Week 16

Hi friends! Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Union City must have evacuated on the 31st because it was super quiet and a little creepy in the streets, but we watched How Rare a Possession with our favorite member Hermanita Lara, then planned for the next day, and hit the sack at 10. We were pretty tired and figured the best way to celebrate was to get enough sleep to start off the new year reenergized. Maybe I'll stay up tilmidnight for 2017 :)

This week was really great! We exceeded all of our goals and met so many awesome people. I love talking to everybody and I'm so grateful that our area gives us the opportunity to walk and meet huundreds of people a day!

Carlos was confirmed yesterday and set up an appointment to be interviewed to receive the priesthood this coming Sunday in Sacrament meeting, then he is going to baptize his 16 year old son Sebastian after church! We are soooooooooooo excited! He's definitely a blessing in our lives and the Union City Ward, but it's even more special to see the blessings his family is receiving for following the example and Gospel of Jesus Christ!

My testimony grows everyday as I'm doing the Lord's work and trying my best to be an instrument in His hands. I see miracles all around everyday and I hope you can too! Love you all so much!

Hermana Stone

Here's the lovely Hermana Lara <3 The only smiling pic she's ever taken in her life!

Best Christmas Ever! Week 15

Hi friends!

I've been saying it all week and I can't say it enough! This was the best Christmas yet! I've heard so many times from so many different people "turn out" "focus outward" etc. but I finally felt the difference. It was awesome to get packages and feel the love from home and friends, but as a missionary, the greatest gift is helping others discover and accept the gift of Jesus Christ. 3 weeks ago we talked to every single person who crossed our path for an entire week. At the end of the week one of those people called our number on the card and invited us back to talk more about the message we share, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught Carlos twice a week for 3 weeks and yesterday he was baptized! The program was almost flawless and Heavenly Father's love was tangible in the room. We are so happy that he found the happiness he has been searching for his entire life. He's so cute, as we were about to close the meeting he asked if he could share his testimony! Wow. He stood up and shared one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. It was a simple statement of what he knew to be true: Heavenly Father loves him. Jesus Christ is our Savior. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth today in the exact same form as when Christ established it. There is no other way to receiving eternal life except through Jesus Christ and following His example. And he did just that! I've only been out for 3 months, but if nothing else happens in the next 15 months it will still be so worth it. Doctrine & Covenants 18: 15-16 the scriptures are more eloquent than I am.

Something that broke my heart in the happiest way this week were 3 of the cutest ninas ever! My family sent a bunch of rings for me to give out to the kids here. They are little green shields with HLJ written on it. In Spanish HLJ stands for Haz lo Justo and in English it's CTR which means Choose the Right.  These 3 little girls were so beyond happy to receive these "presents." They said it was the best present they'd ever had. A lot of little kids say that about any gift, but these girls don't have anything. It was a humbling experience that I'll remember forever. 

Another super awesome thing that happened this week was a surprise visit from the Schroedter Family! Right after I skyped my family they called and said they were in Union City. Most fun 10 minutes ever! Love them so much!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas break and keep the Spirit of Christmas alive until Christmas rolls around again! Por ejemplo, think of a gift you can give to Christ this year por ejemplo do service once a week or go to church every Sunday :) Blessings will come if you do this!

Miracles are all around us!

Con amor,

Hermana Stone 

Week 14 ~ Let's Hear it for New York (otra vez)

Hello friends! Not much time this week but it sure was a good one!

We had Traditions with the Taggarts. The mission President and His wife are a party and a half. We love them so much! Then we had our All Mission Conference. New Jersey is being run by 236 missionaries and when we all get together it is a powerful scene. We visited the TEMPLE in Manhattan and that was the perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit. We walked through Times square!

Alex got out of jail and came to church

Carlos is getting baptized this sunday!

Christmas pic from NJMM

Love you all so much!

Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Stone

Week 13

Amigosss! Como le van?? I hope you've all had a great week of work, school, finals and everything else! Union City has been busy as ever and not too cold either! This email will probably be a little random because I don't have much time, but still an update!

For all my Anacortes friends or anyone who knows about our lovely Fidalgo Island, You will know who Willy Webster is. He is great! And even better we have an investigator here in Union City who is basically the same person, but Cubano and not baptized yet. He in jail for 3 more days but he texts us all the time asking about Book of Mormon and Bible stories. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a blessing to everyone! No matter what situation you are in, you can find peace and happiness in the scriptures. I have a huge testimony of this!

Question of the week: "If they don't care where you are and what you're doing on aFriday night...Why do they care so much about a Sunday morning????" That's all. But shout out to our 16 year old investigator who always ends up at the church on Fridays and Saturdays. Baby steps. Someday his parents will understand how important the gospel is to him and will hopefully soften their hearts and let him come to church and be baptized. He just wants to follow Christ's example.

Yesterday in Relief Society, we smelled amazing comida Dominicana the whole time and they finished the lesson early and served us all a Christmas Lunch! The UC building knows what's up and there is a door connecting the Kitchen to the Relief Society room! Also, they gave each of the women a gift bag full of makeup gifts. I was in dire need of purple and bright pink lipstick so this was a life saver ;) Haha I don't think it's very appropriate for gringa missionaries to wear, but maybe Hermana and I will play dress up with it on p days...

Christmas Week! Vamos al templooooooooooooooooo! I could not be more excited to go to the Temple! And in Manhattan too! It will be Hermana Harris' first time in New York and she's super jazzed about it! We also have All Mission Conference (aka Huge Christmas party) and Traditions with the Taggarts this week! Each Zone in the mission takes a turn going to the Mission Home in Morristown to spend a few hours doing family Christmas things like games, stories, and sharing testimony of our love and gratitude for our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. El es la Dadiva! He is the Gift! There is a really beautiful video on christmas.mormon.org that is 2 minutes about it! Please please please check it out! It's a great way to get into the Spirit of Christmas and if nothing else a break from the cares of the world.

I love you all and pray for you always!

Cuidensen!

Hermana Stone

pic of the lovely Hermana Lara and Campusano! We love Dominicans!

Week 12

Wowowow! This week was super! First transfer in the field was a success! I had my first dream in Spanish, our apartment is sparkling clean, and we contacted 252 people in 5 days! We are told that's a record in NJMM! So that's pretty neat! Even neater is that 3 of those contacts came to church!!!!!!!! People here love their day of rest so when they sacrifice those 3 hours to worship and feel the Spirit and keep the commandment we are super pumped for them! When we contacted Carlos and his 2 sons (the ones who came to church) they were in a rush but they told us they knew we were angels sent from God to make their lives better! It was definitely nice to hear after a long day in heavy rain! Carlos is super golden! He has already started reading the Book of Mormon and he asks relevant questions about our lessons. It's so exciting to see people who love God and are doing their best to follow Him, but just need something more because we can offer them that! We can wait to see the progress He makes!

Other cool things that happened this week include receiving a Happy Thanksgiving cake from 2 lovely Puerto Rican ladies we talked to walking to an appointment, the statewide Spanish Christmas program in Newark with every Spanish speaking missionary in New Jersey, and a muchacho who rapped his understanding of the purpose of life to us on a street corner. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to describe more in depth what he understands and that there's even more than he thought! Also, he's really into meditating so that's great! In Spanish the word "to ponder" is "meditar" and I love that because the invitation of the Book of Mormon is to Read it, Ponder it, and then in prayer Ask to know whether it is true or not. Reading and Asking are pretty self-explanatory, but pondering can be done in different ways like staring at a white wall in a yoga position, deep thoughts in the shower, sitting wrapped up in a blanket, anywhere really, but it does require devoted time and attention to the subject. It takes effort and is a sacrifice, as any good thing is, but it's so worth it. And you feel enlightened after. Aren't we all trying to reach some kind of Enlightenment? I guess my invitation to you is to ponder this week. Maybe a decision that you've been needing to make or a concept that you just can't wrap your mind around. I promise it will be a meaningful experience :)

I hope finals and everything else in life goes well for all of you this week!

Go Cougars!

Con amor,

Hermana Stone

 new transfer = new planner! We are going to the Manhattan temple this month so I had to put a picture of the temple on my planner!

We love Sister Taggart! (Mission President's Wife)

The cake and a view of the nice townhouses in our area :)

Week 11

I hope everyone had a perfect Thanksgiving! Ours was absolutely perfect here in Union City! We went to a family that is a mixture of Ecuadorian and New York so we ate American food! Then we also had a Dominicana Thanksgiving and another Ecuador. Lots of food but we were so happy because food is love! We started the day off playing football for 3 hours in snow! Probably the most fun we've had so far! 3 of the 12 zones met and we divided into 6 teams of 12 or so and had a tournament. (See pic below of the fabulous 3 after the tournament!) Pretty sure BYU's  next quarterback and running back are in our zone.

This week we stayed super busy teaching 23 lessons! and we were just absolutely amazed at the circumstances people live in and the miracles all around. Last night a lesson fell through so we decided to visit an inactive member who lived a couple streets away. When she opened the door she told us that she needed our help and the Ward's help. She had just brought a young mother of 26 and her 3 hijitas (6,3, and 1) into her home. They are homeless and malnourished. She doesn't have much herself but her heart is so big and she was doing everything she can to feed them and get them socks and shoes. We are helping her get in touch with ward leaders who can supply them with their needs and a more permanent living situation.

Our favorite scripture to share this week was Alma 34:38 about living every day in Thanksgiving for the mercies and blessings of the Lord. It's awesome that we celebrate what we are thankful for, but it is not enough. Every day is a gift and it's so important to recognize that and give thanks where thanks is due.

Praying with faith. Faith is a principle of power and action. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we have faith in Him. Faith that because of Him we can be forgiven and made more perfect spiritually or physically.

Out of time, but I love you all!

Look for the miracles always

Hermana Stone

Week 10

Today, and everyday, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I think Union City streets 26-37 (my area) has more latinos than the entire west coast combined! Which is totally possible because it is the most densely populated city in America. The buildings are 6 inches up to 4 feet apart and just filled past capacity. Finding is never a problem. And even if people aren't interested, they are 98% nice in turning us down. So that's just one little note of thankfulness.

Also I'm soooo grateful for my companera! She is the most pure hearted person I've ever met. I would compare her to Giselle in the movie Enchanted. She's una muneca for sure (doll). Favorite quote from her this week was "It was such a crazy weekend! We watched General Conference AND got a new kitten." She parties real hard. But really I'm learning so much from her how to be kind and gentle.

Well this week we dropped below 30 degrees. Wow it's pretty chilly here and dropping fast. Snow is coming in 48 hours! So we bought these Jazzy New Jersey beanies (see below)

Crazy story was about a man named Jose. He was an awesome street contact when we met him, but it turns out he just wants to bash us with Anti stuff and he is super contentious. Our phone broke last week and we didn't have a phone for 4 days then we got a temporary extra phone with a new number which turned out to be a huge blessing because he couldn't harass us on the phone anymore. Then on Saturday night we were teaching a less active member who comes to play futbol in the Church and Jose just comes running in and pulls up a chair and joined our lesson! Not cool. Hermana and I both just about peed our pants. We pretended like we weren't bothered at all, but we were both just praying our guts out that Hugo could feel the spirit. Jose began to bash and kept us there for 2 hours, we had another appointment that we ended up missing, and over all just not a good experience, but Hugo rose to the occasion and was defending and pointing out his logical fallacies. So if nothing else I think his testimony grew.

Fiesta de Accion De Gracias con mi companera!

I have no time left but I would say everything I'm grateful for! Family, BYU, warm blankets, mountains, Washington, and food are just a few.  Most importantly, and if you know nothing else about me know this. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that because of Jesus Christ we can have eternal families. I know that I can be forgiven or my wrongdoings and that I am not alone in my struggles or times of rejoicing.

I love you all and hope your testimony of Jesus Christ grows a little bit more this week!

Miracles are everywhere!

Con todo el amor en mi Corazon,

Hermana Stone