Final Email--"The Best Two Years FOR Your Life"

¡Buenas!

I still can´t believe it, but I´m done. Today is P-day, tomorrow we have "changes" and going away activities, Wednesday we have a mission conference with President Duncan of the 70, and on Thursday I´m "going going, back back, to Cali Cali" and we´re finally reuniting again. It has been the weirdest mix of emotions, but I left my all out here in the mission field. 

It´s kind of a bold statement, but I believe this was the best weekend of my life.

It started out with the final interview with President Dester on Friday morning. It was very uplifting and edifying being able to talk about the mission and the future. I left with confidence knowing that I have fulfilled my calling well. Shortly after the interview on the walk home to the house, I had a "cheesecake shake" from Burger King. It was really good and I also saw a family from Cofradía there.

After the interview, I went to Ocotillo to do a baptismal interview and I stayed there for the night working in their area. The interview went well and we taught well after. There was a ward activity (noche de hermanamiento is held almost every Friday) held on by the ward mission leader. After the activity, it seemed like all was going to end and everyone was going home, but SURPRISE! The members made a surprise despedida party for me. I knew something was up earlier, but it was still awesome. They made tres leches and people came up and gave thanks for my service. It was awesome. "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die" ... I am satisfied with my work in Ocotillo and the friends I have there.

Early Saturday morning, we went to a member´s house with a recent convert from an Elder who is leaving the area. For that and in order to prep for Christmas, we "gave service" as we killed one of the pigs. I will only send one or two photos as they are graphic. I will show you when I get back. It was awesome. It was raining and the pig was faisty. Even though she wasn´t the biggest I´ve seen, she gave us a good fight. We helped shave the hair and gut it and we had costilla (ribs!!!) for lunch.

When I got back to SPS, Elder Permenter (our DL) gave the baptismal interviews to our investigators and we went about prepping for the wedding for José and Doris Ulloa and contacting with #HaNacidoUnSalvador. The wedding was supposed to start at 6:30 and the lawyer was supposed to come right at 7:00, but he was a little late because of a compromiso. We were a little nervous that he wouldn´t show and people were getting bored, but he showed up and the wedding went great. I will send pics. On the walk back, we walked past the stadium where Romeo Santos had a concert. People go crazy for him. We got back wet and cold because of the rain, but happy because of the wedding.

Because of work issues with our investigators and an investigator of the other Elders in the ward, we held the baptism on Sunday morning. It was a so-so service (we don´t have a ward mission leader and it was tough attendance wise since it started at 7:45 AM) but the spirit was strong during the ordinances. I baptized Dilcia Manzano and my companion baptized Doris Ulloa. José had some problems and needs an interview with the mission president. We found out that they were evicted from their house and are moving to Siguatepeque, but they asked for the information where the church is and the members glady gave it to them.

Sunday was great. I bore my testimony in my last meeting. Everyone was congratulating me for finishing the mission. After church, we contacted and did despedidas. We had a lot of great contacts with #HaNacidoUnSalvador and we were able to have a few good lessons. We went to the Christmas Devotional which was awesome and I was able to say goodbye to more people. We got home and I finished my fast at 10:30 PM since I started it late the night before. It was for a good purpose ;) ... It was good coming home to a "mission accomplished" feeling.

Today, I finished up with Christmas gifts, got my haircut, ate Pollo con Tajadas at Plaza Típica, and started packing. It is a little weird, as I said before, that I´m done.

Before heading out to play soccer with the jovenes and other members, I will close with a testimony of the mission. It truly is the best two years. Sin embargo, as President Green said, hopefully it will not be the best two years of your life, but for your life. Missions change lives: those we teach, those we serve, and in turn the Lord helps change us. I know that the Savior lives and loves us. I have grown closer to him in the mission and especially this last change. I know that with His help, I can do all things.

"Porque yo ya estoy a punto de ser ofrecido como sacrificio, y el tiempo de mi partida está cercano. He peleado la buena batalla, he acabado la carrera, he guardado la fe. Por lo demás, me está reservada la corona de justicia, la cual me dará el Señor, juez justo, en aquel día; y no sólo a mí, sino también a todos los que aman su venida." (2 Timoteo 4:6-8)

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 11/30/15 - 12/7/15

Thanksgiving and Time Flying

¡Buenas!

