Week 71: 12/22/14

December 22, 2014

Longmont, CO

So...spent lots of time on other things today and I get to talk to my family in 3 DAYS!!!

So this is a picture email today, which means it will be in a couple of parts (good luck family on the posting)

Selina (Seyfi) Morse and her husband left today to go back to Utah, we will miss them, it has been so super fun to get to know them

Grinch faces (pic1) from this way cool yard (pic 2).  None of the lights were on IN the house or we would have told the people how much we liked their yard and given them a He is the Gift card!

picture 2

Sister Waite and I found this open car, and a giant cane, so we took a picture, and lots of others ;)

We went to lunch with the STLs and the hermanas because we didn't get to do exchanges.  It was delicious.  We went after zone meeting, and as we were leaving Chipotle who should be walking in but a bunch of Elders haha.  They sat at the same table we had.

Sister Swain and I took a picture with our matching bags that we have both had our whole missions ;) Also, she has the same coat, but wasn't wearing it that day.

What did my companion say when we saw these Christmas decorations? "That's a big Pooh!" I hesitated for a second, but had to laugh ;)

Also, we have officially taken a car picture since we got a car!

Week 70: 12/15/14

December 15, 2014

Longmont, CO

10 days until Christmas!

This has been a long-short week and I don't even know how there could possibly be anything to say which I haven't told you about since I must have emailed only a day or two ago....yet it's true, another week has gone.

We had our Christmas devotional this week, and my good friend Sister Clark was kind enough to remind me just before it started that this would be our last zone conference and so we would be giving our 'departing testimonies'.  Sheesh!  Since when did we get so old?

I talked about how at the beginning of my mission the flood happened, and some of the 'older' and 'wiser' missionaries told me it was a bummer that happened at the beginning of my mission, because the rest of it wouldn't be able to live up to the beginning.  Then I told them that I had learned for myself that it was completely not true.  In Jacob chapter 5 there is the allegory of the olive tree, and at the end of it, after the last time of care and gathering, the Lord of the vineyard blesses those who have worked with him and promises that they will have joy with him in the fruit of his vineyard.  That joy has made the rest of my mission every bit as amazing as the first part.

Also, our zone leaders got us Christmas presents!  Can you guess what they are?

 

 

We had an interesting week in that all of our investigators rescheduled our appointments with them at least once, so it didn't go quite as planned, but we still has some amazing things happen!  Such as our lesson with F____, where we taught about the Plan of Salvation up through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was so fun as we read scriptures to see him so excited to read along and read them again after we talked about it.  When we invited him to be baptized and suggested a day he said, "That's far away!  What's today?  That's like a month!"  He was so happy to accept and knows that is what he wants to do.

Also, we learned that he walked, with A____ in a stroller, over a mile to the Christmas party last week!  As soon as we learned that, we told him F____, we are getting you a ride for church!  Seriously!  I am so amazed that he was so willing to do that though!

So he did come to church this Sunday.  He sat with a family and we ended up on the other side of the chapel, but he loved the whole thing and almost cried during Sacrament meeting, and it was just all amazing.  Even though we really didn't get to spend any time with him during church because we were teaching sunday school, the ward is amazing and F____ is amazing and I am so grateful to be a part of this work and this gospel!

Backtracking to Saturday night, was the Longmont Parade of Lights!  And we went, but I was actually distracted from this super cool parade (I love parades!) because the thing I was even more excited about was to give out the cards for He is the Gift!  We handed out so many and it was so happy to see people be excited about a video and movement to share the real reason and spirit of Christmas!  If you haven't seen it yet, do it!

Ah, just asked Sister Allen if there was anything else that I should talk about for this week (what would I do without a companion?) and she reminded me of a couple of things!  One, Nikki returned from her mission on Wednesday, and we happened to be at the stake center when she came in to be released which was one of the sweetest saddest happiest things that I have seen on my mission.  She came in and saw us and just said, "Sisters!" and ran over and gave us hugs.  She came with us on Friday night and got to talk to a couple of awesome potential investigators and set appointments with them for the coming week that will be so great!

Guess which part is me!  We took some crazy pictures with The Seyfis last night, and I have officially met all of them now :)

 

 

TMFWD: Christmas again!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

Week 69: 12/8/14

December 8, 2014

Longmont, CO

Wowza what a week!

