Bring on the Heat!

What's up everyone! Right now I'm writing to you from the Imperial
Valley in Brawley, California! I literally went from being the
farthest west I the mission to being the farthest east! And boy is it
hot! Haha actually I kind of like it!

My companion is Elder Rodriguez! He is from Boston, his family is from
Guatemala, he is a super hard worker, and we are already the greatest
of friends! It's been a huge blessing to me to come out here and have
the opportunity to work with the amazing people here. And the best
part is that if you aren't amazing, then it's too hot for them to
care, so they don't mess with you! Haha

The Brawley Branch is wonderful. It is about the size of the La Mesa
branch. I think about seventy people came to church last week. They
are all super great and I'm already loving this branch a ton. Here are
two companionships in the Spanish branch, ours, and then there is a
companionship of Sisters that BIKE!!! Bless their souls, Hermanas
Lopez and Gallagher are troopers! So how it works is they cover the
northern half of the main city, Brawley, then we cover the southern
part, and some small towns that are anywhere from twenty to twenty
five minutes from Brawley. It's the bomb! We have been planning our
days so that we spend a big chunk in Brawley and we ride our bikes
while the sisters can get out of the sun for a bit and use the car.
And boy has that been an adventure! I have literally been grinning
from ear to ear every time we leave the apartment, and I have come to
accept that I should just be used to being drenched with sweat. It's
just the thing to do out here in the valley. :)

There is a twelve year old boy of a recent convert that wants to be
baptized this Saturday as well!  He is so cool! Pray for Jesus
Velasquez! This past week he came into church with a a missionary name
tag that said, "Elder Velasquez" and we just about died.

I am so happy! This is the restart that my "mid-mission crisis" needed
to put my head back on straight, set some goals, make some plans, and
then make it happen! It almost feels like I'm in a completely
different mission! Haha I can't wait to tell you more awesome stories
next week!

Elder Dahl

1. Ice cream is a dairy too right?

2. I'm we are becoming professional bakers. I can ship from the Imperial Valley if you're interested in purchasing the weekly Elders Dahl's special

3. I got to go on exchanges with Elder McNaughtan! It was way fun! He came out just a little bit before I did, and we had a blast!

4. Two of my super good mission friends, who got to come all the way out to the Imperial Valley to give us some training!

4. I decided that since I ride a bike now I better get a backpack....any objections?

5. We totally bombed somebody's birthday party! We basically just walked down their driveway and started talking to them, and it was hilariously perfect.

6. The birthday girl had some beastly burgers!

Hasta Luego Logan Heights

Another transfer has gone by, and I received the news that I'm leaving the beautiful shores of San Diego! It was kind of a surprise, but not really at the same time. I will miss all the people, the ocean breeze, covering Downtown San Diego, and my beautiful branch so much. But the Lord is in charge of this, not Elder Dahl, so I'm ready to go and do everything I can in my new home.

This week has been a crazy one. La familia Recendez (Perez) came to church for the first hour, but then had to leave because they volunteered to help an older couple that can't move or do anything move, and Sunday was the only day the older couple could do it. Wow they are so perfect. :) We also had a girl named Adriana come to church (shout out to my Sister Adriana Dahl!!!!!) and she stayed for the entire time. She is a family friend of a family in the branch, and she is doing awesome! Angie is doing well in Arizona, and we have also been teaching this other man named Flomencio is super awesome, knows the Book of Mormon is true, and wants to be baptized! IT has been a blessed week for us.

Also, to celebrate my companion's birthday his dad paid for all five of us to go to the cheesecake factory! Heaven on earth! haha Attached pictures will show the new love of my life- the macaroni and cheese burger. WOW!!!!! My arteries are still thanking me for that one, haha. And yes we split pieces of Oreo cheesecake and an apple stroussel cheesecake. It was glorious!

I wanted to share a scripture that has been on my mind recently. During a conference we had with some missionaries in our neighboring zones, a Sister missionary shared the following scripture-

2 Nephi 33:3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry

This scripture from the Book of Mormon has brought me a lot of comfort this past week. I am not a perfect missionary by any means, but I always try to do what the Lord would have me do. I love the people I work with and I love being a missionary. I love you all so much, and you are included in my prayers.

Elder Dahl

1. Look at how big that thing is! Even my huge mouth had trouble biting into that!

2. Elder Larsen, Elder Canar, and Elder Neilson are thinking, "Wow living in this cramped five-man is finally paying off." haha

3. BUT FOR REAL THOUGH IT'S MASSIVE!!!!!!

 

4. Two of my best friends in the mission are going home today! Sister Jones and Sister Wilde were in my district in Sweetwater! Best of luck to you Sisters in the outside world!

Please Don't Go!

This week has been a crazy one! Here are some updates!

Angie- She got back from her week vacation. We went to go see her and she said she was leaving the next day for a month! I was devastated! I wanted to die! I couldn't believe this was happening! I was about ready to fall over and say, "I quit!" But luckily I was with my good friend Elder Browne for the day because of exchanges and he looked her right in the eye and said, "Will you be baptized the Saturday you get back!?" She thought about it, looked at us, grinned, and answered with an excited, "Yes!" Mark your calendars boys and girls because September 19 we will be having a baptism for her!

Osvaldo Recendez and Maria Perez- Bless their hearts they are perfect! We taught the Word of Wisdom and they thought it was awesome. He has a problem with coffee, but he really wants to fix it. He sounded almost apologetic for ever touching it in the first place. They came to church again :)

This past week was crazy! We had a Mission Leadership Council meeting, zone meeting, a meeting with the Stake President that we had to plan for, more training from President Schmitt the day after zone meeting, and we helped someone from the branch clean up her yard because she is moving to Tijuana. Phew! I'm exhausted! But it has been great! We have seen a lot of miracles this whole week, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord! We are really working with some really awesome and prepared people right now! I will tell you all more next week when things calm down a little bit!

Love you all!

Elder Dahl

1. I got to have lunch with an old friend! Elder....I mean David Hulet! It was awesome!

2. Our Branch President was released and moved back to Miami! You will be missed Presidente Lopez!

3. Partying at Sunset Cliffs with our zone! I got to catch up with my old friend Elder Reyes!

4. My super awesome district!

5. Exchanges with Elder Browne! He is the best! I love this guy!

6. Bye Bye Angie! We will see you in a month!

One Year Mark?

Did anyone else realize that my one year mark was in two days!? I surely did not! I'm having an extreme mid-mission crisis right now! Shouldn't I be like an expert by now or something? haha We'll see if that ever happens!

The Perez family came to church! They loved it and they have asked us to teach them everything that they have to do so that they can get baptized! WWWHHHHAAAATTT!!!!!???? They are so awesome! We are working on getting her divorce papers in Mexico all solved out, and the entire Logan Heights Branch has been so welcoming and inviting to them. Everything has worked out so perfectly, and it has been a huge testimony to me that this is the Lord's work. He is in charge and He will work His miracles!

Angie was gone on vacation this past weekend, but we are thinking that she will be baptized either this week or next week! Stay tuned!

Today we are going to Sunset Cliffs as a zone, so that is going to be super fun! It's a super cool craggy cliff where we can watch the sun set over the ocean. Yeah it should be really really nice :)

Being a missionary is the best! I've got to go, but I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! Everybody make sure to go to the Medina County Fair this week and go see the Dahl Family exhibit! They have goats, snacks, and normally one or two sleeping members of the Dahl family taking a nap in the pens with the goats! Love you all!

Elder Dahl

We are the most spiritual elders ever.

Blessings from La Mesa 3rd

We have had a week full of teaching, talking to people in the street, and Spanish! My companion and I sometime last week decided that this whole English thing is dumb, and we now only speak to each other in Spanish! Talk about a shock! It has been awesome, and we have both already improved so much (well mostly me, his is practically perfect) and it has been super fun too!

Sad news- nobody came to church this week :( Angie had a headache, Maria Perez had to work, and her husband had to help find a friend because I guess the friend was kicked out of their house. We were sad, but we visited them the next day and they were sad they missed church, and they had a million questions about baptism! We are going back again tonight with some members to answer all of their questions :) Pray for them! And Angie too!

We had a crazy awesome miracle last Tuesday evening! So we had gotten out of our lesson with Bianca (the girl who wanted to be baptized, but we will probably have the hermanas teach her because she is super....friendly?) and we were making some phone calls by our call, when none other than an old friend of mine, Hermano Steven Winders, from the La Mesa 3rd Branch came to a stop right beside us. Naturally I was going nuts because he is one of the coolest people in this world (they are an awesome family from Spain, but he speaks perfect English as well and is in the Navy) and I couldn't believe he was here in my little ghetto!

He asked us if there was anything he cold do for us, to which we responded with a no, but then after about 5 minutes of talking the thought came to my mind to invite him to visit the Perez family with us because they lived about 4 feet away. Only Osvaldo was home, but it was perfect because we had an amazing lesson with Osvaldo, and he really opened up to us about how he wasn't sure how he would feel the Spirit telling him that this message was true. Hermano Winders testified and shared some experiences in his life, and the entire lesson was totally guided by the Spirit.

Afterwards we thanked Hermano Winders for coming and we said, "We know that God sent you here so that you could help this man change his eternity." He then proceeded to tell us that he NEVER goes home this way, but he felt prompted to change his route. When he saw me and recognized who I was he knew that there was something he had to do. Ever since that lesson Osvaldo has been progressing really quickly, and is now reading from the Book of Mormon!

This may seem small, but it meant the world to me. Everyday I get to see God work His wonders here in San Diego, and especially in my life. People always say that we are angels walking around working miracles and changing lives. Let me be the first to testify that I'm no angel, but no matter how flawed and silly I am, God's hand has been in every, single detail of my mission and my life. Pray for the Perez family! Pray for Angie! Miracles have NOT ceased, and they never will! I love you all!

Elder Dahl

1. A restaurant called The Smoking Goat? Very yes.

2. Just a normal day working with Elder Swenson ;)

3. L--- (an awesome member in our area that has been coming to church for the past 2 months!) with her dog, Beauty. I was laughing SO HARD!

4. ZOOOOOOOO!!!!!


5. Look we are the same creature!


6. Or maybe I'm actually a hippo?

Woah They Came Again!

La familia Perez came again! They came to church! And they loved it!
We even had the most confusing, horrible third hour in the history of
the world, and Osvaldo's only question was, "What's a stake?"
Blessings from heaven! Angie came again this week too! And then she
went to the mission president's fireside that night too. Let's just
say Sunday was one of e happiest days of my mission!

Sad thing of this week- Flor dropped us. He family has been putting so
much pressure on her to stop meeting with us, and this week they
finally got to her. She told us that one day she would be baptized,
but not soon. It was sad, but at the same time it was liberating to
know that we did absolutely everything we could for her.

We have been working super hard this week, and we have seen some super
awesome blessings! I will explain more next week!

Today I got to go to the zoo again! That was a blast, and also the
reason why this email is so short.

We had one of the biggest storms eve here in San Diego! Saturday
morning was crazy! Out of nowhere it started pouring, and then thunder
and lightning. We were all eating together after about an hour of the
beginning of the storm, when we heard the LOUDEST BOOM of thunder that
I have ever heard before in my life, followed by a huge flash of
lightning! All five of us jumped and a few of them screamed like
crazy! It was the funniest thing ever! What was even crazier was that
a fire started from it just down the road from our apartment! Crazy!

I love you all!you are in my prayers!

Elder Dahl

Sent from my iPad

"Yes, we meet in a school building."

his past week was so awesome because LA FAMILIA PEREZ CAME TO SACRAMENT MEETING AND STAYED FOR ALL THREE HOURS! WOOHOO! They are so awesome, and Elder Swenson and I are so blessed to be able to teach them! In one of our lessons last week Maria (the mom) was thanking us for coming over and teaching her family. She said that her family has never been more united, and then her 15 year-old son thanked us for coming over and sharing such an amazing message. It's times like these that make it all worth it :)

   Which is good because we had a hectic week! Transfers were last week! Elder Swenson and I are both staying here in Logan Heights! However the rest of our zone got smacked in the face basically! Instead of living in a 4-man apartment, we now have a 5-man apartment! Elder Neilson was joined by Elder Larsen and Elder Canar!......yes there is still only one shower......pray for us! haha We had to move a few other companionships around this week because a companionship was taken out of the Logan Heights branch and another companionship was taken out of Barrio Veinte (20th ward for you English folk). So there are now four in each unit, which is way nicer. We are going to have such a great transfer!

   A few weeks ago while we were attending a district meeting, Elder Browne, a friend of mine that I actually knew from BYU that came out with me, was teaching about how even though our work is often hard and challenging that we have no need to fear or be sad. He had me read the following scripture from the Book of Mormon during the meeting

! Nephi 21:13-16

 13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

 14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

 15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

   As I read verse 16, tears came streaming down my face. "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." There have been few times in my life where a scripture has hit me so hard. I know Elder Browne was inspired to have me read that scripture that day, and I thought about it often throughout this week. The Lord will NEVER forget us. He will not leave us alone! He loves us so much and is so willing to open the windows of heaven and bless us. All we need to do is let Him in! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Dahl