Dear family,

 

 We had transfer calls on Saturday and  I dodged the bullet! I get to stay in Charleston! I am so grateful. My dear Sister Davis is leaving me though. This means that I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday. I am a little nervous. This will be my eighth companion in eight months! Crazy, right?? That's more than many people get there whole mission! I love it though, because it is teaching me how to work with all different personality types and how to love all different types of people.

 

We had lunch with a less-active who is gradually returning into full activity. He is 48 and is desperate to get married. His prospects, however, are not too good. I am so frustrated with him though! The thing that really irks me is that he had a picture of model scantily clad in a bikini as his screen saver and he had the gall to show it to us, like he was trying to prove something! I was mad and disgusted and quite frankly wanted nothing to do with this lustful, supercilious ole codger in front of me! After this meeting, we came home and I angrily picked up the Ensign that I had been reading before and I read these words, " There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in out own eyes and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels--invisible beings of power and might--charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping." It felt like a slap in the face, an immediate reproof from God. He loved this man and He wants me to love him too. I had held this less-active in contempt, and I shouldn't have. He is a child of God, too, and the Lord wants to save him just as much as he wants to save me, or you, or Michael or Mona. It was a powerful lesson to me and one that I am not likely to forget!

 

Best news of all: Mona has finally, FINALLY agreed to a baptismal date! AHH! We had a lesson with her and Michael this week about temples. The Spirit was really strong, especially when we had a mini testimony meeting at the end of the lesson. Michael was struggling to put his thoughts into words, so Mona just jumped on in and bore her testimony for the first time! It was so sweet and pure. She talked about how good she feels when she comes to church, especially when she partakes of the sacrament. She talked about the Plan of Salvation and how she knows that it is true. I am just SO HAPPY! I feel like this email should be in all capital letters! 

 

I love you all so much! It is hard to believe that it has been 8 months already. The half-way point is coming up so fast! I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is the best decision that I have ever made.

 

Love,

Sis Daniels

 

P.S. I did get to watch Women's Conference. It was amazing. It was so cute to see the daughters holding hands with their moms. I loved it. The video they showed reminded me just how fast life goes! It went through all the stages of being a daughter, then a mother, and finally a grandmother. I want to make sure I make every moment count and not waste time worrying about things that really just don't matter!

The most interesting mailbox Morgan has ever seen!

Morgan at Battery Park 

Dear family,

 

I'm glad y'all had such a great Spring break! It sure sounds like fun! One of the less-active members in our ward wants to take us fishing, so we'll have to see if I can pull a Blake on that one :) The Special Olympics sounds like it was a wonderful experience! I've met a couple mentally handicapped people on my mission and they are always so pure and so innocent. The have special spirits. They really do. I LOVE that you followed a spiritual prompting to help that man! What a powerful example you are to me, Mom!

 

I think it is great that you are hanging out with the boys so much, Pops! I get nervous for them, sometimes. So many young men fall away! We have a lot of less actives in our ward and many of them are young men. I have seen too many faithful wives with husbands that don't go to church. It is absolutely heart-breaking. Many are returned missionaries. My mission has really opened my eyes to the battle that we are fighting. Satan is fighting awfully hard and he has a plethora of strategies. Every less active has a unique story and different reasons for leaving, but with each one I have to fight the urge not to shake them into sanity! I think the Lord is teaching me the heavenly virtue of patience and understanding :) I really love being an instrument of God in helping them remember the truths they once knew and cherished. Michael, especially, has made such progress. Yesterday, he got a tithing slip for the first time in about 40 years! I feel like a proud parent!! I did good, too :)

 

We had a sister share an analogy in her talk that I really loved. She said that there are two ways to read the scriptures. We can water ski or we can scuba dive. When we ski, we read through the scriptures quickly. It is fun and exciting and we are able to get the thrill of the stories. We also have the immediate satisfaction in seeing how fast we have progressed. It is, however, a fairly superficial understanding--it barely grazes the surface. Then there is scuba diving. We can take it slow, reveling in the joys of discovery and unearthing new insights and novel ideas. I feel like I have done an awful lot of water skiing in my life! Luckily, my mission has taught me how to scuba dive into the scriptures. I finally am getting a grasp on just what it means to "ponder" the scriptures and I am making connections like never before!

 

I love you guys so much! I love your letters and read them over and over again. Thanks for all the support. As cliche as it sounds, it is nevertheless true:  I couldn't be doing this without you!

Sister Daniels

 

P.S. I hear if I get my visa this Saturday. I think the chances I got it this time are next to nil, so hopefully I get to stay in Charleston this next transfer!!

Dear family,

 

This has been such a wonderful week! I love the Charleston ward and getting to know all the members. Our Bishop is dynamite. He gives a 110% to his calling, works full-time, and homeschools one of his kids. I don't know how the man sleeps! He has really been an inspiration to me though. I will never turn down a calling. If he can do it with that kind of schedule, then I can too!

 

I've really thought a lot about being busy. We meet quite a few people who are just too busy right now. They are too busy to come to church. They are too busy to read their scriptures. People everywhere are busy, and yet we are all busy doing things that don't really matter. I think that is one of Satan's best tools: to distract us from those things that matter most with things that are insignificant and paltry. I am so grateful for my mission. It has shown me where my priorities should be. I've also learned not to sweat the small stuff. Thank goodness, because I think I already did my share of that in high school :)

 

We met a less-active named Grant Staley this week. He is a Spanish professor at the Citadel. He went on a mission way back in the day when there was a "Central American mission." He went to almost all the countries in South America! Isn't that just crazy? I wonder what kind of accent he eventually picked up... Anyway he had a Portuguese dictionary on his desk, so I told him about my predicament and offered to say the prayer in Portuguese. He loved it! He really opened up to us, which is awesome because he wasn't too thrilled to see missionaries the last time that they tried! He was really excited, so I think we are going to teach him the lessons in Portuguese! Maybe he is the reason I am still here, eh?? He used to be the High Priest group leader, but he fell away after his wife left him. We hope to rekindle that testimony that he once had. I love getting to know so many people and I love that I get to hear their stories. I love how varied and unique the human experience is. All of us will have a story to tell when we get up to heaven and I just can't wait to hear them all!

 

Michael and Mona came to church again! Fifth time in a row! I am so happy for them. I love seeing their countenances change. It is the absolute best! Bishop used Michael and Mona's story as an example of what we should do. He said that we had done a great job involving the ward. It is so wonderful to hear that! It is always nice to have some validation for our work. I was pratically beaming by the end of ward council :) It has really stregthened the trust the ward has in us, and more and more people are wanting to come out with us.

 

I am really happy! I love being a missionary! I love Charleston!

 

Thank you so much for the jokes, Pops! So funny! I can't wait to share them with Sister Davis. I'm sure we will get a kick out of them. We also got the Valentine's Day package! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I am so excited for that Garmin, I can't even tell you. We also enjoyed the chocolates. Very quickly :) 

 

I love you all so much! I am grateful for all the letters and packages. You all are the best part of my life and I am anxious to see y'all again :)

Sister Daniels

Dear family,

This was our service project. We delievered "Bags for Life" to underpriviledged children. Each bag contains a bunch of goodies

This is me and my itty, bitty desk in Marion. Needless to say, my love of all things mini has depreciated. Drastically.

Sister Stout and I! I find it a bit disconcerting that I look like a monkey...

This week has been a really great one (besides this rather discouraging news about my visa that is :) . Our mission had a month long fast in February and the Lord is just pouring out the blessings because of it! Every day of February some companionship in South Carolina would fast, so that someone was fasting every day. It was really cool experience and so powerful!

We had some extra miles this month (never happens!) so we went down to Folly Beach to check on some less-actives. They lived right on the beach! I could see the ocean. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect, all breezy and sunny. I absolutely love Charleston! I am so grateful that the Lord sent me here. If you all are looking for a vacation spot, I think I might have found a good one :) 

We met a new family this week. They are a really cute couple named Chad and Erin. They have three adorable kids. They just look Mormon! It was cool, because we didn't follow the usual first lesson approach. We just followed the Spirit and by the end of the lesson they both agreed that they want to take all the lessons! What is so incredible is that they let us into their home because Chad had a friend who married a Mormon and she was really nice. It just goes to show how powerful our example can be! It one of the best missionary tools that there is!  

Michael and Mona are progressing really well. Mona says that she still wants to learn more before she is baptized (GAH!) but that she plans on coming to church for the rest of forever. At least it's a start! I've never loved any investigators this much. They are so special. The day of Mona's baptism will be the happiest day of my life!

 I haven't gotten the Valentine's Day package yet! It is still at the mission office. I guess if you mail it priority mail they can forward it to my address, but any other way it has to sit there until someone can bring it down. I am looking forward to getting it though! I have had a rough bout of homesickness the last few days and it would definitely cheer me up :) 

I love you all! 

Sister Daniels