Dallan's Letter 2-21-11

Hey y´all!
Things going good down here in Mexico. Kind of stressing but everything is going good. This week we had the baptism of la Hna. Noemi. She has been I think one of the funnest people to teach in my mission. She´s had quite the life and is a single mom with 4 kids. One of them ran away and the other three are somewhat crazy. We´ve been teaching her for 2 weeks now and it´s amazing how big of a change she had. When she was baptized you could automatically tell the difference in her and she could to. We always seemed to find her just in the right moment. I don´t think there was a visit that we made that didn´t save her from changing her mind about her baptism, actually she told us several times she didn´t want us to visit her anymore and we´d tell it was ok but that we just wanted to share a quick message with her before we left and always after the visit she´d be happy as ever to get baptize. The Lord helped us quite a bit this week. Things seemed to be going down hill but in the end everthing came together.
This week we had divisionmania. I have so many reimburstments it´s not even funny. My zone is an island zone. All the areas are like an hour apart. So we went to check on the missionaries and help them out. And even though we really didn´t spend time in our area we were able to find someone to baptize for the next two weeks. I can´t believe that this week I will be completing 21 months in my mission and I´m still learning how to follow the spirit and how to have more faith in Christ. You come in the mission thinking you´re going to learn all there is to the Gospel and the longer you´re here the more you realize that really you haven´t even touched the tip of the iceburg. But I love it. I love learning more and I´m glad that God has given me opportunities to learn. It was funny, this week we asked in a prayer that we could have more patience, and in return we recieved so many trials that tested our patience. Not exactly what we were hoping was going to happen but it sure helped us to learn patience hahaha. On saturday we forgot my camera in the house and we needed it for the baptism. So we left the baptismal font filling up and we went to go get my camera. When we came back the church was flooded! We didn´t think it was going to fill up so fast. But we just grabbed the mops and started mopping away. At the end we realized that we didn´t even complain or whine. We had learned to be patient. It was a funny experience but a fun one for us . Well i love you all and hope that everything is going good down there. I´m so glad I´m not cold like you guys are. =)hahaha Love you all!
Elder Dallan Valle

Jay's letter 2-21-11

Hey!

Tell Dad i loved the pictures he sent this week. very cool (: hahaha.
ok, i have a list of things to write here. lets see how it goes (:

This week we had divisions for one day with Elder Conti frm Paraguay. It was one of the funnest days of my mission! He was such a fun Elder. We would try to knock doors and set fechas in less than five minutes. Of course, we were reverent and spiritual, but it was really fun (: we just had so much fun (: it rained alot that day. i love it when it rains here.

There is a bunch of protesting this week in my area. Its crazy, they stand in the middle of the busy streets and cause crazy traffic and light stuff on fire. Then they put their kids out in front of them and make them chant things. como....Queremos Comer! and it´s ridiculous (: but yeah, it´s kinda creepy actually. so, that´s like happening right outside of our pench. i think the people can´t pay for housing and they are protesting the expense or something like that. algo asi.

well we did service this week (with elder conti) and we went and painted this ladies floor and her wall...with rags. it´s kinda hard to explain. it was more like we were staining her floor. anyways, it was crazy and it made my legs really sore actually. but anyways, she tried to pay us, and we couldnt accept it. she was heart broken and really nice, so she gave us bolsas of food. a bunch. we took it back to the apt. and thought about eating it, and then me and my comp decided to give it to people who actually needed food. so we went to this house with this family who was living off of tang and bread. pretty crazy situation. so we dropped off the food and rang the door bell and left and it was so fun. i love doing service! haha. so that was kinda one of the highlights of the week.

I have given many school blessings this week. It´s really sad to see some of these homes with out priesthood holders. and so, yeah, we gave a bunch and it was really a neat experience (: priesthood holders in the home is a huge blessing, and that is definitly something i learned this week (:

funny part of this week. we were in sacrament meeting and we were singing the sacrament. there is no piano or anything, and so, the bishop had to sing the example melody first so we knew how it went. anyways, he started singing the song, but the wrong melody. and so the whole time, the ward was singing, and it was to the tune of a different horrible. it was messed up! it was crazy. haha, but that´s ok (:

We are praying for miracles this transfer. We have a lot of fechas and no one is coming to church, and so it was kinda dissapointing. like mom said in her letter, yes, the people can be very cold, but every now and then, you get the gold people who are really nice (: so, we are working. i love you all! Have a great day! I´ll send photos.

Love,
Elder Valle

Jay's letter 2-14-11

Week was...quality (: We worked really hard this work to get people to church and no one attended. It killed me! But thats ok (: We will get people there this week. Happy Valentines Day everyone and more importantly....Happy One Year Birthday to Penny! I will bring something home from Argentina later. I miss that girl. hahaha. We worked hard this week and we were teaching this really cool family that we found by doing service. They were really nice and we went to go pick them up from church and then they did´nt want to go. I was like...what happened between yesterday and today?? It killed me but we can get them next Sunday. I don´t know how much time I will have this week but nothing too exciting happened. Today for P-day we made tin foil dinners, it was really fun (: Well, I am going to see what I can do about the picutres. hey, why did dallan get a new camera? Hahaha. Good Week. It was my comps birthday. we went to a members house and this happened. (: hahaha. I made this cake for my cmops birthday. mom, i made the frosting from scratch. are you proud of me? (:
Sorry for short letter (: I kinda miss the spanish candy hearts and funny poems that grandma would write. hahaha, but its all good. I am blessed with such a good family (: Thanks guys.
Love you guys,
Elder Valle

Dallan's Letter 2-14-11

Hey everyone!
Guess what!?! two weeks in a row that I can write a good letter! Miracle! hahaha. First off let me start by saying HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha truth is my comp and I forgot it was valentines day until we went out to go shopping today go figure. And of course second thing to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This thursday she is turning 1! wow how fast does time go by. I remember being in the MTC when Erin told me that she was pregnant. I pretty proud of my niece though.

This week was a hetic week and me and my comp were talking about it. I told him that I was going to write you guys the life in a week of a zone leader. So that`s just what I`m going to do starting of with last tuesday....
Tuesday- we started of the day going to district class. Elder Quiñones taught a stunning class but we left early because we had to go and see the President. We had to travel to my first church I started off in to hand off letters and what not. It cut us back like an hour but we didn`t mind. We worked normally. Nothing extraordinary that day. We had to go and take money out for my comp because we`ve been having so many interviews hahaha.
Wednesday- um.... oh ya the gringos had to go and renew their passports or something like that. We stayed with the mexicans and did divisions. They ate all of our food in the house and stole my comps badge clip thing for his name tag. hahaha it was crazy but we sure did have fun.
Thursday. The gringos got back and the good news is they told me I got two packages (one from mom and the other from miranda I`m guessing) bad news is they forgot to bring it to me.... so I still got to wait. We sent them off and we tried to work but we ended up having to do an emergency interview an hour away... so we went and stayed over the night. There were`nt any beds hahaha so i slept on the floor but it hurt my back too much so i slept sitting up.... They thought it be fun to take pics. Man that was a cold night
Friday- We wake up and go home but to our lovely surprise we accidently stole the keys of the other missionaries. They called us and we had to go running back so they could open up the chappel for the mission. We worked the rest of the day. It rained a lot.
Saturday- Rain still didn`t stop and we didn`t either. We had a baptism of la hna. Susana. A family of 8 completed! finally! We`re pretty happy.
Sunday- Church and calling in all the numbers. phew..
Today- I had the grand privilege to go and visit my converts from my first area. What a neat experience! Here`s all the pictures of them. Our neighbor gave us teddy bears for valentines day. She`s only 5 yrs old mom no worries hahahaha.
Well Love you all. Hope this letter is acceptable. g2g.
Con Amor, Elder Dallan Valle

Jay's letter 2-7-11

FECHAS. Thats what this week was all about. We found a ton of new people to teach and we got a ton of people comitted to baptism. It´s awesome. They said they will only do it if God gives them an answer that this church has the right authority and that Joseph Smith was an actual profeta. So, I am praying hardcore that they will say the prayer and ask God. It kills me to see these people get so close to baptism and tell us they are too busy to prayer. If they would just pray and be sincere, there are a ton of blessing. All I can do is prayer and be the best teacher I can be. We set 12 fechas in one week. WHAT?!? Ah, so bomb! I saw this lady and her daugher carrying Wal Mart bags uphill to her house one day. I ran up to her and asked her to carry her bags to her house. She lived kinda far. We carried them up and talked. She invited us into her house. They are SOOO cool and I know the Lord helped us run into them at that moment. I know for sure, that it was not a coincidence. We came back another day un announced and taught about baptism. They all have fechas and want to come to church. I have so much faith in them right now. I love this work (:

I was on the news this week in Argenitina. We were in downtown Mendoza. There are two HUGE soccer teams here named River and Boca. Please ask Harisson and ask him if he has heard of them and tell me what he says. But yeah, they were selling tickets down town and we happened to be in the middle of it all. The news ran up to me and started interviewing me asking me how I think the game will turn out. They talked really fast. I am going to send you a picture my comp took. It was crazy.

Things are going good down here. We made the horchata. It was alright. It tasted funny and it was missing algo. Pero, no pude everiguar que paso. Asi que, lo bebimos. Era...uhm...medio rico. Hahaha. We had to use the cloth bag that hold my sheets to strain it. Hahaha.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Valle

Dallan's Letter 2-7-11

Hey everyone things going great down here and guess what I have like 10 min to write you guys today!! wow it`s a record isn`t it. What happens is that we have to use our own time to update the referances of the zone and well.... my zone always gets a lot of references because it`s a big city. But this week went fairly well. Now you`re all probably wondering how the sealing went. Bad news is that it didn`t happen... The stake pres. didn`t find time to interview the brother so they`ll be going next month. The good part is that they are still going and I now got a camera hahaha. But sorry about the false alarm. It`s sad when those things happen though.
The good news is that we had another baptism this week. Her name is Cynthia. She was cold and didn`t want to take of her coat so she`s the one in the black coat just so you all know. We found her in the area binder, that`s never happened to me before, so it`s a pretty neat story. Be nice if I could find elder kowousky who found her ( that really was his name, poor mexicans trying to say that hahaha) But it looks like we have another for the week that`s coming and another two for the following week. We`ve have seen a waterfall of blessings for our obedience and diligence.
Well I must be going. I love you all and miss you. Take care and enjoy the pics!
Love Elder Valle

Dallan's Letter 1-31-11

Editor's note: oh, dear. I'm beginning to worry about Dallan's grammar, spelling and English in general. ~Kelly

Hey everyone!
things going good but I´m going to have to apolagize because this is going to be a 3 minute letter! I don´t got money and it´s coming tommorow. That´s what you get for being a Zone leader. People don´t have money and you got to end up buying their tickets. Fun hahahaha. Na i dón´t mind too much. It´s all reumburstable (who knows if i spelt that word right) Anyways, my new comp is way fun he reminds me a lot of my first comp but it´s different now that I understand spanish. We´re having success but no baptisms last week. This week for sure though. and A SEALING!!!!!!!!!!!! there is nothing better. Well love you all. Take care.
Love elder Dallan Valle

Jay's letter 1-31-11

HEY!

Todo esta bien, aca en Municipal. Tuvimos una semena buena, un poco pesado, pero si. Tuvimos una meta para encontrar a lo menos, 14 nuevos. Era dificil. Pero, with much obedience and work, the lord blessed us with 15 new people to teach! Yeah!!! So yeah. I have a list here of things to talk about and I will just go in that order (:

We had divisions and I went to this place called La Favorita. Hahaha. You have to take a 35 minute bus ride to get to your area from the pench, and then come back for the siesta and study a little and then go back teach, and take the bus back again. Its crazy (: But it was fun for one day. We we walking in the dirt roads, like always, and this kid came running up to us and said, Elderes Elderes! My Abuela te neccesita! So we went over to her house really fast because we thought it was emergency. She said, Elders, Yo tengo un tentacion muy grande ahora para fumar. We were like wow....okay. She has a fecha and wants to get baptized but we taught her more of why the word of wsidom is so important. We asked her to get on her knees and start parying for help and that we would kneel down with her too. She refused to say the prayer aloud in front of us because she was embarrased. We kept offering and she kept refusing. So me and the other elder, we got down on our kneews with out saying anything and folded our arms and just kneeled there while she kneeled there. My comp said, Padre Celestial....and then he went quiet. We didnt say anything, and then like 30 seconds later, she started praying. She just let it all out and started crying. The spirit was really strong after that. I asked her when she was done, how she felt. She said, she felt waay better. It was like a miracle she started praying, but it was amazing. Good little experience in La Favorita. (:
We have WalMart. And so we also had TACO NIGHT. They have tabasco sauce, and tortillas!!! It was awesome. So we had taco night and it was super super great and super yummy. I forgot how much I missed hot mexican stuff.
We got someone to do our laundry in my area!!!! It was awesome!!! I love these clean clothes (: (:
We are teaching this giy named Diego who is really cool and we have a lot of faith with him. He really doesnt have much time to talk (like every other person here), because they are always busy. So yeah. We set him up with a fecha and everything. I hope we get some good baptisms this transfer.
Last night we were walking and we saw this guy pulling weeds. We went up and offered to help and he said, no its ok but thanks! (: but I pointed to my muscles and said. Hay que aprovechar de eso. Hahaha. So we rolled up our sleeves and started pulling weeds. When we got done he made us these amazing smoothies, showed us his garden and we sat and talked in his backyard and he invited to play ping pong. it was great. we didnt really teach him anything, but sometimes, I think the best thing a missionary can do, is just set a good example and give service with a smile. I think that, sometimes, we just gotta show them that we are normal. (: It is great (:
I am going to try and send pictures now. But yeah (: good week. I love you all!

Elder Valle