November 2, 2015

Happy Halloween! OK, that was a couple days ago. But I hope you all dressed up and ate lots of candy. Halloween is a little different on a mission. We had to be in by 6 cause it can get a little crazy... So we did weekly planning and maybe had some chocolate... 

HALLOWEEN PARTY: We had a ward Halloween party on Friday night and WOW - it was a hit! THE GOOD NEWS: We had so many people (active and less-active members, investigators, recent converts) there. It was so happy. THE BAD NEWS: We were chosen to be the judges for the Chili contest. I don't even like chili and we had to test like 17 different ones and choose a winner. BAHAHA. They all tasted the same to me! OH and we had to be the judges for the pie contest!! We tried about 10 different pies. Yeah, I didn't feel very well when I went to bed that night. THE GOOD NEWS: A girl in Primary dressed up as a missionary! It was cute. THE BAD NEWS: I accidentally got some chili on my dress. Ha. I'll send a pic so you can see.

SHOUT OUT: To mom and Craig. Holy Smokes! I'm so happy for them. Like England!? What the heck. And working in the temple? Happiest mission on earth. Except for the CTM of course. But I'm way excited for them! ALSO BENJY AND KAITLYN! Ah, so happy for them and cute baby Mason. Man, so many happy things are going on. I LOVE IT!!

SMALL WORLD: There were so many random connections this last week.

1.) We were cleaning a members house and she had a Sacrament meeting program from when she went on her trip to Buffalo. I opened it up and guess who was giving a talk that Sunday.... Natalie Dayton! I'm assuming that's Adrians wife. Right? Do they still live in Buffalo? 

2.) I met a new missionary and asked her where she was from. "Utah." ok.... where in Utah? "Provo" ok.... where in Provo? "Grandview hill." ok... where on Grandview hill? "Behind Westridge." HAHA Her name is Sister Paxman and I totally know her older brother. And she knows Riki and Kali and their families. It was cool but made me realize how old I am! She graduated from Provo High like last year... Ha.

3.) Another new missionary was looking at all of my pictures on my scripture case and when she saw a picture from Kali's wedding asked how I knew Kaitlyn Chamberlin. I told her I was way close with her older sister. Well Sister Smoot knew Kaitlyn from when she spent some time in Guatemala (i think) doing service. Cool, right? 

EXCHANGES: So I first went to Guelph with Sister Nabham! It was awesome. Something cool about Guelph... Brother Saunders daughter is the Relief Society President in that ward. And we happened to have her on our schedule that day!! I was excited to see her because I have met her a couple of times. Well, when she opened the door she saw me and said, "SISTER DAYTON, YOU'RE SERVING HERE NOW!!!" It was so cute. She remember my name and she was so excited to see me! I felt bad when I told her I was just there for the day but I was glad I could say hello to her and ask about how she was doing. She said Brother Saunders misses me and wanted me to be at his wife's funeral! I'm so sad I missed it. And he got my letter and cried! So sweet! The who exchange was good, but that was a highlight to hear the Brother Saunders is doing good! I also went on exchanges with Hermana Smith! She came into my area and we had a busy day!! She is such a good missionary and teaches so simply. I loved it. All of the sister in our 2 zones are the cutest! We are blessed! 

SPACE CASE: We had district meeting on Wednesday and after the meeting we were walking back to the car and I couldn't find the keys!? I searched my bag for like 5 mins... Then Sister Arnold was like, "I don't even remember you locking the car!" So we walked to the car and the KEYS WERE TOTALLY ON THE SEAT!!!! They had been there for almost 2 hours. I know.... ROOKIE MISTAKE. We were super blessed that nothing happened!

GETTING TICKED: We are working with a returning member who has a desire to come back but is just super lazy. He has actually been a member his whole life but has been inactive for about 15 years. Anyways, he was saying how he needed to quit all of his addictions before he came to church. What the heck? That's not how it works. Church will HELP him overcome his addictions. Then later on in the lesson he was saying how he loves God more than anyone else. Then I asked him, "What are you willing to do to show that love for Him?" He said pray. Yes, that's a great start but there is more we can do! I guess I got pretty bold. But here is the thing - God is so merciful  but sometimes people forget that He's also just!!! We know what we need to do on earth to return back to live with Him and people can't just say they believe they need to ACT!!! I guess I just get bugged when people say things and don't act on them. I have no problem with being bold with people but I do need to be more loving... I'm trying to get better.  

WANNA HEAR A FUNNY STORY? So on our mission we drive super nice cars. Right now we drive a Chevy Cruise 2013. We can connect our phone to the car and make phone calls while we drive. High rollin! Anyways, we took our car in to get the oil changed the other day and someone from the ward called us. We were sitting in the waiting room and answered but couldn't hear her at all. She called like 5 more times but we couldn't hear anything. So I just told her, "Um. We're super sorry but we think you're phone might be broken. We can't hear you." Anyways while that was happening we were looking through the window and the workers were laughing way hard while they were working on our car. Whatever. When the car was done we called our vehicle coordinator so we could do payment over the phone. Well same thing happened!! We couldn't hear him. We were so confused then all of the sudden our phone said, "disconnected to your vehicle." Sister Arnold and I totally started laughing because we realized that the member was talking to us through the car. The workers heard her voice in the car and saw our confused faces! BAHAHAHA. Maybe this story does't even make sense but MAN we thought it was the funniest. 

NIKKI: She is our progressing investigator right now! She's doing so good. She's had a way hard life and she's noticed that she's been a lot happier since she's been meeting with us and learning about the Gospel. She came to our Halloween party on Friday instead of hanging out with her friends at a bar and she had such a great time. YAY!

JORDON: He was interviewed on Sunday and will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood next Sunday! He has a calling as the conductor in Gospel Principles. YES! 

AWESOME: I read this talk the other day called, "The Forth Missionary." It talked about different kinds of missionaries and how we can become more like the forth, who is obedient, hard-working and super focused. The whole talk gave me so much motivation to be a better missionary. But there was this one paragraph that I LOVED. I wish I could quote it but it's not online and I don't have the hard copy with me. It talked about how all of our trials are OPPORTUNITIES for us to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and receive guidance and blessings and we do. I'll try to bring it next Monday so I can write it out.  

Life is so super good! I'm loving my companion. And the ward. And everything else! 

Sister Dayton

 Bomb Halloween party 

 Sister Arnold!!!

Our favorite proselyting outfit!