One last timeeee

Well folks, this is it! I'm coming up on my last couple days as a full time missionary here in DC and honestly, I am at a complete loss for words. These past 18 months have meant everything to me. Before I get all sappy, I'll recap my week because it was just so incredibly amazing and miracle filled. Going out with a bang, that's for sure :)) 

I'll start off with Sunday. Such a GOOD day. We were so happy to see our friend, Giovana, at church with us and she's already starting to get more comfortable and close with the members. Also our friend, Yamely came and brought her 5 year old son, Ian! We gave him some paper and pens to draw with during the meeting and he drew Jesus. It was absolutely precious. Then he asked who Jesus's dad is and I said God so he drew them together and it was the most tender thing ever. 

This week we met up with a less active member and she told us our horoscopes. Apparently as a Pisces, I'm catastrophic and I'm beginning to see how accurate that is. She is amazing though and I was blown away by her resilience and faith that although things can be really rough, we can always overcome whatever we are going though. 

This weekend we went on a walk with our good friend, Lily so I could say goodbye to her. We were sitting and she just asked us what our "rules" are and what makes our church different. So we pretty much taught all of lesson 4 and she kept saying "wow that just makes so much sense!!" She's so golden. I'm gonna miss her so much :( but we are planning a girls trip to Machu Pichu so that's gonna be fun. 

A couple weeks ago, our Mission President challenged us to memorize the Bicentennial Restoration Proclamation. Our whole zone did it so we got an ice cream party as a reward. At my last district council, we had a beautiful funeral to celebrate my beautiful life. Eulogies were given, tears were shed, and refreshments were eaten. It was quite the service.

Okay, now I'm about to get a lil sappy. As I said before, I can't even begin to explain my gratitude for my Heavenly Father for giving me the most priceless 18 months of my life. The highs, the lows, and everywhere in between. I've never loved something so hard. I am sad to close this door, but I've learned time and time again that with God on your side, 10 doors open when one closes. I'm grateful for every single person I've met here in DC/Maryland and for the immense impact they have had on my life. Thank you DC for being my Waters of Mormon, the place in which I could truly come to know my Savior. Although I grew up in the church, my personal conversion has been a lifelong process. Helping other people come unto Christ and know true happiness has brought me the purest joy. A mission could've easily not have been in my life plan, but I thank my Heavenly Father every single day that He trusted me enough to bear His name, and help His children return to Him. For that, I am forever grateful. 

Thank you all for your constant support and for accompanying me on this journey!! I couldn't have done it without you all. 

Signing off for the last time, 

Hermana Dangl 

You're invited to my funeral.

Sunrise yoga! 

Mission BBQ is forever in my heart.  

Until we meet again, return with honor. 

My Peruvian mom, Lily

Yamely and Ian at church!

The district

Seneca Zone Leaders

My district letting me down one more time. 

Seneca Zone Activity

Missionaries sang as they walked and walked

 

Hey hey!!! This one's gonna be quick so if you don't care for a mediocre summary of my week, feel free to just skip to the pictures. 

This week we saw some really awesome miracles. We were able to see a lot of our friends at church and they really liked it! Something that was really special was that our friend, Yamely, was able to receive a priesthood blessing. SO COOL. Also our cute friend, Miranda shared her testimony about how she was reallyyyy sick and prayed and was able to get better. Her faith is unreal!! She's also getting baptized later this month which is so exciting!! 

We got to go to DC today and it was hotttt. Nothing like summer in DC. A ton of people recognized us and I'm really gonna miss feeling like a celebrity. 

We got to do our last exchanges of the transfer and it was wild. I went to some other sisters' area and we met with one of their friends. He is a legend. They warned me beforehand that he says some pretty interesting stuff so I had high expectations for some good quotes for the weekly. My favorite one has to be  "Hey don't look at my fingernails. There is still some Marijuana in them." But also, he LOVES the Book of Mormon and has read it multiple times. Solid guy. 

I just love what I do!! 

Love, Hermana Dangl 

The district 

Exchanges

DC baby! 

Mission Accomplished

 

Hey hey!! 

I finally accomplished the goal I've had since the first month of my mission: learn how to make pupusas! Shoutout to our girl, Mirna!! I was able to redeem myself from the first time I attempted and failed very miserably. Yay for second chances 🥰

This week I had my final interview with President and it was super good! Sister Grate and I also got to facilitate interviews this week for our zone. We got to see everyone which was super fun and join their District Councils. We slaved away earlier that day and used our new found gift to make pupusas for everyone. 

This week we had some really good chats with our friend, Lily. As we were teaching her the Restoration, the spirit testified so strongly that we needed to talk about baptism. We asked her if that was a desire she had and she said yes!! She is so elect! She actually mentioned that if she had met the missionaries last year she wouldn't have wanted to talk to them, but her heart has been softened and she is so willing to let God prevail.  I love seeing the Lord's hand so involved in this work. Also, we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and we told her our purpose on earth is to have joy like it says in 2 Nephi 2:25. She lit up and was like "what?!!! I love that!!!" And we were like "this is just the beginning of the good stuff!!" 

One day we were knocking and ran into this coooool lady named Giovana! We hit it off quickly and started talking about church. She said she's been looking for a Spanish congregation since she moved here a couple years ago. We invited her to come to ours on Sunday and she came! She loved it and it was so cool to see the ladies in our congregation talk to her and help her feel welcome. She got a little sneak peak of literally every lesson in Preach My Gospel that Sunday at church so it's gonna be fun. 

Other random highlights 

- Had an awesome lesson with a less active family and they sent us home with Mountain Dew and mangoes. If that ain't a beautiful combo, I don't know what is. We finally got the kids to listen when we used the mango as a talking stick :) 

- Tea party with Mama Daisy, our recent convert. She sent us home with bar, liquid, and foam soap. I'm pretty sure it's because she loves soap, but maybe she was trying to tell us something.. ?? 

- Visited some sunflower fields and ran thru the corn fields. 

Life is good. 

Ciao, Hermana Dangl 

Pupasas with Mirna

Interview Day!

Last interview with President Neilson

Maryland does it again! 

Mini golfing with the district 

Thanksgiving in July

 

Hola hola!! This one's gonna be 2 weeks of action smooshed into one so get ready!! 

This past week we had Zone Conference! I'm sad to admit that it was my last one, but it was definitely the best one. Right when we got there, they were doing a live broadcast to announce the dates of the DC temple open house right next to us at the Visitors Center. The temple will be opening for ANYONE that wants to see what's inside from April 28- June 4! Then it will be re-dedicated on June 19. I'm so excited for the people here to finally have their temple open again! The rest of the day was amazingggg for many reasons. We got to lead some dope trainings, we got mission BBQ sandwiches for lunch, and I got to bear my final testimony. Every missionary that is about to go home gets to share their testimony for the last time at ZC. I can barely put into words what my mission has meant to me; this experience has been priceless. But it's not over yet!! 

I also just found out that our friend Gary, from Derwood is getting baptized next week!! Yay for people making covenants with God :))

We got the to go to Annapolis again this past week! For the first time since I've been in Maryland, the Naval Academy was opened for visitors so I got to take my comps around the base and give them the local tour. 

This week we had a really cool lesson with our new friend, Lily and her daughter, Gabby. They are friends with some members in our area and are seriously golden!!! Lily loves the Book of Mormon and they are so sweet. 

These past couple weeks I have gained such a strong testimony that the Priesthood, God's authority, has truly been restored to the earth. I'm so lucky to serve around faithful people that strive to be worthy to hold and bless others with this power. 

Love, Hermana Dangl 

 

Navy girls 👀👀

Return with honor am I RIGHT?

 Zone Conference 

Our fav neighbors

A day in the life 

I finally got everyone on board with jumping pics! 

I'm a Grandma and Happy Canada Day and Happy 4th!

Week of 6/28-7/4

Today I received my last transfer call and I will be spending my last 6 weeks in a Spanish area in Germantown!!! I'm going to be joining Hermana Grate as a sister training leader and we are getting a new missionary!!! WOOOO!! Oh, and Sister Hacking is TRAINING so that means I'm gonna be a grandma!! 

We started talking to a really nice lady named Erica! She is super knowledgeable about the Bible and is so willing to learn. Gary is also doing super well and is reading the Book of Mormon everyday! We also had a funny experience at Dollar Tree with a guy, Pablo and his daughter, Maria. They are wanting to learn English and they came up to us because obviously we look like we speak Spanish. He actually recognized us as missionaries like he had seen in El Salvador so he assumed we spoke Spanish. We will to pass them off to the Hermanas... but I guess that's me now so that's cool!!! 

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and it did not disappoint!!! We had an awesome church meeting then did some party hopping! We went to Bro Nalesnik's cookout and he told us his conversion story. No matter when we became believers in Christ, everyone has their own story of their personal conversion. AND, no one can be written off as someone who isn't the "church/religion type." We are all children of God and deserve an opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ and come unto Him. See 

2 Nephi 26:33 :) we ended the night by going to the top of the parking garage and watching everyone else's firework show. Apparently fireworks are illegal in MD but that stopped absolutely no one and I can't say I'm mad about that because we had a good show.

Have a great week yall!! 

Love, Hermana Dangl 

Church ping pong

Hehe it's me! 

 

District Council in Olney

The boy, Will!

RIP Sister Simpson

Mama Lulu's 4th of July Birthday Party!

Last Correlation Meeting

Bury me in the Amish Market

Week of 6/28

Helloooo from Germantown!! The land of my people!! Believe it or not, but I actually haven't met a single person here from Germany so that is quite disappointing.

This week we had a cool miracle moment when we ran into this super awesome lady named Naomi. We were driving back from an appointment and the sun was glowing hot pink so we pulled over by the airport to watch it for a second. A cute lady, Naomi had the same idea and we started talking. She moved here from Sri Lanka and has such a strong faith in Christ and wants to talk more with us!!

The first part of the week was a LOT of goodbyes. I have loved the people we've been able to meet and I'm excited to hear about where they go next!

We exchanged on Wednesday to our new areas and said goodbye to 30 missionaries! My new companion, Hermana Grate is an absolute icon and is pretty much me except she is a horse girl. Also, something funny about this is that our companionships did service 2 months ago and I was joking around that we were going to be companions and now here we are!!!! And for our trainee, Sister Webber! She's a cute girl from Utah and for those who are wondering, she is my 12th companion from Utah!! 

We've been super busy getting to know the area and meeting everyone. The ward is SO fun and we are excited because they asked us to really help with the youth program and reactivation. YAYYYY. I am so grateful for the missionaries that were awesome examples to me as a youth so I'm excited for this to all come full circle and to be really involved with the youth. 

Another tender mercy moment! Our cute new missionary was having a super rough time adjusting and just needed a mom hug. We were planning outside and a storm started rolling in so we cruised the Amish Market (literally heaven). While we were inside, Sister Webber saw her best friend from middle school and her family!! Her friend's mom gave her the mom hug she was looking for and it was such a tender mercy for her to see a familiar face from home. God is so involved in the details of our lives!! 

I love this work and I'm excited to finish off with a bang.  Twenty minutes ago when I started writing this, it was sunny. Now it's pouring. Thanks Maryland. 

Love yall!  

- Hermana Dangl 

Let Go and Let God

 

Week of June 21-27

With countries continuing to open up, some sisters had to go to San Francisco for some Visa work so I got to be temporary companions with Sister Poulsen for the week and work in her area. The best part is, I got to be a Visitors' Center sister!!! Dreams do come true. 

On the first day we spent the whole day there having meetings and tours. It was so special to be so close to the temple and be able to walk on the grounds. We led a tour to a zone in the mission then had some virtual tours. Best day ever. 

Then we had some lessons and knocked some doors! We talked to some really nice people and actually had a good experience! We also had a singing lesson by a member and I was told I've been breathing wrong my whole life, so that's cool.  Also we had some really amazing miracle moments!! And to top it all off, we got free Crumbl. God loves us. 

- Nicole: so we went outside for a break and saw a tortoise with a leash so we were looking at it. We start talking to this lady and she introduces us to Linda, the tortoise. She goes off about how sassy and stubborn she is and we are like lolll okay you are talking about a tortoise. But then she's wanted to hear about what we do as missionaries!  We had a super awesome conversation about eternal families and God's love and all that good stuff. 

- Glowing Thomas: we were looking through our records to find people to call. I was looking through and was like "we need to call Thomas. His name is glowing." So we called Thomas and he is golden! We also had a super good lesson the next day then the sisters visited him and his family a few days later. They want to get baptized. Like WHAT? 

It gets even better! I came back and we GRINDED. We've been trying to diversify our means of reaching out to people. Recently we've been just calling up random numbers and seeing if they are interested. We got our fair share of people who weren't interested, but boy did we run into some people who made all the rejection worth it. 

- Maya: I called her up and she was willing to hear a Bible verse and we ended up having a 20 minute conversation about Jesus. She is so cute and we set up another time to talk this next week. Coolest thing about this was that I had called a good amount of people and no one answered and I was done, but I had a strong prompting to call one last person. 4th floor, last door kinda moment!! We ended that call with our jaws on the floor. God is so involved in this work

- Miss Lidia: She is the sweetest person ever and made my entire night! She went on and on about how the world needs more people like us and that we are angels sent from heaven. Miss Lidia is actually our angel sent from heaven because she told us exactly what we needed to hear. 

Other highlights 

- fireflies!!! 

- smores and BBQ with Allyson and Frank 

Life is so good. 

Love, Hermana Dangl 

Naptown!!!!

My girl, Sister Poulsen!

District at the temple

Visitor Center Tour

The Temple

My best friend. 

Sunday dinner with Frank and Allyson.