The Bug....

Hello family!

It feels like I emailed just yesterday!  Probably because it was just a couple days ago that it was my Pday.

Well the end of the week was great.  Hermana Aubrey and I both got slammed with the flu so that hasn't been too fun.  But we both received priesthood blessings and little by little we are getting better! I am so grateful for the Priesthood.  I know that it is direct power from our Heavenly Father.

I will start with the bad news.  Maria Ortega didn't come to church :(   We stopped by her house 3 times throughout the week to help remind her and to see if there was anything we could do to help her get there.  She told us every time she was going to be there.  We are in a tricky situation with her because she loves reading from the Book of Mormon and she really does want to know the truth but she can't progress if she doesn't come to church.  We are going to bring a member with us one more time to a lesson and if she still doesn't come to church we will have to drop her :(   But I know that one day she will for sure accept the gospel!

Now the good news! Yesterday after church we were about to leave when Bishop Deloya asked Hermana Aubrey and I to come into his office.  We talked for an hour and a half!  We discussed ways of how we can help the ward continue to be excited to do missionary work.  

After, we talked about Socorro for a long time!  It's so funny because Socorro comes to church every week, she feeds us dinner all the time, she took us to the temple, she is reading the Book of Mormon but she won't get baptized!  Members ask her all the time when she is going to get baptized.  She thinks its funny. But we talked for a long time of how we can help Socorro.  We knelt down in Bishop's office and he offered a prayer.  Then, Hermana Aubrey and I took turns saying prayers.  

We talked and prayed for quite some time, and then we felt that we needed to go see Socorro right then.  So with Bishop, we drove over but she wasn't home. So we had a lesson with Nazario and Oscar about Lehi's dream in 1 Nefi chapter 8.  We talked with them about the importance of sharing this fruit with their mom and sisters. (I don't know if I have mentioned their daughters before. There are 3 teenagers and they are basically anti-Mormon.  This has been a big concern to Socorro)  The spirit was awesome in the lesson and Nazario expressed some doubts that Socorro is having that helped us understand where she is at a lot better! And guess what we are doing tonight?

We are having a FHE with Nazario and his family at the Bishop's house.  It is going to be so cool!

Saturday a family was baptized, it was so amazing!  This family is so special! They bore their testimonies after the baptism and you could feel so strongly their desire to follow the Savior.  (Socorro came to the baptism)  There have been baptisms in the ward the past three weekends! The ward is taking off! Members are wanting to share the gospel more and members are inviting investigators over for FHE's just like tonight!  I am so grateful to be a missionary in this ward and see so many people sharing the amazing gospel of Jesus Christ.

That about sums up this week, I hope we all realize how blessed we are to be a part of the Restored gospel and to know the plan Heavenly Father has for us!

Have a great week, love you tons!

Hermana Gifford

A Trip to the Temple

Hello hello from a beautiful day in Oregon!

We got to take this beautiful day to go to the Portland temple.  As missionaries we get to go every April and October.  The Portland temple is beautiful!  I am so grateful that I got to go inside. The temple really is the House of the Lord.  I know that through the temple we really can have our families forever!  I'm happy to know that one day I will be able to be sealed with someone for all time an eternity.  

A member was planning on taking us but she cancelled so we asked Socorro if she would take us, and she did!  She spent 3 hours in the visitor’s center watching meet the Mormons and other videos.  One of these days she is going to crack and get baptized :)

This week the Lord helped us with finding new investigators. We have 4 new investigators!  We met these investigators by knocking doors, walking on the street, and referrals!  I have a bit of a fear of knocking doors. We were talking to our zone leaders Friday about this and they were telling me how important it is to get over this fear.  They told us if we had the faith in finding an investigator this we that we would that day. So we knocked some doors and we met Sanaida!  She is awesome!  We will be going back the next couple of days to teach her again.

We had a lesson with Maria Ortega on Monday. We talked about the Sabbath day because our focus with her is getting her to church.  We also invited her to be baptized on May 17th.  We told her that she can receive her answer if she should get baptized at church.  Please keep her in your prayers that she will take the step to come to church and feel that baptism is the next step she needs to take.

Saturday was awesome! We had an activity for all the Relief Society in the Stake.  A rescue conference.  So many women showed up, it was amazing! We got to hear from President and Sister Samuelian on the importance of women and sisters. Then we all split up with someone from the ward and visited many less active women. It was soo cool!

