Hermana Rebecca Gifford Serves in Oregon: Time For The Field

Holy cow Mom hahaha thanks for sending me a pillow! That is very nice of you. I was just planning on not having one the first few nights but should´ve remembered I have the best mom in the whole entire world!

I think that I am going to be okay with weight…well not really...I am putting my 20 pounds of books in my companions luggage and then I will take it out once we get to Oregon! Thankfully her heaviest bag is only 20 pounds!

I will make sure to remember to ask my mission president about Christmas! I need to see my mommy :) We have to have a bag right at the top of our suitcase ready to go proselyte right when we get to Oregon, crazy! When you get the chance could you add Jared Vargas, Alejandro Hernandez Livera, and Luis Roberto Palma Abrto...They were my teachers here and I made them promise me to send me an invite on Facebook to their weddings haha.

Well, I have so many crazy emotions going on right now. I am so excited to go and actually do real missionary work, eat real food and start my journey! But I am also sad...The first two weeks in the MTC were not my most favorite and then I decided I needed to change my attitude. These last 4 weeks have been the most amazing spiritually blessed weeks I have ever experienced. I have absolutely loved feeling the spirit several times, basically constantly throughout the day, and I have heard it’s not the same in the field.

I also am sooo grateful for our teachers. They helped us in so many ways and always had the spirit with them. I really do feel that we got the best teachers in the whole CCM.

Friday we had meetings for 12 hours J It was a long day, but super helpful! The meetings were all about situations that will happen in the field and how to deal with it. It made me feel a little more prepared, maybe not the Spanish part...but doctrine! Hermana Phelps and I are super excited for our 4 hour lay over, we are bringing a bunch of pass a long cards and are ready to start spreading the gospel!

I will have my new companion for 12 WEEKS. haha that seems like such a long time, I am hoping and praying that we can work really well together.

Saturday we had our last TRC. The most insane, spiritual experience. It made me so excited for the field and to have real experiences. It opened my eyes to see how huge of trials people go through and I have gone through nothing in my life!

Sunday, the last Sunday in the CCM! Our MTC presidency meeting was by President Tenorio and he talked to us about celestial marriage, exaltation and faith. He shared an experience how his first-born baby was born while he was gone away for a work trip. His baby daughter died the next day and he never got to meet her. He explained how people would always ask him why he wasn’t so depressed about losing his first child and he would explain to them that he was married in the temple and he knows he will get to be with his daughter once again. What great faith!

Our devotional was a talk by Elder Bednar on how to become a Preach My Gospel missionary and he gave us five steps of how we can do that. Understanding that we are serving Jesus Christ, always be worthy, treasure up the words of eternal life, understand that the Holy Ghost is the ultimate and true teacher, and that teaching is much more than talking and telling. He said multiple times in his talk, "You can do this!"

For our movie night we got to watch the first presidency devotional!! Was that great or what? I loved the music. We aren’t allowed to listen to any music at the CCM so I am excited to start playing my MoTab :) Some things that I enjoyed was from Bonnie Oscarson when she said open your hear with kindness. The way to share Christmas spirit is to be generous. I have been working really hard on being nicer to everyone. I loved the story that Elder Christopherson shared and I really liked how President Eyring said the light of Christ shows through purity. I hope we can all have the light of Christ especially during this Christmas season!

Well I have always heard that you always either love or hate the MTC. I LOVED it. Easily the most spiritual experiences I have had and my testimony has been like thrown up and blown up a million times (meaning that it has been strengthened so much haha)

I am going to miss hearing gun shots...haha fireworks go off like every thirty minutes and we hear gun shots a few times a day, party in Mexico haha.

Time for me to start the real journey in Mexico! Wish me luck!

Hermana Gifford

My companion and I with the Presidency

This is our district with the Branch Presidency. The man in the very middle is President Alvarado and he is the Branch President. To the right is President Juarez who is the 1st counselor and on the left is President Zirker. President Zirker is the one that gave me the pkg from Debi Martin and he works for the FBI.