I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God

Good morning everyone! How are you? This Monday I actually have time to write you a good email. Sorry about last week... but this week is still full of miracles and I get to report a little better :) Wanna know something great? From walking and not driving, I am getting some nice calf muscles AND losing weight! Woot! I'm gonna be back to my normal self in a couple more weeks... minus all the Easter candy that’s gonna add some back on! But anyways! Here is my week! :) 

Tuesday: After emailing we were able to go on exchange with our Sister Training Leaders and I was able to go on exchange with my Trainer! :) Sister Nelson! It was great to be back together again and see how much we have BOTH grown! We went to her area and taught lots of people and that was fun! Then we stayed up super late talking! It was super funny... every lesson we went to the people said that I looked familiar and that they knew me from somewhere... like it would of been fine for just one to say that... but they all did! It was weird! It would be super cool if I get to serve there one day! :) But that was really our day! 

Wednesday: We exchanged back and Sister Mendoza and I shared everything we learned and that was great... then we went out to work! We saw a Less Active lady and talked with her about making a vision for what she really wants to accomplish spiritually in life! It was good and fun to see where SHE wants to go! :) I love helping people set goals to get back on track! After that we did lots of walking and stuff... then we were able to go and see our sweet investigator! We had a great lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! She is so excited to be baptized! It is amazing how well she is progressing! :) Then it was getting dark and she didn't want us to walk home so she took us home :) So sweet of her! :) 

Thursday: We did weekly planning! YAY! And then we had a couple of appointments and they cancelled! Then we had one more and we walked all the way to her house and she wasn't home... doinks. But it was okay because we were able to contact! :) So we had 7 contacts and we went inside to have dinner and we had to finish weekly planning so we were just thinking about staying in and finishing that… but I  had this feeling we needed to go out and get 3 more contacts! So I told Sister Mendoza... Lets go! So as we were walking out I decided to grab the Arabic Book of Mormon that we have to give to the taxi cab driver and I asked Heavenly Father that if there was anyway we could run into him... let us! :) (I was surprised by my confidence... not gonna lie!) So we go outside our apartment complex and we start to contact and we got our 3 and start heading back in and  I look up and I see the Taxi (the new one of course) and I about have a heart attack! I tell Sister Mendoza and we RUN over to car and there the man was and we gave him the Book of Mormon and he was SOOOOOOOO excited! We didn't have time to talk but we got his number and told him that we will call him soon and ask what he thinks! :) Ah. Such a miracle! I know I see Gods hand in my life... Amazing how I am just a tool for Him and He leads and guides me! Who knows what more will happen with this man... But I know if for anything... from this wreck, he now has a Book of Mormon. And I know that Book has power. 

Friday: YAY for Friday! We were able to have a super busy day because our District Leader let us use their car! :) SOOOO we saw lots of people. We saw a returning member who goes to the YSA ward and she was giving a talk on Sunday so we got to help her prepare for that. After we saw a Less Active and talked with her about the importance of Obedience! Then we were able to pick up a member and go see another investigator. We haven't seen him in a while... but this man is 80 years old and he has read the Book of Mormon before cover to cover. Only sad thing is, is that he is more interested in the geological history of it than the actual doctrine.. :/ so I don't know how to get over that one.. :/ But then we were able to teach a sister and I just wish you could meet this lady! One of a kind that you only find in Jersey. :) Then our next appointment cancelled so we did some contacting and we met some pretty great people then we ended the night with the family we have been teaching and had a crazy lesson! Sad when you have those lessons when people straight up don't want to listen… man! But it's all good :) 

Saturday: YAY! Full day of Service! We were able to go and help this family move! Their house was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy so they are moving from place to place until they rebuild their house! So we were helping them move to another place and it was fun to serve. The husband is actually not a member so it was good to help and try to be friends with him! :) After that we were able to go and teach our baptismal candidate again! She had read the first 6 chapters of the Book of Mormon! :) She loved it! And we were able to teach her some commandments and get her ready for church! After that we had to do our studies so we spent the rest of the night doing that! YAY! 

