Transfers! Temecula!

Hello my family and friends! How is everyone doing? Email me and let me know.

This weem we got some bomb burritos. My mission out here besides inviting others to come to Christ is to find the best California burrito. Cessy’s is at the top but Alburritos comes second.

We went to lunch with our old bishop. We talked about missions and about his daughters. He has taught them but they are having a rough time believing and living the gospel.  We have a really good relationship with his daughters so he loves having us around.

My life as a missionary is the best. I hope you all know that. I feel like whenever I tell you about it it doesn’t sound as cool. We are working hard and  having fun. We are sharing the gospel, talking to people and having fun. We are happy. I feel so blessed to be part of this work. I feel so blessed to be a missionary. I feel so blessed to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I truly have strong feelings about certain things that have always been in my life. I have never appreciated more than when I share it with someone who has no idea. Sometimes nothing comes from it but it just builds up my testimony.

Even though numbers wise it doesn’t look like I am having too much success. I feel successful. I am truly starting to have intense feelings about it. I am happy crying happy tears. I love this gospel, it is the best. There is so much peace and love in it. I am giddy and overjoyed. God really does love us all.

We worked at the food pantry. It is so sad it is Sister Portez last time. Sister Portez is finishing her mission. She is flying back to the Philippines. I am going to miss her so much. I love her so much. The people at the food pantry love missionaries. It is so fun for us, it is amazing. They allow special needs people to come and help them so later they can find a job. We love them.

We had to borrow the hermanas car to go to Murrieta. After we came back they had borrowed our bikes but my back tire was popped. The hermanas had to go to an appointment so they couldn’t give us a ride so we started walking to our appointment. We realized we were going to be 45 minutes late so we each said a silent prayer. We immediately got a phone call and it was a member who saw us walking and said the spirit told her to help us. She took us to our appointment. So prayers are real.

We met with Guy and studied the first chapter of Revelations. He is kind of worried about the state of the world and government and all. So ya.

Because my bike tire is broken, we started walking. It took us 2 hours to walk to Vida’s house. She is the furthest house in our area. We had our lesson with her and taught the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. While we were teaching Vida’s son walks out and brings her a cup of coffee. She was adding her cream and sugar and stirring it right when we read “hot drinks, coffee and tea are not for the belly..”  We all burst out laughing! Pray for Vida, this is going to be hard for her. We have faith it can happen / it will happen. She is trying to be ready for Oct 28 baptism date. Sister Rebar was with us and then she took us to a less active family where we had a great conversation and invited them to trunk or treat.

We taught Bryant his lesson. He is something. His little brother Johnny kept coming in to talk to him and he would say “Johnny I am trying to learn, but you can schedule a time to talk to the sisters.” Remember that this kid is 12. At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray, he was super nervous. We sat there for a while and I told him I would pray first to show him how. After my prayer he said his first vocal prayer. It was so beautiful. He said, “Thank you for the sisters and them taking time to teach me. Please bless my baptism date and help me to make it.” He is so pure and so elect. It is truly one of the sweetest things on my mission hearing Bryant pray for the first time. After his prayer he was beaming. I asked him his favorite treat and he said Taki’s - It reminded me of Ben Verdajo - Ben Ten this guy is your friend - I promised him I would by him Taki’s if he reads five Book of Mormon verses and prays every day.

We went to Jaycee’s house and helped her. She doesn’t have anyone in her life but the missionaries. So we help her. She is kind of crazy. She is impressed by our standards and she wanted a copy of the book of mormon that we all signed for her. She is so cute.

We tried to work but no one is happy for us to be knocking on the door because of the World Series. They just hurry and ask us to leave.

Happy birthday Sunny!

We got transfer calls and I am staying but Sister Stoddard is leaving :/ Everyone knows we have been best friends.

My new companion will be sister Walter. All I know about her is she is super quiet and nice.

We walked to our next appointment and stopped and talked to the Elders and one of their member friends who knows Nate and Patty and is good friends with my cousin Josh.

We found our person we were teaching, Josh also, he has been MIA but invited us to come back again.

We had stake conference. It was amazing. We learned a lot about service missions and the bishop’s storehouse. It made me think about my amazing Ema and Papa, you guys do that! You are awesome. We learned a lot about the temple and its role in ministering. We also talked about kindness and they talked a lot about missionary work that made us happy.

We were walking to our appointment and a lady pulled over and asked, “Are you LDS?” I answered, “Yes we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints.” She paused and was like “... ok, do you need a ride?” She was so sweet. She explained her concerns and gave us her number and said we could call her.

My new companion Sister Walter’s is really sweet. Some things about her - she has been here for a year and is from Shiloh Arizona by Snowflake. She loves animals and helps her gma shelter and rescue animals. She wants to be a vet and she has had 25 cats and has a dog named Aurora. She is 26 years old. She is quiet but awesome and has an amazing testimony. I am excited to work with her. Every companionship in our zone changed. I have been here nine months! Ta da! It has gone by so fast and I have loved every second of it. We tried to play tennis for exercise. I am not very good at it but I love it.

Sometimes when we teach we are praying the whole time that Heavenly Father will give us what to say.

My scripture hero is Samuel the Lamanite. He has so many attributes I want as a disciple of Christ - fearless, spirit centered, determined, courageous, good, preaching whatsoever things come into his heart - just what I want to be and do. God does put a lot of things into my heart, he gives me love and patience for them. I love how I feel when I am teaching someone.

We had to change Vida and Bryant’s baptism date because she has trouble staying away from coffee. We went to a lesson prepared to teach laws and ordinances but  I felt we needed to talk about something else. I asked her if she had prayed about Joseph Smith and she said she had. I asked her about her experience and she said she didn’t have any experience because she didn’t know anything about him. The mission records said she had been taught the restoration so I have no idea why she missed it but she acted like she had never heard it before as I taught. I told her about the first vision and cried the whole time. The spirit was so strong and she said “Now I get it. He is the guy that received the revelation about coffee right? Now I understand why this is important.” Now all of the roadblocks we have run into with her make sense.

Julie’s other grandsons besides Austin were at her house for our lesson.Those boys are starving for spiritual things. We are now teaching all four of them. They wanted to be part of it and wanted their own copies of the Book of Mormon. One of them was so excited. He said he used to read the bible every night.

I was reading the scriptures and learned in Ether Chapter 6 how the wind that Heavenly Father caused to blow continuously on the Jaredite barges is what caused the tempests that pushed them to the depths of the ocean but He also pulled them up again. I love their attitudes that they are constantly singing praises to Him.  We may have trials but He will always be there to help us and bring us up again. They can be learning experiences. They push us toward the promised land or where God wants us to be and do the things we need to do for Him.

One of the cute boys in our ward is leaving on a mission, he spoke on Sunday and we are so excited for his new adventure because missions are awesome!

Also, our cute friend Brittany is submitting papers to serve a service mission. She is so special and will bless so many lives. We are so excited for her. I cried and cried.  

I love this gospel. I love teaching it and I love living it.

I love you love you,

Bye

Sister Dalley

Josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

sisterjosiedalley.blogspot.com

Jesus the Christ

Hello Everybody, It is Sister Dalley on Pday

Monday

We went to a church and played a lot of volleyball. That was awesome. We tried squid too, that interesting … it was actually nasty, just chewy and eww. It was a fun day. It was super fun, it was a good day.

Tuesday

I hear Jenna is in the MTC now which makes me so happy for her. That is so exciting and I am so pumped for her! I am so excited to see and hear about all the amazing things she does.

We went to district council. We talked a lot about Joseph Smith and the importance of the first vision. It was super powerful and super good. We studied the talk from Tad R Callister, Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration.

We went out and worked. Working is the best thing ever even when no one lets you in or wants to talk to you. It is awesome. I love it. We are working hard and trying hard and having fun. We try to share with them light and joy but there weren’t any takers. Maybe someday. It is always my favorite. I love it so much. I feel so blessed to be a missionary and share this light. It makes me feel that much brighter. Every time I share the light with someone else I feel like my heart and light doubles.

We went to dinner a sweet old German woman who is five years older than Elder Uchtdorf. She told us stories about the war and so many sad and crazy instances that happened to her and to her family. She is amazing. She also had a friend there from Taiwan who told us stories.  It was a very informative dinner.

We right back out and worked. Being a missionary is this best ever. I wish you all could experience what I am experiencing. I love it.

Wednesday

We went to the food pantry which you all know is my favorite thing ever. We set our goals for the coming year for the ward council and ward missionary work. We also set plans on how we/or the next missionaries will achieve those goals.

We went out and worked and then went to dinner with the Chase family. They go all out for halloween, it looked like a halloween storm inside.

Thursday

Nothing ever goes to plan. It is funny, as missionaries, we make a schedule and plan out our day but God always uses us where he needs us. We set up tables and chairs for a wedding. We then went to the food pantry for government commodities and then had the hermanas drive us home and we couldn’t find our keys. We retraced our steps at the food pantry and then at the wedding site and could not find them anywhere. We were two sister missionaries in sweats and tshirts locked out of our apartment. The only spare key was in Vista.

The sweet member where the wedding was took us to Vista to get new keys. She is seriously the most christlike person we have ever met. We apologized and she answered “would Jesus Christ help you” we answered yes and she said, “didn’t I promised to take upon me the name of Jesus Christ and renew that promise when I take the sacrament?” We answered yes and she answered, “Then let me serve you.” I got to see the VanArle’s who I love so much.

We were only able to get ready in time to go to our relief society activity.

Friday

Not very many people wanted to talk to us this week except Darlene, our member friend who is bedridden at the care center who wanted to talk a lot. She bears her testimony every other sentence. I want to be just like her when I am her age. She is such a light and is also so sassy.

That night while we were doing weekly planning we heard thunder and ran outside and it was pouring rain which never happens in Temecula. I love California but miss the variety that Utah brings, the leaves, ah. It was so fun though.

Saturday

A wedding filled day, Julie’s (a person we are teaching) daughter was getting married and so we helped her set up. It was very different but elegant.

Then we went to another wedding, a member of ours and her new husband Colton. They asked us to do desserts and we did missionary work while we served pies, cake pops and chocolate dipped strawberries. We answered a lot of questions from the gals we worked beside. We set up, helped and cleaned up the reception. The elders came and helped us.

Sunday

I cannot believe October is halfway over. Ward council was super good. I love who we get to work with. I love our support group and how they involve us. Church was the young men’s program (kind of like the primary program) but the quorum presidents talked and then they had musical numbers including the organ. They invited Bryant in his new button up shirt to sing with them. It was so sweet. We were so excited. We sat in with the yw for third hour. It was fun. Those girls are amazing.  

After church they served leftover desserts from the wedding. We went to a guy (Danny’s) house. He asked a question “How do we know which one is true?” So he is a new person we are teaching. We went to dinner with the Hess family Jack, Earnest and Mary where all three of them have the same birthday. Not planned, I don’t think that is something you can. They are very special people.

That is actually my week but I want to tell you what I learned in Jesus the Christ. This is something that I have been with my dear friend Nickmo. I read Chapter 4, the Antemortal Godship of Christ. It is so cool it talks about all the names Jesus Christ is given. It says in this chapter even though he has so many names and is viewed as so many different things. In the end it says, “God, the Creator, the Jehovah of Israel the Savior and Redeemer of all nations, kindreds and tongues are the same, He is Jesus the Christ.”  You can call Him whatever you want but it does not change what He is and what He did. It is just amazing to me. It is just a testimony to me.

All of this is something I knew but it is reaffirming to study this and read it. I absolutely love it and all it shares. I love the wording, I keep a dictionary on me when I read it but it just builds my testimony so much. I have also been reading the Saints volume along with my regular scripture study. It has boosted my testimony. I encourage you to read it too, along with the Book of Mormon, don’t stop reading that because you are reading these but I just love them all so much. I love everything I am learning out here.  I love seeing all of this in my life. I am so happy I truly have found this joy. I feel like I had it before but didn’t truly appreciate it. I hope you know how important it is because it is so true. The gospel is so true.

I hope you all have a fantastic week. I am very excited for this coming week.

Little shout out to Josh, happy birthday! I hope it is the best.

Love you all, love you, bye!

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

sisterjosiedalley.blogpspot.com

I saw one of my bffs from the food pantry at lunch

General Conference!

Hello Everyone! How goes it? First off I would like to say happy October!

Mon (Oct1)

Pday shopping and laundry and emailing and volleyball. Afterward we went with Sister Baker to a lesson with Herb but he called us and said he had been drinking and canceled.

Tues

We woke up and went on a run. We got ready and went to district council. It was super good, I loved it. We learned about planning. It is hard to put down a number because each of those numbers is a person.

We then went to work - knocked doors, talked to people and shared the light! We ate dinner with the Christensen family who has five kids under the age of 10 which is abnormal out here but I felt right at home because that is basically how my family was. There was a little 3 year old girl there who kept falling over and hitting her head. She did it three or four times in  the hour we were there and I could relate on a personal level. The other little girl gave us drawings of her hand - I just love kids, I love em! So sweet.

We also went to an apartment complex and I decided to go up a sidewalk ramp on my bike because I thought it went all the way through. But nope, my enemy, stairs were there. Luckily I saw the stairs and I stopped and decided to walk my bike down, good, but I decide to still straddle the bike as I walked down the stairs, bad. It started out good but then the bike started bouncing, ouch, and then it started going faster without me, ouch, so the remainder of the stairs I fell down on my bike, ouch! In the end the bike and I fell over. I was scraped up and bumped and bruised but I am ok. I have a gnarly bruise on the back of my leg but I am OK. The work must go on. A funny sister Dalley moments that happen quite a bit but you know I am still alive.

Wed

We went to the food pantry which is always a good time. One of the sweet special needs girls that works there all the time came up to us and gave us best friend girlfriend bracelets. Her name is Allison and I love her, she is so pure.

We just love those people and they are amazing.

Herb texted us and asked us to meet. We went to the park and waited and he never showed. We went to work again and knocked on doors. I love it, I just love it, it is so great! Yes!

Thurs

A fantastic day! Blessings and miracles. Happily we had a lesson with Herb. He has been kind of flaky. He texted us and asked us to meet. We laid it down that we did not have time to show up to teach him and him not be there. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong. We invited him to be baptized and he said “yes, when can I?” He is on date to be baptized November 3rd. Pray for Herb. We still have a few things we need to teach him and a few things he needs to get over, obviously but we are excited for him.

We then went to Julie’s house. She has heart failure and has a rough time even standing up so we talked  to her while we cleaned her house. My Ema always says it is more fun to clean someone else’s house. It is so true. We got to answer a lot of her questions. It was super good.

We tracted and talked to a bunch of inactives. I love how the lord uses us.

Friday

We went to a lesson with Vida. We taught her the other half of the commandments. It went super well. She really wants to be part of this. We taught her tithing and she gets it, we taught her fasting and she says it makes sense to her. It is really cool! I love it. After her lesson we helped her clean up her backyard. More work!

Saturday

Oh my goodness. I have pages and pages of notes! Conference was so good! We had zone breakfast

and then went in and listened to conference. I loved it! I loved it! It was so good! Holy cow! I am so excited. I just loved everyone’s outlook.

Elder Brough - Rejoice

Our good friend Elder Bangerter, I loved his talk. A little background on his talk. He said he had a talk planned and submitted but because of an experience he had in the temple he changed his talk. The talk we heard was for you and for me. I loved how he talked about “getting it.”

Elder Rasband - Stand in Holy places, put fears aside to do the work, we must receive revelation

Elder Bednar - Joy and happiness does not come through a checklist it comes from applying it to our lives unified all in one

I was literally sitting there the whole conference going that was for me, that was for this person. Conference as a missionary is unreal. It was so great, I learned so much.

I saw Kurt and my favorite Sister Kimiko. I was so happy!

Elder Christofferson - center and focused in Christ

Elder Soares - our new friends in the gospel, it was perfect

Elder Gong - campfire of faith, I am a campfire person, I loved that so much, gospel blessings come when we love others with all our hearts and souls

Elder Uchtdorf - believe love do, it made my heart so happy, move forward and upward

Then the women’s session. I just cried. I could feel sooo much love.

We were sitting in the stake center and when President Nelson walked in on the screen we all stood up. I could feel peace and love and strength.

We had an ice cream social with the women of the stake. We got to meet a lot of people there. After we came home we played rock paper scissors finding. Whenever we were presented with an option of which way to go. I was right and Sister Stoddard was left. We were guided to a guy’s house. He talked about how he has been surrounded by members of the church for a long time. He is prepared and elect. We had to give him away to the elders but blessings. The Lord is in everything, even a game of rock paper scissors.

Sunday

Conference was amazing!

President Ballard - I loved his talk, it made me cry and cry, I loved how he wrote it before his wife passed away. I thought about Cole. I wrote trials and sorrows open us up to receive revelation.

Sister Cordon - being a shepherd and doing what Jesus Christ would do if he were here, find them on their covenant path and walk with them, no one should walk alone

Elder Holland’s talk - I cried the whole way through it, it made my heart so happy, anger can be more destructive than the wound that caused it, contention is not of Christ but love and forgiveness is, we need to be a peacemaker and care for each other

Elder Bowen - the book of Mormon

Elder Anderson - none of the stripling warriors were killed but all were wounded, earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal

President Nelson - the correction of the name of  the church, not negotiable, I felt rebuked for the times have removed Jesus Christ’s name from his church, we are promised incomprehensible blessings, I am so excited for that

We ate lunch with the Spanish branch. I got to use more of my broken spanish. My 95 year old best friend was there and she tried again to set me up with her grandson. I love her!

The last session of conference.

President Eyring - what must I be doing to take upon me the name of Christ and how do I know when I am making progress

Elder Renlund - repentance and our choices decide who we will become

Elder Stevenson - I loved his talk about sheep, shepherds and the sheep dog, predators can find the sheep that stray from the flock but we must go find them first and bring them and celebrate, every soul is precious

I am very grateful for this conference. I am very grateful for our prophet. I loved it so much!

I am so blessed to be a missionary. I love you all so much! Have a fantastic week. You’re amazing. I am praying for all of  you.

Love you, love you, Bye!

Sister Dalley

Another Great Week in Paradise

Hello Friends and Family,

It is another great day in Paradise!

Monday - Sept 25th was my eight month mark. What? I cannot believe it has been eight months. Crazy! Pday was such fun. We went to a sisters breakfast so I got to see my baby Sister Miles. We got to talk and eat and catch up.

Then we went to the church to play ping pong and volleyball. The Murrietta zone was also there because their building was being used. It was really fun, hanging with the friends, I love it. Afterward we went to the ward FHE night - hot dogs in the park - but it was actually not hot dogs and was not in the park but at Sister Baker’s house. It was western themed and was super cute.

Tuesday - we went to President interviews. K - can I tell you how much I love President Thomas. He is truly called of god. He is personally invested in each of us. He just radiates happiness and joy and love. He is an amazing man. He asked me my goals, which are to ask for more referrals and to continue living worthy of and for the people we teach. He asked about how home was. I was crying and beaming how Heavenly Father answered my prayers and gave more than I asked for.  We were both just crying. I am grateful for such an inspired mission president.

We met with Vida and sister Barnson. We taught her the commandments, or half the commandments because sister Barnson is a talker. Vida gave us permission to teach her son Bryant. Their baptism date is the 27th. We then went to work and knocked on doors and all that goodness.

Wednesday - we went to service at the food pantry which is always fun. I love the food pantry and doing service there. The Barnson’s took us to lunch and we met Sister Baker there and we had our ward correlation meeting there. It was super good and we got a lot done. Brother bought me a phone case because mine broke. Super kind and generous people.

We went to the park to paint with Alejandra. We talked about her temple experience and we painted. It creates a stress free environment for her. She is an artist  is better at asking questions and talking about her concerns while we paint. It is something she loves so we are just taking interest in her too. She is so great! I love her. She always has a million questions. We found out her concerns and addressed them.

We then rode to the Draeger’s home for dinner. They are so kind and generous. They are a super cute family, we absolutely love them. We went home so sister Stoddard could pack and go on exchanges. She went to murrieta with a car and sister Bradford came here to be on a bike with me. We sat by each other on the plane to California when we left the MTC 8 months ago. This si us making awkward hand signs. It is supposed to be an 8 for 8 months.

Thursday - We got up and went on a walk around the duck pond. So pretty. We had tons of fun and did tons of work and talked to tons of people. We stopped by an assisted living center to visit Sister Brown, one of our members who is bedridden because she broke her leg. We just talked and talked and she shared scriptures with us and shared her testimony with us it was beautiful and she cried a couple of times and it was just all around awesome. It felt weird to be in an assisted living center in a dress and not in scrubs. We just sat and listened and loved her. She is amazing.

We then did even more work. We headed to dinner and decided to take a little back trail that is beautiful and peaceful. We passed by a bridge and saw a guy sitting under the bridge on his skateboard, he looked about 17 and he was crying. We saw him and turned around and went back and talked to him for a minute. We found out his name is Ezekiel. We offered him help but he declined so I gave him a happi pin and a pass along card with Jesus on it and our number. We told him that God is aware of Him and is listening and that Jesus Christ knows exactly how he is feeling. By the end of us telling him that he was no longer crying. He thanked us. I don’t know what's going on in his life. I don’t know where he is now or what he is doing. But please pray for Ezekiel and people like him. It made us sad but also warmed our hearts that we could be there for him, even though he did not accept the gospel we were there for him.

Saturday - First I want to say congrats to Meagan Cottle, wait not Cottle anymore. I have your beautiful wedding invitation on my shelf. You look so happy and beautiful. I am super excited for you. I want to see pictures. Love you Meg!

WE headed to the stake zone breakfast put on by the stake presidency. It was super num they made us homemade cinnamon rolls and fruit and it was super good. The zone leaders and the Stake President gave us a talk. We went to Julie and Austin’s house and we chatted a bit. She wants us to help with her daughters wedding. We told them about general conference and they were so excited about it and asked us a million questions about it. It was super good. I was teaching them and explaining the symbolism of baptism by immersion. We were feeling the spirit and he lesson was going good until I said, “Baptism is symbolic of dying, you put away the old person.” Austin looked at his grandma and burst out laughing and so did she and so did we.

We are planning on putting them on date next week.

We had a late dinner with Guy and his Catholic parents. They took us to an italian restaurant, everything they brought out was huge and we were stuffed but they still took us back to their house for cherry pie and icecream. We were so weighed down going home.

 

Fast Sunday was super great and I got to teach gospel principles. We went to dinner at the Johnson’s house. He is the old bishop and his wife is the volleyball coach at chaparral high school. The girls are all drop dead gorgeous and vb stars. We love the Johnson’s.

So that was my week. I love you all so much.

Love you  love you bye,

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

Sisterjosiedalley.blogspot.com