Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Missionary life



finally...PICTURES FROM ELDER DALY...yay!



Elder Daly~February 24, 2009...it's still cold!

Hey siemanko family... laners congrats on BYU!!!! ahh yeahhhhhh thats so tight... summer is going
to be straight up righteousness.. in more ways than one if ya kno what i mean.. congratulations.. now
you can live it up your last 3 months of highschool.. parrrtyyy yeahhh.. just kidding, kinda..
try not to pull a sean and fail your classes your last semester of senior year though, dad will dominate you.
This week was amaaaazing. Danuta has a baptisimal date!! mhmmm .. she finally got out of the hospital and
her health is ok.. could be better, but we had a meeting with her before church on sunday and we taught her the gospel
of Jesus Christ.. i started teaching about baptism and read a scripture out of Mosiah about how all the homies were way
stoked to jump in the waters of Mormon and get baptized. After I read it I asked her what she thought about it and she
was like.. "Well, I'm like them, i want to be baptized!" She's the most elect lady ever. She has a date for April 4th because
unfortunately she has some medication she has to be on for march that is going to make her kinda inactive for a a few weeks..
i think she'll change her mind and get baptized earlier but then again we arent exactly sure what kind of medication she has to be on.
I went on exchanges with Elder Tanner this week it was good times... nothing way too crazy happened this week that I can think of.
Its still cold. We had interviews with President, he's doing well... personally, i think he's trunky. Transfers are coming up in a couple weeks..
always exciting. Most of our investigators right now are older polish women and we had 4 of them in church this week.. it was pretty funny because
they all became best friends and just dominated the investigator sunday school class with older polish woman mojo.. i dont know what that means
but it was good, you can take my word for it.
Hope all is well .. love you guys
elder daly

Monday, February 23, 2009



forgot one...'Alysia killing off another companion'

new companion..yay!

February 23, 2009

i had a lil extra time to add some recent pics of my last week with hermana plauche...us with a menos activo we found (Alfredo) who reminds me of the pixar short movie with the old man that plays chess against himself lol. Then a pic of the jovenes in our ward who have great callings...our ward mission leader, elders´ quorum counselor, and one of the bishop´s secretary! Then a pic of last lunch with some elders in the zone, and finally me killing off another companion lol



Hermana Daly~February 23, 2009..'the work is hard and great'!

Hola familia!!
> Yay…another great companion!! Hermana Zamudio is from Santiago – San Bernando. Where did you serve in Santiago Dad?? She has six months in the mission, so a little more than me. Her first sectores were in Antofagasta, so she says it is weird to be so far away from the mission office. I am her first gringa companion and this is her first cambio as senior companion…so I need to be nice and behave lol. She doesn´t speak a lot of English, but says she understands a lot…she wants me to teach her some English. But she is way nice and caring; always making sure I have everything I need. Very loving!! So we are going to have a good cambio!
> This last week we focused on menos activos and had lots of success. Four came to Church yesterday, so that was good!! We also visited members, so Hermana Zamudio could get to know them and so we could work together with them to find more menos activos. And all the jóvenes (like missionary age members) accompanied us this last week which was nice. They always like to help out and we always want help from members. Good work on feeding the missionaries mom…pizza sounds really good right now lol. I think I am going to see what McDonalds is like in Chile today…I need something different haha lol.
> But ya, all is well. I´m starting to feel like Sean where I don´t have a lot to say each email. The work is hard and great!! Having the former assistant to president as a zone leader is fun! He likes to make sure us Hermanas have everything and that all is well. He is gringo and my district leader…so a lot more gringos this cambio which is different. But I can understand them on the phone better, which has its benefits haha.
> Hope everyone is enjoying life! CONGRATS LANERS ON GETTING INTO BYU!!! PARTY! You are going to have tons of fun!!! Love you all!!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly
>
> P.S. Friends - here is my address again for those who wanted it...
> Chile Antofagasta Mission
> Sucre 220, Oficina 504
> Edificio Bulnes
> Antofagasta, II Region
> Chile

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Elder Daly~February 17, 2009...music and lyrics!

alright alright im sorrrrry i havent sent any pictures.. the honest truth its that i havent really taken that many because my memory card has been full for a month and i havent had the chance to burn my pics to a disc .. life has been busy and i keep forgetting to bring blank cds with me to email. Today im in katowice and i dont have my camera or cd's.. im useless i know.. next week i will send some pics i double pinky swear promise.

This week we didnt get to meet with danuta which naturally means she doesnt have a baptisimal date as of yet... we called up her husband to see if we could find out where she's staying in order to visit her.. he wasnt very cooperative though, curses.

For some reason all of the babcias (anciently old polish women) really like Elder Whipple and I. We had a couple of meetings with some pretty sicky grandmas on valentines day.. one of them was actually really interested in finding out more. We didnt have a meeting Aneta or Edyta this week, they are pretty close to dropped. Slawek met with us but he still wont keep his commitments ... keep working on him i suppose

Elder Rushton and I had a miracle story this week.. yesterday actually.. so elder rushton was chosen among a few missionaries to try and write this poland warsaw mission anthem.. i was called to just and write some lyrics... anyways they need it done before zone conference next month so Elder Rushton and I came down to katowice last night for pday today in order to work with some other missionaries and get er done. It was pretty unreal riding on a train and rocking duo acoustics through the winter wonderland of the polski country last night... anyways we got into katowice and while we were walking home with the other missionaries this guy and his daughter sees us and our guitars.. asks where we are from and invites us to go grab a drink and chat.. so we ended up talking to this guy about the church and why we are in poland for like an hour.. rushton even jammed for him.
moral of the story... no idea... but it was cool.

We had Jenny Phillips come to warsaw this week and perform.. shes supposedly pretty well-known in the churchy, efy-ish, cheesy-lyric yet spiritually inviting genre of music..it was good, our investigator Gerta came to the concert and loved it.. Music pulled through for us this week as far as being the catalyst of mircales.

Elder Whipple continues to be everything a missionary is meant to be .. comes in at night, plans, and studies the old testament until bed time.. and then throws down like 35-minute prayers (maybe longer, sometimes im asleep by the time he finishes)... wakes up and exercises.. recites scriptures in the shower.. and then dominates the streets and sitdown lessons all day. He's the man, we have a way good time together...

i think thats it from my end, i got that amazing package from you guys.. ahh goodness i love you guys! I was wayy too excited to get that calendar haha.. its the bomb. The clothes made me way happy too haha ive been wearing the same thing every p-day.. its nice to have something to switch it up... and yes mom i know i need to get out and go running in the mornings :-)

love you so much

Elder Daly

Monday, February 16, 2009

February 16, 2009...lots of changes!

> Hola familia!
> I can´t believe the cambio is over!! We worked hard this last week and were able to have our goal of 3 less-actives in Sacrament Meeting, yay!! Hermana Plauche has been saying her goodbyes to members who give us too much food…yesterday I was about to die from too much chicken and bread and juice and just food in general lol. But lots of love from the members!!
> But all the companionships are changing in our zone! My new companion is Hermana Zamudio who is from Santiago, Chile. She will be coming to Arica sometime on Tuesday, so that´s exciting. I don´t know anything about her, but I´m sure she is great! Three of the missionaries in our zone are going home, two are going to train the newbies, our zone leader is going to Calama, our new zone leader Elder Verwer who is coming has been an assistant to the president the past few cambios. Lots of changes!! We are going to work hard this next cambio…we need to get out of the vacationing months so we can have more progressing investigadors lol!
> And that is the news besides I am melting…SO SO HOT! We can´t even fall asleep at night it is so hot and then wake up in the morning sweating…love it lol! But I guess the winters here are really cold…like Provo cold without the snow. I can´t believe it, but I guess I will find out in a few months.
> Love you all!! Hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine´s Day…share that love with everyone :)
>
> Adiocito,
> Hermana Daly

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Elder Daly~February 10, 2009...Happy Valentines Day!

Whats up homskils... merry valentines day to everyone! Can't say im incredibly stoked for it but im sure whipple and i will try and set up a meeting with our best looking investigator for that day.. juust kiddinggg... not but.. for real...

We had a way funny week.... yesterday we had a meeting with Aneta and her sister. Every meeting with Aneta is a new action-packed adventure and it usually ends up taking a little more time than we'd like. But this time it was a little different. Whipple and I were determined to teach her and her sister (edyta) a second lesson.. But when we met up with them we come to find out that Aneta is a little .. well... she was feeling the effects of a bad decision .. she partook of something she shouldnt have.. but it actually ended up being kinda of a good thing.. because we got to sit down with them and instead of aneta dominating the conversation she was completely out and we got to teach edyta a whole second lesson! and the Spirit was there! It's kinda sad that drugs caused it, but i think it was a miracle :-)

Our golden woman Danuta was at church again this week and she is doing really good! She had to go to the hospital this week for some sort of inflammation of something.. i need to study body organs ima little rusty.. but she said she'd be ok ... i asked her how her reading of the book of mormon because last week we gave her something from 3 NE to read...she read from there to the end of the book! yeah.. she's the bomb diggity.

We had a handful of first lessons with some potentials.. a couple of them were pretty curious but a couple others were legit and we have seconds with them.. seconds are good.

We had a sports saturday this week.. we played soccer but it was way too intense for me.. we played with a bunch of iraqis the sisters know and investigators .. it was actually kinda frightening .. the iraqis would scream and yell alot .. im not racist but i did feel like i was in danger on more than one occasion.. it was a good time though

i havent gotten the package yet mom but im sure its on its way, thanks a trillion :-) Poland does celebrate valentines day.. i think? but it doesnt seem like its as intense as in the states.. they have like 4 different days for women here and i think the biggest one is in march, dzien kobiet (womans day) our presentation we did for zone conference was on the atonement, and using the Spirit to be inspired and creative in the work.. about not getting in a rut and making sure we apply the gospel individually to each person we teach.

thats crazy that aaron and kev are already home... tell him i say hi ...

i love you family ... live it up this week.. laners you dont let them get too close on valentines alright? ;-)

here's a quote that our mission president put in the weekly email this week that i really liked .. its by picasso.. what a champ

Everything you can imagine is real

yeah i have shivers too, drink it in.

Elder Daly

Monday, February 9, 2009

Hermana Daly~February 9, 2009.."share the gospel"

Hola familia!This last week we focused on menos activos aka less-actives!! It was a week of treasure hunting lol…its pretty fun…we have our long ward list and then pick a street and start knocking all the doors where members live or use to live. We find out a lot of new things about people…those who have been inactive for over 20 years and others just a few. However, it is hard to find those who are willing to listen again to us and want to come back to the Church. But the few that were home and let us in were great! We found one older man who was only baptized like 5 years ago and got sick and stopped going, and then never returned because he thought the Church forgot about him. So we were really grateful to find him and invite him back…he is way nice!! So hopefully we will start getting menos activos coming back to Church. This is the last week of the cambio and last week of Hermana Plauche´s mission! It is crazy how fast the transfers go by! Not enough time to get all the stuff done that we want to. But it has been another crazy up and down rollercoaster cambio…I´m starting to get use to the constant ups and downs. Hermana Plauche is a great missionary and companion, and like Hermana Flores doesn´t want to go home, but wants to stay in the mission forever! Lol :) So she will leave next week and I will stay and await my next companion. And I don´t know if they are going to send two more missionaries back into our sector or not...we will see! The mission is great…lots of learning experiences each day!!! Love you all and hope everyone is doing fantastic!! Share the Gospel :)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Baptism Day




Hermana Daly~February 2, 2009..FIRST BAPTISM!

Hola familia!!!!
> Happy Groundhog´s Day!!…don´t know if it is really today, but Hermana Plauche wished me a happy groundhog´s day this morning lol. So this past weekend VICTOR WAS BAPTIZED!!! It went great! His mom, sister, and family friend were able to come...and then Camilo and his family. It was a happy day...we thanked 10 year old ´ball of fun´ Camilo for sharing the Gospel with Victor...missionary at age 10! We will always remember when Camilo told us his story of how one day Victor told Camilo he was looking for a church to go to. Camilo listened and was like hmmm...that´s cool. After he went home, he said he felt bad and like he should have told Victor about The Church...so he went back over to Victor´s and said “Hey Victor, you should come to my Church!” And Victor was like, ok ya! Then Camilo said, I really think it was the Spirit that told me to invite Victor :) We said yes Camilo, it was!! Victor was really a gift to us from Camilo. I have learned that it is really through references of members that we have success. We are trying to get the ward really energized about missionary work because we really need more references. Missionaries and members together is the key!
> Then Sunday Victor was confirmed and his mom and sister came too! His mom is inactive, so we are seeing if we can get her back to Church. And then his sister isn´t a member and is now really interested...so we will see what happens there. With every blessing comes a trial, and with every trial comes a blessing. After experiencing the joy of a baptism, we had to be put back to work and the day after was way hard with no one home for appointments and no new people interested. The Lord really does teach His missionaries about patience and humility! We are continually learning lessons about patience and humility...it is the Lord´s will and work! So lots of hard work this week!!! We are really going to focus on visiting members and helping them understand their responsibilty with missionary work. The members are all way nice and strong...they just need not be afraid to share the Gospel with others and see the importance of it!! I want to bless everyone with the missionary Spirit...together we must and will preach the Gospel to all the world...it´s just a bit easier together :) So family, like I always say...help the missionaries out!!! You will be blessed!
> Well I love everyone so much!! Hope everyone continues to do well!!! Share the Gospel!!!
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Elder Sean~February 2, 2009...travelin' to the 'shire of Warsaw'

hey there fam

a lot of way good things happened this week! unfortunately whipple is leaving to lublin in a few minutes so this is going to be quick.

Aneta- apparently she invited a devil into her and wants us to cast it out... she's struggling.

3 of our progessors came to church this past week with us.. which you think would be a good thing... ok well it is a good thing. kinda ... it was fast sunday in warsaw 2 branch which means that anyone can get up and bear their testimony. I would compare it to being a parent and bringing your kids to one of those big dog richman.com dinners where you are trying to impress 3 corporate king-quesidillas... you hope that your example and discipline has rubbed off on your kids and you just pray they dont do anything ridonkulous... Well some of the crazier members got up and talked about irrelevant things which in the end drove away the spirit and made sacrament meeting kind of a joke. One of the investigators i was sitting by said to me at the end of the meeting, "well that was an entertaining show."

The people we are working with right now are pretty chill though so i think they realize that people are still people even in the church.. just kind of a shame that missionaries in the past of baptized some crazy people.. which isnt a bad thing ofcourse, it just has more of an effect when there arent very many members.

I went on an exchange this week with elder rushton in my district.. it was a way good time.. we got let in tracting and taught this sweet bonus hick family that wasnt really interested. Then we traveled out to the shire of warsaw... the most magical of areas in my opinion.. we taught this cool guy krzysztof.. our communist, atheist buddy. He's cool and willing to read.

We are planning on giving a baptisimal date to Danuta this week she's the womAN!!! love her, she baked freaking intense polish blood sausage for break the fast on sunday.. she's committed.

we had zone conference this past week.. it was great.. elder whipple and i gave a presentation at it. it went good i hope..

we also found out that we got our pdays moved to tuesday.. so you can expect this ridiculously eloquent and descriptive emails to be getting to you then instead of monday.

prosto love

elder sean