Hey Mom & Dad,
Sounds like New Orleans is a pretty rough place haha. We also see a lot of that kind of behavior here, and it is pretty hard to see. I am glad you ate a bunch of seafood Mom:) thats pretty much all my diet here.
Anyway. Well. Lester did not come to church. We are going to his house again tomorrow and we may just have to drop him. And that sucks:( but we dont have much of a choice. He has to use his agency and we have to allow him to choose. There are a whole lot of things holding him back, but I think the biggest one is what I said last time; he just wants to feed his brain, not his spirit. And that has lead him to search in places that wont give him the correct answers. We are going to have him try and come to the baptismal service of the other missionaries in our ward and pray that he feels the spirit there.
We did not get to teach Lawrence this week. He wasn't home at all so we are not really sure what is going on there. We will keep on trying this week.
We have a TON of new investigators right now.
One of them is a teacher at a nearby elementary school so we call her Madam Nelly.
She recieved the Restoration and the Book of Mormon so readily and passionately. She did not accept the Baptismal Date on the first lesson, but we re-extended the next time; and because she read the Book of Mormon and noticed that she felt 'light' and 'happy' while we were teaching, she took the date and promised to prepare. BUT she didnt come to church. So we will go back tomorrow and see why not ha. They usually dont come the 1st time so I am not too worried, but I hope that she still has that fire and passion for what we are teaching here
Anyway, the zone is doing way good right now:) Elder DaBell and I are having a blast too.
Thats All I have this week! LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Dahle
PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!!!! NOW STOP GROWING. BAWAL NA, SOBRANG MALAKI KA NA!
Magandang tanghali!!!
This week was crazy fun. Because it is transfer week. NO I did not transfer and I am still holding on to the hope that I wont until I go home; it is my last and only chance to stay in an area for more than 3 months. But I guess we will just have to see haha. Anyway, because it is transfer week and Elder Eter's companion finished his mission, we spent most of the week in a triplet. This meant that I got to go back and visit ward 6! It was so nice to see all the members again and catch up with them, although it seems that not much has changed there.
Well, on another note; the sisters in my batch just got home this week. It is almost terrifying how fast this is coming. I have less than 5 and a half months. GAH. And my companion has only half that left. Nevertheless, we are not getting the least bit lazy or slacking. Im pretty proud of my companion, regardless of how close he is, he is just diligently pushing through as if he just got here.
Anyway, I will try to slowly answer those questions about college, you can expect it in a couple months, maybe I will have it done by late june or early july. Do those also work for Provo? And also what about that recording school that Ryan did? Can you get me some info on that? Anyway enough of that, it seems all too unreal right now.
OK, investigators.
Well Lester really really hit a bit of a road block. He got in a huge fight with the person from another ward who referred him to the church. You could imagine how that may be a problem. He seems to be struggling with his testimony because he wants to feed his mind, not his heart. He wants to just know it all, but thats not how the gospel works. You feel it. Anyway, I still believe that he will be baptised, but he just needs to keep on praying and having spiritual experiences. I really love this investigator a lot and it would be tough for me to see him not accept the message. Keep praying for him.
Anyway, we have a lot of others, but those are the focus right now. The Lord is really giving them all the evidence he can that he is there, they just have to soften their hearts and see it.
In closing I will share something that Elder DaBell shared with me that Dad said in his email that I felt was really profound.
"We do not come here to earth to find our worth, we bring it with us"
I love you all!:)
Elder Dahle
As a Zone Leader, Alex go to attend the Mission Leadership Council Meeting. Follows are picture and a brief synopsis of what all they covered:
"The Mission Leaders gathered again for their Mission Leadership Council at the Mission Home on May 13th, 2016. This MLC was held right after the transfers and so many new Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders got a chance to counsel together and to learn from each other. Assistants - New Mission Vision of Excellence, 3 months Baptism Plans, UM Initiative:H.O.P.E and Nine “Indicators of Conversion and Church Growth". Our Assistants shared with the Council various ideas and strategies to raise our Mission to greater heights with an introduction to our revised Mission Vision! We are now R.E.D: RELENTLESS EVERY DAY!"
Mom & Dad,
Haha sounds like the little brothers dont know how to learn from the big brother. Some lessons just dont enter the brain until we are humble enough to hear them, you just have to nourish them into that humility. Unfortunately often times humility comes from failure, loss, and trials. Dont try to stop those things from happening too much in their lives or they wont get it till later when the stakes are higher. Thats how God humbled the people in Alma 32 (see verse 6). And thats a lesson I learned from President Monahan. He told me-
"Elder Dahle, your spiritual growth is on the Lords time-table. You cant rush it. But you can prepare yourself for the time-line events that he has already placed in your future through obedience and scripture study. That is what makes or breaks us"
Get them into habits of regular scripture study. You may have to be creative to make it happen, and I will help when I get home. But that is the most valuable tool they can have to succeed... But on the other hand they may just have to learn like me haha.
Anyway, this week was AMAZING! No one was sick! I have a slight cold because rainy season started but thats all!
Okay here is some cool news. This Wednesday we have a Zone Conference with Elder Bowen of the Seventy (he gave a talk a few GC ago). Elder Ian Ardern (the one who interviewed me) has been called somewhere else in the Quorum of the 70, and Elder Bowen is the new President of the Philippines Area. So we will get to see him this week. Heres the cool part; Elder DaBell and I have been asked to sing a special musical number at the conference haha. YIKES!!! We have had only 2 practices, but we are just going to have to hope thats enough because that is all the time we have. Please please pray for us haha. We are singing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" just the normal arrangement out of the hymn book in the key of F#. We will sing the 1st verse in parts (he will sing the melody and I will sing tenor). Then we will sing the 6th verse; I will sing the 1st half and he will sing the second. Then we will sing the 7th verse in parts A Capella. Needless to say; I am pretty nervous about it. But I know that even if we suck Elder Bowen will still smile so its okay.
Anyway. LESTER CAME TO CHURCH!!! And he brought his cousin. He wears a white shirt and dress pants and a neck tie so at first the members forgot to fellowship him because they thought he was a member haha. But we went and got a couple young men to hang out with him and his cousin so they didn't feel unwelcome. And tonight we are going to their house to teach them how to do Family Home Evening haha. (Just to let you know now. My companion wants to be nice and buy pizza and bring it to the FHE. I am down because you know how much I love pizza. However. Pizza is a delicacy here. Meaning it is not as cheap in comparison to other food. It is cheaper than it is in the US. But here it is quite pricey. I will spend about 880 pesos (so somewhere in the ballpark of 9 dollars) I know that sounds like it isnt that bad, but I feel for some reason I should let you know I will withdraw money to pay my half. 9 dollars sounds like nothing but 880 pesos is like WOAH haha. As an overall warning. I am really trying to be thrifty with money (for example I dont hire a tagalaba, I just handwash my own clothes), but to be honest the cost of living here in Dagupan is higher that all my other bukid areas. So dont be alarmed that I withdraw more than before. You just let me know if it is too much. I am also starting to collect a few souvenirs slowly.
Anyway, I hope you all have a good week and I am so excited to see you on skype:) hopefully it all goes well.
Elder Dahle
