"Its Been Real." 6-15-15

Well this is it. Honestly it doesn't seem real that all of this is coming to a close. I feel like I’ve been a missionary my whole life, haha. Man, how can someone possibly describe or summarize two of the hardest and happiest years of their life? I don’t think it will ever be possible to adequately express all of what I’ve learned and felt on the mission. I don’t think the keys on this computer could produce words, sentences, or symbols that would describe the love I have for my mission. I don’t want to imagine my life had I not chosen to serve. It wasn't exactly what I imagined it would be like, I don’t think it is for any missionary that goes out into the field. But everything that I’ve experienced, every hard thing that I’ve had to conquer, every person that I met, every area I was transferred to, it was all a part of His plan and what He had intended for me to fulfill.

The mission has meant everything to me. I was thinking about how truly important my calling is. How truly crucial and indispensable it really is. You can’t even begin to know or imagine how many lives you will touch and how people’s lives will be effected for good down the road because of your efforts.  If it weren’t for missionaries just like me, my father would not have joined the church 17 years ago. If he wouldn’t have joined the church when I was a young boy, I would not have grown up within the gospel and it would have been exceedingly harder than it already was for me to have made the decision to serve a mission. Honestly I probably would not have gone. And it can be traced back to two young men in their early 20s with the same first name "Elder", who decided to serve the Lord, not really knowing what they were getting themselves into, but followed the spirit, worked hard, and did what the Lord led them to do, whatever it may have been. Little did they know that it would have an effect on me and in turn every single person I have ever met on my mission? Do you see the importance?

There is that thing in life that we are all searching for. There is a void that we are all trying to fill. A desire to be satisfied. So we go out trying to find what it is. Whether it be the need for more friends, material things, a job position, something, whatever it may be. So we go out trying to find it, but we still have this hollow feeling and a need that still needs satisfied. That thing that we are all searching for, that void that needs to filled that we as human beings all long for, is The Gospel. Nothing else in this world or this life will compare, it just simply will not. You can spend a life time buying and doing temporal things to try and find it or satisfy that need, but you will be discouraged time and time again.

And what if it’s all true? What if everything that you have heard and done your whole life is really true? Do you understand what that means? It means eternal families, its means the Priesthood has been restored, it means Christ's church is upon the earth, its means so many glorious things that we cannot even begin to imagine or wrap our minds around as mortals. And that gives me enough initiative and drive for me to keep going. To keep learning, to keep searching, to keep progressing, to keep serving, to keep spreading the gospel, and to stay firm and forever steadfast in the things that I believe. There is too much to lose. I hope that I never lose sight of what I’ve learned here in Carlsbad. It has changed me forever, and I’m not looking back.

2 Tim 4:6-7

".The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I  have kept the faith."

I love you all, can’t wait to see you on Wednesday!

-Elder Jon Daniel

-It’s been real Carlsbad

 

---

 [DAH1]

"Laden With Sheaves" 6-8-15

Well I don’t have too much time today, we have to prepare for Zone training Meeting tomorrow, so I’ll get to the cool important stuff.

 Saturday was Diana's baptism (our investigator from Russia). It was amazing. Everything ran smoothly, she was a bit nervous but she didn't get cold feet, thank goodness, haha. It was crazy how many people showed up, it was packed! We had to keep bringing in chairs there were so many people. She was confirmed yesterday in church by one of her friends from work, it was a sweet experience. She was simply invited to church one day by her boss at her job where she works as a CPA, and the rest is history. She is a living example of how by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Just a simple invite by a friend is all it took. I’m so excited for her and the joy that the gospel will bring her the rest of her life.
We re-picked up two new investigators, Steve and Victoria. And guess where Victoria is from? You guessed it, Russia!!! haha. I don't know why, but lately we have been teaching a ton of people from over there. We were able to bring Brett Martinue, a member of the ward who served in Ukraine with us, and he was able to have a cool convo with her in her native language, she was super stoked about that! It was pretty cool. They are a young couple in their mid-20’s. They a very humble and will act truthfully on the answers they receive. They both straight up told us when we asked, "what if the Book of Mormon is true?" they said "well, we will have to join then!" haha. I’m excited to keep working with them this next little bit I have left.
I’m using a racing bike from a member now, so I’m not dying using brother Bogarts bike anymore, which is awesome.
Something I realized last week is that Flossy and L. Tom Perry passed away within a day of each other.. Isn’t that weird? haha. They're both chill'n in paradise, preach’n the gospel.
We went to the temple this last week. It was beautiful as always. I’m glad that we were able to catch it on a sunny day. "May grey" and "June gloom" are upon us right now in So Cal which makes everything all dark and sad because of the marine layer that covers everything. The excitement is still the same every time it comes into view as were driving down the I-5. It’s like the feeling you get when you’re a little kid and you are headed to 6 flags for the first time, hah.

I wish I had more time to talk!

 

I love you all,
-Elder Daniel

-San Diego temple with the Farci Elders!

 

-We don't have the truck, so we cant use Bluetooth anymore when using the phone

-Pacific Ocean view from the Cardiff Building

 

-One of the coolest baptisms of my mission, Diana

-Bogey may eat your food without asking sometimes, but he is a true bro

The house of levity 6-1-15

This week a lot of funny things happened.

Last week we were riding our bikes to a lesson and we took a short cut through an apartment complex. For some reason I thought we were stopping in the complex so I took my helmet off. Elder Matson kept going through down to the stop light and up the hill and I followed behind him. As I got to the stop light an SUV full of beautiful young women blasting music and singing at the top of their lungs out the window pulled up at the red light. I proceeded to turn right up the hill, but as I did so my front tire clipped the edge of the curb and I nearly toppled over my handle bars like a rag doll. Luckily I was able to catch myself in the nick of time. Unfortunately it was pretty noticeable that I had almost ate it hard, and as I started to ride up the hill I gave all the girls a good laugh, and one of them in the front passenger seat yelled at me as she was laughing and told me to put my helmet back on.. So that was fun, hah.

We helped Yong Cha, a Chinese lady in our ward, with some yard work at one of her rental properties. When we got there she told us that we were getting rid of some Birds of Paradise trees, (they’re basically like palm trees with big leaves and has orange blooms that look like the head of a bird), and they can grow pretty tall. In our case they were pretty tall. So we were wondering how she was going to take these things out, and she pulls out this electrical chain saw, haha. And we went right to work when we got there. She went ham on those trees! Imagine a short little old Chinese lady with a chain saw going to town on some tropical vegetation, haha. She cut up the two trees in about 20 minutes and we had them all loaded in the back of her van within the hour. It reminded me of all the random work and things we have done over the years with you mom, hah.

I don't know if I’ve told you before, but Elder Matson sleep talks and sleep walks every night, literally. It’s pretty funny. He doesn't just speak gibberish though, the only thing that he sleep talks about is missionary work. The other night he sat up in his bed and taught the whole first lesson, haha. That's when you know when you've been on your mission for a long time.

 Whenever we go over Chris and Gloria's, Chris always says "welcome to the house of levity guys!” they always try to get us to break the rules, but we stay strong! They’re always watching a Padres game or something else like Storage Wars and they always try to get us to watch it. But we use our stealth missionary tactics to get out of it every time. We probably won’t be over there too much at the house of levity this week because Chris is having surgery on his eyes to get some cataracts out.

Yesterday we contacted a dad and his son in their yard trimming their palm trees and we noticed they had an accent. They were Persian but they both had English accents, we found out that they were from London. And we also found out that they practice Sikhism. Some fun facts about their religion is that they grow their hair long and wrap it in a turban and they can legally carry around a sword, (usually a dagger), as a part of their religion. It’s pretty sweet. They were pretty nice fellows, didn't want to learn more though. That was the first time I had ever met anyone that had practiced that religion.

Diana is going to be baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!! Keep her in your prayers that she won’t get cold feet. I don't think that will happen with her, but we’ve had that happen a few different times lately, so you never know. 

So I had my exit interview on Friday, President Kendrick usually does them a week or two early for all the departing missionaries. He gave me a TON of advice on different things that he usually gives all the missionaries going home. At the end of the interview I asked him "out of any piece of advice that he could ever give me what would be most important one". What he told me was a little different from what I expected, I thought he was going to give me this drawn out lecture on some gospel topic, but this is what he said. "Very few things in this life are either fatal or final, nothing is worth getting upset about." Just as simple and profound as that. Think about it though, 99.999999% of every disagreement that we have with someone will be about absolutely nothing. Nothing is worth all the mental energy that we put into getting angry about something that is temporal. The only thing that really merits are tension is making sure that we are clean, everything else comes and goes.

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

-Found Excalibur, its not stuck in a stone, its chill'n in Bogey's room next to his dresser.

-CRC service with the zone in Encinitas.

-Convinced Brother Bogart to take my spot yesterday.

"Mom its the God guys!!" 5-26-15

YES!!!! Congrats Walter and Katlyn!!!!!!!!!!!!! Proud of you guys! Welcome to the big leagues! I loved all the pictures of you guys. yall are all look'n good. haha. Im pretty jealous of Jeffery's beard by the way. I bet it was fun having the family over and celebrating. I hope everyone had a great time!

  

President Kendrick has started a new revolution in the mission. He is chopping the number of cars in the mission in half and creating a new policy where the cars left in the mission will only be used for administrative purposes, (meetings, pday,.. etc.). So EVERYONE is on foot or on bike. Elder Ballard said that is you talk to more people you will baptize more. So that's the culture that we are instituting now. Its been fun starting this new policy. I went on exchanges with one of the assistants this last week and was able to help him turn in a few of the cars. So I was actually able to drive a car by myself for the first time in 2 years, it was a little weird, but fun. Im using brother Bogart's bike now, since I sold mine thinking that I would use it for the rest of my mission, but I was wrong. PK decided to make these next three weeks interesting, haha.

 

On a random note, we contacted a Catholic guy and he gave me a Rosary. Its pretty sweet looking actually, haha.

 

We started teaching a guy named David last night. Super tall guy, he is like 6'8 and has curly reddish hair, kind of looks like Napolean Dynamite, haha. We just randomly ran into him on the street last week while he was riding his bike and started talking to him. Turns out that he was good friends with a kid in the ward who just got back from Utah State. So we were able to set up a lesson and bring him with us. We taught him the restoration and it went pretty well. We are teaching him again this Sunday so we will see how that goes.

Diana, our investigator from Russia, is still good for next Saturday for her baptism and she is super excited. We took her to a baptism in Carlsbad so she could see what its like and she loved it!

Liz's baptism was Sunday in Murrieta. She was in my last area, Elder Polatis and I met her at an activity that her friend invited her to and we started teaching her. So proud of her, I will send pictures next week hopefully! 

 

I went on exchanges with Elder Willes this week as well. I used to live with him in a 4 man in Oceanside, so it was just like old times. I was in his area and he is still kind of new. We ended up doing service for one of their investigators, an older lady whose back was all messed up and helped her with her laundry, washing it and folding it.. Ive done a  lot of things on my mission, but have never done that before, it was kind of weird.. I guess there is a first time for everything. We taught her in between loads and I was trying to get a feel for how she was progressing. Come to find out she refuses to really learn more about the church and doesn't really believe much of it, at all. Shes pretty comfortable with her church, but still likes having the elders over. So after that whole ordeal I gave him some counsel on that whole situation, bless his heart. Doing service for people is great, especially if they aren't members, but if theyre just using you to do their dirty work and your just wasting your time, then that's not okay. Our purpose it to help others come unto Christ, not fold their underwear for them.. Some other cool stuff that happened on the exchange, we saw a Lynx from someone's back yard overlooking one of the Lagoons in our area and we met Mitt Romneys real estate agent, he lives in the La Costa Ward.

 

Im starting to feel just like I did a few weeks before left for California. I came to the realization that life as I knew it would be over in a few short weeks and it would never be the same again. I feel the exact same way now.

  

The church is true, I know that for a fact. This gospel is bigger than we think.

  

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

 

-Taco Tuesdays in Oceanside

-My new source of transportation, Bogey's steed

-desperate times call for desperate measures.

-Bogey haha

 

-Just a Ferrari

 

 

The coast is white, already to harvest 5-18-15

This week we started teaching an awesome new family, a mom (Stacey) and her two young kids. She is good friends with a member of the church that lives in her complex and she has a cousin who is a member as well, she has just never been curious or exposed to the church before until now. E. Matson and another missionary actually just contacted her in the parking lot, asked her if we could come back and share a simple mission, and she agreed to have us back. We had a super awesome spirit filled lesson with her and her kids Saturday morning and were going back on Friday. This kind of situation can seem cliché, but when you’re actually there teaching, feeling the spirit, involved in the work, and are a firsthand witness of the hand of the Lord in someone else's life and you get to see the light of the gospel in their eyes for the first time, words can’t describe it. You simply have to experience it for yourself. So that is the main highlight of our week. Were still teaching Diana and are preparing her for her baptism on the 6th of June!!!! She is so solid, her energy and enthusiasm about her decision to be baptized is contagious. Where always laughing and smiling when we have lessons with her. She is becoming an American citizen next week, the weekend after she is getting baptized, and then it’s her birthday. So she is getting a triple attack of awesomeness coming her way! I don't know if I mentioned last week but there is lots of stuff happening in my last area in Murrieta. Ben was baptized last week and Liz is set for this weekend!!! I’m so stoked for both of them!

I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Boehme this week. He is one of the missionaries serving in the Farci speaking ward. We were actually able to give an Iranian guy a blessing at one of the rehabilitation centers in Encinitas it was pretty cool. Elder Boehme and the guy we gave a blessing to were having a convo in Farci while we were visiting with him. I didn't understand a word, but it was super cool. It strengthens my testimony that the work of the Lord will roll forth unto every nation, tongue, and people.

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

-The coast is white, already to harvest

​- Contacting mermaids

 

 - Exchanges with Elder Boehme

​-Messing with Bogey

 

Ben's Baptism

 

Del Mar Dream'n 5-11-15

Man it was great to see everyone yesterday!!! I can’t wait to look like a hippie just like you guys! We can all be bums together! haha.

This week we were able to set a date with Diana, our investigator from Russia. I actually met her for the first time last week and she is probably the most excited I’ve ever seen someone who wants to be baptized. She was so pumped we went through all the interview questions with her. She is solid. If everything goes as planned she should be baptized on the 30th of May. We are super stoked! In my last area in the Murrieta YSA Ben was baptized! I wasn’t able to make it back for it, but I’m super proud of him. He was a little unsteady about it before I left but was able to overcome his fears and take upon himself the name of Christ. Sadly a few of our investigators we are working with told us that they want to wait until they are older to be baptized even though they’re ready now, but that’s alright, were not here to force anyone to do anything, but we are here to address their concerns and invite.
Something that Sister Kendrick said at MLC stuck out to me. She shared Isaiah 42:16 with us. "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." I’ve seen it time and time again how the gospel has changed the lives of those who you would never expect. It has shown them paths that they never knew were there and has opened their eyes to glorious spiritual vistas. Never forget how important the gospel is, never lose sight of it.

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

                                                         -Our view while proselyting

 

-The 1000000000th Tesla we've seen so far in Del Mar.

                                                                            Bogey!

 

                                                 -Elder McGary (headed back to Japan)

                                           -Elder Polatis, (my last comp), headed back to Utah

                                                               -Words to live by!

Foreign in the Mainland 5-4-15

Kent is back already!!? Holy crap I’m on death row!!!!! It’s hard to believe summer is pretty much already here. Stake conference sounded like it went great, I can’t wait to hear the Birmingham mission president speak. He sounds like a stud. Sounds like y’all got a lot of excited busy stuff happening.

I’ve noticed that there is a crazy amount of cultural diversity here in Del Mar. The main ethnicities here are Asian, Persian, Hispanic, and people from Norway, Sweden and Finland. The other day we actually contacted a Chinese couple, with a bit of a language barrier, and then literally right after that we tracked into a guy from Finland. (Whose ex-wife was actually lds we found out.) We also had dinner with a family from the ward who invited their neighbors over who are from Sweden and we shared a short message on Christ. They had a little daughter who only spoke German it was pretty cool. There is a recent convert in the ward who we shared a message with at the church her name is Sister Lee and every time we get her to read from the Book of Mormon she only reads it in Mandarin, it’s pretty awesome. I remember right before I left for my mission Jeffery and I were hanging out with Nick Openshaw about to go skate and I was talking to his parents about my mission in Southern California. They asked me what language I was speaking and I told them English speaking. And they said " haha, no you’re not, you’re gonna be speaking whatever they're speak’n down there bud." In my head I was thinking pshh, okay whatever, but I am now eating my words, or thoughts. I forgot to mention that in the Del Mar ward they actually have a Farsi Speaking group, it’s one of two in the state of California and one of three in the world, and it’s pretty amazing to see how the gospel will flood the earth. He will always find a way to do so.

