This week has been a bit odd.

Hello!  This week has been a bit odd.  On Tuesday we helped a family to move out of their paper store because they realized they couldn't pay the rent there anymore.  Everything needed to be moved out in one night.

The investigator who got hurt is much better.  He'll still have to get surgery and wait for his baptism and marriage, but he's happy as ever and limping around alright.  I think he'll make it through okay.

Then one of our investigators (of 15 years old) and his family straight up disappeared.  I'm pretty sure his family, which is not the most respectable, ran up some serious debts and they changed houses without a sound.  Our other baptizmal date dropped as well, but only because the lady says she wants to wait until her sister, who was baptized in Arizona, can come down with her family to see the baptism.

A new chapel has been confirmed for Colima, which will be built within my area's boundaries.  They haven't decided if it will be a stake center or normal chapel, but either way it will be better than our current chapel with really tiny rooms that is located in the middle of the city.  I won't be around to see it happen, but I can work to make sure that chapel is filled.

Sunday we had a Family Home Evening with a family in the ward that has been having some difficulties.  It was great, actually ended up helping me a lot too, and at the end we had chocolate krispies cereal.  A tasty end to an interesting night.  I still am really enjoying the food here, and little by little I'm trying to learn how to cook it.  We also rescued a stray kitten last night, although it took FOREVER to get a hold of it.  Given the number of stray dogs here and the size of the kitty, there is no way it would have survived the night.

Today (pday) we went and watched a cabalgata (horse parade) which they're having all the time this month because its the city festival, and a little bit of a rodeo.  Nothing more than people riding and roping cows, but it was pretty cool.  I'm pretty sure that's what most people imagine Mexico to be like.  It was just another day in the 'Villa to me.

There was also zone conference this week.  They talked a lot about obedience, developing faith, and teaching with the holy spirit, as well as a new way that we will be teaching the lessons.  We are focusing heavily on a talk by Elder Holland called "The Divine Companionship" about letting the Holy Spirit be the third companion and also the Senior Companion every day of the mission.  It's really good, and I'm surprised how much more I get out of it every time.

Pozole seco is a specialty here in Colima.  It's pozole, but more or less without caldo and often eaten with tostadas.  We eat lunch every day with a member, as is the rule throughout the entire mission.  Breakfast and dinner we prepare at home, since lunch is the big meal.  When I get home between 9
and 9:30 I put something together quickly.  This past week has almost completely been chicken and rice with members, and Sunday the members completely left us out to dry (couldn't even get a hold of them) but most of the time it's delicious.  We get to eat the local foods provided by the locals for free.  I don't know what my favorite foods so far would be, but I'm addicted to both Valentina and Horchata.

The work is a little slow right now, but I know things will turn around, if anything this is a developing period, an opportunity to grow into a better missionary and more the person I want to be.

As always I miss you.  Sorry I don't end up having time to comment on everything, but know that I read it and that I'm really happy for it.  Especially Ashley getting into BYU!!  Thank you for the support, the prayers, the scriptures, and the memories.  Little by little I'm trying to answer your questions.  Tell everyone I say hi and that I miss them.

Love,
Elder Lund

Happy Valentines

Happy Valentines! I spent all of my Valentines day with 3 other single guys preaching about God. We also decided to sleep outside, because the weather was nice and we could see the stars (actually, I really want a hammock). But no, nothing special happened. Haven´t had a girlfriend in a year, and I´m willing to wait 2 more to find the right girl if that´s what it takes.

In general, things are good here. They´ve slowed down a bit, but we´re still working hard. Strange things happen regularly, so I don´t know what´s notable and what isn´t anymore. An example would be a lady who asked us to fill her garafon with water at the station about a mile away because she couldn´t carry it, and when we got back she basically taught US how many people get confused trying to follow God and go down the wrong path, and we need a way to know what´s right. And then she told us to read the Bible more and the Book of Mormon less. She wasn´t willing to listen, so we bore our testimonies and left. Strange lady.

While playing basketball today, an investigator from a different ward who was going to get married this week and baptized this Saturday injured his leg, so that really stinks. Hopefully he´ll still be able to go through with everything, because if they hospitalize him or operate he can´t get baptized or married for quite some time. I can´t imagine what would have happened if the injured was one of us. Hopefully he gets well soon. A couple of our investigators are going through some hard times right now too, but we´ll see what we can do. God works miracles all the time here, after all. Remind me to tell you about the Romo Family some time.

Other than that, not too much has happened this past week. Well, things happen, but I don´t participate. The Cabalgata is an example. The annual fair is starting here, and they have a parade of horses through the city. Supposedly it´s just an excuse to get drunk though, so we thought we´d keep clear. One of our investigators does Parkour though, so that´s pretty cool. I´m doing my best to keep learning and improving as a missionary. I hope all is well at home, and I love to hear from you all. No insurance issues, no doctor problems, no ward chior (although we actually were talking about changing that just yesterday). I´m doing alright.

Love you,
Elder Lund

Hello! Had to write a long message to the President and I´ve been fiddlin´with more photos, so this will be the "everybody" email this week.

I got my new companion on Monday, Elder Tovar. He´s district leader, has been in the mission for more than a year, and doesn´t know the area just yet. So I´ve been in charge of the majority of the planning and scheduling and whatnot, as well as finding my our way around. It hasn´t been as bad as I thought.

It rained really hard all day Tuesday though, which was a bit interesting. Let´s just say my backpack is not as water resistant as I had hoped, and contacting was a little less than successful. "Come back when it´s not raining," one lady said, or in other words "come back when you´re not soaking wet and going to soil my clean house". We put the effort in though, and it actually made the day sorta fun. We challenged Jorgé Covarrubias (16) to baptism as well that day, so I think it was worth the trouble.

His baptism was Saturday in the morning, and his mom and grandma came. They also came to church Sunday to see him get confirmed (a total of 5 confirmations on Fast & Testimony Sunday = a lot fewer testimonies O_o ). I really hope that family will be united in the gospel one day. We´ll see what we can do, at least.

I finally got some snail mail that was sent at the beginning of the year more or less! It was awesome to hear from Ashley, I´ll have to writ eher personally when I MANAGE MY EMAIL TIME BETTER ;) Notwithstanding, I think email is preferrable to physical mail in general, if I´m going to get Christmas Cards in February.

I´ve also learned how to make horchata. Tasty, tasty stuff. I´m addicted to it, as well as the smell of fresh tortillas. I think I´ll be a very strange RM. Speaking of which, the Spanish is still coming along.

I´m glad to hear about everyone, even though the news isn´t always awesome (sashi, for example). Take care, everyone, and know that I´m happy to be here.

Love,
Elder Lund

Corn on a Stick

Hey, writing quickly because today is transfer day and I don´t have a lot of time! I´ll try to send pictures this time if I have time to let them load, if not then next week for sure.

You know that corn everybody eats in nacho libre? I´ve had some, and it´s pretty good. They put salt, lime juice, and chiles on them...with optional mayonnaise. Tasty. I love the food here.

We had 4 baptisms this Sunday! It was supposed to be this coming Saturday, but something with family came up so it got pushed forward. It´s Maria Elena and her three grandkids Christian, Luis, and Hector. They´re all great and just came out of nowhere, having talked a little with sister missionaries before some time back. I baptized Luis and Christian, and the latter gave me a big hug and shouted "Thank you, brother!" when he came out of the water. It´s definitely rewarding to be a missionary, and there are a number of others progressing as well. Luis also fixed my shoes, whose soles were detaching from the rest of the shoe.

Oh btw, that also makes Elder Fernandez and I companionship of the week. Our zone has been zone of the week all but one week since 2010 started. Our ward´s attendance is also a lot higher, and a WHOLE lot higher than when my companion arrived here. 30 to 40 people attended then. There were about 120 yesterday.

Today is also transfer day. Elder Fernandez is off to Tequila to be a branch president. Pretty crazy. I´m getting one of his old companions, who will be district leader and I hear from many is a great missionary. I´m sure I´ll learn a lot and I´m going to work hard. I´m sure we can have great success if we really work at it. His name is Elder Tovar and he´s from the state of Hidalgo, Mx. It´ll be my job to get us everywhere and do the majority of the planning for the first week though, since he won´t know the area yet.

Well I´ve got to go. Take care, and I love you all.

Elder Lund