Hey Everyone!!!

This week has been full of Grace!! The members here are so awesome! There are so many relationships I KNOW I will be keeping forever! I love every aspect of this gospel! Its just so true, you cannot deny it!

Miracle: So the other day, we got a call from one of the members in our ward. She told us to come over because her neighbor is there and says she wants to be a mormon and go to church! We had an appointment with a less-active right then, so we told her we would call her right back. We didn't know what to do, but we decided to just try the less-active really quick. They ended up canceling on us, so we were in the clear to go to the members! Grace right there! Then we get there and teach Tenia the restoration, and give her a baptismal date for March 14th, and she accepted!!! She came to church this Sunday, and is eagerly working towards her baptismal date!!! She is so great! Me and sister Chismar had recently been getting depressed because we have good numbers, but we have nothing to show for it.. no one was really coming to church, and no one was really working towards baptism.. So we fasted one day together for a baptism, and have been constantly praying to find the elect to teach and bring in the fold, and boy does He answer! I Just Love Heavenly Father! He definitely has his own time-table, but its the best time-table. Its always right when you need it!(:

Oh and crazy story!!! On Monday night we had a member come out with us. We were going to visit one of our investigators in "shed-town." So we pick her up and park in front of the gators house. I looked up out of our front window and I saw car a ways up the road driving really slowly, but I just thought he was slowing down to park or something.. but we bow our heads and start to say a prayer before we go see Glen. Then in the middle of the prayer I started seeing bright lights through my eyelids.. so I open my eyes and the car that was way up there was right in front of our car, with its high-beams going straight into our eyes! There were flashing lights all around us!!! So I quickly just finished the prayer, and we all were super confused! I was the driver, so I was just a little terrified, but it just happened so fast I didn't even know how to react! So a man gets out of the hug black SUV right in front of us. He was dressed is a full armored suit, and across his chest read, "SWAT" ................... I didn't know what to do, because he definitely had a gun on him, plus we were surrounded! So Abruptly I get out of the car and start running for dear life! I just left them to fend for themselves in the car.. hahaha jk! But I quickly turned off the car, to just let them know that we weren't a threat or would try to escape. He came up on Sister Chismars side, and she just opened up the side door and said, "Can I help you?" In a confused/frightened voice. He started asking us about the member we had just picked up and where we picked her up. I coul not remember the name of her street for my life!!! She wasn't talking, and sister Chis didn't know! But luckily, after a long time of him watching me struggle, I finally got the street name. And all the tension seemed to go away.. it was weird. But I guess they were following us since we picked up the member!  But He then told us that we had matched a description of someone they were looking for.. He then said it wasn't us though and told us to have a nice day.. Our investigator saw the whole thing right in front of his house and freaked out a little too! It was just crazy!! Man! The areas I serve in are just full of fun stories! Apparently muncie is the 3rd biggest meth place in the Usa! Northern Kentucky is the first! Awe well. 

Well love you all! Have a great week!!!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3

Hey Everyone!!

This week there has been a lot of opposition, but we came out on top! There are just so many miracles that come from when we keep working hard and don't give up! I am so grateful for Gods grace! He is here helping me through every single step of His work. I am not going to lie, I am so tired.. But I know that it is worth every second of it! Plus its always when I get out and work hard when I start feeling energized again!!(: 

We actually just had zone fun-day today! It was soooo much fun!!!! :D We played human fuse-ball, chair soccer, basketball, birdie on the perch(we won!!! Against 2 zones!!) and some Whip cream games!! It was seriously sooo much fun!! We were against the Muncie South Zone, and we creamed them!! I promise I have good sportsmanship, but I just love winning!! .. haha.(;

Well I don't have quite as much time to write this week due to zone fun-day, but next week I will get some photos to y'all!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3 

 1 year!!!

 Just worked out super hard playing basketball last monday

 us and ysa elders

 one of our gators had me borrow a hat 

because it was cold outside.. 

haha. Looks like a Tarantula!

 walkin' the bairn waste land.. ;D

 wall of vines

 elder Clare is funny

 walkin' the tracks

 This is where its at.(:

 Railroad tracks! Muncie has sooo many trains!!!

My companion took a picture of me praying.. 

don't know why.. haha. But decided to send it(:

Hey everyone!!!

One year ago, this week, I entered the MTC!!!!! Man time just flew by.. Me and sister Chismar actually both came out the same time, so we were trying to decide what we could do together for our 1 year mark. We didn't know what to do, so we went and got a blizzard from dairy queen.. yup we are fun! ;) haha.

This week we have been having Mission Magic!! We have this competition between zones going on throughout the whole mission for the highest certain key indicators each week to help us reach our goal of 100 baptisms in March. This week was new investigators. So those of you who know me, I am pretty competitive when it comes to things like this.. lol. So this was really good for me(: We usually hit about 40-50 investigators a week in our zone, but this week we hit 80!!! It was exhausting and very cold, but there are so many fabulous people we will be teaching now!! The people is what makes the mission so great, so why not talk to everyone?! Oh and I don't know exact numbers on our mission yet, but I know our missions record for new was in the 700's but the assistance called us last night and told us we were over 1,000!!! The Lord is hastening his work! That is all. 

Oh so like I had mentioned above I get pretty competitive with things.. so this whole we our plans we all focused around finding people to teach. However we went all week not finding a single person.. We were getting so down on ourselves. But we kept going and kept trying. We went out one day and it was about 11 degrees outside and just walked neighborhoods willing to talk with anyone who was outside. But no one was outside.. after abut 1 1/2 hours, discouraged, we get back in the car. Then we get a Zweet(zone tweet) from other sisters in our zone saying, "We found 3 new!!!!" And we were like, "Great, we have nothing again." Then something hit us both, reflecting back to something President Porter had said. He said, "Your faithfulness and diligence affect the other companionship's in your zone. It can also affect the companionship all the way up in Angola or down to Kentucky. We are all united, their baptism is your baptism." And that was just the coolest thing! We are Zion, and we should be happy for one-an-others success. When we are not, that shows that we have pride inside our hearts. So we became content with trying our best and seeing the success of others in our zone. Then a few days later, on Saturday, God gave us so much grace. We had found so many people by working the lists and doing assignments the ward council gave us. We were just on cloud nine! The scripture in Alma came to mind from this experience.. Alma 26:27

 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

He definitely gave us success because we persevered in obedience, and remained faithful. Don't let things slide because you aren't seeing any results from being steadfast now. The blessings don't always come right away. You need to trust in Gods timing and not give in, give up, or give out. 1 Nephi 9:6

      6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning;wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.  

And thus it is. Have a great week! Love you all!!!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3

 sister Porter

 us at our zone conference this week on wednesday!! I loved it! I love president Porter, he is my other dad!(:

 Me and Cheeta!! In the Wages house.. lol

 I got to see sister driesel again! (last companion)

 me and my sister training leaders. left to right: 

Sister Jacobson, me, sister Yoakum

 Our Fabulous Zone Conference!!! :D

 Totes adorbs(;

 superbowl food!!! :D

 we placed the playas!! haha

 Zone Conference

Hey Everyone!!

AMANDA IS ENGAGED!!!!!! I just can't even believe it.. I feel like there is just so much going on right now, its crazy!! I love love love the ring! You did good Jason!(: haha. I am so excited to have you as my new brother!! You fit right in with our crazy family!! lol. 

Well other than that.. This week has been Rockin down here in Muncie! Oh so great news.. We went to a Superbowl party!!! ... haha. Well kind of. We didn't have a dinner Sunday night, so with how great the Pratt family is, she invites us to eat some of the Superbowl party dishes! Man was that a great dinner!! It mostly consisted of heavenly junk food though.. haha. Did not watch any of the Superbowl though, we just stayed in the kitchen the whole time. 

A miracle we had this week was on Tuesday. I was on exchanges with Sister Jacobson and we had a chapel tour set up with Kim, and investigator, that night. A chapel tour is basically where you just show people around the church building and show the spiritual highlights. Well we have a member come, that is willing to drive Kim to the church building, waiting outside for us to go get Kim at her door. So we go up, and her son Bailey(19) answers the door. Whenever she doesn't answer the door it usually means she is not feeling well and can't meet. So I immediately knew it didn't look so good, but I held onto the faith. Then Bailey went and and told her, "The church ladies are here." and she said, "Tell them I can't meet, I am not feeling well." So he comes back out and tells us that. He then invites us in anyways, so we walk in wondering what we are going to do. Then he goes to ask her again, and she again says no. So we then ask Bailey if he would like to go on a chapel tour. We have never taught anything to him. We explained that there is a member that could give you a ride outside right now. He immediately said yes!!! We took him on a chapel tour and it was so spiritual!! We invited him while we were in the church building to pray to find out if what we have talked about today is true, and when he gets an answer to follow Jesus Christs example and be baptized. He responded that he already knew it was true. We asked how he came to know it was true, and this was his response. He told us that when we were teaching Kim(his mom) he would go into his bedroom with the door cracked and lay on his bed with the lights off and just listen to us!! He listened to each of our lessons with Kim! He wanted to come to church and to be baptized! So we gave him the date of February 28th, and he is now working towards that date! We are passing him off the the young single adult elders this week. But either way, super cool miracle!! God is definitely in the big and little details of this work! It makes me so happy to see miracles in this work, because it shows that God is using me as a tool in his hand. That is just the best feeling. 

Well I hope everyone has a great week! It sounds like everything is going SUPER at home!! Love y'all!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3