Our Gifts For 2009

Simple and easy was the name of the game this year : )

Some Of My Favorite Christmas Moments. . .

I Did, I Did, I Got What I Wanted!!

The only thing I wanted this year was to have all of my family together and to talk to Lance.  The first part absolutely came true but it seemed as if the second part of my wish was not to be.  I was so sad! 

My kids always tease me that whenever I am upset, I clean.  Well, Christmas night I started scrubbing the walls after trying for so long to get a hold of Lance with no success.  They finally convinced me to sit down and play some games and we had such a fun time. 

We played Uno Attack and laughed our heads off.  After that we played Taboo.  We played that for a long time with the teams being Gary, Andy and me; and Scott, Leslie and Alex.  Then we started playing as one big team with only one person giving clues and everyone else guessing.  When it was Gary's turn we were amazed at how good he was with clues because we guessed them everytime!!  After a while he started laughing and we found out that every single clue he used was a "Taboo" word, hahaha.  He's hilarious!!  After that we straightened the house and I started getting food ready for our traditional Day After Christmas Brunch.  Then we went to bed - it was VERY late. 

At 6:30 the next morning our phone rang and it was Lance.  He told us to call him back which we tried to do, again unsuccessfully.  He ended up going to the Hymas's (the Senior Couple in his area) and called us from their phone.  We got to talk to him for 2 1/2 hours!  It was soooooooooo great to hear his voice.  He sounded very, very happy.  He did tell me a couple for stories that I will relate later, having to do with bats, anacondas and wild monkeys. . .

(Sorry, I just can't bring myself to post a picture of a bat and Les would have a fit about the anaconda, maybe later?)

I Didn't Get What I Wanted . . .

I've been looking forward to today for for the past 6 months.  In fact, the whole family has.  Today at 5:00 pm we were going to call Lance in Guyana!  We had everything set up right down to how we were going to record the conversation so we could listen to it later.  We had gone over to my mom and dad's for dinner and left about 4:40 so we could be ready for "The Phone Call".  We dialed once, we dialed twice, we dialed three times.  Nothing but a busy signal!  We called the international operator and he told us to just keep trying.  After about 30 minutes Lance calls us and tells us to call him back.  We try again - nothing.  He calls back and we tell him that our call won't go through.  He said that he would try to get permission to call us tomorrow.  We'll see how that works out.

Other than that our day was great!  It was all pretty laid back this year but all of the kids were here except Lance and he was in our hearts : ).  Everyone had a great day and I have to say that I have certainly been blessed in my life.  I'm so thankful for such a wonderful family!!  And at least our house doesn't look like this, hahaha  : D

Merry Christmas!

Image by Greg Olsen

Happy 50th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

We've been celebrating our parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary for the past week and it's been wonderful!  The family all went to Maddox last Saturday for a big dinner.  It was a very scary drive through the canyon with all of the snow but well worth it.  We all had a great time!

Then today we all went to see The Bar J Wranglers.  It was awesome!  I love the way that they sing and they are hilarious!! 

We have such a great family with the BEST parents in the world!!!!  Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad.  WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Our Company Party

Once again our company party was a blast!  We had it at Hamilton's Steak and Seafood Restaurant and had the best table in the house, right in front of the big fireplace!  Christmas trees flanked the fireplace and everything looked beautiful.

My food was amazing!  I had a green salad, roasted mashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, roasted vegetables and chicken cordon bleu.  For dessert I had crème brulee - YUM!  We ate and laughed and had a great time.  We always have a good time together, you'd think we were related we get along so well, hahaha.  Then it came time for the awards - What a SURPRISE!!!  It was truly a night to remember!

Our Family's Own Celebrity

Andy works in Salt Lake at an upscale restaurant called The New Yorker.  The following article appeared in the Salt Lake Examiner newspaper.  Andy is such a hard worker and everyone likes him.  He's easy to talk to, understanding and kind.  I'm so proud of him!!!  I did have to laugh about what he had to "endure" though, hahaha!

The New Yorker’s $14 prix-fixe lunch in SLC

Salt Lake City Lunch Examiner Heather King

The New Yorker is certainly one of the finest restaurants in Salt Lake City. Designed in 1940’s New York era décor with dark woods, fine linens and a stained-glass ceiling, The New Yorker is a wonderful place to take visitors or become a frequent local diner for lunch or dinner.

Located in the historic 1906 New York Hotel, The New Yorker offers a fantastic two course prix-fixe lunch for just $14 in addition to a wide selection of specials, salads, sandwiches and other entrees.

