A joyful and different week (dec 30)

Hey everybody,

 

So in typical sister lundahl fashion I will send this e-mail in the usual format starting with monday.  Monday was a crazy day of doing the 2 fhe's in 3 hours.  I don't know about you, but a challenge it was, and success we had.  It helps that we live with a member who we can corner and share a message with later in the evening.  Which ended up in us having success!  

 

It was the tuesday christmas eve challenge of 12 christmas carols to different people that gave us a challenge.  We sang one to Linda and Arnez.  They loved it!  And then we sang one to Melanie.  The we drove around and sang to members in our town.  We only have like 4 members... so we called people we left messages and did what we had to do to sing 12 christmas carols.  And we got them all done before we had to drive down to Boothbay for christmas eve dinner.  It was a wonderful dinner.  The Quinlins who are our branch president and wife hosted it, and we had vegitarian lasagna and it tasted really good.  We played a personality game which was really fun and same songs.  Then sister Quinlin gave us a stocking that she had made.  It was an absolutely beautiful stocking. :) full of goodies lol.  It was fun!  

 

Christmas was a great day.  For some reason I felt like a little kid again waiting for christmas to come.  I was so excited to open presents and talk to my family that I kept waking up in the middle of the night. I had to keep telling myself that I couldn't get up until the alarm when off.  I needed to stick to the missionary schedule.  It was hard, but I did it.  And it was so much fun to wake up and open presents and then have breakfast with sister brooks and get ready.  It was a really good morning.  Then we went out and visited members.  We ate so much!  I still feel full.  jk.  We saw the Dyers who were facetiming people in Utah which made me really excited and then we went to the Libby's where we had Christmas dinner and called all of you!  So crazy to see you all!  The puppy was so cute! and Lincoln was adorable!  And I especally loved being able to talk with grandma and grandpa over the phone.  That was truly special.  I also thought it was really funny when grandma said she loved to shovel snow! 

  

Thursday was a little different.  We had district meeting and then we went and tried to contact a few people.  It was good and fun.  a great way to have the day after Christmas.  That evening we cleaned up our area book.  It is beautiful now.  And that is all for now.

 

Friday started out great.  We cancelled exchanges and then we went out and served melanie and taught the seversons.  We also we're able to do our mormon.org time.  We planned and everything.  And that night as we were doing our nightmy planning I got a call from my mission president.  He said he needed to talk to me confidentially and so I went into the bathroom nd he told me that Grandma Bean had passed away.  it was a very difficult rest of the evening.  I did not get very much sleep needless to say. 

 

Saturday kindaof passed in a blurr, there was a funeral for another person who passed away this week that we went to.  i held myself together.  We were able to go and teach linda and Arnez and we taught about the atonement.  It was a really good lesson!  And those are basically the highlights of saturday 

 

Sunday we actually had church!!!! We were all so happy it is very nice to just go and partake of the sacrament.  I am so glad.  we we're able to have church.  I haven't really told anybody in the area that gandma passed away yet.  i am waiting for a little longer.  But even though I haven't told anybody somehow this week we now have a bunch of meal apts. and I'm really happy!  cuz cooking right now is not on my priorities. :)  So a tender mercy from the lord it is.  

 

That is all for this week.  It has been very hard, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be  I'm so glad to be on my mission.  And even when live gets a little hand and throws some challenges the Lord is always there to help. :)

 

Love Always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

Freezing Rain (from december 23)

Hey family!

So this week had been crazy!  We have been doing a 12 days of christmas challenge given by our zone leaders.  And so far our district is killing with a perfect score! 

 

on monday we had to share 4 luke 2 messages.  mind you that is our p-day and we had to drive to go on exchange... so we got creative.  WE memborized a scripture and shared it with people we met.  like the lady who works at moody's gift shop and the dollar tree cashier, and others.  It was intersting.  Very awkward, but we did hit success. :)  And we had to drive down to topsham and back. So sister tait came back with me to Waldoboro.

 

Tuesday we went out and taught Linda and Arnez again.  We finally taught the law of chastity.  WE didn't wait because we were scared, but because we had already gave them the pamphlet and they read through it.  but we still needed to officially teach it.  o worries.  THey are all good.:)  Then we went to go help a potential paint some furniture, but she wanted sister Huefenr to be there to paint so we cleaned the furniture and helped that way.  We then had to do our christmas challenge of contacting 5 former investigators.  So off we went.  We called people and drove to houses.  One house we went to had a bunch of creepy statues outside of it and it was hard to get to the door.  but the guy was nice.  He is an artist which explained the statues.  We also found a new investigator from it.  Her name is Cat.  It was really funny cuz we knocked on her door and she just yelled come in.  So we did.  And she wss super cill that we were missionaries.  And was very nice, and wanted to learn more. :)  We then came in a little early due to the fact that we we're getting another storm so we worked on visuals and things like that. :)

  

Wednesday we woke up to another 1.5 ft of snow.  We also needed to drive down to topsham so that we could unexchange. We were also grounded... So we shovelled ourselves out and called our branch missionleader he gave us the go and we went out and about to get to topsham.  I drove, and all the road were clear except for thedriveway to the elders apt because it was crazy steep, but we made it and picked up the elders and drove to topsham.  :)  no problem.  We called all the people we usually see and told them we would be late... we ended up being really late, but they understood.  S. Russel one less active we see actually made us dinner!  So we had waffles!  My 1st waffles in new england.   And they were very good.  So funny story: my companion doesn't like tea and s. Russel always gives us herbal tea, and so S.H. tried to sweeten it with syrup... then she put in honey... then sugar... needless to say it did not improve the flavor.  But she choked it down with a happy face :D  It was really funny.  We also went caroling that night with the youth in the branch.  It ended up being a wonderful day. :) 

 

Thursday We needed to invite 7 people to do something from mormon.org.  DId you know you can download free music from mormon.org?  so we asked 7 people. :) We had a lesson with Linda and Arnez and Tom at the Duffy's-the family we lived with for 3 weeks.- and it was great.  WE re-taught the plan of salvation and it was great.  We then went to melanie's the potential and really painted the furniture.  And somehow we were able to invite 7 people.  We had to call a few, but there was no way we were loosing our perfect score.

 

Friday was a car fast.  We had weekly planning and that took up most of our day. And the rest...was not very exciting. :0

 

Saturday we went and taught linda and arnez again.  It was great.  WE watched the testaments with them.  It was great.  We also had to ask for 9 christmasy referrals.  So we went caroling that night and asked for people we could sing to next.  It was great!  We we're able to carol to our neighbors with the elders and shared christmas cheer.  :)  It was a really good day.  But everyone was preparing for an ice storm...which came

sunday.  Due to the ice, church was cancelled.  And good thing too.  We had about .5 in of ice on everything.  Although the road was ok since it had been very sanded.  But since we had no church and we can't go and shovel ice we had a very creative day of helping our land lady sister brooks.  We made 2 pies with her and did a ton of thankyou cards. and somehow we were able to deliver 2 christmas baskets which we also made with sister brooks all so we can still say we have a perfect score... needless to say, our district is winning. :)

 

Which brings us to today.  Where it is still raining although it is just warm enough that it is not freezing and we need to do 2 christmas fhe's with members.  So we have one scheduled.  We jsut need to figure out the other one... but we will succeed the lord will provide.  And tomorrow we will be singing 12 christmas carols.  And that is what we are doing.  It has been a crazy good week. :)

 

Love always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

Snow Miracles!

Hey everyone!

 

So this week was crazy!  I'm not sure I will be able to write about it all, but I will do my best.  It all started Monday when we got a snow storm and had to drive to Augusta.  It was a scary drive but we made it.  We then had to wait 2 hours for the other missionaries to get there. And then drive to Portland, pick up another sister and drop me off, and the rest of the sisters had to keep driving down to Manchester.  So that was the start.

Then on tuesday Sister Beus and I went out and about in that area.  I met a member who has made a stuffed animal sewing book.  Her last name is Goulders and she is amazing! I absolutely love her!  The then went about trying to find and teach people, we met a quaker on the street and met some other really nice awesome people. :)  And then Sister Huefner picked me up and we drove all the way back to augusta where we then drove back to waldoboro.  Getting home way past our curfew and bedtime....like 11:00 it was not good...

We still had to get up at 6:30 and get to work.  It was great.  And that night I was leaving the area again so we could go on exchanges with oxford and so I quickly unpacked and then repacked and we had to go about doing all our usual stuff.  We taught linda and arnez again,and then helped a lady named Melanie move some things and clean a few other things.  Which was fun.  And the rest of our usual Wednesday stuff, because we didn't have district meeting because we had interviews on friday.  

So thursday was fun.  I met the people in oxford.  The sisters there really have some great members that are just fantastic!  They are very helpful and are very missionary minded.  And the Sisters have been able to find some great investigators over there too.  I love all the people there.  We taught this single guy who has already made a bunch of changes in his life and it a really great guy.  We also taught this Golden family who called the missionaries because they left a card and now they are learning and wanting to know more and are really comfortable in the gospel.  It is cool to see how the other sister's areas are doing. :)

Friday is when we had interviews and we had quite a bit of travel time from oxford, but it was fun with Sister Jensen who I was with.  I love having interviews because you get to talk with the mission president one on one.  And talk about anything.  Which is very helpful.  Interviews were of course running very late so we had to hurry home.  Of course while we were at interviews we found out Sister Huefner lost the phone.  SO we were hoping that it was at our apt.   So we hurried back and couldn't find it anywhere.  So we said a quick prayer and the Elders found the phone outside- they were giving us a ride to the branch christmas party since we gave them a ride to interviews- apparently the phone had fallen out of Sister Huefner's bag on the ground.  We were so luck that it didn't get ran over!  Then the Christmas party was great.  WE had good ol' funeral potatoes. :)  And they were yummy, and we also had ham and veggies and stuff like that. :)

Then Saturday wen't crazy because we needed to help sister brooks get ready for the storm so we stacked about a cord of wood then went into the forest to cut down our own Christmas tree. :)  It is kinda sparse, but cute and is awesome.  I just think it is kinda funny that we just went into sis. Brooks backyard and found a tree.  We then had another lesson with Linda and Arnez.  It was good.  Tom was there.  I can't remember if I told you all but tom and Arnez broke up and tom didn't realize he could still come to church, but we hope that he will be able to now. Then we helped the Duffy's with their tree, so that was fun getting it into the stand.  All their cats we're funny when they saw it, they had to keep checking it out.  Then we started our weekly planning and prepared some more for the storm.

Sunday was a really crazy miracle day.  It was great.  1st church got cancelled.  Yes, kind of odd.  I've never heard of church getting cancelled until I came out here, and it was a good thing it was because there was a lot of snow.  I think that we got about 1-1.5 ft of snow.  It is crazy.  There is so much snow everywhere.  And so we got out and shoveled ourselves out and then tried to help shovel our neighbors out.  Of course our cars were grounded so we couldn't drive any where so we got walking.  As we were walking we saw a person outside shoveling, and thought, perfect someone we can help.  So we go over to try and help. We went to ask him and he said you must be the Mormons.  Are you out of the damariscotta branch? It is very rare for someone to know that term.  So while we were in slight shock we find out he is a baptized member!  He was baptized at 8 and has a little family and live around the corner from us and his records aren't on our list.  We are determined to fix that, and go and see him again!  It was crazy.  Just around the corner and there he was.  He said he didn't need out help, but that he appreciated it.  So we went back to walking around when I guy stopped and asked if we needed a ride.  We said no, but asked if knew of anybody that needed help shoveling.  So he send us back down the road to an older couple called the browns,  We made the hike, talking to a few people along the way, and came just as Todd Brown was exiting his house to start shoveling.  So we asked if we could help and got to work.  Then his wife and him invited us in to warm up and we talked with them for a while.  Told them we were singing in church and they said they might come.  They even wrote down the address.  So that was exciting.  Then as we were heading back to our apt/ sis brooks home we saw 1 house whose drive way had not been shoveled.  And we were ready to go back and finish our weekly planning and be done for the day, but we said a quick prayed and went back and met a really nice guy named Barry who invited us over for dinner with him and his wife. :)

 

So even when the snow comes down and the flood and whirlwinds come the lord will deliver us to those who are prepared for the gospel.

 

Love always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

ps, I forgot that we are also doing a Christmas challenge as a zone the 12 days of Christmas and yesterday we also had to hand out 3 Christmas DVDs.  We succeeded.  And today we are going to be sharing 4 Luke 2 messages and so on.  It is crazy fun! we are competing with all the other districts in the zone. :)

Christmas is coming!!!

Hey everyone!!

 

This week has been so crazy!  Some of it good, some of it less than desirable.   You'll know what I mean.  But to start with all the crazy good things that have happened. 

 

We have been going non-stop somedays.  So Tuesday we taught a lesson to Linda and Arnez, who are both doing fantastic. Then we went to the Royers and moved wood.   Lots of wood.  We had to not just move it to a new spot but onto the secone story of a barn.  It was fun.  Actually we were really lucky that we were ablt to move it all. I'm not sure how we did it.  We had a huge stack that we needed to move in 20 mins and somehow we did. :)  

  

On wednes day we did not have dictrict meeting because the Topsham missionaries had a funeral so we got to do our mormon.org time and help a member whose washer and dryer broke.  IT was actually a lot of fun.  She has the cutest little girl.  We then went and read the book of Mormon with a less active.  Then we went and taught a lesson to another less active.  That night the young women were sharing family history stories, nd luckily I was able to look some up on family search.  I am so glad somone put those stories up .  They were very interesting. 

 

Thursday we had district meeting and it was so muc fun we read Heleman 14, Mat1-2, Luke 2 and 3 Nephi 1, as a pre study and then we acted them out.  Yes I recorded them.  I think it was my favorite district meeting so far.  It was so much fun!  We then went and helped a lady decorate her house for christmas!  It was very fun.  She has quite a few decorations though.   

 

Friday was great.   We did a bunch of weekly planning and then went and had a lesson with Linda and Arnez.  It was great.  unfortunately Alrnez fell of the bandwagon a little bit and smoke some.  But we are showing her that we will love her and support her and want to help her.  We then had our exchange with Augusta and they came and dropped S. Lassen off with me.  

