I don't know about you, but I MAY be feeling 22 (ooo-ooo)

I hope you all have realized that I have been trying to do puns as my subject line for the month of May, I may or may not have quoted a Taylor Swift song right there... but I've been running out of ideas.  Good thing I only have one more week of May puns, then all is well!

As for the rest of the week, we had interviews with President Guffey, which was amazing!  He's such an inspired leader, he's exactly the influence I need at this time of my life!

Next, the mission has been working more to focus on the mid-teens to YSA age people to teach, but we don't know very many in our area that fit that type...  But we are now going to start teaching one who is! His name is Raven, and we've been trying to meet with his older brother, Gabe Jr., for a couple weeks, and again this last week when he went over, Gabe wasn't home.  Raven was babysitting Gabe's kids, so we talked to him a little bit on his porch... More specifically, Elder Jackman talked to him on his porch, I was keeping his 3 year-old niece entertained so he could feel the Spirit more as the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being taught.  We're going to meet with him again this week, I'll let you know how that goes!

Also, I understand why Dad likes farming/gardening now!  It's pretty fun (I still don't quite like weeding, but everything else is fun!)

Now, for the thought of the day:  President Uchtdorf has said that, "Exaltation is our goal; discipleship is our journey."  We sing a song that says how we become disciples of Christ: "As I have loved you, love one another, by this shall men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another."  That being said, and in the words of President Guffey, "If you don't have love for one another, whose disciple are you?"  What are you doing for your fellow children of God to show you love them?? Or, what aren't you doing?? Now I ask, will you do one thing better to show your love for someone today? Not tomorrow, not some day, today?  After all, there are only seven days in a week and "Some day" is not one of them! 

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!

--

Elder Eli James Dial

I called you MAYbe??

 Hey-o family and friends!! 

Here's a list of skills that I didn't think I'd gain while on a mission:

1) corsage making (yes, that picture is one that I made [the other ones I made were crappy, so no pictures for you])

2) list-making is still being learned

Anyways, this week was a great week!  We had zone conference on Friday, and that was amazing!  Then we went on exchanges, so I was in Albuquerque with Elder Nelson, while Elder Jackman and Elder Fonua were in Laguna.  It was a lot of fun!  Transfers are tomorrow, so I'm not going anywhere, and neither is Elder Jackman- we're both staying in this area!  It'll be a lot of fun, and there is a lot of work to do now that we both know the area pretty well!

Also, Happy Mother's Day yesterday, Mom!  It was awesome to see you guys via skype!  Hope it was a good day for all you mothers!

We met with an investigator this week, her name is Marie, and she is an amputee, she doesn't have a left leg below the knee.  What does she tell us about her leg?  It's name is "Bob the Knob".  

She feel a couple weeks ago, so her kids called her and asked how Bob was doing.  She responded by saying that, "He's had a headache for two weeks, but he's alright." XD  It's pretty epic!

Everything has been going pretty swell down here in Laguna, Acoma, and To'hajiilee!  I know that this is a short letter, but just know that God needs you!  He always has and He always will! Don't ever give up!!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!

Elder Eli James Dial

MAYbe it's Mother's Day this week

This week has been fantastic!  A throw down or two from the Spirit, exchanges, and slightly sleep deprived, but hey, that's the life of a missionary often times.  XD

We have a 10 year old investigator, Roman, who's mom won't let him get baptized yet, and he struggles a lot.  He didn't/doesn't really feel loved, so we have just been visiting him with the goal in mind that we are going to love him, and it's been really different the last couple times!  He's given me a stuffed animal- a panda (THE big fat panda  ;) and before, he would ask that we keep our lessons to "under 30 seconds". The only problem with that is that he gets super distracted so we'd end up being there for around an hour and only get 4 sentences in on the lesson that we wanted to share.  But yesterday, when we said that we could keep it short, he told us that we could go "full length" if we wanted to.  He still got super distracted, but it was even cooler!  For that lesson we had planned to sing "I am a Child of God" with him, but he had a friend/cousin over, so when we told him that we were going to sing, he pulled out a toy piano, got his friend/cousin and his little sister there... and we sang it with our little band!  I played the melody on the piano and we were singing also while he had a rattle thingy that he used. It was a lot of fun, but that's not even the best part! He sees praying as not really worth it because it "takes too long" so we ask him to say the closing prayer most days, hoping that that will change.  Except for yesterday, when we asked him and he said no, his friend that was there offered to say it, but he didn't know how.  So Roman taught him!  Elder Jackman and I weren't mad in the least bit, that was even cooler than we thought!

