Discipleship is Our Journey

Wow, I literally cannot believe this is actually happening. This wasn't supposed to happen to me, I'm not ever supposed to go home!! Yikes. I'll start this one off by giving you a brief overview of my last week.

We had our last District meeting of the transfer, and my very last one. We always do what we call 'transfer domice' where we guess where everyone will go next transfer. But, for those who are going home... They guess how long it'll be until you're married. How terrible is that?! But anyway, then we had our last two exchanges! One was in Colony, it was such a miracle!!! Such a tender mercy that I got to go back to that Ward at the very end :) I had my departing interview with President Robinson. Wow, saddest thing of my whole entire life!!! Ahhh I don't want to talk about it.... Haha. But anywho, President and Sister Robinson took us out to lunch, the little sweeties.

Sister Johnstun and I have just been a mess all week. We cry regularly. She only has one transfer left, but it's just so sad that we have to leave each other! After 7 1/2 months together, sight and sound 24/7, it'll be real hard. 

We had our last zone caroling on Saturday night, and it was such a blast! I love all those missionaries so very much, they've all become like family. 

I've had a couple of main focuses though the course of my mission. 1) is to always see the miracle :) I've talked about that a lot, but we know that there are miracles all around us, every single day! God's hand is so apparent in our lives, we just have to look for and notice it. And a lot of the miracles He gives us isn't because we earned it or anything, but simply because He loves His children, and loves making us happy :) 

2) is that love is KEY! Love is the driving force behind all we do, especially as missionaries. When we love the people, we want to serve them. When we love our companion, we work well with them. When we love our leaders, we listen to their council and we obey. When we love the area, we enjoy every minute we spend in it. When we love the Lord, we are willing to do anything He asks, and we do it willingly. I have been so incredibly amazed at how much love I've felt while serving as a missionary. I literally didn't think it was possible to feel so much love! For the people of Alaska, for other missionaries, for leaders, for Ward members, for companions, and even for those who don't want to hear our message. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father has allowed me to feel a very small portion of the love that He feels for ever single one of us. Here is a small list of the things that I have absolutely loved while being a missionary:

I love being in Alaska! The most beautiful place on this sweet green earth.

I love all the wonderful people here - nicest people I've ever met

I love getting to wear my savior's name next to my name every day for 18 months

I love being noticed everywhere we go, as representatives of Jesus Christ

I love being asked questions about the gospel

I love having the opportunity to bear testimony often

I love having one focus and one goal - to invite others to come unto Christ

I love President and Sister Robinson

I love getting to serve so closely with them

I love getting to serve all the Sisters in the mission, and getting to know them better

I love all the missionaries in the Alaska Anchorage mission, my second family

I love all of my companions, and the things I've learned from each of them

I love waking up each morning knowing that the Lord has someone for us to meet, talk to or even just smile at. 

I love being part of such a wonderful work

I love being an instrument in the Lords hands to carry out His purpose - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man 

I love the testimony I've gained 

I love the Book of Mormon

I love the temple

I love every aspect of the gospel

I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father

I love serving alongside them

I love feeling of His spirit

I love feeling Him work through me

I love all of the amazing experiences I've had

I love my family :)

I love being a missionary for our Savior Jesus Christ

Well that was probably way more than you ever wanted to know.... But there's just so much that I've loved about these last 18 months! I've never experienced so much joy and happiness in my whole entire life. And it all starts with love. One of my favorite scriptures about that is Ether 12:34 "I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of man is charity" I love that! I hope I can continue to grow in charity of the rest of my life! 

The third and final thing is I have focused on becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want to be recognized as one of His followers. I want to continue to grow closer to Him and align my will with His. President Uchtdorf said, "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all. "Exaltation is our goal, Discipleship is our journey". I know it's our journey, our way to return back to Him. 

Alright, I'm sorry that was the longest thing of your whole life, so I'll end now. I hope you all know how much I love my savior, and how eternally grateful I am to Him for allowing me to serve here in Alaska. It's been the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thank you for all supporting me and loving me while I've been out here. I love you all so very much and am thankful for you. Remember to expect miracles, that love is key and that we are all on the pathway of discipleship. 

All my love, Sister Dall :)

Christmas Time Miracles

Hello hello!

Well, we had another crazy busy week, as usual. We had two more exchanges -- and I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about them. haha I'll just say that they went great! And now we only have two more!! Hallelujah. We had our last trainer/trainee meeting this week, which went great. We gave a training on how to use the new Christmas initiative in our missionary work! That is our big focus right now, #ASaviorIsBorn. I'm such a big fan!! We have the little pass-along cards, and are trying to hand out as many as possible. It's the best, because we always have something to bring up with people, and they don't think it's quite as weird because it's Christmas time, and people are way more open to things like that. So we're trying to get all the missionaries to take full advantage of this! 
A member from the Bush Branch was in Anchorage Saturday, from Naknek! He was so nice, and called us telling us he wanted to buys us dinner. So we met him at Subway and he bought us some food. It was great! The Bush Branch really is the neatest thing. I think I forgot to tell you, but we have 2 new potential investigators in the Bush Branch!!! There are a mother and son, who are both super interested in the church. They are just busy, so we have to find a good time we can skype with them to have their first lesson! One of the members works with the mom, and has been great in talking about the church with her. I'm tellin ya, that's how we find the most golden investigators!! 

#membermissionarywork

We had the greatest surprise Saturday. There was a family that got baptized 3 days before I got to Juneau right at the beginning of my mission, that I got to teach the new member lessons to. The Kleinschmidts, I can't remember if I ever talked about them. Well, they moved to Kenai not long after they were baptized and Saturday were sealed in the temple! We got to go to their endowment, and sealing!!!! Wow it was such a neat experience! I didn't know them super well, because I only taught them a few lessons. But it was so great to see someone who I had worked with at the very beginning, getting sealed in the temple at the very end. What perfect timing!! 

I love them so much!!!! What a miracle! :) That's what this work is all about, getting people to the temple!
I'm excited for the exchanges we have this week, because I get to go back to Colony!!! Woo hoo, I'm pumped! That'll be a blast to see everyone again. And then I get to go on exchanges with Sister Ogden, who was in the MTC with me. I just adore her. So it'll be some good exchanges! I literally cannot believe how fast the time is going, I need it to slow down!!! Everything is just so wonderful, and I am quite literally living the dream. Have a fantastic week, and remember to expect miracles!! Because they do come! I love you all dearly :)
Love, Sister Dall

My last transfer call

ahhh transfer calls!!! 

So here's the news: WE'RE BOTH STAYING!!!!!! Woo hoo, we're so excited!!!  Wow, we had such a freak out moment, it was awesome!! I didn't expect that, it was too good to be true! So this will equal 5 transfers together, 7 1/2 months!!! We never would have believed it, but we're overjoyed!! So I'll be spending my last 5 weeks in Anchorage in the Ocean View ward as an STL. I'm pretty stoked, I did NOT want to leave!!

So here's a little update on things here in the Ocean View. We met with Emily again, and she's doing great! Most solid investigator ever!!! She's golden, and looking at the weekend of Thanksgiving to get baptized! So her bf will be able to baptize her before he leaves on his mission in December.

Update on Eve - so this is super sad. She was doing so well, and was on date to be baptized the 14th. We had some great lessons and things were going well. Then, yesterday she called and told us she wasn't coming to church...we were so confused! But we were able to persuade her to have a lesson last night with just us and brother Grimshaw the guy who speaks thai. So we all showed up, sat down to have a lesson, and Eve just started crying. She said that she tries so hard to be good, but things are just going badly in her life. She said she doesn't think she'll be able to keep all the commandments, and that she's not good enough to be baptized. She kept talking about how she still feels guilty for bad things she's done in her life, and how everything just seems to be going wrong. Oh dear..... it's Satan!!! He is working hard on her right now. So we just sat there and testified to her about the power of the Atonement, and how the Savior is there to help her, she just needs to turn to Him. We read some scriptures with her, and tried to comfort her as best we could. But man, it was the saddest thing of my whole life. It just made me so sad to see her so sad!!! ahhh so now we don't know what to do. I just know that things will get so much better once she's baptized, and has the holy ghost. PLEASE lots of prayers for Eve!!!!!

Now for some good news... Abi from Fairbanks came down to Anchorage for the weekend!!! It was oh so good to see her again. Yesterday at church we got a call from a random number, and it was Kaylee from Wasilla!!!! She was in Anchorage for the weekend, and wanted to come to church with us!!! Holy cow, it was the greatest thing to see her again! And just to have her in church sitting next to me, making comments and saying amazing prayers, it was better than Christmas! She's so solid, and just gets it. Ahh I'm so proud of her and where she's at now!!!! That was the greatest.

So other than all that, nothing new going on. I'm super pumped for this new transfer, and all the wonderful things we have going on. It'll be one full of miracles!!! I love you all, have a splendid week!


Love, Sister Dall

Happy Halloween

Hello hello!

Well, happy Hallow's Eve, my favorite!!! But before I tell you about my Halloween, let me tell you about the rest of our week. We stayed pretty busy, with 3 exchanges. One in Soldotna, so I got to be with Sister Galli again! It was a grand time, I sure do love her! The drive down there was amazing, as always. We got some good pics along the way. Soldotna is charming, it reminds me a lot of Juneau. We also had exchanges with the Sisters in North Anchorage. I got to be with Sister Ogden, who came out with me! I just love her to death. It was great to be with her :) And.... it snowed. About 2 inches. Gross!!!! So now winter is officially here!! Then we had exchanges with the Lazy Mountain Sisters, in Palmer. I was with Sister Rose and it was great! 

We got to do the neatest service, at the Reindeer farm!!! How fun! It's a little farm that members own, where they have reindeer and fun stuff. People come and visit and get to feed the reindeer and all that jazz. It was a blast!! 

So update on Eve: We had about 3 lessons with her this week and they all went really well. We talked to her about her baptism date, and she told us she still wanted to shoot for the 6th! Ahhh but we didn't know how that would be possible, with all our exchanges and meetings and things, because we still had to teach her the rest of lesson 4, and all of 5. So we were actually stressing hard core, not sure if we could do it! So we had another lesson with her, and just decided to push it back to the 14th. Hopefully then we'll have time to finish the lessons, and make sure she really understands everything. It's so cool though, how she wants to get baptized so badly! When we first started teaching her, she was afraid of baptism!! She came to church yesterday, and the testimonies were just for her! It was the neatest thing. It really has been so amazing to have been able to teach Eve, and watch her grow and learn so much. Every time she catches on to another principle, and things click in her mind, it's just the greatest feeling!! 

So Halloween! Let me just tell you all about our day. First, we had lunch with a couple from Wasilla that Sister Johnstun and I both just love to death, the Moffatts! They were who I skyped with on mothers day! Oh boy, it was so good to see them again, they're our favorite!!

Then after that, we went to the trunk or treat that the ward was having. It was fun to see everyone all dressed up and having fun. Sister Johnstun and I dressed up as well! haha we were each other, aren't we clever?? There's only so much you can do as a missionary :)

I've also been reading through the BOM looking for trials and witnesses of faith. I can't remember if I shared that with you or not... but it's been super neat! I read the other day in Ether, chapter 12, which is chalk full of faith! It was so cool to see how many little trials and then witnesses of faith there were, just in on chapter! And I've loved looking for that throughout the whole book. Just goes to show how often the Lord is testing our faith, and then always rewards us with a witness/miracle. It's the best!!

That's all for this week. We have one more exchange (Whew!) and then MLC and zone meeting. It just never stops!! hah and we get our transfer calls..... I'm so nervous!!!! Hope it all goes well! Have a splendid week, you're all my favorite people!! I love you!
Love, Sister Dall :)

Conference, Craziness and Cool Miracles

If I could use one sentence to describe what my life feels like right now, it would be that I feel like a chicken running around with my head chopped off. 

Ahhh things are just madness!! But let me just say how amazing it is to be back with Sister Johnstun!!! We are just living the dream as STL's here in Ocean view. Could life get any better? I submit that it could not. So let me just tell you a little bit of the craziness going on here. So we had Transfers, and new missionaries on Monday and Tuesday. It was a mad dash after transfer meeting to get everyone's luggage where it needed to be, and then to taxi the Sisters to the mission home for a quick dinner and then to the airport to catch their flight. Stressful.

Zone conferences started this week, and President didn't tell us what we were training on until Wednesday night, so most of Thursday was basically spent planning that training. We also had the neatest service opportunity of my whole entire life!! We got to clean the temple with our zone!!!!!! I think I was at an all-time high for how happy I was. We got to clean the chandelier in the sealing room, and boy it was like performing surgery or something. Lots of little intricate pieces that we had to climb on a ladder to reach, take out one by one, clean them with our rubber gloves, and then put them back where they go. It was intense, but super cool!! 

Saturday was CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I get more excited for General Conference than for any other holiday, or event or anything. It's the greatest thing on this sweet green earth! I am obsessed with President Uchtdorf's talk. I can't wait to read it again and again. And how cool about the 3 new apostles!! And Papa Dall, you know two of them, so does that mean we have an in with all of them?? Hahah I'm really excited for all 3 of them :)


A member from our ward made breakfast for all the missionaries in the zone, and President and
Sister Robinson. So we all ate breakfast together, then watched conference. Then the Robinson's invited us all over to the mission home for lunch all together, and then back to the church to watch conference! It was a splendid day full of fun, food and of course a rich outpouring of the spirit. I don't know how we are so lucky up here to have such a blast all the time, and be living the missionary dream :) I feel extremely blessed. Some of my other favorite talks were Elder Schwitzer, talking about being a true disciple, Elder Lawrence, talking about asking how we can improve, Elder Durrant talking about ponderizing, and President Monson, talking about how we need to be a light and example to the world. Ah it was just all so good I could die!! Now we have to wait 6 more months.....

This coming week might prove to be the death of us. We will drive to Soldotna with President tonight, and spend all day there tomorrow for Zone Conference. Then we have trainings and meetings and exchanges all week.  So this should be fun!!! I'm super stressed about it all, because on top of that we still have to find time to be normal missionaries and keep track of our investigators and all the jazz.
I might expire. Pray for us!!!

We were able to set up a lesson with Eve for this week, which I'm excited about. I love her to death! And she's really making some progress. We were also able to meet with the Heckels, who are till doing just dandy, and progressing right along. The Lord sure is blessing us here!!!


Super cool miracle!!! Yesterday Bishop gave us the name of a girl who lives in our boundaries that's a member, but we don't have her records. He asked us to stop by and try and get her information and see if we could start working with her or her family at all. So we stopped by yesterday, and they are super nice! She and her boyfriend let us in, and talked to us for over an hour. We got into a big gospel discussion, and they were asking us tons of questions. Their names are Robert and Jaime, and they have two cute little kids. Jaime doesn't remember a whole lot from when she was baptized, I guess she never was really active. Robert is spiritual, and knows everything about the bible. They are looking for a church to go to, and said they would come to church!!! They want to try it out, and they said if they like it they want us to come over and teach them the lessons!!!!! So we're praying really hard that the like church and can feel the spirit so that we can pick Robert up as a new investigator and work with that family!!!! So that's SUPER exciting :)

That about wraps it up for this week. I love hearing from all of you, and about your insights from conference. What a HUGE blessing that we have a prophet on the earth today, and that we are able to hear exactly what God wants us to know right now. Now we just have to apply! Hope you all have the most wonderful week, and see the Lord's hand in your life daily. I love you all!!
Love, Sister Dall :)

3 Miracles

Woooo what a week!
First of all, I'm sick. I'm living the dream, but I have a cold and I hate my life.
Anyway....

We stayed pretty busy this week. We had MLC, Zone meeting and a temple trip! Plus one exchange. MLC is always so great, getting to discuss issues and ideas with the leadership of the mission. Zone meeting was
hilarious.

Now let's talk about the miracles from this week, because there were a multitude. 


Miracle number 1.

First off, one morning we just decided we were going to set out and find us a new investigator. We were determined! So we went to the gas station. We started talking to the kid that worked there, and asked him if he's ever heard of the book of mormon. That's kind of our tactic right now, we carry a BOM everywhere we go, and always bring that up first thing with people. He said yes, and that he actually has one. Then he told us that he's met with missionaries in the past. We asked him if he had questions about the BOM, and he said he did. So, we gave him our number and told him to call us and we can answer his questions, aka start teaching him again!! 

Miracle number 2.

Then we decided that there was still a more solid investigator that we could go find. So we went to the next gas station. We started talking to the lady at the check out, and asked her if she ever sees missionaries in the gas station. She said 'ya, I see the Elders in here all the time'. Elders, she knows their name? Then she proceeded to tell us that she use to meet with the Sister missionaries! We asked her if she would want to meet with us again, and she said yes!! She gave us her number, and we're going to start teaching her again!!!! 

Miracle number 3.

We have a favorite place to get lunch, when we feel like eating out. It's called Pita Pit and it's delicious. Basically the whole staff knows us there because we go there so often. Well we went this week, and one of the girls that works there started talking to us. And we basically asked her if she wanted to meet with us and find out what
we're all about. She said yes!!! Her name is Audrey and I'm obsessed with her. We had our first lesson with her yesterday at a members house. She's 20 years old and is just working right now. She's hilarious, I just love her so much!!! We taught her a simple Restoration, and she seemed to like it! She took a BOM and told us she'd start reading it. We have another lesson scheduled for Wednesday, and I'm pumped! New investigator!!! 

So basically, the Lord has been incredible to us this week. We are so blessed here. 


Yes everyone and their dog up here is obsessed with BYU so I'm never hearing the end of all that. I can't remember if I told you or not, but one of the senior couples up here thought it would be hilarious to
put a byu license plate holder on our car. Not funny. Everyone takes time to point it out to me.

I ate so much moose for dinner last night. It's also 40 degrees in the mornings now, and it's getting dark.

We run into moose on the daily. It rained and rained and rained. 

And that's your Alaskan update.

I hope you all have a splendid week. Hey, next week why don't you all
share with me any of your studies or cool findings lately? I just love
that stuff. Gospel related, of course :)


Well, love you all dearly!!
Love, Sister Dall

Updates from Anchorage

Hi hi!!

The time really is getting faster and faster with every week, and I don't know what to do about it! It's true what they say, that the last 6 months just fly right by :(

Here are a few updates on our investigators.
We had another lesson with Jennifer this week. We taught her the plan of salvation, but I'm not sure she caught a whole lot. She's feeling a ittle bit down on herself, because she's 30 and single, and she really wants to start a family. She's still meeting with us, and reading her Book of Mormon so we're excited about that! But prayers for her would be great!

We found a new translator for Eve! (the last one just went off to BYU) He is in the Huffman ward, and served is Mission in Thailand about 10 years ago. We had our first lesson with him and Eve, and it went pretty well. Eve still gets confused, and we have to remember to super simplify, because of her lack of a Christian background. But we're learning how to teach her
better, and we have a great relationship with her so it's the best! We took her to the Hmong branch on Sunday. That was a trip. But we got to sit through a whole sacrament meeting in Hmong so that was neat! We also got to participate, because they didn't have a music conductor or an organist. Wait, Sister Dall doesn't play the organ. Well she did yesterday! Man was that a trip. hahah what a joke! So I don't know if we'll keep bringing her to that one, or just take her to ours. Still figuring that one out. But she's coming along. We figured out how to change all the videos and things on our iPads to Thai, so we're gonna start utilizing that. yay for iPads!

We had 2 exchanges this week, one with the Eagle River Sisters and one with the Soldotna Sisters. Guess who I got to be with??? SISTER JOHNSTUN!!! The dream team reunited, and it felt so good!!! It was
just a blast. It's been about 6 months since we were companions (hard to believe) and it was so much fun to be with her again. We spent most of the time reminiscing about FBX and all the good times we had, and then it made us really sad. But it was a great time, I just love her to death!

Also, winter is on the way!!! It's sad but true. There is snow on the tops of the mountains, and it's getting brisker. But I just love Alaskan summers so much!!! I'm obsessed. We did see the brightest, biggest rainbow of my life the other day though. It was a double and you could see the whole thing all the way across the sky. Beautiful!!!! Basically I'm just obsessed with Alaska and everything about it. Good luck getting me to leave it.

Well I hope you all have the best week of all the weeks. Don't forget what we read in the New Testatment, to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason for the hope that is in you" and do that good 'ole member missionary work!!! It really is the key to any missionary success, so be a friend and help out those missionaries in our area, they'll appreciate it :)

Love you all!
Love, Sister Dall

the anchorage sistas