10-24-11

Magandang hapon po or mayong apon for you cebuano speakers out there

   I’m doing pretty good, this week has been pretty good. The area is starting to pick up a little bit, and this week we decided to split it down the middle with the APs. We've been working that side already so it works really good. We found some new investigators and it’s been good.

This week has been great. Elder Holland and Elder Callister have been here in the Philippines all week. Elder Callister and Elder Nielson of the Area presidency did a mission fireside for us on Wednesday and it was pretty legit. Them and their wives spoke and it was all good. Elder Nielson talked about changing the culture around here, that Catholic culture of going to church on Christmas, Easter and your birthday. He compared it to Samoa, where the whole country shuts down on Sundays and the belief of the Sabbath day is very strong. He said 75,000 people have been baptized in the past 10 years here in the Philippines but only 10,000 are active and so that’s our big problem that we have to change. Elder Callister shared about Christ's church (all from the New Testament and made Elder Stover look silly when he raised his hand and shared a Book of Mormon reference, whoops haha) and also about being a consecrated missionary, way good stuff. He talked about how if we only change our behavior on our mission, we'll go back home and be the exact same person. We have to change our nature to be the person we want to be. So that's what I’m working on. Time flies by and I don’t want to be the same person when I get home so I’m going to keep working on that nature. It’s kind of a hard thing to get it "rooted out of my breast".

On Friday Elder Holland gave a fireside for missionary age YSA that haven’t served. We asked president if we could go but he told us to go to work, which I was fine with, no biggie. Well not until I found that that President let the AP's go and not to tell us. Ya I was kind of mad about that but forgive and forget, right? On Saturday Elder Holland and all of them had priesthood leadership training with all the leaders from 3 missions and president said we could come and listen to his talk. We got there late because of temple tour but we did get to meet Elder Holland and he put his hands on our shoulders and asked how we were doing saving the less actives. We said doing our bes,t then he touched my head and said he liked my haircut. Not bad..not bad.

haha but ya temple tour was good. We took our new investigator, Marian and her friend Rose. They live with our other investigator, Lucille and her husband Rio who's a member. Lucille couldn’t make it but we had fun with the other two. They show this awesome video about Christ in the end and some good tears are shed. Marian is astig though, we gave her a Book of Mormon the first time we taught her and she read the 1st chapter and half of the second one and took notes. I was impressed, cool stuff. We got some other new investigators as well. Brother Joel is someone we just talked to and the second time we came to teach, on Sunday, he was looking for us and so excited to see us. It was cool and he believes in Joseph Smith as a prophet. Cool guy with some interesting experiences about Christ.

Oh man and we talked to this one guy as well. I don’t mean to down anyone beliefs but man his were pretty different, like how he's a healer guy (forgot the exact title) that does it the way Christ did and how he does water healing, blind healing and like 3 other healings. It sounded like Avatar to me but hey, he liked to talk about muslims too. We set up an appointment with him for tonight so we'll see how it goes.

Anyways, It’s been a pretty good week. Elder Quinton is doing pretty good. I’m trying to help him teach a little more, he's pretty shy about Tagalog. I’m trying to get him to just practice but he’s a bit hesitant, good guy though, once he gets more confidence in himself, a bit more faith in the gift of tongues, and he'll be fine.

Love you all, hope everything is going great. Thanks for the pictures Mom from conference, appreciate them. Pray for you all, and I’m grateful for all you do.

love

Elder Stover

10-17-11

Hello po everybody

Well this week has been pretty good, better than last week. We actually got some real good weekly planning last night and that really does make a world of difference. When you have at least a plan and idea about the week, it can take a lot of stress and worry out, especially for me. So I think that alone might have really just helped a lot. I was feeling kind of sick at the beginning of this week but it’s gone away.

We had some sweet things happen this week and some not so sweet things. Our investigator, brother Joe, left to go work in Saudi Arabia. He had been looking for work over there and then we went to teach him on Wednesday and he told us he was leaving on Friday. He was a really nice guy and loved to read what we left him but I think he didn’t quite get the whole picture either. We only taught him a few times, I just hope he'll continue to read the Book of Mormon like he said he would.

On Tuesday night we had to take some desks out to Pasig, which used to be part of the Manila mission. We passed the turn and came to SLEX, a big freeway in the Manila mission and had to go a few miles before we could turn around. If I had a piso for every time I’ve been to the Manila mission while here in the office, I’d have like 10 pisos. Fun time tho haha

Wednesday was an ok day, we had zone conference. It was all about teaching doctrine and so we practiced pretty much the whole time. For some reason I kind of struggled, kind of was tense and those kinds of feelings drive the Spirit. My teaching wasn’t good and I could just tell. It’s disappointing when that sort of thing happens, only having a year left and not feeling like that great of a teacher. I was comparing myself and that’s always bad, feeling I need to be at a certain level. But the Spirit and this work isn't about levels, no matter how much sometimes we want to put it. I was reading the talk that Tana sent me, "Forget Me Not", it really, really helped. Those 5 things are things I’ve been doing or forgetting to do lately. I need to do more forgetting and that it will be ok and not to worry so much. Worry and stress breed more worry and stress and don’t solve anything. I’m doing my best and that’s all anyone can ask of me.

 We've been trying to find some referrals and former investigators and we had some luck. We found this one, Sister Marlene and her daughter Haidee. Haidee had just gotten in a bad motor accident the night before, hit a rock and got scrapes all over, it was pretty bad as she could barely walk. We talked with them and gave them a new Book of Mormon because the old one got destroyed in a flood. They’re really nice and just have this desire that you can feel, but the problem is Marlene's husband. He is not open to the gospel, he’s a drunk with no job and does not like Mormon missionaries at his house. He's the reason that they weren’t able to be baptized in the 1st place. So keep them in your prayers please. They need the Gospel and brother's heart needs to be softened.

On Saturday we celebrated Ben's birthday because his birthday was on Sunday. We surprised him with balloons in the morning and played some tennis with him and president. We played doubles and my partner was President. He’s really good so we went undefeated the whole time haha. It was really fun though. Then we had a baptism! Well it was in our ward but it was really the Assistant's because me and Elder Quinton never taught her. Her name is Haydee and she's from the province but staying as house help for a member in our ward. She's 16 and so cool. Her testimony is so strong and the baptism was really good. It was simple, not a ton of people there but the Spirit was strong. Haydee is the only member in her family and will go back to the province in about a year. She bore her testimony and said how hard It was going to be but she knew the Lord would help her. Then we ate at her house and oh man it was good food. I love filipino food so much, I don’t know how I’m going to live without in another year haha. Then because it was Ben's birthday we ate at Johnny Rockets by our house and it was good but man I cannot handle burgers anymore. I’m a total wuss and couldn’t even finish mine. If it’s not rice, I just can’t do it. haha.

And so another week is ahead of us. I’m going to try to serve with those that I’m around. I feel better about the work and a bit more in control but not at the same time. It’s overall a better feeling and I know this will be a good week. Look good, feel good, think good, play good. I love this work and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than where I am right now.

love

Elder Stover

10-10-11

Well this has been a pretty challenging week. It’s been crazy, it’s been busy, stressful and I’m tired.

