Monday, April 4, 2011

General Conference is like Christmas to Missionaries!


Hello Everyone,

This week has been such an amazing week, but I'm going to first talk about General Conference because it is fresh in my mind. They say that General Conference is equivalent to Christmas to missionaries. Well that statement is very true. I was so excited for Conference I could barely sleep the night before. My companion and I committed someone to come to the Saturday morning session. We were really excited, but she didnt' have a ride so Saturday morning we were calling people to ask if they could give her one to the church. We finally found some people to give her one and we planned that they would pick us up at the church and then go pick her up and come back. We waited and waited and they didn't come and it was about 11:08. We called them and they said they thought it was for tomorrow, but they could still help out. In a hurry we drove to their house and knocked on the door. The wife said her husband had gone to the bank and would be back then we could leave. We waited very patiently and when he returned we got in the car. For some reason the whole family had to come and they had to put up the back seats, but it was filled with stuff so we then started frantically cleaning out their car. Again let me remind you that its about 11:40 and conference starts at Noon. We drove to this laddies house and we waited for her to get ready. Once we were in the car we started heading back to the church but the member driving kept taking the longest routes to get there. We were finally at our last light ready to turn right and once it turned green he went the wrong way. My companion and I had to just laugh. God must have a very funny sense of humor, he was testing our patience's that morning for sure. We finally made it to the church and were about 15 minutes late to the first half. It turned out great and our investigator really enjoyed it. I think she really enjoyed the talks given on women and family. After the last session on Saturday we went to a member's home for dinner. Their son is serving in the Denver North Mission so its always fun to have dinner at their home. We walked into their house and Sister Smith turned to me and she said, "Isn't that so great about the Fort Collins Temple?" I turned to her and I said, "WHAT?!" Given my situation this morning I had missed the first part of the session where they had announced that Fort Collins would be getting a temple. I thought she was joking and they had to take me to their computer and show me the part where they had announced it. I started screaming and I felt really embarrassed because I started crying. I have never been so happy before for something. I couldn't believe it! I GET A TEMPLE IN MY HOMETOWN! This was the greatest news I could ever hear. I wish you could ask my companion, but the whole rest of the night I couldn't stop smiling and every time I would think about it, I would start screaming. I'm so grateful for all the strong members in Northern Colorado, because of them we are able to open a temple! We have been truly blessed! I can't wait to see how the nonmembers react to it. Fort Collins just got THAT more amazing! I didn't think it could get any cooler, but WOW was I wrong! I'm going to start crying again this is so amazing! I'm sad I missed it but it was worth it because we got an investigator to the session! I LOVE TEMPLES!!!
I loved conference! I don't think we realize how lucky we are to have a living prophet on the earth today! He is so in tune with the spirit and God Speaks through him. Think of that, God speaks through him. Everything we were taught yesterday was from God. We are so blessed to have that in our lives! I loved the talk about be as a child, I loved all the talks on service. I like when Uchtdorf said, "God does notice us, but it is usually through another person he meets their needs, therefore it is vital that we serve." So great! Service is so important! I loved the talks on family and marriage. Its so important to keep our families centered on Christ in these last days. I loved the Prophets message on Temples. As missionaries I have that desire for people to get to the temple. I see so many families who haven't been sealed and it makes me so sad. No matter the sacrifice GET to the temple. The story he told in the beginning was so touching. It shows us how important it is to go to the temple with our families. No matter the obstacles we need to get there. I also loved Hollands talk on conference and the purpose of it. These apostles and Prophet give us warnings. I loved when he said they are mortal messengers with angelic messages. I also loved his sweet testimony on the Prophet. We are so blessed to have President Monson and we should realize how much he does for the church. We are so lucky to have such amazing prophet and apostles to guide us through these latter days! Of course I just loved Scotts talk, me and every other women who were listening. (lol) He is just amazing and so sweet when he talks about his wife. I also was very excited to see that the BYU-Idaho choir was singing in conference. They were amazing and it was fun to see my Choir director. They were so amazing and it was great to see my school there! I don't have to much time so I can't talk about all of conference, but those were some of my favorites. I just love conference and I'm already looking forward to the next one!
This week I went to Return and Report. The district I came in with from the MTC met in Utica and we had a conference. It was great to see all my friends again and see how they have grown! My Mission President is amazing! He taught seminary and institute for 30 plus years so he really knows how to teach. When he teaches us he really pumps you up for the work. He knows the right things to say and is an amazing teacher. It was so great to see everyone again and be taught on how to be a better missionary. Every time I leave those conferences I feel refreshed and ready to get out there and work some more! I'm so glad I'm here!
One last story that happened to me and my companion this week that was amazing. On Wednesday we planned on going to Schenectady but I kept thinking that I didn't want to go there. We had spent the last couple of days there and I felt that we should spend some time in Glenville. We changed our plans and typed in a less active into our GPS and started on our way to her house. While driving we hit some road work and we then had to detour into a neighborhood. We were on the road of a former investigator that we have tried to see before, but they were never home. We decided we should stop and check on them again. We knocked on her door and Amiee answered the door. She knew who we were and let us in. She was so cool and so much fun to talk to. She kept telling us how that morning she had been feeling sad and then we knocked on the door. It was so amazing! We talked to her for awhile and her husband got home and they fed us dinner. Weirdly the member we were suppose to eat with that night had cancelled. They were the coolest couple ever and they were so spiritually prepared for us. I felt like they were already members! We sat down with them and watched some movies on mormon.org and you could tell they felt the spirit! They recently had a death in the family so we showed the Jenny video. It was amazing! I know the Spirit led us there on purpose. On our drive home the road work that had detoured us to her house was gone. WOW.. we were totally led by the spirit to her house! Its amazing! I thought of the talk by Elder Bednar about the spirit of revelation. Sometimes we are being led by the spirit and we don't even know it. This was a great example of that! It was a great experience and I will never forget it!
This week has been very action packed! General Conference weekend is the best! It was so great to know that my family was watching it at the same time I was. The happiness it brings, its just amazing! I can't wait to start using these talks in my lessons with less actives and investigators. I love the Spirit and so happy we were led to Amiee. I'm excited to see what the next month brings!

I love you all,
Sister Stacey!

YAY FOR FORT COLLINS TEMPLE!

Pic 1: We found the Cullens house! No vampires though..

Pic 2: that was at Return and Report.. my friends from the MTC with their new Companions


Pic 3: There are so many beautiful churches in Schenectady so here is a pic by one

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