I am one happy missionary lately!!

Hello everyone!!!

I am one happy missionary lately. Things are still hard, the stress is
still overwhelming sometimes, but overall, I just feel happier. It's
kind of funny...I've been praying so hard for so long that I would
have a stronger desire to do missionary work. It's not that I don't
want to do it...it's just that I know that with it comes along stress,
exhaustion, and disappointment. Recently, though, I actually look
forward to getting out of the apartment to go and work. Waking up in
the morning is still one of the hardest things to do in the world, but
after that horrible thing is done, it's pretty easy to shower, eat,
and start studies. I have noticed, as well, that if you have a subject
that you are interested in learning more about, it makes you more
excited to study it. It's actually really ironic because I've been
wanting to study the same thing as Garrett has. When I got his email,
it actually answered some of the questions I've been having!! I've
also been thinking a lot about faith. It's always been an internal
struggle for me, on what faith can really do. I've always wondered,
especially when there is a hard investigator we're dealing with, where
the line is that you draw when it comes to faith. How long and how
much faith are we supposed to put into an investigator's progressing? If
they just won't progress, at what point do you say, "alright...enough
is enough. Our time is going to be better spent on someone else."? And
what about people that still seem like they need to be met with, but we
just don't have enough time?
So yeah, that's my question that I would love to hear your answers to:
When do we have more faith, and when do we use our heads? Does that
make sense??

My week has been a lot better, though...and I'm sure things will get
better and better! Not that they're bad...but things can always get
better, right? We've been doing a lot of finding this week. Well...we
wanted to do a lot of finding this week. On Thursday, we had
interviews with President Morgan and a great meeting with a senior
couple in our mission. This was the shortest interview I've had on my
mission! It was pretty much, "how's your area doing, Elder?" "Are you
getting along with Elder Nielson?" "Awesome...you're doing an awesome
job. Keep it up!" And that's about it! haha I'm not really sad that it
was so short, though. I LOVE President Morgan...but I knew that he had
a lot of interviews to do and he was already super behind. I expressed
that I genuinely have felt much happier. It was cool because as soon
as he asked me how I was doing personally, I just went off about how
I've been feeling happier. I didn't even think about it. That just
kind of shows me that I really am...and I'm not just imagining it ;)
After the interview, though, we had a big, nice long talk about how to
keep our apartments clean. I loved it! Believe it or not, mom...but I
am much much cleaner than most people. I hate feeling like the place I
live in is dirty. I'm pretty bad about being "cluttered" like how I just
kind of throw my clothes on the floor and such...but never dirty. It's
hard to keep it not dirty when it's only you and someone else cleaning
for four or more people.

So after being sufficiently humbled by that...we all went home
and...........cleaned! Our big appointment fell through, so we
literally spent the rest of that day, and then most of the next day
deep, deep cleaning out apartment. Mom...you would be proud at how
deeply cleaned our place is haha. It was really nice! We realized,
though, that because we spent so much time doing that, our numbers for
the week of lessons and stuff weren't going to be as high. So what we
decided was that we were going to say that we had one baptism for the
week....our apartment haha

Friday was pretty normal...Saturday on the other hand.....oh my word...

So I'm pretty sure that I told you guys about the llama/goat farm that
we've been doing service at...but just in case: a couple weeks ago a
guy from another stake in Connecticut had us go over to his friend's
house to help her with some chores. She runs a llama and goat farm
that she uses to do hikes and nature walk things with kids in the
surrounding area. She's a really nice lady and we think that we'll be
able to teach her. Anyways...so on Saturday we went over again to do
about an hour or two of service. Right as we walk into the barn, she
jumps up and goes "oh my word...you're here!" So what happened was,
that right as we were driving up, she was on her knees praying to ask
God what she should do. I guess her friend bought her these $400
tickets to a class that was happening right then, but she couldn't
leave to go to it because her pregnant goat was supposed to have her
baby within the hour! So apparently, we were the answer to her prayer!
We were able to watch the goat while she went to the class
that...ended at 6 at night!!!!

It was absolutely terrifying. As she is leaving, the mom goat is like
grunting and panting on the ground!! We think she's like ready to pop!
Before she left, she gave us a run down of exactly what we needed to
do when the baby was born until she got there. As soon as the baby
started coming, she wanted us to call her and she would run back home.
What we needed to do was grab and tear the placenta or birth sac so
that the baby could get out. I guess the baby isn't out of it already
like humans. So after the baby is out, the umbilical cord should have
snapped off, but if not, we needed to tie it off with floss. Then we
had to wipe it's face off and take a sucky thingy and suck all the
mucus out of it's airways. So pretty much.....run around like chickens
with our heads cut off trying to save a baby goat. What ended up
happening, though, was that the goat stopped panting and stuff and
after a while just stood up and started eating! What the heck?! We
weren't sure if she was going to go back into labor, though, so one of
us had to stay and just sit there with her and watching her while the
other one did some chores that she said we could start on. For the
first two hours we were on our toes just waiting for this baby to
come...but after that and it STILL hadn't come.....we just kinda did
chores and checked on it every once in awhile. We couldn't just leave
because the goat could have the baby and we couldn't just call her and
tell her to come back because we were the answer to her prayer! So
yeah...we were exhausted and terror stricken...but it was fun!

Other than that...not a whole lot happened! I mean, what would be
considered exciting after almost delivering a baby goat?! haha!

We're going to be doing a lot of finding and we're hoping to have a
lesson with that lady with the dog tomorrow! She cancelled on us last
week but guess what.......she's having us over for dinner!!! That's
awesome!! Investigators never have us over for dinner. We're super
excited for this one. She has a son that's probably in his early
twenties and then a daughter that is also probably interested in the
church. I feel like we're going somewhere!!! :)

Anyways...I hope you all have an awesome week! I love you all so much
and think about you all the time (not too much though haha)! ;) And
remember: the church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni is always
on the ball! :D

-your Elder
Elder Cade Stafford