This area is really hoppin!

.....so to answer some of the questions you had.
Our apartment complex has a washing machine and dryer but you have to pay 1 dollar to use it each time. So we do our own laundry here. the emailing in this area is a little different. SO our pdays go like so
10AM-Drive to church, and begin emailing and so forth.
11:30Am- usually all the missionaries are done emailing so we go and shop and stuff.
1 or 2PM. when we get back from that we can check our emails real quick and reply than we get dressed into gym clothes and play basketball or something fun in the gym.
5:30PM- we can log in and check our emails again and reply to any important ones.
haha thanks mom.

All the missionaries in our area come to email at the church on P-Day. Including the sisters. So in total while im emailing there are 3 other sets here so a total of 8 missionaries. 1 set of sisters. They do play basketball with us.
SO even though i may get off in an hour or so you can still send me an email and ill see it later on today.

Hello friends and family! Before i begin i would like to thank everyone including sister Dean! who sent me letters and i will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

     Things here in Old Town are much busier than my last area. In this area we have a total of 8 investigators and we have some potential investigators who may become investigators in the next coming week.  This area is really hoppin! Lots of people to teach and lots of lessons to prepare.

     I feel myself growing in the gospel and i really could tell ive grown when Elder Beck and I were helpers at this years youth conference. We attended the youth conference for the Augusta and Bangor Stakes. (The whole state of Maine pretty much) We, along with other sets of missionaries were set apart as team leaders for a group of 15 youth and were the leaders of all that they did. We taught them 2 devotionals, one of daily scripture study and the other on the power of prayer. Both of the lessons were very powerful and the youth could feel the spirit in the room. It was a unique experience to be the leader of youth that look up to you even though they are only 1-2 years younger than you. Also part of this youth conference we got to take 2 youth out teaching with us to an actual investigator of ours. I went with 2 youth to one of our actual investigators named J****  W****** who is a 19 year old college student. The youth were to teach the Plan of Salvation and I was to direct it and help if they needed help. Of course during the lesson they needed some help but it was humbling to see how much i have grown in the gospel in 6 months of being on my mission. These youth knew a good amount of the Plan of Salvation and knew even more than i did before coming out on my mission, but it was cool to see the parallel from an 18 year old youth to a 19 year old missionary and how much i have grown.

Getting ready to teach at Youth Conference

The missionaries helping out at Youth Conference

Are these guys really helping??

Elder Helping Hands

 











  Aside from youth conference we taught a no smoking program to a Less-Active member and we hope she follows through with it because she needs to stop smoking, in fact everyone needs to stop smoking because its so dumb and its just slowly killing you.

     This past week we did a good amount of service, some activities include moving a washer and dryer at 8:30PM in the rain and it was super slippery and heavy but we pulled through without dropping it, we raked a large back yard of leaves and shrubbery, we cleaned up a polluted nasty stream that had loads of trash and junk in it, and we helped a lady in our ward find something she lost in her house....

     Some other things i want to talk about is that the weather here is finally in the 40+s but the stinky part is that its always the classic Maine overcast and rainy days. For the past couple of days its has just been gloomy and dark all day with just enough rainfall to make your hair constantly wet, not dripping just wet and moist. Also last Monday i decided to go for it and buy a tomato plant haha. I bought it from walmart for 3$ and i bought it because i wanted to see it grow and if all goes well produce me a tomato. I set it out on our porch and we will see how it goes. This past week has taken an affect on it because the sun has barely come out and as we all know plants need to sun to grow! So its slowly dying but ill hope for the best.  That's all that i can think of atm. I hope it stays sunny and awesome in San Diego!

All Smiles, Elder Dahlberg!!

Zone Conference didn't turn out so well... But Easter did!

     HAPPY EASTER!!! I had a great Easter even though i didn't spend it with my immediate family. We spent it at a families house called the Macdonalds. She is a Less-Active whose husband isn't a member. he loves to cook and he cooked us an Easter Linner. (Lunch+Dinner). He made a Ham soaked in Tangerine juice, with potato salad, carrots, homemade apple sauce, AND DEVILED EGGS!!!  (Drew LOVES Deviled Eggs!)Those eggs just make the meal. I ate a good 6 or 7 of them and i tried not to be a hog. Haha

     Also this week on Tuesday we had zone conference and we learned all about how to improve our teaching skills and how to be professional looking. We have a very importance message to share and we have to walk the talk and look the part. Apparently the food they provided at zone conference which was just little sandwiches and fruit salad was poisoned!! Because out of the 20 missionaries in our zone 10 of them got food poisoning and my companion was one of them. So he wasn't feeling too good the next couple of days after. After zone conference i went on an exchange to a town called Lincoln. Its way up there in Maine and for the first time on my mission i saw some MOUNTAINS!! (Well, i say mountains because i want to be nice to the local Mainers but they are actually hills) Also while i was there it snowed that night and it snowed a good 3 inches in APRIL!

View of the Mountains (hills...) near Lincoln, Maine

This week we also helped a lady move out of our ward to move into the Brewer ward which is the other ward but meets in the same building as we do. But by doing that service we missed a ward activity called the lasagna bake off that i was somewhat looking forward too but we arrived just in time to help clean up :) Mosiah 2:17.

This upcoming week the missionaries in our zone are helping out with Youth Conference. This youth conference is for all the youth in the whole state of Maine so i feel honored to be able to be a part of it. Elder Beck and I are going to be teaching 4 lessons combining to a total of 2 and a half hours of teaching time. So with all that teaching comes lots of preparation so this week we will be doing a lot of preparing and stuff. the youth conference covers all of Thursday Friday and Saturday. That's all i have for now. I had a great Easter and I'm glad to be a missionary at this time of year.

Too bad they're not having any fun!  

 (Someone texted this to Timmy.  I'm assuming it was a kid at the Youth Conference...)

Transferred to Bangor, Maine Old Town as of April 8, 2014 (Letter from April 14)

Good-bye Elder Dean

Hello Elder Beck

   








 So here is whats new in my life as a missionary. I am now attending the Bangor ward and we split the ward with another set of Elders. They cover all of Bangor and, I have a new companion named Elder Beck. He is a Cowboy from Utah. Dont be fooled about the cowboy title. You can still be wicked cool and awesome even if your a cowboy. He loves horses and trucks and guns. We get along so well and to be completely honest he is my favorite companion so far. We have so much fun together its crazy.

     So i am also living in a new apartment. I live in a town called Old Town and something funny about where i live now is I live in a pretty older town (Duh!) and it smells like poop. Seriously. It smells like poop because the mill (Where all the people work) burns their trash and it just smells ridiculously bad. Best example i can give is on a hot day at the mmwll baseball fields and you really had to go to the bathroom at the portopotties but someone was already in there. So your waiting there and the person finally gets out and you quickly go in. At that first moment when you go in where you smell the poop, that is how bad it smells in Old Town. Sorry if its graphic but that is the BEST example i can give of how bad it smells here.

View from Old Town apartment--day time

and a pretty sunset!

 







     Also serving in this new area we are super busy. This past week we have been soo busy that only one time this week we were able to get into the apt by 9PM. We have been out doing the work of the lord. In this new area we also are in a car share with the other elders in this ward. During the days where we dont have the car we are out biking. Its the first time i have biked on my mission and it was pretty fun. Im not going to lie, but i almost got hit by a car and if it werent for my past experiences out biking in San Diego i would have gotten hit.   (We Moms don't like to hear these things...)

Elder Silly Boy on his bicycle

     Our service that we do here is in Thrift shops and in food pantries which is really fun because you get to see some of the UGLIEST CLOTHES ON EARTH, yet for some reason i want some of them :) Also this upcoming week we have a lot on the schedule. This tuesday we are having zone conference so that means i will get to see president Stoker. Than after that i am going on an exchange in Lincoln Maine till wednesday, than on friday the ward is having a lasagna bake off and guess who the judges are......... The missionaries!!!!

I know you have a lot of questions that i didnt answer. (I tried to answer all of your questions the best i could) But if i didnt you know your more than welcome to ask them.

My new address is
190 Brunswick St Apt 8
Old Town, Maine, 04468

Kissy face totem

You'd think there was some sort of rivalry...

First official transfer... to who knows where???

Side note:  I helped our Sister missionaries teach an investigator about the Plan of Salvation on Friday evening.  While talking about General Conference weekend, I invited him to come over to our house to watch the Saturday morning session with our family...  this is the reply I got from Elder Dahlberg...

"And about the MP lesson. I bet those sisters were so happy that you invited him. When members do that for us it means so much because the members can do SO much more for the investigators than us in terms of fellowshipping. SO GO MOM!!! Just know that those sisters probably went home going "Sister Dahlberg is so awesome!"

     Wow so this week has been full of activities and it flew by so fast! Watching conference was really great and being able to actually enjoy conference made it that much better. I think i enjoyed it because it was finally a time where i could rest and just get my spiritual batteries recharged because as a missionary you are focused on other people and their spiritual needs, but this time i could just focus on me. It was great and my favorite talk was Elder Eyring's in Priesthood session about Heroes. Very good talk.

    This week was full of food first off. For meals this week we got PAMPERED!
Monday- Member took us to an Indian Cuisine named Shere Punjab and let us get any kind of Curry we wanted.
Tuesday- I made a fruit salad with grapes, kiwi, banana and apple and then we were invited over to a members house for dinner of chicken and rice.
Wednesday- We had district lunch and went to a Mexican place called Pancho Villa. (Definitely not as good as SD Mexican food!)  Elder Dean and I got a $20 burrito named Burrito Macho.
Thursday- Our ward mission leader took us to Panera bread and bought us bread bowls and fruit cups.
Friday- the Youlands fed us spaghetti and meatballs and than she made us little banana bread muffins that i absolutely love.
Saturday- the Elders quorum took us out to Five guys for dinner and then after priesthood session we got taken to Wendy's for a frosty.
Sunday- In between sessions the ward had a potluck lunch and that was really good and than after the Derr's had us over for dinner and we had super yummy salads and homemade cheesecake. Yeah i think i gained a couple of pounds this week.

Burritos Macho... before...

and after...

... and then after that....

     Other than the food this week we were able to finally meet with an investigator of ours and we gave him a large print of the Book of Mormon. This man is 78 and has bad eye sight. His name is Raymond and he is interested in our church and what we believe. So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation. Also this week we helped out with J*** F***** again. He called us up because we told him to call us if he needed us and so he did. He called us and needed us to help him vacuum his floors and do his shopping at Wal-mart because if he were to do it it would take all week because he is so slow. So he drove us to Wal-mart and let me tell you, if a man can barely walk, that doesn't mean he can drive. Yikes he almost crashed multiple times and i was in the front seat because Elder dean beat me to the back seat haha. Well we did that for him and while he was driving to got our attention and sincerely told us "Guys, it will feel so good when this is all over." He than repeated himself saying it again. He is in so much pain, here are a list of his problems: Gout in knees toes and fingers, diabetes, neck muscle spasms, and severe mental issues. He is in a lot of pain and we try our best to help him.
     Also this week i was on an exchange and the meeting spot to exchange back was in Portland and we didn't have the car so we had bro Rainey drive us and we arrived earlier than expected and we were already in the area and he took us to see the Portland head light house. That is the most famous light house in Maine and i can tell why. It was beautiful to see. Mostly the wide expanse on the ocean but the light house was cool too :)

Elders Hales & Dahlberg

Portland Head Lighthouse

     And I am also getting transferred... As far as i know about where im going is that tomorrow morning at 6:45am Elder dean and I are to arrive at the Farmingdale chapel and elder dean will pick up his new companion and i will get into the Bangor Elder's ride. I don't know where the Bangor elders are going but based on what time we have to be there im guessing we are driving down to transfer meeting which is Manchester New Hampshire, which means if i am going to transfer meeting i will be serving in a different state than Maine. So that is my prediction. Tomorrow, i will either go up to Bangor or go to transfer meeting. So that is all the news i have for today. Don't send anything to 1 cedar st because after tonight i wont be living there anymore haha.

