Week 3 "Googlearlo"

Hey Guys :)

We'll start out with a funny Hermana Lund story....... My companion is currently writing to her family about this same story and disrupting the whole library with her lil snickers. Mmmmmmmhmmmm. Oh man. hahaha. Okay so I really hope this isn't one of those "you had to be there" stories but oh my gosh, I'm never gonna live this down.

Okay. So. It's one thing to go door to door or see people on the street, say hello, get to know them, see if they're interested in talking a little bit more about jesus christ, offering service, and then repeating that 209832409 times. That's Street Contacting. It's a WHOOOOOOOOLE different ball game to go CAR CONTACTING. Oh my gosh. hahaha. So. Car contacting goes down like this. You are stopped at a red light. There's a car stopped next to you. You've got a specific time frame to say hello, get to know them, see if they're interested etc etc etc. You have like 10-45 seconds to do allllll the normal things we do in maybe 5 minutes or so.

SO. I think this was on Tuesday? Who knows. Anyways. We were running late to dinner. (Every tuesday night we have dinner with the spanish patriarch and his family with the elders. He's like 90 years old and an absolutely ADORABLE little man with a testimony that'll shake your soul.) Anyways! So we were running late and we were stopped at this light with a car next to us. Hermana Ellis looked over at me and was like....... DO IT! Contact him!! Now you have to understand. We had been at that light already for maybe 10 seconds so the clock was ticking... Plus car contacting is terrifying. So we did the whole nooo do it mmmmm do it there's no time! DO IT! AHHH! and so I start talking to this guy (in spanish) driving this truck. Ask him how his day was going, if he has fun plans for easter, and then I start explain about how we have this BEAUTIFUL easter video.......... and the light turns green!!!!!!! Panic sets in!!! He looks at the light, looks at me, like "Oh, uh I'm not gonna be rude and drive off so you've got like 2 seconds...." I'm not gonna get out of my car and die trying to give him this card with the website on it. I'm not gonna just say SEE YA.... ahhhhhhhhh! so. I said the first thing that popped into my head............ uhhhhh GOOGLEARLO!!!.... Now. for all you non spanish speakers.... that translates to GOOGLE IT! ........Yeeeeup.

I kinda feel like you had to be there but oh my gosh. We just busted up laughing the whole rest of the way to dinner. Googlearlo. The epitome of panic, right there. Successful contacting! woohoo :)

hahaha everytime we plan for a lesson and we get stuck and don't know what to do... "googlearlo" :) Works every time.

Other highlights :) There's a mission rule where we have to do 10 hours of service a week!! Which is awesome and crazy!! But we've already been doing 3 hours a week at this food bank/kitchen where we make 200-300 sandwhiches and lunches for these churches that give em to homeless people. And then we've started volunteering at the legit food bank too with the elders on Tuesday and Thursday :) Last week we put together bags of bananas and grapefruit and dumped a like 300 juice jugs in a big ol' box and then washed some buckets :) It's been proven that missionaries that do service are significantly happier than those that don't. SO TRUE! So much fun :) And we've already met so many wonderful people who volunteer too. They all just wanna do the right thing and help the community. Jewish, Catholic, Atheist, etc :)

It's really cool waking up every day, rolling out of bed, saying a prayer asking for help and guidance and for the ability to learn new things that day. Then 16 hours later I'm back in the same spot saying another prayer as a totally different person! I honestly feel like a new person every single day. There is SO much to learn!! So much to discover and try and fail at and people to meet! Oh my gosh. The people. EVERYONE has a story. And they're all so humble and willing and giving. Man.

I can't not mention General Conference! HOW GOOD WERE THOSE SESSIONS??? Like man. I don't know if it's just being a missionary but conference was different this time! My favorite talk was definitely Elder Hollands. Wow. I could talk about that talk for days. I received so many answers to prayers during that talk. mmmmmm. Elder Holland is truly an apostle of God. They all are. God has blessed us with a living prophet on the earth today :) He has 12 apostles. And no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you want out of life, these servants of the Lord have the ability to give you guidance directly from God. Personal prayer and personal revelation is awesome too but prophets guide the entire church. They show us what we should be working towards as wards, communities, families, etc. (Also interesting being a missionary and sitting through 7, 8, 9? talks about marriage ;) LOLS).

But the church is true. We have been so blessed. Never stop learning!!!!!! Being a mormon is not a passive thing. googlearlo :) hahah jk. Use the scriptures. Use conference talks. Use church leaders. LEARN. Be passionate about the gospel!! Especially when it comes to Jesus Christ. Haven't finished Jesus the Christ, but there are so many details and beauties found in his premortal life, his birth, the miracles he performed etc. Learn more about him and you'll learn a heck of a lot more about yourself than you ever expected!!!!

AH! I want to share so many things but I love you guys so so much!! Being a missionary is truly a gift. A friend told me something before I left that I thought a lot about this week. "Being a missionary is the dream job!" I know that that's true. There are hard days, yeah. Rejection, food, lack of sleep, stress, etc. But I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope you had a good easter and a good conference :)
Hermana Lund