After being a little busy and not getting to Danie's blog, I kind of forgot how. So now here are several letters to catch you up on her and her mission. I will try to get them in order, but I am sure it will not be perfect.
From Danie to Mom:
Yet again I find myself short of time, but I
want to write you a little something because you are the best mom in the whole
world. I know I
can always depend on a letter from you each week :) Things are crazy in the mission,
hard, but most of all worth it. The comforting thing about all the
experiences I am having is that I still want to be a missionary. I don´t
want to go home until my time is up. :) I realized that, after
reading about the story grandpa shared with you about the two sister
missionaries that wanted to go home. Things are still hard but they are
getting better. I am going to keep working because both me and my
companion feel like we have one more transfer together after this one, if not
more. Our new mission president is so different. He is awesome
though!!!! So perfect for this mission right now! With the lady I
found in the chapel I have to share a little something. Her two youngest
children are getting baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They rest
of the family will follow eventually but they have to take care of a few things
first, but oh my goodness what a miracle :) THese sorts of things are the
things that make it worth being a missionary. I have to go for now, but I
love you! Good luck with your primary class this week :) Talk to you
soon!
Love always, me :)
From Danie to her Dad:
You beet me to it haha :D Your email
says practically everything I learned this week :) Its funny, sometimes at
night I write a pretend email to you in my head, more or less to clear my head.
By the end of the week I have changed my letter so much, it´s hard to believe.
It is neat though, because I can measure my progress depending on the things
I want to say :) Call me crazy, but it´s true :) This week I have
grown to understand the atonement so much! We were walking in the street
one day and I was beyond frustrated because we still didn´t have the unity that
I had been working for for so long. My companion, who was much like the
companion you mentioned, was really pounding me to the ground. I kept
thinking, what would Jesus do what would Jesus do. Would He let this
happen, how would he react, then I realized that people treated Him far worse than
my companion could ever treat me, and He still not only cared about them, but
loved them with all of His heart and laid down His life for them. My eyes began
to water instantly when I thought of this. I was filled with such gratitude for
His sacrifice and in this moment, I came to understand it better. I also
started doing some other things this week, for example, I took advantage of the
opportunity to answer the phone every chance I got, and when people asked me
questions I made a point to consult with my companion before I agreed to
anything. Our companionship still isn´t perfect, but now my companion is
listening. For once I did something right! :) I was also reading in the
scriptures today and I came across Jacob 4:12. Look it up and pay
attention to the words "why not?" It is amazing how reading in
a different language can bring new clarity to the scriptures. I am
definitely learning how to be more happy without having to depend on my
situation :) It is such a blessing because It allows me to give more to
my investigators. The lady that I found in the chapel a few weeks ago was
able to see her children be baptized yesterday. It was the sweetest
little miracle :) She along with her son bore testimony afterward as well
:) I cannot even describe the experience to you, but their testimonies
were beautiful and the spirit was so strong :) These are the moments one
lives for on the mission, and I imagine afterward as well :) Thanks for
all of your help and advice and for cheering me on always :) I don´t have
as much time to write today so I think I will leave it at that, but I will
write again soon :) It is possible next week that I won´t have the opportunity
to write because we have transfers, but I will be sure to catch you up on
everything in the week that follows :) I love you dad <3
Love always,
Your trying to grow up, little girl :)
From Danie to her brother:
The
keyboard I am using doesn´t have an option for exclamations at the moment so I
am terribly sorry if this letter sounds a little dull. I am writing to
you and only you this week so you will have to fill mom and dad in on the
details of my week. So we had transfers yesterday, that is why I am
writing on a tuesday. I got a new companion, and oh my goodness she is
perfect :D So happy :D Some interesting updates, I am pretty sure
we are the only mission that is shrinking write now in the world. It is
near impossible to obtain a visa to enter Argentina and every transfer we have
missionaries going home, but we aren´t receiving any newbies. Kind of
sad. Also, I went to the bathroom the other day in a lady´s house and you
will never guess what was in the bathroom.... A LAWN MOWER... who would have
thought haha :D also for your info. there are bikers here like dad haha
:D they are not as common but every now and then I see some one with his
biker gear riding along and it makes me think of my fam :D I was able to
escape having to eat cow intestine this last week, but something kind of
funny... I have officially had the mission experience because I had to boil my
own water to bath without freezing to death haha :D that was definitely
something. Right now temperatures are rising, and boy are they rising
fast. I might die haha :D nah, it´s me we are talking about, I love the
heat. I have another transfer in my area with a new companion and well,
we only have two days together at this point, but I already love her :D
something else interesting, so normally we travel by bus, double decker bus, to
get around argentina. Well yesterday all of the buses in Cordoba decided
to go on strike. I happened to be in the city three hours away from my
area when this happened. We were traveling to the city to change companions
when all of a sudden someone shouted at all of us to get off the bus. they just
left us in the street. It was crazy. Well then we were stuck in the
city all day during p-day so I couldn't write to you guys and we didn't get back
until super late in the evening. Guess what, the strike is still going
too. Oh man this letter is boring without exclamations, sorry. We
have investigators in another city right now that we can´t get to and it is
pretty much crazy because one of them is planning on being baptized this
weekend and we need to communicate with her and teach her, but we can't.
Yikes. Despite all of this, my spirits are high, I am super happy and
super excited to work. Things were hard with my last companion as I am
sure you know. In our last week together it was super hard. I
decided to try standing up for myself again because I wanted to be
obedient. Well to make a long story short, she said some terrible
things, called leaders and her missionary friends to tell them what I had done,
and then hid the cell phone from me so I couldn't call anyone. It was
hard, but it was kind of neat that the spirit helped me feel happy even in the
miserable moment. I was trying to do what was right, and in the eyes of
God I was okay and I was able to be happy with that even though everyone else
was thinking something completely different. The Lord really knows the
trials we need to have in our lives. I think I have found a new sense of
self confidence, but for reals. I thought I had found it before, but it
had to be tested for me to really know, and now I really know :D I
love that your favorite song this week is I am a child of God. It is my
favorite this week too, because now it has a whole new meaning to me to be a
daughter of God. Don´t ever forget that God is your loving Father in
Heaven okay :D He knows us so perfectly. I have a video for you to
look up. Our mission president showed it to us the other day. It is
called la expiacion y la obra missional. ´Don´t worry, only the subtitles
are in spanish. You might even be able to find it in english as the
atonement and missionary work. It is really good :D That is all I
have for now. Except, I have some questions...Who did you ask to
homecoming and when is the dance :D also how is seminary going, did you finish
the book of mormon already :D How is the dog :D and why didn't you like
the candy i sent :D did the rest of the family like it :D Sorry I can´t
use question marks either with this keyboard. Anyway, I have to go for
now, but I love you so so much :D Send my love to mom and dad too :D I´ll
write to you guys next week :D
Love always,
Your Spanish Speaking sis :D
From Danie to her Dad:
Sorry I haven´t written in so long. I
have had to start rotating who I write because p days are always crazy here.
One day I will have a peaceful p day again, but who knows when haha :D
Things are good in the mission. They are still not easy, but I am
definitely a lot happier :) I am working with three other, very trunky,
missionaries haha :D it is a different sort of difficult, but I am giving it my all. One thing
very important that I have realized though, is that it is so incredibly
important that I find someone to marry that has the same standard of obedience
as I do because when both members of the team are not working toward the same
thing it is super hard!!! I love my companion though. She is super
sweet, also from chile, but she is from the south and the culture is completely
different in her part of the country. She is super loving and happy and
just awesome! :) It is interesting that you talk about change because I
have been thinking about that a lot lately. I feel super bipolar in the
mission and I am realizing more and more everyday that it is because I am
constantly changing and change is painful haha :D It is an amazing
experience, but it is super hard!!!! I love it though :) One other
thing I have learned about myself, I don´t know if I was always this way but at
this point in my life I have realized how important it is to me to be obedient.
I really love being obedient. To gain my trust one only has to be
obedient and support me in my efforts to do so. :) Haha :D who would have
thought. I am still in the same area as before. I imagine I will
have a lot of time in this area before I leave, and quite frankly, I am
perfectly okay with that :) I love it here. The love I have for the
people here is so strong I can´t even think about leaving them. I am so
grateful that the last two transfers of my mission were so hard, because it
makes the sweet moments that much sweeter, for example, the other day we were
on our bikes and we passed by a member's house and all the kids outside started
calling out to us. They were so excited to see the missionaries. To
have a reception like that was so perfect, so sweet. I can´t even describe
it. For now I have to go because we have to catch a bus. Sorry to
cut this short but I can´t concentrate with all of the missionaries in the zone
watching me :) Know that I love you.
