(From sept. 22, 2014)

Hello Family!

So really fast the great highlights from the week:

So Monday was a fun day we had district P-day so we got together to go bowling... well little did we know that the bowling ally is closed on Mondays... so we had to figure out something else to do.  We went to the Reitze's house and we played soccer.  Yeah!  It has been so long since I've played soccer.  It was great!

Tuesday we had a busy day where we went and taught our investigator Felicia and had a DTR or Determine the Relationship.  Basically she wants us to teach her children.  We told her what was necessary for baptism and we committed her to come to church. 

We then saw Laurie she is a less active that we have been working with.  She is so great!  We really love her.  She reads and prays everyday. She doesn't come to church though so we are working with her there. 

We then had dinner with a less active and her family.  She is great and she talked about trying to implement the churches teaching into her life more.  We think that if we can get her to do that she will have a desire to come back to church.  She goes to a different church. :(  But we are hopeful that this will help her return.  She said she wants to go to the women's conference this week and then to general conference. :)

Wednesday we didn't have district meeting because we had zone conference on Friday.  So we saw a few people and did a bunch of tracting.  We went and talked to a ton of people.  Nobody was very interested per say, but we met some really nice people.  One lady even gave us water bottles to take with us.  Which was really nice because we were very thirsty.

Thursday we attempted to do weekly planning.  We got through making lesson plans for our investigators before I started freaking out realizing that this is my second to last planner... I only have 3 more months left on my mission!  What?  How did that happen?  Honestly what is going on here?  That isn't possible.  Those are just a few of the thoughts and things that I said as I freaked out about coming home.  It's not that I don't want to come home, I just don't want to leave.  It is a very odd feeling to have.  I think I may be getting a little trunky.

We had a great lesson with our investigator later that day.  He said he wants to be baptized he is just not ready yet.  I think that we just need to get him to church and set a date to really help him make those final steps.  He gets really overwhelmed with meeting too much so we meet with him every other week, but we still call him. :)  And ask how he is doing etc.

So for Book of Mormon class we basically go through the book of Mormon and try to point out key items and just really explain it.  We try to help people apply what they are learning.  We just finished the story of Ammon and Aaron. That was really cool. 

Friday we had zone conference.  Elder Wilson from the second quorum of the 70 came to talk to us about the book of Mormon.  He told us how to implement it more and how to produce better conversion in our converts and investigators.  It was really cool!  I love zone conference so much!  We got some really good ideas on how to help our investigators progress even more. :)

Saturday we did a bunch of contacting aka tracting.  It was not the most exciting day. Until we got to one house.  We were just about to leave and go to a different area.  We turned down a road and we had to turn around, and I said, " Let's go knock on this door."  Well we went and knocked on the door and she let us right in and we taught her the restoration.  It was amazing.  She was so nice and really open.  We are coming back on Tuesday to read from the Book of Mormon.  So that was our day.

Sunday we had church.  And we weren't expecting too much, but guess who came?  Laurie!  She came to church!  Then in walks Felicia with all her kids.  Wow!  That was amazing.  I'll be honest I was thinking that they wouldn't come but they did!   The only interesting thing was that sunday was not a normal sunday.  It was the PRIMARY PROGRAM!  So her very first time to church was very different.  I mean fast and testimony meeting is different, but the primary program is even more different.... And next week is fast and testimony meeting then the week after that it is general conference.  I'll be honest people out here aren't used to our church and it is very odd for them.  I'm a little scared for what will happen in the future.  But I am so happy that she came to church and was able to feel the spirit there! 

That was about it for this week.  It was a wonderful day sunday and the rest of the week was well... work. But I feel that this week will be more enjoyable and more fun!

I love you all and thanks for all that you do!

Love always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

PS. if you want to send me a letter I wouldn't mind... :)

Week of Work (from September 15, sorry it's late)

Hello family!

So this week was a busy week of really just working as hard as we can.  At least trying our best to push a little harder, and work a little better. 

