Merry Christmas

Hey All!

My companion is absolutely amazing!  Everyone here is incredible!  It's a great time to be on a mission!

And I am happy!  Also, there was a question about what we eat here for Christmas, and it didn't come through clearly, but it's called panettone and also a hot chocolate drink with cinnamon.  It is really, really good!  Tell everyone there that I love them! 

I wanted to tell you guys that I absolutely loved the thought that went into the Christmas package!  I shared it all with my whole apartment, and it was incredible!  The photos were especially cool!  I loved seeing those who I don't get to communicate with very often!

I realized something really cool about our work here the other day.  We are supposed to find the people that are prepared for us, and so if we are continually working on this, all of our investigators should be really easy, and we and they will always be super excited!  So, yesterday, a fruit seller asked us where he could find the Doctrine and Covenants.  He wasn't a member, but had purchased an LDS copy of the Bible, and had then purchased a Book of Mormon to cross reference the foot-notes, and was wondering where the Doctrine and Covenants were, because they weren't in the Book of Mormon.  It was so crazy!  I know that the lord is guiding our work here.

Also, for Christmas, from the mission, we got a whole bunch of candy (you guys should really try sublime chocolate by Nestle if it's available in the US!), some new silverware, a cup, a new Tupperware container, and a USB with all of the Mormon Messages!  It was super awesome!

I want to see lot's of photos of you guys and everyone else back home!  I love you guys a lot, and hope you are all enjoying your Christmas!  Remember the real reason for Christmas, and seriously, the scriptures are the coolest thing ever!

Love you!

Elder Dahl

Music, Meals, and Marriage

I was asked to accompany a children's choir for a Christmas activity on Sunday on the piano. Little did I realize when they asked me, they don't have any sheet music! So we got together Saturday night, and they found a picture on google of the tune, and a video of the intro, and sang me the ending, and I very quickly learned it, and practiced a little on Sunday, and performed it. It wasn't perfect, but I think it went alright! At the same activity, the elders were asked to sing a number, and somehow I became the missionary choir director! It was really fun, because I got to encourage them to think about the words of the songs, smile, breathe properly, and organize them into 2 parts. We sang 1 verse each of Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and Noche de Luz (Silent Night in Spanish). I had a ton of fun standing up there leading them, bringing in the different parts when they split. It was pretty awesome! I also was able to help all of them in Spanish, which was awesome! I feel like I can actually participate in conversations in Spanish now, which is really cool.

You guys should look up a recipe for crema de aji! It's like a hot sauce that is creamy, instead of just vinegar. It's super good! Also, our pensionista is the best! She has been giving us basically fried eggs and french fries with bread every night, with some variation. We all felt that it wasn't super good for us, so we asked her if she would make us fruit salads instead. She was so happy we asked for what we wanted, and she made us an amazing fruit salad last night! It was so good, and I felt like I was getting the vitamins I needed! Also, one of my new favorite ways to eat rice is with eggs. If you cook an over-easy fried egg, and put it on rice, and mix it all together, it tastes incredible! Also, Elder Saavedra, my roommate, is going to copy the recipe book you guys sent me, because he loves to cook, and he is super excited! And the peanut butter you guys sent me is incredible! I am literally scraping the sides of the jar, because it is so, so tasty! Also, the oreos, and everything else, but I've been eating the peanut butter with my breakfast for two weeks!

One thing that is incredible about missionary work is the willingness you see in people to change their lives. Once people feel the spirit, they want to have more of it, and they will obey the commandments to get it. We have a family whose parents aren't married, and we had to teach them the law of chastity. It was hard, especially because it's expensive to get married here, but they told us they would work on it, because they knew it was a commandment. It was incredible to see the love they have for the Lord and for their family.

Also, the thing they eat for Christmas here is not Cinnamon Rolls. It's called Paneton, and it's really good! It's basically a massive sweetbread with pieces of dried fruit embedded in it. It's so good!

I love you all, and hope you are all doing well!

Baptisms

The baptism went great! I baptized a 14-year old girl, and an 11 year old boy, and it was awesome! They felt the spirit, and it was super cool! And I did it in Spanish, with Spanish names! It was incredible! And the next day in church, we had the confirmations, and the incredible investigator from last week came, and said he wanted to be on time next time! He is absolutely incredible.

My new companion is absolutely amazing! He is from Colombia, and he loves to listen to and sing music! He is such a good missionary, and he is really revitalizing our area! As my second trainer, I feel so blessed to be able to learn from him! I'm learning how to give more interactive lessons, with questions, and helping the investigators feel the spirit. It's so cool!

In our room, we have a new missionary, brand new, from Canada! I assumed he was from the States, but he's Canadian. He knows hardly any Spanish though, so I do a lot of translating! It's pretty fun!

This week was incredible. We met with an investigator who has been investigating for about a year, and he finally realized that he has a testimony! We are super excited to keep teaching him. 

Also, today for P-day, we cooked lunch with a member family, and it was Causa and Pollo de Horno, basically sweet barbecue chicken and rice. It was incredible! It tasted so so good! 

Also, on Sunday, we had lunch with a member who owns a restaurant, and she made us potatoes with this yellow sauce, hard boiled eggs, pasta with pesto sauce, chicken, fried bananas, and jello for dessert. It was so good, but so much food! I might start skipping breakfast, and just work out during breakfast... we'll see! But the peanut butter you sent me smells so good! I might have a spoon of that for breakfast every day!

One thing that I learned from my companion is that if you confide in others, they will confide in you. One of the most important aspects of our relationship with our investigators is trust. It was so cool to see that in action as our investigators opened up to us and told us their stories. Now we understand where they are coming from and how to help them! It's so cool!

Alright, next week, I'm going to make sure we're on time so I can upload the pictures! Sorry! (Pictures added retroactively.)

Love you!

Trusting in the Lord

This week we had some pretty awesome experiences!  I have my first baptism on Saturday, so that's super cool, and I'm super excited!  On Sunday, we went to go visit an investigator that we hadn't been able to find for a long time.  We went to his house, and waited for him to come to talk to us.  When he finally came out and talked to us, we asked him what he was hoping for from our lessons.  He completely opened up to us and told us that he had had a really hard month, and his wife wasn't really supportive, and he wanted to provide a good Christmas for his kids, but he didn't have the money.  He told us that he knew he needed to change a lot of things, but didn't know where to start.  It was a crazy experience.  We told him to trust in the Lord, and pray, and demonstrate faith, and shared Ether 12:6.  He was so grateful, and told us that he didn't know why he was confiding in us, but that he was so grateful that marvelous people like us were in the world to help people.  We left him the lesson on tithing to read, and he said that after he read it, he knew that he would know what he needed to do.  It was an amazing experience, and I know that he really can receive the help he needs from God.  It was super cool!

About the photos (added retroactively), our power switch to our old water heater melted, so that's what that is, along with pictures of the new setup.

We, as a room, bought a cake as well, because we have in our area a pastry factory, which means that everything is super cheap!  So we each got one quarter of a cake!

Also, I found the best brand of Ginger Ale: Evervess.  You can actually taste the ginger in it, which is awesome!  After our fast on Sunday, we had lunch at a member's house, and we had apple pie, but it's more like a really dense cake with a layer of apple pie filling in the middle.  It's not super sweet, but it is really good!  This family also told me that I could play their trumpet next time, so that's awesome!  I left from that house feeling about ready to explode, because if they offer more, and you accept, it's not a little more.  It's a lot more!

We also had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) on Sunday, and the family was super cool!  It's the family who's son I'm baptizing, and there are 4 less active members as well.

After NdH, we went back to our house to discover that one of the members of the ward had brought us pollo a la brasa, which is basically a rotisserie chicken, with french fries.  Our pensionista had also brought us dinner, so we had a ton of food that night!  It was awesome!  The french fries come with mayonnaise, but it's very different here.  The mayo doesn't have any eggs, and is very thin, but has a better flavor than any mayo I've ever had!

I'm learning a lot here, and at the same time, having a great time!  Love you all!