Monday, February 25th 2019

Hello All! 

It snowed this week! There was a day this week where we were asked not to use our vehicles in the snow, so we walked around outside where we lived and talked to people. There were these two ladies and 3 kids that we went up to talk to. The kids were about nine, six, and three. They were all building a snowman and throwing around snowballs. My companion decided to join in on the snowball fight. He made a huge snowball and tossed it or at least tried to toss it at the 9-year-old and it was a definite miss, and it hit the three-year-old right in the center of his little coat. My companion was in horror because the little one might start to cry and the ladies might yell at us, but the little one laughed instead, and the ladies didn't seem to mind. 

I gave a baptismal interview this week! It was at the Temple Visitor Center and it was amazing. I love doing interviews so much! It is amazing to see what changes people will make in their lives to live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ by being baptized. I wish everyone could know what a pearl of great price this gospel and church is. I read that story in the Bible this week. In Matthew 13: 45-46 It explains how we should be willing to give up everything to live the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the most important thing EVER!!!

We totally meet a guy this week who believes there are aliens on the moon. He gave us countless references of evidence and a solid testimony that these 5 foot grey creatures inhabit the moon. But don't be confused with the aliens that live on the moons of Saturn. They are reptilian. I kept it together pretty well trying not to laugh. I even kept a straight face when I asked him at the end if he thinks they are among us. He says they very well could be. He assured us that we have nothing to worry about as long as we let them be. 

This week we went to the Spanish district council to train the missionaries. My companion is actually a spanish missionary in the english program right now, So everyone spoke Spanish except for me. They were nice and had most of the meeting in english, and thought it was funny whenever I responed to them in the very few spanish phrases that I know. 

This sunday we had Stake Coordination. It was two separate meetings. The first one was me and my companion, the Mission President, the Stake President, the High councilor over missionary work and the Stake Presidents councilor over missionary work. Such a cool meeting talking about the stake's progress. The next meeting added all of the bishops and ward mission leaders. The council was amazing and it motivated me a ton! 

It was a good week and it will continue to be amazing! 

Love you all!

P.S Mom, I wrote this email super fast so be extra thrifty with spelling errors and run on sentences and such! I dont want to dissappont my fans! Love you!

Monday, February 18th, 2019

Hello all!

I moved to a new apartment and it is the nicest one in the mission. Huge kitchen, balcony, and free hot chocolate in the lobby. 

I got to talk to my family today, which was amazing. This explains the short e-mail. 

We played soccer today with the bishop and the priests, and the bishop is way competitive! I got a gnarly rug burn to prove it!

Sorry for the short email, my parents can fill you in on how I am doing because I totally talked to them today! 

Love you all! 

Enjoy the pictures!

Elder Dallin! 

Monday, February 11th, 2019

Hello all. I moved!!! I am back up in northern Maryland. I will send you a picture of where I am located! I am in the Seneca ward in the Seneca Stake! I would send you the address, but we are actually moving apartments in a couple of days so I will let you know next week what my new address will be. I will miss you southern Maryland! Hope to see you again soon 😥. My new Companion is Elder Mortens(O)n, not to be confused with the Elder Mortens(E)n I trained a few months ago. We are actually the Zone Leaders in the Seneca Zone, which is super exciting! This is my first time being a zone leader. I will miss being a district leader, but a zone leader comes with new thrills! The ward is alright from what I have been able to tell from the one sacrament meeting I have been to. It is kind of cool, we have a set of office missionaries in our ward. They are in charge of the finances and Baptismal records. 

Well anyway, Elder Mortenson was actually my zone leader a year ago, so fancy that we would be serving together! 

It's fun to be in a new area. I tend to stay in an area for a long time, so it is not very often that I move around, so when I do move, it is very exciting. Of course, it is hard to say goodbye to the friend's that you made,  but you know you will make new friends! 

Oh yea, my Samsung tablet gave up the ghost the other day. I woke up one morning and the whole tablet was slightly bent with a crack on the screen. I have no idea how it happened, but the screen won't turn on, but the alarm will go off every morning, and I have no way to turn off the alarm, so we just have to wait it out. We called to mission office, and they will give me a free tablet until the end of my mission. Don't worry, the holy ghost told me a couple of days before it broke to save all of my photos on to google drive, so I still have all of my photos. Don't worry family, I will bring my old tablet home to see if it can be fixed, and not drop a dumbbell on it like other elders do when their tablets break. 

Hey Mom! You know that Missionary Moms luncheon thing you did. I got the picture of you and all the moms, and I know all the missionaries whose moms went to that event. Super cool! All great missionaries! 

This P-day, we were playing ping pong at the church. There is just a random ping pong table in the Church hallway, so we got some paddles and balls and ping-ponged it up! Its been a while since playing, so I'm not what I used to be, but I'm getting better.

We are teaching a man who got in a car crash a while ago. He lost both legs in the accident, an arm, and a hand, (of course on the arm he did not lose). They were able to put his arm back on and his hand, but not his legs. We have invited him to be baptized, but it is something we are still working with him on. We were thinking, if we are to baptize this man, how would we do it? He has no lower half. We will find a way and go and do! 

We are working with a man named Ken who is going to be baptized on February 23rd. It is excellent to see how well the ward fellowships the people we bring to church. Please introduce yourself every time someone new comes to church, and say hi to them every week, and get to know them a bit. It makes every difference. Have them over for dinner even, and offer to have the discussions in your home, and invite them over for Family Home Evening. Even after they're baptized, continue to do those things. It is the most important work on earth! 

I meet a very cool guy this week named Eli. Eli used to distribute dangerous and unhealthy substances to those who would abuse them. You follow? He was also a professional boxer, has a lion tattoo on the back of his head, lived in Colorado and had a pet wolf. He is one of the sweetest and kindest men I have ever met. He is a convert to the church and absolutely loves God. Years before his baptism, he got in a tussle with someone who tried to steal his substances, and because he was a great fighter, he won. He was pretty tired after the fight so he passed out. The same man came back and saw him laying on the ground, and put a bullet through his head, but the dude survived and is a member of the Lord's restored church, and is a new friend of mine.

I am enjoying my new area, and getting along swell with my new companion! 

Love you all! 

Elder Dallin Mckay Spurgeon 

Monday, February 4th, 2019

Hello All!

This week was very, very cold. It was in the single digits some days while tracting. I thought this weather was never going to end, but today it is shockingly nice outside. I am writing this email outside right now and it is 60 degrees! That's like 6 times the temperature it has been. It is so nice. I hope it is like this forever. 

I probably had the most fun day this week on my mission so far. But to explain this, I need to explain what Nanjamoy is. Nanjamoy is in the deepest, darkest part of Maryland, I'm not talking like Baltimore dark, I'm talking like eerie forest dark. It has had a reputation in the past of abandoned trailer parks and drug lords, and arena's in barns for dog fights. So that's Nanjamoy. 

I also need to explain our monthly mileage allotment for the mission owned vehicles we drive. We only get to drive a certain amount of miles each month, so each day we have to plan according to miles, and use them wisely. Well, this month we did really well on our miles and had a bunch left over for the last day of the month. 

Because we did really well on miles last month, we decided to go to the furthest part of our area and work there for the day because missionaries probably don't go down there very much. The furthest place of our area just happened to be Nanjamoy. To get the full Nanjamoy experience, and to save a bunch of time, we packed a lunch and a dinner to eat on the road. We actually brought cans of Spaghetti and heated them up using a small camp stove I purchased months ago because there were hurricane warning were I was living, and I wanted not cold stuff if we lost power. 

We headed out to Nanjamoy in the morning, and made it there, and tracted a little bit, then ate lunch. We ate lunch right next to the Potomac Bay. It would have been beautiful if it was not 15 degrees. I found a huge slate of wood and stood it up for a windbreaker for warmth, and so the fire on my stove would not go out. After lunch, we headed out to the next closest neighborhood in Nanjamoy. After that, we looked for a place to have dinner. It was way too cold to eat outside, but we could not use the stove in the car, so we found a public park with a barn on the property, and sought shelter in the barn. We ate our dinner in the barn, which was pretty rustic if you ask me. The park had a wonderful view of the sunset. It even had one of those telescope things. After that, we did some more finding and then drove home. It was a day I will never forget!

We actually found a family in Nanjamoy to teach. We were checking on a member that lived down there, but he had moved away, and this family moved in. The dad said him and his two girls were looking for a church to join. It was a great miracle. I knew we weren't going down to Nanjamoy for nothing! We will have to find members to come with us to the lessons and also to dive us there. 

Remember how I told you that my companion is way into Italy and everything Italian? Well, his obsession paid off this week. We were tracting and we talked to a lady getting out of her car, and she was from Italy! We gave her an Italian copy of the Book of Mormon because my companion always has one on hand, and we are going back and going to teach her more. She has pretty good English so we will teach her in English so I can know what the heck is going on.  My companion will pray, recite scriptures and say the first vision in Italian. Pretty cool! 

We were tracting some night, and some guy answered the door and let us in before we could even get a word out. I learned not to question those things. Usually, when a random person invites you into their house, you don't go in, but it is like the total opposite as a missionary. He sat us down and gave us a plate of chicken and other amazingly delicious stuff. The family is from Samoa. We learned quickly that the man is an inactive member of the church, but that the rest of his family are not members. Missionary goldmine! He told us he would not have a desire to come back to church but if his kids would like to learn more, he would let us teach them. So we asked if the kids wanted to learn more, and they do, so we are teaching them now. We hope that as the dad sits in on the lessons it will rekindle his desire to come back to church. 

Samoans eat well. We ate so much food there. He asked us, do you guys eat raw fish? And before my companion could explain to him his huge hatred for seafood, I said to the man, yes we do, and looked at my companion and smiled. He put a bowl of raw tuna in front of both of us. I ate mine right up. It was splendid. My companion could only get two bites down before surrendering to the tuna, so I ate his bowl as well! 

Apparently, the Super Bowl was this week. It was like tracting on a holiday because no one wanted to talk. What's more important, Football, or The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ? With the people that did come to the door, probably because they thought we were the Papa John's guy, we would ask what the score was. 

Transfer call outs are tonight, it will be exciting to see if I stay or if I go, or if I get a new companion. I will keep you tuned!

Love you all! 

Elder D. M. Spurgeon