"It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!" The weeks are literally getting exponentially faster. This was a quick week, but it was a good one.

First things first, congratulations Christian on your mission call!!! I´m so excited for you. Mission calls truly come from the Lord and many people of Tacoma will be prepared just for you. You will truly become a disciple of the Savior and be able to learn a ton from the experienced leadership.

We did divisions in La Aldea and Ocotillo (woohoo). Unfortunately, the power went out in Ocotillo so we had to go home early, but it was fun working in my old area. I believe we have to go back next week for another baptismal interview so I will be able to say goodbye one last time to families and converts.

We had some excellent progress with Dilcia Sagastume. Her son Santos (16 years old) went to church yesterday and enjoyed it very much. Her baptism is set for the 6th of December and there shouldn´t be any problems. We taught temples and family history work and there were no hiccups at all. She knows these things are true and she is acting on it. Santos Jr. and Sr. will be likely baptisms next change because of the lack of attendance.

We also saw great progress with José and Doris Ulloa. We threw together a venta de baleadas on Wednesday morning and it turned out to be a great success! We sold around 60 baleadas and made 800 Lempiras! We are doing another venta tomorrow just for the missionaries. We hope to make around 800-1000 Lempiras. Unfortunately, we found out some information. José has had problems with question #4 of the baptismal interview so he will need an interview with President Dester this Saturday. He will be gone all this week working in Comayagua so we won´t be able to help prepare him as much. We are still exercising faith so they can be married on Saturday and at least Doris will be able to get baptized so blessings will start flowing into the lives of the family.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I was a little under the weather. I had respitory problems with a 102.5 degree fever, but it was good. We were invited to the Molanphy family´s house for dinner. They are a Chilean family that live in Honduras but have a ton of ties with the United States. One of the kids lives in California and one studied at BYU Idaho. Awesome family and an awesome dinner. Best dinner of the entire mission. Brother Molanphy gave us a mini tour of his house and his mayan artifcacts that he has. Cool stuff.

We were having trouble finding new investigators that will progress this week, but on Sunday we were able to get our hopes up again. One example is Javier and his sister in law Heidi. We taught them The Restoration last week and left the Book of Mormon. Heidi had read and prayed and her husband (who hasn´t been home during the lessons yet) also prayed specifically to know if it´s true. They accepeted to be baptized and they are willing to go to church and get married. Macizo!!!

In the ward we had the primary presentation. Cute stuff. There are always awesome kids who know their lines and then there are the ones with pena and don´t end up saying anything. We all felt the spirit as we sang "Soy un hijo de Dios" at the end.

Get excited! Today I bought Christmas presents! I hope you like them.

Well, this is my last week here in the mission field. We are putting in work and hoping to see miracles this weekend with 2 - 3 baptisms and putting fechas for the entire month of December. Just fyi, I changed my goal of reading the book of mormon to the end of the year. Working, meetings, divisions, reading DyC and the New Testament, and other inconveniences made it a little tough. Love you all!

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 11/23/15 - 11/30/15

Turkey Bowl for P-Day

Elder Lund always liked Disney's, "The Lion King"

¡Buenas!

Another really quick week here in SPS again. It seems like every other day is the start of a new week. Nevertheless, it was a really great week and we are seeing some excellent progress with investigators preparing to be baptized on the 5th of December.

The first family is la familia Sagastume. Because of the lack of church attendance from some members of the family, we are "dividing and conquering" by teaching Santos (72), and the daughter Dilcia. Dilcia has received an answer than the Restoration is true and is super awesome. Santos kind of just listens and enjoys everything but we are sure he will be making baptismal covenants soon.

The other family is la familia Ulloa (pronounced Uyoa) José, Doris, and Oswaldo. They are a contact from about 3 weeks ago. They have come the past two weeks to church and enjoy it a lot.  We actually contacted them with the law of chastity and when we came back they had des a member and we put a fecha bautismal for the 5th of December.

On Saturday, we helped out in the stake youth conference. We had a "mini MTC" and we taught the youth how to testify and invite. We then went out and contacted near the church with "The Family" folleto. We also had a sweet activity where we put our testimonies in a helium filled balloon and let them go. One of the balloons wasn´t filled with a ton of helium so it landed on the other side of the street and a construction worker picked it up. We opened up the gate and contacted him. We invited him to church but he didn´t show. He lives in Santa Barbara.

We had a good lesson with José Cuadra (the weird cuban/gringo/honduran/muslim who is 75 and the youngest daughter is 3. We watched a documentary by BYUtv in the church called "A New Day for the Book of Mormon" because he doesn´t want to read at all. It was really good. Unfortunately, he is still super duro, but he said he will read the book.

Well, for P-day, we had a "turkey bowl" game with the zone. It was a lot of fun and we kind of just messed around. We were planning on making turkey deli sandwiches but everyone wanted to go to Dennys or KFC so that´s what we did.

That´s all I´ve got. See you guys soon.

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 11/16/15 - 11/23/15

Conferencia de Zona

¡Buenas!

Another really quick week here in SPS.

We had an interesting contact on Tuesday. We left with a member named Bryan Duque. He is from Ecuador and served his mission here in San Pedro and has come back. We went out and about teaching and contacting and as we came back to his house, his neighbor had just gotten home so we decided to contact him. Reynaldo Leyva. We weren´t expecting it, but he invited us in and we did a nice Como Comenzar Enseñar. He is 85 but looks like he is 70. He played fútbol for Marathón, a local team here in Honduras, in the late 70s and supposedly won some championships. When we went back later in the week, he unfortunately had already gone to bed and couldn´t receive us. We´ll see what we can do this week.

We had an awesome Conferencia de Zona on Thursday. We had Elder and Sister Lynn (the assigned doctors for the entire area centroamerica) who gave a sweet capacitation on mission health. I wish I could have received it a year and a half ago, but oh well. President Dester talked a lot about the Savior and elements of the Plan of Salvation.

On Friday, I did a baptismal interview in La Primavera for a joven named Samuel. He was super pilas. I then went on divisions with Elder Godoy from Tegucigalpa. He went to a bilingual and speaks perfect english. We taught some solid lessons focusing on leccion 2 and leccion 3. Good divisions.

Saturday morning, we prestared service for Mario Rodriguez...he is the first counselor and he reminds me a lot of Anthony Lombardi. We shoveled a TON of dirt and moved it from the street where they dumped it to basically behind the house for future construction for his son who is getting married in December. It was raining a lot this weekend.

Good day at church. We had fasted for our metas bautismales for the month of December. We had 7 come to church, which was a huge turnaround from last week. The speakers were good and most of the investigators participated well in Principios del Evangelio.

Well, I don´t have much more than that. Just putting in work. Cheque leque...

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 11/2/15 - 11/9/15

Familia from Cofradia--Baptized!

Zone with President and Sister Dester

¡Buenas!

Extremely quick week here in the mission field. It was another week filled with really great lessons and progress (even though unfortunately no one went to church). As always, we had a lot of citas that fell, but we did well contacting and finding some new investigators.

We gave service on Wednesday with la familia Cuadra. All the family are members except for the dad, José. He is an interesting fello. He was born in Cuba, comes from Spanish descent, lived in New York, and is a Muslim here in San Pedro Sula. He is 75ish and his wife is probably 32. He sounds like Wallace from Wallace and Grommit when he talks. All in all, there house is a disaster, but we started out cleaning up his work shop where he paints. It was extremely dirty. But we got it done. We have been trying to teach him about profetas and we are making progress, but he still can´t accept the book of mormon. We have mentioned and he is looking forward to watching a Book of Mormon documentary made by the church or BYU called "Another day for the Book of Mormon" or something like that.

We saw some excellent progress with Ricardo Ramírez. When we taught him on Sunday, his "rostro" (facial appearance) was looking a lot brighter. I asked him if he was planning on going out after but he said that he just got back from work. That´s what happens when the spirit starts entering into your life. He told us he had made a compromiso to work on Sunday (before teaching the lesson) and that he would go next week. We taught the family a solid Día de Reposo and we think he will be able to come. We set a baptismal date for the 5th of December.

We were able to set another baptismal date for the 5th of December - la familia Sagastume. It has been awkward teaching them, but we are focusing on Dilcia (35ish) and Santos (the dad...70ish). Dilcia had read 3 Nefi 11, understood it, and felt the spirit. She feels like the LDM is true and she wants to do the right. In the closing prayer, she asked for help to go to church and to get baptized. The dad (basically a grandpa) follows along and gives us hugs at the end. Although we haven´t had the privilege to teach him yet, we hope that Dilcia´s 16 year old son comes along as well. He finishes school this Saturday.

Last week, we contacted a couple who were holding hands and we ended up talking about marriage, chastity, and we gave them a folleto on chastity. We came back this weekend to teach her and her brother in law. Unfortunately, the boyfriend got drunk and someone called the cops on him and he´s in jail for the weekend, but as we talked, it sounds like she wants to change and keep the commandments. She already has 5 kids from her first "husband" and the boyfriend as 3 from his first "wife" ... we´ll see what happens. A lot of potential since she wants to change and he will receive blessings.

Good news...wait, great news! Familia Zepeda from Cofradía got baptized!!! I´ll send pics. Everyone got baptized except the oldest Raquel who works at Popeye´s in my area. She works on Sundays right now but she is pilas too. We had contacted the mom with the Book of Mormon back in September and by the time I left the 2 oldest were ready to get baptized, but the mom was still working on Sundays and from what I heard they didn´t want to get baptized in October because they were superstituos about getting baptized in the month of Halloween...ya. But I´m super pumped.

Good P-day. I did a deep clean of the bathroom in the morning, bought groceries, and read DyC 109 (o sea, 31 days and counting) We played football at Benque with about half the zone and ate arroz chino - 42 lempiras each and it was a TON of food. Not much else.

Well, trying to make the most of my tim

e and staying focused. #workhardplayhard #dedicated

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 11/2/15 - 11/9/15

Last Change of the Mission

Zone Picture

¡Cambios!

Well everyone, we are now into the last change here in the mission field. I have a new companion Elder Toolson from Carlsbad, California. Elder Purcell went to Copán. It was a pretty good first week.

We took a lot of time getting to know the members and investigators. We had a lot of powerful lessons and I felt like we taught with more power and authority than in the past. We had a pair of good lessons with Ricardo Ramírez (uncle of a young man at church and son of a menos activa). We had a really good lesson earlier in the week but then when we visited him on Saturday night, he had been going through some rough circumstances. He had an accident at his job and the impresa took out money from his paycheck. He was left with just 300 lempiras (less than $15). He is also concerned because a woman who he got pregnant is going to be needing money and he doesn´t know what to do since he also pays for his mom and nephew at the house. We taught about the need to truly humble ourselves, "kneel down before our maker" and leave it all over to him COUPLED WITH obedience to His commandments. It was a powerful lesson and they were in tears. Unfortunately, none of them came to church. María had visited one of her family members and Ricardo probably slept in. We had went to pick him up, but the neighbor said everything was closed up. Sometimes things just happen. We will hope to visit this week.

Unfortunately, there is more bad news with la familia Darce. They didn´t come to church again (they had come the entire past change except for the last Sunday). That makes it two in a row. We talked to a lawyer who is going to help us out and he says that, because of time issues, we may not be able to get them married this year...possibly 6 months. We are still going all out to help them. What frustrates me a little bit is we did a fast, they were super animated, but they are easing up on obedience which dims their faith. This is the time when all of us need to be totally obedient, especially in the simple things like prayer, scripture study, and church attendance. Hopefully we will have a better week with them.

Fasting was a little difficult this weekend because it was really hot. It wasn´t the hottest day in the mission (Los Almendros, Choloma back in April/May), but it was still quite hot. Sunday afternoon when we broke the fast was up in the mid-high 90's. A member checked it on his phone and it was 35 C with a high of 38. The craziest thing is it is November! Summer did not end this year. Saturday night, I woke up sweating and really thirsty, but we stayed faithful to the fast and we hope to receive the blessings. Saturday (when we started the fast) was the "40 days to go" mark. Nice.

We played fútbol and an indoor synthetic field again for P-day. It was fun, but it is still really hot. That´s pretty much all I have. I´m excited to continue to "put in work" this last change. I talked with all the missionaries who went home last week and they said the 6 weeks are the fastest. I am doing all I can to leave it "all on the field" with no regrets.

CHEQUE!!!

-Elder Lund

San Pedro Sula 1, Zona San Pedro Sula 10/26/15 - 11/2/15

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