Email From Aug 4th--A little LATE

Hello again family!

So I am not transferred if you were wondering. I am still here in Manat B area with my dear Sister Velasco. We are having a great week. We have a new missionary in our apartment! Sister Adasme. Fresh from the MTC and from Iowa. She is really great and great at the language. She will be a great addition to the zone and to the mission.

I am healthy and very very happy!!! I love the Lord and his work! I love the people so so much. and I love my companion. she makes me laugh every day!

Also this week Sister Velasco and I held a career workshop! Well we organized it and stuff. We had a member give a workshop to the youth in our area about resume building and job interviews. We handed out a ton of fliers last week but when it was the day of the workshop, no one showed up! haha! we did not know what to do! we were freaking our just a little bit. We went around to those who we visited las week and we rallied about 7 youth. it turned out really great :)They are all not members yet so potential investigators and they were really inspired by the workshop. We are excited to do more service projects in our area to help the people and also get more investigators!

One of our investigators Brother Ramil is soooo great! He is so excited and eager to read the book of Mormon. He came to church yesterday and he loved gospel priciples. he already knows who all the characters in the BOfM are and loves to tell us about them! haha! I love finding the elect. I know brother ramil really has been prepared by the Lord.

Speaking of Prepared! Brother Rodrigo will have his baptismal interview on sat! and be baptized on the 17th! we are so happy and excited!

The weather has been nice....well it is crazy. it is so so hot then it will rain and theh hot again! I like when it rains. Me and sister velasco have really been focusing on writing in our journals lately. I am sad to say I have been lazy at it for a while. but I am repenting now!!!

We had transfer awareness this week and found out that our dear District leader Elder Sta. Ana is transferred. we will miss him! he is always so enthusiastic and inspiring and brings treats, but he is moving on now! I have attached a pic of him with the sisters.

I love being here and I am amazed at the strength I receive each day to go on. Its hard work! I am tempted to be lazy sometimes. But I know laziness is not acceptable to the Lord. I need to work work work.!

I thank you for all your love and kindness!

Sister Stapp

Hello All you Lovely People!!!!

How are y'all doing! I am so thankful for all of your emails! It is so exciting all the things that are happening and stuff. I love you all and I am doing so so great!! I cannot believe this transfer is almost over! I am pretty sure I will not transfer yet.But who knows.

So this week we are just doind what we do and working hard! We are getting excited because the baptism of Brother Rodrigo is so close! He is so so excited. He is fellow shipping our other investigators it's like he is a member already. haha! He loves his wife emelda so so much and knows that he wants to be with her forever. I am so so happy for them.

So today we had a zone activity! It was so so great. we have some great zone leaders! they made it fun. we cooked spicy food and ate and played hand ball and ninja. it was great! I am really close to this zone and it is sad because so many of them will be leaving this transfer! One is sister sandoy who is my house mate right now. she is done with her mission and is leaving for home tomorrow! I cannot imagine what she must be feeling. Crazy!

On Wednesday Sister Velasco and I went to Urdaneta to the MLC mission leadership councel. The Assistants gave a great message about sacrifice. When we ever feel like or wonder why missionary work is so hard. We just have to remember our savior Jesus Christ. He suffered everything! We cannot expect to not have hard ship and trials when it was NEVER easy for Him! He loves us so much and if we love him we will do the hard things. We will open our mouths and we will invite. We will be an example and live the commandments. It is hard but if the Lord Jesus Christ descended below all things and suffered for us, we can endure the trials that he blesses us with. I Love Him so so much and I am so grateful to be serving Him. I am happy to have all of you my family and friends to look up to for an example. I love you!

Sister Stapp

p.s. I ate the tongue of a water buffalo yesterday.....slimy yet satisfying:)

 

 

Photos

All the kids followed Sister Stapp and Sister Valesco!

 

 

Greeting from Dagupan

Hello! I love you all and hope you are all doing great!

I am having a great week (of course) I am just so so happy to be here as usual :)

We are healthy and happy. I love my companion sister Velasco she is so wonderful and makes me laugh all the time! She just got a toothache today so we are hoping it is not her wisdom teeth. Yikes. Other than that it is great. We are here in Dagupan right now at the church employment resource center. It is nice in here because it is free to use the comp and it is air con! yay!
 

Anyway this morning we had zone studies and we had a scripture chase it was so fun!

Our zone here in Dagupan is really great :)
 

This week sister Velasco and I held a special study for the sisters. We talked about having short and powerful lessons. All the sisters in our zone are so great and talented. They are so in tune with the spirit! I love them. Working with the sisters is the best responsibility to have :)
 

Also this week we had a great lesson with our investigator brother Rodrigo. He has had a hard time praying and asking Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was a true prophet so last night we decided to invite him to pray during the lesson. We all knelt down and he prayed and asked. We were all quiet afterward just feeling what the spirit was telling us. We were silent for about 10 minutes. We had 2 branch missionaries with us that are preparing to serve missions soon. After being silent I realized that one of the branch missionaries was crying. Afterward we all shared how we felt. The one that was crying said he finally received the answer he had been waiting for. He has been asking and asking since he became a member and he received a sure answer now from the spirit at that time. Bro Rodrigo also said he felt so so happy and that he knew that being baptized was the right thing to do.

I am so grateful for the spirit! We cannot do this work without the spirit!
 

Also this week me and Sister Velasco were walking trying to find investigators when a few children started to follow us. This is normal I just smile and talk with them . The few turned into ten which turned into over 20!! They formed a parade behind us and were chanting and clapping "Americana! Americana!" over and over! It was so so cute. They were so so cute and were so exited to take a pic with me. I love them so much and I want to hug every one of them!

I am sorry for the short email! I love you all!!!

Tell Lacy I love her! I also got a dearelder from Kelly a while a go. Tell her i love her and I am praying for the success of Iain!

I love you all so much. 1 year can you believe it??? I cannot!

Sister Stapp

Helloooo

Kumusta family and friends! I am happy to be able to email you again and share with you my week.

I love hearing from you and about all your trips and experiences. it is so great! This week.well this week started off great because we had zone interviews!! We were so privileged to see our Mission President and Sister Monahan and the Assistants. They all gave great workshops . We each had an interview with president which always is a good experience. president Monahan is so loving and kind and he always gives good tips on improvement. The way he helps us is by letting us think of solutions to problems ourselves. This interview I was expressing to him the hard time me and sis. Valesco are having in finding less actives. and he said, "so you are having trouble finding. Well lets read a scripture in Alma26:27" (you all should read it) we read the verse and that is all he said about it. I realized that no matter how hard the work is, we just have to keep going on and we will be successful . No Effort is wasted!! :)

Also at the interviews the assistants gave a great workshop where they had us each share our testimony and share why we came on a mission. It was so inspiring to hear everyone share and feel the spirit. I shared my testimony that i came on a mission because I know this is the true church of Christ and I know how lives are changed through the gospel. I am so happy to be here and serving the Lord at this time.

We are so happy this week because we have a new investigator named Brother Rudy. we went to his house looking for his less-active son. His son wasn't there so we shared a message with him. He was very receptive and quickly accepted the invitation to attend church. Then yesterday, he was at church!! He looked so happy there and welcomed. Turns out he knows many many members. They were all happy to see him and encouraged him to come back. He said he would come back :) it is so nice when the branch is so loving and welcoming!

Also this week we had a branch activity! We had a family movie night where we watched "The restoration" and "Together forever" We handed out invitations to all the members and out investigators. Out investigator Rodrigo was late he caught the end of "Together Forever" he was late because of work. But we were able to teach him after the movie night and he was happy about that. The members had a great time and ate popcorn and snacks. I am hoping the movie night will be a monthly thing now :)

Well I love you all and I am so happy i am here on my mission.

btw I received  your packages!

I love you grandma and grandpa! Your package was perfect. I love you so so much!

I also got a letter form Kate. Is she in London right now?

I got one from Kara! I love you!!

And from Stephen Griffin. Tell him thanks!

Love,

Sister Stapp

114

Hello!!

