Here are some recent letters from Elder Dahlin!
July 1, 2013
Hola Familia!!
Things this week were a little crazy. Transfers are on Wednesday
I’m going to be training a new Zone
Leader. I’m pretty excited but really nervous too. The zone is changing a little bit, hopefully we get some good elders because right now I love
the missionaries in our zone. We didn’t get much done this week because my companion was sure that he was getting transferred so
he didn’t want to do anything,
it turned out he was right about getting transferred, but chump, move it!! Haha. There are always sad elders that
wanted to get transfered but didn’t
get the call so we have to get them excited again. We should have some
baptisms in these coming weeks but we need to find more people to teach.
Like always haha.
The crazy story of the week is that we almost got robbed! After lunch from about 1-3pm its really dangerous because everyone is in their house and the streets are empty. We were walking to an appointment and 3
guys on 2 bikes started following us. We walked to a little store and went inside so they took a lap around the block. As we started to walk towards a member’s
house they came up behind us. One of the guys on the bike cut me off and as I looked at him I felt a knife
in my back from the 2nd guy. The 3rd guy was on lookout. As the
guy in front of me told me to
give him everything and to not say a word the member that lived nearby opened their door, we were able to get away and we ran inside the member’s house.
It was a miracle. If she not opened the door who knows what would’ve happened........Ive never been so scared in my life haha. But don’t
worry the Lord has our back :).
The mission policy is we can’t fight back because we will most likely
get killed. Pretty good policy. But after you are robbed
you have to call the Mission President and fill out a Rob report. I love you guys soooo much! 1 year down, I can’t believe it!
Con mucho amor
July 8, 2013
Hola Familia!!!
How are things going?!
I got my new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Faundez hes from
Chile Santiago. He’s got 16 months in the mission and he’s a cool guy
and likes to work. He worked for a circus
before his mission so he can juggle knives and all that crazy stuff.
This week was just helping him get to know the area and the zone. We had
3 investigators at church yesterday. We were planning for 10....This is
a tough area. No one seems to want to go
to church and when they say yes they will go, they hide on Sunday
morning when we come by....We are starting English classes this week so
hopefully we can find some people through that. We are going to do a
talent show too which should be pretty fun. Noone
tried to rob us this week don’t worry haha. I hit the 1 year mark on
Saturday! I can’t believe it has gone by so fast. Sorry there’s not too
much to report on. Pray for us a lot we need some miracles in the area.
Les quiero un montón!!!
Elder dahlin
July 15, 2013
Hola Familia!!!
You guys all suck! All the letters I’m getting are
of all the family vacations and trips and cool stuff you guys are
doing....haha! This week was good,
we’ve been working a lot with the missionaries in
their areas getting to know the investigators and helping them get
excited. We had some really good experiences finding a few families. On
Thursday we were in Cali for a leadership council. We ate sooo good. I
found out that there is a Cosco here in Colombia!!!
It’s called Pricemart but its the same thing and its filled with
American food! We talked about the goals we have and what we need to do
to get ready for these next few months. There’s a big push for church
attendance and working with the less active members.
They want us to start focusing on that more and more. We are workin
with a family, The Flores Family, planning their wedding so that they
can get married and then get baptized!!! I’ve never planned a wedding
before haha The Lord really wants this family, they
have had sooo many experiences with us its incredible. Through
blessings and a lot of prayers and fasting they set the goal to get
married August 1st and to get baptized the 3rd. It’s amazing to see how
the lord works through us to help others. I’ll keep you
updated on how the plans are going!
Another boring letter I’m sorry! I’ll try to get robbed this week or somethin hahaha
Les quiero mucho!!
July 22, 2013
Hola Familia!!!
I can’t believe its Tahoe time again!! I’m super
jealous haha I’m really sad to hear that Uncle Ole passed away. When I
read that tears came to my eyes but at the same time I felt something in
my heart that told me that the Plan of Salvation
is true. That calming feeling reasured me that I’m going to see him
again. We are all together. Send the Chirstensens my love. We just got
done with a big lunch we organized to raise money for the family that is
going to get married. It’s the other family
that you (dad) wrote the letter to. They are really excited. The plan
is that the get married the 1st and get them baptized on the 3rd. We
should have 2 baptisms this saturday if all goes well. An older lady
named Belli and a girl named Jessica. Keep them
in your prayers we need all the help we can get!! The zone is going
alright but we are really behind in baptisms. There’s a couple
companionships that are tough to work with but we´re working on that
haha It’s tough when the weekly stats come in and they’re
not that good. It’s not about numbers but it definitely shows the
effort you put into the week. We have all that we need to be successful
as missionaries, its just frustrating when the missionaries don’t apply
it. But hey everyone has a bad week haha I hope
you guys have a great week!! Tell Uncle sam not to be like Uncle Bob
with the boat this year hahaha I love you guys with all my heart. We
truely have the best family:)
Con todo mi amor
July 29, 2013
Hola Familia!!!!
This week was nuts. Super stressful. Many of the
baptisms that the zone had planned fell through for lack of planning and
waiting till the last minute to do things. Last night was tough writing
down all the stats from this week from each
area. It definitely wasn’t something that I wanted to send off to
President Prince. We had one baptism on Saturday which was really good.
Jessica Arboleda, 14 years old. We hadn’t talked to her all week and she
finally called us Friday night saying that she
would be ready at 3pm for the baptismal service that started at 5pm. She showed up at 4:30pm.......she
had her baptismal interview, passed, my comp baptized her and I
confirmed her yesterday.
It was a miracle. The sister missionaries in our zone almost got robbed
again. This time some guy pulled a knife on them but they took off
running and screaming. They are getting taken out of that area in the
next transfer and elders are coming in. The family
that we are teaching, if all goes well, are gettining married on
Thursday and are getting baptized the 10th. Keep them in your prayers!!
I’m still trying to figure out how the Lord works and how to recognize
the spirit but I’ve come to the conclusion that
that’s a life process haha I’m so grateful to be here, I’m getting a
little nervous because time is flying by...haha
I love you guys so much. I want you to know that I’m so grateful
for all that you guys did to get me here. This year has been the
hardest,
but at the same time the best year of my life. Time is flying by way
too fast and before you know it I’ll be home and we´ll be in Waterworld
or in Tahoe!! You guys are the best!
Con mucho amor
August 5, 2013
Hola Familia!!!
How are you guys doing?! This will be a week that I’m never going to forget. On Tuesday
my convert, Helen Restrepo, lost her dad. He had disappeared a long
time ago and news came that he was killed by some gang
members. She took it really hard. She’s been going through a lot lately
she dropped out of school, she doesn’t want to go to church and with
this......On Thursday we had the wedding!!! At 4pm
we went to the court house and they did a little ceremony there.
It’s nothing like a temple wedding......haha. Then at 5 we ran over to
the church to set up for the party that we put on for them. I got a call
at about 5:15
from Helen`s sister crying and screaming. All I heard was Helen won’t
wake up Helen won’t wake up.....I
yelled to me comp and we took off running to her house. When we got to
the their house Helen was screaming and shouting like I’ve never seen
before. She would be at it for 4 or 5 minutes and then would pass out
and then she would start up again. It was really
sad to see this family in such a sad state. After about 30 minutes she
calmed down and we gave her a blessing and then went back to the church.
The party went really well there were about 50 members there. We
decorated the church, we had dinner and a cake,
there was dancing. I was really happy. They came to church yesterday so
all is well for their baptism on Saturday.
Yesterday another one of Helen`s cousins died and her boxing coach was
killed as well. I still can’t believe it. She said it was because they
were baptized in the church but I let her have it for saying that.
Where they live borders with a really dangerous neighborhood that has a
gang that’s called the “tres cientos” and she’s getting caught up in
that :( There’s a crazy girl that fell in love with
my companion that’s causing problems too. Crazy week. haha Im just
happy this family got married :)
I love you guys sooo much!! let me know how things are :)
con mucho amor
Elder Dahlin con mucho amor
Here are some pictures from the wedding and another baptism!