Included on the prix-fixe menu is a chopped salad with roasted chicken breast, a New York steak sandwich with shoestring potatoes which comes highly recommended, chicken breast marsala or a filet of Atlantic salmon (excellently prepared to the perfect point of juiciness while flaking apart just right) with sour cream whipped potatoes. Each of these entrees comes with the choice of soup (Gastronomy’s wonderful clam chowder or, on this day, cream of mushroom) or Caesar or mixed green salad or a dessert of Tahitian vanilla crème brûleé or vanilla Haagen Dazs with fresh berries. It’s a great deal for some delicious food (see slideshow for tempting photos!).

As a side note, this most recent visit to The New Yorker involved a group of 10 business women gathering for a baby shower. We were seated in one of the beautiful private dining rooms and given excellent service by our server, Andy. In addition to needing separate checks and accommodating special orders, Andy was also subjected to some very graphic conversations about pregnancy, surgeries and gynocologists. Besides an occasional lifted eyebrow or jaw drop, he was an excellent sport and met our every whim with a smile. I’m happy to say that most of my visits to The New Yorker have been with large parties and they are one of the most accommodating restaurants for this. Thank you!

Progressive Dinner 2009 - 20th Anniversary!!

Once again a good time was had by ALL!!   What a fun, fun night.  We started at Daryl and Melinda's for appetizers.  They served a yummy punch, barbequed little smokies, a relish tray, crackers, mozzerella sticks, jalepeno poppers, and Melinda's famous "Holiday Dip" with a wonderful bread bowl.  They probably had other things too but the dip is my favorite so I mostly concentrated on that, hahaha.  Their house looked beautiful!  I loved the way she decorated her table and as always the tree was pretty too. 

(I wish that I had pictures but I don't have my own camera anymore - since it was STOLEN AT THE MTC!!)  They gave us a Willow Tree Figure called Happiness.  I love it!

Then it was on to our house.  We had the main course.  My work party was the same night and one of my friends is opening a new restaurant called Smokin Blues.  They were catering the party at work so he said he'd do ours too.  Yayyy!  We served pulled pork, baked beans, baked potatoes, green salad and rolls.  It was yummy!  This year we didn't put up any lights outside.  Right now I really miss them and feel disappointed but I'm sure come January I won't feel bad at all when I don't have to go out and take them down!  Since I don't have as much time as I used to Leslie helped me a TON!  She's such an awesome daughter - Thanks, sweetheart!  You saved me again!!  For presents this year we gave Santas that hang on the wall. 

Then we went to Brian and Marilyn's house for dessert.  I LOVED  how her porch was decorated!  Her house looked awesome too!  I'm very envious of her basement by the way.  Her family room is just what I want.  Anyway, enough with the envy, (hahaha, for now).  We had the best decadent chocolate cheesecake ever and also regular cheesecake with cherries or blueberries.  It was the perfect end for the evening, and I say this tongue in cheek because by this time it was about 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning!!  Marilyn bought us each a wonderful "something" in the Philipinnes a couple of months ago, but sad to say it got left there by accident.  Now Angela will be in charge of getting it home for Christmas so we can see what it is  : D  They also gave us the newest Christmas CD of the Tabernacle Choir, Ring Christmas Bells.  It was recorded last year and we got to see the show in person so that's awesome!

This has got to be the one of the BEST traditions our family has.  The only sad thing about it is that Jay and Linda moved to Arizona and aren't with us  : (   WE MISS YOU!!!!!!

Thanks everyone it was great!!!!!!

A Christmas Carol

One of my all time favorite movies is A Christmas Carol.  I've seen all of the versions below and probably my favorite one is A Muppet Christmas Carol.  Although the Albert Finney version, Scrooge, is a close second.  I really, really HATED the Bill Murray version, Scrooged!!!  I thought the new version with Jim Carrey was awesome though a little scary.  I wouldn't recommend it for families with small children.

The Nutcracker Tradition

Every year for at least the last twelve years, we have a tradition of going to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on the Friday night after Thanksgiving.  My mom and dad, my sister, Toni, her daughter, Kailee, my daughter, Leslie, and I all go together.  The first couple of times it seemed like it would never end, now it seems like it flys by so fast!  We have such a good time together - and all of us "girls" are very proud of my dad for going with us each year, it wouldn't be the same without him.  This fun night is the beginning of the Christmas Season for us all and WE LOVE IT!!!!!

God's Wings

After reading this story I was so touched that I wanted to share it.

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park , forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage.  One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick.  When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings.

The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.


She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast ...because she had been willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.


'He will cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you will find refuge.'
(Psalm 91:4)


Being loved this much should make a difference in our lives.
Remember the One who loves you, and then be different because of it.

It's THAT Time of the Year

It's that time of the year again, where everyone is sick.  Everyday at least one child comes to my desk to tell me, "I don't feel very good."  Then there is coughing, sneezing, wiping of the nose across a sleeve or a hand and sometimes throw up!  I take the poor little thing's temperature, "Yup, you've got a fever, I'll call your mom." 

I HATE to be sick.  I really hate taking my vacation time from work to be sick!  So once again our family makes the annual trip to get a flu shot.  People tell me all the time, "I never get the flu shot and I never get the flu" or "The last time I got the flu shot, I got the flu anyway, I nearly died!"  Whatever.  I'm not taking any chances.  In fact, as soon as the N1H1 shot comes out, I'm first in line!! 

Anyway, I was first to get my shot - and it really HURT!  Gary was next and then Alex.  They said it didn't really hurt but my whole arm was aching.  By the next day I had a red spot on my arm as big as a baseball with a big lump in it and a fever there too.  Not only did my arm ache but it felt like someone had punched me as hard as they could.  It feels a little better today but is very itchy.

If I can avoid being sick though it will be WORTH IT!! (Secret:  Sometimes "my throat is a little scratchy", hahaha, Alex).

Guilty By Association . . . I wish!

Confession!  When I was a little girl I wanted to be in the Tabernacle Choir.  As I grew up I realized that although I could carry a tune and sing in a choir, my "talents" did not include beautiful singing.  After I had been married a few years, my husband's family made "The Lundberg Family Christmas Album".  Each of the six families (5 brothers, and mother and father) would prepare 3 songs for the album.  (I'll post about that sometime closer to Christmas.)  My husband, Gary, convinced me to sing a "little" solo at the beginnng of one of our family's songs.  Even though I cherish the cd dearly,I always cringe when it comes to my part on that song.  Anyway, back to the Tab Choir - my sister-in-law, Marilyn sings in it, her sister-in-law, Marilyn (that is not a typo) sings in it, my friend and fellow co-worker, Nancy sings in it, and two of my other friends, Yvonne and Edie, sing in it.  I wish that "Birds of a Feather Flock Together"!  Loved the music this conference!!!!!  Thanks!

This Really Happened!

This is the story in CacheValleyDaily.com:

Standoff in Logan ends peacefully
By Heather Bailey
Story Created: Sep 18, 2009 at 8:53 AM MDT
Story Updated: Sep 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM MDT
A 4-hour standoff ended peacefully last night in Logan. Logan Police Captain Jeff Curtis says 31-year old Jeremy R. Peterson was at his home near 400 West and 200 North at approximately 6:30 p.m. when he threatened to harm himself and others. When police responded they contacted Peterson in the stairway. Curtis says they saw he had two very large knives in his possession. Peterson then barricaded himself in an upstairs bedroom. Negotiators were sent into the residence while Logan Police and SWAT and with fire officials staged themselves outside. Curtis says at about 10:30 p.m. negotiators felt Peterson was ready to surrender. SWAT went in and safely took him into custody. Curtis says Peterson was taken to the hospital and stayed overnight for observation. He says police have had dealings with Peterson in the past. Curtis says no one was hurt and the standoff didn’t result in road closures since it was in the middle of the block.

This is the story from our backyard, according to our daughter:

http://www.scottandles.com/

The one in the "paper" doesn't seem like it was that big of a deal, but it seemed like a REAL big deal watching it all unfold. It was pretty intense!!

News - AT LAST!!

We finally got some news about what's going on in Guyana. This is a picture which was printed in one of the newspapers there. Lance told us his picture was on the front page of the newspaper there and that he would send it home. I don't know if this is the picture or not, but I'm thinking that Lance is the missionary in the window on the left, 2nd one from the left in the pink tie. You'd think a mother would know her own son but alas, I'm not positive.

Lance and his companion got a call around midnight on Tuesday night telling them that they needed to report to the police station in Georgetown at 8:00 a.m. the following morning. There were about 60 missionaries in all who were detained - that is every missionary serving there. When they got there, their lawyer, who is guyanese, said that he would have them out by 10:00 a.m. that morning.

The missionaries were told that the reasons they were there was because they hadn't filled out work permits, that they were there illegally and all of their passports were expired, none of which was true. They were all held together in one room (which was very hot) and while they waited they played games, sang songs (not "We Shall Overcome"), slept and talked. It was a very long day.

Lance wrote, "This didn't sound like a big deal until that later that day. Everyone made it sound like it was gonna be a wham bam done deal and that the missionaries would be fine. I've heard rumors that the government thinks we are spies and that they don't want us here because we are leaking info to the US. The president of Guyana said that we had 24 hours to leave the country, all 60 of us."

They were finally able to leave a little after 7:00 p.m. having been there for almost 12 hours after they made a deal to keep a few missionaries in Guyana and everyone else had until the end of the month to leave. The next morning it was all over the news and in all of the papers.

Everyone was very nervous about who was staying, who was going, and where they would go. Lance says he is one of the lucky ones (I say, lucky?) who gets to stay and that there would only be about 18 of them who will remain in Guyana. President Gamiette (their Mission President) came and talked with them and told them what to expect.

They are going to bring in 20 mini missionaries who are local. So Lance will be serving with a guyanese missionary. Some of them will be coming on full time missions. There are some who aren't 19 yet, but they are getting permission from the church to come early.

Lance wrote, "I think one of the things that's sweet is when you step back and look at the Lord's hand in the work. We think this is a horrible thing at first but then stepping back it's great. Guyana is looking to get a stake but in order to do that we need worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders. God gives us that. It's sweet.

So while I'm worried sick about my "little boy" and what will happen to him, and impatient for a good outcome (all the while thinking that Lance will be leaving Guyana and that he will be so sad), God once again proves to me that He knows what he's doing, He knows what is best, and He knows us and loves us. His work will go on!!

I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father and for the love and kindness he shows to us. For His wisdom in all things and for humbling me without devastating me.

I asked Lance if he was scared and this is what he wrote: I was scared about going to a new mission but that's not happening. I told a bunch of people, "The next time I step foot in America it's to hug my mom!" Okay, the tears are flowing again so I'll leave you with one last picture for today. : ) I AM SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!

I'm Worried. . .

I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night and so got up and started looking at some of the mission blogs I follow. One of them had a very large blog about their temple trip to the DR. I was so excited but then noticed a little blurb about one of the senior couples having been arrested that day and that my fellow blogger aka another missionary couple, had to report to the police station the next morning at 8:00 a.m.

And so began my sleepless nights. The only information which we have personally been given is: "Some of you have heard that the missionaries in Guyana are being deported. There is nothing for you to be concerned about your son in not in danger. Missionary work is continuing as usual. We are working with the mission presidency to work out this situation. When it is resolved, we will be in touch with you."

I wrote to Sister Robison who is the wife of the former Mission President (they just returned about two months ago). She told me that most of the time they were on their mission, the government refused to approve their missionary permit applications. Under advice from the local Church lawyer they would always reapply so the elders were technically legal to continue in Guyana while the reapplication process was ongoing. Apparently the government decided to stop completely considering these applications.

The only other things that we know are from what we've read both here in the US and in a couple of the Caribbean papers. My personal feeling is that they will leave Guyana at least for a while. We know that whatever happens, it will be the Lord's will but a phone call right now sounds great!!

GET MY SHOES OFF!!!!

Lance wrote home this week saying, "Tell Alex to GET MY SHOES OFF!!!! I'm very vexed about Alex getting into my shoes." When I first read that I thought, "How does he know that Alex has been wearing his shoes?" Then he explained, "I had quite the surprise when I opened that (photo album that Leslie had made) album (which is wonderful by the way! I have it standing up on my desk so I can look at it) and saw that pic of you, dad and Alex in front of the Salt Lake Temple. The first thing I noticed was my shoes and I was furious." I guess we better get Alex some new shoes, hahaha.

End of the Day in New Amsterdam

Lance has been transferred to New Amsterdam but is still in Guyana. The Bullocks are the Senior Couple who I guess keep an eye on the Missionaries. They also have many other responsibilities in Guyana. Lance loves them and I can certainly see why - they seem like a lot of fun to be around. The other missionaries in the picture are from left to right: Elder Huntsman, Elder Olsen (Lance's companion) and Elder Barton. Elder Olsen is a new companion to Lance and is quite knowlegeable about "math and super heros". Lance said that's all they "talked" about for the first three days, hahaha. He's LOVING his mission!

Happy 4th of July!

I always get sentimental and patriotic this time of year. I'm so grateful to live in such a beautiful place. America and Cache Valley - for me, this IS the place! Every year we go to a little park with a pond and watch the fireworks. We have been doing this for about 20 years. This year Gary, Alex, Scott, Leslie and I went. My parents came and brought my sister, Toni and niece, Kailee. My brother, Jason and his wife Cassie and their CUTE little boy, Easton came too. We ate pizza and visited for a little over an hour before the fireworks started. Just when it started to get dark Gary's brother, Brent, and his family all came. It was so fun to just be together and celebrate living in this great country. I'm proud to be an American!!!

The Camera Saga

Before Lance left on his mission we contemplated about what kind of a camera to send with him. After purchasing everything else he needed we decided to just send my camera instead of spending more money and I would get a new (and possibly better, haha) one. So we sent him with my Olympus ultra zoom which is an amazing camera. It was a couple of years old but a pretty expensive camera that took great pictures. So we were excited for all of the pictures Lance would be able to take in the West Indies.

