Called to the Geek Squad!

Elder Dallas and Elder Limary with the Boswells,
one of his favorite Naperville families.

So we had another awesome lesson with Scott this week, but because of family concerns, he wasn't able to come to church yesterday. He called us on Tuesday though and asked a question about 2 Nephi 32. He told us that he'd been reading for 3 hours! At our lesson on Friday, he told us that he'd read up to Moroni 7! Keep in mind, we gave him the Book of Mormon like 2 weeks ago, and he's just going to town!

We also taught Kathy, and the lesson with her went really well too, except a woman started telling us about how horrible the world we live in is, and how the standards of the world today are declining and how we're all just a bunch of hypocrites. It really killed the Spirit. Fortunately, it was after we had finished teaching the lesson, so it didn't interrupt our teaching at all. Hopefully that won't keep her from continuing to investigate the Church.

Also, Katherine came to church this week! Unfortunately, it was for the wrong reasons--she just came to support Elder Limary and me, at least that's what she said. The shootings in South Carolina really hindered any progress that we were making with her (since she doesn't believe in God), because she feels like God should protect His people if they are in His house, and if He doesn't protect them there, then He's not going to protect them anywhere else.

Here's the big news for the email though: we had transfer calls on Saturday, and President Fenn called me to be one of the Technology Specialists in the mission! Since our mission has iPads, this is a special position that two elders in the entire mission have. I'm super excited, because it will be a change of pace, and I can't wait to work with all of the iPads and learn a lot of new things, but I'm a little nervous, because it's a huge responsibility. 

To make you aware of some of the details of the position, we work in the Naperville YSA Ward, which covers two whole stakes (pretty much half of the mission). Soooo, I'll probably get super fat now, because no more bikes, just lots of driving. Anyways, we work in the office several days a week, monitoring all of the iPads in the mission, creating videos and Powerpoints for mission and zone conferences, doing tech stuff for President Fenn (and soon to be President Griffin), all that fun stuff. It's a lot to take in, but I'm super excited, and can't wait to get the hang of it.

As a result of this new position, transfers started two days early--usually they start Tuesdays, but because I'm being trained for the position, I got to go with the Tech Elders and starting yesterday. I'll have to jump right into everything, because we present to the new missionaries that come in tomorrow, and we're helping President with a Powerpoint for the mission conference on Friday.

Thanks for all that you do! I love all of you guys back home, and can't wait to hear from you!

Much love from Chi-Town,

Elder Dallas Anderson
#RaiseTheCup

Farewell and Fond Memories from Elder Limary

We received this kind (and kind of hilarious!) note from Elder Limary, Dallas' most recent companion:

Hey sister Anderson! 

I just thought I would send you an email telling you what a hard working and impressive son you have! I really truly loved and enjoyed working with him. He has been my favorite companion thus far. 

Some funny things your son has said: He woke up in the middle of the night, sat up, and with a very concerned voice, asked me "Hey, does my bed spread match my sheets?!" Very confused I asked, "Are you talking to me?" He said "Yes! Does my bed spread match my sheets?!!" Wanting to go to bed I said, "Yeah, I think they match your sheets." And that must have been good enough.

Also one time he stepped on me while going to bathroom/getting a drink of water. Which is what he did every single night. 

Also, your son calls his clothing choice "GRAYSCALE!"

Sorry this note is so short. Thank you for supporting him on his mission!

#stayhungry #chiwest #keeppounding 

-elder limary

Won't be knocking any doors tonight... (Stanley Cup Game 6!)

It's going nuts here for hockey, it's so awesome! When the Hawks played on Saturday, we were out tracting, and seriously, pretty much every single house had the game on, nobody was out and about, everybody was too busy watching the game. When they scored, people came outside and some blew air horns, others were just shouting, and there were even a couple people who came out and lit fireworks, but then everybody ran back inside so that they wouldn't miss any of the game. 

For the week, we taught Scott twice this week, teaching him the plan of salvation on Tuesday and the Gospel of Jesus Christ last night. The lesson last night went so well, the member we brought with us really connected with Scott and made him feel comfortable, which was a big deal because Scott says he doesn't open up to a lot of people. The hardest thing for him will be getting him to church, but hopefully after we get him some friends, he'll feel more comfortable. He said that he'd be baptize after he gains the trust of the members here in the area.

Besides Scott, we taught George this week, who still isn't making much progress, but is open to learning and is super nice and really funny. We did some more service for Katherine, who we met tracting about a month ago, working in her garden in the middle of the rain. We didn't get to have a lesson with Kathy, Mack, or Washina, so hopefully we'll be able to see them more in the future.

We're playing some good basketball at the church today, you know I'm reppin' the D-Rose jersey, and droppin' buckets! Besides that, it's been raining like crazy all day today, we've gotten several flash flood warnings on our phone. That's not going to be stopping the Hawks from winning tonight though!

Thanks for all you do, I enjoy getting all of your emails and letters! Keep it real, and GO HAWKS!!

Going to watch Game 6 (not really),

Elder Dallas Anderson

#GoHawks

Honk for the Hawks

It was an exciting week here in Naperville, topped with the excitement going around since the Hawks are playing for the Cup! You've never seen a group of people so excited for their team, it's literally a sea of red and black on gameday, EVERYBODY is wearing Hawks gear around. It's pretty cool, because pretty much all of the businesses around have a sign that supports the Hawks somehow. My favorite one says, "Honk for the Hawks! 3 to go!" BUT they change the number each time the Hawks win. It's like an ESPN Scorecenter app for missionaries, since we can't check scores. Some other examples include, "Keep calm and beat the Lightning," "Go Hawks!!!," and "On to the Cup!" Besides that, there are companies around that are promoting special sales since the Hawks made it to the Finals.

We had a new experience this week: on Wednesday, we had a priest from a ward in the Rockford Stake come out with us (following all of the mission rules) for three and a half days. His name was Michael, and he was 18 years old. He's got his mission call already to Croatia! It was a pretty great experience, we taught a few lessons (I'll get to those in a minute), did some tracting, and visited with a few members. The sad but funny story of the mini mission was that Michael crashed his bike and totaled one of our bikes...He was tough though, he got right up and kept going.

Now for lessons, we taught George this week about following the prophet. We didn't have a chance to teach Mack, but we saw Katherine multiple times and did some good service in her yard! She's super funny, she always teases Elder Limary, but we get some really good laughs out of it. On Thursday, we tracted into a man named Scott, who seems really interested. He let us right into his home and we taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon; he was super intrigued! We also taught a woman named Kathy and her son Anthony, and they are great! They live in our apartment, we found them talking out in the parking lot.

The downside of the week was that we had five people solidly commit to coming to church yesterday, but we didn't have anyone show up, so that was too bad. Also, we set up two appointments with Shante this week, but she had things come up, so neither of those happened.

On the bright side, we helped a couple of members with some service, and we had great lessons with the former stake president and the former temple president last night! The members in this ward are so great!

I'm waiting for the Hawks contest entries to flood in, spread the word!! Hope to talk to you all soon!

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#GoHawks

Elder D's Challenge: Hawks Contest

So I'll just jump right into the email this week, although it might be a little disappointing, because not a ton happened.

We had a lesson with George on Wednesday, and we taught him the law of chastity. Fortunately, he committed to keeping it, we were a little nervous (LOL, he's like 90 years old). But he had some trouble with keeping the word of wisdom, so we'll have to help him with that some more. That was the only lesson that we had this week in our area. On Friday, I went on exchanges with one of my zone leaders, Elder Pike, and we taught one of their investigators the Restoration and committed them to come to church. 

In our area, we weren't able to find any new investigators, nobody was really interested. Besides that, the people that we found last week weren't answering their phone calls and weren't home when we stopped by, so hopefully we'll have some better luck this next week. 

We've got a couple of service opportunities set up for this next week, including helping a member organize their garage and helping an investigator spread some mulch throughout their garden. We also get to water the plants again one more time this week, so we're excited to do that!

For preparation day today, we balled it up with five of the homies from the high school basketball squad today that were at the park. In the picture I'll attach of Elder Limary and me, you can see some of them in the background shooting some hoops. They were pretty good, but they talked a lot of jive. We actually beat them in a game to 15, with ya boi dropping a couple shots from deep. They were chill afterwords though, and we finna play again next week, at least that's what we hope. They best be bringing their A game.

Last off, I want to issue a challenge to all of my Twitter followers and general fans: since the Hawks are in the Stanley Cup Finals, I want you to send me tweets or emails telling me how you plan to cheer on the Chicago boys. I'll pick the best one or two and give you a S/O on Twitter. Just caption your message: "Hawks Contest." My email is danderson@myldsmail.net.

Well, I love you all back in the 801, and I pray for you guys all the time! Thanks for your love and your support, I'm always happy to answer your questions, and I'm grateful for all of the emails that I get. I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,

Elder Dallas Anderson

#GoHawks

EDITOR'S NOTE: Elder D's photo of the "homies" didn't come through. We will update this post when he's able to send it again.

Just Try to Rain on Our Parade...

Naperville missionaries with the ward mission leader and his family.

This week in Naperville, we taught George the word of wisdom, but President Fenn had to deal with a missionary crisis that came up, so unfortunately he had to bail last-minute, even though he was still planning on it a few hours beforehand. Fingers crossed, he's coming out tomorrow with us though! George committed to living the word of wisdom for a week, which isn't hard for him, with the exception of coffee. We taught Mack this week about the Plan of Salvation, and it's great teaching him, but he asks a lot of really deep questions that are hard for us to answer, so we're trying to see if President Fenn can come see him with us tomorrow as well to answer some of his questions.

On the downside this week, my bike tire popped (it's okay, I changed the tire yesterday and we're good to go again) which meant we had to walk everywhere for a few days. #FullBikeProblems  We also came across a lot of people this week that wanted to bash, I don't know what the deal was with that, but there were more than I've met on my entire mission just in a few days.

On the other hand, for Memorial Day yesterday, there was a parade in Naperville (even though it was pouring rain), so we went downtown and street contacted for several hours, and we were able to hand out a ton of pass-along cards and find a few potential investigators! Cool miracle for the week: we were walking in the middle of a crosswalk of a busy intersection on Friday, and a guy stopped at the stoplight asked us if we were Mormons. We replied that we were, and he said that he has a special place in his heart for missionaries because his sister married a returned missionary. We got his contact info (all of this happening while the light is still red for him), so hopefully we'll be able to teach him in the future!

To be honest, I can't even remember the song we sang last week for choir, it wasn't a song that I'd heard before. We got to water the plants at the church again, and we did some good service this week helping the Steele family with their garden. We also did some service helping an older sister in the ward move some boxes. Service is my fav!

Well, I love you all a ton, thanks for the weekly updates on the 801.

Love,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#GoHawks

Sowing the Seeds in Chicago

Hey to the 801!

We had transfers this week, and I'm teaming up with Elder Limary, who's from Sacramento, California. He just finished training, but he's an awesome missionary, and I love working with him! We get along really well, I'm excited to work with him this transfer!

For our week, we did some service watering the plants at the church again, the plants are looking so fresh. We also helped a member, Brother Hacking till and plant his garden, so we were definitely on the service grind this week. Besides service, we sang in the choir, probably butchering the song, because we only got one run-through as practice before we sang it in sacrament meeting. Brockbank and I will start a choir when we get home, LOL.

Teaching wise, we taught George twice this week, but President Fenn couldn't come because he had forgotten a prior commitment that he had made with his son. BUT, he said that he'll be there on Tuesday, and the third time will definitely be the charm! Elder Limary and I tore it up on the bikes this week, talking to everybody we saw. We met four new potential investigators, and taught two lessons just as we were out and about. We gave a woman a mormon.org card, and in return, she gave us a card to the restaurant that she works at for a free appetizer or dessert, so you could say the Lord provides. Hook-ups!

On the funny side, one guy told us that he was going to call the cops on us, another guy told us that we're going to hell, and another car drove by us and yelled, "I LOVE MORMONS!" Also, President Boswell, one of my favorite members of the whole mission, made an Instagram account that you should go check out: "naperstakeprez." There's a familiar face on that account, so hit him with that swift follow!

Anyways, I love you all, thanks for the emails and for the support. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that you have or take special pics if that's what you're interested in. Hit me up!

Much love from Chi-Town,
Elder Dallas Anderson
#GoHawks

Did you know Elder Dallas could play tennis? Neither did we. #NewSkillsNewThrills