Dear family,

Wow. This week has been crazy hot! I mean the humidity alone... People always assume that I am used to it, being that I am from Texas and all, but there are things that one just cannot get used to. Humidity is one of those things. On the plus side, we had some really cool miracles happen! We had two lessons in particular where the Spirit just went through every heart. So cool. Plus, Sister Bowman invited someone to be baptized for the first time. I didn't even have to prompt her. She just did it! I was so proud. Gosh, I feel like she is a better missionary than I already! We were reading 3 Nephi 11 with Danie, a member referral. She was pretty skeptical about it being the word of God. She's Southern baptist... Anyway after we read it, I asked her how she felt and she said, "I know that really happened. I know this is true." SO COOL. The Book of Mormon softens hearts. It really does. Then Sister Bowman asked her to be baptized. Danie said she had already been baptized (if I had a nickle for everytime we hear this down in the South I could have paid for the entirety of my mission), so we launched into priesthood and basically taught the Restoration. She totally understood it. She is going to read and continue to pray on it. We are actually seeing her tonight, so keep us in your prayers!

I've been studying church history a little bit lately. I'm almost through with the Doctrine and Covenants and just finished "Our Heritage" again. It just amazes me how strong those early Latter-day Saints were in the gospel. They were asked to sacrifice so much and they underwent so much persecution. I feel like my mission "sacrifice" is so pitiful in comparison! People we talk to are always so impressed with the sacrifices we make, but it isn't really much of anything. Sure, I miss you all and my friends, but it is for only 18 months! And I have had so much given to me in return! Testimony building experiences, friendships, converts, a greater depth of understanding, greater knowledge of the scriptures, and a greater understanding of myself. I understand why they call it the "best two years" (or eighteen months!). I really just love being a missionary.

I got a letter from Michael and Mona this week. They are doing really well! They both have callings now!! The sisters are trying to teach Michael's son, so I am excited to see how that pans out. It is so nice to hear how strong they are in the gospel though. I am excited for them to go through the temple next April!!

I love you all so much!

Sister Daniels

Dear family,

Sorry this email is getting to you so late! We went to the zoo this morning!! Sister Barlow is the senior sister we live with and she took us. It was one of the best zoos I've ever been to. It was small and only took us a little over an hour to go through and it was shady and we got to feed the giraffes! They have these long, purple-ish tongues. Yup. Crazy stuff. We also bought some nectar to feed the birds and they just flocked to us. I have a ton of pictures but they will have to get to you via snail mail. It was SO much fun. We ended up seeing another group of sister missionaries there! I got to see two of my previous companions, Sister Jackson and Sister Brown. Love them!

Things in Dutch Fork are going great. We had the Restoration with Kim and David and it went really well! I was a little nervous, since Sister Bowman had just learned the Restoration and it would practically be her first, but Kim agreed to pray about being baptized. David wouldn't give us a straight answer although I asked him about four times. We hope to next teach the Plan of Salvation in a member's home. Kim knows one of our members, Sister Waters, pretty well so we are hoping that their testimonies, plus the Spirit in their homes will help them get that spiritual confirmation they need to proceed! I love them dearly though. It reminds me of being with Michael and Mona. Hopefully, we get the same end result!

We have been doing a lot of knocking, which always makes for some interesting encounters. I almost got into my first Bible bash. I've gotten a little more fiesty the longer I've been out, which is not really a good thing. But we did reign it in. Herb is a Methodist and thought it providence to find two unbelievers on his doorstep, so he gave us a Bible (which I totally kept, it being  perfectly mini and the KJV) and tried to teach us the Plan of Salvation (the whole by grace alone we are saved and it doesn't matter what we do gambit). We attempted to teach him our version, but the Spirit wasn't really there since he was definetely on the offense, but we did leave a Plan of Salvation pamphlet so hopefully that will soften his heart. We also met a guy named Tommy. He is very interesting and seemed fascinated with how devoted we are to our religion. He doesn't believe in organized religion, but he said he wouldn't mind learning about ours. That and he said he would teach us how to sail after I'm through with my mission, which seems like an exciting prospect! Yay, southern hospitality!

Well, I love you guys! I love being a missionary!

Sister Daniels

Dear family,

Thank you so much for all the letters!! Feeling the love! I also got the CDs and they are wonderful. There is one called "Danish melody" that I just love. I don't understand a word it says, but it sure is pretty! Also, Mom you look fabulous in all of your pictures! It looks like you've lost weight! (Not saying you didn't look fabulous before because you totally did :)

So here's the skinny on the past week:

On Tuesday we had a training meeting for the trainers. Which was way intimidating. President Turner said he told all the trainees that he had given them "the best this mission had to offer" and that we needed to be the best. Yikes! There were five other sister missionaries who are training this transfer too. After the training meeting, we took the new sisters out knocking for two hours. We were randomly assigned, so I didn't go with my actual trainee. I went with Sister Swanson. She was really nervous but really excited and cute too. I made sure to talk to every single person that I saw. Every one was really nice and friendly and we even got into a house! Her name is Darian and she is 23. She has been going through a rough time (boyfriend troubles, geesh) and I think she really took it as a sign from God that our showing up was him telling her He loved her. She was really open and friendly and we are excited to go back and teach her again!

On Wednesday Sister Borgholthaus and I went to transfer meeting to get our new companions. Gosh, I was BEYOND nervous. I kept looking at all the trainees hoping for some kind of inspiration as to who was mine, but alas none came. But that's okay because President Turner let me know soon afterwards. My new companion is Sister Bowman and she is so cute! She is all of 5'1'' and I look like a giant (who knew at 5'6'' I would ever think that??). She is from Colorado and is so much more prepared to be a missionary than I ever was! She has gone out with the sister missionaries in her ward quite a bit and she absolutely loves knocking, which is something I found VERY hard when I first got out. So score on that one since we knock a lot here. Training is so much fun! I love going back to the basics and it has really shown me how far I have come. It is fun to see her grow and to use something that we had practiced in companionship study out in the real world. And boy did we get some miracles this week!

Biggest and most exciting miracle: Kim and David. They are former investigators. Kim had been praying and crying for guidance and then the missionaries knocked on her door. Cool, eh?? So they came to church twice, but didn't have time during the week to take the lessons from the missionaries. Eventually, David said he "missed his sermons" so they stopped coming even though Kim wants to be a member so bad. Well, we stopped by this week and they totally agreed to take the lessons and so we will be teaching the Restoration on Tuesday and I am so excited I can't even tell you!! AHH! They already have a ton of friends in the ward and love the church. So please, please pray that all will go well and that they will feel the Spirit crazy strong and a miracle will ensue!

I love you guys with my whole heart! I love being a missionary!

Love,

Sis D

OH MY GOODNESS. OH MY GOODNESS. I'M TRAINING THIS TRANSFER.

 

I got a call from President Turner Friday night and he asked me to train this transfer. He said this was the most important and trusted role a missionary could have (no pressure or anything!). I am so nervous, but also really excited. Miracles always happen with trainees and we can always use more miracles! I couldn't go to sleep (at one point Sister Borgholthaus made me take Melatonin since I wouldn't stop talking :) because I kept thinking about my trainee and about my two trainers and all the many companions that I have had and about the kind of trainer that I wanted to be. I feel really inadequate, but at the same time I feel like I am ready now more than any other point on my mission. I have had TWO trainers. Not many people have that experience so I was able to see different people's take on it. I've also had nine companions and have learned a lot from each person. I knelt down and prayed for her and for me and for this area and the weirdest thing happened. I felt this peaceful surge of love for this person whom I have never met and whose name I do not know. I love her already and I am excited to work hard and to help her love being a missionary. I am excited for the growth that will happen to both of us. I am going to learn so much and I hope she will be able to learn a little something from me as well. I hope I won't be too rigid or stressed and yet still on purpose and focused and yet still have fun. I am praying for that balance!

 

Also, I'm getting driving privileges...

WATCH OUT SOUTH CAROLINA!

 

So I need you to send in my driving record from the DVM, please! Also if it isn't too much trouble would you mind sending me some CDs? Sister Borgholthaus is taking her collection with her and I will be music-less. I really like BYU Vocal Point's "Lead Thou Me On". Lower Lights is good too :) Oh and the "Joseph Smith Tribute" from the Nashville Tribute band and anything else you deem proper!

 

I am going to training meetings this Tuesday and then I will get my trainee on Wednesday. We find out where Sister Borgholthaus is going on Wednesday and who her new companion will be. The last few days have been absolute chaos, since Sister Borgholthaus wants to see everyone and say good-bye so we have had some very busy days!

 

Happy early birthday, Mum!!! I love you! I plan on writing a birthday card full of the usual mushy sentiments so it should be there by your birthday! Also, I hope to get the boys each a card too. I didn't know what they would want present-wise since the stinkers never write me so I think I'll just have to make do with a card!

 

Pops and Lou, your kayak trip sounds like fun! Oh it is so happening when I get home. I have been surrounded by water my whole mission and not been able to do anything with it! Oh, the cruel irony....

 

I love you all SO SO much. Pray extra hard for me on Wednesday. We're going to need it :)

Love,

Sis D

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