Sunday: Yay for church... I love it so much! :) Our baptismal candidate and her two kids came to church! They all looked so cute! They stayed all three hours! :) It was great to see them there! The kids loved primary too! After that we came home, and studied it up then went out to contact! :) We met some great people and got some RDV (rendezvous as Cade would say) ;) haha or appointments with people! :) Then it was funny because as we were walking we ran into our baptismal candidate and her boys and so we walked with them to the park and talked there for a little bit then came home! It was a good Sunday! 

But that is pretty much our week! I love being a missionary. I wonder if I look back at these emails how many times I have said that in the past year... probably I have way over used it... But I can't think of anything else to say to describe how much I love doing what I am doing. Last week the reality hit me that I only have 6 more months to do this. That is it. I can't believe how fast the time has gone when you really truly are having fun! :)

What I love the most too is how much I have learned! This week in Preach My Gospel: I focused on Following the Prophet and I was able to learn about the way God reveals truth. In PMG it focuses on how important truth is for us to know. And how we can put our Trust in God that He will tell us truths. Like really, He isn't gonna lie to us... He isn't going to say something that we shouldn't do! And I love how we can put our trust and confidence in the Prophets because that is the way God has chosen to tell us these truths. By listening to them and what they say, we can feel and know it is coming from God. I love how organized God is! I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that God DOES in fact reveal truths to him through the power of the Holy Ghost! :) 

Well I love you all! Thank you so much for all you do! :) Thank you for fattening me up with Easter Candy :) Hope you have a great week and I CAN'T WAIT FOR MOTHERS DAY!!!

Sister Dahl! :) 

Yesterday was the greatest day ever!

Wow! What a great week! Much better than last week... and I am so sorry but I am warning you now, this isn't going to be a good email. President asked us to only email for an hour in exchange for having an Apostle of the LORD come to see us... so we said okayyyy fine! :) Soooo pretty much I am just gonna tell ya some highlights of the week... ha! WITH some pictures! 

ELDER L. TOM PERRY!!!!! Wow! Yesterday was the greatest day ever! We were able to gather all together as a mission and have him and his sweet wife come to see us! I guess his second wife is President Jeppson’s cousin. In fact, President hooked them up! President is the coolest guy ever! :) ha! So anyways we were all gathered together and he comes in and everyone stands up and is silent and the Spirit was soooo strong! I started to cry because I could feel the Spirit telling me that he was an Apostle of the Lord! Then we all, 250 of us, got to shake his hand! He asked if I was from the Philippians like my companion... biggest joke ever! haha! But then we got to listen to him talk! He sounds just like he does in conference! haha! Did you know he is 91 years old? OLDEST one! And yet, he is still kickin it like he is 60! He talked to us about the organization of the church and the Apostles of old! Just to show how true our church REALLY is! Then he allowed us to ask him questions and he would answer... most of them were about missionary work. But it was cool! One of them was, how can I improve my prayers? And he told us to always pray! You need to find that quiet time to talk to the Lord... but always have a prayer in your heart. EVEN when you think you can do something by yourself, humble yourself and ask for help and guidance anyways! His biggest theme was to RECOGNIZE HIM! In everything we do! I wish I could tell you everything but he ended with saying this: I have had so many experiences where I know this is the true church. Experiences that are too sacred for me to share. But I know that Christ lives! Ah. It was simply amazing to be in his presence! I know that he is an Apostle and a special witness of Jesus Christ! :) 

Cooooooooooool Miracle that happened this week!!!! So I felt bad that we had never contacted the guy that we hit (with our car)... we never talked to him about us or anything right? Soooo this week we were outside and all the sudden we hear a honk and I look over and this taxi cab driver is yelling out the window... "HEYYY I REMEMBER YOUUU!!" and he was soo happy! ha! Wellll... all I could say was... ahhhh you got a new car! haha because he had a new one! Then he drove off! So I was thinking... what are the chances of us running into this guy again!?!? And yet again I missed my chance to talk to him! WOW! I felt bad! ha! But then the next day we were walking again and same thing happenend... the guy honked his horn and waved and this time we weren't letting him past! So we ran up to him and talked… He is from India and we asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and everything and he is Muslim.. BUT get this! The conversation ended with him saying... "Okay, I have to go, but you give me your bible!" Sooo ha! He said he needed it in Arabic... and of course we don't have one of those in our back pockets... ha so we said we would order one and give it to him! And he said deal! Soooo yes, our car is still a mess, yes, we are still walking, BUT this man is going to have a Book of Mormon soon! :) Miracle right? 

Okay so the one girl we are teaching? Well she is doing great and this week we committed her to be baptized on May 11th and she said yes! :) Sooo we will be having a baptism soon and we are soo excited for her! :) Pray for her! :) 

But that is our week...sorry again this is not good! But next week will be better! I love you all. Study preach My Gospel because next week I will have something real good to share and I wanna hear yours too! :) 

Love ya all so much! :) 
Sister Dahl! 

p.s. happy Easter! We had stake conference... it was different but good! :)

p.s.s. I have been on my mission for a year... weird... 

 

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 Sisters at the beach

 Jammed my pinkie playing basketball :/

 My one year mark...made myself some brownies!!

Ohh...just me shaking Elder L. Tom Perry's hand!!

 

Hey. Don't get in wrecks!

Welllll... hello I'm Sister Dahl and I have a driving problem. I like to run into the back of cars. Gahh! This week has probably been one of the worst weeks of my mission so far. But onnnn the bright side, I am still alive and doing well. :) Our car on the other hand... not so well! ha! Man.. :( 

Monday: P-DAY! Great day! Quickly turned bad. HA! Well we were out teaching lessons that night and it started to rain really hard. It was 8:30 and we didn't know where else to go because we were in an area that noo lights were on inside. So trying to be as consecrated as we could be, I wouldn't let us go home until 9 so we decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father where He wanted us to go... and while we were praying I got one of the strongest impressions I have gotten in a while to go to this persons house that lives by us! So we acted and we started driving! Well on the way there we come to this road and I see a speed limit sign that said 25 MPH and above it there was a flashing light telling me how fast I was really going... ya know what I am talking about? Well I was going 27... and trying to be perfect and safe I told myself.. "okay I need to slow down just a little bit.." So I was watching the sign and the numbers go down when all the sudden my companion screams and I look up and there is a Taxi dead stopped in front of us turning left into an apartment... doinks. I slammed on the brakes but it was so rainy and wet we hit the back of him. :( It didn't feel like we hit him that hard... but we got out and he was fine, we were fine, just the car wasn't... :( Sooooo we pulled over and waited for the cops. Two cops came and they talked with us... gave me a ticket for careless driving... and summoned me to court... wonderful. Then we get back into our car and start driving away and it smells like smoke! Soo, I was super scared we were going to blow up on fire I told the cop and he came and got in the car and drove it into a parking spot and he said, yes, we need to call a tow truck! Sooo then next thing we know our car is getting towed away. Doinks again. After that, we didn't have a ride home, so the cop said he would drive us! Soooo here we are... Missionaries in the back of a cop car!!! fyi: those things are not comfy. Did you know they are made out of plastic? I didn't... but anyways!!!!! Positive out of all this we had a nice conversation with the cop about Utah! haha But I didn't get to share anything with him... :( I was a little frazzled. But after he got out of the car and he told us he felt reallllyyy bad for writing me a ticket and he wouldn't have any problem with us trying to plead not guilty and knocking down the ticket! Nice guy! But there is the wreck story. I was trying to be good and obey the law! Gahh. What gets me is that I don't know why I was told so strongly to go to that persons house... makes me think that it kinda happened for a reason. Maybe the cop needed us, or the taxicab driver… who knows! But the rest of the week gets fun too... ha! p.s. no I didn't take a picture of the car… I don’t' want to talk about it... or ever see it again! haha I feel horrible! It got crunched! Another thing, our car director wouldn't answer the phone that night... I almost called you mother! I didn't know what to do!   

Tuesday: District meeting! We had to get the Sisters in our zone to pick us up and then we went there... we walked home... spent awhile filling out a report for our car... taught one lesson and that was really our day! ha! 

Wednesday: So as of right now I am not red dotted... meaning I can still drive, our district leader let us use his car because our area is so big and we need it to do any work. So that was really helpful and we were able to go and see a family! Which was great and that night we were able to see a Less Active that we have never met before and that was really good to see them! :) But that was really our night. 

Thursday: Court. 8:00 in the morning. We had a Senior couple come down and take us there… and be there for support. What missionary goes to court? gah. But we got there and they made us line up, go through a metal detector, then wait in big line to talk to a prosecutor. I was in a legit court. Like you see on TV and everything!!!!!! There was someone there who had a DUI... another person who was talking to the judge about getting in a fight with his moms boyfriend. Man. I didn't feel like I belonged. ha. Horrible. But it was my turn to talk to the prosecutor and I had my Book of Mormon and I put it right on the table... but I don't think he noticed... ha! But he asked me what happened and I told him the truth and then he looked and saw that I was from Utah, asked what I was doing here and I told him I am a missionary!!! Soooo then he sat there for a second... I prayed... then he said... okay I'll tell ya what I’ll do... I'll knock the ticket down to the lowest I can and we won't put points on your license. How would that sound? I said DEAL!!!!!!!! Ha! He said... plead guilty in front of the judge! Sooo then I had to sit there and wait for the judge to talk to me and when he called my name, I go up there and I said yes sir and everything and pleaded guilty and he said okay... we will do what the prosecutor says! So everything was great and done! :) Thennnn in front of the whole room he asks me... "Where is South Weber?" So I said... "by Ogden!" And he turns to the lady next to him and said... "I’m going to park city this weekend!" haha and she was like where is that? And he said... "This sweet lady knows where it is!!!" Soooo he had compassion! :) And I told him to have fun! :) hahah but goodness! Fun right?? I couldn't believe that I got off that easy!!!!!! No points and only a $56 ticket! Score! :) Thanks for all the prayers! Okay so that is that story... then we have another... so we got back to work that day and we had one of the coolest days. We were supposed to have a lot of appts lined up to see people and we had a member to drive us and go with us and everything... and little by little they all cancelled on us. :( but it was so cool because out of nowhere this Less Active called us and we have been trying to get ahold of this lady forever with no luck so it was really random for her to be calling! So I answered and I could tell something was wrong... and after about 2 seconds she broke down and started to cry and told me that she was getting evicted from her house and she didn't know where to go! Soo with all our appts cancelled we were able to say... hold on! We will be there at your house in a sec! So our member talked with her and it was so great because after a little bit we were able to calm her down and she really opened up to us! It was cool to see how Heavenly Father wanted us to be there for her at that time and he made sure he cancelled everything so we could! Ah. I love being a tool in His hands! :) After that we were able to go and see our inv. She is amazing and it was such a good lesson! We read 3 Nephi 11 and it was awesome! :) She felt the Spirit so strong! :) Ah. I love her! Then we walked on home!

Friday: Phew. This is long. Okay Friday, we had a car again so we got a lot done! :) We saw a sister we have taught…she is having boyfriend probs…not our purpose. Then we went to see another investigator and saw her and talked with her about the Book of Mormon. She couldn't understand why we needed it... she loves the Bible. But by the end, she understood and committed to read it! :) We also were able to see a sister in the ward and I cut her hair for service. Fun :) Then we were able to go and see another Less Active and had a good lesson with her. She just doesn't want to come to church... :( We don't know why! Fyi: We got a call that said our less active didn't get evicted!!!!! All the prayers worked and the people had compassion on her! :) 

Saturday: We were able to have correlation, and then we saw the less active again! We were able to go there with a member and help her feel ready to come to church! :) Had a great lesson with her and she was really excited to come to church! :) Then we had a day of studies and weekly planning so boring. 

Sunday: We have stake conf next week… weird right? So we had an Easter program today... But it was good! :) Our less active was super nervous to come to church so she didn’t' make it for Sacrament, but she came for the last two! :) She loved it and she brought her son and he loved primary! :) She is really progressing! And that is that!

Man... longest letter ever!!! Gah. Couple things: 1. I don't really know what will happen… I may get transferred... but I am just in the waiting game. :/ But because either of us can really drive we are just walking away… but pray I don't get transferred, I love it here! :) 2. The weather is beautiful! :) 3. I don't know what’s happening next week.. President just told us Elder Perry is coming to our mission next Monday! So we will be visiting with him and not emailing... I think. So I don't know when I will be on.. :) But that is really it! :) 

Preach My Gospel! I learned this week that sacred ordinances such as baptism help us experience Gods power. This is a line in there and I really thought about it this week. Isn’t that true? By feeling the power of God washing you clean. I don't remember by baptism but I can feel that power every time I take the Sacrament. That feeling that can't be described… but I know that it is His power. How lucky are we that we have those on the Earth. It DOES help me remember God more and helps me to FEEL it more! :) The Gospel is great. Sorry if that doesn't make sense... I'm tired of typing haah. I love you all! Never forget it! :) 

Love, Sister Dahl

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 The wedding from the week before

My face when we got in the wreck! ha

I love you!

Wow! What a spiritual filled week! :) Really just the weekend...but I love conference so much! Isn't just so funny how missionaries have this thing where once they become a missionary they just automatically love conference??? I mean... not that I didn't love it before, but I just had a hard time staying awake... but NOW. I get it. I love it! Anyways, I'll tell ya about that later... I'll start at the beginning of our week because it was pretty good too! :)

Monday: Monday night, after P-day we were able to go and see a lady. It was our second or third time back. She is a strong Baptist... but she is willing to listen. She just loves her Bible! :) Who woulda thought I'd be in the Bible Belt in Jersey?!? But it's good! No matter who ya talk to, the Book of Mormon is still true! :) We are just trying to help her recognize that! After that we were able to go to a members who hasn't been at church in a while and we helped her because she is having a hard time... :( But she will be alright!

Tuesday: Was a great day! :) We were able to see lots of people! We first started out by going back to a potential we found the other day. Her name is Sandra. She told us we could come back and so we did and she let us right in! We talked about the Book of Mormon and she was pretty interested! :) So she said we could come back again! WOO! After we met with a Less Active and that was good... he is just a cute old man that is scared of his wife! She doesn't want him to come to church so he won’t.. grr. But then we saw our Young Single Adult. She had some questions about conference so we were able to go over and talk with her about them! She is the best! :) Then we saw one more Less Active member. She is the greatest! We talked with her about the Plan of Salvation! Then we both felt prompted to talk with her about the Temple and being with her husband again, who has since passed, and she never really learned about the temple! We had no idea! So we are planning on teaching that to her again tonight actually! :) p.s. happy anniversary to Grandma and Grandpa this day! I didn't forget... I just forgot to tell you! But I was thinking of you! :)

Wednesday! We had Zone Meeting this day! All about how we can become more consecrated missionaries!!! I love that. We made a contract of how we will be willing to give up things and give it to the Lord so that we can serve him with all our heart, might, mind and strength! I guess I only have 193 days (Grandma and Nicole, stop counting! It's freaking me out!) I have to give it my all!!! ha! But after that, and all our studies, we were able to go and another lady again! We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with her... didn't really get anywhere.. ha! But we will see! THEN we saw a lady we met.. I talked about her last week I think. But she is amazing! Her husband was there... her ex-husband I think... and anyways... they didn't read the Book of Mormon, so we read the Intro with them as well and the Spirit was sooo strong! We talked about them getting baptized and she told us there were three people in the house that have never been baptized! Meaning her and her kids! Sooo we invited them to be baptized and they said yes! :) A family! We are so excited! So we will keep working with them. They are seriously so great! :) PRAY FOR THEM!

Thursday: Slowish day... but we were able to have a member take us out for a while because it was our walking day! We taught one lady then we were able to go and see some Less Active members as well and we actually caught one at home! It was great! Then we went home, did weekly planning! Then a member had us over for dinner that night! Wonderful! p.s. Sister Mendoza taught me how to say I love you in Tagalog! Mahal Kita! :) don't worry. I know like 4 Languages now.

Friday: Wow. So this day was going to be a productive day... ha! But instead it was a day full of service! So out of kinda nowhere we find out there was a wedding of a member at the church and we were asked to help set up! So we of course did! And when we got there... there was only 2 members helping and soo much to do! So all of us missionaries pitched in and we were there all day... putting up decorations, preparing the food... I did the brides nails... all sorts of stuff! Great service! There was no way they could of done it without us! The wedding was beautiful and it was great! The groom wasn't a member so I had a great talk with him about the Plan of Salvation! :) But great day! oh yeah... I inhaled helium for the first time :) hahahah missionaries still have to have a little fun! :)

Saturday: CONFERENCE! YAY! We were able to start out with our correlation meeting at the beginning then we just stayed at the church and watched conference on the screen in the chapel. Awe. I love the Spirit. First session: It amazed me how many talks were focused on the youth. Kind of scary! But I feel a serious responsibility for them... the Lord has a lot of trust in them! They really are chosen! I say this like I am 50... but I figure 21 isn't really "youth" anymore... ha! But I think my favorite talk that session was by President Eryring! (fyi: He grew up 30 min from where I am at right now. IN THIS STAKE! Cool right?) But I loved how much he talked about Covenants. And pretty much his talk helps a lot with investigators we have right now! :) After the first session... a member had lunch for us! :) YUM! Then we were able to kneel in prayer because we were starting and all mission fast. We fasted for us to find families to teach! It was powerful! After that, it was time for the second session and my favorite talk from there was: Richard G. Scott! I loved how he talked about sharing the gospel. Simply. Something I really needed to learn as a missionary! ha! I loved the line that he said that in order to make a difference in others life, they must know that we love God and we love the Gospel. No matter what. :) After that we were able to go and teach a less active. We invited him to conference the next day! :) And then we didn't really have time to do anything else so home we went! :) Spiritual day though right?

Sunday: Same thing! Woke up, studied, then off the conference! :) Favorite talk of this session was M. Russell Ballard about Following up! One of the greatest principles of missionary work!!! And how he challenged us to share what we learn in Preach My Gospel which is great! I am going to start doing that! :) I also really liked our beloved Prophet! His talk on how to love not more, but better was what I needed to hear! :) I love his line, "perhaps you will forget the kind words you say, but the recipient will remember them forever!" Something that really rang true. I do remember the nice things people say to me! They are special to me! And I want to be able to help others that way! :)  After that we were able to kneel in prayer and close our fast... it was just great asking the Lord to help us... and with this month of consecration we ARE willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to receive those blessings! :) Then we ate! The Spanish Branch brought sooo much food! So we all ate! :) It was great! After that, the second session... which was great as always! My favorite talk: L. Tom Perry. Of course! A horse! :) It made me really think and ponder though about how humble my horses are... well some of them... ha and how I need to be more like them and listen to those gentle tugs of the spirit! :) Doug... I'm sure you woke up for this talk right? :) ha! I love ya! Well yes. Conference was amazing. One thing President Jeppson challenges us to do is to write a question down we have had and watch it be answered by the prophets! It’s amazing how it really happens and I KNOW that the words those men and women speak ARE from GOD! :) After conference we went to teach one of our sisters about the Atonement and that was great! :) 

But that was our week! :) Great! Now that we are spiritually pumped we are excited to get to work this week! :)

What I learned in Preach My Gospel this week: The very most basic doctrine. God is our Loving Heavenly Father. He is happy when we are happy and he is sad when we are sad. He loves us more than we can ever imagine. One thought I had though is, putting myself in His shoes, I couldn't imagine how hard it was for Him to send us all to earth knowing that not all of us would make it back to His presence. I am sure He didn't really want to let us go. But He did. Why? He did it because He loved us. He wants us to enjoy life and to receive the blessings He has, to become like Him, and it is the only way. I am so grateful He was willing to let us go, so that we can receive those blessings! How more important is it to help those who are lost... recognize that they are entitled to those blessings as well?

Well I love you so much! :) Hope you have a great week! Sorry no pictures... left the camera at home!

Sister Dahl :)