Hey Everyone!! 

This week has been so great! Me and Sister Chismar are finally both feeling better from being sick! Being sick really reminds you to be grateful for your health, especially as a missionary! haha. We have had some crazy experiences this week though.. I probably won't share most of them.. but someday(: hehe.

So with the new year in mind I had read Alma 22:18. King Lamoni's father was being taught by Aaron, and his reaction to what was being taught was:

  18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

He was willing to give everything away to know God! How many of us are willing to do that? Are we willing to give away our Xbox, play station, or wii? Are we willing to give away our Sunday football games to keep the sabbath day holy? Are we willing to give away our comfort zones and put Gods will first? You know what you need to give up. It could be those things, or maybe just giving up bad thoughts. Those could just be demeaning thoughts about yourself. Like, "I am not as good as her/him," "I could never do that," or "I am not good enough."  I challenge each of you to do as King Lamoni's father this new years. Give it up! Don't hold onto it! And I can promise that you will know your Father in Heaven more. You will come to understand what His plan for you is. What he knows you can be, and continue to become. Learn who you really are. Prayerfully seek out something you can give up this year to grow closer to your Father in Heaven.(:

Th is week sister Chismar and I have been learning a lot about each-other, and I am just loving our companionship! We will have a little bit of tension between us, in a sister kind of way, and then we will just talk it out. Talking it out is my favorite thing! You just feel sooo much better afterwards, but it is hard to do at first. I just feel like our companionship is actually changing my true self. The other companionships I have had felt like they were changing my surface, but when I got home I would easily revert back to the same person I once was. However this companionship is changing me to the very core!!! I am not even kidding! The very beginning of our companionship was great number-wise and relationship-wise(The honeymoon stage), but then we began to become comfortable with each other to a bad extent. To where our natural man selves came out.. it wasn't good at all! We still got along great, but we were really struggling with the work, and on top of that we were both sick! Well this week we are feeling better and we are more determined to work on ourselves and this ward. I am learning so much about myself, and I am really changing the parts of me that could have caused me to go less-active when I go home in about 9 months. Our companionship is so inspired, and I just want to cry for joy just thinking that I can change my true desires of wanting to be comfortable, to having such a love for the people that I willingly and want to put myself completely out there in the cold and weary world. God is so good. 

For example, the other day we had bishop out with us. We had a set appt. with these people and when we got there they were all sick so we couldn't teach then the BOM lesson. It was pouring rain, but I was determined to teach them something that would strengthen their faith. So I shared Alma 7:11 and the spirit was there, and it was an awesome but short powerful lesson about how Christ has felt what they are feeling with the flu, even though we were getting drenched outside in the rain. Then we went and stopped by this less-actives house that reeks of smoke! If you new anything about me before the mission, Oh man.. I could not do smoke for anything. I would run the other way! Well I wanted to go to her house, because I loved her! The smoke didn't bother me one bit, and I was just focused on her the whole time. Afterwards Bishop and Sister Chismar were talking about how bad it smelt in there and how horrible it was to be in the rain. I am not trying to put them down in anyways shape or form, because it was bad! I know that I would have normally complained and thought of how we could be making this easier. But I hadn't given one bad thought to any of those situations, and it was a moment where I was like.. wow, that didn't bother me.. it definitely would have before my mission though.  I can see that I am changing! God is changing me! I am so happy! I like the person I am turning into!! When you lose yourself in the work you really do find yourself! I am so blessed to be out here! I am so blessed to have   my mission president! I am so blessed to have sister Chismar as my companion! I am so blessed to have the support of family and friends at home!

I just love you all so much, and wish you the best with your new year resolutions! Have a fabulous week! 

Love always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3

 THANKS EVERYONE(:

 Thanks Mandy!!

 she tried to help me out of the chair.. 

but then the chair tipped.. haha

 Cuddles on Christmas love sacs!!

 Skype!!!

 My View :)

 The Hippo :)

 getting my chair massage!! <3 kinda weird as a missionary..

 texas roadhouse

Hey everybody!!

How was everyone's Christmas?!? Mine was great!! It was so good to see my family on skype Christmas night! It was really good, but man! Saying goodbye felt like the goodbye I had at the MTC all over again! Its like breaking up old wounds.. I am good now, the missionary bubble is encompassing me again. But that next few hours was really rough. I was just balling! Yup, its embarrassing. I am just glad I had Sister Chismar! She is just great!  But man oh man I am truly, enormously blessed to be a part of my family! If you don't feel blessed to be a part of your family, go serve a mission. Nuff said. 

This week has been pretty slow.. Sister Chismar and I have been really sick ALL week! And almost every single morning we woke up to different symptoms.. So this might sound strange, but we have been just laughing through our sickness together! Haha. I think its HILARIOUS to laugh at our struggles. Its the only way I know how to get through it on a positive note. So instead of crying, I laugh. However we really were able to pick up the pace again on Saturday and Sunday. I think if anything, being sick just helped me to get a little jump start. Now its just keeping that pace up, because those were definitely miracle days. I am so excited for this week though, because I am feeling a little bit better. I still have a stuffy/runny nose, sore throat, and headache.. but no more fever! So the sun is coming out from behind the clouds! I had actually received a blessing from the elders to help with it too. In it I was told that I will learn patience and long-suffering from this.. but I don't know how to tell if I did learn anything from it. haha. If anything, being sick just reminds you to be grateful for your health. (:  It was really good, but man! Saying goodbye felt like the goodbye I had at the MTC all over again! Its like breaking up old wounds.. I am good now, the missionary bubble is encompassing me again. But that next few hours was really rough. I was just balling! Yup, its embarrassing. I am just glad I had Sister Chismar! She is just great! 

So I don't know if you noticed at all or not.. but I am writing a little bit later in the day today. We decided to write last today. So we can tell you about our awesome P-day today! So since we have been pretty miserable all week from being sick, we decided that we need to have a fun relaxing P-day. So we start off by getting permission, of course, to do a couple things. We start off going to the mall(out of our area), then in the mall we got massages!!! I have never had a massage before, it was great! We were just told from the assistance that we couldn't have a lie-down massage. So we had a chair massage and got a foot massage! I was so relaxed! So even though we are still sick, I dont even care, because my body is relaxed!(: Then we went out to eat at a place I have never been before, Texas Roadhouse. It was so good! I was just throwing peanuts on the ground.. well that part felt a little weird, but I guess that is what you're supposed to do.. haha. But it has been a good day, and will be a great week full of miracles and hard work!!

 Love you all,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3

Skype on Christmas with Steffani :)

Christmas with the Mission Family :)

 at christmas conference with sister neilson,

 camera died right after 1 pic.. :(

 sticky noted sister pratt with allison because 

she was sick #GetBetter

 the door

 drove thru a drive-thru light show!!

 eaving drive-thru light show

Indiana sunset! <3

Hey everybody!

This week has been just Grand! I seriously just love love love the Christmas Season so much! It feels like a freebie on feeling the spirit, because the spirit naturally comes with the season. Maybe that is why they always have our New Years resolutions right after Christmas!? Because we are a little more sensitive to the spirit to guide us on things we can accomplish the next year! I want to invite all of you to start contemplating what your new years resolutions will be as we have the spirit of Christ in our homes this Christmas.

So Allison, our investigator, didn't end up getting baptized this weekend.. :( But her reason is understandable. If she was to get baptized in our church, her husband said she would be dead to him. They have been married for 16 years, and have a couple kids. So she doesn't want to ruin that. She feels just like a member already to me though. She helps serve people in the church, offers to pray in the meetings on Sunday, participates more than the other members in lessons, etc.. she is seriously so AWESOME! She is still coming to church every single Sunday, and when she prayed about the baptism with her new situation, the spirit told her that she would be able to be baptized soon. Just not quite yet. So we have been working on serving her husband a little bit this week, to show him that we are nice people, and normal for that matter. Haha. So his birthday was on the 20th this month, so we decked his whole front door out in sticky notes and left some goodies at the front door. Allison saw it first, and just loved it! We haven't heard what Allen thought of them yet though, because he wasn't home when we did it. 

We also had a Christmas Zone Conference this past week on wednesday! It was so much fun! WE GOT TO SEE MEET THE MORMONS!!!!!! It was so good! I guess our president had to "fight" to get the approval of us to watch that! Lol. So glad he did though, because it was awesome! We had hot chocolate, popcorn, candy canes, and cookies while we watched it. I felt like I was in Uncle Corys and Katherines Garage theater room! It was so much fun! We also got a couple packages while we were there! I may have tried to cheat and open them before Christmas this Thursday.. but when I opened them everything was wrapped up individually.. hahaha, my parents know me too well! So i decided I could wait.

I AM SO EXCITED TO CALL HOME THIS CHRISTMAS!!!! I just can't believe its Christmas already! I remember when I called home for mothers day when I was going to see you guys 2 days later.. Too bad its not exactly the same situation.. haha. But its going to be so great! I love and miss you all, and LITERALLY, I will talk to you soon!

Love Always,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3