Raining for 4 days straight. I didn't know the sky could hold that much moisture.

So I realized that last week I didn't finish about the week, but oh well.

We made this really awesome game for when we have family home evening with people.  It is like scribblish but with scripture terms.  I suggest that you look it up.  It is really fun.

We had a couple of really great lessons with our investigator Branigan this past week.  She has been reading and reading with her girls too.  It is really cool to see her progression.  SHe is just taking everything in.  We gave her a for the strength of youth and she is applying it with her girls too. I've never had an investigator so prepared for the gospel before. 

We had zone conference this past week.  It was my very last one.  I cannot believe that I can actually say that.  I love zone conferences so much!  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon.  It was really great to be able to see how much the atonement is in there.  That was the main focus and also about the fall and important doctrines there.  It was really cool.  It think one of my favorite things was just being with all the missionaries and being able to enjoy the spirit.  It was great!

We picked up a new investigator on Thursday.  She we really interesting.  She is overcoming some addictions.  She just got out of the hospital and is working on being clean.  So we talked about the Book of Mormon and really focused on helping her.

We met a less active who... well she is very vocal and she know that she should be coming to church.  She is very funny though and also is very big into women's rights.  We got a very good lecture on that.

I must say, it is rather hard to go contact people after 6 sometimes.  Because it is dark.  And while six is a normal time to go and see people tracting is not advised.  lol.  People look at you strangely.

Saturday we the best day ever.  It stopped raining, and the sun came out. And we had a baptism!  Well the Elders did.  But we know her really well.  She is just a great woman.  It has been a real blessing for me because I have been able to see her from her wedding to her baptism.   She asked me to play the violin as interlude while she got dressed.  That turned out good.  A great tender mercy came as the accompanist offered to play with me.  That really helped.  It turned out really good.  I was nervous, but it was good. 

The trunk or treat was that night as well.  So we have quite a few non-members come including Branigan.  That was so cool!  Her fiancé came as well.  I am so glad.  He seemed to like it at the church.  It was a good time. 

Sunday Kerri was confirmed.  It was great!  She practically is already part of the branch.  She had a calling before she was baptized. :)

That was pretty much it.  This week was a really great week and we had lots of blessings.

I love you all and hope things are going great!

Love always and forever,

Sister  Lundahl

Miracles Continue to Happen

Hey family!  How are y'all doing?

This week we had a fantastic week! 

I'll start with Tuesday this week.  We had to change the time we were going to be seeing Nicole.  Our investigator so we actually got to do Mormon.org time.  we watched a priesthood conference talk and looked up different things there.  I had no idea how many temples the church is in the process of building.  wow!  So many. 

We taught Nicole and it was really hard to get the spirit.  She tends to ask off the wall questions that really derail us and we have to think.  She is sincere about learning though.  I am just trying to figure out how to help her.  We are going to teach her about the Savior this week, especially about his atonement.  I think that it will be a really good lesson.

We saw Laurie that day.  She is doing good.  She didn't come to church because she wanted to go see her boyfriend.

We then had dinner and a lesson with Branigan our new investigator at the Watsons.  A member in the branch.  It was so cool.  We taught the restoration using the apostasy cups for her little girls and it was really cool!  Branigan has been reading in the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlets and is really just soaking everything right up!

Wednesday we had district meeting and the Elders had a baptismal interview!  It was with a wonderful lady that the Elders have been teaching for a very long time now and she is so ready.  She is sweet and We have worked with the family a little bit and she is basically amazing.  She asked me to play the violin at the baptism, so I have been practicing a bunch of songs and trying to figure out how to order them and whatnot.  I can only really do that during our personal time aka getting ready for the day lunch and dinner and getting ready for bed, so hopefully it will all be ready for Saturday. :) 

After Kerri's baptismal interview we went to go contact some potentials that we have found.  They went well.  We taught one lady and we were trying to leave because we had to walk back to our apt and then we had to drive for 10 mins.  So about 20 mins of travel time. Well we got out a little late so we had to run back to our apt for our car, and we were about 3/4 a mile away and both of us are super out of shape, plus in churchy shoes and dresses and we were running down the road [probably looking like crazy people in Maine}. 

We got to our car and rushed to our appointment.  We were doing the stop smoking program with her. basically you are guaranteed to quit smoking in 1 week if you follow all the steps.  It is cool and it works. 

That was a great Wednesday!

Thursday we had plans to teach an investigator, but she wasn't home. :(  so we went and tracted and street contacted.  As we did so we met this lady who really is seeking direction in her life.  It was really cool how we were able to relate the story of Joseph Smith to her and then to invite her to learn more.  We set up a return appointment and are super excited to see her this next week.

We did a lot of street contacting and trying to talk with people.  We then had pie and a lesson with Branigan and a member. :)  It was a little scattered because little kids were all over the place, but it was great still because Branigan is just making so much progress. 

After we had to rush and pick up the Elders to get to the Church because they don't have a car.  Nobody came to book of Mormon class. :(  But life goes on.

Friday we got weekly planning done rather quickly it was quite amazing.  So we went and saw some less actives and then had dinner with one family.  She was making a bunch of excuses about not reading the book of Mormon.  And I said, look I know that it is hard, and I know that my family wasn't always the best at it either, but I do know that you have done it before and it is possible.  And you know and I know that it will make you happier.  That is a little bit more bold than what I said, but that is the gist of it.  We committed them to do their best.

We then went to clean the church.  We got assigned that duty this week.  The Elders and our Branch mission leader were supposed to come, but only we showed up.... So we did our best. 

Saturday we planted flowers and had some great Chinese food.  Then we were planning on going to a baptism, but that didn't happen the ride cancelled and so we called Branigan and committed her to coming to the baptism this week. 

So since that changed and we were already in Newport we saw our Newport less actives that we weren't able to see earlier that week.  One just got out of the hospital and had read a bunch in the book of Mormon while she was there. :)  So we read another chapter with her and really tried to help her understand. 

It is crazy how low reading comprehension is out here.  I am so grateful for the education that I got in Utah, because there are so many people out here who just don't think anything about an education while young and then they find out that it does make a difference.

Another thing that astounds me is how many teen mothers there are out here.  There is one lady we see who had her first child when she was 14.   Wow.  that is all I can say to that.  So remember that education is important and it changes lives and wait to be married before you have kids.  Yeah.  That is all I can say.

I love you all and I know that this church is true!  It is amazing to see how much it blesses peoples lives in so many ways.  I love you all! 

Love always and forever,

 Sister Lundahl

MIracles (October 13, 2014)

Hehehe I am so happy this week!  And since I have limited time as today is a holiday and we have to e-mail at the church, I will skip to all the good highlights of the week.

Monday we got a sweet tour of vic firth.  It was really cool to see how they make the drum sticks.  :)

Tuesday we did service and then we went to see Nicole our investigator whom we weren't able to meet with last week.  Well she was so sad that we didn't meet she was there and just didn't hear us knocking cuz she was at the back of the house.  She even made us brownies.  So we set up a time to come back this week and she invited us to a Tupperware party lol. I regret to say that we won't be able to go to the party because 1st it's on sunday, and second... I'm not sure we are allowed to go to those. 

Wednesday we found a new investigator.  She is 10.  And her mom gave us permission to teach her.  She is so great.  And she is actually interested.  She wants to learn more about God.  She really focused well.  

Thursday we had the great experience to meet with some of our less actives and then we went to young womens and also to Book of Mormon class. That was fun.  We had a really great discussion on faith and planting seeds and other seeds that we need to plant. 

Friday our less actives weren't home, so we did some tracting.  We parked at members house and went in her neighborhood.  She gave us a few names and we went knocking.  Well we talked to one guy on his front porch for about 45 mins.  My legs were really tired.  Walking for 45 mins is different from standing for 45 mins.  Anyway on the way back we saw this guy outside smoking.  And it was one of the people that the members told us to go see.  So we stopped and talked to him, and taught the restoration in 7 mins and then asked to come back.  He said to come back tomorrow.  So we did.  

Saturday We brought a book of mormon.  Well, he gave his girlfriend/ fiance the pamphlet and she read it and said it seemed really good, so we read the intro to the Book of Mormon and invited her to come to church. She said she would be there.  In fact the walked all the way to her fiance's work to pick up the car so they could come to church.  

Sunday they actually came to church!  I was to happy!  Oh my goodness!  it was amazing.  We found out that she is a cousin to one of the members in the branch and so we are having our lesson at the members house on tuesday!  We are so fantastically excited I cannot even contain myself! She is just so prepared and I feel so lucky to be able to teach her! 

Those are all the great miracles of this week.  I am so happy right now.  

Sister Dastrup is really starting to get the hang of being a missionary.  She is doing a great job and we are having lots of fun together, this week has been the best so far. :)

I love you all so very much and I can't wait to hear from you!

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl

Everyday is Sunday as a missionary. Except Monday. Monday is Saturday

The title of this e-mail if a prime example of most of what my companion says.  It is rather amusing.  I have lots of opportunities to laugh. :)

So last Monday we went on that amazing hike!  It was so super cool!  The colors were amazing I will send lots of pictures home. :)

Tuesday we started doing service at the Dexter library.  We are helping them go through some old obituaries and get them submitted online into a database. It is really cool.  I feel like I am doing family history work.  They are very interesting.

We saw Laurie again on Tuesday.  She is doing really well. :)  We also stopped by out investigator Felicia and invited her to general conference. :)  She said she would come, but unfortunately she didn't. :/

Wednesday we had a fun district meeting and we watched the Mormon message God's light or something, here is the link, you should watch it is amazing!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001

we talked about receiving revelation and how to help our investigators do better at getting revelation.  Mainly through reading the Book of Mormon. 

We then saw a few less actives and taught them about the Book of Mormon more and invited them to read from it.   We had an appointment scheduled with a new investigator at the church and we were really sad because he didn't show up and when we called him, the number was disconnected... so we don't know what happened there, but I guess he doesn't want to meet with us.  :(

We did go to Felicia's house and read from the Book of Mormon with her and her kids.  It was really cool.  The book of Mormon is really amazing because people are able to grow so much from reading it.  Everybody in the family struggles with reading, but as those who could read read from the Book of Mormon they already started to read better just by reading the first chapter.  It really is cool to see how the spirit can help enlarge someone's mind.

Thursday we had the great time of tracting and also teaching 2 great lessons!  We went with a member to teach our investigator at the library.  It was really good to be able to meet and he has been listening to the Book of Mormon on CD.  :)  He really likes it, and we are trying to get him to commit to baptism, but the only problem is, is he has narcolepsy so he pretty much sleeps during the day.  So I shared with him Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.   So hopefully we will be able to help him really just come to the gospel and really take this chance for happiness. We also taught Felicia and her family about the plan of salvation. :)

General conference was so amazing!  Oh my goodness!  I love it so much!  It was just so cool.  Sister Dastrup and I discussed some of the themes that we noticed and it was really focused on making our own testimony strong and making sure that we know the truth and that the gospel it true. 

 I think it was interesting how much was talked about with sustaining the prophets.  I think that it is so important that we know that we have a prophet today.  It is such a blessing to have the knowledge that he is looking out for us and that if we need to know about something he will let us know and if we have questions he can help us.  It is a big blessing to have a prophet.  And I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet for us right now and we really are so blessed.  I've seen so many people tossed in the whirlwind that I know this gospel is true. 

We need opposition in this life, but I loved Richard G Scotts talk about the 4 tools to overcoming challenges.  I would highly suggest and encourage to take those 4 things of 1 prayer 2 Study the scriptures 3. Weekly family home evening and 4 Going to the temple.  Another favorite talk of mine was Jorg Klebingat the 6 practical steps for peace!  Wow.  Those talks were so good!

Well, I've rambled enough.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love always and forever,

Sister Lundahl

(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