11/25/12

yo yo yo,

 

Thanks giving was good! there really wasnt much difference in the food however, at least not with the two meals i had. pretty much the same. Elder Whatcott and I were trying to find a football game but unfortunately out here, people only watch football. even though they are so huge into it, none of them play it, so lame.glad to hear you all had fun. we got pretty well taken care of. so what stage is grandma dalton in? idk anything about her.i'm glad you got to hang out with joanna a little for the baby shower. well played... haha. Mom Good luck with your surgery. i'm sure it will go well. Dude! i didnt know jay was having a boy! so dope. lucky! its gonna be cool having so many little weiners running around when i get back. i'm sure laura or someone will have a new one by the time i'm home haha. feel free to send me some pictures in the christmas box you'll be sending me. haha. speaking of which. i bought some boots and another special suprise that you'll get to see in my christmas card. but the total was around 150 if you'd like to make that my christmas gift! haha. mostly the boots would be nice. they were a little pricy. my shoes just werent cutting it though. idk what else you could really get me though to be honest. just a thought. Good times.anyways. missionary work.susan is planning on getting baptized this saturday or sunday! heck ya! shes awesome! i'm excited for her. she was so ready for when we got to her. but shes made some big changes. pretty cool. as for other work. its all potentials for now.we'll see if anything picks up. It's hard out here to get people to think haha. they all are aiming for Jesus, and they'll get him, but its hard to get them to see that they need to aim higher. this week has been a lot better with some things i've been learning, i've been able to focus better. I've heard back from jaron remington a couple times which is awesome. love that guy. well have an awesome week. love you all.

Elder Dalton

 

 Katie how the heck do you have unlimited everything? and how much do you pay for it?what the crap! good job on the water polo by the way. keep it up! dont forget though, youre a girl. so once the cap comes off you gotta go back to that. haha dont be a water polo player 24/7. To many girls didnt understand that played when i was in school ha. love you.

Tuesday 11/13/12

ello family,

well another eventful week, kinda. Amanda, the woman that we baptized is taking huge leaps now that shes baptized and has been definately becoming a brighter person with the love of christ in her heart. thats probably the coolest thing thats been happening this week. she's all excited about everything! haha its pretty sweet. much better than before her baptism. very cool. I havent figured out yet what i am supposed to learn from my experience with her yet but i'll let you know when i figure it out. all i know is that its fun to watch and to talk to her about the change thats come. when is the baby due for kristen? we share a car in our area so we have a bike every other week and a car every other week. my bike is currently broken however so we are walking. till tomorrow when we get the car back. we switch at the district meeting every wednesday. when it comes to voting i didnt get to cause i didnt have an absontee ballot but we are allowed to. pretty bummed how it turned out. everyone around here is pretty bummed too. people are pretty political out here. if they studied their religions as much as they watched fox news it would be a lot easier to teach them. instead they just listen to whatever their preachers say and thats it. they say they are saved by grace but it doesnt seem that their faith in Jesus Christ is worth much because most of them dont believe in revelation. its interesting how they think they can get answers to there prayers but not recieve revelation. its all take and take out here, not much give. pretty crazy. idk if that made sense. its just like the scriptures say. lots of religions counting on the interpretations of man instead of what the spirit can teach us. whatever. everything with our other investigators is moving along pretty smoothly. bumps but progression. there arent many who dont get a little taste of anti out here. but its all good. as long as they let us answer their questions it seems to turn out ok. studying is 100% my favorite thing out here even though its a little selfish. but really its for everyone so whatever haha. I have no idea what i could want for christmas. everything has to do with guns or music, out here. i could use an ipod player/ clock radio thing for our apartment. that would be nice. and if its full of josh groban and adrea boccili that would be good too. we have one of the josh groban cds though so make sure you ask which one before you buy any if you decide to do that. other than that there isnt much i could use. maybe some layrite palmade haha. if you could send me some money i could buy a gun and ship it home =) its a lot cheaper here for everything! and its legal to buy haha. anyways. idk much about the pictures i sent and the format. i just send them as they come. they worked for joanna so maybe you can see how that works. i wrote kenny a letter yesterday by the way. so he should be getting it by thursday or so. maybe longer. idk. its hard to write people when theres so much to do on mondays especially when we dont have a car. but its on the way for him.

