Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year as well. At our Christmas Zone Conference, President told us that we would remember the our Mission Christmases for the rest of our lives. It was a cool Christmas this year. Thanks all for cards, packages, and gifts! I think I have enough candy and treats to last me until next Christmas haha but thanks to everyone!!!! I loved reading Luke 2 in English and then afterwards in Spanish. The Spanish Bible has like 1243820182 random words that I don't know, but that's why I have a dictionary right? Right.

Neat story. so remember Fulvio, the huge Dominican we baptized like a month ago? Well his nephew, Jesus came from the DR to live up here, and at our ward party like a week and a half ago, he came up to us and basically told us that he wants to be baptized! We were stoked and he is on date for I think the 15th of January. Fulvio wanted him to be baptized like that Sunday, but we have to teach him first. We were teaching him and in the second lesson, we asked him how he felt about the Book of Mormon. He said, "I already know that it's true.”... Well that is great!!! Why can't everyone be like that??? It is the best when members find people to teach for you! People are so much more prepared and receptive then, and they automatically have a friend in the church! People reading this, I give you a challenge for the New Year. Refer at least 1 person to the missionaries! It is such a better finding tool than contacting or tracting, and what better goal than to help bring a precious soul unto our Father in Heaven!

At Sacrament meeting, I was able to sing 3 songs, Pie Jesu (or Pie Jesus), Star of Bethlehem, and the First Noel. It was a great time. The people here have me sing like everywhere!! On Christmas eve, I think I sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, like all 47 verses of that song. It is a good one! Hispanics celebrate Christmas by staying up all night Christmas Eve, then opening their presents at midnight, then sleeping in. They were appalled when we had to leave at like 9 PM and they hadn't even started dinner yet!! But through much protest we made it home on time.

On Christmas Eve, we came home right before we went to a member's house for the Christmas Eve party. We were inside for like 20 minutes, then we come out and it is SNOWING!! Literally perfectly in time for Christmas Eve so that we had a White Christmas. Tender mercies man.

Well my week was fantastic. It is sad to see the Holiday Season go, because everyone is happier this time of year. I am so incredibly grateful for my testimony of the Gospel, and that I know the truth. Sometimes we don't think about that much. Here I am surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people that have no idea what joy and love and peace they are missing out on! We can only do our best to get them to enjoy it! I love you all. Jesus Christ lives. He guides this work and our lives, if we are willing to trust Him and let Him in. I love you so much.

-Elder Mike Dial

It's beginning to feel a lot like winter...here in Allentown!

Well first of all, I want to give a shout out to Katie Andresen! I didn't know she was gonna be next door to me for 18 months! That's pretty neat. She will do great.

The weather is starting to cool down here in Allentown. The skies are graying and the temperature is cooling down. Not my favorite thing but that is ok. It snowed once a couple weeks ago, but it was gone in like 4 hours. Now we just have freezing rain, which is a real treat.

This past Saturday, there was a branch temple trip and tons of the recent converts here went. That is SOOOOOO key for retention. If you get a recent convert to the temple, their retention rate just skyrockets!!! They talked about it in church yesterday and one couple, the Becos, started crying as they walked through the doors of the temple. Apparently in the DC temple you walk through the front doors to go to the baptistry now. I love the temple man. Haven't been to it for about 2 months now, but since I helped reteach some recent converts here, I will be able to go in a year when they go get sealed. I can't flippin wait.

So our investigator Martha, who has the boyfriend in Columbia, is really set on having him baptize her. So apparently she is going to go to Columbia for a week so that he can baptize her. She promised him that she would have him do it, and even though she always says she doesn't have enough money, if it is that important to her, that's ok I guess. At least she is making those sacred covenants with her Father in Heaven.

The other two Elders in my Christmas card cover basically the same area as us, but speak English. They just got a new one, Elder Tolbert, who was actually drafted by the Astros in the 34th round, but since it isn't that high of a draft pick, he decided to go on a mission and play college ball when he gets back. Pretty neat stuff!

Too bad you didn't get to see Aldous, Dad. I will definitely pray for him though.

Does cake travel well through USPS? I wonder... Kidding it would be way gross once it got here. I did receive the package though. I think you were supposed to send that to the mission office, but that is ok. Let's see if I have enough self-control to not unwrap those presents..... Also BIG thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bevan for sending me some O-Henry bars, dyed green. Those are always a treat!!!

Don't worry, we will be well-fed for the Holidays. Don't know where we are going on Christmas Eve, but we will get invited somewhere. Will let ya know.

Well Mario and Omar are progressing. We are gonna get Mario to quit Smoking this week and teach Omar some more. Omar got to church yesterday and liked it. BOOM. Work is going great here in Allentown.

This work is most definitely true, I know without a doubt in my mind. I love it with all of my heart. The Book of Mormon is true. We have a challenge in our Zone to read it before the transfer ends. I started two weeks ago and am in Mosiah. I am finishing it in English with  some Spanish thrown in too. Love you all, and can't wait to see ya on skype in a week.

Love,    

 Elder Mike  Dial

RIP

 Dear Family,

Well this is just a sad day. My beautiful car has finally died.... oh well, not too torn up about it. I have better things to focus on here in the mission field. (Editor's note...our 1990 Acura Legend we bought in Richmond VA for 2G hoping it would last us 2 years has finally died after 6 years and 150,000 miles.)

We had a cool lesson with the Torres family, and their friend Daniel. This lesson was taught in "Espanglish." The Torres family are members, and Daniel is the boyfriend of Kimberly, who is 14. Even though she shouldn't be dating!!!!! We got an investigator out of it so it is ok i guess. So we started the restoration like any other lesson right? God is our Loving Heavenly Father, then that leads into The Gospel blesses families. We talked about that for the rest of the lesson!! His family is kind of screwed up. He says that whenever he is at the Torres home, there is something different there. It is a happy feeling. Wow I wonder what that is.... So we identified it as the Holy Ghost. We promised him that if he will try his best to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that his family will be blessed. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to pray. He didn't want to, but we got him to do it. He talked to God just like he was talking to us. The Spirit was SOOOOO strong during his prayer!! I almost started crying. It was a reminder to me that our prayers shouldn't be a list of things we are grateful for, then the longer list of what we want, but it is a conversation. It isn't leaving a message on God's answering machine. We will be seeing him next week.

So about Christmas and calling… We can probably do it whenever here. And I don't know how to do a 3-way call so you are on your own there. You people probably forgot how to turn on the computer since I left. Set a time and we can make an appointment. It may be a little tricky because Elder Wright wants to do the same thing with his twin brother who is in Argentina right now. Neat stuff man!!!! But lets set up a time and we can make an appointment.

Cool short story. This one lady in our branch was really sick. She could walk to the door very well to let us in, and couldn't speak very well either. Well we gave her a blessing in the name of Jesus Christ and lo and behold, she walked into Sacrament Meeting 100% better. This stuff is real man.

We have a Zone Conference with Elder Piper or something from the 70 tomorrow. We had to read a talk by Elder Bednar, Seek Learning by Faith. That is the bomb. Go look it up. My Spanish dictionary got a nice workout, but I was able to read it all in Spanish! Cool stuff! But it really is a good talk. We had to come up with 3 things that we learned to apply to our individual work. I can only remember 2 right now but here they are. 1. Have complete faith. Have faith to step into the dark and let the Lord guide me. Take the leap. and 2. Sharing spiritual experiences with my investigators is a good base, but helping them receive their own is the best thing to do. If I do that, they will remember them for the rest of their lives. WAY good talk.

Sadly, I don't get my Christmas package tomorrow. This Zone conference was supposed to happen 2 months ago, but thanks to Hurricane Sandy it is tomorrow. We have a Christmas Zone Conference the 21st. So we will all be together when the world ends!!!! Happy day.

Well it is a great time of year. Love each other, remember what Christmas is really about, and always remember Him. He loves us so much. It is always a bummer when people reject us! If only they knew what they were doing!! We just have to find those prepared. Love you, and see ya next week.

-Elder Mike Dial

This work is the bomb.com!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Hello family!

This week wasn't the most exciting week ever, but every week is a good one when you are a full-time representative of Jesus Christ. We found a solid investigator in the street though. His name is Omar Rivera. He is from Puerto Rico, and has only been here for 6 or 7 months which makes him hard to understand for Elder Wright every once and a while, but it is cool. We had one lesson with him, taught him about the book of mormon and baptism. We challenged him to be baptized, but he said that he was baptized catholic so that he could get married to his girlfriend, whom he no longer lives with (hallelujah). We asked if he believed that the Catholic church was true, and he said no. We then asked him, "When you find out for yourself that this message is true, will you be baptized......." He said ya. Naturally because the Spirit was there!! President Schafermeyer is HUGE on that. “When the Spirit it there, challenge them to be baptized.”

Weird to think that my first transfer in the field is over;  it feels like I have only been here for like a week!! Time really does fly!

Another cool story... A former investigator, Mario something, who Elder Wright met a couple months ago, decided that he wanted to come to church. We saw him there, and stopped by his house. Before, he "quit smoking" because he was in prison, and was going to be baptized but then started in old habits again. When we went over to his house, he told us that he had stopped drinking, listening to bad music, doesn't watch bad movies anymore, listens to the Book of Mormon during his work, and is doing his very best to quit smoking. We are going to share the church's "Quit smoking in 7 days" program with him. He also said that he is going to buy a ring for his novia, and if she doesn't want to get married, then he is leaving and going to live somewhere else. Why can't other people have Mario's attitude???? He realizes that this work is so important!! He knows how it is blessing and can continue to bless his life!

Christmas is in the air, and it is the best thing ever. Man I love this season. There are snowflakes on the light poles and we had a snowstorm for a day but it is all gone now. Oh I will probably be able to skype, but I have to ask President first. I will get back to you on that.  It would be cool if we could work out a 3-way skype with the other Elder Dial that would be pretty neat.

Congrats on the play Jojo!! You will do great, even if you have to become a ginger. Just don't make it a permanent thing. Marcus is gonna make an awesome king trident, but he has to go get some more muscles first. Go drink some muscle milk or something. Funny story about Vicky. She hasn't changed at all has she meg?

Well I love you all. This work is the bomb.com. I love it more and more every day, and love seeing people's lives change for the better. Read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. Those will help you TONS!!! Peace and blessings,

-Elder Dial

P.S. Elder Uctdorf's talk on the Devotional last night was way good!!! Be a good receiver of a gift. If you didn't see it go watch it. Plus the Prophet's was cool too. And Eyerings. It's like they are prophets, seers, and revelators or something.