April 4, 2016 - Week 41

Dear Family,

What's up family?? So how did you guys like the general conference? I think my favorites were from Elder Christoffersen, and from Elder Renlund and from Elder Duncan. All of those men are super super guided men and they really are here to help us. I think Tommy said it best when he said that as a missionary, General Conference weekend is like the Super Bowl. It was awesome and I hope you guys had a great experience as well. To clarify Mom, I knew that Easter was coming up but I wasn't sure if it was the following week or not, haha. But as it turns out, it came and went without much noise here. The holiday is super super Catholic here so instead of being focused on the Easter bunny and candy, its more Ash Wednesday and 40 days and things like that.

 Haha but anyways, so cool that you guys enjoyed Arizona, I honestly really really liked Arizona as well. As a matter of fact, it´s funny that you mentioned how cool the Gilbert temple is because the other day before the conference session started, my comp and I were commenting about how sick the temples in Arizona are. We watched the conference in the church in Topo, and I watched it on a computer in English haha. I enjoy it in English because I can hear their voices. We had 7 investigators who went to conference this weekend, 3 of which should be getting baptized this Saturday if all goes well. Lizbeth, Maria and Oscar. Lizbeth was awesome because we found her this week and she had been reading the BoM and had gone to church earlier this year and told us that she wants to be baptized and knows it´s true. Really a miracle and she's an awesome person. 

 Raul, the man who we baptized like 2 weeks ago, was the only member who went to every one of the sessions. Every Sunday he pays his humble tithing, he stopped drinking coffee and beer after being taught about the Word of Wisdom.  We do service projects and he´s the only one of the members who shows up to do service. Raul is, to me, an example to me of a true disciple of Christ. He´s the first one who shows up to the church, with his white shirt that he bought and that he irons to try and be more acceptable for the Savior, he's always helping the other members. It reminds me that the Lord never put a requirement that we need to be the richest, the smartest, the best looking, or the most popular. But talking with Raul, one finds out how big of a blessing repentance and a new faith in Jesus Christ has been. Christ asks us to obey his commandments, and I don't know this, but I imagine that when Raul meets the Lord, the Lord will thank Raul for being his disciple. 

So yesterday while Elder Vaca and I were going to visit a less active family of 3 super old people, the were trying to grind like 15 pounds of corn with a hand grinder to make tamales for their grandson´s birthday. So Elder Vaca and I put on some aprons, stripped like 100 husks of corn, then ground the kernels while teaching them a lesson about prophets. It was a super cool experience to do something that was really useful with our time like stumbling into service opportunities. I hope that we can work to serve and more than anything work to be true disciples of Christ with charity. 

I love you all and I'm so glad you guys had a great week!! Keep staying busy and know you're always in my thoughts and prayers!!

Love,

Ryan 

March 28, 2016 - Week 40

Family,

Hey what's up ya'll. So 40 weeks down huh, before we know it we'll be at more than 52. Elder Vaca and I are from the same generation of missionaries and we were reflecting on how weird it was that we're rapidly coming up on the one year mark. I feel like yesterday we left, but yes, you're right, time is a funny thing. I'm glad that you all enjoyed your Easter Sunday and remembered the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What a blessing that we will all live again and we know what we have to do to be able to spend that time with our Heavenly Father.

So on another note..... yesterday was Easter?? Seriously?? I thought that it was this week coming up, haha. We're working with an iniciative with the Church for Easter, but I honestly did not know that it was yesterday. And if that doesn't answer your question, there wasn't much religious observance. They get two weeks off of school here in mexico and there's not many places open, and a lot of the people camp on the beach, so there was a huge drop in attendance at church yesterday. But we had a really good week, and we had a lot of really awesome lessons in our first week together. I feel like the first few weeks in a new companionship, we tend to find a lot of new people to teach and then drop the one's who aren't progressing. 

We are teaching this mother and her son, Oscar. I really really like them and Maria has been loving the church. They're both really great people and I feel like they understand that knowing more fully what the commandments are, is exactly what they need to really make their lives complete. I'm really really grateful for Elder Vaca. I was a little unsure of how things were going to go, with the transfer being so abrupt but honestly, in just one week we've grown into such great friends. He is from a city named Irapuato Guanajuato, in the center of Mexico. We have a lot in common and spend the whole day laughing and talking and we teach really well together as well. He wants to teach me a few basic Mexican recipies (like very basic, given our limited resources in time, utensils, and money) and in return I'm gonna teach him a little bit of English haha.

