April 17, 2017 - Week 95

Mom,

Happy Easter!! How was it for all of you guys?? It's always such a peaceful weekend to be able to spend time with those we love the most and remember the Lord and his triumphant sacrifice, and resurrection and what it means for each one of us! Each day I gain more of an appreciation for the Lord`s sacrifice and His life. This year the dyed eggs and the Easter egg hunts were absent but it still was a great Easter Sunday for Elder Wood and me here in Choix. I tried to read a little bit about Resurrection Sunday yesterday. One of my favorite stories is in Luke 24 when the resurrected Lord appears to the two disciples on the road to Emaus and breaks bread with them, serves as a good reminder of the purpose the sacrament still has in our lives.

Many people this week were out of town because in Mexico they always do their spring break in conjunction with Holy Week. Which is both good and bad. We did the inagural branch activity and had a less than thrilling turnout haha. A couple of members came, but a family of investigators we had came and they really enjoyed themselves, so in my mind it was a success! Haha. The branch is progressing well and we are working hard with the members. This week none of them could give us food, so we had to fend for ourselves.

Working with the members more has yielded some good fruits in the form of great members references. I feel like the people from the tiny towns like Choix are a lot more receptive and know pretty much all of the members of the branch. One of those experiences was when we were working with the branch pres` wife, she introduced us to her friend. I think we caught her at a not-so ideal time cause she was very very tired and was even falling asleep at times. But then all of a sudden she opened up and started telling us about many questions she has had for a long time about her family and God`s plan for them. That launched into a long talk and also her confessing a long time desire to know if God has a church that he has established. So it was a really positive experience. Often times we don't know what will become of things like that, but it never ceases to amaze me the way the Lord answers prayers! We are still working with another family, they were on vacation all of week so we haven't seen them for over a week. Hopefully there will be a baptism in the next couple of weeks!!

This week I will be in Los Mochis working with Elder Callens, who is one of my good friends who started the mission the same time as me. We had Pday today, a zone conference tomorrow, and then a couple days to work together so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll have some good experiences to write to you guys about next Monday! I can't believe that those 3 are getting married. It's coming up soon, if only you could be in more than one place at once. Really poor planning by them, they should've been more considerate. (hopefully my sarcasm rang through in text). Lol. Well, I hope you guys have a great week.. how many weeks are left of school, there cant be too many right?? I hope you guys know how much I love and pray for you all!!

All Love!!

Ryan

April 10, 2017 - Week 94

Mom,

How y'all doing, fam?? I hope all is well back at the crib!! I like what you were talking about the concrete action, since General Conference always leaves one reflecting for a time. Another concrete thing that I would like to do when I get home is to start being a little more diligent and knowledgeable in the family history department. I also want to keep up my journal writing habit that I've developed on my mission. I've written in my journal every single day of my mission, and I'm glad to have all that info!! And I also am trying to memorize The Living Christ which was another theme from General Conference. I remember you and dad were working on that awhile back, how did that go??

So this week was interesting!! There was one day where Elder Wood was really sick and was told that he had to be resting the whole day so I was cooped up there with him haha. But then the next day we got back to work and the area continues to progress. We´re really trying to help strengthen the branch and get a solid base so that the investigators we bring can have a good spiritual experience when they go for the first time. We´ve been doing branch FHEs that have been working out well. This week we have a branch activity on Wednesday and we´re hoping some investigators can go there too. We are hoping to have a baptism next weekend of a family member of a less active family who is in the reactivation process.

So that service project we did was super awesome!! A great team of plastic surgeons and anesthesiologists from So. California came down and I got to translate for them. We started very, very early and ended late, with very few breaks in between but it was such a cool experience. They let me scrub in on a lot of the complex surgeries that they did, such as babies with cleft palettes, a woman with a cancerous finger that they amputated, and numerous others. Basically it was a clinic where anyone who had a problem that required a plastic surgeon came and was evaluated by the doctors, then they fit in as many as they could with the limited time they had. It really was so sick though, I'm glad I got to help out in any way I could.

