Thank you for your letter today!! I wish I could just call you and talk with you for hours. That would bring me so much comfort. Missionary life is really hard! I love being a missionary and doing the work of the Lord, but I miss you guys!! I just want to Skype with you every week!! haha:) But I know that by making this decision to dedicate my whole time to the Lord, that I will be blessed later on in my life. Plus, I can look forward to spending eternity with my family after this life, so I am grateful for that!
This week was a great week! We did a lot of knocking on Tuesday which was good for me. I am still in the stage of not being fond of it. But I think most missionaries don't like it either!! :) But I know that the Lord wants to bless us as we are obedient. On Wednesday, we had Zone Conferences! I literally LOVE Zone Conferences!! Ahhhhhh!!! So we were asked to prepare a 3-5 minute talk on one of the recitations: My Purpose, Doctrine and Covenants Section 4, or the Standard of Truth. During the conference, we talked about revelation through prayer, and the power of scripture in lessons. At the end of the conference, President Passey asked me and an elder to talk about the recitation that we chose, our understanding of it, and our application. I chose the Standard of Truth. This is The Standard of Truth:
"Our missionaries are going forth to different nations.
The standard of truth has been erected;
no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.
Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine,
armies may assemble, calumny many defame;
but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent,
till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime,
swept every country and sounded in every ear,
till the purposes of God shall be accomplished,
and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."
- The Prophet Joseph Smith
I gave a simple testimony about how this recitation has given me hope for the future, and this mission. I also referred to a scripture in Alma 29:1 where it talks about speaking with "the trump of God", and declaring repentance to others. Of course, I got emotional. I don't know why, but I always get emotional when I talk about the gospel! I don't know if it is genetic, (it probably is), but I feel the Spirit, and when I testify about the gospel, my confidence increases. Sometimes I feel as though it isn't me speaking, but that God is giving me the power and authority to declare and boldly testify of this gospel. I could not do this work without the Lord. I wasn't really stressed to talk during zone conferences. Plus I knew it was coming cause President was eyeing me the whole time before saying my name. Haha:) I actually got up there and turned to President Passey and said, "Thanks President!”
(with a sarcastic tone). So President said he would call on some of the missionaries to give their talks that they prepared. So we all had to be prepared!
After Zone Conferences, we went on exchanges!! I went with Sister Grange and Sister Poznanski. And Sister Adams (my MTC roommate) went with Sister Moe-Tufaga. It was so fun! And I know Sister Poznanski's cousins!! Ahhhh!! Mom, do you remember Manon Poznanski?? The girl that attended Girls Camp with Christina Walker? Manon is Sister Poznanski's cousin! How cool is that!?!!!?!!!!! The three of us had a blast together! I really got to practice teaching the missionary lessons! In our area, we mostly work with less actives, but in Sister Grange's area, they have a lot of progressing investigators!! I thought that it would be hard to teach, because I was in a trio, but I am not kidding you, it was so natural, and we all got to say what we wanted to say! The Spirit was present at every lesson that we taught, and I could feel the peace and comfort that was there. We taught an investigator the Plan of Salvation which was good! That lesson is kind of hard for me to teach. Mainly because there are so many details and things to explain! But I know that my simple testimony of the Plan of Salvation is something that I hold dear to my heart, and I strive to share with everyone.
The next day, we rode our bikes, ( yes, rode our bikes), to a football field to play soccer! It was so fun!! So in Sister Grange's area it is a car area but she loves to ride bikes, and so it is partly a biking area too. So I had to ride a bike in downtown Tucson. It was fun!!! And the seat was really high so I had to jump off my bike at stop lights and hurry up and get back on when the light turned green. I didn't biff it though!!!!! But my behind was sore by the end of the day!
Funny experience of the day: Elder Farnsworth ( a tall and burly) dude totally nailed me to the ground as I was trying to get the ball away from him while we were playing soccer. I bet from a distance it looked like a train obliterating a rag doll. Wow, was that impact shocking!! But I didn't get hurt!!! YES!!
We had a lesson with a couple named Lexi and Pedro. Lexi is less active, and Pedro is investigating. They are so sweet, and I can tell that they know the church is true. We specifically asked Pedro to say the prayer at the end, and to ask if what we are teaching him is true. After the prayer we sat there and just felt the Spirit. He said that he felt good about it!!! Ahhhhhh! I love spiritual moments!!!!
At 2 we ended our exchange, and we went to go see a referral that our bishop gave us!! Her name was Julie and she told us that she was a Catholic. She was very open to learning about the gospel. She is really struggling with her faith right now, mainly because she has lost many loved ones in her life. I truly felt her pain and I wanted to help her so bad! I started to cry as I explained to her that I had struggled with my faith many times. I told her that when I had experienced specific trials in my life, sometimes the pain that I experienced was too hard to bear so I asked God to take my pain away. But I just simply testified that we need to press forward, and that if we ask God for help, he will comfort us and help us through our afflictions. I don't know if she will accept or reject the gospel in the end, but I know that she was touched with us coming over and listening to her. We ended up teaching her about the Restoration, and we gave her a Book of Mormon. We also invited her to read a specific chapter and then to pray and ask if what we were teaching her is true. We have a lesson with her today, and I hope and pray that it goes well!
On Friday, we took a sister out with us to teach a less active in our area. He was such a sweet man. He served a mission in Iowa, but he has had health problems lately, so he can't come to church a lot. But the sister that went with us was very straightforward and asked if he had been coming to church. So that was great! Because of that great sister and her bold personality, he came to church on Sunday!!! Yes!!!!
Saturday was such a fun day! We were invited to participate in another mini missionary experience! So in the Stake that they were holding this activity, there weren't enough sisters, so some other sisters from different stakes got invited to be a part of it! We drove to the Tucson Stake Center to meet with the prospective missionaries at 8:30. We had a quick meeting and then we headed home to do personal study and companionship study. The Young Women's President actually went with us since all the girls went with other sisters! So that was amazing! Our investigator Julie had to cancel our appointment with her until Monday, and so we just visited less actives and went knocking! We visited the Blancos, and guess who showed up? Sister Mizell and her companion! She had an appointment in Tucson, so they had to drive all the way from Sierra Vista for that. But she decided to stop by the Blanco's to say hi. So it was awesome to be able to see her again. We talked about Personal Progress and the temple with some of the family members, and we have a returning appointment with Jessica to work on Personal Progress! Also, Nadine (our investigator), wants to work on Personal Progress too! And Sister Deroast, the Young Women’s President got to help Jessica understand Personal Progress, so that was great!
At the end of the day, we traveled back to the Tucson Stake Center and all shared our experiences. Some of the elders had some interesting tracting stories. haha:) It was awesome to see all of the prospective missionaries smiling from ear to ear! They were so happy! and I could tell that they had a great experience! We took a lot of selfies and pictures, and talked and laughed about our experiences. It was a great night! Hey mom, we should do that for our ward!! I bet it would be a great experience for those that are preparing!
Anyways, sorry for the long letter but I wish you all good luck this week! I love all of you!! Thank you for your prayers, letters and support!
Love,
Sister Dunn
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