"...I do put my trust in him and he will still deliver me." Alma 36:27

Hello,
This week was a hard week. I have learned that the mission brings the highest highs and the lowest lows. We have been struggling to find, but the Lord is aware of us and he did give us a tender mercy this week. There is a girl who is dating a member in the singles branch. She has been coming to F.H.E. and Church for awhile now. She came to Andrew's baptism and afterwards asked to meet with us. We saw her this week and the lesson was so amazing! She is totally awesome. Our first meeting we gave her a couple assignments to read and she came back to the next lesson having read all of them and even more. It was amazing! We saw her Friday at 1 and that night at like 6 she text us and said she had already read all the scriptures we gave her and was wondering if we could give her more for our next lesson. We were like shocked! She has been a tender mercy from the Lord. She has been so prepared. This is what happens when members invite their friends to church and church activities. They progress so much faster and are so prepared to hear the message. Its amazing the difference between the people we teach that are member referrals and from the people we find on the street. She is awesome. We are meeting with her tonight and I'm really excited!

Hope you all have a good week,
Sister Stacey

P.s. Concerning mail
"And now behold, we(Sister Stacey) desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yeah, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state." Alma 60


Pictures: We went and saw the famous Dome! It was pretty cool I will for sure have to come back and see a game!

"And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts." Mosiah 18:11

Hello,
This week was so awesome not sure where to start. In the beginning of the week we met Dwight on Syracuse campus to help him with his Family History. We were able to find some information on his Grandparents and he was so excited. I wish I knew more about the familysearch.org so we could help but were going to try and get him to the family history center.
We had Zone Conference this week and it was so awesome. I just love Zone Conference and my Mission President is just amazing. The training was on how to be better teachers. One of his training was on how we need to teach Simply, Clearly, and with the Spirit. He said no wonder 19 year old go on mission. We don’t have to be experts on knowing everything about the gospel. There is a quote in Preach My Gospel it says “It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it.” We need to dumb it down a bit. My mission president says “Telling isn’t teaching and having been told isn’t taught.” Just because we’re teaching the lesson and principles right doesn’t mean that they understand, everyone learns differently. So I learned a lot and we have already been applying what we learned in our lessons. We’re excited and we hope to see progress in our investigators.

So after the first half of our training we were eating lunch. We were sitting at the table with our mission president and he looked at me and said could you sing for the musical number. I guess the Zone leaders didn’t find anyone to do a musical number which we usually have one each zone conference. I can’t really say no to my mission president.(haha) So in 10 minutes I picked a song out of the hymn book and practiced once and that was it. I was a little nervous at first, but I’m glad I did it because I had been wanting to do a musical number for zone conference. It was a fun experience and I’m glad I just did it.

We played Jeopardy and the questions were about the mission or from the book of mormon it was so fun. One of the turns I had the buzzer in my hands and the question was about what are we suppose to use to spray for bugs and I didn’t read it fast enough because I should have known it. My mission president looked at me and started laughing because I SHOULD have been the first person to answer that because I have had bed bugs twice and I have used that spray so many times! It was kind of funny!

We had a great lesson with the 11 year old that we teach. We taught on prayer and then afterwards we painted prayer rocks with her and the members. It was so much fun! I hope she will remember to pray now! We like to have fun with our lessons!

I had interviews with my mission president this week. I sat down with him and he asked me how Syracuse was going and I put my head down and I said “I don’t want to leave Syracuse” (in a joking way) and he said “Well do you want to stay for another transfer?” My head shot straight up and I said “Can I? Is that an option?” He said that he likes to keep people together in an area when their doing well together and the work is going good. When he left he said it wasn't a sure possibility that I’m leaving. So I still have a chance to stay another transfer which I would love love love. That means I would be here in Syracuse for 9 months if I stay another one. I would be very happy!

This weekend was fun. Friday night we went to a wedding. The Elders investigator got married. The investigator and his now wife would always have us over so we know them pretty well. So we went to the wedding and it was interesting but fun.

Then Saturday night was Andrew’s baptism went really well and he invited a lot of his family members which was awesome. Andrew's dad really enjoyed it and now he is interested in learning more, so we might start teaching his dad. We are pretty excited about that and things are just going really well!

This week was packed with awesome stuff and its never a dull moment as a missionary! I love it here in Syracuse and I hope that I can stay another transfer!
Sadly our mission president and his wife go home this summer and today he announced in his email that our new mission president will be Brother Joseph B. Wirthlin Jr. Thats kind of exciting, but I won't really know him for too long.

Hope everyone had a great week!
Love from the cuse,
Sister Stacey

Pictures

#1: Andrew's Baptism!

#2: My Dad is the best and sent me awesome V-day Flowers!
#3 Painting our prayer rocks at the members home with Samantha!
#4 The wedding on Friday! The Bride and I
#5 Sisters at Zone Conference

Has it really been a year already?

