No journal, no organization! Uh oh...

Hola familia y mis amigos y everyone else... haha who am I kidding we're all friends here.

This week has been awesome! I have been so busy with learning el idioma y learning how to teach and follow El Espiritu Santo, I know there is supposed to be an accent in there Jeff, so don't correct me. Hermana Harden and I got lost today in Santiago so if you are wondering why I don't have a lot of time that is why... lol. We have been learning how to teach with unity cause that is the point of being in a companionship. If there is no unity there is no Espiritu. Anyway. So, I don't have my journal and I usually refer to that when I write emails, perro I forgot it today. I know, I know. Why did I forget it you tell me.

So, we got new teachers this week and they are muy great!! I love them so much. Hermana Araneda teaches us in la manana and she is so good! The investigator that is with her is named Lucia. Lucia is a golden investigator. She is so great! The next teacher is Hermano Cifuentes, I don't like him as much cause he has a such a great latn accent. He is great though. Then, mi favorito maestro es Hermano Ceballos! He is awesome! That pretty much sums up his whole personal ity. I love him!! He is so caring and wants to help so bad. He is always talking Spanglish which is so fun, cause he says things like muy great, and muy quick. Or like perro I am not going anywhere. He is my favorite! On Sunday we had such a great day! We had a devotional in the morning by Elder Ballard and he talked about not getting caught up in the news. One of the stories that he shared was about Joseph F. Smith and how he stood up for himself when a bad guy on a horse came up to him and asked if he was Mormon. He was like Yessiree! Diet in the wool! True blue! Through and through!! I want to be like him! I want to be that bold when I do missionary work!! We then watched the video about Thomas S. Monson  being always on the Lord's errand! I want that too, especially as a missonary! So a quick funny story the other night Hermano Ceballos was teaching and all of a sudden he was like what is that smell and no one really knew what he was talking about and then Elder Brush is bright red in the face telling him that he really needs to go to the bathrooom. It was hilarious. Hermano Ceballos explained to us that in Chile they are not that shy about farts and what not. And then we told him that in America especially if there are girls around we would not say anything! It was really funny!!! Ahhh, ay no mucho tiempo! I gotta go! I will talk to you all next week.

Hermana Durfee!! I love you all! I pray for you! And think about all of you! Have a great week!

Enferma, El Espiritu Santo, Learning, having fun.... That't the CCM. :)

Hola mi familia!

So, this week has been an emotional rollercoaster. That seems to be the theme for missionaries. One minute you are so happy and laughing so hard, and then next minute you are so discouraged. Monday I was in a really good mood. And to top it all off the latina hermanas were so funny when I was talking them. I had my¨The feild is white already to harvest¨ necklace on that a dear friend had given me. And one of them comes up to me and asks where I got it, and they immediately are all like ¨Su novio!!¨ ¨Your boyfriend!¨ And I just bursted into a fit of giggles!! They were so funny and since I have a language barrier I couldn't really explain! lol!! It was really funny!!

Here is another funny experience so my companion an I are in our discussion with Marcos (Hermano Antileo) and he is telling both of us that due to the limited time that we have been here in Chile we speak really well. And I was so taken a back that I was like ¨Gracias!!!!!¨ And if you can picture it Hermana Harden and Marcos both look at me and we all start laughing cause I was so enthusiastic!! :D

So, Then on Tuesday I had p day. I emailed y'all and then we explored Santiago. Hermana Harden and I were able to see some sister missionaries from our mission! It was the coolest thing, I don't know why they were in the East mission, but we were able to. It was really fun! We then were able to have a great opportunity and blessing to go the the temple. It was a such an amazing experience! I was so happy that we were abñe to go. Here at the CCM we are able to go to the temple three times in the six weeks that we are here. And I just felt so empowered and strengthened by being able to go to a place that is the same even in Chile. The temple whereever you are is constant just like the gospel. It is amazing! In class and at church we sing hymns and they are the same even in a different language! It is the coolest thing! I love that Heavenly Father loves us so much that He would do that for us. When we were in the temple, I was so overcome with the Spirit when I saw the Elders in white. It just cemented my testimony that I am so thankful for worthy preisthood holders.

On Wednesday I caught a cold. Those of us who live in Alcantara call it the Alcantara Cancer cause every new group of missionaries catches it. It is a little pandemic. (Today, emailing you I am almost better.) My companion knew I was sick, and the elders in my district learned that I was sick too. Elder Ludeman (one of the elders in my district) gave me some emergen C. He was so nice to do that for me. I am really thankful a kind and caring district that I have. Oh, and in class that night Hermano Riutor said the funniest thing. He is always telling us that we should not act like babies, but we do anyways. We asked him if we could go out into the real world and he was like (in his latin accent) ¨How can I let you out into the real world? When I leave for five minutes and you're having baby party?¨ It was really funny! We laughed really hard!! :D

On Thursday I feel that Hermana Harden and I are finally getting it. We are both finally getting how we should teach and how we should learn the language. It is pretty cool. Hermano Antileo had us do a role play today and I was the missionary and Elder Williams, an elder in my district, was the investigator. He totally refused to speak any English, and pretended that he did not know English. So I had to speak Spanish to him. It was really good practice. I really appreciated that exercise, and was surprised by how much I knew. We then had a discussion with Pablor Bertucci (Hermano Riutor) and after the discussion Hermano Riutor was like ¨I am sorry but it was perfect.¨very sarcastically, serious. He was telling us that we did a really good job, but he couldn't offer any advice cause we did so good. Ahh, he is really funny, very latin!! :) lol. Hermana Harden was like ¨But what about our lesson?¨and he was like ¨Well you were teaching people, not lesson, which is what Preach my Gospel says to do. If you want to go against Preach my Gospel then you can!¨ again sarcastically. It was hilarious. We both just looked at eachother and laughed! :)

So, through out the week my cold got worse and on Sunday it was really bad. I mean I was basically this fountain of germs that was streaming out of my nose and my eyes, and I was super incoherrent. So, in my district meeting I asked the elders if they would give me a blessing. It was the coolest thing that I have experienced in my mission so far, because all these 18 year old young men surround me and use the power that they had been given, by God to help me get better. I could feel the power of the Preisthood in that circle. I am so thankful to them for being worthy to do that for me.

So, basically this week I have had a great time! Thanks so much for all you guys do for me! I love you all!! You all are in my prayers!! Have a wonderful, blessed week!!

Les Amo!! (I think that is right, correct me if I am wrong, Jeff)

Hermana Durfee :D

YSA + Crayons = Too Much Fun

Last Monday was zone p-day and it was finally worth it and I didn't have to do hardly any work. YEAH! We had like an 800 water balloon fight and then with flour capture the flag and had a ton of food. So all in all it was wonderful. I think what made it different was that we have some great zone leaders right now. It was great start to a wonderful week. By time Monday was up we already had 14 lessons lined up. Which was way better then the last week. We've been doing a pretty fun lesson with our members where we ask them at the beginning to draw a castle and to fortify that castle. Its been so much fun seeing the different ideas... some slightly on the strange side but that makes it more fun. After we read Alma 50: 1-6. It talks about how Moroni protects the Nephite cities. We then ask what they do to protect themselves spiritually. I love seeing the Spirit work through them. Its also a great family home evening idea [so those missionaries serving right now... you're welcome ;)]

Friday we had a fun adventure. We were weekly planning at the church (we focus better there) and we were taking our lunch break. While we were waiting for our food to heat up in the microwave I found a toy that is solar powered. I wanted to see if it work so I go out the kitchen door and hold it up the sun. I assumed that Sister Claros was holding the door open because that door is always locked. Then I hear a door close and turn around in horror. No! Sister Claros' face drops... We were locked out! Our keys, phone... and food all were in there. We walk around the whole church. I didn't know what to do. Sister Claros was laughing so much and at first I was frustrated but I couldn't help but laugh too. We prayed and decided we needed to walk to a member's home. Luckily Iniki didn't live very far cause it was super hot. He let us borrow his phone we called our branch president who came and picked us up and unlocked the church for us. Oh man. Never again but its a good laugh. I still laugh about it.

Saturday we did service for a member who's family is putting in their own sprinkler system. We helped them fill in the ditches. It was a lot of work but I actually extremely enjoyed it. I got some nasty blisters but thats cool. ;) That day two of our members got engaged to each other... Man... thats really all I can say. I cant decide whether its a blessing or a curse that we serve in the singles ward and watch all the drama. Mostly a blessing because its very entertaining. haha.

This week the Elders who live in the same apartment complex attacked us. For 5 months we have lived in peace. Not truly know what apartment number each other lived in, so even if we wanted to do something we couldn't. Well Thursday we got a text from them saying they had a referral and asked for our apartment number so they could put it in our mailbox. I should have known better. We came out of Institute that night to find a bag with our tennis shoes we had left outside the apartment to dry hanging from our side mirror and Jack (A little jack-in-the-box that we had on our antenna) gone as well. Those dang elders, we thought. We drive back home take back Jack and head up to our apartment. They left us our referral on the door. A picture of dolphins and a sticky note that said, "The Flipper Family, they are awesome!" It was awesome. I laughed(: and the dolphin picture is totally hanging in our apartment now. I just have to come up with some sweet revenge before I'm transferred.

Honestly I hope I am because its been a long time here. 6 months. I love it, we get a lot of privileges but I just feel the need to move. Transfers are in 3 weeks. Only 3 weeks! Thats some crazy stuff!

I hope all of you are well and happy!
Love you!
Stay Sweet
Dont Do Drugs.

Hermana Durfee

The Trio Has Struck Again

Okay kids, I don't get it. Things really cant slow down, but I think we can all agree that thats what makes it interesting and fun. (background info) On Friday, we got a call from Elder Pratt who is over the housing and he asked, "Can we fit another bed in your apartment?" Yes you're thinking correct... Trio but we werent exactly sure what was going to happen. Of course we had our predictions, we pretty much assumed he would just add someone to our companionship and not bring in two new sisters. But pretty much we had to exercise patience and wait for Saturday night. (in comes the other part) So this past week I've been getting bites and I thought they were mosquitos because we've done service there and had an activity. So in total I didn't think much of it... until I kept waking up with new bites. We were at a members home about to head to transfer doctrine and I brought it up to Sister Pitchforth. She said it could be bed bugs... so we look it up. It totally was/is. Ugh, kind of makes me sick still. So we decided not to go to transfer doctrine and to make some phone calls. We called Elder Pratt and he gave us things to do. 1st: look for a laundry mat that is open (it was 9 by that time) so we can dry heat all of our clothes. 2nd: Bag up everything else and wait for the morning to stick them in the sun to burn all the bugs. 3rd: Vacuum and vacuum like crazy. 4th: Take a hot shower.

During all of this craziness we also got a call from other sisters letting us know what happened during transfer doctrine. I would yet again be in another with trio with TWO new companions! And Sister Anderson would be leaving and going to Capitol Hill (aka Downtown where I served). It was such an emotional night. We were panicking because of the bed bugs, and then on top of it there was transfer info.

Sister Pitchforth armed us with quarters and garbage bags and we rushed to a laundry mat and I talk to the man who was going to close and begged him to stay open so we could go get our clothes and dry heat them because we had bed bugs. He was so kind and said we could. We rushed home and bagged up all of our clothes and ran back to the laundry mat. There was another lady there who suggested that we put our clothes in new garbage bags so we aren't using the old ones. So we rushed back home to get them and came back. The man said that while we were gone the lady had put an extra quarter in all of our machines. We thanked him for staying open and he said, "You guys are doing the Lords work, its the least I can do." We left the laundry mat around 10:45. Got back to the apartment bagged the rest of our belongings and then vacuumed (like crazy). We showered and then exhaustively climbed into bed.

I did wake up with more bites (Forgot to mention that I was the only one getting bit) and found a bug on my bed. BUT! This morning I woke up with no bites. (Mom, don't worry to much. ;) I know you are) The exterminator should be coming today or tomorrow. Sunday was pretty hard for Sister Anderson. This area and the people mean a lot to her. However, I know she's going to do amazing in Cap Hill(: So now, I have two new companions (they're pretty great so far), and an apartment with bed bugs. Its a handful and pretty stressful but I will continue to trust in the Lord. I know there are blessing around the corner.

So besides all that here are some random awesome things that happen this week: We totally shaved a cat, went to the branch's lake activity and had 3 or 4 nonmembers there, had some fantastic Cafe Rio with our recent convert RJ, learned a new game called "Mow" (totally going to teach it to you all when I get home), had a fantastic lesson with one of our investigators named Cierra. She is so golden and willing to learn. We also had a wonderful lesson with Justin. The spirit was so strong.

Overall it was a good week despite transfers and bed bugs. I'm nervous about this transfer (my companions are pretty young mission wise), stressed about our apartment and bugs. But! I know the Lord will take care of me. I just have to do my part.

I love you guys!
Stay Sweet
Dont Do Drugs.

Picture 1: Awkward cant touch photo with Justin.
Picture 2: Ricardo, Jose, Andy and me(:

So... June Is Almost Over, Just Thought You Would Like To Know

That thought, that June is almost over has been going through my mind quite often this week. I don't know if I like it. As you get closer to the end of a mission you begin to think you don't want it to end at all. It actually kind of scares me that its almost over (of course by "almost" I mean 5 months.) But whats awesome about only 5 months left? I'm going to work my butt of and totally blow the missionary work out of the water where ever I go!

We went to the lake with the branch last P-day. We weren't able to get in the boat or in the water but it was fun none the less. What was cool is lately we've been seeing a lot of members and we've been asking them to invite their nonmember friends to activities (since you have a lot of those in a singles branch). I went over to talk to one of our members and he smiles at me and says, "I took you up on your challenge," and nods to the girl sitting next to him. I was so happy to see some members actually doing what we asked. In total there were four nonmembers! Other members we have been visiting just start giving us a name before we even ask. Its been super great!

RJ is still on and good for his baptism date on July 5th. Its been kind of frustrating to try to get an appointment because he's so busy. We were talking to him on Sunday when one of our members, named Brad, came up to us and pretty easily found a time for both us and RJ. It was really great. We actually had dinner with Brad that day as well and he went out with us afterwards to visit people around his house. It went SUPER well. We saw almost all the people we wanted to see and Brad, yes, Brad set up three appointments for us. I feel like when you bring a member along the people actually want to say yes. If we were to ask them we would get an answer like, "Well... I'm really busy." It was super cool, Brad is just fantastic.

Its crazy how much you love people and how sad you are when they stray away even when you worked hard with them. We were at Kidz Quiltz doing what we do best "Quilting" when three young boys come in. I was looking down but out of the corner of my eye I could clearly see that two of them were just standing at the table staring at me. I look up and say hey to them and ask how they are doing. One of them says, "See she does recognize you!" I looked at the other and looked.... It was a boy named Jonathan who I taught in Fort Lupton. I found out he had dropped out of school and I could see that he also had a cigarette resting on his ear. I was so happy to see him and yet so sad to see where he's ended up. But hopefully he comes back. I told him that we're at Kidz Quiltz every Thursday. -crosses fingers-

The last thing is, its President Toombs last week and by next week I will have new mission president. I'm so sad yet super excited for this new mission president, President Mendenhall. (Maybe he's related to Bronco that would be sick!)

I love this area, the branch, and those we teach. I seriously believe that the Lord knew I needed this.

Love you guys so much!
Stay Sweet
Dont Do Drugs.

Hermana Durfee

I Call Them Miracle Texts

Sharlee's email

The first week of a transfer always seems one of the hardest. Tuesday could have been the worst of this week but of course the Lord is amazing and blessed us with miracle. The week before we were booked to the max. Always had an appointment to go to. This week was totally opposite. Tuesday was on of those days where we didn't have ANY appointments and we didn't have the miles to go to service, so we were at lost on how to fill our open time. Being desperate we put tracting (which is useless in a ysa branch just saying). We weren't looking forward at all for the day. We had a lesson with on of our awesome members and were heading out the door to do our tracting but got a text, a text from RJ.

(Hopefully I've told you a little about him) About twoish weeks ago RJ told us that he was really busy so he wouldn't be meeting with us or going to church. We were really sad because he was like our only solid investigator. The text from him that says, "What do you guys think about me getting baptized?" We were ecstatic! He's picked July 5 for his date. Seriously, I about cried. The day still was kind of crappy. Our only other appointment cancelled. But we just kept thinking about that text and it kept our spirits high. I still don't get why we get texts like that. Our district leader who has been here for the three transfers we've been together said, "I think you sisters just have to wait for your investigators to ask to be baptized!" And its so true!

