preach and teach and WERK

ALRIGHT. Hello my brothas and sistas.
Just preachin and teachin and workin. (And on P day we HAVE FUN in
this favorite city of mine.) and we.... prepare for the week too
haha..

How is everyone? Springing for spring? I am. Every time we are outside I skip a little and I have a spring in my step. It's so happy. Today we are riding bikes in Central Park and I got a haircut!! A haircut in New York City. Dreamy. Being in a salon felt like HOME. It was a realllly nice salon filled with crazy rich people. Won't lie and tell you I didn't love it. :) I will be back here to cut hair. You heard me say it! I will.

   

CHOPPED

Random:

*We got Jimmy Fallon's address.. Hahah.

*There is a movie being filmed right outside of our apartment so
that's fun. We love to watch them. We have a good view. We haven't
quite figured out what movie it is but we'll find out :)

*I have learned SO much about the history of this city and boy is it cool. New York City is SO COOL. (I thank my Heavenly Father DAILY for sending me here.)

*Mom, the new smoothie recipe you gave me is perfection. We drink that lovely every morning. Helps keep us regular and healthy. Haha thank heavens.

*We had an APF outside of the temple. SUCCESS. My companion and I were in charge and we decided to do it on family history. Talked all about family trees and gave away free lemonade. We also got 4 people's names and numbers to meet with them again! That was awesome.

*We brought Ores our recent convert to the family history center to
find names to take to the temple so he can be baptized for them. So
exciting. He's so sweet. Love him.

*Our finding push has not ended. We are finding finding finding
finders. LOTS of new potential investigators.

*Sister Spencer has been sick so we stayed in the apartment two of the days. Bummer. But it ended up being great. (Not going to lie) I
studied and read so MUCH. I LOVE when I have time to read more. My one hour of personal study is never enough.

*Ate at some fabulous restaurants. (Family, prepare to gain weight
when we come back here.)

  

the moving being filmed

Anyways. It was a good week. I don't feel like I have a huge miracle
to share. But I definitely see little miracles daily. (That's
something you don't realize until you come out on your mission.) You
hear the big miracle stories from return missionaries and think 
"wow I can't wait to have miracles like that!" Not saying there aren't miracles. But I'm here to tell you that the everyday every minute of being a missionary can be hard. And if it weren't hard, it would NOT be worth it. Again If the gym weren't hard, our bodies wouldn't get stronger. It MUST be hard. It has to be. I'm grateful for it. I love it! :)

Quick thought to end!

Elder Russel M. Nelson said:
"We might each ask ourselves, where is our faith? Is it in a team? Is it in a brand? Is it in a celebrity? Even the best teams can fail. Celebrities can fade. There is only One in whom your faith is always safe, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to let your faith show!"

I was just pondering about my life before my mission. (How grateful I am that I came on my mission.) But I remember being carried away in pointless things. (Example: my dear faded Justin Bieber who is such a sweet child of God and trying to make a come back. Still love him. Bless his heart.) haha.!! We just live in a world where it's SO easy to get carried away. And Heavenly Father knows that. He knows that this world will try to put things before His Son Jesus Christ. Hence He gave us: Prophets, church, scriptures, prayer, priesthood leaders, family, temples, etc. There's one thing that I have promised myself I will do every single day for the rest of my life, and that is study the scriptures. Whether it's 5 chapters or 5 pages or 5 verses. I will not go a day without studying them. It might seem like woah... But it's so not. It's like DUH why would we ever consider not studying the scriptures? They should come before most things in life. The scriptures should come much much before our TV shows, our Instagram scrolling, our tweets, our blog reading, our movies, etc. I never realized how applicable the scriptures are to our lives until I ACTUALLY actually really really truly truly SEARCHED them. They testify of Christ. They apply to our everyday lives. And if you don't agree, then you're not actually really really truly truly studying them. I have found so many answers in those pages and so much guidance and peace and comfort. Oh how lucky we are to have them. USE THEM. I can promise you, that if you put Jesus Christ first, that everything else will fall into place and you will become more like Him. (You will eventually become Perfect.) I want that.
So everyone better study the scriptures daily. :)

   

I love youuuuuuuu!!!
Love Sister abbeymariedunford

He is aware of EVERYTHING

HI friends and family!! 

I TRULY apologize for the length of this one in advance but I need to just get this out. Hopefully it's not just a throw up on you. (Well it is so I'm sorry)

It was a much needed amazing week. I don't know if I can explain it well enough for you to understand. I want everyone to know that I KNOW that God is there. And he knows ME. I'll just jump right in! 

So first of all. A bummer thing happened. But it turned into the best miracle and the most awakening moment of Gods love and awareness for me. Here's the story:

My companion and I had made a TREK to Target to buy groceries and some other necessities. (Target is in East Harlem so it was quite a ways away.) We needed to go to Target because it's cheaper than everywhere else and we needed certain things from there. let me also tell you that I was COMPLETELY out of money. My mission card balance was $0.00. And our dinner calendar was oddly empty. So we went to Target. Spent my personal funds and got some things that I needed. We put them in the kitchen at the church. Well... we came back to get them.. and they had been stolen! EVERYTHING except my new socks and toothpaste. You guys. My heart sunk and I literally felt so sad. Like who does that?? (New Yorkers do apparently.) We were sooo frustrated. Now I was really stressed. No food, and REALLY no money. I was just trying to keep my Christlike face on hahaha. But we couldn't hide the fact that we were so upset about it. My thoughts were "Why me!! What did I do wrong?" Thinking what did I do to deserve this? I was like did I do something wrong? Is this karma? Well shortly after that little mishap we cooled off and we went to a lesson with a less active. In that lesson we talked all about Christ. And how much he suffered for us. We talked about the pain he must have felt. And in that 45 minutes my heart was so warm and I felt peace. When I turned my thoughts to the Savior, who was Gods Only Begotten Son, Who was SO loved by his father, And who suffered and went through more than ANY other human would ever have to go through, I felt LOVE. And that just because I was going through a little challenge DOES NOT mean that God doesn't love me. If Jesus Christ suffered and went through all that he did.. who are we to say that God doesn't love us because of bad things that happen to us. So that was a special cool moment for me. But THE STORY gets better. 

So we headed back to the church and just as we walked in, the security guard, who is not a member pulled me aside and gave my companion and I forty dollars. I had a little tear in my eye and gave her a HUGE hug. I love her. She is always watching out for us. Well as NICE and as kind as that was, that money wouldn't get us far here in NYC. But we humbly and gratefully accepted he money. I felt God watching out for us. Okay well it gets better. So TODAY. We were at the grocery store buying new groceries. And I'm like a stress case thinking HOW am I going to pay for this. We grabbed some things that we needed and got in line while the WHOLE time I'm stressing about how I would paying for everything. So we get to the register and a very kind humble man followed us and paid for EVERYTHING. You guys. THAT NEVER EVER EVER EVER HAPPENS HERE IN NEW YORK. NEVER. My eyes swelled with tears and I was speechless. I kept saying thank you SO much thank you so much. Over and over again. I did not know what to do. I said to him you have absolutely NO idea of how much this means. I literally was choking back tears as I was thanking him. Well he then reached in his pocket and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. And SO HUMBLY AND KINDLY handed it over. Then I really couldn't hold back the tears. And there we stood in the grocery store with a very kind man who was an instrument in Heavenly Fathers hands. We walked out of the grocery store and I LITERALLY heard the words in my head "I am aware." And I just had little tiny tears streaming down my cheeks as we walked away. I can't explain the feeling. I cannot doubt God. I could NEVER deny that he knows me and he loves me and he is watching over me. I love him. I'm so grateful. I testify that Heavenly Father IS aware. This is HIS work and he is watching over us. 

Okay so now more goods.

(In Nephi's words...) my soul DELIGHTETH in birds chirping in the morning. And in BLOSSOMS. My soul delighteth in the spring time. There is a meteorologist in my ward and she said that Saturday was the first time it's hit 80 degrees since September 28th.  It had been about 203 days since the last 80 degree weather. I was wondering why it felt EXTRA special. Been outside in some chilly weather for quite sometime. And then it's been rainy the last few days. But April showers bring May flowers right? Weather. Sheesh. 

We met with some INCREDIBLE MEMBERS throughout the week. I have been so blessed to be surrounded by SUCH good people who have set very good examples for me. I have some good goals to work for. It's funny because after almost every dinner appointment I'm like "ugh I want to be you!" (And then 20 people later...) Haha.  I figured out I want to be just like the members here. Yay for New York members who set the bar so high for me. I will not settle. I'm gonna go work for what I want. 

