We almost had to build an ark this week. ‍♂️

But before that happened, we finished up our time in North Little Rock on Tuesday. Elder Shelley instructed district meeting again and we played a game of "Heads Up" that was pretty fun. Afterwards, we got free Jimmy John's again, and then Elder Evans, Shelley, and I went across the street to Paul Mitchell for free haircuts. Mine was... Good. Until my neck, I think she forgot to square the neckline or something, so it's not too great. But everything else still looks like signature Oliver Dahl.

We had dinner with the Baird's that night, one of the office couples. I haven't been around the senior couples my whole mission as much as I have this transfer. They're awesome. Definitely sending them wedding announcements.

Went with the Office Elders and dropped some furniture off in a storage facility, and then went home and prank called some other missionaries, which was fun.

The next morning, we drove back to Conway for our district meeting, and that's when we got the first flash flood warning alert.

So naturally, we decided to go out in the boonies of our area. Stopped at a sketchy trailer that had a former investigator in it. Lights on but no answer. With places like this out in the middle of nowhere, the psycho in me wonders if the inhabitants have actually been dead for 3 weeks, but nobody in the world would even know otherwise. I'm sure they're fine. (*Gulp*) 

The roads on the way back were just starting to have the water in the canals off to the sides breach in some places, but we made it home safe without hydroplaning once! 

The next day, a member took us to Umami's, a fancy looking Chinese restaurant that is now up there with Tacos 4 Life on my list of favorite places to eat in Conway. Went back and visited a guy who said we could come back a few weeks ago. He's not a member of the church, but I guess 10-15 years ago, he helped out the missionaries a ton, even driving them back and forth between here and Memphis for transfers. He's read the Book of Mormon and heard it all. His main excuse seemed to be that he was too old to change what he grew up with. The whole point of life is changing, though. Incredibly nice guy, but also kinda sad.

For our dinner hour, I took a nap instead of eating cause I was still full from Umami's. That was a good choice. 

We had our Book of Mormon class after that, and while looking over my notes for the 2nd chapter of the whole book, found stuff that I don't remember writing, about how the plan of salvation is embedded in the last few verses. I'll leave y'all to figure it out, how. (As a hint, Laman and Lemuel are 2/6 or 1/3 of the family. Kinda remind you of how one third of the hosts of heaven rebelled, too...?)

The next morning, President Hansen called about transfers.

Like we supposed, Elder Evans is leaving Conway, and the Conway Zone is getting dissolved, and merged into the neighboring Russellville Zone. They're the 2 smallest zones in the mission, and President had hinted at merging zones, so it wasn't a surprise. But! Instead of me staying in Conway... our Zone Leader area is getting whitewashed. (Both of us leave and two new missionaries come in. Yikes.) I'm headed to continue being a Zone Leader in Searcy, not too far away from where I am already. But I'm gonna miss Conway! Especially since this week (and this day in particular) as bumping.

After that call from President, we had 4 teaching appointments through the rest of the day. 2 second lessons with investigators who feel like friends, now. Just super cool, open minded people who are down to earth, funny, and so kind. Gonna miss those two. Had Little Caesar's for dinner, a new member lesson with Prashanth, and then read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon with a less active guy.

Prashanth was talking about how much better his life is without smoking and alcohol, and Elder Evans added "and you're saving money, too!" as a potential benefit. After some hesitation, Prashanth responded, "No... not really. Now I just spend it all on ice cream." Which was even funnier than it usually would be because of his Indian accent.

So yeah. Friday was a really good but really sad day. Lots of good, made sad cause we are leaving these guys! I was expecting at least 6 more weeks here, but both of us are heading out. :/

On Saturday, the office elders came and picked up Elder Shelley, concluding our 2 week trio adventures. Gonna miss that goofy guy.

We went over and gave a member's son a blessing in the hospital that morning, and then had a crepe lunch at the Routt's. Left to try some people and got flash flood warning number 2 and number 3. It was funny trying to visit people cause they open their trailer door or whatever and it's just dumping buckets and we're soaked and shouting over the sound of it all, asking if there's a good time we can come back.

So yeah that wasn't super productive. But then we got a call from a member in the other ward asking if we could help with sandbags in a neighborhood that's flooding. So we changed and drove up there. A lady pointed us over to someone's covered patio, where a command station had been set up over their table, with maps, radios, and weather alerts. They got our names and after a few minutes gave us an assignment. The grass was muddy, but that was about it.

