Happy New Year!

Had a good week! Not much to report on... Christmas is not the most exciting thing ever to happen on the mission... The phone call home just kinda makes you homesick!!! Next time we should do it conference style and plan it out better so the WHOLE family can kinda be together!!!! haha Things here are great! We found some new people last week that are very nice and seem very interested... Not the most eventful week...

But I will tell you all about my christmas. OK for Christmas Eve we went to an investigators house of the other missionaries in our ward for Christmas Eve Dinner. (are area is lower income and people cannot really afford to feed us). So we get there and we sit down on the couch... I have been battling sickness for a while so I took medicine that made me tired... We are sitting there on the couch and I fall asleep aparently... And so about a half hour I wake up with an old lady asking me "Oiga Tiene Sueno?" (translated to "Listen do you have dreams/are you tired?) haha I was so confused... I was in some house I had never been before with some old lady I had never met before waking me up... The other missionaries laughed pretty hard at that.

So on Christmas day we went to the Maya's house and did phone calls. They are a family in our ward who have the cutest kids ever. They came here and have REALLY worked hard and have succeeded and are basically the example of the American Dream. (they live in the other missionaries area as well). Well anyways did the phone call and the told us how this year they were not giving presents to there kids, but instead their kids were picking out toys and giving them to people in the ward who would not get anything for christmas... Apparently the Maya's Gave Christmas to 11 families!!! Including Wal-Mart gift cards for the parents. SOOO COOOL!!!

So did the phone call and it was a pretty depressing day haha then we went back to the Maya's for dinner... Nothing was really that exceptional until at like 8 PM the littlist Maya girl (about 6 years old) sang to us "on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me" we finnished the second part of that song and went on to sing christmas carrols to all the little Kids for like 45 Minutes with all of them singing along with us... (the Maya's extended family was there so there were like 7 or 8 kids...) It was so fun, and really saved Christmas...

Sometimes the little things are the things that we appreciate the most! Sooo after that it was a GREAT Christmas and everything was GRAND!!! So it was good to talk to you guys on the phone, thanks everyone who sent Christmas Cards and presents! It was all GREATLY appreciated! I love you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love Elder Stiles
PS I AM SOOOO HAPPY THE CALENDER IS GETTING DONE!!! CANT WAIT TO GET IT!

Seriously Now...

Seriously Now…
How’s it going everyone? Things are going well here! Mostly just working hard and having fun. Ok, this letter might be a little different than most... It kind of has a different tone.

I got a new companion about 2 weeks ago his name is Elder Spjute. I think it is safe to say Elder Spjute has had the hardest mission of anyone I have ever met or ever will meet. He left on his mission Feb 07 and so is almost done with his mission. Elder Spjute is known in the mission as being super obedient, and super hard working but pretty quiet until you break his shell.

Well, in May of last year he had something terrible happen. His older sister who was serving a mission in England was on a morning jog and went into cardiac arrest. She passed away almost immediately. The mission president delivered the news to him a few hours later in a personal visit. He was given the option to go home at this point in time, to be with his family. When president asked him about that he said "No" without even considering going home. He called and talked to his parents and they were supportive of his decision. He recovered from this pretty well; he basically lost himself in the work and kept on moving forward (with lots of prayer).

Everything was going pretty well until about 4 weeks ago. He received a phone call from his Dad. His Dad explained that his Mom has terminal Cancer. He once again talked with the mission president and was given the choice to go home to be with his family for the Holidays. His Dad's only council was to not make a decision based on emotions. So he prayed and he decided to stay. The sacrifice that he is making is amazing. I do not think I have ever met a stronger more faithful person. He signed up to serve the Lord with all of his heart and that is what he is doing. It is a SACRIFICE, but it is something he knows is right.

I think it is kind of an interesting story at this time of the year. We always associate Christmas with family time, presents and good dinners. BUT there is actually something much much larger than those at this time of the year. Sacrifice, Jesus, made the sacrifice for us, if we remember that the wise men brought Jesus gifts, it was not that this little baby Jesus wanted any presents or could do anything with them, but it was a display of the sacrifice they were making for Christ.

So my invitation to all of you is to sacrifice something this Christmas. Do something you wouldn’t usually do for someone else... Give of yourself. Do something Hard! And you will find there is a different holiday spirit. I would also ask that everybody say a little Prayer for the Spjute family. They need all of the prayers they can get at this time. I love you all and I am proud to be a servant of The Lord.
Love,
Elder Stiles

Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Card Photos

Getting ready for the retelling of the Thanksgiving story!


Tin Foil Dinosaurs (I am guessing after Halloween and the chipotle
promotion-wrap yourself as a a burrito and get a free burrito) How to entertain yourself with leftover foil...

"Jockos World Famous Fried Chicken"

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! It is almost Christmas... actually, I believe it is winter solstice today if I am not mistaken... So exciting huh! Who needs to celebrate Christmas when you can celebrate winter solstice? Just playing....

So life here in Hamilton Ohio is just dandy! Had a good pre-Christmas week! We have been talking a lot with our investigators about trying to figure out what they want... If they want to progress in the gospel, or if they just want. Had a good lesson with Maria in which my companion really just asked her what she wanted and how she was going to go about achieving that. She is a way good lady, just has trouble with taking another step of faith to go to church (she works on Sunday and doesn’t think she can find another job). So we are working with her to resolve those concerns...
My Spanish is coming along nicely... My companion corrects my pronunciation ruthlessly so I am actually learning how to say the words! It’s a good feeling; I have gotten several complements lately with my accent which makes me happy!

In fact I spoke in church yesterday; it was like 40X better then my last talk in the Branch. I spoke for 10 minutes about Samuel the Laminate and how he foretold the the Saviors Birth to the people here in the American continent before Christ was born in Bethlehem(3rd Nephi 1). I figured everyone has heard the story of Christ's birth in Luke, so I might focus on a little different perspective. So I spoke about Christmas and only used the accounts of his birth from the Book of Mormon. It is all there. Prophets foretold Christ would come to save the people from their sins. A sign was given- Samuel said that, there would be a day and a night and a day of light, and that is what happened. The Book of Mormon really is another testament of Christ. President Robbins (our mission president) came to our sacrament meeting because my companion was singing. He did a solo of The First Noel. He did way good! The kid can sing! It was overall a success!

Also, we had our Branch Christmas party on Saturday with tons of people there (130+). It was really good! But... Something very annoying... The party should have started at 5 o'clock. But it started at 6:50. Yes almost two hours late!!! So I did a little equation... I figured out that Spanish speaking branches are probably the most non-punctual groups of people in the world... This is my equation:

Hispanic Time- 60 Min. Late

Mormon Time - 30 Min.

Late Lack of Organization- +20 Min. Late

Time when we start - = 1 Hour and 50 Min.

That is the perfect storm of lateness!!!

Ok... To another topic. I must first start out by saying this to my dear sister Emily King... You were right, and I was wrong! Before I got here to Cincinnati some people had told me it would not be cold... So I believed them. My sister Emily told me that it was going to be crazy cold... So here on this Blog (I am assuming my mom will post this on there) I will admit before the whole world that my sister was right, and I was absolutely wrong... I realized she was right when my overcoat was literally frozen!!! FROZEN!!! There was no condensation of any kind but my Jacket turned into a large black piece of ice... It was a learning experience because I did not know that solid, in adamant objects could freeze again! Also... It was windy yesterday and we were riding against a really strong wind and my eyes started to water.... Then the tear on my cheek began to FREEZE!!!! I had to clear it off before it could!
Also... when I don’t breathe out of my nose I can feel my nostrils freezing ... NO JOKE!
Also... My scarf, I kind of put it over my mouth and nose like some Arabian Horseman (Mormon missionary on a bike version) but the moisture began to freeze so I just had my face frozen in my own saliva ice...

Also... My pen ink froze... No Joke I had to open it up and rub it between my hands to get it to functioning temperature. It was like 17 degrees yesterday but apparently with humidity and wind-chill they were saying it was below zer0 (it is what I heard it has not been verified as truth)! It’s cold, but it’s actually not that that bad (I just like to think of the Russian missionaries who are way colder!). It mostly just makes me laugh and kinda yelp when the wind hits us... Listening to my yelps is one of my Companions favorite things... I am pretty well set for the cold... Just lots and lots of layers and a good attitude and it is not bad! Just making mission memories!
Sooo basically everything is grrand! Loving life, getting ready for the Christmas Call!
Good Stuff!
Well I love Mission Life! Everything is good!
Merry Christmas everyone and I love you!!!
Love Elder Stiles

20!?

20?! huh? wait... I am a missionary? It feels like I should be about nine... maybe ten?! Crazy huh? So anyways, life is good!

I got this new companion Elder Spjute (the J is silent). He is way cool, he works his tail off! I am actually really enjoying it, he is known for being one of the hardest workers, He only has 2 transfers left (goes home in Febuary). He is way good at spanish and we speak it all day every day! I can really communicate and teach, I just dont know all of the words, but that comes with speaking the language. Its overall good stuff.

So this week the snow started.... No Bueno. It is kinda fun to ride bikes on it and everything, It just is not as fun to have it cold... We did not have any super crazy stories this week. I really like teaching with Elder Spjute. He is more serious then Elder Draper when we are teaching but it is nice cause he has no problem being straight forward with people.... I love it.

I also received a christmas card from Bill Price this week "That is Neat" (said in the voice from the Dean of Admissions in the movie Orange County). He signed it saying "to My son, from Bill Price President of the United States of America". then dated it (all of Bill Price's Writings are dated to be archived for his Library that will be in his name for being President). moms note: Bill Price is the crazy guy who lives near the elders and they are friendly towards him.

We also found service this week we think. We are probably going to do it at the Prison! Sweet! translating and being part of a programm where they get church people to help out convicts. It will be sweet! I am not going to lie it will be fun if we can do it!

Love you all,

Mom thanks for having me!
Elder Stiles

The Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Elder Stiles!
20 years old!

"Life Flies!"

Woah,

Life flies! This is my last letter as a teenager! I am staying in Hamilton!!!! I am 95% happy with this decision and the only reason I am not 100% is because it is winter... But I am acclimating nicely.

I got a new companion today. His Name is Elder Spjute, from Bountiful Utah. Cool guy, Way good in Spanish so he should teach me. Me and Elder Draper got along too well at times and spoke too much English. But I hear that Spjute is pretty insistent on speaking Spanish so he will force me to learn it! Good Stuff!! Spanish is coming along, I can communicate I just have problems at times. This week was not super eventful...

Thanksgiving was Swell! Pretty funny actually! Hispanics do not really celebrate it but we have a party at the branch... sooo on Monday night the Branch President asked (only the white Elders) to do a special presentation to explain how Thanksgiving came to be.... SOOOO my first thought was "wait... Didn’t I do this in 1st grade in Miss Richie's class?" The answer to that question was yes! I remembered that the Indians (Native Americans for those of you who are politically correct) used brown paper bags as chest plates for their clothing... And the Pilgrims made paper hats and wore them to the feast! Soooooo there are three of us who are white in our branch (the other three are Hispanic) so we had one pilgrim and one Indian, But what could the third person be??? My companion and I made him a beak and a gobbler and he was a turkey... (Hispanics call it El Dia de Pavo/Turkey so we needed to associate the turkey somehow).

So The turkey told the story as we acted it out in our costumes.... Now, I assumed this would be funny and the branch members would think it was kinda fun... The time came to do it and we all faced the realization that they were NOT going to laugh and it would probably be incredibly awkward.... We proceeded with the presentation and only the sweet branch president’s wife laughed (and the kids). They all kinda gave us a baffled confused look! The few people who were American or had more familiarization with the holiday laughed but overall it was a disaster! The Grand Finale was my companion (Elder Draper) singing a solo of "Count Your Many Blessings" on the Table as we pretended to eat him (he being the turkey). WOW!!!! HAHAHA!!

In other news everything is going very good, Maria is doing amazing! We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Friday and explained everything. She smokes and drinks tons of coffee so we were a little bit concerned. When we asked her how she felt about it she responded that she loved it and said that it makes sense that we should take care of our bodies. She said she always thought that there was more things that she should and shouldn’t be doing then she had learned before and said (translated) "It says that the past is straight and narrow so she was happy to learn more." She is incredible!!! Maricella has started to ignore us a little bit which is not good but she will come back around!

In other news I actually finished a full journal! Have not missed a day since June! Not bad huh? I figure it will be good to have to remember my whole mission in later years! SOOOO overall things are doing well!! I love you all and am excited to talk to you on Christmas!

Love Elder Stiles

Scott Has The Same Address!

Scott Did not get Transferred, so he has the same address as previously listed!
He will be here at least 'till after the New Year.

Elder Scott Stiles
312 N 2nd St Apt A
Hamilton, Oh 45011