Week 104 (10/20/2020) The Curtain Falls

 Dear y'all,

It has not quite sunk in yet that I am actually leaving. I mean, I know I am, and my bags are packed, but it still seems surreal. 

This week has been a fitting conclusion to my full-time missionary service. On Wednesday I was privileged to perform L__'s baptism in a members pool, and be a part of her confirmation on Sunday. Those were awesome spiritual experiences, and she has an inspiring testimony. 

Looking back on these two years, my own testimony of the Savior and His grace has grown immeasurably
. I love the Savior, and I am filled with gratitude for his sacrifice on my behalf. Truly I am nothing without Him, but I can do all things by being unified with Him. 

My full-time service may be drawing to a close, but He still has my all, and will for the rest of my life. I am grateful for all of the experiences that I have had, all of the people I have met, and the ways I have seen the hand of the Lord.

I conclude as I will continue, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen

Elder DeFord

Week 103 (10/12/2020) The Last One

 Now, I suppose I could make a liar out of myself and send a weekly next week anyways, and I may end up doing so, but this is the last full week of my mission. 

Looking back over the last two years, it is crazy to think that it was both so long and so short. I don't even remember what it was like to not be a missionary. The thought of having something that is so deeply rooted in your life end is oddly intimidating. Which, I suppose, is why they have the myplan program to try and link the mission and home life together. In any case, I have learned a lot, and will be carrying these memories and lessons for the rest of my life. One of the most powerful things I have learned is the efficacy and all encompassing nature of the Savior's atonement, and what it means for each of us. I am so grateful that He chose to take upon Himself all of our weaknesses so that we could, through Him, overcome them. 

On the more here and now, we had my last zone conference this week, and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony at the end with all the other departing missionaries. 

We continued meeting with L__, who is just awesome. She is so on fire with the spirit, and whenever we teach a principle she immediately integrates it with what she knows and has experienced. I love talking with her; yesterday during our lesson, we talked about the spirit world and read from Alma 40, and she exclaimed that the Book of Mormon has to be true because it explains what she already had come to believe through the spirit. It is awesome, and she is preparing for her baptism this Friday! 

On that note, which is probably a suspended fourth waiting to be resolved, we will close this email. 

Elder DeFord

Week 102 (10/5/2020) Conference

 I strongly considered just not writing these last couple of weeklies, but I haven't missed a week yet, and my pride won't let me blow it off. 

This was a very good week! Of course, the highlight was getting to watch our Prophet and Apostles speak at general conference. Their remarks were very timely in a troubled world. I think it is very clear that they are praying and seeking direction for our needs today. I also loved Elder Anderson's emphasis on focusing on Christ, that is something I often think about, and I am glad that it was addressed. 

There were some technical difficulties in watching, but nothing too severe. On the first day the broadcast started in Spanish, which was quite awkward for the majority of the room. It mostly ran smoothly, though. I an definitely grateful for the technology that makes conference so very accessible the world over. 

We had a midweek transfer this week, no one in my district was affected, but one of the Spanish Elders that lives in our complex was transferred and we have a new Elder fresh out of the online MTC. 

Teaching L__ is still going very well. She thinks deeply about the scriptures when we read with her, you can tell she is pondering and synthesizing information. It is awesome to see how sincerely she is seeking for the truth. She worked in the afternoons, but was able to catch the morning sessions of conference. 

Signing off from Texas,

Elder DeFord

Week 101 (9/28/2020) Close Calls

 Y'all,

Well, Hurricane Beta was really only tropical depression Beta when it passed overhead, dropping an abundance of rain, but nothing we hadn't seen before. Even thunderstorms at home are comparable. 

We are still teaching L__ with the B__s. On our Thursday lesson with her, we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and extended a baptismal date to her for the 17th of October, and she happily accepted! Teaching her is a lot of fun. She has a very intuitive understanding of the gospel, and when we say something she thinks about it for a second, and then exclaims that that is the missing puzzle piece of her understanding.

Friday we got to help a couple of families move out of the ward. They had a full sized semi-trailer, and when we had to leave it was a good half way full, with plenty more to fill the space. They had been living there for ten years, so they were pretty well settled in. It was nice to be out and helping, though. 

We got to meet with the M__s again this week. Our contact with them had been pretty sporadic as they redid their house and were out of town, but we were able to schedule a time to meet and read the scriptures with them. 

With it being fast Sunday, I thought about something which often buzzes around my head on fast Sundays, that we as Latter Day Saints often assume Christ. What I mean by that is because Christ is so central to our doctrine and beliefs, we don't explicitly mention Him perhaps as often as we should. It is assumed that anything we believe or care about is rooted in Him, but we don't always say it.

In any case, I wanted to offer my testimony of the Savior. I truly know that Jesus Christ lives. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He gave His life for me, because He loves me, and He did the same for each of us. He carried an unimaginable burden so that we could be, as the scriptures say, perfected in Him. And I praise His name for it. He advocates on our behalf, and He satisfied justice so that we could have mercy. His is the greatest gift anyone has ever given, and I love Him. 

I haven't shared my testimony a lot in these emails, again because I assume you know I have one. But let it be recorded, that I know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God.

Elder DeFord

Week 100 (9/21/2020) Week 100

 Dear y'all,

This weeks highlight reel has some actual highlights, so buckle your seatbelts, make the big bar make the little clackety sounds as you pull it down, an attendant will come by and check.it for safety. 

On Tuesday we got to meet L__ H__, someone who got interested in the church talking to some members, who she is currently living with. The members are the B__'s, which sounded very familiar to me when I first heard the name. Indeed, when we arrived at their house, they called their brother down to join us for dinner...and it was a member I knew from the Jasper branch! He didn't specifically remember me, but it is crazy how small a world it is. Anyways, we had an awesome lesson with L__. Definitely a case of someone who has been kept from the truth simply because she didn't know where to find it. During our lesson, she kept exclaiming that we were giving her puzzle pieces she had searched for for years. 

We also had exchanges this week, which went fine. I am never a huge fan of exchanges, since they just break up the normal routine, so I wasn't sad when the virus made those unavailable, but they have decided that we can do them again. 

We are looking at a hurricane dumping through the next couple of days. It looks like it is slow moving and filled with rain, so they are anticipating a good amount of flooding in low lying areas. We may be spending the foreseeable future mucking out houses once it passes through. It certainly is a record breaking year for disaster. It really makes you appreciate all of the time when there isn't something catastrophic going on around you. Which is most of the time, really. 

I hear the smoke mostly cleared at home, at least for now, so I hope everyone back that direction breathes deep and clear.

Elder DeFord

Week 99 (9/14/2020) It's Been a Week

 Heyo,

It started out a week like any other. And pretty much stayed that way. Well, I mean, last week was transfers, so Elder Johnson has been settling in. I believe I already mentioned that he is from the Seattle area? Well, we are both glad we can at least breathe the air here. It looks like the whole #can'tbreathe movement took it a little far in the pacific northwest. 

We had a great lesson with L__, the right L__, for anyone remembers that fiasco from about a month ago. She is loving the Book of Mormon, and was going to log into our broadcasted church service, but slept through it. Next week!

We also got a call from a member here in the area, saying that they have a friend investigating the church! So we are going to teach them here this week. Sounds like she has a lot of interest!

Still working on Facebook, and by working, I mean making videos at a slow rate. But if anyone wants to like the page, it is Followers of Jesus Christ in Summerwood TX. 

Well, there we go, love from Texas

Elder DeFord

Week 98 (9/8/2020) Laura Continues

 Y'all,

It is still just incredible to me to see the destruction that winds can cause. We went out to help cleanup in Lake Charles again this weekend, and I just wish we could do more. While some buildings emerged completely unscathed, others have 50 ft trees through their roofs, or the wind just completely blew the roof off. We saw one house that had previously been on stilts, but got knocked down. The only reason you could tell that it didn't used to be a ground floor house is the car crushed halfway underneath it. And there is so little we can do to help, we can tarp roofs and process fallen trees, but so much of this work will have to be done by professionals, to get power back to these people. The fellow we were helping on Saturday said that they might not get power back until January. It is all tragic.

Speaking of the hurricane cleanup, yours truly is on the churches news article about it. You have to scroll through the pictures a little, and ignore the mask, but Elder Gregory and I are in there. And speaking of Elder Gregory, he is headed home tomorrow, so a big salute to him. I am staying in Eaglesprings, Elder Johnson is my new companion. It will be nice to continue to be able to work with the S__'s and the rest of the ward, I am looking forward to it. 

Oh! For anyone wondering, Elder Saftsen, my last companion, is currently on the airplane to Sweden, so he is finally getting to go to his original assignment! He stopped by yesterday to say bye on his way to the mission home. 

Other than that, we filmed some videos for Facebook, taught some repentance, baptized converts, well, not the last one. But hopefully here in the next month. 

Elder DeFord

P.s. we had to take another Elder to a doctor's appointment in Houston, so we got to stop by the Houston Temple and take pictures. 

Week 97 (8/31/2020) Laura

Does anyone else find it slightly ironic that we give hurricanes people names? I guess we can't imagine nature being so cruel, so we have to humanize it to justify the destruction?

In any case, for anyone worried about my safety, I think we got a single raindrop from Laura. She ripped up Lake Charles, which is in the mission, but didn't come as far west as us. All of our eastern missionaries got evacuated, so we had a companionship staying with us for Tuesday through Thursday. Luckily their area wasn't affected, so they were able to head home. Some of our missionaries won't be home for awhile, until power is up in Lake Charles and Beaumont again. We were definitely lucky to be spared from this one. 

Two days after the storm, we packed up for our first work crew. Arriving in Lake Charles was like arriving on the set of an apocalypse movie. Trees just snapped right in half, entire roofs torn away, electric poles and power lines laying in the street, street lights just gone. I mean, wow. It was tragic just to see the swath of destruction. It is lucky that is was moving as fast as it was...had Laura been a slow moving storm, there might not have been a Lake Charles left to go help. There was no flooding, so our service consists of tarping roofs and cleaning debris,  mostly. This is going to be one for the professionals to handle, in the long run. There are huge crews of electrical trucks ready to start working on the infrastructure. 

Sunday we were going back to work, so we had an early sacrament meeting in our grubbies, then loaded up for the long drive back to Louisiana. We had to rush back from that one a little early, because Saturday night I was asked to play at a fireside Sunday night, so we had to get back. We barely made it with time to change, no shower or food, but at least we made it. And the fireside went well, although my piano solos sounded like I hadn't played them in a month...which is true, I didn't even have time to run through them before the concert. So that was an exciting little trip. 

Other than that, Elder Gregory and I made another unsuccessful gator-hunt nature walk. This is his last week, so we will have to try again. 

I am sure there was more, but Laura definitely overshadowed everything else. What a drama queen. 

Signing out, safe but slightly burnt,

Elder DeFord

Week 96 (8/24/20) Just a Few Experiences

 Just a few experiences to share this week:

I had the opportunity to interview three baptismal candidates. I love having that experience, because they are so open to the spirit and so excited for the step they are about to make. In each interview, I closed by talking about the Sacrament, and how we make the same covenant when we partake of the Sacrament that we do when we are baptized. As I was teaching this principle, it hit me again how important the Sacrament is in our lives. Here I was, interviewing these people to ensure they were prepared for the covenant they were about to make. But who interviews me every week before I partake of the Sacrament? That is an opportunity that I have each week to evaluate my own desire. That is one thing that is so powerful about our covenants, D&C 20:37 talks about how one of the main requirements for a baptismal candidate is desire, the interview questions ask if you are willing to strive, and Alma asked about the desires of the people's hearts. We are not turned away from the Sacrament table because we aren't perfect yet. Instead, it is a perfecting tool that we have been given to strengthen and help us. 

We did have a change this week, we are now allowed to eat and teach in members homes when invited, so that is an exciting step forward. We got to eat with a couple of member families, and it was awesome just to get to see people in person and have a real conversation. 

We have been teaching this one friend, A__, for awhile, just over the phone. We texted him when we found out that we could teach in person again, but he responded in a bit of a weird way, saying he wouldn't be living there. We were pretty worried, and then his wife (who we have never talked to) texted us out of the blue and asked us to call. It turns out that he had gotten into some things that were really detrimental and self-destructive, and they were just reaching out for support. After praying with her, and ourselves starting a fast, we called up our bishop and relief society president. I just appreciate how willing the church is to give assistance in every circumstance, even to people who we have never met. 

Elder Gregory and I are on a quest to see some alligators, but who knows, they might come swimming up the street during the impending flood. The first two parks we checked for them were gator-less, but we did see a doe only about 20 feet from us, so that was pretty cool. 

Have a great day, have a great week, have a great life (credit the previous Elder DeFord)

Elder DeFord

Week 95 (8/17/2020) Giant Spiders?

 

Dear y'all,

 

Honestly, it was a pretty long, boring week. But, since we are officially a Facebook mission (tm), and have been tasked with creating quality content, I should probably muster the strength to write some sort of a weekly anyways.

 

So, we finally got our Facebook training...which was all information we had already received, pretty much. We are supposed to create content that can then be posted either on our personal page or on the zone's Facebook page. However, only one companionship is assigned to reach out to those who interact with the page, and they are supposed to get the people who are interested to the right missionaries. Functionally, that means that we are not really using Facebook after all, since we aren't going to be doing any real proselyting after all. 

 

Elder Soares has apparently given our area the go to move to phase one of covid de-quarantining. Which, I suppose is hopeful, although the list of things we are allowed to do didn't really look different. We will find out more about that tomorrow, though. 

 

We had a virtual zone conference this week with President Piper, the area president. He really emphasized seeking revelation in the work and following the spirit. 

 

On Saturday we got to do some service in feels-like-110 degree weather, which was fun. 

 

Oh, I suppose I should mention. Should anyone be concerned for my safety because some missionaries here in Houston had their apartment broken into (not that that actually has any correlation to my safety, as long as it wasn't my apartment, but nonetheless) I am safe and secure. The missionaries are in the Houston mission, so I don't know them or have any other details. 

 

Now for your story for the week. Last Sunday, we got a referral named L__, and gave her a call. We had a great little conversation, and she was excited to do a Bible study with us on Tuesday. Tuesday rolls around, we give her a call, and teach a lesson about fasting, as that was the topic she had requested. Near the end of the lesson, I asked "when we talked last time, you talked about wanting to strengthen your relationship with your daughter, right?"  I don't think I have ever been more consternated than when she responded "No. You have the wrong number, I don't have a daughter." At this point I am frantically wracking my brain: I remember our Sunday conversation vividly, I know she had a daughter..."this is L__, right?" I ask, searching for some explanation. "Yes", she responded. Thoroughly confused, we set a return appointment with her anyways, and awkwardly end the call. A quick look into area book revealed my mistake. Last week we got two separate referrals named L__, L__ J and L__ W. When I had put in the information for L__ W's lesson, I had accidentally listed L__ J, so we called her instead. Laughing at our foolishness, we gave the right L__ a call and taught her the same lesson on fasting. Actually, we are fasting with her today! 

 

Well, seeing as I have now written enough to prove my continued existence (assuming that this wasn't typed by the giant spider who caught me in its web and assumed my identity) I will end here. I hope everyone has a great week!

 

Elder DeFord

 

Week 94 (8/10/2020) Facebook?

 

Hey y'all,

 

 

While Facebook has been live for a couple of weeks now, our zone isn't getting our training until this next Sunday, I think, so we won't really be doing anything with it until then. Even after that, most of the posts will be going through a zone page, and not my personal one. So, for anyone wondering about how social media has changed my mission, so far it has been pretty underwhelming. 

 

One thing the church does do on social media is pay for advertisements that encourage people to get in touch with missionaries. Once they put in their information, we get a referral notice and can reach out. The only problem is, many of them have no idea what they are signing up for! I had one of the Come unto Christ ads pop across my screen, so I signed up just to see what experience everyone else was having. It took me only about 10 seconds and then our phone buzzed with a new referral of Adam DeFord. The ad I had seen was to have missionaries pray with me, but nothing in our referral request showed that. The system really just needs to be slightly fine-tuned, as many times we will call one of these referrals and they either won't know that they were referred or will have no interest in what we are actually doing. One lady told us that they must have misunderstood her request...and I'm sure we did, since we don't know what the original request was!

 

That being said, we did talk to one referral who was just so excited to start studying the Bible with us, so we are happy to start teaching her. Although, again, we came into the first contact with different expectations. She was expecting a Bible study, and all we knew is that she had seen some ad about the church and clicked on it. But, thankfully she was vocal about what she wanted, so we could set up to help her out. 

 

The S__s are doing well. We set up to start teaching their oldest two kids Sundays after church. We would be teaching the younger two as well, but they promptly ran out of the room and up and down the hallway. We didn't expect that they would be able to sit and listen, though. They will pick it all up in primary, once primary is a thing again. 

 

Our restrictions have eased up a little bit, so we can now teach people or eat with members on their porches. Teaching isn't really the difficulty, however! Finding new people to teach without being able to contact them is the real challenge, but they are hopeful that Facebook is going to help somewhat with that. 

 

Signing off,

Elder DeFord

 

Week 93 (8/3/2020) Cut to the Chase

 

Let's cut to the chase, shall we?

 

Transfers went relatively smoothly, although Elder Gregory, Elder Safsten, and I were in a trio for a night. Elder Safsten took one for the team and slept on the couch for his last night, before heading off to Pasadena the next day.

 

Thursday Facebook hit our phones, which honestly wasn't that exciting. Although it did make my mission, which already hardly feels like a mission, feel less like a mission. But we are all good here. 

 

Now for the miracle. You know we have been working with the S__'s. Well, during our Thursday night lesson, they asked what they needed to do to move forward with their rebaptism, so we talked about that a little, and they were talking to Bishop today. Well, around 11 am on Sunday, Bishop calls us and tells us he interviewed them and they were good to move forward with the baptism. Sweet! And then he said this little gem: "are y'all busy this afternoon?" Long story short, we scrambled to get baptismal clothing and to get the font filled, and at 3:15 Sunday afternoon I was standing in the font with Bro S__. They asked me to perform the baptisms and confirmations, and it was a very humbling and powerful experience.  

 

I am so incredibly grateful that I have been able to be here for their journey, and to feel the spirit which has been around them. My whole mission, I never really felt like I was there for anyone we were teaching-any given missionary could have been in my place. And of course, that is as true in this case as well, God can do His own work through whichever instrument He chooses. But still, there was something special about working with the S__s. I love their family, and I am so grateful for their faith and trust and humility. They are an awesome example to me. It has to be so hard to return, but they have met the challenge head on, and done some amazing things. 

 

May God bless us all with the humility to follow and trust Him.

 

Elder DeFord

 

Week 92 (7/27/2020) Countenance Journal

 

Countenance Journal? Visage Grimoire? Expression library? Oh! Facebook!

 

That is right, after 21 months of my mission, we are getting Facebook this week. It will be a learning experience putting everything together and figuring out how to work over social media, but it will be a new challenge for sure. Stay tuned, we may be getting Instagram too.

 

Transfers is this week, although pday didnt change days this time around. I am staying here with Elder Gregory as my new companion. He goes home this transfer, so this ward is going to be dropping missionaries like flies. I will also be returning to district leader duties, so President isn't quite letting me just cruise out these last few months without having to make phone calls. 

 

We had our last two musical firesides this week, and those went well. 

 

The S__'s are doing awesome, I think they were supposed to have met with the stake president this Sunday, so we will hopefully learn later how that went. But things are going well with them. 

 

Well, other things probably happened, but I will leave you in dramatic suspense. And...coming soon to a social media platform near you.

 

Elder DeFord

 

Week 91 (7/20/2020) I Believe in Christ

 

The weeks continue trudging along. This is week six of the transfer, so next week will be transfers and p-day will be on Tuesday. 

 

We had two more of the musical firesides this week, including the one for our ward. Not very many people were able to make it, but it went very well. Everyone tells me that they can hear me bearing my testimony when I play "I Believe in Christ" what they don't realize is that all that is running through my head is a frantic desperation to hit all the notes  I'll see if I can include a recording, though. 

 

The S__'s are doing really well. We had a lesson with them on Tuesday, and Bishop joined the zoom call with them. Again, they are just absolutely amazing. They have really chosen to be all in. We talked with Bishop, and he said that they should be cleared for rebaptism within the month. Their oldest son, who is ten, has said he is really enjoying all of it. (Also, dad, sidenote: you know that tie you got from Mr.Macs that looked like Joseph's tie of many colors? I think that J__, the ten year old, has the same tie. Pretty fun)

 

We got back in touch with the A__O__ family, and they agreed to do a zoom call with us for a lesson this week, so hopefully that works out. I don't know how to teach 14 people on a video chat, but then, I hardly know how to teach that many in person either. 

 

Oh, I guess I should mention that it was my birthday, and I am officially no longer a teenager. It threw me for a loop when someone first asked how old I was and I said "twenty".

 

Well, that is the highlight reel. Hope everyone is staying safe from the virus, and not getting too moldy from sitting at home all day. Of course, you may have fewer problems with mold if you live in a less humid environment. Anyways!

 

Elder DeFord

 

Week 90 (7/13/2020) Carnegie Chapel

 

Hey y'all,

 

As you probably have heard, given the fact that y'all get a lot more news than I do, corona cases have spiked recently. Unfortunately, that includes a couple of our missionaries. And, unfortunately, the powers that be decided that that means we were unsafe, and increased our quarantine restrictions. We can still go to church, but that is about it for us.

 

Update on all the fellas we are teaching...unfortunately, because of the increased restrictions, we were not able to go over and teach the A__O__s, and haven't been able to get in contact with them. 

 

The M__s are doing really well, T__'s brother is coming down to baptize him....in November, but at least there is a goal. 

 

Really cool story: last Sunday, we had a brother come to church who had had his records removed from the church, but because of a recent spiritual experience had felt, with his wife, the desire to maybe come back. We met with him and his wife over zoom on Thursday, and they are so amazing! Even just two weeks ago, they were dead-set against coming back to church, and now they are reading from the Book of Mormon, they brought their whole family to church on Sunday, and they feel very strongly the need to return. The Lord works in truly miraculous ways, and I am grateful that I get to be an observer of it all. 

 

We had the first of our musical firesides on Sunday, with the Spanish ward. Because of gathering restrictions, we are doing a separate one for each ward. It was the first time I had ever performed a piano solo, and I did not one but two solo songs, but they went okay. Definitely not Carnegie hall level, but as long as no one in the audience had a metronome they probably didn't notice my time wandering. Or they just thought it was "artistic license" and that slowing down right before a hard chord is "stylistic". Which is what we are going to call it. 

 

Those are the big things. I love being here, I love testifying of Christ and His Gospel most of all! He lives, and He loves, and He invites each of us to know Him for ourselves. 

 

Love,

Elder DeFord