Happy November!!!

11/3 

Hey everyone!

This week was a little slow but it was a ton of fun! Halloween was so awesome. I'll send a ton of pics. We dressed up with the Plano 4th elders who share our building- Elder Crandell and Elder Maloney. We were cowboys and Indians. Elder Maloney is Navajo so we had authentic face paint and really awesome costumes we made. Sister Greenall sewed my whole dress and we beaded it and put feathers on it. It was quite the costume! Everyone at trunk or treat loved it. 

But it was freezing. 

I wanted to dedicate a whole paragraph on my hate of this cold weather. Riding a bike in the freezing cold in a dress is a joke! It's a joke! It's only like 50 degrees and I'm already freezing and shivering. We'll adjust....but Texas weather changes over night and I was not ready for this! These are my last 6 weeks I get to show my faith and devotion like this though so I'm pulling through. But I am not going to sugarcoat it or tell people I enjoy that bike. Oooooh I am not biking another mile for a long while after this mission. But I do enjoy wearing winter clothes :) and everything else that comes with this season. 

Laron is doing so well! He is officially being baptized November 11th at 7pm. We are so excited! And his family is going to come. They are so happy and proud of him. At the end of our lesson this week, he was sad we had to go because he said he was just so hungry for more truth. He's just been starving for years! 

Our ward mission leader, Brother Thomas has been such a huge help with him. We are so lucky to have such an awesome WML. He truly magnifies his calling and loves missionary work. 

This week Sister Walker put on an amazing Visiting Teaching Conference and Sister Greenall and I sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go". Which reminds me- transfers are this week! But I feel somewhat confident we're both staying...but we'll see! I hate the nerves until we find out. 

We need lots of prayers for Denise and her husband Wayne. On their anniversary trip, he got in a serious accident and injured his spinal chord and neck. He was in the ICU for almost 2 weeks and is slowwwly recovering. Denise asked for local church members over there in California to come pray with them and give him a blessing. So I hope even though this is a scary and sad time for them that they will see God's magnificent hand in their lives. 

I just always remember the line from Praise to the Man that says "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". It's so true!! We are being so blessed here in Plano. Everyone is always telling us how grateful they are for us and what a difference we're making. It means so much when people see and recognize that. I really love being a missionary. I can't believe its almost over! There are hints of Christmas just everywhere telling me I'm almost home! 

Well I love y'all! Can't believe we're coming up on Thanksgiving soon! I love and miss y'all so much!

Love,

Sissy Dalling

Me and Tyler <3 Love this kid! Nothin better than some football in Texas Fall

10/27

Hey everyone!

I'm so excited for Halloween. Can't wait to send yall pictures..we have some great costumes planned! You'll just have to wait and see. 

We had a good week.

Here are some highlights:

Laron is doing AWESOME. We call him Brother Brown- that is his last name. He is like our brother! I just can't wait to see the awesome things God does with him. He came to church again and should be getting baptized November 9th. On Saturday we went and watched him play flag football with the elders quorum. That was SO much fun. He was awesome of course. And we also watched Brother Chappell, Tyler's dad, and got to hang out with Tyler at the game.

Also on Saturday we went to a relief society activity and learned how to decorate cakes! That was so fun too. These women here are such great examples of who I want to be someday! I am so lucky. 

Sunday both wards had their primary programs. That was the most adorable thing ever! Lots of people invited their friends and the spirit was so strong. It was incredible to see the faith and love these children have for the gospel and their Savior. Our church primary leaders are just the best! 

That's about it for this week! Things are going well, but I know I need to have a good balance of focusing and thinking about home and not stressing out about everything. Life is going by way too fast! But I'm ready to hit the ground running and prove to my God that I love Him and will do everything I can to return to Him and bring as many people as I can along with me. I love Him! 

I love y'all! Especially my beautiful sisters- Katie and Sara. You looked SO gorgeous in your pictures. Write me!

Love,

Sister Dalling 

10/20/2014

My Dearest Family and Friends,

 I love you so much! These next 2 months are going to be quite the challenge. It's always a missionaries nightmare to get a call from home bearing sad news about our loved ones. This weekend was very hard for me, finding out my Grandpa Leatham has cancer.. Family I am praying for you day and night! I know people are doing the same for me. I can't tell you how many tender mercies have been sent my way this week. "God will never us forsake". I can't tell you the peace I have found in the Plan of Salvation, that I have an eternal family. I hope I can bring that peace to the people here in Plano.. I need to make these last 8 weeks count. 

I did have a really good week other than that news though. The work is really moving forward here! 

Denise is doing really well! We were totally meant to meet. She's going on her anniversary trip this week so hopefully theres lots to update next time we meet with her! She is so close to the spirit and just wants to help everyone.

I have to tell you about Laron! He is so amazing. He had a couple of lessons around a year ago with Sister Hanson ( my trainer)!  We found him through contacting a few weeks ago. They live a humble life and he just lost his grandma. He's 23 but very mature because of all he's been through. He's so full of faith and hope! He truly wants to be better and is soo receptive. We gave him a second Book of Mormon and he gave it away to someone at work! He is already a missionary! He clicked right away with Brother Thomas, our ward mission leader. There's this other guy named Sam who lives in the complex as well who joined our lesson.. He's an interesting fella.. . He asked about why we don't wear crosses and Laron told him it's because we wear the cross on our hearts instead and glorify the living Christ. Perfect answer!! He came to church Sunday at 8:30am, met the bishopbric. After sacrament he even went up to the speakers and thanked them for their talks!! In gospel principles he participated. We had to leave that ward early because I was asked to sing in Plano 1 ward, but Brother Thomas texted us and said Laron ASKED to be baptized on November 1! I couldn't believe it!! He is totally going to be a bishop or something someday. We were shocked and so excited. It will probably be either Nov 1 or 8. 

