Bienvenida, 2014!

What a week. It was SO good to talk to y'all on Christmas! It was weird how normal it seemed, except for Kevin and Matt's voices! They'll be grown me by the time I get home.

Haha, so I have a funny story. On Christmas Eve night Sister Arche and I got home before the other sisters and we immediately got into our pajamas since we were SO full of food. When the sisters got home they told us to get our clothes back on so we could take a picture. We were kind of annoyed, honestly, but did it. After we took some pictures, Sister Christensen told Sister Isham to go look at something on the phone outside or something (why didn't I see this as more suspicious?) and we immediately got back into our pajamas. Well, President and his family were suddenly at our door! Haha, they had some presents some random lady had given them and told to give to some missionaries. The sisters had tried so hard to get us to look presentable but we wouldn't do it. Haha, it was pretty funny. I looked pretty cute in my red nightgown, though.

We had a good Christmas full of lots of food. We had a cupboard FULL of candy, even after we had regifted all we could. The other sisters brought a huge box of pure chocolate to the office, thank goodness. I have never seen so much candy in my life. 

This Saturday was rough. It seems like, out of nowhere, everything that seemed to be going right had slipped down the drain. On Saturday we didn't have ANYTHING to do. We tried so hard to visit people and find things to do, but it just wasn't happening. We were both kind of in zombie mode. The next morning Sister Arche was kind of going crazy; she was just so fed up. Haha, it was actually pretty funny. 

Anyway, church was a good time for me to refocus and recommit myself. And last night we had a miracle! Our district leader and his companion had a random non-member family who lives in our area show up at church yesterday. They asked if they wanted us to come over and they said yes. So..we did! Their names are Justin and Mari. They're actually not married, but they have a 3-year-old girl. Mari's brother lives with them but he didn't go to church yesterday. He seems interested too, though. Anyway, they told us that Mari's dad is a member who had apparently been working hard on them for a while. Apparently they had a long talk with him and committed to come to the Mormon church for a whole year! And they totally want to be baptized. They told us that they're going to go to this church for at least a year no matter what and they want to know what the next steps are to "progress in the church." Mari said that the more her dad has talked to her about it, the more she thinks that it can't not be true. I think I'm still a bit skeptical of it all as a way to protect my poor, delicate heart but I think they're really interested! They would have to get married but..totally could happen! I'll keep you posted.

So this is the last week of the transfer. Can't believe how fast it went. If Sister Arche and I are separated I'm going home. Just kidding. Kind of. Being on a mission is hard in so many ways and I kind of feel like it's never going to end, but I'm so glad to be out here. It's like running (everything on my mission relates to running somehow, by the way). I don't know why I like it because it's miserable in the moment, but for some reason it's my favorite thing ever! 

Love you all! Sorry this e-mail isn't exactly inspiring...just read your scriptures or something. Have a happy New Years!

Hermana Lund

Feliz Navidad!

Mi Familia!

Besides the fact that I got a horrible stomach bug this weekend, we had such a good week! Things seem to finally be coming together. ALL of our investigators (though they be few in number) are super solid. We met this man named Rudy last week. He lost his wife of 51 years 3 weeks before and is heartbroken. He eagerly set up an appointment with us. Apparently he's already friends with 2 member families who live right by him, but they've tried to reach out to him and his wife before and they weren't interested. Anyway, we had a good couple lessons with him and he said that he would like very much to be baptized. He said he was baptized into the Catholic church but "that was different." He's going though a lot right now and just seems really prepared. 

And he came to church yesterday!!! YAY!!!!! Finally, an investigator at church!!! He immediately made lots of friends with the Elders' Quorum and our Ward Mission Leader said that, to introduce himself, he said, "I'm Rudy from St. Matthew's and I'm hoping to be here for a long time." He has a date for the 11th and we're pretty sure it's going to happen.

We're also teaching the Harris family, which is actually the Louis family I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Apparently he was just the boyfriend and he's not a good guy. We stopped by last week and Michelle, the mom, said the police had been there just and hour earlier to get him our of her apartment. So he's out of the picture. Anyway, we helped her out around the house. She doesn't have anything. We're working on getting a mattress from a ward member to give her because her kids don't even have a real bed. We were sweeping her carpet with a broom because she didn't have a vacuum. We had a little lesson with her. Actually, she mostly just talked. She doesn't get to talk to other women ever. 

Michelle is super attracted to the church. She loves the idea of Relief Society and activities for her kids. She has real desires to come closer to God and find a good church. We taught them the Restoration on Saturday and they all ate it up and accepted it. They are completely on board to be baptized. We set them with a date for the 18th but she works on Sundays. She's going to try to get them off, though. 

Michelle told us that she knows God sent us because of how she feels with us around. She said that it was really weird that she let us come back another time but she could just sense something different about us. Rudy said that, too. He keeps telling us how beautiful we looked that day when we came up and talked to him in his yard. Haha. I think he recognizes that as evidence of the truthfulness of our message.

We've also got Peggy and Shannon, whose ultimate goal is also baptism, but they might take a little longer. But it's so neat to be teaching people who actually are interested and actually want to make changes in their lives. 

Oh! And we had a missionary correlation meeting last night. It was the first correlation meeting I've had where ward missionaries came. Actually, we haven't really even had ward missionaries in my other areas. We did in Riverside but they didn't know what their calling consisted of. This ward is amazing! Everyone is so on board with their missionary work. Families keep asking us for Book of Mormons and pass along cards that they can give out. Almost every family we talk to has people they're working on. It's awesome. I can see now how it's supposed to be. I really want to be a ward missionary when I go home.

Well, I've got to go. Can't wait to talk to you on Christmas! Have a great week, love you all!

Hermana Lund

December is Slipping Through My Fingers!

Mi Familia,

Can you believe how quickly time is passing? I feel like this transfer I've really been able to sink into being here, to not think about home or anything and just be here. It doesn't hurt that I have the best companion ever! It feels like my transfer with Hermana King again--I hate how quickly the transfer is going because there's a chance we won't be together after it ends! I hope we'll at least be together for another one. Sister Arche is seriously incredible. 

This week I ate a scorpion chili pepper! (Did you get the video? The member we were with was going to e-mail it to you.) I only ate a tiny bit and it was dried so it was less awful than it would have been had it been fresh, but it's supposedly the hottest chili in the world and it was TERRIBLE! The Martinez family always initiate the new missionaries by having them chew a ghost pepper for 20 seconds before swallowing it, but I was the first missionary to ever try the scorpion chili pepper. My mouth and throat were completely on fire. I downed 2 huge glasses of milk and an ice cream sandwich afterwards. Haha, it was great.

The work is still going slow. But we had another lesson with Shannon, a man who went to one of his Mormon friends to because he wanted what he had. He's doing really well, but we're pretty sure he's on parole so he can't get baptized any time soon. He committed to go to church this week but he didn't. Seriously, I think I'm cursed. He texted us afterwards to say that he was really sick and to see when we could set up another appointment to come by. That's a good sign, right? Haha, he said that it's a good thing he didn't commit to come last week because he ended up spending the weekend in jail because one of his business partners signed some checks he shouldn't have or couldn't or something. But he told us that he was abnormally calm through it all. He said that he recognizes that since he talked to his friend and started visiting with us he's been so much calmer and more peaceful. He's really searching.

We haven't been able to meet with the Louis family again and they haven't come to church. We think the mom might be a slight problem. Sigh. It is SO HARD to work hard when there's nothing to do. It reminds me of soccer in high school. When we played Bonneville or Logan or a good team like that, I always played my best game. But when we played Grantsville, even though we'd win like 15-0 I would be playing HORRIBLY. It's just so hard to do your best when there's nothing to push against. It's easy to work hard when you're busy. Like Hermana King and me in Riverside. But it's those moments when there's nothing you have to do that require the most dedication and self-motivation to do what you should do. It's kind of cool: I feel like I'm a hard-working, dedicated person but Heavenly Father is allowing me the opportunity to take it to the next level. Although I'd still rather be busy and baptizing like crazy. I'm praying that will come..

