AN AMAZING DAY!

Wow. I feel like it has been forever since I wrote you last... so much as happened this week! And it was a great week, of course! But it was especially great because we were able to witness a Child of God go into the waters of Baptism!!! :) So here is my week!

Monday: After emails and such, we went to grab some groceries! Ever heard of the store Fairway? One just opened up out here and it is HUGE and so nice and it is super fun to go to! :) ha we also went to the dollar store and bought 7 random treats for the girl getting baptized! We went home and decided to do a countdown for her... each day we would count down for her baptism and we dropped off a present every day!! :) So that was fun! We were able to also have a wonderful family home evening at the church Monday night so that was really fun to spend with a couple people from the ward! Love them! I really hope that can turn into a missionary opportunity soon!!!

Tuesday: We were able to have District Meeting! We went down to Emerson, NJ for this one and it was really great! Those always uplift me! Then it was my turn to go on exchange with the Sister Training Leaders in Caldwell, NJ! So I went with Sister Biolena (also from the Philippines) and ALL the appts cancelled on us that night... :/ so that was hard! But one member did call us and tell us to come over for a treat so we went and I figured I couldn't have it... and I said no thank you and she said do you have an allergy?? And I said yes, Gluten Free! And she said ME TOO!!!!! The treat is Gluten Free! :) So it was some type of peach crumble and it was soooooo tasty! :) Cute little Tender Mercy from the Lord! Talk about good timing! But it is always fun to go on exchanges with different Sisters! She is a sweet heart and really helped me understand the Philippines a little more! So that helped me! We talked a lot! :)

Wednesday: AN AMAZING DAY! We woke up and studied then drove on back to New City to change comps! Took some pictures and then I was back with Sister Gaihe! We had a busy day planned at all turned out the way we wanted! LOVE when that happens! :) We were able to see a LA member! Great lesson with him! Then we were able to see an investigator we found! We had such a cool lesson with her... she was trying to pray to see if she could have a witness that the Book of Mormon is true and she wasn't feeling anything. So we taught her again how to recognize the Spirit (soo important!) and then we asked her to pray with us there and pay attention to how she feels! It's amazing how much faith you have to have when you ask someone to do that and promise them that if they do pray RIGHT NOW that they will get an answer! And so she did and the whole time my comp and I were praying too that she would and bam! She paused for a second then looked up and said "I felt it! I could feel such a warm feeling... I know it's true!" AHHHH! Heavenly Father is so amazing! Being able to be a part of someone receiving a witness is the most amazing thing ever! :) So yes! We asked her to be baptized and she said yes!!!! :) So she is the next one! :) Then we were able to meet with a recent convert, and hopefully soon his family will be investigators! We are working with them! We also had dinner with a member that night and then we were able to go see our baptismal candidate! We went over her baptism and planned everything and made sure she was still good! We also went over the interview questions and listening to her responses was so amazing! It is so amazing to realize how much the Spirit teaches people... because yes me and Sister Gaihe taught her... but it was the Spirit who really witnessed things to her! I somewhat wondered how much she was taking in when we taught but when we asked her the questions her answers proved to me that the Spirit really touched her a lot! :) It was amazing! She was really ready and prepared! Then we went home! :)

Thursday: We were able to have our weekly planning!!! Then we went and we were able to clean the church! We are on the schedule so it was a great opportunity to do that so that was great! :) Then after that, we had Young Womens! It was really fun! 3 New people came!!! (which we thought they would be given to the Elders to teach in Spanish but they met with them last night and said no... they are yours! Teach them in English! SWEET! We will tell you how that goes!) Our baptismal candidate also had her Interview with the District Leader and all went well! She passed! :) After the District Leader came out and said, Good Job Sisters! She is ready! :) AHH! Hearing those words are the best! :) She was happy too! After that though, we went home! :)

