General Conference was great!

Wow!!   Last week, ducks,  this week, peacocks!  How beautiful!!

Well this past general conference was the best one I have ever watched. I don't think it was that it was abnormally different than other ones or that the speakers were better. I think it all had to do with me and my preparation for it. For this general conference I came with a question in mind and I literally applied every talk given to my question and wrote down 1 line that each speaker told me as an answer. It made conference meaningful and it actually didn't seem as long! It was great! My favorite talk was actually given by one of the 12 apostles named Russell M Nelson. He talked about the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. I am making that a priority in my future because of what he shared in that talk. Here is the link to watch it if you would like to.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/04?lang=eng&vid=4155134996001&cid=11

Tuesday- This day we talked to a Muslim man that we met in the mall of New Hampshire a while back. So we met with him in the church and we brought a member with us and it turned into more of a debate about the nature of God and that was not our purpose. He was trying to logically explain God and his nature and than he was telling us wrong. It was interesting and kind of intimidating. We told him about the biggest part of our lives and that we walk by faith and not by sight. We trust in God and we don't NEED proof or NEED to know all things in order to function.

Wednesday- I went on exchange to the East side of Manchester with Elder Chavez our district leader and we walked those streets for a good 2 hours and found 2 potential families to teach and I heard that one of them is already taking the missionary lessons or will be soon. SO that was fun.

Thursday- I was still on exchange with Elder Chavez, he is from Rancho Cucumanga California and we did a lot of street contacting this day as well. We talked and we walked practically all day. We walked probably 6-7 miles and my feet were pretty tired. I am not complaining about walking. I am just saying how much we walked. I actually loved it! I would prefer doing that than driving over 50 miles a day like I was in the boonies of Maine. I also experienced the worst door slam I have ever received while being out on my mission. We knocked this door and this lady came to the door and then left. So we knocked one more time because we wanted to talk to her. Then she came to the door and opened it and while it was opening we said hello and she replied with "No Hello, GET THE F%(*& OUT!!!" and slammed that door so hard I felt some wind come from it. As we were walking away I couldn't keep a straight face and just laughed for about 2 minutes because it was so funny. I hope she feels better after this Easter.

Friday- We taught English to Thack our Napaleese investigator. He is getting really good at it. I can tell he is practicing because of how fluent his talking is. It's awesome to help him with that.

Saturday- We started our fast and watched general conference  We colored eggs between the two sessions.

Of course, he put a wave on his egg!

Easter Sunday- We were able to have dinner at the mission presidents home! I ran out of time writing this because I was being talked to... Sorry. Ill send pictures!!! Hope the pictures can fill in the rest of this email.

President and Sister Stoker

Elders Dahlberg and Wadsworth

President Stoker has a new granddaughter

Love you all!!!

Elder Dahlberg

(March 30) I'm ready for the sun to bust out and melt all the snow away.

Its supposed to be spring time, but this week it was actually cold. Stayed in the high 20's to the high 30's. It's much better than the single digits and WAY better than the negatives but I'm ready for the sun to bust out and melt all the snow away. I learned a cool fact about Manchester New Hampshire! It turns out that Segways were invented here. And apparently in the spring time they have people who travel all over the place in them, so I'm excited to get my hands on one and try it out!!! I had a pretty eventful week, check it out!!!

Mon- For our P-day we went to downtown Manchester and went to the tallest building we could find and we went to the front desk and asked if we could go to the top. The guy in the first and tallest building said no way, so we tried the second tallest building and the security guard just goes, Go for it! haha So we took the elevator up and just enjoyed looking out over the city, then we ran down the 21 floors of stairs all the way to the basement! After our P-Day was over we stopped by a couple of Less-Active members who weren't all that excited that we showed up on their door step. But one of them worked at the Segway factory and said we could come back and ride his Segway when it warms up! That's one way to get into the door I guess. right??

Tuesday- We had a great lesson with our investigator named Rebeca. She is 21 years old and has 2 boys. A 2 yr old and a 3 month old. She has a boyfriend and how we found her was through tracting and she let us in. She doesn't have any belief in a God and thought it was just something not important in her life. She has no religious back ground and her purpose in meeting with us was because her boyfriend wanted to raise their kids in some sort of church and get them baptised. So we taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel and she grasped a little bit of it. She did commit to reading some out of the Book of Mormon and as well as saying her own personal prayer. We set a return day for Thursday.

Wednesday- I was hosting Elder Seely, who is the AP. Now what is an AP? Well its like the vice president so to speak. AP stands for Assistant to the President. So he works directly under President Stoker and pretty much does all the menial things president doesnt need to do. But besides that an AP is just another normal missionary, they just have alot of responsibility on their plate. Elder Seely and I finished a lesson and when we got into the car and started it and we were about to start driving forward he sees someone walking outside of the car and goes "Elder, we need to talk to that person, I feel impressed that we need to." So we get out of the car and start talking to her. (Keep in mind, we do not normally just get out of the car as we are about to leave and just start talking to some random person) Turns out that this lady was baptised in our church down in Nebraska and just moved up here. She said she was interested in meeting with us. To make the story short, we tried to contact her again and while talking to her on the phone, a male came onto the phone and interrupted us and started cussing us out and told us to NEVER CALL AGAIN! So thats that. But I told this story to share how and why I believe there is a God. In the bible it talks about the Holy Ghost and how it will help us. I believe that the Holy Ghost impressed Elder Seely to do that. As strange as it seemed. And there are tons of little experiences just like that, that I have experienced over my mission which have strengthened not only my belief in God but my Faith in Him.

Thursday- We were supposed to have a lesson with Rebecca but she cancelled and before we left I asked "is there anything, anything at all that we can help you with" She told us they are struggling and could use some help with food. So we arranged a few things and we had members bring over meals for her and they even gave them a small meal card for a grocery store! How nice!!!

Friday- The sisters in our area made us sushi for lunch!!! I love sushi, it was great! I want to learn how to make that when I get home. While we were out and about this day we came across a box that said free food on it and it was placed in a nice place like someone actually meant to leave it there for the purpose of giving it away. It was full of canned non expired food and it was full! We were like what the heck? There is never anything of this sort just out and about. So we snagged it and brought it to Rebeca! haha Isn't that cool? I think that is another instance of the existence of a loving God, or just a mere coincidence. Take your pick but I choose God.

Saturday- IT SNOWED ALL DAY LONG ON THIS DAY@!!! Yes that's right SNOW! I have some pictures that I will send to show just how much came down. It was probably the last time I will see snow fall on my mission and for a good long time. So I enjoyed it and made some snowballs and made random snowmen on the streets, Elder Wadsworth and I even did some target practice with the snowballs. So we enjoyed winter's finale.

Sunday- We spent a lot of the Day out sharing the new Easter message that the church produced called #Becausehelives. It's all about Jesus Christ and it's great for anyone, whether you're a Mormon or not. I actually encourage people who aren't Mormon to watch this video because it just shows how and why Jesus Christ plays a role in daily life.
 http://www.mormon.org/easter

I guess they drew a picture of Elder Dahlberg the surfer...

That's all for now! With this upcoming Easter you may wonder what my plans are. We are going to be watching General Conference where we will also be fasting for 24 hours from food and water for the opportunity to find people who want to hear about God and Jesus Christ. And follow Jesus Christ and be baptized.

Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful Easter! It would really make my day to show up to emails next Monday and be loaded with pictures of you and your families. That would be so cool!!!

You have been warned...

Yep!  There they are!!

What a "Quack up!"  (Sorry, couldn't help myself...)

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

(March 23) Spring time is here... Not for New England yet...

(This is the program for Sunday Services.  Note the unique spelling of Dahlberg... haha)



This past week it snowed 2 times and it wasn't a lot but it still snowed. There were crazy high winds this week which made the temperatures just drop way low. For the first time on my mission actually I got frost bite this week. It was while we were out street contacting at 8:50 pm and the wind was just going at us about 25 mph winds and it was pushing us left and right. I came into the apartment and my face was burning and it felt a whole lot like a sunburn. Yup I got wind burn on my face... So even though the calender says spring... It's not..... yet.

Well this week we were able to teach 6 member present lessons and teach 6 Less Active lessons. It was a pretty high number week.

He's excited to see an actual "Mall"  haha

I will just mention some highlights of the week. Friday we had a zone conference where we got trained on chapter 8 in PMG. (Preach My Gospel, their training book...) It's about using your time wisely and how we should be making effective use of our time. Which I actually enjoyed. A lot of that meeting was talking about just doing the things you know, and not letting your laziness get in the way. So it was a big motivator. As a zone leader we got to train on planning and how important it is in our work. If we didn't plan out our days, we would NOT be as productive. If you plan out your day beforehand the day ALWAYS goes better/more productive than if you hadn't planned. (Obvious huh?)

Thursday we do service at a therapeutic horse facility. It is out of the city part of our area and we get to clean the horses stalls and refill waters and walk the horses to their outside coral! That was really fun and the volunteers trusted me with the most rowdy horse of them all. That was fun, seeing as I'm a city boy and I don't know anything about horses. I just took control of it and walked it out. It wasn't hard at all. Horses are pretty cool too, they each have their own personalities. I like the young male ones, they have the most energy and they keep you on your toes.

We can add "shoveling manure" to his list...

One night this week around 8:55 PM Elder Wadsworth and I had 5 minutes before we needed to go inside so we decided to put the old saying "tracting past 8 is unsuccessful" to shame. So we made the decision to just knock on one door. So we did and a man answered the door and only held the door open a little crack and says what do you want. And we tell him we are out sharing a message about families (with the family proclamation in our hands) he goes "Don't you know there is a meth house right behind you, it's too late to be doing this, don't ever do this again" He opened the door a little bit and shows his face and goes "If you are out doing this you never know what you're going to run into (after he said that he shows us that he had a baseball bat in his hidden hand and was ready to beat us to pieces if we were intruders) We told him sorry and that we were just doing one door and he said its okay and he is glad he was the one we knocked on and not the houses around his because they are all drug houses. haha So that was fun!

Almost everyday in our missionary work we take a member of our ward out with us. His name is Donald Richard. He is 49 and has never been married and has some disabilities. So we take him to our single women homes for appointments. He is a cool guy and we take him out almost every single day. We also bring other members as well, but he is the main one.

Our investigator Sarah V****, the single mother of 4 kids wasn't able to come to church this week and she is 'trying' to quit smoking. She has great intentions but she is just lacking the will power of just not smoking. We went over the other day and I wrote all over her cigarette packet, saying things like Elder Dahberg doesn't want you to do it. Don't do it! Jesus loves you! haha. Hopefully that will help, who knows...

Well that's all I can muster up atm. This upcoming week we don't have anything special so that means we can have a full week of hitting the streets and trying to meet up with all the investigators we have and the ones we have found that just seemed to have vanished.... (That happens all the time )

All Smiles, 

Elder Dahlberg

I am living in Manchester New Hampshire!

Elders Dahlberg and Wadsworth

Hello there fellow San Diegans... and Utahns,

So I got transferred!!! Now whenever you think of me think of me living in New Hampshire in a city setting (crazy to think about huh?) There are more buildings than trees in the part of the city that I'm in. I live in a city comparable to Chula Vista, and then if you drive out of the city for 15 minutes you hit homes that are comparable to Scripps Ranch. I am living in Manchester New Hampshire! Here's my address. (Google earth it! I dare you)
392 Dubuque St Apt 1
Manchester, NH 03102

So with being transferred that means I have a new companion and new apartment and new car and new ward and new everything pretty much! I have been changed around so many times on my mission it's not hard to pack up my bags any more and just leave. My new companion is Elder Nickolas Wadsworth! From Alpine Utah. He is one of 13 kids and he is actually younger than me! he is still 19 and he has been out on his mission for 20 months. He is super funny and we get along SO WELL! This upcoming transfer we are going to do great work and have fun while doing it. NOTHING BETTER THAN THAT!

