Hello August. Good riddance July!

The month of July is finally over. I think this has been the longest month of my entire life.

When people don't come to church, sometimes you just have to show up at their house Sunday morning and tell them you're walking there with them. It worked with the Cambodian lady we're teaching! Her name is Ladeth (la-det) and her two sons, 3 and 5, came as well. They were super noisy in church, and I could tell she was getting frustrated with them, so I spent most of Sacrament meeting drawing the younger one pictures of fish and snakes to keep him quiet so she could pay attention. Then, they were off to primary and she seemed so relieved to be able to go to class and not be distracted by her children. After church we taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she really seemed to understand! It is so interesting teaching someone who doesn't have a Christian background, and who has a language barrier. But she wants so much to understand and to learn! We got her a Book of Mormon in Khmer (the language they speak in Cambodia) and she was so happy! It is a very confusing looking language. You should Google it. At the end she told us "her brain was full." It may take her a little longer, but I can see wonderful things in store for her! What we taught made so much sense to her even though it was things she had never heard before. The Gospel is so true and just feels right in people's hearts. We're not teaching them something new, just reminding them of things they knew previously but forgot when they came to earth.

Have a great week! And please pray for California to get some rain. That would make my companion Sister Hale very happy indeed!

Love,

Sister Daelemans

Deluxe Christian Church

We finally found someone to teach this week! He is dating a member. Sort of. It's complicated. But he is curious to know what our church believes. It felt so good to sit down and teach someone the whole first discussion without them closing the door on us.

Funny thing that happened this week. We were tracting and the lady who answered the door told us that she already has a church that she attends. We asked which church it was, and she told us is was "a basic Christian church.".........I don't even know what that means. I've heard of a lot of types of churches/religions while I've been out here but never "basic Christian." She didn't want to talk to us, but it was just funny because later we realized that we are a "Deluxe Christian church." Yes, you only have to accept Christ in order to be saved. But in order to have the highest degree of salvation, Christ requires a little more. He requires that you make and keep covenants with him through priesthood ordinances. "Oh, you're only basic? Would you like to upgrade?" :)

We were given a referral by some other missionaries for a family that is interested in coming to church. The wife in from Cambodia though, and while she speaks English to some degree, we are not sure how much she actually understands. For example, there was a miscommunication on Sunday because she said she was coming to church with her kids and would have a ride, but then apparently she was expecting her friend to come pick her up but the friend didn't have room in her car, because she thought the lady was just going to follow her there. We want to teach her, but she keeps saying that her English is not good enough yet and that she will just have her husband explain things to her. Her husband is from the US, but we have never actually met him because whenever we go over he is sleeping. According to her he "knows everything about God." No he doesn't, but that's okay. She will eventually understand. Right now we just need to work on getting them to church and actually meeting her husband.

Sister Daelemans

A Perfect Plan

We have had a lot of lengthy conversations with people this week, though most of the people we talked to were either just curious or trying to prove us wrong. We decided that tracting is mostly a waste of time, so we tried doing something different in order to find people: Drawing the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk with chalk. It caught one person's attention, who talked to us for a while. She was pretty skeptical, but accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We talked a lot about James 1:5 and receiving answers to prayers. At the end, she suggested that we kneel down right there and pray together. As we knelt, she took her sweatshirt off because it had gotten pretty hot out, and on her T-shirt was a scripture. Which scripture? James 1:5. The one we had just been talking about!!!! I wanted to shout at her and say "SEE! It's a sign from GOD!" But I didn't. Instead we prayed. I hope that her heart will be open and that she will read the Book of Mormon that we gave her and accept the invitation to pray about it.

Her is our sidewalk art


We've realize that although we haven't had a lot of success this transfer, we have talked to a lot of really interesting people. I mean, I've talked to all sorts of interesting people throughout my mission, but these past few weeks have been particularly full of crazy encounters. We also have a lot of people that we have been trying to work with, but who just aren't quite ready to take the lessons yet. Well, we decided to right down all these people's names and stick them on our fridge so that we would constantly be reminded of them. Every one of these people needs the Gospel in some way or other. And when they are prepared, Sister Hale and I, or whichever missionaries are in the area at that time, will be there to teach them. I named it our "Refrigerator of Miracles."

I know that the Plan of Salvation is the perfect plan that God created for us – to be happy, and to eventually be able to return to him with our families. Our life did not begin at birth and it will not end with death. We are eternal beings, just like our Heavenly Father who created us, and his end goal is for us to have joy. If only people knew what they were saying "No thank you" to as they close the door on us. But for those who are prepared and whose hearts are open, finding that joy is an indescribable blessing!

The Gospel is True, the Book is Blue, and God Loves You!

Love,

Sister Daelemans

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!

9 Months!

Tom got baptized on Thursday! It was such a strange baptism. The person who gave the talk on the Holy Ghost might have included some speculative (probably false) doctrine, and then the guy who confirmed him was very......intense. But, he was baptized and that's what's important! He and his wife Stephanie are so happy! And in a year they will be able to go together to the temple to be sealed together for time and all eternity! That is the sweetest part of missionary work. Having someone join the church is pretty cool, but that's only the beginning. It is only the gate that gets them onto the path that leads them back to Heavenly Father. There will be many challenges along the way, but God also has so many other blessings in store for them as they remain faithful to the covenants they have made. The end goal for every convert is not just baptism, but for them to eventually make it to the temple and there receive the blessings of eternity :)

President Wilson left us this past Friday :( He and Sister Wilson are now back in Utah without the huge stress and responsibility of looking after our mission. They both served with all their heart and I will miss them a lot. It will be an adjustment getting used to a new mission president, but I know that the mantle of leadership is now with President and Sister Layton and that they too will serve the mission well. Tom's baptism was the night before the Wilsons left, and we decided to invite them. We told them "You're probably going to be very busy the night right before you leave, but we also know that there is no better way to end your mission than with a baptism!" And guess what? They came!!! I think it was such a tender mercy for them to be there (we never have baptisms on Thursday evening, they are almost always on Saturdays) but everything worked out for them to be able to attend the baptism right before they left. It was also a tender mercy for me to be able to see them on the last night of their mission. President Wilson looked quite emotional as he said goodbye for the last time. They are both such wonderful people and I love them so much!!

Funny enough that same day was also my 9 month mark! 

Crazy right?! When did I get to be this old as a missionary! I feel like I was just in the MTC wondering how long 18 months was going to feel like. Well, if the next 9 months are anything like these first 9 months, the rest of my mission is going to fly by!
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Happy 4th of July!

Love,

Sister Daelemans

Hale, not Hales

I would like to preface this email by saying that the computer I am using is totally wacko right now. There are red squiggly lines under almost every single word I write, as if they were all spelled wrong. Well, I'm pretty sure I know how to spell the word "the" correctly. I thought that maybe the computer was set to another language, but as far as I can tell everything says English. So, if I spell anything wrong, it is because I cannot distinguish it from all the words that I am spelling correctly even though the computer is telling me otherwise.

So my new companion is Sister Hale! (Not Hales - the person who called last week to let me know about transfers was given false information!) She is from Tennesee most recently, but that is the 11th or 12 place that she has lived. Her family has moved all over the south east and they have even spent several years living in a boat in the Carribean. People used to be impressed when I said I was from Maryland, but now her back story is so much more exotic than mine. At least I'm not from Utah.

We tracted a lot this week. And taught people. And visited less active members. I guess it just felt like a really long week, so it seems like we did more of everything. It was SUPER long. But usually really long weeks seem to be followed by really fast weeks, so I am sure the next 7 days are going to fly by!

Funny story for the week. We were sitting on the front porch of a member's house talking to her, when her neighbor came up and started talking to us. He is CRAZY! Not bad crazy. Just an ADD, way too much energy and super outgoing, possibly also had a couple of beers kind of crazy. Also, he was a "dowist." I guess that is some sort of Eastern Religion. He told us he used to be Christian and is still very interested in religions. He said that he always invites the Jehovah Witnesses inside his house to talk (except when it smells like cat pee apparently.) Anyway, he wanted to know what our view of the afterlife was, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was just really funny to teach him, because he was super interested in what we had to say but he kept getting distracted and asking other questions that took us on lots of random tangents. I don't know if he will ever become a member of the church, but at least he was very eager to learn. I laughed a lot and was able to feel the spirit as I was testifying of the truths that I know, so overall it was a pretty great lesson!

Tom is getting baptized on Thursday! I am so excited for him! He is the most prepared person I have ever taught. We always ask him at the beginning and the ends of lessons if he has any questions, and he always says No, everything makes sense! Then he looks kind of sad, like he has let us down or something because he has no questions for us. But to me it is just amazing that he understands everything so well already. His heart is so open that the Spirit is able to testify of the truths of the Gospel and those simple truths ring true to his soul. He is an amazing and humble person!

Sister Daelemans

Staying in Tehachapi...Again!

I found out I am staying in Tehachapi for a third transfer! I am super excited, I really love the area and the people here. And also, there ain't no way I am going down to Bakersfield or Lancaster where it is supposedly 115 degrees every day. I am comfortable in the 80s-90s range of heat thank you very much. Sister Alderman is getting transferred to South Bakersfield, so I really don't envy her. We have been together for 3 transfers, which is half my mission so far, and it feels like the end of an era. My new companion will be Sister Hales. I have never met her, but she has been out for 6 months and so I was assigned to be the senior companion. The only problem is I am also supposed to be the driver, except I don't have a licence anymore because it expired and Maryland laws regarding licences are ridiculously strict and unhelpful to sister missionaries serving in California. We'll see what will happen, it will probably just have to be my companion who drives, even though she will be new to the area.

We went to the temple this week! :) It was so great to be able to go, especially since the couple who took us down had just gone through for themselves and been sealed in the temple last month! LA traffic was crazy but the trip was so great!

Have a great week and stay out of the heat!

Much love,

Sister Daelemans