Jesus is My Shield!!

Hi Fam Fam! 090617
This week went super quick, my goodness.
Thursday: We did a few drop-bys in Hedge End today. We were able to stop by the Kadungure family in our ward. They are really nice, they are from Africa. They haven't been to church in while, so we are trying to help them come back. Haha we missed our bus on the way to the Klein family for dinner, so we had a nice long walk through the country side... but hey I loved it. It was beautiful! We have become really close with the Klein family... especially Mathilde. She wants me to come back and visit her. She is the cutest.
Friday: our schedule changed 1,000 times today. Haha not really but the day was crazy. We ended up having all of these appointments, and then they all cancelled, and then we had lol of these other things pop up. But it was great. We had correlation as always. And MeAlissa, Brother Handley's daughter talked with me about the Beatles. Haha I actually know a lot about the Beatles.. I surprised myself...thanks dad 😉
Saturday: we played futbol this morning! The activity is actually taking off. We are having people coming which is great. Our goal is really to strengthen the ward, and make it more of a tighter unit. And this activity is helping! We had a dinner appointment with Sister Baker. I love her so much. She has taught me so much. She is the cutest too. She created a fairy garden in her yard. This was the first time Sister Gaston went to her house and when we walked in she saw her house... haha pink and purple and fairies everywhere. She was like "oh wow". 😂 I actually like it... it's unique! Sister Bakers friend Angie was there. She is lovely. But she is not interested. She has really really bad back problems, and we invited her to think about receiving a priesthood blessing, and she was surprised that the church did things like that, and she was genuinely interested and said she would think about it. I love how Heavenly Father works.
Sunday: we had a lesson with Emilia today. She is struggling. She says she's not interested in being baptized unless her mom gets baptized. We think she is just tired of getting the answer "no" when she asks if she can get baptized. So it's really hard for her. This evening we had dinner with Kim and Iris Smith. And we got to play some "tunes" as Iris would say on the piano. They all played these beautiful pieces, and then they turned to me and said "your turn".... so I played Yankee Doodle... 😂 but it was a good laugh.
Monday: we did a lot of finding today! We have been praying a lot that we can find one person that is prepared and ready to receive the Gospel. We were in Woolston, and I saw this man across the street pushing this other man in a Wheelchair, and I remember seeing him a few times in the Bitterne area. The spirit practically threw me across the road. We went over and talked to them (Richard and Mellie). Richard, is an ex-armyman. He told us that he suffers with PTSD. We asked him if there was a way he could learn to deal with this pain would he give us 30 minutes of his time, and in desperation he said "I'd give you a year!" I could just see the pain in this man's eyes. We are meeting with him on Friday!
Tuesday: haha so... today was really rainy. And we had to grab lunch at Tesco, because we were really far from home, but we had no where to find shelter from the rain... so we walked for a bit and found a bridge/tunnel... ya know we looked a bit like we had no home but that's fine. 😂today we had a lesson with Vinh, Sophia, and Leo. We talked about Jesus Christ. I love the answers Children come up with. So amazing. We asked them to say who they thought Jesus Christ was and they said "Jesus Christ is my shield, he is my shield because he loves me". I loved this. This evening we had an activity with the relief society. We made non cook strawberry jam. Did you know how much sugar is in jam!? Oh my goodness, sister Gaston, and Sister Anna Bryant and I looked at each other as we were making it and my jaw dropped and I was like "that is so much sugar!" One of the sisters was like "well it is an American recipe". I just laughed and was like "hey, I didn't create it!"
This week was a good hard week. I feel like I always say that. But hey, not much comes from things that are super easy. So I am glad, because I am learning so much.
Something I just have loved was what Sophia said..."Jesus is my shield". I think this is so powerful. The amount of times Christ has saved or protected me are endless and eternal. I was reminded of a scripture his week in 3 Nephi 11: 11, where it talks about how Christ drinks the bitter cup and gives his will to God. Christ suffers the will in ALL things so I wouldn't have to... He drank ALL of the bitter cup so that I wouldn't have to. I only have to go through a portion. I will never understand exactly what Christ had to go through for me, but because he loves me, he was my "shield" and did all he did so that I would only have to go through a tiny tiny tiny amount, WITH him. To me when we are asked to endure, it doesn't mean to just hold on and go through a whole bunch of trials. To me enduring means to have patience. And patience is defined as: the capacity to ACCEPT (choose) or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious... so yeah, I'm not the best at patience 😂. But I have come to love getting the answer "Sister Lund, be patient, I have a plan for you". It brings so much peace to my soul. Patience truly is a Heavenly virtue, and I am so grateful Heavenly Father is giving me the opportunity to learn how to have patience. It truly is a gift.
I love you. I hope you have a great week. We can do hard things. We got this!
Love,
Sister Lund