Holli - March 14, 2016

Three Missionaries in Arcadia all from Eagle, Idaho

Sister Dunn, Elder Campbell, Elder Van Wagenen

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty great! We have met lots of amazing people. It's such a privilege to be serving here in Arcadia. The hard part is helping the people progress towards baptism. President has received inspiration from Heavenly Father that we can do amazing things - our mission motto is that we teach repentance daily and baptize converts monthly. It's hard when we aren't seeing the baptisms each month -
part of me gets pretty discouraged but I also know that I'm trying as hard as I can to bring others to Christ and when we're doing all we can do, that's all the matters. We had a wonderful church tour this week with Christy. She has three children and her oldest boy Shawn is the one who is actually “investigating”.  Christy stays pretty quiet as we teach. We know that she feels the Spirit at  certain points but she is so busy all the time and has so many trials in her life so we don’t know how sincerely she wants to investigate. But Shawn asks all of these questions and sincerely wants to come to church and everything. I  just love this family! Please pray for them - especially Christy!

We had a less active member Dorothy (she’s from Jamaica and has the most  awesome accent ever - even though she’s kind of hard to understand sometimes) fall the other day and she ended  up shattering her elbow and knee. Poor thing was 

in the hospital and had surgery right away. Her daughter Tracey isn’t a member of the church but we were one of the first she contacted. She even said she wanted to call more people from the church but she didn't know who. Poor Tracey also works full time and just has a lot on her plate so we feel for her. But everything is all right now and they’re moving Dorothy to a rehabilitation center soon.

One of our young woman (Kyara) brought her friend to have a lesson one day at the church. It was pretty awesome teaching her. Her name is Eileen and she is super sweet. She doesn't have much of a religious background so it was cool teaching her a little bit about God and how we can communicate with Him.

Yesterday we had a lesson with Maria and her family. They are from Egypt and they are pretty stubborn in their beliefs but we help her children (Angelina and Daniel) with their English homework. So we try to sneak in our message through the service sometimes :) So we brought some members (the Foresters) over to try to fellowship and it was
pretty hectic because the Foresters have three children (Zoe, Lucy, and Xander) all under 8 so amid games of four square, catch, and tag we taught the Ten Commandments (a safe topic we thought). Then Sam (the husband) came in a little bit later and we had tried showing the kids the new Easter videos but they were a little bored by them so Sam
pulled up a bible video! It was super awesome and just helped me remember the real reason of why we are out here. It's all for Jesus Christ.

We taught David on Sunday. He is this really smart businessman who had an LDS friend and really admires and respects the Mormon people, but he has a couple issues with certain commandments so he told us he will probably never join. We had one lesson previous to this and he is a really interesting guy. He knows the bible front and back and he just has lots of questions about our beliefs. So he started throwing them at us and we realized all of his questions led back to the main lessons we teach: the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we pulled out the pamphlets as he asked the questions and basically walked him through the lessons. At the end, it was a little sad, but he told us thank you for our time and said he
had learned quite a lot but he probably wouldn't meet with us anymore. We ended up asking him why he had an aversion to reading the BofM and he said he believed we didn't need anything other than the bible. We were able to give him a copy however and invite him to read and pray about it.

Elder Hamala came for a surprise mission conference on Saturday and that was a wonderful meeting. The Spirit was so strong and Sister Barney and I were taking notes like crazy! He talked to us a little it about how we can receive revelation and then he turned it over to us for Q&A so it was pretty great. One Elder asked "How do we respond to
someone who tells us that they have received an impression that their church is the right church?" (Haha, that's most of our investigators right now) and Elder Hamala said that his reply would be "Ok."

We kind of laughed - is it really that easy? Sometimes we work and sweat and pray and worry over how in the world we are going to convince someone that our church is the true church but then I think the most important thing we tend to forget is that the Spirit is the converting power and if we can help them feel that than we've done our job but it's up to the investigator to act on that impression.

There are so many amazing experiences that missionaries have out here. So many growing opportunities. I know that if we serve the Lord faithfully, everything will work out. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister Dunn

Taylor - March 14, 2016

Hey Mom and Dad! 

Awesome that you were able to talk to Hermana Lake when she reported her mission (weird to say her first name— sorry). Yes, we were in the coral springs zone for a while at the same time. And super awesome you got to go to Victoria’s farewell. She’s going to be a boss missionary! Aw lame BSU didn't make it in to the tournament, well there's always next year!! 

So this week was a great week. A week definitely full of trials but full of miracles as well! We had a hard time finding people that really wanted act but we continue to work hard at finding! We are continuing to try to have members teach with us to help those we are finding realize truly the importance of the message we share and the steps they need to take. They have their agency but we want to make sure we help them as much as possible in the decision process because satan really doesn't want them to receive the happiness and true blessings that they need! 

We do have an awesome investigator that we are working with named Cira! She came to sacrament meeting and liked it. She wrote down any questions she had on a sticky note and gave it to us, she is excited to learn more! We have her set for a baptismal date on the 26th so we are really excited for that. We really will focus on bringing members to those lessons because she is a little timid. 

In my personal studies this week I was doing a lot of cross referencing and just again realized how well the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together. They definitely both testify of Jesus Christ and help us know the way we must go. I hope to be able to better help my investigators come to that knowledge! 

Funny story...well actually just kinda a time waster experience for the week is that we ran into a Jehovah’s Witness. He did introduce himself as christian which is good. We figured out he was JW real quickly but he didn't say it until the end. Anyways, ya he told us that we didn't exist at all before this life and we will cease to exist at death. That we will only be a memory of God until the resurrection and that our spirit is an energy and he "proved" it with the bible. Ya.. pretty lame so I testified of prayer and that if we go to our Heavenly Father in humble prayer and study things out in our mind we can receive an answer. We left him a restoration pamphlet so if he is honest and reads it with true intent we will be seeing him at church this upcoming weekend :) 

Trials I saw this week -- really pushing to find cool people, found tons of potentials, unfortunately a lot of them fell through, weren't there for appointments, and only one person came to church. Miracles that totally destroy the fact that there are trials -- Cira came to church and is a boss, a ton of cool people we met OYMing which now I have a stronger testimony of, and I feel like I’m growing in humility, patience and diligence! I've done all I can to invite EVERYONE to come unto Christ, to follow his example. Though people reject it and it's disappointing I've given them the chance! 

Anyways I’ve gotta go. I love ya! 

-Elder Dunn

Taylor - March 7, 2016

Hey Familia,

Sounds like the week was a pretty good one! Ya I did get your letter in the mail Dad. Thanks so much. I liked it a lot and it's true that the mission does apply to life a ton! And ya as far as tailoring to every situation/concern that people may have, it's so crucial just to constantly study/prep and have the Spirit with you. As you do that the Spirit will give you the words you need to say. As well, if we personally relate to the people we are teaching and using our life experiences, they open up more! Sometimes it is a little bit more difficult to do with people from another culture, but through experience it has definitely gotten easier.

 So you asked for more specifics.  For the samuel the lamanite thing I was personally impressed with his desire to fulfill the Lord's command as well as his love for the people. He couldn't even get into the city so he climbed the wall! That's commitment! Then he was shot at, and he kept going! So that hit me. And you asked about the small miracles, for example this week we were walking down the street knocking doors and a guy knocks pretty hard on his house window as we walked past and waves his hand. We thought he wanted us to go away but we waited and then he opened the door and invited us to come over and he wants his family to learn about the church and we set up a little chapel tour for tuesday! So that was cool! Also a miracle guy came to sacrament meeting.  Some missionaries left a chapel tour card with him and he came and loved it.  We taught him the restoration and he liked it and had a lot of questions especially about Joseph Smith, but he wants to come again to church! So those were cool miracles!

 I was also reading this week in 3 Nephi for personal study about when Jesus Christ came to the Americas and I really learned that Jesus Christ stated with boldness the things we needed to do to have eternal life and to have the happiness we desired. He really laid down the law and I think that's something that Elder Johnson and I will be working on doing better with everyone we contact. We want to help them understand the one way, the truth, and the light to eternal life and that is through baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 Sounds like you had fun missionary shopping with Victoria Mom.  She is a boss, and I have crazy respect for her! Super happy to hear about sister baker getting sealed! Also go sister bailey for doing some solid missionary work! Haha mom I can’t believe you couldn’t speak Spanish with her. I thought your spanish was excellent?! Remember those spanish lessons we took from Adi? I thought you were completely fluent after that! ;)

 Well anyways that’s about it.  Love you guys, stay safe, you're the best! 

 Con amor mas grande que las galaxias

 Elder Dunn :)

Holli - March 7, 2016

Hello Everyone!

We had a pretty crazy week this week!

We had exchanges on Saturday and they are trying this new experiment

where they took both companions into the leader's area and just do

work there. So Sister Barney and I went to El Monte and it was super

fun! I went with Sister Murdock and we had a couple fun lessons - poor

Sister Murdock had to do most of the teaching as it was en español.

Pero, I got to say a couple prayers in Spanish so that was pretty fun

too :) Haha, Sister Barney actually wrote President a few weeks ago

and told him she would love to be transferred into Spanish work. It's

pretty cool.

We also had this big mission training conference on an event that is

happening in a month. Gladys Knight is bringing her Grammy award

winning choir (Saints Unified Voices) to Arcadia and it's going to be

this huge event! There's going to be lots of singing and then she and

her family are going to share their testimonies and their conversion

stories. Such a great missionary tool! So we are trying to spread the

word as fast as we can! The only way people can get tickets is through

the missionaries or the Ward mission leaders. Members have to sign up

with a nonmember friend to bring in order to get first shot at

tickets. We are super pumped for this!

We were sitting at the bus stop this week and usually the bus comes

about every fifteen minutes but we had been waiting for close to 45

minutes and this lady walks up to sit by us and wait for the bus too.

We started talking and she started telling us her story and it was

pretty insane. She had been through a lot of hard things in her life

and was starting to make a turn around but because of her choices, she

was going through a lot of trials. We didn't have much time to talk

since the bus came (great timing haha) and we didn't have to be on the

bus for long but we ended up giving her our card and telling her a bit

about our message. She knew going back to church was important for her

and she had been going to this one church but she hadn't really gone

consistently. Anyways, we hope she gets back on track soon! It was a

really cool experience.

We were riding back home on the bus when we started talking to this

one lady who the Elders had contacted the day before. She said they

had told her a lot of things about the Mormon church but she seemed

pretty interested so it was good to follow up!

We met this amazing lady named Kristy tracting one night. She has

three cute kids and we've been starting to teach her. Kristy grew up

with a basic Catholic background but other than a belief in God, she

doesn't really know much else. Shaun was telling us all about Jesus

Christ and when how on the third day he said he came back to life but

he didn't know what he came back to life as. We talked about the

Resurrection and he pulled out his big scholastic dictionary to find

the definition of the word. It was super cool! Unfortunately it wasn't

in there but we got to explain a little bit about that. And then, the

best moment ever, was when we taught them how to pray. The kids are

kind of rambunctious and during the lesson the little girls were

playing with toys and not paying attention but we said a prayer at the

beginning and showed them how and then Nyla (the four year old girl)

volunteered to say the closing prayer. So she sat on the couch and

folded her arms and scrunched up her eyes and then Sister Barney

basically told her what to say but it was the cutest thing ever!!!

Sunday was kind of a roller coaster of emotions. It was fast and

testimony meeting and I about had a heart attack (like the good kind)

when our little recent convert Tyler got up to bear her testimony.

Tyler and Morgan were baptized back in September, when I first got

here, and it was hard to get Tyler to say the closing prayer when it

was just us in the room let alone get up in church and bear her

testimony! I was super stunned but so happy! Then her mother, who has

been less active for a long time got up at the end of the meeting and

bore her testimony because she felt inspired by her daughter. It was

really cool seeing that!

We also had a lesson with Yiwei and Amanda and there had been a

miscommunication between Amanda and Yiwei about the baptismal date so

needless to say they want to get baptized but they probably won't get

baptized on the 20th. Super hard but they have such a great desire to

be baptized and receive the blessings because they feel the church is

a really good place and something really good for them to join.

That's about it from here in Arcadia! Hope everyone is doing well!

Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

Love, Sister Dunn