Yes, I sang in Plano 1. An elder and I did a duet to "I Love Jesus Christ". It turned out really well! And the best part was that Joakim and Christelle (basically his sister) gave us a ride to it and spent half the day with us. It was so much fun! He will always be my big brother. 

Another fun thing that happened was the great night we had with the Restrepo family. They invited some other elders over too and we had a huge barbeque dinner and watched the long version of Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. I just love that family! Can't wait for the day that Sergio is baptized. 

Those are the highlights of my week! Opposition in all things, right? I have a huge testimony about that for sure. 

I love you! Keep those prayers coming.

Sister Kristina Dalling

New Area!: Plano, Texas

The one on the left is my new companion, Sister Greenall! 

NOTE: NEW MAILING ADDRESS:

8708 Clearsky Dr. Plano, Tx 75025 

September 2nd:

Hey Everyone :)

Yes, it was sooo hot this week but we have been working so hard. I think the hardest part for me is having enough energy to do what I need to do at home..like plan, unwind, etc. I didn't think it was possible to yawn while biking like crazy in the middle of the day. I could fall asleep riding that bike. I'm soo happy I've only partially fallen asleep in one lesson- haha. Every time I think I'm working hard, it just gets harder and I realize I never even knew what hard work was. I used to take naps sometimes during lunch, but if I let myself sleep, I go into that super deep sleep and can not get out of it. So! Luckily summer should be cooling down soon. 

Sister Greenall is so great. We have gotten so close this week. She is soo good at guitar! So we jam all the time :) Well..when we can!

We got a lot accomplished this week. We had a super good meeting with the Bishop of 8th ward. The work should move forward very soon! We did a missionary training for combined 3rd hour that went so well. We sang at sacrament too, so the wards just love us! I am loving it here in Plano. The members are the best.

GUESS WHAT? I met some cousins of ours! The Dallings live in our ward. They are so great, we already connected that we are family because of Sugar City, ID. So good to know I have family everywhere I go. 

We met with John Paul this week who is a ysa returning to activity. He is so great! Meeting with him really reminded me that we need to all work on ourselves line upon line. That's how the gospel works! I love the talk by Elder Scott- "I Have Given You an Example." Read it! It's so strange because even though we are in different zones, Elder Munday covers part of my area because of the ysa in Allen. I cover a bit of Allen so he actually found John Paul for us. We had a great fhe with them last night for Labor Day. 

One more new family I have to tell you about!  They are so awesome. The husband is not a member yet but he is so prepared. He recently went to SLC and did the tour there with his family as they dropped their daughter off for college. Even though he has known missionaries for years, he is so prepared now! He said the Spirit worked on him so strongly. So we are teaching him and he came to church to hear us sing! They are such a funny, amazing family. Being with them is just a blessing.

Well I have to go! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day! 

Love you so much,

Sister Dalling

"Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven and they forgive." President Uchtdorf

PS:

The Carrillo family is being baptized on Sept.13!!!!!!!!!! 

It's a miracle! I am so happy for them. That will be such an amazing day.

Also I can't figure out how to do pictures at this library so hold tight!

August 25th:

Hey everyone!!:)

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY, my love :) My goodness, I can't believe you are 8!!! This is such an exciting time in your life, and even though I'm not there physically, I am with you always. You're my little girl! My world would not be the same without you. I will always remember when you were born, and I was the first to hold you in my arms and sing to you [please see previous blog on a letter I wrote about Emily's birth]. A little baby girl stole my heart 8 years ago. I wrote you a birthday card so check the mail this week! 

So I've had an awesome week. Sister Greenall, my new companion is so great! I was nervous about back up training because sometimes trainers don't do the best job. But she is so amazing, she's like a sponge, wanting to learn more and more.  She is one of the best contacters I know now! She loves working hard, which is so great. We definitely get along. We both kind of go insane if we don't work hard, so putting us together is just awesome. I'm excited to see her be one of the best missionaries in this mission!

Plano is really slow right now.. People say when you're in Plano, you 'plan for 0'. Awful, I know!! We're gonna switch that around though. The members are just AMAZING. Member work is really key here, and they are so willing and ready. Covering two wards is a challenge. 6th Ward definitely has more going on then 8th. There's a ton of potential in both wards though, I'm excited.

6th Ward we are going to have a baptism on September 21st!!!! His name is Tyler Chappell. He's adorable. His dad is a returning member. Tyler is turning 9 this Thursday. I love him! He's so ready. Our lessons with him are great. 

I have to tell you about this one AMAZING sister in 6th ward, Sister Walker. She offered to come out with us last night, ended up staying with us for 3 hours. She felt a huge prompting to introduce us to her neighbors, then we visited several part-member, and less active members. We got so much done! She's such an inspiration because she was so nervous, especially with her neighbors but she followed the spirit and said she felt so much calmer after. She's been through so much in life, but you can truly tell that she listens and follows the spirit. And also the Briggmans invited their neighbors to dinner, we taught the restoration! We've been getting so many referrals and so much help from the members.

ALSO. I just got the news that the Lewis boys from The Colony are getting baptized Sept.13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shomari Jr., Ethan, and Jayvin!!!!! I love those boys so much. I'm sooo happy. Miracles do happen! I'm so grateful hearts can soften and change. Wow! Same day as my precious Emily Joy!  Also John and Shirlene are most likely going to make it to the temple in October! John was very sick for a while, they weren't sure if he'd make it but he miraculously recovered. The missionaries there say he still talks about me all the time and reads my letters and shows our pictures to everyone. I will always love The Colony.

I'm looking forward to all the miracles we're going to see this transfer! And I've already been asked to sing at church next Sunday and at Stake Conference in September!! I sang at a baptism on Saturday!:) I love singing :)

I have such a testimony of prayer. Let me tell you! My Father loves me, He listens to me, He blesses me so much. "It is of great significance to me, that I may at any moment and in any circumstance approach through prayer the throne of grace, that my Heavenly Father will hear my petition, that my Advocate, Him who did no sin, whose blood was shed, will plead my cause." -Elder Christofferson

I really love my mission. All I want to do is to be used as a tool in His Hands. I've never felt happier, more at peace, than when I am doing the work of my Father in Heaven.  He knows me, and loves me. And I love Him! I also love my family SO much. "Families are the treasure of heaven." -Elder Anderson

I am a happy missionary! But I could still use a lot of prayers! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Dalling

I'll probably send pics next week! Sorry!

August 18th:

First of all:

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! I love you so much. I lost track of the years but I know it's over 20! I am so lucky to be your daughter. I love your love story, and I love how I'm a product of it. Thank you for finding each other, following the Spirit, and having an Eternal family. I miss you so much.

So I'm finally being transferred. Sister Reboquio is staying. Now that the time has come, I'm kind of stressed about leaving. God knows I need relationships with people, so He let's me stay in my areas forever, which makes it so hard to leave. Changing never gets easier. Leaving those I love just seems to get harder as I accumulate more people I love. I'm going to Plano 6&8, covering two wards, on a bike, back up training- which means my companion has only been out 6 weeks. This week is supposed to be 100+ all week.. I'm so tired from packing and cleaning and thinking about what's coming. I'm sprinting to the end, giving it all I can. I'm curious to find out what the Lord has in store for me in Plano!! Even though I know it will definitely be challenging, I'm ready and I will answer the call.

I don't have much time today because I still have so much to do! People to say bye to, stuff to pack.

Alisha was soooo sweet! She bought us clothes from Downeast. She even looked in the Book of Mormon and proved we had to accept gifts- haha. She is amazing, so giving. She even cried talking about her family who have passed on, they have their temple work done, and she knows they are just waiting for her. The veil is so thin around her!  So the ward is doing a fast in general for missionary work but I know many will be fasting for her.

All of our lessons this week were really filled with the Spirit. I almost cried in every one, even the dinner thoughts! I usually don't do that. But Sachse is such a sacred place to me. A place where I've really learned to let the Savior carry me.

I have some quotes I wanted to share:

"Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He is the promised Messiah. He lived a perfect life and atoned for our sins. He will ever be at our side. He will fight our battles. He is our hope; He is our salvation; He is the way." -President Uchtdorf

"What an amazing source of power, of strength, and of comfort is available to each of us. He who knows us better than we know ourselves, He who sees the larger picture and who knows the end from the beginning, has assured us that He will be there for us to provide help if we but ask. We have the promise: 'Pray always and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good' D&C 90:24". -President Monson

"Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can't see the Lord's hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness." -President Uchtdorf

I LOVE President Uchtdorf!! He is and always will be my celebrity crush haha in a very appropriate way. Love him.

Wish me luck this week! And please pray for me! Know I will try my best and will realllly try not to complain.

Love y'all!

Sissy Dalling

p.s. pics will be next week probably unless I get back on late! I forgot the memory card.

p.p.s. my address is 8708 Clearsky Dr. Plano, Tx 75025 living with members again!

14 Months :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE! My bestest friend and sister. I love you SO much! You're turning 18!!!!!! Oh my heck. I still feel like I'm 18. I'm so excited to see you again very very soon!:) You're such an amazing young woman. You've always been like a big sister to me and you always will be. Thanks for everything! And Happy Birthday! Expect a package, my love :)

My goodness, I can't believe I'm already at this point. I'm excited for what these last 4 months hold in store though!

Honestly it was kind of a hard week, especially compared to the last 2 weeks. Y'all know by now, that's just how it goes. Up and down, but it's all good! This week we already have 10 LTMPs planned. Last week we only had 3 allll week. And it was hot. We tracted 6 hours almost every day. I think that is mainly because I've just been here so long, I'm simply out of ideas. Transfers will be a good change as hard as it will be to leave.

So sorry there's so much bad news! I'll quickly go through it.

One of our investigators is only common law married and her husband basically believes in having a mistress. She allows it because she loves and needs him so much. It's super complicated and nothing I've ever had to deal with!

Jacob :( We've called a few times this week and he sounds so sad! His wife won't allow us to come over. This week we're planning on having a lesson with him at the Brownings  house so that's good. But still so hard. He's one of my favorite people. Kind of like my younger John Cook.

The Carrillos fed us dinner with the Evans! That was fun. It was super authentic Mexican food. So good! But sadly they didn't come to church. I still have high hopes for them though! It feels pretty lonely in that chapel without our investigators though.

On Thursday we went back to this one family we randomly found last week. They told us they wanted to feed us dinner but we didn't have their phone number or anything. We crossed our fingers, hoping they'd remember and they did! It was so sweet too. They smoked pork, had potatoes and rolls for us. They even made crepes for desert. They are very active in their church but said they were just so touched by what we were out doing all day. It was so touching.

Also Blake is doing pretty well. He's still super intellectual and scared of emotional promptings being the spirit, but  he's taking steps.

Also God is just taking such good care of me. It will be super hot to the point where I don't know if I can knock another house, then He sends just enough rain to cool things down. Not even joking! It happened twice this week.

Our apartment might have been haunted for a night or two... but we got it taken care of!

It will be so hard leaving Sachse, lemme tell you. I love the people SO much. I love having this connection with them. I have been blessed tremendously to have served here. I find out Saturday where I'm going! I really want to go to Heath or out east somewhere!

Have a great birthday Kate, and a wonderful week my awesome family and friends :)

I love you all!

<3Sister Dalling

I love my companion!! She's the best.

Oh and the moon last night was just amazing. Hope yall saw it.

It's My Birthday!!!! 20 years old.....wow. (Week 44:update from Sachse, Texas)

 Part of my birthday present was this incredible sign. My favorite quote- "In God's plan there are no endings, Only everlasting beginnings." 20 years ago my eternal life with the best parents began.. I'm so lucky! 

All my chocolate... well there's more..but this is what I felt like taking a picture of. And yes that is a Jesus chocolate. And yes, that is organic healthy chocolate in that bag! I found the answer to my addiction! This is even healthy! It has no sugar. Just dark chocolate and honey. My goodness I love it.

4-28-2014

First of all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA LEATHAM! I love you so much! I've loved you since the day I was born, and for eternity before then as well. I feel so blessed to share a birthday with such an incredible woman. I look up to you so much! You are the most amazing blessing to our family. I hope your birthday is so wonderful. I'm sending you hugs and kisses!!

and Yes it's my birthday too! It's been a great one so far. I really do have the best family. All I wanted was a letter from each of them and they definitely exceeded that expectation! And thank everyone for all the birthday email! I feel so loved! Out of all the presents I've been given, probably 90% of it was chocolate. People know me too well. God, love, and chocolate. Those are my basic needs and wants. I love my family and friends! I really have been so blessed to be surrounded by the most incredible people. Wow. Also for my birthday I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON. Wooh! Perfect timing. Wow, I love that book!

I can't believe I am 20 years old. I seriously feel so old today. I am no longer a teenager! I don't even know how to be 20! But I'll take it one day at a time. And now I want to take a moment and admire God's hand in my life. We had interviews this week and Sister Durrant spoke about what a huge blessing the 'age change' was for so many. I thought about it. It changed my life. Completely turned it around. I couldn't help but cry because God literally loves me so much, He lowered the age at the exact moment I needed it. He once again saved my life. My mission is and forever will be the best choice I ever made. I heard a story from someone in our ward. His brother taught the deacons a long time ago and told them if they went on missions he would pay them $500. All but one went, and he said it was worth every cent! It is most definitely. The same man taught a group of primary girls. He gave them each a dollar and said they could spend that dollar or they could save it and if they got married in the temple, he would pay them each $100 if they brought back that $1. What an amazing man! And I love the emphasis on missions. My future marriage would not be the same if I didn't serve a mission, I know that for a fact!

So we had such an amazing week!

We found 5 new investigators. It was such a huge miracle. Two of them are super solid, too. One lady and her family were a referral from the Evans. Her husbands family all joined the church within the past 10 years. Her whole side of the family is Catholic, so they get pressure from both sides. She wants to investigate and see which one fits her family the best. What an amazing mother! Then we are teaching another lady who was a referral from the Bishop. Her story is incredible. So she is 45 and is fighting colon cancer. She goes through intense chemo treatment and it's really affecting her and her family's life. Her biological father died when she was very young. She never knew his side of the family, but 5 years ago she was doing family history work on her father and his side of the family (who are all members) found her! They told her she should get a blessing, so they contacted our bishop. He then asked her the willing and brief invitation and BAM we are teaching her! She is such a strong woman. She really has lived a difficult life. The gospel will help her so much. It's so amazing to be able to know and love her.

Robert hasn't been to church in 3 weeks...pray for him and Judy.. :(

John Cook is pretty sick.. I need prayers.

The Riegals are going to church and the father is taking the lessons! Prayers answered!

Byron ran into anti material...prayers. 

We had a ward talent show on Saturday and Sister Reboquio and I wrote more words to the Cup song/Called to Serve. It was really good, everyone loved it! We also spoke on Sunday. Everyone said they loved that as well! Interviews were great. Those were the last interviews the Durrants will give before they leave! Crazy. They asked me to sing at that meeting as well. I've been able to sing practically every week! I love it! I heard David Archuleta is home.. crazy!

My companion is incredible. She's doing so good! Her life is such an example. Her foster parents are the mission president and his wife of a mission in the Philippines. Her family is in too much poverty to take care of all the kids, that's why she is fostered. She converted to the gospel at age 10 and a lot of her family is less active now. Seriously she is so strong, I love her! She is such a blessing to me. I thank God every day.

Ether 12:27 is my scripture of the week!

"Pure Christ like love flowing from true righteousness can change the world." Elder Holland

I love y'all so much! All y'all and each y'all. Thank you so much for such a wonderful birthday.

Sister Kristina Dalling

 P.S.

Sorry everyone but I had to get evidence of this!

This is my gigantic spider bite. Yep, it's 2 weeks old and still nasty. You should have seen it last week. This seriously looks like it's healed a ton. The story: We were just outside and my arm started itching, I scratched it barely and my skin started peeling. Then I had a huge bump and it was red and my skin was raw. It was disgusting. We tracted into a nurse last week and she said it was a spider bite and that I was super lucky and I should have seen a doctor. Apparently spiders here in Texas can be very dangerous. And this was a huge spider. Those are the bite marks, pretty gross right? Good thing I didn't die! Just kidding ;) It's fine, just kind of horrible looking.

p.p.s. Also! This is completely unrelated but when the group of missionaries that Sister Reboquio entered with came into the mission, one of the new sisters came up to me. She said 'don't think this is creepy or anything but I know all about you! I stalked your blog ever since I decided to serve a mission.' Made my day! Seriously-haha. This is such a small world. Thought y'all would enjoy that! 

Week 41 From The Sachse

Hey y'all! 

This week we really weren't able to get a lot done with conference, but it was still a great week! I went to the allergy doctor this morning so hopefully that will all be figured out! It hasn't been that bad recently because of all the rain..because of the storms..because of the tornado. Yep, there was a tornado close to Sherman, TX which is like an hour away, but it caused a few days of thunderstorms that were pretty crazy. Tornado season is going to be fun! 

Joakim's baptism is this Saturday!!!!!!! I am so excited! He has become one of my very best friends. I'm so happy God has led him to where he is today. He's such a great example to me of faith and trusting in God. This week is going to be a great one! 

We are teaching this one elderly lady that we found from tracting. She's pretty funny! She's sweet as heck. She loves to talk, and we found out she used to have a best friend who was Mormon. Not sure how interested she is in joining yet, but she is an amazing woman! 

General Conference was so good! I think my top favorite talks were Sister Reeves', Elder Richard G Scott's, President Uchtdorf's, and President Monson's. Overall it was just an incredible conference. One of my favorite quotes is "In [God's] plan, there are no endings, only everlasting beginnings."President Uchtdorf. Amen to that! I feel so grateful to know so much about God and His plan for all of us. 

Also, I'm so grateful God has allowed me to bear my testimony through music a lot lately. We had the song Elder Evans and President Durrant wrote filmed and recorded on Saturday. That was a really fun project! Hopefully I'll have the video soon! Speaking of President Durrant, he was just called as the second counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency! I can't believe it! I have the best mission president in the whole world. He is so amazing. He is such a good example to all of us. Also the Spanish elders had a baptism yesterday they asked me to sing at. It was really special and I was so grateful to serve with my talents. 

Well that's all for now, folks! Hope this week is filled with joy and blessings for all of you! 

Love,

Sis Dalling

p.s. Here are some pics of Jeremy's baptism! 

Week 40 from Sachse, Texas!

Women's General Conference was AMAZING! 

It was such an amazing way to end a week of complete miracles. It was so incredible to think about how my mom and sisters were watching it along with me. I felt so close to so many amazing women who have influenced my life in so many ways. I absolutely loved how much they talked about standing as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places. I hope I can always do that throughout my life. I'm called to represent Jesus Christ full time right now, but I hope I can always stand for Him. The errand of angels is truly given to women. And I loved how they invited us not only to love more, but to love better. That was SO powerful. It was also an answer to my prayers when they talked about our true identity and our true nature. I've heard so often about our fallen nature and the natural man is an enemy to God. Thinking about all the times I've fallen short and witnessing so many who have also fallen short and don't even know it- it's taken a toll on me. But when they talked about how our true identity and nature is a disciple of Jesus Christ, a daughter of God it meant so much to me. I also loved how Elder Eyring talked about how we need to see people as children of God, in the way God sees them. He opened up my eyes to just how much potential God sees in me. He said he sees more potential than even what my earthly mom sees in me. And she's one of my biggest fans along with my dad.

So now that y'all know how much I loved the Women's Conference, I'll tell you a little about my amazing week. We found 7 new investigators and received the best news EVER. JOAKIM IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's been taught for like 8 months and has finally received the answer to be baptized. We had an amazing lesson on temples and family history. Man, I love the temple! And after we asked him to pray to know if he should be baptized. The next day he called us and asked if we could meet. We were so nervous, I thought he was dropping us or something. My heart was about to break when he said "sisters, I need to tell you something.." then he said "I want to be baptized and become a member of your church." AHHHHHHHHH. Could not believe it. So he's going to take this next step on April 12! We and all the other sisters who have taught him couldn't be happier. I'd like to say I had something to do with it, but it was all God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

It was just such a good week. And you wouldn't believe the theme of our new investigators. For some reason God led us to 4 teen moms to teach. Two pairs and two completely different houses but we happened to find them all and all of them were receptive. So weird! One is pregnant still and one got married the day before she gave birth. It was really an incredible thing to feel God's love for them as we taught them about The Restoration and about our Savior's love for them. God is so great! He is an awesome God.

Oh and I got to have a surprise call to my parents! President Durrant let me call them while I was practicing the song we are working on. What a tender mercy! And then the Evans- who are awesome- took a video of us and sent it to them. I hope my family knows how much I love them! And darling Emily, I wish I could've talked to you but I will soon.. in May! By the way, I'm only quitting chocolate for 21 days.. so no worries about my easter package! Pack it with chocolate! I am addicted, and so I thought it would be a healthy choice to build some resistance to it. ;)

Well I love y'all! I'm loving my mission! Can't believe this transfer is almost over!

Until next week,

Sis Dalling

HALFway done?!?!? Week 37 from Sachse, Texas

1. This is when we went to Top Golf. It was so much fun! I really hope I can find a Top Golf again someday. I miss those missionaries! 

2.Sister Erickson and I in a gated community we just happened to slip into! Luckily the security person was helping someone with a problem, so he just let us on through. 

3.The temple with my favorite district! Sister Stephenson and I are hopefully going to the temple this week! I LOVE THE TEMPLE. 

Pei and her family! Oh my goodness I miss them! This is the Chinese family I was able to teach for a while. Loved their food!

The only bright side to transfers is being able to see old mission friends. Elder Walters- awesome friend! 

HALFway done?!?!?

Oh my goodness, it hasn't even hit me. I have no concept of time whatsoever since my mission. The past nine months seem to have went by like a blink of an eye, but yet it also feels as if my life didn't even exist before my mission. Weirdest feeling ever! But I'm lovin' it!

By the way, I love my family! Congratulations Katie for your performance in Guys & Dolls. I'm so sad I couldn't be there to see it, but I'm sure it was incredible. Annnnnd it's almost my Jacob and Sara's birthday! Wow, I have a great family.  

This past week was a little slower because of the ice day. By the way today is bright and shiny again.. Texas is crazy! Jeremy is getting baptized this week and I am SO happy. I'm so sad I won't be able to go.. It is far away and the timing doesn't work out with Stake Conference. I'll make sure to get pictures of it though from Sister Erickson! The Davis family makes me so happy! Jeremy sent me a note this past week, telling me about the news and that he's sad I won't be able to go but knows I'll be there in spirit. I definitely will be! And hopefully I'll be at their temple sealing in a year.

We had a huge miracle this past week! A member in Wylie 2 ward asked a friend at the gym the 'willing and brief' invitation. At first she politely declined, but then a couple of weeks later she told this member to give us her contact info and that she'd love to meet! Apparently she hasn't been able to find a church that fits her family. Her husband isn't really interested yet, but she has 2 boys, ages 3 and 5. She hasn't been real active in a church since childhood, but she's felt the impression that she needs to make God more a part of her life. She's been attending a Baptist church, and had a really spiritual experience as the pastor was talking about the Creation and God's plan for us. Because of that experience she wanted to meet with us! She is awesome! Sister Barch, the member, came with us to the first lesson. The lesson went incredibly! She was really curious and trying to understand. She seems to love the idea of the Restored Gospel on the Earth. When we invited her to be baptized, she said, "Of course!". So Sachse might have it's first baptism very soon! She most definitely has high potential. Too often, when we find people like this, Satan gets in there right quick and ruins everything, so we are going to be praying hard the whole way.

Also we had another animal companion! Sunday night was absolutely freezing cold. It was raining, we didn't have umbrellas at the time, we were tracting, and life just honestly seemed temporarily miserable.. So I said a prayer. There's a super great Mormon message titled 'Hope you know we had  a hard time'. So that was my inspiration for that prayer. I told God 'hope you know I'm having a rough night, please help me out'. Then he sent us a cat! Almost immediately, in fact, the sweetest cat came up to us and wouldn't leave our side the rest of the night. She was the cutest thing, entertaining us by constantly trying to trip us. And just like the dog, people are a lot more receptive with an animal. God knows me pretty well, and it's so comforting that He cares about the smallest things in my life, too.

I'm loving my mission! Even the cold, rainy parts! Even the 'stuck inside all day because of the ice' parts! It's the best. God's hand is in my life every single moment, and I couldn't be happier. I'm so looking forward to the next 9 months. It's just me, The Lord, and Texas, and it couldn't be any better.

I love y'all!

Sister Kristina Dalling

"It takes everyone to git her done."

The Work

Write me!

6360 Murphy Rd.
#123
Sachse, TX 75048

Week 35 from Sachse, Texas: "Declutter Day!"

Declutter Day!

Family and Friends,

We had an insane week!! I don't even know where to begin.

The beginning of the week was really slow because Sister Stephenson and I were both sick.. It must have been a stomach bug. At our lesson with Joakim later in the week I threw up and almost fainted when we were leaving.. BUT luckily we brought a member from the YSA ward who is now Joakim's good friend, Felipe, and he gave me a blessing and I'm all good now! Felipe is from Brazil but he actually served in this same mission, Spanish speaking a couple years ago! Small world. But I'm feeling fine now!!

Wednesday was the craziest day. We got a call from the assistants and found out we were getting another sister added to our companionship that night because a sister's area had to close suddenly. That's all the information we were given. We didn't know who, when, or why. So Sister Walton has joined us here in Sachse! It was all very last minute but we are adaptable. We don't know how long this will last, but most likely until transfers next week. It's very different being in a trio. It definitely comes with its challenges.  Living with one person who has differences is one thing, but throw in another, it's a whole other story. Pray for us this week! It definitely has it's advantages too, but trios are hard stuff. Nevertheless we are seeing miracles every day! Sister Walton is an INCREDIBLE missionary. I know there's a reason she's here, and I have most definitely learned a lot from her. She goes home next transfer and she was Sister Training Leader for months.

Joakim is doing awesome, reading the Book of Mormon, coming to church.  Felipe is awesome for him. On Sunday, it was the funniest thing. We had the most international bench in the church. We had Felipe from Brazil, Joakim from Norway, us, Ally and her sister from Asia, and a friend we brought for them. I love it! We are having way more luck with the YSA ward which is sad because that's not even our ward! But of course it's all for the Lord.

We found some pretty awesome investigators this week! My testimony of tracting and asking everyone for referrals has strengthened so much! We knocked on a house and a high schooler opened the door. His family wasn't really interested but he told us to stop by a few of his friends on that street when we asked who else did he know who would be interested. His friend Jessie is awesome. We taught her the first lesson and she is just so great. She and her family have a very strong Christian faith. She's reading the Bible in 90 days (13 chapters a day) and working on a devotional. She's a freshman in high school. Yeah. She seemed really sincere and genuine. She just said she might not have much time to read The Book of Mormon because of her intense Bible study and homework. That's pretty understandable though. Luckily she only has like a month left. She was definitely inspiring.

We also met a girl named Hope who was just walking her dog. She really touched my heart! We saw her once and told her a little about our faith, but she continued on. We saw her a little later and she came up to us and asked us a few questions about what sets us apart from other Christians. We told her, and she bore her testimony in telling us how she wanted us to really look into it and pray about it. Sadly she thought we were mislead but she was very young, and said she was nervous about 'witnessing' to us because she had never done it before but that we were so nice she wanted us to have the full truth. I loved her courage and conviction, it was very inspiring.

Elder Ellis' visit was so wonderful! It was a lot about enjoying your mission, but doing your very best at the same time. He added even more to my faith, love, obedience saying. He said Faith is the power, Obedience is the price, Love is the motive, the Spirit is the key, Christ is the reason, and Joy is the reward. His wife said "Sacrifice isn't loss- it's merely preparation for something better". I really needed to hear that. They also talked about different levels of faith and how important and powerful faith can be.

Just yesterday we had a huge miracle. We found a family of 5 through tracting that we are now teaching! The son knows the bishops sons who are returned missionaries, and has looked into the church before. So now we are teaching the family! They are awesome. Super strong faith though and LOTs of questions, so we are definitely having to research and study a lot. I'll have to tell you more about them next week. I can't tell you how much I've learned from all the people I've met on my mission. I love it!

So transfer calls are this week.. I know I'm staying though because President Durrant told my Stake President to ask me to sing at Stake Conference, and he did so I at least have another transfer here! Who know who will be my companion though?? Crazy. Transfer 7 here we come... my halfway point! Ah.

So today was declutter day for the mission. Our apartment has had missionaries for 10 years... Everyone and their mom left stuff everywhere so this is a picture of all the stuff we threw out today! Thanks a lot RM's!;) At least it feels a lot cleaner now.

I love y'all soooo much!! Thank you for all the letters and emails. 

Love,

Sister Kristina Dalling
6360 Murphy Rd.
#123
Sachse, TX 75048

Highlights from week 1 in Sachse, Texas (Week 31)

The Lewis Family- They've been with me since the beginning! I've grown so close to all these boys, they're like my brothers. This is an incredible family.

The Finlayson Family- Oh my heck I do not know what I'll do without Sister Finlayson. I love her! They were the first family I ever had dinner with on my mission. She was always there for us when we needed someone. What an incredible family. 

Sister Wilson :) I love her! She was heaven sent. She is so talented and loving. She's the medical masseuse who saved my neck, back, and jaw a few transfers ago. Love her! 

The Davis Family- it was so hard to leave them! They are truly part of my Texas family. I'll be back for Jeremy's baptism in March though!

The cutest couple in the world!! TJ and Kayce  

Sister Alleman- my first home in Texas! I will love and miss that amazing family

Kayce!! So glad I was able to be with her throughout her journey in finding Christ. She is truly amazing

The Byrne Family- one of my favorite active families. Debbie Byrne is the one on her mission whom I love and Sister Byrne is the lovely Italian who hosted us for Christmas. Love them!!

The Binghams- one of my favorite 'dinner families' in the ward. Sister Bingham is from Mexico and her husband met her very briefly on his mission there. She makes the BEST authentic Mexican food

I thought I could dedicate a whole email to John. He was by far the hardest person to leave. It was absolutely heart breaking, not going to lie. I couldn't even say anything, Sister Erickson had to speak my thoughts for me as I was saying goodbye. I had to get the pictures before they even knew I was leaving. He knew something was up because he said my eyes looked sad and asked what was wrong. I told them both and we cried together. 

Leaving John is one of the hardest things I've done. I'm not sure what it was, but our spirits developed such a strong friendship. I feel like I've known him for thousands of years. I feel so extremely grateful to know John and Shirlene Cook. To have been part of his learning in the gospel. I promised to write him every single week, and he reassured me he'd see me every day because I was in his heart forever. He also confessed to Shirlene and I that his lung x rays didn't come out very well, and I guess I knew something was wrong. I'm not sure how much longer he has on this earth, but he will always be in my heart throughout distance and time. 

We always sing 'oldies' songs together and we sang "I'll Be Seeing You" one last time- that's our favorite! It was such a hard day for me, and I must admit I am proud of myself for getting through it. He told me to "Just keep smiling. Just smile." And I will always do that. 

I love The Colony!!!! Never did I think I could be the person I am today, and the people and experiences I've had in this area have completely made that possible. I love my mission!

Transfers were so hard!

I'm pretty sure I just conquered the hardest part of my whole mission. So it can only go up! Sister Stephenson is so awesome! She's super cute and fun, so we get along really well :)

Sachse is a super challenging area! I thought The Colony was hard, but Sachse hasn't had a single baptism in 2 years. President has only sent the best of the best missionaries here like Elder Merrill and Sister Duncan. Sister Duncan was here for the same amount of time I was in The Colony and she just left to be a Sister Training Leader. So it's a lot of pressure being in this area. Being senior comp isn't really a big deal at all. It's a little more difficult when it hasn't been my area. Most of what Sis Stephenson did last transfer was tracting. They found a few people who might have potential but we all know there are more effective ways than tracting. The hard part is trying to reorganize and change the way things have always been in this area. It's hard for missionaries to accept an incomer's perspective. I don't know the ward very well, but something definitely needs to change so we start seeing some success. This is The Hastening of the work, I know we can find those who are prepared, we just have to figure out the right way to go about it.

Some of my highlights of the week:

We are working with a man who recently came back into activity, and he has an incredible story! He is taking care of his ex-wife currently because she has Lou Gehrig's disease. They were married 20 years, divorced for 14, but always promised they'd be there for the other if something were to ever happen. She called him a year ago and asked if he could come take care of her because she had been diagnosed with this awful disease. This disease is so horrible, no one in their right mind would even wish it on their worst enemy. Basically, all voluntary motion slowly diminishes to the point when you are trapped in a body that can't even swallow by itself. She is in the final stages it looks like. She can't do anything on her own, has a feeding tube, a suction tube, and the worst part is you have full brain function the whole time. He has so much love and compassion for her. Every 20 minutes or so he has to suction out her saliva since she can't swallow and he watches her 24/7. He has nurses come in every so often so he can go shopping and shower, but he is incredible. She isn't a member and he and his son want her baptized so badly. Obviously there are a lot of complications, so we are working through it. We are going to teach her the lessons and see how it goes. She can sometimes muster enough energy to communicate through blinking, but it's a challenge. It's incredible to see this act of love though.

We serve  at Salvation Army on Wednesdays and Fridays. So many great people work there. And guess what?? Elder Rowland is my zone leader now and I get to see him every time we do service! It's the best! Gotta love tender mercies.

So we are super low on miles for the rest of this month. We walked a ton last week. We tracted a super nice neighborhood full of multi million dollar homes. No joke. All of Sachse is pretty wealthy, but this neighborhood had never been tracted, and we had hours and hours of time with no miles so we tracted it! We didn't find much success if you can imagine haha. We only talked to about 12 people and half of them were the maids/workers.  It was really fun though seeing all these amazing houses. Felt like I spent a day in Beverly Hills, met a few CEO's of companies, huge real estate owners, super successful business owners- no big deal. Would have taken pictures but we'd probably get arrested or something! ;)

So I'm living in an apartment that has housed missionaries for who knows how long. It is pretty gross haha. It's quite a change!

Some other people we are working with:

One investigator is 50 and so great!! They tracted into him a while ago and he is pretty promising for baptism he just has a hard time committing to much. I'm pretty sure it's because he doesn't have a firm testimony that this is the ONLY true church. He thinks any good church is true. We'll see :)

There is this one couple-- I will definitely have to tell yall more about them later. He's from Norway, she's from Africa. She's like his 'spiritual mother'. She's a LA member and he's an investigator. She is basically a false prophetess and they are both Unitarian. So new experiences await :)

Also the mission is creating a 'would you be willing' invitation video to help with missionary work. They asked missionaries who've had experience with this invitation to be in the video. They really liked my part, so they came to our ward and recorded us with some of the members after church just interacting. So keep your eyes open for an awesome video someday!

Lots of great things ahead here in the Texas Dallas Mission.

Love and Miss yall!

My address is

6360 Murphy Rd.

#123

Sachse, TX 75048

7 Months!!! News from The Colony, TX (Week 29)

My mission has just seem to flown by so far. I can't believe I'm already almost halfway done. And I love every second of it!

It has been a very good transfer and it's ending this week.. We'll see what the Lord has in store for me next week! Change- it's not fun, but it's necessary and it is actually pretty exciting. I will never be ready to leave The Colony, but I do realize I'm going to have to leave sometime!

Mon- Top Golf was so much fun! If they have one in Oregon, it's totally worth it. It's like a bowling alley for golfing. That night we also had a really good lesson. We are teaching 7 year olds and 15 year olds in the ward the discussions. We taught The Restoration to this one family who has a 15 year old son. It's amazing to me that no matter how many times I teach this lesson, I never cease to be overcome with the Spirit especially as Joseph's First Vision is recited. The mother commented after the lesson that that had been the most spiritual lesson her family has ever experienced in their home- and they are a super spiritual family to begin with! So that meant a lot.

Wed- We found a new investigator through service! We were driving down a street and saw a lady raking leaves in her yard. We pulled over and started helping her pile leaves in bags even though she said we didn't have to. Because of that, she invited us in to listen to our message. We have taught her three times now! She is wonderful. Her son works with a couple of boys in the ward, too, at Chikfila. Later that night we had a lesson with a less active couple. We met them New Year's Eve actually. They are really nice. The father struggles a lot because he thinks too much about everything. It's not that he doesn't have faith, I'm convinced he does. He just mixes up absolute, sure knowledge because of evidence with faith, therefore he thinks he doesn't have faith in anything. But we know faith is something hoped for and not seen, the evidence is faith. I absolutely love them and I just want to help him realize there is so much to hope for and have faith in! He is in a few bands and they both live on a little farm they built. They make their own cheese and eat mostly organic, he plays guitar and sings, so yes we get along quite well! He got baptized 10 years ago, but sadly it seems he only did it for his wife. It's never too late to find faith though!! So we challenged him to study the scriptures and come to church and focus on things that he can hope are true, since he has a problem with soo many basic principles of the gospel. Faith can start with the smallest of desires.

Thurs- We taught a 7 year old a discussion. We came up with a really fun way of teaching it and afterward he said "Wow, I had no idea learning about the gospel could be so fun!". I LOVE teaching people, not lessons. Meaning, teaching to their understanding and using the inspiration we receive for our lessons. It's amazing.

Saturday- We are teaching this one family and they are good friends with several families in the ward. I tracted into them way back on Thanksgiving and discovered all their friends quickly after. The mother has 5 kids and they have such a great family! They are super strong Christians, amazing family. They would make absolutely great Mormons! She is super skeptical of Joseph Smith though. It's really hard to explain to her that there is more we can add to her faith. She is having the hardest time with The Restoration. It's taking us a lot of study time with the Bible, history, and Joseph Smith. It's exhausting, and I wish I had more resources, but it will so be worth it when it finally clicks with her!

Sunday- We taught an Indian man that we met a few weeks back while tracting. He even invited his friend from work to come over as well. He has a Hindu backround, but seems very open to Christianity. It's really strange starting from square 1, God. He doesn't even know much of anything about the Bible, but he's really close to the Spirit and I know he felt it as we taught him about God and Christ, our Savior.

I am going to have the hardest time leaving this area. This is my home right now. I practically know the whole ward, which is quite a feat. I love everyone so much. I will need a lot of prayers. Especially because of John and Shirlene, I know I'll be able to see everyone else again, but I'm not sure how much longer those two are going to last. Their health is declining quickly. I feel John isn't telling me something about his health. It's heartbreaking thinking about leaving him. Especially because I know he needs my love, he gets so lonely! I'm going to need all the prayers y'all can muster. Luckily, I'm going to the temple on Wednesday, I'm sure that will help a lot.

Now is my time to exercise my faith and trust in the Lord.

Grace has really been on my mind this past week. I read a talk by Brad Wilcox that was excellent. It's titled "His Grace is Sufficient".

"Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us."

"Grace is not the finishing touch, it is the Finisher's touch."

"Christ is not waiting at the finish line once we have done 'all we can do'. He is with us every step of the way"

I may not have all the answers I'd like to have "but this much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to His word." Alma 7:8

"I know not by what methods rare, But this I know, God answers prayer. I know that He has given His word, which tells me prayer is always heard, And will be answered soon or late. And so I pray and calmly wait. I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I thought; But leave my prayers with Him alone, whose will is wiser than my own, Assured that He will grant my quest, or send some answer far more blest." Eliza Hickok

Love Always,

Sister Dalling