Backlogged from Dec. 29, 2014 Merry Christmas

Big Letter

So this week i got to skype my family for Christmas! That was the best Christmas Present i could ever have gotten! I love my family so much and being out here in Maine away from them for the holidays helps me to realize how much they mean to me. Family is what makes the Holidays worthwhile. Being out here i see and meet people who say they had the Worst Christmas ever because they have no friends or family to spend it with. Its really sad talking to those people because they are usually very depressed and sad. (also because of the wintery weather out here)

Monday- Did shopping and bought more apples!!! woohooo and got haircuts. woohoo exciting

Tuesday- We went to the most expensive hospital in maine. Its called MaineGeneral and it has one of the prettiest/ most well kept facilities ive ever seen. It was a big beautiful building with fountains and walk paths and its just really nice. We are going to be volunteering there on Tuesdays from 8AM-12PM. Its the first actual service we do here in this area because all the rest is just random spur of the moment service. We also were able to head over to Grechen's house and have a very good sit down conversation with her. She is still searching for her spirituality and isnt super into organized religion. She loves the devotion part of it but she doesnt like the religion and the whole Joseph Smith seeing God and Jesus Christ part of it...

Wednesday- (Christmas EVE) We had a big zone meeting where we learned about the power of committing someone to do something. If we teach someone and leave without telling them to do anything we didnt do our job. We need to help people because better and more like Jesus Christ. Christ commits us to do alot but he also gives alot if we follow through with it. So we need to do the same. We need to motivate these people to act by inviting them to change. We were also able to watch a movie called Its a wonderful life. I had never seen it before and i really really liked it. I sat there and about half way through the movie i caught myself thinking about how weird it felt to be watching a real movie while being on my mission. I felt a little strange to be watching it but i just enjoyed it and relaxed. After the movie we had a dinner with our ward mission leader who stuffed us to the brim with his homegrown 36 pound turkey. He raised it this past summer and was waiting for a day to cook it up. So that was a great dinner.

This man's birthday is Dec. 24th...

Thursday- (Christmas DAY!!!) We woke up at 5:45 and drove over to the tarbox's to open our presents with them and that just gave me the Christmas feel because we were all gathered around talking and having a jolly time haha. Than i got to skype which i was super excited for, so excited i went to the bathroom like 3 times because i had to pee haha. But like i said earlier, that just made my Christmas. I actually felt like i was part of the family talking to everyone and seeing friends and family. And i didnt cry the whole time which made it all that much better. We could actually carry a conversation. After the skype we went over to sister Tarbox's parents house and ate lunch and than went on a walk and talked to Sister Tarbox and her husband Bob. We than had dinner with the Peters after that and that went really well.

Some of Elder Dahlberg's Christmas gifts

Grandma sent a "beach in a box" for his Lego dude to enjoy!

Friday- we had another orientation at maine General and than we stopped by a Less-Active sister cadawallader who was already wrapping Christmas Presents for next year. She is a bargain shopper and buys all the leftover toys that were overstocked and marked down because the stores needed to sell em. While we were at her house a car ran off the road just outside their house and it was in a ditch. The lady driving it was super drunk and had a big .270 rifle in the back seat of her car. IDK where she was going but i think its good that she crashed because she wasnt saying nice things about her boyfriend.

Saturday- We helped move the Tarbox's out of their house. Its interesting moving someone out of their house because you walk in at the start of the move and it just looks like a normal house and than before you know it the house is barren and your scrubbing walls, and cleaning toilets and vacuuming! I love the Tarbox family and i am excited for their bright future in Grenora, North Dakota. We stopped by a recent convert member and turned out he was moving too! So we helped them out even though we were in our white shirts and ties. I just rolled up my sleves and took off my tie. We lugged chairs, tables, beds, cabinets down super steep stairs. it was physically tough but thats why i eat my Wheaties in the mornin :)

Sunday- I gave a talk in Church about the scripture Alma 5:14. In my talk i concluded by using Romans 8:31 which says What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

And after my talk a man who i had never seen before came up to me and asked me for a scripture. I told him and than he thanked me and left. SO right after church as we were driving home and on our way home we always pass a Seventh Day adventist church and on their sign was the scripture Romans 8:31. And that wasnt there before i gave my talk in church. So that was a cool experience. I wasnt nervous to give my talk either. I am pretty comfortable up there on the stand talking to a big group of people.

Well thats all i can do for now.
This upcoming week for new years eve and new years i will be on an exchange with the Zone leaders in Winthrop Maine.

