May 11, 2015

Hey family,

I never said it yesterday but Happy Mothers Day, Mom!  Thanks for everything you have done for me ever.  I thought about you all through church.

I'm so glad that you are doing stuff as member missionaries.  Can you keep me posted on how your efforts are going?  I would love to be able to share your experiences.  If you run into any problems or find solutions please share those as well.  I'm sure it will help me as I work with the members.

What is the ward mission plan?  Make sure the ward mission leader is aware of your desire to help out.  Be sure to share any good experiences in testimony meeting and in priesthood and relief society.  Of course, the less confident you are in the missionaries the more they will need help teaching investigators.

If I could share a thought I have been working on; We are supposed to devote our time to the work of salvation right?  Everything else is unimportant.  We as members tend to do fairly well at the work of perfecting the saints but procrastinate the other parts, missionary work and saving our ancestors.  We are commanded to do all three.  We shouldn't only do missionary work while we are young nor should we wait to do family history work til we are retired.  We can do all three at any point in our lives if we put in consistent effort (see 1 Nephi 3:7).  We don't need to dedicate too much time to missionary work.  We can see results if we dedicate just a part of our daily prayers to planning for missionary opportunities and then keep an eye open for those opportunities.  For family history work we can spend just a couple hours a week, every week and we'll start seeing blessings.  We don't need a sudden big change of how we spend our time, the power is in the small, everyday things.

We are still working with a bunch of kids.  Not much of note has changed since last week.

We have been doing a ridiculous amount of service this last week.  Tons of basements had flooded and we have been moving furniture and tearing out carpet.  It has been fun but we didn't do much proselyting or teaching.  I'm glad we have had these opportunities to help out though.

I am grateful for you being willing to work and help others out.  Thanks for telling me that I had taught you some things and am helping you.  You rock!

Love you,
Elder Stapley

May 4, 2015

Hey y'all,

The baptism was great!  There were plenty of good supportive people there and lots of missionaries.  Jeff and Starr brought a friend who we were able to teach as well.  Elder Packer, the missionary before me, flew in from California to be there. The actual baptism went perfectly.  Elder Jones baptized J and Packer baptized S.  They seemed to feel the Spirit as well as the support of the members.  Afterward we went to dinner together.  I got to try pate (two thumbs up) and ate a cornish hen, brick pressed on a bed of bacon and fingerling potatoes.  It was great.

I'm glad the Elders are using you for missionary work and glad that you are doing it.  Nothing is more important in life than bringing others closer to Christ.  We can tell by the way we use our time and talents what our priorities are.  We always have to be checking that our actual priorities are in line with our covenants.  I guess I have been frustrated that those who should know better think that serving in the church is enough and don't build up the Kingdom of God during the rest of the week. J and S understand their responsibility as the Lord's covenant people.  Even though J works nights he comes to church even on as little as an hour of sleep.  He and S are already teaching their friends and asking to come on teamups.

We are working with a lot of kids right now.  J and S sent us to talk to their friend.  She is a single mom with three teenagers. Her two youngest always invite us in. 

We often play basketball with C and his brother and friends.  Afterwards we were talking to some of them and found out that one of them had been baptized.  He wanted to reactivate and his brothers and girlfriend all showed interest as well.  

I got the package with the letters and candy.  

I haven't cooked any Korean food yet.  We are too busy getting fed by people and eating the leftovers!

We can Skype you on Mother's Day.  I'll be sure to call when you are home and not chatting with the family.  I don't have an exact time though.  Looking forward to it.

Love you,
Elder Stapley

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First Nebraska Letter from Elder Stapley!

Hey Family,

I'm doing great!  I'm serving in the Mahoney ward in Lincoln. Lincoln has enough members for a couple chapels and a handful of wards. Our ward here is mostly older people and young families going to school. Not a lot of youth but a large primary as well as a good number of returned missionaries.  I understand it is one of the better wards for member missionary work.  We get fed almost every day. We haven't had a dinner that wasn't given to us yet. I might forget how to make my own food.

Elder Jones is an excellent missionary.  He has been out for ten months, just one more than me.  We do missionary work very differently but are learning a lot from each other.  There is a huge difference between this mission and Busan and it is a bit hard to adjust. I think having a different perspective will be a huge blessing though.

There are a ton of people we are working with.  There is a couple who are working toward baptism.  They read and pray everyday and ask questions every time we meet.  They come to church and have been asking what to do to share the gospel with others. It is amazing. 

We have been spending some time with a few kids from one of the rough neighborhoods. One is a convert who has been helping us with his friends and brother.  We play basketball with them and read from the Book of Mormon. Yesterday the member and a couple of friends came to church.  They were worried because they were in street clothes but the ward welcomed them. Be sure to always introduce yourself to new people and ask the missionaries if there is anyone who needs to feel welcome at church.

I miss Korea but it is nice to get so many teaching opportunities.

I can't think of anything else right now.  Love you, talk to you in a few weeks.

Elder Stapley

FINALLY!!! Back to full time missionary work!

After 9 months of service in the South Korea, Busan Mission, Elder Stapley returned home due to health issues.  On Tuesday, April 24, 2015, more than 13 months later, he was cleared to serve again.  He has been assigned to the Nebraska, Omaha mission for 3 months!  If all goes well with his health he will finish his remaining year of service somewhere in the states.

We, his family, have been amazed at his patience and persistance while he has been waiting for medical clearance to resume his missionary service.  He has taught us all by his example!

February 17, 2014

Hello,

I got both your and G&G Stapley's packages before my birthday.  The card was great! I didn't really do anything for my birthday but I had a chocolate cake for lunch.

I can't think of anything good to write.  In this area we spend a lot of time just walking around talking to people.  We always find a bunch of really cool people who nevertheless have no interest in what we have to say.  Or they don't respond afterwards. Sometimes we go our entire week like that.  A few contacts, a few street lessons but none of the really important things.  Just being obedient and hopefully planting a few seeds.

We did have one good lesson this week.  One of our English students, Hong Gwan, has some interest in learning about our church.  We met and ate dinner and talked about God and commandments.  He says he doesn't have much belief and doesn't want to but he was very concerned about the Ten Commandments and how Korean culture breaks them.  I think he has more belief than he thinks and I'm hopeful that we can help him realize that.

Next week is transfer calls.  Anything could happen.

I love you all.  

Elder Stapley

February 9, 2013

Right now I'm reading about the snow in Kansas and looking out of the window at the snowstorm outside in Busan.  We never get snow this far south.  It's not sticking of course but its been going all morning.

As part of an effort to help the ward be more united we are going to have a scripture study group once a week.  We expect about two people to show up this week.  Oh well.

Have I talked about how I feel about the Gospel of Christ yet?  I can't remember.  My favorite lesson to teach is the Gospel of Christ.  I'm sure it just because I understand it more than the others.  Before my mission it seemed like my answer to every question was faith.  As a missionary my favorite subject became repentance.  And recently I have been seeing how much happier people are when they keep their covenants and have the Spirit in their lives. 

Every part these first principles of Christ's gospel is a great blessing all on it's own but when you put it all together you get the remission of sins and spiritual healing.  If we have faith to trust God and are willing to act to become better and progress we receive help and support from God.  We let our covenants guide our priorities and we can know what is most important in life. The Spirit guides us and protects us from danger.  Through the Atonement of Christ our guilt and our weaknesses are taken away.  As we see the power of these gifts at work in our lives our testimony of these things becomes stronger and we can know that God does forgive us of our mistakes.  I'm incredibly thankful to have access to such great gifts.  Its important now that we share them.

I might have a bit more to write but that's all I can think of right now.  It was a fairly slow week.

Love you,  

Elder Stapley

February 3, 2014

 With a recent convert at our Christmas program.  I refused to wear the make-up.

A fountain thing we drank out of while hiking in Jinhae 

Kim Min-jae's baptism, with his mom and Elder Wilson

Pday in Miryang

I brought my robe?  I'd forgotten!

Hello,

This last week has been pretty slow.  It is Chinese New Year, one of the biggest holidays here.  During this time all the people have big family reunions, usually in Seoul, and they eat for three days straight.  Visiting people and proselyting don't really work well so we cleaned the house thoroughly for a whole day and into the next.  Thankfully today most people have returned and are back to work.  We will need to get back in touch with the people we are working with this week so hopefully we can be fairly busy.

Have I talked to you about Edward yet?  He is a Chinese man working here in Korea for a few years.  We haven't been able to meet him much because he has been back in China with his family and then he had to scramble to meet a deadline at work.  We met him a couple weeks ago but now he's back in China and he won't get back for a few weeks.  However out of all our current investigators he has been the most prepared.  He has a Chinese and an English copy of the Book of Mormon that he reads side-by-side to help him understand.  He really wants to believe in God and the Plan of Salvation.  He loves the idea of eternal families.  Because of his culture he has a really hard time understanding some things and he's not sure that he can ever really believe in God.  He's trying though.  That's more than most people.  He hates the ward here (he knows zero Korean) and is worried about making commitments that would be difficult to keep when he returns to China.  He is in my prayers every night.

This morning I made a cake in a bowl in the toaster oven.  It mostly worked. It sort of looks like a volcano because the bowl wasn't quite wide enough for that much batter and the outside cooked faster.

I'm still waiting for the computer that can send pictures but I will definitely do that soon.  I might write some more but this is all I can think of for now.

Love you,

Elder Stapley