10 Things You Never Knew About Sea Anemones

I really have had a good week this week. It had a rough start but I am really having fun. Actually I think this is the first week I have actually enjoyed myself! I've been praying for a week like this for a long time now.

I finally can say that I have a companion that I really like. Hermana Giron is awesome! (Granted she still struggles with some obedient issues) She's so fun and loving and just all together really nice to have around. The Lord is truly wonderful! Always sending me the things I need when I need them. I really need to get a camera so that I can send you some pictures! The work keeps going and you know, we still don't really have a solid investigator but we do have some solid less-actives that we are working with. The members here are working with us as well and even though there are a lot of mouths to feed they are still willing to feed us(: (That is kind of my challenge for you, feed the missionaries! We really really appreciate it!) 

There are only a few difficult situations that we have/had to work with. One is working with Elders... that are on bikes. They are great and hard working but like mentioned before, are on bikes! Our ward is huge boundaries wise! (Bigger then the ward at home) And we, as the sisters, don't have enough miles to work just the north part. It might seem simple to split it North and South but when you have miles to look out for it makes it more complicated. The other is moving! We moved out of our home and lived at the Smiths home for a week and then on Saturday we moved into our official home of the Smalls. We were really spoiled at the Smiths (there were two bath rooms and plenty of arm space). In the Smalls we live in a more humble home. We live in the basement with green tarps as our walls. (again I need to take pictures!) And we share a bathroom with the two teenage girls. However, I am grateful to have a bed and a warm place to live. So really I can't complain. 

It was Sister Mortensen's birthday this week. And I must say we made sure it was a good one!  That morning we did a scavenger hunt where she found little presents and cards that Sister Giron gave her. The day before I had called our dinner and told Sister Redd that it will be her birthday and asked if we could have cake. When we went to dinner two other families were there as well. So we had ourselves a mini party! :D They even go her a gift and a card! When we got home (we were still at the smiths) Sister Smith had a cake for us as well! Man I was really full after that day! Today I plan on getting her a sketch book(: I think it went really well! 

AAH! Out of time! But hey, remind me to tell you about the lessons we have had with Brother Reed and his family (the family that was going through a divorce). And about General Conference! :D 

Keep being amazing! Don't Do Drugs and Stay Sweet! 

Love Hermana Durfee

Careful What You Wish For

How true that statement is. And again I want to apologize for the short e-mail. For those of you who don't know, my Grandma Durfee died on Saturday. I've cried a lot this past hour or so, so I am not in the mood to write a lot. There are a few things that are hard while on a mission. One being that life and... death still happens. I want to be there at the funeral on Friday, however, I know the Lord needs me here serving the people of Colorado and that this experience is supposed to strengthen me some how.(:

Transfers happened! I prayed and prayed to stay and low and behold! I stayed!... Sister Mortensen and I also got another companion! Yeah... another trio! My favorite! XD Her name is Hermana Giron (its spanish so its pronounced Hi-ron). I really like her so far! The only thing that really bothers me is :/ she is not really obedient and I can't say much because I am the junior companion and she's been out a year and a month. I am not sure what to do about that difficult situation. We also have to split the area again. The other set of sisters (together) have been moved to a ward called Buckley in Aurora. Now we have two brand new elders. The poor souls. Hopefully we can help them in anyway we can. It makes things a little complicated especially with members feeding us. Thats 5 mouths to feed and two of them are boys. I hope everything works out!

I am so sorry for this e-mail. I will try next week to write a better one. This is really short. 

I love you all so much!

Stay Sweet and Don't Do Drugs

Hermana Durfee

Rain, Rain, Rain, Nothing but rain.

So Monday... Around the afternoon, I got sick, like stomach sick. I didn't actually throw up but it got pretty close to that point. I really wanted to go out and work but Sister Mortensen insisted that we go home so that I could sleep some and feel better. I finally gave in, but as we started planning for the next day and all we could put in were zeros to our numbers I felt even worse. But I got some extra sleep that night and the following day I felt completly better. We were also able to teach 5 lessons and make up for lost time on Monday. I knew that coming home was the right decision because the Lord blessed me and us the next day.

Monday is when the rain started but it was just a short down pour and we didn't think much of it. Then Tuesday in the evening the rain came again, a lot of rain, like a LOT of rain. We were driving to visit the Reed family, a part member/less-active family. There is this one street on the side of their house that turns into a river when it pours like it was. We might have been having to much fun. As we were slowly driving in this river we passed a red car and a man about late 20's early 30's was driving. As we passed he looks at me with this huge grin on his face. He too was having to much fun. I clearly was having a blast and well... missed the house so we had to go back. As we got back into the river I saw the same red car and was given the same crazy grin. I still laugh when I think about his face/smile. 

Wednesday was what we call a Mission Tour. Its when a member of the seventy comes and gives the missionaries a training. I believe his name was Elder Corbridge. It was a real eye opener. And I played the piano for a special musical number. I was just glad that I was the pianist for the singers. But now I can say that I've played for a member of the seventy!(: (I also should mention that it was still raining)

Come Thursday the rain still hadn't stopped. In fact we were supposed to have zone meeting but two sets of sisters couldn't get out of their house because of the flooding so it was canceled! We were really blessed to be warm and dry. You should look at some pictures of the flooding its pretty crazy. Some less-actives turned on the news and we were able to catch a few peaks of what was happening. 

Now for the best part of the week. The sisters in my district, The Riverdale sisters, and Fort Lupton 1 and 2 were able to attend the Sound of Music play that the Brighton community was putting on. The first counselor in the Fort Lupton ward (my ward in case you forgot) lead the orchestra and there were a few other members not just from my ward but the Brighton ward and Riverdale ward who were either actors or managers. We were also able to have Pati attend! She loved it soo much! It was fantastic! And President Toombs really spoiled us by giving us permission to attend. I leaned over to Sister Hanshaw (who seriously is my best friend here on my mission) and said, "If you want to be successful and make a lot of money in a play/performance have a few Mormons in the production. Because you are going to have a ton of other Mormons come support them." There were a lot of member support!(: Its so awesome! And I was so lucky! 

So for my spiritual though/last note of this e-mail, I just want to testify to you how important following the Spirit is! Saturday night after dinner we of course went to work. As we drove by a less-actives home to visit I saw all the lights out and didn't feel quite right about knocking so we went to one of the backups. I still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off but we went and knocked on another less-actives door anyways. I wasn't surprised when no one answered. As we got back into the car, I shared my concern with Sister Mortensen. I told her I felt like we should go home that we weren't safe this night. She said she felt the same thing. So reluctantly we went home. It wasn't until we had entered our home did the feeling of uneasiness leave me. Now, I'll never know what would have happened if we had stayed, in fact I don't know if I ever want to know. However, I do know this, I am so grateful for the guidance of the Spirit. Listen for it and then when you hear it HEED it! 

I love you all so so much! Keep working hard, stay sweet, and keep of the drugs!(:

Hermana Durfee

Turtles and Fish

So its been a wonderful week! The 31st of August we met with our Stake President and he extended the challenge "Every lesson be a member present lesson." Now, we're not going to knock on a door and be like, "Well we can't teach you a lesson because we don't have a member present so can we come back later?" But for all followup lessons we need to have a member and let me tell you... It's been amazing! For example, we had Sister Baldwin at a lesson with our Investigator Eve. Eve again went off on a soapbox and was talking about the government and the world and speculations she talked for a good 10 minutes and all the while I am trying to interrupt her without being rude and trying to think what I should say to get back on to topic. Well, Sister Baldwin was able to jump in and say, "Well that is why we have a prophet today." I almost wanted to do a fist pump because it was so perfect. There was also another miracle. We have been teaching this part-member family. In fact that was the Fulertons (in the e-mail before). This week we brought a male member and Jim, Christine's husband joined the lesson. We were able to pull him from the former investigator pile and add him to the active investigator pile.

I can tell you it's been pretty amazing! So instead of extending a challenge at the end of my e-mail I am going to do it at the beginning. My wonderful family and friends, I want you to call your missionaries and offer to go with them to lessons. They will be wonderfully surprised. You can then tell them that Sister Durfee in Colorado told you to and they will understand. Will you do that? (I am just imagining you all saying yes.) Okay you promised! I know you will see miracles. Here's a wonderful analogy my stake president, President Johnson shared with us. There was a church well-fare farm the grew grapes. Now, when harvesting grapes you can't use a machine because you'll squish them so it has to be done by hand. The youth of that stake would have the opportunity to do so every summer. Each time harvesting came around there would be less and less youth because it was hard work in hot heat. Then the farm got a new manager and he tried something different. He invited the youth into a big barn and there they ate hot bread and grape jelly with grape juice. The youth saw the fruit of their labor and come the next summer there were more youth and they enjoyed the harvest. President Johnson wants all of his members with grape jelly on their faces and all over the front of their shirts. Now, I want you guys to enjoy the grape jelly. Go out and do missionary work with those missionaries. 

On Wednesday my companion and I went on exchanges with our sister-training leaders. I went with Sister Burnett to work her area and Sister Earl came to our area to work it with Sister Mortensen. It was really awesome to work a new area and work with different people. Then on Thursday we had Sister Johnson (from our ward) come to lessons with us... well sort of. No one was home or no one would answer their door. Before we headed out Sister Johnson warned us that the Bronco's game was on and that she wouldn't be surprised if no one came to the door... She was right... or she cursed us. Its hard during times like that to not get discouraged, but I really try to look at it positively. (It's so hard! haha) 

Now to explain the title. Two weeks ago we were heading to Barr Lake for our usual service when we saw a box turtle trying to cross the road. We stopped and I hopped out and helped it get across. We felt proud saving a turtle that day. Well, our animal saving skill were needed this Saturday. We were picking up trash along the shore and might have picked up a few dead fish hear and there when we saw a fish that was struggling to breath. It was still slightly in the water (about ankle deep). Sister Burnett (and almost all the other sisters) yelled, "Elder Lyberrt! Save the fish! I can't watch it die!" Elder Lyberrt was slightly reluctant because his shoes/socks would get wet. But he went out there anyway and I went out there to help him. He reached down to pick up the fish when it started going psycho. And... Well Elder Lyberrt screamed. Hahaha man it was so funny. We did end up saving the fish... kind of. Because right after Elder Lyberrt tossed it into deep water, it swam right back on to the shore. We came to the conclusion that it was suicidal. Elder Lyberrt was slightly upset that he did all that (and suffered a heart attack) for a suicidal fish. 

I love you guys so so much! Keep your heads up, stay sweet and Don't Do Drugs(: 

Hermana Durfee

I'm a beast at capture the flag

So I'll start of with the bad news... Alex, the one I talked about last email, dropped us. The definition of the word "Dropped" means he asked us not to teach the lessons to him. In a way... I was determined to visit with him. We tried to catch him on Sunday. He wasn't home. So we went back on Monday and he finally answered the door. He had a lot of questions so we answered them but he kept saying over and over, "Guys, I just don't believe that there is just one true church. I mean, "the church" is you and I, our faith in Christ."
I couldn't stop thinking about what Alex wanted from us. So, I asked him. "Alex, do you still want us to visit you? Because our purpose is to invite others to come unto christ and to this gospel."
He responded, "Guys, I think I am good. Someone else needs your message." I told him that he should still try to read the Book of Mormon and text us if he had any questions. He said okay, we closed with a prayer and that was it.

As I got into the car my heart hurt. Just like it would if I had left my family to serve a 18 month mission. I was so surprised. Here I didn't even know Alex very well but I felt the hurt knowing most likely I wouldn't be seeing him again, and that I couldn't help him take those steps to return to our Heavenly Father. I am so amazed at the love I feel for my investigators, less-actives, and members. I love them like they are my family. I mean in reality they are my brothers and sisters but I love them like that. I pray that Alex will feel that stirring in his heart and call the missionaries when he is ready.
On Thursday, I gave the District Training. Here I am, only a transfer in the mission field and I am training people who only have a few months till they are done. Needless to say, I tried to follow the Spirit and I was told that I did a great job. So there ya go! haha That day I also hit my 3 month mark. I am so old ;D haha
So question, if you were at a church building and you saw that a watermelon patch was growing in the bushes and you discovered that there was a large ripe watermelon there... would you pick it? Because that totally happened to me... and I didn't pick it. Now I wish I had because I haven't had lunch yet. haha
We were able to put in our numbers that we have a new investigator! YES! It was an less-active/part member family. The dad isn't a member. In fact Scott (the dad) likes to play off that he doesn't like us. I know that is a total lie only because one time when Sister Espinosa and I were walking by (we weren't even going to visit) he invited us in. He listens to the lessons and participates as well. Last week we challenged them to pray everyday. Only Scott kept the commitment. We haven't officially started teaching him lesson 1 but I have high hopes for him.
Ya know, I have learned that if we endure our trials God will bless us even more. Here I was dropped by an investigator and it really hurt but he decided to bless me with something better. We are teaching a less-active family named the Fulertons. Most of them want to come back to church but the mom works. So if Sister Fulerton doesn't go, no one goes. We hadn't visited with them for awhile and last week I felt the impression to stop by. Sister Fulerton and her mom, Sister Campbell were just getting out of the car. We asked if we could share a message and they said yes. We found out that she had lost her job about 2 weeks ago and had just come home from a biopsy. There was a possibility she could have cancer and she would know the results in 3 days. We centered our message on there is opposition in all things. She cried, I cried, not everyone cried but pretty close. I prayed everyday that the test results would come back negative and on Saturday we stopped by to find out what happened. They were negative! I could tell that Sister Campbell and Sister Fulerton felt so blessed. We asked them to come to church on Sunday.... AND THEY DID! Gah my heart slightly broken from Alex mended right then. Especially when they go up and bare there testimony mentioning the sister missionaries show up right when you need them. Sometimes missions are SOOO worth it... haha most of the time I should say.
Now Monday. First HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSAMUND! I can't believe you are 11 now! I would like to take this time to say, "Everyone! Stop growing up on me! Can't everyone put their lives on hold while I am on a mission???" hahaha Kidding of course. However, if you can then by all means do ;)
I wasn't able to email yesterday because the libraries are closed on Labor Day so that gave us extra time to do other stuff... like another P-Day filled with Capture the Flag with flour! YES! It was sooo much fun, especially because this was with MY zone. We played four rounds and each time I was on the winning team. I might say that it was because of me that we won and most of that would be true because its a team effort haha. The coolest part was that the last 2 rounds my team had 6 players and the other team had 10! (totally not fair but when you have Samoan elders they tend to stick together haha) And we still won! No big deal! I might be a beast at capture the flag. Haha
I love you guys so so so much! Hope that everything is going great! Remember to keep me in your prayers, Stay Sweet and Don't Do Drugs and it will be a good week! (Especially if you keep me in your prayers. Your week will be amazing! hahaha)
Love,
Hermana Durfee