Then we went to his aunt's house and found out how we can help her return to activity- family history!  She has 4 generations (when I say 4 generations back, I mean she knows who here great great great grandparents are and has records for ALL of their descendants) ready to do the work for them, she just hasn't put them in the computer yet, so we know what we're going to be helping her with!!

Next we went to a different 10 year-old's house, Dylan, a recent convert whose family has bounced in and out of activity, but who is going to start taking temple prep classes.  We found out that Dylan's dad, Glenn, who struggled occasionally with a drinking problem, and his wife went to the temple grounds and walked around- just them as a couple!  They are excited to go to the temple, and they would be the first in either of their families to go through the temple and be sealed as a family!

They did a musical fireside last night for the 4 Albuquerque stakes, along with the Rio Rancho stake and the Los Lunas stake, and there were so many people there!  It was awesome, even though it made me miss my viola a little bit more than usual, but that's alright!

The rest of the week was still fantastic, but I figured I'd share all the miracles that happened just yesterday.

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!  :)

Elder Eli James Dial

PS- this is not the panda that Roman gave me, this is the new one he got.  XD

MAY the odds be ever in your favor

Happy birthdays in April to:

Tyler

Tayvn

Jaron

Mom!!

Happy birthday!! Hope you enjoyed it!!

As for the pictures, there's one of the sunset, the next one is how you say "hello" in Navajo (the part that looks like 4 different words, yeah, that's hello) and the third one is the hike we went on as a zone last week. It was a lot of fun, but it was super windy, so I enjoyed every second of it. :)

The title, is because we had a great week, even though we didn't have the best of luck catching people home.  We believe that part of it was that we went to the wrong village on the wrong day type of thing, but there was also the "Gathering of Nations" on Friday and Saturday held in Albuquerque, so a lot of people from here went.  We wish that we could've gone, but we couldn't.  Oh well, there is still work to do! 

In this area, we go to a senior center and they have a tendency to give us "Indian names".  To give you a little background, the Elder that was here before me, his name meant "potato" cause he was from Idaho, and Elder Jackman's means chili because he loves chili, but mine... I'm not going to tell you what it means, but I'll tell you how to pronounce it: ha-da-may-osh. I'll give you a hint, though- it sticks with the theme of food, and it's pretty hilarious. XD

This week we've been focusing on how to show our love for people, specifically a ten-year-old that we're teaching named Roman.  The kid is a beast (he's reading/read War and Peace and Physics for Dummies), but he struggles to pay attention (more than most 10 year olds)  so we decided that we were going to spend more time with him, text him more often just to see how he's doing, and it's been working!  He sent us a smiley face once in the last week [just one like this (:  ] and then another one, so we just sent him a couple back, and it turned into a battle of who can make the best smiley face (without emojis, cause we don't get/can't do those) which ended when we sent him a stick figure.  He's progressing more than before, and it's a lot of fun!

Don't ever forget that this work is all about love!  "For God so loved [YOU] that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."     If God the Father can sacrifice His Only Begotten Son so that you can be happy for eternity, how come you can't sacrifice Sunday Night Football for Him?  March Madness? Pinterest? That TV show, that book series, whatever is keeping you from progressing? So, ask yourself, really, truly ask yourself, "What is keeping me from becoming closer to God?" Then, remember that you are sons and daughters of God for crying out loud!  You can do anything you set your mind to, you've just got to want it bad enough!  So don't give up, and don't give room to fear, because every time you do you lose room for love and for faith!  You can do it!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!

(Great is my love for you all!)

Elder Eli James Dial

Service and Sunburns

This week was an awesome week!!  It started with exchanges with our zone leaders, so I was with Elder Fonua, and we got to go chicken hunting! That was an adventure all on it's own- fences were jumped and funny looks were seen, but after about 45 minutes we got the chicken!!

Then, this week was Earth day, so we got to spend 2 hours picking up trash, then we got fed lunch, and then spent two more hours painting for a member!  We spent most of the day in service clothes, and in the 80 degree sun.  That means this week, as a total, around 14 hours of service, including weeding, painting, picking up trash, and washing windows.  Twas a lot of fun!!

