But all is well

Haha, I have made great progress concerning my classes. However, I won´t give you a list until next week due to time constraints and other real world complications. But all is well.

So by the way, we got hurricane rain over here. The winds didn´t hit us at all and it didn´t rain that hard, but it did rain a lot and you could tell that those were not normal storm clouds. I´m pretty sure the fact that we´re comfortably nestled in a valley in the shadow of a volcano helped with that.

Have I todl you about Alma and her family? We found Alma about a month ago searching for someone who gave us a fake address, but it turns out that Alma lived in that house and she told us that she was a member. As we started to visit her we found that her daughter Alejandra used to love church and that her husband Francisco had a great interest in coming closer to God. Alejandra was baptized this week, but will have to wait until next week to be confirmed.

We filled up the font by bucket again, but this time it was even more complicated because first we had to EMPTY the font by bucket and then we had to clean it and fill it up again. Lots and lots and lots of buckets, and now my back is sore. We managed to do all of that in an hour and a half and had everything ready for the baptism on time, it was a fantastic and spiritual experience.

José María blessed the sacrament this week wearing a tie I gave him, and Irving passed the sacrament too. Next week Augustin will bless, and I´m super excited to see it. Things are coming along here, although its obvious that we don´t live in a magical fairy land full of cotton candy and where you can eat your soup right out of the ash trays if you wanna. It takes work, and we´re going to work even harder this week. So far Elder Vergara has been able to keep up. Time to pick up the pace.

We found a lot of new investigators this week as well. Some had seen us pass by and had alwayswondered what we do, and others had listened to the missionaries years ago but had never been baptized and asked us why there are so many churches. The trick is to find the time to teach them, help the converts pass into the hands of the local members, organize the long-promised house of prayer, and lots of other stuff. Totally right up my alley.

Gotta run, say hi to Chris for me.

Love you!

Wake me up when September ends.

So it was a crazy week. It started with the activity that we won (we got 2nd place this week by the way...the sister missionaries will be having a baptismal service for eight people this week). District class was done in our house of prayer which I rented. Then we went and sealed the deal for our new house and signed the contract...and had one of our investigators (José María) help us move. We were also running all over the place trying to visit everyone and invite them to conference.

Conference, by the way, is a thousand times cooler when you`re a missionary. I loved it. I found a precious treasure in almost every talk and actually recognized a good number of the seventies. Some of my favorites include President Eyring`s talk on training priesthood bearers, Elder Waddell`s talk about learning from a mission, and Elder Cornish`s talk on prayers, among many others. Also, what`s that about a temple in Paris? I thought that would never happen.

There was an overall spirit of progress and the importance of our work in the conference, which ties directly into our duty in preaching the gospel. We`re doing great and important things here, and every member of the church has that duty to carry the name and gospel of Jesus Christ unto every ear and every nation.

On Sunday morning José María was baptized and his family was there to see it. It was a very spiritual experience, and he`s very excited not only to grow in the gospel but also to serve. He wants to help people find the blessings God has ready for them. We`ll be working closely with him. This next weekend Augustin and his sons Irving and Kevin have their baptism planned as well. Everything went well with Augustin`s stay in the hospital and he should be all set. Please pray for them as we visit them and prepare them to take such an important step.

I`m progressing and growing and organizing priorities, and my companion is starting to fill in his shoes (and lose the weight he gained at the MTC). We`re working well together and he`s awesome. Say hi to everybody.

Gotta run.

Love you, Elder Lund

PS Is David getting my emails?

We won by a landslide.

Hello again!

So Kenia and Leslie were confirmed on Sunday, which was great. There will be more to come as well. We´ve been having a lot of success finding people and helping people that are hungry for the truth and that love Christ. Some have had greater trials than others, but they´re all fighting and we are doing all we can think of to help our friends.

We have the keys to the house of prayer, so now we´re just waiting to start having services a week or two after general conference down here. I´m really excited to see and help be a part of this new branch that is being organized. We´re really a part of church history here and these people really are and will be pioneers. It´s electrifying.

So tomorrow there are interviews with the President and house revisions. That means everything needs to be spotless, and that means taking apart and cleaning fans along with everything else. For that same reason last Monday the Zone Leaders decided that there was going to be a competition among the missionaries to see who worked the hardest, and the whole zone was going to go clean the house of the companionship that one and pay for their pizza. The plan was also to spend the afternoon in that companionship´s area and contact for them.

We won by a landslide.

So I´m excited to keep pushing and working harder. We´ll probably be changing houses tomorrow (that´s the second time I´ve found and rented a house in Mexico), so the timing is perfect. We´ll leave our current house squeaky clean and everything will be packed and set to go today. We´re also planning an activity to celebrate the inaguration of the house of prayer, which will help the members to get to know each other, be familiarized with the location, and so that we all are inspired to work hard to help build up God´s kingdom here and invite friends to be a part of the change.

Elder Vergara is doing great and working hard. He´s very willing to learn and the extra study time with the PMG videos is also a great learning tool for him. He was able to get along okay when we had to do divisions on Saturday to make it to all of our lessons and visit the references we had received.

