Lindsay - September 12, 2016

Hello everyone! 

Holy cow this week has been a roller coaster of emotions!!! On Tuesday, 

we went to gospel mission. We help bag food, and restock shelves with 

canned food. It is amazing to serve others! Then after lunch we went to 

the Fort Bayard Medical Center. We visited a lady named Patricia who is 

in our Ward! Oh my goodness, she was doing so much better than the last 

time we visited her! She talked a lot and asked a lot of really good questions 

about the scriptures. The first time we had met her, she barely spoke. So we 

were glad to share the gospel with her! 

After that visit, we were driving down this one road, and we saw this lady 

trimming her trees. So we stopped the car and parked, and asked her if 

she needed any help. She said she didn't but was grateful for the offer. 

So we began talking and she showed us her huge garden, and we began

talking about religion. We had a great discussion with her, and we had the 

opportunity to share our purpose with her! Even though she was pretty strong 

in her own faith, she was grateful and open to us sharing a little bit about the 

gospel! We ended up giving her a pass along card with our number on it, and 

she gave us some lemon cucumbers:) After meeting that nice lady, we went

and completed Avery's baptismal program for his baptism on Saturday!

For dinner, we went to the Relief Society dinner. They had a potato

bar, and then we made Conference journals:) It was a great turnout! 

On Wednesday, we left for Safford in the morning for zone meeting. It was

such a fun drive in the mountains! It was foggy, and it was raining,

so it was a beautiful drive. But the roads are terrible!!! We

hydroplaned a lot!! We got to Safford safety fortunately! We had an

amazing zone meeting!!! Elder Kapele gave a training on finding, and

then the zone leaders gave a training on the doctrine of Christ. We

also have a mission challenge called Fill the font! Each companionship

is given the challenge of having 1 baptism and 1 reactivation before

the zone conference in November! We are super pumped to work to

accomplish that goal! It will be tough, but the Lord can do all things

if we trust in Him. After the meeting, we went to my favorite place

Kainoa's!!! I was hoping so bad to see someone from my last area! And

I did! I was just looking at our phone for messages when I heard, "Hey

Sister Dunn!" It was my Ward mission leader from Safford! Heck yeah! I

was super excited to see someone from my last area! It was the best!

After lunch, we went to the temple! It was such a wonderful experience

for me, to do a family name for the endowment. I felt at peace, and I

knew that what I was doing would bless my fourth cousin! 

On Thursday, we went to gospel mission, and then we went around 

the surrounding cities of Santa Clara, Bayard and Hurley to share the 

gospel. Later in the day, we had an amazing lesson with Sister Mitchell! 

She actually brought up the will of God, which was what we had planned 

to teach her! Talk about divine inspiration!! :) She was very emotional, and

expressed her appreciation and love to us for teaching her! The spirit

was truly touching her, and we were glad that we could be instruments

in the hands of the Lord. 

On Friday we planned a lot. In the middle of our planning, we got a 

call from Bishop Roth, that Avery's baptism was canceled. It was supposed 

to be the next day, and we had everything ready. Avery's dad said that he 

should wait until he is older. We were literally devastated. I started to cry 

as we drove to our appointment with one of our investigators. We had 

worked for 4 months, and so many other missionaries taught him before 

us! Then, about 10-15 minutes later, Bishop calls us back and says that the

baptism is back on! Sister Brinkerhoff literally screamed so loud as

we heard the news. Haha, it scared me so bad! And then I started

bawling!! Haha! It was a funny moment. But it was such a humbling

experience.  Sister Brinkerhoff was laughing while I was bawling. What

a wave of emotions!!! As we tried to compose ourselves, we went to

teach our investigator Robert. I knew that the Lord wanted me to have

that experience before teaching Robert. I definitely listened to the

Spirit as we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He tries so hard

every day to do an act of kindness, even with his physical

limitations. He is in a wheelchair every day, and so it is amazing to

see his faith in the Lord, as he strives to do what is right. 

The next day the baptism went so smoothly, and more than 40 people 

showed up! Avery's dad who is a non member said the prayer, and it 

was such a sweet and humble prayer. Oh my goodness this week has 

been amazing! And on top of Avery's baptism, Brother Darnell came to church!!!

YAY!!! He told us in gospel doctrine, "I am nervous! The Spirit is

making me sweat!" Haha! He told the whole gospel doctrine class when

he was introducing himself, (I am paraphrasing here), These sisters

helped me to commit to come to church today, and the building hasn't

fallen in, or a plane hasn't crashed into the building, so I am doing

ok!" It has been such a great week! The Lord has definitely tried our

patience and faith!! I am grateful for the gospel, and I am so

grateful to be a missionary! I love you all, and I know that the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Chelsea - September 12, 2016

Hi everyone! 

Well quite the week! On Monday night we found a new less active which moves our count of two less actives to 3! haha. But she's really great. She really wants to come back to the church and so we are excited to help her become reactivated! We have an fhe with her this evening! 

On Tuesday, we had a zone meeting all about repentance, helping our investigators understand when they are forgiven, etc. One of the questions they asked was how we as missionaries can increase our understanding of repentance. Of course always studying about the Atonement and repentance will help as well as repenting ourselves every day and looking at the blessings that come from repentance. The best kind of missionaries are the ones who live what they teach, and being a good missionary starts with being converted yourself and living the gospel so you can help others! 

As for our investigators this week, we are working with a lot of them to progress! The only hard thing is they didn't come to church We found so many new investigators this week though and so hopefully we have some potentials out of all of them! We did get a referral from one of the members and she ended up coming to church! The only thing is is that she lives super far away and so we will only end up teaching her like once a week. But we are definitely going to try! Brother Ventura came to church this week but we weren't able to teach him all week because he was gone. I talked to him yesterday and he seemed kinda depressed, so we are gonna go teach him this week for sure. 

