Thanks for the birthday wishes! :)



Hi! :) Thanks for the birthday wishes! :) Thank you for the additional birthday present too! Please thank Nana and Grandma as well for me. They should be happy to know that I plan on spending the money on food. :) I might actually start gaining some weight back... lol :)

Q1. So how was your week?

A1. My week went fine. Half of the zone was transferred this past week, and all the new people are super sick! Even with it being transfer week, our ki's were above average. Normally on transfer week our ki's drop below average...

 

Q2. Were you transferred or Was Elder Valdez transferred?

A2. Neither Elder Valdez nor i was transferred. We are both still in Bagabag. :) :) :) :) this caused both of us no end of excitement! It was the same for many of the members too. My Nanay's here are throwing me a birthday party disguised as an FHE later tonight! :)

 

Elder Lundy and Elder Molino



Elder Lundy and Elder Hamblin

Q3. Did you get to say good bye to Elder Molino and Elder Hamblin?

A3. As the pictures I sent you show, :) yes, I did get to say good bye to my buddies Elder Molino and Elder Hamblin. It feels so weird. All the people that are older than me are starting to go home. All the people that I looked up to when I was new in the mission are home now. None of them are left. That’s a scary thought.

 

 

 





Q5. How was Batad (for the 3^rd time)? Did you see anything new or unusual or fun?

A5. Batad was ok. I went more for the others that wanted to go and to act as guide so they didn't have to pay for one. It was cool though. We didn't actually get to hike the whole thing because of time. we only reached the top of the rice fields to be honest, but just that little hike whipped some of my elders... :) lol For the fourth time, we have plans to go back to Banaue next cycle to go to all the stores at Viewpoint... that will make my 4th time...

 

Q6. Were you able to teach any lessons before the transfers this week, after the transfers?

A6. We were able to do some teaching. 11 lessons total. not bad for how much time we lost... we had a total of 5 FHE's last week as well yata... they all went FHE crazy with birthdays and because everyone thought I was transferring...

Q7. Are You Happy? Are You Well?

A7. I am happy. I am well. I am well fed. :) thank you! :)

Well, I’m going to finally go and have my 3 shirts you sent me for Christmas fitted. I don't have to worry about being transferred anymore. :)

I love you guys so much! Thank you all for the birthday wishes! :)

Love,

A very happy Elder Lundy :)

 

  

Batad Rice Terraces and Transfer Week...

Hi Everyone,

I went to Batad Rice Terraces today. :)

I have absolutely no time. Our FHE is supposed to start in 10 minutes and its a 15-20 minute walk...

I'm sorry my report to President Carlos took a long time this week since its transfer week. You'll get more out of me next week. pictures too! I promise.

 

Oh, I find out tomorrow if I am transferred or not, so you will know the results next week. 

 

I love you guys! have a great week! :) Love you!!!! :*

-Elder Lundy

Hello! :)

How you doing? This week was ok for me. We went on splits with the Solano 2 elders on Tuesday. I was with Elder Llorin, the district leader. He was amazing. He blew me away with everything. He just hit a year in his mission and doing great with Elder ------ (an American that doesn't feel like he wants help with Tagalog, but still can't speak much Tagalog after a year in the mission). That seems like forever ago now though. Elder Valdez and I have some good investigators and they aught to have a baptismal date this week. We have a mag-asawa and a tatay that is super-duper smart, and a couple part member families that we are working with. Our super smart tatay is the tatay of a 14 year old girl. This girl is a several time Philippines national chess champion... Her dad and uncle are her tutors. Her dad almost explained the Restoration to us and why the book of Mormon has to be true as we were teaching him about it. He did this as he was falling asleep as well after a long day's work with no sleep the night before. Dude is a stud! The work is progressing well. We are running out of time every day trying to get to all the people that we need to. All of our recent converts are doing well too. There are several RM's that are very grateful for one of our RC's conversion. You remember L---- M--------? She has several RM's that are trying to court her at the moment. One of them was even in our last lesson with her on Sunday and when she left the room, Elder Valdez and I had a little fun with him. He came all the way from Diffun, Santiago to come visit L----. No other reason for the visit. So Elder Valdez and I questioned him about what he was doing here and if he was going to date L----... it was hilarious. He started off saying yes, that was his intent, then got a little embarrassed and backed out of it as fast as he could saying they were just friends and met at a church dance... :) lol. He was a cool guy though. Already graduated from college with a degree in business. My only concern there is that L---- is only 19 still. She is smart though. No problem.

I have to admit that this week I have gotten the transfer jitters. I just love this area so much. I feel kinda attached to this zone as it is the second time I have been assigned here and I know and recognize members no matter what area I am in within the zone... It kinda started with all the members "wanting to have a family home evening before I got transferred." Then it just took off from there. To top it off, the AP's stopped by this morning on their way to Banaue. I was talking with Elder Needs and he brought up the topic of transfers and put the idea out there that I might be going to Tuguegarao next cycle. But that is just Elder Needs. He likes messin with people's minds when it concerns stuff like this. Gotta love the guy and the peace of mind he gives me. :) I’m super stoked that I get to go home with him now. He was the batch ahead of me at the MTC. Because of the date change, we go home together now. oh! I talked to president about school and stuff like that and it looks like my release date is now ----, 2013.... I’ve never been in an area more than 3 cycles and I’m not sure that this area is going to be an exception. We'll see what happens. The Lord knows where I need to be more than I do. I have wants, but my wants are not always what He wants, or necessarily what is good for me or the people I serve. The lyrics come to mind, "I'll go where you want me to go", as well as the scripture D&C 100: 4” Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls.”

Thank you so much for the goodie box! :) The ham is good! :) I had fun and made a chocolate chip pyramid the other day too. :) I have pudding in the fridge right now too. :) I’ve been eating a ton of fried foods this week as well. I’m happy :)

 

 



The picture from the baptism is Sister Elvira....

 

Amanda Kuehn: I mailed your letter!!! :) Thank you so much for the package! You guys are so awesome and sweet! Love you guys! :)

Well, that’s about all I have this week. Not much is happening right now other than we have 2 splits scheduled this week.

I love you guys! :*

Have a great week!

Elder Lundy

January 7, 2013

Hello!

My week here in Bagabag.

Excerpt from my letter to President:

This week in Bagabag, Sister Bragado was baptized. She was super ready and excited. It was nice to see. The rest of the week was ok. Nothing really sticks out in my mind. We are starting over again in the area. Our focus is finding. We have investigators but only one is progressing, so we are focusing on trying to find those who will accept the message of the restoration. If we really focus on finding, Elder Valdez and I agreed, we are happier and more effective missionaries. It’s a good focus. That's why this past week I gave the zone an assignment to study the verses I shared with you last week (D&C 100:4-8) and to apply them in their work this week. I am happy to report that our zone lessons jumped up by 20 and our OYM's more than doubled. I'm not sure if it had an effect on them or if it was just a good week, but we did better this week. We put forth much more effort in OYM's. It’s progress.

Our proselyting this week was ok. We didn't find many people with potential this week. Our focus really was Sister Bragado's baptism.

Sister Carlos called me yesterday saying that the last package you sent finally got here. She said you sent it back in Nov. so she just wanted to let me know that they have it so you won't be worried or antsy or anything... I’ll get it sometime soon.

Am I well? Well, I am. :) No real problems. I’m starting to wonder what is going to happen to me on the 24th (transfer day) though. I’ve been here for 3 cycles now, which is the longest I have ever been in an area before now. Chances are high that I might transfer, but I don't want to. I want to stay right here. But I know that’s what I want and it may not be best for those I serve, or for me. So I do what the Lord says.

New Year’s Eve we spent at the apartment. I got permission to watch Rio, the bird/animation movie. Members brought us a ton of food and loaded up our refrigerator. we actually had food go bad before we could eat it. I also made no bake peanut butter chocolate cookies and funky Frito fruckies. It was a good night. :) Side note, yesterday I made peanut butter carmel popcorn and it was awesome! : )

Well, that’s me right now. I love you guys! :*

-Elder Lundy

New Year and My New Brother!

Sorry the post is late this week…We were out of town for Elder Lundy’s younger Sister’s wedding in the Salt Lake Temple.

Just Sealed for all time and Eternity!
Brother and Sister Strasser

 Happy New Year!

Sounds like you guys had a super busy holiday season!  We have to get going because of our curfew tonight..... Here is some of my letter that I wrote to President Carlos though. It has how my week went...

So this week was OK. We got hung up a lot with meetings and attending baptisms... We made a lot of progress in our finding efforts though. We found a couple of families with potential this week. We will be returning to them soon. Once again, as we focused our efforts on finding, I felt great! I felt like we were fulfilling our purpose. We were led to people and people were led to us. I felt the Spirit of Finding this week. Normally I feel like missionaries think Finding is an annoying task. They just want to go teach, teach, teach. But the problem is that if you don't strive to FIND those who are ready and have been prepared to accept the message of the Restoration, you have no one to TEACH. The two are directly related and affect your effectiveness as a missionary.

A scripture I studied this week while studying Finding is

D&C 100: 4-8
“Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls. Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; for it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

But a commandment I give unto you that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things. And I give unto you this promise that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say.”

These verses really affected the way I looked at Finding this week. I am here in Bagabag right now because it is expedient for the salvation of souls. I am here because there are people in this area that the Lord needs ME to find. There are those whom he has prepared and are waiting for ME to talk to them. They need Elder Lundy's testimony, personality, knowledge and experiences. As I follow the Lord's commandments in these verses to lift up my voice, speak the thoughts that are put into my heart, and to declare these things in solemnity of heart and the spirit of meekness the Lord will make me a tool in His hands to bring about the salvation of souls.

I will not be confounded by men for the Lord will show me what to say in the very moment I need. Then the Holy Ghost will be shed forth in bearing testimony of what I say. This is the solution to "hard areas." This is the solution to missionaries being bored in the work because they have "nobody to teach", or "nobody is progressing."

If we do our part, the Lord is going to bless us and either lead us to those that have been prepared, or he is going to lead them to us. They will recognize the truth of this message because of the Holy Ghost, and they will be truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There will be baptisms! That is every missionary’s goal! We will be happy in the work!

I love you guys so much and I will write more next week! :*

Have a great week you guys!
-Elder Lundy