Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 27 near New York, NY

I have SO many talented friends! My friend, Cameron Arnzen, is a really good track athlete. My new-found friend, Elder Jake Reedy, is an amazing artist. Hailey Alexander could run for days and not get tired. Anthony Thomas could get any girl to swoon with his singing and guitar playing (but it looks like he's got a keeper already). My very best friend, Akayla Ferrara, could probably pick up any instrument and play it beautifully in a week, she's so musically talented. My friend, Becca Lysinger, can cook you a delicious pizza quicker than you can say what kind you want (with my help, of course). 
All of these people were given gifts from God that can be seen or heard by everyone. Last night we had an awesome meeting here in New York talking a little bit about talents and gifts from God. I learned that God has given each and every one of us talents and abilities that He wants us to use to bless the lives of others.
Our Heavenly Father loves us. He wants us to be happy. By putting our faith in Him and in His son, Jesus Christ, we will be able to use our individual gifts to help ourselves and those we love return to live with Him again someday.

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 25 via iOS

This is a picture of my eye. Pretty gross right??
Quick biology lesson: Eyes are what let you see. Brains are what let you remember what you saw.
But what about the things that we wish we could "un-see"...or things that we wish we could "un-do"? I've been taught since I was little that when we fully repent, God remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 10:16-18). But today I read something pretty awesome in the Book of Mormon. In Alma chapter 36, the prophet, Alma, is talking to his son, Helaman, about repentance. After describing his own experience with repentance, Alma says, "...I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more." (Alma 36:19). That is awesome!
Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can literally "un-see" the things we never wish we saw, and "un-do" the things we never wish we did. It's gonna be a lot of work...but it'll be SO worth it. 

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

1. Elder Cade Stafford

   January 24 near New York, NY

   Holy cow it was a blizzard on Tuesday!! But it made me think of this scripture and suddenly this principle became that much more of a reality to me! The Book of Mormon is awesome! 
   
   "12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail [and snow!!] and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you..."

   -Helaman 5:12 (in the Book of Mormon)

   
   

   

   

   

   
   
2. 
   

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 23 near New York, NY · Edited

Aren't we all a little "Wicked" inside? Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can repent, or become clean from our sins...no matter how "green" they make us look!!

What are some ways Christ's Atonement has helped you?

We have a new investigator!!!!

Hello family!!

So this week has been really cool! Mostly because we have a new investigator!! We haven't been able to meet with Derek at all because he's going to school here in Columbia University and he's been trying to apply for an internship over in Hong Kong (which he got!). Lina is AWESOME, though!! Like I said she just came from China so she has like no religious background at all! Me and another elder in my district taught her on Tuesday because we were on a split. It was really good! We had all intentions to start right off and teach her about the Restoration like we do with most other investigators...but after asking her a bunch of questions about who God was and what he means to her...we found out that she really just doesn't have much comprehension of who He is! It was so weird! I can't even imagine not knowing ANYTHING about Him!

But anyway...it was still really cool and spiritual as we testified to her that he loves each and every one of us and even though there's like, what, 6.5 billion people on the planet...he knows everything about us. You can see it in her eyes that she's really wanting to know, too. There's lots of people that we run into that are listening to the discussions because they don't really know how to say no or they just really like the missionaries and not because they genuinely want to find out more about Jesus Christ.

It was neat, though! She wasn't able to go to church this Sunday because one of her friends took her to a concert in Carnegie Hall at the same time, but we got a member to invite her to dinner and she was able to go to that! She's such a sweet, nice lady that is really genuine and humble. She'll make a great addition to the ward! ;)

My ward is pretty large. Not as big as the one we have in New Plymouth but close. It's mostly made up of young families where the husbands and fathers are either going to school in the city or are interns or something. There are a lot of locals and everything...but it's definitely mostly people from Utah...which is weird. I've heard it actually hasn't been that great because when investigators (mostly poor black people) come to the church, they see everyone and in their heads they're thinking, "oh great...another rich, snobby group of white people that are just going to judge me.." Which of course isn't true; people just jump to conclusions like that here...and I guess everywhere.

