A Fun Hike

Two More Weeks in Carlsbad

Hello people of the world!

I am going to crank this out because today is transfers.

M - Our old investigator Caroline came to our YSA party which was so fun and we were able to help her with some things she’s been struggling with. It was a blast. Then we went contacting by the pier. I just love talking to people.

T - We went to district meeting - which was awesome - I love district meeting. I love my people. I know it probably gets annoying how much I say I love everyone but the thing is I absolutely love everybody. I see how much God loves everyone and I tend to feel the same way. I pray for that daily, to be able to feel God’s love for each person I meet. That way I quickly connect with them and more firmly can testify of the truths I know. The down side of that is when people reject God and Jesus Christ and reject the gospel, it kind of breaks my heart and I feel so sad for them.

W - Nothing went according to plan. We played volleyball with the other sisters for exercise. Sister Miles had a migraine so I cleaned while she slept. Then we went to dinner with the Gundersons who are a huge blessing to our YSA ward. They are super missionary focused and help those in our YSA ward come to Christ and help them want to share the gospel with others.

Th - We took cookies to Jasmine who is a less active member of our ward. We are trying to  help her come back by being her friend. We went to Carlsbad village contacting and went and tried a couple of people. Then we went to play chair soccer for sports night which was so much fun. Everyone should try chair soccer.

I just want to make sure you know -

I kind of breeze over contacting and going to try certain people. I want you to know how much we actually work. I feel like I tell you all the fun side of things that we do but we work and we work really hard. We contact for hours on end. That is what we do most of the time, we are out talking to people sharing this gospel. We are testifying of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and we see miracles, little tender mercies every day. Even though we are not teaching on anyone right now and aren't necessarily focused on certain investigators, I guarantee this is not a vacation, even though this is a beautiful vacation spot. It is hard work and we love it. I live in the most beautiful place on planet earth but it is also a very wealthy spot and people are very content and not ready for change. So they are not progressing. They need Jesus Christ because without Him we have no hope.

F - We played basketball for exercise with the other sisters in the morning and then cam home, got ready and did our studies. Little tender mercy, without planning - Sister Miles and I both studied Mosiah 24 which was awesome - more on that later.

We messaged a whole bunch of people and contacted all day which was fun. We ate dinner with Andi who was on our should be YSA list but now is coming to YSA, woot woot hard work pays off. We played a game and shared a thought with them.

We shared a scripture we had read that morning with them.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I love that verse. While we shared that with the Butner family, it was awesome - both Brother and Sister Butner had tears in their eyes. We were able to testify that God loves them  - which is awesome. He is mindful of us as missionaries and the struggles and trials we face, that he loves the Butner’s and the things they face.They shared us that that is exactly what they needed. They testified that he knew we were there to teach him for a reason and even though we are not teaching an investigator we were able to teach them.

God knows our needs. Jesus Christ knows how we feel and can help us. It is so beautiful how much we are so loved. It was a good moment. It helped us out and them out. I love this work and the guidance we receive.

Sa - Basketball again for exercise and then Transfer calls. Lots of changes but we are staying together and staying in Carlsbad YSA. We went to service at base - a food drive - we were there just to help people treat themselves. This reminded me of my Ema and Papa who work at the Bishop’s storehouse. These people come in with their heads down and on their last edge and we are able to help them. Love it! They gave us the leftover carrots to go up to the horse stables on base. The marines that work with the horses let us feed them. We loved it, it was really fun. We got cleaned up and then went to work contacting people talking about God and Jesus Christ.

Su - Happy Father’s Day! Our should be YSA efforts paid off at church. There were more people there than ever. We had a great Sunday. A couple of our less active members and should be YSAs were there. Our hard work is paying off. As a district we had a goal of passing out 46 copies of the Book of Mormon for our transfer. We were at 44 and we had 1 ½ hours to pass out the last two and we were able to do it. That is why we set goals.

M - We went on a little hike with our district and a recent convert. It was a sad day, all of our besties are leaving us. Sister Miles and me are the only companionship that is staying the same. At FHE we played a bunch of games.

T - We worked and visited less actives and then did service. We helped a deaf man, Josh, move.

W - Zone greet - which was so fun. We went to lunch with the APs and the Gunderson’s at the cheesecake factory. We correlated about the names on our ward directory and our new shepherding program to improve YSA attendance. We helped Josh again, painting baseboards. We tried to bring others closer to Christ through visits and contacting.

Th - We went to service. We help an older man unpack all of his boxes from moving. He was so sweet and told us stories while we worked. We got ready for the day and worked.

F - We had a lesson with Lauren, a less active member being bold with love. We helped Josh again and he asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon all because we served him.

Su - I know I say it over and over again but I love Sunday. While studying I had a good experience. I was kind of anger praying, now one should do it, not a good idea. I was like ‘hey, I am working hard, I am being obedient and I am trying to remain positive, Where is the success? Why can’t I find anyone to teach?” I tried to study but kept getting the urge to pray again. I read a phrase in my studies. It made me think, “God knows all his children. He knows where they are. He knows we would be obedient if he told us where they were. But what good would that do you?” It made me think of the story of the guy who was asked to push against the rock and the rock never moved but the man became stronger. I realized I have grown through struggling to move this rock. I prayed again and cried tears of gratitude and joy. I promised to keep pushing.

President and Sister Thomas came to our sacrament meeting so we got to say hi. Then we went to work trying to bring people to this gospel and trying to bring this gospel to these people.  

I hope you know how much I absolutely love all of you. I hope you know how much I absolutely love this gospel and this work. Have a fantastic week cuz I know I will.

Love you, love you, bye!

Will's Baptism and Cookies Galore!

Hello Everybody, Sister Dalley here.

Monday after the pier, we played frisbee and volleyball for pday and did our other pday stuff. We tried to visit some of our should be YSAs and then played human hungry hungry hippos for FHE. It was so funny. Our should be YSAs had a blast.

Tuesday, we had donuts and orange juice at district meeting, I love my district, we practiced teaching to the needs of an “investigator”. It was really cool to see, even though it was not a real investigator, we were able to teach and testify and feel the spirit. We went on midday exchanges and I went to the Del Mar area with Hermana Wilhelmsen, so I was Hermana Dalley for the day. We did a lot of Spanish work that day, we tried a couple of people all in Spanish. They knew I could not understand most of what they were saying but I was able to follow. It would take me a minute to figure out what they asked and then a minute to formulate an answer but it was so fun. Dad why didn’t you teach me more Spanish? Instead of walking away discouraged I walked away with a desire to know more Spanish.

We took an investigator to play beach volleyball with the ward. As we were walking away a cute girl came up and said “Hey sisters,” and asked us to join their bbq on the beach. She was excitedly waiting for her mission call. As we were about to leave, my cousin Josh came to the party and I was able to talk to him and my cousin Jenna who just received her mission call. I am so excited for Jenna!

That night sister Wilhelmsen taught me to pray in spanish. It is my favorite thing ever. It was the best. It was a good day and so much fun for me!

Wednesday, I read in Mosiah 18 about Abinadi who did not see the 450 people baptized or Alma come to know. He and Alma both followed God and His commandments. They both taught and loved. Everything is in God’s timing.

After studies, we went to service at an investigator named Tara’s house. She is so sweet. We pulled up trees and planted them in other places and moved pebbles. While we were helping she talked to us about balance and nature. Thanks dad for teaching me about landscaping, I definitely needed it.

We exchanged back and Sister Miles and I went to our first trainer follow up meeting which was awesome. We ate dinner with the Sweetwoods who I love. Sister Sweetwood said she wants to be my mission grandma. We met with a should be YSA named Andi. We love Andi, she wants to go on a mission so likes to be with us and wants to go on exchanges with us. We love Andi and are praying for her.