LOVE YOU ALL HAPPY NEW YEARS

All smiles, 

Elder Dahlberg

Letter to Santa from Elder Dahlberg

His letter in return...

Backlogged from Dec. 22, 2014 Elder Dahlberg is a District Leader!

(Still minimal editing...)

Gigantor letter

Monday- This was my last day with the Augusta Elders. Elder Stauffer and Gray. They were spending the night at our apartment for 5 nights so i got to know both of them really well. Elder Stauffer and I had a great connection and it was almost like losing a close friend when they left. We baked them a cake at our member meal that night and had Elder Stauffer and Elder Sholer shove their faces into it haha.

Tuesday- We dropped off the Augusta Elders at the church where they would head down to Transfer Meeting in New hampshire and Elder sholer and i spent the day doing missionary work. We stopped by a potentials house named john, but he wasnt home but his 2 room mates were. Alex and Veruniche. They have 2 kids together and are all into organic farms and into natural foods. NO PRESERVATIVES!!! They are pretty hipster and relaxed, which is completely different than most maine folk. This is the day i had my first up close and personal woman breast feeding. During dinner she just pulls down her shirt and brings her baby to her chest. Elder Sholer and I just immediately stared right down at our food and tried our best to inspect each bite as it went into our mouths haha.
(I was laughing so hard as I read this!!)  This couple isnt interested in investigating our church but they like to philosophy and learn about it. After that we had another dinner with a member who is going on his mission to Macon, Georgia leaving on Feb 18th and at the dinner he had a nonmember friend whose name is Tori and she is graduating the year, of 2015 (sounds like another Tori i know!) But this Tori was interested in us and wanted to learn more about our beliefs. She told us she didnt want to make any commitments but was willing to listen to our message. We taught her the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation during the dinner. She agreed with all of it and as for if she wants to continue to learn we know not.. She wouldnt say...

Wednesday- This day i taught my first district meeting and it went really well. I wasnt all that nervous i just wanted to make sure every missionary in the meeting felt needed and that they werent there just to waste time. In our district is 4 elders and 4 sisters. Here are their names and their areas.
Farmingdale 1- Elder Dahlberg and Sholer (sholer is a newer missionary)
Farmingdale 2- Sister Collins and Bee (Bee is a newer missionary)
Dameriscotta- Elder Herring and Liljenquist (Liljenquist is a brand spanking new missionary)
Topsham 1- Elder Hudson and Penverne (penverne is from France)
Topsham 2- Sister Farr and Edwards  ( these are senior missionary sisters.)

As you can see i have my first area in my district and i will be going on 2 exchanges there. Which means i get to see all my old less-actives and investigators from the first 6 months of my mission!!!

Thursday- We did service at the public library like usual on this day and also helped out at Johnson Hall. Those are our only 2 community service things. We are looking for another to go do. This is also the day we went to Peter C***** house, (The nazi guy) He is heavily into chewing tobacco and is in all sorts of body pains and takes all sorts of medications. He is a fairly immature man and pretty inappropriate with his words. He doesnt have a filter from his brain to his mouth so it makes our visits interesting..... After our visit there i got picked up to drive down to Manchester New Hampshire for Mission leadership Training tomorrow.

Friday- Spent all day on my butt today. I got tons of information that will totally help me in being a leader in the mission and in life. I learned all about what qualities a true leader has and what is expected of me as a leader. I also saw all my old mission friends and its crazy to think how we are all in leadership positions now.

Dahlberg & Jensen (his MTC roommate)

Dahlberg & Dean (his 2nd companion)

Dahlberg & Beck (3rd companion?)

Dahlberg & Lervold (4th companion)

Dahlberg & Hansen (5th companion)

Saturday- We didnt leave our apartment until 4pm on this day.. Which means i was on my butt again all day haha. So you may ask why were you in your apartment until 4pm? Well let me explain. 6:30-10AM we did exercise, breakfast, and personal and companionship study. 10-11 we did new missionary training called 12 week. from 11-2 we did weekly planning where we plan out our whole week and what lessons to teach and who to see and what new efforts we are going to try and evaluate on the last weeks efforts. 2-3 we ate lunch and 3-4 we had an apartment inspection... So there is why we didnt get out of our apartment until 4pm. The sun was already down by the time we left... CRAZY!!!!!! Needless to say my butt was ready to get up and get moving! We were able to bring Armando (member of our ward) to visit some less-actives and one of them named David Raftus answered the door and talked to us outside in the freezing cold for about an hour. He wasnt interested in coming back to church this instant but he wasnt against the church which is the normal response we get. After that we had dinner at the Dawbin's home who gave us vegetable stir fry! They are very good cooks and great members of the church!

