Happy Halloween!

So many amazing pictures this past week.

Our wonderful district:


Halloween:




The alpaca farm we went to last Monday:

Sister Harmon and I are staying together another transfer!! I am so pumped, we have so many cool things ahead of us in the next 6 weeks. Here are a few:

1. My Birthday

2. Thanksgiving

3. The Christmas Creche (or Nativity) Festival they are doing in the beginning of December

4. The Mission Temple trip

5. Hong, Mike, Mary, and all the wonderful people in Golden Hills and Bear Valley that the Lord is preparing for us to teach!!
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​It is going to be so great!!!

Funny teaching story of the week:

Mike: "What do you need to do to prepare to get baptized?"

Me: "Have faith, repent..."

Hong (interrupting me) to Mike: "Oh, you don't do that, you can't get baptized!"

Mike: "Yes I do."

Hong: "No you don't! I never see you repent!"

Then came an explanation of how you repent in private during prayer, so hence she wouldn't necessarily see him repenting. It was amazing.

Another funny teaching story:

We brought a member to come teach a lesson with us. Halfway through the lesson the member randomly pulls out an Ensign magazine, turns to an article by President Uchtdorf, and proceeds to tell our investigator (in the middle of the lesson, mind you) how wonderful President Uchtdorf is and also how attractive he is. Yes. That really happened. I love her so much. :D

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Happy Halloween!

Sister Daelemans

Scripture Power!

This has been a pretty good week. We started teaching some new people that the members found for us, and they are awesome! And the weather has been beautiful – it rained a little on Sunday, the first time in weeks!

Hong and Mike – doing great! Lessons with them are always so much fun. It was so cool because we were talking about Faith and Miracles and Answers to Prayers, and Mike was helping us teach his wife about those things! She told us that she is 90% sure that God answers her prayers, but only 40% sure that Jesus actually walked on water. I thought that was so interesting. To me, prayer is the bigger miracle. Walking on water does not seem like that big of a deal when I compare it to prayer. I just can't believe how amazing it is that God is actually listening to me even with all of the other people who pray to him, and the fact that he is the Supreme Creator of the Universe and I am just little ol me. But the Love He has for me is beyond my comprehension, so that is a huge miracle in my book.

This Sunday was the Primary Program! Since we go to 2 wards, I got to see 2 primary programs, so it was pretty much the best Sunday of life! Definitely the best Sunday of the year anyway :) The theme for the primary children this year was Studying the Scriptures. Both groups of primary kids sang "Scripture Power" which is not a reverent song at all – in fact, they were practically yelling, and the Golden Hills primary kids each had a set of scriptures in their hands which they thrust in the air every time they sang the words Scripture Power. But for some reason, both times the kids sang that song, it really hit me and I almost started to cry. I think it is because I have found how powerful the scriptures truly are. Hong for example, does not understand a lot of things simply because she didn't grow up with a religion background. She didn't grow up believing in a God or in a Savior. And as we have been teaching her, it is never the things I say that make sense to her, or the things my companion says. No matter how much we explain something, she doesn't always get it. But, as she has been reading the Book of Mormon (even though she doesn't even understand the words all of the time) things start to make sense to her. There is a special power that the scriptures bring into your life when you start to read them. I have seen it in my life and in Hong and Mike's lives, and in many other people's lives while on my mission. It truly is amazing.

Also, I can't remember if I told you all last week, but Elder Bednar is coming to our mission!! November 12th and 13th. I. Am. So. Excited. :DDD

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans

Pics from this week: Sister Harmon and I playing piano together!!

Beautiful Tehachapi!!

Foggy Weather

The weather has been getting cold and foggy. I wore my coat for the first time today and a member we ran into at the grocery store looked at me and asked where I was from. Maryland. "Then why are you wearing a coat?!?" Just because I am used to the cold does not mean that I like it, and it doesn't mean that I am somehow immune to cold and that I won't wear a coat.

This week has been good and busy. A general authority came to our mission this week! Elder Carl Cook of the Seventy. We got to hear from him on Friday with half the mission in Bakersfield  and it was SO AWESOME! He was super funny, but more importantly the things he counseled us on have really motivated me to try so much harder and to be so much better. Sometimes hearing about all the things you should be doing, that you're not, is discouraging, because you know you will never get there. But he really focused on how we can use the Savior and the Atonement to improve  We cannot change on our own, and when we try to, that is when we get frustrated and give up. But when you rely on the Savior, He is able to change you and make you better. The Atonement is so awesome. I think we have very little comprehension of how many things his sufferings actually covered. It covers EVERYTHING! I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of what that can actually mean for me in my life. It is so awesome being a missionary! I have learned so much, especially of how much I still have left to learn. Good thing we are given our whole lives to learn and grow and improve.

The Golden Hills ward Relief Society had a "PJs" Party. Everyone came in their pajamas and we talked about Prayer, Journaling, and Scriptures! It was really fun (even though we didn't get to wear pajamas) and Mary was able to come and seemed to have a really good time!

