Lovey Lady in Missouri

This is a letter from the lady in spencers mission. I thought it would be a perfect to share with the family, it has a lot information about his companion and the area and town  that he is serving in.
 Love ya. Dad


Hello Brother Dahl,

I live here in Wichita, in the ward (or one of the wards) where your son is serving. I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time getting to know him yet, but we are down for a dinner appointment next week. :) I was able to meet Elder Dahl at church yesterday and he seemed very happy and cheerful and comfortable. I asked him for your email address. I hope that is ok.

I just wanted you to know that we are so happy to have your son here! My husband and I have 2 sons on missions right now. So I thought I would share some of the kinds of things that I would love to hear about areas where my sons are serving.

We live in the Andover Ward, Derby Stake (which includes the eastern half of Wichita and areas to the northeast and southeast of Wichita). Andover Ward is a great ward. Our ward sees a lot of growth. We were recently split - sending a part of our ward to an existing ward and another part to help create a new ward. Your son covers both our ward and the newly created College Hill ward. So we are rather small at the moment, but we will grow again. Over 50% of our active membership is under 12. :) Our ward covers a small part of downtown, but the majority is in the outskirts of Wichita, particularly a large part of the community of Andover. Our ward is predominately middle and upper middle class, but there is a mix. There are a fair number of engineers, air force personnel, and attorneys in our boundaries - mostly working for one of the aerospace companies, the air force base, or Koch Industries. The members are highly active in the church and the atmosphere in the ward is very friendly and inviting. The bishop is absolutely wonderful, as is the stake president. And Brother Colt is a great ward mission leader, too. Brother Colt is a dentist and has 4 young sons.

The weather in Wichita is ... very windy! All the time! :) We have 4 seasons of weather. Spring and fall are very nice here. Summer can get very hot (we usually have quite a few days over 100) but that level of heat only lasts several weeks. Winter can get very cold, especially with the wind, and we will get very low wind chills. This past winter was especially cold, with school closed several times due to the low wind chill (too cold to safely be outside waiting for buses and/or icy conditions on the roads). There is more rain here than I had expected (I've lived here 3 years - I spent most of my life before this in the south) and more trees. There is some prairie, too. The terrain is very flat.

The missionary work in our ward has picked up recently and I believe they have several good investigators. I've had the opportunity to be of a little help with a few of the investigators and have enjoyed that a lot.

Your son's companion is Elder McMillan. He is a wonderful missionary and will be a great trainer! I've been very impressed with him. He is always positive and enthusiastic, works hard, and is very personable.

Thank you for sharing your son with us!

Denise McIntire