Week 11 - October 24, 2016

Hey Y'all!!

So there isn't much that happened this week, but FRANCISCO BAPTIZED!!!! His baptism was on Friday the 21st of October. Not a whole lot of people showed up but Sister Freebairn was there which was really good since she is the only member in the ward that is of Hispanic descent. There are a few members that served Spanish speaking missions and so Francisco will have people to talk to in Spanish. He is also pretty good speaking English and understands a lot.

One of the cool things about the baptism was that his cousin Ricardo rode a bus for 14 hours from Mexico to here just so he could come baptize him!! His cousin is a High Priest in Mexico and has been helping Francisco learn about the gospel. We got to talk with Ricardo a lot and he asked if we would be able to teach Francisco again in English so that he could learn Gospel English. He told us that he thinks that soon Francisco will have an opportunity to share the Gospel in English and wants him to be ready. We are planning on teaching all of the New Member lesson to him in English now so that he learns.

Well that is all I have for this week. Love you all!!

P.S. Yes we planned for me to be half out of that picture with the Sisters. They are holding a pizza that I made and told me to stand awkwardly in the picture.

Week 10 - October 17, 2016

Hola!

Como estan? 

Well it has been another week out here in good old Opelousas. This past week has been pretty slow. We didn't have much to do as Spanish Elders.

 

This past week we had ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) with the Mission President. We spent most of our Tuesday over in Alexandria in the Stake Center. Elder Bean and I got to instruct at the meeting about proper Sister Missionary dress.... can you say awkward? The other funny thing that happened was that Elder Bean accidentally ate something with cinnamon in it. He is allergic to cinnamon and it was the third time in 5 days that he had accidentally eaten cinnamon. He had to take so many Benadryl tablets this past week because of it. 

 

We didn't do much teaching this week. We didn't have anyone that was able to see us so we just ended up teaching some recent convert lessons and taught some less active members with and for the English Elders. Hopefully this coming week we will have more people that we are able to get to and teach.

 

We did get to teach Francisco on Sunday. His baptism is this coming Friday the 21st. He is really excited to be baptized. His cousin is coming up from Mexico so that he can baptize him. I cannot wait to see Francisco become a member of the ward. I know that he will be a great strength to the ward and the people here already really like him.  He is going to be a great addition to this ward.

I hope all of you are having a good week. I am thankful for all of you that email me. It means a lot to me and it is nice to hear about things that are going on outside of the mission. 

Have a great week everyone!!

 

 

Week 9 - October 10, 2016

Hola!

It's been another beautiful week out here in Opelousas. We now have two Spanish speaking investigators. We still have Francisco and now we have Alma. She is out from California helping a sister in our ward, Sister Freebairn, with her newborn. She is taking the discussions in California but we are taking it over for them while she is here. We also have two English investigators named Alex and Morgan. Alex is 12 and Morgan is 18. They are grandchildren of a family in the ward. They seem fairly interested so we will see how it goes.

Other than that it has been a fairly normal week. We have been starting to get more lessons which is nice. It was so hard not having people to teach for the first little bit here but I am excited to see how it goes and how many people we will be teaching by the end of this transfer.

I don't really have much else to say for this week. I am sorry that this one is so short. 

Have a great week everyone!

Week 8 - October 3, 2016

So I am sorry for the short letter last week. I really didn't have much to tell. So this week to start out I will tell you about the missionaries in the Opelousas Ward. 

First off there are four Elders. Elder Bean and I are the Spanish Elders. Elder Bean is a pretty cool guy.  He has played just about every sport there is. His favorite sport is golf though. He can't play competitive sports anymore because he has had nine concussions and has had both knees busted while playing football. He has to get his knees replaced when he gets back. He is probably the best Spanish speaker in the mission because he went to a school where the teachers all spoke Spanish. He is from Utah, same as the other Elders in our apartment. The other Elders are English speaking. Their names are Elder Hunter and Elder Otterstrum. Elder Bean and I spend a lot of time going out with these two because they have a lot of people to see and we don't have many investigators. Elder Hunter, went to school with, did choir with and knows my cousin Melissa. It really is a small world.  

There are also two English Sisters. Their names are Sister Thomas and Sister Gelwix. Sister Gelwix and I both arrived here the same day so we are the greenies in this area. Sister Thomas is from Utah as well. Sister Gelwix is form Tri-Cities Washington but grew up in Idaho Falls. 

The cool thing about out here is that we have a lot of families that want to feed us and they feed all six missionaries that are in this area. And the food is all so good! 

This past week all four of us Elders haven't had many lessons because of limited miles at the end of the month but we have all done many hours of service. First we helped Lisa Fernandez and her son Alex move apartments. Elder Bean and I were also able to give her a blessing because she hasn't been able to sleep much for the past week or so. After the blessing she said that she felt comfort and peace. I saw Lisa again on Saturday and she came up to me and told me that she had finished moving and was getting sleep again!

I really enjoyed General Conference. It is so cool that we are able to hear from our Prophet and other church leaders in a big broadcast every six months. I really enjoyed the talks that had to do with missionary work. My favorite talk was by Elder Oaks on the second Saturday session. It gave me ideas on how the missionaries and the members can work together to help others come unto Christ.  

So the best news is that we do have one Spanish speaking investigator. He was referred to us by the Temple Square Sisters. His cousin introduced him to the church and sent him a copy of the Book of Mormon and sent videos for him to watch. His cousin is on the High-Council somewhere in Mexico. He came to church the week before conference and also again yesterday for conference. We hadn't had much contact with him before last week but we started talking to him by text and one morning he sent us a text saying that he wanted to be baptized by us!!! We had our first lesson with him yesterday after the first Sunday session of Conference. He doesn't know much about our teachings but he is so open to everything we tell him and he has already made it halfway through the Book of Mormon on his own! He is a Golden Investigator. We set his baptismal date for October 21st. He said yes and we are going to help him be prepared to be baptized! 

Have a great week all!

Week 7 - September 26, 2016

Hola de Opelousas!

I made it to Louisiana a little less than a week ago. I love it here! The heat is not nice but I can get more used to that. The people here are so nice! 

My training Elder is Elder Bean. He is a really cool guy. He is really into sports but cant play them much right now because of a concussion. He knows Spanish really well.  

So my first area is called Opelousas. It is more of a country area and there really arent many spanish speakers here. My comp and I are the first Spanish missionaries in this area for two years. We are reopening this area for Spanish teaching. It is hard because we have nothing to start with but it will be good. 

The people here are really nice. We have 6 missionaries in a ward of 70 people and they want to feed all of us all the time. The food here is really good. I have had Gumbo 3 times since I have been here! Everyone is open to talk with us even if they aren't wanting to hear our message.

I have been asked two times so far if I am a Jehovah's Witness.

My apartment has two other elders in it. They are Elder Hunter and Elder Otterstrum. We go out with them a lot because they know many people here. They are really cool English elders.

Well that is all that I have for now.

 

Elder Stoddard

 

Elder Bean and Elder Stoddard

 

To Louisiana!!! (aka Week 6) +

Hello Friends and Family!
Elder Stoddard left the Mexico City MTC on Sept 20th and is now in the mission field. His first area is Opelousas, LA

Elder Stoddard

1914 Creswell Lane Extension, Apt. 7B,

Opelousas, LA 70570

His P-Day will be on Monday so we'll see how his first week has been then.
Thanks for following along on this great adventure.

Brad and Gina

Week 5 - September 15, 2016

Hola mi amigos y familia!

Today we are celebrating Mexican Independence day here at el CCM. We had the best food I have eaten the entire time we have been here. They really go all out here in Mexico City. We have been hearing fireworks since we got here and this past week they have been even more common. 

The coolest thing that happened this week so far is that five days ago we had a Catholic parade out in front the CCM.We had no idea what was going on but my companion and I went to the top floor of one of the dorms to watch. When we came down we started to talk to a group of Latino Elders that told us that it was a group of Nazis that always have parades. We believed them and watched the parade for a while with them. (editors note: They weren't Nazi's) It was cool to try to understand them and communicate with them. It was very hard.   

After that we went to the classroom and on the way ran into the Latinos in our building that we became really good friends with. We discussed Donald Trump with them. We were not surprised by the fact that they don't like him. That was probably the third conversation that we had with this same group of Latinos about Trump. We all really liked that group and were sad that they left on Monday. On of them, Elder Juarez, almost started crying when he said bye to us and told us that he knew that in two years when we found each other again we would all speak perfect Spanish together. I really hope that I find him again.

Other than the excitement of the parade this week has been pretty chill until today. We played a game called 'Find the Latino' with our teacher Hermana Montoya. In this game we pick one person to be a Latino that has to speak in only Spanish and the rest of us have to speak only Spanish so she has a hard time figuring out who it is. She won the first day so we each bought her something from the store. We played the next day and we won that day so she is bringing us pizza on Saturday.

Not much else has been going on. I am ready to be out of the CCM but I know that the first few months of the mission are going to be so very hard. I want to teach the people of Baton Rouge and serve them as the Lord would want me too.

Hasta luego! The next time I write I will be back in the states and teaching the people of Louisiana.

I love you all!