Tuesday October 23, 2012

hello, i'm fusing your letter this time so i dont have to think so much haha.

So, we had 5 investigators in church this week! pretty sweet 3 of which are progressing right along. we have baptisms for all of them planned but one said she wants to change hers so her and her husband can be baptised at the same time. problem is that he is super hard headed and has only shown slight signs. i think that means that she thinks it will be soon if we play it right. idk though. she was very prepared but idk about him. its gonna take some faith and revelation thats for sure. but she is pretty much all in other than that. Any suggestions for if he doesnt come around? cause we dont want her to be shaken by it if so. The greatest commandment is love the Lord thy God, and the second like unto it is love thy neighbor as thyself! if you arent loving others you are denying Christ,  rejoice when people get to church. when we got baptised we covenanted to morn with those that morn and stand with those that stand in need of comfort. everyone needs comfort it turns out. I got to speak in church this week. i spoke on obedience and puting on the armor of God. I only got through the breast plate and girding up our loins. but my main point was interstingly enough, that as the breastplate protects the heart, for Heavenly Father to protect our hearts we have to have a heart worth protecting. one thats filled with love. there is a crap load you can take out of D&C 27: 15-18. my point was that if you dont have love stop thinking about yourself pretty much. my spiritual thought of the week though was about if the world was being like moroni hell would shake and satan would tremble with no power, Alma 48:17. (I used this in my talk) So part of that thought was, Why is Hell not shaking and why does satan have power, he has no glory, he only has the power we give him. and if there is a mansion in heaven waiting for us there is a pit in hell that satan has prepared. so pretty much, though you cant make all of hell shake at once, start by shaking the spot that satan has for you and give him no power.... that was kinda the jist of it. it went pretty good i think. it didnt seem like anyone hated me after so that was good haha. anyways, last week was pretty good. we had some pretty good food. especially friday! woo eee! Steak, pasta, other stuff! so good. i dont remember what else i was going to write about. i guess thats good enough for now. we didnt get to write yesterday thats why its tuesday. everything is good with me and elder whatcott too. last week was kinda slow on the finding side but things went very well with our investigators. its fun to watch the spirit work and see people become happier and excited about the gospel. pretty rad. feels good, real good. Hi mom, Love you. glad the picture makes you happy. I told janae a name for the seed but you can ask her about it. crazy how everyones having babies. tell katie if she is pregnant before i get home there will be death in the family haha. i know shes a good girl though cause she loves to live. connor same goes for you, gotta go,  love you all, Elder Dalton

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

 

Hey familia,

Glad to hear your YW thing went well momma. I just looked at the blog, it needs some excitement haha. i Tried to send you pictures like 2 weeks ago but i forgot it didnt work so i'll have to send them again. i got more too. anyways. The food here is pretty good for the most part. i havent really got to get much of the southern food though. I've only had fried chicken and gumbo. oh! and deer steak and hamburgers haha. it was pretty good actually. everyone here hunts, i'm pretty jealous. but yeah we get fed maybe 4 nights a week which isnt to bad. we can usually find someone to feed us if we dont have a planned meal. the memebers are pretty cool. they just dont like planning ahead haha. until i was on a mission i didnt like it either though. now i kinda depend on it. so wierd. Anywho, Things are going pretty good out here. we have 2 baptismal dates that should hopefully go through as long as we do our part. the 2 people were clearly super prepared and just another witness of people looking for truth and not knowing where to find it. its really cool too when the see the miracle of us showing up at just the right time. not everyone sees that. sometimes its like hey, youre looking for truth? Hi i'm Elder Dalton and this is Elder Whatcott! that doesnt always work though haha. people are pretty blind out here. you can explain something clear as day but if their pastor says otherwise logic doesnt exist. pretty awesome. we are trying to learn how to astonish people but we havent perfected it yet clearly. we had a Seventy come talk to us yesterday though for a zone conference. Elder Nash. he actually spoke at conference too. I asked him how to astonish people cause we all got to write questions on the board for him to answer. it was pretty sweet. so hopefully we can apply it well. its crazy how leaders of the church have disernment like they do. as we all shook his hand he would just stare into each of our eyes and read our souls haha. i actually asked him afterward what he saw and he told me that i have great potential but i need to stay humble. haha. imagine that huh? luckily i've been working really hard at doing that and staying focused on the fact that this is not my work and that its God's and i cant do it my way. Hopefully i can keep the attitude i've had cause i've liked being this way. feels like home in a wierd way. I havent focused this much on what Christ would do in awhile and i've missed the feeling of joy that comes from it. its great. That was actually the best part of Elder Nash speaking to us. He talked about the atonement and people longing for what it can do for them. and how it will allow us to love them and it be sincere. it reminded me of all the love that Heavenly Father has shown me and how I have been Consumed by Christ atonement and Love before and i should feel like that all the time. I havent felt the spirit that strong in awhile. it felt really good. I wont tell you i was a little emotional too. Sometimes its hard to really feel the spirit around us, just because, i assume its cause its always with us, but it felt good to really know he was there yesterday. It's very sweet. Anyways, i'll send some pictures when i have my camera with me. hopefully soon. Tell the mcalpins I Say HUGE THANK YOU. And also the Downeys. I really appreciate it. You dont have to put all my letters on the blog by the way haha.

