Week 20

Nothing to really mention.  I skyped you all yesterday. Oh. Yesterday was my 200 day on the mission at 1 o'clock. Wow. I have been out for 6.5 months. Crazy.

Love you all,

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 19

Sorry for the short email this week. I spent most of my time writing to mom, telling her when we're going to talk next week on Christmas.  One brief question to whoever has the answer:

Is it true that all the Spanish branches in Arizona are closed?

Love,

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 18

Apparently, there have been issues in the mission. Not only do we have to protect ourselves from false accusations from others, we now have to protect ourselves from false accusations from our companions as well. Recently, missionaries have been sent home for these types of issues. It is a new rule that we are to avoid any contact with people other than just a handshake.

I found out that neither I or my companion is moving this transfer. I will be with him for 6 more weeks.

I have a gift I will be sending home, but it will be late for Christmas. I am waiting for one more piece.

There are new rules on music as of today. One rule being no burned CD's.

Also, those lithium batters lasted 4 months and some 400 pictures. I finally replaced them last month.

Week 17

 So I don't have much to say this time.

I have been complimented a lot on my handshake. Firm, but not hard. 

That is actually everything I had to say.

I have some pictures though. One moment..........

These pictures are of an arrow head that a dinner appointment gave us. He made them himself. They are actually pretty sharp. I picked the one that looked see-through-ish. It is obsidian, sort of a naturally made glass.

Week 16

This last week one time, 4 people tried to pay for us when we went to cafe rio. We have now decided to never go between the times of 12 and 2:30. It is already bad enough at 11.

I guess everyone was in the Thanksgiving  spirit. 

Well, other than that, nothing too exciting happened. My Spanish is getting better. I gave a talk in church this last Sunday in Spanish. Lots of people were surprised at how well I did.

I have to say, the most difficult part of Spanish is that I don't hear everything. Sometimes my companion will say something, I get confused, I repeat back to him what I heard, and then he says it all slowly and i only heard one word and he said 5 or 6. The thing about Spanish is that it takes up a little more space in writing, but it is even worse when speaking because it has tons more syllables. So  a big part of Spanish is speaking quickly. They have a ton of tongue twisters in Spanish to practice speaking quickly.  In English we combine words like I am to I'm, and it is to it's. However, we distinguish the words and we write them differently. In Spanish it is not like that.

Thanksgiving was fun. We had a lot of food and a lot of leftovers. I had a thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, pie for breakfast on Thursday, 2 dinners on Thursday, and more leftovers on Friday and Saturday. Lots of food.

Oh, I need to say. I have not gained any weight on my mission yet. I am still in the same weight range I was before my mission, that is usually with a suit coat on too. (^_^)

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 15

This week I met someone; his name is Austin Pulsen. He served his mission 3 years ago in Pomerene. He actually taught Kyle Graf. Also, mom gave me his address so I can send him a letter, the funny thing is that I did not even ask for his address, but he is someone that I already wanted to write.

We moved apartments again.  Because we moved, I got to test how packing everything worked with my new carry-on. It all worked quite well. 

I don't think I ever told you but the scripture case I have for my English scriptures also works for my Spanish scriptures. It is quite handy.

The other day, there was a primary program and, quite frankly, they taught all three missionary lessons better than we do...... And they did it all in an hour....... Wow.

So, they put Ti-Wi in the cars now. I don't think it is working. It has not gotten mad at me at all yet. 

As missionaries, we often refer to CPR (Church, Pray, Read), all the primary answers. But the funny thing, is that it is true, those are the primary commitments we extend.

Elder Eliason

Week 14

I accidentally just deleted my draft I was going to send. It was a nice and long letter too...... (--,_--). I don't have time to retype it up.

I love you all, Thanks for all the support. I will have to send you all of that next week.

Bye,
Elder Eliason.

Week 13

I don't have a lot to write about this time.

I don't have any interesting stories because with this companion we don't socialize with other missionaries as much. I actually like being focused like that. We have a few new investigators that seem promising. Also, some of the other investigators that we have look like they might start progressing towards baptism again. I am excited.

So, Spanish is ok. Elder Hernandez has been more frustrated with my Spanish than I am. He only talks to me in Spanish, which is helping quite a bit. However, sometimes he has to repeat himself a lot. The thing is that he has not needed to learn a language either. He doesn't know how to help/explain sometimes. I learn more from the text book from the MTC. At least now I am getting more out of my language studies. He just allows me to use the Spanish that I do know, a lot more.

I love you all.  Bye.

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 12

I am done with training.

Thanks for all the pictures sent.

We have the transfer info. Elder Mendez is becoming Zone Leader over me and is going to do English work. Elder Hernandez will remain my companion and become the replacement District Leader. I will remain here. 

This next little while might be stressful, It would be nice if I got a couple letters this next week.

Today, we have to stay with our zone in a stake center from 6-9 because people often dress up as missionaries and the mission president gets lots of calls. So we get to watch a movie.  The ones that they approved are: Megamind, Kung Fu Panda 2, How to Train Your Dragon, the original Star Wars series, Captain America, and 17 Miracles. Our zone voted  to watch Captain America.

I finally went all the way down to swan lake, the most southern part of the mission. It was a long drive.

There is this cool stuff called toe juice, it is made to get rid of  ringworm, eczema, rashes, circulitory problems, warts, and a lot of other stuff. It actually works pretty well. You can get it at Walgreens.

The other day the elders were talking about girls. I was working on making some more box duct tape cases for my stuff, I then messed up and said, "DA!!!!!!!!!". They all heard, "Daaang". I just happened to say that right as they said, "what do you think about that one girl?" It was so funny.

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 11

I only have one week left of training. (^_^)

"I can smell the difference between a white person's fart and a brown person's fart" (Elder Lenahand)

I need to give you a update on my investigators.

Victor & Lucy, our original baptismal dates, are still not baptized because work gets in the way.  They have not been able to come to church since I have been in the area. We set a new date with them, but they still need to be more committed.

Francisco, the one that lives in the middle of nowhere, now has a date. He has been coming to church for 4 years straight. He even has to quad an hour to the location where the members pick him up. So he spends a total of 6 or 7 hours on Sunday just to come to church. His main concern is his family that live  in Peru. 

Patricia, who was almost baptized (She canceled her baptism when they were filling up the font the last time, which was about 4 years ago), now has a baptismal date. She just needs the strength to do it. 

We have this new, totally awesome, investigator that moved from Arizona. She used all the money she had to pay for rent. She has nothing: no beds, hardly any clothes. She has two daughters. One is staying with a friend in Idaho Falls. The other is 10 and lives with her mom. The older daughter will come to Pocatello when she has more stuff.  The Branch is helping out. She has a job, but she just barely got her first paycheck a couple weeks after we found them.

There are some interesting challenges with a third companion. It has been a bit frustrating at times. I will say that all our new dates and work we have can be attributed to our new companion. He likes being very focused. Elder Mendez is still very impatient. He likes being organized but he likes getting things done quickly so he can socialize with people. There has been a little bit of tension lately, but we still get along great.

On my mission, I have had many experiences with dogs. I am getting better at knowing what they are thinking. I have not had a dog attack me ever, but I have met plenty of dogs that are very defensive. You can tell which ones don't like you. The biggest secret is what the Dog Whisperer says, "no touch, no talk, no eye contact". That is the order in which they are the worst. Never touch a dog you don't know (I already knew that); do not talk: I have seen how that affects dogs that are nervous or defensive; do not make eye contact: this can set off dogs that are unstable. Above all: stay calm. Dogs can tell if you are nervous. They can read your body language like a book. 

That is what has been going on lately. 

I love you all.

Your missionary,

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 10

I am almost done reading "Our Heritage", I already read "Our search for happiness", now I just need to read "Jesus The Christ".

My companion really wants to see some pictures of home. He wants to see a picture of the shop. So, I am just going to say, you should email me some pictures so I can show him where I lived. Thanks.

My Spanish is doing a lot better. I am understanding more specifics of what people are talking about instead of just the general idea. However, I still can't quite understand each sentence yet. I can read fine, but listening is a bit hard.

