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
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