My companion and I worked way way hard. We have been FINDING FINDING talking to EVERYONE. I think I talked to 1,000,000 people throughout the week. I love people. We have been reaching all of our goals and I KNOW that Heavenly Father is aware of our efforts. It was a great week. Putting your shoulder to the wheel and just doing the work really FEELS GOOD. I wish that I could write all the small miracle moments but I decided I want to write more about my studies and things that I learned rather than things that happened. 

Lately my brain has been consumed with thoughts about being HAPPY where we are no matter what. Not when "this or that" happens. But now! Thoughts like: "if I could just be married, I would be happy! If I could just have more money, I would be happy! When I'm done with school I will be happy! When I finish my mission I will be happy. If I could just lose 10 pounds I would be happy. When I'm done working here, I will be happy. When I do this or that or blah blah I will be happy." Those thoughts are doing us NO good. Just BE HAPPY NOW. We get to choose. Because we will ALWAYS have afflictions. Without afflictions we don't grow. (Without lifting painful weights, our muscles don't get stronger.) There won't be a time that we won't have any afflictions. So we must not wait for "that time" to be happy. 

I'm SO grateful for my Savior in times of afflictions. Because let's be honest, isn't it SO comforting when you know you're not all ALONE in something? Like example: I remember at home if I ate a piece of chocolate cake I was probably a little bummed about it afterwards. But if my sister came up to me and told me she ate a piece of chocolate cake too then I felt some peace about it. Haha or if I ate two cookies, then ky had to eat two cookies too!! (Maybe that's just me that feels the comfort in somebody else going through the same prob.) but I was just thinking about that, and how our Savior Jesus Christ is like that for all of us. Every hard thing we go through, HE has gone through. Every time we feel sad or discouraged or ANYTHING, he has felt the EXACT same way. I received this quote from a friend of mine and I loved it so much. It's by Tad R. Callister. He said: 

"As a result of his mortal experience, culminating in the Atonement, the Savior knows, understands, and feels every human condition, every human woe, and every human loss. He can comfort as no other. He can listen as no other, there is no hurt he cannot soothe, rejection he cannot assuage, loneliness he cannot console. Whatever affliction the world casts at us, He has a remedy of superior healing power."

I get chills when I read that. Jesus Christ is here to help all of us. Here's another GREAT quote that I found during my studies: 

"The Atonement has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with SO SIMPLE A BEGINNING AS PRAYER . You will not thereafter be free from trouble and mistakes but can erase the guilt through repentance and be at peace." LOVE IT. 

I HAVE to include this example from The Book of Mormon because I just read in Mosiah about Alma and his people being persecuted by Amulon and the Lamanites. So brief background: Amulon, was a part of the Lamanites and they are a bad group of people. They put guards around Alma and his people. (Alma=good guy.) And Amulon (who was a teacher/leader for the Lamanites) begins to persecute Alma and his good people who love the Lord. So Naturally, Alma and his people begin to cry mightily to God. Amulon commands them to stop. Amulon says that if anyone cries out to God they will be put to death. So Alma and his people don't cry out loud, but they pour out their HEARTS to Him. Now read what happens next!! 

Mosiah 24:13-15

13. And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14. And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

So we can see that if we cheerfully rely on the Lord to face our challenges, He can take our limitations and our weaknesses and magnify them into strengths. I know that we can be happy through ALL of our afflictions. Alma and his people are SUCH good examples of submitting cheerfully and aligning our will with God's. I'm so grateful for my afflictions. I'm grateful that I have the choice to be happy. I'm grateful for how hard this mission is. Because of the challenges I have here, I am becoming stronger. And slowly and slowly becoming more like Christ. Who is PERFECT. I love perfect.

BEING HAPPY IS THE BEST. Love you alllll

Love Sister Abbs  Dunford 

Happy

Ni Ho.!!

(I think that's hello in Chinese.) Ellie correct me if I'm wrong :) 

It's already halfway through April and that's freakin me out!! 

Let me just tell you something. Warm weather is the best thing ever. I CANNOT EXPLAIN MY LOVE FOR THE SUN. 

Today's P day activities: we went to China Town with my favorite member. (She knows all the cool fun places) we went to a Buddhist temple and to Chinese ice cream and so many more cute fun little places. and now we are going to a museum. This museum is mega cool. I will explain what it is. So a looooong time ago there was a man named J P Morgan. And he was the richest man in the world. (Or something like that..) Well he had a mansion (or somethin) here in NYC and when he died, they left his mansion untouched!!! And now it's a museum. He had a HUGE collection of books and one of which was an ORIGINAL Book of Mormon from the 1800's. Pretty coolish if you ask me!! So yeah that's way fun. 

