Jan 26 " It's new missionary day in the Great California San Fernando Mission!"

Hooray!  It's new missionary day in the Great California San Fernando Mission!  It's a beautiful winter day with

weather in the low 70's and some gorgeous clouds.  

Today is filled with paperwork and training--and proselyting!  We always like to go out and talk with everyone as soon as we can.  We always see miracles--from return appointments to the miracle of speaking Spanish for the first time :)

Tomorrow we will have transfer meeting and everyone will meet their trainer who will be with them for the first twelve weeks.  After the twelfth week they are fully trained (and can train someone new!)

Mondays are Preparation days and so you should be getting a email then.  We did give them a chance to write on paper so you should get an actual letter in the next few days.

We are so excited to serve with your missionary!  It is a great blessing to work shoulder to shoulder with these great young missionaries.  

We ask your help in helping your missionaries be successful.  When you write, ask about missionary work and tell them about the missionary work that YOU are doing.  The best way to do missionary work as a parent is to tell everyone that your child is a missionary!  The more you talk about what they are doing the more people will want to know why.  

Missionaries are awesome, but missions are hard.  One of the biggest adjustments is new companions, so when you pray for your missionary, pray for the companion, too!  

Again, we are so excited to work with these wonderful missionaries!

Thank you for sending them.

Love,

Sister Dianna Hall

What I Want You To Know (before I leave again)

I feel very strongly that I need to share these things with you, whoever may be reading this.

I have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ because I have prayed for myself and I know with all of my heart that it is true and that it will bless my life more so than it already has.

I'm about to give up sixteen more months of my life to serve my God and help bring others closer to Christ. I will sacrifice approximately 504 (more) days or 12,096 (more) hours of my life (in addition to the two months I have already spent as a missionary), not to mention thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours of sleep, my brother's graduation and commissioning, and countless other events.

I have the support of my wonderful parents, and my amazing siblings (a blessing I am extremely grateful for every single day), who all happen to be some of my very best friends in the whole world. (Mom, Dad, Cody & Rachelle, Carrie, Cassidy... I love you more than you can know).

I will not tear down other religions.

I will not compare other religions.

I respect your religion and your beliefs and I will do whatever it takes to defend them.

I will try and do my best to understand you.

I will support you in whatever ways I can possibly think of.

Because I love you.

But I want to make something very, very clear.

I will not apologize for my religion.

I will not hesitate to say a good word for my religion.

I will not hesitate to share my testimony with others or to answer any questions they may have.

I will not abandon my religion because it's too hard or too demanding, or because others do not support my beliefs.

I will not let my testimony be diminished because of others' words or beliefs.

I will not let my relationship with my God change because I listened to other people and not to the Spirit.

My beliefs do not change my love, respect, or admiration of family and friends. They never have, and they never will. I love you no matter what.

But I will not sacrifice my faith for anything or anyone.

If you have any questions about what I believe, about what I will be doing as a missionary, or just in general, please contact me. I'm happy to answer honest, sincere questions. But I will not argue with you. I will not quarrel, quibble, or squabble with you. That's not my purpose, and that's not my goal.

My purpose as a missionary, is to invite others to come unto Christ.

And I intend to fulfill that purpose with every fiber of my being. 

I'm going back!

I got the call this morning!

Spanish Speaking (of course)

A few weeks before I entered the MTC, I was in a car accident in Tooele on my way to be a counselor at Camp Kesem. I didn't ever see a doctor or report it to the police because the guy that hit me sped off, and I needed to be up at the camp pretty soon. A week into my stay at the MTC, I started getting progressively worse migraines, that eventually confined me to bed during the two weeks I was able to serve in México. After spending some time in the Juárez ER, seeing a few doctors there in México (and being diagnosed with an ear infection...), it was decided that I would return home. But we didn't know what was causing the headaches until about two months later, after seeing several doctors (all with different diagnoses), when we made the connection between the car accident and the migraines. I started seeing a chiropractor at the end of November, and I've improved remarkably- as in, night and day difference between now and when I came home. I resubmitted my paperwork on December 30th, after being medically cleared and finally heard back from Missionary Medical and the First Presidency today, where they reassigned me to California, so that I can continue to see a chiropractor one to two times or more per month. The funny thing is, a few weeks after I got home, I had a dream that California was where I would be reassigned to. And apparently, my sweet MTC companion had a similar dream while she was serving in México about my reassignment as well. 

While I will miss México sooooooo much, I know I'm supposed to be headed to California. I'm so grateful for the time I was able to spend in México, for the people I met in the MTC that I wouldn't have met had I originally been called to California,  for the time I've been able to spend with my wonderful family, and for the experiences that I have had leading up to this point. I know that I'm needed in California and I'm excited to be a missionary again!

I leave on Jan 26th, which is one day after my four month mark of being home.

I'm so excited!!!!!!!