My apologies to my family and friends that I sent my emails to this week, but I am going to repost them here because I don't have alot of time to spend on the blog today.
Written July 5, 2013
The past month of the mission has been for the most part busy. I am finally getting over the homesickness and digging in for the long haul and loving what I am doing. Thanks to those of you whose shoulders I leaned on and cried on over the phone. You got me through the hard part. I love you ALL.
The EC is slow, slow, slow right now. We have a database of about 1600 candidates who have registered on ldsjobs.org at one time or another. When we are not teaching a workshop or helping someone who walked into the office, we are trying to reach each candidate by phone or emailing them to find out if they are still job searching or if they have a job, or if they just quit trying. We are trying to come up with more ideas of how to get people into our center. It is in a not so convenient area of Fresno as far as getting here. We don't have a bus stop close by. The centers that do have a bus stop are busy, busy with walk-in traffic all day. Our boss is petitioning the city bus line for a bus stop somewhere close to the building. As we are in the middle of an industrial park, I don't think that will happen though. Sister Henrick and I taught the workshop last Tuesday. We had three people attend - 2 women and Elder Hernandez who with his wife serve here as service missionaries four afternoons a week. He is going to being teaching the workshop in Spanish fairly soon. That will be a great asset for the Spanish speakers in the area. We are also trying to get the word out to the proselyting Elders and Sisters that if they have investigators or members they are working with who need a job, to please send them our way.
As you saw from my Facebook posting, we went to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon last Saturday. It was beautiful up there - about 20 degrees cooler than here in the valley - so it was an enjoyable day away from the stifling heat. Those trees are so massive and majestic - it is incredible to stand next to them and feel like an ant compared size wise. God created all things - and those beautiful giant trees solidify my testimony of that. Massive and incredible don't even describe them. If any of you come to visit, Yosemite and Sequoia are must-sees on the list of things to do.
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| Elder Dunford |
Tuesday night we went to the mission farewell testimony meeting for 14 missionaries going home. We said good-bye to some very special missionaries, but these three people have especially been high on the list of amazing missionaries. Elder and Sister Danley returned home to Roosevelt, UT; Elder Dunford returned home to SLC. One of the Elders going home was from New Zealand and requested that he an another Elder be permitted to perform the haka as a farewell tribute to the mission. It was wonderful. I posted it on FB, so most of you probably saw it.
When we got back to our apartment we had a text from the Elders serving in a YSA ward inviting us to a baptism, so we got cleaned up and off we went. It was such a nice baptism. All baptisms, but especially convert baptisms, have such an amazing spirit about them. The young man who was baptized is Brandon. The Danley's, a senior couple who went home yesterday, tracted Brandon out four months ago and found a 25 year old man with such a hard life and an addiction problem, who was so prepared for the change in his life. Danley's worked with him taking him through the 12-Step Addiction Recovery Program and the Elders in the YSA ward taught him the lessons. What a joyous day in his life. He radiated pure JOY when he came up out of the water. To be clean and free of his past and be able to start anew is a great blessing for this young man. Please pray for Brandon as he has a couple of family challenges facing him in the next two weeks that he needs extra strength to get through. He also needs a job - so we are praying for and working with him to help him in his search for a better outcome in his new life as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Our 4th of July was rather a different one from a home-style Kaysville 4th. Our ward had a pancake breakfast - outside where it was already 90 degrees at 8 am. It was a good breakfast and we sat at a table with a family we hadn't met before, so we have some new friends in the ward. They had flag ceremony and singing of the National Anthem and after the breakfast a kids bike parade that was really fun to watch.
We invited 5 families from our complex to the breakfast, but sadly none of them came. After the breakfast, Sister Ure and I headed to the mission office to work. 35 new missionaries came in on Wednesday. Yesterday was their training. I didn't want to sit home all day and Sister H. wanted to rest, so I went with Sister Ure and just helped wherever I could in the office. I did some filing and some organizing files and later in the day got trained to enter the new baptismal records so that they have a membership recorded. I spent a couple of hours doing that and got to go back Friday for a few more hours. The mission had 78 baptisms in June. It was a busy and fun day being there with the new missionaries. We didn't get home until after 8. We had a bite to eat and were saying companionship prayers when we heard the volley of the finale of fireworks at a high school about a mile from our house. So, we missed them completely. Not to worry though, there was a family out in the cul-de-sac in front of our house that put on a pretty good show. Sister Ure and I crashed their party and enjoyed visiting with them and watching some pretty cool fireworks on the ground instead of in the sky!
I want to share a thought with you that Jeremy, our acting office manager shared with us. His Elder's Quorum president speaking in church last week, told of overhearing his 5 year old son berating himself and calling himself stupid. The Dad stopped him and said to him "Tyson - no one is allowed to talk to my son that way! Not even you." Later that week the Dad was doing something and was frustrated with himself and muttered under his breath and aloud demeaning words about himself and being an idiot. Something we all do - right? Well as he was talking to himself, the Holy Ghost spoke to him and said "Michael - No one is allowed to talk to my Son that way! Not even you." We have a loving Heavenly Father who created us!! Think about how we make Him feel when we think or say demeaning things about ourselves. We ARE His sons and daughters. HE LOVES US! We are created in His image. He knows each of us personally and wants us to be happy and succeed. I love you all and pray daily for the same things for you - that you know how much HE loves you and how much I love you.
Written July 8, 2013
One of the things President Gelwix has requested of the mission is that every morning at 7:55 a.m. all missionaries in the CFM kneel in prayer to seek blessings on this mission. We have been asked to pray for four specific things in this prayer.
- The investigators
- The missionaries of the CFM (currently serving, at the MTC, have received calls and are awaiting their turn at the MTC and those who have not yet received their calls but are foreordained to come to this mission)
- That the members within the CFM will become more converted to sharing the gospel with friends and family
- That the missionaries will have the FAITH TO BAPTIZE
The Elders in the Hanford area called and said: "We met a miracle family that we found about a month ago. They had solid baptismal dates for the end of this month. We had been working with them to quit smoking and to prepare themselves to be baptized. Yesterday we got a call from them and they dropped us. They told us that they didn't feel like it was for them and they didn't want to come to church anymore. It was a devastating call that we received, not only to us but to our ward mission leader and to many other members of the ward. We talked to them and convinced them to come to church at least one last time and to confirm their feelings through prayer and to ask God if it was the thing that they should do. And we began to fast. We let most of the ward members know what was going on and a lot of the members of the ward were fasting and praying that something would change their hearts and that through the spirit they would change their mind.
The fast and testimony meeting that we had today was the most spiritual that we've seen in a long time in the ward that we are in. They left after Sacrament meeting and didn't stay. As we arrived at our dinner appointment we received a text from them that simply said "We've decided that this is the church for us."
I know that this is a miracle that is caused by faith, prayer, fasting, and being worthy, committed, focused and obedient.
Miracles occur over and over every day in each of our lives. We just have to look around and consider what is happening to have witness born to us. In the mission field we may be more aware of them because we pray for them each and every day. I personally have seen so many already - my experience with Sherry the lady who came into our office and Heavenly Father gave me the thoughts and words to say and to pray for. The orange juice just happening to be in the refrigerator when I needed it desperately. All miracles - big and small. Heavenly Father is so good to us. He loves us - He knows us personally - He wants us to be happy.
