I am a Disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Exactly two months ago today I returned home and ended my service as a full-time missionary.

I have been meaning to write a final, concluding, post-mission reflection blog entry ever since my first week home. It’s taken me a while, but I have finally made myself sit down and do it.

About a month ago I began by posting the rest of my weekly emails from my mission, to preserve them both for myself and for anyone else who might be curious to know what I’ve been doing the past 18 months. That was tough. There was something very final about it. I was putting up pictures which no longer represented my reality, but rather my past. My mission was officially over.

Over the past 2 months I have slowly come to terms with this. It hasn’t been easy. The first couple weeks I was secretly miserable. I pretended the transition was going well. Actually, looking back now, I think it did go well, but it was also really hard.

There were small things that were easy to shrug off or laugh about. For instance, during my first week home, every time I would go somewhere in the car with my parents, I would instinctively walk behind the car as if to back them out of the driveway or parking spot (something missionaries always have to do.) My parents thought I was crazy. Or how I almost introduced myself to my new boss as Sister Daelemans. I caught myself just in time.

There were thing that I thought would be difficult, that ended up not being that big of a deal, like being by myself instead of with a companion 24/7, or watching movies and listening to music. I was actually grateful that there was no adjustment needed for watching movies guilt free. I love movies!

But some things were hard. Time was hard. There seemed to be an endless number of hours in the day with nothing I could do to fill them. And stuff. You don’t realize how much stuff you own until you live for 18 months in apartments that have no furniture other than your bed and a desk, with only about 2 suitcases full of personal items and clothes. Every item in my house now seemed so excessive. These things took longer to adjust to than others.

One, day, in the midst of my pretending to be fine with my new life, I had a bit of a breakdown while standing in front of the fridge in my kitchen. Suddenly I just lost it and started pulling everything out. I took out all the shelves and draws, and deep cleaned the whole thing. When I’m stressed, I clean. Which is a good thing I guess? But it was in reaction to my need to feel like I was accomplishing something. I needed to feel like I was being productive.

So yes, coming home was very hard. After the fridge incident I think I realized that I just needed to accept that I wasn’t going to be fine all of a sudden. I had made a big change in my life. Just like it took time to adjust to being a missionary, it was going to take time to adjust to being a regular human. So I allowed myself to mourn, so to speak. I let myself be sad, I let myself be ok with crying about it. And that really helped a lot.

Like I said, I have come to terms with my mission being over. My home life is very different, but there are many wonderful things to be happy about! I think my biggest mistake after coming home was thinking that my life was now meaningless. Obviously it’s not meaningless! Am I as busy now as I was as a missionary? No. Do I spend every hour of every day thinking about God and my fellow man? Uh….no. But do I have productive things to do with my time? Yes! I’ve slowly started getting back into the swing of things and have found many meaningful activities to do with my time. Is it a sin if I occasionally veg on the couch with nothing to do other than watch TV and snack on tortilla chips? NO! Rest is completely normal and healthy, and after 18 months of dedicated, constant on-the-go service, it feels really great to do nothing sometimes.

Over the past two months I have done many meaningful things. Like going on walks with my mom. Playing ukulele with my sister. Cutting my brother’s hair whilst discussing the ridiculousness of man buns. Arguing with my dad about sushi. Teaching my grandma how to play Uno. Spending time with my family has been great!

I’ve also had some incredible missionary experiences as I’ve served in my YSA ward as a ward missionary. The greatest of these experiences started a couple of weeks ago when the elders asked if I could drive their investigator Liz to church. I am so grateful they did. I made a wonderful friend, and today Liz got baptized and confirmed a member of the church! It was such a sweet experience. The work still moves forward, and I am still a part of it. Just in a new way.

Going on a mission was the absolute best decision I have ever made. It was the hardest thing I have ever done and it was the most joyful thing I have ever done. I hate to sound so cliché, but that really is the truth.

I’ve heard some people say that a mission is like the MTC for the rest of your life, and I agree. I have learned so many valuable lessons about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, about people, about hard work and sacrifice, about agency, about charity and service. Missions, and life, are hard, but that’s part of God plan. He needed me as a missionary to stretch, and grow, and become something more than I was before.  This is an important principle to understand because life is inevitable going to continue being hard. While I’m on earth God needs me to stretch, and grow, and become something more than I am right now. And the most miraculous part of this is that he doesn’t ask me to change by myself. It is actually impossible (believe me, I’ve tried.) Instead, he has given me, and everyone, his son Jesus Christ, who overcame the world, and death, and is able to make us infinitely more than we could be on our own. He has the power to help us become like him. Of all the things I learned on my mission, the most important and the sweetest is that Jesus Christ truly lives and his Atonement is real. There is no greater gift that Heavenly Father could have given me.

