Dan's Christmas Song

We had a great skype conversation with Elder Dahlin on Christmas Day. His companion talked to us for a little too. Here is a video of them singing Silent Night to us in Spanish!

Pictures posted of Daniel by friends on Christmas Eve

These pictures of Dan and his companion were posted by Viviana Heredia Alejos on Christmas Eve.

Linda tarde con mis amix los elderes

Gracias chikos x regalar smi familia felicidad

Feliz navidad elderes los queremos

Dec 22 2014

Feliz Navidad!!

Wow this week has been so amazing. The people here Love Jesus haha. There is no other way to put it. Also, they love their food. Let me tell you. I’ve never been this fat in my life haha. I’ve accepted the fact that this month I’m going to gain hecka wait. But January I’ll lose it. It’s worth gaining the weight, because I only have 2 years to enjoy this food haha and its SOOO good.

Anyway, this week I saw a video, in Spanish it’s called Gracias a el. it’s probably Thanks to Him in English. Anyway, it really put into perspective how important he savior is in our lives. I encourage you all to watch it :) also, the video el es la davida. Haha it’s on lds.org. It should be something like He is the Gift in English. Watch these 2 videos and you will feel the spirit. I promise.

This week has been good! Besides the heat and the getting fat, we have had a lot of experiences. We ate lunch with a member on Sunday like we always do, and on our way out, we saw a guy scraping the paint off of the wall so that he could paint it later. Elder Flores and I stopped and talked to him for a while. We ended up putting normal shirts over our missionary clothes and scraping paint off the wall with him for the next 2 hours. By the end of our visit, he and his wife both said that they want to get baptized. It’s amazing what service can do. We should always look for ways to serve others. Just imagine it as if the person you’re serving is Jesus Christ. Would you pass up the opportunity?

Surprise!! This week we also went to the temple!! Dang was it nice to go to the temple. I’ll never be able to describe the feelings I get there. Peace, happiness, love. It’s truly indescribable.

Well, I want to wish all of you a Feliz Navidad. It’s so important for us to remember the real meaning of Christmas at this time of year. Jesus Christ died for us. He has paid the price for all of our sins. And we should do all we can to remember him and his birth at this time of the year. I’m so grateful for this holiday and for the opportunity that we have to remember him. Being on the mission really has helped me to focus on the true meaning of this holiday. I’m grateful for Jesus Christ. Especially in this time of year. He did something that nobody in the history of the world could have ever done. And I will be forever grateful for him. 

I’m stoked to talk to my family on Christmas!! I want you guys to know that I’m so grateful that we can be together forever. Being here teaching about families and how they can be together forever really makes me realize how lucky I am that I have this opportunity and this blessing too. I love you guys more than I can express. And I’m so excited to talk to you on Christmas day.

Thanks everyone for all of the support! And I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Try to focus a little more on the true meaning this year, and I promise you’ll be happier than if you hadn’t.

Love you all! 

Love, Elder Dahlin

Also, huge shout out to mi Hermano Elder Jenkins!! Happy big 19!! I’m stoked to have so many friends so close to me in the mission.

ALSO!! Congrats Hermana Bergeson!!! LIMA EAST!! I’ll have to let you know about all the secrets at the Lima MTC. I’m so excited for you! 

Here are a few pictures from the temple this week. Enjoy these pictures. Included are some pictures of the beautiful, castle-like Lima Peru Templo. And a selfie with my boy Moroni.

Feliz Navidad!!

Elder Dahlin

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!!

Dec 8 2014

Hola de Lima Peru,

Elder Dahlin here. Another week in paradise. I know everyone always says this, but there is nothing like the mission. And I can’t describe it either. It’s just feeling the spirit all day everyday nonstop. I love it. It’s like EFY. At EFY we feel the spirit all day long right? This is like EFY, but for 104 weeks straight. And we feel the spirit on a whole new level. I love it so much.

This week I got better. It was almost like a miracle. I went to bed feeling sick, and woke up feeling as if nothing had ever happened. So thank you for all of the prayers. 

I can’t believe how close Christmas already is!! It’s so different here because its Christmas time, it’s like the middle of December, and its blazing hot. I’m used to the cold and wearing sweatshirts and sweats, but here I’m sweating to death nonstop haha. Gosh I love Peru. At times it’s so hard. Missionary work is so hard. But it’s so worth it. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it. I love this mission and there is nothing else that I would rather be doing. I’m excited to see where my friends are going to get called to. I know Brynn Bergeson just turned in her papers, and Caleb Clement is also turning his in. I can’t wait to hear about it!! Let me know when you guys find out okay?

This week we had a little service activity and ill add some pictures of it with this email. We had to move a couch to the top story of this building. But all of the doors inside the house are super small. Like my shoulders don’t even fit if I try to walk through normally. So we moved the couch outside because the door to outside is a little bigger. And tied ropes to it and hoisted the couches up the side of the house with ropes haha. It was so much fun. Service can be fun. We have to just look at the bright side of things in this life. Yeah things are hard sometimes, but there’s always a lesson to learn. From every experience there’s a lesson to be learned. 

Oh!! This week I’ve learned of a new blessing that comes from missionary work. Mom don’t get scared from this story haha. So yesterday we went to pick up a family for church. They’re less active and we are trying to get them into the habit of coming to church. We were outside waiting and talking when this drunk guy starts walking towards us. We step aside and give him a bunch of space. And he turns towards me and starts walking, stumbling, towards me. I’m like what the heck!! So I was just like hola hermano! Hay algo que yo puedo ayudayle? I just asked him if there’s anything that I can help him with, and he didn’t say anything. Then all of the sudden he swung at me! At my face. I like kicked into spider reflex mode and dodged it, and after that he walked away. Haha this might sound cheesy but whatever. I know that I’m being watched over. I wasn’t in any real danger, and if I was I would have been told by the spirit to get out of there. I know that everything that I experience is for my testimony and for my learning. And if I listen to the spirit I will be protected. I love the spirit and the guidance that I can receive on my mission.

So the video that I tried to send isn’t working. I don’t know why :( but I’ll try to figure it out next week haha. I love you all! Always remember Jesus. Especially at this time of year. We’ve been given so many blessings, all from our Heavenly Father, and if we can remember Heavenly Father and Jesus at this time of the year, we will all be a little happier :) I testify of this. And of the importance of prayer and being receptive to the spirit. I know that we can receive guidance and answers to our prayers. I have seen answers. I have seen lives change even in the short 3 months that I’ve been here. I love the church. I know it’s true. I love this work and I know that I’m here for a reason. En el nombre de mi Salvador, Jesucristo, Amen.

Elder Dahlin, over and out.

Dec 1 2014

Family and Friends,

This week has been interesting to say the least haha. I’m not gonna lie, this has been one of the worst weeks of my life. I’ve been super sick since Thursday morning at 2 am. But I’m getting better. This week I was able to give my first, and second priesthood blessing! I’ve done the anointing before but this week was the first time I ever gave the actual blessing. My companion was super sick. He could barely walk. I thought I was going to have to carry him up the stairs to our apartment. But it was all good haha. He was lying in bed and asked for a blessing. I gave him a blessing and he went to sleep. The next day he said he felt better and by noon the next day he was laughing and singing like normal. The priesthood is powerful. I also have received a priesthood blessing so that I can get better, and I’m getting better too. I know the priesthood is real and that it has been restored back to the earth. It’s so powerful and through this power we can help others. Not only to heal them but to perform ordinances. Crazy.

This week I was thinking about the atonement. In the scriptures it says that Jesus took all the sicknesses and pains of the world upon himself during the atonement in the garden of Gethsemane. I was thinking about this this week. He died and he took the sicknesses of the world upon himself, so that I can pray and ask to feel better. And when I end up feeling better, it’s because he took away my sickness and my pain in the garden. Something to think about.

This week we had our first baptism!! Her name is Carmen and she is so excited about the gospel. I was able to get in the water with her and baptize her. It was such an amazing experience. I’ve never baptized anyone before!! It was so amazing to see her face when she got out of the water. She was so happy. So pure and clean. Haha it was funny because she was afraid of the water. It was soooo cold though so I don’t blame her. But it was so good. A day that I’ll never forget. It’s crazy to think about how fast the time is going. Tomorrow is the end of my first transfer! I think I’m going to get a new companion because mine has been here for 6 months. That’ll be bittersweet.. haha. But we’ll see!

I’m excited to find and teach more people. And bring more of my brothers and sisters back to Heavenly Father. I love my mission. And even though this week wasn’t the best week of my life, I’m grateful for it. I’ve learned that bad days are absolutely necessary in this life. We need bad days so that we can appreciate the good ones! So if you’re having a bad day, learn to love it, because better days are ahead. There always are better days ahead. And pray! Prayer works. I’m a witness that prayer works, and it always will. As long as we are humble and have a true intent.

Well I’m out of time! I hope you have a good week!!

Love Elder Dahlin

Ps. I have a video of me saying what I’m grateful for!! For this thanksgiving season. But I don’t have time so next week I’ll send it.