I'm not even kidding...the mission is so fun!

My dearest family,

...I am the worst person in the history of the world. I have been literally SO terrible at writing everyone lately. These last three P-days have been really crazy. The first one we went to these ice cave things that were pretty cool!! The second one was transfers and that day is crazy!!! We had to wake up super early in the morning to drive to Ossining which is like 2 hours away...then comes the meeting which is like another 2 hours...then we all talk and hug and blabber and mess around for like an hour...then comes lunch...then comes the drive home. So it's pretty much impossible to do anything that day. And THEN the next week we went to this resort thing in the mountains about an hour away which was SO fun!!! The Longs (the Senior couple in our district) know the owners there so we got in for free and got to hang out there all day!! We didn't get to swim at all...which was disappointing...but it was still really cool and I'll attach pictures. It's like this HUGE old mansion that's built next to this gorgeous lake. It reminded me of Peter Pan...don't ask me why...like seriously...I have no idea why. haha :)

But yeah...so this is my nice and relaxing P-day!

I'm not even kidding...the mission is so fun! I love Elder Rydalch! He's like this big, goofy football player haha. He's really into sports and messing around so naturally...we get along great :) We're constantly laughing about something or other that is funny that happens to us. It's so weird...I never thought that so many weird people could live in such a concentrated area...like literally we can walk 20 feet down Broadway (main st.) and something weird will happen to us. The other day we met someone that was crazy high and kept trying to tell us that we need to understand what Mormon actually means...hmmm? He tried to tell us that Mormon actually was Moore-men...which means "black men" apparently. So this crazy black guy was like scolding us for going around saying that we're black men. And then he got super deep about how we need to align ourselves with nature and how God is just a figment of our imagination and that really we're god and we can fly if we really really want to...but by then we'd just zoned out and started nodding our heads and backing away. Yeah...stuff like that happens alllllll the time.

So our day usually consists of us waking up at 6:30, working out/eating breakfast, studying for a few hours, eating lunch, and then we just go around visiting people and tracting (my favorite) and participating in ward activities. Speaking of which, Monticello is the only place where the branch here would reserve an entire classroom here at the church to be used as the "yardsale room" where people just come and dump off old clothes, furniture, and other junk like that to be sold at the annual yard sale which was last Saturday...it is so gross because people just dump whatever the heck they want to! We had to bring everything into the cultural hall last Thursday so they could arrange it into catagories and I'm pretty sure we all picked up some sort of lice or something because after we got done we kept feeling like there were bugs crawling all over us!! So gross.....

Ummmmm...I'm trying to think of something else I could tell you...it really helps when you guys come up with a list of questions of stuff you want to know.

I hope everyone is having fun at school! Ha! Suckersssssssss ;) haha it's alright...by the time you're all on missions I'll either be in college crying because I'm poor and hungry...or maybe I'll just live at home til I'm 40! :D

The C****** family (I'm pretty sure I've told you about them) is still on the fast track to be baptized!! It's going to be so exciting!!! They are so solid haha I'm pretty sure they're more active and participative in the Church then 85% of the members here... :) no but seriously, they're great and the rest of the members here are so awesome too! (I've already told you about some of the more interesting ones haha) I don't really get fed by the members very often but thanks to the dollar menu and frozen pizzas we eat well! :D haha jk! We actually eat pretty well. I make a lot of pasta and rice and TONS of hootinannies because everyone loves them over here!! haha Oh and one time (just a random story) I started a fire in the apartment!! haha don't freak out mom it wasn't anything serious ;) I was just making pasta or potatoes or something and I'd put some butter and salt in the water and when I looked away for a sec, it boiled over and the water evaporated but the butter like caught on fire which made some of the junk under the stove from other missionaries catch on fire so there was like this tiny little fire on the stove for like 30 seconds and I we couldn't decide if we should laugh or take pictures or actually try and put it out (I know we're idiots). It eventually just died and it was hilarious afterwards but yeah...we have fun.

But hey I better get going (we're going to play some basketball and maybe buy me another suit because come October we have to wear a suit all day everyday so it'll be pretty boring to just wear the one I have everyday! ( I know I'm such a girl...but hey...I'm in the classiest mission in the world! I gotta look good! ;) )    I'll pay for it using my credit card because I don't think I've bought anything with it yet sorry :/ I was just going to buy a bike like it said but we don't have any here!

I love all of you guys very much and I think and pray about you everyday! Have a good one! Be safe. Don't do drugs. Stay in school. Peace.

-Your favorite missionary!! :D

Elder Stafford