Letter from Mark 21 Nov 2005

Dear Family

THe trip to the temple was great! there were 6 people from our ward puls us. the session that we went to was completly full, we didn't get back to our appartment until about midnight. the attitude of the members here is awesome. they love having a temple so close to them (a little under two hours drive away) before the chicago temple was built they had to go to the Washington D.C. temple. there are some people in the stake that go once a week. it has made me apreciate the temples that we have a lot more. they were talking of doing something cool for next year. someone said that in an old ward the got about 300 family names that someone had and did a thing where they wanted to "create a ward on the other side" and did all of the temple work for those 300 people. they said that they had a check list posted to get peole excited, and they would check stuff off as they got it done. i thought it was a neat idea.
this comming week is going to be interesting. wednesday is zone conference and we don't usually get much done then, on thaksgiving we dont work at all, and today we don't work much. on thanksgiving the ward is havng a football game that we are going to, then we are going over to a members home for thanksgiving dinner(the hearts will be there also) we can also aprove one pg movie to watch, and we can watch one sporting event. I am excited.
the next transfers are on the 1st of December, and i am hoping to stay, but i have been here for 3 transfers already, the last two missionaries trained here have both stayed for 4 transfers, so i am hoping the same will be for me. the longest they usually let missionaries stay in one area is 6 months or 4 transfers.
I Can not view pictures on my email. i have tried but it dosen't work.
I did finish Jesus the Christ, it is an awesome book. I borrowed my companions copy to finish it. by the end of the year i will have finnished all of the mission library on my mission except for the bible, after i do that i can approve other books to read.
The coat that i have Hs been great so far, on tuesday it snowed a little bit and got down to about 15 degrees. it has warmed up since then. and is now about 30 to 40 in the day, and if geels great after a couple days below 20 plus wind.
We did a lot of tracting this week. we got 22 hours, last transfer we got 21 hours, and got the top tracting that week in the mission, which is neet, but not somthing to brag about.
In one of your letters you asked what our schedule is like, it is usually about like this, 6:30-7:00 excersize 7:00-8:00 get ready and eat
8-9 personal study, 9-10 companion study 10am -9pm tract, visit less actives,recent converts, investigators, potential investigators, etc.9:00-9:30 plan for the next day. we get an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. our dinner hour is usually at 8 if we dont have a member feeding us so we can stay in the area that we are working. usually after 4 or 5 it gets dark,so we try to stop by people then, and we don't tract after 8 because people don't like it. we also have 4 hours of planned service a week, an hour to an a hour and a half district meeting, 2 hour weekly planning session. every 3 weeks we meet with the zone for interviews with the president or zone conference, those take the place of district meeting.
The work in this area is slow, but I am loving it and the members here are great. I apreciate all of your letters. I wish that i had time to write to all of you personally, but I dodn't have that much time. I love all of you.

Elder Lundberg

Letter from Mark 14 Nov 2005

Dear Family,

My companion and I are getting along great. Our zone leaders said that if anyone in the zone gets 15 lessons and 15 hours tracting in one week they would buy them a pizza. if you get just one it is considerd gettin on the honor roll. we got 13 lessons this week and 16 hours tracting, we tried hard to get those last 2 lessons but they didn't come. It was one of the best teaching weeks in thes area in a long time.
On Friday our ward has a ward temple day, they are going to the chicago temple. we called president Hunt adn he approved letting us go to that, we have to be within 2 hours of the temple, and we are right on the border, we also have to make up the time on preparation day, so most of today will be a normal day. I am very excited, missionaries are only allowed to go 2 times a year and only if they are close enough and only on ward temple days.
At the moment we a teaching a few people, most of which are slow to progress. One old lady we are teaching is reading the book of mormon, has been for a couple years, she reads it slowly and re-reads sections until she feels she understands it. she is now around 3 nephi 20 and believes it is true, dipite what others have said to her. she has health problems and sometimes has a hard time getting to church, but she likes our church, her only concirn is she was baptized by another church that claims to trace its authority and she doesn't think she needs to be baptised again, but she has an open mind.
we taught a lady a couple times, she took the lessons 7 years ago and almost got baptized, then she met her boyfriend and at the time he was pushing her away from that, she said that at the time she felt great and knew it was true and wants to feel that again. her boyfriend is also very interested, the first time we taught him he told us right when we got there that he was going to start to read the bible every night, he said it was going to be a priority for him, whe we left he said that he was going to read the book of mormon instead, he was convinced that it was more importat to read then the bible, it was great. the only problem is that they are not married and cannot be baptised until they are, or they break up.
there are a few others that we are teaching, that like talking to us, but have a hard time keeping commitments. I will tell you more about others in another email.
It is slowly starting to get colder here, it has been really windy and rainy the past few days, i have heard from a few people that it is going to be a harsh winter here, and a few said it would be not too cold for wisconsin, but that it would be a very wet winter, either way i am not looking forward to it.
I have to go. I love you all.
Elder Lundberg

Williams Family on the Holodeck

This is inside NIF, standing by the target chamber "ball". When all lasers are connected, they will shoot through the big metal boxes that are sticking out of the target chamber into the center of the ball. 192 lasers will focus down on a tiny gold box containing a pellet the size of a BB, then, ka-boom! We got to see inside the chamber - very, very cool.

Mark's Letter 07 Nov 2005

Dear Family

Yesterday we had stake conference here. that was great, they had several returned missionaries speak about the book of mormon. It was great. I'm not sure if you have heard about this (most of the people out here haven't) but Elder Ballard reciently issued a challenge to the members of the church to invite someone over to their home to hear the message of the restoration before Joseph Smith's birthday.(December 23) The stake President issued that challenge to the stake, that has made me excited, we have been working with a few members in our wart do do this, and now they got to hear it from the stake president.

They are going to try out something new in our mission and in a mission in arizona or somewhere around there. They want us to move into members homes, the thinking is that they will save a lot of money on rent. I haven't heard much of the details but I have heard that there would need to be a seprate entrance for the missionaries, and they need to have access to the kitchen. i'm not sure how they would work it, but we wouldn't be able to be in the house without a male member over the age of 18. they are starting to push us to do that, and i think some areas are getting moving in with members soon. It will be interesting, I will tell you when I hear more.

I'm not sure how much i told you about elder Jensen, but you asked how long he has been out. he has been out just over a year, he just got done training someone that came out with me, but i didn't know him too well, he was in a different MTC district. he is from sandy, Elder jensen is from the same stake that president hunt is from, so they knew each other before, but not well. he is the youngest of 7, and his parents left on a mission shortly after him and are in japan and will get back a little before him.

I still get to play the piano a little, but i haven't been playing as much as i was before. I have played a couple times for priesthood, and i have played for all of our district meetings (once a week with 3 companionships) and for most zone conferences and interviews (once about every 3 weeks) sometimes i have know before what i am playing and i can practice it. sometimes I know what i am playing when they announce what hymn is going to be played (that gets to be fun) sometimes i just play one hand because i am the only one that can play well enough to do that.

Just yesterday i was thinkin that it had been 4 months since I went into the MTC. the time goes by so quickly when all of the time that you have is filled doing something, it seams like i just got here.

i have thought of a few other christmas ideas. I am almost done reading Jesus the christ, and the end of the copy that i have skipps several pages in some spots and it repeats in some spots, i have 3 chapter 38's. i have borrowed my companions coppy but if i ever want to read it again it would be nice to have a copy with everything in it. I probably won't read it soon, but i thought i would tell you anyway. i also thought that some dark sweaters to wear that would look good with my suit would be nice as it is starting to get cold. My last companion said that he had been looking for a ski mask, one that covers up over your mouth and nose, but it isn't a hat, you pull it down. i thought that might be nice to have, but i wouldn't know where to find it. other than that i havent come up with much. I did get the halloween package, thank you that was great.

I don't have much more time to write, i love you all and i pray for you. I appreciat your prayers. one thing that someone told me that i thought was neet is he told his family to pray for those that he is teaching or will meet. I love you

Elder Lundberg

The Boy I Was…

I was a typical boy, rambunctious and full of energy. I tried to be good and do what I knew was right. I played baseball, swam and played in the horse field near our home. I was taught to work hard, but we also played and had fun. On Sunday we went to church and on Monday we had family night and on Tuesday afternoon we went to Primary. At night, I would get out my transistor radio and listen to the Cincinnati Reds baseball games.

Sometimes I would daydream about being a baseball player who hit the home run in the bottom of the ninth inning with 2 away to win the World Series, or a basketball player, shooting free throws in a tied game with time expired. I knew about Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, they were my baseball heroes.

On Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays I learned about Samson, David and Goliath, Elijah, Noah, Nephi, Lehi, Samuel the Lamanite, Captain Moroni and Joseph Smith, they were my gospel heroes. I felt like I was right there when I heard of their mighty feats, defeating the wicked and idolatrous people and preaching the word of God with power.

Sometimes my baseball heroes made errors in the field or struck out, but my scripture heroes never seemed to fail. To my young eyes they led charmed lives. During dodge ball games and snowball fights, I was Samuel the Lamanite, never to be hit by the other team! In my idealistic mind, I built the ark with Noah, the ship with Nephi and fought beside the stripling warriors. I could see myself with the boy Prophet and crossing the plains. I looked forward to the day when I could be a missionary, believing that like Alma and the sons of Mosiah, I could convert countless souls. I would be rich and famous, I had boundless energy and unfailing courage like Horatius at the bridge and muscles like the pictures in the Book of Mormon showed! Life would be easy!

Time has passed and it turns out that I really wasn’t that great an athlete, and truly only converted myself as a missionary, I didn’t get rich and I’m not built like Frieberg’s Moroni. I can’t dodge life’s trials like Samuel could dodge arrows. I feel sorrows that my young self did not know existed.

As I grew up, some of my heroes changed. Today I recognize the wisdom and sacrifice of loving parents. I see in my friends people who love and serve one another without thought of any reward, hoping only that if their mother were in a similar situation someone would do the same for her. I see ward members who I’ve known for years, but did not know of their tireless, angelic service, quietly performed for those about them. I see wives care for husbands and husbands care for wives when one of them is struck by the trials of life. I see neighbors rally out of love.

No, things didn’t always turn out the way I thought they would, but I am surrounded by the best people in the world, right here in Murray, Utah, and I know that God’s hand has brought me these blessings and introduced me to my new heroes, simple folk—just like me. And in my book, that’s good enough.

Samuel Lundberg

Samuel John Lundberg - Age 4 1/2 years old.