POPs,

Hey father, Glad to hear you made it with the opening. i'm not gonna lie, i try to pray for your job situation even though i dont want to live in oregon, i guess i really dont have too though haha, but i've prayed that you will get a job that reflects how hard you have worked for your whole life so you can enjoy it a little haha. so hopefully that helps you out. no promises though. I would love to shoot some quail right about now. or anything for that matter. Glad to hear all is going good.

Katie. I dont remember what you wrote in the letter that didnt get sent on time but good job haha. Oh yeah. School is more important then water polo so learn a crap load. i know it sucks haha. but in water polo remember. kill kill kill. lob shots are for sissies. miss ya girly. I know i was a jerk of a brother sometimes, but i love you a lot.

Connor you da man. do more. haha i miss you a ton too.

Love you all, Elder Dalton

Weekly Letter #3

October 1, 2012

Thanks for the addresses, much appreciated. idk what i want to hear haha. get creative. this one was much better than the last one. so thank you. haha. i havent been given a focus at all as to how to become a missionary or anything by my president.hes very hands off kinda like, youre on a mission heres some advice. regret it forever or have a good mission. haha. so idk what to do really. but i'm figuring it out. this week has been pretty good. we share a car every other week so this week was bike week. it rained the last 3 days so it has hindered our effectiveness. but the ward members are pretty helpful with rides and stuff. we have a pretty good ward all and all. good news! the lady from the airport called and asked for a book of mormon! she also gave us her address and wants me to email her about stuff. super cool. we have some investigators at the moment that are progressing. 2 that i helped find or whatever. so thats cool. we have a bunch of potentials which is good too. me and elder whatcott are trying to fill our time and make it productive. i am trying to gage how much work is hard work though, without burning myself out. this is supposed to be the hardest thing ever but i'm not feeling it yet haha, im sure itll come though. im not holding my breathe. Me and Elder whatcott are starting to get on the same page with work and stuff which is cool. i can see some spark going on which is cool.cool what a good attitude can do. i can tell he is more focused and trying a lot harder then when i came. pretty sweet. we dont focus a whole bunch on inactives but we try to see a couple a week. its hard to find the balance of it cause everyones kinda far away so we dont want to use all our time biking or driving. but we are figuring it out. there are 6 kids in his family.hes from utah. and all that. im on a members computer and they need it so thats good for now. glad youre getting more confident mom. good job. its cool to know you did the right thing, such a good feeling that comes. even if it didnt do anything big. it just feels good to listen haha. as for rules, they are all important. but the bendable ones are probably some music. not super flexible but a little. idk what else really though. have a good week, love you all

katie lynn,

Idk what i really want to hear so just be creative. haha, hows polo, what song did you dance too? thats pretty sweet. i wish i did hip hop in highscool. do as much crap as you can in highschool haha love ya

hey pops,

Idk those people but we are in the same stake probably, cause monroe is in our district, when did they move out here? hope the job search is going good. cant say that i want to go home to oregon but whatever haha. my truck is not insured anymore. and verizon shouldnt be sending you anybills. i can pay them online either way so no worries. my phone is frozen so it shouldnt be a problem. idk if it has gas or not. probably not haha. but you might just want to charge the battery, cause i think it sucks up energy. idk why else it wouldnt start. the battery tends to be the issue though. make sure you teach connor how to hometeach correctly cause no one knows how aparently haha. i know we werent 100% all the time but somehow i got the point. have a good week. love ya