February 11th

Dear Dad,

   

Happy Family Day! I am glad to hear from you. It's kind of ironic that I can't even tell my family Happy Family Day on Family Day because the librarians like their holidays. It's good to hear everyone is well. I am happy to hear Shane and Kaylie finally met up. That picture of them looks pretty dang good. She picked a good outfit, she always broke hearts in her black and yellow haha 

Thank you for telling her to email me. It really was needed. I can't believe how incredible she is! She is such a missionary and has helped so many people come unto Christ! She told me about her friend Kevin who got baptized in December, then her experience doing baptisms for the dead. Then she told me about going to the temple open house with her parents and how they felt in the sealing room. She told me they are getting baptized in March. Tears just streamed down my face as I read her email. I can not even believe that so much has happened in the last year with her and her family! They are going to be sealed as a family for all time and eternity. My joy is so full! and the best part is I'll be home when they go to the temple. I never imagined so many blessings would come from inviting a friend to the institute. It makes all this work out here worth it to know that just by reaching the one, generations are effected. I'm still so touched and fighting back tears because I feel God's love so strongly. I feel SO privileged to know her and be a part of her life.

Pretty neat to hear about Coy, I hope he continues to do well. I'll write Amber next p-day, she seems really awesome. I'd love to help anyway I can. Matt just needs to call the missionaries and gitter dun! I'll pray for Brad and Lexi. It's tough in life sometimes but the Lord will bless Brad. He's just gotta keep enduring and praying like there's no tomorrow. I'll pray for mom. It seems like it's been a tough year for everyone at the new school. That's really unfortunate. (Btw tell gannny happy birthday! I sent a card this morning!)

So a little about this week. I am not getting transferred. Sister Lin and I have another 6 weeks together. I was pretty surprised but the Lord obviously wants us to stay together and keep learning from one another. Last week we had a few tussles. I cried like every night during my prayers and finally she brought it up. It's the darnest thing having a confrontation in Mandarin. I felt like we were crazy old chinese ladies you see on the street haha We're trying to work it out though. I love her as a person and I feel like we'll be friends for a long time but it's tough working with her sometimes. I am trying to hard to be patient and to humble myself and I feel like I've come a long way but we've still got a ways to go! It's not easy but we're working on it. Any suggestions? (you can ask the boys and mom to answer that question too).

We set a few more baptismal dates and are excited for March. We're trying really hard to reach the mission standards of excellence every week and we;re definitely seeing miracles. We attended Ward Council on Sunday and realized our ward needs a lot of help. Our bishop does not trust us at all. He just went through all the recent converts and named every single one who is now inactive. He doesn't have confidence in our ability to baptize members and then keep them there. It's tough. We have been thinking of ways to help and bless our ward more. I know you gave me some suggestions and we're doing that but anything else we can do? We really gotta get our retention rate back up.

Well I am doing pretty well. Ready for transfer #4! It's insane I've been doing this for 6 months. Only a year left, crazy! I imporve everyday and it's such a privilege to represent the Lord at this time. I'm being changed and becoming so much better. It's not an easy process but it'll be so worth it! We got our hair cut yesterday from a less active...it was a horrible experience. (see photo below) Tell Lindsay Rogers she needs to take the next flight up here a fix this disaster haha it was nice visiting our member but I didn't think I'd have to sacrifice that much! Hopefully it grows out quickly. Also, I got the Motor Vehicle Record and I got my drivers liscence. The worst part is they took my US Liscence! I was soo bummed! I'll have to get one as soon as I get back.

I am glad you're all well. I pray for you all the time! Keep sharing the gospel and keep on keepin on!

Love, Sister Emily Dahl