Glendale Week 53 *August 18, 2014

Hello.

This week has just been very full of little amazing experiences that
have really made it all worth it. I know that not every day is going
to be completely full of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities but little
things throughout the whole week really do help.

We are still continuing to teach Vanessa and things are moving along
really well. We had a lesson on Tuesday with her mom there and also
her little sister. We had four members come with us to this lesson so
was kind of like a mini conference with guest speakers I guess you
could say. It was really funny because we were planning on teaching
the 10 Commandments and didn't really know what to do with this many
people but we decided to make it more of a game and gave each person a
commandment, that they had to memorize and do a hand signal for and
then we all just went around the circle and showed the commandment
that we had and talked a little bit about each one. Elizabeth had the
Commandment number four which is to keep the Sabbath day holy. And the
hand signal for that since it's number four is to hold up two rock 'n
roll signs on each of your hands which uses four fingers and you say
"don't rock out on Sundays, go to church." It is pretty funny to hear
her say that and she made sure that we all got a good laugh out of it.

On Sunday Vanessa had her baptismal interview with the zone leaders
and everything went really great. She was really nervous about having
to answer questions and talking to a stranger but we assured her that
everything was going to be okay and we even went over the questions
with her the day before. When she came out of the interview her face
just kind of beamed and you knew that she was excited and happy that
she was able to be baptized. Her baptism is set for this coming
Saturday at 2 o'clock and she has asked her Sunday school teacher
Brother Peterson to baptize her. I thought at first that it would be a
little sad that I wasn't able to do the baptism but I know that she
will have a better relationship and a longer lasting relationship with
brother Peterson because he lives here. I know that that is what the
church is all about. Relationships that we build with other people as
well as the relationships that we build with God. We cannot be more
excited for her and especially excited for the example that she is
being to her mother and also to her younger sister.

Once every six weeks we get to go and exchanges with the zone leaders
and it's always a fun day. When I had first come out I had a district
leader named Elder Barrus. I had been out for just under three months
and he had been out for just about a year when we met for the first
time. Well he is now my zone leader and has been out for 19 months and
I am a district leader and have been out for a whole year and we got
to go on exchanges on Wednesday. The whole thing seemed nostalgic. We
just remember all the times we had together before and the
relationship that we had built then. He is a really fun kid and just
loves life and is happy to be here so it's kind of contagious. We had
a super great day filled with wonderful teaching opportunities as well
as having fun on our bikes. He's in a car area so every opportunity he
gets to be on a bike he really takes full advantage of it. He was
jumping up and down curbs and just getting into mischief. For dinner
we went over to our investigators house named Amber. They fed us
fajitas and some tres Leche cake but in the end they had a little
surprise for us. They opened up the fridge and pulled out some Korean
delicacies one being kimchi and the other being dried anchovies. Just
for your information kimchi is cabbage that is been soaked in vinegar
and salt in a big jar and then they bury that jar in the ground for
six months and then take it out and that is what you eat. So basically
it's fermented nasty vinegary cabbage. They made me put a whole huge
chunk of it in my mouth and I think I lasted only but two seconds
before I had to spit it out and go into the bathroom without throwing
up. The droid anchovies were a different story. they weren't as bad
and I was able to stomach them but they were just so fishy tasting it
was it was not a pleasant experience.

The weather has been pretty humid here lately because of the monsoons
that we've been getting. It makes it a little sweaty but not as hot
which is always good. But the best part about the humidity in the
monsoons is by far the sunsets. There is really pretty and big puffy
clouds that just make it an unbelievable site. I try to stop as often
as I can it take pictures of the sunsets but you can only have so many
pictures of sunsets before there going to start looking the same.

Coming up in November we have the Phoenix temple dedication. It's a
great opportunity and a great privilege to be able to be a missionary
in this area while that is all taking place. We have learned what our
role as missionaries will be during that time and we are learning what
the youth are going to do for the cultural celebration. Everybody is
pretty jazzed about it and talking about it all the time. It's a great
missionary opportunity for the people here to invite their friends and
to talk with them and show them just what we believe in and why we
build temples. I know that a lot of great things are going to come
from this and I'm already seeing a lot of blessings come from it.

We played softball for a zone activity and felt it necessary to go to
goodwill and get all dressed up so that's what the amazing outfits
are. Enjoy.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great day and week!

Until next week,
Elder Cole Safford

Enjoying the Arizona sunset

Rockin' the Goodwill

Glendale Week 52 *August 13, 2014

Why hello there!

The past seven days has been chalk full of funny little moments as
well as amazing spiritual ones. I think that I have been missing out
on events that I am apart of because my brain has been someplace else
as they were taking place. I have really been working on being where I
am when I am there. When we have a lot going on we tend to try and
multi task but often that leads us to be caught up in our own head and
just going through the motions with our bodies. It's a tough thing not
to do but I am determined haha. I don't know why but I feel like I
have to share my little personal findings with all of you. I think
it's in the hope that I can be a help to someone struggling. I just
don't want you to struggle with something that I have been working on
or found a slight solution too you know? If you don't like it I can
just tell you about my week and not go in Cole the philosopher, but if
you don't say anything I will just keep going haha.

Anyways we had an amazing lesson with Amber and Tim. They are not
married yet but have been together so long the state of Arizona sees
them as common law married. Amber cannot be baptized if they are not
married so we needed to talk to them about this before we get too
close to her baptismal date. We really wanted to help them see into
the further as to where they want to go and where God wants to see
them go. That is to the temple of The Lord of course. So we prepared
and shared a great lesson on the temple and the blessings that come to
our lives as we continually go and make the promises with God. Tim was
really excited and wanted to jump right into it but Amber had a few
reservations about time and it all happening too fast. To be honest I
was so happy that she said that. It shows that she really cares about
the decision she is making. She wants it to be the right time and at
her pace. Wonderful. I couldn't be more stoked for her. And them. They
are a great family and will be so much happier when they make these
promises together!

Our other investigators are Rachel and her 15 year old daughter
Vanesa. They are both so ready for the gospel. Rachel has a few hang
ups but nothing that time won't heal. Vanesa on the other hand is
progressing so rapidly. She used to be a little shy but has opened up
a to. And is so happy now. The young women's program in our ward has
helped SO much. They are always inviting her to things and giving her
rides. The young women's president is simply amazing. She is so upbeat
and so willing to help all in need. She is the person that Vanesa
really needed. I was just privileged enough to get to introduce them.
Vanesa is set to be baptized on August 23rd! She is excited and we are
excited for her. Big things to come in her life. She will be great.

We are continuing to have the best member lessons ever. The ward is
completely behind us and trusts us which is great. You know what they
say... It's takes a long time to gain the trust of those around you
but just one poor choice to lose it. We are trying not to lose their
trust for future missionaries sake haha. It's the worst when a ward
doesn't trust it's missionaries. Not much gets done. But we have the
trust and are using it to get work done. Plus our ward mission leader
is doing good things. He knows how to talk to people and how to get
them on board with what we want to have happen.  Funny story about
him, we asked if there was anything we could do for him and he said
"wash my car." So on Saturday afternoon we went to wash his car. He
had the idea that we should also wash the neighbors cars. We all went
up to the door and this was his pitch. "Hi. I'm Mr. Taylor your
neighbor and these are some youth from my church. Today is their super
service Saturday and they need to get 10 hours of service so that they
can get their service patch. Would you help them by letting them wash
your car?" Hahahaha you know what... It worked. And we got our service
patch!! Finally!

Side note I hit 3000 miles on my bicycle on Wednesday! Crazy.

We have been trying to get ahold of this less active family that the
ward asked us to go by but couldn't ever catch the dad. We probably
tried over ten times in the past 6 months. Nothing. Well last night we
stopped by off a whim and he was there! They were just about to play
Yahtzee and invited us in to play. It was so great. We just chatted
with them and played Yahtzee. Elder Thomas crushed us all. And I came
in a mediocre 3rd. But the more important thing was that we finally
were able to meet them. Elder Thomas is so funny. So I honestly think
he would forget his head on the counter if it was not attached to his
body aha. He will just randomly space out in visits with people and be
there physically but mentally he is gone. It is so funny. We will get
out of the house and he will be like "dude I missed all of that. What
happened in there!" Haha we always have a good laugh. Lately though it
has been him running into bushes while on his bike. We will just be
riding along and them bam. There he is nose first on some bush on the
side of the path haha. Super entertaining. He is amazing though. Love
him to death.

Well that's all folks. Tune in next week to see the adventures of
Safford and Thomas. Broadcast on Mondays from 10am to 6pm. See you
then!

Elder Cole Safford

When I hit 3000 miles!

Our "man" tower

Glendale Week 51 *August 4, 2104

Hello. Hi. How are you?

Things are picking up here. Slowly but surely we are seeing more and more people want to learn about the gospel that haven't heard it before. It's really exciting. I don't really know what has changed. We are just working everyday trying to do what we know is right. God really does know what we need. It's interesting to see how things play out when there is no one but him to lean on. He just wants what's best for us. And patience is the key in all of it. It really is. 

We are still working with Amber and seeing the changes that she is making. She asked us last week about baptism. She wants to know when she can be baptized because she wants one of us to be the one to do it. We know for sure that elder Thomas leaves august 26th so she wants to shoot for August 23rd. It's going to be a long shot and a lot of hard work but I really think it can happen. We just have to work diligently as well as directly. It really helps in the learning process if you are just short, simple and to the point. Cutting the fluff is not easy but it makes a world of difference. Her husband has started to come back to church and he is bringing his less active mother with him which is amazing. The family is so important. We really need to make sure that the foundation we are all built on is sturdy and we are on it together. 

Rachel was out of town for the past week so we could talk with her but we asked her 15 year old daughter Vanessa if she would like to learn more and she said yes! After the first lesson she also asked about baptism. We wanted to know why he he would ask. She said it was because she was scared of making decisions and wanted help. We testified about the power of the Holy Ghost and it's role in our lives is to help us to just that, make decisions. It was a very powerful moment. She was pretty shy at first but as we have befriended her and helped her meet the young women in the ward she has really opened up. I really believe that positively talking to people helps them to believe more in themselves and really become the best they can be. Negativity doesn't do a whole lot of good. We plan to continue teaching her and prepare her for baptism on August 23rd. 

The ward here is picking up in its missionary efforts too the calendar we set up has been a hit and everyone is looks at it and helping us get appointments. Most of the appointments are with less actives but they need the help just as much so we don't mind. Any chance we can we are talking to people and inviting. Invitations are key. If we don't invite they won't act. And that's what will help them come closer to god. Acting. That's what our zone meeting on Friday was centered on. Agency. Both on the part of the investigators, members and the missionaries. It really is a united effort. 

We did some service this week. It was great. We put up a guys wall at his house! Got to use all sorts of new tools and really have fun with it. I learned a ton and it just feels good to be able to see the immediate results of my efforts. It was nice weather for the job. No one got sunburned and we all made it out alive. We topped it off with some Pizza! Classic. It's monsoon season here so the possibility of rain each day is high. Which makes me happy because I love riding in the rain! Haha

Well I love you all! Hope you have a fantastic week! Good luck to those starting school. Make this year a good one. I am starting my second year in the mission. It's like I am fresh out. I just want to keep it that way and not get burnt out! We will see. 

Until next week,

Elder Cole Safford 

I took this picture while trying to preoccupy Alex (2) and the little teacup chihuahua named Drama while we were teaching Amber haha. And don't mind the pepper in my teeth. I was saving it for later. 

Glendale Week 50 *July 28, 2014

Hello.

As I was telling you last week we have been working a lot with active
members by teaching them the actual lesson as outlined in preach my
gospel. This does two things : helps elder Thomas and I to become
better teachers and it's brings the spirit so strongly into the homes
of those we teach. The idea was to go into their homes with the
preface that they were going to help us become better teachers. Little
do they know that as they listen to the simple pure doctrine of the
gospel their spirits are lifted and their conversion is deepened. I
have seen it help the multiple families that we have already done it
with. I have also seen it bless my own teaching and gives me a lot to
work on. It is a great step in the right direction for this ward. I
think it will help a ton. We usually have these appointments set up by
the leaders of the different auxiliaries and most importantly by our
ward mission leader. They do this through a google calendar. It has
made our schedule readily available to all that need to see it. And it
also holds us a little more accountable to stay busy and working hard.

This ward and I am pretty sure all of Arizona is great at keeping us
missionaries well fed. There are so many families in this ward that I
just love to go socialize with and eat their delicious food! This past
week we ate with a few of my favorites. I don't know what it is but I
feel like a normal person when we go over their and we get talking and
have just a normal conversation. I don't know what it is about
missionary work but it makes me feel a little abnormal. Maybe it's the
white shirts or the biking around in pants. I don't know.  But it is
nice to just relax and unwind a little. One of our dinners even had a
batting cage in their backyard that we were able to go and play in. We
broke a sweat and I just about broke elder Thomas' head with my fast
ball hahaha.

This past Friday we had an amazing district meeting. It was centered
on our individual purpose for being out on our missions. There was a
few questions that helped narrow down our mindset ad help us focus on
the things that really matter. 1: what got you out on a mission? 2:
why are you still here? 3: what is your end goal? 4: who do you want
to be when you return home? As you can see all of these questions are
centered around each one of us personally. They are kind of selfish.
The whole purpose behind missionary work is to help others. Turning
outward and forgetting about what we want. It is a hard thing to do
and there was only ever one man that was perfect at it and that was
Jesus Christ himself. But we can all do a little better everyday.
Improvement is all that is asked of us.

We have been doing as many little things as we can to enjoy the time
out here. There is a saying "if you are not having fun they you are
doing it wrong." There are so many little things like wrestling,
having nerf wars, playing Munchkin, jumping our bikes, taking funny
pictures, talking to complete strangers, ect. A few days ago we found
this old swing hanging off a pretty old branch that was over a huge
mud pitt. Elder Thomas grabbed the swing and jumped on. He started
swinging and planned to jump across the mud and land safely on the dry
grass about 5 ft in front of him. He attempted to jump but his arm got
caught and he almost face planted into the mud but saved it! He then
regained his composure and tried again. Success. He was so nervous but
it was so funny. We have been doing a bit of service around the town
and it has been fun. We have been stating in shape and still to this
day i have not gained a single pound. Impressive I know.

Today Elder Thomas finally got his Visa! He leaves for Brasil on
August 26th. Which is a normal transfer day. Needless to say I will
have a new companion in 4 weeks time. I am stoked for him and I know
he will do great out there. The other elder that is here waiting
hasn't had any news and I am sure it's been tough on him. I just hope
he gets his soon too!

Well I love you all. Have a good week!

Until next week,
Elder Cole Safford

Glendale Week 49 *July 22, 2014

Hey hey hey!

The time that we spend doing what we love is never wasted. Each moment that I am out here I find more and more reasons to love God and the people that I come into contact with. If there is any advice I could give to my younger self and to all of you it would be to build the best relationship you can with God. He is someone you can rely on, trust in and always talk to. We may not understand why things happen but it is not because He hates us. He wants us to grow and we grow the most when we are pushed and tried. I have come to appreciate trials now more then I ever thought I would. They make my creativity come out and make me a stronger person. Plus it's a ton of fun trying different things and finding what works and what doesn't. 

Elder Lewis' stay with me was brief but he did more for me in that six weeks then I thought I needed him to. He really has a way about him to feel the spirit and to act on the promptings that he received. It's a trait that I want to develop for sure. My new companion is Elder Garrett Thomas from Allen Texas. He is 19 and came out 6 months ago. He was assigned to labor in the Goiânia Brasil mission but they are having some trouble getting visas so he came here to serve until he can go there. I am so grateful that we are companions. He is so excited about the work and so ready to get stuff done. I have been in the area for a little while now so my idea tank was running a bit low. But he has so many new ideas that are going to help out a ton. It is going to be cool to see the area grow and be able to be a part of it all. 

This week we taught our continual investigators of Amber and Rachel. They are both coming along great. We also have been going around teaching the ward members and getting help to become better teachers. That has been a big blessing in itself. I feel so much more confident going in to teach a non member because I know what to do and what not to do. Haha. Since we have the newest in technology as far as missionaries go we are using it to the best of our ability and trying to make it the most effective. We are currently working to get calendars set up on all the members phones/ computers so that they can see our schedule and let us know when we can come over to teach them. It will help out a ton and I know that we will be blessed a ton in the future. 

