Conference

Hi everyone, conference was great! We watched it with some members and ate Peruvian food after. We met this cool guy from Honduras who's my age(19) and has lived here for three months. We told him we can teach him English and that we wanted to play soccer with him. He liked talking with us and he enjoyed our jokes so I'm excited to see him again. We found a new investigator yesterday who's really interested. And he has a family! Thanks for your letters and packages. Love Elder S Stolp

Rain

HI everyone. This week it was raining for three days straight and today the sun finally came out! I love the direction the church is going with missionary work. I love that we get to know people first so that we can know what they need and what their doubts are rather than a pointless visit that wont mean anything to them among other things. It turns out that my companions were joking when they said I was leaving. I'm staying in Columbia along with everyone else. I'm happy about that. Love Elder S Stolp

Gospel Changes Lives

Hi everyone,
 this week was good. We were able to talk to a lady we helped clean her car with on her porch. She's a nice person and tells us that she has lots of questions about religion. Even though her questions are questions my companions have, it will be easier to give her to the sisters. We gave a church tour to an investigator this week. As we sat in the chapel, he was telling us how he felt good and peaceful and then we talked about the Holy Ghost. I'm glad to see the change the gospel brings in peoples' lives. Love, Elder S Stolp

Volleyball

Hi Everyone, this week was good. The sisters and us played volleyball instead of futbol (soccor) and only the young women showed up because they love the sisters and no one likes the Elders. :) Things are beginning to pick up in the area and I'm so glad to get to know my companions, the sisters, and the members, they're really good friends. Sunday I gave a 10 min. talk and I didn't need to write it out and everyone liked it. con mucho amor, Elder Stolp

Investigator

Hi everyone, this week was good. We had a lesson with an investigator and as he read a scripture he told us he was feeling something inside and he was having problems explaining it but it was good. We told him is was the spirit telling him that what he was reading was true, it was a great lesson. It dosn't matter what things we say in the lessons if the spirit isn't there. les quiro, Elder Stolp

Pinewood Derby and Change

Hola, como estan? This week was good, we're just trying to learn the area and get to know the members and our investigadors. Saterday we helped with a pinewood derby and someone gave their car to my companion! One investigador who drinks says that he want to change and have peace in his life. I love it when others want to change their lives. Love Elder S Stolp

Detectives

This week was good. We've been meeting with all of the members and I met the branch mission leader and he is a neat person because he is one of the two spanish homicide detectives in Maryland, and he likes to pick on me. :) The mission recently created a Spanish zone in the entire mission so we have to travel a long time for meetings. In my district are the two new sister spanish missionary sets and our threesome. So we have to help the new sisters get used to missionary life. One investigator we're teaching is really awesome, he read the first 11 or 12 chapters of the Book of Mormon in a few days. My companions and I are having lots of fun. We've all started to wear scarfs( but the ones that the sisters usually wear). ;)
con mucho amor,
Elder Stolp

Rooster

This week was good. We went into a members house and the niece led my companion into the livingroom, "Look! Look!" When we got there, there was a rooster sitting in front of a plant eating it. They said they had four others but the mom killed them and they ate them. This transfer I'm leaving Annapolis after 6 months and I get to be companions with an elder in my MTC district! It's going to be awesome. God loves you.
 Love,
 Elder Stolp

Happiness

Hi everyone, this week was good, a less active we've been trying to find called us one day and asked us when church was. We told him and we set up an appointment to see him at the library. In our meeting he was telling us how he used to go the church and he felt good. As he stopped going he lost this good feeling and now he called us and wants to go back to be happy again. I know that living this gospel is the only way to have lasting happiness in this life and that the righteous are happy as King Benjamin teaches. This is why I'm here because I've experienced this happiness and I want to share it with others. Elder Stolp

He that hath no rule...

Hi everyone, this week was good. I was reading from "Jesus the Christ" and it was saying how Christ is the most generally famous, had the best qualities, the best leader and the most awesomest person to walk on the earth. Then I thought that I am his representative. I hope that I'm a good representative of Jesus Christ. This week Elder Nielson of the Seventy came to give us instruction. He was telling us how this isn't about us and that we need to lose ourselves. Then I was studying about self-mastery and I came across a scripture I want to share. "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." -Proverbs 25:28. So if we're not the ruler of our own souls we will be vulnerable like a broken down city with no walls and anything can come along and destroy us. Love Elder Stolp

Christ is the Redeemer

Hi everyone, como estan? Bob, our recent convert, just got sustained to recieve the priesthood and he got his Temple recommend and we hope to go with him to the temple this week. We had dinner with the Bobs yesterday and Bro. Bob2 favorite movies were: "The Lion King," "Gone with the Wind," and "Finding Nemo." We've been visiting a less active, Bob 3 and he says he wants us to give him and his wife the lessons because she is a non member and he wants to recommit himself. Well I know that Christ is the Redeemer of the world and that no matter how bad we think we are or what we did, Christ can make our sins white as wool. I LOVE JESUS!!!!!
Love
 Elder Stolp

The Book of Mormon is True!

Hi everyone, this week was good. I miss Elder Bob but that's okay because Elder Bob2 is cool. Today makes 10 months for me in the mission. This week an elder hit a deer so me and some other missionaries gave it to the car people and I started talking to the girl who worked on papers, Molly. I was asking her a lot of questions and got to know her, later the other missionaries were telling me that I was doing an awesome job. So in Sacrament meeting a Father gave her daughter the sacrament because he was passing it and she said, "Thanks Daddy!" So I went on an exchange yesterday and I saw an investigador that's going to be baptized soon and we watched a video about the Book of Moromon and it was about a Pastor from another church found a Book of Mormon and read it and knew it was true and the other Church people got mad at him for teaching from it in church. Well I know the Book of Mormon is true and that the spirit is very important. Love Elder Stolp

Getting Better

Hi everyone, I feel much better from my constipation. I got a new companion, Elder Bob. He's from San Diego California and likes basketball and surfing. My old companion's new companion likes my little pony. :) The mission is trying to kick out my and my companion from the apartment so that we can be more centered in the area and they want to put the new sister spanish missionaries in our appartment. I know that protection from temptations can come from praying and reading the scriptures and that we will have more of the spirit in our lives. Love Elder S Stolp

Emergency Room

This week I went to the ER because I was experiencing a lot of pain in lower righthand stomach under my waistline. Went I got there they gave me an IV and gave me morphine (a top notch pain killer drug) and I got really really high. My companion and other missionaries in my appartment decided to ask me a lot of questions.
 "Elder Stolp, did you like Elder Bob?" (a former companion)
 "No......not in a gay way."
 "Elder Stolp,do you like Elder Bob2?" (my current companion)
 "No......he's a....jerk!" (15 minutes later)
 "Elder Stolp, who'se you're favorite companion?"
 "Probably elder Bob2."
 "Elder Stolp, did they give you pain killers?"
 "Yes"
 "Did they give you morphine?"
 "No"
 "Did they give it to you by mouth?"
 "No"
 "How did they give it to you?"
 "Like IB-prophine."
 What was wrong with me was that I got constipated and had a stool the size of a baseball stuck in my system, but they gave me a laxative and now I feel better. My appendix might have got infected by it and bloated and then I would have to have it removed.
 So Sister Molly (a girl that used to live a few streets away from my house in Utah.) was sent here to my mission! I met and talked with her at the mission Christmas party. Elder Bob2 is being transfered, he's the one that I had three baptism's with in three transfers. :( Happy New Year! Love Elder Stolp