Hey Everyone!!!

So I am so excited about our investigator Katie Blain! She is so going to get baptised!! We took her to a Relief Society activity on Wednesday, and she had the coolest experience. So she brought her 2 year old son, Kaden, and he was going to stay in the little nursery while we had the RS activity. However, Katie was really worried about leaving him in the nursury because he has really bad seperation anxiety. Also I said last week he kinda has some type of ADHD.. well anyways, she dropped him off and came with me and sister Chapa. We were probably away from him for an hour and a half. Then when we came back to pick him up, she was expecting the brothers who were watching him to say something like.. "We never want to watch your kid again, he was destructive, colored on the walls, etc.." Well we find out that he was behaving good and he didn't even want to leave! I just thought that was way cool! Oh and we gave her a chapel tour the next day, and as soon as we walked into the chapel part of the building she was like, "Wow, I can already tell there is a different kind of a feeling thats in this room."

Honestly I have no idea how I got so lucky to have an investigator like Katie. She is my favorite investigator. Is it bad to have a favorite?!? Lol. I hope not, cause ya...

Well I would tell you guys more about our other investigators, but most of them just don't want to progress or something. Sometimes I wish I could just take away their agency for 10 minutes a day so they would read their scriptures. I know that the things we are asking them to do would help them, but they never follow through with their commitments.. I can see the solution to their problems, but they can't see it from my view point. I feel like that can relate to all of us in a sense that we can't see the future. God is all knowing. He has his hand out reaching to us, but we have to take that leap of faith and trust he will catch us. Faith is not just believing. Let me say that again.. FAITH IS NOT JUST BELIEVING! Faith is a verb. You need to act on that faith, or you aren't strengthening it.

My companion told me this expereince she had before she came out on her mission. She basically said she went on a rock climbing date with this guy who was "Pro" at that. Oh and she had never been rockclibing before.. haha. I think you guys can probably see were this is going.. haha. Well anyways, she was climbing, and he was holding her ropes. She had almost gotten to the top when she got stuck. She couldn't see another hand hold. So her date was trying to help her out. He basically said that he could see a spot where she could grap a hand hold, however she would have to first lift with her leg then grab it with her hand. But sis Chapa wanted to grap with her hand then move her feet up, because that way she was in comtrol and could make sure she would be alright. Her date promised her that there was a hold there, but she just stood there thinking about it 4 probs 10 minutes. Then she decided to put her trust in him, because there was no other way to progress and move forward. So she "Took a leap of faith," and lifted herself up with her leg. Sure enough, that hand hold was there.

We can relate this to our own lives too. I think the relating part of this is pretty obvious.. but i will explain it anyways(: So we need to put our trust in the Lord. We can't see whats in the future and what the Lord has in store for us. I know that as I have put my faith in our heavenly father out here, that there has ALWAYS been a hand hold to keep me from falling. I'm not going to lie, it is super scary. Super, super scary sometimes But I promise you guys that as you trust in the Lord and put your will with his he will bless you. He wants to give us so many blessings, but he can't give us blessings unless we do something to get them. Remember, faith is an action.

Oh so just a random funny thing.. so going uop to random peoples doors, and bringing up the gospel is kinda intimidating for me. I honestly didn't think that this was going to be a problem for me, because I love talking to people I don't know.. but for some reason it has been pretty hard. Well anyways, my companion has been making me do all the door approaches because she found out it makes me a little nervous.. lol.

What a great companion, always thinking about my growth.

Well I came up with 2 different saying, just hoping she might give me a little break. They didn't ever work, but we both got a good laugh. The first one makes a little more sense. Well we were at a random door when she just looked at me *Expecting me to knock right away* So I said, "I'll knock, you talk!" Hahaha. That didn't work tho. Next we always pray in the car before going out to see someone. So we will normally bow our heads at the same time and whoever wants to say it will say, "I got it." And if neither one of us wants to say it, we will just sit there until the other one feels a little awkward.. Haha. Which really isn't very long.. anyways, so before the prayer I go, "I'll pray, you say." Lol. That one doesn't make as much sense as the other one, but it was still pretty funny. I know me and sis Chapa are going to be one of those companions you stay in touch with for the rest of your life! I love her! Not saying there isn't hard times, but we always work through it and in the end we are always closer(:

Oh and I might come home speaking Twi (pronounced as tree). Its the african language out here. My name in african is Ama, thats because I am saturday born. I think it just sounds so cool! So my goal is to come home speaking Twi!(: Lol.

Okay one other funny-ish moment. My companion wears glasses, but her perscription is super low. So before i knew how blind she was I was joking about her eye sight, basically calling her a grandma(In a nicer way thanI put it). Then she was like, okay try them on first. So I put them on and.. A Whole New World!!! That was a video on vine I saw before I came out.. haha. Well I seriously had that kind of a moment! I could see each individual pine on the pine tree in front of us! It was the coolest thing! Lol.

So ya I thing I need glasses. I actually kinda knew that before I came out, because I took the vision test.. but I kinda cheated on it. I was 20/20 with both eyes, then my left eye was 20/20, then I uncovered my right eye.. Oh man! everything looked blurry! However I had already memorized the letters from saying it the first 2 times! Haha.

Well I have to go, so have a good week everyone!

Love yas,

Sister Steffani Stokes