Lindsay - July 6, 2015

1 month down...... 17 months to go!!!!! Yahoo! It was a slow month because my first area has been really slow, but the experience has taught me to have patience! All of you youth remember this: Every mission isn't going to be perfect! There will be some areas where they progress faster than others! Patience is the key to missionary work!

This week was amazing! On Tuesday we had a Trainer/Trainee Meeting with all the new missionaries! So I got to see all of my MTC roommates! It was amazing! Then the next day we had a district meeting. We talked about testifying and how it can affect those we teach. It was a great meeting and I loved contributing to the discussion. We role played with a couple who were senior missionaries.
They were so awesome and we felt the Spirit strongly! Usually in role plays it is awkward but it felt so natural! 

Thursday's are usually slow. I feel like no one is home on those days! We knocked on 9 doors until we visited someone! On Friday we taught the Ammon family   

(referral) we got from the Bott's. They had been busy so we finally got to teach them! We taught them the Restoration.  I was supposed to invite them to be baptized, but after I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon, I blanked!! I did not know what to say next! So Sister Mizell invited them and they accepted! Sister Mizell and I are so excited! They are such good people, and they were very receptive to the message that we shared! They were truly prepared from the Lord to
hear the gospel! We gave the parents Books of Mormon and they were looking through it and the father saw the  name "Ammon" in it and he said "It's a sign!" They are the best!!

On July 4th, we went to a church breakfast at 7 in the morning! We had a great breakfast, and the Ammon's showed up! (We had invited them). We weekly planned and then we randomly got a call from our Bishop in Tortolita Ward. He said that there was another funeral that they wanted us to speak at! The whole family weren't members, but the caretaker of the woman who passed away was a less active. The minister that was supposed to speak at the funeral bailed, and so the caretaker called the bishop of her Ward and asked if someone could come and speak. Apparently we were referred to speak because the bishop knew that we did a good job at the last funeral. So Sister Mizell gets freaked out by funerals, so I spoke again! This experience was the most spiritual and interesting experience of my life. We went to this house and we awkwardly walked in. No one talked to us so it was awkward at first but I can tell you that I felt the love of God for them. Most of them were smoking E-cigarettes, they were in regular clothes, and they were very casual about the whole funeral. Brother Janes was in the bishopric in the Ward where this family lived, and he knew the caretaker. So Sister Mizell gave a beautiful prayer  and I spoke on the Plan of Salvation. Of course I got emotional, and I just could feel this family's grief and pain. By the end of my talk, most of them were crying. I didn't think I could have influenced  them that much, but I hope that they felt the Spirit. We then took some balloons outside and some people read some poems and then we let go of the balloons. After that event we drove around to the scenic saguaro 

national park and then we went up to a high mountain where you can see  the whole city! We met some elders there and we watched fireworks from there! It was a great night!

On Sunday we went to the Hansen's for dinner  and guess what??? Their son knew Elder Potter!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!! They were really good friends in the mission and they saw each other a lot. He totally flipped!! Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love all of you and I miss you all so much! Thank you to my family, my extended family and my Ward family for making my life so much brighter! Thank you for your prayers and support! :)

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Sister Mizell and Sister Dunn

Taylor - July 6, 2015

Elder Wolfe and Elder Dunn

This week was pretty good! We really stepped up on finding and were really focused on increasing our new investigator pool as well as really taking advantage of every opportunity to teach. We definitely saw some success as we focused on that. We also are trying to get to know the members as well as contact less actives to see if we can help them come back to church. 

We ran into this one less active named Jenny who had been pretty solid in the church but eventually she got busy and couldn't find the time to go to church. Recently she had her dog and a close friend die which hurt her a lot. She has also been pretty sick herself and had to go to the hospital a couple of times. We stopped by and it totally brightened her day! We got to know her a little bit and heard her story and we shared a simple message but the spirit was definitely there! She wants to come back to church and feel of the spirit so that was super cool! 

What we are really going to focus on this week is to make sure we keep a high standard and find the people that will be willing to change. A lot of the people we found truly appeared to be cool and some even accepted baptism but then they wouldn't come to church or wouldn't have time to hear a message about the gospel. So this week, we are going to work on turning new investigators into progressing investigators! I am doing my best to just take advantage of every opportunity to introduce the gospel to someone. 

Sounds like you have had a busy but fun week! Thanks for all the pics I thought I had 32 emails from friends or something for a sec ;) haha jk. Man Spence is really in shape and I'm really getting out of shape! I wanted to time me and my comp for a mile time just because I haven't recorded it in a while so we ran a mile but unfortunately it was at a little slower pace than I liked and he died on the last lap so I finished with 7:18.......yes I know what you're thinking "wow, my son is fat" and yes it is true! I'm working on it though! 

Elder Nielsen is pretty cool, he kinda struggles sometimes when there's not a lot of success and sometimes he gets a little frustrated but he's a hard worker and wants to see success. I don't feel like he's completely opened up yet so we'll see what I can do this week! 

By the way how is keeping up with the yard, are you getting used to it? Oh so 4th of July was cool! We got some ice cream and donuts which of course made us feel terrible after we ate them. Surprisingly not a ton of fireworks went off, I mean a few did but not that many. I think it's probably because most of the people in our area don't even know what 4th of July is ;) Oh and I got my first haircut that I actually paid for on the mish, the part is shaved in and everything! We'll see how you like it! Well I love you Mom and Dad thanks for everything!

