Weekly Letterrrr!

Hello my family!!

 Oh man Mom, those pictures from Snowflake just made me miss it up there so badly!  I can't believe how long it will be before I get to go back!! Super weird.  I hope you guys all had a great time though, and I loved Ryan's joke:) Hooray for Levi going on his mission!  Missions are fun and the farewell talk is the worst part, so now he only has good things to look forward to!  That's a lie, missions are way hard, but they are worth it:)  He will do so well and best of luck with that Spanish!  Lucky sonofagun gets to actually go to his mission...where is the justice in this world?!

 So you know how there are people from Snowflake everywhere in the entire planet?  Pittsburgh is no exception.  My Zone Leader is Elder McDowell, who is from there!  I could not believe it when he told me where he was from!  I was so excited to talk to him about all my family and pals up there, but I got a death look from his companion, so I shut up real quick.  Apparently he gets all sorts of trunky when he talks about home.  I don't know what his first name is.  He only says, "My name is Elder, Sister Dana," when I ask him.  I'm betting on Bart though.  He looks like a Bart McDowell from Snowflake. 

 I can't believe all the weddings and such going on up there!  Congratulations Louis!! I'm so excited for you and I am bummed to miss your wedding, because weddings are my favorite!  After being a missionary of course.  And Congrats to Naomi too!! Oh goodness, I remember her at girls camp dressed up like a giant penguin...and now she is all grown up and married...this is so weird but so happy!  And Ray is dating Skye...bahahaha.  NEVER saw that one coming.  That is all that I shall say!

 This week was good!  I had some interesting experiences that I've been super excited to share with you guys.  So it just kinda hit this week that I was soooo not as prepared as I thought that I was to be a missionary.  The Lord requires a LOT of His servants, and it is very hard to be up to the challenge!  My poor companions....they have had to deal with some Sister Dana freakouts that are extremely out of character!  But all is well,  Sister Romero assures me that sister missionaries all go crazy when they are being trained.  Good to know!  

 Anyway, the other day I was just feeling like a worthless excuse for a missionary.  Whenever we taught, I couldn't think of the right things to say, and I was kinda yearning for Brazil and just in a bad state.  Not conducive to the Spirit at all.  All of a sudden we get a text from our District Leader, Elder Iwertz, that says "Do any of you three need a blessing?"  Sister Romero and Sister Hill were like...uh, what the heck?  and I was like "YES.  Oh my stars my Lord knows me!"  And it was just way cool.  So the next day, the elders met up with us at the church and Elder Connors, a visa-waiter for Argentina, gave me a blessing that was exactly what I needed to hear.  I felt so much peace after and I knew that the Lord was looking out for me and giving these experiences to make me into the missionary I have potential to become.

 Another!  So this one was rough.  We teach a ton of  Chinese people, and have been teaching this couple, Jinlong and Liz, for a few weeks.  Yesterday we got an email from them telling us that they did not want to meet anymore and that they didn't want to hear anything else because they didn't believe it.  Oh my heart just dropped  Then we emailed this thug we met on the street who seemed super interested, only to find out that his address was fake.  That happens a whole lot.  We face a lot of rejection every day, and that gets pretty hard to deal with after a while, you know?  So I asked Sister Romero to tell me some stories about her amazing stories on the mission, and she had quite a few that lifted my spirits right up.  The Lord is teaching me patience here in Pittsburgh, and that is what it is going to take to get me to Brazil!  If I can deal with the lil Pitt stop, I can deal with anything:)

 Ok, I have to tell you about some of the people here.  They LOVE the missionaries!  Even people who don't want to hear our message have so much respect for us, simply because of our calling.  There's a guy, Brother Chaz, who sells Pitt sweatshirts and such on the side of the road, who gave us all free sweatshirts because we are missionaries.  And all the people at the grocery store are so friendly, and old people just love 3 young girls out preaching the good word!  It's really cool!  The members are awesome too, and they treat us so well!  One less-active, George, is hilarious.  To thank us for getting him to come back to church, he brought us fried chicken and ice cream and taught us how to make sweet potato pie and then taught us a really good lesson!  It was so sweet!  OH! and another of our less actives who was very adamant that we do not change her bad habits is letting us get rid of all of her wine this week!  So that was an amazing miracle.

 I can't even remember all the great stuff that happens every week....it's so much fun.  Sister Romero and I had a wrestling match after daily planning.  We ran to service at the library through pouring rain.  We went shopping and 4 people thought we were sales associates because of our tags.  People think we're crazy, but that's ok.  We signed up to be a peculiar people. 

 This work is true.  Trust me, I would not be here if I didn't believe it and know what it can do for people.  Have a great week and I love you so much!  Sorry there are no pictures...I walked out the door without my camera today!

Love,

Sister Dana

 Oh PS!

I am bound and determined to work on my Portuguese.  We found a Mexican guy sitting on a bench the other day who spoke Spanish and a little English, and I figured it was close enough so I basically just talked at him in Portuguese for 10 minutes.  I don't think he knew what to do, because I'm sure I was more than a little terrifying (I might've gotten a bit bossy)...so I gave him a Book of Mormon and about 5 passalong cards and then he gave us his number and we gave that to the Spanish elders so it was good!  Hooray for Portuguese!  

My Miracle Week - May 20,2013

People I love! Hi! I have just got to tell you bout everything that went down this week, but I almost don't even know where to start.  I just said a prayer that I will be able to remember everything that I need to tell you, so we should be ok now:)

Sooo since we are over a YSA ward down here, all of our investigators left when school got out.  Our teaching pool was in a very sad state indeed.  Now, I know that I am here in Pittsburgh for a reason, and it is not to sit around in our apartment when there is work to be done.  So on Sunday I fasted that we would find more people to teach.  Missionary fasts must be supercharged.  This week, we spent a ton of time out street contacting alllll over and guess what? We found people.  God blesses His missionaries.  We had 19 new potential investigators THIS WEEK and they were all very interested in learning more about our message! 

Here is a really cool message.  Since we are over a singles ward, we are only able to teach people under thirty who are single.  Most of the people we found were older than that or married, so we don't get to keep them.  BUT here's why it's cool.  The elders over the family ward have all been on their missions for a long, long time, and have not seen much success.  In fact, they have had 0 investigators for most of their missions.  They are very faithful, but just don't see results, and that is very difficult!  We got to call them last night and tell them that we found 9 new investigators for them to teach.  They were speechless, and said this was an answer to their prayers.  Elder Iwertz said that they had fasted for 36 hours just to find one person to teach, and now they had NINE!  I heard one of the other elders in the background going "Nine?! It's a miracle!!"  Best feeling ever! 

But here's the coolest part!  We met a less active member when we were street contacting the other day and he gave us a referral for his friend, Bob.  I called up Bob the next day and he was way excited to hear about the church.  He said he would be more than happy to attend church with us this week and felt like this was a really good direction for his life to go.  So we arranged for him to get a ride over because he is currently staying at a homeless shelter.  I thought he was  about our age from the way he sounded on the phone, but when he walked in to church, he had to be around 60 or so.  He loved every bit of the meetings yesterday.  He came to Gospel Principles class with us and I got to explain a lot of the things we believe in and he was so excited that we had the Bible and the Book of Mormon and as he left, he said (with tears in his eyes), "There is something different about this church.  There is a feeling here that I love and I know this is what I need to do. You will definitely see me next week!"  We got to give Bob to the elders.  He has an appointment with them on Tuesday and I think it's safe to say that his baptism won't be far off.

But the miracles don't stop there! Yesterday we had an investigator show up to church, and a random guy that just saw it and was interested!  I was freaking out because I was talking in sacrament meeting, and that is a lot of pressure!  But they loved the whole meeting as well and made friends very quickly with the members.  Both of them loved it and want to hear more, so we have more investigators!  God blessed us so much...I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am and how much I LOVE being a missionary!

Other than that....this week we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Cohen.  She is so cool and helped us out a lot because she used to be in this area for 8 months.  She said that she was worried about it for a while, but after walking around all day with me and Sister Hill, she said that she knows it is being taken care of and the work will move quickly. 

I really am grateful that the Lord sent me to Pittsburgh.  I have learned so much, and I can't believe that I've only been here for two weeks.  On the mission, every weakness you've ever thought of having is magnified to the extreme, and sometimes that can be very discouraging.  But the Lord knows what I need to learn and where I will best learn it, and that has definitely been here.  I have the best companions, and they have been extremely loving and encouraging the entire time.  I didn't know what a flawed individual I was before I came out here, but the Lord has definitely pointed it out to me now!  I'm trying to be grateful;)  My companions help me out with my testimony a lot though, especially when I am at my low points.  I go to bed every day happy, even when things have been rough.  That's just the best feeling:)

Soooo I know that I forgot to send my address last week, and I'm just gonna assume that's the reason why I haven't gotten ONE SINGLE LETTER since I've been in Pittsburgh.  Well just so you are all aware and have no excuses, I can be reached at

5806 Ellsworth Ave #10

Pittsburgh, PA 15232
No excuses. 

 Mom- I love you! So So much and thank you for your letter and I am so very glad that you are a cancer-free, albeit lumpy, individual!  A few things: could you check my visa status?  I know that I should be patient and the Lord will send me to Brazil when he wants me there, but I reallyyyyy want to go and I just wonder if that will happen soon!  Also, I'm trying my hardest not to get fat, but if you could mail some workouts you like and print off of Pinterest or something, I would be much obliged.  Thank heavens for walking areas.  I love you and thank God for your example every day.  In fact, most of the people that I meet know how wonderful you are too.

Dad- Keep me updated on things that go on at home! I love you too and I want to know what is happening in your life! How is the business?  The ward? The fam?  Come on now!  I love that I will be able to speak Portuguese with you...if I don't forget it all...so you should write me letters in Portuguese and I'll call it language study.  How's that? :) 

Cooper-  Have fun with your last week of school and have an awesome summer!  I hope football goes well and I hope that you like it a lot.  Also, I'm glad that you are reading Harry Potter and I will trivia challenge you when I come home:)  Write me letters and I love you!

I hope you all have an awesome week and I know that this church is true!  I love you!

Love, Sister Dana

 

This is my empty mailbox.  Every day...it's empty

Our Apartment building!  Again...I look better in real life

I promise I really do pay attention in daily planning

At some diner place that a member took us to.

Diner Menu she says "yeah I don't look this gross in real life, I swear."
I have no idea why this one picture won't let me turn it, but I don't have time to play with it anymore - Mom

Oh the joys of being a walking missionary :)

 

 

Helloooo from Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh...yeah I was shocked too.  But hooray! Holy smokes, sooo much has happened! I'm not even sure where to start!

Ok so it was absolutely killer to say goodbye to my district at the MTC. Those missionaries have been my family for the past six weeks and now we are all splashed across the dadgum country! And you know me, I totally just cried my eyes out because missions make people emotional and ridiculous.  But I am so proud of them.  Those missionaries...they are strong.  They have incredible testimonies and have taught me so much.  I think about them often and I'm always grateful for their examples.  Meeting them and having the experiences I did in the MTC made me realize how important it is to trust in the Lord.  When I first found out that I wouldn't be going to the Sao Paulo MTC, it was very frustrating and disappointing.  I was ticked and had a bad attitude, hate to say.  But I got there and had the best experience and grew so much!  Now I wouldn't trade that for anything!  This is what made reassignment so much easier.  I figure that the Lord knew what He was doing sending me to Provo, and now He knows that I need to go to Pittsburgh!  So I will go! 

Before we left the MTC, the elders in our district gave everyone blessings.  In the blessing that he gave me, Elder Blanchard said that the Lord promised me people to teach in Pittsburgh.  That has stuck with me every single day.  It is my motivation to go out and work and find people!  You'd be amazed at the things that can happen if you just open your mouth!  I love love love street contacting and sitting by people on the bus and just making conversation wherever we go! This badge is like, some sort of license to give up all of your apprehension and doubts.  Oh it helps me so much!  I wish real life was like this!

Speaking of real life, I have to tell you about Pittsburgh!  It is big and dirty and beautiful.  There are people here from every background you can imagine, and they are very friendly and willing to talk with us, which is great!  I'm in a trio with Sister Romero, my trainer, and Sister Hill.  We get along just beautifully and have a lovely time together!  They are both excellent teacher and I learn as much as our investigators every time that we teach.  Sister Romero is very good at teaching with the Spirit and relying on the Spirit to know what we should do.  I'm learning what it feels like to receive promptings while teaching and in every single aspect of my life, and more importantly, how to rely on and follow those promptings.  It's incredible. 

We are teaching a lot of different people, but we're over a student singles ward, so we just lost tons and tons of our investigators for summer.  That was kinda disappointing, but now is the time to put that promise to the test!  If there are people here waiting for me, you'd better believe that I am going to find them!  I keep feeling like there's work to be done here, and if I can only just get it done, then the Lord will push my visa through and I'll earn Brazil.  That's probably not realistic, but it is motivation.  I want to go to Brazil so badly...thanks for the visa prayers, please keep them coming!

Anyway, the people we teach!  Lots of less-actives, few investigators. It's difficult to teach less active people, because they all know the doctrine already.  I am not as patient as I should be, I'm afraid.  There's one that we teach who is an RM, and he's a great guy, but I just get so frustrated because he knows everything we say already and he has a testimony of it, he just doesn't do it!  What the heck, ya punk!  But he's wonderful and making a lot of progress and I am very glad of that:) 

We teach a lot of people with very difficult pasts.  One girl that we met yesterday was seriously abused a long time ago and is still suffering from the effects of it every day.  It breaks my heart.  She has scars and slash marks all up her arms and is emotionally scarred as well.  I don't feel equipped to teach her.  But I know that we can somehow, because I'm not the teacher anyway.  That's what the Holy Ghost is for.

The members here are awesome.  They take us out for dinner and make sure that we are treated well.  Mike, the assistant ward mission leader, was an absolute angel yesterday and made us this fabulous dinner at his house and let us use his computer to Skype home!  He will get many blessings, because I put in a good word to the Man Upstairs, and missionary prayers are highly effective;)

Wasn't it so great to Skype!? I was so happy to see you all!  Mom, your hair looks cute!  It was just wonderful to see you all again...gosh, it really doesn't feel like I've been gone that long though! 

I love being here in Pittsburgh.  I love being a missionary- it has been the best decision I ever made.  Eu sei que esta igreja e verdadeiro.  Eu sei que o Evangelhio da nos muitos felizidades. Eu sei que meu Portugues e MUITO mal...tento!  Descupa! 

Eu voces amo--Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dana

 

Here are her last MTC pics

Fun on p-day

Sister Butler p-day

I miss our international friends!

With Irmao Cannon

Sister Dana does NOT enjoy grammar.

Lovely Sisters!

Our Elders at the MTC

Our district with Irmao Perkes

Nos districto



With Presidetn Nielson, our MTC branch pres, and his wife



Sister Butler and I be lookin fiine

We are prepared for Brazil

Beautiful Pittsburgh houses

 

Another Beautiful Pittsburgh house

Sister Romero (trainer) Sister Missionaries get TIRED

1st Area bedroom



Sister Dana's desk

Sister Hill (other companion) in the apartment 



Little tiny kitchen

I think Shelby is getting frustrated about the Visa situation - she's looking into an attorney

A street view of a Pittsburgh cathedral