Hong and Mike are doing great! They didn't come to church, which we were really sad about, but then we found out it was because they were really tired and slept in or something. Why were they so tired? Because they haven't been drinking coffee or tea this whole week! Yes, that's right, they have been faithfully living the Word of Wisdom! (Which is great, even though it kind of indirectly caused them to miss church. Oh well. One battle at a time.) I promised them it would get easier over time and that their bodies would adjust to the lack of caffeine. They are doing great!

We have seen so many miracle recently! I love being a missionary and getting to see how the hand of the Lord is always there in His work!

Much Love,

Sister Daelemans

Buddhist Temple

Our area is super spread out, so it always feels like we spend a lot of time in the car. We have been getting really tired of hymns lately (which is the only thing I've been able to listen to for an entire year. They get old after a while) so we have started listening to Christmas music. Is it a bit early? Well, no, actually it's not. Because Christmas music is great and Christ is important all the time!

We have been teaching Mary and she is doing great! She has a hard time understanding the scriptures when she reads them, so we showed her the children's Book of Mormon on the Gospel Library app. She started reading from that and she LOVES it!

Mike and Hong are doing great. Their church attendance has been more and more consistent, and this week in Gospel Principles class they both made comments and contributed to the discussion, which they have never done before! Then we had an AWESOME lesson with them. We asked them how they liked General Conference and they said they really enjoyed it (Mike watched almost every session, including the Priesthood session!) Apparently President Monson said something in regards to "hot drinks" and Mike ended up looking up what that meant and discovered the Word of Wisdom (which we had not taught them yet.) He asked us about it and we ended up teaching it to them as our lesson, and they committed to living it. It is amazing to see how they have progressed. Their faith has grown so much since I have met them. Little things that they both used to have problems with aren't issues any more. It just goes to show that the little things they have been doing, like praying and reading from the Book of Mormon, can make a huge difference. At the end we all knelt down and each of us said a prayer. It was so powerful!

Last Monday we went to see the Buddhist temple that is out in the mountains. Who knew there were so many random things to do in Tehachapi?

Here is our humongous zone:

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Daelemans

The Joy of Missionary Work

General Conference was this weekend, and let me tell you, it was such a spiritual feast! I appreciate it so much more as a missionary than I did before. As I watched, I wrote down things that they said that I wanted to share with specific people we are teaching, or things for myself that I really needed to hear. There is always so much to learn and so much to work on!

One of my favorite talks was by President Nelson. He spoke about how the main purpose of the Gospel, is to bring us JOY. That is what we are doing as missionaries, bringing people joy. Go watch it here:

Joy - President Nelson

There were also two BOMB talks about member missionary work. They just made my heart sing! It was all the things I wish I could tell members about being missionaries, but I'm sure that coming from the mouths of Apostles of the Lord will make these things have a much bigger impact.

Member Missionary Work - Elder Andersen

Member Missionary Work - Elder Oaks

We had a super busy week. That is always great because it makes the time fly by and you really feel like the Lord's work is moving forward. We got a referral from a member in the Golden Hills ward for her friend Mary. She told us that Mary was ready to take the missionary lessons and learn more about the Gospel! We met with her and she is SO PREPARED AND AWESOME! She has such a strong desire to learn and to grow closer to the Savior. Right now we are praying for a miracle because she has to work on Sundays a lot so she won't be able to come to church right away. But we have seen so many miracles this transfer, I have faith that anything is possible through the Lord.

Another really cool member referral was for a woman named Anne. Anne had a son that was killed several years ago, but his spirit has been doing things to show his mom that he's still there. Not only has he been doing things to get his mom's attention, but has also been appearing in dreams to his mom's friend Naomi, the member who referred us to Anne. Apparently he has been telling Naomi that he has accepted the Gospel in the Spirit World and wants to be baptized in the temple. I was not aware that you could take names to the temple if they weren't related to you, but apparently permission can be given in rare circumstances and Naomi has been working the past several months to get that figured out so that the son's temple work can be performed. She also has a daughter that lives in Santa Clarita who is currently taking the missionary lessons and planning to join the church. So, we got to meet Anne this week. She is super busy right now because her other daughter is getting married and her mom just passed away, but hopefully we will be able to teach her after things calm down a little. What a crazy story that is?!

Hong and Mike are doing well. They watched conference from their house and apparently really enjoyed it. They are making slow but steady progress. It is a joy to watch them make small realizations in the middle of lessons about things that we teach. You can see on their face when the Spirit suddenly tells them something or makes something clear to their minds. :)

Last Monday we went with some of the other missionaries to an ostrich farm that is here in Tehachapi. It was super random and really fun.

Also, I hit my year mark on Friday. WHAT?! I cannot believe I have been out for a whole year!

Have a great week!

Sister Daelemans

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