9/27 to Kamille

wow kamille you get mad at me for not emailing you one week and all you say is love you, love you, love you??? come on now i thrive for these emails. Well i got my first baptism on sunday it was awesome the spirit was there! This lady cant drink water because it makes her throw up. So instead she drank coffee and tea. But she knew that the church was true so she gave it all up to be baptized. we had a drive by the other night and Elder Evans called the cops he thought he was pretty cool. People are funnier every day i talk to them because of how dumb some of them are, but you gotta love them. Miss all you guys hope everything is going good!

From Colorado Sept. 27, 2010

Hey we had our first baptism on sunday, 70 year old bessie delo. It was awesome she did it all on her own..well and of course the spirit. We found a 22 year old kid who we taught and committed to be baptized the first vision almost made him cry it was great.other than that i like the hummer quote that is a good one. other than that we are just tracting and teaching. everybody keep doing good and listen to your mom and dad. thanks for getting my background check in and hopefully the visa thing will work and i will call from the airport :) anyways respect love, Elder Stoddard

Hummer Quote...
"God will always continue like a huge unstoppable hummer. Blasting through lakes and mountains. He allows us to participate and be blessed with an awesome ride. If we choose to rebel or be stubborn or worse try to stop the work the hummer keeps on rolling. We can always get back on when we have learned and repented." -Trent Smith

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Hey Famo!!! Hey so on Investigator came to church this sunday, Bessy Delo she is like 63 years old and she know the church is true. She will be getting baptized next sunday. Ive seen personallity change as we have taught her. She just seems happier and excited its great. We Placed four book of mormons this week! wooo and they were all to other church members, 2 pentacostles (weird religion the speak in tounges and do crazy run around worship) 1 baptist lady ( hate mormons, loves us and painted her deck) also this guy named bill who said he wants to going to Jesus Christs church haha so yah its going alot better. We saw a lady walking a cow the other day...with a leash?? yah this place is weirddddd! but its kinda fun some of the stuff people say about us. We had this minister that was gunna bash with us, and elder evans just threw down bible scriptures stating that we our childeren of god Acts 17:29 Romans 8:16 haha and he just crawled back in his shell it was awesome. All other religions are lost and it is all about the money in other faiths and i dont understand how these people are so blind about that. But Agency i guess! Well thats sweet you got a hold of the FBI i kinda just thought that i wasnt going to end up going to australia. But yah scriptures are pretty cool i never thought i would like reading them but they are pretty awesome if you get lost in the word. Happy Birthday Abe on the 9th that is great all the little kids stay in school so you are not a fool. and decide now!! Abe, Ethan, Eli, Logan that you are going on a mission. Yah we have agency but sorry little ones you have to do this the prophets said. Maya, Jaxynn, Kate, Quincy, Sami, no kissing boys and say your prayers haha. I had a dream the other night that i baptized Henry B Eyering hahaha and he was like " Elder Stoddard, thank you for baptizing me i have been an apostle for quite a while and have been waiting for that!" hahaha also i had a dream that trent and julie had another kid and i was holding it??? whats up with that. Also everyone needs to get there food storage up to date!!! on sunday ucktdorf and perry spoke at stake conference and the thing that stuck out was Listen to the still small voice, and with the gospel..Walk the Walk instead of just Talking the Talk- Ucktdorf anyways im out, love everyone and miss everyone :)

Letter from September 13

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
Hahaha Horny!!? classic.. yah Colorado is cool, I prayed every day at the MTC that I would learn the scriptures better so that i could use them to teach with power. I think this is why I am in colorado, The scriptures are powerful and im getting better at knowing the scriptures so that I can quote them. Elder Evans is a scripture MASTER Honestly I have never met anyone who knows so many. I fell off my bike on saturday, and had hay all in my pants and hair. Were tracting alot trying to find people to teach. Well all is well!

1st Letter from Colorado!!

well, It could be alot worse than canon city colorado... but im warming up to it. hahaha there is 13 federal prisons in the one city. Colorado Springs is most anti mormon city in the world. all the anti mormon literature, and films are produced here. Its the bible belt of the west! My companion is Elder Evans He has been out about a year. He doesnt talk at all really, but he works really hard. My butt is so freaking sore and my legs hurt in the morning from walking so much. But because he doesnt talk very much I think im going to be pretty lonely for the next couple of weeks. He also makes this dumb farting noise with his mouth and it is driving me insane!!! but he works hard and know the scriptures very well and is always on time with everything. My first week we tracted about 20 hours since tuesday, we knock on doors and either no one wants the message or they already have their church. Ive heard of so many different religions. Well I will tell you all about my two awesome stories. We knock on a door and Roger answers, he says he is completely against mormons and feels sorry for us and hopes we find christ in our life. Right Then I have never had the urge to stand up for something like this in my whole life. Evans says have you prayed about it? he says i pray for mormons all the time. Evans says, to the church is true? then he told some bogus story of joseph smith and then told me and evans that we were bad christians and murders. I said who are you to say that you know nothing about this church and you just read filth agaainst the church. Evans said good christian what is that to you?? is a good christian like the ones who murdered joseph and Hyrum Smith, the ones who tarred and beat my ancestors, made their young children leave bloody footprints in the snow?!?!! he had nothing to say.. he started talking and nothing he said made any sense. In the middle of his sentence i said Listen to yourself, you have no Idea what you are talking about, If you werent so hard hearted and would humble yourself and pray and ask god if this church was true you would recieve an answer, because I did and Elder Evans did. He looked at me with rage and said the mormon religion is false and Joseph Smith Claims he saw god!!! I said Joseph Smith Saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!! and he went inside and slammed the door. It was Insane, Like They say contention drives the spirit away but right then I felt like we did what we were supposed to do and it felt awesome.
Alright, So we were riding our bike and we saw a lady on the street and asked if she wanted to hear a message on how Jesus Christ has restored his church with a prophet, She said that would be the best church in the world!!!! OF COURSE!!! I looked at elder evans and just laughed we probably talked to 150 people since tuesday and 1 lady says yes!!!! HAHAHA I was so excited and filled with joy. We taught her the restoration. and When i gave the account of the first vision.. the spirit was felt. She started crying a little and said i feel calm and at peace..i havent felt this for a long time. Then we asked if she would be baptized and follow the example of jesus christ and she said yes!!! WoOOOOOOOOO September 8th! It was incredible all that work and i thought nothing was going to happen I think heavenly father was testing us. I prayed for rain in this 100 degree weather and it rained. He answers Prayers the church is true and the spirit is real. I love you all

AUGUST 2, 2010

hey before I start the letter, i need my liscence and my glasses!! my box is #329, please i need my licsence for sure. i Leave for austrailia next monday! haha and i dont know really anything still... but still im getting better with building my relationship with god. I thought it was okay before I left but it is nowhere where it needed to be. Yes im still pumping iron, and running i do an average of 300 push ups every night and 40 pull ups. My schedule is study, eat, study, study study eat study eat with like 50 prayers in all of those. My companion is the least punctual kid ever haha i have to yell at him every morning to hurry up.. its gotten to the point where he has started oweing me red cream sodas. But other than that he is awesome, we work and teach by the spirit well together. He is an amazing teacher and speaks simple but eloquent. A little arrogant but hes canadian, what do you expect!! My P day is on monday i have one more befor i leave. I guess we get to call from the airport so you probably recieve a phone call around 7,8,9. As for singing i guess im starting to like hyms a little more, but luckily i have a surfer roomate that loves bob marley and trevor hall, so we get to sing those hyms oh yeauuuh! that is about it my knowledge is growing, my faith is growing, and my testiomony is growing, and most important my love for everyone is growing.

DJ's first letter from the MTC

JULY 26, 2010
O My gosh!!!! I LOVE THIS!!! this is honestly so cool, its like spiritual summer camp withought the blob...instead you study so much! too the point where im starting to fall asleep in 45 seconds prayers i havent fell asleep in class yet because there so much infor to catch up on. I wish i wouldve been studying this before. The spirit here is so intense i havent felt it like this before its awesome. My companion is Elder Comfort, great last name huh? He is from Canada, hes a celebrity here. When i first saw him i said, o man this elder is going to be a tool, he had the fo hawk and dressed really nice. But now me and him are best friends since wednesday afternoon. I know god gave me him as a friend as a companion so that this MTC expirience not so bad. We study together and get really deep with each other i have talked to him about stuff I havent even talked to my friends at home about. The food isnt awesome but its better than rosemary chicken. Im rooming with a surfer dude from hawaii also and every night we talk about everything that enlightens us each day.. "he told me never mistake beauty for glamour" and also that i have the power to change a mans heart just by looking at them...is that gay? i dunno but it made me happy haha.
My knowledge and testimony are going through the roof i feel as though i am getting revalation through god. But i just want to tell you about the most spiritual moment for me so far. We watch a movie, The lesson i learned as a boy.. By Gordon B. Hinckley. watch it. after you watch then read this next part.


while watching this film I just couldnt hold in the tears and everyon in my district couldnt either. He touched me stronger than anything ever has. I really felt the importance of Jesus Christ and the atonement After the movie we all just broke down and i was the first to say something. I said that i was always the kid playing pranks and i wouldve hid the mans shoes. and I paused and thought that i was only thinking of pleasing my self...i paused again and started crying and said I dont think i have ever done anything nice like that for someone else and i just felt like crap and like Ive done nothing for anyone and jesus christ has done everything for everyone. Then everyone in our district just got so deep with each other and the spirit was overwhelming. And elder Willcock the kid who want to go home in our district who never says anything and doesnt do anything Said, " We can start now becoming and trying to be like the savior" and i could see it change in him that he wanted to start working. willcock hasnt smiled hardly at all. are whole zone prayed for him because he was homesick. And the next day he smiled all day. i asked what had changed he said he woke up and was just HAPPY. Pray is answered and i witnessed that first hand. The most important thing is love... show this to everyone and you can never go wrong. I love everyone, i miss everyone. But Im gunna be honest this is better than Home haha and i tell everyone here that. thanks for the prayers. little ones stand strong! ETTE TAAT
Elder Stoddard

Australia!!!

Well as cool as Australia is and everything....Elder Stoddard is not there yet. But it looks like he passed the background check and the visa will begin to be processed and then hopefully we will start getting letters from Aussieland. But for now we will settle with letters from Colorado Springs, Colorado. This blog is where I will be posting his letters. So get the word out.