Week 13: 11/11/13

Awesome week.  Just awesome :) One of our investigators who we have been a little worried about was working on praying everyday this week.  And the coolest thing happened.  She texted us after the FIRST day and said she had prayed and been blessed for it.  Her 18month-old son normally would have gone to her grandma's house the night before, but she decided to keep him home.  That night her grandma had a stroke (not good) but her son was safe because he wasn't there!  That strengthened her resolve to pray every day and has helped her faith grow :)

Want to hear about something crazy that happened?  Well, yesterday we had two dinners, and dessert before we even had dinner.  How did that happen?  I will tell you!  So the first regular dinner was with a family from the ward who signed up to feed the missionaries.  Great family and it is always wonderful to spend time with them.  Plus! they are responsible for us finally getting a key to the church building so we love them a lot.  Dessert before that because someone in the ward was brave and in talking to her friend told her that she really needed some home teachers.  But, you probably have to be Mormon to get those, or at least meet with the missionaries.  So her friend asked how they could set that up!  We got to have a lesson at their house and I think the best parts of the lesson were when the family was talking about their experiences and sharing their testimonies :) and the brownies ;) but mostly the testimonies.  For dinner number two, a lady called us this last week who is a member and has been living in the ward for a while but, as she put it, has been 'hiding out'.  She decided to call the missionaries up, so we went to visit her (earlier in the week).  We set up to have dinner last night as well, and we were going to make breakfast :)  We found out later that her landlord is a former investigator of the Church (It's a Small World...) and he made us dinner instead!  (This is why I needed the cookie recipe, we are baking next time.)

We had transfer doctrine Saturday night and Sister Z and I are staying together in Ute Creek! Way exciting :) I had gotten to the point before last week that it was going to be okay if one of us had to leave, because there would still be someone around to love everyone we have met.  (Since Sister Z and I have been in this area we have done all that we can to build it up and putting someone in the area book just doesn't describe them well enough.  Also, the reason I am looking forward to iPads?  Because then area books will be so much easier to keep updated!  We had information from two years ago...but to the point!  We love the people here and who would care about going to visit them if they didn't know them?  Well the missionaries, it is just so much better when there is a connection already.) but in the last week things were just starting up with a few people that it would have been terrible to have one of us transferred right after!  Most of our zone is getting swept though.  Sister Z and I and the Mountain View sisters are the only companionships staying together and I think only 3 Elders are staying in the zone.  Several of the wards are losing both missionaries.  This next transfer is only going to be 5 weeks instead of 6 because then transfers would have been Christmas Eve.

Planning.  Planning is the best thing ever.  (Okay, not quite, but it makes other things work out so much better!)  And it is also way cool when your plans work out.  But!  Faith is often grown and proved in the times when the planning doesn't work out.  We have had a couple of experiences with people that were miracles, really :) but then the rest of the time with them didn't quite live up to what I expected from those incredible beginnings.  And that is okay!  The lesson with the member family and brownies was with a lady they had known for years!  And that was just a first lesson, it might still be years, but this is progress.  This is missionary work!  And even though I am sad when people are not accepting the gospel or acting on their faith right now, they are still so important.  The experiences they have now are still important, even if it doesn't seem to make a change yet.  Faith is persevering ;)

love, Sister Emily DeFord

Comp Unity

sorry it's fuzzy, but this is my district for last transfer! Elder Mantor laying in front, Elder Marble (our DL) laying on the table, then from L to R Elder Kyte, Elder Broderick, me, Sister Zvirzdin (staying together!), Sister Snow, Sister England

can you see the culture of our zone? All these Elders are heading out, should be interesting to see what happens next!

got my new magnet tag! (the shiny clean one) Also, they lower-cased the 'e' which is fun