Funerals are free advertising????

Merry Christmas from Bath, Maine

Hi mom so here's the big ol letter.  This past week Elder Lund and I attended a funeral for a man who neither of us had met. It was held in a funeral home where it was open casket and now i can say i see dead people..... Eeek i will never ever be an embalmer because I couldn't look at the dead man any longer than a blink of an eye. But the funeral was very well put together. After the funeral we went to a luncheon celebrating his life. While there we stood at the opening of the building and greeted everyone as they came in. We advertised ourselves and a couple of people were interested as to why we were missionaries.  We told them and it didn't lead anywhere but hey, free advertising.  At the luncheon I ate my first lobster roll. THOSE THINGS ARE AMAZING!  no wonder they are like $10 a piece!  I only had one but oh man i wanted to have 10!

A pretty church in Bath, ME

Christmas tree in Bath, ME

This past Friday night Elder Lund and I attended a Pentecostal service........ Here's the story on how we got there. Elder Lund and I were walking through the local library park and i stopped to take a picture of this huge church that i want to show you. The church looks like a temple. Its pretty. We then got stopped by some random hobo dude who asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses and we said no were missionaries for the Mormon church. He then gets super uninterested and ends the conversation and walks away with his head down as if we had a poisonous disease or something. So on our way home we walked by this First Apostolic Church where the door was open and this guy asked us if we were coming in. Being the curious person I am I said Whats going on in there?  He said our church service. I then said to Elder Lund lets go in there! he hesitated a little bit but the curiosity got the  best of us. We went in and found out what them Pentecostals are all about. They were Singing and yelling and clapping and jumping and prancing and frolicking all around to the music. Then when it was time for prayer after 30 mins of singing and clapping everyone put their hands in the air and started muttering "praise Jesus" along with a bunch of other weird sounding words. I was like what is going on. I can only describe what they were saying by relating it to when someone gargles water. It was so strange. I had no idea what was happening and Elder Lund and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh. The sermon was yelled into the microphone and the pastor was spitting while speaking. The sermon was pretty doctrinally correct  but it was just the way they delivered it that was so wrong. You aren't supposed to talk of Jesus Christ by yelling his name out loud and telling everyone to praise him now!  anyways haha. those were some funny moments.

This week Elder Lund and I had a Christmas Lesson of Luke 2 with our investigator Alex. After the whole lesson we set a baptismal date with him which is HUGE! So hopefully he pulls through. His date is FEB 2. He is a big black guy from Louisiana and he used to be a bouncer at a bar. SO YEAH he is a big guy. He has a hurt foot right now but its healing somewhat... He is not stable. He has no job and no family. He is living by the grit of his teeth. He moves from motel to motel and he eats at homeless peoples eateries. He gets unemployment and gets it on a debit card but this past week his friend wanted to borrow it to get some soda and it turns out the friend used all $350 on it and gave it back..... Alex just got screwed over so he isn't to happy about that. But even through all that he told us he wants to "STEND ON MAH WERD!" and be baptized.  this Sunday there was a youth baptism and he came with us to attend. We had asked him if he had ever attended a baptismal service before and he told us that he had attended one before and now this one and then he is going to attend the next one which will be his. haha he told us that he is the next baptism. pretty cool.

Here are some fun little facts. A lot of people here HATE Obama.  If you even speak of him people start to fake gag. Extreme huh? so our apartment is 1 of 9 apartments.  The one that we live in is last in line for hot water so when we are taking our showers and someone flushes their toilet or turns on any sort of water we get a blast of freezing cold water and its pretty interesting and always keeps you on your toes while your taking a shower.

I stubbed my toe running up stairs at a members house. I was running because the members son was chasing me with a Nerf gun which was loaded with a bullet that had a tack sticking out of it. SO i ran as fast i could and stubbed my toe pretty hard.  i have been icing it and its getting smaller but its still huge. Sister Youland gave us Earmuffs that wrap around the back of your head. I am losing my speedo tan but i am embracing my inner whiteness!!

My week this week is very interesting. Tonight i am going to Augusta to be in a trio of 2 other brand new missionaries. The reason that is happening is because Elder Lund needs to go to Manchester for a leadership training and I am just getting put wherever the closest open spot is. SO its Augusta. I will be there till Tuesday night. After that on Friday we have zone interviews where we get to meet with our zone leaders and with president Stoker. Then Friday night is our ward Christmas party and I hope all the people we invited go to it. WE INVITED SO MANY PEOPLE ITS RIDICULOUS!!! I hope they come. And i think i am going on an exchange this week but im not sure. Thats my week! haha

Elders Lund & Dahlberg with Sister Youland on the bridge by her house

I am enjoying my mission and today is my 2 month mark! 2 months down. 22 more to go haha.