We have been teaching Chris and Gloria, some recent converts of a few months, and their son Doug who is on date to be baptized. They were actually found by some other missionaries who contacted them in our complex while they were moving in and now they’re members of the church. You seriously never know who is ready to hear the gospel. We are working with Doug right now, he is fifteen, is very engrossed in video games, and is super quite, so he can be tough to read sometimes, but we are trying to figure out ways to get him out of his shell. We have a baptism for two young kids this weekend Alex and Daniel. They are from a part member family, their mom is a member and the dad is not. They are both so bright and super excited to be baptized. I’m so stoked for these kids.

We offered a lady help the other day as we were contacting and we ended up helping her and her boyfriend move out of their apartment. She didn’t seem too interested and was moving to Panesquitos which is in the San Diego Mission so we were kind of discouraged, but at around 5 o’clock we got a call from her telling us that she had a change of plans and needed help pretty bad because she had no one to help her move everything back into the house. So we went back and helped her move everything back into her living room. Now she has sparked an interest in what were all about and wants to meet up some time for a lesson, freak ya! And she wants to take us out to dinner which is pretty sweet too, I will never deny free food.

We were about to leave the church parking lot one day around 3 o’clock and a kid on a skateboard came rolling up to us, as he got closer we found out that it was one of our recent converts named Jesse just getting out of school. He asked us for a ride, but on one condition, which was for us to teach him and for him to invite a friend to our next lesson. So we gave him a lift to his place and taught him the story of Nephi's bow in his garage. If you want to see the epitome of a young kid who has the fire of the gospel in his eyes its Jesse, I’ve never met a young man like him in my life. He is such a stud. He’s fourteen and is the only member of his family, but you would think he had been a member his whole life. He has already decided that he is going on a mission too, he will kill it wherever he goes.

We taught Dale Parson's inactive brother in law the other day (Dale Parson does a lot of famous paintings for the church). We were going through our ward list looking for people we hadn't met or didn’t know (lost sheep) and we found him. He doesn't really have any interest in the church anymore, but super nice guy. He is works for the BSA so I was able to talk to him about my eagle and other scouting stuff.

I was able to bare my testimony at church yesterday. It feels so good when you get down from the pulpit, a quick shot of dopamine just shoots all throughout your body, haha. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what’s most important in life and how we find true joy. I talked about how the way to true joy and happiness is through serving others and forgetting about yourself. Matt 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." It is truly the antidote for anything they got going on in our lives. Make someone’s day, do something nice for someone, the little things matter most.

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

                                                                            Del Mar District

                                                       
                                                               VW Type 2s for daysss
                                     

                                                      Bomb Burrito from Karina's

                       Super nice neighborhood, Lebron James was married at this club house.

                            Quote in our ward mission leaders house, words to live by

 

 

North to South 4-27-15

Mom, that reminds me of the time we went to Arizona and you had poison ivy. That was miserable. I hope that it clears up fast.

So kind of a crazy week. I'm now in the Del Mar zone, I went from the completely opposite side of the mission top the other. The northern most area in the mission which bordered Riverside to the southern most which borders San Diego. The assistants called us Friday morning about an emergency transfer that needed to be made and I was out Saturday afternoon. So I'm no longer living with the Nash's anymore and am no longer with Elder Polatis or serving in the YSA/ Las Brisas ward. I'm now in the Carmel Valley ward, my new companion is Elder Matson, and we live with a member as well, is name is brother Bogart, haha. He is hilarious.

I'm sad that I was switched out so quick, we had a lot going on in Murrieta and I'm going to miss all the people up there. :( I'm glad I was able to see old faces again and do what I was sent there to do for the short time that I was there. Hopefully I will be able to go back up there soon for some baptisms. Liz and Ben are progressing very well and are in good hands with the new elder that took my spot. Its been pretty crazy jumping from area to area and getting the ward under my belt, but give it a few weeks and Ill have it down. 

The Carmel Valley ward is pretty amazing. The demographics of the Del Mar Stake are super different from any are I've served in on my mission so far. Its the highest tithing paying stake in the church, so that gives you an idea of what it may be like. A lot of the members are very successful in their careers. Most of them are lawyers, doctors, or involved in business. The ward is run very well. There are super expensive cars everywhere you look, its coastal, and nothing but super nice beautiful houses. The members here are awesome, they are incredibly missionary minded. 

I've only been in the area a few days so I promise I will have more info next week. And can you believe that Mothers day is in two weeks? The time that has passed since Christmas has been a dream. I will get you the information you need. As well as the rest of the info for the packages.

 

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

 

                                                                       -Nuff said

                                          The Nashs (yes were covered in flour, long story)

                  ​-Brian just got back from a mission in France (left) and we've been teaching Ben (right) for a few months now. Going to miss these guys.

​                                                -Hike this morning with Brother Bogart!

 

 

 

4-20-15

Walter is hittn the big leagues! I like the Justin Bieber/Macklemore cut that your rockn now! haha. It looks good really.

I actually sold my bike a few weeks ago, sorry I didnt tell you. I was planning on giving the money back to Grandpa. I havent gotten the money yet, all the stuff has to go through the office first.

So I have a few boxes that Im still packing so I dont have the wieght yet, but I can give you the dimensions if you want them now.

So this week we picked up a new investigator. His name is Emilio and he is a friend of one of the returned missionaries in the branch. He is an ex marine, big guy, all tatted up and looks pretty intimidating, but he is one of the chillest guys you could ever meet. We taugh him the first lesson and ivited him to be baptized in the next few coming weeks and he accepted! And he actually asked if we could start meeting with him on a regular basis. So that was a super good start to the week.

We taught another one of our investigators from the YSA, named Liz, about the Plan of Salvation. I was able to make a pretty good visual aid on the chalk laying out the whole Plan of Happiness, thanks to my drawing skills. It went very well, she was super excited about it and is still rolling towards the 26th for her baptism.

 I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Waechtler in Cole Canyon last week. It was cool serving in a past area with one of my past companions being able to see old faces again from over a year ago. I saw Garrett Smedley and man has he grown! ( the members son who we lived with for 6 months last time I was in Murrieta.) Hes almost like a younger brother to me, so it was almost like seeing one of my own siblings after a year and a half. We picked up two new investigators in their ward, a mother and a daughter. (the daughter is actually dating a guy who is on a mission right now.) They were both going through a rough time so we were able to give them both blessings. It was a pretty spiritual experience for us and for them. They are super excited to learn more about the gospel.

After we exchanged back we saw some kids skateboarding at the church, I never let an oppurtunity like that pass me up, so we decided to go talk to them. When they saw us they stopped skating and tried to act all innoccent and thought we were going to chew them out and tell them to leave, it was pretty funny. But I showed them a few tricks and actually played them in a game of sk8 it was awesome! How we usually do it when we run into skaters is I take care of the skating aspect of the contact and whoever my comp is invites them to learn more. We found out that one of them is actually a less active member and his brother actually just got back from a mission in Italy! Talk about being in the right place at the right time. non of the others guys wanted to learn more and they kindly declined our offer, but a seed was planted for sure and a good reminder that that kid should go on a mission like his brother one day.

We had stake conference this past sunday and one of the speakers shared a poem that I like a lot. It is called " the Charge of the Light Brigade". It talks about a British light cavalry unit going straight into the front lines of battle against the Russian army in the mid 1800s. I love the second and third stanzas of the poem.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

 Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

 

Today there is so much turmoil and darkness in the world that are being shot at us from all angles. But there is hope and strength knowing that we are on the winning side and that our captain is the Savior Himself. We need to face adversity, temptation and, hardship with strength, bravery, and courage just like the light brigade did when they went into their own valley of death.

 

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

 

                                         -Mattson's house for Zone Activity!

 

-No big deal, just a Lambo. 

 

-After our game of SK8 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murr-town has changed.. 4-13-15

No way, tell Lizzie I’m proud of her for making cheerleading! And tell her she needs to learn how to do a standing back tuck before I get back that would be sick! I bet Adeline will be on Broadway one day, no question. haha.

Since I’ve been back in Murrieta, having been on a few exchanges, talking with members and such, it’s been hard to find out that a lot has changed since I’ve been gone.  A vast majority of the recent converts I was able to work with while I was serving in Murrieta a year and a half ago have become less active, some completely inactive and some just falling off the map altogether and no one knows where they’re at. Sadly a few awesome active families I knew as well (I won’t go into too much detail). I was able to go by a few of the families I heard didn’t want to be a part of the church anymore while I was on exchanges. They were happy to see me and surprised that I am back in town serving here, but they absolutely don’t want anything to do with the church. It is so sad. I’m sad especially for their young kids who probably won’t grow up in the gospel. It hurts my heart and it sucks, it kills me to see such awesome family’s just give up like that. It takes me back to the talk that was given in conference. After all you can do we just have to love, watch, and wait.

I was able to go on exchanges with Elders Mather and Fuller this week. Both were in my MTC district. It’s so awesome to see how much both of them have changed in the past two years from when we all first started this journey.

In YSA we were able to teach Ben and Taylor together on Monday before Institute. We were able to read a chapter in Alma with them. Right now were trying to help them both have experiences that will help them feel the spirit. That’s what they really need. They know it’s true, they just need confirmation. They’re practically members of the YSA branch. They’ve been coming regularly and everybody know them. We also taught Liz a super powerful lesson on the Restoration and were able to set a goal with her to be baptized at the end of the month! In the Las Brisas ward we were able to teach Aaron. He actually took us out to dinner this week to which was awesome, we got to know him personally a little bit better. The best way to describe Aaron is he looks like Captain America hahaha. He is a weightlifting coach at one of the high schools here and he used to play for the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s a big dude, haha. He is the epitome of a stud, physically and spiritually. He has already read in the Book of Mormon all the way to Mosiah and we’ve only been teaching him for a few weeks. He does the commitments we leave him and then gives himself more homework to do and he came to church on Sunday for all three hours. Talk about golden investigator. We actually went on splits on Sunday because we had investigators in both wards. One reason why he is so solid is there is a girl involved, but I know that that is not everything. He sincerely just wants to know the truth and to do what is right.

Another thing that is cool/weird about being back in Murrieta is seeing all the RMs get back. When I served here last year all their missionary plaques were on the wall, but know I have actually met all of them in person. Weird to think that will be me soon.

Something that is different/new about having the assignment as a Zone Leader is being able to work closely with the stake and the stake leaders and seeing how the church runs. Yesterday we were able to meet with the stake president and other leaders in the stake to talk about service projects for the missionaries in the zone. We came up with lots of good ideas that we will be setting into action shortly.

I hope you all had a rad week!

I love you all,
-Elder Daniel

Long Story

 

                                                                  The Nashty Stache

exchanges with Elder Fuller

P-day

​-you have got to be kitten me right meow..

​

                        ​-Assistant/Zone Leader exchanges with my MTC comp Elder Mather.

-An old friend came back to visit last week, (Elder) Micah Hanneman.

Sugar Coma and Conference 4-6-15

Anthony you look like a stud with your welding gear on man! Show Walter how it’s done! Ha. Looks like you guys had an awesome Easter. I had so much candy, chocolate, and pastries, and things that I felt like I was going to die! haha

How about General Conference? So many good talks!!! I think I liked Elder Holland's the best. I loved the story he used of the two brothers who went climbing in southern Utah. It was really inspiring, made me want to be more like Jesus.

We have been pretty this week. We picked up another investigator in the YSA. Her name is Liz, she is friends with another member of the branch. The branch has some awesome fellow shippers who know what’s up and how to do missionary work. It’s awesome when you come to an area and the members get it (being member missionaries, etc.) It may just be that they are all young returned missionaries, that’s the beauty of being a missionary in the YSA. Anyway, she is very elect. She is just an honest seeker of truth and wants to learn more about the gospel.

I wish I could talk longer. My computer froze and we have like no time left. I promise I will have more stories to tell next week!

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel
                                                                                               

                                                          -Back at the old Murrieta Library

                                                       -We found a couch, long story..

-Getting my fix of cream of wheat while planning for Zone training Meeting before conference