Twelve Investigators

Another quick week in the mission field. We had a record number (at least for me) of investigators who attended sacrament meeting - 12!!! Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to do to prepare them for their baptisms. The biggest challenge right now is getting people married. It is very difficult getting people married. We as missionaries have done what seems like all we can to help, but it is still up to them to get their necessary paper work, save up money, and just get it done. One of the investigators was supposed to go to Centro in San Pedro Sula to get her Cedula number but in the morning when we passed by and asked her she said she was just going to do it a different day. Consequently, they will not be baptized this change.

Well, I found out that my rash was actually an infection called Folliculitis. It has subsided a lot, but I am still taking some medication to help out.

We gave service Saturday morning to an investigator named M. They have  a big yard with a ton of trash and leaves built up over the past few months. We raked and swept the debris into big piles and burned them. Burn Day!!! The "husband"  was working next door. He´s not too interested in the church right now, but hopefully the service softened his heart a bit. M is ready to be baptized but needs to be married to J first but he doesn´t want to and they are really poor. Next change perhaps.

Well, that´s all I have this week. Cheque!

-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 8/18/14 - 8/25/14

Pizza... Pizza...

 
Making Pizzas for a Good Cause



¡Buenas!

Another quick week in the mission field. This change is going by super quick. We had another good work week here in Ocotillo. Last week, we decided to start really focusing in on 11 investigators with potential baptisms for this month. Unfortunately, after working hard this week, that list has gone down to just 4 or 5. C, a g in a part-member family, is going back to C for a month. She says she knows the church is true and wants to be baptized when she returns. J, the daughter in the family, wants to be baptized but lacks 2 church attendances and her mom (a member but super inactive) doesn´t want her getting baptized until she is older. Tough. The biggest blow came from the V. They agreed to be baptized and married, but the mother doesn´t have her ID card from Honduras. In order to be married, she must receive this card first but it takes 2-3 months. There goes 5 baptisms. One of the sons could still technically get baptized at the end of the month, but it´s better to wait for the whole family. I have no doubt that these 7 people will get baptized down the line in the next change or the one after that. They have felt the spirit and have true desires. It´s a little difficult because I probably won´t be here to see them be baptized, but that´s the way it goes. Through this experience, although it is a little difficult for me, I have learned to be more patient and that my timescale is not the Lord´s.

In preparation for their marriage and the marriage of another family this month, some of the members made and sold pizzas. We as missionaries helped organize everything. They plan on selling something this week as well.

We had a good lesson with the F. The bishop was there and we watched an episode of The District 2. G really enjoyed it and is thinking about preparing for a mission. She still has 11 months until she can officially go, but it would be pretty awesome if down the line she does have desires to serve.

Well, that´s all I have. I´ll send some pics. Cheque!!!

-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 8/4/14 - 8/11/14

On Sunday Morning--I'm Making Pancakes

¡Buenas!

Well, sorry I didn´t get to write you guys on Monday. The internet went out in Ocotillo after being on for just 5 minutes and hasn´t come back until today in the afternoon. We got permission from the ZLs to write briefly for an hour instead of the usual two that we are allowed.


Good work week. First and foremost here in Ocotillo. We have continued teaching our families and they seem to be progressing a lot. We´ve stopped visiting other families as much, but still continue every now and then. We found out last week that - supposedly - all the weddings are free in the month of August in all of Honduras to promote the family. Pretty sweet tender mercy if it turns out to be true. The couple would still have to go to their birth place and take out their papeles de sultería but it still is going to cost significantly less.


We decided to pick up the familia E for church on Sunday. I told them how our family sometimes had big breakfasts Sunday mornings so I promised them to make pancakes. I woke up a little early on Sunday to start, but it took a lot more time than I anticipated. The stove kept turning off whenever it got to a certain temperature, but I finished. Also, they only sell syrup in SPS and we didn´t have time or money to take a bus out there before Sunday, so instead we improvised and bought sweetened condensed milk the night before...mmm. We arrived at their house around 8 in the morning.  We ate breakfast and left for church. They took a while to get ready so we arrived late for the sacrament, but the mom said they will leave earlier with us next week. They really liked church. Actually, before all of this, we had a member family come with us Thursday to finish up the plan of salvation lesson. Hmo M, it turns out, already knew the father from way way back and they both recognized each other and gave each other a big hug. Hmo M was drinking buddies with him but stopped spending time with him when he joined the church 15 or so years ago. "Coincidence, I think not!"  He bore his testimony and the family was really touched. The spirit was strong and the lesson ended under the moonlight because they don´t have electricity where they live. It was a really cool experience.


For P-day we went to the Laguna Ticamaya with the familia m. It´s about an hour walk from Ocotillo but probably less if it was just us missionaries. Obviously, we couldn´t fully enjoy it because we can´t swim, but it was fun nevertheless. I will send pictures next P-day.


Well, that is all I have for this week. Cheque!


-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 8/4/14 - 8/11/14

Words From Elder Holland and...Thomas Edison

Elder Lund with his Zone
Breakfast as a Zone

Elder Lund with Elder M

Elder Lund with Elder M

P-day Help

Ward Building

Carne Asada for P-day lunch today!

¡Buenas!

Well, pretty good week but a few ups and downs. We challenged 13 people to baptism with dates of the 23 and 30 of August. I would like to see some baptisms before I leave Ocotillo (probably this change the 3rd of September) so we are working very hard. Unfortunately, only 2 of the 15 total investigators with fechas came to church on Sunday. There is still hope, but the investigators will have to attend church the next 3 weeks in a row in order to be baptized on the 30th. In other words, this week is incredibly important to help people keep their commitments especially attending church. It was a little tough because we had one family who promised to come but didn´t show up. We had an appointment the day before but the neighbors said they were in A and on Sunday afternoon we went again and they weren´t there. Hopefully, they were still in A and not just avoiding us. We will see...

Fast sunday was tough yesterday. We went from lunch Saturday to lunch Sunday. We did a lot of walking in the sun Saturday afternoon and I was super thirsty the entire night. Although it was tough, it was a good fast. The sacrament was very reverent and despite the troubles both us and our investigators are facing, I felt at peace. M, a menos activa that we are reactivating, bore her testimony. She was attending an evangelical church for some time but didn´t feel right. She prayed and asked God to send her an answer the correct path in her life. Either that day or a few days later Elder M and I contacted the house and we started teaching her and her family again. It has been a struggle getting her back, but she testified yesterday with a sincere heart that she knew the church was true. She has a lot of animo right now. There are two potential baptisms in the house - her mom and her granddaughter who don´t have fechas yet - but I´m truly happy for her and to see how far she has come. She, and especially her daughter, has tried my patience a lot, but it´s been worth it.

We had a really good Zone Conference this week. Don´t have time to talk about it, but it was excellent. I love Zone Conferences. It renews my animo to work hard.

I said earlier about the fallen appointment for the F. on Saturday. Before that, we had another appointment fall through because the people weren´t home. Again, hopefully they just forgot and not avoiding us. Anyways, we sat down waiting for 15 minutes or so to see if they would come. To be honest, I was feeling a little down. I started to murmur and complain to myself. The scripture story of Nephi breaking his bow came to mind. I pulled out my scriptures and started reading. When things went downhill because they couldn´t obtain food, his family...even Lehi...started complaining. But what did Nephi do? He acted. Instead of complaining, he built another bow and then asked his father where he should go. Complaining got his family no where, but action (an expression of his faith) led to him receiving food once again for his family. At this time, a story about Thomas Edison from Elder Holland´s BYU speech came to mind as well: 

Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel-alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of fire echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments all of the packing compounds, celluloid for records, film, and other flammable goods had gone up with a roar. Fire companies from eight towns arrived, but the fire and heat were so intense and the water pressure so low that the fire hoses had no effect. Edison was sixty-seven years old—no age to begin anew. His son Charles was frantic, wondering if he were safe, if his spirits were broken, and how he would handle a crisis such as this at his age. Charles saw his father running toward him. He spoke first.
He said, “Where’s your mother? Go get her. Tell her to get her friends. They’ll never see another fire like this as long as they live!”
At 5:30 the next morning, with the fire barely under control, he called his employees together and announced, “We’re rebuilding.” One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area, another to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, by the way. Anybody know where we can get some money?” (Paraphrased from Charles Edison, “My Most Unforgettable Character,” Reader’s Digest, December 1961, pp. 175–77.)
Virtually everything you now recognize as a Thomas Edison contribution to your life came after that disaster. Remember, “Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement— discouragement has a germ of its own.”

At that moment, I got up and told myself "We´re rebuilding" ... we were basically out in the middle of nowhere (they live in the middle of a corn field) an we had heard there were more houses up the road. We went up and found 7 houses on about an acre of land. All who lived there were family and we taught a lesson to a friend of the F. and her sister. I´m not saying everyone who lives there will get baptized, but it´s a start. Trouble has no connection with discouragement. We can be like the family and complain, or we can be like Nephi and Thomas Edison and fix the problem or at least be patient in our afflictions.
Well, that´s all I have for this week. Cheque...

-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 7/28/14 - 8/4/14