January 2014 Letters

Here are Elder Dahlin's January letters! They just keep getting better and better (so does Jason :). He's doing awesome! There's a chance he'll be coming home in JUNE! If not June, it'll be mid-July, but we're crossing our fingers for June ;)

January 6, 2014

Hola Familia!!

Happy 2014!! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here but its all over now haha We went to a member’s house for New Year’s Eve and made a bunch of food and hung out with them, it was pretty fun. We should have a really good month. We got everything set up for the wedding, it’s this Friday at 3pm if you guys wanna come haha and we should have 4 or 5 baptisms this weekend too if all goes well. All the hard work finally paid off! Jose Aragon (the guys whose wife passed away) received the Priesthood yesterday, it was pretty awesome he seems so happy. He’s given us a bunch of referals too to go visit all his family, it’s awesome. The zone is doing really good, everyone seems happy. There were a few problems over the holidays but we just had interviews with President Prince so everything got taken care of. I can’t believe that I only have 6 months left in the mission :O Its going by way too fast. I love you guys so much, thank you for all the stuff you sent me, you made all the missionaries in my zone very happy haha!

Con mucho amor!

Elder Dahlin

January 13, 2014

Hola Familia!!!

Whats up?!!! How are you guys doing?!! We only had 2 baptisms this weekend, the wedding didn’t happen. There was another problem with the paper work. Turns out there’s 2 people with the same name and we got the papers for the wrong one, of course..haha but it’s alright, we are doing all that we can to be able to get everything fixed. The 2 baptisms that we had were Luz Corralez and Sofia De Leon. Luz is 76 and she was a referal from her sister whose a member. She is really nice, she’s a little shy but we slowly gained her confidence and her sister helped us out alot. Sofia De Leon is 10 and her parents were less active for a long time. They came to church about 3 weeks ago and we started visiting them and Sofia got baptized. Her dad was excomunicated for a problem that he had but he’s starting the process to get baptized again. It’s complicated what happened to him but the good news it that he has a strong desire to be sealed to his family in the temple. We have stake conference this weekend, Elder Grow from the seventy is coming. Rumor is that Cali is going to lose a stake. It’s tough here, last year our mission baptized 1660 people and the church attendance only rose 300. Alot of people are starting to fall away from the church. We are starting to work more to retain and reactivate so that there’s a real growth here in Cali. Its a great time to be a missionary, the Lord is really hastening his work.  I really love the mission, I just feel good being here. I want to have like 100 more baptisms, I just want to explode in these last six months. I love you guys so much thanks for everything you guys do!

Les quiero much!!

Elder Dahlin

January 20, 2014

Hola Familia!!!

THE BRONCOS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!! I think I need to come home for the weekend to watch the game haha. How are you guys doing? We just got back from the hospital, one of the elders in our zone had a siezure we had to take him to the ER. He’s doing better now, they are going to do a bunch of tests to see if he’s alright. We were playing soccer with a bunch of missionaries when we got the call from the Mission President. Not the funnest p-day hanging out in the hospital but that’s alright. This week was really good. The old guy who lost his wife, his son got baptized on Saturday, it was awesome! We had Stake Conference this weekend which was awesome too. Elder C. Scott Grow came from the quorum of the Seventy. I got to have a personal interview with him Friday before a special training we had later in the day and it was awesome. We talked about sealings and the purpose temples, and a little about the plan of salvation. It’s not everyday that you get to sit down with a member of the Seventy and listen to him talk about temple ordinances. I learned a lot about what it’s going to be like in the Celestial Kingdom and about the repentance process, along with the mercy that God is going to have on us. He stressed that the Lord really does want all of his children to come back to him and He’s going to try as hard as He can to make sure it happens. On Sunday he talked about the importance of the family and President Prince talked about what Elder Christopherson said about how to get to know Christ. 1) You need to study His life. How He acts, how He responds to questions and handles different situations 2) Put in practice what you learn 3) And gradually over time you will see that you become more and more like the Savior. Before my mission I had never read the Book of Mormon or the Bible, I couldn’t tell you much about Joseph Smith or even bare a good testimony. But after these 19 months I have felt my relationship with my Heavenly Father grow and I have seen how He has changed my heart. I have a lot to learn but I am so greatful to be where I am today.  It is never too late for anyone to change.  I love you guys sooo much!! I can’t believe that I’ll be home this summer!! :D

Les quiero much!!

