Adventures of Elder Dyal: Week #38 - Santa Rosa, California

Hey guys,

Yo, it's been a while since I sent a weekly, or really responded to emails in general. But yes, I'm alive. There's been a lot happening since I last sent an email. I wasn't able to write last week cause we were really busy. We spent p-day on the beach. Probably the windiest beach I've ever been to. We're not allowed to swim but it was still a lot of fun. We found a washed up jellyfish on the shore so that was cool.

There was this lady who referred herself to the missionaries because she wanted to learn how to pray. We video-called her and told her about the Book of Mormon and dropped it off at her house with a chapter to read in it. It took a while to get back into contact with her because she works all the time and is super busy. But a few days later we went by her house and talked to her in person along with her daughter. She told us she had been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and showed us where she was. She had started from the beginning of the book and was in 1 Nephi 17 or something! She said the book was super great but it was a bit confusing to her, so she reads the chapters multiple times. She told us about Lehi's vision and 100% understood it! She had already accepted the book as the word of God. I've never seen that happen so quickly! But even crazier, we went by her house again a week later because we could never get into contact with her. She let us in her house and apologized, but said she brings the book to her work and reads it during her break. She was in the Book of Jarom. Me and my companions had a hard time responding because we were all visibly astounded! No other investigator has ever read that much in such a short amount of time. She related the book to all the crazy things that were happening today, and her daughter wanted a book in English, so we gave her one as well.

So that’s one thing that happens a lot in this area - The parents only speak to us in Spanish, but they understand English. And the kids speak to us only in English, so it's back and forth, and we all get a little confused sometimes. It hurts my brain!

I went on an exchange to a ‘bike area’, so that was the first time I felt like a REAL missionary as we rode bikes around Santa Rosa. But it was also an English area so I had a really hard time teaching because I wasn’t use to teaching in English. It felt so weird. But we met some guy named Andrew that went on and on about ‘the illuminati’ and other conspiracies. The missionaries I was with told me that’s kind of what they get in this area. Maybe that’s just California, I don't know yet. Haven’t been here long enough.

Today is actually transfers but there weren't any changes with my companions. I am still with Elder Hakanson and Elder Wells. But one of the other Elders that live in our apartment was just called as a 3rd AP, so we're all super excited for him. We have 2 sets of trio missionaries in our apartment. 6 missionaries total! It’s crazy!

I'm gonna be honest, I have a hard time writing emails because I have no idea what to say, so I have a ton of pictures to end it.

Elder Dyal