Did I tell you that, last week, we had no investigators?

Well, sort of one and a half, but not really.

That is not the case at this point.  Last week we got to teach a man we had met just the night before.  He has met all sorts of people in his life who have been members of the Church, and even wrote a research paper on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in high school, but none of the people he has met have really been able to answer his questions.  "They must not have been paying attention" he said.  So he is excited to read the Book of Mormon he already has a strong belief that a person needs to know things for themselves.  And we are so grateful for the wonderful Suzanne who came to our rescue several times that evening, including being our member present so we could even meet with him.  Plus, her comments were wonderful.

The Elders did leave a couple of potential investigators for us to contact, including one named F____ who is one of the sweetest guys I have met recently!  He also has known some Mormons throughout his life, and really wants to raise his little son (18 months of adorableness who kissed my companion during the lesson!) in a Church.  He already had a Book of Mormon :) and he came to the ward Christmas party we had on Saturday!  Where he got to meet lots of people, and get over that first hurdle of going into the church building.

The Hermanas tracted into and taught the first lesson to a wonderful English-speaking sister.  Who then dropped them because she 'found another church'.  They went to attend a baptism in another ward and discovered their lost investigator there, who's sister was being baptized!  They established that it was the same church and got to meet with her again :) So they invited us to hand her off to the English speakers.  She has quite a varied background in religion, but is very sincere and puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that having faith in Jesus Christ should change your life, so she is ready to go!

Also, had an interesting lesson with a woman who the Bishop met and referred to the missionaries.  The first part of it we got to know her better, the second part of it she seemed to be testing us for some reason, the third part of it we got to teach about the plan of salvation and it was wonderful!

Plus, after some area book overhauling and ward list updating and so many other tender mercies that I can't even count them, we had a phenomenal week!  We have gotten our exercise walking and getting rides when we needed them (J____did let us come visit him!)  We jumped a fence once or twice for shortcuts and the weather has been beautiful.  We have met so many people simply by not walking past them that there is no denying that Heavenly Father is putting them in our path and us in their path.

Did I tell you about the last week when the guy drove slowly next to us while asking questions about the church?  Yep!  Then he finally stopped so we could give him a pamphlet and some other information.  Totally fulfilled one of my mission bucket list items of wanting to talk to someone through an open car window :)

Now I have enjoyed some reminiscing this morning, and wanted to share a quote from last year at this time:

"A funny thing about missionaries.  They hate getting sick.  They will deny being sick.  And when someone finally forces them to stay home because they ARE sick they are very grumpy about it.  No, I'm not sick, but you hear these things about missionaries.  The cool part is really about the daughter of one of the Spanish investigators.  This girl is seven and she loves to go to church!  You may remember being around that age and even a little cold was just too much to consider going to church sometimes.  No.  She cries and begs and wants to go to church, sick or not.  I want to be like her."

Last year, I actually had been sick that weekend.  This year my poor Sister Allen got sick!  But she at least got to go to Sacrament meeting, then took a much needed nap :)

"Picture 6: Ward pajama party!  I mean, Christmas party... :) the theme was Christmas morning so we had breakfast for dinner and lots of fun!  Though our plans for matchmaking were disrupted, it was definitely a great ward party!"

Well our theme for the party this year was The Polar Express, and adults were encouraged to wear ugly sweaters for a contest.  Brother Seyfi won the contest, but I heard there was some bias in the judges ;) We mustn't let on that I know though ;) I don't remember what our matchmaking was last year, but we had breakfast again and two families that we invited came!  So that was super duper exciting.  Plus we took pictures, below ;)

Oh, plus exchanges con las hermanas de Boulder were super wonderful and we all happened to be coordinating!

TMFWD: Christmas!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

Week 68: 12/1/14

December 1, 2014

Longmont, CO

Michael is the winner!  Though Longmont popped up on a couple of other people's guesses, it was his first and only guess.  Prize to be mailed shortly :)

I am back in the good old Ute Creek ward!  It is a happy place to be for the holidays and I really love my companion so even though it was a crazy whirlwind first week I think it will be super good here.  That promise about the Holy Ghost bringing all things to our remembrance is one that I am super excited about and grateful for because I have remembered most of the streets and such and we haven't gotten lost yet!

The ward shrunk since the last time I was here, there was a boundary change where the northern part was cut off so it is even smaller than before (which I didn't realize until going up to Cheyenne how small the ward down here was, geography-wise).  So there are a few faces missing, but a few new ones have moved in and that is happy!  The size is also nice because my companion and I are without a car for the time being.  If any of you email me about not wanting me to be out walking after dark I will not be amused, the entire ward has been telling us about it and we had a very hard time having a lesson with J____ last night (still going to church!  Yes!) because he is also concerned about it.  Actually, when we tried to set up a weekly appointment with him he said, "Not until you have a car." We got him to come around because we promised we would get rides ;) Being swept in has been much easier since I have been here before, and I know where not to walk after dark so I promise we will be safe, and if we go to Jesse's house we will get a ride.

Already being up in Cheyenne feels like so long ago, but I really hope those Elders are taking good care of the ward up there!  Saying goodbye was tough, but it's not forever so that is okay :)

Do you want to hear about my transfer day adventures?  Here we go!

Finished packing, picked up Sister Grammer's new phone and apartment key.

Moved her stuff into the apartment, which didn't stink like boy, but definitely smelled like boy

Dropped me off at the stake center to get on the transfer van

Rode the transfer van to Laramie

Waited a really long time because someone who was supposed to get on the van wasn't there

Rode the van down to Loveland

Met Sister Allen!

Put some of our stuff in another set of Sisters' car who would be driving us down to Longmont, they didn't have space for all of it so we had to leave some in the Ute Creek Hermana's car for the next day

Drove down to Longmont to the Seyfi's house!

Turns out we wouldn't be living at the Seyfi's house until Friday.  Also unknown where our phone and house key to the Roper's house was and unknown if we had a car or not.

Finally figure all stuff out, get phone and area book and key.

Stay at Seyfi's house that night anyway :)

Move to Roper's house Wednesday morning.

Do a lot of walking and meet some great people!  Re-meet some people from before.

It was a crazy time :) It really has been great though and I cannot express how amazing the Seyfi's in particular and the ward in general has been in helping us out and just being welcoming!

Plus, all the walking has helped me sleep really, really well :)

I love you all a lot and am happy to be in December!  24 days until Christmas!

TMFWD: think pink!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

 

 

Week 67: 11/24/14

November 24, 2014

Cheyenne, WY

Well, I have told several of you individually that I am being transferred, but unless I messed up, I didn't tell any of you where I am going ;) You will have to guess, you have until next week when it is revealed on the Weekly Report!  The first person to email me a correct guess before I email next week will get a prize!

I will tell you, Sister Grammer and I are being swept our of Corner Stone ward, and Elders are sweeping in.  They aren't going to have Elders and Sisters share wards anymore, so Sister Grammer will be ward hopping to accommodate that with her new STL companion.  I am being released as a STL and will go back to training with a sister who has been out for one transfer already.  We are being swept in to our new ward and I am super excited about it.  Probably going to die in my next area according to what President Brown told me. (Editor's Note: "Die" means be done with your mission and go home, she only has this transfer and one more before that exciting day!)

So that is all you get ;)

Saying goodbye to this ward so far has been tough.  There are so many amazing people here!  It really is a close family, because the only people who come to church are ones who work really hard to be there, and they all lift and bless and help each other.  Facebook friends and visiting after the mission for sure!

I will really miss living with the Russells as well.  Best missionary set up ever!  Plus, we get to talk to Carter basically every morning.  Even Brutus will be missed, as slobbery and smelly as he is :) Haha Brutus loves to sniff us down after we get home from the animal shelter.  It is funny, because he is almost always outside in the front yard when we get home.  So he sees us, barks a lot, then runs up to the front door and asks to be let in so he can meet us at the back door and sniff our shins while we try to get downstairs.  This week, we decided to race him, and we won!  (To picture Brutus, imagine Charles from Space Jam)  Made it to the apartment just before he got down the stairs :)

We probably smelled especially delicious that day because we got to play with ferrets at the animal shelter!  So much fun!  Wouldn't want to have one for a pet, but they were pretty entertaining for an hour.

