Week 40 (7/29/2019) Fresh From Colorado

7/29/2019

Welcome to the second week of the transfer, and training! Please keep your arms and legs and all other appendages in the vehicle at all times.

First, a brief safety segment: our message truly is centered on Jesus Christ. We are teaching the lessons to the members for our dinner messages so that Elder Larcom can practice. Well, on Saturday we ate with a member, and he taught the restoration, and we discussed it. And some of the things we talked about are things I have been mulling over my whole mission, ever since I learned the How to Begin Teaching Point "Our message, which is centered on Jesus Christ, is of great value importance". And the thought I had then was, would someone we taught describe our message as being centered on Jesus Christ? Would someone who came to our sacrament feel that we love the Savior. Sometimes when I invite people to church I promise them a Christ-centered experience. And sometimes I worry that they might not find one. Not that we don't love Christ, but our love and reliance on Him is so assumed in the church that it seems that sometimes His name is relegated to little more than the amen that follows. Many of these thoughts are no doubt prompted by serving in the bible belt, where there is, ingrained in the regions DNA, certain beliefs and predispositions. Those beliefs somehow crop up even in people that have never been to church! But this region truly is Christ centered, and Christ loving. Now, we can continue with the journey. 

On the right hand of the boat with wheels, you will see a principle taught in preach my gospel: find when you teach, and teach when you find. It is hard not to knock on a door and do the standard approach "hi, we are the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and would like to share a message about Jesus Christ". Well, they are uninterested by the time we finish saying the rather long name of the church. The principle taught in Preach My Gospel is that you just start teaching immediately. It is really hard to overcome the natural tendencies, but it is doable! We made a special effort to do so on Tuesday, and placed several copies of the Book of Mormon (that is the right way to say it plurally, take that, Best Two Years) and had someone invite us back. I mean, we invited ourselves back, but he accepted. 

A little further ahead on Tuesday you will notice a miracle coming up. There was a potential investigator that the previous missionaries had found and given a pamphlet to, but had never gotten back in contact with. (Sometimes we are bad at that) so we made plans to go and see her Wednesday. Well, the feeling came to go on Tuesday, so we went. When we knocked on the door (since she didn't know us) we asked if she had ever spoken to missionaries before, and she said she had-that they had given her a pamphlet and said they would come back and never did. Whoops! Well, I assured her that we would come back, and she invited us in. She got out the pamphlet that the other Elders had given her, and she had even filled out the questions in the back! Nobody does that! I am surprised when people even remember where they put the pamphlet, let alone read it, let alone fill out the questions! She shared several questions she had, and we look forward to going back and teaching her more. 

Moving forward, on the left hand side of the boat car (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?) We see a prompting to carry consecrated oil with me. I hadn't done so since my oil vial snapped, but there was an old beat up one in the apartment, so I filled that up. On Wednesday and Thuesday(Thuesday? What kind of a day is Thuesday? Thursday.)...and Sunday, we were able to offer the blessings of the Priesthood to both those we are teaching and members. It is nice to serve, and remember what that power is for. Blessing the lives of others!

Wednesday was also, I suppose, the 24th of July, Pioneer day....but nobody knows about that here, so us Elders "had a party" ie sat and chatted in the spanish Elder's apartment for like a half hour. It was nice, though. 

Thursday was a busy day. District training in the morning, and then an hour long drive to interviews with President, and then an hour long drive back. Yay car trips. If only I wasn't always feeling drowsy. 

Friday we called P__. P__ was a referral, from before I got to this area, from her member friends in Colorado. The elders had taught her twice, but then she took a month long vacation to Colorado to be with her friends. Well, it was a good thing. She invited us over, and she talked about all the things she had learned and was excited about, from gospel discussions and attending church. Originally she had just been doing Come Follow Me studies with her friends over the phone, but her interest in the church has grown to conversion. Truly an inspiring story of the spirit preparing someone and members reaching out. Come Follow Me seems like a great tool for it!

On Saturday, we biked. But it was Elder Larcom's first time on a bike in about ten years, so we decided that biking on the highway (the only way to our area) would be a dumb idea. But, a good learning experience. 