On Saturday we had Lyka's Baptism! Everything went really great and she bore such a sweet testimony even though she was freaking out beforehand! The ward has been so great in supporting her and we are excited for her :) So transfer lists just came, and my comp will not be transferring and I will be staying. That's about it! 

Love you all,

Sister Dunn

Holli - September 12, 2016

Hello Everyone!

We had a pretty great week here in Glendale. Working hard on finding

those that the Lord has prepared for us! And trying to prepare a few

others along the way :)

We are teaching this guy named Charles. He's pretty cool - he is

actually the father of a less active member. He came to church last

week and told us he would like to meet with us. And then during our

first lesson said that he was studying theology at school and they

were doing a paper on religions and he was assigned to do a paper on

the Mormon religion. So as we taught him, as part of this paper he had

certain rules he needed to follow. He couldn't ask or answer questions

or make any criticism/comments on the things we taught and most

importantly he could not teach us about theology. It was super

interesting! So we taught the Restoration and it was really

interesting to have him listen the entire time without bringing up

complaints, criticisms, or questions. We kind of didn't know how to

teach to that but we managed!

One day we were trying to find this member at a nursing home and we

met this super sweet girl named Sona. She just got back from a study

abroad in Denmark but we talked with her about her beliefs. Turns out

she belongs to the Church of Christ so it was cool talking with her

about God and Jesus Christ. She was super nice - not very interested

in checking our church out - but said if we ever needed anything to

give her a call :)

We went on exchanges one day in Sunland and Sister Newman and I had a

lesson with this guy named Tinker. He sure was an interesting fellow.

He goes to our church every week but is part of this group that is

trying to unify all religions. Kind of interesting. Anyway, he brought

like three bibles and two hymn books to our lesson so we had a fun

discussion about the restoration. He has also read the BofM but he

doesn't seem interested in sincerely praying about it and acting on

the answer yet. He was very knowledgable though.

Haha speaking of knowledgable, we had this surprise phone call one

night from this guy named JR. He's a super cool guy and knows the

bible front and back. He was looking up some architecture designs one

day and ran into one of our temples so he looked up one close to us,

called the temple and asked them about our religion and beliefs,

ordered a Book of Mormon online, and is now in 2 Nephi. The lady at

the temple gave him our number and we had like a 45 minute

conversation about the gospel. He told us that he loves reading the

Book of Mormon but had a question about one of the verses in 2 Nephi

6:4,9 about Christ and the prophecies there. Super interesting guy.

We asked if we could meet,  but in his church, it is looked down upon to

research other faiths so he told us he would just talk with us over

the phone.

And then we told him our phone calls had to be limited to 10 minutes

and he was like oh . . . . :)

We had a lesson with one of our less active members named Maria. She's

a super awesome lady. Back when I first came to Glendale her daughter

Valarie had gotten in a terrible motorcycle accident with her

boyfriend and ever since then I've heard a lot about Valarie but have

never met her - and she has also not been baptized but has wanted to

be baptized. Anyways, we got to meet her the other night and it was

super cool. We shared the first vision with her and Anthony and

invited them to continue to take the lessons and go to church. So high

hopes for Valarie!!

Our converts Heriberto, Connie, and April took us out to eat Saturday night - it

was so much fun! They are such a wonderful family. Connie asked us a

lot about our missions and what we do - she told us we were too young

to be making such a big sacrifice, especially not being able to

communicate with our families very often. We told her the blessings

are much greater than the sacrifice!! I'm so grateful I have the

opportunity to serve the Lord. It has been such a blessing.

Thank you all for your letters and support. Love you so much!!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - September 5, 2016

Mini MTC Activity with my two companions!

Our tricie totally broke down and we had to stop on the bridge!

Well this has been a pretty interesting week.. But definitely want to start out with the good. Lyka passed her interview yesterday and will be baptized on Saturday! So exciting and she is so ready :) We are so happy that she's finally able to take this step in her life. 

So our other progressing investigators: Bro. Ventura. He didn't come to church for the first time in a long time.. We were so sad.. We taught him twice this week. The first time we taught him at his sister's house because there was a birthday going on. So all these guys are there and super drunk and so we teach bro ventura and we don't really know if he's drunk or not.  He was super talkative though. The next time we taught him he didn't remember anything we said before so we think he might have been drinking a little bit. It's sad because he says he would never do that but we are starting to think that that might be the problem and why he doesn't want to get baptized... We are still trying to figure it out though.

 Our other investigator, Marichris, basically texted us and said she went home (which is like 2 hours away) and she might not come back. The next day, a member called us on her phone asking for a favor and so we found out that she totally lied to us... :( 

Bryan also, he's so amazing! He's already in 1 Nephi 16 and is super interested! The only thing is he told us that he's super busy until may when he graduates and he just doesn't have time.. ahhh its been a little disappointing but we are still doing our best! We've gotten a lot of referrals and so we are really gonna work on them! 

There were a couple funny moments that happened this week! On Monday night, we were at the house of one of our less actives. We were waiting for her to come out and I see their dog who is chained to their fence. And so of course I stick my hand through and he sniffs it and starts licking my hand so of course I thought he was nice and so I start petting him and then he got super mad and bit my hand! Little did I know that dog is like a crazy spaz and no one really goes near him! But ya he bit right on my finger nail and down into my cuticle. Thank goodness the dog was anti rabies! Haha but my nail looks kinda different! 

Also, on Friday we were working in our area and teaching one of our investigators and this random guy is there and we shake his hand and his grip was so tight and he wouldn't let go and we were like what the heck?! A little later we were walking to someone else's house and we see him across the street and I wave at him and he puts his hand up to his ear and makes a call me sign and stared at us soooo creepily and then he started following us and we were freaking out! We kinda started running so thankfully he stopped! But we found out later he was a drug addict! ahhh! 

Also that same night, we were waiting on the side of the road for our ride and this random huge pig comes walking down the road going straight towards the highway and there was a ton of cars coming and it was dark and i was like oh my goodness I'm going to witness this pig get hit! And we couldn't stop it because it was so huge and me and sister atutubo were screaming! But thankfully the car barely missed it! wooh! So that's it for this week!

Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - September 5, 2016

Hello Everyone!! 

We had a great week! On Tuesday, we traveled to

Safford for an amazing zone conference!! Unfortunately, I was sick

that day... But the Lord provided for me, and I was able to make it!

We had a great training by Sister Passey about revelation, and how we

are blessed for our desires and when we act in faith, the Lord will

provide a way. Then the assistants gave a training on planning, and we

practiced having a more effective planning session. Then President

Passey talked about working with members, and how they are the ones

that truly can help us, and provide people for us to teach! It was a

great zone conference, and I was glad that I was able to make it! 

On Wednesday we taught Institute! The senior missionaries, the Smith's

completed their mission, so we didn't have any institute instructors!

So we taught it! We had a great turn out! We talked about Jesus

Christ, and the symbolism of Jesus Christ. It was such an amazing

lesson!! If I remember correctly, thank you Brother Evans (or Brother

Gardner, or Brother Lloyd,) for that lesson that you taught me in

Sunday school about symbolism, by bringing different objects to class,

and having us relate the objects to the gospel! Cause that is what we

taught to the institute class! They LOVED it! Each individual had to

really think and be creative about their answers, so I am so grateful

for wonderful Sunday school teachers who have taught me well!! One 

member of the branch came to the institute class, and one of the objects 

that we had was a shoe polishing kit. She gave the most extravagant 

explanation of how the object related to the gospel! haha! She talked 

about that on the cover of the kit it says that it shines, nourishes, and 

protects. Angelica then talked about how God and Jesus Christ nourish 

us, protect us, and help us to shine. That the gospel is like a kit with all 

the tools and resources you need. When she was done explaining, I 

literally was so speechless!!! 

After the institute class, it was about 8:30, and we were unsure of who 

to visit. Sister Brinkerhoff suggested that we visit a less active in the 

YSA branch named Jessica. Hallelujah, she was home! we taught her 

about the Plan of Salvation, and she literally opened up sooooooo much! 

She asked a lot of questions, and bore her testimony to us of the feelings 

of love that God gives us, and if we feel that it is right, we should do it. 

We were just blown away as she expressed her personal thoughts and 

feelings. And she finally prayed at the end of the lesson! It was glorious!! 

When she prayed, I truly felt the Spirit. Jessica has a close relationship with

God. Definitely an 8:30 miracle!!! :)  

On Saturday, we met with Josh again and taught him the Restoration. We 

brought Jayden along with us again, and we had another wonderful lesson! 

I am grateful that he is self motivated!!! Later in the evening, we had an 

amazing experience that truly answered my prayer! We were running out 

of people to see and it was about 7:15. There have been many times where 

I feel as though God is telling me to tract. I don't want to, but he wants me

to, so I can show my faith. So we prayed about it, and that's what we

did! And so, the first person we meet, invites us in!!! We couldn't go in 

because he didn't have another sister there, so we talked on his back patio. 

Wow, he has had a rough life! He told us that he knew that God had saved his 

life many times, but that he doesn't believe in an afterlife. He told us that he 

was in a coma for 62 days, and it was dark. I think he was expecting to have an 

afterlife experience, but he didn't. So we are definitely going to work on that! Haha! 

Some elders came by to teach him a year ago and they never came back..... So

Hurrah for faith!  We found a new investigator! We invited him to read

the Book of Mormon but he told us that he is dyslexic. So we gave him

the website for lds.org so he could listen to it :) 

I am so grateful for those stretching experiences that God has given me. I feel like

the Brother of Jared because the Lord didn't just provide light for

him automatically, the Brother of Jared had to find something

that he could touch and provide light, so they could have that

resource on their journey. The same with our experience. He asked us

to exercise faith, and go out of our comfort zones to find someone.

For the most part God will not just send someone who comes up to you

and says that they want to be baptized. You have to exercise faith and

find THEM first!!! 

On Sunday, we had an amazing lesson with Brother Darnell!! We brought 

Jayden with us, and it was great to have her there! We taught him the 

Restoration, and it went well! He is planning to come to church next week! :) 

I am soooo excited!! 

After that  lesson, we went to Avery's to teach him and figure out the baptismal

program. Oh my goodness it is finally here! Avery is getting baptized

this Saturday!!!! We are so happy!! After, we had a great lesson with some less actives

in 3rd Ward. Overall, it was the best Sunday ever!!!! Oh and one more

thing. So Sister Brinkerhoff and I cover YSA, so we live next to WNMU

(West New Mexico University). They have this huge screen to the right

of the road that shows what they are playing that weekend. Every

weekend they show a movie, and we just look at the screen to see which

one they will be playing. Today, Sister Brinkerhoff and I were driving

past the screen, and we were just leaning forward so we could see what

they were showing. And guess what they are showing this weekend???

Finding Dory!!!!! Sister Brinkerhoff and I just totally groaned with

frustration. We just miss out on all the good movies. I call this

experience our natural man moment!! :) I love you all, and I know that

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

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - September 5, 2016

Hello Everybody!!

Ok myldsmail is back online so I was able to read all 25 letters last

night :) thank you so much!

This week was pretty intense!

Such a funny story on exchanges! So I went to Alhambra to be with

Sister Huang and we were walking down the street when we see these two

construction workers. They stop what they're doing and start gesturing

to us and looking at us. Haha Sister Huang like ran behind me as we

walked up to them. One of the construction workers looked at me and

said, "Hey, don't you remember me?! You invited me to church!"

And we were both like whhhaatt??

