Dallan's Last Letter 5-23-11

I`m not going to write a lot this week. Sorry but I`m going to send the letter I sent my President and my mom or dad will translate it for you. I cant believe this is the last letter I^m sending home but it is. It`s going to be a fun week. I^m going on divisions with the president this week and if all goes right, and I mean all goes right, I`ll be going to a sealing of Carlos and Aleida this week. I baptized a year and a half ago. Pray that it will happen because nothing will make me happier. I love you all. I`ll SEE you all next week.

Love Elder DallanValle

Hola Presidente,

No creo que tenga mucho que decirle más que gracias por todo de lo que me ha enseñado. Doy gracias a Dios por todo lo que he aprendido en mi misión. Amo mi misión con todo mi corazón. No me arrepiento por nada de lo que he hecho porque sé que lo he hecho bien. Sé que lo hice como el Señor quería que lo hiciera y para mí no hay nada que me da más gozo que eso. Sé que Dios vive y también Su hijo Jesucristo, me he dado cuenta que real es lo que yo hago. He disfrutado tanto sirviendo el Señor, es un privilegio servirle y claro que sí Presidente que entregaré todo a Él como me lo pidió. Lo haré para siempre. Gracias por todo. Nos vemos pronto

Con amor,
Elder Valle

TRANSLATION:
Hello President,
I don't think I have much to tell you other than thank you for all that you have taught me. I thank God for all that I have learned on my mission. I love my mission with all my heart. I don't regret anything I've done here because I know that I have done good. I know that I've done it the way the Lord wanted me to do it and for me there is nothing that gives me more joy than that. I know that God lives and also His son, Jesus Christ and I've realized that what I have done is real. I have enjoyed serving the Lord so much, it is a priveledge to serve Him and of course, President, I will give to Him all that he has asked of me. I will do it forever. Thank you for everything. I'll see you soon.

With Love,
Elder Valle

Jay's Letter 5-23-11

Wow. I might be leaving Municipal soon, and I am hating the idea because I love this area so much. We really started from nothing, beginning with a bad relationship with the bishop and no baptisms and it has really been a huge growing place for me. I remember at the beginning that i couldn´t understand everyone and now, it´s not a problem. I remember finding all my converts at the doorstep and having to leave a lot of people who didn´t want to progress. I never liked being the seed planter, but everyones got to do it one time or another right?
Well this week we had the baptism of two really cool boys named Leonel and Francisco Stember. Leo is 14 and Fran is 19. Their family is really humble. About a year ago they won the lottery (100,000 pesos) and the whole neighborhood knows. They didn´t buy anything silly and invested in a buisness and made their sons work in a internet cafe that they bought. Smart people, but really receptive. They were really fun to teach and hard to get animated at first, but we did it!

Also, we baptized Fredi Cabrera. I am pretty sure I already explained his situation before, but needless to say, after 11 years of missionaries passing by, he did it. He did it on his own. I would be lying if I said that me and elder rios got him to be baptized. Something I am learning is that these people are not my converts, but that they are their own converts. I just presented the truth, and on their own, they prayed and felt the spirit. I am having too much fun atlking to people and trying to get into houses. But, I really feel like I had fun this week and me and elder rios have done so much together. We dont get a long like best friends, but we did everything possible to make it work. fun stuff. Well, I have a ton of photos to send, so just wait and that will be better than the letter (: dallan gets home soooo soon!!!! ag. Beck leaves today. YOu really really should go to his homecoming talk. Ask his mom when it is. I love you guys!
Elder Valle

just found out! I am going to Chimbas in San Juan to be a district leader.

Dallan's Letter 5-16-11

Hey everyone,

Can you believe it! This is the second to last letter that I`m going to write you guys…. I feel so weird right now. I never really thought that I`d get to this point. Can`t really explain how I feel. Nervous, excited, sad, happy, scared… hahaha but truth be told I know that I have served well my mission. I know that I have done all that I could and that I can still do so much in the 2 weeks that I have left.

This week we had interviews with the President and by far this was the best interview that I`ve had with him. Because I`m the Zone leader I`m always always last and I don`t get much time to talk with him because he has such a tight schedule but this time I loved it and got to talk to him a little bit longer than normal. This week is going to be fun. That`s all I`m going to say =) my last letter to you guys should be the bomb. But you`ll have to wait a week to see what`s going to happen.

Me and my companion are getting along better but I`m not going to lie the heat is killer right now. It`s gotten up to like 110 or 115 degrees here… I drink like a gallon of water a day, but it doesn`t keep us from doing the work. This truly is one of the hardest areas I´ve had and I´ve needed to have a lot of patience. It`s weird how different people are when they`re only from a different state, but all of them are children of God and they all deserve the same right to hear the Gospel.

This week we had a ward activity and we brought all the missionaries to our ward and had a choir in the sacrament meeting, stressful to put all together but worth it. It helped us out a lot in our ward as well in the Zone. This week it looks like we`ll break the Zone record here so we are very excited for what´s to come.

Well I`ll see you all soon. I know that the Lord lives. That He loves me. And knowing that has made these two years the best years of my life. I love you all.

Elder Dallan J Valle

Jay's Letter 5-16-11

well this could be my last week here in municipal and time went by fast!

i learned a lot this week with Elder Rios.

1) how to make manillas (braclets). they are amazing and actually not that hard. we are going to centro today to look for more thread and i will try to make come for you guys. columbians are super fun to live with.
2) humility, love and charity. hahaha. we have not been too happy with eachother this week, but i defnitly learned a lot. he is a lot bigger than me and to make someone mad like him is not really the best thing to do. haha, but don´t worry. it´s not as bad as it seems. the main thing is that, sometimes you have to humble yourself first. if you think that they have the problem, and they think you have the problem, you are never going to change. i had to ask my self sometimes..."elder, what can i do for you so that we can get a long better?" its a process and it´s totally better to learn it now, than later right?

we are preparing the stember boys to get baptized. at least two of them this weekend. if we see a mircale we will also baptize the dad of the flia. cabrera. and when i say miracle, i really mean it. the flia. cabrera has a son on the mission. the mom is the stake primary president in mendoza (stakes are way bigger here in south america) and her daughers are all real good girls who have callings too. the only thing left is the father who has probably talked with more than 100 missionaries about baptism. i have been here four months and still cant read his emotions or find his need. he has always been a friend of the missionaries and nothing more, so me and elder rios really tried to just be serious with him. his missionary son called him on mothers day and really gave it to him. i think that is why he is planning to baptize this saturday more than anything. this family can be eternal and they are all amazing people. so pray for alfredo cabrera and we will see how things go this week (: but the work is good and i am really trying to leave this are strong. i will miss it if i get transfered.

also, president is leaving. NOOOOOOO!!!! he is one of the most amazing men i have ever met. he uses his priesthood all the time and tries so hard to be obedient and is an example of faith and success. gonna miss that guy. well, i hope that nampa is doing well. i miss you guys. pictures to come hopefully!



love, elder valle

Jay's letter 5-9-11

hey! happy mothers day mom! i love you!
it was great to get to talk to everyone on the phone and i hope that it was fun for everyone. ana still sounds like her self and marie too. i forgot how much marie doesnt care for emotions. hahaha. well this week we have been working with the family stember. they are from germany kind of...haha. their grandparents are but they are morrochitos, and so i don´t know how they ended up looking like latins. anyways, they are good kids, but we got them to church and they liked it. if you could pray for the stember kids that would be great! they are humble kids and don´t really like to participate in the things of the world. good kids. we are also teaching to crazy kida named ezekiel y jorge. they are best friends which is really weird because j one is crazy and the other is really really tranquilo. but they are best friends...hahaha. they want to be free of sin and thats why they want to get baptized.

hey so i don´t know why dad didn´t talk in english but i guess it was pretty fun! i can tell that everyone is getting ready for dallan to come back home and get MARRIED. hahahaha, jk. slow down there. I had a dream last night that dallan bought a huge house when he got home and that he was just super rich. hahaha, when we all know he is going to be dirt poor.

this week i also ate a lot of empandas and they were so good. the bad thing about empenadas is i cant stop eating them...so i get really fat. but its the noodles that i don´t eat a lot of. this week should be good, i´m getting really really used to the area that i am in and so, it is hard to look for new people and get pumped you know? but it´s all good, it´s not like im slacking off. haha. ex missionaries totally understand.


oh, erin, happy mothers day to you. you are doing a fantastic job with penny. not that i have mother experience but, yeah. keep it up i guess (: hahaha. i saw another girl about the same age as penny when i went to go buy potatoes at a kiosco....a kiosco is, well, make harrison explain it to you. but she was a girl that really looked like a latin penny. it was so funny...and her name was amy. they gave her an american name. hahaha, so keep it up with the whole mother thing and have fun i guess. im bad at giving advice to mothers....so...just, yeah. happy mothers day. hope you had fun in portland without me (: hahahaha. kidding.
well, family i might get working on sending some photos, i think only have like two to send this week, but we will see. but thats all i can think about to write today. miss you guys!
elder valle

Dallan's Letter 5-9-11

Hey everyone,

It`s kind of weird knowing that I`ll be sending only three more letters home to you guys… Kind of get all teary eyed thinking about it, but I`m happy to see everyone soon. This week we had the baptism of Cristobal!!! What an awesome guy, it was so fun teaching him. He had to overcome a lot of things to get baptized but he did it!!! Actually he decided on Thursday that he wanted to get baptized so we had to pull together a baptismal service super fast but it was super fun and super special. He actually speaks really good English so it was fun practicing my English with him.

It rained this week and then it got super hot and then it rained and then it got super hot… man it was like being in a steam pot this week. But the good thing is that we got to be in an air conditioned room for a couple days while we had the zone council. It was a neat experience and very uplifting. Just what I needed. Last zone council…. Crazy. It`s kind of weird thinking that I won`t go to another one. But oh well.

Well I wish that I could write a super big letter but I got to take care of some stuff for the zone as always. Don`t worry. I`ll tell everyone in person soon.

Oh…. I forgot something…. HAPPY MOTHER`S DAY!!!!!!! To all my aunt`s to my sister, to all the sister in the ward and stake and every other person that`s a mom and of course to my own personal mom who I love dearly. It was so much fun talking to you ma.

Hope everyone has a good day. Hope you like the photos.

Love Elder Dallan Valle

Dallan's Letter 5-2-11

Hey everyone!!!!Things going good here in tabasco. Man it is getting pretty darn hot!!!!! It´s an oven here but I´m loving it to death. Man I about cried Reading all my letters today because all of them reminded me that i´m coming home this month… crazy how fast this all is going but i´m going to enjoy the Little that i can.

This area is a lot different from my other areas in almost every aspect. I guess i´m just used to Veracruz. Hahaha. But it really is cool down here. The people aren´t as open as the veracuzanos but the people that we do have in teaching keep their promises so that´s a nice thing. I was so happy to here that my Ward back home baptized!!!!!!! Made me so happy to see that when my dad wrote me that letter. Hopefully i´ll be able to get to know the missionaries who beat the baptizing drought.

Me and my comp are getting a long. We´ve been talking a lot and doing all we can to improve. His style of teaching and my style are completely different and it took some time for us to get used to it but now we´re getting into the hang of things. If all goes right we should have a baptism this week or the next. I´m excited. I love baptizing. This week we´ll have zone council and i´m soooooo happy because I don´t have to travel bus! Just a taxi and I´ll be there. Well I don´t got time to write today so i´m sorry. But I´m sending a pic of a fish i ate.





Hahaha hope the girls like it. Love you all.

Elder Dallan Valle

Jay's letter 5-2-11

oh man they killed bin laden?!? crazy. well, here was my killer week (:

we started this week with a good old zone conference. it was fun! the president gave a powerful talk and so did hermana lindahl! i sent a copy to you guys! it was fun and powerful, the conference. We won the zone cup for the month of April

hey the day of the mother is coming up! are you excited!? i dont have to much to talk about and so be prepared with a list of questions because it´s going to be great! (:

i have my first argentine jersey. it´s hot. i feel more like a missionary now. i have a picture. it´s not a messi, but its just a classic argentine jersy.

oh man, it´s starting to get cold here in mendoza! frozen hands, but oh how i love it. i love fall, it´s fun and cold and the members give you really yummy sweet milk stuff. i don´t know how they make it (: but its wonderful. i think i might start wearing gloves, it´s that cold. i remember that box in the front closet of the house full of totally random gloves and old scarves that were collected over years. hahaha. but its all good. i slept with thermals on last night.

i am beginning to read the book of mormon. dang it, that book is just killer good! it´s a good read man! i don´t know why the people don´t read it. because there is no way it was not written through the power of god and his profetas (: freak.

hey, can i talk to "cousin" jose on mothers day? that would be fun. just cause he speaks spanish you know. well this last sunday was freaking sweet! three of my converts got up and gave testimony of Joseph smith and baptism and how it changes lives. it was great because we had investigators there and they felt the spirit of the testimony of our investigators. ahhhh. one of the best days of the mission. i almost cried (: it was sweet! i can´t wait to talk sunday! i am starting to work on photos to send you guys (: take it east out there in the idaho (:

love, elder valle (: