Where is the Time Going?

Hello everyone!

I hope all is well wherever you are.  To start off, happy birthday to the cutest little Abe and two of my bffs Hanah and Skalla.  I love you all!

It was another interesting week! 

Some exciting news is that we stopped by to check up with Yoselin and she told us that her feelings of baptism has completely changed and that she is feeling better about it.  But we haven't been able to see her since, so I am not really sure exactly where that is at right now.

We weren't able to see Melissa and Griselda Arroyo but we have a lesson with them tonight and we have a member coming that we feel like they will click really well.

I am not sure if I have said anything about Estela. She was a referral from a member.  She was in the hospital for a few weeks that was supposed to have a minor surgery but it went wrong. We were able to teach her twice last week. She asked to receive a blessing because she wants to get another blessing.  We explained the Priesthood to her and she really enjoyed it!  There is a member that comes with us that they really have become great friends.

We are really working a lot more with our members. We have asked a few families to have FHE's in their homes and to invite their non-member friends. We are excited to see how that all works out.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference.  It was my last Zone Conference which was weird since I still have quite awhile left but we only have zone conferences once every three months. Three things that I really enjoyed was the importance of working as a team!  In our companionships, with our families and especially with the Lord.  The importance of creating a Christ like culture and the last thing is that to grow, our faith requires that we take a step in the darkness first.  This week I read the talk, "What lack I yet" and I have been praying about what it is that the Lord wants me to change right now in my mission.  I invite you all to pray and think about what the Lord would have you change at this point in your life. I know that if you pray sincerely the Lord will help you know what you need to change and as we rely on Him, He will help us change.

I love you all and hope that you have a week filled with the love of the Lord!

XOXO

Sister Gifford

This is Aden. He is the son of one of the less active members we are
teaching. What a cutie!

Howdy

Hello!

It has been quite the week here in Oregon! It definitely has been an interesting one.

We had a lesson with Ana!  It was so great.  We read Alma 32 with her and talked all about faith. She is basically in the same boat from when we last saw her.  She is really confused if she should stay with her Catholic faith that she was raised in or to change.  We will probably start the lessons over with her to help her really understand. It was super awesome to teach her though.

Sad news with Yoselin.  We talked to her a lot about her baptismal date and she told us that she feels that the Book of Mormon is true for some people but that it isn't true for her.  She still feels that she hasn't received a complete answer so she wants us to help her better understand.  We will teach her the restoration and the plan of salvation and if after that she hasn't progressed we will drop her but we really feel that this will help her!

We had a great lesson with Griselda and Melissa.  We invited them to be baptized on a specific date but Griselda (Melissa's mom) feels that Melissa needs to mature before she gets baptized.  And the way that she said it made it seem like a few years.  So we are going to work with those concerns with her. We were planning on teaching them tonight but they canceled so hopefully they will be free another day this week!

We had two zone training meetings that we trained in.  One we trained on recognizing the Spirit.  I am so grateful for the Spirit that can guide us through every day. We also talked about sincere prayers and how important it is that we have the Spirit lead our prayers.  In our other ZTM we trained on teaching skills.  What a blessing it is that we can improve every day!  I am definitely not a perfect teacher but I can't imagine what it would be like if I was the same teacher I was when I first got here.

Well I better get going but I love you all so much! I am so grateful for the people that we have to work with right now and I am excited to help them progress.

Have a wonderful week! 

Hermana Crawford (that’s what a member calls me because he can never remember my name)

Forest Grove ZTM

MiRaClEs

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week! It was such a great week here! I am grateful for all the great things that happened this week.

I will start off with my favorite miracle of the week! (maybe I shouldn't choose favorite miracles) But Monday morning last week we woke up extra early so I could work out good and then we had zone pday and we ran a lot there.   So Tuesday morning I wanted to go running again so we set the alarm extra early.  When the alarm went off I was literally dead.  I wanted to go back to sleep so bad and wake up at the normal time of 6:30. I haven't received too many promptings early in the morning before but when the alarm went off I really felt like we needed to go to the track.  So, we got up and as we were about to start running I heard someone say “Hey!”.   I turned around and guess who it was?? Ana Ramirez!! She is back from Salem!  I was so happy to see her!  We set up an appointment for Friday but our day ended up super crazy so it got canceled but we will see her this week. I am so excited to start back up with Ana to see the progress she has made.

Wednesday we had Missionary Leadership Council.  It was super awesome because we had Elder Brent Nielson and Elder Scott Allen from the missionary headquarters skype in our MLC.  We talked about a broadcast that we had a couple weeks ago and then they asked us some questions that the Quorum of the Twelve are thinking of changing about missionary life.  It was super cool because they asked our opinions on some stuff.  Nothing for sure is going to change but some of the things I was like...Um they are crazy if they change that rule! But time shall tell.

We had a great lesson with Melissa Arroyo and her family. We taught them the Restoration. They had a lot of questions and really took everything in that we taught them. We invited them to be baptized on a specific date but they said that they don't feel ready yet. Today we will be teaching them the plan of salvation and helping them understand that a baptismal date is like a goal.

One of our new investigators names is Gisela.  She is awesome!  We had a lesson with her on Friday. She had a lot of questions because in between our two appointments she read the introduction and all the testimonies, super awesome!  We helped answer her questions and we invited her to say the closing prayer. She was very hesitant but once we taught her how she was willing to say it.  Her prayer was so sincere it was great.  She started to cry in the prayer and after she prayed she told us that she had never felt like that before that she felt so much peace.  It was the first time that she had ever prayed out loud.

We are still on the search for more people to teach but I am so grateful for the people the Lord has given us to teach.  We have some awesome people!

This week I got to go on exchanges with Hermana Wilde.  It was fun to be back with her.  She has progressed so much!  It was great to see.

Something I learned this week is the importance of telling Heavenly Father everything that is going on.  He already knows everything that is going on and what you are thinking but when we truly pray sincerely every day He can guide us so much more.  I invite you all to pray out loud this week and really pray sincerely.  After you pray don't just get right up and move on with your day but take a minute and listen.  I promise the Lord won't waste your time. As we really seek for answers He will reveal to us all that we need to do. Heavenly Father loves YOU!

I love you too! Have a great week!

Sister Gifford

The Sisters from MLC

You know the yummy loft house cookies that you buy at the store..we made them 😋

Safe!

Hi everybody!

How is everyone doing? We are doing great here.

Great news! I am not getting transferred wooo! I am so happy. There is so much work to be done here.  Hermana Estudillo and I are staying together as sister trainer leaders.  We are picking up two new companionships of sisters and 5 of the 8 companionships will be training new missionaries.  So things are going to be pretty crazy. Over half of our zone are leaving so it’s a pretty big transfer.

We were able to find some awesome new investigators this last week.  Audrey is the one that I am super excited about.  She was a referral from the English Elders.  She has been going to a Pentecostal church for the past while and she feels like things just aren't right. She had a lot of questions about different things.  People have been telling her make sure you don't open the door for those Mormons so that has peeked her interest to see why people are telling her not to answer the door.  She was planning on coming to church but didn't make it.  But I am excited to keep working with her.

One of the investigators that came to church last week and this week is Melissa.  She is 9 years old.  Her aunt and uncle and their family are recent converts of about 2 years.  Melissa's parents aren't interested but are allowing Melissa to come to church and learn.  We have a lesson with her tonight with the Primary President. I am excited to get to teach her and her mom will also be a part of the lesson.

The other we had at church was Bianca.  She is 19 years old.  Her whole family was baptized a year ago but she decided not to.  She has never really been interested in talking to missionaries but she decided to come to church yesterday!  We weren't able to talk to her individually to ask her if we can start visiting with her individually but we have a lesson with their family later on in the week.  The rest of the family is planning of being sealed in about a month. It has been great working with them to make it to the temple.

Yoselin is doing well.  We only had one lesson with her but it was amazing because she has been reading in the Book of Mormon!  She felt like she was getting confused by jumping around reading different chapters, so she has decided to start from the introduction and read it in order.

I am so grateful for the many miracles that we are able to see every day.  I truly know that Heavenly Father is listening to every prayer. We don't always get the answer we want but he is listening and He cares. I promise!

I found a quote that I really like from President Monson.  "So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment...We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we CHOOSE a positive attitude”.

I know that we all have ups and downs but we really can choose our attitude. I have definitely have seen this in missionary work.

I love you all and hope you have a great HAPPY week!

Hermana Gifford

McMinnville ZTM- 3/4 of the missionaries are getting transferred 😮

A member gave us money to go out to eat..we were so excited to go
out...where did we end up. Los dos amigos 😅

Hermana Gifford and Hermana Estudillo