Stacie's email February 15, 2016

I'm getting transferred! I was completely shocked when we got calls on Saturday night. Apparently my mission president needs some leadership in the English part of the mission, so I've been called to serve in two English speaking wards in Sierra Vista as a Sister Training Leader. I definitely have been having a lot of bittersweet feelings about not serving in a Spanish area. I'm really not very confident in my teaching skills in English anymore, I feel like it will be kinda a tough adjustment not being able to speak in Spanish with everyone. But the Lord needs me there right? I'm sure whatever is waiting for me over there is exactly what I need to continue growing. It'll be pretty different for me being in that type of leadership position too. I don't feel like I have strong leadership skills, but one of the biggest things that I've learned on my mission so far is that the Lord definitely qualifies those that He calls.  

Maybe I will continue to write down experiences and things like that for recording purposes.  I will continue to send them! 

Thank you for your love and support! Have a blessed week! 

 Love, Hermana Townley 

Stacie's email February 1, 2016

Hi everyone!

Well, another week has come and gone. This week was a hard one for me, several ups and downs. In my area, we have so many opportunities every day to meet new people and most of the time they are going through really hard trials. We have an investigator right now who has such great desires to change her life and get back on the right path. However, she has several addictions that she feels she has to go back to as soon as things get hard. Overtime, I have grown to love her so much, and it just breaks my heart to see her suffering for her bad choices. More often than not, I find myself wishing and praying that somehow all of their problems would just magically go away. Sometimes I wish that I could just fix everything for them. It is all in the Lord's hands though. We just have to keep trusting in him and move forward. 

Oftentimes, when my companion and I go out to teach or to contact people, people will just come up to us and start asking questions. It keeps things pretty interesting! I've been thinking a lot this week about how important it is to just let ourselves be seen. We visit this particular trailer park at least once, if not multiple times, a day. Almost every single person in that trailer park recognizes us and knows who we are. The other day, a guy who we had never met named Ernesto contacted us to try to give us water. He told us that he knew we were sent from God because every time we would walk by his house, the spirit would prompt him to offer us water. At that point, his heart was softened and he took genuine interest in the Book of Mormon. It was an obvious tender mercy from God, we hardly did anything to find him! We will teach his whole family this week :) 

Sundays are definitely one of the busiest days of the week. Frequently, members of the ward who were assigned to give a talk or teach a lesson will just not show up; naturally, the missionaries will jump to fill in. This week, my companion and I were asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. When Hermano Garcia asked me to speak, he told me the topic was "follow the prophet" but that he would let me use the spirit to change the topic as needed. As I studied, I felt the inspiration behind the topic that was already chosen. I felt deep within my heart that there would be people in the congregation who would need to learn about the importance of our modern day prophets. It is so wonderful to know that our church is run by Christ himself through inspired, imperfect leaders. I am so grateful to take part in helping people understand the nature of God's true church.

As always, whoever does the teaching is usually the person who learns the most. As was the case this week. I realized as I prepared the talk that I too needed a strengthened testimony in our modern day prophets. Earlier this week, I was touched by an experience I had as we contacted people on the street that reminded me how unique our church is because of our prophets. As we saw her kids playing with their dog outside, we jumped at the opportunity to teach Maria and her whole family while they had some downtime. As we began teaching a shortened version of the restoration, she was a little standoffish and skeptical. However as soon as we told her that God has again called a prophet to lead and direct his church, her eyes brightened. She began to ask questions and take a real interest in the Book of mormon. Then she asked us to come back and teach her more! Truly that is our unique message to the world; the Lord still speaks to us! By using the words of modern day prophets, scriptures(which are written by prophets), and receiving guidance and personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, we can know God personally and his will for us. What a priceless gift we have!

I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God called to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth. I know that God loves us and would not leave us in darkness. Because of his love for us, we have all of the tools and guidance necessary to help us back to our heavenly home. 

Love, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email January 25, 2016

Buenos Dias mis queridos amigos!

Sometimes it is really hard for me to know how to put into words all
of the feelings I have in my heart that I would like to share with you
all. I learn so much every single day, and so much happens in a single
week so it's hard to keep up! I had a great start to the week though
when we went to the temple in Gila Valley, I just love it there!

This week we had a world-wide missionary conference, which reminded me
of the simplicity of the gospel. We discussed basic doctrinal
principles that helped me remember to keep my lessons simple, and to
bear simple but powerful testimony. That, in combination with my
experiences in teaching a specific less active family, I was prompted
to study and learn to apply the power of bearing testimony of basic
gospel truths. As missionaries, one of our top priorities is to help
others remember their baptismal covenants: When we are baptized, we
promise that we will be “Willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea,
and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as
witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places
that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God,
and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have
eternal life.” Or in other words, be charitable and compassionate,
always bear testimony of Jesus Christ (in word and deed), and endure
to the end.

As it applies to my missionary work, I really wanted to focus on and
understand my part of the promises I made to Heavenly Father when I
was 8 years old as well. While studying in the Book of Mormon, I
realized that the examples of Nephi, Abinadi, Alma, Amulek, and the
sons of Mosiah applies to almost every situation I find myself in as a
missionary. They were bold witnesses of Jesus Christ despite the
persecution, ridicules and mockeries. They stood up for what they
believed in and they never backed down or hesitated to open their
mouths to bear simple, but incredibly powerful, testimony. They were
not people-pleasers. These are great examples to me of how I should
remember and actively strive to keep my baptismal covenants.

Bearing testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ is the most powerful tool we have as missionaries to help
people come unto Christ. I love the counsel given to us by the Lord
himself: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C
6:36).

This week my companion and I have been working on bearing witness of
Jesus Christ and the Restored gospel at every door we knock on and to
every person that we talk to. The more I do it, the less fear I have.
There has been a bit of a different feel to our missionary work as we
have done this too; we get more doors slammed in our face, but the
quality of the lessons that we have has gone up. The Spirit is
stronger with us.

I hope this email has inspired each of you to ponder again on the
sacred promises that you made with Heavenly Father when you decided to
be baptized. I strongly encourage each of you to recommit to keeping
your end of the covenant so that the Lord is able to freely shower all
of the many blessings that He has prepared to those who are faithfully
striving to endure to the end.

¡Que Dios les bendiga abundantemente en sus esfuerzos!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email January 18, 2015

Hi everyone!

I'm doing well and am loving all of the things I am experiencing as I
serve the Lord right now. I've got a great companion, I've made some
wonderful relationships, and I feel like I get closer and closer to my
Father in Heaven every day. I couldn't be more blessed!

I came across a scripture recently that I have been pondering deeply
about this week. I found it in Doctrine and Covenants section 123:17,
it says "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all
things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the
utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be
revealed." I absolutely love this wise counsel given to us from Joseph
Smith, and I was able to really apply it throughout this week as we
worked trying to find more people to teach. It's become apparent to me
that most of the miracles happen at 8:00 at night after we've put in a
long day of hard work and kept going despite all of our plans falling
through. This has happened almost every single day this week, isn't
that incredible?

We had a really obvious miracle on Tuesday especially as we left our
apartment at approximately 12:00 to start teaching lessons.
Originally, we had the whole day pretty planned out with previously
set lessons and we were prepared to have a fairly successful day. With
all of the referrals that we have been receiving lately, we were
feeling a little bit of pressure too with trying to contact all of
them. So, we were booked...or so we thought. One by one, every single
lesson fell through. As the day continued, we found ourselves running
out of ideas, getting really tired, and about ready to give up. But we
kept going, trying not to get discouraged after working hard all day
without teaching anyone. At the end of the day, at about 7:45pm we met
a beautiful family with 3 kids who were so grateful that we showed up
"randomly" at their doorstep to teach them about God. Surely the Lord
is involved in all of the little details of our lives. I am so sure
that it was in his plans all along for us to do all we can, even if it
means struggling for a little while, and then to see his miraculous
arm reaching out to make up the difference for our imperfect efforts.

Tomorrow we are taking a temple trip to the Gila Valley! This week I
have been working on preparing myself spiritually to receive specific
counsel and guidance from the Lord when I go. In the process I have
learned a couple valuable principles about the temple that apply
specifically to some of my investigators. We have been working for
several weeks now with an investigator who has had severe problems
with the word of wisdom and taking care of her body. In relation to my
studies this week on temples, I came across a scripture that compared
our bodies to a holy temple of God. First Corinthians  6:19–20
states: “Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the
Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you,  which ye  have  of  God,  and  ye
are  not  your  own? “For  ye  are  bought  with  a  price:  therefore
 glorify  God  in  your  body,  and  in  your spirit,  which  are
God’s.” Now, I realize that most of you are pretty familiar with this
comparison, but the concept that caught my eye and had a deep impact
on me was that we are bought with a price. Our bodies, our spirits,
everything we have both temporally and spiritually were not, are not,
and can never be truly ours because of the infinite debt that we owe
to our Savior Jesus Christ, who sacrificed so greatly for us. He paid
it all, and words cannot express the gratitude I feel for him.

These are some of the thoughts and feelings that I will take with me
to the temple tomorrow, as well as my prayers and my desires to be a
spiritual strength to my family. I will be thinking of you!

With all my love, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email and pics January 11, 2015

Hermana Ferwerda's last day in the mission! 

My new companion, Hermana Burgoyne :)

Dear family,

What a wonderful past few weeks I have had! I hope you as well were able to enjoy and celebrate the life of our Savior on Christmas and spend some special extra time with family and loved ones. I am so grateful for new beginnings. With each passing year I feel new energy, desire, and motivation to be a better person and do better things that the previous year. For the year of 2015, the Arizona Tucson Mission has helped over 600 people come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ by being baptized into His church: a testimony to me that the work of the Lord is moving forward rapidly and we are truly preparing the world for His coming. This is good, but we can and will do better this year! I would like to challenge each of you to ponder on some of the things that I have been prayerful about sharing with you. 

I truly believe that when we have hope in Christ, we can influence the results of our labors, and the Lord blesses us when we strive to do His work in His ways. We recite regularly as missionaries "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". This week I was asked to give a training to other missionaries about accountability which has naturally caused me to really learn the concept of accountability for myself. While thinking back on the past year, I have seen much happiness and sadness, failures, and successes, having to teach and having to be taught, times of ease and times of (painful) growth, experiences, lessons learned, and unfortunate regrets. What I have learned is that we cannot do anything about our circumstances. God places us where ever He needs us and there is just not much we can do about it. BUT, we do have 100% control of how we REACT to those circumstances and what we make out of them. Missionary life is one big roller coaster, many ups and downs that are both fun and scary at the same time. I feel sometimes as if I experience every single emotion going through me multiple times a day and all at the same time. With all of the unpleasant things that we experience in life, we have the choice to make the best of it and learn. 

As we welcomed in the new year, I was prompted to prayerfully make goals and resolutions to help me make the most of the rest of my time here in Tucson. My hope and prayer is that each of you will do the same specific to your own lives. Pulling from a talk given by President Uchtdorf, I want to share with you some examples of some things we can do together to make this year much better than the last:

"Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.

"Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

"Let us resolve to be happy, regardless of our circumstances.

"We must begin to walk that eternal path today; we cannot take for granted one single day. I pray that we will not wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live."

As a result of prayerful goal setting, we were able to accomplish and achieve all of our desired results last week. It really works, and the work continually moves forward! 

Love, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email December 28, 2015

Dear loved ones,

I apologize for the short email this week, the computers are all
closed for the holidays, so we are emailing from our iPads, which
takes a little bit longer than normal. I want to thank all of you for
all of the warm Christmas love that I have felt from you this week. I
am so blessed to have such wonderful, loving family and friends!

I appreciate those who took some time out of their busy schedules to
talk to me on the phone. I loved catching up and hearing your voices.

My area is doing better! Our we have the majority of the presidencies
of the auxiliaries called by now, and there is a little bit more
organization to the madness. We even have a ward mission leader, which
is a huge blessing for us! I see so much potential for the area that I
am in. The people here are amazing, and the Lord is blessing them in
so many ways.

I promise a more detailed letter next week! I love you, and hope you
have a Happy New Year!

Love, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email December 21, 2015

Merry Christmas!!!

I want to apologize in advance for not being able to write each and every one of you an individual "thanks" for the outpouring of love and support that I have felt this holiday season. Being away from family at this time of the year isn't the easiest thing in the whole world, so I appreciate all of you writing me and staying close! 

This month, my Mission President and his wife challenged all of us to study about the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ to help us remember the purpose of the celebrations of the Christmas season. I have learned so much and have come so close to him as I put this special focus on my studies. I am so grateful to have the guidance of my priesthood leaders in helping me develop and strengthen my relationship with Him. It is the most wonderful and beautiful thing to learn and study about. I love this time of the year! 

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is gift giving. How wonderful it is to see someone's face light up when we buy that "perfect gift". It brings so much joy to my heart to see others happy and take some of the burdens off of their shoulders. The traditions of gift giving to celebrate Christ's birth bring a special spirit to all of the homes that we visit. My Mission President sent me an email a few days ago that prompted some thought about the concept of gift giving. We are celebrating the miraculous birth of the Savior of the world. The question that he asked me was: what can we give Him in return for all that he has done for us and all that he is still doing for us? What can we adequately offer him as a gift to repay him for all that he has already given us? I was reminded of one of my favorite Christmas songs The Little Drummer Boy: "Come they told me, a new born king to see. Our finest gifts we bring to lay before the king, so to honor him when we come. I have no gift to bring, that's fit to give our king. Shall I play for you? Mary nodded, the ox and lamb kept time. I played my drum for him. I played my best for him."

On that thought he sent me this poem:

What can I give Him

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb

If I were a wise man

I would do my part

Yet what I can, I give him-

Give my heart

Think of it! Our Savior, who created worlds and commands the elements of the earth to obey him, who reins in the heavens and will rein on the earth, who we are eternally indebted to....only asks for our hearts in return. That's it. Thus we read in 3 Nephi 9:20 "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit." And, of course, the promise, "And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and the Holy Ghost." What a beautiful concept. I wish I had more to offer, but that's all that he wants. He wants us to give our hearts to him and keep his commandments. It is a gift that all people can give despite their social status, financial situation, race, gender, or age. May we all ponder these things in our hearts during this Christmas season and devote ourselves to giving back to him who gave his all for us. As we open our hearts to him and submit our will to his, he has promised to bless us forever. The gift of eternal life, which he gives freely, is priceless!

I love you! Have a merry Christmas! 

Love, Hermana Townley