MAWM

Hello hello!

It is a beautiful spring day in Oregon. I hope that you have been enjoying the spring time in Utah...if its warm?

To start of with good news! Oscar came to church and is still on date!  We taught him the word of wisdom this last week.  Luckily not too many 11 year olds have problems with the word of wisdom.  We asked him if he had any concerns and he said, “Well I am a little scared for this Sunday.”   We asked him why.  He thought that last Sunday was April 12th. Haha.  I guess that 11 years olds don't check their calendars too often.  But then we pulled out a calendar and showed him he still had a couple weeks to learn.   He was all excited again!

This week we got a text from Maria Cruz telling us thank you for your time but I am going to stay with our beliefs.  A big bummer because last week she told us that she felt the Book of Mormon is true.  We have been praying to know if it just isn't her time. It's all about the Lord's timing :)

We had a lesson with Maria Ortega last Monday.  It was pretty good but she is still a bit confused.  We were explaining the great apostasy and then she asked us "so you are the apostasy?"   She thought since we didn't have the priesthood that meant we were the apostasy.  Since the priesthood still isn't very clear she doesn't see the point of being baptized again.  She canceled our lesson on Friday so we hope we will see her in the next couple of days.

These next couple of weeks we will be doing lots of finding. We dropped a few other people this week.  I haven't written much about them because they were never progressing much.  So basically our only progressing investigator right now is Oscar.  Please pray that Oscar will be able to feel support from Heavenly Father to be baptized and that we can find prepared people!  We are going to be talking to a lot of new people and I am excited to see who the Lord has prepared to hear His gospel!

We got to go the tulip festival today!  I am pretty sure it’s famous?  Not really sure, just got the news that we were going haha.  But it is over 40 acres of tulips. Super beautiful!

Wasn't Women’s Conference AMAZING?  Socorro came to that and we really hope she felt the amazing spirit.  All about families.  Isn't crazy how the world now days thinks families aren't important? The Savior taught His gospel centered to families.  I am so grateful to know that I can be with all of you forever and that I will be able to have my own family one day for eternity.

I am SO excited for conference!  I invite you to take notes and pray that you can receive answers to prayers and feel of the Spirit as you’re watching conference. We are so blessed to get to hear from the prophet and apostles! I love you all so much!

He has risen and He lives!

Love,

Hermana Gifford

Hermana Meise and Hermana Gifford

Ten Virgin skit

Herro....

Hi Mami,

How is everything going? Sounds like it was a fun birthday party for Jack and Ethan! Happy Birthday to Jack on Thursday! It has been a great week in Oregon.

Most exciting! Oscar is on date for April 12th!  In district meeting we talked about the importance of praying with faith and having faith in your investigators.  Later that day we got to have a lesson with Oscar.  We talked about the 10 commandments and it was an awesome lesson.  After we asked him if he had still been praying about baptism.  He said yes but his concern was that if he got baptized his personality would change.  Oscar is 11 and the most shy little buddy I have ever met.  He has a speech problem where he can't say his R's.  Luckily we have found a way to crack him and loosen him up a bit! Now he is a blabbermouth.  Haha!  Sweetest little guy ever.  

Anyway so we remembered what we had talked about in district meeting about praying with faith, so we said, “Okay Oscar, let’s pray right now and ask if you should be baptized April 12th and we know that you can receive your answer right now.”  He went into his little shy zone and said, “I am too shy to say the prayer.”  So we said, “Okay Oscar, we will say a prayer, and then you get to pray after and ask if you should be baptized April 12th.”  So we said a prayer and after he said a super sincere prayer asking Heavenly Father if he should get baptized.  After the prayer we asked him how he felt.  His response was, “I keep feeling stronger and stronger that Heavenly Father wants me to baptized.”  So he is officially on date!  Please keep Oscar in your prayers that he can continue to feel the confirmation to his prayers that baptism is the first step to take to follow Heavenly Father's plan.

So remember Maria Cruz? Last week I said how she ran away from us...?  Well we had two awesome lessons with her this week!  She is doing awesome.  She told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true because she prayed about it and she felt peace in her heart as she prayed.  She really does seem sincere; we just aren't quite sure why she hid from us.  The commitment we left her was to pray if she should be baptized April 26th.  Keep her in your prayers as well.  She has a lot of potential!

