Mar Vista: Transfer 8: Week 4 Merry Christmas!!! Dec. 20, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I love Christmas so much! It really is the best time of the year to spread the good news that Christ was born and that he still lives today. Everyone's heart is a little bit softer as people come to focus on Christ and as many people realize that they haven't really thought about him throughout the year. We've been seeing so many miracles, especially in the Visitor's Center. It is kind of sad to be away from all of the people at home that I really love, but I have been too busy to think about it as I have tried to do everything possible to take advantage of this prime time to teach about Christ. The other day when I was in the grocery store there was a huge line and only one check stand open, so we went through the whole line inviting people to come to the Christmas concerts at the Visitor's Center. I've never been able to be that bold and fearless in that type of situation to just talk to a crowd full of strangers waiting there grumpily in a grocery store line, but it's Christmas, so it changes everything. People listened and were happy to hear about it because they saw that what we were offering was good, free, and was something they wanted. If only they could see that the gospel and salvation are the best and most important things they could receive in their life! We would spend a lot more time just teaching instead of trying to get out there finding people and showing them that this is important and valuable. That is why as members it is so important to show people the happiness that you have and how it comes from living the gospel so that they'll want a piece of it. It is through your example that they can see of how it could change their lives.

We had our ward party on Saturday and the bishop invited his neighbors that aren't members. They are an adorable British family with two young kids. They loved the party and felt at home with all of the young families and young kids. We are hoping they will be open to having us teach them, but we are trying not to pressure them or scare them away. The ward is really afraid that as missionaries we are going to be too intense and scare their friends away, so we are working on building that trust and showing them that we are able to follow the spirit and do this work God's way, and that if their friends are open they will feel and know that this is true, no matter what we do or say. I make mistakes all the time, so I'm really glad that this work isn't dependent on my efforts alone, its all about letting the spirit work through us and he's the one that gets the job done and converts these people. We are just the messengers, like the shepherds and the angels that announced the birth of Christ, all we do is invite people to exercise their faith to come and see, and to come to know that Christ is their Savior.

The other day, right before the Visitor's Center was about to close and we were telling people to leave, I walked up to a couple and was about to tell them that we were closing when I noticed that he was explaining to her the pictures of inside the temple, so I asked if she was getting ready to go to the temple and he told me that she wasn't a member, so I talked to her for about two minutes and told her about the Book of Mormon and she told me that he really wanted to read it, so I invited her to have the missionaries go over to teach her and she accepted. It was an amazing miracle and another testimony to me that when someone is ready to accept the gospel they will feel the spirit and we won't really have to do anything, we just have to invite them! I barely did anything to help her, because I literally only talked to her for two minutes, but she had been prepared by the spirit and was ready. There are so many people around us that are ready to come to Christ and change their lives, and we just have to invite them. Remember, "It is better to invite them and have them say no then to not invite them when they would have said yes!"

I hope that you are all thinking a little bit this season about how you can share the gospel and be like the shepherds and the angels in the story of Christ's birth, because that is where the truest and purest joy will come from, as we see the joy on our friends' faces as they change their lives for the better. I know because I have felt it so many times on my mission, and I want you all to feel it too! I love you so much and am grateful for the wonderful examples you are to me, and the ways that you remind me and help me to be a better person just by being you. I have the most wonderful family and friends in the world, and I sincerely love you all. I don't know what I would do without your love and support.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Love,
Sister Dansie

(cont. from 12/28/2010 post)
7. Marquez and Reyna family!
8. Marquez family- they gave me a stocking and a scarf :)
9. Me and Sister Dickson
10. Sister Salazar- she is going home this week :(
11. Me and Scott Anderson- Angela's institute teacher- I forgot to tell you in the letter that I saw his on his way to New Zealand, he stopped by the VC

Mar Vista: Transfer 8: Week 3‏ / Dec. 14, 2010

Hi family!

Things have been really crazy at the Visitors' Center this past week with all the lights, but its been good. On Saturday we had over 3000 people come into the center. Our daily average is usually about 200. Its fun being busy like that, but it takes a lot of energy. We've also been trying to get our ward excited about inviting their friends to the Visitors' Center as a way of opening the door to their interest in the church. Its been going pretty well so far. Mar Vista hasn't had very much recent success in terms of missionary work, so it is hard to get people to break out of that being the expectation for the work in this area and have the faith to invite their friends and get things going again. We're working on it though, slowly but surely.

On Saturday we had a Relief Society activity decorating wreaths to take to the less active sisters in the ward, and they asked Sister Dickson and I to sing, which was fun, and we also got to decorate a wreath. It was a good way to get to know all of the sisters in the ward. They are all really nice. There are so many beautiful, picture perfect moms that live in the UCLA married housing and are in our ward. On Sunday in Sacrament meeting they blessed a baby and announced that it was the eighteenth baby of the year. Isn't that crazy? Eighteen. There are a lot of adorable little kids. It is so interesting being thrown into what feels like a completely different world, but then realizing that the church is still pretty much the same, wherever you go or whatever the ward is like. How can you not see that its true?! Mankind can not do that on its own- there would be too many differences and changes in the church from ward to ward. The church truly is governed by God through his Holy Spirit.

So, I'm not really feeling up to writing much today, but I love you all! I feel like the weeks are going by quicker and so basically I just have less to write anyway. :P But I am doing really good. I'm loving sharing the gospel and helping people find the true joy of Christmas through following Christ, so, what more do I need, right? I'm very happy, and I hope that you all are too.

Have a great week! :)

Hermana Dansie

Pictures:
1-3 Santa came early this year to the sisters at the temple apartments. :) (aka Elder Hancock, the Vehicle coordinator/ one of the senior couple missionaries needed to practice for his role as Santa at a ward party.)
4. My wreath :)
5. The Reyna family! They came up to see the lights. They are doing so good! They're going to be sealed as a family next December.

Mar Vista: Transfer 8: Week 2 / Dec. 7, 2010

Hi family!

My new area is so beautiful!!! I have all of Venice beach, which is a really interesting quirky area which kind of reminds me of Yachats, Oregon in a way, and there is this beautiful canal system that runs through this one neighborhood and they all have little paddle boats and canoes that they can take right up to their houses. It is a really fun area. We spent a day walking around visiting less active members and street contacting, and we invited everyone to the free Christmas concerts at the Visitors' Center, so everyone was really nice to us, which apparently is a big change from what Sister Dickson is used to in this area. It is really nice being able to offer them something free that they want. Hopefully it bring them to the temple where they will be able to feel the spirit and want to learn more. Christmas time is the best time to be a missionary! I love how everyone is thinking about Christ and how people are so much friendlier.

We had a miracle that same day as we were walking around Venice. We were trying to find a less active member, and we ended up going right up to the board walk, and we walked along it for just a little bit but then asked each other "Are we supposed to be this close to the ocean?" and then realized as we looked over at a bunch of shirtless people playing volleyball that probably not, so we turned in to a road out of beach view and ran into a woman that came up to us and said "I know you, you're missionaries!" She was from Honduras, and it turns out that she had been investigating there and was about to be baptized, but then moved here and lost contact with the church. She was really excited as to show the things that she remembered while talking to us, like the Relief Society and Joseph Smith. She lives out of our area so we got her information and sent her the missionaries. It was so amazing to find her, and to realize that at that exact moment if we hadn't been obedient and listened to the spirit we wouldn't have been able to have that opportunity and see that blessing. People that are that prepared and amazing from the very moment that you meet them are few and far between, so it is a big miracle to find them, and it increased my faith that there are people who are ready and waiting for the gospel, and literally just don't know where to find it.

