TRANSFERS!!!

Woooooaaaaah there....

First of all it's SNOWING yaaaayyy! :) so pretty. So mom be grateful I'm being transferred to an area where I won't have a car!! No driving in the snow hahaha. Just freezing.


SO... Can you guess where I'm being transferred..?  I will give you a few hints..

This place....

-is BUSY..
-is expensive...
-is PRETTY..(especially at Christmas time)
-is FULL of diversity...
-has some good smells (and some not so good smells)
-has a whole lotta good shopping...
-is intimidating..
-has fabulous food...
-has famous people..
-has awesome LDS members...
-has lots of smart people... (And some not so smart)
-has a temple...

This place is one of my favorite places I've ever been in my life.

THIS PLACE IS MANHATTAN.

If you could only see the look on my face when I found out I was being transferred there.. Manhattan has been just a place of fun on P days for me so far.. But now I get to actually teach the people in Manhattan. I get to do the Lords work in an amazing part of the world. (And yes I realize serving in manhattan is not like visiting/vacationing in manhattan.) haha. But like Manhattan is Manhattan no matter what. And I LOVE it.

Some of my feelings..
I can't help but feel a LITTLE inadequate serving in this super populated amazing city.. Like do you know what kind of people live in manhattan? Haha. Like HI New York City I'm Sister Dunford. .. But whenever I feel these little inadequate thoughts I just push them away and think "oooooohhh k Heavenly Father you know where I need to be, and I know that you will help me out as long as I do my part." I am just praying that I will be able to be a successful instrument in the lords hands. I know he will guide me with the spirit. I have witnessed it already!! I seriously just can't wait live in the city and explore it in a WHOLE new way. How many people get to say that they have helped others come to Christ in NYC? Lots of people visit/vacation there.. But I am doing the most important thing EVER there. HAHa I CANT WAIT to share the gospel with the people. I can't BELIEVE how well Heavenly Father knows me. I know that Manhattan is where I am supposed to be.

So as for leaving the Darien Connecticut ward... SAD. I love this ward SO much. The people here are incredible. Soooo successful and SO humble. A scripture that reminds me of the Darien ward is... Alma 32:16 "Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble...." The Darien ward is a perfect example of this. They have everything they need (materialistically speaking) they have wonderful nice homes, great families, nice cars, everything. They have it all. BUT they are still SO humble and willing to help out and serve others. They are humble because they want to be. Not because they have nothing better to do than to serve and help others. I LOVE THE DARIEN ward. It will forever hold a place in my heart. I will for sure be back to visit this area. I have learned soooo much from the members here!! I heart Connecticut. AND I heart NY.

One positive to leaving this area...
I have never eaten so much in my life. HAHA. I honestly don't think there was one dinner appointment that I didn't have a desert. And there were dinner appointments like 5 ish times a week. And you cannot turn down a desert that was made especially for you. The people sure know how to fatten a girl up. So I guess we'll see if I can stay away from the delicious food in manhattan this next cycle. I will be walking walking walking. :)

So I received an email from my wonderful Dad last week telling me that I need to talk more about the things that are HARD for me on my mission. HAHA what!?! So I thought a lot about that throughout my week. What really is SO hard about my mission? And I came to the conclusion that the very root of what makes my mission hard for me is having to be 100% selfless. FOR REAL. When I break down every little thing that is hard for me, It really comes down to selfishness!!! HOW SAD. I never really thought I was that selfish until I started thinking about WHY certain things are hard. Things like I want more sleep, more time for myself, more time to study, more space for myself, feeling inadequate to teach, wanting to eat what I want whenever I want, wanting to listen to MY favorite music, thinking about home, wanting to do things for the benefit of ME. ...And there you have some honest thoughts from ABBs. I think we as humans are ALL more selfish than we would like to admit. .. SO..How do we fix this huh? Well.. What i'm doing is working really hard on becoming more like Christ EVERY single day. Remember how I told you I focus on one Christlike attribute a day? IT IS THE BEST THING for me. I'm telling you, if you want to be truly happy and perfect, focusing on Christ is HOW you do it. It's not having the best hair, it's not being the skinniest person ever, it's not having the best clothes, not having the most money, not having the best pictures on Instagram, not the most likes, ITS NOT about those things. (I feel like that's what everyone describes a "perfect person" as) THAT IS NOT a perfect person. It takes humility to admit that I am selfish! It really really does. I would LOVE to just tell you that I am always thinking about others and ALWAYS turning outward and ALWAYS being just like Christ. But hate to break it to you, IM STILL HUMAN. BUT I am trying to be more like my savior EVERY SINGLE day. And that my friends, is why we are here on this earth, to become more like Christ and to CHANGE and be BETTER. So I invite you ALL, to think about yourself. Think about why you do the things you do. And then break it down. And then pick a Christlike attribute and tape it ALL over your mirror. So everyday when you get ready, you know what you're going to implement throughout your day. It will help you be happier I PROMISE.