Also, on Saturday, we had a lady knock on our trailer door, and we found out that she was trying to help people come to Christ through song!  So we talked for a little bit, after which she sang to us a Spanish song about having a heart of clay, and then we sang "I am a Child of God" to her, and then we gave her an apple and an orange* and a copy of "The Living Christ", took a picture with her (cause that was a pretty cool/unique/weird experience and sent her off on her way!  (So there's the picture)

Yesterday, we had 3 less-active families that we're working with come to one branch, the Laguna/Acoma branch, for sacrament meeting,  and we haven't been able to meet with two of them for at least 2 weeks- so that was a miracle in and of itself!!

The To'hajiilee building for church, also, just got the internet!  You may not think of that as anything cool, (I mean, doesn't the internet go everywhere??)  but this branch has been lacking- you don't realize how influential the internet is church until you don't have it!!  Now we can be more effective as we teach others about family history- we just need a computer out there or something so we can teach them how to do their own family history and such!

Anyways, that's all I got for this week- a lot of miracles are happening, and it's sweet to see!!  This work is a work of miracles, so you better start believing in them, because you need to see the ones that are already happening in your life!!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial

Hola, all!

Hola, all!  (Happy Easter yesterday!!)

This week has been awesome!  To start off, I'll mention what happened yesterday.  we had lunch with a family that has been returning to activity, and their son is also a recent convert, but there was only one catch- it was Easter dinner combined with a baby shower, so 40 people were there.  We had Navajo tacos (my first one from an actual Navajo) and it was glorious! 

We also had exchanges last week, so Elder Snow came out here to Laguna with me, and Elder Jackman went to Albuquerque with Elder Schraedel, and it was a lot of fun!  I got lost once or twice, but hey, I'm still alive and everything is going good!  We met with an investigator that Elder Jackman and I have struggled to meet with, but the guy was drinking beer while we were there, so we don't know how effective that was.  He feels condemned because of some things he's done in war as a sniper, but we shared with him the story of Alma the younger, after that he asked us where it was and he's going to read it!  We were able to share with him that peace can come to us through Jesus Christ, and how Alma felt that through his experiences.  The Book of Mormon has the power to bring the Spirit into people's lives and that is going to change them so they can feel/remember who they are and that there is always hope!

Elder Jackman and I gave talks in To'hajiilee yesterday, and it was pretty goodish!  We didn't really have much time to prepare as we had exchanges on Friday/Saturday, but we did alright!  It was a lot of fun, but that was my 3rd time giving a talk since I've been in this area- 2nd one in that branch, and I've discovered that I don't really like giving talks as much as I used to in Shelley!  I prefer being in a classroom setting, but I'll get over it. 

Everything is going good here in Laguna, Acoma and To'hajiilee!  Christ did die for us, and don't ever forget just because Easter's past!  He's never forgotten you, so don't ever forget Him!

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

--

Elder Eli James Dial

It's been April for a week??

So, before I forget, Happy Birthday to these people in the month of March:

Brooke, Hannah, Kimbal, Grant, and Allie!

Now for the pictures: this dog is the first dog that gave me a hug.  His owner is the former governor of the Pueblo of Laguna, (the one who helped come up with the Constitution for the Pueblo) and the best part is....... The dog's name is Obama..... That's right, I can say that I got a hug from Obama. XD

Next picture, is about a detail that I kinda forgot the area I'm serving in.... I live next to Mater and I've been to Radiator Springs.  Woot!!  :)

I've decided that one of the more difficult parts of missionary work is not seeing the results of your work.  But... not this week!  At the To'hajiilee branch on Sunday, instead of the usual 10-15 people, we had 30 people there (and none were visitors from Albuquerque!)- one less active family that wants to go to the temple finally came, and a recent convert and his family also came after his mom is able to walk now after having knee surgery.  It was pretty sweet!

We've also been gaining a lot of member trust, so much so that they are trying to get a youth activity put together to bring some younger families back (our stake president said [and it's true] that if we don't get more young people out here, then we won't have a branch, because all the active members will be dead).  That, and, we very well might become seminary teachers!!  That'll be a lot of fun!

Everything else is going awesome!! We visited a mother and daughter who are less active because they got offended, and everytime we've gone over, they were not interested and just nonchalant about us being there.  This last time we visited them, they were watching golf, but we just asked about golf.  Then we shared a message with them and they opened up and were more of themselves- we actually felt like we were their friends! 

The work must go on, and it's going to move forward with or without us, so just keep loving people and being their friend! 

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial