Email Home 8.15.2016

I hope you are all ready for my last letter.... I doubt I will send ya anything next week I will have a busy few days the beginning of next week. 

Some sad news Brother Kruta had a heart attack last week and it doesn't seem like he is going to leave the hospital. He is down in St Cloud so we haven't been able to see him. I hope he makes it to next Monday so I can head down there and say goodbye to him. Sister Kruta is having a really hard time with all of it. They had the huge windstorm a week ago that took out a bunch of their trees. It is just one thing after another with them. 

We had our Zone trainings last week. We were trained on the NAC, teaching with pamphlets and much much more. The departing missionaries had to bear there testimonies. That was weird. I never thought I would have to do that but the time came. 

We went up to Pine River. I am scrambling trying to teach Elder Russon everything I know about the area. I hope it isn't too rough on him with 6 months of information leaving the area. He sounds a little hesitant but it will definitely be good for him. We visited a lot of people he hasn't met yet so hopefully he will be able to get in with them in the future.

Excited to see all y'all!

Elder Lambertsen

E-mail Home 8.8.2016

Hey family!

I am writing this in the back of a car. We are on our way to the mall of America. This past week has been busy!

We went to Alexandria to exchange with those elders and see how they were doing. That area has been struggling for quite a while. President White washed it twice in the last 3 months. We spent a lot of time finding and stopping by old potentials. I really feel sorry for these elders because the previous elders haven't done anything. Their area book hasn't been taken care of in months. They are basically starting from scratch. 

Thursday morning we woke up and Sister Kruta had left us a voice mail. There was a huge storm that ripped through Brainerd and Nisswa. They had over 60 trees done on their property. The county had the prisoners clear it just enough so that they could get out of their drive way but that was all they did. So we had to rush over to Brother Tropp's (home teacher) and we were going to go over and clear some wood. It was about an hour and forty five minute drive. We got there and then he drove us to the Kruta's and the police wouldn't let us in. They were blocking for the power company. So we didn't have any time to go cut wood. We went back to the Tropp's and helped them clean up a little then took a generator back to them so they could keep their fridge and freezers going. On Sunday they announced over the pulpit that we would be going after church to clear up their yard and get the stuff off of their house. There was a bunch of ward members that went to help. There were even some families that were vacationing up here that came to help. It was amazing how clear we got it. I have some before pictures but no after pictures. 

We are going to have to push a couple of baptism dates back. Isiah wants to wait awhile (he is also struggling with church attendance). Korey and Katana aren't coming to church either. Scotty might make his but his health has been really shaky. 

We went up to Pine River this last week. We got a new investigator there as well. Brother Quinn's friend Judy is in town for a few weeks and he wants us to teach her. We were able to teach her the restoration Friday night and she came to church on Sunday. So that was exciting!

That's the weekly update. 

See all y’all soon!

Email Home 8.1.2016

Hey!

What a Crazy week. So much has happened.

Monday I called the Vehicle Coordinator to tell him I would be shipping my bike home and he informed me that we would also be getting a brand new car this week! on Thursday we got a brand new 2016 Toyota Corolla! the best thing about it is that we don't have Tiwi (the little black box that yells when we do something it doesn't want us to do) on it. the unit is going to be installed on August 24th! So I get to drive like a free man! hahaha. 

We had interviews with President Forbes this week. He renewed my recommend and told me I will be able to go to the Mall of America next week. You will all be lucky if I am able to send out a email at all. We will be doing a lot of traveling. I might just write them in the car. We will see. 

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this last week. They drove up here and we blitzed the area. We visited all of the old folks in the ward. We visited the Carlson's. Brother Carlson had a knee replacement so we keep going over there to see if they need help with anything but their kids are so amazing they get everything done. Their son Bruce was there.... I mean (emeritus) Elder Bruce Carlson. We shared a message on faith and then he transformed it and taught us way more then we could of shared. it was great. After that we went to go see Brother Patch, his wife isn't a member. He is 92 years old. He fell asleep while we were sharing a video.... #awkward. Then we went to see Brother Kruta. He isn't doing too well. He just got out of a couple night’s stay at the hospital. It doesn't look like he will have too much longer... 

Scotty had surgery last week so we haven't been able to see him. We had a new family move into the ward. The Hilton's. they are from Texas. He got a job working at the hospital.  They seem like a really solid family that will be able to contribute a lot to this ward. 

Not to much more to update you on. 

Love you all! see ya soon!

Elder Lambertsen

Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day. Man did we have a jam packed week. It was crazy. Monday we took Pday pretty easy. It was fun. Elder Russon had his first baptismal invitation with Scotty. Scotty accepted. Elder Russon was struck with awe and forgot to extend the invitation for a specific day so I had to intervene. So Scotty is going to be baptized on the 3rd of September. He has a goal to be living the word of wisdom by August 24th so that will be a good day for him. :). 

Tuesday we saw Sister King like we usually do. She is a widowed sister that lives alone. We brought Brother Lund with us and they carried on conversations back and forth for quite a while. We could barely get some words in. We got back in with the Schwartz family. It only took us 2 months but we got back in. We set up weekly appointments again to teach their daughter Sara to prep her for her baptism. We also got in with Brother Sechser. He hasn't been to church in quite a while. We like to keep tabs on him. He probably won't be coming back for a while either.