The Miracle of Prayer!

The miracle of prayer

 

 

So before I tell you the story behind the title I will start with what happened last Monday. 

Monday was crazy. I packed, we cleaned the house, and did studies all before we were at the church for transfers. My new companion came around 3 o'clock and I was ready to go back to Fort Lupton unpack and enjoy some of my p-day. However, we didn't have our car yet. So we waited, talked to the Denver North Zone leaders, waited, talked, played basketball in a skirt, waited, talked and finally 5:45 rolled around and we received the key to our car. Turns out our car was there the whole time we just didn't have the key (Which came when the AP's came to the church). I might have been slightly frustrated but for some odd reason that was meant to happened. I really have learned and relearned to put my trust in the Lord. We also weren't able to fit any lessons in. -sigh- Numbers are the worst!

Now a little about my companion. "Short story or Long story?" She says that every time someone asks her where she's from. I won't share all the 100 places she's been but she is recently from Tuscon Arizona. Oh Tuscon... ;D And no, her dad isn't in the military. He's an accountant. She's 21 and has been out on her mission for 6 months. She is my followup trainer and the senior companion. However, most of the time I play the role of the senior companion. I don't mind only because I've learned so much and because of the responsibility that I now have I seem to have more of a desire to work harder. And well my family know's my personality. I like to be in charge. In fact Sister Mortensen asked me, "Do like to take charge? Because I don't like it at all." Of course I didn't admit it but... yes, yes I do! haha She suffers from hardcore depression that she has to take medicine for so that is kind of hard to deal with. Well and not just that but it also effects our lessons. However, she is really trying her best and I hope to help her in anyway. I'll make this companionship work just like I did the last one! :D

When transfers happened our zone received about 8 new missionaries. Two companionship were swept in (meaning that both companions are new to the area). My district had 4 companionships and now has 6! On Tuesday the whole zone turned up to do service and well... the old ladies at this quilt place were slightly overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that a lot of us were kicked out. I can now say that there was a time in my life that someone didn't want me to preform service. Luckily we had another place to do service at. 

Wednesday... I woke up at 4:15 in the morning... to go to the temple(: AAAAHH! I was so excited! To go to the temple at least. Now, waking u[ at 4:15 not so much. It was so great to go to the temple after not being there for 7 weeks! After the temple we did studies, visited a less-active and went to dinner. Man, Wednesday was interesting. haha. Right after dinner... well I couldn't find the car key. (I am the driver. For some reason my comp can't). I was in such a panic mode. Sister Smith, the member who fed us, and her little daughter tried to help us find it. We still couldn't and so we of course decided to pray. Her little girl wanted to give the prayer. It was so sweet and I was convinced that we would find it right after. We didn't. Then Sister Smith felt like I should go back to the less-actives home to find it. (We walked to Sister Smith's home from there). I was in disbelief that it was there but we made the quick walk over there. I went up to the porch and there on the porch bench where we gave our quick message was the key. I was so shocked. We went back to Sister Smith's home and showed her that we got it. Her daughter is 4 I believe was so excited! Sister Smith asked her what we should do next and she said, "A Thankful Prayer! Can I say it?" Again the spirit was so strong! And again I was amazed at how the Lord blessed us through this little girl's prayers. 

Alex (one of the flaky investigators that I mentioned last time) texted us on Friday and said that he had watched the Restoration movie we gave him and had also visited Mormon.org and that he thought it was beautiful and amazing! He also mentioned that he wasn't sure he was ready to give up coffee haha. I told him not to worry about it because that was another lesson at a different time. I was so excited! We set up an appointment for the next day at 3 because we had a service project to be at from 11-2. We were there right on time and... he wasn't home. Because I have been playing the role of senior companion I have been so frustrated and disappointing in our lesson count. Its actually been a hard week numbers wise. All we have is 2 flaky investigators. However, something that I am really proud of is that we are working a lot with less-actives. We had about 8 lessons with less-active families this week! I found myself getting discouraged... but the Lord blessed me with the comfort I needed. 

Gah! Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are so amazing! Most of the lessons we taught we shared a scripture. 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." We shared how ever thing is centered on Christ and how he should be the base of our testimonies. The spirit just seems so strong in each of those lessons as we centered the lesson on our wonderful Savior! Guys, He is every thing. We could not be more grateful for what he has done for us! That is just part of my testimony about my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love you guys so much! Be brave, work hard, stay sweet, and of course don't do drugs!

Love,

Hermana Durfee

One Transfer Down, One New Companion, And ONE BAPTISM!!!! :D

Of course I will always start with the beginning of my week. Unless you guys would prefer me to do in backwards. Just let me know. ;)

Monday was a really fun P-Day. After I e-mailed you all we headed to a park where the Denver North Zone was playing capture the flag. Found out that they were using flour balls to do the tagging. It was so much fun... Flour might have been everywhere which includes me. haha. One elder totally got my face (accident of course). When we were done we all went back to the cars to take pictures and a water fight broke out... Think about it. Flour and Water... pretty much it turns into glue. It was all in my hair... -sigh- It was a lot of fun however it didn't end until 5 and we had dinner at 5:30 with a member from the Monte Vista ward. Now, we were thinking about canceling with them (because the elders would be there) and go home to take showers but the dinner was with Hispanics. They are more offended if you cancel on them then if you show up all covered in flour. So we went to dinner looking like that. Turns out that was where we were needed. The sister there is in a really hard marriage. She really wants to go to the temple but isn't able to because she doesn't have a ride. We shared a nice message with her. I shared my testimony in Spanish and then Sister Espinosa gave a special prayer for her. The spirit was so strong and tears might have been involved. So despite being all covered in flour and it glued to our hair the Spirit was so strong and we all knew we were supposed to be there.

This week was really good. Again our numbers are really small but! we were able to catch some really flaky investigators! One is Alex the other is Eve. Both have really great potential. They love their Heavenly Father and love the bible. We just have to catch them and this week we did(:

Now for the best part! Pati(: Oh man I love that women! We had one last lesson with her on Friday before the baptism on Saturday. We invited a young pre-mission boy (who is going to Brazil) to baptize her. He was really excited (His mom might have cried when we mentioned it to her). He came to the visit with us. We all just shared our testimonies about our Savior Jesus Christ. It was so fantastic! And again tears were involved(: The next day Patricia Nell was baptized. It was really nerve racking only because Pati is really fragile (being 77) and needs a walker to walk. Tyler Shaffer (the pre-mission boy) is kind of small and skinny only a little taller then me XD. However, on the first try she went all the way under and it was good! YES! Oh man, I can't be happier! Seriously, if she is the only person I baptize then who cares! I sure don't!(: Of course I will continue to work hard and get more baptisms but that is how happy I am! Then on Sunday she was confirmed a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. She said those days were the happiest days of her entire life and she is so happy to have a family again! What a sweetheart!

Saturday night we had what is called Transfer Doctrine. The entire zone gets together and we all figure out what is happening to us on Monday for the next transfer. I found out that I was staying in Fort Lupton but I would be getting a new companion named Sister Mortensen. I was really excited but nervous at that same time. Then the missionaries that were leaving the zone shared their powerful testimonies. It was so good! I now have a new Zone leader (a long with the old one, there are always two) and I have a new District Leader. Tears were also involved here as well... a lot of crying this week. 

Now, I have to go... we have to run to dinner but! I will tell you all about my new companion and transfer day(: Stay Sweet and Don't Do Drugs!

Love you guys!

Hermana Durfee!