Week 20: 2/27/2017 Weekly Mailer Time ... Long Week

So unfortunately... no welding last week... super sad but true. My companion decided that it wasn't safe.... so yeah. We didn't go. But that night we ate with the Piñas so that was sweet. Almost made up for it. And our shenanigans on Thursday made up for it. But still super sad, and Brother Morris who we were gonna do it with was super sad and bummed... I feel really bad.

Tuesday was pretty good though, we met with C... but unfortunately no temple last week. Hopefully we can still go this week... but we'll see. They moved up their move so they're going crazy packing right now. But then we also had a sweet lesson with C (different person than the first C, lol)... but we're dropping him. Just temporarily but it needs to be done. His wife is suuuper pregnant and really busy... and she wants to do a homebirth, plus they've got other craziness. So we're gonna take a break for a while until we can meet with the whole family, we think that will help C. a lot and their whole family needs it.

Wednesday was exchanges which is always fun. I had a strange experience... so I went with Elder Gallegos, and he had a Chiropractor appointment. We went to the office and he got his back fixed and stuff (he screwed it up royally at Lowes a few weeks ago) I just hung out and watched part of the Book of Life and then Moana later... but then right as we were leaving the chiropractor who was working on him looked at me and said, you should probably come back. He then proceeded to inform me of the fact that because I turn my left foot out my left shoulders rides higher than my right, and he also predicted some pains I get in my lower back sometimes when playing the piano... it was a little spooky. Haha, then he told me it would just get worse and start hurting as I got older if I didn't do anything about it... but he could fix me. Super spooky, weird Sherlock Holmes Chiropractoriness.... after that we went and tutored someone in math... and got to watch part of Zootopia. So I watched parts of three Disney movies on exchanges... it was a good day ;P we also served at the food bank in the morning and stuff. Unfortunately the lesson in my area cancelled... but they rescheduled and it should still happen.

Now Thursday... was a day. A sister in our district is going home in a couple transfer so she had a “my plan” meeting to go to so we held DTM (District Training Meeting) really early to accommodate that... but then we were having a birthday lunch for her at the Porters because her birthday was Friday... so we just studied in between and then went to lunch with everyone else. But this is where everything gets crazy. They had punch balloons... so we stole them all... and shenanigans began. Anyway we all had quite the time messing with the balloons. It was fun. And I got a new leather jacket. Looks like an old flight jacket. Super sweet. we did more service because of the snow that had come in and then we saw the Gibbons which is always fun. More on that on Saturday.

After that we got to have a dinner with a family we were hoping to start teaching... but unfortunately it seems they are still not interested in returning to church. The parents have been inactive for 30 years and the kids just aren't interested. Super sad. But the food was awesome. And they said we can still come see them occasionally. I hope to stay in touch, the father is super awesome, I'm hoping we can go on adventures after the mission. Then we had a great lesson with F. and put him back on date which was awesome and unexpected.

Ugh Friday... weekly planning. Our weekly planning ended up taking something like 4 hours this time around... painful. But it was good, and then we went and tutored P. for a while and then went back to Great Steak for RIBS!!! Oh man they're fantastic. Then we had a good lesson with the G’s and basically chastised them for not coming to church and told them this was the last chance or we'd have to drop them. It was a rough lesson, but it seemed to help them a lot finally. Of course they didn't come to church, but we've decided to give them one last week. 

Saturday we helped with some moves... specifically for a less active part member family. They provided lunch... and beer. Unfortunately my companion kept a close eye on me so I didn't get to try any... ;P haha jk. But it was fun. Now back to the Gibbons, so he's a musician and he just started playing with a new music group, so we stopped by to hear them play. They were just getting set up so they invited me to join in on the organ. We jammed for a little while and I tried to keep up... I'm not sure how good it was but it was fun. We're gonna go back this week again and jam some more then hopefully go to lunch with the group. Then we headed right back to help move people some more. We really spent like all day moving. But it was good. Nothing too exciting after that just trying to talk to people.

Sunday was a Sunday. We went to church like normal, D. came which was awesome. We also set up an interview with the bishop for their family so that they could progress. Other than church though... pretty tame day. Just visited some people and did some stuff. Ya know, the norm. Alright I'm tired of writing, see ya.

Love all you peeps

Elder DeFord

New Leather Jacket

Week 19: 2/20/2017 It's That Time Again

So, yes, Zone activity at the fight club... I'll send a video, basically the highlight of the whole thing ;P but that was the fun part of the day, it kind of took over the whole day though ‘cuz it was busy when we got there and we had so many people we had to do two separate groups. But in other news, I won my group, so that was fun. The rest of Monday wasn't all that exciting though, I did play spike ball for the first time which was pretty cool. And we ate with Brent which is always an adventure.

Tuesday was actually super good, we got to see C, I feel so much better now that we can meet with her every week again. And even better... she's going to the temple tomorrow! Woohoo! After that we spent most of the day finding and stuff. We did have a lesson scheduled but it canceled... figures :P we also got to contact some new people though which was awesome. And we got to go see them just a few days later. And we got to meet with a family that everyone has said were not interested at all... and it was awesome. I have really high hopes for them. It's gonna be super cool. We're actually eating dinner with them in a few days. Yum!

We spent all of Wednesday morning either doing service or looking for service... we found a few options... but we needed to get permission for all of them... so we had to wait again. But then we got to meet with a new family for the first time... super cool. He sells Chameleons online for a living, so his whole house feels like a lizard cage and he has lots of cages and different varieties... super cool. I'll post some picture. But yeah we got to hold some of them, and talk with them, they also work with a group called Life Leadership which sounds kind of cool. They gave me some materials I'm gonna send home since I can't use them know but it looked interesting.

We got an interesting call Thursday morning... Brother Hammon from the 2nd Ward called to ask if we would be interested in a musical number in their ward that Sunday... which of course we said yes... so we needed to figure some stuff out fast. So we popped over to D's house and got some music then spent the morning figuring out what we were gonna do. It was kind of fun. We decided to do He Sent His Son, Sally's arrangement, which, fun fact, was the very first song I ever performed in a sacrament  meeting. And ya know what's cool.. the other song I was gonna perform on Sunday for another ward was I Have Not Seen, Yet I Believe... the second song I'd ever performed in sacrament meeting. Talk about nostalgia. And even better... I think I was singing for a farewell or something... or maybe a homecoming... anyway. Food bank service and another lesson with a family... hopefully they decide to meet with us. If anyone could use prayers, please pray for the Ms, that they'll decide that they want to listen to our message when we see them on Thursday.

Friday is my favorite day! Ya know why? President Interviews! I love President so much... he's really the most inspired guy on the planet. Like... sorry all you other missionaries who thought your mission
President was cool... mine tops you all. I'm so grateful and so blessed by the opportunity:) and I love Interviews. They just feel good. But anyway that took a lot of the morning. Then we had weekly
planning and then went out to lunch with a member... and had more weekly planning and a lesson... which cancelled so more weekly planning... it was a long day.... but good :) and dinner is always
good so no worries there. We had this delicious homemade Stromboli... ooo good stuff.

Luckily we survived the Friday stuff... and almost didn't survive Saturday. We've been working on our song off and on but we decided that accompanists were too hard to get in such short notice which
means I was gonna play... which means I need a mic. So we spent most of Saturday morning trying to track down a mic stand that would work for a piano... ugh. People were not being cooperative to say the least. Eventually we gave up and decided to go do missionary work... which was actually super good. The mission is focusing on chapter 4 of PMG this month... which is all about following the spirit and stuff... we got to apply that a lot. Basically whenever we ran out of people or plans or ideas... pray time. One experience in particular was super cool, although similar things really happened throughout the day. For instance yesterday we were driving and I felt prompted to visit a particular person as we went to where we had already been directed by the Lord. It was good and we managed to talk to him and set something up. Then as we left we had to drive by another investigator we had planned to see today, and I felt like we should wait which I thought was weird. But we went on to what we planned... then I got a very distinct impression to visit him after all.... which required driving and back tracking a ton... I wondered why on earth I was prompted to see him now and not earlier... especially when they didn't answer the door. But then as we left again we prayed and Elder Skaggs led us to a door of a lady who said she was interested, and turned out to be the aunt of the people we had met earlier... who then happened to drive by and she said she would come to their lesson. Wow. It was pretty incredible to say the least. Life is good as a missionary. We also got to see another family a similar way... who I've been waiting and waiting to progress. I hope they do although I may be gone by then :( but I just want them to grow. But we also got to skype in to a baptism in vernal which was cool.