District Picture April 2014

Getting to know the new area--Brunswick, ME

For those just tuning in, last week, the mission president had the Sisters in the Topsham Ward switch areas with the Elders, so I asked about the car sharing schedule...

    Our car schedule flip flops. We now have the car from Friday to Monday and the sisters have it during the week. The weather has been crazy this past week. One day its 60 degrees. The next day it is hailing storms and giving us 2 inches of ice. No thunder or lightning :( i wish it did that. I am kind of liking my new area . It's in the same ward and that is all the same except our teaching pools switched so i need to get used to all new investigators and less actives. so we are trying to get all that figured out but hey, that's part of the missionary struggle right?

     My first official week in the new area of Brunswick. This is a college town because Bowdoin college is right inside the town. The downtown of Brunswick is full of expensive little restaurants and gelato shops and clothing stores for tourists. The most popular street is called Maine Street and i find it pretty funny because they used their state name in the street name. This past week our teaching efforts have been mostly on sick members of our ward and Less-Actives. Because of the sudden switch with the sisters all the people we teach got all swapped around and the investigators we are now in charge of were hard to get a hold of. So hopefully this upcoming week we will at least have met with them and have found out the best way to help them progress.

     This past Sunday i taught Gospel Principles. I taught about Prophets and half way through teaching i stopped the lesson and had everyone answer this question "Who was the first prophet on the earth?" and if they got the answer right i gave them a thin mint, (The girl scout cookie). Also this week we went around to a lot of places to look for service because we need another place to do service other than soup kitchen once a week. We tried the humane society where they keep the dogs and cats to be adopted but they needed a huge long application process and a seminar to learn and we don't have the time for that. We also tried a salvation army but they did the same thing as the humane society. We are still up in the air as to where we can find service. But while we were out looking for service i found a Maine license plate and i am keeping it because i want to try and get a license plate from every state that i serve in. I thought that would be cool.

     On Saturday we were driving along a road to go to a members home for a lunch and we passed Lisbon high school and the sign told us it was 60 degrees outside. I just about dropped dead right there. I rolled down the window as fast as i could and stuck my face out and enjoyed the sunshine. It was quite marvelous to be honest haha. But that night it rained all night and than hailed all day so the weather isn't like that anymore... sadly.

this is the best picture of them all. I cherish this picture!!!!!!!

     This past ward council, we challenged all the male leaders in our ward to take us out with them home teaching in the month of April. So we hope to get calls from them because they seemed excited about that offer. Which doesn't happen very often in ward council. Another exciting thing that happened this week was that we finally were able to vacuum our apartment. When we arrived in this new apartment it was full of girl hair and the vacuum was actually broken. So we guessed that the floor hadn't been vacuumed in ages. So we called the financial assistant at the mission office and asked if we could buy a vacuum and he said yeah. So during our lunch hour we bought a vacuum at walmart and vacuumed our whole apartment. We picked up over 5 lbs of dirt and almost a full head of girl hair. We found blonde strands, gold strands, brown strands, black strands, and even a couple of orange strands. We now have a cleaned out apartment and the floors are actually visible because of our vacuuming job.

   
     In our apartment the heat only goes off on the 1st floor. So in the apt there are little vents in the middle of the 2nd floor so that the heat can get into the upstairs room. So we took out the metal vents and i put my feet in the floor haha. Cool huh?

     Oh and mom i really like the picture book you made. I look at it pretty often and laugh at the fun times we have had. Thanks for making that for me. it was the best delayed birthday present i have ever had!!!!!

 That's all i have for now. I am looking forward to general conference and hope that you can watch the prophet testify of Our Savior Jesus Christ.

THANKS! Talk to you next week.!!!!

Switched areas with the Sisters (from March 24, 2014)

....Ground breaking news... I am no longer living in Bath.... I live in Brunswick now. Its strange but, the mission president called and told us and the sisters to switch areas. So the next day (Friday), we packed up all our clothes and food and moved apartments and switched teaching pools and vwaulah. So the package you sent went to the sisters and they will get it to me when they can.

My new address is 

1 Cedar Street Apt 8

Brunswick, ME, 04011.

     And its funny because transfer calls are on April 6th, so there is a possibility of getting transferred out and moving a whole 'nother time... So now i am serving in Brunswick which is way different than Bath. We no longer go and teach George Derr, Mary Youland, June Wing, The Borges's.... It was pretty hard telling them we are just leaving and it was hardest to tell it to June because I know she doesn't have another year left on this earth... And she wasn't happy we were leaving either because she only likes elders and she doesn't like sisters. She doesn't like women in general haha.

Good-bye to the Wing's

Good-bye to the Soup kitchen workers

 







     Anyways, this week has probably been one of the slowest but most action packed weeks in my mission. It happened so fast but at the same time it took forever. So this past Thursday we got a call from the mission president telling us that he wanted us to move out of our apartment and switch areas with the sisters as soon as possible. So Friday we got up and packed all of our personal belongings and moved ourselves out and moved the sisters in. So I am now living in Brunswick Maine which is WAY more populated than Bath. Its almost the opposite of Bath. Instead of old people driving around older Buicks or beat up trucks you see Audis and BMW and college kids. In Brunswick there is Bowdoin College which is less than 1 mile from our apartment. So we see kids our age all over and we also live next to a train station which really enjoys blowing its horn at all hours of the day.

     The population is much greater here and so is the opposition. On our first official day in Brunswick we were walking the streets trying to meet up with some of the Less-Actives in our newly acquired area and a guy stops us. He tells us his name is Aaron and that he could "rip us apart with his knowledge compared to our so called 'knowledge'". This man had 2 tear drops tattooed under his eye and he must have been drunk and high because he couldn't keep stable all that well. We told him that we were just out doing what we feel is right and he left us alone and we walked away. So about 1/2 mile down the way we were walking and we see this guy walking towards us. We say hello and he just keeps walking and says "SUP NERDS" and by this time i just started busting up laughing because of what just happened. We kept laughing for a good 5 minutes because of how ridiculous that was. We definitely felt a warm welcome into the city of Brunswick.

    So in the past week we also helped someone in the ward move out and someone move into the ward. The person we helped move out actually is a Less-Active and it was a blessing to be able to help her. We had never even met her and we stopped by because we heard she was moving from someone and we thought we would stop by. We knocked and no one answered and we were like dang.... so i felt i should leave a sticky note telling her we stopped by and that we would love to help her move and so sure enough 2 hours later she called and said she would love to have us over and help. So we did and that was really fun. Lots of stuff to move but it was worth it. She was so happy that we left the sticky note and that we came to help. She said it was an answer to her prayers. Whenever i hear that it always brings a warm feeling to my heart knowing that i was the cause of that. :)

     This past week i was on an exchange in Yarmouth and we were doing service at a food pantry and a woman came up to us and asked us the basic questions of who we are and where we are from. So i said San Diego and she than goes where in San Diego, and here is where it gets tricky because people don't know Mira Mesa but people know La Jolla so i always say just outside of La Jolla. And she looks super astonished and she told me she just moved from La Jolla last March. She lived on 400 Prospect street! I know where that is! I thought that was really cool. Turns out while i was on that exchange my companion got attacked by a dog. And not just any dog, a German shepherd. They didn't get hurt because they just kicked it every time it came to attack but still..... I missed out on something super thrilling.

     Last but not least yesterday we got a call from a man named J**** F**** and he wanted us to come by because he needed someone to talk to and because he wasn't feeling good. So we went by and started talking with him and turns out he is 58 and he doesn't have a whole lot longer to live. he looks older than Grandpa Dahlberg (sorry Grandpa.) He told us about how he has been making doughnuts since he was 9 and that he wished he didn't work his life away. He has a lot of regrets and mistakes that he wished he had learned from but we talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and he really liked that. We are going to stop by later this week and talk to him about it a lot more. This upcoming week i am going to be teaching gospel principles about Prophets and that's all i can think of atm... We're just trying to get used to this whole new area and how much different and loud it is compared to Bath.

Kitchen area

Study / living area

Upstairs bedroom area