Taylor - June 6, 2016

Hey Family!

Wow what a week for you guys, pretty crazy and fun!! Sounds like a scorcher over there at the wedding in Arizona. It’s getting pretty hot over here too as you probably know and also super humid with the rain each day!

Something that I have been focusing on the past week is studying about the Book of Mormon and also studying in the Book of Mormon. I’ve realized that no matter what question we have, it can be answered through studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible and praying about it. The Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of The Church of Jesus Christ and it can answer many questions of the soul, sort through confusion, and confound false doctrine. I love the Book of Mormon!

We are going to have a big finding week this week and focus on finding the needs and desires of the people we talk to in order to better see what really is their drive, and what catches their interest in the restored gospel. We can't make them want it, they have to desire it for themselves.

Unfortunately Kathy, Jessica and Tatiana didn't come to church though we had had an awesome lesson on the Book of Mormon the Friday before. We haven't been able to really contact them and we've called and tried to stop by so I don't how much longer we will try with them. As well, we haven't been able to contact Adriana so that's super lame! We also had a dinner set up with Marie and Enrique and the Rodriguez family but they had to cancel since Marie isn't feeling well because she is pregnant. But hey asi es la vida! We're still super pumped and excited for this week! We have zone training on Wednesday and zone conference next week so that will be cool!

For interesting conversations... Yesterday we ran into this one woman who is half Christian half spiritualist and so that was interesting. She literally talked our ears off for like 45 minutes! It was kinda cool though because some of her beliefs were the same. She didn't believe the bible was perfect but that it was the word of God. She was a strong believer in love, charity and families. She was amazed with the Book of Mormon and knew a little bit about the lost tribes, so we gave her one and invited her to read it :) Not a super church going woman but hey, a good seed was planted!

Another fun one was just with a woman that wasn't very accepting and said we are a cult and was completely against Joseph Smith and thought her own sister who was converted was lost forever. So ya that was a sad one.

Mom, for the theme remembering who you are, Elder Hallstrom’s talk is obviously a good one from this last general conference. I also always love to go to the bible dictionary and search from there and it leads me to a lot of good things!

Well I love you guys, stay safe and I'll talk to you later!

Elder Dunn

Holli - May 30, 2016

We found a few deer tracting :) Yeah that's as close to a live animal

as you get here in Glendale - minus the squirrels! Super jealous of

Chelsea’s cows right now haha

Hey Everyone!

We had a pretty crazy week this week!

We had a mission conference on Thursday with a member of the Seventy 

and his wife - Elder and Sister Gaverett (not sure on the spelling) and it

was really cool! The APs told us afterwards that Elder Gaverett

changed the agenda of the meeting like 10 different times and the

purpose was to have the Spirit guide the meeting. It was  kind of

hilarious too because they did accountability last minute and had all

the ZLs come up and do accountability for the entire zone - baptisms

for the last four months and how many were still active in the church

- focused on retention. Those poor zone leaders were really sweating

it but did a great job! And some ZLs weren't there so they called up

the DL in place - haha yeah Sister Colson said she was really glad not

to be either at the moment.

We had an awesome church tour with Heriberto, Connie, and April. It

was kind of hilarious because April's date is set for the 19th of June

and we only meet with her once a week so we literally crammed like

half of the lessons into the church tour. However, April did get the

pack of gum Sister Colson used to explain tithing so she stayed awake

for most of it. It's cool too because Connie is just kind of present

for lessons, to support April, but we can tell she's feeling the

Spirit so we hope as we continue to meet that her testimony will

strengthen and she'll have the desire to do more. Wonderful family!

Unfortunately Eddie (short for Heriberto) works every other Sunday so

church attendance will be very spotty. Connie told us she would bring

April to church but unfortunately they never came. Life goes on

though! We have a temple trip planned for this Thursday and they said

they would meet us there to check out the Visitors Center so we're

excited for that!

Oh my gosh we have the coolest family in the Ward. So it's Brother and

Sister Butler and they will just be here until August but Brother

Butler is going to school at BYU and they live in Wyview and will be

there for a while so they told me I should come and visit which would

be super cool! He's doing his masters in engineering and another funny

fact we found out- he was in the movie High School Musical! So that's

the plan when I go back to school is to go to the Butler's apt. And

watch High School Musical :) haha- they are awesome! Sister Butler is

actually coming on a lesson with us today for Eivet and Sonahey

(friends of a less active member who have come to church twice now)

and we are so excited to teach them.

We had such a unique experience last night. It was late (like

8:40) and we had planned on stopping by this potential. She had

stopped us in the street a month ago and asked if we wanted to come by

her house and "talk about it" so we were like, sure . . .? Then when

we were on exchanges a few weeks ago we stopped by their house and met

her very crazy brother Fabien. Pretty creepy dude. Anyways so we

decided to stop by last night. Not a super logical thing when it's

dark but we felt OK about it. So we go and Fabien is the only one home

and he's just super creepy. So we asked him to tell Patricia we

stopped by and prepared to jet when this group of kids passed by us

ranging from like 5-13. They were the sweetest kids in the world. They

all lived in the neighborhood and were used to Fabien but they were

kind of scared of him. Anyways, they asked who we were and then told

us about the churches they went to. Then one of the boys (Angel) asked

if we believed in bad dreams - we told them to pray whenever they had

one and then they all started sharing their bad dreams. Then Kelly, one

of the little girls, asked if we could all say a prayer together. So

we like moved away from Fabien's house and gathered in a circle and

all took turns saying a prayer. And it was so cool! It was 9:15 by

then and we told them we had to go. Angel asked us if we could stay

for another hour and it was so hard to leave those kids! But we told

them we would come back. Such an amazing experience!

We were in primary a few weeks ago and this little girl named Madison

(she's maybe 4) is just a hoot. The lesson was on Jesus and His many

titles/roles. They started talking about how Jesus was the Good

Shepherd which would make all of the kids the "sheep" and Madison

stands up and states very pointedly "I'm not a sheep, I'm a kitty!"

So remember, no matter what animal you are, Jesus still loves you and

still wants you to follow Him. ☺️

Haha, so Mariana (she just got confirmed last week) has a daughter

named Gen in the YSA Ward but Gen comes with her mom to the family

Ward a lot to support her. So yesterday was fast Sunday and we were

going back over it with Mariana and she was like joke griping about

how we have to fast for two meals. She asked if 12 was ok to start

eating. Haha, I told her that when we were young our parents made

sure it was two full meals so we didn't end up eating until 4 or so

and sometimes when dad (who was bishop at the time) got home late we

would fast until 5 or 6 and Gen's like "So that's why you're so

skinny! You guys fasted until 6!" Oh my gosh hilarious - but yes there

are many health benefits to fasting! Physical and spiritual!

That's about it from here in Glendale! I love you all so much! Thanks

again for all of the letters and support! Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister Dunn

Taylor - May 31, 2016

Hey! Thanks for all the pics of graduation. Spence is a stud!! Ya I bet it was a crazy week. Do you guys feel old yet? ;) jk. Love you guys! Man it’s going to be like a new house when I get back. The fridge and microwave went out in the same week. Craziness! ;) 

The week was pretty awesome for us as well! We had Jessica, Kathy and Tatiana come to church and they're a pretty cool family of 3! They had to go after sacrament but they really liked it and are excited to continue to learn and progress towards their date for the 11th! Adriana also came to church and she liked it as well! We had given her a chapel tour earlier in the week so she was more familiar with everything and she is also excited to learn more and progress towards her date on the 11th! Adriana is from Guatemala but she speaks fluent English which is awesome. She loves to read so she eats up any reading material we giver her which is nice! She is still waiting on her answer from the Lord but she feels the spirit so that is awesome!  The funny thing though was for sacrament meeting, the topic was temples and family history and so it was a little deep. I think our investigators were definitely a little lost and confused which kinda stinks but hey they still felt good :) 

The Lord definitely blessed us with miracles this week and we couldn't have done it without Him! We kept the faith and energy high and set bold expectations with everyone we met! The ward also had a bbq for Memorial Day yesterday. A few nonmember friends came to that as well so we are excited to be working with the members more! It was  raining a bit during the bbq but it was still fun! 

For conversations this week we had an interesting convo with a born again christian and he said we believed the Christ was an angel and he was appalled about the fact that we believed satan to be the brother of Jesus. We explained to him that we believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Savior and Redeemer of the world and he said that's not what our leaders are saying and he basically thinks we're being led blindly even though we told him thousands of times that we have questions and are constantly studying and learning. Anyways nice guy just slightly confused. 

Another one that just popped into my head was with a Muslim woman. There wasn't too much of a conversation but she was super super nice, and said she believed in God and Jesus to be a great prophet, but ya she was probably one of the nicest women I have met. 

Elder Wride's birthday was on Friday so that was super fun. Hermano Rodriguez took us to a pretty good pizza place so that was cool. Then we had cake and ice cream! I will definitely get pics to you soon Mom, sorry about that! Love you guys, have a great week and stay safe! -Elder Dunn

Lindsay - May 30, 2016

Saying goodbye to Sister Curtis.  I was literally trying to hold in the tears. 

Soooo hard to leave her!!!

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a great week! Congratulations to all the seniors that have graduated! That is such a great accomplishment! I remember those days. It brought me so much relief to be able to be rewarded for all my hard work in school! 

This week was crazy! I feel like every week is going to be crazy! The adjustment from Gila Valley to Silver City has definitely been the toughest transition. But I know that the Lord is giving me this challenge because He knows that I will become stronger and better because of it. On Tuesday, we had a lesson with our recent convert Kenny. His last name is actually McCauley, so I am wondering if they are related to you Uncle Brian and Aunt Val!! That would be so cool! We spoke about the Holy Ghost and showed the videos from Elder David A. Bednar, "Patterns of Light". Ken liked the videos, and we had a great discussion about how the Holy Ghost can communicate with us and help us. 

On Wednesday, we had  an awesome district meeting! We talked about the power of teaching simply. We did a role play where we chose a principle from  Preach My Gospel,   

And chose a scripture to go with it. It was really good! I chose the principle of agency. I used 2nd Nephi 2:27 to explain the principle. That role play helped me a lot mainly because I don't use a lot of scriptures during lessons. So I learned how to incorporate scriptures more in the lessons. Later that day we visited Avery who is 8 years old. He has a hard time retaining the principles we teach, but he has the desire to be baptized. It has been hard to help him come to church. There isn't a lot of support in his immediate family, so it is hard for him to make the decision to go to church. But we were very straightforward with him, and asked him what he was struggling with. He opened up to us a little bit, which was good! We are hoping that he comes to church next Sunday! Close to the end of the night, we were trying to find this one less active in the YSA Ward. Her brother was there, but she apparently moved. He was really creepy. His smile was so awkward, and we knew that he was lying when we were talking to him. He would always hesitate, and then answer the question, so overall it was an experience filled with feelings of awkwardness and creepiness. Haha! So funny though! 

On Friday after weekly planning, we taught Billy our YSA investigator. He is awesome! Billy told us that he can see a difference in his life, because of the righteous choices he is making. It is so amazing when people recognize that change! What a blessing! 

On Saturday, we had dinner with the Bencomo's. Sister Bencomo is less active, and her husband isn't a member. At one point in his life, he took the missionary lessons, but he got offended, and then stopped taking them. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and our favorite scriptures. It was awesome! Then Sister Hunt challenged Brother Bencomo to start reading the Book of Mormon again. We invited him to take a Book of Mormon, and he did! We are so happy!!!! On Sunday, we taught another of our YSA investigators, named Sabrina. She came to the lesson, and brought her younger sister! So it was amazing to teach both of them! We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and Sabrina had some questions, so we answered them to the best of our ability. It was such a great lesson. At the end of the lesson, Sister Hunt asked her to be baptized. She was hesitant towards a specific date. So we invited her to pray about it, and she said that she would. What a great week it has been! I love you all, have a wonderful, relaxing summer!! 

Sincerely,

Sister Lindsay Dunn