Week #22 - It's a Small World

Hey all,

Alex has been really busy and unable to write a blog letter this week but I will give you a short update based on what all he has told us.

It has been a busy week with a visit from President Monahan which went well! It is looking like he might get to stay in San Manuel through the next transfer which means he will turn the "9 month" corner in San Manuel! They will be closing a huge area in San Manuel and making one big area so it will increase workload but he sounds up for the challenge.

The other crazy thing is that one of the other Elders in his house, Elder Arrington, and he were talking and discovered that they both know the Ogdens!! And as it turns out Elder Arrington's Mom and Sister Ogden are good friends from High School!

Anyway - he sounds happy, busy and motivated! He sends his love to all of you!
Keep him in your prayers!

Love,
Elizabeth Dahle

Week #21 - Getting to know new Comps

Hey all!

Wow, this week has been super wild. Hard in some respects. Easy in others. There are two new Elders in our house. Elder Arrington, and Elder Estipona. Elder Estipona is from Baugio and is a visa waiter. His real mission is in New Zealand haha so we have been helping him with English. Its wierd to know I am so close to Derek haha. I do not at all suspect that we will ever see eachother ha, but its cool to know he is close haha. Elder Arrington is just a super swell guy with a heart of gold. He is so hardworking and always has good advice for me, and he is doing a spectacular job training Elder Estipona. My companion Elder Yadao is cool. We have a lot of differences. Anyways, I love him. Tell everyone I love them, Im annoyed my letter hasnt gotten to you, tell ethan to keep singing so he and I can write music when I get home, tell paige that I expect a nobel prize and a nephew when I return haha. I love you mom, Keep reading PMG.

Elder Dahle

PS. Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage is a spectacular piece of literature. If you want motivation to be more chistlike, like I do. Read it. I started that 800 page book two weeks ago and finished it yesterday. It will BLOW your mind.

Week #20 - New Area & New Comp

Hey all!!!

Woah. I got transferred... Downstairs to another room. Haha Elder Skinner left to go a longgg ways away to Dagupan in the best area in the mission haha. I got transferred to the other area here in San Manuel and my new companion is Elder Yadao! He is waayyy cool, he has been out for about 9 months now, and I am his first American companion, and he is my first Filipino companion. There are two new Elders here in San Manuel who took over my old area, they are way fun too.

The work is moving. Slowly, but there is progress here in San Manuel, I was really sad to say goodbye to my old area, but everyone were really surprised to see me speaking at church yesterday after we had told them all I was transferring haha. I am still teaching an English class. We mostly play language games to keep the kids entertained too. My new area looks very different from my old area. Its is all 100% bukid, or field. Mostly rice terraces. I will send a picture, but the fields are full of water, and there are very very very small paths through the bukid about 7 or 8 inches wide. So every day is a balancing act not to fall in the water haha. Luckily it is much better on shoes than the mountain climbing of my last are. Anyway I love you all so much have a good week!!!

Elder Dahle

Week #19 - Some Big Brother Instruction

Josh,
Hey buddy. Boy I miss you man. I wish I could just show you some of the stuff I am doing out here. MISSION LIFE IS THE BEST. Everyday I eat some new crazy delicacy. All the showers are cold though so Im still not used to that haha. But what I really want you to know in this letter is that there is a God. Often times I look back on my youth and remember hearing nothing but complicated, long and detailed testimonies. But that is the truth it all starts with. There is a God. This week focus on that. He knows you. He knows your name. He is there. Pray and ask if he is there. You will feel a peaceful warm feeling. I promise.

Sam,
GET BETTER! Goodness mom told me you were not feeling too good and we just cant have that! I want to share something that my mission mom tells us all the time. Drink water!! I drink about 5 water bottles a day and it is wayyy good for you and better for you than no water! so make sure you do that. I want you to know that I miss my little sister. I miss your laugh and your sense of humor. Make sure you always say your prayers every night okay? that is the way for god to hear your voice and help you overcome your hard times, okay?

Your goofy brother,
Elder Dahle

Week #18 - Good Week - Blessed with 4 Great Comps

Kumusta kayong lahat!!!
Wow, it is soooo wierd to hear about how much snow Ohio is getting right now. Out here we are baking in 90 degree weather everyday haha. I am getting used to the heat and humidity, along with all the other differences from home. I love the food here, every monday morning my companion and I go a get fresh hot pandesal down the street before we go to our zone studies. Pandesal is basically just hot doey bread in a paper bag, sometimes with sangin or banana in it, but really its just bread. To be honest I don't know why I love it so much but it is easily my favorite food here, maybe you should all have Richard Kice with his fine baking skills, go look up a recipe and you can have a taste of the Philippines haha.

This week has been so strange. This week I worked with 4 different companions, in 3 different areas and we still managed to achieve the goals for San Manuel. First we had exchanges with the zone leaders and I got to work with Elder Abril. This was my first time working with a Filipino and it was sooo nice speaking tagalog the whole day and having him teach me new funny words haha. Elder Abril is a wayy talented missionary and I was blessed to work with him. Unfortunately I am all out of time again! I will write more to you all next week!!!!

Elder Dahle

Week #17 - Belief in God can act as an anchor for our souls!

Hey Mom & Dad,

Well this week was way difficult. But it was probably the most rewarding and satisfying week so far on my mission. I just went home every night exhausted and knowing I gave it my all. And at the end of the week I just felt like I gave the Lord the best week I could give him. We struggled in a few places on stats but we achieved the mission vision of excellence. I love how revelation works and guides our companionship to the places we need to go. We have quite a few really elect investigators who I think my really be ready to accept this message. Things are getting easier as far as email is concerned I just need to get nothing but positive from home because I think that is some of what made this difference this last week. Things here are getting a little more normal for me, I still freak out when I see mice in the apartment running on our eating surface, but so do the older Elders. I love you dad, I hope things are going well at home and I hope your back is getting better. Do me a favor and have family home evening this week and share ether 12:4. I really love what it says about how belief in God can act as an anchor for our souls and how we can hope for a better world. I love you! give referrals to the missionaries at home!! I am going to send some pictures soon that I took this week haha I think you will really like some of them.

The language is coming. Slow but it is coming. I spoke in church yesterday so that was way intense. No talk written. Two of the speakers didnt show up so both my companion and I were asked to speak. My heart just about leaped out of my stomach I was so nervous. The branch president looked like he had some pain behind his eyes. We asked what we needed to speak on. He said "Its up to you, but the faith of the branch is very weak right now, please strengthen them. So immediately I thought of mountains to climb by Henry B. Eyring. I have a lot of it memorized after watching the mormon message so many times in the MTC. Only problem. I only have it memorized in english. So a few min before I had to speak I was up on the stand. I said a short prayer to have a calm collected voice and to speak so they could understand and not be afraid. Then I stood up and it all came out. I translated Mountains to Climb as best I could and bore the most powerful testimony that has ever come out of my mouth. I love you so much mom. Go read Ether 12:4. Mahal kita talaga. Hwuag ka alaala.

Paige: Hey sis,

I got your dear elder the other day and I am going to make it my mission (lol) to answer all your questions over this transfer. Well I forgot to bring it with me so I will answer a question I remember.

How has being reliant on the the language to get around and stuff affected your learning it?

Well I use Tagalog everyday, everywhere. Elder Skinner and I speak it to eachother when talking about the plan or logistics. NOT when talking about anything deep or opinionated. The truth is Tagalog is not nearly as expressive as english... well it is but in a much different way. In english we have synonyms and need a thesaurus and have a lot of words to describe. In tagalog it is just not very descriptive. for example...

important = mahalaga
precious = mahalaga
vital = mahalaga

I could go on. But it reminds me of the word system in 1984 when they get rid of the words like that and just add plus good 3 or whatever (i cant really remember) But I have really struggled to find good was to show emphasis and express myself. Any words in tagalog that are even remotely deep people just dont know the meaning. And worst of all all of my learning and studying resources are USELESS. I repeat USELESS. They are just flat out wrong. So the only real way to learn is by listening while I am out so it has become my main source of learning. For language study I just speak with the Filipino Elders in our apartment for an hour. I still struggle, but I can hold a pretty solid conversation now about almost anything now it is just a matter of vocab. I love you paige!!

Ethan: Hey buddy,

Well I sure miss you. I mean that. Elder Skinner tells me about his little brothers progress in his wrestling tournament and I just think of you every time. I know we had a rough time those few years before I left. But honestly bud I want to come back and be the best of friends. I want to drive around and listen to music and tell you about my mission and stuff. So lets do the stuff we need to do to get that. We both are going to grow a lot these next two years, lets make sure we grow the right way. Read your scriptures. They are the true word of God. Prep for a mission. Only date way cool rad girls that hold the same standards and you that would never expect you to break your standards or even think about it. Become friends with God. Pray every night. That is my biggest regret at home was not ever praying. Pray. I love you bud. Life is a refiners fire. Let god use heat (trials) to shape you into your beautiful potential.

Josh and Sam,
I will write you next week sorry!!!!

Love,
Elder Dahle

 
Clearing a path on the mountain for our investigators to come listen more easily! 



Yes . . . that is my shoe! 2nd pair to need a new sole!

Week #16 - Preaching on a mountain!!!

Hey mom,

I am now sending a whole bunch of letters to everyone so you should expect them in a few weeks.

This week was nuts! We climbed to the top of a mountain and taught like 40 people it was so cool, I felt like Alma or Amuleck and the sons of Mosiah preaching to the masses. We got a return appointment. This week I completed all the goals I set out to do including finishing the Book of Mormon for the second time on my mission. It makes me look forward to personal study every morning and I have really developed a love for the scriptures. Yesterday we killed 5 mice in our apartment hah so thats nasty. The living conditions here are way different than at home. I have been putting off telling you this but I am going to be honest ha, there is no toilet paper here. Use your hand haha. No joke. Im serious. So that has been some intense culture shock. And yesterday we went to a dinner appointment and I was expecting, you know. A dinner appointment. But instead I helped then catch and slaughter a pig and that was dinner. Yeah thats way intense. And I ate Balut! and wayyyyy ripe duck egg (2-3 weeks from hatching) I got a good video of me eating it but it wont send:(! sorry if this all seems jumbled I am just trying to squeeze as much information as possible. I am so so so so sorry about how my emails have been. I feel so much better now that I am writing letters and you can expect an email bigger than this one everyweek now. Plus snail mail. I love you so much mom. Often times I stop and look around at what I am doing and I just wish you could see me. I dont know steves address so I am just sending a letter to our house for him its ssays "dont open, give to steve" on the back I love you, big 5 page letter on the way to ethan too! I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!! \

your son,
Elder Dahle

The mountain we climbed and found a village to teach!

View from the mountain. We really love to hike up here early in the morning and do our personal and companion study.