say that 5x fast

Well in this week a lot of things happened and yet very little happened at the same time. Tuesday was transfers, E. Juarez went to Colima to train a greenie, and my new companion is E. Cruz, who is coming from Colima. He`s from Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo (say that 5x fast), is 26 years old, is a lawyer, and has a great sense of humor. We have lots of plans to get the zone excited about the transfer and working hard while enjoying what they do at the same time.

Wednesday and Thursday were leadership conference and ZL council, from which I learned a lot as usual. I enjoy these conferences because they refresh things I learned before but may have forgotten about in the day-to-day work, and I make new connections as well. It also means every two months I see Elder Christiansen on TV. I`m used to that now.

Friday we finally got started in the area. We met an inactive family (the father`s name is Daniel) with plans to return to church in the area, and we visited them. They`re really nice people, but for their economic position they often spent a lot of time selling seasonal items and are out of the city on Sundays. Hopefully we can help strengthen them and unite their family and, of course, help complete the family baptisms so they can start working towards a sealing in the temple. There are now 3 families like that with 6 possible baptisms we are working with. Church attendance has gone up though, which is good.

We also met another family through service. A lady was trying to cut down a tree and cut it into pieces to throw it away because it was scraping up her wall, and we offered to help her out. After taking a hacksaw to it for a while we finished the job and she invited us inside, where we met her daughter Michele. Michele and Angelica (the mom) were very interested in learning more about us, since they have seen missionaries pass by before and wanted to know why we do what we do. They have also felt the hand of God in their lives a number of times. Michele was in an accident a while ago and was severely injured, but now can walk around just fine but still is lacking a little strength. They asked a lot of questions and seemed very interested. Hopefully we can help them overcome their challenges and find the true gospel. They believe in personal revelation, and are very good people. Please pray for them.

That`s essentialy all we`ve had time for. The 6th was King´s Day though (I think that`s the name in English), when supposedly the 3 kings came to visit Christ. Part of the tradition involves a special cake-like thing called the rosca de reyes. It`s circular in form (like an O) and has 4 little plastic babies inside of it. Everyone at the party that night cuts their own piece of rosca, and if there´s a plastic baby inside of their piece, they have to buy or prepare the tamales for another party on the 2nd of February.

I did not find a plastic baby in my cake this year.

I wonder if there is you can find rosca like that in the states. Supposedly, this day is another day for presents and whatnot. They really love their holidays here.

Well time to run, but we`re kick starting things here. Interviews with President are in our houses this time around, and they`re tomorrow. Gotta make sure everything is squeaky clean for when he gets here!

Love,
Elder Lund

P.S. What are your goals for this year?