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

Excitement

HELLO!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!!!!!! PHIL IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! I know I haven't mentioned him to you yet, but that is because I just met him on Saturday.  And he wants to be baptized.  He is really cool!  One of our members gave him a Book of Mormon, and he read it is 3 days!  Then he prayed like he had never prayed before, and he felt good and he is going to be baptized on August 24!!!  There is only one problem... Sister Fratcher and I have never had a baptism before, so we don't really know what to do.  So we are learning everything that we need to be doing right now.  We are so excited!!  He reminds me a lot of German from the District.  (Look him up on Mormon.org) 

So this Phil does War re-enactments, and he told us this cool story where he was lost and trying to find the exit for his next re-enactment, and it was pouring rain in New York.  And suddenly he felt hands on his, guiding the steering wheel to an exit.  And ever since then he had been trying to find God.  And he said that this in the only church where he has found God.  He is soo ready for this, and we will be meeting him again on Tuesday.  Because all we really know is that we need to teach him all the lessons from PMG before he gets baptized. 

Say Hi to Val, Mike, Katie, and Tyler for me!  I want to see some pictures from all your excursions that you are doing.  So if you decide to hike timp, take pictures. :)  Or anything else.

Oh yeah, another investigator that we have been meeting with was in the hospital.  She broke her back a couple months ago, and then she has also had a bunch of Kidney infections and things like that.  So the other day we were supposed to meet and she said that she was going to the hospital since she had a high fever.  We wanted her to get a blessing, but we didn't know which hospital she was at.  So we finally found out, towards the end of the day, so we had to find 2 priesthood holders and get ask for permission from our district leaders and then ask for permission to go see her, and then have someone else drive us to see her so she could have a blessing.  There are a bunch of procedures in the mission field.  So we did all that and finally found someone who could take us and get her a blessing and we just barely were able to see her right before she was heading into surgery.  Like they were about to take her out and he got there, and they were able to giver her blessing.  She has a fever of 105 and was burning up!  So now she is still in the hospital recovering.  We are just happy that she is doing better since so many things have happened to her.

Oh in relation to the deck collapse of a couple weeks ago, well the relief society president is still in rehab.  She broke both her legs and an ankle and a knee cap.  She will be in a wheel chair for about  3 months.  And the bishops wife cracked 3 ribs and 3 vertebra. So they are back in their house.  And right after the bishops wife was back their dryer caught on fire and burned their upstairs a bit, and caused a bunch of smoke damage.  So they were homeless and had a bunch of other problems.  (They fire and deck issues happened at the same house.)  So now they are living in a hotel in White River Junction, Vermont.  Luckily they have a rental home that they can move into soon.

So the picture that I sent is a church that is on the property of the Joseph Smith Memorial (JSM).  There is only 1 ward, and they have 2 sets of missionaries.  We cover 8 towns and they cover 8 towns.  So it is a bit crazy.  We are constantly driving since we are in a very rural area. But it is so beautiful here and the ward members are so nice.  We meet every week at 10:00 am for sacrament meeting.  It is kind of an odd time, but this way people can get here if they live 30-40 miles away.  Since some do. 

Oh so exchanges... that was interesting... I am really glad to be in my area, and to be working with the people I work with.  And I'm so glad that I'm a visitor center sister.  I am so glad that I can see so many different people each and every day.  And that I can have investigators from around the world.  Like we have a 15 year old boy from Denmark who is one of our online investigators.  We is so cool, and ready to have to gospel in his life, but his parents won't let him be baptized.  So we are lucky that we can work with him online.  He has such a strong testimony, and we hope that one day we will be able to meet him in person.

Love you All,

And I can't wait to hear more about how everyone is doing!!

Love Always and Forever,

Sister Lundahl

Hello!!!

Hey All!

That is soooo exciting about Lauren!! She will be a fantastic missionary.

So Candace sent me some questions that must be answered...

How is the mission field?

Well, it is busy.  There is no such things as naps.  And sometimes eating doesn't always fit into the time schedule.   But the field is white already to harvest.  And we are working, and finding those who are willing to enter the fold. 

Do I knock on doors? 

Well yes. As a matter of fact I do.  Most people don't like it when you walk into theri house without knocking first... lol.  But we do knock a bunch of doors.  It is not always tracting, but we will go and knock on the doors of referrals and talk to them.  Don't worry, I'm sure I will still come back an awkward duckling. :)

How am I received at the doors?

As a person, people are really kind, as soon as you mention being a missionary or religion, people don't appreciate that as much.  Most people do a polite, quick conversation.  Some will tell us they are not interested.  Some say sure you can come back.  And some let us teach them.  Sure some have slammed doors. But if they don't listen, we can't talk to them.   We can only do the best we can.  

How is the JSM Memorial building and the people there?
Well, I should take some pictures and send them to you.  But basically the building that we are in now was built in 1961.  It replaced the Memorial cottage that used to be here which was built in 1905.  From what I've heard this place was the very first Historical Site.  But I will double check that.  

The buildings are very nice, especially since they are the only places with central air conditioning. 

The people here at the Memorial are very nice.  We get a bunch of tours and people who don't even know who Joseph Smith is.  In fact last Monday we had the heritage tours come here and I say a bunch of people from AF.  It was weird.  And they didn't recognize me at first since I cut my hair.  But it was great to see them again.  

The Senior couples are fantastic.  They really help us a bunch.  They are always feeding us and looking things up for us, like directions, and they are always trying to help.

This is the end of Candace's questions. 

There have been so many things that have happened here.  First is we have 2 new investigators!! Basically one is this really cool gu ywho took a BoM the first time the sisters talked to him.  And then when we stopped by he went and grabbed his BoM and Bible and cam and had us teach him the first lesson.  He son was there too and was the other investigator.  He is a really cool guy, but has had a major concussion and now cannot remember most of his childhood and cannot read very well, but when he hears the stuff he learns it, so we are getting him a BoM on CD for him to listen to.  And he totally will. 

So we have exchanges this week, so the Sister Training Leader will be coming here and I'm going to be in charge of the area for a day... :-/ I'm not sure if it will be a good thing, but it will happen.  And hopefully I won't get us lost.  Because if you look at the roads here there is no grid, there is no system.  They are all wherever people decided to to settle down 100 yrs ago.  So we will find out if i get us all lost.

Well I love you all and want to hear from you.  Written letters are greatly appreciated.

Love always,

Sister Lundahl

Sick

Hey All,

I've some bad news, this last week I was sick.  It all started on Monday, which of course was P-day.  So we went along doing all our stuff like e-mails and such, but the whole time I just felt like I was getting the flu or something.  So when we finally get done shopping and e-mails we come home and I had a fever of 100.3  Well I thought ok we can still try to go out.  But my comp had me go lay down.  Well within an hour I was at 101.3.  So she started to freak out a bit, and I just wanted to try and sleep.  (Yes I had taken Ibuprofen.) Well we stayed in that night.  And then I slept in a little bit and I still had a mild fever.  I did get a blessing as well.  So I had a fever for 3 days, but still went about teaching as best as I could.  My comp was going a little stir crazy, cuz i had to go take a nap one day.  But I couldn't control it and neither could she.  It was really odd.  

We did exchanges this week.  They do it with the Sister Training Leaders.  They are the equivalent to Zone leaders, but Sisters.  So I went to an area called White River Junction.  And went about teaching with a really nice girl named Sister Morgan.  She too when to Utah State.  We went and saw some really nice people and had a good time.  It was nice to just see how other sisters work together.  

I still like my area the best so far.  Even if we do have to travel 20-30 minutes to the nearest grocery store.  It is so beautiful.  

An odd thing that has been happening, is we have had tons of rain.  While rain is a free air conditioner, the problem is too much rain.  We have had severe flood warnings and the road conditions are terrible.  As I said before, most of the road are dirt around here.  So on the side of the road are lots of deep banks where the water drains away.

I have a great funny story.  So we were out and about one day and we're trying to find these less actives.  Well think we find the house so we look for a place to park.  Well she decided that she found a good place and so as she drives in we suddenly drop down quickly and stop.  I looked at her and said, you just got us stuck.  She claimed innocence but no matter how much she pushed the gas we wouldn't move.  We were partially in a ditch.  She drove us into a ditch! Well I get out of the car into the ditch and just start laughing.  We were going to have to get help or call the nearest ward member and he would have laughed so hard he wouldn't have been able to get there to save us.  Well my comp was upset, since she didn't want to call him.  Then we were saved.  This jeep happened to be coming up the road with 2 big guys who just got out to help.  They told her to turn the wheel, and she did, and then hit the gas.  And they pushed.  Then they left.  It was so nice that they were able to help us and it was definitely a miracle.  

There are so many simple miracles in our life though.  That was a big one, but just someone sending us a message or writing a note.  That is always a blessing and a miracle too.

So I'm going to try and send some cool pictures home.

Love 
Sister Lundahl