12-25-13 - MERRY CHRISTMAS

So, today, we got to talk to Cade for 40 mins.  It was awesome!  The only thing was that Cade asked me what time we wanted him to call, so I told him 11 am our time, which would be 10 am his time.  So, after breakfast at Jeramy and Jen's, we came home.  Kim and Justin stopped by and Big Dave came and Tracy and Jes.  HA HA  So....everyone waited until 12:30 pm, and he still didn't call.  So, Kim and Big Dave had to go home.

Cade didn't end up calling until 4 pm.  HA HA  But, it was very much worth the wait.  Here is just a snippet of his call so you can all see him and hear him.  He is doing great!  We also got to see and talk to Elder Bean for a second, too.

12-23-13 - Baby Grinch

So elder Bean and i are staying together, but we got a call on monday night. It was president gelwix. He told us we were trainging. So we are now training a brand new elder. His name is elder mcewan! He is shy but we can break him in! so we were in fresno wednesday and thursday! after we got the new elder, we had to book back to modesto because we had a baptism at 7! guess who it was????

 

IT WAS MATTHEW!!!!!!!! we finally baptized him! i have grew to love him a lot!!! so the first day in the field elder mcewan got a baptism!!!! the next day we set another super solid date for the 18 of january! it was a powerful lesson!  We had dinner on saturday with this family that has a 17 month old that i swear looks like the baby grinch! he was screaming and yelling, then elder bean leans over to me and says!!! i hate christmas! just like the baby grinch! it was hilarious! so turns out we can skype we found out today!!! but i dont hat time i will tell you this before i skype i will call you so you can be on!!! anyways thats it for this week! I am a training district leader!!! that is nuts! I love being a missionary!!!

LOve Elder Lundberg

 

 

12-16-23 Angels Ministering at Zone Conference

Alright!!!  Get your kleenexes out for this one!  HA HA

 

 

I am just writing my big email early! i will be back and get on at regular time! so this wek has been pretty sweet! we had our christmas zone conferrence and a very special experience happened to me. so at the beginning of the conferrence President gelwix said that there will be angels here with us ministering to us, he said some of you will sense them and some of you wont. and so after the conferrence president came up to me and i gave him  a hug and told him i loved him, and he told me that he loved me, then he said that my grandma loves me. He told me that she was there at the conferrence with me. I started crying. that was cool experience for me, knowing just that grandma bonnie is here on this journey with me, watching over me. So that was something cool and spiritual for ya haha! so we only have one baptism for next week and its matthew. friday donnie called us up and he dropped us!!!!!!!  donnie had a date for saturday. he loved church and everything. it was depressing! he weighs 485! haha he is a big man! but we got matthew interviewed yesterday by a member of our mission presidency! and he passed so that is good!  other than that this week has been kind of a slow week! i got your package mom so that was sweet!! So just tell me what time you want me to call you on christmas and then i can set it up here, i think we can use our phones that we have to call home!!! so that should be pretty sweet! i am not getting transferred and elder bean isnt either!i pray every night for his visa not to come! we arent able top skype, but maybe next year! I have worn my coat a lot!! it is super nice i love it! believe it or not it gets pretty cold here in modesto dang i, and we dont even get any snow! it is just a wet cold! it sounds like everything is going well! i heard you are starting new traditions without me?? haha thats cool about caleb and keisha! now they can actually hunt! caleb doesnt have long before he gets to leave on his mission ! shoot he better be preparing! i am currently studying jesus the christ!! mom it is a super good book! you need to read it definitely! its like i know jesus christ a whole lot better! anyways i will be back on at normal time! I love you!!!

