Happy Christmas Harry!!

Hi Fam Fam!

This week was pretty Good. I am really excited to share some highlights with you!
Thursday: We went to the Visitors Center to have District meeting but due to their crazy schedule we ended up just doing our Christmas activity with them and decorated sugar cookies! But it was so fun even though things didn't go quite to plan.

Friday: so fun! We did finding and food in Brighton today. Man it was so cold, but was so fun! Then after that Elder Armstrong and Elder Roper and us all went to make some Christmas presents for our zone, which they are going to be so fun! Then we went over to Charlie's house and we had dinner with her and watched the Testaments. I LOVE that movie. It makes me cry every time.

Saturday: we went over to Evie Muller, a lady in our ward who has M.S. and is unable to do hardly anything. She is the sweetest woman though. She had us decorate her whole hallway in pass along cards and then she handed out a Book of Mormon to her nurse Anna. She is such an amazing woman. She definitely is doing all she can to light the world. Then we had the ward Christmas party. Our 83 year old friend Ann came. She is the cutest, but she is very forgetful..  bless her. She needed a taxi home so half the night was spent having us try and figure out how to get her home. Haha but they did a nativity and sang carols and played Christmas games. So it was a really good night.

Sunday: we had church! Which is always great. Sadly none of our friends came, but we are working with them. So hopefully next week! We saw Ann this evening. She is the cutest... but she forgot we were coming. But she welcomed us in and she made us dinner... Oh boy... She made what she called "Spaghetti" but really it was top ramen with no broth and vegetarian meatballs with this vegetable mix stuff... and she was like "I forgot you were coming so i cooked the dinner and then i went and read the Bible, and I forgot I made the food, So it's cold". Haha oh Ann. She was like you have to try these meatballs though they are made from trees... me and Sister Gates looked at each other and we were like "oh Wow... I'm so excited" 😂

Monday: we had exchanges today with the VC sisters. I was with Sister Nielson. She is from Riverton. She has been on her mission for about 5 months. She is the cutest. We were able to visit a member who just moved into the ward for a few months, Sabrine. She is from France. She is so funny. So funny thing about England they have what is called "Squash". And it is this flavoring liquid that you pour into water. So in the states I would say it is a lot like Crystal light but not in powder form. And so you have to put water in it. But foreigners dont know that. I sure didn't when I first got to England. So she sets out this squash on the table and three glasses, but she didn't set out water. And I was like well maybe she'll set it out later. So we get talking and then she takes the squash and just pours it all the way to the top of our glasses and pushes it in front of us. And sister Nielsen had no idea that is was squash because it didn't say it on the label... But I knew so I took a swig of it and oh my goodness was it strong. But then sister Nielsen took a drink and she like gagged.. and I lost it I could not hold in my giggles Haha! So Sabrine takes a drink and in her french accent goes "oh my goodness, this is so sugary". It was so funny! But I love Sabrine. She is the cutest. She actually is planning on serving a mission. So cool!

Tuesday: best day! We went to the Temple. And it was just what I needed! Such an amazing thing to be able to feel the spirit in such a way in the house of the Lord. It was fun to be able to go through the temple with President and Sister Gubler and a third of our Mission!
I am loving my mission. I love to be able to share my testimony with others. I love to be able to come closer to my Savior. I love to be able to help others make changes in their lives, and I love to see them change. I just LOVE my mission. I am so excited for Christmas this week. It came so fast! I can't even believe it! There was a Christmas video on lds.org I was watching and it talks about what the world would be like without Christ. And it really just put into perspective how dark the world would be. We already are having so much turmoil and scary things happening in the world... imagine for a second what the world would be like without the Savior. Scary right?

If you get a chance watch:
"Why we need a Savior — A Christmas message about our Savior Jesus Christ. #ASaviorIsBorn."  It is amazing!

I am so excited to see your faces on Christmas! And because I'm in England.... "Happy Christmas Harry".

I love you. We got this! We can do hard things!

Love,
Sister Lund

 Elders Armstrong and Roper have become our good friends

 I Love to see the Temple

 Decorating sugar cookies

Brighton

Cause that my Eyes may be Opened!!

Hi Fam Fam!

This week flew by. But it was oh so good.

Thursday: so I went to go look through my journals and planner to see what we did today, but I honestly can't remember... Haha sorry! 🙈

Friday: We got to see cute Charlie a recent convert in the ward. She is so precious. Oh my goodness and so smart. She majored in cancer cell biology. This afternoon we did transfer planning with Elder Roper and Elder Armstrong. It was really great. We have some really fun things to do in the zone this transfer. I am so excited! This evening we had a dinner appointment with the Vowels. They are the cutest family. They have 8 kids, along with his parents and one of their business colleagues that live with them. So every night they have 13 people around there dinner table! Wow! And they feed us a twice a month. How sweet is that?! After dinner with them we had a lesson with Dave. Oh Dave... he is lovely. But is struggling with urgency to prepare for his baptism. His Date was for the 16th of December, but he doesn't feel ready. So I will keep you updated on him. He is a great guy though!

