Monday, February 23, 2015

A Sick Service Project and a New Gay Investigator


So this week has been way colder than last!  Something about Houston and its weather, it can never make up its mind.  This winter has been super warm.  I haven’t worn a jacket in like a month.  But then the cold came back, and people say it should get even colder soon. Woo hoo! 

But a member this week gave us arroz con platano! (rice with banana).  I haven’t had it since the first few months here in Texas.  It is so good!  It’s super weird sounding… sliced banana in rice.  I would have never come up with that myself, but it’s high class! ;)  Super good! 

Then we did the sickest service project this week.  For my favorite members too, the Campo family from Columbia!  Haha it’s like a triangle: My favorite members in H4: The Diaz family from Columbia.  My favorite family from Kemah: The Campo family from Columbia too. My favorite family from Port: the Campos... from Mexico.  And from Texas City: the Ramirez family from Mexico!  It’s like they all have a relation to each other, Columbians to Campo to Mexicans.  Anyways, after I typed all of this and looking back its not that cool, haha, but I'll leave it.

Anyways, for the Campos we destroyed a tool shed/shack and started building another.  First, since I am the lightest here, I climbed on top and ripped off all the roof.  Then we had to take off the siding and unscrew all the beams.  It took like 4 hours!  But sooo much fun.  I miss working with my hands... and power tools ;)  And I threw a sledge hammer through a wall!  Good thing it didn’t hit anyone on the other side!  I forgot my camera so you can get a picture of the old shed next week, but I did forward a couple pictures of the crew.  From left to right its Elder Mota, Pedro, Elder Barlow, Hermano Campo, Elder Mcdonald, and ME!  And the whole time, I wore the back-protecting belt and a sombrero (not in the picture). And this week sometime, we should be building the new shed.  We already did the foundation and the floor.

Also this week, on the teaching side... Well on Sunday, we ended up without a car so we walked all day. #southamericanstyle  It was super fun and we talked to some crazies because we took a lot of shortcuts on the less traveled paths.  

Also, we have started teaching a gay guy.  He is super cool!  His name is Gilbert.  Anyways, it started because we oymed him and then got into helping him build some drawers he ordered. (he does not know how to do anything with building or tools...) And he always wants to pay us back but knows we don’t take money so he just gives us food every single time.  So far he has bought us some taco truck burritos, fancy pizza, and he just made us enchiladas and strawberry shortcake.  It’s been super tasty! :)  The only problem... he flirts with us a lot... It’s super weird.  And if we’re our normal super energetic selves, he thinks we are flirting too....  So we are going to have to be careful with him and quickly find out if he has any intent or otherwise it’s kinda weird sometimes.  But, he is a firm believer of only man and woman marriages so that’s a plus!  I have never met a gay person that doesn’t believe in gay marriage.

And besides that, our area needs some change.  Most the people we teach just aren’t going anywhere. Ana Chicas is kinda flickering out slowly.  We just need to see her almost everyday and she will grow her faith super fast.  So this week we are going to work a lot with our new or potential investigators and hopefully we should have some solid baptisms soon!


Love you all!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Cleaning the Apartment and Valentines Day Party

Me and the chapines (Guatemalans)

Me with the Moreno family

Slack-lining with other Elders
So this week was crazy.  Everything always came together at the last minute!  Plus we had to go up to Sugarland twice this week, and with other events we didn’t work our areas much.  But in Sugarland, I did get to change a bunch of broken hubcaps on cars.  Super fun!

And I have been slack-lining every week for the last month or so.  And usually there are like 5 or 6 other missionaries doing it too.  Super chill.  I sent a picture.

We recently have gotten super clean at our apartment.  We realized that we are cluttery and it stinks... So we cleaned up, got rid of a lot, and bought some smell goods.  Wild berry powder to sprinkle on our carpet and then vacuum up (magical), and also "angel whispers" plug-ins.

Also this week we went and played football for my twin, elder Ve'e, yesterday. It was sick because when it got dark, the fog started rolling in and the ground was covered with about 3 feet of thick white fog!  Like Harry Potter or something.  I will get pictures of that next week. #safetyluna

Then on Saturday night, we had the branch Valentine’s Day party.  It was awesome!  I love Kemah Branch!  We had lasagna and salad and garlic bread (super weird for an all Hispanic branch, haha).  Then they were just blasting Spanish love songs the whole time.  I included some pictures: one of me and the Moreno family, and the other is with a bunch of missionaries and my chapines! (friends from Guatemala)  We are best friends with these boys.  Kemah is weird because we have like 8 recent converts age 20-21, but no women...  it’s a problem.

Also, this week was hard because we have had a lot of people not want to talk to us.  Ana Chicas ran away when we said the word baptism and then didn’t come to church.  It was super weird because we have the best relationship with her and her family.  So we will have to fix that this week. Then we had another solid potential come to the door, run away, and then send their son to tell us they are sleeping...  People these days...  But we are going to have a great week this week, and find some super solid people!

Love Elder Lund

Monday, February 9, 2015

A Lesson in Cooking and Offended Church Members




So this week, we have decided that we are going to work out super hard! We went to GNC and bought some protein…way too expensive there!  But then I asked him what he had for free, and he had chapstick and samples! We got some samples of creatine and cardio boosters, haha.  We are going to get huge!  And everyday, we go to our rich branch Mission Leader’s apartments and use his gym.  The only problem we have encountered is that his complex is full of young single people!  So some days we go and there are quite a few ripped girls in their 20s working out with us.  It was a distraction the first day, but now we just work out harder! They might think it is to impress them... but we know it’s because we need to focus.

Also this week, Elder Mota me tried to make caldo con pollo.  Like a soup with a chicken leg and vegetables.  Well, I think we put too much water in the pot because it spilled out and caught the stove on fire hahaha.  So while Mota was putting it out with a rag, I ran around and turned off all the smoke detectors so they would stop going off.  And we would keep putting it out, but it would keep coming back, like 6 times! It was crazy!  A real character building experience for the both of us.

And I am starting to get really sick of Hispanics and their pride.  We had another member try to go less active this week.  Her ex son-in-law and his mom come to the same church as us, and they don’t treat the kids very well.  Not in a bad way, but just not the way our member wants it done. Well she decided that she cannot forgive them and will not allow herself to take the Sacrament in the same room... People these days!  And this kind of stuff happens all the time.  Well we were able to talk her out of it and get her to church, but because of this she is going to be really fragile. I’m sick of people skipping on church because of others.  If only everyone could realize that we go to church for ourselves, and it’s not as much of a social event.  So we are working with our branch on this and trying to get them to be more humble and stop blaming other people.

But on a good note. Josue got baptized!  So let me tell you that he is technically not our investigator.  He is from the sisters.  But we helped out a lot in his process, so we like to think it was a group effort too.  And the sisters told us we should think that too, not just our pride taking over ;)  But he took a lot of work, and he has fallen over and over again, but now he has desire to change and be the best he can.  He actually came out with us all day on Wednesday to teach a bunch of people.  And he has a super strong testimony of the Word of Wisdom now!  I included pictures of his baptism.

And Ana Chicas update!  We taught her a lot this week and they love us! Like how I used to be with the Sierras a lot, (btws they still all go to church, and the boys pass the Sacrament every Sunday, and Gisselle is going to BYU in the spring, but the parents still aren’t married...) well now we go to their house.  Yesterday, we went over at 8 and brought eggs and chorizo and pancake mix.  And we all made breakfast together!  Elder Mota and Emily (7) made the pancakes, Ana and Alexis (10) made the eggs and chorizo, and me and the grandma Maria made the hot chocolate and set the table.  It was so fun!  So we got them all woken up and fed that morning and they were set on coming to church, but ten minutes before she texted us and said she had to run errands for the kids and school... It was super frustrating!  I don’t know if she understands the importance of the church yet, and just likes us coming over and leaving messages and being their friends... But we are working on it.

Till next time,
Elder Lund

 PS Alexis is super shy but loves Legos!  We were thinking of how we could get him more open and I need you to send me my birthday present early. Like this week. I want a Lego! A decent sized one.  Not one that takes years to build, but one that will take more than 10/15 minutes. I think if I bring it over and ask for his help to build it, he will help me and open up more to us.  He loves Minecraft or anything from the Lego movie!  But he already has the garbage truck one so don’t buy that one.  But you all can go for fhe and pick one out!  Your’e the best!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Helping the Gomez Family & Getting Massages from Dr. B's Office!

So this week started out with a district picnic!  After our meeting, it was a super nice warm day, so we set up a table and chairs outside and me and Elder Mota made Al Hambre for the whole district.  It is pretty much strips of steak with bacon, bell peppers, onions, and a little bit of cheese on top, but it is super good!  And Elder Mota made some homemade salsa to go with it.  But it was super fun!  We did it because it was the end of the month so none of us had money to go out to eat.  So instead everyone just brought a few ingredients and we put it all together.

Also this week, we went to Dr. B.  He is in the Mission Presidency here and he owns a chiropractic/body works office, so he lets all the missionaries go 3 times for free.  It was so nice!  And it was really good for my back, which is still destroyed.  But he took me in and put the electrodes on my back and it was so nice I fell asleep.  Then this girl came in and gave me a massage and it was super weird to have a girl massage my back while a missionary...but it was amazing! Then Dr. B. came in and cracked my back, the only thing he said after was "Wow, you really needed that!" haha.  And finally, I got to go lay on a massage bed for about 15 minutes.  It was all so relaxing that me and Elder Mota were super tired for the rest of the day!

And on Thursday we had a service day.  First we helped the Gomez family (members of our branch) move.  It was really fun and they fed us breakfast and lunch!  Then we went and helped a family that the sisters just found named the Kilgers.  They recently had a big fire burn the interior of their house, which is super sad.  And everything that wasn’t burned was covered with soot and bad chemicals so they couldn’t keep anything except for a few small boxes of stuff.  But we went by and helped them take pictures of everything so that the insurance can pay for all new stuff. But their house looked so cool inside!  Everytihng was all melted, the paint was dripping, broken glass everywhere, half burned stuff, all covered in dark ash, chandeliers hanging on by just a few wires.... It looked like a scary movie!  It was pretty sweet.  So now they have to go online and find the prices of everything they had and then go out and re-buy it all.  And the insurance is going to build them a whole new house!  So it was really bad but it will end up really nice in about 10 months.

But on the spiritual side, Ana Chicas came to church!  It took a lot of work but we made it happen.  So we taught her with Hermana Campo this week and talked all about church and what we do and how it will help her family grow up in a good environment.  Hermana Campo is the best.  Then we went and knocked on Ana’s door for like 20 min to wake her up and convinced her that she had to come to at least Sacrament.  But she came and she enjoyed it! ...kinda.  She doesn’t like that it is 45 minutes from her house…and it was testimony meeting… and the first couple were super long and boring!  But then some kids got up and she really liked that.

We are teaching a gay guy now.  His name is Gilbert.  He is super catholic but wants to know all about us.  The only hard part is he doesn’t like us asking questions... but he is super cool!   And he bought us huge burritos because he was mad that he couldn’t take us out to eat on the first day we met him.  And he is super chill and really understands what we do.  He works heavily with the catholic seminary and all the people there that leave their families to teach the gospel, so he respects us a lot.  He reminds me kind of like a Spanish version of the red headed gay guy on modern family. So he isn’t super flaming.  And he doesn’t believe in gay marriage.  He believes marriage is only between a man and woman.  Super cool!  And he was stoked to read the Book of Mormon.  So we will she how it goes this week!

Bye!

Elder Lund