Faith

Sometimes there will be people that just don't want to progress. Just today we met this couple and the lady had a copy of the Book of Mormon and I asked if it would be ok for us to call her and to teach her more about it. It looked like that she wanted us to call, but her husband piped up and said that he doesn't want to learn about any religion because he is an atheist. He just likes learning about all different types of religions. It was really sad because she had that precious book in her hands and she doesn't even know what she is holding! The Book of Mormon is meant to change your life and is meant to bring you closer to God, but if you don't even want to know about God, then what good can it do? I wish that we could've gotten at least the ladies phone number so that we could invite her to pray about it, but I guess she's not prepared yet. There's not much you can do because it is their choice and sometimes they do feel the Spirit, but they don't know what it is so they don't know what to do with the feeling that they have. But this is the Lord's work and don't stress to much about it because He is watching over His church. In the July ensign there is an article entitled A time for Faith not Fear. In it it says, "Sometimes--after we have fasted, prayed, and done all we can do to dispel clouds that have not parted; after we have gone into the dark and expected further light that has not appeared; after we have lived the commandments through difficulties that remain unrelenting--we simply need to turn things over to our Heavenly Father." Later in the article it then says, "one of the Twelve Apostles said this, 'This is the Lord's work--let Him do some of it.'" Then President Uchtdorf said, "Brethren, let the Lord do some of the heavy lifting." I leave that with you and hope you can gain some insights from this email.
Love you!!!
 Sister Stolp

God Threw Me a Little Curve Ball

Dear family,
So as the subject says, God threw me a little curve ball by asking me to train for two weeks before the transfer ends. We only have two weeks to be together, then who knows what will happen at transfers. I might stay with Sister May or I might get someone else. Only God knows! So my trainee is Sister May from Arizona and I will send pictures later. In the 12 week program it says that the trainer needs to help the trainee so that by the end of the 12 weeks they would be able to train someone else. It is a big responsibility, but I know that through God's help I can do it. I can just imagine how it must be for a new mother and thinking if she'll be able to tell the child everything that he needs to know. Nothing super amazing has happened with my investigators. I'm having a dry spell with investigators at the moment. We do have some, but they're not really progressing as fast as I would like them to. Having faith is enough even though it may not seem like it. Faith is all that the pioneers had when they were crossing the plains. There are so many stories of when the saints have been starving and they would pray and have faith that God would provide. One time a pioneer lady found two corn cake things and put them in a pot and warmed it up over the fire and her and her family prayed and they opened the pot and it was a big cake (taken from 17 Miracles, true story!) Miracles like that haven't ceased. They still happen today and one of the reasons why we don't hear about them is because there are tons of members and if it was all recorded...that would be a really big book! Well, I hope that something in this email touched your hearts and that you will always have that kind of faith to move mountains!
Love you all!
 Sister Stolp

Happy Independence Day!

Hello people of the real world! I am doing fantastic here on Temple Square! I know I will not be going outbound for at least two more transfer because I will be training in the middle of this transfer! My baby is coming from the MTC on the 10th of July! That's in the 5th week of the transfer so it's kind of weird that she's coming now. I'm excited, but scared. It will be such a growing and learning experience for me. On that same day that I found out I was training I saw the Mike Ostler family! It was super great to see them because I haven't seen their kids for like 5 years. They're all so tall!! Wow, that's like all the exciting things that happened this week. Not much is happening because since it's the summer we get more tours on the Square. I've been taking a lot more motorcoaches lately and I've been teaching a lot of people. It's amazing to see someone change because of the Atonement. I have been very grateful for the Atonement lately and it has helped me to understand how much God and Jesus Christ really must love us. We all have a purpose and sometimes people just don't know their purpose so they go astray. We taught this lady who doesn't believe in God specifically, but believes in a higher power. She believes in this higher power because her brother didn't die when he was supposed to and she believes that this higher power was watching over him. I wanted to just shake her and say that it's God who is watching after you, but she needs a bit more love and patience in order to come to understand. I think that everyone has that potential to come to know God and that He is the one who helps us. Love you all! Sister Stolp

Love

I have had two spanish speaking companions now and sometimes it is hard for them to speak english. I take my hat off to missionaries who are learning a language! So I know that you will find this funny, but we had an early morning meeting in the South Visitors' center and we met Elder Christensen from the District!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was walking out of the Square and my companion said "I know you!!" and he said, "Are you sure?" and we were like, "YEAH!!!" then he said "Enjoy the Square." It was so exciting to see him and he talked with us!!! I think he's married, though, but that's ok. So I learned something on Sunday that was pretty cool. You know in the scripture 1 John 4:19 how it says, "We love Him, because He first loved us." Well, let me explain this like it was explained on Sunday. Our parents loved us first so we know how to love them. Our Heavenly Father loved us first so we know how to love Him. But we as missionaries need to show people how to love and we need to radiate love. We are some people's first contact with the church and we need to show them how to love and help them to understand the doctrine of Christ. A couple of months ago one of the zone leaders said that she would take a tour and she would say in her mind that she would love the people first and that she was going to "beat them to the love". We need to do that with the people that we meet everyday. We need to "beat them to the love" and love them first because God loved us first. We need to do and say exactly what Jesus Christ, Himself would say. We are representatives of Christ and we can show the people around us how He would act if He were here. I hope you got something out of this email and that you can apply this to your daily lives!
Love you all!!!!
 Sister Stolp

Missionary Life

Hello everybody! This week has been fun! We had a zone conference up at This is the Place Heritage Park and it was super fun! Here are some quotes that I really loved from the conference. "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." Which is so true!!! Another one is, "Do it. Do it right. Do it right now!" That is talking about missionary work and the assignments that we have to just do it. So on Sunday, one of our senior couples is returning home and they talks in sacrament meeting. The elder gave a great talk and something that he said I want to share with all of you. He said, "If we have the faith to ask, we will be guided to the people who need to hear us." He said that President Lee said that to him. I think that is so true that if we pray to God and ask Him to direct us to the people who need to hear our testimonies that we will meet them and they will be blessed through our testimony! Ok, so I wanted to share another thing with you! A couple of days ago we got a text saying "30 english at the map!!" I looked at my companion and I said that they were probably anti! We got up to the Map and we took the 30 english and we took them up to the Christus and they were all anti! The first question the guy asked we could tell! So we just testified and answered the questions as best as we could following the spirit. The last place we took them was the tabernacle and the guy said that he was reading the Journal of Discourses and my companion asked him why he was reading so much about the LDS faith. He said that they all had read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the D&C and the Pearl of Great Price and he said that they all had contradictions in them and he was concerned for all the mormons and wanted to tell us that we were wrong. I could tell that my companion was super mad so I didn't let her speak. I just bore my testimony about how their faith in Jesus Christ is awesome and they should keep it up. I also bore testimony about how I knew that the Book of Mormon was true and the only way to know was to pray about it. I also testified that we need to obey the first commandment to love God and to love they neighbor as thyself and God would help us. I just love antis and I wish I could say something that the spirit would testify to them, but they just have to pray about it themselves. One thing that the guy said was that they don't pray and ask God whether something is true, they test it out, but don't pray. I think that is one of their problems. They don't pray and ask to the source of all our knowledge, because God knows everything and He's willing to help us with the truth. Something that we all did as kids was we asked our parents if something was right and we still have to do that today with our Father in Heaven. We need to ask Him if something is right or wrong. He will tell us because He loves us. I found this wonderful scripture that I want to share with all of you. It's in 1 John 4:19 and it says, "We love Him, because He first loved us." It's such a simple verse, but it is so powerful! I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love, Sister Stolp