Today we had a zone activity too. We´re super far away from everyone in Choix so it was nice to get together with friends, other missionaries, and old comps and hang out. We went down to a river and had a barbeque and tossed around the football and all just hung out for a couple of hours. Gets me excited for this summer!! Sister Lee was there and we took a pic together and said she'll send it to her family so it'll probably end up in your hands by the end of the week, haha.

I'm blessed to have you all as my family!! You really are the best and help me feel blessed and motivated to share with others the simple truths that have brought us so much peace and happiness! I hope you all have a great week and know you're always in my prayers!!

All Love,

Ryan

April 3, 2017 - Week 93

Mom and Family,

Greetings from Choix!! (Pronounced Sh- oy- x) I was thinking about how awesome it was that you guys, and we, and millions of other members from all over the world were watching the same counsel from the living Prophets. I was told before the mish that GC weekend would be like the Superbowl during the mish, and I can definitely say that is so! So we watched every session in English except for the Sunday morning, because that was the only session that members and investigators showed up for. The uplifting spirit that is felt is very motivating to make necessary changes in one´s life. I enjoyed the Prophet Thomas S. Monson´s message about the Book of Mormon as well. And Elder Cook shouting out Malcom Gladwell the Outliers 10,000 hour principle, haha. I set a goal to finish the BoM one more time before I finish in June and I'm determined to complete it too. I would love to hear some of your notes from the messages and if you have any ideas that were born during the conference. 

The conference obviously was the highlight of the weekend but it was a really good week too. We got to see and start spreading the word of the new Easter initiative that came out. It's called the Prince of Peace, who is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ. It´s a really great video, and it also gives 8 principles of peace, that are simple and we should all put them into practice. There, we got to talk to Pres and Sister Myers which is always a highlight too, since I always feel very uplifted after talking to them. We found 2 new families who are super awesome. One is a man and his daughter, her 2 kids. They all seem like sincere truth seekers which is so nice. The other one is a younger couple who also seem very interested. 

There's also a service project that we have this week that I'm super stoked about! A team of doctors from the USA come down to El Fuerte (a touristic-ish town about an hour away from Choix) every month to give free medical service. We are going to go this Friday to help them translate and also be like a medical assistant. I'm super stoked to get some first hand exposure to what I'm interested in doing the rest of my life and hopefully help some people out. I will let you all know how it turns out!!

I'm so glad to hear everyone is doing great there. Wow, I had no idea Travis was going to Johns Hopkins, that's super awesome, big time congrats. I hope all the other busy things you guys have going on turn out great, I'm sure they will you are all the best!! I love you, hope you have an awesome week

All Love,

Elder Stockard 

March 27, 2017 - Week 92

Mom,

So the week of spring break, what a fun time you all had. I heard about it from a few different people, and it sounds like you all had a very fun, relaxing time that was also filled with delicious food which is always a plus. You'll definitely have to show me that ice cream sandwich place when I get back. But that's awesome, I'm glad you all enjoyed the time. 

Wow, my last week was like a whole different world too!! I have been in small cities and units before but Choix is a different ball game, I really do love it!! Every Wednesday and Saturday we have to travel out to this other small town (if you can call it that, it's more of just a group of houses) called Cajon. A couple of families who are members live out there and they are kind enough to feed us. It is a couple of hours away walking so it eats up a pretty good chunk of our day, but its nestled right up in the mountains and it's so awesome!! I don't have a cord to my camera, so I can't send pics, but don't worry I will show you all of them in 11 weeks;) Yesterday at church we had a very beautiful service as well. The members here are awesome, although small in number, very strong in testimony and desire to serve. One cool experience this week... we were walking, and a car pulled up and a man probably about 28 years old named Sergio got out and said, "Elders, can you go to the house tonight and give my father in law a blessing and teach him and my mother in law the plan of salvation? I'm a member visiting from Mesa AZ and he is sick." Hahaha we obliged. His family is very nice and they went to church on Sunday. Unfortunately, Sergio goes back to the USA soon but we will continue to teach his family!! We also found a bunch of other new people who are awesome, the people here are very accepting which is nice.

