A Story of Coversion Part Two-The Wedding

Remember my friend Daniela from this post? Well, last summer she got engaged to the love of her life! I am thrilled that I was able to be a part of her special weekend. I flew out to Dallas the day after Christmas and from the moment I landed it was go time. I stayed at Daniela's house with her and her family. He mother is such a sweet and generous woman. I can see where Daniela gets her kindness from. I was given a warm welcome and practically pampered the rest of the weekend.

 After we had lunch, we headed to the Dallas Temple where Daniela went through for the first time. I heard a quote once that I'm going to paraphrase. It was something like, true conversion happens not at baptism but when the individual goes through the temple for the first time. I am so lucky that I got to witness Daniela's full conversion into the church. The picture above is of everyone who was there.

 The next day was the sealing. These two kids were meant for each other.

 Awe.

 The bride's parents were so proud.

 It was such a beautiful day in Dallas for a wedding.

 The grooms family.

 The grooms parents. I really enjoyed getting to know Blake's (groom) mother. Such a sweet lady.

 Groom and brides parents.

 Two families became one.

 The whole grooms family.

 The whole bride's family.

 I was so impressed with Daniela's grandmother. She is one awesome lady. On the morning of the wedding, she got up and went to a hot yoga class! Last year, she did this monstrous walk through Spain called the Camino which is like 500 miles long! On the morning that I left I said good-bye to her. She only speaks Spanish and I could only understand a little but during out good-bye I could tell she was expressing gratitude and love in the things that she said.

The boys, being boys.

The reception.

 Mmmmm. Red velvet wedding cake.

 There reception was at the Palace Arts Center next to the Palace Arts Theater. Inside, Elvis was strumming his guitar.

 This is the theater.

 Oh man. Main Street was so CUTE! It had such a small town feel with great old buildings and lots of Christmas decorations up. I was told more than once that it is the Christmas Capitol of Texas.

 I don't what this building is. It was across the street from the venue. Too cute.

 Water pumping windmill on Main Street.

Susan "hunka hunka burning love" B.

A Story of Conversion

So, one of my friends here at Uni is Daniela. She is an International Journalism major like me. We had two classes together last semester and we worked on a couple of projects together and she lived down the hall from me. Daniela is originally from Mexico but moved to Texas when she was 9-years-old. Her  and her family have lived there since.

Daniela and I were both on the school trip to Poland. We shared a hostel together with one other girl. One night, after a full day of sight-seeing, the three of us, plus a few of the other students were hanging out in our hostel room. Daniela was editing photos she had taken that day when she got a Skype call from one of her friends back home. She said, "oh, this is my friend from Texas, he's away at University too at BYU." A red flag went up on my LDS radar. So I asked "Is he Mormon?" I already knew the answer. She said "yes, he is" and I said, "Oh, me too." Daniela got happy and she turned her computer around so that Michael (BYU student in the computer) and I could awkwardly wave at each other. Once the Skype conversation ended, the room of students I was in, started asking me questions about the gospel. I get real nervous answering these kinds of questions, for fear that I might say the wrong thing or say something that will lead people to think badly about the church.

I made it through the Q and A with flying colors, but I kept asking Daniela about Michael to find out how much she knew about the gospel and who he was. She told me he had put in his papers to go on a mission and he was leaving on January 4th. I told her she should write him letters while he was on the mish, cause I know how much missionaries like that. She said she planned to.

Fast forward to the end of January when I went back to University after Christmas break. I caught up with Daniela and she told me she had been to Michael's farewell and she had written him once. One day, I logged into Facebook and I had a message from Daniela asking me where she could find a Book of Mormon. I told, I was on it. She had that book in her hands within 48 hours. I felt a little guilty, like maybe I should have been the one to ask her if she wanted one. Turns out, Michael had written her and gave her scriptures to look up and read.

Every once in a while I would ask her if she had any questions on what she was reading and she always smiled and said she didn't. I told her if she did, she could ask me. Then one Sunday I was sitting in sacrament meeting and the bishopric were giving the talks. In his talk, the Bishop gave the ward three challenges: (1) Read the scriptures daily (2) Meet two new people in the ward and (3) INVITE someone to meet with the missionaries. He emphasized the word 'invite'. He explained that the only thing required of us was to ask someone if they wanted to meet with the missionaries. If that someone said 'no', we still did our part.

I immediately thought of Daniela. After church that day, I sent her a message and asked her if she wanted to meet with the missionaries. She responded happily with a YES. So, the next week I went and told the sister missionaries about her and set up the appointment. The first day the four of us  met was Tuesday, March 20th. We continued to meet every Tuesday and Thursday after that and three weeks after the first visit, Daniela agreed to be baptized on April 20th! I was SUPER excited for her! She read the scriptures on her own, she prayed on her own and she came to this decision on her own. WOW.

In all honesty, I don't feel as though I did much by way of Daniela's conversion. I'm just excited that she was open and willing. I have been really lucky to be able to sit in on the discussion and hear the basics of the gospel. You remember things and learn new things when you go back to the basics. I will never forget the first time I heard Daniela pray! Inspiring. It's a scary thing to do in front of your peers even when you have been doing it your whole life and she did it with out that kind of experience. She took the bull by the horns! And then, the missionaries asked her to write down her testimony a few days before her baptism and she read it out loud to us. Made me proud and warmed my heart. It was UH-MAZING. 

So we planned the baptism and I was asked to give a talk on 'The Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End'. It was OK. I got through it. Also, I brought cupcakes.

Daniela and I after she got baptized.

Daniela and one of the sister missionaries that came.

With the elders.

Sister Buckley has been teaching Daniela since the beginning. Daniela was Sister Buckley's first baptism since being on the mission.

Sister Freeman on the left started teaching Daniela with Sister Buckley a couple of weeks ago.

The four of us in front of the baptismal font.

Sister Felix with Sister Buckley are the two original missionaries to speak with Daniela. Sister Felix finished her mission on April 12th and is back home with her family.

That is Easter Sunday.

Susan "choose the right" B.