Hot, Humid and a Baptism...Written 7/27/2015

Things are still hot and humid here. But things are going well. We are teaching lots of people and found more new investigators. We've been working in particular with three people we have on baptismal date. One is coming up soon so we are trying to get all of the lessons done and help them the best we can. We have a couple people progressing and we are working hard with them.

This P-Day was pretty low key. We sang and played some basketball at the chapel. Then we went and played some ping pong at the YSA center with some missionaries by our house. It was a pretty good time and fun today.

Sunday evening I had the opportunity to go back to the Glenmont ward to go to a baptism of an investigator I taught. It was a great experience being able to go back and see him make a big step in the right direction. It's always such a great joy to see people get baptized. It was a great end of the day.

Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

Wasn't conference great!-Claro que sí ... Written 4-6-2014

Conference was super awesome. I'm glad you're enjoying your time with Aunt M and fam. Sounds like a ton of fun!

It's been a great week here and it's so amazing to see the work of the Lord here. Today was a nice fun day. We went down to Fort Washington (forever away) and had our Zone Activity with the neighboring zone. We had a sports day and saw briefly Fort Washington. It was nice and it's sunny and warm here. My companion and I got matching batman shirts for our group color just for some fun.

Fort Washington - Zone Activity: Silver Spring and ? Zones
Can you find Elder Dahl and his companion in their matching Batman shirts?
Hint...they are sitting down...just right of center...oh there they are!

It was been a wonderful week teaching the people here. My companion and I met a lot of new people and we knocked a lot of doors. We found several new investigators via our work and the work of members. We were able to teach a lot of people this week who are interested in learning more about the church. We had some amazing lessons and experiences with them. We have been able to have some great discussions between them where the Holy Spirit is strong. There were several times where I said things that definitely didn't come from me.

We're really trying to work on building a solid foundation for our area and are getting in the swing of things (now with transfers just around the corner). We are getting to know the members really well. We've met a lot of them and we have attempted to visit all of them. It's coming around and we're trying to help them all the best we can with the help of Heavenly Father.

Conference was great (as always). The time seems to pass by so fast when watching it. There were some really wonderful messages and a great spirit. There were many wonderful messages shared and a lot of great, edifying things I learned. I don't know if I can pick a favorite talk but I loved the conference.

I hope my youngest is doing better and feeling well. It's a bummer he got so sick. I hope my oldest brother survives his cue to cue today. Tell him congratulations on his college of choice. I'm glad he's got his decisions all down. I'm glad everyone has been having a lot of fun and doing well.

Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

Finding people to teach...written 3/30

Dad, I'm certainly glad you missed the stomach bug this year and that everything is returning to normalcy. It sounds like you had a lot of fun on your recent excursions and I'm glad that you've had some fun times.

Great job on wanting to get healthier. It's a world of difference (and let me tell from experience). I'm not all the way there but it's great feeling better and better about yourself.

Mom,
I'm glad that everything is going well and you've had a good past week. Sunday sounded like it was a lot of fun. However, I'm sure you are all loving spring break right now.

My companion and I are finally starting to get the area down and know how to get from one place to another with relative ease. We've also been trying to get to know all of the members and investigators we have in the area. This last week we were able to visit a ton of homes and see if the members still lived there or not and share a message with the ones still living there. We've passed by around 70% of the members. We had on a huge list of names that we received, a lot of them no longer live there. At the same time a ton of people still do, with several that haven't had contact with the church for a very long time (some have said they can't really remember the last time the missionaries came over). Our huge list of members is more manageable now (which is also a little sad too). We still have a good amount of people to find but they mostly live in the newly acquired part of the ward with the boundary change and it's difficult to find the time to go down that far to find them all. It's about a 30 minute drive down to that section of the area and then trying to find where everyone lives. We've been able to make a few excursions down there and find, and visit some of the people living there and invite them to their new ward. Most of the active members in that part of the area have callings and were going to be released before General Conference so that after General Conference they could attend their new ward. A couple members have begun to come to the Glenmont Ward and they are being warmly welcomed.

We also have been doing a lot of tracting over this last week to find some new investigators for our area. Unfortunately, usually when two new missionaries come into an area many of the existing investigators suddenly disappear. It's super sad and there have been several in our new area that we've had to drop because of lost contact. However, we still have a few investigators from the old companionships that covered our area which is really awesome! Still, our pool of people interested in the church was relatively small. So we've been out knocking doors in our area trying to find if there are people interested in our message of Jesus Christ. It has been really fun talking and teaching a lot of people this last week. We found two new people interested in learning more this week in our area that speak Spanish plus we found 4 people interested that speaks English and 1 person interested that speaks French.Thankfully I have a companion that speaks French because we have run into a lot of French speakers here (plus a few of other languages that neither of us can understand). We've been able to share the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ several times this week and teach other investigators of the church more about our beliefs.

