Hello Everyone!
We've had quite the week here in Arcadia!
We had the Relief Society Christmas party on Tuesday and it was awesome! A lot of our less active sisters came which was great and they had this cute little Christmas program afterwards where we sang songs and some of the sisters told Christmas stories. The Spirit was so strong!
We had an awesome FHE with the Ludwigs! So we made cookies and plated them and we told the kids to write cute anonymous Christmas notes. Then we had the kids run a plate to each of their neighbors and do a doorbell ditch. It was super funny because Randy (17) had dropped off
cookies at one door while we hid behind this mini van. Finally someone came to the door and picked the cookies up and went back inside. Then Gary (8) who had the next plate started running up to that same neighbor and we were all whisper shouting No! The other door! Then Crystal dropped some cookies off at one neighbor and the Ludwig's
house was right across so all the kids hid by their porch and when the neighbor came out, Steven (11) fake sneezed super loud so we had to book it inside. Then like five seconds later the phone rang and Sister Ludwig answered it - the neighbor found us out! But yeah, this was the first time they had done something like this during the Christmas
season so it was super fun!
We had dinner with the Cards one night and they took us to Marie Calendars. They told us about all of their awesome mission experiences. Sister Card went to a Native American reservation and she said the worst thing she had to eat was this dog stew that was blue. Nasty. I just felt super guilty that we were eating really nice American food and my sister was eating bat - however because Chelsea has had about 8 baptisms, we figured it was an ok trade off :) I ran into this super nice Filipino lady on the bus the other day. I felt so
proud of myself when I could ask her if she spoke Tagalog or ilecauno (because I know what ilecauno is!). It's so awesome because we ran into like five Filipino this week and I get to tell them all about my sister in the Phillipines who is a missionary. It's a great conversation starter!
The other Filipino people we contacted were Josephina and Ricardo. They are from Manila and they travel all over the US. They told us they had been to our church a couple times - apparently we're pretty popular over there :) but they were super nice. I think they were Catholic but we have a return appointment so that's a plus!
We were trying by a referral one night but they turned out to not be interested so we started walking home when we ran into Ryan. He was pretty interesting. Lots of people here in Arcadia are very intellectual. We talked about God for a while and then he told us to look into Existentialism. Kind of interesting since I didn't really know what that word meant - and thank goodness we don't have access to the Internet because people tell us to look up so many things it's
insane! It's crazy because you can tell they have been so deceived by Satan - and it's hardened their hearts. Super sad!
We ran into one other guy named David. He told us his wife was Buddhist so he was going to follow in her footsteps. We were talking about God and what he believed and the things he was telling us - I mean literally there wasn't much hope. We talked about our purpose in life - how we can live together with our families forever. David said he would like that but he didn't believe it would happen because we
all sin and we all have to pay for it somehow. He didn't believe he had the ability to become like God because he felt he had sinned way too much and all he could hope for was to try to be good and be a good husband for his family. As missionaries we just wanted to say - but someone has already paid that price for your sins! Someone has already
taken upon Himself that pain and anguish! You don't need to suffer because He did already - and He did that so we could return to our Heavenly Father as we promise to follow Him.
It's hard because that's how most of our street contacts go. We ran into Irma again. Her main question is "Where is truth?" And she's given up trying to find it. She's researched so many churches that claim to be true and hasn't found it so right now she is waiting. Waiting until Christ comes so He can tell her what is true. She told us that when she finds the truth, if it's standing right in front her, she'd probably recognize it. We invited her to find out for herself if what we had testified about was true but she refused. She was content to wait. #missionsarehard
In contrast we were biking one day and we ran into a couple of people working on someone's yard so we stopped to talk to them and within minutes of our talking about eternal families, Milo said he would love to have missionaries contact and teach him about it. #tendermercies
Our mission party was Saturday and so much fun! President and Sister Villanueva spoke to us and we had ham and potatoes for lunch (like Idaho potatoes - so good!) and then each zone was given a hymn they had to perform in front of everyone and some of the performances were pretty hilarious. I'll try and send you a few videos :) Finally each
zone got to bust a piñata open - so fun!
Last night we got to Carol with the youth and it was so much fun! We got to wear goofy Christmas hats and sing non-hymns and it was awesome! I also accompanied for the Ward Choir's Christmas program - it was a Silent Night Cantada so it was pretty fun :) I also accompanied Sister White - she sang a song in RS and I'm accompanying Sister Christensen next week who will be singing Guard Him, Joseph.
Lots of piano - gotta love it!
That's about it from here in Arcadia. The Christmas season is
definitely here! We get to go caroling tonight with President to his neighbors. Should be awesome :) Love you all so much and can't wait to see and talk to you on Friday!
Love you all!
Love, Sister Dunn
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