mission blog

Sister Matsumori did a new blog & you will see Elder Stoor's serious, smiling, and eating face a few times - check it out:

http://teachallnations5014.blogspot.com/2012/04/washington-south-and-silver-spring.html

Transfers haha, When you have a good companion they kinda suck but i am used to saying goodbye now haha. Elder Schaap was really fun to be with and he taught me a whole lot. He helped me along my way of finding myself. That is prolly the biggest thing i have done for me is to find out who i really am. There are things that i don't like and it is tough to change but i got two years to perfect the things i want for my life. I cannot believe that i have been out for like 5 months haha It has gone by fast, but i got a freaking long time left. 
It is weird to be around all these dying missionaries and i know a little bit of what Elder Banks is thinking about. Not totally but i have the feeling. He will be a good man and i know that serving a mission is one of the best decisions of his life because it is for mine. 
There is one bullet for all you guy's (sorry i didn't leave a note on them) but they are my Anacostia shells. I have a bigger one and thought i didn't want to pack them all around so i give them to you so you can remember me. The white shirts just for after cause i won't be wearing long sleeves and i have not worn my hat and won't but i want it for afterwards cause it is a good hat. And those mitten gloves yeah enough said mom those can be your's haha. I didn't know if you would like the leather one's as well but i just had a pair and i think fawcett left the other brand new one's in the apartment and thought i would use them but i only use the little one that i have. Gloves just get in the way as always and you can never grab the little things so i don't want them haha. 
Enjoy the pics and i thought that sign would keep the guy's off of your computer at work haha. 
The Ranger looks super fun and i am glad you were able to go. Enjoy the mountains, and the opportunity you have to go haha. It is weird but i miss the mountains more than anything. Can't tell which way is north have to go by the roads, city life just isn't for me. People just don't have common sense here on the east coast when it comes to traffic. and other things. 
Elder Bednar should be fun to meet. He will prolly come and rebuke us on everything we are doing wrong haha. It is weird but the problems in this mission are super not a problem in other missions. We hear some things going on that we would not even think of doing haha. Just as a member said and it is the biggest advice i have had is to Love the Gospel and be yourself. Thats it. Members will love you, and other people as well and that is the biggest thing on missionary work is what others think of you. If they trust you and you open up to them, success will happen. I try to be as obedient as i can and just trying to find out who i am  (coming to that realization) then just talking with people about everything. 
So i guess i can tell you who my new companion is haha Elder Goodman is his name and he is my long lost brother. Fawcett trained us both so in the mission we are brothers.  He will be fun and so far he seems like we will have a good time and get alot done. He has a reputation for being a hard worker and a good missionary so that is something i like in a companion. Hopefully we will get alot done cause the field here in College Park is white and i have a feeling we are close to something happening haha Somethings got to give. 
Not much new to tell ya about tho. I don't know if i told you about Brian Jones but he is a less-active and he is super funny. The reason he is not coming to church is honest. Cause he is lazy haha he told us that and we have been texting him everyday with something to read in the scriptures and to be a reminder for him to read and pray. He sent us a text that might explain a little bit. After we told him to read Alma 32 he texted us and said" i read the first five verses and can already tell this is going to be good" haha Super funny cause it took him like a week and a half to read that chapter lol. hopefully he will start coming to church and turn his life around. He has the desire and intention to do it so hopefully we can help him. 
i hope i get some pics of the bonfire as well hint hint haha Looks like you all had fun up in the mountains wish i could've been there for that but i am here haha where i am supposed to be which i like, hopefully i don't sound like i complain alot cause it is hard but i don't want to lie. Thanks for the support and everything. P-day is my favorite day cause i get to e-mail. This is all i really care about doing on p-day i just want to e-mail. Love you all and i will talk to ya'all on like mother's day. That is this transfer...crazy. Maybe we can bend the rules and skype ;] i dunno haha Hopefully this week will be good i am excited! 
Love Elder Stoor

College Park Zone

Hi Sorry guys might be short

I can't believe you got a Ranger and didn't send me a picture what the crap haha thanks for the hard drive mom i haven't got it yet but hopefully here in a little bit.
So, this week we got a member thing going haha i have heard my whole mission that member work is the way to go, Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep haha so me and Elder Schaap got to thinkin and decided maybe we should go see them haha. So he and is mechanical engineer self made a graph that will keep track of when members are available and we are pretty much telling the members we are going to be checking on them. We are not going to be like on our knees for refferals or anything like that but if you give us some we won't complain. We hope to just get to know them and help them with life. The Firth's are super awesome. Everytime we go over there the conversation back in the car..."Man i wanna be like Bro Firth he is the man...Yeah and if my wife is that cool and hot i will be the happiest man on earth haha. Pretty much they are the coolest family ever. Kids are super cool, have two and Bro Firth is stacked and super just awesome can't explain other than that and they told us to come over as much as we liked which is what we like.
The family is pretty much gone. Osceola. Seen them and said he has a job and didn't seem like they wanted us to come over anymore and it is all because of gospel principles and exaltation. It is super hard to see how much they had felt the spirit and then see this happen. But such is life. I think the other family will hopefully start taking lessons.
This week we were knocking doors and had a good experience with two on this street and they were not home. I had a feeling we should go knock on a door before when we were checking on the others so i told Elder Schaap and we went over there. The lady is named AnaLisa and she just moved in and was meeting with missionaries in New Jersey. kinda cool experiences on listening to promptings.
Dad that would be sweet if you bought the Dozer haha You need it..just saying Who owns a Dozer??? haha
congrats on graduating from institute and you know you will get the job cause all the guy's are in love with you haha
I do have to say that Elder Schaap is my favorite companion. he is super fun and i am not sick of him yet but the odds are by next week i will have another companion. Dang transfers snuck up on me. Letter is short because of Death Temple and Death Ball. Cannot believe it is already this time. Freak
I have learned a ton again this transfer and hopefully i will continue to improve. I am out of money on my blue card again cause i bought this expensive notebook that i can have all my Study/note stuff in. It is super cool and i just love having it in one spot instead of in two or three different notebooks. By the end of my mission it should be a really awesome book to look at. I am going to start memorizing scriptures so i hope to have quiet a few in my head ready to pull out on people. I have wanted too for a while and i have been feeling like i should so now i am going to do it. I am going to have this other notebook with scriptures in it so i can have it with me and study in the car when it is quiet or when we are going to appointment to appointment or when i just have the time haha
Does tin foil kill mice. Let me know cause i might try it haha we have a ton in our apartment. If you pay attention you can see them every so often. We have been setting up traps and stuff but they keep pooping all over the place. annoying, and i have had bed bugs. Freak i thought that was a fairy tale. Just love waking up to mosquito bites in the morning all over my arm. Killed quiet a few and will prolly get the place bombed! That'll teach em
I think tho that missionary work is the hardest thing i have done in my life. I know that you know i mostly don't like to play mental games with people and it seems like that is alot of what missionary work is. It has really strengthened my testimony and i know it is because i use it so much. Alot of how i deal with things is i testify of things and they study and pray and get a right answer. It is all on them and it is hard to watch people not make the right decision. One guy texted us after telling us he was lazy that he was too sleepy to come to church. Things like that just kinda frustrate ya a little bit. Then you just remember why you are here then go back to work.
I prolly need to get going so i love you guys and thanks for the e-mails sounds like life is going good back at home. It is weird when i think about home cause it is going to be so different when i come back, that usually lets me get back to focus on what i need to be doing. i love you guy's and i know that i am learning and growing and becoming who i want to be. I love this gospel and sometimes i know we take it for granted. Remember Hallstrom's words from conference "You can be active in the church, but be less-active in the gospel." The gospel is the way to happness and we all need to be active in the gospel. Being active in the church helps us with that. I hope that everything stays good for you guy's back at home. TTYL
Love Elder Stoor

Hi people

Hello Everyone,

This week/transfer just keeps on going fast. I can't believe how fast it goes by. Today we had Zone Activity and it was fun. We went to a park with another Zone and played games and cooked burgers and hot dogs and just played basketball. It was pretty fun. I am super tired. It is also fun to play basketball against Elder Gleed i like him alot. Neither of us remember Sizzler very well but i do remember what he looked like. Super weird.

Good Luck Colton on your mission farewell or whatever ya call it nowdays, and  when ya get out of the MTC we might have to start to write each other. I need to sit down and write Zach and Shawn too i have not done that yet. I am the worst at writing letters haha

I got the package and i don't think anyone has ever seen a letter on a shoebox before so A+ for you. Thanks for the shirts they will be much nicer.

Shelb i didn't forget about ya cause i have your present in a box along with megan's and mom's and along with four white long sleeve shirts to maybe have ya save for after my mission. I am sending them home cause i will never wear them. I dunno if it was just this year but it just doesn't get cold out here but i have a feeling it will get hot. The weather has been about perfect everyday so far. It is hot to wear a suit coat in the sun but hopefully by the next e-mail i won't have to wear them anymore. Pres. Told us in Zone Conferance yesturday that there are General Authorities in the area and he wants our suit coats on. Those guys just need to leave haha

The area this week has been better than the last few days. We realize that alot does happen in a day because it seemed normal for one of us in the area, did a little exchange yesturday, but alot actually happened that i had to fill Elder Schaap on so maybe it is not as bad as i have been telling you. We did a fast and doing that actually works haha believe it or not. Ever since then we have been starting to have a little more doors open people telling us they want to meet with us and just little things like that that keep ya going. so i am just grateful to be here.

I have decided to take things a little selfish to help me out. I have looked at what i have learned and tried to apply it. I have decided that i am here to learn for myself, grow my testimony, prepare for eternity, and to just become a better latter-day saint. We all look back on life and wish we would have changed some things and i wish i just would have been a better example than i was in high school. I just now look to the future and hope that i can become a good example and people can look at me and know that i believe in Christ and know it from my actions. The talk "Man of Christ" is really good and i learn alot from it every day. It is confusing at first but i think that is what my ultimate goal is, to be a man of Christ.

Easter was good. not like the others so it doesn't feel like Easter but what do ya do haha. I still don't feel like i have had christmas yet haha. It just don't seem like it was but that is a good thing and i know i am growing tons out here and i hope to never stop growing the rest of my life.

Okay i will just go buy it myself but i just want a hard drive to put all my crap on. Like the one you have mom for putting your pictures on. I will go get it tho, although it might be cheaper if you get it and just have it shipped to me online. let me know next week.

i have not been to the Holocaust yet but i plan on it shelb. I here it makes you feel the opposite of the temple if that makes any sense haha I will prolly go a couple of times on my mission tho. I enjoy going down to the mall and might go again in a couple of weeks (be jealous)

that family dad, well trying to get back in with them. Seen them with an Easter Basket and they are just worrying cause he doesn't have a job and told us they would call again. I know they will sometime and it will be tough to explain but will have to do it. and we can use mormon.org for video's and other things so it is fun. Cool to watch those videos with investigators cause it just invites the Spirit.

Thanks for the emails and i hope grandma and grandpa are enjoying the new car!
Love ya guys just don't start counting down just yet ;]

Love Elder Stoor

hey there peeps

so this week was prolly the toughest week so far, i swear no one answers the door. I am happy that i opened up the garage door for them missionaries in Elko cause they were prolly going through the same thing. I think we taught a total of one lesson last week. It isn't that we are not trying it is just the fact that no one want to answer the freakin door even when we hear them inside and all the lights are on. It is kinda annoying. It prolly didn't help the fact that Elder Schaap had a couple of meetings and general conferance, but it is okay. i will make it.

I really liked what you sent me from shawn's blog mom, cause that is so true. I go through that everyday. I get down on myself for not following this rule or making a mistake there, but i feel that is what satan wants us to do. He is all about traps and The gospel is about freedom. I just have to put in my best effort. I just keep trying to do my best every day and i know that the Lord will take care of the rest.

So i bought this kinda expensive notebook couple weeks ago but it is legit. I am becoming more organized...go figure... and i give the book all the credit. It will be nice because it will have all my studies, meeting notes and just everything in between. I am going now to try and start memorizing scriptures when we are going from appointment to appointment. there is this program that tells me i can have a photographic memory by the end of it. I know i am not supposed to believe everything i read but i am going to give this one a shot cause what will hurt?...just might have a 100 or so scriptures memorized, okay not that many you guy's know me too well

I am glad shelb had a good birthday and no i did not forget about you just be patient and i might get around to sending your present home. Meg and mom will be a bit early and also i am going to send home like 3 or 4 long sleeve white shirts to save for after my mission seeming as dad has gotten some lately and just please send me out some short sleeve ones like 4 or 5. I don't like them long sleeve one's all they do is make me sweat, which i do alot anyway. I hopefully will begin to lose some more weight here tho cause i need to start workin out in the morning. Believe it or not but i have lost about 15-20 lbs since going into the MTC. but i am still fat. not too worried about that tho

We will have to watch the hunger games when i get home shelb, i wanna see it.
so conferance we watched 3 out of the 5 at the Visitor's Center on the big screen. Oh man it was legit. Watch conferance on a movie theater screen, oh yes that place is so cool. Tell Chris Banks i have met J.S. Armstrong, he is super cool and has a memory like i have not seen before. He remembers what the weather was like most days, super funny and cool guy.

So my favorite talk was the one by David Evans when he talked about getting missionaries mail...haha jk but it was good for people who had investigators there. no Dieter F Uchdorf and his "Stop it" talk was my personal favorite. He is a good talker and i enjoy his talks. I have been reading alot of conferance talks lately. If you sent me talks thanks mara bytheway but sent it on one page front and back cause i have a conferance notebook and i know the words are super small but i am young and have good eyes still. And also Elder Schaap introduced me to the "Man of Christ" by maxwell. Oh man that is super good. if you read it read it like 50 times and then you might start to begin to understand it but hey it is good.

I still like Elder Schaap alot and i hope i am not being the companion that no one likes but guess i will never know. He is cool tho and i think might be my favorite thus far. My last one was kinda tough to be with, so maybe that is just making him look good haha.

The GPS is a good tool to have and it is alot nicer to use than a map. We live with another set of missionaries. Remember the black missionary, he is a good friend and is nice to room with. Elder Gumbi, then an Elder Watson from Colorado he is cool. a little different but aren't we all? lol

The family we have been teaching has been kinda avoiding us it feels like. I hope it is not the case but it sounds like they don't want to meet with us. It is tough but they are in a rough spot because he is un-employed at the moment and i am sure that is super stressful. They did not watch conferance but i guess that is what happens when you get a gospel principles lesson on exaltation the first time at church. It was super in depth for me let alone someone's first time and he did not take to becoming god's very well. He took it like we were going to replace god which is not the case. It sure does make you think tho and i have a headache over it. There are alot of things like this that we know but it is kinda vague and we act more with faith than we do with knowledge. I am still learning more about it.

One of the most coolest thing about the gospel is that you can never quit learning tho. There is always something to do to learn more about what is in store for us. Pres. Monson's talk i don't remember which one but it was the one where he mentioned death, was super good and made me think about the Evans and what they are going through. That would be so hard to deal with, even with the knowledge that we have. It takes me back to last summer and with working with Sara and i remember her telling me that she knew that being a good person was the most important thing. She had heard from other people that if you are not mormon you won't make it. or something along those lines. But as always it is easier to baptize someone and have them accept it in the next life than it will be to change what a persons desires are. Easier to be good now than it is to not be good. That may not have made sense to you guys but it did to me haha

I hope everything is well back at home and on the ranch
Mom if you could you could buy me a hard drive to put some stuff on. I can organize my pictures on my mision so  i know just when it happened then send the s-d card home? could you send me one of those i will let you buy that one and i will buy some basketball shoes. Thanks mom your the best and i hope to send home this s-d card with the presents and some white shirts sometime this next week.

Love you guy's keep going strong
Love Elder Stoor

I don't really know what to say about the accident. I guess we can be glad about the knowledge of the gospel and to know that they can be together again someday. This life is not the end it is just a tiny bit on the terms of eternity. It has to be hard tho, especially the fact that it was all family in the accident. I will have to remember them in my prayers. Especially Jake and it being close to him coming home. Super sad for everyone. A pit just sinked to the bottom of my stomach when i heard about it. Not good but God has a plan for us and he knows everything.
Well onto more depressing knews. The super awesome family that i told you guy's about last week came to church. Yes it might be depressing when you get a gospel essentials class that is a little overbearing and it is the last lesson in the book. Exaltation. Abraham didn't take to the fact that we will become God's someday very well. We have not been in contact and they said they would call us and we have been giving ourselves headaches on what to do next with them. How long to we give them, what do we say, just crazy. It will be a little tough addressing that so i have been praying. He has questions on whether or not there is a prophet on the earth too. I hope they will contact so we can get them to general conferance. I may have to get the talk of the prophets on the website. Glad you were able to go to Salt Lake and go to that new mall. I didn't think it would be opening that fast haha.
Other than the family tho we have been trying to go knock some doors. We set up plans for seeing less-actives because 30% of the members out here are less-active. There have been missionaries in the past who have baptized and the people really didn't know what was in for them so now there are tons of less-actives. I would bet 1 out of 20 opens the door so it can be discouraging sometimes. There were two days that we didn't even get someone to come to the door. Makes ya wonder if that is what you should be doing sometimes.
Also there is a member who feeds us after every district meeting and she gives us scott bonnit pepper and they are super hot. They are like a 9 out of 10 on the hottest pepper scale i think haha hotter than a hobinaro i think and i ate two this past week! They are super hot but make ice cream soo much better anyway might have a picture in there if i can get this dumb thing to work! Can't seem to get it loaded.
Well we live in riverdale area and cover up to college park and down to bladensburg if you want to look at a map. Borders D.C. so just outside of the city and my area covers the university of maryland. Super wierd to see people my own age.
So the Paul Cardall concert was simply amazing. Super spiritual i have a couple of videos i might sent home on the card you can look at. I want to look at it before i sent it tho, hopefully it turned out well. Elder Schaap is super cool and i enjoy being with him and he is a District leader. We get 1000 miles a month to drive and we never even get close i guess. We go prolly 800 a month. and my comp does most of the driving which is fine with me cause i don't like this traffic and it has been a minute or too since i have drove. I have done it a couple of times but not for very long. GPS is super useful and helps cause i am terrible at reading maps. I got the Garmin Nuvi 120$ one. It has 8000 points to it so i just got the cheap one. it has helped out a ton.
I would like it if you could send out about 4 short sleeve white shirts cause the long sleeve just make me sweat have all the time i have been here. I might send a couple of the long sleeve home for after the mission and for dad if he wants them. I will keep a couple tho. Also for Shelb's birthday i don't have money to send home her present and when it does come i am just going to include Mom's and Meg's so happy birthday to all haha Also how is the puzzle mara? also i would like some slip on shoes. not dress shoes just for P-day and stuff so yeah i can prolly buy most of the stuff i want out here so maybe don't bother sending it unless you want to get it. let me know next letter. then some basketball shoes. If you want you could buy me some of those and have them send to me over the internet maybe. If ya do get me light one's. I did service and i only have those one pair i bought and they got dirty cause i was digging a hole. It was nice to do some physical labor again. I need more of that. Digging holes really is a stress reliever haha.
Hopefully i can get ya some pictures sent also but until next week hope all goes better!
Love Elder Stoor

With Paul Cardall

early morning pix of the Washington Monument

Elder Gleed & Elder Stoor  (Elder Gleed's dad & Elder Stoor's mom are 1st cousins)

here are some more pictures this computer is really slow but i think i will have the s-d card in the mail prolly next week so you can see all of the pictures and speaking of pictures what has megan done to my room?

soooo cool!!

Elder Stoor with the Scott Bonnet Pepper

What a Dream - I'm so jealous

I quickly sent Seth a note to remind him about his lil sister's birthday.  He had already sent his letter, but also sent a quick reply:

if she doesn't get the memo tell her I love her and that she should be happy.  Love and miss you mom and hope today will go well for ya tty next week

I LOVE MY BOY!!!
P.S.  Check out his companions blog:  www.elderschaap.blogspot.com
there is an awesome picture of Seth

Hey thanks for the GPS info i will try and find it. Elder Murdock is the best you should look him up when they go home. Before i left Anacostia they told me i must come down and see them after the mission so that will be fun. They are the coolest ever. He told me that dad must have been at work haha i didn't know how to get ahold of you so i asked them at the visitor's center and they said they would love too so yes haha thanks for that i hope to go shopping for it pretty soon...
College Park East is by metro stop prince george on the green line metro no clue what my address is cause i have not gotten a letter yet. I have got all the packages that you have sent me thanks. Candy is all gone from that one cause i am fat
We are teaching a family named the Osceolela's haha didn't spell it right but they are legit! Super awesome family. They are practically already mormons haha they have 5 kids from bout 11 to 7 months super cute kids one of them is named Seth haha They are the best family ever! Also just alot of dinners. This ward is the best cause it is an actual ward but they are super chill about everything. The way in my opinion most wards should be. It is the best
Elder Schaap is the coolest. He is so fun and super chill. it is going to be a fun transfer. he goes home in july so super soon.
The cherry blossoms are like beautiful haha. Pictures next week cause i forgot my camera cord and we are just coming back from taking sunrise which wasn't anything cause it was super cloudy but the trees are so just yeah can't explain. We need to come back in two years in the spring Mom cause they are awesome. Popcorn popping song makes so much more sense now lol the trees in my area are just white haha super pretty. It has been hot lately tho 70 degree's in a suit makes you sweat and after general conference we don't have to wear a suit coat anymore :]
Congrats to Colton he is going to love being a missionary. MTC might be rough but just remember everyone else is feeling the same way and don't be afraid to talk. Communication is the most important thing in a companionship by far. If that isn't working then nothing will. Elder Schaap and me had a good talk where we just said if anything bothers either of us we are just going to call each other out on it right then and there haha. It will work that way haha.
I do have to say next week or maybe later this afternoon if i can talk him into coming back you will see that i am serving in the best mission in the world. No one else can see the things we get to go see every p-day we want. It is the best.
Thanks for all the emails sorry if i didn't answer any questions if i didn't please do what mara did and highlight it at the end cause then i can remember haha.
Boise sounded like it was fun except the creeper dude, you just have to start not taking mara cause she attracts too many of those haha jk mara
Thanks for the Letter Grandma, I took a picture with Elder Gleed today at the mall, Super funny but we are in the same Zone! There are 13 of us and 6 of us are Elder's and we are in the Zone so i will be seeing him every so often. He is super cool. I am not sure what i think about having sister's in my district cause they just make things awkward and it might be tough haha
I love hearing from each one of you so keep writing even if i don't write back what you want haha
Love Elder Stoor!