Hey Family:)
Before I forget; please get a copy of "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister (not sure if thats how you spell his name).
Ha it made me soooo happy to read all that advice because those are really the questions that I had and I have yet to answer. As far as genre is concerned he mentioned somthing like the Killers or Temper Trap or Mumford, or even One Republic. Go look up "all these things that Ive done" by the Killers or "Crossfire" by Brandon Flowers and you will see the kind of style we are going for, kinda like before but without the punk roots.
Of course I really have no idea because I am still 6 months away from home but, we will see I guess.
As far as getting married to a "a nice little LDS girl to get married to who loves you, your music and wants to see you on stage"
That is indeed the plan haha. Its kinda hard to imagine right now but I guess well just see what happens.
Ha there is so much "well see"... The first 6 months home are going to be wild. Its going to be hard, fun, sad, exciting and terrifying all in one.
Anyway, I dont have much to tell you about the things that happened this week.
I got chased by a trans-gender. Not really the first time thats happened on my mission but it was especially absurd this time cuz he/she chased us a longgg way. There are a lot of those in are area. We have taught a few but it is kinda tough to get them to take it seriously.
I have NO clue if I am transferring.
I will be totally honest and say that I want to get out of this area so bad and get a breather in a stake center area again or something, but I dont see it happening, because president knows I am growing and learning here as painful as it is. For the first time I think I am going to stay somewhere for 3 transfers.
Anyway I am going to go play basketball with the other Elders in the Zone (which is always a blast because even though im not spectacular, I still tower about 1 foot above the rest haha).
I love you so much. I am sorry I cant send pictures, the internet is just too slow:(
Have a great week:)
Elder Dahle
Monday, March 28, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Week #74 - Better late than never! A Baptism & a time to talk about the future!
Hey Mom and Dad,
MOM I AM ALIVE!! haha. I will explain. Long story short I got SO SICK yesterday and I could not even stand on my feet without vomitting let alone make the trip to the computer shop. Sorry I couldnt email yesterday. I was way sick and got permission from sister deyro to email today. I am better now:)
Anyway, that makes me so happy that Steve would choose me as one of his mentor pins. I hope he is making progress towards a mission.
MOM I AM ALIVE!! haha. I will explain. Long story short I got SO SICK yesterday and I could not even stand on my feet without vomitting let alone make the trip to the computer shop. Sorry I couldnt email yesterday. I was way sick and got permission from sister deyro to email today. I am better now:)
Anyway, that makes me so happy that Steve would choose me as one of his mentor pins. I hope he is making progress towards a mission.
The geography of my area is exactly as you said it. Water. We are just surrounded by water. The Island isnt like a normal island with a beach outline, but there are these little paths called Pilapils that lead you from fish pond to fish pond. There is 1 road in the whole area. Just one. Which honestly makes the work pretty tough be cause we just walk back and forth the WHOLE DAY.
As far as the sewage pit is concerned. We were walking and it was night time. I saw a wall that was kind of off to the side of the path that had a lot of tall grass along the ground in front of it. Here in the Philippines public urination is not the least bit unacceptable. Both my companion and I had to pee. So we went up to the wall. My companion went first and nothing strange happened, then I came up to the wall about 10 feet away from my comp and took a step towards the wall. I felt solid ground under my feet so I knew I was okay. Then my next foot followed and sank into a hole which they call here an "imbornal" (I know even the name sounds disgusting). The homes here dont have disposers in there sinks and they honestly dont even have plumbing. Its just a tube that goes outside to the wall and lands into the imbornal canal. And it just sits there and festers forever till some poor chap like me come along and puts his foot in it. I know, gross.
Anyway. YES! Jonah was baptized! She bore her testimony at the end and she told her story about the months leading up to January before we met her. She talked about how she was really losing hope in life and felt like God was not answering prayers. Feeling a little guilty for her lack of faith she decided to make it here new years resolution to "get to know god"...
Then we showed up on her door on January 1st. All because we followed the spiritual prompting to do a magic trick for her little brother who then took us to meet his sister; Jonah.
Another success was that 141 people came to church on Sunday. Which is 1 over the goal we set with the ward council when we arrived here. I remember telling them in PEC that "if we trust in the lord and his ability to change people, 140 people will attend church before my companion and I transfer out of this area". And we did. By trusting the lord we saw that miracle happen.
Anyway Mom and Dad. I have been thinking a lot and as dangerous as that is I think maybe it would be an okay time to try to talk to you about some things.
I want to do music for my career.
I know this probably is not a shocker, but I want to talk about it.
There is nothing set or planned because I am still a ways out. But I want to know your views on it. I still want to study music and audio engineering, but I dont just want to be behind the mixer board my whole career.
