Update

Hello my wonderful family!!!!
How are you all doing? I hope that you are well.
Thank you dad for sending my emails to Grandma Marie. Hi Grandma and
Grandpa Chord!!! I hope that you are doing well and I am so excited
that I get to send my emails to you two as well! Love you both!
Hi Heather! Thank you so much for emailing me! It was so great to be
able to hear how you are doing. I am excited for you to be working in
the nursery. It was my favorite calling when I was in the family ward.
The little children are so wonderful! So you are coming to Arizona?
Where will you be coming to? I forgot where John's kids live again.
Can you remind me? Sorry. :) I'm so glad that Morgan is doing well and
that she is making good choices for herself. Let her know that I miss
her and hope that she will write me sometime. She can email me and I
can email her back since she is family or she can write me and my
parents have the information. Tell Vanessa that I love her too and I
hope that she is doing well and making good choices. She is amazing!
So Chris and Maressa, I was just wondering, have you been able to keep
my Facebook updated so people know how to contact me? Also, I can't
remember who I gave my information to for my blog but a few of my
friends said that it is how they want to stay updated with me. So
whoever I left it to, could you please put my emails up on there? I
would really appreciate it. And update my address for where I am.
Thank you Mandy for writing me early so that I could get a letter from
you. If you ever have time at work, you could write me a real letter
and it only takes a few days to get to me. My companion gets emails
and letters from her family every week. It is crazy but they are
amazing people. I can already tell. I can't wait to be able to meet
them when they come to visit later on. And I would love to have
pictures of our family to show to people and then pictures of my
friends. I talk about Robbie, Kenny, Jacob, and some others but any
pictures that you can get to me would be great. I am planning on
sending you a letter that you can read in church so be prepared to get
that soon and see if you can read it in church for everyone. I miss
our ward but I love my wards here. Everyone is so amazing and they are
so sweet. They have welcomed me in with open arms. And keep working on
those mission papers. I can't wait to hear where you are going! It
will be so awesome to be able to write each other each week and tell
each other about our experiences. I can't wait!!!!
And mom and dad, I am so excited that you got to go to Florida. It
must have been nice there. The weather has been colder this last week
but it is starting to warm up. It was 85 a few times last week so I am
starting to develop a tan on my arms. I already have a tan from my
watch since I wear it everyday. It looks cool. But I am going to wait
to take a picture when it is more prominent. Also, did dad ever get
that other memory card for my camera? I haven't filled up this one yet
but it would be nice to have the other one if I do fill it up and need
another memory card to put in my camera. So who did you run into from
Primerica other than Peggy? Did anyone stop to talk to you? That must
have been a blast from the past.
I have seen my testimony grow so much while I have been out here and I
have seen the impact that I have on my investigators. We have a recent
convert, Luis, who hasn't come to church since he was baptized in
December. He has had so many trials put upon him and I don't think
that he was fully prepared for that part. I think he thought that life
would be easier after he was baptized and so he wasn't prepared for
all of the hardships that came upon him. But we met with him last
night and gave him the analogy of breaking both of his ankles and not
being able to move. He would need people to come and pick him up and
help him to get better. It is the same with developing faith and
becoming stronger in the gospel. He needs to meet with us, he needs to
come to church, read his scriptures, pray as much as he can for help,
and allow us to help him on this journey.  I shared with him my
testimony of the things that I told him to do and I told him that we
are never going to give up on him because he is precious to us and to
his Heavenly Father. I think he finally got it and he wants to meet
with us 2 times this week and he is going to come to church on Sunday.
I was so glad that I pushed him and that my companion shared with him
her testimony as well. He needed to be pushed and to see that it isn't
all about him. He needs this. It was so amazing to see his countenance
change.
We have two baptisms this Saturday. Mat for our Singles ward
and Neil for the family ward. We are so excited to see them be
baptized and to make these commitments to the Lord.
So mom, you can probably look for larges because I have lost a little
bit of weight and my clothes are fitting better. So those would be the
best. And Sister Johnson is very excited to meet you and to talk with
you. She is such an amazing woman and I am so happy that I have met
her. And Sister Swallow is 22 and a half. Her birthday is August 4th.
Could you get me Tanisha, Felicia, and Eileen's addresses so I can
write them? I miss talking with them and want to be able to support
them in what they are doing. That would be great!
Well I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you all
soon! Have an amazing week and be looking for opportunities to serve
and also be looking for the blessings that the Lord has given you in
your life!
Love you!
Sister Chord

Update

Hello Family,

How are you all doing? I hope that you are well. I am doing just
great! I can't believe that I have been out in the mission field for 3
weeks! It is so crazy! I feel like I have been here for so long
because of how many people I have met and the relationships that I
have already built.
I am so glad that you sent Aleta's email to me. It was great to hear
how she is doing. Do you know when she is getting home? I can't
remember. I think I am going to send a letter to her house the week
before she comes home so that she has something from me to open when
she gets home. Anyway, just let me know. And I am glad that you got to
go to Utah and had fun while you were there. Maressa, keep working
hard on the snowboarding. I'm sure that you will get it in no time.
And mom, with a little more practice, I am sure that you will get back
into the groove of things again. :)
I hope that things get worked out for a new realtor and that the house
will sell quickly so that you can move to Utah soon after. And I hope
that you don't get sick mom. I actually got sick this last week on
Tuesday. It came out of nowhere and I felt like my stomach was doing
somersaults. I started feeling achy all over and I just had to lay
down. So we went to meet up with the Elders in the next area and they
gave me a blessing and then we went home. I laid down for the rest of
the night and also the next morning and then I was determined to go
out and work even though I still wasn't quite up to par. I got better
though as I was out and we met a lot of wonderful people that day.
So my companion Sister Swallow actually leaves on April 3rd. She only
has one transfer left and hopefully she will still be training me up
until she leaves. We will see in 3 weeks what will happen. She is so
amazing and we get along so well!
So we have another baptism lined up. His name is Miguel and Sister
Swallow and Sister Pilimai (the sister here before me) had been
teaching him but then they lost contact with him because he wasn't
answering phone calls, text messages, or wasn't home when they would
stop by. But we met with him on Saturday night and we recommitted him
to be baptized. He will be baptized on February 25th and we are so
excited for him! Also, we met with Mat who is our investigator
being baptized on February 11th and he committed to stop smoking and
we fasted with him yesterday to help him to stop smoking. We hope that
it helped. He didn't come to church and didn't answer our calls or
texts yesterday. We just hope that he is doing well. Tara is still
doing well and is progressing toward her baptism date and she is
getting so excited and making plans for it. And we contacted into 3
people on Saturday. Kayla who is 19 and Jivan who is 14 are friends
from Maine who just moved here and were interested in knowing more.
They were thinking about coming to FHE tonight and we hope that they
will call us to set something up. Who knows? Also, we ran into a guy
named Marcus, who actually had talked to some other sister
missionaries a week before and they had given him a pass-along card
for mormon.org. So we set up a return appointment for Wednesday and we
are so excited! We hope that it will go well.
Anyways, I hope that you are all doing well and I can't wait to hear
from you all! Love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Melissa Chord

Spiritual Lessons

Hello my lovely family,

How are all of you doing? I figured since everyone wanted to know so
much that I would write a mass email to everyone so that everyone is
up-to-date.
This week was good. We didn't have any new investigators but we had
some very spiritual lessons with the investigators that we do have and
had a good amount of them come to church.
So first of all, Chris wanted to know about my investigator Tara. She
is doing so amazing!  She came to church yesterday and stayed for 2
hours because she had to go to work right at 4 and needed to go home
and change. She is such a sweetheart and she is so excited to be
baptized. We are taking her to the Phoenix Temple Site on Wednesday so
that she can see the work that is going forward. She has already
talked with her boyfriend about getting married next summer and how
they wanted to be married in the temple and also have a civil ceremony
for her family. I am so excited to show her everything that they are
doing. Also, on Saturday, Sister Swallow and I had the opportunity to
go to the Phoenix Temple Site and help with tours showing the people
how things are going and moving forward. It was so much fun! I can't
wait to see it when it is finished. It is set to be finished Fall of
2013 so I will have to come back to my mission to go through for
endowment sessions. It will be awesome!
Sister Swallow and I have already started a list of things/activities
that we are going to do together when I get home. We have become
instant friends and I am so thankful for her and the example that she
is to me. I love her with all of my heart.
All of our investigators are doing really well. Some names that you
could pray for are:
Luis Toledo- he was baptized in December and has had so many trials
put in his path in this last month. He is really struggling with
wanting to stay in the church. I hope that he can make it through. We
care about him so much and want him to stay faithful.
I can't think of any other but if you pray for those two, it would
definitely help. Thanks!
Maressa, I am so excited for you to be finishing your program and that
it is easier this time around. I will be keeping you and Chris in my
prayers that you both will be able to make it through this semester
with good grades. I hope that it becomes easier as the semester goes
on. And the weather is starting to warm up some but it was actually
pretty cold this morning but it will get better.
Since it is our p-day, we are going on a hike with our zone. It is at
the Deem Hills here in Phoenix. So you can look it up and see what
they look like. It should be a lot of fun to be out in nature. I am so
excited. And I am planning on taking a lot of pictures too. :)
I still can't believe that you all got so much snow. That is so crazy!
I tell people that I am from the Seattle area and they all have
commented that we got a lot of snow this last week. You should send me
some pictures because it is hard to believe.And Mandy, that is so cool
that you bought a hummingbird feeder and a strawberry kit. That will
be a lot of fun to see grow.I hope that you don't have to work in
Stanwood for too long. That would be a long commute from home to
there. And how are your mission papers coming? Have you had more time
to get things done for that since you aren't working in Oak Harbor
anymore? Just let me know. And tell Nephi that he needs to be careful.
People here in Arizona never wear their helmets and it scares me to
think that they could get hurt really bad.
And here is my address for now. Can you make sure to give it to Sis.
Wilson so she can put it up on the board? It is:
Sister Melissa Marie Chord
2950 W Wescott Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85027
Please tell people to write me. I want to hear how they are doing and
I haven't received any mail here yet.Also, could you let Heather know
that I am not sure how DearElder works once you are in the field so if
she has send letters on it, I haven't received any yet. But when I do,
I will definitely write her back. Also if you want to give her my
email address, I can email her every week as well since she is family.
Whatever she wants.
So my schedule is like this almost everyday.
6:30: wake up and go to work out for a half hour
7-8: get ready for the day
8-9: Personal Study
9-10: Companion Study
10-11: 12 week training program. Since I am being trained right now,
for the first 12 weeks I will be with the same companion and be
trained in different aspects of the gospel.
11-12: Lunch
12-9: Going out to lessons, contacting/tracting, meeting members of
the ward, calling referrals, etc. It is all contained during this
time. We have an hour during this time to have dinner. It works out
great.
9-9:30: Planning session and filling out our area books. We talk about
our day and plan for the next day and then fill out the lessons that
we had, make new progress records for new investigators, etc.
10:30 lights out and time to go to bed.
So that is my day in a nut shell. It is pretty fun. :)
And my studies are going well. I feel like I don't have enough time in
the day to study new materials but I make the most of the time that I
do have. Most of our study time is for our investigators and the
things that they need.
My favorite things is feeling the Spirit grow within a lesson and to
see it touch our investigators, recent converts, and less active
members. It is so wonderful to see.
Right now, my least favorite is when someone has to cancel a lesson or
doesn't show up and won't answer our phone calls. We won't be mad at
them. We just want to know when we can reschedule.
And dad, I am so happy that you are home with mom and Mandy. It is so
great that you will also have some time with Mom and be able to have
that time together. I hope that you find a new place soon. And Sister
Swallow says thank you for praying for her and she says hi to
everyone. We are both thankful for your prayers for us. We can
definitely feel them.
Well I miss you all and can't wait to hear from you again. Let
everyone know that I am thinking about them and miss them as well.

Love you!
Sister Chord

Jan 12 - First Area

Hey Mom,
How are you doing? How's your job? I hope that you are happy and
enjoying all the wonderful blessings that the Lord has given you.
Thank you so much for sending my package to me! I got it when we left
the transfer meeting yesterday and went to my new place. I am in my
new area now and am loving it! It is over the Deer Valley ward and the Deer Valley YSA ward. My trainer's (companion) name is Sister Swallow and we have so much in common! She loves music, she sings really well, she plays the piano so well and she and I both teach really well by the Spirit. My first day in my area was yesterday which was Wednesday and at my first lesson with
this young woman named Tara, I committed her to be baptized and she
said yes! It was so amazing! It was the first lesson I had every done
and the first time that I had ever extended the baptism commitment to
someone. We were all crying and the Spirit was so strong! She has a
baptism date on February 11th which is her boyfriend's birthday. He is
a member of the church and had introduced her to the church but it was
her coworkers who actually brought her to church. She is a sweetheart
and I am so excited to help her through this process.
So my p-day here is on Monday unless there are transfers and then it
will be on Tuesday. But I will most likely be here for 12 weeks
because they have started a new program for new missionaries that
lasts for 12 weeks and you stay with the same companion during this
time. It is great! The members around here are so wonderful and are
really interested in missionary work. I have already been to a
coordination meeting for the family ward and had my first district
meeting today and then tonight I will be having the coordination
meeting for the Singles Ward. It will be great!
So my address is:
Sister Melissa Marie Chord
2950 West Wescott
Phoenix, AZ 85027
We live with an older couple in the area. I don't know their first
names but they are the Haws. They are really nice and very sweet. I
haven't talked with them too much but they seem really nice.
Anyway, I hope that you are doing amazingly and I can't wait to hear
from you soon!I'll write you again soon!
Love you!
Sister Chord 

MTC Letters

Jan 9, 2012

Good afternoon mom!

