Baby Number 2?

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone is doing great. It was a great week!

To start off happy birthday to Liz on the 30th and Macie on the 4th and....someone else really awesome has a birthday :)) haha.

Well we got transfer calls and I will be training again.  I feel a lot different this time around.  I know a lot of things that I want to do differently. I am grateful that Lord trusts me to do this. I am looking forward to meet the new missionary on Thursday.

Chayo is on date for October 10th!  We are so excited for her.  She is so awesome and we are looking forward to helping her progress.

Yoselin came to a baptism this week! It was a neat experience.  A set of elders had a baptism going on and I made it a goal to get someone there. It seemed like no one was going to come. I prayed and prayed for this miracle. We showed up at Yoselin's house and said, “lets go!”  and she came!  She had a great experience.  Someone gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and she told us after that what he was explaining about the Holy Ghost was exactly what she was feeling. She is praying again to know if baptism is what the Lord wants for her.

Wasn't the General Women’s broadcast amazing?  I loved it.  Heavenly Father really did create us to be happy. I am looking forward to hear the words of the prophet. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Gifford

It was Miley's 6th birthday! (Chayo's daughter)

Our district

The Bug

Hello everyone!

Happy Birthday today to Andrew and Grandpa Gifford! I hope that you both have marvelous days!

It was a great week. Some dumb little germs found me so I have been sick the past couple of days so hopefully it passes by quickly.

We had four investigators at church! Chayo and her kids! It was so great to see them there. Her son Bruce who is the only member of the family got into some big trouble last week so is now in Juvenile detention. Chayo knew that after that kind of week that she really needed to come to church. Big bummer is that her boyfriend moved back in so we have to work with that situation before she can get baptized.

Yoselin didn't progress very much this week :( We had a mission fast on Friday for all the investigators on date to progress to be baptized. Our mission has a lot of people on date for baptism but lately a lot of people end up not getting baptized. We had an awesome lesson with Yoselin Saturday night and then after the lesson she told us that she feels she isn't ready for baptism and feels that she won't be for a long time. Its pretty crazy how Satan works in the strangest ways. But I know with the Lord's help we will understand what we need to do to help get her back on date!

This week we got to know a lot more less actives. It is so interesting to hear all the different stories of why people leave the church. It is so important that we do the basics (reading scriptures, praying, going to church etc.) because when we stop these Satan attacks us and it’s so hard to get back up. It is crazy watching some people that are trying to get back on the right path but it’s so difficult because of how far they went down. I am so grateful for the Atonement that we can always change.

This past week we had zone training meeting. One thing that I really liked that we talked about is how we want so bad for our investigators to progress; so are we doing our part?  We talked about how we need to pray sincerely and with real intent for our investigators just as we want them to pray to receive their answer of the truth.

Transfers are next week! I can't believe how fast this transfer flew by. I hope Hermana T and I get to stay together since we have only been together for about 3 weeks.

Well I love you all and hope you have a splendid week! I challenge you all to make all your prayers this week sincere and real intent. I promise you will be able to see a difference :)

Love you all!

Hermana Gifford

Here is Yoselin!

Hello everyone!

It was another great week here in McMinville. I don't have too much time.  I have been busy playing marshmallow wars for zone pday :)

Unfortunately we didn't see too much progress in our investigators this week. We were able to see some pretty cool miracles though. It is so amazing how the Lord always gives us miracles.

We had planned to go to the temple with Yoselin. We kept calling and calling her to see if we were still going to go. She wasn't picking up.  I started telling Hermana T how I have really been trying to work on increasing my faith. That morning I had studied a lot about faith so it was in my head.  We were talking about how we have the faith to see miracles.  Then right as we were talking about it the phone rang! Hahah!  It was funny but also amazing that the Lord always shows us miracles.

We didn't end up going to the temple but I was grateful for this miracle! Her baptismal date has been changed to the 26th.

We got to meet a lot of new less actives this week. We have a lot of them so we are really trying to get to know more of them and help them return to church.

Things with Hermana T are going great.  She is a great worker and we have a lot of fun together. Sorry this is super short but I don't have too much else to say!  

The church is true :) I am so grateful for the gospel and this wonderful time I have to spread the good word!

Love you all!

Hermana Gifford

These are our battle faces for the marshmallow war

McWonderful

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all doing well. To start off…..Happy birthday to the fabulous Gigi!  99 years old and she is still killing it!!   (Translation – “killing it” means that means Gigi is doing fantastic!)   What a wonderful lady and example she is to us.

And! Happy birthday to mom later this week! We are so lucky to have the best mom in the whole wide world!! I can't imagine anyone else being my momma. She is such an amazing example of Jesus Christ and always so happy! I love you momma :)

I heard about the loss of Darcy this week. It is so sad to hear. I feel so strongly that Heavenly Father really needs her on the other side.  She has many people to help understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in the spirit world.  I am so grateful that we have the knowledge of the Atonement that we truly will be able to see our loved ones once again.

Hermana Stevens and I were together until Friday.  I think that she is a lot happier at home.  I spent all day Friday working in the mission office with a couple senior missionaries.  Now that was a hoot!  

My new companion is Hermana Tuisaula!  She is Samoan.  She was raised in Hawaii (right by the hotel) and then now her family is living in Alaska. She is super awesome.  She has been out for 4 months.  She really wants to work hard. Things have been great so far!

Yoselin came to church!  She said it was very different for her since she is used to going to the Catholic Church. But she said that she is looking forward to learning more.  She is progressing more and more every week. She still hasn't told her parents about her desire to be baptized so we really want to help her do that this week.

Since Hermana T and I don't know too much of the area we feel like its a great opportunity to work more with the members.  We had zone conference on Tuesday and we talked a lot about working with members.  We also talked a lot about the doctrine of the family.  As a mission we are starting to memorize the Proclamation to the family.  I am so excited.  I know that this can help me in the future.  If we don't know the doctrine we can't defend it.  If any of you are willing I invite you to memorize the proclamation as well :) As Satan continues to attack the family we are going to have to defend our beliefs.

A recent convert that is about 26 years old left on his mission this last week. I had the opportunity to share my testimony about how amazing it is to be a missionary.  It is such a blessing to be a representative of Jesus Christ.  I wouldn't say there is an easy day out here but every day it helps me grow. I am so grateful for this gospel!

Have a great week everyone!

Love you all!

Hermana Gifford

Hermana Tuisaula and I

My senior companions for the day! The sister on the right reminded me
so much of mom, she's a hoot!