Transfer 2

This week has been crazy!!  I've been with Elder Carruth since Tuesday, and since he's the only zone leader in this zone, he's been stressin SO MUCH.  Tuesday and Wednesday his phone was going off non-stop-- and half of it was about transfer stuff for this week.  He's got a full plate this next 6 weeks- but he can do it!!

So I'm going back to 1st ward, my new comp will be Elder Dunn, I'll be junior comp (cue the sigh of relief) and I'll meet him tomorrow, and it's going to be great!  We're gonna burn downtown El Paso with the Spirit!!

I've learned a ton this last week, having been in two different areas for the majority of it, and having three different comps in that same time period, but it's been awesome!!  This area here is utterly and completely NOT downtown El Paso, like I've gotten used to (we would even joke that there was enough gum on the streets that it was like a foot massage [the sad part was, is that I actually thought that for a while] ;).  This area is the rich area, and we've actually been able to knock some doors and see some epic Christmas lights and have some hilarious stories.  For example, on Friday we were fed dinner (left over Thanksgiving, no surprise there) and were given plastic utensils to use.  Why is that significant??  Because in the middle of eating I broke my fork into a trident about 1/4 of the way done eating.  The best part- the family didn't even notice, so I just kept eating.  When I was done, I even organized my plate and fork so that from a distance it didn't look like my fork was broken.  XD  Way too much fun.

This is the second time that I've come into a new area and been able to see someone be baptized.  And there's another one this Saturday, where the lady is getting married and right after the wedding is her own baptism- which I'm kinda mad that I won't be here for.  That's ok, I've got 1st ward's area to go find people to baptize and bring closer to God!!  

Thanksgiving was weekly planning day, and I was still in training, so we got to spend 6 hours inside studying, practicing and planning.  It was good, and fun, and we went to the gas station, and I caved and bought something to keep me awake, it wasn't expensive, but I'll send a picture next week (I don't have my camera cord to send pictures, it's back in the 1st ward apartment still).  We did get fed a full Thanksgiving dinner, but they didn't have pumpkin pie, so it was incomplete till the next night, where I broke my fork and got to have pumpkin pie with a trident.

This year the Christmas initiative that the Church is putting on is #LightTheWorld    It's a great video, and I would encourage all of you to do those 25 days of service. Some of you are just thinking, "25 days of service?? Ain't nobody got time for that." or "I don't want to do 25 days of service."    Well.  Put your big boy boots on and just do it.  

D&C 128:22

Alma 5:26 (this is the Throw-down Scripture of the month)

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!!

--

Elder Eli James Dial

Thanksgiving

This is the most epic story of my life!!

To start off, those baptism picks were of the 10 year old that wanted to be baptized (sent from her mom's phone).  Her name is Jaylynn.  We found her when Elder Proctor was having a bad day- he wasn't sure if something he did was right, (no details, for now) and we were walking to our dinner appointment, (we were only slightly lost- we didn't know how to get to the street they lived on) but then Bishop pulls up and says, "Hey, Elders!  You won't believe who I just talked to!"  He had just visited a family who just moved in-- Rosie, with her daughter, Erika, and Erika's daughter, Jaylynn.  They were less active in their old ward- didn't like the people, or the ward wasn't welcoming or something- and came to 1st ward and loved it!!  So they started coming back to church, and Jaylynn wanted to be baptized!  So we teach her the first lesson put her on date for the 19th, and they start becoming active again- Those three, Jaylynn's younger brother, Ryan, who's 5; Sonya, Erika's sister, who also went less active and married a non-member.  Now, the primary program was last Sunday, the 13th right?  Before that, Erika told us that she had been having dreams of Jaylynn being surrounded by snakes, that she (Erika) was trying to keep away from her, while Ryan was sitting safely in a car a short distance away.  DO YOU SEE THAT SYMBOLISM???  We found out why (or, more specifically, why I think so) at the primary program-- So, those people (the family) went to it, including the non-member husband, I think.  Not only that, Erika's only brother went to it also.  You're probably saying, "Elder Dial, that's not a miracle."  but get this-- the guy is anti. He doesn't want anything to do with the church; he even said that he'd never step foot in a mormon church ever again.  But we found out that he went to it for Jaylynn. He said that he felt he needed to because of Jaylynn.  We haven't seen anything else come out of it, but it was awesome!!  :)  :)  :)

I did get Grandma D's email, and her letter/ picture of Christ this last week, so we're good! (and mom's halloween package with the two books and the journal [which is so epic, thanks!])

I have no idea what my Thanksgiving plans are, as I am going to a different area for the week-  there's an elder on the East side who's companion is also going home this week, and I get to go over there for the week because he's a zone leader (and has to be there for zone training), but he's in Albuquerque till tomorrow, so that's when I go over there.  So as of right now I'm chillin with the Fort Bliss Elders, Elder Hill and Elder Hancey, who will be taking over this area until transfers next week.  (we found all this out last Monday at 7pm, that's why I couldn't tell you until then :)

Zone conference was awesome, there were 4 zones there, so about 50-60 missionaries, and no, I did not have to give another talk, but the Chamizal zone (that's my zone)  sang a musical number-  ukulele version of "Called to Serve"  that's pretty epic, I'll send a video of it if/when I get a copy of it (I didn't think of recording it myself till we were in the middle of singing it, sorry).  But yeah, it was awesomely epic.

If I haven't embraced the fact that I'm awkward, I sure have now.  Enough said.

I'm just going to end this with a quote or two, (I don't know who they're by) "Wherever you are, BE THERE."

"Where e're thou art, act well thy part"

"... see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength..." (D&C 4:2)

That last one, you think you know what it means, but you don't.  You won't know what it means till you've tried it, and only in hindsight will you realize what it really means, and that you did it for a time.  Be highly motivated and truly dedicated to the work- whatever that work is for you, delve into it! (unless it's stupid, then don't)  

Throw yourself into the work because "Life's not a spectator sport.  If watching is all you're gonna do, you're gonna watch your life go by without you!"  

"For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves"

You're not alone-- just like agents have resources and someone who knows what we're up against, we do too!! Christ knows what we're up against, and he gave us these resources (the scriptures, priesthood leaders, even music) to help us "withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."  

Keep the faith, Press forward, never give up, never surrender!!  :)

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!

--

Elder Eli James Dial

Everything's bigger in Texas

Happy Birthday, Nate!!  

(No, Sarah, I did not need that reminder, I already knew :)

So, after the election and all that, the work has been a little harder- people accusing us of voting for this person, people just all out ignoring us (more than usual) or giving us death glares when we say hi, and we've heard/seen a couple protests about it-- surprise, surprise.  As I've heard it said in the last couple days, "From the land of the free and the home of the brave to the land of the entitled and home of the offended."  

Anyways, you know the guy from last week, the "Reverend Veteran"?  HE FOUND ME AGAIN.  This time I (Elder Proctor was 3 seats in front of me on the bus) only got 20 minutes of being told that Joseph Smith didn't see an angel, and how he saw the devil disguised as an angel of light.  He told me how Republican means "repentant sinner" and how back in 2000 God told him to only vote Republican.  He tried to teach me the law of chastity, told me to get married, and then proceeded to try and hook me up ON THE SPOT.  He literally turned to the girl in front of him, started talking in rapid Spanish, and all I understood was "Hermano Dial" and I'm pretty sure that he forced her to say hi to me.  Let's just say that I'm glad I didn't have anything lethal on me.  XD

Transfers happen the week after Thanksgiving, but Elder Proctor is going up to Albuquerque on Sunday, (we think, we still have no idea and we'll probably find out Friday)  so I don't know what's gonna happen to me during that week and a half, but everything will work out.

So in the last week the weather has dropped down to 75 being the high, and I'm loving it. Elder Proctor is freezing some days, and I just wish I could lay down on the only grass El Paso has, and chill.  But no, the work must go on, so I'll just have to wait till 2018 for that to happen.  

Along with that weather change, I've got my seasonal cough that I get. And I'm beginning to think that my body was meant for Texas-it just goes big or it goes home-  because I woke up yesterday with what we think is flipping pink-eye.  FLIPPING PINK EYE.  Last time I had pink eye I had bronchitis, too, so... I'm only slightly worried.  A senior couple that's serving in the ward bought us cough drops on Saturday, (which helped a TON)- and as for the pink eye- I got a blessing yesterday, and 15 minutes later we were at our dinner appointment, where they gave me some cold medicine, soup, and crackers to take home.  We go to our next appointment with Jaylynn, and her grandma lives with them, and she pulls out eye drops- one kind for pain, and the other for pink eye- and boom! Everything is going better!  If I get sick while here, there's no worries, cause there's like 6 people in the medical field here, including and ER doctor- Bro Root, so I'm set. XD

This is kinda random, but there's a burrito place here in El Paso, where the burrito is about... 18 inches long... you think I'm joking, but it's flipping MASSIVE.  I'll send a pic next time we get it. As far as food goes, I've had what Elder Proctor and I have been calling "man salad" or discada-- where there's a mosh pit between hamburger, hot dog, bacon, and sausage-- with chips.  

The primary program was yesterday, and it was awesome!!  There's a deaf sister in the ward, so the primary learned a song with sign language for her, and even though it was rough, it was sweet to feel the spirit that the children have, and the love the ward has for them!!

Remember-- "Be-e-e yourself"

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!

--

Elder Eli James Dial

It's been a BASH-- I mean DASHING week XD

Happy Birthday Tyrell!

"Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles..."

So, first off, before I get going, Halloween was rough.  It was just another P-day, and just another proselyting day, except that we weren't allowed to knock doors at all that day-it was supposed to be appointments, but nobody wanted us over because it was Halloween and trick-or-treaters and all that.  So we had basically nothing to do, so it was about 730 when we text a recent convert of ours, Will, if we can go for a visit at 8.  We end up meeting with him, they (him and his wife) decide to feed us dinner (because we hadn't had a member sign up, and we hadn't had it yet) and it's time to share a message with them.  But he has this friend there who moved in with them and is starting to make them less-active (no bueno), who's kinda a bum about religion-- he mentioned mountain meadows massacre to us and that should tell you enough about him.  He would sit in with us with the lessons we had with Will, so he would listen and all that, but wasn't really actively participating or anything.  During that visit we had with them, he had actually left to go buy alcohol, and he brought it back (while we were still there).  Anyways, so Elder Proctor has a tendency to throw me under the bus, so we're sitting in that awkward silence after dinner, and Elder Proctor just says, "Well, Elder Dial has a message for you."  I'm used to this happening, and usually I'm good at whipping out a scripture and applying it to their needs, but I was completely lost on this one.  So, I grab my scriptures, and I say a prayer that I could share the scripture that they needed, then I open my scriptures without opening my eyes, and it opens to Enos.  I think to myself, "nah, my thumb was just on the tab" or even, "that's just where it always opens up in my quad" (both of which were true) so I close my eyes and my quad and I move my thumb up and down and around, and I do it again-- still Enos. Then I was staring down verse 6.  I knew this was no coincidence so I just jump in and share it.  And while I'm sharing it, I realize, that the friend that was there (don't know his name), I was basically calling him to repentance, but it was not directly.  So I feel like I'm dying inside, that he's not going to like what I'm saying, but after I was done, he comes over, sits at the table, and opens right on up.  This stubborn man just starts asking questions, and confessing sins (basically) and we just start teaching him the Plan of Salvation- which answered all of his questions.  It was awesome- but we haven't been able to meet with them since.

Now for the actual bashing part--  so I went on exchanges twice this week- one with the Fort Bliss Elders, and the other with the Zone Leaders, so I had 2 whole days of being in charge of the area- first with Elder Hancey, then with Elder Jones (Spanish missionary).  So, one guy when I was with Elder Jones, in Spanish told us that he used to be a member of the church but that he started to doubt when Spencer W Kimball did a stake thing and everyone was told not to record anything.  We compared that to Christ, and how after a miracle was performed He told people not to tell anyone, and the guy stopped talking about that.  He then tried to tell us that Melchizedek (the guy who Abraham paid his tithing to) was Jesus, because Melchizedek was king of Salem, and Salem means peace, and how in Hebrews 7:1-3 Melchizedek didn't have a father or mother, but was like unto the Son of God, so that means that they're the same person so on and so forth.  So we moved on.

 The next day we met a guy who asked meaningless questions, so when we couldn't answer them he told us that we should talk to the "Jehovah's Witnesses, cause they know what they're talking about"  XD

Later that day was the third guy- who called himself the "Reverend Veteran" and was on the bus with us-- so I got a whole 30 minutes of being told I (I say I because Elder Proctor wasn't going to take any of that so he started acting asleep) was wrong, how every church is hypocritical, there won't be a World War III but there will be an American Civil War, and that Christ won't come till after 3000 AD.  He tried to trick us into saying a Catholic Prayer, but when we didn't he said that we worship Satan, and we just didn't say anything because he was talking THE WHOLE TIME. The only 2 times he was silent were when he stopped mid-sentence to say a prayer for all the people on the bus, and when he had me read Exodus 19- (I didn't actually read it, I stared at the page for as long as I could before he started talking again [I managed to get 5 minutes]).  I started to think that God was giving him power or something, cause someone's gotta have God's power in order to say that many words without taking a breath and keep it going for that long. I mean, JEEZ.  ;)

Anyways, we got 3 new investigators this week, 2 of them on date to be baptized, (they came to church yesterday and they're going to a family home evening tonight, woot woot!!)

This video is the rainstorm/hailstorm that hit us- it was raining like this for about 30 minutes, and we were at the bus station so we had to run to our car... let's just say that if you think the streets flood there, you're wrong.  I didn't get a video or a picture of how bad it was, but that was nothing.  We were driving up a hill (when we say hill, we mean that last mile of hiking to Table Rock, the hills by Grandpa D's house, or the hills to get to Jameston (by the South Stake Center in Shelley)  and it was flooding so bad that streams going down the hill were reaching about halfway across the road-- whole intersections vanished.  Needless to say, IT WAS AWESOME.

This week has been super eventful, and there is work to be done!  I've never hated the first 20 minutes of the day more than I do now, it's never been harder to stay awake when I'm riding the bus, but I've never loved talking to people... until now!-ish. It's still a work in progress. ;)

The gospel's true, study it like it's your last day on earth and like you've never studied it before!  Take time to understand what you're reading, otherwise it's just like schoolwork-- in one ear and out the other!!
Actually take time to prepare for the sacrament, and leave church each week with something you're going to improve on!

Christmas is just around the corner, so you'd best be getting ready to go CAROLING, cause that's what I'm gonna be doing (with just my companion, so I actually have to sing)!  So just remember, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!"  So start practicing now!! ;)

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial

Halloween Edition

Happy birthday yesterday Sarah!  Hope it wasn't as stressful as it sounds this week was!

Pictures--  that's me, going all out Kronk (I didn't do the theme music, I was in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood) from "The Emperor's New Groove"  on the Mexican border.  Sorry it's not that good of quality, Elder Proctor didn't feel like zooming in or anything, so that's how it was.

That second one is from the bus.  I got on, I sit down in a seat, and that's what I was staring at.  So what did I do?  I took that sticker off and it now resides in my journal, cause I couldn't stop laughing.  Besides, it probably shouldn't have been there and I was saving people from the temptation. ;)

This week- Stephanie is still gone, we have no idea where she is, the family that we had been meeting with had cancelled every lesson that we were supposed to have with them last week, and we have a new 10 year-old investigator that is on date to be baptized November 19.  We're gonna see if we can move it to the 12th, cause she's super ready, loves primary (been to church multiple times already) and wants to be baptized, so we'll find out if she wants to.   But yeah, there's been good and bad this week, but we just gotta keep on keepin on. ;)

Happy Halloween!  It doesn't feel like Halloween to me, as it's still around 90 degrees- the ward parties this ward has are outside, and are planned to be outside for all of November, I think, so I don't know if it'll ever feel like Christmas or anything to me so time just goes on, I guess.

Someone tell Levi that Elder Hancey is in my district and is one of the elders who opened up the Fort Bliss ward, and that he's doing awesome!

Thanks Aunt Janice for the package- the M&M's are basically all gone already... I think there are 3 packets left...  (don't worry I shared)

Zone training was last Friday, where we found out that zone conferences, which used to be held every quarter- once every three months- is now going to happen every transfer, along with personal interviews with President, which are this week.  

I've been learning some Spanish so that I can talk to more people- cause most of them try to act like they don't speak English, but that's not gonna work no more!

Quote for the week:  "The world works from the outside in.  The Lord works from the inside out.  The world would take people out of the slums.  The Lord takes the slums out of people and they take themselves out of the slums.... Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world."                                       

-(don't know who, I can let you know next week)

  

Alma 60:23

Matthew 7:3-5

Keep the faith, don't forget who you are, and don't stop applying the Atonement in your lives!  Use it every day, and encourage others to do the same!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial