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| All the sisters whom I love so much :) |
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My amazing
wall of love! My family is the best
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I hope y'all had an amazing Christmas!
Mine was so wonderful. Talking to my family was such a
blessing, couldn't have asked for a better gift.
Christmas Sunday was so great. We sang in the choir with
Alex and Kayce. The entire program was singing pretty much, so the spirit was
very strong. We kept having to walk up and down from the choir seats because we
had so many investigators we had to sit by in between songs. Just with my luck,
on the last song I had to get up to sing for, I tripped behind the organ in
front of almost 300 people. Yep. It was a pretty hard fall too- I have a bruise
to prove it! Luckily, as a missionary, I'm pretty used to embarrassing myself.
Other than that, it was a great service.
I have an insane story. It's truly crazy, so I'll start at
the beginning.. On Christmas Sunday..We get a call from the Little Elm elders
during their service. They say there's a woman there who says she was my former
investigator a month ago, so of course we go to meet her.She was 100% convinced
I taught her with Sister Allred a month ago, but I didn't remember her at all.
I thought it was the strangest thing because I don't forget people very easily,
especially because she said I taught her and her four kids 4x in her bedroom
because her landlord was very rude to us. She said we watched The Restoration
and I even gave her a gospel principles book. Of course, being a missionary, I
believed her and was convinced my memory was going bad or something. I thought
back on my past couple months really hard, trying to remember even just a
glimpse of what she was describing. The story gets weirder! So the next day-
Monday- she texts us and says her family needs help with Christmas. She has a
really difficult life, going through a divorce, recently kicked out of her past
home, she's a single mom of 4 kids who have nothing. So of course we were
willing to do anything we could to help the situation. Long story short, we got
money from the Bishop and a bit of our own to help create a Christmas miracle
for this family. She had expressed such gratitude and said she and her kids
wanted to get baptized. Something just seemed off though, I couldn't remember
who she was, and we met at the church to deliver her groceries because she said
her living situation was so bad. We were supposed to have a lesson later in the
week and when the time came, she and her kids didn't show up, so we called but
her phone had been disconnected. We thought maybe she couldn't pay the phone
bill, so we went to the address she had given us. I recognized the house as one
of my former's homes whom we had dropped for some very good reasons. He said he
hadn't seen the lady for a couple weeks and the kids for even longer.. Reality
smacked us in the face. It was a pretty cruel realization as we put the pieces
together. It was a hard lesson to learn, especially right after Christmas. I've
done a lot of thinking since then and I am honestly happy we could help them
out, even if she couldn't be honest with us. I'm happy she thought she could
come to us, even if it was only for our innocent trust. I pray for that family
all the time, that they can feel of God's unconditional love for them. Mothers
will do anything for their family, I've learned that lesson. On my mission,
I've noticed my faith in mankind has lessened and my faith in Christ has
increased..by a lot. I'm thankful for this experience. I'm also thankful for
Christ and His perfect example. I have full confidence Christ would have tried
to do anything He could to help this family, even if He knew beforehand that He
would be betrayed.
Earlier Monday before all that happened was a great day!
Sister Finlayson- one of my favorite ladies from the ward- took my companion
and I to get a mani/pedi! It was such a great surprise, and it felt so good to
be forced to sit there and relax for a couple hours.
Tuesday was a great day. We got to help decorate the Lewis'
home. They are the family with the 3 boys who can't wait to get permission from
their dad to be baptized. Sis Lewis is always so busy so they didn't have any
time until Christmas Eve to decorate. It really helped make it feel like
Christmas.
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those are the Lewis boys :) love them!
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Christmas was amazing! I had dinner with the Byrne's- one of
my favorite families! And we also had dinner with the Bodle family- who invited
a lot of nonmember family! We were stuffed by the end of it. We did a little
tracting. We went over and made a gingerbread house with the Davis family-
thanks mom for mailing me the the gingerbread house kit!
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Daysie Davis :) And our wonderful gingerbread house
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And that night we went to downtown Frisco and went caroling with
our district.
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Caroling :) Downtown Frisco. I know it looks like hugs in these pics, but REALLY for real I am faking it :)
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Thursday- Funny story! Ok so we live on a street with tons
of trees which means tons of birds. The birds pooped all over our car and we
got on the conversation if we had ever been pooped on by a bird before. Neither
of us have. On Thursday we visited a less active member who has a pet bird. I
was holding the bird and yep he pooped right on my shoulder! Later that night
we were tracting and we knocked on this one house, the girl opened the door,
and a bird flew right in! We spent 15 minutes trying to get the bird to go back
outside! It was the strangest thing ever.
Friday- We saw John and Shirlene. Shirlene fell out of a
hospital bed and broke her hip. She is staying with John now, probably
permanently at the facility. She was looking really rough. She hates not being
home, too, so she definitely needed our visit. We are working on getting her a
priesthood blessing this week.
Saturday- Alex's baptism!!!
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| Alex's baptism! |
It was amazing! Brother Burke- a
high school coach and teacher- baptized her. It was really special. Her dad
even came! She also invited her best friend to attend. Afterward she bore her
testimony and it was so amazing! She expressed how she didn't feel worthy to be
baptized a while ago, but as we talked to her about how nobody is perfect and
about Christ and His love for her, she felt God wanted her to do this and felt
so much love from Him. She has grown so much in the past few months I've worked
with her. I love her and her family to death! Her mom even spoke at the
baptism- it was truly incredible.
Sunday- We found out we are moving this week to a different
house in the ward! Sis Garcia's dad needs to stay at this house sometimes.
Brother Warner is the ward mission leader so that should work out really nice.
Alex's confirmation was amazing. Her dad came to church to see it! Can't wait
til he joins the church as well! This Sunday was all focused on missionary work
and we told the whole ward, including the primary, about the ward mission plan.
We are definitely going to see many miracles in the coming year. It's so
exciting to be a part of this work!
Okay, sorry this email is so long! I think I got most of the
details from my week!
It's been a truly great transfer and a wonderful year. I
can't believe it's already the week of 2014. Less than a year and I'll be home!
Crazy.. This coming year is going to be filled with the greatest blessings I'll
experience- I can already feel it. I hope the same for all y'all! I hope and
pray this year is filled with lots of love and happiness for all y'all.
Time is a funny thing. This year has come and gone SO fast,
it's hard to believe. Seems like just last week, I was celebrating 2013 New
Year's.
Lots of Love,
Sister Kristina Dalling
P.S. I'm finally working on sending Christmas letters
out!
Here's my new address:
Sister Dalling
5936 Sandhill Cir
The Colony, TX 75056
