Leave with no regrets.

This week was another slow one, but we are seeing success. Claudia, the mother of Jorge and Tonantzin and the daughter of Gloria, was baptized on Saturday. She won`t be confirmed until this coming Sunday due to stake conference, but it`s something really special to be able to see the family linked by 3 generations. They`ve changed a lot and seen a lot of blessings. We also have seen how an investigator who decided to pay his tithing ended up having so many work opportunities afterwards that he didn`t know what to do with it all. Little things like that all the time. This investigator, whose name is Victor, is planning to be baptized this weekend. I ask that you pray for him, his well being, and that his family might be attentive to the promptings of the spririt and find their own testimonies.

Stake Conference was good. It was the first one this stake has had, as it has only been a stake for a year now. The Guadalajara temple president, his wife, the mission president, his wife, and a 70 (Raimundo Morales) were all there. There were very good talks about the temple, missionary work, the perfectioning of the saints, and the atonement of Jesus Christ and the importance of understanding it and applying it to our lives. There was also a young convert who spoke about how he has decided to serve a mission, and his family has thus rejected him completely and refuses to help him in any way. He`s trying to get his things together to go, but he`s going anyways with a firm testimony that what he`s doing is right...with or without a collared shirt or dress pants. He leaves in 2 weeks.

We are 2 weeks away from another transfer, and I think it will finally be time to leave. Where I`ll go, who will be my companion, what will be my assigned task (if any), I don`t know. However, I`m trying to learn as much as I can while I`m still here, and leave with no regrets. If I stay, I`ll still be glad to have done all of that.

Thank you for the pictures and the talk. David looks really grown up now, and Ashley is almost an adult! I`m going to try to print them out so I can have them in the house. I`ve also bought some pants, so now all I have to see is how long they will last me. I still haven`t had to use the funds from home, but I know that they will always be there when I need them. I do need to use the money from the grandmas to buy myself a birthday present, after all.

Well time is definitely up for now. Thank you for everything, and I think of you often. Stay strong and stay faithful, for God is watching over you all. I have felt it.

Love,
Elder Lund

It`s going to be a short p-day

This week Eduardo was baptized on Friday. He`s 15 years old and it really seems to me that he`s going to serve a mission. The baptism almost didn`t go through, due to a whole lot of complications, including lost keys, missing baptismal clothes, delayed arrival of the Bishop, and a WHOLE lot of other things. However, we ended up just postponing the baptism until that evening, and Eduardo was baptized along with the daughter of the bishop. It was a very special experience, and an example of how perseverance pays off.

The other incredible event was the visit of Elder Bednar on Saturday. We left Colima at 2 a.m. to be in Guadalajara, ready and seated, by 8:30. The trip isn`t actually that long, but we needed the time. The meeting itself was absolutely wonderful. We were made to feel comfortable, willing and eager to learn and participate, and attentive to the promptings of the spirit to answer our questions, spoken and unspoken. Much participation from the missionaries was asked, and I gave a commentary on part of one of the talks we were supposed to read before coming. Elder Bednar is very warm, very humble, and also very direct. I learned an incredible amount from being in the presence of one of the Twelve, but what I learned was from the spirit itself...as he said it should be. The trick now is to permanently apply it to my life and grow into not only a better missionary, but a better person in general.

I miss...photos of the family! That`s all I can think of at the moment. Just missing the family! The material things, after all, don`t really matter. It was wonderful to talk to you.

Well I really seem to be out of time today. It`s going to be a short p-day, but that`s alright. Missionary work is a lot of fun anyways. I love you very much and hope all is well amidst these many changes. As Elder Bednar said a couple of times,"If you just focus on being good girls and boys, everything really will work out". It really is true, too. That`s faith for you.

Love you very much,
Elder Lund

La Campana

I´ve written down some of my stories from the mission, but I need to be better about writing in my journal. It´s never been a strength of mine, but I´m trying to get into the habit because yes, these two years are full of stories. Just yesterday, for example, we went to a lesson and watched two drunks argue about whether one showed up at 3 am last night and crashed in the other´s chair without asking permission or knocking the door. Later, one of them tried to convince me that Jesus doesn´t have a body. It ended up being a very funny discussion. There are lots of little things like that in the mission, and I´m going to love being an old grandpa telling stories to my grandkids. One day, that is...

My companion is the same and I´m still in Colima right now, but I get the feeling I will be changing soon. I´ve been here a while now, after all. As far as food is concerned, I just tried "salchichas a la diabla", which are sausages chopped up with tomatoe, onion, ketchup, and a puree of mayonaisse, sour cream, and I don´t know what else, as well as chipotle. Eaten (of course) with tortilla. Spicy and tasty. I almost don´t notice spice anymore, but this one was a little hot. I liked it.

I´m going to write home later this week with instructions on how the mother´s day phone call is supposed to work out. We can call either the 9th or the 10th, but it will probably be the 10th. We now are allowed 40 minutes to call home. Surprising that 1/2 of my phone calls home will be through in a week, isn´t it?

Know that I´m having a great experience here, and that I´m growing a lot. I will continue in my quest to serve God the way I should and the way He wants me to, and I know the blessings and recompense will come, in my future as well as for the family. I´m trying to convince my companion to visit the small pyramid that is here in Colima (across the street, actually) one p-day, btw. It´s called "la campana". google/wiki it! There are some interesting cultural things about ancient Colima, like burying the dead with little clay dogs to accompany them on their way to heaven. That's why there´s two giant dancing dogs in one of the roundabouts here, supposedly. The volcano continues to fume and spew lava every once in a while. I am told it can´t reach us here, and that it´s always like that.

I laugh in the face of danger.

Again I must leave you without promised photos, as once again I am in the lame, USB-eating cyber café. I´ll see what I can do next week.

Love,
Elder Lund

The Face of Love

I've seen your face on stained glass, in colored lights
In pictures of you looking to the sky
You've been portrayed a thousand different ways
But my heart can see you better than my eyes
'Cause it's love that paints the portrait of your life

The face of love
The face of love
You look more like love every day

I've read your words in the pages of your life
And I've imagined what you were like
I may not know the shape of your face
But I can feel your heart changing mine
And your love still proves that you're alive

You are the face that changed the whole world
No one too lost for you to love
No one too low for you to serve
So give us the grace to change the world
No one too lost for me to love
No one too low for me to serve

Let us see... let us be your face

Sanctus Real - The Face of Love


I`ve put a lot of thought lately into who I am and who I want to become, long term and short term. One of the things I have realized and come to comprehend even more is that every talent I have, I have for a reason. Only now I am starting to see how I can use all of my feelings, thoughts, preferences, and talents to serve God. The trick is actually applying them all.

I`ve seen a little more of heaven in everyday life though, including a woman whose marriage was saved, prophetic dreams, and of course people completely changing who they are. There is no better place to be right now than in the mission. I know that the harder I work, the more adversity I will see. The more I learn, the more the world attempts to confuse and blind me. The more I share and serve, the more certain forces try to push me to selfishness. Yes, oftentimes I fall. I am weak, I am young, and I am definitely foolish. However, little by little I am seeing my divine potential.

I really hope that all of you are alright at home. Never hesitate to write me with any concern, stressor, or problem. I love you (all of you, of course), and pray for your wellbeing. The Lord will protect and edify you in your trials when you turn to Him, and He has already blessed our family beyond measure. Know that I`m doing just fine.

Abraham 1
Doctrine and Covenants 121; 122
2 Corinthians 15

Love,
Elder Lund