Jason?

First of all, I don't have a lot of time to write, because we went to the temple today, and there was some miscommunication, and so we all have a shortened period of time, and I left my SD card reader at the house, so I have pictures, but I can't send them. Lame, I know.  (Pictures added retroactively.)

Your week sounds awesome! Everything sounds super fun! I'll tell you what I did for Thanksgiving: I bought pie for all of the elders in my house. One slice each, and it was very good, but I definitely wanted more!

About prepared food, I think it's because past elders have had issues with the foods prepared by others, and I have no idea why we can eat it on Sundays, but I'm pretty sure they don't give them training, because one family thought we couldn't eat meat, so they fed us an entirely vegetarian meal, which I didn't realize until afterwards, but it was quite good! Also, the mayonnaise here is amazing!! It doesn't have eggs, but it has lime/lemon juice in it, and it tastes so good!! And that's saying something, because I never liked mayonnaise in the states!

The good thing about my concrete jungle is the passageways are so narrow that they have hardly any direct sun, so it stays relatively cool when we are in that part, and it does cool down at night, but it's not cold. I have zero issue in my short sleeve shirt at night, but that could be because of prior experience...

We do attend ward council, and I understand about 60-70% of what is said, which means that the important parts, I don't understand. But our ward has some issues, as far as I can tell, but they do all right! They did say I might be able to accompany the primary choir on the piano, so that's super exciting!!

As to the details on Christmas, I'll let you know. I think it will be a phone call, and so I'll need a number to call... I'll figure it out. It's going to be awesome!!

We went to the temple today, and this time, there was no translation! it was all completely in Spanish! I also understood a lot of it, so that was super cool! Also, one of the really cool things about being on a mission, is you can discuss cool things you find in the scriptures all the time! So I basically get to have a scintillating discussion about the gospel every night! Although, it is a little difficult sometimes, because I have to do it in Spanish. I am learning so much!

We are teaching some really cool people right now, like this old guy, that knows the Bible backwards and forwards. We gave him a Book of Mormon on the first lesson, because he seemed really interested, and he reads everything we leave him, and reads a lot of the Book of Mormon every week. He always comes with questions, which is so cool! The only problem is he thinks my name is Jason.... I don't actually know how. But he loves that we are serving God at our age, in a foreign country, and he told us that we feel different than the other people who come knocking doors, which is super cool! That's about all for this week, but I love you all, and I love hearing from you!!

-- Dallin

P.S. I ate at the temple cafeteria for the first time, which was amazing!!! So good!  Oh, also, we have hot water!!! it is a sketchy electric water heater that heats it as it comes out, which means that if you have less water, it's hotter, so I use hardly any water! But it feels like heaven!! It's so amazing!

Concrete Jungle

Hi All--

Yeah, the water is hard. I used to shave in the shower with hot water, so now I have to heat water in a pot, and apply it with a towel to my face. It makes it much more important to have a sharp blade, because otherwise my face doesn't get nearly as soft, so it can get scraped up much more easily!

Also, it's getting pretty hot, and I'm getting a pretty nice tan!

My companion is from Bolivia, and he is very different from me, and is also 3 years older than I am. He did a year of premilitary before coming, because it's mandatory in Bolivia. He's been out for 7 months, and seems pretty well adjusted.

The other companionship in our room is an American and a Peruvian, or Peruano in Spanish. It's really nice to have someone to talk to about the differences between here and there, and just American things in general. The Peruvian is hilarious, and has a ton of stories about previous missionaries, and just seems to enjoy life immensely. He speaks hardly any English, which means that as I learn more Spanish, he gets funnier and funnier! They are pretty cool! Every night we compare the funny things we experienced that day, like meeting a drunk who knows Spanish, or investigators with lingering handshakes, it's pretty great.

And now, the explanation of the title. I figured out what is so weird about a lot of my area. The entire thing is paved!! When I hear concrete jungle, I think of a big city, with the jungle part being mostly people, but here, you literally can only see about 100 ft up a narrow concrete passageway, and there are a million of them all interwoven and it's super cool. They have these main roads that are super loud and have a lot of mototaxis and such, but you can walk for like 5 minutes, and be in relative silence, because of all the buildings that block out the noise! It's like a whole neighborhood, but in like 5 buildings because it's three dimensional. As a consequence, it's like a massive mega-neighborhood, were you only know the people literally right next door, because that's still like 20 people! It's pretty great!

Also, I'm not sure I talked about this already, but we have this family that is so cool! At first it was just a less active member, and then we added a sibling as an investigator, and then the Mom, and then everybody else, and they are so much happier now! When we come now, they are all joking and having a great time! We recently met the Dad, who joined us for the lessons, and it's amazing the effect a supportive, fun father can have on the atmosphere! He was so engaged, and kept all the kids engaged as well with the occasional funny comment, it was awesome! And we had a FHE with them and some other less active members and ward members yesterday, and it was awesome. The hard thing is, we can't eat food prepared by the members, except for lunch on Sundays, and our Pensionista, so we smell all of these delicious homemade foods, and can't eat them. So, we prepared the dessert at their house! It was the most amazing chocolate drink, like hot chocolate, but with sweetened condensed milk! It was so cool! Also, we finally made crepes in the microwave!! They were really good, but I forgot to take pictures, of anything actually this week.... sorry.

Also, in the Book of Mormon, the last verse in Words of Mormon, it gives the recipe for world peace. The world leaders need to "[labor] with all the might of [their] bod[ies] and the faculty of [their] whole souls, and also the prophets". That's how we can have peace, in any size group of people, by working with the prophets, with all our might and faculty. In families, in cities, anywhere. Pretty cool!

Struggles, Speaking Spanish, and Sunburn

The food is one thing I was planning on talking about!  It's a real struggle, because they feed me more than I have ever eaten before!  All the meals are super, super big, and I feel like I almost explode every meal!  But I can't not eat it...  I also don't want to be unhealthy, but I feel like I don't have a choice.  But everyone is really nice, and my pensionista actually gives us reasonable (read only a cup of rice past full) portions most of the time, and I always finish all of it, even if it takes the entire hour.  And we hike up this concrete mountain to get to her house, because we live in a neighborhood closer to a park, and much lower in elevation.  I think the Relief Society chooses who gets to feed the missionaries every Sunday for lunch.  It's pretty cool, because we can't eat prepared food other than that one lunch, at restaurants (not street vendors), and at our pensionista.  So we have this investigator, and we were teaching a lesson, and her husband came out for the first time and participated with us, and we also got to meet the oldest daughter, who is apparently less active, and came to church on Sunday.  During our lesson, this investigator left for like 20 minutes, and we were kind of confused, and when she came back she had three of these fried bread things, like just fried dough, that looked amazing, and some herbal tea, but we couldn't eat it because it was prepared.  It was really sad, and we had to explain that rule to her, but then she went and bought packaged food, and we had a really great time with the whole family.  So then on Sunday, they all came to church, including the less active daughter, who brought her boyfriend, and the next oldest daughter was less active, and is now a member of the primary presidency, and afterwards, we found out that this coming Sunday, we are eating lunch with their family!!!!  So crazy!  I'm super excited, because it smelled amazing!!  But I like the food here, the rice is really good, but also it's white rice, so it's not healthy, and we eat it at every meal, so I'm getting kind of tired of it, but we haven't eaten anything terrible yet...

The bathroom.  I forgot to tell you, but my other struggle, is we have no hot water, and that translates to, we shower in basically refrigerated water, and some people gave me tips about running it through a black hose heated by the sun, but we live on the bottom floor of a basically condominium complex, and have no hose, nor an outlet for one.  We actually have a water heater, but it's broken, and my companion said I can't try to fix it because it's dangerous, so we called about a new one, but that started when I got here.  I haven't had hot water the entire time!!   It's been kind of crazy, and really cold.  My clothing is doing great, except for I have a couple of bleach spots on my pants from the lady who does our laundry... but I can't complain, because she's doing my laundry!  And I am learning how to sew, because one of my pockets on my shirt is coming undone, so that's cool!  The other elder in our room made a tie, so I've been thinking about doing that as well, because I have some cool ideas, I just need to find a place to buy material....  I'll figure it out.  I clean and polish my shoes most days, and they seem to be holding up fine, I can tell the leather is getting worn though.  I only got one blister walking, and it was when I decided I should start wearing both sets of shoes, so the new ones gave me a blister, but it wasn't terrible, and I survived!

Yeah, so everyone I talk to asks me about our new president, and political vocabulary wasn't on the list of required words at the CCM, so it was kind of difficult at first, but I figured out how to express my feelings!

On Sunday, I also had to give a talk, which was supposed to be 5 minutes long.  No problem, right?  Oh wait, it's in Spanish, which I don't speak.  I was pretty nervous, and I was informed Saturday night that I had a talk, so I had to prepare it Sunday morning, before 9:00 church.  I found some quotes in Preach My Gospel, and some scriptures, and that was all I had time for.  So I got up there, and my hands were shaking, and I'm pretty sure my voice was as well!  I started to talk, and everything became calm.  I barely followed my plan, didn't use everything I had prepared (and by everything I mean like 5 scriptures and 3 quotes), and just spoke.  Fluidly, and, I think, powerfully.  It was really cool!  It was a direct fulfillment of the scripture that says "It shall be given you in the very moment that portion that shall be meted unto every man"  (D&C something or other).  It was super cool.

Also, on Thursday, we went on splits, and I got to paint some walls for a service project.  This was outside, on the 8th and top floor of a building, with no roof.  Also, the sun came out, and I was wearing somebody else's service clothes, because I didn't know we were going to serve.  So the shirt was way to small, and I was showing a lot of skin on my neck and arms.  I didn't even think about sunscreen.  Absolutely roasted.  The next day, I couldn't turn my head in my collared shirt, because it rubbed on my sunburn. It was crazy.  But, I did learn.  I have been applying sunscreen every day since, since it's only going to get hotter and sunnier, and I had brought the Aloe gel you bought for my feet, and thank goodness I did, because it was necessary!!  So to anybody who was thinking I would burn, and you know who you are, you were right, but I did learn!!!

I think that's all, if I missed anything you wanted to know about, let me know, and I'll write about it if I get it today, or next week.

Love you all!

P.S. Oh, also I found a microwave cookbook! I've been trying out many different ways to make French toast, and I started eating whole wheat bread, because I don't want to get fat, and I also want to be full until lunch, so it's french toast with whole wheat rolls. It's not bad, but I need to buy cinnamon.

Pensionista Photos

Elder Dahl's Pensionista sent us photos of him eating at her house.  It sounds like the missionaries eat with her family every day for dinner, and every day except Monday for lunch.  Sundays, the Relief Society feeds them.  She said she feels like they are like her sons, and knows the Lord blesses us when we support missionary work.  She said she accompanies the missionaries as they teach, and as a new member of the church, knows that she needs to endure to the end to live with her Heavenly Father and her family forever.  She has such great faith, and I am so grateful for the loving service she gives to my son and the other missionaries!  And for the pictures!

Exact Obedience

You are so wonderful!!!!

I live with Elder Velasquez, as well as another american missionary and his Peruano companion.

Traffic is crazy, like nobody obeys the rules, so there are always people in the street, so that's fun. The living conditions are very different, usually only one or two rooms in a house, and if you live in a building in the city, you share the building with 3 or 4 families. Teaching is going well, but although my Spanish is getting better, people here talk so fast, and there are a million different accents, so it's difficult to understand a lot of people. It doesn't help when we teach right next to a street with a lot of really loud motorcycles, or the family has like 18 dogs. It can get pretty loud! I feel much better now though, both physically and about Spanish.

The dogs bother me when I knock on their doors, but other than that, not really. I think it's interesting to think that if I have faith that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, who created all the creatures, things of nature won't harm me if it's not God's will, and if they do, there must be a higher purpose. I am learning a lot about faith, and right now I need to teach the people here. If there is somebody I need to teach in a hospital, then I might be bitten or attacked or something, but it's all in the hands of the Lord! It makes my life easier than worrying about it!

I'll take a picture this week of the fruit market!

This week I've been working on exact obedience, and it's harder than you would expect. It involves keeping track of your time, and getting up on time as well! It's also difficult because I think the culture here is not very punctual. But we need to accomplish this work with faith, and faith is a principle of action. We cannot acquire faith without obedience, and exact obedience should in theory bring perfect faith. Faith is really the operative principle of the universe, and since I read Jesus the Christ, I know that faith is what I need in order to be an effective representative of him. I am trying to do what he and his apostles did, because that is my calling. It's crazy to think that I am called to represent Jesus Christ, as if He were here, but that's it! I have a lot to work on!

In my personal study last week, I found a great parable in the Book of Mormon. In 1st Nephi, when they are building the boat, a lot of the language used is similar to the language used to describe missionary work. In particular, an interesting part is where it says that Laman and Lemuel were desirous not to labor. They were guilty of not wanting to work, and look how they ended up! The comparison is striking.

This week my pensionista gave me some ginger root, and I made a herbal ginger drink with some honey, and the pictures are attached. I am also trying to figure out what I can do with a microwave, since the pan we use with our hot plate is not fun at all to use, so this morning I tried french toast. I'll keep working on it, and show you guys when it's perfected.

I love you all!

P.S You have to bring your own toilet paper everywhere, so they put portable rolls in the middle of the normal rolls of toilet paper! super ingenious!