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

Week 55 / 56 Staying in Sachse!... Time just flies by

My district right before transfers. Sister Rust and Ricks, us, Elders Stein and Sasser. Love them!

My sweet companion did this for me for my 13 month mark! She's the best.

Week 56

I just hit my 13 month mark! Can not believe how fast everything is going. I feel like my life is just like that huge boulder that almost crushes Indiana Jones during the ride at Disney. I'm hangin in there though!

Yesterday was Sister Reboquio's 20th birthday!! She is SO amazing! There's not much you can do to surprise your companion since we're together all the time. But I did what I could! Cleaned the kitchen, made lunch, wrote a note on the mirror, texted her favorite members at church to wish her a happy bday. Joakim set up the best birthday surprise of course! He is so good at giving gifts. They got her roses and a beautiful music jewelry box. Also really yummy cake and our favorite- Ben&Jerry's! We are both addicted to that stuff.

I'm so lucky to be with her 3 transfers. That is a long time in missionary time! Hardly ever are companions together for that long. But we need each other. It has been so hot this week, we've really had to keep the other going and remembering why we do this. Ohhh and my knee.... So it's just been kind of a rough week overall. I fell and skinned my leg. My knee is disgusting, it's just raw. I've been doing a very good job at cleaning it- which hurts a ton! So it's healing up pretty fast, but it still hurts to walk on and very annoying to deal with. All that just made this week a little hard because we did a lot of walking and working in the sun in 100+ weather. We didn't find any new investigators which was kind of a bummer. We have to remember there are up and down weeks, so it's okay! Of course there are still always miracles. The Carillo family all came to church! Roberto's mother- the member from Mexico- is in town. She had wanted to go to the Spanish branch but Esmirna said "I want to go to our ward, I'll just translate for her." So that's what she did! So happy she considers this her ward family. I love them!

We're trying to think of more creative ways of working so we don't tract so much. So tomorrow we are doing something way fun! For a young women's project, we are going to have a YW in our ward be a 'missionary for a day' with us. She's going to start early morning till almost the end of the night. She's so excited and we are too. I think it will be a great experience for her.

Joakim is going out of town for 6 weeks so I won't see him for a lonnnng time after today! So sad, but he probably needs to see his family in Norway every once in a while. His poor mother- haha.

Well thanks so much for everything! For all the support and prayers. It's so great to be surrounded by so much strength and faith. Jesus Christ keeps me going. I'm not finished yet, but lemme tell you, I will be ready when the time comes.

Week 55

Hey y'all! 

Yep I'm staying in Sachse. I'm excited!! But so tired, not going to lie. I've grown so much these past 6 months, and growing is tiring. Sister Reboquio has been the hugest blessing though. I can't thank the Lord enough for her. She is so patient with me! We are going to see miracles these next 6 weeks, guaranteed. Also I'm working on being more bold, so pray for me!

The big event of this week was meeting the new mission president. President and Sister Taylor are amazing of course! Sister Taylor is so sweet and they have an adorable family. We are focusing on Becoming One around the mission, our wards, as companions, and around the world. Because we need to make God's will our will. 

I really don't know what to say, which is weird because I usually do! It was a great week. We are working hard. The 4th of July was AMAZING, just like it always is. It seriously might be my favorite holiday, possibly tied with Christmas. We mostly helped Joakim clean out the garage. That night we went to go contact at a festival, but we weren't allowed to. So we ended up going home BUT we watched the fireworks from our apartment and they were amazing! It was Sister Reboquio's first real fireworks show, she loved it. 

Don't have much time today because we need to say goodbye to all the missionaries getting transferred! Love you all. Pray for me this transfer! 

Much Love,

Sissy Dalling

Write ME!

Sister Kristina Dalling

6360 Murphy Rd.
#123
Sachse, TX 75048

or email:

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net

Mission Week 51: 1 Year in Texas!!:)

Aloha! 

Where do I begin? 

While my family is in Hawaii, I get to be in Texas! 

It has been the best year of my whole, entire life. 

And it was a great week! I really do love Sachse. 

This one family we have been teaching is doing so well! That family is so prepared, it's insane. She knows the church is true because she's seen the fruits of it, especially in her husband's family in Mexico. They love the feeling at church and the gospel principles book. She just hasn't gained a testimony of The Book of Mormon yet, but she will in time. Because this family is so close, President Durrant is actually coming to their lesson this week when we teach the whole family for the first time.

