¿Está Listo para Vivir?: Week 18 Salty (T4)

Hooooooooooooooooola :)

Bueno. Pues. This week was RIDICULOUS. In the best possible way :) I've never been so exhausted in my life :D hahaha

Everything this week was leading up to Saturday: 3:00 H&P's baptism, 9:00 transfer calls...... AHH.

But there were sooooooo many miracles this week leading up to H&P's baptism!

Por ejemplo, we went to the library to print out some invitations for the baptism to hand out and there was this wicked long line for the computers. We signed up and decided to sit down while we waited. So we sat down on these couches and there was this man reading a news paper sitting across from us (kinda like in the movies where it completely covers their face :P) After we sat down he moved the paper in what I felt like was a very dramatic reveal..... and......... it was one of our old investigators' husband!!! We had lost touch with them a few weeks ago. And then his kids came over and we got to talk to them and play some chess and blocks and give them an invitation to the baptism......... What are the odds that we would be at the same library. same day. same time... Hmmmmm. Heavenly Father... I see what you did there.

So the baptism!!!! :'D It was beautiful! Lots of members were there! And even President Passey and his wife came! Now. In order to have a baptism, you have to reserve the building with the building coordinator. We had done that a while ago so we were all set. We had the building all set from 3-5. Also, in the past, they've had the baptismal service (like the talks and musical numbers and everything) in the baptismal font room.... but since H&P are so special, we decided to have it in the chapel........ So. Long story short. The other ward decided to plan a baptism for 4:00 without telling the building coordinator........................... And the other ward also decided to plan a talent show at 5:00............................................. Oh, I was so stinkin mad. YEESH. It was pure chaos. But it was a pure miracle that we had planned on doing everything in the chapel so that the other ward could use the baptismal room when we were done. Ugh. It's making my blood boil just thinking about it.... but other than that, everything was perfect :')

Oh my goodness, I just wish I could have taken that moment and put it in a jar so I could keep it forever. Seeing H&P get baptized :') And then confirmed yesterday :'''') Gets me every time. I love them so so much.

As a missionary I have found there's a lot of moments that I just can't put into words... There's a story that Boyd K Packer told that I just LOVE. It's a little long, but I promise it's worth it!!!!!!

“I will tell you of an experience I had before I was a General Authority which affected me profoundly. I sat on a plane next to a professed atheist who pressed his disbelief in God so urgently that I bore my testimony to him. ‘You are wrong,’ I said, ‘there is a God. I know He lives!’

“He protested, ‘You don’t know. Nobody knows that! You can’t know it!’ When I would not yield, the atheist, who was an attorney, asked perhaps the ultimate question on the subject of testimony. ‘All right,’ he said in a sneering, condescending way, ‘you say you know. Tell me how you know.’

“When I attempted to answer, even though I held advanced academic degrees, I was helpless to communicate.

“When I used the words Spirit and witness, the atheist responded, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’ The words prayer, discernment, and faith, were equally meaningless to him. ‘You see,’ he said, ‘you don’t really know. If you did, you would be able to tell mehow you know.’

“I felt, perhaps, that I had borne my testimony to him unwisely and was at a loss as to what to do. Then came the experience! Something came into my mind...

“Such an idea came into my mind and I said to the atheist, ‘Let me ask if you know what salt tastes like.’

“‘Of course I do,’ was his reply.

“‘When did you taste salt last?’

“‘I just had dinner on the plane.’

“‘You just think you know what salt tastes like,’ I said.

“He insisted, ‘I know what salt tastes like as well as I know anything.’

“‘If I gave you a cup of salt and a cup of sugar and let you taste them both, could you tell the salt from the sugar?’

“‘Now you are getting juvenile,’ was his reply. ‘Of course I could tell the difference. I know what salt tastes like. It is an everyday experience—I know it as well as I know anything.’

“‘Then,’ I said, ‘assuming that I have never tasted salt, explain to me just what it tastes like.’

“After some thought, he ventured, ‘Well-I-uh, it is not sweet and it is not sour.’

“‘You’ve told me what it isn’t, not what it is.’

“After several attempts, of course, he could not do it. He could not convey, in words alone, so ordinary an experience as tasting salt. I bore testimony to him once again and said, ‘I know there is a God. You ridiculed that testimony and said that if I did know, I would be able to tell you exactly how I know. My friend, spiritually speaking, I have tasted salt. I am no more able to convey to you in words how this knowledge has come than you are to tell me what salt tastes like. But I say to you again, there is a God! He does live! And just because you don’t know, don’t try to tell me that I don’t know, for I do!’

“As we parted, I heard him mutter, ‘I don’t need your religion for a crutch! I don’t need it.’

“From that experience forward, I have never been embarrassed or ashamed that I could not explain in words alone everything I know spiritually” (“The Candle of the Lord,” Ensign, Jan. 1983, 51–52).
My mission has been so incredibly salty!! Just full of moments that I want to describe, but I just can't. I wish I could describe how I felt when H&P got baptized. I wish I could tell you how I know that Heavenly Father is real and that he has a plan for each and every one of us. I wish I could tell you how.... But that reminds me of another President Packer quote: "Much of what I have come to know falls into the category of things which cannot be taught but can be learned."

I cannot teach or express the things I have learned on my mission so far but I wish with all my heart for you all to know the things that I know. Pray. Read the Book of Mormon. Ask. Do all that you physically can so that you can experience all the blessings Heavenly Father has in store for you.

Oh! and transfers!!! Hah. Almost forgot... I'm going up to the Gila Valley :) I leave tomorrow! I feel a little as though I'm being banished, leaving Tucson. People call Tucson "the promised land" for spanish missionaries just cuz there's so many missionaries and so many mexicans and so much work! And the Gila only has a few spanish missionaries and it's notoriously white and very mormon. Oh! Also I don't know my companion at all... She's only been out a few transfers so no one knows her either so this'll be interesting!! But yeah :) I'm leaving Tucson and being banished 3 hours away in a cool, green, oasis of mormons apparently :) Hahah I'm excited though. It'll be a COMPLETELY different experience :) A fresh start :) And I'll come back when H&P go to the temple :) Oh! and how interesting that H had that dream about the GILA VALLEY TEMPLE and I get transferred to the GILA VALLEY.... I just thought that was cool :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH! The church is true! I wish you all the best :)
Hermana Lund

p.s. Also, don't be discouraged by the lack of smiling mexicans... they just don't smile. Don't ask me why... But asi es :)

Hector and Patty and me and Hna Townley

Hna Ellis got to come too! She goes home tomorrow :''''''''''''''''''''''''''( But she got to be there for their baptism which was really special. She's one of my best friends and I owe her everything. She made me a missionary!! Oh man... It's gonna be hard to say goodbye. She was an amazing trainer.