Well turns out that last week, while Sister Mann and Sister Huang were

biking, they stopped at a stoplight next to this construction car and

Sister Mann who was the lead biker looks in the drivers window and

introduces herself as a missionary over the noise and the traffic and

invites this guy to church. And then the light turned green and they

rode off.

Haha so I asked if he had gone to church and he told us we had never

given him the address so Sister Huang gives them their card and we get

his number and it was such a cool experience!

On another exchange we went to this lady named Joanna who has

investigated the church for 5 years. She knows she needs to get

baptized but is content to wait a long time for it. While we were

hoping she wouldn't wait until the Spirit World, we read in Alma about

the group of people who had been kicked out of church because of their

lack of wealth or talent or whatever it was. Joanna has felt judged at

church before and uncomfortable with certain situations so we shared

that story with her and Alma's advice that even though people may make

us feel worthless and condemn us for our faults or weaknesses, Christ

is always there, inviting us to come unto him.

One of the Sisters in our Ward shared her testimony yesterday. She

talked about all these trials she has recently been passing through

and that one phrase of scripture kept sticking out to her "His hand is

stretched out still" She said she told her husband she felt like she

was drowning in these trials and he likened it to Peter walking on the

sea and Christ reaching out to him. Super cool story - I learned so

much from her experience.

Haha so we had a dinner appointment one night while I was in Alhambra

and we had to take a few freeways to get there. The Chinese sisters

have an investigator named San San and she drove us. She has this tiny

blue car, almost like a slug bug, but the top lowers so we got in the

car and were cruising down the road feeling like the coolest

missionaries ever. And then she turns onto the freeway . . . And

doesn't put the top up. And we were like whiplashed by the wind for

half an hour - and she took like three wrong turns onto different

freeways. Needless to say that when we arrived at our dinner

appointment we looked like wind blown warthogs. But the members were

super nice about it :)

We were in Temple City one night on exchanges and Sister Christensen

and I stopped at Pizza Hut to get dinner and this lady walks up to us

(Mimi) and gives us her Buddhist pamphlet and talks with us about her

religion for a bit. She was so sweet and had the cutest daughter

(Crystal) and after a while she started asking us about our beliefs

and why we were out here in California. It was  pretty cool to share a

few things with her and bear our testimony about Jesus Christ. 

That's about it for the week here in Glendale! Thank you to all those

who have written! Hope this next week is a great one!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - August 29, 2016

This week was a super busy week but we had a lot of miracles happen :) On Tuesday, we taught one of our investigators, Lyka. She was about to get baptized a couple months ago but her aunt and dad refused to let her saying that they won't pay for her college if she does. So she stopped coming to church. But just a couple weeks ago, she started again and we were able to teach her last week. She said she really wanted to get baptized and she knows this is the truth and so we encouraged her to pray for direction and guidance on what she should do and we also encouraged her to share her testimony with her family about why she wants to be baptized. We prayed really hard that their hearts would be softened this time! When we came back, she told us that she shared with her dad and aunt her testimony and how she came to know for herself that this is the truth and that she would like to get baptized. They were super supportive and said it was ok! It's a miracle!! I was so surprised because Sister Atutubo said their hearts were super hard before. Definitely a testimony that God will help us if we do our part and reach out to Him. We are so excited for her baptism on September 10!

We also have another investigator that kinda has the same situation. But we've only taught him once and he immediately realized that what we were saying is the truth. He already prayed about our message and said he really wants to get baptized. The only thing is that his mom and grandma are super against it and he really wants their support. We kinda gave him the same advice and are gonna keep going back and strengthening his testimony and faith. 

We've been working with our other progressing investigator, Bro. Ventura. It's a little frustrating! He comes to church every sunday and we commited him again to a date but he told us not to set a date. He's scared that if we set a date, that he will make a mistake and then not be able to be baptized on that date. He also said that he's not ready yet and he feels something is missing. We explained to him that we don't have to be perfect before baptism, all we need to do is have a desire to follow Jesus Christ and change. He still wouldn't commit so we're gonna do the best we can to keep helping him build his trust in God.

This week has just been super busy though! We had splits with the stls on Wednesday and my comp was sister villa. I really learned a lot from her but one thing I want to apply in my work is contacting, everywhere and everyone. We also had a mini mtc activity at the stake with all the youth. I was paired up with two girls from the stake and we had to go tracting for a couple hours! We were just placed in a random spot but we were able to find 1 new investigator and 14 contacts. It was so funny though because it was really hot outside and after like an hour and a half, my companions were dying and they couldn't even stand up and they were like can we go back early? Haha it was really fun to get to know them and help them prepare for missionary work! Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Holli - August 29, 2016

Hi everyone!

So my iPad has been going through some pretty intense issues with

myldsmail.net so I'm using our Mormon.org account we use for our ward.

So sorry if I don't write back - I'm not able to send or receive any

mail from myldsmail so hang in there, we are trying to work on it.

So this week went by very quickly!

On Sunday when we were attending the YSA ward, one of the speakers

actually played different songs he had written on his guitar, and sang

to them. It was a pretty unique sacrament meeting! The songs were

about a convert's point of view on the church, the gospel, and keeping

the sabbath day holy. It was really awesome but super unique. Haha the

girl next to me who was from Utah asked, "Is this normal for your

ward?" So funny!

We went on exchanges one day so I had the opportunity to spend a day

with Sister Mumford in temple city. It was super cool. Sister Mumford

is sooooo good at talking to everyone!! That is definitely one of her

strengths! We taught one of their investigators Andy - his English is

ok - he's actually from China - but we gave him a church tour and it

was super cool. He was really excited to come to church and learn

more.

