Greetings From Glenville!

Hey!

Another great week in Glenville New York! I feel like this week was longer than usual weeks. We have been helping a part member family move this week and that's been fun. I like when people ask us to help with things. When we ask people if they need help with anything we really mean it. It was fun to help them pack and get them moved.

There is a less active in our ward that we meet with once a week. She is so nice and we love meeting with her. She sent us a card in the mail telling us how much she appreciated our friendship. She said she felt happy that we cared when no one else did and that it makes her want to believe again. I think its so important to just love people and eventually who knows maybe they will come back to the church. It felt so great to get that card from her and it made me feel like we are making some sort of a difference.

We met with Mike Sullivan on Friday night and there family. He was telling us how he bought a hot dog cart and wants to sell hot dogs like they do in the City. Of course I asked him to demonstrate to us with his New York accent "Get your Hot Dogs here!" It was funny! The lesson went great, his wife Kathy and his recently returned missionary son sat in. We talked about faith and we came to the conclusion that he just needs to start reading the Book of Mormon. Is great when his family can participate and bear there testimony, I believe that helps a lot. We asked him if he would come again to church this Sunday and he said he would! YAY! His wife Kathy said, "how do you do that?" I'm not sure how we keep getting him to church, but its a great thing!

We picked up a new investigator last week and met with him on Thursday. His name is Dave and he is an older man in his 60's. We can barley get a lesson in when we meet with him because he loves to talk and tell stories about his days growing up on the farm. He is really nice though! He believes in the Book of Mormon, but won't come to church. In the beginning of the lesson we asked him if he would come to church and he said because of health reasons he couldn't. The lesson went on and he began to tell us how when he was younger his parents would invite missionaries in the home. He started talking about his mom and he got really emotional. We told him that we believe his mom had led us to him. At the end of the lesson he turned to us and said, "I'm coming to church on Sunday!' YAY! We were excited! Maybe his mom is waiting for him to do her work!

So Timmia is the 11 year old that we set a baptism date for. We had a lesson this week going over the baptism questions and the elders stopped by so they could get her interview done. After the interview Elder Matongi my District leader was really impressed with her testimony. I think Timmia's grandmother really loved the elders because once they came over she got really excited about coming to church. Hmm.. guess she won't find out till she comes to our ward and learn that the elders aren't in our ward. haha So after the baptism interview we were all really excited for her baptism. The next day we get a call from our ward mission leader saying they want to make sure they set her up for success. The bishop wants to meet with her and her mom before. So I guess the baptism is being held off till that happens. I know she is ready, but we have to respect what the Bishop wants because he does know best. So it was kind of a bummer, but I know it will happen, I'm just not sure when!

Sunday morning at 6am our phone starts to ring and its Melanie. She had been up all night reading conference talks and had been patiently waiting for 6am to call us. She had read the talk that was in the priesthood session about Missions by Elder Anderson. She then told us how she wants to serve a mission and she was asking us what you had to do to be a missionary. It was early, but we both started screaming. haha She hasn't even been baptized yet and she is talking about wanting to go on a mission. During church she leaned over to us and said, "Do you think we can set up a date I can look towards for my baptism." I'm pretty sure that's the only time an investigator will set the date before we do. We had been planning on doing that with her that day. She is amazing! During church she was making all these amazing comments, it was like she was already a member. She is amazing and she is one of those people you know will make a difference in the church. I feel so blessed to have met her! Its fun because she is our own age so its easy to relate. We set her baptism date for June 25th, my last weekend in Glenville if I get transferred. I'm so excited for her and I can't wait for her to be baptized!

This Sunday was a little crazy at church. We planned on 5 investigators coming and only three showed up. Dave, Mike, and Melanie. Me and Sister Zwick sang in church so we tried to use that as an excuse to get people to come and it did work on Mike and Dave so that was good. We sang The Olive Tree and it was really good. I think people liked it a lot. Mike came up to us afterwards and said, "WOW..you both sounded like angels.. I didn't know you had that in you!" It was funny! Dave really enjoyed it and I"m glad he came, sadly he didn't stay for all three hours. During Gospel Principles mike made a comment about charity by using a scripture. I was so proud and happy that he felt comfortable to do so. It was an amazing Sunday!

I feel so blessed to be a missionary and share the gospel with others. It makes me happy to see others find happiness! We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives!

Love you all,

Sister Stacey

Random Pictures of the week

pic 1) New york has really big beautiful rivers this is one that is by our house.

pic 2) Watch dog in the ghetto (I thought this was funny)

pic 3) Another beautiful picture of the river at sunset

pic 4) Last week our district was going to go bowling, but it was closed. so we went to the park. It was fun!

pic 5) This is an older lady we meet with once a week. She can't get to church so we visit with her. She is so cute! Her name is Sally

Happy (late) Mothers Day!

Hello Everyone,
First of all I would love to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful father! I will be thinking of him all day! This week was another interesting week. My companion and I didn't have the car on Tuesday so we enjoyed the opportunity to ride our bikes again. This time our tires were pumped so we were able to make it to our appointment. The women we met was so happy we road our bikes to still make it to the lesson. She had done all her readings before hand and was so excited to talk about them. It took us 40 minutes to get to her house which wasn't bad at all. It was actually fun and the weather was really nice. We might actually do it more often even if we have the car. So lucky me on Wed morning after our run I went into my room and on my bed was a little bug. I yelled.. "SISTER!" Sure enough it was a bed bug. That was it..I'm not sleeping there anymore.These bugs just won't go away! We called our mission office and the landlord was going to get an exterminator to come on Friday. That means two more nights with the bugs.. I was actually considering sleeping in the car. That day was wasted to cleaning our apartment and getting it ready for the exterminator. We spent all day washing our clothes again. I would rather be out teaching people the gospel. The exterminator came, but there is no guarantee that the bugs will go away. The spray only kills the live ones not the eggs. I sleep with long pants that tuck into my socks. I sleep with a flash light so if I feel something crawling on me I can find it in the night. I usually wake up in the middle of the night and once that happens I'm to scared to fall back asleep. When the exterminator came he basically sounded like they will never go away. He said they live off of our blood and will be anywhere we are.(hmm thanks thats comforting!) It takes me extra long to get dressed in the morning because I have to check all my clothes to make sure bugs aren't on them. Its not a fun way to live at all! If ANYONE knows how to get rid of them let me know! I can't live like this for two more months! Ewwww Wednesday night we had a great night with Mike Sullivan. He and his family made us a great dinner and we had a great lesson about the desire of our hearts. We read the talk in Conference by Desire I dont' remember who it was by at the moment. It was a great lesson. I think that we first have to have a desire before wanting to know if something is true. So that is what we are working on. I'm not kidding I love their family. At dinner all we do is just laugh and laugh. Mike has one of those contagious laughs that once you hear it you have to laugh. When the time comes to be transferred leaving them will be like leaving my own family. The Lord has really blessed us this week because of the bed bugs. We picked up one new investigator and we got three investigators at church on Sunday. It was amazing! Timmia finally came and I believe she was happy to be back and going. I think she is getting excited for her baptism. We changed her date to the 21st because we wanted her to come to church a little bit more. But its still on and were both really excited. It will be Sister Zwicks last baptism of her mission. Sad! :( This week we went to the grocery store to buy grocery bags for our clothes and this women approached us. She saw our name tag and saw that it said Jesus and she started asking questions. You could tell she had a strong belief in Christ. It was weird because people usually dont' approach us. We chatted with her for about 20 minutes and she was nice. She told us that she could see the Spirit of Jesus in us. We told her about our church and she then backed down. She didnt' want anything to do with it, but was nice about it. She wouldn't give us her information so we left. Two days later we went to walmart (completley diff store) and as we were walking in we saw her. Coincidence... I THINK NOT! We started talking to her again and she was again so nice and chatty. She told us about her daughter and family. After awhile she asked for our number. Were not sure if she wants just a friend thing or if she would really listen to what our gospel has to offer, but we took the number. I'm pretty sure the Spirit lead us to her twice and I hope she will open up to hear our message. So I thought that was a cool story. That usually doesnt' happen...seeing a person like that twice in one week.. So cool! We had a great lesson wtih Melanie on Saturday. She is the girl our age who goes to Union College. We brought Sister Anderson a lady from the ward who is in charge of the single adults. So we think were going to try and get her around lds kids her age. She was so excited by the idea and I can't wait. I think this will help her with her Word of wisdom problems to be around good kids. At first she wasn't going to meet with us because she was going to go to this concert on campus, but she called us back and told us she needed spiritual guidance in her life. She is so cute and I love being around her. She also is amazing at writing poems and performing them. (I thought of Nick) She performed some poems for us and it was awesome! I just love her so much! It was a great lesson! Of course I didn't forget it was Mothers day and I did call home. I'm not going to lie I was a little nervous. I didn't want to get off the phone with them and be homesick. Its my first call and I believe the first call is the hardest. It was so great to have them pick up the phone and hear all their voices. It seemed just like yesterday I was with them all. It was so great to talk about the people here in New York and talk about missionary work. I also LOVED that they were asking questions about people I have met with. It makes me feel so good that they read my emails and follow along. It makes me feel like there with me everyday when I'm with these people. Its amazing how much I love my family! I feel so blessed to have their support! I thought it would be sad, but I just realized how lucky I am to be here and there support really helped me to refocuse and get out there to preach the gospel. I love my family and it was so so so great to talk to them and hear from them! Its weird to think that the next time I hear their voices will be in December. It was a great Mothers day! I'm so thankful for my mother and all she does for me! I feel so blessed to have her support and encouragement. She always gives the best advice and I consider her one of my best friends! I love you mom! Well I love you all! I feel like I'm repeating myself because I talked about most of this stuff in my phone call yesterday. I'm so happy I'm a missionary! I'm so happy that I can serve the Lord and be an instrument in his hands! I'm also grateful for phone calls home on Mothers day! Our Mission President told us that the numbers always go down the week after Mothers day. Well me and Sister Zwick are going to prove him wrong! Our numbers are going to be high this week!