Love Elder Lundberg

12-09-13 Angels at the Dinner Table

This week has been a slow but good week! We Have 3 dates so far in the 2nd ward! 2 for december and 1 for january! the 2 for december are definitely porjects! they both have  smoking problems and have been in jail for ever! I love baptizing people like this because you can honestly see the difference this gospel makes in peoples lives! we taught matthew again! he told us how he killed his dad and how he dealt drugs and all this bad stuff! he broke down in tears because he feels like all these things are waying on his shoulders, and he just wants to get rid of all of them! we told him about the atonement and he said he felt a lot better after we left! I have grown to love this man! even tho he has been through all of this stuff with drugs and killing and transporting drugs and what not! i love him! and i truly care about him and what him to do whats right and be a better person! he really truly wants to be a better person! his date is for the 19 and he is living the word of wisdom and the law of chasity! he said the law of chasity is the hardest for him! but he is doing it! Elder Bruce D. Porter from the 70 came and toured our mission! he taught more in detail the gospel of jesus christ! he said something about the atonement that really struck me! he said we all have the spirit of god! all of us have it in order to live! like even hitler, and when the spirit of god leaves us we die! when jesus christ was in the garden of gethsemane the spirit of god completely left him, he was able to live because he is a member of the godhead! but jesus christ has been to the lowest of low than anybody has ever been! the spirit of god also left him when he was on the cross, when jesus said my god my god, why has thee forsaken me! so that brought me into perspective about the atonement! so that was really good! we also had a homecoming in our ward! and something this returned missionary said made me feel better! he said when i left on a mission and angel replaced my spot at the dinner table! i like that a lot! anyways elder beans mom got him a little tree and little lights, so we set it up and set our presents around it hahah! it is pretty sweet!

i love you and stay safe this week!

Love elder lundberg!!

12-02-13 - Tired of Turkey and Ripped Pants

Well this week was pretty interesting with not having thanksgiving with my family! we have eaten thanksgiving for the past 4 dadgum days! i am absolutely tired of turkey, i can tell you that much!  this week has been kinda slow with teaching people! everybody is out of town so it is tough to get appointments!the bummer of this week is that i have ripped 3 of my pants and i have no clue how to sew haha! so i had a lady in my ward sew them for me, so that was really nice! we have 2 solid dates for december the 19 and the 21 they both are really rough  one is name is matthew he actually has been addicted to every drug known to man! he sold drugs toop! he said he was making 20 k a day! which is unbelieveable! he also shot and killed his step dad who killed his mom! he has read the book of mormon about 5 times! he knows it better than most members! the other one is donny he has been in jail for like 20 plus years! he has a tattoo of a naked girl on his arm! but they are both solid! other than that we really didnt have an exciting week! I love you soo much thanks for all you have done for me! tell dad happy birthday for me! i will write him and keisha!

Love elder Lundberg

This is how Cade ripped his pants:

well one the pocket got caught in the arm in the chair, and when i went to sit down they ripped! the other one the fabric was just  worn out and one the hem fell out!!!

11-25-13 - Bishop, Stake President, Mission Presidency

I am writing my big letter early for you mom, so i can have more time when i get back on at normal time! so anyways this week was a pretty fun and cool week! I had my first exchange with a companionship as a district leader this week it went very well. it made me realize tho, how much influence i have in helping my missionaries become better, at everything they do in missionary life! it puts a lot on my shoulders, but i definitely can handle it. i am grateful for the chance i have to help these elders become better. we also had 2 more baptisms this week. there names are jerine and jessica! they are around 40 years old! it was a very spiritual service, i gave the talk on baptism!! i was super nervous because the stake president was there, the bishop was there, and come to find out that jerines uncle came down to baptize her and jessica is one of the counselors in the mission presidency in the roseville mission! so lets just say that my nerves were really high haha! I love elder bean with all my heart! being together we are sooo much a like! we have a lot in common! we have done a lot of the same things, we are like twins! we teach so well together. we are just a powerhouse duo! i really hope we can stay together another transfer. i dont know if i have told you this, that elder bean is a visa waiter to brazil vitoria mission! so i am learning some portugese. i can say a prayer in portugese! it is pretty sweet! other than that! we just really focused on getting jerine and jessica prepared for baptism, nothing too exciting! elder bean and i confirmed one on sunday! it was actually elder beans first confirmation on his mission! so it is special for me to get to share that with him! But after these 2 baptisms that puts me at 12! its crazy to think that a transfer and a half ago this area, the modesto 2nd ward, had zero investigators. and within a transfer and a half i have baptized 3! i am working my butt off for the lord that is for sure! i am completely putting my trust in him, and from that he is taking me by the hand and leading me to these prepared people to teach! i can testify of this gospel, and how it changes peoples lives for the better! With renee the women we baptized a week ago! i remember when she was having a rough time , wasnt very happy, smoked and all this other stuff. now with the gospel in her life, she is a totally different person! she is a lot happier and she doesnt smoke! the spirit is a realy member of the gopdhead, i have seen it touch peoples hearts to the core, where they realize that this gospel is what they need in their life and how the church of jesus christ of latter day saints  IS THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THIOS EARTH. there is none else! i love being a missionary soo much. tchau tchau benjinhos ( goodbye, little kisses)

