Small and Simple Things

A note from Elder Lund's Madre--"Elder Lund is without a camera for a little while, so I thought I would put up a few pics with particular meaning this week as Elder Lund's older sister graduated from BYU last Thursday.  Here is a picture of Victoria and Elder Lund grilling their Sunday dinner as they were students together last summer at BYU.  Elder Lund brought some grilling skills.  Oh, they had fun together!  Below is a picture of our family (minus our missionary) with President and Sister Samuelson.  Elder Lund really enjoyed him as President of BYU for freshman year!"

¡Buenas!

Another week down and another change down in the mission field. I officially completed 4 months in the mission on Sunday. I celebrated a little by having baleadas with a member family as we always do Sunday nights. Cambios are this Wednesday and I´ll find out tonight if 1) I´m leaving 2) I´m getting a new comp but staying or 3) keeping the status quo for another 6 weeks here in Santa Rosa. 

Anyways, more about this week. Remember the guy who gave us $100 during Semana Santa? Well, we saw him outside his house again, but this time 6 fully armed "policía" were talking to him. As we walked by on our way to F. V, he said to us "Oh hey guys, see you later" trying to make himself look like a good guy. Well, that´s judging. They could have been talking to him because he´s the dueño of the colonia, but we still think he´s a little sketchy.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. We were walking back from Las Sidras when we saw an old man and woman struggling to carry back a big jug of water (the big blue ones) to their house. We offered to help and they accepted. Along the way we talked about them and our purpose as missionaries. We got to their house in five minutes but it probably would have taken them at least 25 at the pace they were going. We talked some more in their house, got a return appointment, and taught them parts of L1 yesterday with F. V. We still have a long way to go with them (P and G) and we don´t know if they´ll keep commitments, but something as simple as carrying water has allowed us to plant gospel seeds in their hearts.

The best experience of the week was with J. He has been our investigator for quite some time but it´s been difficult to teach him because he´s rarely home. He hasn´t progressed, but he does come to church just about every week though (his "wife" and kids are members). Anyways, we saw him on the streets at 12:30 and it was obvious he had been drinking...a lot. At that moment I had lost nearly all hope for him because we were pretty sure he was doing other things too. We had planned earlier to visit his family. To our astonishment, he was at home at 4:30 that same day, even though we thought he was going to be out and about. We were all outside just talking. I talked with Jose one on one as my companion was friendshipping the rest of the family. I left him with a Palabra de Sabiduria folleto for his "wife" to read to him and he also asked me for a blessing. We decided it would be best to let him sober up for another 3 hours and I returned with the Elders Quorum President later that night (we went on divisions to visit less-active families). He didn´t have a white shirt and tie on so I gave a blessing of comfort. They are quite poor and only had light from candles and the kitchen fire. In that peaceful setting, I felt the influence of the Holy Ghost and I know Jose did as well. Afterwards as we were about to leave, he called me over and talked to me about his desires to change his life and be baptized. We taught him after church in the capilla (he also went to a bapitsmal service between church and the lesson of a member´s daughter) a great L1 and invited him to be baptized June 7th. He accepted and told us he knows the church is true because he feels it in his heart (aka, por medio del Espíritu). He still has a bunch of challenges to overcome, and some that will cost a lot of money, but we are going to do the best we can to help him get on the covenant path. I have only been an instrument and have done nothing of my own power to help him have this change of heart, but I´m grateful for the opportunity to see this mighty change of heart in such a short period of time.

After the lesson with him, a torrential downpour came upon us with lighting too. We waited about an hour and a half to leave the church, and it was still raining when we left. Walking home in the dusk, we saw a bunch of cool lightning strikes in the sky. I´ll never forget it.

Well, that´s all I have. Nos Vemos,

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 4/21/14 - 4/28/14