Elder Dahlin

January 27, 2014

Hola Familia!!

How are you guys doing?! Transfers came and I’m going to be here for another transfer. 6 months in one area haha I’m pretty happy, we have a lot of good families that we are teaching right now so it should be good. My new companion is Elder Chamorro from Ecuador. I don’t really now him but I hear he’s a cool guy and I’m excited.  We didn’t have any baptisms this week and the old guy´s son that we recently baptized didn’t get confirmed on Sunday. He told us on Wednesday that he had to work a lot this week and we haven’t heard from him since. Hopefully we can talk to him this week otherwise he´ll have to get baptized again. The family that was going to get married is still having problems getting the correct papers, its really frustrating. Our ward is going through a bunch of changes right now, most of the ward leaders are inactive so we are working with the Bishop to be able to fill in the holes. I basically ran the ward council meeting yesterday. The members here don’t understand that ward council isn’t to talk about ward rosters and budgiting. I told them that this is sacred time for us to look at families in need and how we can help them. All the other stuff is for all the other boring meetings you have haha. Things are going really good though, this should be a good transfer. The zone had a few changes too, some of the elders are a little iffy. My old comp Elder Ruiz from Popayan is coming so it should be good to talk to him. It’s his last transfer. When I was with him he had 7 months in the mish...time is flyin by!

The new grossest thing I’ve eaten this week is: Pig heart. It was sooo bad and the after taste was the worst. I didn’t even know you can eat things like that haha.  It was the worst, it was so gross haha. They had just barely taken it out of the Pig, cleaned it, cooked it and gave it to me. It was the size of my fist. I wasn’t happy haha.  What’s weird is that with all the gross things that I have eaten here I still don’t like potatoes haha.

I love you guys soo much! Thanks for everything:) 4 months left, I can’t believe how fast my mission has gone by!!

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Dahlin

December Letters

December 2, 2013

Hola Familia!!

How are you guys doing?! So I got back to my area yesterday. This whole week I’ve been in the mission home which was pretty nice. Finally sleeping in a bed where my whole body fits, pillows that aren’t hard as a rock, hot water haha The food was super good too. For the first half of the week I was just in the house reading and helping out where I could and then the last half of the week I was in the mission office helping out the secretaries. It got pretty boring, I’m glad to be back in my area. I missed the members and the investigators a lot. You really get to love these people. I feel better, I got my stitches out on Saturday. The cuts still hurt but I’m sure that will go away soon. The spirit of Christmas is definitely here now. I helped Sister Prince set up Christmas in their house which was fun. Here in Cali there are a lot more houses with lights and other decorations. The problem is that in December the Colombians start to party hard haha The music gets turned up and the people start drikning from the moment they wake up till the moment they go to sleep. We should have some baptisms this month, finally. We have a family that want to get married so keep them in your prayers. The date is the 21st! It sounds like Thanksgiving was fun, that’s awesome everyone was together. I miss the snow. I miss big turkey dinners too haha Next year I’ll be there! I love you guys soo much!!

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Dahlin

December 9, 2013

Hola Familia!!!

Whats up?!!! How are you guys doing?!! Healthwise I’m doing better. My stomach still hurts walking up hills or stairs but its getting better. Sometimes I try to do sit-ups which in the moment doesn’t hurt but later on it kills haha I learned my lesson, hold off on the sit-ups! Here in the mission it seems like everyone is thinking about anything but religion haha. Starting last Saturday until the end of December there are parties every night in the streets, loud music and a lot of drunk people. It’s been really hard finding new people to teach. Even the members in the ward have stopped going to church which is strange.  The Christmas devotional last night was really good. We do need to be more focused on people rather than things. Where our hearts are at will determine if it was a good Christmas or not. We have a family of 3(mom, dad, and son) that we are working with and they are awesome. When we first found them they didn’t want anything to do with marriage. They said that they didn’t love each other and that they are just wating for their kids to get out of the house to split up. But they have had such a big change of heart that the plan is that they get married the 21st:) The Lord works in mysterious ways but it’s been such a cool experience being with them. The problem is that we have to find the papers for their wedding which are in Bogota somewhere so keep praying that they’ll turn up! The Christmas lights, big santa clause inflatables, and gifts are all great, but what I’ve learned is that being with the family is the greater. Helping others is greater. I can’t be with my family but I can sure help others to have that great experience. I miss you guys soo much. It’s hard to be away for Christmas, surrounded by peolpe who shut the door on you, missionaries in your zone that don’t want to do anything, appendicitis...haha but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love you guys so so much. Thanks for everything that you do and remeber that you are always in my thoughts and prayers :)

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Dahlin

December 16, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Next week is Christmas!!! December is flying by I can’t even believe it. This week has been really good, we had zone conference on Wednesday which was awesome.  It was like a Christmas party for the missionaries. I remember last year when you all wrote cards and sent them to Sis Prince and she gave them to us.  Not sure why she didn’t do that again this year, maybe it was too much work haha. We are struggling to get the papers for the wedding we were planning for the 21^st, the Bogota missionaries don’t want to help us find the papers, chumps!...So we had to push the wedding back another week. We have a lot of good people that we are teaching right now, things are just really crazy around Christmas time. Everyone is traveling or with family or don’t want anything to do with religion...haha We should have between 4-6 baptisms at the end of the year if all goes well with the wedding papers and people keep going to church. Transfers are this week and every area in the zone has someone leaving. We are getting some good missionaries transferred into our zone and I’m excited to work with them. I’m still going to be with my companion for another transfer. I started Christmas shopping this morning and it really makes me feel happy. I want to make up a few gifts for members in the ward and then just buy a buch of toys and wrap them up and hand them out to children on Christmas day. I gave a talk in church yesterday. It didn’t go as well as I wanted but it was still alright. I talked about the spirit of Christmas and where our hearts need to be. It’s sad to see that a lot of members have stopped going to church especially around this time. We gotta go get them and bring them back!

I love you so much!! I can’t wait to talk you guys next week!! Merry Christmas!!

Elder Dahlin

December 30, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

It was so good talking to you guys this week. I can’t believe that Christmas has come and gone again. This year has flown by!! This Christmas was really awesome! Something that Elder Nelson said in the Christmas Devotional about giving not recieving and being more interested in people than things really got to me. I made a bunch of gifts for members, we bought toys and handed them out to kids on the street, and for all the investigators in the zone I printed out a christmas story and put candy in bags when we went to each area and visited them. We had a really good BBQ as a zone Christmas Eve for lunch and for dinner we went to a members house and we had a really good dinner with them. They are into cold meats here for Christmas like turkey, ham, pork, and salami. We´ve eaten so much this week haha New Year’s Eve we are going over to a members house to eat with them it should be pretty fun.

This will really be a Christmas that I´ll never forget. The older couple that we were trying to help get married, well the wife was really sick and we tried getting all the paperwork together but the missionaries in Bogota took a month to send us what we needed and last Thursday Mary Castrillón, the wife, died. I was so sad and frustrated that we couldn’t get everything done before she passed away, but when we talked to him the next day, I felt such a warm feeling come over me that told me “the plan of salvation is real”. Jose Aragon, the husband, was baptized yesterday and I had the opportunity to do it, As we confirmed him I knew that in one year he will enter into the temple and he will be sealed to his wife. The First Presidency has to approve the sealing since they weren’t married for ¨time¨ but the temple president in Bogota said that there won’t be a problem.

Im so greatful to be on a mission. I can’t beleive there’s only 6 months left. I wish I could start over with all that I’ve learned haha I love you guys so much. Thanks for all the Christmas gifts they were very much appreciated :)

Les quiero much!

Elder Dahlin

The Appendicitis

At the end of November, Jason had an emergency appendectomy. Let me tell you, it was not fun thinking about him going into surgery in Colombia. Luckily he was in Cali (a well established city) and went to a good doctor. We're very grateful for skilled doctors around the world!

Hola Familia!!

Well after this weekend I feel like a new man haha! Who needs a stupid appendix anyway?! It has been a really interesting weekend, I still can’t believe that it all happened. Thursday night is when I started to have really bad stomache pains. I couldn’t sleep all night. Laying down or standing up the pain was so bad. I called the mission president Friday morning and he told me to take it easy and to drink sprite to see if that would help the pain. It didn’t. We went out to work like usual and at lunch I tried eating but the pain just got worse so I layed down on the couch and rested. At about 4:30pm I told my companion that I couldn’t handle the pain anymore and right as I was about to call the mission president he called me and said that he wanted me to see a doctor. I went in at about 6:30pm and the doctor, a member of the church, touched parts of my stomache and he found that the main source of pain was on the lower right side, Where the appendix is... He took us back to his house at about 8:30pm and he took a blood and urine test. The results came at about9:45 and showed that there was some kind of problem. I called my mission president and the doctor called a surgeon that he knows to get me into the ER. That’s when I got to talk to dad which was pretty cool. I was admitted into the hospital at about 11:30pm and got hooked up to an IV at about 1am Saturday.  I was going to have surgery right away but there was a bar fight in Cali and a bunch of guys that were all messed up took my spot in line. Jerks. haha It was a rough night. I was in a small recliner chair in a room with like 5 other people. The nurse woke me up ever 30 minutes changing the IV and making sure I was ok. At 6:30am I got to take a shower and at 8am I was in a wheelchair getting moved to surgery prep. I was there for about an hour and at 9:15am I got moved to the operating room and they put me to sleep. I have 3 entry points. 1 on each side of my lower stomache and one in my belly button. I get the stitches taken out in a week they said. I’m here in the mission home right now and I’ll be here for a few days trying to work with the zone getting things done. It’s a little boring here but it’s nice to be in a home-like setting after 17 months in Colombia haha Thanks for worrying about me. I remember asking dad and my mission president if it is safe to have surgery in Colombia hahaha they took good care of me.

I love you guys soo much!!

Elder Dahlin 

November so far...

November 4, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Transfers came!! My new companion is Elder Viza from Peru. He’s new as a ZL and has a little less time in the mission than me. He was in the MTC in Bogota with me but had to go home for surgery and is back now. It should be a good time!! This week went really well. We saw a lot of progress in our investigators and had 12 at church yesterday. That just goes to show that we are on the Lord´s timetable. We´ve been in a group of 3 since Friday with Elder Campos, the missionary I trained in Jamundi, which has been cool. It was fun working with him to see how much he’s learned. We went to Jamundi to visit some converts today, it was good. They are still active and it’s awesome to see how much they’ve grown in the gospel. The biggest lesson I learned this last month is that the Lord knows us. He knows what we are going through and he knows why we go through it. Its easy to say ¨Why me?¨ but that’s not what he wants. Faith is the first principle of the gospel for a reason. If members of the church would just keep hanging on a little but longer, there wouldn’t be so many less actives. He loves us and that will never change. I’ve seen it, I’ve taught it, but more importantly I’ve felt it. And he had to teach me this lesson again. I love you guys so much. Thank you for always being there for me and please know that you are always in my heart :)

Con mucho amor

Elder Dahlin


November 11, 2013

Hola Familia!!

