Season 5 Episode 10: Miracle Family and Phase 1!

ok so im drained from writing BYU essays so sorry this is a little short. but here's a cool thing 

So Sunday was our first in person meeting since covid began and a family of 4 from India came and asked if church was going on, to which I said yeah! at 10. And I thought that they were a member family, but as the sisters came they asked if they were a family we were teaching and we said no we thought they were members, and they were like, no, so that was pretty legit. inspiration from Bishop to begin this! the Church is true.

Fun thing, we got locked out of our twitter account but we are working out that. 

Also like Elder Christensen we are in phase one, so in person meetings, das, etc. as long as we have masks and social distance. But one other thing we can have is DISTRICT PDAY those have made a comeback and we are going to have it next week. yeet. 

our people are doing great. a little less contact because a lot of people are busy, and we are busy with the page so thats not a good combo, but hey! What can you do. somethings are just out of our control haha

anyways love you all! hope you have a great day! Remember to read and pray! 

Elder Dahl 2.0
LaSalle, Montréal
Canada 

Season 5 Episode 9: Silent Interview of Christ zoom edition

I'd say the highlight of the week, aside from interviews, was publishing the silent interview of Christ video on our facebook page. granted it took like 10 hours of the day before and that day to finish and get all the videos from the members, but it was all worth it. within the course of these last 4 days? its gotten 3,000 views and we haven't even advertised it. thats 3,000 doors knocked in 4 days. plus the night we published it, one of the members we did it with called us that night and she was so excited about how good it looked and the spirit that was there. (it was like a bomb of the spirit). plus the atlantic page wanted to cross post it on their page as well! I'm not wanting to be prideful or anything, but i'm proud of that video. editing it was frustrating with the hoops i had to jump though, but it was all worth it, and I couldn't have done it without Elder Noad, the Lasalle sisters, Sanchez and Scott and the wonderful members of the Lasalle Ward (not all of them...). so if you haven't seen it yet, stop reading this for 8 minutes and go check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1957904171011445

so that was most of this week, was having those lessons, and filming them. plus interviews and SMS meetings and posting/scheduling posts. lots of back and forth from home to eat, the church for wifi and posting, and back home to eat or sleep. plus putting together district councils, calling the district members, and having a straight party every day. its a good time. the meetings we go to are always so fun. 

in other news, Elder Naod found a phillpion lady that he's been off and on texting, and out of nowhere she asked a question about the trinity, which we answered and she was like "that makes more sense, but all these churches don't teach that" so we had a lesson a day later and picked her up! she's super elect and was a little confused when we told her that God had a body of flesh and bones. because in John 4:23 or something, it says that God is a Spirit and those who worship him, must worship him is spirit and truth (or something like that) so we are still tackling that. we already tried the in defense of truth part, but she didn't buy it, so then we sent a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley that talks about that very verse. and she's still not 100% convinced, but she is open minded and willing to pray about it. Her thought process was that Joseph Smith contradicts the bible in this way if God is a spirit. but as we know, that verse is mistranslated, and so misunderstood. especially when you take into account all the other ways God the Father is mentioned. its a solid concern that ive never had to work with before so its neat!

then Irish our RC has a neighbor that was interested, and we had 2 lessons with Her, her name is Starleen, and she is such a sweet lady. and we are so excited to work with her.

we also had another lesson with Ryan, the wonderful open minded psychologist guy and I absolutely love our discussions because they are based on passages in the book of Mromon, which strike comparisons to what he studies and is passionate about and he agrees with everything we discuss! its so fun to see gears turning. and he's so close! he just needs to read the book of mromon on his own a little more haha.

Webster is doing great! We had a great lesson with him the other day and really committed to him to read the book of mormon on his own, with a wave of promised blessings. so we have high hopes for him. We are also slowly working with Gilles, and plan to make him some cookies! because everyone likes those. we haven't had a whole lot of contact with Micheal and Etinene, so that's a bummer, but they'll come around. 

but that's just about this last week. the church is true, and it brings happiness. more than we can achieve on our own.

love you all and be sure to read your scriptures and get your prayers in. The world needs it.

Elder Dahl 2.0
LaSalle, Montréal
Canada 

Season 5: Episode 8: miracles and meetings

yeah so in short, the facebook page for the zone is taking off. we have found 2 new people that live in the area and are in the process of being referred and taught. one is a super elect lady that found the page off one of the advertisements for the page itself, she clicked it and saw a sister misisnary post , liked that, and then the same sister missionary reached out to her, developed a friendship, and is being referred to the sisters in her area. The other is a guy that just wants to know what we teach!

finding in the digital age bb

with the meetings that are happening as an sms there have been some really fun connections such as how the come follow me chapters are for alma 30 with Korihor. its fun that it just so happened that some of the pages received a lot of hate, and in the mix of it, one of the bible study groups i'm in on facebook had a post about mormons and everyone started hating on it. so fortunately i have some practice from the book of mormon ad in bedford, so i knew what to avoid and address. but here is the interesting thing. it's been a different controversial topic every time (meaning that in the course of my mission the topic of attack as been the same overall and then the next time it's a different one overall where the previous point hasn't been brought up (i hope that makes sense)) . first it was Joseph Smith or polygamy, then it was grace (and how it works), and then the thing that everyone was attacking was Heavley Mother and how we believe that She exists. so odd. the way i see it is that satan is running out of cards to play.

Honestly nothing can deter my faith in Jesus Christ and his Chosen Prophet Joseph Smith. because all this just fulfills prophecy, and goes to the need of a restoration. its so great. plus that being said, that means that Jesus Christ's Atonement is an actual force, that He knows me, and loves me, and wants me to come back to live with him, and everyone else. Yet with this conviction, I can't help but be a little saddened at the hardness and blindness of some people haha. no amount of testimony or logic for that matter can change people. and it's something I'm trying to figure out. I know it has a lot to do with pride, as the book of mormon can say, but it's also the lack of the spirit, and love. That is one of the conclusions I'm trying to settle, but that question is one that I'm still trying to find an answer to haha. plus i think i'm coming close to finding another partial answer because ive started to study the war chapters and i've gained so much so far!

but on to a different topic, Irish, our recent convert found us a person to teach! her name is Starlane (I think) and she is one of his neighbors! so we had a lesson with her yesterday that went so well! we are excited for her!

Kany and Ilgiz are also going great! we didt have a lesson with them, and they didn't come to church, so we'll have to move their date back a week so they can get the 3 church attendances. Gilles has been slowly working on his smoking but is doing well!

Michael and Etienne had a camp that they went to this week so well hopefully see them this week. Also we reached out to Ryan again! and he is up to meeting with us again! his life got more organized and calmer so he's up to learn more! and that was a happy day!

We were also able to have a handful of member lessons and have them help us on a facebook post. and it includes something called a silent interview! if you look it up on youtube (a silent interview on Christ) its so spiritual. and we are doin it with some members! so keep a lookout on that page haha. 

In other news, today we are picking up another Elder, Elder McCrea from Alberta (fb stocking is real) and so we'll be in a temporary trio for like a day and a half. 

The days are good, sometimes I get a little trunky, but we are too busy most of the time so it doesn't last haha.

love you all! Thank you for your prayers and be sure to keep saying them and reading your scriptures. Good things are coming even when we cant see. 

Elder Dahl 2.0
LaSalle, Montréal
Canada

Tacos so good

Some insights on the fb page

A Budweiser water tower yeet

Guacamole poutine (made me feel so fat but it was so gooooood)

La bon quees (it's how you say the restaurant that we got the poutine at)

Pretty 0.0

Season 5 Episode 7: America day in Quebec.

Unfortunately it wasn't as hype as the 4th of July in 'MERICA but we got to party at the mission office with President and sister low, the office elders, a few of the other SMS's, and aps. so that was a blast. president made some amazing homemade ice cream and man it was good. just drench it in some chocolat favoris and bam you're eating some of heavenly father's dessert. and speaking of heavens food, if you're ever in the area, there is this incredible, outstanding, (honestly trying to describe it is a waste of time because no words can describe how good it is) portuguese grill called Viana. and it's my favorite food. period. like you thought my dad's dutch oven was good. well you'll have to try this and then decide. so that's kinda a side note sorry haha

Plus transfers and I got to see Sister Mavy! From the OG district and now the last of the OG district is myself and elder Madsen.

This week was super busy and we are going to get a lot better at planning, just because we have got to balance a facebook page (being the primary source of finding at the moment, and filling the needs of the area and ward as well. and i'm glad that we have elders and sisters here because it would be rough if there was only us haha. so here are a couple things we learned! how to spend money on facebook. (we are pretty much expected to drop 677$ every month on the page) and to encourage missionaries to make some content with advertising! both of which have been working out for the most part, but there have been some late nights where we didn't get to the apartment on time... but hey. Repentance. also with the process of learning how to spend money was a training at the mission office and any time we get to go to the mission office is great. although we forgot to get some chocolat Favoris so that was a bummer.

Also since it was the end of the transfer, I had a handful of procrastinated car and apartment inspections to do which I've almost completed haha.

Another thing that we have almost completed is setting up our instagrams and twitters. There are a lot of guidelines including but not limited to, muting everybody (that doesn't help fulfil our purpose) and unfollowing (I had a lot of people i was following that i didn't know or that i added in Maine or truro that I didn't need lol. so that is just about done and twitter will be a little longer coming on, but we'll get there!

In other news, our miracle couple is doing fantastic. We had a lesson with them the other day where we asked them the baptismal interview questions and they answered all of them! Ilgiz had a harder time, but was still able to answer them. so we just have a handful of lessons to discuss and commandments to review! and then they are all set.

we also got to do some service! and will be able to do more community service very soon! but we got to go to the bishops storehouse for an hour (we got to cycle missionaries so others could have some fun too) so we got to serve with the mandarin elders Elder Wu and Zhou so it was good to get some distinct unity haha

then we had a handful of leadership and SMS meetings to make sure the mission was doing great and keeping missionaries motivated as well as to discuss and review how to keep the pages going!

then sunday came around and i was like, wait it's a special day, and then I was like ah! Elder Christensen birthday. plus the sabbath, and we had stake conference! It was pretty awesome. It is always fun to hear from president and sister Low and then some of the stake presidency. and one of the speakers spoke on racism and how we are all children of God and that was an AWESOME talk. I hear rumors on how America is kinda in a rough spot, but that's nothing that the gospel can't fix. 

but it's hard for people to see that. It's honestly quite fun to put book of mormon ads on the facebook market and in groups. it's remarkable how many people take the effort to make snarky anti or false statements while scrolling in the marketplace. This time i didn't reply to very many of the comments, only the ones that were so false, that any unsuspecting viewer wouldn't get any false impressions or information so that was good. unfortunately no one wanted one, but we did get two people that wanted bibles.

but nothing that anyone can say can deter my faith in Jesus Christ, His chosen prophet Joseph Smith, and His Church that has been restored to the Earth. I know this through the feelings i get when i read the book of mormon or listen to the words of the prophets. but seeing all the hate the book of mormon gets is another testimony because it fulfils prophecy, and because of Jeffery R. Holland's talk, safety for the soul. it's unfortunate that people choose to fight against something they don't know about. but the comparison to the hate the book of mormon gets and racism is kinda neat. almost as if it's inspired by satan.

love you all! keep up your prayers and scripture study. The church is true,  don't h8.

Elder Dahl 2.0

LaSalle, Montréal
Canada

Viana

Transfer squad

Boss wallpaper

Season 5 Episode 6: end of transfer; new assignment

so that news first ^^ 

On Thursday we asked the Lasalle sisters, sister Scott and Sanchez if they want to try a new finding idea which would consist of driving through prayers at the church (because the road its on is pretty busy) and they were down and told us to run it by president low because there could be gov. restrictions. So we did and at the end of the call he was like, hey since we have you hear on the phone, let me add sister low to the call... *adds sister low hey we have the LaSalle elders on the phone, oh hey! (us) heyyyy ister low! how are you! -oh geat! how are you -we are awesome thank you! 

then president said, we have a new assignment for you both.

and i was like oh shoot, the zone leaders (they have been making awesome content for the fb page)are probably the new social media specialists (because Elder tung is going home in 2 days) and we are the new zone leaders. but as president continued, he was like 

we'd like to call you as the new social media specialist! would you be willing to take on this assignment? and we were like YUUUUUUAAAAASSSS so then he told us of a could meetings we will go to and to connect with the mandarin elders to get the rundown of what we do. so that happened!

In short, what we do is we run the Disciples of Jesus Chrsit in Montreal facebook page, instagram page, and twitter page. So yes, that means that we'll also be using twitter, instagram and facebook in  our finding efforts. and there have been some tremendously amazing teaching moments from church leaders including Elder and Sister evans who are some of  the area presidency in Hong Kong. and they had a ridiculously spiritual message to share about our time and missionaries and the atonement of Jesus Christ. and in short, our time as missionaries (along with fulfilling our purpose) is given to us to learn. 

At this time (Sunday night) we had just had our zone conference and our MLC in which we discussed expanded access, or  to have our mobile devices freed more from Maas360. in which we would get the previously stated apps and more to further the work. in MLC there was (at least what the aps called it) a war in heaven on the topic of who should get expanded access. the point was brought up early on that missionaries would use this media inappropriately (because there's a lot of porn on instagram and memes on twitter) and having access to these aps would be a distraction. but the discussion also discussed that these are miracle making apps and many miracles have been made already through them (the aps and social media specialist had them already for a couple months)  share about how they have found and are teaching a few people (now i have since been converted to the miracles of instagram because I had it in Truro and Maine and found a couple people too. the discussion als went to the point that missionaries would follow special safeguards, but also be able to learn how to use this new midea wisely as well (becasue we have been using facebook for so long). 

now back to the devotional with Elder Evans, he talked about how the atonement is a changing force. and especially as a missionary, it should change you so you aren't the same person you were before you came back. and especially with media, the safeguards that are given to you shouldn't be removed from your mind when you return home. this time is given to you to learn how to use technology purposefully and not mindlessly. he went on to say that those who struggle with various things, focusing, or diligence using technology, this time on your mission is to help you learn how to use it so you don't get distracted and in a sense, not to throw your mission away when you go home to return to old or time wasting habits. he also made the point of clarifying a doctrine. he said that this is absolutely false: if you repeat the same mistake over and over again. abstain from that error, and fall back and make that mistake again, all the former times you made that error come back on you. be brought up a scriptiure in 3 nephi and also one in mosiah, but in short this scriputre is what sums it up, 

8 But ^aas oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real ^bintent, they were ^cforgiven. 

Moroni 6:8

He went on to say that repetitive sins require repetitive repentance. 

and this was just straight inspiration. no thought on what the mission was discussing concerning expanded access or nothing. but what he said rang true. it's hard to describe, but it's like, this was exactly what we needed to hear. 

And thus the Church is True and God lives and loves us.

over the next few days, we went to a SMS (social media specialist) meeting, where it was alsomst established, who would receive expanded access first and when, and it was seemingly decided that leadership would and eventually all who desired it (there would be some comapnionshiops htat would be to busy to figure out how to use these tools and others that would struggle). and thus another statement rings true: 

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” Joseph Smith.

what more can i say then that? and what's cool as well, is that our mission is one of 2 right now that has this permission until eventually most missions will have it. The work is hastening yet more.

The work in Lasalle is pretty awesome too. Before zone conference started, a family in the ward told us they had a friend and her husband wanted to be taught and baptised and we had a lesson with them on friday. Etienne turns 8 this month so we (if the spirit is right) will invite him and Michael to baptism. and then there's another guy Jay, who called us yesterday and told us about the wonderful member influences he has seen in his life and so if the spirit is right there, we may invite him to baptism too. to elder naod and i set a goal for 5 baptisms this transfer!

sorry this is a little long i was passionate and then aslo what to let you know of the awesomeness going on because of the goodness of God.

please remember to pray and read your scriptures. also if you have repetitive sins, its ok! repetitive repentance is a thing! and it does not stack on you. but do ask for help if the spirit tells you!

Love you all and so does God.

 

Elder Dahl 2.0
LaSalle, Montréal
Canada

1 took a trip to set up an apartment for some sisters whitewashing this week and passed by this cool place!

2 no Turing right on red on the island