So, just a couple days ago, we were teaching a less active member. Their computer had a virus. You know the person to fix it. I had to stop a process that was bogging down the computer, then I got Malware-bytes to get ride of the virus. It found 240 infected files. It is interesting to try and explain what you are doing on a computer in Spanish. I mean, it is already hard enough to explain it in English.

So the answer to the last weekly question, about the chiasmus, is that it was discovered around the 1950s. I think it was more like 1930s. It is a written pattern of religious material. It is also called the Exodus pattern because it is contained a lot in the book of Exodus.

I do not have a new question this week.

My piano skills are getting better. 

OK. I believe I told you about this GPS system that they used to have in the mission cars called Ti-Wi. It tells you when you are going to fast and other stuff. Anyway, you pretty much need to drive like a old grandma in order to keep it from getting mad at you. Also, you can lose your driving privileges if you repeatedly do things to make it get mad. It is based on a point system, and you lose points every time you do something wrong. The worst part about it is that it takes away major points if you get an "Aggressive driving warring." Getting three of those will make you lose your privileges. It does that if you hit a speed bump to hard, or if you hit a curb, a pot hole, or if you change lanes to fast, go around a corner to fast, press on the brakes to fast, etc. 

Here is the thing. They are going to be putting them back into the cars next zone conference which is in December. 

Well, I need to go. I will talk to you later. I love you all.

Elder Daniel Eliason

Week 9

So, here in ID people will say "a couple 3."

Here are some other phrases.

Jocky Box (glove box)

Wagon (shopping cart. From Elder Beatty)

Slippers (Sandels. Also from Elder Beatty)

Borrow Pit (Ditch on side of road)

Here in the ID Pocatello mission we have to wear our suits from this last general Conference to the next. In the summer, from General Conference to General Conference, we only have to wear our suits after 6pm if it is below 90 degrees.

It has already snowed here. I am going to die in the wintertime because of the wind.

I got a new companion. We are now in a three-some. Elder Eliason, Elder Mendez, and Elder Hernandez. There were some major changes in the Spanish areas because a couple missionaries got sent home for surgeries that will take 6 months recovery. There have been a lot of injuries among missionaries here lately. The mission President banned exercising in the mornings with other missionaries. We are supposed to do it only with our companion.

Here in the winter time. We are supposed to practice drifting in church parking lots so we know how to handle the car if it ever starts to skid in the snow while driving.

OK, this is sort of funny.

After quite a while I told Elder Mendez that I only knew one joke about Mexicans. He insisted that I tell him and when I did he was laughing. Later that week he told me to tell someone else at a dinner appointment. I am glad he found it funny.

Week 8

OK. Funny Quote.

"This brain freeze hurts more than when I think." (Elder Mendez)

Answer to last weeks question.

The two prerequisites to faith are: hearing it, and having a soft heart.

The three steps are 

1. Desire

2. Action

3. Witness 

This weeks question.

What is Chiasmus  (I have no clue how to spell it)? 

Hint: It is in Alma 36 and Mosiah 5

Also, when was it discovered.

I only have one story this time. 

I was on exchanges with Elder Dollinger. We went to the ward mission leader's home. They have two dogs. One's name is Coco. They said that Coco is really shy and you are extremely lucky if she comes to you. I, using my amazing dog skills was able to even get this nervous dog on my lap. The whole family was in shock. I could describe why I think I was able to do it, but that would take a while, and I am not even sure if I am right. However, I don't think anyone else has any better ideas on why it happened. (^_^) 

That night, while I was with Elder Dollinger, I got sick. I started throwing up all night. It was so painful. My stomach muscles were so sore. I called Sis, Colton and got some help/advice. I slept all that day. I was able to get back to work the next day, but I was still as tired as anything else. Now I feel great. That was last Friday when I got sick. 

Love you,

Daniel Eliason

 

 

I WILL CATCH UP!

