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! 

My Mission Blog Week 26: "Merry CHRISTmas!" from The Colony, TX

Hey everyone!!! 

I love Christmas! I love the whole month of December actually. My favorite day in December is the 21st because that's when my Daddy was born!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD. I love you! I am so blessed to have such an incredible dad and family. He's pretty amazing. Although it's so hard to be away at this time of year, being on a mission has brought me closer to my family than ever before. My dad has simply taken care of all the things I can't do at the moment. He spends all of his time devoted to making his children's dreams come true. My future husband has a lot to live up to- that's for sure! ..but of course I'm not thinking about that at all ;) I will always be my daddy's little girl. We were at someone's house for dinner this past week and they had the book "Butterfly Kisses" on a table and it brought back so many memories I've had with my dad. I love him!

Sorry this email is going to probably be a little jumbled, but we have so much to do today in preparation for Christmas! I haven't had any time to send out Christmas letters, so be patient with me, they will come! This week has been really great. We had 8 investigators at church along with a ton of people who hadn't been to church in a while! It was incredible. The spirit of Christmas was so strong. 

The highlights of this week.. hmmm. Friday was our huge Christmas party for all the English speaking missionaries. There were about 200 of us. President asked me to sing a musical number, so I sang O Holy Night. I hardly had any time to practice and the pianist was sight reading, but it went perfectly and luckily the pianist was an incredible player and it just all went perfectly. That was a lot of fun. It was so good to see everyone there. It's so hard making such good friends and only seeing them every once in a while. We also had an option to watch a movie for Christmas.. sadly the movie was chosen for us but it was good. We watched Four Minutes. It's about a track runner who ran a mile in 4 minutes. That's what you get when your mission president played in the NBA. ;) 

So Alex is getting baptized next Saturday! I'm super excited for it. I love their family. 

John is doing well. He calls himself Grandpa haha! I can't ever leave him. Really worried about that in the future. Shirlene is still in the hospital too.. keep them in your prayers. Also John wanted to send his son a Book of Mormon for Christmas with his testimony written in it, and sadly his son didn't allow it. So hopefully we can lift John's spirits this Christmas despite all that! 

We met some crazy people this week! Mostly just some super opinionated, talks forever kind of people. But they are my brothers and sisters so we love em anyway! It's been fun.

Also we are teaching The Colony's star athlete on the football and track team. Yep, he's awesome. He's 18 and his mom is coming back into reactivity. 

Some good quotes:

"Born in a stable, cradled in a manger, He came forth from heaven to live on earth as mortal man and to establish the kingdom of God. During His earthly ministry, He taught men the higher law. His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world. He blessed the sick. He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead to life. To us He has said, 'Come, follow me.'

"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always. We shall learn to forget ourselves. We shall turn our thoughts to the greater benefit of others"

- Thomas S. Monson (Thank you Quinn!- Merry Christmas)

I love this quote from our Prophet's most recent talk- True Shepherds. 

"There is one teacher whose life overshadows all others. He taught of life and death, of duty and destiny. He lived not to be served but to serve, not to receive but to give, not to save His life but to sacrifice it for others. He described a love more beautiful than lust, a poverty richer than treasure. It was said of this Teacher that He taught with authority and not as did the scribes(Matt 7:28-29). His laws were not inscribed upon stone, but upon human hearts. I speak of the Master Teacher, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of all Mankind. The biblical account says of Him, He 'went about doing good'(Acts 10:38). With Him as our unfailing guide and exemplar, we shall qualify for His divine help in our [lives]. Lives will be blessed. Hearts will be comforted. Souls will be saved. We will become True Shepherds."

I love y'all! I wish you a very Merry Christmas! 

Keep me in your prayers. I miss home a little. 

Love,

Sister Dalling

My Address:

5008 Pemberton Ln. 

The Colony, TX 75056

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net

Week 17 from The Colony, Texas

Halloween Costume...this picture is good enough to be blackmail haha

these are my best friends- Elder Rowland and Elder Wells

everyone:)

John Cook and his box (see description below)

Byron :)

Hmm I can't even express how great of a month it's been. But first and foremost:

Happy Birthday Grandpa Dalling!! I absolutely love you. More than a million m&ms. You are such an incredible person. Thank you so much for everything you are to me. I miss you a ton, but we both know I'm where I'm meant to be. When I get back though, I owe you a huge birthday hug. Promise! 

And Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Leatham Grandparents. My goodness, I have the best grandparents with the cutest love stories. You're such an inspiration to me. What a legacy you've created simply by falling in love more than 50 years ago. I love you both so much. 

Byron's baptism was on Saturday! It was pretty amazing. The really special thing about this baptism is I practically lived it a year ago. It's strange being in the role of the missionary now with almost the same story. Byron's girlfriend, Michelle, is just incredible! They both have spoiled us so much. They work at Cheesecake Factory, so yes they definitely took us there a couple weeks ago. Byron is so amazing. I feel so honored I've been able to teach him and be apart of this experience for him. He's also an amazing soccer player, so on Wednesday we are going to one of his games. His baptism was so good! I sang "I Know that my Redeemer Lives" and Michelle and her sister spoke. Michelle's brother in law baptized him. I love them! They took US out to lunch after- they really do spoil us. 

Sunday was a little crazy. We got John and Shirlene to church! It was quite the task though. We had to go pick John up from the rehabilitation center- they dressed him up for church, but Shirlene forgot his black socks and suit jacket from home so we had to drive all the way back to her house because he is super classy and refuses to go to church without them. Anyways it took a really long time and we helped him get ready and we were only 20 minutes late for church. He still got the sacrament so that's the important part! He absolutely loved church. And so did Shirlene! She hadn't been in a church since she was a little girl. Earlier that week we went to spend some time with her and listened to my favorite, Sonatra, on her record player. We also looked through John's box of pictures/letters/keepsakes from the 1940s. There's even a picture of Ray Evans! So many incredible things in that box. I'll have to post pictures next week. I love that man. He's my marine! Speaking of marines, keep my friend Jameson Mead in your prayers. He just got shipped off to Afghanistan. :( John says he'll be fine. ;)

We are so super busy so the mission finally put in some elders in Little Elm! So we are officially only covering The Colony again which is good because we are drowning in work. One more fun thing before I have to go to our district Halloween Party. Trunk or Treat was so fun! So I came up with the ridiculous idea of dressing up as elders! We borrowed suits from our district leader and his companion. Everyone absolutely loved it. I have to give credit to this idea to Elizabeth and I (cantalina's for life).

Anyways I have a ton more to update but it will have to wait til next week! I love you all! I love being a missionary. It's going to be weird not having a baptism this week! ;) 

Forever and Always,

Sister Dalling

My Address:

5008 Pemberton Ln. 

The Colony, TX 75056

kristina.dalling@myldsmail.net

Week 7 The Colony, TX - "Be still, and know that I am God" - Psalms 46:10

Be Still, and know that I am God - Psalms 46:10

Greg Olsen "In His Light"

First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!! I just want to take a moment to brag about the best 17 year old on the Earth. You've been my best friend and sister since birth, it's crazy to think you are already so old. To be 17 again.. enjoy it while you can ;)

It's been an interesting week.. lots of ups and downs, BUT I honestly witness miracles happen every day. Let me tell y'all right now, our God is a God of miracles and they have not ceased. If I didn't know that or have that outlook, I would literally go crazy because there are a lot of disappointments that occur every day as well. I'll start with the hard things first, then go into the happy parts of my week! 

The worst disappointment I believe happened Tuesday. My companion and I decided we wanted to build Christian unity in the community because we had been hearing some anti-mormon things. We decided how better to get rid of those views than go to the source and suggest an inter-faith choir. So we walked into First Baptist and met with the head pastor. Don't get me wrong, he was an extremely great and nice person. We told him we wanted to get this choir going and he very quickly said no because of our differences in doctrine. He then spent almost an hour sitting with us, explaining how we are not Christian because of these silly reasons. After a little explaining from our side, he still concluded that because we don't believe Jesus Christ, God, and the Spirit are the same being we are not Christian and do not believe in the same Christ? It was the saddest conversation I've ever had I think. Having someone tell me I don't believe in the right Jesus Christ did not sit well in my heart. It really hit me how strongly Satan is working against us. I love my Christian brothers and sisters, all we wanted was to build unity within the community. It's incredible how Satan has played with fear and deception to make people believe we are not Christian. Anyone who strives to follow Christ deserves the honor of the title of Christian. Jesus Christ does not exclude anyone and that is what's missing from so many churches. My vision of this interfaith choir includes baptists, Methodists, protestants, Lutherans, Sikh, Buddhist, etc. I love praising my God through music and I know many others do as well. Anyways, I am so excited for when good people can be united no matter what their beliefs. 

The rest of my week was very good compared to that! It was extremely hot and hard work, but it was so worth it. We saw miracles pour out from just taking a step out into the sun. My favorite stories from this week that really did happen are just too great to be true! We were out tracting and this sweet 4 year old boy with a mohawk ran after us after we left his house to give us cookies! It seems so insignificant, but that little cookie almost brought tears to our eyes. The next day we were talking to this lady on her doorstep and a little girl was listening inside. By the time we were just about to leave, she  brought us these adorable flowers she had made. I love little kids! Their spirits are still so close to Christ. It's tender mercies like that that just make my day. We got those cookies and those flowers at just the right time when we needed them most. One of my favorite scriptures of this week is 

Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God

If we could all realize the significance of that scripture, our lives would be so much better. God is our Heavenly Father! He loves us more than anything. All He wants is our happiness. Hard times are the best for me  to sit and be still and think about my God to really feel His love. And every time I do, He shows that love in ways that have really touched me. 

My favorite last story- because I'm running out of time today- is this girl we've been trying to get in contact with. Her name is Tori and she used to date a member in our ward. Her parents haven't allowed her to meet with us, so we figured there was nothing we could do. But she texted us today and said she turns 18 in October and will take the lessons then. For now she has a Book of Mormon and wants us to give her scriptures to read. I love my mission! I love that I get to meet these incredible people who are so full of faith and desire. It's amazing to me what the tiniest amount of faith can turn into. 

I love my mission! I love being completely exhausted after a long day of work because I know God is proud of my effort. Keep us in your prayers! Even though we have had a lot of success, I can see Satan trying everything he can to stop us. He can't stop Sister Dalling and Sister Hansen though. 

Sister Dalling 

I stand all amazed - sung by Kristina Dalling

Just before we dropped Kristina off at the MTC, we were able to fulfill a life long dream of recording a CD.  The recording turned out great.  Marvin Payne at Babymoon Studio was awesome to work with.  He said Kristina had such a perfect voice, he didn't even need to apply autotune to correct any notes :)Here's the first song posted to youtube. Visit:  I Stand All Amazed!