 com amor Elder Lundberg!!! ( with love )

11-18-13 - What? Another flu shot?

Okay.....so I have been a slacker.  Here is Cade's email to me from the 18th.  As you read, you will see that Cade absolutely did not want to get a flu shot.  He did have one before he went out.  So, I called the mission office and talked to the Sister serving as the nurse there.  She said there was a new shot out, but wasn't sure if he needed one, but she recommended it.  Cade told me that I just had to call and tell Sister Gelwix that he didn't need one.  HA HA  Come to find out....he needs to get one.  Sister Gelwix had the Sister that is the nurse call me back and let me know that sometimes the elders try and get out of it.  HA HA  I guess the new flu shot has new strains in it.  HA HA

I am also including some pictures that he sent this week.  HOLY COW!  Elder Bean looks sooo much like Porter, it is crazy!  Who knew Porter had a twin?  HA HA

This is a picture that a Brother Kincheloe...a ward mission leader...sent to me in a text.  This is what he said.  Elders Lundberg and Bean giving a blessing at Doctors Hospital, Modesto.  Two good missionaries at our house for dinner.  They are great missionaries.  They really do work hard.

So this week has been an eventful week!!! Mom you need to call the mission office today and tell them you dont want me to get a shot so you dont have to buy one and i  dont have to get one! anyway it wednesday i had my first leadership training on wednesday, it went very well i like it a lot! renees baptism was amazing ! so we went to get her interviewed by an elder in our zone at 11 on friday, but she failed it and needed somebody of more authority to interview her. So luckily president gelwix was coming up to modesto, so we called her and told her to come to the stake center at 130, on her way she got into a dad gum car accident!!!!!!!! so she wouldnt be able to make it! so elder bean and i were freaking out because we had all the baptism solid!!!!! and if she didnt pass the interview, we would have to call everybody and cancel everything and she wouldnt be able to be baptized. so president told us to call president mcandrews, the 1 counselor in the mission presidency . we did and we ,ade an appointment with renee at her house at 6 that night, so we were really pushing it. president mcandrews had us sit in his gigantic truck while he interviewed renee! we were just freaking out! he called us to come in and to our surprise, president mcandrews was filling out the baptismal record! phew we were just ecstatic! i gave a talk on the holy ghost at renees baptism! after the baptism i had a lot of people come up and tell me that they were impressed with my talk! they said it was powerful and amzing! they said they almost cryed because they felt the spirit! so that has been the first time that has happened! and plus i had no notes too! haha so that made me feel good! so that picture of us in the hospital was last night we had to go give a blessing to a lady in the hospital, so we walk in and start to talk to her and after awhile she tells us oh yeah you are suppose to go and get gloves and a gown on i am in isolation!!! oh elder bean and i were freaking out!!!!!!!!!!! so we did and we gave her a blessing! hahaha brother kinchloe had a laugh about it haha! we have a nother baptism coming up next week! her name is jerine! she will be baptized by her uncle, who is a stake president in lumas! whoch is awesome! that was it for this week! i love all of you! have a safe week!

love elder Lundberg

Here is what Cade said about the mission office:

 well if you call the mission office i do not! so just call them and say you dont want me to get one! and we dont have to worry about it!

just talk to sister gelwix and can you please do it today she wants me to text her and ask her if i got one so if you call i dont need to do that!

Here is another comment he sent.  HA HA  (He seriously didn't want to get the flu shot).  HA HA  mom listen! you tell them that you dont want me to get a flu shot! and we dont have to spend the money!!! i have already gotten the flu on my mission! so just call and tell them you dont want me to get one!

