...now it's just my life! It's great!!

Hello everyone!

This week has been a lot more normal than it has been lately! We were able to finally meet with this awesome lady and her son this week! One day while we were tracting, this lady and her older mom asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses (we get that A LOT here...I hate it). We told her no and who we were and she was really interested but said that these next couple weeks wouldn't be good because of thanksgiving and family visiting and everything so she told us to come back in a couple weeks. So this week we did and it was awesome! It was funny, though. When we knocked on the door and she saw who we were, she went and got her coat and came outside and the first thing that she said to us was, "so, you guys said that you were Mormons. Does that mean what I think it means?" And we were like, oh great, what now? So we were just like, "uhhhh we don't really know what you mean. What do you think it means?" And she was just like, "by Mormons do you mean that some of your men have more than one wife?" AHHHHH! Gosh dang it all you crazy religions! People are always getting us mixed up with those crazy FLDS or RLDS people or Jehovah's Witnesses or something. I'm pretty sure that that's why 25% of the people that say they aren't interested...aren't interested. Makes me so frustrated!  But anyway....we just told her that no we don't do that and she was super relieved and said that we could come in haha. She's super cool, though, and we hope that she's able to make it to church this week! She's a school teacher for Monticello High School! She's literate and not crazy!! That's better than 95% of the people that we usually talk to!!! :D

So with that Wesley guy... He still hasn't answered any of our phone calls. We've tried to leave voicemail messages and everything but it doesn't seem to be working. Looks like he really was scared off for good. Yes someone talked  to that lady and I think that she's going to be better from now on. Was just super frustrating and made us so mad. We can't really be super mad at her though because she does have some mental issues and she has some serious social issues as well. Well just keep trying with him I guess.

We also had our missions' Christmas devotional this week and it was amazing! We have some crazy talented people here in the mission. One of the elders, Elder Hurst, has one of the best voices I've ever heard! Then another elder WROTE all of the music for the program! That's crazy! It was so great, though. Really special.

Other than that we've had a pretty normal week. Nothing really exciting or different. I can't really say how...fun it is though. Like seriously, what we do would not be considered "fun" or "interesting" to most people...actually anyone really...except for missionaries. Idk...it's like once you're called to a position, the Lord helps you not only enjoy, but love what you do. Yeah, I was kind of resisting at first, but now it's just my life! It's great!

It sounds like things are fun back home! -18 degrees?? That's crazy!! What in the world! It's NEVER gotten that cold there! The coldest it's gotten here is like 5-10 degrees...it pretty much stays in the low 20s most of the time. Yesterday we got a lot of snow and it kind of shut our day down. The back roads didn't get plowed for a while so things were pretty slippery.

That's totally fine if you want to comment on those Facebook things, though! It really wouldn't be too big of a thing...just wanna be safe. Yeah, it's something that they want the whole mission to do every week, so that was our first one. It was great! I hope things get better!

Oh goodness mom you spoil me way too much! You really don't need to get me hardly anything! Just remember to send EVERYTHING to the mission office regardless of whether I'm staying in Monticello or not. They don't want anything to be sent to individual apartments anymore. You're so thoughtful, though. Thank you for everything that you do you guys. You're the best!

I love you all so much and can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!! Yes you can skype me! :) I hope you all have an awesome week! :)

-Elder Stafford

Oh! And tell everyone thank you so much for all the
letters/pictures/stories that came with my package for my birthday!
Especially Brandon's story that he sent me! It was great!! It was SO
something Brandon would write ;)

Me and Elder Rydalch with Santa! (Brother Vaccaro)

Making "ginger"bread houses NYC style at our zone activity

I ended up with a mini cactus at the "white elephant" gift exchange

I was quite excited about it! haha!!