Six weeks to go...

¡Buenas!

Better week, but still a little trying at times. We finished up the change and my last change (6 weeks to go) started today. I woke up a little earlier today to study the scriptures. So that I am accountable for my metas I will tell you some basic ones...

• Terminar el Libro de Mormon de nuevo desde el principio
• Terminar Doctrina y Convenios (1 sección al día, voy por sección 95)
• Terminar leyendo y marcando Los Evangelios (me faltan Lucas y Juan) 

The best news of the week is that la familia Darce are likely to get their divorce papers finalized on the 10th of November. We may not be able to see them married and baptized on the 14th (the fecha), but we will probably see it this upcoming change. They were unable to go to church this Sunday, but we will go tonight for a noche de hogar.

We had an interesting contact during the week. As we were leaving from a fallen cita (we had a lot this week), un vago (Homeless man) called us over and we went over. We talked with him and it turns out that he was a member, served a mission in Costa Rica (he still has his plaque kept away), and possibly sealed in the temple. His wife and daughters, also members, live in Vancouver. He has a house in between Dos Caminos and Villanueva, but left it (the neighbor watches over it) because there were a bunch of marreros and he had a surgery recently which left him with nothing. We bought him some fruit, bread, and some juice from a nearby pulpería and invited him to church. HE CAME TO CHURCH! He smelled kind of bad, but he came early and was sitting on the bench waiting peacefully. He stayed the second hour and talked with the Elder´s Quorum President in order to see what we can do to help. Neat experience. He plans on coming next week.

We had some weird companionship changes for the weekend. We are in a trio right now (I explained last week) and a missionary from El Carmen (the stake) who was serving in Tegucigalpa until he gets his visa for Mexico, came up to SPS for immigration stuff and I was comps with him for the weekend. It was very interesting. We did have a neat experience. On Sunday night just as we were about to go back to the house for dinner, a house stood out to me so we decided to contact it. He told me that it was late for a contact, but right after I said "Buenas" we heard a "ya voy!!!". Wow. We talked with the hermano briefly (I didn´t see his face in the shadows) and asked if we could come in and he said yes. As we were walking in, I realized that I had been there before...nearly 6 weeks early and in the dark. I didn´t realize it at first because I had been new and it was dark. Anyways, we had a nice lesson. His "friend" that´s a girl (you know what that means) was there who wasn´t there last time. We shared the Mormon message of the Book of Mormon with the bishop from England. We talked about the Book of Mormon, the man shared some insights (a classic evangelical response) and then we asked the woman and she gave us a lengthy response. She told us that while she has always been Catholic/kind of Evangelical, "the father of her children" is Mormon and all of his family and some of her family as well. She has visited the San Diego Temple and loved it. She knows about temple sealings and a lot of doctrine, but she never wanted to read the book of Mormon. She still has little interest, as both she and her husband have separated. All in all, we left them with downloading the Gospel Library app and listening/reading to 3 Nefi 11. She gave a so-so maybe. She has a heart that´s very duro, but hopefully she can open up, read with real intent, and come to know that it is true.

Interesting lesson with Familia Blanco this week. I won´t explain it now, but remind me to tell you the story about Belkin´s shirt that she had on during the lesson.

Good P-day despite some temporary troubles. I was talking with Elder Martinez from Idaho last night and we got on the subject that we have to see our future wives in all seasons before marrying her and try to see how she reacts in a stressful situation. Well, I had a great morning. I woke up early at 6:00 to read the scriptures and then wash clothes and wash the refri. We were going to go to the "Coca Cola" (google "Coca Cola Honduras sign" to see better pics) as a zone. We had set the time for 8:00 at the church in order to leave at 8:30, but another group of missionaries got there and left early. There were a bunch of little things, wrong buses, waiting, walking back and forth, etc which got me a little frustrated and irritated. As I was complaining quite a bit, I remembered what I had talked about last night and immediately repented. I stopped complaining and with more clarity addressed the situation to find solutions. After repenting, I truly enjoyed the hike to the Coca Cola, we ate at Denny´s, got hair cuts, and are now writing. Attitude and responding positively to stress is key. Christlike attributes of patience, hope, charity, humility are important as well as the first habit of highly-effective people (I forgot what it is called but I think it is be proactive...don´t let others or situations control you).