Our main investigator right now is named Sam. He is about sixty and he feels the spirit and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but he just feels really loyal to the church that first introduced him to Christianity and helped him change his life around. The poor guy has a lot of health problems, and last Monday he had a really bad fall and broke a few ribs and punctured his lung. He is a strong, stubborn guy, so he didn't stay in the hospital for treatment and was just planning on resting and toughing it out. We offered that he receive a blessing and he accepted, so we went over with the bishop and another elderly man from our ward and they gave him sweet blessing of heath. After they finished Sam looked so peaceful, and he started saying his own prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the blessing and for sending us to help him. He really is sweet. I've never seen or even thought of thanking Heavenly Father right after receiving a blessing, and it was really profound and touching. We are hoping he will eventually feel more comfortable coming to church and recognize that this really is the one true way to return to live with God.

The Christmas lights all went up at the temple and are so pretty! We also have free concerts here every night at seven, so it has been really fun. I love being here in the visitors center! On Christmas Eve and Christmas day the Visitors' Center Sisters are performing the concerts, and my companion and I are in charge of organizing everything which has been really fun. i've also been put in charge of making flyers and programs and those sort of things for the concerts, so all of my skills I've learned from working with Dad all my life have really paid off. :) I never thought that the things I learned there would cross over, but i have to do computer and office stuff all the time here. I'm really glad that the lord has helped prepare me throughout my life for my mission, and I know that my mission is preparing me in a big way for the rest of my life.

Well, I love you all so much! Take the First Presidency's advice and don't get too stressed with all of the holiday preparations. Always remember whose season it is we are celebrating.

Hermana Dansie


PS I met Chelsea Hightower! How cool is that? i saw her last night at the Christmas Devotional. I'm attaching a photo.

1. My new companion Sister Dickson
2. We took some glamour shots in front of the temple
3. Venice canals
4. Sister Dickson and I
5. Me and the temple lights. This doesn't show very many of them- there are a lot more.
6. Giant nutcracker at a member's house
7. The view from my new apartment- 6:30 am sunrise
8. Chelsea Hightower! For those of you who don't know, she is one of my favorite dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance?"

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 6‏ / Nov. 22, 2010

Hola familia!

Happy Thanksgiving this week!

This week was also the last week of transfers. We'll find out tomorrow what is going to happen. I really hope that I get to stay in La Cienega ward. I can't believe its the last week of another transfer come and gone! It has been so good, I've learned so much and probably changed more in this transfer than in my whole mission so far. I have loved learning from my companion Sister Garza and her amazing example of true Christlike love for everyone. I feel like she has helped me to come out of my shell and be myself, and I feel a lot happier and am enjoying every day of my mission. I love it!

Considering this week is Thanksgiving, I wanted to write a little bit about the things in my life that I'm grateful for. Well, just a few of them:

I am so grateful for my Savior, that has always been beside me and loved me and understood me, and is helping me to change and grow into what he sees that I can be. I'm grateful to be a missionary and for all of the miraculous experiences I've had that have changed my life for forever, and the people that will always be close to my heart. I'm grateful for my family; my wonderful parents, my loving and supportive grandparents, my smart, crazy awesome siblings, and just everyone that has touched my life and been there for me. I feel like if I had time I could fill pages of all of the things that I've learned that I'm grateful for, like knowing that I will be with my family for all of eternity. I'm grateful for never having had to live on the street and dig through garbage cans just to survive, for having recieved a good education, for having felt what real love is and not getting so absorbed in the" happiness" that the world has to offer, for growing up knowing that God loves me, for everything beautiful in nature that busy city people miss out on, and just for the hope and faith that I have that God has a plan for me and is guiding my life. It is amazing how many people we meet that do not have any of these things, and it makes me think of how blessed I have been and how much I took it all for granted. I love you and am truly grateful for all of you!

This week I had a really neat experience with an inactive family from our ward. They went inactive when their daughter was murdered by her husband in front of their two year old little boy, and so now they are raising the little boy pretending like he is their own and hoping that he never finds out what happened. I decided to make pumpkin pie and bake it during our weekly planning session, and I felt like we really needed to take one of the pies to this family. They usually aren't home and are in a remote corner of our area, but we decided to go visit them. The Sister was there, and it ended up being a big miracle for her, because one of her baby grandsons is in the hospital right now so she hadn't had any time to clean the house and hadn't slept in days and just really needed help. We asked to help her clean her house, which she resisted because she was embarrassed, but finally I just asked her "Hermana, have you prayed for help?" She said "yes," so I replied, "Well, here we are! Let us help you. We cleaned her house for her and gave her the pie and she was so grateful. It was another testimony to me of how the spirit guides us, because she was only at home for that little bit of time and we could have completely missed her, but we were supposed to be there at that moment to help answer her prayers. I love the quote by elder Uchtdorf that says something like "Perhaps not so important as the answers we receive are the prayers that we help answer," or something along those lines.

I'm attaching some pictures of the beautiful Getty Villa museum in Malibu that we went to today for our P-day activity. It was so fun. Dad would have loved it. :)

Have a great week! Eat lots of turkey and pumpkin pie for me!

- Hermana Dansie

1. Me and Sister Garza
2. Us with Sisters Madison and Mortensen
3. The Getty!
4. Me and Medusa
5. Statue

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 5 / Nov. 17, 2010

Hola Familia!

Jimmy, Karina, and Melissa Reyna were all baptized this past Sunday! It was so amazing. When Jimmy came out of the water he gave a huge sigh of relief and looked so happy. Sister Garcia and I sang "I am a Child of God," because it was the first song we sang with them and is now their favorite hymn. Felix, one of my first recent converts from Maywood, gave a talk at the baptism. It was so good! He turns 19 next year and is going to be such an amazing missionary. It was so incredible seeing all of those seeds we planted come to fruition, and seeing how happy they are. It is days like that that make all of the hard days worth it. I love them all so much and feel like we have such a deep bond, especially because we were their first missionaries. We promised them that we are going to be there when they are all sealed in the temple.

As far as everything is going in Olympic, it has been kind of a struggle getting everyone to progress, but we're working on it. Leavin is doing really good, but just wants to do everything in his own way and his own time. He's a little bit stubborn about it, but he really loves the Book of Mormon and knows that its true and that he is going to join the church, so we are happy about that, and we're working with him towards being baptized, hopefully sooner rather than later so he can have the blessings of having the Holy Ghost help and guide him. A lot of people want to wait until they know everything until they are baptized, and they don't realize that baptism is the way we accept Heavenly Father's help and guidance to learn through our whole lives.

We had a really great Zone conference this past week where we talked about living the spirit of the law and giving our whole hearts to the Lord. It was really great, because I feel like as a mission we were getting so caught up in defining all of the rules that we were missing the whole purpose in a lot of cases. Its just like with the gospel, we can pray, fast, go to church, pay our tithing, and do everything right, but really it doesn't mean anything if your whole heart isn't in it, and if you are just trying to scrape by with the bare minimum than you are missing the point, because Heavenly Father wants us to be "anxiously engaged" in doing good and be "agents unto ourselves," (D&C 58) which means we are going to be proactive and do what we know is right and for the right reasons, not just because someone told you you had to do it. On the flip side it also means not doing what we know is wrong just because we weren't told not to do it. Does that make sense? I was really happy about the conference because it was something that had been bothering me and I had been really praying to try to figure out for a long time, so I felt like it was an answer to my prayers.

I hope everything is going well at home. I can't believe its almost Thanksgiving! I hope you all have fun getting ready for the holidays. I am so excited for the lights they are putting up here at the temple, and I think that we might get to be up at the Visitor's Center next transfer which would be fun. We'll see though. I'll find out about transfers on Tuesday. Well, have a great week! I love you all!

Hermana Dansie

I'm attaching some pictures from this week of the baptism, and also of my new haircut. :)

1. The Reyna family baptism!

2. Zone conference this past week (notice my hair before the hair cut- it was super long, ugly, and out of control)

3. Me in the "Birthday dress," its a tradition now for all of the sisters to take a picture in this really ugly dress when its their birthday. I missed it on my birthday, so I just barely took a picture in it this past Monday, which was the day I got my hair cut. Its still kind of long, but she cut off a lot. I really like it though.

4. On splits with Sister Nef in down town LA

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 4 / Nov. 8, 2010

Hola familia!

This week has been so crazy but really good! Norma went back to Mexico, which was sad, but she was so cute- we took pictures with her and she really wants us to visit her in Mexico. We told her that we'd send her information to the missionaries there, and she told us that even if they don't come by she's going to church on Sunday, because she already knows where it is and when it starts and has been wanting to go for a long time and just never had anyone to go with. We were also helping teach two brothers, Andres and Gilberto, but we ended up transferring them over to the elders so that they can help them better. The little brother is kind of shy when it comes to talking with girls. They were planning on getting baptized the end of October, but they will probably be baptized the end of this month. It was kind of sad turning them over, especially when they were the only people we've been working with towards baptism, but like I said last week we had that amazing miracle with Norma and then with Leavin, so it was kind of like Heavenly Father was preparing us for having to stop teaching Gilberto and Andres.

The miracles continued this week too. Sister Garza and I were about to get in our car and leave when I answered a phone call which made us stop, and while I was on the phone Sister Garza felt impressed to talk to a woman passing by with her cute little boy. Her name is Nora, and as they talked Sister Garza found out that she had just gone through some really hard depression because her husband had cheated on her and left her, and she ended up letting us in. She told us that she really wants to change her life, so we felt impressed to invite her to be baptized, and she said yes! She is so amazing, and she recognized that the hard experience she had helped her turn to God for help, and so even though it was hard it was worth it because it has changed her life and humbled her.

We also got to go to the temple this week, and it was so good! It was one of the best experiences I've had in the temple so far. I was super awake and alert, which is usually a challenge for me, and especially considering our session started at six thirty, which meant we had to be up by four thirty, but I was able to get so much out of it. I was praying and thinking in the Celestial room about what I need to do to really reach my full potential as a missionary, and I felt impressed to pick up a bible and open it up, and I opened up to Ephesians 4, and it was exactly what i needed. It talks about the importance of having charity, or Christlike love, and it made me think of Moroni 7:48, which has become my favorite scripture on the mission because it talks about praying with all of the energy of your heart to be filled with that charity, and then in the last days Jesus Christ will be able to recognize us because we will have become like him. i love it because it helps us to see the bigger picture and that goal of truly becoming more Christlike. Its not about just doing good things and doing everything you are supposed to, it is about literally changing who you are to become more like Jesus Christ, because that is what will make us the happiest in the end. I realized as i was sitting there that I had never truly prayed with all my heart to have that charity, and so I did and I felt different. I felt good, and I realized that I was missing out on what the atonement does for us, because i wasn't applying it to myself. I was teaching everyone around me how to use it and seeing them change their lives, but i wasn't changing my own, because I was still beating myself up over things and expecting myself to be perfect and trying to do everything on my own, and not really loving myself. Anyways, so that was my personal epiphany of the week. It helped me to realize how much i am learning and growing, and I just felt like finally! I'm finally getting it! I don't just understand it logically, but I'm actually feeling it in my heart, and because I was so hard and stubborn it took a lot of very difficult and humbling experiences to get me to that point. I still have a lot of things to figure out, but its finally all starting to click.

 I KNOW that the Savior loves us and that he wants us to be happy, and that he suffered for all of us so that we can overcome the challenges in our lives and eventually become like him and live with him and Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this mission and for everything I've been able to learn, and am so excited to keep working hard and enjoy all of it as much as I can.

Have a great week!

Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 3‏ / Nov. 1, 2010

Hola Familia!

This week was amazing! We had some incredible miracles that came out of nowhere!

Our mission President issued a challenge to commit at least one more person to set a baptismal date in this next week, and right after our training we headed over to an appointment with a woman named Norma. The day before Sister Garza and Sister Williamson tracted into her while I was on splits in Echo Park with Sister Nef. Even though it had only been one day she had read the entire pamphlet about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She told us that she especially liked the part on baptism, and that she really wants to be baptized so she can overcome her past sins, and even though she was baptized in the Catholic church, now that she's an adult she wants a baptism that is "stronger." She just said that she wants a little more knowledge, but she loves and believes everything she read. She believes that we are the answer to her prayers, because Sister Garza and Sister Williamson knocked literally right after she had prayed for guidance. The only problem is that she is only in town for a little bit visiting her niece, but she said that she has always been tempted to go to the Mormon church by her house in Mexico, but she just couldn't get anyone to go with her. She is so amazing! We are hoping she will find a way to stay here a little longer, but if not we are going to teach her and get her ready in the meantime, because she is so excited.

The next day we went over to meet with Leavin. We met him a while ago but have had a really hard time getting a hold of him because of his schedule with work and school. I saw him in the Visitor's Center last Sunday and talked to him about coming to church and meeting with us, and he was able to change things with his work so that he can come to church on Sundays from now on. When we went over for the lesson he told us about how he wants to change his life and get rid of all of his heavy metal music and black clothes and just start fresh. We asked him a lot of inspired questions (that's part of the new method- it involves truly listening and waiting to be prompted with questions from the spirit to find out their real concerns.) We taught him about baptism, and before we could even finish giving the commitment he said yes. His only concern is that he wants to be prepared to really commit and "live the rules." He also feels like we are the answer to his sincere prayers for guidance, and that he wants to have the peace and happiness that he can see that we have. He's been to the Visitor's Center a few times and says that he feels the people there are "mas puro y tranquilo," (more pure and calm) and he wants that in his life.

We feel blessed to be able to teach these amazing people! Heavenly Father has been really good to us.

For Halloween we didn't do anything too exciting. I dressed up as Sister Garza and she dressed up as me, aka, we just switched our tags. :D We went to church and the sacrament program was all about missionary work, so some missionaries gave the talks and we all sang a musical number "Nearer my God to Thee." All of the missionaries had to be in there apartments or in an activity with their zone by six, because it can be pretty dangerous to be out and about, especially with all of the drinking and crazy people in LA. Speaking of which, I went to splits in Down town LA! It was my first time down town and I'm sure I looked like a little podunk Utah girl walking around with all of these fashionable people. I don't think i could handle living in the City. Everything is man-made- even the nature. Its sad because the people just seem so empty. Money is not fulfilling and not worth it! What are these people really living for? A member took us out for dinner at a nice restaurant and everyone was drinking, and it was just really sad for me to think of them and their unfulfilled lives. I'm really glad that this mission is helping to teach me what really matters.

Well, I love you all! I have the best family and friends ever. :) Have a good week! I'll keep enjoying sunny, beautiful LA. I heard there's snow there. Is it really winter already?

Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 2‏ / Oct. 27, 2010

Hola Familia!

I am having a really hard time remembering things that happened this week, and I don't really feel like writing, so I'm just going to try attaching some pictures. I love you all!

Hermana Dansie

1. Sister Garza and I- she loves polynesian stuff (yes it is still really warm and beautiful here with lots of flowers)
2. Matching!
3. Glamour pic
4. Autumn! The leaves change colors here too!
5. Making tortillas for my first time
6. Mirna's baptism

Olympic: Traslado 7: Semana 1 / Oct. 18, 2010

Hola familia!

Elder Nelson came and dedicated the Visitor's Center this week! He came by on Friday, and my companion and I had a the special opportunity of meeting him personally. All of the Visitor's Center sisters were supposed to be there at five for a special meeting with Elder Nelson, and so we decided to go over at four so we could eat our dinner over there. The doors were all closed and locked, so we sat on the steps by the back entrance eating our panda express when all of the sudden Brother Lusvardi, the head of all of the church Visitor's Centers in the world poked his head out the door and asked, "Excuse me sisters, can we get by you?" We turned around and saw Elder Nelson, followed by our mission president coming out the door. Brother Lusvardi introduced us briefly to Elder Nelson and he shook our hands and left. It was such a shock and a blur that I didn't have time to think anything of it, except that Elder Nelson has really beautiful clear blue eyes. He then came later that night and spoke to all of the Visitor's Center sisters. They called on me to say the opening prayer and I was so nervous to pray in front of an apostle. He is so smart and incredibly spiritual. You can tell that he clearly sees the big picture and has the eternal perspective. He talked to us about seeing the bigger picture of helping these people reach salvation and exaltation. That night there was a special meeting with dignitaries and representatives of all different faiths from Los Angeles, and he offered the dedicatory prayer for the building. It was a really neat experience. I feel so blessed to be here during this time in this mission, to be able to witness all of these amazing things that are happening. The Visitor's Center is such a good tool for missionary work. We have every talk, scripture, video, and resource of the church all at our fingertips to share with and teach these people. Its so amazing, I love it.

