Hola Familia!
Esta semana fue muy bien! This past week has been really great. Thanks for the e-mail mom. :D I got my immunizations all taken care of. The next thing I could use some help with is figuring out how to send my bike to my mission. You need to call and check to make sure that I still need it before you send it; apparently some other missions have been changing and don't have bikes anymore for sisters. I really really hope that I get to use my bike, but I just want you to double check so you don't waste the money sending it if I can't use it. Thanks! If you do end up sending my bike i have a bag of stuff in my closet you need to send with it, including a bike lock, a head lamp, and I also will need my helmet. Thanks!
This week has been really good. i have had some incredible experiences. One of them was in the Referral Center, which is where we call people that have requested DVDs and stuff online or from the pass-along cards and we make sure they got their item and then share our testimonies and invite then to have the missionaries bring them the Book of Mormon. Two weeks ago i talked to a man named Charles and he seemed really open and willing to hearing the message and wanted the Book of Mormon and the missionaries. I called him back this week to see if the missionaries had come and they hadn't, but he remembered me and I got to talk to him about the first vision and the restoration. He said that he "is always searching for truth," and when I shared the first vision with him he was like, "yeah, so you're saying God and Jesus Christ came in a vision to Joseph Smith. Ok. And that's how you know your chursh is true? I can see that." He just was so open and willing to hearing about the gospel, and it was such a thrilling experience realizing that I actually can make a difference, and really am going to be able to help people come to the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father blessed me with this experience and with a little taste of success because of my obedience and because I have been trying really hard to do what is right. It was also a nice boost because the Referral Center was something I was struggling with- it is hard to call up complete strangers and try to share the gospel with them. I know though that the Lord can help me get over those fears and become a missionary that he can rely on and use to do a great work. I know that there is a reason I am here and there is a work i need to do.
I have also been learning so much about following the guidance and direction of the spirit. I know that this is the skill that is going to bless me the most throughout the rest of my life and I am so glad i get to really focus and learn how to do that here. We were planning a lesson for a "progressing investigator" (a teacher playing an investigator) and in just was not feeling right, so finally we decided we needed to do something else, and the spirit prompted us to plan for a lesson on repentance and it was incredibly powerful. It seems like such a small silly thing that the spirit would help us for a fake, role-play lesson, but i realized that learning how to recognize that spirit and how important it is in our planning is part of the training here. This really is the lord's way of training his missionaries.
James and Bob, I hope you are really reading your scriptures. I hope the rest of you are too, but I just wish i had prepared even more. It is like the hymn "More holiness give me" where it says "more fit for the kingdom, more used would i be." If you want to be a missionary like Ammon or Alma start preparing now. Sister Dalton came and spoke in Relief Society and she said that her New Years Resolution was basically that hymn. There is so much we can do to be better and become closer to the Lord.
I realize that i am becoming more and more intense, but it is just because i want to be the best missionary i can possibly be, and because we are so spiritually fed here- I can't even tell one tenth of all of the incredible things I am learning, but I am so excited to go out and share them with the people in Los Angeles, so why shouldn't i share them with you too?
Sorry i didn't really get a chance to respond to your e-mail mom. I'll write you more next week. I don't get your dearelders that you write over the weekends until five on Monday, which doesn't really give me much time to write back. I love you all so much! Congratulations Bob! Good luck with that job Ang! Good luck with your classes james! I love you dad and am glad you are excited about your new calling. :)
- Hermana Dansie
Saturday, January 16, 2010
MTC - Semana Siete, Jan. 5, 2010
Prospero año familia!
Mom- thanks so much for your e-mails and keeping me updated. That is so tragic with Jim Hashimoto- I can't imagine how Brett must be feeling. It definitely puts life into perspective and helps me appreciate that my challenges and struggles have been so minor. And mom, don't let Dad badger you about e-mailing me, you can e-mail me as much as you want. :) You might as well take advantage of it while you can while I'm here in the MTC. I really won´t have a lot of time to read e-mails in the field if you want me to be able to write you e-mails.
I do need one thing from you- I MUST have that immunization information. All I need you to do is call Hillcrest and ask for whether of not I got my second MMR shot, and if yes what date I did, and then I need you to e-mail me what you find out as soon as possible- like tomorrow. They won't let me get any of the immunizations I need until we get that figured out. Thanks mom!
James, it was really good to hear from you. I probably won't be able to write you back until next week, but I really appreciated hearing from you and am so glad that you are doing well and everything is working out with school. Mom said that you were going to have to quit everything, but it sounds like you got it figured out.
Angela and Bob, how are you doing? I haven't heard from you in forever. I really want to know what Nativity soap character i would have been Bob. And Angela, how's the singles ward? I want to hear your dating stories and what you are deciding to do with work and your life.
This week was so great for me. I auditioned on Thursday to do a musical number. It was a duet with another elder in my zone to "I Need Thee Every Hour," and they had us sing this past Sunday in mission conference in front of the whole MTC. It went really well- I really feel like the Lord has blessed me and helped me develop more confidence in my musical talents while I've been here, because I didn't even feel nervous to sing. I feel like I am truly learning, growing, and improving in all aspects of my life here. I don't understand how people learn all of these things about life, dealing with people, the gospel, themselves, and so much more without this experience in their life.
My companionship did really well with spanish this past week too. We tried really hard and were so dedicated, and we were able to speak completely in spanish up until about Thursday. Still that is a pretty incredible accomplishment though, and I feel like my spanish is coming along really well. I've noticed that the MTC is really hard for some missionaries just because you don't really feel the reward of all your hard work and efforts here, but I know that I am going to be so well prepared for my mission and be able to work so much more effectively when i do get out in the field just because I have been able to focus and practice and get everything I can out of this experience.
I am getting really excited to get out into the field though. I watched a devotional given by Elder Holland here in 2006 and it was so motivational and inspiring. He talked about how this is the greatest work on earth- we have to power and the authority to act in the name of God and we need to use that power to "astonish" people, like the story of the missionaries in Mosiah 27. That is another things, my love of and appreciation for the scriptures has grown so much. It is also really neat reading them in spanish and getting different things out of them from it.
Well, i love you all so much. :) Have a good week!
- Hermana Dansie
Mom- thanks so much for your e-mails and keeping me updated. That is so tragic with Jim Hashimoto- I can't imagine how Brett must be feeling. It definitely puts life into perspective and helps me appreciate that my challenges and struggles have been so minor. And mom, don't let Dad badger you about e-mailing me, you can e-mail me as much as you want. :) You might as well take advantage of it while you can while I'm here in the MTC. I really won´t have a lot of time to read e-mails in the field if you want me to be able to write you e-mails.
I do need one thing from you- I MUST have that immunization information. All I need you to do is call Hillcrest and ask for whether of not I got my second MMR shot, and if yes what date I did, and then I need you to e-mail me what you find out as soon as possible- like tomorrow. They won't let me get any of the immunizations I need until we get that figured out. Thanks mom!
James, it was really good to hear from you. I probably won't be able to write you back until next week, but I really appreciated hearing from you and am so glad that you are doing well and everything is working out with school. Mom said that you were going to have to quit everything, but it sounds like you got it figured out.
Angela and Bob, how are you doing? I haven't heard from you in forever. I really want to know what Nativity soap character i would have been Bob. And Angela, how's the singles ward? I want to hear your dating stories and what you are deciding to do with work and your life.
This week was so great for me. I auditioned on Thursday to do a musical number. It was a duet with another elder in my zone to "I Need Thee Every Hour," and they had us sing this past Sunday in mission conference in front of the whole MTC. It went really well- I really feel like the Lord has blessed me and helped me develop more confidence in my musical talents while I've been here, because I didn't even feel nervous to sing. I feel like I am truly learning, growing, and improving in all aspects of my life here. I don't understand how people learn all of these things about life, dealing with people, the gospel, themselves, and so much more without this experience in their life.
My companionship did really well with spanish this past week too. We tried really hard and were so dedicated, and we were able to speak completely in spanish up until about Thursday. Still that is a pretty incredible accomplishment though, and I feel like my spanish is coming along really well. I've noticed that the MTC is really hard for some missionaries just because you don't really feel the reward of all your hard work and efforts here, but I know that I am going to be so well prepared for my mission and be able to work so much more effectively when i do get out in the field just because I have been able to focus and practice and get everything I can out of this experience.
I am getting really excited to get out into the field though. I watched a devotional given by Elder Holland here in 2006 and it was so motivational and inspiring. He talked about how this is the greatest work on earth- we have to power and the authority to act in the name of God and we need to use that power to "astonish" people, like the story of the missionaries in Mosiah 27. That is another things, my love of and appreciation for the scriptures has grown so much. It is also really neat reading them in spanish and getting different things out of them from it.
Well, i love you all so much. :) Have a good week!
- Hermana Dansie
MTC - Semana Seis, Dec. 29, 2009
Hola Familia!