And then we got in the little 4 wheeler thing, and the sisters joined us. We drove just down the road and whoa. It was a different scene. 1 or 2 big trees had fallen over at the roots, and a lake was inching itself up to someone's backyard before our eyes. We unloaded sandbags from a big jeep truck thing, and then moved them around the house, on top of some plastic sheets, which we then folded over the sandbags. It's an art form I can now consider myself aquainted with, getting them to overlap and stack just right. After doing it so long, my rain jacket came off and we just hucked the sandbags in t shirts, letting ourselves get drenched and sandy.

I talked with the homeowner for just a little bit in the chain gang passing of heavy sandbags. He said he had only lived there for barely a year, and this was the second time he was having to do this. Yikes!

We helped out there for like 2 hours, sometimes just the 4 of us, and towards the end about 8 or 9 people. We completely surrounded the house. The rain thankfully stopped at the end, there. Cause earlier it had been raining harder thsn the fastest windshield wipers setting could keep up with. Seriously. (I know my emails are known for hyperbolizing, but this one's for real.)

We left as our ward chili cook off was starting, and decided to just go in our service clothes. I was a mess, and had water in my shoes and socks. I fared a lot better at this chili cook off, cause I limited myself to two bowls and no peanut butter chili was involved. :)

Got home and took a hot shower and then went to bed and woke up sick. :-)

Okay, not too sick. Just a runny nose that got progressively worse throughout the day. It looked like I was crying by the time we were taking goodbye pictures with the Routt's for their son, Evan's birthday. But after a good night of sleep last night and my last David's Burger for a while, I'm feeling a lot better now. Although the sickness has mostly faded away, my sore shoulders, back, and arms have not yet recovered haha. 

I've only been in Conway half the time I was in Collierville. So it's a little bit of an easier goodbye, but I will miss the work here and the people we were teaching! I hope they are still as receptive to new faces!

So anyway, it's been a crazy week. Left North Little Rock, got a haircut, worked in Conway, taught a bunch of people, [presumably] saved a house from getting flooded [worse than it would have without us, probably?] and got the news that Elder Evans and I are headed out of Conway! Craziness.

Stay dry! Read the Book of Mormon! Be the best you and embrace all truth!
Elder Dahl


Send swimming tips & life updates:
oliver.dahl@myldsmail.net

Send inflatable pool floaties:
905 Kierre Dr.
North Little Rock, AR 72116


This email brought to you by:
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I've been disobedient this week.

Page 43 of the Missionary Handbook: "Limit how often you eat at restaurants, including fast-food restaurants."


So, I guess... I'll keep a tally for you as far as restaurants goes.


Fast food aside, it's been a wild week. As a trio, we are working 2 areas at once, both Conway and North Little Rock. We spent Tuesday & Wednesday in NLR, Thursday through Saturday in Conway, and then we came back to NLR yesterday, and will be here through Tuesday. It's insanity. It's also kinds fun.

I haven't felt like my best self this week, but our 3 days in Conway this week have been some of our best, most effective days. President Hansen promised us that our little time in our own area will be magnified, and that is sooooo true. We taught 3 new really solid-seeming investigators, one each day we were there. Here's my run-down of the week.



In my last email, I mentioned going to Tacos 4 Life for lunch. That was #1. #2 was going to Red Robin that night. It was Elder Webb's birthday, and his parents sent him some money for all of us to go out somewhere, so he picked Red Robin, which just opened. (It was the first Monday it had been open)

And then came Tuesday! Elder Shelley nominated himself as District Leader of the NLR district, so before finishing 12 week, he instructed his first district meeting! He did a pretty good job haha. 

Afterwards, we went to Jimmy John's, which was free since a member of our church owns that location. Tried contacting some people in the North Little Rock area book but no one was home. One lady we tracted into referred us to a neighbor down the street from the Philippines who had just lost her husband. We said a prayer with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. 

We had Wendy's for dinner that night, which is #4 for those of you keeping track.

On Wednesday, Valentine's Day, we joined the Office Elders in the morning to go to the tiny gym in their apartment complex. I broke my pull-up record at 20, and then it started pouring rain. We ran back to the apartment in it and finished getting ready for the day. 

After studies, we went to Larry's Pizza buffet and discounted all the good we had done at the gym that morning. It was a nice day, though, and we were able to walk some of #5 back off. Again, we found that nobody we wanted to try was home. 

