Week 60 (12/16/2019) Week 61

Dear y'all,

I got tired of subject lines, so this is the story of week 61. At least, I think it is week 61. I am trusting the Elder from my MTC district who has been titling his weekly letter by the numerical week since the beginning. Hypothetically he hasn't lost track. (Editor's aka Mom's note. You might notice the difference in numbers. I started counting AFTER the MTC. Good example of why calendars throughout the ages were different I suppose.)

Anyways, it is crazy that it is almost Christmas! This is the last time you will hear from me until then, because our p-day is being moved to Christmas Eve and Christmas next week so that nobody gets upset at us for knocking on their door Christmas morning ;) and the week after that is transfers (on New Year's Eve) so this is my last Monday p-day for a couple of weeks. We are making the most of it by going bowling, though. Should be fun. 

This week was jam-packed. We made gingerbread houses with the Dinsdale's for FHE, mine didn't win the competition, despite my beautiful interior. You can't see it very well in the picture, but I put a bed complete with pillows and night-stand inside of my house. I broke it four or five times trying to cut out the windows, though. 

Tuesday we had a lesson with a member that just got recently married and moved into the ward. We hope to be teaching him and his family more! We also had a good lesson. That, to me, is the epitome of...I can't decide what it is the epitome of, actually, but it was good. When we first tracted into this woman, she told us she was busy, but that we should come back the next day. The next day, same thing happened. The third time we went by, she said that she didn't have a lot of time, but she did want to hear our message, so she let us sit down and share it. What I thought was cool about her was that she wasn't exactly looking for religion or anything like that, but she was willing to let us share our message. I wish more people would be like that!

We were on exchanges on Wednesday, I brought Elder Boam to my area. Exchanges are never my favorite, they just throw a wrench in the regular schedule, but it was good. We taught a powerful lesson to a part-member family about how we cannot procrastinate becoming active in following Christ, because by the time our kids hit the teenage rebellious stage, it is too late to start trying to teach them Christ's gospel, but if you raise up a child in the way he should go he will not depart from it. 

We got the windshield on our car replaced this week, which would be totally normal, except that our TiWi unit, which is a machine that monitors and reports on our driving to help us be safe, unstuck from the new windshield, so we had to unplug it for a couple of days. And I am not going to say I had fun driving without it, but I might have had fun driving without it. 

Thursday we had the opportunity to hand out bikes at a disadvantaged elementary school, which was super cool. Most of the kids were really excited to get their bikes, it was Christmas come early! I was adjusting the height of the bike seat, and it was always funny when I moved it down as low as it could go and their feet still couldn't touch the ground. We just had to tell them they would grow into it!

We also had interviews with President on Thursday. Because we were there at lunchtime, Sister Hewlett wanted to buy us all lunch, and Elder Harward and I got to pick it all up. 11 orders from Cain's smells really good in one van! After interviews we had to drive up to Kingwood to go to the doctor. Elder Harward twisted his ankle on p-day, and the mission wanted him to get x-rays, so between driving up, the actual appointment, and driving back, that took most of the rest of the day. 

Friday we went to district council in Broadway, and then drove all the way across our zone to go on exchanges in Baytown. We stopped to get gas, and someone called out of their car to us. It was a man whose aunt is a member of the church, so he is aware of the missionaries. He really wanted us over at his house, we explained that other missionaries cover his area (we were out in Baytown at this point) but he insisted that it had to be us. So we are going on Friday. That should be a fun experience. 

Saturday we were still on exchanges, I got to get my biking out of my system. We had a couple of good strong lessons. I wish I could just teach all day long, I love teaching. We made it back to our area in time for the ward Christmas Party, and Elder Harward and I repped our Christmas Llama Sweaters. We looked pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. 

It was a long week, it was a good week, S__ is preparing for baptism on the 25th of January, in case anyone was wondering. 

Church is true, the sun is shining, the tank is clean....the tank is clean?!

Love,

Elder DeFord

Week 59 (12/9/2019) You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Dear y'all,

I guess when I come up with a subject line like that I am actually supposed to have a reason for it. But my mom already stole "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas", so I had to come up with something else. It is definitely beginning to look like Christmas in the apartment, we have a big Christmas tree and a little one. Outside, though, it is in the 70's and beautiful. This week has been lovely weather. It'll still probably be another month before it gets cold here. 

This week ended up being a lot of meetings. Tuesday was our Mission Leadership Council, so we talked about how to help the mission. One of our big goals was to baptize 100 people before the end of the year, and we are still very short, so they are trying for a big push. Another big announcement, and I guess we can link this with the Grinch  is that beginning January 1st, we will only be allowed to eat with members on weekdays if there is an investigator or less active there. So I will probably be losing all those mission pounds I gained, which I guess is a positive. 

I guess I should go back to Monday. Monday nights we have FHE with the YSA, and this week we did a white elephant. I ended up with a jar of dried carolina reapers, the hottest pepper in the world. So what do you think Elder Hardward and I did? That's right, and yes, it hurt. They sure do burn. 

Thursday morning we had to plan our district training for Friday, we decided we really needed to talk about using and studying Preach My Gospel. After we got back from planning, we helped decorate a members yard for Christmas. Once we were done with all of that, we were ready to hit the ground running. Something really cool, one woman answered the door and said "oh, hi elders". Now, people don't usually know who the elders are, so we were quite curious. It turns out that she had met with missionaries 20 years ago, but still remembered and felt good towards the church. She said that she was happy with the church she is going to right now, but that she had some friends and her son that didn't like her church, so she would bring them to our church long enough to get them assimilated, and then she would let them attend with us while she went back to her congregation. Hey, it works for me! It was pretty cool. 

Friday we taught District training, starting at 9 and not getting done until about 5, blegh. A lot of teaching, driving, and good stuff like that. It went well, though. 

Saturday was a baptism for one of the other companionships in Pasadena. Since the church is in our area, we walked around the neighborhood inviting people to the baptism. Nobody wanted to come, but we did meet a YSA who said he wanted to come to our FHE, so that was sweet. 

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional was excellent, if you haven't had the chance to watch it I am sure it is recorded somewhere. First Presidency Christmas Devotional

Merry Christmas! 

Hope y'all have a white Christmas, not much chance of that here. 

Love,

Elder DeFord

Week 58 (12/2/2019) Gobble Gobble

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had to think about if it actually was Thanksgiving this week. But yep, it was. It was a great week, though. 

We worked a lot with S__ this week. It has been amazing to see the spirit come into her life, she is really starting to understand that she is a daughter of God with infinite worth. I have loved seeing the self-worth increase with an understanding of true doctrine and identity. I love that we know we have a Father in Heaven who loves us! 

We had the opportunity to minister to some of our zone this week. It really emphasized to me the importance of good communication in a companionship, well, in any relationship, really. Most problems can be resolved by just talking through them. 

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, we had a turkey bowl in the morning. My team lost every game, which was probably my fault, but it was a good time. We had our big turkey dinner with the Dinsdales, and then joined them for Holiday bowling. I was bad there, but only hurt myself because there wasn't any teams ;) maybe I'll be good at the whole sports thing one day. But I still have a good time, so it all works out. It was a full day, and I was a full missionary. Nothing like good Southern cooking!

We had exchanges with the Assistants on Saturday, but between planning for the zone and MLC (mission leader conference) , and service, we only ended up prozelyting for about an hour. It was a great hour, though, we got to talk to a lot of people who were outside enjoying our 65 degree winter weather. It is amazing how even just in a couple of minutes, accompanied with scripture or prayer, someone's whole demeanor can change. 

Well, I'm going to cut this short. If you have problems with the length of emails, please contact our customer support office at adam.deford@missionary.org

Still warm in Texas,

Elder DeFord

Week 57 (11/25/2019) Pre-Thanksgiving

Dear y'all,

Dear y'all,

This email really doesn't have anything to do with Thanksgiving, but I just needed a subject line. 

It has been a great week, I could truly see the Lord's hand working with us! I'll just share a few highlights. 

