Become as a Little Child

Well this week was filled with some ups and downs. To start off, if
everyone could please pray for Armida, our recent convert, that would
be wonderful. She's going through a real challenge right now and needs
some help from heaven, so send up some prayers for her please.

So the good/bad news for the week was that Rafael was not baptized
last week. We decided to push it back a week to make sure he was fully
ready and committed. The only problem is that he is pretty old and
doesn't always feel well, so it's a struggle to come to church, but
this week the member we had all ready to go pick him up for some
reason just......didn't. I guess he was really offended by that (can't
say I blame him), and now he is acting kind of weird. Bless his heart
that man needs to be baptized. Say a prayer for him too!

The other good news was that Ivan Sanchez, the 11 year old boy in
Miguel's family, has decided to be baptized this Saturday! Woohoo!
It's going to be awesome! Say a prayer that everything goes well for
that!

I love you all! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and never
forgets us. It's true!

Elder Dahl

Rafael is getting Baptized!

Just to quickly fill you all in- Rafael is getting baptized this week!
We also found Marlene again after losing contact with her. We had a
little bit of a disappointment with people not coming to church when
they really needed to, but we know the Lord is helping us truly find
those that are prepared for this message! Sorry for the short email, I
was with the Reilly's traveling to Carlsbad and back all day, so I
didn't get the chance to write much! You will all hear more next week!

Elder Dahl

Young Single Adult Assignment?

I LOVE THIS AREA SO MUCH!!!!! The Sanchez girls, Angie and Sarah, are getting baptized this Saturday, then in two weeks there is a man named Rafael who is getting baptized, and we are now teaching this super awesome young single adult named Marlene. Normally you get assigned to either English, Spanish, or YSA work, but in the Imperial Valley you get all of them! Does life get any better?

Yesterday we had a meeting in San Diego, and since we were out there the Sanchez girls and the Cuevas family (this super awesome family that loves the Sanchez family- they're awesome!) came to San Diego to see the temple and go to the Mormon Battalion! Missionaries in the valley never get to go do those things, but we got permission to do it! What an awesome experience!

I should fill you all in on who Rafael is. I can't remember if I've talked about him before. During my first week here with Elder Rodriguez we were told about this older Mexican couple that needed missionaries to go visit them. Well later that day we were walking in an apartment complex and just happened to run into an older Mexican lady who was out walking with her almost blind husband. We talked to them and Maria, the wife, said she was baptized, but hadn't been to church in a long time, so we made a return appointment and went on our merry way. Well about an hour after the contact we finally realized that Maria was the lady we were told to look out for! CRAZY!!!! They have come to church most weeks ever since, and the husband is getting baptized on the 22nd of January! WOOHOO!!!!! They are so funny and so grateful to the missionaries for finding them and helping them.

The work has been going great here! Our mission president shared the following scripture with us from the Book of Mormon yesterday-

Helaman 3:26 And it came to pass that the work of the Lord did prosper unto the baptizing and uniting to the church of God, many souls, yea, even tens of thousands.

 27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.

We made a mission goal to help 1000 people be baptized in the year 2016. That goal is almost double of what our actual was this past year! At first I was a little overwhelmed, but then as I thought about it the following quote came to my mind,

"The real power in our covenants and the real power in the faith to reap is realized not when we conclude with certainty that God keeps his promises, but when we finally conclude, with certainty, that we keep ours. That great truth is what converts future promises into present realities. We must work."

This quote is from a talk titled "The Faith to Reap" by Elder Wilford W. Anderson. This quote has really made me think of what is it that I need to do to access these blessings that the Lord has already promised. There is still a long way to go, but there is no better time than New Years to set goals and make plans as to how to become a consecrated missionary. I love you all! The Lord keeps His promises, so hang in there when the going gets rough! He will carry you through it!

Elder Dahl