21st Birthday in Ireland!

 We had a great week!!

My birthday was really fun :) :) 21!! That's craziness... We tracked down one of the two 5 Guys on this island and had lunch, we went to the Ludlow's for dinner, and we taught a lot of lessons! Sister Ludlow made my favorite blueberry cream cheese pie!!! It was soooo good, I haven't had it in ages!!! It was the Ludlow's son's birthday, too.  He had a Texas sheet cake with super heroes on it.   

We had our ward Christmas party. Now this wasn't any ward party, this French family took a whole week off of work to do this. It was the Polar Express, complete with costumes, carolers (that was us), the nativity, Samuel the Lamanite, and HAY! It was incredible!!

We had a couple exchanges this week. I was with Sister Hoferl from Austria. She is amazing!! She finished her mission this weekend and will be greatly missed. She's a boss! The other exchange was with Sister Brusseau. She is so great, it was such a fun day! 

Highlight of the week was definitely Jonathan. He is our friend from Brazil, and he's getting baptised on Saturday! His flatmates are interested in learning the gospel, as well, and they will be baptised by the end of the year! Sooooo many miracles this week!!  They are making us Brazillian food tonight!  They were the zone leaders' investigators until they moved into our area.  So, all 4 of us met together to teach them.  It was awesome!

Moves call happened yesterday and I'm staying here with Sister Garner! I'll be here until February. That's about 7 months total in Dublin. Wow that's a long time haha but I love it here! We are getting new Zone Leaders though. That will be strange.  Our current Zone Leaders have really become some of my best friends over the last 6 months!  We've worked well together. I'm excited to see what miracles happen with the new Dub squad!

 

So this week was dandy-- we had the best p-day ever! We hiked up to this old palace that has a really crazy background. It's called Hell Fire Club so naturally, we climbed all around and explored!  Then we got our Christmas tree and decorated it!

 

Christmas is coming so fast!! I'm so excited to call home on Christmas, it'll be so nice to talk to you! 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes as well, I really appreciate it! 

Also, if you have seen the Light the World video, Grafton Street is in the video.. just to say how awesome this place is.

 Have an amazing week, get excited for Christmas time!!!!!

-Sister Stapley

IRELAND IS HOME!

I just want to start by saying I flippin' love this country. This week we were in Limerick for a day and Belfast for another few days. Belfast is decked out, the Christmas market is so bomb! More on that later...

 

 Zone Conferences were amazing :) Sister Garner and I talked about the blessings of baptism. It went really well! A lot of people participated and seemed to like it. It was so nice to see  'me' friends again, some are going home soon, so that was kind of sad, but man, I just love everyone to pieces! 

I got to see 'me' friends in Belfast!! I met up with Telis and that was amazing :) He is doing so well! He has the priesthood and is passing the sacrament and everything. I also got to have dinner with Maud, Jane, and Clara!! These are hands down my favorite people in Belfast, it was just like old times!

Sunrise over Belfast!!

 In Belfast, we got dinner the next day at the Christmas market! They deck out City Hall with food booths from all over the world. It is so cool!! I ate a kangaroo burger. It tasted alright, but not gonna lie, it kind of went against my moral code. Like, that thing used to be an adorable kangaroo. I'm still repenting...haha  (See picture at top....yes, that's kangaroo burgers!)

BEST PART OF THE WEEK! Bruno got baptised on Saturday!!!!! It was soooooooo amazing!! He was so excited, he was jumping around and just being hilarious. Everything went great!! It's been so amazing seeing how happy he is coming to church and everything. I love the guy to pieces!!

Well I think that's it. OH last Monday, we went to Phoenix Park. There was this HUGE herd of deer! So naturally, we had to go out in the field and take a photo. It was so fun!

 

 I love the Light the World campaign! It's so awesome. As well, I wish there was a Nativity festival, like the one at home, here.  It sounds like it's an amazing missionary tool. Those missionaries are lucky to have that event!

 

  Sad about the Product 19.cereal being discontinued...like really sad. I'll live. Just save me one box and I'll eat it in July.  My friends from home will understand my pain. 

 

We're going to find a Christmas tree today.  We're going with the Zone Leaders, it'll be quite the adventure! I'm still in contact with several people that have already gone home, I love seeing how the SIM family lives on after the mission!  

 

That's all I can think of for this week, I'm quite tired, but so pumped up! We have another 3 or 4 exchanges this week, and my birthday, so it'll be a fun week!! Our mission is on fire right now to try and reach our goals. Life is just so good :) :) :) I love you all so much, thanks for all you do!! Have an amazing week, get pumped for Christmas!!!!!!!!

 

Stuffed by Thanksgiving!

This was a pretty chill week as we are prepping for zone conferences this upcoming week. We'll be in Belfast and Limerick for a couple days.

