More Photos....

Scroll down through the entries thru Christmas. At the bottom of this page, click "older posts."

I added photos that he sent this week to entries going back to Christmas time.....

that way when I have it printed into a book, the photos will be in the right spots.

My guess is this is Maria the lady they are teaching.... I am not sure what they are measuring, ice maybe?

Looks like a game of pickup to me.....

happy valentines day!

Valentines Card Shop

"You make my heart race like a red Monte Carlo"

Sweet Romance

Dang! It's Cold!

Life is good! We set a new record with most cold I have ever felt in my life. Six inches of Snow fell in about 3 hours... And we were biking at the time. It was just funny how hard it was snowing. BUT!!! it has been warming up and was just downright pleasant yesterday so things are looking more hopeful. Yesterday we did not even need to wear overcoats! Soooo GOOD stuff.

Sooo We had a pretty good week. We have officially tracted every street in our area sooo we are now kinda out of luck when it comes to tracting. we retracted the same 3 streets (where ALL of the Hispanics are) 3 times last week. But good stuff is going on too! Maria (the mother-in-law of Mario) is doing great. We had planned to teach her something last week then right before we left in the morning it felt like we should teach her tithing. We taught her tithing and she said "you know I talked about tithing with my boss the other day and it is wierd that you would talk to me about it today. I think it is the Lord telling me I should pay it so I can be get those blessings!" She then asked if we could get her envelopes so she can pay her tithing and mail it to the branch president... WOW! Soo much faith I love it! I just about fell out of my seat. This lady is really struggling financially... Owes money to bad bad people in Mexico but has faith that if she pays her tithing the lord will take care of her... Impressive stuff!

We also found a family Agusto and Rosa. They were a reference from our family that we have in our area (the Sarmientos). We have taught them 3 times since last Monday and they are pretty cool. The are open with their concerns and doubts which is a very good thing because The Book of Mormon can answer every concern or doubt that someone can have!

oh yeah, you asked about my balance of fun and work... I would say I am pretty good. My companion said he has never had a companion that works this hard. And we laugh... You don’t have to be anoying to be a good, obedient missionary!

I have also determined after getting this last package that if everyone is going to be in Texas when we are all grownups... that is where I wanna live too! That was just my random (trunky) thoughts lately. I am not trunky at all but when your companion is going home it makes you think about home more! HATE THAT! Love my companion, but I am ready for someone who isn’t leaving in 2 weeks!

OK so in other news....

So we went to pay at Paisanos after district meeting(the Mexican restaurant the we frequently eat at) and there was this man behind us who had a kinda WILD EYE'd sort of look. He asked one of the Mexican elders in my district where he was from. He explained that he was from Mexico. and he went into a tyrant about how they need to lock down the borders (take into consideration that this is in a "Mexican Mexican" restaurant and noone crossed the border legally)... He then went to explain how terrorists could be crossing the borders now. He then explained how could find where Bin Laden was and that he could catch him. he said "I fought in Vietnam! I was in the Jungle... There was all sorts of animals! Elephants, tigers, snakes, panthers, pythons. It would be easy to walk through the desert!" He then said " the reward is 50 million for catching him. All I need is a Flight to Afghanistan, a horse, a fifty caliber and my dog. And I already have my dog, so all I need is a flight, a fifty caliber, and a horse. So how about that?! You want to fund me?! We will split the 50 Million 50/50!! I held my cool and did not jump at this "Sure Deal" Business venture that he was offering me... I asked him for his name (which was Koontz) and told him I would be contacting him if I had further interest (no really I did tell him that). We held it till we got outside of the restaurant and all of us had a good laugh! haha ...Gotta Love Hamilton!

So anyways, life is good!

I love you all and thanks for everything!
Love Elder Stiles

mi corazon es tuyo!

Life is good! We had a pretty good week with the exception of lots and lots of biking through the snow.... Yes people do bike in the snow... and when I say people I mean me and my companion. And yes you do fall, and yes you do laugh at your companion when he falls! So this week was pretty terrible weather but hey... it’s part of the experience right?! so it was a good week.

We had 3 amazing lessons with Laura and Louis and their family... They are the ones who are headed out to LA actually they are on their way right now! Soooo they will call us when they have an address and we will send the missionaries to see them there. I have never met people who just "understand" what we teach them like they do. They are such good people; I was bummed to see them leave.

In other news, a lady (Beverly Heath) who we found while on the bus and taught like 7 months ago (my first day with Calzadillas) is getting baptized! That is an exciting thing because I just had a feeling she was ready when we first met her! She is a great African American lady and her dad was a Methodist preacher. They missionaries finally met with her dad (something we had been trying to do) and taught him and he said she had his blessing in getting baptized... COOL HUH?! She has almost read the whole Book of Mormon.

We also had interviews this week. They went pretty good. President is a working on how to make us more effective teachers and tweaking things to make us explain things more clearly.

Soooo funny story of the week; we were have been teaching this guy named Miguel. He is from the Dominican Republic and came here to Ohio a couple months ago from the Bronx NY where he had lived for 8 years. Because he is Dominican he talks SUPER fast and does not pronounce his words very clearly. When my companion teaches Dominicans he tries to mimic their accent just for fun. It kinda makes me uncomfortable and at times I have to hold back laughter. Well, we had a reasonable lesson with Miguel and so I go to say the prayer. I ask that his family in the DR will have the chance to come here to the states because he told us how badly he wants them to be here. When I said that he shouted "Trabajo" (work). I had to fight back laughter to close the prayer and get out of there as quickly as I could... Me and my companion laughed way hard after we left....

Now for the best story of the day!!!! So Janeese and Brent so kindly sent me a package (thanks for that guys) and in the package were some little valentines treats. Included was a card that Janeese selected without the help of Brent. In the card She told me how she had no idea what it said but hoped it said something nice.... This is what the card said... Remember, this is from my sister-in-law Janeese "mi corazon es tuyo... y el resto de mi tambien! Feliz Dia Del Amor" ok, now here is the translation... "My heart is yours... and the rest of me also! Happy Day of Love" HAHAHAAHAH I laughed soo hard! That just made my week. She even one upped Kelly's Spanish greeting card that she sent me saying "Congratulations on your first communion. (She crossed out communion and wrote mission) You have worked so hard to memorize the prayers" or something to that effect! But anyways! Life is great! Working hard and having fun... Hopefully the weather will be better this week! I love you all!
Elder Scott Stiles

Coyotes!!

Life is really good! We have alot of great things happening and a couple kinda bummer things have happened this week. Sooo bad news first, Mario's family is not doing that good actually... We are not able to figure out if mario has a testimony or not... sooo kinda frustrating! Its a bummer cause His wife and kids are way cool and have interest, but are only going to follow him to church. And he works on Sunday and does not have much interest in changing anything! But we are actuall teaching several other families that look more promising.

Maria is doing Incredible though! this week she kinda opened up to us and told us her real concern. Its pretty simple, she has about $2000 in debts to coyotes from crossing the border and is afraid that if she doesnt pay them how she needs to they will mess with her elderly parents in Mexico... So that is tough, she is a way good lady, and she has felt the gospel touch her. She said she will be done paying her debts by the 1st of March and says she will be in church that first week in March, so, thats really tough, but at the same time it was good to know that she is working towards her goal of coming to church and ultimately getting baptized (she has received her answers to her prayers and wants it bad).

We also have Laura, and her husband Louis. They are incredible but they are going back to California next week. He left his job as a Leather worker for some designer in LA to come here and do sheet rock... Well he was hoping he would have a better life, but there is no work here so he is returning to LA. Sad stuff... People keep getting bad info that there is work here! Sooo he still has his Job in LA, he even had a letter of recomendation from the designer saying that he was always welcome to come back to work at "Marco Callo" design. But so yeah, that was way sad, he left his job that he loved, spent thousands to get here, and are returning back with nothing to show for it 4 mths later! But we had an incredible lesson on The Plan of happiness on Friday and they loved it! They like us and had us to their daughters birthday party on Wednesday. It was fun! We are going to forward their info to the LA mission because I think the reason they came here to Hamilton was to hear the Gospel! So overall it was a good week!

I do not really have any funny stories or anything, just a good solid week of work! I love you all and thanks for everything! ohh yeah, PS spanish is coming along pretty well! I do not even have to think to as much when I am talk now... Kinda nice!
Take Care I love you all,

Elder Stiles

CiCi's Pizza

Elder Stiles

Elder Sputje

Artistic Ice

Frozen Feet

View from our front porch

Cool story for the week!

Ok, so like 3 Mondays ago my companion and I went to Cici's Pizza (no big deal right)… There was a lady who worked there who was Hispanic. So we talked to her for a little bit, gave her a pass-along card with the church on it and asked her where she lived to see if we could come visit her sometime at her home. She seemed excited to see us so we were excited at the opportunity of teaching her. Through a thick accent she told us she lived on "Waldow" Street. We left lunch and we both had this feeling that we needed to talk to her! So we got back home and we looked for this Waldow Street. It was nowhere on the map and there was nothing that really sounded like it that was in the general vicinity that she described… But she told us she might come to church, so we hung onto hope that she would show up so we could get in contact with her. She did not show to church and we were a little disappointed. Then we realized there was no reason to be disappointed, it just meant we HAD to go to Cici's again! So we went back and talked to her again. She still did not remember her house number but she described her neighborhood and we had her spell out her street name. It turns out it was Walnut street. We knew exactly where the street was. She told us we could stop by on Sunday because that was when she was home, but could not fix an appointment because we still did not know if we could find the house. So last night we made it our goal to find The Cici's lady "Elida". We got out of our appointment at about 7 and realized we had about an hour to find her, and teach her. So we went to Walnut and kinda "speed tracted", then we got to a door and we saw a Large El Salvadorian flag in there. We were like "Jackpot" (she told us she was from El Salvador and there is VERY few people here who are from El Salvador). We knocked the door and a guy came to the door. He kinda blew us off but my companion just kept on fighting to keep on talking to the guy (a little extra loud so that if she was in the house she would hear). We knew this is where she lived so we wanted to give her the chance to come to the door. Finally after we had been denied in several attempts with the guy who answered the door, she came to the door. She immediately invited us in. We came in and taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Turns out, she had a baptismal date in El Salvador. She even remembered the date she was supposed to be baptized ( November 28th more then 5 years ago). We made a return appointment for Tuesday. WOW!

Not gonna lie, the cold made this week tough, not many people wanted to talk to us. BUT, it is those little moments when you realize your REALLY a tool in the lords hands that make it all worth it. We are doing great and working our tails off. I love this work. Its work, but its amazing. We are currently teaching 4 Families who REALLY have baptismal potential in this transfer or maybe next transfer. WOW!

I love my life,
Elder Scott Stiles

Looking for People to Teach in This Happy New Year!

OK, Not the most eventful week ever!
We are kinda outta area for finding Hispanics and since I am on a Spanish speaking mission, we are looking for people who speak spanish... So now we are going through middle class neighborhoods looking for houses that could possibly be Hispanics...(double pronged satellites, cars that have fake air intake "upgrades" that you buy at Wal-Mart, Virgin Guadalupe’s, anything that looks Hispanic) it has not been wildly successful or fun but you gotta do what you gotta do!

BUT we also found a couple new families this week who are really interested in learning more about the gospel and so that is good! Also, Mario the recent convert told us that this Wednesday his family is ready to talk to us, so we are planning on having a lesson with him, his wife, and their 6 kids! Pretty good stuff! New Years was not the most thrilling day of the year... It mostly just meant that everyone was hung over the morning after so no one answered the door the next day! haha But we also had some funny things happen this week!

So... before I tell you this story I need to describe someone... So there is a guy in our Branch named Pascual Diaz... He is Guatemalan, and does not really speak Spanish. He speaks more of a Dialect called Mum and basically no one speaks it except for in some VERY Rural areas of Guatemala. He is like 65 or 70 and EVERY single fast Sunday he gets up and says something slightly odd (wearing HUGE cowboy boots complete with Spurs). He ALWAYS talks about how he was in the Army, and how he was a Bishop in Guatamala. BUT anyways, this week for fast Sunday, during testimony meeting, he said how happy he is to be Pascual Diaz... Then he said how lucky his grandchildren are to have come from him.... Then he talked about how he hopes that one day EVERYONE can be a Diaz! hahah his ending quote was "For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Pascual Diaz, and if I leave, Pascual Diaz will not be here anymore, but you will have known Pascual Diaz..." hahaha The entire congregation was trying to keep from laughing! I was biting my tongue so hard. But I learned a valuable lesson, do not sit right in the center front rows on Fast Sunday when Pascual Diaz is in the house! haha

So, Overall things here are going GREAT Working hard, feeling The Spirit, and Having Fun! What more could you ask for! I love missionary work! Not anywhere in the world where I would rather be!

Love you all,
Take Care