Merry Christmas

We were able to Skype with Dallin this morning! It was so great to see him and hear how he's doing. Today the missionaries were Skype-ing with their families and then they were going to teach later. All the missionaries were able to have a Christmas dinner at their Mission President's house and he said it was delicious! Dallin said he was interested to see what Christmas would be like in the mission field and he said of course it's different but in a good way. He said he's been studying a lot about the Atonement lately and encouraged us to study more on the Atonement as well. His testimony is growing and it's great to see that. He wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!

Temple Visit

First off, I apologize for not sending an email last week or updating the blog...Dallin's email last week was so brief and about 4 sentences long, he didn't have new things to say. This week's email isn't much different. We will have to discuss this issue more when we talk to him next week for Christmas :)
Dallin was able to go to the El Salvador temple for the first time and really loved it. It is such a gorgeous temple. Also a couple scary moment this week, he was in his first earthquake! I'm guessing it wasn't a very large earthquake, thank goodness. One day when they were on the bus, 3 men got on the bus with guns!!! Dallin didn't realize what was happening and their stop was coming up so he just said to one of the gunman "excuse me, I need to get off here." In the meantime, his companion jumped off the bus while it was still moving! Glad to hear they're both ok.
They are having success with baptisms and said they baptized a man named Paolo and they also have a few more baptisms this week.
Enjoy the pictures...

 

 

                                At Paolo's baptism

                                The mini Christmas tree we sent him!

 





Cold Front in El Salvador

Dallin says a "cold front" hit...to him, it's still just perfect weather but the folks of El Salvador think its freezing. As he put it, "everyone is acting like the sky just dumped 10 feet of snow, everyone is freezing and has snow gear on. Im just walking like normal." They love the heat!
Elder Hazelgren gave the noche de hogar (family night) lesson to his ward. He said it went very well! He also taught the English class for the week.
With Dallin becoming a trainer last week, he got his first "greenie." He is from El Salvador and has been called to serve in Peru. His companion is waiting for his visa so in the mean time, Dallin is training him.
We hope we get to hear about some great Christmas experiences he might have this month!

Trainer

Well Elder Hazelgren has been made a trainer! He is very excited about that but also a little nervous since he just finished his own training. He will be a great trainer. They had another baptism this week. Dallin has asked us to pray for his recent converts because several of them are having a hard time staying active in the LDS church and want to go back to their previous religion if they had one. Also, the new rule of only having 30 min to write emails is actually from the Area Seventy over Latin America. We are pretty disappointed we get short emails from him and we understand that now most of you won't be getting the weekly email from him. He does receive letters in about two weeks and it takes about that long to get letters from him, so writing him might be a good way to hear from him individually if you'd like. His address is on the right hand side. He included lots of pictures this week!

                                 Classic Dallin face...the guy on the left is the recent convert

                                       Karate!

                                        Seaside Mariachi Band

Interesting Week

Dallin had several interesting things happen this week. The first one being helping a couple whose marriage was suffering. He said the husband is younger than he is and they have one child. He said they were able to help this couple and hopefully they can strengthen their marriage. He said they were able to go to a lake in El Salvador, he took pictures but wasn't able to send them due to lack of time. (Hopefully we get them soon!) They met the founder of Karate! He is from El Salvador and speaks English. It sounds like they were able to give him a missionary lesson and Dallin was able to teach it in English. On Sunday they had two baptisms so they had to start filling the font on Saturday night. They began filling it at 6:30 and went back at 9:00 to check it and the whole church was flooded!! Dallin knelt down in the only dry spot in the church and prayed for a miracle. He said when they came back the next morning at about 5:00 am, the water problem was resolved. A tender mercy of the Lord. The two baptisms were teenage boys who are dying to serve missions! They use Dallin's missionary badge and reverse roles a little and pretend Dallin is the investigator :) It is so fun hearing about all these great experiences.

Investigators

Dallin said they get new investigators often but have trouble keeping some of the new investigators to keep lesson times. Also, a few of their recent converts are struggling to stay active in the church. Dallin said three of their new investigators are teenage boys who want the priesthood so bad!
He said they've started contacting more people just on the streets so they can get more people to hear their message.
Elder Gallegos and Elder Hazelgren were able to help an investigator re-do his flooring. Most people in El Salvador have just dirt floors, but Dallin said they put concrete in this man's house.
Dallin is doing great and is such a good example. He is very excited about sharing the gospel and its great to hear that excitement in his emails each week.

Great Enthusiasm

Due to the time constraints for emails now, Dallin just wrote a quick email to our family and sent some pictures. He is doing great and sounds really happy. He's very enthusiastic about spreading the gospel which is a great example for all of us. He said he practically makes his companion run to every appointment! Dallin was able to make his first pupusa this week. He said his first convert is who taught him how to make pupusas and she couldn't stop laughing at him because "gringos" aren't very good at making pupusas :)

 

 

                                          How Dallin spent his Halloween...

                                          Eating with members in his area