Hola!

What a week! So last friday we had the wedding of cati and sandro and they decided they wanted to get baptized the same day after their wedding! It was kinda crazy but they did it finally! The missionaries have been teaching them for a year now and so it has been a real accomplishment. I want to testify that satan is real! The night before the wedding/baptism their neighbors house caught on fire!! Cati and sandro´s house was soaked with water but i don´t think the fire got to it...kinda crazy! One of the investigators that we are teaching is super super awesome! Her name is veronica and she is such a good example to me of wanting to learn more always! She is so nice and is so accepting of everything we teach! She really is amazing! She is getting baptized on the 14 of november and I´m super excited for her cause i know she is so ready! Today I was in the city and it´s super nice there so I don´t know what is wrong with parts of our mission haha Anyway i still don´t really know what people are saying except for a little bit in lessons cause they are talking about the gospel and using those words. I definitely need to have more patience with myself. Anyway that is pretty much it for the week just super busy and walking EVERYWHERE! I love you all! ps. you can still use dearelder and just send it my mission instead of the mtc and i get them on tuesday mornings but i don´t know when they print them out. I still prefer dearelder instead of emailing me. i also have not been able to get stamps to send envelopes because the place you buy them at is not in our area so hopefully next week we can get some stamps!

She Made It!!

Well here I am in chile! Arriving here was a bit of a shock and i was scared out of my mind. The first day my trainer asked me how many people I wanted to contact like on the streets and I started crying because that seemed like the scariest thing ever! Then she said all I have to say is hola, como esta?.... Okay i can do that haha it has been a lot easier now and i am not so scared to say more but when people talk to me I have no idea what they are saying haha it´s funny because i am seriously the only white person with blonde hair and blue eyes here so i stand out a lot and a lot people look at me funny. My companion is from vegas and she is white too but she has dark hair and brown eyes so she doesn´t stick out as much as me. I am in a trio right now because the other sister stayed in order to hear elder bednar speak so she will be with us until thursday. She is from argentina and doesn´t speak inglish so it is hard for me to understand her. I will be with my trainer companion for 12 weeks and then I might have to train because there will be many new missionaries and we are already having to move mission homes so that missionaries from the us come directly to the mission home and stay there to learn spanish and do the training we did in the mtc. Hermana Reil is good friends with tim tanner and is from the same ward! How awesome is that! (I thought you would appreciate that dad) So when elder bednar came all the sisters got to sit in the front and I had a clear view of elder bednar and so he had a clear view of me.. since that was my second day I felt that I couldn´t do this and that there was no way that I could and then elder bednar started talking about ammon and when he got discouraged and felt depressed in his mission and how he didn´t give up. Well that made me start to cry a lot because it was an answer to my prayer and I felt so retarded because here i am crying and i am pretty sure elder bednar knew it was basically my first day cause he saw me at the aiport and I am just a mess haha oh well! Our meeting with elder bednar was also with the mission santiago east and that was where another district in my zone went and so i got to see some of those elders! It was comforting to know that they were still alive and were progressing in learning spanish. They are the best! My first area is called la rioja and this is why i had such a culture shock. I think our sector is the most ghetto sector in our mission. It´s more ghetto and poor than the ghettos in mesa. The houses are super super dirty and are not much at all. They don´t even look like houses, they look like shacks with a tin roof on top. There are a lot of drunks at night and they are kinda scary, like one would not let go of my hand and my companions had to pry his hand off me but i know that the lord is protecting us and i am definitely learning how to handle those kinds of people better. The ward is pretty small but they are super nice and they feed us really well! The food has been super good so far and i have never drank so much soda in my life! All they drink here is soda and juice but I would say more soda.. i really think i am going to get fat here! haha they feed us A LOT! my companion thinks that we are only going to be in this area for six weeks and then we will be transfered to another sector that is more safe and put elders here again. I´m kinda hoping that happens haha so yesterday I asked one of our investigators to be baptized! My first invitation! she said yes! yay! It is kinda scary to know that the lord has so much trust in us as missionaries and I am hoping that i can do my best to please the lord especially with the little sapnish i know and the little spanish i understand haha oh yeah so whenever we say hi and bye to girls we always kiss on the cheek and say chao! haha it´s awesome and still weird! here is my addres: Hermana Stapley Chile Santiago north mission sucrusal patronato casilla 60 santiago chile it´s the same address for boxes but don´t use fedex to send stuff (peanut butter or nutella would be super nice)

Well... I am leaving tomorrow! Crazy right? This last week has gone by super fast and i feel like throwing up because I am so nervous about tomorrow! I am super excited to call you all:) I will probably call in the evening time when I arrive in georgia. It says that I get there at 630 so I am not sure what time that is in california. My next plane doesn't take off until the 1030 so we should have plenty of time to chat! yay! I am pretty much packed and won't have a problem with my suitcases weighing too much surprisingly! I still don't know spanish but that's okay haha i know that the Lord will help me as long as i trust in him:)

General Conference

hahaha please don't ever say the subject cause it's incorrect haha It's just an inside joke in our district. So this week has been awesome! General Conference was awesome but I already sent a letter home about that so hopefully you got it. For the devotional on tuesday Elder Bednar came! So cool to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord! I felt the spirit so strong especially when he bore his testimony at the end. Super powerful! He talked about the importance of general conference and studying the words of the prophets! He told us the way he studied and said his ensigns with the general conference talks are all marked up and "ripped up." He is a super humble man and said he needed to study the words of the prophets as much as anyone else does. He looks for the doctrine, the invitations, and the blessings in each talk and then combines them all to see what the pattern is. Super cool! I have been reading more talks lately and it has definitely helped me grow spiritually. Oh yeah he also said something way powerful about how not knowing what the prophets say is the same as not believing! Yeah we should definitely study the words of the prophets.. A cool experience that I had this week was teaching our investigator pepe yesterday. So my companion and I had our lesson planned out about what we wanted to teach him (enduring to the end) and the night before (tuesday night) i had a dream where my teacher told me specifically to NOT teach pepe "enduring to the end." What? Crazy! So I told hma smith after breakfast so we basically had about 5 minutes before we had to go teach and we had absolutely no idea what we were going to teach. All we knew was we were going to ask him how the reading was that we gave him in the book of mormon and his favorite part.. So we go in to teach him and start with that and asked him if he had any questions and what he was thinking. We ended up finding one of his concerns which was super good and gave us a little direction. It is really hard for me to listen to what my companion is saying and to what pepe is saying when i have no clue what i am saying next but i did my best to just listen. Whenever it came to being my turn I still had no idea what i was going to say but I opened my mouth anyway and somehow something always came out!! D and C 84:85 really works! I can't tell you anything that I said in that lesson but it went super well! My teacher also gave us feedback to teach from the scriptures more and all we did was use the scriptures in that lesson and surprisingly most of what pepe needed to address his concern was in the chapter we gave him! SO GOOD! So I have stopped going to physical therapy because I feel like I am pretty much recovered from headaches! yay! Also it was soooo awesome! Scottie was in the mailroom today eating a subway sandwich and i was chatting with him for a minute. He totally let me eat half of his subway sandwich!!!!! Oh my goodness real food tastes sooo good! I love it! Scottie es el mejor! (scottie is the best) Random story, there is an elder in our district that gets bloody noses all the time so today hermana smith offered to give him some tampons to stop the bleeding.... I think she was kidding but then elder brummel said he would do it, so we gave him some and he did! He is super goofy and interesting haha but it's hilarious. Love you all! Hope you are doing good! Con amor, Hermana Stapley

Wow! So it has still been great here at the mtc! I am SOOOO excited for conference this weekend especially since saturday is our longest days at the mtc because in the afternoon we have three hours of class and then dinner for like 40 minutes and then after we have another 3 hours of class and it is the longest class ever! PERO this saturday everything is canceled for conference! yay! I invite you all this weekend to have a specific question that you have that is already answered and to see if the Lord wants you to do something else or something more. This totally works! At the devotional the other night one of the elders had a question already answered and if he heard "thy will" then he knew it was from god....well he pretty much heard that phrase a million times at the devotional! Crazy! i love it! It doesn't have to be exaclty like that though but just go with something and i promise your question or concern will answered! Yesterday I got to be host for the new sisters coming into the mtc and all we do is check them in, take them to their room, drop their luggage off, get their books and name badge, and take them to class. I didn't think I would be so tired after that but I was! It was awesome though because another one of the sisters that was hosting was a girl I met when I lived at Uncle mark's and aunt amy's and we became great friends! But then she went to London for a study abroad and I never knew what happened to her! It was so fun to see her again! Her name is Becca Smith and she is going to Korea! I love seeing people you know serving missions. I don't know if I have already said this but my district and i love to play sand volleyball! It's the best! We only play tuesdays and saturdays because that's when we have gym not at 630 in the morning haha My testimony has definitely grown of how much our Heavenly Father knows us personally and knows our concerns even when we don't tell him! In Moses 6:53 Adam asks god a question and the Lord answered a different question. Either Adam asked the wrong question or the lord gave the wrong answer. I think we all know that the Lord is always right and he knew what Adam wanted to ask but maybe he was too afraid to ask it and instead asked a more general question but you can interpret it however you'd like but that's what I thought. It's crazy how His hand is in every detail of our lives and I'm so grateful for that. I would for sure not be able to serve a mission without His help each day. I love how he is always there right when you start to get discouraged but the key is to immediately turn to him and he is right there waiting. This week has been difficult but even when I knew that the lord had answered my prayers (many prayers this week) it was still difficult to continue on but it definitely made it a lot easier to know the Lord is super aware of me and i know he is helping me. i hope that you all can have that same relationship with the Lord to know no matter what He is always there, even when life gets difficult. And to know without a shadow of a doubt how he will help you through hard times. 1 Nephi 3:7 the lord will give no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them. i know that as long as I am doing my best and keep praying to the lord that he will she me the way in which i can keep going and live in happiness and joy and love. LIFE IS GREAT. Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, He is the way. Mucho amor, Hermana Stapley ps. My guess for glenn is mexico! Let me know asap!

Shout Hosanna

Wow so I am not sure what to write this week. I think I need to write down stuff that happens during the week that i want to share with you all so I don't forget them. But i had a good week and all is going well. I love physical therapy still because i think it's also emotional therapy! They play music in the gym and I got to here Taylor Swift! Yay! So district 42a leaves on tuesday and I am super bummed about it because they are the best! i love them all so much! All the elders in that district are going to chile but none of them are going to santiago north, they are going to orsorno and santiago east. So we will have a new district by next week and I hope they are just as cool! I seriously love my zone and am grateful for everyone in it. The district that came after mine is a little hard to get along with because they think they are the coolest elders ever but they are a lot better now. Then there is another district that will leave the next week after district 42a and they are also the coolest and the best ever! I am especially grateful for a couple of the elders yesterday in those districts because I was having a really rough day and i felt like I couldn't do anything and all the things I was excited for were changed and things just kept adding up. So elder goldrup wanted me to talk to him about my day and he is just the greates. I realized I needed to pray better and more often (i thought I was already praying pretty good) but I realized I could always do better! Then elder jones was talking to me about what sort of things we should ask when we pray. Instead of just plainly asking for the gift of charity, feeling more peace, or the gift of tongues, we should come up with ways the Lord can help us to have those things in our lives. Like when Jared or the brother of jared, I can't remember who it was haha, but the lord asked him how to put light in the boats so it is important that we work for the things that we are asking for and coming up with our own ways to have these things in our lives. Last sunday we got to watch the dedication which was super neat! Elder tom perry, Russel m nelson and elder packer were there. I loved the music and the hosanna shout at the end! Temples are the best! I also just learned about what the word hosanna means, it means "save me." In 3 nephi 11 they say the same thing when christ comes. Temples are super important in our lives, without them we couldn't make covenants with the lord to enter into the kingdom of god! crazy to think about! anyway so I think that's all i have for this week. i will try to be better and write stuff down to share with you all Love you! Chao

Lead By Example

um soo... wow i am kind of stumped right now on what to say for this week. I feel like it's been crazy! Mostly what i have been doing is trying to be the best example I can be to my district in studying hard and staying on task. I have come to gain a testimony that missionary work is the greatest work on the earth and that satan will do everything he can to try and destroy it. One way is by making missionaries distracted! It is super easy to get distracted and lose focus and what your purpose is. Satan is just waking for us to look his way and if we are not strictly obedient he will take advantage of that. D and C 10:5 pray always that may come off conquerer! daily prayer is super important in our lives and gives us the strength to overcome satan's temptations. Another important thing I have been learning this week is the importance of knowing the doctrine of christ which is being cleansed through christ, fatih, repentance, baptism and enduring to the end. The greatest gift that god gives us is eternal life. what is eternal life? John 17:3 eternal life is knowing the master and and if we don't have a very strong relationship with him now then eternal life won't really be the greatest gift. i know that the lord loves everyone of us and he knows us individually but we have to come to know him and find strength, light, knowledge, and comfort. We should always be studying the savior's life and trying to become more like him. I thought I was doing pretty good with charity and patience but I still have a long ways to go! it is easy to get down on ourselves for all the weaknesses we have but if we are trying our best we have every reason to rejoice and be happy and know that heavenly father will help what we can not do. We must have hope which is like our goal and then once we have hope we need faith which is our plan to reach our goal. We should always be making sure our plans are in accordance to god's will and that we are on the path that he wants us to be on. He will never lead us astray! Okay so my headaches are a lot better! Who would have thought that physical therapy would help that! Apparently I have been putting too much strain on my neck! yeah for studying too hard!! so anyway I'm doing some shock therapy thing and exercises that have been helping so much! i am actually almost on my way to my next appointment! Rachel thank you for that song! it was the best and I seriously want to hear more from you. and seriously write the elder back in my district soon! thanks love you:)

Where Can I Turn For Peace

So it is crazy to me how long I have been here. It feels like I have been here all my life but at the same time it feels like I just got here yesterday. It starting to get really frustrating being stuck in the same room all day everyday but I have found that if i study hard, then time goes by really quick. The MOST frustrating thing I have been dealing with lately is how the elderes y hermanas in my district get so easily distracted and don't do what they are supposed to be doing. I often find myself sitting in the hallway and studying because they are too obnoxious and off topic (i still love them all though) I just feel like I care more about what I am doing. we are on the lord's time here and i understand goofing around a little but not a lot! I have been praying for a lot of charity and patience though and it has definitely been working. So fortunately I am not sick anymore (i think) but for almost two weeks I have had a constant headache that makes me light headed, nauseous, and dizzy. My headache also causes my stomach to hurt! no bueno! anyway i went to the doctor yesterday and he just said i have a bad case of an ongoing headache so he thought it was best to give me a shot! It was called imitrex or sumatuiptan? something like that and he told me that i might feel warm, the muscles in my throat and chest might feel tight and where my headache was will feel like it's burning.....ummm who would ever want that?!?! anyway they had me stay at the doctors and rest for an hour and a half to see how i felt when i woke up. oh man i wanted to die! that stuff freaked me out so much and i was scared out of my mind cause i didn't know what was happening! I really don't like when doctors downplay stuff and the nurse pinched me when she gave me the shot which i hate! anyway i felt better when i woke up but now i feel the same but my headache just moved and isn't as painful. I am a walking tragedy! Seriously haha On sunday i was in the mtc choir which was awesome! we were singing where can i turn for peace and we really talked about what the words mean and compared it to when christ was walking on water and peter jumped out to go to him. SO GREAT! Notice in that story that peter asks if it be His will that he should come unto Christ. man it is great and then in the song when it talks about he reaches my reaching. Christ didn't put out His hand a little bit and say okay reach really far! you're almost there! he scooped him out of the water. In D and C 122:8-9 it says the son of man has descended below all things, art thou greater than he? No matter how low we get in life Christ can and will lift us up. Goodness this is coming to be one of my favorite bible stories and church songs! Now I just need to learn the song in spanish! It has definitely started to get colder here and it was freezing this morning walking to the temple! The temple is awesome as usual and we always eat breakfast there! It's like thanksgiving and we all look forward to it so much! wow, sorry if that doesn't make sense ha hopefully you got something spiritual out of it though! I will try and remember to send pictures next week though:) Life is great and the church is true! Christ is our Savior and loves us so much, I hope you all are trying to strengthen your relationship with him and he will help make your burdens light! I LOVE the gospel!! Lo es el mejor!

Emily's MTC Address

Hermana Stapley
MTC #351 Dep. 10/23
CHI-SATN
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT  84604

Taylor Swift Status

I FINALLY KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT!! I'm sure you all might have heard already but president brown (president of the whole mtc) called me up to bear my testimony in front of the whole mtc!!!!! and yes i kind of knew that it was going to happen all week! At first he called up another sister but she was either hiding or in the overflow so she was off the hook. Anyway I was super nervous going up and i didn't even notice that they were showing me walking down to the pulpit on the biggest screens you could ever imagine! Wierdly I was not nervous while i was actually saying my testimony but it was pretty hard to remember my testimony even though I was rehearsing it every night for the past week in spanish in my head (i gave my testimony in english though). The worst part was walking back to my seat! i was shaking so much and almost fell on the elders while going back to my seat! Oh yeah the day before that I got sick with a cold so throughout the whole meeting I was dizzy and zoning in and out in the whole meeting and when i went up i was totally sniffling and i asked some of the elders if they thought i was crying but they knew i was sick haha but they totally got it cause they said at the end it was a combination of tearing up and being sick. Such an amazing experience though! I am so grateful for that opportunity and now I am the most popular girl here and everyone knows me! It's the best! I almost freaked out though at the pulpit cause there was a monitor and I could see myself so there was a long pause haha So on monday i slept the whole day expect for lunch and dinner! i didn't even have a problem sleeping that night and slept like a baby. I needed that sleep so much! Now I am feeling so much better! 

So I have been so excited to share an experience and I hope that grandma gets to read this too! So when I got sick I was thinking a lot about why i was sick because i was pretty sure that when I got set apart the Lord told me I would be protected from illness but maybe i was wrong? Anyway so I was really distraught about this and thinking about it a lot. I finally decided I wanted a blessing so on Sunday night my companion and I went up to our classroom to wait for our zone leader so he could give me a blessing. A lot of other elders from my zone came up but elder gubler was nowhere to be found so I had another elder relay the message to him that i would like one in the morning. While my companion and i were walking back to our room for the night, she ran into her good friend from home and they always talk for forever haha so i sat waiting for them to finish when I just felt super weak and completely changed my mind about wanting a blessing at that moment and I couldn't wait for the morning. I went back to our classroom (which was down the hall) and all the elders in my zone were gone already... i sort of lost it and started crying because that was like the last straw. As i was walking back to my companion and her friend, her friend (Elder Murdock) asked if he could give me a blessing so I accepted his offer. COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER! His whole district and my companion and I went into a classroom and all the elders surrounded me as they gave me a blessing. The Lord told me to fear not, and that he is with me and how proud he was of me. Then he told me that Grandpa wants me to know that he is with me and watching over me. It was so amazing and I definitely could feel him there. I know that the lord answers our prayers and that he truly knows us so well. i know that i have thought about grandpa a lot and wondering exactly where he was. It's amazing all the many blessings that the Lord gives us and the strength that he gives us to keep going. In D and C 84:88 it talks about how angels are around is to bear us up (I'm pretty sure that's the scripture!) Today I have an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for families. I am so glad that families are forever and that i have such a great family. Thank you for always being there for me and helping me be the person I am today! This morning I did sealings and there was one particular sealing where I could feel that person there and it was a neat experience. I love the temple! I hope that you all are striving to go on a regular basis because I know that is where I get a lot of my strength for the week. 

Mucho amor!
Hermana Stapley

Ps. While i am sitting here a bunch of elders have told me how they enjoyed my testimony haha this is the greatest :) Also Glenn. I am sitting across from a Jacob Beckert who said he knew you! Sweet! I have been chatting with him a little and he said you guys were good friends. 

Pss. DAD you STINK please write me. Donde esta mi familia?!! Thank you mom for writing me diligently your the best! Also I am sorry I keep thinking of things but i need my zovirax which you might have to get a new tube, sandals for the shower, and some pictures!!!!! i need pictures of all of you:) and mom i have written you like a total of three letters and I hope you have gotten the last two by now. 

Emily's First Letter

Yay! I'm finally emailing! Thursdays are my p-days and this morning we went to the temple and we just get to relax for most the day! The first couple of days at the mtc were soo hard! But once we got to sunday things have definitely gotten a lot easier. I LOVE the mtc so much! My district is the best and my companion is awesome. There are six elders and 4 hermanas in my district including myself. We laugh all the time and we even cry together. We are so close already and I know that each of us was divinely put with each other. Sundays are the best! First all the sister missionaries watch the spoken word on a broadcast thing and listen to music for a hald hour (one of my favorite things here) also Emily Rice plays in the orchestra so it is cool to see her. Then we have relief society, then we eat lunch and go to sacrament meeting which is moslty in spanish. Then we have the temple walk and go to the fireside that evening and those are awesome because like 15 minutes before the firesides start, all the missionaries sing a couple church songs together and it is so powerful! I had to stop singing last time because I was crying haha

I still hate waking up so early in the morning but the hardest thing for me is getting ready for the day in 30 minutes! I absolutely love gym time because they have a good gym here surprisingly. There is a huge gym where you can play volleyball and basketball and there is a track you can run on (ten laps equal a mile) is kinda small ha there is also a free weight gym that i love with a ton of bikes and elipticals and those big exercise balls.. anyway i basically love that and get to work out everyday!

Our first investigator's name was cesar and yesterday was our last lesson with him! We got him to commit to be baptized! yay! The teachers here pretend to be real investigators from when they served their missions and they pretend to have the same doubts and questions and try to make the situation as real as possible. We teach our lessons in spanish and it's amazing how many things I can say. Taking spanish at Byu has definitely helped me here and I'm so glad i did that! I can understand most of what cesar says but whenever i don't know what he is saying, my companion knows which is awesome. before coming here I didn't know any gospel words and now I know so many already! It's crazy how much we learn here. On the first day we were taught how to pray in spanish and then the second day we were taught how to bear our testimonies. i have realized the importance in prayer lately because it seriously helps us to have strength throughout the day. There are a lot of things that i need help with and i know i cannot do them all by myself but i know that the lord will help me in my weaknesses to make me a stronger person. This can only happen through having faith in the Lord that he will help and guide us and answer our prayers.

Okay so I think i am for real lactose intolerant because i got a really bad tummy ache alst friday and saturday where I just wanted to cry and couldn't focus on anything. Saturday night when our teacher was here she told me to go to my room and sleep which was sooo amazing and i finally got a good night sleep from being so tired. I noticed I started eating a lot more cereal than before I came here so I stopped using the the fat free milk and found the soy milk. My tummy has stopped hurting! Yay!

The best way to send me letters is at dearelder.com. This way i can get your letters throughout the week and will be able to read it as many times as I want and I can have an idea of what to say before i get on my email. i am timed and only get 30 minutes to email. I love getting letters and appreciate every one who has already sent me letters. Oh, dearelder is FREE! so it's way easy. Thank you mom for the cinnamon rolls! They were so good and also helped my tummy have a break from the cafeteria food which is good but doesn't really sit well in my tummy:)

 

I love you all so much and miss hearing from you whenever i call (Cause i can't anymore) so pleaaaase write!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Stapley

Emily enters the MTC

 August 22, 2012 Sister Stapley is entering the MTC!  We love you Emily!

 Older brother, Winsor Stapley bidding farewell to his sister.

 Cousin, Scott Pitcher giving Emily some last minute advice...look out for the "Dork Dot"!

Emily was soo excited her pillow fit!

 Mom and Emily walking to the MTC!  She's excited and ready to serve the Lord!

Surprise...Aunt Amy snaps a picture as she drives by!