June 1 Trip to the Boston Temple!

So its been over a week since i have been able to email you and i have so many pictures to send, hopefully you can get something out of this email besides all the pictures that i am going to send. 

I found out that my trainee, Elder Dylan Sholer, from Battle Ground Washington went home on Saturday. I dont know the reasons but i hope he can come back out sometime in the future. 

This past memorial day, we helped Noah Hughes (Tall 14 year old) with his EAGLE SCOUT Project. what we did was go to the local cemetery and replaced name plaques that were put on the trees. there was a lot of hand drills and reaching to new heights that was associated with this project. While there Elder Wadsworth and I bumped into a group of 5 hobos that were proud of us for doing something positive in the world. I took out 5 pictures of Jesus and gave them each one and they were so happy. Despite having beer cans and cigarettes all around them, i thought the pictures of Jesus would lift their spirits up. 
















One of our investigators named Saikou Bah just moved into live with the Hughes Family. He is 17 years old and is a junior in High School. He plays football and track and just got 2nd in the state of New hampshire for the 100Meter dash. He reminds me of Usane Bolt, except he is buffer than him. 

I am so happy that it is hot in New England now. This past winter was SO BAD. Apparently this winter was the worst one they have had in decades.... So that just makes the sunshine and heat that much more appealing to me. The heat here is different than in California though. It rains a lot here and so when you have heat+ water it creates humidity. I am not a huge fan of humidity but i would choose that over snow and cold anyday. 

Our transfer calls just came and i will be staying in this Bedford area for another 6 weeks. and i will stay as Zone leader and get a new companion tomorrow. So wish me luck!!! 

We now officially have iPads in our mission. we are still just using them as tools for videos and studying and another resource. We should be (this transfer)  using them to start updating our area book (where we keep information on the people we teach) and to do daily planning. I'm getting used to having an iPad now, they are really good tools. 

As for the missionary work in the area. We have been helping a lot of people out in their personal trials. Examples: someone unexpectedly dies, evicted from their house, court cases going bad. We have been doing a lot of what this scripture explains. 

Mosiah 18:9
Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

 We have been doing alot of that, as well as serving them. Doing their dishes, or helping set up their Air conditioning unit. taking out the trash. All the little things that take no time at all. 

Thats all i got for this week. Enjoy all the pictures!!!!

All Smiles

Elder Dahlberg

Elder Wadsworth's birthday 

A member bought him a cake that literally had real gold on it. No joke!!!!!! I ATE REAL GOLD!!!!!!!

They got to go to the Boston Temple!

His plant is growing really fast!!

(May 23) We are getting iPads!

This week in the mission we are having a big mission conference on Wednesday from 9AM-1PM about iPads! We are getting them! Its crazy! All of the iPad's for the mission are already here in New England, in the mission office to be exact! Its crazy! I have no idea what and how this is all going to happen but i will keep you updated on what exactly changes and how missionary work is changing.

This past week we weren't able to teach a ton of lessons again it was about 14 but still much better than most weeks in my mission.

I went on exchange to Canterbury this week and was with Elder Betts. He is from New Mexico and is going home July 15th (same day as Elder Wadsworth). During our exchange we stopped by a bakery named Jacques Pastries. A member of the church owns it and what they do is make custom cakes for big events. That place puts Cake boss to shame! The owner actually declined a TV offer because it would just take away from the business and they wouldn't get all that they needed to done. They bake over 1000 custom cakes a year. They sent us on our way with eight  pastries that are $15 each. And they weren't big either so those pastries didn't make it out of the car a second time haha.

Wow!  That is QUITE the cake!!!
http://www.jacquespastries.com/

I was also asked a question this week that i want to share my answer with you.
Q- What do I hope to gain from the rest of my mission?
A- I hope to establish Christlike attributes that i can use for the rest of my life. I hope that what i have learned already and what i will learn can stay with me so i can use it to help others and myself in the future. Sometimes i get into this mindset of "look at my scriptures, aren't they all beat up, marked, and worn. That means i have learned a lot and searched them and i know them well!" that mindset goes the same for my tracting shoes so when i get home everyone can see hard hard i worked, based on how worn my shoes got. Whenever i have that mindset I lack the charity and love that Jesus Christ has. He didn't care how faded his clothes got while out walking and performing miracles. He cared for the people, not the praise. SO all in all, what i hope to gain from the rest of my mission experience is to walk as Jesus walked, not walk where He walked and call it good. 