  

Saturday:  We after studies we go to grab the keys and get to work and I can't find the keys anywhere. So I call s Huefner.  Guess where they were?  In her pocket.  In Augusta.  Not in Waldoboro.  So we had no car and the nearest place we needed to go was about 5 miles away.  But wait, then I was supposed to drive to Augusta later that night... with no car.  So we called our investigators and headed out to walk.  They said no way and came and picked us up on the way.  Linda and Arnez were there.  Tom.. was not.  Aparently Arnez and Tom are not happy with eachother right now.  Anyway after our lesson with them, they drop us off at the goldrups who have pity on us and sis goldrup drives us everywhere.  She took us to the Royers so we could take care of their dogs while they were at the temple then she took us to an investigators house.  And then the investigators took us home.  And then Sis Goldrup came and picked us up and took us to Augusta.  So while not exactly the ideal, it turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know sis. Goldrup even more and have faith that we were going to make it everywhere we need to go.  

 

That's all for crazy excitement.  This week is going to be even worse with mlc and zone interviews and an exchange.  Wow, life it just so busy!   

 

GTG.

 

Love always and Forever,

 

Sister Lundahl

Thanksgiving!!!!

Hey everybody!

 

I love holidays!  They are pretty awesome! And who doesn't love Thanksgiving?  hmmm?  And I am so glad we have members who invited us over.  :)  So on sunday our thanksgiving was looking a little sparse because we only had one member invite us over, so we were praying that we would be able to get some more places to visit, and thankfully we did. :)  

So Tuesday was a wonderful day.  It was one of those days that we could definitely see the Lords hand leading it out.  It just worked out perfectly.  We went and taught a lesson to Arnez and Linda, and then we went to see a potential investigator and help her move some furniture and stuff.  It was great because we were able to share a scripture and hopefully we will be able to keep serving her.  She is a cousin to the Thompson's who just moved out to Utah.  Actually to  Orem.  So we went and helped her and then had to go to the Royers to feed their fire.  He is our branch mission leader and he got something in his eye and had to go to the hospital so we were making sure their fire didn't go out while they were gone.  We then went to a Relief Society activity.  It was great.  We made menu boards which we converted into a planning chart.  :)  We then went back to feed the Royers fire.  well, I didn't put as much wood on it as I should have... so I had to work to get it going again.  Luckily we still had a few coals left.  Unfortunately the wood was taking a while and then the smoke started to billow back at us instead of out because the chimney wasn't open.  It was a little crazy but we were able to figure it all out and got a roaring fire going again. :) Especially since we got snow for the first time today.  It was beautiful.  And not very much.

  

Wednesday, was quite a bit less eventful.  We had district meeting.  And then we went and saw Sister Gove.  We taught her a little bit, and she gave us some egg nog.    That was the main(e) highlight of the day.  -haha get it Maine... main... ok nevermind. -  So we were able to work and get some things done though and that was good.  WE also got a ton of rain!  It was crazy.  The river is still overflowing.  But we were able to make it down to Topsham with no accidents. :)  

 

Thanksgiving!!! Boy it was crazy to not worry about black friday shopping.  It felt like a regular odd day.  We went and watched a movie with Linda and Arnez and arnez's granddaughter, Jillian  We wanted the full length restoration dvd.  It was good.  And then we went over to the Kanewske's  we were able to talk with then for a bit and share our Thanksgiving scripture which was Mosiah 24:21.  We focused on how they poured out thanks to god.  It was good.  The husband brought up Man's search for meaning, by Victor Frankl and I knew what he was taking about.  All those books I read in high school paid off. :)  We then went to the Dyers for dinner!  It was delish!  I love the Dyers!  They are a fantastic family who are so fun to be around. :)  And thanksgiving was the bomb!  We then went over to the rest home and sang a few songs for a family who was there.  

 

Friday we had to do a last minute exchange cuz we couldn't fit it in earlier in the transfer, so that was really good.  After weekly planning we went out on the exchange, so I had Sister Hoffman with me for the night.  We went and taught a few people. We have been seeing some of these investigators and we never get a full lesson in, but this time we were able to teach both families full lessons!  It was fantastic!  It was a really great day!  

 

Saturday we went to try and find some potentials and some former investigators, and we were able to go in and see this really nice lady who is willing to let us come back!  So we will keep working with her she is a very nice lady!

  

Sunday was super, between the elders and us we have about 8 investigators at church!  And about 10 nonmembers.  It was so cool.  And then I got up and bore my testimony.  Because I was so glad we didn't get a call the night before telling us that we were splitting so now I get to stay in Waldoboro for Christmas!!!!! 

  

Well I got to get going Love you all!!!

 

Love always and Forever!

 

Sister Lundahl