Sister Kofford in Tahiti: There Are Always Blessings!

11/2/15
Hello again friends and family!

I hope your week went well and that you all had a very Happy Halloween! For those who are wondering, here in Tahiti, Halloween is celebrated. But instead of cute creative costumes, things are scary and dark. Pumpkins are not carved with cute happy faces but rather with evil and frightening ones. Haha a little bit of a different feel this Halloween, but all is well and still had a good time! The transfer happened and surprise . . . Soeur Stastny and I are staying together another transfer! I will be her last companion. We are both happy and excited to be sharing another 6 weeks of our lives together! I love her and look up to her a lot! Amazing missionary! We had a baptism this week which was awesome! Ranihei reactivated her entire family through her choice to be baptized! We have also been blessed with finding new investigators who have been searching for the gospel for a long time whether they know it or not! I pray that we will be able to help them to make the decisions that will change their lives and bless them forever!

Now as we have entered into the month of November, I have already been thinking about the Thanksgiving holiday and everything that I am thankful for in my beautiful life! Honestly, my blessings are endless. I was born in the gospel knowing its principles and truths since childhood. My family has been the best support system that I could have ever asked for! I have an awesome dad who not only has let me be his daughter over the last 20 years, but his son as well! Getting to do all of the boy things like hunting and fishing and stuff! What a blessing! I have a best friend as a mother. Holly is fantastic in every way and I hope that I will be able to be just like her one day! I trust her with everything and have been craving to have a face to face conversation with her for about 14 months now! I have a perfect example of a brother! I am sure that he knows a lot more than I do about the important things in life and am thankful to have him there to learn and to grow! His light and smile fill up an entire room! I have a supermodel little sister who is probably the nicest person I have ever met! She has a heart of gold and is gorgeous inside and out! I have also been blessed with amazing friends that have shaped my path on this adventure called life! I am thankful for their presence in my life! I have been blessed with being from Highland, Utah, where life truly is beautiful! I have been blessed to have made it to the point in my life where I was guided to serve a mission and truly get to know my Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ! I am so thankful for them and their endless love for me! We have so many blessings in life, it's a little crazy! I think that often we do not even recognize all of the blessings we have been given. And then you start a mission and it's a different story!

When I entered into the mission field fourteen short months ago, I agreed to give God my all: my whole heart, might, mind, and strength! I chose to repay our Heavenly Father back by being exactly obedient to Him, His commandments, and His mission rules. I chose to be worthy and invite the Holy Ghost into my life. I chose to take the name of Christ upon me and to represent Him at all times and in all things and in all places. I chose to respect our mission president and obey his counsel. I chose to leave the world and the old me behind me giving everything to God and having trust in Him. All of these things were choices that I made, but having them as an option was a blessing in the first place! God is strengthening me in ways that I did not know were possible! I can honestly say that I have seen miracles through obedience. I have loved getting to know the Holy Ghost and the happiness that is within when he is invited into our lives. I have loved inviting others to come unto Christ and trying to help them feel His love for them each day! I have changed my view of the world through understanding who I truly am, who I can be, and who God knows I can become! I am amazed at all of these amazing blessings and they are not yet done! In a missionary's mission call, it is said that if we choose each of the blessings listed above, we are blessed with even more blessings! I have been and will continue to be rewarded with a knowledge and testimony of the restoration and the truths of this gospel. I will be rewarded with goodness in the later years of my life, and I will come to know a happiness that is only attainable through the truthfulness of this amazing gospel! God is a God of miracles and blessings and happiness! I love Him, and I know that He loves each and everyone of us! As the month of November presses on, make choices that will bring you closer to Him. Show your love and thankfulness for Him through your obedience. And choose blessings that will bless you even more in the end! I love you all! Thank you for the blessings that you are for me in my life! Have a great week!

Love, Soeur Kofford