Attack Wasps and Heaven has Wifi: Confirmed

It's been another good week!

My last companion, Elder Johnson has returned home to Salt Lake City, Utah! I got a new companion, Elder Henderson of Blackfoot, Idaho, and we are both serving in Collierville still. Elder Henderson was Elder Johnson's companion the transfer before I was, also in Collierville, so it's been helpful having someone who kinda knows the area already!

The missionary work highlight of this week was getting our golden investigator to commit to baptism! She's 18 and getting ready for college in the next month, and it's just awesome to see her recognize the holy ghost and act on it, and seek after doing the right thing!

We've been doing a lot of door to door knocking, and it finally seemed to pay off on Wednesday! We got 2 return appointments with 2 younger mom's with a couple younger kids - perfect potential investigators whose lives I know the gospel could bless immensely. When we went back at our designated appointments, one wasn't home and the other had the tv on and didn't answer the door. Soooo... that was a bummer.

Shared a short conference talk on the Book of Mormon from President Monson with one of our investigators (the one who dropped her baptismal date because she's not ready to leave her church.) I asked her what she thought about it and she just managed to reply "it's awesome," and as she said it I felt the spirit so strongly. How blessed we are to have a living prophet on the earth whose words are God's words for our time!

Another special thing about that is that I played the video over wifi. (Thanks, xfinity & brother Boggs for the hookup! ...or so I assumed). As we left, elder Henderson asked how I was able to play the video. I told him xfinity, probably. But then he said that his iPad hadn't showed any wifi signal at all. So, my new theory: Heaven has wifi and God put a little wifi hotspot in that room so we could testify of President Monson as a prophet of God. Cool little miracle!

As we were leaving her house, somebody (who may very well have been drunk?) approached me as I was getting into the car. I panicked a little bit, but he just asked for one of our books, so I gave him a Book of Mormon and he stumbled off haha. We'll see if anything happens from that. Planting seeds, I guess?

We also finally got in touch with the lady overcoming a heroin addiction again, it had been a while since we had gotten to teach her! She had just gotten back from rehab and was looking so much better. I gave her a book of Mormon, to which she incredulously asked, "You're giving this to me?" as if I'd just given her a million dollars or a pony. I then had one of those moments missionaries always talk about where they are able to testify and teach and then when they're walking away they realize they had no idea what exactly they said. The spirit definitely helped me teach her so much. I felt its help as I looked her in the eye and told her that the Book of Mormon was proof that the powers of Godliness are available to her, and that by reading this book God will help her continue to overcome her addiction. That was a promise from the big man through me, not from me. So it was awesome to recognize that I was being used go really help someone.


Had dinner at a Venezuelan family's house who just moved here from Idaho. We had arapas and they were super crazy good. So that's another culture's food I've had that I wasn't expecting! 

Forgot to text our district leaders that we arrived back home safe one night and uh woke up to some missed calls and urgent texts that we somehow slept through. Lesson learned there! 

Walked inside a taco bell for the first time. I've had TB before but I've never been in one. Elder Henderson had a gift card we used for dinner one night. The double chalupa is pretty dang good, just saying. 

Saturday was the another eventful day! One of my favorite families in the area, the Gaars, and their daughter and her family, took us out to their farm for breakfast. The weather was perfect that day, it felt like a pleasant Idaho morning and it made me so happy. It was about a 40 minute drive away, and it was nice to just look out the window and enjoy the beautiful green countryside. We fished in their little pond for a while, catching catfish and carp (?) and just enjoying the morning. We were there for a good 2-3 hours and it was just so nice. Very fun way to end the week and start the day!

Then, after we'd gotten home to plan and study, the bishop of the 1st ward invited us over to a ward pool party to help finish off the leftover food. We figured that was a service we could render, so we headed over there and enjoyed hot dogs and desserts before carrying on with the day. 

Well, we didn't get too far because in the first apartment complex we were in, Elder Henderson got stung 3 times in the ankles by some wasps. He was about half a flight of stairs ahead of me, and somehow didn't notice the nest of wasps under one of the stairs. As I rounded the corner and saw the nest and started backing up to say something, it was too late. He dropped his scriptures and iPad and we ran down 3 flights of stairs like it was nothing. Then he had to go back up the opposite staircase to grab his tablet and he managed to do that without further attacks.

We hurried back to the apartment and did some first aid stuff. Elder Henderson's ankles were pretty swollen, and he wasn't in much shape to keep walking around yet, so while he iced and elevated, etc., I got to take a nap. I've missed naps. Two days later and one of his stings is still pretty swollen, but he's surviving!

So anyway, it's been an interesting week! Lots of highs and lows as usual haha. But I wouldn't trade them!

Much love!
Elder Dahl


PS: email me during the week sometime! oliver.dahl@myldsmail.net
And my mailing address is still the same!

866 Schilling Farm #103,
Collierville TN 38017