The Fireworks Are Over

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! After emailing you all last week, we had a nerf war with some other missionaries. I am a terrible shot but it was still super fun! The pictures all turned out blurry though :( Also, I forgot to put my tag on which I felt super self conscious about. It was like I didn't know who I was! :O



We decided to be very patriotic when we changed into our missionary clothes. The 3 wards here in Tehachapi had a big BBQ. It was really fun but we had to leave early because we had a curfew, so we didn't get to see any fireworks but we could hear them from our apartment. It was weird to go in early. I wrote a lot in my journal and then hung up a picture wall by my desk, which I am pretty pleased with :) Now I get to see all my favorite people's lovely faces every time I sit down to study in the morning.

After the fun of the 4th it was back to work. We don't have anyone to teach right now, so we have just been tracting all day every day. Which is sometimes fine, but gets really old when nobody wants to talk to you. We are also running out of doors to knock on, so that is kind of stressful. I really feel like Heavenly Father is testing us to see if we will continue to work diligently even when we are not having success. It's part of missionary work, and I have had times like this on my mission before. Even when you don't have success, you can still be happy as long as you keep focused on the work, which I have been trying my best to do.

Miracle for the week: This past week we were out tracting and we came to a house with a fence around it. Before going into the yard, Sister Hale gave the fence a good shake. We always do this to make sure there aren't any dogs in the yard. Well, there didn't seem to be a dog, so we entered the yard and knocked on the door. As we were talking to the man at the door, who didn't seem to be interested, I practically jumped out of my shoes as a giant German Shepherd ran around from the back of the house and stood right behind us. He must have been in the back yard asleep or something and woke up as he heard our voices at the door. The man said nothing about his giant dog standing right behind us, just that he wasn't interested. Then he closed the door. The dog sniffed at us, but didn't seem to be agitated or angry at our presence. We cautiously walked back to the gate. The dog walked with us. Sister Hale slowly opened the gate and slipped through. I went through after her, telling the dog "No, you have to stay here, you can't come with us." The German Shepherd watched me as I stepped through the gate and closed it behind me. The very second the latch on the gate was secure the dog turned from calm and docile to snarling and ferocious, jumping up on the fence as he growled and barked at us. Sister Hale and I looked at each other. We both knew that there had been angels walking with us through that yard, standing in between us and the dog.

We also got to meet our new mission president this week. President and Sister Layton are both very tall. They are also very different from President and Sister Wilson. That's okay though. I think I am going to like them a lot, but it will take time to get to know them. We have interviews with him this upcoming week, so that will be interesting.

Here is a talk that I really love. I might have shared it already, I can't remember. You can read it, or you can listen to it (the speaker is quite funny.) His Grace is Sufficient

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Sister Daelemans

Here is part of our area that is up in the mountains - what a beautiful view!