Annapolis is the 'popcorn popping' song in real life

 

Helloooo! 

I'll start off with the best news ever! After over a year of waiting, we are finally able to go into people's houses!!!!!!  We were so stoked and immediately texted some people to set up lessons. We can now accept food from people too 😋 We still have very strict rules for eating with people other than our companions, but I am so grateful for every little step of improvement! 

Our first in-house lesson was with our Relief Society President, Hermana Blancas and she is such a powerhouse!! 

Also, this week we talked with a new friend, Sosima. She was a social media referral from Facebook, but we hadn't been able to get in contact with her until Saturday night. We ended up talking for like 45 minutes and we invited her to church the next day. We started getting sad that she wasn't going to come but in typical Latino fashion she was 15 minutes late but SHE CAME! Right after the meeting, our amazing members went up to get to know her and one of them, Hermana Otilia, already knew her because they are from the same place in Mexico! Sosima asked Hermana Otilia if that was a special meeting or if they were always like that. She told her about how the spirit is always there at church and every Sunday was like that. Sosima is so excited to continue coming to church and talking to us!!!

This Tuesday at service at the Baptist food pantry, it was a lot slower than usual, but it gave us some really cool missionary opportunities as we got to know the other volunteers better. We were talking with Bruce, the main director, and he was asking us all about ourselves. At one point, he asked me why I decided to serve a mission. I paused for a second as millions of thoughts came to my mind. He quickly said "Oh actually you don't have to answer that if you don't want to." But I said something along the lines of "No, that's a really great question, there are just so many things I could say but ultimately I love sharing the message of everlasting hope that only comes through Jesus Christ to a world that so desperately needs it. The knowledge of my Savior, Jesus Christ and His restored gospel has changed my life and it would be downright selfish of me to not share that with others. I remember hearing a story of some missionaries teaching a very educated man, a student at Harvard, if I remember it right. He asked the missionaries, "Wait you believe all of this?" Then he proceeded to repeat back to them all he had been taught. They said "Yes" then he said "Well if I had this knowledge, I'd be running up and down the streets yelling it at the top of my lungs." We are so blessed and I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father for giving me a million reasons to be here.  

Go make this week great. 

Love, Hermana Dangl 

Lesson with Hermana Blancas!! 

Spring is going OFF here!

Cute lil Naptown. 

The bugs are coming!

 

Hello and HAPPY SPRING!! I have been waiting for spring since winter started so you could say I'm pretty happy 😁

On Thursday we dropped Sis Patterson off at the airport and she was finally able to make it to Chile!! They grow up so fast😪  Now we are back to a duo but we are working hard and loving the work :) 

This week we had a really amazing Zone Conference! Sister Neilson did it yet again and just always seems to say the right thing. She talked about Life's Doors. A lot of doors have closed due to the pandemic and things aren't the way they used to be. However, that was needed for many other opportunities to arise and for everyone to take a much needed change. I am a firm believer that when one door closes, another opens. Actually though, when we are putting God first in our lives, I think it's more like 1 door closes and 10 open #blessed   

Last night we were calling some people that had been previously taught and called this guy named Andres! He didn't answer 🥰 We sent him a text and he said of course he would be interested in learning about Jesus Christ! We ended up talking for a bit and he is so excited for his wife and 7 children AND his dog to join our video call tomorrow night. 

We also had the opportunity to speak in church on Sunday about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I love spring and Easter because I am reminded that through Christ's sacrifice we are all able to have a new start and second chance. Because of him, anything is possible. Everyone is worthy of His love. 

Stay cool,

Hermana Dangl 

 Bye bye Patty 

Zone Conference! 

The Elders that lived here before us wrote "enjoy" but 

don't even try to tell me it doesn't look like "ensony." 

Exchanges with the Pasadena sisters! 

Our girl, Elena!! 

Como se dice "bautizarse?"

 

Hi!!

This past week has been nonstop work/party because Sis Patterson heads to Chile in 2 days!! 

