Fall is Here

Hello hello!

I hope everyone is doing just dandy.  Fall is comin’ in quick in Oregon.  I love it.

We had a great week.  Happy Birthday to Kenzie tomorrow! I don't have her email so someone tell her for me please!

Oh before I forget, we get to go to the temple and do a session next week on Tuesday!  It’s possible that Tuesday will be our P-day so if I don't write on Nonday that is why :)

I will start off with Rose this week. Tuesday we got a call from Rose's aunt and she was panicking.  She said Carlos (Chayo's/Rose’s) boyfriend and Jasmin got in a car crash.  Come to the ER and bring the Elders so they can give her a blessing.  We were so scared!  We had no idea how bad it was.  They were going through an intersection and a car flew by and hit them.  It hit on Jasmin's side. Their car is definitely totaled.  They left with nothing much more than some scratches and bruises. When we saw Jasmin she said, "I didn't die because I just got baptized!"  Someone could have really gotten hurt so we are grateful that she is okay.  Long story short Carlos went to jail but is already out.  We were hoping to get him and Chayo married within two weeks but looks like it will be the end of November now.

Yesterday we had a great temple trip!  We had this planned a few weeks ago so we were determined to get some investigators to go visit the temple.  Monse and Juan came.  Monse has been a member her whole life but fell away when she was about 16.  Her "husband" is not a member.  They came to the temple with their little son.  We watched a great video on eternal families and after the video Juan expressed how much he loved it and how he wants to change and spend more quality time with his family.  They haven't been to open to the missionaries coming over so we really hope this will change and we can go see them more often.

Lydia and her daughter Adelene also came to the temple!  This is the second time that Lydia has gone to the temple.  She told us how last time she went to the temple she had a dream of what all the inside looked like in the temple and she got to walk through.  As she walked through she saw angles singing inside the temple. She has had some pretty amazing dreams.  She has a desire to be baptized but her husband is really holding her back.

We had zone training meeting this last week and it was focused on finding. Finding new investigators in McMinville is super different from Salem.  In Salem there are millions of Hispanics walking on the streets so we spent a lot of time walking.  Here there are not as many people out on the streets so we do a lot of area book finding.  But in our zone training meeting we talked about how some investigators will come to us, and one of the ways is through walking.  Hermana Wilde and I have decided that we will take 30 minutes a day to walk and with faith the Lord will put those prepared in our path.  Finding is something we really need to improve on.  Our goal is to talk to 6 unplanned people every day, give out 2 Books of Mormon to people on the street every day, and of course asking referrals from everybody :)  I know there are sooo many people here in our area that are waiting to find the gospel, we need to do our part and search for them!

That basically wraps up the big details from this week!  What a wonderful blessing it is to be a missionary and representative of the Lord!  The scripture I am going to memorize this week is Moroni 7:46-47.  We are nothing without charity.  One of the best things as a missionary is looking for small little ways to serve others.  This week reach out and serve someone you wouldn't normally.  I love you all very much.  Have a splendid week!

Love always,

Hermana Gifford

This is Sister McCarther from St. George. She knows a lot of people
that I would play with and she is best friends with Gentrie Hansen
that I went to school with! Small world.