Wednesday we had district meeting. Compliments to dad for giving me the notes on what to train on. #sonsofmosiah Now I have to figure out what to do this week. We have interviews with President Forbes on Friday I am supposed to have a district meeting planned to take advantage of having the entire district there. Also on Friday we were able to see the Kruta's. Les was in the hospital again. His health is slowly going down. It was kind of convenient that he was there because Brother Carlson was a few floors down and had just had a knee replacement a day before so we were also able to see him. Elder Bruce Carlson emeritus member of the Seventy was there was well! It is always good to see him. The Bukers tagged along with us at the hospital.

Thursday was a slower day. We were able to visit with Wes. Then we went up to Pine River. We had dinner with the Oettels. Then we had our coordination meeting with our Ward Mission Leader. 

Friday was super hot. We went to go visit Dale again. We helped him move some bedroom sets around. His sons family is moving in with him. So we helped Him for a couple of hours. I can't really tell if we are making any headway with him or not but I have sure enjoyed all the service we have done for him.

We came back down early Saturday morning to flip pancakes at the Pioneer Day celebration. I got to flip the whole wheat, dairy free, and egg free pancakes! How exciting. Then there were a bunch of pioneer games. I totally dominated Elder Russon in the sack race 3 times in a row.  We had a couple of primary kids beat us in the 3 legged race though. We took out one of the young men to come and teach Isiah with us. It was kind of a strange experience for him. We got dog blood all over us. The Harts have this big American pit bull and it decided to scratch a scab off of his ear then shake his head all over the place and get blood on our white shirts, that was fun. Then the dog got the cone of shame and behaved the best I have ever seen it behave. I also had another dog. It was a puppy. It peed on me.... Then right when we left another dog peed on the floor. Pretty rough experience for a young man’s first time with the missionaries. We did get some sloppy joes and homemade fries. They even made fry sauce for us and it actually tasted like Utah fry sauce. 

Yesterday Isiah came to church!!!!! It has taken a lot of effort to get him here but he made it. Scotty made it to church as well. They both were only able to stay for sacrament but that is better than nothing.

Today we went biking with Brother Oldham at The state park in Ironton. The trails there are internationally recognized. It was a blast to go out there. We biked approximately 10 miles this morning. What a week. 

I hope you all have a great week. Talk to you soon!

Elder Lambertsen

Not Transferred After All!

Hello Family! Do I have a story for you all!

So last week we found out transfers. I was super bummed out because I was getting transferred. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday packing. As soon as I got all my stuff into the car and my bike on the rack. We went to go help a member move. We got a text from President Forbes saying "please call" I never like seeing those texts. So we called him and guess what happened? He didn't answer. So we waited in agony as we helped this family move for him to give us a call back. After a while one of the AP's called us. They changed the transfer on us! So I got to stay in Brainerd for these last few weeks and Elder Patrick got transferred. That is like the first time something like that has happened to me. When that happened me and Elder Patrick changed moods. I was super happy and he was super bummed out. We had to rush back home and I got to unpack and he got to pack. I then was informed that I would be district leading and training these last 6 weeks. So I got to go to Bloomington this week. I dropped off Elder Patrick and went to our trainers meeting. We had 26 new missionaries come out. So about half of the mission is training or being trained right now. I worked with a couple of other missionaries in Bloomington until the new missionaries arrived. We came back to the chapel to pick up our new companions. My new companion is Elder Russon.

We have had a pretty good week so far. We were able to go up to Pine River. We visited with a couple families. We were able to see Dale again. We finished putting up his horse corrals and he showed us around the property. I got stung by a hornet, so did my companion. It wasn't fun! 

We didn't have any investigators at church this last week but we had a bunch of less active's come. It was really good to see.

The former bishop referred us to an excommunicated member. He has been excommunicated for quite a number of years. We called him and set up an appointment. He invited us in and told us the story (his side of it). We shared a message on how we need to be spiritually fed just as much as we need to be physically fed. We will start working with him more as well with in these coming weeks.

We should be setting a baptismal date with Scotty tonight. It will be the first person that Elder Russon invites to be baptized. I will let you know how it goes. 

I don't think there is much more to update you on. Have a great week!

Elder Lambertsen

Short E-mail Home 7.11.2016

:( 

Transferred!!!! I will be spending my last 6 weeks of my mission in the very southern region of the mission in Fairmont Minnesota. I'm a little bummed. Anyway I got a lot of goodbyes to say and things to pack. Expect a big package in the Mail with bunch of stuff. We had a great week. I will supplement this short letter with pictures.

Elder Lambertsen

4th of July

Hey!

I am going to keep it pretty short today. A family reserved us for the entire day and we are about to leave soon. This past week has been a little slower than I would have liked. We had district meeting. I had my first district meeting over Skype. It went a lot better than I thought it would even though we did have quite a few technical difficulties. 

We meet with Korey and Katana they are 9 and 13. The grandparents are members and they are prepping for baptism. We have had quite the difficulty scheduling with them but it seems like they are finally making our appointments a priority. They set a goal to be baptized on August 28th.

We were also able to go up to Pine River last week. With the holiday weekend not too much happened. We were able to do service for Dale finally. For months we have been planning to help him out with his horse corrals and we were just finally able to do it. We put up 6 corrals we were only able to gate 2 of them. We are going to head up this week and hopefully finish the rest of them. 

There were a ton of visitors at church this week. The chapel was packed. People from all around the country were there it was crazy. They were all visiting the resorts for the 4th of July. 

That's the quick update! We find out transfers next week. It will be the last transfer board my pretty face will be on. Elder Patrick and I are going to fight to the death to see who gets to finish their mission here and who gets to leave.

Elder Lambertsen