Week 59 - September 25, 2017 - Sushi Steve

Hola y'all :)

So I am sorry but this weeks email is going to be super short! 

Both Elder Israelsen and I got sick this week so we were out from Tuesday night until about Friday with some form of head cold or something. We were both really stuffed up and had sore throats so we took it easy and got better. I did learn a new skill while we were sick tho. I now love making friendship bracelets! A couple of the sisters in Hammond made them and I bought the stuff to make them the Monday before I got sick! What a stroke of genius! or inspiration! But yeah it is a fun way to pass the time when you are sick!

Other than that the only other really cool thing that happened this week was when we were going around to the Spanish members with our Group Leader. We had just barely stepped out of the car when an Asian guy says "What do y'all do?" So we tell him we go around talking to people about Jesus Christ and he has us come talk with him. We ask his name and he says "Sushi Steve". lol what kind of awesome name is that?! He was super funny and taught all of us some funny hand

shakes and wants us to come by and visit him! He speaks English so we should prolly pass him off to the English elders but nah, we want to keep meeting with him because he is sooo funny! 

Well that is all for this week! 

Elder Stoddard

 

 

Week 58 - September 18, 2017 - Holiness to The Lord

Hola y'all :)

So the first cool thing that happened this week was that we got to go to the temple as a district! It was sooo fun! I love being able to go to the temple as a missionary! And you sometimes run into someone from a past area which is cool! This past time I ran into Elder Moody, senior missionary in Hammond. He told me a lot about what is going on there. I learned that a lot of people that I had worked with in Hammond to prepare them for the temple will be going through soon and I can wait to go and see them go through! It will be such a cool experience to go through with someone I've come to know and love!

Other than that this was a pretty standard week haha! Missionary work doesn't really change that much so there isn't much to tell that I haven't already told! The Spanish group here is doing well. Yesterday was a pretty small group tho because most of the families had to work until 6 and that is when the group meets! We did get some cool youth there and they are interested in coming again and bringing their family so we might be on to something out here!

So this week I was reading in 1Corinthians Chapter 4 and I think I found the perfect scripture to describe what is is like as a missionary. 

10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised.

11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

13 Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

This is what I love about the mission, I go out every day as a fool 'for Christ's sake' but because of this others become 'wise in Christ.' This has been the hardest thing about the mission. It isn't fun to be the 'fool' or 'despised' or 'the filth of the world.' Who would want to be these things? But it is soooo worth it! I wish it was easier to set aside my pride and be that 'fool' but every time I do I never regret that decision.

I love y'all and pray that everything is going good for y'all :)

Keep the faith and always remember that our Heavenly Father and the Savior love you and are aware of you :)

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Stoddard

Week 67 - November 20, 2017 - H-Town

Howdy y'all!!

So this letter is going to be pretty lame and short so I am sorry! Haha transfers week is always kinda slow!

My new companion is Elder Kevin Hernandez, a.k.a H-Town. He has been out for about 8 months so far. He was born in Mexico but grew up in Houston Texas so he isnt too far away from home out here. He is super funny and has been helping me out a lot with my Spanish! And it is nice to have a native comp because all the people here love the natives haha!

Other than that this week was pretty slow. Izzy and I went and said bye to all the members he wanted to see and then after transfers I took Hernandez around to meet all the branch members and all the Spanish members. 

I'm sorry this is such a lame email haha! It will be longer next week I promise!

 

 

Week 66 - November 14, 2017 - Where did the transfer go?

Where did the transfer go?

Hola y'all!

First off, Where the crap did this transfer go?! Like it feels like it was just last week that we lost English Elders and it became just me and Izzy in the apartment! It has been a great transfer and I am sad to see it end. So the transfer news is that Elder Israelsen is going to go salt n pepper in Metairie. Kinda funny since last time Izzy and I got separated I went salt n pepper. I am staying here in Chalmette and my new comp will be Elder Hernandez. I am super excited to have a native comp that can really help me with my Spanish! This should be a good transfer!

So this week was kinda crazy! We had interviews with President on Tuesday and that was good. I really love our Mission President and his wife. They really are like our parents away from home. This week we got bored of the regular tracting routine and so we decided to go on a walk haha. We went to an area that has some cool graffiti that we wanted to get pictures with and just walked around and got to talk to a bunch of people! Best part is it is sooo much easier to start a conversation out on the street than it is on someones doorstep and a lot of times people will end up coming to talk to us! For example, we were walking past an art gallery that wasn't open yet but the owner was outside and stopped us to talk and ask what we were out doing. We got to tell him about what we were doing and where we were from and he thought it was super cool. He even let us come into his gallery so that we could look around! In the end we traded information with him and are planning to do service for them at the gallery!

The other cool thing that we got to do this week was go with Brother Landers to give presents to the granddaughter of a member of our ward. It was a member that I have only met once before but she is super sweet and her granddaughter was sooo happy to get presents! 

Idk I know that a lot more stuff happened this week but my brain just can't remember them right now haha! Well I hope all is well with all y'all!

Elder Nathan Stoddard

10500 Hayne Blvd

Apartment 205

New Orleans, LA

70127

 

 

Week 65 - November 6, 2017 - Elder Oaks!

Hola y'all!

This week was super fun! Alright, it all started out last Monday. Our district took time out of pday so we could go to a Haunted House Monday night. It wasn't a very scary one but it was a lot of fun to go out and do something like that as a district! And it was funny seeing some of the other Elders freak out haha!

This week we also did a lot of service for a family that is in our branch now that was homeless for a while. The father had been active until he turned 17 and his girlfriend isn't a member but they have been coming to church and the ward has been helping them out soo much! We got the chance to help move donated furniture into their house a couple times. They are really nice and very appreciative of what the members have done. We are going to start meeting with, and teaching them this week now that they are all set up and into their new home.

Alright so the best thing this week was definitely our mission conference on Saturday. We got to go to Baton Rouge as a whole mission and meet Elder Dallin H. Oaks! We started with a mission picture with him and then we all got to shake his hand! That in it self was cool! It was crazy to have an Apostle in the same building as all of us! And the conference was nothing like what I expected. Most Zone Conferences are wayyyy too long and boring for me. Elder Oaks didn't have much time so it was only a two hour Conference but it was also super funny! Elder Oaks has a great sense of humor and likes having people laugh! He opened it up to question and answer with us and it was really cool. One of my favorite things he said was about humility. I won't get the quotes exactly right but I will get the gist of them. One Elder asked "So if we are to be humble, and being humble requires self-abasement, how do we be humble and not ruin our self-esteem?" Elder Oaks response was amazing. He said in effect "I do not think of humility as self-abasement. Being humble is being open and being able to be taught." I thought that was a good answer cause when we hear that we need to be humble we always seem to think that that means we need to make ourselves less, but in reality humility helps us make ourselves more than we ever could have been.

To end my letter I just want to state something that I have been thinking about a lot this weekend. So I have been thinking a lot about what the gospel is. So one of the things that came to my mind was a quote from Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. About ships he says, "That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs but what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom."  As members and especially missionaries, when we are asked what the gospel is we tend to think in a list, at least I did. It's the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Commandments. So now I am going to change the original quote. "That's what the Gospel is, you know. It's not just a Restoration and a Plan and a Law and Commandments, that's what the Gospel needs but what the Gospel is... what the True Gospel really is... is Hope." Isn't that exactly what the gospel truly is to us? Isn't it the hope that comes because of the Savior? Isn't it the hope that because of him we can return to our Heavenly Father, and see our loved ones again? Isn't it the hope the because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can have help through all our struggles? 

Well I hope y'all have a great week!