Friday! Oh what a great day! We were able to have Zone Conference in Patterson, NJ! Zone Conferences are soo much fun and SOO spiritual! I love them! It's great to see other missionaries and play games with them! We played this game called Zoom Zoom Eeerrkkk... Yes. I totally beat alllll the Sisters and Elders! :) But I have to say. I have the BEST MISSION PRESIDENT AND WIFE EVER!! :) They are so spiritual and try so hard! Sister Jeppson talked to us about how we are all getting fat and we need to eat better... ;) haha nooo but she talked to us about eating right! She is such a good little mom to all 200 missionaries! President talked about a lot of things... that man is the most spiritual man I have ever met... I told him today that I am pretty sure he could read the phone book and I would learn something and feel the spirit! He is amazing! :) But he told us that we will be getting Ipads in March or April!!! No more planners, area books, nothing! All our teaching and planning will be on there! WOW right?? That will be super different and I will have a good 6 months using them! He also talked about how the numbers for missionaries just keep increasing! We are supposed to have a certain amount of missionaries but they keep trying to send him more! So he keeps taking them! :) haha He also said that our mission has the least amount of Members in the States however, it is the 4th highest baptizing mission in the states! :) SWEET HUH? :) But he also talked a lot about Hastening the Work and having a good relationship with your Bishop-just what I needed to hear! :) After that we went home and all our appts cancelled. yay. But we were able to stop by our baptismal candidate’s house to give her a present and talked to her dad for a while! It was a really good conversation and he was super happy about the change he has seen in his daughter! :)

Saturday: We were only able to have one lesson, but it was a great day! A member had us over for Lunch and ordered Chinese! YUM!! We had a lesson with another investigator and that went okay... he is a funny guy but he wants to change! Then we came home and got things ready for the Baptism! Here they always have food after so we helped Sister Kay make Tuna Sandwiches and we made cookies and everything! Then that night we were able to go to a Trunk or Treat put on by the ward! That was really good! An investigator and her brother came! And lots of Less Actives! That was fun! :) Funny Story: It started at 5:30... well 6:00 rolls around and the Elders aren't there yet but their investigators are.. So I just had a feeling something was wrong... so we called them and they answer and say "We lost our car..." uhhh????? Really?? So yes they parked their car and went into an appt and then came back out and it was gone! haha sooo since all the members were at the trunk or treat, we had to go help them! Well we get there and after about 15 mins I asked if they had called the cops?!? And they said no... uhh?? YES! CALL THE COPS!! haha so they did and the cop knew right what car it was and told them that it got towed! They parked in front of a driveway.... yes... enough said! We went back to the trunk or treat and had a great night! :)

SUNDAY!! Well Sunday was the big day! :) We had worked so hard at planning everything out for the baptism and she was really excited! We were able to have a great sacrament meeting and a wonderful gospel principles lesson then we got everything ready and had her baptism after the 3 hour! We got her all dressed and it's amazing how beautiful she looks in white! :) Then we had the program and she asked me to talk on baptism! I had a boiled egg and drew all over it and said that was sin! Then I cracked it and said that she had to humbled herself and repent and then baptism would wipe away that dirty hard shell! :) It was great! Then off she went! She was really excited! Bishop baptized her and she wasn't fully immersed so she had to be dunked 3 times!!!!! haah it was still good though and after everything she said she felt so amazing! :) Then we went back and Sister Gaihe talked about the Holy Ghost and then a couple of her friends bore their testimonies then we were off to have a little lunch! It was really great and she was super happy! :) Next week in sacrament she will receive the Holy Ghost and she will be on her way to the temple! :) She had a lot of support from the ward and her mom and one of her sisters came too so that was really good! It was a really great day though! After all that we had an appt with another investigator and that went well, then we also had another appt with a sister in the ward and it was really spiritual! :) But that was our wonderful day!

Phew!

That was our week though! :) Very well packed with miracles and the spirit! I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing work!!!! Thanks for all you do and I love you all very much! :)

Sister Dahl

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 Me and Sister Biolena on exchanges

 A Wonderful Day!!!

Me and a horse that wanted a kiss!

1 year left...that isn't real...

WOW! Good morning! What a great day to be a missionary! haha Okay every day is.. but for some reason, I am just really happy this morning! Just to know that I know that the church is true... then I am able to share that with the people here is the most amazing thing ever! I don't think anyone really can explain what it’s like... I think it can only be experienced! Anyways, we had a great week! A really great week! The Lord blessed us emensly! (lets get real... I don't know how to even spell that word...)

Monday: So after our amazing shopping day... haha and everything we had planned a Family Home Evening for the Single Sisters of the ward! So we were able to do that! Hardly anyone showed up... but it was good! We plan on doing it every Monday and hopefully it will be an environment that people can bring their friends to and it will get bigger over time! Lots of missionaries have done this and have seen lots of success! So that was great! :)

Tuesday: This day was pretty slow... but I think I had one of the best miracles on my mission yet!! :) So we had allll of our appts cancel on us that morning... so we were like "GREAT! What do we do??" So right as we were thinking of that we get a Referral from the Church of a person that lives in Tappan, NY. Now we were planning on going the other direction of that but we decided... okay no lets go over there since everything isn't working. So we get in the car and start driving and we realize that the address that the referral had for us was wrong! All it said was the city... and there wasn't a number! :( So we just decided okay... maybe the Lord wants us in Tappan for some reason. So we just headed over there, with no plan really... But I told Sister Gaihe that we weren't leaving till we find what the Lord wants us to find! :) ha so we just parked the car in the middle of the town and started knocking! We knocked and knocked and nothing. Nothing at all! People did not want to listen or weren't home. So after we made it around the block and back to our car we decided to go look at some Formers and Less Actives and none of them were home either! :( So it was getting time that we had to head back to our house... and I was looking over our lists and I realized that there is a Part Member Family that lives in the next town over and I have been wanting to see them since I got here and we were just never over in that area! So I said... okay lets go there! The mom is Less Active but her daughter isn't a member... Sister Gaihe had been there before to see her mom and nothing good came out of it.... but for some reason I had a good feeling about the daughter. I knew I wanted to see her! So we just decided to go there! And sure enough her daughter was home! She is 15 years old and awesome! She said the missionaries taught her before... and her mom wants her to be baptized and stuff... but she just isn't! How cool is that? So we set up a time for later in the week to come back and see her! :) It was so amazing!!!!!! The Lord does place us where He wants us. Then He wants us to prove that we are willing to work. Prove our faith. Prove that we want this!! THEN and only THEN will HE bring forth the blessings! :) Great Faith builder on my part! :)

Wednesday: We had a wonderful day on Wednesday! It was packed with appointments! We had district meeting in the morning. Then we were able to meet with a Less Active! That was great! Then we met with an investigator! He is a funny little duck... I don't remember if I told you but he has a problem with smoking and I told him that I would buy him a big mac from McDonalds if he stopped smoking and drinking coffee... haha welll... probably not the best motivator... but he is doing it!!! :) He is stopping! And he told us on Wednesday that he has been thinking about Baptism and he decided he really wants to be baptized and change his life! :) So we will see where that takes us! :) We also met with another Less Active member! And had dinner at a member’s house! Then we had a lesson with our baptismal candidate!! She is the best and we had almost taught her everything and she was just kind of waiting to see if she got an answer to know if it is true!!! and on Wednesday we planned this whole lesson around her receiving an answer and she starts out the lesson "I got an answer.. It's really hard to explain... but I felt it in my heart... and I just know it's true!" Hearing those words come out of a 15 year old girl’s mouth was amazing! :) She really wants to change her life! She is so sweet! So she will be getting baptized next SUNDAY!!! :)

Thursday: Day of planning and then in the middle we met with the baptism girl again and talked to her a little more about the commandments and she says she has never had rules before... but she likes them! She likes the fact of having boundries! It was cool... and not that the commandments are rules... but that’s what humans want/need! We need the commandments in our life to guide us and to help us stay on the right path! :) Amazing! We also had Young Women’s that night and that was great! :)

Friday: Anther wonderful day! :) We met with some Less Actives and a recent convert! We also met with an investigator who we never have the chance to meet with and she just talked with us... about how hard of time she is having in life... :( It's sad but it was really good for us to be there for her! After that we had an appt with another investigator :) We were so excited and before we had challenged her to read the intro to the BOM and she said she would! Sooo we got there and she was like... "Sorry I only read the intro one time.... I wanted to read it more than once but I didn't get to..." We were shocked! haha usually people would say... yeah I didn't even read the first line!! So we were really excited to see that she read it! :) And we taught her the restoration and she really liked it! She really wants to find out if this is the TRUE church! So we committed her to pray about the BOM then she will know! :) But it was a great lesson!!!

Saturday: It was a slow day... but we were able to meet with a member who is struggling... actually all our appt were with members... but it was good! Our dinner was an herbal life shake again... but I have a confession... we went and got Chinese food before we went there because we knew we needed to eat something else! :) haha but we were also able to meet with a member about the family mission plan again! :) That was nice! But that was our day!

SUNDAY!! BEST DAY OF THE WHOLE WEEK! We were able to go to church! And the Lord really blessed us! There were sooo many non members at church this week! It was amazing! The girl getting baptized and the one who read the intro to the BOM came! :) Also a recent convert brought his friend! And then also another recent convert brought his whole family! We were able to talk with them all and get appts with them too! :) Thats the best thing ever is member work... its the most successful! :) Sister Gaihe gave an amazing talk on the atonement in Sacrament meeting and I taught Gospel Principles on the Sacrament! :) It was a great Sunday! After we were able to meet with our baptismal candidate again and talk more with her about her baptism and get all things set up for next Sunday! I am soo excited for her! :) We also had another great meeting with one of our investigators! We watched the restoration movie and it was kind of distracting but we talked more about her getting an answer! She said she loved church though and in her prayer at the end she thanked Heavenly Father for sending the Sisters to her so that she could understand which church is true! :) AMAZING!

Ya see? We have been so blessed this week! My heart is filled with so much gratitude for my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ that they allowed us to see so much success! I have really noticed the importance of prayer this week... how powerful it is... we had been praying for the girl getting baptized to get an answer... and she did! We have been praying for the man to have a desire to change his habits... and he does! We have been praying for new investigators and people to be led to... and we found the girl :) So amazing! I am so lucky to be a part of this wonderful work! :) The Church is true! :)

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 I love fall!

I am still addicted to shopping

Okay family... I am really sorry... this is probably going to be really short... :( number one: the Mall opened up this week so we have spent all day shopping... (yes, I am still Sister Dahl and I am still addicted to shopping. But don't worry. Got some good deals! One skirt for $2!!!!! SCORE!) and number two: I forgot my planner at home so I don't really know what we did last week... haha I feel like there is this thing that missionaries get called missionary brain. We can't remember much... Names of people, songs, places, what I did yesterday. It's pretty crazy... :( but hopefully it's not just me... anyways..

Transfers this week: I am staying here with Sister Gaihe and I am sooo excited! :) I love her and I know that there are still things I need to do here! :)

So Lets see here... I will try my best to remember everything...

Tuesday: We had district meeting which was really great! :) And we were able to go to a member’s house and talk to her more about a member missionary plan... and we were able to have some other good appts?? (man this is gonna be a mess...)

Wednesday: We were able to have a great meeting with one of our investigators! We were able to really ask him questions and find out his concerns to see what we could help him with! :) The spirit was really strong and we were really able figure out what is going on... so hopefully things will start going better with him. Then we were able to meet with some LA's and another member for the missionary plan! :)

Thursday: We spent all day preparing for the transfer. We had to make our new planners, plan our week, and clean our apt! DEEP CLEAN. yay! It wasn't too bad! :) Then we had Young Women’s and there were like 3 or 4 nonmembers there! :) It was awesome! The youth are sooooo good at inviting friends sooo hopefully we will see some progress outta that! 

Friday: We made some brownies and we spent some of the day dropping them off to people that have been really hard to get ahold of!! So that was great! We saw two investigators and a less active, and then our investigator with a baptism date! She has been sick this week... but she loved the brownies and she is still on for her baptism! :) 

Saturday: We were able to go hunting for some lost Less Actives and some Former Investigators which was really good! We found quite a few and were able to set up appts. with them! :) 

Sunday: Sunday was really great! Some members got up and bore their testimony about the member missionary plans we have been doing and how they have actually worked!!! It's so amazing and it was so good to help others feel the missionary spirit! :) After that we taught Gospel Principles! A great lesson and we also taught Sharing time in primary! So much fun! :) I miss my little sunbeams!!! So that was really fun! :) There is about as many kids in the whole primary as there were sunbeams in my ward at home! hahah crazy!! But it was great! Then we had dinner that night and we were able to go to a member’s home and they had a lady over who wanted to know more about the church! She was a nursing student and she had to learn about our religion for a class... but it was a good night and she left with a Book of Mormon! So that is always great! :) Hopefully she will be able to feel something!

But that was really our week... :( I am so sorry this isn't very good... but know that I love you all so much! P.S. I got a work out video last week. Biggest Loser Edition! So don't worry… you can keep sending me treats... I’m gonna get in shape now! :) haha

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!!!

YES! General Conference!

Yes! I am so excited to be emailing today... ya know… I was just super excited to wake up this morning! ha! Something about General Conference really just leaves you on a high... the best kind of high ever! Spiritual high! :) Not to mention all the sweet notes about my birthday and the presents and cards! :) You all really love me! Thank you so much! :) It was just a great week!

Well to start off, I have to say one thing that I learned from conference... or I guess one thing that I was humbled to learn. I need to say thank you for all the prayers that people send my way! I realized during conference all the people around the world praying for missionaries... but then I thought all about all the people that are praying for me and it really just made me grateful. I couldn't do any of this work without those prayers! I want you to know that I feel them all and they help me and the people of New Jersey to come closer to our Father in Heaven! So thanks! :)
Okay now on to the week! Not gonna lie, the work was reallllly slow this week... :( So many people were busy... so hopefully it picks up next week! :) No. It's going to!  I know it! :)

Monday: We had an awesome p-day then we had dinner with a sweet member of our ward who has more cats than I have horses... but she was really sweet! Her and her husband both speak French and her husband used to live in Cade’s mission (the Switzerland portion...) so we had a great talk about that! :) And they cooked some awesome food so that was super fun! :)

Tuesday: This day was really what I needed. We had an amazing Zone Conference in Emerson, NJ and it was all about Faith. The spirit was so strong! I love Zone Meeting because they are centered around us. How to be better missionaries! I loved the focus of Faith because that is something we allllll need more of! No one has perfect Faith besides the Savior Himself. So in order to have that kind of perfect Faith, He is the only one we can rely on! So in missionary work that is what we have to do... rely on Him! :) It was amazing and it's great because I know that will help me in the work and also for the rest of my life. After that we had a chance to do an exchange with the STL's. So Sister Biolenna, from the Phillipians, came to my area. She only has a month left of her mission!!! She is awesome and it is so fun to learn from older Sisters! We were able to teach one lesson together to a Less Active lady so that was really good! :) Then we spent the rest of the night hunting for those Less Actives on our ward list so we can help them come back! :)

Wednesday: We drove and exchanged back companions and I was able to drive through Fardale. Miss that little place! ha! It was great though... I love driving and seeing all the leaves change! It is sooo beautiful! :) After that we had one apt with another Less Active and he committed to watching conference when he could! :) (We did have an awesome talk about how the government shut down this week... uh... scary...) but we talked gospel too don't worry! :) Then that night allll our apts. fell through... :( Bummer :(

Thursday: We spent this day weekly planning then that night we had the chance to go to see a member... (uh.. by the way mom... she is coming to Utah the end of the month and I may or may not have offered her to stay in my room... haha she is the one with cancer who is supposed to be calling you... she is amazing!!) But we talked to her more about the family mission plan and she already gave us a person to teach! :) She is going over to her house today so hopefully something good will come out of that! :) pray!!! Then we had correlation that night and talked about our work!

