My Last Email

Hello everyone, this is my last email as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have loved my mission so much! I have learned so much while I've been serving the Lord for these 18 months. I know that my Savior lives and He loves me! He died for me and for all of you! That has brought on a whole new meaning while I've been here doing the Lord's work. I have seen people totally reject this gospel and it's been the saddest thing ever! I have also seen the flip side where people wholeheartedly accept this Gospel and they love the Lord. I am truly converted to the Lord. There is a scripture In Alma 5:26 and it says ,"And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" I can honestly say to you all that I have felt this song of redeeming love and I have experienced that change of heart. I want to be a missionary my whole life, but I don't need the tag on anymore. I have His name painted on my heart. Here is what Elder Andersen has to say about this,"If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”13 And returned missionaries, find your old missionary tag. Don’t wear it, but put it where you can see it. The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in His hands. All of us have a contribution to make to this miracle." I know that we all have a hand in this great work and I hope to continue to move this work forward and not hinder it. I have loved every minute of my mission, even the hard times (there have been plenty of those)! I have loved the hard times because it has helped me to grow stronger and that is when I was forced to my knees to ask for my Heavenly Father's help. We must be on our knees constantly if we want the help of our Father in Heaven to guide us to where He wants us to be. I am a little sad to not be a full time missionary, but I know that coming home is when I can apply all the things I have learned on my mission. This is the next phase of my life and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me, one of His servants.
 I love you all!
 Sister Stolp

Hey Everybody!

I am doing great! I love being a missionary! So this week has been interesting. First with the whole thing about President Monson, that was crazy. Then yesterday we took a random motorcoach of 36 people. They didn't call in so they had to call some sisters to take it and we took it with the Assistants. It was fun, but we were all a little rusty. We haven't taken a large group tour in like 6 months. It was probably my last one, too. I have been saying goodbye to my recent converts. I'm going to have to start giving my people to other sisters this week. I just can't believe how fast it has gone. It doesn't seem like 18 months. It feels more than a month, but surely not a year and a half! I'm not letting the fact that I'm coming home get in the way of my missionary work! I know that at the end of a race you speed up rather than slow down. You don't slow down until you've crossed the finish line. I will finish strong and it will be awesome! So here is an experience I had the other day. It was almost 8pm and we were walking on the square when I had this feeling to go to the Assembly Hall. So we did and there was this guy just sitting all by himself in the front. So we went up to talk with him. We found out that he is less active, but starting to go back to church. It was amazing because we just felt this overwhelming feeling that God loved him so much. We were there to tell him that he is loved by Heavenly Father so much! It was a very humbling experience. I know that if we will follow the Spirit, He will send us to where we need to be to help His children find the truth. I know that there are a lot of people around us everyday and it is our job as members of Christ's church to help others find this truth. How are they going to find the truth if we don't help them? Here is a quote from the February ensign that I really love, but it can be scary. “The world is in need of our help. Are we doing all we should? Do we remember the words of President John Taylor: ‘If you do not magnify your callings, God will hold you responsible for those whom you might have saved had you done your duty’? [Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor (2001), 164]. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save. The blessings of eternity await you. Yours is the privilege to be not spectators but participants on the stage of … service.”6 I know that as we follow the Spirit we will be led to those that need us.
I love you all!!
 Sister Stolp

Happy Days!

