Loaves and Fishes

¡Buenas!

Quality week here in Cofradía. We had a multi-zone conference on Tuesday and then a mission conference broadcast on Saturday. I believe my favorite part from Tuesday came from President and Sister Dester about the Savior´s miracle when he fed the 5000 with just 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  Well, we all know the story...the Savior performed the miracle as he fed the 5000 and there was still extra left over. But in order for the miracle to first occur, they had to give their all. The Savior didn´t care if there were 5 loaves or 500; all he cared about was whether it was their all or not. In missionary work, or in our personal lives, when we consecrate our all to the Lord, He can perform great miracles despite our weaknesses, debilities, and mortal limits. Another favorite theme from the zone conference was how we need to have the spirit and Christ-like love for the people. When we do that, we can be like the "energizer bunny" and we will be able to endure the heat, setbacks, disappointments, and natural fatigue. He told us how President Kevin R. Duncan of the area presidency is always working and just never stops. He told us how the Apostles also are always working and just never stop. They always have the spirit, the always work out of love for God´s children and that gives them the energy to keep going, and going, and going.

On Wednesday, we gave service for the familia M. Basically, they live SUPER far (1 hour from the church when WE walk...probably 1 1/2 hours when they walk with their kids) and they have already come 7-8 Sundays. They are moving to the other Elders´ area to be closer to school and church. We are helping them with the move and the building of a new house on their lot. We basically macheted, cut tree branches, and then on Friday morning my comp and I went back by ourselves to continue and we had a huge "burn day" pile that went up in flames super quick.

This weekend, President Russell M. Nelson and the area president Kevin R. Duncan came to Tegucigalpa to talk to the central american area via satellite. We went to a marriage charla on Friday night with an investigator M (his wife unfortunately did not want to come).  Kevin R. Duncan gave an incredible, yet short, talk that truly changed the spirit of the meeting. He talked about the load capacities of 2x4 blocks of wood. 1 block can withstand 600 pounds, 2 blocks can withstand not 1200, but 1800 pounds. 2 blocks nailed together can withstand 4800 pounds and if you add a 3rd block, they can withstand 8400 pounds. The 2 first blocks represent us and our spouses. The nail represents temple marriage, and the third block represents the Lord. If we are sealed and include the Lord in our marriages, we have the power to withstand any difficulty or challenge. President Nelson finished the meeting talking about how we should treat our spouses, children, grandchildren, and how to have a successful marriage. He talked about a lot of awesome personal stories. Our investigator really enjoyed it.

Saturday morning, we had a mission conference again via satellite with President Nelson and Duncan. Again, he talked about a lot of subjects, but my favorite was his focus on helping investigators not just get baptized, but go to the temple. In order to qualify for eternal life, they have to go to the temple.

Well, that´s all I have this week. I love you guys!

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 8/17/15 - 8/24/15

One of the Least of These

¡Buenas!

Good week here in Cofradía. As always, there are challenges, but the beat goes on...

On Tuesday for the Zone Meeting, we set a zone goal in order to find more hombres, and therefore, help the church truly go as we baptize them and help them receive the Aaronic and Melquisedec Priesthood. Out of the 10 new investigators, we put the meta to find 5 hombres. With the help of the Lord, we were able to find 5 hombres to set the example.

We had a lot of success setting baptismal dates this week. We put fechas with the familia P, familia M, familia N and almost the familia E but they weren´t ready to accept it yet because they have appointments with testigos de Jehová. Unfortunately, none of them came to church. Bummer.

Had some good experiences offering service. First with the familia Cin Gracias a Dios. They used to go to church every Sunday 6-8 months ago but got discouraged when the wife found out she has problems with her records in order to get the necessary papers for marriage. They are pretty poor as well. We got to the house around 6:30 PM. We decided to offer them service and cook them dinner. They were only going to have tortillas and beans so we decided to go to the pulpería and buy 6 eggs for the family of 6. We cooked dinner, they ate, and after we taught them about the Doctrine of Christ and eternal marriages. We challenged them to baptism as a family and they accepted. This Sunday, the whole family wasn´t able to go, but the father Angel (cabeza de la familia) did come to church. There is a lot of work to go, a lot of encouraging and teaching, and I probably won´t see them get baptized, but I can´t wait to here later down the line when they make the decisions to repent and make covenants with our Heavenly Father.