There is a member that lives right by the church that we found like

four months ago, looking for a referral. He was in his car and told us

where to go and then right before he drove away mentioned that he was

a member of the church. We were like #jawdropped - but we don't have

his records here! So we randomly went by this week and met his wife

who is not a member and she said that they've been meaning to come and

been talking about going but just haven't gone. So we asked if we

could start teaching the lessons and she said ok! Super pumped :)

We met this sweet girl named Stephanie the other day. She is 19 and

really great! We started teaching her and she had all these awesome

questions about the gospel so we're pretty excited for her to continue

learning. She was going to come to church but then texted us right

before we were going to pick her up and said that her dad didn't want

her checking out other churches, if she wouldn't even go to their

Catholic Church. So basically she's going to retry her Catholic Church

for a month and if she doesn't like it, she is allowed to explore a

little. We were like rats! But that's ok because Heavenly Father has a

plan for her!

Haha, we went to contact a less active in the YSA ward and we met his

mother who had no idea that he had even gone to our church, much less

get baptized. We were like #awkward but do you want to learn more?

They are pretty happy in the Catholic Church but she was really sweet

and said we could come back :)

We had this awesome Relief Society activity yesterday for the YSA ward

and we were able to bring Cecily (a less active we've been working

with) and she had a great time :)  She's young and feels left out in the 

YSA ward but she met another 19 year old and an 18 year old at the party 

so it was a success! She has a lot of potential, and she starts school this 

week so prayers for Cecily!

Love you all so much!! Hope you have a great week :)

Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - August 29, 2016

This week was really good! Sister Brinkerhoff and I have so much fun together, and we laugh a lot! On Monday we had dinner with this one family, and they literally all had colds! So guess what? The next day I had a cold! Wahoo! :) So I wasn't feeling 100% on Tuesday. But it's ok! The work of the Lord presses on! 

On Wednesday, we received a training in district meeting about talking with everyone! Well, the training was on finding, but our district made a goal to talk with everyone! So we did! The Lord definitely gave us the strength to talk to people!! We had a great lesson with a less active we hadn't met, and then we were driving around, and I saw this lady smoking looking at her phone. So we decided to stop and talk to her! She was Native American, and she said that she was visiting a friend. She said her Mormon friends give her pamphlets and she will read anything. So we told her about the message of the Book of Mormon, and we gave a copy to her! 

Then we taught Avery! His baptism will be on September 10th, and we are sooooooo excited!!!   We are reading the Book of Mormon with him, because he doesn't know the scriptures very well so it has been fun! And of course we have pictures so that he doesn't get distracted! hehe:) After Avery's lesson, we visited Sister Scott. As we were driving to her house, I saw this lady outside her house, weeding her front yard. So I pulled over immediately and asked Sister Brinkerhoff if we could stop and ask her if she needed help. Sister Brinkerhoff had the same prompting!!! The lady was really sweet, and she said that she was finished, but she appreciated us asking her for help. She told us, "A lot of people just pass me by and don't offer to help. So I really appreciate that you stopped by to offer help." We felt really good after that visit:) So back to Sister Scott. When we stopped by to visit her, she was having a discouraging day, and so we shared a message with her about grace. It was just perfect for her!

On Thursday, we had a lesson with Asia, and we talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Also, the next day Asia went with us to a lesson! She did such a great job! It was perfect, because the investigator we were seeing struggles to pray in front of us. (Tonya) And so Asia was able to relate to her because Asia herself struggled to pray in front of us too. It was just awesome! Even though there were a lot of distractions, the Spirit helped us so much! We asked Tonya at the end of the lesson if she would pray. She said no, but I asked her if she would pray next time. She told us, "Maybe." There is hope people, hope!!! :) 

On Saturday we met with Tom and Jane. They are friends with a lot of people in our ward, so it is nice for us to work with them! Tom and Jane are both Episcopalian, and they are the sweetest people you will ever meet! They ask a lot of really good questions about us as missionaries, and what we do! We were able to follow up with the commitments we extended last time, and they improved! So hurrah for the Spirit of the Lord! We also taught them the Restoration, and at the end of the lesson, Tom said, "I believe you." And then Jane looked at him and said, "Really?" And then Tom repeated that he believed us!!! We committed them to read the Book of Mormon. Apparently, Tom had already read 1st Nephi and 2nd Nephi, and so he committed to read Jacob. And then Jane said that she would start at the beginning!! We are praying so hard that they accept the gospel!!! 

After Tom and Jane's visit, we went to see a less active named John. But only his caretaker was there. And guess what Mom?? She was watching a Hallmark Christmas movie!!! AGHHHHHHHH! So tempting!  The adversary has been terrible to me on my mission!!! But it's ok! When we started to share the Restoration, I asked her to turn off the TV. hehe:) So yeah, that has been my week! A bit crazy, but that is missionary life!! haha! I love you all, and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints is true!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - August 22, 2016

Found this bug outside the Institute Building!!!!

Beautiful Silver City!

Wow it has been a great week! On Tuesday we went tracting and had some

really good experiences with the people we met. They weren't

interested at the moment, but they enjoyed talking with us about

faith, and their beliefs, and we were able to have a great

conversation with them. One of them was a man whose mother was having

some health challenges. Because of that, he chose to not rely on the

Lord. He told us that he felt like he was unheard by God. But.....

There is hope! He said he might be interested later on! After dinner,

we tried this one less active who is NEVER home! But by the grace of

God, she was!! :) She was pretty honest with us about how she had lost

her faith, and so we shared a scripture in Alma that talks about how

even if we can have a desire to believe, God will grow that desire.

She told us at the end of the lesson, "Maybe you sisters can spark my

faith again!" We were so glad to hear that! 

On Wednesday, we met with a sweet lady named Karin. We were trying 

to find this one potential investigator, and ended up talking with her. We 

shared our purpose with her, and she was very kind to us. She told us 

that she was very sick and that she had a disease that was contagious. 

But she asked us if we wanted some water, and we said, "That would be 

awesome!" So she came back a second later and gave us water and ritz 

crackers! She was the sweetest person ever! She will be blessed in heaven 

for that act of kindness! Later that night, we brought a member with us to some

lessons! It was awesome to have her there! She was definitely very

bold, but our investigators needed it! We visited a man who is

married to a less active in the Ward. He was kind of creepy, and

shared too much about his personal life, and the bad decisions he

made,  so we are going to pass him off to the elders:) 

On Thursday we had another fantastic day!! We did a lot of service, and then later in

the day we had dinner with the Jenkins family. They ordered a cake

that was going to reveal the gender of their baby, and they called

their non member friends Tom and Jane to come over:) (They are very

devout in their own faith). It was awesome! Then we shared a message

with them about Jesus Christ, and the Spirit was felt so strongly!

They asked us a lot of questions which was good, because it provided a

way for us to testify of the things we knew to be true. Towards the

end of the discussion, Tom and Jane said that they should go, and so

we didn't leave with a commitment! But... Here is the good part!

Brother Jenkins just encouraged us to walk up to their house and

invite them! So we did! We marched up the hill, and asked Tom and

Jane, "What can you do to strengthen your relationship with Jesus

Christ this week?" Toms reply was, "Why do you guys always ask hard

questions?" Haha! :) That is what we do as missionaries:) He told us

that he was going to work on having a consistency in Bible Study with

his wife. We also asked Jane, and she said that she would work on

being less irritated with her husband:) It was a great experience!!!

On Friday we did a lot of planning and we met with a less active in

the YSA named Josh. He is awesome, and we figured out that his records

got lost! How crazy is that? So we started teaching him, and we

brought a YSA member named Jayden with us. They really connected,

because Jayden at one point was less active, and so they could relate

to each other. On Saturday, we had a busy day. The Ward in Silver City

sends out letters to some of the less active members in the ward, and

they received some letters that were sent back. So they gave us those

letters so we could figure out if the address was correct or if there

is a PO number. So we met a few people, and ended up meeting someone

who was related to the less active that we were looking for! And we

gave him a Book of Mormon and set a time to meet with him next week!

How cool is that? :) 

On Sunday, we met with Brother Darnell again! And the Bishop and his 

wife came with us! It was awesome! We talked about

following the prophet, and then we tried to set up a time for him to

come to church! He didn't really want to specify, and so we told him

that I might be leaving in a few weeks. He promised to come to church

before I left:) And then he pointed at me and told Bishop, "This

sister really hammers on me!" Hehe! I just really really want him to

come to church super bad!!!! I just LOVE being a missionary everyone!!

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! I know that the

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

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - August 22, 2016

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! We had a pretty crazy one here

in Glendale.

Haha, Sister Hobbs and I are just finding out that taking on two wards

is a bit tricky - especially when one is a YSA Ward! We love the work

though and the Ward is amazing. Our RS Lesson was on marriage

yesterday and it was interesting to go to both the family Ward and YSA

Ward and hear the different comments and how each lesson kind of 

swung different routes. It was pretty interesting!

So we took two YSA girls out with us on Wednesday to do a bit of

finding and we had lots of miracles. Sister Hobbs found an awesome

family with Coralee, and Bear and I tried to stop by this one girl (who

wasn't home) and then found two awesome less actives - one whose 

name was Carla and she told us that she really wanted to come back to 

church! Sweet girl, but she is the only member in her family so she 

dosn't have a lot of solid support. But it was a super cool miracle!

We went on exchanges Saturday and I got to spend the day with Sister

Mann in Alhambra which is predominately Chinese so I got to work on 

my Chinese a bit! It was a great exchange - kind of rough because they

are struggling to find right now but they'll get there!

We had a pretty funny experience. John is one of our investigators and

he's pretty cool, just kind of floating down the road of life right

now so we're trying to get him to do a 2 Nephi 1:23. We've had pretty

good lessons with him but one day we walk in and his sister is there

and she looks super not happy to see us. But we brought a member so 

we sat down and started talking with John and then she comes over and

asks if she can ask a question and her tone is super confrontational

and we're like, oh my heck we should've asked to say a prayer first.

That or read 3 Nephi 11:29-30. Anyway, Sister Crane and Sister Hobbs

turn towards Jen and I turn to John and we do like a two way split on

the lessons and it was pretty great. John loves reading the BofM and

the Spirit was super strong with him but his desire to come to church

isn't there yet. I felt really bad for Sister Crane and Sister Hobbs but they

 both said they felt the spirit - Sister Hobbs is really good in 

confrontational situations whereas I just cringe most of the time - but 

they handled it very well so it was good.

Haha, we had a lesson with our friend David who is a pastor at a

convalescent home that we do some service at. He's kind of a funny

guy. We brought Sis. Chadsy (the RS Pres.) with us and it's kind of

crowded in the convalescent home so we sat on the patio outside. It

was so funny though because there was some guy playing the electric

guitar and singing all of these jazzy songs and it was so loud so we

were trying very hard to discern by the spirit David's needs. :)

We had an interesting dinner one night with a girl named Cecily. She's

fairly less active - none of her family members are active so she

doesn't have a ton of support either but she invited us over to cook

dinner for us. She did a great job with the dinner and she had her

friend Kevin over and it was very interesting talking to him. He

didn't grow up super religious and told us that whatever or whoever

God is, it doesn't effect him. He doesn't have a relationship with God

and didn't really want him. Cool guy but super interesting beliefs! So

we taught the Restoration and testified of the truth and gave him a

BofM so we hope he'll read it one day!

Anyways, that's about it for the week! Hope all goes well next week 

taking the boys down to school! Shout out to mom and dad who reached

 their thirty year anniversary on Saturday!! Congratulations! Love you 

guys and hope you had an awesome time celebrating!!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - August 22, 2016

These things are everywhere!

Siomai!

Hi everyone! 