We had 4 exchanges this week. I was with Sister Clarke, Sister Jorgenson, Sister Sly, and Sister Plummer. I love these sisters so much! We had so much fun and saw so many miracles! 

Our friend Bruno is getting baptised this next Saturday!! WOOOOOO!! He is such a boss, and honestly one of my best friends out here. He is so excited for his baptism, it's been a long time coming! I'm so grateful we got to meet him!

Thanksgiving--what a day. We went to this wonderful family from Utah's home and had a proper American Thanksgiving dinner. there were a couple families there, and man, it was glorious. We had ham, turkey, potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie... it was hands down the best meal of my mission. I felt like I was back in the states :)

Friday was amazing because our friend Polo got baptised!!! Her husband, Wellington, was baptised back in July, and Polo started learning right after that. She is soooooo amazing, she has such a strong testimony. Wellington was able to baptise her and he said it was the happiest day of his life! They are going to be sealed in the temple next year :) :) I love them so much!! They are like my African aunt and uncle. 

Sunday, we has another dinner appointment :) I love the members here so much, they take such good care of us! 

I'm so excited for Christmas :) It's so soon!!! Ahhhhhh, we've been blasting Christmas music, decorating our flat, and counting down for ages! Also, thank you so so so much for the package!!!! I'm so excited to open the presents on my birthday and Christmas! And the food you sent....oh my days. Literal heaven. Not gonna lie, I'm saving a bunch of it until closer to Christmas :) As well the advent calendar....it's amazing!!! It's set up like a little living room with presents to start opening on the 12 days of Christmas. I'll send a pic :) I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

 Speaking of Christmas, have you seen the 25 ways in 25 days to Light the World? It's this really cool advent calendar online! Everyday there's ideas of something you can do to be more like Jesus Christ and bring more light into the world! It's so cool, I'm excited to try it out for myself! I'd love to invite everyone to try it as well, then shoot me an email with a cool experience you had with it! Christmas is the best time to share a little more light :)

Love you all loads! Thanks for everything, all the support and prayers. I'm so happy, and I know that I'm supposed to be here. God's plan took me a much different direction than I thought, but I could not imagine a better place to be right now. I am sooooo thankful for this opportunity to serve here in Ireland and Scotland, and I know that my Father in Heaven is continually leading me. 

Love you!

-Sister Stapley

Burgh for the day!

This week we flew to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning for a Leadership meeting. We actually made it to the airport with time to spare. I've flown to Scotland about 6 times now,  this is the first time we weren't sprinting through the airport!  Score.


 

 
 It was so nice to see all of my friends, and it was a very uplifting meeting! We talked about how we can always set high but achievable goals. We did a lot of practice and it was really fun and helpful!

I had two exchanges this week, one with Sister Bradley serving in Waterford, and one with Sister Palmer serving in Lisburn. Both of them are BOSS missionaries, even though they are both pretty new. We had so much fun and met a lot of really solid people! 

Monday, we went to Howth for the day. It's a cute little coastal village! We explored along the beach. We didn't stay long though because it smelled absolutely minging.  I'm pretty sure a giant whale crawled up and died right where the wind passes into the bay. It was fun anyways :)

I got the Christmas Package from home!! Thanks so much for everything :) I won't open the wrapped presents til my birthday or Christmas, I promise. It's taking a lot of self control!  haha I'll send pics! 

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving break! I'm thankful for my amazing family at home, my Scotland/Ireland Mission family, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is there for all of us, I cannot explain how grateful I am for Him. 

Love you all so much, have a great week!

-Sister Stapley

Dia duit teaghlaigh Meiriceánach <----- Irish

Monday we went to the beach! We threw a Hurling ball around. Hurling is the coolest sport, it's like lacrosse and baseball put together. Look it up, it's so fun! The beach was absolutely freezing though! We walked to a really cool lighthouse, too.  Honestly, it is so beautiful here, I am so happy for another transfer of Dublin!

Tuesday we were helping move sisters to their new areas.  It's sad to see some of them go, but we got some great new sisters back to Ireland! I am soooo excited for this next transfer.  Miracles are gonna happen :)

Sister Garner and I are having the time of our lives. Luckily, we are both super into Christmas, so we've been blasting Christmas music for the past 2 weeks. Because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, "after Halloween"="Christmas season". It's the best! 

On Saturday we got to help clean the church building. It was fun to get to know the members better and work along side them. We got Burger King afterwards :)

I've been studying the scripture Mormon 9:31 lately. It says

"Condemn me not because of mine imperfection,neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you your imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been."
I love this scripture! We all have imperfections, but it's not something to be ashamed of or something to get us feeling down. Instead, we should be thankful anytime we recognize another flaw we have, because it gives us the chance to improve on it! I am so grateful for all the imperfections I have been shown on my mission, it's helped me to learn and grow so much!