How are you doing? I hope that you are well. I am doing just great. We have
a normal/pday schedule today. Any free time that we have, we can use to get
laundry done, check email and send emails home, pack, and other activities.
I decided that I am just going to send the box of things home to you. Felicia was telling me that the MTC has a deal with them
where you can send things home for only 7 dollars so I am going to try to
do that.
So how are things going with you and Mandy? Are you both enjoying work? Has
anyone come to see the house at all? I've been praying for there to be
people coming to look but maybe I shouldn't do that. Just let me know. I
just want to do what is needed for you all.
Sister Fluckiger and I had an amazing experience in the TRC (it's a place
where we teach progressing investigators, less-actives and referrals). We
were teaching a young woman named Hannah who was referred by her friend
Celeste. She was very open to what we were saying and even though she
didn't have any religious background, she was willing to read the Book of
Mormon and pray about the things that we taught her and pray when she read
the Book of Mormon. It was so amazing! Also during a less-active lesson, I
met some people who know Cynthia Bingham's parents. Their names are Don and
Barbara Dowd. You should ask her if she knows them or not. He was so
excited to hear that I knew her. He took down your name and also mine so
that he could ask about us. I told him that you are really good friends
with Cynthia. Also, they weren't really less actives but they volunteered
to be for our practice. It went so well! They both got really teary-eyed
and the wife said that Sister Fluckiger and I are "darlings". They are both
such amazing people.
Anyways, I will be calling in the morning probably between 7 and 8 my time.
So be listening for the phone. :) And don't forget to call dad so that he
can hear. Also, make sure to be saving my emails so that I have them for
when I get home.

Love you lots!
Sister Chord


Jan 3, 2012

Good afternoon Mom!

Thank you so much for the package! I just picked it up at the mailroom. I haven't opened it yet so hopefully I will get to do that soon. Hangers would be great to send in my package and my comforter. I haven't used any of my bedding because they actually provide all that you need for bedding here in the MTC so I have just kept my bedding in the vacuum sealed bag. Also if you could get me some liquid eyeliner and send my other headbands and flowers that I put into my hair. I found out that I can wear them out on my mission. 

I will definitely give Felicia a hug for you. She hasn't been feeling very well. She is pretty sick. I hope that she gets better soon because I heard that if you are sick, you aren't allowed to travel. And she is supposed to be leaving Monday for Poland. I'm happy to hear that Eileen did well on her talk. She is such a wonderful girl and I can't wait to see her while she is here.

And the reason that I stuck my tonge out at you was because I didn't want to have to keep saying goodbye to you all so I did that instead of crying or anything else. I am happy here and there have been so many wonderful experiences that I have had. It would take too long to write them all and so I will just have to tell you about them later.

I saw Chris today and he let me know that today was his last day and that if he couldn't pick up my package, he would ask Alex Herd to do it for him and bring it home. So it will work out in the end. Also, the Provo temple was closed when we first got here and it just opened up today and so we were able to do an endowment session in the Provo temple. It was so wonderful mom! It was great to be able to remember how it felt the first time when I went through for myself and then also to feel the happiness of the person that I went through for. I love going to the temple and feeling the peace that comes with it. It is wonderful.

Things are going great this week. I have learned a lot in the last week of knowing how to teach with the Spirit and allowing the Holy Ghost to enter the lesson and teach the investigator. I had a crazy experience with my teacher when we were learning how to use prayer to convert our investigators. I was pretending to be an investigator for him and I was just overwhelmed by the Spirit as I was praying as this investigator and it was so powerful that I wept with joy. It was amazing! Now I know how I want my investigators to feel. We still have PE. Our district plays a basketball kind of game together every time we have PE.

There is only one Phoenix Mission that I know of. So I don't know what to tell you. Anyway, I need to email dad before my time runs out.

 

Love you!

Sister Chord

December 27, 2011


Good morning mom!

 

I was so happy to see that I got an email back from you. It made me so happy. You will have to tell everyone hello for me and tell them that I love them very much. Elder Bednar is seriously an awesome Apostle! He really hits on the important things that we need to know and he is really blunt about the things that he says to you. If you are feeling guilty about something he says, then you are probably doing something wrong and it made me realize that I need to be more serious about the work that I am doing and am so excited to be able to teach the gospel to others. And it is true that you will be able to see devotionals when you move down to Utah. It will be so awesome! I am actually really excited for our family to be moving to Utah. It is a beautiful area and I feel like it is so wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I really love Anacortes but I feel like moving to Utah will be a positive experience for our whole family. And I am super excited for my letters from everyone. I can't wait to read them. I'm really glad that Morgan and Vanessa liked their gifts. They deserved them. They are such wonderful girls and have so much love in their hearts for others. And I can totally see Mandy staying up really late playing her game with her new Wii and her Gold Wiimote. She is so silly but I love her so much! I'm glad that she is moving upstairs with you. You two will be able to see each other more and I feel like that will be a good thing. I hope Dad made it safely to Minnesota. That seems like a really long drive! I'm glad that it was good going through Grandma's things and that it wasn't too hard. Did everyone get what they wanted of her things? I hope that the garage sale goes well. I think that will definitely help you all out with the funeral.

 I can't believe that it has already been a week! I have learned so much here! It is so cool!

I am doing good. I have my ups and downs but I stay positive and enjoy the experiences that I have here. The food really isn't that bad. I haven't gained any weight. I actually think that I have lost a little weight which is good. I really like all of my teachers. They are inspired men and women. They are so positive and know exactly what to say to make me understand. All of my roommates are awesome and we get along really well. We are a close knit group. We do everything together. It is really fun!

I am glad that Sunny it doing so well and I can't wait to see pictures of him and everyone! I need to send an email off to dad so I will talk to you later!

 

Love you mom!

 

Sister Chord

December 25, 2011


Hello Family,

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 

How are you doing? How is the family? Are you having the family brunch right now? I'm sure that you are :) And I am sure that the family is laughing and having a great time together. Chris and Maressa, I hope that you are enjoying your Christmas day with Maressa's family as well. I am sitting in one of the computer labs in one of the teaching buildings writing this email to you. I am sure that you were really busy these last couple of days and were not able to write me an email yet and that is ok. I have gotten so many reminders that I am loved. I got a letter from my friend Katelyn Ericson from DearElder.com and it was so nice. It was short but I felt so much love from her in those few sentences. Then I got a package from Erin and Alex Herd that had a little note and some homemade cookies. They were really good! Then I also received my package from Grandma and Grandpa Gilson filled with so many homemade goodies. I tried a few and they were really good! Then I opened all of my presents from you and I am so thankful for them all. I was wondering where my sewing kit had gone. Now I can fix a couple of things that have hem problems and things like that.

 

So I'll let you know what happened in the last few days since I have already written you a letter and I'm not sure it you received it or not but I will tell you about the things that I didn't write about in my letter. So I ran into Elder Jordan Reed, Brother Reed's son who is going to Texas on his mission. I didn't have my camera so he took a picture on his so maybe it will show up when he sends home his memory card and his family will put up pictures. I have been really bad about having my camera with me so that I can take pictures so I am going to work on that now. Anyways so in our class instructions, we have been doing a lot of role plays of pretending to teach to investigators and then assessing with our companions after about how we did and where we can improve. My companion Sister Fluckiger and I work really well together. We both follow the promptings of the Spirit and can understand where the other is going with the lesson. It is so amazing! I have seen myself grow so much in the few days that I have been here. My teachers are so amazing. Their names are Brother Yorgason and Sister Woahn. Ohh and Chris, Sister Woahn said that she ran into you on Thursday. She said that you seem really cool. Then last night we had a Christmas Program that included the nativity and a whole lot of singing. There was so much talent shown by other Elders and Sisters. I could really feel the Spirit so strongly. Then we were given yogurt covered popcorn to eat while we watched an older version of The Christmas Carol. Then we all went to bed. This morning, we got up, got ready, went to our classroom to open presents with the rest of our district, and then went to breakfast. Then we had a Sacrament Service in the huge gymnasium with 2,120 other missionaries. It was a crazy experience to say the least. They were so efficient and got it done really quickly. Then we had a Christmas Devotional with Elder David A. Bednar. He spoke to us about how we need to forget about ourselves and think about how Christ would have been when he was serving the people on this earth and about how we need to have the Character of Christ. It was so emotional and a great experience to feel of the love that Elder Bednar and his wife have for us. Then we had a huge lunch that was so filling. And don't worry mom, I am eating healthy while I am in here. :)

 

So that's about it for me. I will get to write again on Tuesday since that is our P-day while we are here. I hope that you are all having an AMAZING CHRISTMAS DAY and I will talk to you all later!

 

Love you!