Another challenging week here in Enrile but we are starting to have some success. We got a referral on Monday from our ward mission leader and we went and taught her on Monday. Her name is Marichris and she is 21 years old, she is also super prepared! We taught her two times during this week and she even came to church with us yesterday! She's pretty shy so we don't really know what she thinks about everything but man she has a lot of faith especially to have gone to church yesterday! We are excited to work with her and help her to accept the gospel! 

We've found so many new investigators this week but one was really placed in our path. We were just walking down the street and we see this guy coming out of his house and so we contacted him. I asked him if he ever wondered how he could gain eternal life and he asked us to come in and share with him. As we were sharing, we found out that at that very moment that his wife had cancer and she was in surgery at the hospital! We were so shocked but we were able to teach to those needs and comfort him during this time.

We made smores this week just to let you all know and I was dying! It was Sister Kjar's idea and even though the graham crackers and chocolate arent the same, it was still sooo delicious! Haha had a funny experience. So we were in roma sur, one of our areas and we stopped to get some barbeque and the lady selling the barbeque was like oh my gosh, you should totally meet my grandson. He's 18 years old and he already has a car and a house so you would be totally set if you married him. She kept telling me he was so handsome and that I should marry him. It was so funny because I was like nay! I'm a missionary, I can't marry him! And she was like but sister, he's so handsome, can I give him your number? hahah so funny!

This week, we had our interviews with President and Sister Hiatt. It was nice getting to know them better and getting some advice on how we can become better missionaries and keep our areas progressing. Love you all!

Sister Dunn

Holli - August 15, 2016

April's Baptism

Vanessa's Baptism

Hello Everyone!

Man what a week it has been! The greatest thing about Sister Hobbs is

that she has the funniest sayings like: "It has been an absolute

pleasure" or "Oh, that gave me a fright!", and "I have a hard time

singing juets" (haha, their du is pronounced as a "j", that took me

forever to figure out). We have had a really good week here in

Glendale.

The big news is that Vanessa was baptized on Saturday! She had a

stroke on the left side of her body so she can't move that arm and

leg. We had three men get in the font to help her and she had to go

down three separate times because her dead leg kept coming out of the

water. Haha, she told us afterwards that the Lord wanted to make sure

she was good and clean, and everything but her left foot wanted to be

saved! She's such a sweetheart :) She was confirmed yesterday so that

was super exciting.

April was baptized on Sunday right after church. A lot of her family

members where there and it was great. Bishop baptized her and Sister

Hobbs, and Gigi (April's biological mom) sang a musical number and it

sounded great! We are so excited for April and are still teaching

Connie, Heriberto's girlfriend.

Haha, the funniest experience happened this week. So we usually go

outside to exercise every morning and before we leave I usually grab

the keys and then we lock the door. Well, we accidentally locked the

door without grabbing the keys so . . . Oops. Sister Hobbs said, let's

just go exercise and we can freak out later. So we did and we came

back but our manager had already left and we didn't know when he would

be back. It was also a Saturday morning (the day of Vanessa's baptism)

so everyone in our apartment complex was asleep and we also live on

the second floor so there's not an easily accessible window in which

to climb through. So Sister Hobbs had one Bobby pin in her hair and we

scavenged around and found a few sketchy looking metal tools to try to

pick the lock open, one of them being a hanger. We worked on that

thing for so long. We called the owner of the apartment with one of

our investigator's (Elizabeth) phones (she lives downstairs) and he

said it would take him about 2.5 hours to get there. We were like .

So then we snuck upstairs to our managers apartment and grabbed his

ladder to try to access our kitchen window, but it was too short. Then

our neighbor's gave us a few gadgets to try to get our door open, and

we borrowed another Bobby pin from Elizabeth to try to pick our lock

and for the next hour we prayed, and we switched off trying to pick

that darn lock. To no avail.

We were like, we must have the worst faith in the entire world!

But finally, at about 10 our manager came back. He didn't have a key

but he did have a very tall ladder so he grabbed that and I was able

to climb through our window and unlock the door!! Right on time to

rush to a meeting we had that morning. And thirty minutes before the

owner said he could get here with a spare key. Miracles do happen.

Haha, Sister Hobbs asked me as we were sitting on our step, staring at

the lock with all our tools around us, that if we had enough faith and

knew that Heavenly Father could open the door, why wasn't he opening

it. I told her that I felt like we hadn't gone through enough

affliction for Him to do that. I thought back to the movie 17 miracles

when the pioneers where starving and freezing and praying with all

their hearts that they would be able to reach Zion and wondering,

perhaps some of them, where God was in all of this. And then one lady

prayed over a small portion of food that they had and it grew to be

enough to feed the children. Or when the rescuers came during the most

hopeless part of the trek. The miracles always come after the trial of

our faith.

So one night we were in LA and I really had to go to the bathroom so

we looked up a less active family and knocked on their door like three

times but no one let us in and we could tell someone was home. So we

waddled down the road and their neighbor was coming out of his house

and Sister Hobbs called to him and asked if we could use his bathroom.

He was super nice and said yes! His name was Louis and he is a super

cool guy. We were able to set up a return appointment with him and had

an amazing Restoration lesson with him. It went great! We are excited

to keep teaching him!

We stopped by a referral one day and met Fatima who is from Uganda and

she takes care of this awesome elderly lady named Carol. Carol had a

bit of dementia but was so nice and we were able to practice a song on

her and Fatima that we were singing at the baptism later that day.

Fatima told us she had observed that the people in our church were

always happy and she didn't know why so we offered to teach her. She

was super sweet so we are excited to introduce to her the restored

gospel!

We were in Alhambra one day and found this guy named Luis. We were

actually looking for his neighbor that goes to our YSA Ward named

Brooke but Luis came out the back and said, "Oh look, it's the

elderetts!" He had a friend who was LDS that taught him a lot but went

pretty deep and kind of confused Luis. We asked if Elders could stop

by next week and he said yes! He was super nice.

That was our week in Glendale! Thank you all for your letters and

support! Hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - August 15, 2016

Happy Fiesta week here in Maddarulug Sur! Basically for 2 days, karaoke is going nonstop and everyone kills their pigs and has a feast! But man I will never forget last Friday. So we have a pig pen right outside of our house and our neighbors decided to kill them all on fiesta day right as we were weekly planning. They just kept killing pig after pig on every side of the house and the pigs were screaming like crazy. Me and Sister Kjar were covering our ears the whole time and tried not to cry haha. It's so sad though because when they kill the pigs, they cut a part of its throat and just let it bleed out until it dies. While it's still alive, they pour hot boiling water on it and cut its ears off. Sorry for the graphics but it was like the worst experience ever! I don't think I want to eat another pig.

On Wednesday, I had to go to Ilagan for an interview, and right as were walking out of the chapel, I see Jason, my recent convert from Alinguigan and it was so cute because right when he saw me he totally ran up to me! He is doing really great and the ward is doing good!

On Thursday, we taught one of our progressing investigators. His name is Bro. Ventura and he has been an investigator since January... he is doing good, he comes to church almost every sunday and reads the book of mormon. So on thursday, we extended a bap date to him on the 27th but he declined. Basically, he feels bad that he missed church a couple of weeks ago and said that he still doesn't feel ready. He told us that he will try to shoot for September. I have a feeling we're gonna have to push with him... Other than him, there are really no other progressing investigators. It's been soo hard but we are finding the best we can. This week though we found a new investigator named Brian. As we were sharing with him, he opened up with us and told us that he's been having some gender issues and he's really confused about who he is and what he should do. We testified about how our message would help him to know who he is and what God's plan is for him. And we also testified of modern revelation and we showed him the picture of Thomas S. Monson and the 12 apostles. The spirit was so strong and at that moment my testimony definitely grew about modern revelation and a living prophet. I know that God still communicates with a prophet today and as we listen and apply what the prophets say, we will know what to do and not be confused in a world of changing values and morals. I am so grateful for a living prophet and I know that Heavenly Father lives. Love you all.

Sister Dunn

Lindsay - August 15, 2016

What a week it has been!! Oh my goodness! On Tuesday, Sister

Brinkerhoff got bitten by a dog. Funny story.... Not really. But we

were tracting on this road, and we came up to a house and started

walking up the muddy dirt road. Then some dogs came out, and Sister

Brinkerhoff told me in a hesitant voice, "Sister Dunn... I don't

know..... And then I responded by saying, "They are just dogs, we will

be fine!" And then lo and behold as I walk up to the house, a German

shepherd mix dog comes up to Sister Brinkerhoff and bites her! Wow,

what a great trainer I am!! Haha! :) We just ignored it for a while,

and then we were visiting later that night with a returning member and

she went into mother mode, and strongly encouraged us to call Sister

Passey. So we did, and she just said to look for infection. And then

we called a nurse in the Ward, and she suggested that we go in to get

it checked. So the next day we went into the clinic, and Sister

Brinkerhoff got a tetanus shot!! Wow what an experience!!


On Wednesday, we went to an amazing zone meeting in Deming!! We talked

about the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, and role played sharing a

scripture about the Holy Ghost, and teaching them about the gift of

the Holy Ghost, and the purpose of it. It was a great meeting!


On Thursday, Sister Brinkerhoff and I made a tracting goal!! We aren't

very fond of tracting, and we don't have a lot of motivation to do it,

because for the most part, we don't have a lot of success. But our goal

was that for every person we meet, we knock on a door. It was a good

goal, and we held ourselves accountable!!! And then by the end of the

day, we changed our goal. So now our goal is that for every person we

meet, we knock on a door. but if we don't share the gospel with that

person, then we have to knock on another door until we share the

gospel, and invite them to learn more. Even though I have been on my

mission for 14 months, I STILL struggle with tracting so much! And I

will probably struggle until the end of my mission. But I know that

the Lord is encouraging us and pushing us to do it, because I believe

he knows there will be at least one person that accepts our message

and will listen to what we have to say!


On Saturday, we had a great day! We contacted a referral that we received

from church headquarters. Her name was Elizabeth, and she lived in an assisted

living center in Silver City. So we went and visited her! When we

walked in, we said hi, and she invited us to sit down. Then she said

to us, "Are you here to convert me? Cause forget it!" Haha! :) She was

a very stalwart member of another church, but she talked about her

granddaughter, and how she had joined the LDS church, and that they

were very good to her. So I was very happy that Elizabeth was

accepting and respectful of us. We talked a little bit about

missionary work and family history work. And I could tell that she

enjoyed us coming to visit her. When we went up to shake her hand, oh

my goodness her handshake was so firm and solid! I was thinking, wow!

You are a 93 year old! That is an amazing, lively handshake!! We had a

great experience with her..... And she shared her wheat thins with

us:) Later that day, we had a dinner with the Good's. Fortunately,

their son Michael had just gotten his mission call envelope that same

day! So they invited us to participate in his mission call opening!

What a blessing that was!! He got called to the Canada, Toronto

mission! We are so excited for him! And his twin sister Linda is going

to go on a mission as well, so it will be exciting for their whole

family!



On Sunday, we had a great lesson with Brother Darnell!!! We

brought Brittany from the YSA branch with us. We had a wonderful

discussion! We talked about the Sacrament, and we asked him why it is

important to partake of it. And then we read the sacrament prayers and

went over the baptismal covenants with him. And then the big moment of

inviting him to church!! He said he would attend in the near future!

Then Brittany asked him, "When would be the near future?" And then he

told us that he would attend within the start of the month of

September!!! AGHHHHHH!!!! We are so excited for him to come to

church!!! I am so grateful that the Lord is softening his heart, and

that the Spirit of God is helping him every day. I love this gospel,

and I am grateful to be a part of such a joyful, happy and fulfilling

work! I love you all!


Sincerely,

Sister Dunn