At every mission meeting we had, all of the missionaries stood and recited 3 Nephi 5:13:

“Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.”

I may no longer be a full time missionary, but I am still a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am so imperfect, and constantly fall short, but that is ok. I try and I keep going even when I mess up. Repentance is real! That’s what the Gospel is all about.

Who knows where my life will go from here. Heavenly Father knows, and I trust him. All I can do is continue to “…press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men…” (2 Nephi 31:20) If I do, God will make sure that I am on the right path and that I find peace and joy along the way.

Much love,

Natalie

Goodbye California

This week has been amazing. We were able to teach so many people and I got to say goodbye to everyone. Tomorrow I will be getting on a plane and leaving the great state of California. I cannot quite express my feelings. I thought, a couple months ago, that I would be ready at this point, that I would be burnt out and tired and ready to go home and sleep. But I'm not. I feel like I could keep going. I don't want to leave. And it doesn't really feel like I'm leaving. I don't think it will really hit me that this is real until I am standing in the airport.

This past week represents the last week in the life of Jesus Christ. Every day this week I read from the New Testament, about everything the Savior did during his final days on earth. His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. His final teachings to the people at the temple. His last supper with the disciples. His passing of the Sacrament. His sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane. His trial. His crucifixion. His resurrection on the third day. On Friday I had the opportunity to go to the LA temple with all of the other missionaries who are going home. While I sat in the Celestial room, I read about his trial before Pilate, his scourging, and the final hours he spent hanging on the cross. I cannot help but be incredibly grateful for everything that Christ went through for me, and I am amazed at the character he showed as he freely forgave those whose hands hung him there to suffer. I am daily humbled by this because although I was not there, and although I did not personally hang him on the cross, his suffering there was for me and all of my sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings. As a missionary, I have tried my best to represent him. To love people the way that he does. To serve. To gather his sheep. But I am so imperfect. I make mistakes. I let fear get in the way of faith. But he still trusts me, and all of us, to go out and do his work. He suffered for my mistakes so that I wouldn't have to. In return, he asks us to repent and to follow Him. I cannot put into words how amazed I am at all that Jesus Christ has done for me. But I can say that he lives! He was raised from the dead on the third day. He conquered death and sin. For me, and for everyone!

The Gospel is true and Christ lives!

Goodbye for now California. Hello Maryland!

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans

The Slurpee Scripture

There were some tears this week. Mostly because we have this twisted tradition where we make missionaries who are leaving get up and bear their testimony in front of other missionaries even though we know the only thing they will manage to do is cry and choke out some incoherent words about how sad they are to leave and how the Gospel is TRUE and how Jesus loves everyone and how they CANNOT BELIEVE THEY'RE LEAVING. Yep, that happened. To me. It was good.

We had stake conference this week and the visiting general authority shared his favorite scripture. The Slurpee scripture! "If Alma wanted to get a slurpee, where would he go? 7-11! (*cough* and 12)"

Alma 7:11-12

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and affliction and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

To me, everything in the Gospel comes back to this. Jesus Christ literally has experience everything we have felt, and he did it because he loves us, and so that he can help us. He did it so that we can live again. No blessing can compare to everything that the Savior of the world has done for us!

Much love,

Sister Daelemans

Real Life is Stressful

So, last week was the first week of my mission that I didn't send a weekly email. I was seriously stressin' last Monday. The person who usually sits with us in the family history center was out of town, so he asked this other lady to do it and she MADE US LEAVE EARLY!! So we went to the public library to finish, but it was CLOSED for Ceasar Chavez day. Why is that a holiday?? So then we went to Staples to use the computers there, but then the lady as the store told us we probably shouldn't use it for personal stuff because the computers there aren't secure so if we logged into anything, stuff could get hacked. Soooo....we gave up at that point.

But here are some pictures from last week!

  

We had zone conference 2 weeks ago, and my mission president and I were talking, and he says to me "Sister Daelemans, how would your parents feel about me requesting a 6 month extension to your mission?" (Don't worry Dad, he was kidding. That's not even possible.) But seriously I wish that could be because home and school now seems so much more stressful than mission life ever is. I am currently trying to figure out classes for the fall, but it is TERRIBLY FRUSTRATING!! We also have been really busy in our area recently, which is so great! :) We had 5 of our investigators watch General Conference this past weekend and it was SO AMAZING! (I had so many of my personal questions answered as well. If you missed it, go watch it at lds.org!!) So yeah. Moral of the story is I like my missionary bubble that I live in right now and I don't want to leave, because real life is so much harder, but alas, life moves on and I will be home in 2 weeks :(

Well, that's it for this week!

Sister Daelemans

No More Tacos Please

If you ever feed the missionaries, don't feed them tacos. Just don't do it. And don't feed them spaghetti either.

I really feel like I am in a time warp, where every week is being reduced to the time of about 3 days.

Not much for this week, here are some pictures:

Our St. Patrick's Day garb!

Have a great week!

Sister Daelemans

The Earth is Flat

We were helping this guy clean out his garage, and he pulled out an old telescope and asked me to put it together. (You would be so proud of me Dad!) Why did he want the telescope? To look through it and prove that the moon is fake. Yes. He said it's fake, and also the earth is flat and gravity doesn't exist. Yep. His name was Merlin. But at least knowing that the world is flat has helped him believe that God is real....yep.

I could tell you more stories, but the longer I'm here the less motivation I have to write emails. But, it was a good week and we talked to lots of people and lots of them were weird but all of them were children of God. It's ok, I'm pretty weird sometimes too.

Have a great week!

Sister Daelemans

Here are some random pictures:

Moving Day

This week has been crazy busy. We found out on Friday that we are moving....today. SO we only had a couple days to completely pack up and clean our apartment. I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off.

The good news is that Sister Evans and I are both staying in Lancaster!! This means that I will be ending my mission in the same ward that I started! Not many people get to say that, so I feel very blessed.

We have seen some great progress with our investigators over the past couple of weeks. We keep having new people come to church, which is honestly such a miracle. Coming to church is literally the hardest thing to get people to do!

A couple weeks ago was Melissa's baptism. Since then her older brother and his fiance have started going to church (in a different ward, but still, that's amazing!) AND her dad came to church yesterday and we were able to teach him the first missionary lesson last night! What an amazing example she and her mom have been to the rest of their family. Slowly their hearts have been softened as they've seen the difference the gospel has made in the lives of Sister Smith and Melissa! I love them so much and I am so excited to see the progress their family is making!

Love you all! Have a marvelous week!

Sister Daelemans

Everything is Awesome!

This week flew by. We met some pretty neat people who seemed genuinely interested in hearing what we have to share about Jesus Christ, so that's great! We also had our investigators Jamie and Melinda come to church! Not sure what they thought about it; both people who spoke in sacrament meeting were supposed to be talking about service, but the only thing they both talked about was all the callings they've ever had, instead of talking about Jesus, so that was pretty lame. But our investigators still seemed to enjoy themselves. :)

Sorry this is short, have a super week!

Sister Daelemans

Baptismal Fonts and Hospital Beds

I learned a lot about my companion Sister Evans this week. First, some hidden talents. She knows ASL (American Sign Language) which is pretty neat, and she is also a master violinist! I also leaned that she is an incredibly brave soul, which I discovered because we had to go through some mildly challenging things yesterday.

The most exciting thing of the week is that Melissa got baptized! It was such an amazing baptismal service! And it was definitely one of those moments where everything falls apart before it comes together. Here's how it all went down. The end of last week we talked to Melissa and her mom, and our ward mission leader, and planned out the whole baptismal service. Great! But then in the middle of the week we found out that our mission president wants to change convert baptismal services to be shorter and simpler, so that the Spirit can be stronger! It was an inspired idea! It really was. But that also required changing a bunch of things last minute. But we switched things around, and figured out the program and all was good. We even coordinated with a member who printed the programs off for us in advance so it wouldn't have to be last minute, and said she would bring them with her to the service on Saturday. Great! Everything was set!.....Again! ...........But then on Friday, the day before the baptism, God told us we needed to change it. Again. When God speaks to us sometimes it is through the still quiet voice of the spirit, and sometimes there is a constant nagging voice, and then sometimes there is a loud shouting voice. The voice I heard was a nagging voice, and it was saying: "You need a musical number. You NEED a musical number." And then another thought. "Ask Sister Smith to bear her testimony. ASK SISTER SMITH TO BEAR HER TESTIMONY" It started as a nagging voice, but I was kind of ignoring it because the program was already set and the programs printed, so then it turned into the shouting voice so I was like "OK I GET THE MESSAGE!" Don't ignore those promptings people, because ignoring the Spirit when it's trying to tell you something is no bueno. So I turned to my lovely companion, the beautiful and talented Sister Evans and said "My sweet companion, how would you like to play the violin at Melissa's baptism tomorrow?" She agreed (after much coxing on my part) and I volunteered one of the elders to play piano with her. (Excellent leadership skills = volunteering other people to do things.) Then we miraculously found a violin to borrow from a member and had them practice the song "I Stand All Amazed" the night before. Miracles happen when you are on the Lord's errand! Then we asked Sister Smith, Melissa's mom, to bear her testimony. She seemed very unsure, but we didn't pressure her, we just asked her to consider it and pray about it and let us know the next day. The next day rolled around. We showed up early at the church to get everything set up. Pretty much everyone else showed up late and it was absolute chaos. The member who was supposed to bring the programs had missed her alarm and so couldn't get there before we had to start. (That ended up being ok because with all the last minute changes we had made, the printed program wouldn't have even matched the actual program.) As soon as we started the service though, all the chaos ended, and the Spirit was there so strongly. I have to say, God really knows what he's doing. :) Sister Smith had agreed just minutes before the baptism that she would bear her testimony at the end of the program. It was short and simple, but it was so powerful to see her testify to her daughter and the other members of her family who were there (some of whom aren't members) the truth and power of the Gospel. And Sister Evans did so great with the violin, she is a pro! Anyways, it was great and made my heart happy! :D

Well that was a long story. With a happy ending!!

This story has a happy ending too, so don't freak out. Last night we had to go to the ER because Sister Evans started having a terrible pain in her side. Like, felt like she was being stabbed with a knife pain. So we drove to the hospital and spent lots of time getting her tested for various things and waiting FOREVER for nurses to come check on her and bring back her test results (I don't know what people do when they're actually dying, because everything in the hospital moves so slowly.) We found out that she had an ovarian cyst that had ruptured, which caused a lot of pain but won't cause any permanent damage. She will be ok! She is on antibiotics and pain meds now, and we're going to be taking it easy for the next two days. It was actually kind of funny, because they led us to this little hospital bed surrounded by curtains, and there was no chair, so we both just sat on the bed together. But we were super tired, so we took turns lying down and taking naps. I also might have been singing Girls Camp songs to myself.....I was really tired so I don't remember but that is what Sister Evans told me this morning, haha. Anyway, she is so very brave because she was really in a lot of pain and we had no idea what was wrong for the longest time, but she didn't panic at all and was very positive given the situation! She is awesome!

I know the Gospel is true! I see the power of God in my life and in other people's lives every day!  There truly are miracles all around us if we just look for them :)

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans

Love is in the Air

Love is in the air! Except not for missionaries. We are pretty much nuns right now. The only kind of love we have is the love of Christ. Of course, that's the best kind of love there is.....so, yay! We get to share God's love with everyone :)

Some highlights:

It rained this week. Rain tracting is the best because people either think we're crazy for being outside, or they take pity on us and are more nice to us than usual. :)

​I burned my fingers Sunday morning. Hence why my fingers are in a mug of water. They are good now though, just bandaged up.

Candy. Haha, chocolate is always a good thing :) This Hershey kiss is too big to eat though! (But let's be real, I will probably end up eating it anyway.)

This week was good. Kind of cold, kind of wet, but we were able to see a lot of people. And most importantly, Melissa is getting baptized next Saturday! She is so cute, during our last lesson with her we asked her who she wanted to say the prayers, and she decided that SHE wanted to say both the opening and the closing prayer. She has come so far since we first started teaching her and she didn't want to pray at all. :) Now she loves to pray. She was sick and wasn't able to come to church on Sunday, but her mom told us that she overheard Melissa praying by herself while she was sick and lying on the couch. She not only prayed to feel better, but she was praying for all the members of her family and things that they are going through right now. How amazing, the power Christ's gospel has on people's lives!

Much love to you all, especially this week of Valentines!

Sister Daelemans

Time Flies When You're Preaching the Gospel

Good Day Good People of the Earth!

This past week went by SOOOOOO fast. I don't even know how the times goes by like that without me getting dizzy and falling over. But somehow it is Monday again already.

We had a pretty good week. A lot of the people that we have been teaching have seemed to fall of the face of the planet, so we probably won't be teaching them any more. But that's ok! We found some other amazing people that we are teaching now and they are the bomb.com! Jamie and Melinda are a couple that took the missionary lessons 20+ years ago in Germany, but decided to stay Baptist at the time, but recently decided that they don't want to be baptist any more, and possibly not sure even about God, but they are searching for truth and their hearts are really open! We had such a good first lesson with them and I am so excited to see them again next Saturday.

Other than that we have just been having a blast talking to people and teaching the Gospel, even to people who seem to be on another planet.

Also, we might have done part of a puzzle this week with Richard. He is a puzzle pro!

SORRY THIS IS SHORT I LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Daelemans

Lancaster Greenie, Part 2

This week was a wonderful adventure. I am training is the area where I was trained! How crazy. I'm not sure what Sister Evans, my new companion, really thinks of the mission field, but I thought it was a pretty fun week. We went tracting her first day here, so she could get a feel for what it's like to go and talk to people. We had some guy chew us out for about 20 minutes about how the Bible was written to keep slaves subject to their masters, and so that was fun. Not really. But it was so ridiculous and we're also pretty sure he was high on weed, so we just laughed about it later. Later in the week we had some good experiences tracting where we got to teach some people who were really interested, so that was good. I think she already has a pretty good idea of the ups and downs of being a missionary. Sister Evans is from Spanish Fork Utah, she is the youngest of 3 girls, she has 2 dogs at home, and she really likes bikes (as in, motorcycles) so she's pretty much awesome!

We had a pretty crazy day on Wednesday. Some members of the ward took us out to have lunch, but it was taking forever and we were going to be late for our next appointment where we play bingo at the senior home, so we had them just drop us off there instead of taking us home to where our car was. But then after bingo, we had to get back to where our next appointment was, so we walked! Really far. I guess in other missions where missionaries don't have cars at all it would have been normal, but for us it was quite a change of pace. Our mission president has been telling us recently to use our car like a bus, which means to drive it to our area but then get out and walk to whatever particular street or house we are going to, that way we can talk to a lot of people along the way. But, since we passed several bus stops along the way, I guess you could say that we were just forgetting the car-as-a-bus thing completely, and using our feet as a bus instead.

On Wednesday there was also a worldwide missionary broadcast, where we got to hear from Elder Bednar and Elder Oaks and the other members of the church's missionary council. It was really good, and they also announced some important changes to our schedule. We still have to get up at 6:30, but we now have more time to get ready in the morning. And we can go to bed at 9:30 instead of 10:30 if we want to, so we get to more sleep! It is wonderful. So far I am really liking the way things are going.

On Sunday they had a combined 3rd hour Priesthood and Relief Society meeting that was all about member missionary work! And the Bishop asked us and the ward mission leader to do a little presentation at the beginning. It was so fun and went really well – we made the whole ward role-play with each other what they might say to share the gospel with other people! We thought it would be a good idea since so often people don't share the gospel because they just don't know what to say to people. But if there's one thing I've learned on my mission about talking to people it's that the more you do it, the easier it gets. So we made them practice and hopefully that will help them in the future to be able to feel more comfortable opening their mouth and sharing even a simple testimony with those around them. Sharing the gospel is so fun!

Have a great week everyone!

Sister Daelemans

Goodbye Trio Life

We got transfer news, and the trio is ending :( We had a lot of fun though, it was a great transfer! So, now for our fate, drum roll please .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,. I am staying in Lancaster 1st and will be training a new missionary. HA! EVEN AFTER 15 MONTHS I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING! But that's ok, I trust the Lord. I probably won't ever know what I'm doing, but things still seem to turn out fine somehow. That is one of the biggest things that has strengthened my testimony of this work and shown me that the Lord is completely in charge, because somehow I still haven't messed anything up yet, haha.

Sister Breinholt and Sister Crowley are both staying within the Lancaster Stake, so I'll still get to see them, which makes me very happy!

