February 24, 2009

D.C. from Antartica to the Bahamas or close enough

Okay so this last week many many many miracles. Marie the mother of Daphne was baptised she said she wanted to be baptised the first week of March the day after her birthday but then on Friday night she called and said that she got a prompting to be baptised this SUNDAY!!! So that was really cool and we are teaching her two 8yo boys Daniel and Gabriel(twins) they are a handful but a delight. Then that same Sunday and old investigator we dropped Martial got a new job and has Sundays off so he wanted to come to church with us and so he got to see both the Confirmation of Daphne and the Baptism of Marie and he wants to start having the lessons again so we are super excited about that. We know he is just going to be great now that he is on the right tract. The snow here is clearing up pretty fast especially with all the rain we have been having it has melted the snow almost completly off of the lawns but the sidewalks and roads are still packed full of snow/ice and it isnt going anywhere anytime soon. Tomorrow is Zone Conference my first one! I came in the day after we had ours in January so Im excited for that. Everything is going good here. Today for P-Day we got up at 5:00 and went to D.C. to take Sunrise pictures which I have included we went to the Lincoln memorial to take them. We also went to the White House to take pictures and then we went to the Halocaust memorial museum which was really intense but I liked it. I love studying about wars and stuff and Hitler even though he was very twisted and evil was very smart and knew what he was doing and how to get his way. It was a really great teaching/Golden Question opprotunity which we used to our advantaged you would be surprised how many people wanted to hear more about the Plan of Salvation especially with what they just saw. So all in all it was a great experience. I have included the pictures that we took. I will talk to you next week. Love you all and passe un bonne journee(have a great day)
-Elder Van Dyke

February 17, 2010 Pictures

February 17th, 2010

The weather here hasd been insane!!! We have spent probably 30 hours on shoveling and 10-15 hours on pushing cars out/pushing cars up hills/pushing cars WHEREVER!!! Im glad to have lived in Utah and Canada and know what snow is really like. Whenever Elder Mezerai and I stop and help people they always ask us where we are from and when I say Canada they always say something to the tune of "Oh so this is like nothing to you then" "Your a proffesional then aren’t you" or my personal favorite "You drive Dog sleds in Canada Right?" I Love it.

Elder Mezerai and I get in alot of doors because neither of us or American (full American in my case) which really helps and I probably know more African dialects then I do French now. I have learned more about Africa in the last month then I have in all 6 years of Jr. High and High School its amazing how much different it really is coming from a Native then from a text book and a boring teacher. I LOVE the people hear they are so friendly and its really easy to change topics from weather and sports to Religion. The name tag really helps too :) French is coming along very well our Investigators Love the fact that im trying to learn their language so they help me out alot when I struggle.

Today we had tranfers and guess who is staying in the same area with his same companion... ME!!! Thank goodness I need to stay with the True French Man alot longer than I have so far. I have lots more to learn. Well nothing has really been happening thanks to all the snow. The work will continue to be slow for about another 2-3 weeks while people make up the money they lost while everything was shut down. Everything is going good here Im staying healthy somewhat (Afican food isn’t healthy at all especially with all the Palm Oil they use) I cant wait to hear from you. Until next week I love you all and be good :) -Elder Van Dyke

February 8, 2010

My letter for everyone else

Sorry im writing you now and not on Wednesday like usual. We have had crazy snow! Its a record or atleast thats all we have heard were just missionaries so we dont get the most up to date news. We had 2 1/2 feet at our apartment. We spent the last couple of days(Saturday, Sunday) and Today shoveling out Cars, Driveways, Sidewalks, EVERYTHING!!! The snow plows are not helping either.

The area is still going great Church was cancelled which sucked for alot of us because that meant the cancellation of Baptisms(not us) But Good news actually GREAT news rememeber Daphne? Well her Mom is so in tune with the Spirit and she doesnt even have it yet! Crazy!!! Well she has finally decided she wants to be baptized she says she feels its the right things and she knows it but she is going to wait until her two boys Daniel and Gabriel understand the Gospel enough so that they can be baptized all together and then they will be an amazing family which they almost are now all they need is the Gospel :)

The work has been a little hard with the earthquake in Haiti still but when we talk about the Plan of Salvation with them it really brings comfort to them. One thing Ive learned so far(3 1/2 months) You can never say to many prayers. I counted how many prayers we said in one day it was 10 prayers and thats just for us not including the other 7 we said with investigators. 17 prayers in one day. Do you think Heavenly Father is up there going oh no Elder Van Dyke not another one? Of course not I bet he is up there saying Yes! Yes! Time to talk with my Son :)

Have you ever thought deeply about prayer. No you havent well serve a mission you will learn to appreciate prayer alot more. It has taken me 11 years to really understand what prayer is. Prayer is how we talk to God. Your probably saying Elder Van Dyke I knew that before you were born well let me ask you this. How often do you pray? How long do you pray? Do you really say your prayers with all your Heart and Strength? If you answered no to any of these then dont worry start now make today the day that you are really going to talk with your Father in Heaven but when you finish dont just say Amen and walk away Stay on the "line" let your Father talk back to you as much as we love getting advice from our Earthly parents how much more should we hunger for advice from Our Heavenly Parents? They want to talk to us and give us advice and help us along we just need to ask for it and then LISTEN for it. I have a testimony that Prayer is one of the most important things we could do here right now. Even if you dont have the same beliefs God still wants to hear from you even if you dont think anyone is listening just remember there is ALWAYS one person listening and watching out for us and wants to help us along our way so I would ask you to say a meaningful prayer tonight and really bear your whole heart and soul to your Father in Heaven and I promise if you do this you Will feel his Love for you and the many blessings that come with that Love.

I Love you all too but I cant love you as much if you dont write me :) (See how I turned this around) I will write later this week if not I will for sure write next Wednesday. "See ya next week and remember keep your stick on the ice" (Red Green show)

February 3, 2010

You need to send all of my mail and anything else that you send me to the mission office because if I move to another apartment then my mail might not get to me so just send everything to the mission home address and they will forward it on to me. Money is going good I have extra money so I must be a smart shopper or something. I receive $160.00 each month they gave me a Debit Card from JPMorganChase with my name and everything and they just put the money on the card each month. We should be getting a new car soon we hit 50,000 miles on this one so they will give us a new car to destroy... did I say destroy I meant drive :) Im doing really well...

Im glad Chase came to church what about Ryan and Alex? Tell them all to write me I wrote all of them and I expect something back. Anyways back to ME! I am doing good we are having a tough time with investigators because they are all African everyone not a generalization I mean everyone we teach is African. They are really laid back a little too laid back. They really accept the gospel and everything we teach but when it comes time for Sunday and they actually have to do something they all of a sudden get "sick" or have to "work" or any excuse they can find but thanks to Elder and Sister Woofinden they have one less excuse and that one is usually I dont have a car and I dont want to walk... Well guess what have we got a deal for you :) but the area is going good I emailed my teachers back at the MTC and Soeur Roubicek (served in Quebec)

She is teaching an Elder who is going French speaking Washington D.C. only problem is D.C. French is only 3 areas and the oldest Elders is only 19 months and so we talked to Pres. about it and he said that the French are going to have a turn in the English program...NO!!!!!!! right now we have 6 Elders 2 speak really good French 1 is French but the other 2 Elders and myself don't speak or understand it very well so that means we are losing 2 Elders from the French program and gaining 2 more who can't speak French so we dont know whats going to happen but hopefully they send the 2 new Elders to the English program first.

Right now we have 2 Baptisms planned for this month really exciting. Other than that everything is going good and the work is going. Oh I almost forgot in case you havent seen the weather for D.C. guess what SNOW!!!! and lots of it. Problem I love the snow its my favorite I especially love blizzards only thing is in the French mission no one lives close to us so we have to go by car EVERYWHERE!!! but when it snows if there is even 1 in. that sticks to the ground we get LOCKED DOWN!!! until Pres. clears us to drive again.(So much for learning to drive in 2 feet of snow in Utah) But we have lots of fun like Sleep,Eat,Call(investigators),Sleep,write letters, Sleep and pretty much catch up on Sleep. Well I cant think of anything else to write I Love You ALL!!! Talk to you next week... Bye :)