Emails get rough when not much happened in the week... I'm just still kickin it in New York City. Haha. 

Here's a list of random things in my mind.

*Its been SO WARM. Which causes New Yorkers to be happy and skippin along. 

*Contacted SO much in Central Park and Riverside Park. Literally so much.

*Hit my halfway mark! So celebrated a little with some PINKBERRY.

*Also we went out to eat at some freaky NICE restaurants!! (Tavern on the green, & Boathouse in Central Park!) LOVED it. There's just something about eating out at a nice restaurant in NYC, let alone Central Park. Eating out in NY is a dream. 

*We have some pretty flakey investigators right now that are so not committed. But that's not a complaint. Just a fact.

*Went on a split with Sista Redford. In my area. Taught like 1 million lessons. Walked like 100 miles. 

*We are trying to find find find find. 

*We had an APF in Central Park. Talked a lot about families. (And boy do I love and miss my family) :)

*Took the tights off for the first time. AH. Hahah. Snow White.

*Ores, our recent convert, got the priesthood which was exciting!

SO. We have CLEARLY been having a hard time finding people to teach. (Tracting the same building and contacting all day long can only get you so many noncommittal New Yorkers..)  haha. So one of our bigger focuses lately has been trying to get REFERRALS from members. Because we ALL know how much cooler it is for an investigator to have a friend at church. Life is just better for all of us when members and missionaries WORK TOGETHER. We have been calling every single member in our ward and sharing a missionary message with them to try to get them to focus more on missionary work. (Yes, I called my favorite blogger to set up an appointment. What life am I living?? Hah a good one that's for sure.) It's been good!! Definitely takes a lot of courage to go into these busy New York members and tell them that they need to remember to do missionary work... Haha mega keeps me praying for the help of the spirit. (No way could I do this on my own.) We use a quote from Elder David A. Bednar's talk in 2008 called Ask In Faith. It's AWESOME. (You should look it up and LISTEN to him say it. He says it best.) He is so bold and SO RIGHT. I love to be bold. Here's my favorite quote from him:

"We properly pray for the safety and success of the full-time missionaries throughout the world. And a common element in many of our prayers is a request that the missionaries will be led to individuals and families who are prepared to receive the message of the Restoration. But ultimately it is my responsibility and your responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries are full-time teachers; You and I are full-time finders. And you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-time missionaries to do our work! If you and I would truly pray and ask in faith, as did Joseph Smith-if we would pray with the expectation to act and not just to express-then the work of proclaiming the gospel would move forward in a remarkable way!" 

Let me repeat: "Missionaries are full time teachers; You and I are full time FINDERS." 

HE IS SO RIGHT. Am I right? I love love love it. As missionaries we love to FIND and street contact and tract and to talk to people etc. But let's be honest.. Investigators that come as member referrals are more likely to be committed and real about finding the truth. Yeah? You follow? I love missionary work. I never knew that my heart would be so IN it. I am SO grateful for this opportunity that I have been given to teach the gospel in New York City. I invite ALL of you to ASK IN FAITH for missionary opportunities. Pray for specific names who might one day be ready to hear the wonderful message of the restored gospel. (You don't have to know all the doctrine, you just have to have a testimony and INVITE others.) Open your mouth!! Invite people to church! It's not scary. The gospel is REAL, it's true and EVERYONE needs to hear it. 

Ta-ta for now! 

Love you!!!!!

Love Sista Abbey Dunford

New York keeps me laughin...

Hey! Happy Easter!!!! And Happy General Conference! 

We had a grand old time. The food intake that day was not even funny. The oh so kind members that feed us (bless them) just think we can pound endless amounts of food and sugar. But whatever. It's not like I hate New York food. 

I really LOVED the talks from conference. There was one line I seriously mega loved from Dale G. Renlund, he said: "God cares a lot more about who you are and who you are becoming than who you once were. " I was like mmm yes. Because do you ever look back and think woah hahaha what was I thinking back then!?! I just really love Heavenly Father. 

Some funny moments from the weeeeek! 

