First Baptism

GREAT WEEK!! - first baptism - Happy New Year!

HEY FAM!!!

I LOVED seeing and hearing you guys on skype!!!!! It was the greatest present ever! I have like zero time today, all of you guys wrote emails!! Good job :) But now I don't have time to write an epic letter!! THIS WEEK WAS A MIRACLE WEEK! Merry Christmas to us! Seriously. We had a baptism! MIRACLE! K, super quick back story, this super nice lady- Juanita- is like 60 years old and her husband is a new member and she has been taking foreeeeever to decide to be baptized. She is super golden and pretty much preaches the gospel to her friends but she never would commit to being baptized. We fasted and prayed for her every second and we got nothing. She has had the date for this last saturday and we knew she would cancel again last second. BUT GET THIS! The DAY OF her baptism she calls us at like 10am: "Hermanitas, I don't want to be baptized, I'm not sure...I can't do it, blablablabla...." Sanchez and I are like, greeeeaaaat, now we have to call everyone and cancel it. Two hours later she calls again, "I want to baptized!! My husband doesn't really know how to baptize me though. Can you come over and teach him?" haha we felt stupid that he didn't know but we were on cloud nine!! SO COOL!! We were just in shock and the baptism was amaaaaazing. The members in our branch ROCK!!! Like 70% came and we called them 3 hrs before the baptism was starting. They all brought super good nacho toppings and we had a good old fasion Hispanic baptism haha it was super fun and Juanita is just awesome. LOVE HER! We have pictures on Sanchy's camera (Hna Sanchez lol). I hope I can get those to you today...if not, then next week. I swear I will buy a camera today and I will take tonnns of pics for next week!

Another crazy story, I gave my first talk out the mission field!!!! I had zero time to prepare and we were like 30 mins late to sacrament meeting because we were dragging some less actives to Church with us and they actually came!!! So we showed up like during the sacrament and we were babysitting all of the less active family's CRAZY KIDS! OH MY GOSH! They were devil children I swear. I was freaking out because I had no idea what my talk would be like and I couldn't prepare or even say a prayer because we were trying to tackle the kids down but we couldn't because we are missionaries so we have to somehow "use the force" to make them sit down without touching them. I hate being a missionary when it comes to kids because I just want to grab them and sit them down. Sheeesh they are psycho. It was super funny, I was in the middle of speaking "children Spanish" to one of the kids while the President of the Branch was telling me to come up and give my talk...I was like "Oh...si si, lo siento, Im coming" haha the members were just laughing. I got up there and smiled and just tried my best. I tried not to read the whole talk that I had prepared but I mostly did...oops lol but I think it went well! No one laughed so that means I didn't say anything super stupid. The members were way nice to me after the talk and liked my spanish so that's good! It was about the new program for the youth that is coming out next year. Soooo yeahhh that's that :)

Ooooo one more super super super suuuuuper awesome story!! AH I LOVE THIS STORY! Be ready. ok. So I just went to a fun party with all of the sisters from the VC and it was glorious. We had cookie dough and biscuits and painting nails party this morning. So fun. We sisters know how to party! Anways, so I saw my old awesome frenchy comp Hna Sordes!!! Love her :) She runs and jumps into my arms and says, "Daily Contact, Daily Contact!!" (she calls me that a lot...lol) "Guess what! Deshaun that we talked to on the streets is getting baptized!!!!!"

K rewind...back story on the awesome Deshaun (he's black and super cool) We saw him just chilling at one of the apt complexes we cover and we just went to say hi to him and he was so hilarious. He was all, "Hey, I'm Deshauuun, I'm from Chicaaago and I hate it here, There is NO SHNOW!" We were like, what? what the heck is shnow? He had the funniest accent I have ever heard and it took us forever to understand that he was saying SNOW. Anyways, long story short, we asked if he wanted to have the English Elders teach him and he was like, yeah sure why not. So we sent his info to the other Elders and they were really really excited to finally have a referral. Then I guess Hna Sordes saw him at the Christmas lights one night and he was like, "HEY! I was hoping I would run into you sisters again! I am getting baptized in February!! Thank you so much for everything" MIRACLE! I was screaming and crying I was so excited when she told me that story. YEAH DESHAUN!

