Missionary Letter - Hermana Anna Wolford Feb 4, 2019

Today I'd like to talk about the miracle of life.
Specifically, the miracle that is my life.
and my companion's.
With my driving, it is a MIRACLE WE ARE STILL ALIVE :'))))

Last week our driving coordinator called us and said our Tiwi must be having malfunctions. I've received so many "aggressive driving" and "check your speed" violations that it supposedly BROKE our tiwi aaaahaha. I promised Elder Blonquist that I would be a super good driver and never get any violations ever again in my whole entire life ever again never. NOT TEN MINUTES LATER I hit a dip and got another aggressive driving. I asked Hermana DeRoest if they'd send me home for that and she said no (probably) so that's good!!!!

literally I love my companion hermana DeRoest (pronounced Dee-Roost) SO MUCH!!!! she is always doing little thoughtful things for me and looking out for me and man oh man we have too much fun :)))

We had the. Most. AMAZING. lesson with the Lopez family. They are SO PREPARED. The cute mom had all her kids sit down so we could teach them as a family and not only had she read the Book of Mormon verses but she'd had her kids read them too and marked them in both and started re reading the pamphlet and had questions ready. The lesson was amazing and the spirit was SO STRONG it was amazing ahhhhhh amazing!!!! If the only reason I came out on my mission was to teach this sweet family, it would all be worth it :)

I love the Lord and am grateful for His many tender mercies

and hey

I know there are angels lookin out for you and me

yup. God is good.

Love y'all,

Hna Anna Wolford

3232 N Locust St, Apt 1114
Denton, Texas 76207

Texas Fort Worth Mission
1331 Airport Fwy Ste 305
Euless, TX 76040-4150

Missionary Letter #100

MERRY CHRISTMAS MONTH EVERYONE!! how are ya'll??

tell me HOW YOU ARE LIGHTING THE WORLD THIS YEAR?!!
(and if you don't know what I'm talking about do me a solid and visit mormon.org:))

this week I said goodbye to my dear hermana nielsen awww. I'll miss tango-ing at 6:30 AM, our cute little sticky notes of love, and constantly breaking into song together.

BUT. My new companion is Hermana Robles! She's so adorable and is from california and is INCREDIBLE at drawing people. So insane. She and I came out almost exactly 1 year apart from each other.  I love her because she's so patient with me having to repark 14 times to get the car straightened out :)))

ELDER BEDNAR CAME TO OUR VERY OWN MISSION!

It was amazing. The entire time it was a Q&A based on some talks he had sent us a few weeks before. He would allow a question, then usually ask a follow up question, then provide insights or tell the person to read in the Book of Mormon for their answer. His insights were SO powerful. He taught me a lot about what kind of missionary I want to be.

ALSO! He and OUR VERY OWN President Whitney are first cousins!

At one point Elder Bednar made the same joke President Whitney always makes about how women do 9 things perfectly then stress about the 1 mediocre thing, then men will do 9 things terribly but 1 average thing and they celebrate the one average thing and Elder Bednar demonstrated celebrating and I KID YOU NOT Elder Bednar pounded his chest and went, "YAH!!" and it was so unexpected I just about fell off the green plush pew ahahaha.

Elder Bednar told us a story about how one summer day when they were like 10, he and President Whitney had found some old boxing gloves and because they are boys of course they put them on and started boxing in the living room. I guess President Whitney (who is the sweetest most subdued man you will ever meet no joke) hit Elder Bednar a little too hard and he fell back and shattered the front window. They were freaking out but President Whitney's dad came in and said, "Well, I guess we'll need to replace the window." and that was that. I pray daily for that level of patience hahaha.

i love you! I love Texas! I love the Lord!!

love ya'll,

Hna Anna Wolford

3232 N Locust St, Apt 1114
Denton, Texas 76207

Texas Fort Worth Mission
1331 Airport Fwy Ste 305
Euless, TX 76040-4150

Missionary Letter #99

HELLO FROM GOOD OL' DENTON TEXAS

let's start off with a quick missionary jargon lesson, shall we?

to "die" on your mission: to go home
to "kill" your companion: you're their last companion before they go home
to "bible-bash"/"bash": to argue with the bible in order to prove someone's beliefs wrong

TEXAS IS EVERYTHING I DREAMED IT WOULD BE - it's big, southern hospitality, it's big, southern accents, it's big, cowboy boots, and IT'S BIG.

My trainer is Hermana Nielsen from Seattle, Washington. This is her LAST transfer before going home which means that I'll kill her heh heh. She's great and filled to the brim with lots of nuggets of wisdom. We are the exact same height and weight but I have blonde hair and she has brown so we decided I'm the pink princess and she's the blue princess from Barbie Princess and the Pauper. (see pic of us in our colors;))

Spanish is coming along! Some people in the ward speak only spanish, some only english, and some speak english but tell me to speak spanish back to them. SOON ILL BE SPEAKIN LIKE A NATIVE

MY FIRST LESSON AS A MISSIONARY AND I GOT BASHED AHAHAHA:
Hermana Nielsen and I had planned on teaching Pedro and Carmen the first discussion. I was SO prepared and so excited, yes yes! We invited Hermano Benavides and his RM daughter Jessica from the ward to come along.

The first part of the lesson was AMAZING! The Spirit was so strong, and they were very receptive to our lesson. About halfway through, their adult son Eduardo walked through and invited him to sit down and listen. After about 2 minutes, he left and came back with his bible. I was like, "eeekk yes another investigator!" WRONG.

Eduardo lit us UP. He had come prepared as well. Anything we said, he'd cut us off mid sentence and share a scripture about how we were wrong. The Benavides' know SO much about the gospel and would rebut his scriptures with others, but there was SO MUCH contention, the Spirit was not there.

Finally, Hermana N and I interrupted the arguing and bore testimony. After, sweet Carmen said something like, "We always knew you girls were good girls. We know God sends people in other path for a reason."

AND I KID YOU NOT EDUARDO SAID,

"The devil sends people in our path too"

HE SAID WE WERE SENT FROM SATAN AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

It's SUPER hilarious now!! But not so much at the time.

don't tell my mom, but I definitely cried the whole way home.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT

I didn't come out on the mission thinking it would be a piece of cake. I knew what I was signing up for.

plus, missions are hard! and I haven't been here longer than a week!!!

Isn't it crazy that the Lord entrusts the most important work of the ETERNITIES to a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds?
In all honesty, I don't know much. But I know these things to be true: God answers prayers. The Savior died for us all. Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Book of Mormon is true. I can be with my family forever.

If you are questioning any of those things, ask the missionaries!!

Acts 5:41-42

all my love,

Hna Anna Wolford

3232 N Locust St, Apt 1114
Denton, Texas 76201

Texas Fort Worth Mission
1331 Airport Fwy Ste 305
Euless, TX 76040-4150