Sunday- We were able to have 2 less actives at church. One of them was raymond our 86 year old less active who has been wanting to come to church but hasnt been feeling well and the other named Greg Helm. A man who we tried contacting a couple of times but never had the time to meet with us. It was great to see him and he enjoyed the Christmas Program!

As for the peters family, we werent able to see them at all this week. Things just didnt align and they didnt come to church... So we will work even more diligently on meeting with them this week


My schedule for this week is
tuesday- go to hospital to apply for service
wednesday- go to a zone meeting where we will get to watch "its a wonderful life!!!" than have dinner at Brother Walkers house (our WML)
Christmas day- skype and go to peters at 3 than back to tarboxs

thats all i got for this week!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!! THANKS FOR ALL THE LETTERS!!! I am getting so many and i just love opening them every night!

ALL SMILES,

Elder Dahlberg

This is the grave of one of our relatives:  1st cousin 8 x removed. (for Elder Dahlberg)

Back logged from December 15, 2014 Closing up the Augusta Elders' apartment

(Since I'm a bit behind, I'll leave the editing to a minimum...)
Big Letter!!!

This week went by so fast and it was such a good week! Are you ready to hear about it? Im ready to tell you so buckle up and enjoy this email.

Monday- This was P-day and did all the normal junk we do. We did a nerf war again but it wasnt as fun this time so we got bored of shooting eachother with plastic darts. After P-Day we went to stop by a potential investigator that we talked to on that night where we talked to a ton of people. He wasnt home but his room mates were and we talked with them. They were super friendly and werent interested in what we had to share but they are opening up a local Food Co-Op for organic foods just below our apartment in Downtown Gardiner and they wanted our help with Demolition and stuff. So we will be helping them with that once they give us a call and tell us when. Also at their house was the first time i declined going into a Sauna in my life. We as missionaries cant go into one and he invited us into it and said he has extra Hurley Boardshorts and it was so enticing because it was FREEZING COLD outside but we held our ground and didnt go in......

Tuesday- The roads outside were SUPER ICY. There was a 1 inch coat of ice on the roads and from our apartment we could see tow trucks and fire trucks heading out to the local wrecks. We were told to stay inside because the roads are terrible so we went to the library to help serve there and watch some mormon.org videos and become familiar with the web site. On our walk back from the library which is .1 mile away from our house, 7 fire trucks passed us with their sirens on and blaring their horns! It was crazy! Not alot happened this day because the sidewalks and roads were layered with ice and elder sholer and I tried to walk to the Veregees home to visit with them and we were literally ice skating. It was really tough getting up and over a small hill that Elder Sholer fell 2 times on haha! We eventually got to the Veregees and helped them put up their Christmas Tree and read scriptures with them. We are hoping to motivate them to come to church as well as help them out in their faith in Jesus Christ.

Wednesday- After our District meeting and going to District Lunch at Red Robin, I went on an exchange to Augusta with Elder Stauffer. Elder Landen Stauffer is going home to Layton Utah on his birthday, which is on the 17th of December. He is so excited to see his family and it was fun talking with him about what he learned on his mission and what he will apply to his life. It rained all day and we were walking around Augusta visiting people and trying our best to talk to everyone we walk by....  (who on earth would be out walking in 34 degree weather with pouring rain?) But if there was someone as crazy as we were we would talk to them. We had Tacos for dinner that our Ward Mission Leader Provided for us since its Elder Stauffers last Wednesday night as a missionary. At night time we normally go to bed and sleep at 10:30, Elder Stauffer and I stayed up till like 1 or 2 in the morning just talking about life. I havent had one of those talks in a LONG TIME and it was really enjoyable.

Elders Dahlberg & Stauffer

Thursday- The Augusta Elders area and apartment is closing down so all day we pretty much cleaned up the apartment. I tackled the dirty dishes which filled the sink. (i do NOT do that by the way mom, and i am about to explain one of the reasons why) So i was cleaning the dishes, there wasnt any dish soap left so i used hand soap... hope that wont hurt anyone... But i got to the bottom of one of the sinks and this TERRIBLE smell just starts oozing out of the sink. It was putrid, rank, disgusting, and foul. I havent ever smelled a smell like that in a kitchen, That smell belonged in an abandoned porto-potty out in the desert of Arizona! This smell hurt my nose physically. We opened windows and used fans to blow the smell away. I ended up finishing the dishes after losing my sense of smell for about 30 minutes. That was hilarious but also disgusting... And i was cleaning it in another missionaries apartment.... I guess i was given a blessing that night because a member took us out to dinner at Applebee's and urged me to get a street steak and so i did. That was marvelous! It also rained all day today. 3 days in a row of non stop rain.

Friday- Friday Morning we met up with Elder Sholer and Elder Gray and we had a ward work party on cleaning out the Augusta Apartment and making trips to the Goodwill and to the Dump. There was 4 full trash bags of empty tupperware in their apartment. so if your ever looking for your tupperware, go to a missionaries apartment and im sure they will gladly give you theirs. Now that we moved them out they are living with us for the rest of the week. A member took us out to Denny's for lunch and than for dinner our Ward Mission Leader invited us over for a Lobster, scallop, and crab dinner. I forgot my camera which sucked! We got fed really well this week.

Saturday- It snowed during the night so after our studies Elder Sholer and I headed out in the snow and shoveled out some members of our ward and the surrounding houses in the neighborhood. I really enjoy snow shovelling to be completly honest, tons of people hate it and say you only love it because your a beach bum from California. haha. We also met up with a man named Rick p****** who is one of our new investigators. he is heavily into drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. and on the coffee table that seperated us from him was all that plus more... Illegal drugs... Vodka... Cigarettes.... The whole nine yards. But what we talked about was helping him find Christ in his life. He wants to become better through Jesus Christ but it will take alot of effort on his part and its almost to late. he has so many physical problems due to a life long career of drug and alcohol abuse.  We also met up with the Peters family and read from the scriptures with them and invited them to come to church, they said sure thing!

Sunday- To our surprise the Peters texted us saying we woke up a little late we wont make it to church... What time does 2nd hour start? haha how awesome is that! They came to 2nd and 3rd hour and brought their 5 kids. It went really well and tons of people fellowshipped them, we hope they felt good in the church. We also were introduced to Sister Tarbox's parents who invited us over to dinner that night. They came to church and we sat next to them all sacrament meeting. For dinner we had yankee pot roast and fruit salad. After it we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel and where the Book of Mormon comes into play. he is Seventh Day Adventist and believes only in the bible. At one point in the lesson he held up his bible and said "Show me in the Bible where is says Jesus visited the American continent, or show me some indication of why i would believe in the Book of Mormon at all". So, i opened up my bible to Ezekial 37:19 and also to John 10:16. After reading those scriptures he had an almost immediate change of heart. He was no longer hostile against the book of mormon, instead he was reasonable and said you know what, "ill give this book a shot, i mean i makes sense that he would visit other people other than just the Jews."  That was the first time in my mission where i saw an immediate change of heart. it was really awesome to see and i just felt like an actual missionary seeing that. Being a missionary out here in New England is rough when it comes to teaching and getting people to change their lives according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This mans name is Ed B****. Hopefully we hear back from him as to what he thinks of the Book of Mormon.

If you don't know much about the Book of Mormon its another Testament of Jesus Christ and his visitation to the inhabitants of the American Continent, AKA the american indians. There is a good scripture in the book of mormon which shows how much Christ is talked about.   2 Nephi 25:26

 26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for aremission of their sins.


Well i got to get going, I hope you all have a good week and i am not getting transferred so im saying in Gardiner with Elder Sholer at least till Febuary 1st! I am also now called to be a district leader and that will let me learn and grow even more as a minister of Jesus Christ. Hope all is well and thank you for all you do for me. I enjoy getting Christmas Cards by the way so if you want to send me something, That would be what i would ask for.

ALL SMILES

Elder Dahlberg

District Nerf War

This week was fun, and it flew by too.
Monday- We had a nerf war for our district P-Day and that was really fun and relaxing. To end the night we had dinner at the Dawbins which was the Fish Tacos and Pina Coladas. We challenged them to pass out 10 "He is the Gift" cards before our next visit and they did it!!!

District P-day Nerf War

Fish tacos and Pina coladas

Tuesday- We went with our ward mission leader brother walker out to visit 2 less-active ladies in our ward. The first one was sister durgin who has physical problems which stop her from coming to church. We talked to her about the importance of having goals in our lives. Because living without goals won't help you progress as fast as you would like. Her goal is to get to the temple! Good goal. The next lady we visited was 45 minutes away (and still in our area). Sister Hutchins. We taught about using the footnotes in the scriptures and their purpose for being there. It was cool to see the gears turning in her head and how she slowly picked up on how to use them. It was super awesome to see her go from no knowledge of them to the ablility to teach other about them. Then for dinner Brother Walker's wife made us a super good turkey pot pie with a turkey they raised themselves

Wednesday- We had interviews with our Mission President.  I got to talk with him about the area and questions/concerns I had. He also informed me that I will be staying in Gardiner with my trainee Elder Sholer. And we will no longer be in a car share because they are closing the Augusta Elders Area. So that means we will have the car full time and we take over half of their area and all the people they teach. So that will be an interesting transition. That starts on Dec 17th. We also have to help them clean up their apartment because it's being closed. That apartment has been a missionary apartment for 7 years.  Imagine how trashy it is, then multiply that by 2 and that's what theirs looks like... So much junk! At the end of the day we went over to the Veregge family and had a really good sit down scripture reading with them. Families are so much stronger when you take the time to sit down together and talk, and they get even STRONGER when you talk about the scriptures. We are hoping to help the Veregge family (who haven't been to church in over 2 years) to get back to church because they want to, not because we tell them to.

Thursday- We helped out at the Johnson Hall and talked to Grace, the main volunteer woman who is in charge of everything. She loves the missionaries and enjoys whenever we come by to help out. She may want to learn more about Jesus Christ in the future. We're taking it easy on her because she "isn't religious". After that we helped the public library out with their upcoming book sale. We sorted and stacked and divided books for a good 2 hours... Doing that just makes me want to sit down after my mission and just read all day!! We also met with Grechen and Allison, our Rastafarian investigators. They aren't progressing atm but they still want us to keep coming by. So we hope they will continue wanting to meet with us.

Friday- We got tons and tons of proselytizing materials from the Augusta Elders Apartment so we spent a good amount of time organizing those and somehow and someway, in the jumble of things there was a condom in the box that had all the stuff. So that was quite funny and disturbing. It went straight into the trash! That night there was a community Art Walk in downtown Gardiner and tons of people were outside. We planned 2 hours of street contacting and we handed out 17 "He is the Gift" cards!!!  It was AMAZING!!! We actually felt like real missionaries out sharing the gospel with everyone haha! That never happens out here in New England. We have a solid potential investigator from that too named John.

Saturday- We went over to the P***** house. Here is all who lives in the house.
Tiffany & Rusty P******
12-Cooper, 11-Ashley, 8-Lindsey, 6-Megan, 4-Madeline.
We were able to read the first 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon with him which is pretty huge because he does not believe in reading anything else besides the Bible. So we talked with him about it and he is figuring out whether it's actually God's word or not. We told him that no man can tell you whether it's from God or not. You have to ask him in faith. It says it all throughout the bible to do that. Specifically James 1:5.
The ward christmas party was this day and it was fantastic. Best food and set up I've ever seen for a Christmas Party. The P**** came to it also! They really enjoyed it and 2 of their daughters even went up and sang with the primary when they sang in front of everyone. The 2 girls had no idea what the words were so they just tried their best and mouthed it. So cute. (Those girls softened my heart to not wanting only boys when I have kids of my own)

Here's a video from last week's visit with the Alpacas

Sunday- A former investigator named Delsa Mock who is originally from South Africa called us up and asked us to help her unload a washing machine from their car. It was like 15 degrees outside and we were literally moving this gigantic washing machine on ice and my companion is not the buffest elder haha; 125 pounds of pretty boy. So that was quite interesting and tough. It builds character is what I kept telling myself. After a long day of fasting, which I actually enjoyed, Sister Tarbox fed us Steak Tenderloin!!! So good! That was a great way to end the week.

Sister Tarbox is the best!

I'm enjoying my time out here in Maine and trying my best to make the most out of my last winter here on my mission... Even though it's freezing cold outside.

Enjoy the sunshine for me!!!

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

Pre-Thanksgiving storm drops one foot of snow...

Beautiful Autumn Leaves...

Also beautiful Winter Snow...

So the snow is officially here to stay and won't be leaving until May. So, rather than hate it, I'm loving it.  I throw at least 1 snowball at my companion every day! There are also chunks of ice on the ground and as we are walking sometimes we try and kick it in between their legs to make a goal and if they score you have to do 5 push ups when you get home. :) Elder Sholer's been doing a lot of push ups!

Anyways,
Monday the 24th- Besides emailing all of you folks, we had a nerf war at the church where we turned all the lights off in the gym and ran around shooting each other. It reminded me of how much I don't want to have to do that for real, like the military does... That night we went to a member's home and the 13 year old boy there kept telling these terrible jokes about dead babies. That's apparently what all the kids do now is tell dead baby jokes....

Chef's at work...

Moose chili...  bet you never had that before!!

Tuesday- We helped out at the Johnson Hall, we got to decorate their little Christmas Tree which got me excited for the Christmas Season. It was funny because we decorated it before Thanksgiving....  That night we had dinner at a Less-Actives home who was going to host an annual pie night on the night before Thanksgiving so we helped her and the family bake pies.

Wednesday- This was the day the huge snow storm came. It started at 12 PM and didn't stop until 12 AM. The snow just kept coming and coming and coming. It was the really wet and sticky snow, which is perfect for snowballs. Because of the storm all of our plans got cancelled and the pie night never happened. Our cars were grounded and we couldn't leave our apartment because our Ward Mission Leader told us to stay indoors. So we were with the Augusta Elders in our apartment for the night. That was like a sleepover haha. It was fun. We went outside and shoveled even though we weren't supposed to....

Thursday- THANKSGIVING DAY! The day started at Bishops where we had a fairly small Thanksgiving dinner. It's the first time there were no left overs. After that it was about 4 pm and Elder Sholer and I had nothing to do and no one to see. We were a bit confused because we didn't know where to go and at this point in the day I was starting to get thoughts of how this is going to be the worst Thanksgiving ever. So Elder Sholer and I said a prayer asking for guidance in who to see. We came up with stopping by a Nonmember family , The Peters, that we helped move/not move a week ago. We walked on over there and they invited us in and they had just gotten home and were about to have their Thanksgiving dinner so we were able to have it with them. This was a really good dinner, and there were left overs haha. We then talked to them and they invited us to their small farm in South Gardiner the next day.

Friday- We went with the Peters to their small farm that had a 600 pound pig named Miss Piggy and 2 alpacas and 2 sheep and 10 piglets.  It was fun feeding the animals and breaking the ice on top of the well to get water for the animals. We trudged through snow a foot and a half deep and helped get his truck unstuck. We went back to their house and had lunch with them then had a Bible study on Genesis because they are very Christian and wanted us to read with them. They told us as we were about to finish the Bible study that they had prayed to the Lord asking for guidance and for some way to learn more about Him. And they said we came by a couple days after to help... Some people might say that's a coincidence, but I totally think otherwise.

Come here, Alpaca!

Sooooeeeeee!

Boy, they sure eat like pigs....

Saturday- We helped the Cotnoir family in our ward out with wood and we cut and split and stacked and hauled their wood for 3 hours and finished all that they had. There was snow all over the place and that just made things harder and more difficult which is why it took 3 hours. Then we weekly planned which is always fun! Then we had dinner at the Dawbins. They made us breakfast for dinner and it was so good. I love when people ask what you haven't had in forever because I always know what to say. We watched the new Church produced Christmas video called "He is the Gift."  It was really well made and I encourage anyone reading this to check it out if you haven't already seen it. http://www.mormon.org/christmas?CID=51064

Sunday- The roads were covered in a thin sheet of ice which made it impossible to drive in a straight line, so our Bishop cancelled church. I was going to speak at church and it got cancelled so that kind of stunk... We had invited the Peters to church and they were looking forward to coming. We immediately remembered that we didn't have their phone number so we walked out on the ice, practically ice skated to their house and told them church was cancelled. They are awesome and by the time we got there they had already called the church and already got the info that church was cancelled. So we stayed at their house for a little bit and read more out of the Bible because it was to dangerous for us to go outside to the frozen wasteland. Rusty, the dad gave us a ride home and I asked him if he had ever read the Book of Mormon and he said no and accepted one to read. I told him to read the introduction because that will explain almost anything and answers all of the Frequently Asked Questions for first time readers. After that we went to the Tarbox's for dinner and by this time the roads were unfrozen. They told us that they will be moving right after Christmas and that really put a damper on the day because they are such an awesome family!  I'm going to miss them. They will be moving to Grenora, North Dakota.

That's the week I had. I am grateful for all we were able to do and everyone we were able to help. On December 3rd we are having interviews with our mission president and then on the 6th we are having our ward Christmas Party. We have invited tons of nonmembers to it so we hope the turnout goes well. Thanks for all the pictures you sent me! I always enjoy seeing pictures. Stay warm out there in San Diego! (That's not too hard to do...)

All Smiles 

Elder Dahlberg

HAPPY SOON TO BE THANKSGIVING! (From Nov. 24th)

HAPPY SOON TO BE THANKSGIVING! For Thanksgiving the only plans we have are to go to our bishop's house at 1 pm for the classic Thanksgiving meal. I'm grateful that we at least have someone that wants us over so I'm excited for that. I know that's the biggest question people ask so I felt like telling you right at the start. Now for last week's adventures.

     Monday- Not a ton happened this day, only thing was we got picked up by the assistants to the president and that means I got to hang out with Elder Lund my trainer for the 4 hour drive to Manchester New Hampshire for a meeting.
   
     Tuesday- This was the day we had New missionary and Trainers meeting. They pretty much guided us on being effective trainers and servants of the Lord. So after that we got back into the car again and the AP's took us home. That was probably the last that I will see Elder Lund while he is still Elder. On December 17th he flies home and becomes Taylor Lund! CRAZY!

Mission trainer family:  Grandpa, Dad, Son

                                                               

Pictures from the President's Board...  Drew and all his companions so far

We love polka dots!  

     Wednesday- This was a kind of a tough day for me because we had District meeting and I was kind of tired of sitting on my butt because the past 2 days were just me on my butt getting spiritually fed... So my thoughts drifted off to the news about Mike Somaru. (Side note... One of his friends died, not in a good way...)  I got a little bent out of shape and even cried a little but I'm back on my feet after talking with the District Leaders about it. President Stoker even messaged me and gave me an uplifting message.
     After that we met up with a lady named Peggy Lane who doesn't have a filter on her mouth so as you can guess whenever she opens her mouth,  expect to cringe a little haha. She is nice and we talked to her about the Law(r) of chastity because she had a ton of questions concerning it.... So that was a little awkward but the best way to teach that lesson is to not beat around the bush and just give it to em straight. For dinner we were invited over to another lady's house named Sister Armstrong. While talking to her when dinner was being cooked, she quickly got up and ran to the kitchen and some not so pleasant words came out and in the mix of that was "I BURNT THE SPAGHETTI!!" haha. Elder Sholer and I just looked at each other and laughed our heads off because of the rarity of this occasion.

     Thursday- We do service at the public library on Thursdays and we moved boxes upstairs for them. In their basement is a family history library and I talked to the historian about me possibly having ancestors that are buried here in Gardiner and she looked it up and Vwuala, (I had to keep that one as he spelled it...) I did. She couldn't find their exact location but she will get back to me on that when we come again. She was a really nice lady named Dawn.

     We met up with another family name the Veregge's who we will start working with a lot more. They need a lot of help.  Basically there is a single mom who has 4 kids all with different mental disabilities. So Sister Veregge is looking for guidance and help as she goes through this tough part of her life. She is older 60's and is kind of fed up with the kids because before them she had like 10 others. So she has been a mother her entire life and is just about to break.

     Friday- We went out with our WML (Ward Mission Leader) to visit some less actives on the ward list and happened to stop by Peggy Lane again and we addressed more of her concerns/excuses as to why she is doing the things she is doing. It is really tough to share the gospel with someone who knows the truthfulness of it and has no desire to live it and receive the blessing that come from it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings so much happiness and joy into your life, all you need to do is live according to the principles in it and apply them in your daily life. People don't apply.... sadly.. I have seen that all too often in my life. They complain about their current circumstance and want it to become better but won't get up and do something about it.  They just wait for something or someone to fix it for them, which won't happen....

     Saturday- Best part of the day was while we were out tracting and we see a U-haul. So as a missionary seeing a U-haul is like being stranded on an island and seeing a plane off in the distance coming to rescue you! We were so excited to go over and help them out. Turned out that it was a family that was leaving but suddenly got a call that they would be staying so they needed our help unpacking the U-haul they already previously packed. This family was interested in our kindness and even said they would come to church and to the ward Christmas party on Dec. 6th. We will stop by again and see how they are doing but that was really awesome to help them. Nice/outgoing people like them are rare to find.  We walked a good part of the day and it was probably 10 degrees with windchill outside. But the sun was shining...... It's so weird how that works out here....

     Sunday- Well no one that we committed to come to church came... including Gretchen and the Veregge's and Peggy Lane and the random family and multiple others that fell through. It's a bummer seeing no results from your efforts. At the end of church though one of the Veregge's showed up to church and wanted us to come over. So we did and for some reason they needed to plant bulbs in the frozen ground outside. So we used the tools they had, An axe and a hand drill to plant bulbs into the frozen clay/dirt ground... haha it was quite hilarious. We talked to one of the daughters named Lily about God and she is 18 and fighting what we teach. She wants to believe in a God but says she will only believe if she sees. We talked all about faith but she didn't want to have any of that.

Well that's all I could muster up this week, Enjoy the sunshine for me!!!!

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (From Nov. 17th)

     Lots of info!  I received word from the zone leaders that we will be getting iPads in our mission! So they will be rolling out in the first quarter of 2015. So probably by the end of March. Supposedly all north american missions should be getting them around the same time so we will see how that all works out...
Monday the 10th to Sunday the 16th
     Mon- Other than the basic P-day activities we went to dinner at a less active members home and she asked those classic questions of how long have you been out and what are you doing after your mission. I feel like I want to tell you my answer for what I'm doing after my mission. So what I tell people may or may not be new to you. I want to go to Miramar community college but at the same time try for a sponsorship in bodyboarding.  I will be going to competitions and seeing what I've got compared to the rest of SoCal.  I want to chase my dream of becoming sponsored in some type of sport. I am honestly going to do it. I know I will fail at times but it's not about failing, it's about what you're going to learn from it. It's not a failure if you learn from it.

     Tuesday- We cooked for the veterans since it was veterans day. We helped the Cub Scouts at the local American Legion and we also talked to a lot of veterans. The one I talked to the most was from England and chaplain for the fire department. He was chippery as most English people are. I like em haha. We also did the big wood stacking and splitting service project at a members house. I got down and dirty and if you can see my companion did also...... (psych! ) You couldn't find one speck of dirt on that kid! I'm gunna break him in to working you just watch! To finish the night we had dinner at a Less-actives house who promised they would come to church but didn't.... But we won't give up on him. (R**** A***** is his name)

     Wednesday- We had an exchange that day and Elder Sholer had his first moment of being away from his Daddy (me, I'm considered his daddy because I'm training him) While on Exchange we were able to meet with an investigator of ours who hasn't made contact in forever. Her name is Rosemary and she is concerned with our church because she doesn't feel it meets her needs. We asked her if she had ever prayed to know if Joseph smith was a prophet and she kind of shrugged. The reason why we asked that is because if Joseph Smith truly saw God and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove then this truly is the Lord's Church. And praying to God to ask him if that really happened is a way we can know for ourselves.

     Thursday- We lifted tons of books in the public library for their upcoming book sale. That really put my muscles to work haha. This is why we exercise every morning at 6:30. For dinner we were invited over to a members home whose son named Vee is waiting for his mission call.  It will be here in a week or so. So all that excitement is in the air.  I can remember those days. (starting to feel old...)

     Friday- We helped out at the food pantry and tons of people were grateful for our service there. One lady that I helped was blind so I got to lead her through the line and tell her all about each food and which one is which. She told me she like carrots because it helps her eyes haha! She also had a sense of humor which made picking out food go so much smoother. We street contacted this day and no one was outside because it was freezing. We walked a lot and looked for people to talk to and didn't get 1 person to stop and talk to us... WINTER IS HERE! It also snowed this day which didn't help our street contacting.

     Saturday- We decided to go tracting to improve our finding efforts. We tracted into our first door and the lady received us so well! I wish everyone would greet us like she did. So welcoming and nice. She didn't want to hear about us at that moment but we know in a couple weeks we can stop by again and she will want us over. We gave her the Restoration DVD to watch. This is the day that I realized that I need some good gloves pronto. haha My hands were so numb. I am going to carry a golf ball with me everywhere I go so I can knock on the doors with that rather than my knuckle. We also split more wood that day too. The wood splitting/stacking procrastinators are starting to worry about their wood getting ruined in the snow!

     Sunday- We only had sacrament meeting because the church was too cold to meet in for longer than 1 hour. The heater broke over the past couple days and so no heat was able to be sent throughout the building. This week was really cold haha. This was the first time I have ever had to sit right smack dab next to my companion with my hands under my butt to keep warm. And that was inside the chapel in the church building! After church we went over to Gretchen's house where we talked a lot about Joseph Smith and the First vision and how the book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. Gretchen's sister Allison who had previously told us she is not religious at all started asking us questions and we ended up picking her up as a new investigator. We have plans to go over on Friday of this next week to talk to her more.

Something not mentioned in the letter. Tonight Elder Sholer and I are going down to Manchester New Hampshire for new missionary training.  And Elder lund who is going home next month is coming to pick us up at 4:30 today. I'm so excited!

All Smiles

Elder Dahlberg