another transfer.... quit it

June 24th? Slooooow down... AH. 

It was a very good last week of the cycle! Very happy with this transfer. It was hard indeed. But I feel that I have been able to change and come closer to my Heavenly Father because of it! Its because of the hard things that I love my mission so much. If this weren't helping me to grow and become stronger, I wouldn't love my mission the way I do.

Transfer NEWS: 

SASSTER Checketts is going upstate to New Rochelle! And I will be training a brand new missionary named SISTA SAM. (Cutest name right) I love new missionaries. I feel like they teach me more than I could ever teach them. Sister Sam is coming into a BUSY area. Which makes me happy. She will get some super great teaching and finding opportunities. As well as some Harlem shock.. Haha Harlem is SO different from Utah. So I hope and pray that Sister Sam can see the good here like I have been able to. Sister Sam and I will have such a good time. Sister Sam is from Vernal Utah. She has a full ride scholarship to BYU. For MUSIC. She is like an amazing piano player. She's SHORT JUST LIKE ME YES YES!! I love her.

Some random moments:

*Okay this was funny. So Sister Checketts and I are walkin down the sidewalk, and this man comes up to Sister Checketts and points to me and goes "is this your daughter? Because she's beautiful." HAHAHA you can just picture me bustin up laughing as Sister Checketts explains that she is not my mother. As we walked away she was like "wow either you look like a baby or I look like a 40 year old." Hahah. Oh my gosh. The laughter. 

*Sister Checketts and I rescued a baby rat. Poor thing was like brand new, just born!! And it was gross. But it was sad. And my tender heart just HAD to move it away from the path that people were walking! So we did. We moved it. We are heroes. 

*I got to go to the "train the trainers" meeting again in Scarsdale on Friday. That was so good. President Morgan was fabulous as always. I felt lucky to have gotten that good training from him. One of his last as our mission president. He loves to tease me in front of other missionaries hahahah. He will like straight call me out in front of everyone and laugh. Happens all the time and I just laugh with him. We are good friends. I truly love him. Ah he has changed my life forever!

*It rained a lot. And it's SO HOT. Oh. My. Disgusting. 

*We had Anaiya's BAPTISM!!! It was great. (Except for the green baptismal font water) HA HA HA. I was dying. Poor girl had to be "cleansed" in muck. Haha

*Here in Harlem there are fights happening right and left!!! I've seen some crazy things. Things that are like movie status crazy

I just wanted to share some thoughts I had this week! 

After feeling very condescended to, I was discouraged. Just that feeling of death and "oh my gosh I know nothing and why am I here and holy cow this is forever hard the mission never gets easy even after being out for 1 year." Anyways. (Those struggle thoughts in your head that you have as a missionary) well I know this is the most common scripture like in the world but this one is one of my favorites right now:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Alma 37:6

That scripture gives me confidence and HOPE. Hope that even though I am small and simple, I can bring about great things. And because of that hope it gives me, I am able to act in FAITH. I have faith that if I do my part here, (follow Christ's example, open my mouth, serve others, love others, study, do the small and simple things,) that great things can and WILL happen. Which brings me to CHARITY. 

Elder M Russel Ballard said this:

"Hope helps faith develop. Likewise, true faith gives birth to hope. When we begin to lose hope, we are faltering also in our measure of faith. The principles of faith and hope working together MUST be accompanied by charity, which is the greatest of all. According to Mormon, ‘charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever’ (Moroni 7:47). It is the perfect manifestation of our faith and hope." 

So if I just pray for charity and am filled with that love, then it doesn't matter if somebody is condescending to me. It doesn't matter if people judge me, it doesn't matter if people say rude things, doesn't matter if they are wrong. Because I would be filled with Christlike love and know that they are imperfect. And I would love everyone and everything. Elder Ballard also said this:

"Real faith fosters hope for the future; it allows us to look beyond ourselves and our present cares. Fortified by hope, we are moved to demonstrate the pure love of Christ through daily acts of obedience and Christian service” 

So I don't really know if my thoughts are making sense to you. But I do know that they make sense to me. I know that faith hope and charity are what I want to build the structure of my life around. I know that these 3 principles give me the eternal perspective that I need to get through life's toughest challenges. I'm grateful for the pure love that Christ had. Because of that pure love, I can do all things. With out Christ's love for US, we would literally be nothing and nobody and going nowhere. Thank heavens Christ has charity. I love him. So, pray for charity ;)

our investigator 

I love my mission and I'm so eternally grateful for this experience. 

Love you!!

Love Sister Abb Dunford 

Ps forgive me for how scattered my emails are. I'm losin it today hahah.