Katie,

Nice work on the spanish test! alright water polo... something you have to figure out is the ability of each one of your teammates. so my advice throw it so your pass is always catchable but with speed. people gotta learn how to catch! but, adjust your speed to each player. in practice throw it fast enough that it pushes them to have to try harder and it will get them ready for a game situation. but keep it reasonable for them. a good player will make it so the team has to rise with them. but you gotta push them at a reasonable rate. thats all. idk how else to explain it. push them. but dont make them feel stupid. you play in a game how you practice. if your practices are fast your games will be better. speed speed speed. power. lobs are for sissies. thats cool that your friends are coming up to you. dont be scared to invite them to things. more will probably say yes than you think. keep up the good work.

Love you all, Elder Dalton

Monday 11/5/2012

howdy, i am in an apartment. its great not having to worry about anyone but yourself. haha. its nice to go home and not have to worry about being polite to someone. anyways. good luck with the extra missionaries haha. idk how we are going to be affected yet but i'm sure we will be getting a ton. the south needs it. everyone thinks we are going to hell. its to bad they dont know hell is before the judgement. here ive learned ignorance is ignorance. theres no bliss to it haha. its sad to see how closed off people are to truth because they are taught to fear it. if they would open there ears and eyes they would be much better off. ive realized that truth actually opens you up. its wierd, cause you'd think the more you know the more you would close off from learning about others religion. but i have no problem listening and trying to understand them. but people here refuse to try and understand us down here haha. its all good though. it makes it sweeter when we find people with a heart and a brain. make sure you dont hurt any of my stuff if you are moving haha. i dont have much to my name but whats left, i need for happiness, my surf boards especially. so be gentle. as for your missionary experience. if you pray for them itll happen, thats for sure. dont worry to much about it being perfect though. tell katie i got her letter in the mail by the way. so this parts for her. in math, if you struggle with the why. dont, just realize its how its done and it doesnt matter why as long as you get the right answer in the end. haha. find one way that works and dont try to learn all of the ways. spanish, practice writing words down. thats all you can do. write write write, dont look and write some more. thats what i did in anatomy.thats all i got for you. you should also see if joanna could help you out. shes good at spanish even though she acts like shes not haha. shes pretty busy but it would be worth a shot. get help. being sucky at school is just how it goes. find a way to deal with it. dont procrastinate. take good notes. enjoy waterpolo. release your aggression there so you can focus on your hw later. im thinking about playing when i get home, since i'll have more time hopefully cause i dont think i want to be a doctor anymore. but yeah thats what i got. glad youre liking dance. one more thing. if you think that schools not hard than its not. thoughts are the seeds of action. if you think its gonna be easy it will be. good luck haha love ya. back to everyone else/mom, we had our first baptism yesterday. pretty cool. amanda got baptized. that was nice. susan is still a working progress, shes awesome though. its fun to see her progress. we had a way cool experience this last week with her that i dont feel like typing but it was dope. the spirit was super strong. have a good week. love you.

Dad,

sucks being fat huh? haha im feelin it too. the food is killing me here. i havent gained a lot of weight but i am definately slower. and thats with working out. why does elder smart want them seen? just to say hi or cause they are inactive. its not my area but its in my district. i'll ask the other missionaries about them. as for being watched. amen brother. people are like hawks. our ward likes us but there is a way high standard for everything. people think we are the fix it crew too. not so but we help where we can. theres a little hipocracy if you ask me. as i understand it. at baptism we all become representatives of Christ. but i get what youre saying haha. anyways. i'm working on figuring out the balance of a follower of Christ. all in due time hopefully. have a good week. love ya

Tuesday 10/28/2012

Good to hear you got a job either way right now. Don't be scared to ask for a raise haha. Glad the truck is running I figured it was the battery. This week was pretty good, Sunday we had 3 of 5 investigators show up, one that wasn't there had a good excuse and is solid though. Our first baptism is this Sunday, her names Amanda, middle aged lady, real cool. So that's exciting. She was pretty prepared when we got to her, she has a friend in our ward that introduced us to her. Sweet. Anyways not much else new this week, same old stuff. Mostly teaching investigators which is nice. Most of them are moving right along, they mostly have baptismal dates but I don't want to count on them to much with how much crap we see going on with a lot of them, Satan is such a you know what. Haha  Good luck on your surgery mom, it's time to get that fixed ha, I'm doing pretty good at getting cleaner. The dishes are done right now and we aren't even home haha, trying to stick to the rule that dad talked about with the dishes. It's easier for me to focus when I study when the place is clean. I even make my bed and fold my laundry haha. So it's good. As for connors question, I haven't got to use the technique cause everyone is white where I am haha, total bummer. Have a good week people!

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