May 7, 2018

Family,
Tuesday went pretty well. We had District meetings. My District leader is Elder Rudd. He was one of my previous companions which is pretty cool. Since he is a district leader I got to go on an exchange with him after the meetings. We go on exchanges with all of our district leaders each transfer. We were in my area and it went pretty well. We tracted into a super sweet lady who opened the door and told us to come right in. There was not a 3rd male so we could not go in but we taught her about the Book of Mormon on her door step. She wanted to learn more so we set up a time to come back on Thursday. We also had a meeting that night with President Keeney the Stake President who is so awesome!! He's such a spiritual giant and we get to meet with him weekly which is awesome. Watch and see he is going to be a General Authority one day!!

Thursday.... what a day ha ha
Today was actually a really good day with a pretty funny experience. So the lady I told you about on Tuesday... (T)  We went back to teach her with our Elders Quorum President and she was there and let us in. She had forgotten we were coming but was willing to let us come in and teach. As we walk in we saw her son there who was about 28 years old. He wanted to know what we were doing there and she told him we were there to teach her about the Book of Mormon. He came to us and was like "What y'all preaching tonight?" We told him we teach about Christ and he's like "really sit down I'm a prophet" right then I knew it was about to get interesting. I'll dumb this down a lot because we were there for 20 minutes before we just had to stand up and walk out. He pulls up a scripture in Numbers 15:38 about how it was a commandment to wear fringes and he was wearing fringes at the end of his shirt and we were not. So we can't claim to teach about Christ if we don't follow his commandments! It was a pretty funny experience honestly. Even more funny because our Elders Quorum President was just called Sunday and this was his first time going out with us. He was in for a treat!

Friday was MLC which took up the whole day. It was good. It was just basically on the new way to do planning with technology. There is a lot of training that is going on with the phones. 

Saturday we had to get an oil change on our car. We went out finding for a little bit and found a new investigator named (H). He is in his 60's. He let us in his home and just started talking. He has had a life full of crazy adventures and a pretty wild background that has led him to find Christ. It's pretty neat how within seconds of meeting us people will open up and tell us their whole life story. He is a southern baptism but at the end of our lesson he said that he feels like he understands Christ so much better then he did before. He invited us to come back. It was pretty cool! God's preparing his children!!

Saturday was also dart night which is so sweet! The member is a stud. We just eat food, play darts and talk about the gospel with every one who comes. We are free to invite whoever we want too. So we invited a couple of less active and investigators to come. There are so many people to fellowship them and it's just pretty sweet. Every ward needs a dart night for missionary work! It works!!

Something that has been on my mind this past week is prayer. I have been thinking about what President Nelson said last conference about how "you would be amazed with how much the Lord wants to reveal to you." The new way to do our planning with the phones is all based on revelation. Without that revelation we won't be able to do effective planning each day. The new way of ministering is also based on revelation. Without personal revelation we won't be able to effectively minister to those who we are to watch over. There is a pattern to this. The church is moving in such a way that we all need to be worthy of that revelation. How do we receive it? Through prayer. As I have tried to improve my prayers this past week I have also strengthened my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have been able to understand and recognize the Spirit better. I hope each of you are spending time each morning and each night in prayer... talking with God to seek his guidance. I agree with President Nelson that there is so much He wants to reveal to us. We just need to ask Him. I love all of you and thanks for all that you do for me. I hope you each have a good week and don't forget to pray!!
Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki


~yes. It is starting to warm up but it is nice because I am done with the rain!!
we are planning on having a zone activity and playing ultimate frisbee today. The best sight to see here is the Redondo Beach. I have been really bad at taking pictures. However I did get a SD card for the camera and have started filming things for Ty. The socks you got me are the best. They last your whole mission. My socks still look brand new. They are tough. The shirts are good! My white shirts are still pretty white and looking good. They do need ironing because it looks better. Stains come out easy... with the help of bleach. ha ha I have only worn the big coat like 5 times. I like the smaller ones. On days it was really raining hard in the winter and I was on bike it was nice but other then that the smaller ones are nice. I don't like the backpack unless I was on a bike but for the most part I have always had a car. So I did not need one. Bedding and towels? Yes I am grateful for both of those! I like having my big quilt but IDK  what he will need there and how easy it will be to move it all because they are big.
I gotta go. I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!!