We also had a zone meeting this week. As a zone leader i got to teach 2 separate groups for about an hour each. SO that was fun being able to prepare a good message to share and i tried my best to leave a lasting lesson that can help lift, inspire, encourage, and bless their individual lives.
I had an interview with President Stoker, we pretty much talked about my answer to the question i talked about earlier in this email.

That's all i have for this week!!! I have been trying hard to stay focused and making these last 5 months count. I appreciate any letters i do get and i am going to reply to everyone of them that i get. SO WRITE ME :)

All Smiles,
Elder Dahlberg

P.S Answer to 'Why couldn't the bike stand up?' It was two tired!!!!  [ba dum bum]

This is a plant he is growing from a bulb...

They came across a little pond somewhere that had a sort of "beach"  He had to make a sand angel...

On exchanges with Elder Betts

BBQ Season with lots of BBQ sauce

Here's a picture of our Skype screen with other family members hooked in...  Happy Mother's Day!!!!

If you are wondering what the weather is like here in New England. It is Springtime and all the trees are now full of baby leaves and all the colors are out and about. I can see purple, orange, yellow, white, red, green, blue, black, brown, and pink! The colors are really vivid and I didn't get any good pictures of them this week but i will keep that in mind for next week. So look forward to next week and i will get some for you!!!

With it being spring, that means there are tons and tons of little bugs. There is something called black fly's up here and they are very comparable to the flies you see on the beach that are sitting on top of the dried out seaweed. You know how when you get close to the seaweed there are hundreds of those flies that buzz around? Well imagine that all around you, while your outside. They are the worst out in the outskirts of the city of Manchester where all the trees are but still, they can get pretty annoying, especially when they get in your eye and you accidentally consume one through your eye socket!

This week in Bedford, we weren't able to get up to 20 lessons because we had 3 of our investigators drop us. Meaning they wouldn't like us to come back anymore. We still have a total teaching pool of 7 people. Which is much higher than most areas in the mission.

This week i was able to host an exchange here in Bedford and I had an elder named Elder Andrew! Isn't that funny that for the day my companion was Elder Andrew and than you have me Elder Dahlberg! Well he is on his 9th week as a missionary and we did a lot of teaching and he did a great job at teaching. We taught out of the bible and out of the book of mormon. I really liked his teaching style that is very similar, if not identical to mine. Which is to make sure during the lesson the investigator or person you are teaching is talking more than you are. I like to make lessons engaging and more like a conversation rather than a lecture of knowledge from one person to the other. Also while on exchange with Elder Andrew we were tracting some houses right after a dinner appointment and we get to a house where there is a family outside, so we go up and talk to them about the gigantic bbq they had outside their garage. Turned out the father figure, Dana Prive is a world famous bbq man. He makes his own BBQ sauce and does it competitively. He was talking about his most recent BBQ sauce and how he is going to enter it into the next competition. Both Elder Andrew and I, respond with "Well where could we get some of this sauce?" He goes over to his car and opens the trunk and gets out 6 bottles of his BBQ Sauce. 2 bottles of each of his 3 flavors and said to us "you got room in your bag for all these?". i than  took my scriptures and shoved them to one side and made the room!  HE GAVE THEM TO US FOR FREE!! How nice was that! He wasn't interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ, but i feel like he has a lot of Christlike traits already. And im not just saying that because he gave us free bbq sauce. He was a man that I hope I can turn out to be like one day. To just be so friendly and open to strangers.

Elder Dahlberg & Elder Andrew  with their BBQ sauce haul

I think Jesus Christ put it best when he told his disciples in John Chapter 15," this is my commandment, that you love one another as i have loved you." That sentence alone, if heeded, would change this world and the people on it.

Also there is a family out here named the Hines family that will be moving to Eastlake. Just across from the Olympic training center. We helped them paint and prepare their house to get on the housing market. Kurt Hines will be an assistant football coach for Christian High School. its a christian private school. They have a son named Brock who is 18 and a daughter named Sophia or Sofia (not sure on how to spell it) who is 16 and will be a senior next year.
They are a really cool family and i will keep you posted on if they could use some help or not. (They seem to be pretty well set with help)

I enjoyed skyping my family this week, so much so that at the end of the call all that i could muster up to say was "I am grateful to have you as my family." Which is all that i needed to say. I am grateful to have such a great family that not only loves me, but wants me to be the best i can. I cant ask for anything better than that. :)

ALL SMILES

ELDER DAHLBERG

I got to play baseball with this 14 year old named Noah Hughes. Keep that name in your head because this kid has some great potential to be in the MLB! He is awesome! I also got to hit and pitch with him. Then after that I learned how to make dried banana slices! SO GOOD!

 We had to drive all the missionaries back up to Montpelier Vermont which took us from 5-11PM. So my butt was sore after that day. Here are pictures from our drive

Elder Sholer, my past companion was in the area for the day because his companion was going to the temple. So we were in a trio for the day.

Wow, you'd think he'd gone to the Amazon or something...

You may be wondering what those green nets are around our faces? The black flies are so bad that we needed those in order to work outside without having to swat at flies every 2 seconds. These nets may look goofy, but i would rather look like a goof than have all those flies goof my face with their gross little black bodies.

(May 4) GO AND DO, DON'T SIT AND STEW!

Springtime is definitely here. No more snow anywhere and the sun is out on the daily now. ITS SO GREAT! Its how life should be. People out here are now coming out of the wood works and now the streets are full of people going here and there and doing yard work and having BBQ's and talking with their neighbors. Its so nice to see.

Tuesday- We were able to bring our Mission President and his wife out teaching with us to a lesson with Bill and Rose G****. That's the eor pajama man. He was wearing it while we taught him as well. It was great having President right alongside us teaching and he added a great testimony to the lesson which was great to hear and see. Sadly Bill and Rose G**** told us not to come by anymore after this visit. So that will be the last of them, unless they want us back.

Wednesday- We had a great district meeting where i got a cool quote. It says
GO AND DO, DON'T SIT AND STEW! and in order to get the full effect of this quote you have to read the "don't sit and stew"  out loud with a squinted face as if you just sucked on a lemon. That is a good quote to help you get out of those moods where you don't feel like doing anything or talking to anyone.

Thursday- We had a dinner at a less-actives home named Sister G***** and she taught us how to make fried rice and general tsao chicken. Its super tasty but it is totally not good for you haha. I had a little bit to much which required me to run 5.1 miles the next morning haha. We taught a lot of lessons this week.  25 total lessons to Investigators and Less-active members.

Friday- We visited with a man who was extremely over weight. At one point he went over the 500 lb barrier! He is currently 350ish and is stuck in a bed all day every day. Just being there in the room with him made me grateful for the physical condition i am in. I am so happy to be able to just walk outside and feel the sun, and to be able to go places without worrying about my physical problems.

Saturday- We tracted this day a good amount and no one in specific was interested in learning about Jesus Christ and his teachings. But one man named Dave put those teachings into practice during our visit. We knocked on this door and he comes around the side and tells us how he is never going to convert to the LDS religion but he really wanted to talk to us as people and get to know us. We talked to him for a good 10 minutes telling him about our personal reasons for doing a mission as well as how our lives are going to pan out after the mission. He was so nice and at the end of our talk he went inside his house and got us some water bottles and fruit snacks and sent us on our way, wishing us luck at that. It was SO great to just meet a person that was willing to open his heart and just talk to us. So unselfish and it really opened my eyes and helped me to remember that i want to be as kind and nice as he was.

Sunday- It was a perfect Sunday with the sun shining and it was 75 degrees. I was so happy with the weather. We fasted for another missionaries investigator and i guess it worked because they are getting baptized this Saturday unexpectedly... We were able to meet up and teach Saikou, the 17 year old Senior in high school whose friend is a member of the ward and we went over to their house, (the Hughes) and read Alma 32. Which talks about faith being compared to a seed.


I am so excited for the Skype this Sunday and come with questions to ask me because i want to make this hour worth it!!!! love you all!!!!!!!

all smiles

Elder Dahlberg

Fried Rice & General Tsao Chicken

What a goofball!!

SPRING IS HERE AND I'M LOVING THE SUNSHINE!

This week has been really busy with teaching again! We taught another 24 lessons and we are leading the mission in teaching! we taught so much this past week and had more lessons than an entire zone did! Pretty crazy! A lot of missionaries have been asking what our secret is to all this sudden success. Elder Wadsworth and I have come to the conclusion that none of it is difference on our part. The only thing we are doing is trying to be obedient to the mission rules while trying to invite all others to learn about Jesus Christ. Those are the two actions we tattoo on our foreheads everyday before we go out to work. We firmly believe all of our success is that God is preparing these people for a brighter future and hopefully a happy eternal future.
Our current teaching pool of Investigators is 11. I began my mission with barely 1...

Well i will go through my week.
Monday the 20th- We went to the mall of New Hampshire for p-day and got to talk to a man named Paul. He was one of those guys that stands at the kiosks that are in the middle of the walkways in malls. He was a representative for a MMA/ Boxing Gym. I approached him and started talking to him because he seemed a little apprehensive to talking to people walking by. turns out that he is really nice and from the looks of him he was all tatooed up and is buff and scary looking. But by the end of our talk, he was showing us pictures of his 2 kids and how they both have a disease similar to muscular dystrophy and they don't have the physical capabilities that we do.  so that was a blessing in disguise to be able to talk to him about that.

Tuesday- This was the night all the departing missionaries stayed at our house and i got really trunky. We were in a room with 8 missionaries all excited to be going home and seeing their families the next morning. I barely slept during the night because of all the energy that was in the room and the next morning Elder Wadsworth and I went for a run because i just couldn't take being in that house any longer haha. TOO MUCH TRUNKYNESS (trunky= wanting to pack you bags 'trunk' and go home). The rest of the day we taught lessons and i was fine after the run but that was the major highlight of the day haha...

Wednesday- We make weekly visits to a recent convert named Gladys P*****.  She is in her 60's and just joined the church in January. We showed up to her house to do our normal visit and read the scriptures with her when she answers the door and says you caught me. I've been smoking! Elder Wadsworth and I were surprised and we talked with her about her problem and she reminded me so much of a dog when you yell at it for doing something wrong. She was so humble and sad that she got caught smoking. We were very nice to her and didn't express ANY Hatred for what she was doing or what she did. We were there to help her overcome her mistake and it was cool because she offered the closing prayer and she cried during the whole thing. She was a great example of sorrow.

Thursday- We were able to teach the G****'s and have dinner over at their home. They were very nice and generous to us and we had salad with guacamole as the dressing and than chicken as the main dish. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and Bill and Rose both have a problem with Coffee. And they both want to be baptized so, Bill told us right then and there he was going to be working towards a day to be done with coffee. He said May 3rd is the day he will not drink anymore.

Friday- We taught Kenji S******, she is a less-active member coming back to church and we met her in the pizza place just down the road from her house and she informed us that she is attending the temple on MAY 2nd! So she is no longer considered Less-Active in my eyes! She is rescued!!!!

Saturday- We were invited over to bishop's house to have a coordination meeting and waffle breakfast and we also taught 5 member present lessons this day. It's so tough to include all the good details of how the lessons went and what we taught but it takes so much time. I do know that at the end of the 5th member present lesson which finished at 8:55 PM, as we were walking home in the night, across the river we got to watch fireworks going off for the AAA baseball team, the NH Fischer Cats. So the fireworks were a silent pat on the back for a hard days work.