One man, (just a visual image,) had tattoos every where. And when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. All over his face arms legs neck. Everywhere. Well. That doesn't stop two sister missionaries, representing Jesus Christ, from talking to him!! (Last I checked we are all children of God.) We were walking around a park and we happened to walk by him like 4 times and we decided we better talk to him because we kept seeing him!! So we walk up. (We are such cheerful 19 year olds) We asked what his name was and he responded in a rather freaky voice telling us his name was... (well I won't give his name but let's just say his name reminded me of Rasputin from Anastasia haha!!!) Then we showed him the He Lives video. When we finished we talked about it. And for a SHORT moment I thought he felt the spirit... He asked if he could meet with us again but we quickly realized he wasn't interested in meeting to learn about the gospel but more interested in meeting with US. He doesn't live in our area (PHEW!!) So we were like oh well we will have to send some other missionaries to you! And he was NOT liking that idea. We explained more and the next thing you know he had grabbed our hands and kissed them!! We resisted so awkwardly and quickly said bye have a good day!!! Haha oh my goodness you've never seen two sister missionaries walk away as fast as we did!! We were dying laughing and freaking out. So there was that contact. (Stress moment for sure)

Next crazy was what I call a hangry man. (Hungry/angry) 

HAHA. This was horrifying. We are sitting on the subway and we try to talk to this man all of the sudden he smacks the wall SO HARD. And says "move! this is my office." So we move... And then at the next stop a woman walked on and he did the same thing to her. Then he started sneezing out of control like CRAZY. Sneezing so much. Everyone on the subway was like what on the earth is this mans deal.. So then the next stop, in comes a man with a cupcake and a small bag of food. He sits down just a little bit down from us. Then the next thing you know the sneezing crazy man gets up and starts to attack the man with the cupcake and food. He's like "give me your food!!" Then the poor man with the food gets real sassy and they start arguing REAL loud. Haha (meanwhile Sister Spencer and I are just chillin on the bench remaining calm.) well eventually their little fight stopped and the hangry man got off. But they left a bunch of crumbs all over the floor. That fight for the food got real intense you know?? Hanger never was happiness. 

And the next crazy hilarious moment was when we found a giant cockroach (we named him Vladimere) in the bathroom. You would have thought there was a murderer in the house. All four of us sisters SCREAMING crying laughing screaming trying to get rid of this cockroach. (Hahaha family, remember how scared I am of spiders?) the tears were coming out. Horror. Pure scary. Oh my heck I hate cockroaches. We put Vladimere in the toilet and found out quickly that cockroaches SWIM!!! he would not go down. So we grabbed a ladle and scooped him right up and boom out the window. AH. (You should see me checking my bed every night for more of Vadimere's family members) I'm terrified that they are going to crawl on me in the night!! 

So that's real scary. 

funny posing

And I'm realizing that no matter how long you've been out on your mission there will always be those weeks that just completely turn into toast. Where every lesson cancels, nobody really wants to talk to you, numbers are like straight zero's and you just feel real swell. Yeah, that was last week. But ask me if I got upset about it. (I didn't) hahaha. People have their agency and I guess they can use it the way they want. But I have MY agency and I CHOOSE to be happy. 

I wish I had more cool stories to tell for this week but those will have to do! 

I AM DOING GREAT. Really really happy. I still love New York City and I will move back here again. 

sending this pic to the Ensign haha ;) 

I LOVE all of you.!

Love Sister Abba Dunford 

April Foolin YA

APRIL. Quit it. Not even funny. Time is flying. 

So transfers are today!!! Guess where I'm being transferred to?? The Bronx. Yep!!! You heard me. The Bronx.

Okay little sister McCall is 16. BE SO CAREFUL. I love you and hope you had the happiest birthday ever!! Ps I still don't think you're allowed to date.  ;)

APRIL FOOLS about transfers. Hahah! I'm funny. I am actually STAYING in South Manhattan. But I thought I would fool momma Kendra! Haha.! Relax. I'm still in Manhattan. Still training Sister Spencer. We are lovin it! Laughing all day. 

sista kim left to go home to Korea :( 

It's EASTA time!!

Guess what. I haven't even had ONE STINKIN chocolate Cadbury egg. Those are my weakness. I think they win as my favorite candies in the world. (Now please, nobody send me those in a package) I will eat them all. Love them. I am doing an Easter egg hunt for the sisters in my apartment on Easter morn! It's going to be fun.  

Along with Easters is.... General Conference. My most favorite time to be a missionary. Because I actually understand things for a change :) hahah. It's like WATCHING A MOVIE. We are totally getting pumped. Already bought some popcorn. YAY. The Women's conference thingy was awesome. I loved how they talked about defending the family. I CANNOT wait to be a mother one day. My mission has made me so pumped to be a mom. (Not that I wasn't pumped before.. I just now have a whole new knowledge.) 

--Random moments and thoughts from throughout the week--

*We had a few Ballet classes taught by (me. Sister Dunford) in our apartment. So funny. Laughter non stop. We love our old classical music. Really brings the spirit. Haha!

*I was proposed to on the subway. Definitely blushed and didn't know what to do with myself.

*Haha. Judge Sister Spencer and I, but we HAD to buy Jergens tanning lotion for our snow white legs. It's warming up. And this transition from tights to no tights is a lil blinding. 

*I made some new friends in Central Park. Skaters. They taught me a skateboard trick and I taught them the Restoration. YEAH. Good trade if you ask me.

*I waxed Sister Spencer's lip and never have we ever laughed so hard. The scream that came out of her mouth was deathly. AH hahaha. She is a new woman. Smooth upper lip. 

*Found my new favorite go to meal. Jamba Juice at whole foods. Apple n greens. Best healthy yum. 

*Shared the He Lives video with like 1.5 million people. Spirit is there EVERY time. 

*I am just happy

*The weather is bipolar here. One day it's warm and one day it's snowing. Crazy NYC. SO YEAH. Can't complain about life. It's good. Serving is awesome. 

A little thought to end. 

Something I've been learning and figuring out on my mission are the traps that the adversary puts out for us!! The adversary wants to catch us. Satan KNOWS our weaknesses. And so he is setting all these traps and just waiting for us to fall. I don't like him. 

Some traps pertain to our mood and attitude. When we have a good attitude and good thoughts and happiness, we have the spirit with us. When our mood is opposite from that, we separate ourselves from the spirit. Satan wants to separate us from the spirit! He wants us to fall and get a little snappy with someone. Or get just a little irritated. Or frustrated. Mad, Sad, Upset, Bugged, Impatient, Jealous, rude. You know? WE MUST NOT FALL INTO HIS TRAPS. We all know what happens to those little mousy mouses when they fall for the cheese... SNAP. It's too easy to fall. That is why we must have a strong foundation built on our rock. Christ! 

1 Nephi 15:24 reads: 

"And I said unto them the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction."

There is a scripture that I am memorizing and WHENEVER I feel like I'm going to fall into the adversary's traps, I say it in my head. It's Moroni 7:45 and it says:

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

I LOVE the scriptures. They are changing my life. 

I know that when we are STRONG and we stand firm on our foundation, satan has no power over us. And we can resist his silly little traps. I'm so grateful to have scriptures and prophets and church and prayer and the temple and leaders, and Christ to help me not fall into those yucky traps. I invite you all to memorize Moroni 7:45 and say it in your head over and over!! Whenever your about to get a little snappy with someone, think of this scripture :)

I LOVE YOU. Sorry to end so quickly. Gotta go have fun in NYC. 

Have a swell week!!

Love, Sista Dunford 

He is HERE.

Okay first of all, family, QUIT GROWING UP. 

Holy cow I am dying at how much older you all look. (Mom, Dad you are the exception) you don't look older. haha. 

McCall! You are going to prom and I shed a tear that I don't get to be there to help pick out a dress. WAIT I'm in NYC. Send me some money and I will pick out a dress. I will go to 5th ave. and pick the BEST dress. ;) TEASIN. 

But woah. I love you guys so much. I cannot believe you went boating last week. Can you get a sun tan for me? Thx love you.

the real life cinderella dress!!

What a good fabulous wonderful week! 

How. can I even explain the miracles. I really can't because you had to be there but I will do my best!! I can't even write them all. (One day in heaven you can watch my mission like a movie with me) :) 

Some quick random moments from the week

*One investigator confessed his love for me. Things got PRETTY awkward and we quickly gave his information to some other missionaries. Hahaha. I was DYING. 

*Found the CUTEST 20 year old girl to teach #tractingreallydoeswork

*LOVED seeing dads cousin at church on Sunday. Tender.

*Dropped a few investigators because they just would NOT keep commitments and ain't nobody got time for no real intent. 

*Mom the Starbucks giftcard you sent me has been HEAVEN. Because sad news: it's still cold. BUT hot chocolate can cheer Sister Dunford up.  

*Lots of good things happened but I'm overwhelmed.. so moving on. 

Ores got BAPTIZED!!! On Saturday. It was SO good. Ores said "There is no word in the dictionary to describe the feeling I have right now!!" That made me smile so big and my heart fluttered. Ores had tears in his eyes and was the happiest I have ever seen him. Such a good man. 

-Mega love for my Savior- 

HE LIVES. Jesus Christ lives. You. Guys. The new church initiative. AMAZING. I tear up every time I watch the video. Jesus Christ LIVES. HE IS HERE. Everyone please watch the video. And cry. Let your eyes tear up. And let your heart be full of LOVE for your savior!!! Because my heart is over flowing with love for MY Savior Jesus Christ. I know he is HERE. I just need to reach out. call out. cry out. HE IS HERE. Then. Now. ALWAYS. He lives. I love him. My heart is so full. 

I love Easters.

-Miracle- 

IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. 

Sister Spencer and I were headed to go to an investigators apartment for a lesson. We go knock on the door and she wasn't home. Bummed. So then we were like okay let's go pick up mail at the 15th street chapel. And then we're like wait.. pinkberry is right there and I

wouldn't even be mad if we made a stop there... So we decided we needed to go to pinkberry for some frozen yogurt. YUM. But then I was like wait lets go stop by the temple so I can fill up my water bottle. Sister Spencer was like "it's half full?? Why do you need to fill it up?" and then I was like "I don't know.... But I want it full." (It was literally so weird) I had this random desire to fill up my water bottle at the church. So we walked over. Then we get there and the security guard was like "Sisters!!!!! There is a man HERE who wants to know more about the church!!" We looked at each other with THE BIGGEST SMILES. We walk over and there sitting on the couch was this very NORMAL nicely dressed man. Around age 30 ish. We introduced ourselves and got talking. He explained why he was there and that he wanted to know more about the church. He asked a few questions and we answered. We then took him into the chapel on the 3rd floor. And this is where the story gets REAL man. So we slowly taught him the Restoration. And if you only knew how QUIET the chapel was in this busy loud city. It was PERFECTION. My words will not do this experience justice. But I can tell you that this moment was BY FAR the most spiritual experience I have ever had in my life. Never has the spirit ever been SO clear. We showed Him a picture of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to him. And I quoted Joseph Smiths first vision. When I finished quoting Joseph, we all paused. Pure SILENCE. Not a sound was being made. And then my eyes filled with tears. We asked him how he felt. And he was SPEECHLESS. It took him a long moment to gather his thoughts and words. He then described his feelings. I can remember his exact words. He said "I feel so much love inside of my heart right now. It's like this serenity that is indescribable." He said how did you know to ask me how I felt? And we told him we were feeling the EXACT same feeling!!!! He told us that he felt so much CLARITY. He told us that before, things were confusing. And didn't feel quite right. He had a catholic background and he said it never REALLY made him feel good.  He kept saying woah. Wow! Woah! HE FELT THE SPIRIT SO STRONGLY. The story gets better. We then finished teaching him the Restoration and invited him to follow Jesus Christ's example by being BAPTIZED by someone holding the priesthood authority. HE LAUGHED AND SMILED AND SAID YES. He said I have no idea what I'm getting myself in to but YES. We set his baptismal date for May 2nd!! (Holla dads birth!!) so we showed him the baptismal font and explained a few more things to him. But WOAH OH MAN. I literally cannot deny that Jesus Christ's church HAS indeed been restored to the earth. All three of us witnessed the powerful spirit testifying of its truthfulness. Joseph Smith was a TRUE prophet. Can't deny it. 

I also am ALWAYS shocked at the fact that my companion and I can deliver such a powerful message SO CLEARLY. After that lesson, it could have been too easy for me to BOAST of myself saying "go me, go us, woo woo I'm so good blah blah.." .... But there was NO WAY and I mean NO POSSIBLE way that I. Me. Abbey. SISTER DUNFORD. 19 year old Utahn. Could have taught him and made him feel that peaceful wonderful feeling he felt. 

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

Alma 26:12

I KNOW that because my companion and I were in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, we were able to be instruments in Gods hands. We were SO not planning on that lesson to happen. We had not practiced anything, we didn't even know it was going to happen!!! (That's how YOU KNOW it was the spirit teaching him. Not us.) But because we were doing what we were supposed to, (personal studies, praying, obeying) doin our thang, God used us to help this man. 

"Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man."

D&C 84:85

OH HOW GRATEFUL I AM to be here. Exactly where I am supposed to be. Man it feels good. THE GOSPEL BRINGS PURE JOY AND HAPPINESS. I AM SO HAPPY I AM SO HAPPY I AM SO HAPPY I AM SO HAPPY. You guys. If you want to know HOW to be happy, live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel so much happiness. And I know that THIS is true happiness. I love my mission. The spirit is real. 

