Week #36 - Santa Rosa, California - June 29, 2020

So I did the math and I realized that a couple days ago I just finished 1/3 of my mission. I gotta be honest, it's been pretty wild with all this stuff that's going on! So today was the last day that my current mission president will be here. He leaves tomorrow. And the new one just came in, President Puffer, so it's been pretty crazy. But we're all super excited to meet the new guy.

So this week has been pretty interesting. Last P-Day my companion tried to do a front flip, but he landed on it weird and messed up his hand. His entire hand was pretty swollen for a couple of days so we went to urgent care and he straight up broke his middle finger. So now he's been wearing this stupid looking cast around, and he's probably going to have to get surgery on his birthday that is coming up. So we've all been making fun of him this last week. Besides that, we’re really starting to get the ball moving around here! We’ve been able to have a lot of in-person lessons lately. And I finally feel like I finally understand subjunctive in Spanish now too, so I sound a lot better when I talk.

There was this family that we planned on meeting in a park a couple days ago to teach, but we couldn't find them anywhere. So we started talking to people in the park. Then out of the blue, a couple of homeless people walked up to us and they were actually super genuine with some questions they had. They told us that they used to be members but they had a really bad set of cards the last few years, and they'd been praying and seeing miracles in their life that have helped them on a day-to-day basis. They didn’t know where an LDS church was so they asked if they could maybe get in contact with the bishop. So we were able to help them contact him. I would've been feeling sketch about the whole situation but I just had a feeling we were probably an answer to their prayers.

So we'll see how the next few weeks go. We all feel there's going to be big, big changes with the new president. And we're also getting like 35 more missionaries. So I'll keep everyone updated.

Elder Dyal

 Elders with some investigators

 Elder Hakanson, Elder Dyal, Elder Wells

 Chillin' up at the church building

BEFORE a haricut

AFTER a haircut 

Elder Hakanson's broken finger

Week #35 - Santa Rosa, California - June 22, 2020

 This is a transfer week -- New companion, Elder Wells

Elder Hakanson stays his other companion

 A selfie in his apartment

Interesting notice that Elder Dyal found in a Santa Rosa park

Elder Dyal's new companion, Elder Wells

Week #34 - Santa Rosa, California - June 15, 2020

Hey guys,

So we had transfers today, after only 4 weeks. I've been here for 3 weeks so it's been pretty crazy. There has just been so many new reassigned missionaries coming into this mission. My mission president wants to get transfers back on a 6 week schedule so they should be normal after this. I'm still in the same area (in Sonoma, basically in Santa Rosa), but I moved apartments for some reason. Now I'm living with 5 other guys and a new companion. I'm still in a missionary trio. Since there are so many missionaries now its pretty insane with the housing situation, but most of you probably know that.

So, another think is my Facebook got hacked! So that's fun. I'm back to just sitting around doing nothing cause I can't go Facebook finding. But a couple sisters that live nearby asked us to go to the church and help with getting to know someone they were teaching. This was actually the first face-to-face missionary work I've done since Peru. It looks like things are starting to slowly get back to normal; California is still a little slow with opening up here. 

I have a new mission President that will be arriving at the end of June (Pres and Sis Puffer) and everyone's a little anxious to meet him. I was still in the process of getting to know my current mission president here, but its all cool. I really hope things get back to normal cause I'm kinda losing my mind. But I'm still amazed by how beautiful northern Cali is. I hope that doesn't get old.

Elder Dyal

 The scenery next to the church building

A church member gave me this Cali hat

Week #33 - Santa Rosa, California - June 8, 2020

Hey guys,

Ay! So I don’t actually know when transfers are going to happen. With all the chaos of new missionaries coming in, it seems transfers will be next week on June 15th. It was supposed to be this week.

But anyways, there’s not too much actually happening though. We are still quarantined in California. We still need to wear masks and can't get out to teach people. There's no sign of us in Sonoma County opening up anytime soon. So we're held up in our apartments all day long doing ‘finding on Facebook’, teaching people on social media, and calling members. Facebook finding is an interesting feat. We are all still figuring out effective ways to find people. There is one thing I did which was kind of interesting:

So this week I joined a few Christian groups on Facebook thinking maybe I could have a greater outreach. My companions and I had put some free Bibles on the Facebook marketplace, but no one wanted them, so I thought I could do better. After being accepting into one of the Christian groups, I posted something about turning to Christ during these hard times. This post got a lot of attention as opposed to the usual stuff on the page, so I was happy about that. Unfortunately as the day went on, people noticed my post and started revolting against me even though my message was nothing but positive. They claimed that if there were any issues, they would "kick all the Mormons out" of the group, and started saying negative things about the church. Now I've seen this many times before, random anger directed at our religion and our beliefs. And it’s very clear to me where this anger derives from. I'm just surprised by the anger about a positive message. Very odd times! 

So they speak 'Mexican Spanish' here in Cali, and it's a little confusing to me, but I can still mostly understand it. We went to a member's home where he gave us some pretty good authentic Mexican food. It was nice to eat outside the apartment for a change, so that's cool because I'm terrible at cooking.

Anyway, this week has been cool. I hope that soon we'll be getting out more as things open up.

Elder Dyal

 My post on Facebook that got so heated. Not sure why?

 Elder Dyal in Santa Rosa

 Other missionaries in the Santa Rosa area

Elder Dyal and his companions posing for a picture

Week #32 - Santa Rosa, California - June 1, 2020

Hey guys,

I’m now in the California Santa Rosa Mission. As many of you seem to know already at this point, this week has been very, very hard for me. Probably one of the hardest of my life. I've been challenged and pushed in limits I'm not quite sure if I have. I'm learning more than anything to put my trust in the Lord and push past these giant barriers which tower over my head. But I'm not going to write more about that here.

Almost a week ago I arrived here in northern California. Let me tell you, this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to! Much further north in my mission, (the boundaries go all the way up to the Oregon border) are the Red Woods which I'm anxious to see. I'm not sure if I ever will, but currently I'm in the heart of Santa Rosa which is beautiful as well. Because there are so many re-assigned missionaries, I'm actually in a missionary trio. All 3 of us were reassigned and in the same group of missionaries who arrived last week. My companions are Elder Hakanson and Elder Buss. Both of them served in Guatamala before Santa Rosa, so we all know Spanish. But none of us know the area that well. And none of us really know how to actually use technology in the mission (which is the only thing we can do in this moment) so we're just kind of floating around at the moment trying to figure out this weirdness. Also, we have a car which is a new thing for us. It’s supposedly the best and newest car in the entire mission, so that’s pretty rad. And instead of just having one giant room that is the kitchen, living area AND bedroom (like in Peru), we have a REAL apartment with several bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms, a kitchen and a living area. So overall it’s been more relaxed here than Peru. Except for the food - We have to cook our food ourselves. In Peru we had it brought to us each day. I'm not too good at cooking. But one day we were invited to a fish fry. And hopefully when quarantine is over, we can eat at church member’s homes more often. Anyway, it’s been interesting getting two perspectives of the mission field…. foreign and the states.

I made a Facebook account as well which is weird. I never used Facebook before and now it’s a critical way of finding people. We have talked with a few people this week and we called one guy and were able to speak in Spanish with him. So all in all, it seems to still be an effective way to work once we figure it out.

- Elder Dyal

Trees behind the church building

 Elder Hakanson, Elder Dyal and Elder Buss

 Three Amigos

 Goofing off with Elder Hakanson

 Saw this Model T on the freeway

 Fish fry dinner

First phone call with family on P-day