Killer on the Loose!

 Hahaha hey everyone! This week was a very interesting but good one! I just finished my first transfer here in León and I'm SHOCKED at where the time went!! For real the fastest 6 weeks everrr!! Starting the week off was rough bc I had food poisoning but after a few days I started to eat kinda normal so blessings:) This week was my last week with my comp because she's done with her mission so we worked our butts off to end our time together strong! We honestly saw a lot of miracles in this last week so I'll share:D 

-milagro 1- we were looking for a member and knocked a door and it wasn't the person we were looking for but we said we were missionaries and shared messages about Jesus Christ and asked if they were interested (this is the part in the story people normally say "sorry no I'm catholic" and shut the door Haha) BUT to my surprise she said "yeah i would love that, come on in" and she let us in and it was awesome!! we had the spirit SO strong with us and she cried in our lesson and said she's been looking for God and we taught her how to pray and it was so special!! She has soo much potential and it's crazy how God puts trials in people's lives to humble them and help them look for God. She has a big surgery today to remove a cancer tumor so please keep her in your prayers she's so amazing and I'm so glad we found her and have helped her have some comfort in her trials this week! 

-milagro 2- we set a date for baptism with Regina this week and she's getting baptized Saturday!! Funny story though setting this date so we met up in a park with her bc it was close to her work and she had a lunch break and anyways were sitting in this park and I have my Bible open and I was sharing a scripture and this little kid comes up and goes "amigaaaaa" and hugs our investigator then puts his nastyyy literal black slime fingers on my open Bible hahahaha love that then he looks up at me and he's like "why are you speaking English" and I was like "do you know english" and he said no, and I said "and do you understand what I'm saying" and he was like yeah, and I looked at him straight in the eyes and said "well then I'm obviously speaking Spanish" and he was so confused why a white girl was speaking Spanish but it was SO FUNNY! turns out he was some rando that none of us knew and regina turns to me and goes "México mágico" and I lost it laughing. She's so cool and when I invited her to be baptized her eyes welled up with tears and she said there is nothing she wants more! I'm so happy for her!! 

-milagro 3- a golden investigator that we used to have ghosted us a while back and he reached out this week out of the blue and wants to learn and work towards baptism and it was just such a good surprise! 

-milagro 4- this weekend I was without a companion (because Saturday my comp left for Queretaro to have her final interview and stuff in the mission before her flight today) and anyways I was working the whole area by myself with lots to do. I wasn't "by myself" because you can't just do that on a mish so I've been staying at the house of the other hermanas here in León. This means I'm 5th wheeling and it was  bit stressful because I had to go where they needed to go to have someone with me but still take care of my área and steal one of them for my calls and stuff. Well we didn't know how we were going to make it work going to my ward and back for their wards for church yesterday but I prayed that God would help me get people to church and help get me to my ward and let me just say I saw miraclesss! It worked out for me to go to my sacrament meeting and we had 5 friends end up coming and loveee it!! Having 3 missionaries there was a blessing too with 5 different investigators who needed help and Ahh it was so so good! when you do all you can and put it in the lords hands he'll provide! 

These are just some of the miracles we saw this week but wow I'm so grateful! 

Well we got news of cambios this transfer and I'm staying here receiving hermana Castro (who is entering her last 6 weeks too) so I will be "killing" her off too! I'm turning into a missionary serial killer haha apparently but it's all good! I'm a little nervous but very excited for the chance I have with her because she's one of the best missionaries in this mission and I can learn a lot!! 

Well that's about all this week, sorry it was a little long haha! Enjoy this week and go hug your family and take your dogs on a walk for me :)) 

Pics- 

-elder ordyna our zl died as well this transfer rip 

-our little girl friends who are still obsessed with us haha. They were sad hna Stoddard was leaving 

-busses here are next level sketch haha

-a dog followed us all the way to the store, in one store with us, waiting outside the farmacy for us, then all the way back to our house and I was sooo close to keeping it haha

-a good old mural that screamed Mexico haha 

-on pday we ran into one of our fav fams at the centro 

-with regina at the park 

-dinner with Paula and Diego the coolest members everrr. He looks so tough with all his Tats and he's a big teddy bear and his wife knows how to cooook

- we did a waterballoon prank that turned out SOOO good haha

- our zone 

-our mission this month shattered the record and we had 117 baptisms as a mission in March!! God's work is moving forward when we work hard!!! 

Food Poisoning

 Hello fam. I honestly have 0 energy to write this week haha I got a pretty nasty case of food poisoning (México mágico jaja) from 5pm to 4 am last night haha so it's been a rough morning. This week was honestly pretty good tho and I'll send some pics for sure! Love you all!! 

-hna stone 

Pics

-we bought leon jersies! We live pretty close to the stadium so it's fun bc when there's games there's so many people in their jersies!

-we tried some weird traditional bread and flavored water and I had to chew my drink which I wasn't a fan of lol but it was pretty good. People gave us so much food this week haha and I was dying. Especially after getting food poisoning lol!!!

-at night we like to work out and we have this little girl that loves us and she asked if she could workout w us and then the next night I colored with her it was fun! She's so freaking cute!! 

-last pday we went to a sick park w our zone and rode bikes and played soccer! It was a good time :) 

-one of our investigators! We have a couple really great people were teaching so it's awesome! 

Also, RIP ME haha it's so hot here (like in the 80s every day with pure sun) and I found out that this is still WINTER weather and the heat hasnt even started haha. Wish me luck these next months 

Hermana Piedra

 Hello fam this week was another great one!

 We found a lot of new people this week (including a family:') who seem really prepared to hear the gospel so I'm really excited! We had 7 people come to church yesterday too which was sooo awesome! If you want to keep the Cesar fam, nacho*, estela, samanta, and regina in your prayers I'd appreciate it! 

 This week my heart just was FULL of love for the people here and I felt God's love so strong! We had mini divisions bc my comp had to go to queretaro for a leadership conference so I stayed w some other sisters in a different area which was kinda interesting haha but working with other people always teaches me a lot of patience and its always good to learn how other people teach and work their areas too! I've learned you can learn something from every person you work with/encounter and thats such a blessing that I think will help me my whole life!

This week I learned a lot about just loving people, being yourself, and making friends to share the gospel! First off we have become friends with a lot of our neighbors and even though some of them are not ready to receive the gospel, I've learned that we can share the gospel by being an example of Jesus christ and just being kind and ourselves. Making what I like to call a "homiestad" with people is so important to help people come to christ! 

I've realized that a lot this last week that God called ME to this mission and área with this comp because the people need me here- not some robot with no personality but ME with all of my good little qualities and imperfections. I've really clicked with some of our investigators and people because of my humor/dumb jokes (thanks for teaching me a good sense of humor dad and aj:), or ive clicked w people being a good listener or outgoing or just bonding over a similar interest like sports or eating or something small lol. Some little qualities that we have (just being ourselves) is something that can really help get peoples trust and friendship which opens a door for sharing the gospel. When people realize we are normal people sharing the gospel, sacrificing time from our lives and families to live in a different country with a different language and food and culture to share the gospel and light of christ bc we know its true, it's cool to see how many people are willing to listen!  Ive realized we all have different qualities, experiences, and spiritual gifts that we can share with others to bring others closer to Christ! This is something that everyone can do- share your light with others and just always strive to be your best while using Gods help to improve always:) Sometimes people or God can also help show us our weaknesses but I've learned that when God gives us weakness and we can humble ourselves enough to see that it's a weakness and ask for his help, he will bless us and help us receive the help we need. 

Hope this email wasn't too scattered and you could understand, but I just hope you all know how much I love you, but more importantly how much God loves you! I've been missing you guys a lot this week (w a comp so close to going home talking ab home a lot it can be hard haha) but I just love you all a lot and hope you know that! Remember you don't have to be a full time  missionary  to share the gospel! you can be a light and share the gospel through example and being yourself, getting peoples trust and making true friendships because you love people and want to serve and love them. After that, if you really love people you'll want to share the gospel and can ask for God's help to do that! 

Love you all and hope you have the best week! 

-hermana piedra 

(Funny story with that- I lost a tag on the bus so I asked my president if I could get a new one, and one in spanish that says "hermana piedra" because everyoneee that I meet says "stone, oh like piedra??" Haha anyways so I ask my pres and he said "yes you can have a Spanish tag, but your name is Roca, so you can get one that says hermana Roca..." well spanish dictionary and all the other people in Mexico disagree so well see what tag they order me haha.)

