Sept. 28, 2015 Semana Milagroso! (Week of Miracles!)

Jesus Christ's visit to the Nephites in the Americas -
3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon

 Sept. 28, 2015

Querido Familia y Amigos!

 

This week has been super milagroso! We had divisiones on Tuesday, and they were super èxitoso! I was with Hermana G-in half of Bragado, and Hermana F-and T-went in the other half. We already had some goals set down, but we decided to pray about them and re-put some of them. Originally we had the goal of 3 new investigators, but after praying we decided to put 10, and we found 5. I learned a lot from Hermana G-: 
1- She taught me that the first lesson doesn`t have to have a prayer, so that makes it a lot easier to start teaching in the door and end with a prayer and have an automatic new investigator. 
2- This approach also helps with contacts. I have always known the principle that we need to start teaching right away when we contact someone, but I never understood it very well (probably since I never applied it very well). But this time we were focused completely on the Book of Mormon, and teaching the people that, seeing if they would read the book and therefore progress. So that helped a lot to know of something specific to teach and testify in the first contact. Hermana G- also taught me that it`s important to not only tell the people that the BOM is like the Bible, and it talks about God, etc., but to tell them how it has helped you personally, and relate the stories to their lives and help them to see why it could be important for them. We have been applying this a lot more in the contacts, and we have found more new investigators than ever--12! It has also really increased our number total of lessons taught--this week we had 27!! Knowing what to talk about in the contacts is also helping me to be more bold and talk to more people, since I already have an idea of what I want to talk about. It is also making our bags heavier, since we are bringing more BOM`s with us, but we are coming home with less! 
3-To write my vision--she showed me part of her vision that they had them write in the MTC, and I love the idea. You have to write what you want to be as a missionary, or in your life in general, and you have to write it in present tense. For example: I am bold. I am diligent. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. etc. 
4-I learned that Elder Teixeira taught the lìderes about the importance that the Latinos really learn English, and that it will open the doors for them. So we are working to speak more English and to help Hermana F- actually learn it. 
5-Knock the doors next to the house where you are at. God put you where you are in this moment for a reason, maybe it`s not the person who you wrote in your plans, but that was a way to get you to the person who is ready.  
Felt really great this week, found lots of news, taught lots of lessons, talked with lots of people. We have two people who I am really excited about: 
    A- is the mother of a reference that the Elders gave us--she lives next door. We went the first night and taught her LDM. Yesterday we went back and she had read what we left in 3 NE 11 and loved it. We taught her lesson 1, and she said that she felt really happy, and we identified it as the Spirit. We wanted to invite her to be baptized, but we already gave a lot of commitments, and she is excited to watch General Conferece--but on her own computer. But we are going to invite her next time to be baptized. 
   M-!! She is a woman that we found last Sunday, that loved the Book of Mormon. We taught her daughter LDM the week before, and when we went back for the appointment, she wasn`t there, but M- was, and said that she had started to read the LDM we had left. We went back during the week and taught her Lesson 1--which she also loved and was super excited to go to church, and to the baptism Saturday night. We invited her to be baptized, and she said no, but only because she was baptized when she had 6 meses. But, she is against baptizing babies. So we are going to talk to her about that next time and I know that she will accept the fecha. When we went Saturday night, it was her granddaughter`s birthday, and the whole family was there--she thought they were going to do it somewhere else. So she was super sad to not be able to go to the baptism. But Sunday morning she was ready when we came, and the Presidente de Rama came to pick her up in his auto, since she can`t walk super far. She loved the church, and stayed for Principios de Evangelio and had lots of comments. And she started to talk to the members by herself, and it looks like she already knows some of them! Sweet. An hermana took her home after the 2nd hour, and M- told her that she needed a skirt, since that is what everyone else wore, and that she is super excited for when we come on Tuesday. And that she wants to come to the conferencia in CHIVILCOY on Sunday to listen to the profeta!! La Hermana came back and told us that and said that she would talk to the hermanas to see if someone had a skirt they could give. So the members are already getting involved! And she and her husband are going to come with us on Tuesday to visit M-. And we are going to ask them to pick her up on Sunday to take her to the church to come in the trafi to Chivilcoy, since it looks like we are already going to be there for the conferencia en Sàbado. 

 

General Conference is Saturday and Domingo!!! I am sooooo excited!! It is going to be amazing, and the Spirit is going to be so strong! 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Prepare for General Conference!!! During your scripture study this week, pray and write down a few questions that you would like answered. Pray to receive inspiration from the Spirit during the conference to know the answers to your questions. Take notes during each session, noting the things they say that specifically relate. Then review your notes afterwards and create an action plan! I know that as we go to Conference prepared, we will find even more answers, and it will be much more spiritual. 

 

I love you all! 

Hermana Durfee

 

Sept 21, 2015 The Importance of Church Attendance

Querido Familia y Amigos!                    Sept. 21, 2015

English is really hard. Today I tried to pray in English to demonstrate for my companion, and I had to translate everything in my head. No me gusta. 

This week we traveled to Ramos Mejìa for a Gira Misional with Elder Josè A. Teixeira of the seventy. We had an amazing meeting with him. He talked to us about achieving our potential and not letting a certain area, etc. that is supposedly "difficult" limit our visions for what we can do. He related it to a jumping flea--a flea can jump super far, but if you put it in a bottle with a lid, it will start jumping smaller since it hurts to be always banging your head. Then, you can take off the lid, but the flea will keep jumping small since that is what he is used to. He taught us that we have to be liberated from whatever pre-expectation to be able to achieve the expectations the Lord has for us. 

He also taught us that if we want to be better teachers, we have to talk with more people. He probably said it 20 times. We have been applying this, and we are seeing the results. We are already teaching better, and we are finding a lot more people.His wife taught us that 1--we must exercise for 30 minutes every day so that we sweat. It was really funny--she said ""Sweating is good for you! It`s how you get all of the stress and other bad things out. That`s why it smells so bad!" haha. 2--That we must always invite everyone to come to church. 

   Thinking about it, it`s super true. Sometimes we are scared to invite someone to church, since they already attend another church, or we don`t want to leave too many compromisos, etc. But, if they don`t attend church, they can`t get baptized. If they don`t get baptized, they can`t go to the temple to get sealed. And if they don`t go to the temple to get sealed, they can`t have eternal life--the opportunity to live with their family and with God, always. And God`s purpose is to "Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". So in other words, if we don`t invite someone to come to church, that means that we are not worried about their eternal life. We are more focused on their present comfort than on really focusing on what they need to do now to come to Christ and to be eternally comfortable. Christ`s life was never easy, and the life of his disciples is not easy either, but it will always be worth it.

So we started inviting everyone to come to church this week. We have yet to see the results, but we are expecting big things! 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Make a list of all of your friends, family members, and acquaintances that you would like to see in the Celestial Kingdom. How many of them have the gospel in their lives now? How many of them are living the gospel? What can you do to invite them and help them to understand and live the gospel? Pray about your list, for each person individually, and what you can do to help them. With spirit of prayer, make a plan for what you will do for each person to help them come closer to Christ. You could also make the list as a family. I promise you that by doing this activity, you will feel the Spirit showing you those you can serve and help now, in ways that you may not have thought of before. And you will see great miracles in your own life as you apply the plans to help others! 

I love you all! 

Hermana Durfee

Sept. 14, 2015 Familias

La Zona de Chivilcor

Querido Famila y Amigos!                                   Sept. 14, 2015

Almost started writing my whole letter in Castallano. You`re welcome. 

Wow. Super epic week. We started it off on Monday by grafitting the back wall of the church with chalk, so we could take an epic picture with our Zone. (See the picture) (Don`t worry, we washed it off later;).  

Tuesday, we had the first Reuniòn de Zona of the biggest Zone in the mission--Chivilcoy! It was super awesome and spiritual. We left super animadas (excited?) y con mucho energìa. And we carried that in to the rest of the week, and found three new families! 

Familia 1--Familia M-. They are married! They have four kids, and are super united. We taught them all about the Book of Mormon, and they understood everything--usually they get a little bit confused with all of the terminology, or when reading straight out of the scriptures. We are going back today to teach them the Restoration and to invite them to be baptized! De oro! 

Familia 2--D- y M- Two little girls that stopped us in the street and asked for folletos. We got their direction, and went back the other day, and taught them that God is our father and a little about the Book of Mormon and sang I am a Child of God, and they loved it. Then, the next day we found them on the other side of town at their Uncle`s house, and then we went back later and taught them again in their house. D- started reading in Mosiah and is really excited. We still have to meet their parents--they didn`t want to come out yesterday, since there was a partido de fùtbol. 

Familia 3--Familia P.A.E. They were a reference from their son, who we met outside. We went twice and didn`t find them, and finally we went the third time more towards nighttime, and they were there and let us in. We explained the BOM to them, and the father gave the closing prayer, kneeling. Golden! 

Love you all lots! Keep reading your Book of Mormons! Suerte por todos los alumnos empezando la escuela otra vez! Stay tuned for more adventures next week! 

Love, Hermana Durfee

P.S. "Atheism is a non-prophet organization!" --Pte Robertson jajaja

Sept. 7, 2015 Feliz Cumpleanos! That's how they say it in Spain 

Querido Familia y Amigos! 

  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST MOMMY EVER!!! 

Happy school year to all of the kidlets!!! 

Lots of studying the Book of Mormon. Lots of finding new Menos Activos, dropping investigators, finding more investigators. 

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and letters! Sorry this letter`s super short. 

Love you all! Keep reading the Book of Mormon! 

Love love love, 

Hermana Durfee 

Aug. 24, 2015 Book of Mormon Challenge!

 

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                            Aug. 24, 2015

Traslados are here! Aaaaaaaaaand no me voy!! Me quedo (por lo menos) un traslado más con Hermana F- en Bragado! Woot! We are looking forward to all of the growth and miracles that we are going to see! 

Lots of work. Lots of finding, lots of teaching. The time goes faster and faster and faster every day. This traslado has felt like only a week! Our Zone Leader and District Leader taught us a trick--no matter what your weekly goal for new investigators is, put the daily goal as 2. On Saturday we still had to find 8 news to complete with our weekly goal, but we decided to try it, so we set the goal as 2, and we found FIVE nuevos! We are really excited to really get going with the area and to make a difference! 

On Friday we had a Branch FHE, but there was nobody there! We called everyone we could think of, but eventually we had to start with the just the few active members that we had there. During the opening hymn, two teenage less active brothers walked in that we had invited earlier that day. And then during the lesson another less active man that we are working with came in. They all really enjoyed themselves and had a great time, and the second man even came to sacrament meeting yesterday! 

Our mission is starting a new challenge for this transfer. We are going to read the Book of Mormon all together. They gave us a schedule to follow, and we are going to finish reading the last chapter all together in the next transfer meeting in October! I am super excited, and know that it is going to bring us all kinds of power and éxitos! President Benson taught, “It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path." I know that this is something that each and every one of us needs, now. Especially as ya´ll are heading back into the school year, I testify that each of you needs this power in your life NOW! Sooooooo, this is the invitation!: 

FORTY-ONE DAY CHALLENGE: Join me and my mission in an intense study of the Book of Mormon! Start and end every study session with prayer. Take notes, study a topic, read with the family or individually (or both!) Share the experiences that you have with family, friends, and with me! :) Here is the reading schedule: Starting on Friday, 28 August, read 16 pages every day. Actually, that is the math for Spanish, and unfortunately I don´t have an English copy with me now, so I don´t know exactly how many pages the BOM in English is. But do the math, and on day 41, 7 October, finish your reading with Moroni 10!   I promise you, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that really this book will strengthen your testimonies, it will give you the strength you need daily to carry forward, to resist temptaion, to be a good example, and to share the gospel with everyone! 

I love you all, and look forward to hearing about your experiences! 

Love, Hermana Durfee

Aug. 19, 2015 Travels

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                

 Aug. 19, 2015

   

Bueno. Monday was Dìa de San Martin--the guy that liberated Argentina--or something like that. Argentina has holidays every month, and if they don`t have them, they invent one. So literally EVERYTHING was closed, and we couldn`t do cyber. So we are writing you today (with permission;). 

