Week 11

Hey Family,

I'm starting week 11, but I think you want to hear about week 10 cuz there were a few really cool things that happened.

So Saturday was so cool.  We were at the visitor center for a ward activity and Elder Johnson pull up in the limo golf cart that we take people on to see the ruins here at the site. And told us the our mission president was at the visitor center.  And he wasn't the only one there.  President Hallstrom
came to the visitor center.  In case you are wondering he is a president of the 70.  So we asked them if we could go and meet him, and so we saw him as they were looking at the monument and taking pictures so we were able to shake his hand and see how he was doing.  It was really cool. 

I guess I haven't really told you much about the visitor center.  There are 3 main rooms that we show people.  The map room/ entrance foyer, the theater, and the meditation room.  The map room has some cool pictures and a map.  surprise surprise, it is a di cutout thing that looks like what the area looked like back then.   The movie room, that's pretty self explanatory.  And the meditation room has a big statue of Joseph Smith and a timeline of his life and a thing full of books.  Then the outside has this giant obelisk.  That stands for the prophet Joseph Smith.  I'll try to include a picture. 

We had a really cool experience this week where we met this lady who works in the Vermont government and wanted us to go do a devotional there.  But it was outside our area so we called the Elders who have the capital in their area so they could go and do that.  It was really cool to meet her and she was very nice.  She took a Book of Mormon and even gave us a referral. It was really cool.   We are excited to go back and visit her, but it won't be for a while.  She is awesome.

I attached some more pictures so I hope that makes up for the lack of e-mail. :) (I don't know how to get the pictures to show up yet, sorry -Candace)

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl

Week 10

Can you believe that I have just started my 10th week on my mission!!!!!  It is a bit crazy to think about.  I have already been out in Vermont for 9 weeks going on 10.. AHHHHHHH!!! Sorry crazy moment.

Well this week has definitely been a challenge.  We basically have lost all contact with Phil because he is worried about what his family thinks of him and he won't give up drinking socially because he doesn't want to be thought of as an odd person.  And he won't meet with us.  So we are trying hard to help him, but we can only help those that want to be helped or listen. So that is not a tough situation.

The visitor center has not been as busy.  They are fixing the outside a bit and they found mold in the wall.... So that has been interesting.  They are taking all that out. 

The weather is getting colder here.  We are having fall weather according to the locals so I might have to buy a winter coat and boots sooner than i expected.  It hasn't been too cold, just a bit chilly in the mornings and of course still a bit of rain.  Ok a lot of rain.

So at the visitor center we basically tell the story of Joseph Smith and the monument story.  I haven't learned too much extra than what is written in the books, but I do learn all the details now.  So I'm getting better and better at dates and other things that are asked for.  We occasionally get some people who have never heard of Joseph Smith but 80% of the people who come are members.  But those who aren't, we ask them why they come and the response is always different.  We saw the sign and just wanted to turn, I'm not really sure, or heard that the flowers are pretty, my family is mormon and told me to come here.  So that is the main reason why people come here if they are not Mormon.  When we talk to people we always ask them if they've been here and they have but only durning  the Christmas season.  So it has been a while. 

Today in my studies, something that really stood out to me was how crazy it is how much God cares for us.  I was looking through the ensign of August and they have the pictures of space and nebulae and all these other cool things and the thing that President Uchtdorf said really hit home.  The paradox of God truly is astounding.  And it amazes me, and throws me for a loop. 

My companion is doing ok.  She still has not been to the doctor because she wants to know what her doctor at home thinks and a bunch of other things so she is waiting for that.  In the mean time she gets to wear open toed shoes for her feet,  And that sounds nice, but in new england. that is not nice.  Not at all. At least in our area.

We had exchanges this week and a Sister Morgan came and stayed with me, and I was in charge of the area for a day.  Of course all of our appointments ended up falling through so we had to use our back ups and even then they weren't there.  It was a bit sad, but it was good because we had backups, so always plan backups. :)

On chat the other day we got a guy who came online asking if we knew what his grandmother's funeral potatoes recipe was... We thought he was a troller, but he was serious so we told him to google it or look on pinterest.  Cuz we had no idea.  We're not sure if we're supposed to direct people to other sites but we did for this guy, and he was grateful and left.  Kind of random, but hey, you never know what will happen.  We tried to share a little bit of the gospel with him but he disconnected. :(

Well one miracle this week has been homemade bread!!! Today a member took us shopping and she made all of us homemade bread.  And not just a companionship but each person.  Because she said she doesn't know how to cook in small quantities.  Since she has 9 kids.  Yep.  It was crazy.  Plus she only goes shopping once a month so we were shopping for 5  hrs... What an adventure!

Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from you soon!

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl

Zone Conference

Hey All

Zone conference is super cool.  The mission president comes and tells everybody what to do to be better.  And it is great.  Because he gave us some good ideas on how to help to ward here.  I am so excited to implement them..  They are all about helping the ward members and getting them to involved.  He also said that tracking is very ineffective.  And I completely agree with that.  When we tract we will maybe get to talk to 2 people and mostly they aren't interested.  Or they would be but can't cuz they would feel embarrassed to leave the church they are in so they don't.  If only they would let the gospel bless their life now.  Anyways, I digressed.  

I was able to meet the people in different zones and I am so glad I am here at the JSM.  It is so wonderful here and it is such a blessing to be so close to the memorial.  Zone conference takes my back to the MTC almost cuz the stirit is so strong and the people there are all there to help and strengthen each other.

Can you believe I have already been our for 8 weeks?  I feel like I just came out of the MTC sometimes.  Yet I know what is going on... to some degree.  

I saw in David's letter that he ran into an ex JW.  We met one here too and she is way cool.  She loves to talk with us but we are slow to bring op too much.  Sis. Fratcher gave her the first lesson with sister caffell the sister here before me so now we are proceeding slowly. 
They have some very interesting beliefs.  She actually sent us a link about some missionaries in the 

 Harlem area.  We can't look at in our missions but I thought that it was really cool that she was interested in it. 

Here is my little plug for missionary work at home.  Do your visiting and home teaching. That is so important.  And it is so easy there in utah.  I am realizing this.  In Utah your visiting teacher/ home teacher lives around the corner or up the street.  Imagine if they lived 20 miles away.  Or farther? Well that is how it is out here.  It is apparently a hard thing to do visiting teaching here.  And I can understand why.  But it is such a blessing.  Now I'm off my soap box.

So our investigator phil has dissapeared.  The one with the baptism date.  Yeah, basically he had some family issues and won't talk to us anymore, and we keep trying to meet with him, but he won't answer his phone.  :/

Is there anything that you guys want to know specifically?

Oh and a miracle of the week was when we were able to give a church tour to our investigator.  it was so quite and nice, and then we took her to the JSM and got her a blessing so that she would have comfort since she just lost her job.  So hopefully she will come to church really soon. :)

So that is all. Things have been a little crazy right now, but know that I love you all. :)

Love always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

Busy

Dear Family and Friends!!

For all who want to know, the weather is very chilly today.   Around  the 60-70's.  I am wearing a sweater... I know. It is chilly.  I guess you guys might want some of this chilliness and I think the farmers around here would like that too.  There has been so much rain that people have not been able to take care of their crops as much as they should.  They should be on their second harvest and most have just barely got their first all wrapped up.  So we would loveto send you some rain home.

Craziness always abounds in the mission field.  We are constantly learning.  And sometimes we get the hard questions.  And sometimes they are just questions like, when did Joseph Smith meet Brigham Young... um, well it was before this day on the timeline since this is when he was ordained as an apostle, but I'm not sure of the exact date.  That was one random question we got while giving a tour to some non-members.  They were very nice.  Online we are asked all sorts of questions.  Since there is so much anonymity, they will ask us questions that they would never ask a person in real life.  It has been interesting. 

While here we also will go and do grounds work, so we plant flowers and rake leaves and weed.  Lots and Lots of weeding.  But this last week instead of just weeding all day long, we were able to do fun things, like filling in holes, and raking a new hiking path, and things like that.  It just reminded be of being home and planting the garden and working on things like that. 

A bunch of people do canning out here.  I have offered to help, but nobody has actually taken me up on my offer. In fact, most people here do a bunch of farm work all the time.  And TV and internet are a bit of a luxury out here. I was talking to a kid in the ward and he was wearing a shirt that had Tetris on it, and he has never even heard of or played the game. Many of them have lived here their entire lives.  They are living in the homes of their parent's parents parents.  And I don't mean that as a joke.  They really are.  The houses are so old.  Actually everything out here is old.  Except the random computers you find occasionally.  Most people don't have computers.  And as you all know, I sent a lot of time at the computer.  It can feel like entering a different world sometimes.  But I like it.

The people here can be very caring, and most are very strong about helping their neighbors.  I think that it is such a blessing to see how much these people still care about each other.  Once yo become a friend, you are a friend for life.  And they will remember you. It is just hard to get to that point of friendship. 

One crazy story!  We were out visiting referrals and less actives when we met this family.  They are the Clarks.  And they are baptist.  I don't know how much you guys know about baptist, but somehow they believe that predestination, and free choice go together......... yeah.... I'm just as confused as all of you right now.  We tried to explain what we believe and they basically tried to prove us wrong.  well, try as we might to not bible bash, that was very difficult, and we could literally feel the spirit being sucked away as they argued.  But we are going back with a better attitude and we are going to be the best representatives of Jesus Christ as we possibly can.

We also had a very interesting lesson the other day.  We took a recent convert to a lesson and well.. she said everything that you don't say in the second lesson like baptisms for the dead, and the whole shebang.  It was rather frightening.  We didn't know what to do.  We knew that she was super excited to share, but somethings you need to wait on.  So we will be taking someone else to help repair that relationship. :/

Well I need to go,  I love you all I want to hear how life is,

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl