Stacie's email March 7, 2016

These past few weeks have been pretty hectic for me. My area that I'm in right now is pretty slow, but it has actually been kind of a blessing because we have had so much to do as far as our leadership responsibilities go. It's definitely a different type of missionary work than what I have experienced thus far on my mission, but I'm enjoying every moment of it! All of a sudden our biggest priorities are to help and strengthen the missionaries within our stewardship and to be good examples. Last Monday, I had a prompting from the Spirit that I needed to talk with a particular sister. As we talked, I sensed some reservations and anxiety, so we scheduled an exchange with her and her companion.. During the exchanges, we found out that the companion of the sister that I had talked to is really struggling with disobedience and testimony. It was a really neat experience because I was able to really connect with that sister and was able to bear my testimony to her about the blessings and miracles I have seen from being obedient to commandments that I didn't understand. At this point, I feel like that was all I could really do for her, and I have been praying for her ever since that her heart will be softened enough to be changed. 

We also had a different companionship struggling bad enough with the elders that they are serving with that we scheduled an emergency exchange for tomorrow morning....We don't know exactly what is going on yet, but hopefully it helps! 

We still do a lot of work with our area, but it is more focused around the less-active members in the ward instead of investigators. We only have one investigator who just told us that she is moving. So that was really sad for us but we have come up with some good ideas to find more people! We know that the Lord will provide someone who needs our help. We did a special fast for that this week. Our Mission President has issued us an inspired challenge: we are to teach Lesson 1: the Restoration of the Gospel at least once a day for the whole month of March. In my previous areas, that would have been a breeze, as we were teaching the first lesson to new investigators multiple times a day every day. But in this area, we are definitely being challenged! So far, it's gone really well. We've taught primarily active members, but we have been issuing out challenges to them to prayerfully choose someone to bear their testimonies of Joseph Smith to. We are praying that our efforts to teach and remind the active members of the ward will inspire them to ask their non-member friends and family members to take the missionary lessons. 

I really love teaching about the Restoration of the Gospel. At the beginning of my mission, teaching the Restoration was something that I dreaded a little bit because I wasn't super comfortable with the material and I knew that it would be difficult to explain to people who had never heard of it before. Although it's still sometimes difficult to form my words in a way my investigators can understand, I am strengthened and reenergized every time I teach that particular lesson because of the Spirit that I feel whenever we talk about the experience of Joseph Smith. I feel the Spirit so incredibly strong especially when I bear my testimony about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. 

This week we had a Missionary Leadership Training meeting, and I loved it! It was so inspiring and uplifting, and I learned so much. I am so grateful to learn from the Spirit what my weaknesses are and instruction on how I can strengthen them. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for your love and your testimony! 

Love, Hermana Townley

Stacie's email February 29, 2016

Hi family,

So many of you have sent me emails this week, and I just don't know if I have enough time to get around responding to all of them....thank you for keeping in touch! Just so you know, I have read them all and I am grateful for you taking the time to share insights, experiences, and advice. I will be prayerful before I make any final decisions. 

This week I met with my mission president and we have finalized a return date. I will be departing from the mission on the 18th of May (a little over 2 months away), which means we will be able to start solidifying some of our plans! Many of you have asked about the plans that I have made, so I hope to clarify those things in this email. 

As of right now, I have a few plans already set. Blenda is so sweet to allow me to stay with her for a little while until I get all settled in financially (thank you so much!!!), I have a few different options for work, but some of the details may need to be worked out in the next few weeks. It looks like I will be leaving for Las Vegas for the last week of May (exact date still needs to be determined) which means I will have approximately one week before I have to jump into work at the beginning of June. Hopefully, I will be starting work full-time in order to pay off most of the post-mission expenses! I am letting you all know right now so that we can do most of our catching up and goofing off BEFORE I am unable to because of a busy schedule. 

Please let me know if you have anything else in mind as far as plans go. I would really love to see and spend time with each one of you! Lets communicate with each other so no one gets left out, okay? Also, someone keep Carissa in the loop, I don't have her email address! I love you! 

Love, Hermana Townley

​(Just a heads up, I am on a search for someone who has room for one more person on their cellphone plan. If you know of anyone, please let me know!) ​

--

Sister Stacie Morgan Townley

Pictures

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