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