Ok, this time I have internet :) - June 29, 2015

Ok, this time I have internet :)

Alright, so I kinda need to catch up from last week, because the internet went down in the cyber :) 

So I stayed here with my companion in the same area. I am pretty sure that I am going to die in this area (which means end my mission :), or in other words, that it is my last area. 

The week before we did a ward activity where we trained the members on how to be follow shippers and how to help us out with our investigators. It turned out good, but not as well as we expected. We didn’t have enough time for the 3 companionships to share everything that they had prepared, so we had to cut ours short, and it didn’t turn out was well as we wanted...  but that’s ok. We told them that they could help us out by 1 giving rides 2 greeting them and 3 sitting with them, being the investigators, in church. 

From Sunday to Monday we did a fast to find new investigators. The Lord was trying our patience. Monday was terrible. Tuesday wasn’t too great either. And then on Wednesday we found a less active, Eric and his nonmember wife, Flor, who has a desire to be baptized and to be married in the temple! The only bad thing is that for their work schedules it is super hard to find them, but this next month she doesn’t have to work Sundays, and promised us that she would go to church. So that was good. 

Then On Thursday we brought some youth (including a young man Javier and a recent convert Fatima) with us to visit Debahny. We weren’t able to visit her on Tuesday when we had the appointment because she got sick (another bit of patience tried), but she was home Thursday, and we had a great lesson. Her and Fatima clicked as friends, and we could feel the spirit as we taught the Restoration. In that lesson I felt the same as when I taught Betty and Valente, a super awesome family that I taught and who just barely completed a year as members. And for that, I know that she too will be baptized. We can just feel it. She couldn’t come to church in Sunday though because when went to see her grandpa who is really sick. ... we hope that she can go next and things calm down with her grandpa. 

Then On Sunday, since we enter at 3, we went and taught family in the morning. Only the husband, Jaime (Hi - may, or James if you like) came out, and we taught him on the porch about Joseph Smith. We were surprised that he had read the pamphlet we had left with him, and he more or less understood it too, so we just cleared everything up, invited him to pray about it, and to come to church with us that afternoon. He said yes. So we called a member, Hermano Jesus Belttran, to pick him up to take him to church. 

We were kind of down when he hadn’t showed up even after sacrament meeting. But then we saw Hermano Jesus come through the door, and a few seconds later, brother Jaime. We were super excited to see him. We learned afterwards that the member's car had stalled, and that he, and our investigator, had to push it to the church, and then into the parking lot, and that was why they had arrived late. The members did a wonderful job fellowshipping him, and we even found out that of the Elders quorum counselors is his boss at work! 

Then as we were heading back with the other Elders in the ward to our areas, we saw them on the side of the road with the hood up, so we stopped so see if they were ok, and he got the car started up again and we took Jaime and his 5 year old son who came with him back home. It was quite an adventure for our investigator, but he seemed to be a good sport about it, and I hope it helped him form a bond with the members :) 

So, it was good week. Fasting is true, and God answers prayers. But he tries our patience too :) I am excited to see these investigators keep progressing! 

I pray that all is well at home. Love you all!

Elder Redford

New Transfer - June 22, 2015

Well, I am starting my third to last transfer. Only three more to go, 4 and a half months. We just had Transfers, but I am staying here with Elder Martinez. 

I can’t believe we have a dog! 

I am so sorry, but the cyber lost its internet connection and it didn’t save anything that I wrote, and I don’t have any time left...... 

But all is well, I am doing good :) 

I hope to be able to write more next week. I think it is for the weather, it was been raining all week long! 

I am sorry I can't write more, but I love you and I hope all is well, and I hope that Haylee gets used to Cesar quickly! 

Love, 

Elder Redford  

Door Step Lessons - June 15, 2015

This was a good week.

It started off good with exchanges with the district leader, I went to his area with his companion Elder Oliveros, and it was a good successful day with some really spiritual lessons. The only bad thing is that we lost their cell phone....We had a Zone Conference that morning before the Exchanges, and we went the bathroom before we left, and ended up leaving the phone on the counter...( he was busy, so he handed it to me to answer it, and I put it on the counter after I hung up to use the bathroom as well, but neither of us picked it back up....and no one has found it....) So it has been hard for the district leader to make the phone calls. I now have the function of the back-up district leader, as I am making the calls now to the other missionaries in the district and reporting to the Zone Leaders :) 

This week we have had a lot of success finding new investigators... 12 new investigators this past week :) We are having success by knocking a door, contacting the person at their door, teaching a lesson and inviting them to baptism, all on the doorstep. The majority have said yes, they would like to, so we put another appointment with them and leave them a pamphlet and end with a prayer. It was been really successful this week. 

Helaman, the 9 year old son of a less active family we are teaching is going great, he came to church on Sunday with the whole family and is learning quickly. It is good for the family to hear all the lessons again, they really are all learning together. It is a little more fun to teach kids because we have to be more creative in coming up with activities and object lessons to hold his attention and help him understand, and it is good to just teach everything super simple

We are going to have a wad activity this week planned by the Missionaries to teach the members how they can help us fellowship the investigators we are teaching. What it means to fellowship, how to do it, and how they can help us by, one, giving rides, two, greeting them in sacrament meeting, and three, sitting with the investigators or inviting the investigators to sit with them. We are basically going to 'train' them on how to be fellow shippers :)

We have also been able to visit a few of the members that live in the area and invite them personally and to just get to know them better too, and I have really enjoyed it and feel much more comfortable working with them :) 

This might be Elder Martinez's last week here in the area! He has been here a while, so we will see on Sunday what happens with Transfers! 

Well thanks for everything and have a great week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Hayden Redford

Happy Summer Vacation to all!‏ - June 8, 2015

WOW! I AM SEEING SO MANY BLESSINGS RIGHT NOW IN THE FAMILY! 

I know that God loves us and know us and is willing to bless us with all his tender blessings if we are obedient and diligent.

Congratulations, Dad, on your new calling! I was super surprised and excited to hear that you were called to be the Ward Clerk! Good Luck :P 

And to hear the ShayLynn is the President of the Seminary Council is super awesome to hear as well. She will do great and will learn tons :) 

I hope the Girls camp was a success! ( I´ll read about it in a sec, I am going to print your letter. )

Well ,things are good here in Montetcristal. My Companion got a little sick this week in the stomach with diarrhea and things like that, so a few days we took it a little slower. 

We are trying to get things picked up here, it is going a little slow, so we are trying to be creative with how we go about the work.... so far we have decided that we need to get to know the members better so that they will be more willing to help us out, and we are also asking Inspired Questions in our contacts. Like for example, we begin the conversation, and then say ' we have a question for you' and then ask a good, thought provoking question. Like, if the Savior was here in this moment, what would you ask him? Or, what is the most important thing you have in this life? Or, what do you know about Jesus Christ? And then depending on their answer, we can teach them according to their needs and the contact is more meaningful. 

This Sunday we changes buildings and our schedule, and we are officially attending at 3.00 to 6.00 in the afternoon. It is really hard as a missionary, since we only have time to work in the mornings when there isn’t much success, and our prime hours of success are from 3.00 to 7.00. We just need to adjust I think. The good thing is that there is a lot of time to invite people in the morning :) 

On Tuesday we had interviews with President Bird, which were really good, He challenged me to teach Family History more, and  he asked me a few questions about when I return home, like he was trying to make me homesick or something :( Three more transfers is all! 

Attached is a picture of Elder Martinez and I, Our door with and exaggerated number of locks on it, and our view from the patio behind our house.

Thanks so much for everything and keep up the good work :) 

Elder Redford

 Locks on our door

 Elder Martinez & Elder Redford at the Temple

 

 The from the patio behind our house

 The from the patio behind our house

Habits - June 1, 2015

Congrats to Megan and Makaila  for their graduations! 

Well, there isn’t much that has happened since Thursday :) 

Thursday night we had a Family Home Evening with the Martinez Fuentes family, and we taught them how to make Good Habits using 7 steps, and then invited each member of the family to make one and makes plans to develop it.  It turned out good because each one was able to make a habit that would help the family be more united, as that is their challenge (their 14 year old daughter Fatima is the only member). We were hoping that the dad would make his habit to stop drinking or something like that, but instead he decided that he would spend more time with the family, which is really good as well. If I can remember them, these are the 7 steps: 

1 Decide on the Habit. 

2 Write all the blessings that you would receive if you could develop it. 

3 Don’t permit exceptions. Write down all your excuses for not doing it. Then, cross them all out.  

4 Visualize yourself with that habit. 

5 Make a saying or a phrase. As a reminder of your habit. It can be a motivation and a reminder to keep on going when the situation presents itself to put your habit into practice.

