We received this email on Monday:
Hey it was awesome to talk to you guys for Christmas! Really made me miss home but I'm looking forward to watching time fly by these next 10 months. But anyways I'm emailing to let you guys know that we won't have p day tomorrow but on the 1st instead. So you'll hear from me them.
Love
Dallin
This Week's Letters From Home:
Happy New Year Dallin!
Keep your chin up. You have got a lot more to learn and experience over there. You still have 10 months to the finish line. Do your best to make it the best 10 months of your mission. Be thankful you can enjoy the peace of serving the Lord full-time right now. It won't be long before you will be home and needing to go to school and prepare for your life as a worker, taking care of yourself and a wife and family should that opportunity come.
Don't forget the Lord's love for you and remember you are a child of God first and foremost. He is so thankful you are willing to represent him. He is so thankful he has you as one of his disciples. Remember how He loved his disciples. He washed their feet.
I too love you very much and will always be grateful you are my boy.
Love,
Dad
Keep your chin up. You have got a lot more to learn and experience over there. You still have 10 months to the finish line. Do your best to make it the best 10 months of your mission. Be thankful you can enjoy the peace of serving the Lord full-time right now. It won't be long before you will be home and needing to go to school and prepare for your life as a worker, taking care of yourself and a wife and family should that opportunity come.
Don't forget the Lord's love for you and remember you are a child of God first and foremost. He is so thankful you are willing to represent him. He is so thankful he has you as one of his disciples. Remember how He loved his disciples. He washed their feet.
I too love you very much and will always be grateful you are my boy.
Love,
Dad
Happy New Year Aldste Milne!!!!!!
"What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year." - Vern McLellan
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other." - Abraham Lincoln
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -- Eleanor Roosevelt
Hi Dallin,
I thought I would add a few inspirational quotes to start the new year with. I hope you are happy and well and that you are adjusting to your new area. You will have to tell us all about it. Change can be good, especially at the beginning of a new year. Who is your new companion? How long has he been in Sweden? Is there a ward or a branch there? How many missionaries are in your area? Are you still the district leader?
Dad and I just returned from dinner at Olive Garden. We had a nice dinner. But it was kind of lonely without our three sons. You are in Sweden, Carter is at a big New Year's Eve party, and Ty is at a party with his friends. We did run into one of dad's dental patients who was working there. He told dad that dad had changed his life. You dad put a set of dentures on him. He is a man probably in his twenties who has always been very self conscious about his teeth. He said he is a totally different person now and is even dating. His teeth looked great. It made dad's evening.
On Friday PVHS, plays basketball against Richfield in Richfield. Dad has to work so we won't be going, but it will be interesting to see if PV can maintain their winning streak. Next week will be an even bigger challenge for them. They play Dixie on Wednesday and then Desert Hills on Friday. Those will be two quality games! Carter is having a great time and has been working hard. He finished another quarter of school with a 4.0 so he was really happy about that. I hope he can keep it up for two more quarters. He is hoping to receive the Academic All-State award for basketball.
I will not be in school this semester which is wonderful. I need to get this book finished. I will resume writing next week. We have a lot of writing to do, but I am excited to get going with it again. I will be focusing most of my writing on healing through the atonement and the implications of betrayal trauma. As far as BYU goes, I should hear from them in the next couple of weeks with either a rejection or an invitation for an interview. They say that their decision on candidates will be made by March 1st so we will know my fate then. Have you given any more thought to going to BYU, or are you still set on SUU or Dixie? If you want to go to BYU, I will need to get your application in before next October. What are your thoughts on us coming to Sweden to pick you up? We would really like to if this is possible and you think coming in November is a good idea.
Anyhow, you still have ten months to go. They will go by quickly so make the most of them. I know that you still have things you need to experience, and growth that needs to take place that will be so important for your future, but even more importantly, I am convinced that there are still people that the Lord needs you to bless. You are an amazing person Dallin with so much to offer. Lose yourself in the service and you will have some of the happiest moments of your life.
Let us know how things are going in your new area, and how to spell the name of the city you are serving in. What are the people like there? How is the weather so far? It is actually snowing here tonight. We also had snow on Christmas day.
