I Went on a Roller Coaster

From: Seth Gifford
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 15:35:55 -0600
Subject: I WENT ON A ROLLERCOASTER! :0

¡Hola mis amigos! I know this is the longest missionary email you will ever see, but every email after this will be shorter 😉 

I hope you are all doing well, and staying healthy and safe! I know I certainly am…no corona virus here! 

BEFORE YOU READ: Once again, sorry, this email is so long! I have lots to say. I have tried to organize it by subject so you can skip around if you want. But hey, now with social distancing and quarantine, you’ll have plenty of time to read 😉

Anyway, it has been a week and something since I was set apart as a missionary (I honestly have not been counting the days haha), and so much has already happened! But, all of you are not my journal, so I will only share some highlights.  Plus, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to write an email. Learning Spanish has caused my English to rapidly decay, and so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors (I’m mostly apologizing to you Gavin). To all of you who weren’t aware, I am in Southern Utah at my wonderful Grandparent’s house doing my online missionary training (to avoid distractions and really focus on my training).

As you know from the subject, I went on a rollercoaster, but only a metaphorical one (the clickbait was for you Gavin). I won’t share all of the details, but I have been through a range of emotions, from total discouragement and inadequacy to having some powerful spiritual experiences. It has been very difficult to have my training online because I do not have a companion with me to help motivate me to get out of bed, or to exercise, or to read my scriptures and study my Spanish. I have had to do it all on my own. But, through it all I have seen the Lord’s hand. I know that He is helping me so much! Despite the amount of opposition against me, I know I can always trust in Him. I testify that each one of you are known by your Father in Heaven and I promise that you can always turn to Him and find strength and peace.

⌚ Schedule:

As far as my schedule goes, every day is SO BUSY. Before my mission, I thought I’d have plenty of time to eat, sleep, drink, and shower, but NOPE. In the mornings, I have an hour and a half to exercise, plan, do personal study, get ready, and eat breakfast. Then I have class for 3 hours. After my morning class I have about 30 minutes or so to eat lunch, and about 30 minutes for companion study. Then sometimes I have another class for an hour. After that, I have a few hours that are filled with Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, and more Spanish. Then, at 4:30, I have another class for 3 hours, with hardly any time to eat (But, DON’T WORRY MOM, I am taking care of myself). After evening class, I barely have enough time to do all the things I need to do before bed. I am literally busy all day with hardly any breaks, BUT being busy is a good thing 😉 I am accomplishing so much.

✌ My District:

My District in the CCM (Mexico MTC), is 15D, which is for sure the best district. Both of our teachers, Hermano Mercado and Hermano Nieves have told us that we are progressing the fastest out of any other district. Our Spanish is slowly getting better, even though we are all totally still gringos. But ¡Está bien! There are 9 of us missionaries; 3 Hermanas and 6 Élderes. My companion is Elder Pendleton, from Mapleton. He’s awesome! We have a good time. The other day, at the end of our class, a supervisor from the CCM hopped on our Zoom meeting and called me and Hermana Hill to be the district leaders! I’m excited to see what that entails. I’ve already been orchestrating some District meetings and had an idea for me and my district to fast from English, the same day President Nelson has called for a world fast. It will be very interesting!

📒 General Conference:

This General Conference was truly the most memorable and unforgettable conference I have ever seen. The whole time I felt the Spirit more strongly than I ever have during any other General Conference. The influence of the Spirit was constant and I received so much personal revelation. I loved the theme of the Restoration, but I also loved the focus on temples and the Plan of Salvation. I love President Nelson! I know that he is a prophet of God. I also loved the talk from Elder Andersen about remembering our spiritually defining moments. As I looked back on my life, it was made absolutely clear to me that God has been in it since the beginning. I have recalled so many powerful spiritual experiences that I cannot deny; ones in which I knew that God knew me and was aware of me. I could write 20 super long emails about my thoughts about conference, but instead I will share my testimony. I know that this church; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is truly the church of Jesus Christ! He leads this church. He stands at its helm and invites all to come unto to Him and partake of His goodness.

🙏 The Character of Christ:

Yesterday, I watched a devotional from Elder Bednar to missionaries. It was easily one of the BEST talks I have ever heard. It was so inspiring! In his talk, Elder Bednar spoke about a quote by Elder Maxwell: “There would have been no Atonement except for the character of Christ.” Elder Bednar talked about how throughout his life, Jesus Christ would turn outward when the natural man in us would normally turn inward. Throughout his whole earthly ministry, Christ never turned inward. Amidst hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, sorrow, persecution, and temptation, Christ turned outward. Elder Bednar talked about how having a testimony is not enough. We need to be converted to the Lord and develop the character of Christ. He promised that if we will become converted to the Lord, we will never fall away, just like the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in the Book of Mormon (Alma 23:6).

My favorite name of the Savior is “Healer”. Jesus Christ is the master healer. He can heal any wound. He can heal hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. He can heal you! I know that He lives. I testify of this truth!

I invite all who read this to follow the invitations from General Conference. Here are just a few I remember:-Think of what offering you can present the Lord from your heart in the coming days-Increase your capacity to receive personal revelation-Remember your own past spiritual experiences or spiritually defining moments. Write them down. Share them with your family-Think of how you can “Hear Him”?-Seek for the gift to see others through the eyes of God-Think of how you can be an everyday disciple of Jesus Christ-Focus on the habits you want to develop-Go to the temple and stay worthy of a temple recommendIf you made it all the way to the end of this email, CONGRATULATIONS 👏 you are pretty cool and you’ve earned my respect. You can have 6 awesome dollars. Anyway, love you all! No promises you’ll get emails regularly, because of how long it took me to write this 😂 

-Elder Gifford

Here are some pictures: