Week 45 "The future is as bright as your faith"

Hola familia :)

Nogales is great :) still Spanish. Still full of beautiful hills and mountains and people waiting for the gospel!

Random things:

Totally forgot to mention this before but I died my hair a few weeks ago :) my hair had gotten SUPER light out here with the sun. Plus peer pressure ;) so yeah! It's just a darker brown. I like it a lot!

Highlight of this past week was definitely going back to the Gila Valley for our quarterly temple trip :) it was just like going home. It was by far the greatest experience I have had yet at the temple.

There are so many good people here. We've got Cowboys, illegals just scraping to get by, rich rich rich retired people, young college students and everything in between. It's been interesting to see how
life is hard for everyone no matter their situation.

There have been a lot of missionaries that have been struggling lately. Physically, spiritually, emotionally. All of it. I don't know if it's just because I'm older in the mission so I see/hear more but
it seems like Satan is working so so hard on his missionaries. And if he's working hard on us, I can't even imagine what it's like back home.

I've been trying to make a more conscious effort to have faith and have hope in the future. One of my favorite Thomas S. Monson quotes.. "The future is as bright as your faith." Have faith in Jesus Christ :) Have hope that the best is yet to come :) Just be happy :) thanks to Jesus Christ, it's a choice. Happiness is 100% your choice. Wake up and decide you're going to be happy. It will make all the difference.

I love you all :) Stay happy! And do the things that you know deep down will make you truly happy!

Que tenga una buena semana!
Hermana Lund

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Every Monday we work out with all of the hermanas in the Spanish Ward.

We were getting ready one night and we discovered we were both rocking a gray hoodie, black pants, and fuzzy socks... A photo shoot ensued. Of course.

The sunrises have been ON POINT recently...

 Especially when Hna Hubert decides to do yoga.

Southeast zone temple trip :) it was nice to go back to the gila valley!

This is our double date district. It's just us and the elders around here so we always get to ask a member to tag along when we do stuff. This time the member took us on a RIDICULOUS hike!

Hermana Hubert has a new goal to do tree pose in as many places as possible.

 It didn't look that bad.... But it just about killed us all. Worth it though. So so beautiful.

We took the Sahuarita sisters out to fro yo after their baptism on Saturday. I think I've found my place as a missionary :)

Week 44 Short email this week

Glad to hear you're all doing well and working hard! Keep it up! You've got this!

I don't really feel like writing a long email this week but I'm glad you're all doing good :)

Hermana Lund
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Week 43 First Week in Nogales (T8)

Hola familia :)

Coming to you live from Nogales!! I love it here!

We share an English ward and a Spanish ward with a set of elders. So lots of work and hardly any other missionaries around to distract. It's awesome! We stay mostly in Rio Rico (a little more north) but our area is HUGE. Lots of driving like the gila valley which is really nice :) especially because I LOVE my companion. She's amazing! I served around her a little bit when I first came out but I love her so much! We complement each other really well. She's big on the MBTI personality test and we've figured out that our personalities are the most compatible! I like the way she thinks. So we end up having amazing deep conversations while we drive. I've learned a lot about myself and a lot about the gospel just this week.

What else? Oh. She's a big health nut so she's whipping me into shape (it's about time). We go to the track every morning and she runs 4 miles while I go for a nice walk :) hahah... But it's BEAUTIFUL
watching the sunrise at the track. It's really hilly here and lots of mountains too. BEAUTIFUL. And our apartment is a two story with an amazing view. I'll send some pictures.

Hna H is a sister training leader so we went to Tucson for her meeting which was fun! I got paired with another sister and we ran around Tucson all day helping sisters jump start their car and knocking an apartment complex with one of my old companions. The lord used us even outside of our area.

Today has been a good p day too. Worked out with the hermanas from the ward :) Got my teeth cleaned and a cavity filled for free by a member :) little bit of shopping. Funnily enough last night Hna H had a dream that we needed to go to JC Penney. So we go and we're just having a grand old time... Turns out one of the workers is a less active they have been trying to contact for months! We got her information and set up a good time to see her next week and we got lots of free stuff too
:) MILAGROS.