We weren't able to meet with Maria Ortega this last week but we have a lesson with her in about 45 minutes!  I am excited to see how that goes.  We are planning on teaching her the Restoration and showing her the restoration video because we feel that could really help her understand the first vision. Keep all the Maria's in your prayers please :)

So as missionaries we are supposed to do 2-10 hours of community service every week.  We found the super awesome place called 50+ Center.  It’s a center for people 50+ to go and do arts and crafts activities and such and we are going to help volunteer.  I am super excited to start that this week! I love old people :)

Well that about sums it up! The gospel can truly change lives, its change mine right before my eyes! I l love you all!

Love,

Hermana Gifford

So for the relief society anniversary the ward is doing a play of the 10 virgins. And we are acting in it! And I have to speak in it... in Spanish...Haha it's this Tuesday I will let you know how it goes!

Don't worry guys I am getting really good at cooking. Here is my gourmet omelet.

Hellookoo

Hello my loved ones...

How is everyone doing? I hope that everyone had a great week!

So the big news is that I have been transferred to Hayesville and my companion is...Hermana Aubrey! Yay! I was with her 3 weeks prior to the transfer in the trio. We are about 10 minutes away from my old area, so not too far away.  I am so happy that I get to stay in the ward here. There is a lot more that I want to accomplish here :)

Hermana Aubrey is one of the most genuine, nicest people I have ever met. She has been out for a little over a year. All of her companions have been natives or fluent so she has been able to rely on her companions.  This is going to be a great time to learn a lot of Spanish!  We will be able to learn a ton together!

Our main progressing investigator right now is Maria Cruz.  We have had 3 lessons with her and she has read out of the Book of Mormon every time. She has a desire to learn more of the Book of Mormon and learn why it's important to have the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  She told us that she wants to go see the Portland temple this next week so we are really hoping that we can go with her so she can see where she can have her family forever!

Update with Socorro.  Oh Socorro...She told us this week that she doesn't want to get baptized anytime soon. It is pretty crazy because her husband that is a recent convert is like exploding with faith. This is my first experience like this as a missionary.  I really felt like she was ready to be baptized and I have never prayed or fasted for someone so hard in my life. So basically I was expecting for her to just get baptized because of this.  But that isn't how things always work :) Now isn't the time for Socorro but I know Heavenly Father has a plan for her and one day she will have an open heart to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had a referral that we had tried to contact a few times named Griselda but weren't able to.  Wednesday, we went to try to contact her one last time but she wasn't home. The Elders that referred her said that she was super interested.  We went back to the car and prayed of where we needed to go. After we prayed there was a cute Hispanic mom walking down the road holding a baby and holding the hand of a three year old.  We hopped out of the car to go talk to her and I asked her what her name was...and it was Griselda! We were able to have one lesson with her this past week. We are not sure how far it will go with her but the Lord gives us small little miracles every single day!

Hermana Aubrey and I were able to teach the youth Sunday school class.  We talked about the Atonement.  I just wanted to smoosh it in there face so much. Hahah!  If only I had realized how amazing the Atonement is just 6 months ago.  It's crazy how much Satan is aiming for the youth but a lot of times we don't realize that it is Satan and that we just want to be little rebels.  I am so grateful now to know how amazing and infinite the Atonement is!

I also was thinking yesterday how amazing our family is.  I feel like the luckiest baby sister in the world.  Not only do I have amazing parents, but my siblings are my best friends!  I just want to give you all a bear hug because I get to be with you rug rats for eternity!

One morning for personal study I was reading in Alma 34 thinking how this week was a little difficult, and then I was reading how important it is to always be patience through our hard times.  No matter where or when we are in life we are going to have difficult days/weeks because that is part of Heavenly Father's plan to learn.  But as we use the Atonement we can get through anything AND with a positive attitude! :) No matter what anyone of you are going through, please always remember that our Savior Jesus Christ suffered everything tiny thing we go through.  Through Him we can feel peace and joy. He is there waiting for us its just a matter if we let Him in our lives.

Ah being a missionary is so awesome! I love spreading His love every day!  I hope you all have a great week and utilize the Atonement more in your lives. It’s never too late :)

Love,

Hermana Gifford

Greg is healing up quite well :)

​Goodbye Hermana Meise :( she is only ten minutes away so we see her every night at dinner but....Hahah I am sooo grateful to have had the most amazing trainer ever. I know with no doubt Heavenly Father put me with her for many reasons.

The ward council came up with a vision! It is so amazing to see the ward wanting to start working with the missionaries! I wrote it out and put it on my wall because I got a little excited about it :)

Yo Yo

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week with lots of smiles! First off happy birthday to baby Abe today! And happy birthday to Hanah and Skalla later this week! I love you all and hope you have great birthdays!

