Elder Stafford

I did get the package a couple of days ago. Thank you very much. I love everything about the package, especially the minionary twinkies and the yoda t-shirt.

I'm getting along pretty well with Elder L. We didn't have to feed ourselves for dinner for the entire week.

It was great that you got to meet Bishop and Sister Austin. They told me all about the visit.

Thanks again for the package!! :D

Elder Stafford

Graduation...Finally!!!!

Elder Stafford

 I am still in Morganton, but Elder J will be transferred tomorrow. Normally, I won't know who my new companion is, but I found out who he is. His name is Elder Lyman and no it's not Alex Lyman. Yesterday we went to a family members house named the Wheelers. Brother Wheeler gave both Elder J and myself a priesthood blessing. If missionaries eat at the Wheelers, Sister Wheeler won't let them leave unless they bring some food from the pantry.

Right now, we have six people with baptismal dates. When I first came to Morganton, we had almost nobody to teach, but now we filled our teaching pool and have six people with baptismal dates.

I sent Annalina and Joseph with a letter and a couple of drawings that they'll like.

I hope you get to meet Bishop Austin, because I gave him my memory card. Bishop Austin told me that BYU Idaho was flooded. I hope the school is still okay. And congrats for graduating!

From, Elder Stafford

Internship Fun

Friday morning we took Richard to the airport. He was flying to Denver, then on to North Dakota for several weeks of training for his new job.  The kids were feeling a bit blue at the thought of their Daddy being gone. So I took them to work with me!  We went to the new building and played with some of the residents.  We brought puzzles and got a couple of the men to come out and join us putting them together.  First Harold arrived and Annalina and Shauntelle (my intern partner and dear friend) helped him with that.  Joseph and I walked down to Aden's room and asked if he wanted to join us. He said no, but wanted to show Joseph a bunch of his fun photos.  Giant fish he caught up in Alaska and pictures of him on his quad just a few months ago.  After that we headed back to the dining room and before long Aden came with some more of his puzzles and Joseph and I worked on it with him.  Both men got a little tired, but neither wanted to go back to their rooms.

I am so amazed by my children.  They were both so excited to go with me.  They were both patient and kind to these two elderly men.  Harold repeats himself a lot, but Annalina played along with him each time.  And Joseph was so sweet. He would pick up a puzzle piece and point to a certain area and say, "I think this might go somewhere over there" and then he'd hand it to Aden.  Aden would then find where it belonged.  At one point Joseph went to the piano and played a couple of songs he knows. We were there for about three hours and the kids loved it. When we got home they asked when we could go again. 

Today was my last day as an intern.  They were getting ready to play bingo in the old building and I went to the new building to get Harold and Aden and take them over to play.  Harold has Alzheimer's, and was very concerned about the time and about his daughter coming to visit him. He said he didn't want to go, but Hillary, the manager, asked me to see if I could get him to go. He doesn't get out very often.  This sweet man reminds me so much of my father. I asked if he wanted to go and he said no. I told him it would be fun and he asked if it was just elderly folks who would be there.  I told him mostly, but I was going to be there too.  He then told me that if I was going, he would go too.  So I walked them over and they had a great time.  Harold won several games, but was very concerned about the time and missing his daughter if she should come by.  I just reassured him each time that she knew where we were and would come find him. 

Although my internship was not all I had hoped it would be, I did enjoy getting to know some of the sweet residents.  I will miss them and will do my best to get over to visit them from time to time!

Elder Stafford

Here are some pictures that my companion took. I still can't figure out how to upload photos from my camera, so I'll just send my SD card when I get the chance.

A couple of the pictures are most of our district in a Zone activity at Bo's in Lenoir. One picture is of our whole district, Elder D and Elder S (the missionaries on the far right) are the Zone leaders.  The rest of the pictures are of us with a part member family.

L is an investigator that the past couple of missionaries have been working with. We are very careful with him because he can get offensive when we give him a baptismal date. He knows he wants to be baptized, but we think what's holding him back is that he has a step-son on a mission right now and we think that L is waiting for him to get home so that his step-son can baptize him. In the mean time, we are developing friendships with him.

One of the pictures you see is of Elder J and myself standing in front of the oldest church in the U.S.  Anyway, because of how humid it gets during the day, I would consider NC being extremely hot. We do have AC in our apartment.

We are working with two gentlemen by the names of T and J. We found T through tracting, he was really interested in what we believe. T is a Pentecostal, he does have a couple of issues with the religion such as they believe in a trinity. We met with T again last Friday and that's where we met his friend J. We taught them the Restoration. T asked if he could have a Book of Mormon because he would love to read it, he also wanted to come to church with us to see what it was like. T did not come to church yesterday, but hopefully we will see him at church this Sunday. We invited T and J to be baptized and they accepted it! If they progress and keep the comittments we invite them to do, they'll be baptized on August 3rd and confirmed on August 10th.

I'm excited for you to be graduating. I hope you get to meet Bishop and Sister Austin while they're in Rexburg.

The ward here is like a big family. Even though we haven't gotten any referrals from them, they try hard to do missionary work, they love to go out with us on teams.

A couple of weeks ago, Brother Mears asked me for your cell number because he wanted to text you to let you know how good of a missionary I am. I didn't know it.

From, Elder Stafford