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 

February 15, 2016 - Week 34

Hola,

Wow, pretty cool weekend you guys all had. From what I've heard the Provo temple is really great. Pretty sweet that from any given point in Provo you're only a stone's throw away from a temple, haha. I definitely look forward to going to those temples with you guys all together one day, but we should probably plan a trip during the summer so that there's not so much snow, haha. Dad graduated from law school there many years ago, and now its a temple, kinda funny haha. But I'm really glad you guys got up to Utah to see everything and everyone there and enjoy a little cold weather.

This week was really good. We are going to start doing mutual with the kids here in the branch, but we´re doing it differently so that each week the kids can each bring a friend with them. It started off as an English class with 4 investigators that we have, and we thought of doing a small activity every week with the kids we are teaching, and inviting the members to come and bring their friends as well. All the youth were really excited about it and so we'll see how it goes. This week we planned a service activity with a part member family, and then after we´re gonna play a game. I'm thinking about instituting Chubby Bunny, but I wanna pull that one out at a prime opportunity. No but I'm really looking forward to it and I think it will be good for the branch.

This week was kinda funny casue the Pope is in Mexico and everywhere we go people invite us in to watch him on tv, and its all over the newspaper and everything. I honestly had no idea that it was that big of a deal but I guess so. But regardless of the Pope excitement, we were able to find some new people to teach this week which is always exciting. I love to see people feeling the spirit testify to them of the validity of the message, even when it's just the first visit, and even when they don't always recognize that as the spirit. Also, super sick that there was a member of the 12 presiding at your sacrament meeting, and it was as if nothing happened. Did he give any remarks or was he just chillin?? 

This Valentine's day I want to tell each of you how much I love you all. I really appreciate that you sent me those 3 things, Mom, and I wish I had time to send 100 things that I love about all of you, but I will keep it short and tell you all that I love you and appreciate each one of you. Each of us is a son or daughter of a loving Heavenly Father, who has a plan that includes us living in his presence together forever. Quite a remarkable blessing, and I want you all to know you're loved and missed. Untill next week.

Ryan

February 8, 2016 - Week 33

Family,

Heyyyy whats up yall. So the snow keeps going there in Nevada, huh? It's funny because everyone asks me where I'm from, I tell them "Nevada" (which means 'snowy' in Spanish) and then they always follow up with asking me if I've ever seen snow and I can tell them about the weather updates from over there lol. So how was the week for everyone? Seems like it was pretty low key with the highlight being the Superbowl haha. We had a good week here, just with a lot less snow!

So to answer your question, it's still a little too early to tell but we keep visiting the converts and they're both doing good. We started teaching this man named Miguel this week, as well as another family. Miguel is a reference from a member and he is super nice and really likes reading the Book of Mormon. He came all the way to Los Mochis with us for a stake conference and there we heard an Area 70 deliver a very powerful message, and I was super glad to have him there to hear it. Vanessa also came, she's a girl whose family is less active but they're reactivating, and she's gonna get baptized this weekend, if all goes well! 

This weekend and week are kinda tough to find people because there's this week-long celebration here in Topo called Carnaval. It basically includes a tonnnnn of food, people, shows, celebrations, and drinking. There are fireworks every night and it's all really cool to see, but from a missionary's perspcetive its hard because starting at like 6:00 PM it's kinda impossible to find people in their houses. But it's ending this week so it's all good. 

On Saturday at the stake conference as I was leaving, someone came up to me super super excited and asked me if I had a brother who served in Tampico, and then told me that they served together. It was really cool for a couple reasons, one of which is that it was fun to hear some short stories about Tommy's mish, and make some connections in that aspect. It was also cool to see how big of an impact that Tommy had obviously made with this RM and see his example. And also to have a little connection to those who I love most. Funny to reflect and think that 2 years ago Tommy and this guy were on the other side of Mexico together as missionaries, and now he and I are together here in Los Mochis.

Mom, I'm glad to see your humility in this whole situation with your eyes. 99% (if not more) of your life is devoted to helping others and seeing to others needs, and its a special experience for us, as your family, to be able all rally together and use the powerful tool that God gives us and fast for you. It was a really special opportunity and I was glad to be able to have you on my mind and know that many others, including our Heavenly Father had you in their thoughts this weekend. Well, thank you all for the updates. And huge shout out to Jacob for his mission call! I wish I could say I knew where Armenia was, but I do not. He'll be a great missionary and member of God's army in this special calling. I love you all, thanks for writing me! Until next Monday. All love.

Love,

Ryan

February 1, 2016 - Week 32

Family,

Mom, thank you for the political update back in the states. It seems like I've missed all the chaos with politics here over the last 7.5 months, considering that gay marriage still was not legal when I left on the mish. I'm sure that with the presidential election right around the corner it's pretty crazy there. You'll have to keep me updated on all that. Also, can we take a moment to all laugh at how random and hysterical it is that Tyler is the new sex ed teacher at Oasis. Also pretty exciting that the Superbowl is this weekend, it will be weird to not hear anything about it in Mexico. And that's dope that you get a snow day, well a snow delay I guess. The weather here is actually heating up quickly, and I'm catching glimpses of how hot it was during the summer haha. Anyways, I'm glad to hear that the week went well for everyone!!

So this week was really good for us as well. The 2 baptisms went really well and both Frida and Osiris were excited to be baptized. I will include pics for you guys. We are actually working with this part-member family, who is also inactive. It's tricky because it's a family of 5, 3 of them are members, but all of them are at different stages in their conversion. We are planning a baptism of one of the non-member kids this weekend and hope that it will turn out well. 

Yesterday my comp and I gave talks in church. I talked about the importance of prayer during trials, and how our attitudes can help us through trials. I didn't share your story about your eyes but it was what I had in mind as I prepared it. After, a less active member told me that he really needed to hear that, and asked me to give him a blessing after church. It was a really cool experience to be able to help someone like that without knowing at all what he was going through before. 

So how are things going in school and work for everyone?? I wanna get updates on the Ashley and Brian move, and also the Matt Lee election status. I heard that Brandon and Jacob both are waiting mission calls, and I wanna make my predictions for them right now. For Jacob I'm gonna say Seoul South Korea, and for Brandon I'm gonna say Los Angeles California. But keep me updated on that. I realized the other day that on Jan 30, 2015 I received my mission call to Ciudad Obregon and how excited I was since that moment. It's a special time in someone's life and it truly is the work of the Lord. Well, I want you all to know I love you, I will be fasting for you this week mom, and always praying for you I hope you know that. You're the best earthly example I could ask for. Love you always and we will talk next week.

Elder Stockard 

January 25, 2016 - Week 31

Family,

Yo what up world, how ya´ll been?? Haha no one told me Alyssa was going to prom, did she roll solo or did she go with someone?? The dress she made turned out great and she looked beautiful as well, and how embarrassing that she had her parents as chaperons lolol. I'm kidding, but it is kinda funny. I'm sure you and dad played it cool and went low key. It seems like this week was pretty chill for all you guys, nothing too grand that happened. Pretty fun that grandma and Steve´s family are gonna go to Florida this week, that should be  a sick trip. I have to clarify that, yes Ruiz is a common surname here in Mexico, but not THAT common. There are now only 2 Elder Ruiz in my mission, and my first comp is already home. So it really is funny that I've had all 3 of them as comps. 

So this week was super busy for us. We worked and worked and worked to find new people to teach. So we contacted a ton of people in the street, then searched for them, and started teaching them. That's pretty much how we find new people. We found this one family with 10 people that we´re now teaching. Well it´s like 3 families living together, but it´s one household. They´re super nice and have some kids that love to listen to us, so we´re really excited about that. At long last, we will be baptizing Osiris this Saturday and with a little luck, we will also baptize another investigator. Both of them have learned a lot and are making the final preparations to make that holy covenant with God and we´re excited for them. 

One of the highlights of my week was that we finally received the general conference edition of October´s conference. We get them in English and in Spanish but I love reading them in English because I can hear the voices of the apostles in my head as I read them. General Conf was something I definitely took for granted in my life but it really is such a blessing to have those inspired men leading our church. The work of the Lord really never ceases to amaze me. Dad will be happy to know that I'm not stopping to work hard on the language even though I am at the point where I can easily communicate. Each day for language study I think of words in English that are kinda random or uncommon and find the definition in Spanish. It amazes me that there are so many words that we know perfectly, but hardly ever use in a normal context. But it´s fun and I want to have a really big Spanish vocabulary. In one of the more random exchanges of my life, I found this huge American from LA walking around the street here in topo and he very desperately asked me if I knew any English, and I told him I was from the USA. He somehow arrived in Los Mochis on accident and in his efforts to return to the United States, only managed to distance himself more from his home and arrived in Topolobampo. But to his delightful surprise, he likes Topo and so he decided to stay awhile. Occasionally I see him in the street or in a store and he always asks me to translate for him, and that's kind of fun as well lol.

Mom, the FHEs we do preferably consist of a family of members, an investigator, some sort of short game or video and a quick message that we can relate to the activity. We have made cards to play taboo with church related stuff, we can watch Meet the Mormons or another church video, and sometimes we do it with less active families as well. It makes me at long last appreciate the FHEs we did every Monday night without fail :) 

It is super great to hear from you all and the time sure is marching on. Thank you all for your words, emails, encouragement and support. I will continue praying for y'all like always and I can't wait to hear how this week goes for everybody. 

Love you all so much, 

Ryan.  

January 18, 2016 - Week 30

Family,

Well another week down and here we are again... I feel like I write that a lot lol. Anyways, so good to hear from you guys yet again and I'm always so happy to hear how great you're all doing and the exciting things that go on in the life back at home. Big shout out to Lauren and Tommy as they're hearing more great news and widening their field of options for med and law school.... That's big time. And mom I'm glad to hear that you're keeping yourself in shape, even if its to a point that you can't move afterwards lol. 

This week was really good here in Sinaloa as well, and packed with lots of things and the transfer ended so Elder Salazar and I unfortunately had to part ways. I don't know if you guys are going to find this next part as funny as I did but I receivied my new companion and his name is.....Elder Ruiz.  Who would've guessed it, right? 3 of my first 4 comps are named Elder Ruiz lolol. This one is also from Chiapas (Where the first one was from) and he is pretty new on the mish. He has like 3 months here. I'm super excited to get to work with him and see how everything goes here. We have a lot of exciting things that are right around the corner here. There's still a lot to work, but 2 of our investigators are getting married so that they can get baptized, and we have another investigator who wants to get baptized and go on a mission, were just trying to get her mom on board with the whole idea... But she'll come around eventually! I was super super excited cause this weekend the Nuñez family ( Some converts from my prior area) went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms, and they are preparing to enter to get sealed. What a blessing it is that we can be together forever as a family. Other than that, we keep working and we see what the Lord prepares for us. 

We're starting to work really well with the members here in Topo and this week we're doing some family home evenings with them and asking them to invite friends who they would like to hear the gospel. It really is the best way to complete the work of the Lord, and I hope you guys are always willing to help the Elders there in Fallon. It brings blessings to your lives and to the lives of others as well. That's exciting about the new calling dad got, but I guess we can't really call it a new calling because he served on the HC for years. I really can't think of a much better place for him, it really lets him use his abilities to help other people and carry a powerful message to them. 

Mom, I continue to pray for you and I too feel like your vision will shortly improve. Sometimes we have these things in life that are super super inconvenient and uncomfortable, but it's all about the attitude we carry throughout. I think of Nephi and his family traveling in the desert and he took all the afflictions in stride and always saw the blessing of every situation, while his brothers were constantly complaining and saw it all as a hardship. In reality the Lord had a promised land prepared for them, and he has the same for us. I'm glad that you have such a positive attitude with something that would be so easy to complain about. You'll always be my example because that's what you've always taught me, even though I didn't always listen. I want you to know I love you and I'm doing great out here, and miss you and love you. Always keeping you all in my prayers. I wish you all the best week, and love you all.

Elder Stockard