ELDER CADE ALAN STAFFORD: I Feel Happy And Satisfied With The Things We Have Accomplished

Heyyyy everyone!! So this week has been awesome!! I feel very happy and satisfied with the things me and Elder Moss have accomplished. We taught the most number of lessons we have in awhile so that was nice...but we've also just grown a lot, I feel. So a LOT has happened this week and I want to be able to tell you all about it all.

So first, towards the end of last week on Saturday, our Metrocards (the cards that get us onto the subways and buses) expired. Towards the end of every month, were supposed to get the $112 dollars on our debit cards to pay for a new one. This time, though, the money didn't come until YESTERDAY! So we had like three days where we didn't have way of getting to our area besides walking. It wouldn't be that bad, but our area is really long and on the complete other side of the island!! So we did a LOT of walking this week. My feet are killing me....

But it actually wasn't bad! We got to walk through Central Park a lot and it was really cool! The best part of walking through the park, though, was what happened on Saturday night! So we had to walk through the park to go to a dinner with a member, so we went through by this big reservoir. Below the reservoir, there was just this HUGE line for something. We start walking around the water, and we hear this super loud music bumping through the park. So we stopped and asked someone what was going on, and the lady said that there was a concert playing! So every year, the city puts on this live concert that had to do with serving the community. On there website, you put in descriptions of four things that you did to serve your community, and you get put into this raffle for tickets. They give away 48,000 tickets or so every every year, and then have the concert in Central Park. Cool, huh? So we start walking and we hear a song that we know! It was "Some Nights" by fun.!!!! It was SO loud and they were SO good!! Oh my word it was so awesome!! I got to hear fun. perform live! Be jealous! ;) so in the concert, it was fun., Carrie Underwood, and Jay Z!!! I was super excited for Jay Z but he never performed while we were walking past :( it was so cool, though!!

So before we walked through the Park, we were at a baptism!! No not for us unfortunately... But our investigator Greg came!! It was great!! So before the baptism we had a lesson with him about Joseph Smith because he had questions about him. We watched the Restoration video...and he cried!!! It was great!! Haha ;) but seriously...I think he really felt the spirit during it. It's cool because he's like this very serious Indian man, and I didn't think he had emotions... Haha jk again :) but yeah...it was good. So then we went to the baptism and it was AWESOME!! It was for someone in the Singles Ward here and he's this really cool Asian man named Anderson and he's way cool! There were lots of people there and the spirit was SO strong! Especially when we all sang The Spirit of God!! Oh my word, I wanted to cry!! And I looked over at Greg again...and I think that he was tearing up a bit!! Woooooo!! Haha

The baptism really helped me remember why I was out here. I kind of struggled a lot on Thursday last week. It was just a long day and some things fell through and I just got home and the stress just broke me. I cried for a little bit. It wasn't super fun. So Elder Moss was having a hard time, too, so while I was in the bathroom praying (I usually go into the bathroom to pray and be alone...it can just be hard for me to always have someone on my hip. I get in moods where I just wish I was alone. It's not that I don't like being with him, I just like my alone time sometimes), Elder Moss was praying as well. He prayed for a sign that we were doing what we were supposed to and that we are being effective enough tools for Him. So about 5 minutes later we get a call from this super obscure less-active lady that decide that she wanted to make us food! Haha soooo random. It was so cool. We weren't able to really talk to her, and she didn't speak a whole lot of English, but we definitely took it as a little sign from Heavenly Father. It was definitely what we both needed. Psh......of course God would have food be the sign that were doing okay.. ;) hahaha he knows us way too well.....

So on Sunday we had a special visitor come to our ward! The director of the new movie, "Meet the Mormons" was there!! Have you guys heard about it?!?! It's supposed to be sooooo good! And guess what...we get to watch it as a mission on October 10th!!! We're so excited!! The missionary department in Salt Lake figured that there would be lots of people asking us about it if it gets big (which were hoping it does), so they figure that we should be able to see it and know what it's about! Woo! Benefits of being the best mission in the world! ;) No offense to anyone else's mission...especially you Akayla ;)

So then on Monday we had a zone APF!!! We all met in Washington Square by NYU and set up four tables talking about the different prophets in the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Modern-day prophets. Our goal was to promote General Conference this weekend which I am SO stoked for!!! Oh my word...I tell everyone this but it's like the Super Bowl for missionaries haha :) but anyway...I think it was a big success!!! We got to talk to a lot of people!! I was able to talk to a lot of young college students that were interested in what we were doing! I talked to these two girls in college that were both super funny and cool!! They seemed really interested! Well, one said that she was set with where she is, but the other one seemed really interested in coming and having missionaries over! So yeah...it was a big success! After everyone got over being weirded out that we were there, there started to be a lot of people coming. It also helped that we had cupcakes that a member made ;) if there's one thing Mormons are good at...it's baking haha.

Then yesterday we had an interesting day. We were helping a member move her huge bed into another apartment in the East Village, and some stuff went down. So she's not that organized and she was kind of clueless on what to do, so she was like terribly unprepared. She tried to kind of set things up for us before she LEFT two days before we were to move her to go to a wedding! So she wasn't even there! So basically she left everything up to her friend, Ron, in the singles ward. He didn't know what to do because she had just called him the night before, but he consented and said he would help. So this poor guy rents a big truck to do the move and drives it over, and as he's pulling onto the curb, he misjudged the length of the truck and totally destroys the front part of the hood of this parked car!! Oh my word, it was horrible. It was right in front of a police station, so the cops got on it and had him fill out all the paperwork for it. It was bad. We were there for like 2 hours with him while he tried to help him with his insurance and stuff. He had no idea what to do, so we stayed with him and helped him out. Poor guy...just trying to do a good deed and ends up getting in a big wreck. Luckily his insurance covers it, but we still feel horrible for him! Everything worked out, though, I think.

Wow...so yeah...fun week! Well, I better get going! We're wanting to do as much as we can this p-day because it might be Elder Moss's last one! He got a call the other day asking about some driving records and stuff, so we think that might mean that he's going upstate :( we don't know, though! This cycle is a short one (only five weeks because they want next transfer to end before the crazy Christmas traveling season starts) so transfers are next Wednesday!! What the heck?! These five weeks have flown!! I hope all of you have an awesome week!! You are all so great and have been such great parts of my life! I love you!! Bye!

-Elder Stafford