Email 12/19/11

     Well I can't believe it's a week away from Christmas.  I hope everyone has some fun plans for it.  I know I'm very excited to call home on Christmas day.  Honestly not a whole lot happened this week for me.  After the two baptisms we had last week, we've just been doing a lot of finding.  We got a couple of great people that we did start teaching though this week.  Jeremiah and Megan were a referral from one of the members.  They just had a child who was born with a back handicap.  I wish I could say what it is but I guarantee I will butcher the spelling.  What I do know is that he won't be able to use his legs because of it.  They are a very nice family though who will benefit so much from the knowledge of the gospel.   We have a few church tours lined up with some potential investigators this week and hopefully they will go well.  Transfer calls were yesterday and I am staying in Chewelah, but Elder Dees is leaving.  My new companions name is Elder Brown and I'll be meeting him on Tuesday.  I'm very excited for this upcoming transfer and I love being a missionary and going out to bear my testimony of this gospel.  I hope all of you have a great Christmas, and I'll talk to you on Christmas.   I love you all

Elder Stacey

Email 12/12/11

   Hello again from Chewelah, we had a great week here.  We had a couple of really great baptisms on Saturday and Sunday.  James and Chris both got baptized and both had a great turnout to them.  Chris Larkin probably had over half the ward attend his.  Not many people were willing to miss that one since he had pretty much been a part of the ward for two years.  But like I said, both of the baptisms were awesome and spiritual.  Because of these baptisms we will have to try to find some new investigators.  We have a few really great potentials that we just need to contact first and I know that there are more out there, we just need to find them.  Other than that, we started a new program called teaching in chapels in our area.  Our zone was the last one in the mission to receive them, but now that we have them I love them.  They have a lot of purposes, but their biggest is to get an investigator to have his or her first lesson in the church where the spirit can be felt stronger.  We spent much of last week taking the members through so they know what it is and how they can help make the chapel tours effective.  Thats about it for this week,  transfers are next week and so if anyone is planning on sending mail that will probably arrive next week then you might like to send it to the mission office until I find out if I'm staying or leaving Chewelah.  Have a great week everyone.

Love,  Elder Stacey

Not a Whole Lot to Say 12/05/11

Hi family.  There isn't a whole lot to say about last week.  I had my first zone conference, which was held in Spokane.  It was a very spiritual experience for me, plus it was nice to go back into civilization for a while.  We didn't have very many lessons this week because of zone conference and also we were at the church pretty much the whole week helping to set up a program they do called "A Night of Nativity".  It is a way neat thing that they have been doing for about six years now where members of the community can display all their various nativities in the church cultural hall.  I was wondering if that is the same kind of thing that the church in Midway has done for a few years as well.  It was very successful and beautifully done.  It is a really great way to invite people into the church and feel the spirit.  Once it was finally set up it lasted friday, saturday, and sunday, ending with the broadcast of the Christmas devotional in the chapel.  In all, there were a little over 200 non members that attended the event.  We even met a few potential investigators while we were there.  This week we have two baptisms, which I am so excited about.  James is getting baptized on Saturday and Chris (I think I've talked about him) is getting baptized on Sunday.  I don't really have a whole lot more to say this week so I'll talk to you again in a week.  

Love you all.

Elder Stacey

Had a Great Thanksgiving 11/28/11

     Hey everyone whats up?  I'm glad to see that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving morning was kind of depressing for me just because, you know, no family to talk to.  But it didn't last too long.  I had a lot more to be thankful for, especially this year being on a mission.  The Flemings were so nice to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner.  They had their three Ukrainian kids, obviously, but also their four other children came in from Utah and Idaho as well as a family friend translator and sister Flemings sister and mother.  It was a pretty full house, but it was a lot of fun.  I found out that the Flemings oldest daughter Dana is actually in a couple of divine comedy videos such as provo girls (or whatever that ones called) and the Harry Potter one.  Sounds like Payson was pretty fun as well.  I'm glad to hear that Ryan is considering a mission.  I truly believe what Elder Holland says about a mission being the best thing that a young man can do.  I don't have his email address, and I guess I don't know if you do either, but I would love having my weekly emails sent to Ryan as well as the rest of the family.  And in that package I did not get the pictures of grandpas breakfast, I did get all the ones of the rest of the family pictures though thank you.  The same day I got moms package I also got one from aunt Yvonne, so if you see her anytime soon mom tell her thank you so much, also if she wants you can put her on the email list.  I also received Michelle’s package, hahaha I love it, I can't wait till December now.  This week has been one of the best weeks.  We were able to put James on date for baptism for December 10th and with the other guy Chris Larkin, we should have two baptisms that weekend.  James is the perfect example of the Lord preparing people to hear his gospel.  He has made so many positive changes to his life before we even met him.  Leslie as well has been making progress.  She is still working on quitting smoking.  She is making baby steps, but has improved so much.  She was actually able to come to church yesterday which we were so excited for.  She couldn't come last week because her portable oxygen tank broke, and the week before because she had smoked a cigarette and she was embarrassed to come to church.  We explained to her that week that when something like that happens, church is just the place that you want to go to, because you have so many people who are willing and want to help you.  But she did enjoy church which was good.  We finally got 2 ward missionaries in our ward, Sister Pugh, and Sister Mearl, and they are the best.  They are like member wild cards that are perfect to take to anyones home because they just love and want to help anyone.  Great things are happening in our area and I really hope I get to stay even another transfer.  I don't really know what else to say this week other than I love you all and pray for you.

   Elder Stacey

 P.S.  Oh ya, I remembered one other thing.  Yesterday night we were over watching the Testaments at the Jones and we heard their dogs barking outside, then one of them started yelping.  They've seen some green eye reflections around their property the last couple of days and think its a cougar probably trying to hunt some of their horses.  Once they heard the yelping, all the adults jumped up and grabbed rifles and handguns that were scattered around their kitchen, and hanging by their front door and wherever else they keep their many many guns, and went out hunting for the cougar.  It made my adrenaline start to rush, but it was really cool for some reason too.  That was definitely not an experience I was expecting to have when I received my call to Spokane

Happy Thanksgiving 11/21/11

     Hi everyone hows it going?  It sounds like everyone has got a lot of fun plans for Thanksgiving this year.  It also sounds like it's been a pretty eventful week for everyone.  Thanks for the package mom, everything (especially Tim Tams) is great and the aleve came most timely.  This week, has likewise been a great and eventful week, with a bomb of awesomeness to finish it off on Sunday.  First of all, we got our first snow storm last week.  We recieved almost a foot of snow and freezing cold temperatures:(  It's also snowing right now and it's supposed to snow off and on all week.  From what I hear, snow doesn't melt up here until spring, so once you get anything substantial, then it's there all winter.  The plows around here I'm convinced don't know how to plow because on the street next to our church is about 3 inches of ice and Elder Dees, not me, slid our car into a ditch.  Like I said last week, Elder Dees and I both stayed in Chewelah, so things went on as normal.  We had a great lesson again with Leslie.  She has been having difficulty quitting smoking.  We stop by everyday to give her scriptures and notes of encouragement and I believe that has helped for her to know that she has a support for her.  She always gets really excited when we come over and also the memeber whos been fellowshipping her, Bro. Bowers.  If things go well with her and with smoking especially, then she will be baptized the second week in December.  We also had a great lesson with James this week.  He is very quick at understanding the things we've been teaching and has been putting forth a bunch of his own effort to read the Book of Mormon, and go to church.  He's actually discussed baptism with the family that he's been staying with and when we see him this week we want to set a baptismal date for him.  The spirit has definately touched him and I truly believe that this is what he wants to do.  A miracle came yesterday and pretty much out of nowhere.  One of the wards "eternal" investigators whos been investigating for over 2 years came up to us yesterday and told us he wanted to be baptized on the 11.  It was very surprising to the ward and also to me.  I'd only been over to visit with him once and I'd gotten the impression that he knew what he's been taught was true, but he was afraid to commit to anything.  Well, he's decided now that this is what is right for him, and from the little bit I've been able to talk to him, he has a very strong testimony and will continue to be able to strengthen it.  He's only 18 so prospective missionary as well.  On the topic of Thanksgiving, we are going over to the Flemings and having dinner with their whole family who will be in town, as well as a translator, so maybe we'll have a lesson of thanksgiving for the Ukrainians.  I think thats all I had to say so I'll talk to you later.  Love you all

Staying In Chewelah

     Oh my goodness I'm so happy to hear about everything thats going on at home!  In the past couple of weeks I feel I've gotten some of the best news of the year.  Our new investigator that we've been teaching, James, has been gaining a testimony of this gospel very quickly.  He'd told the family he was staying with that he wanted to take this whole thing kind of slow, but after a lesson we had with him about the gospel of Jesus Christ on friday, he told them that he decided he wasn't going to take it slow anymore.  He says that it all just makes sense to him.  We are having another lesson with him on Tuesday or Wednesday and are going to invite him to be baptized.  I cannot think of a better family to be fellowshippers either.  It is the family that I was talking about whos kitchen is in an old garage and their bedrooms are all trailers.  They are self proclaimed rednecks, but some of the greatest people I have ever met.  We decided that they would make a great "I'm a mormon" profile video.  We just had the Word of Wisdom lesson with Leslie and committed her to quit smoking and gave her a blessing at the end to help give her strength to do it.  It's been pretty hard for her, but she's definately making progress and she really wants to quit and be baptized.  We had our transfer calls yesterday, and both Elder Dees and I are staying in Chewelah, which is good, because a lot of good things are going on here.  I love the ward and I love all the people that we have been teaching.  The end of the week was a little harder because everybody, and I mean everybody, who we had planned on seeing cancelled on us.  We only got one of our scheduled lessons in on friday and we didn't get any on saturday or sunday.  I'm not going to lie I was kind of annoyed, but I can't choose what other people are going to do.  I can just choose to be patient and love them anyway.  Thats about all I have time for so I love you all and I'll write you later.

   Love Elder Stacey

Weekly Letter 11/07/2011

Hey everyone,

     Once again it is good to hear that everything seems to be going well, albeit a little hectic it sounds like, but such is life I suppose.  It's been a good week for me too, but as well, hectic and a little stressful.  My companion and I have been doing a lot of finding and tracting this past week to find some new investigators to teach.  Our prayers were finally answered with an awesome new investigator yesterday and some great potential people who seem pretty interesting in learning more about the LDS church.  I don't think I"ve talked about him before, but his name is James, he's 18 or 19 years old and he's been living with some members for the last couple of weeks.  His interest in the church started from watching mormon.org commercials.  His interest grew, I'm sure, by watching this family he's been with and seeing how happy they are and what a unique spirit they have in their home.  Before we were even able to teach him any lessons, he'd expressed interest to go to church with this family, (which he did) and reading the book of mormon by himself.  After our gospel principles class that he went to, he even borrowed a book to take home to catch himself up on the lessons that he'd missed.  Leslie, our on-date, is doing very well too.  She was not able to make it to church this week because she had to go to Portland for a funeral, but we have a lesson with her tonight and she's been doing better every lesson.  I love to see little changes that people make as they gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and his church.  In Stephens e-mail to Megan and I, he talked about being more optimistic than your innard self feals and the unexpressed frustrations that are there.  Well I agree with what he says.  I've been out for only 1 transfer and I have already felt frustrations and stressing days and situations.  But I have also have felt the spirit so strongly since I've been out and I know that even though I can have those really bad days now and then, that I have the companionship of the Holy Ghost to comfort me and help me through them.  He doesn't make my problems go away, but he just makes it possible for me to accomplish them without going crazy.  I think I'm about to get kicked off, so I'm gonna go.  I just want you all to know that I'm working on writing letters to everyone, but I"m really slow at writing, this letter took me an hour=O.  But I really am trying, love you all and I'll talk to you next week.