Quadruple the Fun Plus One: Holli

President and Sister Villanueva

Hello everyone!

I love my area! My comp. Sis. Robinson has been out since February and hasn't left Claremont - she loves it here. We keep so busy! Sis. Robinson is pretty awesome though. She's a great trainer--kind of OCD which is good for a missionary. We have ipads but I won't get mine until Friday but they have the area book on them. We have met with so many people it's insane. Less actives, non members, members, the list is super extensive! The members are awesome here. They feed us well. We're working on member missionary work and it's kind of slow but it's good. Yes I did buy a bike, but riding it is another story. I should have taken a picture of myself the other day. I looked like such a goober. I wore that blue skirt that I wore Tuesday but it's so long and wide near the bottom that it would just catch and tear in my brakes (that's what happened to my red dress) so I gathered it to the side and tied it in a knot. Super stylish! That same day my companion made a sudden right turn up onto the sidewalk and I tried to follow her but that didn't end so well. It was in front of a big intersection and I hit the curb and totally biffed it! All is well though, we just laughed it off and kept going!

We had dinner with a family last night that was so great. They have five kids, four of which were there. One son is about to get married, another just got back from his mission in Utah and had the funniest stories about his companions. One companion he had for four transfers and this companion was a weirdo. It was hilarious. They have a daughter who is my age and two other daughters. Anyways, the ward is awesome and fun. We went over to another home for dinner the other night and they are a super healthy family. Sis. Robinson says that she thinks they only eat things they grow. They made this dinner and it was like beans on rice and it was kind of tasteless and then there were cucumbers in this white chalkish goo (there's seriously no other word for that) and then there was a salad that was good. For dessert they had watermelon that had seen better days. I just couldn't help but laugh. I mean they had 4 boys and they were wolfing this stuff down. Holy cow they were pretty discliplined.

There are lots of drug problems, smoking/gambling, and drinking problems in this area. It's kind of a problem city. We've actually done a lot of street contacting and I'm kind of nervous. There are some seriously sketchy places here and we're not even in LA. The other day a woman stopped us on the street and started bawling - she used to be a mormon I think but made some bad choices in her life. We gave her a hug and talked to her a bit - she said she wanted to go to church but she was homeless. She didn't end up going but that's ok. Then another guy flagged us down and asked us for a Book of Mormon. Apparently some Elders had knocked on his door two years ago and had told him a little bit about our religion. That was cool. We also just met a few cute families. We knocked on one lady's door and she was holding the cutest baby ever! She had about four kids but they were living with three other families with kids so we were trying to teach her but it was super chaotic. I think we'll visit her this week. We also knocked on another family's door and the dad had already told the missionaries he wasn't interested but he said his wife might be. They moved here from Lebanon - he's seen some pretty awful things. But they have the two sweetest girls and they invited us in and we stayed for about 1.5 hours. When we told them we had to leave the girls said, "No don't leave!" It was the cutest.

One family has been learning from the missionaries for about a year and half. The dad is Jewish but he is socially converted to our religion. He loves the members and he thinks the doctrine makes sense. The mom and the son are ready for baptism but the dad has reservations about Jesus Christ. They're kind of interesting but fun.

I have to go now. Mom it would be great if you could send me my maxy skirts (they let us have them bc they're easier on a bike) and any other skirt that's kind of narrow and not wide. Maybe just go to DI or something. A lot of my skirts are awful for riding a bike.

I love you all so much! Thank you for the letters. When I get my ipad I can read my emails any time so feel free to email me whenever, I just won't be able to respond until Monday.

Have a great week!

Love, Sis. Dunn