Sunday- We had a special stake conference which was held in Concord, New Hampshire. We were able to have 3 investigators attend and President Stoker was actually there and got to fellowship each one of them. That was really awesome! We also had dinner at a Less-Active families home named the Hines. They attend the Manchester Christian church, but they are so friendly and nice. K**** is the husband and is the high school football coach. he is actually flying to San Diego on the 27th of April, (Today) to interview for a job out there at a Christian school. . They are related to the person who owns the Hines car dealership. Remember the jingle, I GOT MINE AT HINE! haha well they are a super awesome family and i will keep in touch with them even when i get home.

Well that was my week in a nutshell. Looking back at what i wrote, there was SO much more that happened but my fingers can only go so fast on this keyboard in front of me haha. Well i am glad i got to tell you about my week. I haven't gotten a letter in over 3 weeks which is a new record. But i don't want to sound like some complainer because im doing great out here! SPRING IS HERE AND I'M LOVING THE SUNSHINE!

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

They went on a hike for their P-day today...  Here are some pictures....

(From April 20) So Spring has arrived finally!

The record breaking dynamic duo...

This was the most teaching i have ever done in a week. Elder Wadsworth and I taught a total of 24 lessons this week. Not including lessons taught to members for dinners and stop by's and such.!! 24 lessons is unheard of for our mission. Well at least it was unheard of until Elder Wadsworth and I smashed it! I cannot do a day by day this week because of how much we bounced around teaching this person and then knocking this door and giving service to this person. We were all over this week and we were exhausted at the end of each day. We taught a total of 12 member present lessons, 2 other lessons and 10 lessons to Less-Active and Recent Converts. (To those who are missionaries or have been missionaries you know that this was a really good week of teaching!) VERY VERY BUSY!!!

I must say that it is so fulfilling to be able to help people come closer to Jesus Christ and make changes in their lives in order to be happier. I would do this over hammering nails into wood, sitting at a desk typing papers, sorting books in a library, even surfing for a living. AND THAT TAKES A LOT OUT OF ME TO SAY! I enjoy helping people make positive changes in their lives. And i know that doing it through Jesus Christ makes that positive change last forever because of His Atonement. Having said all that i can just look back at the beginning of my mission and i realize how much i have changed into a better person. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything, including Pro baseball, sponsored surfing, even millions of dollars. (Although i wouldn't complain if i found that on the side of the road..)

This week we talked to so many people and taught so many lessons that its hard to just pick one to tell you about. But i will choose one.

We got a referral from the Manchester Elders for a man named Bill G****. They found him by just talking to him on the street and he wouldn't mind having missionaries come over and talk with him. So we went over to Bill G***** and we knocked on the door and a man answers the door in a full body pajama suit themed to EOR, the hippo charecter on the TV show Winnie-the-pooh. (I'm laughing!!!  I had to keep that as original because it was soo funny!) The pajama suit went from his toes all the way to his neck and even had a hood with ears. This man is 52 and was wearing that. That was Bill G****. At first glance he looks crazy. But after we got talking to him he is a very honest man and wants to do what is best for him and His wife, Rose. They have tons of medical issues and their apartment isn't the cleanest... But they both have a really strong desire to learn about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. While we taught them I still couldn't get over the pajama suit because it caught me so off guard. But he came to church this past Sunday, so did Sarah V***** and her 4 children and she even brought her dad along.

We street contacted into this man who looked very down on himself and he had such a dreary countenance. When you looked at him he just looked sad and down and as if he didn't care if the sun was shining or anything. We told him we share a message of Hope and that it can uplift his life. He said sure and we met up with him later that day and his name is Tyler. he is in his late 20's and doesn't say much. But we hopefully will meet up with him this week again and try to help him out in his life. Give him a goal in life. Something to look forward to and work for.

Some other random things that happened this week. We fasted that we could get more baptismal dates in our zone and after the 3 weeks of consecutive fasting for 1 day of the week our zone now has 6 baptismal dates and already had 1 baptism. So thats great.

I am not getting transferred and neither is Elder Wadsworth so i will be staying in Bedford at least another six weeks until June 1st. I was really happy for that.

That's all i can muster up this week! THANKS!!!!!

All Smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

The tradition for missionaries who have been out for 18 months... 

No man has ever climbed the ladder of success with his hands in his pockets.

Being his silly self at a house full of old antiques...

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