talk to you soon

Well the details about the phone call will come tomorrow, because I still have to work out some details. It may be possible to call by way of Skype, which would be free. However, we have to see if the internet cafés will be open on Christmas...I don`t think so. By tomorrow I will have all the information, and I`ll let you know.

I`m glad to know the family is all together now, and I`d love to see fotos of that, actually. I`ll have to owe you the ones from the Christmas activity, since I don`t have my camera on me. Actually, I can`t write many details at all right now, because it`s actually kinda late and there`s still a lot of things to take care of...but DON`T WORRY! Super Elder Lund is here. Tomorrow you`ll have the phone call details, and on Christmas we`ll get to talk about aaaaaaallll the details of everything I`ve done this week and lately. Sorry for not being able to get it all written out now, but time is time and busy means busy. I`m working hard and trying to share the Christmas spirit with everyone. Hopefully you`ll get to feel that love and that kind of "Christmas fever" this year as well.

Love you, and talk to you soon!
Elder Lund

The activities were fantastic.

Friday, we went to the nursery up in the really poor area of the zone. The clowns played games like musical chairs and things like that with the kids, and we sang some Christmas hymns as well. We had a sound system, so the kids could dance as well. After about a 2 hour program, we gave them all gifts, took lots of fotos, and headed out. There were a LOT of gifts left over as well, so we took to the streets and knocked doors, giving toys to all the little children we could find in that community. Honestly, it was a fantastic feeling. Also, not only was our president there with his wife, but also the president of the other mission (Guadalajara East). A member invited him to come along, and he brought a lot of gifts with him.

Saturday we went to the old folks home. We sang many more christmas carols this time and a member played guitar and sang old folk songs for and with them. Then we got the older ladies dancing and having lots of fun, and we served them hot cinnamon and sweet bread, and at the end we gifted each of them a scarf. The funny part was that there were some catholic priests there giving mass and prayers and whatnot when we arrived. We waited for them to finish before we started up, and they joined us! One of them sang a song with the member who played guitar, and I talked to another one for a long time. He had a lot of questions about us and said he respected us as missionaries a lot. He was really happy we came to help out the old ladies. Also, he said The Other Side of Heaven was a fantastic movie.

It was really really fun to do all these activities and it helped these people a lot. It also got the zone exited to work hard and motivated the members to work together with us. They´re planning another activity for the 28th, but I don`t know the details. Now the last crazy christmas thing Elder Juarez and I are in charge of is our part of the big mission Christmas dinner. We´ll be putting on our skit (and I`ll explain it later! :P), showing off our super cool piñata, videos of our service activity, eating, and having a gift exchange. That`s tomorrow, and then we`ll be able to return to a semi-normalish work schedule. The good news is that 4 less actives that we visited came to church on Sunday. Little by little we´re getting there.

Love,
Elder Lund

Say hi to everyone.

Yes, the barranca is pretty cool...actually it`s really cold. It`s much colder over here than in Belenes, even though it`s not that far away physically, thanks to the giant cliff. There are also soccer games every weekend, although I think the season just ended. Atlas plays there, one of the 3 first division teams from GDL. Our house is pretty nice, actually. It`s even got a couch.

My favorite Christmas traditionas have always included the calendars, the many different types of christmas ornaments, the pickle, reading a Christmas story every night, "Twas the night before Christmas"...pretty much everything. I plan on passing it all down to my children (assuming my wife lets me!!!!). I want to make sure every Christmas is a fantastic, special, and spiritual experience for my family.

I`ll let you know what I`m thinking about BYU in the next week. I need some time to process it all, because there is a lot to decide and these decisions will have a very big impact on the future.

Oh, apparently I started talking in my sleep. I have no idea what I said or why, but I did. The problem is that my companion doesn`t speak English. I`ll keep you posted on further developments...

Well everything is all set for our service activity this weekend. We`ll be bringing a huge bag of toys to a nursery with 46 poor children on Friday. We`ll sing to them (I`m directing the chorus), play some games with them (there will be clowns!) give gifts, and have a good time with them. Saturday we`ll be going to an old folks home and giving them things for the cold like gloves, hats, scarves, and whatnot. We`ll also sing to them and with them and try to share some Christmas spirit. The whole zone is in on it, and it should be lots of fun. We`re also preparing our skit for the Mission Christmas Dinner, which is the 14th. I play a rag-doll missionary, with a pull-string and ridiculous phrases. It should be lots of fun.

The Christmas Devotional was great as well. I really enjoy these devotionals...although they`re way better in the original English. The only complication was that they told us it was at 6:00, but it ended up being at 7:00, so we had to wait an hour. There was an investigator there though and he enjoyed his first chance to hear the prophet speak. We`ll see how that develops in the future.

Well, time to run! Say hi to everyone. I`m running around very busy all day every day organizing activities, doing divisions (I went to Paraìso this week, and got to meet some really great investigators of theirs and help the young Elder Jensen improve his studies), and all sorts of stuff.

Love,
Elder Lund