Dec 15 2014

Hola!!

This week has been soooo hot. I’m seriously sweating to death every day. I’m going to have to get used to it being smoldering hot in December January and February. 

So this week some funny things happened. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and dos hermanas show up, and there aren’t any more seats. So me and my companion give up our seats and we go outside into the hallway. When we get out there we hear something around the corner. So we walk over to see what it is and there’s a stray dog in the Church building!! haha so we spent a few minutes chasing it around and finally getting it out haha. So funny. Ahhhh Peru.

So some of the traditions here for Christmas are a little different. Christmas Eve starts at like 5 pm and they party until like 5 am the next morning. And then Christmas day is normal and everyone goes to work. Also, they eat this stuff called Paneton. Which is like fruit cake but it’s actually good haha. It’s like sweet honey bread with little fruits in it. It’s hard to explain, but I’m probably gonna get so fat from eating that stuff. And they drink chocolatada. It’s this super good chocolate drink. It’s like hot chocolate but better haha. And even though its sooooo hot they drink this super hot chocolate drink haha. This I could get used to. So delish.

This week I learned that I’m not even speaking Spanish! The language is called Castellano. It’s almost identical to Spanish but different. I think it’s just a dialect haha. 

There is a sister in our ward and she has a boyfriend that lives in Sweden. This week he came here to get married! He speaks English German and Spanish fluent. But I haven’t spoken English with him yet haha. Anyway, they got married, and he wants to get baptized! So that’ll be fun to teach him and see him progress. We had dinner with them last night and at the end of the night I was prompted to share a scripture about the Atonement. It’s Alma 7:11-13. And I talked about how powerful the atonement is. The atonement truly is so powerful. All the bad things in our lives, including sickness, pains, guilt, sorrow, and temptations, can all disappear through the atonement. How cool is that? It shows just how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. It wasn’t just a sacrifice on the Part of Jesus Christ, but for Heavenly Father too. Can you imagine having a son and letting him be executed? In the book, True to the Faith, it says that the biggest act of love that the world will ever see is when Jesus Christ died for our sins. And I believe it 100 percent. Cien por cien. I know he loves each one of us. I know that we all have a plan and the only way we can see the happy side of this plan is through the Atonement. Always remember him, especially at this time of the year when we celebrate his birth. He’s our older brother, and he loves us so much.

I love you all! Please continue praying for all the missionaries in the field. Remember, that if you ever need help with anything, pray.

Thanks for all the emails and support!! 

Love Elder Dahlin

ps. here are some pictures from a few weeks ago that I don’t think ever sent.

Also a picture of the hot dogs that they eat here! They put guacamole and tomatoes and chips on them!!