Thanks for the Goodies!

Family,
Life is good, I haven’t received the translator yet so we have been using his to better communicate. He does not speak very much English... Other missionaries have told me that my Spanish is actually better than his English , so that is slightly disturbing?! I read the Patience section in preach my gospel EVERY... I mean EVERY day!!!!
I also have been implementing pieces of everyone’s advice for instance. I am giving over the top compliments to him (advice from Jared) which just makes him think he is the king of the world.... also I am serving him, I am doing the dishes always and making sure the house is clean (mom’s) praying a lot and trying to be insanely happy (dads) and sharing by giving him candy (Katelyn).

Saturday was seriously so, so bad missing Brent’s wedding day. We went back to the apartment at like 4 in the afternoon and I was really feeling down on things, that was until I got up to our apartment and saw 4 packages from Katie... Seriously made my day 10X better! And I was just thinking how bad it must stink for her not to be there as well! But I guess she made it, so my sympathy is all gone! anyways.....
Our investigators are doing good. I have started to work in real, real ghetto. It’s kinda fun. Apparently it is like the 2nd most ghetto neighborhood in the city. It’s crazy, at like 4 in the afternoon the streets are filled with people. We found one good person down there last week her name is Flossey May... That is not a typo for real the ladies name is Flossey. She is way old but we explained everything and she seemed to be receptive and we go back tonight!!! Not really much of a story just the story is that her name is Flossey!!!!!

Jeannie's baptism is this Saturday. Her mom went to church and did not feel very comfortable, but Jeannie is way excited and now looking at going to school at either BYU or BYU Idaho. So it’s fun to see that she wants to really be a lifelong member.
We have lost a couple investigators. My companion is …what some people call bold. So we lost some good investigators because he basically came in and told them they needed to be baptized or they would be damned.... SWEET! AND FALSE!!! I just figure he can do what he wants I will just not let him mess things up with Jeanie.

A super sad thing, last night one of our investigators told us that her husband has been beating her bad, and will not let her go to church. My companion had the guy come outside and told the guy not to do it or she would call the cops and all this stuff.... once again, bold!

We are also working on starting a Spanish group in this ward. We had 3 people in there all from one family that has been less active, so that is cool.

We are also starting to teach English classes... Which I guess means by default I will be teaching. So tomorrow I am gonna study his English text book and that will be good!

Mom thank you so much for your package especially those peanut butter things... sharing those things was my first act of love towards my companion... and an act of love it was... I don’t really know how you can get any more caring then that!!!! The pants are slightly big but that is fine, I just belt them up and there is a little bit of space but I think that I am a little smaller then a 33 pant in all reality. Dad, thank you for the money. That should definitely be enough to eat a little better and thinking about it I was/am not eating very much!!! I learned how to make refried beans so that is kinda nice.
Your CD's are GREAT!!! An ac adapter would work too. It is for a walkman style CD player. I would also like another copy of those CD's for the Apartment and if at some point in time could make a CD with "Army of Helaman" on it... I love the Song... Have ever since primary!!! Also I could use collar stays... I washed them all in the MTC except one set and I finally lost the last of them today... BUMMER!!!
I will be writing you a letter and including a memory card... Also, everyone that receives letters from me the letters will most likely be on VERY nice Greeting cards that were found on the dead man table it’s a table in our APT. where they put all the stuff from people who have been evicted/die....
Love you all,
Thanks for writing me and sending me presents.


Love
Elder Stiles

Teaching More in Spanish

July 21, 2008

Howdy,

Life is good And I am enjoying it alot more every week! My companion leaves next week "and transfers are next week" which is a bummer but it will be good to not have someone who is talking about home so much as my next companion! He is alot of fun, its just kinda a downer to be reminded constantly he gets to see his family in a week! But anyways things are going really well.

I had the opportunity to teach more in Spanish this week. I am trying to just open my mouth and talk and let them figure out what I am saying and it has helped my Spanish alot. So that is kinda fun. We have two people that are really progressing quickly. One is a Hispanic man named Humberto, way nice humble man, works in a factory, has a 21 year old son here who is a way good guy and this week he has started to read also. Humberto went to church and loved it and which is good because he has wanted to go to the last two weeks but our ward is not that good at actually showing up... So he sat outside his house in his church clothes two weeks in a row... so we found a guy in the Spanish branch that will help who is way cool and kinda solved that problem!!!

I am definitely starting to get more comfortable in dirty, dirty homes and eating whatever they offer in their less then sanitary homes. We don’t get meals basically ever but they often offer us whatever they have! I Don’t really know What I am eating these days. Like pasta-roni and quesadillas... Basically whatever is in the kitchen?

Our other investigator that is doing the best is Jeanie she is the 18 year old. Awkward as can be, but very nice. We were talking to her sister the other day when she left and her sister came in and told us that she has been saving the Quarters from California and Utah "the states of me and my companion" she also said.... OK Before you read this you must know that this is an exact quote... This has not been modified in any way for comedic value "Elder Stiles is so cute with his retainer"... CAN YOU SAY AWKWARD? I thought it was hilarious when the unwanted attention was on my companion but not now!!! I then thought about it... what she was saying were cute were 2 peices of plastic, with metal in them, then with placed in my mouth and encrusted with saliva.... HAHA Funniest Thing.

Love you all,

Elder Scott Stiles

PS I would not mind those peanutbutter things? and Denture cleaner for my Braces.
PSS a couple things I want from Brent's wedding are:
A video recording of Kevin's Toast,
Pictures of the whole family,

Missionary "Beat Box"

This is the typical house in our area.

Hi Everyone,
I got my package and I loved it. Thanks for everything I really do appreciate it! I am sorry if I am a crummy letter writer to most people. it is mostly cause our p-day only really goes from 11:00-6:00 and we have to do laundry, shop, clean up, wash the car and try to do something fun!

Life is going awesome!!!!! We did exchanges twice and I really realized how much harder my companion works than others so that was good!

Yesterday we were on exchanges and we went and saw this Kieth kid. His grandpa was a Seventy and his mom has not been to church in ten years. Kieth has not been super interested but he reallly likes us, so he has let us come by. Last night we came over and talked to him then his mom came in the rooom and I offered for her to come listen to the lesson. She said no but came into the room. We talked for a little about the church and how she had been offended. We talked about that for a while, then I changed the conversation topic and we just talked... then she went back to church topics. She turned to her son and said "Kieth I have tried to find every other church thinking there was something out there that is true. And this church has all the answers. "Then she looked at me and said "what time is church this week?" I just about jumped out of my seat. Apparently missionaries have been trying for years and she wouldn't talk to them. It was the first time I felt Like I talked to someone who I was really supposed to talk to... Pretty darn cool!!

We took one of our investigators (Jeanie) to the ward talent show. She brought her younger brother (Michael) and he wanted to get up and do the robot. so we arranged it on the spot and we had another missionary beat box... SWEET. He was way excited about it. He is a funny little guy.

Thanks for everything, I love you ALL

Elder Scott Stiles

PS My companion and I are the only people in our apt but we have 8 missionaries in our ward.

PSS We have transfers on the 28th and I have no idea if I am staying or going so could you put the mission home address on the blog cause it will take a long time to catch up to me if I get moved... oh yeah, I have the same companion. We are getting along very well.

Boys will be Boys

Hello Family,

How is your life. Life here is good. I am getting used to it and liking it more and more. I have mostly found that I need to be more patient, because I am not very patient and my companion is more laid back than anyone I have ever met!! So that has helped me out alot because I needed it right off the bat. It is very tiring to be out here but at the same time, I am really enjoying it.

Our baptism was pretty darn sweet yesterday.

Funny Story: We went to this lady's house. Right as we walked in, she gave us Chicharones, deep fried pig skin that takes on the texture of Funyons after it is fried. They are pretty gross, but I was trying to be polite. My companion proceeded to put his on my plate when she turned around! No Good! I ate them all and was pretty proud of myself but could feel the grease in my stomach.

Then she took another bag of chicharon and dumped the whole bag into boiling water, with a bunch of spicy stuff on top of it. Miraculously, the chicharon took back it's flesh like element and became chewy, slimy and hard to cut. It was once again pig skin! I tried to cover it up by putting it into little tacos with beans and cornmeal, but every bite I could not bite into the pigskin. I didn't want to have to chew it!

Finally, about half way through, I started thinking that I was eating spicy, slimy, chewy, pigskin. The texture and spicyness were the worst parts!

My companion said it was the grossest thing he ate while he was here and that included eating liver, brain and heart soup where he saw the arteries in the heart! So, I started gagging about 2/3 way through. It came up in my mouth, but I didn't want to be rude and throw up this poor ladies food, so I re-swallowed it!!!

Apparently it was funny looking because the kids started laughing and she said "oh it must be too spicy for you" "I am sorry", she spoke in spanish, but that is how I understood it. I said yes, it was a little spicy, and i thought I would never have to come in contact with that wretched stuff again!

But, three days later, when we went back to her house, she made it for us again. But she only scooped a little onto my plate, and I cut it up better than before, and smothered it in beans. Still bad, just not quite as bad! I know it is not super exotic or anything, just more gross than anything.

Well, got to go now, thanks for everything.

Love Elder Scott Stiles

Checking out Cincinnati

Hey Family,

Life is pretty good! We had a baptism yesterday which was sweet. the Kids name was Michael Reuter. He is 18 and way cool. It was great.

I am doing alot better. I realized that I just need to relax some cause I was getting way to pumped up over everything.

Today is our P- (preparation) day, so we went to Skyline Chili and Graeders ice cream. Tell Jennie Smith cause she was wondering, that Graeders was way good and Skyline was incredibly average. I had the chili with spaghetti noodles and it was just way greasy and not very impressive, but it is a Cininnati staple so I had to go there at least once right?

We went down town today and had a good time we walked around and went to the top of the Crew building. Its like 49 stories we took pictures and it was pretty cool. Its a pretty cool downtown... its a bummer the rest of the city is not half... nay... a quarter as nice as downtown is! But anyways, life is good.

Funny Story:
So we were short on miles for our car we have a limit of 1175 per month, so we decided to bike on thursday. We planned to surprise some of the other elders that are in our ward that live like 5 miles away and sleep over at their house. I was excited and thought it would be fun... It is a pretty hilly area so it was alot of work but it was kinda a nice change of pace. When we left it was sunny probably 92 with 75% humiditity. So we rode to our appointments. On our last appointment of the day, We had been there like 45 minutes it started pouring.... like Texas pouring! We changed into our sleeping clothes "gym shorts and t-shirts" and headed to the other elders condo. (I call all apartments condos no matter how nasty they are... it sounds more luxurious) We got to their apartments just after nine and they were not there so we called and they did not answer. We assumed they were running late and just in the rain so we just went to the taco bell and waited to see them ride by. While we were there, a black man told us that all white people had leprosy, and finally at like 9:30 after they had not answered we went back to there condo! STILL NOT THERE! Just then they called us back. They were staying somewhere else for the night!!! Luckily the ride home was mostly downhill but it was POURING and we just blasted down these huge hills and when we got home we were absolutely drenched. It was kinda fun, but I dont have any interest in doing it again... at night its kinda intense!

Other news;

My companion had told me he was going home in December, but it turns out that he is going home after this transfer. Kinda funny, I did not know until he was doing a farewell talk for zone conference!

Because my comp. is going home soon, this one member is taking us to Boi Na Braza on the 4th of July!!! sweet huh?

Thanks for everything I love you all!

Elder Stiles

more photos

This is Kelley Pike, a family friend, she was on her way to Samara, Russia



















This is my apartment complex
in Cincinatti.






This is my room

Some Photos