Well, that didn't happen. The camera was stolen on his first day at the MTC. Lance felt so bad about it and all of the money that we had spent that he didn't tell us until he left to go out to the mission field.

So we bought him another camera. This one was a smaller one, a Canon Power Shot A470. It had good reviews and everyone said it was a very good camera. We sent the camera to him the end of February. We didn't know how long it would take so everytime we wrote to him we would ask if his camera had come. He always had the same answer, "Nope". By the first of May we knew that it had been stolen. There's two down and about $500 for cameras and postage.

We caught a break the middle of May and the same camera we had sent before was $10 cheaper than the last time we bought it. This time we went to the UPS store and sent it Express with a tracking number and insured it. It cost $65.00 for a small box 5" x 6" and weighing less than a pound. Everyday I checked the tracking number. By May 22 it had arrived in Guyana in customs. On the 28th I received an email from Sister Bullock (the missionaries have couple missionaries who pick up their mail, etc.). She said that Lance's box had arrived. It had the CD's, cables, instructions and a new bank card (a whole other story) in it. Everything but the camera. Stolen again!!! When I asked Lance what he did when he found out, he said, "I said, 'Swear Word!!' ". haha

So then we had to go to the Post Office to find out how to get reimbursed since it was insured. They gave us numbers for the International Postal Service which we have called several times. We are still waiting for the information!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Lance called home and said that everyone in the mission was trying to figure out a way to get him a camera. This is what the President and the Assistants came up with: We put money in Lance's account, he gets the money and gives it to the Assistants who take it with them to St. Martins (which is more Americanized) and buy the camera there. They take it to Grenada and give it to some other missionaries who are going to Trinidad and from there some other missionaries take it to Guyana where Lance will pick it up. Whew!!

This time should be the charm!! : ) We are now up to about $750 in camera costs. We better get some tremendously awesome pictures for that amount!

A Summer Tradition

Gary and I, Scott and Leslie started our summer tradition by going on a few of the homes in this year's Parade of Homes. As usual, we had a ton of fun! We only saw three houses but one of them was in Franklin, Idaho. It's by a big lake and is beautiful! Leslie and I even got brave and went out to the lake and out on to the dock. It must be built on pontoons because it shifted a little bit when we walked out on it. It was awesome! We could hear crickets and all kinds of birds. Gary and Scott didn't even come and look for us. Les and I were trying to decide if we were brave enough to get in the boat at the dock and untie it. We weren't!! Then we went to LaTienda for dinner. It was amazing food. We didn't even gamble. Scott and Leslie are our best friends! Thanks for a fun time, guys!!

Grab A Hankie

Lance told us this story last week. WOW! That's my "little boy". I'm so proud of him!

"We were studying on Tuesday and I get a call from our landlord saying that there is a man that is looking for us. So we invite the man over (he has tattos and looks kind of hardened) and he tells me that he has been in every church possible but none of them are true. So we teach him the restoration. After the lesson I ask him to pray to God to know if this is true. Quietly he says, "No, I don’t need to." I get this weird look on my face and he tells me about this dream he had. He met a man dressed in all white that he didn’t know. He was talking to the man about God and said he couldn’t find the right church. The man showed him a picture of my face and said this man will teach you the truth and help you and your family get baptized in God’s true church. Then he woke up. He had been looking for me for a couple of days then finally tracked us down. It was crazy cool. We have been teaching him a lot this week".

Sweet Crabwood Creek Family

This was my first week in Crabwood. We found a couple of sweet families that I'm hoping will stay cool. I love Crabwood but my heart is in Skeldon. I will want to come back here for sure some other time to serve. We found a sweet family named Persaud that will get baptized. They are a family of 5. We didn't have a baptism this week and really the area was not very good when I got here. They weren't really teaching anyone and it just wasn't a very good situation. But things happen for a reason, so we have had some great time this week to really find out what it is. It was hard for a little while just because of how hot it is but that's mission life. In church we had 6 people there investigator wise and I'm used to getting around 14 so that was hard. I know that things will pick up though.

Skeldon, Guyana - My First Baptisms

The bottom picture is a lady named Grace. I didn't baptize her and she wasn't even our investigator but she speaks dutch so she wanted Elder Sorber to baptize her in dutch. It was cool. The skinny one is Elder Sorber, and the bigger one is Elder Warhurst. He is the one who came out with me from the MTC. The next picture was actually my first baptism. Her name is Amanda. She is 15 and just a sweet funny girl. Her dad is crazy and thinks that he has seen Christ 3 times, so i just thought in my head, "Alright ya freakin weirdo." I love the girl to death she is sweet. The top one is a lady named Bibi. She is great. She has 11 kids and some are really bad. Two of her sons will run away and just live on the street for weeks at a time. Her husband is a drunk but she is great. She is a really strong active member.