6 Tell someone your habit, so that they can support you to develop it. (Heavenly Father is a second person that it would be good to tell it to as well) 

7 Give yourself a reward once you have developed it, as an incentive :) 

On Friday I had Exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and Elder Austacio worked with me for a day. It was really good, I was really impressed with his humility and how much he depends on the Lord and the Holy Ghost. He was always testifying and teach everything very simply. He helped me see that I need to testify more when I teach and that unity with my companion is important (even though I fell we get along well), but particularly in our way of teaching. I was able to learn a lot and we have been able to set some good goals for the upcoming weeks, such as short, but powerful lessons. 

On Saturday we went with our ward mission leader and visited a few investigators and then he introduced us to a few of his friends, one of which is from Guana, Africa, living here in Mexico with his Argentinian Wife, and his son Raul, who happens to be a friend of Fatima's. Small world. It was interesting, were quite international in that visit, one for the US, one from Guatemala, one from Mexico, one from Africa, and another from Argentina. I don’t think that they will progress much, as they (well, she) are very rooted in Catholicism, but it was a cool experience. Part of the time they were speaking English with me. 

Sunday was sad because we had for sure 3 investigators that were going to come to church, but not a single one showed up. We even saw one in his car with his wife pass us, and we thought for sure he was on his way to church, but when we got there, he was nowhere to be found... 

Well, I am feeling good and trying to get the hang of the area and the ward, and have high hopes for this week. 

Love you all! Take care! 

Elder Hayden Redford 

Temple - May 28, 2015

So, our temple trip snuck up on us, and I wasn’t able to let you know that I would be writing late :) 

I have pictures, but I will send them on Monday, when I bring my cord with me :) 

This week was very busy, but not necessarily in the work, but with the house and moving... one day to get the contract all figured out, one to move the things form one house to another, another day to clean the old house, and another to give the keys to the landlord and get the old contract all figures out.... but yeah. Eating up a couple of hours each day. Now we are all good, we have our own house now, we still lack a few things still, like a stove, a microwave, dishes, and a broom and mop, but we will get them next P day when we have money and time to go shopping, and mission will provide us with the appliances :) 

This week we have been trying to be more friendly. Instead of 'doing contacts' we want to 'make friends'. As bad as it might be, a person really does need to first convert to the messenger before they will convert to the message, and a person doesn’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care (these are things I learned from a book I found while we were moving houses, How to be an Extraordinary Missionary by John Bytheway). It has been a lot of fun, and it make talking to people more interesting and fun. I am trying to develop more 'small talk' skills :) 

We have had some cases where even doing that they still give us fake addresses when we are really excited to visit them, but oh well, we just have to move on :) We are trying to figure out how to more efficient as well, since the area is huge and takes forever to get anywhere. 

On Tuesday the District got together and all worked in a part of our area and just contacted everyone they saw.... we have like 30 addresses to look for now, so there is a lot to do :) 

One day we had the dad of a recent convert, who isn’t a member, invited us over to the house, and as we talked with him, he really opened up to us and told us some very personal things, and even gave us a little gas stove that he had bought for us, since he heard that it was one of the things that had been robbed form the other house. We were very moved. 

The only bad thing is that as a rule, we cannot have or use gas tanks in the house for safety rules... but we couldn’t rejects such a sincere gift.... it is a hard situation, but we hope to be able to help him out with his desire to be a better person and maybe it is one step closer to him achieving his own baptism. We are going to see them again tonight, and have a type of Family Home Evening with them.  

Elder Martinez and I are getting along very well, and working hard too. He has much less time as a missionary than I have, but I am learning a lot from him :) 

Oh yeah, and our schedule to go to church will be from 3 - 6 instead of 2 - 5! Super late! Starts not this week but the next. 

I hope you could enjoy Memorial Day! And Happy Summer Vacation! 

It’s really hot here. 

Love you all and I wish everyone the best! 

Elder Redford