Chelsea - December 14, 2015

This is what we did for p day! Rode a caribou!

Wow it’s been an awesome week! And guess what, I totally met two Americans this week! The one was the owner of a shop! I totally talked to him for like 30 minutes… probably the nicest american I have ever met. He's opening a restaurant here in Diffun. He has two kids, one is back in oregon finishing high school and the other is in Baguio in the philippines doing school. He loves the Philippines. He's traveled all over the world and he absolutely loves it here. That kinda surprised me because you know of the poverty here and it’s just so different than America. But I really thought about it after he said it, and that’s what I want to become. I want to become someone who has such a love for the Philippines. I’m working on it though! And then the other American, it was the one at the huge mansion house in Liwayway! Oh my gosh funny story talaga. So it was only like 3 pm and I had to go the bathroom so bad, but we still had like 6 hours til we got home. And so we were walking in Liwayway and I saw the huge mansion and I said a prayer and was like, Heavenly Father, please let the American be there so I can go to the bathroom in his house. And oh my gosh you will not believe it but we were walking right past the house and the gate was wide open and there was the American walking right towards us and he was like, you better have put on some sun screen! Definitely an answer to my prayer! Haha and he let me use the bathroom! It was either that or the field so I was so grateful. We even tried to contact him and he said that he’s researched our church very in depth and that he finds it lacking haha. So we just left after that.

So we had district meetings and we were doing role plays where one of us had to be the prideful missionary and the other had to deal with us in a christlike way. So I was the prideful missionary and my companion was our zone leader and oh man I had so much fun. I was being such a jerk, and I wouldn’t even let him speak because he was the junior haha. He was like, I hate prideful people! I can’t do this! But so funny cause Elder Iglesky walked out of his role play because he was like, you are being impossible!! We were all just laughing! 

Basically, Wednesday was the most mentally exhausting day. In every lesson, every person just had the most deep doctrinal questions. It was so hard.... but we were able to handle it pretty well and both want to study doctrine more. But oh man, that really tested my knowledge of the gospel and my tagalog!

So yesterday I had splits with Lorene. She's an 18 year old girl and I was freaked out of my mind because she  doesn't know much about the gospel. And so ya.. pretty scary because I knew I was the one who was gonna have to do all of it. But it turned out pretty well. We were able to teach a couple lessons and they were great except the first lesson, the girl was asking so many deep and hard questions and I was like, wait I can’t even understand! Haha luckily, Lorene is pretty good at translating for me but oh man, it was definitely a struggle! But I know this is definitely gonna prepare me for this week! So since Sister Hamblin is leaving tomorrow, Sister Kibaimoa and me and Sister Balaoing are going to be a trisome. And we found a girl in our ward who is willing to go on splits every day with Sister Balaoing so both our areas don’t suffer. Which means, sister kibaimoa and I will be companions a lot these next two weeks! Sister Kibaimoa has only been out ten weeks and is still learning Tagalog.  Hahahah oh man get ready for some funny experiences where we both don’t know what they are saying ahhahaa. It’s gonna be hard and I’m kinda freaking out, but I know I’m gonnna grow a ton. Just get ready for the stories people. Like I’m imagining someone is telling us their problem, and we both have no idea what they said so we'll just be like well, we know that God loves you! Amen! hahahah oh man it’s gonna be good!

That was about it for this week! Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - December 14, 2015

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had an amazing week! My week was crazy but amazing! On Wednesday we had an awesome zone meeting! Our district leader gave a great training on finding, and how we can improve as

missionaries. Sister Grange also gave a great training on how every missionary can be a spiritual leader. She drew a picture of a row boat, ( because she used to do rowing in middle and high school). She talked about how each person in the boat plays a major part in moving forward. She talked about how the person in front shouts in a microphone to keep everyone in line. Everyone would think that that person would the leader. But really every person is important. She tied that in to how we can each be leader, and the characteristics of
Christ that can help us to become great leaders. It was so good!!

On Thursday I had an experience that I will never forget. Sister Grange was on exchanges, and it was just me and Sister Condie. We were walking through an apartment complex, and I saw a picture of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus on someone's door. I got a subtle prompting to go and knock on the door. I was heisitant to follow it so we tried
the person we were going to see and she wasn't there. I looked at the door again and Sister Condie asked if I wanted to go knock on the door. I reluctantly said yes. So we knocked on it. No one was there, so we started to write a note. As we were writing it, a woman comes up to the door and unlocks it with her key! She said goodbye to us, and
before she could close the door we asked if we could show the Christmas video to her. She agreed, and she liked the video! We gave her our card with our number, and I asked if she would be interested in meeting with missionaries. She said that she usually isn't home. But it's ok! Maybe some day she will remember that experience and be more interested! But that truly helped me to see that even though it's hard to act on spiritual promptings, if we take that act of faith, he
will bless us! For me on my mission it has been hard to follow those promptings, mostly because of fear. But I know from the scriptures that "perfect love casteth out all fear" ( 1 John 4:18). That is something that I strive to remember when I have fear.