Elder Wood and I are really getting along well too. I love being with brand new missionaries like him, they bring such a powerful spirit with them and I feel like I can teach them some of the things I wish that I would have known when I was new. We spent a lot of time working on the lessons and especially in Spanish. I told him the language is like a giant puzzle... it take a long time, seemingly endless at times, to get all the edges and corner pieces down, but then it all starts clicking, and you start making connections. I like seeing that progress with him as his companion. He has been here in Choix for a couple months already so he is showing me the area and introducing me to all the investigators and everything. We have also had to travel to other areas a lot this week for baptismal interviews, meetings, and all the other stuff. We spend a lot of money on bus fees, haha. 

But I am super super happy and trying to make the most of every second I have left, I'm so stoked for General Conference this weekend!! It will be the last one I have, which is hard to believe, but I'm anxious to hear the inspired messages they have prepared for us. I love your idea of having a couple of questions to look for the answers to. Something I will be doing, and inviting all the investigators to do too!! 

Well, Family, I love you all so much!! You're the best!! I can't wait to hear from you all next week!!

All love,

Ryan 

March 20, 2017 - Week 91

Mom and Family,


Hey family what's up? So I will start right off with the big news on transfers... after 4 months I did in fact have to leave Guamuchil. In Guamuchil I left many many friends and timeless memories that I will forever be grateful for. My new area, and almost indubitably my last area, is a small town in Sinaloa that's close to the Chiuahua border called Choix. Choix is situated up in the mountains and it's definitely really, really pretty. I mean, that's about all I know about it so far, haha I arrived like 30 minutes ago and we still have a lot to do. But I'm really excited to be here, I know the Lord always has something for us to learn with each transfer. My new companion is a missionary with about 2 months in the mission, named Elder Wood. He is from Mesa, Arizona. He is a really great guy and I'm excited to be spending this time working hard with him.

So yeah, that is the definite highlight of the week, haha. Really kinda steals the spotlight from any other thing that we did during the week. But it was a really good last week in Guamuchil with Elder Beecher. We found some really great new investigators, had a couple of baptisms that we had to get ready, for Ines, Maria and Dana. We also had intercambios with some other missionaries. I worked with Elder Chichia, who was my companion for 3 months and was in his last week of the mission. His parents came to pick him up and we had stake conference this weekend, so I got to meet Elder Chichia's parents at stake conference and tell them about how good of a missionary their son is and say goodbye to him before he headed out today.

At stake conference, an Area 70 named Elder Martinez came and talked to us. He gave a great talk on personal revelation. He said that answers to our questions to God usually come in 3 forms, one can be yes, one can be no, and one can be God letting us use our wisdom and feelings to take the liberty to decide what we think is best. President Myers also went to the stake conference and delivered a powerful message about the power of the Priesthood. He is so funny and good at connecting with the people he speaks to.

I really liked the pics from the wedding. Everyone really did look so happy!! It makes me happy to know that the sacred blessings are available to all families who live worthy to enter the temple. We are blessed to have that knowledge. Well, I am going to have to keep this short cause we're not gonna have a ton of time today but I love you all so much. I'm blessed with such a great family!! I hope everyone has a great week, I love you all!!

Love and Prayers,

Ryan

March 13, 2017 - Week 90

Mom,

What's good family?? Wow, yeah, 90 weeks does sure sound like a lot. With the ones I have left, I most definitely want to make the most of them!! So this week you will be going back out to VA for Jerry`s wedding?? That should be a lot of fun. Who is going to be there out of all of your siblings? When was the last time you made it out to Virginia? Grandpa wrote me and told me that they're heading out in the week too, that will be a lot of fun. I want some pictures of all of the festivities!

So this week there were a few families of investigators who attended church with us which was so awesome! What was even better was that the ward went on a temple trip to Hermosillo this weekend, so a couple of members were able to share their thoughts and experiences. One family who went got sealed to their kids and shared powerful testimony of their sealing and the truthfulness of the restored gospel, which had a fantastic impact on the families that were there listening to these things. Our investigators were among them, and they were particularly intrigued by it. Their baptisms will be the week after General Conference! Another family was a part member, less active family. They hadn't gone to church for 7 years because of things that had happened shortly after their baptism. But they went, and their experience was a positive one, the members of their family that aren't members are also preparing to be baptized with our other two investigators. I'm super stoked to see their progression.

Today we got together with a couple of elders from a neighboring city and we played 3 on 3 basketball. It's safe to say that basketball outside in 95 degree weather isn't the most comfortable experience, but it is pretty fun! It made me excited to go and play with my friends when I get back. I think I might need to get in a little bit better shape though, haha. After, we grilled up some meat, got some handmade tortillas and made guacamole, which I finally learned how to make haha. It was super fun though. I don't know where I will be next week, because this is the last week of the transfer, but I sure would be happy to stay here in Guamuchil!! I'm loving it here! But whatever happens, happens! Come what may and love it. 

Well Fam, I hope you guys are all doing well. I miss you guys and you're always in my thoughts and prayers. It won't be too long before we`re reunited, which makes me really happy; everyone just keep working hard! Haha. Well, I love you all, have a fantastic week. 

I love you all,

Ryan 

March 6, 2017 - Week 89

Mom,

Wow big news with the BYU acceptances!! Congrats to all who got in. What an exciting time!! I mentioned to Alyssa that Fall 2017 is really creeping up on us, it will be such a blast to be up there with all of the siblings, and so many cousins! So yeah, big congrats to all of them, I'm really happy for them. That's awesome that you guys got to have some time with Lauren free of any of the added stress of studying. 

So will Grandma and Grandpa be coming home for both Colin and Jerry´s weddings? That'll be really fun for you to go back home. When was the last time you were there? I can testify of that, after spending so much time away from home, it's true that there is no place like home, haha. But things here are moving right along... Every few months I look back and reflect on the ways that I've improved or how things have changed in my mission.. I realize that one never stops learning. Many times it feels like I've finally got everything figured out and then I realize that there's still so much to learn, haha. The key is to just always be looking for ways to be taught and to learn, and it will come!!

Here we are working with people who are continuing to progress very well.. We should have 2 people baptized right at the beginning of April or the end of March. We had a cool experience on Saturday...Our investigators study out of town, so we only get to see them on the weekends, but we went to their house on Saturday to set up an appointment for the night time, and we ran into the man's sister in law. We talked to her for a bit and she told us that she would actually be really interested in going to church too, mostly so that her kids can have a good base. It is cool because she's been seeing the changes with her in-laws and subconsciously wants the same for her own family. I am thankful because both Elder Beecher and I were able to testify to her that the faithful example of loving parents really can have an infinite impact on the lives of the children, because we were both fortunate enough to have benefited from such examples in our lives. 

Other than that, we are also working with a part member family that recently lost a family member, and have had some bad experiences with other members of the ward in years past, but they are opening up to the idea of going back to church. This week they told us they were going to go, but at the last moment had to cancel. They treat us super well, and are always willing to help us and they really get us rolling on the ground with laughter haha. So I really do hope the best for them and am excited to see their return to the church. 

All is very well here.... We have a guaranteed 2 more weeks left here in Guamuchil, and I wanna live up every second of it! I really do love it here. Oh and thanks for getting everything lined up with the apartment... I'm relieved to have everything all but finalized so really, thank you for doing that. It's so nice to know that everything is great back at home and that you all are well. I'm excited to hear about all of your lives! I love you all and feel very blessed to be apart of this amazing family!

Have a great week, all love!!

Ryan