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

Divine Priority

 Hey everyone! 

I'll start off with my spiritual thought today.

I'm beginning to understand the weight and power in my calling. As a missionary you are asked to break social norms to declare the all important word of God to the world. We friend and call people on Facebook, politely interrupt phone calls, knock stranger's doors, chase after people we see that are pretty far away, and we talk to everyone we see. We do all this because we as representatives of the Savior of the world have divine priority in the world. Our message is the most important message that person needs to hear. If you aren't treating your relationship with God with the most importance, you don't understand the gospel enough and you are living a life that is subpar. You are choosing to live a life that is absent of true joy. 

How do you change that? You turn your life to Jesus Christ and you decide that you will not make a choice he wouldn't make. And if you do, you repent. That's the divine recipe for happiness!

Ok I ran out of time so that's it! 

Love you all!!

- Elder Dahl

Zone Conference

This week I had my first zone conference which was pretty incredible. There were about 4 zones that got together and had a big meeting with President there. It was pretty spiritual. I'll share my takeaways but first I'll share a little bit about missionary work!

The members are feeding us so well and it is so delicious! There's this older couple that used to have the missionaries live in their house and they love us so much. They invite us over and make treats for us and they have made us burgers twice this week, they're just very enthusiastic about having missionaries again. Basically, both the ward and the branch are so happy to have missionaries again. There weren't missionaries in this area for a few months, so everyone is just so grateful and excited that we're here. 

The three of us gave talks on Sunday and they were each 10 minutes long. And I was nervous about speaking for the full 10 minutes, so I spoke first so my companions could fill up the rest of the time. I studied and I wrote down my bullet points and decided that I would just say everything I could and then I would let them recover the leftover time. 

I just let the Spirit guide my thoughts and then when I finished, I realized that the meeting was almost over and I had left 15 minutes for both my companions and the ward mission leader. I spoke for a full 20 minutes! I didn't leave very much time at all-- I was so embarrassed but nobody else seemed to mind.

Zone Conference Takeaways:

- Do not hold to events in the past, forget and find strength and motivation from looking to the future. Remember the past but don't dwell in it because you have better things ahead of you.

- Trials are crucial in moving forward in your life.

- Weakness helps you to see God in your life.

- We cannot be saved in ignorance. Those who drift by without trying to better understand the gospel are missing the point. The gospel is the most important thing in the world.

- We never need to grow without Jesus Christ, so don't choose too.

- If you aren't feeling joy, you're doing something wrong.

- Be aware of what is the natural man inside you and improve it, but do not become discouraged by it.

- When you lose your focus on Jesus Christ, you lose. Never be embarrassed to always be thinking of Jesus Christ.

I'm feeling more confident as a missionary. I'm still new, but I'm learning how to connect with others. And I've noticed the Spirit works differently for me as a missionary, and I'm still learning to fully rely on it in this stage of my life.

I'm learning to really enjoy the work, and I've noticed that time is going pretty quickly. But I'm really trying to grow and to be the best missionary I can be.

Sorry I haven't been taking many pictures. I'm really good at forgetting to do that!

I hope you're all doing well!

- Elder Dahl

People Want the Gospel!

This week has definitely been a roller coaster but part of it was learning that people actually want to hear the message of the gospel! 

In my area there aren't a lot of people who want to learn about our church so oftentimes my companions and I are trying to convince them that they need the gospel when they really aren't open to it. But, we went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week and we were teaching these two guys who loved to learn and were genuinely interested in the gospel! It was pretty refreshing to hear someone of their own choice want to hear about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The zone leaders were all laughing at me because I had never experienced that before!

Something I'm learning again is that when you are perfectly obedient, so many problems go away. When you are doing your best by learning all you can about the gospel, and you are doing your best in your efforts to find people to teach and you still come up short without many people, you can know you did all you could. And then you don't feel bad. And no one can get annoyed with you because you're doing all you can.

And just quick I've been thinking about how you know you're doing your best. Like what does that even mean? I've come to the conclusion that you are doing your best when you are maximizing the atonement of Jesus Christ in your life. Because when you understand and are applying the atonement of Jesus Christ in your life, you will always be in an upward slope. You will make what choices you think will be best and when you make a mistake you repent quickly. Through this process your actions become very celestially minded and you overcome the natural man. It does nothing for you to look down at what you aren't doing and get angry. What is helpful is noticing where you can improve and working to do that everyday but not getting annoyed at yourself. And ultimately change is only possible through Jesus Christ.

Anyways I'm having a great time learning all I can. I love this mission because it's very centered on being a disciple of Jesus Christ and keeping that as your main priority. Many will say it's strict but really the mission just helps you realize what a disciple of Jesus Christ does. It takes effort and accountability and discipline. And it's very rewarding.

Always remember Jesus Christ and you will be on your way to thinking celestially.

- Elder Dahl

Blessings

Hey Guys!

Today I went on a super sweet hike and saw an incredible waterfall which I'm hoping my mom will send pictures of. I also got to play racquetball with my bishop. I had never really played racquetball before but it was sooo funnn. 

We had the opportunity to go on exchanges and learn from the zone leaders. That was a really cool experience, I learned how to really be happy while I'm working. If you treat every contact as an opportunity to help others feel real joy, then you really feel the joy in what you're doing.

One message I wanted to share is about President Nelson's message of thinking Celestially. I've felt this culture of not wanting to stand out and to not be different. But in reality that is what Satan wants. He wants us to lose the gifts God has given us and conform to the crowd. If you think about the Savior, he didn't conform in any way. He broke social norms, he acted completely different from the people he was around. And because of this, people looked to him and knew there was something different about him.

This is what we need to be-- we need to be different, so the world can notice us. The wheat and the tares will be separated, and if you stick with the tares trying to fit in, you won't be the person you need to be when the Savior returns. You will not be prepared. Live every day repenting to constantly stand right with the Lord, so when that day comes, you will be ready. Don't be the one that discourages others from making good choices-- the Church needs to be a community where good choices are encouraged instead of looked down upon.

I believe everyone has the potential to be worthy of being in God's presence. But it will only happen if you set yourself apart from the world in every way.

Thanks so much everyone, hope you're all doing well!

- Elder Dahl

Videos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6dJfPnBd3gX5iZBbA

Montana

I'm in Montana for my first area which is the farthest area in the mission which is pretty crazy. It's super crazy out here. This is the booniest place I've ever been to. Everyone is so spread out and has a truck and loves hunting. 

I have 2 companions training me which is pretty fun one of them is a year out and the other is going home next transfer so I'm getting some good training. 

We're serving in Troy and Libby. Libby has a small ward and Troy has a very small branch. This guy Moroni had us over for dinner for my first member meal and it was insane! He had tons of homemade chicken wings and they were absolutely delicious. The best part was we got the extras😎

The work is going well-- we've met some pretty crazy people and some pretty awesome people. The branch president lives in the middle of nowhere and built his own like personal sized lumber mill and was skinning some logs when we got there which was pretty cool to see. 

Missionaries haven't been in our area in a while so all the members are so grateful and just happy to see us. Oh and the views here are absolutely incredible I'll give you a sneak peak here at the end. I haven't gotten to getting some great pictures yet but I have a couple. 

This week I've been learning that it's not that hard to walk up and talk to people. Sometimes they'll say I'm not interested but most of the time they'll talk to you. What I'm learning to do is to casually bring up Jesus Christ in those quick interactions. 

But overall it's been a great area I'm just still trying to figure out the best way to learn how to do missionary work. 

Love you guys, I'd love to hear from you all!

- Elder Dahl

Videos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FDmyUjteMEQPWXdh9

Heading to Spokane!

Hey guys I'm on a train right now heading to the airport.🙂 I've worked my hardest at the MTC and have noticed lots of improvement which is always exciting to see. I've met so many cool people and have loved learning from my teachers. 

I don't have a huge amount of time and I don't have my notes, but I'll give you a quick spiritual thought:

We had a devotional by Elder Nash of the seventy who is like executive director of the missionary efforts for the church or something like that which was super cool!

My favorite part of his message was when he talked about our identity. I've always known I'm a child of God, but I guess I never realized to the full extent what that meant. And like many things in the gospel I'm learning, it's not something that can be understood by logically thinking about it through some formula. The gospel is only truly understood through the Spirit who testifies of truth. And when you receive a witness that you are a child of God, and your mind is enlightened to what that really means,  you will understand your true potential as an heir to God. And that will change your life. People say, "Remember who you are," but you can't do that until you know who you are. 

Anyways, I'm stoked to get to Washington and meet my new companion!

I'd love to hear how you guys are doing. 

And hopefully my mom shares some pictures with you guys.