I had an amazing last week in Darien!! Lots of good things happening here and the sister that gets to replace me us ONE LUCKY DUCK. I wish I could write more but there is just TOO much. So. That's it! Can't wait till next week to tell you about my first adventurous week in MANHATTAN. Love you ALL.
Xoxo- gossip girl ;)

HA.

Teasin

LOVE,
Sister Dunfun

Thankful thank you thanks thanksgivin

Hi guys!!

How is everyone?

Shout out to the soon to be Baylee Relf. Love you bay! Go marry in that temple sista friend. I'm still doing great! Same old happy Sister Dunford! IM SO THANKFUL for everything that I have. I am just constantly feeling blessed. It's a wonderful time of year.

It's P DAY. Sister Wilkes is having so much fun being a girl on our P days.. Hahah! You know what we did today? My hair, And then we got our nails done. And then we went shopping. And then we got our eyebrows threaded. Then grocery shopping. And then we made caramel brownies for a sister in our apartment because her birthday is tomorrow. HAHA. Sister Wilkes had never had her eyebrows threaded or her nails done so this was a new and exciting day for her! Preparation for the week you know? ;)

It's getting so cold here!! Time to pull out the winter coat!! haha. I have been a little sick the last few days so yesterday my companion and I had to stay in for a little while. Being sick as a missionary is not fun. I'd rather be busy and not have time think all day long. But oh well. Much needed resting.

Thanksgiving is real soon too.. And transfers are the day before
thanksgiving .. So you just hope if you get transferred that someone
will have you over for dinner.. Haha. It would be interesting to be in a whole new area with a new companion in a new zone for thanksgiving.

So first highlight of the week was MY COUSINS BAPTISM that I had
permission to skype into!! That was so amazing. It was SO good to see all my wonderful family on skype and say hello. That was so cool and something I will never forget. I'm so grateful for the opportunities that I have in this mission. Online proselyting is so great. (For those who are confused) I had the opportunity to contact my cousin on Facebook who wasn't a member and I had permission to teach him online. (He lives back home in Utah) well coolest thing ever he got baptized on Saturday and my mission president was amazing and allowed me to skype the baptism. SO COOL. I love my family SO much. Hahaha I was laughing when Ky and McCall were crying. HAHA. Love you guys. That was so special!!

Another highlight was zone conference!!!
It was SO fun. Haha. So it started and we had like a question/answer
meeting for like two hours where we could ask questions to the mission president and he would answer. The questions could be rule based, or doctrine, or anything really. It was SO good. He clarified a lot of the things for us. President Morgan is an AMAZING mission president. I only hope I can be half as amazing as him when I grow up. After the questions, we had lunch and then split into smaller groups like 8 missionaries per group. Each group was asked to make a video about why we believe in Christ. ... I have not laughed that hard since Sister Wilkes and I DOWNED the chocolate cake. HAHA. Oh my heavens. My group made up a dance. And two missionaries made up a rap and rapped while we danced. Ha ha ha. Oh my heck. It was so funny. Then after we finished making our videos we all got back together and we watched each groups video!! We had popcorn and soda and we all laughed so hard. Don't worry we weren't JUST having fun. President Morgan had some amazing remarks after and realllly brought the spirit. It was too good. I love President Morgan.

So there is a new woman we are teaching. She is 49 years old and her
name is Dana. Dana was a referral from a member in a different ward.. Well when I called dana to find out a time we could go meet with her, the first thing she said asked me was if I could bring her a pack of cigarettes. Haha. And then she continued to cry on the phone when I told her we couldn't and I told her we were going to try to help her to overcome smoking. Well we finally went to Dana's to meet her and OH MAN. I feel so bad. Dana is an intense drug addict. Intense...  She is for reals struggling. I don't think I have ever seen anything like her. In all honesty her life is just NOT in a good place. I can't explain details but lets just say DRUGS ARE SO BAD. Dana is going to need A LOT of help to get out of this mess. She will need more than just two sister missionaries. (For real) But.. I know with my whole heart that Christ can heal her. I know that no matter how messed up things get, that Christ will heal us. No matter how far off we think we have gone, we can always come back. I know that if it weren't for Christ's atonement, We would all be trapped. And we would not be able to progress. But because of him we can change!! We just need to have faith in him and put Christ at the center of our lives. We need to commit ourselves to Jesus Christ spiritually, physically, and emotionally. He WILL bless our lives with direction, and happiness, peace, love, relief, joy!! When we live a Christ centered life, we live a MUCH better life. Not because there won't be trials, but because we can get through the trials with the help of Christ. I have a STRONG testimony of the atonement. I have felt it's cleansing and healing powers in my life. I know that Christ can lift the burdens off of our backs. I have witnessed it myself. I love Christ. And I am beyond grateful for the love that he has for ALL of us.

