Sightseeing-The National Cathedral, Zoo, Holocaust Museum & Dept of the Treasury...Written 9-29-2014

Written 9/29/2014
This week was another really fun one. My companion and I have really been working hard to teach the 20 lessons (to members, less-actives, investigators, etc.) each week. President Cooke has really been stressing this goal lately. Luckily we've been keeping pace these last few weeks. This week we were able to have 25 lessons. It was a great and busy week.

My companion and I are visiting with a lot of less-active members right now trying hard to get them to come back to church. We are seeing some miracles with less-active members who haven't opened there doors in years or who people have completely forgotten about, begin opening their doors to us and letting us come and teach them.

With our investigators we have one on baptismal date. We are working very hard to keep her on date and make sure she feels comfortable with baptism. She is doing well and really progressing. We also have another investigator that would be baptized now but his parents said we have to wait until his birthday in April. He's a rock solid guy and we are just waiting and working on his parents. Another investigator we have is super close to baptism and we are trying to put on date but she just needs a little more time and she'll be golden.

There is so much excitement here and I love serving in this area. My companion and I are working hard and trying our best. The members here are great and we have a lot of potential here in the area.

Thursday night the branch had a small activity where we played futbol, sorry, soccer. It was a really fun time and we brought one of our investigators to it and he really enjoyed playing. It was fun night and we were able to connect more with the branch.

Saturday morning we helped with a food drive at the church building and we helped pack up all the donations that were collected.

Today my companion and I passed by the National Cathedral. We didn't go in because it's a $10 admission of $25 for the behind the scenes tour. We took some pictures and it was fun to go and see.

We then headed down to the zoo and checked it out. It was nice to go and see again and it was my companion's first time so he appreciated it. Then we thought, well we can keep doing more so we went down the National Mall and went to go see the Holocaust Museum. My companion was dying to see that museum. Thankfully it was fairly empty today, so we went through pretty quick. We still had a little time left so we went to the Department of the Treasury and saw the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It was a cool little tour and we saw millions of dollars being printed. Today was mostly focused on $5 bills but they did have some of the first coloration printing for some $20 bills. I also got to see $1,000,000 in $10 bills. It was cool to go and see.It doesn't really feel like I've been out 10 months. I'm starting to lose track of dates and months are starting to fly by. I find it hard to believe September is almost over, it feels like it just began. I'm not sure what language I'll be watching Conference in but English is more likely than Spanish, but who knows. Notes for me are will probably be in Spanglish depending on how fast they speak; the slower they speak the more Spanish I write. 

In regards to directing music, yes I have directed music several times on my mission (just not in a Sacrament Meeting) in several meetings. Teach the basics first and stress the importance of just hitting the downbeat if nothing else. Practice directing some hymns and then some hymns with some tricky things-double down beat, time change, fermata, etc.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well for you and the family and I hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Braden Dahl

A Really Good Week 6-2-2014

Mom,

Thanks for all the letters from the boys and thank you for your letter as well. This week has been really good. My companion and I met with C, our recent convert this week and had a really good lesson with him on Family History. He really wants to get into it and wants to get his membership number so that he can get on as a member on FamilySearch. We also met with R, our investigator this week and he is doing really well and is accepting the gospel really easily.

Last Thursday a big thunderstorm came through in the evening and it down poured and there was a ton of lightning. All the Elders in our district were going to go to a taco truck for dinner with Hno D but the rain stopped us, so then we were going to go to Roy Rodger's but the power all went out in that area. So we ended up going to Old Country Buffet in Gaithersburg.







On the way we saw a huge tree that had fallen over onto some power lines, the tree took up two full lanes and was causing some traffic. When we got home the power was out but it came back on about 10 minutes later.

Multiple lightning exposures over the Jefferson Memorial combined into a single image
from May 27, 2014 (Photo Credit: Kevin Ambrose)

On Friday I had exchanges and went to Montgomery Village South on bike. It was a beautiful day and it wasn't bad bike riding weather. They had a lot of appointments and we visited with some of the areas investigators and less-actives. That night, one of the Gaithersburg 1st ward members, who is moving to Mexico for work, invited us to Five Guys and Krispy Kreme so we had a nice big dinner. I was with Elder C, who is in his 2nd transfer. It was fun to work with him and different being the person to take the lead in lessons for a day. It was good and I enjoyed it.

Saturday the Elders in our District moved one of our members in Germantown to Dickerson (still in my area). It's far out there and according to a resident of that area there are more horses and more cows than people there; I believe him. I'd never been out there but it was nice to see on the drive out. 

On Sunday we went to the Mission President's home for Spanish FHE and it was really fun and a lot of people came out for it. The lesson was very spiritual and everyone there enjoyed it. Today my companion and I, along with our roommates, and the DC French elders went to Smithsonian Zoo for a while and hung out. It was fun to go see again. 

Love,

Elder Braden Dahl

Smithsonian Zoo Trip 3-24-2014

Dad,

I’m excited to hear that your building is now a 4 star facility and I see work is crazy as usual. I'm sure you get some better admissions now that the Facility is a 4 star instead of a 2 star, so hopefully less headaches in that aspect.

This week has been good. We were able visit some of our less-actives and visit some of our investigators. Our investigator with the baptismal date wanted it moved back a week so that he could have some of his friends from California come to his baptism. So we are still super excited for him.

On exchanges last time I rode another Elder's bike. Our car doesn't have a bike rack so my bike just stays our balcony. Don't worry it's as close to the apartment as possible. It has a bunch of plastic bags over different parts. I've tested the brakes and the pedals before and they both work fine. The only thing I haven't done is gearshift because the bike has never left the apartment. (My companion doesn't have his bike in this area because another Elder is using it, so I never really have the opportunity to use mine). And I know that the U-lock still works and it's easy to use.

My companion and I went to stake correlation yesterday and we talked about the weaknesses in the wards and about the big culture change the members and missionaries are going through. The old way of missionaries knocking doors is going, going, gone. They spoke about the missionaries’ roles. We are supposed to teach and it is the member’s responsibility to find. They likened it to a merger of two companies and everyone is going through a culture change and getting accustomed to something different. We are really trying to get referrals from members but it is often hard. We've been telling members look for a "no" or look for someone that you think will say no to you if you were to invite them to a church activity and then invite them to come to whatever that is, a dinner, scouts, church, FHE, etc.

Today we went to the DC Zoo. My companion has yet to go there and we are saw how good it was. It's a nice sized zoo and has a lot of stuff. It's no San Diego but it's really nice and free! It's a little cold today (in the 20s) but it's alright. Also it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. So winter just wants to keep hanging out.

Love,

Elder Braden Dahl

Mom,
I'm glad that my aunt, uncle and family are all settled in their new place. And NEVER underestimate a garage. Maryland has no concept of a garage. No one has a garage, only the very affluent and a couple of the condos have them (usually the newer ones). Most homes and condos just have a parking spot. People don't think of houses having a garage as the norm. Speaking of houses they are like the 8th wonder of the world here in my area. Everyone is in a condo or apartment here. Homes are all attached to each other in grand condo complexes. You have to go out to the boondocks to see an actual house.

Today my companion and I went to the Smithsonian Zoo in DC. It's a really nice zoo, some areas didn't have too much because of the cold, but it was really enjoyable. We saw the pandas, and we even saw the baby panda, which sleeps almost all day (around 20 hours or more) and comes out even less. We saw one of the staff members holding it for probably about 10 seconds because everyone was blood-clotting there. The panda came out for a few minutes (I say 2 minutes, my companion says 3) then went back inside away from the people. The baby panda is only 7 months old right now. We also saw things like California Seals, lions, tigers, gorillas, naked mole rats, birds, snakes, etc. It was a fun day and nice to go and enjoy the zoo.

This transfer is just flying by. Wednesday is the temple trip and then next week is transfers. Time feels like it is on a F-16 going full throttle. It's great but it seems like I just got here. It's crazy how fast the mission feels.

The English version of the song we sang should be where you found the original. It was recorded by the same people. The only difference is that it was the special musical number for why I believe. My companion and I sang the first 2 and last 2 verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief but the first 2 verses were to the tune of Sweet Hour of Prayer.

Love,
Elder Braden Dahl

P.S. I'm glad to hear that The Family History is going well and you are working on it. Keep asking questions and you'll get the answers. P.S.S. Since I've emailed you my camera started working again. Hopefully it will stay that way and now I have 548 photos on it.