March 4, 2012

 Howz it goin mateys, well god really is testing the patience again we
> have been struggling to find some new investigators were doing heaps
> of finding but nobody will take the bite. We are in the gold mine
> "henrys lake" but were getting skunked it will happen we just gotta
> keep doing our thang. oy the summer here has been hektek it has only
> had 4 hot as days the rest has been bucketting down rain nothing feels
> better then knocking on those doors in the pooring rain. I have been
> losing heaps of weight i have lost 15 lbs since last month oh yeauhhh.
> Our flat in cockroach infested, wasp infested, and spider infested it
> is great. My companion snores so loud i am about ready to slap his
> face. Im starting to only get about 4 hours of sleep because of it. im
> gonna give em a hiding. the area is still sweet im still in the dirty
> ghetto of sydney but president told me in the interview that i will be
> moving this transfer. We had some of our recent converts go through
> the temple and do baptisms for the dead it was awesome. the savusa
> family i dont know if you remember but it was the samoan family we
> found, well anyway, saifitti read the whole book of mormon he is a gun
> as member I realized that the mission is teaching me more than i would
> have learned in my lifetime. I always wondered who i was and who i
> was supposed to be...i finally figured it out. i am a servant of our
> heavenly father. the best way to send me funds is to just mail it
> because i have no debit card but yah ill pry talk more about it when i
> call in may for mothers da

February 12, 2012

D&C chapter 11 verse 7 powerful today in my personal study i was
reading this today and spirit hit me really hard. I love the first
hour of my studies, i am starting to know how to study the scriptures
and it is a big help i dont know how i survived 19 years of my life
without doing it. We have implemented this new plan to help with our
unity and our companionships and it is to share spiritual expiriences
with each other in our companionships and it has put the work on
fire!!! we had call ins last night and we have set 11 baptismal dates
for february and march that is unbelievable! there is a really good
spirit about the way we are working and communcicating it is awesome
and I know god is blessing us for doing this. Revelation is real i am
seeing it occur more and more with the missionaries and the
investigators that they are teaching this gospel is living it breathes
it is insane what has been happening. I will tell you of a cool
expirience we had this week. so a month ago we were visiting the
pules' a less active family, who is now going to the temple to be
sealed, they brought they cuzzy over and we taught and that was pretty
much that. Then 5 nights ago a missionary called me and said "elder
sto ee, you need to go and ask the pules about mele again..." i put it
passed me. the next day all of our plans fell through and we were next
too the pules and i said lets stop here and ask about mele... we went
in and of course they fed us. and i asked sam "hey where does mele
stay?" he put his food down and looked at me and said "who sent you
here?" he looked like he was going to smash me! then in his broken
english he said elders, you follow the spirit. Mele had just moved
into there house that week, she had family dramas because she wanted
to be a member.. we were able to teach mele soon after and set a
baptismal date for the end of this week. God leads us every day and
sometimes we dont even recognize his promptings things are awesome, we
also set a baptismal date with lana and she said yes to march 17
please pray for these souls. mele and lana. thanx heaps love you guys
hope the wedding goes well.

February 7, 2012

 um sweet no emails again thats great. jokes i know everyone is busy
> with the wedding and all that jazz we had a stellar last week for
> elder uelese he finished strong and now he is back home i have a new
> companion from america samoa, elder satele. he is awesome he served in
> the infantry and went to iraq before he came on his mission so hes got
> some good stories. we will work well together i am excited. our
> investigator lana is awesome she came to a recent convert fireside on
> sunday and then after she told us that she wants to be baptized and
> the scripture that made her want to change was Rev. 3:20 she was in
> love with it so she is making alot of progress. pray for her i hope
> everything is sweet back home everything is good over here. i love all
> of you
>
> elder stoddard

January 30, 2012

Mates no worries i am still alive and well. I got on the emails and
didnt have an email so i decided to withhold the miracles from
everyone and go play some basketball instead. Things are hektek right
now it is elder uelese's last week right now and we are going pedal to
the metal just tracting our guttz out. We had a miracle on saturday,
Funaki was baptized he had been learning the gospel for about 4 years.
He was so prepared to make the promise. He and i have a good
relationship, we understand one another and he asked if i could do his
baptism...hmmm i think yes! the spirit was awesome and i saw some
tears as that tough az tongan walked into the water. It was just
smiles and laughs after that. he was stoked about life we just told it
was about time. Such a blessing thing are looking up. Usually with
every companion that goes home we usually have one miracle that just
tops it all off. It was monday evening 8:05 pm on pine crescent: one
of the top two most dangerous streets in new south wales. yep i felt
safe though cuz im with my big as samoan brother. We were just about
to call it quits to go to some less actives but we kept going and we
Found Lana. she asked all of the right questions, and we set an
appointment for the next day. She told us that she had been looking
for the true church for about 5 years and just completely gave up on
god. She then told us that god couldnt forgive her for the things that
she had done. We brought a member and the sis had gone through the
same expirience as lana had gone through. And gradually from tears of
sorrow to a smile of hope she said alright i will give it a shot. for
the past week lana has been praying every morning and night, and
reading from the book of mormon we will be giving her a baptismal date
at the end of this week. God still has them miracles over here in the
dirty ghetto Mount Druitt. Things are awesome the miracles are off the
hook. Ps is jacki Blonde?

January 15, 2012

bro you sold out with the ipad! nice. we had a hektek week mostly
because we had 5 general authorities visit us last friday! oh cheahhh!
we had been struggling to build our teaching pool for the last couple
of weeks. but with the dilligence and the prayers and fast we were
able to find some elect souls and evena family so we are still being
blessed things are awesome. we had elder cook come to the mission it
was cool he told us a story on his mission where he went (england) he
had the opportunity to open an area for the first time and there was
zero members but on the third day they prayed for some leaders they
could find and they found six families that were all baptized and
confirmed. but the guy i really really liked was elder pearce! his was
hektek. he looked like this nerd with glasses but he threw down in our
sacrament i am always impressed at how much these people know about
the gospel it always encourages me to try to study and pray harder.
things were awesome this week. Your kids are becoming desciples its
amazing what they are becoming.

January 9, 2012

Family this week was Incredible!!! we had 3 baptisms this weekend This was the name i had to say when i baptized one of them Jessica Levaogogo Masinamua Faasavalu Tanuvasa, those crazy islanders... i guess my name is just as long though it was awesome to hear about the conversion of them and their mom. They were a part member family..

the mom sister gogokau, the one who is getting me fat didnt believe in the church until a month ago she had been a member for about a 10 years but had never prayed about it. missionaries had been trying to baptize her kids for about 5 years but she didnt want them baptized. About a month ago we set a goal for eight people baptized and a miracle...elder comfort and i fasted for 2 days just to see what would happen...that sunday sister gogokau came up to us and said i want you to baptize my kids hahaha! MIRACLES! the younger ones hated church but their cuzzin came from new zealand came to australia and taught them the gospel and got them interested.

Heavenly Father was just waiting for the right timing...that is what i have been able to understand the last couple of months. timing that is what it is and patience on our part to wait for the lords promises to be fullfilled. Sister Gogokau bore her testimony before the baptism and she said that god answered her and she knows that our church is true and said "I will never not be straight path" in broken english. she brought the house down with the spirit it was awesome.

Next story i learned a very valuable lesson this week...I have been blessed throughout my whole life and i wasnt really grateful for it....i went on an exchange with an elder on an exchange...elder andrew from vaanawatu, an island in the pacific he grew up with nothing...he showed me his pictures from back home he was only wearing ripped munted shirts worn shorts. he was a convert the only one of his family and he served his mission and his family doesnt even write him and he hadnt called them for the past year. he speaks like they do in jamacia, and he was the humblest person i have ever met in my entire life. i spent all night talking to him and he spoke his broken english to me and i felt like crap because i had been blessed with everything i ever wanted and his family struggles for food back home he kept playing my guitar and he said ohhh dis iz de nicest guitar... I said it is your bro... He looked at me and shouted his little island yell! take it man take it. it never felt so good to give someone something so small. Seek not after riches or the vain things of things of this world for behold ye cannot carry them with you. i wont be able to take that guitar back but that memory will last for eternity.

That next morning we had the slowest morning and i remember praying "heavenly father im not one to complain but it has been a couple weeks now and we havent even taught a lesson..yah trent those number of lessons you taught make me sick! anyways i asked i said please give me and elder andrew a miracle... Stand back and watch the salvation of the lord is what i heard from the voice behind my ears.

We made a random visit to funaki a former investigator part member that was at a stand still, we went in and read Alma 34 Funaki said under his breath the time is now.. Then he said i always remember my grandpa saying this is the time to prepare to meet got. Elder stoddard elder andrew the time is now. a little more talk, and the spirit kept saying ask him to be baptized, i pushed it away about 4 times because everytime we bring it up funaki goes cold. 5th time ASK HIM TO BE BAPTIZED! okay okay Funaki do you want to be baptized??? he said, God has just answered my prayer, i prayed you would ask me that question i have been praying about it for the last few weeks. we hadnt seen him for 2 months. he said i want to be baptized on the 28th or january!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! the spirt has cracked this nut he had been learning the gospel for about a year and now it is happening. me and elder andrew were going nuts in the car i was yelling in english and he was yelling in some language that sounds like something on star wars it was classic. I couldnt be happier things couldnt be better the lord is blessing this area the western suburbs of sydney. i dont even care how many more doors i knockthat

January 1, 2012

O geez another week bites the dust, things are going awesome we have three baptisms this weekend. It is a samoan family again. They are way cool, but the mom always feeds us a massive feed when we go over. I was depressed the other night because of how large and in charge i was getting and i told elder uelese my new samoan kiwi companion, You have to help me lose weight you have to eat more of the food...because he wants to go home fat? yah...weirdo. so we decided that i just eat a little bit but take a long as time to eat so it looks like i am eating alot. so last friday we tried it and i was feeling awesome i was full but i didnt feel like i was going to pop...then she brought out dessert...i looked at elder uelese " i hate this lady" just when i thought i had done it she sucker punched me with dessert and alot of it. hahaha. our plan failed us.

we are having a hard time finding people to teach. we are finding people but none of them want to change or do anything to recieve the blessings of the gospel. so we read in the morning alma ch. 26 and it lifted us. the power of the book of mormon, it tells you exactly what you need when you need it. "Bare with patience thine afflictions, and i will grant unto you success" i am learning alot of lessons out here in the mission that will help prepare me to endure to the end of my life. Patience was a huge weakness of mine at the beginning but now it is becoming one of my strengths. i now know that gods promises will all be fullfiilled but in his time when we have been prepared for the blessings or the answers.

We are having heaps of fun together it is elder Uelese's last transfer and i am going to help him go home strong. New Years was annoying as the neighbors didnt go to sleep at all and just bumped their dumb as music, elder uelese was going to go out and kill them haha we had an awesome week i hope everything is going well back home. keep it real i love all of you and i know god does too.