Tuesday, January 19, 2016

January 19, 2016



Dear Parents,

I had a great week.  We had exchanges and I went down to Norfolk.  The Elders down there are in a trio of two Spanish and one English speaker.  It was fun and we were able to make some real progress with one of their investigators who was trying to quit smoking.  We saw him twice and the second time he informed us that he had thrown away all his vape pens and had spent all his smoking money on some new scriptures!  We were ecstatic.  

While I was gone my companion and one of the Spanish elders visited a teenage investigator of ours.  While there one of the young men from the branch walked in! Turns out he is good friends with this kid and his participation seemed to soften the rest of the family's heart.  The mom invited us to dinner and promised to participate in the next lesson.  We'll go and see them tomorrow.

I cooked up the sausage thing we got from our Vietnamese family.  I thought Korean food was pungent!  I put the leftovers in the fridge and by the time I opened it again the entire fridge smelled Vietnamese.  

On Sunday it was so cold here that we got a message from President telling us to stay inside unless we had set appointments to go to.  It was so boring.  It actually worked out well though because Elder Poole was sick with something and barely made it through church.  He still isn't feeling great but is doing somewhat better.  He got so dehydrated that we nearly took him to the hospital!

Our interesting older couple moved this week. They had collected so much stuff that they needed a bigger place.  They had promised to be packed by the moving date but when we arrived they really hadn't done anything.  We spent about 10 hours this week helping them move stuff out of their one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom apartment.  We weren't the only ones helping either!  We did convince them to get rid of a lot of stuff though.  We snagged a creepy Santa doll wearing nothing but boxer shorts.  They wanted to throw it away but we are definitely going to hide it behind Norfolk's bathroom mirror.

Emily's testimony in her letter pretty much said exactly what I wanted to.  This Gospel has to be true.  There is the part of PMG Ch 1 about the power and authority of our calling.
Your power and authority should be evident as you work and teach. Power may be manifest in many things you do, such as:
Being led by the Spirit to say what the Lord would have you say at just the right moment (see D&C 84:85).
Receiving guidance about where to go or what to do (see D&C 28:1531:1175:26–27).
Having your testimony confirmed by the witness of the Spirit (see 2 Nephi 33:1D&C 100:5–8).
Taking part in ordinances of salvation (see D&C 84:19–20).
Giving priesthood blessings if you are an elder (seeJames 5:14–15).
Praying with and for the people you work with (seeAlma 6:68:18–2210:7–1131:26–35D&C 75:19).
Expressing love for the Lord, your family, fellow missionaries, and the people you serve. 
We have all seen the evidences of our power and authority.  It is the coolest thing to recognize and one of the best things about being a missionary.  I look at the email from Emily and the miracles she's seen and the things you are doing with both of your callings and the miracles happening there.  I love that we can know that these things are true.  We can know that we are doing the Lord's will and exercising His power.  That is one of the things that I think is so attractive about what we teach.  You don't have to guess.  You can know.  People want that kind of confidence.  I'm glad that I was blessed to find it.

We have the best family ever.
I love you,
Elder Stapley

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