Letter from Mark 31 July 2006

Dear Family,

We have spent a ton of time this past week cleaning out our appartment and moving all of our stuff in with a couple named the smiths. our appartment had a ton of things like extra bedding, shirts, lots of cleaning supplies and a ton of food like canned vegedables, pasta noodles, and other stuff most missionaries don't eat. there is a member that will give us food occasionaly, some of it stacks up. I think we gave 7 jars of peanut butter to the food pantery, and we kept 2, one almost empty. we had our final appartment inspection this morning, so after the move on saturday we cleaned all day.

Living with members is wierd. right now i feel like i am just hanging out in their house for way too long. they have part of the basement that they are finishing so right now we are in a very small room. it will be nice once we move to the basement because then we will have a little more space, and we will be off on our own a little more. it is nice because we have a cell phone now, with very few minutes, but free nights and weekends, we also get free laundry, and they told us they are suppose to buy all the cleaning supplys and laundry deturgent. we still buy our own food, but they will feed us if we tell them we will be around for dinner. it is nice, but it will take some getting use to. and then the 10th of August is transfers, and i will probably be leaving.

one of the things they are trying to do with moving us in with members is to move us to different members after a while, to get us in a different part of the area, and to give the members a break, so the bishop has asked a few people to get things ready for missionaries, he is also pushing for another set of missionaries in the ward. the bishop is a general contractor and is building a house with an appartment above the garadge for the missionaries, and he is going to be helping another family finish their basement for missionaries. it is a good program, i wontder if/when they will expand it to other missions.

It has been very hot and humid the past few days. saturday while we were cleaning i would occasionally step outside, and i felt like i was going to break a sweat just standing there for 30 seconds. I'm glad we were inside most of the day.

Well, training is going alright, I will be glad for transfers though. I think i am ready for a new comanion and a new area. training has been a good experience, and i have learned a ton. it really puts pressure on you to do what you need to do. being a junior comanion you have input on what to do, but all of the responsibility in working ultimatly lies on the Senior comanion. and looking back at my senior companions i can see why they did a lot of what they did, even though at the time it bothered me and i didn't like it. Hopfully E. griffiths will feel that way when he becomed senior companion and trains.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support yat you have given me, it has helped strenthen and encourage me. I pray for you and i love you all.

Elder Lundberg