...It's About Becoming Disciples of Jesus Christ

Sorry this is so late! I wasn't able to get wifi until now!

Hey everyone!! 

This week was so much better than last week!! SO many
cool things that happened and miracles we were able to see!
The beginning of the week was a little hectic and it took us a while
before we were able to start doing actual missionary work. Thursday
was by far the coolest day of the week! We went down to Manhattan to
have that meeting with the two general authorities!! It was President
Monson and Jeffrey R. Holland!! ...........just kidding ;) wouldn't
THAT have been something?! Hahaha I would have been so nervous! But in
all seriousness, it was way cool!! The two general authorities were
Elder Evans from the Seventy and is head of the missionary department
(I can't remember his exact title) and Elder/Brother Alan (don't
remember his job but he is also over the missionary department
somehow...he is an Area Seventy, but his main job is to be Brother
Alan, who is in charge of the missionary work thing as an employee and
not a calling). They were both SO good. The witnesses of Christ that
they bore were so powerful. Elder Evans was the main speaker and he
was my personal favorite. Because we are one of the first missions to
get iPads, this meeting was to reset and refocus us as far as
technology goes. Church Headquarters has realized a lot of what works
and what doesn't when it comes to iPads and Facebook, so they've
started to develop handbooks to teach missionaries how to be safe and
effective, and they introduced those to us. The meeting was all about
repenting and changing ourselves into what Heavenly Father wants us to
be. One of my favorite lines in the whole meeting was what Elder Evans
said, "although we're going to be talking a lot about iPads and
Facebook and such, this meeting isn't about the iPads...it's about
becoming disciples of Jesus Christ."

The day after that we had a bunch of weekly planning until about 3
when we had to go to Newburgh to be interviewed by President Morgan.
While President was interviewing the members of the zone, the
Assistants gave a training which was really good. President always
interviews the zone leaders last, and because he was running behind in
the first place, and then he had a couple missionaries that have been
having some health problems, he ended up talking to them for a really
long time, and so we weren't able to be interviewed that day. We had
to wait until the next day and drive all the way to Poughkeepsie (I
can't wait to come home and hear how you guys pronounce that haha).
But anyways...it was so good! I love having interviews with President!
Sunday was a good day at church!! After church was a little rough
haha. All of our appointments fell through except our lesson with
Toese. And we were way late to that because a blizzard hit and the
roads were horrible!! Our lesson was good, though!! He's so solid!
He's planning on getting baptized probably March 28th
.
Monday was district meeting, MORE weekly planning (we had a lot we
needed to organize....oh the woes of having so many people to teach ;)
haha), and then we had our last basketball game of the season :( if we
had won we would have gone to the championship game...but we lost by
like 4 points :( so sad. But guess what? Volleyball season starts in a
week or so! Haha that will be fun!! :)

Tuesday was great!! Right after institute we had a brief lesson with
Cali!! Remember how I said that she's feeling really nervous about
getting baptized? Well, she told us yesterday that she now wants to do
it for sure!! She set a date for April 11th! And we definitely think
she'll be ready for that date!! :) were so stoked!

And then today we went to the Woodbury outdoor mall, which is like the
largest outdoor mall in the East coast or something like that. It's
full of stores that I am just way to poor to be going to, but it's fun
to go and look anyway :) one of the stores had a scarf...yes, a SCARF
that cost $385.....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

But anyway, I gotta get going. I love you all so much!! :) I hope you
have a wonderful week! Be safe and remember that God loves you!

-Elder Stafford