Hey everybody

Well this last week was a very interesting week of different things happening. Thanksgiving was awesome we got to have a great day of spending time with the members and having district sports. We had to do that because we had a no proselyting day. just lessons and member visits. We have been having a great time with the #LighttheWorld and sharing it with people and then asking them to share it with others to spread the Spirit of Christmas. I learned that sitting around while your companion is getting his final stuff done because it is his last transfer here. So we had a good week of some service and I got to eat a big burger. and then there was the fact that some unexpected service for a part member family led us to getting a new investigator. and also meeting with the family that is teetering on being less active(they are the ones with the Saint Bernard) helps them all come to church on Sunday. I also have gotten the chance to really see how much people are gone when it is a holiday weekend and that is pretty much everybody. I think that we are going to have a great Christmas and that this December is going to be awesome. I want to thank everybody for there support and I hope you all have a great time.

Elder Stokes

Here are some photos:

This week was good.

Hello Peoples,

I am emailing today because we are having a very strange week this week. We had a Short P-Day till 1 pm on Monday, then today is temple day so we have a normal P-Day till 6 pm then on Thanksgiving we are not supposed to do proselyting at all and limit our interactions to planned visits. So that is why it is weird. also on Thursday we have a breakfast appt., a Lunch appt., and 2 dinner appt., then we will have zone sports till pm.

but this last week has been great. we were able to find 4(technically 3) new investigators. So the first one is Dennis, he is Chinese, but grew up in CA. He talks a lot. we found him through a referral that the Ridenours gave us, Brett is a guy we are not sure about, but he is also found through a referral but this one is from the Brentwood 1st sisters, then there is James, he is the husband of a less active and it was a miracle we taught him. we went by to visit and his wife pull sup wit hher son and 2 big pieces of furniture that she was going to put in her house with just her son to help, so long story short, we helped, James got home, and we taught the lesson. Then the fine technicality is that we found this person but we wont be teaching her. Her name is Andy, she is 16 and one day she just came to church, The YM President got talking with her and they became great friends and wanted to set up a lesson with us but it didn't work out right then. Then she came to Tara's baptism and we were able to talk to her. she has read the Book of Mormon and watched General Conference. We were able to maybe set a time to meet with her at the YM Presidents house. then we found out that due to a situation with her mom, she wanted to be taught by sisters, and we also found out that she went to the Brentwood 2nd ward and she lives in the Marsh Creek ward. So we did a pass off lesson to the sisters, and that is why she is not our investigator but she is still in our ward. We found all these people without any tracting, Yay Member work. so that is why this week was good.

Elder Stokes

Here is a pic of our family in front of the Oakland Temple when we went there in May (Joshua was back in Utah at school):

Yeahhhh Great Week

Hello All,

So this week was really amazing. Tara got baptized and it was so amazing. When we were setting up for the baptism we thought there would be a good amount of people but not more than the relief society room could fit. and of course We had to fetch about 15 more chairs for her baptism. And her husband was able to make it so that was super cool.

We weren't able to meet with many of our investigators this week and we have been having trouble finding anyone. We also have been trying to meet with some more less actives this last week and we are hoping to get some referrals from them of people who might be interested.

And with transfers... We both are staying!! so that is great. but this is E. McDonalds last transfer so I am going to be in this ward for awhile. also we learned that Brentwood 3rd Elders are being moved to full bike(they have one of the biggest areas in the mission so pray for them).

This last week we also had the opportunity to have a service with the Ridenours, it went well. We went walking down a street and picked up a lot of litter. It was everywhere, we picked up almost 4 bags of trash and there were people that saw us doing that. there is also a picture of us doing that on Dan Ridenours facebook page if you want to look for that. also Chris got a python and we got to hold it.

Elder Stokes

Pics: Tara's baptism and the python

I want a Tesla

Hey Everybody,

So this Week has been cool. I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and with Hillcrest so that was good. We have been preparing for Tara's baptism:) and we are meeting our investigators and we have some great progressing ones. 

We had one kind of funny story. So we have a investigator named Julian and he is 10 years old, His mom is a less active who recently got divorced and those are the people at the lesson. So we need a 3rd Male and we are on exchanges but we want to at least try and get a member and so we call some people, One of them says that he might be able to come, but when the time comes for the lesson he is not there so we just go in as the 4 of us and text that we figured it out and , then 40 mins into the lesson just when it is wrapping up he knocks on the door. And comes in with two of his kids. It was kind of... interesting and lets just say we were glad it was with Julian and not some other more touchy people.

We also had the awesome experience of working with Elder Johnson who is from Jamaica and That was really cool. We worked in the YSA and got to teach a lesson with the STL's

Then was something awesome, we got to ride in our assistant Ward Mission Leaders Tesla. It is so cool, he never has to pay for gas, it has auto pilot, it has a turbo button where it can go from 0 to 60 in just over 4 seconds, and the inside is like a spaceship. So that was super cool. I really want a Tesla one day.

Well my week had some other things such as having a lot of lessons and being able to almost meet all of our investigators(missed 1) so it was cool

Elder Stokes

These are the pictures of the Tesla and that picture is what is under the Hood of a Tesla(Yes that is it) It was so cool.