February 17, 2015

You guys, I hit my 6 months mark a couple days ago. I was freaking out a little bit. I only have 1 year left. AHHHHH

SAYING BYE: Well last Monday night was awful. Sister Bott and I kept on crying and we were both grumpy. We went and said bye to Densel and it was intense. He told us that he wanted to go back to Trinidad a couple years ago but felt like he needed to stay. He said that he needed to stay so he could meet us and learn about the Gospel. Then he started telling us about how he tried so many programs to help him with his drinking problem but none of them helped. But he was able to quit when he turned to Jesus Christ. He was crying so I was crying, and it was so sweet! He kept on saying thank you to me. And I was dying like I wanted to just say thank you to him. He taught me so much!! I told him that his baptism was such a perfect ending to my time in Weston. I met him about a week into my mission and seeing him be baptized was amazing! So at the end he gave me this super nice heart necklace. Don't think it was creepy because it wasn't. He loves me and Sister Bott because he's so happy now and we were able to help him. I can't really write or explain about the conversation very well but it was amazing. I'll never forget it. Watching him progress and seeing how happy he became as he kept the commandments and accepted Jesus Christ was such a blessing for me. My eyes are watering just thinking about it. He got confirmed last week and Sister Bott said he went teaching with them like 3 times! He's a powerhouse and will do great things! We also said bye to Samantha and her family. I also cried there! Samantha was telling me that she didn't really open up to the last missionaries because she wasn't very close to them but she felt that we loved her and we got so close to her! I'm so sad I wasn't able to see Nicolas and Kacy be baptized but I still pray for them all the time!! I also called Jill to say bye and she started crying. Literally the night was just full of stupid tears!! She said she framed our picture of her baptism and she'll never forget me. It was so cute. The last place we went was Dee, Candra and Mario's. Wow, I love them so much! When I was saying bye Mario (8 year old) ran out of the room. Candra came back and told us that he was crying in the bathroom because he didn't want me to leave. Ah it broke my heart. Dee said that he loved me so much and always talked about me. He came back out and had tears just running down his face! I wanted to give him a hug so badly! But I just bend down and talked with him for a little bit! Oh my gosh, it was the sweetest thing, but wow it made it that much harder to leave! There were so many people in the ward that texted such nice things to me. I'll always remember the transfers I had in Weston! Transfers full of miracles and amazing people who taught me so much.

BRANCH: Yeah, I already love it! I was nervous about YSA but wow, I'm so happy I'm in the YSA branch. On Wednesday night we went to sports night and met a lot of the ward members. We are allowed to play sports so that's exciting! We were playing Volleyball and it was a blast. It's cool because a lot of the people aren't members, they just come to play sports. So it's a good finding opportunity! Church was awesome and last Sunday we were at the church for over 9 hours!! We started with missionary meeting, then branch meeting, then church, then baptism, then munch and mingle, then appointments at the church, then fireside! It was a long day, but awesome! Oh we also taught Sunday School! This time was ever worse than last time. We got a call on Saturday at 9:20 PM asking if we could teach. We said yes. The scary part was it wasn't Gospel principals for new members it was Gospel Doctrine for all the RM's. There were like 50 people in our class. But it went well and I wasn't nervous so that's good!

CREEPER OF THE WEEK: His name is George Dreadlock. Well I added the last name because he had bomb dreads. But he was kinda weird. I'll write down some of his texts. 

"I would like to meet to talk about Jesus, but more to get to know u better." 

"Let me know a time of day someday, we can mabye meet up and hang out"

"I really think ur cute, I really like ur smile & eyes Dayton, bless u."

WHAT? ew. Don't worry. We didn't meet up with him.

WEATHER: So this last week was the coldest weather I've ever been in my life. It hit -40 degrees! Yeah. It was awful!!! Just FYI --40 Fahrenheit and -40 Celsius match up. It was that cold. We walked to the church, like a 15 min walk and my nose hair freezed!! BAHAHA kind of sick but I just want you to understand how crazy it was. Also, I couldn't feel my legs like I don't know how I was walking. It was weird. My face was so red! I wish I would have taken a picture! A sister got frostbite on her toes! hahaha anyways it was super bad. I think the weather will only go up from here. Hopefully!!

ZONE LEADERS: So our numbers have been awful. It's hard white-washing, especially when the last sister didn't really keep an updated area book. I don't like it, but it's given me more motivation to work hard. Our zone leaders are in the YSA branch with us and they're amazing. Last week they had 10 member present lessons. WE HAD 0!!! It was bad! Like we had no meetings scheduled! When I left Weston there were about 12! BOOOOO But we spend most of the week meeting with members, which was needed! Anyways, the zone leaders live in the same apartment as us and they're in our branch so we see them all the time! Elder Mangakahia is from Australia and he's a famous ballet dancer! LOOK HIM UP!! He's so nice and so enthusiastic. I'm going to learn so much from him!!! And Elder Folsome is awesome too! He's from Alberta and just came into the branch too.

FUNNY STORY: So we were doing laundry this morning. We started it early before it would get too crowded but didn't have any make-up on and looked nasty. And the zone leaders walked in! BAHAHA! I forgot that they would be doing laundry too! Anyways it was awkward because they were in their pajamas and we looked like death. And we had to ask them questions about putting more money on the card and we had to borrow cash because the machine didn't accept cards. Anyway I'm pretty sure they think we are dumb. Cool.

SARAH: Our new investigator! Wow, she's adorable. She's from Iran and is here for school. We're nervous she won't be able to be baptized because she was born Muslim and is just on a student visa.... But anyways, we'll keep teaching her! We met her her on Monday and had a super awesome lesson with her! We planed to teach Restoration but she asked why we kept talking about the importance of Jesus Christ, so we changed our plan. She believes that Jesus came to earth but just as a Prophet. She doesn't believe that He is the Son of God or the Redeemer of the World. It was kind of hard teaching it but we just talked about why he is our center of our message. Then we talked about prayer and how she can find out for herself. It was cool during the lesson we were just talking about how we knew but then I got an impression to testify to her about how she could know. So I did and she told just she did want to know for herself and committed to pray about it. A RM from our ward Marina came with us and was perfect!! She showed Sarah so much love and testified to her! We're meeting with them again tonight and I can't wait! 

Wow, I got to go my comp has been done for a while... But I love you all so much! Thanks for the letters and e-mails and prayers and everything else. You're the best family EVER!! I really do talk about you all the time! :)

Sister Dayton