Mo ghra' thu'!---Stapley deirfiur

Feels like home.....RAIN!

Stayin' in Dublin!

Woot woot! I'll be here about 6 more weeks with Sister Garner :) I'm so excited to spend Christmas season here!

So on Halloween, we went and checked out Powerscourt waterfall! It looked so cool and the drive there was beautiful!! It is Ireland's highest waterfall and the gardens are named National Geographic's 3rd best in the world!  It is amazing!  After that we went hiking around the estate for a little bit. It looked so sick! We had to be in by 6 because Halloween is crazy here, so we went to the church after that and finished up some stuff. 

 

Tuesday we drove to Limerick for a training. It was so nice seeing all my friends there, and again, the drive was amazing!

Thursday we went on exchanges with Bray! Sister Hoover is from near Tacoma, so it was nice to get to chat a little about Washington. 

 

Friday we exchanged with Antrim, I was with Sister Fisher. She is so sweet, I love spending time with her! 

Saturday we got the phone call telling us what would be happening to us for moves...and we're staying! Literally I'm so happy, Sister Garner and I are such good friends! It's going to be a great transfer :)

This week we are helping move sisters around, so we'll be kept busy! I'm so thankful for my Dublin squad and family, and I'm excited to see what can happen when we work hard this month. Sorry this is short...moves week is super busy.

 

Love you all!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

Halloween fireworks over Belfast!

 Happy Halloween!!!!!! Today, we don't have anything planned....haha we have a switched p-day, so we'll be working in the morning and have the rest of the day off. Halloween here is pretty crazy, fireworks galore! We're trying to come up with a funny costume, I'll send pics next week.

Exchanges with Sister Hall.

It's been a pretty long week, and not too much has happened. We had some great exchanges, I was with Sister Whitthread from England, Sister Muller from Switzerland, and Sister Hill from Arizona. They are all so amazing! We were able to go spend the day in Belfast, and I bumped into one of my best friends from the time I served there! That was a miracle :)

We have a friend named Bruno that we started meeting with this week. He's going to be baptized sometime in November! He is from Brasil and is literally one of the funniest human beings I've ever met. I am so thankful to be able to teach him.

Another picture with KEVIN!

Love you all! Thanks for the support :) Have an amazing week!!

KEVIN!! (Said in Home Alone movie voice)

Wowza, whata week!!!

On Monday, the Zone got together and played frisbee! It's always nice to go out and get to run! 

Tuesday, we were in Cork, like. We say Cork, like because everyone in Cork uses the word "like" after everything, like. Man, what a great city!!! We talked to so many people, and I got to spend the day with Sister Esplin, my homie since Day 1 of the mission :)

We've had exchanges pretty much everyday this week! I got to exchange with Sister Hebbert, Sister Pinkston, and Sister Coons. They are all such powerhouse sisters! Literally, this mission has the best sisters in the world.

Highlight of the week.....Kevin got baptized!!!! WOOOOOO!!!! He is so solid. We met him 17 days ago, and he told us in that very first conversation that he wanted to get baptized! So golden. We met with him almost every day to get him ready. It was so amazing to see how ready he was to change and become closer to Christ. He said he felt he was missing something his whole life, but the more he prayed, the more he felt love from Heavenly Father and he knew that everything was going to work out! 

Also, it's basically the Christmas season, so we've started blasting Christmas songs on every road trip we take. Will I be burnt out by the time Christmas rolls around? No!

Well, that's all to report. We have another four exchanges next week, the work never stops! I love staying busy and doing my part to make a difference. I love my mission!!

***Shoutout to Chloe DeMille!!  #1 blog fan!  Miss you!

-Sister Stapley

WHOAAAAAAA WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!!!

Beautiful Glendalough

 

 

Nothing too crazy to report this week.

We went on exchanges in Antrim! It's sooooo beautiful up there!

We also had All-Ireland conference. It was so much fun to see everyone.  I love all these missionaries so much, they mean the world to me! 

Kevin is getting baptised on Saturday!!

This next week we go down to Cork and have 3 more exchanges! Life is so good :)

K, well my brain has run dry, sorry this is such a rubbish email. 

Oh ya....I hit my 9 months mark!! I'm halfway done! Oh my days....it's flown by. I'm excited to live it up in this final half, I never want to come home! 

Love you all so much!!​​

Fun, then MIRACLES!!

Monday-we played Frisbee with the zone at Phoenix Park! It was sooo much fun! All the new missionaries are a great edition to the Dublin squad.

Sintija joined us on visits!

