Hello everyone!!!! Merry Christmas!!! Hope you all had a good
 Christmas!
This week was pretty good.  B Rauch went out of town
 so we did a lot more walking than normal! But I liked it, it was good!
 We talked to a lot of people so that was good!
 On Thursday nights we play basketball with some less active guys and there haven't been
any pretty much for a long time but elder Barton and I have been talking
 it up for a few weeks and this week we had like 20 guys show up!! It
 was cool! Also they were all Tongan so that was sweet 😂.
Then we had Lopaka's baptism on Saturday and that was AWEOSME!!!! He is such a
 great kid! He was really excited and it was a great baptism!! Elder
 Barton did the baptism! Then he next day I had the chance to confirm
 him. It was such a great experience! The spirit was really strong the
 whole Christmas program that followed!! Church was super good!
 This was a really good week!! Oh and we got our transfer info and I'm
 staying in Saint John's for another 6weeks at least! So that's dope!
 Merry Christmas everyone let me know if you guys have any questions!
Here's a picture I got while walking.

Hey y'all this week has been crazy! It snowed pretty early on this
week and it stayed below freezing so we've had snow all week! So that
was fun! During the middle of the week elder Barton got sick so we
stayed in a lot, so that was kinda weird. We are back in action now
though!
 Lopaka had his baptismal interview yesterday so that was
pretty awesome he's getting baptized this week on Christmas Eve!! I'm
stoked! He is such a great kid! Also this week we were teaching Sammy
the WoW. And she was good with it. So we finished that lesson and went
and got some coffee.....  we went to get hot chocolate and elder
Barton wanted to try the white hot chocolate at Starbucks so B Rauch
went in to get it and he asked for the white chocolate and so they gave
him white mochas we found out pretty quick it wasn't hot chocolate
and got rid of it  but B Rauch felt so bad for giving the
missionaries coffee.  I was just laughing so hard because we had
just taught the Word of Wisdom  so that was pretty exciting!
Not much else really happened this week!
Oh,I went on exchanges with the district leader and that was a lot of fun!
He's a really cool guy and he's also the Spanish elder so I was in Spanish lessons all night
and I didn't understand a lot  but it was good we had a good time and
the spirit was the same! It was cool to see people feeling the sprint
even though I couldn't talk to them! So that was good! Talk to you all
later let me know if you have questions! Hers the only picture I took
this week

Hey everyone!! This week has been pretty good! Crazy but good! Firstly
we had snow on Thursday!!!

It was pretty dang awesome!!! Also I got a hat as you can see and it looks kinda

funny in this picture but it's warm and that's all that matters right? plus ninja 

mask! So yeah that was an adventure!!

The second day we had a bunch of freezing rain

which basically means it was so cold the rain hit the ground and froze so we had 

a bunch of ice and all the snow was turned to ice. Everyone was freaking out 

hardcore when they saw the snow and then the ice! Like nobody went anywhere for

three or four days!! Prime time to do some door knocking and contacting.

We contacted a lot of people!! It was awesome! Blessings from heaven. 

We also had a lesson with Lopaka this week and at the end we had a dance party.  

He is such a great kid!! I really feel blessed to have the chance to teach him! He understands everything pretty well and he is so sweet and loving! Also lessons with Presley (the 9yr old girl we are teaching the after baptism lessons to) are going pretty good she was sick two Sunday's ago so she was pretty tired and a lot calmer than normal on Monday for our lesson! So we got a more taught than normal 😂.

Anywhos so on Saturday we had a ward Christmas party and it was pretty great! We had a lot of less actives and investigators show up! Here are some pictures

This is Sammy and her daughter Kaylee!   Lopaka with Santa.

 

And I don't have any pictures but I wore that hat to the party 😂😂

So yeah 😂 it was a ton of fun!

Plus Sammy brought a friend who has twin sons! His name is Kenneth and he is Awesome!! We invited him church and he was really excited and he talked about how he was having a really hard day the day of the ward Christmas party and as soon as he walked in the doors he felt calm and peace! It was awesome! Also he came to church the next day and I was teaching him about the restoration some and we also talked about it in the first class he was at and he totally liked it and accepted it! Also he went to elders quorum he like bore his testimony on how recently he's been going through some hard things and how he decided to "turn it all over to Christ" and seek help from him in all he does and how his life improved drastically when he started doing that! He even talked about how he relapsed into "trying to do life by himself" and how he felt the difference and decided to stay relying on Jesus Christ and let him "fight his fights". It was awesome! He's meeting with us this week and I'm really excited about that! He's a great guy!!

