Wednesday, August 29, 2001
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Wednesday, August 29, 2001 |
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Peachtree City's Aaron Stokes will leave for mission to the Philippines "Elder Stokes," his official title and name, will be leaving soon for a two-year mission to Angeles, Philippines,60 miles north of Manila, as part of his service to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. "Elder Stokes" is known to his friends in Peachtree City as "Aaron Stokes" and his mission to his church is purely voluntary. He is expected to pay his own way with the help of his family. There is no paid clergy in the LDS church, the church that he belongs to and will represent. Stokes and his family have lived in Peachtree City for 12 years. He graduated from McIntosh High School, class of 2000, with honors and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to go to college and, he says, " be close to the snow." He completed one year of college and worked at Snowbird Ski Resort near Salt Lake. Stokes applied to be a missionary, as his older brother and father had previously done when they were age 19 or 20, not knowing which of 330 missions world-wide he could be assigned by their Church's Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. "I was nervous when I opened the envelope and read my assignment, ' you will be serving in the Angeles Philippines Mission ... for two years,'" Stokes says. "I know it is a labor of love. I will learn their language (Tagolog) and learn to love the country and its people who I'll serve as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ." Stokes will leave for his mission assignment Nov. 7. |
