3/31/2014 Letter

Mom,

This week was good but everyone was a little anxious to hear about transfers. We were able to visit with a lot of less-active members this week, which helped a lot. We also had two lessons with our investigator who has a baptismal date. My companion and I are still excited for him and can't wait to meet with him this week.

Yesterday, we went to Hermana O's for one of the many coming Elder Al.. parting dinners (He is finishing his mission on Wednesday). I had chicken tacos, pork tacos, and nopales tacos (cactus tacos); they were super good and we had a great night. Afterwards, Hermano D asked if I ever had real agua de jamaica (jamaica the flower not the country pronounced huh-mike-a). I had never had real jamaica to drink, only the artificial flavoring of it. He got out some dried jamaica and boiled it in water and made the drink. It is a super delicious drink and apparently really healthy for you. As always, the real stuff was much better than the flavoring of it.

The temple was a great day, there aren't tulips all over the place quite yet because of all this wintery weather over here, but I've heard they are coming out of the ground now. Spring hasn't hit us yet in Maryland. What everyone is waiting on is the cherry blossoms. In DC the cherry blossoms are a huge hit at the National Mall and apparently absolutely gorgeous. People crowd DC to see them. The trees were a gift to the USA in its early years from Japan. The trees are very old which is really rare for the east coast because trees aren't as old-aged over here. Anyways, the Festival of the Cherry Blossom has already started but it goes from March through May, and they're still waiting for some consistent warm weather for the trees to even bud. 

Transfers are on Wednesday and everyone’s getting excited to see where they're going. Tuesday night the Zone Leaders do a "call-out" where they will announce who the new companionships are and where the people who are leaving their area are going. This past Saturday the Zone leaders did their call-out and announced for each area, in the zone, who would be leaving or staying (both can stay or leave as well). My companion has been here for 5 transfers (5@ six-week periods) and he was convinced he was leaving for his last transfer. We got the call and his prediction came to be incorrect. Instead, I will be going to stay in Germantown with him. So I get to be with my companion for another six weeks (no extreme circumstances permitting). 

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

Dad,

I'm glad to hear your still staying busy. Hopefully everything will not be too stressful this coming week. I hope Sunday was alright and you had a great Sacrament Meeting. I know that you’ll enjoy General Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday. It's weird when they announce conference at 2pm and 4pm instead of 11am and 1pm. I think this is the first actual time zone difference that I've really noticed here.

The Temple trip on Wednesday was really great. My companion and I got there early with our roommates so we had the opportunity to wait and just ponder in the Temple for a little while. The session was really wonderful. Afterwards, we returned to our really busy schedule. We quickly went to the store for our roommates, dropped them off at the apartment, picked up a lunch from a member, and went immediately to District Meeting. (All in under an hour, the temple is at least a 30-minute drive). Needless to say, we didn't eat lunch until after 4pm. It felt like I was back at work again with our late lunches. We just ate enough to sustain us because we had a large dinner appointment at 6pm. It was a great day but a little packed.

Yesterday had some interesting weather, it was raining (continuation of the rain we had on Saturday) and during church it started to hail a little. Then it started to sleet. There was a nice layer of sleet all over the ground and roads. It was not hard to drive in if you went slow and were careful, but my companion and I saw 2 cars that were crashed off the side of the road (no one hurt just lost control) from when we left and were driving to Hermana O's (3.6 miles). Then it rained through the night and cleared up almost all of the sleet. Today it's a little cold but sunny. Every time we have one day kind of spring-ish, we get a week of winter.

Next transfer I am officially no longer a trainee. I will be done with the 12-week program and will only have one hour of companionship study instead of 2 hours.

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

Brother #2,

I know that you don't like writing but that doesn't stop me from writing you. I hope that everything is going well. I hope you are enjoying school. Your choir pictures from your performances look great. I'm sure you're still keeping up the awesome work you are doing in your classes.

How's Teachers' Quorum going? I hope that church is fun and that you are learning more and more about the gospel.

I hope you have a good week and have some great warm weather. 

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

Brother #3,

I hope that everything is going well with you. How has school been? How is scouts? I heard you guys can get a little crazy. I hope that you have been having lots of fun lately.

How is your obsession with chicken? Where I'm at is basically chicken-topia. You would love all the chicken here. That is the most common food that I eat. But like you've seen in my old emails I eat some other things too. A few days ago was the first time that I had salmon. It was shredded up and tasted really good and it didn't taste very fishy.

Anyways, I hope that you are doing well and having a great time. Enjoy being a zurdo (you're the only one in the house that is one now).

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

P.S I'm a zurdo. [Mom’s Note: Can you figure out what ‘zurdo’ means using the context clues?  It’s Spanish for being ‘left-handed.’]

Brother #4,

I hope that you're doing well. Hopefully, you’re not having as many nosebleeds now. Anyways, how is school doing? How's scouts? How is church going?

Yesterday, my companion and I were in Primary the whole time. We went to one class and acted out the story of Esau and Jacob. I was Jacob and my companion was Esau. We did the part where Esau sells his birthright for some food. The teacher gave us lentils beforehand and I gave them to my companion and he ate them.

Then, we went to another class and talked a little about baptism and showed the kids how they are going to be baptized. Then we went into Sharing Time and helped press play on the piano (it has recordings of all the Primary songs and hymns). Then my companion was asked to bear his testimony about missionary work.

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

February 10th-Happy Valentine's Day

February 10, 2014

To my two youngest brothers,

I recently started watching the Bible videos on the gospel library app and I am done with all of them. I do know that the gospel library app is missing a few, but the others are available online and probably on the Bible video app. You guys should check them out. They are very well done and are really cool to watch.

http://youtu.be/dYO8opAUFf0

If you want you could also watch some Mormon Messages as well. I have watched a lot of the Mormon Messages and they are great! Some of them are funny, some are serious, some are happy, and some are a little sad. But those are also great to watch and have great messages. The best thing about the Mormon Messages and Bible Videos are they are always coming out with new ones. Since I have been in Washington, DC there have been several new Mormon Messages and new Bible Videos.

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-with-us?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

My mission has been really fun. I have been working hard and have been able to do a lot of fun things as well. It is really cool that I get to use an iPad mini in my mission, but we aren't allowed to have any games on it. We also have a cell phone, but it is not an iPhone. It is just a regular phone that can call and text.

I hope you guys have a really good Valentine's Day; just don't kiss too many girls. I hope you both are doing well and I hope you are doing well in school and having fun at school. Work hard and help Mom out. Make sure you both are getting your homework and projects done without Mom having to twist your arms too hard.

I heard you are going to do a lot of fun stuff this year and I can't wait to hear all about it.

Love,

Elder Braden Dahl

Dear Oldest Brother,

I hope that you have been doing well these last few weeks. I heard that “The Emperor's New Clothes” has gone really well. I am sure you had fun doing it. I hope that Footloose is also going well, and that practice is moving along and that you are having fun with practice.

It seems like you have been having lots of fun while staying busy. And I have heard that you have a lot more fun things in store this year. Keep doing well in school and enjoying all your classes. Hopefully Mr. O'Hair isn't too hard on you. Work hard in Spanish class.  It is very useful to speak and many countries speak Spanish. Plus, it could come in handy in the next few years.

The ward I attend is really great. It is one of the largest and most functioning Spanish wards (still it is only about one third the size of Roseville Second). Our entire District goes to this ward and there are two members from their ward doing a service mission so there are ten missionaries in all. Everyone is from all around the world. The Elder's Quorum is pretty small, but the ward is great and doing great. In the building we meet in we have an English Ward, a Spanish Ward, a Young Single Adult Ward, and a French Group (not a branch, but a group that is smaller than a branch). The Zone leaders are in our ward, and the Assistants to the President are in the YSA Ward, so sometimes we see them. Fun fact: One of my roommates is from Auburn. Also there is an Elder here, I have only met once, from Rocklin.

My trainer is a great companion. He is the District Leader for our District. We are about the same height. He likes to sing and knows some of the show-tunes. He knows the area really well and is loved by the people. His Dad is from Utah and served in Mexico for his mission and his Mom is from Mexico, so he speaks excellent Spanish, plus he leaves in May so he only has two more transfers after this one. He is super nice and a great missionary.

If you haven't already, you should read this month's New Era. I have read parts of it and it is really good. I enjoyed reading “28 Ways to Spread Sunshine.”  It is a very nice article about staying happy and making others happy. There are a ton of great articles in the magazine. There are a lot about dating in this edition of the magazine. I recommend reading them all, but the article "Not Dating? You're Not Alone" was probably my favorite out of the ones I have read so far. It is very applicable to many people out there and was really insightful.

Love,

Elder Braden Dahl

P.S. A few tips for that class that the teachers don't normally say to help with pronunciation . . . the letter "b" and "v" make the exact same sound.  Its sound is kind of in between the two sounds. Also, the "d" sound is not in your throat like it is in English, it's at the tip of your mouth in Spanish by flicking your tongue off of your teeth; it's almost a "th" sound.

Dear Mom,

It sounds like you are all doing well and I'm glad to hear it. I'm sure you will all have a great time this coming weekend. At Disneyland just let your sister guide you and you'll see/go on just about everything. Also at Cars Land go to the cozy cone food snack place and get what my oldest cousin calls the "purple flurp" (ask your sister). It's super good.

I'm glad to hear it has started to rain in California again. I'm glad to hear that the prayers for rain were heard. 

I'm also glad you are getting the pictures from the member in my ward and I hope you'll get the ones he took last night of us eating with them.

Haciendo tamales con Hermana Olga Rodriguez - Making tamales with Sister Olga Rodriguez.
Saturday they made them; Sunday they ate them. 

This Wednesday we are going to the temple as our temple day this transfer. I am super excited to go and can't wait to see what is inside the DC temple. They just replaced most of the portraits in the temple and our apartment was lucky enough to acquire two of the old paintings. We have on printed canvas “Christ Ordaining the Twelve Apostles” and “Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.”

Things have been going pretty well around here. We have been meeting a lot with our less actives and seen a few of our investigators, but it is often hard to meet with them because of their work schedule. Sunday was really good and we taught the 13-year-old class for Sunday School. And we taught and talked to a man, who is not a member but knows all of the church and has a testimony of everything for third hour. It is a long and confusing story. The members are still amazing and the ward is doing great. The less actives in the ward are really opening up and some are starting to come to Church again more or less. It is amazing to see the miracles happening to the people here.

Today was our Zone Activity. It was a Country Fair theme. We were divided into teams and then had a bunch of small competitions. Whichever team won the most competitions overall got to throw whipped cream pies at the Zone Leaders. The activities included bobbing for apples, barrel races, sack races, three-legged races, donut on a string, etc.

Everything is going absolutely great here in Washington, DC North. Last Monday's weather was a little weird. It snowed, then rained, and then we had freezing rain. It snowed a little on Sunday and we have a very small layer of snow covering everything.

We went sledding near our apartment on 1-21-2014 - L to R: Elder ?; Elder Anderson; Elder Braden Dahl

Snow, Rain, Freezing Rain on 2-5-2014

Thank you in advance for the Valentine's Day package.

Love,

Elder Braden Dahl

Live Questions and Answers as we emailed back & forth…Mom...Braden

Where did you and your companion get your flannel shirts? The ones you were making tamales in?

They are my companions. He received a lot of them from a guy throughout his mission and he let me borrow one.

I hope to see you and your companion singing in the next Night of Music at the Temple Visitor's Center.  I've watched pretty much all the videos.  The Mission President's wife posted a few and one of the Sister Missionaries posted some, too.

We have not been in Night of Music and Inspiration yet, but next Sunday we are in a choir number, "Why I Believe."

I know you weren't in the last one...I was super impressed with the Elder’s piano playing. Hope someone videos the group and posts it...put the iPads to good use!

That Elder doesn't think he's good at the piano because he only really knows chords,

which means he can technically play anything. But he is really good at the piano. He came up with that arrangement of chords and the other Elder came up with a rap to it.

And don't worry I am 100% sure that someone will video the choral piece next week.

2 months out 1/27/2014

It has been fine living in the snow. As long as you dress right it's not that bad to go out. Today is actually fairly warm minus the wind chill. I'm glad to hear that you have so many fun things you will be doing this year.

Things have been going great and tomorrow is Zone Conference and we are getting an iPad mini that we get to use. We also will be trained some more and do other things. 

I'm loving the mission and  there is so much to do in the work. Everything has been going great and I am so happy to be up here.

Photo Courtesy Diana Alvarez

I'm trying to upload pics from this computer but we're at the public library and it's not working. It's hard to multitask with everything.

I'm trying to think of what I did this last week but it was kind of hard. We had 4 inches of snow on Tuesday so we weren't allowed to go out so we went tubing outside our apartment. 

One of the Elders in my apartment went home this week due to medical reasons and we have a new roommate now. He is super tall 6'8" but really nice.

We taught some more lessons and met with more members. We went to a member who has this mansion home and ate there but they are in the middle of no where. We went to Poolsville to help our roommates feed some member's horses today and we went to another members home and got free haircuts (It's just a little trimmed).

We have 2 new investigators but are having a hard time getting our investigators to progress. We are working hard but often they don't have time to meet with us and cancel and reschedule appointments.

But we are still working hard and doing our best. I love being out here and it's crazy how much time just flies by.

Elder Braden Dahl

 

Specialized Training of January's New Arrivals and Trainers

Back row L to R: Elders Palmer, Wang, Lim, Wilcox, Jensen, Redmond, Peterson, Melander                                           Seated on stage L to R: Elders Anderson, Dahl, Collins, Zollinger, Cervantes, Mecham, Smith, Brown                              Back row of Sisters L to R: Sisters Veenker, Kohler, Marambio, Chappell, Croese, Bertholon                                              Front row L to R: Sisters Johnson, Bascom, Cooke, President Cooke, Sister Checketts & Connolly

Learning to Lead a Hymn

 

Instruction, Discussion and Role-Playing

Lunch, at last!

Scripture Chase in "Preach My Gospel" using one hand from each companion

Finding separated phrases from the First Vision and shooting them in order.

 

Finding the appropriate rule in the White Handbook

Photos Courtesy President and Sister Cooke