So Tuesday we got back after transfers, and went to do visits with the YSA (Young Single Adults). Nobody was home, but we tried back by later in the week and found one of the people! He had been baptized in the last year, but stopped attending church, so we invited him to attend the YSA with us. 

Wednesday we did some service in the morning, I had a whale of a time smashing up a concrete slab with a little hand hammer. Got all of that pent up aggression out. 

Our biggest miracle day was Thursday. We spent most of the day, from waking up until 5:30 p.m., doing administrative stuff, planning for the zone, writing the zone vision, planning exchanges, leadership training...blegh. but finally, we got out for our Hour of Power, which is at the time when the Apostles gather in the temple and pray for missionaries. So we take advantage of their prayers! To kick off the Christmas season, we were going to find with Light the World...on Mistletoe St! Yes, that is an actual street here. Right as we were heading back to the car, we felt like we should knock on this house that already had a bunch of Christmas decorations up. We ended up meeting H__, who signed up immediately for Light the World and accepted a Book of Mormon and wanted us to come back. Super cool!

Thursday night we also had a dinner with the D__'s, who are a super sweet family that are returning to church. We set a date with their kids to be baptized on the 7th of December! It is crunch time to get them ready, but the family is so sweet!

On Friday, we had a few seconds before dinner, so we just knocked a door real close to the family we were eating with. A lady answered the door and rapid fire said that she was about to head out, but she would really like to hear our message when she and her husband could be there....okay! Usually we have to cajole to get that out of people! 

The Lord's hand is all over the place, and I am so thrilled to be in His work. I'll cut this short now, but maybe I'll make up for it being short by actually sending pictures. 

Happy Thanksgiving, and you know what, Merry Christmas!

Elder DeFord

Week 56 (11/19/2019) "Hold My Scepter"

It has been a crazy week!

I went to my first Hibachi grill on Monday night. It was one of the places where they cook the food

 in front of you, complete with big burst of fire, flicking rice for you to catch, onion ring volcanoes, 

it was awesome. They definitely know how to put on a show. 

We knew we were going to be dog tired and busy all week, so on Tuesday we just grinded trying

 to get something done in our area. 

Wednesday we had Elder Kyle S Mckay of the Seventy visit us. Usually when a general authority 

visits the mission, they will hold a Mission Leadership Council, which is all the zone leaders and

 sister training leaders, and then Zone Conferences with all of the missionaries. So Wednesday 

was our MLC, and it was phenomenal. My subject line comes from one of my favorite quotes 

from Elder Mckay, he is hilarious. He was talking about God doing His work through us, and 

said "sometimes I think God uses us just to prove a point, like 'hold my scepter, watch this!

 I'm going to use -Kyle" it was super funny. But joking aside, he taught very powerfully. He 

talked about how we can correct better, and what we could do to help the mission. 

We had our big zone conference with Elder Mckay on Friday. Elder Ewell had to conduct the 

meeting, poor guy. He isn't too fond of public speaking, so conducting a tri-zone zone conference

 (about 80 missionaries) with a Seventy there was not his absolute favorite thing to do. The 

conference was great, though. President and Sister Hewlett addressed us, followed by Elder and 

Sister Mckay. I think that both Sister Hewlett and Sister McKay taught some really good things 

about our identity. President talked about understanding with our heart, and the spiritual power 

that that gives us. Elder Mckay talked a lot about personal conversion. One thing I loved is 

that he said that our job is to bring people to Christ, He will get them in His church. The

 Book of Mormon is true, but it doesn't change lives. It brings people to Christ, and He changes lives.

 I loved his emphasis on Christ and His role. And it clears up our role, as well! We, principally,

 have to build faith in Jesus Christ, both in potential members and in missionaries. Increased 

faith leads to repentance, a desire to receive the covenant of baptism, and so forth. It was a

 really good way of looking at it. 

Saturday we were having breakfast with a member because Elder Ewell was going to get

 transferred and wanted to say good-bye. Unfortunately, Elder Ewell was only a couple of 

bites into his breakfast taco before he had to excuse himself and go puke it back up. We got 

home and he slept for 8 hours straight. I'm glad he got his rest, but I was going stir crazy. 

