First Photos of my Missionary!!!

Today I got an email with the following photos. I am so proud of Jacob!  Doesn't he look great??

Last Complete Family Photos for TWO Years!

My daughter Adrienne is so talented. I was grateful she was willing to take photos of our last family activity for two years.  Taking Jacob to the MTC was fun and emotional and I am so glad for all these beautiful photos to remember the experience with! Just wanted to share these with family and friends!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy!

Angry!

Sad!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did my baby get to be 9 years old???

My baby, my youngest, my sweet little guy is halfway to adulthood!  I am not sure how that happened, but on Tuesday we celebrated Joseph's ninth birthday!

We stopped and picked up Adrienne and Jon and went to a fun place near Rexburg called Big Judd's.  They serve huge burgers and desserts. We ordered a large side of fries to share and an ice cream dish called "The Hungry Heifer".  It had 15 scoops of ice cream and five toppings!  And yes, that is a huge dog food bowl they serve it in!  It was a fun way to celebrate such a momentous occasion with Joseph!  An interesting thing I feel the need to point out, there were six of us sharing this dessert, (they brought us extra cups and spoons), but we were still unable to finish all that ice cream!  It was THAT huge!!

Adrienne and Jon ordered one of Big Judd's huge one pound hamburgers!  It was big enough that they had to slice it up like a pie in order to be able to eat it!

The very next night we got to celebrate again as Joseph earned his Wolf Badge and is ready to be a Bear Cub Scout!!

All is Well at the MTC

Hi Mom. I'm loving the MTC, it's a great experience. Easter Sunday was the best Sunday ever! President Uctdorf talked in the Easter Sunday Devotional! I liked how he talked about the Apostle Peter after he denied Christ three times. He denied Him because of fear and ever since that day he went and preached having "fear of no man" and because of President Uctdorf's talk, my fears have faded away.  Sunday Afternoon we went on a temple walk with our zone. Ever since Monday, our district is pretty much our whole zone. No new missionaries are going to be in our zone. Sunday night we watched a film called "Because of Him" spoken by Elder Bednar, his talk was powerful. He talked about putting off the natural man. He made a connection to Cookie Monster and the natural man. He made that connection because we as missionaries need to stop being selfish and prideful.

Elder T (my companion) and I are getting along pretty well. He was a runner back in high school and we went on a run once during gym time. The rest of our gym time was playing four square, one of things I played back at Jackson School. I saw Trevor Blanchard! He's one of the teachers at the MTC. I also met one of the Elders that I saw at In 'n out burger, his name is Elder Eden serving in the Madagascar Mission.

Yesterday night, Elder Oaks spoke in the devotional. The MTC has devotionals every Tuesday night. He talked about being effective missionaries. One thing that he said that every one (especailly ones who are preparing to go on a mission) is to be yourself and not someone else.

At the MTC we have classes and we teach acting investigators. Elder Tapp and I taught a sweet elderly man named Arnold. Is he Mormon and acting as an investigator or is he a real investigator? That, I don't know, as a missionary preparing to serve in NC, I'm just going to say he's a real investigator. Arnold is a very observant man, he knows that I'm a quiet man. He asked me some specific questions like "Do you missionaries force people into joining your church?" I've answered that it's not that we force people in (that's not our purpose as missionaries), the investigators choose their own paths and we (missionaries) are there to help them make righteous decisions. Yesterday he asked why we can't just sin all our life and be forgiven when we die and enter into the spirit world. While Elder T was trying to explain, I came across a scripture (Alma 34: 32-34), and I had him read it and he actually pondered about it. In this passage I've learned that when we die, our spirits will have that same personality. 

This Morning we went to the temple and did endowments.

I hope everything is going well, and I wish Joseph a happy (belated) birthday. I leave the MTC on Monday morning, so I won't have a P-day until the 5th of May. I think it's different for every missionary, but My P-day is on Wednesdays at the MTC.

From, Elder Stafford

P.S. thanks for the immunizations records.

Easter Egg Family Fun!!

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday at church this year.  Also, since our Primary President is moving soon, we were released!  No new calling yet, so I will start going to Sunday School and Relief Society! 

As far as dinner is concerned, we had a very nontraditional Easter this year.  I just didn't feel like doing a ham, its really not my favorite food!  So Richard and I made a big batch of hot and sour soup, a bunch of fried rice with shrimp and bbq pork in it and pot stickers.  Adrienne and Jon came over after church and joined us. It was fun!

Since we ran out of time earlier in the week, we decided to dye our eggs on Easter.  We did cool whip eggs again this year. Its fun, colorful and you can eat the whip cream when you are done!  This is what happens when you dye eggs this way...

 

 

It's okay Jon, there is no wrong way to do this!!

Aren't they beautiful?