LESSON LEARNED: It's so interesting how you never know who you will have an impact on. We talk to so many people in passing every day and most of them just hate us and don't want to hear. But, sometimes we end up changing people's lives even if they hated us or didn't want to listen in the beginning. That was the first time I actually got to see this in action. SO COOL! Now I want to know how many others actually listened to what we had to say! So you never know who is watching and what kind of an impact you're having on people :) Be a good example and talk to everyone about the Gospel!

Other cool stuff: Sanchy and I are the best bikers ever. I have finally mastered the one wheely and the grind and riding without no hands. Next trick is the 360 spin thingy. I'll get some videos up on youtube for ya ;) lol yeahhh not really but I CAN ride without hands! YEAH! I know that's like the easiest thing in the world but I was pretty proud of myself. I am now a legit biker. Pics are coming next week I hope!

Thank you for all the emails!! I love you guys! I have the greatest friends and family in the world. I always feel so supported and loved. It really helps :) THANK YOU! HAPPY NEW YEARS! We get to play sports with 3 other zones for like 4 hrs tmrw :) And we probably won't proselyte tonight because it's new years eve. We have permission to just stay inside if we need to and just write in our journals and be obedient...and not party. I will try super hard to not go crazy tonight haha it's hard though with 4 sisters in one house. We have some serious fun. I love those girls. But I swear we are 90...I mean 100% obedient! We work hard! haha love you guys!

Love,

Hna Daly

FELIZ NAVIDAD FAMILIA! - Christmas Eve

FELIZ NAVIDAD FAMILIA!

Hey guys!! I am soooo happy that I had my Pday right before Christmas :) I am super excited to skype you guys tomorrow!! Things have been super great in my new area!!!! I LOVE MY COMPANION! She is so freaking awesome. Super hard working and has the funniest/cutest Spain accent in the world, and is just so happy about life. She has only been in the mish like 3 months and she seems like she has been in the mish for 10 years. She is incredible. I am so dang lucky. We get along way good. Her English is super good...I'm jealous. She is always saying how we can help each other our with the languages and I'm just like...you already know English, lucky!! She talks a million miles an hour in her lispy Spanish and I just never have a clue what she is saying. It kinda scares me because I'm like, "woah woah woah, sloooowwww down, MAS DESPACIO!" and she's like, "are you kidding me? I am not speaking fast at all." haha yeahhh I have a lot of work to do. She is so dang funny. Love her. We live in a cute house with 2 other sisters that is totally ours..well, it belongs to the members lol BUT we are the only ones that live in it. It's so cute and homey :) I love it. I LOVE the other two sisters we are with too. They freakin rock. Hna Noble and Mendoza. They are way cute and super funny. We have a lot of fun!

Our branch is the Mesa Grande Branch in the Papago Zone...however you spell that. The Branch is awesome. Smallest and most united branch ever, I love it. The people don't live in shacks and there aren't bed bugs on their couches so things are wayyy nicer than my last super ghetto area. We don't have too many progressing investigators...kinda sad. We have a lot of less actives who think they are way too cool for Church, they kinda crack me up. These people REFUSE to go to Church. They act like we are ripping their teeth out when we visit them right before Church. It's too funny :) Hna Sanchez is pretty good at getting them to Church though. She has such a good connection with the people. We still have a lot of work to do though.

We had to work in the VC a few nights this past week still but we have been working outside of the VC. Our job is to just teach people that are looking at the lights and invite them into the VC. It's actually super fun. Hna Sanchez and I are just the funniest sisters ever so everyone enjoyed talking to us. It's been way fun!! We get to talk to a lot of Spanish families and I am slowly getting better at just saying dumb things in Spanish. The Mexi's think I'm funny now so that's good :) Our Ward Mission Leader is super super intimidating and he makes me speak in Spanish allll the time. He calls on me during our Gospel Priniciples lesson during Church and just tortures me. Ugghhh, he is so mean to me haha but he is way good. Such a strong leader. HE COMPLIMENTED MY SPANISH! I think he did it out of pity because he saw how frustrated I was with my Spanish. He just said that I have a super good accent...It kinda made my week :) Spanish will be the death of me I swear.

Hna Sanchez thinks that I will stay in this area for like 3 more transfers before going to Spain. She is scaring me. I want to get to Spain by the end of this transfer soooo bad! As long as I stay with her though, I'm good :) They better not take her away from me before I go to Spain!!

Cool/Funny stories:

-Hna Sanchez biffed it on her bike...she was on the phone while biking...tsk tsk. Super funny. She lives

-The Mexi's here are super bad at singing. Singing hymns is like torture for them. Their musical numbers are the highlight of my Sundays. Oh man I am so mean. I just love them though. They can't sing to save their lives and it's adorable :)

-The food here is SOO GOOD! I am in love with tamales...is that how you spell it?? No idea, but yeah, SO GOOD!

-I love biking. It is the greatest thing in the world and I am finally getting exercise in!! We get so many crazy looks. I guess it is pretty funny seeing two sisters in skirts trying to ride their pink barbie bikes with their pink helmets AND my bike has a basket. What now. We are pimpin.

What I learned this week: Everything is on the Lord's time. He will never let us stay in bondage if we have faith and patience. I have seen this with the people we teach. Some of them have been suffering for so long and we can finally see that the Lord has decided it's time for them to get out of the hard trial they are in. I have learned this with myself too. The Lord will not let me suffer in Spanish my entire mission if I stay obedient and faithful. I know that one day...ONE DAY I will get out of this horrible trial. It is really hard for me and I am not sure why. I honestly didn't think it would be but it's been difficult for me. Languages are just not my thing. BUT, the lord will always visit us in our afflictions :) Check out Mosiah 24?? Somethin like that. It's super good.

Love you family!! I am so grateful to be a missionary especially right now. My favorite part of the day is biking back to our house in the dark after having one last awesome lesson and just thinking about all of the miracles we have had. Hna Sanchez and I just sing Christmas songs and play around with our bikes while saying hi to every single person we pass by. We are loved by so many people here. I love it. Just biking on the streets and we get like 10 people saying, "Merry Christmas sisters!! We love you!" so awesome :) Talk to you tomorrow! Here is my new address!!! Write to this one!

Hermana Alaena the coolest missionary ever Daly

c/o Kellis Family

813 W. 10th Street

Mesa, AZ 85201

My camera is broken...pictures will come in a couple weeks ish

Looooooove,

Hna Daly!

Alaena with Hermana from Kenya

with Comp - Hermana Sordes from France

 First District

with Hmn Sordes at the VC

Sisters in the District

First Transfer!!

HEY FAM!

My FIRST TRANSFER! So exciting!! We were all in the VC the night when they call you and tell you if you are getting transferred or not, so like all 20 of us in the VC were freeeaaaking out! We wanted the night to end so badly so we could finally find out where we were going. It was funny because our District Leaders had to stay up till 11 in order to call us and tell us what was going on. They are so nice :) HERE'S THE NEWS: I am GETTING TRANSFERRED! AND GUESS WHAT?! My new companion is from Malaga, Spain..no joke. I freaking love her!! She is only one transfer older than me haha So I hope she isn't freaking out too much that she is the senior companion. She is super excited to teach me real Spanish and prep me for Spain. There truly is a reason why I am here in Mesa. I am now a FULL FIELD SISTER!!! I am no longer in the VC AND we are on BIKES! YES!!!! I am actually super excited about that. I haven't exercised at all since I've been here because the VC is the most exhausting thing ever so we pretty much just sleep while doing "crunches" every morning. It is impossible. I cannot live on a college student sleep schedule as a missionary. Ain't gonna work. I am suuuuper sad to leave my comp, Hna Sordes :( We have had such a blast these last few weeks and have been great together. She has taught me so much and I love her to death. I am super excited to get out of the VC though haha I am going to miss the sisters there SO MUCH though. There are like 24 sisters there and I have become best friends with every one of them. I am so grateful that I was able to work there and make 24 new best friends :) They are so great.

News on our area: all baptisms fell through BUT our investigators are still pretty dang solid AND we found 2 new investigators who are so gonna get baptized in two seconds. They are awesome. We had 4 ish investigators at church yesterday...score! I am going to miss my branch so much. I love them. Even though I barely had conversations with them, I am going to miss all of them so much. They were so kind and gave me hugs and were super sad that I was leaving. That made me so happy :) My first area was super awesome now that I look back at all of it. I have learned SOOO MUCH is just 5 weeks. Crazy crazy.

News from VC fun: Sean Daly, guess what! I ran into a guy FROM POLAND! I was just dying and was wishing that you were there to speak Polish with him. He was SUPER COOL! I was just lovin him. He was like in his 50's and had the thickest accent ever haha I loved it! He has been in the U.S. for the past 15 years though so his English is pretty dang good. I was telling him all about you, Sean! He was a member and he read some of the Book of Mormon in Polish to me haha and I told him the only thing I could say was, "Gindobre"...however you spelled that. He was very impressed ;) ....not haha. He was funny because I asked him if he misses Poland at all...his answer, "Heck no!!" hahaha crazy old man. I can totally see that those Polish people are totally your people, bro :) I also ran into an 18yr old guy that was leaving this Wednesday for the MTC for Poland!! I continued to give him the best advice I could about Poland and I passed on him that he should learn funny jokes in Polish so that the people will like him. I tried to think what you would say to him, Sean. lol He was super cool and I can tell that he'll be an awesome missionary. So, there are some fun Polish stories for ya! I have ran into soooo many Europeans at the VC that barely speak English. I have seen people from Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Romania. All of them were like the coolest people I have ever met. I cannot wait to get to Europe. They are my favorite people!!

New from the Mansion :)...So, get this...the people we live with, The Bauden's, are like famous. I had no freakin idea...Mom, you may know him- Clyde Bauden. He is a freaking genius with the piano. Holy crap. He is number 4 on iTunes, says Sis. Bauden. His Christmas album is AMAZING! They gave us some of their songs that are mission appropriate...promise haha and I have been listening to them non-stop. Clyde Bauden performed at the VC with his two vocalists, Michelle Boyer and Freddy somethin...I think haha. They were outstanding. So there ya go, I live with freaking billionaires that are beating Justin Bieber on iTunes. He was just below Ceilo-Green. CRAZY! I finally got to see into their house last night when we went to congratulate them on being so awesome. Wow, I felt like I was walking into Bill Gates house or somethin haha so much fun.

I am sad to say goodbye to the mansion house and the Bauden's and Hna Sordes...and the VC (just the sisters lol). But, I am SO EXCITED to be on bike, being full field, WITH my fellow Malaga native :) She is freaking awesome- Hna Sanchez is her name. She is the funniest girl in the world and I love her Spanish so much. I can't wait to learn it :) No more of this Mexi Spanish ;)

What I learned this week: Be bold when teaching the Gospel. Don't whisper it or be hesitant, DECLARE IT! My fav scripture - 3 Ne 5:13...I hope...We are all desciples of Jesus Christ and that means we ALL have to declare his word...not just the missionaries :)

Only 8 more days till skyping!! I will email you more about that. THANK YOU for the Christmas letters, Uncle Bob, Kristen, and mom :) and lysh (if she did the shutterfly). I LOVED THEM! They made my life. Thank you so much. I love you all and miss you very very much! Serve others! Especially, during this Christmas time.

Love,

Hna Daly

Christmas Lights, cards & investigators!!

Hello Hello!!

I LOOOOOVED the Putnam Family Calendar!!! Thank you so much for sending it to me!! Everyone at the VC was absolutely loving it :) I also enjoyed the Carr family and the Ellersick fam Christmas cards! I miss you all so much! We have such a dang good looking family. Seriously. Those cards are gorgeous!! I hope it isn't snowing too much in ID and UT ;) We have actually dropped down to the 40's at night...kill me. Seriously, what is this weather? I want my 80 degrees back haha I had to be outside for like 3 hrs at night during our VC shift and it was windy and blowing my little skirt up. I was dying. I shouldn't even complain haha AZ has the greatest winter weather ever. I have seen quite a few friends from BYU!!! It's been way fun seeing everyone. If you ever come down you better say hi to me!!!!

This week was a super bipolar week as a mission usually is. It started off normal-ish and then Hna Sordes and I found out that we were needed at the VC for the Christmas lights every single night until December is over. That is not normal. We usually have like 3 nights off a week. We are the only companionship that was asked to do this and we were totally willing to because we are awesome like that. So we now work every single night 5-11pm and some days 2-11pm. CRAZY! This means that we only have like 1-2 hrs in our area every day. So freaking sad, especially because we have more progressing and potential investigators. We knew that the Lord would bless our area while we were gone and HE TOTALLY DID!

On Tuesday we had exactly an hour and a half in our area before we went to the VC. This is what happened: 2 baptismal dates (kinda...Ramon&Jose), three lessons with a member present, and two new investigators. That's what I'm talking about. I have no idea how in the world we did that but it totally happened. We are supposed to have our baptism with Ethan this Wednesday...but it may get pushed back because of dumb reasons...we'll see. It'll happen though. Then cute little Ramon...except he's freaking huge/beefy Ramon haha....we all had a fast this last fast sunday together so that he would get his answer for being baptism and HE DID! He told us that he definitely knows this Church is true and wants to be baptized. The problem is is that he still has a hard time letting drinking go altogether. He drinks like a bottle a day or less just by himself. So, not too bad. We will keep working with him and officially set a baptism date soon.

This week was also super hard because our appointments kept falling through and we were just not getting anything done in our area with the little time that we had. However, all is well! The VC is chaotic as always. I enjoy it ...sometimes...and other times I feel like I'm not even doing anything. I just talk to people and don't really get a chance to bring the Gospel into conversation. It's such a hard balance. I had the chance to announce our huge concert thing that we have every night outside IN SPANISH! It was super awful and their retarded microphone kept shutting off while we were talking into it. I felt really stupid but whatevs. Everyone pretty much speaks in English in Mesa anyways lol. I just speak in Spanish for their entertainment :) Good times. It was pretty funny because I announced it with my companion for the night- Sis. Mackenzie, who is from Kenya (I live with her) and she has a thick accent when she speaks English. I bet people were just lovin us haha.

This Thursday is our TEMPLE DAY! We get to go once every transfer and this temple day is like extra special because it's Christmas time or something...I have no idea what that means but we will be doing temple stuff like alllll day :) YES! I am way excited. I miss the temple so so much. We got to go hiking last Pday up to these retarded Wind Caves. Mesa is kinda lame in the hiking dept. We basically walked up a little slope for an hour and didn't even make it up that high and these caves were like tiny in-dents in the mountain. Wowwww Mesa. haha, I forgot my camera on the hike, but my comp took pictures. It's not even that great, so don't worry about lol. For today's Pday we got to chill at a member's home with our zone and have a delish meal and watch 17 MIRACLES! I LOVE THAT MOVIE! I have seen it like 80 times and I just love it. We had delicious hot chocolate and popcorn and comfy couches. I forgot I was on a mission for that hour or so...it was great...I mean...never mind. Love the mish haha

LESSON LEARNED this week: The Gospel is just so simple. I have seen so many issues with the people that we teach. I don't understand how people live without the Gospel. I sometimes get super stressed because I don't know how to teach to all of these crazy needs that these people have. Then I remember...the Gospel is so simple. Just do what you're supposed to do and God will bless you. Just teaching about prayer, scriptures, charity, going to Church, etc and I already see these people changing their lives. Anyone can live the Gospel. Sometimes I judge too quickly when I see these Mexi's married to someone in Mexico but they have 3 boyfriends and 12 kids somewhere in the U.S. and I'm just like, "you are never going to get baptized in a million years." What a terrible attitude!! Seriously. So, I continue to repent and keep working and try to see these people in clean church clothes :) It's always possible

OHHH! GUESS WHAT! I met Tyler Haw's cousin last night at the VC (Tyler Haws is the freaking man of BYU basketball...next to Jimmer of course). Anyways, so his cousin's name is Taylor Haws and he promised me wicked awesome Bball tickets when I get back. YES!!! Love being on a mission haha. I promise there was no flirting involved while this went on. Come on now, I know better than that ;)

I CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU OVER SKYPE! Yes, it will be skype :) I get to use a member's laptop or something I guess. I'll update you next week!! MERRY CHRISTMAS..almost. Remember the Savior. He loves you so much :) Love you guys. Thank you for the letters and packages :)

Love love love,

Hermana Daly

It's December!

Hey everyone!!!

I cannot believe it is already December and I have been out almost 3 months on the mish!! CRAZY! Seriously, I feel like I've done like nothing haha. It sounds like you guys are having an awesome holiday season so far :) I love hearing about what you're all up to. I bet the lights on the house look freaking awesome as always. I'm glad Cameron hasn't died yet on the roof haha, he seems to survive it every year somehow ;) Winter time in AZ is the greatest thing in the world. It is sooooo warm every day all day. The Visitor's Center is crazy as always. We just started having our concert shows that happen every night of December. Choirs from different churches and different high schools come and perform. They are AMAZING! I love Christmas. I have been able to talk to A LOT of interesting people from all around Mesa and around the U.S. I really do love the VC. I love being able to talk to people and see how their life is. It's super fun :) Yet, it's also hard because I should just be testifying and inviting them to do something to come closer to Christ....and all I ever do is talk to them about their families and see what's goin on in their lives....oops haha I'm working on it!! I've only been out three weeks, give me a break lol. I did have this super awesome experience though...

So, there is this Mexi family that came into the VC and they weren't too interested in the Church but they wanted to look around and see what was in the VC. One of the sisters immediately ran to get me and made me take them into this movie called "God's Plan for families." It's a super awesome movie and you like go through this cool tunnel room thing and watch the whole movie at different parts of the room. It's way fun. But, as usual, I immediately started to have a panic attack because I had no idea how to introduce this movie in Spanish and then testify specifically about families...yeah I was about to pass out. So they come to me and I just say "Hola, Como estan?" like 10 times because that's all I can say haha oh goodness....SO, I was super bad at introducing the movie that the mom was like trying to finish my sentences for me because she felt bad haha too funny. I take them through the movie and then I just said like the simplest testimony in the entire world about families and how we can be together forever and they were just sooooo nice to me. They kept saying, "muy bonita, gracias," and I could tell they were a little emotional. I felt a little bit better about the experience. Then later that night my frenchy comp, Hna Sordes, was telling me about a Mexi family that decided they wanted to have missionaries teach them right after they saw the God's Plan for Families movie and I was like "WOAH!!! I was the one that took them through that!" Then we were both jumping up and down and screaming with joy haha. So, I felt super good about that experience. That is the first cool Spanish experience I've had!! Awesome, yeah??

On the down side...our investigator, Ethan (13 yrs old with the baptism date), never came to Church these passed two weeks and we visited him every Sunday to get him to come and he won't. Now he is always gone and it's weird. :( Freaking satan ruining our investigators. ughhhhhh. We'll work on him, but so far it doesn't look like he'll get baptized on the 15th. BUT, our other rockstar, Ramon, always comes to Church and loves it and loves the people and has like 30 friends already. So awesome. He is totally gonna get a baptism date this week. HE BETTER! I love love love all of the sisters I work with at the VC. My frenchy comp rocks. Everyone loves her. We get along great!

I haven't heard anything about VISAS at all :( That's ok though. I am loving Mesa...sometimes haha. A part of me keeps saying, I am so glad I won't be here too long. I know I shouldn't think that but Mesa isn't that pretty sometimes. Super brown and ugly and dumb cacti everywhere. Seriously, why do people like those things? Hna Sordes LOVES THEM! She wants to like decorate her house with it. Weirdos haha I hope I get to Spain around January!!!

Enjoy the Christmas season! I am missing SLC lights SO BAD! Mesa has cool ones, but seriously, SLC has the best. Everyone go. I think about all of you every day! Spanish is still hard but now I just don't care :) I laugh and say stupid words in Spanish so people will laugh at me. It's fun :) Our area in Valencia is still very hard to work with, especially when you only work about 3-4 hrs a day in the field. We are always at the VC. I have seen the five minute Luke 2 movie about 187 times. I can now imitate every sheep noise in that movie. haha It's great. HAVE A GREAT WEEK! Love you all, share the Gospel, bring the sheepies home. YEAH! Adios mi familia, Ciao!! (I hope that's how you spell Ciao)

Hermana Daly