1/12: Great Week!

This week we had an awesome lesson with S, who has been coming to church with his girl friend, K, for a while now. We met them at K's grandma's house and the bishop was there as well. We taught the plan of salvation and he already knew most of it. At the end S explained how he first felt the spirit when H was confirmed during sacrament meeting and then he noticed it again today when K was set apart for her calling in primary. He started to get emotional and then explained that the only way to describe the feeling is like an empty cup being filled. Sister S extended her first baptismal invitation and invited S to be baptized. He responded, "Eventually" and then we asked if we could help him prepare to be baptized near the end of February and he said yes! He offered the closing prayer (it was our first time hearing him pray out loud) and as he prayed their was a long pause before he expressed gratitude for the gospel. Afterwards everyone was in tears; it was an amazing experience!

So all of my pictures today are of Sister S, because she is so cool!

On Friday we had dinner with the J Family! They let us take some pictures with their amazingly huge dog :) 

Sister S's first time chalking!

Sister S's first Taco Bell!

 

Love,

Sister Danica Greenall

1/5: Happy New Years

RE: Happy New Years!

Hi!!!

We had a fun district meeting this week! Elder L brought snowballs (fluffy stuffed white balls that his mom sent him in the mail) and we had an intense snowball fight! After the meeting was over and we took some district pictures, the elders made a pretty impressive pyramid :D 

For the month of January, the Texas Dallas Mission is doing a special emphasis on the Book of Mormon. Every week we have to report to the mission how many people we invited to read the Book of Mormon and how many people our ward invited to read the Book of Mormon. So every time anyone in the ward invites someone they have to send us a text or call us! But to get our ward excited about inviting others we are turning it into a contest to see if the ward can invite more people than us. (They are losing right now, but don't let them know!) We still haven't decided what we have to do if the ward beats us, let me know if you have any ideas! 

We have been using the Book of Mormon in all of our contacts with others. When we go tracting we ask everyone to flip open the book randomly and read the first verse they see. On Tuesday night we did this for the first time and every time some one flipped it open, they read a super powerful verse that testified of Christ. But only one person accepted a copy even though they didn't want to learn more from us immediately. And then the last door we knocked that night, a woman flipped open the Book of Mormon and read a super random verse that didn't make any sense out of context. So we tried to explain the context, but were pretty stumped. But then she said something along the lines of, "Wow, this book seems pretty complex, you better tell me more about it.." So we were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon, get her information, and set up a time to see her this upcoming week! So hopefully that goes well :)

January 3rd was Sister S's one month mark! I found out that day that Sister S had never been to Taco Bell before. Can you believe it? So we celebrated by going to Taco Bell! 

Also that day we were contacting unknowns in our ward directory and one of the addresses led us to a huge old white mansion in the middle of this old Dallas neighborhood of smaller houses. There were a ton of cars parked there. So I got out, so we could find this person in our ward who apparently lived there. There were these people pulling into the drive way so I asked them, "Do you know Sister so and so? And they didn't so I asked if they wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon and they respectfully declined. As we were leaving, Sister S said, "You know that was a drug house right?" I didn't, but it made a lot of sense because it was so sketchy... But don't worry about us, we won't go in that neighborhood again!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister D. Greenall

P.S. Some of my New Years goals for my only full year as a missionary:

8 more baptisms

6,000 contacts (100+ a week)

Finish reading entire Bible

Read Book of Mormon 2 more times (Total 3 times)

Read Jesus the Christ (I read the first chapter today!)

Work on being more obedient and diligent (I'm not disobedient but I can always strive to be more exact! And I'm pretty diligent, but mentally, I catch myself thinking "A nap would be nice right now" a lot :D )

12/29: Christmas!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! This week has been so great!

On Monday night we went caroling with our district at Vitruvian Park which is right across the street from where we live and then on Tuesday night, we went caroling with the Spanish elders at a hospital. It was a really neat experience!

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at the G family's home! Brother G went on a mission to Peru, so they fed us a delicious Peruvian dinner. Their daughters D and A were excited to wear our name tags and be sister missionaries for the night!

On Christmas, the M family made us a delicious dinner and let us skype our families from their house. I was in a daze after skyping with my mom and dad, it was so unreal! I was sooo sooo happy to talk with them. Afterwards, the M kids were excited to show us their presents. Their son S got a 1,000 piece lego star wars kit, so they recruited us to help them build it. 

Have a wonderful New Year!

Sincerely,

Sister D. Greenall

12/22: Pre-Christmas Adventures

Merry Christmas!

This past Tuesday, we had a huge transfer meeting/Christmas party with everyone in our mission! I got assigned to be companions with Sister S, a brand new missionary! I am so excited to be training, we are already having a blast together!

That night we went to Ch and Ca house. Ca is a member and her boyfriend Ch is going be baptized in January! Last week Ch asked if they would need to be married before he got baptized and we let him know that he would. He let us know on Tuesday that on Christmas day he is planning to propose!!!! Yay!

The next day I took Sister S tracting (going door to door) for the first time. One woman answered her door and we explained that we were missionaries and we were sharing a message about keeping Christ the center of our Christmas. She explained that Christmas is a pagan holiday so we asked why she had so many decorations set up (a big blow up Santa and lots of lights). She answered that it was for her husband and we invited her to check out christmas.mormon.org before we left. As we were walking away, she yelled behind us, "SANTA IS PAGAN!" Which seemed super random as we hadn't mentioned Santa Claus at all! Now whenever Sister S and I see a Santa Claus in someone's yard when we are driving around, we yell “Santa is Pagan!” :)

Later that day we delivered a Christmas tree to a family who we are teaching. They have a little apartment and it is usually pretty dark inside, so it was so great to see the reaction of the four kids when we plugged the tree in and the colorful lights illuminated the whole room!

Then around 7pm, we went to visit H, who was baptized in the beginning of December. When we got to his apartmentv the young men and women in our ward were caroling and he wouldn't open his door. We knocked and he let us in and we suggested he show the carolers his laser gun (he is a sci-fi buff and artist and made his own laser gun!) So he opens his door and starts shooting the youth with his ray gun. They were really good sports because as H pointed the laser at them and they saw it on their shirts they would dramatically fall down like they were dead! The other times we have visited H this week, he has mentioned how fun it was when "all those crazy kids" came and sang for him.

Some funny moments from Friday: I drove down a super narrow road that had a dead end, so Sister S had to back me out for 15 minutes or so. This guy saw us and asked if we needed help and we said yes! We were stuck in an apartment complex and didn't know the code to get out. So we used the code he told us but then he drove up behind us and said, "Wrong gate!" so he drove ahead of us to the right gate and used his card to let us out. I'm glad he helped us!

Also, we have been working on three lines of Spanish so that when we meet people who only speak Spanish we can have them write down their information so we can have the Spanish missionaries stop by and teach them. So I wrote out my notes so that when someone needed Spanish I could read it to them. We stopped to talk to someone on the side of the road who didn't speak English, so I gave them my spanish notes so they could read it, assuming they would give it back. But the lady said, "Thank You!" and shooed us away and then we saw her throw the paper away. Noooooo, my spanish notes!!! I'll have to make some more and practice saying it so I'm ready for the next person we meet who only knows spanish :)

And speaking of Spanish, last night we had an amazing lesson with Sister J! Her husband is a member and went on a spanish speaking mission, so he is fluent and she is from Mexico and only speaks Spanish. So we brought Sister B to translate and bear testimony. We watched the Restoration video in Spanish and the spirit was so strong! Sister J is very spiritual (She was a catholic nun for 6 years) and the restoration made a lot of sense to her. She explained that she had to study the bible a long time to become a nun and committed to begin a serious study of the Book of Mormon!

Things are going well here in Dallas 6th!

Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Sister Greenall 

12/15: Painting Fun!

Hello!

This past week I found out that Sister J is getting transferred! We were both surprised, because everyone thought that both of us would stay in Dallas 6th when Sister K went home! So I am excited to meet my new companion tomorrow! It has been an amazing past 5 weeks with Sister K and Sister J, they are both such amazing missionaries that I have learned so much from!

This week has been fun! We painted Prayer rocks with M and A so that we all remember to pray every morning and night! 

Also, I started this painting with some of Sister J's paints and worked on it for 15 minutes at a time in the mornings during breakfast and the evenings. It was sitting unfinished, and I finally decided that as a missionary I'm not going to have time to finish this, so this morning I signed it and put it up on the wall!

"10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.

11 And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit." (1 Nephi 8:10-12)

" I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God." (1 Nephi 11:25)

I know that the love of God is the sweetest thing we can ever taste!

Have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Sister D. Greenall

12/8: Howdy Y'all :D

Hi!

This week H was baptized! He has been working with missionaries for over a year, and I happen to be the last one that got to be a part of teaching him before the big day. There were about 20 other missionaries there to support him! 

Also, we met a guy named M while tracting earlier in the week. He had a lot experience with previous missionaries in East Texas about 20 years ago. He said that one day a missionary was helping him with his yard and he asked the missionaries, "Do the Holy Garments really protect you?" and when the elder responded yes, he stabbed him with a nail... Ahh!! M proudly responded that the missionary wasn't quite protect from that! So hopefully we don't get stabbed by any nails, because M agreed to let us teach him the Restoration lesson, so we'll see how that goes!

We have about 10 investigators here in Dallas 6th, so we are spending a lot of time teaching lessons which is really nice :) And we hit our zone standards this past week!

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Sister D. Greenall

12/1: Thanksgiving Week!

Yay, it's the Holiday Season!!

Thanksgiving and Christmas time are especially great for missionaries. Everyone is just so happy! The church is doing an awesome campaign called "He is the Gift" and it is all about remembering that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift. There is an amazing video for it on Christmas.Mormon.org . Definitely check it out, if you haven't seen it yet! It has been fun sharing the video with all the people we meet.

For Thanksgiving, we went to the W family's for an amazing turkey dinner at lunch time! We were nice and full the rest of the day while we went tracting and met a lot of people, because everyone was actually home! That night we spent some time wrapping Book of Mormons to give as gifts and writing the link christmas.mormon.org on all of our pass along cards.

On Friday, we had plans to wake up at 4:00 am to contact people while they were on their way or in lines for black Friday shopping, but all the stores we planned to go to, weren't busy at all! We had a goal to contact 200 people that day, so we were disappointed when the black Friday contacting idea was a bust. That night at the park right by our apartment there was a huge lighting ceremony with Christmas lights everywhere and a live band playing. There were so many people everywhere, the three of us talked to 339 people there! It was really fun because everyone wants to talk about Jesus Christ when it is Christmas time!

A funny moment on Saturday: we had a lesson with someone we had met a couple days before and during the lesson Sister K made an analogy about how the Book of Mormon was like a chocolate cake because you won't know it's good until you try it. Then I added to the analogy by saying that just like you only need one bite of a cake to know it is good, you can read a small part of the Book of Mormon and know it is good. Then Sister J compared the different parts of saying a prayer to a sandwich and the person we were teaching asked, "Are you all hungry?" And I replied and unintentionally created a pun, "No, we are just on a roll." We couldn't stop laughing, even though it was way past being funny and just annoying. The poor person probably thinks we are crazy :)

Things are going well in Dallas 6th ward, H, someone who has been taking the lessons from missionaries for over a year, is getting baptized this Saturday!

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Sister Greenall