This week has been full of miracles. Hna H is so in tune with the spirit. She relies so much on prayer, it's amazing! We have been guided to so many places to teach certain things and it just happens
to be exactly what that person needed. One of them is Dylan. She's a 9 year old from a part member family who hasn't been baptized yet. We were out visiting other people, found ourselves with a little extra time so we prayed and felt like we should see this family.
Conveniently it was only one street over. We met her and her sisters and their grandmother was there. Turns out that the grandmother is a less active that dropped off the face of the earth a few years ago.
They all came to church yesterday. It was such a miracle. Dylan is a cute little cowgirl with freckles. It was great to see her smiley face at church with her family.

I've been thinking a lot about communication. The bishop gave me 5 minutes notice to speak yesterday (first time that's happened on my mission) and I decided to talk about that. Prayer and insight from God takes time. Think about it. Sometimes the visions we read about in the scriptures take several chapters. And if it takes 30 minutes or so to read... Imagine how long it took in real life. I've been using my morning walks to just think and talk to God a little more. That extended time to talk to him through informal prayer has made a world of difference! Peace. Clarity. It's made the transition here a lot easier, which was one of my worries.

The church is true in Nogales too :)
Les quiero mucho!!!
Hermana Lund

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1. We have a goal to take a picture each day... Sometimes we forget until it's late... Much too late...

2. Hna H during weekly planning :)

3. The view from our balcony :)

4. Saying goodbye to the Padillas, my Recent converts. We visited them almost every day I was there... Sad to say goodbye!

5. The transfer van crew. Transfer day travel was NUTS. We drove from the gila valley to Duncan to lordsburg to Wilcox to Tucson dropping off everyone. (Look at a map. Not geographically... Fun.) and then Hna H got me in Tucson and we drove to Wilcox. I left the Gila at 10:45.... Arrived in Nogales at 7:45 WOOOHOOO :)

6/7. Our first pics as a companionship :) what happens when you don't answer your door with a beautiful wreath on it

Week 42 Last Day in Gila Valley

Hola :)

Today's a big day. I hit 10 months and it's also my last day here in the Gila Valley. Tomorrow I'm off to....... NOGALES! It's a border town under Tucson, like you can see Mexico from your house so there's gonna be a lot more spanish and a totally different vibe in comparison to here. Culture shock here we come!!!! But I've served around my new comp before. She's awesome! I'm really excited! She goes home soon so I'll probably end up killing her but one transfer at a time :)

Happy New Year!!

This week was a blur. It's been hard to start saying goodbye, but such is life!

This past week we witnessed a miracle though. I think I've told you about her before, but there's this woman Patsy we've been seeing. She's my best friend :) And I mean that. She's been coming back to church and she has just been an absolute rock. She's had a lot of medical problems but on top of all of that, she got really really sick on Saturday. She couldn't breath. Just coughing and wheezing. It was pretty bad. So after a long talk she decided she would like a priesthood blessing. Wow wow wow. I'm not gonna be able to put this into words as well I hope, but she was HEALED. Her breathing IMMEDIATELY improved and 15 minutes later we were all laughing and joking around again. It was an incredible moment to see the light in her eyes and realize all the little things that came together to make that miracle happen. Wow. Well done, Heavenly Father.

I'm gonna miss this area and the people a lot. Plus I stink at goodbyes. Good news is that I'll be back at the end of the month for our scheduled temple trip :) Tender mercies.

I love you all! Be good :)
Hermana Lund

1. New Year's Eve dinner with the Penas and our favorite sisters. We've spent Hna B's birthday, Halloween, thanksgiving eve,thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year's Eve with them :) I'm gonna miss them but I think my waistline will thank me.

2. Patsy and us outside the temple yesterday. She'll be going through sometime soon and we promised we'll all be back :)

3. Most of the young women from the branch

4. Most of the youth from the branch

5. Branch president and his family