Christmas Week

The Week of Christmas is over, and what a week it has been! It has been super cold and windy here in Lancaster, but we have kept busy and it has been great!

We did a lot of tracting this week but didn't get to talk to a lot of people because hardly anyone was home to answer the door, and those that did seemed pretty annoyed with us. You would think people would have more time for Jesus this time of year, but apparently not.

One of the families we ate dinner with this week was doing "The 12 Days of Christmas" for another family in the ward (the 12 days leading up to Christmas they would leave some treat or gift or something at the family's door, then ring the doorbell and run away.) We ate dinner with them Christmas Eve, and after dinner we went with them to make the final delivery. It was pretty fun, but the other family opened the door as we were running away and said "GOT YA!" We were caught!

At another member's home they had a wood burning stove inside their house and we went over and roasted marshmallow with them and their grandkids. (We used Peeps instead of regular marshmallows, which is a really great idea and I don't know why I never thought of it before!)

On Christmas we got to Skype home. It was really nice, but an hour is just not long enough!

But the biggest thing that happened this week was:......RICHARD GOT BAPTIZED! Afterwards he told us that he felt "new." It was a wonderful thing to see—an 80 year old man coming out of the water, as pure as a newborn baby. He also told us that it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be (I'm not sure what he thought he would need to do exactly, but I'm glad he had a good experience.) It was such a privilege to teach him and help him prepare for this important ordinance. Here is a man who has known the Gospel is true for most of his life, but because he felt inadequate of this great blessing, held himself back from taking part in this wonderful Church and all the blessing that come with it. This past week, I was reading in 2 Nephi 26:24-28, which to me seemed like it was speaking directly to Richard's concerns: 

"He doth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. Behold, doth he cry unto any saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price. Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance. Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden."

God wants each of us to be able to receive these great blessings. It doesn't matter what sins someone has committed in the past, all are free to repent and come unto Christ, and to partake of his Salvation. In Richard's case, there wasn't even that much he had to change in his life in order to be worthy of baptism. He is kind, loving, humble, and knows and loves the Lord. He loves Joseph Smith and loves the Book of Mormon. He loves to learn, and has a burning desire to understand the Gospel more deeply. We should not let our inadequacies keep us back from moving forward. Christ has his arms wide open to us, we just need to allow ourselves to accept him and his atonement.

Love you all! Hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Sister Daelemans

It's a Wonderful Life

Well, this is the week of Christmas. WHAT?! Have I been here that long?? Everyone keeps asking me if it is difficult being away from home, but I can honestly and truly so no. Not yet anyway. As missionaries, pretty much every day is the same, and we miss a lot of the build-up to Christmas because we're too busy doing other stuff. So, no Christmas Blues for me!

This Saturday we had a Christmas Devotional with all the missionaries on the east side of the mission. They fed us Costco muffins and donuts and hot apple cider and then the best treat of all: they let us watch a movie!! We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" which is pretty much one of the greatest movies of all time. If you have never watched it, then go repent and watch it right now! One of the main themes of the movie is the impact that each person has on other people's lives, even when we don't realize it. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) thinks that the world would be better off if he had never been born, but when he sees what the world would actually have been like if he hadn't been born, he realized how many lives he has touched just by living his simple life in a way that served other people. As missionaries, we talk to people all the time. LOTS of people. Many of them are not interested. Some people hate us (the other day some guy we met started yelling and cursing at us because we were presumptuous enough to believe in God—that was an interesting conversation.) It is sometimes hard to think that we make any difference at all, when so many people we talk to are not interested. But really, you never know how much the small exchanges we have with people on a daily basis can effect them. God places us in the paths of other people for a reason, and with our limited view we cannot always see the grander design of Heavenly Father's plan.

The scripture that we have been sharing with a lot of people these past few weeks for Christmas is Helaman 14:2-8. It is a prophecy about the signs that will be shown to the Nephites at the time of Christ's birth in Jerusalem. 

"And behold, he said unto them: Behold, I give unto you a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name. And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day. Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there was no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born. And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you. And behold this is not all, there shall be many sign and wonders in heaven. And it shall come to pass that ye shall all be amazed, and wonder, insomuch that ye shall fall to the earth. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life."

How beautiful this prophecy is! When the Savior was born, the sun went down but there was no darkness, only light! At Christmas time there are many lights—on houses, on trees, in windows—but their true purpose is to symbolize the light of Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world. He is the way back to our Heavenly Father. He shows us the path we must take, and drives away the darkness of the world. I am so grateful to know my Savior Jesus Christ and to be able to share the message of his Gospel with others. The Gospel brings light and understanding to people's lives and allows them to see the purpose for which Heavenly Father has placed them here.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Sister Daelemans

Pictures are from last P-Day—we went bowling with some of the other sisters in Ugly Christmas Sweaters!

What a Week!

What a crazy week! I have only 15 minutes left to write this email, so we shall see how things go.

First: Our Ward has CRAZY huge boundaries, except it is all mostly desert/middle-of-nowhere/lone-and-dreary-wilderness type land. There are some members of our ward who live about 45 minutes away, and we figured that the missionaries have probably never visited them before, so we planned a trip one day to go out and see them. I'll attach a picture of us on our way there. You can see Joshua Trees in the background. It was great. A lot of the members we couldn't even find because they must live out on a dirt road somewhere that our GPS wouldn't take us to. But one member we visited has a goat farm, so she showed us all their goats. It was pretty neat!

Second: We got to go to the temple this week! The LA Temple is HUGE and it took us about two hours to get there. It is out of our mission boundaries, so it was a little weird leaving, but also kind of nice because I am starting to feel claustrophobic here in Lancaster. Anyway, a member drove us and it was just such a nice day out. I Love the temple! And the feeling of the Spirit that is inside reminded me of why I am serving a mission, that I want other people to have the chance to be in the House of the Lord and to have that same amazing feeling!

Third (and most miraculous): Richard is going to be baptized!! He finally committed and he will be baptized on December 26th! It was been such an interesting journey with him. He has known for most of his life that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's church on the earth. But he was afraid to commit to baptism because he felt inadequate. Well, with much prayer, he has finally started to overcome these feelings and to understand the path that Heavenly Father wants him to  take. Sister Khumaryan and I are overjoyed!

Anyway, that's all I can think of though I know I am forgetting something important, but whatever.

Merry Christmas!

Sister Daelemans

Baptism #2

Rita got baptized! It was a wonderful service. Her boyfriend flew in from Colorado to perform the ordinance, and also confirmed her on Sunday. During her baptismal service Rita got up and bore her testimony. The Spirit was so strong! She was so prepared for the Gospel and I know she will only continue to grow and progress.

Our ward Christmas Party was also this week. It was super fun, there was so much good food and the children did a nativity. It was funny because for costumes they all just put different colored bath towels on their heads. It was very cute!

This year the church made a video about Christmas. #ASaviorIsBorn. You should all go watch it and share it on social media! Christmas time is the season that people's hearts are more open to hear about the Gospel and about Jesus Christ, and it's a time that we can also find a lot of common ground with people. A lot of times when we introduce ourselves to people we say, "Hi! We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" and they say "That's okay, I'm a Christian" .........as if we aren't Christian as well. The name of Jesus Christ is LITERALLY in our church's name, people. But with this Christmas message we've been able to invite a lot of people to go watch the video. Maybe they didn't want to talk to us, but hopefully when they watch the Christmas video they will get a better idea of what we actually believe and their hearts will be softened.

Anyway, it's cold here but not as cold as it in Maryland and Utah so I guess I can't complain. Stay warm! I love you all!

Sister Daelemans