Hey everyone!!
So I apologize that I wasn't able to get an email out to you
yesterday!! Something pretty crazy happened haha. So for pday, we went
and walked something called the Hi-Line with some other missionaries
in my district. That was really cool! It's like this above ground
garden that is built on an abandoned railroad track the goes above the
city. It's...an alright garden haha. The people in New York probably
think it's like the most beautiful thing ever but I've seen better in
someone's back yard at home ;) haha. But it was just cool to say we
did it. Then, we went to a few gyms around town to try and see if we
could afford any of them....nope! The only one that is affordable is
called Planet Fitness if any of you have heard of it. It's a good gym
and it's WAY cheap, but the problem is that to sign up, you have to
have a voided check that you give them, so that they can just take the
money out of your account on the first of the month. They won't except
any cards or cash...only a voided check. So unfortunately we don't
really have checks to give out, and even if we did, neither of us
really want/have money from home to pay for a gym. Guess we'll just
stick to half-hearted push-ups and crunches in the morning haha ;) But
after that, we went home before we were going to go shopping for food,
but we'd gotten a call from someone, so we called them back and it was
a senior missionary working in the office that had called to tell us,
an hour before we needed to be there, that there was a woman that is
moving into our ward. So far it was just her bishop that was going to
unload this big truck by himself, so we needed to help him. We went
over at 2:00 and stayed there until 6:00.... So that's why I didn't
email you, because we spent our whole stinkin' pday lifting heavy
boxes! Haha
But anyways, so this week has been pretty good. Me and Elder Stevenson
have kind of found our stride as far as our companionship. I've just
kind of accepted that I have to be extra responsible with him and be
very patient! It's been good!
So you asked what my day was basically like every day...
Well, so first we wake up, exercise (well...try and exercise), and
then I hop in the shower before anyone else so that I am not waiting
and waiting. We only have one bathroom for four of us, so we have to
hurry fast. Then I make breakfast, which is usually eggs, granola
(thanks mom), lots of fruit, hot cereal, or oatmeal. Breakfast is like
my favorite meal, so I usually make a pretty big one. Then we study
for an hour personally, then an hour as a companionship. After that,
I've designated an hour or so as cleaning time. We are really only
supposed to need to clean once a week on pday, but my roommates are
really messy and don't do their dishes or anything, so I usually just
do all of the cleaning. Elder Stevenson tries to help out as best as
he can, too. After that we have lunch and then try and leave by noon.
We'll go to the church and usually take care of something there, or
we'll have a few errands we have to run. Because I'm district leader,
I do a lot of interviews because there are four other companionships
in my district. We usually do those earlier in the day after lunch.
Then, if we don't have any scheduled lessons, we will start looking up
the members of our ward that haven't been to church in awhile. We also
have a big list of people that we have to try and get information
about that we think might have moved out of the ward boundaries or
something. We try and find out where they went so that the clerk can
transfer their records to wherever they went. After that, we'll
usually do some tracting or contact people on the street. We have
about 2-3 scheduled lessons with people every week (Greg, John, and
then maybe someone else we run into). After doing that, we'll have
dinner with a member, and if we don't have one with a member, we just
eat by ourselves. Sometime during the day we might go to the chapel
and do some online work, as well. After all that, it's usually time
for us to head home because we live 20-45 minutes away from home
depending on which way we take and how lucky we are with the subways
and buses. After we get home we plan the next day, set goals, eat a
quick snack, I like to shower again, and then we'll read scriptures,
talk, and then go to bed. Then we start all over the next day! Haha
it's great!
So something unfortunate that we learned recently is that some
missionaries have been abusing the music rule. The rule has been that
you can listen to it, as long as it's been sold on Deseret Book, it is
uplifting hd encouraging, and brings the spirit. People have been
letting too many songs or CDs slip that probably don't qualify for one
of those things, so President is changing it. In two weeks we'll only
be able to listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir or classical music that
is 100 years old or older.....yuck. Haha just kidding! I love both of
those things, but I like listening to actually good church music, too!
Some of my favorites are Vocal Point, Mindy Gledhill, the Lower
Lights, David Osmond, and I even have a Les Miserables soundtrack that
is edited with all of the bad songs out of it. (Yes it was sold on
Deseret Book when the movie came out, and I don't know about you but I
think it's definitely a story of repentance and change...plus it's the
most quoted play in General Conference, so I'm just saying that if
it's good enough for the twelve apostles, it's good enough for me ;)
haha). So yeah...I'm going to be sad to only get to listen to MoTab...
Greg is doing awesome!! HE CAME TO CHURCH THIS LAST SUNDAY!!! He's so
great! And he committed to be baptized on December 6th!! There's just
something about him that is different. It seemed like he was just
learning to learn facts...but now he is trying to learn to grow closer
to Christ and to Heavenly Father. He expressed that one of the main
reasons he meets with us is because he wants to learn how to have
better prayers. He's so cool!! We're meeting with him this Saturday
again and then hopefully he keeps coming to church!! :D
So yeah, I actually gotta get going, but I hope you all are having a
good week! I love you all so much! Talk to ya later!
-Elder Stafford
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