Also, we broke the car this week, but then we fixed it.  Elder Holley doesn't even know.  We parked the car at the car wash last p-day so we could vacuum it, and the wind took the door from my hand and bounced it open.  So hard that a spring popped out of the door and moved a different piece out of place.  Sister Grammer managed to find the spring, and we studied the other door to see how it fit in the door.  Managed to get the spring in the door, but couldn't move the other piece back in place.  Luckily, we were at the car wash, where they have things like crowbars that the nice person behind the desk will let you borrow.  So we got it fixed and froze our fingers off because a very COLD wind was blowing, and without the spring, we couldn't close the door.  It is all okay though, we thawed out again and went on with out day :)

Well, we have a lunch appointment that we will be late to if I don't sign off, but I will add a couple of pictures for you!

Happy Thanksgiving and happy guessing!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

Week 66: 11/17/14

November 17, 2014

Cheyenne, WY

 

Forgot to tell you my favorite line from the Primary Program last week!  Carter, a 5 year old little boy, got up to the microphone and said loud and clear, "Jesus Christ was crucified and I will be too!"  Oh my!  Who knew that was part of the deal?  After the gasps of his primary teachers he corrected himself, "Jesus Christ was resurrected and I will be too!"  Phew!  That was a close one ;)

 

We got to stop by and visit a family in the ward who we haven't met before and they are instant favorites!  They have two little kids, Walter and Alice, who are almost 4 and almost 2, respectively.  Walter is a little sweetheart.  His mom asked him, what you do at the castle (temple) and he responded enthusiastically, "You take your princess there!"  then he turned and looked at me and said, "You're a princess!"  Oh the cuteness ;) He knows he is a prince too ;)

 

You know, as missionaries we normally only tell the really good stories, but we had a lesson this week that went horribly.  About 10 minutes into it I just wanted to leave.  The Spirit wasn't really there, he just wanted to contend every point that we brought up, nicely of course, but there was so much confusion going on that it almost hurt.  There was no way we were going to have another appointment with him.  After praying desperately for something to say, there was one little pinprick of inspiration, "What are you hoping to get out of reading the Book of Mormon?" (he is reading it, almost through the first two books of it actually).  Well he wants to know if it aligns with the Bible, though if it does then he sees no purpose for it, and if it doesn't then why should he trust it?  These are things we have heard before.  But then there was another little spot of light.  He said, "If it is the same, I would be very curious as to why our churches are so different."  There it was.  That one inspired question allowed the Spirit back in to chase away the darkness in the room and illuminate the tiny change of heart which is taking place.  It is small for now, but he is beginning to have real intent to know for himself.  We will go back again and do what we can to help that tiny seed of faith to grow.

 

See?  Missionaries only tell the good stories, I only told you about it because it ended up being a really good one!  But it was hard.  Not only that day, but in previous days there has been a lot of things going in to that tiny little ray of sunshine.  We tell the cool stories, but there is always such a long preface that hardly ever do we bother to read it ;)

 

Lots of driving this week.  We had MLC down in Fort Collins at the Trilby building which is right across from the temple!  So great!  Another one of those times when I am glad traffic wasn't bad, because when I saw the spire appear over the houses I was so excited that it was kind of distracting ;) We had dinner before the meeting, since it was in the evening this time, and Elder Baxter sat right next to me!  You know, he and his wife are really wonderful people, with fun accents, but they are also very normal.  I like that about them.  We received phenomenal training on Christlike leadership, from each other, President Brown, and Elder Baxter.  Another cool thing, Elder Baxter isn't worried about having other people pipe in or learning even from 20ish year old Elders and Sisters.  He said the closing prayer and that was an experience to remember.

 

The next day, we have a mission tour conference with Elder Baxter up here in Cheyenne.  Before the meeting began he asked to shake hands with everyone, and asked that we all tell him our name, where we are from, and how long we have been out.  None of this sill 'a little over/under a year' stuff he said.  I have been using that, so I actually had to count months ;) Turns out, that was the day of my 15 month mark!  Good reminder though, that means it is time to write to Sister Clark again, seems like I just did that....

 

Directly after the conference we began an exchange with the Wheatland sisters (last one of the transfer, yay!).  I went up there with Sister Cardon and we had a really wonderful evening.  Actually, I got to meet the mom of a sister in our ward who (the mom) has recently started taking the lessons!  The next morning someone told us that the freeway down to Cheyenne was closed....luckily it opened again by the afternoon when we exchanged back!  Apparently they sometimes have to close the freeway for wind.  Yeah, crazy.