Friday: 10-4 good buddy. The best day of the year! jk! But I had a great birthday! :) It was just another day but the Lord really blessed me with people to teach! So we were first able to see our person who is on date to get baptized soon... and we had a great lesson with him about following the prophet! He always has such good questions! Then we had a meeting with the investigator who found us in Walgreens... and three hours later of chasing him around trying to find a place to meet... we met in the Library and had a great discussion of the Restoration. It was great! We really got to know him too and he has come from a rough back ground and he really wants to change his life! Which is great! :) After that we hadn't gotten lunch yet... sooooo... me and Sister Gaihe found an awesome little Sushi place and we had lunch there! :) mmm it was a great lunch! :) THEN! We got a Head Quarter Referral (a referral of someone requesting an item or someone went online and wants to learn more!!!) and they sound so promising! It is two people that live in the same place I guess... but they both have Book of Mormons and they want to strengthen their family relationships... they have friends that are members and they love temples!! WHAT?!? Best birthday present ever!! :) So we called them and they were at work so we are going to call them again today and hopefully we will be able to teach them! Pray for us! :) Then for my birthday dinner I ate an Herballife Shake...... hmm... haha it was different but this sweet lady in our ward offered us dinner that night and that is her business so that is what she fed us... haha It was nice of her! :) Then we were able to go and teach another investigator who is still on track to be baptized and we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! :) It was awesome! :) So over all it was an amazing birthday and I really felt the love from everyone! :) Thank you so much for all you did! :) I love you all! :) Mom, I thought of you all day! :) I hope you had a great day too! I love you! p.s. it wasn't the same without you... I know you would have loved the sushi.. :) or the shake...

Saturday: YES! General Conference! So we were able to wake up and study then go straight to the church where we had the satilite or however you spell it hooked up and we watched conference there! :) I loved all the talks. It was so cool to see the Prophet stand up... I almost started to cry... just thinking about how I teach and testify of him all day every day. I have grown such a love for him and the work he does through Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! It was amazing! :) But all the talks were so good... Ah. I forgot my notes... I wish I could tell you what I like the most from this session... but know that I loved it! :) ha after that we had our little break and it was Elder Kay’s birthday so we went to lunch! :) Elder and Sister Kay took us to Chili's to celebrate! :) That was a great day and I love them so much! :) Then we went back to learn some more! I really liked the last talk of this session about member Missionary work! :) It was cool because that is what we have been working so hard to implement in this ward, but then to hear the Apostles say the SAME thing! Wow it was great! :) Then we were able to go to dinner at a member’s house that night and it was great to be there as well!

Sunday: Yet another day of watching conference! :) There was a good turnout for the first session! There were some members from our ward there... but then for the second session it was just us missionaries... so that was sad..  :( but it was still good to listen! ah I really wish i had my notes but I don't even think I could chose a favorite talk! I loved them all! But I really did like all the emphasis on the virtue of women and their roll in life! And keeping ALL the commandments! And I felt like the biggest emphasis was the Atonement of Jesus Christ! It is really cool to me how everyone could hear the same thing from all the speakers, yet we all learn something different. The Spirit speaks to us in such different ways! When I took notes this time I split my paper in half and one side was all the words I heard... then the other side was the words the spirit was telling me! It was really cool to see what I got out of conference for ME! What the Lord wanted ME to learn!!! Because sometimes that is more important than what is actually said. I really liked Elder Hales talk about continuing to study those notes! This morning I went over what I learned again and organized them into things that I need to learn and work on for myself! It was really cool! :) Such a personal experience! Anyways I am rambling... that is one thing I learned that I need to talk and preach like those speakers do... they say what needs to be said and that is that! :) HA! Anyways! :)

Well that is my week! :) I can't wait to start another week full of preaching the word! :) wow. I am 21... Getting so old! But know that I love you all and I hope that you had an enjoyable weekend! Stay warm... and know the church is true! :)

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 Sister Gaihe and I eating sushi

 Rodeo Drive :)

 Out to dinner with the Kay's

 Some of my birthday things and a sweet wish from my Nana!