6 months!

Hi!
Good Week! I got sick with that stomach bug so it limited our time but nevertheless it was good!

I felt the gift of tongues VERY strong as I made a more concerted effort to only speak Spanish. It was GREAT! We spoke almost pure spanish throughout the week. A good feeling!Cool Story from Last Night; all of our appointments fell through and we did not know where to tract. We were starting to get a little frustrated because all of our appointments fell through, so my companion and I decided to go to an area where we had spent very little time. We went over there and knocked a couple doors without talking to anyone when we came to a house that was turned into an apartment. It was dark in the stairwell and we were both kinda hesitant to go in but we did. We got in and we knocked the first door with no answer. We knocked the second door and a guy named Jeff answered. He told us about his life and how he was very open to looking at other religions because he had been rather dissatisfied with his church experiences in the past. He was excited to talk to us and we explained our church services and how they work. He was excited and very happy when we made a return appointment for Wednesday. It was a really great thing to see how excited he was. He has had a hard life because he got water on the Brain when he was beaten by his birth mom at 6 months. He said he thinks like a normal person just lacks some of the motor skills and gets horrible head aches. He is a guy that will let the gospel change his life. Way way cool! And it was great to see how your whole week/night can change in like 20 minutes! COOL!

We actually have not had that many people yell super witty stuff at us out their car windows (Dissappointment covers my face) but I have learned one thing! If you want free Beer, wear a white shirt and tie and go into somewhat rougher neighborhoods on a Sunday afternoon! Because not gonna lie, EVERYONE offers us beer! It is actually kinda funny cause we had someone yell out the car "Want some WEED?". He drove by but did not even wait for a response! I love how people ask questions they know the answer to.

The hispanics are starting to really head out of this area, the Sherriff has made it his goal to get rid of all of the illegals, soooo he deports them... Like all of them. They pull over hispanics that are driving and call it an insurance check. They usually all have insurance they just lack proper ID. "most even have international licenses". Soo that is a bummer and it makes getting people to go to church more difficult. We have had 1 of our investigators deported on Friday. His family is still here in their house but he is in the county prison. They put them in the prison and hold them there until the county or state or whatever pays to fly a whole jet all the way down to Mexico City to drop them off... Most of the people that are deported come back here within a week because they have family here but some are starting to stay!

Yesterday was cool, we did Fast and Testimony meeting (because the Branch forgot to do it the week before conference). I decided to go up and bear my testimony and try out my Spanish (especially cause I am speaking in church next week). I went up and not gonna lie, its a whole whole lot more nerve racking to try to do that sort of thing in another language, so I went up, and did it! It felt easy and when I came back and sat down my companion said "you just spoke perfect Spanish". I was like sweet! I knew it was either coming out really good and the Gift of Tongues was helping me or it was a train wreck and I looked like a blathering idiot. All of the other missionaries in our ward (six of us) came and told me how that was the best they had ever heard me speak... unfortunately, the other people in the branch now think that is how I speak, so they tried to go extra in depth with conversation with me... BAD CALL! haha

But yeah things are going really well! mostly just working hard and having fun. I love missionary work!

That is FANTASTIC that the first people that Dad talked to signed up to invest! I would think there would be some follow the pack investments that will make getting the other 700K a little easier! EXCITING!!!! I pray for everything to work out with the business everynight.

Letters in General have come to a screaching halt! Whats up with that? Good to hear Brent's surgery went well and it looks like he can finally go on with his life as a normal 22 year old... Wait false... Brent can go on with his life as a 22 year old... ;) I am way happy to hear that it all went very well.

I have been out 6 months on thursday, put that on the blog-That is a milestone!

I love you all, Life is great. I love you guys!

Elder Stiles

Working on My Spanish

Hi Everyone,

Laur Really stepped up the competion when it comes to getting packages of GOODIES! SO much way, way good Food! Dont worry I shared(not too begrudgingly). Thanks for the letter and the photos. Big shout out of Thanks to Laur.

Life is good! It is Suit Coat Season!!! Suits all the time till next conference, so I guess we are looking extra cool on our bikes! It will help us stay warm. It is going to be COLD here.

We actually are starting to see some forward progress from investigators which is sweet! one of our investigators, Belen fasted this week with us to receive and answer to her prayers. It was cool cause the missionaries have been teaching her for like 3 years and has never done anything like that! It's kinda sad because she really does not like me at all... She loves my companion but doesn't like that I do not speak Spanish very well. Spanish has been frustrating me lately, I am coming up on my 6 month mark on the 16th and really do not feel like I have a good grasp on the language... BUMMER! I am working for it, it will come. I can communicate, I am just grammatically disabled so I get funny looks alot.

Conference was great! I watched the Priesthood Session and Sunday Afternoon session in English and the rest was in Spanish... MAN DO THOSE TRANSLATORS TALK FAST!!! but overall life is Good! I am excited for the work here. My companion got way, way sick this week. He is a Diabetic (like Wilford Brimley) and he got the flu, was vomiting profusely and could not keep anything down. It was rather reminiscent of the night at the Domingo’s right after my farewell in CA. But the difference is that he will die if his sugar got low. So we were up all night on Thursday and trying to do what we could to keep his sugar up. We called the ambulance cause he dropped from 140 to 56 in about 25 minutes. So that was a pretty sacry, miserable night. I am not gonna lie it was pretty miserable for him. He later said that I am going to be a good husband because I touched his vomit (dumping out his vomit and switching buckets) and he was just a companion on the mission. HAHA I agreed... It was disgusting.

OK So this happened a couple weeks ago but I did not have time to write about it last week...
I, Scott Stiles have hit Rock Bottom... I think that any hope I ever had at being a moderately successfully human being is now gone... and do you want to know why? Because, I Scott Stiles was FIRED from the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen... Yes, I was FIRED from Volunteering to serve food to people for 6 hours a week while receiving no monetary compensation! WOW!!! It was actually probably the funniest thing ever. The Major "their religious leader and great military mind" came downstairs from his perch in the office and told my companion and I that they had enough volunteers and they were getting more so "you don’t need to come around here anymore" OUCH!!! haha I was mopping the floor at this point in time and just kinda looked at my companion in dismay. After salutes and receiving awards for our bravery in "Salvation's Army "(sarcasm) I asked my companion "Did we just get fired from the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen". Man he did not even say if we were honorably discharged!! I love missionary work and everything we are doing.
Love you all!
Elder Stiles