December 28 2015

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

It’s been a few weeks since I could write all you guys. I was humbled to spend my last Christmas here in Peru and I really enjoyed all the Peruvian tradiciones and all the things that they do here. More than anything I loved testifying to the people of Christ’s birth and his mission here. A mission that would change all of us forever. 

We have been sharing a video with the people. It’s called a savior is born. And it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You should all go watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_TEOyhy7Bg

I think the best Christmas present that I could have received was being able to talk to my family on skype! Seeing you guys was the best and made me want to work harder than ever so that people can be with their families forever, just like we will be together forever through temple ordinances. 

I thought I would have more time to write you guys but I’m running out of time already. I am going to include a ton of pictures.

I now that 2000 years ago my hope was born. And I know that we all must have been in heaven singing and rejoicing and crying because we would have the chance to be forgiven. I know that through Christ and his sacrifice, we can be clean and we can be happy. There’s that word again haha- happy. All we do is so that we can be happy. And I’m grateful to have found this gospel because I know that the only true and lasting happiness that I will ever have will come from the true teaching of Jesus Christ. 

I love you guys! Have a good New Years! And keep writing me and sending pictures too :)

Love Elder Dahlin

Papa Noel realmente existe! Le vimos!

We wrapped Books of Mormon in wrapping paper and went out and gave them away to people. It's the best gift they'll ever recieve!!

Fireworks in Lima!!

Talking to the family on Skype :) 

Talking to mi familia!

Paneton and chocolate!

Mission Christmas party

December 7 2015

Hola!

Wow the weeks are flying by. I can’t believe that it’s almost Christmas again! The traditions here are the best haha. Something that I’m going to miss for sure. So here in Peru there are a whole bunch of different districts. Like Cuzco, Iquitos, Tacna. Anyway, there are coins with pictures on them, like there are in the United States. I have been collecting them for a while but I noticed that they were kinda dirty. So I did something really dumb haha. I figured that a little bit of coca cola would do the trick. I put them in coca cola and was going to take them out after like 20 minutes. I forgot about them! For 5 DAYS!! When I found them and took them out of the coca cola they were stained brown and the picture wasn’t even visible anymore. And I couldn’t get it off. I tried everything, thinner, gasolina, Clorox. They were pretty much trashed, and I even started to spend some of them haha cause I figured it was pointless to keep them when I could buy like chocolate or some crazy fruit that doesn’t exist in the states. I was pretty bummed haha. I was talking to a guy in my ward and he told me that he had a cream that would help with taking away the stains! I was super excited and was anxious to receive the cream to try it out. One day he called us and told us that he was outside out house. I ran downstairs and got the cream and went back inside. After putting the cream on the coins and rubbing it in and scrubbing it, I removed the coin from the cloth and it was super super shiny. And the picture on the coin was so detailed and perfect. It was much cleaner and much much better than it was before the accident with the coca cola. Now my collection is looking good :) but there more to the story than that. I think of this story and it makes me remember our savior Jesus Christ. We are all imperfect and we do things that sometimes we wish we wouldn’t have. Sometimes we do everything we can to take away the stain, or the memory, but nothing seems to work. When we discover the gospel of Jesus Christ and the redeeming power of his atonement, we get excited and want to learn more. And when we finally understand how to repent and understand that it’s a change of heart, we can be clean. Not just clean. But better and stronger than we were before. Just like my coins. If they never would have gotten stained, I wouldn’t have seen the need to clean them. And it turns out that after cleaning them, they were much better than before. Every experience that we have it to make us better. We all do things that we need to change, and when we apply the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives, we can turn our weaknesses into strengths and be better than we were people. I know that the Atonement is real. And I love this time of year because it helps me reflect the hope that was born into the world more than 2000 years ago. I’m running out of time but I’m going to put in some pictures here. I love you all and I’m grateful for your support. We should always remember that this time of the year isn’t about gifts and presents. It’s about the birth of Christ. The only person that can cleanse of imperfection and help us live with God again. Next week I’ll tell some crazy stories :)

Love Elder Dahlin

My best friends here!