 Cade loves to take pictures of himself.  HA HA HA HA HA

 Check out that picture.  The trees are beautiful!

 This picture is the one that Elder Bean REALLY looks like Porter.  CRAZY!!

yeah thats is renee and the guy that baptized her is president rhoades, he is the first counselor in the stake presidency and he is her chronic pain management doctor and he introduced her to the church and she broke her back and has chronic pain she sent you a message on facebook! 

yeah! it was cool mom i started teaching renee from the beginning and we got her baptized! she has changed soo much just in this little time i have been teaching her the gospel! its cool how the gospel can change peoples lives!

Who's house had that harp and piano?  That is awesome!!

She did?  That is awesome!  I will go check it.  I'll tell ya, Cade.  This is just great!  I am amazed by the people you are meeting.  isn't it great?  If you hadn't decided to go on a mission, you would never even have known who these people were.  :)

ok and it was sister blacks she plays all sorts of instruments! she kind of reminds me of like aunt melana and those aunts! its kind of crazy!

 i promise well i gtg mom! i love you sooo much! i am telling sister gelwix that you told me not to get one! i love you and the family with all my heart! stay safe tell everyone hi for me!

11-11-13 - CADE - 3 Amigos - LAMP SHADE BBALL HOOP

Last, but not least....here is Cade's email! 

This week has been amazing!! We have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday! it is Renee! We had a really good powerful lesson with her this week! Ee and Elder Bean got to her home, and she has been having a smoking problem! We went in planning to finish the plan of salvation, but the spirit took over and it was so strong, we ended up talking to her about the Book of Mormon and her smoking! In the middle of the lesson she started crying, and she had 2 cigarettes left in her box! At the very beginning I asked her to crush them and she said she wouldnt, so at the end when she was crying I just had this prompting to ask her to crush them again! and she did, she said that she is a non smoker! After that she said she is for sure going to be baptized this saturday! Renee has a glow about her! Ever since we began to teach, she has changed sooo much. It is crazy how the gospel can change peoples lives! If i didnt follow that prompting she wouldnt have realized that is what she needs to do! We have 3 more baptisms scheduled for this month!

 

I love Elder Bean sooo much!  The first night we were together Elder Bean and I stayed up til 1 in the morning! We get along sooo much! It turns out that he went all american in basketball at highschool!  We figured out that we have a gym in our apartments so that is super nice!Ii can stay buff :)

 

Elder Bean and I made a basketball hoop out of a old lamp shade, and we put it up at the ceiling and we use a ping pong ball as the ball it is super fun! Other than that, this week has gone by slow! I love this work and I love you all!!!!

 

Love Elder Lundberg

This is a card that Cade received from his zone leaders for becoming a district leader.  How cute!

Cade's new companion, Elder Bean, who will be playing basketball for BYU when he gets done with his mission!

11-11-13 - THREE AMIGOS - Matt - Hypnotizing Mormons

Here is part of Matt's Email!

This is the table they have to eat on!  HA HA

    So the Work is really slow here..........we're struggling to teach lesson's throughout the week, and our mission president just gave us the challenge of having a baptism a week, so we have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately our most solid investigator got a Anti pamphlet from his girl friend that has really tripped him up, even though we showed him that it wasn't true. This Pamphlet was actually really pathetic, I've seen a lot better Anti material then this. One of the highlights in it said "If a Mormon starts to bare their testimony to you, don't look them in the eyes, and stop them in their tracks. this is a form of hypnosis that they use to pull people in" ..................we're cooler then I thought........

Slowly but surely we are finding people to teach.  We had a really cool experiance the other day, it was Tuesday and my companion wanted to go knock on this kids door that had come and played basketball once. We knocked on the door and asked for Brad we will call him, and the person at the door was like "Brad Stevens?" and we were like......"sure" so he goes and gets this guy and we start talking to him, and he's like "my wife's not, can you come back on Thursday at 8:00?"  we were like......ya, of course. He didn't seem like the guy my companion described, so I was like "so you've come and played ball with us before?"  and he looked at me real confused and shook his head no,  *awkward pause. "Oh well, were going to be playing in a bit if you want to come."   haha we walked away and I turned to my companion and said "what just happened?? did you know him?" and he's like "Nope!"  turns out that it was actually his son with the same name we were looking for, but this guy just set up an appointment with us, without us even asking him! we went back on Thursday and taught his whole family! his wife is a hardcore catholic, but seemed to enjoy everything we said, we just had a gospel conversation for about an hour and a half, it was really cool.     

