FELIZ PÁSCOA (Happy Easter)

Hey everyone!!! Well, I would like to start by sending out a HUGE shout out to my sister Shealeigh who was just called to serve in the Barcelona Spain mission.  I am sooooooooo freaking proud of her and so excited for her!!!!!!!!!!!! She is going to be an AMAZING missionary! I love you sis!

This week was a good one and there is another transfer gone.... HOLY CRAP IT’S FLYING!!!! But everything here has been going great! There are a lot of stories I’ve got tell everyone but first off FELIZ PÁSCOA or for those who do not speak Portuguese, HAPPY EASTER!!!! The day that we remember our Savior and his resurrection! What a great day to remember. I love a talk that Elder Eyring gave that talks a little about Easter. He says that during this time of year he doesn’t think as much as the Savior’s resurrection but as the work that he did 3 days in the spirit world! The Savior didn’t rest after he died, but continued to work. That really hit me. It doesn’t matter what happens in life, we have to keep working and just trying our best so that we can serve the Lord with everything that we have. These words have helped me keep working when the times get tough. I know that HE NEVER STOPPED!!!!

Making a Brazilian traditional OVO DE PÁSCOA

But this week was great!  Elder Oliveira and I have been making a Brazilian traditional OVO DE PÁSCOA. It is a chocolate egg. They are A LOT OF WORK. It isn’t easy trying to get them right and not messing up and everything. By the end of our baking experience I was done and NEVER wanted to see another piece of chocolate again!!! But we decided to make these for the sisters in the ward who have been feeding us just as a little Thank You. Yesterday we spent time passing out these eggs with a small message of Christ and a prayer with them. It was a lot of work but we were given the best reward in the world! It was so cool seeing the joy of these sisters as we delivered our eggs. The area we are serving there is not a lot of money. There is one major business in the town and most everyone works at that company. If they do not work there then you have to literally sweep the streets for a living. Just as most parents, they give all they can to their children. There is not a lot of extra money left for their selves or anything else. I have always found the greatest joy in my life when I am serving others. Honestly there is nothing better than seeing the look of gratitude and happiness on the faces of those you are serving. One particular sister really made me smile. As I handed her an egg she took it in her hands and started kissing it. There is NO expression for the feelings that I had yesterday. I know that making those silly eggs took a lot of our time. It was long and tiring and after a while I really started to wonder if what we were doing was wasting mine and the Lords time. I was so grateful that we did this! This just goes to show that there is NO greater blessings in the world than serving those you love!!! I am so grateful that I am NOT being transferred yet. I truly have such a great love for the people who I am serving with here in the Ramo NAK NUK!!!! I love this area and the people here. The same love that I have for those in Alameda! 

 

Elder Stilson Showing Off His Mad Soccer Skills

I love everything that I am learning and really this week was AWESOME! Besides this spiritual blessing, we had a lot of material as well. We have an investigator who gave us a TON of green coconuts. AGUA DE COCO!!!!! It was great!!! I also learned that I am beast at soccer.... Ok yeah not really... I tried this week but failed a few times terribly.... DONT ASK! But everything is good! I love you all and can’t wait until next week to hear more about everyone back home.

LOVE , ELDER STILSON!:)

Learning Amazing Things!

This week I would like to start by saying how blessed I truly am. I have to best parents in the world, brothers and sisters who are just such amazing examples to me and grandparents whose love is incomprehensible for me. There are so many blessings that I have to be grateful for! I have great friends and I have been blessed with the opportunity to help and serve others to come unto Christ. The things that I am learning here are truly amazing.

This week was good, a little hectic but good. I have learned some things that I am having a hard time expressing because there are so many of them and I don’t have a lot of time but I am so grateful to be a missionary. This week we had the baptism of a little girl named Vitória. She is super cute and really funny. We were so blessed that her mom gave her permission to be baptized.  It was a great little service even though it was planned on the dime. I love to feel the spirit especially during baptisms. She wasn’t confirmed however due to the fact that she went to her grandma’s house the day after but we have her confirmation planned for this week. We are so excited for her to complete this ordinance.

The rest of the week was basically just running around a lot. We had the traveling assistance come and stay with us for 3 days. That was a little difficult because the plans for our week needed to be adjusted but it good to have them come. I feel bad because they basically just came out of the office to walk the amazing morros of Nanuque!!!! Yeah, unfortunately we just walked them to death because everything we had set up fell through.

This is also the last week of this transfer! This Sunday we will know what is going to happen. Sorry I don’t have much more to say. It was just a different emailing day for me. Something that made me smile and that is what I needed!!! HAHA But I love you all and hope you guys have a great week and I will write more his next week. Thank you all for the love and support you always show me.

Love, Elder Stilson

HOW FAST TIME FLIES!

 

Hello everyone, well the April Conference of 2014 marks my 1 year mark! (What an AMAZING conference it was!) I had a dream the other night that I was getting off the plane and just got home... IN the dream I thought "HOLY COW! That passed WAY too fast!  It seems like I fell asleep when I had a year left and now I am home!!"... I am pretty sure this next year is going to go by really fast. Haha That dream really hit me how fast time flies. I only have a little time left. Just as a member of the 70 taught this conference "We only have 4 mins!" There are 2 mins of my mission gone! I only have 2 more so now I’ve really got to make everything count!!! Time is really

just passing faster and faster!!! I cannot tell you how fast the days, weeks, months and transfers are. Something that I have also thought about is that this is life! After the mission there is just not time to waste!!! Just as all of the prophets have taught, especially Alma NOW is the time to have a remission of our sins! Something that I have been teaching people and have been living is that "One day there WON’T be a tomorrow!!" As hard as this is, we can’t continue putting things off for tomorrow. Now is the time. Now is the time to be Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ! As important as this is for those who are investigating the church to figure out, so is it for those who have already made their convents. IT IS SO IMPORTANT!!!! Something that I have gained a testimony of here on the mission is that Christ LIVES! He loves us! He loves me and he loves you, even if we have fallen away from the straight and narrow path. The sons of Mosiah and Alma the younger have all fought against the church.

They had sinned horribly. They lead the souls of thousands to follow the Devil. They repented and they received a remission of their sins. This is a perfect example of the love our Heavenly Father has for us.  The Lord forgave them and he will forgive us as well as long as we act now and repent. This is a promise and I know it to be true! Do NOT procrastinate the day of your repentance. We have blessings waiting for us here on earth that each of us have seen so why yield to temptation?

Elder Stilson's 20th Birthday Celebration!

I am here serving  my mission because I KNOW the power of the Atonement is real! I still have a lot to learn but just as Enos knew helped him receive the remissions of HIS sins. I love my family and friends so much! Just as Ammon and my Nan, I cannot think about living in the eternities without my family and friends. You all mean too much to me. To know that one day we can all live together in the presence of God forever helps me with everything. I love you all so much and I hope that those, especially who have fallen away, or gone inactive can find the love that God has for each of His Children. I know of His love and that is why I am here serving, to show that anyone can use the AMAZING blessing of the atonement! I would challenge all of you to HEED to the words of Elder M. Russell Ballard and every three months talk to those you have already talked to about the restored gospel and then follow up with the missionaries! There is so much work to be done! It can be with those who are not members but also those who have gone away. If anyone needs a testimony, other than yours, of the restored gospel mine is here for anyone who will read. I know that my redeemer lives and loves me too!

For the update of the week, I don’t have much.

We have a little black kitten living with us. We needed a rat trap and she showed up just in time! Haha She showed up one day and doesn’t want to leave so she has been living in the back yard, free to leave at any time but not sure she will, taking care of all of the rodents.  She is pretty funny. We are just trying to find more people to teach. We have a few references which is Awesome and hopefully we can have a few more baptisms this week!:) Well, I sure Love all ya'll and love the emails and letters that I get. Thanks for everything!

Happy Birthday shout out to NAN who is just amazing! I love you soooooooooooooooo much! I am excited that next year we will be celebrating our birthdays together with homemade ice cream and cake!!!!!!:) Also to the Tater-tot-small-fry who will be turning the GIANT 11 years old this Thursday! Happy birthday DOOBIE!!!!! You are the best! Keep up the AWESOME work in all your sports and everything else that you are doing. LOVE YOU LITTLE MAN!!!!

Até Logo!!!!!! Aqui em sete dias!!!! Sempre Fique Firme!!!!

Elder Stilson!!!

POURING CATS AND DOGS.... Or SPIDERS AND MONKEYS!

Bom Dia!!! Well this week we did a lot of things but it’s the remembering part that is hard, haha, but this was a good week!

 So there was one day that we were walking to the house of a referral and it started to POUR CATS AND DOGS.... Or SPIDERS AND MONKEYS;) We just kept working and walking between all of the slipping and sliding down the side of the mountain, we made it to their house unharmed.  Normally on days like these I get a little frustrated but this day was GREAT!!!! My comp and I had a GREAT attitude about the rain and it was just funny! The way you look at something can change EVERYTHING!!! It was great and we went to our appointment and the little girl went to church a couple weeks ago and asked her mom if she could be baptized. It was great!!! So we were able to baptize her and 2 cousins this week so that was AWESOME! 

Another day we went to a member’s house, while we were talking one of the daughters pointed out a giant spider in her house. They all know how much I love spiders there was yet another one. Needless to say I just stayed WAY back while this 21 year old girl killed a GIANT without batting an eye while I sat and watched. Wow.... I am a baby haha ;) 

Speaking of bugs, I caught a nasty bug or should I say sickness and was pretty sick for a few days. I ached everywhere!!!! A lot of the people told me that they thought that I had Dengue fever... This is some nasty virus that is brought by mosquitoes where the back of your eyes burn and you feel like you want to die. Well that was what was happening but it ended up being a different virus and NOT dengue. Mom you can stop worrying!!! Everything was alright and I am feeling better. 

We also had interviews with our mission president this week where we, after, went to the Brazilian BBQ RODIZIO!!!! ALL YOU CAN EAT MEAT!!!! That was AMAZING!!! Haha Yeah I think was a great day!! I also got my birthday package so thank you so much to the BEST MOM IN THE WORLD!!!! I also got an amazing letter from my Grandma that sang so my comps are "loving" waking up to happy birthday everyday;) haha Thanks to Nan and Bomp for my birthday email!! Also BIG shout out to my cousins Malyn, Josie, and Jonah for making me feel a little trunky with my 1 year birthday cake!!!;) haha IT WAS AWESOME!!! Thanks for all of the pictures.

Well I had something that I learned that I wanted to share but I can’t remember and so I will save that for next week’s email. But thanks for all of the prayers and everything that everyone is doing for me!!! I have the best friends and family in the world!!!

PS one more BIG shout out to the BEAUTIFUL women in Grandville, Especially sister Helen Graul!!! I was thinking about you this last week and just remembering how special you are to me and how much you mean to me! I love you Helen!!! You and all the other people who are there in the Alameada Branch!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Well, until next week,

LOVE 

 ELDER STILSON!!!!!!:)