How Great Thou Art

We had transfers this week, which means I have a new companion! Sister Harmon, from Utah. She is a hoot, I already love her. And the missionary work has been going great!

Crazy miracle: We had an hour before dinner one day and we weren't sure what to do, so we prayed and felt directed to go to one particular street. We parked, got out of the car, and walked a little ways away from the car before knocking on the first door. The lady who opened the first door we went to turned out to be a less active member with a non-member husband. She was super sweet and was so glad we came by! We are going back next week to do service for her. The amazing thing was that for some reason, past missionaries had written on the ward list that she had moved and didn't live there anymore, so we would have never gone to visit her otherwise. It was so cool to see the Lord directing us directly to where he needed us to be!

We went to go contact a lady named Lori who had met with missionaries in the past. We talked with her for a little while, then her friend Frenchy came out to talk to us as well. We taught them both and set an appointment to come back the next day to teach them. When we went back, Frenchy was there and was so excited to see us! It was such a good lesson. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. I was a little nervous at first because she told us that her dad had been a Baptist minister (and some Baptists tend to not really like us very much) but she is super open and she just really loves the Lord. She and Lori are also going to play guitar and sing us a song next time we go over, which is super amazing. Also, Lori has a pet raven named Loki (named after the god of mischief) and he hops around her front yard and scared Sister Harmon to death the first time we met him. She might have actually made some crazy noises to scare it away before we found out that it belonged to Lori.....it was pretty funny.

 

(Lori and Loki.)

Mike and Hong came to church this week! We also had a lesson with them, and it was really funny because Mike brought up the Second Coming of Christ, which Hong had never heard about before. We explained it to her, and talked about how a lot of terrible things will continue to happen in the world before he comes again. As we talked, she was getting pretty scared, but we assured her that as long as she was following Christ she didn't have anything to worry about. She still looked scared, and then said "I think I need to start reading my scriptures more!" Haha! I am not one to use scare tactics, but hey, if it gets you to read your scriptures then whatever works!

Women's Conference was on Saturday and it was SO GOOD! And I know that I say that every conference, but I seriously think the talks get better every time. There was an amazing talk on faith by President Uchtdorf which you should all go watch in case you didn't get a chance to on Saturday. Watch it right now! It made me so pumped for next weekend and the rest of conference! It is always such a spiritual feast, and if you go prayerfully, with questions, you will always find answers in the things that are spoken.

The biggest thing that happened this week is that Bonnie got baptized! It was such a good baptismal service. Her brother Rex and his wife Margaret flew out from Georgia to be there and her brother was able to baptize and confirm her. So many people from the ward showed up to support her, which was amazing considering she moved to Palmdale this week so she won't even be in our ward anymore. :( But she is already being a great little missionary in the retirement home she moved to – she's been inviting other residents to come to church with her! :) During the closing song at her baptism I looked over at her, and her head was bowed and her eyes were closed, so at first I thought she had fallen asleep. But then I noticed that she was singing along. "And when I think, that God his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How Great thou art. How Great thou art." I don't know what it was about seeing her like that, but the spirit was so overwhelming, and I was filled with so much love for her, knowing how much the Lord loves her.

Love you all! Enjoy conference!

Sister Daelemans

Stake, not Steak

We got transfer calls on Saturday, and found out that I will be staying and Sister Dow will be leaving. It was pretty expected, since I just got here and she's been here for 7 1/2 months. But it is sad because Bonnie's baptism is next Saturday and Sister Dow is going to just barely miss it :( Bonnie took the news pretty well though. She is very excited for her baptism, especially since her brother is going to be there, and her kids might be able to come as well!

This weekend was Stake Conference. It was really good. We had a member of the 70, whose name I can't remember for the life of me, but he said a lot of really great things. He spoke about turning our lives to the Savior, and how taking the Sacrament is the ordinance of Enduring to the End. The main reason we go to church is to be able to take the sacrament. To renew our covenants. To repent and turn back to Christ once again. We've been having trouble getting some of our investigators to come to church because they don't understand its importance, and this talk would have been PERFECT for them, but of course they weren't there to hear it. (Oh the irony of giving talks at church on the importance of coming to church. It's always the wrong audience.)

Because we are up in Tehachapi and the Stake Center is in Bakersfield, some smart computer people in the area decided it would be a lot more convenient for everybody if they broadcasted the meeting up to us since 1. the whole stake probably does not fit very comfortably in the stake center and 2. it is really nice not to have to drive an hour away for church. So we watched it on a giant screen in the chapel. It was funny though because there were several times when the connection was temporarily lost, and the video feed repeated the last 5 seconds over and over again until the signal was picked up again. It was especially funny when it happened in the middle of one of the hymns and they kept singing the same thing over and over. :)

Also, side note, I hate trying to explain Stake Conference to investigators. Because you have to explain wards and stakes, and they look at you like "Why is it called a steak?" and you're like "Not steak, Stake" and they are still confused and then sometimes they think about it some more and then wonder why we call it a "ward" because that is also pretty weird since a "ward" is usually an institution for the mentally unstable. So yeah, Stake. It comes from Isaiah. Because we like to quote scriptures and confuse people.

I am excited for this upcoming transfer. I don't know who my companion is going to be yet, because our mission president decided to change the way they do transfer calls. They used to tell us where we are going and who our companion will be, but now the only thing they tell us is if we are staying or if we are leaving. We won't find out the rest until we show up for transfers  Gah, it is so frustrating! I don't like surprises!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Sister Daelemans

9/12/16

Not much to say this week. We have been trying really hard to find new people to teach, but we just have not been having any success. There is a new approach that our mission president told us to use as we contact people outside or at their door, but so far it hasn't worked for us. We keep trying though! Several members have recently told us about friends they have who they think are ready to take the missionary discussions, so hopefully something will come from that as well.

This is the last week of the transfer! It has gone by SO FAST! Next weekend is Stake Conference, the weekend after that is Bonnie's baptism, and the weekend after that is General Conference AND I will have been out for a year.

Much Love!

Sister Daelemans

Feed My Sheep

That funny moment when your investigator texts you and says she is too busy to keep taking the lessons but you go over anyway and pretend like you didn't get her text message and then she invites you inside and you end up having a really awesome lesson and then she comes to church the next day. Yep, that's what happened this week. Among other things.

This will be a pretty quick email, since I am pressed for time. Here are some other highlights:

1. People keep giving us fresh fruit and it's really awesome.

2. The weather has suddenly cooled off. Yesterday it was in the 70s and it felt AMAZING!

3. That awkward moment when someone in the ward almost died this week but didn't (which was good, obviously) but then in Fast and Testimony meeting everyone got up and basically bore their testimony about that person and how glad they are that he didn't die instead of baring their testimony about Jesus. So. Awkward.

4. We went over to Bonnie's to help her clean and ended up giving her dog a bath in the sink.

5. It was Sister Dow's birthday on Wednesday!

And I actually took pictures this week! Yay!

In town there is a ton of dry grass, which is a huge fire hazard, but instead of mowing it all down they pay to have sheep herders bring their sheep to graze on all the hills and in all the empty fields. So as you drive around Tehachapi you randomly pass by herds of sheep. It's pretty random but also very smart. The other day they were grazing in the fields surrounding a church. The name of the church is Shepherd of the Hills :D I tried to get a picture but you can only kind of see the church in the background. Pretty funny though.

Love you all!

Sister Daelemans