Heavenly Father LOVES YOU. And You have a Savior. Jesus Christ. And HE KNOWS AND LOVES YOU SO MUCH. 

Love you so much.

Love,

Sista Abbey Dunford 

marchin

HEY!

I'm happy.

Let's be real you guys I'm in the best mission ever.

Okay I will start out my email with a silly Sister Dunford thought- (If Maddie Lowry reads this.. she will understand me) :)

Have you ever seen the Lizzie McGuire movie? Well Kate (the bratty blonde) says to Lizzie at their graduation: "Lizze McGuire, YOU ARE AN OUTFIT REPEATER." And then Lizzie says "you are an outfit REMEMBERER which is just as pathetic!!"  Hahahaha. I repeat this in my head EVERY DAY OF MY MISSION. Feelin like such an outfit repeater. The trick of being a sister missionary is not feeling like the homliest human alive. (I don't know if homliest is a word.)

Hope you all had a LUCKY day yesterday! Haha (we didn't) but it was still a happy St. Patrick's day :) every single one of our appointments cancelled. That's got to be a missionaries FAVORITE kind of day... Ha! No. 

Today we get to go to the temple. Yay!!!! I can't wait. It will be so good to just take a step back from crazy missionary life and to remember the big picture. The temple is my favorite. 

We had Zone conference on Friday and we got our brand NEW iPads. So that was nice. Although such a pain to make sure I didn't lose all my notes and pictures, etc. now I don't have to worry because I get to take this iPad home. Hooray. Zone conference was swell! Talked a lot about how to keep our bodies HEALTHY and to work out!  You know what's funny? President told us that with in the last month, about 20 companionships ordered blenders, and full length mirrors and scales. Haha you can tell spring is coming because everyone's trying to look good and lose weight or somethin! President was laughing. I love him. 

We also had STAKE CONFERENCE. 

Two general authorities were there and it was great! 

(Not to mention I saw MY 2nd MOM Heather Moss and my sista Sydney Moss on Sunday!!!) 

Couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't even know what to do with myself. Seriously I was like speechless. My Moss fam is the best. 

#ohana 

Sister Spencer and I are still going strong! Missionary workin. Trying to keep busy! It's challenging because everyone here (almost everyone) works like 18 hours a day or else they die. Haha New York City is so expensive and so everyone is working working working so they can survive and live here. So that means less teaching appointments. More finding. It's good.

At stake conference Elder Hallstrom shared a WONDERFUL talk on reverence. And I wanted to share some thoughts from that here. 

He said that to be reverent is to revere! Which is to feel deep respect or admiration for something. So.. if we are truly REVERENT, our thoughts and actions will be consistent with our love for our savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. Not just our Sunday thoughts and actions, but our EVERYDAY thoughts and actions. Meaning when we are at work, when we are at school, when we are out to dinner with friends, etc. The way we think and act is so fundamental and foundational as to how we feel about them. 

There is a song often sung in our church and that is "I Am a Child of God." How many of you can sing that song? (I know EVERY WORD.) Elder Hallstrom challenged us to ask ourselves if we REALLY REALLY REALLY know that we are a Child of God. Because IF WE DO, then it should be OUR IDENTITY. It should affect everything we do and everything we think! Yes we have OUR identity. (I am from UT. I am blonde, I like music, I am a daughter, a sister etc.) but MY IDENTITY is that I AM A CHILD OF GOD. That is.. Who. I. Am. And I know that. ;) 

We live in a world that can cause us to forget who we REALLY are. Thinking happiness will come from having the most money, having an amazing appearance, etc. Acting in certain ways so that others look at us with great respect. When this becomes our identity and our focus, we lose sight of who we are. So question... Do we love the Lord more than we love the things world? 

My testimony is that I AM A CHILD OF GOD. And he has sent ME HERE. He has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. (Holla Mark and Kendra!) 

If there is ONE thing that I have come to really know on my mission, it's that I really am a Child of God. I am SO grateful for that knowledge. I hope and pray that I will FOREVER know my true identity and not lose sight of who I am. I LOVE Heavenly Father. I LOVE Jesus Christ. And I LOVE being a missionary. 

#twinning #winning 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH SO MUCH SO MUCH!! 

Love 

Sista Abigail Dunford