To Mom :)
Oh boy, where do I even start? haha :D
It is crazy to hear all that is going on. Thanks for filling me in on all
the political stuff, the wedding, and the family, everything :) Tell
Spencer I know I can´t spell...but it´s because I am tiping so fast I don´t
have much time to make corrections and the two languages confuse my brain a
little bit.... :)
Something kind of
funny. So practically all the streets here are of dirt and rock, so in
the summer they have to water the streets to minimize the dust haha :D It
kind of made me giggle a little bit :) What more can I say...right now my
mission is blissful. It´s not perfect, but honestly at the same time it
is perfect because I´m happy and helping others to be happy too :) It is
an interesting balance, because it is all about being selfless, but at the same
time we can´t give what we don´t have...When I have the exact answer to solve
this perfectly I´ll let you know :) Okay, I have no idea what I am
writing, feeling a little scatter brained today. So this last week has been
paradisiacal. We have been teaching, laughing, crying (tears of joy and love)
and just living the mission life. My companion had a very similar situation to
mine in her last area and I think the two of us are just super happy to
have things a little easier in the moment. :) Sunday was so
beautiful, because all of the primary kids wanted to sit by us haha :D I
have never felt so loved. I am so happy I chose to study something that
will allow me to be with children all the time :) I have discovered that
nine year olds are my favorite :) I don't know what it is about this age,
but I just love working with nine year olds :) My companion is working on
learning English this transfer and she prayed in english with our district last
night. We all pray together over the phone every night :) It´s neat
:) Currently I am trying to help my district learn english because I am
the only gringa in the district, and our mission president has put a lot of
emphasis in learning english as of late. Oh, little side note, so we had
a conference the other day en cordoba capital and we learned a little analogy
about seeds and how one seed from an apple has the potential to become a tree
with much fruit. Our investigators are the same :) super great analogy,
what happened after, not so great. So there is an Elder in my zone, we are
friends (basically he likes to talk to me so he can practice his english) Well,
at the conference he pulled me aside, handed me a little elephant charm and
told me it was his seed. I told him thank you, I am sure with a very
confused look on my face, then I proceeded to talk with other
missionaries. A few minutes later my brain connected the dots. Advice to all future elders, DON´T FLURT
WITH, BUY GIFTS, OR PERSUE IN ANY MANNER THE SISTER MISSIONARIES!!! :D That´s about
all, I am sorry I can´t write more, but my time is short. I love you so
much! Send the family my love :) Also it is a good possibility that
I won´t be able to write next week just to warn you. However, we will be
in touch.
until next time :) Love, your misionera
:)
From Danie to her Mom:
Thank you so so much for writing :)
its funny that the letters you think are
boring are always some of the most interesting to me :) I love hearing
about what goes on over there in the USA haha :D the normal everyday life of
the people I love :) THanks for sending the recipe :) the ovens here don't
have numbers to tell the temperature so I think I will just have to experiment
with the time haha :D I was happy to receive the email from brother Henrie. I will try to
write back if I have the time :) Something super different here.
General conference starts at one in the afternoon and ends at night.
Super weird. haha :D Spencer didn't tell me
about the emergency room thing...what happened?! Things are going pretty well
for me :) I am over all happy :) I love the mission so much!
It teaches me all sorts of things everyday. One thing I am figuring
out is it is kind of like practicing raising kids! I think I have sort of
talked about this already, but really what an opportunity. All the people
I am teaching are like my children. Our teaching pool is kind of small
right now because we are focusing a lot on less active people, but we are
getting along alright. THe poor bishop here is worried out of his mind
for the ward. This last week we had about 50 of the 200 members at
church. It was super cold outside so that explains part of it, but still
the numbers are shrinking. Along with our mission haha :D okay really it
is not funny but it is definitely strange. It is so hard to get people
from the states into the country right now.....I am focusing more on
remembering to stop and smell the flowers now, especially since summer is on
its way. So far there are not too many bugs yet, but I have a feeling I am in
for a very unpleasant treat very soon yikes! haha :D My companion is a
lot like me two transfers ago. It is interesting to see what I have
learned in the last two transfers. Now it is my turn to help her have
more self confidence since I just spent the last two transfers learning that
for my self. It is amazing that really when one has to teach something
they really understand it that much better :) Sorry this email is super
boring same old same old but typically that means things are going well haha :D
The elders that work with us in this area are a lot happier right now as well
and they are actually starting to laugh and smile. I think they were
pretty stressed out with all the goings on in last transfer. They told me
a lot of the things they were struggling with concerning my companion in
and interview and basically told me I had to fix it. Well I didn't really
exactly understand how stressed out they were until now. Before, I just
thought they were naturally serious and boring haha :D turns out that is not
the case haha :D That is about all I can think of. I hope everything is
going well over there. I cant believe Ammon is married now. Weird.
Did you know Em Hales leaves this wednesday on her mission? It is
crazy to see all they changes happening right now. Seven months into the
mission already. wow! Anyway, I hope you have a really great week!
