Final Chapter! 1.26.15

Transfer calls came Saturday. I AM STAYING HERE! Ending my mission here in San Angelo YSA. Sister Heaton is coming here and we are going to have the greatest 6 weeks of my mission.

This week we actually got to teach! That was A VERY NICE CHANGE! VERY, VERY, NICE! We are teaching a lady named Kim. She is in the military and will be leaving in 2 weeks. Her sister is a member, and Kim has been going though some huge trials. So her sister requested a priesthood blessing for Kim. The military missionaries gave her one and passed her to us. She is such a special woman. She is so, so, so, so, so, angry. I have never taught an angry person before. And she isn't angry at us, but she is angry that she doesn't have answers… and doesn't know if there is a God. There is just so much with her. I want to help her so badly. A lot of our lesson focused around the fact that God won't take the agency of others away. So sometimes life sucks... moral of it all...:) She needs lots of prayers that her heart will soften and she will be able to see more truth.

Family Home evening is going to be great tonight. I am so exited for it! I love being here. I love being a missionary.

Pray we can find lots of people to teach. I am going to contact all day—everyday-- so we can teach people!! Life is going to be so good. The truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly, and independent until it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, and swept every country until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

Love ya,

 Sister Dawes

Brinne Sits at the Feet of Elder Bednar 1.20.15

Hello Everyone, 

I am so happy I get to email this week. I don't have a lot to say, but I just want to express the love I have from the Spirit and how it teaches us. 

This week I had the wonderful privilege of sitting in front of 3 of the Lord's servants. While they instructed us how to teach. It was amazing. THEY DIDN'T LECTURE. THEY DISCUSSED. One of the things I learned was how to take notes in church settings. Elder Bednar told us NOT TO TAKE NOTES ABOUT SPECIFIC WORDS SAID, but to take notes of things the Spirit taught us. So that is what I did. And let me tell you... I STILL REMEMBER WHAT THE SIPIRIT TAUGHT ME WITHOUT MY NOTES IN FRONT OF ME! So I will share a few thoughts with you. 

Elder Bednar when on a rampage (kind of) about how we, as members of the church, get into a tradition of how we pray. One of the traditional phrases said in prayers is, "Please help those who are not here with us this week that they might come next week." He told us how faithless and ridiculous that phrase is. So he showed us what a better way to pray is. The amazing thing about this topic was that I went to the meeting with the question, "How can we better help our branch because there are so many people not there that should be there?" Our branch consists of 12 people. 20 on a great Sunday (that is with all leadership positions present.) Sister Garcia thought, last Sunday, that we would put all the names of everyone that could come to our branch on a note card, and on Sunday tape them to the seats in the chapel and show the members how much we have to work with. 

Elder Bednar invited us to prepare for his arrival by reading 3 talks. So I prepared, and the flashing lights message was ACT! DO NOT BE ACTED UPON! As I sat in the meeting I thought all of these less actives are choosing to be acted upon. Every time they don't come to church they are losing their armor to fight against Satan. They can't do it themselves. They need us. They need our testimonies. They need our invitation. 

This may not make sense, but in my head it does. The Holy Ghost answered my prayers. It was reaffirmed to me that that is what we need to do in this branch. We were then told that we as members of the church are good about talking about rescuing, but actually doing is really bad. We were promised that if we followed through with the rescuing by visiting the people, that there would be a 25% increase in our sacrament meetings. When I heard that I was stoked!!! I am so ready to put that to the test!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I love being a missionary. The church is so true!  I am happy to be a member of it!! 

Have a great week! 

Sister Dawes

One HUGE Project to the Next 1.5.15

Hello Everyone,

        I really don't have much to report on actually. It's really slow around here due to school not being in session. However, we have been coming up with ways to think outside of the box and use time most effectively.

       Sister Garcia and I go from one enormous project to the next! We are done with the hot cocoa/#heisthegift initiative. So our new huge project is.......... STALK DOWN THE LESS ACTIVES THAT SHOULD BE IN YSA AND AREN'T! ............And let me tell you, that is a tad hard. We talked to the institute director and he worked magic and got us a list of everyone in all the wards here that are supposed to be going to institute and YSA! So we have met with 3 EQ and RS presidents and all missionaries in San Angelo to see if they know a lot of them. That was awesome working with them because we were able to exchange notes so they knew information other missionaries knew. That was way awesome. We were able to find one girl who is 19. I think she is rebelling right now, but we are going to see if we can help her.

Miracle: Our less active that came to church last week also came to church this week and WE DIDN'T EVEN TELL/ INVITE HIM TO COME--- HE JUST DID IT!!! IT WAS SUCH A SHOCK to walk in and there he was.! Loved it so much!

This week we had a terrible ice freeze! The whole town shut down… except missionaries! We were slipping and sliding everywhere. Neither of us fell though, so that is real good.

We were kept safe!

Anyway, life is great here in the TLM. Love being a missionary. The church is so true!!!!!

Have a great week!

Sister Dawes