Small and Simple Things

A note from Elder Lund's Madre--"Elder Lund is without a camera for a little while, so I thought I would put up a few pics with particular meaning this week as Elder Lund's older sister graduated from BYU last Thursday.  Here is a picture of Victoria and Elder Lund grilling their Sunday dinner as they were students together last summer at BYU.  Elder Lund brought some grilling skills.  Oh, they had fun together!  Below is a picture of our family (minus our missionary) with President and Sister Samuelson.  Elder Lund really enjoyed him as President of BYU for freshman year!"

¡Buenas!

Another week down and another change down in the mission field. I officially completed 4 months in the mission on Sunday. I celebrated a little by having baleadas with a member family as we always do Sunday nights. Cambios are this Wednesday and I´ll find out tonight if 1) I´m leaving 2) I´m getting a new comp but staying or 3) keeping the status quo for another 6 weeks here in Santa Rosa. 

Anyways, more about this week. Remember the guy who gave us $100 during Semana Santa? Well, we saw him outside his house again, but this time 6 fully armed "policía" were talking to him. As we walked by on our way to F. V, he said to us "Oh hey guys, see you later" trying to make himself look like a good guy. Well, that´s judging. They could have been talking to him because he´s the dueño of the colonia, but we still think he´s a little sketchy.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. We were walking back from Las Sidras when we saw an old man and woman struggling to carry back a big jug of water (the big blue ones) to their house. We offered to help and they accepted. Along the way we talked about them and our purpose as missionaries. We got to their house in five minutes but it probably would have taken them at least 25 at the pace they were going. We talked some more in their house, got a return appointment, and taught them parts of L1 yesterday with F. V. We still have a long way to go with them (P and G) and we don´t know if they´ll keep commitments, but something as simple as carrying water has allowed us to plant gospel seeds in their hearts.

The best experience of the week was with J. He has been our investigator for quite some time but it´s been difficult to teach him because he´s rarely home. He hasn´t progressed, but he does come to church just about every week though (his "wife" and kids are members). Anyways, we saw him on the streets at 12:30 and it was obvious he had been drinking...a lot. At that moment I had lost nearly all hope for him because we were pretty sure he was doing other things too. We had planned earlier to visit his family. To our astonishment, he was at home at 4:30 that same day, even though we thought he was going to be out and about. We were all outside just talking. I talked with Jose one on one as my companion was friendshipping the rest of the family. I left him with a Palabra de Sabiduria folleto for his "wife" to read to him and he also asked me for a blessing. We decided it would be best to let him sober up for another 3 hours and I returned with the Elders Quorum President later that night (we went on divisions to visit less-active families). He didn´t have a white shirt and tie on so I gave a blessing of comfort. They are quite poor and only had light from candles and the kitchen fire. In that peaceful setting, I felt the influence of the Holy Ghost and I know Jose did as well. Afterwards as we were about to leave, he called me over and talked to me about his desires to change his life and be baptized. We taught him after church in the capilla (he also went to a bapitsmal service between church and the lesson of a member´s daughter) a great L1 and invited him to be baptized June 7th. He accepted and told us he knows the church is true because he feels it in his heart (aka, por medio del Espíritu). He still has a bunch of challenges to overcome, and some that will cost a lot of money, but we are going to do the best we can to help him get on the covenant path. I have only been an instrument and have done nothing of my own power to help him have this change of heart, but I´m grateful for the opportunity to see this mighty change of heart in such a short period of time.

After the lesson with him, a torrential downpour came upon us with lighting too. We waited about an hour and a half to leave the church, and it was still raining when we left. Walking home in the dusk, we saw a bunch of cool lightning strikes in the sky. I´ll never forget it.

Well, that´s all I have. Nos Vemos,

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 4/21/14 - 4/28/14

Semana Santa

¡Buenas!

Well, we had Semana Santa this past week, and Santa Rosa was a ghost town at times since everyone was heading for the beach. Not a whole lot of work, but we did have some good moments. 

We had a noche de hogar with a less-active family and their neighbor friends. We watched The Testaments and it was a lot of fun. There was one man who worked with the father during the day (they work an ice cream truck called "chipsy") who was particularly touched by the film. We left him with a Libro de Mormón, and folletos de Lección 1 y la Proclamaciòn de la Familia. He has a family of 5 and we are going to try to start teaching him and his family this week. It´s a little difficult because they work until 8:00 at night, but we´ll make it work.

Our investigator Y finally came to church! It has been a great trying of patience, but at last she came. Most importantly, she made a lot of great friends in Relief Society (Sociedad Socorro or just Soc Soc). We have been teaching the rest of her family on and off from lesson to lesson, but since she came to church it will be a lot easier for them to grow in the gospel and come to church in the future.

On Wednesday, we tried visiting a members house but they weren`t home. They live in a "gated" community called Colonia El Pedregal. On the way back to the "gate" there were about 5 or 6 men drinking and smoking outside their house and one of them told us to come over in english. We went over and started talking. Pisto, Pisto, Pisto!!!!! Turns out that he developed the colonia and lives in the states for half the year. His house is literally 3 stories high with other attached guest houses if you want to call them that. He is a multi-millionaire (in dollars) and is just loaded - he owns a bunch of property in Santa Barbara (Honduras, not California), the Colonia, and he told us a bunch of stories about his adventures on Ocean Drive in Miami. He talked about how God had blessed him (even though he breaks quite a few important commandments on a regular basis) and said how great we were for "preaching the word" to people in Honduras. He said we can come by any time to talk about the things of God. By the way he was talking, however, we think he may be a Narco or got his money through sketchy means, but we´ll see.

That´s all I have for this week. 

Nos Vemos

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 4/14/14 - 4/21/14

Elder Lund's Spanish is Progressing and Temple Blessings are Being Witnessed in Santa Rosa

The Tegucigalpa, Honduras Temple--Where a recent convert will be able to attend this week.

¡Buenas!

First things first. My English has gotten worse as my Spanish has developed (inverse relationship guardino). There are many times throughout the week where I simply cannot remember the English word for something. It takes a lot of time to write a grammatically perfect/flowing email, so I´m rushing to get the most important things in. Forgive me. Also, Honduras´s power and water is weird/corrupt. Many times, the power goes completely out...at night we have to immediately go back to the apartment because it´s dangerous. Anyways, other times, the power sort of dims. I was heating something up in the microwave the other day when the power dimmed. It stopped cooking, but the timer kept going. Today while writing emails, the power has dimmed two separate times. The lights don´t go out, the radio doesn´t go out, but the computer turns off and I have to wait for the power to get stronger again. Third world problems.

We had a much better week. We got to go out of the house and work. We received a reference from Familia V and went to teach them (with the v). E and his wife and their 2 month old daughter. We taught a really great L1 with them. Unfortunately, they are going out for Semana Santa (along with pretty much everyone in Santa Rosa) but we have a lesson set up after vacaciones.

The best thing that happened this week was with F. A (our recent convert) is going to Teguc this week to attend the temple and do baptisms for the dead! His mom hasn´t progressed as much. (She´s still an investigator). However, a week before when we were stuck in the house, I got to teach a quick lesson with J. I used the example where you put sand and rocks in a jar. The sand represents the things of the world; the rocks represent the things of God. In order to get everything in the jar, you have to put the things of God first, and there will be room for the other things. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon EVERY day (even if just for 5 minutes) and pray about it. We promised her blessings that she would be able to accomplish everything she needed to do if she put God first. We followed up last week and she had been reading every day (8 days and counting). She recognized the blessings too. She said she felt peace. She also said that she had more energy throughout the day even though she gets up really early for her job. It was awesome to see her so happy and blessed just from reading the Book of Mormon. We are going to move forward and extend more commitments (poco a poco).

Semana Santa is this week. From what I´ve heard, I guess you could compare it to spring break, but almost everyone leaves for the playa. A lot of our investigators are going to be gone. Some will still be here to teach, but we may just do a lot of contacting (for those that are here). It´s going to be hot...30+ degrees here in Santa Rosa...apparently it hit 42 degrees plus humidity in San Pedro last Monday (yikes). Speaking of the weather, Santa Rosa is typically a colder area of Honduras. But, it hit 22 degrees on Thursday (I think 70s F) and I was cold. It felt like a chilly 50 or below in California. It´s going to be a big adjustment in 21 meses when I go back to BYU for winter semester.

Anyways, there´s a lot more stories, but I have recorded them elsewhere. If ye desire, search this other record after I return from preaching unto the Lamanites (See 2 Nefi 5:33).

Love you all,

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 4/7/14 - 4/14/14

General Conference Blessings

¡Buenas!

Well, my companion broke his toe last p-day so we were stuck in the house the entire week. I tried my best to make plans so I could at least keep working. It was tough enough to make plans with people in the branch because our phone didn`t have saldo (basically no minutes in our balance) and we couldn`t make any calls, just receive them. I went on quick divisions to member´s houses in the mornings to use their phones to get a hold of the branch mission leader, but all of them had Tigo. Unfortunately, our branch mission leader has Claro and the member`s plans didn`t include calls to Claro phones. I did get a hold of the branch president for Friday`s plans and other members for the other days. Anyways, I did everything I could and had plans ready to work all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday - I would go out with Jason (going on a mission to Brazil in June) and someone would be my companion`s companion back at the house. Long story short, all the plans fell and I was stuck in the house pretty much the entire week. Thankfully, I got two lessons in with Jason Tuesday night, but it was still a really tough week. Our house felt like a prison and the power went out a couple times too. Elder Uchtdorf`s talk on gratitude has really helped me out, and I`ve tried to apply it more. My only wish is that I had heard that talk at the beginning of the week, but at least I have that knowledge for the future. My companion`s toe has gotten a little better and we should be able to work more this week.

Thursday night was just one of those nights. Every frustrating thing that has built up the past couple weeks kind of just came together. The power went out so I went outside onto the balcony. I just looked up at the stars and had a prayer in my heart asking for guidance and comfort. That comfort and guidance did not come immediately or all at once...little by little. When the power came back on, I read an MTC devotional from Elder Holland and my patriarchal blessing. These things, along with the awesome talks from General Conference, have really given me a refined focus and renewed energy for the mission. (Gotta always make sure your "phone" is charged)

I loved conference, but I don`t think I can pick out a single favorite talk. Jeffrey R. Holland was awesome as always. I enjoyed both of President Uchtdorf`s talks on gratitude and sleeping through the restoration. We didn`t get to understand any of President Monson`s talks. Every time he would speak, the signal would go in and out throughout all his talks. Oh Honduras. Well, at least we got to hear all of the others. Spiritual Whirlwinds, 4x4 pickups, Priesthood Keys, the internet, Priesthood Heroes, etc etc. They were all awesome. The night before, I prepared 5 specific questions for conference and every one of them was answered - whether the answer was apparent or if I had to dig a little deeper. Those questions brought great focus for my viewing and I recommend everyone - if they haven`t already done so - to start coming up with specific questions a week or so before the conference in the fall.

That`s really all I have. Helaman 5:12...whirlwinds - both spiritual and temporal - will come. Be prepared and you`ll be able to wait out the storm.

Nos Vemos

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 4/1/14 - 4/7/14

It's Only A Camera...Life Lessons in the Mission Field

¡Buenas!

Well, another week in the mission field. Honestly, it was a little slow. My new trainer is getting to know the area better and we were both a little sick at the end of the week, but all is well. We have some promising investigators in the pipeline and we`re going to spend time searching for new families that live closer to the church building (20 minute walk instead of 30-45).

I learned a good lesson this week. This past P-day, my camera was stolen at the internet cafe. I had left the computer to go pay for my usage and started reading Jesus the Christ in the lobby while waiting for the other Elders to finish up. Not even 15 minutes had passed when I realized I had left my camera at the computer. A 20-somthing year old man was there and I asked him if he had seen it. He told me no, and I asked if I could look in his bag. It wasn`t there either. I was then informed by an employee that someone was there before him and was on for only a few minutes. Realizing that my camera was probably gone forever, I sat back down in the lobby and started thinking. At first, I was really upset and really mad. I thought to myself, "why didn`t I get a warning from the Holy Ghost? Dad had been warned in the middle of the night about an unknown gas leak at the laundromat...why didn`t the Lord help me with this?" After complaining (murmuring) for a solid 5 minutes, the question that so many people in this world have came to my attention: why does God let bad things happen? I started thinking again, "Well, God let`s people use their agency. If he interfered directly with their agency then He would cease to be God. But then again, He sometimes warns people of danger, helps people escape unharmed, etc. What is the reasoning with these different situations?" I thought some more and realized that our Heavenly Father lets things happen for a reason. Sometimes it`s for the reasoning explained in Alma 14:10-11. Sometimes we can learn something new or grow spiritually from the difficult setback. When I came to this conclusion, I said a quick prayer and began thinking of things I was supposed to learn from this situation. Here are just a few:

1. Always live your life to be in tune with the spirit. (Even if you do this, realize the Lord may not warn you of everything)
2. I felt terrible when my camera was stolen. How does God feel when we don`t pay our tithing (robbing God). Or as missionaries, how does God feel if we use the consecrated missionary funds unwisely or for personal items?
3. Don`t take inappropriate photos or videos as a missionary. When I mean inappropriate, I mean something that could make the church look bad. For instance, I have heard of one Elder who had a video of them and a member family killing a pig for dinner. The method was culturally fine in Honduras, but would probably look brutal or inhumane in the eyes of Americans. Especially with the rise of social/mass media, these photos or videos could get into the wrong hands and virally spread on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube within a matter of hours.
4. The things of this world (AKA, a camera) are really not that important, especially when you`re on the Lord`s errand as a missionary
5. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Furthermore, "light up" someone`s day with kind words or actions (Mom...your email)
6. Jesus Christ has descended below all things. He knows exactly how I felt. You should be happy, full of love, work hard, etc under any circumstance. Don`t let something outside of your control influence your emotional or physical state.

Bad things happen. It`s a fact of life. Always live your life so that you`re worthy of the guidance from the Holy Ghost and when bad things still happen, look for the good. Look for what you can learn from that experience. I learned a lot when my camera was stolen. Thankfully, I had transferred all the photos back home and cameras shouldn`t be too expensive here in Honduras.

Saturday was a little interesting. My comp had been sick the past couple days and I caught that sickness on Saturday. Both of us weren`t feeling well, but at the same time it really wasn`t that bad (relatively speaking). Anyways, the other Elders told us that morning that they were going to have a baptism that evening either at 5:00 or at 8:00 after the General Women`s Broadcast. We didn`t know about any of this because their investigator had issues with question 4 but had just gotten approval from the mission president. We adjusted our plans to invite an investigator to the baptism and then watch the broadcast after. We coordinated a ride with the branch missionaries (an elderly couple) and we felt good about it. Then everything fell apart. At 4:00 (an hour before the baptism) the Elders told us the baptism was cancelled because of problems with the bapitsmal font. We went to pick up the investigator, but she said she couldn`t make it. We decided to just take her daughter (30s...menos activa) to the broadcast. All of our plans fell and when we got to the church it was 6:00, we were a solid 45 minutes from the area we`ve been proselyting in recently and we didn`t have any confirmed appointments. We decided to watch the broadcast in the english room with the other gringa hermanas. Even though the estrogen levels present were a little much for me and my companion, I still learned a lot and felt the spirit during the broadcast. The topic of covenants was brought up a lot and I will definitely use the things I learned with my investigators. Even when plans fall apart, make the best of the opportunities that you have.

If you have time, I invite you to watch the two videos from that meeting:

1. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3408500022001&cid=4 (GETTIN` CHILLS)
2. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3400040273001&cid=6 (EVEN MORE CHILLS)

¡Nos Vemos!