This bug bit me!! but I'm okay :) #doterra saved my life

Cool Nativity at the temple

November 24 2015

So much has happened this week! There is this little old guy that we teach named Cesar. He’s so happy and is always laughing with us and making jokes haha. Anyway, this week he decided to be baptized and asked me to do it. Cesar uses a wheel chair so it was kind of difficult to baptize him. It ended up working out better when my companion got in the water with us and we both baptized him. The coolest thing was to see him in his white clothes before his baptism praying in front of the font. He was so grateful that he had met us and that God had answered his prayers with the message that we brought him. The coolest is when people call us the angels. Even the gangsters here in Lima always call us the angels haha. I’m grateful that in some way or another I could help Cesar be happy.

This week was also my companion’s birthday! Here there is a tradition where they just smash eggs all over your head and then dump flour on you haha. Luckily they didn’t do it to me in April haha but I’m sure they will for my birthday that’s coming up. Anyway, we dumped eggs and flour all over him. I’m going to put some pictures in here a little later.

We also were able to go to the temple with a couple that got sealed! That was awesome. I had never seen a temple sealing before but wow it’s amazing. It made me really appreciate my parents and what they’ve done so that we can be together :)

During this thanksgiving season I’m especially grateful for these last 14 months that god has given me to be able to be here Lima meeting amazing people and learning so much. I’m grateful for my family. I’m grateful for the authority of God that’s been restored to the earth. And for the blessing that I have to know who I am and why I’m here. I love this gospel and I know that there isn’t anything else that can make us so happy :) Well I’m running out of time but I’m going to send a cool video home this week.

I love you guys! Thanks for all your letters and support. You guys really are the best.

Love Elder Dahlin

This is what happens when you play volleyball for ´just a sec´

Eggs and flour! haha

Here's the view from the roof of my house!

November 16 2015

Well I got transferred! It’s weird cause I have 14 months in the mission and this is only my 3rd ward that I’ve been in. But I feel that I’ve been able to help people in the wards that I’ve been in and more importantly learn from the amazing people that I have met. It’s kind of hard getting transferred because we have to leave behind all the people that become like our families here. But I’ll always remember them!

So my first week in this new sector we were walking down the street on our way to an appointment. We were looking for people to contact and all the sudden a door comes flying open and a little boy runs out into the streets to greet us. It kind of scared us and we were kind of confused. His mom walked outside and saw us and just started crying. We spoke with them and the sister explained to us that she is a member of the church and that she hadn’t been going for years. She told us that her son had been sick for weeks throwing up. The sister didn’t have any money to go to the doctor so her son had just been lying in bed sick for days. She was praying for help when all the sudden her son sits up in bed and runs outside and finds us. We gladly gave him a blessing and her and her son both went to church this Sunday. Me and my companion were both shocked at how perfect God’s plan is and how obvious it is that we are just instruments here in God’s hands. And it’s so true. The only reason I’m here is to help my brothers and sisters that are here that don’t know about the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we have prophets and apostoles and the authority of God here on the earth today. It really is a blessing to be here helping people :)

So far I like my new sector! There are lots of people to teach and we are already seeing some people that will be baptized soon! I’m going to be the English teacher here in this zone again so that will be fun to help the other elders!

I’m putting up some of the pictures from the last few weeks!

Thanks for all your support and love. Keep praying for us please :)

Elder Dahlin

                                                                 My old sector!

My new companion Elder Navarro. He's from Cochabomba Bolivia and has 10 months in the mission. One of the funniest guys you'll ever meet haha, I'm excited to work with him.

At soccer we played futbol with a whole bunch of socks wrapped up in tape cause our ball popped haha.

My first 2 companions here in the mission!! They're both finishing in Deciembre

Mi despedida en mi ultimo barrio. Ustedes son lo maximo en serio. Lo siento si no pude despedirme de algunos de ustedes. Gracias por todo lo que me han enseñado y siempre recordare a todos ustedes. Estaremos en contacto :)

November 2 2015

Hey guys!

So tomorrow there is a chance that I’ll be transferred. I have been here for 5 transfers, or 7 and a half months. So it’s pretty likely. All I know is that I LOVE this ward and the people that I have met and my companions. There are seriously so many opportunities to share the gospel and help the people here. I’m not positive if I’ll get transferred but I will let you all know :)

Wow so this week we had some surprises! I’ll try to tell the story quickly because I’m running out of time. So there is a family that we have been teaching. Their dad is a member. In July we baptized the daughter, Alison. And then a few weeks ago we baptized Berita. Anyway, Berita has a sister named Keila. Her mom recently passed away and so she came here to live in Lima with her sister and that’s when we met her. I think it was perfect because the day after her mom died, we met her and we were able to teach her that families are forever. She was so interested in the message and was baptized yesterday. But her cousin, Estefany, also lives there and she always listened to the missionaries before but never decided to be baptized. Finally when her cousin, Keila, decided to come here, she decided to be baptized too. But she has a little brother! His name is Brandon. He always listened to the missionaries before but never wanted to get baptized either. He would always run away when we asked him questions and we were never able to really teach him. Until Keila got here! He decided that he wanted to be baptized too. So yesterday we had a super baptism with the 3 of them. I think that yesterday it became even more clear to me that we are here so that families can be happy. Looking at them dressed in white made me so happy. A happiness that I think only a missionary can understand haha.  I’m happy that they can work towards going to the temple and find more happiness there. 

Well, having supportive friends and family sure does make this work easier. I love you guys and thank you for supporting me and always writing to me. I know that the time we have here on this earth is so important. And being here teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ has really made me realize what’s most important. The Gospel and families. With these 2 things we can live with God again, and for me that’s the ultimate goal :) Sorry this is pretty short but I hope you have a good week!

Love Elder Dahlin

I can't explain how much I love this place

Me and my compy!

October 26 2015

Aloha!

Another week in the obra del señor.

So transfers are coming up and I think it’s my time to go. This is my 5th change in this sector! Some people maybe might have wanted a change at about this point, but I love it here. The people here are like my family and there are so many people to work with. I think that when I got here I wasn’t very excited because there wasn’t much to work with, but we had faith, we fasted and prayed and keep at it, and eventually there appeared tons of people to teach and baptize. I guess when we want something, or when we want blessings, we just have to trust in God and obey, and he will bless us.

This week I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about the Sabbath day. I think that sometimes we see this commandment as a small commandment or maybe something that isn’t as important. But if that’s the case, why would we allow a small commandment or something that’s not too important to delay our eternal progress? It’s something so simple, and sometimes we let it keep us from being worthy, which is really sad. The Sabbath day is more important than we think, and it also shows our faith and love towards God, just like any other commandment. So if we aren’t going to church, or if we aren’t paying attention during our classes or if we play on our cell phones during our Sunday meetings, we should probably rethink the real reason that we are there. And rethink how much we really love God. Because by our obedience we show him gratitude. I think that sometimes we need miracles in our lives. Sometimes we want blessings and we want things to work out the way we plan them. To receive blessings or miracles, first we need to show our faith and obey. I think that if we don’t obey, it’s much much more difficult to receive blessings. So we should all make sure that we are obeying this commandment. Maybe a small and simple commandment, but it’s the door to blessings and happiness.  These are just some thoughts that I had.

Well I’m like out of time. Sorry if I haven’t had time to write some of you or respond to your emails! I read every single one of them and I’m always so grateful to have awesome friends.

Have a good week! Thanks for all the letters and all the support:)

Elder Dahlin

Este es mi hijo amado!

This is Chicha Morada. It's Purple corn and they boil it in water and then put pineapple and cinnamon in it and some other spices! My all time favorite drink.

October 12 2015

Wow I feel like every week gets better and better as long as we are focused on the work. The more I focus on this work with all my heart might mind and strength, the happier I am and the more success we have :) this week we literally saw a miracle. And I’m a witness of the perfect plan that god has for us and the power of his priesthood here on the earth.

