I Chopped Down a Forest With a Machete
From: Seth Gifford
Date: Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 3:58 PM
Subject: I Chopped Down a Forest With a Machete
¡Hola mi gente!
I hope you’ve all had a blessed week. To start off, I am now in the Winston-Salem area being trained by Elder Raymond! He’s from Spanish Fork and we are super similar. Our companionship name is “Alma y Alma el más joven” or “Alma and Alma the younger”. Pretty good right? Yours truly came up with that one 😉
Alright, let’s get into this very very long, long, long email. Remember, I’ve divided it up by section so you can pick and choose what you want to read if you’re picky, or if you dont have time, but *if* *you read anything in this email, skip to the l**ast section about change! *👌
😲 New Area = New Apartment
On Thursday last week me and Elder Raymond transferred to Winston-Salem after waiting in 100° weather and 80% humidity for an hour. We drove an hour and a half to our new apartment. We weren’t expecting much, but when we got inside…😱 The apartment was way nicer than our last one (this one also used to be a sisters apartment haha) and after exploring each room we found that there was food storage still there. I felt so blessed and grateful. I could’ve cried. Me and Elder Raymond got settled in and went shopping for everything we needed. We are so blessed!
🌲 Service Project
Did you all read that subject line? Well read it again. It’s true. Not clickbait. We went to an inactive members house to help her clear out a lot of old junk and fix up her yard. After we cleared up some junk, the lady told us she wanted this patch of trees, bushes, and thorns cleared out. The dude who lived there before chopped down a huge tree and left all the pieces there. So when we got there it was all overgrown. The only tools the lady had was a machete and a shovel. No fancy chainsaws or weed wackers. So, because I’m nice I let another Elder use the machete for a while and I used the shovel to smack those trees. But I’m not gonna lie, the other Elder was pretty slow with the machete, and got tired after a while. It *was* SUPER hot and humid so it’s understandable, but I was going faster *and *I was using a shovel. So, after the other Elder was taking a break, I grabbed the machete and wrecked the rest of the forest. There were thorns everywhere. I don’t think I’ve gotten stabbed so many times in my life! I’ve also never been so sweaty in my life! I was basically soaked. Pretty gross, but hey, now that little forest is chopped down and it looks a lot nicer so it’s all good. Let me tell you, that shower afterwards was heavenly.
⛈ Hurricane!
We got a warning today that there is a hurricane coming up the coast and we need to be ready just in case of emergency. We’re not gonna get the full brunt of it, but we’ll get some crazy storms for sure. There is a flash flood warning going around so we’ll see what happens! As I write this, it’s already raining and there is some super loud thunder. Kinda crazy!
🎾 Pickleball, and Fast Sunday
We have 2 hours of outside time during each day because during COVID we stay in our apartment a lot. We would go insane if we were stuck inside all day! But Elder Raymond is the OG and got a pickleball set. He started the trend and now the entire mission plays pickleball. If you don’t know what pickleball is, that’s pretty sad because it is probably one of the funnest sports to play. But we’ve been going and playing pickleball as much as we can. Today, we got together with our district and played. T’was a good time. It’s some good exercise! Me and Elder Raymond aren’t the best but we are pretty good. Honestly, going on a mission has helped me establish some good habits. Me and Elder Raymond work out everyday and eat super clean and I gotta say, hard work pays off! Funny story: so yesterday was fast Sunday and on fast Sundays at home you can nap to pass time, and usually you eat an earlier dinner around 4ish so it’s not too bad. But, I get low blood sugar sometimes when I don’t eat and it can get pretty bad. Well we didn’t eat till 7:45! We were dying! I know that sounds bad but I was seriously almost fainting everytime I stood up and had a huge pounding headache. But there was nothing I could do about it because we were meeting with a bunch of members at their houses. We actually had a wonderful sacrament meeting with some new members to the area but during our last lesson, I literally had to fight my hangriness haha. But we finally made it home and broke our fast. We drank a ton of water and ate so much food and the whole time we didn’t speak a word 😂 we decided that fast Sundays are our only cheat day haha
🙏 Miracles!!
On Saturday, me and Elder Raymond drove quite a ways to meet with someone who expressed interest in learning more about our church. We set it up for a time when he said he’d be home. We were excited to teach him, but when we got there, we knocked on the door and no one answered. We heard music so we kept knocking a few times but still no one answered. So we went back to the car and tried calling and texting without success. So we went back and knocked super loud at the end of one of the songs and a guy finally came to the door. We told him we were looking for our investigator and he told us a super vague answer suggesting that he was gone and closed the door. We weren’t sure what to do. So, we went back to the car and said a prayer to know what to do and that we could have our lesson with our investigator. We decided that we would stay and wait until he got home or until we got in contact with him. We weren’t leaving until we got our lesson with him. We started contacting some other people and guess who called in the middle of another phone call!! Our investigator! We hurried and ended the call we were in and called him back right away. He told us that he was inside sleeping and would be out in just a minute. We were so happy! We met him in the yard and taught him right there. I couldn’t understand a whole lot but near the end I did understand a question he asked about baptism and was able to answer his question and bear my testimony to him about it and about the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was strong and he accepted a Book of Mormon and wants us to come back. Wow!!
🌱 *Change is ALWAYS a Possibility
I read an amazing talk the other day that blew my mind. It’s called “Change: It’s Always a Possibility!” by Wendy Watson. It is a BYU speech but wow! It is incredible and I invite all of you to read it! Definitely makes my top 10 favorite talks list. Maybe even my top 3! I’m going to share some of my favorite quotes and parts from it. In her talk, Wendy talks about change, our premortal life, and our relationship to the Savior. She talks about reflection and how change is most likely to occur upon serious reflection. Asking yourself questions—deep, soul searching questions—especially questions in regard to our relationship with the Savior, helps us identify how and what we can change. Doing so brings God’s power into our life to actually *make* those changes. She also speaks about all of the different voices in our lives, and how we need to listen to the voices that help us become who we truly are; voices that help us become better. She says that no other voice should replace the Savior Jesus Christ. His voice will strengthen ours. Wendy shares a story about a caterpillar who asked: “*how does one become a butterfly?*”. In response to this question, a butterfly says: “*You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.*” Our spirits want to “fly”. Our spirits remember our premortal assignments and aspirations. She asks: “*What are you willing to give up believing so that you can be all you really are—all that you committed you would be?…Like the caterpillar, whose insides leapt at the very sound of the word butterfly, what marvelous words, recurring phrases, lofty thoughts, grand concepts, memorable people, and unforgettable places make your whole insides leap these days? Could these internal leapings be premortal stirrings? Brief glimpses of your premortal life?*” Then she goes on to say: “*If I were to remember that I was vaillant before I came here—that I have to pass through an ordeal here on earth without remembering what I was like premortally, and without knowing or realizing the greatness and importance of my mission and works now—what would I give up being, doing, feeling, and believing in order to be all that I really am?*” WOW! Okay if that isn’t amazing I don’t know what is! But wait! There’s more!…..But I’ve saved the best parts for you to read. The part when she talks about our relationship to the Savior absolutely blows my mind. The Spirit was so strong when I read it. I hope you can get as much out of it as I did! Just wait till you get to the part about structural coupling and the sociological principle! Here’s the link 😉:
speeches.byu.edu/talks/wendy-l-watson/change-always-possibility/
If you made it here, you deserve a hug. I might cry.
I love this gospel and I know that it’s true!! Jesus Christ is real! Heavenly Father is real! And they love each of you so much! I can truly testify of that!
I hope all of you have an amazing week. Stay safe and don’t forget who you are!
-Elder Gifford
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