I don't have much time to say anything else. But I know that this is the Lord's work and that we are blessed to be a part of it! :D

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans

Here is a picture of us with some random old people. :)

Fabulous Hats and Dead Cats

This week I learned I need to trust less in myself and more in the Lord. There were several times when I really thought I knew what I was doing, and then the Lord was like "Nope, not quite. Let's do it my way." He's always right. It seems like I have to learn this lesson over and over again, but that's ok I guess. As long as I keep learning!

We had 4 investigators come to church this week! That is the most I've ever seen come to church in one week while on my mission!! :D Super awesome! This made up for the first part of church being super duper stressful. This old man came up to us after ward council and was like "Can you teach this class that's in a hour?" And in my head I'm like "Why are you asking us, we have so many things to do in church already." And then before I could tell him this, my companions were like "Sure!" Turns out that was not a good idea. We are already covering 2 wards, so our Sundays are already spent running around trying to be in 2 places at once. So, sorry Sir, being in 3 places at once is actually impossible, even in a trio. It was a class full of teenagers who pretty much refused to talk, so that was fun. But our investigators showing up really made up for all my annoyance and stress. We also had 3 less active people show up! Which was super awesome. :) So it was a pretty fantastic Sunday.

We started teaching a little 9 year old this week, who is the daughter of a member. Her name is Melissa and she is hilarious.

Sister Breinholt: "We're going to use this pamphlet because it has pictures, and pictures are really great!"

Melissa: "Yeah, like my pictures of my dead cats."

Also,

"When I get married, I need a man who listens to me, so he can understand my problems."

Other things that this week included were awkward Law of Chastity lessons, an old lady adopting us as her new daughters, playing soccer and volleyball with some recent converts and other missionaries, and trying on some fabulous hats at Target.

Have a great week!

Sister Daelemans

This is a lame weekly email

This week was good. I think. I honestly can't remember all the things that happened since I sent my email last Monday, but I'm sure it was all good. :)

We had interviews with President Layton this week. Talking to him is always great, he has a way of STARING INTO YOUR SOUL. And then you end up telling him things that you didn't even know you were thinking or feeling. It's a gift.

We went to visit Richard this week. We decided to try watching the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie with him. We watched the movie with him last year, but.....he kept falling asleep throughout the movie. (Last year we also tried to watch Meet the Mormons with him one time, and he was literally out within 2 minutes.) So I wasn't too sure how long he would last before conking out, but we decided that he seemed awake enough to put it in. He didn't fall asleep at all this time, and he actually loved it! He was so entranced as we watched about the life of Joseph Smith. Richard LOVES Joseph Smith so much. He always would tell us, "Joseph Smith was just as much a prophet as Moses." We had to leave before the movie was over but we will finish it next week.

Those are literally the only things I can think to include this week. Sorry this email is so lame. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Sister Daelemans

Happy New Years!

I always feel like the week after Christmas is pretty depressing, because you know that January is coming soon, and January is pretty much the worst thing ever. Nothing ever happens in January other than failed news year resolutions and cold weather and getting sick. BUT the good thing is that I will be a missionary which always makes everything better because doing to the work of the Lord brings you happiness and JOY! so.....WOO! HAPPY JANUARY EVERYONE! 

But yeah, the week had a lot of ups and downs. Here is a summary of the week:

Monday - Took a super long nap during P-Day. It was glorious.

Tuesday - Got into an argument over text with a random man who lives in Idaho who wanted to tell us that we were wrong and the Book of Mormon is wrong and EVERYTHING IS WRONG. Except the only thing actually wrong was him. Which he will hopefully realize some day.

Wednesday - Played BINGO with a bunch of old people. They were sassy.

Thursday - Taught tons of lessons and it was literally the BEST DAY EVER!

Friday - Drove out to the middle of nowhere only to find that the people we were going to see weren't home.

Saturday - Went home early and planned and had a jolly time going to bed early.

Sunday - Someone randomly showed up to church and told us he wants to be baptized!

On new years eve, I was reflecting on 2016, and realized that I spent the entire year as a missionary. I have learned and grown so much in the last year. I do not even feel like the same person. 2016 really has been pretty great!

I hope the new year will be a good one! If 2017 is anything like 2016, it is going to be pretty fantastic! 

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans