"There's a snake in my shirt!"

Lookin' "Bad"...his district

Hmmmm

An excerpt from Mike's companions blog, "Funny story, this week we went to the Roses for a dinner, and Brother Rose has pet snakes. OF COURSE  we held them. but Elder Dial's shot like straight into his shirt! and it pretty much just chilled in there....haha. They had to unbutton his shirt and put ice on the snakes tail to get it out.. it took about 5 minutes."

Hello Family:

 

First things first. I don't have bedbugs. That would be awful. I just have a rash from something...... Don't really know what. I don't know if that comforts you or worries you further. But that's ok. One can still carry on the work of The Lord with a rash.

Can I tell you what is the absolutely best thing in the world? When you get a hard, firm commitment from someone saying that, "Yeah, of course I will be at church!" Then we remind them throughout the week. We stop by. We text them. We call them. We talk to them on Facebook. Sometimes the very morning, 15 minutes before it starts, they say, "Yeah I'm on my way..." Psych. They don't come. BEST THING EVER. I don't know if you can sense my sarcastic tone right now, but that's what I am trying to get across. The Lord is great at humbling us. That's for sure. But that's ok. The Work goes on.

I Don't know if I have told you about Romeris, an investigator. Her boyfriend is a member. She's Dominican (YESSS!!!!). She studied for like 4 or 5 years con los Testigos, (Jehova's Witnesses) but decided to try out our church. Well now she is getting baptized. She was very intrigued with our doctrine, and the Book of Mormon was the HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD FOR HER TO ACCEPT. She reads from her Bible every day, but had such a tough time with the Book of Mormon. We totally went the wrong way at it. We just said that if she would read in the Book of Mormon, pray, she would know. But that didn't work. Luckily one of the members, Brother Garcia, took her to the DC temple with his family. He is awesome.While they went to the temple, she spent time in the Visitors Center. She saw the Testaments movie, looked at all the exhibits, but most importantly, she talked to a Sister Missionary. She brought up her concerns about points of Doctrine that we have. She said and has told us that if she could have answers from the Bible, she would believe! Luckily, The Lord put this sister in Romeris' path. She answered every single question Romeris had directly from the Bible. After that, Romeris went home, and though about it for a while, and in our lesson on Wednesday, she told us that she wants to get baptized. Apparently we weren't getting the message. But it is a testimony to me that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and makes up for what we cannot do. She is set for the 7 of July, a date we set with her a while back. She doesn't drink, smoke, or any of that good stuff. She has been pretty diligent in coming to chuch, and has been reading in the Book of Mormon constantly too. Saturday, she told us she spent 8 hours on lds.org comparing our Bible to the New World Translation, and she said it has given her such a broad understanding of things. Like Alma said, the word is beginning to be "delicious" to her. Wow that was a long paragraph. It has been a good week though!

We can have iPod touches, so I bought one a few weeks back with money I saved up. President locks Safari and Facetime and stuff, but it is an awesome tool.  I have a FAcebook Messenger app that lets me use the "chat" feature from Facebook. I have my scriptures on there so I don't have to lug around a quad along with my Spanish Scriptures. I record my Journal on it. I can type so much faster than writing it down haha. It is a really cool thing. I also keep track of what I eat on there. Sometimes it hurts me to look at it but it's ok...

Was that training awesome yesterday????? Anyone sense a theme? Member missionary work? Yeah. We are gonna get these members going. Well I don't have too much time, but this work is AWESOME. Even when it sucks, it is still great. Every day is a good day as a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives. I know it. Love you all!!!

-Elder Dial

Bed bugs?

Dear Family,

Well I may have bedbugs..... Woke up with a bunch of little red bites all over me.... way nice time. Best thing ever. May have to fumigate the apartment... that will be way fun
 

In other news, It was President's last Zone Conference with us. He gave an AWESOME presentation about the Book of Mormon. He said that he always wanted to have his last zone conference be about the Book of Mormon. He went through the whole process step by step; beginning with Moroni giving the plates, to the physical translation process, to the original manuscript, to the publication, up until the version that we have today. It was awesome. Strengthened my testimony a TON!!! The Book of Mormon is TRUE! I have read it and prayed about it! Reading it in Spanish is WAYYY better by the way.

Another cool thing, for Zone Conference, We had Clarence Owens come. He was a Pro NFL player that lives in one of the wards in our Zone. He came and talked about his conversion experience. A teammate in Oakland or something was an awesome example to him, and then he joined the church because of his example. He focused on a couple scriptures, mostly saying that we don't really know what is going to happen, and we can't be sure about a lot of things, but that God loves us and everything will turn out OK. Plus afterwards, I got to take a picture wearing his Super Bowl ring... Yeah that was pretty cool. I took the picture on my iPod so I can't quite put it in the email. But it was WAY cool!!!! How many people can say that they have worn a Super Bowl Ring?

Yeah Dulce didn't come to church this week. Please pray for her so that she can come. She is doing a lot of talking but not a lot of acting. We are trying a second time with some Former Investigators, and we hope that they can act on what we teach! It is gonna be an awesome week this week. I already know it. I love you all!!! Keep doing good. D&C 6:34-37

-Elder Mike Dial

Elder Rasband visited the mission!

Yesterday was AWESOME!!! We totally skipped out on church and went to Newark, Delaware. Check that one off my list..been to Delaware. 0 Sales tax. But that was not as awesome as the meeting we had with Elder Ronald A. Rasband, from the Presidency of the Seventy. He gave us some AWESOME council. He said that he has visited tens of thousands of missionaries. He has shaken every single one of their hands. He says that during all the missionary interviews that he does, the most successful missionaries of all the missionaries in the world are expert finders. They don't give up ANY opportunity to find people to share the Gospel with. That hit me hard. When I stand before the Lord one day, I don't want Him to ask me, "Why didn't you talk to that person that I specifically put in your path for you to talk to?" It has changed the way I have looked at finding and talking to people. It isn't something that we have been asked to do, it is a commandment. It says OPEN YOUR MOUTH like 282,583,293 times in the Doctrine and Covenants. That was one thing that President Rasband said that hit me.

He also talked a LOT about working with Members. That is where the responsibility for finding ideally should fall. The members of the church already have the friends that need to hear the Gospel. What they need to do is open their mouths as well. He said be "sweetly bold" with the members of the church when asking them for referrals. Teach them a message, then ask who came to their mind during the lesson. Ask them to talk to them and set up an appointment. Follow up the next day! Knock around their house, then ask if they will return to the door of one of their neighbors with us and ask if they will listen to a brief message!

I love President Rasband. It was one of his talks that gave me a direct confirmation that I needed to serve a mission. If you ever want to know why bad things are allowed to happen to good people, look up his talk from April 2012. I am looking at missionary work with an open understanding and open eyes. I am going to baptize at least 6,593 people in the 14 months that I have left. Gonna make the most of everything, and not let anyone stop me. Love you all. Thanks for the love and prayers! Happy Father's Day this coming Sunday!!!

-Elder Mike Dial

Come Listen to a Seventy's Voice!

Mike's First Trainee...Elder Minnich from Ft. Worth Texas

Confiscated Coffee after a lesson on the Word of Wisdom

Hello!

Well I opened up my emails to President today and guess what? President Ronald Rasband is coming to the mission!!! Next Sunday we are trekking down to Newark Delaware to hear him! Totally skipping out on church, but that's ok because a servant of the Lord has requested to meet with us. This is the second time a GA has come since I have been here. Last year in like December Elder Pieper came out, and that was way cool. I love President Rasband's talks and so I am STOKED on life right now! What a blessing it will be. I absolutely cannot wait. Like a week or two ago I was talking to Elder Ward on the other side of PA, and they are having a huge mission conference coming up with a bunch of General Authorities. I asked President Schaefermeyer about it, if we had anyone coming, and he said no.... Well thankfully the Lord is full of tender mercies and we get direct counsel from one of his Special Witnesses. I cannot wait!

Well I am writing you since like Wednesday..... It has been a short week. Dulce didn't come to church this week. I literally called her 15 minutes before it started, asked if she was coming. She was like "Yeah!" But no. Apparently between the time we talked and church started, a friend came over and was able to convince her that going to a flea market in New Jersey was more important than going to the Lord's consecrated chapel and worshiping Him that gave us life..... We totally went over to her house later that day and rebuked her in the most loving way possible. She was scared when she saw us haha. The very next lesson we have with her will be about the Sabbath Day, you can be absolutely sure of that. She has the desire to get baptized and has expressed it so much, but actions speak louder than words, don't they?

Well that is basically all that has happened in the past few days. We are finding, teaching, and will be baptizing very soon. The work goes on no matter what. I love the work. Haha I feel like every last paragraph of all of my letters is the exact same. BUT IT IS TRUE!!!!! Christ lives. This is His church. I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is a beautiful thing. I am so grateful for my knowledge and for the opportunity that I have to Share it!!!! It is awesome. I love you all!

-Elder Mike Dial

p.s. Thanks for the awesome Letter! I do have one request. Brown socks. I bought some brown shoes for $4 and need some brown socks. Cool for Meredith! Tell her congrats for me. With Meg too... 

Happy Memorial Day!

Written Wed. May 29, 2013

 

Happy Memorial Day!!! President told us to go to cemeteries and see if we could share a message with anyone there. We did. We went to an Old veteran's cemetery, as you can see in the pictures. There were tons of people from the Civil war, WW1 and a few from WW2. Sadly, there was nobody in the cemetery. It was a small little guy. But a lady from across the street began to yell at us. So we started talking to her. We crossed the street. Apparently, her name is Sarah, and she is going through some really rough times. She got hit by a car, the car kept going. She has been in like 200 comas. She feels as if the man who brings her medication is trying to poison her.... Well as we began talking, her whole demeanor changed. She started talking about the blessings in her life. About her belief in God and in Christ. She started saying that she should pray for the man who is trying to poison her... Haha she is great. We gave her information to the English Elders. Memorial day is awesome. In that small, solitary cemetery there was an amazing spirit. The Spirit of the Lord was there.

Well, apparently missionaries were scared before to teach the law of chastity how it is before... They marked it off in the Area Book as taught, but then Dulce let her boyfriend Juan move back in... So yesterday we taught the Law of Chastity like it should be taught. Like Elder Bednar taught it in this past conference (LOVE THAT TALK) She really does have the desire to be baptized, and I think that she will be able to make the changes necessary to make those covenants with God. She REALLY wants to join the church.

Elder Minnich is doing awesome. His Spanish is getting better day by day. Weird to think that was me just 7 months ago! haha. Time really flies. Sometimes I have to give him a little push to talk, but that is ok. He talks like a boss.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTAS!!! Meg is 18. That's not ok. Meredith is in High School. Tampoco. Thanks for the picture at Cynthia's grave. I really wanted one of them. I will probably go to Wal-Mart and print that guy off. Thanks for being the best family in the world. I love you so much. The work of the Lord is going crazy in Norristown PA. Pretty sure it is gonna turn into church HQ in a year or two. Most likely. Love you and see you next week!!!

-Elder Dial