And the cooler thing is that the Lord truly had a hand in this week though it might have been on the hard side. On Thursday we went contacting a few potentials and less-actives. One of the people we have tried before was Jackson Kasza. Well we felt like we should go try again. We knocked on the door and Jackson answers. It was a great lesson! I think the only sad thing is that he is a return missionary that hasn't been to church... in a LONG time. How does that even happen? But it went really well and he said we could come back. The following day was Friday, also known as weekly planning day. We had this awesome set up at the church: free doughnuts, music, a chalk board to write on. As we were trying to figure out who would be a good fellowshipper for RJ a thought came to my mind, Jackson. Jackson was a perfect person to fellowship RJ and it would also help Jackson become active! So we'll see how that goes. :D Seriously though the Lord totally set that up. RJ on Tuesday, Jackson on Thursday, and weekly planning on Friday.

We had stake conference this weekend. On Saturday we went to the adult session. It was so good, mostly because our mission president spoke at it. He cried which means I cried. It was the last stake conference being a mission president. We were sitting by Brother and Sister Thornton who are in our branch because Brother Thornton is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. At the end of the meeting Sister Thornton turns to us and says "So icecream?" We are so blessed. And all the missionaries ran to the stand to talk to President and Sister Toombs. They shared with us that if they weren't in front of the whole stake President would hug the sisters and Sister Toombs would hug the elders. However, President has promised us he would come around the last week to hug all his sisters. I'm so excited for that.

Today is going to be fun! We got permission to go to one of the lake activities our branch is having. Though we can't go on the boat but we are totally okay with that(: I'll tell you all about it next week!

Love you guys!
Stay Sweet
Dont do drugs

Hermana Durfee

Picture 1: Washing a member's, Jamie, car.

A week full of emotions

This week has been exhausting, sad, happy, nerve racking, relieving, and pretty much awesome. We started it with this goal. Its our last week we want to get 20 lessons. No matter what it takes. There was a lot of costs. We were exhausted each day when we got home. We weren't able to do any sort of service this week and totally killed our miles. But we did it. We reached 20 lessons... 21 lessons actually! :D Another thing that we focused on was seeking referrals. Any investigator that we've gotten that have become progressing or baptized were all member referrals. Anyone that we've found through our own efforts have disappeared. So we taught 16 members this week. We've given 1-2 weeks to work on someone then we are going to do a follow up lesson to "collect" haha totally kidding! We'll then ask if any of those friends would mind if we visited them. It went really well. We have them write 5-10 names down in front of us. I have a feeling that miracles are about to happen. 

On Wednesday we said goodbye to President and Sister Toombs. That was so hard! President Toombs has done so much for this mission and me. I'm excited/nervous for our new mission president, President Mendenhall (sp?) but I'm still at the point where I don't want President Toombs to go. We had a mission conference where ALL the missionaries got together. It was so great to see faces I haven't seen in awhile. And yes, I totally cried especially during President Toombs' testimony probably because he cried as well. He really is amazing. But I do know that the Lord qualifies who He calls. He's done that for me and He'll do it for the new mission president. So President Toombs brought along 2 of his sons to the mission and one is in our ward. His name is Jordan Toombs. He's so pretty incredible, so is his voice. We usually see him a few times in a transfer to share a lesson and then to sing around the piano. Well, he's leaving a little earlier then his parents, he leaves this week so we wanted to sing with him one last time. He invited us to his house, which means thats President Toombs house, which is also out of our area. Jordan said it was okay for us to come over. We were a little intimidated. haha. It was super cool and super weird. We did the usual except President Toombs listened to us sing for a bit. (That was a little intimidating too).

It also was the last week of the transfer. We were trying to be patient but like Jose says, "Try maybe it will happen." It didn't really work. haha. Sister Anderson was pretty convinced she was leaving and I was in denial (I tried to convince my self she wasn't). And as always we had to wait till Saturday night to find out what happens to us. The first thing they do is announce who is leaving the area. And... Sister Andersons name wasn't on there.... and neither was mine! We would be staying together for another transfer, making 3 transfers together! We were/are so excited! 

But yeah that's whats up with me.(: Hopefully my sisters are keeping the blog updated ;) (Hint Hint) Shoot me a letter or e-mail. Let me know how you are doing!

Love you guys so much

Stay Sweet

Don't Do Drugs

Hermana Durfee