That's ALL for now people. LOVE YOU LOTS. CTR

Love abbba!!
:)

anotha weeeeeek

HELLO!

So I cannot believe that I have friends getting married... STOP. Haha crazy. I LOVE YOU friends at home.
I am currently eating my favorite candy (hi-chews.) and I am waiting for my food at PF changs. Yummmm. I'm keeping an eye out for Beyoncé because she lives way close to where I am. HAHa. I'm so happy. Today I get to get a haircut and I CANNOT WAIT. Back in a salon!!!! Oh how I've missed doing hair :) I am cutting off 5 inches.. Much needed hair cut. I loooove P days.

GREAT week. I can't believe how much I love the people here. I don't ever want to leave this area. The people are SO amazing. I have made some really strong connections with a lot of the people here. Transfers are just around the corner. And I felt like transfers were yesterday! I'm crossing my fingers that I will stay another cycle .... Eeeeee!!!  But I will do whatever God wants me to do. Heavenly Father knows where I need to be. I just think being here for the holidays would be so awesome. And I really love Sister Wilkes. It will be her LAST cycle! She is a good missionary. So I guess we'll find out what happens in about a week!! Ahh!!

The area that I am in is BLOOMING. I looooove it. We have SO many
people to work with and it feels so good to teach the gospel. Things are realllllly starting to pick up here and I am so happy about it. We have two baptismal dates and We had SEVEN investigators at church!!!!! MIRACLE. It's a miracle when we have one at church but SEVEN!?!? That NEVER happens. I was soooo happy. And the thing about the investigators that we have right now is they are all so serious and SO normal and so awesome. I don't know how many times I said "I don't ever want to leave this area..." over the week. We are so busy and the members are so willing to come teach with us. I feel blessed. So happy. #thankful

It was a FUN week. I wish I could list everything fun that happened. But I just can't. Just know I am having FUN. And working hard. ;)

How did I get called here? I can't handle it. I can't believe how right this is. This is where I am supposed to be. THIS GOSPEL is so important. I feel bad for those who don't understand the importance of it! Because I don't think I really realized how important it is until I came out here. I think every person in the whole world should serve a mission. I would be so so so sad if I wouldn't have come out here. I would have had no idea what I was missing out on. AHH I just feel so blessed to have the gospel and to know and understand the gospel. It makes all the difference. I am so happy.... BUT please remember that this is hard. Although I've never been happier.... I have never been so tired. So spiritually tired and physically tired as well. I NEVER thought I'd miss my loved ones at home as much as I do. I didn't think I would have to miss my bfffffff's big day. Didn't think I'd have to be SO selfless. ... Crazy though, because I don't want to do ANYTHING else. I don't want to ever stop sharing the gospel. I love the gospel. I love my Heavenly Father. I love my savior Jesus Christ. I am so confident that this church is true. I have SUCH a strong testimony that god hears us and he knows us. He knows what we need. He loves us.

PRAYER is my favorite thing right now. I love prayer more than I love peanut butter. My prayers have come a loooong way since I left on my mission. I LOVE to say my prayers. I love to pour out my heart to Heavenly Father. And to tell him how tired I am. I love telling him how much I miss my family. I love telling him how fat I feel after eating the meals the members feed me. I love asking for forgiveness for my shortcomings of the day. I love THANKING him for letting me have this opportunity. I LOVE praying to him. And I've never felt so close to him. He cares for all of us. He IS THERE. So PLEASE everyone don't deprive yourself from the wonderful blessing we have to COMMUNICATE with him. Prayer is amazing. I LOVE PRAYER. So I INVITE all of you to pray harder than you ever have before. And literally POUR OUT YOUR STINKIN HEART. Let your prayer be SINCERE. Don't just bow your head and fold your arms and "pray" without being sincere, .... If that happens.. re- do your prayer. A prayer should be straight from your heart. Your TRUE desires. In fact yesterday I prayed to god that I would be able to buy a dress that I saw the other day in madewell. Now just because I prayed for that does that mean I'm going to get it? No. In fact I probably won't get it. But it felt good to tell Heavenly Father. And I think Heavenly Father enjoyed hearing that from me. I LOVE my Heavenly Father. He is so smart and so loving and so right. I Love him.

I guess that's all for now. Talk to you in a week!!! Maybe I will
share more stories then. CTR

Love abbbbbbba

a cute member family!

I slacked on picture taking this week. I will send more later ;)

NOVEMBER IS HURR

P DAAYA!

I was just reading through some of my old journal entries and I
realized it was one year ago last week that I made my decision to serve a mission!!! CRAZY. That was a FAST year... I am SO grateful that I made this decision to serve. Heavenly Father is seriously guiding my life. I KNOW that FOR sure.

How was everyone's Halloween!?! You all looked so good. 

I love Halloween.

My Halloween was great!! We went to MLC which is a leadership
training. And that was in Scarsdale NY. I looooooved it. I had so much personal revelation I couldn't even write it all down. Good stuff. And Sister Morgan made us Chili!!!! Which made me SO happy because it reminded me of my moms chili that she makes every year on Halloween. And then afterwards she brought out homemade donuts. I. just. about. died. Yummiest things of my life. I was happy. That night allllll the missionaries in NYNY North mission had to be in by 6:00. So guess what I did that night? BAKED yummmmm cookies. and listened to conference talks. It was so fun. Apparently I cook and bake. and I enjoy it!! Never thought I would. But I do. And my roommates enjoy what I make :) after eating some cookies and cookie dough we had to move around to burn some calories. So I will send some pictures of what we did.. Jumped around just a little…  shhhh And thank the heavens we go to the gym every morning!!

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much out here. I must be happy or something! Every night when I'm in bed It feels so good to relax my cheeks. Hahaha!!

So something I've never experienced ever in my life was being taught by a Muslim! If my mom could see just a few sneak peek previews of a few of some of the situations I've been in I think she would crap her pants!! Hahah So there is this woman named Doris in our ward. And I LOVE her so much. She is from India! And she is married to a Muslim. He lives in India. So yes Doris lives here in Connecticut and her husband lives in
India. And they both have different beliefs. Sooo cool.
Doris is such a good example to me because she is one of the strongest members I know! Doris just came home from her trip to India with her husband. and she was there for like 2 months visiting her husband. I have been dying to see her again so now that she is finally home we went to see her. When we got there her husband was there praying! It was interesting to see how other people pray. She then invited us to sit on the floor and she made us this delicious mint drink. Mmm and some yummy bread. And then her husband came over and looked me right in the eyes and taught me the whole Muslim religion for about 1 hour hahaha. I am almost positive he thought he was going to convert me. I was just openly listening. (Little did he know how strong my testimony is right now) He is so so nice. And VERY passionate about what he believes. He taught me about how they sacrifice Lambs and showed me all sorts of pictures from India. Which was so cool. I felt like I was literally in India. I am going to take a trip to India one day. FOR REAL. And Doris and her husband told me they would plan my whole trip for me! I am way excited. I love Doris.

I LOVE our investigators right now. I haven't talked about them much because there is just so much to talk about. But Rick and Maria are most definitely still progressing. Maria has a bap date in December and I am really hoping to still be here for that! We taught them with some members over the week and that was great. Members are so awesome to bring to lessons because it really does help the investigators feel more welcome at church. I gave rick my FAVORITE book ever "Our Search For Happiness" and I am so excited to hear what he thinks about it. That book is just incredible. I've read it 3 times already. It needs to be connected to the Book of Mormon because it explains what we believe SO WELL. If you have not read that book, I invite you ALL to pick up a copy and open it right up. Your life will change ;) it's by M Russel Ballard.

Christian our nine year old investigator had a baptismal date for Oct. 25th but we pushed it back because we felt that he was not ready! He needs to come to church a few more times. But it's hard because it's up to his mom to get him there. And that's doesn't seem to be a priority in her life. Christian is hilarious. You can only imagine the look on his face when we taught him the law of chastity. Hahaha. Ahhhhh. He is now going to be baptized on December 6th.

Melissa is a new ish investigator and I LOVE her. She is married to a nice man and they have 3 kids and one on the way! She is amazing. I look up to her lots. She and her husband have committed to come to church on Sunday so I'm pumped to see them there!

