I leave on Monday

Buna ziua! Whoa! (Romanians say Whoa a lot and it's kinda funny lol) 

This was a great week here at the MTC. I cannot believe I only have a few more days left. I don't have a ton of time today so this won't be super long, but something AMAZING happened this week. ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO THE  MTC AND SPOKE TO US! I am still in shock! 

One of the notes I took from that night was "From the time I get up to the time I go to bed everyday for 18 months I am engaged in the salvation of a soul." Wow! What a perspective to have for my mission! If I keep this perspective in mind, that I'm not here for me and I'm here to help save one of God's children, that that will change everything about my mission. I will want to better conduct myself in such a way that I truly exemplify the Savior. I will want to face everything that comes my way with a more cheerful attitude. I will want to be more obedient, try a little harder, and be a little better each and every day. And that is what I want to do from this day on until the end of my mission. If I remember what I'm really here to do--save one of God's living souls--then I know that the Lord will help me be the kind of missionary I want to be. I still have lots of work to do, but I'm still trying, and the Lord sees that. I'm so thankful that the Lord sees that!  

Another thing that Holland discussed was the fact that often times, to the members of the church, missionaries are seen as perfect people. And while they may not be true, they still hold us to such a high standard. And it got me thinking about the little kiddos I love so much, that think the world of me, despite all my flaws and imperfections. Jaxon, Lexi, Dallas, Briggs, Tatum, Trey, Duke, and the new babies that will soon be a part of my family. I love those kids so much. I pray for them each and every night. And the night that Holland came and spoke to us I realized that if I'm going to seem perfect to anyone, it's those little kiddos. If they look up to me and watch me then I want to give them someone to look up to. 

Sorry this is gonna be short but I don't have a lot of time and for some reason my group email that I've been drafting just got deleted. So, here we go take two!  

The most memorable spiritual experience I had this week, and perhaps one of the most memorable of my entire MTC experience, was the evening Elder Holland came to speak to us. I'm so grateful for that opportunity and am humbled that he took the time to speak to us, to me. One of the notes I took from that night was "From the time I get up to the time I go to bed everyday for 18 months I am engaged in the salvation of a soul." Wow! What a perspective to have for my mission! If I keep this perspective in mind, that I'm not here for me and I'm here to help save one of God's children, that that will change everything about my mission. I will want to better conduct myself in such a way that I truly exemplify the Savior. I will want to face everything that comes my way with a more cheerful attitude. I will want to be more obedient, try a little harder, and be a little better each and every day. And that is what I want to do from this day on until the end of my mission. If I remember what I'm really here to do--save one of God's living souls--then I know that the Lord will help me be the kind of missionary I want to be. I still have lots of work to do, but I'm still trying, and the Lord sees that. I'm so thankful that the Lord sees that!  

This week the old Italians in our zone left for Italy and that was really sad because I've grown so close to them, but they're going to do amazing in Italy! I'm so grateful to have been apart of this zone!

As my days here in the MTC come to a close, I'm overwhelmed with so many emotions. I'm so grateful for this experience here, and I'm so sad to see it end. The spirit is truly here within these buildings. It truly is a dedicated place for missionary work. The teachers are not just my teachers, they're my friends and they've taught me more than just how to speak Romanian, they've taught me how to be a better missionary and to be a better me. I'm so grateful for all the friends I've been able to make, within and apart from my zone. I'm grateful for tall the fun memories playing volleyball here, and I know that was a tender mercy from the Lord to help me better enjoy my MTC experience. 

If this email is getting too sappy it's because I'm getting too sappy. I need to write about the more light-hearted stuff so I can stop being a baby.

I learned this week that I shouldn't be doing peace signs because they're like gang signs. So I'm sorry for every picture that I've sent with me doing one.. I will be a better missionary from here on out.

There was a BLIZZARD today at the temple! So fun! We got so soaked but it was so fun! 

The language is well... asa si asa. Meaning, it's just okay. I know I'll learn even more Romanian in Romania!

Thank you all for the love and support, I appreciate every prayer and every kind thought that you've sent my way! 

Pics

-varstnicul gailey being ~tumblr~  hahhaha 

-zone pics

HAI SA PACE

My subject this week is a dumb phrase my district and I have come up with. It's means let's peace! We say it when we're leaving places. But apparently it doesn't translate well in English, so it literally makes no sense to Romanians, hahah oh well. 

This was a GOOD WEEK! I am loving the MTC! The language is getting harder the more I learn, but I'm really enjoying MTC life and all its challenges. Updates for this week!

On Sunday my companions and I got to teach a lesson in Relief Society. We walk into the room and see a special guest: Sister Martino--the MTC president's WIFE! The MTC relief society president! No pressure there haha ahhh! But thankfully our lesson went really well. The topic of "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." In this lesson we had a good, engaged discussion with the entire class (as well as Sister Martino!) and I felt the spirit so strong as we testified of the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The principles may be simple--faith, repentance, baptism, sacrament, endure to the end--but each one builds off the other and they hold so much truth and application, especially for investigators who haven't received this knowledge before. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple but so perfect, and it's through Jesus Christ that we are able to progress and return to our Father in Heaven. This is the testimony I shared as we taught on Sunday and as I spoke there was such a sweet spirit in the room. Tears formed in my eyes as well as some of my Surori (plural soras). When we testify of the Savior, even if in the simplest of terms, principles, commandments, whatever it may be, the spirit will always confirm the truth that is being taught. This is His gospel, and when we open our mouth to proclaim it, the Holy Ghost will testify of its truth. 

This week we also had the really cool experience of teaching a lesson to a real-life Romanian member through Skype! It was so cool! Her name was Tonya and she's from Moldova. She had to explain her background multiple times to us because we couldn't understand and when we tried to ask her what time it was there she says in english "I'm in orem" hahahahha! Thankfully she spoke English! But it was really fun and I'm grateful for the experience.

This week I got elbowed in the face during exercise time haha, not as fun, but it's a fun story to tell because some elders do not get the idea that THE NET IS DANGEROUS AND YOU SHOULD NOT JUMP IN IT WHEN YOU WANT TO HIT THE BALL hahaha. I just went up to hit at the net and an elder on the other side went up and in to the net and elbowed me in the left eye. I'm okay, I just had a little scratch from the net and my eye bones are still a little tender but I'm fine! I was kinda hoping for a black eye.. but sadly that didn't happen. :\ oh well. 

Valentines day was this week! Really Valentines day is just like any other day in the MTC except lots of missionaries wear red and pink and give each other candy and do other nice things! It was really fun to hand out the little valentines my mom sent me to my new friends here at the MTC :) (don't worry I didn't give any to any elders other than the ones in my district lol. gotta send the right message.) But I just wanted to thank those who sent me something to make the holiday better! I got the sweetest card from Sister Jones (hannah's mom) and notes from my family and a package from MY FAVORITE LIL KIDDOS IN THE WHOLE WORLD! They drew lots of poop pictures for me on their letters haha I love them and that package made me the absolute happiest! Thanks Colie!!!

I'm so grateful for all the prayers and love and support! 10 days til we head out to Romania AHHH! (I barely know this language but OH WELL!!) 

Love you all!

-Sora Dahl

As for the pics:

-Lately I've been having themes for my outfits (?) on sunday I had inverted polka dots and then another day I was a farmer's wife and then I was a flight attendant hahahhaa. None of these were on purpose it's just fun to name a theme for what I'm wearing after I have it on.

-We did facemasks one night! so fun!

-On valentines our district (+sora pruett) wore pink :)

-Sora De Waal are "knocking" hahahaha lolll dumb

February 10, 2018

WE'RE HALFWAY THERE (of course when I say we I mean you) WAYHO, LIVIN ON A BILLION PRAYERS

My subject title is a reference to Bon Jovi AND the Grinch AND the wayo girl AND missionary work. You're welcome.  

This week was good! Lots of ups and downs, language is getting harder the more we learn, and missionary life is getting busier! But it's all good because that's how it's supposed to be! And something I was told this week that has really helped me with the language is that "The Spirit speaks perfect Romanian, Italian, etc." So as long as I bear my testimony, even if in broken Roma-nglish, the spirit will speak for me. I'm so grateful for that!

Another thing I learned this week was the importance of the Book of Mormon. Pretty much all of our devotional topics were on the Book of Mormon, it was like the spirit was hitting us in the face over and over again saying "USE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!" so now we try to testify of the book of mormon or use it at least once in our lessons and I can definitely tell a difference. Cartea lui Mormon are puterea! (The Book of Mormon has the power!)

I had a really profound spiritual experience this past week and I'm grateful that the Lord has blessed me with an answer to one of my prayers. This past week I've been really struggling with having a firm testimony of a certain gospel principle and I've been praying and praying for help to receive an answer as to how to gain this testimony. On Sunday we watched a video by Elder Bednar and I felt the spirit so strong during that meeting and I knew it was an answer from God:

"Don't just sit around waiting for this big dramatic spiritual realization. He shouldn't have to be constantly smacking us with the Holy Ghost in order to speak to us. KEEP MOVING FORWARD, KEEP KEEPING COVENANTS, KEEP BEING A GOOD BOY OR GOOD GIRL. Quit worrying about whether it's the spirit or not, just keep moving forward." It's not a direct quote, I'm paraphrasing quite a bit, but I'm so grateful for this answer to my prayer! I know that as I continue as a missionary, trying my hardest, testifying of what I do know to be true, then the Lord will fill in my gaps and my testimony will continue to grow. I'm so thankful that the gospel is all about continual personal progression!

Other fun things this week.. let's see.

Supposedly my mission is desolving! :( My district and I have been kinda anxious about this, because all we've been told is that our mission is changing and that it's no longer the romania moldova mission starting in July. Except we haven't been told exactly what the change is. Supposedly we're combining with Hungary? i don't know, but the Lord does! And that's all that really matters. 

It was Varsnicul Froerer's birthday this week! Mai Multi Ani! (Happy birthday in Romanian). We celebrated with cookies after class!

I've been playing lots of volleyball in the MTC and it's been SO FUN! We've been having some good ball too! (The French elders are pretty good). You're not supposed to dive but whoops I have a couple times and now I have holes in my sweatpants. Oh well.

One of our teachers (sora pond) got hit by a car, but she's okay and was able to come to class after a couple days! So no worries! Everyone's safe. But we really missed not having her here and we're so glad she's back!

One of my comps (Sora Lowther) had RAW chicken this week!!! The food at the MTC is good for the most part (they have chicken like EVERY day and so you KNOW what I'm eating!!!) but she took a bit of her chicken and it was straight up RAW haha we took a picture and laughed about it. They served chik-fil-a that night and so we were able to have some good chicken after that. 

Sora De Waal and I got ~emo~ :3 one night and that was fun hahaha

Varsnicul Dahl is the weirdest/funniest guy I've ever met hahaha and he is a hardcore cowboy (but if you ask him he's "cattleman" haha) and this week he roped someone with a 50 foot extension cord haha. I don't have a pic or a video but just a funny memory. It was after service activity.Don't worry, we're doing missionary work here I promise.

Anyways, that's a good update for this week! Thank you all for the love and support I'm so grateful for all of you!! enjoy these pics :)

Love, Sora Dahl 

February 3, 2018

This might have to be a short email I am pressed for time! Sorry friends and family!  

This has been the hardest week in the MTC yet, but there were many good things that happened even though things were hard!

The main thing I'm struggling with now is planning and goal setting. Before my mission I planned and set goals in a way that was very different than how they do it here. So it's a hard adjustment. And my big problem with goal setting is I get easily discouraged at long term goals and don't know how I'm going to get there. This is especially true with my language goals. It's hard and I'm not used to it yet but I know that the Lord will provide a way. If there's one thing I've learned about the MTC is that this truly is the Lord's work, and it has to be done in His way. If you do it in His way, THEN He will bless you and help you with His spirit! So I know that there's a reason for all this planning and goal setting and that the Lord will help me reach my goals.

Every week here at the MTC you're supposed to plan a talk for sacrament meeting, even if you may or may not speak. This past sunday I didn't have a talk prepared the night before, and so I spent 10 minutes and wrote something down. I told my Soras "I hope they don't have me speak!" Sure enough, I spoke on Sunday and AND I gave a prayer! Double duty!! Hahah, but it actually turned out to be an awesome experience. I talked about baptism, and how privileged I was to be able to see two of my nieces and nephews be baptized and see how happy and excited they were for it. I hope to be like them and view the gospel principles with as much excitement and enthusiasm as little children do!

Another quick thing about this week. We've taught SO MANY lessons! Some really good and some really not good hahaha and you can definitely tell a difference. The spirit testifies for you in the good lessons, you're disorganized and lose your direction in the bad ones.  Well, yesterday my companions and I had a REALLY bad lesson, we were disorganized, none of us knew where we were going with it, and we gave our investigators like 4 commitments at the end hahahah. We were super busy all day yesterday and so we didn't put a ton of time into planning this lesson and so we were hoping to be "guided" by the spirit haha. Well, turns out, the spirit only guides you when you put in the work FIRST! We learned that the hard way. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing so hard at how bad our lesson was hahahaha. But, not all lessons are bad, in fact, yesterday we also had a really good lesson with a different investigator, and our teacher Sora Pruett even told us afterwards that the lesson was really good and that she doesn't say that very often. It feels so good when you have a good lesson with the spirit! It makes you so happy and want to continue teaching! In fact, it's probably my favorite part about  my mission so far! 

So, the takeaway from all these good lesson/bad lesson stories is that sometimes things don't go well, and that's okay! You laugh about it, you learn form it, and you move on. That's what I learned about our bad lesson yesterday. 

Last couple of things before I finish this email. My favorite romanian word I learned this week is "din cand in cand" it means "occasionally" in English and it's REALLY FUN TO SAY! hahaha

Last piece of advice from our Elder Holland video we watched on Sunday:

GO OUT AND ASTONISH SOMEBODY! SERIOUSLY! GO OUT AND ASTONISH SOMEBODY  TODAY WITH THE LIGHT THAT YOU HAVE!!! GO OUT AND ASTONISH SOMEBODY!!

Love you all and I'm so grateful for all the love and support!! 

OH! also we got to host new missionaries this week! so fun!!! i got some awesome letters and packages in the mail too! and the romanian flag was put up at the mtc! Yay!!

January 28, 2018

So this is my weekly email! It's gonna be kinda fast because I don't have a ton of time (yikes) but I just want to thank everyone who sent me emails this week! It means a lot and I love to read them I'm sorry if I don't get the chance to send a reply to everyone! I know there's been a problem with my pictures and I'm trying to figure out how to fix that :\ makes me sad. Oh well. hopefully we figure that out soon. 

This was a good learning and growing week for me in the MTC! I'm finally getting the gist of how things work here, and I'm somewhat getting Romanian! I can do some very basic things, like basic prayers, basic testimonies, basic experiences, basic scripture sharing, and stuff like that. We've been teaching our "Romanian Investigator" and it's been good, but then our teachers Fratele Brundage and Sora Pruett had to remind us that it's not about what WE want to teach, but rather it's about what the INVESTIGATOR needs to feel. So with our last lesson with our investigator Tensi we decided to ask questions, share experiences, and bear testimony. And it was by far my favorite lesson we've given so far. This lesson was so different than all the other ones we've given. All the other ones have been like scripts that we just read off, but this one we asked and answered questions according to what we were feeling. A lesson is not a script and a script is not a lesson! And when you learn that, you can really feel the spirit as you testify. I can't believe that I felt the spirit that strong while SPEAKING IN ROMANIAN! A few weeks ago I never thought that was possible, but with the Lord's help and His gift of tongues it IS possible! One thing that was said this week was that "Don't view your mission language as a barrier that's in the way of sharing the gospel, but rather view it as a vehicle that helps to share it instead." Romanian is still hard for me so it's not a vehicle for me quite yet, but I know that through the Lord's help it will be! I just need to practice practice practice!

Our lesson with our investigator was probably one of my favorite experiences we had this week. There have been some other good ones but that is the one that's been the most meaningful to me so far. Elder Sitati of the Seventy came to our devotional on Sunday and that was really cool! Also my district and zone all sing in the choir and that is SO COOL! We sang sweet hour of prayer and it was beautiful! It's amazing how strong the spirit can be through music! 

One more cool thing for the week, after our tuesday evening devotional we met as a district and had a discussion and I felt the most beautiful spirit there. One thing my branch president talked about was that our mission, Romania/Moldova, was opened up by Russell M. Nelson, the prophet TODAY! And when he opened it, he said that Romania would be a country that will feed all its surrounding countries spiritually just as it did physically during historical times of trial. Isn't that so cool? That is a real prophetic prophesy from our prophet today and I GET TO BE A PART OF IT! I am so thankful! 

Some other random updates for this week:

Lots of elders/sister in our district have been getting treats and we got CINNAMON ROLLS!!! I had to teach everyone my stupid cinnamon rolls vine haha (sih-men, sih-sih-men rows) and that was really fun! if you haven't seen it, i've attached a video that has it hopefully you can actually watch it

Also, a funny thing one of my Soras said when we were having girl talk at night lol:

"you all got boyfriends before you left. I got tuberculosis." HAHAHAHAHAH 

Anyways, MTC life is crazy and busy but I KNOW I'm meant to be here and that I'm supposed to serve the people of Romania! 

One thing I said in our lesson with our investigator:

Eu stiu ca daca tu veni la Isus Hristos atuci El va veni la tine.

I know that if you come to Jesus Christ then He will come to you.

Love you all!

Love, Sora Dahl