Sheesh! One thing after another!

Hey everybody! This week Sister Nichols and I got sick with sore throats and gunk in our heads. We got blessings, and I got better, but Sister Nichols got worse. She was afraid that it was pneumonia or bronchitus (sp?). She has had a fever for a few days, and just can't seem to break it. We are waiting for permission to go to the doctor. Anyway!

What have you all been up to this week? I know dad, you asked what was up with me leaving El Paso, I don't know. But apparently I am supposed to be here in ABQ. BUT El Paso can use all the prayers it can get. Sister Bode is still down there, and I'm sure she is still struggling.

So my district is so fun! There is E. Fraughton (DL) and his comp E. Chiu, and then E. Cantey and his comp E. Castano. E. Castano reminds me of me before I left. He's really bubbly and excited all the time. I'm sorry to say that I'm not bubbly nor do I get excited easily anymore. :( I'm actually sad about that, but I've been through quit a bit that has made me more serious. I don't know, maybe when I get home I will be bubbly again. But I kind of doubt it. Oh well. Anyway! I'm just really glad that I have a good district. :)

Next week we are going to the temple! I am so excited! We have to take our concerns and stuff with us for Heavenly Father to help us. So I've been thinking about a  few things to take with me. Also another cool thing is that an apostle is coming to our mission in April!!!!! We don't know who it is yet, but we have to prepare also for his coming. I'm really excited because I have so many opportunities to prepare for his coming. :)

Well, I don't know what else there is to say, this week has been kind of slow. So I hope you all are doing great! 

 

Love Sister Stolp

Write Letters

Hey everybody! Everything is going good so far out here. I got a blessing last Monday and almost right after my lungs stopped hurting and I was able to breath. I'm not kidding when I say it was a miracle. We still had a little carbon monoxide after that in our apartment, but we were able to air it out. We had to get our water heater replaced, so that was good that they found the problem.

Sounds like everyone is doing good back home. Congrats Val! I hope that I can see you in action next year! Boys what are you up too? Any of you found jobs yet? Annie you should send me pictures of your pregnant belly. :) Hey, has Chelsea had her baby yet? How was Allens b-day party?

Things are going good. I was over 2 wards (Ladera and Volcano Cliffs) and 2 Navajo branches (Tohajiilee and Laguna Acoma), but then Volcano Cliffs split and Ladera gained some of VCliffs. VCliffs is going to a different building now, so we had to turn VCliffs over to another set of sisters that meet in that building. So it's all crazy! So now we just cover Ladera, which just got a new bishop and the ward mission leader has been out of town, so we haven't been able to utilize the ward as much as I would like too. But so far it's going, slowly but surely. There is so much work to do here in Ladera. There are 435 members, and 220 households, and 149 households without a Melchizedek Priesthood holder (!!!!!!!!!!!), and 114 single adults/ysa (only 4 come to church...)......There is so much to do. I was so shocked to see the numbers. I am hoping to get this ward more missionary minded and pumped to do the work. So far we have seen a lot of missionary minded people here, and the bishop is a convert, so I think he will help us out a TON! I'm really excited actually, but I feel like time is running out for me. I need to hurry this work along. But the ward is trying to get back on their feet from the split. So we are trying hard. We actually saw that a neighbor of ours was a member, so we decided to knock on their door to see who they were etc. So we found out that they had moved, BUT a lady lives there now and invited us in and talked to us about her family and stuff. It was reallly neat! We invited her to a RS activity tomorrow. So hopefully she will come! :) I love missionary work. I love finding new people to teach! I miss some of the other people I used to teach in my other areas. :( I actually got an email today from Angie in El Paso! I was so excited! She did start going to the spanish branch, which is much better for her, so I'm really excited that she enjoyed it. She has made a few friends. :) I LOVE Angie! I miss her a lot.

Anyway! What is this about the tsunami in Japan? Sister Nichols' mom wrote her about it. And I also heard that the middle east is in turmoil.  Anyway! Just keep writing me! And thanks for the money dad and Brenda, I really appreciate it! I got the money for Valentines' day ($15) but I'm not sure if you sent me any more. I won't need any for a little bit, maybe in April I'll let you know if I need any more. Thanks a ton! Love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

Carbon Monoxide is BAD!

Hey everyone...So I got transferred to ABQ, I"m back in the ABQ West stake, so I've seen a few people that I knew when I was here last. It's been a really weird week (the story of my life), we cleaned the apartment for 2 days (elders used to live there), and tried meeting our investigators. So we have been busy and sore for a few days. Um...I am going to tell you a story, but don't freak out, we are fine...sort of. So, ok, Saturday night we were getting ready for bed, and Sister Nichols was out for the most part and I was saying my prayers. After I said my prayers I felt something wrong. So I checked the doors and the windows to make sure they were locked. They were. But the feeling wouldn't go away. There was something wrong. So I thought it was just the neighbors bringing a bad spirit into the complex. So I tried not to let the feeling get to me. So I went to sleep. At about 4am the carbon monoxide detector went off about 4 times before we actually woke up. So I got up and looked at it. It said 000. I thought it must have been the batteries, so I replaced them and reset it.  The dial showed up at 211. I didn't think to to much of it, because sometimes the detectors are broken. And honestly I didn't feel super bad. I felt woosy, and Sister Nichols felt sick. Which I never wake up woosy but she feels sick in the mornings all the time. So I kind of brushed it off. But I still thought it was weird that the alarm went off. And I remembered the feeling I had the night before. So we decided to leave the apartment and call 911. Which we did. The fire dept. came and checked it out, but their reader and our reader didn't pick up any monoxide. But we still felt kind of weird. So we called president and told him what had happened, and he said that we should be fine since none of the readers picked anything up. But he said that if we felt like we needed to go get tested then we should. So the fire dept. left and we decided to go to the hospital. We had been in fresh air for 2 hours now, so when they took our blood it was quit a while since we had been in the apartment. The test came back with 2.6% poison in our blood. Which is really high since it should only be 0%. It's the equivalency of smoking 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day. So we thought that when we woke up to the alarm, the poison was a lot higher, most likely in the 10%+ range where it effects the neurological area. Sister Nichols was slurring her speech once we thought about it. If we had stayed in the apartment for much longer we would have slipped into a coma and never woken up. I'm telling you, we had 2 1/2 hours left of sleep time, we would have died. I'm not kidding. But Heavenly Father gave me the warning the night before (if I hadn't gotten that warning, I probably would have said we were ok to stay there and that we didn't need to go to the hospital). And he warned Sister Nichols through the spirit that we needed to go get tested. And the alarm, come to find out, was broken. It does not read correctly. So it went off to warn us of the danger. And for some reason the fire fighters reader didn't work in there either. So we believe it was a test of faith, are we going to listen to man or the spirit? We were talking to one of the bishops out here and he said that an angel came down and pressed that button to warn us. It was probably mommy. :) She is always watching out for me. After we left the hospital we went out to the Navajo branches, wow it was awesome! I loved every minute of it! But wow, we were woosy and felt drugged (duh, we were just poisoned). So around 2ish I was getting blurred vision and we were both feeling sick. So the bishop from the other ward came and got us so that we could lay down at his house. We were not going back to our apartment to rest, that's for sure! So dad...come to find out. The bishop that we stayed with lived in Phoenix in the 80's and worked for GTE Laboratories, then it was called AG Communications Systems, but now it's closed. He said the name Stolp is not entirely unfamiliar to him. He kept thinking of you, and said that he remembers you now. His name is Marvin Distel. Then he moved to Florida after Phoenix and worked for Siemens. He was in the Boca Raton Stake and lived in Del Ray. He says he remembers you. It was kind of weird. But cool at the same time! He was so nice to us and took care of us so well. We are so grateful to him. He just got released from bishop yesterday, so that was sad. :(

Sister Nichols and I are feeling ok today. My lungs hurt, and they feel heavy, and it's hard for me to breath and get enough air. They said that fresh air and a lot of water will help get the poison out. So I'm hoping it will be soon! I hate feeling this way! My brain is not at full function either. I still feel woosy and I still feel kind of sick. Anyway! We are doing ok, and don't get freaked out. Heavenly Father is protecting us.

Well, that's all for this week! I love you all! And thanks for sending me the letters and the money! They are greatly apprectiated!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

Hey everyone! It's good to hear that Allne is doing better and that he's not going to die yet. :) Well, we got transfer news this week. They are closing down Redd Ward to sisters and leaving the elders here. There is just not enough work in this area, and it's very discouraging. Oh my goodness, you have NO idea how hard we worked to get this area going, but it just didn't pick up. I really gained a testimony of church attendance. I have been here for 4 1/2 months and we hardly saw any one of our investigators come to church I now see the importance of people coming to church. I see that the work we do throughout the week is the preparation for them to come to church on Sunday. So when no one comes to church, I feel like I have failed somewhere in that week, because no one is there. :( It's really hard. I am actually really glad sisters are gone, because it was just to much out here. It was a constant battle with the elders. It was lame. Now hopefully between the 2 areas there will be enough work to keep the elders busy. I think we were supposed to come here for Angie. She is our baby. We went to say goodbye to her last night, oh my goodness, I cried after we left. She is the first one I cried over. She is so special to me, and we are like sisters. I am going to miss her and Jasmine (her 2 yr old daughter. she's the little girl in the picture). I was imagining getting off the plane and driving home with you guys, and talking to Angie on the way home. Haha! That's how much I love her! She is amazing. :)

