Monday, July 18, 2016

Week 24

7/18

My week has been pretty good. Up and down which is normal as a missionary haha. 

We went to a member's house earlier this week and helped lay their grass. It looks awesome and then we had delicious Popsicle's haha We've done a lot of service this week!! Good for the soul though haha

We had exchanges this week and they went good. I was with Sister Hallum's and we had some cool experiences. We went to see a less active and we taught her the 3rd lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a really good lesson. Spirit was really strong and i got this really strong prompting to ask her about how she can apply the atonement into her life. She was like "well, just having faith and stuff, you know the regular answers." and then I was like, "yeah, but how can YOU apply it right now in your life?" and she was like, "Well, I should probably take advantage of it kinda, I haven't really been doing my part. I need to pray. I need to come to church. I need to read my scriptures. I just need to stop coming up with excuses!" and I looked at her and I just could just picture Heavenly Father with his arms open to her and I said "Heavenly Father is waiting for you. He's ready for you to come back" and I almost started crying. The spirit was SO strong. 

And when we were on exchanges we stopped at these little girls lemonade stand and it was legit lemonade haha. Like it had crushed up raspberries, blackberries and really good ice. Best 75 cents I've ever spent!

So we are working with this inactive guy who's name is Blaine and he got baptized when he was 8 but hasn't really been back since and he came to church yesterday!! Hes basically like an investigator cause he doesn't really know anything and he LOVED church yesterday and he met so many awesome men in the ward. He looks like Jesus... like he has long curly hair and a long beard. He said he'd come next Sunday too cause I'm playing the piano and Sister Rabello is speaking. THEN, we went over to his house tonight to drop off some Brazilian food Sister Rabello made (shes from brazil so it was legit haha) and there was a member there who just got reactivated and they were just hanging out. SO HAPPY FOR HIM!! making new friends in the ward and he said hes gonna stop drinking. I seriously cant contain my joy for him right now. AH love himmm!

My area is so beautiful. There is so much land. I LOVE Idaho so much! I love you all and I'm so blessed to be out here on my mission.

Keep the faith,
Sister Summer Stone

Send some love
1111 So. Cole Road
Boise, Idaho 83709



Blaine at church
Exchanges with Sister Hallum's and our legit lemonade
Lots of Land haha. Idaho is so beautiful!
Laying grass at the Lloyds


Week 23

7/12

Hellooooo!! 
This weeks been awesome! We have done a lot of service and we've been able to visit a lot of people!

We helped our investigator Ray brush his pet goats, weed his yard, and clean up his house. His wife passed away 6 months ago and his daughter died like 2 months ago so he is having a rough time. I can tell the gospel is already blessing his life. We were able to set a baptismal date with him yesterday and I can't wait!! He is a very spiritual guy and he loves Christ. He really does. He has a lot of potential and I am so excited to see the gospel bless his life. 

Also, our house isc seriously infested with so many bugs! We found a huge spider and I almost peed my skirt because I was so scared. Sister Rabello is more afraid of them though so I have to kill them...We find a lot of decent size garden spiders but this spider was a really big wolf spider and apparently they're poisonous. AND I didn't get to kill the spider because it was too fast for me to smack it with my shoe....lets just say I didn't get to sleep for a while that night, kept feeling like it was crawling up my leg then on my face. Holy cow. I'm so blessed to be here in Boise. I think I would die somewhere in South America ahaha

The other day Sister Rabello and I were tracting and this lady opened the door and we talked with her for a few minutes and I asked her what her name was and she said "you can just call me shortie." hahaha I almost broke out laughing. She was probably 5'4, not that short. haha. Made me smile.

We had zone meeting on Friday and it was awesome!! The spirit was really strong the whole time. They talked a lot about obedience. I know that by being obedient as a missionary that Heavenly Father will bless us SO much. I've already seen the blessings from it. I am so grateful for my mission and the experiences I'm having here! I love you all. Sorry this email isn't super awesome haha just know that I'm working hard and taking lots of cute selfies with goats.

Keep the faith,

Sister Summer Stone

Week 22

7/4

Crazy, busy, amazing, fun, hard week! It has been packed FULL of stuff. 

Last week for Pday we went to Downtown Boise with our district. We saw the typical missionary things everyone goes to to see. We were able to drive up to the top of Table rock and look over all of Boise. So beautiful. I am so grateful to be serving here. Boise is seriously the perfect place for me. 

We got to meet our new mission president this week!! President Bartlett and Sister Bartlett are so incredible. I cannot wait to get to know them better. When I first met him and shook his hand I said, "I'm willing to learn Spanish if you need some more Spanish Sisters" and he just laughed and said "OK Sister Stone, I'll keep that in mind". We'll see how that goes lol

On Saturday we had a great lesson with this new investigator. His name is Ray and the spirit was so strong. We shared The Restoration with him and at the end of the lesson we shared our testimonies and told him how grateful we were for prayer and that Heavenly Father always answers our prayers. Then we invited him to pray to know if what we had shared with him was true and to start reading the Book of Mormon and he said he would do it before he went to sleep that night. We are going to help him this week with service so we'll be able to follow up with him on how it went. 

Sunday night we went to a less actives families house. They're trying to come back and their goal is to go to the temple to be sealed. Sister Rabello and I were talking with them about a day maybe that they could set as a goal and then they started talking about their family and how only 1 daughter is active enough to be there when they get sealed and Sister Rabello spoke up and said, "The spirit is telling me I need to promise you this right now. I'm not sure why but I know I need to. I can promise you as a representative of Jesus Christ that when you get sealed in the temple, your sons will return and you will all be able to be sealed together." The spirit was so intense and we all just sat there crying! Brother Cary, through his tears said, "Thank you so much Sister Rabello. I really needed that. I've been thinking a lot about when we want to go and that just gave me a little shove." 

Alright, to the 4th of July. Sorry this email is so long. I bet the only one still reading this is my mom. Thanks mom! haha But 4th of July was SO fun! We went to a BBQ at a members house and their whole family was so excited to see missionaries there. The food was delicious and they were all so welcoming to us! After dinner we went to the Cary's (the less active I just talked about) and sang songs then they asked me to play the piano so I played my America the Beautiful and I didn't get through the whole thing but they loved it haha! They gave us ice cream and we just sat on their "lanai" as Brother Cary calls it and listened to the fireworks go off and watched the sun set. We headed home after and lit sparklers with Sister Benson and Sister Mata (the sisters in our district).  Didn't get to sleep till about 11:30 or 12 because of all the fireworks going off but that's ok. Being exhausted is just part of being a missionary right? haha 

Well I love you all!! Sorry for the insanely long email haha

Keep the Faith and don't forget to write ;)
1111 So. Cole Road
Boise, Idaho 83709

Sister Summer Stone

#1 Happy 4th
#2 Downtown Boise with the district
#3 Sparklers with Sister Benson
#4 Happy 4th with Sister Rabello
#5 Boise missionaries meeting president Bartlett


Week 21

6/27

Well familia. It's been a crazy week but amazing week. Sister Rabello is awesome and I love her already. We've been working really hard and I'm exhausted. 

So to start off this crazy week, Sister Rabello put diesel in the car and... we almost died haha. Not really but the car drove for a little while. We went home, I unpacked and she washed the car then we went to go to Pday activity. But on our way there the car wasn't going over 10 mph on a 45 mph road and it was shaking! So we pulled over, said a prayer, and called the mission office and he told us to get a tow and for them to take it and get it drained so we did. And we got it back the next day but we have been walking a lot to save miles. 

My area is beautiful and a lot different than my last area. We just cover one ward and its a lot of fields and farms. I love it! The members are great and I'm excited to get to know them all. There is a family here, the Lloyds and they are the best people ever. Not too many people sign up for dinner in this ward (mom, missionaries are poor so feed them lol) so we've gone to their house a lot for dinner and when we had to get our car towed she came and picked us up and we played games at their house for the rest of Pday. Plus she gives the best hugs! haha And another plus, they gave us homemade tamales and they were delicious!!!

There aren't too many investigators in this area but there is a lot of potential to be so we are working really hard. There are a lot of inactive members here that haven't been active since they were teenagers and they're in their 60s now. 

We went to visit Kenneth (am inactive) yesterday and the visit was really good. We had been trying to visit people all morning and no one was answering or they just didn't want to see us. The Sister's had never met him so we knocked on his door and he talked with us for a while. Before we left I had the feeling to share this scripture and right as I was going to say "Can we share a message before we go?" Sister Rabello pulled out her BOM and shared the same scripture I was going to share. It's amazing how the spirit works. As we walked away I just had this feeling that the visit was really good for him and I knew he felt the spirit. 

WELL FOLKS! I love you all. I love my new area and my new comp. Keep the faith and remember God loves you all!


Sister Summer Stone

Week 20

6/20

Well I'm staying in staying in the Boise mission folks. I got transferred and I am so sad. I was not ready for this. I'm excited for new and bigger things (mostly just bigger areas haha) but I am really going to miss Meridian and all the memories that came with it. There were 6 missionaries from my zone who got transferred to the Pocatello mission. Going to miss ALL of them. 

Last Pday we went to Star and went fishing and just hung out at the Snooks house. I CAUGHT A GIANT FISH!!! haha I also got to say goodbye to Ali and wish her luck. She is going to kill it in Cambodia. I finally got the guts to do a flip on their trampoline too. It was just a front flip but don't worry Coltie and Chan. I'll be able to out-flip both of you by the time i get home (I'm totally joking haha) so Monday was pretty eventful haha

We went to the temple this week on Wednesday as a zone and it was beautiful as always but this time was incredibly special and beautiful because we got to pick out a family name and do all the work for them. We were baptized, confirmed, did the initiatory and received their endowment. Beautiful and exhausting day. Sister Hirales and I accidentally matched and people were making comments all day haha it was kinda cute though. I really am going to miss her. 6 weeks was not long enough with my little brownie. 

But good news is I have another brown companion haha. Not trying to be racist at all. Her name is Sister Rabello. She was born and raised in Brazil and she moved to Salt Lake not too long ago. She has been out almost 17 months so I'll be "killing her" in mission terms (cause I'll be her last companion). I can already tell shes ready to work hard and bring people to Christ.

 On Thursday Sister Hirales and I made homemade tortillas with Sister Marina Soto. She's this older lady from Guatemala and she homemade some DELICIOUS black beans. I understood nothing while we were there because they spoke Spanish to each other 70% of the time. haha it really was fun time though, maybe I will learn Spanish while I am out here and while we are joining with the Twin Falls mission.

So I have just been an emotional wreck saying goodbye to people the past few days but I am so excited for a new adventure. I know there's a reason I'm staying here in the Idaho Boise mission. Sorry this week wasn't too exciting besides transfers, Mexican food and the temple. But always remember to keep the faith and pray always. I love you all! 


Sister Summer Stone

pro fisher over here
Matching with Hirales
Gonna miss by boo thang
Homemade tortillas 

Sister Rabello (my new comp