1.What do you do on p-days?
2. What day of the week is your busiest day?
3. How often do you knock on doors?
4. What are studying about in your personal study right now?
5. What is the weirdest thing that has happened to you so far?
6. What you favorite thing to eat at the mtc.
7. What is your companion like?
8. What is the most spiritual experience you have had so far?
9. What is the hardest thing you have had to deal with so far?
10. Is your apartment gross?
11. What is the weirdest thing you have been asked to eat/served
12. Can you share you testimony with us?
And here are my answers:
1. P-days are like Christmas. Reading emails from you family and friends is like opening presents. We first do laundry, then e-mail, then go shopping (I have $147 each month to spend on laundry, food, and whatever else I need), and then our zone (my zone has 14 missionaries) has an activity. Last week we went to a park and played a game, and today we are playing volleyball. But P-day is over at 6:00 pm an you go out and start working again!
2. So far Thursdays are the busiest. We have studies in the morning, then lunch and weekly planning. By that time it is 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. Then we get to work for about an hour and try to visit people. Then we have to go to the church for a meeting that takes up the rest of our day! It's crazy!
3. Never. We never go door to door because we don't want to be overbearing on others. The Lord is preparing people here to hear our message, and we will be more effective by finding them through other means.
4. My personal study is CRAZY AWESOME! Right now I am going through each of the lessons in Chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel. Throughout each lesson there are scriptures to study for different points of the lesson. I read the scripture, and write a few words about it beside it summarizing the scripture. It has helped me to know the scriptures, and I can now easily find a specific scripture that may emphasize a concept better than another scripture in the same section! I highly recommend it.
5. The weirdest thing so far was when that old, drunk, Black guy popped out of nowhere on the street, kissed my cheek and said, "They need you in Christiantown!".........that was weird.
6. So in the Mexico MTC you can almost guarantee that everyday you will be fed what we liked to call "Pile of meat on a plate." The meats varied, but it was a pile of meet nonetheless. So I would throw some beans, rice, lettuce, and if they had salsa or tomatoes I would put that on too, and I would make a mountain of a taco salad. Take some corn tortillas and eat that with you taco salad mountain ~ delicious!
7. Picture me.....and then picture the opposite of me, and that's my companion, haha! He loves guns, hunting, crazy music, motorcycles, and the like. Not that I don't like that stuff, I've just never looked into them. But since we are both on missions we get along pretty well, and it's been an interesting, but rewarding challenge working with him (he told me he doesn't like Disney.....awkward.), but he's great!
8. That's a tough one. I think one of them was when I was in the MTC, and my teacher, Hermana Arno, taught us about how we need to teach like the Savior. In John 3, the Savior is teaching Nicodemus; we would read one verse at a time, and then talk about it. The Spirit was SO STRONG in that room! We talked about how Nicodemus is supposed to be a learned man concerning the teachings of the Gospel, but he just didn't understand the Savior's teachings. Christ tries to explain to Nicodemus the truth about the Gospel, and how we must be born again (through baptism), but Nicodemus just doesn't understand. Now as a missionary, wouldn't that be extremely difficult? You think you explain something with perfect clarity, and your investigator just looks at you like you're some crazy white boy that can't speak Spanish at all. How FRUSTRATING would that be!? It makes me just want to quit, pack up my bags, and say, "some other missionary can handle this one because there is just something wrong with the investigator and with me." But what does the Savior do when Nicodemus doesn't understand? I can imagine the Savior PATIENTLY and with LOVE looking at Nicodemus and saying, "I have taught you what you need to know, but you don't seem to understand quite yet. Let me teach you one more time." This hit me HARD, and I joined the rest of my district as we all cried together in that room because the Spirit touched us in a beautiful way. We didn't have any real investigators at that point, but this lesson applied to me personally because I was Nicodemus in this scenario. Over and over again in my life I have made mistakes, I don't make the best choices, and I feel doubtful and disappointed in myself. I have felt like I will never speak Spanish, and I will never have the knowledge of the Gospel that I need in order to help the people here in San Diego. But every time these thoughts and feelings come, I can turn to the Savior, and he teaches me once again. Elder Dahl is a son of GOD! Elder Dahl knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Dahl believes in Jesus Christ, and with this he is able to perform MIRACLES. Sorry, I hope that wasn't too long.
9. The hardest thing that happens on the mission is definitely when you have an appointment with someone, and you are SUPER excited to teach them, and when you knock on the door.....nobody answers. I haven't taught a real, sit-down lesson yet to an investigator because they bale out on us every time.......that's hard. But I need to have faith that the Lord will lead me (or lead others to me) on His time, so I press on with faith in Him.
10. HAHA Uhm to be honest.....a little. I don't think it has been cleaned for a LONG TIME! But luckily I have an amazing mother that made sure I knew how to clean, so little by little our apartment is getting better. We have little cockroaches, so that's been nasty.
11. On Mexican Independence Day we were given a little terracotta pot, filled with the red jelly thing, but there were also fruit pits, seeds, and it definitely looked like twigs and leaves in there two........yeah we didn't eat it. That was weird.
12. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He loves me personally, and he loves each one of us personally. The Atonement is REAL! He didn't only suffer for our sins, but for all of our worries, struggles, and pains. I know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father, and he sent us here to have SUCCESS! We are not sent here to fail, but to grow and improve! Heavenly Father has a plan of happiness for each one of us, and it is centered around the family. I love my family, and I thank God each day for them. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God, and although it is not made up of perfect people, it is still true. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true. It is another testament of Jesus Christ, and a person will draw nearer to Christ by reading the Book of Mormon than by any other book! I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, and restored the true Gospel of Jesus Christ through him. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. We are given challenges that will help us grow! We can overcome ANYTHING with Christ by our side. NEVER FORGET THAT! This Gospel is true, and I KNOW that to be true.
Other highlights of the week included:
*Understanding a lot more Spanish!
*Having about half of our appointments fall through.......not quite a highlight but whatever
*I'm a pro at the trolley-riding life
*We had zone conference yesterday and our mission president asked me to recite Our Purpose (Preach My Gospel page 1 I believe) in English.....I only memorized it in Spanish.....that was embarrassing.
*A really nice guy named Tommy (he really likes the missionaries, but forbids us from speaking about religion) served us a buffet of food for breakfast. He gave us leftovers, which is basically a missionaries dream
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
Elder Dahl
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