I am going back up to Albuquerque, and doubling (meaning, the elders got booted, and we get to take over) with Sister Nichols (she's been out for 6 months) to an area that covers 2 wards (weird. total opposite of what I'm doing now), the Volcano Cliffs and Ladera wards. The area also covers 2 branchs, the Tohajilee branch and the Laguna Acoma branch. IT'S ON THE REZ!!!!! I am soooo excited to go back to the rez! But president said to mainly stay in the city, but I am allowed to go to the rez when there is work. :) :) :) YAY!!! I was so sad for like 2 days, until president called to prep me on the new area. Then I was happy! It is in my old stake, by the Bandelier ward. So I'm kinda used to the area. We'll see how it goes. But he is keeping El Paso open for english sisters, and Sister Bode is going there with her MTC comp! So cool! She's just going around the mountain. I'm glad president left sisters down here, I was scared that all the sister areas were going to be confined to ABQ. So anyway! It's good.

So this week, has just been tying up loose ends. We actually found out that they were closing to sisters earlier this week before we were supposed to find out. So it was kind of nice to have that preparation. I think we would have felt like we failed if president closed it without hinting to us. But it is good for the area to have us close.

The pictures are of this last week. The one is of a guy riding a horse pulling another one behind him. The river bed he is in is the Rio Grande. It's always dry! So it was pretty cool to see that. And then of course our district, and Jasmine, and I can't remember the other pictures I put up. Anyway!

So a couple of weeks ago, Angie had to put her dogs down because they were getting aggresive, and she's been looking at getting another dog or 2. So we went to go see Ricardo Pacheco who is a recent conver/less active who we are trying to get him to go to the singles ward, but he's so stubborn! So we went to see him, and his pitbull just had puppies, and he was trying to get rid of them. So we took one for Angie! Haha! We stuck the puppy in the back seat and drove it to her. She was thrilled! And Jasmine loved him! It was good for Angie to have a dog. They called him Oso, which is Bear in English. :) It's so cute! Jasmine says it really cute too. Jasmine is going to miss us. :(

Anyway, I don't think there is anything else. I am sad that the letter went home! But I will just get triple the info. :) Delene wrote me a letter, it was a good letter, I really needed it. It's been kind of a downer transfer. All of our investigators dropped us...it really makes you think if you are doing something wrong. I'm not really sure if I'm confident in my work anymore. I am really tired. I didn't understand what my older companions were talking about when they said that. But now I do, you are more tired emotionally and spiritually rather than physically. My emotions run pretty high on Sunday. Sunday is just not as enjoyable anymore. It's way to stressful. I am so worried about people coming to church! Last week, we were waiting for Angie, but she couldn't come (she hasn't been to church in a month or so, but she is going to start going to the spanish branch, which is closer to her, so it will be easier for her to go), oh man, Sister Bode broke down, and I was pretty close to crying myself. But we are hoping that with her going to the spanish branch she will understand more and want to go back more. She grew up with spanish religion wise, and so the words in english are a little different, and she doesn't understand all the consepts. But with her going to the branch she will be familiar with the religion words in spanish. :) We are just glad she decided this after we left. It would have been to hard if we stayed.

Well, I hope you all had a good week, keep me updated. I love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

Dude!

Hey everybody! So how was your guys' week? I haven't gotten a letter from anyone this week, so I'm guessing the mail is behind, and we don't get mail this week because of Presidents Day. Bummer. Anyway! This week has been a big trial for us. Most all of our investigators dropped us, and no one came to church, and the one person we thought for sure was coming, didn't because of a marital crisis, and she was set up to get her patriarchal blessing last night (the HIGH LIGHT of our week!), but we went to the patriarch's house and he wasn't home, so we called and called and called him but he didn't answer. So we went to the church to see if he was there at choir practice and forgot, but he wasn't there, so someone made a few calls and found out that his mom died and that he cancelled all of his appointments but somehow our recent convert didn't get the message...so we were ticked to say the least. It was almost the breaking point for me, to say forget it! That was the icing on the cake for me, and I had about had it. BUT the lady that drove us home was so wonderful, she helped us see that there must have been a reason why this all happened. I was done seeing reasons why things happen, and it was always not what we wanted! But the recent convert said that she had been stressed about the crisis, and that she probably needed to work a few things out before she got her blessing. It was a humbling experience for me to see that yes, Heavenly Father is in charge, and that I have to slow down a bit and take the punches, and the bruises, and the scrapes (sp?), and figure out why was Heavenly Father doing this. Anyway! It really calmed us down. But it helped the recent convert to realize that she really does need to be prepared to receive her blessing. So next time, it will be an even better experience. I just hope it's soon! She needs the help and guidance from her blessing.

So how has everyone been? Transfers are coming up next week, we hear on Saturday what is going to happen. We both have been here since the end of October, so we kind of think 3 things: 1) we are both leaving 2) one of us is staying 3) they are closing the area down to sister. But we will have to wait and find out! We are both ready for a change I think. It's been a hard 3 transfers down here. But someone we are coming out one step ahead. Yay for us. Anyway! How is Allen doing? Please tell me how he is doing soon! And Dad, I talked to my Mission President, and he said that if Allen dies before I get home, then you can call me to tell me the news. So please please call my mission president to call me and tell me. I want to know as soon as you can after he passes.

How is school going for you guys? Julia what are you up too? Annie, how is the pregancy going?

If I don't hear from you guys soon then I will start to worry a lot about Allen...

I love you guys!

 

Love Sister Stolp

SNOW!

Hey everyone! So this week has been weird once again...you're all probably wondering why I put those pictures on there. We had a snowstorm last week, it snowed like 1/2 inch, and got down to a breaking record of 9 degrees. They started calling it the blizzard of 2011. Everything froze, the pipes, the pools, everything. So they cancelled school for like 4 days, and everyones pipes broke. El Paso never gets cold, so when they built these houses, they only put the pipes under 3ft. rather than 6ft. So they all froze. In our shower the water came out brown, and wouldn't drain. So we thought there was a pipe break in our shower. The plummer said there was ice in our pipe, and he had to replace it before it burst and caused more damage. So that was the exciting business for us. There were some people here who were out of water for 4 days or more. And the electricity was turned off for a while all over the city (rolling black outs), because there are 4 generators in El Paso, and 2 of them were down because of the storm. So they had to conserve energy. Weird. Then the resevoirs were almost depleted because of all the water leaks, so they told everyone not to shower or wash clothes/dishes/cars/etc...So it was pretty gross. But we survived. They told us we could start using the water yesterday. Yay for showers! It was crazy I'm telling you. Everyone was in a panic. It made me think of the second coming. No one is going to be prepared for what is going to happen. I mean, El Paso wasn't even prepared for a little frost...The schools still don't have water, so they told the kids to bring their own water bottle because there is no water to drink. But ya, it's crazy. I wrote Julia a letter, so it might have more detail, so you will have to share info Julia when you get my letter. :)

Yesterday we got dropped by one of our investigators (he's catholic). We were teaching the plan of salvation, and he agreed for the first half of it (you really can't argue that one), then we got into death and that's where he started having his fit. He couldn't get past the fact that EVERYONE has a second chance. He believes that if you sell yourself to the devil you go straight to Hell. There are no detours to the spirit world for them. They have to second chance. We told him that it was part of the plan and that we all go there no matter what. He said that that would be forcing them to go somewhere that they don't want to go. He said that those people who sell themselves to the devil WANT to be with Satan and that they don't want to be there. He would not listen to us at all. We asked him to think of those people who are not mentally capable of thinking clearly. People who are bi-polar or have other mental disabilities. He would not listen to that at all. He was so dead set on people not being given a second chance. It was the weirdest lesson. But he has been trying to get rid of us for a few weeks I think. He told us that that lesson was the end, we could not agree on doctrine, and so we needed to leave. He pretty much kicked us out the door. It was so rude! His wife is a less active member, and boy, we think she felt really bad. I think she was going to cry. Sister Bode and I were not surprised by what he did. He's not very emotional that way, and I don't think he liked us anyway. He really didn't want to listen, he wanted to argue our religion. So we are not broken hearted over what happened. And we are so used to people dropping us and being against us that we really don't care. We are here to find the elect, and he was not the elect. So we are just moving onward and upward! There was something not right with him either, I always felt a little uneasy around him. So it's probably a good thing that he gave us the boot. :)

What are all of you guys up too? How is the weather up there? I heard that you didn't get it at all. But who knows? I haven't seen Utah to know. What's going on with the ward? Anything new? How is your health Brenda?

I love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp

Danger! Danger!

Hey everyone! So this week has been really slow, and not as busy as it was last week. But it was ok. We are glad it's Monday! Yay! So last week, we were in an appointment with a less active lady whose husband was offended a while ago, but her son wants to get baptized. So anyway, we were at their house giving a lesson. So while we were there, not 2 mins later, the elders knocked on the door, and they were with a member. Sister Bode and I were SHOCKED, but that is an understatement. Man, we were livid! We had been fighting the ward for so long telling them that we can NOT go into each others areas for anything. Period. So when the elders showed up, we were furious! We were having a really bad day as it was, our ride was a flake, so we had to go up there on our miles that we didn't have, it was bad. So anyway! It was just a bad day. That was the icing on the cake. And I think if it was anything else, I would have blown up anyway. It's just that the elders had to suffer my wrath. I thought that they were there because it was either the elders or the ward saying "oh the sisters don't know what they are doing and they are just sisters, so the priesthood needs to go contact these people because we have the priesthood. Let's not ask the sisters (since it's their area) about any of these people. We have the priesthood so we can do and go wherever we want. Who cares if they know the whole story about these people." Yada yada yada. I was ticked! That pushed me over the edge. And NO ONE taked to us about what they had planned on doing. So I gave the elders a good tongue lashing. I don't think they like us much anymore, but oh well. They can't go into our area. Period. But the next morning I apologized to the elders for yelling at them, I know that I could have talked about it a little more calmly. But man, I was ticked! And it was the WRONG night to do what they did. So anyway....we have things figured out, and they aren't going to do that anymore. So yesterday we talked to the bishop and he agreed that if we are going to go into each others areas, we better have a good enough reason to call president about it. Later that night (last night) we went to see a man that we haven't taught yet, we didn't know much about him, and he lived out in the country a bit. (they are just bigger lots) So we took a lady from our ward with us, and she is a very smart lady. The appointment went well we thought, until we got back to the church to pick up our car. She asked us why we were going out there at night without a priesthood holder. We told her that as long as there's 3 women then we are fine. And she said no, we aren't fine. She was very apprehensive about that appointment. There was a semi truck parked infront of his house, and his house was very shady. He lied about other people in the house (he said there wasn't anyone home but him, but in reality his son was home), he took us into the back living room instead of the front one by the door. And he didn't turn on any lights except the room that we were in and the light in the stairway. And that was it. The lady from the ward said that everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. BUT we were not harmed, so I bet angels were protecting us. And I know that angels are all around us as we travel and teach. She told us that we need to be smart about tracting, if we see nice shiny cars in the driveway of a trailer, DO NOT KNOCK ON THE DOOR. They are apart of the cartel. She told us a bunch of other stuff, so we are taking more precaution and texting a member everytime we have an appointment or when we are going to tract, to let them know where we are and how long we have been in the appointment/tracting. That way incase we get kidnapped or shot they will know where to start looking for us. Don't worry though, angels do protect us, and I had a blessing from the bishop at the start of the transfer and in the blessing he told me to be wise and to be careful, and that I need to be smart about things, and we will be protected. So I don't know if all of this is connected, but if it is, I'm not taking any chances, and Sister Bode and I both agree that this is what we need to do. And we are going to drop a few people...and there are to many signs that one of our investigtors could be with the cartel. The first thing we talked about with her on her doorstep was Juarez, because she is from there. We asked about the saftey of those people, etc. But we are afraid that these people will start to think that we know too much and that's why they keep us coming back. To keep tabs on us. But they aren't really interested anyway, so there is no need for us to go back. And one of our investigators is a target for the cartel. Her husband was supposedly a cop over there, and the cartel has threatened him not to go over the border. So we think their house is watched and we might be possibly watched for knowing these people. So...and they aren't going anywhere with the gospel, and the spirit just isn't there when we teach. So we have to be very careful whose house we go into. Sister Bode brought up a good point also, is when we are in their house teaching, there is no stopping them from coming in and shooting up the house. So we decided it's just better not to go back to some of these houses. But we've been here for 3 months already and nothing has happened, so I think we are ok right now. We just have to be smart about El Paso. Anyway! We were thinking it might be safer for us to switch areas with the elders, give them the rural stuff and we take the city. A lot of people that we have talked too agrees with us. So we will see what happens. There are a lot more stories from this week, but I will write them in my journal read it when I get home. :) It was an interesting week. Anyway! Be smart, be safe! Love you all!

 

Love

Sister Stolp