Yesterday in church I was thinking hard about the Atonement. This girl shared a poem in her talk about how the Atonement is like us building a ladder to get out of a dark hole, but our ladder won't reach so the Savior throws down a rope. Which is great, but I don't think it's completely accurate. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm just never doing enough. I'm just not. Just being Camille, I want to be doing so much more! My heart is hungry to be doing more. But I've felt like I don't have the capacity or the tools to do what I want to do, and it was really bugging me. I felt like I'll never become the missionary I want to be because I'm never doing all that I can do, all that is required to receive the help from the Atonement that I need. 

But I realized something that I realized months ago, but had somehow forgotten. The Atonement doesn't help us after we put in our best effort. It helps us put in our best effort! His strength, His love, His courage...it all permeates everything we ever do if we let it. Through Him, and only through Him, will we even be able to put in the effort we need to to become perfect. What an incredible gift He gave us!! There's never that moment when we can say, "Ok, I've done all I can do, now take over, please." We are to say, "Help me try harder today. Help me love deeper and be selfless. Help me forgive. Help me become more like Thee!" So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to believe He can help me, to believe I need His help, and to accept His help in everything I do. 

I love you all! Have a great week. I so excited to talk to you on Christmas!!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Lund

Utah Weather Minus the Snow

Mi Familia!

Man, it has been cooooold here. Cold and windy. I'm so thankful to have a car again, even if I do feel completely cooped up. Although it has been really warm here and there, too. Like last P-day we played soccer and the weather was divine! But..that's gone.

 It got down to freezing a couple days ago. And I think it's 10 times worse 1) because I'm not wearing pants and 2) because I've acclimated to Texas weather. I'm a wimp! It hasn't snowed yet, just rained a bit today. But everyone says this weather isn't normal. Maybe we'll have a white miracle!

I'm loving San Antonio. It's such a nice place! We work in a very rich part of town. It's completely made up of gated communities filled with HUGE houses. There's this one community, Shavano Park, that is actually it's own city. It has it's own police and everything. It's really nice. Really nice. It can be a bit intimidating to talk to those people, but somehow it hasn't bothered me too much. I guess 10 months (wow!) of constantly being out of my comfort zone has done something to me!

And the ward is incredible. They're very missionary minded. I went to PEC for the first time in my mission yesterday. All of the ward council was there and they gave us and the other sisters special time to talk about our investigators and less actives we have been working with, coming up with serious plans of action to help us out. It was great! And we've been working with members a lot lately, and I feel like everyone is already working on at least one of their friends, often as a family. We're just trying to help them move it to the next level. 

There's a couple recent converts, Meredith and her boyfriend Hector, and Laura Ketterman, who are simply fantastic. They love the gospel and want to share it with everyone! And they do! They honestly look for opportunities to share the gospel. Laura keeps a Book or Mormon on her office desk at all times ready to give out. They inspire ME to talk to more people!

We taught an incredible family on Saturday, the Louis family. They're an awesome black family who lives in probably the only ghetto apartments in our area. We talked to Allen, the dad, outside a week or so ago and set a return appointment. But I didn't have my agenda for the new transfer with me and the next day Sister Arche lost hers, so we forgot when it was. But we went by on Saturday and he said they had been waiting for us the day before! Luckily they weren't upset. Anyway, the mom was at work but we taught Allen and his 2 kids, 10-year-old Jace and 9-year-old Jayla. 

They're so great! We taught the Restoration and they were super open and accepted it all. Even the kids were attentive, although Jayla did fall asleep once. ;) Allen knows EVERYTHING about the Bible and lives it. He's a great dad. He said he's been praying to find a good church for his kids that will help them learn. They all accepted the baptismal invite and were really excited to read the Book of Mormon together. They committed to go to church, too. Brother Green agreed to give them a ride and he confirmed with them and everything, but the next morning Allen called to say he'd been up with a toothache all night and wouldn't be able to make it. It was pretty disappointing for us, since neither of us have had investigators at church for what seems like forever. But we did only teach them on Saturday, after all. As Brother Green says, we'll get 'em. :) We have a lesson with the whole family tomorrow night and Brother Green is coming with us. Allen says they will DEFINITELY go to church next week, so I hope that happens. 

