Aug. 16th email:

Hey family!!!

 

So about our investigator Dan Barton! he was baptized on saturday the 13th! we went and visited him last night (monday) and he is happier then ever! and it was an awesome experence, i got to confirm him a member of the church during sacrament meeting! but his roommate danny has been progressing also! danny has been noticing this change in dan, he has felt the spirit and wants to change last time we met with him he cut down to 2 cigarettes a day, so soon he will be done and done with the things! and he already has the desire to be baptized! so its so exciting to be in the position i am to serve the lord with everthing i have!

I apologize for not being able to email all of you yesterday, just timing didnt allow us to email, so we decided to move it on to today, and thank you all for your emails! when i signed on my email today i have 11 emails from all of you! alot of support but i dont know if i can reply to all of them! but i hope this is enough for now!

Today we had interviews with our mission president, and a training from the assistants, this month we are working on finding new investigators, cause that is one thing as a mission that could be improved! but we went through this whole training on how to find new investigators! and im way excited i love going to these trainings where the spirit is so strong and it just recommits you to the work!

Elder Decker and I have been doing great! i think once we get past all the little things that used to bother us and just go do the work, everything seems to work out way more effectively!

Just a few days ago, i was in a discussion with 2 of our investigators and this past week i have been really focused on feeling the promtings of the spirit and acting on them! and we were in this lesson with this couple who recently we have been feeling are not progressing, we felt like we have been wasting our time almost, and during this lesson, i was sitting there thinking.. praying to know what we needed to do, to help them understand what we are saying is true, and very plainly the atonement came to my mind, and so we starting teaching the atonement, we talked about christ and how much love he truely has for us, and what it actually ment for him to suffer in the garden of gethsemene and then to be risin upon the cross! and the wonderful part about the whole experence is that the spirit was there, thats one thing that i feel iv learned the most about so far on my mission, is the love that christ has for each and every one of us. the times when we are weak are usually the most difficult but also the best opportunities for us to rely on the lord to help us in times of need.

i apologize that this letter is so short but just know that i love all of you! and a small word of advice, take the time you are givin to study from the book of mormon serious, cause someday there might be a time when we dont know when we might need the things that are only taught from the book of mormon, in my case, cause im trying to work on so many things, my studies in the morning only consist of 30 minuets of actual reading the book of mormon, and honestly it sucks, cause right now i use it all of my actions, but even before we have callings or opportunities when we really need it.

 

I heard a quote givin by one of the leaders in my area, during one of our meetings he said: Don't plant a garden when your hungry, Plant a garden when you are full so that when you do need it, it will be there to fill you. And honestly that is one of my favorite quotes now, cause of how true it is!  but thank you all for you letters and the support you show to me and the work iv been called to do! hope to hear from you all soon! love you and pray for you daily!

   

Elder Spencer A Dahl