 

Because of exchanges, I missed the lesson with P____, but he didn't miss it!  Sounds like it went super duper well.  He told the sisters that the night we met him, he and his friends had just been talking about religion and God and stuff, and then up walk these two Mormon missionaries out of the dark :) Gotta love that!

 

Have a superb week, and some blue TMFWD

 

love, Sister Emily DeFord

 

p.s. Our Christmas devotional will be December 9,10, or 11 and we will be able to get packages there which have been received at the office before then, or they will forward things on as quickly as they can.  Note: only USPS packages can be forwarded.  Also, mom remember transfers are this coming week and I may be moving, and mail seems to take longer than expected sometimes.

Week 65: 11/10/14

November 10, 2014

Winter Wonderland

Dear DeFrods,

Not infrequently as I type just enough of the email to send this to I mix up our name and we get defrauded every week ;)

So on the last Monday, previous to this Monday, as in the Monday when the email last received from me was sent, after the sending of said email, we had a crazy p-day.  Just busy and crazy where you get to the end actually relieved for p-day to be over so you can stop trying to get done all sorts of things that just aren't going to all happen on the same day.  Sometimes I like those p-days because then I appreciate the rest of the week more ;)

Anywho, that evening things were not working out exactly as planned (which happens every day.  In fact, there was one day on my mission that things actually did go as planned and that was so surprising and noteworthy that it was the only thing I wrote in my journal that day. "Today, surprisingly, everything went as planned.  Weird.") and we thought, hey, let's randomly text that guy who we randomly met on the street two months ago and randomly texted us three weeks ago.  Yeah, let's text him and see if we can set up an appointment!

So we did.

And he texted us back.

Weird.

So we set up an appointment!  Really phenomenal*, super excited and then he didn't show up :( Turns out, he slept right through it, he just started working nights and isn't used to it yet, but that is okay, we are rescheduling!

Got to have exchanges with Sister Jarvis and we had quite a bit of fun.  When we went out to contact a potential investigator we ended up standing by the street, talking to a man who had been loading things in his car.  Then some random guy drives up and stops next to us and starts telling us how he just bought his car and he loves it so much because he is old school and he had a newer car, but then saw this one in the lot and just had to have it.  Neither we, nor the man we were talking to, knew this guy.  He was sure happy about his car though!  That is when you know you've made a good purchase, when you just get happier about it the more you think about it, and finally you are so happy that you have to tell the first people who you see or else you might burst.  I think that is what happened ;)

My companion is a really happy person.  Seriously, she enjoys every aspect of life, especially sleeping apparently ;) Speaking of being so happy that you might burst, sometimes you just have to laugh to relieve the pressure of all the happiness right?  I was woken up one morning this week by my Sister Grammer laughing so hard that she eventually woke herself up as well.  Yep, she is so happy that she was laughing in her sleep!  Her thoughts on the situation, "I think there have been very few times in my life when I have woken up so jovial!"

We had a really fun "Fabulous Friday" Relief Society activity this week.  Lots of people came, we did crafts, I learned how to make jalapeno jelly, and it was overall a lot of good happy things!

Apparently the idea of making the jalapeno jelly came because Sister Aguirre isn't super crafty, but had to come up with a craft to do at Fabulous Friday.  She is really good in the kitchen though.  And she started making it because then she uses it for homemade montecristo (sp?) sandwiches which she made for us on Sunday and they were delicious!  Then we helped her bake three different kinds of cake that she was going to take to work today, and tell everyone that the missionaries helped her make them ;)

Have a happy week!  TMFWD: black

love, Sister Emily DeFord

*Phenomenal.  A word used by a couple we had dinner with so much that it was ridiculous ;) I have decided to use this word now in place of awesome, which I say too much.  So I am going to use the word phenomenal too much, but at least it isn't the same overused word as everyone else overuses ;) Except the Aitkens.

Baking with Sister Aguirre!

Feasting on the scriptures ;)

Looks just like home!  Driving out to dinner in the country

Sister Jarvis and I went to Sonic with Sister Atchley to celebrate Sister Jarvis' 11 month mark :)

Taco salad!  Yum, trough night style

We are kind of strange :)