Lovest Thou Me?

I'm realizing that it's important to make an effort to develop relationships. I'm super interested in how people perceive me when they first meet and get to know me so let me know what you thought of me when we met! I feel like my whole life I've always wanted to be around people who I feel like added value to my life, and therefore my work to develop relationships was pretty much effortless. The mission is different, you get thrust into situations all the time where you are forced to develop relationships with people that you may think will add nothing to your life. However, I've realized that every human has something that you can learn from and grow from. I'm so grateful for all of you and all the experiences we've had together!

This week Jacob decided to be baptized! Super excited for him, we're shooting for April 9 because he's ready. I've been thinking a lot about the power of covenants and the gift of the Holy ghost. A few of our other friends attend another church, and they invited us to barf weekend (bring a real friend). I was on exchanges with Elder O'Neill, and it was awesome. It's basically just a concert followed by a motivational sermon that happened to have some anti Joseph Smith sentiments sprinkled in. When we first met our friends who attend there, we were blown away by their commitment to that church and their total ignorance in what they believe and the Bible as a whole. After attending church, we understood why. These people love God and his son Jesus Christ, and they love how they feel when they worship Him and sing praises to him. They love feeling the spirit. I had a chance to talk to the pastor for about an hour after the service, and he gave me a book he wrote called "grace on tap" with a picture of a keg on the front labeled grace. I realized that that is so true! They are treating the spirit as if it were a drug. It sustains them for that week and then they come back and feel it again. They cannot have the presence of the Holy ghost with them all the time, because they haven't made a covenant or received baptism by proper authority. The church has had 78 baptisms in 2022 already, which is more than our mission has baptized in the past year. They don't have any requirements for baptism, but it's still pretty impressive to me! Their membership is very involved in sharing the gospel. They invite their friends, and try to bring everybody to Jesus even with their limited knowledge.

We have been blessed with so much! It hurts my heart to think about all the people that have been kept from the truth only because they know not where to find it. I love the Savior's teachings,

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:13-14.)

That's why we make covenants. That's why God requires more. Because he doesn't care about how well we sing songs or how many times we say amen. He wants us to become like Him! I'm so excited for general conference. The genesis of scripture is always powerful to me. Please choose to help feed His sheep this week! The field is white! Invite someone to watch conference. Our God lives, and his words never cease. I love you guys!

-Elder Dahl

That We May Be One

What a week! I had my first mission leadership conference which was really cool, President is a great teacher and the missionaries are great examples to me. With Covid restrictions lifted, we learned a lot about how to effectively interact in person with God's children. I realized that I have been a little too dominant in our teaching interactions so far-- mostly because my previous companions weren't big on teaching. Communication is so important! When there's a problem in your life, please let the person causing it know, because they may be totally oblivious. When I've had problems with people on my mission, they have historically been major ones-- specifically disobedience. It's very hard to fulfill your missionary purpose when your companion just doesn't want to. As I've progressed on my mission, I've realized that some people's major problems are focused on the way the work is approached-- it's a very privileged problem to have. When your comp refuses to get out of bed until dinner, you don't even think about what type of message you are going to share at dinner, you're focused on a much larger issue. Now that my quality of companion has increased, I've realized that a massive problem to others is tiny to me in comparison to the experiences I've had. It's a gift and a curse I guess. One of my favorite psalms says,

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

This is something that I have a huge testimony of. Learn to love the law, and you will feel peace and learn to not be offended, and you will grow. I think the most important discipline is emotional discipline. It allows you to develop every other aspect of your life unfettered by anger, jealousy, or hopelessness. When feelings are hurt, there is no consistent remedy, nothing an outside force can do to make it better. Apologies are nice, but soothing a bruised heart is almost impossible. Ultimately, it requires the offended person to let go of those feelings. Holding grudges is a burden. It does nothing good for you. I'm working on not judging people too early. I think it's important to assume everyone you interact with knows something you don't that is of value. Most of the time you're probably wrong, but it increases the value of your interactions as you choose to listen to them and treat them the way the Savior did. I love the scriptural phrase, "the condescension of God." Jesus' most impressive attribute to me is long-suffering. To have such power and yet still choose to live a mortal life and exercise restraint from all those who crucified Him is incomprehensible to me. In order to create a successful relationship, I think both persons need to either voice their feelings or forgive them that know not what they are doing. Choose to not be offended and you will be blessed eternally. I love you guys! 

-Elder Dahl

1. Bishop's wife after my haircut

2. Haircut

3. Jeffrey repping the Y

4-5. Tire shenanigans 

6-7. Mai's baptism

A Life Well Lived

This week was revolutionary! My mission president decided that enough is enough! So now we can eat with members and don't have to wear masks and we can go street contacting. Unfortunately these restrictions have been in place for so long that nobody really wants to change, which makes life a little difficult for me. Elder Jenkins is going to learn how to talk to people by the end of this transfer! 

The work has been going good-- our deaf friend Mai is ready for baptism on Saturday! She reminds me of a phrase the Savior used,

"Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Mai's ears don't hear. They haven't worked her whole life. But she understands the Savior and his teachings far better than our other hearing friends. I've been thinking a lot about how it's funny that the blessed ones have the most curses. This is an incredible time to be alive! We have access to so much with the internet and technology and ears. Yet sometimes I feel like our senses are bombarded to the point where we become desensitized to all but the extreme. I chatted with some members of our ward who just returned from Ireland. They told us that there are these walls all over the countryside that were built during the potato famine. The upper class required work of the working class in order to rationalize feeding them so they would make them construct walls for miles on end. They would work all day and earn enough money to buy bread to feed themselves and then do it all again the next day. The walls had no purpose, just to keep the laborers busy and distracted. I was quite shocked at this and humbled. How grateful I am that my life has allowed me to pretty freely exercise my agency. I was then struck by the fact that many people still choose to be a poor Irishman. I have met so many people that are just "building walls," even in the land of the free. Social media is a big wall, addiction another. TV and video games, the ability to hear. We sometimes are carefully ensnared by the forces of opposition through our ability to choose. I have often thought, "it doesn't matter if nothing gets done today because I'm choosing to just chill." I think that because I'm choosing to do it that somehow makes the action more respectable. The Irish chose to build those walls in order to obtain food. But at the end of it all, all they had were heaps of stone that didn't matter. I hope we all can be better at making sure our time is spent purposefully. Many people do not hearken unto Jacob, 

"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy." 

I see many missionaries who also don't understand this principle. Your time is yours, no one else's. One day you will be accountable for it. Choose to be more than you were, to go forward and not backward. Elder Uchtdorfs talk, "Daily Restoration," is a useful guide on how to refocus and get on the path of progress. 

I love you guys! 

-Elder Dahl

1. Elder Jenkins helping with a move

2. The last supper

3. The walls, you can see one going all the way up the mountain

4-6. The cliffs of insanity

7. Me with the Holkers

Upon This Rock

I had transfers this week on Thursday and now my companion is Elder Jenkins! He's from North Logan Utah and is pretty cool! He's a big fan of How to Train Your Dragon, so we talk about that a lot. I realized that our ward isn't so great at finding people to teach, so we met with our ward mission leader and bishop to pick their brains. They agreed and kind of told us that they will do anything we want them to haha. So we kinda came up with a few amendments to the ward mission plan, so hopefully that helps. We had stake conference this week, and it was pretty good except our broadcast kept having issues. We had two friends there for the first time and it was pretty rough. Afterwards, we took some time to chat with Jacob. He is sitting on the fence and wants to have a greater connection to God before he chooses to be baptized. It's hard to argue with that haha, so we're doing our best to facilitate a powerful spiritual witness. In Ether, we learn that a witness only comes after the trial of your faith. Jacob is trying! He does everything we ask him, so we're going to fast for him this week. One of the last talks elder Packer ever gave us is called, The Witness. It's one of my favorites. He says, 

Your secret yearnings and tearful pleadings will touch the heart of both the Father and the Son. You will be given a personal assurance from Them that your life will be full and that no blessing that is essential will be lost to you.

One of the greatest things about the church is it facilitates as much spiritual growth as you are willing to obtain. The principle of real intent: seek and you shall find... what you seek. A lot of people join the church seeking a nice community full of nice people who pray and sing together on Sundays. They find it! In our church or countless others. It's not until you desire to know the truth that you receive that knowledge and that witness-- that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that The Book of Mormon is true, that this church is the only completely true church on the face of the earth today. These conclusions, these pillars of testimony can't be reasoned to and have staying power. Our foundations must be built on revelation. You don't get a witness by reading, you get it by praying and fasting and pondering. This is probably the hardest thing I've had to learn on my mission. I can teach the gospel; I can explain every principle in a compelling and logical way, but none of it matters until they experience the power of God-- until they obtain a subjective feeling-based confirmation of the objective truth that is God and His laws. Lately, I've been feeling this sense of urgency, of impending doom. I need to strengthen my foundation, because I'm terrified of the magnitude of the opposing forces in the world. Opposition in all things is a scary concept. I'll never no never forsake! Love you guys! 

-Elder Dahl

1. Elder Jenkins

2. Miracle bottle

3. Cool car

4. Elder Downey is a guy I really look up to

5. Rip Elder Fifita 

6. Elder Farnsworth 

7-8. Teslas are chill