27 February 2006

Letter from Mark 27 Feb 2006

Dear Family,

This week has been a good week. Elder Sieler Got transferred to Lake Mills, Elder Stahl is my new companion. He is cool. He is a Jock, he did Football, Wrestling, and La Crosse. he is from oregon, but his parents moved to nevada shortly after he came out. he loves to fish and loves the fact that we are on the mississippi river, it is frozen over at the moment, but when it melts, he wants to be down there on preparation days. he works hard, but isn't always the most obedient. Eler Jensen, Came to madison from lake mills, so i got to see him there. he said that they baptized Lori and Telly Paris. they are a couple that i started teaching with Elder Jensen. when i left they were planning on getting married, but not for a while, they also had some drug problems, it was great to hear that they overcame everything and were able to be baptized.
the temperature has been warming up, it has been in the high 30s and 40srecently and i think it is going to get warmer. the past few days have been windy, but warm.
Elder Stahl and i have decided that we are going to work with the less actives a lot this transfer, the branch is really stressing home teaching and wants us to help them get in the homes they normally cant. there isn't much tracting to be done in prairie du chien, and elder stahl doesn't want to tract anything in prairie while i am here because i have tracted all of it. it is complicated to explain, but the missionaries before Elder sieler were tracting way too much in prairie du chien(about 30 hours a week) and keeping records of who they contacted, but not the best records, they would then go and try to contact everyone. it isn't a bbad way to do it, they just didn't keep track of when, so some houses said no 8 months ago, and some up to a week ago, now there isn't much to tract. so we are planing on tracting the farming areas and outside towns this transfer, and a lot of les actives.
the streets that we have been tracting the past few days are just outside of prairie and are in big hills, this area has a ton of hills, walking them has made my legs a bit sore, but we are trying to let our town cool off so that when i leave they can slowly start retracting the town.
Elder Stahl has a scale, none of my other appartments or companions have had one, i cheked myself, and i have gained 10 pounds, I was sort of surprised because i have ween doing a lot of walking, but I have also started to do pushups after every compaion prayer,I am now up to 30 and usualy do that about 7 or 8 times a day. I picked that up from elder Jensen who did that.
Thank you for all of the support, I love you all , and pray for you.

Elder Lundberg

22 February 2006

Letter from Mark 20 Feb 2006

Dear Family,

This week has been interesting. tuesday we had a meeting at 9:00 in the morning 145 miles away. we drove the first 50 on monday night so that we wouldn't have to get up too early. Thursday we got hammered with about 8-10 inches of snow, so we spent all day shoveling. friday the temperature droped to about 5 degrees, probably aabout -10 or -15 with the wind chill. then friday night we were told to avoid going out except for appointments on saturday, the high was supposed to be -7, it got to around 0, but when we woke up it was -20, and the wind chill was bad all day. around noon it was about the same as friday whe we were tracting, but my companion didn't wan't to go out at all, which is understandable being from arizona. we stoped by a part member family , but that is it.

our attendance at church is hovering around 40-45 per week, we need to average 50 per week for three months to see a building. recently we have not had our investigators showing up to church, but we have had a few less actives starting to show up more. the branch is starting to look for land to put a building on.

Transferrs are comming up on thursday. one of us will be transferred because we have been together for two transfers and they don't usually kep two elders together longer then that. most likely elder sieler will be going bcause he has been here longer, but there is the chance that i do, so please use the office this week.

thanks for the box, it was nice. we don't buy snack foods offen, so it has been nice to have them.

thank you for all of the support that you give me. I love you all.

Elder Lundberg

18 February 2006

How To Become Elmo

HI!

My name is Thomas James Lundberg.

I am two.

I am insane. You can see it in my eyes.

For my birthday I wanted to become Elmo and this is how I did it.











Keep going, my transformation is almost complete...






Wahlahh! Finished!

I'm thinking about becoming Grover for my third birthday...stayed tuned!

13 February 2006

Letter from Mark 13 Feb 2006

dear family,

this week has been good. i am in Platteville at the momemt because we are going to janesville early tomorrow morning, and it is a 3 hour drive from Prairie Du Chien, a 2 hour drive from Plattville.

thank you for the piano music that you sent, that is great, it is nice to have something to play that is different the the hymns, the hymns are great, but they aren't made as piano solo's. It has been great going through them. they are hard enough that i actually have to put some effort into them, but still easy enough that i can learn them in the time that i have to play. I recieved the valentines package as well. that was great, thank you.

We had a dinner yesterday with a family that recently moved into the branch. they moved from arizona. they are awesome and are very eager to help us. she just got called as the 1st counselor in the young womens, giving us more leaders then young women, but that should change in june with a family that is moving in. they called her because the YW president lives by madison and comes because her husband was called as the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, so they commute 2 hours to prairie du chien every sunday. this way they can have a leader here for the activities.

Our lesson with Judy and Laura went well this week. laura is realy getting into the book of mormon, and is starting to question if she is on the right path with the catholic church (she doesn't actively attend that church) she said she was going to try to make it to church on sunday, but didn't show up. it will be a slow prosses, but i think her heart is being softened from reading the book of mormon. judy has expressed interest in joining the church, but doesn't feel the time is right. she still smokes, and has a very busy work scheduel, she gets off of an 16 hour shift sunday mornings at 8 so she hasn't been comming to church recently.

My companion has been having a hard time, and realy wants to leave this area. prairie du chien was tracted way too much by the elders before my companion. we keep track of houses that tell us not interested so we don't bug them too much, and so there are a lot of streets that don't have many houses to knock, several times my companion will se someone he recognises that has told him no before, he has been doing a good job working, he just donsn't want to stay because he has knocked every door in prairie du chein multiple times. it has made it a little harder because he complaines alot, but he is willing to work.

I set up a bank account with wells fargo a few weeks ago. i did that so that i can cash checks that get sent to me without paying any fee's. I don't plan on using it for much than that at the moment, but there are several locations around the state that if nothing else i will have access to at big meetings. I figured that would be a good place because i can keep it when i go home.

I love you all and appreciate your support. thank you for your prayers, i pray for you.

Elder Lundberg

06 February 2006

Letter from Mark 06 Feb 2006

dear family,

this week has been different, it started out in the 50's, then droped to the 20's, windy and humid. it is now hovering in the 30's, but the sun is out and it isn't windy or humid, so it feels a lot warmer.

we had chuck McCullick and Liz Anderson show up for church. chuck is a less active member, and liz isn't a member, but is taking the lessons. they are not married, but are getting maried on the 18th of march. chuck has been comming for the past couple weeks now, liz has been working a lot so has not come in a while. chuck has a 12 year old son that is a member that came, and is interested in joining the priesthood. they are starting to make progress, and will probably make more once they are married, they both smoke, but liz has to be carefull quiting cold turkey because she is pregnant.

we met with an old catholic couple named Jan and Wane Koeke. we tracted into them last week and they invited us back. Jan told us that they were catholic's and like talking to missionaries (they had met some before) but she wouldn't be interested in changing religions. we gave her a book of mormon and she was very excited. she said the other missionaries never gave her a book of mormon. she told us that she would read it. Even if she isn't ready to change religions yet, reading the book of mormon is a steap in the right direction.

I bought a slow cooker earlier this week and made a roast in it. it was nice to have real food. I planed out how much it costs and i can probably do one roast or stew a week. it is also small enough that i will be able to pack it with me when i am transfered. it was nice to have a good meal, and the leftovers lasted a few meals. it was nice to have because we don't get many dinners with members.

I love you. thank you for all of your support.

Elder Lundberg