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