Missionary Mom online!!!!!!!

Hello to one and all!

Miracles are happening at the Delis household!  Not just in my children's lives, but my own.  Look here I am attempting to compose my first post from both our missionaries!!!!  YEAH!  Katie will be soooooo proud!  (Between you and me I am sure she thought this was NEVER going to happen!  But look I'm doing it and I haven't even referred to the awesome slide show she created!)  (Katie, if you are reading this...after this post I will consult your tutorial and try to be fancy like you in the coming weeks.)

The intention for this blog is to help keep family and friends current on what is happening in Elder Delis' and Hermana Delis' lives.  My goal is to post a portion of each of their weekly letters here with photos!   So here goes...ENJOY!

ELDER DELIS: 
(Background information:  Christian is in Springfield, Oregon (even after his tonsil surgery he was able to fly out with his MTC District and arrived in Oregon February 7th) with his first companion, Elder Mackey.  He and his companion's area includes two wards covering both an Eugene and Springfield area.  They live on the second level of a member's home.  Christian has described the area as looking just like Vienna--he could not believe how much it feels like home!  Today's post is what his what his Monday schedule was like last week.)
 
SUBJECT:  The simplest things come from acts of love!

Family!

I hope all is well!  I am writing you this throughout the weeks so that I am not spending my whole Monday morning writing something that isn't short and not very good (note: he is NOT kidding, his email was 4 pages printed!  We loved it!!!). 

Well today is Monday night...We eat every Monday at President Lowry's (counselor in the mission presidency) home for lunch (I actually found out that I also have dinner with him next week so that is pretty awesome!) we had stuffed peppers.  They were sooooooo good!  This is a fun part of my week.  I have to say though I had to do another set of laundry since it was rainy and muddy.  I was SUPER dirty after I played football.  It was tons of fun!  After we came back and then got ready to proselyte for the night.  We first went to Glendakay Wilconson.  She is 9 or 10, her dad is a member but he is a little on the less active side, but a super nice man!  Anyways, she wants to get baptized and she is going to be on the 4th.  Luckily she has had most of the lessons so it's kind of easy to teach her.  But she does have a hard time concentrating.  We taught her the "Gospel of Jesus Christ," the 3rd lesson.  The lesson was quite short she was trying to watch Tangled so she was trying to kick us out.  hahahahaha!  After we were done we ate dinner at the Phellp's home.  Brother Phellp's works for AT&T.  After dinner we went to the Washington home.  They are investigators or their kids are.  The parents have a testimony of the truthfulness of the church, I just that they have some things that they feel they need to get over before they join the church.  LEt me see what did we do after that, OH! Then we went and saw David and Monica Smith.  They are AWESOME investigators!  They are so solid!!!  We went for a short time since it was so late, it was 8:30 when we got there all that we gave was a tracker of the lessons that we have completed and what we haven't done at all.  So it's really cool, it will help them see their progression.  I think that will help them to see what they think we can do to help them to understand the Gospel more fully.

LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Christian James Delis


HERMANA DELIS:
(Background Information:  Katie arrived at the MTC on February 23rd.  Her companion is named Hermana Hoer (sounds like her) from California.  Katie's comment about her in a previous letter says, "She is great! we are just two girls happy to be serving!"  She will be studying at the MTC for a total of 9 weeks and flies to Chicago on April 26th.  Yes this means she will celebrate Easter at the MTC, but not Mother's Day! Yeah for me!)

SUBJECT: Some goofy elder was just singing the "Digimon" theme song next to me in the laundry room...elders are WEIRD. :)

HELLO!  Happy today! 

Well, I can sometimes speak Spanish! This week's "Hna Delis language blunder" was that I blessed my district to become "Pig Missionaries" in the closing prayer the other night. If it wasn't so normal for me to make mistakes, I would makybe be embarrassed. BUT, my language triumph: I bore my testimony in Spanish in front of the whole zone in sacrament meeting totally unprepared!! It was so neat. We have sacrament in Spanish every week. I'm surprised by how much I can understand. But testimonies are the same in all languages. I am so grateful for the confidence and love that comes from having the Spirit with you. It is the most sustaining feelings. Thank heavens!

 

My favorite part of being a missionary is talking to people! We talk to everyone! About everything! It's awesome. Everyone has a neat story, and the gospel is always happy. It's a perfect combination! And it's my life these days. It's not always smooth sailing--it's kind of a rollercoaster most the time. It's hard. I don't know why that sometimes surprises me that it's hard, ha, but it does. Because I am dumb. But I've never been so grateful to be learning so much. I don't realize how much I am learning until I take the time to actually think, "Oh hey, I've only been here two weeks (not even!), and I can carry on a conversation in Spanish, I know how to teach a lot a bit better, and I am surrounded by really incredible people who are always teaching me by example." I was looking in my journal last night and couldn't even believe it was mine--so much goes on! I've learned a lot. I am one lucky girl. Thanks for helping me get here. I will always cherish this time. I really couldn't ask for more. :)

 

I have no idea how Christian managed to write so much--P-days are so stressful! I have so much to do in so little time! I think I might just be a more stressed out kind of gal. That's okay I suppose. :) I'm grateful for the gospel, I love it. I am grateful for the Spanish language, and more importantly the language of the Spirit. It testifies all the time of the truth. I love the Savior, and I know Heavenly Father loves us all. I am so grateful to represent this gospel. It's true. :)

 

Love you lots and lots!

 

Hna Delis :)