We're trying so hard to work hard. Which is hard to do when there isn't a lot of work to do! But I think we're doing a pretty good job. I just want so badly to be busy, to teach millions of lessons and baptize tons of people. Everyone keeps telling us that there ARE people in our area who are ready to be baptized NOW. Why can't we find them?! Is it a lack of faith on our part? Are we doing something wrong? That doesn't seem quite right, but I can't stop thinking about it anyway. I just want to do work and make a difference. I want to kill it! 

I think I just need to forget about it. Forget about whether or not I'm working hard enough and focus on loving God and His children. And pray with faith. Pray for us to find people who are ready right now, ok? They have to exist.

I love you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Lund

San Antone!

Mi Familia,

I'm in San Antonio! 8th Ward, where lots of The District was filmed. I think Scott's the only one who would have seen that, but in The District, Jackie (an investigator) and Caleb get married in the bishop's home. I went there on Friday! He isn't the bishop anymore but his wife's the Relief Society president. We're having Christmas there, too! I'm way excited. It's a great ward.

It's totally English. But surprisingly, I'm ok with that. English wards are great. And if my Spanish could have improved so much in Del Rio, which was basically and English area, I'm not too worried about it improving here. I'll just keep working hard like I always do and pray like nobody's business. :) Plus, my companion Sister Arche is fluent in Spanish even though she's English-called. So I've been practicing. There's nothing better to help you learn Spanish than having a companion who grew up speaking Spanish, I've come to realize. I haven't had a companion who could speak Spanish almost at all since Hermana Rodriguez so I'm excited. And Sister Arche tells me my Spanish is really good so I'll just believe that and move on.

The work here is even slower than Del Rio. A lot slower, actually. Haha, go figure. We have 2 investigators, only one of which is solid (although she's really solid and we're hoping she'll be baptized soon.) Can you believe that? What was I possibly complaining about in Del Rio? But it's been ok. Sister Arche has only been here for a transfer so she doesn't know very many people, so we're going to be working with members a ton this week. Apparently the ward gives a lot of referrals, so we're going to feed off of that. We've been contacting a LOT the last couple of days, too. But it's been so fun! We've met some great people (although not anyone who's really interested) and Sister Arche and I have SO much fun together.

Sister Arche is the best. She's been out for just short of a year. She's from West Valley but her Mom's from Ecuador and her Dad's from Mexico. Haha, we came up from the border a day before transfers on Wednesday and stayed I stayed in Sister Arche's apartment, and we could kind of deduce from everything we knew that we would be companions. My first thought was, "Shoot! I can't be companions with her! She's too gorgeous!" Haha but she's SOOO sweet. She's soft spoken, but hilarious and fun. We have the greatest time knocking. She's such a hard worker, too. She has some serious health problems but she keeps going even when she's not feeling well or in pain. I really admire her for that. 

Oh! And I'm living with Sister Isham and Sister Christensen! They're traveling STL's...they're in charge of all the other STL's. So that has been fun. And also hard. It's close to impossible to not compare myself to Hermana Christensen since we were MTC companions. She's basically and AP and I'm just a normal junior companion. But it's actually been a huge blessing. I just feel so humble! Not in a negative, self-demeaning way, but in a way that helps me realize who I am, Who I'm working for, and what I'm doing. It's not my work, it's completely God's! And it feels sooooo good! I just feel like I'm filled with humility and charity and there's nothing that feels better, including other missionaries recognizing how great of a missionary you are. 

Also, I've been coming across desire a lot in my studies lately. God truly works according to your desires. I wrote a list of my desires as a missionary. I want to be completely fluent in Spanish. I want to be filled with charity and humility and be completely on the Lord's errand. I want to help other people feel confident in who they are. I want to be part of the harvest as well as the planting. But I'm not super worried about being involved with the work on a high scale. I just want to work! Heavenly Father will give me according to my desires. I'm not worried about that.

I'm so blessed. I'm so happy to be on a mission this Christmas. Oh! I forgot to talk about Thanksgiving! I don't have enough time, but just know that I was taken care of by some super sweet and fairly crazy old people. Perfect! I loved it. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Lund