Have a good week!! 

God hears our prayers!

 Hey fam. I was lazy and didn't want to write last week butttt don't worry I'm back and better than ever! First off I just have to say that my heart is SO FULL this week from seeing God's hand in my life. This week was one of the weeks where I saw my testimony really grow! 

Some great things this week 

-Starting w the BEST things this week was we had 2 baptisms of amazinggg people- VERY prepared to receive the gospel!! But it wasn't as easy as that sounds haha it was the most stressful yet rewarding experience of my life! Well first off Jose Guerrero got baptized Friday and that guy really was golden and so happy to get baptized and seeing prepared people find the gospel and get baptized and seeing them just glow after Is really the best feeling in the world! The second person- Eduardo Gabriel was a little bit more of a struggle but it was so amazing seeing him grow, so here's his story: 

Eduardo was in teaching before I got to this area but they dropped him for like a week because he didn't want to change religion, he just wanted to "follow jesus" but he had a lot of doubts of how to do that and his family was super catholic so he didn't want to go against his fam etc... well he started reading the book of mormón in this time and he couldn't deny that reading the book of mormón he felt "peace" and just felt "a good kind of different" reading it. Well when I got to this area we started talking to him again and wowza we had the most spiritual lessons of my life with him! We testified so strong with the spirit and it was so amazing having him want to get baptized and really gain a testimony of the book of mormón... in this like 3 1/2-4 weeks he's read from the beginning of the book of mormón through 3rd Nephi which is crazy!! Anyways the struggle part with Him was literally 2 days before his baptism he calls us and just says that he doesn't feel prepared to be baptized and he thinks his catholic baptism was sufficient for him... well it brokeee my heart because literally he is the most prepared person I've ever taught! Well in the phone call the spirit was not there haha bc we were #triste and he was #defensive so i told him we were coming to his house the next night to talk to him. Well we showed up and had the best lesson of my life. First off we studied and prayed before going to his house and actually started a fast with our zone (especially for him and some other investigators) and showed up calm and with the spirit haha. we simply testified of Jesus christ and asked him if we wanted to follow Jesus christ really, and after he said yes and committed to do anything to follow Jesus christ we testified of how he can follow Jesus Christ's example and be baptized. We explained baptism again in a way way made more sense w examples and He stopped us halfway through the lesson and literally said "I don't care what my family thinks, I'm going to be baptized tomorrow" and the spirit was SO strong! I wanted to cryyy. Seeing him get baptized was the most rewarding experience of my life and I know that he needed specifically me and my comp to come to christ which was way cool! It was ahh so so good!!

- we had interviews w pres this week and it went soo good! I really feel his love for us and it felt good to talk to him:') anddd it was great bc during the other people's interviews we balled up in our dresses w some basketball w the elders and it was rad! You can tell I don't back down w the sports bc in the last 2 months Ive shattered 3 watches playing 

- zone conference w pres was also this week and it was SO good! We learned a sickkk new teaching method (that really works bc I've already started seeing its fruits) and I was super spiritually uplifted and motivated after the conference! We did some practices w the new technique and ate some double hamburgers which slapped 

-The people I have met in this area (in the ward, my investigators, my comp and the missionaries I'm serving with) really have strengthened my testimony that God places people in our lives for a reason and is SO aware of us!! I have felt the love of God SO strong through them and ah I'm so happy!! 

- on a super crowded bus a guy started freestyle rapping and we were the main part of his rap as 2 gringas and it was rad jaja. My new goal is to get to the point of where I can rap in spanish:) 

-all the kids and teenagers in our privada are our besties now (they freaking love us) and we play soccer at night sometimes now which is super fun and we're having a picnic next week w these 2 little girls haha, stay tuned 

-we ate some bomb Mexican food (like always) and got dorielotes this week after a couple long days. The guy literally pulls right up to our house with them. If you don't know what they are, come to Mexico and have a taste of heaven 

Anyways I'm having a great time here haha. I love Mexico, so many things are freaking random and it's getting HOTT here but wow i love it so much!! Love you all and shoot me an email or message if you have a chance this week!! Love ya! 

-hna Stone