I know that you are well aware that this has been my dream for a long long time. And I know that before I start anything like this I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. I need to be sure that the communication between Austin and I is clear and that he understands how important it is to me to be a force for good in the world, and to keep my standards. I believe that these things are compatible.
It hit me really hard the other day when I was sick and my companion was watching "Im a mormon" videos. He watched Brandon Flowers and Elaine Bradley (both very successful Mormon musicians). I also have been prayfully studying my patriarchal blessing and there it mentions that I would have "many opportunities to share my talents both in the church and in society".
Especially having done a lot of music in my mission I feel like the Lord wants me to continue to magnify and amplify this talent. To continue to nourish it and work on it. I am also well aware that the blessing of keeping the commandments in my life will entitle me to the Lords help and blessing with that. I have seen that in my mission in the simple fact that I am twice the guitarist and twice the singer that I was before I left.
I want to know what you think. I am going to need your support (I am not referencing financial help or support) but I am going to need your help in the sense that you are in my corner and you are there to cheer me on. I would like to eventually speak with Matt and Will ( being that they have some experience in this field) and see what advice they have to offer.
I cant imagine myself doing anything else. I really cant. And I feel strongly that if we approach it prayerfully and obediently the Lord can help me accomplish my dream. He did after all give me the talent.
I love you and I hope you are doing well. Talk about it. Let me know what you think.
Elder Dahle
As far as the sewage pit is concerned. We were walking and it was night time. I saw a wall that was kind of off to the side of the path that had a lot of tall grass along the ground in front of it. Here in the Philippines public urination is not the least bit unacceptable. Both my companion and I had to pee. So we went up to the wall. My companion went first and nothing strange happened, then I came up to the wall about 10 feet away from my comp and took a step towards the wall. I felt solid ground under my feet so I knew I was okay. Then my next foot followed and sank into a hole which they call here an "imbornal" (I know even the name sounds disgusting). The homes here dont have disposers in there sinks and they honestly dont even have plumbing. Its just a tube that goes outside to the wall and lands into the imbornal canal. And it just sits there and festers forever till some poor chap like me come along and puts his foot in it. I know, gross.
Anyway. YES! Jonah was baptized! She bore her testimony at the end and she told her story about the months leading up to January before we met her. She talked about how she was really losing hope in life and felt like God was not answering prayers. Feeling a little guilty for her lack of faith she decided to make it here new years resolution to "get to know god"...
Then we showed up on her door on January 1st. All because we followed the spiritual prompting to do a magic trick for her little brother who then took us to meet his sister; Jonah.
Another success was that 141 people came to church on Sunday. Which is 1 over the goal we set with the ward council when we arrived here. I remember telling them in PEC that "if we trust in the lord and his ability to change people, 140 people will attend church before my companion and I transfer out of this area". And we did. By trusting the lord we saw that miracle happen.
Anyway Mom and Dad. I have been thinking a lot and as dangerous as that is I think maybe it would be an okay time to try to talk to you about some things.
I want to do music for my career.
I know this probably is not a shocker, but I want to talk about it.
There is nothing set or planned because I am still a ways out. But I want to know your views on it. I still want to study music and audio engineering, but I dont just want to be behind the mixer board my whole career.
I know that you are well aware that this has been my dream for a long long time. And I know that before I start anything like this I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. I need to be sure that the communication between Austin and I is clear and that he understands how important it is to me to be a force for good in the world, and to keep my standards. I believe that these things are compatible.
It hit me really hard the other day when I was sick and my companion was watching "Im a mormon" videos. He watched Brandon Flowers and Elaine Bradley (both very successful Mormon musicians). I also have been prayfully studying my patriarchal blessing and there it mentions that I would have "many opportunities to share my talents both in the church and in society".
Especially having done a lot of music in my mission I feel like the Lord wants me to continue to magnify and amplify this talent. To continue to nourish it and work on it. I am also well aware that the blessing of keeping the commandments in my life will entitle me to the Lords help and blessing with that. I have seen that in my mission in the simple fact that I am twice the guitarist and twice the singer that I was before I left.
I want to know what you think. I am going to need your support (I am not referencing financial help or support) but I am going to need your help in the sense that you are in my corner and you are there to cheer me on. I would like to eventually speak with Matt and Will ( being that they have some experience in this field) and see what advice they have to offer.
I cant imagine myself doing anything else. I really cant. And I feel strongly that if we approach it prayerfully and obediently the Lord can help me accomplish my dream. He did after all give me the talent.
I love you and I hope you are doing well. Talk about it. Let me know what you think.
Elder Dahle
Monday, March 14, 2016
Week #73 - A Baptism, a growing ward and Music Again!!!
Hey Family!
(I wrote some of this on paper last night so it should be a little easy to read)
Well I cant even describe to you all the blessings and miracles that happened this week!
First of all we had a Baptism!!! Our "no-longer-nine-year-old-coffee-drinking" investigator, Daniel! (And I left my camera at the apartment, next week I will send pictures)
Our baptism was really special and though not many members came I really felt the Holy Spirit of promise when he went into the water and came back out with a big smile on his face :)
ALSO Our investigator Jonah (the very first one we found when I arrived here), passed her interview and will be baptized this saturday!
We have 3 other investigators who are really consistently coming to church and will also be baptized in the coming weeks:)
Another success was that 126 people attended church yesterday!!! Which is also a miracle considering the fact that when I got here there were only 43 people that attended the 1st week.
And all of this because we fasted 3 weeks in a row and prayed soooo hard for all those people by name. I know that these are blessings given by the Lord and we are neither talented nor strong enough to do it on our own.
This week is relentless week again! haha I am so excited and we are really going to try to stretch even further than the goals we achieved last relentless week haha :).
Anyway, yes I am doing music again! Because of the churches new #Hallelujah project I have been commissioned to do music again. (I am SO excited about:)) I am really excited about these upcoming performances because they will be much bigger than the previous ones. We are still in the scheduling and practicing process, but the venues are much much bigger. I may even go to radio stations and TV stations again haha. We will see haha just thinking about that gets me way nervous because I will be pretty much alone, unlike the choir haha.
I am writing a lot of tagalog songs to better appeal to the audience and I really have some cool arrangments of LDS hymns and Primary songs. Go look of Mormon Guitar "give said the little stream" on youtube ahaha. It is sooooo cool.
Anyway. I love you so much. I will send pictures next week:)
Elder Dahle
(I wrote some of this on paper last night so it should be a little easy to read)
Well I cant even describe to you all the blessings and miracles that happened this week!
First of all we had a Baptism!!! Our "no-longer-nine-year-old-coffee-drinking" investigator, Daniel! (And I left my camera at the apartment, next week I will send pictures)
Our baptism was really special and though not many members came I really felt the Holy Spirit of promise when he went into the water and came back out with a big smile on his face :)
ALSO Our investigator Jonah (the very first one we found when I arrived here), passed her interview and will be baptized this saturday!
We have 3 other investigators who are really consistently coming to church and will also be baptized in the coming weeks:)
Another success was that 126 people attended church yesterday!!! Which is also a miracle considering the fact that when I got here there were only 43 people that attended the 1st week.
And all of this because we fasted 3 weeks in a row and prayed soooo hard for all those people by name. I know that these are blessings given by the Lord and we are neither talented nor strong enough to do it on our own.
This week is relentless week again! haha I am so excited and we are really going to try to stretch even further than the goals we achieved last relentless week haha :).
Anyway, yes I am doing music again! Because of the churches new #Hallelujah project I have been commissioned to do music again. (I am SO excited about:)) I am really excited about these upcoming performances because they will be much bigger than the previous ones. We are still in the scheduling and practicing process, but the venues are much much bigger. I may even go to radio stations and TV stations again haha. We will see haha just thinking about that gets me way nervous because I will be pretty much alone, unlike the choir haha.
I am writing a lot of tagalog songs to better appeal to the audience and I really have some cool arrangments of LDS hymns and Primary songs. Go look of Mormon Guitar "give said the little stream" on youtube ahaha. It is sooooo cool.
Anyway. I love you so much. I will send pictures next week:)
Elder Dahle
Monday, March 7, 2016
Week #72 - Short but sweet (except for the sewage pit part!)
Hey mom and dad!
I am sorry but this one is going to be kinda short.
This week was so good and was an adventure in itself! Ill wrap it up in some bullet points
> I fell in a sewage pit. dont ask how or why I will just have to send pictures next week
>our investigators that are close to baptism came to church and are really making some good progress!
>Elder Eter and I are a really powerful companionship and we are giving this area all weve got even though there are a lot of really hard headed people here.
I am sorry but I am totally out of my brain right now with english right now I will just have to do better next week:(
Its getting bad. Its like I think so flippin slow. I will try to right it all on paper the night before:(
Anyway I love you so much! have a good week!
PS as for ethan just VERY genlty encourage him and show your love
Elder Dahle
I am sorry but this one is going to be kinda short.
This week was so good and was an adventure in itself! Ill wrap it up in some bullet points
> I fell in a sewage pit. dont ask how or why I will just have to send pictures next week
>our investigators that are close to baptism came to church and are really making some good progress!
>Elder Eter and I are a really powerful companionship and we are giving this area all weve got even though there are a lot of really hard headed people here.
I am sorry but I am totally out of my brain right now with english right now I will just have to do better next week:(
Its getting bad. Its like I think so flippin slow. I will try to right it all on paper the night before:(
Anyway I love you so much! have a good week!
PS as for ethan just VERY genlty encourage him and show your love
Elder Dahle
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