A member family told us about a video of her daughter this week. Here is the link. She talks way faster in person. We are working with her dad. He was born in Cuba, is from Spanish (Spaniard) decent, lived in the states for some time and as a consequence knows English and Spanish, and is a Muslim. Familia Cuadra...here is a video for SOY (Central America´s EFY) that has Lola and other people from the Stake in it. http://www.sudca.org/soy-video

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

CHEQUE!!! TODO MACIZO!!!

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 10/12/15 - 10/19/15

Families Are Forever

¡Buenas!

Kind of a tough week. Elder Lyon from La Smith 2 went home two weeks early because of health problems and his companion Elder Elmer from Utah is going to be in a trio with us working in our area and his area. He graduated in 2015, has just a few months in the mission, and it kind of feels like being in a companionship with Christian.

Familia Darce is still progressing well. We left with them a list of 60 algo scriptures from the Book of Mormon and the invitation to read one each day as a family after dinner. They willingly accepted. We are hoping for them to be baptized the 14th of November, but we are still waiting for things to get worked out in Nicaragua so they can get married here in Honduras. Jessica, the 13 year old daughter, made a "Families are Forever" cosita for new beginnings...can´t wait for them to get baptized so by the end of next year they can get sealed.

On Thursday, we were in Villa Florencia in La Smith 2. We had an interesting lesson with a contact from the week before named Alejandra. She was super pilas last week and came to church, but we believe she talked with one of her 5 pastor brothers because she received us joyfully, but tried to machete us with Galatas 1:7 about angels and Apocolipsis when it talks about "don´t add things to this book"...we tried teaching principles of lesson 1 and then answering her machetes but she truly wasn´t listening to us. No quiso hacer caso.

A lot of appointments fell this week and the investigators that we were hoping for to be baptized this month aren´t following through. Kind of tough, but the beat goes on. I stayed in SPS while my comp and Elder Elmer went to La Smith for Saturday and Sunday. I was with Elder Méndez from Guatemala and Elder Martínez from Idaho. We live together, but I had never worked with them. They have a really interesting area. They have some neighborhoods called Juan Lindo (Bella Vista it is called by the rich people) which is SUPER wealthy...mansions, nice cars, and helicopter pads. However, right by is la colonia Gracias a Dios and La Hammaca, which are SUPER poor. It was weird because we taught a lesson with an investigator named Orlin (who wants to get baptized, change his life, and has gone to church 3 times ya) whose casita is on a little hill near the huge mansions. He has no water and no electricity and there were a ton of mosquitos. Great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and interesting experience seeing where "the other half lives" (well, 95% live) and where the super wealthy live. We had some other good contacts that day as well, finding a family of 10, but some of the kids are probably MS or getting involved.

Good P-Day. Woke up a little early, read sections 87 and 88 of DyC, watched Bible Videos, ponderized, then we went to the market to go look at prices for recuerdos and Christmas gifts for December. Let me know if you guys want anything specific.

Well, despite it being a tough week, it´s going to be a better one. Cheque. 

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 10/12/15 - 10/19/15

Torch Still Lit

¡Buenas!

Another quick week here in the mission field, but it was another good one. We saw some progress with several investigators and families, and we saw not so much from others, but we are moving forward.

As always, we did two sets of divisions, the first was with Elder Lyon from Las Vegas, Nevada. We had some citas fall, but we had some good contacts and lessons nevertheless. We had a good lesson with la familia Cuadra. The entire family are members except for the muslim dad who knows English. He has a hard heart and doesn´t want to accept the Book of Mormon. We are working with him little by little. Elder Lyon and I talked a lot about the mission and home...he´s actually supposed to be going home this change on the 28th of October, but he may be going home Wednesday because of health issues. Good guy and a great missionary.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we had some good quality lessons, but at the same time, a lot of citas fell because of vacations. Our area was like a ghost town. Nevertheless, we had a good lesson with Familia Blanco on the word of wisdom. Later in the week, we taught them about the sabbath day and they are looking good as they came to church on Sunday. The best thing is that they are married! We also began teaching an old investigator named Wilson and his brother James. They seem promising. We were actually hoping to baptize Wilson on the 24th, but neither came to church. Josue and Wendy was another good lesson, but they didn´t come to church.

As of right now, the most promising family we have is the familia Darce. The two children (15 and 13) are members from a year ago. They, however, still have to get divorced and married and in order to accomplish this, we had a fast this past weekend. Every lesson for the past week and a half, we have been reminding them about the fast that we would start on Saturday and how we were going to start with eating dinner together. However, they understood it as they would fast all day Saturday and then eat dinner and then fast Sunday. When we got there, they were literally starving and super thirsty since it was a hot day and the dad had been working construction. We ended up having a good laugh while eating the baleadas and they ended up just doing the Saturday fast and we did the Sunday fast. They came to church and are looking very animated.

Friday was a very special day...we did divisions in Ocotillo!!! I went with Elder Wight and Elder Cerros (both from Australia) in Ocotillo 2, my old area. We stopped by converts, and found old investigators and they are willing to receive the missionary lessons again. It was awesome to go back. We took a short break and went to La Aldea for a baptismal interview and then got back to Ocotillo for a noche de hermanamiento at the church. I got to say hello to many members. The next day, an old investigator that Elder Merlos and I had found got baptized. Unfortunately, we couldn´t stay for that, but it was nice to see them. 

Sunday was pretty good. We had four at church (Familia Darce and Familia Blanco). We had some decent lessons and contacts. We were really exhausted since we were fasting....lunch to lunch is better than dinner to dinner. We contacted a man named Memphis and sat down and taught him a lot. When we started out, he made it seem like he didn´t know much, but as we talked and answered his questions and his counter questions, we knew he had investigated the church a lot and could have been even an inactive apostate member. We finished the night having dinner and breaking the fast with la familia Agurcia. We shared a message that they needed. The oldest daughter is a returned missionary (she knows Gwen Humble and Amy Lee actually) from the temple square mission and said that we had the spirit because they had earlier been talking about the scriptures we used (Moroni 7:46-47 and 1 Nefi 21:15-16). They made us pizza, a "pizza catracha" (bean sauce, eggs, cream, cheese, fried plantains) and a dessert that had a baked apple with Cinnamon, vanilla, and caramel ice cream. MMMM.

Well, that´s how the week went. Oh ya, on Saturday I hit the "2 months to go" mark...wow. Exactly two months ago I was starting the change with Elder Paraso in Cofradía and it feels like yesterday. Still finishing strong with the torch still lit (Uchtdorf). CHEQUE LEQUE!

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 10/5/15 - 10/12/15

General Conference--With Air Conditioning

¡Buenas!

Conference weekend!!! It wasn´t good..."it was FANTASTIC!!!" 

Well, before I get into that, I´ll briefly mention what happened this week. Anyways, I did divisions with Elder Correa from Panama in his area Primavera 1. The area was really interesting...on one corner we would see a group of mansions and then we would walk on and see a bunch of "humbler" homes. We had our first lesson near a stream. There was a small path from the start of the bridge (that would be tough to see if you didn´t know it was there) and we walked along the stream until we got to a number of shacks. I was used to it in other areas, but I haven´t seen it as much in the city. We taught some very good lessons, one in particular with a man who will be baptized this upcoming week. He is 72 and always walks to church from way up in the mountains (a good 45 minute walk). We taught a powerful lesson with a menos activa family that is making their way back. Near the end, we talked about the temple and how coming to conference would be one of those first steps to becoming an eternal family.

We had a powerful lesson on Wednesday with Josue and Wendy. Wendy is a less-active who just had a baby and we are working on Josue so they can get married and he can get baptized. We read the LDM with them and then talked about baptism and marriage. They are stressed right now with money and the baby, so we shared one last scripture before ending the night...DyC 61:36

 36  Y ahora de cierto os digo, y lo que digo a uno lo digo a todos: Sed de buen ánimo, hijitos, porque estoy en medio de vosotros, y no os he abandonado;

She started crying, but cheerfully crying. It was a good lesson and we are hoping to see them married and baptized by the end of the year.