We just barely started teaching this old woman named Julia! She is baptist and SO nice. She tells me I am an angel over and over and over. She's so sweet. Yesterday I was on an exchange with a sister and we went to knock on Julia's door... Well she opened up and guess what. She forgot to put her pants on. Ah!!!! Haha the poor sister I was with was like what on earth!!!!! Oh Julia. I love to help her out. She is a sweet sweet old woman.

So it was a fabulous week. I would share some of my favorite things I studied this week but I just realized this email is a liiiittttle lengthy and I'm not too sure you guys will want to keep reading more.. So I will end with that. (If you want to get inside some of my thoughts just read my Facebook posts ;)
I LOVE YOU ALL. Thank you for everything.
CTR

Love,
ABBS

Happy Halloweeny:)

#nofilter

It's HALLOWEEN 
week.

ITS BEAUTIFUL here. The trees. I'm just speechless. AHHH.

So I loved this last week. It was just good. I seriously wish that
there was a way for all of you to just watch the highlights of my week like a movie. Because there is no way for you to even understand the things I'm doing and learning. The emails don't do it justice. One day I will invent a camera that magically follows missionaries so that their families can see what they are REALLY doing. I just love my mission.

I think this email will be way random!!

I really really love my companion. She is SO funny. We DIE laughing all the time. This is one experience we had this week. So. One of the members in our ward made us dinner and had us come pick it up. So we pick it up and it was a yummy taco salad. And she gave us this giant chocolate cake. Haha. We looked at it and We were like psh. Not even tempting..(or so we thought.) I told Sister Wilkes I wasn't going to eat any of it because I would just feel sick after. HA. Well she opens the box and mmmmmm. I stared at it really hard. And then I said MMM I will just lick the frosting. So I lick a tiny tiny bit. Then she's like I wanna try!! So she gets a piece and is just loving it. Then I was like mm I will have a liiiiitle more. ... 5 minutes later we had devoured the cake. Hahahah. I was like SISTER WILKES what the crap just happened!!! We had chocolate everywhere. I was just not feelin so hot. And then we were just crying laughing. I haven't laughed that hard in a loooooong time. Well you might think this story is pointless and boring but let me tell you what I learned. Temptations come LOOKING very nice. That chocolate cake... Looked real good. I thought I could just be around it and not even give in. But it took ONE tiny lick and then 5 minutes later I looked like a criminal with chocolate on my face. I couldn't even remember how I got from point A to point Z. If I had just not even licked the cake I would have been healthy and happy. This little story is just way too similar to the temptations we have in life. They come lookin real nice. And you KNOW not to give in. You KNOW that you will feel like crap after. But for some little reason right when the temptation is in front of you, NOTHING else matters. Am I right? And then after you've given in to that temptation you can't understand why it was that you let your guard down in that moment. DONT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATIONS. DONT DO IT. Just make your decision RIGHT now that you won't give in to certain things. Life will be better that way. CTR.

Now let me share my favorite green smoothie recipe with you all because Its so good.
1 cup of unsweetened coconut water
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 frozen banana
2 tablespoons of almond butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 scoop of protein powder
And ICE
And then think of sister dunford when you drink it. YUM.

We had stake conference which was great!!! This stake is real great.
Super awesome members. We were at a training meeting and some man
walked up to me and was like do you know me? I was like no. And then
come to find out he is my dads REAL good friend!!! I had another one
of those moments where I just felt SO blessed to be where I am. He is going to take my companion and I out to lunch. I can't explain how grateful I am for the people that are so kind to me. Ahhhh so
grateful.

My dads good friend from college!

Another one of those blessed moments was when this cute investigator
named Monica from Brazil bought me two pairs of real nice tights!! She had seen me at the trunk or treat on Friday night and saw that I was a little bit cold. And my legs were just a shivering. So the next day she went and bought me tights!!! HOW NICE!!! She didn't even know me very well and she isn't even a member of the church!!! I love people.

OH my goodness I just read Alma 32 today in my Book of Mormon reading and I just AH. It's SO good. FAITH really really is like a seed. Everyone needs to go read Alma 32 right after they are done reading this email because it's just my favorite thing. Doesn't even matter how many times you have read it. Read it OVER and OVER. I love the Book of Mormon.

Okay. My thoughts are so scattered right now I wish I could keep
typing. But I will end now :)

I LOVE the crap out of all if you. And I know, with my whole heart
that this church is true.

Love abbs!
Ps I painted this on a window at the care center we volunteer at :)
the old people LOVE it. SO fun :) hehehehe

HAHA and whatever the crap Ebola is I am laughing so hard at this
little picture. Ebola Ebola Ebola. Wah wah wah.