Chelsea - August 8, 2016

My new companion Sister Atutubo and Mae Ann

Nida!

Tatay Suiguitan!!

My favorites Yanna and Tin Tin

Blessie!

Oh my gosh sister kjar gave me this american snack in my drawer and I almost cried! haha

Kumusta po?

It's been another week of change! We spent the whole day monday packing and then on Tuesday we went around and said goodbye to the members in san mateo. Man it was hard but the worst was saying goodbye to tatay suguitan. After we taught him a lesson, he said he had been thinking of some english in his mind to say to us (he doesnt speak a lick of english, and knows that we struggle teaching him sometimes haha). He then told us, "thank you for coming me in my life" and then in tagalog he said that we opened the windows of heaven to him and his home. Me and Sister T were crying so bad and then tatay was crying too and it was so sadddd!! But what a blessing it is to be a missionary :)

So on Wednesday, we headed to the mission home for transfer day. Sister Tupouniua got transferred to Alicia which is really close to San Mateo. My anak is still in Alinguigan... the other area closed which means they have to take on the full area. I was so sad I couldn't see her... but I was assigned to Tuguegarao South, Enrile Ward! AHHHH the hottest place in the Philippines! I really like it here though, and thank goodness I was assigned here during the winter season! haha. But ya, I can already feel the difference of the heat and humidity. It's been a little hard for me to keep up with it all, but I'm adjusting. The ward is so great here. Man, everyone is so supportive and wants to work and will do anything they can to help us. I was so surprised sitting there in ward council yesterday and how willing everyone is to help. It's definitely a first! Enrile is about 20 minutes from the city of tuguegarao, which is crazy packed! Also in tugue, they have like horse carriages everywhere which is so cool but also not because the horses look like they are dying from starvation. My companion is Sister Atutubo from Quezon City and I am following her up which means she just got done with her training. She is super good at teaching and I am already learning a ton from her.

The apartment is ok, but unfortunately, we live right next to a pig pen and the whole apartment always smells like pig manure haha! It's whatever though. The people are harder to contact here though. We went contacting on Thursday and we got rejected so much. People are super devoted catholics here and sometimes they won't even let us get to know them. Haha I feel like I'm serving in america a little bit! haha. The hardest challenge though has been dealing with my comp. She was super attached to her trainer and has just been in tears this whole week. We had to stop work for 2 days because she couldn't stop crying and everything reminded her of her trainer. It's been so tough because she really won't listen to advice and she is so down about herself. But I encouraged her to get a priesthood blessing and that really helped her yesterday. As for yesterday and today she has been doing really great! Haha I know heavenly father sent me here for a reason. He knows that I can't comfort anyone to save my life haha. I've already learned a ton though about myself and definitely about following the promptings of the spirit.

Love you all :)

Sister Dunn

Holli - August 8, 2016

My new comp Sister Hobbs

Hey Everyone!!

We had a really cool week this week.

Vanessa, who we've been working with since June, is going to be

baptized this Saturday! She's had so many miracles happen this week.

Every time we go over she seems happier. She no longer wants to drink

coffee and loves coming to church. Her cousin is coming down to

baptize her so we are very excited.


Transfer news: Sister Hobbs is coming to Glendale and our area has

been turned into the new Sister Training Leader area so we're super

pumped! We also are covering two wards now - Glendale 2 and Glendale 7

which is a YSA Ward. Sister Hobbs is soooo cool! She's from New

Zealand and has already graduated from college and she's so funny. We

are super excited to work together.


We were backing out of our driveway the other day when this girl in

our apartment complex opened the door and started talking to Sister

Cook. Her name is Elizabeth and she asked us if we could come talk to

her because she's experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety and feels

like she needs to be closer to God. She is so sweet and we talked a

little bit about prayer and reading the scriptures and how that

blesses us. She is a super sweet girl and we are excited to still be

teaching her!


Sam came to church yesterday which was super great. We haven't been

able to meet with him for about two weeks because he has been so busy

with radiation treatments, work, and his family. He's been praying

frequently though! He loves the Ward and coming to church though.


Sister Parrott's son Shayne was moved to a group home and they're

deciding today whether or not he can go back and live with Sister

Parrott so prayers for them both would be so great!!


We were able to set up a booth at this community night the city had.

They held it right across the street from our apartment and it was so

cool! We had Spanish, Armenian, and English literature and the minute

we set up, this Armenian family came up and asked if they could have

the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets in Armenian. It was so cool! Then

we played a few movies and talked with lots of people about the gospel

so it was a pretty fun night!


We've seen so many miracles this week and are really excited for those

we get to teach. The Lord has definitely blessed us in so many ways

here in Glendale. I don't remember all the miracles so I'm sorry this

letter is pretty short, but I'm so grateful for a loving Father in

Heaven who has blessed me and my family so much. Thank you for all of

your love and support! Have a wonderful week!


Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - August 8, 2016

Hello Everyone!!!!

I love being a missionary no matter how hard it gets!! This week has been an amazing week! We saw so many less actives, and had a lot of success with them! On Monday, even though it was preparation day, we met with our investigator Sabrina. She is doing well despite the lack of support from her parents. She is very strong, and her faith increases every time we meet with her!

On Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with Ramon! We talked about faith, and asked him about his life, and if he ever had an experience where he lost his faith. You know that moment when you ask a question and you know it didn't come from you, but it came from God? I had that moment during the lesson! It was awesome!! :) We had such a powerful discussion about faith, and how we all waver in our faith at some point. But it is our decision to rebuild it and let God grow it again.

On Wednesday we taught Avery again! He is so close to baptism I can feel it! We followed up with him about the Word of Wisdom, cause his family gives him tea. But he told us that this week he only drank herbal tea!! We were so proud of him! He is so excited to be baptized! We just need to set that habit of coming to church consistently.

On Thursday, we met Rylan who is a less active. He is such an awesome kid! He has a lot of faith, but has not been consistent with church in a while. So we stopped by a taught him about faith! We committed him to pray every day and read his scriptures every day. His answer was great! "I could give it a whirl!"

On Saturday we visited a lot of people, it was awesome! We had a great lesson with Sister Mitchell about prayer. We shared a scripture in Alma 37:36-37 that talks about counseling with the Lord, and crying unto to him for all of our support. We talked about how prayer can help us to move forward with strength despite challenging times. We had a great discussion! At the end of the lesson, a HUGE storm came rolling in. The lightning was insane! It turned shades of purple and orange, it was crazy! Thank goodness we were safe! The Lord took care of us!

On Sunday we had an amazing lesson with Brother Darnell! Holy cow he makes me want to cry every time we visit him! He had been gone for two weeks in Tucson house sitting for someone, so we couldn't see him. But as we walked into the door, he showed us where he left off reading. He was in Mosiah people! Mosiah!!! I was so happy to see that he had been reading and praying that whole time he was gone!! We were so happy! And.... .at the end of the lesson I asked him to pray, and he did!!! WOW!! During the lesson he told us, I don't get why I couldn't understand the Book of Mormon 50 years ago!! Sister Davidson, a member who came with us said, "It is because you have been praying before you read!" From the very first time we taught him, he was ready to make a change in his life. A long time ago, he served as a stake auditor, and wasn't really involved in church besides that .He told us that he would read the Book of Mormon but it wouldn't make sense to him, so he stopped reading it. But to see that he now has a desire to pray, and ask for understanding is amazing! We love him, and I know that the Lord is helping him. He knows it too:)

So that is my week! I love you all and I want you to know that God loves you individually! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - August 1, 2016

Creepy LA Art

Sister Cook and I

Sister Cook's recent converts took us to dinner for her birthday!

Hey Everyone!

We had a week full of miracles that's for sure! It was pretty crazy!

So we had appointments fall through and met this awesome Philippino

guy named John. Haha, he had just stepped outside and started to smoke

when we contacted him. He wasn't super religious and didn't like

church much so he believed he was fine just to personally communicate

with God through his feelings. We were like, ok. But we asked if we

could share a message and we taught him briefly about the restoration

and he was pretty curious about it. So we were able to give him a BofM

and teach him how to pray.


Then he wasn't able to meet last minute so we had a member with us and

decided to try by a less active. As we parked on Milford St. We looked

over and saw Johnny!


Little background - we met Teresa (member) last Sunday when our

bishopric went to give her and her mom and brother (Johnny) blessings

because of some turmoil that was happening in the family. We asked if

we could meet with Johnny on Tuesday and share our message with him

and he said sure. On Tuesday we drove up and he was ready to drive

away because he got called in to work and he hardly ever could go to

work because he cares for his mom. So we just met with Teresa instead.

We tried texting Johnny but he wouldn't reply


So it was a miracle that we saw him a day later, taking a break from

work, on Milford st. So cool! We had a good lesson with him - I think

all I can say is that it was super powerful but he has a lot of anger

to work through. I think Alma 10:5-6 kind of describes Johnny at this

point - but he's super cool.


We had quite a few people at church yesterday! The big news is that

Heriberto, Connie, and April came. Sister Colson and I randomly found

them and started teaching April back in April and we thought she would

have to get baptized in the Adams Ward (in a different mission)

because her mom (Gigi) goes to that Ward and is the only one that

takes her to church. Heriberto is inactive but will go to church

occasionally so he came with his girlfriend Connie and his active son

Isaiah and Isaiah's wife and little girl. It was so good having them

come to church :)


So we've been struggling getting Vanessa to stop drinking coffee.

She's been drinking it ever since she was 13 and loves it for the

taste. Anyways we bought her some hot chocolate and encouraged her to

drink that instead. The problem is we couldn't keep buying her hot

chocolate and she doesn't have enough money to go get herself some and

they only serve coffee at every meal. It's either coffee or water :(

so we were like, dang, that's temptation staring you right in the

face. However, she had just run out of her third box when this person

who works at the nursing home asked her where her hot cocoa was. When

Vanessa said she was out, this worker went and bought her some hot

cocoa and we've had members bringing it to her as well. Vanessa saw

that as a miracle! And so did we :)


Haha, we did this awesome missionary lesson yesterday during third

hour and it was so funny! So we had members of the Ward help us with

some role plays - scenarios where they might be able to spread the

gospel. We had the Butler family pretend to be a random family playing

outside in their yard and their neighbor (Brother Barry) would try to

contact them and invite them to church. We also asked a member to be

Brother Barry's inner voice as he tried to figure out what he should

say etc. It was so funny! We would pause the role play at a certain

point and then asked the members what Brother Barry could say to

spread the gospel. It was really cool :)


That's about it for this week! I love you all so much! It's Sister

Cook's birthday today!! Thank goodness I saved some of those balloons

you sent me mom :) Love you all so much!


Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - August 1, 2016

Kumusta po kayo!?

It's been another great week in San Mateo, but sadly, Sister Tupouniua and I are both getting transferred...ahhh!!! We got a call on Saturday night that our area is being pulled out and there is only going to be two missionaries left here. Sister Baker and her 2nd anak, yep she's training again! We are super excited for her! Not gonna lie, I was super sad to get transferred. I have loved San Mateo and have grown such a love for the people here.. it's gonna be hard to leave, but I guess that's God's plan for me! Just earlier, we dropped Sister Abalos off at the mission home. She is heading off to Chile concepcion south mission right now and she is so excited! We will definitely miss her though.

This week, we were able to go on splits with the STLs. I was with Sister Velasco! She was super awesome and we taught some great lessons. The thing that I learned from her was about being bold. Sometimes, we can be kinda shy with our investigators if they keep going on and on, or if they don't keep commitments. It's hard to be bold, but that's something I learned from her on the splits and will definitely apply right now!

Other things that happened this week.. Sister Baker had a baptism this week and so we were able to attend that! We also committed tatay suguitan's kids to baptism! Joshua who is 9 years old and carlito who is 15 years old. I'm super sad that I won't be able to teach them, but I know they are in good hands. Sister Baker is an amazing missionary.

That's all everyone. Mahal ko po kayo :)

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - August 1, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Monsoon season has arrived!! It literally storms every day! And it is so much cooler than Tucson! I am grateful for the blessing God has given me to serve here! :) This week was a little rough, but it ended well. On Wednesday we saw Avery again. (He is 8 years old). Apparently his family has been giving him tea to drink every so often, and they aren't too supportive of him getting baptized. His grandparents are the only support for Avery. So we taught him about the Word of Wisdom. and committed him to live it. We are hoping that he follows it! Later in the day, we had dinner with the Werner's. They are the cutest old couple ever! A month earlier we shared a message with them and invited them to give a Book of Mormon to someone. When we followed up with them to see if they had done that, Sister Werner just looked at me and gave me the most guilty and shameful face. She told us, "Can you tell from my face what the answer is?" haha! She was sooo cute! They told us that they would try super hard to pray about and find someone to give the Book of Mormon to. They are the best!

The next day, we did a lot of door knocking at this trailer complex. We met a guy named Joe and he was a less active, who we think could be in another ward in Silver City. He was very respectful of us, and we talked to him, and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. He told us that he hadn't read it in 10 years. So we hope the Spirit will touch his heart!! That night, we had dinner with the Cooks. As we walked in, we asked Brother Cook how he was doing. He told us that he had a miserable day. Sister Cook has a lot of health problems, and so I think it was hard on Brother Cook to see her having a hard time. But by the end of the night, we got into a wonderful gospel discussion about experiences with the Book of Mormon, and experiences that strengthened their relationship with God. It was so cool to see the transformation from being miserable, to happy. Even active members of the church need a spiritual message to brighten up their day, and help them to overcome trials. It was an awesome experience for all of us!

On Saturday we went on exchanges! I went with Sister Stebar, and she is literally the funniest person you will ever meet! haha! My stomach was hurting by the end of the exchange, because we literally laughed the whole day!! haha! We had some amazing experiences! In the morning we taught David who is a less active. I honestly have a hard time connecting with him! I just act so awkwardly!!! It drives me insane! So when I taught with Sister Stebar, it was so much better, and David was able to open up to us about his life, and the challenges that he was going through. We were truly led by the Spirit through that lesson. Then we decided to go and see a less active named Jack who was at this medical center in Bayard. The ward council and bishop encouraged us to go visit him, because he hasn't received any visits from the ward members aside from the sacrament being brought every Sunday. He was soooooo happy to see us! He expressed his gratitude to us that he was glad we came. He told us that we were lucky to have the opportunity to go out and visit people and share the gospel. He was the sweetest man, I just wanted to hug him!

Later that day, our relief society president from 3rd ward texted us and said that Sister Wolfington in the ward needed her fingernails clipped, and she couldn't do it because she was helping someone else in the ward. That has probably been the most bizarre request I have received on my mission!! haha! But we went over there, and did it! Sister Wolfington shakes really bad, so it was really hard not to clip her! But it turned out good! She apologized that she was shaking so bad, but we told her it was ok and just talked with her. We had an amazing discussion afterwards on faith. She told us that other people in her life, have strengthened her faith by their example. She was able to become active in the church because of a loving couple who helped her come to church every week. It was so sweet to hear her testimony and my faith was definitely strengthened because of that experience.

We also saw Jesus again! Oh my goodness, he is an amazing person! We taught him the Restoration, and he was hilarious! I asked him if he knew about Joseph Smith and his story, and Jesus told us that he knew most of it. So I said, "That's awesome! What do you remember?" He just looked at me and paused and said, "Oh, I don't know about his story!" Haha!! Sister Stebar and I laughed so hard!!! So we taught him about Joseph Smith, and then invited him to pray to know if Joseph Smith is a true prophet. Also in that lesson we asked him the question, "How would you feel if you saw God and Jesus Christ?" Jesus told us that his friend responded to that question by saying, "I don't know the dude, so..... haha!!!! What a lesson that was!!!

We also had a wonderful Sabbath day! We spoke in church, and I talked about conversion. It was a really good topic for me, and it helped me to see how we can become converted unto the Lord. I found this talk called "Hour of Conversion". The speaker talked about 4 things that can help us to be converted. The first is desire, than works, prayer, and trusting in the Lord. I truly believe that those four things can help us to have faith, take action and become the people that God wants us to be. So that is my week! I love being a missionary, and serving God's children!! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true!!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Chelsea - July 25, 2016

Baptism of Tatay Suguitan and Yanna

Kumusta po kayong lahat?!

This was an ok week. We had a great zone meeting on Tuesday and the stls talked about using hymns in our lessons. Have to be honest, at first I was like mannn that's super awkward, especially if it's a new investigator... I wasn't really optimistic about trying it out, but ever since we have started, the spirit has been in the lessons so much stronger. We also found a new less active here and after we taught, she asked us if we could sing count your many blessings. She hadn't been to church in about 20 years and she says she missed the hymns. Just shows the power of hymns and how much they can influence us for the better!