We also started teaching some really cool ladies, Karen and Maria. Karen is so kind and sincere. Hearing her pray for the first time is something that I will never forget. Oh, and she would never yell at the manager.  We started talking to Maria this week and she has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. I have been so amazed by the faith of our friends and their examples of resilience during these difficult times. 

We have been teaching a girl, Elena, English because she lives in Honduras. She was just interested in English classes but we'd always end with a spiritual thought and she loved that. We've been teaching her for about 4 months and would tell her Book of Mormon stories in English to help her practice. We were talking about Nephi and his courage to go and do what the Lord commands him to do and she told us that she found missionaries online and has been talking to them for 2 weeks. Then she said that she was going to get baptized the next day!!!!! We were SO surprised and excited for her!!! 

This week we were on Kent Island dropping off a Bible and we decided to drive over to the Delaware sign. I never thought I'd ever go to Delaware but here we are! 

Today we got to go to DC and it was super, super windy! We were way smarter this time and just drove to all the monuments instead of killing our legs. Also the cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom 🥰😍 I still can't believe I live here! 

We were also able to go over to the Visitor's Center and Temple!! There's no open house date for the temple yet :( but the VC is open for online tours!! 

https://calendly.com/washingtondctemplevisitorscentertour?fbclid=IwAR3CK-DR4YsSafnzzpE0pMlhGrDkyFkkNFW6U6SuSFnFfaYCB8HZGiInO5U

Ciao! 

Hermana Dangl 

Delawareeee!!!

That view tho 😍

I made my companion this.

A really happy girl in her favorite city! 

If this isn't your castle, you aren't my prince 🤧😤

Elena's baptism!!

Dumpster Driving

 

Helloooo!

This week we made the move to our new apartment! The musty smell is slowly leaving so that's a plus! Oh and most importantly, we have a couch so life is good. During the move, we were throwing tons of stuff away and after a while I realized I couldn't find my phone anywhere.  After searching everywhere, I started hyping myself up on the way to the dumpster to go looking for it.  Before getting there, we decided to stop by the front office to see if anyone turned it in. By some miracle, they did! Not too surprised though because who would steal a Samsung? But, that was a huge blessing and I didn't have to go dumpster diving!! 

In other news, our friend Joel is back on date to get baptized later this month and we are so excited for him!

This week we had a really great meeting about using more videos to share our message. We tried it out and had some really cool miracles with that!  We were able to start talking to some new friends that said that they really liked our videos!  

Another huge tender mercy this week! We drove to the Mission Office for our exchanges but our new companion was late because they were at the airport dropping off a sister to fly down to Chile. We had to stay and wait for a while but I was able to see all my past companions, that I hadn't seen for a super long time. 

Last night we had a devotional with President Niumatalolo and his wife Barbara. President is a member of our branch and he also happens to be the US Naval Academy head football coach! Check out "Meet the Mormons" too to hear his story :) They are such strong examples of faith and of putting God first above everything.

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS6PZh6tCC0&t=1467s

Go to 12:12 – 24:03 (12 min) to watch Coach Niumatalolo

Love, Hermana Dangl 

 

I have a new address for the next month. 

Hermana Rachel Dangl

994 Spa Rd. #102 Annapolis, MD  21403

Late birthday fake rose because we are classy! 

Just a lil windy!

East Coast 

Mom on the West Coast and Hermana Dangl on the East Coast

Crying on the inside. RIP Newport

What's 9+10?

 

Where do I even start?! Well first off, Annapolis is stuck with me for ANOTHER 6 weeks. Yeah, I may or may not have kinda told everyone I was going to leave, but here we are!! Guess there's still work I need to do out here :) But we rarely escape transfers change free so a sister in our zone is joining our companionship! We will be a trio for the next 3 weeks until Sis Patterson heads out to Chile.  Also we are having to move apartments. I was 99% positive I'd be moving this transfer ,but I didn't ever think it would be 100 feet away to a different apartment in our complex. 

It's going to be great!!!! :)))

This week was really great for so many reasons!

- So many amazing lessons and English classes.

- It got up to 50 degrees one day!

- Free b-day bundt cake 

- Service with my old trainee and future comp!

- Lots and lots of birthday celebrations. Birthweek am I right?? 

- I was able to see some family from Virginia for my birthday.

- Interviews with President and I got the OK to accept a birthday cake from a member on Sunday. 

- I was serenaded Happy Birthday in 3 different languages.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes!!! Your support means the world to me! 🥰🥰 

I think everyone should spend their 21st birthday teaching people about Jesus. 

Now THAT is a party.

Love, Hermana Dangl (an old lady according to my baby 19 y/o comp) 

Service with some familiar faces.

How could I ever leave this place? 

A fancy girl at a fancy restaurant.

One of my favorite families! 

Hermana Evan's could beat the Cake Boss anyday.

Unreal. I know. 

Visit from some family on my bday with Crumbl.

A year of miracles

 

I'm not sure what's more impressive. The fact that I just hit a year on the mission this week or that I'm still writing these things. 

But seriously, what a year?!?!

I've gotten a little nostalgic thinking about the day I left for my mission and all that's happened since then. Deciding to go on a mission was a wrestle. For months, I felt confused, stuck, and unable to identify a clear answer about what I should do. However, through it all, the thought that everything would be okay never left my mind. Days before leaving, I was still asking myself what I was getting myself into, but I told myself that I just needed to be brave and trust. I said goodbye and got on a plane to Mexico. Finally upon stepping onto the grounds of the MTC, I got that much longed for confirmation that this was exactly where I needed to be. Here I am, one year later, and I am really glad I made that decision to be brave and just trust :) 

We celebrated my 1 year by going outside and eating Ben & Jerry's while it was snowing. People gave us WEIRD looks but the ice cream didn't melt and it was delicious, so I'd call that a win in my book.  Sister Patterson made me breakfast and we were busy with lessons for the rest of the day 😁😁

Some big tender mercies from this week

- I was like "man it's been a while since I've seen a GOOD sunrise/sunset" then the next day we woke up and the sky was on fire, so we raced over to the water to go watch it.

- Lots of English classes with the most amazing people.

- Got to translate while we were serving at a food pantry.

- Found premade pupusas at Safeway!!!! They are 10x better fresh but I'll take what I can get.

- We were gifted Mountain Dew and fudge from our district for Valentine's Day.

- Service at the Bishop's Storehouse!!!!!! 

- Got to go to church in person for the first time this month and some of our less active friends came! 

- Taught the youth about why missionary work is the BEST.

Next time I write one of these I'll be an old lady 😮😮 so until next time!! 

Ciao, Hermana Dangl 

Miracle Sunrise 

Got em

My breakfast feast and a peasant meal

Icons being icons

Bishop's Storehouse

 

I'm cold!

Just another crazy, awesome week down and to top it off, Sister Patterson just got news that she's going to Chile next month!!

This week our FB page posted an ad for English classes and a ton of people responded. We've been working a lot to contact these people and organize the lessons. WOW, these are some of the coolest people I've ever met. They have amazing stories are so dedicated and willing to learn. A good amount of them have said that they remember meeting the missionaries back in their home countries and would love to continue learning about the church :)))

Other highlights

- Church was canceled again because of the ice :/ so we got permission to go to a member's house for the sacrament. First time going into someone's house in a million years!! 

- We got to help out at a food drive with the youth in our branch! It was pouring icy rain and super freezing but really really fun!!  

- We got to go on splits with the sister training leaders in our area then the next day they heart-attacked us for Valentine's Day 🥰🥰

- Made a new friend at the Pupusa truck 

- We made a super awesome video for our FB page so go hype it up!!  

https://www.facebook.com/spanish.misionerosMD/posts/156336089349297

Copy the link above and paste it into your browser.

Tell us in 5 words or less what Jesus Christ is to you? 

That's it for this week! 

Ciao, Hermana Dangl 

Mona Lisa looks so good in this pic.

Service!! 

Splits! 

Shoutout to our secret admirer. 

Yonce absolutely encapsulated in thicc ice. 

Don't go to the East Coast, it's a trap!