On Saturday, we went to 3 baptisms! And we had taught all of the people who were baptized! (We passed them off to elders in the family wards, cause we cover YSA). We first went to Leanna's baptism and that was amazing! But unfortunately the water heater broke, so the water was
really cold! After the baptism Leanna exclaimed, "It was like the polar plunge!" Haha! We love her so much!! Then Dana's baptism was at 1. Whenever someone asked her how she was feeling, she always said that she felt excited and happy. When she bore her testimony, I wish everyone could have heard what she said. Her testimony was filled with the Spirit! Then at 7 at night we had Ria's baptism! It was amazing!
Her whole family came to support her, which was awesome! And the water was really warm! ( it was at the other stake center). The day went by perfectly! We were so happy!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true! And I know that the happiness that comes from living the gospel can't be found anywhere else! I love the Book of Mormon! It brings so much happiness and joy into my life! This gospel has truly blessed and changed my life!

Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all!
Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - December 14, 2015

Hello Everyone!

We had a pretty awesome week this week :)

We've been talking to literally everyone this week. And it's been pretty fun! We are working on different approaches but it's been kind of tricky. One day however we were walking our bikes and we ran into Noni and Arman! They are a Philippino couple Sister Bennion and I started teaching in September - they were the neighbors of a member who invited them to learn more about the church. Arman is kind of a
philosophizer so he didn't stay interested for too long but when we ran into him he said he'd been reading the Book of Mormon so that was good! He uses it as a reference to the bible for now but the seeds are being planted!

We have been trying to meet with Yang and Eileen for quite a while now and they've been cancelling on us. So one day we just stopped by and Yang told us that they weren't ready to join our church and that they didn't have the time to meet with us anymore. We sensed something had happened and luckily Eileen came out and told us she had looked up
Mormon online and saw all of this anti stuff so she and Yang decided they didn't want to investigate further. We clarified what we could and Eileen seemed ok about still being taught by the missionaries so we handed them off to the Chinese missionaries so kind of rough! But they are going to get baptized :) we know it!

We had exchanges this week and I went to El Monte with Hermana Hamilton. It was awesome because everyone there speaks español so I got to work on my Spanish skills a little bit! We run into the occasional Hispanic here in Arcadia so it comes in handy when we know a little Spanish. We had a lesson that was the most amazing experience of my life. So Hermana Hamilton had been given a referral from a member (the referral's name is Jessica) and Jessica said she was
looking for a church and was open to hearing about ours. She said that she and her family needed God more in their life. So she called her nieces and daughter and we taught them all the Restoration sitting in a circle on their rug because they had just moved into their house and didn't have any furniture. Seven new investigators in one go!

Yesterday was the Arcadia Youth bell choir and it was pouring rain before that. The member we had dinner with offered to give us a ride and we had our bikes so we managed to get them into her just cleaned out van and she drove us back to our pad so we could drop our bikes
off and then drove us to the church. She was so nice! We looked like 2 drowned cats walking into the church but the performance was amazing!

Mom, I have to thank you for encouraging me to stick with the piano lessons because they are definitely coming in handy! The choir accompanist has a hurt arm so she won't be able to play so she asked me to accompany for the Christmas performance on Sunday. The choir is doing this Silent Night cantata and it's super pretty but I'm playing
in like a week's notice! It's going to be crazy but hopefully the
Spirit will be there!

Our Ward Christmas party was on Saturday and it was so much fun! I accompanied for "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and then the Ausen's had us and the Villaneuva's go up and lead everyone in singing Feliz Navidad. It was pretty fun. We got to see a lot of our less actives there and one of our investigators came so it was awesome!

That's about it from here in Arcadia! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dunn

Taylor - December 14, 2015

Hey! Ya it's too bad about Kevin and Vanessa but ya we mainly think that Vanessa wasn't quite ready. They will be part of the church soon. The Lord has been preparing them. 

So we will be skyping at the Summers' house. They were the couple that both went to Japan on their mission. They're super boss! They invited us over for Christmas breakfast so my guess is that we will Skype around noonish or 1 which will be 10 or 11 where you guys are at. I will let you know for sure the next email, for now this is just an estimate. 

The Ward Christmas party and Stake choir concert sounded like a blast and oh man the salvation army thing is for some reason one of my favorite things to do at Christmas. So much energy and spirit, it just makes it fun!! 

So this week was quite a week for us here in Homestead East! We worked super hard and were striving to follow God's will! One of our goals last week is that we wanted to find someone early in the week, and we found one person, but at the end of the week after really pondering and praying and searching for what we could do better as a companionship or what we possibly were lacking we found our family of five that we have been looking for! Even though it was on the last day of the week, it was super awesome and it was  a miracle! They are super cool and liked the restoration. We want to continue to be bold and really focus on baptism with them so they can realize why we are there and the blessings they can receive! 

Clifford is still doing good, we're just basically waiting until the 23rd for him to finalize the papers, get him married and get him baptized! He's super awesome though. I love those guys! 

I learned a lot this week about being a leader and being bold with the people in my district! Haha from what I've been told, apparently I guess I'm just a little too nice!! Anyways, so ya that's been a fun experience I hope to continue to improve on that! It's super funny, here in the mission every time we see a miracle we are supposed to send out miracle texts to pump up everyone in the zone. The AP's committed us to send #itwillbedone but since I'm in the zone everyone has been texting #itwillbeDUNN. Haha it's hilarious! 

Have fun listening to Mo Tab that will be super fun!! By the way mom random question, did you make that queso dip that Chelsea always makes for the Clark Christmas party? Oh man that stuff is deadly (as in super good but terrible for you)!! That is so boss that BSU beat Oregon! When I heard that, I told Elder Robishaw because he's planning on going to BSU when he gets back.  His mom works there so he's getting a huge discount! 

Speaking of getting back, my date has changed from the 23rd of June to the 30th because of some change in the MTC training time for 1st language missionaries or something, ya so I get 7 more days in the mish!!! Sweet! Unfortunately I will miss Spencer's birthday, darn. Anyways, I think that's it for the week, love you guys, have a great week and stay safe!!

Elder Dunn

Holli - December 8, 2015

Hello Everyone!

We had a pretty good week this week!

We visited this one family in the Ward. They are an older couple and the wife has some health issues so they can't get out to church much. It was late at night and we rode our bikes up to their house which was pitch dark. We thought they had forgotten and were already asleep so we just called them to leave a message and we hear the phone in their
house ringing. Sister Maughan started to leave a message when Brother Sparling picked the phone up and told her he would let us in. So he comes to the door and we go inside and the only way to describe their house is, you know that scene on Polar Express where they are in that train car full of puppets? Yeah, that is what their house looked like on the inside. It was kind of creepy. Like, screeching violins were
going off in my head :) But they were the sweetest couple! They had so many pictures of their family and were telling us so many awesome stories - and they were way into genealogy too. So it was pretty awesome. They owned an antique shop so most of it was in their house :)

I was recovering this week from a nasty cold so we stayed inside a bit more than we liked but we had the Mission President's niece (Tani) out with us one day and I couldn't really talk so she took over tracting with Sister Maughan and they did an awesome job! We tried our hand at park contacting this week. We met this one guy named Francis who was pretty cool. He was sitting there, reading a Chinese newspaper when Sister Maughan goes right up to him and asks if he believes in God and we had a pretty good conversation. He wasn't interested but he talked about how the preacher in his congregation never encourages them to
read the bible and then he talked about his bible study class.
Interesting guy.

We had Zone meeting this week. Elders Van Wagonen and Stoker are our Zone leaders and they are both from Idaho so that's awesome! We talked a lot about contacting during Zone meeting and Zone conference. That's been pretty fun. And something we always need to work on!

Haha, we were teaching our recent convert Joe about the plan of salvation. He's Chinese so he understands English but speaking it is hard for him. Joe is taking a bible study class which is kind of a concern because the preacher/teacher doesn't exactly have the fullness
of the gospel of Jesus Christ so  Joe was confused on a couple of points of doctrine but we cleared it up ok. We were talking about the fall and I was explaining how it was super cool because Adam and Eve were in this perfectly innocent state so they couldn't have kids until they were cast out - kind of came out awkwardly and Sister Maughhan was trying not to crack up. Kind of reminded us of that one District
video where Elder Christensen is teaching the law of Chastity. Yeah it was kind of awkward. However, since Joe is still learning English he didn't react much. He's super cool though and super strong in the faith.

We made cookies with one of the members this week and we plated them to give to less actives and investigators and it's been pretty fun! We attached a little Christmas invitation that listed all the different events we have coming up for the Ward and it's been pretty fun delivering them!

We were tracting one day and we were in this area of apartments and we saw this one guy coming out of his apartment so we walked up and started talking to him. It was cool because Sister Maughan just asked him if he believed in God (her favorite question I think) and he  talked to us for about half an hour about the subject. It was awesome!
He is pretty strong in his faith but it was way cool the things he was talking about - it's crazy how much truth people have, and how much more we could add if they hear us out. But a lot of people are either unwilling to search for it, are satisfied without knowing, or are wandering "in strange paths" and get lost with all of the other philosophies out there. Really interesting!

That's about it from here in Arcadia! The Ward party is on Saturday so we should have a few more pics for you :) love you all - and thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - December 7, 2015

Kumusta po kayo?! Definitely a good week this week. So I ate blood this week. Filipinos don’t waste anything! They drain the blood from whatever animal I ate, and then fried it. The taste was exactly like blood. Never again. I literally wanted to throw up when I ate that haha. But seriously, blood here is so common. At the barbeque stands, they have chicken intestines, chicken ear, chicken blood, chicken head and chicken feet. Bishop served chicken feet yesterday at dinner but I declined. Maybe next time! 

So we were in this little store in Diffun and some american owns it and I see him all over town but I’ve never met him. Anyway, so we were buying some things, and I talked to his wife and sabi ko, taga saan siya at sabi niya sa oregon! (This is Chris….translation "I asked where he is from and she said he’s from Oregon” I love Google Translator!) I was like ayyy sobrang malapit sa akin!!  (That is very close to where I live!) I’m totally gonna contact him and invite him to church! 

Also, we were in the palengke the other day, and some crazy guy comes up to me (there are crazy guys everywhere haha) and he totally puts his arm on my shoulder and just pushed me so hard and I was like what in the heck?! Sister Balaoing hit him with her umbrella hahahaha. Also we were buying tilapia the other day and it’s so sad because they just pour the fish on the table and they are dying because there is no water and they are trying to breathe and I can’t even stand to watch it without crying!  And then I watched her kill them, it was horrible! I’m kinda used to it but it’s still sad! One thing that I just love about the Philippines is the kareoke. Sometimes at night when I’m trying to sleep, our neighbors are belting to kareoke. And like everyone in the Philippines cannot sing so just try to imagine like a 50 year old man screaming at the top of his lungs The Moment I Saw You Cry by Mandy Moore. HAHA it’s the best and I just laugh every time. 

Oh ya so funny. So we just had dinner with bishop, and Sister Balaoing and I were sharing to the bishop’s family, and this bat in the middle of the lesson, just starts flying again and again around sister hamblin and sister kibaimoas heads. I was laughing so hard! When does that even happen?! 

Work this week was good. Oh my goodness we taught soooo many less actives this week. And so many of them have problems! It’s kinda burdensome on us, not gonna lie. We taught this one less active and it’s so sad because she’s the mom of one of our investigators. And she hates the mormons now. She wouldn't tell us why but she is so bitter and is returning back to catholic. That was definitely an awkward lesson. We had another sad thing happen. We were teaching the Jordan family (our investigators) about prophets or something and this tatay comes up from the bukid (farm) and just sits down in the lesson. Turns out this tatay was the dad of willie. In my first cycle, a 19 year old guy named Willie died (Willie was the only member from his family). And his family is neighbors to the Jordan family. We even went to the viewing of Willie. Anyway, the tatay comes up, sits down, and is totally drunk. After the lesson, he just started talking and literally started bawling. He’s like I have sinned so much, I’m always drunk, and Im still mourning the death of my son. He was such a good son and so nice, why did this happen. And while he was talking, he was just weeping. Literally, I almost started crying. Just looking at him sitting there, all drunk, and he just looked like he had no hope. Since he was super drunk, we knew we couldn’t teach him or anything so we said we would come back. Oh man, just so sad. 

Definitely a good lesson was on Wednesday. So we were planning on teaching a 50 year old woman named Rosita and her 13 year old granddaughter Alicia. So we walked up to the house and there was videoke going on and like a party with a bunch of college students, and I was like, k lets come back another day. And Sister Balaoing was like no lets teach them. And I was like are you serious?! That’s pretty rude! and she was like we are teaching them! And I was like oh my goodness! I was so mad and just fuming! During the prayer though, I realized if I was still like that, I couldn’t teach. And so I just humbled myself and asked for the guidance of the spirit. Literally, the best HTBT I have ever done in my life! I was able to speak in pure Tagalog and said what I wanted to say and even spoke for a pretty good amount of time! Definitely, when we humble ourselves, the Lord blesses us so much, and I totally figured that out. And also, the lesson was sobrang maganda (super cute?). All of the college kids had questions, and I think we found some potential investigators. I am definitely learning from Sister Balaoing that sometimes, we need to be bold. We are missionaries, and that’s our calling! So ya, Im learning from her even though sometimes it can be soooo awkward haha. 

That’s about it for this week! I hope you are all enjoying the holidays and all that fun stuff! I know this church is true with all my heart! Love you all! 

Sister Dunn

Taylor - December 7, 2015

Hey! So this week was quite a week. I will try to put in as many details as possible! 

So one of the baptisms we had scheduled for this week was Kevin and Vanessa. They are super cool.  They love the gospel and they had us over for Thanksgiving. We even helped them get out their Christmas decorations so ya they're just super cool. Well, Elder Toews figured out that they live like one street outside of our area... which means they aren't ours to teach. I don't know the boundaries very well yet so I just came in and assumed they were inside. I don't know if  Elder Doxey knew but he wanted to go ahead with the baptism anyways. The thing that was tough was that Kevin and Vanessa were member referrals from a family in our ward so that's how they started coming to our ward. Elder Towes and I were freaking out because we had to tell them and the rest of the ward that they actually didn't live in Ward boundaries but instead belonged to the Coral Reef ward. So...we invited Bro. Lambert (who is a convert himself and former Bishop) to make a visit. Also, the Evans family, the family that referred them, decided to come on the visit. Well, we had the lesson and broke the news and for the most part it went well. Vanessa was a little upset but her husband bore testimony that they weren't joining the church to join the Homestead ward and that it doesn't change anything. They still have strong testimonies in the gospel, in our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 

After everything was settled, that night he even texted us and said "the gospel of this church is familiar to me" and it was super cool! Well, the next day we were biking to an appointment and Elder Toews got a flat tire. I had just ran out of patches so we walked for a little bit and then got a text from Kevin cancelling the baptismal interview and the baptism on Thursday. We got a call from Sister Evans saying that apparently Vanessa had been offended and felt like we were kicking them out of the Homestead Ward or something like that and other details. So ya.. um... we didn't feel like contacting them right away was a good idea but we are trying to work it out with the Bishops of both wards and see where it goes. It's just super disappointing when you're so close but then things like that happen. We explained everything well and everything seemed fine too. I feel like Kevin is just giving his wife a little bit of time to cool down or something, I don't really know what will happen but that wasn't fun. Pray for them! 

Clifford another guy we are teaching is also close to baptism. It was supposed to be sooner but he has to wait 21 days to take care of divorce paper things to a previous wife. We will then get him married to his current wife and get him baptized. He's just been waiting forever for the baptism. He's basically begging to get into the water! A huge thing we run into a lot is that people just aren't married so it's so hard. I just want to say "get married people!!" No one does! Anyways so we had a great learning week this week! 

We had a bit of a hard time finding investigators for most of the week which led to a lot of brainstorming and pondering on how we could improve and do better. We saw some really cool miracles near the end of the week through our endurance and positivity. We are really going to be focused this week on expanding our teaching pool through teaching while finding but not only just that. We want to make specific plans for the people we work with and making sure we are consistently following up with them and helping them stay on track. Daily contact we feel is something that will prevent people from falling through the cracks! 

Lets see, fun details for the week. We got a little 4 ft. Christmas tree that Sister Tucker loaned us so that's cool. We had tres leches with expired milk that Elder Toews and I downed but Elder Robishaw and Elder Angulo spit it out. That was a funny experience! We had some awesome food with the Summer family. She is from Australia and they both served missions in Japan and they still speak it! Better brush up on some Japanese Dad ;) All the bread they eat is homemade because she loves to cook. He loves the Denver Broncos. They played yesterday and they were keeping up to date with the game. His wife says if Denver is losing you don't want to be in the house (jokingly) but kinda reminds me of you Dad ;) Oh, at their house we tried vegemite which is alright, definitely not as good as peanut butter though! 

Anyways ya the missions going great. I'm loving it. We have zone training this week so I'm excited to learn tons! Love you guys! Happy Holidays!

Elder Dunn

Lindsay - December 7, 2015

This week was a fantastic week! Especially since it has been 75-80 degrees all week! Yay! I love winter in Arizona! On Tuesday we had a lesson with one of our investigators named Michael. He has so much potential and he can discern the spirit very well. These past few couple of weeks we hadn't met with him that often because of his busy work schedule. He works two jobs, so he is busy a lot! And he also told us that he hadn't prayed or read his scriptures a lot and he could feel a difference! He told us that he felt distant from God. And that when we come over there is a certain feeling that he gets that helps him to have peace. It is so amazing to see God working in his life! We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he understands why every principle is important!  Later that night we went to Chinese food with the Beeston's! It was so good! We shared a bunch of dishes and we had egg rolls and soup. I love their family! 

On Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting! We talked about preparing our investigators for a baptismal interview. It was so convenient because Ria, one of our investigators was going to have the opportunity to have a baptismal interview so it was great to talk about helping others feel ready for baptism! After the meeting, we all decided to go to a Mexican place for Sonoran dogs! They were so good! and I got Horchata which is an amazing rice and cinnamon drink!! We had an awesome lesson with Ria that day, and she was getting sick, and we were heistant to go over to her house, but we did! And it was amazing! We also brought a less active with us to come and teach! It was so awesome to have her! During the lesson Ria expressed that she felt so much more confident for baptism after the lesson! I know that Pearl was meant to be there because she helped Ria a lot! Then Pearl went with us to another lesson with a former! Her name is Grace and she is the sweetest human being in the world! She gave us little bags of cookies and chips to snack on, and we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, and showed her the new Christmas video. She is very sensitive to the spirit, and she told us that even though she hasn't read the Book of Mormon, she felt good inside when we talked about it! She is golden!! 

On Thursday, we had lunch with Leanna! So Leanna is someone that lives in our apartment complex, and she is the sweetest lady ever! One day when we were working out and she stopped us and said that she wanted to meet with the missionaries! We met with her and taught her the Restoration, and we passed her off to the elders! She was prepared from the get go! She knows that this church is true, and I can tell that it has blessed her life! Anyway, just a little background. But we had lunch with her on Thursday, and we made her baptismal invitations! I personally think she likes us more than the elders:) just kidding. haha! 

On Friday while Sister Grange went to Mission Leadership Conference, Sister Condie and I visited some members that we had never met before, just to find referrals, and it was really good! We also visited a less active member in the ward, and that was awesome too! We also helped with dollar lunch and they had a dance that night, so we helped them make refreshments too! 

