District Leader Elder Stucki

Dear Brother and Sister Plant,

It is a pleasure for me to inform you that your son, Elder Michael James Stucki, has been assigned to serve as a District Leader.  This new assignment reflects the trust the Lord has in your son.  District Leaders fulfill a fundamental role in the success of the mission and the missionaries.  District Leaders set an example for the missionaries in their district through their study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience, hard work, proselyting skills, and other aspects of missionary work.

Thank you for all you have done to prepare him so he could fulfill this new responsibility that he has received.

Sister Villanueva and I feel so blessed to have your son in the California Arcadia Mission.  Thank you for your faithful prayers and constant support which will help your son fulfill this new assignment.

Sincerely,

President Moises Villanueva

California Arcadia Mission

Week 14 Sad Days in the Pad

        This past week has been going pretty well. We got transfer calls this Saturday... I was betting that Elder Mepin (He has been learning Armenian for over a year) would come back, and then we would be a 2 companionship Armenian Squad. Quite the opposite happened... Elder Coca was called to East LA, training... I'm so sad! He was such an amazing missionary and example. I will truly miss him. I'm going to do my best to keep this companionship strong, and stay 110% exactly obedient. I think if we do this we will have continual success. I'm finally in a two person companionship which is nice! The first time on my mission😂 I also just finished training! I'm so excited I don't have to be trained anymore because now we have a whole hour extra of proselyting! 

        Oh and other thing that's cool, I'm district leader...Woot woot! I'm excited to help out my District and keep them on fire! It's cool because Elder Fu became A zone leader and Elder Baguley moved out and Elder Cambell moved in. So we are sharing a pad with the Zone Leaders which is cool because I'll be able to better learn from
their example. Plus I have a work out buddy now cuz Elder Cambell loves to lift as well.

            So on Tuesday we were trying to talk to this guy in Chinese and this lady walks up to us and starts asking us questions. So I went over and started talking to her and she was asking us if we could help her with her income taxes. I was willing to help her until she handed me the materials... I open the bag and saw there was only news papers and an address book. She then followed with a question if there was enough paper and if I need more. The situation became extremely awkward until this huge Armenian guy walks up to us all and yells "Come, come, come listen! Where is God?! Where is He? There is so much killing, He is gone. My God is gone!" At this point we have a Chinese dude, old crazy lady, and a huge Armenian dude talking to us.  It was a blessing though because the Armenian dude scared off the other two and all we had to do was run from him. The situation ended up well I guess 😅

            We have been continually teaching the lessons to Artur everyday and he is becoming more and more prepared. I'm so excited for him, it's going to be an amazing baptism this weekend! Besides Artur we haven't found any new investigators and we are continuing to search. We had a picnic on Saturday which was pretty fun with all of the Armenian group. I had to give a spiritual message at the beginning and I tried doing it in Armenian...  Hence the word tried because I was talking about family the whole time but since the word food is
almost the same word I ended up talking about food the entire time. Anyways Armenian is coming along slowly and the work is coming along amazingly! I love this work so much, I can't explain it. I'm so blessed to be able to serve a mission! I'll end of coarse by baring testimony that our Savior loves us. I know our Father and Mother in
Heaven are with us every step of the way and want to help us as much as they can. Boom. I love this gospel.



























Last dinner with the Bradly's



























One of our less actives, Marcus






















































Peace and love
-Elder Stucki

Week 13 🔥🔥🔥FIRE!!🔥🔥🔥

 This week has been so 🔥🔥🔥FIRE! Last week on Thursday we met this guy named Artur, who invited us in because we were so speaking Armenian. He listened to our message and was skeptical but was willing to have another lesson. The next day we met at the church and were able to show him around. He loved it! He was talking about how he felt the spirit and he was so happy! (This was all in Armenian by the way so it was difficult to understand) We called him the next day, Saturday morning and asked him if he would attend a baptismal service that day. He said yes he would and he showed up! (Later he told us that his mind told him to say no because he didn't want to go but his mouth said "yes" he would go, I thought that was cool!) Haha but during the baptismal service he said that he felt the spirit so strongly that he wanted to get baptized that day! We set him a date for the 4th of August. The next day he came to church, and he loved it! Everyone in the group sucked him in like their own and he was so happy. He told us that he wanted to meet with us every single day until his baptism so he could feel the spirit until it was able to be with him for forever. It made me so happy! So through this whole week we have been meeting with him every day and he even quite smoking! He is a GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR! We asked him what he would do if somebody told him not to join the church and he said that he would spit in
their face, (not really Christ-like but at least he is dedicated). The next lesson we taught he told us how he walked up to some Jehovah witnesses and told them that he was "Mormon". This Saturday was amazing! We took him to the temple with the Armenian group and walked around and I got some fire pictures. He is so awesome. We moved his Baptismal date to the second of July! He can't wait to be baptized!

          Our less active members in English work have been progressing really well and one of them (Sister Valassco) gave herself a date of August 7th to come back to church! She is awesome because she has been working with another less active as well! And Sister Brown has been activity coming to church and she is receiving so many blessings because of it! Woot woot!!! In the Armenian group we've been having more less active members show up and the group is doing a lot better. I have a testimony of hard work and exact obedience. Standing up for what you believe and not falling into temptation is so important. If we constantly push through the thick and the thin we will see miracles. And it goes for everyone, not just us missionaries. I've seen lives changed because of it, including my own life.

            I am just so pumped right now to be doing the Lords work. We have been putting in our 110% effort and we are finally starting to see some of the blessing that has come from all the work. The mission is on 🔥🔥🔥 Fire! It doesn't mean it isn't difficult though. This has been some of the most challenging months of my life so far. I've
humbled myself to the Lord and he has shown me my weaknesses. Now, I have the opportunity to strengthen those weaknesses... Ether 12:27 definitely my favorite scripture and definitely one of my favorite chapters!


It's FIRE here in California!




























There was a huge brush fire today driving to WalMart!




























I tried getting all photographer-like on this one for you mom!

This is Artur! He loved going to the temple!!! He said he will go there in 1

year to do his endowments!

This is Artur! He loved going to the temple!!! He said he will go there in 1

year to do his endowments!

This is Artur! He loved going to the temple!!! He said he will go there in one year to do his endowments.




























I look selfish in this picture, I know, but it happens okay?
























































This is my favorite picture I took of the temple. #NOFILTER



























This is the Armenian group.  It will get a lot bigger soon don't worry!




























Closest I'll get to the HOLLYWOOD sign!




























I don't remember if I remembered to send this one but this is Eva's family (the little girl from last week's email).  Eva was napping when I took this photo.




























Hey! Everyone who is reading this remember to read your scriptures!!! Most importantly read the talks from the General Authorities!!! If someone were to come up to you and ask you what has the prophet said in the past two General Conferences what would you say? Remember to study, learn, and pray. Always continue to do your best and don't think you are too busy. We can improve every day no matter how busy we are. Keep the fire going and remember our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. I love you guys! Peace!!!!

Elder Stucki

Week 12

Hey hey I got a new laundromat or whatever they are called! So I have wifi in the mornings now! How's it's going? Can you keep sending me pictures of the girls? I got so sad yesterday because we went and met this new family in the ward and they have a little girl who is turning five and she is so old! And it made me super sad and I almost
cried cuz Coco is going to be so old by the time I get back! I'm thinking about living at home for a while when I get home. We'll see, don't get your hopes up though 😉



-Peace & Love- Elder Stucki

































​So... I bought two quarts of Thrifty's ice cream and ate them in two days... That right there is what it looked like... 

Anyways this week was FIRE! Let's just say that things are looking up for the time being. Oh and I'm going bald... Stress will get to you!!! Anyways I've come to terms that I will be looking like my handsome Grandpa :) I've got to go though not much time, today was super duper busy! Peace and blessings everyone!

- I was supposed to put that here - 

-Elder Stucki

Week 11 #HCIFYSITDLTFIGT (How Can I feed Your Sheep If They Don't Like The Food I Give Them)

Barez zez em untaneekuh, lav ek? 

            What another day in paradise... The work of the Lord is beautiful in every single way, especially with the wonderful people of Armenia. So this last week was pretty eventful, we traveled around from North Ridge to North Hollywood to Burbank. In North Ridge we gave a quick Armenian 101 with the Elder's and Sister's in that Mission. We were able to meet their mission president and he and his wife were very nice but were asking us a bunch of questions about our work with Armenians. That was interesting but it turned out pretty good and we have received a couple of referrals from it so far. We have been traveling a lot! So I've been able to see a good amount of California, but too bad we are on the freeway most of the time so we really don't see a lot. 

            I'm still studying the language the best I can, I need to speak it more though because we have had only one lesson so far this past week in Armenian and it's rough on me to learn without hearing it that often. I get a good amount of time to study in the car though, and that is nice! We travel out to Burbank and North Hollywood to visit referrals but none so far have been promising. Most of them are just uninterested people who simply just wanted to know what the missionaries who gave us the referral were saying! We really hope for phone numbers so we don't waist so much gas. 

           On Sunday the Armenian group leaders had a meeting with us after Stake Conference. They told us that there is a huge possibility that they are going to be shutting down the Armenian group in our ward and if they do it will be really soon. My guess is that the Mission President is going to keep us in Armenian work though, at least I hope he does anyways. It's quite frustrating though because we really don't have any idea on what they are going to be doing with us, and we have missionaries coming up to us and telling us that they heard they are closing the California Armenian mission down completely. I don't know but I think that would be completely stupid. 

             So if you remember that picture of the selfie with me and that old fart?  We were at his house again and he was telling us this story. It consisted of him, wetting the bed. His wallet was in his pocket at the incident, so being the bright and intelligent man Jerry is he put it in the microwave to dry it. Within seconds his wallet was sparking! He then takes his wallet out, pulled out the credit cards inside and see's them totally fried! Haha funny stuff.

             Anyways...... I have the hardest time comprehending anything these days so I've forgotten everything else that has happened. It's crazy, all the days are blending together and it's getting hard to remember anything. I feel like a 90 year old man with Alzheimer's. I'm trying to cram this language into my brain and it is spitting out everything else, oh my... So if I come home and I can't remember any of your names please forgive me :) Anyways here is a picture of this huge fire that was above California Saturday that left ash covering everything... Spiritual thought of the week... "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass; ... and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." Alma 37 6-7  Keep doing those small and simple things, and never forget what our end goal is... Eternal Salvation. I love you! Peace out Guys!

-Stress and Hatred- 

Haha just joking

-Peace and blessings-

-Elder Stucki