Keep the Hope!

4/27/15

Hello friends and family!

Things are still going well here at Papeari. Every day seems to present itself with a new challenge but I like trying to figure out the best way to get to the soution. We lost two of our most progressing investigators yesterday; it was probably one of the hardest things I have had to live through. It is so hard to see someone you love take the wrong path when they were so close to finding themselves in Christ. Of course when we received the news I automatically thought about all of the things that I could have done better that maybe could have helped the situation. I am sure there are lots of things but I finally accepted that we have to leave the people with their agency and trust that God will provide a way. I have loved having the opportunity to hope this last week. To improve my faith in God and to accept His will. I am still trying to be the missionary that God wants me to be so that He can continue to show us miracles that will strengthen our testimonies. Like we learn in Ether 12:6, the testimony comes only after the trial of our faith. But we have to show our Heavenly Father that we have this faith. We need to be obedient, diligent, hopeful, and try to be perfected in Christ each day. I read a scripture this week in the bible that I loved! It was in Col. 3:14. It tells us how to receive perfection. It says that CHARITY IS THE BOND OF PERFECTION. So as I continue to live my mission through the good days and the hard days I will try to always have charity so I can be perfected as a missionary which will be how I can show my faith and hope to our Heavenly Father and when this is done, we are worthy of the miracles and blessings that He wants to give us and it will be easier for us to accept His will. I know this Church is true. I am thankful for our trials because they give us the opportunity to rely on the love of God, be saved by our Savior, Jesus Christ, and stay worthy to receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost each day. Keep your heads up! God loves you! He is always there for you! Thanks again for all of your love, support, and encouragement! I love you all! Keep Sœur Faana and I in your prayers!

Love, Sœur Heather Kofford

Serving in paradise!

Is God Proud of us?

4/20/15

Bonjour friends and family! My second week went well here at Papeari. We found four new investigators which was such a blessing! They are Sam, Rebecca, Monisa, and Manarii. So if you want you can pray for them and that would be great. I still love my mission and love serving and helping others find themselves through coming to Christ but things are a little bit hard. My companion is great and I am so blessed to be with her but we are different and have found that we have different opinions and different ways of working. But I still know that I am with her for a reason and I will keep loving her and serving her until I find the reason. Even if it is just to relearn patience, humility, and charity those are good enough reasons for me. I know that it will not be easy but it is possible. With this big change in my mission I have had moments where I felt a little bit lost and did not quite know what to do. I wanted to stay busy and diligent but she has her ideas as well. I truly was a little bit broken because I wanted to remain a worthy missionary in the eyes of God. When all of these thoughts were rushing through my head, I ran across a scripture that helped me through the week. It was 3 Nephi 11:7. It is God who talks about His son. Ha I read it in French but in English it says something along the lines of, "This is my beloved son in which I am well pleased, hear Him." I thought a lot about this scripture and realised that God was always proud of His son. He loved His son with all of His heart and was always pleased with Him. Then I thought to myself that I want God to be proud of me like He is His son. And for God to be proud of us, all we have to do is follow the example of His son, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for this example that we have and this role model that we have to follow in our lives. As I thought about Jesus Christ, I know that His life was not easy. He was persecuted, tempted, tortured, and killed. But through it all, He did exactly the will of the Father. He was exactly obedient, He was patient, He was humble, and He was charitable and loved everyone. I know that things are not always supposed to be easy. It was not easy for Him and it should not be easy for us. But it is possible. These hard times really let us find who we can become. The potential that only God knows. We all have trials and are all a little bit broken. But God loves broken things. I did a study on that this week and read all the scriptures that had the word "broken" in it. It was amazing. In life, we have to break the wheat to make bread, we have to break a horse to be able to ride it safely, we have to be broken to let God give us the opportunity to mold us into our perfect selves. I am thankful for this opportunity to improve, to change, and to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ each day. I know that if I will continue to strive to be like Him each day, God will fix us and He will be proud of us like He was for His son. So when times get tough . . . remember that GOD LOVES BROKEN THINGS! And that He loves you and is so PROUD of each and every one of you! I love you and am so thankful for all that you do for me! Thank you for your love and support and for your prayers! I am so grateful! I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Soeur Kofford

Loving my mission!

PAPEARI! Moi et Soeur Faana!

Thinking of home! This picture is for dad!

Serving with Sister Faana!

Papeari!