So the highlights for each day since I am running out of time:

Tuesday we got a new investigator.  We stopped by a potential that Sister Welling and I found when we were lost one day and she was interested and said we could come back on Tuesday.  We are so excited!  We were supposed to meet with a referral, but unfortunately he cancelled on us again.  It was really sad :(

Wednesday we ended up not having any evening appointments so we went home and went for a walk.  It was already dark so tracting wasn't the greatest option so we went and as we were walking we saw this lady outside smoking.  We stopped and talked with her and asked her if the wanted to try quitting she said that is an eventual goal.  It was really cool that she was so nice and we were able to be real with her.

Thursday we had planned on tracting a road first thing in the morning, and when we plugged it into the GPS it didn't exist.  So we went to a different road and found some really good potentials.  I have great hopes for them.  That night in Book of Mormon class I totally forgot my notes for our lesson, so I said, well Sister Dastrup, your taking the lead.  I felt a little bad at first, but she did a really good job.

Friday we actually finished all of our weekly planning!  Wow.  That was a miracle.  We then got a voice mail about getting 12 ITLs a day.  ITLs are invitations to learn.  I will be honest I wasn't the most happy camper, but I am excited to say that we did reach 12.  Not that day though.  We went tracting, and the whole thing went rather poorly until we got to this big farm house and we talked with the people there for a good 30 mins.  They weren't interested, but the gave us some corn and tomatoes, and they said they would show us this cool processor which they have to convert the waste from their cows to energy that they put on the grid.  It was pretty impressive.

Saturday we did a lot of contacting we saw one of our investigators and she said that she wants a break for a while.  That was sad.  So we stopped by a member and she helped cheer us up.  Then we knocked on some doors.  We contacted a few people and some of them were actually really nice to us, others not so much.

Then we had dinner with the Holmes family.  Their daughter is visiting from Utah and they took us to Anglers.  We had Lobstah!  It was so yummy!  I really am starting to like Lobster.  One of the Elders did not like it so much... It waas rather funny.

Sunday We played the song in church.  We played nearer my God to thee.  It is a really pretty arrangement.  The only problem is I was so nervous that I started shaking a lot as I played.  Sometimes I wish nerves would just go away, but I guess that isn't how things work sometimes.  We went and saw an investigator afterwards and wow!  That lesson was rather frightening.  Sometimes people just really like to talk and don't let you respond.  So it was hard to share what we wanted to share with them.  We mainly wanted to talk to Debbie to figure out her thoughts.  So yeah it was hard.

Over all this has been a very busy week. We are working really hard to talk to more people.  Preach my Gospel says that we should be talking to 10 people outside of our usual people every day.  So that can we hard when there aren't very many people here, but we are doing out best.

I think that is it.

Love you all!

Love always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

Lobstah anyone?

Hello family!

So I' running out of time so I am going to try and cover the most important parts first.

Thursday we went on exchange so the Sister Training leaders came to Newport with me and Sister Dastrup went to Bangor for the day.  Sister Shipley and I had a bunch of fun.  We taught quite a few people and we also were able to teach in unity.  We taught the plan of salvation to one of our investigators and he said, you know this is all very logical.  I like it.  It just makes sense.  Really?  You don't say?  So we invited him to be baptized and he said I do want to be but not yet.  We told him that it takes time for someone to be ready and that we need to teach them a few more things first.  He said he still needed some time to think about it.  His aunt is a member, and he said, " maybe she is right, maybe this is the right church."  Oh boy!  I am so excited for him!  I think that he will be great as we continue to teach him and once he reads the book of mormon.  I have one on cd that I am going to give him to listen to.  We also saw a less active that said she is going to stop coming.  She knows the ook of Mormon is true and that she just needs a break.  We didn't let her get away that easy so we committed her to come to the Book of Mormon class that we teach every week.  We saw another less active, Laurie.  She is our most progressing person.  She always reads her scriptures and prays she is just scared to come to church.  We are trying to help her.  Yesterday we were supposed to have dinner with her, but she was so sick.  She called us and she just sounded dreadful. That was sad, we hope she gets feeling better soon. 

We then had to drive and go to Newport so that we could un-exchange and I could get Sister Dastrup back from Bangor.   

