This week has been pretty awesome!!

Hey everyone!! 

So this week has been pretty awesome!! The highlight
was definitely Friday when Elder Snow from the First Quorum of the
Seventy came to visit our mission. Every 10 months or so a general
authority comes to see how were all doing and to give us counsel and
instruction. everyone that is upstate right now came to Ossining on
Tuesday and the city missionaries heard him on Thursday.
We all got there about 8 o'clock and were there until like 5 at night
haha. We got there and ate breakfast (Scarsdale bagels like usual...SO
GOOD!) and then we met in the chapel together. He wanted to meet
everyone so we all went by rows to shake his hand, tell him where we
were from and our name. He was really nice. He is the Church historian
so I was hoping that he was going to tell us some awesome stories but
he didn't really. After 5 or so missionaries gave short 5 minute
talks, Elder Snow took up the rest of the meeting giving us talks and
then a training. It was really good!

Saturday was Dans baptism!! It was so nice and very spiritual. There
were lots of people there because a lot of people knew him because
he's been going to church for so long! We were worried that him being
baptized would be a problem because he has an absolutely horrible back
and very intense arthritis all over his body. He didn't have any
problems, though, and everything went well! A good friend of his that
had been home teaching him for like 9 years came from Newburgh to
baptize him.

After the baptism there was a talent show by the Danbury ward. It was
so much fun! There was lots of funny, cool talents. One guy even knew
how to play the saw!! And yes, it was an actual hand saw that he
played with a violin bow!! It was so cool! He played 'I Am a Child of
God' on it! I'll try and send a video of it.

Sunday was super crazy. We had 8 hours of church and meetings because
are covering both wards now. I love church...but I don't know if I
love it that much yet haha!  Luckily there was a super nice lady in the
Danbury ward that brought us snacks to eat after we were done with our
fast.

Then on Monday we went over to the Hippens house for dinner!! They are
this AWESOME family that is in the Danbury ward. They have three girls
and they are all so much fun. The youngest, Pip, is SO adorable. I
hope I can get a picture with her to send you guys! Hahaha it's super
funny because she has this thing where she collects "fairy jewels"
from the little grove of trees by their house. They're really just
little pieces of shiny rocks, glass, and beer bottles hahaha. (She's
like 5 by the way) so anyways, I heard that she did that...so I
thought I'd win this little girl's heart by running to Walmart before
we went over and buying this huge plastic crystal thing from the craft
section. I went up to her and went, "hey Pip! I heard that you collect
fairy jewels, too!" Her eyes got all big and she said, "yeah". And I
said, "well guess what, I've got a surprise for you! Today I found the
BIGGEST fairy jewel ever! I think it's the Queen Fairy's fairy
jewel." Then I pulled that thing out of my pocket and she got sooooo
excited! Hahaha she pretty much fell in love with me ;) the whole
night Pip kept coming up to me and slipping fairy jewels in my shirt
pocket. I gave her a big huge hug and told her that she was the best and
we were pretty much best friends!! :) We went over there the next day
to give Sister Hippen a blessing and she said that Pip hasn't let my
fairy jewel out of her sight :) I love her!

So yesterday was ridiculously busy. We had like 6 appointments set up
(all of them fell through) but we were rushing around everywhere and
it was sooooooo hot! It was like 85 degrees and like 90% humidity!!

Then we went out to eat with the Wens to this super yummy Vietnamese
restaurant. It was so good! I had this really delicious beef and
brisket pho noodle soup.

Things are still crazy with the two areas but it's fun! It's super
easy to stay busy! I'm doing well and I'm still loving Elder Fuller as
a companion. He's a great guy. Well...I hope all of your weeks have
been awesome! I love you all and am praying for you every day! See ya!

-Elder Stafford

Just for good measure...fist bumps are now officially accepted by the Church as an acceptable form of greeting :)

Me and my trainer, Elder Witbeck, before he went home

Me and Elder Fuller with Dan from Danbury

Me with Dan and his daughter

Me and my zone before transfers next week

Me and Curlin and his wife (members in Harlem)...he gave me some super nice shoes :)

We've all decided Elder Nielson looks like Buzz Lightyear hahaha!

Me and Elder Sprunt and Elder Nielson doing all sorts of weird poses...