Elder Dunn

Chelsea - July 4, 2015

Ahhhh Janie got her mission call to Santiago Chile!!!!!! That is so awesome! My original guess was Brazil btw! So I was pretty close haha. seriously though, Im so excited for her and she will be amazing in Chile.

So this week has been kind of same old same old! I'm starting to freak out a little though! Only four more days til we leave! It's getting so real. Sometimes, I think that MTC is my whole mission! haha. The language is coming along pretty well. I had the opportunity to do one on one coaching with Sister Cope and it was AMAZING! She just started spitting out sentences in English and I would translate them in Tagalog. It takes me a while but I can do it! So that was kind of a break through moment with the language this week!

So a couple girls and I have been a little frustrated about our lessons and how we aren't getting feedback on how to become better. Brother Kaka took us in a room and explained that we were looking at the small picture and not the big picture. He said that he can tell us the things we need to fix, but that's not going to really help the big picture. The big picture is our relationship with Heavenly Father. If we have are constantly aware of Him and His help, we will be able to figure out how to improve through Him. So that was a really interesting thought. Still super frustrating, because he told us nothing about improving our lessons, but really good, because in the end, it's just gonna be us and Heavenly Father. 

We then talked about technology on missions which was super interesting! He asked us, "Why do you think we are allowing missionaries to have access to the Internet on their missions?" We all agreed that it was a stupid decision and we had no idea why. Why would we give these missionaries access to the internet, email, and mostly porn!! Why are we doing this? The reason is: to make them immune to the internet and to distractions. If a missionary can use the IPAD effectively and not waste time, he has learned to master self control and now can master any other weaknesses. So that was just a super cool thought! 

Sorry, not really a lot to write about this week! I'm sure the next time though will be super long!!! I can't wait for this next adventure!!! Love you all!  

Holli - June 30, 2015

Hey everyone!

So we had interviews with President yesterday so our pday was switched to today! So sorry 

It has been a very interesting but great week. We are talking to tons

of people and teaching lots of lessons but we are struggling to get

members come out with us. President and our Zone leaders gave us lots of advice yesterday so we will try to apply it. It's hard I think

because it's summer so everyone is leaving and we're like - "No, come back! We have investigators now!" Crazy. We visit lots of sick/elderly people and that's my favorite part. Partly because they have great air conditioning jk! They are so cute and amazing and have hilarious stories.

We ran into Nathan on the street the other day. He's had a very bad

life and has made lots of mistakes but he told us that during one of

these hard times he turned to the Bible and he's been sober now for

about 20 years! We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and asked him to read it. We didn't think we'd ever see him again until Sunday night when we were walking down the street and saw him sitting outside by the sidewalk. Crazy! We talked to him for a while. He told us that there's something different about us. He turned to Sister Robinson and said that her eyes just glow with this radiance then he turned to me and said, "It's not your eyes exactly just," then he kind of just gestured to me in general and I was like, "darn, I need to work on my glowing eyes thing."

We ran into a guy named Mark last night. He is from New York and told us he just wanted to get out for a while. Super nice but we ran into him around 9 and he said that we should get off the streets and not talk to random people just because it wasn't very safe. He was super nice and as we were handing him a Book of Mormon two guys came up to us. One was pretty drunk and started complimenting our bicycles. Mark was cracking up and Sister Robinson gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet. Best day ever.

Mom you would love it here! There are hummingbirds everywhere! Sis. Robinson and I were trying to find a former investigator so we were climbing up this street called Mountain (and literally, we were

climbing a mountain) and we stopped to take a breather and there was this tree with all of these hummingbirds just flitting in and out and they were making the cutest sounds and then they would sit on the branches and it is just the coolest. We continued climbing and didn't manage to find the right investigator. However the ride down the mountain was super exhilarating. I literally thought I was going to die. We were flying down this mountain and must have looked so goofy with our skirts billowing behind us and the intense looks of fear on our faces. I think Sis. Robinson wants to do it again . . . Ok maybe I was the only one with the fear on my face.

Unfortunately Sis. Robinson must have picked something up in her tire because it went flat that night. We bought a patch kit and tried to fix it up - it lasted about 8 hours. We took it to the Hansens ( they are he cutest elderly couple and they love the missionaries) and told them what happened. We also told them that the patch hadn't been staying on the inner tube so Sis. Robinson had taped it down . . . Bro. Hansen told us to leave the bikes at his house so he could fix it. The next day we dropped by to grab it and I asked Sis. Hansen how our patch job looked. She laughed and said, "What patch job?" So now we know how to actually patch a tire. Sis. Robinson ended up getting a new inter tube.

That's about all the excitement we see here in Claremont :) Mom, I

can't thank you enough for the package! All of the skirts work very

well with my bike so answer to prayer! And thank for the m&m's. They are now gone. No I have not looked at a scale yet. Sis. Robinson said that was her goal when she came out but she had a doctor's appointment and she had to get on this scale. First she got on it backwards so the lady told her to turn around. She did while closing her eyes. The doctor finally just told her her weight. Sis. Robinson was like, NO!! It was funny.

Spencer sounds like you've had an absolutely amazing week! I sent you a letter in the mail but you probably won't get it until Tennis Camp is over. I hope the letter gets there😁. Hope you have a blast up at BYU and with all your cousins! I bet it's awesome to see Sam and Parker again :) stay safe - have fun!

I love you all so much! Thanks for writing :)

Love, Holli

It's Raining!!!!