Merry Christmas!

Hey everybody! So this is my letter once again this week. Next week I should be getting stamps, but I do like emailing though. Anyway! I had a great Christmas with Sister Bode and Sister Stiger and her daughter Ciara. I love the clothes that I got, it makes it fun. :) I went to a funeral this morning, so I am in a funky mood. Sorry. There is no snow in El Paso! Yay! I'm loving it! So I got a Christmas card from Mike and Chelsea...she's pregnant again! Why has no one told me? I feel so left out of everything! Whatever. It was great talking to all of you on Christmas, I still feel as if I saw all of you yesterday. So after I called you we went to the RS presidents (Sister Richardson) for lunch, and we played games and had a lot of fun. Then we went to the Flemings house, he is in the stake presidency. That was fun too,they have all older kids, so it was nice to have conversation. Did I tell you about Zone Conference? It was great! Elders Gibson and Webb did a fantastic job of singing what child is this, and they did awesome on Sunday when they sang it again. Our talent show was fun. I have some pictures, but I don't feel like emailing them right now. You will have to wait till next week. :) Sister Bode and I got $50 from a lady in the ward out here, so we used it to buy one of our investigators Christmas. It was so worth it! :) The lady hasn't been progressing very much but we taught her today and she had read! It was so exciting! So we are hoping that she will be baptized soon! Sister Bode told me that last night she prayed that Melinda (the lady) would have a desire to read. And she did! It's definitely a faith promoter. We went tracting a few days ago, and we found this lady named Ofelia. We asked her a few questions, and we got onto the topic of eternal families. So Sister Bode gave her a watered down version of the Restoration and how we can have eternal families. Before we explained things we asked her if there was a number we could contact her at, and she kind of sidestepped a bit. But after we explained how she can be with her husband forever, she actually gave us 2 numbers we could reach her at! It was interesting because just a few minutes before we kind of had no faith that people were going to listen to us the day after Christmas. But I tried to change my outlook and told Sister Bode that we were out there looking for God's children who were ready for the gospel. And then we found Ofelia. It was awesome! We still need to go back, but we feel like she is looking but doesn't know it.

Thanks everyone for the Christmas card you sent me! I enjoyed it. And thanks again for the presents! I don't know what else to say at the moment, but keep writing me! I love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

 

ps. annie and julia, sorry i wasn't able to talk to you on the phone, the connection was bad somehow. but send me pictures of the girls! i'm sure they are huge by now! love you both. i hope you had fun in cali julia. :)

Happy B-Day to Juju

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA!!!!!!!!!!!!
How was your birthday today? What are you having for dinner? Are you at home right now or are you still living at your apartment over the holidays? The choir class I was in was the University Choral...I think. I had Steve Durschti (?) for my teacher and he was awesome! You should take him. El Paso weather is awesome! There is no snow and it is so warm! It's always in the 60's or higher and I love it! I haven't even had to wear my big coat yet! Yay! How was the Christmas program at church? Did you go to the 14th ward program? How was the school church christmas program? We are having Zone Conference tomorrow, and I am singing in a doublish quartet (I think we are lacking the 8th person), we are singing the prayer of the children. And it sounds awesome so far! And I'm playing What Child Is This for 2 elders to sing a duet, it sounds good, they have to sing it in church next sunday also. One elder is wayyy nervous! But he is good and can sing on key, so that's all that really matters. :) And Sister Bode got sick, so we aren't singing lead kindly light anymore. One of the elders wants me to sing a medley that he hasn't written yet that he is playing on the guitar, so we will see how that goes.
OK, so I guess this letter will be the letter home this week. Oh my goodness! So yesterday we were filling up gas in our car and a lady approached me, she was wearing a dress and looked religious. So she started talking to me and said she came up to me because she saw my tag. So I was like Ok, I'll listen to her, I know what it's like. So she shoved this booklet in my face about her religion, so I asked if I could give her one of our pamphlets. She started making noises like she was fishing for an excuse for not taking our stuff. Then she said that she couldn't take our material because I didn't approach her, but she can only give me her stuff because she approached me. It was so lame! So I asked her why she couldn't take my stuff, and she again said that I didn't approach her. Then she asked me if I believed in the Bible. I said I did, but I really wanted to know why she couldn't take ours. So I asked her again if it was against her religion to take our material. She said no, but said that same thing that when I approached her then she could accept our material. I was so mad! But boy did she want to get out of there, she didn't give me enough time to reply to anything and she left. But after I got in the car I was thinking I should have told her that I couldn't take her material unless she accepted mine. Grrr... So when we got home I was flipping through her booklet and I just got really mad! I have looked through their stuff before, and it just reaffirmed what I was thinking back then. They have NO stance on ANYTHING. They do not talk about salvation or authority or how I can develop a relationship with God or Jesus Christ. I was fuming! Their stuff is so shallow! It just shows me how true our church is. We talk about Jesus Christ and who He is and how we can return to live with Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ and His atonement. Grrr...JW's make me so mad. I respect them to a point, but they really have no religion. It's so dumb. In their material they ask the stupidest questions and talk about the stupidest things. One thing was a fact and fiction. One was is Satan real? Fact. Is Jesus Christ and God equal. Fiction! Is there a spirit realm. Fiction! I got so mad that I threw the booklet in the garbage. No one can tell me that the Spirit realm is fiction! I really want to ask them the next time I see a JW is: where is my mom then if you don't believe in life after death? I want to see her again! It makes me so mad! There is no hope in that church! I am so grateful that I have the knowledge that I do, I don't have to worry about losing hope or anything like that. Everytime I make a mistake and I think that I can't be forgiven because what I did was so wrong, I have to remind myself "Sister Stolp, if you understand the Atonement like you think you do, then Heavenly Father will forgive you for what you did and you can do better next time." I actually was thinking of that on Sunday. It's a new day to start. I am taking the Sacrament and this week I am going to stop all of those things that I know I am doing wrong. It was actually a good feeling. It really does help me understand my investigators better I think what I try to think OK, they don't know that they can be forgiven of their sins. They have probably given up hope and that's why they have a hard time accepting the gospel. So it does give me a better perspective. And I have to be able to forgive myself and not look back on what I did. I do have to remember though that I did do something wrong and that I need to fix it, but I can't dwell on it and always think that I'm a bad person. Anyway! I think I understand better now why I was put in this mission. I know it's not the hardest, but it's definitely not the easiest. If I stayed on the rez, it would have been to easy. Heavenly Father wanted me to have these experiences to grow and to learn what I truly do believe in. I don't know where my life would have gone without my mission.
I hope you all have a great Christmas, and I will call home around 11am on Christmas morning. I hope you're there Julia! Love you! Love you all! Love, Sister Stolp

Good Times

Hey everybody! So this week has gone by reeeaaallllyyyyyy slow. But we got a new car and a new district leader and a new elder in the ward. :) We are getting ready for our zone conference next week. I am playing the reflextion version of Come thou Fount and Elder Webb is doing a solo. It will be fun! And then I'm playing What Child is This and Elder Webb and his new companion Elder Gibson are singing a duet. Yay! And me and Sister Bode are singing Lead Kindly Light. And I think there is going to be a double quartet, I will be singing alto and Sister Bode will singing soprano. It will be fun! Get this so my old district leader was Elder Gibb, now my district leader is Elder Gibby, and Elder Gibson replaced Elder Gibb. CRAZY!

So this has been on my mind since I got on the computer...but I got an email from Kathy Campos...Reg has been convicted and is in prison in Gunnison Ut from 3 years to life. I am so shocked! I can't believe that he was convicted. It was so apparent that he was not trying to kill this guy. He was defending his daughter for crying out loud! But Kathy said that Reg is a different person and that he has changed for the better. He is looking towards the Lord and is drawing strength from Christ. I am so grateful that he doesnt' have a bitter heart and that this is softening him. I hope that Kathy is being taken care of, she has to sell the house and go back to school. She told me that everyone is doing fine, but this trial is very hard to carry. I really wish I could be there right now to help them. I think this is the only time on my mission that I wish I was home...but I'm not coming home because I know this is where Heavenly Father wants me, and I'm positive that they are being blessed. But I do still worry about them.

 

Annie, sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving! I'm glad that you guys are doing well. I loved your letter that you wrote me a few weeks ago, sorry I haven't replied to it yet. It really made me think about how there are still miracles here on earth. Sometimes I wonder why He couldn't have saved mom, but then I think yes, He did save her. Because He was resurrected, she will be resurrected and perfected. So then I don't worry to much about the past. Same with Allen, sometimes I wish that Jesus could come down right now and heal Allen, but then I think, yes, He will heal Allen, all in good time. But that was a cool story about that lady!

By the way Julia, the boys look great! I'm sure they wish they all had real six-packs. Haha! Good make up job! Valeries hair is so long! I can't wait to see your daughters Annie! Vanessa is so funny! "only a little one mommy" HAHAHAHA!!!!!! She's so naughty! Hahaha! I want babies to cuddle with! I haven't held a kid in a loooong time. But I can wait a little longer. :)

 

So I will be calling on Christmas around 11am, I hope. It might be earlier or later. We will see. :)

I love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

Hey everyone. I don't have any stamps left and I don't have enough money to get stamps, so I'm writing you this email.
So we had a baptism this week! I was so excited! It was Angie for those of you who have been reading my letters. It was so good! We made her a tie blanket with her name embroidered on it, and told her it was the "comforter" and that when she looks at it to remember what we have taught her. Her husband came and I think he enjoyed it. He didn't say much, but Angie said that he took her out to Applebee's to celebrate, which Applebee's is a special occasion restaurant. So it was cool! She cried like the whole time! In one of her lessons she was praying and said that she was grateful that Heavenly Father has led her back. It was so sweet! I will have to send pictures when I have more time.
We also taught this one guy named Enrique who is an alcoholic and we asked him if he would live the word of wisdom, and he said he would quit cold turkey if I would get drunk with him. Haha! I told him no way! We had a good laugh. :) But I think he will get there. Hopefully soon!
We are having Christmas at the Richardson's house, she is the RS president, and they have 8 kids! So I'm pretty excited! OH! I forgot to tell you, this week is transfers and I'm staying in El Paso!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!! I love El Paso and will be very sad to leave. We are trading our truck for a Malibu. So I'm pretty bummed about that. And no, I am not homesick yet, I didn't get homesick at Thanksgiving either. I think it's because home is different anyway. So all my homesickness was last year. But I'm fine this year. I haven't even thought about mommy too much lately. I think with teaching the gospel and seeing the happiness it brings, I don't worry to much about that stuff anymore. I do get sad, but I don't worry anymore. And plus I try not to think about it too much.
What are you all doing for Christmas? Can you please send me pictures of you guys in your plays and Christmas and stuff? I will probably be calling sometime Christmas morning, like 11am? Probably. Just plan for that.
Alright, well, I will email next week! And I'm glad to hear about Allen, I know, he loves me. :)
Love you all!
Love
Sis Stolp

Ok, so I have a little more time than I thought.

Picture

1. my district.

2.me with Angie and her family.

3.me with Enrique and his wife Maria.

4.Enrique with his bar in his living room.

5.me in Vinton. it's part of my area. it's very country.