called to serve

called to serve

Monday, February 27, 2017

Sorry that this is all you get for this week, but they didnt give me even 20 minutes today to write. But just know that I am doing good! I love the mission more and more every day and I am still not baggy. hahaha i think it would be better with a car for some reasons and worse for other....they drive like nuts here....so it would be scary...but at the same time better than being in a bus so we have more time. I will think about it this week and let you know the next! haha love you all so so so so much! Talk to you next week!
Hermana Stoor

That was "all she wrote"  this week - we asked her about transportation in El Salvador if that helps make sense of her short letter.  I am going to post a couple of pictures that Sister Spjut shared on the last transfer day - since she can't send photos from this area:




LOVE THIS GIRL!!!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Recieved this letter from President this week:

Hermana Stoor,
You had a wonderful spiritual experience with Sandra. Thanks for sharing. And it is pleasing to hear how you and Hermana Solis are getting along and bringing a much needed spirit to Independencia. You will make a difference.
President Spjut

Everything is super super super good here. My companion and I are getting along most of the time...and the rest of the time I am just thankful for all the patience I have learned here. haha Sometimes when we wake up in the morning, she wakes up angry with me and I dont even know why....sometimes hits me in the head to wake me up..so thats cool. haha I just dont say anything and we leave to run and get back and everything is a little more normal. And other times we are best friends all day and then randomly starts ignoring me. haha The people from Peru are weird like that. But I am super happy. And I am super super happy to be here in Independencia. The area is so cool and the members are super nice and we are having lots of success!!

This week was full of many more successes. Sandra is already ready for her baptism. She was able to attend a baptism this week and when we asked her after how she felt, she said that she could already see herself in the baptismal font. We had originally invited her for the 11th of March, but this week we invited her to choose if she would like to be baptized on the 4th or on the 11th and she accepted for the 4th of March. Every lesson that we have with her, she shares her feelings from the spirit with us. She is truly a chosen investigator and is passing through her own conversion process. She asked the stake president this week if he would baptize her :) Rodrigo is also getting ready for his baptism on the 18th of March...hes just a little slower than Sandi :)

We were also able to find many good investigators this weekend that we will be going back to visit with the sisters in interchanges this week. We are in charge of 7 companionships..one of which are the sisters from my first area...so i might get to go back!!!! But we will see what happens this week! I was particularly excited about a family that we found yesterday. We knocked the door and a little girl popped her head out the window so we told her we wanted to present ourselves with her parents if she could send them to the door. After a few minutes talking at the door, we asked to enter and as we got to know them, I felt something so sure that maybe we were an answer to their prayers. The way that they looked at us was as if we were angels. I am really excited to go back to their home and get to know them a little more and share with them the restoration of the gospel.

This week President Spjut invited us to study in Moroni 7, I liked verse 46 and the theme of the relief society "La caridad nunca deja de ser". I have considered maybe my whole mission that charity was one of my best attributes but i realized that maybe it is exactly the attribute of Christ that I would like to develop more before I go home. If true charity and true love for God never ends, maybe it is what I lack most. I have learned that if we truly love God, we will do all that he asks and be completely obedient to him. I try to be obedient, but I am not even close to perfect. And I learned this week, that if I can come to love God even more than i do now, a love that never ends, maybe I can become a person more ready to defend myself against Satan and become pure like him as it teaches us in verse 48. That is what I love about this gospel, that we can always improve and we have the Book of Mormon to teach us how.

Anyways, I better go, but I send my love to each and every one of you!! Have a great week!
Hermana Stoor

Monday, February 13, 2017

My dearest family,
This week was incredible. I cannot tell you about all of the miracles and blessings we have received since we got here to our new area. I am so happy to be here in Independencia and be with Hermana Solis. It took us a few days to get used to each other and for me to adapt again to the Peruvian culture, but I think we are going to be the best of friends. Our area is super big and there are lots and lots of people. I miss Metapan and Hermana Martinez but I am so content here in my new area! To answer some quick questions you asked:
Hermana Martinez did stay in Metapan, but I will still see her when she comes here to Santa Ana. She is super shy still, but I know that she can handle the area and she is a super good missionary so i don't even worry.
My responsibility as a sister leader is to support the other sisters in their areas that they can have success. Its basically like being a zone leader...we call the sisters at night to ask them about their investigators and see how we can help them and give them tips and see if they are healthy and happy. haha We also do interchanges every week with the sisters, so i will have many many companions over the next two changes.
I would love to send pics....but i cant! They told me that the computers here have a bunch of viruses so i cant plug my camera in...so you will just have to wait to see me until may. sorry. hahaha but i will take all the pictures i can!
My area isn't all to dangerous. Its just like every other area...you have to be super careful where you go and to stay out of dark places....but i think i should be good. There are a whole bunch of places where there is drug trafficking  here, but we stay out of those areas and our ward mission leader already told us where we need to avoid. The city is a little more dangerous, but nothing like my first area ;)
The weather here is a little cooler than Metapan...but we are just starting into the hottest months of the year here, so we will see how that goes. March and April are pretty brutal. I will send you some heat if yall can send me some snow.
My companion has 13 months in the mission so not many less than I. She will go home in July. She is showing me the ropes as a sister leader as she had been a leader one change before I came, just that she was in another area and they closed her area. So, we are both lost here in our area...but she knows our responsibilities as STL. She is super super cool. I feel like i gained her confidence last night as she started to share some secrets with me. haha So I think from here on out, we are going to be super good together :)
 We have been blessed with a good ward mission leader who wants to help us and has shown us around the area. We also received a good welcome from most of the members in the ward. I feel like this ward has had many problems in the past with the missionaries and don't have alot of confidence in us, but we are going to work and serve all that we can to help change their feelings about working with the missionaries. There is so much potential here in this area.
 I feel so happy and grateful this week for the way that the Lord has answered my prayers. I know We were able to meet a new investigator named Sandra Alvarado on Thursday. She was a reference from the sisters in Palmar and her boyfriend is a return missionary in our ward. We had a super good first lesson with her teaching the restoration and then on Sunday, we had a lesson in the chapel with her. We explained the vision of Joseph Smith and explained to her the fruits of the Spirit. It was key having her boyfriend Angel there with us as well. We invited her to kneel down and pray with us to know if the church was true and if she should be baptized. As she knelt, Angel reminded her that she could receive a answer in the  same moment as she prayed. After the prayer, we sat down in silence and she started to cry. After much silence, we asked her how she was feeling and she told us that it was something she couldn't explain but that she felt her heartbeat. We had her write down in the same moment the feelings that she had so that she could always remember them and she asked us if she could feel something like that again. We assured her that she could and that she would as she kept reading, praying and attending church. She accepted a baptismal date for March 11th.
There were many many many more miracles that we received this week. We only have 5 days here but we now have 2 baptismal dates! Every thing I have done this week, I have tried to do with my mind set in the glory of God and I feel so happy for the work that HE is doing here with us. We are only instruments is his hands and I have learned that when we truly look at it this way, HE works miracles through us.  And I know that through our obedience and prayers we will see many more miracles over these next few months. This promise in doctine and covenants has really come true in my life this week: D&C 103:36 All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith. I have never prayed more in my whole mission than i have been praying this week and I have seen a big difference. I just hope that the Lord can keep preparing me for the good harvest and that I can help the other sisters here in the mission have the same excitement that I have to work right now. The Lords hand is in every place that we look, if we are diligent and if we are obedient to his commands. I LOVE THIS WORK WITH ALL MY HEART. I know that this is HIS true and only church here on the earth and this is the work of salvation that so many prophets talked about in the olden days. AND I AM BEYOND GRATEFUL to be a part of it.
Love you all and I hope that you have a SUPER week!
Hermana Stoor

Heres just one picture that Hermana Martinez sent this week:
​The biggest hill in all of my mission...you cant really tell...but its a killer. 

 ​Goodbye breakfast with Omar and Jorge. Omar went to church with us a few times and is going to be baptized for sure!!!

​We also went to dinner to meet his mom on Monday...so here's another picture with Omar. 

​and a random mirror pic that he took of me while i was talking on the phone in his moms house.....its kinda cool :)

Monday, February 6, 2017

I was a little surprised this morning to receive a call from President Spjut, and this change was something I was not expecting. I have loved being in the area of Metapan. I have loved training Hermana Martinez and am going to be sad to leave her. I am nervous, but I am also excited to see the spiritual growth that the Lord has prepared for me in my new area, with my new companion and with my new calling. I have been called to serve as a Sister Training Leader opening a new area with Hermana Solis. My new companion is also from PERU! I love las peruanas! I am really excited to get to know her and nervous that we will be opening a new area (meaning that we will get there and not know where the house is, or the bishops house, or the chapel, or the investigators, nothing!!....but kinda cool because we start fresh.) We will be in charge of like 7 companionships in the area and I imagine will be helping President Spjut in training sessions over these next few months. It makes me REALLY REALLY REALLY nervous. I will make my best effort every day to be an example of obedience, love and diligence and just hope that I don't let anyone down....especially the Lord. I don't feel prepared to be a sister leader or to open a new area....but I know that the Lord will be at our side. I dont think I told you the name of my new area.....its called Independencia in Santa Ana. So I'm going to the city!!! It will also be my first time in Santa Ana.....so we will see how that goes. haha

This week I learned a very valuable lesson. I felt the REAL importance of the sacrament in our lives. I tried to think every night this week how I could repent and I felt a great renewal of the spirit as I partook of the sacrament. As I read this week in the Book of Mormon, I was especially touched by chapter 30 of Alma. Korihor, after having denied Christ and after being afflicted for this sin, explained that Satan had tricked him into his sin. The words and temptations of Satan fulfilled his carnal needs and he fell into sin. I feel that many times, we confuse the feelings of the spirit with the enticings of Satan. When we feel that something is right because it fulfills our carnal needs, we ward off the spirit by following these enticings. But, with the Spirit that we receive when we are baptized and partake of the sacrament each week and as we gain knowledge by reading the scriptures, we can discern if a decision will fulfill our carnal or spiritual needs. It becomes less easy that Satan can trick us into sin. I know that if we live worthy of the spirit, we will be guided through this life in the path that leads to eternal life. I am so grateful for the spirit, for the comfort that He gives me, for the guidance and protection from Satan. I pray that this spirit can guide me to help spread the gospel in my new area and to know how to help the sisters that I will be helping. I need lots and lots and lots of prayers. haha

Anyways, I have to cut my time a little short because I want to get back to my area to say my goodbyes...but here are a few pics from the week:::

 ​We spent lots of time by the lake in our area this week. It is beautiful! And the people that live there close are even more beautiful! And my companion is beautiful :)



 ​We also slept a few hours in P day while the rest went swimming. :)

​Hermana Jacqueline❤

​Pascuas grow wild here in El Salvador...Its pretty cool :)

 ​The beginning of the goodbyes....with Hermana Margarita (all the missionaries sign here guitar when we leave)
​Hermano Alex (the less active that we found in the bus) We bought him and his son white shirts to go to church this week :)

​Hermano Fernando (investigador) and Rebecca  (recien conversa) ❤

​And a picture of our daily breakfast...papaya and atol ❤❤❤❤

LOVE YOU ALL!
TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK!
HERMANA STOOR