Mom,
Well, I am definitely feeling better. The only thing I have left to take care of is a really bad cough and some stomach pain, but it doesn't stop us from getting out to work.
That being said it seems like the adversary is working extra hard to make us not functional because my companion also got a pretty severe cut on the top of his hand haha. He just got out of a tryke and the poor guy just turned around and his hand hit another tryke that had a bunch of galvanized steel on the top, and the edge was really sharp, so we had to rush home and I had to use all that first aid stuff haha. His hand is all bandaged up right now, but he is doing okay.
Yet we managed to teach more than we did last week haha! The Lord has blessed us abundantly with success and support from the ward. This past thursday the Bishop just called and asked where we were an told us he was going to come pick us up in his car and work with us for the rest of the evening!! And we had so much fun working together that he told us he was going to work EVERY THURSDAY!! Never had a bishop like that before.
But that is just how it is here. This ward is like the best in the mission. Everyone knows their callings and just does them. When the Ward Mission Leader is on his way home from work he frequently will call us up and offer his evening and other help. Thats just amazing to me. I think about when I was working at batteries plus, if I was on my way home from work I confess that I was honestly rarely thinking
"boy, I wonder where the missionaries are right now and how I can help them"
But the Ward Mission Leader here and really all the members are just so converted and consecrated that they are always willing to sacrifice time and exert energy to pull their member missionary weight.
HERES A FUN FACT!
John Bytheway was assigned in this ward!! haha we have met some of his converts and many of the members were close with him. Just kinda cool haha.
Lester didn't make it to church in our ward. He went to the other ward with his friend, which is good but wont help him progress towards baptism:( we have to reset him probably. He is having a hard time adjusting to his new ward, please pray for him to overcome it, and be able to make new friends.
Anyway, I am not sure if I told you or not but President has assigned me to experiment with relentless week and try to find a way to make it a constant thing. So this transfer Dagupan Zone has just done Relentless Week EVERY WEEK! And I tell you what it had been exhausting haha. But it has really made us push and helped us to stretch and work to get those Progressing Investigators to make the baptismal covenant.
Anyway heres some fun news!!! MOTHERS DAY CALL IS COMING UP! I will be allowed to skype call you on May 9th in the morning (my time). So hopefully you can get that all ready and get everyone there who wants to be there:)
Anyway, I love you and I hope you are happy and doing well. Dont worry so much please? There are honestly some trials and some challenges that we face here that I just cant tell you about because the White Handbook really cautions about speaking negatively about where we serve in our emails home.
To sum it up I will say that I love these people to death, but there are some cultural things that really hold them back from their full potential and its enough to make a missionary want to rip his hair out haha. Much of it and the best parts of my adventure just cant be put in email and they will have to wait till I get home. I write in my journal every night, so its all recorded.
Just know that I am happy and alive and FOCUSED. Sometimes I think you see my emails and think that is a microcosm of my brain for the whole week. No. Its not. Today is P-Day. Today is the day where I am allowed to think about other stuff. It is healthy. Its is why we have been given this time. So when I get excited about music or other stuff dont worry so much. My companion and I keep each other in check. We dont talk about anything like that except on mondays before 6pm when we go out to work. Does that make sense? Please try to understand. I am not trunky. Far from it.
Anyway, enough of that:) Love ya
Elder Dahle
Monday, April 25, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Week #78 - Still very sick BUT still teaching!
Hey mom and dad
Not sure how long I can email. It got cut short last week because I threw up while emailing. I am pretty sick right now. PLEASE dont freak out and go beg sister deyro for info. I will tell you everything right now.
I started with really bad body aches just like when I got sick in march. Then I was vomiting a lot, and had a blazing fever. And the worst was I was having loose bowel moments every 20 minutes.
We though it was just a sickness that they call "trankaso", but then my stool started to have mixed blood and mucous. I had been in contact with sister deyro all week and she helped my get the fever to me manageable and lessen the pain of the body aches. However at this point the diagnosis seems to be that I have an intestinal parasite. We are not sure, if I do have one it is only a small or mild one. I have already been prescribed a release medicine so I can pass the worm.
Basically this sucks. I will email more in a bit, but the important thing is that you know that I am alive and about as happy as a person with a parasite can be. I am in good hands because sister deyro is a very talented doctor who is very receptive to revelation so she will make sure I get taken care of. I am drinking a ridiculous amount of water. the bad part is that it goes straight through my body.
Anyway, I did however get myself out of bed to work a couple days so I have some other things to tell you other than being bed ridden.
As for your questions yes me and my companion are very busy and having a great time, we basically dont ever get a break, we always are out doing something. Especially in Dagupan because it has the best hospital so when missionaries get sick and have to go there, we are the ones who go visit them and bring them food and such. I didnt get to go to church yesterday, but my companion happily reported that 5 of our investigators came to church:) Two of them live on an island that is pretty far away so it really takes some serious faith for them to make it to church, but they did:) Then there was a husband and a wife that we found last week and they came and had a really good experience. Then the last is Lester.
Lester is the most incredible investigator that I have ever had. He is a 19 year old who had been going to church in a neighbouring ward for like 2 months straight and the other ward thought he was a member, when they found out he wasnt they promptly referred him to us because he lives in our area. We went and taught him the restoration and felt the spirit really really strong. After coming to church for 2 months he pretty much already knew it all but he said it was really special when he heard it in the lesson. After the lesson we asked if he had any questions, he paused for a long time, then expressed his question about why people of African decent could not hold the priesthood before. after answering that tough question we warned him that it would be unwise for him to search the internet for things like that, and that his questioning should lead to stronger faith, not doubts. We told him that sometimes we dont know the exact reason or answer to questions like that, but through reading and prayer the spirit could speak peace to his mind and heart. Then next lesson we came back and he burst into tears and bore testimony of the divinity of the book of Mormon and Joseph Smiths prophetic ministry. It was incredible.
Anyway next question. Singing? Honestly it has been difficult to schedule anything new, we have a performance on the 24th and then we are looking to set up a street performance for the Bangus Festival.
BY THE WAY. Bangus. Bangus is what we call milkfish in the united states and it is a HUGE deal here. This month is the annual Bangus Festival and there are a lot of cool things going on, cultural celebrations, food tasting etc, When we come back, this is the time of year I want to come back to show you the bangus festival.
Yes being a zone leader does eat up proslyting time, but oddly enough we teach more lessons that I have my whole mission regardless. Last week we missed 2 days of work and still taught 40 lessons.
Anyway I am just going to focus on getting better for now and try to get out to work as soon as possible. Elder DaBell is taking good care of me, always making sure I have cold water, and a cool rag, and the meds I need. Anyway, I love you lots:) Bye
love you bunches:)
Elder Dahle
Not sure how long I can email. It got cut short last week because I threw up while emailing. I am pretty sick right now. PLEASE dont freak out and go beg sister deyro for info. I will tell you everything right now.
I started with really bad body aches just like when I got sick in march. Then I was vomiting a lot, and had a blazing fever. And the worst was I was having loose bowel moments every 20 minutes.
We though it was just a sickness that they call "trankaso", but then my stool started to have mixed blood and mucous. I had been in contact with sister deyro all week and she helped my get the fever to me manageable and lessen the pain of the body aches. However at this point the diagnosis seems to be that I have an intestinal parasite. We are not sure, if I do have one it is only a small or mild one. I have already been prescribed a release medicine so I can pass the worm.
Basically this sucks. I will email more in a bit, but the important thing is that you know that I am alive and about as happy as a person with a parasite can be. I am in good hands because sister deyro is a very talented doctor who is very receptive to revelation so she will make sure I get taken care of. I am drinking a ridiculous amount of water. the bad part is that it goes straight through my body.
Anyway, I did however get myself out of bed to work a couple days so I have some other things to tell you other than being bed ridden.
As for your questions yes me and my companion are very busy and having a great time, we basically dont ever get a break, we always are out doing something. Especially in Dagupan because it has the best hospital so when missionaries get sick and have to go there, we are the ones who go visit them and bring them food and such. I didnt get to go to church yesterday, but my companion happily reported that 5 of our investigators came to church:) Two of them live on an island that is pretty far away so it really takes some serious faith for them to make it to church, but they did:) Then there was a husband and a wife that we found last week and they came and had a really good experience. Then the last is Lester.
Lester is the most incredible investigator that I have ever had. He is a 19 year old who had been going to church in a neighbouring ward for like 2 months straight and the other ward thought he was a member, when they found out he wasnt they promptly referred him to us because he lives in our area. We went and taught him the restoration and felt the spirit really really strong. After coming to church for 2 months he pretty much already knew it all but he said it was really special when he heard it in the lesson. After the lesson we asked if he had any questions, he paused for a long time, then expressed his question about why people of African decent could not hold the priesthood before. after answering that tough question we warned him that it would be unwise for him to search the internet for things like that, and that his questioning should lead to stronger faith, not doubts. We told him that sometimes we dont know the exact reason or answer to questions like that, but through reading and prayer the spirit could speak peace to his mind and heart. Then next lesson we came back and he burst into tears and bore testimony of the divinity of the book of Mormon and Joseph Smiths prophetic ministry. It was incredible.
Anyway next question. Singing? Honestly it has been difficult to schedule anything new, we have a performance on the 24th and then we are looking to set up a street performance for the Bangus Festival.
BY THE WAY. Bangus. Bangus is what we call milkfish in the united states and it is a HUGE deal here. This month is the annual Bangus Festival and there are a lot of cool things going on, cultural celebrations, food tasting etc, When we come back, this is the time of year I want to come back to show you the bangus festival.
Yes being a zone leader does eat up proslyting time, but oddly enough we teach more lessons that I have my whole mission regardless. Last week we missed 2 days of work and still taught 40 lessons.
Anyway I am just going to focus on getting better for now and try to get out to work as soon as possible. Elder DaBell is taking good care of me, always making sure I have cold water, and a cool rag, and the meds I need. Anyway, I love you lots:) Bye
love you bunches:)
Elder Dahle
Monday, April 11, 2016
Week #77 - Letter interrupted by one sick boy!
Hey mom and dad,
GAAAHHHH it is SO HOT HERE. Like 110 degrees all the time!
But it is okay, because we are having a BLAST haha.
We are teaching a lot of people and quite a few of them decided to come to church and watch conference!!
The zone is honestly really struggling right now but we are going to give a workshop this Tuesday to help them.
Ill just give a rundown of this week in days,
Monday- PDay- nuff said
Tuesday- we had zone training and we shared the workshop that president gave us at MLC
wed- WORK WORK WORK
Thursday- Zone interviews, president took me and my comp out to dinner
GAAAHHHH it is SO HOT HERE. Like 110 degrees all the time!
But it is okay, because we are having a BLAST haha.
We are teaching a lot of people and quite a few of them decided to come to church and watch conference!!
The zone is honestly really struggling right now but we are going to give a workshop this Tuesday to help them.
Ill just give a rundown of this week in days,
Monday- PDay- nuff said
Tuesday- we had zone training and we shared the workshop that president gave us at MLC
wed- WORK WORK WORK
Thursday- Zone interviews, president took me and my comp out to dinner
(Letter was unfinished as Alex got very sick in the middle of writing it. See update in next letter home.)
Monday, April 4, 2016
Week #76 - A Transfer, a new Companion & new job as a Zone Leader
I TRANSFERRED!!!!! haha I guess I am not allowed to stay anywhere longer than three months haha. On to my 7th Area and my 11th companion. (makes me sound like a disobedient missionary but really I promise I am not)
No more that 24 hours after my last email that I told you that I probably wasn't transferring, we were out working and I got a call from President Deyro to tell me that God has called me to be a Zone Leader, AND that both ZL's in Dagupan were being pulled out so my new comp and I would be opening and white washed area again FOR THE 5TH TIME IN MY MISSION.
I might as well get used to not having a clue what I am doing haha. Because every time I think I have it figured out a new thing happens that I have never done before. I guess thats how learning and growing is.
Anyway, it is so strange, I had just emailed you a couple weeks ago about music and both of us had questions about who else would be in the band and how I could do music with people who have the same moral standards as me. Over then next couple days I thought about it a bit and was thinking "ya know my mom is right, I really gotta find someone to help me keep my ground"
And lo and behold, my new companion is Elder DaBell from Nashville Tennessee, and he can play the bass guitar!! haha like really!? Imagine that haha. He goes home in two transfers so I am going to send him off and be his last companion.
Being so close to going home he has really been thinking about what he wants to do. He was a soccer player before his mission and easily could have played professional. But many of the games are on Sundays, so that isnt really going to work. So he wasnt really sure about where he was going with life because he wants to really love his profession.
Long story short here is the plan. He and I are going to room together at BYU Idaho and save up money for the band while we study, and then summer of 2018 we come back to Ohio and try to get it going before we go back to school in September. then in 2019 we transfer to Provo. Cool huh?
Ha anyway. We have had such a wonderful week. Dagupan Ward 2 is night and day from my last assignment in Ward 6. Everything is SO ORGANIZED and the ward functions so well. We have about a bajillion investigators right now and a lot that are nearing baptism, the closest are Antonio, Lawrence, and Joseph and all came to church so that is a good start. For the first couple days, open area was hard because we didnt know where anything was at, so we just prayed and then went outside and asked people lots of questions to try to figure out where we needed to go.
We wore our suits to church (because I desperately miss wearing a suit) and got a really wonderful welcome from the ward. This is the best area in the mission and I dont want to leave, I just want to finish here, and that is a high possibility haha.
Anyway I will send pictures. :)
I love you all so much. I want to bear my testimony that Christ lives today. Holy week here was almost really sad because all I saw everywhere were crosses and symbols of Christs death. I dont really understand that because HE LIVES. He loves us and is so deeply involved in our lives that if we just act on the desire to know him he will manifest himself to us through his Spirit. I feel this spirit every day and I feel it testify to truth as I speak it to my investigators, this is indeed The Church of Jesus Christ.
Stay Happy
Elder Dahle
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