Hello Transfer #4 August 26th 2013

Dear family,

This past week has mostly just been telling Sis. Robinson where to go and taking her around to all the members. I'm trying really hard to not let Sis. Howell affect the way we interact with the members. Transfer day was a little scary. I woke up just feeling sick to my stomach because I didn't know what the next transfer was going to be like and I was pretty sad to see Sis. Howell leave. We grew a lot the second transfer together and we were doing great work in the area. Sis. Robinson was just Sis. Zollinger's (MTC comp) companion so I was able to calm down:) She's from Austin, Texas and has only been out 1 transfer longer than me. She turned 20 in June so she's another youngin' but that doesn't bother me any more. She is a good teacher, and we're really excited to work together this transfer. Something that she has taught me is to pray with people after talking to them at their doorstep. The first time it really caught me off-guard, but it was actually really cool just to feel the spirit come in so strongly.

Planning was a little stressful because I had to pretty much do it all by myself, and my brain wasn't like working at all but we got through it:)

My head has gotten a lot better. Sis. Robinson looks through it every night which is super nice of her. I know a lot a people would have been pretty grossed out and not willing to do that. 

We weren't able to go to the embassy this week because of transfers and a lot of things got changed up. All of the missionaries that were in Griffith zone when I came in have been transferred so everything feels really different, but I love being in my area so I really don't care what missionaries are in the zone(I should probably be a bit more friendly, huh:))

Francisco is doing good....he wants to be baptized, but not until he has everything figured out with his wife which is a little frustrated/sad because I have no clue when that is going to happen. I'm trying to find the balance between having faith that things will work out and he will get baptized and preparing myself to drop him because he's not going to progress:(

Andrea is doing great, I still can't believe the change I have seen in her.

Oscar has to be one of my favorite people right now. We met with him this week, and the determination he has to go back to the temple is just unbelievable after being inactive for so long. He has told his story a few times, and every time he refers to us as his angles. If there has been one thing I have learned is that no matter how good of a teacher you are, how much you love them, and if you do everything "perfectly" it is all about the lord's timing. I feel so blessed just to have been on the sidelines watching Andrea and Oscar. Even though I was the missionary that found him or the one who "baptized" her I can honestly say that I really didn't do anything. Just in these past 5 months I have seen so many miracles, but I know that it wasn't because of me.

                                                      korean BBQ with Cynthia

                                                                                               Sis. Robinson and I.

I love you all!

Love Hermana Ford

August 20th 2013 - End of transfer #3!

Dear Family,

I feel like this week has been a whirlwind of emotions and I have no clue what to do with any of them, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning of the week with a brief outline of every day.

Monday- We had a surprise FHE with the Diaz family who got Steve(LA teenager) to come and we watched the John Rowe Moyell video and we all went around saying what we learned and when it was Steve's turn he talked about how he didn't have any excuses for not doing anything in the church! It sounds like not a big deal, but it was so cool! He came to the activities the next day, he didn't come to church but we had fhe with him again last night so it's just in the beginning steps. Hopefully, we can help him get back in step and go on a mission!

Tuesday-(just a funny story) We were saying goodbye to steve after the activity so we stuck out our hands to shake hands and he went in for a hug, so sis. Howell said really quick that we couldn't hug him, but he just kept going for it, so when he got to me he still hugged me and said "it's ok, I can still hug you" oh so awkward. I hate having to tell people that that's not allowed.

Wednesday-(the beginning of the emotional roller coaster) We were sitting at dinner with Hna. Soltero who I absolutely love, and we get a phone call. Sister howell takes it into the room which we usually don't do, but from the kitchen I could hear it was Pres. Weidman but I just had to keep giving the spiritual thought. I just got the sickest feeling(we had just eaten a lot so that didn't help)and she came back in and her hands were shaking so bad. The Wednesday before transfers anyone who is training gets a call but we weren't really expecting it so early in the night. We left her house pretty quick and the minute we left and sis. Howell just hugged me and we both started crying. Sis. Howell was told that she would be training, becoming sister training leader, and going english. Alot of change for one transfer.      

Thursday-Sis. Howell had training, I just sat in the hallway for a few hours with a bunch of other missionaries whose companions were being trained. This next transfer were going to have one new zone and 18 new areas. 42 new missionaries which is including 6 visa waiters. 1/2 the mission will be training or being trained. 1/2 the missionaries will have 6 months or less in the mission. I feel like the LA mission is changing so much it's a little crazy but it's good.

Friday-The ward missionaries threw a party for all the missionaries in the ward. The APs called us inviting us to a special service opportunity for 5 hours on monday where we have to dress our best. That's pretty much all they told us and then one other companionship of elders in our zone was invited to go as well. We had no idea what it could possibly be. Well actually this was our thought process: the prophet!....ensign cover!....the district 3!.....something to do with facebook/ipads.(we were a little off on our guesses:))

Saturday-So at this point of the week we were just really on edge of emotions because sis. Howell would be leaving and it would be a big change, and we still very sure what was going to happen. It seemed like every day member's were trusting us with incredible experiences they've had and told us how much they trusted us and relied on us has some spiritual strength. The worst part was that weren't telling the members that Sis. Howell was going to leave so as they would tell us these stories they would say that they didn't want us to leave.(it felt like all the members have a internal clock for when transfers are) It was breaking our hearts knowing that sis. Howell was leaving and they love her so much and she is really struggling to leave everyone. 

Sunday-Went to the departing missionary fireside and 2 more members told us stories, so we cried with them and just breaking our hearts even more. Sis. Howell and I have really built great relationships this past 3 months...well sis. howell is really good at telling people she loves them, so that's been a big help:)

Monday- Went to the mission office to find out what the big service opportunity is. So....once a week me and my companion will be going to the Spanish Consulate to work for 4 hours with passports/visas or whatever they need us to do. It sounds like a super cool opportunity, but keep in mind that I know I will be getting a new companion, it will all be in spanish(whole different set of vocabulary, and this is like a super big deal to have missionaries be working in the consolate. The lds public affairs representative in the mission said, "no pressure, but this is a lot of pressure and a big deal" L. Tom Perry is coming on friday to talk to him and told us that church headquarters is really excited about this. So basically, I am going to be part of a test run for the church! It's only for my area, so when I get transferred or they decide it's not worth our time I'll stop. It is a little exciting and scary and the same time, but I know it will be a great learning/growing experience.

Finally got transfer calls at 10:15pm. Sister Howell is going to work in the Hollywood ward which is in the same zone and is the english ward that shares the building with 4th ward and she's going to be with her companion that trained her right before she became my companion. I'm staying in Silverlake and my companion will be Sis. Robinson. I don't know her, but I think she is relatively new in the mission. It kinda feels like the mission is going crazy and changing, but i'm still here in my area just chilling. I love it here, so it will be exciting to see what happens next, but it is still a little scary knowing that things are going to change. Sis. Howell and I have loved being together, and I've really learned alot about how to love other people, but I know that we need to move on and learn and grow more from another area or another companion.  I could keep telling you all things for days, but I should probably save something for next week:)

I love you all!

Love, Hermana Ford

August 12th 2013

Dear Family,

This week has been awesome!

So they changed mailing. Now I can open up my letters right when I get them on Friday. Not that much of a difference for all of you because I still get them on friday and read them all before I email you, but change nevertheless:)

Tuesday we had temple service. At first we were pulling weeds in front of the temple and then we all got moved to clearing out all the furniture of 28 apartments....so I guess I can never get away from moving:) I hope that the sisters are enjoying all the hard work!

For our zone goal this month(finding all the less actives in the Hollywood ward) we all have disney characters, and I'm Mulan, and whenever I think of the songs from the movie it just puts the biggest smile on my face. Mostly just because it reminds me of Dad.

I explained this story in the voice recording but I'll just write it out so other people can hear about it.

Earlier this week right before heading in for the night we decided to go check out one more Less active's apartment. We knocked on the door and they let us in right away!(never happens) Their whole family was home which also doesn't happen that often, and it turned out that they were spanish! We got to know them a little bit and then set up an appointment for later that week. So we went back and the dad, Oscar told us how he had been praying for a way to come back to church, but it was really hard because he was going to have to go without his wife, but when we knocked on the door he knew that it was an answer to his prayers. We taught the tree of life and the joy we recieve from the fruit. Both Oscar and his son Mosiah talked about how they knew they could feel a difference since they had been less active and knew all they had to do was reach out and partake of the fruit again. I feel like my explaination doesn't even do it justice! But, we gave Mosiah a book of mormon and they said they would come to church. The next day we were talking to a member(the guy who had baptized oscar 20 years ago) and he told us that the bishop and him had been praying to know someone who they could reactivate and this man had been praying to be able to find Oscar because he had lost all contact with him, knew he had moved, and didn't know where to look because his records weren't in the ward anymore! The member called his up after we gave him his number and offered to give oscar a ride to church....and he came! I wish you all could have seen him! All of the members were saying hi and he was going around talking to everyone and when he talked in class sister Howell and I were just dying inside of happiness! After church the member related back to us that Oscar had told him that he knew he needed to be back in church. Seriously, the odds of us finding him and just the way that everything worked out is a miracle, so we're going to start teaching them the basics over again. Oscar wants to be worthy again to have his temple reccomment(he use to be a temple worker) and both him and his wife want their son to go on a mission. Just finding this one family will make this project feel like a success if all 800 other less actives say they are not interested. Woah, that sounds bad because I want everyone to come back, but it has been such a blessing.

