Taylor - January 19, 2016

Hey Mom and Dad!  No I wasn’t aware you guys were coming to Florida, haha have fun! By the way I think I saw a record low of 54 degrees here, man super chilly! Oh hey Dad by the way since our mission car reached 50,000 miles we traded it in, and we got a truck!!! A Chevy Colorado, it was the AP’s truck but now we have it so that's pretty nice! We are running out of miles quickly though because elder robishaw’s 800 bike got stolen and elder angulo's has been.. broken and so they've been using ours and we have no choice but to drive! Soon we’re going to be walking missionaries :) 

Jason’s baptism was great! Everything went smoothly and he loved it. He will be confirmed this Sunday! His 9 year old sister wants to be baptized and so she's on her way and the mom just keeps saying "we'll see" so I guess we'll see if we can help her progress towards baptism and further as well! We were also able to help some of our potentials come to church and they really liked it. They were even taking notes during the conference! I think sometimes they have a hard time understanding the things that we teach them but they have a strong faith in God and read the bible (and now the Book of Mormon) and want to do what’s right so we are excited for them! 

Elder Johnson is progressing and getting more comfortable talking. We just have to continue speaking Spanish every day. The words still struggle to come out in a different language but it’s going well! Key West baptized Sydney as well this week and that was exciting but now they kind of have an empty teaching pool so we will be working to help them continue to find those people that are ready! 

Wait did the dance thing happen for spencer, did he have fun? He's getting good at skiing it sounds like! I’m glad BSU is doing great and ya I bet Dad is enjoying it! Oh and Dad Happy Birthday!!!!! I will do my best to get at least a card for you birthday/Christmas/new years. It might not get there until march but I’ll send it eventually ;) Mom you got interviewed for an article. No didn’t know that either but cool! 

Oh funny story before I go, so Elder Johnson and I were knocking door and there are a lot of gates around peoples houses and they all love to have dogs. So we walked up to this gate and it said "Beware of Dog" which truly I don't even think about anymore because like every house has them and half of them are like Chihuahuas. Anyways so I didn’t see any dogs so I held the gate open for Elder Johnson(always a gentlemen ;) and he walked up the pathway to the door. Well I walked in and felt like maybe we shouldn’t and then I hear a slight jingling. Well elder Johnson was at the door by this time and I started to leave right as this big dog peeked its head around the corner, and then both of us bolted for the gate! My initial reaction was to close the gate so the dog didn’t get out, so I started to do so and realized that I would also be closing the gate on my comp who was running for his life with the dog basically on him. Oh his face was classic, it was definitely a had to be there moment. So I opened the gate and then pushed the dog back with the gate and closed it and then started busting up laughing! Haha it didn't bite elder Johnson for some reason but it sure looked like it wanted to. Anyways that sums up the story! 

Love you guys have a safe trip! 

Elder Dunn

Holli - January 18, 2016

Yiwei and Amanda

The "Sistrict"

Hello Everyone!

So something crazy happened this week! There's something we call an emergency transfer (there was a situation with some Sisters over in Glendora) so Sister Maughan was transferred over to Glendora yesterday. I'm staying here in Arcadia but I will be doing some crazy companion things. This week my companion is a girl in the ward ( her name is Katie; she is the Ward Mission Leader's daughter) who is
preparing to serve her mission. Next week I will be in a trio with the Chinese Sisters, covering both my ward and theirs, and then I'll be back with Sister Ausen until the end of this transfer we believe. We got the call Friday night and were pretty stunned by it - change can happen so fast! But we're both excited for the adventures ahead!

We had a pretty good week this week - I think that was the most exciting thing that happened :) We saw some cool miracles though!

We were riding down the street to visit one of the elderly ladies in our ward when the phone fell out of Sister Maughan's pocket. We didn't notice it until we had locked our bikes up and were about to go inside. Pretty scary moment because our phone is one of our best tools in missionary work. We started to head inside when this lady came
walking up to us with our phone in her hand! She said she and her cousin had seen us biking and saw the phone slip out of her bag onto the pavement so they just swiped it up real quick and followed us. It was awesome!

So we started doing something interesting to mix it up with tracting. During comp. study we will pray individually and then together about where we need to tract and then one of us will look at a map and list off 5-15 names we feel impressed to tract. Then we'll each pick 3 from that list and hope one matches up! We ended up having about 15 minutes that night to track - not tons of time - but we ran into Dominic who has a daughter who is Mormon. He is staunch Presbyterian but he told us we could come back sometime to teach him about our beliefs. It was pretty cool!

We met this guy named Roy at a bus stop one night. We were riding our bikes towards Subway to grab some dinner and the bus stop is right outside. As we rode by him and said hello he threw his hands up in the air and was like, "Please no, don't shoot me, please!" We kind of laughed and started talking to him. He told us he was a perspiring actress (um, you mean aspiring actor?) but he said he really admired
the missionaries - he had talked to lots before. Interesting
conversation.

So in our area we have Arcadia High School that has about 4000 students and the majority of them are Chinese. So every day as school gets out there's this wave of kids and our district thought it would be cool to have a table with several different Books of Mormon in different languages and have the kids guess the language. If they guessed the language correctly they would get a free Book of Mormon. But if they guessed it incorrectly, they would still get a free Book
of Mormon. Haha, not very well thought out. So we tried it and maybe gave out 2 BofM's - so much peer pressure! But it was fun :)

We met this staunch Catholic the other day - his name is Henry. Missionaries had talked to his son Brian a while back so we were going to check in on him but met Henry instead. He basically explained the whole Catholic religion to us. It was pretty interesting but kind of hard at the same time because what he was explaining offered no hope or happiness - it was kind of depressing. But it was an interesting conversation!

Last night I was with the Chinese Sisters and it was pretty awesome! We had dinner at one of the member's houses - really good Chinese food! They had his weird fruit vinegar drink that is supposed to cleanse your system . . . Pretty interesting :) We also had to book it to an appointment afterwards and poor Sister Gong just learned how to
ride her bike about 7 months ago so she had a rough time. When we got to the appointment we found out her front tire had gone completely flat! No wonder she was on the struggle bus!

We helped Katie's family move today so we've had a pretty productive pday! 

That's about it from here in Arcadia! Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy! Happy Birthday dad - looks/sounds like you had tons of fun! Mom, the article was super cool :) Love you guys!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - January 18, 2016

goat!

hahahahah this kid stood like that for 10 minutes
just staring at me! so funny!

Hello everyone! This week was an awesome week! I had the opportunity to go on splits with Sister Labis on Wednesday in Ilagan. It was such a good experience. She is a really good teacher and I learned a lot from her. My goal with her was to work on confidence. Sometimes, I’m not sure what to say or how I should say something for the investigators to understand. So during the day, there were two times where it was my turn to speak and I had absolutely no idea. One time was after we read about Christ suffering in the Garden of Gesthemane. After the lady read it, I was supposed to explain it. But the words were so complicated that all I really knew how to say was sobrang masakit! (really painful) But instead, I just turned to Sister Labis and she explained it. During evaluation, Sister Labis and I talked about it and she was like even though you think I can do a better job, I still want you to try. And I was like, but all I can say is sobrang masakit! And she was like then say it and I will do the rest. All the Lord asks of us is just to try even though we feel like we can’t do it. It was a really good splits and I feel like my confidence has increased. 

Jerome, Jayson, and Clarita all passed their baptismal interviews!!! Ahh!! So we have three baptisms on Saturday! I am so excited for them! And it was funny, because Clarita had a hard time remembering everything for the interview so she was kinda scared. But after the interview, she told me that everything came to her remembrance, astig siya!! 

So I had to give a talk on Sunday… not the best. Haha I was pretty scared because it had to be around 10 minutes and in pure Tagalog. But I prepared really well and asked my companion for help on a lot of words. So I got up there when it was my turn, and the Lord definitely helped me. A lot of the members said my tagalog is really good (even though I don’t believe them! Haha) One of the rm’s told me that my tagalog is super good because I was confident up there, he said that most foreigners that get up there are embarrassed of their tagalog and aren’t confident in what they are saying. It really meant a lot that he said that. But I know that it was all God helping me out with that talk. 

Lets see random stuff that happened: oh ya, I totally walked past a pig getting butchered. Like four guys were holding it down and the pig was screaming and screaming and I was like oh my gosh!!! I started to run because I did not want to see that.  Haha. The senior couple came to our apartment for an apartment check this week and lets just say it was so nice to speak English. Haha all of the rest of the sisters were super quiet hahah. But super funny, Sister Clarin told me that her last companion, an American, never spoke to her in tagalog, English lang! Haha I was like wow!! Because sister Clarin NEVER speaks English. 

Haha so funny, so we were in our farthest area last night, and it was pretty late, and we had just finished dinner with a member, and we were on the side of the road waiting for a van. Sometimes we have to wait for like 30 minutes for a van to come by since its night time. Anyways, they have these huge buses sometimes pass, and they go to like far away places like Manila, etc. And so this huge super nice bus came around the corner, (and you aren’t supposed to flag it down unless you’re traveling many hours) haha and nanay totally flags it down (she’s super spunky haha) and she bartered with the driver for three of us 25 pesos each, and he was like sure! HAHA oh nanay. But seriously though, it was so nice sitting in that nice air con bus, it’s been forever since I’ve been in a nice car like that! Usually, we are in a crowded van and I’m half outside! Haha. So ya, that’s my week!!

Love you all,

Sister Dunn

look at this huge pig!

This is pretty much what our area looks like- meadows!

Lindsay - January 18, 2016

Selfies before going to the Food Bank!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week! This week flew by, but it has been great! On Wednesday, we went to an amazing zone meeting! The STL's ( Sister Moe-Tufaga and Sister Brown), gave a great training on our area books on our Ipads!! Many missionaries have had technical difficulties and other things come up that complicates the
whole process of inputting information. So it’s a great learning experience! The elders gave an amazing training about the Holy Ghost, and how the Spirit helps others convert to the gospel. They invited us to go into the chapel, and they gave us a few scriptures to look up in Preach My Gospel, and then just let us ponder about the things we learned. It was a very spiritual experience for all of us. 

Then we saw an older lady named Jane who is a less active in one of our wards. She has cancer, and so it has been hard for her to come to church. She reminds me so much of Grandma Dunn. I know that they must have been great friends before this life. Jane has had a lot of health problems, but she has so much faith. When I told her that she reminded of my grandma, she smiled and when I told her that her name was Jane, she smiled even more. I felt the spirit so strongly in that lesson. Those that are older have such a sweet spirit. They are so close to the Lord, and I can always feel the presence of God and His angels around us. 

We also went to see Floyd with the Reynolds again. He was a bit more negative this time. Since he has faced so many challenges in his life, I think he has become more stubborn and bitter. It is really sad. But he tries to make it to church each week, and he enjoys it when we come visit. I hope and pray that his heart will be softened and that he will just
give his burdens to the Lord.

On Thursday we went to visit Frank and Chelsea. We read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon with them. Frank is a recent convert, and Chels is an investigator, and they are both trying to quit smoking. Chelsea has so much potential, and when we ask her questions, she ponders on her answer. But then Frank interrupts her when she is about to say something or when she is saying something. We wish that we could have a lesson just with Chelsea. But they never leave the house, and they both are always there. So it is a
little tricky. The Lord will provide though! Later that night, we went to the Whitmer home. The dad is a less active, and the mom is an investigator. The Reynolds went with us and were really bold about their purpose. They straight up said to the father that they were there to reactivate the prospective elders, and they wanted to eventually help their whole family make it to the temple. Internally, I was kind of in panic mode, just because it was really really bold!! But then I thought, "If we are too scared to offend them, then we won't be able to help them!" I feel like if we are bold in a loving way, they will eventually be reactivated! So that was an amazing
experience!!

On Friday, we weekly planned and taught a recent convert named Thomas. He has so much faith! He doesn't doubt, and he accepts everything that we talk about! Especially when we ask him questions, his answers are so simple and pure! He is truly a wonderful member of the church! Sister Sayer and I think he will be a bishop later on:)

On Saturday, we visited an older lady named Gale who is planning to get a pace maker in a couple of weeks. Her movements are slow because of her heart, and so her health is declining. But she is taking this challenge like a champ! She doesn't let anything get in her way of pressing forward! We also visited John too! His last name is actually
spelled McClean. I made a typo last week:) He didn't look healthy though. He was coughing a lot, and his thoughts were really sporadic.  He usually isn't like that so we are really concerned about him. But the Lord will help him! I know it. Later that day, we met with a boy named Jason. He has ADD, so he gets really distracted. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ using a tea bag as an object lesson and he
listened really well. The mother also has a son who is autistic, and so it was really sweet to teach these boys about the gospel. On Sunday we went to church all day, and had chicken and dumplings with the Elmer family. Food is just so good. :) We then met with Sasha who is an exchange student from  Denmark, living with the Dowdeneys. She goes to seminary, and she comes to church every Sunday! She has
made many friends at church and has agreed to take the missionary lessons! She is so sweet, and she speaks English so well!! She also loves soccer, and enjoys being here in America. She is the nicest person! We taught her about Heavenly Father and prayer, and how she can develop a relationship with Him. One of her friends at church came
to the lesson, and she helped Sasha a lot during the lesson.

Afterwards, we went to go teach Devan at the Hargis's. Brother Alder, who works with Devan also came, and he contributed wonderfully to the discussion! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and we had an amazing lesson about it. The spirit was so strong, and I know that we all gained a new perspective and understanding about the Plan of Salvation
from that lesson. I love this gospel, and I know that it is true. I have learned so much more about the gospel, and how I can improve. God is real, and he is close to each of us.

I love you all! Stay warm all of you that are in Idaho!

Sincerely,
Sister Dunn

Chelsea - January 11, 2016

Hello everyone!

Not a lot to report on this week so my letter is gonna be kinda short! We've just been working a ton, teaching a ton of  lessons, finding la's etc! Jason and Jerome are doing awesome!!! Although Jerome is at school all the time, so we are kinda scared we aren’t going to finish his lessons before the baptismal interview. We are going to try to teach them every day. But seriously though, I cannot tell you how good they are. Like every question we ask them, their answers are so great and you can tell they are really studying outside of our lessons, and reading, and praying. I am so excited for their baptism in a couple weeks! 

Also we have another lady getting baptized the same day! She’s like in her 60’s and she is also super awesome. We just taught her earlier today and we were reading in the book of mormon and she just started crying because she was so touched! Our area is really progressing and I’m so honored to be a part of these investigators journey to coming closer unto christ. So yes, hopefully we will have three getting baptized on the 23rd!! 

Nothing really funny happened this week! I’m trying to think but nothing is coming to mind! It’s just been an exhausting week. Haha oh ya so we we just got done teaching and we were walking along the highway, and this car honks at us, but I just thought it was an annoying van so I didn’t look back, and then we hear hey mormon missionaries! Haha we turned around and it was President and Sister Rahlf! They let us sit in the car for like a minute and let me just say I was really enjoying that air con. And then they wanted to take a picture of us so we drove out a little bit and they took pics! That was probably the randomest thing that happened in the week! 

Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Holli - January 11, 2015

Hello Everyone!

Sounds like such a fun week mom :) Great talk btw dad - totally felt the Spirit as I was reading. And way to throw mom under the bus . . . haha, I guess it was payback.

We had a very interesting week here in Arcadia!

The first two days it was pouring rain! Like literally we were wading through the streets. It was so much fun! The first day Sister Maughan didn't have an umbrella so we had to borrow one from a member so she only got partially soaked. By the end of the day though our feet and leggings were just so soaked and all of our pamphlets and pass along cards got so wet so that was an adventure. Street contacting was a bit
iffy but we are working on it! On the second day Sister Maughan decided to saran wrap her feet to keep them from getting super wet. She got the idea from watching this Chinese lady wrap her feet in plastic bags. It didn't work too well but it was funny.

Because of all the rain and flooding that occurred we had the
opportunity to talk to a couple people working on electrical wiring and such. We met this one guy who talked about how he had been to a couple different churches. We meet a lot of people who, when they're young, explore a lot of different churches and a lot of them become disenchanted with each religion so they stop going to church all together and stick with reading the bible. They then become satisfied
because they assume every religion will have things they don't agree with or feel are true and therefore none of them can be trusted. But it's cool to talk to everyone and give them a chance to accept the true gospel of Jesus Christ hoping that one day God will lead them in the right direction.

We had a district lunch this week and our district leader took us to this Japanese place - so good! But he ordered some sort of appetizer with octopus in it - it actually didn't taste that bad but it was interesting. First weird thing I've had to eat on my mission!

We had a really cool experience the other night. It was late at night and we were walking home with our bikes and we didn't know who to stop by before we went home. We paused on the sidewalk to say a prayer and then we both thought about it for a moment. I had the impression to stop by a less active named Daniel - he was baptized a few years ago when he was in high school but converted more for social reasons.
Every time we stopped by he loved having us share messages but his work is more important to him than coming to church at the moment. He can also get a little too friendly with the Sister Missionaries. I knew if I mentioned my impression to Sister Maughan she would be super 
reluctant to see him but the more I thought about it, the more right it felt to go check in on him. So I told Sister Maughan and because she hadn't received any other impression we went over. When we knocked no one answered so we decided to head home. As we were heading out Daniel was headed in so we were able to have a really good lesson with
him on repentance and then we found out he was moving to his Uncle's and would be there for a while - in fact he was leaving in only a few days so we would never have discovered that unless we had stopped by.


We had an interesting experience with a less active man named Brother Lum. The last time missionaries had stopped by was last January and every time we would call to set up an appointment he would always tell us to call again in a few months because he was super busy. We finally decided to stop by last night and he talked to us for a little bit. He
told us he had been testing us when he postponed our visits - he said that if we were true missionaries we wouldn't have cared if he told us to wait a few months, we should have showed up in the next week. He told us he had been very active at one point but that he stopped coming to church because the people at church were there more for the
social interaction than the doctrine. He also said that when he had home teachers come over he always felt they were doing it out of duty than anything instead of sincerely caring about him. So he's decided to just stop coming. He has a bible study class but he hasn't looked at the Book of Mormon in quite a while.

It was an interesting conversation. Afterwards Sister Maughan said he had totally called us out and we should have stopped by sooner. For me though it was really sad to see Brother Lum deny himself the blessings of church membership in the gospel due to his perception of the
members of the church. But that happens so often out here. I know it's been a problem for me sometimes but there's a greater purpose to why we go to church and why we serve and remain active. 

We had a wonderful lesson with Yiwei and Amanda on Saturday with a family in our ward (the Park's). Brother Park told his whole conversion story and it was an absolutely amazing story. Yiwei and Amanda also came to church and are loving the classes. They are seriously golden. It's been such a privilege to teach them.

On Saturday one of the Young Men in the ward (Cody) had his Eagle Project so we had the opportunity to help out with that. It was way fun! There's a less active in the ward who needed some help with her yard so we went to work raking leaves, clearing out trash, cutting down trees and rebuilding her fence. Most of the ward showed up to help and it was awesome - so much fun! We had another service project
at the church afterwards (we got to wash dishes) so we didn't have time for lunch. We stopped by the grocery store and bought a couple things we thought would tide us over and raced to the church. We got there to find Sister Wheeler (housing coordinator) had brought sandwiches for us. Much better than my add water kraft mac and cheese!
#tendermercies - the Lord definitely knows what we are in need of and will provide for us!

We had this super cool experience the other day. We were riding down the street and Aomi (like Naomi minus the N) was walking on the opposite side. We said hi and she said a startled hi back. I asked if she had ever seen two girls in skirts ride bikes down the road before. She said no (haha, we're kind of rare) and we started talking with her. She doesn't really believe in anything but respects everyone else
for their beliefs. We asked her a few questions and were finally able to give her a Book of Mormon. She's going away to college in a few months so we wouldn't have a much of a chance to teach her but she told us she has a really good friend who is LDS and she admires him a lot. So that was super cool!

Alright that is about it from here in Arcadia. I love you all so much.  Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dunn

Taylor - January 11, 2015

Hey fam! So Elder Johnson is from Green River, Wyoming. He is super super super insanely quiet and slightly awkward. Haha if you thought I was quiet and awkward well, you have another thing coming! Haha. He's adjusting slowly and is definitely the polar opposite of Elder Toews. With Elder Toews I didn't feel too much that I was greenie breaking him. His Spanish was great and he knew what he was doing, he was on top of it! Elder Johnson is a little different but I believe he has a lot of potential! So basically I'm really trying to help him be more bold with people and "fear no man"(by the way look up the Ricciardi letter, it's where I get that quote and it's excellent) Anyways so we are just standing at the door and I'm like "you're up man" and he introduces us and then there's just like the most awkward silence ever! So ya it's gonna be interesting but I'm excited! As well he needs to keep working on Spanish so, every day all day, espanol! I'm excited to learn from him as well though, I feel like every comp has taught me something so I'm excited for this transfer. Also, yes it's super nice to have Elder Robishaw and Elder Angulo still here. They're awesome! 

The district is doing well as well as nuestra area. We have Jason coming up for baptism this Saturday and his mom and sister are coming too so we are excited to work with them! We are still working on finding those people that have an open heart to at least give the gospel a try. I've truly realized throughout my mission how important humility is and that as the people are humble and desire to learn they will be blessed. Truly we are trying to find those who are humble and willing to learn and giving them a chance to hear of the gospel, feel of the spirit, and find out for themselves. 

Oh and mom for the exhaustion comment it's just I don't think I've ever done something so intense and that stretches you in every way for such a long time so it's just exhausting sometimes, but ya I think I'm pretty healthy but thanks!! We go running every morning and work out so that's good! 

That's awesome for Spencer.  He's gonna have a blast at sweethearts! I didn't know he was on the ski team but that's pretty cool! Speaking of cool it's actually in the 60’s here. It's amazing! By the way I don't think I can express how happy and proud I am for all the guys going out on their missions, especially Jess and Dallin. That is soooo awesome!! They will do great! 

Anyways I think that's it, oh and thanks for sending me the talk Dad that was really good. I liked it a lot! Love you guys! Stay Safe!

Elder Dunn

Lindsay - January 11, 2015

Hello everyone from Safford, Arizona!! I love the area here! It is the Gila Valley and literally reminds me so much of Idaho! :)  The members are golden. They literally do the missionary work for you! haha:) Just kidding. But they are amazing. They are so missionary minded and they just love missionaries! We are covering 3 wards here in Safford! 7th Ward, (which we are pink washing) and 8th and 9th ward. It is so fun, but a bit overwhelming! But its ok! Sister Sayer and I have faith that the Lord will provide!

So about Sister Sayer. She is from Dallas, Oregon (20 minutes away from Salem). She LOVES the rain, and says that she will melt in the summer:) She is the most hilarious person in the world! She reminds me of so many people! She looks like Ali Bingham, she reminds me of Sydnee Miller, she could definitely be related to Austin Miller because I can see the resemblance. And she also reminds me of Aunt Emily Clark sometimes. It’s crazy how all my companions remind me of people that I know! She has a relaxed personality, but she does work which is good. She just finished her training and Sister Tibas who trained her was very relaxed with planning and missionary rules. But when I bring stuff up she isn't opposed to following it, it is just new to her, and you have to wait a little bit before she implements it. But I was put with her for a reason, so it’s amazing! I have no complaints, and I know that we will learn from each other! 

We live with a member named Sister Curtis. She is the sweetest lady, and almost every night we say good night to her:) Her cat’s name is Maggie and she can be a demon at times. Every time

we move she pounces!! haha:) I just smother her with love, and Sister Sayer gets irritated with her so she sometimes will kick her so she doesn't tear up everything! (Cause she literally will chew your

scriptures up).

On Wednesday, we met the other missionaries in the zone. Sister Moe-Tufaga is in my zone! (my second trainer). What are the odds!! Sister Charles is also in my zone!! I love her so much! Our district leader is a great missionary! He gives such great advice to help with our investigators. We talked about extending commitments and why it is so important to follow up with them. It was really good! We also visited with a 93 year old man named John Mcclain. He is the cutest old man, he has health problems and doesn’t understand why he is here on this earth:( But I know that he is here for a reason because he makes everyone happy! I have never laughed so hard in my life. His famous lines are, “Hot doggy!", and "Hallelujah!" He is from Becklow, Idaho!!! Yeah!!! and he was in the Navy!! Grandpa Dunn!! You probably know him!! (Maybe:) 

On Thursday we went to the Food Bank. It was so fun! There is a member who runs the Food Bank, and all the missionaries come and help her since she is older, and she can't do it by herself. There are so many service opportunities here in the Gila Valley! 

On Friday we literally weekly planned all day. We didn’t have our car with us cause the STL’s drove it to MLC. So, we were contemplating on what we were going to do for the rest of the night with no car. We thought of maybe tracting, but we would have to walk a long time to get to our area. Then we thought maybe we could get some bikes, but that didn't happen. So we called the senior missionaries, the wonderful Reynolds couple from South Carolina to come and help us. They are amazing!! Their accents are so great! I love them! So we contacted some potentials and referrals for 2 hours, and it was so fun! We actually made contact with some people even though it was a late time of night for families! 

On Saturday we met with Lance and Landon, two boys that are so intelligent and kind. They are two of our investigators who are ages 9 and 11. We taught them the Restoration, and we are planning to extend the baptismal date next time! The spirit was so strong, and they are so close to the spirit. They told us that whenever they read the Bible they feel good inside. So we are going to help them get into reading the Book of Mormon, so they can get to know God better. We are so excited for these two boys! 

On Sunday we went to church from 7:30 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon! And I fasted, which wasn't a good idea. haha:) It was a long day, but I loved it so much! And we both spoke in 8th

Ward, so that was fun. Guess what the topic was Mom and Dad? The Worth of Souls. What a coincidence, that I get to prepare a talk about the same topic I spoke about at my farewell! :) Also, a girl that is going to be leaving for a mission gave her farewell talk too, so that was a special moment to be a part of.  At 5 we went to Bishop Hargis's home for a lesson with an investigator named Devan. He has been taught by the missionaries in Colorado, and he moved up here, and came into contact with us, and we have started to teach him! Even though he is YSA age, he has social anxiety, so he told us that he would be comfortable in 9th ward, and then he would think about YSA ward later. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel, and the thing that made him so interested in the gospel was General Conference. One of his friends is a member of the church, and she invited him over when General Conference was on. So he watched it, and one talk spoke to him, and he knew that he needed to learn more! The Lord has truly prepared him! We then had dinner afterwards. The Hargis’s invited a lot of people over. So it was really fun. The Reynolds also showed up, and we had a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, Bishop Hargis and the Reynolds right after. Then the Reynolds invited us to join in with their family prayer. They sing the primary song, “Let us gather in a circle and kneel in family prayer....... etc" I love the Hargis Family!! Then right after that we headed home. As we were driving home the light was already on the empty sign of our gas tank. But we told each other, "The Lord will provide!" So we waited until today to fill up, and we didn't run out of gas! So that is my week! I hope you all are safe and doing well! I

love you all! I know this church is true!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Taylor - January 5, 2016

Hey! Sounds like you had an awesome week. Thanks for all the details! Ya sounds chilly down there. I think it actually dropped into the 70s here. We were surprised and a little cold while biking haha. 

So this week was good with some awesome miracles! We did super well at being bold and persistent! We made sure everyone we talked to knew our purpose and truly invited them unto Christ with trust that as we invited everyone to come unto Christ there would be those who would really be touched and accept. It was a little difficult at the start of the week because a lot of the people didn't want to act but then at the end of the week we found Sharry and she is super sweet and awesome! She has had some difficult things happen in her life but God is super important to her and she has been baptized in a church before but being baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ caught her attention and so we are going back on Thursday to help her understand more.  We're super excited! 

So for transfers. First of all, Elder Oaks, the apostle, is in charge of the missionary department and so now, worldwide apparently, there aren't really going to be transfer meetings. So, we got the call on Monday night. They tell us if we are going or staying, where we will be going, if we're transferring and who our companion will be. So ya everything is revealed in one call which is pretty intense. I guess we don't have to waste time doing the whole transfer meeting thing. So Elder Toews is transferring to an area called Riverside South which is an all spanish area with Elder Huggins who just got done being trained so elder Toews will have a super fun time. He will do so well and I think they are setting him up to train soon. He's just a super boss elder. I will be staying and greenie breaking again a guy named Elder Johnson who I don't know so we'll see how that goes. Elder Robishaw and Elder Angulo are both staying which surprised me but that will be fun! Sister Jackson is going home and Sister Larson transferred so they pink washed and two elders are coming in. I kinda forgot one of them but I believe that Elder Winters is one of them, and he was in my last district. So ya I have a district of elders which is sweet! 

For the zl’s Elder Jensen is out and Elder Adams who was a district leader in Hialeah before is the new zl with Elder Gamez. I don’t know too much about elder Adams so we'll see how that goes! Elder Naea is gone after being in Key West for 5 transfers and Elder Johnson is staying with a guy coming in named Elder Miller. So ya that's how it went. 

I'm super excited for this transfer, we have Jason set for baptism on the 16th so that's exciting! I just hope to continue to do the will of the Lord! That's something I've been really trying to do, replace my will with the Lord's will and I pray for His help. When I came on my mission I thought I was in a pretty good spot, I studied the scriptures, said my prayers, graduated from seminary stuff like that, I knew I had my weaknesses but I felt pretty good. Haha the mission wakes you up a little with that, I have sooooooooooo many weaknesses! Man it's frustrating, I'm just so glad that (1) I have the Atonement in my life and can apply it daily and (2) That this is the Lord's work and not my work, haha that brings relief! 

Anyways ya so we're OYMing like crazy and working on talking to everyone that passes so that we can let the world know of the Savior and find people who are ready to change. I love this work! 

Oh another thing I realized is that I've been super exhausted lately while working so I'm trying to energize myself more by smiling constantly, praying really hard, and constantly looking outward... I'm getting there! Anyways love you guys, thanks for everything!!! Good luck on your talk Dad!! Stay safe! 

-Elder Dunn

Chelsea - January 4, 2016

My new companion Sister Clarin

Jess and fam!

Hello everyone!!

Ahhh so I’m transferred! Saying goodbye to the people in Diffun was so sad. On tuesday, that’s all we did and it was kinda depressing! I really cried when we said goodbye to the Martinez family and Jessa. Pero, my new area is Ilagan zone, Alinguigan A! Right next to Sister Baker's old area. Haha our area is so far away. The area by our apartment is the other sisters. So our area is really far. The closest place that we go to is about 10 minutes away. The other one is about 20 minutes. Malayo! They haven’t had a baptism here in a long time so we are really trying to work hard in this area. But we have a lot of potentials! We are teaching two boys, Jerome and Jason. They are so awesome! They have come to church twice now and I can really see the spirit working with them during the lessons. We scheduled their baptism on January 23rd!! What’s funny is that his sister-I think Elder Igleski baptized her in Madella. Super weird di ba?! 

My new companion is Sister Clarin! She's from Negros Occidental! I don’t really know where that is, but somewhere in the Philippines! She’s really great!! She’s a really simple teacher (which I love). I will probably “kill" her though because she goes home in March! So she only has two cycles left!! 

So our apartment is the flooded apartment! haha! But we haven’t had any problems yet! But oh my goodness, we have so many rats and mice in the apartment. And they eat everything!! They eat my food and my sticky notes and my clothes, and they chewed off the zipper in my luggage so it’s now ruined, and also chewed a huge hole through my other luggage, and chewed three holes through my backpack. Honestly, that has been the hardest part of this week. Watching all my stuff get ruined. And honestly, I have no idea what to do! We set a trap and caught one, but I think there’s a ton in the apartment. We are going to buy some rat poison mamaya!! 

Haha also, the hardest thing this week has been no english. I mean siempre it’s such a blessing. But I'm the only foreigner in our apartment. And they speak no english!! During cls time though, i make them speak english, and they hate it hahahah. At least I will learn fast! 

Haha so since it’s new years eve, everyone makes salad over here which is like macaroni and mayo. And literally, it is so gross. So we were out teaching one day, and at three appointments they served salad! Usually, I can get out of it, I’ll make sister Clarin eat it when they aren't looking but we went to this one nanay and she like stared at us as we ate and she was like sister!! Eat more! I was forced to eat it and it was disgusting. Hahah. 

Ahhh sister Porter from my MTC district is following up training sister kibaimoa!! They are gonna have so much fun!! Sister Turley is also in Santiago North! Like seriously, when I transfer, everyone goes to my zone!! Ooh I got to see my nanay on transfer day, and right when she got out of the tricie I ran up to her and we both screamed and hugged. I missed her so much! She’s matured so much, she seems different!! Anyways, that’s it! Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Sister Kibaimoa and I at the last FHE in Diffun with the Padilla fam!  The more marks on our faces- the more we lost in the game.  haha. I was the obvious loser...

Nanay Cervantes!  She sells pork in the palengke!!

Nanay Villenuava and Josefina!

CJ!