I have been getting really good at doing long wheelies on my bike in the past 12 months. There has only been two time in my mission where someone has yelled at us and told us to do a wheelie. This week was one of those times. A group of twenty year olds where hanging out at this house and someone yelled at us calling us nerds and asking us to do a wheelie. I did. And it was awesome. They all cheered and said they believed in Jesus and that we weren't the nerds they presumed. It was a proud moment. Elder Thomas was like "boy I sure am glad you can do wheelies. I would have looked like an idiot" haha. Then another night we were riding past a group of Hispanics having a party on their front lawn and they invited us over to have a snow cone and a beer. We took the snow cone. They had obviously been out there for sometime because they were all pretty intoxicated but it was a blast just talking to them. They were nice guys and in the end they just wanted us all to be equal and to be one. 

The other night I was walking in our room and the lights were off and I knew I didn't want to kick my bed so I was really careful. Little did I know elder Thomas decided to leave out his luggage. My pinky town found it. And my head found the floor surprisingly fast. I was writhing in pain and everyone was laughing at me. It hurt so bad. Ugh it was the worst!

 

Now that we have two new people living in brother Fullmers we are back to doing our pranks and having a blast. We all get along great and it makes the days much more exciting and we look forward to when we are all here together. It really helps to have a little escape every once in a while. I think we need that as humans. A destresser if you will. We are trying not to burn down the house or kill one another, so don't worry mom. 

Thank you all for everything that you do. People around you really appreciate it even if they have a hard time saying it. We need to do things for the sheer love we have for others and not so much for a recognition. God will recognize it and bless us abundantly. I love you all! Have an amazing day. 

Until next week,

Elder Cole Safford

My new companion Elder Lewis

Elder Thomas

The "hangover" burger

Glendale Week 47 *July 7, 2014

Hello to all!

I hope that you all enjoyed your 4th of July. We were able to have a
BBQ with brother Fullmer and his children. It's a rule for us here
that on major holidays we have to be in our apartments at 6:00 for
safety reasons so they all came over then and we just hung out. It was
really relaxing and a ton of fun. The other bonus was now we have a
ton of left over food that we get to eat and we don't have to cook
haha. That's always nice for sure.

On Wednesday we had our very first interview and interaction with the
new mission president. His name is president Spencer Griffin from
Billings Montana. He is an older guy and owned a ranch and car
dealership. He is very soft spoken but loves to just talk. It's a big
change from the previous president who hardly ever talked but when he
did it was bold and powerful. But I do like this new president. He is
super genuine and really just wants to help us build even further. He
told me that I remind him and his wife alot of their youngest son. He
says I act the same and look similar and have the same attitude. I
hope that this isn't a bad thing haha. In our interview I knew that
you only have one chance to make a first impression so I just showed
him my best self. I wasn't fake and overly loving but just showed him
the respect that he deserves. I know that there are many good things
to come from him. He has a lot of ideas and is really excited to
implement them. It's going to be a good year.

We have been teaching Rachel twice a week and things have been going
great. We went over the plan of salvation and really focused on the
family. She has some great kids and I know that she really loves them.
Teaching about the importance of family is one of my favorite things
to teach because it really hits home haha. She accepted Heavenly
Fathers plan once before so we and she are praying that she will do it
again in this life. Then we taught her about the importance of prayer,
church attendance and scripture study. I think that she already knows
the importance of these things but it is just continually doing them
that's the hard part. We testified to her that these things, as
repetitious as they seem, are the things that overtime transform us
into the individuals God knows we can be and the people we want to
become. I have seen so many blessings coming from these principles so
I really hope she sees the blessings that come to her as she studies
and grows in the gospel. The other investigator is Amber. She is
learning quick and has accepted the invitation to be baptized. We are
happy for her and I know her husband is too.

There was repeated warnings for a dust storm this week and we never
once listened to them because the last time we got the warning there
wasn't even a slight breeze haha. We got out of a lesson and we saw
the storm clouds rolling in and felt the breeze start to pick up so we
started peddling our little butts off to get home. I felt like I was
in Harry potter running from he huge storm that was soon to befall us.
I was like yelling GO GO GO!! Haha. It was so much fun but at the same
time it was kinda scary. Just as we were passing this empty dirt lot
the wall of wind hit us and so did tons of dirt and debris. We ran and
got behind a wall and that blocked all of the dust from hitting us. We
waited the storm out and then finished riding home. Just as we got
home we heard the rain pounding the roof and went outside to see it.
It was really cool. The storms are always amazing here though. We were
safe and sound in the house so it was all good.

We have been trying to get to know all of the ward. And when I say all
of the ward I mean every single member that lives in this area. Less
active, old, young and everyone in between. We have officially knocked
on every door in the ward roster! Yeah we were pretty excited haha. We
have been making notes on people just so that when we see them we
kinda know who they are and don't have to ask again haha. It's saving
our butts and making us seem much more knowledgable to the ward.

I hope you all have a great day! Go out and make it special

Until next week

Elder Cole Safford

Glendale Week 48 *July 15, 2014

This past week was the last week of the transfer and as I sat there to
think about what has happened the past six weeks I realized I have
grown a lot more then I thought. You never quite see the changes you
are making while they are happening. I guess for me I see them once I
stop moving forward and check my progress. Elder Lewis has been a
great help to me and I know that God put us together for a reason. He
and I are so very different but at the same time we are united in the
purpose of sharing the message of Jesus Christ. It has been a lot of
fun.

We are still teaching Rachel as well as working with Amber. Both of
them are truly making changes in their lives to draw closer to God as
well as their families. We are just trying to answer their questions
and see what they want to do next in their journey. I think that is
why I love this religion so much. As we go around and teach there is
the doctrine we believe in and ways to know it is accurate but there
is no set way in which we have to learn. We have the ability to do
things based on what each person needs and where their level is at. I
have really come to find that being on a mission is so much more than
the numbers. There are individuals behind those numbers. They have
families and lives. We have to help them to learn the doctrine but at
the same time help them to take sufficient steps along the straight
and narrow path so that when hard times come they don't have to fall
so far before getting back up and trying it again. We want to help
these people make the covenants and promises in the temple. Not just
in the baptismal font.

Our ward mission leader gave us a great way to help the active members
in missionary work as well as benefit ourselves. We ask the active
members if we can visit them at their house and teach them a full
lesson while they take notes on what we could of better as teachers.
We have found that this shows our trust in the members and helps us to
become the teachers that can really bless the lives of others. We
tried it out on our ward mission leader Ammon Taylor and it went
great! He played the role of an investigator and really gave us some
good insight on what we could do better. A lot of the things were
things I was already trying to work on but it was nice to get a second
person telling me to work on them. We are going to continue to teach
the members and work on their suggested improvements.

We had a day this week where we didn't have any appointments planned
and really wanted to find new people for us to start teaching. So we
hopped onto our bikes and started riding in hopes of finding people on
the street. We talked with a few people but after multiple hours I was
pretty fed up with the whole thing. I let myself get into a negative mood
that really didn't help the situation at all and now looking back I
could have done a lot more to make the situation better. We did find
one person to go to church with us but,  come Sunday he was no where to
be found so it was a bummer. On another note for the first time in six
months of being in this area I finally saw the inside of our bishops
house! He is a scout for the Seattle Mariners baseball so he travels a
TON. but we stopped by randomly and he was there. It was pretty cool.
This week we also got to do some service and help a lady move out of
her house. There was so much stuff and it was a ton of work but I
really don't mind it much. However since the last rainstorm it has
been nothing but humid so I am not so happy when we have to go outside
haha. Especially to move around tons of furniture.

On Friday morning we had the great blessing of being able to go to the
Mesa temple with brother Fullmer before he has his second knee surgery
done. I have not been in a few months so I was excited to go. There
was only a handful of people in the temple when we went so it was very
small and personal. I went in with the question of what I needed to do
in order to be a better missionary and as I was sitting the song "a
child's prayer" came into my mind. It goes "Pray, he is there;
Speak, he is list’ning. You are his child; His love now surrounds you.
He hears your prayer; He loves the children. Of such is the kingdom,
the kingdom of heav’n." It was a great experience.

Well I hope you all have a marvelous week! This week is transfers and
Elder Lewis is leaving me after just one transfer together! I am
staying in brother Fullmer's house which I am more then happy about
and I get to continue to help this ward grow. We will see what
happens! Love you all!

Until next week,

Elder Cole Safford.