I am not counting the days!
I really don't want to leave. But I do know that I must trust in the Lord and go on to the next phase in my life, but not yet. It's not over til I die, but even then I'll still be doing missionary work on the other side so I guess it's never over!! YAY!!!!! So I'll tell you something fun that happened this week and then I'll get to the spiritual stuff that happened. So on January 31st was Chinese New Year and we celebrated it as a mission. So our new mission president he went to Taiwan on his mission so he knows how to speak Chinese and he loves the culture. So we learned some traditions about Chinese New Year from some of the Chinese sisters and we had some Chinese snacks. Super good! It was fun and I'll have to send pictures to all of you. Now the spiritual stuff! So I was teaching a lady when I was outbound and some of you might remember her. Her name is Molly and she wanted to be baptized, but she couldn't go to church because she worked on Sunday. So I left before anything really happened with her. So I didn't get her phone number till a last week and I called her and I found out that she got baptized!!!! I am sooooo happy for her!! She is such a sweet person and I'm so glad that she decided to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized!! I hope in a year I will be able to go with her to the Temple! That would be awesome! Oh and I don't know if you remember a lady in the beginning of my mission named Molly2 and she got baptized a year ago. Anyway, she sent me a letter saying that her son got baptized last month!!! She never thought it would happen while she was alive, but miracles happen and I know that God is aware of all of us! It is so great to know that wherever you go you will have family because of the members in this Church! Here is a Mormon Message that I hope you'll like. http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#your-potential-your-privileges I love the Lord and I love this Gospel! D&C 128:22, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free."
 Love you all!!!!

Not enough time!

Sorry everyone, but I don't have too much time today to email! I've been pretty busy and there aren't that many computers in the church history library! So this week the only thing I can remember that was awesome was that our investigator from India, but he lives in Pennsylvania now, said yes to baptism!!! We're so excited!!! He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he feels different when he reads it. It is so great and amazing. I love this gospel so much because it can make "bad men good and good men better"! It is so great to be the Lord's representative at this time! I am nervous and sad to leave my mission, but I know that I can be a member missionary and help many other people as well! I told you we have a new mission president and he is awesome. Oh and on Sunday I gave my departing talk on Sunday. Me and the Sisters in my MTC district sang as well. We sang the song that we sang in the MTC with the elders in our district. It was so special because one of the Elders from our MTC district came to our church to hear us sing! It was so beautiful and we all almost started crying, but I didn't want to because I had to speak right after the song! I know that God provides for us as His children and that He cares for us! I have truly learned this on my mission and I know how important this message is to tell the people around us. Thank you so much to anyone who is reading this for the love and support you have given me! There are so many Sisters here who are the only members in their family and I just think that I am so blessed to have such loving family and friends who wanted me to go on a mission. This mission has helped me to learn and grow in this Gospel and I can truly say that I know this church is true and if you don't know that yet, just ask God because He desires to help you. He is waiting for you to pray to Him so He can answer you!
 I love you all!!
 Sister Stolp

I Come in Peace

Hello people of earth!
 How are you doing? I'm doing great! Things have been going good here and everything is great. Last Monday I did Temple Service and so we just cleaned the Temple. I was vacuuming the hallway and I could feel the Spirit so strong! It was crazy because it was so loud with the vacuum, but I could still feel how special the Temple is! So our mission president, President Bob, is done with his mission so we got a new mission president on Friday. He is President Bob2 and he seems like a really great guy. We had zone leader council yesterday and he says that this mission is the best it's ever been, but he also wants to make it even better! He has a high vision for us and that's great. I almost wish I had extended so I can see all the changes that's going to happen. Oh well, I guess Heavenly Father has other plans for me. I'm excited, but nervous to see what He has in store for me after the mission. Here is a nice little mormon message that I might have sent before, but it's great. http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#enduring-love It's pretty great! Thanks for all you do! Sister Stolp

Cool Stuff

Well, I'm hearing that all the world is getting frozen, but Utah continues to be a little warmer than usual. At least the past week, it's been up in the 40s and 50s which is nice!
 So for our zone this transfer our theme is "Come unto Christ". We are very excited to have this as our theme and we know it will help the sisters. I found a really great quote and I want to share it with you. "What does 'come' mean? It requires effort. It requires movement. It requires might, mind, and strength. It is not just thinking about Christ. It is not even just loving Him. It is an invitation to take action and obey Him." We must come unto Christ everyday and it's not just a one time thing. It takes effort every day of our lives! I want to share with you a really beautiful experience that I had in the Temple this morning. We were doing initiatories for a Chinese sister in our zone. She said that she has 600 family names that she needs to do. So we helped her out this morning and did some names.  I could feel that she has been waiting a long time! I felt that she was so happy and excited! It was a great experience and yes, Steven, I am helping to save China!!!!! It's so great and we will do more of her names to help her out at the end of this transfer! I know that this church is true and that God is hastening His work. I am so glad to be a part of this great work and to be here at Church headquarters to see it all happen and to influence so many lives!
Love you all!!!!
 Sister Stolp

My Last Transfer!

