The Definition of Insanity....

Sorry that I have been MIA for two weeks....  We have been on vacation for almost two weeks back East, and I am finally getting my bearings after being home a few days.  We had a wonderful vacation - I still cannot believe all the things we did and saw!  I will post a vacation log and pictures sometime this week, but I thought I had better get Dallin's letters posted so his faithful followers can read about how he has been doing.  

He sounds great in his letters, but he admittedly is fighting the trunkiness!  I think it's time for a trans-

fer.  I love the quote he shares from Albert Einstein...  Story of my life!  It is so awesome to be a missionary and have the opportunity to learn how to break the chains of doldrum, think outside the box, 

and witness the Hand of the Lord open opportunities you could have never imagined possible!  Hang in there Big "D".... You still have much work to do, and I know there are still others you can touch 

with the good news of the gospel! Remember, the Words of Christ will tell you and the Holy Ghost 

will show you all things that you should do!  Actively seek and you will find!

My letter to Dallin Last Week:

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." - JFK
 
Greetings from the Nation's Capital!
 
How's my favorite missionary this week? We have spent three wonderful days in DC. Day one we were pretty wiped out by the time we arrived, but after a late afternoon nap we went to see a lot of the national monuments and memorials. They were so beautiful and awe inspiring. It's definitely a toss up between the Washington and Lincoln memorials. Both were an amazing tribute to two incredible men who will forever live in infamy!  By the way, a book you need to read when you get home is called "The Lincoln Hypothesis". It's a book based on the premise that Lincoln had read the Book of Mormon and was inspired by it throughout his presidency and particularly during the Civil War. The evidence is quite compelling! One thing is certain... He did check out a copy of it from the Library of Congress and made several notes in it!
 
Anyhow, day two we rode the metro to the Nationals game. Ty and Carter had seats five rows behind the Nationals dugout. Carter caught a cool t-shirt and Ty caught an after inning ball. The Nationals lost but Bryce Harper was 2-4 with a home run. Dad and I had great seats as we on the third base line. After the game we went back to the hotel and carter and Ty swam while dad and I took a cab to the DC temple. Wow! What a beautiful temple - absolutely breathtaking! It was an inspiring experience. Dad and I then walked two miles to the metro station which was so beautiful despite it being 11:00 at night! The temple is actually in Kensington, Maryland in a heavily wooded area. It is so beautiful!  The downside was that I totally biffed it on the road. One of my heels gave out and I tumbled head over heels off the curb and into the road. I skinned my knee and my chin but only my pride was really hurt.
 
Day three - today we went to Arlington National Cemetery. My favorite part was the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. On the way back we stopped at the National Archives building and saw the Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution! So very cool! The entire time here we have thought two movies... Forest Gump and National Treasure!  We then went to Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot and the house he died in. Today we also ate at an authentic Mexican restaurant. It was hands down the best Mexican food I've ever had. Tonight dad and Carter stayed at the hotel to watch the NBA finals while Ty and I rode bikes all over the down town area. We went to the White House and the U.S. capital building. It was such a beautiful night. We stayed out after 11:00 pm. Probably not too safe but it was awesome. Some of the streets we went down Ty and I along with a few bums literally sleeping on the benches were the only ones in sight!
 
So far it has been such an awesome vacation! Tomorrow we head to New York! On the way we will stop at Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, and Philadelphia. I will post lots of pictures on the blog!  We have really missed having you with us! I pray that you are happy and well. Please let us know how things are going. What is your address there in Boden? Should I send your face wash there? Let me know if you need anything else. Take care Dal! We are already making plans for next summer's vacation with you! Can't wait!
 
All My Love,
 
Mom

Dallin's Letter Home Last Week:

Greetings from the stadsbibliotek in Luleå, Sweden



“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

- Albert Einstein




Well everybody it sounds like you guys are having one heck of a time out there on the east side of the good ol' usa.  Carter told me all about it as well and sent some awesome pictures and a video of Bryce Harper going yard.  That sure looked like fun.  I can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip.  That Lincoln Hypothesis book sounds interesting.  I'll have to read that.  The mission has turned me into quite the reader actually.  We do a lot of driving in the car sometimes for hours at a time and I like to pass the time with a good book.  I love reading about the history of different religions, lds church history, etc.  Very interesting stuff.  And on Pdays we hit up the second hand store and I usually buy a swedish pocket book or two that I'll read that week.  Really good language study.  Anyways yeah looking forward to hearing about it all next week.  Post lots of pictures!




I've been thinking about that Einstein quote quite a bit lately, especially in regards to missionary work here in Sweden.  I think there is a lot of truth in that quote from Albert.  I'm doing my best to keep from going insane up here haha.  We are trying to explore other ways to do things but it really just comes down to talking to as many people as possible.  Sometimes it just feels like insanity.  We keep going though.




Things are going well with our Irish friend.  She was able to come to church this week and it was perfect because it was like a multi stake conference broadcast thing going on from England.  My man Jeffery R Holland was presiding and he gave an awesome talk at the end about the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon.  He brought up some really cool perspectives to look at the whole story and it was super powerful.  He is my favorite.  Listening to him brought out some thoughts about St. George and I had to fight off the trunkyness haha its getting harder and harder to do that lately.  I'm set on finishing the job though.  Its getting really pretty up here with the sun coming out and all the green.  Earlier in the week we flew down for a zone conference in Stockholm (yeah took a plane for a zone conference haha) and it was cool to see all the mission bros from the other zone.  I got to have an interview with coach B (President Beckstrand) before we left and that was good.  He is a good guy and sis Beckstrand is the biggest sweatheart.  She reminds me a lot of you mom.




Vi kämpar på.




Roll on Mississippi




Love

Dallin




This Week's Letter from Mom:




Howdy Dallin,
 
Greetings from the Boston airport. Our flight home was delayed two hours so we were going to miss our connecting flight so they had to reschedule us. We will fly out tomorrow morning so we are staying in the airport tonight. Ugh! We won't get much sleep! Such a disappointing way to end an amazing vacation! 
 
How are you this week Dallin? I will update the blog as soon as we get back home. I'm so sorry about your acne. I will send you the cleanser tomorrow when we get home. I am also going to send you some other stuff that  Carter, Ty, and I have been using that seems to really be working well.  Please don't stress too much. We will do whatever it takes to get your skin in tip top shape. 
 
Today we attended church in Cambridge Massachusetts. It was awesome. The concluding speaker was a recently returned missionary. He was from China and served amission in London England. He had such a humble, yet powerful testimony and he shared some really neat experiences. He really made us miss you. 
 
Boston is an incredible city! We have really loved it here. We went to two red sox games while here and visited some really neat historical sights. New York was interesting as well. We went to lion king and phantom of the opera. Our hotel was right at time square. I will tell you all about everything on the blog!
 
It will be tough to get back to reality tomorrow! It is always so hard getting back into the swing of things. We have surely been spoiled!
 
Not much else to report. Everyone is well as far as I know. Sounds like it's going to be a summer full of baseball. We've enjoyed several things from our garden.  And the temperatures have really heated up. We've had beautiful weather for our vacation, but we'll be returning to the heat! Ugh!
 
What's been happening in Sweden this week? Do you think you will be transferred this next transfer? How's the work going?
You feeling okay? Is there anything else you need?
 
Take care of yourself.... Love and miss you so much!
 
Love you forever and always,
 
Mom








Dallin's Letter Home This Week:







Hey fam,



Haha well I'm sorry that your guy's vacation had to end the way that it did.  I can imagine that it is going to be hard getting back into the swing of things back out west.  It sounds like the most fun family vacation we've had (without me of course) haha.




Something interesting happened this week.  We had planned to make our monthly trip up to Kiruna on Friday and we had the elders from skellefteå with us.  We had planned to meet with the members up there.  Its about a 4 hour drive so its quite the trip.  Every month we go up there and usually give them the sacrament and they send us back to luleå with their tithing money.  So we were driving up there and the gps had us out on some weird route that we had never taken before.  We were on a long gravel and rocky road out in the middle of nowhere just past the artic circle when we realized that our back left tire was completely flat and torn up a bit haha.  We were stranded and not sure what to do.  We didn't have a spare on us.  Luckily, just a few minutes later, an old man came driving down the road.  We stopped him and asked where he was headed.  He said he was going out to a town called Överkalix about 50km away.  That was the closest town to where we were at.  He agreed to drive me and Elder Hansen (one of the skellefteå elders)  to överkalix to look for a car shop or something.  So elder Halterman and Featherstone (a st. george native, his grandpa was the temple president) stayed behind with the car.  Looking back I'm sure glad that I didn't have to stay because it would be about 3 hours until me and Hansen would come back driving in a tow truck.  Yeah so everything got fixed and everything is alright but we never got to go up to Kiruna so that kind of stunk.  We had some good laughs though.



Other than that the week was pretty normal, taught some lessons, talked to some people, you know, all that missionary stuff.  Our Irish friend is still coming to church and progressing, we are just trying to help her pull the trigger.  Its not an easy decision for her based on her circumstances so we are trying to inspire her to act with some faith and courage.  Victor is still doing well.  Coming to church and loving the gospel.  In our new chapel they had this microphone and headsets system for translating so I sat in the back this sunday and translated the meeting for all the english speakers.  And there was quite a few this week.  A missionary who was here about 3 years ago was visting with his wife and there were a couple of visitors from the states.  Me and Halterman are having a good time.  We've ended up being pretty good friends.  But I am anticipating that I will be transfered next week.  We'll get a call on saturday if it will happen.



All is well though, I'm good.  Staying pretty healthy and pretty happy.  We all have a lot to be thankful for.



Love

Dallin



btw Happy Birthday on Wednesday mom!  And Happy Father's Day on Sunday to dad!



Pictures:











Another Road Trip Through the Arctic Circle







Once again on top of the world!







Me and Elder Hansen in the Tow Truck...







Our Location in Överkalix







Old Church in Boden