sheesh new york i love you

YO.

Today is a good day. Got my nails did and now I'm at red mango. In Chinatown. FUN. Next stop, Brooklyn Bridge. (I love my mission) It is not already nearing the end of January? You. Are. Kidding?  Wowza. I just want to cry I love New York so much. I have a lot on my mind so here we goooo! 

my fave thing ever

Let me start off with some highlights!!! 

TAYLOR SWIFT. Spotted by two sister missionaries. On Saturday WOAH WOAH WOAH. I HAVE HER ADDRESS PEOPLE I HAVE HER ADDRESS. Did I not say last week that I could feel Tayla close to me? You guys this could be good...  Taylor swift could become a mormon. Watch out everyone. Next magazine headline will read "Taylor Swift meets the Mormon's" (and then I will be on the front cover teaching her) HaHA. Dreaming. BUT I LOVE TAYLOR SWIFT

doorbell ditching taylor

i love HER

Okay for sure excitement ran through my body when I saw CAITLIN Cutler and Madi Russel and Michael Anderson at church. That was the funniest moment. I looked up from the ground and there was Caitlin!! I couldn't believe my eyes. I was like HEY I know you. It was a happy moment for sure. 

Another fun time- we got to tour the ABC news rooms with our young women. FUN. "Sister Dunford and Sister Brown bringing you the GOOD

news of the restored gospel!" Felt like a famous person.

Um we ate at the awesomest hipster shake shack I've ever been to. They played the BEST music and I will be honest I loved it. I got a tear in my eye it was so wonderful. Music es bien. Tender Mercy.

Our investigators are doing great. Not much progression but they are still baby progressing. So it's good!! Little by little right? 

This is COOL--

On Sunday we got a new man to teach! Named Claudio. He speaks Spanish and a tiny bit of English. My companion and I have actually been studying spanish every morning. Es muy bien en la cabeza. (Ahhaha) Haha really tho. I need to speak every language here. 

So Claudio! His mother recently passed away which has made him consider that there is a god. (YES) I'm so sad that his mother passed away but at the same time I'm so happy that this has humbled him and softened his heart!! We had a powerful lesson on eternal families and the spirit was so strong. I actually have had some very cool experiences here on my mission with family of mine that has passed away. I feel close to those in my family who have passed on.

I truly can feel them helping me here in New York. (Call me crazy but I'm serious) FAMILIES ARE FOREVER.

Remember Sanae the cute girl from Japan? who got baptized a few weeks ago?? We are teaching her ENGLISH. I kid you not, I know so many different words in different languages. (I say this all the time I know) but I think I ought to go home and travel the world with these new language skills that I have ;) not only that but understanding different accents.#proabbs I love sanae. I never knew I could love so many foreign people so much. I love the world. 

Kinda funny story..

There was one night where we were running late to an appointment and I was so frustrated with the stinkin bus that I just spontaneously called a taxi over and we rode to our appointment in a taxi. HHAHAH.(Sometimes you can pretend like you're rich and it's fine.) But no It was hilarious. My companion was looking at her iPad and next thing she looks up to me calling her to get in the taxi. She was like "what on earth..!! how are we paying for this!?!" I was like "I got it.." It was just so much more worth paying to get to our appointment on time than waiting years and years for the bus!! And HEY turns out the cab driver really liked us. He said he drives by the temple all the time and wonders what it is. So we were able to share our testimonies with him in the short time that we had. (So I know we were supposed to take the taxi for a reason) :) We made it to our appointment on time thanks to the speedy cab driver. We were just laughing our heads off all night about how funny and "typical sister dunford" that was of me to get a cab! Hhaha. 

-CHALLENGES- 

So I definitely had a better week than last week. We worked hard. 

Hard work hard work. Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath and think to myself "it's OKAY that people aren't flocking to the gospel here in New York." Because it's gods work. He is in charge and I am just doing my best to be an instrument in his hands. It can be real tricky to interest people about the gospel here in NYC. I think New York could be one of the hardest places to do missionary work..! But I really don't know because I haven't done missionary work anywhere else. ;) Now don't get me wrong I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY HERE. But ... We is def not baptizing right and left.. :) hahaha. We do lookups allll day long. Meaning we walk to apartment after apartment and press the buzzer. "(Buzz buzz buzz) Hi! We are the missionaries from the church of Jesus Chri........... (Hangs up)...  (Frowny faces) :( (at least it's not doors in our faces right?) ha but im pretty stinkin optimistic about the work here. I Love it for reals. We ARE teaching a good amount of people. Haha (well.. single men) I would say it's just tough to work around people's schedules. We are doing it though!!! And it's great!!! I am learning patience in SO many ways..

One last spiritual thought for the fam!! So as I was reading in the New Testament in Matthew 20 ish... It was about the parable of the householder and the laborers. And briefly I will mega summarize..

So the householder, (God) hires laborers, (us) to work in his vineyard! He went to hire some laborers early in the morning and he told the laborers he would pay them a penny a day. So they went to work!  Then.. The householder went back at 3:00 and found more laborers, he told them to go to work in the vineyard. Then he came back again at 5:00 and found more laborers! He told them to go to work as well. So here we have laborers that all went to work at different times. (9:00, 3:00, and 5:00.) when it came time to pay them, the very first laborers supposed that they should have gotten more than the other laborers who came later.. God is like EH wrong.

You all get the same!!!! (Ok he's a lot more loving than that.. But you get the point) So ANYWAYS. I really loved this. Because I think we compare ourselves to others A LOT. (Or maybe that's just me. Haha) but everyone is at a different point in their life. We are all learning at different rates. So maybe my testimony is growing like a weed right now and your isn't. Well guess what ITS OKAY. As long as you get there. Here's a little quote that I liked. I found it in the institute manual. “… His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there." -unknown human being haha. So anyways I just want everyone to know that I have a testimony of Christ's atonement. And it's NEVER too late to turn your life around and get back on the straight and narrow path. 

It's never too late to start reading your scriptures. 

It's never too late to start praying. 

It's never too late to stop saying bad words.

Never too late to start eating healthier.

Never too late to start being kind to others. 

Never too late for ANYTHING. Christ is ALWAYS there to help us. And those who have already been on the right path, AWESOME. Keep going. Those who haven't, (GET ON IT) haha. 

I love you all. 

IM DOING SO GOOD SO HAPPY SO GOOD SO HAPPY. 

Thanks for reading this long lengthy random email. Hopefully it didn't put you to sleep. I just have too much to say!

Read your scriptures!!! I LOVE YA

Sister Abba DUNFORD ;)

New Yurkin

Notha week my friends!! 

It was not my favorite week if I'm being 100% honest.. but hey, if every week were my favorite week, then I would have no favorite week. So I'm grateful for the not so favorite weeks!! :) 

The weather this week tried to ruin a few of my days.. but it didn't!!! Because I chose to be happy and smile my numb cheeks off. (Literally the wind here is death) haha and as missionaries we just live out in it all day. LOVE it. (But I'm lying I don't love it) haha What I do love is.. NYC. I stinkin love it here. 

Today we went to the natural history museum!! I found my gurl Sacajawea. And some good old dinosaur friends. FUNNEST. (Dad you would have loved it I thought of you the WHOLE time.)  

Some fun Sista Dunford THOUGHTS...

I'm tellin you.... I think One Direction or Taylor swift or Selena Gomez have driven passed me multiple times. It's funny because there are lots of nice black cars with extreme tinted windows and I can just feel that there is someone famous in there.  All the limousines that drive by too... Ugh if only I could just get in contact with tayla swift.. She's pretty awesome I think she would love Mormons. We would be best friends if she just met me :) HAHA. 

The people here are absolutely amazing! So many good people. Good people with good hearts. A lot of people seem to think that "New Yorkers" are rude and hard hearted. Well they are NOT. You just have to talk to them. Once you start talking to people, you find that everyone is REAL and nice. And that is something I LOVE. REAL PEOPLE. The world needs more real people. I like to be real. Like don't be fake! you know!?! There's a scripture that I read this morning and it just went right with my thoughts of being REAL!!! 

1 John 3:18

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

IN DEED AND IN TRUTH. You guys, what does that mean ?? It means we need to DO good works and love others TRUTHFULLY. It can be hard to truthfully love EVERYONE. To really REALLY REALLY love EVERYONE is something that only Jesus did and does! Jesus is the only perfect person am I right?  But, he is who we are to strive to be like. Christ had unconditional love. He LOVED EVERY SINGLE person. No. Matter. What. No matter what they smelt like, what they wore, what they did, what they looked like, where they lived, how much money they had, etc. Christ loved in DEED and in TRUTH. Now if everyone would just be 100% honest... They would tell you they don't REALLY love EVERYONE. (Because none of us are perfect like christ..) 

AND "..with men this is impossible;".. (to love everyone.)  "..but with God all things are possible." --Matt. 19:26 :) So that is somethin I am striving to do this new year. To LOVE more and to be straight up REAL about it. CHARITY. I love a lot of people.... But I know that with Gods help I will be able to love EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT. Even the people who reject me as a missionary, even the rude man who stole my umbrella, even the woman who went #2 on the sidewalk!!! (Ahhh haha) :) I pray every night for more charity more loooooove. After all... Love is the essence of the gospel ;) 

The members here in the Manhattan 1st ward are amazing. They are sooo nice to me!!! My favorite thing ever is when the members take us out to dinner! And that is a regular thing that happens every week. It's too FUN. We went to this super yummy nice sushi place with a member and she ordered so much and I was in heaven. Then she took us to magnolias bakery and holy cow. Full to the max. Hahah! I thank the high heavens that my Fitbit tells me I walked about 8 miles every day. Because if it weren't for that (and the gym every morning)... These members would be making me fat. Hahaha. So I have a list of all my favorite restaurants in NYC. So if anyone needs some food ideas.. I've GOT SOME :)

I think that being a missionary has been the best thing in the world for me. (I know you've heard me say that already) but really. Set aside the fact that I am in my favorite place ever.. New York!!!

.. I am surrounded with so many learning experiences. So many uncomfortable situations. And I'm being basically forced to grow. Growth by force. Hahah but it's the best growth I could EVER have. I'm so thankful to have this opportunity to be a missionary. It's literally the best thing I have done for myself.(Funny how I say "for myself" because I'm not doing anything for myself here..) but it's true I AM the one feeling the blessings from serving. My mission is sooooo for me. I know I am supposed to be here. This is just too right to be real. I love love it. 

Sorry for my random thoughts. 

I LOVE YOU ALL. 

Thank you for the prayers and love and support. I honestly can feel your prayers daily. 

Keep being awesome. Keep praying for charity. And CTR. 

Love,

Sister Dunford :)

Miracles in NYC

HEY. Holy cow. A week packed with GOODNESS. It might have been one of my favorite weeks on my mission. I don't even know why... There was just so much goodness. So stay tuned ;)

Today is TRANSFERS. Aaaaaaaand... I'm staying in Manhattan!!  :)
And so is Sister Brown!! WOOO. We are so excited for this new cycle.
No more trio! No more being over two areas and two wards!! Back to
normal. Wow! I'm seriously SO excited for a new cycle.

Okay WHERE to begin. ..

YES! Yes yes. Richie!! Remember Richie? The one who works on Wall Street? We had the most perf lesson with Richie on Monday night. Lots of cool things were talked about and the spirit was there. Here are just a few cool things. So Richie said to me in this lesson, that something I had said in one of the previous lessons really stuck out to him. I was like "what? Uh oh. What did I say....?" And then GUESS what he said.... He said that when I said to him "maybe you are the one that lives in a bubble." it changed his WHOLE mind. Richie said he was just about to tell us in that lesson that he wasn't interested anymore and that he didn't want to waste our time. But when I "got all fired up inside" and explained to him how we aren't in a bubble, he had a whole new perspective. Richie was like thank you for opening my eyes. In my head I was jumping for JOY. I had no idea I had reached him in such a way. Our lesson was so good.


We asked Richie why he is continuing to meet with us. And what he
expects out of these "missionary visits" Richie said that the whole
reason he is meeting with us is because he was looking for something
more in his life and when he was walking by the temple he was like
wow. This looks amazing. And then came inside and there we were. He
laughed and then said "I honestly don't know why I am continuing to
meet with you... other than it makes me feel good." (#theSPIRIT is
working in him) RICHIE is so prepared. I think it's pretty stinkin amazing that he is willing to humble himself to learn more about the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has all the money, anything he would ever want and here he is wanting to learn more. (Blessed is he for being humble without being compelled to be humble) I LOVE teaching Richie.

On Friday I got to go to Mission Leadership Council, (MLC) because
Sister Smith, who was our third companion, is a Sister Training
Leader. (Haha I always get put with the STL's) but I love it. President Morgan is a BOSS. I could listen to him speak all the live long day. He is so filled with the spirit and I just learn so much from him.

So I am currently reading the New Testament and I wish I could explain to you the insights I'm having. I LOVE the scriptures so much. I promise you when you STUDY the scriptures that is when you enjoy the scriptures. I used to never like reading my scriptures.. (#honest) .. But now that I'm literally studying them it's like my favorite thing. (Maybe that's just because I have zero entertainment right now so that's my entertainment hahaha.) but really my testimony is being so strengthened from daily scripture study.
DO IT. Dare you.

THOUGHTS:

So something I had been thinking about for a few days this last week, was how TIRING missionary work is. I sometimes wondered why I was putting myself through this. Why I  couldnt take a nap, why I couldn't just RELAX for a second!!!!! I was a bit frustrated to be honest. But... just when I had some doubts, god stepped in and gave me some answers. And you know HOW he gave me those answers??? THE SCRIPTURES. It was insane. One day I was studying and I was just looking up footnotes and clicking on random links on my iPad and I kept feeling a reoccurring phrase In my mind. Like everything seemed to be pointing to this. And that was to NOT BE WEARY. (Which is tired.) Here are some verses that just screamed out at me.
Helaman 10:4
"Blessed art thou, (abbey), for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments." (I replaced the name Nephi with my name) but WOAH if that wasn't god
talking to me then I am not even alive.
ANOTHER
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the
foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that
which is great." THIS WAS straight up personal revelation for me. I NEEDED those verses. God understands me. Heavenly Father knows me. He knows exactly what I'm feeling. He KNOWS me better than I know myself. He KNEW that I needed to somehow read those verses. 

SNOWWWW

This shows our personalities perfectly!

 

I LOVE my Heavenly Father.

NEW INVESTIGATOR:
JAY. Jay is amazing. He is from France. He is a musician. And he has zero religious background. He talked to two elders at an APF that we did at Columbus circle. And then the elders gave us his number because he lives in our area! We met with Jay and gave him a church tour. WOW. Best lesson ever. Best investigator ever. He is SO sincere. He had so many questions and we had so many answers!! I can't even remember everything that went on but what I do remember was saying the closing prayer for that lesson and praying that Jay would feel the truth of our message and that he would be blessed and I was so overwhelmed with LOVE. I could literally feel gods love for Jay in that very moment. It was one of the most spiritual prayers I've ever said. Tears filled my eyes and I was like NOo why am I crying!!! Hahaha. I somehow held it together.
And all I can say is I LOVE MY MISSION.

