Sis Mish Dunford

Hi there!!  it's MEEEE!! Again :)

What a great week. I literally feel like I just emailed yesterday. Wowza!

So I am on Facebook now and oh my WEIRD. You all still exist!!!! Haha the first time I logged on I was like what on the earth. I felt like a sinner. (But I'm not) haha it just felt so weird to be on FACEBOOK. I won't lie to you and tell you it wasn't distracting at first. Haha!! I was like "WHAT she is pregnant?" Or "what!!! She is home from her mission?" Or "WHAT she's engaged!?!" Hahaha oh man. Having Facebook as a missionary calls for lots of self control. Very important not to scroll through the newsfeed. 

Let me just tell you. It took two whole days to clean up my profile page. HAHA. I was laughing my head off going through old posts. So funny to see what I posted back in middle school. Being an online proselyting missionary is SO cool. I know that I was specifically called to the NYNY North Mission as an online Proselyting missionary for a reason. I am so excited to do the Lords work using these incredible tools. I feel like there is so much success that will come from using the Internet. The Internet can be kinda crazy so we need more people posting GOOD things and spreading the gospel. The more good we put on the Internet, the less bad. Yeah? 

Something wayyyy awesome that I have been so excited about-

My companion and I are skyping a girl that lives ALL the way in London. What? 

Yes. She lives in London and we are teaching her from New York. Like I don't know what you think about that, but I KNOW that the lord has given us these tools for a reason. Being an online proselyting missionary is such a privilege. The lord knows what's up. He knows exactly how to hasten his work. I feel SO BLESSED. 

So one of my favorite days of the week was when my wonderful Aunt's brother and sister took my companion and I out to lunch. I just can't believe how lucky I am that my mission president allows us to go to lunch with people we know. So we ate at this cute diner in New Canaan and then had the YUMMIEST gelato afterwards. And then Kemery (my aunts sis in law) took us to this store that she works at and spent like 200 ish dollars on my companion and I. I was asking Kemery where she works and then she told me and I was like OH do they sell Moroccan oil?? And she was like yeah! Let's go get you some! I was like oh noo we don't have to! But she insisted :) so we walk in and they also had my favorite skincare. Khiel's. I was in heaven. Kemery was like what do you need!?! (and this whole time I'm thinking that I was going to pay for my products) so I picked out my eye cream and my Moroccan oil and I was ready to pay. And then kemery was like do you want some lipstick and (you know me I LOVE lipstick) ha. So she got me a wonderful lip color and then we're going to pay and she just bought ALL of it. I was like NO no no!!! And she was like are you kidding I am paying for this. I died. THEY WERE SO NICE. I need to somehow thank them. They spoiled Sister Wilkes and I. TENDER MERCIES. I feel so blessed I can't even handle it. I love Heavenly Father. It's crazy how well he knows me. And he knows exactly what I need. Ugh I just feel blessed. 

So I'm still going strong with the two splits a week! Sister Wilkes is a sister training leader just like sister Amorim was. So splits splits splits. I really do love going on splits. I have gotten to know so many sisters on a whole new level. I am also able to take different things I like from each sister and try to implement them in myself. I am learning so much. AH blessed. 

So this week I have been thinking a lot about a talk called the Character of Christ. By David A Bednar. (And you know he's one of my faves.) well anyways. What an amazing talk. I've read it before but ahhh it's just such a good talk. EVERYONE needs to read it. It talks about how Christ even with ALL he went through he was still able to turn outward and help others. Like I don't know about you, but if I had to go through what Christ went through I would just be like ugh poor me poor me. Because I have natural man tendencies. (All of us do) but how lucky are we to have Christ as our role model.  Christ had so much he could have complained about yet he was ALWAYS thinking of others. 

Something I have been doing everyday on my mission- 

In preach my gospel there are a whole bunch of Christlike attributes. And every day I pick ONE. And I focus on that attribute and try my hardest to implement that through out my whole day. So yesterday day was love. Today is faith. And I wish I could better explain how much it has helped me. We hear in church or in our day to day lives that we need to be more like Christ right? I always remember before my mission in church talking about how we need to try to be more like Jesus. But how often did I ACTUALLY try to be like Jesus. I didn't think about it in my everyday activities. But when I focus on ONE attribute a day and keep that thought in the back of my head I am actually acting. Not just living life knowing I need to be like Jesus. I'm really TRYING to be like Jesus. So I'm only telling you this because I want others to feel closer to our savior just like I have. I have come so much closer to my Savior just by focusing on one attribute a day. It is blessing my life!!! I sometimes get tears in my eyes when I think about how blessed I am. Ahhhh this church is true. 

I LOVE you all so so much. I wish I could give you all a hug and a great big kiss on the cheek I love you so much. Thank you for the wonderful Halloween treats and letters and EVERYTHING. You guys have a fabulous week. 

Love abba.

Also sorry I have like no pictures I will try to take more today :)

My TWIN sister KIM and I did not plan to match. Haha so funny. I love her.

Happy Abbey!

Helllllooo!!
How is everyone!?! How is fall in UTAH.

I had an awesome week!!! I love my new companion. She is seriously the nicest person I have ever met. She totally lets me be me and so that makes me SO happy. (You know how with certain people you feel like you can't totally be yourself?) Well Sister Wilkes is awesome and I can be myself around her. I love it. We are teaching lots of people and having a great time.

1st of allllll. Today is P day. And guess who I saw while in the city. (You will never believe me)

ALTA'S DANCE COMPANY!!!!!! Like what!?! Did that really just happen??? IT DID. I loved it sooooo so so much I can't even explain. That was for sure the highlight of my week. My companion and I were just standing in Columbus Circle and all of the sudden I see all these beautiful girls that look super familiar. And then boom. I'm surrounded by my lovely dance sistas. (I kinda felt like a famous person) HAHA. I am SO grateful that I got to be a part of that team in high school. I owe a lot of who I am to that team. Alta's dance company is so awesome. Traci and Diana know what's up. I'm still sitting here like wait am I dreaming? Am I really on a mission in New York? Did I really just see my old dance girls in NYC!?! I'm SO GRATEFUL for where I am in life right now. I feel so so so blessed. #dreaming

 

   

 

  

   
Monday night we carved pumpkins for FHE and that was soooo fun. Me and another sister in my zone are obsessed with pumpkin.
Pumpkin everything. I LOVE pumpkin. I carved a cat in my pumpkin and it is so cute. I also decorated our apartment with the Halloween decorations that momma Kendra sent me :)

yay Halloween!!

OH we FINALLY got our car back!!!! SO HAPPY. Cars are good.
So updates on some people..

Rick and Maria are progressing. Slowly. Which is FINE!! Progress is
progress. They are super serious about this which I LOVE. They are
going to be amazing members. Rick and Maria are great.

Christian!
He is 9 years old! I don't think I have talked about him much.. but he is one of our investigators and he is getting baptized on October
25th. He's so cute. I really enjoy teaching him. His mom is a less
active. And we reallllly want his mom to start coming to church more.

Tia-
She is amazing. She will be baptized soon I can feel it. She feels the spirit so strong. I just don't think she realizes that she is feeling the spirit.

I would share something about everyone we are teaching but I don't
feel like typing it. If only you could just get inside my head for a
second. I have so much to share but I'm not quite sure how to get it
all out :)

Thoughts-

Growing up I never liked service. Straight up honest. I hated doing
it. And I never understood why people would say things like you're the happiest when you serve others. But guess what...
I NOW understand. And I LOVE serving others. It just feels good. No other feeling but pure goodness. I love service. I can't believe the happiness that comes from serving others. I find myself asking everyone what I can do to help serve them and I'm like WOAH who am I. Haha.missions are magic. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without this experience.

Something I've been thinking about THIS week-

WHO are we after everything in this world is gone. Take away your
house. Your clothes. Your car. Your job. Your calling. Your money.
Take away EVERYTHING. And what is left? Who is it. WHO is there. Are you kind? Giving? Faithful? Honest? Humble? Patient? Loving Charitable? Trustworthy? Comfortable? Confident? Etc. This is
something I have been asking myself as I've been studying the
Christlike attributes.  I want to be just like Christ!!! I am SO
grateful to have Christ as my example. Yes there are other people I
want to be like (Selena Gomez, Tay swift, etc etc) haha. But Jesus Christ is WHO I want to be like. I love him and I am so grateful for what he has done for ALL of us. He is the perfect example. This church IS TRUE.

I love you ALL. I promise if you just keep choosing the right and keep following Christ's example, EVERYTHING will be okay in the end. I'm so happy. Okay? Happy happy.

 

Love,

Abba

#LDSconf LOVE

Hi HI!!! Happy October Halloween fall!! The leaves are ALMOST at their prettiest I'm dying for them to change completely :)

So I'm sitting here trying to think of the highlights of the week and the whole week was just FULL of things I could write about. I can't even get out what I want to. Let's see where to begin...

Oh!! So I have a NEW companion!! Her name is Sister Wilkes. You can FB stalk her. She is SO cute. Soooo so nice. She goes home in two cycles!! Crazay!! She's awesome. I have only been with her today but we are already getting along way well and finding that we have lots of things in common :) she is talllll!! Brown hair. Cutest. She just came from The Bronx. She's from Pleasant Grove UT. I think...

Sister Wilkes and I

So yes Sister Amorim is gone. :( She went to The Bronx!!! Sad to see her go but change is gooood!! Im pumped for this new cycle. This cycle is a 7 week cycle which is one week longer than normal so it will be great.

General Conference. How can I even explain my thoughts. I can't. Conference was so good and I can't even get out of my head what I want to. I LOVED it. Love love loved it. Saturday was awesome. It was POURING rain here and my companion and I went and got pumpkin hot chocolate. MMM. Then we arrived at the chapel and lucky me I had TWO packages waiting for me and 4 letters. It was like Christmas. My favorite day of the mission so far. It was so fun knowing that my family and friends were doing the same thing that I was. The only difference was, I was in my church clothes not at home being comfy and lazy. Haha!! Those were the days... Teasin. Church clothes are great. Anyways. So we watched the Saturday sessions at the church with the other elders in our district and that was funny because nobody else came. Ha!! We watched it on the big screen in the chapel. Then on Sunday we watched the first session in the chapel again. For the second session we went to a members home. The Potters. :) We invited our investigators Rick and Maria to come watch and eat dinner with us. It was perfect. I LOVED David A Bednar's talk. I love him. He is amazing!! His talk couldn't have been more perfect for Rick and Maria. Right as he said something like "this talk is for the non members" Rick and Maria perked right up and started listening closely. I was trying so hard not to smile hahah!! It was TOO PERFECT for them. There were so many good talks I can't even handle it. Another one that I loved was the one talking about forgetting which way we face. That was AWESOME. I am working on reading over ALL of them on my iPad. (I love my iPad) Another thing I loved in conference was one of the prayers on Saturday when the man prayed for the missionaries and their parents and their grandparents. That just made me smile. I loved it. 

Something cool- so have you heard of that new movie called "Meet the Mormons"?? Well the WHOLE NYNY North Mission gets to watch that this Friday!! I'm wayyyy excited. A movie!!! YES. It will be awesome. We are all so excited.

Patricia- 
We met this woman tracting, Patricia. She is 52 years old. an amazing person. Just a visual detail, (she is black.) She knows the bible very well and was confused about why we believe that God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit are three SEPARATE beings. She was like "girls you come in here and I'll show you that they are ONE" so we were like okaaaay... Haha she started showing us some scriptures in the bible and then we were like oh dear this is just going to turn in to a bible bash. So we somehow connected talking about God our Father, his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, to the restoration. We talked about the Book of Mormon being ANOTHER testament of Christ. She was like "say whaaaa ANOTHA testament!?!" And then she got super curious about the stories that happened in the Americas and was like "oh wow yeah that would make sense that God would reveal things not only to the people in Jerusalem!!" We were like yeaaaah!!! We knew that teaching these truths would bring the spirit way more than having a bible bash. And when we told her about Joseph Smith and how he asked God which church was true.. She goes what!?! He dared to question God!?! Haha. We were like girl. If you lack wisdom, you can ask God. If you knock, it will be opened to you. Seek and ye shall find etc etc. she goes "I bet Joseph Smith was like "am I trippin...!!?!" Hahaha! we gave her the restoration pamphlet and told her to go over it and pray.   We went back to Patricia's house and she welcomed us in her home and asked us to wait on the couch for like 10 minutes while she and her mom finished eating dinner. We sat there calmly and just rested our bodies hahah! (Little did we know what was coming for us)

Patricia came in the living room and sat down. We started going over the restoration again and started talking more about the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy and explained that it goes hand in hand with the bible. she was like dude I'm gonna read this!! Well. Then. In comes Patricia's wonderful mother. Her name is Del. (I only wish that this lesson was recorded.) she came in and started getting mad at us for teaching Patricia. She started quoting the bible and yelling at us. She was like "you girls are NOT prophets of God" and your Book of Mormon is wrong! And the bible is the ONLY truth. And Jesus is our savior not Joseph Smith!! And on and on and on. YELLING. She started kneeling on the ground and standing up and kneeling down and standing up and walking around and shouting to God. I felt sad because I knew that because she was being so loud there was no way that the spirit was going to be there. It soon turned into an argument between Patricia and Del. Sister Amorim and I were like ugh. We ended up leaving on a good note and we are going back to meet with Patricia on Friday!! :) so let's pray that her mothers heart might be softened a little bit.  It's really sad when people hearts are SO hard. I want Patricia's mom to just listen to general conference. If only everyone in the world would just listen to General conference!! 

bye bye Sister Amorim :(

Well I have to go. And I wish I could tell more about the people we are teaching!! But with transfers today it's been crazy. So I will end on that. 

Love you ALL thank you for EVERYTHING. CTR. 

Love,

Abba

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR...(transfers)

It's OCTOBER. YESSS. I love everything pumpkin and halloweeny and fall ish. :)

Transfers are in ONE week. Hear me? One week. This cycle was one week shorter than normal but I can't believe how fast it came. Let me just tell you my prediction- Sister Amorim and I probably won't be together another cycle. Which is SO sad. But it's OK. We will see what happens...!! I have loved having her as my companion. We sure have fun together.  

General Conference is SO soon and I can't explain how happy that makes me. The General Women's Conference was Saturday night and I enjoyed that SO much. I really loved Uchtdorf's talk. I took lots of good notes. I love this gospel.

This is.....

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE LDS MISSIONARY 

(Haha)

Alright people lets get right to it. Honesty hour. You are not allowed to judge my honest "natural man" thoughts okay!? HAHA I'm only human. I would be straight up lying if I didn't tell you this was a HARD week!!! (But it was SO GOOD for me.) A much needed hard week. #missionaryrollercoaster.  There was one day that was EXTRA hard. My companion and I were street contacting, People were rejecting us right and left!!! It was way hot outside. We both had colds, we had no car to get to our next appointment, and I happened to just find out that my BFF from birth got engaged. (Talk about the struggle right!?) haha don't worry I know how selfish this sounds. 

Anyways I was questioning things like..  why can't I talk to my family whenever I want, why can't I be home to see my best friend get married, why don't we have a car to get around, why is nobody listening to this message that will give them eternal life!!! why can't I listen to my favorite music, Why am I out here with random people that I don't even really know, why am I not at home making money, why am I sacrifcing my body and eating whatever the members put in front of me .. Why why why. It was one of those "natural man" moments. You know, sometimes we as humans have those moments. Yeah...? (Even missionaries) Hahah. Well my companion and I were having a ROUGH day. We came home to the apartment to eat lunch and we both shed a few tears. (If only you could watch us like a movie.) two 19 year old girls thinking it's the end of the world because the mission is HARD. Hahaha. My best friend just got engaged. It was just icing on the cake. We BOTH were like What. Is. This. Mission. Thing. (Talk about companion unity) 

We decided to pray together because #prayalways (2nd Nephi 32:8-9) we prayed that the lord would soften our hearts and help us be more optimistic. 

The day went on. And we talked. And we walked to our next appointment. On our walk it was hilarious because there happened to be a live band playing some lovely jazz music. Haha we laughed and smiled as we walked passed. Then we saw a box of the cutest puppies!! We then saw our new investigator Tia! And she happened to be going through some tough things that day and she was starving. I was able to give her my granola bar and my apple sauce and let her borrow our phone. The day went on I started to see lots of little tender mercies.

My "why" thoughts started to become WHY am I being so selfish.

I started thinking okay abb. WHY are you out here. Why. What am I doing this for. What is my PURPOSE? I was then led to think of the missionary purpose.  My purpose is to invite others to come unto christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

My purpose as a missionary is the Doctrine of Christ. My purpose is the SAME ish as Christ's purpose. I am kinda saving the human soul yeah!? I thought about that a lot. Christ is So important. He came so that WE could live with our Heavenly Father again. So that we could inherit the kingdom of God.  

3 Nephi 11:33 this is Christ speaking to the people in the Americas after his resurrection.

"And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God." 

And then he continues to talk about how we need to become as little children and repent and be baptized. 3rd Nephi 11 = Happy Abbey. 

(Side note: Sunday was the Primary Program and I had tears in my eyes I loved it SO much. The children were so special.) 

Later Sunday I did my Book of Mormon reading and I was in Mosiah 3 and in verse 19 it says

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

I have read that verse multiple times in my life but it was exactly what I needed to read right then. Kinda a tiny slap in the face. Like hello Abb wake up for a second and quit the lame natural man thoughts. It just connected everything that I was thinking about. Natural man, putting off the natural man, becoming better through the atonement, become like the little children. 

Conclusion to my thoughts. 

I am a missionary. And I am sharing with others the grand recipe to eternal life. And tho it's hard, tho I am sacrificing some things, I CAN GIVE 18 months to help further Gods work here and help save some human souls. And thank the heavens for the atonement so that when I DO have those natural man thoughts, I can change and become like the sweet sweet children that sang in the primary program. My mission is my favorite thing In the whole world. I wouldn't come home if somebody paid me a million dollars to come home. This experience is one that I will cherish FOREVER. Serving a mission is like nothin else. Hard and tiring and hard. I love it. I LOVE IT. 

CTR. Love you alllll. 

Love,

Abbs

just a little flashlight

You guys.. it can't already be PDAY AGAIN!? What on earth. Time is flying. Where do I even start. So much happens every week and there is NO way I can put it all in here. But.. My week was PERFect.  Last P day one of the members took us to get a manicure and SHELLAC done and I was filled with happiness. YES. (Shellac should be my middle name) ahahah. My ward is amazing! We went to this relief society dinner on Saturday night and it was BEAUTIFUL. It was at one of my favorite member's home. She lives in a fabulous white house with a beautiful view of the ocean behind her. It was one of those nights where I felt like I was dreaming. It was perfect. Pinterest perfect. (I have a lot of those nights where I feel like I'm dreaming.) I will try to send a picture but it won't do it justice :)

I am OBSESSED with Connecticut. And New York. I will live here one day. I sound dramatic but I literally can't breath when we drive passed certain houses and sights. It is absolutely beautiful. I CANT EVEN explain. My favorite place here is Greenwich Connecticut. I just die. It's. Amazing. I think I will call it home one day. (Okay let's be honest, if I ever have the money... Hahah) but I won't let money stop me. It's my dream to come back here and do hair and be a fashion designer and be on broadway and be a mom and be mormon and be an east coaster. dreams can come true right? Ha

I have found that I have this crazy love for Koreans. We got to go eat dinner at this cute Korean family's house and I was in Heaven. I love Korean food and I love Korean people. Maybe one day I will move to Korea too..

I love being a missionary.

We found this lovely woman named Tia who has one of the hardest lives I think I've ever heard of. Basically she is really poor and has two kids that are little rebels. I won't list everything. But Anyways she is coming to church on Sunday and she started reading the Book of Mormon! I have been so excited about her. She is special. I love her. Hooray for new investigators!!

We have a pretty good teaching pool right now. I wish I could tell
about everyone but no time. I will mention Lynn tho. Lynn is 67 years old and has been a member since she was 40. Although not an active member. Within the last two months she has been coming to church every week and reading her scriptures and being the best person eva. I LOVE LYNN. She has Sooooooo many health problems its insane. But she is still going strong. Her faith is unreal. Last week she got her patriarchal blessing and Sister Amorim and I got to listen. She has no family so she invited us! It was the most amazing blessing I have ever heard. Lynn is awesome and such a special woman.

I have a funny story. Well kinda...

So my companion and I STILL don't have our car. Hahahaha. (At this
point it's just plain funny.) well not funny because apparently the
car was damaged way bad. Which is a way big bummer. And I can't wait
to get to better explore our area with our car.. Well anyways. We
needed to get to the New Canaan chapel. And we were at our apartment. So we started to walk. And this is NOT just a short walk. Quite long actually. But we had to get there. There were no sidewalks so we were just carefully walking on the side of the road. On our walk we decided to practice what we should say as we tract. We were practicing and role playing and we felt really good. And then we both stopped in front of this beautiful old white house and we looked at each other and said let's tract this one. Well. We go knock on the door and this smiling happy blonde woman opens the door. I was smiling at her and I was just about to open my mouth and put to use what we had just practiced but before I could even say "Hi we are the missionaries, --", she started shewing us away like we were insects!!! She was like no bye!!! Bye bye girls!! BYE. ...... HA. As we walked away I just looked at sister Amorim and started laughing so hard because it was hilarious how we felt like we should knock on that door specifically yet the woman inside was so scary and mean. I was like okay Heavenly Father that was kinda funny. Hahah. We decided to knock some more doors. NOT ONE person let us talk to them for more than 7 seconds. I felt so sad. I was like UGH COME ON. Seriously!? After all our practice not one person will even let us talk!?! We were feeling so not motivated at all. It was getting really dark outside. So visualize this. it's really dark, no sidewalk, shivering cold, hungry, and not one person will talk to us. I remembered I had a tiny tiny flashlight in my bag that my grandma had given me for my mission.. It was perfect. Just what we needed to see the road ahead of us. Well we continued on the dark road. We came up to this house and we decided to knock on the door but there was a little gate that we had to go through first before we could get to the front door. We were trying to open it but it would NOT open. So I was like hmmmm maybe it's a sign that we shouldn't go to this house..? Sister Amorim said hmmm or it could be satan not wanting us to share our message with these people. Ha I was like well yeah okay. Well we couldn't get the darn gate open
so we looked around for another way to get in. There was an opening by the side of the house so we got in right there. We walked through the gate and all of the sudden there was this insanely scary wild stray dog barking and growling at us. It looked like one of the Hyena's from the lion king. Just way ugly and way scary. We (of course) screamed way loud. Ha! I shined my flashlight in it's eyes and it took a few steps back. It was literally about ready to pounce on me. Haha we were terrified. The dog was a beast. We were SO scared. So we somehow escaped from the front yard and ran as fast as we could away from that beast. We were so tired. We were thinking about turning around and heading home because we were just having no success and it was dark cold and scary. But then we for some random reason decided to keep walking till we got to the church. To shorten this long story we eventually made it to the church and lucky us the young women were there for mutual. AND. There were two non members there!!! And we set up an appointment with them!!! Magical huh!?!
Here's a little scripture that I related to that night :)
Alma 26:27
Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back,
behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

We sure felt like we succeeded when we got there :) I LOVE that scripture.

I LOVE YOU ALL.
I LOOOVE this gospel. It's true. We just have to soften our hearts and read gods words and listen to the prophet and pray, and go to church, etc. to know that it is true. I know that it is. That's why I am out here tellin people about it. This is the most important work ever. It's good. And hard. And good. I'm a growing weed.
Love you love you. CTR

Love,
Abbbbbbbba
Ps I apologize for any spelling errors or grammar issues ;) no time to check

FALL IS COMING

HI GUYS

It's getting a little chilly here..

FALL IS COMING
I can't explain my excitement. Fall in upstate New York and
Connecticut is going to be BEAUTIFUL. I am such a fall lover and I am so happy. Today I made our family favorite PUMPKIN cake :) MMM. P-day treats. You know? ;)

Great week. We worked hard. Found a new investigator from tracting! Lena. And Rick and Maria are straight up PROGRESSING. I am learning SO much from going on two splits a week. I went on a split with Sister Vicino and Sister Fletcher! Sister Vicino is a Spanish speaking missionary. HAHA it was hilarious. I learned so much Spanish. It was so funny being in homes where I had no clue what was being said. I sat there in confusion like the whole day. But I'll tell you what... The spirit was SO easy to discern. :) although I couldn't tell what was being said, I could tell when the spirit was there. And that was so cool.



I got some good random stuff to share!! So I'll get right to it.

Funniest little story- So. Before I tell the story, keep this thought in the back of your head.. Sister Amorim and I were doing this "no sugar" diet thing last week and we weren't allowed to eat deserts or treats and stuff like that. (Ps that didn't last long because missionaries basically get force fed here in my ward) Anyways back to the story... We were tracting and we knocked on this little 91 year old lady's door. Her name was Rose. (SO CUTE) She opened up and we told her who we were and she suddenly became kinda cold and told us she could not help us because she was catholic. Well we smiled and we were just way nice to her and asked how her day was going and then she magically warmed up to us and asked if we needed a drink of water! I was like YES (thinking oh good we can slowly start bringing up the gospel of Jesus Christ without her even knowing it!!) hahaha. Well she goes to get us a glass of water and comes out with a big bowl FULL of Oreos. HA. (Remember how I told you my companion and I were doing a no sugar diet??) well. In my head I'm like heck no I'm not breaking my no
sugar diet for these!!! But at the same time I'm thinking awh man she brought these out in a cute bowl just for us and we can't tell he we won't eat them!!! Well I tried to just ignore the fact that they were sitting there and then she goes "come on eat the cookies!!!" Hahah. Me and my companion just hesitated and then we both picked one up. I still was like NO I'm not eating this. So I took a drink of water and started to chew ice making it look like I was chewing on the Oreo. Psh. Haha I then quickly and so secretly shoved the Oreo in my bag. HAHA I sat there trying SO hard not to laugh. My companion thought I was eating the Oreos and so she grabbed some more to keep eating. I was like Oh no!!! I have to save her so she doesn't continue to eat the sugar!!! So there I was so secretly grabbing HANDFULLs of Oreos and shoving them in my bag. HAHA I was dying. I kept grabbing them until they were gone. And then we finished talking to rose and ended up showing her the "Because of Him" Mormon message and she was all cute and happy. Anyways I couldn't stop laughing as we walked away and I explained to Sister Amorim that I had all the freaking Oreos in my bag. HAHA awh man just picture me secretly shoving Oreos in my bag. Hahaha

Something I've been thinking about lately-
It's so easy to doubt our testimonies. Sooo easy. We see it in
Scripture stories, We see it in people today. Satan is constantly
working on us. He is using everything he can to make us doubt God. He does not want us to have the truth. I feel that now, more than ever, satan can get to us easier with all our handy dandy techy tools. He makes us think that we are smart enough or wise enough to make it through life without thinking about or even believing in God. People become ignorant to God and search in the WRONG places to find truth, they turn away from god because they feel as though their own personal WISDOM can get them by. 

Ruude satan. I don't like him.

2 Nephi 9:28

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the
frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they
think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish."

2 Nephi 9:29

"But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God."  It can be hard in today's world to have complete confidence in our testimonies. Especially with all the distractions right in our laps. A lot of times people have small doubts. It's okay to have questions. It's okay to seek for truth! In fact that's awesome. We do need to ask questions and we do need to seek for truth when we have doubts. But you know what's important? In John 1:5 it says when we are lacking wisdom, we need to ask GOD. It's SO important that we ask God. It's important to not turn to false random garbage. We shouldn't rely on the world to help our testimonies grow. We can't go to the internet and roam through garbage to find truth. We cannot let our small doubts take over our faith. When we have the small doubts, that's when we should pray to god. And open the scriptures. DO NOT rely on the world.

Because we will only have more doubts and more confusion. So its good to be "learned if we hearken to god." With god we will never fail. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We must CONTINUALLY feast on his words. We must cry unto him in prayer. We MUST build our foundations on the rock. Christ is our rock. We can't be foolish, thinking we know best, and build our foundation on the worldly sand. Being a missionary, It's easy for me to see the fruits of living without distractions. I don't have the internet, I don't have the TV, I don't have the loud music in my ear. I don't have the world pulling at me putting doubts in my head. And it's now more than EVER that I KNOW how true this gospel is. and I know how important it is that we block out the world and build our foundation on our savior, our rock, our redeemer, Jesus Christ. I feel Gods love everyday. I know the truth of this gospel. IT IS SO RIGHT. I know that reading my scriptures and praying every day without distractions is the cause of this. We CAN be in this world and not get distracted, it IS possible.
Because God gave us things to guide us. It's the primary answers. it's reading our scriptures, praying to God, and going to church, listening to the prophet, keeping the commandments, etc. ....
So next time you have a small doubt, remember who to turn to :)
Heavenly Father. He is the best and knows best. Not us, the world, or the people in it ;)

No sugar right guys...?? ;) haha

SO YES there's my missionary thoughts.

I LOVE YOU GUYS. Thank you for all the prayers, love and support.

CTR

Xoxo

Love,
Abbs!
Sister Dunford

hi hi sis mish here

HI EVERYONE

I hope everyone had a great 1st week of September!! And that you all
wished my beautiful sister Kylee Rae a happy birthday on the 8th :) (I don't know about you, but I'm feelin 22!!!!) t swift. 

First of all it's SO totally Fashion Week here in NYC and you know I'm all up in that. So don't be shocked if you see a picture of me modeling on the RUNWAY at the Lincoln Center ;) WATCH OUT! No I'm teasin. #modelsistermissionary HAHa ohhhhh the Instagram days were good. I had a super awesome week. Still no car yet, but we are now pro at sharing cars with other missionaries and begging for rides. It's BIEN.
Good.

A cool experience I had this week- My companion and I were outside
talkin and walkin and doin our missionary thang... We were just
talking to everyone we saw and using our iPads to show the Mormon
message "Because of Him" I just have to say... That. Mormon. Message. Is. AMAZING. I saw it before my mission and loved it. (Everyone go watch that right after you finish reading my email) (DO IT) ;) anyways... There was one lady we stopped and talked to and she just started talking about how life is hard and we talked about how we all have trials and challenges and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help EVERYONE no matter what. Well we then showed her the video and my gosh I can't explain the feeling that came over me. As we were standing there in New Canaan, Connecticut. It's like time stopped. and my eyes filled with water and I had chills everywhere. The love I felt for this lady was unreal. The love I felt from Christ was unreal. And the love I felt from god was unexplainable. The spirit was there. I was just thinking wow. How cool is this gospel. How awesome is it that I am out here bringing others closer to Christ. Never in my life have I felt SO good. (I am not a cryer and so this was so unusual for me!!!) after the video the lady was smiling so big and then my eyes were even more teary!!! I was like WHO AM I!?!? Hahaha.  The lady stopped and said "I feel SO good right now" I wanted to scream YES YES YES that's the spirit!!!! But I didn't. I didn't scream. Anyways we will be talking to her some more FOR sure.

So I get to go on two splits a week now. Which is A LOT of splits.
Normally you only go on one split each cycle. To clarify "splits" for my family- splits are when you and your companion split up with
another companionship and trade companions for a day! The purpose for splits are to learn from other sisters and so that the Sister training leader can make sure everyone is doing okay with the work and everything. So since my companion was assigned to be Solo sister
training leader (because I'm not done with my 12 week training) (hence solo)  normally it's a companionship of sister training leaders. But there were so many new missionaries that president needed another STL so he asked Sister Amorim! Sister Amorim has to do double the work that a normal companionship of STL's would do. It's funny all the missionaries here call me ASTL (Assistant to the Sister Training Leader) hahaha. I get the benefits of being an STL without doing the work that the STLs do. Haha!! It's perf.
I went on a split with Sister Kim Sunday night and Monday all day. I LOVE sister Kim. She's from South Korea and we are THE SAME person only she's Korean and I am American. Let me list some of our similarities: 

-We are both short. 5"2. 
-We both have TINY hands. 
-We are both obsessed with taking care of our skin at night!!! Haha we use the SAME EXACT skincare. Khiels!! Ha!! (Like nobody else understands me when I talk about my face care every night except for Sister Kim.) 
-We both are very social and can be oh so sassy when we want to be. Haha. 
-We both LOVE food. And ice cream in particular. 
-She comes from a family of ALL girls JUST like me. 
-We both eat lots of fiber..... Hahaha!! 
-We both love the latest celebrity gossip! 
-We are both allergic to cats! 
-And we just LOVE being missionaries!!! 

Sister Kim is so funny. She has this cute Korean accent and she has the strongest testimony. Maybe one day she will get to be my companion :)

Sister Kim and I

The spirit is the realest thing EVA!!!! So my companion and I have
been teaching a couple named Rick and Maria. I think I've talked about them a little bit. But anyways. (A little background on them) - They are in their late 40's early 50's. They are super duper smart. And they completely have their lives together. Like they're rich. Rick is a musician. He is super cool. Rick is catholic! Which is great! Right? But not as great as having the FULLNESS of the gospel of Jesus Christ and being MORMON :) Maria is so so sweet. She teaches English at a smart school here in Connecticut. They both are happy. And they have two kids. Their kids were baptized in high school and have been active ever since! (Hence the reason they are meeting with Mormon missionaries) So first of all anybody that knows me knows that I am NO gospel wizard. I have never been the one to bare my testimony in church or the one to answer all the sunday school questions, etc. Well. That being said, here I am, 19 years old, blonde, from UT and I'm teaching Rick and Maria and they are like bible wizards. You could say the word INTIMIDATING. Haha. You can imagine just how inadequate I feel teaching this couple. So every time we teach this couple I am like on my toes, edge of my seat, trying to be FULLY attentive so I know how I, (Sister Dunford) can help guide them. I'm always WIDE awake in lessons with them. Well Saturday night Sister Amorim and I taught them. And ACTUALLY no, let me change my words. .. Saturday night ..THE SPIRIT.. taught them. And I witnessed that. I have the strongest testimony of the spirit. There is NO way that Sister Amorim and I alone could make them believe in our message. But the spirit testified through the both of us. Before that lesson I was stressed about what we were going to say and what questions they were going to ask, etc. So I had been studying with them in my mind in hopes that I might be able to teach something they needed to hear. I prayed so many times in my head that I would be able to teach with the spirit because I know I am not smart enough to do it on my own. I had faith that God would put the words in my mind that I needed to say but that didn't keep me from stressing!! Well I will tell you what. During that lesson, I don't know how I even said what I said. We left the lesson and I was like woah. How did I just teach them!!! How did I just get those words out. And then I was like duh. It came from the spirit that's how ;) I KNOW for sure that missionaries don't teach people. THE SPIRIT teaches people. We as missionaries just have to be able to be instruments in gods hands.

Well. To end this email... (I will say it again) 

THIS CHURCH IS TRUE. 

I know that for sure. I hope everyone has a spectacular week. Don't forget to watch the Mormon Message "Because of Him" I watch it like everyday. I LOVE it.
LOVE YOU

Sista Abbs