Goodbye San Diego

Well here it is folks- the last letter from me as a full time
missionary. How did that happen!? It has been the craziest two years
of my life, and I have loved every minute of it. God allows us to grow
through the good AND the bad times, and I'm so grateful for the
journey that I have had here in San Diego.

This week was a great week! We found some cool people, talked to some
crazy people, and got yelled at by some people. All in a normal week
here in City Heights. On Sunday we went to he Mission President's
Devotional, which is a cool devotional that the mission presidency
puts on once a month, and this one featured Alex Boye! I went to
another one of his devotionals at the beginning of my mission, so it
was fun to come full circle and go to another one. Socorro Maldonado
and her husband came, which was awesome. Jesus came to church again,
and hopefully Socorro will be able to change her job soon so she can
come.

Other than that, not too much happened. Today for my last preparation
day we went back to Embarcadero Park and played flickerball and
basketball. Driving through Downtown San Diego for my last time was a
surreal experience, and I am going to miss this beautiful city so
much. And the PEOPLE!!! The people here are unlike any other. Well I
guess I'm biased because San Diego is the closest thing to heaven on
earth (apart from 9829 Sanford Rd. Lodi, OH), but I will definitely
miss this place. Luckily if there is anything I've learned on my
mission it's that God is in control and is watching over EVERY SINGLE
ONE of His children. He has a plan, and it's so much better than our
plan.

Well I had hopes and dreams of making this last email super epic, but
it's time to go back to work for my last week. Thank you for all of
your prayers and the love that you have all been sending my way. I
know God lives. I testify that Jesus is the Christ and that the Book
of Mormon is true. The Restoration happened, and the Church that Jesus
Christ established has been restored to the earth again. How blessed
we are to be a part of it. I love you all, and I'll see you soon.

Elder Dahl

1. Amen City Heights!
2. Look who I saw at the Mission President's Devotional with Alex
Boye! This is the Ortiz family! I ate my first meal in the mission
with them way back in Sweetwater! Bless their hearts.
3. Elder Taunauta can spot papaya trees from a mile away :) He is also
a great tour guide!

1. Here is too much fun in this companionship
2. Look at my new friend!

Crazies in City Heights

This week was just filled with crazy people, which led to some
fantastic memories. I hope I can do them justice.

First, we visited this less active man named Jose. Jose is crazy. The
whole atmosphere of the lesson just made us laugh hysterically. He is
an older, Mexican man who is married to a Cambodian Buddhist. His
house was filled with statues of Buddha, elephants, and paintings that
he made of his wife in very little clothing. As we begin to sit down,
we see some steel drums, so naturally we ask him if he played. We then
had the pleasure of listening to him for the next two minutes play us
a song called "Alabanzas a Dios," which we believe was an original.
Then we taught the Restoration, got some free mangos, and left. Bless
his heart.

Second, as we were getting into our car after visiting with a member,
a man approached us and asked who we were. We explained that we were
missionaries, and then he continued to tell us about how he had
received intimate training from Christ himself for three months as a
result of a snake demon entering his room one night. He then put his
hand up in the air and said he was going to make all the trees shake
violently! Then when nothing happened he was just like, "Now is not
the time." And that was basically the end of our conversation.
Classic.

Third, we talked to a lady that believed at cancer, death, and old age
were all man-made. It is all made possible by newscasters that want
stuff to report about. City Heights for the win. :)

That's the end of the craziness. This week we had exchanges and Elder
Laws came to Elder Siebers and me in City Heights. We had a blast, and
it was super fun to be with Elder Laws again. We also got free
Colombian food because the server said at no missionaries should ever
have to pay. Life=Made.

I will send lots of pickles to make up for the lack of info this
week.....oops I meant to say pictures!

Elder Dahl

1. This is Elder Siebers' street contacting face!
2. We were given free Colombian food on exchanges! Tender mercies.
3. LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!
4. We love mango smoothies!!!

1. We sure do love ice cream!
2. Elder Taunauta is going to be a model.
3. Did I tell you the story about how we sent off a Swahili/French
referral for this family of ten that just moved here from the Congo a
few months ago? Google translate for the win.
4. Selfies at baptisms! We all took investigators to a baptismal
service that may or may have not been recorded by the missionary
department.

1 & 2. The Mexiqueen strikes again with cookies and cream cupcakes and
choco-flan.
3. I think this picture just describes the past month for me.
4. Elder Siebers' first time having mole (pronounced mow-leh)!

1-4. We had fun at the science museum last week! Here is us going
brought some tunnels of light, and one of e tunnels was made up of
hundreds of roles of tape! At' not cool at all, but it was he most fun
thing there :)

Banana Brothers

The title of this is "Banana Brothers" because I wanted to report that
Elder Siebers single handedly ate twenty bananas in two days this
week. I promise that isn't the most exciting part of this email, but
it still amazes me.

This week was dedicated to a lot of finding. We talked to a lot of
different people this week, and found a big apartment complex that we
have started to call "Little Persia" that has been fun to explore. One
moment you are in City Heights, and e next you feel you are walking
through a village in the Middle East. I took my picture with these
four super nice little boys that only speak Arabic (luckily I can say
hello in Arabic!). They are refugees from Syria, and it just made me
so thankful for the church and everything it is doing to help
refugees.

We visited Yadira this last week, who had a surgery in Tijuana on
Tuesday and can't really do much right now. We got to show her how to
explore and use all of the different church websites. She is such a
trooper.

On Friday we had to go on splits because we had too many appointments,
and I went by myself with a member while Elders Taunauta and Siebers
went off with another member to visit someone. Both groups had good
lessons, but it was so weird to be apart from my companions! I'm
really glad that God gave me the opportunity to serve here with these
two for my last transfer.

I'm not sure if I've told you about Hermana Quintero, but if I
haven't, let me repent. Hermana Quintero is this super sweet lady in
our ward that invites us over every Sunday for a feast. And I'm not
talking about just any regular Sunday meal, I'm talking about a feast
for a small army! That woman can cook! Her voice is also just really
cool, and we decided that she sounds like royalty, so we have started
to call her the "Mexiqueen." This week was steak kabobs wrapped in
bacon, barbecued chicken, watermelon, rice, corn, rolls, ice cream,
and cheesecake. Bless her heart that woman is an angel. She is living
proof that the fastest way to an Elder's heart is through his stomach
;) haha nah just kidding, that's only partially true.

For July 4th our ward had a picnic at a park, and we had three
nonmembers come- Carlos Gonzalez (Blanca's son), Socorro Maldonado,
and Reynaldo Hernandez, who is a random man that we talked to on the
street last week! We had a great time! There was carne asada, pollo
asado, and hot dogs :) Along with a large variety of fruits and other
good stuff.

The Book of Mormon changes lives! For example, when we talked to
Reynaldo on the street last week he started telling us about how he
could never believe in anything outside of the Bible, or that God
continues to speak to man today. About three minutes into talking to
him, we opened the Book of Mormon to 2 Nephi 28. As we read to him you
could physically see his countenance change, and after we read a few
verses HE asked US if we could come teach him more. If you aren't
actively reading the Book of Mormon right now, sacrifice whatever you
need to in order to read at least a little everyday. If you do so, I
testify and promise that Satan will have no power over you, and your
doubts will be replaced by unshakeable faith.

Elder Dahl

1. Look at this hat that Elder Taunauta has! There is a lot of Tongan
pride in this companionship.
2. I came out of the bathroom and Elder Taunauta was sitting like this
listening to a conference talk. I took over a dozen pictures and he
had no idea. Now that's what I call "pondering the scriptures"
3. Sometimes you just have "one of those days."
4. My last zone conference picture!

1. Poor Ramoncito is so bored while his mom, Yadira, is recovering
from surgery. Haha
2. These are the four Syrian kids! They were so sweet and adorable.
They kept on yelling hello to us in Arabic and giving us high fives.
3. Sometimes when you are just trying to rest on your super comfy
couch, your companion just all of the sudden ends up forgetting that
you were already on the couch, and then this happens.
4. I love this statue outside of Rosa Parks Elementary School.
5. Elder Siebers takes a lot of pictures where he and all of his
friends just make straight faces at the camera just because it's
funny. We are trying to do it, but man it is so hard not to smile when
you are actually thinking about it!