ELDER CADE ALAN STAFFORD: First week of training is over...phew!!!!

Well, first week of training is over...phew! Things are finally back
to normal!! So, as you all know, I've been companions with Elder
Fuller for the last 4 weeks or so covering two areas. Well, when I got
Elder Prestwich (my new missionary) we were put in a trio until Elder
Sprunt got back from Utah for a surgery. This poor kid's first week in
the mission was crazy!! It's been really hard to have one on one
time with him because we have Elder Fuller as well. The two wards that
we are covering have also been having lots of people move, so we've
been doing a ton of service in the mornings. We've been so busy taking
care of "errands" for the two wards that we haven't really had any
time to do real missionary work in OUR ward!! The work in the Newtown
ward is kind of on the down swing from a bunch of baptisms a few
months ago. And since then, hardly any work has been done there
because we had to pick up the Danbury ward as well. There's TONS of
stuff to do in that ward, so the past cycle has mostly just been
working there.

But now that we're back to normal, were both excited to finally get to
work building up Newtown. And guess what we're gonna be doing??
Knockin' some doors! Haha I'm gonna give this guy blisters on his
knuckles ;)

It's been a lot of fun having him, though. He's a super awesome guy.
He's really really really quiet and doesn't say much, but he's really
nice. I'm hoping well get to know each other a lot better now that
there's going to be a lot more time for me to give him the training
and stuff that he needs. Plus we'll have a lot of time to talk while
we're walking around tracting haha.

Elder Sprunt is finally back. It's weird having four people in
the apartment again, though. Everything went really well and smoothly
with him as far as his surgery went.

It's been kind of stressful being the district leader recently. The
two Newtown ward sisters are kind of giving me grief. I'm supposed to
call the two companionships of sisters in my district every night to
make sure they made it home safe and sound and that they're working as
hard as they can and that they're happy. Well, for the past like two
weeks, the Newtown sisters haven't been answering their phone! It's so
frustrating! If I can't get ahold of them, then we have to go over to
their apartment and make sure that they made it home and aren't dead
or anything. They've just been really weird. Right before Sister
Randall left and this first week of having Sister Barlow here, they've
just seemed really secluded. They never hang out with everyone on
p-days, they never eat lunch with us when we go out to eat, and now
they're not answering my phone calls. It's really bugging me.

I also think they're a little upset at me. So every Sunday we report
the number of lessons that we teach to investigators, less actives,
etc...but this Sunday was a little strange. After calling and calling
them, they finally answered and while they were reporting numbers they
said that they had 14 "other" lessons, or lessons with an investigator
without a member there. That's awesome! Except that when I asked them
where they were from and who they were with, they said tracting.
Awesome again! Except that they also only reported one new
investigator... It really confused me because usually when you teach
an actual, legitimate lesson to someone on their doorstep, they say
that you can come back. As a mission, we strive for not only as many
lessons as we can, but GOOD, QUALITY lessons that bring people closer
to Christ. When you have an actual lesson with someone, usually it's
because they are interested. I mean you can't really have a lesson
with someone who isn't interested right?! Of course, there's always
those people that are weird and seem interested, but then never want
you back...but that never happens very often. Especially 14 times in
one week!!

So I asked them about it and just told them that it doesn't really
mesh for them to have that many lesson and only one new investigator.
I was super nice to them and was legitimately trying to help them, but
as soon as I mentioned it, they got really defensive and seemed upset.
So I just forgot about it and didn't go into it any more. When I
talked to the zone leaders, they said to wait one more week and see
what they report, but if they're numbers are still pretty skewed, they
said to have a little interview with them and help explain what a
lesson is with somebody. It's hard because so many missionaries are
really worried about getting high numbers, so they count little
conversations and things as "lessons". I'm sure that they weren't that
bad, but they do need to know that to count it as a lesson, they have
to be a good, informative teaching opportunity where you leave them
with a commitment and can follow up with them, and you feel like they
came closer to Christ because of it.

I don't know...it's just hard to balance everything.

But other than all that crazy mess, my week has been good! I'm excited
to get to really meet Elder Prestwich and get to know him and help him
be the best missionary that he can be!! He's awesome!! I hope all of
your weeks were equally good and hopefully better! I love you all
dearly and am always praying for you. Keep the faith and stay strong!
Love you!

-Elder Stafford :)