How are you guys!? Things are a lot better here on my end haha. My new companion is a lot better than my old one. It’s always hard getting used to a new companion but we are working a lot better together. We should have a baptism this weekend, we are pretty excited. It’s a 13 year old kid named Sebastian. We found him through a reference and a member of the church made friends with him right away and for the past 3 weeks he’s been coming to church in a white shirt and tie. In 2 weeks he´ll be passing the sacrament! This area is still pretty tough, no one is married and no one wants to get married...haha. But we are working hard. We want to do more activites because the ward is pretty boring. In Colombia there’s hardley ever mutual or other youth activites and the missionaries are always the ones who have to plan them. I don’t understand it haha. I sent a bunch of pictures in a USB I hope you like them :) We had a really spiritual experience on Friday. We were in a small town called Yumbo just outside of Cali. There’s not a church there but there are a few members and we go every week to visit them. We printed out the roster of members that same Friday to go look for less active members and right as we were about to take the bus back to back to Cali I was flipping through the roster and there was a name highlighted in green. It said ¨Gomez Sanches¨ and I still don’t understand how it was highlighted but we went to the address and talked to the grandson of a lady that was baptized almost 50 years ago. He told us that she was really sick and that she was in the hospital just 2 blocks away. We met up with the lady´s daughter that told us “It’s about time you guys showed up”...Apparently this lady, whose name is Mercedes, had been calling out “Elderes” (Elders in Spanish) several times the night before. We walked in on a lady so frail that she couldn’t move on her own. We were able to talk with her for moment and then we gave her a blessing. She smiled and said “thank you for answering my prayers”. It was a really great experience.

I love you guys so much:) 

Elder Dahlin


November 18, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Well we`re a little bit sad because we didn’t have our baptism on Saturday. The kid’s mom called me the day of his interview and said that she wants him to wait a little bit longer. We are going to visit them tomorrow we`ll see what happens.  Hopefully we can work with her and she will give her permission because this young man is awesome.  Crazy things are happening in the mission right now. Between now and the end of January about 60 missionaries are ending their missions and more than half of these missionaries have leadership possitions too. Yesterday there was a problem in Buga with some missionaries and President Prince had to do a whole bunch of transfers to solve obedience issues. 2 zones were made into one, 2 areas were shut down, and 3 zone leaders were taken out of their positions and I’m pretty sure a missionary is getting sent home.  I have no idea what happened, I just found out about all this stuff this morning. Crazy stuff. This week was good, we are struggling to work with the members right now, missionary work and the ward are not connected. It makes things a lot harder and we really want to change that. The zone isn’t doing too well either, the only area that is going well is ours. Its frustrating when missionaries don’t take feedback or are disobedient. My companion is a little weird, we don’t really talk much. I dont know what to say to get him to open him up. He’s a cool guy and for the most part we teach well together. Pray that we will have baptisms! haha I can’t believe that November is halfway over....wild.

I love you guys so much! I hope all is well :) Thanks for everything you do for me!

Con mucho amor 

Elder Dahlin 

End of September & October

Here is one letter from the end of September and all the letters from October.

September 30, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Well I am finally getting transfered. My new zone is Cordillera, my new area is Versalles II, and my new comp is Elder Guerrero. I’m still going to be Zone Leader,  I’m excited to work in a new zone with a new group of missionaries. My current zone didn’t do too good this month, it has been a struggle. I read a talk yesterday that says that the Lord was a “do as I do leader” not a “do as I say leader.” Sometimes it’s frustrating when the missionaries don’t take your example and don’t listen to tips you give them on how to be a better more effective missionary. It definitely showed in this month´s stats. Even with some of the challenges I’ve had in this area, I’ve been looking back on my mission and this has been the best area and the best transfers I have had. I can feel the Lord working through us and I can see His love for each one of us. When Nephi said that he was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which he should do I can say that I have had those experiences. The Lord is moving His work forward and it’s a great opportunity to be a part of His church. I’m so greatful for all that the Lord has done for all of us and for our opportunity to be together forever. That’s what drives me. Families can be together forever. My family is pretty good too so I’m not too worried :) haha

I love you guys so much!

Elder Dahlin

October 14, 2013

Hola Familia!!!

Sorry I didn’t write last week, things were a little bit crazy with the transfers. The first week with my companion was horrible. I’ve never seen someone that has so much hatred towards me. It seems he hated me even before I got here, shouldn’t you get to know someone first before you hate them, haha. I wasn’t able to enjoy conference very much becuase I just felt terrible.  I am still not sure what his problem is, it’s pretty strange. I had to call the Mission President and last Monday we talked with him.  The President just told me to help fix this elder.  As of now things are good. However, I’m walking on egg shells to not do anything wrong to make him mad and we work at his pace which is pretty slow. I feel stressed all the time...haha

The mission is doing great right now. In September we baptized 272 people as a mission. 2190 investigators went to church in September too. It was a wonderful crazy month. We have set a goal to baptized 325 people as a mission in December which would be the highest number of baptisms in the history of this mission ever. Pray so that we can find families that are married haha My new area is huge. It’s the biggest area I’ve had. The members are cool, a lot of them speak English. An average of 110 go to church each Sunday. It’s nice to be in a church again because in Palmira is was a house used as a church. There aren’t too many investigators here, we have a lot of work to do. The problem is that I can’t say anything or my companion will get mad.................Only 3 more weeks haha I love you guys soo much! My last Christmas is coming up. Packages are always welcome ;) haha Let me know how things are going!

Les quiero muchisimo!

Elder Dahlin

October 21, 2013

Hola Familia!!

How are things going? This morning there was a big soccer tournament in the mission and our zone took 2nd. We lost in penalty kicks. It was pretty fun. This week has been pretty difficult our area is really big and we lost alot of time walking all over the place. We have some investigators but most of them arent married and dont want to get married.....Its alot different here than in Palmira I miss Palmira. My comp is still pretty tough I work at his pace and do what he says because if I dont he´ll get upset. Sometimes I dont feel like a missionary I just feel like an object playing follow the leader. I dont know what the lord wants me to learn. Maybe its payback for all the things ive done wrong haha Halloween is coming up everyone here has their decorations out its pretty cool. And everyone is startin to sell chirstmas stuff. I cant believe its christmas time again. My last chirstmas!! I love you guys sooo much. I think about you guys everyday. I had a dream about lake tahoe the other night the last thing I remembered was hugging grandpa.

Love you guys!

Elder Dahlin


October 28, 2013

Hola Familia!!

So I haven’t really told you guys about this area so I’ll give you a quick overview. It’s a huge area and without a car it’s a lot of walking. We have 3 neighborhoods with a good amount of investigators in them. It’s really comercial in some parts, lots of restaurants and stores, and other parts are really industrial, lots of factories and warehouses. We live on the second floor of an apartment building that’s pretty ghetto but not really dangerous. About 80-90 people go to church each week and there are a lot of less active members. One of the neighborhoods in our area is really close to another ward´s church building and they dont want to have to pay transportation to travel to the church building in our ward. That’s a big problem with a lot of the members too. The members are really nice but aren’t really connected with missionary work. That’s our focus right now. We made the ward mission plan and this week there’s a big push to work together members and missionaries to find a lot of new investigators to teach. There’s alot of work to do here haha.

This week was another tough one. Things with my companion are the same.  This guy has some serious issues. I try talking with him but he shuts down so much and gets mad for any little thing. When we ride in busses he puts his backpack on the seat next to him so I can’t sit next to him, at lunch instead of saying a prayer together he does it individually, and in lessons he always contradicts me and says the opposite or doesn’t let me talk.  Mostly I feel bad for the zone and for our investigators because they are both suffering. The good news is that transfers are next week haha It’s been a big learning experience for me. Hopefully November and December will be good months because we didn’t get anything accomplished in October.  I just want to be a missionary and work hard but it’s challenging when your companion stands in the way.

Christmas time is almost here people are starting to put up their decorations, I love it. This year has flown by. I hope all is well at home! I love you guys so much. Thanks for all your love :)

Con mucho amor

Elder Dahlin 

Weeks 63 & 64

I counted all the weeks Jason has been gone. I hope my calculations are correct, haha.

September 16, 2013

Hola Familia!

How’s it going!? How was your week? This week was good. We had a baptism on Saturday which was awesome. My comp and I sang a special musical number and Sister Prince (Mission President’s wife) was able to give a talk. Her name is Claudia and we found her contacting about 3 weeks ago. She started reading the Book of Mormon and said that since that moment she has never felt so good. Yesterday she told us that her whole family won’t talk to her anymore because she got baptized and all she said is that I’m sure they´ll come around haha. She’s great. We have been working more closely with the zone and have found that there is a lot of disobedience with some of the elders haha. We got to one area´s house at about 10am and they were still sleeping. Other areas we have found have more of a friends only relationship with their investigators. The problem with that is that if they think of us as just friends when it comes time to invite them to do something they won’t do it. Tough stuff, we have a lot of work to do this week. Hey, I saw a robbery at gunpoint last night which was wild. The problem with our area is that we have a neighborhood which has almost all of our investigators in it. The government gave away all the houses and so a bunch of people came from all over Colombia. The problem is that this neighborhood borders with the most dangerous neighborhood in Palmira and all the bad people from that neighborhood come in and mess with all the good people including our investigators. They call themselves the “300.” We have to be more careful now because at night it’s not that safe anymore. It’s cool because sometimes the Colombian Army roles in with all their big guns. I want to go with them sometime haha. We are hoping for 2 or 3 more baptisms this weekend we´ll see how things go. Things with the comp are good. Nothing else to report. I love you guys soo much!

Les quiero mucho

Elder Dahlin


September 23, 2013

 

Hola Familia!!!

This was a good week. We had 2 more baptisms which were a little stressful but we did it haha Andrea was baptized on saturday. Parents arent married but we are working on that. They love the church. The husband was in the army so hes a little tough on everyone but he has good intentions. Belliy was baptized sunday morning before church. She got put on house arrest for being in a house where there were a bunch of drugs but she had nothing to do with that she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. We got a permision from the police so that she could leave from 8-10am sunday morning to get baptized and then confirmed haha Right now we have a few good families that we are teaching. Its sad when people say that they are going to go to church on sunday but dont show up. Saturday was a holiday here in colombia which means that everyone parties hard all night. Transfers got moved to next week because pres prince wants us to finish out september with all the goals that we have in the mission right now. The next transfer will only be 5 weeks. Crazy story we were in the neighborhood that borders the dangerous neighborhood visiting some converts and when we got done we decided to walk a different way to get to our next appointment and along the way we ran into a member thats a taxi driver and he gave us a ride to our appointment. We got a call about 10 min later from our convert asking where we were and if we were alright. Apparently there was a big shootout between neighborhoods and if we would have gone the usual way home we wouldve been in the middle of it.....crazy right!

I love you guys so much. Sometimes I get a little homesick but then I remember that this is where I need to be. Thanks for all you guys do youre great!

Hey if you wanna send me candy I wouldnt get upset haha :)

Love you guys

Elder Dahlin

Four Recent Letters

I feel like the last month or so has been a roller coaster for Jason. He's in a pretty tough area, and he says the adversary is working really hard on the investigators and members. A couple of weeks ago, an Elder was tragically killed in the Cali Colombia Mission. We're so impressed with how Jason handled it and his knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. We've been sending lots of prayers to that Elder's family, the Cali Colombia Mission, and all the missionaries in general. We have to have faith in the Lord's work and plan and that He looks out for His missionaries. Jason is doing great and just pushes through all his trials. He's truly an inspiration to all of us.

August 15, 2013

Hola Familia!!

How are you guys doing?!! Well this week is transfer week and I’m stayin here with my same companion. I kind of wanted to leave but I’m fine with staying too. All the other areas in our Zone have transfers so it’s going to be a little crazy this week with all the changes. And there’s a few “ify” elders coming into the zone...haha.  But I will help them see the vision haha. The zone did good this week! We had 33 investigators at church in the zone, 9 of which were from our area. We had 5 baptisms this week as well. We had 3 in our area and another couple got married and then baptized. The Florez Family is now an eternal family!! :)  They are the ones that got married last week. There are 2 pics attached from the baptism and the 3rd is me with a totally awesome kid named Edward. He’s 3 and he’s the coolest kid ever. In the middle of our lesson yesterday he threw up and then just started laughing. He talks like hes 10! I’m a little worried about this transfer because I’m not sure where we are going to find new investigators but we`re going to do it!  The Lord always provides. I love you guys soo much! Sorry this letter is so short. Let me know how everyone is doing!!

