A Sigh

This week has been so crazy, and so amazing.  I have a ton of things to get done today, so this will be shorter, but I wanted to email out anyway and let you all know how amazing The Lord's work is. Last week I was having a very hard time with not having much work in the area.  We didn't have any investigators, and no one wanting us to teach them, and it was overall just a discouraging time. I contacted my mission president to ask for some advice, and he told me that he would be in my area on Thursday, and could meet with me then, but until then, to just fully consecrate myself and trust in The Lord.

I thought this sounded a little redundant, because I felt like I was doing that already. Of course, trying to be obedient, I knelt in prayer and re-dedicated myself and said something along the lines of, 'I can't  figure this out on my own, so it's in your hands now!'  And I'm pretty sure I could feel the sigh of relief when The Lord said, 'Finally! I've been waiting far too long Elder Gifford!'

Miracle #1
Less than three hours later we were doing our laundry, (laundry room is occupied all day, doing it before bed is faster) and we started talking to someone we had seen before, and been friendly with, but never tried to contact as missionaries. So instead of waiting for us to contact her, she contacted us. She asked about what we do, what we believe in, and invited us over to teach her and her fiancee the next evening. (Their little girl had a fever and has been sick for the last few days, so we haven't taught them yet, but they are reading the Book of Mormon, which says it better than we ever could.) Miracle

Miracle #2
Wednesday morning, we got a call from our Bishop's wife. She informed us that she had just gotten off the phone with a young man from Vietnam, and he goes to school in Lake Forest, (super rich community
in my area) and has been in Vietnam on Spring Break. While he was there, he has been taking the lessons with his Mother, and upon his return to America, wants to continue learning from us, and be baptized. Wait just a darn second, did you just say that we have skipped past new investigator status and went straight to committed to baptism? Why yes, yes we did. So he has been going to Church there,
and has been taught all of the lessons but one, and wants to be baptized as soon as he can, which will be next weekend or the one after. He just got back in town yesterday, so we haven't met him face to face yet, but just emailing him, you can feel his testimony and his dedication to changing his life for this Gospel. It's beautiful.  More to come on Minh later. (That's his name.) Miracle

Those two miracles were just what we needed to have a renewed energy and attack this area. Things are coming along here in Buffalo Grove, slowly but surely.

I know this is truly God's work, and he is just waiting to make it happen. As we cons create ourselves more fully, he will open up doors we didn't know we had. Keep smiling, keep working, keep consecrated. I love you, and so does your Father in Heaven.

-Elder Logan Gifford

PS some Photos

Oh goodness, where to start. I have been taking a lot more pictures lately, because I feel bad that I don't have anything to show you all, so there are a few here.

Let's start with FMSC! That stands for Feed My Starving Children. This is an organization that we have been serving at for several months now, and we love it there. The work they do is simply tremendous, and they give all of the success to God, recognizing that without His help, none of this would happen. This is my district, (minus two Sisters) standing in front of the numbers for our two hour session. We
have gotten really good, and really fast. They say that on average, every volunteer packs one box of food, or 216 meals, in a two hour session, but last time each of the members of our group averaged out
at 2.85 boxes packed in two hours. We have a really good system set up. :)

The next one is taken at Bernie's Book Bank, which is awesome. They collect and distribute books to kids in the Chicagoland area who wouldn't normally get books as a child. They provide every kid in the Chicagoland area with 12 new books every school year. It's also an amazing organization, and we are proud to serve there.

The third, fourth and fifth ones are just exciting things we have received over the last week. We were talking about how the weather is starting to turn nice, and we would love to start riding bikes around,
and then I remembered that there were two extra bikes in another apartment, so we went and got them. Yay for bikes!! The fourth one is my personal favorite. You all know how much I like to dress up, but I also love variety. That is not something you get a lot as a missionary. So when a ward member asked if I wanted some of his old suits, (they fit me, but not my companion) I jumped on it. He gave us six suits, (jacket and pants) eight pairs of slacks, five ties, and a pair of shoes!  My companion didn't like the ties, and these are all of the clothes that fit me, so the rest will be added to the abyss that is a missionary apartment. Some other Elder can find some new suits. So I am excited to add a little color to my wardrobe. :) Blue with pinstripes, dark brown, and light gray with pinstripes? Don't mind if I do. :)

The last one if for you Mama. This is to show you how grateful I am for my pillow case and the body pillow. My bed may look pampered, (and it is) but it means I sleep well, so I don't mind at all. :)

I love you all! Enjoy, and have a great week!

This week has been a crazy one

So today, I am going to tell about my week through pictures.

The first one is the highest temperature that I have ever seen since coming to Chicago, 52F.  Mind you I arrived almost 4 months ago.  I wish I had taken a picture of someone on a motorcycle, because those were pulled out this week too. The air is ringing with the beautiful music of 4 stroke engines and people driving convertibles with the tops down. :)

 The next one is a celebration of sorts!  When you are a missionary in BG2, and have a birthday, you always spend it with the A. family, and this is how we celebrate at the A. home. We sing in two

languages, and then we smash their face into the cake.   Good times for everyone.   So Happy Birthday to my companion! (He turned 19)

The next two are also connected. This is what happens when your dishwasher decided that emptying the used water is not necessary, but would actually better serve a purpose ALL OVER THE KITCHEN FLOOR!! But hey, at least we have a dishwasher....... Kind of......

The next one just makes me laugh. A member of our ward was traveling and made it back into town for sacrament yesterday. They come up to me all excited and told me that while they were visiting family in
Cincinnati, Ohio, they met the missionaries there. Lo and behold, one of these Sisters knows me! From there the story just got bigger and bigger.
'She knows you!' Says he.
'You went to high school together!' Adds his wife.
'She says you are friends!'
'She says you've gone on several dates!'

'Well, what's her name?'
'Oh I don't know. I forgot. But, I did take a picture of her so I could show you later. But I forgot it at home. I'll send it to you later.'

So hours later I get a message from him with our last picture in it.  Sister C. B.! The mystery is solved! And sure enough, they are right on all counts. She is from Magna, we did go to school together,
we are friends, and we have been on several dates together. Small world, no?

So I got a haircut today, and I think it looks pretty good. This guy in the area cuts missionaries hair for free if they clean up the shop, so we frequent his place. I told him that I wanted it trimmed back to
what he did last time, but I wanted the hair off my ears, so he does this, gives me a straight razor shave an inch off the ears. And honestly, I'm loving it! Might not be a forever thing, but for now, I'm really liking this.

And my personal favorite of the day, the sword he has hanging in his shop. Look at that thing. It's beautiful!

Well I'm sorry that things haven't really been spiritual in this email, but I'm short on time today, and doing this is faster. But I love you all and pray for you! Have a great week!

-Elder Logan Gifford

Transfers already? That can't be right...

So the email today is more informational than anything else, but hey, it's something.

Transfers are tomorrow, and I'm not going anywhere. My companion is however. So I will be getting a new companion, Elder T. We came out on the same plane, so because I know the area, that makes me senior companion for at least the first transfer we are together.  Crazy right? I don't know enough to be a senior companion yet!

The other big thing I wanted to talk about is a mission wide fast we just had, and I will probably be repeating several times this month.  Our mission president has decided that we aren't baptizing nearly enough people, so what does he do? Takes it to The Lord of course!

Yesterday we all fasted for the same thing. That every single companionship in the entire mission will be able to bring at least one person into the waters of baptism by April 13th. That's roughly 125 baptisms in the next month. Can we do it? Heck yeah! And we are going to! The first place for us however is finding someone to teach. Then we can start thinking about the whole baptism thing. :) it's definitely a testimony to me of the power of fasting and prayer though. To know that with faith we can accomplish this enormous goal, that's amazing. Elder T and I are going to tear up the area and we are going to baptize at least two people by that day. Goals are only worth it if you aim high, right?

The last thought I wanted to mention is something that a departing Elder in my district said at district meeting last week. 'Every new area or new companion is a brand new mission.' I love that. How cool is that? We all make mistakes. We all have hard days, weeks, or transfers. But as soon as you get that new companion or area, nothing from the last one has to cross over. It's all a new slate. That's my goal for when I pick up my new companion tomorrow. Brand new mission.  So wish me luck, I'm getting ready to serve my third brand new mission.

Like I said, mostly informational, and not very long. But I want you all to know that I have such a strong testimony of the power of prayer and fasting, and I know that if we work hard at this goal and give it our all, that we will accomplish it.

I love you.
The Lord loves you.
Your Mom loves you. (Well it's true!)
The Church is true, your body is a Temple, DON'T DO DRUGS!

-Elder Logan Gifford

'Do as I say, not as I do'... Uh, no.

So guess what I found out last Monday? The Internet at my church building is completely unreliable.  Completely.   I wrote and sent this last week, and I guess it never actually got out. So look at this, you get two emails from Elder Gifford this week! Yay! Or whatever exclamation you would put on this. Love y'all!

This week has been wild. We attended a baptism for one of the Sister's investigators, now new-convert.  We had exchanges.   We had an investigator schedule an appointment with us instead of the other way around. We were consistently late to every meeting due to traffic. We learned the importance of leading by example. We tracted (housed) a ton, not out of the ordinary. We actually got a hold of one of our elusive less-active members. We got a new version of our planning application that looks exactly like the old one. We had pizza about a million times this week and didn't pay for a single slice. We got rebuked for not imposing on members to be fed more often. (Seems a little backwards, don't you think?)

The Baptism-
Jenn Haynes is the coolest convert ever. Elder W. had to interview her this week because he is the District Leader, so we had a chance to go over to her house and get to know her and her husband a little better.  While we were there the Sister missionaries who taught her stopped by and were asking her if she would mind fellow-shipping an investigator they are teaching. Mind you, this woman isn't even a member yet, and she jumped on it. "I would love to! Just let me know when you are teaching her next and I would love to come!" It's harder to get members to come to lessons than it was to ask Jenn to come. She rocks, and she got baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday. I was asked to stand in the circle to confirm her, which is the first time I have ever done that, so it was a pretty great experience.

Dinner with Dottie-
We had an investigator text us on Thursday night and ask us if we would like to go to dinner with her Friday night. Like we are going to say no to that? The cool part is that she has been falling out of our investigator category because she always has a hard time keeping appointments, but here she is trying to get a hold of us to meet. Whoa right? We went and had dinner with her on Friday and we had a wonderful time, and we managed to teach her a short lesson about the importance of the Book of Mormon, even in the midst of a bustling restaurant. It was pretty great.

Leading by example-
Our ward is amazing. Really, they are. They have made it a ward goal to never let the missionaries feed themselves, and have been pushing it really well. However, there has been a slight disconnect.   All of the leaders who were pushing so hard to have us fed every night, hadn't actually ever fed us..... So naturally the rest of the ward was super confused about why it was so important if they didn't feel it
was. So this week there was a large difference in the meal calendar, and it was all due to one tiny change. Each of those leaders signed up for a dinner appointment. After that, the ward realized they really thought it was important. Crazy how that works.

Out of that, the biggest thing I was you all to get is this. "Do as I say, not as I do" is bogus. That's all there is to it. In everything we do in life, people watch us. They watch us make good decisions and bad decisions. If we want good things for people around us, we need to be doing them ourselves. It's not enough to know how to receive blessings and tell someone to do it, we need to actually do it. So this next week I want you all to start leading by example. Make your decisions conscious of the fact that someone is watching you, because I guarantee they are.

I know that The Lord loves each of you personally.
I know that when we lead by example we are doing things the way that Christ would have us do them.
I know that this gospel is the only true way to find happiness in this life and eternal joy in the world to come.
I love you all.
The Church is true, your body is a Temple, DON'T DO DRUGS!

-Elder Logan Gifford