and things were difficult] and wants to get baptized. She is wonderful! This week has been full of miracles like that! We are doing something new as missionaries in the ward with the members where rather than going to them and asking if they have any referals, we go to their houses and ask if they have recieved any revelation for us as the sister missionaries in the ward to help them or their families or their friends and neighbors with anything they might need. And if not, we ask if they would pray about it to recieve that revelation and we will check back the same time the next week. It's really great because it kind of takes all of us out of our comfort zones and we know how it feels to be an investigator. We ask people all day to read and pray to know if the book of mormon is true, and if Jesus Christ has restored his gospel on the earth. So why shouldn't we as members of this church be doing the same thing and recieving that revelation to help anyone we might know! I love it! It's so inspired! And I feel that everyone should be doing that! Praying to recieve revelation!! I was studying this morning and I realized that the greatest thing that anyone can recieve in this life is an answer from our Father in Heaven! Each of our relationships with Him are so different and so unique that we need to know specifically how He speaks to us whether it be throught the scriputers through other people through the feelings or thoughts that we get, but that we need to be urgently figuring it out! I know I want to! He wants to hear from us [so we pray] and we deperately want to know what to do in life or where to go and he is anxiously waiting to tell us! We just have to ask and know how he answers. It's so amazing, and so simple, we just have to have faith to act! I love how amazingly different each day is! We talk with different people in different stages of life, And we are lead by Heavenly Father to do just that. One day this week every single appointment that we had happend! No one canceled no one wasn't home and we had such an amazing day, the weather was beautiful and everything was spiritually amazing! The next day every single appointment fell through, it was pouring we were riding up hills in the rain and I was still singing there is sunshine in my soul today! We talked to everything that breathed even if we were all caught in the rain, I looked at sister Rozsa and I said, "Sometimes I feel a little bad stopping them in the rain." and she said "Don't! in the next life they will be confused why we didn't stop them because of a little rain." That hit me, and it's so true. The message that we are out here sharing is all about helping people come unto Christ completely, and if we don't tell them then they don't know where to look! SO a little rain for their Salvation is worth it!! :) And we were blessed with an amazing miracle that night! We were not having any success finding anyone or knowing where to go, we had prayed a million times and just felt like we were biking to no where when we went down this random street and this man was listening to the GREATEST oldschool music and we rode by and then both looked at each other and felt that we needed to stop and talk to him so as we were locking up our bikes a lady came out of her house to get her pizza. Her name is Beverly! Ah I love her! We got talking to her and fell in love instantly we asked her what she thought about God and how He had changed her life and she tried to shoo us away haha but she needed help caring her pizza and things into her house so she invited us in gave us water and asked us to share this "wonderful" message we were talking about. haha so we did and the spirit was so amazingly strong we could have swam in it! She is so amazing and I can't wait to go back next week to continue to teach and talk to her! It's been like that all week! I thank Heavenly Father for the miracles he lets me see and be apart of everyday! He really is a God of miracles and I am so privlaged to be here! Ok well I need to go finish laundry and writing letters to friends since I am terrible at writting!! I love you all so much and I hope to hear from you all when I check my email next monday because I lOVE knowing what is happening in everyone's lives! Send pictures as well!!! I love you I love you I love you!!!!! Sister Stones PS. Sister Rozsa say hello!!! and she loves you all!! I show her pictures and tell family stories all the time so she knows everyone haha! I love it!!

Aug 20th

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!Oh my goodness I have had so many firsts this week!!! I got here last wednesday and oh my goodness it is breath taking! Right now I don't think I could ever come home! I love my mission president his wife and all of their kids they are great! We (as in me and the other missionaries) stayed at their house on that night ate dinner talked about the different area's and just yeah it was great (we had lasagna and salad and garlic bread and I just felt like I was home). Then Thursday came and I met my first companion!!! DRummmrollll please!!!!!!!! klsadjf;oasiefas;kjfa;sdlfkj.... Her name is Sister Rozsa and she is AMAZING!! oh my goodness I love her. She is the hardest working person I have met and I am so beyond greatful for it. I am the 4th person she has trained I believe (because she is so amazing) and I can't wait to continue to learn and grow and be bold like she is! Love it! We are serving in Sherlington (which is literally right around the area where deanna and rickey lived... kinda.) We go to the same ward building I do know that (which was cool). And we are in a car area, but since it is the city and there are so many people walking and biking and just outside... we bike.... EVERYWHERE. I straight up am going to be in the geatest shape of my life after these next 12 weeks (so no I will not get fat!)! I have never seen so many hills in my life! I am going to be able to come home and bike the superstition mountains (is that possible?! because I feel like it will be when I am done). And yeah don't worry the bike already has showed me who is boss as well, I have a great battle wound bruise to show for it on my right thigh, I will try to take a picture (while still being modest) so you can all laugh at me (since I know you all are anyway). That is one: Why you don't get off a bike while it's still moving (bc I don't know what I am doing) and two because then your skirt gets caught in it and that bike is heavier so it will pull you down and shows you who's boss! Bike 1/Sister Stones 0.But honestly I am loving my mission. The first few days I just smiled and talked to whoever Sister Rozsa would look at me with the "talk to them" eyes and I would blindly follow. And because I didn't know anyone we were teaching I just knew names in my planner and was praying for people I didn't know I have grown to love them and can't WAIT to meet them all! I have meet some and they might be my favorite people in the whole world! I have met so many people from different countries in the last 5 days it is amazing!! I love it so much! We talk to everyone! I just get to talk about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and hear peoples testimonies about them all day and then I get to ask if they want to learn more. Sometimes people run away from us like some lady told me "You're a mormon and you are just trying to sell me something!" and then I laughed told her God bless her and went the other way smiling! Who says that to someone?! hhaha It was amazing! And some people are ok with the knowledge that they have and don't want anymore, which is fine I will find someone that does :) But I've come to the realization that I honestly don't care what people say to me I know why I am here, I know that the message I have been sent here to share is perfect and that everyone needs this message no matter who they are, how happy they are, or how "comfortable" they are in the ways they have now. With out this wonderful restored gospel of Jesus Christ that He himself restored there is no way to return to live with our loving Father in Heaven. So I am going to try my best to share that with everyone I meet. I love everyone and I can't wait to continue to meet more people (because I most certainly will!!) Sunday was amazing!! We had 3 investigators with us and one's name is Azadah. She. is. amazing. We have taught her one time but it was like 2 hours long and she has been so open to everything we have been teaching her and she just keeps saying "oh my goodness that makes so much sense!" haha I love her! We helped her clean her house because she is having company come and then we share and teach with her. She came to church and loved EVERY hour. She just soaked it up like a spounge and I can not wait to go and see her in tuesday and see how she is feeling and everything. I love this work, I see blessings everyday and I am pretty sure that as I pray God helps push me up those hills. Ok well I have to get going. I wish I could talk longer, but I need to get some other things done today since we have a couple more appointments tonight, and we need to go pick up sister Rozsa's bike from the shop (her brakes stopped working.... we might have almost died a couple times because the hills are so big and we couldn't stop. Heavenly Father was definitely looking out!) I got my glasses today and went grocery shopping and have just been learning and growning so much!! Family This week I challenge you to invite some nonmember or inactive friend to church or to something. I never realized how important it is for everyone to share this message. It isn't for people to become "mormon" it is so they have a way to have eternal life, to live with their families forever, and to truly be converted to Jesus Christ. ANd one other challenge. To repent and improve everyday! Truly try to become like Jesus Christ if he was here how would you act what would you do differently and then make the change and stick to it and I promise you so many blessings!!! Ah I love you all so very much and I wish I could just write all day long!!!! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!! Sister Stones Come what may, and love it!