 

 

So the subject of this email is 114 because that was my bowling score today. We had "Zone bonding" today and went bowling. I was 4 points away from beating everyone in the zone! oh well. It was great. We also had a zone study this morning. Sister Velasco and I lead the zone study.  We had 3 groups read passages from the bofm about faith. They had to act it out on stage and then share with us what we can learn and apply to our work here in Dagupan zone. We had so much fun and felt the spirit. I really love our zone . It is a smaller zone so we are closer friends and we are more focused on the work. The zone leaders are really inspired and have set goals for us that really challenge and stretch us to work our very very hardest.

Sister Velasco and I have been running around like crazy! The week has gone by so so fast we are like so amazed that it is Monday already. We had exchanges this week with the Dagupan 4a sisters. I worked with them in their area. Their area is like a city so it was pretty cool to see and to feel how it is to work where there are houses so close together.  I am so happy that I get to go on exchanges to much and learn so much from other missionaries. We also had a study with sister Navarathna from Srilanka (sp?) and Sis Dover from Utah? I forget where she is from. But they are both awesome and so diligent.

In Manat B we are really working harder and harder everyday. This week we had 10 new investigators with a baptismal date. Now we are going to help these special people actually reach their baptismal date and enter those waters! We are so happy for Brother Rodrigo who came to church again. He is so excited to be baptized and become a member of the church. He really has been prepared by the Lord.

Sister Valasco and I are very united. I am so so so happy that I have her as a companion. We have been fasting and praying this week for our less active members. This week a less active member that hasn't attended church in years came to church. She was welcomed by the members and felt the spirit. We are so happy! and I know Heavenly Father is happy :)

I love this work and I am so happy to hear about your missionary work at home!

I Love you all and pray for you everyday!

Love,
Sister Stapp

Sister Stapp in the Urdaneta Mission!!!

Hello family and friends!!

So transfers happened this week! So bitter sweet talaga. But I found out that I am in Urdaneta mission! It was a very intense transfer and interesting seeing who would be going up the mountain and who was staying in urdaneta. well I am still here in Manat B area. Sister Stokes got transferred :( She is in Rosales so at least she is still in urdaneta mission. So is sister Palmer so I am happy :) I miss my anak! sister stokes was such a wonderful companion and friend.

I miss her dearly. But I have a new companion! Fellow Sister Training Leader Sister Velasco! She is awesome. We are already really good friends and I just know this transfer will be so so great. Sister Naomi Velasco is from manila and is 25 years old. She is the oldest in her family and is very motherly and cute.

We are excited to be STLs over Dagupan Zone and Calasiao Zone. We will be conducting exchanges with 14 sisters and helping them with their challenges and concerns.

Because of the mission split we are getting part of Olongapo(sp?) mission. We are getting the Hundred Islands area which is like the most coveted area of all the phils. Pretty exciting! We received 27 new missionaries this transfer! The official split happens on July 1st!

Now that I am in Urdaneta mission the address is the same but instead of putting Baguio mission put Urdaneta mission...duh. haha.

Also This week we have many new investigators. I am so grateful to be companions with sister velasco. I am already learning so so much and improving in my teaching and finding.

Lets see what else happened. I am not sure if we are able to watch whatever you watched this week...I haven't heard anything about it. Pero hopefully we do.

Oh ya! This week we had stake conference it was really great! and powerful! There were messages about tithing and about being on time to church. I was so so happy because our investigator Brother Rodrigo came. He felt the spirit and will come again next week.

Yesterday we had an interesting experience. We preached by the way to a sister who is a member of another faith. She was welcoming to us but when we started the lesson, she also started hers. She was basically teaching us and having us read from the bible. She was obviously trying to prove that our church is wrong. We asked her why Jesus Christ was important in her life and she couldn't answer in her own words. she would only use bible verses to answer. We testified to her about prophets and continuous revelation. And she could not deny what we testified of so she always changed the subject.
I felt the power and authority as we testified. I know what we were saying is true an no one can deny it of falsify it. No one can because it comes from the spirit! It comes from God and not from the knowledge of the world!

I know this gospel is true with all my heart!

Love you.

New Companion--Leader Sisters!!!

 

Sister Stapp with the gang!