Elder Wadsworth unloading the car behind their apt.

In our district we have 2 sets of sisters who are both in trios actually, we have us (The Zone Lord's) and we have the APE's and then the District Leader. So our district is full of leadership! Also something interesting about this area, We have the mission home in our boundaries and so we have President and Sister Stoker in our ward. So whenever they are in town on Sundays they will attend our ward.

Since I am now serving in a city setting rather than a boonier setting, life in the mission (in terms of actually going out and proselyting) is much different. We go out and street contact people and people actually talk to you unlike in Maine where they don't want you even looking at them as you walk up to them. We meet all sorts of people and they are not just white people! I love it! We have talked to Mexicans, Guatemalans, Italians, Asians, Indians, Napalee refugees, and Black/ African people. It's awesome and I enjoy doing it so much! It beats tracting anyday!

This week Elder Wadsworth and I found 4 new investigators! All from street contacting and tracting! See how much different the city is compared to the country! Also we are working with an investigator of ours named Sarah V**** (she is our main one and I will mention her the most) She is a single mother of 4 kids all under the age of 7. The kids are terrible! They don't ever listen and they love making messes. Since they have no male to be the discipline side of things they just run around like monkeys all day long. Its crazy at her house. We bring members with us to the lessons to help keep them calm. So far we are working with Sarah on quitting smoking and coffee. She wants to be baptized on April 11th, but I don't think that's going to happen because she won't come to church. And I don't want her to be baptized and than just fall off the face of the earth and never come again. She needs a testimony. Everyone who comes to church or is religious for that matter needs a PERSONAL WITNESS that what they are doing is right. If you don't have that, you should do what it says in the bible, the chapter of James 1:5.

That's how Joseph Smith did it, that's how I did it. But that's all I have for this week!

A member of their ward painted this for the missionaries apartment

I am really enjoying my time here in Manchester even though it's a really dirty city. I want to help clean it up some and make God the center-piece for the city!

Love you all and I got a letter this week wooohooo! Thank you (You know who you are)

All Smiles,Elder Dahlberg

Saying good-bye to the Subway crew that fed them on Mondays

The Verregge family

That's how he fits so much stuff in his suitcases... 

Look what he found by the side of the road... a snowboard??

Study area and strange kitchen layout...

I guess this is the bathroom AND the laundry room...

Since they are located near the mission home, their apartment has extra beds for visiting missionaries to sleep in. Kind of a crazy mess!!

ZONE LEADER HERE I COME!!!

So this week it didn't snow one bit! LET ME TELL YOU HOW AWESOME THAT IS!! WOOOHOOOO!
A cool fact about this past February, is that in Maine it was the worst one they have ever seen. It was the worst winter ever recorded! New records on snowfall and cold temperatures! I totally felt it too. My hands were purple anytime I took one step outside. Even with electric heated gloves, my fingers still became numb. I can't imagine how the pioneers and old settlers of New England lived out here for so long. Maybe that's why they wanted to trek west so much because they were tired of all the cold and they were willing to risk their lives than stay here for it. Who knows..

Tuesday March 3rd,-  We had a couple of set lessons fall through on this day but it was still good. We drove down to Freeport, Maine to get Elder Redford checked because he felt pain in his chest. Turns out he has Costro Constritous. (???)  It's swelling in the chest. So he can't lift anything or workout in the mornings and that kills him because he is one dang hard worker! We also had a wonderful lesson with a person named Kyle. He is 19 and he was just at the Veregee's home (LA Members) when we stopped by. Kyle is their cousin and he was interested in why we were out doing the missionary work when we could be at college getting school "over with" and working... Kyle took a book of mormon and said he would read it as well as the bible, side by side.

Wednesday- We went out with Bishop Abbot and went to Peggy Lane's house where we talked with her about getting a temple recommend and how she has her goal of getting sealed to her husband who passed away a while back. It went great and Peggy told us she will try her very best to make it there. (She wasn't able to make it to church Sunday due to pains in her chest...) As well with Bishop we saw  3 other Less-Active members and it was great being able to go out with the Bishop and getting the work done. He is a very dedicated man and I admire him. This night I went on exchange into Damarriscotta with Elder Liljenquist, he has been out for 11 weeks.

Thursday- Elder Liljenquist is from Utah and loves to play trumpet and bake. If you know me I don't do either of those on my free time, but we got along very well he is a funny elder. My goal on the exchange was to bear testimony of God's Love to someone that we tract into and they say I'm all set! We tracted in the freezing cold weather (That day was around 14 degrees with 25 mph winds) We tracted for a solid hour and 3 people answered the door out of maybe 20+. But i bore testimony and the lady who answered agreed with me and said she believes the same thing. But she wouldn't want us to come back and talk with her. We also did service at a food pantry which I really enjoyed! I love serving others that can't exactly help themselves.

Friday- I am back from exchange and now am with Elder Redford and we went home teaching with Brother Maschino, and none of his people came to the door... Which seems to happen a ton now that I talk about it haha. I have just gotten so used to it I guess... We had dinner with a member family named the Mittons that knows Elder Redford's family personally! They are from Pocatello, Idaho which is where Elder Redford is from so they had a blast at the dinner table talking about good ole Pokey.

Saturday- This was the mission conference day. We drove down to Exeter, New Hampshire and I got to see all my old companions and my friends around the mission. We took a mission picture and I am all the way on the left standing on a chair haha. During the conference I sat next Elder M. Jensen and that was great talking to him. We learned about how to live positive lives and to stay productive. There were 2 General Authorities and one Area Seventy. Bishop Causee, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Bennett. So those were the ones training us. Something that stuck out to me was that they said when you are willing to repent, you are willing to change your life for the better. It's true. Change is good. It helps each of us grow.




We finished the day at the Brill's where they told us they would never become members of our church but love us as fantastic young men. We may have different religions and beliefs but I will not let that stop me from loving that family. Although we may disagree, it does not mean we should be disagreeable! Be kind to everyone, no matter what. Saturday nights are usually the night we get transfer calls and we never got one so both Elder Redford and I were celebrating because we were going to stay together another 6 weeks. little did we know....

Sunday- We woke up to our normal alarm at 6:30 and elder Redford hopped into the shower and I was just getting up. And the phone rings at 6:32AM... It was assistant 2. I was like what the?!
I answered it and the first thing he said was, "Elders it appears that we forgot to call you last night....(Pause. Looks down at paperwork...more pause...) Yup, we did. Elder Dahlberg you are being transferred and will serve as Zone leader. Do you accept?"  Well that was that. I declined it right then and there! haha just kidding .The Peters family came to church this day! Rusty & Tiffany and their 5 awesome kids!!!!  We sat right behind them and in church they called me from the pulpit to come up and bear my testimony. While I was up speaking to the 100+ people, I felt so comfortable. I could have stood there all day long. I just felt so good. I don't have any fear of speaking in front of people. Why? What's my secret? Well I tell myself that "It's selfish to be nervous" Because I have a message that I need to share and if I'm nervous I wont deliver it as good as I need to!

Thanks for all you do for me Mom and Dad. And those that email me or write me (you know who you are haha)
I will be transferred this upcoming Tuesday the 10th. So if you want to write me a letter send it to the mission office address of 2 Bedford Farms....etc...

I haven't gotten a letter in about 2 weeks and I want to issue a slight challenge to all who see this. Send me a letter. I WILL send you one back. Even if all you write is a tic tac toe game or something. haha. Getting a letter seriously brightens the day. There is just something about it. Well thanks for everything! I am coming home in 7 months!!! ZONE LEADER HERE I COME!!!

P.S.  I don't know for sure where he went, but he did buy something with his personal debit card from Manchester, NH, so I think he may be near the mission home for this transfer...  Either way, you can send him a letter to the mission home address and he will get it eventually...

