Week 63 Don't give up! Do your part and trust in heaven to do the rest!

Ahhhhh!! Where do I even begin?? This week has been SO full of blessings! Like. Wow!!!! It's insane!!!!!

For starters, we have received TEN SUPER SOLID REFERRALS this week!!! FIVE have been in the last 24 hours!!! Like, what the heck? I don't know about other missions but I've been averaging about 1 per week... MIRACLES!! And they're all from members/part member families! Man, craziness!

We have been working so dang hard. Up to this point I've considered myself a pretty dedicated, hard working missionary but MAN we got work DONE this week. We tripled the number of member present lessons we have as a mission standard of excellence and doubled sacrament attendance, baptismal dates, and progressing investigators! There's a quote on our wall back home. Totally going to botch it but it says something like as we do our best we allow the lord to enhance our efforts. TESTIMONY OF THAT, for sure. I've been trying to seek heavens help more and more and well, ask and ye shall receive. Who would've thought?

Cool experience this week to coincide with baptismal dates. Pretty sure I told you about Gordon. He's awesome. He's the prospector who knew just about nothing about Jesus Christ a month ago. Well. He's been wanting to do everything right so he hasn't agreed to a baptismal date because he wants to make sure he repents first and all that good stuff... You can't even be mad at that! But he's been progressing so well we didn't want to lose momentum so we planned a lesson at he church with him and grandpa where we would show him the font, the bible video of Jesus' baptism and then invite him to pray about baptism. We did exactly that, he received it well, the spirit was felt, and we parted ways....

So. We stay a couple more minutes at the church mingling with some of our favorite members (yup, the primary kids) and Gordon comes plowing back inside with an uneasy look on his face. We were concerned, asked what was wrong yada yada yada and he gets a really somber look on his face. "Well. I've been doing a lot of thinking" oh, no! He's dropping us!.... "And I was sitting in the truck just now, thinking 'what the heck are you doing, Gordy? YOU KNOW ITS TRUE. So I think I wanna do this baptism thing" ...... Ahhhh :'D the church is so true. We've still got some work to do but he has a date for next Saturday so we'll see. The lord has been working miracles thus far. Hopefully they won't stop! As Gordon walked out of church yesterday he said, "our goal is Gooder Gordy" :) crazy how the gospel and love of god can make even the stubbornest, least likely candidate a Gooder Gordy :)

Oh! Couch! So we got a part member referral yesterday at church that just moved in. We called em up immediately and set an appointment to see them Tuesday. We get home from church and our neighbor asks if we need a couch... We immediately thought of the family! With some help from unseen angels we moved the couch into our apartment. It'll be there til this afternoon til it's relocated to its more-needed home. But I gotta admit, it was nice to have a couch again :)

Oh, also have I mentioned how wonderful my comp is? Don't get on her bad side though. Her southern will come out and she might call you a heifer :)

The church is true. To close out, here's a quote Sis Sands found, I believe, by Lucy Mac Smith:
"I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am lifted up in prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed, will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary,
negotiate at the table with the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the
case of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me and when he returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me."

Don't give up! Do your part and trust in heaven to do the rest!
Les quiero!
Hermana Lund

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1. Our favorite member has been experimenting with various bunt cakes for our weekly luncheons... this week's? Apple dapple
2-4. More on the miracle couch later... But a photo shoot was necessary, I promise.
5. Our weekly p day stop, city salads. Never actually gotten a salad there... But their chicken burgers are to DIE for!

Week 62 (T11)

Hola :)

This week was a good one! Transfers had everyone a little crazy but we stayed so we got all the excitement with none of the stress :) aside from that, we worked. Man, we worked.

Our people right now are all mostly in the English Ward so it's fun getting to hone in on some teaching skills and refine those instead of just the language.

Gordon: he's awesome! He's a referral we got a while back. I don't know if I told you about him but we contacted him, next day had a church tour, Sunday he was at church and had read most of the BOM. He's not the typical non-practicing Hispanic I'm used to teaching. He's English. Not religious at all so no Catholic. He didn't even had a foundational faith in God!!!!! It was so cool to teach him the legit basics that are so often a part of the culture down here. We've been wanting to set him up with grandpa for a few weeks but for one reason or another grandpa was never free :( BUT! This past Saturday he was finally able to come with us to a lesson. And it was perfect!!!!! Our leaders have reeeeeally been wanting us to stress the importance of repentance and so we had been mentioning it with him a bunch. Saturday we had a lesson about faith, repentance and baptism (hoping to set a
baptismal date with him). Grandpa tied in his experience at the temple and oh it was perfect! We didn't set a baptismal date because he said he wanted to set a REPENTANCE DATE! How awesome is that? :) He's great! The lord has truly softened his heart and filled it with faith in the savior. So cool.

Bro Lee: his wife is a returning member that loves us and feeds us with amazing food til we're about to explode!!!!!!! He usually comes to church with his wife but he has never been super interested in
joining. But! This week he said his first prayer with us!!!!!!!!!!! And man, has he been holding out on us! It was so good!!!!! Little miracles :)

Familia M: Pricilla's family (the recent convert as of March 26th I think). Her mom and brother are progressing slowly but surely. We've been working with them to have family home evenings. I never realized how much of a blessing those can be but wow. It's like the leaders of the church are inspired or something :)

Oh! We received all that training about working with members to do missionary work a while back so we've been working on that. Miracle: we took a mom/daughter team out with us and had them teach a few principles as a part of our lesson (hoping that would give em some more confidence in their missionary abilities). They crushed it! that was last week. This week, we had dinner with them on Monday. We had been asking their family for referrals for months with no luck. So we decided to extend another commitment on service in the family. They said "sure.... Oh by the way, here's a referral for our friend. Can we all go see her right now?" :D so cool. Listen to leaders. They know
what's up. As we follow their guidance, miracles happen.

Other than that, I am PUMPED for this week. Aside from the regular weekly stuff we have ZERO meetings!! I could almost cry :') Just a week to get the lords work DONE!

For pictures, the sunset game has been STRONG. And the mountains are wonderful as always :)

Les quiero! Be good :)
Hermana Lund

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1. Who needs a U-Haul? :)
2-3. God must really love us...
4. Introducing: Distrito de Nogales
5. Thanks dad :) We've decided I'm stinky slug (obviously) and Hna Sands is the other one :) match our personalities to a T!

Week 61 Learn to ask for help. Newsflash: It's helpful :)

Hola :)

Another good week! We worked super hard so that by the time we got to Friday we could just enjoy the half mission conference.

Oh yeah... We had another meeting in Tucson :) Half the mission. And Elder Foster from the 70 came :) he talked about how we can work more effectively with members to make missionary work a combined effort. It was awesome!

I think the theme for the weekend was "LEARN HOW TO ASK FOR HELP."
Mmmm. Not one of my strong points. But! Our investigator had a really bad tooth ache and she was not doing well at all. We asked two men in the wars if they could give her a blessing. They said yes! We asked our bishop (conveniently a dentist) if he would be able to help. He said yes and for free! We asked a couple if they could take her to the bishops dental office. They said yes! We asked a less active member if she could watch the kids during her appointment. She said yes! So many miracles fell into place with the help of the members. But I guess I didn't learn my lesson well enough.......

Sunday morning. We were running out the door to a meeting. I was thinking about crayons and coloring books to keep our investigator's daughter entertained during sacrament meeting. I closed the front door and froze. Yes. I had locked the key to the house and the key to the car inside. YEEEEEUP. That's when Hna Sands piped in and said she had been praying for patience. Mmm. The only thing worse that you praying for patience is your companion praying for patience..... So! We asked the mission housing coordinator for help. We asked the manager for help. We asked the ward mission leader for help. The bishops wife. Another member. The elders. Everybody and their mother. We were lovingly chauffeured around to and from church and the elders were able to break in and all was well.

Learn to ask for help. Newsflash. It's helpful :) We cannot do it alone. Our existence is due to a loving God. Our eternal victory is due to the sacrifice of a son. Don't try and do it alone.

Mosiah 24:14-15

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

We all have burdens and there is a clear solution. Ask for help from above! I promise it works!

Les quiero mucho! Be good!
Hermana Lund

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1. Our Spanish Ward mission leader and his family... And the elders.
2. Grandma Duke... And the elders.

1. One of our investigators makes THE BEST homemade toffee in the world!!!!! He showed us how :) if you're nice, I'll share the recipe.
2. The Tucson temple is coming along BEAUTIFULLY!!!
3. The YW had a girls camp fundraiser where they auctioned off cakes. Our bishop was nice enough to buy us a tres leches cake with strawberries on top! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm HEAVENLY.

Week 60 Studying and praying can make our lives more meaningful and joyful

Hola :)

Apparently 'tis the season to drive to Tucson for meetings :) we had the mission conference 2 weeks ago, zone meeting and interviews with president and a trainer meeting this past week and then a half mission conference with a member of the 70 this Friday! I stinkin love it!!!! The spiritual edification is insane! Big fan :)

Other than that, Nogales is still its usual Hispanic self. It's a week early for transfers, but I'll be staying here to finish training Hna Sands til the end of June :) I'm excited! There's a lot of good things
going on.

This week built up to Sunday where Priscilla (recent convert that got baptized in March) brought her family to church. She's the only member and we've been working so hard to get them all there together and they couldn't have picked a better day! Her little brother sang to her mom with the other primary kids and even though he didn't know the words, her mom was just sobbing and sobbing. It was awesome! Spirit of eternal families! BOOM.

We also had another investigator at church named Gordon! We found him on Monday, had a church tour on Tuesday, and he came to church Sunday! So fast! So easy! Thanks spirit! You're the real mvp! The coolest part was to see grandpa taking him under his wing, showing him classes and stuff. Grandpa even gave him one of his cherished "Cowboy Bob: Professional Horse Trainer" business cards during the sacrament :') tender moments.

This week my testimony of the basics has really grown. I was reading in Mosiah 10 today. The nephites and the lamanites are back in another battle and Zeniff is taking a trip down memory lane thinking about how in the heck in the world this infamous rivalry even started. A whole bunch of reasons are listed but two stood out to me. Laman and Lemuel were jealous of Nephi because 1) "the Lord heard his prayers and answered them" (verse 13) and 2) Nephi "departed into the wilderness
as the Lord had commanded him, and took the records" aka the scriptures (verse 16). Who would've thought that this whole mess started because of such basic things.

Studying our scriptures and praying with our whole hearts is essential to survival and happiness. Don't believe me? Read the BOM. Spoiler alert: just believe me. I know that studying and praying can make our lives more meaningful and joyful as we strive to continue to learn and grow in God's way.

Les quiero muchisimo! (Especially you, mom! Happy Mother's Day to the best mom there is!!!) Que tenga una buena semana!!!

Hermana Lund

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Week 59

¡Hola!

This semana was crazy!

To kick it off, we are one of the only companionships in the mission that has a washer/dryer in our apartment (so blessed... Or so I thought....). Forgot to mention this before, but we woke up in the
middle of the night last week with the washer GUSHING water all over the kitchen/living room..... And.... It did it again :) The incident this past week involved significantly more water and significantly more irritation. We were quite the sight, two sleep deprived sisters sloshing water out the front door with a broom at midnight. Good times :)

On Wednesday we had our mission conference with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the build up was so so worth it. I don't even know what to say or where to start. When we first got to
the stake center we were all loud and happy to see everyone and it was a blast. Eventually they organized us for our mission picture........ And then he walked in....... No one even breathed! His very presence singlehandedly silenced us all in a millisecond! He just walked to his place, we took a picture and then he looked at us and smiled, thanked us for our reverence and made some corny joke I was too in shock to process. We all got to shake his hand as we went into the meeting :) Elder Robbins from the 70 was there too!!!! It was a powerful, powerful meeting.

E. Holland spoke about the "enabling power of the atonement." Oftentimes we see it as a warm and fuzzy, unclear concept but he doctrinally just blew my mind. It essentially boiled down to how the
atonement gives us 1) the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and 2) the power and blessings of the priesthood. As he wrapped up and said his warm goodbyes I could feel my heart break. What a wonderful servant of the lord. And Elder Robbins was equally as profound and wonderful! I'm just so grateful!

Besides that, the Arizona wildlife has been on point this week. Lots of snake sightings, scorpion attacks, the elders found a massive lizard in their laundry, and javelina roadkill galore! Hopefully I'll
get transferred back to the city before I get eaten alive...

And :) this past Saturday we FINALLY made it to the temple with Cowboy Bob :''''') this man. Grandpa, as we call him fondly. Man, he just about broke me. He's a stubborn little guy. And Satan's been working so hard on him. But we made it up to Gilbert :) He was so happy. It was cute. He stopped dead in his tracks before he set foot inside the temple doorway. He looked up, looked down, we said "come on, grandpa!" He paused. Took a big old step inside and just started sobbing... I have never seen such a happy man dressed in all white :) He was able to be baptized for his dad. He asked if I would be baptized for his mom. It was one of the most powerful, joyful, spirit of Elijah-filled
experiences I have ever had.

Other than that, life is crazy! Full of dramatic individuals sabotaging FHEs, companions losing purses and cell phones on food trucks, the sun creeping closer and closer to unbearable every day,
I'm convinced I'm allergic to our apartment, and meetings galore :)

I'm grateful for the simple things that help me every day. The scriptures. Prayer. The Holy Ghost. Good friends. Inspired leaders. The church is true and I love it :)

¡Que tenga una buena semana!
Hermana Lund

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1. This week was a big temple week! Got to see the Tucson temple construction site after the mission conference :) so far, so good!
2. We finally made it to the Gilbert temple with Cowboy Bob :') many a tear was shed.
5. Us, grandpa, the greatest Ward mission leader of all time, and the greatest young woman of all time. Dream team.
9. 7 hours of road tripping can take its toll...