Mom, I still have not gotten the package with the Kool-aid and the limited edition chapsticks but I am sure that I will soon. I'll be on the lookout, haha.  I want to close by giving my testimony of the resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that after atoning and suffering for each and every pain and feeling that each and everyone of us will ever experience, after being tried unjustly, crucified, and laid in the tomb, that Jesus was resurrected so that each and every one of us will live again and so we can become eternal families, and because of him we never have to worry as long as we do as he tells us to do. I'm thankful for his willingness to sacrifice his perfect life for us, so that we can live again. I love you all and I'm glad that we know this to be true, and that we have the  gospel of Jesus Christ restored here on the earth today. 

Love,

Elder Stockard

March 21, 2016 - Week 39

Family,

     So another week down huh? How`ve you all been. Well, it sounds like you're moving along well and that things are going really well for you all. Mom, I'm glad to hear that you continue to see progress and that you're going to go see the Birdshot disease specialist in SLC. I'm confident that that will help you a lot with your eyes. It sounds like it will be a party in the fall of 2017 in Utah, let´s see if you and dad will be able to resist moving to BYU, haha. That's super exciting news that everything is taking form with Lauren and Tyler and that they´re gonna be going to Utah. Are you guys going to be in Utah for Easter and try to hit up GC live? I think it´s so cool that conference falls on Easter and I'm superrrr excited to watch it once again in a couple weeks!

     So this week was really good but ended with a super big surprise that was completely unexpected. President Munive called us last night really late and told us that there needed to be emergency transfer with some other missionaries and that my companion was going to have to leave so today I got a change in companions. My new companion is Elder Vaca. He arrived in the mission with me and I'm excited to spend this time with him, he`s a really good missionary. I was a little sad to leave Elder Ruiz but the Lord always has a better plan than us. So today we went to drop him off and I picked up Elder Vaca. We´re excited to work together and want to make the most of it. 

   On Saturday we had Raul´s baptism in Los Mochis and it was cool because he was super excited the whole day. The baptismal service went really well and I got to confirm him on Sunday as a member. It´s always good to see another baptism because it´s such a big step. Now we´re working with some of the recent converts that we have here to be able to go to the temple soon. We started teaching Roman this week, and we scheduled his baptism for next month and he´s also really excited. It should go good I think, he´s super cool and his mom is a member too. He´s 12 years old and really excited to learn. I also went to Los Mochis during the week to work with Elder Miller again. We had some super cool experiences and talked about how cool it will be to have memories like teaching families in Mexico together when we´re both back at BYU in a few years. 

   That´s cool that you guys could go to Schurz and speak there. I realize now how necessary it is to support the other branches and people who need that sort of support in the church. I'm glad to see that You guys are using your strengths and abilities to strengthen and serve others. I have a new appreciation for members who support where it´s needed haha. You guys are awesome examples and I'm glad that I can look back and have fond memories of having the missionaries over to teach others in our house. Ya´ll are seriously the best haha. I'm glad everything is going well with you back at the crib, and that I can tell you that I'm honestly loving the mission and see many blessings from having a faithful, loving family back at home. Love you all and we´ll talk more in a week!

Elder Stockard

March 14, 2016 - Week 38

Dear Family,


What's going on homies?? How are things back at the ranch? It sounds like you guys have quite the busy schedule going with report cards, and concession stands, and planning summer trips and things of every sort. I also heard that there's a potential trip to Tampico, MX this summer for you mom? Gosh, you would love to see how Mexico is, and I would love for you to be able to go to Mexico so you have an idea of how things are. After all, you will have spent 4 of the last 5 years of your life with your sons living there. But anyways, that's cool that you´re all good and that your eyes are steadily improving.


This week had it´s ups and its downs, but the ups were super sick. We should be baptizing Raul this Saturday and he´s been learning really well. Yesterday at church he came up to us and asked us if he could pay tithing if he wasn't a member. It was really humbling for him to make a true sacrifice and have such faith with so little time in the church. We helped him fill out the tithing slip, and then promised him that he was going to be blessed for his sacrifice. We had 6 investigators in church with us yesterday, including Raul. Two others are named Oscar and Maria, and we started teaching them on Saturday, and invited them to church and they showed up. Oscar is 26 years old and was actually going to get baptized like 7 years ago, but had to go into the Marines so decided not to. He has been seriously looking for a change recently and had a great time at church. We were super excited to start teaching them.