Luis! Our converso!

   This last week was crazy. I know I say that every week, but really, every week is a different type of crazy. Last week I traveled five out of the seven days. On Tuesday I did divisiones in 9 de Julio with Hermana S- --one of my MTC Comps! It was super awesome to be with her again and to get to see her progress again. We did service, painting the house of one of the investigators that is moving from the elders` side to the hermanas` side. It was super fun. Wednesday we traveled to go back to Bragado. On Thursday we had to go to Ramos Mejìa for tramites. So Friday we drove all over Ramos and Captial doing tramites. So we got the joy of sitting in a government building for five and half hours to wait with a million other people so we could help Hermana F- be legal. It took so long that the room that had 200-300 people in it before only had 10-15 by the time we left. Awesome. But I learned something really cool from it.  I learned that that is how God feels every time we put off doing the things that we know we should be doing. He is waiting on us, that we can act, and then He can give us the blessings that He wants to. Also, in the mission, He is waiting for us to act, to prepare someone for the next Hermana or Elder that will help this person to progress and achieve their potential! By the time we finished and got back to the offices to drop off the papers and to the bus station to take the Micros, all of the seats of all of the buses to Bragado were full. So we had to go back to Ramos to spend the night and leave Saturday morning, early, to get back to Bragado. It is good to be home! Looking forward to seeing more miracles and progress in this area! Transfers are next week, so we are hoping that we both stay here, since we just got here! 

Love you all lots! 

Portense bièn, que nada le cuesta! 

Hermana Durfee <3   

 

July 27, 2015 Bravo Bragado

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                          July 27, 2015

We had a flash on Tuesday, so now a I have a new companion again! Hermana F- is my eleventh

Hermana Flores y Yo

comp. I am finishing the second half of her training, so she is my hijastra (step-daughter). She is from Tacna, Peru! So that´s good, since she already speaks the language! Except it makes my idioma look worse haha. Also, since I try to speak more sofisticated like she does now. :) She is also super short, like 4´6. So the bike is too big for her, even with the seat all the way down. She is just learning to ride it, so that makes it even harder. But she is progressing a lot! Luckily, Presidente is going to give us money to buy a smaller bike for her. :) 

Crazy crazy week. So Tuesday we spent the whole day traveling to Ramos and back for the split. We have spent the rest of the week trying to find investigators, menos activos, and trying to get to know the members so that we can figure out who to work with whom, and what is what. Opening an area is hard! 

Bragado at night from ourpench!

We found a family who are super awesome. They are twins, brother and sister. We talked to P- the first time, and the second time E- was there too, and she explained all of the Restoration to him. They both understand very well, and have really good questions. P- read what we left for her the first time. We invited them to be baptized, and they were a little bit hesitant and want to wait and see. But, they are super buenos, and we are praying for them that they can progress a lot! 

We also found a woman named D-. She is friends with a Menos Activa, and has attended church a few times already. She loves going to church, and says that she feels  a ton of peace when she goes. We are going to explain baptism to her next time we go and invite her to be baptized! 

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY TO STERLING! I hope you love your 100 mile bike ride! Woot! When you finish with that, you´ll be just about ready to go on the mission and bike all day every day! I love you! Capo! 

Weekly Challenge: What is missing in your life? What more do you want to accomplish? Have a prayer session with Heavenly Father, write down things you want to pray about so you don´t forget, after every question pause and write down the thoughts and feelings that come to you! Act on the answers you get! 

Love you all lots! Prayers for your missionary efforts! 

Love, Hermana Durfee

July 19, 2015 Chau Chauuuuuuu Lobos!

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                            July 19, 2015

Wow. Que locura! They told us the transfers last night, and needless to say, I did not sleep super great. (Which means that I rolled around a little, instead of like a rock ;). They told me that I am leaving Lobos (which I already knew), and that I am going to be training! Aah! That means that I will also be opening an area! So that´s going to be super interesting. But I know that this is what I need to learn and grow some more. And I know this is what the Lord wants for me, and I feel good about it. Looking at the pictures of the new misioneras, there are two options--one is an Americana, and the other Brasilera. So we´ll see what happens. But that also means that there are a million and one things to do today! But first, a couple milagros from this week: 

Yesterday we fasted that we would be able to find more nuevos investigadores this month to be able to baptize more and help more people. We went to a cita that we had, but she wasn´t there, so we decided to contact a reference that we had. It wasn´t super clear, so we started contacting houses to try and find the reference. We clapped outside a house just when it started to rain, so she let us in. We started to teach her, and found out that she really needs the gospel! And her daughter was just leaving, and we saw her and realized that we already knew her--she was a reference from the Elders that they found working in a tienda. But we had no idea where she lived. At the end we asked for her apellido (last name), and realized that it is the same as our converso recién! She´s his cousin! So that was awesome! She hasn´t seen him since about three months ago, before we found him. So we are going with him next time to show her the grand difference that the gospel can make in her life! 

 

When it rained and flooded the street outside!

Then it was pouring rain, but we had a cita so we went anyway. They came to the door and let us in, even though they didn´t even really know who we are (She was a contacto). We entered and found FIVE men inside, along with the young woman who we contacted. Which was AMAZING! The South America South area has two goals: 1-To increase significantly sacrament meeting attendance, and 2- to increase the number of priesthood holders=baptize more men! So that was incredible to find such a large family of men! We got to teach two of them with their sister since the rest had to go work right then. BUT, we are going back, and it´s going to be amazing! 

I am super grateful for the opportunity to serve in Lobos! It has truly been the best thing ever! Lobos seriously heals your soul. 

Bueno, no tengo más tiempo! Le amo a todos! La iglesia es verdadera! 

<3 Hermana Durfee

July 6, 2015 Bleach, Bicycles, and Bautismal Dates

Querido Famila y Amigos!                               July 6, 2015

Wow what a crazy week! Haha, like always! With all of the travel time and meetings and things, I was probably out of my area for a total of 4 days this week! But, the Lord loves us still, and always blesses us with tons of miracls. :)

On Tuesday I did divisione in Las Heras with Hermana C-. She is a sweetheart, and it was a ton of fun to get to work with her again! Wednesday was full of running all over the place and teaching a million lessons, then returing a little early to the pench to finish bleaching the ceiling. (Hermanas T- and P- started on Tuesday. We had a ton of nasty black mold growing all over the ceiling, so we called the pensionero, and he called the fix-it guy for us. But they told us that we had to bleach everything first.) So that was a fun adventure. We had to put the bleach in a squirt bottle and stand under an umbrella while we sprayed the ceiling so it wouldn´t get on us. But, when we were done, the ceiling turned white again. So I´m not sure why the cleaning guys had to come clean afterwards...But on Thursday they came and cleaned and fixed things for a few hours while we went out to work. It was super exciting, since we were biking along,

minding our own business, and BANG! It sounded like a gunshot, and I thought that someone had shot at us (which would be super unlikely anyway), but when I looked over I saw Hna P-´s bike tire go flat in 3 seconds! It was crazy!! I think she ran over some glass or something...but the tire just exploded! When we came back, the whole pench looked amazing, and everything was fixed! The only problem is that we found out that some of our clothes got bleached. But they were really good about it and said that they would pay for it. So today we got to go shopping!! Yay new clothes! So the rest of Thursday we ate lunch and did our weekly planning on the roof so that we wouldn´t be breathing in the Bleach. And then we left in the evening to take the colectivo to Ramos Mejía to spend the night. Friday was Concilio de Líderes. It was really awesome. Presidente talked about a ton of topics, and the asistentes taught us about how to work with the better. We are going to teach the rest of the Zone all of the awesome things that we learned on Tuesday ni our Zone Meeting. Saturday was the FOURTH OF JULY!! Yay! We didn´t really do anything to celebrate, other than wear red, white, and blue. But we possibly thought patriotic thoughts...hahah. We had to go home early, since there was a partido de fútbol..in case things got a bit crazy if they won. So we cleaned up the pench, and cleaned our Area Book too a little, like Hermana Robertson taught us in the Concilio.

Miracles of the Week:

--We had FORTY SEVEN people in church! We had two investigators and one menos activa that came, and the Elderes had a ton of investigators and Menos Activos and Conversos Recién too. Our Menos Activa, E-C- and our Coverso Recién L-L- both shared their testimonies, and it was super linda! L-L- almost cried. I´m goig to miss them! (Transfers are next week--aaaahhh!!!)

--G- accepted a fecha bautismal! She doesn´t know much about religion, so she baptized her kids for tradition, but didn´t understand why. Now she understands, and accepted the invitation! We are going back this week to talk a little bit more about it, and to help her understand what a privilege it is to be able to be baptized and the requirements to do it.

--We don´t have any more mold in our pench! Yay!

--Argentine landscape!!

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Keep a daily journal every day of all of the tiny blessings and miracles that God has given you. Remember to thank God in prayer for all he has given you.

Love you all lots! Disfruten su semana!!

<3 Hermana Durfee

June 23, 2015 Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                         June 23, 2015

Lots  of amazing things this week! We went to the Temple yesterday as a mission, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I understood a lot better this time! And then we waited outside for like 3 hours for all of the groups to get out of their sessions, and took a picture of all of the mission together for the last time (we are losing two zones to the South Mission)! Then we got some amazing sack lunches, and went back to the offices where they let us socialize for a little while more. Then we went into the chapel, and had a Family Home Evening with Pte Robertson and his family. It was super cool! They had a few special musical numbers, several missionaries came up and shared their conversion stories, then Hermana Robertson taught the lesson, and Pte left his comments. Afterwards we all went back into the gym to play games. We played a game where each zone had the same amount of candies, and we had to go play rock paper scissors with everyone else that wasn´t in our zone. If we won, we got one of the other person´s candies, and if we lost we had to give them one. Then we had to go to a different group based on our birthday month, and we played stare, where you look at the ground and on the count of three have to look up and if two people look at each other, they are both out. The winner got another little bag of candies, and in the end we went back to our zone and added up all of the candies that we had. I think Chivilcoy Norte won. But it was actually really fun! Then we had the joy of running back to the Hermana Pench where we spe Sunday night to get our stuff, and then rush to the train station to try to get on the train llenisimo de gente! We got to Merlo about 4 minutes before the last bus for Las Heras, and spent the night there last night. We finished traveling--por fin!--this morning when we took the colectivo back to Lobos. It´s so good to be home! 

Yesterday President talked about the Fathers of the stripling warriors, and how they burried their weapons of rebellion deep in the ground. He asked us what weapons of rebellion we still have (favorite sins, or disobediences), and invited us to burry them deep. It was interesting to me that he talked about that, because the night before I had an interesting experience that made me think about a similar subject. We spent the night in Ramos with 16 other hermanas from campo. While talking about our respective areas and some of the challenges we were facing and things to do to overcome those, the idea of fasting was brought up. One of the hermanas commented that she doesn´t like fasting since she really likes food. And the line from Praise to the Man came into my head: Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven! I have been thinking about sacrifice a lot since then. I looked it up in the Guía para el Estudio de las Escrituras today (like the Bible Dictionary but in Spanish), and it was really interesting what I found. It says that in ancient times the word "sacrifice" means to sanctify something or someone. That today it means giving up the wordly for the Godly. Joseph Smith said that "a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, will never have sufficient power to produce the faith necessary to bring us to life and salvation." How true it is! We cannot really grow our faith unless we act upon it, and we will not become strong until we make sarifices and accept challenges in our lives. Sacrifice truly sactifies us, makes us more like the Lord, and refines us so that one day we will be able to enter in His kingdom and sit down with him. It was interesting to me as I pondered on this subject all of the things that we can--and must--sacrifice. There are the obvious things--money, time, work, sweat, labor. But there are a lot of things not so obvious--tears, fear, our desires, our will, dreams, sleep, the list goes on and on. I know that as we truly sacrifice, and take the time to do the Lord´s work, do His will and not ours, that He will allow us to be instruments in His hands, and will work in us the changes that we need to become like Him. I challenge each of you to examine your lives, what things do you want to or need to change? Make the commitment now to follow the Lord in all things, even the hardest. I know that Jesus Christ suffered and sacrificed the most out of all of us--even His very life He gave so that we could live. What will we give for Him? What will YOU sacrifice today? 