On Saturday we were supposed to be watching conference in the morning and then get a bit of a P-day the end of the day. But, what happened is with all the flooding happening up north in Bulacan (QC North mission now) we got asked (told) to participate in a service project at the area office of repacking rice. It was done in the downstairs parking garage and we took 50 kilo bags and repacked them into smaller bags so they could be shipped up north and handed out to those affected by the flooding. I didn’t go into it with the best attitude but I worked really hard hoping we could get it done pretty fast so we could go watch Conference. That was at 8 am. It didn’t end until 2 pm. haha So 6 hours of carrying 50 kilo bags around a garage and I was way tired. One thing that I thought about tho, was how it was better to be doing service rather than to be listening to the prophet talk about service. It really was a good experience and later as we did watch conference and they did talk about service it was a good feeling. It was hard work tho, we were all soaked in sweat and the burlap of the bags did havoc on my hands and fingers, but that was ok because we got to watch the Saturday sessions (except priesthood) that evening and then Sunday we watched it at the stake center (where the mission office is) and we had 4 investigators come! It was pretty sweet plus a less active guy that came too. I got to see members from the QC 2nd ward there too, which was cool. Then back to the mission home for the last session and priesthood.

Priesthood was an amazing session. One talk that hit me really hard was the one by President Eyring, I wrote down more and maybe learned more from other talks but I didn’t feel the spirit as strong as I felt it in that one. (and I felt it pretty strong a few times). I had fasted last week to be able to receive a little revelation about how to do this training thing, how to do it the way the Lord wants and give it my all. That talk was the answer to my prayers and fast. Just a few minutes in to the talk it just hit me so hard and it was almost like a voice told me "this one is for you". There's always those certain messages that just seem to be made to our situation at that certain time and it’s how I know those men are inspired of God and that they speak to all of us because He loves us and they love us. I know He loves me and he is totally aware of my situation. It was what I needed. I wish I could re-watch it over and over because that is when the good feelings kind of ended. Right after I got slapped in the face with how I’ve got to do more than just listen and feel the Spirit from those talks. Now is the time to apply it and actually use it. 

 Anyways just been a tough week, it’s been fun too. We had Zone leader council on Wednesday and the Mindoro Zone Leader's hung out with us the whole day and it was well needed, really loosened me up. I’ve gotten in some good study when I’ve found the time. The scriptures are amazing and they get you thru the day. Maybe that is a big reason why I’m struggling today- no scriptures, especially after the spiritual feast the past 2 days (withdrawals haha). I also woke up feeling pretty sick and just not good, just basically tired. Today is our "p-day" but not really, just given time by president to buy some groceries.

I just feel like time is moving way too fast. Then you add into that this week was my year mark and I just feel like a crappy missionary, like I’m not smart enough, mature enough, or magaling enough to be a missionary that’s halfway done. It’s just been hard having my first junior companion and yet not really feeling like the senior at the same time. We need a bit of independence from the assistants or we're both going to go crazy. We'll see if it’s possible and if not, we'll both half to suck it up I guess.

The biggest thing I learned from President Eyring's talk was how he said we must make those "junior companions" feel that we need their help. I’ve got to try it, even just sharing about how I’m struggling and just asking for his help and support, like president told me this week, communication is big. I’ve been keeping stuff inside for a long time and it really isn’t helping. I’ve just got to be open and trust the other person and ask for that help.

I know this church is true. It’s when you go to where you can’t go anymore and then you keep going that you fulfill your potential as a servant of God. I know that’s true and I just got to live it,110 percent.

Love you all! Thanks for all the love and support

love

Elder Stover

10-3-11

Heyyoo.

Well this week was really long and really fast. It doesn’t seem weird to say that because that's about every week on the mission, especially in the office.

On Monday night we had a sweet FHE at one of our investigators along with that senior couple, the Bells. They taught a little lesson (in English) about general conference and all the names of the apostles. I thought it was cool and we had a really good turn out. I had a ton of fun and it was an awesome way to go out haha. Then the next day wasn't too much except for a few sisters going home who had their exit day. One is Sister Bonafe, who is my nanay (mom) in the mission (oldest sister in your district or zone). She is actually extending til the 13^th and is so awesome. She’s one of the hardest working missionaries I’ve ever met, and baptizes like crazy. She's way magaling. So on Wednesday I actually got to go to what they call Exit Day where you go to the American War Cemetary and Memorial, from World War 2. It’s beautiful over there, reminds me of the cemetary at Arlington in Washington DC. So that was fun and basically the whole Exit Day is pretty fun, especially because that’s the day we get to do a session in the temple as well.

Then transfers on Thursday, a lot less people got transferred, which was nice, but it’s always hectic . Just from that day I have almost 100 baptismal records to put in the system this week. Hopefully I can find time haha. We got 12 new missionaries, all foreigners that day too, some of them are really pretty cool. We drove a few out to their areas and I was surprised how good some of them are at Tagalog, like saying stuff I didn’t learn till like my 3rd or 4th transfer haha. I was a rough night tho because we drove one companionship out to the farthest area (about 2 hours one way, which is pretty close haha) and didn’t get back till around 11. Then at 3 in the morning drove the 3 missionaries going out to Mindoro to the airport. So ya, that Friday is always rough. President lets us sleep in an extra hour that day but then that just sets you back with all you have to do, add in that 2 hour comp study (believe me the assistants make sure we do it, always on my back about it) and we had no time in the office. That night we found some time to take the new elders in Quezon City 2nd around the area a bit and show them a few ward missionaries and recent converts. They’re going to do good in that area so that'll be way good

but we have our new ward now, the Cubao ward. They’re actually way awesome. On Saturday night they had a baptism of this girl, Mariecar a YSA (young single adult). The ward is way supportive, and really young. When we went on Sunday I almost though it was a YSA ward or maybe a college ward haha. That’s also because most of the area is boarding type houses so a lot of people are going to school and stuff, but they’re awesome. The bishop is like 30 and totally looks like a Filipino Tom Cruise, no jokes. When I first saw him I thought he was just another YSA. The assistants have been working hard tho to find some potential in that ward with part member families and finding former investigators. I’m pretty pumped about that and Sunday was really a pretty good day, even with fasting and all. I mean it’s probably easier to fast when you drive around all day but still haha. We taught this one family yesterday that was a former investigator, and it went so well. It was a lady about 30, her husband who's 25, the lady's daughter who is around 14 and their friend in his 20s. They all listened so well and asked a ton of questions, too many to answer all at once haha. But they just sincerely listened, not just acted like it because we're two white guys. I worked with Elder Haws and it was fun, poor Elder Quinton is having a hard time. He's really not very good at Tagalog, like nobody is just starting their 2nd transfer, but he makes mistakes that I corrected when I was in the MTC. I feel bad in a way because a lot of the stuff they do in the MTC is way different from when I was there, especially in the language and it didn’t seem to help him much. Elder Agner (the other assistant) who is Filipino, is determined to speak Tagalog to him and he struggles to understand. He gets kind of overwhelmed and I’m trying to find the right balance of correcting him and giving him encouragement, but when everyone introduces you right away as the guy who sucks at Tagalog, I’m sure that can bring you down. It’s funny tho, I think I forgot how hard it was those first few months, not understanding but trying so hard. The only thing that gets me with him is that sometimes he just doesn’t seem to try very hard. I’m just trying to motivate him and convince him that he'll get there if he just tries and has some faith.

Anyways I am really excited for conference this coming weekend. It happens to fall on our P-day but that’s ok, you got to do what you got to do haha. I’m just ready to get some good nourishing, with having to do my study everyday I may get sick of all that spiritual nourishing and no time for the other stuff, but I’ll take it for this weekend. You’ve got to be careful what you wish for right? I wanted to be able to find time to get my study in the past few transfers and now it’s being forced on me haha.

I love this work, now I’m just learning to love every part of it. I love you guys too and hope all is well. I hope everyone took good notes too in conference, I need to!

Love, Elder Stover

9-26-11

musta everybody!

Anyways this week has been a busy one. One big thing happened on Wednesday, my new comp got called into the office. Do you want to know who it is? Elder Quinton, the one I told you is from Magrath! haha pretty crazy huh?   This transfer is going to be very interesting. We have this new training program with the 2 hour companionship study. We did it for the first time on Saturday and it was kind of a struggle. He hates the program and I wasn’t prepared so it just went ok. It’s going to take a lot more prep on my part to make it worthwhile, to help him learn and do better with the Gospel. The thing is he gets it, he knows how to teach, just in English haha. I think the language is going to be the hardest thing, ok I don’t think, I know. I forgot how much I’ve learned in the past 10 months. There are so many words and phrases that I want to teach him but I know I’d just overload him. It is funny how I’ve always wanted to train/follow up and now it’s here and I’m not as sure haha. It’s going to be a fun transfer time. We already get along way better than me and Biado. He just got his license today so I’ll just make him drive all the time and no one will have to get back at Elder Stover for his driving.

The actual teaching this week seemed to go pretty good. We got this referral from the referral center in Provo and we went over there and he just flat out told us that he's looking at for a new religion because he was born catholic and doesn’t believe in anything they do. He had gone on mormon.org and requested a Book of Mormon. So we went over there and just the way he was, so open about it almost shocked me. Amazing how much you can feel the Spirit when the other person is open and invites it himself. Without us mentioning it he said he would go to church on Sunday and see what it’s all about. I left there feeling so good, something like that had never happened to me my whole mission. Then on Saturday night he texted me and told me he wouldn’t be able to make it because he had something come up, I guess. It was pretty disappointing, hopefully we can see him before we leave the ward and turn him over to the new missionaries. I hope I get to exchange with the new missionaries coming into that ward so I can show them a few investigators and help them out a bit in the area. Coming into an area like that must be really hard, especially when lazy office elders were there before you haha.

Anyways other than that, we haven’t been able to teach Evelyn until Friday night. It didn’t go that well and she seemed a little weird. She's kind of in a "woe is me" attitude all of a sudden and everything that we tried to testify and help her understand didn’t seem to stick. She always seems to be gone or busy when we come so I don’t know what happened. She still won’t come to church.

We did teach one family, the Matriano family, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned them before. The mom is less active and her son Andrew is 13 and not a member yet. So we teach him and sisters niece who is 24, they both just eat it up. We taught about the plan of salvation, about life after death and it was good. Her niece, Liza, has some crazy good questions. She even read the assignment we gave her, Alma 40, and had some deep questions. Some we answered and some we just had to tell her to wait haha. Andrew is awesome because he doesn’t say much but he is listening and writes down about everything we say. We had the opportunity to take a senior couple out working with us that night. They don’t understand Tagalog but you just ask them to testify at the end and it brings the spirit so strong, their testimonies are amazing. Their names are the Bells and they’re longtime converts and oh man they are sweet. We're having a family home evening over at the Matriano family later tonight and we invited them and they have great idea for a lesson. Working with them really gets you renewed about the work, how it should always feel and why it’s the greatest work in the world.

Then on Saturday was my birthday. It went pretty good, nothing too exciting. The DeLaMares had us over for pizza and then we watched a movie with Ben (Sons of Provo oh man I love that movie haha). The night before I ordered pizza for all of us, Yellow Cab Pizza. I don’t know if we have that in Arizona, but over here its top notch, so good. That’s about it tho. That’s what you do on your birthday in the mission, buy a bunch of stuff to eat to get you fat haha. It was good and I’m way thankful for the package you guys sent me. I also got one from Nicole which I guess isn’t my birthday one? But it was still good =P

Anyways not much else. It is transfers this week so getting busier and with a new area and training, a lot of stuff to learn and get used to. It’s a transfer of change, one I really need. I’m excited and a bit nervous.

Oh and an elder that was in my district in the MTC but went home a few days in is coming back! He'll get here in March I’m way pumped! When I heard that it got me pretty pumped, he’s a way sweet dude and it’s just good to hear. I also got a reply back from Cody Anderson which was way cool. He sounds really good, a ZL now, he is the man for sure.

Anyways hope everyone has a good week. Enjoy conference! We don’t watch it here until next week so I’m kind of jealous. I can’t believe it’s already here tho, I haven’t read all the talks from the last one yet haha. Time flies and now I’m an old man! haha I think once you hit 20 birthdays aren’t really fun anymore haha

Love you all, hope all is well, you are all in my prayers
loves
Elder Stover

9-19-11

Hello everybody

This week has been a pretty good one (they pretty much all have), another week of trying to find the right apartment, doing office stuff, and teaching when we get to.

The office has been pretty smooth lately. Speaking of my birthday, on Friday we went to a place called Daranak Falls out in the province. It’s about an hour drive, and it’s really beautiful. President's birthday is the day after mine, so it was kind of an early celebration for both of our birthdays.  We went with President, sister Delamare, Ben and the two office couples. It’s really pretty out there, the falls are way sweet, definitely a time I wished swimming was allowed on a mission haah. The best (or at least funniest part) was right before we left. There was a little hut on the river and me and Elder Haws wanted to go in and take pictures in it. I went first while he stood outside to take my picture. There was a kind of gate thing in front of the entrance that wouldn’t open, so you would think I would take the hint because it was already kind of sketchy. Nope. I decided to hop over the gate and as I landed my right foot broke thru the old wood and scratched up my leg a bit. It was more embarassing than anything, but nobody saw but Elder Haws. hahah oh man.  It shows you how little Elder Stover listens to the Spirit (or common sense) haha  The people there were cool about it that the there's a hole in the floor now. I guess its allowed to go in, but just not the best idea, as I learned. haha funny stuff.

Then on Sunday, Sister Matriano came to church again with her son Andrew, friend Liza and even her brother. She's doing really well. She's been less active for a long while, married an RM that died.  She's remarried again (or has another man) and has 2 little girls. It’s been tough for her to come back to church because of stuff that happened in the past, but you can tell she's doing better.   Why?  Well because she's coming to church of course, but also she's fed us the past few times. That shows a level of comfort that she didn’t have before it’s cool to see.  She's such a good lady and her son and friend are really smart, especially Liza who's about 22, I think.

Sunday was just over all a good day for work. At the start of the day I didn’t know if we'd have enough appointments for the whole day but it worked out really well. We taught Sister Mary Jane, who started by telling us that she was only being nice to us and didn’t really want to listen. But we taught her and as we taught you could see her just get into it, she was just brought in.  She now wants to know more and understand what we taught.  I think we did a bad job the past times but this time we just taught the doctrine and it changed everything.

Our last appointment was really good too.  We went to see this part member family to teach one of the little daughters. But the father was there too, he's a seaman, he works on ships and is gone for months at a time and just came back on Thursday.  We invited him to listen and we taught about eternal families and family prayer and he seemed pretty interested.  He invited us back later tonight so we'll see how that goes.

  

We did teach Ian, our baptism back in July. It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to teach him. He’s totally the man.  When we came in he was reading the Book of Mormon.  I’ve got to say that’s the best thing to catch someone doing... reading the Book of Mormon.  He really wants to serve a mission and he's only 9, such a good kid.  Now if we could just get his parents to get work off on Sunday and come to church too.

Anyways the work here is pretty good. We're blessed with a great ward and good area.  I’m sad to leave in a couple weeks but it's also for the best.  Since Elder Biado is leaving the office, maybe he'll go into this ward, QC 2nd, full time.  That would be good.

Anyways hope all is good with everyone. Nothing compares to the ups and downs of a mission. Other than the ups and downs of regular life, I guess haha. I’ve just got to always remember to "Abide in Patience" always.

Love it, it’s definitely something that's awesome. 

love

Elder Stover

9-12-11

This week has been pretty good and to be honest not a lot has gone on.  I think I say that every week so we'll tell by how long this letter is.

 Anyways this week has been good.  We're trying our best to build the work in this ward for the new missionaries coming in a couple of weeks.  We're still teaching Evelyn Corpuz, it’s gone ok. Her kids are pretty noisy still, and a lot of the neighbor kids like to come and "listen".  They don’t listen though, they just talk and Sister Evelyn gets annoyed because like she said, she really wants to learn. At this point we'll see where it goes because she's not real excited about acting, mostly just listening so that’s going to be the challenge. She's opened up a lot to us, but I know there's a deeper concern that we have to find.

Yesterday we found a new investigator. haha it was quite the experience I guess.  He was a referral from another mission and we tried to go see him about a month ago on a Sunday.  He told us he was busy and to just call him.  Basically, don’t come back if you haven’t called first. The problem was he only gave us a landline and I would always forget while I was in the office to call.  So then yesterday we had time and I just said whatever, let’s go, we'll see what happens. He wasn’t there but his mom was. She’s 90 plus, but pretty much all there though. It was a  funny little message we shared with her and she said like 300 times, if it’s from the bible then its good with her haha.  Then brother (his name's Juancho) came, holding a bible and kind of jumped on me a bit.  We were on splits and so it was just me and some ward missionaries. It wasn’t the greatest referral because she had only been talked to by the missionaries for a few minutes and given some pamphlets.  So he just went off about how the bible is all we need and wanted to know why we had the Book of Mormon. I’m not sure if he meant to attack but I was kind of taken back.  When I finally got a word in I asked if I could give us a prayer to start.  I pleaded with Heavenly Father and he gave me peace in my heart. It was a good feeling because at first I was almost scared, but as I prayed it was just gone.  I just shared about the Book of Mormon. I answered his questions, and it went pretty well. He’s a real talkative guy. He also only said one Tagalog word the whole time that we counted and I spoke it Tagalog the whole time.  It’s kind of funny, just how some filipinos are sometimes, especially the ones who have been to America (his mom has 4 kids, or 3 not sure she said both, in America and she’s not afraid to tell you hahah).  It went surprisingly well though and you could feel the difference afterwards. He complimented our church (while downing a few others haha) about how organized our church is. Its because we have a living prophet brother who speaks with God, simple as that, explains it all haha.  It was cool he was asking us to text him and set up another appointment and give him an English Book of Mormon (he has a cell phone I guess).  He’s a really nice guy, in his 50's and really smart.  He definitely talks a lot but that’s ok.  He reminds me of a recent convert here in this ward, she was way against the whole idea of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but after she received an answer, her heart softened and now her testimony is so strong. It’s just exciting stuff.

9-5-11

Hello everybody

Well this week has been pretty good, another interesting, but not too stressful week in the office.

Not a lot has happened as far as the office goes. There’s been some issues with baptismal records so tomorrow in Zone leader council I get a few minutes to train a bit so that we can avoid the mistakes. The wards and stakes have been complaining too so it’s something that’s got to be fixed.  On Friday we helped some elders move into a nice new apartment.  It’s really nice, brand new and about a third of the price of all the ones we've looked at.  We haven’t really looked much this past week but this week we're going to take a few days and go look in the afternoon.   It doesn’t do much to look at 7pm at night, everything is closed anyways.

As far as driving, well no accidents since last Saturday.  But the other day, I think Wednesday, we were driving home, turning left when a car came from behind us cut in front to turn left.  I almost hit him and got a little frustrated.  I’ve made sure to drive more carefully and I’ve noticed a difference.  Now even when people cut in front of me and I almost hit them, Biado takes my side because he knows I’m trying to be safe.  It’s just a different way of driving here, driving fast isn’t really possible in the Philippines haha.

Anyways work has been alright too.  We got a referral last Sunday in a far part of our area.  Not a big deal, we do have a car so we headed over there.  We met a brother who hasn’t been to church in 10-15 years.  He and his wife were really active till he got a job on Sunday and now they kind of turned catholic.  I think sister (we didn’t meet her) likes catholic better and brother just kind of follows.  The last time we tried to go over there though they hid from us haha.  Their neighbors are a part member family, the mom is less active, the husband is separated, and the two other kids aren’t baptized yet.  The girl goes to catholic school so the trick is going to be to get her to come to church. Sister is the key but she's always "sleeping" when we come, smart kids, hopefully we can see sister more often.

Sister Delyn was doing awesome.  We didn’t get a chance to visit her this week until Saturday.  Well actually we didn’t on Saturday because she moved back to Fairview, part of the North Mission! She's 22 but her mom made her come home because I guess she had a dream that something bad was going to happen to her daughter.  Here they respect their parents (a little too much) even when they're moved out and older.  The worst part is that she felt the Spirit!  I guess she has been asking and as she put it, she felt the manifestations of the Spirit.  She really wants to continue to be taught so we're just trying to get her address over there.  It seems like this type of thing happens a lot to me on the mission.  I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining but it’s kind of disappointing.  There's a bigger reason for it though, I know that.

On Sunday, Sister Matriano, a less active we've been teaching came to church!  She hasn’t been to church in forever.  She was pretty offended a few years ago (not something small either) and on Wednesday we tried to take bishop over there.  She was sleeping so we didn’t get to teach or talk to her.  Then on Sunday, right after sacrament we saw them walking up.  Oh man it was awesome!  I just had this big smile and as they sat down a member bore her testimony.  I don’t know what she said but something she said, along with them coming, I don’t know I just felt the spirit really strong and teared up a bit.  I think it was just love, just enough love to keep me going.

It’s been a good week and a lot of work to do in our area, with trying to find an apartment and all the actual work to do.  We're going to try hard this week to get out by 5 to get in a little more work.  It’s an awesome ward and awesome area, kind of bittersweet that other missionaries are coming in next transfer.

It rained like crazy yesterday and the past few days it gets really hot and humid in the afternoon then bigla, it rains like crazy, but yesterday it was real hard.  A road in our area, one we always use, flooded up to the hip, in like an hours time.  The Philippines got some crazy weather especially this time of the year.

Anyways that was my week.  Love you all thanks for everything.  I love this work, even in the office. I really do have an important part of the Lord's work even in the office, even if I don’t always realize it.  It’s been fun.

love

Elder Stover  

8-29-11

hello po!

  

First off on Monday that apartment that we thought we had, well we don’t.  I don’t know what happened but the guy was like nope no vacancy.  So yep we're still looking, going on 3 months now.  It’s not something I thought I’d being doing on a mission, but then again I didn’t think I’d be in the office either haha.  I do feel more used to the office and since I’m more used to it I’m liking it more.  I mean lots of stuff goes wrong of course, but it’s just more ok, I don’t know if its just because I’m used to it or what, but I’m enjoying it more.  It’s like on Wednesday we had to pick up a sister from the airport, coming from Mindoro because she has been having knee problems and she was going to the missionary recovery center.   We were in a hurry but first we had to get gas and as I pulled into the stall, I don’t know what happened to my brain but I came in wide and hit the pumps and broke one of those trigger things on the nozzle, ya super sweet.  I was super angry at myself, like close to tears to be honest.  All I could think about was how badly I don’t want to drive anymore.  I don’t know why I suck so much here, maybe the air is different here or something haha.  There are all these stupid things I do, like backing out without looking and basically not being careful I guess, nothing big, well at that point nothing big.  We took the truck in to get some stuff fixed and they gave us a replacement car and so on Saturday night, at 9:30, pulling into our neighborhood to go home, we got rear ended, like kind of hard.  I got a bit of whiplash, nothing serious, I’ve had my neck hurt more than this after football games, but it pushed our car forward like 2 meters.  We were turning left, waiting for traffic to clear, it surprised us both.   I felt worse for the driver though because he’s a driver for a catering service and his boss was pretty mad.  So for once it wasn’t my fault.  The problem was we had to wait for the police then had to go with him to the station to file a report. Ya we didn’t get home till past 1 in the morning, really lame.  It took forever.   Good news was the cops were watching UFC so I watched a bit of that hahaha.

Ya so now we have a replacement for our replacement car.  Man oh man, if I could count all the jokes made in my direction from everyone here in the office or at the area office haha.  It’s a good thing I’m a good sport lol

Anyways enough of my rambling, it’s been a good week and this one will be good too. It’s not who or where you serve, it’s how.  There is nothing truer than that and I’m glad I’m learning that lesson now because I’ll use it the rest of my life.  I’ve done a little better with getting some scripture reading done every day, even if it’s at 10:30 as I’m falling asleep haha.  That might be a big reason this week has been good.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission and in the office.  I’m learning a lot, stuff I probably won’t realize until after.  Time flies, on Sunday I’ll have been endowed for a year, crazy stuff.  I’m getting to be an old guy, I don’t know if I like it haha.

I love you all. Thanks for the prayers, emails, letters and all.  I hope all is well back home in Westpoint Ward and hope my friends are making good decisions.  The sooner they get on missions, the sooner we can see each other again and share all our mission stories.

I love this work and love all of you!

Elder Stover

8-22-11

hello po

This week has been a pretty crazy/fast week.  I don’t know how many times I’ve said this on the mission, but its true every week gets faster, especially during a week like this one.

On Tuesday we had to take fridges all day, I mean all day.  First we left the house at 8 and got my license back from the place because the cop took it last week because I made an illegal u turn.  Ya, there wasn’t a sign and even if there was the next u turn was like 3 miles away. (ya there’s almost no left turns here, only U-turns)  Anyways after that we took some new fridges to one house, then their old to another house, then their old one to another house and the other new one to another house and so on.  We pretty much drove thru the whole mission, got to our area about 8 and taught Sister Jovel.  It was an ok lesson but you could tell she had a question/concern but just wouldn’t say it.  Finally she asked what if she couldn’t get baptized.  So then we found out that on Thursday she was moving back to Bicol (where her parents live).  So ya, not the greatest day I’ve ever had, definitely long and not too enjoyable haha.

Then Wednesday was way better. It was exit day for the exiting missionaries. There was one elder and two sisters but the sisters are actually extending a few weeks so only the elder actually went home.  It was Elder Spiller, my beloved 1st zone leader.  I got to say probably my best friend in the mission. We got to hangout all day pretty much, I helped him pack a bit and go to a temple session with them.  Elder Spiller isn’t somebody I’ve ever seen cry or would expect to over his mission (he’s talked about going home since I came into the mission haha) but man sitting there in the celestial room he definitely cried.   It’s got to be hard, like me and him were talking about, after awhile this is all you know.  It’s like you were born a missionary and as much as you talk about going home sometimes, actually thinking about it is pretty scary.  The mission is so much fun and you learn so much, it’s hard to believe when it’s over.

Then Thursday, oh man. haha we had to pick up the locals at 6:30 at the MTC, take them to the mission home for orientation and interviews, then transfer meeting started at 9:30 and so before that it was getting the mail run all good to go.  Then transfer meeting, elders coming off Mindoro being late, then getting all the DVD players, DVDs, phones, new area books and all that up to the zones afterwards. haha it was crazy, then taking the trainers over to the mission home to meet their new trainees (the foreigners).  The foreigners had their orientation (all 22 of them) and we didn’t have enough time to do all their interviews with president.  Then the shuttle didn’t come to pick Elder Spiller up for the airport so I ended up taking him there so he wouldn’t miss his flight home.  Man I got to tell you we had a great talk. Elder Spiller has always been someone I’ve looked up to, he’s the man and such a good missionary.  He is just one of those guys where everyone loves him and everything he touches turns to gold.  We had a good talk about being "the man" when we get home, you just got to be the man, can’t be any less. He’s from Australia but is going to study at BYU or UVU so I’ll see him again for sure.

We lost Sister Jovel this week but we got a few new ones. Brother Noel Sanchez is this guy in a wheelchair that we always see and that we've talked to before.  On Sunday we actually got to teach him. He’s done some things in the past but has said how much he wants to change. He’s had polio since he was 2 and we just shared about the plan of salvation and especially about Christ and the resurrection.  A few times he teared up a bit I knew the Spirit was touching him. He’s kind of in and out of houses with his relatives so we just taught him on the sidewalk of a quiet street, cool experience.  We're supposed to go back to him this week and hopefully teach in his cousins house and meet them as well.  Yesterday was just a good day, just talking with people about the gospel is such a good feeling.  It brings joy as we invite others to come unto Christ I think we find ourselves a whole lot closer too.  I know this Gospel is true and I love my mission and my call to serve. I hope everything is going well with everything.

I can’t wait to hear from all of you, you're in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Stover

8-15-11

Hello everybody time flies! I feel like I was just here emailing you yesterday.

This week has been a pretty busy one with transfers coming up. It’s always a little more busy with transfers but especially this one, with so many people coming in and so many apartments that got to be moved into so they can have a place to sleep.