Con mucho amor!!

Elder Dahlin


August 26, 2013

Hola Familia!!!

How are you guys doing?! Sorry last week´s letter was a little bit sad. I feel like sometimes agency is the worst. haha You do all that you can to help them and they go and tear it all down.....I guess that’s why they say that enduring to the end is the hardest part. haha This week we didn’t have our baptism. The kid had some problems that we need to overcome before he can get baptized but I’m sure in September he will be good to go. Our goal in september is 6 baptisms in our area so keep those prayers coming!! haha We had a Zone Conference on Friday which was awesome. We learned about Charity, Initiative, and how to work more with the members. There is alot of excitement in the misison right now we are setting some big goals. This Sunday the mission goal is to have 1000 investigators in sacrament meeting. Its about 10 per area. We have a pretty busy week to make it happen. I’m getting a little fat again. haha  I love you guys soo much. Thanks for everything that you do :)

Les quiero mucho!!
Elder dahlin 

 

September 2, 2013

Hola Familia!!

Sad news in the mission this week. On Saturday at 4pm, 4 missionaries in Cali were sitting at the table in their house eating lunch before a baptismal service that they had when they heard a gunshot. A stray bullet entered into the house and hit Elder Encarnacion in the head and he died instantly. He is from the Domincan Republic and had the same time in the mission as I do.  We were in the MTC together in Bogota.  They are calling it a stray bullet but no one knows if it’s true or if it was intentional. The police are investigating and they still haven’t released the body to take him back to his country. This was a tough week. We had a goal as a mission for church attendance but our branch didn’t support any of the activities we did, the investigators arent progressing like we want them too, and things with the comp didn’t go so well, and we only had 3 investigators at church yesterday putting us in last place as a zone.  We will just have to do better next week. We learned a big lesson after the death of this Elder. Being here in the mission is a privilege and is made possible by our families, faithful members of the church, and by the Lord. I know that the Lord needed this Elder in the spirit world and that his misisonary work has just begun.

Elder Christopher Waddell from the 70 is coming to Cali this week he`ll be here for 3 days. We have a conference with him on wednesday. Im excited it should be a really good experience.

I love you guys so much. Thanks for all that you guys do for me and for the prayers to me and to all missionaries. You guys are the best :)

Con mucho amor
Elder Dahlin

September 9, 2013 

Hola Familia!! 

This has been a really good week. The visit from Elder Waddell from the 70 was awesome, we had a 3 day mission conference with him. We had time to talk with him and we talked a lot about how we are going to “rescue” all the inactive members here in Colombia. He said that it’s time to start baptizing converts and to stop skipping the steps of faith and repentance. It was really inspiring and this week we have seen some great progress in our investigators. We have an investigator, Claudia, that is amazing. We contacted her about 2 weeks ago and she is going to get baptized this Saturday. It’s truly amazing how the Lord prepares the hearts of his children to hear our message. Everything we have taught her she’s accpeted it without problem. We taught the word of wisdom yesterday and she’s a coffee drinker but she said that if the prophet Joseph Smith felt that it was necessary, so do I haha. Each week as I look back, it’s crazy how much we have done. It’s even more crazy how much more we can do......haha. Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview David for his baptism on the 21st. His 2 kids are already baptized and his wife and him are up next. It was a great interview. We need more people like him. He understands the Power of the Priesthood and said that if his kids have any chance to succeed in life he needs to be there as the example. He told me something that I will never forget. He said that in the Catholic church there is a priest for every 10,000 members. In a normal Christian church there is a priest for every 1000 members. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints there is a priesthood holder for every family. I loved that and will always remember that experience with him. I love you so much family. I am so grateful to be here on the Lord´s errand. I got all the letters from Tahoe and the dearelder Thia sent me :).  Also, attached is a letter from the Mission President to our families regarding the Elder that was killed last week.

les quiero mucho!!

Elder Dahlin