March 19, 2012

Hello everyone,

So Transfers were this week and I'm staying another....big suprise. This week Elder McGill and I had a decent one. We taught some lessons and found some new investigators but haven't really seen any progress until Sunday. Jose Casarrubia (we say Cacarrubia) finally came to church with his cousins! We picked up about 18 new investigators this transfer and none have come to church....until Sunday. So a big ol 1 on the progressing investigators but we're still makin progress with the teaching pool.

Well Cielo's family (the family of 7 we found) is doing quite well. We had a lesson and we watched the Restoration movie and the spirit was so strong. We talked about it, and a family friend was there and she started bashing on her own church talking about how they don't do anything and how we do stuff to build our faith and all that good stuff.

I wish sometimes as being a missionary you had the keys to take away someone's agency, but unfortunately....God can't even do that. I have done a lot of studying this past week in talks and the scriptures and love that in those 3 precious hours of studies in the morning we're God's investigators and it's our turn to be enlightened. It's so weird that 19-22 year old boys can entertain themselves and find solace in the scriptures, when half of the world has never read out of the Bible.

Elder Santos from Uruguay, is training a guy named Elder Hussy...or something like that. We've decided that Elder McGill is going to act like he doesn’t speak any English and is going to speak in only Spanish. Elder McGill is fluent in both, and we're going to try to pull it off as long as we can.

A family from West Jordan just moved into our ward and went to church here for the first time, and was appalled for the lack of a better word at how different the ward is run outside of Utah. Utah wards are basically well-oiled machines. Fellowshipping isn't a problem; less-active work is done by the ward, Home teaching is done by the home teachers not the missionaries, and basically just DONE RIGHT. Wards here (ESPECIALLY SPANISH WARDS) are run more like we change the oil two thousand miles AFTER the engine light comes on.....it's just different. The ward I'm in right now is probably the most organized Spanish ward in the mission, and it still has a lot of work.

Well the time has come for us to part. Love you and hope ya have a good week.

-Elder Dial

p.s. I got the coupon and the St Pattys day package. The package was great. I always love getting packages. Bad news.....I have misplaced my camera. When I moved apartments and got transferred into Jurupa it got misplaced somewhere and is nowhere to be found. I'm still in the process looking for it but it's looking a little slim...

Monday March 12, 2012

Hello,

This week was an awesome week. Elder McGill and I did some work. We received a referral from the English missionaries, named Cielo. They said she was somewhat interested, but that's about it. So we went over there, and decided to meet her. She is a 19 yr old girl who lives with six other people from her family. We didn't think we would be able to teach her and the whole family to where they were progressing investigators. We went in talked to her and asked if the family wanted to come sit in. Well amazingly, they did (that never happens)! So we taught an awesome Restoration and picked up 7 new investigators in one lesson. Sweet, and they seem pretty good. Jesus one of the sons, is about to get baptized into Harvest (the great and spacious building), so we gotta stop him from taking that camino down to hell.

Also we picked up 2 other investigators this week, meh we'll see how they go. I've finally gotten to the point where I can understand everything everyone says. It's super relieving. I also love being here in the states and being able to meet people from almost EVERY Spanish speaking country in the world.

We got to go to the Elders Quorum President's house on Sunday who's from Cuba. He gave us Cuban food and I ate a TON. Elder Cook, from Colorado (another big guy) and I have eating competitions. Also in sacrament meeting the bishop announced that whenever the members have us over for a dinner appointment they have to make us a ton of food because, "Elder Cook y Elder Dial comen BASTANTE!"He's super tight and has tons of animals, like 6 horses, 8 dogs, and cats too. That's about it though love you all and I expect replies!

-Elder Dial

Monday March 12, 2012

Hello,

This week was an awesome week. Elder McGill and I did some work. We received a referral from the English missionaries, named Cielo. They said she was somewhat interested, but that's about it. So we went over there, and decided to meet her. She is a 19 yr old girl who lives with six other people from her family. We didn't think we would be able to teach her and the whole family to where they were progressing investigators. We went in talked to her and asked if the family wanted to come sit in. Well amazingly, they did (that never happens)! So we taught an awesome Restoration and picked up 7 new investigators in one lesson. Sweet, and they seem pretty good. Jesus one of the sons, is about to get baptized into Harvest (the great and spacious building), so we gotta stop him from taking that camino down to hell.

Also we picked up 2 other investigators this week, meh we'll see how they go. I've finally gotten to the point where I can understand everything everyone says. It's super relieving. I also love being here in the states and being able to meet people from almost EVERY Spanish speaking country in the world.

We got to go to the Elders Quorum President's house on Sunday who's from Cuba. He gave us Cuban food and I ate a TON. Elder Cook, from Colorado (another big guy) and I have eating competitions. Also in sacrament meeting the bishop announced that whenever the members have us over for a dinner appointment they have to make us a ton of food because, "Elder Cook y Elder Dial comen BASTANTE!"He's super tight and has tons of animals, like 6 horses, 8 dogs, and cats too. That's about it though love you all and I expect replies!

-Elder Dial

Monday March 5, 2012

Hello Everyone,

This week was.....not as good as the last. We talked to a lot of people but all of our appointments fell through and just a lot of things didn't really "work out" this week. We go out and do work but unfortunately numbers didn't show it this week. We taught a couple lessons but nothing out of the ordinary. I can't believe we are already entering week 5 of this transfer. Time flies when....you're doing the work of the Lord.

I finally acquired something to do exercise with other than pushups and situps. We were teaching one of our investigators who lives with a member and had lunch after. We walked out to the backyard (which was just riddled with all kinds of junk), and I saw a set of 60lb dumbbells on the ground. I asked the Hermano if he was using them, he said no, and he gave them to me. Exercise with dumbbells is limited, but I try to get creative.

Yesterday, for the first time in my mission, did I mix up two Spanish words ending up saying a curse word. Rats. We were visiting a less active, who has a couple of dogs and I was petting one of them and I noticed that the tail had a little nick in it. So I asked, "Como se quebro el culo?" The Spanish word for tail is cola.....not culo. Culo is a word that may or may not mean the vulgar way of saying rump....it was embarrassing but my companion (the native Spanish speaker), and the member laughed ridiculously...I guess it's kinda funny.

I love this work and I know this gospel is the TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. We were listening to a talk from Hyrum W. Smith who defined a couple words. The definition of humility is the realization of our dependance on God. I liked that a lot. It is so true how little we are and how God uses us as instruments.

-Elder Dial