The other highlight of my week was that Mirna was baptized! Finally! :) The other family that was going to be baptized wasn't. They aren't quite ready yet, but they will be baptized soon too. Mirna is the mom of the family I found and taught in my old area. She was waiting to be baptized because she wanted to do it with her husband, but he was completely unreceptive, so just the three teenage kids were baptized. We found out close to the end of my time in that area that her husband was actually baptized in Mexico when he was twenty. His membership information came up when they were entering the records for his kids. We were told that we couldn't tell her, and so we were hoping that she would make the choice to be baptized on her own out of faith, but she wasn't ready yet and we were transferred. The elders that took over were able to teach her and she decided she was ready to be baptized even without him, and then the elders got in with her husband and she finally found out that her husband is also baptized, so now they all know and there aren't anymore secrets and drama, so the novella is finally over! Now that she is baptized they can all get sealed in the temple a year from now. We are so excited for them to be a happy eternal family, and that we were able to help and be part of it.

We also had transfers this week, but nothing really changed, which I am very happy about. I'm still with Sister Garza in Olympic. We just moved in to an apartment that is closer to our area and the temple. Its a really nice apartment, but from what we've heard its a pretty ghetto area. That's ok though, I kind of like living in the ghetto.

Hey! I just barely found out that I'm in the Visitor's Center news spot that the church made. You should check it out:  http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/#noid

Well, I'm out of time, but I love you all! Have a great week! :)

Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 6: Semana 6‏ / Oct. 11, 2010

Hola Familia!

This past week has been interesting. My poor companion got the flu or something, and so we had to spend a lot of time resting so that she could get feeling better. Being sick on the mission is the worst. It is super hard because you feel so guilty for being sick and not able to work that it is like you can hardly rest because you're stressing about it. She is feeling a lot better now though. We went on a hike this morning that we really fun. It had a really pretty overlook of the ocean and of all of Los Angeles, covered in the usual smog. :) I kept picturing dad hiking with me and joking about how easy the hike was, how it was practically a paved trail and we could have just driven a truck up there. It actually wasn't too bad, it was probably a couple miles long, and it was so nice to be out in nature, even if it was scrubby California wilderness and not the beautiful mountains with all of their leaves changing colors.

We got to work in the Visitor's Center this past Saturday, and I had a really fun experience leading a tour for a spanish ward primary group of about twenty five kids. We went around the temple and they had so much fun- I had them play follow the leader, and showed them the five steps for preparing for the temple, and a lot of cute little things that they loved. It was all in spanish, and afterwards one of the parents came up to me and asked if I had any professional experience working with or teaching children, which made me feel good about myself. I told them that I just still remember what its like to be a kid. :P It had been kind of rough lately, because I feel like no matter what I have done on my mission already, Satan keeps trying to make me feel like a failure, so I had a couple of really neat experiences that are helping me to realize that the work I am doing is worth something, that I am helping, and that there are going to be a lot of fruits of serving a mission that I won't see or understand until much later in the future, and maybe not until after this life, but that I am doing my best and that Heavenly Father is happy with my efforts.

One of those experiences was seeing a man in the Visitor's Center that I had street contacted when we were in Vernon, so I was there the very first time that we met him, and I remember feeling like we needed to stop and talk to him and his friends, even though they didn't seem like they would be interested. Now he is baptized and seems so happy. It was so amazing seeing that change he has made in his life. I know that Heavenly Father blesses us for every good thing we do, even when we feel like we don't deserve it.

Have a good week!

Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 6: Semana 5 / Oct. 4, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
Mirna, Jimmy, Karina, and Melissa are all getting baptized!!! I was surprised by a phone call at about 10:15 pm on my birthday with my last companion telling me that all of these people from my last area are getting baptized. It was a little birthday miracle, and it made my day. Mirna is the mom of the family where her kids were all baptized, and Jimmy, Karina, and their 11 year old daughter Melissa are the adorable family with the cute little girls that we were teaching last transfer. I am so excited to see them be baptized on October 17th. We also had another miracle, which was that Gilberto and Andres, two brothers that we have been teaching, set a baptism date for October 24th. The work has been going strong, and in the same respect Satan has still been working really hard on all of us missionaries. For some reason it has seemed extra hard lately for everyone, and I think that it is partly because Satan knows how powerful the new way we have been teaching is, with truly relying on the Spirit in everything we do.
 
Conference was a really good spiritual boost. I love how for missionaries Conference is as exciting as Christmas. We all sit and anxiously listen to the whole thing and take fervent notes. Its kind of funny, but I love it, because we are able to get so much more out of it. I have never focused this much on General Conference. There were so many things that stood out and seemed like they were especially for me. I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk about slowing down and simplifying life (yes, I did recognize how much it applied to me and how I need to get over stress), and also, of course, President Monson's talk on gratitude. It seemed like most of the talks focused on following the prophet, so we all thought he was going to talk to us about something crazy, like institute the law of consecration or something, but it turned out that he talked simply about gratitude. I felt like it was really profound, and it made me realize how much an attitude of gratitude really could change and improve everything. If we were grateful for what we had we wouldn't need to get in debt for something bigger and better, we would be happy with the families that we have and not give up on them, and we would show our gratitude to God for everything he does for us by keeping his commandments and making good use of our time in this life. It is definitely something that I need to work on a lot. I am so grateful for all of you and how you each individually have blessed my lives. I couldn't ask for a better and more supportive family. I love you all so much. :)
 
If you missed conference, take some time and really listen to it or read it, in the spirit of prayer and focusing on finding something that can change and improve your life, and I promise you will find it. Have a great week!
 
Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 6: Semana 4‏ / Sept. 27, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
I can't believe I saw you yesterday! I feel like it was all just a dream. I was feeling sad knowing that I wasn't going to be able to see James for the next couple of years, and that I missed his big Marines graduation, but then I got to see him! And my parents, Angela, and Bob. The whole family together for the last time in a long time. It was like a little birthday miracle for me. For those of you that don't know, what happened was I haven't been working at the Visitor's Center at all this transfer, so my family all decided to come by and drop off a birthday gift while they were here in San Diego for James graduation, and also so they could see the Visitor's Center. I knew they were coming by sometime this weekend, but wasn't sure exactly when, so I told Heavenly Father that I would leave it up to him and if I got to see them it would be because he wanted me to, and not from me being disobedient. So on Wednesday I found out that they needed us in the VC on Sunday, (it was only the second time they've needed us to come in all transfer,) but I still didn't want to get my hopes up, because even if they had come while I was working there I could have been giving a tour and busy and not have seen them. It turned out that as I pulled up to the temple I looked over and saw my Dad standing by the big tree. They had come out of the Visitor's Center and were literally just about to leave. It would have been so awful if they had left just two minutes before I got to the temple. I would have been really sad. I know that the Lord loves me, and that for some reason I was meant to see my family. I feel like if anything though it just motivated me to keep working hard and enjoy the last eight months of my mission. I'm in no hurry to come home; I still have so much to do, so many experiences to have, and hopefully a lot of people out there that I can help.
 
This week has actually been really full of miracles. We've been working with a family in our ward that has the dad and one daughter that are inactive, but they have another daughter that is on a mission. This Sunday the whole family came to church! The dad was all dressed up with a tie and everything. It was really amazing to see how their family has been blessed because their daughter is on a mission, and made me hope that my family is seeing blessings too. I know that Heavenly Father has been blessing all of us a lot, but I think that sometimes if we're not careful we can miss noticing them.
 
Gilberto and Andres, the brothers of some recent converts in our area, also came to church this Sunday, and they loved it! We are hoping they will be prepared to be baptized in a couple of weeks, so that has been really exciting. Another miracle was that the Relief Society General broadcast was an answer to my prayers and to some questions I've had lately. I went on splits with my Sister Nef this week, one of the sister trainers, and we were talking about how as sisters we can be so hard on ourselves, and in turn be very judgmental of others. I loved how President Monson was so bold and direct in his talk about not judging others. If you didn't get to see it, look it up on lds.org, because it was amazing.
 
I think that something I've realized this past week is that God really does want us to be happy. It isn't all about suffering and trials and sacrifice. I kept thinking that I had to just handle all of the hard things because the blessings were the growth and strength that would come from it, but he also gives us moments of sunshine and laughter and the good, happy things that we want in this life. I guess that I just felt like I had to deal with accepting everything that the Lord knows is best for me and that I need, but sometimes what we want the most is what we need and what the Lord wants to give us. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and have blessed me so much.
 
Tengan una semana excelente y milagrosa!
 
Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 6: Semana 3

Hola familia!

This week was so great! It was like the sunshine after a storm. We had this amazingly miraculous Family Home Evening ward activity this past Saturday, where practically everyone we invited came!!! I don't think you can really understand that feeling unless you've been a missionary. Even the ward members were all telling us how much of a success the activity was, and how they could tell how happy we were. I think that I was starting to lose some of my faith because it had been so long since we've had very much success. Finally though I feel like we've been working the way I have always felt we should. We are working smarter and we are working in unity with the spirit. I feel like the ward is starting to get to know us and trust us because we are going to the ward activities and showing our support. We are working hard but we are praying even harder, and we are relying on the direction and guidance of the spirit. Hermana Garza is a really good example for me of following the spirit no matter what. She is helping me out, because I feel like I always try to second guess the spirit and over think things instead of just doing them.

The family home evening activity was about the iron rod, and we set up a rope and had them go through the course blindfolded with people trying to tempt them away. We did a similar activity in my last ward a couple of transfers ago. It really was a success; everyone loved it. I think that Lehi's vision of the tree of life (1 Nephi chapters 8, 11, and 12) is such a good self evaluation for all of us to think about where we are. Are we moving forward, holding on to the iron rod? Are we lost? Are we being tempted and tried? We are all somewhere in the journey, and God is always there urging us to come back to him and do what we can to make it. Sometimes even after we've tasted of the fruit we can still fall, but because of the atonement we can also come back. On the other hand Satan is always there as well, tempting us. Most of the time with fears, doubts, and insecurity. He tries to tell us that we can't repent and be forgiven, which denies the miracle and power of the atonement. If we don't believe it is possible to repent than we are saying that Jesus Christ doesn't have that power to heal us. I know that he does, and that we can repent. Satan is so evil though! I hate how sometimes he just tries so hard to tempt us with good things that we really want, but just at the wrong time. I was thinking about that as my companion tried to lure people away from the "iron rod" with some fresh baked cookies we had made. He is always going to be there trying to get us to fail, or get us to think that we've failed so we might as well give up. We can only resist all of his temptations through prayer, and through reading the scriptures, which are the iron rod. The scriptures make so clear all of the little games that Satan tries to play and the traps that he sets to get us, and help us remember that keeping the commandments is always the best way to get the kind of happiness that lasts for forever.

The more I'm on my mission the more I realize that God really is our loving Heavenly Father, and that as his children in this point of our spiritual journey we are just like toddlers. There are so many things that we can't even begin to comprehend. We literally physically are not able to understand so many things that God knows. We can't even understand the concept of eternity, even though we know that it exists. This is our first experience with these physical bodies, learning how to control and handle them without them controlling us. Slowly we are going to learn and grow, but as we do we are going to make mistakes and fall down and get dirty, but he is always going to be there to pick us back up if we let him.

Well, I figured it has been awhile since I've given you all a good long sermon, so I thought I'd make up for it today. :D I'm just feeling really good and happy, and like I've gotten back a lot of that drive and motivation to do the work, and I've been paying attention and seeing so many of the blessings, instead of seeing just the negative like I was before for awhile.

The church is true. We have it because God loves us. I know that God loves me, and am so glad that I am here on a mission learning all of these things.

I love you all!

Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Traslado 6: Semana 2 / Sept. 13, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
I had a really great week. It has been a lot of work getting to know everyone in this area, but I am so excited for this transfer. We've been coming up with a lot of great ideas of how to do the work more efficiently. It is so great to have a companion that has a such a similar perspective and is willing to try new things. She had a really good idea to mail our picture with our phone number and a note to all of the members that live in our area, so we are doing that today. We are also going to start doing a Family Home Evening in an retirement complex where a lot of members from our ward live. We've been working with a really sweet older woman named Hortencia who is in her seventies. Her son just got baptized a couple of months ago, and she sat in in all of the lessons and has a testimony of everything she has been taught for the past few months, the only thing is that she doesn't want to be baptized because she is afraid of changing and has all of her friends at the Catholic church. We are hoping that through having this FHE with all of the cute old members in the ward and her that she will be able to meet some friends and feel comfortable with being baptized. We are also working with a man named Fernando. He is about 30 and his girlfriend Monika is a recent convert. He is searching for the truth and really wants to get that same conviction in his life that she has. I have loved meeting all of these new amazing people and just throwing myself into the work, but at the same time not being too serious about it. Sister Garza is really funny and a lot of fun to be with, so she helps me lighten up and just laugh at myself. She got a real kick out of finding out that my mom married her zone leader, so she likes to tease me a lot and joke around about that. :)
 
Well, I don't really have much time to write this week, but like I said I'm doing really good. I love you all!
 
Hermana Dansie

Olympic: Translado 6: Semana 1‏ / Sept.6, 2010

Hola familia!
 
Its the start of another transfer, my first on the downhill slope, which I still can't believe. I was moved to an area called Olympic, spanish speaking, so really not that much has changed according to the work. I am still in the ghetto, which I love. We are "flushing," which means that both me and my companion are new to the area. My new companion is Hermana Garza, she is so incredible and I love her so much already. :) She was actually Sister Garcia's companion in the MTC, and Sister Garcia's new companion is Sister Stout, who was my MTC companion, which is kind of crazy. Hermana Garza is so sweet and loving. She is from Texas and her family is from Mexico. We are really excited, because together we are going to start this really awesome diet plan and get in really good shape. She is hypoglycemic and is trying to lose a lot of weight, and I'm pretty sure that I'm partially hypoglycemic too because I get really sick from eating sugar, so we're really excited to help each other out so that we'll have more energy and be able to do the work even better.
 
Our apartment is nice. IT was really dirty and gross at first because mostly elders have lived there, but we cleaned it up really nice. Its nice because it is pretty big. Another big change is that we won't be working in the Visitor's Center this transfer, which we are actually both pretty happy about, because flushing the area takes a lot of hard work, and it will be nice not having our time and attention divided between two different things. Our area is close to the temple, so they can pull us in if they do need us, and then they will transfer us in and out for different transfers. I'm hoping that not being there this transfer will give me a better chance of being there for Christmas when they have all of the lights and musical performances, but we'll see what the Lord wants me to do. :)
 
The only thing that I feel sad about is that I feel like the transfer ended when I was in a really weird place in my companionship with Sister Garcia and we didn't really get a chance to resolve it. I think is anything she was just really sick of me from being together for three transfers, so hopefully eventually we will be able to be really good friends again.
 
We had an amazing appointment this past week with a recent convert and his mom that isn't a member. The spirit was so strong, and you could tell that she knows that its true. I love how with the new method we are working on asking inspired questions that are guided by the spirit, and then truly listening to the people tell us their concerns. It helps us to get to the root of their doubts so much faster, because we take time to listen to what the spirit is telling us that they need and that they are thinking and feeling, like with Ammon in the Book of Mormon. It is really powerful. I've realized that the way we do missionary work can be so much more effective if we trust in the Lord. I have also been learning about the power of praying specifically, and asking Heavenly Father questions that we need to know the answers. I feel like he has answered so many of my prayers as a missionary. I felt so lucky that I got everything I wanted this transfer- I wanted a challenge, but I still wanted to be in a spanish area, and with a companion that knows how to follow the spirit so much better than I do so that I can learn from her example. It is going to be such a good transfer with so many miracles!
 
I love you all!
 
- Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Traslado 5: Semana 6‏

Hola Familia!
 
I'm doing a lot better this week. Thank for your letters of help and encouragement. This week is transfer week, and I'm in for a huge change! We already found out that our area is going to be "flushed," which means that both of us are leaving and they are bringing in new missionaries, which will probably be elders. We still don't know where we are going though. We know for sure that it will be an area a lot closer to the temple. It has been a big hassle commuting every day in LA traffic, so we are glad to be done with that. It is going to be so crazy for me, because I have been used to being in that same apartment, in that same area for my entire mission so far. Plus is is going to be an entirely different mission for me, because I'm going from little Mexico to an area like Beverly Hills or Hollywood. I'm excited about it though. The hardest part has been saying goodbye to all of the people I've come to know and love in this area. I've also been meeting a lot of really amazing people in the Visitor's Center, and seeing little miracles every day. There is a chance that I won't be serving in the Visitor's Center, because they won't need all of us, so they'll rotate us in and out for different transfers. I'll find out everything for sure tonight, so I'll let you know next week.
 
- Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Traslado 5: Semana 5 / Aug. 25, 2010

Hey family and friends. :)
 
This week was really rough. We spent the week doing a lot of great training, and had an incredible zone conference with Elder Allen Packer. We have been learning how to do everything completely different. For some reason, probably with all of the changes and everything that has been going on lately, I was feeling really overwhelmed. I felt like I had hit my halfway mark and hadn't accomplished anything, and like I was a failure, and just really inadequate. I had been having a hard time with my companion and we both felt really misunderstood and unloved, like we've had three transfers together but still couldn't get it together and weren't really close friends. I think that Satan has been trying to give us a lot more opposition because he knows that all of the new things we are learning and doing in the mission are going to be so powerful. As Elder Packer said, we are learning the language of the spirit, and that is something that is going to change and bless the mission and me personally, and have an impact on my whole life. We are learning how to ask inspired questions and then just stop and listen for the spirit to guide us so we can discern. I have already seen the difference in my teaching and it is really powerful.
 
I also learned how powerful it is to pray and ask very specific questions to God, and listen to receive the specific answers. I received the answers to my prayers and the comfort and guidance I needed, as well as the ability to have a stronger friendship and companionship. I realized again that I need to stop being so hard on myself and expecting myself to be the perfect missionary. I think that it was just the fact that I've looked forward to my mission for my entire life, and I had so many huge expectations for myself. I just needed to realize that Heavenly Father has blessed me in so many ways, and there really was no reason to even be discouraged. I guess it was just a challenge to help me grow stronger. I feel like being on a mission breaks you down to your very core, so that way if you let him God can build you into the person he wants you to be. I don't have very much time to be specific this week, but just know that I've really appreciated having you all there for me and praying for me, and giving me that love and support when I desperately needed it, even if you didn't know that I did.
 
 
- Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 4 / Aug. 17, 2010

Hola familia!
 
I'm in the Visitor's Center right now. The libraries all closed on Mondays so we get to e-mail here. So, last week was so crazy that I didn't really get time to explain everything that has been going on. We've been commuting to the Visitor's Center to work everyday half days this transfer, just so that all of the Visitor's Center sisters can get used to it and know what's going on, and then they'll change it so a few of the companionships will be full field next transfer and we'll rotate through. It's a pretty crazy commute- it takes us about an hour both ways, plus we're still doing all of the work in our area, so it has been crazy, but at the same time really great. I love being in the Visitor's Center! I will love it even more when we don't have to battle the LA traffic to get here though. It took us two hours to get here this morning because apparently President Obama is in town, so everyone was trying to get downtown all at once.
 
We started a special training this week that is going to completely change our mission and missions in general around the world. It is focused on having us listen to and follow the spirit more so that we can really teach the people and not just check off the lessons. I'm really excited for it because I've already seen it help, and it has just been the first day of training. We just had an amazing experience with the sister of an Hermana in our ward who came to the Visitor's Center, and we truly listened to her and listened to the spirit and it was really powerful. It is especially neat because the Hermana is a sister that I feel really close to in the ward that I have known for my whole mission so far, and she is the only member in her family and has told us a lot how much she wishes her family would be open to the gospel, and so it was really special for her to see her sister have an amazing spiritual experience here and hopefully be more open to accepting the gospel.
 
Last week I referred to a few really hard experiences that we've had, which actually have probably been the hardest of my mission so far. We had one of our investigators that told us she doesn't want to learn anything else, to take our book and to leave, because we accidently really offended her. Her baby was crying because she wanted Hermana Garcia to hold her, but we told her that we can't hold babies because it's against the rules, and so she got super offended and told us that she doesn't want to be mormon. It was especially hard because we already knew her and love her and had been teaching her, and to have them reject us is hard, especially when we were doing everything we could to be obedient. We had to just keep telling ourselves that she just wasn't ready. Even before the baby incident she kept telling us that she felt nothing when we taught her- and really that isn't something that we can force. They are either receptive to the spirit or they aren't, and if they aren't we can't change that, we can just hope and pray that one day she will accept it.
 
Our ray of sunshine as far as the work in our area goes has been the family that I told you about that came to the Visitor's Center last week. They are so adorable! And they love us. They treat us like we are angels, and like they are so privileged to have us come over when we visit. They are incredibly humble and willing to do whatever they can to get closer to God and do what he wants of them. Their names are Jimmy and Karina, and they have four kids- Melissa (10), Chris (7), Valerie (6), and Maritza (4). The little girls always cry whenever we have to leave. They are getting ready to get married so they can get baptized. They've wanted to be married but had to wait all of this time for everything to go through with Jimmy's immigration papers, and finally they can. Its like everything has fallen into place to prepare them to accept the gospel. We are so excited to help them be baptized and we love them so much! At the very beginning of the transfer I remember telling Hermana Garcia that if the only reason I stayed in Cudahy another transfer was to help them, then I'm happy with just that. There have been a lot of incredibly fulfilling experiences where I've felt "Wow, if I came on my mission just for this, it would be enough." But then Heavenly Father just keeps blessing me with more opportunities to learn and to grow and to be part of these incredible people's lives.
 
Thank you all again for the love and support you always give me. Your love, your prayers, and your letters have helped to strengthened so much.
 
Dios les bendiga!
Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 3‏ / Aug. 10, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
Wow, it has been quite a week. By far the most intense week of my entire mission up to this point. A quick overview of what happened would include the Visitor's Center opened, the branch i've been serving in for the last seven months just got demolished (absorbed into another ward), our two investigators that had a date set to be baptized kicked us out of their house within two days, the dress code for sister missionaries was changed, and they announced that next week they are training the whole mission with a brand new curriculim that they are starting to use in the MTC. So, needless to say, it has been quite a week. Its a really good thing that i like change, because otherwise I think this week would have done me in. The Lord has been helping me out a lot though.
 
So first of all, the Visitor's Center is open! And it is so cool!!! Everything is so beautiful with state of the art technology and brand new media just for this Visitor's Center. They have a 3D graphic model of Jerusalem as it would have been when Christ was here that they have been working on for the last couple of years, there are touch screens for everything, and a way to e-mail all of the media to yourself or to your friends. It is really nice. Elder Allen, the head of the church missionary department, came and did some training with us, and he called it the "crown jewel" of all of the Visitor's Centers that the church has. But more than all of the technology and cool stuff, there is an amazing spirit being there, and it is going to be an incredible tool to help so many people learn about the gospel and come unto Christ. It was neat having the training and hearing them tell us that as the sister missionaries here the center is just the box, and we are the pearls. We have the responsibility to use these resources to make it a special, life changing experience for everyone that walks in the doors, members and nonmembers alike.
 
With that said, anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the center. That includes all of you. The only thing that they ask is that you do not come just to visit me. If you happen to be in Los Angeles already and really want to come to the Visitor's Center, I hope you do because it is an incredible place and would be a really neat experience to see it. But with that said, I am not going to tell you what my schedule is, and please don't come here searching for me. If I happen to see you, then its ok, and they told us that it will just give us the opportunity to show our families and friends how we are within our role as a missionary. They just ask to be very careful, because visits could potentially completely unfocus the missionary and take us out of our purpose for being here. So, the point is, don't avoid the Visitor's Center because I'm here, but also, don't come just because I'm here.
 
Last Thursday they had a special event for the opening of the Visitor's center and Elder Hinkley came and spoke to us. He is President Hinkley's son, and he has a really special spirit and presence about him, and is like his dad in a lot of ways, so that was really neat. Elder Allen also talked to us about the privilege of being a sister missionary here and being part of this opening. It really is such a special thing to be here and to have been here for all of the excitement of opening. I was thinking about it the other day and realizing that I've gotten everything I asked for, because I had seven months to be in an area completely immersed in spanish and the latin culture and have all of those unique experiences and learn spanish, and now I get to use that spanish and those experiences from the Visitor's Center to help me here.
 
With the opening of the Visitor's Center alone my entire mission has completely changed. We are going to be commuting to work in the Visitor's Center every day, and also we will still have all of the weight and responsibility of serving in our areas, so it is going to be a little intense for awhile as we transition. We are one of three companionships that has to commute to the Visitor's Center, but we are by far the farthest out, and the commute takes an hour. A lot of the Elder's like to tease us about the Visitor's Center being a really cushy assignment, but it has been hard. We don't have any time to study or plan, and we have to be able to come up with something ion the spot all of the time to help anyone who comes in the door- to find out their situation and what they need. The last few days it has been so busy that we've been on our feet for the whole shift and haven't even had time to eat. We're getting the schedule and everything worked out more though, so its getting better. We are really lucky to be here though.
 
We had our adorable investigator family come on Sunday and they loved it! They were really touched by everything, and especially the message that we can be with our family for forever.
 
I'm running out of time, so i'll have to fill you in about everything else that happened next week. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the last of your summer before school and everything else.
 
Les quiero mucho!
Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 2‏ / Aug 3, 2010

Hola mi familia bonita!
 
Its August! Can you believe I'm almost at my halfway point? Sometimes it is still really shocking to me that I'm actually a missionary and I'm actually here, let alone I'm almost halfway done. :P The Visitor's Center is going to open this Saturday, so tomorrow we start training up at the temple. We are going to have to commute for the next couple of days, and then we'll see how much we actually will go to work there this transfer. We are really happy that we get the best of both worlds, because we're not missing out on the Visitor's Center opening, we still get to stay in an awesome area where people listen to us and the ward loves us, and we are away from all of the drama of living with an entire zone full of sisters. My companion and I are the only sisters in our zone, which, to be honest we are pretty happy about. Its kind of sad though because we realized that most of the elders generally do not like sister missionaries. The sisters generally have the reputation of being way too intense and uptight, trying to be like the perfect "robot" missionary, or of being super needy. I've realized that it is because we try so hard to fit the mold of what we feel the perfect missionary would be instead of being ourselves and using and magnifying our personal talents and abilities.
 
My companion, Hermana Garcia, has slowly but surely been helping me to break out of that and realize that i can be a good and obedient missionary, but i can still be myself and act human, and actually have fun and enjoy my mission. So many times i think we fall into the trap of getting to focused on all of our weaknesses and the things we do wrong, and we forget that having that perspective is selfish and wrong. Hermana Garcia flat out told me that I was being selfish because I was beating myself up about some things and some mistakes I'd made. She told me that it wasn't about me, it was about us as a team. I realized that I have spent so much of my life trying to do everything on my own, never needing anyone else or asking for help, and that I was being selfish. Hermana Garcia has helped me a lot. She likes to tease me sometimes that she is working probono as my therapist. She is really honest and blunt, but at the same time she is a great friend, and I know that she would do anything to help me. Yesterday for our zone activity we played "the newlyweds game" as companionships and we got almost all of them right, because we basically know everything about each other. It is such an interesting thing having a companion, because there really is no other situation in your life where you will have to be with someone always, 24-7 within sight and hearing of each other. Its just another one of those mission experiences that I don't think anyone can understand that hasn't lived it for themselves.
 
We got permission to start e-mailing Tuesdays now, because the county libraries all closed on Mondays for tax cuts. Apparently there has been a huge issue in the news here in California because the city of Bell, which is where we live, has municipal employees that are getting paid over 800,000 a year, or something like that. We really only hear bits and pieces. We saw a ton of news people and helicopters and crowds the other day though for a big political rally, which is really strange for such an obscure and remote part of Ls Angeles, and we found out that that was why.
 
The work has started picking up again and has been going really well. We met the most adorable family ever a couple weeks ago and we're helping them get ready to be baptized. They are a couple with four kids, two little girls that are three and five, a seven year old boy, and an eleven year old girl. They are some of the most well behaved children i have ever seen. They all came to sacrament meeting with us last week and they were quiet the whole time. The only challenge that we have with them is helping to get them married. They couldn't for awhile because they had to wait for everything to go through with the immigration papers, but they finally got the ok from their lawyer. Our only worry is that she might want to plan a huge wedding ordeal. We thought it would be fine and we could probably convince them to have a simple wedding and then do something big when they get sealed next year, but then we stopped by the party they had for their little girls' birthday, and it was catered and decorated and they had matching outfits and everything. It was so cute! We're going to have to find a way to become wedding planners. Maybe some of that talent that Aunt Jennifer has will miraculously rub off on me so we can help put something together.
 
I also had another experience of eating something really strange last week- maybe even worse than the pig ear. We were at a dinner appointment, and they had given us some food but then gave the husband something else to eat. It was another kind of soup, and it looked kind of strange, so I asked about it and they said it was a soup with pauta de pollo, which are chicken feet. its an acquired taste even for them, so they didn't offer, but Hermana Garcia decided it would be really funny to make a big joke out of having me try it, so i did. It was awful, so they didn't make me eat it and i didn't feel bad because Hermana Garcia doesn't like it either. It is a really gross texture.
 
This week I also spent some time writing down all of the miracles I've seen here on my mission. It was amazing looking back and realizing how blessed I've been, and how many incredible experiences I've had that are helping to change my life for the better, and helping me to love and understand so many different people. I am so grateful to be here serving a mission. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support.
 
Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 1‏ / July 28, 2010

Hola familia!
 
Guess what? I stayed! I am really happy about it, but I was super shocked. The maximum you can stay in one area is five transfers, and so this will be the big number five. I officially know this area better than the back of my hand, and everywhere I go I see a familiar face. I am excited to be able to just keep working hard without having to deal with any crazy transitions. Plus we have met some really incredible people that we are working with and are just getting out of a really hard trial of not seeing very much success or interest. That really is the hardest thing about the work- having that faith to keep finding the people that Heavenly Father has prepared. I'm still with Hermana Garcia. We are super good friends, which is good. We've been through a lot of crazy things together. mostly good things, but we've had our fair share of ups and downs. I love that we understand each other really well now, and we feel like we literally are sisters.
 
Its funny because we both were convinced that we were leaving because the Visitor's Center is opening this transfer, so we were decided to go out with a bang and we set up this really awesome activity for the branch this past Tuesday for a big family home evening, where we did "the iron rod" and had a rope go in a maze throughout the church and the people had to go through it blindfolded with other people trying to get them to let go. At the end we had everything set up really nice and pretty on the stage with the "tree of life" and a place to sit and write down how they felt and how they could apply it to their lives. It turned out really well and everyone loved it. Our ward mission leader announced at the end that we were probably leaving because the Visitor's Center was going to open, and so everyone was saying goodbye as we got the call that told us we were both staying. We were worried for a little bit that it meant they were going to change our call and we would miss out on the Visitor's Center and become full field sisters, but then we found out that they are just going to have us commute for all of the training and the opening, and then we will eventually come up to be Visitors Center sisters. I'm glad that I get to spend more time really working with the people and seeing them progress and having these kinds of experiences, even if it does mean being out in the heat.
 
This transfer our zone is starting a new goal to have the faith to baptize every week. It has been really challenging building that kind of faith. It has made me realize that so many times we read the scriptures and we think of them as if they're fairy tales or myths, and that those kind of miracles- like baptizing thousands- don't really happen today. I'm trying to build that kind of faith and keep exersizing it. I think no matter what experiences you had before or the miracles you have seen, you have to continue to work every single day to have that faith.
 
I'm e-mailing on a Wednesday because we had our temple P-day today. It felt so good to go to the temple and have that spiritual rejuvenation. We also went to see the Griffith Observatory up in Beverly Hills, which was really neat.
 
I'm running out of time, so I'll write again Monday. Take care!
 
Love,
Sister Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 4: Semana 6‏ / July 19, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
This past week was possibly my last here in Maywood. We still won't know about transfers until tomorrow night, and we are dying to know. The Visitor's Center is officially going to open on August 7th. We saw it on a big billboard they put up in front of the temple on Santa Monica that just says "Curious?" in really big lime green lettering, and then underneath "New Visitor's center opening August 7th. So it is officially in print. Apparently it doesn't look very close to being completed though, so we'll see what happens. We got some of the inside scoop on it this last Saturday when we went up to eat dinner with the Mission President. We were one of the runners up for "Clean Apartment Award" this transfer, so we got to go to a special dinner with President Baker and his wife. It was really nice to get to know them better. The mission home is being torn down and rebuilt, so they live in a really nice little condo right behind the temple.
 
Now that it has gotten hot we have started hoping, dreaming, and praying for the Visitor's Center to open as we are out on the street tracting in over 100 degree weather. I don't know how missionaries in places like Arizona do it. Apparently even the Marines get to stay inside when it gets that hot, from what I read in James letter. I guess that missionaries are just tougher. Just kidding. :D I wanted to go somewhere warm though, so here I am. I would rather deal with the heat for awhile than be trudging through the snow any day.
 
The work has been going really well. I feel like we are involved in about four different "novellas" (spanish soap operas) right now. It is crazy how many things we get to see and here about people's lives, and how from the moment they walk in they trust and confide in us. I love being a missionary and feeling the love of these people from the first moment we step in the door. Apparently I'm in for a big shock though, says Hermana Garcia who was just transferred here from serving in Westwood, which is about 80% Jewish. We've met a lot of really amazing people that are excited about learning more and preparing to be baptized. Whoever the missionaries are that get to be here after must be really prepared and ready to help and teach these amazing people. I've realized that Heavenly Father gives us the work that we're prepared to handle, so the more prepared we are the more amazing opportunities and experiences we can have.
 
I hope you are all doing well and having a fun summer. :)
 
- Hermana Dansie

Cudahy: Translado 4: Semana 4 / July 6, 2010

Hola Familia!
 
Things have really been looking up this week. Mostly because I realized that its natural to have highs and lows in the mission and it doesn't mean that I'm a failure as a missionary, that's just life. We fall down but we have to get up and keep going. I think what was frustrated me the most was the feeling of being stuck in a rut and doing things just because I'm supposed to do them, without the purpose and the passion behind it, but things have turned around and I'm feeling pumped again to be a missionary. It is especially hard in those dry spells where we're not having success and trying so hard to find people to teach, and feeling like failures, but I know that sometimes God gives us those challenges and experiences to help us learn patience and to help us grow stronger, and also to appreciate all of the blessings that he gives us.
 
We had a couple of really incredible experiences this past week that opened my eyes and changed my perspective again about my mission and about life in general. We had a lesson with a family where the grandma is going through chemotherapy treatments for cancer, but miraculously says that she feels no pain and is doing really great. She had a full mammectomy, but she says that she knows the Lord has blessed her to not have pain and to deal with her struggle. She has incredible faith. He has her and her family, and part of it has to do with her grandson. She takes care of her adorable little grandson that is about eight years old but was born both deaf and blind. His dad helps take care of him but has to work. It was incredible to see the love that this father has for his son as he patiently sat and held him, and the sweet little grandma as well. The spirit was so strong in their home. I can't imagine the selfless sacrifice and service it takes to care for children that are handicapped, but I know that those parents are blessed by being able to feel the love and presence of Heavenly Father extremely close. It made me think a lot about all of the hundreds and thousands of things in my life that i take for granted, and how a lot of ways we are like blind and deaf children that can't see or hear our Heavenly Father, we just have to feel his presence and trust him enough to let him guide us.
 
We also met a woman named Darinka who is the mother of a three year old girl and a new born baby boy. We helped her carry her things in to her apartment one day and she let us come back and teach her. She told us that she was having some problems with her husband, and so she really liked what we had been telling her about families and wanted to prepare to be baptized. The lesson was kind of scattered as her terror of a three year old girl kept trying to beat up her baby brother, and this very tired, patient mom kept telling her to stop. The next time we came back so had the look of just being completely empty and devastated, past the stage of crying and almost to the point os hopelessness as she told us how her husband had come to grab all of his stuff and left her with saying "good luck trying to pay the rent" which was due that afternoon. It was so heartbreaking seeing her and her situation. She had no way to pay the rent, no way to buy food for her children, and  no place to go. We didn't know what to do, so we sang her a hymn and told her to pray and that we would try to find a way to help her out. I have never seen anything so heartbreaking. We talked to the branch president and he was able to help her out with the rent and she was so grateful. I can't imagine a father and husband walking out on his family like that. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over her and heard her faithful prayers and that we were meant to cross her path and be there for her to help.
 
I think that i needed that experience to realize that really it is that way with everyone we meet- even though they might not have such drastic temporal needs, their spirits are suffering and aching to find the gospel and have that peace and assurance in their hearts that comes from following Jesus Christ. Some people try to fill that with other things, and become numb and hardened and unreceptive to the gospel, but to those that are open and faithful, God goes before and prepares them to recognize the gospel. It is just our job to invite them to accept it, and invite them to come unto Christ.
 
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that he was the son of God, and that he suffered and died for us and was resurrected. My testimony of him has been strengthened so much as I've had to defend it from all sorts of theories and explanations of men that deny his existence and divinity. I love how Joseph F. Smith says it in his testimony of Jesus Christ:
“The Holy Spirit of God has spoken to me—not through the ear, not through the eye, but to my spirit, to my living and eternal part,—and has revealed unto me that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I testify to you that I know that my Redeemer lives. Furthermore, I know that I shall see Him on this earth, and that I shall see Him as He is. … The Lord has revealed this to me. He has filled my whole spirit with this testimony, until there is no room for doubt.”
 
I encourage you all to pray and continue to renew your testimony of Jesus Christ. I don't know why it is that we can't just learn and feel something once and be good, but for some reasons as humans we have to keep learning and remembering over and over again how important Jesus Christ is in our lives. That's why we have to take the sacrament every week- to always remember him. He helps us overcome our forgetful and ungrateful human nature and continue to prove ourselves, to pick ourselves back up and to keep repenting and changing.
 
I love you all so much! Cuidense mucho!
 
Hermana Dansie