I feel a little burnt out with writing letters because I wrote you so much on Christmas. So if you haven't got those letters yet, you should soon. I had a really good Christmas. Elder Perry came and talked to us and i met him at dinner. I talked to him for like two seconds, but it was still really neat. We got to watch a really fun talent show put on the missionaries. There was one Elder that did a techno style dance (the kind of dance that Philip from So You Think You Can Dance this summer does) to the song "When I am baptized" from the primary songbook. It was pretty awesome. Christmas night Greg Olsen, the painter, came and did a fireside that was really incredible. He told us the background stories to a lot of his paintings. Overall it was a really good and memorable Christmas, but it felt really different from what you expect Christmas to feel like considering I wasn't home with you all. But giving up two Christmases is worth it to have this opportunity to serve. :) This really is such an incredible once in a lifetime experience.
This week my district has been challenged by one of our teachers to speak completely in spanish- not one single word in English. Today is the first day and it has been difficult, but at the same time incredibly rewarding. I love spanish and can't wait to get out there and use it. It is funny because I realized that my favorite food is mexican food, my favorite dance is latin dance- so it isn't going to be hard at all to love and embrace the latin culture. I do need to build up my tolerance to spicy food though. Which reminds me- Angela, do you want to send me a little bottle of one of your spicy sauces you like? They have tabasco here, but I have heard it has a really gross flavor. It you don't have time don't worry about it.
Oh, and just so you know, I realized I never told you that my actual departure date is January 27th. They had it wrong in the beginning for some reason. January 27th will be exactly ten weeks- nine for spanish and one for Visitor's center training. I'm really excited for visitor's center training because we get to go train at temple square for a day which will be fun. I won't tell you which day because I don't want you to be tempted to try and see me. I can't believe I only have four weeks until I'm out there for real! Time really has started to go so fast.
I hope you are having so much fun with the holidays, even though I know it is hard without me there. :D I'm working hard to make it worth it though. This past week I was in the referal center making calls and a woman answered and said "no habla ingles," which is i don't speak english, so i fumbled through the call in spanish and shared my testimony and it went alright- mostly because she was being really nice because she could tell I was struggling. It was funny because the other elders in my district noticed that I was doing a call in spanish, and they just thought that I was being really ambitious so they started making calls in Spanish to keep up with me. So, if nothing else at least i am motivating and inspiring the other elders to work hard. :D
Well, i love and miss you all. I hope to hear from you soon, but i know you are all very busy. Take care of yourselves and don't forget what is most important.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
I feel a little burnt out with writing letters because I wrote you so much on Christmas. So if you haven't got those letters yet, you should soon. I had a really good Christmas. Elder Perry came and talked to us and i met him at dinner. I talked to him for like two seconds, but it was still really neat. We got to watch a really fun talent show put on the missionaries. There was one Elder that did a techno style dance (the kind of dance that Philip from So You Think You Can Dance this summer does) to the song "When I am baptized" from the primary songbook. It was pretty awesome. Christmas night Greg Olsen, the painter, came and did a fireside that was really incredible. He told us the background stories to a lot of his paintings. Overall it was a really good and memorable Christmas, but it felt really different from what you expect Christmas to feel like considering I wasn't home with you all. But giving up two Christmases is worth it to have this opportunity to serve. :) This really is such an incredible once in a lifetime experience.
This week my district has been challenged by one of our teachers to speak completely in spanish- not one single word in English. Today is the first day and it has been difficult, but at the same time incredibly rewarding. I love spanish and can't wait to get out there and use it. It is funny because I realized that my favorite food is mexican food, my favorite dance is latin dance- so it isn't going to be hard at all to love and embrace the latin culture. I do need to build up my tolerance to spicy food though. Which reminds me- Angela, do you want to send me a little bottle of one of your spicy sauces you like? They have tabasco here, but I have heard it has a really gross flavor. It you don't have time don't worry about it.
Oh, and just so you know, I realized I never told you that my actual departure date is January 27th. They had it wrong in the beginning for some reason. January 27th will be exactly ten weeks- nine for spanish and one for Visitor's center training. I'm really excited for visitor's center training because we get to go train at temple square for a day which will be fun. I won't tell you which day because I don't want you to be tempted to try and see me. I can't believe I only have four weeks until I'm out there for real! Time really has started to go so fast.
I hope you are having so much fun with the holidays, even though I know it is hard without me there. :D I'm working hard to make it worth it though. This past week I was in the referal center making calls and a woman answered and said "no habla ingles," which is i don't speak english, so i fumbled through the call in spanish and shared my testimony and it went alright- mostly because she was being really nice because she could tell I was struggling. It was funny because the other elders in my district noticed that I was doing a call in spanish, and they just thought that I was being really ambitious so they started making calls in Spanish to keep up with me. So, if nothing else at least i am motivating and inspiring the other elders to work hard. :D
Well, i love and miss you all. I hope to hear from you soon, but i know you are all very busy. Take care of yourselves and don't forget what is most important.
Love,
Hermana Dansie
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