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