If you get bored haha :D there is another book by Brad Wilcox that came
out while I have been in the mission. You should check it out for me, read it
and tell me if it is any good. Also If you want to look something up on
the internet look up mormon messages :) they are the best! I love you mom
:) Until next week,
Love, me :)
Hey Mom :)
I love the pictures you sent :) including the
one in your last email :) Spencer looks so old!! How did that
happen?! Something you might find interesting...they basically eat
dessert for breakfast everyday here haha :D I am trying super hard to be
healthy but you kind of just have to eat what there is in the misión because we
don`t have a lot of money to buy the healthy stuff and the members don`t
exactly always cook healthy food either....I am a lot rounder than when I left
St. George. Also, something else kind of funny. Today I am writing to you in
the neighborhood hangout of Leones (a city near the city where I am
serving) While I am typing my companion is playing pool with other
missionaries and there are video games everywhere haha :D It is kind of
like a nicklecade Argentina style haha :D The life of a missionary is so
interesting sometimes. Conference was fantastic! exclamation :) It
has never gone by so fast for me in my life. I feel like it just started
but it is already over. We anticipated conference weekend for a long time
and it has already come and gone. Also, I wasn't even sleepy during a
single talk. That is the first time that has every happened to me.
It was really neat to invite people to come and listen to the current prophet
of the world. I am pretty sure they all thought we were crazy, but it was
still super fun to invite them and declare that the prophet would be speaking
haha :D A man walked up to us the other day and started talking to us
about our religion. He made some comment about the second coming and then
some remark about Joseph Smith. Well we happened to be with one of my
favorite members this day. Her name is Meli and she has 17 years.
Well immediately after this man insulted Joseph Smith she said "you don`t
know anything about the church... how dare you go around talking about the
church like that when you have no idea what you are talking about. Where do you
think our church started?" He answered "En los Estados Unidos
no?" "Wrong" the look on his face was priceless haha :D She then
said "that`s right, if you want to talk about my religion get your facts
straight first, then we can talk" She put him in his place good
hahaha :D Mind you he had 50 or 60 years and this Little 17 year old said
it all. THis is exactly why we need members to participate with us
though...they add a Little extra to every lesson that as missionaries we just
can´t have alone. I can´t believe what happened to Spencer's Head!
That is super crazy! Speaking of crazy, the spiders are starting to come
out of their hiding places here in argentina...OH MY GOSH! They are
huge! And I am not even serving in the part of Argentina where they are
the largest, and they are all Little baby spiders right now too...I am going to
die!!! Our stake president thinks it is hilarious that I have such a
problem with them. I was at his house the other day for lunch and there
was an enormous spider on his Wall. Well I kind of freaked out a Little
haha :D and he found it very amusing. I am pretty sure he is
plotting something as we speak to scare me with some sort of icky creepy
thing. Hopefully I will be able to overcome this fear of mine haha
:D So far I have managed to avoid any serious bug bites though so that is
good. :) Things are going well in the misión. :) I am sort of
learning how to cook and my companion and I are doing our best to make the best
of the goings on here. One miracle to share before I finish. We are
still teaching the family that I found a few months ago. They are doing
awesome and one by one they are being baptized. Well the big news this
week starts off like this. The oldest brother has not really ever wanted
anything to do with the church. He is very quick to leave the house when
we come to visit but we invited him to sit in on one of the lessons recently,
and he agreed. Well, we taught about faith, used what I call faith paper,
(you can light it on fire and put it in someones hand and just before the fire
reaches their hand the paper begins to float) Well after we explained the
importance of the trial of your faith we challenged everyone in the family to
present something to their father in Heaven then show their faith and await the
answer. Well he has been trying to find a job and made a deal with God that
he would go to church if God would bless him with work. He is still
waiting a job, but is becoming more and more converted everyday! He has
come to church two weeks in a row and is even helping his Little brother to
progress in the gospel as well! I was feeling pretty discouraged before
because we haven´t been able to bring anyone to the waters of baptism for the
past two months but it was kind of like an Abinidi moment for my companion and
I :) The gospel is full of miracles :) I love being a missionary!
Sorry if my story didn't make sense. I am not always very good at
explaining things through written words haha :D I hope all is going well
over in the USA. Tell Spencer people here in argentina are hoping he will
accept their friend requests on my Facebook page. :) I love you so much
mom :) Thank you for all that you do :)
Love always,
Danie
p.s. So I have decided that I love how
much I am realizing how much my family means to me here in the misión. I
love you all more and more every day that I am away :) Thanks for being
the most perfect family in the world :)
