Injury!! Hornet sting! Now I know why kids scream when they get stung! It hurts!

   

Mount Sunapee hike from last week's P-day

   So I gained a new companion named Austin Hansen.  He is 20 years old from West Jordan, Utah and is 6'3 and 210 lbs. He has been out on his mission for 19 months and just was a district leader. He loves basketball, baseball, football, drama, and girls :) First thing I asked him was what his expectations of me were, and he replied with "By the end of these 6 weeks I want to be able to look at you and call you my best friend." So that started things off GREAT! He reminds me of my cousin Brandon Gleason. They do the same mannerisms and it just makes me want to laugh so much. Already in the 6 days we have been together I have literally cried from laughing maybe 4 times. We both really love to laugh and that helps build our strengths as a companionship. 

     We teach really well and in unity, we are busy and we both have the same desires. First one of them all is that we both know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and without Him we are nothing. Our first lesson together was about the Plan of Salvation and it was our first day together and we taught with such unity it amazed me. We get along great and I know this transfer will fly by. 

Good-bye Elder Lervold

Hello Elder Hansen

     Some activities we did this week were helping a member move out of his house to move to Maine. He ran a mini tree Nursery in his front yard so we had to help him clean all the little plastic cups you use to grow plants and while I was doing that a huge hornet came and landed on my hand for a split second and stung me really good. It swelled up and got all puffy but eventually after a couple days it went away. But wow, now I know why kids scream when they get stung!  It hurts! Also this week we helped Bro Dube again with his wood stacking and we had one of the young men come with us. This young man isn't just your ordinary young man. He is 6'7 and 300+ pounds and 17 years old. His name is Roz Mason. He is a senior in high school and says he will go on a mission someday.

     Also we taught our last final lesson to our 12 year old investigator named A***** H****. He is part of a member family and his brother is the one who went to Buenos Aires South Mission. We went over the baptismal interview questions and he passed with flying colors. He is all set to be baptized this coming Sunday. So this Sunday we are going to have a baptism, his brother will be the one doing the baptism. So I'm excited for all that. Also there is a service that we do at a restaurant called Simply Comfort on Wednesdays. We help them with whatever they need and than they feed us dinner. I usually get a buffalo chicken wrap with lettuce and tomato. They told me that they will name it after me and call it the 'Dog wrap' I think its a great combination, so great cats will even like it..... Okay that joke was really bad....

We also went over to Helen Stockwell's house to share a message with her. She wasn't feeling amazing because she is going through Chemo again but we were able to lift her spirits when we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the 5 simple principles to it. We started the lesson and she wasn't feeling good and just looked like she was in pain and wanted to go to sleep, but half way through the lesson after we talked about what baptism is she gained a big smile on her face and said "That's what I did!" and then continued to have a smile for the rest of the lesson which was 15+ minutes.

-Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

-Repentance

-Baptism

-Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost

-Endure to the End

  

They tried to cheer up Helen by trying on some of her wigs!

   Some plans we have for this week is A*** H***'s baptismal interview on Tuesday and we are going to meet with A**** P*** on Saturday. (He hasn't dropped of the radar; he is still going strong!!!) 

     Something you can say that I've learned is that Testimonies are powerful things. All a missionary needs is a Book of Mormon in his left hand and a Testimony in his right hand. And that missionary will be successful. If anyone is bored/ wants something to read. Read Amos 3:7 and than find out what you can learn from the Prophet this week.  I hope you all have a good week because I know I will :) 

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

Old Drewsville Rd.  Cool!!

Transfer week again! Good bye Elder Lervold (from Aug. 11)

Covered bridge between New Hampshire & Vermont

Pretty scenery

     Hey mom so breaking news. I didn't tell you but its transfer week and Elder Lervold is leaving me. So I'm staying in Ascutney and getting a Senior companion. (I'm still junior if you're wondering). SO tomorrow morning both Elder Lervold and I are going down to Manchester for transfer meeting and I'll be picking up my new companion for this next transfer. Wish me luck on that. I was just getting used to Elder Lervold. But that's all the breaking news I have for now.

     So this week went really fast to be honest. We did a lot of teaching and service this week. Service this week included: scraping linoleum off of a floor, wood stacking, cleaning out someone's garage, scooped horse poop, volunteered at a library with stacking books and stuff, then helped out at a food pantry/soup kitchen. (If you don't know what that is, think of downtown San Diego just near the Padre stadium at that homeless shelter there serving and cleaning up food.) We do a lot of service in this area but it really helps give the church a good image, because people DO notice that we help out in the community and they recognize us while they are out and about and even say hi sometimes, rarely but it happens.

     Some teaching this week was to 12 year old A**** H*****. We taught him about priesthood, importance of temples, and service. We have plans next Sunday to go over the last little bits of the lessons and than go over the interview questions. He is an awesome kid. We also had a dinner with a Less-Active member named Sister C****** where we had BBQ chicken Pizza and we talked about blessing in the gospel. Turned out her son who lives above her, (New England houses actually have like 3 houses in 1, its normal for out here) wanted a blessing and so did his wife so we gave them one. That was a unique experience because this is the first time I was asked to give a blessing to someone I have never met before and I had no clue why she wanted one, but I gave her one and that was pretty cool to do.

     This week we also had some good timing with Less-Active members and actually stopped by when they were home so we got to talk to them and find out whats up with them and why they are the way they are. All I can say is that people need to forgive one another for their misdeeds; we're imperfect people trying to work with a perfect gospel that Jesus Christ himself set up for us. This week we also were fed really well by the members and idk if you enjoyed my list last week of foods I ate but this week wasn't as awesome but it was still very nice.
-BBQ Chicken Pizza
-Chicken and a bunch of fancy foods, (I sent a picture of it because it was so awesome looking)
-Homemade ice cream +brownies
-Shepherds pie
-Tuna Casserole in sandwich form

     Our district went out to lunch together after one district meeting and we went to KFC. The reason we went there is because it is supposedly a HOLY KFC. It's supposedly the exact place where Joseph Smith had his leg worked on when he was younger. So everyone in our district went there for lunch. Outside there was a small apple tree and I helped myself to that and filled myself up and didn't have an appetite for Greasy chicken. haha but while we were there, we were told to evacuate the building because of a gas leak and we went outside. The joke went around the missionaries that "Elder Dahlberg had cheese in the morning and caused the flammable/toxic/gut-wrenching gas that was in the building."  I cannot confirm nor deny that that is a true statement but what I can say is that i didn't eat cheese that morning.... I had eggs :) hahahaha.

     This week was my last week with Elder Lervold and the California Kings are being separated after only 6 weeks together. Elder Lervold is moving out to be a district leader and on Tuesday morning at 11AM I will be in Manchester New Hampshire finding out who the lucky companion is.

     On another note, my sister sent me a bunch of pictures of what she is doing and it really was cool to see her and what she is doing. I really enjoyed looking through the pictures she sent and reading the short captions. It would be awesome to get pictures from more people because we all know a picture is worth a thousand words.
   

     Oh and another thing I am liking about New England is how gardens just bloom out here. People plant things and they just grow like crazy! No care necessary. This week I had home grown, jalepenos, tomatoes, blue berries, razz berries, black berries, apples, peas, zucchini, and corn. It's pretty nice. This week Elder Lervold and I were walking along the road and I kept looking to the side of the road for berries of some sort. Turns out after looking for just a little bit I was able to find a random black berry bush and vedge on perfectly ripe black berries. That's another cool thing about New England, that and the weather changes in like 10 minutes, One minute it's clear blue skies, then a dark cloud comes and its pouring rain and lightning is striking. I still choose the moody weather over winter time here.. YIKES!!! its coming in 2 months!!

    That's a wrap for me; check in next week to find out who my new companion is, I hope he is as cool as Elder Lervold!!! 

Inspiring a future missionary

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial for Zone conference. Pretty cool place.

   

 





      So this week was pretty good. We had a zone conference at the Joseph Smith Memorial and it was neat to be able to go there for the first time. It's very well kept and the flowers there are really well done. Someone puts a lot of time into the landscape there.

     At zone conference I got to see Elder Jensen, and Elder Dean. It was a good conference where we got a 'Man Talk' from President Stoker. He took all the Elders into another room and talked to all of us about addictions and how they destroy people. He made us all vow to never watch pornography too. I proudly vowed to that because that destroys people and families.

MTC buddy Elder Jensen!

Elder Lervold and his previous companion, Elder Webster
(ssshhh, the one that was a bit messy!!)

 






 




     I went on exchange after that and I got to drive home! It's weird being the driver after being driven around for 10 months. But over the course of the day I drove a total of about 100 miles. That's a lot of driving; we had to go all over our area to contact some of our investigators that aren't making any progression or anything, Turned out that A*** P***, The guy we thought wasn't interested anymore, turned out that he had surgery on his neck and wasn't able to do anything for 2 weeks so he has potential for some future missionaries. Right now he is in a bit of a bind so yeah.

     This Saturday, we were asked to help an older couple in the ward, the Martins, stack their firewood. They bought 2 cords and it took 2 hours to stack. Brother Martin has low functioning Alzheimer's and he forgets what he has already told you so he kept asking us how we heat our homes out in California, and telling us how he used to live in Santa Ana back in the 70's. He is a nice guy, I just hope no one in my life ever gets that disease because its terrible...  Then after that wood stacking we went over to another man's house to help him stack his wood. So we stacked wood for a good 4 hours on Saturday and my back was hurting by the end of the day. It feels fine now thanks to my young 19 year old body but i know when I'm older I have to take it easy (er). :)

     This week we got fed really well also. I'm going to list all of the food I consumed this week and i didn't purchase a single one or prepare a single one.
-Spicy beef w vegetables on fried rice
-Orange Chicken on fried rice
-Chicken Enchiladas w peas and carrots
-Chicken w soft carrots and a potato
-Chicken tenders w scalloped potatoes
-Hot Chicken wings w a super salad (Every vegetable known to man on it haha)
-Philly Cheese Steak Subs
-Homemade Lasagna w Mince meat pie for desert. (Pie with raisens+cut up apple) I won't be sad if i never have that pie again.
-Banana Bread.

So as you can see the members are treating us missionaries really well... With all that goodness comes good exercises too. I try to run at least a mile every morning and also do push ups and sit ups. But this week we didn't get a whole lot of lessons in except for teaching the Restoration to R**** P**** (Single mother of 2). A lot of what we did this week was try and set up appointments with Less Active members to talk with them as to why they aren't coming to church.

Here are some pictures showing his adventures for the week!

So the picture with the trees is the classic driveway to a nice house in New England. I think its awesome how the trees cover the road.

Here is us doing service at Bob Porters. He is the farm guy. We do service with him on Thursdays. SO when Thursday comes around and its 8AM in San Diego, I'm working on a farm over in New Hampshire. 

Here we are scraping lyneum....(linoleum) That took forever and my hands got blisters from it. The tool we were using was totally not made for doing it but the guy wanted us to use it to build 'Character'. 

 this horse is 35 years old...... Super old

RIDING ON A TRACTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He had some old war vehicle in his yard that he was washing up for some parade and I wanted to take a picture in it so here you go. I don't remember the name of it but it was solid metal.

See you  next week!!

Letter from July 28, 2014

     So I'll start with church this Sunday. None of our investigators showed up for church, none of them showed up last week either. The A***** P*** guy who wanted to learn more about our church hasn't returned any of our calls or anything. So unless he calls us or shows up to church randomly he isn't someone we are teaching regularly. This week we did have a lesson with R**** P**** a single mother of 2 kids. Our member couldn't come with us to the lesson so we had to sit outside in the humid sun and bake, but we taught the Plan of Salvation using a wooden puzzle that Elder Dean gave me. We taught it to her 9 year old son who is really smart BTW. He perfectly pointed out that he wanted to be where God was and he made it clear that God was in the Celestial Kingdom. So that helped out the lesson a lot. R**** isn't super interested because she was forced into religion when she was younger and she didn't like that so much. So she is slowly understanding the purpose of religion.

     This week we also had dinner with a member every single day. It was really awesome, especially when I kept hearing about how the members are glad the missionaries now mean business and want to work. So that uplifted me. At every single member meal we were given ice cream for dessert. So I have had ice cream 6 days in a row. The foods that we usually eat at a members home are Grilled chicken, or hamburgers/hot dogs, pasta, pizza, a member even fed us cheese steak subs, and another member fed us shrimp on top of pasta with spinach which was also super good. I've noticed over time that the missionary diet isn't the perfect diet.

     But this past Saturday we had service lined up all day. In the morning we went over to the church to pick weeds and spread new mulch into the planters, and than we went to an investigators house to split more wood, than after that we went to a members home to help them build a deck on the outside of their trailer and than sand and paint part of their house. So we definitely got our fair share of service this week. I also noticed this week that when the weather isn't all gross and rainy that people are a lot nicer and their "New England Shells" aren't there anymore. We try to talk with everyone we can and that's something I'm working on, and its awesome just being able to have a good conversation with someone. Most of the time they avoid religion, but I'm not the type to cram religion down their throat and say you need GOD! But I try to share the gospel by my example to others. I heard a quote once that said "Preach the gospel everyday; if necessary use words." That is an awesome quote that I try to live by.

     We had a lesson with Helen Stockwell, the one that got baptized last Sunday. We went over there in hopes of talking about the Plan of Salvation but Helen had other plans. She pulled out the Restoration pamphlet and flipped to the back where the questions are located and she had written down her answers and she wanted to know what our answers were. So I thought it was really cool that she technically had a lesson prepared for us and that helped because it showed that she has a desire to learn more and that is something I don't see everyday.

     Every Wednesday we help out at a local mom and pop restaurant called Simply Comfort. One of the employees there named Mathew just went through a recent break up and got kicked out of the house he was living in so he had to start fresh and new with 4 kids to take care of. So he found an apartment but nothing else. We called around and found him a bed, and a bed frame, a dinner table, and lots of pillows, sheets and blankets. We are still trying to help him out more. He did show some interest in the church when he told us we had 8 minutes to tell him about Mormons and what our beliefs are. So we had some prime time with him telling him what we believe. Hopefully those questions continue. We had a pretty event full week and it went by pretty fast.

      Gotta get going but thanks for all the continued support. Again I really appreciate it!

Sorry, no pictures this week!!