November 23, 2014

   The pictures that are shown are of the new missionaries with their trainers at New Missionary Training.  This is a meeting that is held 2 weeks after they have entered the mission field where they receive training from President and Sister Stoker as well as the AP's.  We always prepare lunch for them and after lunch they play some games before they go back into their classes for more training.  The games they play are pretty awesome as they are usually scripture chases. I am always amazed at how much they know. 
   President and Sister Stoker work hard with the new missionaries as they start their missionary journey.  There is a lot of adjustments to make and some make them easy and some really struggle.  It is the goal always to keep them going because if they continue trying they will

adjust and make it.  This group has some exceptional missionaries but their are a few that struggle.  Their is one sister that has decided to go home.  She leaves this Wednesday and it is sad. 
   I had a wonderful experience teaching with the missionaries Wednesday night.  We taught Joe.  Miriam and I have taken him to church a few times and he is a great young man.  He was struggling with tithing, quitting coffee and some other things.  The teaching with  Elder Harrington and Pace was great.  I asked if he would like a blessing.  He said he wasn't sure what that was.  We explained it to him and he wanted it.  He asked if I would give it and it was so special.  The spirit was so strong.  He said he loved it and had some special experiences while it was given.  He has set a baptismal date of December 14th.  The Sunday before we start for home.  We are so excited for him.
  We had Concord Stake Conference this week end and it was great.  The Saturday night meeting was devoted to missionary work.  All the speakers were converts and gave their conversion stories.  They were wonderful.  President Stoker spoke as did President Anderson.  It is interesting to note that all the converts were former Catholics.  One sister said her boyfriend took her to the visitors center when they were in SLC, showing her everything.  She loved the statue of Christ and the one of Joseph Smith.  After going though the center, she asked where the statue of Jack Mormon was.  She had heard so much about him.  That got a good laugh!  After finding out what a Jack Mormon was she determined never to become one!
  Another sister was a sophomore at Dartmouth University.  She played for the woman's basketball team.  She was from Sun Valley Idaho and had some introduction to the church but never looked into it.  The missionaries found her and invited her to learn more and she thought she would ask "google".  She learned quickly that it was the wrong place to look for answers! She said it was better to ask god not google as to what things are true. While she was traveling with her team, they stayed at a Marriott Hotel and her roommate say a Bible and B of M in the night stand drawer and asked her what she knew about the B of M.  She realized she knew the B of M was true and testified as such.
   She went to Peru last summer on a humanitarian opportunity and she was quite supprised that while there she ran into two sets of Mormon missionaries.  They invited her to church and she loved it as the spirit enveloped her.  She will be wonderful convert.