Born and Raised in Philly!

 "Rocky" Steps in Philly

Mike's good friends brother who happened to be at his ward that Sunday.

 Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Dear Family,

Well, last week was pretty neat. After we emailed, we actually went on a little trip to PHILLY! It was awesome. You will love the pictures. We got to go see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, run the Rocky Steps, and all that Jazz. It was pretty neat. It was cold, and started to rain a little bit, but it was great. We also got to go to Jim's steaks and eat some real, authentic cheese steaks. They were pretty good, but not as good as I remember them. I will have to scout out the very best of Philly later on. But nonetheless it was an awesome trip. I hope that one day I get to serve down there.

Where did these past 7 months go???? This time has been flying by! And the bad part is that it will only keep flying! Ugh. No me gusta.... Pero asi es. (I don’t like, but it is what it is!)

Well, it is amazing how the Lord works. One week goes AWESOME and then He decides to humble you a little bit. This was a good week, but we had a lot of days where our plans just didn't work out. I think we tried to visit every former investigator and almost every potential investigator in our area book haha. But that is the way it is. The Lord sometimes lets us go down so that He can lift us up higher. I know that as long as we remember our purpose, and never stop working, that His will will always be accomplished. We will always be useful tools in His hands.

We are starting to teach this guy named Ricardo. We had an AWESOME first lesson with him, and he really opened up to us. He admitted that he used to be a really bad person, and was convinced that God didn't exist, but that now some things happened and he wants to find something. He was very sincere. He committed to read in the Book of Mormon, and gave an AWESOME prayer to end the lesson. He told us that he is leaving to return to Mexico in like a week and a half, so we are gonna send him there with a baptismal date! The missionaries there in Puebla are gonna be very grateful. Hopefully he goes to Elder Dunford's area. That would be very neat!

Well, the church is true. I love this work more than anything. This transfer is almost over, which is soo crazy. It just started! Focus on the real reason of the wonderful Easter Season. The Atonement of Christ is everything. Without Him, we literally are nothing. But through Him, we can become everything. I know that with all of my heart. I have come to know it even more fully by telling EVERYONE about it. My calling is the best calling in the world. I never want to stop. I love you all, and remember what our Lord and Savior has done specifically for you. Then tell your friends about it. Invite them to church. It is a way nice time.

LOVE YA ALL

 -Elder Mike Dial

Milagros! (MIRACLES!)

Dear Family,

Do I have the best family in the world or what? Thank you SOOOOO much for the package. It was delicious and now we have the St. Patty's decorations up right next to our Christmas lights that we haven't taken down yet. I figure it is just easier to keep all decorations up, that way the spirit of the holidays stays all year long, right?

Well things just started too cool down today; rain changing to snow. But that's ok. Even the cold can't slow down the work of the Lord. In our mission people were out in the snow, tracting I think. They introduced themselves to someone, and the person said "I know who you are. Only the Mormons would be out in this kind of weather." I thought that was a neat story.

Haha,  you’re trying to make me jealous about cheesesteaks. We are actually going to Philly today to go to Jim's. Just ask Uncle Curtis about it. I will send ya some pics next week. Don't get too jealous.

We have seen a bunch of miracles in finding. Just following the Spirit, we have found a ton of new people to teach, and actually ran into a referral that we had the wrong address for. That was really cool. We found this one kid named Emer. We taught him the first lesson, which includes how to pray. That may be my favorite thing to do as a missionary. Those first prayers are always so powerful. I have cried a couple times on my mission, most of them from listening to somebody pray for the first time! It is such a cool experience.

So we will probably have a baptism next week. His name is Flabio de la Rosa. He is married to a member, and we are visiting him today to go over the baptismal interview questions. He is pretty solid. I am really excited. Baptizing is pretty neat! I don't know him that well, but I will get to know him better when we go after his baptism to reteach him!

I have one little teensy request. In your next package, can you send me a book with nutritional information in it? I know when Matt got Diabetes he had one like it. I am trying to keep track of what I eat, and that would help TONZ! Love you so much!

AWESOME to hear about all the OLY missionaries; keep me posted. I wanna stay up to date with that. I love hearing about new mission calls and all of that. The mission can change people. It has completely changed me in ways that I expected, but in SOOO many ways that I never would have thought. It is the best thing I have ever done!

Well, it isn't one of my best letters, but that's ok. We keep finding, teaching, and seeing miracles every day. I love my divine calling as a missionary. I feel the Lord working through me, especially now that I am in a leadership position. I was on exchanges, and felt advice come to me that the other missionary needed, that I know didn't come from me. As long as I lean not unto my own understanding, and trust in the Lord with all my heart, mind, might, and strength, he will provide me with all that I need. I love my family. They are thebomb.com 

Love you all, Peace and blessings

-Elder Mike Dial

I ate CHAPOLINES!!

The Crickets

Mike Eating the Crickets...Ummmmm....

Dear Family,

Well we had a cool Zone Conference on Thursday. First of all, President showed us an email from the First Presidency saying that it is now "legal" to email basically whoever. I think everyone was doing it anyways, but good to know that it is approved by prophets, seers, and revelators;  so…everyone better email me!! Haha!!!  President also announced our new Mission President -- Gary and Pamela Anderson. Not the Pamela Anderson that just came to your head. But he is from Hyrum Utah, and gets here in like July or something, neat stuff. In Zone Conference President really focused on the Repentance Process. Sometimes, we kind of skip over repentance a little bit because we don't want to tell people that they were bad! But repentance should not be looked at it that way! Repentance is a blessing! So he challenged us to always teach the Repentance process RIGHT after somebody accepts a baptismal invitation. It is an awesome way. We have really started to focus on Repentance. It is a blessing to be able to repent.

In other news, yesterday I ate CHAPOLINES!! In other words, Crickets!!! Not bad with a little hot sauce and a little lemon. Haha we had them yesterday. A member's son came straight from Mexico Yesterday, and the chapolines were fresh. There should be a nice picture below.

This week, we have started to clean out our investigators. We have been wasting time on people who didn't really want to progress, so we are going to kindly invite them to act and let us know when they want to progress. In the meantime, we are going to find the ELECT!!! We are going to find the people who will not harden their hearts and act upon what we teach. It is awesome. We have had an awesome week at finding, and we are going to weed out the tares from the midst of the wheat.

Dad, I don't know why this is happening to me, but for some strange reason I have a craving for poems. I know you know like 394,284,284,192, so send me some please! Haha I feel really weird asking for that. P.S. Thank you for the Allergy package. That will serve me well here in the next couple months. It was like 60 degrees yesterday!

We did make it to Valley Forge two P-days ago, so I will send you a couple pics. It has a pretty cool visitor’s center. They have tons of little paths that wind through the park. One of these days I may have to force Elder Fawcett to go running with me there! I really wanna do it.

Well, Love you all. The church is true, and repentance is how we can come closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We know we have been forgiven when we can feel the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives again. I love you!!!!

 Love,

Elder Mike Dial

Another week in Norristown, PA

Dear Family,

Well, I have eaten a boatload of Mexican food. This stuff is gonna blow me up!! Haha they don't use utensils, rather tortillas. Never thought you could eat soup with a tortilla, but boy was I wrong. They are delicious! We are actually going to a members house later today to eat some lunch. It is called menudo. She told me what was in it, but I forgot. All you Mexicans out there can explain to everyone else. But I love it here! Norristown PA is awesome. We are right next to King of Prussia, (Yes, that is the city's name, King of Prussia) Which is home to the nation's second biggest mall, also named King of Prussia, or KOP. It is enormous. I have been there twice. We came down from Allentown twice while I was still up there. It is a way NEAT place!!!

P.S. i guess I am putting a PS in the middle of this letter. Tell Steve that his mission is a Facebook mission!!! The Rochester New York Mission, along with ours, and a couple others get to use Facebook to preach the Gospel! We use it to set up appointments, ask for referrals, find people to teach, and to stay in contact with our converts. It is an AWESOME tool, especially because sometimes it is hard to get someone to come out to teach single sisters, and Facebook is AWESOME for that. So tell him to be excited for Facebook!!!

OK, we have a lot of investigators that are JUST about to progress a ton. This one couple, named Dulce and Juan, LOVE what the Book of Mormon teaches, but apparently the missionaries before didn't really emphasize what comes next, which is PRAYER. After they receive that undeniable witness from the Holy Ghost, they will be more willing to take the next step. We had an AWESOME lesson about that with them the other day. They have grown a love for the B of M, and now they are going to receive that answer that our Father in Heaven PROMISED to send to any real seeker of truth. That is such an awesome promise that a lot of time I take for granted. 

I take for granted a lot of things. My family was raised on the principles of the Gospel. My parents loved me. They didn't run off with other people. They were married! We were active in the church. We actually PRACTICED and LIVED what we learned at church. Even though I wasn't as diligent as I should have been, I still knew it was true from a very early age. Mom, thanks for waking us up early to read scriptures. We were all whiners about it, but we didn't really see through your eyes. I still don't, but I am beginning to.

MY DAD IS A RUNNER!!! Haha I remember hearing you say so many times that you hated it! haha now he is addicted like me. That was an awesome picture of you all in front of the temple. Can you send me a couple more pictures in the next package? Those are great. Well, I love you all. Thanks for all you do. I can't imagine how some missionaries do it without support from home. They are much stronger than I. LOVE YOU!!!

 Elder Mike Dial