Holli - January 4, 2016

FHE with Tyler and Morgan

Hello Everyone!

We had such a cool week!

So Sister Maughan and I will be staying in Arcadia for another six weeks which is going to be awesome! We are both super pumped about it :) This Ward is amazing and we are so excited to be working with them :)

We finally met this less active couple (the Lopez's) a few nights ago. They are super funny and awesome. They are actually getting ready to move and have been very busy with work and everything so they haven't had much time to meet with the missionaries. It's kind of funny but Sister Lopez was telling us one of the main reasons they aren't at church (minus their jobs) is that they don't fit the stereotypical
Mormon so for her Relief Society is kind of torture. In our Ward especially there are lots of older ladies so she feels she wouldn't mesh very well. The thought came to me from one of the ladies in our Ward when speaking of her conversion. She said: "I don't go to church to worship the people." I loved that because it helped me think of the main reason we all go to church. It can be hard when we feel as if we don't
belong but I think the more we go, the more opportunity we give the Lord to change our hearts and the more we will want to go out of a desire to follow Him.

So this really cool experience happened last night. Sister Maughan and I feel as if we've been working pretty hard, talking to everyone and taking every opportunity we have to share the gospel and there hasn't been any super solid people that we've met that really want to try out our message. But last night we met this guy named Anthony as we were
looking for a former. It was late at night and I had some weird foot thing going on so I was kind of hobbling down the street while Sister Maughan held my crutches (haha, funny story) and Anthony was just about to get in his car when he saw us and asked about the crutches and then started telling us about his broken knee and how he needed to be on crutches too and then we happened to start talking about
missionary work and he told us about his beliefs and it was awesome! His mom goes to one church and his grandparents go to another and Anthony used to go to church but now he just reads the bible. He has a strong belief there is a God and he has read multiple translations of the
bible all the way through. He told us it's crazy how much confusion there is - how all of these translations are just people's opinion of the bible. We were like, aaaahhhh! So we gave him a BofM and he said he was stoked to read it. Then he told us he had two friends who were LDS and they never really had talked about the BofM before so he said
he would start talking with them about it. We were like, this is so cool!

We met this guy named Rafael in the park one day. Sister Maughan asked if we could talk with him for a minute and we ended up teaching him the whole restoration lesson. Pretty awesome! So now he has a BofM as well. He was raised Catholic but he said Catholicism was the only thing he knew. We challenged him to read the BofM because one of his
questions was, "Why are there so many churches?" So hopefully he reads it!

Haha, we were walking to the park to park contact on New Years Day and there were these planes up in the sky that were writing negative propaganda about Donald Trump - haha, everyone was taking pictures - kind of crazy and an interesting way to start the new year :)

So we visit this older couple every week (the Wheelers) and Brother Wheeler was baptized about 4 years ago. Sister Wheeler and their entire family/extended family have been members since forever but Sister Wheeler has Alzheimers so we read scriptures with Brother Wheeler and keep Sister Wheeler company :) But we were walking to an
appointment one day and Brother and Sister Wheeler drove up and gave us In N' Out cards as a New Years present- sweetest couple ever!

Sister Maughan and I were walking to find some potentials when we ran into Jun. He was smoking out by his car but we started talking and because it was fairly cold he asked if we would come back during the day sometime. So we did and taught him the Restoration and it was pretty awesome. He doesn't believe in God - he told us he was from Japan and I think their main religious belief is just in nature - maybe nature gods. Anyway we taught him how to pray and gave him a BofM so it was awesome :)

Haha, we were walking down the street one day (our adventures always seem to involve walking) and we hear this loud crunching noise. We look up and there's this car that ran right into this yellow sign in the meridian and it was pretty intense. He ended up getting his car off the meridian and pulling over. We asked him if he was ok - he looked
super shaken and told us he had just gotten his drivers license that morning. I was like, "No worries, this stuff happens to me all the time" #thetimewhenibackedthesuburbanintothegaragedooronaccident. So it was kind of scary but kind of funny - Sister Maughan and I couldn't really stop laughing.

We had 2 FHE's this week with Tyler and Morgan and then the Ludwigs - we did the Armor of God lesson so pretty fun. I'll send you pics - they're awesome.

One last miracle - Yiwei and Amanda came to church yesterday! First time they've been at church but they seemed to enjoy it and are planning on coming next week! So excited! The Ward totally enveloped them and it was just amazing :) Haha, we haven't had an investigator at church since like three months ago so we were pumped!

Alright that's about it from here in Arcadia! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed the holidays! Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Love, Sister Dunn

Our District

Lindsay - January 4, 2016

Hello Everyone!! 

Transfers are this week, and I am training!!!  just kidding:) hehe! So I am going to Gila Valley and my new companion will be Sister Sayer. She just finished her training, so she is a pretty new missionary! That will be fun to be companions with her! Sister Condie will be staying, and Sister Walter will be her companion. She is the sweetest person and she is an awesome STL, so that will be fun for the both of them. This week went by so fast!! On Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting about goals! It was really good! We talked about the why of making goals and why it’s so important to do. 

On Friday, Hanan got baptized! She was so excited when she met with us before her baptism!! She said, "I'm shaking with joy!" She also told us that she was really nervous! But she was amazing! Also, as we were welcoming people to the baptism, a less active who is engaged to a guy who is our investigator came in!! We texted him about the baptism a
few days before the event, and we had no idea that he would show up! But they did, and we almost started crying we were so happy!! Hanan's testimony was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I don't remember what she said and I think it is because the Spirit was guiding her the whole time to say what she needed to say. One thing that I do remember her saying was she explained that before her baptism, she still felt the Spirit guiding her. She knew that everything would be ok. She also talked about how God led her to come to America from Syria. She said that it was a hard decision to make, but that she knew that everything would turn out. She testified that she wouldn't have known about the church if she hadn't made the decision to go to America. It is just amazing how God works, and how he prepares each and every soul to hear of the gospel at the right time.

