August 26, 2013

Hey everyone,

So this last week was interesting. It was definitely full of ups and downs. Last Wednesday we had a super awesome lesson with a couple we were teaching. The Spirit was super strong and we invited them to baptism. The wife accepted and the husband said he would like more time to think about it. Saturday we went back and the husband had convinced the wife to drop her baptism date and stop meeting with us. It was a huge bummer. On the upside we have a different investigator that is making some decent progress so hopefully she will accept a date pretty soon.

Other than that we did a lot of finding this week. We found some decent potentials and so hopefully they will become new amis this week.

Elder Lerdahl

A thank you to our wonderful friend...

The Lerdahl family has been blessed to be friends with an amazing man, Bill Green, who was able to visit Dane in France! Bill first became known to our family when McKenzie (Dane's oldest sister) started high school at Granstville High School. Bill was the French teacher and worked with the Esteem Team, a group of students who promote positive, anti-drug and anti-tobacco lifestyles. When Morgan (Dane's other sister) began GHS, she also became a student of Mr. Green. Dane followed in their footsteps!

Bill is a cherished friend who will forever be a part of our lives. Although he no longer teaches at GHS, he is a legacy there and will always be remembered. We are so grateful that Bill had the opportunity to got to France with friends and visit Dane. This is a letter Bill wrote to us about his visit. We love you Bill!

Dear friends, 

I spent 3 hours yesterday with Elder Dane and his companion, Elder J***.  It was a wonderful 3 hours and l enjoyed seeing them and just hanging out with them.  We met at the Pompidiou Center, my friends had gone inside to see the modern art museum and I waited out side to meet the Elders.  Et voila, they showed up on the appointed time.  Elder Dane looked great, no need to worry about his self-cut hair, it looked professionally cut. He is no longer a boy, he looks like a man.  Elder J*** is a red head, and they seem to get along very well.  We found a nice sidewalk cafe, had a tasty lunch and tried to catch up on GHS news and their missionary work.  They seem very comparable and love what they're doing.  Be proud of your missionary, he is a fine young man,deeply engaged in the Lord's work.  I felt very proud of him and honored to be able to visit with him in a place we both love, France.  I'll always cherish this memory.  As he opened his package from home, he kept saying " I told her, I only need the pants", but the expression on his face told me he was grateful for all the fantastic treats he found along with the pants.  Towards the end of the visit, the glances at the wrist watches told me, that they were concerned about getting back to Antony in time for missionary work. I was pleased to see the dedication and concern.

Thanks so very much for letting me feel a small part of you family.  What a great mother and father, great home filled with love and the gospel of Jesus Christ, the the wonderful children (and mate)    
I wish that you all could have been there (you were in spirit).

XOXO Bill Green

August 20, 2013

Hey Everyone!

This last week was a pretty good week. We had a good amount of lessons and we were able to do a lot of porting. We found a lot of potential investigators and over the next few weeks we will be passing by them. Hopefully they will all become new investigators. Sunday we had two amis come to church which was awesome and then right after we went and visited a less active family with the missionary couple here. We did a fun activity with the kids and it was a great lesson. After on the way home we got to stop by a WWII cemetery. It was a cemetery for the German soldiers and contained the remains of more than 10,000 men with about 6 per grave. It was pretty crazy. 

Yesterday we went to a city called Rouen for interviews with the mission president and zone conference. It was nice not to be stressing about giving a training haha. It was great and we saw the place where Joan of Arc was burned. Only in the France Paris mission could you contact someone then look to the right and see a historical place. Cool Stuff eh!

This week we have a lot of lessons planned so hopefully they all go through and we can set up some baptism dates!

Elder Lerdahl

August 12, 2013

Hey Everyone!

So this week was pretty crazy with transfers and all, but it was a really great week.

So last monday Elder J**** and I spent the afternoon with Bill Green. We had a really fun time chatting about missionary work and France. Bill treated us to lunch at a nice little restaurant in the middle of Paris. It was a fun time.

We spent most of Tuesday in rendez-vous. It is so easy to get appointments on transfer weeks because people get a lot less busy when you tell them you are leaving in two days haha.

Wednesday I went in to the church in Paris and met up with my new comp. His name is Elder B***. He is from Utah and has been on his mission for about 5 months or so. He is a great missionary and we have been having a lot of fun together.

As soon as we got in to Cherbourg we hit the ground running. The senior couple here picked us up at the train station and took us to our first appointment. The appointment went really well. It was with a part-member family and the two daughters were scheduled to get baptized this last weekend. We went over their baptism program and they asked me to confirm them. It was kind of awkward for me cause I had just met them so I suggested somebody else do it but they had made up their mind so yesterday I ended up confirming them.Cool way to start things off in a new area.

Cherbourg is a pretty cool little city and so far I am really liking it and am looking forward to the transfer.

Elder Lerdah

August 5, 2013

August 5, 2013


Hey Everyone!

This week was super awesome. We had so many amazing miracles.

This week we found a huge complex of apartment buildings that is perfect for knocking doors, but unfortunately all the buildings are locked and you have to have a code to get in. We really felt like we needed to do some porting there though, so we have been going there every night in hopes of getting in and every night there is a different door left open. We always go in and start knocking doors and sure enough we always find someone new to teach. Last Friday we got in one of the building and went to the top floor. We had about 40 minutes left of the night before we had to go home. We said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find a family and then we started. The first door nobody answered, the second door a lady answered and let us in. We taught her and her family and shared with them the Family: A Proclamation to the World. The family had recently been having family problems and the mother had been praying for help. I have no doubt that we were guided to them as a response to this lady's humble prayers. After our lesson with them we only had about 10 minutes before we had to go home. We decided to just finish the apartments on that floor. We knocked the next door and a lady let us in and we taught her and her family too. It was such an amazing experience. We knocked a total of 3 doors and found two wonderful families to teach. I think on average in our mission we get let in about twice a transfer. This week people have let us in 5 times. I feel like I little like I am in South America.

The other cool miracle we had is that we finally got one of our investigators to come to church. We have been working with him for about 6 weeks and it has been really slow progress. He is from Algeria and is from a Muslim background. He has really enjoyed the missionary lessons and since we started teaching him he has made prayer and reading the scriptures a daily habit. He just didn't want to come to church. We went and had a really good rendez-vous on Friday and instead of inviting him to come to church we told him we would pass that morning to get him ha ha. He finally agreed to meet us at the bus stop by his house. We went there and sure enough he was there all dressed up in a suit and tie for church. It was great. He seemed to really enjoy church and he even participated a lot in asking questions and making comments.

Well that is pretty much it for this week. Oh except for the fact that I just got transferred. I am going to Cherbourg a city in the North West of France. Should be fun.

Elder Lerdahl

July 29, 2013

July 29, 2013

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty good. I had an exchange with one of the younger missionaries in our district. It was a lot of fun and the whole day we kept meeting awesome people, it was great. Other than that it was a pretty normal week.  Summer vacation is kind of killing us but it's coming to an end so hopefully  things will start picking back up.

Hopefully this week will be more exciting.

Elder Lerdahl