Updates from Dan!!

Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest journal entries. I can't believe he is just a few days away from being halfway done!

9/30/10- "While we were tracting down the street, two 10 year old kids came up to us on bike. They said 'are you missionaries from a church?' I was surprised! 10 year olds don't know who we are. It turns out that one of them has an inactive grandma that he lives with that we found on the ward list. That kid said 'I really wanna learn more and go to church...' A 10 year old usually doesn't say that! We told him we would come by sometime to his house! The other kid said we knocked on his door one say and he heard his parents say they weren't interested. He was like 'you know people don't like you knocking on their doors' Lol thanks! We said 'we know' haha cool/funny kids though."

10/01/10- "Catherine is really progressing. We pretty much set her with a date! We were there for 3 1/2 hours and it was just amazing. We covered like everything because of all her questions...We talked about Oct 30th as a baptism date but then she mentioned Nov 28th because that's her birthday. But then when she found out that I may be leaving on the 15th if I get transfered, she wanted to set it earlier because she wants me to baptize her! How miraculous is all this!?"

October is spooktacular!!

So this weekend I took all my Halloween decorations out of my holiday bin and decorated my room! Soo fun :)

Candy corn is my very favorite Halloween candy :)

"All Hallow's Eve" The cute garland I got last year!

I made this pillow in homemaking class my first semester out here! It's on my chair right now, but it makes me happy to post a pic of Dan with it! I'm sooo excited for him to be home next year!!

I love Halloween! Fall is such a classic time of year and carving pumpkins and haunted houses and spooky stuff is just soo fun!!

Scrubs :)

Just thought I'd post a pic since I wear these pretty much every other day!!

Dan's the cutest!!

Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest mission journals! He's totally loving it and I'm sooo amazed and happy to see how blessed he is for all his hard work!

9/15/10- "Now onto yesterday the 14th! 11 month mark! Yes! So close to the halfway point! We went to district meeting and it went so fantastic! My awesome district was very involved and everything (all my thoughts/presentations) connected great! The Spirit was very strong and I think we all learned something. I even used the stories that dad sent me about the power of testimony! It went perfectly! Thank you! Zone Leader Ainscough sat in and seemed to also really enjoy it... We booked it to out 6pm dinner with Joa and Steve!!! They're the Mackay's neighbors that became investigators last week!! Ok I cannot describe the personalities of these people or how funny they are. What characters! Soooo sincere though! They requested us so it's something they really want in their lives. We had an appetizer of his famous guac and boy was it amazing. Cooking is his absolute passion and he's so hilarious when it comes to food. Oh my gosh though...this guac had bacon, blue cheese, cilantro, lime, onion, etc and it was just fantastic. We all sat around the table and enjoyed that. We had our lesson and it went amazing! We got up to Jesus Christ, finished talking about him and we'll pick up next time at the Great Apostasy. He needed to get cooking our dinner. Man it was so fun over there! The Spirit was very strong and I could tell it touched both of them! So solid! Just amazing people! Steve even said the prayer and started crying. We had amazing, classy pasta, homemade meat sauce, and homemade garlic bread. He is VERY gourmet and VERY proud of his food. It's totally hilarious. Everything has to be perfect for him. THE funniest (most of the time not trying to be funny) dude ever. They even packed up leftovers for us!"

9/19/10- "Catherine came to church with Caylie!!!!!!!!!! :) Yes!!!! We were waiting for this day!!! Sacrament meeting went perfect with GREAT talks, a beautiful piano/singing musical # and topics that all related perfectly to her! I was soooo excited! She was gonna leave after sacrament (even though she was really enjoying it, she felt she had other stuff to do) but her daughter loved learning about God and Jesus and wanted to stay for Primary! So she did and Catherine came to Gospel Principles class!! It went amazing. We talked about Eternal marriage/families and it really hit home with her. It was perfect. It went a lot into the Plan of Salvation as well and she was amazed. She believed those things but never found a church that taught it. She even participated in class by telling stories and commenting/asking questions! I can't describe how perfect everything connected with what we're already talked to Catherine about. She stayed for Relief Society too and absolutely had an incredible time. I couldn't believe how touched she was and it was perfect because the lesson was on faith. That's what she has had the most trouble with- that's why Alma 32 touched her so much. Everything was meant for her at church. God was involved... that's for sure!"

My room!!

Well I finally finished setting up my room this weekend so I wanted to post some pics! Here's my bed and beautiful May Tree!

My picture frames and cute set of drawers! That's where I'll set up my holiday decorations each month :)

I still need to finish my bulletin board actually, but it's getting there

My cute little mums! Totally classic Fall!

I love my cute, cozy room!!

Mission updates :)

The Nursing Program is keeping me sooo busy! I'm so glad it's the weekend and I can finally catch up on life! Here are some excerpts from Dan's latest journal entries...

9/12/10- "We got ready and left for Brent Bailey's baptism!!! :) We have been waiting for his! It was a b-e-a-utiful baptism service. Everything went smooth and perfect and the Spirit was so strong. Brent, I could tell, was feeling it a lot. It was just so amazing to be involved with someone's life like that. Their family is 100% active, wife is active again and their 2 boys will be raised in the gospel and hopefully go on missions someday. What a feeling. I swear Brent will be bishop someday or someone high up :) I love missionary work! I'll never forget this experience. Their lives are changed forever and I know that next year at this time next year, he will be getting sealed to his family forever in the temple! WOW. It's so reassuring to me to know that I'm here for a reason."

9/13/10- "So the final stats this week were... 8 new investigators (Joa, Steve, Catherine, Dale, Justin, Chris, Mike and Scott!), 17 lessons, 66 contacts (we're keeping track of those now since the Zone Leaders started that last Tuesday) and of course 1 baptism and confirmation! What a fantastic week! Man did the blessings just pour out of no where!"

I miss Dan!!

It's been one year ago today since I've seen the one I love with ALL my heart! It makes me soooooooo sad just picturing our last day together and having to leave at the airport. It was definitely one of the worst/saddest days of my life :( This is the last picture taken of us together, my mom took it the night before when we were playing badminton. Haha I wish it were a little less random, but oh well. I'm glad I'm almost halfway done, and then we'll be counting down the months until Dan comes home! I can't wait for that! Even though I'm sooooooooooooooooo proud of him and I know he is doing what he needs to do and we'll be blessed for it, I still miss him every second that goes by and wish I was with him! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH DAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO