Play ball!!...and a new investigator!!

Hey mom! So I know you've been gone for a week but I'm probably not
going to be able to email back and forth today. We're going to....a
Yankees game!!! President Morgan got us all half priced tickets so the
whole mission almost is going!! We all have to wear our proselyting
clothes, still, so if you watch the game, you'll probably be able to
pick out a group of 275 missionaries dressed in church clothes ;) if
the camera pans over me I'll make sure and wave ;) anyways, I'll still
hopefully write a big long email about my awesome week but it probably
won't be til tonight. I love you! Have an awesome day!!

____________________________________________________________

Hey family!! Sorry it took so long to get this to you. I just haven't
had wifi until now so that's why you're getting it on Thursday. I
promise I'm not breaking any rules!

So this week was pretty awesome. Not a whole lot of exciting things
happened but it was still an overall, solid week. Right now we're at a
Yankees game and it's been super fun!! It's been a super long
game...super hot...super humid...but so much fun :) they did lose,
though...so that was a bummer.

Let's see, the most exciting thing that happened this week was that we
have an investigator finally!! So that Joel guy that I was talking
about last week, he's awesome!! We were able to meet with him on
Monday and he was so receptive!! He was like, "Well, God put me in the
path of you guys for a reason, and I can feel it, so I'm not going to
doubt anything that you say!.....that's like doubting God!!" Hahaha :)
we were like, "uh....YEAH!! :)"
We taught him a lot about the Book of Mormon and about prayer and he
was great!! He had already accepted to be baptized from the sisters,
but we gave him the invitation to be baptized on the 30th of
August...and he accepted!! :) we just gotta start planning a wedding
now...oh and I guess we'd better let him know that he's gotta get
married, too..

So yeah!! Ummm...last Thursday we had a really good meeting for just
the trainers and trainees. We talked a lot about faith and locking
truth in and locking Satan out. On Saturday we had a really awesome
day with one of the APs. One of them came down and wanted to hang with
us for the day. We went over to the Arends home (one of the super
great members in our ward) to help with some yard work (yes mom...I did
some yard work..) because they are having to move soon. After we did a
lot of spraying and pulling weeds, we had lunch, and then came out to
do some more hard work...but Sister Arend thought it'd be a good idea
to try and get us with some water balloons. Needless to say it turned
into an epic water fight. Haha We started breaking out the pots and
pans and were filling them with water and carrying them outside to get
each other! They wouldn't let us leave until we were all soaked.
So...not a whole lot more yard work got done... :)

Sorry that this email is so short. I thought that we would have more
time after the game to email but the last three innings took FOREVER
and we hit MAJOR traffic on the way home. An hour long drive turned
into a 2 1/2 hour one... I'm so glad we live in Idaho. The biggest
traffic jam we have there is when a cow decides it wants to walk
across the street... :)

I hope you all have an awesome week. I know that this Church is true!
There's no denying it...and I've found that the happiest I ever am and
the happiest others are is when they are keeping the commandments and
living the way that we should. It's interesting that almost all of the
people that fall away from the church or start going less active, do it
because they have trouble with a commandment(s). Oh, they'll tell you
that their faith is small and that they just "stopped believing in
Joseph Smith or whatever", but usually it's because they are
disappointed in themselves. I know that the Atonement makes everything
better. There isn't one sin that Christ didn't suffer for in that
Garden. There isn't one situation that He doesn't understand. Stopping
going to church or drawing away from God isn't going to remove any
guilt that we may feel. I know whenever I've felt far from God, the
natural man in me wants to hide and go away from Him...but it just
makes those feelings worse. I think the way that I've found out that
this Church is true and that Christ lived, and now lives, is through
repentance. The sweetness of repentance is unlike any amount of "fun"
this world has to offer. It may be more fun for me to go and play
games or go swimming with friends on Sunday, but no amount of fun will
make me actually happy. It's living the Gospel and sharing the Gospel
that makes me truly happy. And I hope all of you have been able to
experience that one way or another! And I know you have. Keep strong
and keep praying for me to be strong! I need it! I love you all. See
ya! :)

-Elder Stafford

YANKEE'S GAME!

These are all the pictures that we took at the game!! Everyone in it

are people in my district. The Elders are the ones that I live with
and the Sisters are also in my district. We're pretty ridiculous if ya
couldn't tell!