For dinner, I wanted to try a new Mexican restaurant, so I found one on Google maps that was rated pretty high and sounded good, so we went off to #6. Yikes it was kinda shady haha. The inside looked like a gas station, and nobody in there spoke English. My torta was pretty good, though, and I didn't get food poisoning, so that's a win! 

After attending their missionary correlation meeting, we convinced Elder Shelley to buy a tub of BlueBell 2-Step ice cream, (the kind with both cookies n cream and cookie dough in it.) We then played Apples to Apples with the Office Elders until late. So a pretty good day!

The next day, we drove back to Conway and had our district meeting. And then went to Wendy's for lunch. That was #7. 

Being back in Conway, we tried a former we've been trying to meet for a while, and finally caught him on a day off! He invited us in and we talked for almost an hour. He said that at one point in his life, he would have been afraid to read the Book of Mormon because of how he had been raised, but he said he would start reading it as soon as we left, and have some questions ready for us this week! Yay!

That night, we had a home cooked meal, to end the streak! Excluding breakfasts, that was 7 consecutive meals eaten at a restaurant and I was getting tired of it haha. After that wonderfulness, we had our Book of Mormon class and that same kinda weird guy who came last week was there again. We read the book of Enos, and he kept forgetting the guy's name and calling him "Anos." Yikes. The sisters had an investigator there, and this guy asked for a ride to the other investigator's church from him, in the middle of class. Agh. Hopefully the other guy wasn't scared away. :/

Day 2 in Conway, we tried some potential investigators. The guy we were trying to see wasn't home, but his roommate answered the door, and invited us in. He's been searching for truth, and found a cool local church thst meets in people's homes and follows the example of the church in Acts. They believe in something called "The Recovery," which is the idea that parts of the Bible have been removed and there is more truth being discovered. So we shared our message, "The Restoration" with him, and a Book of Mormon. He said he's open to it all, so we will see how that goes!

On top of being in a trio, we had the missionaries from Glenwood join us, since Elder Miller had a doctors appointment in Conway. So there were 5 of us in our apartment which was fun haha. Found 39c while tracting that afternoon, and had restaurant meal #8 at Tacos 4 Life again. Man, thats my favorite place here i think. That night, we learned how to play Skipbo, and that was pretty fun. It was good hanging out with my MTC companion again!

Saturday had my favorite lesson of the week! We had been trying to see this lady for a while, and she told us to come back today, so we went and she was available, and invited us in. She lives with... her partner, who is a woman, and together they raise their 4 kids. She said her faith hasn't felt as strong lately, and asked us what she should do. We ended up explaining the restoration. She said she believed us! We told her to check out "mormon.org" to help answer any questions she has. She shared that she named one of her son's Elijah, and then went to Google what that meant.

By divine providence of God, the first result that came up on her Google search was mormon.org haha. She kiiinda freaked out a bit, but in an awesome way. She asked for "one of our Mormon books" and I gave one to her. She started flipping through it right away. "Wow," she kept saying. "I've just been looking through the index, and like the names, like Alma? And Nephi? And I just feel something good." It was so clear she was feeling the spirit! How awesome!!

We met the Glenwood missionaries up for lunch at Beebe's, a burger joint none of us had ever been to before. For #9, it was pretty good! Shoutout to Bro. Routt for paying for all of us hooligans.

Delivered a Spanish Book of Mormon and visited Steve, our investigstor who is waiting on his approval from the 1st Presidency to be baptized. Hes been waiting for a while now, so he should hear back soon. Or so we have been thinking since January!

Yesterday morning, we drove back to North Little Rock. Elder Jennings was there, already back from having given his departing testimony in that building the week before haha. He came up for a baptism that happened in their district on Saturday. That's 1/11 We need to get as a zone before the end of March!! It was good to see him again. The NLR ward had a missionary Sunday, in which Pres. & Sis. Hansen spoke, and I accompanied the NLR missionary district choir + Elder Evans in "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" on the piano. Got to see the amazing couple I helped teach up here a few weeks ago! They're still staying strong and progressing so much!

We got to have lunch at the Hess's, an awesome office senior couple. And then we went to the Cronin's for their Family Home Evening. Sis. Cronin was the one who was baptized on Saturday. Sis. McNall shared a spiritual thought with their 3 young kids, while one of their 2 pugs snored super loudly. Elder Stiles-Culver was laughing himself to fits but trying not to interrupt the thought or distract the kids, but every 4 or 5 seconds, the pug would snore again and he'd start shaking with laughter. It was infectious to me, so it got to the point where I was stabbing myself with my pen to distract myself haha.

Right after that, we went to have dinner with the Office Elders and a member couple. They made some kind of African curry that was pretty good. I guess she was one of the kids who first introduced and performed "I Am A Child of God" to the world!

And now it is P Day again and it has been a crazy week with cool people and cool experiences and lots of fast food grease. Don't take homemade food for granted. Fast food is only good for so long, unless it's Tacos 4 Life. But that add$ up.

It's cool to think that if I can have a week this good and fun and busy and crazy while I'm not on my best, this week, where I am determined to do my best, is gonna be heckin nuts. Until next time. I'm off to go give 'em heaven. [And bowl, at the moment]


Love y'all! Have a good week! Stay outta trouble! Read your scriptures!
Elder Dahl


What's your favorite fast food restaurant?
oliver.dahl@myldsmail.net

Fast food, slow mail
3080 Pebble Beach Rd, apt. 1
Conway AR, 72034


This weekly email brought to you by,
- BlueBell Cookie 2-Step Ice Cream
- Whoever invented the hamburger
- Skipbo & Apple's to Apple's
- Highway 40, from NLR to Conway
- and readers like you, thank you!

​The words of the bard, William Shakespeare, have survived the tests of time, inspiring countless audiences - in auditoriums and bedrooms alike. Throughout his playwrighting masterpieces, he doesn't just portray elements of the human condition, but he evokes through his words fear, love, awe, joy, and misery. Of all the countless lines that have etched themselves a place in the library of time, I have found my favorite. "No man is free who is not a master of himself."

BAM. HOW RAD IS THAT?!

I forgot to mention I hit my 8 month/one third mark last week! What the!?


It's felt like a looong week. Looking back on earlier in the week, I almost didn't believe that stuff happened only a week ago. It's been a less successful week here as far as finding and teaching goes, which is discouraging. Our main problem is that we have a handful of investigators that seem super solid... but we have the hardest time getting to see them... ever. They're always canceling appointments. Bunch of Frosted Flakes. Trying to get those *Golden* Grahams. All we seem to find are a bunch of people that are coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Anyway. Even though the week didn't have much success, it did bring with it some stories. On to those. 


On P-day, we got together as a zone, and went to Urban Air, a trampoline park place that was pretty fun! They had these American Ninja Warrior courses that were awesome. (I was sore for the next 3 days though haha)

The next day, we had our MLC (Mission Leadership Council meeting) and that was good. Yeah, not sure what else to say about that for once. It was good.

On Wednesday, we had our district meeting, got that Wendy's 4 for $4, and exchanged w the missionaries in Choctaw. I stayed in Conway w/ Elder Mair and that... was also good. Found 1 or 2 people who said we could come back, so I was happy about that. 

Some members took us to Cafe 501, a kind of upscale restaurant that was very very tasty. I got a burger with some kind of subtle orange sauce on it, and ghost pepper jack cheese... it was so good. 

After dinner, we went and visited Rickey, this cool older gentleman we've visited a couple times. He is content with the Bible and doesn't see why we have a need for the Book of Mormon. For the millionth time on my mission, I just wished I could bluetooth my testimony over to his brain. Or even just the questions I would have only having the Bible to go off of. Why aren't there prophets on the earth anymore? If all these apostles were writing their epistles to correct false teachings in one singular church, where is that church now? What the heck is this about baptisms for the dead, and Jesus teaching dead people? What does it mean to "inherit" the kingdom? What does God want me to do? Profess my faith and that's it? Do I need to be baptized? Am I saved just once? 

So many questions the Book of Mormon helps answer! I would have a pretty hard time believing the Bible at all if not for the Book of Mormon. 

On Thursday, we exchanged back, and went to the UCA Campus to give out candy and passalong cards to let people know about the LDS Student Association club we are starting on campus. Right after Elder Evans and I were sent to buy more candy, I guess the rest of them had some lady inform them they needed to register a table or something to do that. Ooops. So there went our afternoon haha. 

Later that night, we went to try to meet a former investigstor, who, as it turned out, had moved. As we walked up to the house, there were 2 young boys, probably 8 or 9 years old, jumping on the trampoline in the back yard.

"What are you doing?" One of them asked. 
"Talking about Jesus," I responded.
"Can you go to my house, too?" He asked. "I'm house 18."
"Sure!"

So, a little dubiously, we went to house 18 and knocked on the door. A 12 and a 14 year old girl answered the door, and the kid came running over and basically asked for us if we could "come in and talk about God with us." Their parents weren't home, so I was quick to agree with the oldest daughter's "no, not while mom is gone."

"Okay, I'll bring chairs out here," the kid said, and ran inside to bring two chairs out onto their little porch, while 3 dogs walked around us and tangled us in their leashes. We showed a video to the 3 of them and the neighbor friend and talked about how cool it is to have living prophets!

Planting seeds!

That night we had Book of Mormon class, with a pretty small group, plus... I'll just say a pretty weird dude. This guy has been calling us and the Conway 2 missionaries changing his mind back and forth between going to the 9 o'clock and 1 o'clock services. Every time he calls he asks the same questions. We finally met him at Book of Mormon class, and I was able to more fully diagnose his "Dory syndrome" cause he asked the same questions again. "Do y'all have pastors? Are y'all Catholic, or nondenominational? What are prophets like? Do they have long beards? Was Joseph Smith an englishman?" He's nuts. But he cracked us up. He's a good guy. He's going to like 3 churches every Sunday.

On Friday, we got a call from a lady asking for help to move her son in. It started raining as soon as we got there, so that was fun. Afterwards, we visited with a recent convert in the 2nd Ward that Elder Evans has taught while he was serving there. She was also a little nuts. A really well meaning lady, and she told us she felt a lot better after our visit. She shared that before Elder Evans and his companion knocked on their door, she had been praying that Elders from her Jehovah's Witness church would come visit her. And then in come the Mormon Elders! That's a sign from God, no? 

My main lesson from that visit was how terrifying and awful addiction is, going back to the Shakespeare quote at the beginning of the email. She said she had let in and smoked a few times recently. She downed a Diet Coke and she and her husband were talking about all these prescriptions they were changing and how hard that was. They have a daughter that is a recovering meth addict, and... you can tell. It's just so sad. It made me reflect on how I can better control and master myself. My sins may not smell as bad, but there's always something more I can do.

The best news of this week, though, is that that couple I was able to teach on exchanges last week, just set a baptismal date!! After having met w/ the missionaries for just over 2 weeks, or 3 or 4 appointments, they are planning to be baptized in early March!! I'm so excited for them!


Alright. So that's the week! Now here's those things that I included in the title of the email.

1. The Chili Cook Off Incident.

Some members invited us to attend their Blue & Gold Banquet for their kids, which was held at another church. The gym was full of excited cub scouts and parents, and in the next room over, was 25 different crock pots full of chili. Within these 25 pots were such flavors as pumpkin spice chili, chili with cocoa powder in it, deer chili, ghost pepper chili, and... peanut butter chili.

Now, some of those sound pretty gross, right? Peanut Butter Chili? Really? Like... I almost hate to admit it, but like, I'd recommend it to a friend. It was good! ...Was. The first time it was in my mouth.

From the chili cook off, our cool Indian recent convert, Prashanth took us to Andy's, and we buried our several bowls of chili in frozen custard, and then went to the church and convinced Prashanth to stay for a YSA Valentine's Dance haha. He enjoyed it, though!

We went to bed, and I was starting to feel a little off. I fell asleep, and then came 12:30PM.

There was no falling back asleep. The bulk of the next hour was spent in the bathroom.

If you're squeemish, I'll just leave it as "it was coming out of my nose," and let you scroll past this next paragraph.

If you're not squeemish, (or if you are, and are reading this anyway, even though I warned you) I'll add the details that it felt like being waterboarded and that I don't think I've ever thrown up that hard or that much in my life. Fun stuff. I honestly can't remember the last time I've thrown up, but it's been years. I've gagged a few times on the mish, and Buffalo Wild Wings has done me wrong, but hey, if you don't throw up on the mission, did your mission even happen?


Okay, sorry. back to more reverent things. i was just jokin about that last part.

After extending his mission 1 month, Elder Jennings is heading home today! But there is still the rest of February left in this transfer. So what is his companion, Elder Shelley to do? Well, Elder Shelley has joined Elder Evans & I for the rest of the transfer, so we are in a trio for a few weeks! I'm excited about it haha. We picked him up yesterday after church!

Then, this morning, we got a notification from the APs that our emergency drill is happening, so everybody in the mission had to get to their emergency contact/member safehouses. Once our whole zone was in (over an hour after the notification haha) we were able to continue with our P Day. We got our shopping done, and went to Tacos 4 Life. Man, that place is another one of my favorites in Conway. So good.

And now I'm here, writing this email. Feeling quite a bit better than I did Saturday night and Sunday morning! So now you're caught up!

I hope your week has significantly less vomit than mine did! Love y'all!

Be silly & beware of bad chili!
Elder Dahl

Tell me about your week! (And what the heck this whole "tide pod" meme is about)
oliver.dahl@myldsmail.net

Tell me about your week!
3080 Pebble Beach Rd., apt #1
Conway Arkansas, 72034


This weekly email is brought to you by:
- William Shakespeare
- Cub Scouts of America
- Regrettable amounts of chili
- Cafe 501 & Tacos 4 Life for not making me throw up and bringing me joy

Well, it's been 7 days and I'd like to think I'm a slightly better Elder Oliver Dahl than last week! Here's what went down.

(But first just a really quick cool miracle I forgot to write about last week)
We were trying a less active member in an apartment complex that I had been to just twice before in my entire time in Conway so far. The member wasn't home. As we were walking away, a lady calls down to us from the upstairs of the apartment building, "missionaries!" Apparently she, her non member husband, and her 5 boys had just finished moving in that day from downtown Little Rock! How awesome that we were able to be in the right place at the right time to welcome them into the area, the first day they got here, before anyone else knew they were even here!


Okay, sorry, that was just one of those cool little moments that is too cool to be an accident, and I had to share it. On to this week.

I have just been so stinkin tired the past little while. Especially this week, in large part due to our two consecutive days of exchanges in North Little Rock. They were exhausting, but so so fun, and the definite highlight of my week.

We met Elders Jennings, Shelley, Brownell, and Stiles-Culver (the NLR & Office Elders respectfully) at good ole David's Burgers. We split off from there, Elder Shelley and I going tracting and walking around a few neighborhoods. We found one kinda potential investigator, but didn't find a ton of success. Elder Shelley, who has been out for almost 3 months now, seemed to enjoy my door approaches and was trying to take mental note of them, so that helped me know that even if we weren't finding success then, hopefully the things I was demonstrating could lead to eventual success as Elder Shelley implements them down the road.

We met up again at the Millers, an awesome young family in NLR who fed 8 of us missionaries in the area, and then we played a game called signs with them before heading out to their missionary correlstion meeting. Spent a good chunk of time there reviewing our main takeaways from last week's visit from Elder Holland & Uchtdorf. I was trying to come up with a one sentence summary as requested, and I didn't realize what it really was until I said it. It has since become my goal. To not just wait around for my mission to change me because "missions change people," but to actively change myself while on my mission. Because that's the only way it really works. And you don't have to be on a mission to change yourself into the best version of you that you can be!

That night, we played ping pong in the office elders apartment again until midnight. Slept on a couch, and then started day 2. Had studies and then went to exchange with the Office Elders after a taco bell lunch, but Elder Stiles-Culver was sick. So... Elder Evans went w Elder Brownell to do office stuff, Elder Jennings stayed w/ Stiles, and... I had another day of exchanges with Elder Shelley haha. 

This time, we got dropped off in South North Little Rock, in a primarily African American part of town. I was able to give away a bible to a lady that asked for one, but that was about as much success as we had. But it was still judt really fun to explore and walk around a new part of the world that before my mission I never would have thought I'd be in. 

While walking past an old car, an adorable little girl (probably 4 or 5) startled me a little bit by looking out the back window at us. I waved at her, and she just beamed and waved back, her little beaded dreadlocks bouncing as she giggled. Further down the road, I turned around and she was still looking at us. I waved again and she ducked out of sight haha. What a cutie. Just a few doors down, a 7 or 8 year old kid looked at us through the window after we knocked on the door. He told us his parents weren't home and asked what we were doing.

"We're missionaries, so we talk to people about Jesus. Do you like Jesus?" I asked.
"Yeah," he responded. "He died but then he came back to life!"
"Yeah! How cool is that?! He sure helps me be happy!"

Little kids are the future!

That night, all 4 missionaries, (the North Little Rock and office Elders) had an appointment with a couple they had helped move in last week. I guess they had seen a friend and talked about how they needed help moving, and the friend had another friend who had talked about the Mormons helping them out. So this couple showed up at the church one day and asked for help, and these 4 guys spent the majority of the day helping them move.

Since Stiles-Culver was sick, I was able to take his place and have dinner and share a lesson with the couple. I'm so glad I had this opportunity, because it was the definite highlight of my week.

We had some pizza and then the conversation naturally flowed toward the gospel. We walked in at 6:30, and didn't leave til almost 10:30, which is kinda against mission rules, but they just kept asking awesome questions and loving our answers. (So how could we leave??) They talked about how excited they had been all week to have the missionaries back over, since they felt so much peace and happiness around them last time.

When we explained a question they had, one of them always asked the other what they thought about it. They would always nod and say something like "I like that. Yeah. That's right." They especially liked the doctrine of Baptisms for the Dead and how that resolved some of the "plot holes" they had recognized in past religions. Toward the end of the lesson, I asked them if they had felt the spirit, and they were quick to say that they had. I promised them that what we were teaching was true and that they could find more of that spirit in the Book of Mormon. They were sad to see us go, and we left with Elder Jennings dedicating their home. Received some hugs as we left and we were all glowing on the way home. It was awesome.

Stayed up til midnight again as Elder Evans and Jennings dribbled a ping pong ball back and forth until they hit 200 consecutive hits. After (a lot of) failed attempts, they hit 200 and kept going til 333. It was hype. Sleeping on a couch again left us pretty zonked out the next day, though, for our Zone Conference. 

Zone Conference was good, though! Pres. Hansen instructed on some of the finer details I hadn't thought about regarding some new testament stories, and that was cool. 

Afterward, we took our dinner hour and just napped instead of having dinner. But then we did service at that one church kitchen again and had some leftovers. Book of Mormon class was awesome again.


Spent the next day wandering around the shady small town of Mayflower, AR. There were some sights, including a wolf or something someone had strung up to a tree in their front yard.  #Arkansas!! (Picture below)

Had a lesson w a guy who walked into church a few weeks ago. We sat around his bed in a back room of his trailer and he, too, talked about how he felt something different about us and the other members of the church he had met. Hoping we can keep meeting with and helping this guy!

While trying to contact someone [else] in an apartment building, [we do that a lot haha] they weren't home, but I heard the tv playing in the next apartment, and felt a prompting that we should knock on it. Elder Evans had turned around to go down the stairs, but I suggested we try this one, and knocked.

Lo and behold... no one answered! My turn to turn around and go down the stairs. But there was one more door on that floor, and Elder Evans started walking to that one.

But this time... no one answered! We were on a roll. So we headed down the stairs, and half way down, that last door opened. The guy ended up inviting us in and turns out he actually knew a lot about the church and was eager to have us over to answer some questions about the Book of Mormon!

So anyway, I include this story cause it was a cool example of how the spirit guides us and works in companionships, and how just because we don't see results from a prompting right away, doesn't mean it's not from God, just that we should keep working and waiting.

Later in the day, another person we were trying in another apartment complex had moved, but the new resident told us to "Stay on the battlefield, fellas," which was funny and kept us going haha.

We had our monthly meeting w the Stake & Mission President yesterday, and we got the scoop on some top secret, cutting edge deeds coming to the mission.  So that's exciting. There'll be some [more] cool stuff [and people!] coming to the mish.

We drove back to Conway after that and I was able to stand in the circle for Prashanth, (Elder Evans super cool, Indian recent convert) to receive the Aaronic Priesthood! It was super cool to participate in the gospel and priesthood being able to bless more of the people around the world!


Sorry this email is so sporadic haha. But hopefully some of the stories were enjoyable! I can feel myself improving as a person and missionary, and just need to keep up the momentum! I'll issue the same challenge to y'all - be a slightly better person the next time you read an email from me. Share what you change!

Have a good week! Love y'all!
Elder Dahl

Email contact info for people we can teach in Conway:
oliver.dahl@myldsmail.net

Mail us people in big boxes who we can teach in Conway:
3080 Pebble Beach Rd, apt. #1
Conway, AR 72034



This weekly email brought to you by:
- David's Burgers
- Apartment buildings
- The surplus wolf population?
- The Sketchy parts of NLR & Mayflower