I am really enjoying my time on the mission and i am never going to regret coming on one. (from Aug 25)

(I sent Elder Dahlberg a package with Banana bread and other stuff he'd requested, so of course, I wanted to make sure he had gotten it...)

haha yes i got the banana bread. AND my companion was sick that day so we were in the apartment for most of the day and around 3:30 i hear a thump at our door and immediately i was like "ITS MY PACKAGE!!!" so i ran to the door and there it was glowing like the stones that Gods finger touched. haha (Im having trouble relating real world examples when im always relating things to the scriptures) Here is a picture of the exact time i got the package. I opened it right up and the banana bread wrapped in foil  is ALL gone and half of the other one is. The rest is in the freezer saving it for later. I ate so much of that i laid in my bed and could have gone to heaven! wow good stuff thanks.

Here is some service we did this week at Bob's farm. He needed help with stacking hay bails and we helped him for a good 3 hours. That is some hard stuff let me tell you. Now i know why farmers are so buff.!

 We stacked those hay bails from the ground up. each bail was estimated at around 80-100 lbs and we stacked over 250 of them.... So we deserved that spaghetti!















Here is the dinner we ate after all of our hard work. Glen, one of our investigators made us home made tomato sauce and we made spaghetti with it. SO GOOD!

So we were at a member meal and they had this sketch pad. They bet i couldn't draw a good sunset. Did i prove them wrong?? (WOW!!!  That's pretty amazing, I think...)

And that little boy is in my missionary shoes and i could help but snag a picture because of how cute that was.

Weekly Kahuna

Very Productive week to say the least. We got a lot done this week and had a lot of fun doing it so there is no better combination than that! 

     This week we got a call from Bob P***** asking us to help him get some Hay Bailed in his field. So we dressed in our jeans and t-shirts and got right to it. We helped stack 80-100 lb Hay Bails and we counted that we stacked at least 250 of them. As you can see in the pictures we had to stack them at least 2 stories high. I had a pretty surreal moment while out on the field pickin up hay bails. I was sitting in that big red cage thing you see in the pictures but i was on top of a lot of hay bails.  I was there being pulled by a big green tractor, by a guy wearing a cowboy hat and denim jeans and a flannel. Keep in mind im the missionary that everyone calls the "Surfing Ken Doll from California" and it was just a cool experience being a farm boy for that short amount of time. It was also funny because E. Hansen and I were looking at the cars driving by and we were like 'Those people think were farmers!!! Isn't that cool!!' haha some people would call us posers but we were just doing what we were told to do. After that experience i now know why farmer boys have huge arms because throwing that Hay takes some serious arm muscle. 

     Also this week we were able to have Anthony Halley's baptism. E. Hansen and I were in Charge of the whole thing and it was my first time being 'IN CHARGE' and it was a great learning experience for me. When your in charge you can feel the stress come in and it can make you or it can break you. I let it make me and i stayed calm when problems arose and handled the situation calmly and smoothly. After the baptism the Halley Family invited us over for dinner and we had pasta with home made sauce again and that hit the spot! I really like pasta when its spaced out over the week, when you have pasta 5 days in a row, that's when it gets a little ridiculous. 

     This week we also officially gained a NEW INVESTIGATOR! He is Andrew P****. We went over to his house and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had no questions at all, he is so willing to learn and he even has that burning desire to learn more. He is a great guy and he agreed to be baptized if he found out that what we were teaching is true. So we urged him to not take our word for it, and to do as Joseph Smith did and follow what James 1:5 directs, that is to Ask God. So we have plans to meet with him this Saturday again and he said he would love to come to church. 

***Funny Story WARNING***

     So Elder Hansen and i get a call from a member to come over and have our weekly lesson with him and his wife. (Chris and Ashley) So we get there and sit on their super comfortable couch and the lights were dim and we had just eaten and everything felt great. E. Hansen initiated the conversation on Ashley and her mental disability

 and i sat and listened . I listened some more and than kept listening until before i realize whats happening im getting a tap on my shoulder from E.Hansen and he has this big grin on his face asking if i have anything else to add to the lesson. I was like what? We taught the lesson already?? Turned out i konked out on the couch and they just laughed and continued on with the lesson which was about Temples and why they are important. So from that experience i can honestly say that was the fastest lesson i have ever been too. 

     This upcoming week i am going to be hosting an exchange in Ascutney with the district leader and that will go from tonight to Wednesday. On Wednesday we have Interviews with President Stoker and after that we come home to a dinner with a member. That's all we have planned for this week as of right now, other than the normal service we do. 

     I am really getting the hang of being a missionary and its starting to become my normal life. Like i even think of my name being Elder Dahlberg and not Drew Dahlberg, and i even have dreams at night about teaching people and saving the world from evil monsters and what not haha. But I am really enjoying my time on the mission and i am never going to regret coming on one. I recommend any young man to go on one because it has opened my eyes as to what is MOST important in this life. Plus its super fun! 

All smiles,

Elder Dahlberg

One day this week my companion was sick so i was in the apartment studying....

I wrote a poem in my time hope you like it.

(I left it completely untouched, spelling mistakes and all...)

The suns going down in the world today,

no more can anyone feel its ray,

i lay awake imagining its upcoming dawn,

with no surfboard no phone no droughted lawn,

i can breathe i can feel i can smell i can live,

all while im out her preparing His gift to give,

seeing what ive learned now from then,

i can see how boys turn into men,

through the ice n rain then fire n flame, 

that drenched and scortched my life from whence i came,

loving and kind yet hiding in a shell,

are the people im trying to save from an aweful Hell,

people complain and people hate, 

not knowing my attempts to save them from their dreary estate,

sharing justice's hammer and mercy's grace,

can bring these people away from the devil's mace,

its not easy, its going to be hard,

our trimming the branches in the vineyard,

through trial and error treasures await,

kept up in store past heaven's gate,

angels declare and trumpets sound, 

when this earthly body meets the ground,

joyous and free my spirit can sing,

while upward ascending to meet my King.

(Wow, Momma's cryin' now!!)