So like on Tuesday we went out to Teresa, which is about an hour and a half away, out in the province, kind of in the mountains, to move the elders into their big new house out there.  It took forever because they kind of had a lot of stuff.   They also lived in a place with tiny streets so we spent a ton of time trying to maneuver the cruddy truck (it’s a Ford and it stinks so much, but we're getting a new one soon =)) thru the narrow streets.  Then their new house is up a hugely steep hill, like probably like a 110 degree angle I’d say seriously its way steep, and it’s the Philippines so of course narrow too haha.  Then after that we had some desks to take to some other elders, so by the time we were done it was 8 o’clock we got to our appointment and taught. So from 8-8, we were driving or moving, great day haha.  Our lesson was hard too, we taught Sister Jovel about priesthood for like for the 4th time.  It’s really hard, I don’t know why.  It’s like she understands but then she doesn’t.  I don’t know if she just doesn’t get it or if she's just too shy and embarrassed.  She's very soft spoken and doesn’t like to read out loud either.  It’s kind of hard but we'll see how it keeps going.

Then Friday we moved some more elders into a bigger house.  That move went way smooth, just down the street, nice house.  I had to stay a little late to finish up some stuff for transfers coming up and I guess I didn’t communicate well with Elder Biado because he got pretty mad at me.  We had a real good fight/argument/talk and I think figured some stuff out.  We really haven’t had a good relationship at all.  We don’t fight a ton because that’s because we usually don’t talk much to each other.  It would drive me crazy if I wasn’t in the office but I think I’ve put up with it more because we're in the office, not really working side by side as we would in another area.  I do stuff to make him mad and he does stuff to make me mad.  A big thing of it is that I drive and he doesn’t, he wishes he was the office secretary and not financial because he says it’s easier, really, a ton of stuff.  It’s hard when he's mad because he just won’t talk.  It’s hard for both of us because we're both having kind of a hard time in the office, stressed sometimes so sometimes we kind of clash and Friday was a great example.  Stuff that’s been hard for me too, is that we like never plan, and if I suggest somewhere to go or something to teach he doesn’t really get mad, just you can tell he doesn’t like it.  We're trying to figure it out a little more and really need to because we're with each other for another transfer at least.

 I love this ward and the work here but I really feel kind of more like an obstacle than helping the work here.  I mean we only get to work so much and the work here is just awesome.  On Sunday we had some time and we did a little tracting and I’ve never had that kind of success just tracting.  In like an hour we had 3 return appointments, taught a lady and had a return appointment with her. I just got that feeling yesterday, that this area, this ward, Quezon City 2nd is just going to blow up.  Yesterday was just a good day.  We split and like I said we just found people willing to talk to us it was cool.  Then we taught this neighbor of a recent convert, she was really pretty shy, just kind of listened, but then her other neighbors, this Sister Delyn and this kid Bryan came.  We taught about the Book of Mormon and it was a strong spirit. You can just tell sometimes when people are getting it.  This Sister Delyn, she was just like there's no evil in it, it can only add and help and that it was true.  She’s a youth minister for a catholic church and I don’t know, it was a good lesson.  I felt impressed to talk about Jesus Christ's visit and you could tell they just accepted it.  I think the Book of Mormon is one of my favorite things to teach. It’s a powerful and important book and it makes all the difference in a person's conversion. It’s why the prophets always encourage us to read it, not the bible or D & C but the Book of Mormon.  When people have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon I think it’s pretty hard to get the rest of our testimony shaken.

But now its transfer week, we’ve got 33 (another got added last week) missionaries coming in and like 17 areas opening up.  Elder Haws was telling me that transfers are going to be sweet, a lot of people stepping up.  I just want to know who's going to sablayan because whoever they are I’m very jealous.   They have a list of people waiting to be taught, a brand new place where missionaries have never been, oh man it’s just like every missionaries dream. It would be a tough job but so worth it. It’s ok though, I’ll be here in the office learning a lot of lessons. The office is stressful and busy but it’s also got its advantages.  The AP's and President and his wife went to Mindoro for the weekend so we stayed at the mission home with Ben Saturday on our P-day and ate pizza and watched “the Other Side of Heaven” and “the Best Two Years’.  It was pretty sweet but in a couple of months I’ll happily trade that for just a regular P-day of cleaning the house and going to a ward family home evening after.  One lesson it’s definitely teaching me is that it’s how that I serve, not who or where, it’s how I do it.  Pull where you stand right?  It’s so true and the faster we all learn that lesson (especially Elder Stover) we'll all be that much happier.

 A few thoughts for this week, stuff I’ve gleaned off of others: "to pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike" got that from a talk by Thomas S. Monson.  We just got to do our part and act, life’s about action and good actions make us happy.  When we are happy, we do good things. It’s a good cycle that we just got to start...by acting.

I wish I was as wise the whole week as I am on P-days when I write these emails.  All of you probably think I’m just this mature wise missionary, kind of, sometimes, but mostly I’m still just figuring it out.  There’s a few flashes of brilliance and a whole lot of dimness the rest of the time haha

I love you guys and pray for all of you.  I just want to give my all to Heavenly Father for everything I’ve been lucky enough to have and know in this life.  Thanks for the prayers and support.  God wants us to be happy, so be obedient and be happy.

love

Elder Stover

8-8-11

mayong buntag!!

 

haha how is everyone? My week/life has been for the most part better this week. No accidents/breakins or anything like that, so that's always a big plus. Amazing how many things can happen in one week on a mission and yet how so very fast it all happens, you just forget all of it.  So I'll try and remember how this week was and all that happened.  

 

On Wednesday we actually took a senior couple to work a couple of appointment's. It was sweet, they may not have understood like anything that went on but they bore a way awesome testimony. It's amazing how strong their testimonies were, and I know it helped our investigators, especially sister Jovel.  She seemed to open up so much to them that I think it just made her feel a little bit more special that we brought them too. She's awesome though I've noticed a difference in her every time. We still take it slow but if we teach slow and to her level, she just gets it and is so willing to try and do the things we teach. She's received an answer about Joseph Smith and has read from the Book of Mormon and goes to church every Sunday. She's way cool.

We had an awesome service project on Saturday morning with our ward.  They set this whole thing up at a Barangay hall to take people's blood pressure and things and taught about diabetes, and high blood pressure.  It was kind of an awareness type thing, but the sweet part is we brought a bunch of pamphlets with us and handed them out after and talked to the people about the Gospel. Everyone was so open to it, amazing what a little bit of service can do to open other's hearts.  Just the way those people looked at us as missionaries and members was just different, it was cool.  It was just because we were willing to help a little in their community.  We got a few return appointments and one we went to yesterday, her name is Basing and she's an older lady who's husband just had an operation but is doing good. She's so smart and really, really wanted a Book of Mormon so we brought her one and taught a little about it and just bore testimony about how powerful it is, how important it is to us and to God for us to use it.  Awesome stuff.

Anyways I love you all.  I know this church is true. I'm sorry I can't give you more spiritual food and such but I'm running a little low at times myself. I love being able to go and work though, it's the best time of the day.  That's where we're headed right now so I'll talk to all of you next week!

Trust in our Heavenly Father, his ways, his timetable, and you'll never go wrong.

love

Elder Stover

8-1-11

hello everybody!

 

How is life back home? Here its pretty rainy. I think it's rained every day this week, on and off, off and on. It's almost a little bit cold to be honest.

 

Anyways, this week has been pretty good, lots of stuff has happened. On Monday we had an awesome family home evening with a bunch of the Young Adults.  I gave a lesson about prepping ourselves by strengthening our faith about all that's going to happen in the coming years. I was helped a ton by the Spirit and it was strong, then of course we played a bunch of games and I got some pictures... well had some. I'll get to that later.

 

I totally forgot about last week that I got a call on Thursday from the Manila temple. They asked if a certain hotel was in our mission. why? Because David Archuletta was in town and him and his parents wanted some missionaries to bring some Books of Mormon to their room because they had some referrals. So yes I called his dad and talked to him for awhile, he was a cool guy.  I guess his son has some fans that they wanted to share the gospel with. Funny guy, said he doesn't like calling them investigators, just pre-members. Haha, anyways yes I didn't get to take them but the Assistants and president did (life as the mission secretary),  but it's ok as they didn't get to meet him anyways. I didn't care a lot anyways because I don't think I know a single David Archuletta song.  I just know he's famous and a member haha.

 

Bad news though, on Friday night me and Elder Biado took ours home. of course we worked first. We taught Ian, our recent convert from last Saturday and a less active family right close to them. It was about 8:30pm when we went to the less active family and I hadn't eaten yet that day so I just wanted to go home, felt like we should but I thought I was just being selfish so I ignored it and we went and taught. The kids were crazy and loud and it wasn't a very good lesson. Then as we got to our car afterwards we noticed one of the back windows were open, well there was no glass but it wasn't open. Somebody took a rock and had smashed it in and took my camera and our DVD player. Sweet huh?  That's the second camera to have gotten stolen.  On the big bright side though, Elder Biado and my working funds weren't stolen (like  a thousand bucks in all) so that was way good, big tender mercy.

We were out late that night though, filing a report with the police and everything. I'm not expecting much probably just a gang of some kids. It's not the best part of town but we've parked there every time we've taught there so it was pretty unexpected.

 

Anyways life in the office is interesting, its hard and a lot of the time I hate it, but lots of other times its not too bad. I'm learning a lot, and patience is a big one, and how to just take the blame for everything. I noticed everything goes a lot smoother and happier if you just make it your fault even if its not yours. I bet that'll help a lot in marriage.

 

haha love you all and hope all is well

Elder Stover

7-25-11

Hey everybody!

I hope everyone';s doing good, over here it's just another week in the office, not a ton of stuff to report.

I come to the office, do stuff, go to work at 6, come home and eat. We have been doing this like karate stretching every night its pretty legit. Elder Biado, my companion took karate forever and teaches us all this crazy stuff.  It's fun.

There's been a lot of moves. with 32 missionaries coming in next month we have to find places for them to sleep. So tons of people are looking for apartments, including us in our area. On Tuesday we helped move some sisters into their new house. Their old house is way big but really hard to get to and it was rough tryng to get the truck up in there.  Me and Elder Biado did everything because of course they're sister missionaries, haha.

On friday we had our monthly office meeting, we all meet at the mission home (office elders, AP's, office couples) and talk about the upcoming month.  It went really smooth, faster than usual, they say.  Transfers are going to be pretty crazy, lots of new stuff is happening.  Sister Christensen who's in charge of apartments with her husband, is so funny. She was cracking jokes the whole time, me and Elder Haws were rolling, haha.  She kinda reminds me of mom, just some of the stuff she says haha

On Saturday, our P-day, we went bowling with president and his wife and son Ben.  Ben is almost 16 and just got back from Utah for the summer.  He's a funny kid and I'm so glad he's here though, a funny kid that livens stuff up a bit haha.  Ya and the bowling we went to? Total Filipino style, a ball that's like a shotput ball but lighter with lttle pins that they put up by hand every time.  It was pretty fun, we all had terrible scores aha.  Then the best part of Saturday was our baptism. Ian De Los Rios got baptized, the little 9 year old.  He's so smart and so funny.  We asked him and his little brother who was the most handsome out of the two of them and Ian covered his face all shy and said "Me". hahah it was so funny.  He reminds me so much of Noah except he speaks Tagalog haha. And president came to the baptism and said a little something about enduring to the end. Elder Biado baptized him and after Ian bore his testimony, well sort of, he went up to the front, stared straight at the ground and thanked everyone and us for teaching him.  His dad came though, his dad and mom and oldest sister live in Pasig and are always working but his dad got the day off so that was awesome.  Really nice guy and now its a completed family.

The work is definately the best part, at the same time it kinda sucks cuz we just have no time.  People come up to us in church and are like "did you contact that referral we gave you" and we have to say no because we didn't have time.  In any other area you would contact a referral right away but we just don't have time, plus we have to look for an apartment, takes more of our time because it's kind of high priority.

Anyway life is good here.  I may sound like I hate the office but its pretty fun.  I get to see the other missionaries regularly and help them with their problems as little as they are sometimes. Life's been not too crazy lately, but we have zone conferences and trainings coming up, then transfers.  So it'll start to pick up soon. Time definitely goes even faster in the office.  Transfers almost half over!  Crazy stuff.  It's weird being in the office at times though, almost forget you're a missionary because you are not always doing "missionary" things, almost like I'm taking a break to work in an office before I go back to my mission..  Any spiritual insights, thoughts, anything I'll take it from any of you.  I need it because sometimes I feel pretty spiritually starved. Something I loved though from the July's Liahona is the article about the forest fire fighters? I don't know if you've read that but I loved it.  It definitely is inspiring me how guidance, help and even comfort are just around the corner if we'll just act in faith and do what we're supposed to know.  I need that for sure.

Anyway love you all. Thanks for the support. I'm a spoiled kid for sure, thanks for the love and prayers.  I hope all is well and you are all in my prayers.

The church is true and this work is where we all need to be in whatever way we can.

Got to go to new.familysearch.org in our gospel principles class (yes we use computers in our Sunday school class sometimes, Quezon City 2nd ward is an American ward I swear) and it was way cool. Our families got a lot of work to do, something I'm going to try when I go back home. Pretty cool stuff.

Anyways love you all and hope the family reunion goes well!

 

love

Elder Stover

 

7-18-11

Hey Everybody!

 

Ok well one thing about the office is... these letters won't be really that long I don't think, not a ton to write about. I mean if you want to hear about all the headaches I get and mistakes on baptismal records, I could tell you, but I'm sure everyone else gets enough of that kinda stuff in their own job. haha  So I'll try to not talk about that too much. It's kind of how the office feels like sometimes, like I work in an office.  Then 6pm rolls around and I remember I'm a missionary and I get to go teach the gospel for a couple hours haha.

 

But this week has been a good.  The week started really pretty crazy. Elder Haws didn't get his license until Thursday, then got a ticket on Friday (he was coding which means once a week you can't drive that car to prevent traffic and such. So he just got it back today. So, as president calls me, Elder Chaufer in his letter this week. I don't know if I can express how much I dislike driving, especially in crazy Cubao and Quezon city, its the worst.  People cut you off all the time.  It got so bad on Thursday that this guy wouldn't let me in and man I got mad. Elder Biado had to calm me down a bit.  It takes avoiding road rage to a whole new level.  The guy yelled at me for not using a signal, I was like nobody uses a signal! haha  Oh man fun stuff.  Oh ya and I got in an accident on Tues!   I forgot about that, it seems like so long ago, haha oh man.  I was backing out of a store onto the road and some Lancer came out of nowhere to do a U turn (in the right lane).  It was the tiniest dent but they were freaking out.  I gave them money cuz that's what other office elders told me to do but they wanted to go to the insurance and do it the right way (imagine that).  Anyways no worries now, all taken care of and president wasn't mad. He said if I didn't have an accident here in the office then something would probably be wrong with me.

 

We've been playing basketball most every morning and it's been pretty fun.  Elder Haws is pretty good and he doesn't try very hard. haha.  He's such a humble guy, man hes cool. I like the guy a lot, we relate on a lot of stuff.  He likes a clean house like me, which is good cuz the house was disgusting, all these going home elders and  former AP's that left a ton of stuff and never cleaned.  So on Saturday we took care of that and it was good, we got it looking really nice.

 

The work is fun.  We've been getting some good referrals because its such a cool ward.  The only problem is we're moving to the AP's ward next transfer and us 4 will share it.  So in a way I'm sort of getting transferred, to a new ward.( 5th area in 7 transfers =P)  The elders coming in to Quezon City 2nd ward are going to be lucky because there's a ton of work to do, we just don't have time to do it all.

We have a baptism this week, Ian DeLos Reyes. He's 9 and it's a completed family.  He's such a smart kid, listens really good.  He reminds me so much of Noah that its funny. He's shy and looks a lot like Noah.  He knows everything so we're just getting him ready for Saturday. He's got this little, loud, center of attention sister (like Haidyn) funny tho.

 

Oh I got to study my scriptures this week which was so needed, I was about to go crazy.  It's like me and Elder Haws were talking about, I hope I've at least learned that lesson on my mission, that I need the scriptures, everyday and as much as possible.  You feel like a different person when you don't have them, it's kind of rough really.  I feel kind of lost and it's kind of hard to explain. I read the talk by L Tom Perry about the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament.  If you haven't had a chance, read it. its really good.  I loved it and it built my testimony.  It is definitely something I got to work on when I get home for sure, keep the sabbath day and keep my Savior on my mind the whole day.  It is pretty easy to get distracted on Sundays sometimes.

 

We taught this less active kid this week, his brother's wife is our investigator.  Him and his brother were baptized as kids but haven't gone to church in a long time. We taught him and it went good. He's 17 and was asking all these questions about missionaries and how to apply and stuff which is so cool.  The only problem is he has a kid and well ya, hard to tell the kid that he cant go on a mission. We told him he could come work with us tho if he wanted. It's too bad you know?  As much as we can repent, we still can't fix those outcomes from the mistakes we make.  We can only move forward and improve on those mistakes, we can't go back and delete the old ones. It's kind of hard but then again that's what agency is all about.  It's the toughest and yet most beautiful principle in all of the Gospel, all of the world.

I know this church is true. I know its the "right one" for everyone, but not everyone will know unless they use a little faith and find out how many blessings are there and they all depend on us.  I hope we never hold back any effort on our part to be blessed because those blessings are ours for the taking, they really are,

 

I love you all, hope all is well.  I'll be here, in the office, stressing and yet still loving it.  A different day, different challenges kind of like real life.

 

love

Elder Stover

7-11-11

hey everybody!!

On Sunday president called, last Sunday the 3rd. We just had our district conference that was awesome. We had an area authority come that was awesome. He gave a great talk about tithing and sacrifice, how as we show God we love Him thru obedience he will always show us he loves us more. It was a really cool talk, a cool story about their daughter going to college. Anyways then after the Zone Leader's and Sister Delamare came with us to drive us back to our areas. Me and Elder Vargas got home, had a good lunch and then president called. Ya he wanted to talk to me.  I really didn't think too much of it at first, until he asked if I was sitting down. haha yep I'm the new office elder, or mission secretary. I was pretty shocked. He told me how Elder Nelson, the last one, thought I would be a good replacement (he didn't really, president just makes stories like that sometimes) He asked how I felt about that and I was silent for a good 20 seconds. Not only was office secretary the farthest thing from my mind (District Leader, trainer, everything was before that in my mind) but I have never wanted to be an office elder, sitting on a desk typing up spreadsheets? Ya not my idea of fun especially when I could be out teaching and doing missionary work. Oh man I was shocked, but eventually I got over it. We went out and started to work, well mostly just seeing people and to say good bye and take pictures with them.  Then some stuff happened, Brother Jovan, he always works with us and is getting his papers ready for his mission, he thought we were joking and then when he figured out we were serious he started to cry!!  I was touched a lot because it was kind of unexpected. I thought he was closer with Elder Vargas. It kind of hit me in the heart and made it that much harder to leave. Coming into that weekend I was wanting another transfer. I guess that's how it works out. Then later on, the Varona family, a family that I never knew cared about me at all, never wanted to listen, always busy (a less active family) told us to come over and share. So we did.  I said the opening prayer and it was hard. I got a little choked up just praying for these people and the whole branch. I've met pretty much every member in the branch and it was just hard. I love those people so much, I've put in so much thought, worry, frustration and effort into that branch.  I guess that is when you really love the people, when you've given them your all. Maybe that's how Christ feels, he's given so much to us and its because of that, not the love we have for him, that he loves us perfectly because he gave his perfect love to all of us. It's amazing how much you find out how important you are to people once you leave. I also learned why you usually only have one night to say good bye not 2 days like me.


Tuesday I flew up with the Zone Leaders who had Zone leader counsel that day and got with Elder Nelson and went to go get my license. Ya yep I've been driving. My comp is Elder Biado the financial secretary and we live with the Assistants to the President, Elder Agner (a filipino) and Elder Haws. Elder Haws was called the same time as me. He plays ball for BYU, hes way good, just look up Tyler Haws, he's the man, so humble too. But he cant get his license til later this week so I've been driving us all around the past week, it kinda sucks a lot.
 Ya anyways so even tho I'm in the office we still get to teach, thank goodness. If not I'd go crazy. Our ward is Quezon City 2nd and our chapel is the 2nd chapel built in the Philippines, pretty cool huh?  Totally opposite of Rizal in about every single way haha. No more walking (like at all), real strong ward with good ward missionaries (Return Missionaries) just way different.  We're teaching this kid, Ian he's cool, 9 years old, just a cute kid, real smart, a little shy, a little chubby, kind of reminds me a lot of Noah.  They've had some good baptisms lately too, I'm real excited.  Just thinking about the work over there gets me excited and thinking about the work at the office gets me stressed. Oh man the baptismal records are the worst. If you misplace one they gotta get baptized over again. I do referrals and a bunch of random stuff too.

Now that I have my license tho it'll be really nice if you guys come pick me up.  I still got to talk to president about it but its a long ways off so I wont worry about it haha

Anyways life is crazy, so different from the laid back life in Mindoro. I'm just trying to find time to read my scriptures and write in my journal. oh and sleep that would be cool too haha.  I've been lost a few times as I'm still learning this city, my first area on this side of the mission.

Anyway I love you all, thanks for the support, the letters, emails, prayers, everything.

Elder Stover