Love you,
Sister Stacey

pic 1: Its a rule we have to wear bike helmets..

pic 2: Riding our bikes! YAY! Were happy the trees are starting to bloom!



pic 3: I don't know why I'm smiling. I was actually made that we were having to do this. Hopefully no bugs will get out of these!


pic 4: This is one of Sister Zwicks bug bites!


pic 5: We found the cutest Crepe restaurant. You best believe I got nutella on mine! :)



pic 6: This doesn't show all of them only some, but you can see some of the bites she got. Eww

First Zone Conference!

Hello Everyone,

This week I went to my first Zone Conference and it was amazing. I'm not kidding my mission president is an amazing teacher! It was great to be with other missionaries for the day. It comforts me to know that its not just me and Sister Zwick taking on New York by ourselves. It feels like that sometimes when we don't see other missionaries. My mission president went to an all mission President conference in D.C. and they were all asked to train us all on the same thing. I'm pretty sure that my mission president taught it the best over all other presidents. We talked about fufilling our purpose in the gathering of Israel. He talked about the Abrahamic covenant and how part of our covenant is to preach the gospel to the world. It was a great feeling to know that I'm fulfilling that covenant that I made to preach the gospel! Zone Conference is AMAZING! I learned so much and afterwards you feel so pumped to get out there and start teaching people. Me and Sister Zwick got really motivated to find more investigators and start teaching more lessons. I really love going to Zone Conferences and I can't wait for the next one.

Before I came on my mission all my buddies would tell me that a mission is filled with a lot of up's and down's. You can't really experience it or come to know what its like until you go on a mission. This week we went to go check on an investigator we hadn't seen in awhile. The first time we met her we knew we were led their by the spirit. She was so cute and so much fun to talk to and she was so eager to learn. She instantly became one of our favorite people. So we went to her house and we saw her about to walk out of her house and she saw us and said, "not today girls" and slammed the door in our faces. I was crushed! I didn't believe that she really had done that, we were her friend. It was really hard to let that go. That agency really stinks sometimes..haha Its hard because we knew we were led to her by the spirit. As a missionary you get to in some sense feel how our Heavenly Father feels when these people turn us away. I barley know these people and I'm so sad to see them do that, imagine how our Heavenly Father feels. Imagine how he feels when people turn his gospel away everyday. I don't know how he does it. I feel as if he is right there with us when we get sad about someone slamming the door in our face.

We got Mike a part member investigator to come to church again. That was exciting! We couldn't on the other hand get our investigator who has a baptism date to church. I think one of our biggest struggle is getting investigators to church. Church is so important and when they go they can feel the spirit and they progress so much faster, but when they don't come you can never move forward. Its so hard to get them to church. So any RM's if you have any great suggestions let me know!

This Saturday was AMAZING! We had back to back lessons all day long! It was seriously heaven! It was the best day ever! Teaching is the best part of the mission, but sadly that's not what we do all the time. When we don't get help from members we end up having to track or find people on our own and its not always that fun! (haha) It was so great to teach all day! I think our new goal is to try and get enough lessons so we can make everyday like that! :)

This week we met with this guy who probably isn't invested in getting baptized. He is non-denominational, so basically he believes in everything as long as it goes a long with the bible. It was so hard to teach him because he just wanted to learn out of the Bible. When he first wanted to meet with us he asked if we wouldn't bring the Book of Mormon. I laughed because there would really be no point at all in meeting with him if we didn't bring the B.O.M. It was just funny, but don't worry you best believe we brought the Book of Mormon. I was a little nervous about meeting with him because I don't know the bible very well. The lesson was civil and learning was on both ends. The whole time we were teaching he asked us where we got our information from and we would pull out the bible and show him, but he would say "no that's not what that scripture means." He looked at the bible to much in a literal way. Later on in the lesson he told us he believed that the Body, Soul and Spirit were three different things and then we asked him, "where does it say that?" and he says, "well I don't know" It was so funny! These people. At the end of the lesson he refused to read out of the book of mormon. He had a book that talked about the Book of Mormon and he said by reading that, that was all he needed to know. Oh man it was hard to meet with him, but he was nice and we did pretty well at knowing our stuff. I was very proud of myself. In those situations you just need to bear your testimony.

It was another great week! I still have bed bugs in my apartment, but we got to the point were sick of dealing with it. We just want to do missionary work. Who knows what will happen, I do know that no one is going to want to be my companion next transfer. haha I miss and love you all!

Sister Stacey

P.S. Letters are very much appreciated! I love hearing from people!

Pic 1and 2: We offered to talk a Less actives dog on a walk. Poor dog never gets out of the apartment. The dog was so happy!

pic 3: There is a college in my area. This was a building on campus. I thought it was so beautiful! It reminded me of Israel

pic 4: My first Zone Conference

Bed Bugs and Baptism Date...Bittersweet week!

Hello,

Wow, where do I start. This week has been crazy! Remember last week when I told you my companion was getting weird bites all over her body..well we figured out where it was coming from. Last Monday we ate at the Dinkel's one of our favorite families in the ward. Both of them served foreign missions so they were telling us stories. They started to talk about gross bugs that were on their mission..so we decided to tell them that Sister Zwick had been getting weird bites. They believed it was Bed Bugs(a problem New York is having). We went to the Internet to research and they showed us pictures of bed bug bites and they looked exactly like sister Zwicks. They started to read the description of where they come from and what they do.These bed bugs hide in your clothes and your bed and come out at night and bite you..ewww He read this part that stuck out to us saying they come out to bite you right before dawn. We left our dinner appointment freaked out and feeling itchy. That night was probably the worse nights sleep I have ever had so far on my mission. Me and sister Zwick woke up every hour waiting for dawn to come, because we knew that when dawn would come they would come out of the bed to bite us. We were freaked out! The next morning we called my mission Presidents wife who told us, sure enough you have bed bugs. She told us that we should take all our clothes and go wash them and spray down our whole apartment and beds with this poison stuff. We called a member who lives by us and she was more than happy to help us. With out question she had us come over to wash our clothes. We went in and out because we had lessons we had to teach. That night we went to a members home to celebrate passover. I was so excited, I hadn't celebrated passover since I was in Israel. The member used to be Jewish so he was able to do it just like I remembered. (I was in heaven) We were all sitting around the table reading in Exodus about the different plagues that occurred. Sister Zwick was reading in chapter 8 and she started reading the verse where it says, "And the river shall bring forth frogs..which shall go up and come into thine house, and into they bedchamber, and upon thy bed..." at this very scripture we both started to laugh. We had to be serious because it was in the middle of passover, but all we could think about was how our apartment has nasty bed bugs everywhere and this scripture relates too well not to laugh. It was one of those moments. After passover we went home to spray our apartment and the member Sister Maughn let us spend the night so we wouldn't have to sleep with the poison. I'm not kidding that night we slept the best we have since we came out on our missions. It was amazing and we didn't have to worry about bugs biting us. The next day we had to wash more clothes and we went home thinking they would all be gone. Two days later we saw some more. We really don't know what else to do. So we still sleep in terror waiting for the little bugs to bite. Now I fully understand the phrase.."Sleep Tight...Don't let the bed bugs bite" I feel so blessed to have such awesome members around to help us. They have been so willing to help! I really don't know what we are going to do, every morning I have to check my clothes before putting them on just in case a bug is stuck to it. I have been thinking about my two older sisters and how they probably would have literally died by now. hahah Its been such a crazy week, I really hope we can get rid of these bugs, because its been really hard to focus. I just want to be able to come home at night and relax, but instead I'm always worried about where I walk and sit. gross...I'm so glad I'm not serving in a South America mission. If I can't handle this..I would have not been able to survive those missions. haha

Despite the bed bugs we had the best blessing come. I SET MY FIRST BAPTISM DATE!!! We met with a 11 year old girl this week named Timmia. We have been meeting with her for awhile and we felt it was time to set her with a date. We first asked her when she would like to be baptized and she wanted to do it on her birthday..which is Feb. 24th..um.. too far.. we then were able to get the date to May 14th. She was so excited and she said the sweetest prayer afterwards about how she was so excited about baptism and that she hopes we can find more people to teach like her. I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day, I was so excited! I really hope she will stick to her date and we can get her baptized! It just made me so happy! The Lord is really watching out for us.

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We ate at the Bishops home Saturday night and we were able to decorate some eggs. I'm all about holiday stuff, so that was so much fun! Easter Sunday was amazing! We ate at a members home for dinner and that was so much fun. Afterwards we went over the Sullivans for some dessert and spiritual message. I'm pretty sure the Sullivans are my second family here in Glenville. Sister Zwick and I just love going to their house and visiting with them. Sister Sullivan is awesome and always fun to be around and of course we love teaching her husband. Last night their oldest son did a spiritual lesson and we watched the conference talk by Elder Holland called "None were with him" If you haven't heard that one, I very much recommend it. The spirit was so strong! It was such an amazing talk that portrayed Christ and his last days beautifully. It really made you think of how he must have felt and how thankful we should be to him. I thought about when I was in Israel and I was able to walk the last week of his life. I remember feeling sad when we started in the garden of Gethsemane and it grew to almost anger when he was tortured and then we ended our day in the Garden Tomb and then I became happy. I left that day feeling happy because "He is Risen" he was resurrected. That's what we should focus on and be happy about. This Easter Sunday was amazing and its always great to reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ and remember all the sacrifices he made for us so we never have to be alone.

Despite the bugs this week was a great week and I was able to set my first baptismal date which made up for everything. I'm so excited about that! I also was thinking of my best friend Ali all day on the 21st who got married. CONGRATS! I love you and I'm so happy for you! Hopefully we can figure out this bed bug problem!

Love you all,

Sister Stacey

pic 1) the bed bug

pic 2) sis zwick spraying the bugs

ewwww gross....

pic 3) Decorating easter eggs wiht Sarah the bishops daughter. She loves when we come over!

pic 4) Me at Passover mean this is the sedar plate

pic 5) Easter Morning with the eggs we decorated!

Happy Easter!

Hello Everyone,

This week was kind of a bummer week with lessons. It felt like every lesson we had set up with someone they would cancel on us or not remember when we showed up for the appointment. Its hard not to get discouraged when that happens. I don't think these people realize that this is all we do every day all day long. (hahaha) They don't realize that we get excited to meet with them and teach them, its what we look forward to in the morning. haha We had some great people lined up to teach this week and most of them fell through. I thought of Chapter 8 in Alma. Alma goes to the city Ammonihah to preach the gospel, but when he gets there and starts preaching he is persecuted and cast out of the city. He leaves the city feeling.."sorrow and an anguish of soul" (v.14), but then an angel appears to him and tells him to go back again and preach unto the people. So Alma goes back and finds Amulek who is prepared by the spirit to learn from Alma, then together they go preach to the people. I love this chapter because it reminds me as a missionary to never give up. That I should keep trying to find people then the Lord will eventually give me an Amulek someone who has been prepared by the Spirit to hear the words of the Lord. This chapter gave me comfort and like it says in the scripture.. "caused me to rejoice!"

Later in the week we did meet with a family who I believe are prepared. Conference morning we went to an appointment, but the women wasn't there. As we were walking back to our car we met a women (Precious) with her two boys. We started to talk to her and she told us she just moved here and was looking for a church to go to. We met with her and her boys this weekend. We taught the message of the restoration and her boys were willing to participate and read scriptures with us, it was so great! We met her fiance Simba who was incredibly nice. I have a great feeling about them and they committed for sure to attend church Easter Sunday! I'm very excited for next weekend!

Sunday was a great sabbath day! We had two investigators come to church. One was Melanie, she is girl our age going to Union college. She loves church and is very prepared for the message. It was great to see her at church. The other investigator we had that was so exciting was one of our investigators who is the only non-member in his family. He has been meeting with missionaries for over 15 years. We called him the night before to remind him and couldn't wait to get to church to see him there. We waited by the door and we saw his wife and he wasn't there and we got really sad, but when she saw us she said, "don't worry he is coming." We went and sat down and 10 minutes later he walked in and sat with his family. I wish you could have seen our faces. We both had the biggest smiles! We were so happy! We made sure afterwards to get him to Sunday school and with great fellowship from one of the ward members we got him to come to class. The lesson was on sacrifice and it was seriously one of the most powerful lessons I have ever attended at church before. We had two less actives there as well and it was so great to talk about Christ and the sacrifice he made for us. It was a beautiful lesson and I'm so grateful we had an investigator there to hear it. Afterwards we asked if he would stay for priesthood and he was already planning on it. It was a great feeling to get him there to church. He works every other Sunday so we hope to get him there again in a couple of weeks! Our prayers were surely answered that day!

Well I'm excited for Easter Sunday and I hope that we can all remember our Savior and what he has done for us. I just encourage everyone to read Alma 7. "And he shall go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind...he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people.." Two years ago this Easter Sunday I sat in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem Israel, I remember trying to imagine how Mary felt the day she saw Christ after he was resurrected. I have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ. He did die for us that we can return to our Heavenly Father. Christ is the central to our gospel and he is central to Heavenly Fathers plan of salvation. If it wasn't for Christ we would not be able to repent, we would dwell in our sins forever, but by the atonement we can be free of sin and live in happiness and peace. This is a great message that we should all know and apply in our lives. I'm so grateful for Him!

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Love,

Sister Stacey!

Pic 1: They just opened a the first Frozen Yogurt place here in glenville area. We went during our dinner break and it was PACKED with people. Frozen yogurt places are not popular out east. Me and Sister Zwick were really excited though to get some!

Pic 2: Sister Zwick has been getting weird bug bites every night. So we think we might have bed bugs. So we had to clean out our room and beds. Not very fun! Well hopefully that helps! haha

Pic 3: We go visit this Older women in a home and when we went that day they said the floor was on restriction from vomiting. Gross! We still went and visited her!

First transfer is over!

Hello Everyone,

Another great week here in Glenville New york! This weeks schedule was a little different. At the end of our missions we get to go to Palmyra and go to the temple and visit the Sacred Grove. Well my companion sister Zwick got to do that this week. So we drove down to Utica monday night and stayed at the mission home. On tuesday when she went to the temple I went to Fayettville for the day. There were four of us sisters blitzing the area. That morning me and Sister Pitts went around together. Sister Pitts was in my district in the MTC. My mission President seemed very excited to have two "rookies" out together. It was funny to think that a month ago we were in the MTC and now we were out knocking doors together. We did pretty well, but it felt like no one was home and was kind of a dead morning. Then in the afternoon I went with sister Pitts companion and we went to lessons. We went to a lesson to teach this guy Larry. When we went into his apartment there was music all over the place and he played us some music on the guitar it was cool. It was definitely weird teaching a lesson without sister Zwick. Later that day we went to teach a lesson to this guy and he wasn't home, but.. his son answered the door and seemed really interested in learning. It made me sad that I couldn't teach him again.. haha It was weird teaching in a different area and with different people. The whole day I missed my home (Glenville). I missed the people I was teaching.. I was so excited to go home! At the end of the day I was SOOO happy to see Sister Zwick. I missed her so much, I'm not saying I didn't like serving with the other sisters, but I was excited to see my companion again. We went back to Glenville the next day and I was sooo happy to be home! Its going to be so hard when the time comes for me to leave that place!

Exciting news! We met this girl Melanie a couple weeks ago and we finally got to meet with her this week. She has some friends in the ward she comes to church with so she just needs the discussions. We met with her on Friday. She lives on the campus of Union College. It was weird walking around all these students my same age. Side note story; Sister Zwick and I were walking down this street and this college boy was walking right towards us. He was our age and she turned me and said, "you got this sister." I looked at her and said "no way!" I was so nervous to talk to him and if it wasn't for Sister Zwick starting the conversation I would have walked right past. It wasn't so bad after we started to talk to him and turned out to be fine. I'm starting to think a college town would not be a fun place to serve. It would make me too nervous..haha I should probably start to work on that nervousness. haha Anyways, we met with her and the first thing she talked to us about was the Spirit. She started explaining this feeling she gets when she goes to church. This was my first time ever hearing someone explain the Spirit, it was so amazing! I couldn't stop smiling because I knew what it was and I was so excited to tell her what it was. The lesson went amazing and she was so excited to learn about Joseph Smith and the first vision. When we got to the part about Joseph praying in the sacred grove she stopped us and said "I'm having that feeling right now!" The spirit was so strong and I knew she felt it! It was a great reward as a missionary to hear her say that! I'm excited to meet with her and I believe she will be my first baptism!

This week we also met with a woman named Delea. She is so cute and has 3 kids. Every time we go over there to teach her, her kids are so involved and love it when we come over. We even had the little girl give the prayer and she was so excited. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and pressed the importance of having our families together forever and she really liked that idea. We told her to watch conference and the time she happened to flip it on was during President Monson's talk on temples. How perfect! She is still hesitant on coming to church which is a bummer! We want her to come because we know her kids would love it! So we'll see where that goes!

So this week is transfer week. Saturday night we get the transfer calls telling us if were staying or leaving. Me and sister Zwick were anxiously waiting by the phone. When the phone rang my heart dropped... I DO NOT like these transfer calls they're nerve racking! We answered and the Elders asked if we had any guesses. We guessed that we were both staying and we were right! We were both so relieved! This means I will be here until July for sure and sister Zwick will finish her mission here. I don't know if I can handle 12 more of those calls! haha They can be scary!

Well another exciting week here in Glenville New York! I miss you all at home and hope life is going as great as mine! Apparently it's the summer to get married. I have yet to hear back from my best friends who are getting married Lindsey, Snarr and Mike! So write me! I want to hear about it! Other than that hope everything is going great back home!

Love you all,

Sister Stacey

Pic 1: We had to take this one

Pic 2: We went to the City for the weekend.. jk there is a mini Statue of liberty downtown Schenctady

pic 3: I almost didn't recognize it because i never use my first name anymore.. thought this was cool. Now i have picture with a jennnifer rd in New york and a Stacey Ln in Jackson Hole wyoming. haha

Pic 4: There are so many beautiful churchs in upper stake new york. This was in Fayetteville my day with outsister Zwick

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