Hello,
I can’t believe it, but its been a year since I entered the MTC on February 9th. I’m not sure why, but time is definitely warped as a missionary. Some days feel like months and some months feel like days. It feels just like yesterday that I was in the MTC. I guess I can officially call myself a New Yorker. Its fun to look back and see the changes I have made and the progress I have made. It’s a bitter sweet feeling because I know I'm on that downward slope. I'm trying to live everyday to the fullest and not think so much about the future. I love being here in New York! I'm so glad that I came on a mission and that I'm serving in the cuse!
This week has been good Andrew is all set and ready for this Saturday for his baptism and we are pretty excited for him. He is getting baptized all because a member opened his mouth about the gospel. It's a great feeling when you can share the gospel with others and you may never know what may come of it. We started teaching this girl who is my age. I always love teaching people who are my age because I can relate to them so much better. I love it!
We have been struggling to find people. We were tracting and we knocked on this ladies home and lets just say she was a very strong catholic. She had some good questions and we were able to clear up some misconceptions. She did ask us how many church buildings there were in Syracuse and we said there was one. She was like “only one? We have over 100 just here in Syracuse, you should pray to your prophet for help to get more people.” I looked at her and was like “that’s why were here and that’s why we go out all day” Haha It was kind of funny! I guess she didn’t get it. She wasn’t interested, but at least we were able to clear up some misconceptions and that helps me stay positive and go on to the next door.
It’s a pretty fun year to be on a mission. Usually when we meet people they ask about the End of the World in 2012 or Mitt Romney and how he is a Mormon. The name “Mormon” is starting to get out there and more and more people are recognizing the name. This week at District meeting we talked a bit about how we can use the elections to our advantage. We're not aloud to voice our opinions, but we were practicing some door approaches how we can bring up the name Mormon, but make sure they know were not campaigning for Romney. I’m pretty excited about this and I’m going to take full advantage of it! If all that comes out of this is that we can make sure people know that we are NOT practicing polygamy then I’ll be happy with that. Haha
This week should be a great week and I'm excited for the baptism. I'm so happy that I'm here and I love every moment of my life! Nothing could be better than right now being on a mission!


Love you all! Have a Happy Valentines Day!

Love from the Cuse,
Sister Stacey
P.S. Happy Birthday to my awesome sister Maria! Love ya!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Pic 1 and 2: One year mark!
pic 3,4, and 5: we went to the zoo last p-day with one our favorite families in the ward. I think I love them so much because they remind me of my oldest sister and her Kids. These are the cutest little kids in all of Syracuse. we had a lot of fun at the zoo!

Transfer number nine!

Hello,
Sadly I don't have enough time today to write a long email. We have plans to go hang out with one of our favorite members and go to the zoo. We like to do fun stuff on p-day and Syracuse is the place to do it.

This week has been good. We met with Andrew in the beginning of the week and he hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon and we were sad. We were starting to think that maybe we should postpone his baptism date so that he is ready. I prayed all week that he would just start reading. When we met with him on Saturday he was really excited to tell us that he read. He even underlined verses and had lots of questions. I can't even tell you how happy I was! Prayer works! Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and he got up and bore his testimony. I was a little nervous at first wondering what he was going to say, but he did really well. I'm so proud and were excited for his baptism!

We have also been able to see Sandy a couple times this week, but she didn't come to church which was a bummer. She still wants to get baptized but she needs to show more consistency.

I'm on transfer 9 and I'm so happy to be here in Syracuse again. I'm in love and I never want to leave! Things have been going well and we have just been busy busy.
Hope you all have a great week!


Love from the Cuse,
Sister Stacey

"..be patient in long-suffering and afflictions that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee...."

"..be patient in long-suffering and afflictions that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls." Alma 17:11

This week was a good week. We had our last district meeting of the transfer and it just blows my mind how fast it has gone. Transfer calls were also this week and…..drum roll… I’M STAYING IN THE CUSE! Me and sister Horne will be together again for another transfer and I’m pretty positive this will be my last transfer here in Syracuse which I don’t like to think about. I’m so happy to be here again for 6 more weeks!

We have been meeting with a Less active member who called us a couple months ago and asked if we would come visit her. The other night we were at a members home and her name came up, it turned out that she was the less active members visiting teacher. So we were able to bring Sami the member with us and it was such a great lesson. The less active member was so excited to meet her visiting teacher and she was really excited to come to church on Sunday. Sunday came and she actually came! It was so exciting and she was making friends. It was just as exciting as an investigator coming.

This week has just been filled with a lot of teaching. Andrew and Sandy are doing well. Sandy’s 14 year old son loves coming to church and the activities. It’s been so fun to see! We started teaching this girl from China. She said she knew someone from China who was a member. We were about to start teaching the first lesson and I turn to her and I said what do you know about Jesus Christ or God? … She looks at me and kind of smiles and says…”nothing really”.. Okay.. haha so instead we were able to teach her about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was a really cool experience. We had to meet her on campus at the library. It was weird being on a campus again..lets just say I’m happy that I’m here. Haha

Things are going great and I’m so happy I’m here for another transfer!

Love from the Cuse,

Sister Stacey

Picture 1 and 2: Last District Meeting of the Transfer!
Picture 3, 4, and 5: Sister Horne Greeny Dinner!!!! (this one was way hard to eat! so gross! haha

"..behold, said he, I will give up all that i possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy." Alma 22:15

Hello,
This week went by really fast. I was really lucky to be able to hear from my Mission president twice this week. It’s been a great week. First I’ll talk about what’s going on with our investigators. Andrew is doing well, but we need more time to teach him all the lessons. So we're pushing back his baptism date. Sandy wasn’t able to make it to church this past Sunday because her son had to go to the hospital. We were able to go visit her in the Hospital and read from the Book of Mormon with her and that was able to give her great comfort.
On Wednesday we had our district meeting and my Mission President came. It was a great training on how to be effective planners and how it can have a huge impact on our missions and even our lives. Thankfully I was an ok planner before my mission, but I didn’t realize until my mission how much we can actually get done in one day. I had no idea we could accomplish so much in the 24 hours we are given. My mission has shown me how to be an effective planner and to use time wisely!

Also this week we had Return and Report. This is where all trainers and their trainees met back a month later. It was so great and I hadn’t been to one since my Return and Report. We all met and were able to receive some great trainings from our mission president as well as the Assistants. It was so great! Something that I love is that we always read through Alma 17-26. They are like the ultimate missionary chapters! Every time I read through them I find something different. One that I found that I liked and hadn’t seen before was from Alma 22:15. In this verse the King says that he will give up all he possess to know God. He would even give up his own kingdom. As missionaries we need to teach in a way and with the spirit so that when it comes to teaching people about the commandments they will give up anything to be baptized and follow Christ. So I’m trying to teach as Aaron did so I can have those experiences. Another one that I love is in Alma 26:9 Its talking about how if they hadn’t gone to Zarahmela, these people might be strangers to God. Who knows what would have happened if I didn’t come on a mission. Who would have been strangers to God. I’m so glad I came and I’m here!

The meeting was great another thing that I love that I forgot about until I went to this meeting again. He talks about the 4 H’s of missionary work.

1.) Honeymoon: This is when we're at the MTC and life is good. Everyone accepts our invitation to be baptized. No worries!
2.) Horror: This is the first day or transfer in the mission field. You suddenly realize this is hard work.
3.) Humor: You just have to find humor and laugh about things. When someone slams the door in our face we just need to laugh about it.
4.) Home: When we finally feel at home in the mission field

It was interesting to hear these again because the first time I heard them I was feeling the Horror stage as I just entered the mission field. When we were going over these I could honestly say that I feel at home here in New York especially here in Syracuse. This place has become my home and these people have become my family. I love them so much and I never want to leave!

Hope you have a great week!

Love from the Cuse,
Sister Stacey

Pic 1: Sister Pitts and I were in the MTC together and here we are together again at our 2nd return and report with our traniees

pic 2: Sister Horne and I at Return and Report

pic 3: All the new missionaries and their trainers!

Snow in Syracuse! Finally!

Hello,
It was another great week here in Syracuse we taught 19 lessons and again I'm always so tired! I guess it's all part of the experience. Andrew is doing really good and we are still planning his baptism for the 28th. We have been doing really well at bringing different members to his lessons so he can get to know more people. Things have been going really well!
Also this Sunday Dwight got the priesthood and we slipped into priesthood so I could hear the blessing. I feel like he is my child all grown up and moving on all on his own. haha It was really exciting to be there and he was so happy and it's just amazing to hear those blessings. I know that Heavenly Father is so aware of each and every one of us. I love the priesthood some of the stuff said in the Blessing I knew that the person giving the blessing would have not known some of the stuff Dwight has gone through. The power of the priesthood is seriously amazing! I love it so much! Dwight also started his Family History this week because he is going to the temple this weekend. I"m so excited! When I see my recent converts make it to the temple that's when its all worth it. That's when I can forget about those hard days and realize that this is what its all about. I'll never forget it.
We have been teaching Samantha the 11 year old. Her other brother is a member and she really wants to get baptized. We want to make sure she is committed. Our lessons are awesome though we try to always include a visual. Its always so fun to teach her it makes me excited to be a teacher.
It finally snowed and WOW is it cold or what. I'm not use to the humidity cold and it really gets to you. The first real snow storm, and it didn't hit till the end of January. Its kind of funny and people here are freaking out that the first storm is now.
Well I don't have too much time. Things are going well! I love being here! Sister Horne and I are doing well and teaching lots!

Love from Syracuse,

Sister Stacey

Pictures: Ice Skating again! Were obsessed!
It finally snowed, but now its really cold!