Mi Familia,
Good week. We had one exchange (Mom, tell Sister Turpin's mom she's doing great; she's already an incredible missionary!), President interviews, and the Elders who are also in our ward had a baptism on Saturday. Our area is really doing well. That was the 4th baptism this month in our ward.
And Hermana Egbert and I are having 2 more on Saturday! They're both kids. Jose is 13 and has been coming to church for a while. His mom, Clara, is a member but his dad isn't and he only just barely got permission. His dad isn't a bad man (or so I've heard, I haven't actually met him), he just isn't interested at all. But anyway, we were having a lesson with him, his mom, and his little siblings the other day. Clara's sister Erika was there, along with her 3 young kids. Erika was baptized last month and is incredibly strong in the gospel. Her husband is not such a great man and has refused for a while to let 10-year-old Carlitos get baptized. But in our lesson we were talking about baptism and Carlitos said something like, "When can I get baptized?" We said, "Oh, you know, someday you'll get baptized.." but we looked at Erika and she said that her husband had given permission! Yay! So both boys are getting baptized together this Saturday. We're so excited! We really wish we could teach the dad, but he really just won't have it. Not yet, at least. I met him for the first time yesterday when we went over and we just shook his hand and were really nice. Little by little. Erika's faith is incredible and she'll see miracles.
It blows my mind how strong some of these members are. This is definitely the highest-functioning Spanish ward I've seen. Stronger than a lot of English wards I've seen. There are a lot of people who have next to nothing, but they are so humble and so converted. They are always willing to help one another. We have a lot of returned missionaries in our ward, even the women. The converts usually stay strong and really add to the ward. It's so fun to get to know and love everyone.
Last night we went to visit Hermana Castor, one of the members we're really close with. She just had surgery. We were at the Espinosa's trailer with Hermana y Hermano Espinosa, Hermana y Hermano Aguilera, Hermana Castor, y Hermano Sanchez. All are strong, endowed members; Hermano Sanchez just went through the temple on Saturday. We sat and talked about temples and stuff. It was so great! Just being in a room with people like that was so humbling and made me really excited for heaven.
The language is getting a lot easier. When I got here I feel like I had all the potential energy boxed up from stuff I had learned while in an English area. It took a while for me to access it when I first got to Lake Austin, but then it just started spilling out. I can understand and speak with very little trouble. I understand what people are saying, so when I hear them say something differently than i would have, I can learn from it and apply it when I speak. Except for some reason I still have the hardest time understanding Spanish on the phone! That's the next step.
Oh my goodness, and guess what! Justin got baptized last week and Mari is getting baptized this Saturday! They broke up; I don't know all the details. But I am SOOOO happy!! Mari wrote me and said she reads her scriptures first thing every morning and she's memorizing scriptures so she can always have them with her. Oh my goodness, I'm so happy. I love them so much.
It's neat when you get this far into your mission and can see the delayed fruits of your labors from earlier in your mission. From what I hear, Carlos is doing well. He moved back to San Antonio so I don't see him when I go to Riverside for exchanges. Robert isn't doing well, though. It breaks my heart. But he'll be fine.
Wow, this letter got really long really fast. And I'm not writing even close to all the things I'd like to tell you. We will just have to spend hours sitting and talking when I get home. At the cabin, of course.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Lund
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