(red and green? what does that mean? anyone?)

Hey mom!!!

Today we have shorter time on the computers but I will say hopefully everything I want to say. President Kirkham gave this scripture to help in missionary work. Alma 26:22, See if it helps. 

 It seems like an awesome vent dad put in Stanleys room! I hope its nice and keeps the heats down. Good thing I didnt have that otherwise I'd be less prepared for the heat of Africa haha.

So my area is doing great! Just lots of people that havent been serious lately but we have found a lot of good people that will be baptized. All my candidates have a problem with the law of Chastity though.. This one guy I almost hurt because he left his wife for 2 weeks without telling her where he was going. Brotherly love... haha yeah some things are crazy here always but you get past it. 

I have realized that the SEALs really is something that I want.. I know im focused on the mission but I have been given so much revelation on the things I should be doing. I think that I will continue with Mechanical Engineering and Minor in business because it would be awesome to farm in Texas. I will have to ask Hunter on some thoughts on that one. Who knows, but I would love to know the prerequisites for Texas A&M and their SEAL program. 

The couples just came and inspected our celestial apartment this morning and saw my snail shells and they want me to buy more for them haha 

Something else ive realized lately is that my favorite scriptures are always red and green. I think that christmas is my favorite time of year... which seems so close to me so im kind of excited for that. I feel like on a lot of missions they say the first 6 months you dont feel like you're making much of a difference. I feel like my whole mission has flown by and there is a difference more so in me than anything else. Having said that, I have learned a lot lately about being a leader and how to manage that. There have been a few very mad times lately but I have learned how to relay my message and what I feel to be important in a better and more caring way. Especially with my first son we have had some hard conversations but we really have learned a lot from one another. I do serve with some great missionaries and I hope that my companion Elder Falemai learns the things he needs to know. Hes a soft guy but hes learning small small. haha

 I hope that everything at home just keeps getting better and I hope all of the family shows the Love that is needed. Love,

Eli Dahlin

mission life

So saturday we did an awesome service project with all the members in Liberia. Mormon helping hands. We walked the street and cut the grass with cutlaces and swept it all. It was a lot of fun and lots of good work. I miss working hard like that :( We cleaned up in front of the Presidents house too which is kind of cool.. This week has been great just working hard.

 Im not sure what transfer news is going to be like but if I leave this area I want to finish all my work here so im working on setting it up well for the next missionary. I might stay though but we will see! Its weird to realize youre getting older.. Its just fun to look back and see all the things you have been able to change and the person that im becoming. Mission life is sweet and not easy. I definitely have a new respect for returned missionaries if they put their all into it.

 About three months ago I baptized this girl named A****, I think shes sixteen years old and every other day I would go to the Z**** families house and teach there. The Z*** are my family in this area and I love them and consider A**** to be like Sophia. Just an awesome little sister. Just a few weeks after I baptized her an old guy paid for her to be married to him.. So she was taken from the family and was married at the age of 16.. I say this because I went to the Z*** yesterday and saw here there. It was really hard to hold it in because all I wanted to do was cry like a baby. I gave here a blessing and stayed for a little while and then she had to go back. 

Sorry im saying this but I guess mission life gets more personal the older you get. Ive learned a lot and have learned to care more about people. These people have a long way to go but its great to help them on that way.

 I love you all and Im grateful for our family and how blessed we are. If theres one word of advice I guess I could give it would be to always make the effort to show you care about each person. Not anything new but sometimes we can get caught up in the things we are working on and forget those around us.

Alright I hope you have a great week and stay safe! love you all!

Love,

Elder Dahlin

Oh Africa ...

I ate dog this week and I cooked snail. I breaded the snail 

The dog was actually.... really really delicious... haha and the snail was pretty good too!!!

Snail alive, snail cooked, dog head (gross)

hi mom!

wow a lot of different things are happening at home. 

Here it doesnt seem like things are going according to plan .. My camera was stolen with my card which only had room to take like 4 more pictures.. So one third of my mission pictures are gone.. I know I could get a camera here but the bummer is the pictures, and it was a nice camera! so all the pictures ive sent you if you could save all of them id love that. I usually send you all the good ones. I used Elder Andersons camera to send a few pictures of what I ate this week.

 I hope grandma and grandpa are doing alright, I will of course keep them in my prayers. Its always good to fast for those blessings to come. We all can be blinded by anything in this life so its always important to follow all of Gods commandments so that we can see past it. 

Im glad you like the pictures I send! Its crazy natalie is in France! I havent talked to her for a long time and hunter either. Ive emailed him a few times but its been a few months since he has written back. If hes not alright I wont be happy!! Tell that man he needs to email me once in a while so I know hes still alive. I think nathaniel is joining the marines or something but I havent heard from him either? who is nate dating?

 I like my glasses haha its funny because I always ask people how old they think I am and they always say around 30 to 25 and I wore my glasses friday and a girl said I looked 16 or 17 haha so they do make me look small. 

The pictures I sent are a little crazy. Elder Anderson tried to pull a prank on me and put a dogs head on my desk haha that probably should be something I should be grossed out about haha. Well Elder Kamara (my MTC mate) bought dog and so we ate dog. The other picture is of two snails that I bought and cooked. I wanted to try it and so I breaded it. It tasted kind of like abalone.. The next day I got a free meal with snail in it too haha not bad. so other than that nothing too special happened. Just working hard and wondering what will happen this transfer.

 I love you 

Love,

Elder Dahlin (your son)

Hey mom!! 

I am very jealous you of your marshmallows and it seems like in the background of one of the pictures you had made cookies.. The thing I want the most though is REAL milk! have you ever tried powdered milk?? Thats all Ive had for 7 months and its not the best.. I would pay a lot to drink some milk haha

 im glad Marvin is trying  Its probably pretty crazy to be put in a completely different culture. 

 I usually see President every week because we are always baptizing people in my district that need him to interview them.. So usually once a week he comes to visit. The service project I sent pictures of was awesome. We did it again on friday except this time we had the whole zone of over 20 missionaries come. The bags we are carrying are full of saw dust. We would fill them and then carry them to a few members and investigators houses. The houses you buy a Lot of water then you have to fill the Lot with dirt. Its next to a river so sometimes it gets flooded and the saw dust helps them not sink in the dirt. It was an awesome service project and its fun to get dirty and work hard. The mill we got the saw dust from made me miss home and farming...

 My district is doing really well. I took Elder kamara on an exchange to my area and it was great to see my MTC and how great hes doing! On sundays we come in a little earlier so we can send our numbers in and yesterday I had a little devotional with them. Each person told a spiritual experience that would benefit each on of us and it was a great experience. So I found a scripture that was making fun of Elder Anderson but It sounds pretty funny. It would have been funny to have this on my plaque: Alma 10:4 haha good one. 

You asked what I wanted in my package, Im not sure what you meant by a folder? but I definitely need Memory cards or at least one big one. I want to be able to take pictures. If you cant send a big knife a small one would be nice, just a pocket knife. Ive been running around all week.. 

Monday I went to sinkor (town) tuesday I had an exchange with the zone leaders, wednesday we went and got our subsistance so back to town, thursday I had leadership training for zone leaders and district leader, friday we had a zone service project, and saturday I went on an exchange with Elder Kamara. Its been a busy week and I actually took a nap today.. haha Anyway I love exchanges and all that good stuff. I will talk to you next week! I hope everything stays great at home!

Love,

Elder Dahlin