Sadly, some other investigators have been reading a lot of anti material so they are struggling right now, especially with Joseph Smith. Pray for us this week! Only pure testimony and faith can overcome this. We've ran into so many people who are engrossed in anti material. It can destroy faith. In reality, you will find whatever you are looking for. If you want anti about anything, you'll find it. But man does not provide truth, only God does. If someone shows me anything that somehow proves the church is wrong, and the source is man, of course I will go to the true source, GOD. And God is my source, strength, and foundation of my life and testimony. 

Our Jewish investigator is also doing really well. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be teaching someone from Israel. He has fig trees in his backyard from seeds from Jerusalem and seriously that fruit is so amazing! He also says he knows the Book of Mormon is true! However it's going to be a hard journey for him because in their culture and the town he's from, if you switch religions, the entire town and family shun you. He needs a lot of prayers and faith. 

We had an amazing meeting with Robert. He had such an inspirational experience with Judy as she was dying. He just felt so close to the veil. He could tell she could see those of their family that have already passed away. We felt really strongly that Judy has accepted the gospel and will help Robert the rest of his journey. He moves to Arizona this next week. 

One of my best friends, Elder Munday, on the mission is really sick and might have to go home. He's been sick for 14 months but has made it this far. Doctors have examined and tested and haven't found the source, but he's going to see one of the top doctors who is a member next week. He could use a lot of prayers though. 

I have to share an experience that happened last night! We had a little bit of time left before we  had to go home, so we went to the parking lot to contact a few more people. The first two people we talked to were Jewish. We talked to them for like an hour, mostly about the Book of Mormon, an atheist joined the conversation for a bit AND a Jehovah's Witness who came to thank us for our work (he thought were jw at first). So that's just a small experience to show you just how much religion is here in Texas. It's crazy.

One more thing.. next Sunday is Father's Day! I love my daddy so much. It's so hard to believe I've been away from my family for a year. It hit me this morning, especially because I haven't seen my precious Emily in so long! Ok anyways, so for Father's Day I decided I'm going to give something to the best dad in the world. Sister Durrant challenged us to do give of our time or talents. So this week, every lesson I am going to sing a song in honor of my daddy. I'll let y'all know how it goes next week! 

And I get to go out East this week for Specialized Training to sing I Love Jesus Christ! I'm so excited to see Sister Nance!! We get to ride with the assistants for 2 hours each way. Such an honor to be able to do this. 

Well I love y'all! 

Love,

Sister Dalling

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

Happy Superbowl Week!! (Week 32) from Sachse, TX

So this week was a state holiday for most- the Super Bowl! Everything is definitely bigger in Texas. In honor of the Super Bowl, I reread "Hastening the Lord's Game Plan"  by Elder Gifford Nielson (former NFL Quarterback) . Super good talk. I invite y'all to read it or watch it on youtube.  BYU football coach, Lavell Edwards, said to QB Nielson something along the lines of 'I didn't care what play you made, as long as it got a touchdown'. Similarly, the Lord doesn't care how we do missionary work as members, just that we do it. So Elder Nielson gave some simple suggestions for the Lord's Game Plan.

1.Specifically pray to bring someone closer to the Savior and the gospel each day

2.Pray for the missionaries serving in your area and their investigators by name each day- "Until you know a person's name and face the Lord cannot help you know his/her heart."-Elder Nelson

3.Invite a friend to an activity in or out of your home.

As missionaries, we get a lot of praise from members and other fellow Christians all around who are amazed at our devotion. But. I most admire members who juggle real life with missionary work! It's so amazing and they are truly following the Lord's admonition to follow Him and be fishers of men.

I also read the same talk about Grace as a previous week and this quote  really helped me out.

"The task ahead of you is never greater than the power behind you." So true! The Lord has promised that He will be with me throughout my mission. I should be absolutely fearless.

It was an interesting week for sure! I've met the most interesting people. Missions are the best!

We had two baptismal dates but sadly they are moving to Garland, just outside our area, so we are passing them on to Elder Rowland! But we received a referral from Mormon.org that seems pretty promising. Stay tuned!

The weirdest experiences come from tracting. Basically, in a super rich neighborhood, a lady felt sorry for us and gave me some extra stockings! Yep. No complaints. Then that same day we met a guy who had a parrot. He and his wife happened to be the aunt and uncle of someone who was baptized in Carrolton. They gave us a parrot feather after talking for an hour and we are invited back!

It was a good week, absolutely freezing but great! Love y'all!

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

Going to Sachse, TX! (Week 30)

Well everyone, my transfer call came. I am going to a small town called Sachse, pronounced Saxee. My new companion is Sister Stephenson and I really am excited to be companions with her. I've met her a few times and our personalities go really well together. I'm going to be senior companion, so that will be different! Wish me luck!

I really don't have much time today. It was an incredible week though. It was a great way to leave The Colony. We found 12 new investigators last week and many of them were families. We have been literally led by the Spirit to these people- it is incredible. One major update.. remember the one who needed help around Christmas and was a little dishonest with her intent? Well her heart has changed! She called us from a different phone since she disconnected the last one and we went over and talked with her and taught her. She is a single mother of 4 who has had the worst year I could imagine. She was desperate, but she needs the gospel even more so than money. We taught her and her kids three times last week. They are all sponges for it. She has incredibly strong kids. They range from 9-14. And they are getting baptized February 22! So please keep them in your prayers as they really need an improved living situation and strength as they learn about the gospel. I am so grateful that they are in my life.

My heart is full as I'm preparing to leave The Colony. I said most of my goodbyes yesterday and I have a few more to say today, including John. I feel extremely strengthened through your prayers and through The Lord though. I know He has great plans for me. I know He will be with me wherever I go. I read the words to "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" this morning and the third verse simply struck my heart. I love those words!

Thank you for all your support. I'll have lots of pictures next week! I'll send my new address as soon as the Sachse sisters reply.

All my Love,

Sister Kristina Dalling

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

My Mission Blog Week 28: "Transfer 5 Week 5"

“I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name. …And worlds without number have I created; … and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten” (Moses 1:3, 33).

My dear family and friends,

I hope y'all had the best New Year! Mine was really great. I've had an awesome week- very up and down but it's supposed to be that way!

I have learned to love goals thanks to my daddy! This New Year's we had a Zone Meeting with President Durrant for interviews. We made some goals we want to accomplish for the next year. One of my goals is to contact at least 10 people every day. That means by the end of the year- or since I go home a little before January- I will have contacted around 3,650 people! That just blows my mind. Another one of my goals is to read The Book of Mormon at least 2x as well as The New Testament. I'm lucky to have a full hour each day dedicated to gospel study. Right now I'm in the middle of Alma.

Since this is my 5th week of Transfer 5, 5 is really on my mind. Our mission President always says STRYve for 5 (sincerely try very enthusiastically). The 5 things represent 5 ways of being obedient as a missionary.

I thought I'd make my own 5 things to STRYve for

1.Be happy-it's a choice you make every moment of every day!

2.Read the Book of Mormon and the Bible every day

3.Obey the Lord, my mission president, and my leaders

4.Memorize a scripture once a week (4 weeks in a month)

5.Love the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, strength, and soul

So my dad sent me an email today and he told me how much he loved looking at the stars and milky way last week. Not even kidding, while we were tracting New Year's Eve, we happened to be out in the country, and I could not stop looking at the stars. They were absolutely beautiful. It made me think about how incredible God is, how amazing His creations are, and how infinitely small I am. And yet He loves me SO much.

This week really was incredible. It was absolutely freezing, but we are luckily all moved in to our new home and we are working with an amazing ward and we are having huge successes!

One of my favorites is Pablo. We tracted into him and he is amazing. We taught him lesson 1, and he just soaked it all in. He is hispanic and has soooo much faith! The whole lesson I was thinking he looks, acts, and talks exactly how I imagine Alma the Younger would. He is amazing. Tracting does work- it's just very much less effective than working through members, thats for sure!

Well I'll have to say more next week because we are about to go to Top Golf! Fun, right? I'm super excited.

I love you!!!!!!!

Sister Dalling

Here's my new address:

Sister Dalling

5936 Sandhill Cir

The Colony, TX 75056

My Mission Blog Week 27: "Happy New Year!!!" from The Colony, TX

All the sisters whom I love so much :)

My amazing wall of love! My family is the best

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. 

those are the Lewis boys :) love them!

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!

Daysie Davis :) And our wonderful gingerbread house 

 And that night we went to downtown Frisco and went caroling with our district. 

Caroling :) Downtown Frisco. I know it looks like hugs in these pics, but REALLY for real I am faking it :)

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!!!

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