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 3/25/14 - 3/31/14

A New Companion and Some New Photos

 Elder Lund and His Birthday Presents

Santa Rosa 

Elder Lund with The J--The Wonderful Senior Couple Serving in Honduras--They go home soon.  Sister J is from Carmel.  

¡Buenas!

Another week in the mission field...this is going by way too fast. I´m continuing to learn and develop everyday (or at least trying to). 

It was a pretty ineffecient week in terms of teaching lessons and finding new people to teach. Elder P found out on Monday that he was being changed so we spent most of Tuesday saying goodbye to investigators, less-actives, and members who he had spent time working with the past 3 months.

On Wednesday, we got up at 3:00 AM to leave for San Pedro Sula. Elder P is now a Zone Leader in San Pedro and my new companion is Elder S. He is from southern California. We ate at the mall - Little Caesar´s Pizza - and left San Pedro around 2:00. We made pretty good time and arrived in Santa Rosa around 5:30. These past few days, we have worked by just getting to know all the members and our investigators. We haven´t had a ton of actual lessons, but they should start coming this week since we´re all settled in again.

Probably the most memorable experiences of the week occurred last night. We were working in Las Cidras which is located in the hills about a 30-40 minute walk from our house in Santa Rosa. We taught J and his family. J is an investigator but the mother (not his wife, but just living together) and the children are members. There was no electricity at their house, just a pair of candles to provide light. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that through the Atonement we can become cleansed from sin. It was very peaceful, and very calm throughout the entire lesson. Jose shared how much he loved the change that has occurred in his life by attending church the past 3 weeks. You could really see it in his eyes. We still have a lot to teach him and we have to overcome some BIG hurdles with him, but I believe he´s going to continue to progress because of his desire. After the lesson, we started walking back. We saw the lights of Santa Rosa in the distance, but there were still a ton of stars out. It was truly beautiful and one of those moments when I realized, "Wow, I´m a missionary in Honduras thousands of miles away from home." I will never forget it.

Well, that´s all I have. The work is really tough sometimes, but it´s rewarding.

Cheque Leque,

Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 3/18/14 - 3/24/14

Another Baptism, Elder Lund Celebrates his 20th Birthday in Honduras, Rain, and Awesome Baledas!

Elder Lund Really Likes Baleadas!

We had another baptism! A got baptized this past Friday. We´ve seen his progress from beginning to end (well, we´re still in the process of helping him endure to the end). He was truly the golden investigator and soaked up everything we taught him like a sponge. It was great to see him get baptized and confirmed and truly enter the straight and narrow path. Now, the rest of his family is going to be a little bit more difficult, but I think they´ll start to open their hearts more when they see the blessings in A´s life.

We played fútbol (on the basketball court, not a field) at the church Thursday night. While we were playing, it started raining super duro. It was a cool experience, but we got soaked. After, we had dinner in Santa Fe which was about a 10 minute walk and it started raining even harder. We were literally drenched and cold when we got to the member´s house. I don´t know if it was the difficult journey or the cooking, but those baleadas were awesome and probably the best I´ve had in Honduras so far. After dinner, we had a long 25 minute walk back to our casa. Although it wasn´t raining anymore, it was really windy and we were cold. Whatever, it´s the life of a missionary in Honduras. I´ll never forget the experience.

Well, I turned 20 yesterday. We had District Conference so we got to see a broadcast from Salt Lake for Central American Branches. Elders Richard G. Scott and Dallin H. Oaks talked. Us gringos had a room with the transmission in english. We listened to all the speakers in english except for Elder Scott because he can speak spanish. It was really cool listening to him in spanish. After the conference, Arsenio was confirmed and was being interviewed to receive the Aaronic Priesthood when we left to proselyte. 

We had a decent day teaching, and I did have a cream cheese cake at a member´s house before that. Pretty good birthday overall. My packages came on Saturday so thanks to all of you for everything!  

Short email this week, but I love you all and wish you the best.
Elder Lund

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras 3/11/14 - 3/17/14