Week Seven

Dear family,

 

Yesterday was my first Sunday in my new branch. It is tiny. It makes our ward in Rosepine look huge! I love it though. It has a lot of personality. We had a Fall Festival on Saturday, which we got to go to! It was a great way to get to know the people in the ward and the members took President Monson's challenge to heart and brought nonmember friends!

 

Sister Brown, my new companion, is fantastic! She is such a hard-worker and has really helped me improve as a missionary. She really loves exercise, so she drags me out to run nearly every morning. We run around a graveyard! I keep envisioning the convict from Great Expectations to appear, but alas he and his money are refusing to make an appearance ;)

 

We had a heart-breaking moment this week. The Horne family dropped us. I was completely devastated. They seemed so elect! I didn't know it would hurt so bad to be dropped. I had loved that family and envisioned them all dressed in white at the baptism and at the temple. I know how important this is for salvation and to hear someone say that "We aren't interested" is the worst thing that has happened on my mission so far. I was so dejected all night--thinking about what I could have done or said differently. I know I shouldn't but I couldn't help but think it was my fault. Sister Brown cheered me up though. I am so lucky to have her! The Lord blessed us with a miracle moment the next night. We had already made plans to visit another city in Lake View, but the Lord had a different idea! He sent over Sister Weatherford, who was positively certain that she made a dinner appointment with us (she didn't!), so we scratched our plans and decided to stay here so we could do out with the Weatherfords. We had the most amazing lesson with Dottie and Larry Walter! We met them after being chased by that dog, remember? We taught them the Restoration. Larry who was reclined and appeared to be only partially paying attention at the beginning of the lesson was at the edge of the couch by the time we got to the First Vision! Dottie said the prayer, asking if Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said she wanted to know with "all her heart, mind, and soul!" The Spirit was so strong during that lesson! I think I felt the Spirit more strongly in this lesson than in any other lesson on my mission and I think they felt it too!

 

Sister Weatherford is the Relief Society president, who lives right down the road. She takes care of us missionaries! Our phone wasn't working this week. It wouldn't receive texts or calls and we couldn't call or text anyone. I guess the Elders got worried and called Sister Weatherford, who rushed to our house immediately to make sure we were okay. She even gave us her husband's phone to use, until ours was fixed! I just thought I would share this in case Mom ever gets worried about me :)

 

I loved Lexi's video! I am glad that she is having so much fun. Gosh, I miss that girl!

 

Pops, I loved the poem, "If." It is one of my favorites. I am quite the fan of Rudyard Kipling :) I am glad your job is a little more relaxing!

 

Mom, I love personality tests! I remember that mine changed in college, but I can't remember which one it is. Introvert was definitely a part of my personality both times :) It hasn't gotten in the way of being a missionary. I know the Lord has strengthened me in order to bear the mantle of being a missionary! I don't get nervous to talk to people or anything! Now that is a miracle!

 

Love you all!

Sister Daniels

Week Six

Hello family!

 

This has been one crazy week, but I think it has been the best one so far! Every Friday before transfers President Holm looks to see if we attained our visas and then he calls those that did. I think I was the only missionary in the state of South Carolina that didn't get their visa to Brazil! I'm secretly grateful. I just love South Carolina. I love my new area and I love my new companion. I think that God is keeping me here for a reason. Hopefully, I can discover just what that reason is! I think this will be my last transfer here though, because I got an email from Church Headquarters saying my visa is almost complete!

 

I don't even know where to start... Yesterday, we had planned to Jessica, James, and their family, but they were not home. We knew that God must have led us to their neighborhood for a reason. Sister Brown had already knocked every house on the street, but she asked me if there was one that I really felt inspired to visit again. I prayed and felt the impression to visit the house across the street. There was a kind, elderly man there who said that he believed in Christ and that he had already been saved. (This is a huge problem in the South. People do not understand "works" or "priesthood authority.") He was nice, but definitely not interested. As we were walking down the street towards the car, I kept feeling like we should go back and knock his house again! I kept brushing it off. I mean we had already knocked his housetwice and he wasn't interested either time. I tried so hard to ignore it, but it wouldn't go away. I voiced my concern to Sister Brown and she said that she was feeling the same way! We prayed to know what to do. We didn't want to give him a bad taste for Mormon missionaries, but the Spirit was rather forcefully telling us we should go back and talk to him. I think the Lord was really trying to make a point. He even put a huge dog in the middle of the road, blocking us from going anywhere but back towards his house! Taking it for a sign, we walked back. We stood outside his door for what seemed like an eternity. I was never more scared to do anything in my whole life! It took everything I had just to knock that door. I waited anxiously for him to come to the door and give us a barrage of verbal abuse, but he was really nice about it! I explained everything--how we felt that God wanted us to come back and even about that gigantic dog. I also shared a quick message about prophets being called today. He was really nice and seemed more open to us. He suggested that we go through his yard and take another street to get to our car. We did and guess what? We met the most amazing family! They are looking for a new church, since they just moved here. We would have never found them! We wouldn't have knocked that area again for a long time, but God wanted us to find the Walters. It was so amazing to see the hand of the Lord guiding this work, and I think I learned a powerful lesson. I think God was testing us to see if we would follow Him even if what He asked was hard. He did it with Abraham and his son, and I think--in a much smaller scale-- He did it with us. It was terrifying, but so rewarding at the same time!

 

I live in Latta now. It is a small town that reminds me a little of Salado. There is a total of three restaurants- none of which are known franchises. I am still mustering up the courage to check out "Little Tokyo." Somehow South Carolina and Japanese food do not seem to go together!

 

Oh, I almost forgot! We got stopped by the police!! We were knocking late at night and someone, I guess, thought we were prowlers. It was all very exciting. He asked to see our IDs and then called "headquarters" to check our records. He didn't bring out the handcuffs, which is really too bad. Think of the photo opportunities! We did end up sharing a message with him and giving him a pass-along card, which is admittably even better than a possible mug shot :)

 

Love you guys so much! I hope everything is going well.

 

Congratulate the boys for me on cross country! Looks like we got some demon dogs in the making :) Good luck with school and being Relief Society president and being a mom! Thanks so much for the poem, Pops! I love it!! I love that you are going on splits. We are in a branch and it is super hard to get members to come out with us, but it makes all the difference to the investigators.

 

Love,

Sister Daniels

My new companion and district! We got to do a session!

 Here I am picking okra! Never heard of it before, but people down here are crazy for these funny looking "greens." I felt like a bonafide South Carolinian.

Our house! Well, technically it is more of a trailer, but it is darn cute!

1st Transfer

Betty Rose showing off her "pocketbook"

I just got transferred to a new area with a new companion. I had to say good-bye to my old companions, Sister Houston and Sister Jackson. It was so hard! I had grown really close to them over these past 5 weeks. It was also difficult to leave Florence. I didn't know just how much I loved it until I had to leave it. I am especially going to miss Betty. I don't know if I have told you about her or not, but she is a woman in her sixties that is on permanent investigator status. She loves the missionaries and calls us about seven times a day (not exaggerating). She calls for anything. In the last week she called because she wanted us to find her a ceramic witch and another time she called for us to pray for her to find her purple necklace! She is the sweetest thing though! She just loves so easily and so readily. She is almost child-like. Anyway we called Miss Betty Rose to tell her I was leaving. At the end of the conversation, I said, "Love ya Betty," like I always do. She usually responds, "Alright. Bye, bye," but this time she said "I love you" back! I just wanted to break down right there in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but I tried to hold things together. I just felt that my heart was breaking!

Week Five!

Oi familia! 

I got all of your letters! And the packages! I felt so loved! Thank you so much.  That birthday package was incredible. You guys spoil me too much! I am embarrassed to admit it but I might have cried while opening up the Jane Austen address book :) Who knew I was so sentimental?? I just thought it was so sweet that you individually wrapped them. I also cried when Dad started sending me bits of books in his emails. Family and literature! My two favorite loves all in one place! That polka dot purple skirt is my new favorite! It is so comfortable and cute :) 

This week was a bit different than most. We had a leadership training meeting up in Columbia that lasted 2 days which means....SLEEPOVER! It was so fun being able to meet other sisters and hearing about their experiences. Being sister missionaries makes for an almost instant camaraderie. I love it. We also got to listen to president, who taught us about being executing the things we learned in the conference. He told of planes that land on those landing strips (not the exact term but hopefully you get the gist!)  in the ocean. I guess there is a hook on the back of the plane that they hook to the end of the barge to slow the plane down. The hook is relatively small and so they immediately thrust the engines on landing in case it doesn't hook. Otherwise they wouldn't have the speed they need to take off on such a short landing and would go straight into the ocean. Anyway, it takes years of training and practice assimilation to master. He said that missionary work is very similar. We plan and practice during personal and companionship study, but sometimes things don't go as planned and we need to be ready to take off immediately and not get discouraged. I think this analogy can apply to families, too! Parents teach their kids correct principles--how someone can hook themselves to the gospel--but if the children make mistakes and miss than the Lord has provided a way for them to come back and try again! It is a bit of a stretch and I think it made more sense in my head, but there it is :) 

This week was a hard one on our companionship. We became frustrated with each other. I didn't know how to fix it. None of us did. We tried a couple companionship inventories, which helped but didn't solve anything. The Spirit just couldn't be there and the love we usually had for each other was just gone. Luckily the Lord knew exactly how to fix it! In every transfer we have one companionship exchange with another companionship. One person leaves and another person comes. Anyway Sister Jackson left for Conway and another missionary, Sister Anderson, came to Florence. I know the timing of this exchange was inspired of God. Those sisters could have chosen any week for the exchange, but this was when it was most needed. Usually companionship exchanges are to help inspire missionaries to work harder or give them ideas on things they improve on, but this time it unified our companionship! Sister Anderson is a sweet girl, but my goodness! She made Sister Houston and I really appreciate each other. Our frustrations immediately vanished and our companionship has never been more unified! I just love Sister Jackson and Sister Houston so much and I am glad that things are back to normal. 

The miracle moment of the week happened yesterday. We were looking for Regina, a former investigator, that Sister Houston had been trying to find for 3 months. It turns out that Sister Houston had been knocking at the wrong address the whole time! Anyway we went unknowingly to this wrong address and knocked. No one answered. Frustrated and disappointed we turned and started walking back towards the car. Then two kids--who came out of nowhere-- ran over and said that we had been knocking on their door and told us to follow them. They led us to their mother who was across the neighborhood and guess who she was talking to?? The long, lost Regina! We set up an appointment with her and then her friend, Tammy, requested that we visit her too! That scripture that says, "And a little child shall lead them" took on a whole new meaning" :) 

Anyway, I love you guys so much! I am going to try to write a handwritten letter every week, too, so I can keep you more updated! I plan on writing those crazy boys too! So hopefully I'll have time this afternoon. 

Love, 

Sister Daniels 

P.S. Oh my goodness. You won't believe this. I JUST got a phone call from President Holm and I am leaving Florence and my companions. DEVASTATION. I wasn't supposed to leave for a few more weeks, but I guess one of the sisters in Marion went home and President Holm said he was inspired for me to take her place at least for the week until transfers. I only have a little while to pack all of my things and say good-bye to my companions. I am just in shock and don't know what to think!