I'm finding in all the church meetings I've been going too, and from the emails I'm getting from my family that a Reoccurring theme at these meetings is missionary work!   imagine that? the Lord really is hastening his work. I like the way my brother put it.  He's hastening his work, and its our job just to try and keep up.  Its now our responsibility to teach ourselves the gospel so we can teach our friends, because all the meetings are being used to pump us up to do it!  seriously the last 5 sacrament meetings I've been too have been about missionary work, and all the class's have been on how we can be better missionaries. so just getting people to church isn't enough anymore, we have to be able to teach them the gospel because the majority of church time is used to tell them how to be missionaries haha :)      

                                   ***WARNING TESTIMONY IS ABOUT TO BE BORN**** 

I just figured I'd let you all know before hand so that way if you don't want to be hypnotized you can get out now.     

      I truly know that this is the lords work,  its to great to be anyone else's, to see the miracles that happen every day, to see the changes people make in their lives, in just my small area, and then to hear about all the other one's happening around the world is incredible.  the logistics of just the missionary work of this church is mind blowing. I'm just grateful I was raised in it, and even more grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and all that he did for me.    Thank you all for your prayers and letters, they mean the world to me.      

                   -Elder Hepworth

11-11-13 - THREE AMIGOS - KC - Pizza Cutting Scissors

Okay.....so all of my "boys" had great experiences this week....I wanted to share.  Here's is KC's email.  KC is the one with the camera.....the blondie!!

Hey everyone,

This week has been super crazy because one of my Zone Leaders got transferred out last Tuesday which was a surprise because transfers aren't until wednesday. So this week I have been in a Tricompanionship. If that's a word. If it's not, i'll just say it's a Minnesota thing to make up words. Because I am in this Tricompanionship we have been covering two areas. It's been really busy but a lot of fun too. Earlier this week I got the call that I can drive the car now so I have been driving every since. I CAN DRIVE!! YES! 

 

On Wednesday we were driving back to our apartment and we noticed that somebody was just giving away a Bo- flex workout machine. They caught our eyes big time. So we knocked and had two questions. First we explained who we were, then we asked if we could take that machine of their hands, then we asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ and they said yes. It was so cool. God definitely works in mysterious ways. If the machine wouldn't have been sitting on the curb, we wouldn't have stopped and talked to these people. So it was a Win Win. We got a nice work out machine in our apartment now and we are going to go back and teach them about Our Church. It was Awesome.

 

 

 

The other day I was telling my companion about the time that my day took some of my friends to Ohio and that I ate 18 pancakes while I was there and he didn't believe me so.... You know what happens next. I have to put my money where my mouth is. Or should I say put the pancakes where the mouth is. I told him if he cooked them I would show him. I was a little short, I only got to 15 but he was still impressed. I don't ever want to see a pancake again! :) It was fun.

 

I was at a dinner the other day and the lady cut the pizza with scissors! Has anybody ever seen that before?? That was so weird to me! Maybe I was just sheltered but I always thought you used a Pizza cutter. She was really nice though and it was good but I just thought I would share that crazy sight with you all.

 

We had a really cool experience this week. We were teaching a man (Mark John) that lives in our apartment building about the Plan of Salvation and Word of Wisdom and he didn't take it very well. At the end of the lesson we asked him to pray about for himself and not to take our word for it. and He said he would but at the end of the lesson I prayed that as he is seeking the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it's truths that God will answer his prayers through the Holy Ghost and after the prayer he immediately popped up and said, "It's True and Joseph Smith is a true Prophet!" He said I felt the holy spirit during your payer and I feel like it told me that the lesson was true. It was such a cool experience to see the Holy Ghost working on someone during a prayer. I know that God Lives and answers prayers on his timing. I know that it's true. I hope you all are doing great and let me know if there is anything I can help you with back home. I can't do too much but if you are wondering what to say to someone you have met I will try to think about it and pray about it and help you out. I love you all. Until next week. 