So this week, basically we've been trying to find all these less actives. I looked at the numbers in our ward, there are 500 members in san mateo and only about 50 are active. It's crazy right?! I've been going through the records and highlighting all those who are in our area that we don't know. So whenever we go out proselyting we have this huge list of people we need to find. Haha man it's harder than I thought! A lot of the records aren't even updated either so sometimes people are like oh they died years ago! haha. We found one great family though the other day. It's so sad though, they basically said they have no time for praying and reading and church because they are working. Haha we shared 3 nephi 13:31-33. It was good though because they have two kids that haven't been baptized and the mom wants us to teach them every sunday! Wooh!

So this week I got some food poisoning. Basically, I ate some chicken in the fridge that I thought was only there for like 2 days but it was actually like a week hahaa. Got super sick the next day and was throwing up! But I'm all good now! Time flies so much on the mission that you forget about how many days your food is in the ref!

So I can honestly say that Saturday was the most stressful day ever. The Stls had a wedding for their investigator that day, and they had an elder all planned out to play the piano, of course he ends up getting in the hospital which means I had to do it last minute and we were so stressed! So we had to go all the way to cauayan in the morning on saturday and me and sister baker did the music for the wedding, she played the violin. It actually turned out very beautful! After that, we hurried back to our area and informed tatay suguitan and yanna about their baptisms and then hurried to the church and cleaned the font which took us 2 hours.Haha it was so gross. Then we hurried to our apartment to change and went back to the church. We went with a member to go get tatay suguitan. He had a stroke in november and so it takes him a while to walk, and the car can't get in to his house so we had to walk a ways. It was so cute, I was walking right next to his side, and I was like kaya mo ba tay? (can you do it?) and he was like kaya ko sister, I can do it so I can get baptized.. aww! Sorry it sounds better in tagalog. Anyways, we got to the church and the keys to the office were locked which had the baptismal suits in it, so president had to go back to his house. Meanwhile the Hiatts were there! haha sobrang stressful. Also our other investigator wasn't there so we had to go walk to her house and get her! Man we were sweating it but the baptism turned out beautiful!

They had to baptize tay twice because his feet kept coming up because he doesn't have control over them... but they finally got him all the way down! When they came out, they both bore testimony. I'm pretty sure everyone was crying through tatay's testimony. He did it in ilekano but I was able to understand about half of it and I felt the spirit so strongly. Awww so amazing. I am so grateful for tatay's decision to be baptized and to follow Jesus Christ. I know that he will be an amazing example to his family and hopefully, his family will join him soon. Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - July 25, 2016

Having fun with Hermana Kerr!

This week was amazing! Oh my goodness, the Lord blessed us so much! On Tuesday, we went to Safford to have our trainer trainee meeting. It was so awesome to see all the trainers, because I pretty much knew all of them!! Also, Hermana Kerr was there, so I got to take a picture with her!! She is hilarious, and the stories she has to tell about her mission are so funny, I literally almost wet my pants!! haha! It is the way that she tells the story that makes me laugh so hard! haha! After our trainer trainee meeting, we went back to my old area, and stopped by to drop off something that the Safford sisters had forgotten on exchanges. So I got to see Sister Curtis! (The member that we were living with in the Gila Valley). When she came into the kitchen and saw me she looked a little shocked!! haha! But I gave her a big hug and we had lunch with the Safford sisters. Then we had to hurry back to Silver City! Back to the trainer meeting, I was thinking about all the miracles that the missionaries shared, and I thought to myself, my new missionary hasn't invited someone to be baptized yet. I had such a strong desire for her to invite someone to be baptized. Later that night, after dinner we decided to try a potential investigator named Tonya that was next door to another potential named Lisa. When we parked on the curb, we saw Lisa outside, and I got a strong feeling to go and teach her! So we did! And guess what????? Sister Brinkerhoff invited her to be baptized! And Lisa said yes!!! ahhhhhhhh!! I was so happy, I literally had to contain myself from jumping with joy! haha! It was so amazing! We had been praying and praying for weeks to find someone who was ready. We got out of our comfort zones and knocked on doors, and we were finally blessed to find someone who was ready to listen!


On Wednesday, we had an amazing lesson with a less active from the YSA branch. We decided to have the lesson outside, because we thought there wouldn't be as many distractions. It was such a great lesson, and she opened up to us a little! So there is progress!


On Thursday we visited Jesus again to read the Book of Mormon with him. He couldn't hear us very well, so that was a struggle, but we explained the chapter to him so that he could understand. Then we asked him how the Book of Mormon has blessed his life. He gave the most profound answer. He testified that it had helped him to know himself better, so that he could make better decisions in his life. We had an amazing lesson with him! Then we saw Sister Mitchell again. We talked about faith and shared the scripture in Moroni 7:33. Just from that scripture, the Spirit was able to guide our thoughts, and Sister Mitchell opened up to us! We invited her to pray to God and ask if He loved her. She thanked us for the invitation, and she said she would do that.


On Saturday we got another new investigator!!! A transfer ago, when I was with Sister Hunt, we stopped by to see this one family from the ward we didn't know. They ended up not being there, and we met Lily. She was open to hearing our message, so we gave her a card with our number on it. So fast forward to this week! We visited her, and the first thing she said to me was, "Oh, I remember you!" I was SO shocked that she remembered me, when it was a month since I had seen her. She invited us in and we taught her the Restoration. We invited her to be baptized but she was hesitant. She didn't want to stray away from her family's religious tradition, so she said no. BUT...... She accepted to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true! And she was open to us coming back! So we are definitely planting a seed!