Speaking of wards...we got a new bishop here! He was the first counselor for the old bishop so we know him really well (well...as well as we can know him for only being there for four weeks). He's an awesome guy that is really young and ready to work. He's very energetic and missionary minded. Oh and something REALLY cool that happened...his second counselor? Walter Raine!!! If you don't know who he is, he's the super famous LDS painter!! He's so cool! And last Sunday, as he was leaving ward counsel, he slipped me and Elder Edmunds a white envelope and said "welcome to the ward!" Inside were like 10 of his painting that are signed by him!! They aren't originals or anything of course but it's still super cool!! I'll have to send you guys a couple!

Let's see...other than that...this week was kinda hard. I'm not sure what it is but it seems like once a month or so, I just get a day where I miss home a lot. It gets really hard because I'm just so depressed for really no good reason, and it's hard to get motivated to go out and work. One of the things that has been a real stitch in my side, too, has been these stupid iPads.. I love them to death and they're very useful...but I just don't feel like a missionary with it. It's so easy to just scroll up and down our newsfeed on Facebook and just get sucked into the world. I absolutely hate the feeling of not feeling like a missionary...when I feel like that it's almost like there's no point in me being out here! Very frustrating...but me and Elder Edmunds have decided to make it a companionship goal to use the iPads as little as possible. I think that once I'm away from all the stupid stuff everyone posts three times a day, it will be easier for me to be as excited as I was my first cycle. Speaking of which...I can not believe that I've been out for a whole 7 months!! That's crazy! Time really does fly by!

Haha that is so cool to hear about the concert you guys went to!! Oh I bet you felt like a teenager again or something ;) was it super crazy?! Or was it pretty mild compared to most concerts...not that we've ever really been to many haha

No we were never able to make it to the Met because we left the church later than we wanted to and so we just kind of walked around Times Square again which was super fun! I want to go there when it's dark sometime! I bet it looks so beautiful! The ads are pretty ridiculous sometimes but we just try and not look at those... :) I totally know which section at the Met you're talking about, though! Two weeks ago when we went as we were walking out we walked through the Greek statue section which is, in other words, the naked lady section...

But anyways...that was pretty much my week! Lots of fun and lots of mixed emotions but altogether it was good! I hope you're all doing well! You guys are awesome! I love you all!

-Elder Cade Stafford :)

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 21

Heavenly Father, are you really there?
And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?
Some say that heaven is far away,
But I feel it close around me as I pray.
Heavenly Father, I remember now
Something that Jesus told disciples long ago:
“Suffer the children to come to me.”
Father, in prayer I’m coming now to thee.

I LOVE this song! We sang this when I was just a little kid going to Sunday School but the meaning has stuck with me ever since. When we come to our Father with the humility of a child and ask if he is there, he will really let us know! It's happened to me and it really is the best feeling ever 
What has been your experience with prayer? 

This week's been really great!...our trip to Columbia University

Hello mom and dad!!

How are you enjoying the sun over in Vegas?! Sounds like you guys are having a blast! Sorry I'm such a bum with remembering stuff like that...being on a mission just makes it really hard to remember things back home. We always say that "the veil is thick" haha we think it's just Gods little way of helping us stay focused :)

But anyway...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Wow...20 years...that's super crazy! You guys are old! ;) haha jk. You guys are definitely an example to me. Especially now that I'm around people who hardly know what marriage is! I swear NO ONE is married here except for like white people going to school here! Even old people are still like boyfriend-girlfriend living together...it's weird. And sad. The culture is just sooooo different here.

I DID get a coat, though. I bought it at this CRAZY Asian clothing store called Uniqlo. It's like an amusement park for shopping! There's like TVs everywhere blasting weird Chinese techno music  with clothes like folding themselves in sync to the music, bright color EVERYTHING, and really creepy mannequins. It was $89 but it's a super good coat. It has a down interior layer that is sooo warm and then a waterproof jacket that zips up over it. It's really warm and looks really nice. You can see it on me on my Facebook profile picture!

We're actually going to the Met again this p-day because we only got like 30 minutes in it so we didn't get to see much. We're gonna be spending most of the day there today so we can see more. It was really cool, though! We saw the Egypt section with that awesome temple thing that they brought over from Egypt! And then we walked through the American art section for a little bit and then left. We're excited to see more.

So about those walk things, they're actually put on by one of the other elders' investigators!! He is AWESOME! He loves the church and everything about it. He is super into the community and bringing it closer together so every week for like the last three years, even before he met the missionaries, he's been going on these walks where along the way he just tries to pick up people and bring them along! They're really cool and are great things to bring investigators to because every week, as we walk, we talk about a certain gospel subject and then go to a site in the city that kind of relates to that subject. For example, for the topic of restoration, we went to this old old building that had been renovated to look new again. They're actually really cool! Last week we went to Columbia University! That's where that picture with me and the lion statue on Facebook is from.

I LOVE the subway!! I'm actually kind of getting used to what train goes where and what stop we need to get off at and what bus line will get me across town...it's really complicated but once you get the hang of it it's actually super convenient! Elder edmunds is pretty good at it because he was in South Manhattan last year. Speaking of him, he's great! I love elder edmunds! He's a really good, obedient, thoughtful missionary and we get along great. Yeah we have a couple difference but they're really nothing and definitely not anything to fight about. The only thing about him is that we're WAY different just with our personalities and interests. He's kind of a quirky guy and has a lot of things that kind of make me go "huh" or "what for?" but other than that there's really no complaints! He's from Taylorsville, Utah. I don't think anyone is easy to get along with 24/7 for long periods of time haha but he's definitely the easiest of my companions so far.

Ahhhhhh! You have to tell me all about your concert! Was it just amazing?! I hope you enjoyed it! That sounds like it would be a lot of fun...for you haha. Oh no...Akayla likes her?? That means I'll be doomed to listen to her for all 100% of my life!! ;)  No...I'm just kidding!!

Speaking of her...well, you already know...but she's gonna be going to the Omaha, Nebraska Winter Quarters mission!!! That's soooooooooooooooooooooo cool, huh?? Oh my goodness!!! I'm sooooooooooooo excited for her! That will be so good for her.

Well...this week has been really great. Nothing spectacular...oh we got  a referral from someone in Jersey City!! She is awesome!! her name is Lina and her husband, Derek, is also interested! They're like fresh off of the boat from China as of 6 months ago! They are awesome! Lina came to church this last Sunday and loved it. We're going over there this Thursday to hopefully teach them the Restoration! They speak really good English so hopefully that isn't a problem. She is such a sweetheart, though and was so nice and friendly with everyone there. We're looking forward to seeing them hopefully progress :)

Well...we're about to have a party for someone for their birthday so I gotta go. I hope you have an awesome week! Especially your time together with dad! This will be a memory you'll always remember :) I love you both so much! 

-Elder Stafford 

Our trip to Columbia University

The David Letterman Studio



The Manhattan Central Zone

The Manhattan Central Zone! We are LDS missionaries known for our message about Jesus Christ. Our purpose is to come and focus on Jesus Christ with the intent to invite people to reflect on what Christ means to them. We work in between 59th and 155th street in Manhattan. We hope through our effort in New York City and on the Internet that we are able to reach tens of millions of people. Please feel free to stop and talk to us! --facebook

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 14 via iOS

Whenever I make a mistake, it's like I put a big 'ole rock in a bag. Eventually, that burden will become too heavy for me to carry. It's only through repentance and change that I am able to feel the relieving power of Christ's Atonement and get rid of those rocks.
Moral of the story: Don't pick up rocks in the first place...rocks are bad. But if you do...Jesus Christ is ready and willing to take away those rocks for you. He is awesome!  