Sunday P__ came to church with us, and really enjoyed it. I didn't get to sit down with her because I was on the stand to lead the music! Thankfully I haven't had to play the organ yet, but it is just a matter of time. 

It was a pretty sweet week, I love all of you, study Come Follow Me with your friends!

Elder DeFord

Week 39 (7/22/2019) Training

7/22/2019

Hey everybody!

Sorry for the super short email last week. Driving all day, and we only made it back in time to quickly grab groceries before p-day was over. I feel really bad for missionaries that train in the Louisiana areas...that is a long day. 

Elder Larcom, my new companion is a great guy. Hailing from Logan, Utah, he just graduated, which threw me for a loop, realizing that I had graduated a year ago. I've been on my mission for a whole school year. Weird. Anyways, he is great, ready to learn and work. 

He had a great opportunity to study this week, too. On other words, my yearly stomach bug hit really early this year (I am hopeful that this is the only one. I'd rather not make it a biannual occurrence) so he got to study on Friday while I slept and recovered. 

We are teaching some sweet people. S__, who was a Bible referral from a couple of weeks ago, has been reading a little from the Book of Mormon, and we got to visit with her again on Friday (for those keeping score, yes, I had to wake up and fight down nausea for that appointment, but it was the time that worked for her). We have someone else in our area, P__, who has close friends who are members in Colorado. She has been visiting them for the past couple of months, but should be back in town this next week, so we are excited to meet and work with her. It sounds like she has already learned a lot from them! 

Other than that, we are trying to help the Bishop with some visits to those that haven't been to church in a long time. One such visit was pretty cool. We showed up, met the guy, got invited in...it turns out he had been going to the Spanish branch, so it wasn't that he was inactive, he just wasn't sure when our services were. But while we talked to him, he shared his conversion story, it was very powerful. He talked about how he felt the stirrings of the spirit as he served people, but that when he went looking for that spirit in different churches he didn't find it until a friend brought him to our church. Then, when the missionaries were teaching him, he eventually really came to the point where he wanted to know if it was true, and when he prayed he received the spirit so strongly that he knew his prayer was answered. It was cool hearing about how he had been prepared, and how the members and missionaries helped him find the truth. I know all of us may know people who are being prepared in that same way, and are maybe "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". 

Anyways, the Lord truly gives us assignments, oft times, for our own benefit. I think that is what training is for me, because it kind of "compels" me to be humble and has helped me see my own nothingness, which thing I had never before supposed. In other words, I know I have a lot of things to get better at, as a missionary and a trainer. I have had to spend some time on my knees acknowledging and asking for help with my shortcomings, but I am grateful that the Lord is giving me an opportunity to grow. Luckily He sent a good missionary to me, so Elder Larcom can succeed in spite of an imperfect trainer in the field.

Well, the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, the Church is true, and Jesus is the Christ. I know these things, and I love them! A big concern here is that people don't want to accept anything except for the Bible. I don't know why anyone would not want the message of truth and hope contained in the Book of Mormon, though. Truly we have some great things to offer the world!

Checking in, and out,

Elder DeFord

Week 38 (7/16/2019) Hurricane Barry

7/16/2019

Yeah, it completely missed us. And it was only a tropical storm. But it was gnarly. 

In other news, and to excuse why this email may be a little short, I am training!

Me and Elder Larcom are ready to set Port Arthur on fire! Figuratively, of course. 

So, the weeks highlights...

Exchanges with the Zone leaders in the YSA, I got to prozelyte in regular people clothes, which was pretty sweet. Also, Elder Farley is the sweetest, he is great.

Erm...honestly I cant remember much. 

Sunday was my birthday, sang in church, as my dad says I am now old enough to go on a mission. Hmm. Guess I snuck through. 

Yeah, this email is trash, but I don't remember almost anything that happened, and I have a long drive ahead of me.  

I love all of you! Miracles happen everyday, and I am excited for the next transfer! 

Love,

Elder DeFord

Week 37 (7/8/2019) Independence Day

7/8/2019

Happy fourth of July, everybody! I hope you all made it through with eyebrows intact. 

My dad asked some questions about the soup kitchen we work at, so I figured I would answer those here. It is run by a Catholic charity, I believe. We interact a little bit with the customers, generally when I go out and eat lunch, that is, but mostly we talk to the other workers. Well, mostly we talk to each other, since us six missionaries run the whole serving line when we go. Of course, this week it was raining and the first week of the month, so it was a pretty sparse crowd. 

What I am really noticing in our prozelyting (and I may have already talked about this, I am not sure) is that while people that are looking for truth may be few and far between, there are I think many who don't feel the peace of the spirit. Most of the people here believe in Christ because they were raised that way, but haven't really had spiritual experiences. Which is sort of good for us, I suppose, because I know that the key to peace and happiness is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we can promise these people that! That is a cool promise to get to make. 

One person especially this week, R__, was intrigued by our message. In the middle of teaching the restoration I felt prompted to share a personal experience, just about feeling the spirit and God's love. After I shared it we talked about the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit and how that can be operative in our lives. She was very desirous to experience that peace for herself. 

We also have a young girl, C__, whose grandparents are active and bring her to church, but her parents are not involved in the church. Well, just this week we got the parents permission to work with her for baptism, so we will start teaching her the lessons this week. 

Fourth of July in the heart of Texas was...well, not nearly as many explosions as I expected. It was actually just super chill, we went to a bbq with a member and played some volleyball, but that was about it. I expected more nuclear holocaust. 

You know, speaking of nuclear things, I took a career test that said I should be a nuclear scientist. I decided I want to develop budgeting software, though. 

It was Elder James' birthday on Saturday. I really appreciate him! He is a very good companion, and I have been grateful to be with him. Of course, we probably only have another week together...transfers is next week, and I don't think we will be staying together. Just a hunch. But, we wont know until next Monday. Well...y'all wont know until next Tuesday, when my pday is and I can tell you. But I'll know on Monday. Ha. I know before y'all. So there. Take that. 

Well, it was a good week, but pretty tame, so I will probably leave this here. 

Love y'all!

Elder DeFord

Week 36 (7/1/2019) A Day in the Life of a Fool

The subject line has absolutely no relation to anything that happened this week, the song was just in my head. 

Hello!

So, it was a good week, lets hit the highlights. 

Tuesday we worked at the soup kitchen again. I love working there, it is a blast. And the food is pretty good....although I am the only missionary who is willing to eat it. But yeah, I like it, we had meatloaf this week. 

Wednesday we had interviews with President and met his son, Adam. It was a good time, road trip up to Orange. Still haven't crossed the border into Louisiana, though. 

Thursday was hard--Michael will know what the"Merf" workout is, I am sure, it is a CrossFit thing. But every Tuesday and Thursday we work out with Brother Dugger, who owns a local gym. And occasionally he will run us through the Merf or the Prison Workout, which are both intense. If you finish, you get a free shirt or hat from his gym. I may have been last, but see attached pictures for the shirt. 

We also taught a very sweet lady named J__. When we got there, she was clearly not doing well, so we told her about how as Elders in the priesthood we can give blessings to the sick, just like in olden times, so we gave her a blessing, which led into a conversation about the restoration. She liked what we said, but is reticent about being baptized. She wanted to talk to her priest about it....hmm. 

District Council on Friday was about agency, but even though I had been trying to prepare for it all week, I didn't have a whole lot to share. Luckily we had a good discussion, so I think it ended up being a good council despite my lack of preparation. I hated not being super organized, though.

We saw the V__ family again, and were set to extend a baptismal invitation...when E__ told us he has no intention of changing religions. I've been hearing that a lot lately, it is kind of getting on my nerves. We hope that we can help him see that this isn't a church, it is Christ's church. We shall see. 

It is just hard to see so many people so set in their ways that they won't search out truth. Of course, that was what was prophesied, that they would not "endure sound doctrine". But it is still hard to see it happening. 

We attended a Catholic mass on Sunday, which was interesting. I was supposed to sing in our ward, but due to some scheduling difficulties I got moved to my birthday, July 14th. So I get to sing a birthday song ;) 

Anyways, we have a special zone pday because we worked hard in June, so we are partying up until 9 tonight, so I am gonna head. Probably more happened, but that's how the cards play.

Signing out,

Elder DeFord

Week 35 (6/24/2019) Sleeping in the Clouds

This week has honestly flown by, but I will try to hit a couple of highlights. 

On Tuesday, we saw the V__ family and read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon with them. I love the spirit and the feeling that they have in their home, it is so family centered, it is just awesome. We set up a time to do a chapel tour, so that they would be comfortable getting to the church on Sunday. 

On Thursday nights we usually play volleyball with some members, but the stake had organized a rescue visit night, so we had 13 missionaries and the high council go out to see members who needed strengthening in the Twin City ward. It was good, I went with the old Stake President, and we went to visit a sister who had some very honest and difficult reasons for being away from the church. It is always so sad to see the actions of one person push someone away from the church. 

On Thursday we also had our zone conference, which went well. Perhaps the biggest thing at zone conference is that we got new mattresses! I am so very comfortable laying on my memory foam right now. Our old mattresses were like rocks. It is awesome how you can get mattresses compressed into boxes anymore. It was pretty cool to roll it out and have it expand. 

Saturday we were supposed to have our church tour with the V__ family, but they didn't show. When we went by, it turned out their close friend had had a stroke, so they were taking care of him. We also found out, to our dismay, that E__ was going back to work at the refineries...80 hr weeks, including Sundays. So we don't know how the future will hold. 

They did say they would be at church this Sunday, though, which we were excited about. The services started with no sign of them, though. About a half hour in, though, we noticed we had missed a call from them at the beginning of services. They couldn't find the address. So that was really disappointing for us, we were really looking forward to it, and we feel bad for them since they made the effort and weren't able to come. 

I played the piano in primary again...still the best calling in the church. 

We also attended a Methodist church with a recent convert. She used to go there, and sang in their church band, so they asked her to come help with this worship service. She did a very good job, and it was a good prayer service. 

Well, I know this was a pretty sparse email, but honestly not a whole lot ended up happening this week. We did missionary work, obviously, but it felt like people weren't home 24/7. But some weeks are just like that. 

With love,

Elder DeFord

Our new mattresses, driving home from zone conference.

I had a tear in my shirt, so I just sewed it up, I think I did a pretty good job.

New Mattress out and ready to sleep on!

Week 34 (6/17/2019) Gospel Bowling

This has been an incredible week. 

Our zone leaders, for their zone vision, instituted a "fantasy football" type competition, where our daily actuals of how many people we contacted, lessons we taught, and new people being taught count as points, and we compete with different companionships each day. I am still not sure how I feel about competing around numbers, but it is at least a fun little thing. 

We have seen so much awesome stuff happen, though. 

On Tuesday, we had planned to go contact at this one street. There was a park there, and I figured that there would be plenty of people to talk to. Well, not so. The park turned out to just be an empty field, no one there, and it didn't look like there was anyone on the street. Well, we had faith that the Lord had prepared someone to be there, so we started walking. We walked down the street, and there were a nice couple of ladies sitting on their porch, and we went and taught the about the restoration and the plan of salvation. That was fun, having a lesson with them. On our way back, we saw who we thought was a woman sitting with her kids. Well, when we approached we realized that the person we thought was the mom.was just another kid, oops! By then we were pretty close, so the kids said hi and asked what we were doing. We explained, and they ran and got their mom, and we talked to her and she invited us to come back and teach her family! It was pretty cool. 

I think it was also Tuesday when I met D__. D__ has been hanging out with missionaries for something like 10 years, he knows all about the church and everything, but he attends a Pentecostal church. Which he invited us to and we attended, but more on that later. Anyways, it was interesting how much he knew without being a member.  He is a funny guy.

So here in Port Arthur, we serve at a soup kitchen every Wednesday morning. It is so much fun, honestly. I love being there and helping out. I'd love to go and serve there every day, it is nice to just be doing something for people. Even though we are just serving, the people and the workers appreciate it. 

Thursday we went to see the V__ family. Elder James and his previous companion had taught this family twice, but the dad wasn't interested. He was fine with them meeting with his family, he just wasn't participating. Well, we went by, and the mom wasn't home, but he invited us in. He talked to us about how excited his son was about it, and how he really liked that, and we invited him to learn more with his family and come closer to Christ as a family, and he said yes! We then hung out with him for an hour waiting for his wife to get home, so we built some good relationships there. He even invited us bowling ;) when his wife arrived, we taught the family a lesson. They are super awesome! I look forward to working with them. 

On Friday we had some good plans for lessons we would teach, and everything was falling through, so we eventually just parked somewhere, and said we would try and find someone around there. As we were walking forward, this guy runs out to us with a big ole knife and says "I have some watermelon for you elders, what are your names?" Well, when someone actually looks at your nametag, you know that they have spoken to missionaries before. As we talked to this man (eating our watermelon, which was very ripe and tasty) it turns out that he had been attending church in Vidor and had just moved down to Port Arthur this week, and we happened to be walking by. Not only that...but this was someone that Elder Mooney had taught and told me about! So that was really cool, to get to meet him. 

On Saturday we went to contact someone who had requested a Bible online. Bible requests are what we get most often, and they tend not to be very effective, but we went to go deliver it. She was waiting outside for us, but when we asked if we could share a message she invited us in and we taught the restoration. It seems like she enjoyed it, although maybe didn't understand the implications. In any case, at the end of the lesson, she shared that she wasn't going to let us in, but something told her that she should. So we explained that that was the spirit!

We also had a lesson with the V__ family...at the bowling alley. I am really bad at bowling, but we had a good time and they want to come to church and keep meeting with us. We hope to extend a baptismal date to them next time we meet!

On Sunday I got to be primary pianist for the day. I think I did okay for sight-reading everything ;) but it is my dream calling, so I need the practice. 

I also got to call my dad, who I love very much. He has taught me so much about what it means to be a man: that it is about love and service, not being puffed up or having everyone follow you. I am grateful for his example, especially of dedicated service in the church. He is pretty awesome!

Sunday night we attended D__'s Pentecostal church, and it was a very different experience than our worship services. They take the proverb that says to worship the Lord with voice and cymbals, and they try and follow it. The band playing was pretty good, but the whole experience was very loud. It made me think of the scriptures Galatians 5:22 and 1 Kings 19:11-12. The preacher called us out for not jumping up and shouting praises, but that is not how we choose to reverence our Father in Heaven. I thought about when I called my dad, and how I would never have shouted or hollered at him, but I would speak to him in tones of love and reverence. Anyways, it was good to visit another church and experience their services. 

It was late when we got out of their church, but we wanted to go and find someone to teach, so we drove out to our area and started to walk out in the rain and dark. We saw a pair of legs sticking out from under a truck and went over to talk to whoever they belonged to. He ended up inviting us in to teach his family. He was well versed in the scriptures. It was funny...he didn't say that we couldn't have prophets and apostles, in fact, he said that according to the Bible any church that didn't couldn't be the true church, but he struggled with ours because in Ephesians 4:11, which was the scripture I used to teach about apostles and prophets, it lists apostles before prophets, and so why is our church organized first with a prophet and then apostles? I explained that we sustain all of the apostles as prophets, and that our Prophet was the most senior apostle. He was really struggling with semantics, even though he seemed to agree with the meat of our message. 

In any case, it was an incredible week, we saw a lot of miracles and met a lot of awesome people. 

Have a great week, life, and all, as my brother would say (paraphrased)

Elder DeFord

P.S. I  also ate Baloot this week. I dont know if that is how you spell it. It is a fertilized egg. Duck egg. Boiled, you eat the fetus. It wasnt too bad ;) 

Mom's note: This is from Wikipedia "A balut is a fertilized bird egg (usually a duck) which is incubated for a period of 14 to 21 days depending on the local culture and then boiled or steamed. The contents are eaten directly from the shell. ... Balut is common street food in the Philippines and other localities, and is also sold in stores and malls."

Soup Kitchen