Herrro mommyy

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week! And I hope all you sickies start feeling better sheesh!

Crazy how many people got their mission calls this week! The Lord is hastening His work.

It has been a great week! Its been weird to not have three of us anymore but Sister Meise is amazing.  I am so grateful to have her as my trainer.  She has taught me many things and helps me become a better missionary every day.

So some exciting news is that about an hour ago I was with Ella Colvin! We stopped by to say hi and we talked for a little bit. Unfortunately we didn't get to take a picture because she said she didn't have her hair done. But we are going to go back for dinner some time to meet Lloyd as well and she said we can take a picture then.  She is awesome.  

It was awesome to hear her talk about Grandma and Grandpa Gifford.  She told me that her and her husband have an eternal bond with them and they will be friends for eternity. And of course she went on and on about how amazing Grandma Marlene was.  Such a neat experience.  Please make sure you tell Grandpa I saw them!

Tuesday we had a transfer meeting and it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong as President and Sister Samuelian talked.  I am tellin ya...President Samuelian is going to be an apostle some day!  Haha… He truly is amazing. He talked a lot of going where the Lord commands you to go. The Spirit was so strong and I know that Heavenly Father doesn't want me anywhere right now except being a missionary in Salem Oregon!

So a lot of our investigators haven't been progressing so we have been in need of finding more people.  This week we got to do a lot of tracting!  A lot of door knocking and street contacting.  This week was probably the hardest I have worked.  Basically we didn't not waste a single second because of the need we are in to find new people. With all the searching we got one new investigator.  I have been able to learn how to be more patient this week :) I know that the Lord is helping us find people that are prepared to hear the gospel!

There was a drunk driver that ran into one of the members garage and totally destroyed it.  The member does some sort of work in construction so his whole garage was filled with tools and stuff that totally got broken.  We got to help them clean the garage out with a pair of Elders.  Oh let me tell you that just because they're elders doesn't mean they work harder than sisters hahah...

Oh! We got new Zone Leaders because of transfers and guess what? One of the zone leaders is from Utah…Draper...and went to Alta!  And was in my seminary class haha!  His name is Elder Joly.  We weren't really friends before but its crazy how small of a world it is. There are 3 of us in my zone from good ole Alta High School.

We tried to go back and visit Wilfredo this week but 6 men moved in with him :(  So even if we bring a member with us we will still be out numbered by men. So unfortunately we will have to pass him off to the Elders but hopefully he will still have to the desire to get baptized!

Friday we have ward soccer.  The missionaries in the ward all decided that we wanted to invite everyone! It was awesome like 20 non-members showed up to play soccer! Hopefully some of them will want to take the lessons.

On Saturday Hermana Meise and I decided that we wanted to visit a lady that was taught by Elders in the past.  But for the life of us we couldn't find her address on the map.  We really felt like we needed to go there.  We decided to check the mail and the GPS you sent me came!  The perfect timing!  So we used the GPS and went to the address. The lady we were looking for wasn't there but the apartment next door is where we found our new investigator!  She seemed really open so we are excited to go back and visit her again. So thanks to you momma, you helped one of our prayers get answered!

Oregon is awesome! Lots of hippies, homeless people, drugs but also HISPANICS :) I am grateful for the little ways the Lord blesses us each day. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Gifford

I will never be able to make cookies…hahah

Hello! Hello!

Hello everyone!

I am so happy for Hayley going to Korea! She is going to be such an amazing missionary!

Another great week in Salem! Week of transfers…anddd Hermana Cardon is leaving Hermana Meise and I :( She will spending her last six weeks in an English area. It’s very possible that someday I could get transferred to an English area so that scares me a little bit.  Hermana Meise will still be an STL and they are calling another Sister Trainer Leader somewhere else so these last 6 weeks of my training will be interesting!

One of the things that Sister Trainers do is go on exchanges with the sisters in the area.  But I am not a sister trainer leader.  There has to be two of us...haha so I will be going on a lot of exchanges this next transfer but just for kicks and giggles. It will be interesting.

I am going to miss Hermana Cardon a lot!  She has helped me strengthen my testimony in many way. Crazy that I am halfway done with training!  In order to not get frustrated with Spanish I just make myself progress a little every day, and its working!  I have learned so much these last six weeks and its just going to keep getting better!

So do you remember last week how I said Alfredo came to church?  Well he came again!  But, turns out his name is Wilfredo not Alfredo!  Woops…haha but anyway we were never able to teach him because he was busy a lot.  He is still progressing, reading the Book of Mormon, praying and coming to church! Pray for Wilfredo/Alfredo haha.

We met with Javier, Adriana and Augustine.  Unfortunately they aren't progressing by reading and praying but they are interested in learning more.  I think that Augustine is the most interested out of the three.  It’s cool teaching them because they have so many great questions that a lot of people have so its super cool to teach them.  I just hope that they start reading and praying!  We might not see huge success right away but I know that we will see it after awhile.

This Sunday was ward conference and the stake leaders talked a lot about the Proclamation to the Family and that is where my testimony was strengthened mostly this week.  I am so grateful to have an eternal family and that one day and I can start my own. It’s all a part of God's wonderful plan!

I love you all! Remember to say family prayers this week :)

Hermana Gifford

The street I will love on someday!

Another Week!

Hello Hello!

Crazy every one is so sick! I hope that everyone starts feeling better this week! The little sickies at the hospital need my momma back! I hope you start feeling better Mom!

First happy birthday to Emmitt on the 17th!! I hope you have a great day buddy!

This week was awesome!  Tuesday we were doing personal studies and I felt like I should really pray about where to study.  I waited for a while and then I felt like I should study 2nd Nephi 31.  I felt like I really learned a lot from the chapter and more about the doctrine of Christ. That night we were teaching a less active family that has come the past few Sunday’s and as we were teaching them, one of my companions said, “I think we should read 2nd Nephi 31 with them”.  It was awesome!  I knew exactly what was going on just because I had really tried to listen to the Spirit during personal study! I was able to share things I probably wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't studied it. My testimony of personal study grew a ton!

Wednesday my companions had Missionary Training Council so I spent the day with another set of sisters. It was a super successful day.  We got 4 new investigators in one day and taught them all!  I am kind of bummed that I won't get to teach them again but it was super awesome to spend the day with them and learn how to follow the Spirit in different ways!

So we have a few investigators we are teaching but the only one that is progressing right now is Alfredo.  Alfredo is in his late 20's or early thirties.  He came from Mexico a few years ago and lives all by himself.  Since we are in a trio we can teach a male by himself.  He is super lonely here because he doesn't have any friends or family here.  He is super interested and has been reading and praying almost every day. Anddd…. he came to volleyball on Friday.  We have volleyball and soccer every week with the ward and the Latinos love playing so its a great way to get investigators.  

The members were so kind to him and asking him if he would come to church on Sunday. So Saturday night we talked to him and he said that he wanted to come to church. But he can't drive and It’s against the rules to drive other people. So we were calling and calling people to pick him up for church and no one would respond!  Sunday morning still no one would respond. As we were driving to church I said a personal prayer that someone would be willing to pick Alfredo up.  We went to church and at 8:50 a member walked in and said,

“Did you find a ride for your investigator”?  We said, “no..can you”??   He said, “yes”!

 They were late but they made it just in time for the sacrament! It was a great sacrament and he stayed for all 3 meetings.  In gospel principles they talked about the Word of Wisdom and he was all excited about it!  I felt prompted to set a date with him so we asked him if he would get baptized Feb. 7^th.   He was a little shaky about that.  We asked him to pray about it.  We will see when we meet with him again this week!

Friday during training we were doing role-plays.  Hermana Cardon told me that she wanted me to bare my testimony from listening to the Spirit.  I did that and the Spirit was great.  Next she said, “Okay, I want you to bare your testimony relying on the spirit and pretend I am someone that you really love in your life that doesn't have the gospel right now”.  It felt like the Spirit filled up the whole room, it was awesome!  She had me do that to see how important it is to love the people you teach and rely on the spirit because then they will also be able to feel the Spirit. I am very grateful for that experience.

The mission is so awesome. Every single day is hard but I am able to see my testimony grow every single day as well.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Hermana Gifford

Thanks for the pictures!

Thanks to Savannah I have art work on my wall :)

Livin' the Life in Oregon

Hello, hello!

How is everything going? Anything new with work? That’s fun that you all got together for Danny's birthday! Wish I was eating some of that Oreo ice cream :)

This week wasn't super eventful! New Years Eve we had to be in at 7:00 so we made cookies that night!  The yummy salted caramel ones you sent me! During the day on New Years we went over to a members home and there were some less actives there as well.  We made pupusas with them. They are a yummy food that they make in El Salvador. They weren't super hard to make either. We talked about making goals centered around Christ with the less active family.

We visited Javier and Adrianna but her brother that is interested was at work every time that we visited them and Javier is in Mexico for a couple weeks. They didn't come to church because Adriana said she only wants to go if her whole family comes :( one day!

Maria had a friend pass away this last week so as a catholic thing they go for a week of mourning. So we weren't able to teach her. We will go back later this week when her mourning is finished and teach her the plan of salvation :)

Now that our ward is at 9 we wake up at 5:30 on Sunday’s for ward council, party! We take turns going into ward council since there are so many of us missionaries in the ward so I went in from our companionship on Sunday. It went super well. I was super nervous because they tend to make fun of new missionaries Spanish.  But they didn't!  I said the things I wanted to say and they understood! My Spanish improves a little every day so I am grateful for that!

We spent a few hours on Sunday tracting going door to door trying to find new investigators because we are in need for people to teach!  That is going to be one of our main focuses this week to find more people!  Overall the work is coming along!

Have a great week! Love you!

Hermana Gifford

​Here's the beautiful cookies haha!