On Saturday, we went to the Mesa Temple to do baptisms! Kelly, our recent convert was doing baptisms for the first time, and so we went with her! Even though we didn't do the baptisms, we all got to watch and see her complete family history work! She was crying the whole trip! I know that the experience she had blessed her life! We also went to the amazing visitors center too! It is like a mini version of the Salt Lake City Visitors center! They have a Cristus statue, a room full of nativity scenes and other amazing things! They also have The District videos of the missionaries, and what they did after their missions! It was cool to see that as well! 

On Sunday, Sister Grange and Sister Condie went to YSA 2nd ward, while I went with a ward member from the Hidden Valley ward! She was so sweet, and sent a picture of me to my Mom which I know she loved:) She goes to choir practice, so I got to go and sing! They sang "Away in a Manger" for the prelude, and I got to join! It took me back to my amazing family ward, and when Mom took us every week to choir practice! I miss that, and so it was nice to sing in a ward choir again! It was so comforting to be in a family ward. I loved singing the Christmas hymns, and the people were so nice to me! And I got the privilege to say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting! It was just so amazing! The Christmas devotional was also so amazing! Dad, the song that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang, I think it was called a mid winter night or something like that!! Soooo good! And the really fast song, oh my gosh that organist can move his fingers soooo fast! ahhhhhhh! It is amazing! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all:) Merry early Christmas!!!!! 
Sister Dunn

Holli - November 30, 2015

We had a pretty good week :) On Tuesday we spent the day with one of the Sister missionaries who was going home. Her flight wasn't until that night so she got to go to work with us! Haha, unfortunately she didn't know she would be working
so she had the thinnest shoes ever and was limping around all day. We felt  so bad! But she didn't have bike shorts and we didn't have a car so it created a bit of a dilemma. We did some tracting and visited a couple people before we dropped her off at the church. 

While we were waiting for the bus one day, we contacted Delores. Sweet older lady who was pretty receptive to our message. As we were talking though this guy sits down and he was kind of anti religion. Pretty interesting to hear him talk about his beliefs but it was kind of hard when the lady just started agreeing with him. It was a testimony to us of how easy Satan's way can be, but how problematic it becomes.  As we were getting on the bus the guy tells us to make sure and do our research - that Joseph Smith just rewrote the bible. As we were talking about it later, we discussed how the only "research" that should matter is the search we make as we study the scriptures prayerfully and ask God if what we are studying is true.

We were walking down the street one day when the Arcadia Transit bus pulled up next to us.  Some people got off and then the driver asked us to stop. He got off the bus and started talking to us for like thirty minutes and it was awesome! His name was Jose and he told us he had
investigated our church a few years ago. He didn't end up joining but he told us he really admired what we were doing and he said that the night before he had had this awful dream so he was praying that Heavenly Father would give him some peace and comfort and that was when he saw us! He told us we were an answer to his prayers so that kind of made our day :)

So we had our first district meeting as a new district and we are in a Chinese district! Two other companionships - 1 set of Sisters  and 1 set of Elders. They are all Chinese, but one missionary in each companionship is bilingual. Our poor district leader told us this was the most stressed out he had been in his entire mission as he led our district meeting for the first time in English. But he did an awesome job! We love being in this district because we live in Arcasia.  Arcadia plus 
Asia = Arcasia! Literally! We meet so many Chinese people each day and it's awesome because they are actually pretty receptive to the gospel.

We just handed off one of our investigators (ZJ) to the Chinese sisters and she is so amazing! We had a pass off lesson with her last night and it was hilarious. So she is in high school but she is learning about Christianity and so we taught her the restoration. The Chinese sisters taught her in Chinese so she would be able to understand better but ZJ asked this question that poor Sister Huang was confused by so Sister Huang told her to ask us. ZJ asked how we
can know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet other than by reading the scriptures and praying about it. We finally figured out she was asking about how a prophet is called by God - the process behind it - so thank goodness for the Spirit because we were all floundering a little trying to figure out what she was asking!

We had Thanksgiving with the Coltons. It was awesome! They had like ten different pies and lots of turkey and mashed potatoes so it was awesome. Megan, one of the girls, and her two cousins Brooke and Nicole and Sister Maughan and I played around outside with basketballs
and stuff! It really felt like I was back home with my cousins so it was lots of fun. The Colton's also have this awesome tradition where every year right after the meal, the kids go and put together bags of candy and tie teddy bears
to it and around Christmas time they go deliver it to nursing homes so we got  to help with that - and eat the leftover candy so it was great :)

So Sister Maughan and I, along with the rest of Arcadia, were kind of sick this week. There's this weird cough, cold, sore throat virus going around and we were talking to members at church and they were all experiencing varying degrees. We felt bad because I got it Monday so we felt like we were kind of the carriers as we visited different families. Oops!

We also met this lady named Wendy tracting and she was interesting. She didn't know much English and we had met her son Daniel who told us we could come back. Because I had such a sore throat, Sister Maughan did all the talking so she tried teaching the restoration and it was kind of a struggle but ultimately Wendy ended up telling us she
really wanted to raise her children with a belief in God. She gave us a banana and some water - she was super nice :)

We were in the park one day trying to do some park contacting when we saw these kids surrounding this tree, throwing a ball into it. We saw they had gotten a badminton birdie stuck in the branches and it was like twenty
feet above their heads. We offered to help and we kind of watched them chuck the ball at the birdie until eventually they got the ball stuck in the tree. So they went and got a styrofoam bat that they started chucking at the ball. Finally the bat got stuck in the tree. So I had Sister Maughan give me a boost and I managed to climb the tree and shake one of the branches hard enough to get the birdie and the ball
loose. When I started trying to get the bat free, one of the parents came out in the yard to cheer on the Sister Missionary in the skirt stuck in the tree trying to get a styrofoam bat down. It was an awesome service opportunity :)

I got to play the piano in primary and in Sacrament meeting on Sunday! It was awesome to be in there with all of the little kids - you just learn so much!

That's about it here from Arcadia! Thank you all so much for your letters and your support! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - November 30, 2015

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was a wonderful week!! I was a little homesick on Thanksgiving, but it was amazing to serve the Lord on that day! On Monday, we had a busy P-day! We had a baptism and then Family Home Evening right after which was crazy! Kara was so happy to be baptized, and she was smiling the whole night! When it was her time to bear her testimony, she started crying! Her testimony was simple and short, but it was so sweet. It was a wonderful day! 

On Tuesday we found 3 new investigators in Hidden Valley! It was awesome! The first one that we found was named John. He was a former investigator, but we decided to visit him! He is such a humble man! He is almost blind, and he recently just had a stroke. He has learned so much from those trials, and he is so prepared! Because of his health, it was hard to keep commitments before, but now I believe that he is ready to make that commitment! The other two new investigators we found was a family named the Berry's. This couple were also former investigators! They are really intelligent. The husband has read the Bible multiple times, and has read the Book of Mormon 3 times. The wife also is very involved with the Bible, and they had A LOT of questions! They also asked to be given the other literature to read like the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.  It is going to be interesting because they are more about gaining knowledge rather than going by faith. At least that is what we observed! So we are going to talk about the Restoration next time and help them to see that they can ask God the questions that they have! It will be amazing the next time we see them!

On Wednesday, we had a great district meeting about using good language during lessons. We made a list of "fluff" words that we shouldn't use: ummm, so, you know, you guys, sweet, cool, awesome, dude, etc. We tried a role play where we didn't use those words, and it was amazing! I could feel the Spirit so much stronger, and I felt like I was truly led by the Spirit! It was fantastic! This week I have tried to cut out those "fluff" words when I speak. It has been hard! But it was good to focus on that topic during district meeting, because it helped me to become more aware of what I say!

On Thursday, in the morning before studies we made cheesy bread! And we also made thanksgiving cards for everyone and delivered them! It was awesome to go to other homes in the area and smell the good food and talk with people! :) And we went to one of our investigator’s house for thanksgiving dinner! Ria's family is amazing, and we had a wonderful time with them!

On Saturday we met with Kara at her workplace: Freddy's! Their frozen custard is so good!!! We also went with one of our ward missionaries and we visited some people! She is also thinking about a mission so it was awesome to have her with us!

On Sunday, we went to Sister Robles house for dinner! There were two sets of missionaries there plus us! It was a full house. And she invited 2 of her relatives and a family friend! We had this really good white chicken chili, and cornbread for our meal! It was so good! They were going to decorate their apartment for Christmas, but we had to go out and visit some people, so we left but came back later for treats! She made pumpkin dip with apples and Rice Krispie treats! She is definitely an awesome cook! So that was my week! I love and miss you all! Happy Holidays!!!!

 Sister Dunn

Taylor - November 30, 2015

Hey mis padres how's it going? So the new area I got sent to is Homestead East!  It's in the Miami South Zone, really quite close to Sunset and Blue Lagoon, my starting areas, so ya back down to the south! It truly was a long drive. I had to drive for like 5 hours just sitting in traffic. It was so bad! 

Basically I have just switched places with Elder Doxey (one of my mtc comps). Oh did I tell you that Elder Anderson (my other mtc comp) went A.P. a little bit ago? Sorry if I forgot. Anyways, Elder Doxey is now where I was with Elder Keys and I'm down in Homestead greenie breaking Doxey's “son,”  Elder Toews (it's pronounced taves but since latins can't say that very well he's basically calling himself Elder Toes). He is such a boss. Super loving and kind to everyone but full of energy and excitement! His Spanish is super good!! We are living with two other elders, Elder Robishaw who originally came from the Tampa mission and he's really cool and Elder Angulo who is super boss. Elder Toews was born in California but now lives in Elkridge, Utah.  Elder Robishaw is from Utah as well and Elder Angulo is from Mexico. It's probably the nicest apartment that I've been in on my mission, mainly because it has carpet and most places here have tile. Also, everyone speaks Spanish so well in the apartment. That's all we speak! It's great! 

The other people in my district are the Coral Reef South sisters, Sister Jackson and Sister Larson. They're super boss. Sister Jackson was in my MTC district and she's finishing training sister Larson. This is sister Jackson's last transfer-- crazy! Also the Key West elders are in my zone so that's cool. It's Elder Naea and Elder Johnson but I don't know much about them because they are like 3 hours away and their phone broke so I don't really know about how they're doing yet. So ya I'm the district leader again which is fun.  I gave a District Training on Friday and I have to give another one tomorrow so that should be fun! There is a ton of potential in the area and the district which is awesome! We have a couple of baptisms coming up which should be super cool! Oh the zone leaders are Elder Jensen and Elder Gamez and they're super chill and I'm excited to work with them more!  So, that's about it.  

They ran out of miles on the car in this area as well so we have been biking this week but it was good! Oh ya, on Thanksgiving we had 3 meal appointments and I about fell over and died! They were delicious though! Oh, the ward is bilingual so we can teach English and Spanish here. Hooray! Also the Country Walk Ward is in our building which used to be some of the Sunset Ward so now every Sunday I get to see members I used to know like Brother Brown and Brother Nunes and those guys so I'm pumped for that! I'm glad your Thanksgiving was awesome. It looked fun, so much snow, crazy!! Man is that the 5 ft. 2 girl that Braiden got engaged to?  Crazy that happened already!! So awesome that Jess got his call. I'm so pumped for him! Anyways, ya it was an awesome week and I'm pumped about the transfer!!

Love you guys, stay safe!

Elder Dunn

Chelsea - November 30, 2015

Ward FHE

Hello everyone!! Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! Well, on Tuesday we were in the hospital for about 5 hours!! Oh my gulay, we had to wait forever... I got a chest x ray and blood tests and a urinalysis. They also checked me for dengue, malaria, etc. I sent the results to our doctor and I haven't heard back yet, so Im not sure! But this week I haven’t had any stomach problems! But unfortunately, I got the worst cold. So bad I was having migraines, coughing, sore throat, stuffy nose, you name it! Haha but I was able to work every day so that was a miracle! 

So funniest thing. We were in district meeting and doing role plays. So my companion was Elder Iglesky and he is way newer to the mission than me. And our investigator was this filipino elder. The goal was for us to discern the deeper need and not the excuse for not keeping his commitments. But the filipino elder was speaking in pure Tagalog super fast so Elder Iglesky and I were both trying to figure out what he was saying. I thought we did a pretty good job not gonna lie! But at the end, he was like, you guys weren’t even close to my need. And I was like, no we got it! Your wife was a member of the baptist church and that’s why you didn’t go to our church! And Elder Iglesky was like, I thought it was his dad. And then Elder Busilac was like it was my boss! HAHA oh man the language barrier. Literally, I was laughing so hard. 

Oh my goodness, so on Sunday, nanay and tatay belon came to church! Ever since they were handed over to the other sisters, they haven’t come to church. And I haven’t seen Rodel in forever! And so when I saw them I was like nay!!!! tay!!!! I almost cried, oh man I miss them. Tatay told me before I leave, I have to leave him a souvenir. And fortunately, since Sister Hamblin is leaving, I will be able to go over to the other area and see them!! 

So this week I ate bat. It tasted like dirt. It was nasty. haha. I asked bishop how he gets them and he says he goes into the caves at night and kills them. I was like oh my goodness!! Haha crazy. 

So basically, Sunday was the best day ever. We had 10 less actives come to church! 10 people!! Also, Josefina came to church for the first time in like 3 years! She is one of our investigators and we teach her every week but she is so commited to another church, iglesia ni christo, that she will never come. But she came to church this week!! Literally during the sacrament, I was just crying because the Lord is truly blessing our area. It’s amazing! And what’s amazing, is that a couple days before, we were teaching Josefina about baptism and confirmation. And I could tell she was getting pretty offended in the lesson. We were talking about authority and all that and she was like my pastor has the authority! So Sister Balaoing explained again, and I could tell she was just kinda mad. So I was prompted to tell her that we are here because we love you! We’re not just trying to drag you in our church and get you baptized! We know that this is the true church with all our hearts and we also want you to know the truth! And I was like... Josefina, I promise you that if you just try to come to church, you will gain such a better understanding of this gospel and this church. And you will feel better about your decision to be baptized and the more you read, pray, and go to church, you will feel happier in your life. And so we committed her to church, and she was like, yes sister. And then she came and I cried! Such a miracle!

So our Thanksgiving meal was kinda pathetic not gonna lie! We bought one day old chicken (pretty nasty), old bread, I was able to make mashed potatoes, and we made gravy that was the consistensy of water! Also for dessert we had steamed squash on graham cracker crust! hahahah that was our thanksgiving dinner! It wasn’t that bad but definitely not like home. But it was great because we all went around the table and said three things we are grateful for. I’m so grateful for all my family, who writes to me, prays for me, and supports me being out here. I’m grateful for the gospel in my life, and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can become better each day, and also I’m grateful for the opportunity to be on this mission. I am grateful to be able to show my thanks for God and everything he's blessed me with. Love you all. Have a good week.

Sister Dunn

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

He's eating Bat!