We had an interesting Thursday...a ton of citas fell, but we were able to have a quality lesson with la familia Blanca. This was actually my first lesson with them and they seem really good. They are already married (miracle) but have a tough time going to church. We read Mosíah 2:22, 41 and testified about the blessings that we receive when we keep the commandments. We finished the lesson with them edified.

We had interviews with President Dester on Friday and then I had divisions with Elder Marte form the Dominican Republic (we lived in the same house in Cofradía). I love interviews. I always leave edified. Unfortunaley, most of our citas were cancelled by text message before we even left the chapel, but we did have the Carpeta de Área (Area Book) for revisions by the APs. We decided to try to contact and look for the antiguos investigadores. None of them were home, but we were able to contact great people. We had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. After dinner, we were about to walk hom (we live super far from our work area) but a woman was sitting outside and her 2 year old son walked up to us and offered us his empty churro (chip) bag. We decided to talk with her. Unfortunately, she seemed like an unqualified mother as her child starting walking out into the street as cars were still passing by every 2-3 minutes. She didn´t get up and I went out to bring him back. Shortly after, he went out again and the mom didn´t do or say anything. (maybe I needed the talk from Carole M. Stephens). Despite our efforts, she said she wasn´t ready, and she didn´t want to "play with the things of God". We did all we could.

Finally, on to conference! We had a special contact come to conference. We had contacted her 3 weeks ago when my comp stopped to tie his shoes. I don´t know why, but while waiting I called the house in front to see if anyone was there and Nora came out. She works for a family there (cousin is the dad) while her family lives in Copán. We left a simple Restoration folleto and didn´t think much of it. On Fridaywith Elder Marte, we contacted the house again and she came out and said she read the folleto. We asked her what she had learned and understood very well the story of José Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel. We invited her to pray and come to General Conference and said we would stop by Sunday morning to remind her. Well, on Sunday, we came at 9:15 instead of 9:45 because we wanted her to watch Music and the Spoken Word and she was already ready. They other family didn´t come, but she did and enjoyed it a lot.

On to what I enjoyed at conference. Well, we watched it in English with air conditioning in the Sumo Consejo board room. It was awesome. I loved all the talks, but a couple I liked a lot:

• Uchtdorf - Exaltation is our goal, discipleship is our journey
• Maynes - potters clay example
• Lawrence - "what lack I yet?" ... the holy ghost will tell us EXACTLY what we need to do next, not everything at once, but line upon line
• Cook - ship shape bristol fashioned
• Hales - baggy...talking about debt, marriage, and the miracle "he came to himself"
• Holland - wow...thanks mom
• Foster - hellen keller was able to do what she did because her mother was a great teacher
• Stanfill - bike tunnel story
• Martino - Nefi vs. Laman and Lemuel vs Sons of Mosiah
• Andersen - give brother joseph a break and move on, FAITH
• Eyring - the Lord will magnify us in our callings
• Monson - KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS
• Monson - be thou an example...he looked gasted near the end
• Rasband - got the impression to marry someone who will polish me after the Lord´s molding
• Renlund - look through Heavenly Father´s eyes and do the work HIS way
• Nelson - women are awesome..."ARE YOU DONE CRYING??"
• Christofferson - great talk to share with investigators about the true church
• Durrant - it was simple, but powerful...save money EACH week and #ponderize (#meditizar)
• Keetch - surfers and commandments
• Stephens - she is probably an awesome wife/mom/grandma...seat belt story
• Haynie - 3 Nefi 27:19-20 and today
• Bednar - bringing it home with a shoutout to the former apostles

I think my favorite talks were from Lawrence, Maynes, Holland, and Durrant...I have already started to #ponderize with DyC 64:33.

Well, for P-day I woke up at 6:00 to read the scriptures, ponderize a bit, and cleaned the house. We played fútbol as a zone and we are now writing. Good start of the week.

 

Unfortunately, something is up with my memory card when I try to download the fotos. I will see what I can do to not erase the old fotos. Until then, no fotos this week :( But, I hope you guys have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 9/28/15 - 10/5/15