Some Pics

Great Week!

Hey all!

I loved this past week!

Dinner with the Westbrooks, always good. [Had pork and buns; yes, pork and buns, and chocolate milk :) ] They told us of how they came across a talk about members praying for their own opportunities of sharing the gospel, so they started doing just that. And their prayers are being answered! They said they may be giving four or five of their friends Book of Mormons this week. :)

Later, Elder Yates and I went to meet with Sister Wyant, she was sick. Set up another time! She said that missionaries haven't been by in five years... 

After meeting another lady, the sky burst forth rain! For like 3 minutes. But the clouds were legit.

Last Tuesday, Sister Bennett had Elder Yates and I over to read from the Book of Mormon. She had us look up the word 'countenance', which is basically just one's facial expression, demeanor, in a humongous dictionary! And get this, she came to church yesterday! 

District Meeting was bomb! It was in N. Muskegon. Lot of B.O.M. time (heehee). It was of Joy in Service, and loving all. Elder Chlarson's favorite scripture is 2 Nephi 2:27 "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." Then he gives an explosion of scripture, 2 Nephi 28:21-22, Alma 12:11, 3 Nephi 18:15, Alma 34:39, and others, explains them all. To overcome temptations, we must pray always. And others can be/give answers to our prayers, which is so true! Some of my past emails talk about that. Elder Chlarson was somehow able to relate these things to accepting one's comp, quirks and all. True love requires action, to embrace all of the person. That is a theme of a chapter I read just today, Alma 35. Alma and his brethren had success amongst the poor people of the apostate Zoramites, yet those that remained wicked would not let converts stay in their land. So the believers were kicked out! The people of Ammon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's, let the poor people come to their lands, and gave to them, despite the threatenings of the chief ruler of the Zoramites, an inheritance in their lands. For District Meeting lunch, we went to Berni-o's! Nationally ranked pizza :P

Ooh yeah, got my notes from Elder Christofferson. He added his witness to the Stake President's words on daily prayer and scripture study (personal and family), family home evening, church and temple attendance. Those five things may seem small, yet, Elder Christofferson explained, have a profound effect. Conversion comes by prayer, scripture study, F.H.E., church attendance, and temple attendance. He went on to say that not every 'teaching time' for parents has to be perfect, that over time those things will penetrate hearts; strive for consistency. We are to be patient with one another, to forgive and forget. Apostles and Prophets are needed! The testimony of the ancient Apostles is that Christ died, and is resurrected. Elder Christofferson knows as Joseph Smith did that Christ lives.

Love, Elder Brian Stolp

Highlights

Hey all!

Elder Christofferson is truly a special witness of Christ!!! He knows as Joseph Smith knew, that He lives. I forgot my notes in my apartment.... oh well!! Ooh, here's something cool, if talking with someone and they mention a need, or something relating to any point of Doctrine, especially about the Doctrine of Christ, we can always speak the truth about the subject.

District Meeting was about Christ as the foundation of our lives, and that no matter what I do as a missionary, God gets the increase, as found in 1Cor. 3:6-11; Elder Chlarson took us to various parts of the Book of Mormon to show missionary experiences that apply to every one or two verses of the Corinthians scripture we were looking at. The notes on that is also at my apartment :)

So after dinner on Sunday at a member's house, I had cake! And they didn't know it was my birthday until Elder Yates explained why the cake was worked perfectly :P

Well, I'm now 19, love you all!

Elder Brian Stolp

Elder Christofferson

Hey all!

GET THIS! Elder D. Todd Christofferson is speaking in the Grand Rapids Stake Conference! On the 16th! :)

 Here's a picture of my first district in the field, Elders Chlarson, De La Paz, Wilkins, Draper, myself, and Yates. The transfer switched out two, Elders De La Paz and Wilkins (his two years were up). Before leaving District Meeting, Elder Wilkins gave me a large triple combination, huge print!

Speaking of which, an Elder just got back from his mission, and seems to be adjusting well. Crazy thing, his first name is Bryan!

We met Enix (like "Nick's" while pronouncing the 'N'), a very open and well-studied black man, last Wednesday. He said that it's good to talk with others and see their views of God, Christ and life in general. He had some stuff to move on the weekend, so we went back on Saturday to help and talk with him. Well, moving an engine off an old fishing boat is not attempted by two relatively scrawny kids. First though, Elder Yates and I moved a bunch of wood across the man's yard, quite the variety of large black beetles underneath. A chunky black man and a white friend of his pulled up, sub-wafers in the car and all. Both probably hit the gym often, and with Enix helping, got the engine onto a truck. The bed sagged a whole bunch. It took a lot of, "well, if we lift it, put it here... lift again..." (Virgal, the chunky man, said to his friend, "ya need mo' strumph", which is Ebonics for "strength", my fellow missionaries love saying "give me some strumph"), so we got in a conversation about prophets with Enix, then (after the heftin') talked of the things Christ did to establish his church, and that His church is restored upon the earth. I'm not sure what effect it had on him, he mostly enjoys talking of how he views things. There's still hope! We goin' over on Saturdays to serve and talk with him.

Ooh, here's somethin'. On Wednesday, at a particular house, a Catholic lady named Debbie, just a little bit into the conversation, asked us to give a blessing to Chuck, a sick man inside. Debbie told us that we were welcome to dinner anytime we needed it, she seemed just like an ideal grandma. Yeah, tender mercy there :)

Met with Patricia again, the lady that doesn't feel comfortable in the family oriented atmosphere of church. Interesting enough, she brought up the topic of discussion by a question, "what does it mean about the seeds in the parable of the sowers that shrivel up...."........ So we read it, talked, and I noticed a cross-reference to Alma, "...because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit...most precious...sweet...white...pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst." Come to find out, Patricia couldn't read the print in the regular copies of the BOM, so I was like, "I have a large one you can have" smiling on the inside. So it continues!

Met again with Sister Charon, and shared with her 3 Ne. 17. Pretty sure that chapter helped her, she's a single mother, doesn't come to church. Aaaaaaand, we got the number of the Lutheran kid, Jesse! Sister Charon's son Hunter was able to give it to us,  gonna help a lot. 

Love you all!

Elder Brian Stolp

Move

Hey all!

Almost four hours of haulin' stuff out of a third-level apartment? I think yes! A young couple moved into their first house last Friday, so we helped out. Anyway, I'm not moving anywhere this transfer, I'm glad, because I'm still being trained. Elder Yates and I are getting along great, and we're really progressing, and get this! This week we might get new investigators! We had some referrals yesterday by members.

The last day of May, we met up with a woman we gave a blessing to prior to that visit, because her husband asked for a blessing on that day. So I learned that what was said to her in the blessing was from God, for it truly was for her benefit.

Met an older woman we had no former knowledge of, Patricia, that doesn't feel comfortable in the family-oriented atmosphere of church because she doesn't have one of her own. We're going to meet with her often, because she knows the LDS church is true, so we'll see how that progresses.

Dinner with the Cengiz! Oh yeah. Super nice, they talked with us, and I can just tell that they have charity. Get this! They gave us paper towels, toilet paper, and soda galore! And our leftovers of sloppy joes :)

Bro. Harris, I might've mentioned before, knows so much, yet still doesn't come to church! He's the most outspoken "I know this is true" of all I met, he's very spiritually aware, yet just does not come to church! He has a car, good thing. Yet I'm not sure if he's told us all his concerns, but he has come out and said he wants to stop smoking. We'll continue meeting with him.

Bro. Jenkins has come to church twice in a row!!!!! He needs a lot of support, family stuff. Recently though, his girlfriend expressed interest in coming to church!

Scriptures are powerful, revelations of the Doctrine of Christ come of it, and it can inspire us to do good things. 

Well, Love you all!

Elder Brian Stolp

Rain, Rain go away!

Half-mission P-day was a blast! Rain just poured in torrents, felt like a monsoon! I played kickball and ultimate when rain wasn't coming down. Heard some great beat-boxing, all about the gospel of Christ :) And I reconnected with most of my M.T.C. district, absolutely fun!

Ah, yes, today is Memorial Day. I heard around that Sister Monson died recently, even had the privilege to hear the clip of her grand-daughter singing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." It was so beautiful! I thought of Mom, and told a recent convert in Ludington about her. I was in Ludington on trade-offs with the District Leader, Elder Chlarson. He only has three more months! Recently, he's been thinking about the will of God vs. coincidence a lot lately. Prayer is a key element in knowing the will of God, and listening to the Spirit. Yet even before that, as Oliver Cowdery was told, in Doctrine and Covenants 9:8, "you must study it out in your mind." As missionaries, we do that a lot, like deciding to go in this direction or another, to knock streets or go see a member.

Love, Elder Brian Stolp

Great Start...

Hey everybody!!!!!

There was a man we talked to early in the week, on the 13th, who had a beef with organized religion. He's had the missionaries speak with him in the past, which makes it a wee bit more difficult to find out his concerns, yet I was glad he just told us straight up what he thought. Thus we pointed him to the Book of Mormon, which truly answers that question, for once a person can believe in the book, through the Holy Ghost by prayer, for oneself, the understanding that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God comes and that he truly was an instrument in God's hands to establish the true Church. Now it's up to that man to feel what is true!

In last week's district meeting, we read Alma 31 and discussed specific prayer. Alma prayed for success "in bringing them (the Zoramites) again unto thee (the Lord) in Christ." So we can also pray to help others change and accept the gospel! Members here have been challenged to do just that, more specifically to make a list of individuals on paper to pray for. Because this work is God's work! We are here to change our will to His, that he may tell us how to go about in the area doing His work.

Blue was my crazy experience last week!!!!! That's a man :P Heavily tanned, and an ugly scar across his cheek. Opened the door, heard the name Jesus Christ, let us right in. Asked if we would like water, and gave us Fiji water. Tiles of a light sea-blue color adorned the fireplace-mantle and parts of the kitchen walls, a table in the living room had large glass vases with a layer of sand and a few shells in the sand. Even the glassware added to the decorative style! A shell emblem and discolored particles were embedded in the glass. Blue sat and started telling us of his following of Christ, that he led a gang of bikers, ministering to a "biker congregation church" and "went into the dens of iniquity" to save souls. He also prayed for the two of us, and had to hurry to a 'sweet ride' coming up. Needless to say, he wasn't gonna listen to our message! Maybe later he'll learn more.

There was a young lady, Jessica, very interested in the church, it's teachings, and how we did our thing. She told us that people shouldn't treat missionaries poorly, or anyone for that matter. Said that people in general are becoming less interactive with one another; accidentally bump someone in the store, say excuse me, and no response. @@

Elder Olsen came here for trade-offs, and with me found Eleanor, a non-member woman up in age but still worked in the yard. Elder Olsen kept her talking to us even after telling us she was super busy in the yard by asking her of some generic questions about those in her family who served missions. Wont be giving her the formal lessons, but long story short, Elder Yates and I will help her in her yard every Thursday through the summer! :P

Another lady up in age, Melody, told us yes, she believed in Christ. I asked her, out of the blue, "If you could tell anyone anything about Him, what would you say?" Melody proceeded to tell of two experiences, of a re-occurring nightmare at a young age and smoking in later life. In both instances, she heard her mother pray for her, and the bad things were taken away. Even the urge to smoke was gone! She agreed to meet with us later and hear our message!

It's paramount to understand that God works through prophets in these days as he did in the times of the Bible, for then can the Book of Mormon be accepted. Yet no one can know of a spiritual truth without prayer, so we can't force it on anyone. And so this work continues! Tune in next time to hear of Half-Mission P-day!!!!!

Love, Elder Brian Stolp