Santa, Rabbits, Racquetball, Baptisms, Faith in the Work, Surprise Exchange

Good week. It's been a good week! 

This week we met this member in the branch who lives in the absolute middle of nowhere halfway up the mountain in a trailer, in a shed. And he looks exactly like Santa. It was pretty crazy. And! They breed rabbits to eat! Super crazy and they're very nice.

Also, one morning, my companion was in the shower, I was walking around doing something probably and we hear this super loud constant knocking on our door! I didn't know what to do so I just kinda ignored it and then I finally opened the door and it was our zone leaders! They left the apartment early and drove about 2 hours to go on a day exchange with us! It was so so fun.

This week we have been working really hard and have met most of our goals and have 3 people on date for baptism! That is pretty exciting. Also my zone leader finally told me that this is one of the hardest areas in the mission. No one has told me that but that makes me excited. If we can find success and joy in one of the least successful areas in the mission, then the rest of the mission is going to be so awesome.

Umm just so you all know, every Monday we play racquetball with our bishop and that is super fun. He used to play in the army and so he taught us how to play and we're finally catching up to his skill.

For my spiritual thought I want to talk about faith in the work. I've been taught all my mission that your diligence and faith need to match. If your faith is too much higher than your diligence or the other way around you won't see as much success. But I've experienced the blessings from faith and prayers as well. I know that a life focused on Jesus Christ brings the most joy possible in this life and the next! 

I'm working hard, learning to love it, playing racquetball, and living the country life.

- Elder Dahl

Connection

Hey guys!

I'm focusing my message today on connecting with God. For a while I've been feeling alright with bursts of happiness. But I decided I wasn't going to settle for that because I'm promised in my mission call that I will feel the most joy I've ever experienced, something like that. So, as I have learned before my mission, joy comes from focusing your life on Jesus Christ.

So I've been doing everything I can to really focus on Jesus in my life. But I got to the point where I couldn't think of anything else and I still wasn't at the level of joy I was looking for. So I've begun really praying for the knowledge of how to devote my life more to Jesus Christ. And with that I've been receiving little revelations this past week on how to feel more joy. Some of these I'm not even realizing until now. One of the clear revelations I'd gotten was to befriend my companion. We've been getting along but I wouldn't say I've befriended him until this week. But as I've been really trying to focus on this and the other revelations I've received, I've definitely been feeling so much more joy.

I'm learning that if you want to build a testimony of something gospel related just start doing it. Study it, talk to people about it, pray about it, fast about it, and do it. I don't think there's anything gospel related that you can't receive a testimony of in this life. But the point is that God speaks to you all the time. And teaching yourself how to include him in your life more is so important. Never underestimate the power of your connection with God. It's pretty incredible!

Know that there's never meant to be a climax in your life. You're always meant to be feeling more and more joy throughout your life. And that happens through the gospel. And eventually you'll pass into the next life where you will feel even more joy.

- Elder Dahl

Doubts and Questions

Hey everyone, today I am going to be focusing on correctly responding to doubts and questions. A couple days ago a recent convert to the church has decided he is no longer interested because he can't believe the spirit would inspire Nephi to kill Laban. 

If it hasn't happened already, there will come a time when your faith will be challenged by something you read, something you hear, something you think about. Remember the purpose of trials. Trials are here to make us stronger. And every question or doubt will make us stronger if we react appropriately.

The appropriate response is to remember the spiritual experiences you have felt and are hopefully written down somewhere to give you a boost when you're down. Then you need to research your questions. The gospel library has an incredible amount of answers to your questions. But never discount the power of prayer in your search for answers. You may receive personal revelation, direction to find answers, or other ways to help you out. 

The truth is the gospel answers every question anyone will ever have. Some of these answers we do not know yet but many of them we do! And there are talks and more talks about them. 

This practice will keep your joy at maximum capacity whether or not you're having questions. 

Other than that, I've been doing really well. I'm getting more and more comfortable with being a missionary. I'm really trying to be bold with my message to others. Many times people will see us and turn away but if we get them talking they will realize that our message makes a lot of sense! It's kinda funny.

I hope you all are doing great, feel free to ask me any questions!

- Elder Dahl

fresh squeezed apple juice!

Crazy

This week has been absolutely crazy.

On transfer day we got up and left early to make it all the way to Spokane for Elder Lomu to go to a temple session and then to go home! He's been a great example for me and left me a tie that he signed. He's taught me how to be very very diligent. Anyways, we got on the road and it's very wet and we come across this bend and my companion starts to lose control. He hydroplanes and ends up spinning out into the barrier which thankfully stopped us from heading into the river. We then spun and crossed the other lane into a ditch on the side of the road. All the side airbags deployed and we were stuck. No one was hurt except for ringing in my ears for a couple hours from the airbags. And we're so glad no one was in the other lane. 

Anyways, we climb out and the police showed up and he helped us get a tow and sort everything out. We ended up asking a member to take us an hour to the next city were another set of elders gave us a ride to Spokane. We didn't have a car and we didn't have anything except what we were wearing. But Elder Lomu got home safe and sound!

We ended up going to live with the zone leaders for a day until the mission came up with another truck somehow. And then we picked it up and now we're back in our area and I'm driving. 

Pretty crazy experience but it turned out well because I love to drive! 

For my spiritual thought I wanted to talk about joy. There are points in my life where I have not felt joy. I have lost my focus and was just kinda living life. But in my wisdomous age I've started practicing refocusing myself. Because as President Nelson says, happiness has little to do with the circumstances of your life and everything to do with the focus of your life. Joy comes from a life centered on Jesus Christ. And when that focus is lost, joy is as well. I read today that the presence of the Holy Ghost means you're feeling joy. So doing your best to refocus your life on Jesus Christ so you can really feel the Holy Ghost present will make your life infinitely better!

That's it for this week! If you have any questions send me an email!

Love you all!

- Elder Dahl

Videos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WUz1jqaegLyee89T6

Transfers!

This week one of my trainers goes home! He's crazy excited and so is his family. That leaves the two of us in Montana. He was definitely a great example to us and taught us to work hard. 

I've met some pretty crazy people here. I feel like missionary work here is very different than the rest of the mission but we'll see when I get transferred. 

This week we've been great, we are really getting along with the members and our friends we're really connecting with. The next step is to get all these old country members to get Facebook and to post about us. That would be incredible. 

For a spiritual thought I'm learning to have more faith in things. You gotta have faith in Facebook, in prayer, in the people you are teaching, in your studies. Basically everything in your life especially as a missionary! But most of all I'm learning to have faith in the Spirit and its ability to tell me what to say. Faith is what allows miracles to happen and that's why it's so important. A missionary will be a great missionary if they work hard but they will be an excellent missionary if they can rely on the Spirit. 

I'm learning to love being on a mission more and more. And what brings me joy is seeing myself improve. It's hard to keep doing something if you don't see yourself getting better at it. 

Anyways I love you all and hope you're doing well! 

- Elder Dahl