Flying Pineapples

 Wazz poppin fellow gangstas

Just kidding, fellow children of God. So on our Thursday service, a produce pallet was stacked wayyy too high, like 9 ft tall. When the driver tried to get it off the truck and onto the lift gate, he slipped. Keep in mind he is using an electric pallet jack, and those are not light. The whole pallet plus the jack flew off the truck. Thankfully nobody was close enough to be injured and the driver was ok, just had a few not so nice words to say to his truck. Hence the flying pineapple title.

- We had another snowball fight, and Elder Berber (owner of Lil Fatty) hit 99 days left on his mission.

- At Thursday service, we met a guy named Raymen and this man was helping us unload the truck without a shirt, AND it is like 30 degrees outside. But he did have an unzipped sweatshirt on. He was an absolute beast though, grinding through the weather to help us finish quickly.

- Elder Berber and I discovered the art of belt fencing, and yes I did win with minimal injuries.

- In Hopkinton on Friday I got to climb all the shelves and help put boxes away. If you do not know how happy that made me, think about in the movie Planet of the Apes (the first one) when Caesar went to the Redwoods for the first time. It felt like that.

- DC was with the ZL's and we focused on how to work with our friends once they were on date for baptism.

- Today was Zone Pday and I wore a jersey that my dad got in Uruguay on his mission! And of course I came through and represented the Stockett Dynasty when we played volleyball and chair soccer.

- Finalmente, E.Berber and I went to Gillette Stadium, Home to the New England Patriots. And if you didn't know it is pretty freaking massive. We did a little self-tour and looked through the history and awards. Having 6 Super Bowl wins is pretty crazy not gonna lie.

We went finding in Hudson on Tuesday and got a guy named Harris' number to schedule a visit some time this following week. We also had a lesson with a very devout Catholic couple. They ended up telling us that they were not interested in exploring the idea of The Restored Church of Jesus Christ. Which is ok, they were also super polite and nice! We had a lesson with two members who are so cool. Hermano Enamorado and Hermana Ruiz, they are so nice and they fed us so much haha. We are having a really hard time meeting with the family that I helped baptize my first transfer. They are not super good at communicating and so far the past couple visits we have set up, they were not home. Only on Sunday did we find out that they are getting bullied for their "new faith" which is honestly really infuriating. So hopefully they open up to us more and things will get better. Sorry this is long haha. We are also making such good progress with Ronaldo, the only problem is he can't really remember what we talk about. Kind of an important part LOL. We also were able to meet with a less active member family, the Trejos and they were super nice, they are just so busy. Mom is working two jobs and dad is working 10-12 hour shifts almost everyday.

HOLY COW. (cows are not holy, despite what Sister Marsden says)

Love yall 

Elder Caden Stockett

Lil Fatty Speaks

 Yolo

Lil Fatty is Elder Berber's stomach, and at DC I think he wanted to let everyone know he was hungry. It sounded like a cow that was getting ripped in half by the Boogie Man.

- We went shopping and Elder Berber said he was watching his carbs, I turned around and looked at the cart, and I saw cookies, bagels, bread, pizza and chips. So Lil Fatty sounds like he might be Big Fatty sooner than later.

- Tuesday service was the same old same old, we ate onions like apples and we had freeze dried ice cream sandwiches.

- I made crockpot chicken and it was actually kind of good.

- At Friday service, we helped move a lot of stuff. And while doing so, we moved several hundred shoes. A good majority of these shoes were over 800 dollars which is pretty crazy. There were these blue sneaker heel thingies which were 1000. So ugly HAHA.

- We had a snowball fight with the other elders and had a photoshoot in the snow.

- I got lined up by Elder Berber again. And had exchanges with the Portuguese elders on Saturday.

- I was dumb and bought two t-shirts today. RIP my moneys.

Our friends have been meeting with us more!! Sadly, we had to stop teaching Sergio because he was too busy and we could never get a hold of him. We met with a super cool member, Ramon, who is studying for his real estate license. We only met with Richard a couple times this week but he is doing good and is continually progressing. We met with Larry and Joselyn again! We finished teaching The Restoration and set up our lesson for next time, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are truly amazing and I can not wait to keep teaching them! We got a friend, Jose, to church on Sunday too! We haven't even taught him a lesson yet.

I also had the opportunity to baptize Cristian, one of the sister's friends. That was a super cool experience because he just started teaching 3 weeks ago! He progressed so quickly.  I got to stand in when he got the Gift of the Holy Ghost (that was a first). AND I got to help ordain Christopher (12 years old) into the Aaronic Priesthood.

Truly such a spiritual weekend!

Anywaysss. Until we meet again.

Elder Caden Stockett

My Dance Moves are Superior

 Fun fact we are halfway through January. I know I know Crazy.

- For service at the Marlboro Library on Tuesday we made food bags for families of 1-2

- We had our last mentoring session with my cousin David, RIP, but I learned a lot so that's good

- At the Marlboro Library on Thursday we did the same thing but for families of 2-3

- I love riding on furniture dollies and pallet jacks, just imagine. There is an entire warehouse to work (and have fun in) so you can ride them across the whole place and drift corners. I bet yall didnt know you can drift on a pallet jack

- I will give some classes when I get back

- We have something called Friendly Friday Affiliations as a zone, so this last one was scripture pictionary and we got the first three points and then for the end, it was a tie between us and two other companionships, to win A DANCE OFF. You already know I clutched up

- Today was the first real snow since I arrived

So I said last week all of our friends were canceling and some of them still are, but we are having a lot more lessons. We met with Walter and he is doing good. We also got to meet with the Fernandez's and they are doing good. This Sunday we taught a lesson about the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament to one of the sisters' friends, Ronald, after church. We ended up waiting there for 2 hours after the lesson for his ride to get there LOL. He is absolutely hilarious and we tried to teach him how to tie a tie. We also reignited a relationship with a previous friend, Elvis Mendez. We taught him about prayer and hopefully he will keep meeting with us! In the same building two floors up we found two new friends. One family that has only been in the US for five months, Larry and Joselyn are from Venezuela. They are amazing and have a desire to learn, they remind me of the Fernandez family. We will be meeting with Larry again this week! Other than that it's been fairly quiet and I have been learning how to love the people. 

Our attribute focus was charity, so we have been praying to have charity a lot, so that has given me more motivation and helped me to recognize how God sees his children.

Also funny story the senior missionary, Elder Hamm in charge of the vehicles texted the mission last night and said to fill up with gas. Then right after, President Brough said not to fill up and that we would be fine until tomorrow. Man got called out HAHA.

Love most of you!!

Elder Caden Stockett

This mission thing is hard.

 Yoo whats good peeps

Not to be discouraging but last week was pretty brutal. But its ok because I am still alive.

- We had zone conference, so we got our transfer focuses which are: talk with everyone, adjusting our teaching to meet the needs of our friends, and we are focusing on the attribute of charity

- My companion and I have also started working out together and to anyone who thinks I am skinny. I am not anymore and my companion is about as thick as a #2 pencil

- We have service every Friday where we unload shipments of food for a food bank that helps out the community. We usually get around 6-8 pallets but this last session we got over 20. Which means that I had to use my super powers and unload them all super duper fast

- My toes have been purple a lot, I have always wanted to be a purple person. So maybe this is my wish being granted, or maybe I can become Papa Smurf's cousin

- We had exchanges with the ZL's and I got to go to Rhode Island and knock a couple doors in the ghetto. It was so fun. I think it will become my new hobby.  

-I got to practice my modeling for post-mission things and took some pretty sweet pictures (attached below for the pleasure of your eyes)

- I got a new flannel and not gonna lie I look pretty fly

Our friends are always cancelling, but telling us they are still interested which is frusturating. We are meeting with Richard pretty much every night via messenger video chat and he is on date for late March. We haven't met with our friend Walter in a while, Sergio has been a minute too. We also haven't met with the Fernandez's in like 3 weeks. (family that was baptized right when I got into the area) But we did have a Bible study with our 15 year-old friend Hector, it is pretty amazing to see someone so young but so interested in the word of God. Kind of reminds me of my younger cousin Winston, shoutout to him because he knows way more about the Gospel than I do.

Follow that yellow brick road, even when you don't feel like it.

Love yall,

Elder Caden Stockett

Feliz nuevo ano

 Whats poppin peeps?!

Happy New Year to everyone! Not a ton of updates but I will try and keep it entertaining.

- meals this week have for sure been the best so far: mac&cheese with spam, bison and potatoes, burritos. And shoutout to my wonderful parents who have prepared me so tremendously 

- we helped the sisters with some sms work in spanish which was kind of fun

- going to the gym is a lifesaver (our complex gym) it gets me motivated to wake up in the morning

- first DC of the second transfer was interesting to say the least jaja

- we had stake conference on sundays and we got boundary changes! 9 wards consolidated into 6 so thats pretty crazy but our tiny branch was unaffected by these changes

- district pday today and we played some spikeball in the gym, its bad yall. I am losing my touch without any real competition (no offense to anyone that i have played with since being out)

Welp turns out there were a few things that happened. As far as teaching goes we are just trying to revive our area so lots of contacts and lots of friends cancelling our appointments. 

Something that I have though a lot about this week is turning my focus outward. The more selfish I am the more miserable and unmotivated I become. So focusing on why I am out here and thinking about the people that are searching for a way to change their lives but just dont know how yet is super helpful.

Finally I have been thinking about a scripture in genesis where it talks about how satan has power to bruise our heel but we have power to crush his head. We just need to remember that, remember what our Savior did for us and that we have more power over ourselves than satan does.

Peace out homies, <3

Elder Stockett