I love you all. Keep smiling in all you do! 

Con much amor

Hermana Durfee

June 8, 2015 Happy Happy Happy

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                           June 8, 2015

 

Firstly, HAPPY 23RD ANNIVERSARY TO THE BESTEST PARENTS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH UN MONTON!!! 

Secondly, muchas gracias for the package!!!! I love it!! (Except for the fact that I have to wait until Christmas to open part of it--haha). But thanks so much for the beautiful book! I love it, and it´s going to be super helpful for teaching the gospel! 

Thirdly, Happy Father´s Day to the bestest Daddy in the whole wide world! (Is it Father´s Day this week or next week? I have no idea what´s going on with all of the American holidays now--haha). 

Request: If anyone has any great jokes, please send them to me! Hna P- and I write Pte Robertson jokes each week in our emails, but we are running out! 

 

 

Flashback to Hermana Durfee's baptism!

I finished reading the whole Libro de Mormón (The Book of Mormon) in Spanish this week! It was such an amazing experience! And it was amazing to be able to finish it again and to pray to know if it was true again, and to feel the Spirit confirming the truth of this amazing book! I know that the Book of Mormon is true! It´s really interesting to me how the Spirit works with us. I think that the mission has probably been the most spiritual time of my life, but it has also been a time when the Spirit has started to speak more softly. I think that when we are really in tune with the Spirit, then he can start to do that, allowing us to use our agency even more to make good choices and grow. It also allows us to use our agency to listen harder and to choose to give heed to the small and simple impressions that we recieve. Truly, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass! By small and simple impressions of the Spirit, we can be the answers to people prayers. We can live in accordance with God´s will and eternal plan for us. We can grow and become who God wants us to be, and who He knows that we can be! Really, it is an amazing gift that God gives us, to be able to choose to listen to and heed the Spirit, and see all of these tiny miracles in our lives! 

We had FIFTY ONE people in church on Sunday! That´s enough to be a WARD! We just need to keep it up for the rest of June! Hna P- and I had a blast on Saturday and Sunday, calling all of our investigators, menos activos, and futuros investigadores, inviting them and commiting them to come to church. And on Sunday runnning all over our area on our bikes to get them to come to church. We had three investigators in church on Sunday. And the meeting was super powerful! The Spirit hit us like a wall, and every testimony born was super spiritual. I really hope that all of our investigators and conversos recien felt it! 

 

We are seeing a ton of miracles here in Lobos! I am loving being a part of it! We are super busy and super happy. 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Pay more attention to the Spirit in your daily life! Schedule more time during prayers to listen to what the Spirit says. Pay more attention in daily scripture study and write down the promptings you recieve from the Lord! And then make sure you ACT on those promptings, and pray also to know if there is anything else the Lord wants you to receive! (Study the talk by Elder Scott here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/how-to-obtain-revelation-and-inspiration-for-your-personal-life?lang=eng)

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts! 

Con Amor, Hermana Durfee

June 1, 2015 LOBOS IS EXPLODING!!!!

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                      June 1, 2015

     LOBOS IS EXPLODING!!!! This week we set a super low goal for new investigators because of

how many investigators we already had, but we found TEN new investigators!!! That´s the most investigators I have found in a week in my whole mission! So now we have an awesome problem...we have about 20 investigators, and we don´t have time to teach them all more than once or twice a week. Which will make it hard for them to progress. BUT we have been thinking of ways to solve this problem! Some of our ideas are to start doing divisiones with the hermanas of the rama, start having super short lessons so that we can get more in one day, start scheduling an hour a day to call people that we haven´t been able to visit in a while, get the members super involved, have a noche de hogar in the church once a week and invite all of the investigators so we can have a lesson with all of them and have some contact. Whatever we end up doing, we are going to have to start being super duper eficaz with our time. 

 

    Traslados (Transfers) are on Wednesday! We got the call this morning about what would be happening, and crazily, I AM STAYING IN LOBOS!! Que en el mundo!!!???!!!??!? This will be my fourth traslado here, so unless I get flashed (fast change), I will be in Lobos for SIX MONTHS. But the good thing is that I still love it! And we are going to see un monton de milagros este traslado!! Woot! We are super pumped to be able to keep working together for a little while more! But, we also get the fun of going to traslados since I am the HLE, so we have to go, and also because we are going to have Concilio de Líderes after. So we will be traveling ALL of Wednesday, basically. 

Milagros de Lobos: 

--We have an investigadora, R-, who was not progressing, and was not understanding very well. She is 72, so it was difficult for her to grasp the concepts or to remember them. But last time we invited her to be baptized, and this time she said that she will come to church, and understood a little bit better about baptism. We were going to drop her after this visit if she didn´t make any progress. But now we are going to work with her a little more to see what happens. The amazing thing is that the difference was how we taught her--when we taught with more faith and love and concern, she responded better and understood better! She has 22 brothers and sister! (Although like half of them have already passed away). But we have started teaching one of her sisters and her daughter-in-law and granddaughters as well. 

 

--UN RE MILAGRO: We found L- a couple weeks ago in the house of her neighbor. She is 12. She told us that she doesn´t really believe in God, and doesn´t know much about him. So we taught her about who he is, and how to pray. Fast forward to this Monday. We felt that we needed to go over and visit them. We met her mom, M-, and she told us all about her life, her needs, etc. without us even having to dig anything out. Then L- came out with the pamphlet we had left her before and asked if we could pray, and did it PERFECTLY!!! She has been practicing!! We started to teach the Restauration, but then L- told us that she wants to be Mormona, and what does she need to do. I immediately said "Get Baptized". So we explained all about that. M- wants her to get baptized, but wants her to make sure that she is sure, and that it´s not just cualquier cosa. Which is how it should be! M- said that she would also get baptized, but that she is going to take more time, to make sure. L-´s Dad is the boss of the Rama´s First Counselor. And he loves the way the Hno lives, and told him that we are teaching L- and that he wants her to continue and to be part of the church!! 

 

--We have been working with a Menos Activo, A-, for a while now. He is in his 80´s, and works nighttimes, so it is super hard for him to come to church. He also has problems seeing, so we started going to visit him to read him the Book of Mormon. And he has started reading on his own!!! Which is super amazing! I know that the Book of Mormon has such a power, and that really anyone that reads it with true intent will have progress! 

 

--The mission blew it´s goal for baptisms this month out of the water!! Hahah. We got 83 baptisms, and the goal was 75!! Woooooooooot!

 

--Our Converso Recién, L-, is progressing amazingly! We retaught him Plan de Salvación this week, and he understood it perfectly and had a lot of really great questions! He understood it perfectly, and we are going to start bringing him out with us to teach people in a little bit. He is progressing really well and preparing to receive the Priesthood! 

 

--G- is a woman that we have been working with for a while now. She doesn´t have a lot of education, so it is a little difficult for her to understand sometimes. But she is REALLY progressing! We passed by to see how she was yesterday, and she came out, was happy to see us. She said that she has been reading the folleto (pamphlet) that we left her, and also the Book of Mormon. And also that her marido--who we haven´t met with much since their horarios are different--has read a little bit of the BOM too and said that it is true!! She also said that she wants to come to church, and that if she likes it she will come siempre!!!! She also gave us the reference for her sister, and she let us come in and talk to her--even though she doesn´t normally like to listen to religious type people. She said that she let us in because G- told her it would help her, and also because she sat in on a lesson with G-, and she like it. Yaya!

 

--We found a super awesome woman, ML-, she was a reference from L-. She said that she loves the change that she is seeing in him--even to the color of his skin and state of health (Thank you Word of Wisdom!). She has a ton of faith, and knows the Bible really well. She leads the Bible class at the most prominent Evangelico church in Lobos (it has 300 people that attend regularly). But she was also humble and open to talking to us. We taught her the Restauration, and left her a Book of Mormon. I know that if she reads it, she will know that it is true, and she will get baptized! 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Keep a Miracle Calendar! Write down each day the miracles that you have seen that day, and share them with someone else! 

Love you all lots! Ya´ll are amazing! 

Hermana Durfee

May 25, 2015 BAUTISMOOOO!!!!!

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                           May 25, 2015

The greatest part about this week was the baptism of L- on Saturday and his confirmation on Sunday. It was a crazy day, and when we went to check on the font two hours before the baptism was supposed to start, it was only 2 feet full! So we had to start filling it with buckets since the hose was so slow. But, we could only get it about halfway full before the baptism was supposed to start. So L- and Elder F- had to kneel so he could get baptized. That made L- a little bit nervous because of his arthritis, and they had to do it twice, but it turned out well. Two of his daughters came to the baptism, and one of them cried the whole time. (We´re getting them next! :) His confirmation was super neat, Elder F- said a lot of really cool things about how he would help his family come into the church, how he would prepare for the priesthood, and about the influence he would be in Lobos! It was such an amazing experience to be a part of, and to get to teach him and watch his progress! We are excited to continue working with him to help him prepare for the priesthood and to go to the temple soon to do the work for his deceased family! 

Today is 25 de Mayo, which is Argentina´s independence day. Which is a little bit inconvenient, since that means that lots of stores and the bank and stuff are closed. But the great thing is that the Branch is having an activity--which we can attend since it is pday! And they are going to make tortas fritas and pasteles--yuumm!! Also, the men built a ping pong table, and there is going to be a tornament. We´ll see if we have any skill at all in that--hahaha. 

C- accepted a fecha bautismal! She is an amazing lady from the Dominican Republic. She is familiar with the church--she said there are a ton of chapels in the DR. And every time she references the church she uses its full name. So that´s cool. She also has the most gorgeous accent ever!! Since she´s black and she speaks Spanish! She loves God and Jesus with all her heart, loves the Bible, and has never been baptized! (That´s always a plus!) She had some fears about reading the Book of Mormon, but we tried to help her out with that and left Moroni 10:3-5 for her to read. She read quite a bit more and loved it since it says that God exists and talked about faith. When we came back for our next visit she said that she believes it! Woot! And so we talked to her about faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost. And she accepted right away when we invited her to be baptized! We have a few desafios to get over--like her marido thats atheist. But she has such a strong faith, and I know that she´ll make a huge contribution to the church--she already invites everyone in the house to listen, pray, go to the church or whatever activity we invite them to. 

 

This week has been the best week lesson-wise out of the whole transfer. It´s been amazing to see this transfer how much we are able to do with God´s help, even when it seems like we can´t--when we are traveling a ton, sick, it rains, or there is cualquier otra obstaculo. Somehow it seems to me that every time that we have these obstacles we work even harder, pray harder, and actually accomplish more than we would have otherwise--even if we have less time because of them. I was reading in 3 Nefi today when Christ comes to the Americas and prays for his discipulos. I realized that really, everything comes down to our faith. Christ preached directly an d clearly in a short period of time to the Nephites because of their great faith--something that it took the Jews three years and a million parables to be taught. I love that He thanks His father for purifying the discipulos because of their faith. Presidente Robertson has been talking to us a lot recently about faith, the importance of growing it, and all of the amazing things we will be able to see, in the mission and in life, if only we exercise a little bit of faith. I know that only through our faith can God work all of the amazing miracles that he wants to. 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Do something to grow your faith! Pray in faith to receive an answer, and pay attention to when and how the answer comes. Study the teachings of Jesus Christ about faith. Note any patterns or repetitions that you can find. Discuss with your family and friends what you have learned, what you can do to grow your faith, and what you are going to do because of this! 

I love you all! Keep up the great missionary work. I know that this really is the work of salvation! 

Con Mucho Amor, Hermana Durfee<3

 

May 18, 2015 Baptisms, Temple Dedications, Divisiones, y Capacitaciones Especiales!

Querido Familia y Amigos!!!                                May 18, 2015

I am sooooo excited for this Saturday! We are baptizing L-!!!!!! He is super duper prepared. The mission goal is to have more Melchezidek Priesthood holders that pay their tithing. And L- is already paying! He has a lot of faith, and acts on what he believes! It´s incredible. And he has already invited all of his kids, nieces, their kids, etc. to his baptism--without us even saying anything! It has been so amazing to watch and be a part of his process of conversion. And to have been there for the whole thing! That is probably the greatest thing ever! 

We are already in Week 5 of the transfer! And Presidente said in my interview on Tuesday that since I´ve already been here in Lobos for 3 transfers, that there is a strong possibility that I will be transferred in two weeks. :( But, we are loving every minute that we have here, and if I get transferred, I will continue to be a tool in the Lord´s hands to work miracles in my new area! But we are praying that I can stay--haha. 

So we had Capacitaciones Especiales y Entrevistas (Special Training and Interviews) on Tuesday. They were SUPER great! We ate PBJ for lunch! I love Hna Robertson!! And the Assistentes taught us about finding new investigators, and also about verifying during a lesson to make sure that the investigators understand well. We had an AWESOME experience with this the other day with G-! She is Catholic by tradition, but does not understand anything about religion. So we have been taking it slow, to establish a foundation with prayer and who is God. This week we taught her the Restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. It was super natural--which was Awesome! And we took turns asking her questions to make sure that she understood--for example, after teaching about prophets, we asked her what a prophet was, or why it was important for her. And if she didn´t understand, we retaught that section with different examples or scriptures or explanations until she did understand it. We probably covered each section of the lesson two or three times, but in the end she understood it really well. We called her last night to check up on her, and she said that she is reading the pamphlet that we left her, and she has been praying! Woot! She is progressing! Éxito!!

We are also seeing lots of progress in A-. He always shakes his hand when we ask how his reading is going=more or less. Last time we talked to him about just reading and meditating for only five minutes a day. He has eyesight problems, so trying to read the little letters for so long made his eyes really tired, but he said that he could read for 5 minutes a day. So when he said his reading was going más o menos, I asked him a clarifying question if he had read every day, and he said that he had!!!! And then we asked how he felt when he read, and he said tranquilo!!!! We identified that as the Spirit. He is progressing!!! He has been scared of baptism the whole time we have been teaching him, and not wanting to commit, and we finally found out it´s because he didn´t understand or remember anything or have his own testimony. And so now he is starting to feel a lot more comfortable with us! (And hopefully with the idea of baptism too!:) Hna P- and I set a goal for him to get baptized 15 of August. We haven´t told him about it yet, but it would be so cool if he got baptized that day, because he would get confirmed exactly one year from the time the missionaries found his family! And then they could all get sealed the next year! (The rest of the family except one daughter are all conversos recien!) And it would also be great if they could get sealed in August, because that would make it more likely that I would be able to come, since it would be in the summer! 

Yesterday we went to the most beautiful temple dedication EVER: El Templo de Córdoba!! President Uchtdorf dedicated it, and Elder Christofferson accompanied him. Pte Uchtdorf is a lot more awkard without a set script--and we figured out that maybe it´s because he is trying to figure out how to say things in English. Also, he laughs like Grandpa Tenney: huhuhu :). He and Elder Christofferson were cracking jokes the whole time while they were sealing the cornerstone. I love what he said in his talk too. He talked about how with every temple that we build, the power of Godliness grows more and more, and Satan´s power gets weaker and weaker. I was thinking about it, and I feel that that is because there will be more and more people receiving saving ordinances, more and more people recieving the protective power of the endowment, and more people commited to living the gospel of Jesus Christ in the manner that Heavenly Father wants. Pte Uchtdorf also asked us to always have a current temple recommend, and talked about how that is a symbol of our commitment to the Lord and to living his laws. And he also talked about making the temple a part of our lives. I´m so glad that Mom and Kalianne got to go to the temple this week! It is such an amazing place, and really is a dwelling place of God! After the dedication prayer, we all sang El Espíritu de Dios (The Spirit of God), and it was SUPER powerful! I loved it! Hermana P- and I agree that we would have gone to all three sessions if we could have. 

After the dedication we (mi distrito) all went back to Las Heras in colectivo, and then we had to wait for 2 hours for the next colectivo to Lobos. The Elderes are ALWAYS super hungry, and so they asked the Hnas of Las Heras if they had any food that they could spare, since it was Sunday and we couldn´t buy anything. So we went back and helped them cook a FEAST while the Elderes contacted in the plaza. It was so funny when we came outside with the food, and the Elderes were just amazed with how much we had! (We heaped it up on every plate). And Hna T- also made Peach Cobbler, which was divine! Basically, we have the GREATEST district in the whole mission. I think we are all asking Presidente to not split us up, but we will see--haha. I did my first divisiones (splits) as HLE with Hna C- in Las Heras on Tuesday, and she is a boss! I loved how when we were going to a house to contact someone, she would reach out her hand to shake theirs when they came to the door so they had to come out to the gate. That broke the ice a little, and also made it a LOT harder for them to just go back and shut the door without finding out what we wanted. Stealing this approach!! Also, Wednesday morning she made me banana bread in a cake form (since we don´t have bread pans:) and we celebrated my 9 months mark. I JUST FINISHED HALF OF MY MISSION!!! QUE LOCURA!!!

Weekly Challenge: Make it a priority to get to the temple! If you don´t have a temple recommend, get one! Plan for how you will attend the temple as often as possible. Prepare family names to take to the temple and do the work for them!! 

I love you all lots! The Church is true! Temples are the best! Families are forever! 

Hermana Durfee

 

May 11, 2015 Cuz I'm Happy . . .

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                         May 11, 2015

 

It was awesome getting to talk to all of the family--including Tyler! yesterday. Happy Mothers´ Day Mom! Thanks for being the greatest mommy evvvvvveeeeerrrr!!!!! Thanks for all of your love and support and for the great example you are for me and for everyone else. You are the best! 

 

 

This week has gone by super fast. Next Saturday L- is going to get baptized! He is progressing SUPER well. Thursday night we held a movie night for the branch, and a lot of members came! L- was our only investigator that came--but at least we invited lots! We showed Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restauration. There´s a part where someone in the movie reads the scripture that all men need to repent and be baptized in the agua. L- turned around when it said that and pointed at himself and said "yo!" (me). He is sooo ready to get baptized! So excited! That is probably the best part of the mission--to see the change in someone, from where they started to where the end up, and where they are going! It´s interesting too, since for a while he was concerned what all of his aquantainces were going to think--"Oh, L- is suddenly going to church! etc.", but now everyone he knows--including his children--are saying that they like the changes they are seeing in him and encouraging him to continue! He has also started giving us references of his own accord. One of these was his niece. We went and visited her and found out that she is an antiguo investigadora and that her family is SUPER duper united! They would make great members! 

 

 

On Tuesday we had our Zone Meeting, and I gave my first taller about using the Carpeta de Área (Area Book)to get revelation and inspiration--like the Liahona. (I kind of stole some of what I said from the Elders that presented that topic at the Concilio de Líderes.) My comp said that it went really well, so that´s good. :) We also talked about verifying that the investigators understand what we are teaching. We have started implimenting these tools more in our teaching, and they are really helping us.

 

Being in the Primary is also helping us to develop our teaching skills--helping us to teach more simply haha.  This month we are teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and last week we taught them faith. We were trying to figure out how to teach them this, since most of the kids are three or four or five. We were thinking about talking about seeds, but we didn´t know exactly how we wanted to do it. When we got to church an idea came to me how to do it. We had the kids squat down like seeds and act out how a plant grows. And then we talked about what we can do to grow our plants: not yell in the church (haha), be nice to our siblings, obey our parents, read the scriptures, pray, etc. It was a super great lesson. I feel like we are really getting a hang on how to teach the primary! Now we just need to help the Primary President be more involved....

 

Tomorrow we are having special capacitaciones and interviews, after that until Wednesday afternoons I am doing divisions with the hermanas in my Zone, on Sunday we are going to the Stake Center again for the dedication of the Cordoba Temple!!! Super excited! Wooot! So we are going to have tons of time away from our area this week--aah! But we are going to see a million miracles this week. So it´s ok. 

 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Write a note of thank you to your Heavenly Father. Express your love and admiration for Him. Share it with Him in prayer. <3

Love you all lots! Keep going strong! Helaman 3:35

Hermana Durfee

May 4, 2015 Lobos: Aaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                         May 4, 2015

   We are serving in Lobos, which means wolf. So our district leader (that looks SO weird. It should be “líder”) decided that we should end all of our calls with “chau chauuuuuuuuuuuuu” like a wolf. Which is pretty entertaining.

 

   We had Concilio de Líderes this week, so we spent a whole day in Ramos Mejía. We went Thursday night and slept in the pench of the Hermanas that they have there for things like that. It is a LOT nicer than our first night there. They put blankets on the beds, there are extra blankets and towels, and extra hygiene supplies. And there is a couch—chetooos! Haven´t seen one of those in a long time! Also it probably helps that I´ve been on the mission almost NINE months! And so it was not a shock like it was the first night—haha.

 

    So Friday all of the HLE´s and the Zone Leaders got together with Presidente and the Asistentes and we gave cuentas for the baptisms each zone had had the last month and shared our thoughts for the reasons of the degree of success that each one had. We then split into four smaller groups to discuss problems and confusions that exist in the mission right now and what we thought about that, and then talked about it with the bigger group and came to conclusions of what we would do. We also received a little bit of training about the Carpeta de Área and about helping our investigators understand the message that we bring. We are going to be sharing the things that we learned in the Reunión de Zona tomorrow. It was really great to be there with the other leaders and to learn from all of the other HLE´s about what I need to be doing. It´s kind of funny though, since one of the hermanas just went home yesterday for ankle problems, and so now there are only four hermanas in the Zona—me and my comp and one more companionship. But at least that will make it easier to focus on them and make sure they each have their own training instead of worrying about a million hermanas!

 

We also started “Cheto Friday” where we contact rich people every Saturday—because Saturdays are a better day to find them, but my comp doesn´t like how that sounds. So far it´s worked, surprisingly. We found 2 awesome new families . So we are going to keep going with this and see how it goes. :D

 

Love you all lots! Can´t wait to talk to the flia on Sunday!

<3 Hermana Durfee

April 27, 2015 Finding Treasures in Lobos

 

 

Querido Familia y Amigos!                                         April 27, 2015

 

Wow, what a week!

I am now the Hermana Líder Entrenadora (Sister Training Leader) of Marcos Paz! So that means I have to go to the Concilio de Líderes on Friday. Which might possibly complicate some of the citas and things we have this week. But we´ll figure it out! :D

 

On May 17 will be the dedication of the Cordova temple! And we are going to it! Woohoo!

Firstly, L- is progressing AMAZINGLY!! We taught him twice this week—Law of Chastity and Baptism and Confirmation. He is en acuerdo (how do you say that in English?) with all of the things we have taught him, and is super excited to cumplir con todo. He told us that he studies the Book of Mormon three! times a day. And he prays every day. And he has started to give us referrals on his own—for his sons and one of his nieces. He also told us that he thinks about his baptism every day, and that he really notices the difference in his life—he has so much more peace now. I notice the difference too! He changed his baptism date for 9 Mayo so that he can go to the temple dedication the week after! I am so excited for him!!

 

We have found a bunch of new people this week! We found a family that is SUPER Catholic, L- y J-. But unlike the Super Catholics that we usually find that are obsessed with virgens and walking to Lujan, and other rituals or organizational things like that, we feel like the thing they like more is the doctrine. And they told us there are things that they don´t like about their church (maybe like the actions of some of their leaders?). We shared the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with them, and they said that they will read! They said that there is no reason to be scared or closeminded. So we will see where this goes!

 

We decided we need more room to dry our clothes, so Hna P- put some string between some of the curtain rods. Hopefully it will actually work! Haha.

 

WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Study the talk “Beware of Pride” by Presidente Benson. (You can find it hereà https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/05/beware-of-pride?lang=eng) Analyze your own life and the things that you can do to be more humble and to eliminate the burden of pride from your life!

 

Les amo un monton!

Hermana Durfee