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