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 13

When I see this picture it just makes me smile. I LOVE seeing people that are smiling and happy! I especially love helping people be happy. I guess that's the whole reason I've decided to serve a mission here in NYC. What I teach people about Jesus Christ is how His life and teachings can make us eternally happy...just like He was! 
If you're ever interested, let me know and I'd be more than happy to talk about how Christ can make YOUR life better!

Missionary Message from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 11

In Daniel 6, we read the story of Daniel and the lions' den. I LOVE this story because it makes me think of me and my own "den of lions". For me, getting out of a cave full of scary lions sounds hard...and it is! But just as Heavenly Father saved Daniel, He will save us...but only if we put our faith and trust in Him and his Son's atonement...which is more powerful than any of our own scary "lion dens" we get ourselves into.. 

Busy P-Day

Hey mom!! :)

This morning I'm not going to be able to talk because
we're playing basketball...and the rest of the day were going to be
busy going to get some warmer clothes (which is MUCH needed...I think
I'll take your advice and get warmer clothes than that coat papa found
for me haha), going to the Met (the Metropolitan Center for the
Arts...so an art museum!), and then shopping for food and everything
as well :/ I will make sure I write you after and let you know how it
all went though! Alright well I better get back to studying but I hope
you know how much I love you and dad! You guys are awesome! Talk to
you later! :)

"Missionary Message" from Elder Stafford

Elder Cade Stafford

January 10

Why does the Church of Jesus Christ (or Mormon church) build temples? You might have seen them driving on the freeway or pictures of them in Mormon homes. What do they mean? What do we do in them?
We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are a covenant making people. We make covenants (or promises) with God to follow Him and to always try our best to obey His commandments. We, like the people in Bible times, make many of these covenants in our temples. To learn more about temples visit:
http://mormon.org/beliefs/church (under Our Members>Blessings of Temples)

Doing missionary work by singing our prayers in the New York New York North mission — with Elder Cade Stafford and Elder Adam Kia.

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (oh...and pictures of my little accident)

Hellllllo family!! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! This has been a super awesome
week! Me and Elder Edmunds are finally starting to feel like we're
getting adjusted. Going into a brand new area not knowing anything in
the middle of the holidays is pretty insane! It's been soooo fun
though! I think it's a blast to kind of "start from scratch" if you
will! There's a lot more relying on the Lord I think. Prayer is
literally that Balm in Gillead that will help you whenever you need
it. Prayer is so neat. I can literally pray to Heavenly Father
whenever I want to and ask him if he is there watching over me and I
know that he will give me an answer. Sometimes it's just a small
little "yep I'm here" kind of feeling and sometimes it's a much
stronger, resounding answer that you just can't deny. Gosh I just love
being on a mission!
Anyway, though...so this week was fun! We started the week off with
something...well...a little interesting! I got my first stitches!
Woooo! Hahaha :) so before you freak out it's not a huge deal but I
did get injured a little bit. So Thursday morning while I was taking a
shower...a mirror fell on me! So I guess this apartment has been in
the mission for about a year now which is pretty new still...but
somewhere along the line some missionaries thought it would be a great
idea to put this huge mirror up against the wall across from the
shower head so that they could shave or whatever. When we got here we
thought it was pretty weird but eventually we just shrugged it off and
forgot about it. Well...funny thing is that when they put it in the
shower...they thought it'd be fine to just lean it up against the wall
on this shelf thing and call it good. We thought that it was glued or
attached somehow to the wall when we got here, so we didn't even
bother trying to get rid of it. So...months went by and everything was
all fine and dandy until that mirror decides that it's going to fall
over the day after Christmas on the first redhead that gets in the
shower...so that's what it did!
I was just in the shower facing the shower head and all of a sudden It
falls over, whacks me in the head, shatters, and then slices my finger
open when I instinctively reach back to catch whatever hit me in the
head. Then in hits the floor and explodes and cuts me in the leg
pretty badly, and then makes a ton of little nicks and scratches all
over my feet and ankles.
Elder Edmunds and Elder Cruz look at each other and think "oh
boy...what now...?" and come running over and start knocking on the
door to see what happened! Meanwhile I've got blood gushing out of my
finger in two places, my leg is bleeding, and I'm walking through a
bunch of broken glass frantically trying to get a towel around me so
they don't see me naked......priorities right? Haha
They open the door and get me out and bandage me up so I can put some
clothes on and go to the clinic to get some stitches for my finger and
possibly my leg. We just go and everything turned out fine...just got
six stitches in one cut on my finger and three in another and then
they just glued the cut on my leg closed because it wasn't super deep.
It was great!! Merry Christmas Cade!! :) I am so glad and thankful
that it wasn't anything serious, though. You look at the pieces of
glass that broke and you think about how it all happened, and I could
be in a LOT worse shape right now. I'm lucky (aka very very blessed)
that I came away with only those few cuts. Heavenly Father really is
watching out for me! We were laughing because it was probably Him
giving me a little reminder that He's in charge, because that morning
I'd woken up a little later than 6:30...I'll be following as many
rules as I can now, though! ;)
Ha oh...and one more thing...and you guys will think this is hilarious
kind of...but guess what happened when they were giving me the shot in
my finger to numb me up...go on I know you all know what happened....I
passed out! HAHA! This time, though, I totally forgot to tell the
doctor that that happens to me whenever I get shots...so when it
happened he and the nurse kind of freaked out because apparently they
looked away after giving me the shot, looked back, and when they looked at
me again I was slumped over the chair and Elder Edmunds kind of
freaked out because he thought I was dead for a little bit! So the
doctor goes over and lifts my head up and tries to bring me back by
just going "Hey are you awake? You okay? Come back to me." And he said
I opened my eyes like I was back...but my eyes were completely blank
of any expression and I just looked dead...then I closed them again and
kind of flipped out and started shaking a little bit like I was going into a
seizure! Then I just relaxed and when he gave me a little tap and a shake
to wake me up, I just opened my eyes and you could tell that I was
back.
Uh.....so that's never happened before. That was a little freaky but
now I know that it will probably happen every time a needle is put in
my body. The doctor said that lots of people do it and it's because
when my body feels a pinch like that on the inside of my body, the
circulatory system slows down for a little bit to protect itself or
something and in the meantime I lose blood going to my head so I pass
out.
I think he was kind of mad that I didn't tell them that it might
happen but I didn't know! It's only happened twice before that and I
thought I might have grown out of it because the last time I got shots
it didn't happen so I thought I was fine!
But anyway...so that was Thursday!! Haha
The rest of the week was pretty normal...we didn't really teach anyone
besides a few active members when they fed us until yesterday when we
got to have a lesson with a couple less actives which were really
good. We're getting there, though! It's cool to be white washing
because you can see the progress and we're starting to see a lot of
it! We're slowly building up our pool of people to teach so were super
excited :)
Well...I hope everyone had a safe, fun New Years Eve and NO I did not
go to Times Square to watch the ball drop. Although it would have been
a lot of fun, it just would have been breaking so many rules, it was
soooooo cold, and it probably wouldn't have been a smart idea for a
sexy devil like me to be around a bunch of girls wanting to kiss a guy
on New Years sooo......hahaha just kidding! ;) but seriously...not a
good place for missionaries!
K well...I hope everyone has an awesome day and an awesome week! I
love you all and pray about you all the time! Keep being so awesome
and supportive...it really means a lot. You don't know how blessed I
feel to be in such an amazing family as this. Being on a mission has
increased my testimony so much...especially about basic things like
the Book of Mormon being absolutely 100% true and the knowledge of
eternal families. I know that we're going to be able to be with each
other forever. Sorry that you all had to be stuck with me but I'm sure
you'll learn to deal with it ;)
Better get going, though! Have a good one! Be safe. Don't do drugs.
Stay in school. Peace, my homies.
<3 Elder Cade

Don't freak out! I know the bathroom looks like a murder scene but it
really wasn't that bad :)