Taylor - February 1, 2016

Faith's Baptism

Hey Familia!

So ya this week was good. Everything went smoothly for Faith’s baptism. Haha she got water up her nose and didn’t like that but was really happy and perky after! We are so excited for her to continue to progress! Her mom is also planning on getting baptized! Eternal families are the best! 

We had a tough week of finding though but we were definitely super happy and positive and trying to focus on building our teaching pool. Elder Johnson is getting better slowly but surely but ya he still struggles with simple OYMs so I’m trying to help him with that. We had entrevistas con el president this week which were great and he said that he knew that elder Johnson was going to be a little difficult and a little slower but he just encouraged me to keep up the good work! 

I was reading in Alma this week a lot and every time I'm just super impressed at how faithful they were and how they really loved the people and really built up the church as they received strength from the Lord. I truly hope to be able to follow their examples in my life and especially my mission more! I can’t believe that you said it will soon be over Dad. Totally not true, take it back! Haha just messin.

We biked all week so that was fun and now we are on car share with the other elders which is a good thing so that I won’t get bloated this upcoming month :)  Hope you feel better Dad! Umm I think that's about it for the week. I do want to share my testimony that I know we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to be happy and return to him. I know he sent his son Jesus Christ to make that possible and that as we apply the Atonement in our lives and follow the commandments and our leaders, we will find happiness, even through the trials we have! I love the gospel and I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ! 

Love you guys! Stay safe! -Elder Dunn

Chelsea - February 1, 2016

Calimagui!  This is where we email every Monday

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Clark for the coin purse from Peru!  

It’s so perfect cause it’s what we use over here all the time!

 

Eating goat...

Hiii everyone!

I hit my 8 month mark this week!! Crazy that is has already been 8 months! And my halfway is coming up!! ahh!!! It’s just going by too fast :) This week was definitely a hard week in terms of our investigators coming to church and keeping their commitments. It can definitely be hard at times watching them not doing the things that will actually help them in their lives to come closer to Christ. But everyday we just keep trying! Irish didn’t come to church yesterday so we have to extend her baptismal date. And June didn’t either… but it’s okay! All is good here! 

A lot of funny moments this week though! We were at an fhe and they served us coke. But when we tasted the coke, it had like no co2 (is that right?) like it just tasted super old but we just kept drinking anyway. And then Sister Ilago was drinking and she pulled this worm skin out of her mouth and we were like ewwww!!! We were so scared we would get super sick the next day, but everything is good! Also, I tasted the best fruit in the world this week, I swear it’s the fruit on the tree of life. It tastes like pina colada, watermelon, and mango all in one and I was in heaven!! It is called guyabano. Also, I ate goat this week. And it was super sad, because we were at Tatay Bisilios house and they have a ton of goats and I was petting all the goats and just having a good time and then tay was like kain tayo (lets eat) and it was goat....that they just killed... I was like awww man are you serious? Sister clarin doesn’t like goat either. It smells sooo bad and it tastes like it smells... so gross! haha.

I definitely had a really good experience with the gift of tongues this week. We were teaching one of our investigators about Joseph Smith. I realized it was my turn to recite the first vision. But it had been such a long time since I had recited it. Like at least a couple months ago. And the first vision has always been kinda hard for me to remember in tagalog, so I was kinda freaking out. But as I started reciting it, the spirit was so strong, and I didn’t even have to think about the words I needed to say, they just came right out! I definitely know that at the moments we need it, the Lord will bless us with those spiritual gifts to bless others. 

So this week I received a couple letters from the Eagle 2nd Ward…merry christmas cards and then a bunch of testimonies from the young women and leaders from the ward. I was able to read them and I was seriously so touched!! Reading those testimonies from the young women definitely strengthened my own testimony. I will be sure to pass them out in my next area. There is absolutely no english here at all haha. Just ibanag, ilecauno, and tagalog. Anyways, thank you all so much! I miss the ward so much!! 

Love,

Sister Dunn

So many cute dogs over here...

Lindsay - February 1, 2016

Beautiful Safford!! :) Literally looks like Idaho!

Hola todas los personas!  I think that is correct Spanish:) I hope you

all had a wonderful week! This week was awesome! We learned so much

this week!

On Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with our investigator Roxy!

Whenever we would ask her questions she would really think about it

but she expressed to us that she has a hard time explaining things. So

we tried to keep the questions simple. She really opened up to us

about different experiences that she has had in her life. Everytime we

asked her about faith, or the Holy Ghost or Repentance, she always had

an experience that she went through in her life that taught her about

that principle. It was amazing to see her perspective on the

principles of the gospel. She is amazing! And when we followed up

about her scripture reading, she said that she had read a couple of

chapters!! She is the sweetest person, and her faith is so strong! I

love it! :) 

After her visit we went and saw the French family. They are less active, but have been through experiences in their life that have made them so much stronger in the gospel. They gave us cheesecake, and it was right before dinner!! ughhhh:( I was really full after dinner, I thought my stomach was going to explode! Later that night we had an amazing lesson with Devan. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and talked about Enos’s experience, and how he exercised faith and repentance to be made clean. It was such a cool

lesson!

Wednesday was a crazy and kind of rough day! The morning was amazing

because of district meeting, but afterwards we had a lesson with Floyd,

and it was rough. He got into one of his negative and bitter moods,

and he vented a lot. By the end of the lesson, we were emotionally

drained. It is so hard with Floyd! He is just very bitter and

negative, and we tell him all the time that if he turns to the Lord

and asks for help, that he will help him! But he doesn't listen. He

tells us all the time that he asks the Lord for something, but he

doesn't ever do his part. He is a little too prideful to do his part.

It is really sad. So the next time we meet with him, we are going to

set things in order! haha! It will be great! 

We also had a lesson with the Whitmers. They have a lot of kids, and we didn’t really teach the mom, but we taught the kids. We had a puzzle, so they were all over it, and fighting over which pieces to put in next. So it was pretty

chaotic. And we were going to extend a baptismal date invitation, but

we decided not too because things were crazy! So yeah! That was an

adventure! :) Then we went to the Tucker family for a lesson. They are

less active, but have so much potential to become returning members!

They are so sweet, and you know that they do have testimonies! And

they gave us homemade chocolate cake!

On Thursday we started out contacting some potentials. So we tried to

meet this one potential, and we discovered that he is a fully active

member preparing to serve a mission!!! haha! :) Our Ipad area book

sometimes messes things up! It was really funny when we figured it

out! Later we had a lesson with one of our recent converts Jerica. She

is 11 and she is such an amazing person! She is very resilient, and

has faced so many challenges in her life! But she is so strong, and

her faith is unwavering. It is amazing to see someone at such a young

age to be so mature and confident. 

After that we had dinner, and then taught another recent convert Tucker about baptism and confirmation. We had an awesome object lesson that we referred to, and he really liked it! Then we had a correlation meeting in 7th ward, and then stake correlation. We have an amazing  and productive area! It is

awesome! 

On Friday, I went to the Gilbert Temple with Sister Moe-Tufaga to support Sandy receiving her endowments for the first time! So Sandy is a part of a family that I taught in my first area, and she is going on a mission, so President gave us permission to go to the temple to support her since her family couldn’t go in the temple with her! It was an amazing experience! The Gilbert temple is beautiful, and it was such a great privilege to be in the Lord's house. I am so grateful for temples! :)

On Saturday we had an amazing lesson with Ida and Jim! Jim is a less

active, and Ida isn't a member. But they enjoy us coming over to teach

them. And they have come to church already since we have taught them!

So we are really excited to move forward with them. They are very

simple people, and so we are taking the lessons principle by

principle. So we talked about faith, and referred to the story of

Peter walking on water. We talked about what we would do in that

situation. Jim's response was hilarious: "I would hide under a bush!"

And then we told him, "You are in the middle of the ocean, there are

no bushes!" It was  a really good discussion, and usually Jim talks

the whole time, but Ida talked a lot, and it was great to hear her

perspective about faith. 

We then visited Frank and Chelsea, and Chels was sleeping so we had a lesson with Frank. It was really good. He expressed to us that it is nice to receive spiritual enlightenment every day. So we read from the Book of Mormon and talked about it with him. Then after having a visit with John (which is always the highlight of my day), we had dinner, and weekly planned for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, we had church from 9 to 4, and then studied before going to

dinner. Then we had a lesson with Devan at the Hargis home, and then

finished our weekly planning for that night. So that is my week! I hope you all are doing well! I love you to the moon and back!

Sister Lindsay Dunn

Holli - February 1, 2016

Hello Everyone!

We had a crazy week this week! So I was with the Chinese Sisters from Monday until Saturday and then in the afternoon I switched back with Sister Ausen and she should be my companion for the rest of the transfer.

About the whole, me becoming a Chinese Missionary thing, yeah my

District was joking about that too. There's actually a Sister coming

in next transfer from Taiwan but she has been assigned English

speaking. The Chinese Sisters think I will train her in English and

then she'll be switched to Chinese work. That would be interesting!

English class is so much fun! They hold it Tuesday, Wednesday, and

Thursday nights. One night I helped Sister Huang in the advanced class

(they were covering humor words—see the joke below).When Sister Huang told the donut joke though she got a lot of blank stares - I laughed at that). I also taught the beginners class with Sister Gong and Elder Chen one night and it was awesome! It’s so fun teaching English - you feel so professional.

So I heard a couple jokes in English Class that were hilarious so I just

wanted to share. The first one goes like this: There once was this

donut who went on a cruise. The first day he sat out on the deck to

suntan and he got sunburned so he became a strawberry donut. He went up

to the Captain of the ship and asked him if he could steer the ship.

The Captain told him no, and if he asked again he would throw him off

the ship. The second day the donut didn't go out suntanning so he

turned light brown and he became a caramel donut. He went up to the

Captain and asked if he could drive the ship. The Captain told him no,

and said if he asked him one more time he would throw him off the

ship. On the third day the donut went suntanning for a really long

time and he turned super dark so he became a chocolate donut. He went

up to the Captain and asked him if he could steer the ship and the

Captain told him no and threw him off the ship.

:) Isn’t it great? A joke with no punch line!

One morning Sister Huang had to go translate for this lady and her son

who was registering for school here at Arcadia High. We were running

late so we had to sprint down the sidewalk to the school and it was

pretty hilarious. Sister Gong has never really exercised in her life

so she was like trying to run behind us but couldn’t quite keep up. 

Poor Sister Gong finally got to the school, clutching her chest,

and repeating "Sorry, sorry, sorry" - one of the only words she knows

in English.

The Chinese Sisters are teaching this amazing lady named Linda. A

member brought her to church about three weeks ago and the

missionaries started teaching her. She is headed back to China on

Tuesday and won't be back until August so the Sisters had set a date

with her for the 30th. This week though all these problems happened.

Everything was set for a baptism on Saturday but before one of our

lessons, Linda drove up and told us a rock had hit her rental car's

windshield and she had to return the car. Then she had this really big

ticket she had to pay that was a pain. All these different things

happened this week so she told the Sisters, there's no rush for the

baptism. Maybe I'll just wait until August when I get back. The

problem is she is going to live with her mom in China and her mom is

very controlling and won't let her go to church or anything so we were

all panicking. Luckily Linda's friend, the one that brought her to

church, talked with her and the Sisters asked her to pray about her

baptismal date and she got baptized yesterday! It was a great

experience and since I was playing the piano I got to be there :)

So I have loved being in this trio. It's been really hard on Sister

Huang lately. Sister Gong is from Beijing but her mom took her out of

school after first grade. Because of that she has very little social

skills, comprehension skills, learning and studying skills etc. She

learns very slowly and has little confidence. It's been kind of rough

but she's the sweetest Sister. She joined the church when she was 16

because her mother told her to - told her it was good. Most of her

friends came from church and then because most of her friends started

serving missions she decided to serve one too. It's been an

interesting experience working with her but she's progressing.

We had the Stake Women's Conference on Saturday and we all got to

attend. The Spirit was very strong. The keynote speaker was a lady

named Terry Hatch who grew up in Safford Arizona (shout out to Lindsay

:). ) Then after her we broke up into groups and went to three

separate classes and learned from three amazing women. It was great!

We were on our way to an appointment one day and we walked by this

lady. We were running late so we said a quick hello and kept going but

after a few seconds she called after us and then asked us to pray for

her as she had a brain aneurism and was going in for surgery the next

day. It was a sweet experience as we talked with her for a bit, gave

her a hug, and told her everything would work out.

Okay, super amazing miracle happened yesterday. It was Ashley Jensen's

homecoming so she spoke along with another Sister in the Ward - it was

a missionary oriented meeting of course. After the meeting we noticed

this lady had come into the chapel and was sitting on the back row

talking to one of our members. Then all of these other members started

congregating around her. Finally we got pulled over and started

talking with her. Her name is Jackie and she told us she came into

Church because she saw “The Church of Jesus Christ." She told us about

her religious background and how she had denounced that religion and

tried other things. She told us she had never felt the Spirit stronger

than she had at our meeting. We invited her to learn more and she

said, absolutely. She also told us she wanted to be baptized sooner or

later. Crazy!! She has a number of things to overcome but she seems

super solid - one of the greatest tender mercies the Lord has provided

for us!

I think that's about it from here in Arcadia. I have one more joke

that I heard from English class that I wanted to tell you guys - it

was so funny!

So there's this fisherman and he wants to propose to his girlfriend.

So he saves up for a long time and manages to buy a ring for her. But

one day he is fishing and this big wave crashes over the boat and

carries the ring out to sea. The fisherman is distraught and he tells

his friends what happened. They all assure him that they'll help him

raise enough money to buy another ring. So they all go fishing and try

to catch fish and other sea creatures to sell so they can start saving

some money for this fisherman to buy the ring. One day as the

fisherman is fishing he manages to catch this huge shark. He gets

really excited because he knows it's going to bring in a lot of money.

He starts skinning it and then he cuts it open to where the stomach

is. He can tell there's something in the stomach so he cuts it open.

What do you think he finds?

. . . . The donut

Hilarious, right?

The joke I told in English class was: Why did the bacon laugh? . . .

Because the egg cracked a yoke. No one laughed at that either because

when you translate it into Chinese it makes absolutely no sense. I

guess Sister Huang and I have no future as comedians :)

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and support. Have a

great week!

Love, Sister Dunn