Mar Vista: Transfer 9: Week 1‏ / Jan. 3, 2011

Happy New Years family!

I can't believe that my entire year of serving the Lord is over and its already 2011!
 
So . . . What do you get when you have a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead? The best trio ever!!! AkA, my new companionship. :D
 
We just had transfers and Sister Dickson and I got the addition of Sister Thurston. She was also trained by Sister Salazar, so we already have a close connection. Sister Salazar went home this last transfer and so we were lucky enough to have Sister Thurston come on over to join us. I love her so much. She is really funny, and she also loves basketball. She is from Idaho, and she has beautiful flaming red hair. I think that being in a trio is a lot of fun, so I'm really happy about it. Its good because Sister Dickson and I both are the kind of people that need someone to help us just laugh at life and lighten up, and Sister Thurston is that for both of us. We were taking pictures the other night and laughing so hard we were laying on the floor crying. It was so much much fun. We are also all really hard working and obedient, so it works out really nicely.

Our mission president gave us a challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon between thanksgiving and before the New Year and mark all of the references to Christ, and it was so amazing! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much. At first it was hard for me feeling like I wasn't going to be able to absorb anything reading it so fast, partly because I decided to read it in spanish, which i understand it all, it just takes a little longer. After a while I finally realized that you get an entirely different look of the Book of Mormon as a whole when you read it so fast, and when you are focused on reading it multiple times throughout the day. I had been dealing with some issues with stress and anxiety, and I really felt a very real sense of spiritual and emotional healing as I read the Book of Mormon and strengthened my relationship with the Savior and realized how much he is taking care of me. It was really incredible. i know that the Book of Mormon is true, and like President Benson says "there is a power in the book that will flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of it." It is so true! It gives you the strength to overcome temptation and helps you feel the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and see their perfect and beautiful plan for each one of us.

We had a mission conference on New Years day where we talked about the mission's goals for the year, and a lot about www.mormon.org, the church's new website that is dedicated to helping people learn and understand more about who we are and what our beliefs are. We keep seeing huge billboards for "Big Love," and it is no wonder there are so many misconceptions of who we are and what we believe. They encouraged us to help every member put a profile on mormon.org. Your profile basically just has your picture and then you answer questions like why you are mormon, which gives you the opportunity to share your story and your testimony so others can see it. You can also link it to your facebook page so your facebook friends can read about why you are mormon and what you love about the church, and while they are at the site stop and look at our beliefs. it is really cool. They have an awesome article about it in the ensign this month that I would encourage you all to read, and also I would strongly encourage you to create a mormon.org profile! And then I can look at it and read your testimony and show it to the people that I'm teaching!

Well, I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year and setting lots of great resolutions that will bring you even closer to Christ. Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Dansie

Maywood: Semana 6‏ / March 15, 2010

Hola mi familia increible!

The last week of my first transfer- can you believe it? I can't even tell you how fast the time flies here. We are working really hard and staying very busy, which I love. This past week has been a lot more successful and encouraging. I really don't know how people survive in missions with hardly any success, like in Europe. We can get a lot of people really interested here and have a ton of people to teach, it is just hard getting them to really commit. But we have found six really good investigators this past week, and one of them has committed to being baptized the end of this month and has been following through with all of his reading and came to church and loves it. His name is Jose- he's 19 and he is studying computers and the community college. He is really sensitive to the spirit and has been really touched by what we've taught him.

This week is transfer week, which means Tuesday night we will get a phone call and will find out whether or not we are being transferred Wednesday morning. It is pretty crazy that they hardly give you any warning at all, but they want to avoid going away parties and making a big deal out of being transferred. We have to have a ride and everything all planned as if we are transferring. I am really hoping I get to stay in Maywood. Hermana Salazar has been here for 4 transfers (6 months) so there is a pretty good chance of her getting transferred. I would be sad if she did- we've become really good friends.

I just realized that I've never really talked much about Hermana Salazar, except that she is an intensely hard worker. She is from Texas and was a Music Education maor at BYU before her mission. She is also 21. She loves music and has a beautiful voice, so we sing all of the time for people, even random people that we've just barely met. She is really goal-oriented and motivated, and works hard consistently no matter what. It is really admirable, and a good thing to have as my trainer. The only hard thing like I've said before is that we are so similar in some ways. We've finally been having more fun though, and also more success, and I feel like we understand each other a lot better. She is extremely smart and loves the scriptures, so she always has really good scriptures that relate to what we're teaching. I feel like I have been getting a lot better at realating to people and coming up with analogies, so with our strengths combined we've become a pretty good team. It will be interesting to see what happens Wednesday.

It was really funny the other day, we were in a dinner appointment and we ate some tostadas and Hermana Salazar turns to me and says "I am so full," and then this sweet sister from El Salvador brings out the second course- these amazing sopas, which are like another kind of tostada thing, so we had that and then the sister asks us if we wanted a yogurt, and we we told her "we're really pretty full," but she said "it will help with your digestion," so we agreed, but then she opened the yogurt and started putting things on top of it- she put strawberries, and then chocolate pudding, and hermana salazar and I started laughing- we couldn't help it- as she then put bananas, and to top it all of some maple syrup. It was like a yogurt sunday tower. It was actually pretty good, I just felt bad that we couldn't stop laughing. We explained that we were just so full and that her food was amazing. There are some really good cooks here, I think I just have to stop eating lunch to make up for it.

It is interesting how the scriptures are compared to spiritual food. I've started using the analogy with people that in the same way we need food for our bodies, we need the scriptures for our spirits, and just like how we can't eat all of the food our body needs for the entire month in one sitting, we can't read the whole Book of Mormon in two days and think we're good for the next month or so. We need the daily consistency of remembering God in our lives- remembering how much he has blessed us, remembering what the commandments are and how we will be blessed if we live them, remembering what the spirit feels like as we read and work on following it. We can't just learn something once and be good. A lot of times people also feel like it is all or nothing- well, I'll start reading my scriptures when I start exercising every morning and also start that one diet and work on that one goal and clean out that room- it is an attitude of all or nothing- and it is one of Satan's tools that holds us back from all that we can appreciate and enjoy, and the help that we can have from God. I love the scripture in 2 Nephi 9 that says something like "come buy milk and honey without price" and "let your soul delight in fatness." :D My challenge for all of you, my beloved friends and family, is to start reading your scriptures for at least five minutes every day, and especially reading the Book of Mormon. There are so many blessings you can receive from reading the Book of Mormon- it gives you a greater understanding of the eternal perspective, so no matter what is happening in the world, you don't have to be afraid. (I think I heard something about an earthquake in Chile? Sometimes it feels so weird to be so separated from the rest of the world.) Reading the Book of the Mormon will bring the spirit and more love into your homes. It really is a precious gift. We had a really sweet family that was so excited about the Book of Mormon- they were like "wow, that really happened? Jesus came to America? That's amazing- I never know that." It was so refreshing for me to realize and be reminded again that yeah-this message really is amazing. We have another testament of Jesus Christ- that he wasn't just a man, but he was actually the son of God- people saw him descending out of heaven and working miracles. He was resurrected and he lives and loves us.

I love you all so much. :) I hope I don't seem to weird in missionary mode. I actually can feel myself caring less and less about what people think of me though, which is good, ha ha. :) Sometimes it is funny though because I can't tell if people are looking at me just because I'm a missionary, or because I am one of the only white people in Maywood. I really stick out like a sore thumb with having both combined- but its good, it just gives me more opportunities to talk to people and bring them the gospel. Another funny thing from this week was we met the cutest old man ever, is about eighty five and his name is "feliz angel", which literally means happy angel. He loves the bible and was so happy- the name suites him.

Pues, Les amo muchisimo. Cuidense mucho!

Hermana Dansie