Holli - August 3, 2015

Hello Everyone!

So this week was pretty slow I have to admit. Being the senior companion/trainer is hard!  The difference between my previous companion Sister Robinson and Sister Duncan is crazy. Sister Duncan is a lot more laid back and relaxed which is good because I tend to stress out but at the same time, I kind of feel like we aren’t accomplishing as much. When we plan we both don't really know what to do - we use Preach My Gospel a lot! We just aren't as busy as Sister Robinson and I were. Our pace is slower so it's hard.  We love being companions though. She's teaching me not to be too stressed out about things and to rely on the Lord. She stays positive and upbeat and finds the good in everything :)  I guess I just need to take charge and make plans and get our plans in and just organize everything. Sister Duncan's trainer was way laid back too -  they kind of just did a lot of less active work in their area. So it's hard because she goes with the flow - and I actually have to create the flow! I am only a few weeks in so I'm sure it will get better! I know the Lord is trying to teach me something here!

 One of the things Sister Robinson was great at is street contacting and Sister Duncan and I are a little more reserved so we have a lot to work on! However we will have lots of practice this week since my bike got two flat tires thanks to those wonderful goat heads. Apparently goat heads are not native to California because every time I would tell someone in our ward that a goat head made my tire flat they would look at me like I was speaking a foreign language! Well . . . I guess that sentence is kind of strange if I really think about it :)

So G, our Southpark friend still wants to meet with us but due to some interesting circumstances we will be passing him off to the Elders. We also met this guy named William on the street the other day. We were biking past him and we said hello and he said hi and then suddenly he was like, stop! And we were like, ok! Well, we invited him to church and gave him a Book of Mormon. Haha, he had to drop the cigarette in his hand to take the Book of Mormon which was a plus! 

Brandy, our investigator with a baptismal date is doing so great. Her baptism date will most likely have to be shoved way back but we'll get there! She is so cute and sweet. So she lives with her sister, brother-in-law, and 4 nephews. She can't remember their names so she calls them 1,2,3, and 4. They have Jewish names so we might have to start doing that too :) We went over yesterday and found out they have a little puppy now too. So that was a fun lesson. It started out very quiet and peaceful, then the puppy came in, then 3 and 4 came in, then 2 came in with his dad and finally 1 and the mom came in so it was a full house! 

We had a great fast and testimony meeting. One lady got up and spoke for 15 minutes about her dead husband - the Bishop got up and tried to move her down the stairs - after they were almost down the steps, she turns back around and speaks for five more minutes on how grateful she is to the ward - we were cracking up! Bishop finally got her back to her seat :) 

We had a great lesson with our recent convert Missy. She is the sweetest and just has the strongest testimony of the gospel. She read Alma 30 with her nonmember boyfriend Robert and she said when she finished, both their jaws dropped. She told us that magic had happened in that chapter. (Alma 30 is about Korihor and a great chapter btw ☺️)

Last pday we had this scavenger hunt competition. Of course we won, was there any doubt? So our prize was all of this chocolate (I think it was a few months old but it was chocolate so I was happy!) Anyways, as part of the scavenger hunt we had to sing a primary song in some cool stylish way. Well, I had this Noah rap that I knew and I think that's what clinched our victory! The scavenger hunt was last pday. We played ultimate frisbee today and our team won - heck yeah!! I love pdays :) 

All right, that's it for now. I love you all so much and hope the week will be great!

Love, Sister Dunn

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!!!!!