We then went contacting at Carlsbad Village where the first people we talked to were mild bash but respectful, the second people we talked to accepted a Book of Mormon, the third people we talked to total bash and this guy was so mean. I do not bash, it drives away the spirit, I walked away and cried for him because he needs God so much.

That night we made cookie dough, a lot of it. We overestimated what we needed but all worked out in the end.

Thursday was fun, we visited some should be YSAs and they came to sports night at the church which was volleyball.

Friday we made the cookies while doing weekly planning and we ended up making 392 cookies. We were trying to thank 13 companionships for helping us with our should be YSAs. Ya we made a little much.

Saturday, we did work and got ready for a baptism for Sunday. We celebrated sister Miles one month in the mission. A member Sam had us for dinner and made veggie lasagna just for me. So nice. We did a lot of should be YSA work and contacting.

Sunday was awesome! I love studies, the scriptures and the hymns. We went to ward council and church. I love church. Church is awesome! Sister Rowe gave gardenias to all the girls. They are gorgeous and smell so good.

We had Will’s baptism after church. I don’t know if I told you Will’s story … Will lived in Texas and is a pro skater who grew up with a bunch of mormon friends who brought him to church and introduced him to the gospel. I don’t know them but I am so proud of them. They all went on missions and Will moved here to Carlsbad to skate. The Sunday after he moved here he decided he still wanted to go to church so he googled YSA LDS churches near me. He walked into church and introduced himself to us and the Elders and we all thought he was a member. Later he was talking to an older member of our ward (a teacher), Brother Packard. He asked Will if he had served a mission and Will said, “no.” Elder Packard asked him if he was considering one. Will answered, “Well maybe, I think it would be a cool thing to do.” Elder Packard asked what was holding him back from being serving a mission and Will answered that he probably needed to be baptized first. :) He was just golden and elect.

The baptism was beautiful. I was asked to give the talk on baptism and Sister Miles played the piano. We both were asked to share our testimonies while they changed back into dry clothes. It was just so fun to be a part of his experience even though we didn’t teach him, we love him so much! We used the extra cookies for Will’s baptism and everyone loved them. God had a plan all along!

Afterwards we went to dinner again with Brennan’s family. They love us. One of his little sisters drew us a sweet little picture. Brennan’s grandma also loves us which is good because she is not a member and she usually doesn’t love the missionaries.

I love you and appreciate you. Thank you for everything you do for me. I know God loves you so so much. Have a happy fun filled week and summer! Love you, love you, Bye!

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

YSA and more JOY!

Hello all my favorite people

(or at least some of them because I have a lot of favorites out here too),

Last Monday after emailing we went to a park with the whole zone and went ice blocking. We also played ultimate frisbee and wiffle ball and volleyball and soccer. One of our members Brennan came and hung out with us. We went to our lesson with Melissa who bailed again. :/

We went to FHE which was a memorial day barbeque with Vista and it was such fun. We were driving home and had like fifteen minutes left on the clock so we went to contact. Talking to people about God.

Tuesday, a beautiful day - I don’t think I can say that enough, or how much I absolutely love being a missionary, or how much l love talking to people about God, or how much love and happiness I feel because of what I do, I don’t know, I don’t think I can say any of that enough! We started out like any other day with exercise and planning. We went to district meeting, love district meeting, love my people! We walked to the ocean. We stopped to talk to a couple of guys who were talking about old cars. We went everywhere in that conversation. We talked about cars and football and getting old and God and work. It was cool. They are now our friends.

We went to dinner at Katie’s house. We walked in her garden and listened to her sing and play her guitar. I love Katie, she is amazing, it is so fun to see her progression.

Wednesday we had president interviews. I love President. He has taken on that father figure for me and Sister Thomas has become my mother figure. They are so awesome. We celebrated with coldstone because we got our money that day and sister Miles had only nine days until her month mark which would never happen again.

Then we did service for a less active older cat lady, Sylvia. We trimmed her plants and spread mulch and did weeding and sweeping. We got ready again and went contacting everyone was at the ocean, smart people. We went to dinner with a couple of members who gave us food from the farmers market. It was delicious and fresh. We walked toward the church and met a guy along the way. We asked him if we could talk to him about Jesus Christ and he answered “If there is anything you can tell me that I don’t know.” He went into bash mode and the spirit was not entirely there and I wanted it back so we opened up the scriptures. I said, “Can I show you what I believe to be true.” We read him Alma 40:11-12 and bore testimony of the love of God and that Heavenly Father wants us all to come back to him so He provides a way. He stopped and listened. We offered this basher a copy of the Book of Mormon and he accepted it. The spirit and the scriptures change people.  It was a good day.

Thursday we cleaned up the yard of the Relief Society building on base. We did weeding and dug a trench. We went home and got ready and visited a member who should be in YSA but isn’t and invited her and her friends to volleyball that night. We went to work contacting. Working hard, planting seeds, having fun, contacting people, and loving life. We went to sports night and played volleyball. There were a whole bunch of people there and it was really fun. Brother Brooks pulled us aside and gave us a huge assignment.

Friday, Happy June! Brother Brooks gave us a huge packet where we went through a whole list of the should be YSA. We had to go through and mark everyone who has married or moved and then prioritized the rest of the list into those who are active, less active, etc. It was a huge project and seemed like it kept us from the work but it will help us to be able to do our work better.

Saturday, I studied the hymn Songs of Praise which sends us to D&C 25:12 which says I was like  “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” This is totally what I think about hymns, they are prayers, they are praises.

We planned what we call operation YSA to try and recruit those who should be coming to this ward to come. We are having three big events, the first one is called “Hello Summer!” which will be a bonfire and volleyball night at the harbor. It is going to be a blast! We made flyers to pass out at seminary graduation and other places to help people know to come to our ward. I love YSA!

Sunday, better yet Fast Sunday, we presented our plan at ward council and what we have been doing for it. They were all impressed with our preparation and drive to do it. Then church, let me tell you I love church! I get asked all the time, “If the gospel is a personal relationship with God, why do we have to go publicly to church?” It is just kind of simple, the sacrament. Yes we go to be spiritually uplifted and edified, yes we love to learn and relearn, I love to feel everyone’s spirit and excitement for the gospel but the sacrament where we repent and renew our covenants. I love it. It is about the sacrament. I love the gospel.

We went to seminary graduation and said “we are not trying to get you married” we passed out tons of flyers. We were so excited about it.

This morning, we woke up at 4:30 and went to the pier. A fisher / chef guy caught a shark so I took a selfie with it.

An asian lady saw us taking pictures with the shark and wanted me to take a picture with her fish. Honesty moment, I did not catch any of these fish.

We are having fun. Thank you for all you do for me. You guys are awesome. I love you all so much! Have a great week! See ya, love ya, bye!

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

Another Two Weeks in Paradise

Hello Everybody,

I am sorry for the lack of email last week. We got really busy just doing stuff. So I am going to go through two weeks.

Monday, we went on a hike and then played sports at the church. We went out to work and then went to FHE where i got to play bubble soccer. What! It was so much fun. After FHE we practiced a song for church.

Tuesday, was an awesome day. We did yoga and personal studies and then went to district meeting where we focused a lot on member missionaries. We practiced our song for zone conference again. We then went to work and passed out BOMs and found people for others. We did the little leave a book take a book library but we don’t take books. There was a lady we talked to who started bashing on us so we stopped her and told her that God loves her, we testified of Jesus Christ, wished her a good day and left. We went to dinner with Keith, I love Keith and shared 4 Nephi. Then we went on exchanges.

