Week 21 from The Colony, Texas: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"

I promise my room is clean right now, this picture is just TOO funny. It's just a perfect example of how exhausted I get

John :) Thanksgiving and visiting later

Learned how to do a sock bun..

we helped at Operation Christmas Child- 248 presents! 

visiting John

Kayce's baptism

Howdy yall! 

It was such a fun week and I can't believe this transfer is already half over. So next week, I won't be emailing. DON'T WORRY THOUGH.. I'll be sending a letter. Sis Allred and I came up with the idea of a BOM-athon. A few missionaries from our district and some future missionaries from our ward are joining us as we read the Book of Mormon with each other all the way through instead of our Pday. I'm so excited for it! We thought it would be a good way to show our Lord how grateful we are for The Book of Mormon during this Thanksgiving season. I have so much to be thankful for! 

Memorial Day was so great. We went with some of our district and sung patriotic songs to John Cook. I can't express in all these letters just how much I love John! He calls us just about every day just to say hi and how much he loves us- it's the best phone call we get any day! He also invited us to spend Thanksgiving dinner with he and his wife this past Thursday. They celebrate it early so all the workers can be with their families on Thanksgiving. It was so special being there with them. They are family to me now. Also John got the priesthood on Sunday! I couldn't help but tear up as he struggled to stand up in the congregation to be sustained a Priest. Moments like those make every things worth it. Hopefully he'll be going to the temple this Saturday to do baptisms for the dead.. and he knows a LOT of people who have passed, or expired as he says. He's the best missionary too! He's tried to give every one on his hall a Book of Mormon. He's always asking us for more supplies to give out. He's definitely trying to make up for the 83 years he didn't have the gospel, and he's exceeding!

Kayce was baptized on Saturday! It was such a special service. I surprised her with the song she requested, "I'll Believe in Him". Her family and friends were all there and it was just such a great baptism. I can't get over the change in that girl. As I spoke at her baptism, I got choked up as I spoke of how proud I was that she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. What greater thing could a person do. 

Okay so these are my weekly quotes that I LOVE. 

"In the sight of the Lord, it is not so much what we have done or where we have been but much more where we are willing to go." Elder Dube

"The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future." Jeffrey R. Holland

"I testify  that as we are spiritually attentive and observant, we will be blessed with eyes that see more clearly, ears that hear more consistently, and hearts that understand more fully the significance and subtlety of His ways, His thoughts, and HIs blessings in our lives." Elder Bednar

"Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come." President Uchtdorf

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." President Uchtdorf 

John 6:67-68 'Will ye also go away?' 'Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal life.'

"I plead with all who hear or read these words: Come join with us! Come heed the call of the gentle Christ. Take up your cross and follow Him. Come, join with us! For here you will find what is precious beyond price. I testify that here you will find the words of eternal life, the promise of redemption, and the pathway to peace and happiness. I earnestly pray that your own search for truth will impress upon your heart the desire to come and join with us." President Uchtdorf

If you can't tell I LOVED General Conference. I love our prophets and apostles! I'm so grateful to be a representative of this church!

Also one last funny and very embarrassing story. So we were teaching Byron the new member lesson about the priesthood. As a missionary, I have to rely on the spirit to know what to say, but sometimes I don't listen as well as I should! So I was explaining how it's amazing that through the priesthood you can do miracles, but it's always to bless others, never yourself. Great stuff, right? Well. For some reason this came out of my mouth.."The priesthood is the power of God! You could even move mountains with it! Although that would never happen.. so forget it I said that.. unless you were saving a village of people.. but again that would never happen." Oh some of the things I do.. Anyways thought yall would enjoy that! 

I love yall so much! Have a good 2 weeks! 

Love, 

Sis Dalling

My Address:

5008 Pemberton Ln. 

The Colony, TX 75056

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net

Week 20 From The Colony, Texas "5 months tomorrow"

I can not believe I've already been out on my mission for 5 months. I absolutely love it though! We have Kayce's baptism coming up this Saturday! Oh and TJ and Kayce are officially engaged! They agreed to name their first child after me ;) I wish! But really, I just love the change I've seen in TJ since I met him.

Happy Veteran's Day! We are going to see our Marine vet, the one and only John Cook, later today. They say everything is bigger in Texas and it's so true! They had a huge carnival over the weekend with fireworks for Veteran's Day. I love the patriotism down here.

It's been another week of miracles, but first I have to say it is hard not to have technology when scary things like the typhoon happen. For anyone that knows me, I have quite the tender heart, so hearing about 80 missionaries who were unaccounted for was so sad to hear. I hope the number has changed, but we have no idea what's happening in the world! Sis Allred and I are just so sad to think about all the people over there right now. How scary.. the people of the Philippines are in our prayers.

Also I have to express my love to the Rennells family. Their son, Chance, whom I babysat a lot in North Carolina recently passed away unexpectedly at age 13. I love you Rennells family! I can't imagine what you're going through at this time, but my companion and I are keeping y'all in our prayers.

So some of my favorite quotes of the week:

"I'm not ashamed of the world knowing what I'm doing." John Cook. He called us today and told us that next week he's getting the priesthood! It's so fun having him at church. He can't even walk, but he loves the gospel so much.

"God has it all planned for me." Kayce. She bore her testimony in one of our lessons this past week and it was just beautiful. She expressed so much sorrow for some things she's thought and said about God, being a former atheist. And then she said that the gospel and message we had to share with her made her realize that God loves her unconditionally, she can be forgiven, and that God has her whole life planned out and that it's filled with so much happiness and joy. She invited her best friend, Kayley, to come to a lesson and to church. Kayley texted us later and said how grateful she was for us because she never dreamed she'd be able to spend time with her best friend at church until now.

"We already are with God." John Cook. John's family was going through some hard things, and I tried to explain having an eternal perspective and telling him that one day when we are with God again, it will all be better, but he corrected me and said we already are with Him. I love him!

"What makes a good love story? When someone takes a leap or step to get the love of their life. How much do you love God or Jesus Christ? What leap of faith would you take?" Debbie Byrne, she's one of my good friends from The Colony ward who just left for her mission to Brazil!

Just read in my mom's email that all the missionaries are safe! God is good.

I love my mission! It's incredible to think about all the lives that have changed, including mine. I just love this gospel.  God be with y'all! ;)

Love,

Sis Dalling

My Address:

5008 Pemberton Ln. 

The Colony, TX 75056

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net

Week 19 from The Colony, TX "Transfer 4!"

wasn't about to give up that family tradition! I made everyone carve pumpkins with me :)

Our awesome district

We taught John how to take selfies

He even learned how to take pictures of other things! ..and he learned about the Restoration again. He loved it by the way.

I'm sorry mom but I love this cat! I'm thinking about shipping her home. The animal shelter let us have her for a night because I love her so much. Candy is the sweetest cat ever.

this one is just better of both of us haha

Texas... <3

we did a heart attack on our elders' doors

typical Texas..

FC Dallas service project.. all we did was help out at the tailgate party. Super fun!

and there was a bouncy house. Who said missionaries had to be adults all the time?

Texas barbeque is the best!

FC Dallas :)

Transfers :( that's about as close to a hug as it gets haha everyone always does fake hugs

car trouble...

Elder Rowland drew that for us :)

We had a glasses day for our district

Hey y'all! 

I am just doing great down here in The Colony. The miracles just never seem to cease. I definitely understand how return missionaries feel about how fast their missions went by. By next transfer I'll only have a year left! I love my mission. Halloween has brought on a little bit of homesickness, but being with the people is enough to keep me happy. The holidays might be a little difficult.. BUT we also have so many exciting things coming up. Kayce and Alex are being baptized Nov.16 and Dec.7! I'd rather be nowhere but here through the holidays, it's just weird because I've never not been with family for the parts of the year coming up. 

Updates! Halloween was a lot of fun actually. We aren't allowed to work from 5-9 on that night, so we all had a party with one other district. Oh, I had Tex Mex for the first time with some members. It was SO good. Speaking of food, I made chicken pillows for everyone at the Halloween party! It's one of the meals I miss most from home, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to make it for all the missionaries. Everyone loved it! Mom you'd be proud- it just took me probably an hour longer than it would've taken you!

I LOVE Texans. People always ask me what my favorite thing about being a missionary is. It's not a difficult question at all! The nonmembers, investigators, and members are all just incredible. I love the south. If we do end up tracting, people are generally nice simply because of that good ole southern hospitality. 

Kayce is doing SO good. She's such a solid investigator. She bore her testimony two fast Sundays in a row! She joked about being less active one night, that actually worried us for a little, then, we looked at the facts. She's never going less active. She bore her testimony on faith and hope this past week. Apparently there was an airport shooting I've heard nothing about, but she mentioned it and talked all about how much we need faith and hope in this world. She has come such a long way! 

John Cook is still probably my most favorite person right now. We visit him atleast 3 times a week, during slow hours. He just loves us! Everyone at the facility knows us and is quite jealous John always gets 2 cute girls to come visit him so frequently. We've been singing a lot to him as well and people gather around his room for his visits. He's doing missionary work and he can't even walk! I love it. 

This week I've really loved the New Testament! I read out of the NT, The Book of Mormon, and Jesus the Christ every day. Jesus the Christ is such an incredible book, by the way. It's very deep, but it gives great insight to our Savior and His gospel. One of my favorite scriptures is Matthew  13:45-46 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." One of the biggest blessings on my mission is being able to devote SO much time to the gospel and to God. I hope I will always give all that I can for the gospel, because, to me, it is of greater worth than anything.  These versus reminded me of the lyrics to one of my favorite efy songs: "People have told me how to be happy, but I find their remedies empty. These are my pears, God's treasures unfurled, mean more to this girl, more than the world to me". 

God be with Y'all! Or as John Cook says 'byo con Dios'- excuse my horrible spanish but it means Go with God.

Sister Dalling

My Address:

5008 Pemberton Ln. 

The Colony, TX 75056

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net