February 22, 2015

Kamusta Family and Friends!

So this week I have an experience of what not to do as a missionary…haha. On Saturday night me and Sister Pati-on where walking home and we were both so hungry so we decided to stop by a burger stand and grab two hamburgers. At this particular place when you order one burger, you get two, that’s just how it works there I guess. So w went walking off so happy excited to eat our burgers. We sat down and ate them. After I had finished one, I felt full and thought “I don’t really need this other one, why don’t I save it for latter”. Well then another little voice came into my mind and said, “just eat it anyway, that first one was so good.” And what did I do, I listened to that second little voice and ate it and it was really really good! I was happy and extra full. Then we continued on our way home and while we were walking home I noticed a man on the side of the road collecting garbage. He had absolutely nothing, except for his bag full of garbage that he would later take to his boss in exchange for a little amount of money. Then I had a thought come into my mind, “I wish I had something that I could give him. Wait I did have something that I could have given him, I burger. But I wanted to eat that burger even though I didn’t need it.” I continued on my way and felt really bad, because I ignored the voice that first told me to save that burger for later.

Well I learned two things from this experience. 1. Listen to the voice of the spirit. 2. It is better to have what you need and not what you want. I know the joy that I would have felt if I would have given that man the burger would have been a lot better than the appetite that I satisfied and then some. Earlier today I read the parable that Christ gave about the beggar Lazarus, outside of the house of a rich man and how the rich man gave him nothing. I was touched by this parable. It reminded me a lot of the experience that I had earlier that week. I have now resolved to be better this week!

This week also we were able to have Mission president Interviews. I am so grateful to have such an amazing President. President Dahle truly is an inspired man, a man of God. I have learned so much from him from just talking to him for a few short min.  I also got to go on transfers with Sister Rowley this week and was grateful to learn so much from her as well. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. I know that this work truly is the work of our Savior.

mahal ko kayo palagi!

Sister Dahl

February 15, 2015

Happy Valentines Day everybody!

I think Valentines day is my next favorite holiday next to christmas! Its all about love! I love love! haha. I couldn't have had a better Valentines day! Abigal Simbol was baptized by her sweet husband Elme! They are the cutest young couple! ahh i love them so much! So Abigal is 23 and is married to Elmer (him and his whole family are members) they have the cutest little sassiest girl named AJ. Abigal has been an investigator for over 2 years now and always comes to church every Sunday, but hasn't been baptized yet because she doesn't want to hurt her parents and is just worried about going against their will. So a couple of weeks ago we had Elmers mother Mercy present at one of lessons. Little did we know that Mercy's experience with getting baptized was almost exactly the same. She also went against her parents will when she chose to be baptized and get married to President Simbol. The spirit was so strong while she was sharing her experience and bearing her testimony. We were all crying. And Abigal excepted to be baptized on Feb 14!!! I am so excited for their sweet young family! I can't wait to see them go through the temple in a year from now! Ahhh I so happy for them!

This last week as I started The Book of Mormon again I wanted to study more about Joseph Smith and his experience. I am so grateful for him. I can’t wait to see him again and thank him for the translation of the Book of Mormon and all that he did.

Here is a quote that I heard in Relief Society this week that I loved. “To live perfectly is to live happily. To live happily is to grow in spiritual strength towards perfection.” “We will never be alone if we life as we should because our father will always be with us and bless us. He wants us to be successful. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to achieve the good goals we set. He will do his part if we do our part”

Love you all

Sister Dahl

P.S. I am felling 22 J Happy Birthday to Me! Hahaha

October 26, 2014

So there is this saying here in the Philippines that they love and I love it too! 

"kapag gusto marami paraan. kapag Ayaw marami dahilan." (i hope I got that right I never really know, I just say what ever I hear) So translated to english, this means. If you want it there is a way, if you don't want it then there are excuses. So I really miss being competitive and even though salvation and exaltation is not a competition, I think Heavenly Father has given us competition to help us grow and push our selves. This week me and Sister Mencias wanted to achieve a goal of 50 new investigators. We told Heavenly Father our plan and then we went out and worked. And when we got home yesterday we were both so exhausted and laying on the ground, but guess what we achieved it!!I know that when we make a plan and if it is good and are willing to put in the effort heavenly father will help us accomplish that goal. 

So yesterday we ran into this women named Juliet, she was just leaving her house to to go the hospital where her son is that has an infection. She is going through a really hard time in her life and we asked her if we could teach her she invited us in and we started teaching her. Sometimes its hard for me when people start spilling out all of their life problems to us because I can't really understand all that they are saying yet because of the language. But it I can always feel the spirit and am able to feel how they feel. I may not be able to give any words of advice to them right now, but I can cry with them as my companion gives them help. 

I am so thankful for this opportunity to be in the Philippines serving a mission. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon not a day goes by that I don't recieve a answer for my life or the life of our investigators from The Book of Mormon. I know that Christ lives and that his Church is living and growing. I feel so blessed to have this testimony of our Saviors Gospel. 

Mahal na mahal ko kayo! 

Sister Dahl

Zacks baptism

my feet, Im so proud hahaha 

exchages with sis Pilkington. love her shes the best!

October 19, 2014

So pretty much I found one of my best friends here in the Philippines....Sister Mencias! Someone once told me a quote that the people who are your companions are your companions for a reason because you once used to be best friend in heaven. I have no doubt that me and Sister Mencias where best friends in heaven. Me and her just click and we love, love, love working together. Before our training President Dahle made it very clear that we should love everyone and the person we should love the most is our companion. I love her so much! I can't tell you how many times throughout the day we crack up laughing for no reason. 

I look up to so many people here in the Philippines everyone's story is so unique and inspiring. Here is a little about he 3 sisters that I live with right now. 

Sister Mencias (my companion): Sister Mencias father is not a member and she is one of the only members in her family. She has only gotten one letter from her family while she has been on her mission. I admire her for so many qualites, but most of all for her happy personality. She will always be one of my best friends. 

Sister Panal: Sister Panal has been with me the whole time since I have been here in the Philippines. She is 3'7" but that has never stopped her once. I got to go on exchanges with her this week and I loved every second, because she works and works and works like there is no tomorrow. I have never met a more perfect individual. I may not ever be literally looking up to Sister Panal but I am always looking up to her. When little children or people point fingers at her for being different her response is this is the body god wanted to give me, so I love it! Sister Panal also found out after being on her mission for 4 months that her dad passed away. I asked her how she handled that and she said, "I know I have to stay here because that is what God needs me to do" I could go one about this beautiful person for days. There will never be another Sister Panal in my life. 

Sister Diosan: Sister Diosan was baptized about 3 years ago and was a devoted catholic before the missionaries taught her and she was baptized. Her parents kicked her out of the house when she was baptized and she had to fend for herself. When I ask her why she is such a passionate missionary her response is "I have to learn all that I can here so that I can teach it to my family when I get back, I want my family to be baptized" 

I am so thankful for this opportunity to be here on a mission with so many inspirational people. I look up to everyone because everyone in one way or another has gone through something hard, because that is what we signed up for when we came to earth. I love getting to teach the gospel in such simple truths. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn the beauriful language of tagalog, learning a language has taught me things I would never be able to learn otherwise. Our Heavenly Father knows us perfectly. I know that Christ lives. There are so many times on the mission that I am tired and exhausted, but we just have to keep going. If Christ decided on his mission to give up because he was tired, then the plan would not have worked and we would all be lost. But because he loves us he did it, he overcame EVERYTHING. I know this gospel and church is true 

Sister Dahl

Our last time with the Ducut Family before Ronald goes to work on the cruse ship for 6 months. I love this family!

My dearest sister panel!

They have all of these little colored chicks everywhere here, I love them almost as much as all the children

October 12, 2014

Yay today is the 13th!!!! :) always a good day on the 13th! Once again I feel like my heart is going to burst with happiness! If someone would have given me a taste of this happiness I am feeling right now i would have been on a mission the second they made the age change! 

One of the talks in conference talked about being off by a few degrees. I realized that if I had not made the decision to come on a mission then I would have been off by just a few degrees in my life and would be headed down a road that was not in line with the blessings in my patriarchal blessing. I feel so blessed to be a missionary and to have this opportunity to grow and learn. I am also so grateful for this gospel. What I blessing it is to have a living prophet today who will not and can not lead us astray! I love president Thomas S. Monson, his councilors and the apostles. What a blessing it truly is to have a Prophet. When we teach we always say "because got loves us and he has given us a prophet to lead and guide us and teach us the gospel of Jesus Christ" Prophets are gift from our Heavenly Father! 

Ahh I love this gospel so much! And feel so blessed to have knowledge of this gospel. So after conference we went out and worked, many people weren't around because there is a fiesta happening here in Orani right now so they are all there. I was asking myself "why are so many people uninterested to hear our message when it is so happy" right at that moment the cutest old man 77 years old named Chris waved us down and said "hey come here, i want to hear your message. I am about to die soon and I want to know what I need to do before I meet God". :) :) :) :) I couldn't stop smiling!!!!!!!!!! he was so cute! "I told him we have the perfect message for him because it is Gods message! I can't wait to teach that man! 

Lastly one of my favorite quotes from conference was by Dallin H. Oaks "kindness is power!" What a true statement! I love love love this work and everyday I tell Heavenly Father how thankful I am to be here in the Philippines with so many of his beautiful children! 

I know that Christ lives and what sweet comfort that is!

mahal mahal ko kayo

Sister Dahl

October 5, 2014

I am so happy I feel like my heart might burst! This week has been so great because RONALD DUCUT was baptized!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY! Everyone always says that there is someone waiting for just you that only you will be able to help convert. I know Ronald is that person! From the moment that I met Ronald we became friends instantly probably because he loved speaking English so I could actually have a real conversation with him. I know without a doubt that Ronald is going to be a future leader in the church here and I can't wait to go through the temple with him and his wife and children in a year from now! Nothing makes me more happy then seeing a Ronald his wife Eliza and Zack sit next to each other on the couch and talk about how they have family prayer every night! Eliza is a member and has been so patient for so long as Ronald has been meeting with missionaries for 5 years! I could go on forever about his family I love them so much! And am so happy for their future! 

So this week I had a really cool experience reading in Jacob 5! The allegory of the olive tree! SOOOOO AMAZING!!!! I feel in love with this chapter! So I remember when I was about 17 years old and was sitting on the beach in st. agustin florida for a volleyball tournament reading this chapter and kind of thinking it was interesting. I felt the spirit as I read but didn't really understand it fully. As I read this the other day the spirit testified to me how true this allegory is. Everyone go and read and study this chapter! This chapter is 77 verses long and is all about the scattering and gathering of Isreal! The very last sentence of this chapter says "And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire" I thought wow that's a little harsh, but as I read this line the spirit shot through my whole body mind and heart and testified to me that these words are TRUE!!!! I know through the Holy Ghost that Christ lives and he will come again and I know that the time is right now, the season is now!  Christ is coming! This knowledge burns so true inside of me! As a missionary and Covenant people our job is to declare to the world and prepare the world of his coming. I look forward to the day of his coming with so much excitement.But I also know that Satan also has this knowledge and he will do everything in his power to keep us from not being prepared.

I love the Book of Mormon! I know it is the word of god and those words on the pages will stand as a whiteness against or for us at the judgement bar of God. I absolutely love the great plan of our Heavenly Father, it is truly a magnificent plan for us to become like him. I love the temple and know that the temple is the house of the lord and I know that there are people who have been taught the gospel in the spirit world who are waiting for us and their families to go to the temple to do their work. The Plan of God is so great! And lastly I know that Christ lives and he is CENTRAL to our Heavenly Fathers plan, it is ONLY through and by Christ that we can return and become like him. And I look forward to the day of his Coming, because I know that he will come again in all his Glory! 

I love this work!

Sister Dahl

yummy pork 

yummy chicken feet

September 28, 2014

Wow another week and a new companion!!!! Sister Mencias!! I absolutely love Sister Mencias she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met! So usually training lasts for 12 weeks...well this last Tuesday we had transfers and they transferred my trainer and now I got Sister Mencias. Sister Mencias just finished her training and we were in the same zone before so we already knew each other. It was really funny because at the last zone conference I looked at her and thought to myself she is so beautiful and sweet, I hope that I get to be her companion sometime...well Heavenly Father is really listening! This last week has been very challenging because I have had to lead our area and I can hardly speak tagolog!! ahhhh I just continue to tell myself if the Lord trusts me and knows I can do it then I can do it! I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of his children and each are special to him and that is all the knowledge that I really need. It is so amazing to see how much we grow when we are pushed and stretched! This work is definitely work! there is no other word for missionary work than work! I told myself that when I am sitting on my plane looking over the Philippines as I fly out I want to know that I did EVERTHING I could here for the Lord. And then go home and sleep for 2 days straight hahaha

Something that is so unique to the mission is Hellos and goodbyes or sa Tagalog kamusta and kita kitz! I have never realized how much I had goodbyes. But every time I say goodbye to my companions i can't help but think about our sweet Heavenly Father who was willing to say goodbye to each of his children for a time so we could have and opportunity to become like him. Ahh Im crying writing this. I want so badly to bring his children back to him. I love this gospel and I love these people and I love my Saviour Jesus Christ!  My testimony is so simple, but I know with all my heart and mind it is true! This Church is true and like Lehi say's "delicious" 

Mahahl kita

Sister Dahl

Sister Villevilles and I! I love this sweet sister 

My favorite flavor of ice cream these days, cheese and corn hahahaha weird I know but so masarap!!! 

Sister Mencias Yay I love her

I love these beautiful dark people! I feel so so so white all the time. Its so funny because in the stores in america we have all this tanning lotion and stuff and here they have all these products that claim to make you whiter haha. Sister Mencias says that she hates taking pictures with me because she looks so dark haha. I say I look so white haha so funny!