Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! So we did go to a member's house for a Christmas dinner and it was awesome! The members that we went to were super nice and so amazing! So one of the grandpas that was there had an 1830s edition of the Book of Mormon and he let us touch it and flip through the pages!!!!!! It was sooo cooool!!!!! He had a cool story about how his great-great grandpa took this Book of Mormon with him to his mission in India in 1856ish. It was a way neat story and it's amazing to see how the church has kept going after this long while and there are still stalwart members. I know that God is watching out for His church and I know that nothing can stop this work from progressing! In January's Ensign a question was posed. It asked, "What can I do to help prepare my family for life's challenges?" A quote from President Packer answered that question, "The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection. They contain the doctrine and laws and ordinances that will bring each child of God to a testimony of Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer...Make scripture reading a part of your regular routine, and the blessings will follow. There is in the scriptures a voice of warning, but there is also great nourishment...Children taught an understanding of the scriptures early in life will come to know the path they should walk and will be more inclined to remain on that path...peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption that are taught therein." I know that as we read the scripture and follow the Savior's teachings that we will be protected no matter how bad this world gets! I want to share two of my favorite Christmas mormon messages! http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2919740155001&cid=HPFR122013274&im=true http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001&cide=HPFR122013285 I hope you all remember the spirit of Christmas this week and don't forget why we celebrate! You all are great and Merry Christmas!!! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Maligayang pasco (hopefully I spelled that right)!! Shun Dan Qui Luh!!!!! Sister Stolp

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Dear everyone, I will tell you a responsibility that we have as a zone leader on Temple Square. So in order to take a tour you'd need to "pass off". The way we do that is we take our zone leaders on a tour. So...we had three first transfer sisters and their companions take us on a tour. It was fun being the guest for once instead of the missionary. I got to see some different ways of introducing principles, but I also saw what not to do and some things that may be awkward for the guest. The first transfers in my zone are super amazing and the key to giving a good tour or discussion is to show love. "They don't care how much we know unless they know how much we care." I learned that as each one of them was taking us on a tour of Temple Square. We were nice zone leaders and passed them all off! The most awesome thing that happened this week was Elder Clark of the 70 came and did a mission tour! He gave us some awesome instruction and guess what?! I was going to tell you some of them, but I forgot my notes! I will try to remember my favorite things. He gave us some really good insights on how to be more effective and how we can help our investigators. He said so many things that applies to after mission as well. He told us that we should never give up because this is the Lord's work and He would never forsake us as long as we were doing His will. I will tell you more next week and hopefully I won't forget my notes! I want to share a little mormon message with all of you! http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#the-reason-behind-christmas The theme for my zone this transfer is gifts to the Savior. I would invite all of you to think about what gifts you can give to the Savior this Christmas season. So I don't know if you remember last year, but each sister on Temple Square got to have a Christmas dinner at a member's house. Well, we get to do that this year too!!! I am so excited! It'll be just like outbound again! Next week is Christmas!!!!! So exciting!!!! Love you all!! Sister Stolp

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

It snowed and it's cold and it's AWESOME!!!!!!!! I love the Christmas time on Temple Square! I prayed to be here for Christmas and I'm here! I love the nights when the lights are on and there are crowds of people!!! So one night, there was an Indian man who came up to us and told us that there was an investigator that we needed to talk to. So we followed him and saw two couples and one was a Filipino couple. So we got to talking and the Indian man and the other couple were all members and they were telling us to get their number and talk with them. So the Filipino couple is Catholic and they didn't seem too interested, but we got their number. It was too crowded and too noisy to go into the restoration and they needed to leave. But the next day some sisters came up to us and told us that they met this couple. These sisters taught them the restoration and they seemed a lot more interested this time. It's going to be great when we call them and teach them more! So there are going to be a few changes in the mission and one of them is exchanges. As Zone Leaders we need to go on exchanges with the District Leaders, but the Assistants want us to try to go with each sister in our zone. I think that's an awesome idea because then we can help more sisters. The Assistants are focusing a lot on unity this transfer and want the whole mission to be more unified. So one way that we are doing that is to go on exchanges and help build up the sisters. While I was outbound I had a companion that has depression and I was able to help her out a lot. I also roomed with another companionship and when they had problems I was able to help them and build them up. I think that it prepared me for my assignment now and I feel that I am better prepared. Because Christmas time is so difficult and we have late night Square and 30 min dinners, a lot of the sisters are becoming discouraged and tired. But I love it so much and I love this work and I know that I can help them gain back that love for this work. This life can make us discouraged and tired, but if we're able to help each other out and rely on our Savior, then we won't become discouraged too much. I want to re-invite what Elder Ballard invited all members to do before Christmas. He said, "We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just "one" between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." That is such a beautiful gift and I hope that you take this to heart this Christmas season. Pray and ask God what you can do to help someone out and to reach out to the one. I know that if you do this that you will bring someone to Christ and that is the greatest work you could ever do! Love you all! Sister Stolp

Temple Square

Hello everyone, I'm back on Temple Square!!! Super awesome! It's been great to be here for the lights!!! It truly is amazing here on Temple Square and I'm so grateful for my experience outbound and that I had the opportunity to grow so much. Seeing the members in my outbound mission I can truly help the members that come here do their missionary work. I have felt a difference as I came back like I'm a new missionary and to have both these experiences that definitely helped me. As I was outbound even though I wasn't training, I felt like I was because my companion hadn't really gotten to teach that much. Being on Temple Square we teach every day so it wasn't hard for me, but I had to help her grow and in turn that helped me to grow so much. I learned a lot about patience and love. We had some other sisters as our roommates and I was the oldest both in age and being on the mission so I felt like I was their mom. It was great to help them out with some of their problems and I feel that helped me with coming back here to Temple Square because there are a lot of new sisters that I don't even know and my new assignment is zone leader. I felt so overwhelmed in the airport when I found out I was going to be a zone leader because I remembered all my other zone leaders and how amazing they were or not so amazing so I was worried and scared. I had to pray a lot these past couple of days to help with my anxiety, but it's better now and I feel that I can do it with the Lord's help of course. I have been saying "I love you" a lot more and for those of you who know me I don't really say those words so I have grown up. The mission and especially being a zone leader has helped me to look outward and not so much inward. I have been thinking about my investigators and my zone for a while and I have no time to think about me! I want to share a scripture that I just found. It's in D&C 101:36 and it says, "Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full." I am the happiest when I am helping someone come closer to Christ. Whether that's a guest on the Square or one of the missionaries here. This is the Lord's work and we should do it joyfully. I love the work and I love the Lord! Thanks for all you do to help the work move forward!!! Sister Stolp