June 20, 2016

Well, sorry for this, but I don't have time to write this week...we have a service project and a bunch of things to do...so we have to cut it short...but to answer your questions that I remember....I haven'y received any packages....I am healthy...with a cold..but nothing else......My area is progressing super well.....NANCY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!.....Raul is getting baptized this Saturday,....Tita didn't come to church because she left town again...but cross your fingers for this week....we are going to start planning the wedding of Julian this week!!! and well.....I'm happy. healthy, learning alot. AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!!! I will be sure to write a bunch next week! 

​DAD! I hope you had a wonderful fathers day...I didn't forget about you I promise. I love you so so much and am so grateful that I had such a great dad! 

​NANCY ORELLANA 

​Here is Raul...hes getting baptized on Saturday!!!! And Nelson...our mission leader :)

​We have been soaking in the rain all week...and will be for the next 5 months :) 

WORKING WITH JESUS

Mom, Dad, Mara, Seth, Shelby and everyone else I love,
Every week in Los Naranjos is full of challenges and successes. I am happy to say that this week we saw more success than failure. It was a week of miracles!! Nancy Orellana is so so so ready for her baptism! We had some struggles all week with her family and also in the ward yesterday. The whole ward was fighting yesterday...it was really ugly but we spent a good part of the day with her yesterday in church, after for lunch and after for a service project we did and she told us that she doesn't care what her family says and doesn't care that sometimes the ward members are crazy. She knows the church is true and she isn't going to let anyone stop her from being baptized this Saturday. My heart lept when she told us this..."The church is perfect. We aren't." She understands so well! And shes so excited. So...lots of prayers for her this week! Her conversion process hasn't been easy but we are happy to say that she is converted and more ready than we ever thought she would be!
We have been stuck in a pattern of always only one person progressing in this area for well over a year. BUT this week we can say that we finally broke the pattern! We went from 1 progressing investigator last week to 4 this week!!! We were able to find 1 new investigator who is one of the chosen ones.Her name is Tita Garcia and she has been well prepared by the angels that are here working with us. We found her as we were contacting and had one visit with her at the beginning of the week. She said she wanted to know why the mormons don't drink coffee so in the first lesson we taught the word of wisdom and when we finished invited her to keep the word of wisdom and quit drinking coffee. She said yes right away and I thought maybe she didn't understand so I asked her why she would keep the word of wisdom and she told me..."because its a commandment of God and that's good enough for me." And when we returned for our second visit she told us that she had only drank one cup of coffee the whole week but that she was going to try harder this week. She also told us that she was talking to her husband about our visit and told him that she doesn't feel obligated to go to church with us...but she feels a DESIRE to go with us. She has now read...in just one week...4 folletos and is reading from the Book of Mormon as well. She is a miracle. She was in Santa Ana on Sunday.but said she is going to cancel her plans this weekend to come to church.
We decided to return with some of our old investigators this week and found two who are finally ready to progress. Raul Orellana has come to church two weeks now and told us yesterday that he would like to put the 25th of June as his goal for his baptism. His problem was that his friends in the school were bullying him for coming to our church. He is from the most popular church in Los Naranjos and has been received alot of flack for visiting with us so we left him but he is now ready. He told us he doesn't care what they say, he knows the church is true and he knows he wants to be baptized. He also told us that after his baptism he is going to take us around to all of his old friends who have stopped attending his old church so that we can baptize them too :) haha so we have some potential future investigators! We also returned with a old man that we only taught a couple of times but then got sick. He is 94 years old and his name is Julian Garcia. He had told us originally that he wasn't ever going to go to church with us because he can hardly hear but we invited him and offered to bring him in a car and he came! And when he left he said he really liked the church and he is going to come again next week. We are going to start planning a wedding for him and his wife over the next couple of weeks and hopefully a baptism in July!
So many miracles here this week! There is a promise in chapter 5 of Jacob that says that if we work with all of our strength the Lord of the vineyard will work with us. That's all it takes...follow the rules and work with all your heart might mind and strength. I cant say its easy. I feel like as we see more and more miracles we also see more and more contention, but I know the Lord is here working along my side and my heart is full of gratitude for the blessings that he is sending me right now.
I was also able to have an interview with President this week. He asked me a question at the end of my interview and told me that it was more important than any other thing he asked in the interview. "Hermana Stoor, what are you becoming?"I thought about it for a minute and just started to cry. The Lord is changing more hearts than the people in Los Naranjos. Hes changing mine as well. Maybe that's the biggest miracle of my mission as of now.

I love you all and I'm happy to hear that everything is going good at home. I know your busy and have lots of responsibilities...but don't forget to take care of yourselves as well. I love you all so so sooooo much! Talk to you next week! 

Hermana Stoor

​I am enjoying the rain here in Los Naranjos...although I'm freezing cold...I wish it would just rain every day. I'm all prepared with my chumpa and rain boots :) BTW...the pants are happening in July. I HAVE TO WEAR PANTS. Its going to be so so so weird.

​Another cool thing about El Salvador...their are mariposas the size of my head :)

​Just a selfie. 

​I  HERMANA GAMA

​HERMANA RAMOS. HERMANA GAMARRA. HERMANA CHAPMAN. PUPUSAS. These are a few of my favorite things. 

A surprise dinner with President Sanchez. WE LOVE HIM. BTW...He wants to know if Grandpa knows a man named Walter Petersen from home...he couldn't remember if he was from Idaho or Utah but he served in his mission as the mission doctor and I told him I would ask :)

​I am not sure if I already sent this photo...but Nancy is in the white sweater..Shes getting baptized on Saturday wooohooo!!!!!!

​Also ....the family that went less active came to church this Sunday! It was a miracle! Here's another photo that we took during the birthday party for their daughter last week. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE 

Help from Heaven.

Elder Holland once said..."Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow and forever. " I think this is going to become the best quote for my mission. I have received so much help from heaven over the past couple of weeks. I received a blessing from President Spjut the day that we went to the hospital and I know that it is between the power of the priesthood  and the power of prayer that I am feeling better. My stomach still hurts and I feel a little below in my energy still, but I feel a ton better. I am finally sleeping and can walk all day without dying. haha Thank you for the prayers and concerns! I will receive some medicine from my zone leaders tomorrow and I am hoping that it will help my kick this for good. I know the Lord is on my side. 

The Lord is truly in this work. I have seen so many little miracles with our investigator, Nancy. And we received the miracle that we were waiting for this week. She told us that on Saturday she was praying and she asked God if the the church was true. She was able to receive the answer that I think we who have asked with real purpose of heart have all relieved. She felt a calm, peaceful feeling, something she hasn't felt in a long time. And she told us that she knows without a doubt that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church of our Savior. And she is preparing to be baptized on the 18th of this month. 

Something that I have learned throughout my mission is the love that my Savior has for me and for every one of the people that are here on this earth. When you participate in the work and feel a true desire for the salvation of the soul of one of your brothers, you really come to understand the Savior and how He must feel about us. He wants our salvation so bad, that He suffered His whole life so that one day we could reach the celestial kingdom. I testify that my Savior lives. He loves his people. And that the church that I represent is the same church that He established when He was here on the earth. If we live worthily by following the principles that He taught, if we repent daily, and if we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit that we receive through the power of the holy priesthood, we will return to live with our Father in Heaven. I know the Saviors arms are wide open to us.so I invite my family members and my friends who are not members of the church and those that are, but who are not living the gospel, to repent. Search for Christ and become submissive to the will of our Father in Heaven. The path to return to Him is thin and is difficult, but in the end it is the easiest path. I love you all and pray for you daily. 

3 Nefi 27>19-22

 19 And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.

 20 Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day.

 21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;

 22 Therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

​The limes here are the size of my head. 

We had a noche de hogar with the Family Urruela (The family that went inactive). Here is Papa Gumer.

​Mi chulitooooo!! I want to bring him home. 

​TAMALES....Im finally used to all the food here...and its sooo gooood!

​Also...about two weeks ago we went on a 4 hour waterfall hike with my district. I thought I was going to die...but it was so worth it!

Challenges and Miracles every day!

This week was full of challenges for many things but in the end, I have seen so many miracles as well. As you can see, I am sick. I have alot of pain still and sometimes have rashes and sometimes have a fever in the night time. I woke up on Wednesday and couldnt breath and couldnt get out of bed for the pain so we called President and they came at 5 in the morning to take us to the hospital. They couldnt find what was wrong but gave me acetominophen and I feel a little better. (enough that im walking) haha They put an IV in first thing (crazy people) and it was worse than the time they took out my wisdom teeth. I wanted to punch the nurse. haha But I survived and resisted my hard feelings. They did an ultrasound on my stomach, xrays, urine tests, blood samples and found nothing. So today we are going back in to the hospital to do some more testing for a kind of parasite. Maybe I didnt get rid of all of my parasites. But I have alot of faith in the power of prayer and in the priesthood and know I will be just fine. Dont worry too much...President and Hermana Spjut and my companion and my ward are taking good care of me. Just include me and the doctors in your prayers this week please. I have been leaving to work every day and can work through the pain for most of the day. We have been taking things a little slow this week for this reason because if I try to walk or move quickly it causes alot of pain. But the work continues here in Los Naranjos. This week we mostly spent trying to find new people and we didnt see alot of results. Pretty much every day, all day, we just recieved closed doors. We looked for people through references all week and only found 6 of the people that we were looking for, but we did find a new family that we are excited about through a reference! It was a rough week as for the number of lessons we were able to teach but it was a wonderful week with our investigator, Nancy Orellana. She is progressing super rapidly this week. We are teaching her with a member family, the familia Aguilar and they are such a great support for her. She is praying in her prayers that she can be ready to be baptised on the 18th and that she can recieve an answer specifically about the church. She told us that she knows that The Book of Mormon is true so this week we just need to help her recognize that she has recieved an answer. 

I am super excited for this next week. President Sanchez taught the members for fifth Sunday and they are all animated to work more. I have alot of faith that this week things will be alot better and that we are going to see alot of miracles.  Sorry I dont have more time to write, but we have got to get to Santa Ana. I love you all. Thanks for your letters and love and prayers! 

Hermana Stoor

The fight of salvation.

Hermana Stoor,
I am confident the Lord will bless you as you continue to work at obedience with exactness. Just a word of caution, don't be compulsive or fanatical about it, but don't be casual either.
Pdte. Spjut

Lots of emotions this week as I read your letters. It breaks my heart to hear about Thayne. He was such a sweet sweet young man. I had the opportunity to sit with him in seminary and he was always so loving and so kind towards me. I will be keeping his family and Shelby and her friends in my prayers this week. After a little bit of crying and a little bit of smiling reading your letters I read this letter to me from President Spjut and I about died laughing. hahahaha I feel like maybe he knows me a little bit now. But I've got my mind stuck to being a little compulsively obedient. I'm hoping for some miracles here in this area and if their going to come....I've got to be more obedient and I've got to study more and I've got to pray alot more. SO....I just pray that President sees my reasoning for things. :) 

It was an excellent and really really hard week here in Los Naranjos! Excellent because we had a baptism. Hard because I was sick with just about everything. (they are thinking Chikunguya or Dengue woohoo) Excellent because we were able to contact a ton of new people. Hard because nobody wanted to listen. :) Excellent because The members are working so well with us! and even more excellent because we put another baptismal date with Nancy Orellana! The Lord is really working along side us here in our area. 

It has been a week full of lots of emotions. Last night, we went to visit some members that decided this week that they don't want to come back to church for some rather scary things that are happening in their lives right now. It breaks my heart to see and hear these things. Satan works hard on the hearts of the people. He knows when we are weak and knows exactly how to do his work. We are in the fight for salvation so we have to expect these things to happen, but it is still so so hard to see. This family has been members for 4 years and have callings as the young women's president, seminary teacher and 1st counselor in the presidency of the branch. They have been such good examples to the whole ward, but with the struggles that they have been having in the past couple of weeks, they have quit making the effort to come to church and to fulfill their callings. We need lots of prayers for them this week. I am praying that the members will continue to visit them because I know we cant do it without them. 

We had a baptism this week on Satuday as well. His name is Alexis Castillo. He is 9 years old and his family are recent converts. His mom is really strong in the church but his dad has gone inactive. The biggest miracle was to see his dad walk into the church again and we are praying that though the example of his son and the feelings that we saw him feel during the baptism will help him to come back to church again. His wife told us that he is really changing so we have alot of faith in him. 

This week we are going to be looking for new people and focusing our efforts in our investigator, Nancy that has a baptismal date for the 18th of June. We were able to discover this week what her struggle is and hope that this week she may be able to fulfill some more commitments and that we may help her to really start to feel the spirit for herself. She has a lot of big potential and loved the church yesterday. I have faith that she will be ready for the 18th. 

I know without a doubt in my heart that this work is the work of the Lord. I know he is here with us fighting for the salvation of the people here in Los Naranjos. I have learned even more this week of the love and the patience that he has with us. I know my Savior knows me and loves me. I know He loves each one of you and that he truly died on the cross for each and every single one of us. I l love you all and keep you in my prayers every day. 

Hermana Stoor

Here's some pictures from the baptism and on google maps of my house and of our little chapel :)

technical difficulty with the pictures - will have to wait for Shelby's help LOL!!!

Un feliz cumpleaños!

We continue with the struggles and triumphs and miracles and blessings from the Lord here in Los Naranjos. I love this area. I love the members and their willingness to help. Last night, we met with a family of members and from the second that we walked through the door, they were asking about our investigators and asking how they could help. Last night, I made a list of all of the antiguo investigadores that we have to contact that had their names as members. I have high hopes for this week! We have plans to contact these people with this family and right now we sit with 17 references that we are going to do our absolute best to contact this week. The search for news continues and i see so much positivity in this area. I have found that if we work through the members, we will find those that are more ready for the gospel. I am praying for some miracles this week and with diligence, faith and lots of prayer, I know we are going to reach success here. We have one investigator named Nancy Orellana. She was a reference from one of the in-actives in our ward here. We visited her the first time about 2 weeks ago and went to her house every day last week to verify her commitments and read the Book of Mormon with her. I have so much faith that as she continues to read that she will find her answer and we are going to do all we can to help her, to follow up and to resolve here desafios. She accepted a baptismal date for the 4th of June, but is super sick and was not able to attend this week so we have decided for the 18th of June. We need the prayers this week for her so that she can come with us to church. She is open to the spirit and ready to learn and I have so much faith that the Lord has led us to her now for a reason. 

My companion and I are doing really well. We are always seeking for better ways to work together and things are getting better and better here every day. I worry sometimes about her. She doesn't have alot of faith in the people here, especially in the references that the members give, and sometimes is ready to give up on them before we even start, but she is praying alot and I feel like her faith is improving. I am hoping for some miracles this week.

I have been really working on my obedience this week. My companion brought to my attention that if we are even 1 or 2 minutes late, it is disobedience. I have always done what I thought was my best to get out of bed right at 6:30 and leave the house right at 10...all these things but I never really thought about it the way as my companion. She has taught me something big that I am hoping to continue to apply...that we are not only awake at 6:30...but that we have already prayed and have left the bed, that we aren't picking up our backpacks at 10:00...but that we have prayed and are leaving or have already left the house. I know these things are small...but for the Lord they are bigger. I have the schedule from the binder we received out on my desk...and have made a promise with myself and the Lord that I am not just here to be slightly obedient but exactly on the minute obedient. And I know with these changes, we are going to see more miracles here! 

P.S. It was such a wonderful wonderful wonderful birthday...My sweet companion planned 2 surprise parties for me...from our district and the ward. It was such a shock to me....I will try to send some pictures but my time is up :) Love you all so much! Take care and I will talk to you next week! 

Hermana Stoor

P.S. Alexis Castillo is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!! In just four weeks in the area, practically starting from 0...we are seeing milagros! Please include him in your prayers!!!!!!

just a lovely picture of me and my comp....

my surprise birthday parties from the ward and from my district.....

annnnnnnd THE COUSIN OF THE NIELSENS....She is such a sweet missionary! You will have to send the picture to the Nielsen family!

And walk and walk and walk aaaaand waaaaallllkkkk.

 Just imagine the pioneer song from primary and how we always felt in primary when we had to walk around the church 5 times singing this song before we got treats on pioneer day and that is how i felt this week. haha In this area, we have to walk about 45 minutes to get to every single one of our investigators...its so worth it...but sometimes we feel like we are dying. haha  I absolutely LOVE my new area. I love the members. I love the cold. I love my new companion (struggles always, but super super awesome). I love the POTENTIAL. President said that it takes alot of faith to be a missionary in my zone and I see why now. The people are sooo hard hearted here. Nobody wants to let us in or talk with us in the street. We get the gate slam every day. We have people that are super offensive every day. BUT I LOVE THIS AREA AND KNOW WE ARE GOING TO SEE MIRACLES HERE. There is so much potential with the investigators here! We were able to set a baptismal date this week with one and I am praying with all of my heart for two more this week! I feel a huge weight on my shoulders this week. We are teaching a young man named Gerson. He is 20 and has come to church practically his whole life but has never liked the missionaries here so hasn't been baptized, but the president of the rama told me this week that he said for some reason I fall well with him. I HAVE ONLY TALKED TO HIM ONCE. But president told me he thinks if i keep doing what I'm doing I can baptize him. But the problem is...I don't know what I did. or what I'm doing right. hahaha But I'm praying that maybe I can keep doing it and we can put a baptismal date with him this week. But we need the prayers...both for me and for him :) haha We are also teaching a sister named Ana. Both of her daughters are members and she agreed to be baptized...we just don't know when. She said she wants to wait until her dad leaves the hospital but it sounds like he is not doing very well. But we had a really really good lesson with her last night and I am hoping she is really going to pray and that she can be baptized before. I know the miracles are available to us...we just have to be patient, work hard and pray harder. We are already seeing them. We had absolutely NOTHING when we started this change and now we are looking to at least 3 baptisms! MIRACLES COME THROUGH FAITH!!!!!! 

A little short this letter...but I want to send pictures...and I will talk to you on SUNDAY!!!!!!!!! BTW....I HIT MY 6 MONTH MARK THIS WEEK. The time here goes way too fast. Love you all and talk to you next week! 

 ​LOOK WHO CAME TO VISIT ME!!!! Nestor (my recent convert from Turin), Eric (investigator from Turin) and Nestors uncle came to Los Naranjos Sunday to visit me...BEST DAY EVER. I love this kid with all of my heart.

​Here is one of the waterfall pictures I promised mom! I have a mountain of pictures to send....just don't have the time to do it :) This was our goodbye trip with the Familia Alfaro in Turin.

​Claudisa is always so good to leave with us...even in the rain when we have to walk for an hour through the fincas to find our investigators. I LOVE THE MEMBERS HERE.