These members were so excited to go visit these less actives. I got to

go with Hermana Aguirre and her mother in-law.  Hermana Aguirre reminds me a little bit of Sarah.  The people we were assigned to weren't home but we got to hear how so many other people had amazing experiences.  So neat! And I am also very grateful for my sisters :)

Friday we helped serve for a luau at Center 50+ where we help every week with genealogy.  After the dinner the host said, "thank you very much for the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."  There were 200 seniors there that heard the church's name!  A bunch of people came up to us after asking us what we do, talking about the church, it was super cool!

That basically sums up this great week! This gospel is amazing! The temple is wonderful. I invite you all to go to the temple this week.  We are SO lucky to have so many temples close by. Have a fantastic week!  I love you all!

Hermana Gifford

Hermana Aubrey and Hermana Gifford

Hermana Gifford and Meise (just transferred to Bend)

Hermana's at Portland Temple

Luis made us Nutella Bread

Portland Temple

Our Zone at the Portland Temple

Another Transfer in Hayesville!

Hi everyone!

I hope that you all had a great week! It was an awesome week in Oregon! And the biggest news is Oscar's baptism! It was so amazing. His dad, Nazario that was baptized in December was able to baptize him. It was so special! His mom, Socorro, came to the baptism but didn't show too much emotion.

At the beginning of this transfer I fasted a prayed a lot that Hermana Aubrey and I would be able to help someone come unto Christ by being baptized. Just like 2 weeks ago we thought that we weren't going to have a baptism this transfer. Heavenly Father always answers our prayers! Sometimes we just have to go through a trial of faith like this one :)

This transfer was filled with a lot of rejection and not too many people to teach but it was all worth it because Oscar made the decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ to be baptized, the very last Sunday of the transfer! We are so happy for him that he is doing his part to one day have his family sealed in the temple for all eternity.

A lot of members showed up to the baptism and brought refreshment so it was great to see the wards support for Oscar!  He is only 10 years old but he really does understand the decision he has made and made it on his own 100%.

We continue to find people! A lot of our lessons this week were getting to know the investigators but we felt very clearly that the people we met are not ready to accept the gospel at this time. Some people you can feel right away that it isn't their time! So we continue to search and I know that Heavenly Father is going to put people in our paths that are ready to accept this wonderful gospel!

We have been able to use our iPads to help us teach this past week. It is amazing to see what a great tool it can be! There are a lot of awesome apps and stuff that help us teach that people can see visually! The world wide rule is that you can check your email every night on the iPads, but our mission rule is to only check it on Pdays.  I am grateful that our mission has chosen to do this to help us keep focused and living the higher law!

We get to go to the Portland temple next week and do a session!! I am so excited! I think that will be our Pday!

Well that about sums up the week but I am looking forward to finding more people to share the gospel with this week! I love you all! Try to find a way to strengthen your testimony in some way this week!  If our testimonies aren't progressing they are digressing. Our testimonies never just sit and stay the same!

Xoxo

Hermana Gifford

Nazario, Oscar, Socorro

Hermana Gifford, Nazario, Oscar, Socorro, Hermana Aubrey

Nazario, Hermana Gifford, Oscar, Socorro, Hermana Aubrey

Family

Hello my lovely family,

Wasn't conference so amazing?

I have been praying and praying to know how we can help our dear sister Lizzy return to the right path. I know that my prayer was answered through Elder Brent H. Nielson's talk. I got to meet him a couple weeks ago; he came to our mission. I know I have the least amount of wisdom in this family but I do know that Heavenly Father answered my prayer through this talk.  If you haven't heard it, please listen to it!

I feel that if we push Lizzy we will make her grow farther away from us. All we can do is love, wait and watch. Of course we don't want to embrace the choices she is making but we need to always embrace her!  Like Brent Nielson said, “As we continue to love them, embrace them, watch and wait they will one day come to themselves and find themselves.”  

I know that one day Lizzy will return to the right path as we are constantly embracing her. Making sure she is invited to everything, sending random texts, or just check up on her. She may seem like she doesn't want it but I know that she needs to feel embraced and loved from her very own family.

I know that you old folk siblings of mine have your own families that are your main priority right now but I know that as we unite together your own families will become more united. I invite you to all pray how you can do your own part to embrace Lizzy.

I love you all so much! No empty chairs!

Love,

Hermana Gifford