Chelsea - August 3, 2015

Teaching the Restoration to a group of children

CSP with the district.  We weeded our investigators house.  She is getting baptized in less than 2 weeks!
And yes those are machetes.

KUMUSTA!!  

 

FOOD!

Haha okay so my favorite fruit here are the bananas. OMG they are so much better here than in America. They are way sweeter and just so good! I finally tried chicken adobo and it is definitely in one of my top favorites here! Haha I tried squid head this week. NAST! Chewing the tentacles and the head was not really that pleasant haha. I also tried okra dipped in soy sauce. also nast.  My favorite food here is lomi and pancit. Pancit is just like noodles and vegetables and meat. Lomi is soup with noodles. Oh and I also tried cheese ice cream this week. It's not actually that bad but I still didn't like it. I definitely feel like I'm getting used to this food! 

 

LESSONS!

Haha super weird, but we were having dinner at a members house and one of the guys in the house reminded me exactly of Uncle Mike. He was like Mike except from Saudi Arabia. Even his hair! haha. but Sister Mariano has taught him before and all he does is debate. He's such a jokester and apparently we are teaching him on Friday. I am kinda scared because last time the missionaries taught him, they stormed out haha. So pray for us! haha.

 

So one of our investigators is Bryan Cardenas. He is 15 years old and he is just a cutie! Last lesson was super great because I finally felt like I could be myself and just joke but also the lesson was super powerful. He is preparing to be baptized but he still feels like he needs to repent. So we are working on that . haha but I threatened him that if he didn't come to church I would cry. So guess what?! He came! Haha I was so happy!

 

Haha super creepy lesson. So we have this investigator who is like super old and her name is Maxima. She lives with her grandson. So we were teaching about the restoration and then all the lights went out and it was pitch black outside. haha so she lit a candle and it was the creepiest thing ever. There are like pictures on her walls of people that have died and it felt like we were in a seance or something. SO CREEPY. But the good thing is that our new investigator is her grandson!

 

So we finally went to go to the drunk guy that I mentioned earlier and it was such a good lesson! Sister Mariano and I both felt like we should go off our lesson plan and just talk about making good choices and about how Jesus Christ knows how we feel and how hard life is. It was so good! I definitely felt like I wasn't speaking. The spirit was so strong! And so I hope he gets back on the right path!

 

So we have another investigator named Rodel. He is 16. We just found out he has a five month old son. And whats sad is that the mother lives in the same small town as he does but he hasn't even seen them yet. So sad. Her parents don't want them to get married so ya... So we have been teaching him about the  restoration and I did principle 6 and 8 by myself! Literally, I felt so good about it. It definitely wasn't perfect and sometimes he couldn't understand me but I felt like he got the message and it was able to touch his heart. It's so sad because he's definitely going through withdrawal symptoms from his alcohol addiction. He hasn't drank in 2 weeks though! But his arms and hands just shake uncontrollably. Super sad.

 

Haha so we taught a lesson to about 10 kids this week! It was so awesome! Sister Mariano just sat right in front of them and went through the Restoration packet. They were hanging on to her every word! It was so cute! I will send you the picture! 

 

SPLITS

So this week we went on splits! Ahh so scary! But guess what, I got to be with an American!!! She is our sister training leader, Sister Hamblin. She is from Utah and she has about 6 months left! I absolutely love her! OMG and the people just love her. Haha she is just so loud, but she is totally herself with the people. So she definitely has made me be more relaxed with the people and just go with the flow. So literally, I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds that day. Everyone we went to teach gave us snacks. And its always with coke! I swear, I am getting addicted to caffeine here haha. Also, we went to a home and taught this couple about the temple. Oh ya so, so sad. So the mom has kids and she wasn't married before but her boyfriend was married before. Sooo... they can't be married in the temple. Its so sad.. Because there is no divorce, you have to wait for the wife to die if he wants to get married to his girlfriend. So it was so sad talking to them about the temple because the spirit was so strong in the lesson as we bore testimony of the temple and you could just feel their desire for it. It will be okay in the end, pero, really sad right now. There are so many lesbians here oh my goodness. So in that same house, the lady has a daughter. She used to be married to this guy. He found out that she coudnt have kids, so he left her. Next thing you know, she became lesbian. Except the gays here try their hardest to look gay. So when I first met her, I thought she was a boy haha. But its so sad. 

 

RANDOM STUFF

So its been so hot here. OMG. When I first got here, it wasnt that bad, but now. Oh my goodness it is so horrible. haha. And yesterday was so hard because we fasted for 24 hours and we probably walked the most we have ever walked! HAHA. We were so dead. We are also so tired all the time. Funniest thing. So we were saying companionship prayers before we went to bed and Sister Mariano was saying it. In the middle of her sentence, she literally fell asleep. Haha I was laughing so hard. Oh man this mission life though!

 

Oh so really creepy. In Sister Mariano's first area, they taught this less active guy. And he really liked Sister Mariano and told her that he loved her and all these innappropriate and weird texts. So guess what, we totally saw him in Maria Clara which is so random! Like what the heck! He came up to us and was like, I have been here for a month and I have been watching you. Ya.... so we called President Rahlf and hopefully he will take care of it. It was so sketch! 

 

HA..  I did my first contact by myself! Except he was drunk! but I definitely still count that! I invited him to church, and he was like come to my house first. And I was like ehhhhh and then he was like I'll be at church if you're there.. haha super creepy

 

Haha so funny. So yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, this old grandma gets up and she starts yelling at everyone and saying that if she wasn't a member of this church she would chop us all up with knives. I was laughing so hard oh man. Sister Mariano says she just gets really annoyed easily at people.  In her testimony she was like, people steal my food, I do all the housework by myself, no one cleans up their mess, I try to be nice and everyone else is horrible. I have no idea! 

 

Ya there is a lot of ilecauno spoken here. Sometimes people will mix it together with Tagalog and it can get really confusing. After I get Tagalog down, I will probably start studying Ilecauno. I definitely feel like I am having a better understanding of this language. It’s still really hard to speak, but I’m getting it haha. 

 

Everyone read Truly Good and Without Guile by Elder Michael T. Ringwood from April General Conference. So good! 

 

Okay, so sorry this letter was so long! It was definitely a really good week this week cause I was super focused on the work and not on things back home.  A positive attitude gives me such a love for this work! I love you all! 

 

Sister Dunn

Haha we drink out of bags here!  Super weird!

Typical missionary picture! We gave this little girl a pamphlet of the restoration and she sat right down and started reading it! So Sister Mariano went up to her and started talking to her. So sweet.

 

Taylor - August 3, 2015

So this week was a good week but definitely a tough one! I definitely gained a bigger testimony of enduring to the end, diligence, and faith in miracles! I was praying all week for miracles! Oh by the way I gave a District Training on being bold as well as Standards of Electness we have here for the Mission. Those standards are  1. Willing to Change 2. Committed to Act 3. Desiring to Covenant. But ya it went pretty well. Also I don't have to prepare one this week since we have Zone Training wohoo! 

Anyways it was pretty difficult to find a lot of people that wanted to hear about the message of the gospel or who were desiring to change this week, so it was a little bit frustrating. Though we truly gave it our all and worked as hard as we could this week! Though we did find a woman named felicia, she's a slightly older cuban lady but was definitely open for a prayer. Before we even said it she was saying that God had sent us there! She really liked the prayer and she's definitely a talker so she went on for a while haha. We eventually got a return appointment with her and brought hermano salazar with us and it went really well. We taught the restoration and set her with a date for the 15th! She was super excited to read the Book of Mormon because she loves reading, especially the Bible! I think she still wants to learn a lot more about the Church, but she also committed to come on Sunday. We had a member pick her up and she really liked the service! She even was filling out a slip for fast offerings! She only stayed for the first hour because she had to go but we have a return appointment with her today and we're going to have a member come out with us again so that should be boss!

 Another miracle is that the ward had a primary activity where primary kids could invite their friends for the activity and this mom with five kids came. Turns out she and the kids liked it and they invited her to Church the next day! She came with her 5 kids! Her husband unfortunately was working, but the ward did a great job friend-shipping her and we have a family home evening with her at the Bishop's house Tuesday which should be awesome too! So definitely miracles there! 

Oh and ya what I think I need to do on my mission is just not be afraid of making mistakes, whether it's in spanish or any other thing. I can learn from the mistakes anyways! Haha. Well that kinda sums up the week! Oh one last thing, so as a District Leader I really seem to feel more pressure to baptize. Obviously we need to work our hardest and it's in the Lord's timing but any suggestions to not freak out and just make sure that I can be an example to my district? Anyways love you guys, have a great week! See ya!

Elder Dunn

Lindsay - August 3, 2015

We have really cool street names here :)

I had an amazing week!!! On P-day, we had a water balloon and paint fight! (We should have excluded the paint). Sister Moe-Tufaga literally sprayed it in my mouth (Yuck!!) On Tuesday we went tracting. We had a great conversation with this one man who was  Catholic. He asked us what we like most about the Bible. I told him about the parables and how I loved specifically the Prodigal Son. We had a great time talking to him about religion! On Wednesday, we had district meeting. We talked about having member trust, and working with the people of the ward to hasten the work of the Lord. It was really good, and our new district leader Elder Beckstead is a boss! He is an awesome missionary, and he is going home this transfer so its nice that he ended his mission being a district leader! We tried a bunch of less actives this week, and we visited this older woman named Sister Wensorski. She is in hospice right now and she has many health problems. But she still let us in to have us share a message! Her daughter is taking care of her so that is nice. We talked about the resurrection with her, and how she will see her loved ones again.I started to talk about Grandma Dunn and how I miss her, and I started to cry! Sister Wensorski told me, "You miss her don't you? It's ok to cry". And so I cried! She seriously reminded me of Grandma Dunn. The spirit was so strong in that home. On Thursday, we had a great day! We visited one of our less actives and shared a scripture story and a Mormon message with her. She is the sweetest lady, and we have great discussions with her! After that we attended ASL class, and then headed to Sister Thomas's house. She is a less active, and we have great discussions with her! She asks really hard questions, but Sister Moe and I tried our best to answer them! But at the end of the lesson, something she said really hit me. She said, "Don't give up on me!" So we aren't!! We told her to sincerely ask God for answers to the questions she has. She hasn't necessarily done that so we challenged her to do so. We also visited a family that just moved into the ward. The mother's daughter isn't baptized, so we are going to teach her the basics of the gospel. She says that she is figuring things out and that she doesn't want to be involved in the gospel until later in her life. So we are just starting out simple! But she is such a sweet girl and I know that one day she will accept the gospel! On Friday we visited Sister Etzdorf again to read the Book of Mormon. She is such a sweet old lady, and she makes these really good fruit popsicles!! haha:) She is a cutie! We visited a family in one of the wards and we shared a gospel message and got to know them better. Their sense of humor, and perspective of the gospel is amazing! I have learned so much from them and I just met them! The parents are ward missionaries, and they have some less actives in their family.  Their daughter (a less active), got married to a non-member but he wants to know more about the gospel. The parents have been teaching him a little bit and they want some missionaries (it might be us) to teach him! I hope it all works out! On Saturday, we went to the church and participated in cleaning it. Brother Christiansen is the one who directs the cleaning. He is a bit older, so that is why he has a list of people to help him clean the church. He thought that we showed up at the church for a meeting. When he heard that we were there to clean, his whole countenance totally brightened!! He was so excited!! I love serving others! Later that day we had a great learning experience. A HUGE monsoon storm started right when we were going to try and visit some former investigators! It was literally like a hurricane! The roads flooded so quickly and it was hard to see out of our windshield.  Fear overtook me and I wanted to go back to the apartment. But Sister Moe-Tufaga expressed that we should go out and work. I reluctantly agreed, and we went out into the huge storm. It was literally the scariest experience of my life! In Tucson there are huge dips in the road. So when monsoons hit, there are huge pools of water at the bottom of the dips. So we are literally giving our car a car wash! And we splash water onto other cars on the street! And some of these pools of water are filled with dirt and rocks, so it can be very dangerous!! Also when washes flood the road, it can get really deep. Some people try to get through the deep waters, but some cars get washed away. That is why so many people die at this time of year. It was really scary, and I thought we wouldn't make it out! But we did and we contacted a former investigator! I learned a great lesson that day. Have faith, and know that everything will work out in the end. That is what I learned this week! The driving is definitely getting easier. I'm getting used to it which is great! And the GPS is amazing!  Sister Moe is great! She is very obedient. She loves to work hard, and she is so focused on others. We have great discussions! Sometimes we are planning and then we will go off on random tangents and we discuss things a lot! That's why our relationship is great because we talk things out. Especially on one occasion I was irritated because she kept correcting me on things that I did and I kind of got irritated because I thought she was just telling me that I wasn't a good missionary and that I should do something a different way. But I realized that she was just trying to help me. So we literally talked it out! And in the end our relationship strengthened and we could feel the Spirit again. I have truly learned on my mission that I get irritated easily, and that if I'm offended I stew over it for a while and can't forget about the situation. But I'm striving to improve. And Sister Moe-Tufaga has helped me to do that. I have a lot more to learn as a missionary!   I am so grateful for the many blessings that I have seen throughout my life. The Lord has truly blessed me as I am out in the mission field to serve Him! I love you all, and I continually pray for you!! 

Much Love,

Sister Dunn

Video of the monsoon storm clouds!!!!!

Driving in monsoon weather....Scariest experience of my life!!!!!

Lindsay - July 27, 2015

Me driving with Sister Mizell and Sister Moe-Tufaga

We drive on dirty and VERY bumpy roads a lot!!!

Hey Mom! I'm doing great! My new companion is amazing! Her name is Sister Moe-Tufaga and she is from Hawaii. She lives on the island Oahu. She worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center and she has 5 siblings. She is so cute!!! She is a positive, funny, and encouraging missionary! I love her already! Haha she literally makes me laugh! So I'm driving!!! Ahhhhhhh scary:) I have almost gotten killed like 5 times, but its ok! The Lord knows I'm an unaware driver, and he definitely has saved me from crashing into cars on the street!! :) haha! Sister Moe-Tufaga is also helping me with my parking skills, so yeah! I have a lot of improving to do:) 

This week was awesome, but of course it took a while to get used to the big adjustment. On Monday we had P-day. We played Sports as usual, and then Sister Mizell had her last lesson with the Ammons. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It was so good! They are so responsive to the lessons, and we have such good discussions! We invited them to church this Sunday, and they said they would come but, Brother Ammon has a busy work schedule, and was suddenly called in. But it's ok! It is the Lord's timetable not ours!! On Tuesday, of course it was transfer day, that was hectic! And Sister Moe-Tufaga and I got lost for a while, and finally got on the freeway towards our apartment! :) On Wednesday we had a Zone Council meeting. They have started this thing where they have Zone Council meetings before we break off into our district meetings. I think it is such a great idea because we get to bond and get to know our Zone better. Later that day, we tried a less active. She wasn't home, and Sister Moe-Tufaga turned to me and said, "How do you feel about knocking?" My stomach literally dropped, and I felt like puking. Sister Mizell and I hadn't done any of that so of course I was scared out of my mind! But I willingly agreed that we should go knocking. I am not kidding you, we contacted two people that were so open to our message of the Gospel. We gave one guy a Book of Mormon to read, and a pass along card with our number, and the other contact, we gave her a Restoration pamphlet!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh:) It was amazing! Confidence booster!!! So yeah! I truly believe that the Lord is aware of us, and he knows what we need to do. But it is our responsibility to be willing to follow Him, and not go against what he asks us to do!  On Thursday we had breakfast with one of the less actives we visit. She is the sweetest lady, and she makes her own dresses! Her fashion style is so cute! We then went to ASL (American Sign Language) class and practiced our signing. Sister Moe is really good at ASL so she is going to teach me more, so that I can actually contact a deaf person! We also taught the Ammons again. Except Sister Moe was with me! It was a great lesson, and it took a while because we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But its ok! I just hope and pray that the Spirit has touched them in some way, and that they have the desire to learn for themselves the truthfulness of this gospel. Sister Moe-Tufaga was very dedicated at weekly planning. She really wanted to make sure that we knew everyone in the two wards. We made lists on LDS tools separating the Countryside and Tortolita wards, and putting them into categories like: actives, less actives, recent converts etc. It took a long time, but it was worth it!! On Saturday we were invited to a Stake Baptism. There was a family that invited us because they had invited a part member family to the baptism. So it was nice to get to know them, the ward, and to feel the Spirit as we witnessed the sacred ordinance of baptism. On Sunday, we went to Countryside Ward, and we were asked by the bishop at the end of the meeting to bear our testimonies!! Ahhh!! It was amazing! Sister Moe of course said "Aloha" at the beginning:) I seriously love her!! She is so sweet, and her testimony of this gospel is strong. I bore my testimony after her, and of course I cried. I said, "The gospel has blessed my life, and it has blessed my family's life". I had a realization of how much the gospel has blessed my life. I am truly happy being a missionary, and I love being a member of this wonderful gospel. It has truly kept me on the strait and narrow path. I hope all of you have a great week! Put the Lord first in your life, and you will be blessed, I promise you that. 

Thanks for your letter Daddy! Yes, I received the GPS thank goodness!! We got lost many times before it came, but its ok! I'm doing great! I truly feel like this transfer is going to be a good one! Sister Moe-Tufaga is very obedient, and she LOVES knocking doors (hahaha: shaky laugh). I get really nervous when I knock doors. Mainly because I'm scared of rejection, but its ok! By the end of this transfer, she will help me become confident in tracting!! So in the mornings I study a chapter of D&C, a chapter of the Book of Mormon, and I usually read Preach My Gospel, and study topics that we are going to be teaching investigators. I literally LOVE studying! It is my favorite, and when I get home from my mission, I will definitely keep the Sabbath day more holy by studying all day. I LOVE going to church for 9 hours!!! Does that sound weird?? We cover two wards: Countryside and Tortolita. There are amazing people in those two wards, I love them all already! And yes we meet with the ward council in both wards. The Tortolita bishopric is very missionary minded, and the Countryside ward fills up the meal calendar every night for their week! I am just so excited to work with all these dedicated priesthood leaders and other leaders who work hard in their callings, even though they have busy lives. It is so great how dedicated everyone is!! I miss you and I hope you have a great week! Love you to the moon and back!!!!

Sincerely,
Sister Dunn