Elder Braden Dahl: Fall, Rain, Wedding Reception, "Why I Believe" Fireside and Racing Around the National Mall...Written 10-20-2014

Written 10/20/2014

Fall is in full swing. Yesterday the high was 53 degrees here. The leaves are starting to turn here and everyone's worried because we are supposed to have a really hard winter coming. In the city it's harder to notice a lot of trees but you can definitely see some red, brown, yellow, and orange in the leaves.

This week has been really nice. Wednesday a huge storm came through here and there were tornado warnings and flood warnings for the beginning of the day. My companion and I got completely drenched while biking that day. I've never been able to pour water out of my shoes before. It was a bit of an adventure but nevertheless, the work will continue.

NOT Braden's actual shoes but
wanted to give you a visual...
Pouring water out of his shoes!

Friday we went to the Visitors' Center to practice for a group song I'm going to be in coming in November. The music is not terribly difficult but there are a lot of parts and I'm jumping all around on parts. It should sound pretty good though when it's performed. That evening we also went to the opening of the Young Single Adult Center and the Old Chapel. The senior couple in charge invited a bunch of missionaries to help out with the barbecue they were having. We helped out for a while and brought some of our members over there. They brought a few friends so now we have a couple referrals from it. We had to leave a little early though because we had an appointment later in the evening.

The bride getting ready to
throw her bouquet.

Saturday was nice and busy for us. We went with the other Elders to a lunch appointment and then headed over to the church to open it up for a wedding reception. We then headed out and taught for a bit and then went over to a service for a member who needed some help moving some things. We then went over in the evening to the wedding reception. A family in our area was sealed and they wanted us to stop by. We went over for a little bit and congratulated them and got a lot of food. It was great knowing that they are sealed for time and all eternity with their son. We are very excited for them.

Celebrating with MARTINELLI'S Sparkling Cider
Elder C & Elder Dahl Celebrate 20 Lessons this week while at a wedding reception
for a family in their area, Mount Pleasant West.

On Sunday we went to church it was very nice. We went to "Why I Believe" at the Visitors' Center where 2 recent convert/former pastors of another faith spoke. They were very good speakers and they had great testimonies.

Deseret News: Former priest, pastor share their journey to Mormon faith

Zone Activity-10/20/2014
Sunrise Photos from Lincoln Memorial

The National Mall is really cool. You can spend years there and never see all of it. The Holocaust Museum is similar to LA but not identical. There are a lot of cool places to see but there is a lot of walking. From the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial it's about 2 miles. Plus not everything is perfectly next to the National Mall lawn. A lot of people bike around or go on a Segway tour (but you can't go into the museums with a Segway and you can lock up your bike or use Capitol Bikeshare. It's an amazing place and I have the luck of being here for a while. Honestly, it's a super blast and I'm mentally making a list of the best places to go for the time we have.

Zone Activity-10/20/2014
Amazing Race @ The National Mall

I hope that you enjoyed your week. Today was our Zone Activity and we took Sunrise photos from the Lincoln Memorial. We then did an "Amazing Race" going around the memorials on the National Mall. Luckily I knew where all of the places were around the mall. It was really fun and a great activity. My companion and I then went down to the Ripley International Center, the Sackler Gallery, and The National Gallery of African Art which are all mostly underground and connected to one another. It was cool seeing some of the carved ivory tusks but nothing was a super wow. We went back to stop by the ghetto Chinese shops with our roommates and then we went and played soccer with some kids at the field by us. I hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Braden Dahl