Steffani is now in Muncie, Indiana :)

Family

This week has been really great! I don't have anytime to write.. but I will try to send some photos home, because they have 1,000 words to them. I am getting transferred.. :( I am really sad because I seriously have loved Kentucky sooo much! I think I might cry.. but you never know I could love my next area even more(: The Lord will take me where I am meant to be either way. Well I hope all of you have a fantabulous week! 

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes

HEYYYYYY!

This has been a grand O' week! I have been just loving it down here in Kentucky, I am getting really nervous for transfers, because I really don't want to leave this area.. but I know I will be wherever I am needed. Man! Who would have EVER thought that I would like Kentucky so much?! Not me! Lol. It is definitely not what I had previously assumed it would be like! Haha. There are normal people aside the crazies(: But I think that is probably everywhere, or maybe I am just used to it cause I am from Las Vegas.. Hahaha.

So as you coulds have guessed.. GABBY GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!! I am just sooo excited for her! She has changed so much! I am truly blessed to have been able to teach her and take part in her conversion. The spirit was so strong at her baptism. I just love her so much! And now she is planning on coming out with us to other lessons we teach other investigators all the time! And she told us she plans on serving a mission, and she already plans on doing her moms proxy work in a year! She is just what this ward needed. She has literally woken up the ward with her energy! The ward I think is going to help us out more, because Gabby helped them realize that there are people out there like her looking in the darkness for the light each of us members carry with us everyday. We are so blessed to be members of this church. I didn't realize this until my mission. For anyone reading this I commit you to prayerfully seek out someone to share the gospel with this week and involve the missionaries. It will be you so much joy, I promise! Because It has literally brought me more joy then I thought possible. Try it.

Oh and Sunday after Gabby was confirmed a member, Sister Holm,Sister Mandy Clark, and I all sang in sacrament meeting! We sang Savior Redeemer of My Soul, and the spirit was so strong. I am not going to lie, I was super nervous getting up there because I have never sang with that few of people in sacrament meeting before. However after my solo at the beginning I started feeling better and better. I know that was because of the role of the spirit as our comforter. The spirit comforted me up there, and I was able to sing my best without a shaky voice. I just love the spirit.

Guess what?? I went to the Temple on Friday!! It was so good! The Temple really is the closest place we can get to God. Every single question I had while I was in the Temple was answered almost immediatly. I just loved the temple, it really was a place of refreshing/renewal for me. Well for the next 6 months until I can go again.(:

Well love you all have a great week!

Love Always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3

 had a cool bon-fire service thing this week

 Beautiful fall in Kentucky

Good morning everyone!

I didn't get to write yesterday because we had a sisters conference. It was so good, so much revo! I love my mission President so much, he is such a powerful speaker and has the spirit with him so strong! I just wanted to say good luck to Benson and Kaylin! You two will be amazing missionaries!! Go change the world! (: 

Yesterday at church Gabby bore her testimony! It was so powerful, and most of the ward looked like they were in tears! Afterwards everyone was coming up to her and hugging her and giving her handshakes and told her just how much her testimony touched their hearts! I was just watching this happen and my joy was over the brim! The whole ward is now reaching out to our investigator, and that is exactly what she needed! It was just really powerful, and a spiritual experience I will never forget. I just love Gabby, she is going to make such a difference in the world. She is getting baptized this weekend! This will be my first baptism!! I am so glad it will be her too! She expressed to us as well that she really wants to serve a mission too! Gods work is definitely hastening, and I am so grateful I get the privilege to be a tool in His great hand! 

Not much time to write today, but have a great week!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes

 beautiful(: Ohio river

 Thelmas over run yard

 Elder Bell really into the lawn mowing job.. haha

whoa!

 taking down thelma.. opps

 took Thelma down..

 Corn

 look at the placement of the mailbox.. only in Kentucky

Carved pumpkins today for a Sisters fun day in the Zone! 

:D mines moroni and sis Holm SLC temple

 riding Thelmas deer

Hey hey!

I first wanted to say thank you so much for the letters/packages this week everyone! It really does mean a lot when I get those, it just reminds me that I am supported at home, and it helps me carry on through the good and bad days(:

Conference was sooo Great! I loved Elder Hollands, Uchtdorfs, and Elder Bednars the best. But all in all, they were all great! Man, it went by so fast! Its so sad that we have to wait 6 months to hear them speak to all of us again.. I feel like as a missionary you just crave knowledge. You can never get enough. When I went home, I feel like that urge went away a little bit sadly. But it has come back again! Feast upon the words of Christ, because they truly testify of what we need to do in life to find the most joy and happiness. Even if you can't find the words that give you a how to, just the way you feel after reading scriptures is joy and happiness! Love the book. Read the book. Live the book.

This week me and Sister Holm were making some copies of a paper we needed. When she goes,"Listen to this beat!" So I listen to the beat the printer is making while copying multiple copies.. it was totally beat boxing to us! Haha! So we start full out dancing in the church Library! Haha. It was sooo fun. So we ended up asking others if they needed copies of this paper, and they did! I have never been more excited to copy stuff for other people. So instead of jamming the printer, we called dancing to the beat of the printer the "Printer Jam!" Haha. Then some other sisters joined our Jam(:

This week We taught Gabby a few times again. This week was extra special though, because a miracle happened. We were able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation on Wednesday right in the middle of interviews with our President. Btw interviews with President were great! Anyways, A few hours later Gabby texted us and told us that her mom had just passed away. I am not saying it was a miracle her mom passed away, but a miracle that we could teach her about the Plan of Salvation before her mom left. I know that knowing the Plan of happiness that God has prepared for all of us helped Gabby through this hard time. She knows where her mom is and that she will be able to see her again. If we had even met her a day later than we did, then she wouldnt know this plan, because we have literally been teaching her almost everyday. I just love Gabby. She is so strong. She has come such a far way from where she was before. Her light is increasing, and I am truly blessed to be able to teach her.

Well this week has truly been so great! I love hearing from all of you, and I love the work. Work is truly the answer to all my problems. I feel like anything but work would help, but giving the work everything I have has been the answer every single time! So work hard, see the blessings, and feel the joy. Love ya!

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes

Hey Everyone!

So I am just realizing that my little sister Megan is going to be turning 16 this Friday.. Holy cow! That is just not allowed! She is old enough to date.. and could be going to homecoming? Man! Well Happy Birthday Megan! I love you bunches and bunches! I hope everything is going good with dance, friends, and of course the fam. Boys, stay away. That is all.(:

This week went really well! We have been working with one of our new investigators named Gabby. We just met her last Saturday, and she is already on date for the 18th of October! She is so excited to be baptized, and is keeping all of her commitments to reach that date! The elect are out there just waiting to be found and harvested. She is definitely the elect. She wanted her baptism to be even earlier, but she has to go to church at least 3 times first. Plus she didn't even know who Jesus Christ was when we first met her, so this way she will have more time to learn everything she needs to to be ready for the 18th. She also expressed to us that she really wants to serve a mission just like us! Man! I just love her.

We got our investigator Daishaun to church this Sunday. We just taught him the BOM lesson a few days ago and since then he is already halfway through 1 Nephi. He told us that his friends saw him reading the BOM and wanted to know more about it! So next lesson we have with him on Tuesday he is bringing his friends! Also while at church he was friend-shipped by one of the really strong members: Brother Wardrop. Daishaun is now going to be picked up by Brother Wardrop on Saturday and taken to the priesthood session of conference! Wooo! I just love missionary work! It is so true that if you're having a hard time, just go out and do the work. The more you lose yourself in the work the more you truly find yourself. I don't understand why that can be such a hard concept to believe sometimes, because it has always been proven time after time. But I know that I am so much more happier when I lose myself in the work! If you don't believe me, just go out today and test it out. It will bring you so much more joy than the TV or the computer or anything else will. If you don't know what to do for missionary work, then ask the missionaries. They will help you.(:

On Saturday we went to Thelmas house to do some service for her. Apparently her house has gotten so bad that the government got involved or something.. because she was telling us that she was going to have to pay $75 an hour until it was fixed up. So yup, she called the missionaries(: Lol. Oh and Elder Kyler Campbell had worked on Thelmas yard before too and broke their lawn mower trying to mow the 4-5 feet tall grass! They eventually took machetes to it! Haha. Well we had this member with us, brother Bell, and he told us that Thelma wanted this deader that a door nail tree down in the back. So I take this hand saw that wobbles and start attempting to saw it down. I look over to Thelma and Brother Bell talking in the front yard and she looks horrified with her hand over her mouth.. I wasn't sure what they were talking about, but Elder Bell, not Brother Bell (I know it can get confusing. Lol), came over and helped me push it down. So I got to push a tree down, so that was pretty awesome! I got some battle wounds doing it, but it was worth it(: Well later I came to find out that Thelma didn't want that dead tree taken down.. She had named it Thelma, and she really liked that tree.. I felt bad. I guess she named every tree in her backyard after someone in her family. So yup, I took down Thelma. But she said it was fine..?

The McBrides had their baby yesterday! I am so excited to see him this week! Sister McBride was sooo ready to have that baby though. Man! I don't think I am too excited to be preggo someday, it just looks so painful.. at least it was for her. There was another member who had a baby as well this week! So 2 brand spankin' new babies in the ward this week! Yay! I love babies(:

On Monday we had a Zone fun-day. The Sister Training Leaders had put the whole thing together. We did three legged races, ate donutes from strings, played corn hole, pin the name tag on the missionary, trashbag sack races, jello eating contests, and even more! It was such a fun day! I just love zone fun-days!

Also I was able to see the Womens Conference on Saturday! I just think it is so cool even though I am in Ohio, you guys are mostly in Vegas, and Amanda is in Portugal, and we are all watching the same thing at the same time. I loved womens conference though, it was so good! I just love President Uchtdorf so much. I have come to cherish any kind of conference now. What a privilage it is to hear our leaders speaking to us with the revelation given to them to help us all get nearer to God. It truly is just amazing, and we should always remember what a blessing it is to hear from them!

So random funny thing.. This actually happened 2 weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to tell you. So uh.. I TOTALLY GOT MOONED BY OUR INVESTIGATORS KID!!!! It was super awkward! I have never been mooned before either, so I had no idea how to react. Well we were bring our Gator Gina a plate of goodies. Her daughter answered the door and said she wasn't home. We were outside talking to her for a minute when I see the curtain behind her on the door move and I saw something peachy then probably a second later I realized what it was! ICKKKK! It was so nasty! And the worst part of it all is that my companion didn't see it! She saw a peachy thing too, but she only saw a tiny part because the daughter was in her way from being able to see it! So that was something crazy that happened recently!

Well On a more spiritual note, remember to look to the Lord for everything! The word remember is one of the most commonly used words in the BOM. So remember, and don't forget your Savior.

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3