ONE LAST MIRACLE.
So Sunday was fast Sunday and one of the things I fasted for was to be able to see more miracles in our area! I was just feeling the need to RECOGNIZE more of the miracles that happen daily! Well I fasted the whole day and then eventually prayed and broke my fast.
I KID YOU NOT .. 10 minutes after I broke my fast, a man walked into
the church named Holdon. He came to the 2nd floor which was right
where we were. (Nobody ever goes to the second floor so this was cool that he came right where we were) well anyways Holdon walked over and me and my two companions just smiled. He goes "hello I'm Holdon and I want to learn more about your church, where can I go to do that" WHAT. You guys what. These kind of things don't just happen!?!? He walked in out of nowhere. And magically came up to THREE missionaries!!! We were like OOOOO. You are in the RIGHT place. :) and then we got his contact information and taught him the restoration and hooked him up with a Book of Mormon. Holy smokes. Prayers are answered. So cool. Can't wait to see what happens with Holdon. Pray for him :)

I have been realizing lately that we have so many single men to teach. HAHa. Makes things a little tricky. But hey, I'm not complaining. We have people to TEACH. So blessed. I feel like the heavens were opened up to us this last week. It was gooooooood. :)


I love you all. I love the gospel. I love my mission.

LOVE Sista Dunford

HEY 2015!

HAPPY 2015-NEW YEAR!!

I feel like I have SO much to tell you all!!!! So many little MIRACLES happened this week. And Christmas and New Years and AH such an amazing week. So many people here. (I should have been called speaking every language in the world) really tho. Hello diversity. Haha and the reason I am emailing Thursday instead of Wednesday is because our P day was changed from New Years Eve to New Year's Day. Too many crazies in the city to have a preparation day on the Eve of 2015. Haha. But WOW. It's a good day.

What a great year it was. I couldn't have asked for a better year. 2014 was so good for me!!! I
finished hair school, I made new friends, I made some changes in my life,  I went through the temple, I became a missionary, I lived in Connecticut, I now live in New York, and I've learned more about myself and the gospel than I EVER have before. 2014 was so special. I am oh so grateful for that year. I have ONE year left to be a missionary. Almost exactly a year from now I will be coming home. (NOOO) haha teasin. Love home. But really.. I have ONE YEAR left to be a full time representative of Jesus Christ. Wowza. I've been asking myself.. How I can reach my fullest potential as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 2015 is going to be SO good. I'm just going to plow through these New Yorkers and share the freakin message like nobody's business. I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity to change EVERYDAY and be better than we were the day before. I love goals. Goals give us the opportunity to ACT rather than to be acted upon. I have set some pretty awesome goals for myself and I'm ready to act and continue to become the me that Heavenly Father wants me to be! :) YES 2015.

My goodness Christmas was amazing!! Couldn't have asked for a better
day. We weren't allowed to proselyte that day so you could say it was EXTRA special :) It started out with opening gifts!! Which was so fun. My cute companions and I took turns opening our gifts. I was in heaven. I was reminded of who I am. (Not that I forgot) haha I just remembered that I love my family so much and they really know how to put together a good Christmas package. We THEN went ICE SKATING. And let me tell you... Ice skating in NYC on Christmas Day is somethin else. SO MAGICAL. Looking up at the tall buildings surrounding me and gliding/tragically falling on the ice :) too good. I felt like an ice queen of New York. THEN guess what I did next.... SKYPE. Ah yes. Best part of the day by faaaaaar. It felt so short!! I could have talked to you guys ALL day if I could. One hour isn't long at all. It was so good tho. I love you family so much it hurts. I loved seeing your fabulous faces. After Skype we went to eat at a members home! They were great!! Yummy food. We sang Christmas songs together and laughed the whole time because we sounded awful. Good stuff. After dinner we got to go home early and SLEEP. It was the best day ever. And it was all because our Savior Jesus Christ was born. I thank my Heavenly Father EVERY day for that special gift. So blessed so blessed. The next day was Christmas hangover hahaha. Saddened that it was over. We are still sleeping on our beds together in the living room. Haha. Too fun.

 

Hi im a ballerina

Me and the Companions ;)

my fave almonds - WASABI!!

Little baby miracle people throughout the week:

SANAE- a magical miracle. Sanae was BAPTIZED on Saturday!! Yes. We had a baptism. It was such a surprise to us because we basically did nothing!! Haha. She came from Japan on December 22nd and got married to a man in our ward on December 24th (yes Christmas Eve.) she was then baptized on December 27th and then confirmed on the 28th. WOA right?? The man she married had served his mission in Japan and that's where they met. So Sanae had been taught by missionaries in Japan! And then since she was marrying the man in our ward she flew here to be married and baptized!!  So we taught her like one last lesson before she was baptized! And now she is our recent convert so we get to teach her all the lessons again!! HOW AWESOME. Little miracles all around. It was so refreshing!! She is the cutest ever.

A cool little story about SOLA- so we got a media referral (a
requested visit from the internet) so I call the number and this cute voice says hello this is sola! I was like hello and explained who we were and that we had a request from her. She was like oh yes! I want to learn more about the Book of Mormon! So in my head I was like this can't be real? She seriously requested a visit? She is normal? She's legit? Serious about learning more? YES. We set up an appointment with her. When the appointment finally came we went over and she is the CUTEST Chinese girl ever. She doesn't really look that Chinese she is like America Chinese. But anyways she is 24 and so normal. So cool. So cute. So happy. And here she is wanting a visit from us 19 year old missionaries. We did somethin we call a "how to begin teaching" lesson with her and explained what we do as missionaries and what our purpose is. She was super interested. She continued to tell us that her dad went missing five years earlier and they have not ever found him. She and her mom have been left with nothing but a mystery. I cannot imagine the pain and confusion she must feel from that. My heart was literally aching as she explained to us how it happened. I could feel her pain. Ugh I wanted to cry!! Sola has ZERO Christian background. Religion has played no role in her life! She has never prayed to god. Never gone to church. Never read the scriptures. And wow. She is all of the sudden open to it. Her heart is ready and has been softened. Heavenly Father has been preparing her for the gospel. I feel so blessed to be able to be the instrument in gods hands in sharing the restored gospel to her. Sola is already reading the Book of Mormon! SHE is so cute. Everyone keep her in your prayers!!

Another miracle moment with THELMA!!-
So we have a less active named Thelma. And to make a LONG story
short.. We are now teaching all THREE of Thelma's sisters who have
NEVER been open to the church. They are like in their 40's and 50's.
So we have THREE new investigators. Um miracle. IT WAS SO COOL. We
went to Thelma's to teach her and didn't know all her sisters would be there, but when we realized they were there we invited them to listen to the lesson.. It ended up with EACH of them holding a copy of the Book of Mormon in their hands and them saying they were going to read the book to find out if it's true. WOW. Testifying of the Book of Mormon  had never felt SO clear and so right. I am reminded EVERY time I testify of the Book of Mormon, of it's truthfulness. It is so crystal clear in my mind while teaching others about it and I KNOW it is true. Every single thing we believe is based on that book. And it either IS true, or it ISNT. And I'll tell you what. ITS TRUE. I would bet my life on it. That's very bold to say I know(Bold claim bold claim.) But just study it and pray about it to know for yourself. ;) Only hard hearted people don't get their answer. So soften your heart and READ IT :)

Holy smokes this is a long email and I could keep going...

I will just say Woah the people here for New Years HAHA. All these
crazy drunk people. Man the New Years celebrations are just too funny. Time Square was complete chaos. And I know that because that's in my area. Goodness I promise you don't want to be one of those psychos standing in the freezing cold surrounded by millions of people where you can't move at all and then your just staring at a tiny little ball that is going to fall at midnight. I was grateful to be in our warm apartment early last night haha!!

PUPPY!!!!

BUT ANYWAYS. HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!! Don't forget about me this 2015. It's my ghost year. Haha meaning I will be on my mission like the whole year. So I guess I basically don't exist. But I love you guys.

LOVE,
Sister Abba Dunford