Transfers are next week so p-day will be on tuesday. Not really sure what's going to happen. Sister Howell and I would love to stay together, but knowing that that's what we want we will probably be separated.

We got training again on relationships with other missionaries.... sad that it's such a problem, but don't worry about me:)

I love you all so much!

Love,

Hermana Ford



Moving Yay!!:)

Sister Howell and I matched so much this week on accident

August 5th 2013  Andrea got Baptized!!

Dear Family,

So we share our building with the Hollywood ward(english) and they only have one set of elders in it, and because it is Hollywood it is super transient. They have 800 less actives on their ward list so, all the other missionaries in the zone have been recruited to go contact all of them and see if they've moved or would be interested in having the missionaries or home teachers/visiting teachers come over. It's a fun little assignment and nice because we have built-in back-ups for days:) But really, I actually do enjoy going and talking to all the people and seeing if somehow the church can help them.

The other news is that Andrea got baptized! I know I haven't told you like anything about her yet, so I'll give a brief run-down on her story. When I came in 4 months ago she had missed her baptismal interview the week before because she had gotten sick, so we came in set another date for her, went to the vc cause we weren't supre sure about her testimony(turned out not to be the best experience)...she missed her next baptismal interview with us(3rd one) for a dumb excuse and our ward mission leader told us to drop her, so we did. After that she still kept coming to church everyweek with her grandkids, but we didn't really talk to her because she was not ready to be baptized at all. Anyways, something happened with her family and she told us she wanted to meet with us again. After a few lessons we decided she needed to start reading the bom over again and read everyday and in one week we were going to fast with her about baptism(super awesome experience). Anways, 2 weeks later and she was baptized. Yesterday she got confirmed in church and she even bore her testimony in church. She looks and feels like a completely different person. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been a witness of her change, and even though I was here for a few months I feel like I didn't do anything.

The other day we were walking down the street and this guy was walking towards us and all of a sudden he kind of ran into a van that was parked on the street and leaned up against it pointed at us and said, "oh my goodness, you have schizaphrenia(sp?) I can't stop laughing!" It was pretty funning because he wasn't even really laughing. Oh the things you see when walking around in LA, but don't worrying I promise I'm safe:)

Thanks for the package! (especially the dispicable me toy:))

hmmm, I can't really think of anything else crazy or way exciting that happened this week. There's so many stories that I could tell you about that are funny, or that have strengthened my testimony of things but it so hard to choose or even remember something that would be email worthy. Oh! So, a dad who is a non-member but basically a member got up during testimony meeting got up and told everyone that he was ready to be baptized. No one knew including his wife! Everyone was crying, and we are all just so happy for him and his family! Sister Oldham and Wright/Camacho have been a part of something amazing because their family has been having missionaries over for 15 years!  

I love you all to pieces, and pray that you are all becoming a little bit more converted to the Lord everyday!:)

Love,

Hermana Ford

July 29th 2013

Dear Family,

The weather....some days are hot, but it hasn't been anything to complain about past "it's hot today" or "man, I'm sweaty today" I think you just get use to it being hot or humid.

So....my companion and I speak english a lot of the time because it's easier, but earlier this week we decided we were being disobedient and were starting to feel guilty about(well atleast I have) so we've been speaking a little bit more while we're walking around. Your own language is something really hard to give up, but I should just stop being so selfish and then I might see more progress in the language.

I'm assuming the mail procedure will be the same because it works and changing things in the mission is a lot of work especially since they're still figuring out the more important things.

This p-day we're going on a star-line tour with a district. It kind of makes me laugh about the things I do hear because I think about what other missionaries are doing on their p-days and it's probably things like hiking to water falls and I'm hear in Hollywood walking down the walk of fame, going to the hollywood sign, and going on tours. It's a whole different ball game here:)

Brooke- We have appointments, but lessons fall through, cancel. For as much planning as we do you would think we would just go from appointment to appointment but it doesn't always happen like that. This past week was especially like that. We were dropped by 2 people, lots of lessons cancelled which can always be frustrating but it is just something you have to deal with. We're working with about 10? less actives I think.I have a cool story that i'll tell you about later. We have a baptism on saturday, but her interview is tomorrow so we hope everything continues to go well! The other really solid investigator that we have who is progressing is named Francisco. Other than those 2, the less actives, we work with members, and then maybe a few lessons here and there from people we find. All our back-ups are former investigators, but those usually don't work out very well because they dropped the missionaries for a reason. The mission...is well the mission. I can't really explain it. It's a completely different world. I guess I've been out long enough because the other week I was just thinking about members, and I was just boggled why we didn't just drop everything we do and just share the gospel!! haha, a little unrealistic, but it was a fun thought:) Can you just imagine what would happen if we were all more willing to be just better friends with the people around us, and when the opportunity arised we would just invite them over to our houses to meet with the missionaries!?

So, I told you I would tell you about this less active. Her name is Veronica, and she was baptized about 20? years ago, but has been less active for a long time. Her husband almost got baptized a few years ago, but couldn't because she is still married to someone else so they can't get married offically. Anyways, a week or 2 ago we invited her to start the book of mormon over again, and she did it!!!!(honestly, such a blessing because it can't be so difficult for LA's to do things sometimes) Well, she told us that she is learning so many things that she didn't notice before when she read the book of mormon and went to church. She's a character and told us that we got her hooked, but it was funny because she knew that's that what we were trying to do:) And, she finally told us the one thing that has been holding her back and has always bugged her. It is kind of a ridiculous doubt, but I have to respect what people struggle with. She said that if Moses was so great and did all of these things how could he only see part of God and Joseph, a boy, see all of God. She thinks the church is perfect, but I can't really see how she had a testimony of Joseph Smith and the church if she has a hard time accepting the fact that he saw God. Oh well, not really sure how we're going address that, but we are just praying so hard that she'll get her answer as she reads the Book of Mormon. We can only promise her blessing or answers so much because in the end it's her choice to read the Book of Mormon and look for an answer.

I love you all, and am so grateful for your love and support!

Love,

Hermana Ford


July 22nd 2013  ( This letter Hermana Ford did a Q & A) for us!!:)

Hey family!

1. "Where do  you go to read emails? Print them off?" We email at a public library so there is an hour time limit. I don't print them off because it costs like a quarter unless I email up at the mission office which is like never.

2. "Are you allowed to email other people than your family?" So....in the mtc they made the announcement that we could email anyone we wanted, and then this week president Weidman told us that there will no longer be a time limit on emailing on p-days, but since the library has an hour time limit it will just depend on how long I get to email because most the time we have to come and reserve a computer for another time, and I like doing other things on p-day so I'm not making any promises for how long my emails will be.

3. "Have you bought d-con to get rid of the mouse?" ah d-con! I have been trying to remember what the poison was called for forever! No, some elders gave us some dumb traps that never worked, but I haven't seen the mouse(Melvin:)) in a few weeks.

4. "You must not have a/c, so do you at least have a fan in your apt? "We have a swamp cooler in our bedroom that works really well, so I'm never hot at night and then we have a fan for our living room, so we just turn them on when we come home at night. Sometimes it can stuffy right when we come home but it cools off pretty quickly. No complaints here:) I'll send you pictures next week. I guess it might be interesting to you all to see my apartment sincce I've been here for a little bit.

I'm getting to the point(like in Jeru) where I don't care what I wear as long as I didn't wear it earlier that week, so you can send things randomly so it will be a nice little surprise:)

Natalie, Brooke/Doug, I can't tell you how excited it makes me to hear that you are going out with the missionaries and participating in lessons!!!!! Seriously, I am so grateful for the members here that are so involved and truly understand what the gospel is so I'm sure the missionaries just love all of you! Dad! way to invite someone to church! Make to follow-up and if he comes show him around/sit with him/ask him what he thought or had any questions and introduce him to the missionaries! Sorry, you know what to do! I'm just in a really happy talkative mood today:) Sister Howell thinks I'm crazy! I hope that as you get involved with them your view of the gospel opens and changes because my love and understanding of the gospel grows everyday! I'm almost finished readingg the BoM again and I have just fallen in love with reading it as a missionary. I think that the BoM was written just for us:)

 Oh yeah, I totally forgot... You know the Zimmerman case that is going on in Florida and all the riots, well for some reason there were riots over in the South and a little on Hollywood Bld. so one night we had to go home early just for safety precautions. I thought it would be a fun little change, but it wasn't. By the end of the night I was starting to get antsy and frustrated that I was missing all this time to be out in my area.

This week we saw a lot of small miracles with members and investigators. We fasted with an investigator and it was a great experience for her, I'll tell you her story some other time if things work out. I don't want to jynx myself and then it not work out because then it's even more sad and I have to tell you. We found a half active member that I haven't heard about or met yet, and while we were talking to her she thanked us for not forgetting about her and that it was nice to be remembered. It may not sound like a little miracle, but to us it was because we only had 30 minutes left of the night, and to think to stop by and for them to actually be home is a miracle to us. If we hadn't have found them at home I don't know when we would have put that family down again as a back-up plan. Heavenly Father is certainly looking out for them, and I am so grateful that we were able to meet them, and we are for sure going to start trying to strengthen them.

President and Sister Weidman started a new mission blog...

californialosangelesmission.blogspot.com  (well it might be the same one)

I love you all!

Love Hermana Ford

July 22nd 2013

Hey family!

It's weird how the week after transfers is "shorter" but it always feels like such a long week! With the picture of all 4 of us I don't know if you can see it, but the Hollywood sign is behind us. It stills throws me every now and then that i'm in Hollywood, but it's great:) Sis. Howell and I went hiking with Johanna and Cynthia(baptized June 8).

Tonight we have a family night with a member and her family. (she's the other member). It's kind of scary to think that the members are trusting you with their family, but it also makes me feel like I'm doing something right because they haven't suggested it till this transfer. Also, coming up with FHE ideas is a lot harder than we thought.

Wednesday was a little rough because we ended the day teaching the restoration to a single mom who we just love, and the first day we met her she invited us to her sons b-day party later that weekend. You think teaching the restoration would be awesome, but for some reason it just wasn't right and we didn't feel super good about it and was worrying the whole night if we had hurt our relationship with her. Anyway, lessons like those just taught us how much we can always be working on the way we teach. You think it would be a lot easier to teach something you've grown up in, but it was good for us because sometimes you need to have experiences like that to help show you how you can improve. The hardest thing about experiences like that is I would hate to have other people suffer because of what I have to learn in order to grow, but I just have to have faith and remind myself that Heavenly Father is somehow going to take care of them.

We did service this weekend cleaning out a closest for a member. so much stuff but it was fun:) I wore my jeans for the first time since the mtc, that was a little scary....

Yesterday in RS Hermana Garcia was teaching and she was looking around for someone to hand a quote to read. She turned to me and smiled and gave it to me, and told me I could practice, and then the bishop's wife said, yes you learn by practicing or something like that. It was so funny because I knew the minute she looked at me and smiled. I just love them so much, because they are all so patient and loving with me.

I hope you are all enjoying Utah and the heat! At the end of the summer I'll send you a pictures of my tan line from me shoes:)

Love,

Hermana Ford

July 9th 2013

Dear Fam,

I slack-lined for the first time last p-day(i'm terrible at it) and then this p-day we're hiking up to the observatory to with some members. For the 4th of July we had to be back in our apartments by 7. Fireworks are against the law here, but everyone does them so it's kind of impossible to stop them. They were going off all night in the alley of our apartment. Car alarms were going off and our apartment shook sometimes, but it was fun:) When we got up to go running the next morning they were still going off haha.

Guess what mom!? Will you believe me if I said we got the good house keeping award? Ya, me neither, but our little award was we got to go out to lunch with our President Weidman. President Weidman's son served in Spokane, so that was a fun little connection. That same day we had 4 meals(huge meals within 7 hours)...i felt like crying and throwing up, but i just kept forcing the food down. I feel like I'm still recovering.

Transfers are this week. Sister Howell are staying together in Silverlake which is great because we really feel like some of our investigators need us right now and we need them. Our ward is doing the 40 day fast thing right now as well! The sunday after the missionary broadcast we presented the idea, and the bishop jumped right on board.

Last night during dinner I understood pretty much the whole story a member told us! Well, I can't "understand" everything they say, but sometimes after dinner it throws me for a loop when I can talk about what they had told us.

We had a very powerful lesson with a woman that has flaked out on her baptismal interview 3 times(only once with me), I was so incredibly grateful for the spirit, and it's amazing to think that that morning I had put up my "emotional" wall and right before the lesson Sis. Howell and I stood on the sidewalk crying and figuring everything out. If we had not talked like I wanted to the lesson would not have gone the way it did. After the lesson I was so grateful to have a companion that forced me to talk because we both want the best for our investigators, and sometimes you need a little reminder that how you are feeling can really impact the presence of the spirit.

I love you all, and I loved hearing about everything you are doing!

Love,

Hermana Ford