Week 12: 11/4/13

For Halloween we had to be in by 6, or after dinner, and the family who the hermanas live with signed up for dinner so we pretty much had a party!  I missed dinner-in-a-pumpkin, but he made us Korean food (that's where he went on his mission) which was pretty awesome.  They got us pumpkins to carve :) and being the focused, hardworking missionaries that we are we decided to carve something gospel related!  All the pumpkins go together, do you know what it means? :) There is also a man in our neighborhood who has a little observatory which he invited everyone to come to see the stars and some cool galaxies so we ran over there after our pumpkin photo shoot!

So I have been thinking.  (A dangerous pastime--I know)  As a full-time missionary I am called to focus on missionary work all of the time and do it all day long.  Basically, missionary work is my calling, it is my job, it is my schooling, it is my friends and my family, it is in my journal and my dreams and my planner.  That is a pretty unique situation right?  (Besides the fact that there are 80,000 full-time missionaries out, but really that is not so many compared to the population of the world, or even the Church)  Except...visiting teaching and home teaching is missionary work.  All other callings are part of supporting and strengthening our wards and communities which is...missionary work.  Caring about our friends and families is sharing with them the things which are important to us.  Letting them know the gospel allows them to know us better.  Seeing such great blessings in our lives should make us feel ashamed to keep them all to ourselves.  Acting at work and in school as a representative of Jesus Christ and  covenant-keepers qualifies us for the Spirit and the opportunity to share our light.  These experiences are not reserved for full-time missionaries, nor should they be.  Everything we do can be part of the work of salvation of souls.  Some things are more focused on bringing ourselves to salvation, some are focused on others, but it is sure that we cannot help someone else beyond our own conversion.  This is the time to prepare to meet God.  We do not get to heaven by walking up a tower built of our good works, with a sorry if you didn't do enough extraordinary things to make it.  We are not brought to judgment to weigh how many wrongs we have done against how many righteous acts, with a sorry if the scales are not in your favor.  We are to learn heaven while we are here.  The commandments allow us to know more of the nature and attributes of God, and if we want to live as He does, we need to follow those things and become as He is.  I would argue that conversion is not simply about developing faith in Christ.  Conversion is about living up to the command to "be ye perfect".

Missionary work should NOT be about finding time to add another thing to your schedule.  It SHOULD be expanding what you do, being a little more Christlike and a little more in tune with the Spirit and living a life in the gospel.  At our stake conference this weekend Elder Gay shared a wonderful analogy.  Using the statistic that 90% of mistakes in mountain climbing are made on the way down we realize that reaching the summit was never the goal.  It is making it home that interests us most.  In this life there are many summits: baptism, the temple, marriage, parenthood, retirement.  Our goal however is to return to live with our Father in Heaven.  Can we not keep this focus in mind at all times?

We had a great stake conference and are just working to continue the work in the area we have been called to serve :) The time just keeps passing and that is crazy.  If two transfers makes 3 months, then that is one-sixth of my mission right there!  Past already!  Well, almost, transfers are next week again so we find out Saturday what will be happening.  There aren't any sisters coming in this time (except maybe a visa waiter or two) which is super crazy, but we have over 30 new missionaries coming in the next transfer!  Anywho, with no sisters it is possible things won't be changed too much, but who knows what will happen!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

The Denver Temple on P-Day

The Denver Temple on P-Day

Pumpkin Carving with the Hermanas

Power Tools

Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Week 11: 10/28/13

I promise a longer email next week!  Next week is week 6 of this transfer!  We have interviews with President Brown tomorrow and I think I will ask him to cancel transfers ;) also we have an extra zone conference type thing this transfer (next week) because Elder Gay of the Seventy is doing a mission tour.  Not sure what will be going on but things are always an adventure!  I love you!

So Sister Z and I got to go to the temple today!  That made today our p-day though, but the plan wasn't set early enough for me to tell you about it last week Sorry!

And now because it is Wednesday we have an appointment (one of our investigators is a standing appointment wednesday afternoons so we are a bit short on time) but I will put pictures on here!

 Dumpster diving between Ward Council and Sacrament meeting because we are pretty sure our keys were thrown away after the ward Halloween party... Yay!  Sister Z found the keys!  And they were wrapped in a plastic tablecloth so they weren't even gunky!

Our costumes...we traded nametags ;) and Sister Seyfi popped in too!

So let's see...The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion!

Week 10: 10/21/13

So this week...... :) A Brother in the ward gave us a referral (sidenote: it is so fun to see the excitement of ward members when they get involved in missionary work again.  Whether it is coming with us to lessons, having family mission plans in action, sending children on missions or doing missionary work on their own.  There was another Brother who was so excited to tell us after church last week about giving a Book of Mormon to his friend and how he can't wait to keep telling her about it) and we were talking to him on the phone to get more information and see what he could do and what we needed to do.  In gospel principles a couple weeks ago the lesson was about missionary work and the statistic from the manual said there had been about 1 million missionaries in the history of the Church.  So Brother L. told us he did the math and that means we are each responsible for 800,000 souls!  And told us that he thinks this referral would "eat the lessons up like lunch!"  I love being excited about missionary work!

Speaking of lunch, Sister Z. and I have decided we must be the picnic missionaries or something.  We have a lesson with Tracy every week where we sit outside her apartment and talk about the Gospel, and with a new investigator this week we weren't able to get someone from the ward to come with us to this man's home since it was pretty last minute so we brought chairs outside again!  It is fun, and luckily those are usually nice days :) Though for our first actual lesson with T. it was raining so we sat out with our umbrellas and had a lesson anyway :)

Also speaking of eating outside (more directly this time) we had a service project up in Lyons on Thursday which Sister Z and I rode up to with the Spanish sisters to save miles (did I tell you about how last month we weren't informed about our mileage allotments until the last week of the month and we were already 100 miles over?  Oops...they forgave us because it was for flood relief but we are being very careful this time!)  On the way back the Sisters dropped us off at our car at the stake center, but the one thing we forgot in their car was our keys!  Haha so we had a picnic in the parking lot of our snacks we had taken up to Lyons and walked home to get our key and shower super fast before a lesson :) Adding to our list of smelling like smoke and marijuana, hair that smells like manure (we were cleaning out a barn that got mudded) also means we are doing our job right ;)

The thing all of the missionaries looked forward to this week was being asked to usher at (and President Brown approving of us attending) the BYU Ballroom performance on Saturday night!  It was super duper awesome, and John, the TA from my ballroom class, was in it.  He also ended up coming to the Ute Creek ward on Sunday, and was a little surprised to see somehow he knew in Colorado!  So that was fun.  It was a little weird to be part of a little more "normal" life for an evening, and I have to say I really like being a missionary, it is much simpler in a lot of ways ;)

I think I will start reviewing my journal before I email so I can remember all the good bits from the week :) but that is all I can think of for now!  Just trying a little harder to be a little better :) Have a good week!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

Sister Z. and I at the high school for the BYU ballroom performance

the poster the Hermanas made for our district goal of 550 lessons this transfer.  I especially love the scripture on the bottom!

This is Viticus, who fell into the window well outside the Huntington Hills sister's room while I was there for exchanges.  The white handbook doesn't say you can't adopt pets outside your window!

10/14/13: Festiva Sighting

(Editor's Note: Emily sent home her sd card this week.  I told her that we loved all the pictures, but it would be nice to know the stories that went with them, and I hoped she would remember them when she got home)

I wish I could tell you about all the pictures and people, but I am sure you guys can make up stories that are just as fun :) It is a little freezy off and on, but nothing too serious yet, mostly just days when in the sunshine is perfect but the shade is NOT.

I have had a few cranky days, or minutes, or times.  It isn't really fair to say all day because SO MUCH happens in a day.  We learn a lot, but there is always so much more.  Study time is tough in the morning because there are a crazy number of things that I want to go over/learn more about/become better at/look up scriptures for.  But one step at a time right?  Even though I get distracted, I am really trying to focus on the lessons for now, and just looking up other things when I have a specific question or situation in mind.  But I want to know it all!  Sister C's birthday is today so Sister Z and I are going to get/make a cake for her and the zone, so I will eat cake for Dad ;) (Editor's Note: Emily's Dad's birthday was yesterday)

I am learning a lot about the preparation that needs to go into an area, and into people, before those connections do happen and things start moving forward.  It is tough because our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come to Christ and help them recieve the Gospel, and I love eternal families and I love eternal life and I want people to know.  I want to adopt all of them and bring them all in and show them.  It is difficult to be on the outside of their lives and see how the Gospel makes so much sense and would be so good for them and bring so many blessings and have the patience to wait until they are ready to see those differences and needs for themselves.  That is why the ward is so important.  We can put names and information down in the area book (and don't get me wrong, I love the area book) but unless we leave a person behind who knows those people and will be able to stick around and love them until they are ready to learn more and care enough to go in and help when they are ready, people get forgotten and lost.  So preparing people is tough, but that is what needs to happen.  Everyone prays to find those who are prepared to receive the gospel, so I guess I can handle a little frustration in order to answer some other people's prayers ;) And I do get to see quite a few brother of Jared type miracles (Ether 3:5) and miracles going on around me in the district and zone that I get to be a part of as we all work together :)

Some of our little miracles?  Well addresses are not always recorded very well in the area book, so one night we went to look for a potential investigator who we only had an intersection for an address.  We found him at the first house, and though he is okay with where he is at and not interested in discussions right now, he did have one question about the plan of salvation that we were able to answer for him, and expand his understanding a little bit more.

The next day we got to answer a question which a man had kind of wondered for 60 years.

While on a tracting blitz on Saturday with Sister D we happened to skip a house which Sister Z and I went back to later because he is a member of the ward but less active, so we were able to visit him knowing his name and have him not be forgotten :)

Speaking of which, we did an exchange Friday to Saturday because I am companions with an STL (Sister Training Leader), and Sister D is companions with the other STL so we got to be companions for the day.  If that makes sense.  I got to drive :) The day really gave me more appreciation and understanding of Sister Z, since we were in my area for the day so I had to drive/know where we were going and what was going on.  Plus, as a district we were all committed to 'finding' for 3 hours on Saturday morning, which for us was going to be tracting, and Sister D had never tracted before!  So that was an adventure being the experienced one in something :) But we did some good and she was awesome and it was a good experience for all of us I think.  Sister D and I will actually be companions every week for the next three weeks as well as our companions conduct other exchanges.  Should be fun!

I love you all and have an awesome week!

love, Sister Emily DeFord

We found a Festiva while tracting!  It would have been a great lead in to conversation, but the family wasn't home.  Maybe next time!

Care Package...It's a...

Sister Emily's sister is expecting a baby. She sent Emily a package with a lot of balloons to blow up and pop in order to find out if she's having a boy or a girl. And mustaches are always fun :-)

Colorado Flooding and Service

The view from the G. Home

Longmont Main St

Waiting on the Elders, They're LATE

With the Stake President, President R

The Crew at Ted's House (he does not have a yellow vest)

Make it fun, It will get done

We found a crawdad! (and a snake, and a frog, and a fish, and some spiders....)  Also, I promise I don't wear the same shirt EVERYday, just in all of the pictures apparently.  And we do laundry more than on p-day due to extreme circumstances :)

Companions finally done for the day!

1st Zone Conference