We had another missionary activity this week, and we organized like 5 or 6 games Minute to Win it style, and invited all the members of the branch to come. A lot of them did come, and it was really fun. My companion is really good with cards, and he knows how to do some magic tricks too so we did some of those. We also played a variation of cup stacking, 6 saltines in less than a minute, card towers, and throwing ping pong balls into cups. The kids and members had fun and we did too. The branch is really looking up, and we had 7 less active members come to church yesterday. Lots of times they just need to know that they're missed, and have someone pull their ears a little bit to be able to go back to church.


So it sounds like you guys are going to have quite the summer, haha. Hawaii, Arizona, and possibly Tampico? Sounds like it should be fun. I will have to add that to my list of vacations that you guys took while I was on my mission then afterwards, all the RMs in the family can complain about how the family only goes on vacation when we´re on the mish. Haha I remember that Dad and Tommy talked about that. In all honesty, I'm in support of it as long as you send me pictures of it all. Also, what percentage do Lauren and Tyler make from the snack bar? I remember that it was some margin. Thanks for all the updates on all that, also have they made a med school decision yet??


Well that's about all for this week. I'm glad you guys are doing good and seeing the blessing of the Lord in your lives. He gives us all we need to be happy and we just need to trust in what he tells us. The church is true! I love you all, and we´ll talk more in week 39 !!

All love,

Ryan

March 7, 2016 - Week 37

Dear Family,

Another week back writing you all, and it always brings a smile to my face to have a little piece of you guys during my week. It sounds like everyone´s good and it makes me very grateful to know that you´re seeing improvement with the eyes. It really is a huge testimony builder of the power of a faithful fast, and the promises of the lord. Pretty touching experience to see how far you´ve gotten this month, when things weren´t looking too good (pun totally intended) and now things are looking better. (Yes, that one too) Well, in short, we can all be eternally grateful for a Heavenly Father who has each of us actively on his mind, and cares for each one of us perfectly. 

This week went really well for us. Things really seem to be coming together and meshing well with our investigadores right now, and we are really excited to be teaching them and working with them. Edgar and Angel came to church and participate a ton during the classes, it´s pretty cool. We also are teaching this man named Raul who came to church as well, and if all goes well, will be baptized in a week and a half. He´s super nice and sells bread for a living. He always offers us some of his bread that he makes in his house. We´re also teaching 3 middle-aged women that are all super nice. Aurora, Guadalupe, and Alma. We find it convienent to leave her chapters of Alma to read because she has the same name of 2 great prophets. But its not as big of a coincidence as you would think, Alma in Spanish means soul. So its all a little confusing haha. But we´re moving along well in the work and excited to keep finding new people, because that's always part of the process. 

This week we´re planning on having a missionary activity in the branch here. It's kinda interesting being in a branch as a missionary because we have to literally put the branch on our backs sometime, including conducting the meetings, doing all the visiting and home teaching meetings, bless and pass the sacrament, and give talks. Although we have to work really hard in a lot of areas, it´s rewarding because we develop really great relationships with lots of the members. We´ve worked hard and reactivated 3 people here recently, including an RM named Samuel. But we have a long ways to go in the branch, but we´re seeing improvement.

I'm super glad to hear from all of you. I still haven't gotten your package but we only get mail once a month, so it could have arrived by now. I will defintely let you guys know though. Keep me posted on the presidential election and all other news, and I don't know if you snapped a pic of my missionary plaque, but when you get a chance I would love to see it. Thanks for ll the love and support, know that I reciprocate it on this side of the border for all of you. I love you all very much and we´ll talk more in a week.

Love,

Ryan 

Feb. 29, 2016 - Week 36

Family,

Heyyy whats up everyone?? How are all of you guys? I'm glad to hear that everyone´s good and hope everyone is enjoying this extra day of the year lol! Hard to believe it´s almost March! Super big congrats to Tommy on accepting the Clark Scholarship at BYU and I am confident that he´ll continue to do work in the law school there too. Sounds like there was a lot of excitement and weddings that are going down out there. So Donald Trump is looking like the front runner for president huh? Who is Dad´s vote? Pretty interesting to watch, even when its from a distance haha. Also, huge shout out to Ryan H for receiving his call to Buenos Aires Argentina!!!!! Way sick. 

So this week was the last week of the transfer, and yesterday every missionary was on his toes waiting to receive the call to what was going to happen with them. Elder Ruiz and I are staying the same and we´re going to continue working together in Topolobampo for another 6 weeks. I'm super excited and grateful because I honestly love it here, and we´re doing a lot of good work. Yesterday we had 5 investigatores come to church with us, which was about 1/5 of the attendance! It´s nice to bring people to church because the investigators and the members already know each other, cause almost everyone here knows each other haha. We´re teaching Angel, Hilario, and Edgar who are brothers. Superrrr cool and smart kids. They want to get baptized, and a super ready, we´re just waiting on the permission from their parents. Which is coming, but slowly. We read the Jeffrey R Holland talk on mothers with their mom this week to try and soften her up a bit and encourage them to treat their mother with the utmost respect. I shared with them how great of a mother you were for me, and how you always want to best for us. 

We´re also working with other less active members to try and bring in some priesthood to the branch. Its going little by little, but it really is a process. Its interesting because like 70% of the men in Topo work in the ocean, in some facet. Their schedule is governed by the weather, the wind, and lots of other little factors, but it makes it really hard to find men who are willing to go to church on Sunday and work it out with their work. It's a definite challenge but it's not impossible! We have some really sweet investigators and references though so I'm seeing big things coming.

This week I had a new companion for 2 days, cause we did transfers with the zone leaders. Elder Miller, from Mapleton, Utah came here and worked with me. It was super fun because we talked a lot about things we liked to do in Utah and some of the things on the mission. We get along really well and it was fun to show him around for a bit, while I got to learn new things from him. I'm really grateful for the people we get to meet here on the mission and the friendships we´ll have for many years to come. 

Thanks so much for the support and for sending that package to me. This family will be so excited and surprised to receive it and I'm excited to give them their Kool-Aid haha. So how are the treatments going mom? Are they sure that birdshot is what you have, and when are you expected to see results from the medicine?? I keep praying for you every day and I'm comforted to know that we have a Father in Heaven who is listening, and has all our best interests in mind. I hope you know I love you all and that I'm doing great here and I'm glad to hear from everyone of you and what you're doing. The time really is limited and we gotta make the most of it!! I love you all and I'll talk to you in a week!! 

Love Always,

Ryan 

February 22, 2016 - Week 35

Family,

Wow, Mom that's great that you got some sort of diagnosis and treatment for what's been bugging you in your eyes for so long. Only 104 cases in the USA, that is honestly the definition of rare. Like I think the black plague is probably more common than birdshot disease. Well, with that in mind, I'm ever so thankful that there is a treatment for it. And that you were able to receive the help you need and I'm sure everything will be great. Other than that part, how was the rest of your guys week?? I'm sure it was nice to have a shortened school week like always. How is the weather back at home? It's starting to heat up here, but it doesn't stop us from working hard.   

This week was really good.  We had a baptism on Saturday which is always a really cool way to end the week. Those days are filled with a lot of last minute preparations and tasks, but it is always worth it. It's made a little bit harder because we are really isolated here in Topolobampo, and have to coordinate a lot of things in Los Mochis. But this investigator, Vanessa, was really well prepared and it makes it a lot easier. I was super happy to be able to see her make that big step in her life. I forgot my camera, so ill have to send you guys pics the next week. Other than that the work is good. 

We have a lot of people we´re teaching and its just a matter of helping each of them understand the feeling of the spirit and they´ll all be good. We were put on special assignment by the Stake Presidency to search for more priesthood among the less actives, in hopes to find a branch president that lives in Topo. They are all on assignment from Mochis right now. So we have this list of like 150 less active men and we have to try to visit them all little by little.

Thank you for the political updates, I hear a lot of negative comments about Donald Trump here, apparently he's not too fond of the Mexican people, according to them. I'm not sure though, I feel pretty disconnected with the American politics. Are any of the candidates coming to Fallon or Reno this week to try and sway the polls, or is Nevada insignificant enough that we don't get any attention? I am kinda weirded out by the fact that when I come back we will have a new president. But you will definitely have to keep me updated on all that, I will be curious to know.

This is the last week of the transfer here so it is possible that it´s my last week in Topolobampo. We will see, but in any case I know that the Lord has a special plan for each and every one of us. Whether I'm in Topolobampo, or some other area the gospel is the same, which is such a blessing. I love to see the positive effects that it has on those in our family in Nevada, with the powerful blessings of fast and prayer that we have seen, and I'm positive we will continue to see with your eyes, Mom. From Grandma and Gpa in Ukraine, to me in Mexico, and all the others in every part of the USA I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who heard those pleas, and blessed you. Its a special blessing to be able to devote my life for these two years to helping people realize that those are blessings that each one of us can receive in moments of need, and it is the only way to find true and everlasting, eternal happiness, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, I love you all and encourage you to keep looking for opportunities to serve others. Love you all.

Love,

Ryan