Saturday: Such a great day! We had a lesson with one of our friends Laurie-Anne. She is 17 years old. She brought her friend Madison on her lesson today. It went okay. She is pretty apprehensive. We will see how things go with her. This evening... made me SO happy! I got to see one of my bestest friends!! Francesca went to visit the Temple today and came to see me in Crawley. I cried! My goodness I haven't seen her for 9 months. She is doing so well. She is so amazing. And she brightened my whole week!

Sunday: We have had Stake Conference this weekend. It has been so good. There was a bit of an emergency in the chapel today though. A sweet little old man during the middle of the meeting had what we thought was a stroke, but it turns out his blood sugar was just off. Miracle though, we think that because the whole stake was sitting there praying for him as they got him prepped for the ambulance that Heavenly Father heard our prayers and healed him. It may sound weird but I just had that overwhelming feeling that the power of prayer, if it is according to God's will, can heal anyone and anything. So amazing! The rest of the day we just did a lot of finding. Which was good. Although it is getting a lot colder!

Monday: This evening we went over to the Fagan's house (our ward mission leader) and shared the Light the World video with them. Sister Gates is a trooper. Bless her haha. As we were travelling to the Fagan's who live in Horsham  (far away in our area from where we live) she was walking up this hill and like flew into this pile of mud. She was COVERED. Like sooo bad.  Haha she popped up so fast though. But the poor thing had to walk around the rest of the evening with mud all over her because we couldn't go home and change. Haha she had a good attitude about it. She just used me as a shield the whole time we were traveling so no one could see her. 😂

Tuesday: We dropped by a lot of our friends today that have been dodging us. And tried to make contact with them. One of our friends wasn't home, the other one was and invited us to come back so hopefully things will get better with them! Then this evening we just had correlation. Which was great, not much to talk about though!

This week was so good. I absolutely loved it. I think it wasn't necessarily about what we did during the week, although we did great things! It was just that this week was a week of remembrance for me. I read a really good conference talk called "Lord will thou cause that my eyes will be opened". And I loved this part:

" On May 28, 2016, 16-year-old Beau Richey and his friend Austin were at a family ranch in Colorado. Beau and Austin climbed into their all-terrain vehicles with great anticipation for a day of adventure. They had not gone far when they encountered precarious conditions, at which point tragedy struck. The vehicle Beau was driving flipped over suddenly, pinning Beau under 400 pounds (180 kg) of steel. When Beau’s friend Austin got to him, he saw Beau struggling for his life. With every bit of his strength, he tried to pull the vehicle off his friend. It wouldn’t budge. He prayed for Beau and then frantically went for help. Emergency personnel finally arrived, but a few hours later Beau died. He was released from this mortal life.
His heartbroken parents arrived. As they stood in the small hospital with Beau’s dearest friend and family members, a police officer entered the room and handed Beau’s cell phone to his mother. As she took the phone, an audible alarm sounded. She opened the phone and saw Beau’s daily alarm. She read aloud the message her fun-loving, highly adventurous teenage son had set to read every day. It said, “Remember to put Jesus Christ at the center of your life today.”
Beau’s focus on his Redeemer does not lessen his loved ones’ sorrow in his absence. However, it gives great hope and meaning to Beau’s life and life choices. It allows his family and friends to look beyond only the grief of his early death to the joyful realities of the next life. What a tender mercy for Beau’s parents to see through their son’s eyes the thing he most prized."

Even though this story is so sad... I was just reminded that when Christ is at the center of my life... that is when I am the happiest. I know that if we want more happiness in our lives we need to make sure we are putting Christ in the center!

I hope you have a great week. I love you. We can do hard things! We got this!

Love, Sister Lund

 This is now a hotel but the beam was where they hung people. Kinda creepy!!

 The Vowel Family

 Francesca came to see me!!

Be Healed!!!

Hi Fam Fam!!!
I had a really good week! I hope you did! I am sorry I didn't send a mass email last week, it was a bit crazy!

Thursday: We had an exchange, and I was with Sister Torgerson from Arizona and Sister Unga from Tonga. It was so funny! So we had a lesson with a referral that we got from another area in our zone (Epsom) and so we had a lesson with this cute family, Sidney and Mia. They are so sweet, and very open. But the buses here in Crawley don't run very often, and they drop you off in the middle of nowhere. So we traveled about an hour away from our flat into Horley, and the bus driver dropped us off not even at a bus stop but literally in the middle of this windy road in a forest. We got off the bus, and the sisters were like " Sister Lund, where are we?" haha it was so funny.. Even though it took us ages and we missed the last bus home, we had a great lesson with Sidney and Mia!

Friday: We finished up exchanges with the Eastbourne sisters! It was a great exchange. The rest of the day we just did a lot of finding which is always good to try and find new friends.

Saturday: Today we had a "Mission Finding Hour", which is where our whole mission at the same time tries to find new friends to teach. Let me tell you this was a little bit of a tough hour, We met a really nice woman about 5 minutes into this finding hour that said that we could come and teach her, and the other 55 minutes, no one wanted to stop. So that was a little tough, but hey we still had miracles!

Sunday: We were a little sad because none of our friends came to church today! We were really surprised Dave didn't come, but he had a family get together the night before in Woking which apparently is really far away, and his daughter Georginna was so tired she couldn't wake up in the morning! But Charlie a recent convert in the ward, came to church today, and it was the first time she came since I was here! So big miracle!! The other day we had a great lesson with her, where we sat in the chapel, and read the Book of Mormon with her, and we had her look around the empty chapel and asked her what she saw... She was like " I see no one", and we were like "Exactly!" And we talked to her about how when she comes to church on Sunday she shouldn't worry about what others think, that it is just between her and God. And that all that matters is that she is there now! And she was SO happy! I love experiences like this!! This evening we did Finding and Food in East Grinstead with the Office Elders and the Visitor Center sisters. It was so fun! We got to have a break the fast with all the office missionaries and some of the Temple missionaries which was fun. And then we did a scavenger hunt (finding activity) on the high street! SO FUN!

Monday: A lot of our friends have not been in contact with us which was really worrying us! So we decided we would make some cookies for them. When you don't know what else to do, serve! And giving cookies is always a great idea! It was hilarious though, because we accidentally put to much butter in at first (converting from American to English measurements can be so hard sometimes) and I was like "Sister Gates, why are these so greasy? And why are our cookies like broiling??" haha, and then we figured it out, and fixed ourselves, and the cookies actually turned out really good, and our friends really liked them! So miracles!!

Tuesday: We had a meeting with the Zone Leaders today, Elder Roper and Elder Armstrong. They have become like our best friends. They are great. And we just talked about how we can help our Zone coming into this next transfer, and we just reviewed the last transfer, so it was good! Last night we were supposed to have correlation, but we accidentally got stuck at this Less Active's house for an hour and 15 minutes, and she was sharing all this weird information with us. It was so weird! But she was nice.

Well this week was so good! Sister Gates and I during our dinner hour last night we watched "The Testaments". And oh my goodness it was so amazing! I literally cried. It just made me reflect on my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that it really is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. There is a part at the end of the video where Christ comes up to this man who has been waiting to see Christ his entire life, but he ends up going blind, so when Christ comes to visit the people in the Americas and he can't see Christ. But the way it ends is Christ coming to this man, and saying "Be healed". And it just hit my heart so hard! And it reminded me of this years Christmas video where Christ is healing the people. I know this church is true! I hope that if you are struggling with your testimony or knowing if Christ loves you, that you will take time to pray and read the Book of Mormon I know that you will get your answer!
I love you! I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Lund

 Beautiful Countryside

Climb or Coast!!

Hey Fam Fam!   
                                                                                       
This week went by so quickly... p.s. I’m sorry I say that every week. But the time really is flying!
Thursday: we had a service project this morning at the Corrigan’s house. They are a cute older couple in our ward. And we helped clean their bathroom. Sister Corrigan’s health is really declining so she really needs the help. After, we went to Brighton for their district meeting! It was really fun. We came back and had a lesson with Joanna. Joanna is lovely. But we really are trying to help her keep commitments.

Friday: today was crazy! We had district meeting this morning for like 30 minutes, and then we had to leave early to go to my doctors appointment in Guildford. Let me tell you Guildford is such a beautiful town. Oh my days. So beautiful. Old architecture with cobble stone streets, with rolling hills. Very English! We had so many mishaps with our train. Haha all of our trains were delayed so the times were all mixed up. So we took about 6 trains (including the whole travel) and we missed every single one... barely. The train was there but, if they are leaving they lock the doors and they don’t let you in... haha so sad. But it was funny looking back on it.

Saturday: We had a work over in Eastbourne. And it was so fun. Sister Biesinger, and Sister Torgerson are in a tri now with Sister Unga from Tonga. Sister Torgerson is training Sister Unga, because Sister Biesinger is finishing her mission in a week and a half. Crazy! On the work over we did ballon contacting, where we had people pop a ballon with a question inside and we had them answer it. It’s super effective!

Sunday: Dave came to church again, and brought his daughter Georginna. They both really enjoyed it! We had a dinner appointment with the Hunts. They are such a great family. So something funny. Elder De Kock, one of the assistants, his sister is in the Crawley ward. Which I don’t know how all of the rules go but it’s so funny because they see each other every Sunday and Sister Ryan and her husband came to dinner at the Hunts so that was fun! An then we did finding as a Crawley district this evening.

Monday: So we did a bunch of planning with the Zone leaders to plan for our busy week of meetings. This evening we had a dinner appointment with Sister Sweetman and her friend Pat. And it was so great! Pat is a sweet little 90 year old woman, who is not interested in “converting” as she would say. But it was such a powerful lesson. We showed last years Christmas initiative video. Pat has had a very rough life. She has had horrible things happen to her, and she feels like she is to blame... but as we showed the video, I just looked at both Pat and Sister Sweetman and the smiles that came to their faces. Christ brought light into their eyes. And as the saying goes “the eyes are the windows to our soul”. And I literally saw the change in their eyes. And I can’t even begin to express the way it made me feel, because I have seen people change on my mission, but today was just a tender mercy to be able to see how even the little things we do matter.

Tuesday: We had MLC today. Which was really good. I have seen that I have changed since my last MLC. I have become more brave, and more willing to voice my opinion (in a loving way though haha) Missionary work will do that for you! But we have some really exciting things coming up in our mission. I’m really excited. I am so excited for the Christmas Initiative. It will be so so great!! This evening we had ward council, and our ward mission leader did an amazing presentation. He brought a HUGE tub of Lego’s and dumped them on the floor. He looked at me and was like “Okay Sister Lund, pick up these Lego’s... by yourself.” So I got on my hands and knees and started picking up the Lego’s and oh my days there are so many little pieces... haha. He went on with the Presentation and was like “Sister Lund you have to put them in the bin quietly...” haha so then I had to take tiny little handfuls and put them in the bin quietly. Meanwhile everyone is watching me do this haha. Then as I had almost put all of them in, he asked everyone else to help me put the Lego’s in the bin, and it went so quick! He related it to the fact that as members we are putting so much responsibility and weight on the missionaries. And how we should not give missionaries to do work that we or others can do. Missionaries are here to serve, but they also can’t do it alone. It was so great! Haha bishop Hewitt and the ward council got a kick out of it too.... 😂

This week was really good. And I got a bit of a spiritual slap in the face. As humans we can get into the habit of “coasting” or just going through the motions. But I don’t want to do that on my mission. I want to keep climbing... everyday! I want to make everyday count because this is so important. This is the work of Salvation.

I hope you have a great week. I love you so much. We can do hard things! We got this!
Love,
Sister Lund

He is the Light!!

Hey Fam Fam,

This week was a bit of a tougher week. I was a little under the weather, but that is okay! God showered Crawley in miracles this week.

Thursday: We had Zone Conference which was so good! We got to watch the Christmas initiative video that comes out I think November 25... I could be totally wrong haha. And it was so good! You will love it. But the conference was really focused on "light" and how we always need to be doing things to bring the light of Christ into our lives. It was so powerful!

Friday: We had a lesson with our friend Chris, from Romania. He is really struggling with finding direction in his life, and is kind of fighting against himself at the moment. He doesn't really know what he wants to do. Tonight we had a dinner appointment with the Vowels... and they are the funniest family! Oh my goodness. Brother Vowels told us the story of how he and Lea met and how they got engaged. And let me tell you it was one of a kind. Remind me to tell you the story when I get home!

Saturday: We had a dinner appointment with Maureen a recent convert in our ward today. She is a sweet heart. Her husband is not a member, but he is supportive of her, and he was really nice to us, and apparently tonight was the first time that he stayed for a spiritual thought! Miracle! Haha and their dog is the cutest. His name is Jimmy, and he reminds me a lot of Essie Jane's dog Buster haha.

Sunday: Dave came to church again! Miracle! Our friend Joanna was going to come to church, but she had to cancel because her 2 year old son got into the sweeties, and ate a whole bunch of them and got sick all over himself and the buggie...so sad! But we saw her this evening, and she has been reading the Book of Mormon, and she prayed for the first time in the lesson tonight.

Monday: Today we had exchanges! I was with sweet Sister Leavitt. She has been on her mission for about 3 weeks! She is the cutest. I felt bad though because for part of the exchange we had to go to my doctors appointment, but she was a great sport! But this evening we had a dinner appointment with the Corrigans, from South Africa! I love South African accents, they are the coolest. Our ward has a lot of people from South Africa! But the appointment was really good. We had a really good conversation about the "Because of Him" video! I LOVE that video, so powerful.

Tuesday: We taught our friend Marie... and funny story haha. SO we found Marie on thursday at the bus stop, and she speaks french, and little ole' me knows a tiny tiny amount of french from her two french companions... and so I spoke the tinest amount with her at the bus stop. Well we had our lesson today and she was talking to Sister Gates, but couldn't figure out a word she wanted to say in English so she turned to me and started speaking to me in french. My heart dropped and I just looked at her and smiled and nodded. But I could only pick out like two words, and thankfully whatever I said resonated with her... But then as we were finishing the lesson we extended a baptismal date and she accepted!  And then she got a knock on her door, and so she left us in her living room for like 10 minutes as she talked to this person outside. She comes back in and she said "I've got another appointment with God" and she smiles and hands us a pamphlet that said "Jehovah's Witness" on it. Sister Gates and I just looked at each other and smiled haha. We were like "Oh...wow" haha. It was a funny lesson though.

This week was a bit of a tougher week. But I am so grateful for the tough weeks, because I know that they make me a stronger person. Something that I learned from Zone Conference really struck me... "Just a little bit of a less focused study, prayer, or diligent day, takes away the light...Accounting with God at the end of every single day is vital. If we do not do it, it is like us just closing our eyes in the middle of the day". I loved this. Accounting with Heavenly Father is so important. He gives us countless amounts of blessings every single day, and if we are not looking back to see the miracles and lessons he has given us, we lose the light.

I hope that you will have a fantastic week! You are in my heart and prayers. I love you so much! We can do hard things. We got this!

Love, Sister Lund

The Heart of the Widow!!

Hi Fam Fam!                                                                                                        110817
Hope you have had a great week. My week flew by.

Thursday: We had a lesson with our friend Kerstin. She is from Germany and is only here in England every two weeks because her boyfriend lives here. So we are probably going to have to pass her over to the missionaries in Germany, and then when she is here we can teach her as well... which will be interesting. This evening we had a lesson with Jo and Peter, which was okay. We don’t really know what to do with them, because they aren’t really progressing.

Friday: We had district meeting with the Zion District (VC sisters and the office elders), that was really fun. And bonus... we got to see the temple! This evening we went to a dinner appointment with the Marcos family. They are lovely. Their son Dillon is preparing for baptism and he is being taught by the Elders, which has been a bit difficult because he has some behavioral issues. But they got priesthood blessings on Thursday,  and we just felt really prompted to write the blessings down so that they could always remember them. So we spent some time having Debi try to remember the blessings, so we could write them down for them.

Saturday: We did mission finding today for an hour... and oh boy let me tell ya...haha it was a bit of a rollercoaster. It started off really rough, but at the end we saw a big miracle. We started off with contacting people on the street and nobody wanted to listen. And then we did some park contacting/bench contacting.... no one was having that either, so we decided to do some knocking... we knocked a whole street of doors and no one answered... so we said a prayer and said we will knock two more doors. We knocked the first one, and no one answered... then the last door, John answered, and he told us that we could come back and that he has two friends that he wants to bring along! Miracles!! We had a lesson with Peter and Jo, and it was good, but they can’t make up their minds. But Jo being all motherly, made me drink a vitamin C drink and gave me a whole container of Vitamin C to drink to get rid of my cold. haha

Sunday: it was a good day. Our friend Dave came to church and brought his daughter Georgina, and they really enjoyed it. This evening we travelled to Brighton, to do finding with the Brighton district in our zone. Brighton is known for being interesting, haha and it definitely was an experience. But we did an activity to make the finding a little more interesting, so we did like an “amazing race”. So that was fun!

Monday: we did a lot of Accounting ( meetings to see the progress of the missionary work in our areas and zone) which was good. This evening we had a dinner appointment with a recent convert named Charlie. She is such a sweetie.

Tuesday: we went to Horley to drop by a less active family. They weren't able to meet today but we will hopefully see them on Monday. And then we met up with Izzy who is actually an investigator of the Elders, but she occasionally meets with the sisters. She is lovely! This evening we had a dinner appointment with the Clarke family. They are amazing. They do like emergency foster placements. So they were telling us a little about how that works. So cool. Then we had correlation and ward council at the chapel.

