...how lucky I am to be an instrument in God’s hands

Wellllll here I am, to report about another amazing week and to once again tell how much I love being a missionary. I am always filled with so much gratitude on Mondays because these are the days that I can just sit and think about how amazing my week was and just realize how lucky I am to be an instrument in God’s hands and to serve Him all day every day! So I did remember my planner this week so I will be able to tell you what happened each day... ha! So here we go!

MONDAY: After emails, we went shopping... :) ha so much fun!!! We went to the Garden State Mall... (that thing is huge) so you know what happened... I spent way too much... ha! We also went to lunch with the Elders at a place called Friendly's for Sister Nelsons last little outing with them... well guess what?? That night we must of all got poisoned or something because we were all sick!! :( not fun! So Monday night we were able to just get everything ready for Sister Nelson because we got news that she was leaving. So she packed up all night and we decided to get all our mattresses together on the floor and we had one last sleep over with the 3 of us! ha it was fun! :) Girls’ night! Even though I am a missionary-I can still be a girl! HA!

TUESDAY: We woke up and we felt much better! So we studied and got everything ready and packed up. Since Sister Webb and I were staying in the apartment we decided we didn't want bunk beds anymore so while Sister Nelson was packing we got out the tools and took apart the bunk beds! HA! I broke the screw driver... :/ but after that we headed off! We went to Short Hills, NJ where we had a giant transfer conference!  It was really neat, President talked and all of the departing missionaries got up and bore their testimony! Neat experience! But after we found out where everyone was going!!! Sister Nelson was transferred to Freehold, NJ which is down South we think... ha! Then everything was done and they didn't say anything about Sister Webb and I so that meant it was just us two!! Just me and her (two newbies) running the area of Fardale! We couldn't believe it!!!! ha! So we got back in the car and drove back to our area... We were able to go to dinner at a member’s house (who is moving back to Herriman, UT this week) and then it was time to go home. It was weird just having two of us... but it was great! Sister Webb and I should be real life Sisters. We are so much alike! We are ALWAYS thinking the same thoughts and everything! It is cool! :) So we were excited about the new adventure!!!! :)

So WEDNESDAY: We woke up and we were ready to get to work!!! We had District meeting which lasts all morning but then we had a lesson with a Less Active! It went okay... It's sad when you do all you can and it is just up to them to make the choice and ACT on their Faith and agency. They have to choose for themselves. But after that a member took us to dinner at a restaurant and it was delicious! :) Then we went to Young Women’s. I have really enjoyed going to YW every week... it may not be the most productive thing to do (but the Bishop has asked us to do it) but I hope we are able to make an impression on those Young Women and strengthen their Testimonies of Jesus Christ! :) Oh yeah... it was Pioneer Day.. How was that?? :)

THURSDAY!! We had the opportunity to go to the Statue of Liberty again!!! AHH! :)  This is sooo much fun! Only part was... we were outside all day and it was I bet 60 Degrees and freezing!!! NJ weather is worse than Utah... changes from hot to cold every hour!!! It's crazy! But we were able to talk to so many people! It was so fun! Even though we aren't able to preach to them, just by wearing our name tags we are able to represent the Savior! :) It was my goal to bring up to someone something about God and I did! :) I also told a lot of people about Family History Work and how they should check out Family Search! :) I met two people from SLC that were LDS... it was so fun! It's great when people recognize you! :) But this time I met people from: Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, China, Japan, Columbia.. I can't even remember the rest! Literally from everywhere!!!! It's so cool!!! :)

FRIDAY: This day was great... cause we were finally back to doing work... we were able to meet with both our Recent Converts! We were also able to meet with a Less Active… So I don't know if I told you about her a while back but was really offended... bad... :( when I got here I didn't think there was really a way that she would ever forgive or come back to church or anything... however, over the past couple months I have seen such a change in her! She has started to pray again, she has noticed blessings in her life, and she has been at church for the last month! :) It's been amazing! So her ex-husband isn't a member, and her two kids aren't either but only because her ex won't let them... :( but they are amazing! So they were at her house on Friday when we went and saw them and we had such a spiritual lesson! We planned to talk about Testimonies! So we did then we took time and gave them a piece of paper and we all wrote down our Testimonies on paper! Everyone wrote so fast-even the kids! The Spirit was there so strong! You could tell they all have a testimony of the Church! We challenged them to read it to each other later... It was really a great lesson! :) oh yeahh... so get this.. Friday morning we get a call! We are told we are getting a new comp! (missions are always changing!!!) We will be picking her up on Tuesday! She served in Russia and got sick so now she is reassigned here! Her name is Sister Spencer!

SATURDAY: What a great day! Kinda... ha we were able to first go see and two Less Actives! So they are great and have been coming back to church as well every week! They live in a rough situation... but when we went over there, there was another lady there (I’m guessing a friend) that said she was interested in learning more about the church. So we were excited and we started to teach her! It was a weird lesson... for some reason you just couldn’t feel the spirit... so about half way through she tells us that she is a WITCH!!!! It was crazy... she told us stories about it and everything so my comp and I knew we just had to leave... so we did... after we got out and we were like didn't know what just happened! Ha! But we knew we had to say a prayer to get the Spirit back and we did! :) It came right back to us! :) But we know it wasn't there earlier... After that we had time to contact Less Active people on our ward list and we made a deal to knock on every colored door we see when we do it! :) So we did and we found a girl this way that we were able to give a Book of Mormon too and she seems super interested!!! :) It was great! :) After that we had a ward member with us to go over to another lesson... with our Investigator... well he wasn't there... :( So we asked her if we could go see another person the old one, our investigator who we haven’t been able to get ahold of!! So we did and he was actually outside! He said he has been very sick but that he is planning on going to church tomorrow! So that was great that we were able to see him! :) Also our member said that she has this friend that speaks Russian and she wants to share the gospel with her so we told her about our new comp she got so excited!!! The Lord really knows what He is doing by putting people in the right place at the right time!!! :) p.s. Our first investigator did tell us later that he was super sorry he wasn't home on time... something came up and we are meeting with him on Tuesday! :)

SUNDAY: YAY!!! :) Best day of the week! We had TWO of our investigators at church! Coolest story though... when they walked in they both waved at each other and we were like whaT????? Turns out both of them know each other! They talk at the coffee shop all the time!!! Crazy huh!?!? Now we just have to get them to meet somewhere other than the coffee shop... and get them baptized on the same day! :)

Well that was our week! :) Great week! Cecilia's health is really not well either so she said she would like to push her baptism date back a little... which is good because she needs a little time! :) But things are really progressing! The work is really fun!!!

It will be interesting to get another comp again because Sister Webb and I were just getting things figured out! But I know she is supposed to be here and it will be great! :) But other than that! That's all folks! :) have a great week and know that I love you all! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!

Sister Dahl!

Click on photos to enlarge

 Some photos with the Young Women :)