On Saturday, we went to go see Michelle who is one of our less actives. It was really funny when we went to the door because we heard someone cleaning in the house, but they wouldn't come to the door. So Sister Condie knocked on the window, and Michelle finally heard us and came to the door! She had her ear phones in so she couldn't hear! She
started laughing because we had been standing out there for a couple of minutes and she couldn't hear us! So it was great! We had an awesome lesson with her. We had been doing a lot of object lessons with her, and  they were all good, but Michelle wasn’t too open with us. So we decided to switch it up with the lesson plan and just refer to
scriptures. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and talked about each principle, and it went so well! The Spirit definitely worked through us to help Michelle open up! She opened up so much that we figured out why she doesn’t want to come to church! In the closing prayer at the end of the lesson, Michelle said, "Thank you for giving me the strength to be honest". It was amazing!!! She wants to work her
way up to church, but said that she loves when we teach her. Since she has been less active for a while we have been teaching her the lessons, so she can strengthen her testimony and faith.

So those were the highlights from my week! Sorry it was a short letter! Every week is so good, that I always forget what we did!! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love you all to the moon and back! :D

Sincerely,
Sister Dunn

Lindsay - December 28, 2015

This week was an awesome week! On Tuesday we had a Half Mission Christmas conference which was so fun! We played Simon Says which I am not very good at, but it was fun anyway! Then we did the 12 days of Christmas song with all of the missionaries! We had a card at each table and our table's card said "a person plus an action"  but it had to be 4 syllables. We were also the 12th day of Christmas so we did 12 people baptized. Some other missionaries did 5 bad haircuts, 4 fake referrals, 7 Dear John letters etc. :) It was so fun! The rest of the week was kind of a blur actually! We just tried to visit as many less actives, members and investigators as possible. It was a little tough because of the holidays, but we were blessed for our obedient efforts!

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Farr Family. They are the best, and the food was delicious! We also participated in their nativity that they did. Sister Condie and I were angels:). We were given so much dessert this week, so Sister Condie and I are going to do a no sugar diet. :) We are also starting to run laps in the morning, so that gives us a lot of energy each day. On Christmas we opened gifts in the morning, and we had breakfast with a less active. She made crepes for us, and she had this amazing caramel pecan sauce to go inside. It was so good!! Then we visited more people and skyped with our families!! That was so comforting to me to see my family, and I am so grateful that I got to speak with them. On Sunday we went on splits because we have to cover 2 wards. I taught Gospel Principles,
and talked about the Atonement. It was really good, and we had a great discussion near the end of class. I showed them the video about the debtor and creditor by Boyd K. Packer. I love that video, and everyone seemed to like it too! So that is my week, sorry its kind of short!! Transfers are in a week, and I don't know what is going to happen!!!! ahhhhh!! the suspense! Love you all!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Chelsea - December 28, 2015

Baptism of Mary Rose

Sister Kibaimoa

Busania Family!! Ahh I love them!!

Belon Family!! Ahhh so sad!!

Gonzales family!

I’m being transferred!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOH!!!!! Oh man I almost cried when I read the text! A lot of us are being transferred: 4 sisters and 2 elders in our zone. I am definitely so excited for Wednesday. I hope I get a good companion haha.... 

Christmas was pretty great. On Christmas Eve, Sister Kibaimoa and I went on splits in our area. We walked about 10 miles the whole day and taught one lesson! Sobrang punted!!! Haha I was like, oh my gosh, it’s Christmas and were not even doing anything!! Haha even though it was a hard day, I really understood the real meaning of Christmas out here. I have definitely realized Jesus Christ's sacrifice for me these past couple of days. Anyways, Christmas was awesome! We skyped in the morning which was just the best!! After, we did our weekly planning and then went out! We had four lunch appointments.... oh my goodness we were all about to throw up. And we were seriously considering skipping the last appointment, but sadly, they had already prepared. We were all dying when we got home. Haha. 

On Saturday, we went with the Busanias and this American family to this school by Guribang. It was like in the middle of nowhere and all the kids spoke ilecauno so they couldn't understand me!! Haha but we played a ton of games and performed musical numbers and all that. The American family gave the school a ton of new books. After that, we went to the Busanias for lunch! Oh my goodness best lunch ever. They had pancit, apples, bananas, fried chicken, and chocolate cupcakes. I just stuffed myself haha. After that, we had to rush to the church for our baptism! It was an awesome experience :) Mary Rose was super nervous but everything worked out all right. The only thing is that she was late to church yesterday, so she has to wait a week to get confirmed. Kinda unfortunate... 

So we also had the Ward Christmas Party on Saturday. Super fun!! And oh my goodness I saw Rodel!!! I ran up to him and was like Rodel!! Namimiss kita!! Uhh I am so lucky I was able to get to see him before I left!! And then yesterday, Sister Kibaimoa and I spent the day in Guribang, because we won’t be able to go there again before I’m transferred. Lets just say it was super sad. We went and visited the Belon family and shared to them. And then nay was like sister, we will miss you. And tay was like you need to write to us always and leave a souvenier. Haha. And then I hugged nanay and shook tay's hand and I was literally holding in the tears. After we walked away, I just started bawling. They are definitely one of my favorite families in this area. I will miss them...

That’s about it this week! Tomorrow, we are going to visit all the members before I leave, and pack! I hope you all had an awesome Christmas with your families and friends! I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life, and that through it, I can become better each day. Love you!!

Sister Dunn

This is the rice field where we have to walk across to get to a house. HAHAHAH Sister Kibaimoa fell and got stuck!!