After a fallen cita, we had another experience. We walked past an old man with a sack and a machete resting in the shade. We said hello and then as we walked past he called for us and we started to talk with him. It was apparent when we began to talk that he was a littly tipsy (there are a LOT of old drunks on the streets). We were listening to him and it was apparent that he was not going to be a potential "nuevo investigador" and we were simply "wasting time" but as we looked into his depressed eyes, we decided to share a scripute.We shared 1 Nefi 21:15-16 and taught that the Lord always remembered him. We squated down and offered a prayer, well, actually he offered the prayer and started crying. After the prayer, we asked if there was anything else and you could just tell he was hungry and destitute so we went to the pulpería close buy and bought the following: cemitas (8 Lempiras), 2 bags of water o sea 1000 mL (4 Lempiras) and a heart sucker (1 Lempira). We put it in a bag and gave it to him. He was very grateful even though he was a little tipsy and out of it. 13 Lempiras is roughly 60 cents but he was filled. As we were buying from the pulpería, a scripture came to mind.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.Then shall the 

righteous answer him, saying, Lord,when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty,and 

gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee Or 

when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say 

unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 

brethren, ye have done it unto me.

I felt the spirit strongly. This man, at his age, is truly one of the "least" in the eyes of the world, but to our Heavenly Father he is a special child with divine potential. Even though we may not be able to find him and give him what matters most (the Gospel), we at least were able to feed a hungry stomach and encourage a troubled heart.

Before I forget again, our Bishop has the coolest last name ever: Largaespada! Or in other words, he is Bishop Longsword. Awesome. We helped out in the primary this week. I was asked to dress up as Jesus and we acted out the raising of Lazarus, Jairo´s daughter, and the widow´s son from the dead. It was funny.

Anyways, have a great week! I started reading DyC one section a day until the end of my mission...I read section 25 today...you can do the math.

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 8/10/15 - 8/17/15

Good Progress

We saw some good progress with la familia E. They all read in the Book of Mormon and are praying. We taught Día de Reposo but they weren´t able to come to church. The mom is literally 400 pounds and can´t leave the couch...it might be a little difficult getting her to church and baptizing her, but the dad is actually the most interested of the family and really understands everything we teach.

We had an interesting contact while I was with Elder Paredes. It was his last day in Cofradía and as we were walking past a house a man who was sitting outside tried to shake hands with us and at first we almost ignored it but shortly (as in a step and a half) after we came back and talked with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We taught him Thursday with Elder Paraso and again on Saturday night. His name is José Leonel and he´s roughly 60 years old. As we taught him the Restoration he said, "So Jesus was Joseph Smith´s boss?" We confirmed that it was something like that. I have never heard someone understand it that way. When we returned Saturday he was reading outside. He didn´t really understand anything. Actually, after the prayer he started reading out loud to us in a really funny way, but whatever. He may not understand what he was reading, but he told us he feels the power of the book and wanted to go to church (the missionaries had actually visited him 5 years ago or so so he knew where the church is). He told us "I´m going to get up a 5:00 AM get ready, leave at 9, and be there before 10. It was really strange. He didn´t end up coming to church. Chikungunya hit him. We are going to visit him with some members to hermanar him.

We also saw some great progress with E. He is reading the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized. He is struggling with "deseos de la carne". He has a molino (he grinds corn) and he checks out all the women as they walk by. He also said that a women called him saying she was in a hotel waiting for him. He was going to go and than he saw the Book of Mormon, put his hand on it, and then prayed for strength. He´s 80 years old but I guess the temptations are always there. His wife got really sick Saturday so he cared for her and didn´t go to church. He felt really bad and asked us to pray for her. He expressed a lot of faith and we gave her a blessing. She wasn´t listening to us before but maybe this is a way that the Lord has given us to soften her heart.

I´ve got a lot of other stories, but not enough room or time. We had a good leadership council with the ZLs, APs, and President and Sister Dester. I hope you guys have a good week!

CHEQUE!!! 

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 8/3/15 - 8/10/15

The Savior Wants to Forgive

¡Buenas!

Well, another week here in the mission. We spent Tuesday in the house resting and I went back out to work Wednesday through the end of the week. Not the best idea. I probably should have rested more because I was simply exhausted and sore until Sunday. My hands were super swollen (#swolepatrol) and hurt a lot. 

I believe I had one of the most powerful spiritual moments of my mission yesterday. We found out who robbed us - a young man in the ward named Junior. He is 18 and was preparing to serve a mission when I first came to Cofradía, but things have dramatically changed beginning a month ago. I do not know all the details, but he is going through a lot right now. He moved in with his 24 year old girlfriend (who already has a 1 year old daughter) about a month ago and has gotten involved in drugs and alcohol because of her. She is extremely manipulative (chocoleyde aka fornication is governing his decisions) and she is also involved in the mara. He robbed us and then a week later he robbed the missionaries in Naco as well. 

The other elders found out when they visited the mother of Junior. He had come back drunk and had inflicted harm on her and his sister. The mom said he had been involved in a robbery and the missionaries asked to see some of the items and they were ours. We were able to get back the cameras, dvd player, but my cash was spent...clothes for his girlfriend, lunch in SPS with his girlfriend, drugs and alcohol. Our items were in the house of another member who was involved, but things were a little more complicated for Naco as they were in the house of the girlfriend. In order to try to get the items back for Naco, we went Sunday after church with the Elders Quorum President, Carlos Rodriguez.

We walked 20 minutes from the central park in order to get to Junior´s house. We met with his mom who had her wrist taped up from a knife cut from the night before. Junior had once again returned drunk. His phone was off so we had to go to the house of the girlfriend and call for him. We went and called for him but he did not respond. To avoid us, he put on reggaeton music on his stereo. It looked like we had come in vain. After talking with the mom again in her house for 10 minutes or so, we returned one more time. Nothing. An impression came to mind that we should sing hymns, so we did. 194-199 in the spanish hymn book...Cuando hay amor, Las Familias pueden ser eternas, soy un hijo de dios, siempre obedece los mandamientos, hazme andar en la luz, and Dios vive. It worked. When we reached "Soy un hijo de Dios" he had changed the reggaeton music to EFY music (SOY) and had opened up the windows twice to look at us. I looked at him in the eye (everything else was dark except for "the whites of his eyes") and smiled and nodded my head. By the end of our singing, he came out. We went back to his mom´s house to have the lesson.

Before beginning, we decided it would be good to give him a blessing of consuelo y consejo. When we asked him who he wanted to give the blessing, he said the one who had the idea to sing the hymns. I had the privelege to give him the blessing. We then sat down on the couch, shared our testimonies, scriptures, and more than anything encouraged him to come back to the fold. Very spiritual experience. I´m not much of a crier, but during the blessing and the lesson I teered up a couple times and truly felt the pure love of Christ for him. We all felt extremely close to the Savior and felt the power of His atoning sacrifice. I don´t believe I have explained very well, and I probably will never be able to put it into words, but it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. It also reminded me of Jean Valjean from Les Miserables. He had stolen from the Catholic Bishop (or whoever it was) and the Bishop forgave him and gave him new life with the candle sticks (which he ended up not using as I recall). I attached a mormon message that is very good as well. I don´t know if Junior is going to repent or not, but if there are no "fruits" and he continues to dive deeper in sin, the experience itself has at least had a huge impact on me.

E, an investigator that we have been teaching, came to church. He was the only one, but he really enjoyed it. At the end of Sacrament Meeting, he said "I want to talk with the Sacerdote" to which I corrected him (again) and led him to the Bishop. He is interested in getting baptized and becoming a member. I will give more details on him in the future as he progresses more.

The Savior wants to Forgive:

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-savior-wants-to-forgive

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 7/27/15 - 8/3/15