It has been amazing that we have been able to teach so many people this week; both members and non-members of our church. The Lord is truly hastening his work here like it says in D&C 88:73.

"Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." Our area feels like it is on fire and we are just watching miracles occur several times each day. 

Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

Navy Football Coach & Physically and Spiritually Fit...written 3-23-2015

I'm going to go back and forth between Dad & Mom's questions and Braden's answers. His letter makes more sense when you know what Dad & Mom asked him...

Dad: I have a stomach bug outbreak and work with about 30 residents and 9 staff members. We are hoping to get a handle on it. It should be a busy week.

Dad, I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. I hope the stomach bug problem gets handled and over with quickly at work. 

Dad: The ward is going to start a missionary training class for the adults. It is a program initiated by the Stake Sunday School. The ward Sunday School has asked that I attend the adult class and then teach the youth of our ward the information. I am actually excited about it. I think it will be fun.

It also sounds like the new missionary class should be really fun. I hope it all goes well. This week has been nice for me. It's been great getting to know everyone and finally starting to get the area all down.

Dad: It was also nice to get the picture the family sent mom. We assume that is from a family in your ward? 

Oh, and that photo that was sent to Mom on Thursday, March 19th at 11:52am... It was from a senior sister missionary. I don't think you guys have seen Meet the Mormons as many times as I have because they have a certain Navy Football Coach and his wife from Annapolis, MD featured. Yeah it's them from Meet the Mormons because they went to the temple (DC being he closest to Annapolis) and we caught a pic with them when we were at the temple the same day.

Barbara & Ken Niumatalolo with Elder Mayta and Elder Braden Dahl. Ken is the Head Football Coach of the
U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and was featured in the movie, "Meet the Mormons"

NCAAF head coach Ken Niumatalolo believes in teamwork on and off the field. 










Mom: Wow Braden! I can't believe you lost 6-8 suit sizes!! I was teasing with Dad saying that you are going to come home the 'crazy' missionary who will be whipping us into better spiritual shape and the 'crazy-exercising' missionary that will also be whipping us into better physical shape! I told Dad that you'll get home and have us up at 6am jogging -- in matching jogging suits for the whole family -- while reading our scriptures as we go! I hope you get the joke, it's a women/mom thing always trying to keep up with all those other perfect Mormon Moms thus the matching jogging suits, jogging & scripture reading all at once.

I'm not sure about matching jogging suits; I'm still not a huge jogging fan. I could get you all on bike though and I can get some matching reflective vests. Roseville isn't too-too bad so we could probably read scriptures while on bike, or Dad will just have everyone download the audio for the scriptures and play it on their iPod at the same time.

This past week has been great. Monday evening we started doing A Family Home Evening with a less-active member who is also a recent convert. She has gone through a lot of hard times but is super nice. We also having her home teachers come over and help us share a message.

My companion and I also helped move a less-active member in the other Elders' area. She used to be a member in an area I previously served in. It was a little short notice but we were glad to help and finish moving everything. It was a great opportunity to serve and they really appreciated it. This week we also went over to a member's home to fill up bike tires with the two small bike pumps I have so they could give it to another member for transportation. It's fun to see all the little things you can do to help. (Don't worry I still always offer to wash the dishes at everyone's home-they just never let us do it.)

We have the goal to meet all the members in our new area to better know them and help them. We started doing that this week and have been going around looking for the members. We have had good success already and have found and met with a lot of the active and less-active members. They all seem great and we are getting a better grasp on how to help each of them. So far we're probably about a third of the way through visiting all the members but we are hoping to visit with a lot of them this week.

We also are trying to visit all the investigators the Sisters and Elders gave to us when the area was created. We've been able to visit with a couple of them now but not as many as we'd like. However, in our searches for members and investigators we've found a lot of new and potential investigators that we are really excited about. The area has so much potential and the members in the ward are super willing to help with missionary work.

On Thursday, our Zone (Silver Spring) went to the temple to do baptisms, confirmations, and initiatories for our ancestors. I brought my 5 names and performed the ordinances for them. It was a great time at the temple and super fun. The senior missionary couple in charge told us that the mission had completed over 900 family file names!

On Sunday I got to quickly go back to the Mount Pleasant Branch in DC for the baptism of one the investigators I taught. We set his baptismal date a little after the transfer when I left and he was able to complete it. We arrived just before he was baptized and we had to leave shortly after because the member that brought us down was helping at the baptism of one of the primary kids in our ward the same day. It was great being there for a few minutes and congratulating him. It was awesome feeling seeing him be baptized and knowing that he is coming closer to Christ.

It snowed here for the first day of Spring. It's still cold here but it is supposed to warm up this week so we can finally have some real springtime weather.

Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

PS-Just so you know, on Saturday we all received our new iPad minis. So I have it now and it's all good.

Silver Spring, MD-Week 2 & a New Suit...Written 3-16-2015

LDS family releases Spanish translation of 'Glorious'

Elder Braden Dahl with his companion in his 4th area-Silver Spring, MD
His companion is a native Spanish speaker from Canada

This week has been really nice and a bit crazy here. As I mentioned they changed our Ward boundaries two Sundays ago. Initially that had no effect on our area. However, the Glenmont Ward gained a very large geographical area that used to be part of the other Spanish Ward. The mission decided to give us the old part of the Silver Spring Ward because the sister missionaries are often at the Visitors' Center on shift, making it hard for them to visit everyone especially if the person lives far away. Also because Elder M served in that area when it was part of the Silver Spring Ward and he knows most of the members that live there already. So our new area just got doubled in size. We gave away a small part of our area with a few members to the bike elders on the west to give them some more members and lighten our load. It's exciting but a bit crazy getting it all figured out. Most of the members that live in the new part of the ward are in leadership in the Silver Spring Ward (and ironically 2/3 of the leadership in Glenmont is now in the Silver Spring Ward). So the changes to the boundaries are more gradual and they expect that most of the change will happen after Stake Conference in about a month when the leadership can be released and new members can be called to those positions. However, a few people were able to make the transition over to the Glenmont Ward yesterday at church. Many people in the ward welcomed them to their new ward which was great. 

The dark green area (toward the right) is the area that Elder Dahl & his companion, Elder M cover in Silver Spring, MD

This last week we finally got our area map made and put up after some effort. We were busy trying to get to know everyone this last week. We passed by most of the investigators given to us twice but they didn't answer or told us another time to stop by. It's been a bit difficult getting into contact with all of them. However, my companion and I have found a couple investigators on our own or with them help of members and we are very excited to be teaching them. The members here are great and they always want to help out and come out with us. My companion and I had members come out with us 6 of the 7 days last week. It's great having a strong member support in the ward. 

We are also trying to get to know some of the members that live here too. We tried to meet with a lot of them and stopped by to see if they were home. Most weren't home when we stopped by, but we did end up finding a few of them and getting to know them. When their not home we just knock around the building to find people possibly interested in the church and to get a feel for our new area. 

We still can ride our bikes if we choose and we did ride them one day in the rain when we were checking up on some people that lived close by. We can also use public transportation and whatever other mode of transportation. It's just our area is big and we need a car to head around to some of the farther parts of the area.

My companion is really nice and easy to get along with. His Spanish is great but he claims if it wasn't for church, he wouldn't really know any Spanish at all. I think he feels a bit more comfortable speaking French [than English], it's just been 6 months since he's spoken a lot of French.

As you probably already know, last Monday I went and got a new suit. I had been thinking about buying one for a while now since I haven't worn my grey suit since Germantown because it got a little big for me and now it's ginormous on me. My charcoal suit also has been really big on my for a while. President Cooke once rolled it up on me to show how big the suit had gotten on me. Since I'm in a car area it finally gave me the shove to get a new suit that would fit a lot better so if I started gaining weight I'd know really quickly and be able to do something about it quick. I've been saving up for a bit for a purchase of a new suit so I was totally fine and not heading over to debtor's prison for it, nor am I going to be living off scraps for the rest of the month. Anyways, I checked a couple of stores in the area to see their prices and I ended up going to Sears and found a black suit for a decent price and in my right size. It's 8 sizes smaller than my grey suit and 6 sizes smaller than my charcoal suit, no need to say more. It fits a lot better and I'm trying to stay in shape so that it continues to fit me well.

Have a great week. I love you lots.
Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

Here's a fun video. Elder Gabe Guerrero was one of Braden's roommates. Can you find Braden in this video? I found him in 4 photos...(Spoiler alert: answers below!)

It was posted in an article on Deseret News here:

LDS missionary takes a selfie every day for 2 years, posts video

Give up? Here are the 4 photos I found Elder Braden Dahl in...

They are all right around the 1 minute mark. (0:56, 0:58, 1:01 & 1:02)