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