Adios Ashtons! Hello Halls!

Gloria's baptism and the old dream team!

Me, Elder Leszynski, and my boy Benjamin on our road trip!

Me and my Argentine, Elder Leszynski

Biking selfie

Galveston sunset

So the Ashton's leave today.  Well, actually I don't know when they leave but I know that the Halls take over the second they land in Houston at 1pm.  We aren't allowed to talk to him until we meet him on Wednesday... Should be sweet!  I'll take a selfie with him and send it your way!

Last P-day, we found a donut place here where you can get a dozen donuts for 4 dollars... I don't think I could even invent a greater tender mercy of the Lord, haha!  It will be good for me too because all the members here are just baffled that I am somehow skinnier than when I was here the first time... Hopefully the donuts will help, probably not...

This week we also had the farewell zone conferences for the Ashton's.  It was super cool!  They talked all about having visions for our future and then shared their personal visions along the way.  It was super funny because they were super personal about it all and about how they met and when they were starting their family, haha.  Then President gave us his life commitments.  He told us that all we need to do is be in the scriptures for no less than 30 minutes a day, deny ourselves of ungodliness, and follow every prompting of the spirit, and there is no way that we won't make it in life. ...Sounds easy enough, haha.  And then when we said our personal good byes, President told me to come over on Sundays for dinner!  Stoked!  I hope they understand that now I will probably be there every Sunday, haha.

And this week we have focused on building our relationships with the people here.  We went to some semi-actives, the Luevanos, and we arrived when they were making a bunch of food for customers.  (They sell food from their house to people going to and from work). And because they were focused on that, there was no way we were going to teach.  I told her that one day, I needed to learn how to cook Mexican food and when she said she will teach me, I took it as she could teach me right then.  So I asked her to teach me how to make gorditas (a homemade tortilla that is cut open and filled with meat or beans or cheese).  So turns out I am terrible at making them. You have to flip the tortilla back and forth in your hands to make it flatten out into a thick circle, but I just could never get it down.  Mine was flying all over the place.  But it was good because the Luevanos were able just to laugh at me the whole time and they loved it. So now we are good friends with them.  Last night we even got him to open up to us about why he isn't the most active and it was super cool!

And then yesterday after church, someone I taught in H4 got baptized.  Her name is Gloria.  I probably didn't talk all about her but she came to the Father's day activity and she is friends with Eva, whose house flooded. Well she got baptized and we got to go up and see it.  A member named Benjamin drove us up and he is a stud too!  But anyways, after the baptism, I got to talk with a bunch of the members in H4 again, and some of them said they are going to come find me in Galveston and take us out to lunch!  Members are the best!

But we saw the coolest miracles week!  We had a lesson with Sergio and when we asked him about his reading and prayers, he said that he felt a "strange but good feeling" and it felt like there was someone in the room with him.  We explained that it was the Holy Ghost and he loved it.  Then he came to church yesterday and everything he learned about just makes since to him.  He used to have a bunch of questions, but now he doesn't. The Holy Ghost is awesome!  And they announced his baptism in Sacrament Meeting for after church next Sunday and he is super excited! So now we are going to have to bust our tails off this week because he still needs to be taught a lot and get his interview...   But it’s all going to work out! 

Also, we started teaching the Reyes family again.  Raul, Reina, and Kaleigh Reyes.  Me and Elder Bilal found them when I was first here and they have been taught on and off for the past year and a half.  So we taught the whole family on Wednesday and it was alright, but we taught just Kaleigh on Saturday and it was a super strong lesson!  During the first vision she felt the Holy Ghost super strong and described it as feelings of love and also being taken back... Well now she believes that it was the Holy Ghost telling her to keep learning from us and find out if it’s all true! Sadly she couldn't come to church because she had to go with a friend to San Antonio, but she took the Book of Mormon with her and said she was going to read it in the car.  So we are going to text her today and see how it went.  But hopefully this week we can get her to church and accept a baptismal date!

Miracles are happening everywhere!  I hope y'all have a great week!

Love, Elder Lund