It has been a great week! The biggest news is that I am getting transferred. I am actually super surprised.  I was expecting to stay and that Hermana Meise would leave since she has been in North Salem for 8 months. I am pretty sad about leaving.  I love North Salem.  Hermana Aubrey is going back to Hayesville, so our two areas will be split back again. There is a chance that I will go to Hayesville with Hermana Aubrey and I really hope that is the case because then I will get to stay in the ward!

It has been such a great opportunity to serve with Hermana Meise.  So, how they do transfers here is that you get a call Saturday night and they tell you whether you are staying or leaving.  If you are leaving all you do is pack all your stuff up but you have no idea where you are going or who your new companion will be.  Then transfer meeting is Tuesday (tomorrow) and you find out where you are going and who your new companion is.  I've been a little anxious the last couple days to see where I am going but we will find out tomorrow.  I am a normal missionary now! Woo-hoo!

We got to see Rogelio again this last week!  He read some in the Book of Mormon and said that there is so much that he wants to learn.  The next time he is visited, the sisters will put him on date for baptism.  He is very prepared. He has told us multiple times that he is looking for the truth but has never felt like he has found it.  He has so many questions of why there are so many churches and if there is a true one out there.  I am pretty bummed that I won't get to continue teaching him, but all that matters is that he enters the waters of baptism so the door to the celestial kingdom opens! :)

Margarita!  Margarita is the 17-year-old girl that her grandpa passed away that was a member.  We got to visit her and talk about the Atonement.  She is amazing.  She truly takes everything in and talks to us how it applies to her. She went to mutual with a girl in the ward and loved it!  She was planning on coming to church with us but her family went out of town for a last minute vacation.  We will be visiting her tonight and talking about the plan of salvation.  She is such a special girl!  She is in the North Salem area as well so I won't be able to teach her again.   :(

We were able to see Socorro this last week.  We had talked with her about getting baptized March 1st (this last Sunday).  When we saw her this last week she hadn't prayed and she told us she didn't remember what she read about. It’s a bummer because her husband that was baptized just a month ago has such a desire to keep learning. We are not giving up on her because we know that one day she can be with her husband for eternity!  If I stay in Hayesville I will get to keep visiting her!  Yay!  Please keep Socorro in your prayers.

Now...the story I have been waiting to tell...So after we had visited Socorro we were feeling a little down because we thought she was going to be ready for baptism but we thought, there must be somewhere Heavenly Father needs us now!  We all felt that we should go visit the Chavez family who are less active. The dad let us in and told us that he could talk to us for a while.  

As we walked in their son was holding a dog (pretty small brown dog) that was barking his head off at us.  I didn't think anything about it and we went in another room to start the lesson.  We were talking to him for a minute when we heard the dog barking super loud.  He came running around the corner bolting at us showing his teeth.  For some reason this dang perrito felt the need to come for me haha.  He took a nice bite out of my leg.  Unfortunately he didn't just let go.  He did that shaking his head thing that dogs do when they bite down on something. Haha!  It was one of the sharpest worst pains I have had.  I really, really didn't want to make a big deal out of it, because it was rare that Brother Chavez let us in his house.  He ripped the dog off of me and took him to another room.  

I tried sooo hard not to cry and held it in.  He kept apologizing and I tried to make it seem like it was no big deal.  I was wearing tights so all you could see was the hole from his teeth.  Fortunately no one could see because of my tights but I could feel the blood running down my leg.  I was thinking that I didn't know if I could sit through a whole lesson it was throbbing super bad.  (I know that I sound dramatic but I am a girl that just got bit by a dog so I have an excuse to be dramatic haha!)

After, I was thinking that I had a super peaceful feeling that we needed to stay and teach a lesson. We read 2nd Nephi 26:24-25 with him.  The Spirit filled the whole room. We talked about how it is never too late to change and use the Atonement. He told us that he isn't ready to come back to church but that he wants to start praying and reading the scriptures.

The Spirit was so amazing in that room and I know that Hermano Chavez could feel it. I know that Heavenly Father helped me forget about the dog for a little while so that we could have a great lesson with him. Oh and the dog didn't have a collar on and the bite swelled up to a baseball and pus was coming out so I for sure thought I had rabies but we checked and he got his shots. :)

It is such a great blessing to be a missionary and share my testimony every single day. The Lord blesses us every day sometimes we just need to look for it.  I hope that you have a great week and I challenge you to see look for how the Lord blesses you every day! Have a great week!

Love always,

Hermana Gifford

Me, Hermana Aubrey, Hermana Meise

​I was attacked by an ugly perrito...The picture doesn't look bad...haha but believe me..

​I was having a bad hair day...Hermana Meise cut my hair... haha yolo