Wednesday, I was on exchanges with the STLs so I was with Sister Langton. It was a fun day, it was an amazing day. I love sister Langton. We started our day with a morning run to the ocean, I love the ocean, the ocean is beautiful. Then we went out and worked. We went to our booth at Maricosta and set a hefty goal of passing out 10 copies of the Book of Mormon and contacting 100 people. It only counted if we delivered them their agency so we extended an invitation to learn more. We got bashed a couple of times but all we do is bear our testimony and they can’t go against that, right? There is a funny … Elder Jordan and Elder Dalley also came to work the booth with us so we would be like “Hello I am Elder Dalley,” and “Hello, I am Sister Dalley. No, we are not married and no we are not siblings.” We meet so many fun people. Having all four of us just teaching and contacting, ah, Power! We went work some more. We went to dinner with Bro and Sis Gunderson who know my cousin Brooke Trudo which was fun. They were just called that Sunday to YSA work and were jumping right in. They are so great! We shared the Peace in Christ video with a dropped investigator Emily whose dad who had passed away. She got emotional and so did we. We met our goal.

Thursday was a busy day. It was a busy hot day and all sensible people were at the beach, bad for us because there were not many for us to talk to. We practiced our song and went right back out to work. I love working. We do a lot of the same things which doesn’t show up number wish be we are bringing people closer to Christ. We are inviting and helping, fulfilling our purpose.

Friday, we went to the pier and contacted and ran into hippi guys who talked about saving the ocean and turtles. We went and contacted Addie who is a recent convert and wants her friend to come to church and he wants it too. Though the APs will get to teach them, God’s timing right. We made zucchini bread and did weekly planning. We said goodbye to Daniel who is deployed for six months. We wish him the best of luck.

Saturday was weird. We delivered zucchini bread to the sisters and went to practice and then gave some Elder’s zucchini bread and then went to lunch. We grabbed a quick bite from taco bell then tried to go work but we got food poisoning from Taco Bell and were wrecked the whole rest of the day barfing and passing out. We were sick the whole day and into the next morning.

Sunday, we were still getting over food poisoning but went to stake conference anyway and out to work. We found some pretty solid PIs, all guys, and then went to practice singing again.

Monday we were really busy. We did a district lunch and played volleyball. FHE was kickball and we gave the devotional there.

Tuesday, awesomeness and craziness like always. We went and worked hard all day. We went to dinner with Brennan and his nonmember cousin Jordan. We gave her a Book of Mormon and had her read Moroni 10:3-5. She is awesome and we are excited to see where that will go. We had zone conference and learned a lot about faith and finding. Then we sang, it went well. It was a cool experience to prepare and do that.

Wednesday, we went out and worked. We were called by Aubree who asked us to come help her and got service hours. I am going to just tell you this story and you take what you want from it. Aubree lives on base and were talking to our district leader about our numbers while we were driving. Base is super confusing and we got on the freeway going the wrong way which took us 20 minutes out of our area and fifteen minutes OUT OF OUR MISSION! We kind of freaked out and called the ZLs who laughed at us. We called President Thomas, he laughed at us and helped us turn around and said, “Welcome back to the mission!” Note to self, do not put two greenies together. We were only a little late for curfew.

Thursday, we talked for a long time with a hobo on the pier for a long time about the atonement. He was super engaged in the conversation and asked a ton of questions until he suddenly stood up and walked away saying he had no idea what we were talking about. I tripped on a stair and fell flat on my face at an investigators house.  I recovered while Sister Miles laughed her head off. We went by a person who had a fence but opened the gate anyway. A vicious dog came running and we had this standoff. I inched forward and he would growl. I slowly made it to the door and back while he watched me. At least Heavenly Father saw my level of willingness.

That day we had a cool experience. We started out the day with three copies of the Book of Mormon in English and one in Spanish. That is all we had left. We went through the day passing them out, 3 english and 1 spanish. We would get back in the car and another one would be on our seat. This happened three times.  Everytime we got back in the car there was another Book of Mormon. Believe what you want but we saw it as a miracle.

Friday, nothing really happened how we wanted it to. We prepared for a lesson with Melissa but she ended up bailing on us. :( Another day in paradise though.

Saturday we went out and worked. We went by a whole bunch of PIs houses. We talked to Melissa again and set up a lesson for Monday. We went to ward correlation to plan a huge party to welcome people back from college and others to YSA. We need lots to come so we can get more referrals.

Sunday, church was awesome and we went to Brennan’s house again for dinner. His family likes us. It was awesome. We shared a message about Faith and how by faith we can do all things through Jesus Christ. We then went contacting at Carlsbad Village. We talked to a guy named Shaun for a long time about how we see God in everything. It was really refreshing. I gave a spanish couple a Book of Mormon and even though I don’t really know spanish we had a cool conversation. I have no clue what I said or he said but he took a Book of Mormon so that was cool. Gift of tongues is real.

Today we went and set up for a memorial day breakfast. We are going ice blocking today WOOO HOO! Wish us luck, we have a lesson tonight!

I saw sister Henrie and sister Miles got to meet her gma.
Love for all of you! JOY!

Training!

Hi Everybody!

We went to FHE last Monday which was frisbee dodgeball. Which is so fun! It was really interesting because it was just us hurling frisbees at each other. No one got hurt and it was super fun! We talked to Brennan who has a cousin he wants to introduce to the church so we are going to meet with her sometime soon. We stopped by a bunch of houses after and the last house where we stopped we asked for the guy we were looking for and he wasn’t home but we talked to his mom briefly about the Book of Mormon and she accepted a copy. Planting seeds!

Tuesday, a good learning experience. I am really grateful for it. I was really nervous because that was the day I was getting my new companion, Sister Miles, a new missionary. It was kind of stressful for me because I am new too. Anyway, I had a really cool little experience. I was kneeling down saying my morning prayers I started by praying saying help me with this and help me with that and I wasn’t feeling better. In fact, I just scared myself even more. I didn’t really know what to do. So I started thanking Him. Thank you the sky the sun, the birds, the flowers, the ocean, the grass, the air,  family the Savior, gospel, plan of salvation. I didn’t receive answers to why I was training but I received peace - peace for my worried heart and confused mind. I am not in charge, heaven help us if I was. 2 Nephi 2:24. I don’t know why but someone does. That was a good day, it was a good morning and a good start to my day.

Sister Henrie said goodbye to the ocean. She has been in this area for six months, that is a long time, so it was time for her to go. We met at the Bobier building and exchanged companions. Sister Miles is so sweet. I am so excited. She is from Colorado Springs and is awesome. We are so happy to be working together. At least I am.

Wednesday, we started out our day by introducing Sister Miles to the ocean because that is very important. We went to Zone Conference where we were greeted by our Zone leaders Elder Dalley and Elder Figgins. Zone Conference was a blast. Our new theme is always progressing. I am excited for these next few weeks. We went to MiraCosta college which was so fun. We got to talk to tons of different people. It is basically where I yell doctrine to people. I just get so excited. We went to dinner with Katie. We talked about her and her needs. She wants a patriarchal blessing and a temple recommend. She is just awesome and wanted a blessing so we called the APs who we share the Carlsbad ward with. It was exactly what she needed. The priesthood is true. Then we went to Carlsbad Village where we taught Sister Miles how to contact.

Thursday was a good day. We worked hard that day. We went to new missionary training meeting which was time. President Thomas and I are very similar. We are both crazy! We contacted people and passed out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon within 10 minutes of each other. The Lord blesses us when we work hard, we pray and tell Heavenly Father we are willing to open our mouths. The Lord answers prayers, people.

Friday we had a fun little interaction. We were getting out of the car and I said, “Sister Miles this is yours,” and she was like “nah I am a little afraid” and I ask, “where does the fear come from?” she was like “the adversary” and I was like “how do we conquer fear?” and she was like “by faith!!!” We jumped out of the car and got a bunch of rejections! Gotta love it.

Saturday I studied the hymn Come ye Children of the Lord. It led me to D&C 133:33 “They shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy!” Everyday we do personal and companion study where we practice teaching together. Then we went to El Corazon where we did service. We did some weed wacking thing with our friends. I love our district. We went out to work in Carlsbad Village on a Saturday night where everyone was drunk.

Sunday, we had church. I love the members. We followed Brennan home where they made us ribs. Many in his family are not members. We taught them and they said they loved what we had to say was refreshing. Love the spirit. Then we got to talk to our families. Yay! I got to see my missionary brother Jake which is so much fun. I haven’t seen him forever. He looked good! My siblings look good. You think of the things you want to talk about and all you really end up saying is Hi and I love you! It was so fun talking to my family. It was so fun seeing Jake.

I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love you, love you, Bye!

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net

Happy May!

Hi Welcome to May! I love May.

While we were shopping last Pday an adorable lady came up to us and took our picture, I think she sent it to my mama. She was like, “I knew you were sisters! Here is some money, go to lunch.” That was fun. We love it when people recognize us.

On our booth at MiraCosta college it has the questions of the soul, where do I come from, why and I here and where am I going? We had a guy come up and after everything we said he agreed. He ended up taking a Book of Mormon a Bible and some pass along cards. He liked what we said  and agreed until he asked, how do you feel about drugs? Ha ha maybe he will find God someday. We had a christian girl come up to us and thank us for standing up for what we believe even when others don’t agree. She told us we made her happy.

Thursday was my 100 day mark of me being a missionary! After our morning run to the ocean and personal studies we drove to San Diego. The President took us to the Tequila Factory for lunch. Kind of funny, tons of missionaries at the tequila factory. Ha ha.

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion, this time I appreciated it so much more than the other times I went when we were like oh Mom is taking us to the Mormon Battalion again and we will miss a day at the beach. It was super spiritual and we panned for gold and did the whole shebang. Super Fun!

While we were there both the APs told me the President wanted to talk to me which is never a good sign. Finally he cornered me and guess what - I am training. Me the greenie baby is going to have a greenie baby. I hope you all reacted like I did. Ahhh!

MTC buddies at Mormon Battalion

For personal studies the next day I turned to my patriarchal blessing, my setting apart blessing and my blessing from my dad and looked for things that will help me be a good leader. I trust that President Thomas is called of God and therefore I trust his inspiration that I should be training so I received some peace. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

We met with Sierra who has a best friend on a mission in Germany. She is very active in her religion which is kind  of a hippie version of ours except she believes in reincarnation. Yes Hare Krishna is a religion not just a song Jake used to sing. She is super into it. She loves the book of mormon and she loves missionaries. She basically flat out told us, you can’t convert me. It was a weird lesson but a good one, Sierra and I could basically be best friends.

We ate dinner at Brother and Sister Tanners. We ate by their pool and she fed us cheesecake. We told her that we loved it and she said “That’s good because I have a whole other one for you to take home with you.” So we have a cheesecake in our fridge, well technically half a cheesecake. We are so spoiled by the members.

We were at the church and the O2 sisters locked the keys to the clerk’s office in the clerk’s office. So I used my break in skills and got a credit card and broke into the clerk’s office. I have used my break in skills on my mission  more than any other time.

I studied hymns all week but my favorite was The Day Dawn is Breaking. Oh beautiful day of peace and rest! Oh beautiful bright millennial day. We had transfer calls, I am going to miss those humans who are leaving us, they have become my family. Sister Henrie is the best.  I have a new zone leader named Elder Dalley, so that will be fun.

I made some homemade bread for some Elders I bribed to come help us for some service. We worked hard all week trying to find people - taking opportunities and planting seeds.

In RS I was impressed to share the Why we share this gospel, because we love him! I showed the video Feed My Sheep. It was awesome because for the lesson we watched a BYU Idaho devotional titled Feed My Sheep which was all about God’s love and service. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

We got up this morning and went to fish on the pier. I touched a pelican. We will be signing transfer journals and saying goodbye to some good friends.

I love you all so very much! God loves you all so very much! I hope you all have an amazing week and feel as blessed and loved as I do.

Bye!

Sister Dalley

josie.dalley@myldsmail.net