Friday was a fun day of weekly planning.  Yay.... Anyways we went and saw a few less active.  One cancelled, the next one we stopped by and she started to get really upset about some mail so we left, and the last one we talked with we shared with her about Tithing and Fast offerings.  That was our district meeting study on Wednesday.  It went over... well like a brick.  Bricks don't really roll very well.... 

yeah. 

We had dinner that night to see part member family and we shared the restoration using Apostasy cups.  I will have to take a picture of it to show you what they look like.  

Saturday we went to a former investigators house to clean up their yard.  We cleaned up some brush and helped them burn it.  It was a lot of work.    After wards we were supposed to have a meeting with Marty.  He is a referral that we got the other day.  His friend from Arizona called us the missionaries in Dover and they called us to meet with him.  We called him and set up this appointment.  Well he called us that morning and said that he couldn't come because he was working since the weather was nice.  So we rescheduled to a time that there is no option but to meet.  :)  Tuesday at 6. :) 

So we ended up contacting a bunch of referrals that we got from the branch president up in the Dover area.  He gave us about 20 names of people to go see.  The only problem is that we have no addresses so we have been looking them up in phone books and asking people.  Unfortunately our phone books only cover a certain area. :/  So we are going to members homes and using their phone books.

That night we went to a members home for dinner and they made us lobstah!  It was so good!  You have to cook them fresh aka while alive, and you have to steam them so they don't take very long to cook.  We ate them and they are delicious.  There is the liver part that is green and called the tamale or something like that.  I tried it... I didn't like that part of the lobster.  

Sunday was ok.  We got a ride to church to save miles, and we also had a very interesting testimony meeting.  One guy got up and basically said some cowboy poetry... and yelled into the microphone.. You never know what you are going to see while on your mission.  it was very interesting.  

Thats all for now.

Love you all!

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl

Bonjour Family!

This week has been super fun!  And very busy.  it has been great!

So monday we drove down to Manchester with the waterville sisters.  So of course it was so much fun!  It was fun.  Unfortunately I had a Dr. Pepper so that night it took forever to fall asleep.

Tuesday we had a great meeting in manchester.  We learned a ton.  And it was really good.  I learned a ton.  Meetings for missionaries is equivalent to going to the temple because we can't go very much.  After the meeting we just drove home.  That was all.  We went to a mall to get some food and it was really odd to walk in there.  I felt really odd....  Malls still exist. 

Wednesday we had district meeting where we had the assistants there.  It was funny.  We had a good district meeting about receiving revelation.  Then we saw some people and then we had dinner with a less active.  We taught the restoration and they said that they were going to be at church on Sunday!  We were so excited. :)

Thursday we went out and tried to contact some former investigators.  One was moving so we helped her move some boxes and get things ready for the move.  She really appreciated it.  She was super nice, but didn't seem too interested.  

We then went and saw one of our only investigators.  She is not progressing at all, but we want to give her one last chance.  So we are starting to give her more commitments and seeing where it going.  I think that we are probably going to have to drop her though.

We then saw a less active and talked with her about getting her home and visiting teachers.  We are so excitied that she is willing to have some!  She is just so great and I really like her!

We then went to pick up some brownies from a part member family.  The wife who is not a member made me the raspberry truffle brownies.  Oh my goodness!!!  They are so good!  I am just so happy.  We took them to book of Mormon class where we shared them.  Luckily we still have some... or maybe not so lucky, I don't really need the calories.

Friday we did weekly planning!  Yay! We then went to contact a former investigator and instead of a house we found a huge farm that has been there for 5 generations.  We talked to a lady there and invited her to learn.  She seems decently interested.  We then had a meal with a member and had a good time there. 

Saturday we tried contacting a ton of people and then had dinner with a non member family who live off the grid.  it was really good.  I like their philosophies.  

We then saw some less actives and had dinner with a member.  2 meal appointments in one day!yay!

Sunday the less actives came to church!  We are so happy! Anyway I am out of time.  I gtg!  

Love you all tons!

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl