Taylor - March 28, 2016

This week was quite a week. We learned a lot and grew in faith and diligence! Though we didn't find many people that wanted to learn of the restored gospel or wanted to come closer to Christ, we did have the wonderful opportunity to testify of the truthfulness of this Church. We testified and invited all to follow him!

We did help our investigator Cira progress towards baptism this last week and I'm super excited for her baptism coming up this Thursday. We hope to get good member support for her! She's super cool and passed her interview. Her daughter also decided to sit in on a couple of lessons so hopefully we'll be able to work with her!

This District is good and pretty young besides Elder Dabo and myself. They are all super cool and I think I've felt a pretty good bond with them and all the missionaries where I've been district leader. I am still doing district training every week and yes they come a bit easier now but I still get a little nervous and on edge. I just always hope I'm able to help the District!

Elder Johnson and I work pretty well together. He's an awesome missionary. He has really good Spanish and is hard working! He's super funny and keeps the mood light which is a big strength we share! It helps us press forward!

In our mission, for finding, there is something called "The Liahona". We fill out a list of prospective Elders, less active members, recent converts, and part member families during weekly planning to go visit during the week. The mission also focuses on knocking, Obedience is considered 1 hour a day but we are usually 2 a day, usually averaging around 15-18 hours a week of knocking.

For the door approach we really try to focus on needs and desires of the people we are talking to. We state our purpose real solidly and we center it on Jesus Christ and the restoration!

For my whole mission I've covered one ward at a time and attend the whole block on Sundays. I believe multiple wards for missionaries are just for the missions with bigger populations of members.

This last week, we had fast and testimony meeting. Unfortunately, no Easter program or anything. The Bishop actually is basically less active. He works at the airport or something so he's never really at church. They hold ward council usually every other week but we haven't had it for like 3 weeks now. Our ward mission leader is a recent convert so we don't even do correlation but we explained it to him and we're having it this Friday, yay!

For transfer predictions I believe I will remain here and possibly train but I don't know. Elder Johnson will most likely transfer because he's been here for 3 transfers. Elder Dabo is going home and Elder Lloyd will probably stay. Sister Kronmiller is training Sister Flavel so they will probably stay.

Yes we usually get fed a lot, though in this ward. A lot of it has been pick up or drop off at our house.

Well I hope I answered all of your questions. Oh and thanks Mom for the letter and thanks so much for the Easter package. It was delicious and the other elders say thanks! Anyways I think that's about it for this week, love you guys, stay safe!

-Elder Dunn

Holli - March 28, 2016

Hello Everyone!


We had a pretty good week! Haha so on Thursday our DL told us that as

a district we had really been struggling with finding new

investigators so he challenged us to make a district goal to contact a

certain number of people a day. Our district goal is 20 contacts a day

so it's been a very fun goal to reach. Sister Barney and I are having

a lot of fun with it :)

We went to Maria's house last night (the Egyptian family) and it was

so sad. Her mother passed away a few years ago and you could tell it

was pretty hard on her. We tried our best to comfort her but she

stayed pretty sad. Angelina (her daughter) said that at the funeral

everyone was crying and screaming and it was super sad. It reminded me

of the story in the scriptures where Jesus raises the daughter of

Jairus - all of the mourners are weeping and wailing outside the home

and he asks them why they're weeping and mourning so much. He is able

to bring Jairus's daughter back to life and it was a cool experience

to have on an Easter Sunday - where we could truly testify that Jesus

is the Resurrection and the Life.


Maria also told us that she loved when we came because every time we

come she feels better - but when we leave, the feeling leaves with us.

We wanted to tell her so badly that it was the Spirit and that she

could have it in her own life but she's very stubborn in her own

beliefs and isn't super open hearted to learning about anything

different. But we love her and pray for her!!


We had a wonderful Easter Breakfast Saturday morning. Maria and her

kids came at the end and Brandy and her children came at the

beginning. They seemed like they had a good time! A few of our less

actives came as well so it was good to see them. There were lots of

non members there as well and we were able to share a little spiritual

thought with the kids before they went out to hunt for eggs so it was

so sweet! We showed the Follow Me video the church just came out with

and it was super touching to see all of the kids and their parents

watching the video. Then we talked briefly about different ways we can

follow Jesus. Go to church, get baptized, believe in Him etc. - they

all gave wonderful answers.So fun!

We were teaching Brandy one day (initially she wanted us to help her

with her English so we are teaching her English, through the English

pamphlets) and she was raised in this really interesting religion in

China and she had all of these deep questions. Luckily one of our

members walked in who speaks Chinese and was able to help

translate/explain our side of it. We had actually asked this member to

stop by and invite Brandy to the Easter Breakfast so it was perfect

timing that she came right when we were there!

We met Manuel street contacting one day. It was super cool! He told us

he's seen missionaries before and he's open to hearing what we have to

say. We referred him over to the Spanish missionaries because his

primary language is Spanish (go figure :). ) but we were stopped at a

stoplight for a while and just really started talking and it was

really cool! He asked us when we had become converted to our church -

when we had known that this was the church right for us - and we both

got to bear our testimonies about the power of prayer and asking God

and then little experiences building up over time. We also got to

testify about the blessings and the happiness that are found in the

church and Manuel got pretty quiet and he nodded his head and the

Spirit was super strong!


So this week is a 7 week transfer so no transfer calls until next week

:) Since I've been here for 5 transfers we're pretty sure I'm going to

be transferred but we'll see!


That's about it from here in Arcadia! Hope you are all doing well and

that you have a wonderful week! Thanks so much for your prayers and

support!


Love, Sister Dunn

Chelsea - March 21, 2016

Kumusta!!! So this week was good. It started out with me washing the dishes, and a rat running across my feet. I literally screamed the loudest I've ever screamed in my life hahahah. Fortunately, not as many rats are running around the apartment. The missionary couples gave us some rat poison! But unfortunately, the rats are dying in the walls of the house and so it smells so bad. Like so bad. We can't even go into our room right now because we just want to throw up. So ya that's the update with the rats!

Also, we had a super scary experience. On Monday night around 9, we just got done with an fhe, and we were waiting on the highway in manaring for a van to take us home. We were walking on the highway, and right in front of us, two motorcycles crash into each other and the people on the motorcycles flew across the road. We were like, oh my gosh.... the sisters were all freaking out and just stayed behind, but I ran up to the one guy that was on my side of the road. Blood was everywhere and his face was messed up and he was barely breathing and having this seizure and I was like oh my gosh... then people started to show up but no one touched him because we had to wait for the medics. Apparently, they both died. A 17 year old and a 19 year old. And the one that I saw was actually the nephew of a member in our ward. Super sad.... And definitely scared us... we just came home and sat down and didn't say anything because it was so horrible!

We had some interesting lessons this week. We have so many investigators who have a ton of questions! It's definitely spiritually exhausting sometimes. Right now, we are teaching a sister of a active. She's kinda stubborn but she's also willing to listen. What is interesting is that she had a dream she was surrounded by mormons at church, and she doesn't know what to think of it. She really has a desire to know what church is true. She said that she prays all the time to know if our message is true but she doesn't receive an answer. I was able to tell her that in order to receive an answer, we need to search. We can't just be curious. I asked her if she had ever read the book of mormon and she said no. And so I challenged her to read the book of mormon, ponder, pray, go to church and really search for the truth, and I promised that God would answer her prayers. It was definitely a good lesson.


Irish, Divine, and Krizel all passed their baptismal interviews on Saturday and so we are good to go! They are super excited to get baptized! Thats about it for this week. Mahal ko po kayo lahat!

Sister Dunn

Holli - March 21, 2016

Hello Everyone!

We had a pretty good week this week!

We had a six hour zone meeting on Tuesday which was pretty fun. The

Spirit was super strong but definitely a long time to sit! President

showed us a clip of when he and Sister Villanueva were invited to SLC

for this Mission President Training with Elder Bednar and they ended

up filming it and sending this training to all of the mission

presidents. It was really cool though to see them in this training.

We had the coolest contacting experience the other day. We were

walking down the street and tried to contact three people headed

towards us and each time they either waved us off or just smiled

really big and nodded emphatically like, I have no clue what you're

saying but I think if I smile bigger you'll go away. Kind of funny. So

we tried this one last girl and she was walking pretty fast, like she

was running late. We slowed and tried to talk with her but she

apologized and said in really good English that she couldn't

understand English. We asked "español?" (Cause obviously we're pro's)

and she nodded and we started using broken Spanish to communicate. She

could speak English really well but she told us she didn't really

understand it when people spoke to her. 

Anyways we asked some basic questions and she told us she was from

Mexico, near Guadalahara so I was like, mi hermano servia sus

missionaro en Guadalahara! (I didn't know the word for cousin haha -

or for most of that sentence so I pretty much made up words and tried

to say it in a Spanish accent). We started talking about church a

little and we asked if she had heard of the Book of Mormon and she had

a little bit so we were able to give her one in English because

apparently her boyfriend can read English. She then told us that we

were really good missionaries. She said that in the 1 year she's been

in California, not one white person has ever tried to speak with her

in her native language. So she seemed super touched - and we were just

glad she kind of understood our Spanglish.

We went by the Health and Rehab center and visited this man named Karl

at a member's request. He was a very interesting man. He went to a lot

of theology school and is very educated so it was interesting talking

with him. He was very sweet though and had lots of advice about how we

should do our missionary work :)

We had a set lesson with one of our investigators (Christy) one day

and we went to her home and her mom answered and told us she had no

idea where Christy was. So we called Christy, thinking they were at

Chucky Cheese or something but they were actually at the park right

across the street so we were able to have a lesson with them. They had

been reading a little bit from the kids Book of Mormon and really

liked the stories so all fingers crossed as they continue to progress:)

We had a dinner appointment that ran late one night and we had to bike

it up to our church and that bike ride is like biking straight up a

hill - no gradual incline. It was so hard! So like we get to the

church and our faces are super red and we look like dead fish trying

to gasp for air. Good thing it was our last lesson with Joe (our

recent convert) so he didn't judge too much.

Haha, we had to grab money for our bus cards one day and on the ride

there Sister Barney had a great bus contact with is really nice guy -

until he eventually got caught up on blacks and the priesthood so it

kind of turned awkward haha. And then on the way back I started

talking to this one guy who said he had had missionaries stop by a lot

before and he knew a little bit about he Mormon religion. Then he told

me he had a question and I was like, uh oh - it's going to be another

blacks and the priesthood thing - but he just asked, "So why in the

world do you girls not have a job?" Haha, we told him it was to help

keep our focus on Christ for the short time we were out on missions.

We had a really cool experience at a member's house the other night.

They had a friend (Stacey) who they had invited over a few times to

dinner before - and they had asked us to stop by a few times. Anyways,

Stacey has been super busy lately and just not able to meet and we

don't know how interested she is in investigating but last night we

gave a thought about getting through trials. We shared a couple points

of the restoration and then read the scripture from D&C that starts,

"My son, peace be unto thy soul, thine adversities and thine

afflictions shall be but a small moment" etc. and we challenged them

all to pray in times of intense trial but also to remember this

scripture and to put either  "my son, or my daughter" etc. We finished

the thought and thanked the Schroeppel's for dinner when suddenly

Sister Schroeppel started talking about how she feels like feeding us

is the least she can do because everyone in the Ward has done so much

for her and then she started crying and talking about how Heavenly

Father gives us so much and how much we are indebted to Him and His

Son and the Spirit was super strong. Truly when a member testifies it

adds so much to what the Spirit can do in a lesson!

So I've been here for about seven months and two of the less actives

we've been working with since I arrived came to church yesterday so it

was a good day!! Also one of the members came up to us and told us

that when we had had dinner with them the other night, they had this

girl named Rosa there (she works for the Greens and takes care of

their daughter) and he told us at after we had left the home that

night that Rosa had started asking some questions and he was able to

give her a Book of Mormon and then told us to stop by in a few weeks

to check back in and see how that was going. So it was super awesome!

Thank you all so much for your love and support. Hope this next week

is a great one!

Love, Sister Dunn