Lance - PLEASE answer my questions!

1. What do you eat?- I eat a lot of rice, chicken, roti, and just sandwhich bread haha. not a whole lot of variety here but I like it.

2. Do you walk everywhere? -yes we walk every where and when we don't we ride in something called a tapeir (tap ear)

3. What is your house like? our house is really big. it has 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms, a big couch and table so it's really nice.

4. Who is the senior couple who you deal with? Elder and Sister Larsen are the couple that's over us. I like them a lot.

5. Do you ever get close to monkeys? ya monkeys are really sweet here. I've held one or two but a lot are scared of people and scream at you when you try to pet them

6. Do you ever see other wild animals? I don't see a lot. I've seen monkeys, parrots, and alligators. I mostly see dogs cats and cows and goats.

7. Has your camera come yet? nope still waiting on it. also I'm watching out for my sweet ties to come.

This week was awesome, we baptized 4 people. I did them all then confirmed 2 of them. It was a lot of fun. We did it at the beach and the water was really warm and nice. I would have so many good pics to show you all but first I need a camera. President Robison talked with me at zone conference which was 2 weeks ago, I think, and told me that I would be staying in Skeldon til I had been out 6 months. I'm pretty stoked for that. Me and Elder Sorber have been with the traveling assistants a lot and they are sweet. Last week I was with Elder Dayton who is just a stud. I would love serving with him. Anyway, I was showing him this basketball court by our house and these two big black dudes were playin ball. We challeged them and played them just in our missionary clothes. haha beat them bad. and they were pretty good, so it was really sweet.

We are teaching some cool families but no one really sweet. We baptized this lady named Ashmon who is like 24 and has a girl that's already 9 that we also baptized. She only has like 6 teeth and one of them is a gold one. She is really really weird. but she is funny.

Last Wednesday, we were out in the morning running and we came home at 7 and in front of our house there is an old car that just sits in front of our house but no one uses it. Inside we look and there is a little boy from a family we have been teaching that ran away from home a week earlier and had just been living on the streets for the past week. We called his dad and he came and got him. He probably gave him bad lashings. I guess that's a big problem here. Kids will run away for weeks and just live on the streets and thief people to eat.

Guess that's it for the week. I hope everything is good.

I love you all.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Hello Everyone,

This week we had 2 more baptisms. The first was named Steve Solomon and he is a retired guy around the age of 60. I like him a lot. We have been teaching him for a while now and I just like him a whole lot. We are thinking that he is going to be our branch president. Saturday we baptized him in black water (the water has nutrients from the rainforest).

Guess why it’s called that - so my clothes are all dirty now. It was just very spiritual. He bore his testimony on how he came to know this was the true church was by reading the Book of Mormon. It was soo amazing. The second one was a little boy whose mother we are teaching and she reminds me a lot of Aunt Toni. She is just that funny type. She is great. Her son is around the age of 11 or so. Sunday we walked out to the river and baptized him before church. We didn’t have time to do much for him service wise so we just prayed, sang and baptized. It was still very spiritual. i still haven’t gotten my camera yet so I’m hoping that will come any time now. I’m so vexed about that. Hopefully it didn’t get stolen this time too. I’m glad to see that you saw some pictures of me and the elders I’m serving with. Some of my favorite elders are Elder Mundy, Dayton, Duncan, and Temerono. They are all older but they are sweet guys. We play basketball a lot with the locals on P day. Today we are in Georgetown, which is like 3 hours from Skeldon, we are going to the most famous and best resturant in Guyana. It’s like Rodizio Grill. Just lots of meat, so I’m stoked. Its expensive. Speaking of money, they use 1000 dollar bills which is like $5 US. I took a picture of one million dollars in 1000 dollar bills, I’m gonna title it " what do ya think about that?!?" So the grossest thing happened, I found a spider in our house that was bigger then my whole hand. hahaha I made Elder Sorber kill it cuz I wouldn’t. Things are just really good right now, I really am enjoying what I’m doing.

I love you all!!

Hello Everyone!!!

I had 2 more baptisms this week. I have some sick pics of it but no my camera hasn’t come yet. So I’m hoping to get it anytime now. I hope you’re all reading each others letters cuz there are things I tell to one that I don’t say to the other. Hahaha so everyone here has horrible grammar and I’m starting to pick up on it. This morning I was praying before we left and I said to the Lord, "Please bless we that we be protected today." and it wasn’t til later that I noticed it. Horrible horrible. I’m gonna have to go back to school when I’m home. Well things here haven’t really changed a whole bunch. I’m losing tons of weight. I’ve lost around 20 pounds I’m guessing. I’m stoked about it. I know you guys have sent me so much already but would you mind buying me a pair of running shoes and sending them. I don’t have any. Oh in your next letter make sure you write me back and tell me if my other stuff got sent home alright from the MTC. I bought some shoes here but they suck. Hahaha it’s so funny to me, cuz no one has many teeth so since mine are goofed up I feel right at home. It’s funny. Really for the most part things are great here. Every day I love what I’m doing. I’ve already been out for a whole transfer in the field in like a week. And today is my one month anniversary in the West Indies!!!! Hahaha so I heard that my dad just found out how to open my phone. When I call you guys I’m gonna have to talk really slow. Everyone here talks so fast I’ve picked up on it and just slur words together really quickly so its not good haha. I hope everything is well for you all.I love you!!!!

Happy Birthday, Ernie!!

Today's your birthday, Mr. Ernie

It's been 10 years today.

My life has never been the same

Since you came here to stay.

You've gotten in the garbage,

Chewed up cords and clothes,

Snatched food from off the table

Climbed on the couch to doze.

You've caused so many problems

And made many a mess

Why we all love you so

Is anybody's guess.

Happy Birthday, Fattie!!

I've Been Out For 3 Weeks!

yo yo yo what up.... BAPTISM!!! My first was on Saturday! We took this 15 year old girl named Amanda down to the river and baptized her. It was sweet. Her dad is really hard to get along with. He is big into the Bible and we were kinda arguing about religion and honestly I don’t know how I did it but somehow I was just pulling scriptures outta my pocket and throwing them at him and he didn’t know what to say to me after I told him stuff about the Book of Mormon. I felt bad though after making him look kinda stupid just cuz it didn’t accomplish anything. Well, you’re gonna be so proud of me. I know now how you feel about having a clean house. That’s something that me and my comp do all the time is clean so we have a clean room and house. We just found a new apartment so we will be moving out tomorrow. I’m stoked. hahah the devil is playing a huge part in trying to get me to come back. I don’t know if you have heard but blink 182 is back 11 days or something after I get out on the mish. I’m furious. It’s cool though it can wait, even though I honestly called that happening like a year ago. My companion speaks dutch because he went to Suriname and so I’m learning dutch. Shrebe sweetie means sleep good. I love it. The days here some seem long and I just don’t want to do it anymore but before I know it I’m waking up next day ready to start again. Think about this, in 6 days i will have been in the West Indies for a month. crazy crazy. 2 weeks I will be done with my first transfer. Our houses are all stone and we have water filters, it’s a requirement. But I’m going crazy over here because they just listen to Akon and R&B and I hate that junk and I’m starting to enjoy it now cuz i hear it all day. It’s so sweet here I love it. One thing that I thought was awesome was I was bearing testimony the other day about the Book of Mormon and the spirit took over and i didn’t mean to say any of the things I said - it was amazing. I will email you when my camera gets here. Also, will you go and buy me some cool ties, let Scott pick them out cuz he knows what I will like :) hahaha make them colorful and send them to me.

Love you all!
Elder Lundberg

You're Going To Do What?!!!!!

Things are great here, every day is a better day it seems like. today we are going alligator hunting and I'm stoked! I haven't seen one yet but hopefully I will today. Every day my comp and I grow closer. I love that guy a lot. He leaves in June. Right now there are some sweet families we are teaching. There is a family here that is named Truman and it's just a bunch of people that live above a shop here. They are probably my coolest family here so far. they are just really good to us. they always give us free lemonade and order us food and what not. they won't take no for an answer. Then there is this other family, the Solamen's. It's this older guy and his wife. They just give us tons of fruit when we go over there so that's great. I've had mango and passion fruit and a bunch of others but i haven't tried pineapple yet so hopefully i can get that soon. I guess its not in season yet. I haven't had to get any boots yet because we are in the dry season but it still rains every day. We don't do anything with the rent, that's totally handled by the senior couple, if you and mom ever plan on coming on a mission then you should put in a request to come here. they recruit senior couples like none other and i love it, they are like our grand parents. today is only my second P day out here but last week we just wrote home and then we went to the senior couples house and played games and just hung out with all the other missionaries it was a blast. the only thing that sucks about it is its such a far drive. we live in Crabwood Creek (we still haven't found a place to live yet in Skeldon) and we have to drive like 2 hours to get to new Amsterdam cuz that's where the senior couples live. but I hope everything is well. I'm excited for my camera!! I love you all.

Elder Lundberg

In case you're wondering why he is so excited for his camera, the one we sent with him was stolen at the MTC! Can you believe it? That's like getting your shoes stolen at the temple hahaha!

I'm In Guyana, South America!

Wow, I don’t even know where to start. It's so sweet here. I love it so much. I honestly don’t even know where to begin. Missionary life is pretty sweet but it has its hard times. When I first got off the plane it was just like a wave of water hit me. It was bad! But now I love it. It's so awesome. I’ve seen a couple monkeys and that was sweet. My comp is named Elder Sorber. He is a stud. He is from Salt Lake I think. He went to Mountain View High. I love him lots. All the elders here are just sweet dudes. My first area is a place called Skeldon. That’s in Guyana. It’s a brand new area that Elder Sorber and I opened. People are golden there. In one week we found over 50 new investigators. So it's just sick there. I LOVE the lemonade here. It's to die for. I'm going to try and send one home for you to all try. The best thing about them is that they are like 40 cents US. Money here is weird. We have to get our money exchanged for Guyana money and their biggest bill is 1000 dollars, which is 5 dollars US. So it goes 1000, 500, 100, 20. The area that I'm in is very poor. We aren’t allowed to eat at members houses because they don’t have good food preparations. The cars are just crazy. Everyone drives like papa, and the honking here is insane. They honk all the time. But they don’t use it like how it is in America. They honk to let people know where they are on the road and whatnot. We always ride in a thing called a tapear (pronounced tap ear) they are these little van type things that are really small. They are only supposed to have like 5 people in at once but they don’t. I've been in one that has had over 9 people. And its really small. People sit on your lap everything. When we come here in 2 years I don’t think you would like this place. Dogs just roam all the West Indies. I have seen over 500 dogs since I arrived. No one really has dogs as pets they are all just kind of strays. And cows, pigs, donkeys and goats just roam the streets. There isn’t any hot water in Guyana so we have to take cold showers every day. That sucks. I love the food here though. It's so good. I really can't believe how much I have to tell you and won't be able to. It's really dirty here. Lots of garbage all over the place. People live in just little huts here. Instead of knocking you just call “inside.” People here talk horribly fast and use bad grammar. They don’t make the “TH” sound. So for instance when you say let's meet tomorrow at three, they say let's meet tomorrow at tree. They just string all their words together. It was hard the first couple days for me to understand them but now for the most part I can hear them. One thing that’s crazy is the other day we were robbed by a little girl!!!! She came up to me and Elder Sorber and asked if we had change for 1000 and so we split it. I gave her 400 and he did 600. Later that day when we tried paying with that 1000 bill, it was a fake! I was so mad! haha. But oh well. How is everything at home? Good? We have a dog that lives in our backyard who when he was a puppy the elders before us just fed him so he is kinda like our dog. We feed him and stuff like that. But he is even more of a pig then Ernie. All the dogs here are. I saw a dog eat poo the other day! It made me sick. It rains almost everyday here, but only for like 10 minutes but it’s the dry season. Wet season is from May to January. I'm so happy to be here, though at times it's hard. I love you all.

Elder Lundberg

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go, Dear Lord

And I'm sure glad you want me to go here!!

Lance flew out on Monday morning. We heard from his Mission President's wife today. We are so excited for him!

Dear Family of Elder Lundberg,

We had the pleasure of meeting with your son this week. He arrived safely in Trinidad. We fed him a nice dinner and saw that he had a couple of good nights sleep. We were extremely impressed with Elder Lundberg and his MTC group. He was so helpful with the meal and clean up, and worked very hard when he went out finding and teaching. He asked loads of questions when we first met - and I love that. You raised a fine son!I have attached a few pictures so you can see how he looks as one of the mighty West Indies missionaries. He has a wonderful first assignment. He and Elder Sorber, an amazing leader and missionary, who served his entire mission speaking Dutch in Suriname, are going to open up a new area together in Guyana called Skeldon. The work is going so well in Guyana - this will be exciting! It is one of the more humble areas but also a place where we are seeing the greatest success in missionary work. We want you to know that we love the missionaries here in the West Indies. They are an elect group of men and they have tremendous experiences as they scatter throughout our mission and work in South America and the islands of the Caribbean. Your son will soon have the experience of helping someone learn about and embrace the Gospel and that will change his life. He has great peer leaders as well as couple missionaries to help him progress. We will see him at least every six weeks in a Zone Conference. We know that he will continue to grow towards becoming a great disciple of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your efforts in preparing such a fine son. Only the best come to the West Indies Mission!

Warmest wishes,

President and Sister Robison

Elder Lance Clair Lundberg

This is what is consuming my life right now! Hopefully, new posts will follow soon. : )

Preparations!