I hope you are staying safe and warm. Always be mindful of your surroundings. Take some extra Vitamin D and C during these winter months. Did you ever receive your Christmas package? I hope everything was still in it! There were two different boxes. I put $250.00 in your account for Christmas, and I will also put another $100.00 in for your birthday. Hang in there Dallin. My thoughts and prayers are with you always. Take care!
All My Love,
"What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year." - Vern McLellan
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other." - Abraham Lincoln
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -- Eleanor Roosevelt
Hi Dallin,
I thought I would add a few inspirational quotes to start the new year with. I hope you are happy and well and that you are adjusting to your new area. You will have to tell us all about it. Change can be good, especially at the beginning of a new year. Who is your new companion? How long has he been in Sweden? Is there a ward or a branch there? How many missionaries are in your area? Are you still the district leader?
Dad and I just returned from dinner at Olive Garden. We had a nice dinner. But it was kind of lonely without our three sons. You are in Sweden, Carter is at a big New Year's Eve party, and Ty is at a party with his friends. We did run into one of dad's dental patients who was working there. He told dad that dad had changed his life. You dad put a set of dentures on him. He is a man probably in his twenties who has always been very self conscious about his teeth. He said he is a totally different person now and is even dating. His teeth looked great. It made dad's evening.
On Friday PVHS, plays basketball against Richfield in Richfield. Dad has to work so we won't be going, but it will be interesting to see if PV can maintain their winning streak. Next week will be an even bigger challenge for them. They play Dixie on Wednesday and then Desert Hills on Friday. Those will be two quality games! Carter is having a great time and has been working hard. He finished another quarter of school with a 4.0 so he was really happy about that. I hope he can keep it up for two more quarters. He is hoping to receive the Academic All-State award for basketball.
I will not be in school this semester which is wonderful. I need to get this book finished. I will resume writing next week. We have a lot of writing to do, but I am excited to get going with it again. I will be focusing most of my writing on healing through the atonement and the implications of betrayal trauma. As far as BYU goes, I should hear from them in the next couple of weeks with either a rejection or an invitation for an interview. They say that their decision on candidates will be made by March 1st so we will know my fate then. Have you given any more thought to going to BYU, or are you still set on SUU or Dixie? If you want to go to BYU, I will need to get your application in before next October. What are your thoughts on us coming to Sweden to pick you up? We would really like to if this is possible and you think coming in November is a good idea.
Anyhow, you still have ten months to go. They will go by quickly so make the most of them. I know that you still have things you need to experience, and growth that needs to take place that will be so important for your future, but even more importantly, I am convinced that there are still people that the Lord needs you to bless. You are an amazing person Dallin with so much to offer. Lose yourself in the service and you will have some of the happiest moments of your life.
Let us know how things are going in your new area, and how to spell the name of the city you are serving in. What are the people like there? How is the weather so far? It is actually snowing here tonight. We also had snow on Christmas day.
I hope you are staying safe and warm. Always be mindful of your surroundings. Take some extra Vitamin D and C during these winter months. Did you ever receive your Christmas package? I hope everything was still in it! There were two different boxes. I put $250.00 in your account for Christmas, and I will also put another $100.00 in for your birthday. Hang in there Dallin. My thoughts and prayers are with you always. Take care!
All My Love,
Mom
This Week's Letter From Dallin:
Dear Fam,
Well it's been awhile since I've been able to send a decent email home. It sure was good to see you guys on Christmas. Did my heart good haha. The rest of my holidays have been really good. The good members of Västerås did a good job taking care of us missionaries. Gosh those guys are the best. Saying goodbye sure was tough. Being there for so long you really get to know people. It was time for a change but it was definetley bittersweet. The day after Christmas we were with the Hagman family (stake president) and he also invited a lot of our recent converts. I could go on forever about the Hagmans. Such a high-quality bunch. I'll attach a lot of the good bye pics. There are many haha. On the 27th, we said some more goodbyes to investigators and members and helped an older sick women in the branch buy her groceries, then we went to another member meal. I love this time of year because we get fed so much :)
On Sunday I got to say goodbye to the branch and bear my testimony. It was such a cool feeling looking over each of them and thinking about all the relationships that were built up and the good times we had. After sacrament meeting we taught sunday school as usual. Then we actually had to leave early to catch my train. It was kind of weird transferring on a Sunday. We originally thought that I wouldn't go until the 30th. I was kind of sad because there were a lot of members who wanted to invite me over sunday and monday night for dinner to say good-bye. It was a long train ride from Västerås to Kungsbaka. About 4 1/2 hours total trip time. I did a lot of reflecting and reminiscing on my time in Västerås during the trip. Things that were good, things I could have done better etc. I realized how good the Lord had been to me there. It was so cool to see so much success during that time. Anyways, I got in late Sunday night so we just went home and unpacked. My new companion's name is Elder Olsen from Idaho. He is a younger missionary, just got done being trained, class of 2014.
Monday was kind of a funky day because it wasn't p day but we desperately needed to buy some groceries and take care of some other stuff so it still kind of felt like a p day. I got to meet the other elders here, elder Sweat from California and elder Barnes from Indianapolis. Nice dudes. Then the rest of the day was pretty much contacting and tracting. There is not to much at all going on here in Kungsbaka and I see a lot of finding work in my future here haha oh boy. But elder Olsen is a super good kid and pretty funny. He keeps a good attitude even though the work is tough.
Tuesday I got to meet the Peterson family here in Kungsbaka. Super nice older couple and there son who had served a mission in Minneapolis a year or two back. I tried to remember the names of the elders who we knew who baptized Jesus and his family. What were their names? I was wondering if maybe this guy knew them or something. After that we had some area book swing by's and contacting of course. Not too much to report on there but it was also Elder Olsen's 19th birthday so we met up with the other elders for dinner and baked a cake for him haha.
Wednesday was New Years Eve and we spent most of the day helping out with a church youth conference activity thing here. It was quite the deal kids from all over Sweden and even some from Norway came. But the best part and the thing that made my whole week was that a lot of the boys from Umeå were there and Olle was with them also because he is in the young mens presidency up there so he is watching them for a couple days while they do this thing. Gosh it was so good seeing Olle. He is doing super good and he was sure happy to see me. We both thought that we would probably never see each other again while I was a missionary because he was way up in Umeå. It was a really special moment for me. But after we helped out there we went to the YSA center in Göteborg to meet up with other missionaries for our own little new years eve party because nobody invited us over for the night sadly haha. But it was way fun with the missionaries. 2015, that is nuts.
Today has been really nice as well, getting to sleep in a bit and we went and played some innebandy with other missionaries. Tons of fun. I have a pretty mad innebandy game now haha.
Sounds like everyone has had a nice holiday though back on the home turf! That is way cool about the dude in Olive Garden. That's probably the best feeling with being a doctor. Probably very similar to how I felt with Olle even. Way cool. I'll be excited to hear about how PVHS does with region starting up soon. Sounds like they could really make a lot of noise this year. That's cool that you'll be getting back into the book here pretty soon. Best of luck with that. As far as my own college plans go I am still not sure. But I would like to apply for BYU if that regents scholarship is applicable there or whatever. I would be willing to go there if I was accepted but dixie and suu still sound good as well. I'm still pretty firey about being able to play ball if I can at dixie but we'll see how I look coming back. If you guys came to Sweden that would be fine with me. I don't thin November is exactly the perfect time to be here though haha. It's too bad its not more in the summer time. But I'm sure we could do some fun stuff. That's all up to you guys.
Kungsbaka is a nice town. The reason the work is more difficult apparently is that there are a lot of rich swedes and like no immigrants. I would compare it to being the Minnetonka of Sweden maybe haha. But we'll go hard and hopefully be able to get something going. It does feel good to be in a new area though. The Christmas package still hasn't shown up. The office might be holding on to it so I might not get it until the next zone conference or whatever. What day did you send it on? And thanks so much for the money. That is the best material gift a missionary here can get I feel like.
But yeah I am doing well, feeling healthy and happy. I wish you all a very happy new year!
Love
Dallin
This Week's Pictures:
My New Comp Elder Olsen
Me and My Man Olle
Olle and the Umea Boys (young men)
The man Steig Åke
Branch President Roger Pettersson - Total stud
Daniel
The man Åke
Paula from Sunday School
Persson family
Good-bye Vasteras!
Goodbye to the Persian Princesses
Hagman Fam
I had to add this one.... Carter received his acceptance to SUU
and his notification of receiving the four-year, full-tuition Presidential Scholarship.
He will also qualify for an additional $12,000 from the Regent's Scholarship... Way to go Carter!
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