4/13/15

Friends and family, 

I have successfully been transferred. I can honestly tell you all that it was one of the hardest things I have done until this point in my life. I love Huahine. I love the members. I love our investigators, and I loved my companions. I was so incredibly blessed to have served there on that beautiful island. The day I left it was hard to do our lessons because we had people calling and saying goodbye all day, people wanting to meet up with us to give me a little gift or note, and people just offering to help in anyway possible knowing we did not have a car. These people are amazing. When it got time to go to the airport, everyone had already beat us there. The entire ward of Fare, Huahine was waiting for us. I could not believe my eyes! I had a hard time telling everyone goodbye and boarding the plane. As I was climbing the stairs to the plane, I looked out one more time at the beautiful night sky of Huahine and found in the light of the airport that my ward had all waited to make sure I got on the plane. People are so amazing. It truly is like I knew these people before and I just needed to take some time to get to know them again. We truly did become family. I trust these people and truly do love them with all of my heart. I was so sad to be leaving but did not want to cry on the plane haha so I immediately started talking to the scary tattoo man who was next to me. Soon enough, I had his name, his number, a date, and time set up for the missionaries of Mahina. You never know who God has been preparing and I never want to lose an opportunity to teach someone who has been prepared to hear the gospel from me. When I arrived here at Papeari things were not as I expected. I soon found out that we have zero progressing investigators. My companion has been here for three transfers and is a little bit tired of this area . . . things are just not as good as they could be. These things a long with lots more made the last four days pretty difficult. I felt like up until this point in my mission that I was always progressing, changing, becoming a better person . . . the person that God wants me to be. And then when I arrived here it was a sudden stop. We did not have lessons, the spirit was not as strong, and our companionship was interesting. I was sad and distressed and did not know what to do. But then a thought came to my mind. In life, we have to fall at times to be able to ask God to help us and lift us back up higher than we originally were. Again, it is in our extremity that God finds His opportunity to make us stronger and better than ever before. I have prayed so much over the past four days and am thankful for God's love for me. I am thankful that we have a God who loves us. A Savior who saves us each and every day that we live, and the spirit who can comfort and guide us. I am happy that I have the opportunity to better apply these three important things in my life. I know the key to success on a mission is just to love. I will try to love this ward and my companion with the same love that I gave on the island of Huahine. I know that God wants us to love and be loved. I am so thankful for Him and His love for me and for your love for me and for the opportunity I have to love! Never miss a chance to love! People are in need of your love! I know that there are lots of reasons why I am here in this new area of Papeari! Haha and I will just keep loving until I find them! Thank you for everything! Your love, support, prayers, everything! I love love love you all and am so blessed to have you in my life! Keep Soeur Faana and I in your prayers! Have a great week! 

Love, Soeur Heather Kofford

Transferred from Huahine to Papeari!

Last day with Soeur Martin!

Sister missionaries!

Vanina family!

Wong family!

Lemaire family!

Happy Easter!

4/6/15

Iaorana friends and family! 

Wow I do not even know what to say or where to start! It was another amazing week and I still love my mission! I started out my week by reading a scripture in the bible that talked about how if we have God on our side, then who is really against us. So this week I tried to involve our Heavenly Father in our missionary work as much as possible. I truly do love seeing the hands of God in our lives and in the lives of others. I love seeing His blessings and His miracles that He willingly grants to everyone if we will do our part. One of my absolutely favorite things as a missionary is seeing the lives of others change for the better. Watching them improve their faith, receiving the desire to repent and use the atonement, and ultimately make the decision to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be totally purified for their sins. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so amazing! And I thank Heavenly Father each day for the blessing I have of being able to have this knowledge and truth and having the opportunity to share it. Something we all need to remember as well is that these steps are possible only through our Savior, Jeus Christ. Since it was Easter this week I hope you all thought a lot about Him and remember what He did for each and every one of us! He chose to come to earth and to suffer the pains of all of our sins. His life was not easy, He was persecuted and mocked. And after all of that, in the garden of Gethsemene, He took upon Him the sins of the world. He also gave His life on the cross and gave us the best example of forgiveness when He asked the father to forgive the world for they knew not what they did. And three days after He was resurrected. And it is through this that we can all be ressurected as well. He gave everyone the gift of immortality. I loved how in general conference lots of talks were on Adam and Eve and the Atonement. I truly do know that the fall of Adam and Eve was forseen by God. It was part of His plan. Before the plan when Adam and Eve were in the garden it was good because they were in the presence of God and were immortal. But at the same time they could not have children and could not know joy because they could not know good from evil. After the fall it was good because they could fulfill the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth and also they knew joy because their eyes were opened to the things of good and evil, but they could sin and also they would eventually die. But it is through our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement that all is made right.  Even the bad affects of the fall were made good through Him. I know that if we will turn to Him and ask to be forgiven we can be made clean from our sins and I know as well that we can live again! Wow! This is so great! I know that God loves us because He gave us His son! I know that if we will continue to use the atonement of Christ in our lives and follow His example that we can return to live with God and like God always in happiness! The church is true! I hope you all listened to general conference and received new information and personal revalation! I definitely did! I know that the words of the prophet and apostles are the words of God and now it is up to us to apply the things we learned! So as  you go about your lives this week, think of our Savior and His love and sacrifice for each one of us and apply at least one of the things that you learned in general conference into your lives! I love you all! Thanks again for everything! 

Love, Soeur Kofford

Ariihau and Herehau!

Holding a toy gun was too good haha ! Dad I miss our adventures together and look so forward to our future memories out on the mountain!

This is today! Last supper with Andy and his family! We ate fish for breakfast . . . haha but it was good! And Holly! I officially really love raw fish! Crazy but true! Life of a Tahitian!