Numb as can be!

Dear Family,

Well I am sitting here in the library with the right side of my face feeling like it has been pumped up with an air pump. Just came from the dentist where I had a filling refilled. It was a pretty neat experience. I feel like I have to get numb every blasted time I go to the dentist, so thanks for those genes mom and dad..... but that is ok! We had a cool week this week! We were really low on miles, so we did a LOT of walking. We live about 1.5 2 miles out of Norristown, where we do most of our proselyting, but that is ok. Good exercise. But we taught a lot of people, and we are REALLY focusing on getting people to General Conference. The Prophets, Seers, and Revelators have a way of penetrating people's hearts that sometimes we as missionaries don't have. President Schaefermeyer told us that he wants a mission record for investigators at church this week. We are literally inviting EVERYBODY!!! It is gonna be awesome.

Saw a HUGE miracle this week. We have this investigator that is awesome. His name is Misael. (Come on gringos, mees-ay-EL) He wants to get baptized and everything, and is working on getting Sundays off so that he can. We were eating at his house, and he works in a very nice restaurant so we had this DELICIOUS mushroom soup. Oh my goodness it was awesome. The best meal I have had on my mission. But that is not why the appointment was so great! After we taught him a lesson, he had to go finish preparing some food. But his friend, Alfredo was there. He told us to teach him. We were stoked. Alfredo opened up to us about how he had been a REALLY bad person. He cheated on, deceived, and lied to his girlfriend of 7 years, who he said was the best person he has ever met, and resorted to alcohol and drugs. He told us he was very convinced that God did not exist. But then he began searching for something more. That was very recently. He wants to completely change his life, and luckily we have the remedy for all the bad in the world; the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We taught him the Restoration and testified of the cleansing power of the Atonement. We invited him to be baptized, and he said, "Well I was baptized as a baby, but can I do it again?" YES YOU CAN!!! He accepted the date for the 12 of May. He has a very strong desire to learn and to change. I am so excited to see him progress and enter into the waters of baptism.

Got the Easter package haha. Thank you so much!!! Elder Fawcett and I now have awesome matching pillowcases and all. I feel sorry for everyone else who doesn't have a family like mine. Mine is the best. Anyone else who says differently is lying. Thanks for being married and not cheating on each other Mom and Dad. Thanks for raising us on the principles of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and making us do all of those things we thought were stupid when we were little. Thanks for teaching us how to work, how to love, and how to live. I love all of you so much.

This work is true. My testimony grows every day. It is stronger than ever, and I have an AWESOME desire to share it. Love y'all!

-Elder Mike Dial

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

Transferred to Norristown!

6 Month Ceremonnial Tie Burning

Carlos' Baptism - Golden Investigator - Found while backing companion out of parking

Dear Family,

Well, I have been transferred to Norristown PA. It is about 40 miles south of Allentown, and just a little bit north of Philly. It is AWESOME!!!! Elder Fawcett (my MTC companion) is once again mi compa! He is great. He knows his scriptures like nobody's business, and he really has a deep love for these people here. Also, he is really good at sharing the gospel. Sometimes, when you visit people, members especially, it is too easy to just talk casually, then share a quick "spiritual thought" at the end. But we turn the casual conversation into a Gospel Discussion. It is SOOO much better. You really get to know'  people better and love them more!!!

Our ward is combined with an English ward. They translate Sacrament Meeting via headphones, then have separate Sunday School, then someone just translates Priesthood and Relief Society out loud. It has it's advatages and disadvantages. I liked having the meeting in Spanish in Allentown, but there is a TON of support from the English people too. They really intermingle well, which is good.

Well, I don't know whose idea this was, but apparently they thought it would be a funny joke to make me a District Leader haha. Me, Elder Fawcett, then Elder Shumway and Elder Stark make up my district. They are also in our ward, just in English. My first District meeting went well, the Zone Leaders were there and they told me I did well... Hopefully they weren't just trying to be nice! But It is cool being a District Leader! You get to lead, but also be right down in there with the missionaries too. You aren't so far away that you lose that personal relationship.

Here, we have a few investigators on date for baptism. One just needs an interview and he can be baptized. We have TONS that are right on the brink of really progressing. We need to be bold, but not pushy. We need to prayerfully ask the Lord what is it that they need. What can we teach that will touch their hearts and instill that desire to follow Jesus Christ more fully, by showing faith in Him by being baptized by the proper Priesthood Authority!!! We are gonna set a lot of dates this week and see if any of these people need to be dropped. A lot have been taught for a long time without really progressing... Help us out with some prayers sent our way!!!

Well, Since Norristown is only 40 miles away from Allentown, I was able to get permission to return and baptize one of my very good friends, Carlos Castro. He came down here, picked us up after church, and took us back afterwards. He is AWESOME!!! He has some severe back problems, so I baptized him while Jose Taveras, a member in Allentown, was in the font with us and helped as we immersed him under the water and bring him back up. I did everything ok! It was SUCH a rewarding experience and I am honored that he wanted me to help him make those saving covenants with the Lord!

Anything you send me Mom will be AWESOME!!! But if you could find a White baptismal tie to send out, that would be great too! I had to use Elder Fawcett's when I baptized Carlos! And when dad sends his Allergy Package, PLEASE send out some pseudoephedrine. That is the only thing that will clear me up! Go the the pharmacy and ask for the strongest pseudoephedrine they have haha. But you are the GREATEST!!! I love you so much!

Well, this week was great! Thanks for you love and prayers. I love this work so much! I want to do it forever! If you ever are feeling down about yourself, just go share the Gospel with people. It will make you realize HOW much you really do have. Seeing how much this Gospel Changes people is unreal. It makes me feel SOOO blessed that I was raised in it! I don't know what I would do without it. Love you all. Over and Out

-Elder Dial

1. The Castro Family, Me, and Elder Hidalgo

2. P.S. hit 6 months this past Friday, so i got to do this!

1st Transfer!

 

Me and Carlos (bald) Dereck, and Shedeilyz

 

Overlooking Allentown (Left to Right) Me, Hidalgo, Carraway, Tolbert

 

Well, the big news of the week is that I am being transferred! I have no idea where, but we go down to Broomall tomorrow and do the whole transfer meeting where I will find out my new area, companion, and all that jazz. I am really sad to leave here, because Allentown is the fetchin best!!!! But the Lord has awesome things in store for me. I submit my will to his, because He inspires the mission president to call the missionaries to each area. I know that. I have grown so much here, but I am needed elsewhere now.

What President Schaefermeyer did tell me is that he is sending me to a companion who needs some "special help." Well, basically that means that he might be a lazy, disobedient missionary, and he trusts me enough to go and help him out. Haha I am really nervous, but excited. I am grateful that President trusts me that much, now I have to do my part! I will need those prayers more than ever now! But it is ok. This work is bigger than my pride, selfish desires, and my own wants. I submit myself to the Lord! He can make so much more out of me than I can make out of myself!

THANK YOU FOR THE CALANDER!!! Oh my gosh that is the freakin best! I actually bought one like 2 months ago of big bucks, but the family one is better. I will probably hang them up side-by-side. I also LOVE the Jazz blanket. Totes slept with it last night. It was nice and cozy....

Well we had a very interesting experience on Tuesday. We were trying to clean up our branch list, and stopped by this supposed "less-active." We knock on the door, and this Dominican guy answers. He says "Yes! I was praying for angels to come and help me move some stuff, and you guys came. Looks like you will do!" Well we were stoked. We helped him move some furniture into his house, and then just started talking. He knew we were missionaries, and we started talking. He started to kind of knock on Joseph Smith a little bit, and bringing up some classic anti stuff. He then asked us, "Are you sure if you are saved?" I said that I do my best to follow the commandments, be a good person, and that we will see some day. He said, "WRONG." He then asked Elder Hidalgo and a Priest we had with us the same question. They answered like me. He said they were Wrong. He threw his hands up in the air and yelled, "I FEEL SALVATION! I BELIEVE AND THAT'S ALL I NEED TO DO!" Luckily, at this point his wife came in and gave us some food and it calmed him down. We were about to leave, but I wanted to try to save this. I asked if I could sing a hymn. Of COURSE they said yes. They set up a microphone and some speakers, and I broke out "Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor," "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." The Spirit Literally FLOODED the room. It touched his heart a little bit. He said, "Teach Me." So I went into the First Lesson, about Prophets, Christ, and the Restoration. They ate it up. I got to the Joseph Smith story. When I recited the First Vision, his wife was almost in tears, as was I. Then I started talking about the Book of Mormon. And he closed his heart completely. He started talking. Then he started yelling. He broke out the whole Revelation-no-adding-to-the-word deal. He was literally yelling at us and tearing us apart. He told us we were blaspheming, that Joseph Smith was a liar, and that all we said was a lie, but he was trying to help us know the truth. The Spirit left. We had done our work, so I left cards with our number and we left. He asked for a video about Jesus Christ, so we left him the "Special Witnesses" video, about Prophets and Apostles.... hahaha. Well, I loved it. He directed all of his anger at me, yet I was firm. I was not nervous, and had confidence. I felt sorry and sad for him. How grateful I am for my knowledge of the Restored Gospel. That things of God are reverent and sacred. That we can have the gift of the Holy Ghost. How many things we take for granted. Today, we drove by his house and saw an ambulence.... We will let people draw their own conclusions on that.......

Well, In church I had the opportunity to bear my testimony and give thanks to the branch. Luckily, I didn't cry, but others did! That is how I judge my success haha! By how many people cry. Usually it is in the 50's, 70's,.... somewhere around there. Tonight, they are having a little "Despedida" or a little goodbye party where we are gonna eat lots of Domincan Food, like mangu, queso frito, arroz, habichuelas, salami, morir sonando, and many other things. I can't wait. I will for sure cry there.

Well, I love this mission. It is the fetching best. I love having all of these scary experiences! My testimony has made leaps and bounds in only 6 months! AHHHHH! 1/4 of the way done. That's weird. Don't want it to stop! I love this! I am able to say confidently and with out a doubt in my mind that this stuff really is true! I absolutely and truly do. I love all of you so much, and You're Welcome. This was a fantastic email for all of you. Be grateful haha.

-Elder Jabon Dial