All Smiles

Elder Dahlberg

 
We bought some banana bread mix from Hawaii and sent it to him since he LOVES banana bread.  He shared pictures of him making it..

He got creative with a scarf and made it into a tie.  (He didn't actually wear it that way...)

Here are some of the families he's worked with in Gardiner, Maine...

The Armstrong family

The Keene family

The Peters family making scripture cases it looks like...

The Dawbin family

Grechen and her family

This week was actually not snowy!

For once we actually got some sunshine and it started to melt the snow! Keyword: started to... It's still a snowy wasteland so don't think it's all green and grassy haha.

Since I emailed last Tuesday it's sort of a short week for emails, so here it is.

Wednesday- We didn't have district meeting but we did get to go out with the bishop of our ward Bishop Abbot. He is going to try and devote one day of the week to come out with us teaching! Isn't that awesome! We took him to see our 83 year old investigator named Fred and Bishop helped us teach about Temples and how he can be with his wife forever thanks to the Priesthood authority. Fred really enjoyed the lesson and we can tell he felt the spirit which was totally in the lesson. But we went back a couple days later and he told us he thinks Bishop is just tooting his trumpet and is speaking flattering words to him to get him to join our Church....  We were also able to take another member out with us to visit a single lady in our ward and we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. With a focus on these 3 questions..
Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where are we going?


Thursday- I was on an exchange with the zone leaders in Winthrop, Maine and if you want to know about boon docks, I know the place. There wasn't anything out there. Just trailer houses scattered about the land like they were loaded into a shotgun and sprayed from above. We visited a couple of their investigators where one of them announced to us that he was openly gay and was glad that I was from San Diego because he was too. He lived in Hillcrest. He told us he would never convert but liked to have us over... So that was interesting, he even played a song on the guitar for us as we came into the house and left. But all that aside this man was very smart and if everyone in the world had an attitude like him the world would be in a much better and kinder place. We tracted for 2 hours in the freezing cold and found one person that might be interested in learning! 1 is better than none!!!!

On exchange we made a chili-dog pizza for our lunch hour! 

I like to have fun and keep it interesting okay!!!??

Friday- We went home teaching with a member of our ward named Brother Maschino! No one was home... So we went to our appointment with an investigator of ours named Sherry a little bit early. We taught about family history and the Book of Mormon. Sherry doesn't seem to be all there mentally... So we take it easy on the details, only problem is she loves the details but just cant keep them straight so that makes our lessons interesting. To finish the night we had a lesson with Ed. He is 19 and is going to college down in Bridgeton. His girlfriend is a member of our ward. So we taught him the restoration and he had tons of solid questions that I feel were sincere. We hope he continues to read the scriptures to at least gain faith in God, since he isn't sure about it.

These 2 people are the Maschino family they rock!!! Had breakfast for dinner!!! WOOHOOO

Saturday- We helped Rusty P**** fall a tree at his land in South Gardiner and haul it through 3 feet of snow (up to our belly buttons in some spots) and that was tough work! We loaded it into his truck and brought it to his home and split it. So much work to keep the house warm! It's crazy how much effort is put into heating a home during the freezing winters of Maine.
















We made a scripture case for one of the P***** kids, Cooper. He is turning 13 tomorrow. So we gave him his present the other day and he actually loved it!

Here is Rusty cutting down the ash tree! 

Sunday- I went up and bore my testimony this Sunday and it was such a great feeling to get up and just talk about God's love for each and every one of us. There were multiple members of other faiths in attendance and I know that my testimony rings true for them just as much as it does for me. Because God's Love is something anyone and everyone can feel. It's not singular and it has no restrictions. Everyone has the opportunity to feel it if they want. Keyword: If they want.


Well that's it for this week. This upcoming Saturday we will be heading down to Exeter, New Hampshire for a big mission wide conference that all the missionaries in our mission will be going to. Word on the street is we are learning about iPads, but there is no real info on that. Also transfer calls are this Saturday so stay posted for next Monday to see if I'm leaving Gardiner, Maine or not.

That's all this week folks!

All Smiles 

Elder Dahlberg