You can only read the scriptures for so long! (For me it was 90 pages before the words

 were swimming and I was tired of the Hebrews). Honestly, not doing anything is probably 

the hardest thing to do. 

Sunday is when the transfer news started rolling in. Elder Ewell and I had made some 

predictions, but we were pretty much wrong across the board. Four of our zone leaders 

were released from that responsibility, and President put Spanish Zone leaders in one 

of the zones instead of English. Even though we knew a lot, we were still anxious to hear 

how everything shaked out. 

We had a ward council with our Stake President, he was providing some training for how 

the changes in the bishops responsibilities affect all of the other organizations. We then 

had ward conference, and he talked about a lot of the same things. It was really good to 

see how things are supposed to work out. There was lots of picture taking with Elder Ewell 

as he said goodbye to everyone. 

Monday morning we found out the details. Elder Ewell is going to Vidor, which is what he 

wanted (since we didn't think us staying together for 3 transfers was feasible, although we 

wouldn't have minded) and I am getting Elder Harward as my new companion here, which 

was my ideal as well. So we were blessed in those regards!

Bishop took us out to celebrate Elder Ewell's last day. It was super funny, they were bringing 

out the food, and as they came out with it we heard a big clatter, and I looked down at my

 feet, and there was my steak, right there. Well, when my replacement steak came out,

 it was delicious! 

For our people, we have a lot of great stuff going on. We met with S__ and her family this 

last while, her job situation has changed so that she can come to church again! We watched 

the first Book of Mormon video with her, she was pretty excited about those and subscribed

 to the youtube channel. 

The D__'s are a sweet family that is returning to church. The first time we visited them, their 

kids didn't know what a missionary was, and was confused at our names and titles. When we 

went by this week, their son looked through the window and yelled "the Elders are here!". One 

of the kids also said the closing prayer. I love watching the gospel enter a home!

I am doing well, and time is flying even though every day seems like it was a year ago!

Howdy from the Texas shores,

Elder DeFord

Week 55 (11/11/2019) Texas Temple

11/11/2019

Dear everyone,

Time is just flying by, so I could try a play by play of my week, but honestly I probably can't remember most of it. It has been super good, though. 

I was on exchanges with Elder Christianson in Broadway on Wednesday, we probably biked a good 30 miles, at one point we spent about 45 minutes straight biking. My thighs were burning just a tad after that one, but it was a lot of fun. 

We had a monsoon this week. I suppose not really, but bad enough that water was coursing down my windshield and even with my wipers going full blast I couldn't see the road. Most of our roads had some standing water, but it all drained off once the rain quit. That is the thing here-it rains super hard, but the water doesn't tend to stick around when the storm is over. Even during the storm, it isn't really standing water--it is all running for the drains, it just gets replaced as fast as it drains off. 

We had dinner with a really cool family that is returning to activity. They welcomed us into their home, and their kids are really funny. They are just a sweet, good family. We are going to be working with the kids to get them baptized. 

We weren't going to have time for a full exchange with our Baytown Elders, so we did a blitz in their area on Friday. I was reunited with my son (i.e. Adam trained Elder Larcom), Elder Larcom, and we had a good time. We were supposed to go help move and set up a table, but we got to the house about ten minutes early. I asked Elder Larcom if he had the faith to find someone new to teach in that time, he responded affirmatively, and two doors later we had found a family that invited us back. We were supposed to pick up Elder Ewell and Elder Gregory at 5...but I was in the middle of putting the table together. It all worked out, though. 

On Saturday we went with C__, our recent convert, to the temple for the first time! He had the opportunity to participate in baptisms, and he was just grinning the whole time. It was a sweet experience, and then we stopped at the Houston Bishop's storehouse to help out the YSA  (Young Single Adult) councilor, who drove us to the temple. 

That night we had the ward's Thanksgiving social--a little early, but it was good! Have to start thanksgiving early so I have room to fit it all in! 

On Sunday we went to visit someone for the bishop, and as we were walking away from their apartment, someone getting out of their car called out "our y'all LDS?". We talked to him, it turns out that he grew up in the church but has had a rough time since then. It is cool how the Lord puts us in the path of the people we need to talk to. 

It has been a sweet week, and this next week is going to be a blur. Elder Kyle S Mckay is coming to the mission, we have a leadership meeting with him on Wednesday, and then a big mission conference on Friday. I'm playing the piano, so hopefully I don't have to participate in any other ways. Elder Ewell, poor guy, got stuck conducting. 

And next week is transfers, so Tuesday is p-day, and probably a new companion. 

Happy Fall, y'all,

Elder DeFord

Week 54 (11/4/2019) Texas Halloween

I can hardly believe that Halloween was still this week, it seems like it was absolutely forever ago. Nope, four whole days. Still seems like an eternity, though. 

On Monday we had our FHE with the YSA, we were all carving pumpkins. I had to make mine gospel oriented, see attached picture, it was a lot of fun. 

Tuesday we mostly worked with the YSA's. We went out to try and find some less actives in La Porte, and then we went on visits with the YSA leaders to try and contact people in Pasadena. We found quite a bit of success, compared to last week, so it was good to actually get to talk to people. Getting no answer after no answer gets tiring after a while ;)

Wednesday we were on exchanges with one of the sets of Elders in Pasadena, I took Elder Jones, a new missionary, to my area. We had a good day, found a new person to teach, and tried to kidnap a duckling but the momma duck hissed at me and I didn't do it. 

That night was the ward Halloween party-the weather was perfect, I think it was down in the 40's. It really felt like a Halloween back home, except for the light drizzle and humidity. Elder Ewell and I dressed up as missionaries. I cooked a chili for the chili cook-off, though it didn't win. At least the missionaries were represented in the lineup ;) our poor Elders Quorum President lost to his wife for the third year running. 

Thursday we had a lesson with C__, who is a stud. He wasn't able to get time off for the temple on this Friday, but he still wants to go so we are rescheduling a time, probably this next Saturday. 

In the afternoon we went all the way out to Baytown to find YSAs. We actually found one, lucky us, who seemed to want to come back to church. He was baptized just a couple of years ago, hopefully we can rekindle that spark. We also found someone for the Baytown Elders to teach, from knocking on the wrong door. Whoops!

We had to be in at 7, since it was Halloween, so Elder Ewell and I worked on putting in everybody's miles in our google sheets since it was the last of the month. Yay. Happy Halloween ;) it was good though. 

Friday: it is November already?! I feel like it was august a couple of weeks ago. We were at the Broadway District council when a guy walked past the room we were in. He asked if any of us spoke Spanish, so I headed out and talked to him. Apparently he just came in off the street, he lives close to the church, but he wanted to know when services were so that he could attend. The Spanish district meets the same place we do, so after talking to him for a minute I showed him where they were and let them take care of it. I think they derailed their district council in favor of just teaching the guy, so it was 10 missionaries vs one guy. He came.out wanting to be baptized and I think he was going to drive one of the companionships to walk around the temple grounds, so I guess it worked out. Crazy story!

Saturday the YSA was doing a family history workshop. We were going to go with C__, but he had to work, so we went to learn so we could show him later. I found an obituary for my great great grandfather Peter DeFord, which was awesome because we have had a hard time finding information on him and his dad Peter DeFord. 

Sunday was good as always. C__ received the Aaronic Priesthood and a calling to the activities committee, which was cool to be apart of. He is doing awesome. 

Well, everything in Texas is doing well...the end of daylight savings means that it gets dark around 6, which isn't the best for knocking doors, but that is okay. 

Well.

Merry Christmas,

Elder DeFord

Week 53 (10/28/2019) Go Astros!

Woohoo, the Astros are 3-2 in the World Series! It is really annoying, I will tell people I am 

from Washington and then they ask if I am supporting the Nationals. Wrong Washington,

 folks. Really wasn't a baseball fan, but I'm honestly getting pretty hyped at the moment. 

If the Astros win this next game they will take it all!

