Chelsea - June 20, 2016

Nanay Ramel and Nanay Rosette!

Remy at her baptism!

President and Sister Rahlf!

Jamaica!

Hello everyone!

I would call this week sick week take 2! On Thursday, we had to come home from work early because sister elix's fever came back. Haha I thought she was literally having a heat stroke because the day was sooo hot and I was like oh no, she’s gonna pass out and we are literally in the middle of nowhere and we have no texts or calls on our phone! Haha but she made it home and from Thursday-Saturday we were at the house. We then went to Cauayan on Saturday and she was able to go to the hospital there. On Sunday, I was the one to get sick, so ya…. definitely not a fun week.... but Sister Elix and I are both feeling better today!

On Tuesday, we were able to attend a special district conference. This would be the last time President and Sister Rahlf would teach! They talked in depth about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was such a good conference and my perspective totally changed about the Atonement. I definitely see it as more sacred now. At the end, they also showed a video with Jeffrey R. Holland speaking. What he said really touched me. Basically he was saying why is missionary work tough? Why do we do we get rejected all the time? Why don’t our investigators get it and progress faster than we want? He said because salvation is not a cheap thing. And as we experience challenges and rejections as a missionary, we get a little taste of what Jesus Christ went through when he was on the earth and paid for our sins. We come shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ. I love that! It’s great right?! Definitely inspired me.

We had a cool experience on Thursday. We were planning on going to our area, San Isidro. Then our tricie broke down and we got off in our other area, Marana. I was like, well sister elix, that’s probably a sign from God that we should work here! And she was like ok let’s go! So we totally worked in Marana! and we got punted..... I was like never mind… that wasn't a sign from God! haha. But then we both felt inspired to go to this one member, Lolita. She is probably the poorest lady. She lives in this tiny bedroom. and next door is her children but they don’t even care about her. She earns her money from going house to house and collecting plastic bottles. As we shared with her, she just started to open up to us about why her life has to be so hard. She doesn’t feel loved or wanted and she never has anyone to talk to... So Sister Elix and I were able to share about God's love for her and our love for her. We shared about challenges and trials and how to become strong through them. Man, I admire these people here. My challenges are nothing compared to theirs so I am so grateful I get to see this other perspective. Anyways, a really good experience and testimony builder that God is very much a part of this work.

Haha so on saturday sister elix and I went to the mission home and we had to wait there until 1 for her appointment and so we got to study in air con and on couches! It was the best… then sister rahlf served us apples and that cream cheese dip. Ahhhh I died. Then she invited us to join them for lunch. Elder Swenson’s parents had come from America to pick him up and president and sister rahlf hosted a lunch for them. And I can proudly say that I got down a chicken salad sandwich. So grosss… yep my tastebuds are the same people! haha. But it was so funny cause Elder swenson’s mom is hilarious and it was so nice to listen to american humor again! And then oh my goodness we witnessed their little reunion. We were all just sitting at the table and then elder swenson comes in and he and his mom hug for like a minute and I felt like I was so intruding! Haha elder antenorcruz, the ap, he was like crying! We then went to sm mall and bought dunkin donuts and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. That is all. haha.

Anyways, that’s what’s up this week! I am getting transferred on Wednesday! Prayers would be great! Love you all :)

Sister Dunn

People have to be taught how to use the toilet here...

Ubando Family

Eating chicken intestine!

Holli - June 13, 2016

Baptism of Angie and the Barragan girls!

Hello Everyone!!

First of all I want to wish the best dad in the entire world a Happy

Father's Day :) I hope you have a wonderful day dad!

At stake conference last week we sat by a member (Sister Sheffield)

and before conference had started she leaned over and asked me "So

what do you do if you invited someone to church and forgot that it was

stake conference this week?"

Haha, she had seen an elderly couple walking near our church building,

looking intently at it, and as she walked past them she encouraged

them to go to church and told them services started every Sunday

around 9am and then she sped off. It wasn't until later that she

realized it was stake conference which would be held at a different

building and a different time. We just laughed though and encouraged

her to continue to invite people to church! 

So we had a lot of cancellations this week but one night we asked a

member to come with us and we ended up trying to contact a referral

and the referral's girlfriend was home so we got to speak with her.

She was a really sweet girl and told us we could come back and share a

message so we will do that!

So Sister Walker (the one we gave a gratitude journal to) seems to be doing a little better this week. So usually our lessons kind of go like, she talks, we listen, and try to jump in occasionally to share a scripture while she breathes, and then she talks some more.  So everytime we go over now we open her gratitude journal and write five things that we’re each thankful for. She told us she would never use the journal. However, this past week I opened it up and saw Sister Walker had put three different

items in the gratitude journal! Haha, best moment ever! We told her a Book of Mormon story this time of Nephi traveling to the promised land. At the end of the story she told us she needed to start reading her

Book of Mormon again and asked us for a copy. So cool!! 

So Eivet and Sonaheh went to Iran to visit Eivet's sister and will be

there until the end of August but all is well because Eivet's mom (who

is staying here and speaks zip English) wants missionaries to come by

and teach her about the gospel. So cool!! We gave her a Book of Mormon in Farsi and a picture book to give to Sonaheh when she returns and she was so excited! She was way sweet :)

So Angie got baptized this week! It was awesome! She got

baptized with the Barragan girls (a part member family the Elders

found) so 5 baptisms in one Saturday #bestdayever. Yesterday in church Angie was confirmed with the girls so by the end of the confirmations and the sacrament, we had about ten minutes left haha. But it was

super awesome. Angie is the sweetest - we just hope she stays strong!

As a 13 year old in the gospel with hardly any other girls in the YW

program it might be hard but they have awesome leaders so crossing

fingers!

So we went to get our oil change one day and it took like two hours

because they had to rotate the tires as well so we were like sitting

there when Angela and her boyfriend came to wait for their car and we started talking with them. Angela is super awesome! She has a few relatives who are LDS and has wanted to come to a church so she enrolled in this program that takes families to different churches so they can see which one they'll like the most. She’s never been to an LDS church before so we really encouraged her to go and ended up giving them a family proclamation. Her boyfriend didn’t seem super interested but Angela asked us a few questions and was super sweet :) 

That's about it for this week! Hope you are all doing well! Thank you

so much for all of the letters and support :)

Love, Sister Dunn

Taylor - June 13, 2016

Hey como estan?? 

Sounds like a lot of fun work went on this week. I guess that’s what happens when summer comes around!  So as you probably know we had a big week of finding! We saw some cool little miracles at the end of the week. We found Olga and Velinda and we are going to visit them both tonight. Pray for them and us! 

Yes it was a little stormy this past week so we got pretty nice and wet a couple of times but it's super warm rain anyways! We have zone conferences coming up on Wednesday and I have the wonderful opportunity to play the piano so that will be fun! Luckily I only have to learn hymn #265 Arise O God and Shine so that should be fairly easy since it’s short. 

One thing that we are going to be focusing on this next week is working the "gold mine" which is less actives and part member families, as well as prospective elders and recent converts. It was called the gold mine in the specialized mission training conference that was broadcast worldwide. We’re excited to help strengthen the ward and also get to know their friends who may not know much about the church! 

Dejame pensar... other than that it was just an awesome week of sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. Haha we prayed with a young woman and her mom as they were about to leave in their truck. It was kinda an awkward prayer but it was a good referral for the Estero missionaries so that was cool! Oh and we’re still running every morning so that's cool though sometimes it's super hard for us both to get motivated haha. 

Well I love you guys! Thanks for everything. Have a great week and stay safe!

Elder Dunn

Chelsea - June 13, 2016

Tatay George and fam :)

Nanay Pabiona.  Funniest lady ever!

Kumusta yung pamilya ko!!??

So first off, I had to buy luggage on Monday afternoon since the rats ruined mine. I was planning to buy two pieces of luggage for 130 bucks and guess what, the price tags were actually wrong and so I ended up buying two luggages for only 95 bucks! And it came with a free backpack! Smart shopping talaga..

This week was definitely sick week. Sister Elix got super sick on Wednesday and is still getting over it. She had like a fever, and a sore throat and like every symptom haha. So we didn’t have a lot of work this week, but we did our best with the time that we had. MJ came to church this week and so did Grandieur. MJ’s baptismal date is july 2nd so its coming up pretty soon :) she has found a lot of friends at church so she is doing really good!

We have been working with the Morales family lately. We taught Tatay George last monday and he kinda told us his whole life story. When he was growing up, he really didn’t have his parents around and when they were around, they just weren’t good examples for him. That’s when he started doing bad things and smoking a ton, because he was never taught right and wrong. Now he's in his state right now because of what he did and he regrets it so much. But he told us that he's going to make sure that he's gonna be a good father for his kids. Even though he can’t go to church, he pushes them to go to church. Sister elix and I were getting a little teary eyed. This guy has just had a hard life… but it definitely testified to me of the importance of families and how much trouble a family can save us from.

We have another potential investigator this week. Her name is Baby and she is about 55 years old. She is really great and God is preparing her so much. Ever since we first started teaching her, she accepted our message immediately. This week we taught her about prophets and Christ's church on the earth and then she asked a random question, How can I receive the fulness of the atonement of Christ in my life? and so we shared about the gospel steps. And then she brought up her concern. She was like, so if I get baptized in your church, then of course I would go to your church every sunday. The only problem is that all my family goes to the Methodist church on Sunday (which is like 2 minute walk away, mormon church is 20 min drive) and so if I joined your church, they would hate it and it would drive our family apart. I didn’t really have any idea what to say to her because that problem is super tough. But we just brought it back to the basics and told her to pray to know if our message is true, and if she knows and acts on that witness, that the Lord will provide her a way and soften the hearts of her family. What would you all say in that situation??! I am very interested to hear your advice haha.

On Saturday, we were able to go to a baptism of an 8 year old in our area. We have been teaching her all of the lessons because her parents are totally inactive and so her sibilings have been really asking us to help with preparation for her baptism. Haha it was the cutest thing. The water is like super cold in the font and so when they baptized her she came shooting straight out of the water cause she was freezing hahaha.

Anyways, that was our week! I love you all and I know this church is true!

Sister Dunn

Mother and son :)

My favorite thing here! It’s like this coconut thing wrapped up in a burnt banana leaf! So good. Sorry this is a selfie, this is the day when sister elix was sick, and I was kinda bored!