That is so crazy to think that this is my last transfer! I can't believe how fast it's gone by! Well, we just had transfers this morning and I'm still the zone leader for North 2, but I have a new companion! She's from Arizona and it'll be so much fun! I have learned that I really can do anything. I wasn't scared about this next transfer at all and I knew that I could do anything at all! I think that training would've scared me, though, but everything else would've been good. I do miss being in the Beehive, but hopefully I'll get to cover there in these next couple of weeks. There will be a lot of new changes this transfer. We'll be getting a new president in the middle of January and all the zones have been given new assignments. It will be much easier the way it is now, though, which is nice. This last transfer I learned to not worry too much about the trivial things. As a zone leader I went on exchanges with some sisters in my zone and I was able to see some of the great faith that brought them here. It helped me to see the bigger picture. I also learned that we are always learning! There was a sister who said that she is still working on her testimony. But that's ok because we can't just say that we're good and stop at that. We need to keep on keeping on! We can't give up. One of the presidency said to us as his departing words that there are four things that will keep us from going inactive. Those four things are, "say your prayers, pay your tithing, read your scriptures, go to church." I know that if you all keep doing these four things with a willing heart then you will see miracles in your life. You will find peace and happiness knowing that the Lord is happy with you. Thank you so much for reading these emails and for supporting me! Love you all!!!!

 Sister Stolp

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Bonjour everyone!!
 This week was super awesome! On monday for P-day we had a zone activity and we combined it with another zone. It was super fun and we had it at the church behind the conference center. We played games and had food. Such a good way to start out the Christmas week! Then on Christmas Eve we had a Christmas Pasada where we went on a search for the Christ child. It was so cool because there were different stations all over the Square where we had to go and there were people in different stations. One had shepherd women and one had Isaiah and one had the angels and many more, but these people told their story of how they saw the Christ child. It was very spiritual and it definitely brought the Spirit. Then on Christmas day I got to call family and the Square was open from 12-5. Oh, but during that I got to call my investigator that was outbound and he had a baptismal date for the 21st and I found out that he was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!! So exciting!! I'll still be calling him and helping him out cuz he needs all the help he can get! So after that the whole mission got together and had dinner and watched a movie. Super awesome! It was crazy, too because there were a lot of people there on Christmas day and we gave a tour to a Hindu family from California. Then the couple days after that was surprisingly busy as well! God is helping us get ready for the dead season. So yesterday night we were in the teaching center and we were taking chats. But all these chats had something in common. They were all trollers there to waste our time! For three straight hours we were there and we took a lot of chats. It was actually quite entertaining, but it was so sad as well! Satan is really working hard to bring down this church and not just some silly chats, but so many other things as well. There was this guy who jumped over the fence to the Temple and tried to open the doors and get inside. Other sisters saw it and called security and he kept yelling that he was God and stuff like that, but there will be so many people who will try to persuade people to follow them. We must keep reading our scriptures and saying our prayers each and every day because satan is working 24/7 to bring us down and wanting us to make mistakes. Here is a mormon message that I want you to watch. http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#a-secure-anchor I promise you that as you make Christ the center of your homes that you won't falter and that Christ will be your foundation that we all need in this world! He is the best foundation that we can have and our greatest friend! Keep moving forward and it'll be alright in the end! If it's not alright, then it's not the end!
 Love you!
 Sister Stolp