First Oregon Letter

July 29, 2013

So this has been a pretty long week since last time I wrote.  I sang in church on Sunday at the MTC as a district we sang I am a child of God, it was still pretty good despite my voice sister Mecham was a wonderful pianist. Then Monday and Tuesday were packing days and final class days. Wednesday I woke up at 3:45 our alarms were suppose to go off at 3 but somehow all three decided not to work so we rushed to finish packing and cleaning within the space of an hour.  We made it though and were out waiting for the bus at 4:15, little did we know that we would be waiting there for another hour, as some missionaries at the main campus were late but we made it to the airport and on to the plane. We arrived in Portland at 9 am and met the mission president, his wife and the two AP's Elder Covey and Elder Buhler. There were a lot of hugs and then we loaded all 25 people into three vans complete with luggage. It was a tight squeeze and then they told us for the first day, we were going to go on an adventure and we were off. After driving for what seemed like forever from my cramped seat at the back of the van we pulled into the parking lot of the Portland temple. It was so pretty and we got there just in time because it was going to close for a couple weeks the next day. While we weren’t able to do a session we walked around and took many pictures. Inside the temple there is an atrium as a waiting area. It was really nice to go in there and just sit and feel the spirit.  After we went to the mission home for lunch and then on another two hour drive to another surprise place, which turned out to be the coast Cape Kiwanda. We had a little devotional type thing on the beach looking out at haystack rock it was an incredible spiritual experience President Samuelian really should be an inspirational speaker. Though I bet we looked pretty funny a whole group of people in suits and church clothes just sitting on the beach. Then we went to dinner at the church in Newberg another long drive with much needed napping time. Once there we were greeted by all the missionaries who were going to train us we ate dinner and then had interviews with the mission president.  I was the last one for the night so mine was really brief. Then I was taken to a members home for the night with another missionary who I didn't know. He accidently broke the bed he was sleeping in. The next morning we met at the church to be assigned our trainers it felt like Christmas with all the suspense, I was in after a big meeting on rules the time finally came for companions to be assigned. He started with the sisters and then the Elders and after about an hour of watching people get assigned my suspense grew until the last trainer was called up an elder Johnson he wasn't there the night before so I had yet to meet him, and then I heard my name called. I went up and they told me that elder Johnson and I were companions and that we were going to serve in the ward farthest away from the mission home, the biggest small town ever called Burns.  Later I found out it was an eight hour drive, after some adventure driving to Bend first with the zls we discovered that we weren’t going to make it to Burns until super late so we spent the night at the zls.  The next morning we were off for Burns and then an hour into our drive the zls called and they had left their keys in our truck. Burns is an all car area we have a nice big red truck, so we had to turn around and go back to bend, then we were on our way again.  I felt like we were never going to make it to Burns. I'm in charge of the phone I never thought I would be texting so much on my mission. Late Friday morning we made it into Burns, Elder Johnson is great he is from Pleasant Grove Ut he has about 3 months left on his mission.  We get along great oh and for those of you who would get this, my first meal outside the mission home area was Panda Express. We arrived and the goal for that day was to meet all the ward members. I shook so many hands, the ward mission leader is a cop and his brother is the bishop and his other brother is the first counselor. We then went to the Harrisons and taught their daughter Morgan about prophets and then we set up her baptism program, it was a really good lesson, jk she was all ready being baptized  on Sunday so Sunday came and after my being iniated in to the ward by saying every opening prayer for every meeting, we had her baptism and confirmation. They even had me stand in the picture despite my teaching her only a part of one lesson, and then I stood in at her confirmation and elder Johnson gave her the HG. after which we raided the former couple missionaries fridge for lunch and then tried to visit families all of which weren't home, needless to say I all ready have quite a few stories. We had dinner at the bishops house as well as desert, he owns DQ in burns so we had DQ Ice cream with homemade apple pie. We then had homemade ice cream at the Harrison’s. I came home sooo sick of Ice cream despite it being so good. To describe Burns I don’t really know if I can Google earth it or something and you'll understand what it’s like in Burns. Since I can't print things I would appreciate letters more than emails, that way I can read things more than once and can have more time to write about everything going on, by the way for those of you wanting to write me and that should be all of you the address you should send things to is the mission home. 

Oregon Salem Mission Office

700N Deborah road STE 260

Newberg OR 97132-2196

ps. the home strongly suggest you send things priority mail usps as they then forward it to my actual address that way I don't have to keep sending a new address and have things go to the wrong place

July 19^th , 2013

Hey everyone,

Well the time has sure flown by I ship out early Wednesday morning. Where to begin so Saturday I was asked by one of the zone leaders to go to the chapel with him to practice for Sunday because his companion didn’t want to go.  I said sure I went not with high expectations of him because he seemed like the very athletic type and not very inclined to anything musical. Boy was I humbled he was a musical genius I was in awe as he played song after beautiful song. Then he starts playing a gorgeous song I have never heard before and I asked him what it was and he was like that idk I just made it up, on the spot,. We stayed there for almost an hour and I was just listening to this 6'6 high zone leader play piano. You really can't judge a book by its cover, did I mention he sang beautifully as well.

The Sunday was weird because I got up and the first thing we had was sacrament meeting and it was in the church but not the main chapel. Then we went to breakfast and then the sisters went to relief society while the elders studied,  my companion was in meetings, then I had a meeting and was informed that this Sunday my companion and I were going to teach a district lesson. Then we had a Sunday devotional and it was great there was an elder the speaker talked to who liked a girl who was a member and somehow her family ended up like actually adopting him and converting him. We were all cracking up luckily we were watching it on a broadcast so none of them could hear us. Then I watched a fantastic talk by Elder Bednar on the character of Christ I invite you all to watch, not read, it.

Monday was a normal day I got up went to zone teaching, and then to class and then to gym.  Oh by the way my gym is a parking lot in Wyview and I have it at noon it is so hot, but it’s great to move around and not sit all day.  We started trc I don't even know what it means but we taught a guy named Gabriel and he is incredible.  We hardly are teaching him anything he believes everything we teach without a doubt.  Though at first he really struggled with god and Jesus coming down to Joseph Smith but then after we explained and talked about it alittle more he was like just like Joseph, God has answered my prayers and he tells this story of God answering his prayers as a child and he's crying and I'm so happy. Then we had to go so we leave him with an invitation to pray about the BOM and he says ok and we leave.

 Tuesday was a normal day up until that night we had the Tuesday devotional and had to walk all the way up there from Wyview. We got there kind tired and sat down and low and behold I look up kiddie corner from me and there is none other but Elder Brockwell I eventually got his attention and he waved and said hi. The Tuesday devotional was by President Hinckely's son and him and his wife gave a great talk about following inspiration. Then with my legs asleep and my rear hurting I was informed that we had to stay because they were going to take a picture of the group and that it was the third time they have ever taken a picture of the missionaries at the MTC.   Then after being super hot all day we got to walk home in the pouring rain. We get back and I'm soaked.

Wednesday I got to be a host for the new missionaries, talk about dejavu, and a luggage lackey and every missionary I had was up on the top floors, so I got my work out for the day while there one of the sister missionaries was guiding the new missionaries, and I'm like I know her I know her and then I see the tag and it says Edgington and it was Marci Edgington for those of you who don't know she is a dance teacher at byu who I have worked with before.

Thursday  I was in field orientation at 8 in the main campus so in order to get to the main campus we have to take a bus there and there was so many people that the doors could barely close and while waiting I ran into Elder Money again, an old friend from dance. Once there we wander around totally lost ended up there eventually and basically what the meeting was about was a bunch of workshops dealing with actual missionary work and then we broke for lunch, it’s here I need to interject that the cafeteria on west campus is a good 5 minute walk from my dorm and its an old pool house turned cafeteria we get one option and can only go through one time and we either get a can of soda or milk and either an apple or orange. I walk into the main cafeteria and it was like heaven it was all you could eat totally fresh fruit I ate so many strawberries and the food was so much better I actually knew what the meat was and we ate so much there I had soo much food it was incredible. then we went back to sessions and we then during our break I checked out the bookstore it was cool and walking back I walk into elder pope and get a picture with him he went in way before me yet we are leaving the same day. then at dinner I run into Elder Sullivan and talked to him for a little while both of them are on main campus not west campus after we watched a dorky play and went back to the west campus and did our trc with Gabriel it was our third lesson with him and we were going to teach the atonement we go in to teach and he already knows about the atonement and after a little clarification how to repent and then totally lost we invited him to baptism and it was scary at first he asks if his catholic priest had the authority to baptize him as a child and we try to so it really nice and finally he says did he or didn't he and we say no expecting him to be offended and instead he goes ok and bears this beautiful testimony about how after we taught him about Joseph Smith that it went straight to his heart and he know it was true and that when he closed his eyes he saw himself there and he's crying and I'm crying and then we ask him again and he goes if it’s what I need to do I’ll do it but i dont want to do it out of respect for you or for my family and he then talks about how much he loves seeing us and the message we share and the good feeling from God he gets and then says I will get baptized I just need to know for myself and so we challenged him to pray about it and he was like ok i will ,and then he said the closing prayer for us.  He is so close I hope he prayed about it and will accept today, as we left he gave us giant hugs and I felt so much love for him it was amazing, we walked out and started cheering. I went to bed that night feeling so good and the spirit so much. I woke up today and went back to west campus breakfasts though I actually like my blueberry bagel with peanut butter and honey.  Sunday we sing in church and so we practiced and now I'm here.  I know God loves all his children so much and wants us all to succeed and will help us if times ever feel too overwhelming I suggest dc 50:40 it touch me good luck and next time I write I'll be in Oregon Salem

 good luck and good bye

Elder Telford's first letter

wow I dont even know where to start so much has happened lets start with wednesday I was picked up finally by a host and he led me through a chapel and they gave me my name tag there and a packet with my room and other information. then I was rushed over with my luggage to my dorm in building 18 right off of freedom I even got the basement room as I walked in to my room I see these guy with bright red hair and glasses and the host introduced him as elder drake my new companion. we were then taken to the chapel for a new missionary introduction I swear we sung like ten songs then the mtc president and other leaders that I can't even remember now I was so worried but as I sat with my district and my new comp. I learned that we were all going to Salem. I guess this is the point where I introduce everyone in my district first there is my companion elder drake great guy I love working with him though at the time he seemed pretty overwhelmed and I was unsure what to think of him. then the first sister I met there was super friendly sister bent shes great and has a lot of excitement for the work and to be there it was definately contagious and I felt better especially after seeing elder drakes unsureness then I met her companion sister twichell she seemed a lot older that sister bent though their the same age she just graduated with a degree in sewing from byu i then there was elder young he's actually just from orem went to mountain view hes quite and tends to get down on himself a little bit because of his being short and a little bit large but a great missionary we get a long great. Then there is sister edwards who is a convert of almost two years and sister mecham who seems nice and is from a small town here in Utah though I had never heard of it oh by the way elder drake is from Ogden so pretty close. then there is elder Mcmullin great guy from arizona he has a third of normal hearing and has to wear hearing aids but he is fantasic a natural leader and very willing to help after that first orientatation I went to class for the first time I actually had to cross freedom to get the classroom and subsequently the cafeteria as they are over in the raintree complex. My class room is actually the living room of one of the dorms just turned in to a classroom with desks and a flat screen tv my teachers are bro belliston and sister lamplugh their really nice though moy favorite is bro belliston he is so kind and absolutely hilarious. we then went to dinner in the cafeteria (old pool house) and instead of the main MTC we have a set meal every one eats the same thing, I actually had a cesear salad as the main course of my lunch today my p days are fridays but since I leave on the 24 I will onlly have one more p day so that when everyone will be able to hear back from me through emails and that is the only time I can read them if you need to get in touch with me sooner the mail is faster we get it twice a day. So back to the first day after dinner I met our zone leaders Elder Garrett (6,6 the man puts josue to same) and elder bair pretty tall also they seem nice not my favorite but still nice. then we went to a teaching experience at a chapel The bus I ride now is called the ryde it took three buses to get us all there once there we were divided into three groups and ushered into a room with a bunch of chairs for us and at the front of the room was a living room set up and then bro christensen came in and if youve seen the district you might know him better as elder christiansen and he told us that we were going to have real people come in and we were going to tteach them as a group andn to focus solely on the investigator and so we did and if we wanted to teach something to them we would raise our hands and talk to them we went to three different rooms and three different investigators I spoke sometimes and I want you all to know that the lord puts scriptures and thoughts into your mind as you go not to try and solve it yourself after that which was amazing we got a tour and then went to bed the three other elders in my district were my roomates and our district has been getting along great we shower in shifts, I''m in the night shift and so after showering and getting ready for bed I had like no time left to write in my journal so I had to go straight to bed. funny story so it was blazing hot the first day so we were all hot and sweaty so uuupon arriving back to the dorm we turned the temp down so it was feeling good until a half an hour after laying in bed sleep was hard despite being tired and by the way for those of you planning to go on a mission you pray so much more so this was like midnight now and I could still hear the air conditioning and also I'm on the top bunk but it was getting cold so I covered my self with my blanket and slept waking up every couple hours convulsing because it was so cold in the morning I wake up with my hands numb and I ask my companion is it ok if I turn the heat up alittle trying to be careful not to offend anyone and he says sure go ahead. I walk out to the thermostat and remember; this is at 6 30 in the morning so Im groggy I look at it and the tab was a low as it can go on 55 degrees and I just look at it and I verbally was like what and then so confused I turned the heat up alittle and got dressed with my suit coat on as fast as possible and left to zone teaching by brother elton at first he struck me as rough and mean hes very oppionated and very vocal but as he taught that the only person that could teach us to do missionary work was God I knew he was speaking through the spirit and I felt a liking not quite a love yet but I felt better about him oh one other cool experience at the end of zone teaching I felt strongly impressed that I was suppose to pray that what I was to pray for was special and right as I'm getting ready to voulenteer he calls on someone else feeling alittle down like oh I guess it wasn't the spirit I went to my next class which was a workshop taught by bro beeston and right as we are starting he goes ok it looks like elder Telford has a special pray for us would you mind giving it and it touch me that it was God and that my impression was right and that this man who I had never talked to before knew what I had and it wasn't even that the pray was that special but it was special to me after that we had study time and towards the end of the first hour I noticed my comp having a hard time focusing and I felt inspired to do a comp study with him and we did it was great we are so different from each other but we fit together so well when it comes to Gods work then we had teaching by bro belliston and he informed us that we were going to role play and teach him pretended to be an investigator named ghee he showed us a video about ghee and then we went straight to comp study to prepare a lesson after praying and pondering his needs we came up with what he needed to be taught found our starting scripture and went with it and broke for individual study and I was feeling pretty burned out I was tired and kinda homesick but after trying my best to find scriptures and topics we met back together to prepare and we had gone in totally different directions but somehow they fit what I could find he found and what he couldn't find I found and that's when we got into it and the excitement and the inspiration just started growing and we totally forgot that this wasn't a real person after that we went to dinner and every dinner has mashed potatoes so I'm getting pretty sick of them but Ive been good eating really healthy I have yet to eat one of the deserets but after we went to met our branch president and found out that get this half my branch is going to the Atlanta Georgia north mission and that's the same mission my president served in he did interviews and assigned callings elder drake was assigned district leader and I was assigned his senior comp so we are still confused on whose in charge of who but we feed so well off of each other that no one person dominates we alternate our talking really well this night I had more time slighly though Ive learned if your going to be a missionary learn to write fast and a lot today we had zone teaching again the morning started rough but picked up after lunch and p day started we did laundry accidentally broke rules by playing basketball waiting for the wash you only play basketball during gym time but Im doing great as long as I take it one day at a time best of wishes and I bear my testimony that God loves everyone of us and that we don't have to be perfect but only have a desire to be better we are striving for eternal life which I learned today is eternal progression and Debra my favorite scripture is 2nephi 4:30-end if you ever want to start progression after messing up say that prayer to our father in heaven with full intent and you will be bless its powerful

 Sincerely, Elder Telford

Elder Telford leaving for the MTC.  He was scared and nervous but excited.

Well friends this is it I'm dying... jk I'm just leaving for two years to serve the Lord. As this is most likely the last time I will be on here for a while I would like to leave you all with my testimony. I know that our Heavenly Father lives and loves us because we are His children. Through the course of my life I've come to know Him and how to get to know Him even more while on my mission and for the rest of my life and what I have learned is he is not a distant vengeful God but a Loving Father who cares for us just as an earthly father would. I know that eternal life and salvation can only come through wonderful commandments which he has given us out of love it never was and never will be his desire to punish us rather to facilitate growth in our lives and now and through out the eternities. He is always there for us to communicate with through personal prayers and priesthood blessings. 
Now if any of you wish to write me *cough cough* (you yes you thought I was talking about someone else no its you) 
Here is my info:
Email: benjamin.telford@myldsmail.net 
Mailing address:
Elder Benjamin David Telford
JUL22 OR-SAL
2023 N 900 E Unit 839
Provo UT 84602