Anyways, watching the Astros games took up most of our week...kidding! But we would 

ask people we talked to about the score. A nice Walmart associate just updated us on 

yesterdays game. 

We had the opportunity to conduct an exchange with some of our Elders in Baytown. I 

was in their area biking, but it was a lovely day. The only downside was when I didn't 

realize I was standing on a fire ant nest and they went to town on my leg. But we worked 

hard, had a good lesson, found some new people for them to teach. It was a fun time! 

Thursday was interesting. We talked to several people, engineers by trade, who were 

highly intelligent, but they let that intelligence blind them. As one was telling us about 

how the appropriate sabbaths are according to the phases of the moon, I wanted to 

interject-"does it matter? Will that save you? Do you think God cares what day you

 dedicate to Him, or that you give Him your heart?". Another one, to whom we explained

 in summary the Plan of Salvation, completely misinterpreted everything we said. So I 

told him so "yeah, so, that isn't what I said at all". It was just sad to see these people 

who are looking for answers, but only trust their own intelligence to find them. 

Friday us and the APs all rolled up to the same District Council (probably stressed the 

District Leader out, too, whoops). We went out for lunch after district council, and as I

 was eating my burritos my jaw was really hurting. I mentioned it to one of the Elders, 

and he said that it looked like there was a golf ball in my mouth. Sure enough, I was all 

swollen on that side of my face. So we started our exchanges with the assistants by

 Elder Topham and I going to the urgent care. Apparently I just stressed my jaw somehow, 

nothing serious. They diagnosed me with temporo-mandibular joint problems, and told 

me to get a mouthguard to help with teeth grinding. Although I don't grind my teeth, so 

there is that ;) anyways, I went to get the mouthguard, and on the warning label it said

 "DO NOT use if you have been diagnosed with temporo-mandibular joint problems". 

So I didn't end up getting it. My jaw feels all better now, though, so I guess we are okay. 

The rest of my exchange went well, we taught an awesome lessons to a returning member 

and to our friend C__. 

The rest of our Saturday, after we ended our exchange, we went to do a split with our Elders 

in Broadway, just to see how they were doing. It ended up being really good, we each found

 someone new for them to teach. Elder Capello and I also ran into someone that the 

Spanish hermanas were teaching, so when we asked him if he had ever talked to missionaries

 before, he said "yeah, every Tuesday!". Whoops ;) 

Sunday night we had a mission fireside where recent converts share their experiences. C__ 

was going to speak, but he got called in to work. I was asked to play the piano, which as 

always went perfectly fine through prelude until we got to the point where the congregation

 sings. I always mess up right about then ;) but it is okay. It was a good fireside, it is always

 cool to hear about how people love the gospel and how they found it to be true. 

All in all, it was a good week, we had some colder temperatures (although it is supposed to 

be 80's again this week), talked to a lot of awesome people and felt the spirit in great abundance. 

Love from Texas,

Elder DeFord

Attachments area

Week 52 (10/21/2019) Hello From Canada

Hello everyone!

As I think I talked about last week, C__'s girlfriend from Canada was flying into town this week for C__'s baptism. We met with them almost every day this week to make sure that everything was all ready. It has been such an awesome journey with him. He is definitely one of the most prepared people I have ever taught. He is probably even going to be speaking at a missionary fireside next week. 

We were on exchanges on Tuesday, and I had one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. The man in question had recently lost one of his adult sons to cancer, and we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation. As we testified that he could be with his son again, the spirit was palpable in the room. It was very powerful. I am so grateful for the knowledge and perspective made available to us by the Restoration. 

Wednesday we had what was definitely the most interesting zone conference of my mission. On a zone leader call Monday night the assistants told us to tell everyone to bring their p-day clothes...so after a spiritual morning, we got changed and "built mission unity". In other words, we played dodgeball and had a spikeball tournament. Elder Ewell and I got beat in the championship game by the assistants, so we don't talk to those goons any more. It was a lot of fun! Even President got in the dodgeball game and got pegged in the head. 

Thursday night we had probably the best dinner message of my mission. We were just talking about what the Book of Mormon has helped us with and our favorite scriptures, and the spirit was super strong. One of the members began to cry and said that she knew who she needed to share a copy with, and that it was exactly what she needed. It was super powerful. 

On Saturday we had C__'s baptism! The service was beautiful, and everything went smoothly. He was confirmed the following day in sacrament meeting. His family came to the baptism, which was super good. Their local missionaries will be going over to talk to them as well. 

Also on Saturday the Astros beat the Yankees and will be playing in the World Series. In case anyone was curious. 

Anyways, it was a great week, gave a talk in sacrament meeting and had two members of the stake presidency there to watch, fun times. 

Have a great week, day, and life,

Elder DeFord

Week 51 (10/14/2019) Cold Front

Dear everybody,

That is right, a cold front blew through. There were a couple of days when the highs were only in the sixties. The sad part is that I actually felt cold in the sixties, though ;) the heat has ruined me for regular weather. We did have some incredibly pleasant days, though. Highs are back in the 80's now, though. 

This has been a very good week! Of course, God only makes good weeks, but I was on board and actually saw the good this time ;)

So as I said, we had transfers last week, and brought a lot of new missionaries into our zone. Most of them I have never served around before, so it has been fun getting to know them a little. For one of the Elders that came here to the Fairmont ward, it is the third time on his mission he has served here! Crazy. My mission son (in mission lingo, when you train someone they are your son) got transferred to Baytown, so I will get to see him a little more often too. 

The first week of the transfer always has a hefty dose of planning to go along with it. Elder Ewell and I had to plan everyone's miles, our exchanges, and the zone vision. The big focus right now is baptism! Of course, that is always the focus ;) but the mission is trying to baptize 100 people in 100 days - finding 100 people in the last 100 days, so that is the focus we are helping our zone with. Essentially that is 1.3 baptisms per companionship, and we want to help them achieve that goal. 

This is actually going to be a really good transfer. We have a lot of great missionaries in the zone, and some awesome things planned. In November Elder Kyle McKay of the Seventy will be touring the mission, and we will also, I think, be having another temple trip. 

Anyways, back to this week. We had an awesome lesson with C__, our YSA friend, on Wednesday morning. We taught him the plan of salvation, and I guess I really thought about how important that plan and that knowledge that we have is. It is amazing that we do know, as President Oaks emphasized at conference, that we can "trust in the Lord". We might not know everything, but we know enough. Wednesday night we had a dinner and a lesson with a very sweet family. The mother had previously been dating a member of our church, so that was how we came to know them, and they have really welcomed us into their home. 

Friday we attended the district council of one of our new district leaders, and he did a great job. We went to Sam's club for lunch at their deli...and then a cashier kicked us out. And then a security guard said we were good to go in and walked in with us. And a manager kicked us out again. It was a fun time. But we went to Wendy's as a backup plan, and a member from Wenatchee came and paid for us, so that was pretty cool. 

Saturday was an awesome day. Beautiful weather, out biking. Not hot or cold, just really lovely. While we were talking to people on the street we met an awesome lady, she shared that she and her husband were looking for a church for their family, and they had actually talked about the Mormons! He said he had gone before, and really missed it. And then she stepped outside just for a minute, and we rode by. Miracles!

On our way to our next appointment I got a flat tire, so that was less than ideal, but we were pretty close, so we walked over and had our lesson. Afterwards Michael Dinsdale came and picked us up in his truck, so that was better than walking all the way home. 

Also on Saturday we had a couple of former Elders come down to visit, Elder Brown and Elder Dowdle. Elder Brown was my ZL and AP for a while, Elder Brown was a ZL when I came out, I think. It was fun to see them again!

Sunday C__ came to church, and told us he would be free for lessons this next weekend because his girlfriend from Canada is in town...Elder Ewell and I looked at each other, and told him that we could move up his baptism. So he is getting baptized this saturday! It is going to be sweet!

It was an awesome week, lots of miracles, things going well. Hopefully the good weather returns.

From the heat of Texas,

Elder DeFord