ELDER CADE ALAN STAFFORD: Toese's Baptism!!! and Goodbye Elder Neuerburg :(

Hellllllo!

This week has been absolutely crazy!! Transfers are today! Isn't that crazy? Only two more cycles (12 weeks) before I go home! Elder Neuerburg has finally gotten out of West Point :( he had been here for 9 months, so it was definitely time for him to be gone haha. He was released as zone leader and made a district leader in Newtown, Connecticut! Exactly what I was doing a year ago!! I'm really going to miss him. He's been an awesome companion. We haven't had a single issue, really, and we get along really well. We are both inner thugs ;) you'll see what I mean from the pictures haha. You'll never believe who my new companion is, though. ELDER NIELSON!! Like, the guy I was companions with in Newtown! Haha we're going to do round 2 together. We'll see how it all goes! We got along pretty well when we were last together, so hopefully this goes even better now that we've both had a chance to have more experience and grow up some more. I'm interested to see how it all goes! I think I'm going to "die" here in West Point, which means that it will be my last area. I'm training Elder Nielson to be a new zone leader, so we'll probably go two cycles together.

This week was so good, though! Kinda crazy because we had to try and say goodbye to a lot of people, but we still got a lot of work done. The best part of the whole week was Saturday when we had Toese's baptism. It was so good. Lots of people came and the spirit was just so strong there. He told his family a few days before the baptism what he was going to do, and they weren't super happy about it. They tried to convince him to reconsider, but he wouldn't have any of it. He knows without a shadow of a doubt that this church is true. It's so amazing to see how much faith he has. His spirit is as big as his body is haha. You'll see what I mean by another picture haha.

We started working with this inactive girl named Brittany. She is about 26 or so and has been having some serious, serious issues. We found her through a member who learned that their boys are in the same Cub Scout troop in Highland Falls. She has a lot of problems, and so they way we started meeting with her was she texted the member she became friends with and asked if she knew anywhere that could give her financial aid. The member invited her over as well as the ward clerk and also us, to just help her figure everything out and start getting her life back on track. She was supposed to get married last weekend but the guy she is with is a complete loser and bailed on her. He is a completely abusive and psychotic guy that is just way manipulative and crazy. She's not too sane herself, but still...she needs to get out of there. Really the only reason she is coming to church and meeting with us now is so that she can start getting financial support...but we hope that that will turn around for her as she starts to feel the spirit again.

We met with the Ridgeway family (Hindu family) again!!! It was SO cool!! They are absolutely incredible people. They love us to death and treat us like royalty when we go over there. They were so touched by our conversation last time that they just consider us family now. When we went over, we sattalking in their living room and then Kris comes out with these gift bags! They bought us these supernice dress shirts and ties!! We tried to refuse, but they said that it is just their culture that when they have guests that they love, they always get them something. It was so cool. Because we are both from Idaho, Ian (the son) also got us something! He got us a post card from World War II that was printed in Pocatello, Idaho! Isn't that cool?

But anyways, so we started eating dinner and we taught them all about the Plan of Salvation. We tried to go really simple and basic, but they just weren't having that. They weren't going to be satisfied with us telling about the Fall of Adam and Eve in three sentences. They wanted to understand EVERYTHING. It was a little rough at first, because the Plan of Salvation is such a broad topic, and it's hard to understand some things without knowing all of it first. After we were able to answer a lot of their questions, they just LOVED it. The husband especially was very touched by what we had to say and said that we were able to answers questions that he'd had for his whole life. I think that the most progress is going to come from him. They almost cried when they heard that Elder Neuerburg was leaving :/

Well, that was about this whole week! I'm pretty nervous to take over the area, just because Elder Neuerburg has been here for so long that everyone knows him really well. I'm worried I'm just going to be that "new Elder" for a while...but it'll get better! I've learned that I really don't have to worry so much about those things. It's all in the Lords timing. I've been so amazed to have been a part of the Lord working through me. Especially with the Ridgeways...they are just so smart, much smarter than I'll ever be in this life, yet Heavenly Father helps me know what to say to teach these people that are a billion times more intelligent and sophisticated than me. It's so humbling. I hope you all can remember that it's really the Lord that is in charge. All we need to do is trust him and move forward! Have a terrific week! Love you :)

-Elder Stafford

Me and Toese. Sorry, I was kinda stressed at this point because the font was having a rough time getting filled up, so this isn't the greatest picture. I have a super fake smile.

Awkward steak selfie...we suddenly had an urge to grill when it was freezing outside and pouring rain...but we went for it haha. We share a grill with Elder and Sister Lotz, so that's where we got the grill.