Sunday... oh lovely Sunday... so two songs... our recent converts M and V blessed their son D in sacrament meeting and we got to participate... super cool. Haha he would not hold still though... not
even a little bit. But it was fun. Then I sang in another ward... then we sang together in another another ward... and the we finally had a normal sacrament.... meeting with a High Priest Group Leader, a few visits, a sort of lesson with some people we taught a couple weeks ago... it was really good but we're dropping them for now until they're really ready to progress. It's one of those sad things where I know they will progress and they'll come to Christ... but not yet :( we had member with us though... who turns out to run a studio... which is attached to the back end of his house... so beautiful. We got to tour it... oh my goodness. Just gorgeous, all of it. I wish I had taken pictures. Turns out we should have asked him for a mic stand... it was even his ward we sang in... but whatevs I guess. Dinner, lesson, then dinner lesson.... it was a good night. :) and there's the week.

Hope life is still good for everyone at home. Oh yeah, we also met this lady from Spain... super super cool.

Anywho, love ya,
Elder DeFord

 

Week 18: 2/13/2017 Fight Club Part II

Well hello all of you lovely people. What a great way to start a morning seeing all of your lovely faces... or something. Huh.... tomorrow is V-day isn't it? Ya know I didn't even realize that until yesterday. That's one of those holidays that everyone kind of tries to ignore or forget exists in the mission.... I guess we must do a pretty good job. But anyway let the weekly begin.

I'm honestly never sure how much I bother to tell you about pdays... cuz I email in the morning and then the day happens but I tell some people about some of the stuff and I think some of it at least makes it into my mailer... I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy. Obviously we went to Lowes last week and hung out there for a while, we also went pawn shopping with the Zone Leaders (ZLs) and what not. Fun stuff. I also don't remember if I told you... our pdays are kind of all figured out. This week is a Zone activity at fight club, next week we're learning to weld, week after that haircuts and probably lowes, and the week after that adventure in Moab with Brent. Good times :)

Anyway we started off the week by stealing an older ladies Bricks... well asking permission to anyway. We have a pair of investigators that live in some less active members basement/back of house, and while it's a super nice house and brand new, the landscaping and stuff wasn't done before winter hit, so they have giant, super nasty field of mud you have to track through to get to their door. So when we discovered that a lady we helped move had a bunch of paving stones she didn't want and was giving away we stole them and offered to make them a path to walk on. Even better though... this was the day we finally caught up with C. We had gone by Monday night and talked to her brother and his wife, actually gave him a blessing in the process and they said she's normally awake around noon.... so gosh dang it we were there at noon the next day. And she was awake. Hallelujah! We actually had a really good lesson and got to understand the situation a ton better, she said she would make it out to church so she could be confirmed finally. We're also hoping to get her ready for the temple so we can help her with that as well. Sooo exciting. We also got to see T. that day which is always fun. We got to talking about our deep stuff for just a little while but we didn't have a ton of time unfortunately. I'm super excited for them too though.

