Coming Home...

Hello world! I got back from my mission in Panama two weeks ago today. I'm still adjusting, but here are some pictures from my arrival and the time I've spent with my parents here in their mission in Latvia.

My mom was there waiting for me at the airport. (my dad was out of town)

This is a view of Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Pretty huh? Although it's suuuuper cold, especially after being in Panama for 18 months haha.

With my mom and dad. For 1 1/2 years half of our family was on a mission at once. Now my parents are outnumbered :(

Without the missionary name tag...and wearing jeans for the first time! Eek!

The last one

Hey family,



This is the last time I'm going to write you all, but I just wanted to share some things I've learned on the mission/my testimony. Things I've learned:



1. How to recognize and follow the Spirit. Before I didn't really know what that felt like and always felt confused when after church meetings people would walk out saying "Man, the Spirit was so strong today, I could just feel it." In my head I would just think "Spirit, what Spirit!? I don't feel anything!?" I think I'd been so dependent on physical feelings/sensations while growing up that I didn't learn how to pay attention to spiritual sensations. Hope that makes sense...

2. A greater love and appreciation for my family, for the home I grew up in and the things my parents taught me

3. The ability to recognize the difference between a home established firmly in the gospel and a home without it. Even the house feels different, and it seems so clear: "Uh duhhhh, if you would just start living the commandments everything would get better."

4. The ability to really listen to people, to read them, and to know their needs/how they are without them having to tell me

5.A greater knowledge and understanding of the gospel principles

6. The ability to plan and prioritize my life according to eternal priorities

7. Feel and experience the pure love of Christ for people I have just met or don't even really know



So many more but that's what comes to mind first. I remember my roommate Sarah M used to say that if she wouldn't have gone on a mission, she doesn't know how long it would've taken her to learn the things she did. At the time I just thought "What things!? I wanna learn them too!" And now I can say the same. Maybe I didn't learn the same things she did, but I learned what I needed to, and I have no idea how long it would've taken me if I wouldn't have decided to come on a mission. If I would've known all the blessings and everything I was going to learn and receive in coming on the mission, I never would've doubted the decision. About 8 months ago dad mentioned a scripture in Doc & C 78:17-18 in one of the talks he sent me, and since then it's been one of my favorites because I've found it to be so true:



17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

Welp I'm almost out of time, but I guess I will just finish by saying that I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ, restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is true and when we read it every day it's a guide, a protection, a comfort, and a strenght for us in our every day lives. I know God loves us and that He does everything He can to help us learn and grow and be successful in this life so that we can one day come back to Him. This knowledge is the greatest gift I have to share with people, and I hope to keep doing in when I come home...



I love you all and I can't wait to see you!



Love,

Hermana Dance

Hey family,

What's up? Thanks for writing...! How did your birthday go dad? I'm assuming you had a zone conference or something. Friday we had interviews and the president was asking me about what I'm going to do after, my major, . . . . Hermana Ward asked the same thing, and so did Hermana Bloomfield, one of the Hermanas that came with me who was there doing some trainings. I had a little freak out/moment of terror after thinking about all that stuff, but then I calmed down and pushed it out of my head. Waaaaah!

Yesterday was a good day....! We taught a new family (a young couple and their little boy) and the spirit was super strong....wooooo! We'd met the girl a few days ago and Saturday we taught her about the family. She was really quiet but nice and let us put an appointment to come back Sunday afternoon. We came and met the boyfriend and he was lame and didn't really want to talk to us. But she got him to come and at least pretend like he was participating. He wasn't really paying attention and kept looking at the cars and people walking by instead of at us, so I kept asking questions to get them to participate and focus. We were teaching about Christ's earthly ministry and I felt like we were being kind of ignored and I almost decided that we should just get out then because they seemed negative and like they didn't want anything, but I decided that if we left without talking about the restoration the condemnation would be ours. So we kept going, and when we started talking about Joseph Smith everything changed.

Gonzalo (the boyfriend) started looking me in the eyes and paying attention. Elizabeth stopped being so shy and starting answering the questions more. And when I said the First Vision everything got quiet-the cars stopped passing and honking, people stopped yelling, and it was a stillness you could feel. I felt it, and I know they felt it. Later I asked them what this all had to do with them, why they thought we were teaching them this, and when they didn't really know I promised them a whole bunch of blessings that I don't really even remember but I felt the Spirit super strongly. Woot. We're going back on wednesday night (when we first met them they told us that he works all the time, it'd be hard to find a time, . . . , but now they were willing to let us come back no problem. The Spirit works miracles...! ) :)

Ok, that's all for now. Love you all, hope you're all doing well and that you have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Dance

D&C 112:19
D&C 42:61

Hey before I forget, did you all buy my ticket to come home from Latvia yet? I love you guys and I'm stoked to see you and all, but I know that if I'm there for more than 3 weeks I'm going to go crazy without being able to figure out classes, scholarships, work, housing contracts, blah blah blah. ahhh!! So could you buy my ticket porfis? Thanks, love you!

tick, tick, tick

Hey family!

Tomorrow we're going to the temple as a zone because we reached our goal for January, wahoo! It'll be the 4th time I've been during my mission and I'm stoked because just the other day I was thinking about how much I wanted to go...God loves us :)

Yesterday was a good day. All the investigators that we invited came to church, our Principals of the Gospel class was way fun, and all of them had a good experience. Aurora, an elderly woman we found a few weeks ago, was sitting on the corner waiting for us when we went to bring her to church yesterday morning. She has lots of faith and has had a couple of cool spiritual dreams about baptism, but she can't read so it makes it a little hard because preachers or other people have been teaching her false doctrine here and there and she can't read to find out for herself. But she can pray, and when we taught her on Friday she said a sweet, humble prayer saying that she was willing to do whatever God asked of her and that she knows He's been guiding her.

We also taught a reference from an awesome family in our ward yesterday. She's way cool and came to church last week because they brought her, she loved it and needs a lot of help right now. She has cancer and her mom died 9 months ago, and when we taught her yesterday we found out that she doesn't really believe in the resurrection or life after death. But she's eager to learn and I think she wants to believe it, we just have to help her to know how.

I'm glad Grandma and Grandpa got my postcard. I wanted to send stuff to Grandma and Grandpa Dance but I don't have their address...!! Sorry for anyone I've neglected in the last year and half and for the birthdays and the important dates I've forgotten...it's a different world out here and I hope you all understand! The mission has a mysterious memory-erasing/bubble effect, haha. For example, last night I was talking to an elder who was in the MTC with me and we were reminiscing and he mentioned how the first week in the MTC we found out we had a friend in common. Last night he said the person's name and I honestly couldn't remember who it was or how I knew them. Five minutes later I finally remembered, and it made me a little bit worried because I don't think I'm going to recognize anyone or know their names when I come home (beside my family) Oops!

Welp, that was a random tangent, I guess that's what happens cuando tengo pereza para escribir...Life is good, love you all!!

Hermana Dance

Hey family,

Love you all! It's been a long week but a good week too....Yesterday
we went to visit Itzel again and we found her distraught because she
found out that a close friend hung himself yesterday leaving a young
wife and two little kids. We talked with her, read the Book of Mormon
with her, taught her and shared our testimonies with her. By the time
we left she was smiling and seemed to feel peaceful. She told us that
sometimes she questions God, but then she said "But I know God loves
me a lot because everytime I have a problem or everytime something
happens, you two always show up."

We felt warm fuzzies after because we felt like God guided us there
again. She has a testimony and reads all the pamphlets and answers the
questions in the back, she reads the Book of Mormon, and she wants to
come to church. We love her a lot and we know that she's really
special.

Ahh, sorry I can't really concentrate because there's a problem in the
internet cafe and everyone's standing around us fighting. Life is
good, and I'm happy. I can't think of anything else to say right
now....love you all!!

Hermana Dance

O-C-D!

Hey Family!

I’ve decided that it’s better to write some of this letter before I
read what you all write me because otherwise I just get all excited
and flustered about news from the motherland and forget everything
that I’ve done all week, haha.

This week we've been able to have a lot of spiritual experiences.
We've started recording our Milagros del Dia like I did with Hermana
Graham and it's awesome to be able to look back and see how much the
Lord blesses, and even more when we acknowledge his hand in our lives.

This week Familia xxxx finally came to church! Saturday night the
father participated in the lesson for the first time and yesterday he
came to church with two of the kids even though the wife had to stay
home with their sick baby. He's a lawyer and a Freemason and it's a
little hard because he's "learned and thinks he's wise" sometimes, but
we're excited about their progress.

My companion has a golden touch! Pretty much every single house we
contact lets us in. So now we have the task of trying to filter our
investigators and determine who is really interested and going to
progress and who isn't.

Thursday when one of our appointments fell through we were trying to
figure out what to do and decided to go visit a young couple we found
over a month ago but haven't really been able to teach because of
their jobs, vacations, etc. We were already late for our next
appointment but we decided to pass by the house of this couple and we
found Itzel, la señora, at home stressing out. She was so excited to
see us and we sad down and she just let everything out about all the
problems she has with her family, her boyfriend/husband, and
everything that's been going on. She started crying, and we taught her
a few things from the Book of Mormon and just listened. At the end she
smiled and almost started crying again as she told us that we were an
answer to her prayers and that we arrived en el momento preciso. She
came to church yesterday and is excited to keep learning.

Yesterday we also invited ourselves to ward council meeting. We came
prepared with color-coded progress reports for each organization and
handouts. I think they were laughing on the inside because we’re
hermanas and the elders don’t do stuff like that but whatever, we all
know I’m an organization nerd. (I can hear Jamison in my head singing
“O-C-D! Easy as 1-2-3, O-C-D baby you and me!” to the tune of the
Michael Jackson song) They’ll be grateful, just wait. Haha.

Transfers are Wednesday and tomorrow night they let us know. I’m a
Nervous Pervous because I heard rumors that they might be taking me
out to let me have another area in my mission. Ahhh! And I heard other
rumors that I might be training again. Double ahhh!! But who knows,
I’ll let y’all know next week. I don’t want a different compy, I want
to finish with Hermana Serrano! Harumph...

On a side note: The Clarks are going to be mission presidents!!!
AHHH!!!! I almost jumped for joy with I read that. I always knew the
Eden Prairie families were destined for great things and world
domination. Mmmwahaha. But seriously, that’s so great! Sarah Jayne and
I are like twins! You have to keep me posted when they find out where
they’re going, and send them my congrats! Can we go visit them? Awww,
I just love them so much! I was thinking about living in their house
for a week or two until I can get into my apartment, if they let me of course.
Oh gosh I’m all flustered and excited.

Today is a joyous day of emails. My Panamanian bff Charlyn wrote me
too. She told me she’s gained 11 kg, whatever that is in pounds...but
she’s got the sister missionary curse! Grr.....

Hmmm, what else to tell you all. Oh thanks Jamison for the email. Since
the MTC I’ve always had like 100 different cross country/mission
analogies. *cue the 80s montage song and footage of finish lines and
missionaries* Haha.
Love you all, thanks for everything!!

Hermana Dance

We did it!!

Hey familia!

We haven't really been able to sleep again because of New Years
celebrations, and some of our investigators didn't come to church
because they were still drinking or just hung over from the days
before, so it was kind of a rough week. But we're working with a young
couple right now and they're both stoked to be coming to church.
They've been twice, and the boyfriend is a member but has been
inactive for years. The girl is way cute and doesn't have any church
background and comes from a sad family situation, but she's super
excited to learn and keep coming to church every week. The only
problem is that she's only 16 and they live together, and they can't
get married unless her mom lets her. We've only taught her at church
and in their house once but I already feel like I love her so much, I
want to adopt her as my little sister and tell her to go home and go
back to school! But the best we can do is love her and teach her the
gospel (true principles) and let her "govern herself." (I think
that's a Jose Smith quote but I can't remember).

This week we had a training conference in the mission home. It was fun
because it felt all cozy (the Christmas decorations are still up and
Hermana Ward made us lunch). The training conferences every 2 months
are definitely inspired because there were quite a few things that I'd
forgotten...

The revelations are coming back!! These last two weeks have been full
of pereza and distractions but I feel like after yesterday I've gotten
back in the groove. I had lots of ideas and impressions in testimony
meeting and I felt like the sacrament was a lot more meaningful.
Thanks dad! I still think there's a lot I don't get but I'm on my way
to taking advantage of the ordinance of the sacrament. :)

The transfer is almost over but I think this is going to be one of our
best weeks. I have lots of ideas and plans and working with my compita
I think we can do some cool stuff this week. I think my problem was
that I let myself get into a teaching rut again so I got bored of
teaching and stopped doing new and different things. So this week I'm
tappin into the creative vibe again with new object lessons and visual
aids and questions. I'll let you all know how it goes....

Welp we're headed to the city now to go ride bikes in (on?) Causeway
so I gotta go. Love you all!!!

Hermana Dance
D & C 35:13

P.S. We did it!! We reached our goal of 1000 baptisms in 2010!! (We
actually ended up with 100,1) Yayyyyy