I would enthusiastically accept the bowling ball. I remember bowling with Joe and our group of friends and those are some of my good memories, although I may not be the best bowler. He will not be forgotten, and I´ll probably keep up the sport.

I´m way excited for General Conference and want to invite lots of people to listen to living prophets this weekend (and Holley´s birthday too!). It´s probably not a good idea to do so through my facebook (because it would look bad), but you guys should invite everybody I know to check out the conference videos. It´s a huge opportunity to share what we love and what they´re looking for.

So what are the Christmas plans?

Love,
Elder Lund

I´ll let you know how it goes!

Hey! So there were transfers. That´s why I´m writing a day late.

First of all it was a better week. Elder Escamilla and I worked hard and tried to help people come unto Christ, which should be obvious. Some weren´t receptive, some were, and it turned out pretty well. Efraín, who we met last Sunday night in the FHE, went to church and enjoyed himself. We´ll see him soon.

Sunday night we were coming home from our last appointment of the day and found the ZLs waiting in front of our house with a truck and a member. Elder Escamilla had to pack all of his things because he was being transfered. I had to pack things to spend the night at the ZLs house and travel to Guadalajara on Monday and pick up...a recently unpacked missionary! I´m training again! :D I get to go out in style. I´ll spend three months training Elder Vergara and then I´ll be coming home.

I arrived at President´s house early on Monday (I had hardly slept) and it was nice to be back in Providencia, if only for a day. We trainers were given some specific instructions from President and then there was a brief orientation with the new missionaries. President interviewed each new missionary and assigned them to us...and then they shipped us back to our areas. Oh, and they fed us lunch!

The missionary training program is very different from before. It´s very comprehensive and at the end of 12 weeks he will have learned more than in all his time in the Mexico MTC (CCM). Our companionship study is now 2 hours long, they gave me a DVD player and the Preach My Gospel DVDs, and a booklet with instructions on what should be taught and reviewed each week. Lots to do, but I´m super excited. This is what I was hoping for.

Elder Vergara is from Tampico, Tamaulipas. He´s really cool. Very humble and very spiritual, but with a hunger to learn. That´s just the way it should be. We are going to tear it up here. It´s also strange to know that the last Elder I trained (Elder Ramirez) has been in the mission for more than a year now!

So all is well as I start the final chapter of this mission. Please take care of yourselves and work hard to build up the Kingdom and the family. I´ll be seeing you soon enough.

Love,
Elder Lund


So life is great down here in the middle of nowhere way far away from the rest of the city. No, seriously. We´re having a great time. Elder Vergara is very willing to learn and to work hard, and we´ve been contacting with boldness and we´ve been inviting people to baptism in the first visit. The most incredible is that they´ve accepted. The lessons have been powerful and spiritual, but I know that things don´t end here. There is much that must be done to help these people and there´s a lot of searching, studying, and praying that must be done. The very good part is that they understand our purpose and what they´re searching for and WHY they´re doing it right from the start.

We met a lady called Petra the other day in front of her house, contacted her, and went back to visit a few days later. She had been praying to find the truth last week. Also, she´s seen us in the streets many times when she´s been on the bus. She said she knew that we would find her house. It was a little surprising, but it´s an example of how the Lord prepares people and is working here with us.

Manuel Antonio and José Maria are the two who went to church for the first time and really enjoyed it. José Maria has been saying his prayers and studying, and Manuel Antonio is determined to continue on. They´re both great guys. There´s more people, but I haven´t the time to write about them all. We´re not doing perfect nor has it been a perfect cakewalk, but we are certainly being blessed in the work. Also, we may be opening up the house of prayer that we want over here soon!

The biggest news is that Kenia and Leslie Araiza were baptized on Sunday after church, and both Manuel Antonio and José Maria were present to see it. It was a good service and I´m very happy for the girls. This is a big and important step for Sister Araiza, who is doing all she can to choose the right. Pictures forthcoming. I´m going to miss that family.

So those are the main details. You can really feel the power of the work when two missionaries work diligently and obediently with all their hearts centered in the work. We´re not superheros in any aspect. What´s happening is that the Lord is blessing us and is able to bless us more freely. Without His help, we can do nothing, but with Him all things are possible. Never forget that, and never forget the authority and power and right to blessings and revelation you have over yourself and the people whom you are responsible for.

Anything is fantastic in a package, as long as it won´t add much weight to my luggage coming back home. I´ve got to get on that because I´ve got a lot of stuff. Still haven´t been able to send the package and we can´t today because we´re in the middle of a house-change (contracts, deposits, photos and approval from the mission, finding out when to do the move, etc.) but the mostly likely is next week. Haven´t found a guitar yet either, but I¨m still on the lookout.

We´ll be doing divisions with our district leader tonight and tomorrow. Should be interesting and fun. I´ll let you know how it goes!

Love,
Elder Lund

I´ve seen much worse.

Last monday the mission leaders talked a lot about the importance of having lots and lots of contacts (people we´ve invited to hear the gospel in the streets, on the bus, on their doorstep, etc.) So we decided that since we´ve been having a mediocre time with what we´re doing, we were going to give it a try. We almost tripled our number of contacts and we´ve been running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to visit them all. Some other Elders also ended up contacting a lot of people that live in our area, so we´ve been trying to find them too.

One of these new people is Oscar, who had a rough life but decided to leave it all behind and try to find God. He´s been confused though because he´s searching for a true church and he always finds things he doesn´t agree with in the churches he visits. We talked to him a lot about the Book of Mormon and he´s very interested. There was also a small miracle that helped us see him in our second appointment. He had completely forgotten about the appointment and was driving around with his family on the other side of the city, and before going to visit his mother-in-law (who lives way over there) he decided he needed to stop by the house. When he got out of the car, his wife asked him "why are we here?" and he responded "umm...I don´t know. Let me just drink some water and we´ll head out again." In the next five seconds we arrived. It turned out to be a great lesson, by the way.

Another girl we met is Monica, who went to church for the first time in LA, but then moved down here to Tepic six years ago. Her sister was baptized in that time, but she wasn´t. She wants to visit again. She has special light and excitement in her eyes when she talks about the church. We´ll see what happens.

It was a little rough though because at the end of the week nobody ended up going to church, for one reason or another. We tried to visit people and make phone calls but nothing turned out. That´s always rough as a missionary, but we decided to keep moving. After sacrament we took off early to go look for the people who didn´t come to church.

One of those families are the Araiza, who are trying to be reactivated. Their two daughters have not been baptized but have expressed that they want to. We talked with them and said a prayer and the whole family agrees that they should be baptized on the 18th of September. SO that´s a good sign. We´ve got lots more to do, but that´s a start. We have to find a new house and move because our house is falling apart, btw, but that´s a minor detail. I´ve seen much worse.

ALso, there was a family home evening we planned with our ward mission leader. He invited his neighbors and we watched the D&C movies about WIlford Woodruff and Parley P. Pratt. The neighbor couple (Efraín and Patricia) were very interested and were asking us why there are so many churches and how they can find the truth. It was a very good lesson and we´ll be seeing them again soon. They want to investigate and believe that God can answer their prayers and guide them to the truth.

So lots of good things are happening around here. Gotta run, but take care. Say hi to everyone. I want to do lots of cool stuff with the family when I get home. One other thing I´ve learned is that I really need a good agenda system to help keep myself organized. I´m a billion times more productive when I plan my goals like that. Plus I don´t forget stuff as easily.

I think of you often and pray for you always.

Love you,
Elder Lund

We got stomach infections...

Monday we went to another area to help them search for new investigators. We found four or five people who were interested and gave the addresses and phone numbers to the Elders from that area so that they can visit them.

Augustin was coming along. He`s been reading and praying a lot. It seemed things were going well. He didn`t make it to church though. We think it`s because he was feeling sick on Saturday, but we haven`t seen him yet and without a phone there`s no other way to find out. He`s been searching for his answer. We`re praying for him.

There`s been some complications though. We got stomach infections from lunch on Thursday, and then my companion was diagnosed with a severe tonsil infection. Basically ate up Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We should be good now though. He`s just got to get injected in the rear every day for a few days but we can work.

Today I bought some Huichol things for the family, from actual natives who come into the city to sell their goods. A necklace, a bag, and a few other things. I might get some more next week before sending it home, but I`ll let you know when I shoot off the package. I`ve now finally found a reliable place where I can send packages. Should be soon unless their are special transfers or something. Still looking for the guitar.

Well I`ve gotta run. I think my most important letter this week is to David, who asked me how he can be a good missionary. I`m sure he`s going to be greater than all of us. Thank you for your support and your prayers. They make us stronger every day and work miracles. I know we`re on the brink of one right now. Count on it.

Love you,
Elder Lund

I'm in that process

So we started teaching (or trying to teach) a family this week that is Cora and does not speak much Spanish. Its been quite difficult, but its kinda fun as well. Im not sure how interested they are, but they have mentioned both baptism and healings through the power of God, so theres something there. They´re a really good family. Not sure how we´re going to learn the language, but I love a challenge.

There was a bus assigned by the stake to pick up the members here and take them to church and back. The only trouble was that it wasn´t where they said it would be. My companion panicked and sent everyone off in taxis before it got too late, but upon heading a little ways down the road I saw the bus. Next week things will be more straightforward. We also found a house that would work as the house of prayer and the stake is planning on paying to reserve the house today as well. We´ll see how that goes.

We´ve mostly been bogged down with those sorts of things. Lots of families trying to become active again, and we´re trying to balance that with actual missionary work since that´s what we´ve been called to do. I´m sure everything will turn out okay. There´s other stuff I´ll have to tell you about later, but here we are plugging alog as always! :D

Floating around in the major thing, but I{ve hammered out somethings about classes. I´ll write you a list when I´ve got everything straightened out. I don´t like having to take time to do all this junk when we´ve got souls to save, but I understand its important. We´ll see what I can do.

I love you all and miss you all. Trying to be the best missionary I can and prepare myself to be the best return missionary I can be. Havent sent anything off yet but I´m in that process

Love you!
Elder Lund