HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE AND CADEN!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you are 14 years old already. Geez, you all are getting old. You best not be taller than me by the time I get home :)

 

Actually scratch that.. You boys need to grow! Also, make sure you learn where to put your hands when you dance with girls. HINT: under her armpit is NOT CORRECT. That happened to me once and those kind of things leave their mark. Just kidding. Well kinda...

 

Anyway. I love you! And I am excited to hear about your upcoming adventures!!

 

This week was a bit crazy. Due to car troubles (our car stalled at an intersection and is now in the shop), we have been driving the mission van and now are driving the mission bus. It is a monster and can seat 12! Sister Mendenhall would be so proud :) Anyway it is BIG and white and impossible to miss when we park it on the side of the road to knock. Oh the looks we have received.... No wonder the usual missionary vehicle for this mission is my beloved Toyota Corolla!!

 

We had exchanges this week. I got to be with Sister Brown, my trainer! And oh my goodness did we have fun! There was no longer any training stress so we just laughed the whole time! It was great. Also, we teach really well together. We've had a lot of practice after all and it felt like old times. We knew exactly when the other was done speaking and when to start again. It was just seamless. The first person we really taught on the exchange was Sister Cavanaugh, a less active. She has been a member for two years, but due to bouts of depression she has a hard time getting things pulled together to go to church. Anyway we focused a lot about the sacrament and how it brings light and strength to our lives. We read the sacrament prayers with her and the Spirit that was in the room was so strong. I felt so much love for this darling sister although we had barely met.

 

We also met some Jehovah's Witnesses, which is always an interesting encounter. We were talking to the wife first and it started out pleasant, but then we started introducing the Book of Mormon and she very adamantly states that the Book of Mormon is not an inspired book. Dagger to the heart, right?!? Well, Sister Brown politely aksed, "Oh, have you read it?" In which she responded in the negative. Of the ignorace of men! We make judgements without trying to understand. Then we talked to the hudband and it seems like he jut launched into their first lesson! He was going on and on about Armageddon and who knows what else. During his barage of words mingles with Bible verses, I didn't feel the Spirit at all. Not in the slightest. They are good people, but they try to prove they are right with logic and evidence, but they don't understand the Spirit or its role in conversion. It was such a stark contrast to the lesson we had recently had with Sister Cavanaugh and such a confirmed my conviction that this is God's church.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Sister Daniels

Dearest family,

 

Things in Dutch Fork are going GREAT! One of the less-actives that we met with this week came to church! His wife is an active and endowed member, but he has been inactive for awhile now. They also brought their niece, Migella, who isn't a member. She's Roman Catholic and is from Mexico, but is visiting for the summer. She's seventeen so she went to Young Womens. I think she liked it a lot :)

 

We found an old, white couple from Zimbabwe who had some cool acents. They weren't interested in the church but asked quite a few questions about us-our lives and plans. People are always fascinated by that for some reason. Probably because we are a "peculiar people" and what not :) We knocked on their neighbors and met a darling old lady who was born in Guatamala. She let us in immediately. She said that she is Catholic and plans to remain so, but she loves to learn especially if it has something to do with Jesus Christ. We introduced the Book of Mormon but she had a question about Christ visiting those in hell for the three days before the resurrection so we explained about the spirit world and about the plan of salvation. She enjoyed it thoroughly and is very exited for us to come back this week. She said her neighbor had recently committed suicide and she was worried about her attaining salvation but our message had comforted her. It is so cool because Sister Borgholthaus had already knocked that street before I came to Dutch Fork, but we felt prompted to do it again. I know that God is leading this work! I LOVE teaching the plan of salvation. Every time I do I am just amazed at the love there is behind it. The plan of salvation is set up for us to suceed. It is tipped in our balance. God gives us so many chances.

 

We did a service activity this week. We went over to Sister Kirby's {an elderly lady in the ward} and helped her to get her garage/dog house up and running. We were in charge of digging a FOOT deep trench from the garage to the electrical panel. NOT an easy job. The ground was mostly clay and really hard to get through. You would think with shoulders as wide as mine that I would have some upper body strength, but alas that is not the case...Sister Borgholthaus and I made slow progress, but the Elders came and sped the process up. It was kinda embarrassing, not gunna lie. On the plus side, I've started to run again. We had a pond behind our house with this delightful trail. So hopefully, I can get into a little bit better shape :)

 

The speaker in sacrament meeting said something that I really loved. He said," I don't like the word problem. I believe a problem is simply a challenge with the opportunity to suceed."  Isn't that cool?! It's a shift in attitude. A "problem" or challenge or trial allows us to grow in ways we never would have otherwise. I've started to keep a gratitude journal and I write down something I am grateful for every day and a lot of the time the things that I am grateful for are "problems" and yet it is the lessons that I learned from it that made it such a blessing.

 

Anyway.

 

I LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Daniels

Dear family,

I hope the family is doing okay! I've been praying for them a lot. Of course, I am worried about you Pops! You sounded so tired and sad on the phone. I've been praying especially hard for you. I really like the last verse in Enos. It is once of my favorites and I think it applies perfectly to Grandpa. Enos had a good relationship with God. He talked with Him and felt the joy that comes from repentance. The Holy Ghost had given him a foretaste of eternal life and He looked forward to the day when He would see God. Verse 27 says, "And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen." I don't know if this helped you or not but it helped me. I believe Grandpa is the same way and that he will see God's face with pleasure since he knew the Master he served.

We had some pretty cool miracles happen this week. We went a knocking and planned to do so for at least two hours. The first house we knocked-the very first!- turned out to be a member of our church! She isn't on our records. Crazy, right? She seemed genuinely excited to see us and let us into her home immediately. She is a convert and is from BRAZIL! Seriously, how does this keep happening?! Her English is really good although her accent is pretty thick. Her husband is a returned missionary and they met in the YSA ward here. She invited us to come back anytime so we are going to start working with her. It was such a testimony to me that the Lord is aware of all of His children. He knows where they are, even if the church doesn't. The timing was perfect. We had been in that neighborhood a couple of days prior but really felt like we needed to be somewhere else. So when we came back we found her and discovered that she usually isn't home at that time but she was waiting for a fridge to be delivered so we met her. How cool is that??

Another cool miracle happened right before dinner. We had about an hour so we decided to knock around the Aiken's house. The very first house we knocked WE GOT IN! This just doesn't happen in this area! It has only happened twice since I've been here so we were pretty much stoked. Her name is Allison Grecko and she is the epitome of a true Christian. She let us in immediately and was so curious to know more. We introduced ourselves and explained what an LDS missionary does. We also introduced the Book of Mormon. The spirit that was in the room was so very tangible. We bore such fervent testimonies and I know she felt it. She was so excited to get a Book of Mormon that she hugged me!! I just hope she reads it and that she will allow it to touch her heart. The Book of Mormon can do wonders, and I think it will be the key for Allison.

Sister Aiken is the one who sent you that picture of us dressed up like cows to get a free dinner at Chick-Fil-a. I am so impressed with their family. They have two sons out on missions. One gets home in six months and the other just left. They are so missionary oriented! I have never seen anything like it. Eli, one of the sons, has brought people to church, gone on a 24 hour exchange with the Elders and goes out with them all the time. He has even gotten one of his friends to take the lessons! Cooper, the other son, is writing a girl who he has dated forever. She wants to be baptized, but is scared to tell her Methodist family. She goes to church though! In her YSA ward and even attends institute. She has taken all of the lessons too an could be baptized any day now, but she wants to wait for Cooper to get home :/ Sister Aiken talks to everyone she meets about the church. I just admire them so much. They have taught me what it means to be a member missionary!

On Sunday, one of the members who we have been working with and who is coming back to church pulled us aside and said that he thinks his wife is going to leave him and wanted advice and comfort. He looked so completely dejected and I had no idea what to say. Clearly, as a sister missionary I have never been married so my ability to empathize was severally limited. It is always amazing to me that people trust us enough to tell us their struggles. At first, I didn't understand why. I am young and have seen very little of the world and don't have a great deal of life experiences to draw upon. So why us? Then I realized something that anyone with an iota of brain power would have realized a long time ago: it is because of His name that we wear. We represent Him. People trust that He guides us in what we do and say. They really don't want to hear what I have to say, but what their Savior has to say.

I love you all!

Sis Daniels

Thank you SO much for the care packages, handwritten letters, AND emails. I feel so blessed! Definitely feeling the love, so thank you!! The best thing about being this close to the mission office is we get our mail the very day it comes in! No more long waits :) I love the journal and have turned it into my gratitude journal. I am writing one thing I am grateful for every day. I think this will help me see the tender mercies and small miracles that I receive every day. I LOVE the bracelet you made, Lou! My companion did too :)

 

We got to meet President and Sister Turner this week. Sister Turner is hilarious and President Turner has this dry sense of humor that I just love. They both seem overwhelmed, which is understandable. There isn't exactly a how to book to be a mission president and it is probably very different from anything else they have ever done. They are really humble about the whole thing and have such an earnest desire for the work and to magnify their calling. We had interviews with President Turner yesterday. I was the fourth one he ever did! It was more of a get-to-know-you meeting rather than the typical interview. We talked a little bit about the whole visa/mission change thing, but the thing that stood out to me the most was what he said at the end. He said, "You seem very happy." And he seemed kind of suprised and relieved to find me so. I hadn't really thought too much about it, but his comment made me realize that I am happy. I am very, very happy. I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! You bet I'm happy!  I get to be a missionary and do hard things and develop relationships with people I wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise. I get to hear the testimonies of members and nonmembers alike and share my own every day. I am loved by Sister Borgholthaus, Clark, and Derrick. I have the love and support from you all. And most importantly I feel like my Father in Heaven is proud of me. I was reading this morning in 2 Nephi 5 and I found this little gem. Verse 27 says, "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." I just love that concept. I am living after the manner of happiness.

 

Sorry this email is such a short one! I just want you to know that I love y'all. A lot. "3 cubits and a span" lot :)

Love,

Sister Daniels