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Viva Mexico!


Three more days. That is all I have left en Los Estados Unidos for 23 months. 
It is pretty crazy to think about to me. But I will be leaving to the Mexico City MTC on Tuesday September 17 at 4 am. What would a mission be without some early flights?!?!? I am excited and nervous at the same time. I am bummed out that I am going to have to leave my district and who knows what situation I will be put in with my district and zone in Mexico City. I will put my trust in the Lord and I know everything is meant for a reason so it will be alright.

Our missionary purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Repentence. Baptism. Receiving the Gift of The Holy Ghost. And enduring to the end." In so many of our meetings, they have been telling us how we should be trying to do this with our families on preparation day as well. So I am going to share a quick great experience I had this week.

The Gift of Tongues is real. It helps so many missionaries to be able to speak the language so much quicker. The way I know it is real is because I did not have the Gift of Tongues with me Tuesday morning. I did not read the Book of Mormon the Wednesday before and forgot to say my prayers Thursday morning. I had so much trouble with speaking Spanish on Thursday. I did not really understand much of anything anyone was saying which was weird because I was understanding and speaking pretty well the other days. I realize how I did not read the Book of Mormon the day before so I was not bless with this wonderful gift Heavenly Father has promised for us if we keep exact obedience. Gary E. Stevenson came this week and explained the importance of the Book of Mormon. He said "if you read the Book of Mormon everyday, the windows of heaven will open up to you and you will be blessed." Another thing I really liked about his talk is he gave us a blessing that our families will be healthy and strong while we are on our missions. He said you are doing the best thing for your family right now! I can testify that I know how important the Book of Mormon is in our lives. It will bring blessings to all of us if we just give some time to read it everyday.

Starting spanish this week has been a lot of fun but so much hard work. In our TRC's we got to teach two different people this week.. In Spanish! One of them was from Chile and the other one was 3 hours south of my mission Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua. It was so cool talking to Maria, who is from my mission. She was so excited for me and said I am going to love it there but to remember to be careful. She showed us her nieces and nephews, and she really does just have such a great family. It is so cool how we can already be speaking the language and we learn so much from them in every lesson we teach. Because they are helping us with our Spanish as we help them with their Gospel.

During my time here at the MTC I have had the opportunity to sing in the choir. I am not much of a singer but it was one of the coolest experiences in my life to sing to an apostle. The spirit was just so strong. And like Sister Stevenson said "it was as if 2,000 angels were right there singing next to you." We have 1,000 people in the choir so you can just imagine how our voices filled the room. Brother Egget, the director of the choir is such a great guy and somehow corrects us just enough so that instead of singing we are telling a story. 

I love you guys more than you will ever know. The more I am out here the more I realize how much I miss and love you guys.
Your Favorite. Elder Stokes




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