So we have been teaching a sister in our ward for a long time. Almost for the whole time that I have been here. Recently her mom died and so she started thinking seriously about baptism and how serious this life is. Anyway, a few weeks ago she decided that she wanted to get baptized, so we planned for this weekend that just passed, October 10th. the morning of October 10th we were in the chapel cleaning the baptismal font and she calls us and told us that she had had an accident had burnt herself in the kitchen and that she wouldn’t be able to get baptized. We were kind of bummed and didn’t know what to do. We told her we were going to come to her house at the hour of her baptism to just visit her. Me and my companion were thinking during the whole day about what we could do so that she could be baptized that day. The baptism was going to be at 5 and at like 4:40 we go to our room and pray. We felt like we should go to her house and give her a blessing of health so that she could be baptized that day. We get the baptismal clothes together and leave the room ready to baptize. We get to her house and she was kind of confused to see the baptismal clothes. She went on to explain to us again that she had the accident and wouldn’t be able to enter in the water. We taught her about the priesthood and faith and works. She agreed to receive a priesthood blessing. My companion gave her such a powerful blessing and totally put the situation in God’s hands. We accepted the fact that if it was his will, she would be healed and be baptized, but if she want ready or prepared, she could wait another week or 2. We gave her the blessing and told her that the most important thing we could do now is act. We told her that we were going to go to the chapel to finish organizing the seats and everything for her baptism. We left and were just trusting in the spirit and that this sister would have faith to go to the church. We were cleaning and getting everything ready when all the sudden we hear a knock on the door! We run to open it and there is the Hermana Berita :) so willing and ready to be baptized. I can’t express fully how I feel about the faith of this sister and the importance of acting when we have decisions. But I think I learned so much this day about how we can trust in God no matter what the circumstance. She was baptized and didn’t say that she was hurting or anything. I know that some people will call this story crazy or that it isn’t true. But I know it’s true. And you can email me if you have questions or doubts :)  daniel.dahlin@myldsmail.net

God has a plan that’s so perfect. And knowing that he is the same yesterday, today and forever, I know that he keeps working miracles today. I know not because someone told me or because I have heard stories. But because I have felt the spirit confirm to me that it is true and because I have experienced it. Here in the mission we are having experiences and seeing things that will change us forever. The mission is so cool :)

Having an awesome companion like Elder Cabrera is really such a blessing too. Some companions don’t get along and that makes it so hard to have the spirit. And without the spirit, it’s impossible for someone to learn from us and have a real and lasting testimony. Me and Elder Cabrera are buds haha. I’m enjoying so much being his companion. Please keep praying for us and for the people that we are teaching :)

Well ya se acabò el tiempo. But thanks for all the prayers and support! I’ll try to write more next week!

Love Elder Dahlin

Ps. I completed 13 months this week!

October 5 2015

Wow an awesome conference weekend for sure! I was so anxious to see who the new apostoles would be. They all seem so humble and ready to serve and that’s how I want to be! I watched it in English this time and wow was that different haha. I understand it in Spanish but it’s just not the same. I’m glad I can be here teaching the people so that they can hear the gospel and the voice of the prophets in their own language too :)

Well I’m now the teacher of English for the San Martin Stake! It’s super cool because every week I have the opportunity to teach like 20 misioneros English for an hour. Sometimes it’s hard and I’m not sure what to teach but just like any other teaching, if the spirit is there, they’re going to learn. It’s way fun haha.

I think my favorite talk was by Bradley D Foster. He talked about an interview that he had with un hermano. This hermano said that his dad raised him super well and came to him and said that he was his age once and probably knows how he feels. His dad knew what he was going to go through and if he ever had a problem, he could trust in his dad to help him, because he had already gone through it. It was a cool story and he told it better than I can haha. But it got me thinking more about Gods and Jesus` love for us. Jesus Christ literally suffered every pain that ever existed in the world. Every stress or sickness. Every frustration and every loneliness. And the reason he did it is so that we don’t have to. He loves us so much that he was willing to come down from the paradise of heaven and suffer the most horrible and unimaginable pain. And his Father, our Heavenly Father, was willing to sacrifice his only son and watch him be tortured and crucified because HE  LOVES  US. And that’s the only reason. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for either of them, and I don’t think that anyone will ever be able to imagine it. But what we can do to show our thanks for them both is obey. When we obey we show our love for God. The commandments aren’t here to restrict us. They’re here to protect us, yet another act of love from our Father in Heaven. I’m grateful for the commandments because they’re like a set of instructions that we can follow in order to have happiness in this life and a happy eternal family in the life to come. And the coolest thing right now is that I’m here sharing this message with people. So that they can have the same hope and faith :) this is seriously the coolest thing ever haha, I love the people here. 

Well this week was the best. We had 2 baptisms! One was the lady that let us pour her whiskey down the drain, and the other is a kid that contacted us in the street and wanted to learn about God. Both are awesome and I can see them being leaders super soon in the ward. 

We also found a guy that had a ton of Cuy! They cook these things and eat them haha. I still haven’t tried it yet but I will soon :) it’s like a guinea pig!

Also I decided to put in a picture of a typical plate of food here. You can’t see the food very well though. Its rice, chicken and potatoes. And of course inka kola. If you are ever going to come to Peru, preparate para comer esto. Pero lo chevere es que es bien rico. Entonces vale la pena.

I love you all. Thanks for all the prayers and support. I’m blessed with such awesome friends and family that always help me out. Write me! : D daniel.dahlin@myldsmail.net

Love Elder Dahlin

September 28 2015

So I realized that I haven’t been writing a whole lot in these email because I always do it last. This week I will do it first :)

Wow a lot has happened. Me and my companion are bros seriously. Elder Cabrera is awesome haha and he wants to work too! We both kind of got a little sick but eh, ya win some you lose some! 

These last few weeks have been pretty rough. There weren’t too many people that were progressing and it’s kinda hard to work with the members here. I think our patience was being tested so much. But we didn’t give up! We put our shoulder to the wheel and pushed along. Doing our duty with a heart full of song (but a song in Spanish :) haha. finally this week we had a huge number of investigators come to church and just by coming they were able to see the importance of baptism and they want to get baptized. After church we were waiting outside of a members house because an hermana was going to give us lunch, and one of the jovenes that came to church saw us and ran up to us and said hey I want go get baptized! haha we were like yeah I think we can arrange that.

Some days in the mission you walk all day long. Nobody wants to listen to you. Drunk people yell at you. People might throw water or beer at you or even spit on you. You get chased by dogs that probably have several diseases. It’s hot and you get your skin burned off by the sun. Or maybe you get sick and throw up! But then there are some days where people realize the importance of this short time that we have on earth. They realize that going to church, doing ordinances like baptism, praying, and reading the scriptures are more important than any other thing we could do in this life. And it’s true! There is literally nothing more important than going to church and strengthening our relationship with God. And going to the temple as much as we can. Because after this life, are we really going to be happy that we stayed home and watched football? Or maybe slept in a little bit? Some days people realize the importance of this and they come to church. They read and pray and they really discover who they are. Which is something that I’m slowly doing every day I think. They give you food. They want to get a copy of the Libro de Mormon. They want to get baptized. Something that I learned is something that my bro Andrew told me before the mission. Enjoy the bad days because they won’t last. And it’s so true. Every bad day that we have is a test of faith. And if we get frustrated and mad or discouraged, we fail the test. If we learn from the problem and try to solve it, we pass :) simple as that!

So we learned a lot of patience cause we have had some hard experiences here haha. But now we’re seeing the fruits of our labors and people are learning through the Holy Ghost. 

If you’re reading this right now and you’re not sure what I’m doing here as a missionary, read Alma 26 in the Book of Mormon. I’m an instrument here in Lima. And through the Holy Ghost that I can maybe help the people feel, the people can learn of Christ and how they can follow him. 

So we have been teaching Isabel for the longest time. She’s an investigator that lived in California for a long time. She always had the desire to be baptized but was afraid. Finally she agreed to have the baptismal interview and directly after she agreed to be baptized that same week! #PrayersAnswered. She’s awesome though for sure. We are planning some more baptisms really soon too. But I’ll keep you all updated on them haha.

Conference is already here!!! This is my 3rd conference since I’ve been on the mission. Wow! Only 1 more :( who will be the new apostoles? I’m super animado to see the new announcements in this conference. 

Well I hope you all have a good week and don’t forget the importance of the time that we have here. Its super short, and one day we`ll be glad that we tried our hardest instead of wasting our time :) Love you all!

Love Elder Dahlin

A super cool statue that we found that kind of looks like Joseph Smith haha

We are as the armies of Helaman!

Isabel

September 21 2015

A lot of people are asking if I got hit by a tsunami! I’m okay! Our mission didn’t get evacuated. Our president hasn’t even told us anything so I’m sure everything is okay :)

Wow not a lot of time but we had an awesome experience this week. We went to a sister’s house to teach her about the word of wisdom. She’s one of the progressing investigators that we have. She’s so willing to change and get baptized. When we ask her about her baptismal date she just says yeah I want to get baptized already! I don’t understand why it has to be so far away?! Haha she’s awesome. Anyway, we knew she drinks coffee and tea so we were kinda worried about how she would react. We get there and have an awesome lesson. The spirit really taught her the importance of the commandment. She accepted to live the word of wisdom and then we closed with a prayer. She wanted to give us some sandwiches and juice so we said it was okay haha. We offered to help her wash some plates so we could use them and she said it was alright. We went into her kitchen and she had a ton of tea! I was like hey hermana what’s this? And she’s like oh yeah throw that away it’s no good. So we put it in a little garbage bag. Then we found some coffee and we also put it in the bag to take with us and throw away. Then she was like hey is there anything else that I need to throw away? I looked around and saw a big bottle of vodka haha. I was like hey you should probably get rid of this. She kind of hesitated and then said ahhh this is from Argentine and was super expensive.. Ah whatever just throw it away and she just laughed it off haha. This is a true desire to change. I’m excited to see how she progresses.

What she taught me is that we should always be willing to throw away the garbage that we have in our lives. No matter how much we like it or how much it tempts us to stay. Just like the anti nefi lehitas, we need to burry our weapons of war deep in the earth. They were willing to die before using their weapons again. They were willing to die before sinning. I think that if we all live in this same way, we will be so much happier. 

Well. This week there is a chance of a transfer. I don’t know if it’ll happen but I’ll let you all know. I have 6 months here already so we will see. I do love training and I love my companion. And I’ll miss it so much haha but if its God's plan then I’ll go where he wants me to go :)

Have a good week!

Love Elder Dahlin

September 14 2015

Aloha a todos!

Another awesome week here in the mission. I don’t think there’s a week that goes by that we don’t learn something here in the mission. Well first of all, I COMPLETED A YEAR IN THE MISSION! I feel like in the last year I have learned more than my whole life put together haha. I’ve definitely gained a testimony of this church and have come to know that God loves me. I love helping other people find this knowledge too and there is nowhere else I would rather be. So I realized that I haven’t sent pictures in a few weeks so here are some of my favorite pictures that I have taken in the last month or so haha. There’s not a whole lot of time to write right now but the mission is seriously the best. I wish there was more time cause I could seriously be here all day and tell awesome stories from the mission. Every day we see miracles because of the priesthood and the will of God. There are people here that are so prepared and I’m stoked to be able to be here finding them and teaching them how to be baptized. Well I’m out of time haha but next week I’ll tell you all an awesome story #Cliffhanger.

I love you guys! Enjoy the pictures :)

Love Elder Dahlin

This is something that doesn't need a description. People just love us as missionaries. Even 3 year old girls haha. I'll definitely miss this after the mission..

We went to the temple this week!

My one year shirt!

They don't call me pondering Peter for nothing!

Before

BURNING MY SHIRT! During.

After. haha I almost died.