So yeah that's pretty much the week. Today we had an all day Christmas meeting for the whole mission so that why I'm emailing so late! Have a good week everyone! Keep in touch and let me know if you have any questions! Love ya all!

Elder Caleb Dewald

 

December 5

Hello everyone! How y'all doing this week? This week has been pretty
busy! We've done a ton of stuff to try and find new investigators.                                                   We've been knocking doors and and contacting people in our area,
book and street contacting a lot! And I'm getting better at
talking to people and teaching lessons! So we've been teaching this
girl named Presley and she's 9 and she is a recent convert and she is
supper sassy but she is a good girl and it's fun to teach her!

Kayla is another girl we are teaching she is super cool and she is
progressing super fast. She is always reading her scriptures and
sending us texts asking about scriptures and it's super awesome to
watch her progress. In the lesson we had with her in Monday last week
we talked a lot about baptisms for the dead. She talked about her
grandpa and how she wants to have his work done for him. She talked
about when she went to the temple she felt like him and also a friend
she had when she was young who died were there and how they wanted
her to get baptized and do the work for them. She thought we might
think that was weird but we just bore our testimonies about temples
and the work that's done there and told her how amazing that was. She
was gonna be baptized on Christmas Eve but she wants to move it up now
because she has friends going out of town that she wants to be there.
So we are probably gonna be doing that sooner which is awesome!
Lopaka the 10 year old we are teaching is progressing super well! 
He always says how he wants to live with God and be in the celestial kingdom and it's so
awesome!
On a sad note one of our investigators, James who was on date
for New Years is unsure now because he went and visited his dad in
Nebraska and his dad basically said he would never talk to him if he
got baptized and so he said he wouldn't. So that's sad but we fasted
for him yesterday so we'll see how it goes from here.
Last night we went over to a members house and had dinner with James and watched the
Christmas devotional so that was good and he seemed to like it so
that's good! This week has been really rainy and cold but I'm loving
it! The lord is blessing us a lot and it's cool to see! Here are some
pictures from the week. (The pictures are at the top.)
 

November 28, 2016

Hey yo everyone! This week has been pretty good! We taught a young
girl named Presley who is about 11 last Monday night and she is really funny
and super sassy.
 We had a training meeting on Tuesday and it was
really good! Everyone talked a lot about how important it was to have
the spirit and work hard it was really good! Later we taught a less
active man, Brother White and he's a really cool guy! Then on Wednesday we taught this awesome investigator named Kayla  and the lesson went really well. We taught about the plan of salvation and she understood everything! She's getting baptized on Christmas Eve so
that's awesome.
We also taught this young boy and his name is Lopaka! Who, fun fact, is also getting baptized on Christmas Eve which is pretty awesome! He is so fun to teach! And he says the funniest things!         Like he was talking to Elder Barton about Pokémon ( He LOVES Pokémon) and they were talking about what the strongest move was and Elder Barton was like "well my Pokémon would use ( I'm not sure exactly what he said but insert move here) and then Lopaka, who we just taught the plan of salvation to and who was holding one of those Jesus passalong cards was like " Oh yeah? Jesus use judgment!"  Everybody died it was so freaking funny!  He is such an awesome kid! I think him and Daniel would be really good friends!  So that was a really good day!

 Thanksgiving we had a zone meeting and that was really good! Then later at about 1 we went            over to the house of some members for dinner and we weren't supposed to go out so we ended up spending the whole day playing card/board games and eating food there! It was a lot of fun!

 Friday we helped this less active lady who was moving into our ward move her stuff over to her    new apartment. It was an interesting move! She didn't live in the nicest house before.                  There were a lot of people there and let's just say they were not keeping the word of
wisdom.  But she moved in with her parents now so that's good!

Saturday was Elder Barton's birthday! And we had a zone breakfast! Then later we went out to lunch for Elder Barton's bday and we had a good time. Then that night we took a less active man to the temple and that was really good! He's kinda old and blind and can't hear very well so teaching him has been interesting! But the Portland temple has a place called the atrium just inside the temple that anyone can go in and he went in there with B- Rauch.  He definitely felt the spirit so that was good.  It made it a lot easier to teach him!
 And Sunday was good! We had stake conference last week so this was my first normal week so I got to meet all the people and it was good! So overall a good week! I'm getting a lot better at talking to everyone we meet and teaching so I'm happy about that! This gospel is true! And it brings people happiness! I know that with all my heart and I'm excited to keep sharing it!
Elder Caleb Dewald




 Here's a picture from Thanksgiving of us playing Jenga.