Elder Roose

11/04/13 - A Monster Pooper with a Karate Kid in a Modesto Apartment

Cade's Apartment in Modesto

Cade's monster Pooper

Cade's Karate Kid Companion

11/04/13 - Jokin' Around

Okay.....so, last week, Cade didn't write too much of what was happening, so I didn't post anything.  This week....he wrote a little bit more.  HA HA  GOOD NEWS!  Cade was made a DISTRICT LEADER!  Awesome!!  I have also included some pics, too.

 The Elder on the right is Elder Brantley.  The Elder on the left is an elder that was a traveling trainer.  I don't remember his name.  It looks like he got along pretty well w/Cade.  HA HA

Cade sent me this picture on Monday this week.  HA HA

hey everyone! so first off i want to tell you a joke that elder brantley told me his last week with me! An indian was walking along and he fell in a deep hole nobody knew he was there, a couple years later a guy decided to build a cafe over the hole and the toilet was right over the hole, a guy came into the bathroom and looked into the toilet and saw the indian. then the guy said to the indian" how long have you been down there" and the indian said " many moons!" hahahahaha so anyway this week i had a high fever for 2 days so that was pretty poopy! but i got a call on halloween at around 10:00 and it was president, well he called me to be a district leader haha! i was nervous talking to him. my companion is elder bean! he has been in my zone already! so i know who he is, i love him sooo much already. he is going to play basketball at byu when he gets home! he is very good. he is from oklahoma and he has been out a transfer less than me so thats pretty cool! we have 3 baptisms already set up for this month and we plan to baptize a lot more! anyways nothing else really happened this week! i got the package and i sent all of them a letter which should get there today! my shoes are the best investment ever i absolutely love them!!!! i love all of you!

love elder Lundberg



Here is a little of our conversation:

 so i am over 2 other companionships and i am over a senior couple i am in the same apartment elder brantley is going to turlock!

i love those shoes! they fit my feet perfectly so when i need more shoes just get those again! i loved there package toilet paper was in them, i havent gotten aunt tracys yet! i just have a poop load of marshmallow mateys!

ME:  HA HA HA HA HA HA  If you can email Elder Gayan, you should tell him that you were supposed to share with him.  HA HA HA  You should take a pic of your new companion, too.  Elder Bean.  Is he pretty tall?

he is 6'5 and he is a baller mom he is super good! haha

ME:  That is awesome!!  I bet you have fun with him playing basketball.  It is also good that you get along with him.  It looks like Elder Brantley kind of loosened up a bit.  I am so glad we found some shoes that work for you.  I was a bit worried that they wouldn't fit.  BTW.....Caleb says you are missing out on Assassins Creed and Ghost and that he loves you and that he will try and keep you updated on the Denver Bronco games.  Thanks for all the advice.  I'll definitely take it.  He loves you alot and keep up the good work!

yeah like already i love elder bean soooo much! he reminds me of porter haha! and tell caleb he is missing out on saving souls! haha! and he better keep me updated! i bet those 2 games are sweet!

Caleb says, "You got me there." There is nothing better than saving souls.

 elder bean has been in my zone already so i have played ball with him a lot and i love him soo much  when i heard that he was going to be my companion i didnt fall asleep until 1!

yeah i am at the family history center! elder bean is playing basketball right now! so renae is getting baptized she is superr funny she is around 50 she has a smoking problem but she is quitting  and jerine is getting baptized she is 40 and her best friend jessica is also! their is another one of their friends that could be baptized and jerines son and a couple more so the work is booming!

it is a long list of things! i have to give trainings, and i am responsible for my companionships! i love my shoes mom by the way !

(I asked him what he had planned for this week)  we have a church tour! and i am glad i am becoming a man haha! that is something good i am doing out here haha the spirit is crazy i love him haha!

yep just take through a normal church talk about the chapel the baptismal fonts and all of the pictures on it, it will be my first one!

 I think this his his scheduling book.

 I think this is the view from his apartment.  He is on the third floor.