How to Deal with Driving, Dissing, and Decadent Dining

This week was crazy busy for us--there were 4 zone training meetings this week (Tuesday-Friday), and then Stake Conference was on Saturday and Sunday. The main purpose of the zone meetings was to install and introduce the Driver Accountability Program to the mission. What the DAP program entails is a device called Tiwi was installed in all of the mission vehicles. Tiwi tracks your driving and will yell at you for turning too hard, stopping or starting too hard, or speeding. Luckily for me, I've always been one to drive the speed limit, so Tiwi doesn't phase my driving. While at each of the training meetings, Elder Campbell and I had to audit and update all of the iPads throughout the mission, which can be stressful under a time restraint. The toughest meeting was on Thursday, where we had to work with approximately 65-70 iPads in a 5 hour time slot. It was really tough, but we got it done (just not quite in the allotted time).

On Sunday night, Elder Campbell and I tracted into a man who was very antagonistic towards the Church. He went on and on for about 15 minutes about how Joseph Smith is a follower of the devil, how there is no physical evidence that the Book of Mormon is true, and how we, as young men, need to search for "real truth" for ourselves. It was not the most pleasant experience to say the least, but I learned something from it. Elder Engler taught me to look for a reason for why everything happens. Coincidences don't happen in the Lord's work, so I found myself asking why we happened to come across this man that wanted to tear down our faith. 8-12 months ago, if that same situation would have happened, I would have been shocked, and my testimony probably would have been shaken. But Sunday night, I realized that I could have stood in that doorstep for another hour or two taking all of the blows he was taking at me and at the Church. My testimony was unshaken in those moments. Looking back just a few minutes after our encounter with that man, I realized that maybe I've grown on my mission a lot more than I might have thought, and I've developed a testimony stronger than I might have realized. It was a cool moment for me.

Probably the highlight of the week was last Monday, when we went to Chama Gaucha with the Assistants! I lost like 4 points in the Fit For the Kingdom challenge, but it was worth it! #SteakForDays As far as a FFTK update goes, I'm still dominating--eating my fruits and vegetables, drinking lots of water, passing up desserts, and ordering salads at restaurants. We're about halfway done, but I'm going to step it up and finish strong!

That's crazy about the team in Aspen, they sound crazy good. I hope that Lando and Breven are having a good time though playing for the Rampage. Super cool that @therealtender_58 got that S/O on Twitter, good for him! He's still got nothing on me though when it comes to lifting though.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson

#ChiTownLife