Dear family,

 

This week was much better than last week! Still entirely overwhelmed, but I don't feel like I'm sinking. We had two exchanges this week too and they went really well. I even got to go to institute! One of the companionships we are over works on Clemson University, so we got to walk on campus to the institute room. Oh my goodness did I love being on a campus again. The institute room was in the library, so I was in heaven. There was some recent converts attending institute and they blew me away with their comments. They sounded like they had been members forever! The work is progressing!

 

We also had a service opportunity this week! We got to to go to the Senior Service Center and help serve and host the Thanksgiving lunch they were putting on for the seniors in the community. Elderly people are a hoot, let me tell ya. One guy excitedly proclaimed, "I've got the Mormon girls serving me!" I also had an interesting conversation with a lady who told me never to get married as men were nothing but overbearing. She was the sassiest little thing. We got to meet a lot of people and it softened the hearts of many there. We had a really good conversation with one of the volunteers there about what we do as missionaries. She plans on volunteering there more often and we do to so hopefully something can develop from it!

 

The highlight of the week was Catelyn Henry. She is a 15 year old girl who referred herself on mormon.org. She is seeking for truth and wants to learn about all different religions. Well, we taught her the Restoration and she said something like, "I can't believe the first religion I tried is the true one!" She's agreed to be baptized on December 20th!! She came to stake conference yesterday and has a bunch of questions. She's an inquisitive one for sure and so smart. She's planning on going to Harvard and I can't believe how fast she soaks up the information. She just understands it so easily. Her parents aren't religious but support her and even drove her to stake conference. Her mom will sit it on the lessons so we hope that the Spirit will touch her too! We are teaching them the Plan of Salvation tonight, so please pray that all will be well!

 

I love you all so much!! Have a very happy Thanksgiving!!!

Love,

 Sis D

Dearest family,

 

So much has happened this week and I don't know where to start... We had TWO exchanges this week and it wore me out. I haven't been this stressed or felt this inadequate in a long time. It's been hard. The area and the ward are really big and I am struggling to learn it as fast as I need to. Because we have so many exchanges, I'm not in my area a lot of the time and I fear I will never learn it or develop relationships with my investigators or the members here. I am tired. I feel like I am running on fumes and could probably sleep for three days straight at this point. But on the plus side, I really enjoy getting to know the other sisters and they have taught me some important lessons! On the second exchange of the week, Sister Ramstedt came to Simpsonville with me.  We laughed for almost the entire exchange. It was fun and we worked hard and it was exactly what we needed. Whenever I feel like the Lord has asked too much from me or that the task is just too great, He always sends help. 

 

We had another lesson with the Klingers. They invited us and the Pooles over for dinner and we had Cuban beans and rice (it reminded me so much of your rice and beans, Pops!). We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it was amazing to see how their faces lit up when they learned about eternal families and eternal marriages. So powerful. Brother Klinger, especially, wants to believe it is true. They have committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it! We will hopefully see them both on Wednesday of this week and on Sunday! Sister Robinson and I did some service for them this week too which was a lot of fun. I helped Sister Klinger paint her hallway and Sister Robinson (the artist and painting major) is painting a tree mural on their wall. It is a great way to develop a relationship with them and to really get to know them! It is cool to see the Lord using Sister Robinson's talents to further the work! She is elated!

 

I love you all SO much and I miss you!

Love,

Sis D 

Dearest family,

 

So much has happened this week and I don't know where to start... We had TWO exchanges this week and it wore me out. I haven't been this stressed or felt this inadequate in a long time. It's been hard. The area and the ward are really big and I am struggling to learn it as fast as I need to. Because we have so many exchanges, I'm not in my area a lot of the time and I fear I will never learn it or develop relationships with my investigators or the members here. I am tired. I feel like I am running on fumes and could probably sleep for three days straight at this point. But on the plus side, I really enjoy getting to know the other sisters and they have taught me some important lessons! On the second exchange of the week, Sister Ramstedt came to Simpsonville with me. We laughed for almost the entire exchange. It was fun and we worked hard and it was exactly what we needed. Whenever I feel like the Lord has asked too much from me or that the task is just too great, He always sends help. 

 

We had another lesson with the Klingers. They invited us and the Pooles over for dinner and we had Cuban beans and rice (it reminded me so much of your rice and beans, Pops!). We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it was amazing to see how their faces lit up when they learned about eternal families and eternal marriages. So powerful. Brother Klinger, especially, wants to believe it is true. They have committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it! We will hopefully see them both on Wednesday of this week and on Sunday! Sister Robinson and I did some service for them this week too which was a lot of fun. I helped Sister Klinger paint her hallway and Sister Robinson (the artist and painting major) is painting a tree mural on their wall. It is a great way to develop a relationship with them and to really get to know them! It is cool to see the Lord using Sister Robinson's talents to further the work! She is elated!

 

I love you all SO much and I miss you!

Love,

Sis D 

Dearest family,

 

So much to say and I don't know where to start! We had MLC (missionary leadership council) this week. All the zone leaders and the sister training leaders get together with President Turner and talk about the needs of the nmission and how to implement new ideas or policies, etc. It was cool to see how President Turner conducts these meetings. It is basically a five hour open discussion. He really takes our thoughts and ideas into consideration, which I think is really neat but a lot of pressure too. With a new mission president, the mission culture is changing a lot. I think President Turner is exactly what this mission needed! Anyway, we took what we learned at MLC and did a training at ZTM about it. It was harder than I thought it would be to really convey all that the president had talked about, and I hope we managed it!

 

We had the COOLEST miracle happen this week. The Pooles have been sharing the gospel with their neighbors for almost three years. On Sunday, they invited us over to their home to teach the first lesson and have dinner with their neighbors! This is the first time on my whole mission that a member has referred a friend and actually been involved in the teaching process. This is what missionary work is supposed to be like! It just got me so excited to be a member missionary! At first I was nervous about having a dinner before the lesson, but it actually worked out really well. It broke the ice and got the Klingers comfortable with us. When we started teaching the Restoration, the Spirit was so powerful, especially during the first vision. Brother Poole bore such a strong testimony about eternal families. The spirit was leading the whole lesson and I just knew what I needed to say and when. We are going to start teaching them all the lessons and the Klingers all agreed to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and in essense to investigate the church. Brother Klinger thinks Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet! He has been thinking about baptism a lot and has talked to Brother Poole about it. They both said they would "absoluely" be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints if they find it to be true! They are so elect and so prepared! I am really excited. We are also going to start to help Sister Klinger paint her house, so hopefully that will help deepen our relationship with her! I just feel like the Lord blessed both Sister Robinson and me with this miracle to teach us at the end of our missions what we need to do when we go home. I need to develop relationships with people who are not members. It is going to be way hard, especially in Provo, but I am going to try! It took the Pooles three years of just being their friends before they got interested in the church. So my challenge for y'all is to make some nonmember friends!!! Just think of the difference we can make in the lives of not only our friends but for their posterity for years to come! It really strengthens the members too. Sister Poole just started to cry during the whole thing and thanked us profusely afterwards. AHH! I am so happy! 

 

 

We had a less-active come to church, Brother Lynch. He brought his two daughters, and it was the perfect Sunday for them because it was the Primary program. The theme was "Families Can be Together Forever" and it was exactly what he needed to hear. His wife isn't a member but will let us talk to her every time we go by and I think this program will show him how much he needs this for his entire family. He even whispered to his daughters, "Next year you'll be up there too," and then he said he was going to get them some Books of Mormon!!! We have seen so many blessings lately!!

 

Something that our mission is emphasizing is teaching the members the missionary lessons too! We've taught four active-members the Restoration in the last couple weeks and we've got quite a few referrrals from it! It also brings a special spirit into the home and we've had people tell us that they just love when we come over because of the spirit we bring and that it STAYS. So my other challenge for y'all (I've got quite a few this week!)  is to invite the missionaries to teach the Restoration for FHE. It is hard for missionaries to get lessons from 8-9pm so that would be the perfect time to invite them over to teach it. I'm sure the missionaries will be more than happy to do it!

 

I love you all dearly! I love being a missionary and I love that I will always be a missionary!

Love,

Sister Daniels

Sis ta'ala gave Morgan a lava lava

Sister Clarks Giraffe onesie that they all took turns wearing.

Sister Robinson and Morgan having a hot chocolate 

 

Dearest family,

 

Oh my goodness. This has been the most stressful week! On Wednesday, we went to the transfer meeting. I can't describe how it feels at these meetings. All nervous anticipation. Anyway since I knew I was going to be a sister training leader, I had two options: Sister Robinson in Greenville zone and Sister Hart in Lexington. When Sister Robinson's picture came up and before they announced her new companion, I knew she was going to be my companion. Spirit confirms truth. Anyway, it is going to be crazy because she is going home next transfer and I will be going home the transfer after that! It's going to be hard to learn the area that quickly and then teach it to a new companion just as quickly! But I am just going to have to do it! I am serving in Simpsonville 2nd ward, which is in the upstate. I am really excited since I've never served in the upstate! They even have "mountains"! Although they are more like hills when compared to the Rockies... The area is in a bit of a slump. They don't have any investigators right now, but they do have a lot of less-actives that are returning to full-activity. Sister Robinson is very unique. She's a vegetarian and loves Whole Foods and hard candy. She's an artist and was studying painting at BYU Hawaii. She's whipping me into shape! We've done a Jillian Michael's workout video every day this week and I just feel so much better! I LOVE teaching with her. She always has such wonderful insights and I feel the Spirit so strongly. Teaching with her comes really easy. We've only been together for five days and yet we teach so seamlessly together. Such a blessing considering the short time I will be with her!

 

We taught ten less-actives this week and many came to church! One lady is less-active due to health. Her name is Sister Rankin and she is a hoot! She lives in the nursing home, which we biked to btw. It was all uphill (so as I'm sure you can imagine: my love and admiration for these mountains dimmed significantly). We got there just in time! She needed help mailing her Halloween cards and since she has Parkinsons

we sped up the process quite a bit. We helped her get everything done and then we wheeled her down the hall to the mail drop off. She kept saying, "Faster, faster!" She rewarded us by getting dressed up in her Halloween costume!

 

Gosh, I love the people here! This area has so much potential and I just want to get to work!

I love you all so much!

Love Sis D

Dearest family,

I want to apologize in advance for this letter. Transfers are this week and I am getting transferred, so my list of to dos is getting bigger everytime I think of it! My mind is going a million miles an hour, so this letter might be a rambling mess....

Big, BIG changes are on the horizon. President Turner called me Saturday morning and called me to be a sister training leader (STL)! It's kinda like a sister zone leader. I don't know quite how I feel about it. I am excited because it is a huge growing opportunity. I will be able to go on exchanges with many sisters and get to know them and see different parts of ole South Carolina, but I'm nervous too. This is a huge responsibility! I have valued the training I've been given by sister training leaders in the past and they have had a huge impact on my mission. I just don't want to mess anyone up!

I've been thinking a lot about the sister training leader I want to be. I've also thought about WHY I was called. What have I learned that the Lord wants me to impart to my fellow sisters? I think the biggest thing I have learned is to choose happiness. Choose to love being a missionary. Choose to love the struggle. I think sisters, in particular, beat themselves up. They compare themselves and their outward results to others or to their idea of a "perfect missionary" and they just grow discouraged. I know because I've done that. It doesn't help the work in the slightest. I think I held back for fear of making a mistake or for the fear that someone would see my imperfections, but I've just learned to embrace it. Through experience, I have gained a testimony of the promise: Who God calls, He qualifies. AMEN.

I got to go on exchanges this week with Sister Brown, my trainer. She is going home this Wednesday and I am going to miss her! I have never taught so well with any other companion. Whenever we teach together, I know exactly what she is going to say and where she is going with it. I know when I need to speak. It is so easy with her! On the exchange we met a dear woman named Mandy. We knocked on her door and I offered to say a prayer with her and she aquiesced to my request. As I said the prayer, she just started crying. She had gone to the hospital that morning for some pretty scary stuff and was waiting for the results. She just expressed how much she needed that prayer. Another cool miracle we saw this week was with a girl named Sue. We knocked on her door and asked if we could help her. She just started crying and said, "I had just been praying for someone to come help me." She was an older woman with no family and really needed help clearing out her garage. So we helped her and shared a bit of the Restoration. When we showed her the picture on the Restoration pamphlet and talked about how much God loves her and how she isn't alone, she just started crying again! I just LOVE being an instrument in the hands of the work. I love being an answer to someone's prayer!

I love you guys so much! I find out Wednesday who my new companion is and where I am going!

Love

 Sis D

 This lady sent me a text that said "I have enjoyed your girl so much and thought you might enjoy this picture of her on her last day in Dutch Fork." 

Dearest family,

 

It has been quite the week! Tonya, my Louisiana friend, came to church and really enjoyed Relief Society. She was making comments and sharing experiences right along with the lesson. Definitely not a shy one! It was amazing to see her heart be softened throughout the church service and by the end she turned to me with a rather incredulous look and said, "I think you might be saved." Well, hallelujah! As promised, we went to her Baptist church as well. It wasn't anything like I expected. I had been led to believe there would be a lot of talk about hell, fire, and brimstone and that there would be a boisterous choir singing out "Amens" and "Hallelujahs" throughout the meeting. Hollywood has disappointed me yet again! It was a small church and the preacher talked about the importance of the word of God (he also mentioned that the Bible is the only word of God, for our benefit I am sure :)) and yet as I looked around I could feel so much love for these people. They are worshipping God in the best way they know how and I know the Lord is proud of them for doing so. It was a cool experience and caused me to understand my investigators on a different level now. The members of the church were all very nice and introduced themsevles to us after the service. One very concerned, older gentleman came up to us and wanted to know if we had been saved. I guess he has read the Book of Mormon and thinks our souls are at risk. Tonya stood up for us and said she knows we are saved and believe in Jesus Christ. It was pretty cool! I think we changed the perceptions of Mormons for everyone in the church! Oh, speaking of changing perceptions, did you all see "Meet the Mormons"? We get to see it at Christmas and I am very excited about it!

 

Another highlight of the week: the STATE FAIR! We got to go and wheel around the elderly in their wheelchairs. Having had no experience with people on wheelchairs, I had underestimated just how hard to push those crazy things can be! It was quite the work out, but really fun! My woman was from Cuba and Jamaica and had the most delightful accent. She really liked the art work and had zero interest in the cows, so we got along swimmingly. I also tried another Southern delicasy: the fried Oreo. I am not even kidding. It is in Oreo dipped in red velvet cake batter and then fried. It was surprising delicious! There was also a friend stick of butter, but I wasn't quite brave enough to attempt it.

 

We also had a lesson with some Jehovah Witnesses! I've been wanting to do this my whole mission, but none would ever let us in! They shared with us some of the things they believed and we shared with them basically the whole Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. Some of their beliefs are really similar to ours! I felt the Spirit so strong when we were testifying, especially during the First Vision and when we talked about eternal families. And the crazy thing is that I felt the Spirit when they testified, too! This week has really showed me that the Lord loves all of His children and while our church has the fulness of the everlasting gospel, other denominations have truth too. I have grown to really appreciate the faithful followers of Jesus Christ. I just want to add to the truths they already treasure!

 

I love you all so much! I love being a missionary and I love South Carolina!

Sis D

 

Oh and I almost forgot my challenge for y'all: Study Preach my Gospel during Family Home Evening! The lessons are in Chapter 3. Have the boys teach 'em. There is a very powerful spirit that enters the home, when the missionary lessons are taught. We are starting to teach the Restoration to our active families as well and the Spirit is really incredible.