Baptisms and Chocolate

Well, this was a stressful week. Robert is getting baptized next Saturday!! But for a while it seemed like everything was going to fall through and that the baptism would have to be postponed. He had a baptismal interview scheduled, but when it came time for the interview, Robert was an hour away in Bakersfield, and not in Tehachapi.....We fervently prayed that if it was God's will, everything would still be able to work out,  that if it was according to His time table that the baptism would still happen. Well, it honestly seemed impossible, but miraculously on Sunday evening, right at the last minute, everything just fell into place and the interview was still able to happen. Miracles are real! You just have to trust in God that if something is His will, then He will make it happen!

A few weeks ago Sister Alderman and Sister Hertig (when she was still in Tehachapi) and I all made lofty goals to be more healthy. So we threw away all the junk food that was in the apartment. Well, it has been both good and bad. During our crisis moments this week I kept wanting to drown my sorrows in ice cream, but there was no ice cream to be drowned in. We made it through okay, but for all future emergencies, we decided we needed to have SOMETHING on hand. For emergencies.

Joking aside, all problems really can be solved through Christ! Even if it is not solved the way we think it will be, things will always work out the way that they need to! Jesus is the GREATEST ever!!

Love you all!

Sister Daelemans

I Get Tired of Naming Emails

Well, we have a baptism scheduled! Robert, our 9 year old investigator is going to be baptized June 4! He is super excited. I love teaching children. They are much more open to the Spirit and have a natural desire to follow Jesus Christ. It is no wonder that Christ tells us we must become like a little child :) Also, funny quote for the week. We were teaching Robert but his one-year-old sister kept walking over to him and hitting him and shrieking at him because he wasn't paying any attention to her. He said "Victoria, could you be quiet, I'm in a meeting!"

Love you all!

Sister Daelemans

Staying in Tehachapi

Well, we got transfer calls this Friday. Sister Alderman and I are both staying in Tehachapi. This will be our third transfer together, so it's a good thing we get along so well :)  Sister Hertig will be leaving us though, so our trio is down to two. :( She is getting transferred to Lancaster, to a ward that all the deaf members in the area attend. She is pretty excited about that, since she took ASL in high school.

Not much else to report on this week. We had many appointments lined up and they almost all fell through for one reason or another. I feel there are many good things ahead of us in Tehachapi this upcoming transfer though, so that is great! 

This week we met a lady in our ward whose husband is from Israel! He is going to Jerusalem this week to visit family, and he had us write down some prayers and names of people who need special blessings, and he is going to take them to the Wailing Wall. I thought that was pretty cool. The Wailing Wall is the only remaining part of Herod's temple, and Jews and others travel from all over the world to pray there.

I hope you all have an amazing week. I cannot believe it is already halfway through May. Ahh! Where has all the time gone!

Love,

Sister Daelemans

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I got to Skype with my family yesterday which was awesome. It was good to talk to them. :)

This morning we got up early (5:45) to go exercise with a member. She is super hard-core, and now I feel like I have Jell-O legs.

So, I am finally going to attach some pictures from this transfer. I have been very bad at taking pictures—I just never think about it. My first two companions were really good at pulling out the camera at random times, but I just never think about it. Anyway, here are my two companions and I at zone conference a couple of weeks ago.

We took this one with a member on her front porch.

By next Monday we will know what it happening with transfers. We probably will not all stay together, which is sad because we have all gotten along really well. I am predicting that I will be leaving Tehachapi, but who knows. Only God and my mission president right now.

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Daelemans

City of Four Seasons

Tehachapi is self-proclaimed as the "City of Four Seasons." At first I thought this was a joke. Yes, I have been told it snows here occasionally, but just because they get more weather variety than the rest of California does not mean that they have four seasons. The winter here isn't real winter. Well, I found out that what it REALLY means (or what it should mean) is that Tehachapi can have four seasons all in one day. Like last Monday, for example. After emailing all of you I went outside and it was snowing. Yes, snow at the end of April. And then we went grocery shopping and came outside again and the sun was shining. Tehachapi weather can't make up its mind.

Occasionally you have investigators who you are not sure if they are really prepared for the Gospel or not, but you still have hope for them. Then they say something that makes it abundantly clear that they are NOT ready. Like the other day, one of our investigators texted us and told us that she wants to read the entire Bible before starting to read the Book of Mormon, and if we want to come over to try to convince her otherwise we SHOULDN'T BOTHER!!. (She was really bitter about it. She sent us probably 4 texts in a row ranting to us about it.) Okay, that's her decision. It's not a bad thing to want to read the Bible. That is obviously a good thing. But she doesn't understand why we asked her to read the Book of Mormon. She probably needs some time. She's not quite ready yet.

In the MTC, one of the things I learned that stuck out to me the most was this: "A person cannot experience the full effects of the Atonement until after they are baptized by the proper authority." (Quote from one of my teachers.) It is so true! Anyone can repent. That is a preparatory step to baptism. But when you are baptized (and it is only truly baptism when it is done with the proper authority), you receive a remission of your sins. Remission of sins is more than just having them washed away. It is a feeling of complete peace and joy. And when you are baptized, you are born again into a new life with Christ. One of the worst thing that people can tell us missionaries is that they are "content" with their life. That is fine. We don't push on them something that they don't want. But they don't realize that they are missing out on greater blessings. They do not realize that Heavenly Father wants so much more for them than what they currently have. But again, that's okay. There are people out there who ARE prepared, and who DO want more. They are the ones that we are sent out to find and teach. Those are the ones that Heavenly Father places in the path of both missionaries and members, so that we can share the joy we have with them. And when we do find those people, it is something to celebrate, because they can come to know Christ so much more through the fullness of his gospel and his restored church!

In other news, our investigator Dru is out of the hospital. It was so sweet—he asked if we would have been able to go teach him the lesson in the hospital if he had had to stay there longer. He is just eating up the Gospel—he loves it so much! But we can tell how devastated he is that his grandma won't give him permission to be baptized. Prayers for him would be much appreciated!

Not much new with our other investigators. Robert (the 9 year old) is excited for his baptism, and Loetta (the 90 year old-bless her heart) is still smoking and still can't see very well. We are waiting for her new glasses to come in, and for a large print copy of the Book of Mormon that we ordered to come in. Until that time, we can read to her, but there's not much else we can do.

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Sister Daelemans