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