In her backyard
Hanging laundry in her back yard
Cooking wantons
With her companions....
Her wonderful Italian landlady that sometimes leaves them pasta to eat when they get home. Danielle says the world has come to her, the people she talks to are from all over the world.

Aug. 24, 2009

Spiritually i don't think I have ever been better! I LOVE having the spirit with me and how happy it makes me feel! I LOVE seeing people change their lives to become better, That makes me the happiest. To see that the gospel change lives and give people fire to share it with others! I love the scriptures and the knowledge I get from them. I am so excited to take institute classes on them and actually enjoy it enough to stay the whole semester! haha.. I am just REALLY excited about the gospel right now and really sad that I have waisted alot of years doing nothing about it. But now I know and can do better.

I do love it here though. I love being a missionary and do realize the short amount of time i have left. A year ago from today I was probably in a class room thinking.. wow i have 18 months left.. that is forever long! but now I sit here and have to think wow.. i only have 6 months left.. i've gotta get going! (not that I haven't been this past year)

Aug.17, 2009

We have been seeing so many miracles lately. Brian Kamala is progressing and excited for his baptism on the 30th of August. He is letting his walls come down for us and now we see the real side of him. He is actually a funny guy! He still has some pride things that need to go away (like he wants a brand new baptism suit for his baptism and won't say otherwise.. but that's okay well break him down. :) We decided that you just shouldn't take anything he says seriously. So how do you know if he really IS serious? Well you just laugh at what he says and if he doesn't laugh in about 3 minutes then you should probably stop....... hahaha

Then there is Eunice.. She is from St. Kitts (also in the carribean) and is a huge miracle! We first called her to give her the bible she had ordered online, we called she said she didn't want missionaries and to send it. So we did.. She called us later and said she recieved the bible and was thankful and wanted to meet with us to see what we were all about. Sis. Urquijo mentioned we have the book of mormon and she got all excited and said "oh i have one at home that I love to read!" THEN the day we are to meet her she calls and says "do you have a pearl of great price?" and i'm thinking, how in the world did you hear about that? so we told her we did and she was very excited. so we met with her and she is just so prepared! She is 7th day Adventist so has a little problem with us worshipping on sunday, but she's working through that. We gave her all the pamphlets because she is staying with her daughter right now and is under her while in canada so she doesn't want to bring us over to jepordize that, AND her visa here in canada ends and if she can't extend she will have to leave this week... So we had the oppurtunity to see her again and she said that read all the pamphlets we gave her and was really excited about it all.. She is just so amazing. She loves the fact that she can know the history of our church. She says that whenever she asks someone in her church about it's history no one tells her.. I wanted to tell her right then that it was formed by a lady who USED to be a member of the church but was mad because she couldn't have the priesthood.. But i didn't think that was quite the approriate thing to say at the moment... :) She also got really happy when we told her to pray about everything and she said she has never been told to pray about her own church before.. so! she hopefully she stays and can have a place of her own so she can worship as she would like..

IT IS SO HOT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!! its NOT my favorite for sure! The humidity and heat are horrible! But I keep telling myself it too shall pass.. this is only the month of extreme hot.. I cannot wait for the cold! We went to Costco today and they have their christmas trees and coats and gloves out already.. YAY!! I have been so blessed to be here this summer. Everyone tells me this was a cold summer and that THIS is what summer is usually like. I was SO blessed not to have to endure a whole summer of this. So I can bear a month or so..

Aug. 10, 2009

Well we passed through another transfer call and the three of us (sis urquijo, and crapse and I) are staying together for another 6 weeks! Sister Urquijo and I have already been together for 4 and 1/2 months! But she's amazing so it's no problem at all! And sister crapse is probably the cutest girl full the most love i have ever met! She even gets sad that Satan will never get a body cuz he won't be able to hug anyone, also that he will never get to live with god again.. WHO do you know that has THAT kind of love? She's amazing, especially for this area.

Aug. 4, 2009

Well...... let me just tell you that MICHAEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!! I don't think I have ever seen a happier man in my whole life! We called him everyday last week just to make sure that darn adversary wasn't getting in his way, but I don't even think an army could have gotten in his way this week. He even called us Friday evening and said that he had a doctor's appointment on sunday that he forgot about but not to despair because he cancelled it. On sat. night I was talking to him on the phone and telling him about another investigator (mr. Kamala) who is also very hard headed like michael was and about his Doctrite in Theology and all, and michael told me " ya know, i didn't even show you all of MY certificates.. but ya know, NONE of those matter anymore.. because NOW it will all be done with right authority!" I was smiling so big I didn't even know what to do. I was just so happy. So then comes sunday.. he showed up an hour early for church.. "Sisters, do you really think this is the right thing to do?" "OF COURSE MICHAEL!!!" So he went and got a blessing from the elders who said it was a very spiritual experience. And then his baptism.. The minute he was baptized he got out of the water, slapped the water and shouted with glee! haha, he pretty much had to be pushed out of the water (i think he would have stayed in to swim around a bit to make it last a little longer) but as he was getting out we could hear him say "Hallelujah!" and "praise jesus!" in the bathroom.. also lots and lots of laughing.. it was so good. He just smiles all the time now. Positively the best day of my mission.. (well besides the other two as well :)

Aug. 4 update

7/14/09
So.. on to the missionary work....Miracle Michael called us with some amazing news! We still are not meeting with him because of his hectic schedule, but he calls us every now and then to check in. We also give him assignments to do while we don't see him. But one night as he called us we were talking and i asked him why he wanted to be baptized into our church (that is a question we asked him to think about a while ago) and he said because he knows that the church is true! And he wants all those he loves and knows to become a part of it as well. That was so amazing and so then i asked him what he thought about Joseph Smith (I was a little nervous about that) but he said "What do I think about Joseph Smith? I know.. Joseph Smith IS a prophet! God has revealed that to me and there is nothing or anyone who can take that away from me!" Once again Michael left me speechless.. All I could do was smile really big and say thank you. That next thing we have to do is try to teach him again! Sister Urquijo and I found that we have taught him at least once a month since she has been here and he's totally being taught by the spirit himself. One thing we will have to help him gain a testimony of is the importance of authority because he said being baptized didn't really mean anything to him. And he's been baptized 4 or 5 times already so I can see why, but hopefully if he knows joseph smith was a prophet, he will not have a huge problem with the apostasy.


So have I told you how amazing and how inspired God was to send me to this mission? I have been having some foot problems, (i think i told you that) but the podiatrist told me that I needed to get new shoes because the ones i have are too heavy, and I needed to get them quick so he can give me new orthotics. So Sister Eyre had told me before that if i needed new shoes she would go with me to get them. So I called her and told her that i needed them, and she asked if she could pay for them, because i was going to have her call you and have to put some of my money into my checking so i could get them, but she said no she would pay for them. She had one of the Senior sisters go with me and told her not to let me get cheap ones just because of the money, So i was able to get some good Clarks that were kind of expensive but SO GOOD for my feet. The are 100 % better already and i don't even have the orthotics in them yet. I didn't even know what to say, but she was just so amazing!

7/20/09
Oh, so let me tell you about this cool guy here! So we get a call from one of the elders in another area and they told us to call this guy brian who was invited to church by a MEMBER!! He went for two weeks and wanted to learn more. He was in our area so they called us and told us that we needed to call him! That night Sister Eyre was coming out with us for the night and one of our appointments didn't go through.. (story of our lives) so we got the thought that maybe we could stop by and just meet him for a little bit and set another time to come and teach him. We called, he said sure, and we went. When we got there he was waiting outside for us and as I walked up to greet him I said 'hi! i'm sister kamalu!" he looked at me and said 'oh you're the one I talked to one the phone. I thought you were black.." haha (that was just pretty funny since ALOT of people here are from Africa and tell me Kamalu is an African name) So anyway, he let us in he just started telling us how the member that invited him to church was just someone he met at one of the malls close by. This member also gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation pamphlet. After a little more talking (which we have come to find out he likes to do.. alot:) he told us that he read the book and liked it. I asked him if he read what part he read and he told us he read the WHOLE THING! He had only had the book for at least two weeks so we asked him how long it took him to read it...... ready?... it took him 2 DAYS, 5 HOURS, 23 MINS, and 6 SECs!! I couldn't believe it! (He was also a math teacher and is kind of a huge perfectionist and times everything) I didn't know what to say. It was amazing! He does want to be baptized as well. The next time we went over we found out that after being a math teacher he went and got a doctrite in theology and knows the bible inside and out and has pretty much the whole thing memorized, so he likes to use his knowledge and his head a lot. I kind of think he doesn't know what do with what we have to say because it is so simple, that he has to put in all his knowledge even though it has nothing to do with the lesson. But he is still amazing, and doesn't like to bash but just really wants to know answers to the questions he has. OH!!!! i didn't even tell you the COOLEST PART!!! So when we first got there after I told him my name, he stared at the tag for a little while and said Kamala, i said Kamal-U, he then said.. 'no, my last name is KAMALA!!" weird huh!!! i still can't get over it. so i just said.. 'wow we were destined to find you! haha..

It's so funny that you can work hours and hours in one area trying to find someone, then in two seconds you can have a prepared person GIVEN to you in a completely different area. So maybe even though we feel inspired to work in an unfruitful area, the lord is just making sure we want to work for the prepared people..

7/27/09
MOM!!!!! Miracle MICHAEL is back and being baptized!!!!! so heres the story.... We have only seen him in person once every month for the last 4 months or so.. and have talked to him on the phone alot. and EVERY time we talk to him on the phone he tells us some miracle that happened to him that helped find another part of the gospel true.. ( one night he called us and told us he knew the church was true and the Joseph Smith was a prophet and NO ONE could take that away from him. Just the last month he was telling us he didn't want to hear the name of Jospeh Smith ever again, and remember we haven't been seeing him all this time.) So these kinds of things just keep happening and then just yesterday.. Sunday, he walks into church with his clothes and everything ready to be baptized! He told us that the lord told him the he needed to be baptized today and he wasn't going to leave the church until he was. Well we had one more lesson to teach him which it all the commandments that he hadn't even heard of so we told him about the order of things and he accepted that. So we set it up so that we could teach him everything he needed to know that night and maybe be interviewed and baptized next week. He accepted that pretty well, which is also unusual, and told us that the lord also told him that even though he's already been baptized 4 or 5 times, that none of those mattered. That THIS baptism was the only one that mattered.. THE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZLE!! oh my.. We were so happy, because that was something that he also didn't really understand. So anyway, we taught him for about 2 hours and he accepted and loved everything and is going to be interviewed tomorrow. We were SO excited! The Lord truly does bless and provide when you do all you can to bring other to him.

8/4/09

Well...... let me just tell you that MICHAEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!! I don't think I have ever seen a happier man in my whole life! We called him everyday last week just to make sure that darn adversary wasn't getting in his way, but I don't even think an army could have gotten in his way this week. He even called us Friday evening and said that he had a doctor's appointment on sunday that he forgot about but not to despair because he cancelled it. On sat. night I was talking to him on the phone and telling him about another investigator (mr. Kamala) who is also very hard headed like michael was and about his Doctorite in Theology and all, and michael told me " ya know, i didn't even show you all of MY certificates.. but ya know, NONE of those matter anymore.. because NOW it will all be done with right authority!" I was smiling so big I didn't even know what to do. I was just so happy. So then comes sunday.. he showed up an hour early for church.. "Sisters, do you really think this is the right thing to do?" "OF COURSE MICHAEL!!!" So he went and got a blessing from the elders who said it was a very spiritual experience. And then his baptism.. The minute he was baptized he got out of the water, slapped the water and shouted with glee! haha, he pretty much had to be pushed out of the water (i think he would have stayed in to swim around a bit to make it last a little longer) but as he was getting out we could hear him say "Hallelujah!" and "praise jesus!" in the bathroom.. also lots and lots of laughing.. it was so good. He just smiles all the time now. Positively the best day of my mission.. (well besides the other two as well :)

Pictures...

Danielle's Jamaican Mama-she made them a Jamaican Christmas dinner. Yum!

Pictures, pictures, pictures

My beautiful missionary!

April e-mails

April 9: My area is a lot of fun. LOTS of interesting people. All of the Rasta people from jamaica and the west indies and africa are here. A lot of them are pretty open to hearing about the gospel, some of them just arent to good at acting upon it, so we are trying to find those that will act.

As for mountains??? NONE!!! it is so sad! I miss them a lot. it's very flat here with apartment buildings everywhere. one of those pictures i sent you i think was of downtown toronto, and i am not in that area, but that's about all that goes into the skyline.. I was sad that It was stormy in utah over conference and I couldnt see the mountains, but when they showed a picture of logan, i was very happy. haha.

I have a new companion, her name is sister Urquijo. She is from columbia but is now living in Alberta and she is brand new! I get to train a new missionary again and I am so excited! She is so amazing and just what I needed. :) You learn so much from new missionaries because of all their faith in every aspect of the work, You get to start fresh. And I can tell already that she really wont need much training.. she is also fluent in spanish and she said she would help me polish up on mine. yay! I really feel that this is going to be a great transfer!

April 15: news of the week...

top story! my new companion is amazing! She is so bold with people, and just tells them like it is. She is also so nice and full of love, and is so good at serving. She always beats me to it!

This just in!.. we taught a whole house (3 guys) from Burma this week and they are all open to the gospel!!!sadly though, there is no literature in their language so hopefully they can understand english..

The weather report: Nice and sunny.. at the moment it is blue skies with a temp. of 12 degrees.. (celsius of course) and staying pretty consistant.. I think mother nature has finally and hopefully put away her desire for snow... at least for a season.. :)

and over to the sports.. i finally got to play sports today with the rest of the zone and we played volleyball and it was so fun! i missed it a lot! maybe that's why i wasn't allowed to play for a whole transfer, so I could realize how much i loved to play volleyball?? who knows.

well that's the news for today, short and sweet but all greet.. ?? haha now rhyme for that.. but i am starting to have fun again and not worry that i'm pushing buttons that could blow up in my face.. it's great!


April 22: We had a very cool thing happen this week with one of our investigators. We have started meeting with Micheal Case, which was one of the elders investigators then he moved into our area, At first he didn't want to meet with us because he doesn't agree with women discipling men, but we had a lesson with the elders to introduce us and i think we are warming up to him. He had an amazing experience though! He came up to us on Sunday and told us he had to tell us something, so after church we sat down with him and the first thing he said was that he couldn't put down the Book of Mormon on Saturday!! He read it for two hours straight trying to compare it to the bible and while he was also praying about it he said the lord told him not to worry about it. The gospel is the same in both books. But yet, he still couldn't decide whether he wanted to study his books for school or dive back into the Book of Mormon. Then he went on a walk after a while and started praying for God to take down all of his barriers, all of his walls so that he could just find some peace. He told us he has never before felt this good in all his life. He wouldn't quite yet admit that the feeling came from the holy ghost, but he liked it. When he went to bed that night he wanted to continue reading the Book of Mormon, but finally decided he had to get some sleep. Later at 2:00 am he woke up and the t.v. was on so he started watching it and wrote down some notes. Turns out, it was a documentary about the church! It was talking about Joseph Smith, the Golden Plates, and UTah with the Salt Lake Temple, and the Tabernacle. After he was done watching it he got the feeling that he should read Moroni 10:3-5.. We then asked him if he had ever heard of that before and he said no, he was looking for it in the bible and couldn't find it! Finally he found it and read it over and over again, and got that If he wanted God's understanding, he needed to ask him..

The spirit was so strong there! We told him that we give that scripture to people to know if these things are true, and that we want to help him feel that good feeling everyday! He really wanted to. He told us he doesn't want to make any sudden moves yet, because when he gets stressed he has seizures, but he knows this is the place for him to be. I didn't know what to say. I was so blown away! I have never heard a story like that before! It was really neat. We are seeing him more now which will be very good for him!

Sister U and I also had gale force winds attack us the other day.. it was pretty funny actually i'll send pictures of our umbrellas not being very nice to us. They actually broke.. haha that is umbrella nubmer two, but no worries.. because #2 was from the dollar store. haha That'll teach me! we are having fun here, working hard and never going home which I love..

OH!! i've been meaning to tell you about my land lady.. Her name is Mrs. Galucci and she is so funny! She is like our mother which you might appreciate, sometimes she leaves us some food down stairs for us because she is Italian and cooks amazing italian food! She also came down once and scolded me for leaving the rice out because I guess it can get poisonous? i don't know, but she was also telling us that she waits up for us because she knows that we are supposed to be home by 9;00 or 9:30, so she waits up for us. She is so funny. Anyways, just thought i'd let you know. :)

April 29: In preach my gospel it says that our purpose as missionaries is to: Invite others to come unto Christ.. just invite them and they have the agency to accept or reject... trust me i have to repeat that to my self about 20 times a day! haha But keep praying for the chances to share and it will come.

I'm also so happy you signed up to go out with the sisters, because really a HUGE thing that we focus on (in our mission at least) is lessons with a member present. I might have told you already, but that is one of the standards we try to get each week because the spirit is a lot stronger with members, and sometimes, sisters can't get into lessons if there is only one man and two sisters, so they need three girls present. The rule is that three persons of one gender has to be there in order for us to be able to go in the house. so if there is two sister missionaries and one man for example, they can't go inside the house to teach him. But going out with the missionaries is a fun experience anyway. You should get a Preach my Gospel and start having FHE lessons from it so you can practice and be able to teach with them when they call you. :)

We are teaching another man named Toyin, He is from Nigeria and he is really good. The three 'big commitments' we give people are usually Chastitiy, Tithing, and Word of wisdom, and our second lesson in He actually brought it up so we were able to talk to him about it and then after the third time seeing him he asked us about modesty, which we talk about with chastity, because he noticed that with us, so we talked to him about that too. haha, we usually kind of stress about those because sometimes people fall off after those, but that might also be caused by their lack of testimony in the book of mormon and joseph smith, but anyway, he is really good.

I can't believe that I have almost been out for half my mission.. Time has gone by so fast! I think it's going by a little too fast for my liking, because there is so much that I want to work on and become better at and learn about, but my time is very limited.

Last night we had a parenting fireside for people here by Richard and Linda Eyre, who is pres. Eyre's brother and it was so good! Before everyone got there he talked to just us missionaries about why we need to focus on families with everyone here and how we can help them see that this church is for families whether you have one or not!