My week was great. It really went so fast! I love the talk “The Heart of the Widow”. Where it says “The heart of the widow who gave her two mites is a heart that will give all by making sacrifices; by enduring hardship, persecution, and rejection; and by bearing burdens of many kinds. The heart of the widow is a heart that senses, feels, and knows the light of truth and will give anything to embrace that truth. It also helps others to see that same light and come to the same measure of eternal happiness and joy. Finally, the heart of the widow is defined by a willingness to give all for building up the kingdom of God on the Earth”. I know that one of the biggest tests in this life is sacrifice. Heavenly Father is and will test us to see if we are willing to sacrifice anything and everything just for him.
I hope you have a great week. I love you so much! We can do hard things. We got this!

Love,
Sister Lund

 I Love to See the Temple!!

 The crazy things you see while driving

Wonderful Path Back Home!!!

Hi Fam Fam!                                                                                               November 1, 2017

Where do I even begin. I feel like we are going 20 billion miles per hour right now haha. I don't even know if I have had time to realize I am in a new area haha! 

Thursday: We had a lesson with a Recent Convert in the ward Richi. He is 22 and he is from Hungary. He is really nice, but I think he was really sad that I replaced his missionary. Sister Gates goes "Do you like Sister Lund, she's different than the other sister huh.. But a good different right?" He goes "unfortunately". haha he tried not to like me, but now we are friends haha. We then had a lesson with a couple that the sisters have been teaching for the past 4ish months: Peter and Joanne (Jo).They are really nice, but they are hot and cold with having lessons right now. We are working with them though. 

Friday; Today was full full full of meetings! It was good though. We did a lot of finding this evening to even it out a bit haha. Which turned out great. We met our new friend Chris, from Romania, and he is pretty solid. 

Saturday:We went to Sister Senior's, a lady in our ward, to read the Book of Mormon with her. This evening we went to our friend Joanna. She is super sweet. Although... haha... Her kids have typhus, or some sort of sickness, and she just kept going on and on that "stage 3 kills" and sister Gates and I were like looking at eachother like "don't touch anything!" Haha when we got out of the appointment we like showered ourselves in hand sanitizer. She is like amazing though. We love her!

Sunday: So i was super nervous today, because i got to introduce myself and bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting today, and the assistants are in our ward, and President was there, so that was a little bit scary but don't worry, I got over it... kind of. This afternoon, we met with our friend Chris that we met on Friday, which was super good! I'll keep you posted on him. And then we just did finding in the evening!

Monday: We had accounting with Elder Mann ( who is from China, I think) and he pronounces my name really funny like the way a German person would pronounce it. haha. This evening we had a Halloween activity at the chapel, which was really fun! And we even got a new friend, her name is Keirsten, she is from Germany, and we get to go see her this Thursday! But they went all out with this activity. They even rented this like mechanical surf board ( like a mechanical bull) i really wanted to try it , but I couldn't because I had a skirt on...But it looked way fun!

Tuesday: We did a lot of finding today. We had a bunch of less actives/ Lost sheep that we needed to drop by. So we spent most of our day doing that... which let me tell you was interesting. Considering we were knocking on doors all day... with the trick or treaters... haha not awkward at all. ;) And then we had correlation with Brother Faagan our Ward mission leader, who is from Ireland. And he makes computer games for a living. He is super smart! 

This week was really good. I feel like i am going a billion miles per hour, but I know that I needed this move so that I could grow... and that I am definitely doing. I read the Conference talk by President Utchdorf, talking about Bobbie the Wonder Dog. And i absolutely loved it... I mean i felt kind of sad for the poor dog, but I loved how President Utchdorf said that all of us have this inner want to go back "home"... To be able to be with God again. And i think that is so true. Just like Bobbie the wonder Dog, we too will be able to find our way back home. But we will only find our way back home with Christ guiding us there.

I hope that you will have a great week. I love you so much. We can do hard things! We got this! 

Love,

Sister Lund

Meet Sister Gates

New Beginnings!!!!

Hi Fam Fam,

So this email is going to be pretty short... so I hope that is okay... but here is the round down of my week.

Thursday: this morning Richard came to the hot cocoa social which was fantastic!! I am so proud of all he is doing. We had a dinner appointment with the Kleins. They are the cutest I love them. When we opened up their gate outside Adelaide screamed and said "the sisters are here mummy!!" She was so excited haha.

Friday: we had a lesson with Nadine.. she opened up to us a lot about her concerns. She knows everything we are teaching her is true, and she knows she needs to get baptized, but she is so scared to make the step. She is scared what it will do with her relationship. This evening we had correlation, and it was Melissa's birthday so we sang happy birthday to her, which she really liked haha.

Saturday: we got a call from a President this morning, and he was like " Sister Lund, how are ya doing... the Lord wants you to get back on the saddle... he wants you to be an STL and move to Crawley to be with Sister Gates" my heart was pounding. And yes I cried because I knew I was leaving all of my family here in Hamble River. But we saw Sister Baker this evening, and we told her I was moving and she cried. She told me she loved me...  oh man goodbyes are hard!

Sunday: Richard came to Church!!! He said it was different but told us he knows it is true. He has an uphill battle, but he can do it. Then we had a lesson with our new friend Laura (and Sister Gaston called me today saying she has a date now, yay!) this evening we had dinner with the Sheppards, they are lovely.

Monday: I said goodbye to Richard which was so sad, but he opened up a lot. He is really excited to meet dad one day! We also saw Alcina, which was great, she cried and I cried, and she told me that between me and her missionary that converted her, I changed her life, and that I took a piece of her heart... same same Alcina. Then we went to Pats and I fed Fred...oh man I about died... I was shaking so bad, but it was a really fun experience as well.. I think I have mainly conquered my fear of snakes... or at least most of it 😂 it was really hard to say goodbye to Emilia, but she will be just fine! Haha she's Emilia 😆

Tuesday: Pat and Iwona dropped by the flat to say goodbye to me, the fact that they both came meant a lot. I was not expecting Iwona to come, but I was so happy! It was definitely the hardest to say goodbye to Pat. But she is amazing! She will be great! I traveled to Crawley today.... let me tell ya that was an adventure. Luckily a nice man
helped me with my bags! There was only one problem....my travel plans sent me to Crawley train station, and when I got there, no one was there... because Sister Gates was supposed to pick me up at the temple... but I was told to go to Crawley...haha a really nice train worker let me use his phone, and I waited in the waiting room for an hour and a half, for my companion and my ride to come get me... but hey I met some really nice people.. haha it  probably would have been really fun to watch.

My week has been good, but also really hard. Something that I learned this week that God truly gives us what will help us  grow the most in our lives. And that means the stuff he gives us won't always be easy, but we can do them with Him. I love you so much. I hope you have a great week. We can do hard things. We got this!

Love,
Sister Lund

 Saying goodbye to Patrycja

 Richard

 Sister Baker

He is the Teacher!!!

Hi Fam Fam!                                                                                                                      101817
Wow this week has been full of learning and growing and becoming humble... I had a really good week. I hope you did!
Thursday: We had Quad-Zone Conference in Poole. Conference was amazing and I learned so much. So many of my really close friends are going home..time has flown. This evening we dropped by Richards house with Sister Elly Hollis who lives really close to him. He really was not feeling well, and he didn't have the strength to go to the shops to buy food, so sweet sister Hollis took Sister Gaston and I to the shops to buy him food.... she bought everything! She's such a sweetie! ❤ Richard gave us his coffee as well, which was a miracle!!
Friday: we had weekly Planning today, and our correlation meeting was cancelled, so we went to the chapel to correlate with the Elders, to see how we could help the work progress this week.
Saturday: we did finding this morning in west end. This afternoon we had a dinner appointment with Jean Baker. She had me write my testimony in her scriptures, which was so sweet of her. She just looked at me and was like "Sister Lund, I want you to write your testimony in my scriptures, I just really love you, and I will miss you" haha apparently she thinks I'm moving?! Haha I don't know. She is so cute though because back in the 70s or 80s there were some Elders that called her Munchkin from the wizard of oz, because she is so short. Haha and so now every time she messages us or talks to us she always says "love munchkin" 😂 oh my goodness. This evening we had stake conference in Portsmouth. The Saturday session was great, not very many people showed up, it was very different from Welling, and definitely different than Utah.
Sunday: we had stake conference in Portsmouth, and it was really good! I love conferences on my mission, such a special experience. And this evening we had a broadcast for the European areas from Elder Ballard; and he talked about how it is literally not possible for missionaries to do missionary work with out the members. He was very bold... he said missionary work or conversion will NOT happen without the members. It's so true.
Monday: we Skyped Heather this morning. She is doing better, she still is having some struggles, but all in all is improving. We had a lesson with a new investigator today, and it was a very strange experience...but I won't go into the details haha. We had a lesson with a Richard. And oh my goodness when we saw him today compared to when we saw him on Thursday, he was a completely different person. I could literally see the light in his eyes. It was one of the only times in my life that I could actually see a physical, emotional,  and spiritual change in someone that quickly! Wow!! Richard was very emotional, but it was such a powerful lesson. We showed him the video "because of him", and all Richard said was "I have a second chance"... and it's so true, because of Him we all have that "second chance". This evening we taught Emilia, and we had a miracle! Emilia has not wanted to read the Book of Mormon. We have been trying everything. But today we invited her to act out the Book of Mormon, and it worked she read, or acted out two chapters!! There is power in the Book!
Tuesday: we went and did some service at Sister Linda Holden's house, we just were clearing out a bedroom. We had dinner with Sister Hollis. She gave us Rice pudding for pudding...it's very English...yeah it's not my favorite. This evening we had another lesson with Richard. he was able to talk with Elder Wells, a new senior couple missionary, whose occupation is in Addiction recovery and therapy, and he has worked with people with PTSD. So that was so helpful for Richard. Richard told us today "there is no coincidence you met me... God really does care. You two are my angels". When I heard that it just pierced my heart... I am so lucky to have been able to meet Richard he has taught me a little bit of what it means to be strong emotionally.
This week has been really good. It was tough. We had some really hard days. But I cannot say it enough I don't regret nor will I ever regret coming on my mission. I love the hard days. They have shaped me into a stronger daughter of God... something that hit me really strong this week was something my sweet companion sister Gaston told me. After I shared an experience with her about when I got to my mission I made a promise to Heavenly Father that I would try to do my best and do everything I possibly can to save and rescue souls, and I remember telling him and even telling President when I got here "Don't make it easy".... my mission has not been easy, nor is anyone's mission. Missions are not meant to be easy. Missions are a refiners fire. And they melt and mold us into amazing and beautiful things! But after I shared my experience with her she just told me "Sister Lund, you make me want to be humble. You are noble and You are teachable." I don't share this experience with you looking for recognition. Not at all!! I began to cry when she said that to me because it reminded me of my setting apart blessing, where it mentions that I will be blessed to be teachable. And my teacher is my Savior. And he teaches me so many things every single day. Missions are our MTC for life, and I am so grateful I chose to come here.
I hope that you will have a great week! I will let you know how moves go! We can do hard things! We got this! I love you so much!
Love,
Sister Lund

 POOLE

 Saying goodbye to Sister Zulu

 It's my Welling Sisters

 Saying goodbye to Sister Walker

 Patrycja's cat flicked paint on Sister Gaston

She's still smiling!!

Focus on Their Achievements!!!

Hi Fam Fam!                                                                                                 101117
I hope you are doing well, and that you had a good week! I had a good week!
Thursday: Our plans never go to plan in Hamble River. We had a lesson with our friend Richard. Oh my goodness, Richard has become an eternal friend of mine. He is 46 years old, he grew up in England. He has an amazing story. He was in the British army for 26 years, and was deployed many times, and saw things and went through things that no one should have to go through. Richard made it through the army, but he has PTSD, and really struggles with it, and has made some choices that has made his life difficult. But Sister Gaston and I have being praying everyday and fasting weekly that we could find our "new friend" that God has prepared for us... and we found Richard about 4 weeks ago. But today he made the decision that he would come to church this Sunday, even if he had to bring work with him.
Friday: we had another lesson with Richard. It went really well, we taught the plan of Salvation, and it really hit home with Richard. He was in awe. This evening as usual we had correlation at the Handleys home. We have become really close with their family. I love them!
Saturday: this evening we had a lesson with Alex. Alex is such a nice guy. Man this lesson was hard though haha. He is very well versed in the Bible, and has a very strong enthusiasm and testimony for it. We tried to bear testimony, and that really was all we could do.
Sunday: Miracle: Richard came to church!!! He couldn't get here until Priesthood meeting, because he had work today, and he brought work with him. He is a caretaker, and he takes care of a 40ish old man named Melly, who actually reminds me a lot of Ben Fredrickson next door. But Richard told us today that he was going to make some HUGE changes in his life... it's going to be really hard, but we are seeing that through God, he really does make weak things become strong. This evening we went to Alex's church... and man oh man was it an interesting experience. It made me really just want to go to our church more. These people are amazing people, please don't misunderstand, but I know what I know... and that is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's kingdom here on earth. I know it, and I cannot deny it.
Monday: we had a lesson with Richard. He had a really tough day. But he is holding on and striving to have hope. We helped Pat with remodeling her room. It is going to look really nice, she is gutting the whole thing!
Tuesday: we had a lesson with our sweet 83 year old friend Ron... we haven't seen him in a while. He is pretty closed to the church right now, due to what people have been telling him, but we know that if he will truly look for truth and read the Book of Mormon, that his heart will be opened.  We also saw Richard again today. He was not doing well, but he is trying!!  We are so proud of him. He will get there!
Something that I have really learned this week is the importance of humility. And that according to our faith we can have a mighty change of heart! We must focus on the Father and the Son's achievements rather than our failures... because when we focus on their achievements, it is a reminder and inspiration to us of how amazing God and Christ are. And just like Daddy always says: stand up to the plate, and take your swings... who cares if you strike out. Because you only fail when you quit swinging! SOOO keep swinging!
 I really do love you! I hope you will have a great day. We got this, we can do hard things!
Love,
Sister Lund