Tuesday-we had a great district meeting and then got some quality work in! Our friend, Sintija, 21 and from Latvia, comes teaching with us a lot.  She just moved here.

To Edinburgh before dawn!

Wednesday- So we woke up at half 3 to go pick up the elders and make it to the airport for our flight. We got through security no problem (that's a first), and on our plane. Man, that plane was posh as all get out! Watching the sunrise from the plane was flippin beautiful as well!

Sunrise over Scotland!

We landed in Edinburgh and got to the mission home. The meeting was great, and it was awesome to see my friends as well. After the meeting, I got to catch up with some friends in Edinburgh and do some work there.  We then got to the airport to catch our 10:15 pm  flight.We were running to get there on time.  Aaaaaand it gets delayed!  We end up chillin' in the airport for a couple hours, just a bunch of missionaries eating crisps and candy, looking exhausted and trying to make lame jokes. Story of my life. We ended up getting on the flight and landing in Dublin around 12:45. Then we had to go through security, get to the car, drive the elders home, and then home ourselves. We were all so tried, it turned into an awesome party. Honestly, one of the funniest nights of my life.  We'd been up 22 hours by the end of the trip!

Headed back to Dublin

STLs at MLC

Friday-We went to Letterkenny and Derry! They are up north, it's absolutely beautiful up there!! The exchanges were super fun :)

Miracles though: We met this guy named Kevin! He's 21, originally born in the Congo, but has lived in Dublin for ages. He is so cool!! He's going to be baptised in a couple weeks :) :) :) We met him on the street, taught him right there, and he asked to be baptised! Like oh my days.....so great!  We enjoy spending time with him and talking about the gospel.  He's so cool!

Miracle II-Our friend Jason! We met with him once about 3 weeks ago, then lost contact. We met back up with him this week. Turns out he read the whole Book of Mormon during that time! He's traveling around Europe for the next 2 weeks, visiting temples, and will be getting baptised the Saturday he gets back. WHAT?!?!?! Honestly, I was so shocked! He is the coolest, he's going to go to church in Italy this next week, then London after that, then be back in Dublin in time to get baptised!! Oh my days.....

Love you all so much, hope you have a great week!! Heavenly Father loves us and is blessing ALL of us!!!

Companion hopping, Conference, and Carolina Reapers!

Moves week went great! All the new sisters seem super cool, I'm excited to get to know them better. There are now 13 Sister teams in Ireland, so we are kept quite busy!

Ok, we'll start with the most exciting story of the week. On Saturday, I ate a Carolina Reaper pepper with some friends from church. It's the hottest pepper in the world. Let me tell you, I believe it. I straightaway chugged some milk to try and save myself, but it was too late. I literally felt it burn down my throat. The best relief I got was by putting a huge scoop of ice cream in my mouth and just letting it sit. It reaches it's peak hotness at 6 minutes. After the first 2 minutes, I was crying, sitting on the floor, and awaiting my imminent death.  I couldn't breath out of my mouth for about an hour. My tongue felt bruised for about a day. It was the best thing ever :)

I had a fun last p-day with Sister Hall and Sister Petersen. We saw a horse and an old rock bridge by a river. So ya, Dublin is flippin' awesome :)

We have MLC this week, so we'll be flying to Edinburgh Wednesday morning and fly back Wednesday night. It'll be a super inspiring day, I'm excited to see my friends there! 

Sister Garner is a boss. We are going to get so much work done, and have fun doing it!! Throwing it back to the MTC days, woot woot!

Don't mess with Dublin!

Sister Garner didn't get here until Thursday, so until then, I was companions with Sister Petersen, Sister Hall, Sister Hoover, Sister Clarke, Sister Bradley, and Sister Pinkston all at different points during the week. It was awesome, I love these sisters so much! 

So it's been a random week, so I've got some random stories.

I am starting to learn how to say "I am Batman" in as many different languages as I can. Dublin is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, so I am taking full advantage. I started on Thursday, and I'm already up to 10 languages. Boom.   I've made some new friends with this conversation!

Sister Petersen and I spent the day at the Ludlow's, where we did the travel arrangements for the sisters in Ireland.  They are a super cool family...hence the Carolina Reapers!

Our friend Boon, who got baptized last week, is the best! Every time we meet with him, he brings us some sort of asian fruit or treat to try. It has been quite the experience. So far, I've had rambutan, mangosteen, longon, tamarinds, mangoes, shanon fruit, jack fruit, and the most delicious coconut mochi in the world. Some taste amazing. Others are 100% disgusting. It's so fun! haha

My favorite conference talk was the one by Elder Robbins. He spoke about righteous judgement, and how we can become more like Christ through how we see and help others. I love how millions of people hear the same talk, but everyone can relate it to themselves differently. General Conference was amazing!

Love you lots!!!