Guest Blog:Daylen's Mission Letter By Princess

Here is the email I got from Daylen today. He's serving a mission in Minnesota right now.

 

Hello everyone from all over the world. I know you've all been dying to hear from me about this past week. But so you know, it's just as crazy as the previous weeks just in different ways. So Tuesday was the first time I've ridden a bike in about 3 years. (I tried to get him to go on a bike ride with me so many times but he wouldn't.) It was great to be back on but I was still cautious because of recent events that happened before I left Utah, (He got hit by a car while riding his bike in like 10th grade, in fact, he got $5000 for the damages and stuff and that is actually paying for most of his mission) plus there was an inch of snow on the ground and I didn't want to recreate that event. Needless to say though, my butt was hurting after 5 minutes of riding because my seat is so solid. :P Then when we played basketball that night, I actually played decently. Everyone said it's because I wear my g's when I play.(I have no idea what g's are) Yes, I where them when I play, don't judge! Then we had district meeting the next morning. It was crazy because we had it at 8 instead of 10. The reason for that is because one of the Waconia ward members came and made us breakfast at 9 and then we went and sang carols in the chapel. For any of you chefs that like to try new things, he made his eggs with cream cheese. They were really good, but I still prefer my mom's eggs with milk and Lawry's. :) After that we went home so we could exchange with the AP's (Assistants to the President). Most stressful day of my life!!! 1. It was the AP's. 2. It was Elder Tuna Fish.(No that's not his real name) 3. I was staying in Chaska. It was nuts! This basically means I was staying in my area, which I was still figuring out where everything was, and was in charge of all the lessons. Things were fine though. After we exchanged we went and caroled at a senior home in Minnetonka. The only nice thing I thought that Elder Tuna Fish was there, because he plays the piano very well. Then we went to the library to do service. We found 0/150? lost books in 2 1/2 hours. Then we went tracting (door knocking) until 5. He had weird methods of finding. He had me imagine a perfect investigator family, then we prayed to find those people with that description. At this point I thought this guy was crazier than the Mad Hatter. We knocked and caroled and only managed to give away 1 pass along card. Typical days tracting here in Chaska. Then we went to our dinner appointment with the Whale's. (Let's stick with the underwater theme.) Wonderful family who met in BYU. I think that everyone I meet here knows where South Jordan is, just because they went to BYU. That and there is hundreds of BYU fans up here!! After dinner we asked if he'd be willing to join us in an appointment. The rules are, that we must have someone else with us when we teach a single female. So he joined us as we went and taught Ariel (as in the little mermaid). A single lady who's in her mid 50's from Vegas. Here's where the cool part comes in. As we started to teach Ariel her roommate came and sat in on our lesson. His name is Flounder and he had a lot of questions. So as I talked to Ariel about some of the things she read, Elder Tuna Fish and Brother Whale started talking to Flounder. In no more than 2 minutes they started listening to what Ariel and I were discussing. It turns out that they have a lot of the same questions, but they bash each other and don't let the other one speak. So cool part is that we got a new investigator and a fellow-shipper for him, but bad part is that we have to teach them separately and they live in the same little apartment. After we went and taught King Trident. We had a really cool scripture study session that answered some of his prayers. It was really amazing and inspired. Then he gave Elder Companion (still on exchanges) and I our Christmas presents. (A card with $50 and DQ Blizzards) Then we went back home. The next morning, I got all my packages from the office. Elder Companion and Elder Boat came in with them when we exchanged back. Elder Companion and I then proceeded to decorate our Christmas wall, clean our apartment, weekly plan. After we went Christmas shopping where another tender mercy happened. We went to Goodwill (DI/Thrift Store in Utah) and saw a member that was in the Minnetonka ward before the boundaries changed. She recognized Elder Companion and as a Christmas present gave us $50. The missionaries weren't lying when they said that being a missionary could be a job! While she was getting change, cashier started talking to me...more like trying to flirt with me. We started talking about the church and we gave her a pass along card and told her to go check out the new church video. After we finished our Christmas shopping, we went home and wrapped presents before heading off to the Eel's for the night. We had a wonderful dinner! We had fondue. So there were oil pots in the middle of the table and we could fry different things in it. It was really good, but I think I undercooked mine, because I didn't feel good later that night. But we had a fun time. We had a talent show, then we read the Christmas story and sang carols in between, and then we played a game of Aggravation/Dirty Marbles. We did get presents and I won't say them, but you can see them when I send out pictures. Christmas day was the same. The Waconia elders stayed with us since their activities for the day were out our way. So we got up and made them breakfast. Then we opened presents. Elder Companion and I ended up getting more because Sister Salmon came and brought us presents from the ward. Then we went to the Octopus's (Octopi, Octopice?) for brunch, more presents and Skyping. I will say it was a little weird Skyping my family, but those feelings quickly left as we started talking. It was wonderful to see everyone. I even saw my grandpa who I was not expecting to see over there! So you know we only had about 45 minutes to Skype then we had to bear our testimonies for the last 5 minutes. Shortest hour of my life!!! It went by so fast that we dragged it out for ten minutes more than allotted. Then we went back to the apartment so the other elders weren't alone for very long, then we went to the Jellyfish's for Christmas Dinner. Such amazing food here! I feel like I never left home with how good it is. Then Saturday came. King Trident's baptism went wonderfully!! We woke up to about 6 inches of snow downtown! So happy it came, but we could have used that yesterday!! We filled the font which happened to be two hours shorter than we thought. Apparently the top step has an emergency drain, so when the ordinance happened it only went to mid thigh on them. We had to baptize him twice because the water was so low. Better than doing it in a frozen lake!

Guys, I know this church is true and I know that Christ was sent here to atone for our sins. I know that he runs his church today through Thomas S Monson and that he restored his church through Joseph Smith. And I know that we can all follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by priesthood authority and that we can renew those covenants every Sunday by partaking of the sacrament. I love each and every one of you and thank you all for your prayers and sacrifices. Stay true!

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Elder Daylen

 

Aint' he a cutie? I try to get him to put more personal stuff but... Oh well.Love him anyways.