I Am In Oregon!

Holy Canole!

Hello Momma!! That’s crazy that you had to speak in church! My companions are totally fluent...and then there’s me...haha.  I try to say at least a couple things every lesson but being in Oregon has made me realize that I actually don't know any Spanish haha.

Now was that great or what to get to hear your voice! When my mission president goes, well should we call your mom I got so happy! haha i didn't say much on the phone because I started crying...Hahah you were giggling at everything he was saying you little cutie!

So the flight here was a little rough.  I was feeling super sick...and they didn't have barf bags...and we were going through terrible turbulence.  Like I didn't know it was possible to fly when it was so bad we were bouncing everywhere! Soooo...The seat next to me was the toilet.  Yes I got to throw up in the seat next to me the whole flight.  So nasty!  But I will probably never see those people again…so yolo.

Thank you for the packages mom!!  I was so happy that I had a pillow to sleep with!  And I almost opened my Christmas package...but then I pulled myself together. haha  So I will see what that is on Christmas!  

One of the mission rules here is to take a strength test! So I got to take that today.  My top two strengths are competition and woo...who would've guessed hahah.

My companions are awesome! They are also the Sister trainer leaders of the zone so they are the best of the best!  Hermana Meise is from Philadelphia (blonde) and Hermana Cardon is from Orem! They are super genuine girls! They are also super quiet so we haven't had lots of joking.  But when I can get them to laugh it makes my day haha!  They have already helped me a lot being here!

Oh momma, can you send me the recipe for Swedish pancakes please? :) If anyone wants to send me a letter like you said Sarah or Kenzie just send it to the mission office!  Then they forward it to our apartment! I don't think that I am allowed to send out the apartment address.

We get fed by members almost every night!  It’s super awesome but these wonderful Latinos fry all their food.  I am going to be so fat.  Some of the girls here have gained 20 to 30 pounds...but my companions have been here for 10 and 15 months so they're trying to lose it all so they like to wake up at 6 to get extra exercise. Its tricky waking up those extra 30 minutes but I will get used to it!

Yesterday someone let us in!  This last week no one let us in their house until yesterday. One of my companions felt prompted to go tracking in a certain area and we met a lady named Laura.  She is going through some problems and she is super interested in hearing about the church, so I hope things keeping going well! It was super cool to see how an actual lesson works!

Quick story, the first night I went out with two sisters (that aren't my trainers). We went to a couple houses and then they said, “Okay Hermana Gifford, you are in charge of this one”.  A man opened the door and starts yelling.  Like bad, saying he hated Mormons and that he never wants to see us again.  Then he comes up to me and yells, “So what you're one of them”? “What a Jehovah Witness too?”  And I said courageously as possible said,  “Actually no, we are missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints”.   And then......they all started laughing....it was a joke!!  He was a member and just messing with me.  I wanted to start crying.  I was like holy cow my first night and I get yelled at??  But it was a joke.  And I guess it helped me learned what to say when that really happens!

Oh and my area is North Salem! We are in a Spanish area that covers a huge area...There are 11 missionaries in the ward! Pretty crazy. A LOT of work that needs to be done!

I love you mom! Have a great week! Oh by the way we have a Christmas party next week so it’s possible that I don’t have p-day on Monday so you might not get an email from me til later in the week!

Hermana Gifford

There was a fire our last night in Mexico!

This was Hermana Webber for the MTC.  She was supposed to be our teacher but got moved so she was our teacher for only a week.

​The rock- This is our "moto" the scripture is D&C 6:34. we got to have a experience at the ocean

Another rock Picture

This is in the atrium in the temple.  Don't worry, pictures are allowed :)

Thanks for the decorations, mommy  :0 

​This is Hermana Meise and a family that is a potential investigator. I took the picture because it was Hermanas birthday and the moms birthday so they had us over for cake

This is our companion Christmas card lol

This is our zone

President and Sister Samuelain

Dear Brother & Sister Gifford, 

Sister Samuelian and I were so pleased to greet your missionary at the Portland airport!  Upon her arrival we had the opportunity to take her to the beautiful Portland Temple.  (Attached you will find a photo)  Your missionary will have the opportunity to attend the Portland Temple while serving here in the Oregon Salem Mission 

All letters and packages for your missionary should be sent to the Mission office listed below.  We encourage you to correspond weekly via e-mail or letter with your missionary.  We will ask that they also send you an e-mail every week on their preparation day, which typically is on Monday. If you feel there is an emergency which requires you to speak with myself or a member of our office staff, you can contact us at the address and phone number below. 

  

Oregon Salem Mission Office

700 Deborah Road

Suite 260

Newberg, Oregon 97132

(503) 487-6387

E-mail: 1986376@ldschurch.org

We thank you once again for sending your missionary to us.  We will take good care of her and know the sacred trust you place in ourselves and in the Lord.

Kind Regards,

President Michael Samuelian

Sister LuAnn Samuelian

Oregon Salem Mission

Sister Samuelian, Hermana Gifford, President Samuelian

All Missionaries arriving 12/10/14.

Hermana Gifford arrives in Oregon!

1st Trainers:  Sister Meise, Sister Gifford, Sister Cardon

Time For The Field

Holy cow Mom hahaha thanks for sending me a pillow! That is very nice of you.  I was just planning on not having one the first few nights but should´ve remembered I have the best mom in the whole entire world!

I think that I am going to be okay with weight…well not really...I am putting my 20 pounds of books in my companions luggage and then I will take it out once we get to Oregon! Thankfully her heaviest bag is only 20 pounds!

I will make sure to remember to ask my mission president about Christmas! I need to see my mommy :) We have to have a bag right at the top of our suitcase ready to go proselyte right when we get to Oregon, crazy! When you get the chance could you add Jared Vargas, Alejandro Hernandez Livera, and Luis Roberto Palma Abrto...They were my teachers here and I made them promise me to send me an invite on Facebook to their weddings haha.

Well, I have so many crazy emotions going on right now. I am so excited to go and actually do real missionary work, eat real food and start my journey! But I am also sad...The first two weeks in the MTC were not my most favorite and then I decided I needed to change my attitude. These last 4 weeks have been the most amazing spiritually blessed weeks I have ever experienced. I have absolutely loved feeling the spirit several times, basically constantly throughout the day, and I have heard it’s not the same in the field.

I also am sooo grateful for our teachers. They helped us in so many ways and always had the spirit with them. I really do feel that we got the best teachers in the whole CCM.

Friday we had meetings for 12 hours J  It was a long day, but super helpful! The meetings were all about situations that will happen in the field and how to deal with it.  It made me feel a little more prepared, maybe not the Spanish part...but doctrine! Hermana Phelps and I are super excited for our 4 hour lay over, we are bringing a bunch of pass a long cards and are ready to start spreading the gospel!

I will have my new companion for 12 WEEKS. haha that seems like such a long time, I am hoping and praying that we can work really well together.

Saturday we had our last TRC. The most insane, spiritual experience. It made me so excited for the field and to have real experiences. It opened my eyes to see how huge of trials people go through and I have gone through nothing in my life!

Sunday, the last Sunday in the CCM! Our MTC presidency meeting was by President Tenorio and he talked to us about celestial marriage, exaltation and faith. He shared an experience how his first-born baby was born while he was gone away for a work trip. His baby daughter died the next day and he never got to meet her. He explained how people would always ask him why he wasn’t so depressed about losing his first child and he would explain to them that he was married in the temple and he knows he will get to be with his daughter once again. What great faith!

Our devotional was a talk by Elder Bednar on how to become a Preach My Gospel missionary and he gave us five steps of how we can do that. Understanding that we are serving Jesus Christ, always be worthy, treasure up the words of eternal life, understand that the Holy Ghost is the ultimate and true teacher, and that teaching is much more than talking and telling. He said multiple times in his talk, "You can do this!"

For our movie night we got to watch the first presidency devotional!! Was that great or what? I loved the music. We aren’t allowed to listen to any music at the CCM so I am excited to start playing my MoTab :) Some things that I enjoyed was from Bonnie Oscarson when she said open your hear with kindness. The way to share Christmas spirit is to be generous.  I have been working really hard on being nicer to everyone.  I loved the story that Elder Christopherson shared and I really liked how President Eyring said the light of Christ shows through purity. I hope we can all have the light of Christ especially during this Christmas season!

Well I have always heard that you always either love or hate the MTC.  I LOVED it.  Easily the most spiritual experiences I have had and my testimony has been like thrown up and blown up a million times (meaning that it has been strengthened so much haha)

I am going to miss hearing gun shots...haha fireworks go off like every thirty minutes and we hear gun shots a few times a day, party in Mexico haha.

Time for me to start the real journey in Mexico! Wish me luck!

Hermana Gifford

My companion and I with the Presidency

This is our district with the Branch Presidency.  The man in the very middle is President Alvarado and he is the Branch President.  To the right is President Juarez who is the 1st counselor and on the left is President Zirker.  President Zirker is the one that gave me the pkg from Debi Martin and he works for the FBI.

This is his face of frustration because I am such a "girly-gir".  Really, it's just that all the other Hermanas are Tom-Boys.  Hahaha!

Going to miss them all!

He's 4'11".  It kills me!!!  hahaha!

Hermano Palma and I

Hermano Palma!  Such a great teacher!

This is Hermano Vargas.  He wasn't one of our main teachers, but spent a lot of time in our classroom.

I already miss her so much!  She is going to kill it in New Jersey.

For our last night all together we did Hermana face masks!  haha!

Mi companera

This isn't very missionary-like, but don't worry Mom, I'm still a Diva!  haha!

Last P-day in the MTC

Hello my wonderful mama!

How was your week?  Lots of work?  Did you get to spend some quality time with all of the Nielson’s?  Sounds like Thanksgiving was a blast!  I can´t believe that dad is taking Andrew to Hawaii those turkeys.   Anything new?  Did you get new couches in the family room? It looks like it!  Is that in the budget ;)

Okay some business! Will you please make sure that there is at least 50 dollars on my card? I am going to have to pay for another bag and we don’t get reimbursed until we get to the mission home and I only have $40 in cash.  And also I heard that the bank needs to know that I will be in Mexico and then Oregon, or else it will get declined?  I don’t know if that is right but I just want to make sure that it is all okay so that I can leave the country :)  And also I may want to send a package when I get to Oregon so you can try my Bueno Bars that we have here, but I am not sure how much it costs to send packages.

We started packing today so that is going to be pretty interesting trying to pack all by myself...I need my mommy’s help haha :)  We have to be outside of our building Monday night/Tuesday morning at 2 am...to head to the airport, even though our flight isn’t until 6:45...they just want to make sure we don´t miss our flight haha!  I am so excited to be in Oregon!  It’s crazy, I’ve been looking at the weather that its like 39 degrees where as it’s 70 degrees everyday here.  It’s going to be pretty chilly!  

I am SO excited to eat real American food!  Ahhh I think I have lost about 10 pounds but I will gain it all back at the airport haha.  Mom, thank you very much for the dear elder!  I got it this last week, that was very nice of you :)  So I think I have that white t-shirt that has little flowers around the neck that’s just a simple shirt?   Could you send me that and if I have any other plain colored shirts like that please?  Turns out that I for the most part wear a lot nicer shirts than everyone!  If you can’t send it right away that’s fine because I probably want to wear them a lot until the summer.

So my companion’s cousin was serving in our mission and she said that the sisters don’t ride bikes.  If you ever come across a navy pencil skirt that would be great!  All of my skirts are super flowy and I wish I would have brought a pencil skirt!  But its not a necessity so if you don’t find one then that’s okay!

One last matter of business haha, mom am I going to be able to Skype you on Christmas?? I know you work but I hope there is some way that I will get to talk to you!

Today was a good week! Nothing too special.  I got sick after Thanksgiving, darn it haha.  I guess it’s good that I just stick to the salads!  Saturday we got to go to TRC again.  We taught a 16-year-old girl named Jessica that lives just a block from the CCM.  She was baptized four years ago with her family. We talked about things going on in her life and she told us that her dad has stopped going to church and drinking so her mom has kicked him out of the house. There have been a lot of problems going in the family and she told us that she prays every night that her dad will change. She had such an amazing spirit, she wants to serve a mission one day and it was so clear that she cares so much about her family. We taught her the first lesson and how our biggest goal in life is to return with our families. We gave her some specific scriptures to read and pray about. The spirit was so strong.  I loved the experience getting to talk to someone that had real problems. Pray for Jessica’s dad that his heart will be softened.

Saturday night our teacher Hermano Hernandez was leaving for the night and we told him that he needed to ask a girl out on a date. He was all hesitant and then ended up sharing a super cool story with us. He was dating a girl and decided it was time to propose to her. He bought the ring and was on his way to propose.  On the way to propose he had a very strong prompting that he needed to go the temple and do a session.  He tried to ignore it because he wanted to go propose but it kept coming.  So he went and did a session.  When he was in the temple he had a specific prompting tell him that the girl he was about to propose to was not his wife.  He was devastated because he thought he was going to marry her.  He went and told the girl and she was really upset of course.  A few months later that girl married someone else and over the last few month she has become anti-Mormon and drinks and parties all the time.  I am grateful for the spirit and the promptings we can receive!

Sunday we watched a devotional of Elder Holland. He told us that we need to come home with at least one convert and that should be us.  Be converted isn’t just a one step thing. We should always be converting ourselves coming closer to Christ.

Tuesday we had our last Tuesday night devotional. It was from Elder Reyes of the seventy.  He talked to us about dignity and that with our companions we should be one in heart and one in mind.  Hermana Phelps and I have been working really well together.  I got asked to lead the music in the devotional...Every person is at this devotional....and I have never led music in my life...but I said yes...haha I practiced a ton so I didn’t look like a total fool! Well we were singing “Called to Serve” and I was leading just looking out with crowd...and I made eye contact with an Hermana in my district and she was laughing her head off at me...and then it made me smile...and then...it messed me off and I was leading totally off...and I am pretty sure that I never got back on haha. but now I know how to somewhat lead some music!

Yesterday we have to go the reception center to pick a thing of our itinerary but we needed our passports.  Hermana Phelps could not find her passport anywhere.  We ended up missing some classes and looked through all her things over and over for about two hours.  We went and talked to some people in charge of that area and told her she was going to need to go to the embassy and she wouldn’t be able to leave for a few weeks.  We said a prayer and then looked again…and nothing.  So we went back and they wrote down all her information to set up an appointment at the embassy.  They told us to go back and look one more time.  When we got back to our casa we said another prayer. We started looking through our closet and there was her passport right on her dresser that we had searched multiple times! Our prayers were answered!

I heard that we email again on Monday to tell you our exact flight schedule? And then someone said that we getting calling cards at the airport?  And then we email once we get to Oregon?  Who knows if any of that is right but we will see!  I am so grateful for the experiences I have had in the CCM!  The spirit is so amazing and I feel very blessed that I get to feel it multiple times a day!

A scripture that I like from one of our devotionals is 1 Nephi 13:37, lets all endure to the end :)

Lots of Love!

Hermana Gifford

We had to take pictures with all the people that arrived Oct. 29th....had to put the glasses on to look smart.

Hermana West and I

Our district has gotten supper close.  We decided we're a family....the Donde family!  hahaha!

​Here are some of the cooks...Alejandra and Rey David (king david) they have noticed that all I ever eat is salads so sometimes they sneak me ice cream :) 

The lovely lady in the middle is a teacher here.She is hilarious and always talks to me about fashion haha :) 

Thanks for the letter Mommy :)