Thursday, September 24, 2015

Good Week - September 21, 2015

This has seemed like a long week. We had Transfers and our Zone Conference with President Bird in the same week!


I have been called as District leader again. It’s a little extra push to work harder, and I think it is because President doesn’t want me to get too relaxed on my last Transfer :)


The Conference was good, we talked about keeping the Sabbath day Holy and how we can do it as missionaries and how to help our investigators, and some other stuff about planning and being organized with the our records and things like that :)


This week I am most excited because of our investigator that we found, whose name is Eber. He owns a little store in our street, and we have boughten there a few times, and this last week he talked to us and said that he had been thinking about us, and gave us the name of his brother so that we could pray for him. we said one together with him, and then the next day came back and he gave us some free juice and doughnuts from his store and asked us if we had prayed for his brother, and we said yes. Then he told us that he had been dreaming about his brother, who had died, and that he saw him as very unhappy and that he couldn't find rest. But, that night, he had drempt his brother again, but this time content. Wow, there is totally someone on the other side that wants him to do his work for him in the temple! So we are teaching him the Plan of Salvation and it is going well. I am actually writing from his store right now, on some laptops that he rents out :)

We also have felt super guided to some good people this week, and I am excited to keep teaching them and to keep looking for new people :) I read the story of Ammon this week in the Book of Mormon and it helped strengthen my testimony that the Lord prepares his children to receive the gospel.


So, all is well. I think that is all I can write because I am out of time :)

Thanks for everything, love you!

Elder Redford

Helaman and Rededication - September 14, 2015

Yesterday they told us about Transfers, and no surprise, my companion and I are staying. This is my last area, my last companion, and my last Transfer!

So, not much time has passed since I last wrote on Thursday, but I would like to tell you about two super cool events this week end :)

One was the baptism of Helaman. We spent like half the day cleaning the church and trying to fill up the font. We got there early to help Helaman´s mom decorate, but they didn’t arrive until the very hour, so we kinda got started late. She brought like a snack table! Cupcakes, fruit tacos, watermelon, candy, chips, and a bunch of green decorations, because it is Helaman's favorite color :) There were only a few extended family members that came, and a handful of ward members, so it was a small group. Elder Alvarez and I gave the talks and his Dad, Hermano Carmona, baptized him.

The other was that we got to see a session of the dedication of the Mexico City Temple. It was closed for a time to remodel. That was a cool experience. President Eyeing Presided and Elder Holland and Elder Piper were there. And since they didn’t all speak Spanish, they would say a line or two, and pause for the translator. It was cool to understand the two of them :) They were great talks. Elder Piper reminded us of Sacrifice, and all the sacrifices of members in order to have temples, Elder Richards talked about the importance of doing family history work, and Elder Holland talked about how the prophecy of Elijah the Prophet is happening before the great and terrible day of the Lord. It was a great talk. He said that all of us, being those who live in the last days, promised in the council of heaven in the premortal life that we would do the work of our ancestors who lived during the dark ages. He said that they did their part in helping us come to the earth, and now we need to do our part and be Saviors for them .It was such a good talk, then to top it off, Elder Holland shared his personal testimony in Spanish. It was one of the most special experiences. Just hearing him pronounce the words: Yo sé que jesucristo es nuestro Salvador. and Yo sé que la iglesia es verdadera, just flooded me with the spirit. Let’s just say that I was bawling when he said amen, and then it was followed by the dedicatory prayer, and we sang the Spirit of God as a congregation, which we all sang at the top of our lungs. It was just a wonderful experience.

Well, now I just need to finish strong. President sent me a packet with talks about creating a Life Plan, and wants me to make one and set some goals to talk about in my exit interview. The end is drawing near! I just need to find a whole bunch of awesome people for my companion to teach, to leave the area strong. 

¡Les quiero a todos un buen!

Elder Redford 

Helaman and Rededication‏ - September 14, 2015

 Helaman's Baptism



Sunday, September 13, 2015

Temple Week - September 10, 2015

Hola Todos,

So we went to the temple today, and my p day got changed :) It was good because it felt like a long time since I had gone.

This was a good week, we have been working a lot with Fatima, and recent convert who is getting a little rebellious, we were able to share about the Atonement with her and it really was a great lesson. Her parents aren’t members, and are worried about her because she doesn’t want to go to church anymore, so they decided that they would go to church with her so that she would go! It was funny that her nonmember parents were more excited to go than she was. It was Stake Conference too, so they really like what they heard (they had to leave early because they had plans with the family, but they really liked it :) So, that was cool :)

I had two Companion Exchanges since I last wrote, both were really good.
We are getting ourselves ready for Helaman's baptism this week! It will be really good to finally get him baptized! We had it set two weeks ago but they moved the date. So yeah. He made his program as well, he wants to sing follow the Prophet and wants Elder Alvarez and I to give the talks :)

Last night we tried to make flour tortillas... they turned out really hard, so we did something wrong... we learned that a Kilo of flour makes a TON of tortillas, way more than we thought..... We will need to ask what went wrong, because they just break when you try to fold them in half :)   

Well, it is great to hear that Megan had a Happy Happy Birthday, and Cello for a gift isn’t too shabby :)

And, I am super excited to hear that my cousin Mikayla got her endowments! I know she will be a great missionary :)

Well, I will let you know how the baptism goes, love you all!

Elder Hayden Redford
                                     Elder Redford & Elder Alvarez at the Monterrey Temple
                                                                   Making Tortillas