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