Aug 9th

HELLO!!!!! Second Pday and going on 3 weeks, my next one will be in DC!! So crazy! I feel like I have learned SOOO much yet nothing at the same time. It's a weird feeling haha. I've been in class and learning something new and then teaching all day for the past two weeks and then eating in between, ha. I am starting to feel comfortable teaching and sister Arbon and I are beginning to get into a groove. So sad we are going on opposite sides of the country so we wont get to teach together after this week. Sad day! Ok I want to tell you about one of our investigators. Her name is Barbara she is from New Jersey and she is an adorable older lady. She is hilarious and can't really keep a consistant conversation for longer than 6 minutes so we have to be clever when we are teaching her so she is at least learning something haha. The first three times were a little difficult because we had prepared just like for everyone else and then ended up not teaching anything planned (which I hear happens a lot) anyway, by our last time which was last night we figured out how to talk to her and how to keep her attention and how to help her understand the inportance of the message we were sharing. By the end of last night she knows: that there is a god and he is a somebody with a body (she likes that and says it all the time) because she had never heard that. That he loved her and wanted to help her in her life. She knew who the holy ghost was and how to recognize when she felt it, that the book of mormon was true and that she could find answers and how Christ expected us to live our lives and then she prayed to know if she should be baptized. She gave the sweetest prayer I have ever head and I just hugged her when we left. The spirit was so strong and it really testified to me the reason I am out here. Even if it was only for Barbara to realize her potential and that she had a Father in Heaven who loved her me being out here on my mission would be worth it. Even if every other day is so hard that I want to cry [which I do], those moments make it so worth it! Ok what else can I write about? EVERYTHING?! oh wait I don't have enough time. OH that's right I caught a virus and I've been sick for the last week with this nasty terrible caugh so now I sound like a man when I sing and talk. All the elders take turns picking on me. It's great fun. haha Hopefully it goes away soon! Lets see... I got my package yesterday which was HUGE and everyone was super jealous. I just reminded them that they got letters everyday so we were even and then Elder Day says "It's ok Sister Stones You're 23 you dont have any friends and more... we understand. :)" hahaha terd. Anyway we were late to class because sister arbon and I had to rip it open to see what was inside! THANK YOU MOM for the delicious chips and salsa! Not having it for 2 and a half weeks is crazy! I didn't even know I could miss it that much! But after class me, sister arbon, sister mansfield, and sister pyle may or may not have inhaled it in a matter of minutes [the entire bag of chips and jar of salsa]. It was so delishious! Most everyone else that gets salsa gets it confiscated but because momma wrapped it so sneakaly they didn't get it! SO GLAD!! It was so needed! :) We took pictures and laughed because we are really cool like that and then we played our new invented game "taste the rainbow!!" Where we sat in a circle grabbed a handful of skittles, and then took turns closing our eyes, showing everyone the color, eating it, and guessing the color. hahahahaha we were laughing so hard I have no idea why. Thinking about it now seems silly, but when you sit in a class room for 10 hours of the day you find anything to find excitement and that was ours. We also might have been a little tired. :) I love those sisters! Like I was saying in my last letter I LOVE MY ELDERS!!! I love my district I love my zone! We are the best! All the elders wait for us to finish our food and then they will get our trays, or they will hold the door open, or if you need a good laugh they are right there making you laugh so hard you can't breath! Ok I wanted to write down the funny things they do or Say! Elder Waldron: [Said in King Julian's Voice] "Which one of you is attracted to me?!" hahahahaha don't worry he said that the first time we met him and he's said it everyday since. Elder Nelson: [We aren't aloud to eat in the classroom and he was eating a snickers Brother Picket walked in and pointed at him and yelled "FOOD!!!"] He then shoved THE ENTIRE snickers in his mouth. and smiled. hahaha Elder Swensen [everything he says is funny because he is quiet and so when he does speak it makes you roll]: While the elders were talking about Bible bashing out of no where he just says. "Bible bashing?! NO why don't we just share a popsicle?!" Elder Brown: May or may not be Syndromes (from incredibles) identical twin!!Elder Day: (for the time being has replaced jonathan, mostly because they are the same person! hahaha) I was singing a song in the classroom and with his back to me says, "Who is that MAN singing? (turns around) oh... It's just Sister Stones." ahh hahahaha I love him~! Ok I know these may not be funny to anyone else but these elders are my new favorite people! I am sad we are all splitting up but can't wait to hear how they all do!!! Ok question... are my glasses in yet?! Welp I am like 10 minutes over so I've gotta go! I love everyone I hope you all know how much I love you and miss you all! Love Sister Stones

Aug 2nd

Hey everyone! I have been here for 8 days!! Crazy! I can't even believe it! I have grown so much in these last couple days! The spirit is so strong everywhere and I love being able to look around and see swarms of missionaries headed everywhere in the world. Since we got here on a wednesday and our Pday is on thursdays here at the MTC we had to wait until the NEXT thursday till ours. So lets just say I am so greatful for the break! I only have a few minutes to type and I have SO much to talk about. I didn't even know so much could happen in 8 days I am completely overloaded. hahaha. When people said that you would have some of your best days and worst days in the MTC they weren't kidding. There are times when I am teaching and learning when I feel so great and I feel like I can do this, and then somedays I feel like I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and ha ya. Lets just say I am greatful to know this is just practice so when I do screw up I can fix it. Or ask as many questions as I want, which I do. Oh but seriously even with some moments making me want to pull my hair out! I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am willing to go through the hard times for the great ones. I love my companion! Her name is Sister Arbon and I am pretty sure we new each other before this life and were meant to be together! We are the same person, movies, music, disneyland, laughing, joking, I am having such a great time, And she knows exactly what to do when I am struggling and having a hard time. She is so great! Sadly she is headed to Vancouver so I only get to be graced by her presence while here, but I am so blessed and I love every moment! My district is amazing! There are 10 of us four girls and 6 boys and they have become my best friends/family. Those elders make me laugh so hard and they keep me smiling all day long. Two of them (Elder Brown and Elder Day) are headed with me to DC South August 15 and the rest are headed to Canada and Minnesota. I can't believe we aren't going to the same places, I am going to miss them so much! Ha ah I love them! We are in classes most of the day and learning SO much my brain can't even handle it. We learn something and then go right ahead and practice it. There is no time to think.... at all. You just learn and do. I wish I just had one entire day to study and learn and put into my brain all of the information I want to have!! It is frustrating at times because I am not the greatest with words. I am if I am able to write them down first but just pulling them out of thin air might be one of the hardest things I have to do. Along with that being stressful yesterday I taught 4 investigators in one day! And I have only been here for a week. There have been a lot of prayers to help me not lose my mind and to help me be able to not be afraid and just do the work, but it is hard! I have always known that the church was true, and everything that goes along with it, but it has been a challenge since everyone I am teaching wants to know why?! Why for EVERYTHING which I totally understand! I would want to know why too if someone was telling me about something foreign to me. So That is something I am stuggling with as well, I have always just had faith, but it's good now I am finding all the answers for the people I am teaching. It is making me learn so much more, and I am able to fully KNOW the church is true from my own studying and prayer! Oh I just love it!! I just got back from the temple and now only have 9 min on the computer to finish this letter I seriously have SO much to say! I have run into so many people while being here. Justin Curtis is a teacher upstairs, and Sam Boyle is teaching as well and saw me in the Cafeteria and came over and said hi! That was fun! ha! The food isn't too bad I think mom you would be proud of me for trying new things! Sundays here are my favorite! Just so much studying and then we have a fireside and get to just sit and soak up all the wonderful wisdom of the speaker! Same with tuesday we have a devotional that night so I look forward to those days because my brain gets to rest! hahaha. I love hearing from everyone! It is seriously the highlight of my day when I get a letter or package!!! Oh it's great! Ok I love you all. I have been trying to think of what to say but my brain is overloaded with so much I seriously have no idea what to write! It's harder than anyting I have ever done in my life but SO REWARDING!!! I cry I laugh I read I memorize! I am tired ALL day long, but still so wonderful! I'm pretty sure I am bipolar now hahahahaha! My time is about up! I love you all I miss you all send me pictures, letters, or praryers my way!! Love you all!!! Sister Stones

A blog for Sister Stones

We are so excited for Michelle and we want to be able to keep everyone posted on how great she is doing, so we have decided to make a blog for her. We will be posting her weekly letters, updates, and pictures on here.