Washington DC Temple-I love Technology!

The Allentown District 

Café Rio!!!!!  

Fulvio at the Washington DC Temple

Well it's just a great day to be alive!!! You know why? Because I am currently writing you from my iPad mini. You know that's right. I have  missed my iPad at home for 18 months (which better be in pristine condition when I get back by the way.... Will be using that again...) and this iPad mind makes me feel better. It is such a great tool that we are able to use to better fulfill our purpose as missionaries. It is preloaded with the Gospel Library, Facebook, Skype, FaceTime, and  our Area Book and daily planner. We don't carry around daily planners anymore. The iPad helps us to update our area book more diligently. It won't report our numbers unless we report our lessons, what was
taught, how it was received, and what commitments we left and followed up on. Out of set records will be a thing of the past. I love it. I am teaching and finding a bunch of people on Facebook. While we do it we try to refer them to the missionaries in their area, and we are there to supplement the teaching of the missionaries in their area. It is an exciting time of missionary work. The theme of the zone conference this past week when we received our iPads was Doctrine and Covenants 88:73, which says "I will hasten my work in its time." Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will realize that The Lord really is hastening His work, and I am stoked and honored at the same time to be a part of it!nit is a lot of responsibility, but we are up to it.

So Allentown has been hit this past week with 3 bad snow storms. It basically shut down stuff for us. It snowed about 8 inches the first storm, about 8 or 9 the second storm, and then like 3 the last one.
People out here don't really know how to drive in the snow, but that's ok. Our cars were grounded so we didn't have to worry about that. That part kind of sucked because we live about a mile  and a half outside of our area, so there wasn't much we could do. So we ended up just trying to so some service by helping people shovel out their cars and stuff like that. Also our back windshield got cracked and fell in, so that kind of sucks. The car is in the shop now so the other Elders in our district are carting us around today. We hope that we get our car back pretty soon. That would be nice.

Ok,the highlight of this week for me was on Saturday. I had the opportunity of going to the Washington DC temple with one of my good friends, Fulvio Monegro, who was going to receive his endowment. We did an exchange with one of the elders in Reading, Elder Bloomfield, who came to Allentown after I left a year ago and helped teach Fulvio as well. It has been almost a year and a half since I have been to the temple, and it felt so good to get there again. The Spirit of The Lord
testified to me again that it is His house. He dwells there. His Spirit is manifest there in great abundance. Fulvio asked me to be his escort, and that was super cool. I was happy and more than willing to do it. I had an awesome question of mine that was answered in a very clear and direct way by the Holy Ghost through the scriptures, and the fact that I was in the temple completely amplified the Spirit that I felt. I feel a rededication of self. During the last stretch of my mission, this temple trip has come just in time to help me to sprint to the finish. I am the best missionary I have been so far, and I will continue to improve and do my best.

Ok, so when we went to the temple, we rented a 15 passenger van for the 3 hour one way trip. 16 people showed up. Guess who didn't get a seat? Yours truly. I rode to and from the temple for about 6.5 hours total wedged between the edge of the seat on top of the back right tire and side of the car. My bum was asleep for a while, but hey, I was going to the temple, and people have gone through a lot worse to get there. It was a little sacrifice of my personal comfort that I was able to make to go to the house of The Lord. But the best part of the trip was when we stopped at CAFE RIO!!!!!!!!! Oh yes. There is one about thirty minutes from the temple, and I suggested that we stop. Everyone loved
it.  Our branch president bought a pork burrito, ate it, then bought another steak burrito and took it home with him to eat that night! It was super good. I got my usual steak burrito with extra meat,
enchilada style, extra lettuce, but this time, I put a ton of habanero salsa on it. That's what my mission has done to me.... I guess that's what six months in Bridgeton New Jersey with Mexicans has done to me. Good times. I will probably be go again in about a month and a half, because someone else that I taught here, Martha, who got baptized about a month after I left, is going to receive her endowment and to be sealed! Super excited for Café Río and the temple again!!!!

Well that's basically my week. It was a good one. The church is true. My testimony has made leaps and bounds this week, and I am excited to see how far it continues to grow in the years to come. Love you all. Go to the temple. Listen closely. Focus on what you feel. God is there.

- Elder Dial