Wednesday was one of those interesting days... My companion and all the other district leaders had to go to a district leader training meeting so I was on a temporary exchange with Elder Hill. It was fun... but no car which was a bit of an adjustment to say the least. But it was super fun actually. We went to go visit someone... and I saw this dog. And I just felt like we needed to catch it. Wasn't sure why... just that we needed to. So we did. Her name was Arrow and she lived at a nearby house. I checked my iPad, it said some members lived there but I figured I'd ask. So I texted Bishop Jarvis... his records showed a less active and his nonmember wife. Bingo. We figured we would go offer to fix their fence where the dog was getting out and go from there. To be continued.... on Thursday ;P the rest of the morning was fine, we saw Emilio and got paid for twice in the process. (I think he means they got their meal paid for) Yum.

Then once my companion got back we went to a chapel for weekly planning... and saw A's kids who flagged us down and asked if we could walk them home from school because their parents were gone with the baby and couldn't come get them. First we tried to find someone to take them (since we couldn't drive them) but eventually we decided we'd just walk them and leave it at that. Haha but they're distractible. It took almost an hour to get there. But it was a fun little service anyway ;P after that we just visited about a bajillion people. And that's our day.

Actually one other really cool thing happened that I forgot about, so there are a couple kids we've been trying to teach for a while. R and J. And last time we saw them they just said they weren't ready right then so we left them alone for a while. Then about a week ago we just happened to be going by and knocked and R. said to give him a week to think about it. So we had planned to see him today anyway...then while Elder Hill and I were eating at the Great Steak he showed up. So we chased him down and talked to him for a while, he said to come by later. We talked to him again and he said sure we can do this. It was super cool.

Thursday was Zone Training Meeting. And it started early... and went late... it was a long meeting. But super good. Magic and fantasy and role playing games are now all officially banned. By the area 70. Bam. Oh and face cards too. Apparently some missionaries were uh.... shall we say distracted? That seems like a major understatement but that's what happened. After that the Zone went out for lunch, so by the time we finished studies and everything, we'd basically lost our whole day. It was almost dinner time. Ok the dog story continued, so we went on visits with Bishop Jarvis and we were in the area so I asked to stop by the house. We got there and he said that he had visited that house, it was some young college students attending the YSA Ward. All active members. Talk about a let down. But then oddly enough, we went to another house that Bishop spied because we were there... and met the coolest guy. He called himself the "Ward Heathen". I really hope I can get to know this guy better. I don't know why I had to chase that dog but this is where she led me and I want to know more. Just gotta be patient I guess.

Oh that's right we also found a family who has a ridiculous amount of dog poop in their yard. Apparently all the dogs in the neighborhood poop in their yard. So after weekly planning we went and did some service That's all poop. From just the front yard. It's maybe 10x15 feet. And we picked it up with our  hands. Haha it was a blast. And also raining a ton which made life difficult for the other project... remember stealing bricks? Well bricks to put in a muddy yard that sucks your shoes in and sticks to your feet for years gets a whole lot harder when it decides to rain the day you're putting them in. It was fun though, I think we did an ok job.

You can't see super well but I built little canals for gutters so the water can run down and not wash out the bricks

We actually managed to have a really great lesson in between the services and then a good lesson afterwards.

Shoot... Saturday was long. We seriously visited AAAAALLL OF THE PEOPLE. Barely survived. But I actually felt super good about it. And if you promise not to tell... Lakeside RV can't forward magazines if people move... so we got a brand new copy of Gameinformer. With all the stuff about the Switch and the new Zelda game... it was sooo hard to wait until the end of the day to read it. And now I gotta wait another 20 months to play the stupid thing. Oh yeah, yesterday was my 4 month mark btw.

Sunday... C. finally got confirmed. Finally finally. Finally. Now her baptism is complete and we can move on with life. In other news... we got another investigator who isn’t gonna be baptized until April. Sigh. But in other new we ate a ridiculous amount of food at the H’s, and then had a birthday party for M with even more food... oh yeah how's this for a no soliciting sign?

We saw that a few days ago, and based on the sign and what we heard about people we decided against knocking... but then the dog bell went of. And it was a biiiig, very loud dog. So the man who lived there came to the door anyway even though we hadn't even knocked. Super awkward.

Anyway hope life is good. As always, any questions or whatever just ask my mom or as me directly.

Love,

Elder DeFord