Wow, 4 months into Daniel's mission and I haven't posted a single letter from him, my bad. Sorry! I will be working the next couple of weeks at catching up.  Instead of starting at the very beginning and working down, I will be posting his most recent 2 letters and then I'll post all of the letters since he's been in the field, and after that I'll finish posting the letters from the MTC. I will include pictures along the way. :)

Daniel's loving and forgetful sister,
Michelle

Week 7

The other day a while ago, I ran into a Jehovah's Witness. She said the only reason that she was not baptized is because we believe in baptisms for the dead. She says that the Bible says it is a waste of time. If you read 1 Cor 15:29, then you might see the misunderstanding. 

Gospel Question of the Week!!!!!

What are the two prerequisites to have faith? And what are the 3 steps to gain more faith?

OK. So the other day I made a quesadilla (two tortillas with cheese in-between them). Elder Mendez said that it was not a quesadilla. He says that it is called something else. A single tortilla folded over with stuff in it is a quesadilla. Then he said that me using a single tortilla, putting cheese on it, and then just rolling it up (many people call that a cheese crisp), is a disgrace to Mexican food.

So my companion is trying to loose the 30 lbs he gained on his mission. Elder Anderson said, "think skinny thoughts."

Now the update on my investigators.

Victor & Lucy.............. are still not baptized. Something keeps interrupting it.

Francisco has been coming to church for several years, and has not been baptized yet. It has to do with his family. His family lives in Peru. We finally set a date for him. We are trying to get him to be baptized because he can be an example to his family.

Patricia has had several baptismal dates in the past for the past 4 years, but has not been baptized. She cant forgive herself for the death of her family. She fell asleep at the wheel while driving in Mexico.

Week 6

This week is transfers week and my trainer and I are not going anywhere. My trainer is going to be DL starting Wednesday.

There is a kid at church that is so happy. He is always giggling, laughing, and grabbing everything in sight: purses, books, chairs, etc. He makes noise by banging on chairs or anything he can touch. His father does everything to keep him still. He picks hum up by one foot and just swings him around. The boy just laughs and giggles the whole time.

There was this cat that stopped by the other day at our apartment. It looks exactly like Toothless. It walks like, moves like, everything like Toothless off of "How to Train Your Dragon". I was inside the basement looking out the window. I got its attention. It came over and the way it was staring into the apartment looked exactly like Toothless. The way it sat did too. I put my hand against the window and the cat started rubbing his head against the window just like Toothless might . I have a video, but it is far too large to send over email.

So the transmission was completely blown. We will not have our car for another week. It was not my fault! We took it in, explained the sound we heard, they test drove it, they didn't hear the very distinct sound I hear, and then one week later the transmission just dies. When they inspected the transmission they found that it had ground itself to death.

Week 5

Sorry for not having an explanation for all the pictures. Those are all pictures from a few weeks ago. I am just finally trying to send them all. I will give a brief explanation: Elder Anderson and Elder Beatty (I'm not sure how to spell it). Elder Beatty is from Hawaii. Elder Anderson wears glasses. Elder Mendez is Mexican.  Last time, the pictures were about us at the family history center. The other random pictures don't matter much

Today, the pictures are of the cases I made for my scriptures. Also, my desk and something I folded which holds a business card really well.

Oh, ya. Our car broke. The transmission has always been a little funny to me. It has even made some noise. We took it into the dealership but they said it was fine. One week later the transmission breaks. It made some bad grinding noises like it cannot engage. We stopped and it is being looked at right now. That happened last Friday. So we have been without a car for 3 days. 

I think that covers everything that is new and interesting.

Week 4

There is not much new lately. I got a haircut by Elder Anderson, who lives upstairs. Oh, happy labor day. The other day my companion and I were eating at a young single adults apartment. It was so funny. There were like 4 girls and one other guy. My companion froze. He could hardly say anything. He mostly just stared at his food. The girls intimidated him.

We had 4 investigators at church the yesterday. It made me so happy. Victor, our golden investigator, said that his wife is well enough that the next time he has a Saturday and Sunday off together, they will be baptized.

I cannot think of many other stories to tell. I don't have as much to talk about here in the field.

I love you all,

Elder Daniel Eliason