November 21, 2016

Hey everyone!! This week was good! Crazy busy though!! Let's see, so
this was my last week at the MTC. My district's too! So on Sunday we
sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer in Sacrament meeting as a district and
that was really cool! The spirit was super strong! And later on Sunday
I watched The Character of Christ devotional by Elder Bednar again!!
And it was crazy spiritual!! It's such a good talk!
 He tells this story about a mother whose daughter is in a car accident with two
friends.  She (the mother) is on the phone with Elder Bednar who is her Stake President             asking if he can go to the hospital to identify the girls.
She then finds out that her daughter has died and she is worried about
the other mothers and letting them know that their daughters are on
the way to the hospital. Then later this same woman is worried about Elder Bednar and how he was affected by seeing her daughter and asks if he is alright. Then the day of her daughter's funeral this woman gets a call from some lady in the ward who is sick and hasn't gotten a meal from the ward yet ( the woman was the Relief Society President) and the sick lady not knowing about her daughter then chews her out and the Relief Society President- this crazy strong woman- takes a meal to that (sick) woman on the way to her daughter's funeral.
So basically he ends up saying that this is the character of Christ! To at our
hardest times turn out instead of in. It was such a good talk!! I haven't even scratched the surface of it!! It's so good!

 Anywhos so yeah.  Sunday was good! Then Monday was a really good last day at the MTC!        Both my teachers Brother Rogers and Brother Aston had great lessons!!
I learned a ton from them! Saying goodbye to everyone in my district
that wasn't going to Washington was sad but they are all gonna be
great missionaries! So I'm excited for them! So Tuesday we got up at
3:00am to leave and we took a bus and two different trains to the
airport.  The flight to Washington was good!

 And when we got to the airport President McAteer and his wife were waiting for us!                    They are such nice, happy people!! They gave everyone hugs and were super happy
the whole time!  It was cool! And then we went to the mission home and
had a bunch of meetings that we got all our info and iPads at.  Then
we went out and tried to place some Book of Mormons and that was cool!
Then we had dinner at the mission home!

The next day we got our assignments and I'm in the Portland Stake in Saint Johns area! My companion Is Elder Barton! He is a really cool guy!! He's been out 17
months and he's helped me a lot already!  Also there is this awesome
guy in out ward who we call B-Rauch! He is such a good guy!! He's 77
and he goes out with us like every single day!! He drives us all over the area because it's a
biking and walking area and he is he sweetest old guy of all time!!

So anywhos I've just been working since I got here and we are teaching a
lot of people! Last night we went to the Portland temple with one of
our investigators her name is Sammy and she has a cute little 4 year
old named Kaylee! It was a really good lesson! At the end she
committed to work towards being baptized on the 7th of January!!! It
was awesome  also the Portland temple is gorgeous!! So that's most
of the stuff from my week! Let me know if you guys have any questions!
Love you all!

Elder Caleb Dewald

Dear Missionary Family,

We are delighted to inform you that your missionary has arrived safely to the Washington Vancouver Mission.  We already love them and are excited to serve with them.  We have enjoyed becoming acquainted with them and are confident that they will become an effective instrument in the hands of the Lord in sharing the gospel with the people of Washington and Oregon.

We have assigned them a companion who is an experienced, devoted, and motivated missionary.  All of our missionaries understand that one of the greatest privileges available in the mission is to train a new missionary.  This first companion will be a special person to your missionary’s life and will help give them a great start here.

We feel that our greatest responsibility is the care and welfare of your child.  We want to assure you that we will be in close contact with them.  We will be observant of their physical health, happiness, and spiritual well being.  We will work closely with them throughout the mission to help them succeed and fulfill their calling as a representative of the Church and as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please be assured that we will be in contact with you if we ever encounter any concerns that would call for your attention.  We see you as a great asset to the success of your child while serving in the mission field and will work closely with you if the need arises.

Thank you for the sacrifices you are making at home to have your missionary in the field.  We have seen the Lord bless the families of missionaries who are serving in untold ways.  We know that his blessing will be upon you as well.

Attached are photographs of your missionary taken with us at the welcome dinner at the mission home. 

Please feel free to contact us at the mission office with any questions that you may have.

With love,

President and Sister McAteer

Washington Vancouver Mission

 

 October 26

 Hey mom dad just wanted to let you know that I got the MTC safe. I'm getting settled in. Everything is going well so far.



 October 28

 So things are going really good! It's been super busy! the last two day seem like they went on forever but at the same time they went by pretty quickly too. The spirit here is amazing! It's kinda like being at the temple but a little less strong most of the time. My companions name is Elder Johnson! He is a really cool guy! He's from Utah. Actually all the guys in my district but me are from Utah hahaha but they are are really cool elders! It's crazy how close I already feel to them! So the first day went by in a blur of info about all the things we would be doing and it was super crazy but still super spiritual! It's amazing how much my testimony has grown just in the last few days! Also all of the elders in my room are going to the same mission as me so that's really cool. We'll probably see each other out in the field! So the first night we had this meeting where we had a bunch of missionaries teaching people who were acting as investigators and it was super cool to hear so many testimonies and to feel the spirit in the room. Then the second day was a ton of personal and companion study and class time and it was super busy but super good! We are teaching an investigator in one of our classes right now and that's super cool! ( It's actually just our teacher role playing but it feels real)  And so it was really a good time teaching with elder Johnson! He really is such a cool elder and his testimony is awesome! So later that day we had a meeting with the branch pres. and that was super spiritual! We had everyone in our zone that was new (my district and one other. About twenty elders and sisters total) and we all got up and and shared our testimony of Christ and it was super amazing and the spirit was so strong!! Then we had more meetings and at the end they gave everyone callings and I'm the district leader which is crazy!  But It's great to know that the Lord has so much faith in me! it really gave me a boost of strength and I'm really grateful for the calling to serve. Last night was just a really strong witness that I'm where the Lord wants me to be and I know that with all my heart!

November 4
 
Hey everyone! So this week has been pretty great! The days have been running together a lot  but they have been good! The spirit is so strong here! My testimony has grown so much stronger!! So on Sunday we had a great devotional and then after that we watched a video of a talk Elder Bednar  gave at the MTC a few years ago, and it was crazy good!!!! His talk was on being like Christ and turning outward! IT WAS THE BEST!! I didn't take notes because I didn't have a note book, but I'm planning on it next week! So I'll tell you all about it next week!

We started this thing called TRC this week where we teach people and we aren't sure if they are acting or not! It feels so real and it's so freaking awesome!! My companion and I are teaching a guy named Arnold and he is super cool!! He's pretty old, not exactly sure how old but his wife died 50 years ago. So his Story is that when his wife was dying he was praying to God and he got the answer of when his wife would die and it was super hard on him. So because that happened he hadn't prayed since then. But last night we taught him about the plan of salvation and how he could be with his wife again. AND HE SAID THE PRAYER!!!   It was awesome!! The spirit was so strong!! I love that Arnold so much! and tonight we are gonna teach him about temples and then invite him to be baptized!

Also we get to go to the Provo Temple every P-day!! It's like right across the street! So last week we went to the temple and the Elders in my room ( elder Johnson , elder Berry and elder Oswald. Elder Johnson is my companion by the way and we are all going to the same mission.) we went and did sealings and then this week we did an endowment session and both were really good!! So last week after we went to the temple We all took Elder Johnson to the urgent care because he had been having headaches all week even before he got here and they kept getting worse, so we took him and he had to get a shot in the butt.  It was so funny after and he is doing great now so that's all good!

Halloween was pretty calm here they didn't really do anything! But some of the Elders went around to all the elders rooms dressed up 

That's about all I can think of!

November 11

There yall! How is everyone doing?  So this week was good! Both of my TRCs last week ended well. They both committed to be baptized  so that was cool!! This week I have two new ones and they are both great!! They are super interested and lessons have been going well so far.

So on Sunday we had another devotional and it  was great! it was Jenny Oaks Baker! Elder Oaks daughter and it was awesome! her and her family preformed a bunch of musical numbers and it was really good! Her son who's like 6 or something was playing a guitar! and he was so good! So that was really cool and the spirit was really strong! 

On Tuesday we had another devotional and it was good! I sang in the choir! It was really cool! And then the primary general president spoke! It was really good too! I don't remember what it was about right now... but I took notes so maybe I'll send something from it next week!

Speaking of, I fly out next week on the 15th!!

It's crazy! This week kinda flew by!

So yeah that's all I can think of this week!

The Beginning

Outside it was still dark and most of the world still asleep at 5:30 on the morning of October 26, 2016 when bid Caleb farewell at the airport to begin two years of service for the Lord.