Lots of Investigators

¡Buenas!

Well, Elder M had changes and I´m still here in Ocotillo. He got shipped up to ZL in Yojoa and I got shipped up to comp mayor. My new companion is Elder M. He is from El Salvador and has a little over 4 months in the mission. He´s cool and is really good at fútbol. "It´s my life" he told me today. He´s a good Elder with good teaching skills.

We had a pretty good work week. We sowed seeds and formed the foundation and hopefully we´ll be able to see the fruits by the end of this change or into the next change. I believe I´m only going to be here one more change (since I will be having 4 1/2 months in Ocotillo after this change) so we´re working hard to see some baptisms. 

We have 17 new investigators, 11 of them coming from 3 families. We also have 3 potential baptisms from part-member families and 3 others. The biggest problem is of course chocoleyde. None of the families are officially married. Plus, 2 of those potenitials from PF are living in chocoleyde at 14 and 15 years old. The girlfriend lives with the son and the member mom doesn´t seem to care. Both of them, however, were really interested in Baptism (they asked us first) and we challenged both of them and they accepted. But as I said, we still have a long way to go.

Funny moment. After teaching the restoration to one of those families, we showed them a picture of the prophet and quorum of the twelve. A friend of theirs had joined the lesson and she (also unmarried but with a family) said "I want to marry David (Bednar)...he´s handsome!" 

I hit the 7 month mark yesterday. The last 2 changes have been a lot of fun while working hard at the same time. Because of that, unfortunately it´s going by a lot faster as well. 17 months... work hard, play hard, and enjoy the journey.

I´ll send some more pics next week. In the meantime, good luck with everything and cheque!

-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 7/21/14 - 7/28/14

Denny's, Futbol, and Reaching out to the Youth in Honduras

Lunch at Denny's
District Lunch at Denny's
 
Burn Day Outside the Apartment

 Baptism Last Week
Saturday Night Futbol after English Class


Moto Taxi Driver
 ¡Buenas!


Pretty normal week working each day to find, teach, and baptize people here in Ocotillo. We had our ups and downs with some lessons going very very well while many return appointments (mostly after "Lecciones para Encontrar" AKA contacts) fall which can be frustrating but just the way things go.

Since our contacts haven´t been as effective, we thought of some other ways to find new investigators. We were talking with the Bishop´s son who is a return missionary. He said he would talk with the kids and gain their confidence then ask if they could go talk to their parents. He said he had a few baptisms out of that. We have been trying to do that more...gain the confidence of the kids and youth. One day, we played a soccer game that they call Chano. Two teams of two play at a time. One player shoots a free kick and the other team has to catch it in the goalie keeper´s box. If they just knock it away, the other player can shoot again or take it out and pass it to the other player to shoot. It is still in play until the team shooting scores or the defensive team grabs it in the goalie´s box. Each player has 3 shots. My companion and I won three games in a row with a bunch of kids and youth cheering us on. After playing for 20-30 minutes, we said goodbye, invited the kids to futbol at the church Tuesdays and Saturdays, and went to our next appointment. Even if we just gain their confidence, it will be worthwhile. Many of the kids are just totally ingrained to think Mormon missionaries are bad and they should avoid them (or just ask us "quieren café?")

We went to Denny´s today for lunch. I had the Bacon Avocado Cheeseburger. MMMMMM!!!!

Well, we have changes this upcoming week. Odds are, either I will leave Ocotillo or I will stay and just get a new companion. In the meantime, you will have to just wait for next week.

I´m sending another email with photos and the explanations.

Cheque

-Elder Lund
 
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 7/14/14 - 7/21/14

Pretty Good Week


¡Buenas!

Pretty good week. G (I believe in previous weeks I may have spelled it Y) got baptized on Saturday! It was really great and all of her member sisters were able to make it as well. There are still a few others in the family who still need the gospel, but I´m sure it will come to pass sometime in the future.

Our other investigators E and D were not able to get married this week so they weren´t able to get baptized this week either. The biggest thing they lack now is time. Because of the marriage laws, they both have to go back to where they were born and take out records showing they are single. They can´t get others to do it for them and it must be where they were born because that is where their records stay. He will have to make close to an all-day trip because he´s from Santa Barbara and she is from a city closer to Teguc. Tough stuff, but we´ll see how it goes in the upcoming weeks.

We have another couple making progress too. The "wife" has been coming to church for a while and is ready to be baptized, but the "husband" is struggling. He made some major improvements though this week and came to church as a family yesterday too. I won´t say too much more at this time.

That´s all I have this week. Go get ´em out there!

-Elder Lund
 
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 7/7/14 - 7/14/14

Watching an Investigator Set His Sights on the Things of Heaven--Happy July 4th!


4th of July--Pizza Hut


¡Buenas!

Pretty good week. We celebrated the 4th of July by going to Pizza Hut for lunch. Ya, 'Merica! The waitress messed up our order but whatever. When we visited members that day, I told them ¨Feliz día. Hoy celebramos el primer paso de la Restauracion.¨ They all thought it was kind of funny.

We´re in the process of dropping a lot of investigators right now. They aren´t progressing and they are just dragging us down with them. It´s really tough to do because we´ve had so many great lessons with them, but they just aren´t ready right now to keep commitments.

I remember hearing before the mission that it´s tough getting the door slammed in your face everyday. I think I would prefer that, because we have great contacts and a lot of return appointments. When we go the next day, however, they somehow aren´t there. It happens a lot with our ¨progressing¨ investigators too. I get my hopes up, but then my heart literally gets ripped out.

Thankfully, we have one investigator who is truly being converted. He and his wife are making preparations to be married and then baptized this upcoming week or the following week if the marriage doesn´t work out this week. The husband has been working like a burro lately to save up money for the marriage papers. The colony where he lives got their water taken away recently and he is the only one that has the proper tools to build water wells. (Tender mercy of the Lord) He rents the equipment and then charges to help build the well. His personal well for his wife was having problems, and he worked through the night to build another one for his family instead of sleeping after a long day working at the Don Julio Chile factory and building other wells. All in the meanwhile, he has a smile on his face because he can´t wait for his baptism. He has no excuses. As the parable goes, he is selling everything he has to buy the field with the hidden treasure. I hope we can find more people like him or at least help people get to that level of commitment.

Well, that´s all I have. Love you all.

-Elder Lund
 
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 7/1/14 - 7/7/14