Turkey

Hello Hello my fellow fans.

How was everyones' Thanksgiving? It was a great Thanksgiving here in McMinville and yet another great week!

For Thanksgiving we woke up, exercised, and did studies.  Then the exciting stuff happened!  I took a nap and then put up Christmas decorations haha.  After that we had dinner with the West family and all their extended family. And thennnn right after that we drove to the mission home and had another Thanksgiving dinner with President and Sister Samuelian! Naturally they couldn't know I just ate 30 minutes prior so I stuffed my face at both places haha.

After that we went over and visited Rose, Carlos and their family. They had music blasting and people were doing nice Latino dancing.  Obviously I felt super uncomfortable since we don't listen to any loud music.  I started chewing my nails (I haven't chewed my nails in over a year :) woo I finally got over that habit.  I bet that makes dad happy haha) and was shaking my legs.  I didn't think I was being too obvious but Rose came up to me and said, "You seem really anxious what’s going on?"  Needless to say we didn't stay very long haha :)  

I may or may not be the typical "weird" missionary...But it was a great Thanksgiving! I was thinking about last years Thanksgiving how I was in Mexico and they tried to create a cute little Thanksgiving dinner for us.  

At President's home we went around the dinner table and said what we are most grateful for.  This time of year I am especially grateful for the Atonement.  But to be more specific than that I am grateful for the power of change.  The Lord is 100% on our side as we strive to become more like the Savior.  I have realized a million weaknesses on my mission that I never knew I had but the Lord is right by my side helping me become a little more like Him every day.

Well we are preparing for the wedding and baptism for this weekend!   Rose and Carlos will be getting married on Saturday at the church building. Sunday right after the First presidency Christmas devotional Rose will be getting baptized.  We are holding off for a little bit with Carlos.  He is still having some struggles with the Word of Wisdom so we feel it is best we wait a little until he has quit.  Please keep them in your prayers!  Hermana Wilde and I were the wedding planners so...hopefully it looks okay haha. We also got to go to the temple with their whole family this week. It was great.  Our branch mission leader took all of us in his giant van. Rose and Carlos loved walking around the temple.

We weren't able to see Ana this week because she has been in Salem for Thanksgiving break but we hope to see her tomorrow!  We had FHE with Christopher and his family in a members home and it went really well.

We had a great lesson with Yoselin!  We are excited for the semester to end so that her schedule slows down.  We had the lesson at the West's home and we talked about temples and family history.  She really loved to hear about baptisms for the dead.  She is an awesome girl.  There aren't many 17-year-old girls out there that are willing to talk with us and learn more of the Savior. We have planned a bunch of temple trips with her but they have never worked so we are planning on going to the temple when she is on Christmas break from school.

Hermana Wilde and I have started listening to Christmas music.  I never have paid a lot of attention to the words of the music.  Christmas music is so powerful.  I love being able to listen to music of the Savior every day.

Funny story.....Friday and Saturday were super busy days.  When Sunday came around and we were headed to church...I noticed we were out of gas...and it were really out....soooo we got to walk all day!  It was great to get out of our car and talk to people.  It was 26 degrees so that was a little chilly but sometimes cars can be a little more of a curse than a blessing so we are going to work on walking more.

Well that about sums everything up! I hope you all have a great week. Listen to Christmas music of the Savior and listen to the words.  He is the light, the light and the hope of the world!

Love you all!

Hermana Gifford <3

Happy Thanksgiving from Hermana Wilde and I

The Rodriguez Bustamante Families

Yay for Christmas!

It's Cold Outside!

Hi everyone! It was a great week!

Well this email will be pretty short because today isn't Pday- just to email and then our preparation day will be thanksgiving.  And I am typing on my iPad and it takes forever.

First news: Ana Ramirez is on date for baptism!! This is Nazario and Socorro's daughter that I worked with in Salem.  What a miracle this is to be apart of the whole family.  We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she really enjoyed it.  I knew we needed to extend a date…so we did…and she accepted!  So happy.

Christopher Perez is still on date for December 13th.  He came to church and we taught them about faith this week.

Rose and Carlos are doing great. We are starting to get a lot of the wedding plans done.  Sunday night we had Young Women in Excellence and Rose and Jasmin came.  It was great! :). They also made it to church this week.

I went on two exchanges this week. The first one I was with sister Rasmussen. I learned about the importance of looking at all the miracles given us every day.

The next one was with Sister Fenn.  She had some great ideas of teaching certain principles. They were great exchanges. I had no idea what I was doing...but I will learn right? :)

I hope you all have a great thanksgiving!  I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It is the most amazing blessing we have that we can change every day and become better.  I am so grateful for the plan of happiness. I often think...why me?? Why in the world did Heavenly Father put me with the most amazing family ever. I love you all so much with my whole heart. Well I am grateful for many more things but time is up.  Have a great week and eat lots of food! Food is good for the soul :) trust me…I would know.

Ah man I forgot to write about zone conference.  It was amazing.  The best one yet.  What I loved was how we can call down the powers of heaven as we sincerely pray. And I liked a lot more but I will just say that for now...

Xoxox

Hermana Gifford

Miracles! Woo!

This week I am going to start off by saying... I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :) It is so great to be here.

We had a great week. I am so grateful for all the blessings that we receive every day. I hope that it was a great week in the freezing valley of Utah..Gotta say I don't miss the snow too much.

Happy Birthday to Abby on Sunday! I love you sister.

We had quite a busy week. There were over 7 hours worth of meetings this week that I went to. I was getting really nervous that our area is going to not progress as much….But oh I was wrong.  We were able to get 10 member presents this week!  That is one of the hardest goals to accomplish in Spanish work.  It was great to get so many members come out with us.  We also found 3 new investigators.  We found these investigators by going through the area book and contacting old investigators and tracting.  Finding new investigators has been one of our struggles so we are excited to work with these 3 new great children of God.

Great news - Rose and Carlos are back on date for December 6th.  We will be planning for their wedding to be December 5th.  I love this family so much. You know how there are some people that you think, "What would it be like if I never met them?"  That’s how I feel about this great family.  Unfortunate news is that Bruce (their 16 year old son) fell back into some word of wisdom issues this past week so he will be going back to the juvenile center.  He was doing so good.  It’s crazy how real Satan is.  

Saturday we found this great video on overcoming addictions and we felt so strongly we needed to show them this video that night.  When we went for our appointment they weren't home.  They didn't get home until after our curfew so we couldn't see them.  It was that night that Bruce fell into temptation. The Lord really knows our weaknesses and the Holy Ghost is there to help warn us. But I know that he is going to overcome this addiction :)

Christopher Perez is on date for December 13th.  We were planning for December 6th but his dad will have to work that day so we changed it.  We had a great lesson with them on the Restoration.

We actually had a lot of lessons on the Restoration this week.  We felt prompted that all of our dinner messages for the week should be centered on the Restoration.  We had a lot of great spiritual experiences with members helping them remember how blessed we are to be apart of the restored gospel.

This week one of my personal goals was to listen to ALL promptings and ACT. My testimony was strengthened of how much the Lord is working right along side of us.  There are so many things I wouldn't do or say if I didn't have the guide of the Spirit.  We are able to see so many miracles as we listen to all the Spirit guides us to do.  

I hope you are all doing great.  Pray to be more in tune with the Spirit this week.  Pray that the Spirit will help guide you to share the gospel with someone this week.  All you need to do is open your mouth and He will do the rest.

I love you all!

Hermana Gifford

What a week :D

Buenos tardes mi familia!

How are you all?  Is it winter in Utah yet?  

I keep forgetting to mention. Congrats to Amber getting married! And congrats to Kim on her mission call. You're about to have the best time of your life :)

The rainy Oregon season has begun! We had a great week here in McMinville. We finally were able to meet with Yoselin this week!  She has two jobs, goes to school and has an internship so she has been extremely busy but we were able to have a lesson with her.  We talked about the Priesthood and Prophets. We shared President Monson's talk on being a light to others. She really enjoyed it. She says that she can feel a difference from when we are there and the time we haven't been with her.  She has a few days off of school this week so we hope we will get to meet with her again.

We also had a great lesson with Lydia. We had a great member present. Hermana Alba shared her experience of how after investigating the church for a year how she finally made the decision to be baptized.  It helps a lot because Lydia and Hermana Alba have been friends for quite some time.  We invited Lydia to fast for her husband to have an open heart.  She feels that she is ready to be baptized but her husband is holding her back.

We had a pretty off week with Rose and Carlos.  It started off great.  We moved Rose's baptismal date to November 15th but the next lesson with her she was second guessing getting married.  She totally wants to get baptized but she doesn't feel ready for the commitment to be married. Please keep her in your prayers.

We also had a great lesson with the Perez family who is a part member family. We taught them about the Sabbath day.  We are planning on Christopher and Kimberly (2 of their children) to get baptized December 6th.

Transfer calls were this last Saturday.  Hermana Wilde and I were eating lunch when President Samuelian called.  I thought oh that silly goose he must have our number confused with someone else. He wasn't confused...Haha I have been called to be a Sister Trainer Leader.  I will get to finish Hermana Wilde's training.  So a sister named Sister Rosado and I will be serving as STL's together.  Basically what we do is help 5 sets of sisters of 3 zones fulfill their purpose as missionaries, go on exchanges with them and go to a lot of meetings. That's about all I know that I am doing so now you all know as much as I do.  I know that this opportunity to serve is an answer to my prayers. I have come to find on my mission that charity is one of the biggest weaknesses I have.  Once I get to know someone well I love them to death but I have struggles loving random people on the street and having the gift of charity for others instantly.  Well a mission is literally the best time ever to get to change to become the people we want to be, but more importantly the people Heavenly Father wants us to be.  I have been praying a lot to find a way to love others more.  When President Samuelian called he said that this call comes straight from Heavenly Father and I felt the spirit so strongly that this was the answer to my prayer.  I have no idea what I am doing and feel quite inadequate, but I know that this time to serve others will help me overcome some of my weaknesses.  

I have such a strong testimony of the Atonement.  If we turn to the Lord He will let us know our weaknesses and as we RELY on him He will make those weak things strong.

Well you are all wonderful and I love you lots, have a wonderful week!

Hermana Gifford

Hermana West and I.  She is an awesome member in our Branch.

Some Hermana's from a couple of months ago