Chikungunya

¡Buenas!

I´ll start off the weekly letter with the good news.

On Tuesday we did divisions with San Marcos 1. I was with Elder Hernández from Mexico who also happened to be with my "son" Elder Gutierrez the change before. We taught some good lessons and had memorable experiences. The last lesson we taught was with a strong family in the church. P and G The entire family have been members for 19 years...everyone except the mother. We taught and testified of the Book of Mormon. It was a powerful lesson. Before the lesson started, the mother said that she had seen me before, but I had never seen her. At the end of the lesson she said it again and the daughter that came during the lesson said she had seen me. Again, I had not seen the mom, but the daughter for some reason did look familiar. Like the prison story from President Green, maybe the Lord had me there that day for some reason.

We were having trouble finding people to teach on Saturday. We were really tired from that morning when we gave service in Naco (I´ll explain later) and citas were falling. We said a prayer in order to find escogidos and we contacted a house in Colonia El Rancho. A brother and a sister (35-45 years of age) were there and it turns out that their mother is a member of the Church. However, before joining the church, she had left the father of her two kids and they were raised by their grandmother. They do not have a very strong relationship with their mother. Nevertheless, she got married, had kids, joined the church, and was sealed in the Guatemala Temple. Her oldest son (from the new father) got back from serving a mission in Costa Rica. We taught them about the Gospel, Temples (with the magazine that Grandma and Grandpa Lund sent), and Eternal Families. After teaching, the sister had a very good question: "If my mom knows about all this, eternal families, we can be together forever, etc...why hasn´t she told us this? Does she not want us to be part of her family in the eternities?" It was a very good question. Although they didn´t have the best relationship with their mother, we invited them to call their mother and say "Hey mom, the mormon missionaries came over and taught us about temples, eternal marriage, and eternal families...can we be part of your eternal family" We promised them that despite the past difficulties, the Lord softens hearts and the gospel will unite their family.

We have had other good stories, but now on to the bad news...

Well, our house got robbed while I was on divisions in Naco. Thankfully, I took my camera on divisions and they didn´t touch my SD cards with all my fotos. However, they did take around 4500 Lempiras (around 1500 from the mission and around 3000 personal). Thankfully, they left both debit cards, my drivers license, and my temple recommend! Dad, I also still haven´t taken out the money...I was about to take it out last Monday, but for some reason I didn´t. The missionaries in the house had cameras stolen, the portable DVD player, and chicle.

Even worse news. I have Chikungunya. Saturday morning, my comp came with us to Naco to give service to someone who´s going to get baptized next week. We macheted, cut tree branches, and dug holes to put up a fence...all on the banks of a river in blazing heat. Around 2:00 AM Sunday morning, I woke up with a super high fever and shivering/shaking uncontrollably for around an hour. I said a prayer and tried to breath normally. The shaking eventually stopped, but I didn´t sleep well. I thought I was just really really dehydrated, but as I was about to check my temperature in the morning, I took off my shirt and my comp saw the typical rash from the virus. Literally all over my body...chest, stomach, back, arms, and knees. I´ll send pics, but I don´t think my camera captured how bad the rash was. We went to church and gave a missionary work capacitation during the third hour. I wanted to go to a stake missionary work capacitation because we have been planning it with the High Councilor in charge of missionary work for 4 weeks, but my companions and a nurse where we eat lunch on Sundays, persuaded me to stay home and rest. It reminded me of my Senior year of football when I had a really bad high ankle sprain. Coach Anderson told me before the first game after the injury versus King City "Don´t try to be a hero" ... thankfully, I didn´t try to be a hero. I took it easy and did all I could during the practice weeks to recover fully... because of that, I healed miraculously fast and was able to play in the next 4 games (PG, Menlo, Monte Vista Christian, and Palma). The same thought came to my mind - "don´t try to be a hero Elder Lund...rest so that you can serve faithfully the last 4 months of your mission" I asked for a priesthood blessing, and then Elder Marte and I went home as Elder Paredes and Castillo went to the estaca to give the workshop on the Book of Mormon in missionary work. I rested (but didn´t sleep well), sweated a lot (my sheets were literally drenched in the morning), and I´m starting to recover. I don´t know if it was a milder case of chikungunya or I´m just recovering faster than normal, but once again I am being blessed by the Lord with strength and health.

Please put Familia Pineda Rivera on the temple prayer roll again. We had two great lessons with them this week, but when the member neighbors passed by to pick them up for church, they said that they didn´t want anything. I´m sure someone dropped by and told them something bad about the mormons. I believe and have faith that they are still escogidos.

Well, that´s all I have this week. Cheque! (Oh ya, 19 months in the mission today...yaaaa)

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 7/20/15 - 7/27/15