On Sunday, we had an amazing lesson with Sister Post! We taught her about gratitude, and even though she was in pain because of her health problems, and she felt sick, she was able to say what she was grateful for. She got emotional as she talked about her grandson, and her other grandchildren. We also shared the scripture with her in Alma 7 about giving thanks to God in all things. We had a wonderful lesson with her, and at the end, I invited her to pray. She prayed, and I felt the Spirit so strongly! What a good experience to end the week! I love you all and miss you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!


Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - July 25, 2016

Hey Everyone!

We had a pretty crazy week this week!

We had a mission conference on Thursday with a member of the Seventy

and his wife - Elder and Sister Gaverett (not sure on the spelling) and it

was really cool! The APs told us afterwards that Elder Gaverett

changed the agenda of the meeting like 10 different times and the

purpose was to have the Spirit guide the meeting. It was kind of

hilarious too because they did accountability last minute and had all

the ZLs come up and do accountability for the entire zone - baptisms

for the last four months and how many were still active in the church

- focused on retention. Those poor zone leaders were really sweating

it but did a great job! And some ZLs weren't there so they called up

the DL in place - haha yeah Sister Colson said she was really glad not

to be either at the moment.

We had an awesome church tour with Heriberto, Connie, and April. It

was kind of hilarious because April's date is set for the 19th of June

and we only meet with her once a week so we literally crammed like

half of the lessons into the church tour. However, April did get the

pack of gum Sister Colson used to explain tithing so she stayed awake

for most of it. It's cool too because Connie is just kind of present

for lessons, to support April, but we can tell she's feeling the


Spirit so we hope as we continue to meet that her testimony will

strengthen and she'll have the desire to do more. Wonderful family!

Unfortunately Eddie (short for Heriberto) works every other Sunday so

church attendance will be very spotty. Connie told us she would bring

April to church but unfortunately they never came. Life goes on

though! We have a temple trip planned for this Thursday and they said

they would meet us there to check out the Visitors Center so we're

excited for that!


Oh my gosh we have the coolest family in the Ward. So it's Brother and

Sister Butler and they will just be here until August but Brother

Butler is going to school at BYU and they live in Wyview and will be

there for a while so they told me I should come and visit which would

be super cool! He's doing his masters in engineering and another funny

fact we found out- he was in the movie High School Musical! So that's

the plan when I go back to school is to go to the Butler's apt. And

watch High School Musical :) haha- they are awesome! Sister Butler is

actually coming on a lesson with us today for Eivet and Sonahey

(friends of a less active member who have come to church twice now)

and we are so excited to teach them.


We had such a unique experience last night. It was late (like

8:40) and we had planned on stopping by this potential. She had

stopped us in the street a month ago and asked if we wanted to come by

her house and "talk about it" so we were like, sure . . .? Then when

we were on exchanges a few weeks ago we stopped by their house and met

her very crazy brother Fabien. Pretty creepy dude. Anyways so we

decided to stop by last night. Not a super logical thing when it's

dark but we felt OK about it. So we go and Fabien is the only one home

and he's just super creepy. So we asked him to tell Patricia we

stopped by and prepared to jet when this group of kids passed by us

ranging from like 5-13. They were the sweetest kids in the world. They

all lived in the neighborhood and were used to Fabien but they were

kind of scared of him. Anyways, they asked who we were and then told

us about the churches they went to. Then one of the boys (Angel) asked

if we believed in bad dreams - we told them to pray whenever they had

one and then they all started sharing their bad dreams. Then Kelly, one

of the little girls, asked if we could all say a prayer together. So

we like moved away from Fabien's house and gathered in a circle and

all took turns saying a prayer. And it was so cool! It was 9:15 by

then and we told them we had to go. Angel asked us if we could stay

for another hour and it was so hard to leave those kids! But we told

them we would come back. Such an amazing experience!



We were in primary a few weeks ago and this little girl named Madison

(she's maybe 4) is just a hoot. The lesson was on Jesus and His many

titles/roles. They started talking about how Jesus was the Good

Shepherd which would make all of the kids the "sheep" and Madison

stands up and states very pointedly "I'm not a sheep, I'm a kitty!"

So remember, no matter what animal you are, Jesus still loves you and

still wants you to follow Him. ☺️


Haha, so Mariana (she just got confirmed last week) has a daughter

named Gen in the YSA Ward but Gen comes with her mom to the family

Ward a lot to support her. So yesterday was fast Sunday and we were

going back over it with Mariana and she was like joke griping about

how we have to fast for two meals. She asked if 12 was ok to start

eating. Haha, I told her that when we were young our parents made

sure it was two full meals so we didn't end up eating until 4 or so

and sometimes when dad (who was bishop at the time) got home late we

would fast until 5 or 6 and Gen's like "So that's why you're so

skinny! You guys fasted until 6!" Oh my gosh hilarious - but yes there

are many health benefits to fasting! Physical and spiritual!


That's about it from here in Glendale! I love you all so much! Thanks

again for all of the letters and support! Have a wonderful week :)


Love, Sister Dunn

Holli - July 18, 2016

Hey Everyone!

We had a really cool week this week!


We had exchanges on Saturday and it was the funniest thing! Sister

Hobbs came here to Glendale and she is so cool. She is from New

Zealand so she has the coolest accent ever! And as we were street

contacting, so many people were playing this new Pokemon game with

their phones and that was literally our contacting approach. So many

people were so absorbed in their phones and we were just like,

"there's no way that's an important message, it's got to be Pokemon "

- so we had some pretty hilarious contacts!


We contacted this sweet girl named Loni. She was going through a

really hard time and we were able to share a little of our message

with her. She's pretty much all alone and about to have a baby so it

was cool to share about Jesus Christ. She said she had a few LDS

friends and she went to our church maybe once but she has wanted to

get back into church, especially for her child. Sad experience, but

definitely strengthened my testimony of the healing powers of the

Atonement.


We were walking down the street one day and this guy calls to us from

a bike. His name was Pablo and he said he was a Jehovah's Witness but

that he was curious about our church and wanted to attend a service

there. We gave him the address and time and he showed up! He seemed to

really enjoy it so we hope the Spirit continues to work on him!


That same day we were walking to contact a potential when we ran into

Amber! Turns out she is a less active member from Utah and we were

able to invite her to one of the RS activities and it was so cool! She

is the sweetest member ever - she and her husband were only here for

the week but she came to a humanitarian activity and we talked for

quite a while!


Haha, in that same activity they were sewing children's pillowcases in

preparation for Christmas time to give to kids in the children's

hospital. So they asked if I could sew and I told them it had been a

while but my mother taught me well, so they put me behind a sewing

machine and I didn't break it! (Until like the very end when we had to

leave and something happened with the needle . . . We're sure they

were able to figure it out :)



We ran into Anna the other day. Sweetest Armenian lady ever! She told

us she was Christian as we walked her back to her home but then, after

a few seconds of silence, she said she didn't really believe that any

more because she hadn't seen any family members for 17 years because

they were all back in Armenia. And her mom died 17 years ago and she

was here, alone, with her son. She is also supporting her father who

can't work so she is very busy. She is pretty bitter about all of the

bad things that have happened in her life. But we asked her to give us

a chance and she said ok. Prayers for Anna this week!


On exchanges we went to an apartment complex to find a less active and

we knocked but no one was home so we knocked the neighbor's apartment

and she opened and her face was like, super closed when she saw us at

first. But we started talking with her about the family and then she

invited us in to give us water and we were able to share the

restoration with her! She is Pentecostal and very active but she said

we could bring back a Spanish Book of Mormon and it was awesome!


That's about it for this week in Glendale! Thank you for all your

letters and support!


Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - July 11, 2016

Hello everyone!


I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! Oh my

goodness we had such a great week! On Tuesday, we spent the whole day

in Hurley. The city of Hurley is 20 minutes away from Silver City, so

it is really far out there! We visited Sister Coldwell who is home

bound, and can't come to church. She is still a faithful member of the

church, and her granddaughter may be interested in taking the lessons!

We are so excited! After that visit, we decided to tract around the

house of a member. We asked a lot of people if they knew her. We had a

great experience! Before we decided to knock on a door, I told Sister

Brinkerhoff she would be doing all the talking. She is VERY quiet, and

doesn't say a lot, and so I have been trying to push her out of her

comfort zone:) It was a really good experience for her! She only

talked for a sentence, and then it became an awkward silence, so I had

to talk. Maybe I can try just being quiet the WHOLE time and see how

she reacts! Ok, just kidding, I think that would be rude. Haha!


On Wednesday we had zone meeting. And guess who is in my zone again???

Elder Nielson from my stake, and Elder Dilworth who was my district

leader in the Gila Valley! We had a great meeting about the doctrine

of baptism and we did an awesome role play that helped Sister

Brinkerhoff and I be more balanced. After the meeting we went to Dairy

Queen! Heck yeah! Then we had a lesson with Avery. We talked about the

priesthood, and we related a flashlight to the priesthood power. We

talked about how we have to push the button on the flashlight for it

to work. We related it to the priesthood, and said that you have to be

worthy to receive it before you can exercise that power. It was a

really good lesson! After dinner, we drove up to Duncan to exchange

with the sisters in Safford: Sister Reid and Sister Stebar. I love

them both so much! They are amazing! I exchanged with Sister Reid, and

we headed up to Silver City. Sister Reid served in Silver City for 7

1/2 months, and so it was an exciting day for her! :) We saw Sister

Scott, and she had made a 24 hour change! Oh my goodness, she was

dressed up and had makeup on, and she was soooo happy! She said that

from the moment she got the blessing, God helped her to change her

life. It was so cool to see! Later in the day we had a lesson with

David (a returning member). We had a very short but powerful lesson

with him about the priesthood. He has the desire to exercise his

priesthood again! So we asked him what he could do to be worthy to

exercise the priesthood. He had a couple of ideas, and so we committed

him to do that! It was such a great exchange, and I had an amazing

time with Sister Reid!


On Friday we finally met with Sabrina! We

hadn't met with her in two weeks, and we were getting concerned. So

apparently her parents aren't fond of her decision to be baptized. So

it has been hard for to go to church, and meet with us, because she is

doing it against her parents will. That has been tough! However, she

has such strong faith, and she told us about the undeniable feelings

she receives. During the lesson, she was explaining all of her

thoughts, and I literally had no idea what to say to her. Then a

thought popped into my head to ask her if she wanted a blessing. I got

a really warm feeling, and so I asked her. She said that she wanted

to! And thankfully 2 sets of elders were weekly planning at the

institute at that time! So we had one of the elders give her a

blessing. It was awesome! Then Sister Brinkerhoff shared an awesome

scripture story that applied to Sabrina's situation. The amazing thing

about this whole experience was that we didn't even plan for her! She

just called us randomly during the day and asked if she could meet

with us at that very moment. The Spirit truly led us during that

lesson!


On Saturday, we had a great day! We went out to Bayard and saw the

Bencomo's. We taught her, and her son James about the gospel of Jesus

Christ. We had an amazing discussion with her! She has a hard time

coming to church because she usually comes alone. And the church

emphasizes so much on family, that she feels uncomfortable going by

herself. So that has been tough. But we committed them to come to

church, and she said that she would try! Then we had dinner with the

Armijo's and then visited Sister Mitchell. We taught her the Plan of

Salvation. Earlier in our visit, she talked to us about a boy named

Dallin whom she worked with at a school. He has cerebral palsy. So as

we were teaching the Plan of Salvation, we talked about immortality

and applied it to Dallin's situation. Then I told Sister Mitchell how

precious, pure, and innocent these special spirits are to us on this

earth. As I asked how it has been a blessing to help and work with

him, she began to cry. She bore her testimony of the Plan of

Salvation, and it was such a powerful moment for me to see the love

that she had for this precious son of God.


Oh my word, Sunday was an amazing day! We went to Jace Porter's

farewell (The stake president's son). 200 people showed up, and half of

them were non-members! It was an amazing experience, to be able to

listen to Jace's testimony. Something that he said really stuck out to

me. He said, "If I didn't know that the gospel was true, I wouldn't be

leaving those that I love." And then he turned to his Mom and said, "I

want you to know that Mom!" When he said those words, I started to

cry! (Thanks Mom for those emotional genes!) haha! After sacrament

meeting, we went to the YSA branch and taught Gospel Principles, and

Relief Society! It was awesome to teach with Sister Brinkerhoff! It's

weird cause she is so much more confident when she is teaching a

class, but when we do missionary work, she is SOO quiet! Haha! We are

definitely going to work on that! Later that day we saw Brother

Darnell again. We also brought Alyssia with us! When we came in to

teach him, he told us that he did what we asked him to do and he read

his scriptures!!! He told us that he reached 1st Nephi Chapter 12!! We

were so astonished! He told us, "See what you did to me?" Haha! As we

started to teach the lesson, we told him that we were going to be

teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. He told us, "Oh good, I need

some salvation!" Haha! He is literally the cutest old man I have ever

met! We had an amazing discussion with him! So as you can tell, we

have had a busy week full of spiritual moments, awkward moments, and

moments to testify of this perfect gospel! I love being a missionary!

It brings me so much happiness in my life! I love you all, and I know

that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true!


Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - July 11, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Man, we had quite the week!

We've been working with this awesome guy named Sam. He was a street

contact we had last week and he is going through chemotherapy but he

told us we were welcome to come back and share our message so we met

with him a lot this week. He actually came to church on Sunday and

loved it - he told us how much he admired the members. In one of our

later lessons he told us that he sensed a big part of our church had

to do with families and he said that's something he wanted help with

because his family is basically torn apart. We actually met with his

wife Jackie this week as well and had the opportunity to talk with her

and that was one of the most spiritually painful lessons I've ever

been in. Jackie has become so bitter towards Sam in some of the things

he's done in his life and she doesn't really display much emotion but

she talked to us for maybe thirty minutes straight about all the pain

she is going through.


She told us she would listen to our message but that she wouldn't

believe much about it until she saw Sam make major changes in his

life. This morning as I was studying for the family I thought of the

parable of the prodigal son. Jackie is a lot like the elder brother -

she's lived a good life and goes to church when she can and tries to

maintain her faith and her family but she's so broken inside about

what Sam has done and won't let anyone in to heal her. We had the

bishop's wife with us and she got emotional as she shared her own

experience of coming from a broken home. Sister Cook was also raised

in a similar situation so she could relate too. It made me a lot more

grateful for my parents who work together to maintain a home in

righteousness.

We had the opportunity to spend about three hours in the hot sun

helping to sort food for the Salvation Army with some kids from the

local high school. It was such a blast! We had other missionaries from

our zone come help and it was pretty fun! But we are all so badly

sunburned it's not that funny. We all looked like such tomatoes coming

out of there.


We have this awesome investigator named Vanessa. She just had a stroke

and moved to California for radiation treatment for her cancer. We

teach her every day and she's really cool! Her cousin Joseph actually

referred her but none of her immediate family live nearby. Vanessa's

one hold up is that she really likes her baptist church (friends and

the music) and she has already been baptized twice so she feels like

if she gets baptized again, she'll make Heavenly Father mad. Kind of

strange - but we've been working with her on the proper authority part

:)


So Vanessa is so great. She comes to church but needs a ride so we

have a member go pick her up and getting her into the car is so

stressful because like the left half of her body can't move so it's

like doing the hokey pokey to get her into the car. And then we wheel

her around in a wheelchair during church that is pretty painful for

her. Haha, and she had to go to the bathroom and needed help . . .

Poor Sister Cook wheeled her into the handicapped stall and then

jetted back out with this freaked out look in her eyes so it was up to

me! Haha that was fun :)


We had such a cool experience park contacting the other night. There

were these girls there that were getting ready for volleyball

practice and my heavens they reminded me so much of all my younger

cousins! They were so cute and fun to talk to! They asked about who we

were and what we did and then talked about who they were and what they

did. So fun! Then we walked over to a table and contacted this guy and

he looked pretty down. We started talking with him and he said he used

to be super religious but that all changed when a series of tragic

events happened in his life so he chose not to believe in God at all.

I asked him if he was happy now and he said that he was miserable but

he wouldn't believe in God. Wow . . . what a difference it can make in

a person's life if they will only choose to believe! We felt so bad

for him as he walked away but we know Heavenly Father will look out

for His son.


That's about it for the week! Thank you all for your letters and

support! Have an awesome week!


Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - July 11, 2016

Hello everyone!

This week has been a very interesting week and a tough one for Sister Tupouniua. On Monday and Tuesday she was super sick and so we weren't able to work. On Wednesday, we got our flu vaccinations and ever since then, Sister T has been having some problems with her neck and shoulder area. It has been hurting her sooo bad that it hurts to walk and get up. On Sunday during church, we had to leave during sacrament meeting to the hall because she was about to pass out. Despite her objections, I told the Senior couple, the Jones, and they drove us straight to the hospital on Sunday. We got her checked in, they hooked her up to an iv, got her an x-ray, got her a room, and gave her some pain meds! We are still in the hospital right now and have no idea what the results are. Just waiting on the doctor.. haha. The Jones have been so great though because we have absolutely none of our stuff with us, so they bought us food yesterday and have been bringing us things we need. Sister T is doing better today, but we are still waiting..

On Wedneday, we went to cauayan and had a meet the new mission president zone conference. President and Sister Hiatt are super great.While listening to them, I definitely felt that they have been called of God to be our new mission President and wife. President Hiatt has a lot of great ideas to get the mission progressing. After the conference, they chose Sister T and I to work with them. So they drove down to San Mateo and worked with us! They are so great! They are super interactive in the lessons and are always asking us to translate for them and so it was such a great experience.

Tatay suguitan is doing great! We were kinda nervous this week because we had to follow up on his word of wisdom with coffee. We asked about it this week with him and he basicallly told us that it doesn't have an effect on him anymore and that he doesn't even want it in the morning. Ahhh its amazing! I know that God has helped him overcome this.

Love you all, don't have much time sorry. Sister T and I are sharing a computer haha

Sister Dunn

Holli - July 3, 2016

Hey Everyone!

Oh my lands this week was super great!

So this is Sister Cook's last transfer but she extended for a bit so
she'll leave early September. But she is seriously the bomb.com.
She is like the perfect missionary. Knows how to get return
appointments, loves talking to everyone, invites everyone to come to
church and be baptized. It's great! Haha, she lived in Emmett for a
while and we both love Idaho so she's the best. She is the youngest of
10 kids and has quite the story! (I'll include that in the journal I
send home). We have done so much this past week that I've just been so
exhausted but it's good :)

So get this . . . 3 people came to church yesterday, all of whom we've
met this week. Crazy!

We met this awesome family the other night. The mom (Natalie) hasn't
been to church for a long time and her brother Carlos hasn't either
but he came to church yesterday with his three kids and it was
amazing. They are a super sweet family who a lot of bad things have
happened to so it's kind of sad but they're doing well. They have the
cutest 4 year old named Danny and I occupied him while Sister Cook
talked to the rest of the family. He was hilarious! I showed him a few
Bible videos and had him point out whenever Jesus appeared on the
screen - pretty fun :)

We met this awesome guy named Sam the other day. We were walking down
the street and started to talk with him outside his home. He had just
returned from a chemo treatment but told us we could come back so a
few days later we popped by and he was like, "You came back?!" And
then he brought us a lot of fruit and we sat outside his house and
taught him a little bit of the Restoration and invited him to church
the next day. And he showed up! Right at the end of gospel principles.
One of the members made a remark about how the commandment to keep the
Sabbath Day Holy is more like a gift and if we can see it as a gift
we'll have a greater desire to come to church etc. Sam then raises his
hand and asks the class "What is a humane way to catch a monkey?"

Sister Cook and I are like, "Oh great, here we go." But he went on to
say that the humane way to catch a monkey is to set a banana in a trap
and then when the monkey grabs the banana to close the trap and once
the monkey has the banana he won't let go to free himself from the
trap. Then Sam said that he felt like the monkey, holding onto this
banana because that morning he had been contemplating whether or not
to go to church etc. Then he said that he was letting go of the banana
now :) He's super cool. He told us he would be at church next week
too!

We met this sweet girl named Emma the other day. She had been taught
by missionaries about a year ago but she lives with her grandma who is
very against Emma learning about Christianity or going to a Christian
church so she had to tell the Sisters she couldn't meet again. But we
sat with her for a little and talked with her about her life and then
went into the Restoration and before we knew it she was bawling. Kind
of the way she described her life was like modern Cinderella - super
sad but she was really stressed out so we sat with her as she cried
and then asked if we could continue to meet with her. Though her life
is hard she agreed so we hope to see her this week. Prayers for Emma!

We met this sweet lady named Juliet the other night. She's from the
Philippines in the Cauayan province is what she said so I was 
super pumped :) We shared a brief message about the gospel and asked
if she would be interested in meeting again and she said yes! She told
us she had this intense stomach pain for the past few days and she had
been praying to a God for help and that day it had eased somewhat. So
as she started her walk she continued to pray for help and that's when
we stopped her :) We went to Starbucks the next morning and she bought
us some juice and we taught her the Restoration and gave her a BofM
and she seemed to enjoy it. Her job prevents her from going to church
but she really wants to come to our church so it was a cool
experience.

One last cool experience. We were walking down the street (haha, we
tend to do that a lot) and we ran into this lady named Sylvia walking
her dog. As we stopped to talk with her she got really curious about
who we were and what we did. We shared a brief message with her and
invited her to learn more. She told us she had been having some family
problems and was struggling but she didn't have the time to meet but
said she might check out the church. So we gave her the address and
encouraged her to come. Super sweet lady!

Well that's about it from here in Glendale! Thanks for all of the
letters and pic.'s mom of Taylor's return :) Sister Cook said she was crying for me 
haha :) I love you so much and hope this next week is a good one!

Love, Sister Dunn