Holli - November 7, 2016

Hi everyone!

First week here in Azusa! Loving it :) Back with Sister Barney - reliving old times. It's super fun!

We are teaching this former named Oscar. He's been on the repentance struggle bus for a while so we're hoping to provide him a little more fuel to make it up this long and steep hill he's trying to climb. He's cool though - we've taught him pretty much everyday.

We are also working with this sweet girl named Maria. Half of her siblings are baptized and half are not including her parents so it's kind of an interesting situation. But she's super sweet and has a

desire to learn more and come to church. Prayers for this family please because it's going to be a struggle!

We are teaching this wonderful family (the Spicer family) and the mom (Teresa) was baptized a few years ago but struggled in and out of activity. She just got a calling yesterday (whoo!). Her oldest boy Joseph is not a member and holding back a lot but he's really nice. His younger brothers were baptized a few months ago. Sweetest family ever! I hope to send you a pic. Soon :)

There's this awesome girl named Nichole the sisters found. She has had a rough life and is very cynical but super fun. She is open to being closer to God - it is really hard for her to come to church because she works in the ER but she says hopefully next Sunday she will be able to come! Prayers for Nichole too :) haha lots of prayers!

Not much to report on this week - sorry! Just getting used to the area. Sister Barney and I are so excited to be together my last transfer. We cover six sets of sisters and two are training some newbies so we are excited to work with them! Love you all so much! Hope you have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - November 7, 2016

Sister Beach and I!!!

Hello Everyone!!! 

This week was crazy but good! My new companion Sister Beach is amazing! She is from Tacoma, Washington and she has been out for 9 months. She is so enthusiastic about missionary work and the scriptures, and I love it! 

On Tuesday we met with a less active named Christa. She has a hard time understanding the scriptures, so we read 3rd Nephi Chapter 11 with her. We had a good discussion about it! She is also having her baby blessed next Sunday, so she is really excited about that! We also met with the Wrights that night. The wife has been a recent convert for a year, and the husband is a less active member. We had a really good discussion with them about obedience. The wife has a hard time with the word of wisdom, and told us that coffee is the least of our worries, and we should just focus on avoiding drugs. Dang it Satan, you are terrible! So we are going to focus on helping them understand that the reason why we keep the commandments is so we can have the Spirit to be with us more strongly.

On Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting with our new district leader Elder Hansen. We talked about contacting referrals, and we definitely need to improve on that! We also taught our investigator Kairi. Her mom thinks she is too young to be baptized, so we are just teaching her the lessons, and praying that the Spirit will soften the mother's heart. 

On Thursday we had our first lesson with our two new investigators Terri and Mina! Terri is a granddaughter of a less active in the Ward, and she is working to adopt Mina! Terri has been seeking to draw closer to God and His son, and it is amazing! She told us that we radiate with light, and that she wants that back in her life! It is truly a miracle that we met them and we are teaching them!

On Friday, we went to MLC, and we had some great trainings given by President Passey and the Assistants. Hermana Kerr, and Elder Nielson are still in leadership with me, so it's nice to have Eagle Stake missionaries serving with me! :) We had a training on helping our investigators receive revelation through prayer. I needed that training so bad! The Assistants helped us to improve in inviting the head of the household to pray. There are so many things to improve on!  But it is great because we become stronger and more effective!

On Saturday, we attended a baptism, and gave a 5 minute teaching moment after the baptism. We testified of the Book of Mormon and shared a Mormon message about the Book of Mormon. It was such a powerful experience! 

On Sunday, we had such a great Sabbath! I bore my testimony, which the Spirit leads me to do every Fast Sunday! :) At the end of the night, we visited this less active who has been struggling to come to church. We asked her if she was praying and reading the scriptures, and she told us that she was. It was really hard to help her, because every time we tried to encourage her to do things, she would tell us that she was already doing it...... Which she wasn't. So that was tough! I have definitely learned something about the people that I have taught in this area, and throughout the mission! We can't take away their agency! In the end it is up to them. All we can do is help them to have the Spirit.

And also, in Walmart today, an older lady said hello to us and said, "Sisters, give them heaven!" We definitely do that as missionaries! I love you all! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true everyone!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn

Holli - October 31, 2016

Guess who came to visit??  Elder Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve and his wife!

Transfer Day!

The District

October 31, 2016

Hello Everyone!!

May I just say we had an awesome last week in Glendale. It was so cool!

We saw Heidi and Tyler once this week. They are super sweet but are very involved in their church. However we taught briefly about the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. The Mayers helped us out and the Spirit was so strong - even though their combined three kids were playing with all of the toys :) They believe that the great apostasy hasn't happened yet - that it is still in the process of happening and that the second coming of Christ is technically the Restoration. How grateful I am that God has already brought forth His restored gospel so we can prepare ourselves before the coming of Christ!

Hana is pretty much set to be baptized! She wants her boyfriend Sam to baptize her and will be gone for a bit so we are shooting for January! We had a wonderful lesson with her last night and Bishop asked her to give the closing prayer and she broke down in tears of happiness and

gratitude for the gospel. She is super excited to be a member of the church and wants to serve in the primary haha. I used you a lot as an example dad :)

Adrian (Kim's roommate - Kim is returning back to church) is like the bomb.com. In one day he had finished first Nephi. By our second lesson he was 3/4 of he way done with second Nephi. He even wrote down some verses he likes. And he had no religious background!! It is so cool!! So he and Kim came to church today and loved it - he is doing great. Seriously golden investigator.

So our car had to be taken into the shop because it had some engine troubles. And it stayed there for a few days so Sister Hobbs and I "walked and walked and walked and walked .. . And walked!" But we got to work on our street contacting skills so that was sweet.

One night we did a split and I went with Sister Knight to help some missionaries serving in another area find people to teach (we call it a blitz) and she was so nervous! Haha, she thought we were going to a lesson, not doing actual missionary door knocking work. But she did great and we saw many miracles! We talked to this mother and shared our brief message with her and she said their neighbors a few doors down kept inviting her son to come to church but they just never

got to it. As we shared our message with her, her heart seemed to soften and she expressed a great desire to go to church. We left and walked over to the family and expressed our thanks to them for reaching out and of the family's desire to come to church. The father asked for a Book of Mormon to share with the family and said they would keep following up. So cool!!

We went to stop by a referral one night and they weren't super interested so we asked them if they knew any young families that would like to come to our Ward trunk or treat and they pointed us to their neighbors and it was soooo cool! So turns out this apartment here is a family but it's also like the kids hang out - all the kids come to hang out there and they also do like a little religion school where kids can come and learn about religion and share their beliefs and stuff. So we asked if we could say a prayer as we were leaving. The dad said yep! So we all sat down and there were 4 kids there and two of them shared their prayers. One did the Lord's Prayer and the other did another recited one and it was so sweet, genuine, and sincere. One of the other girls said she didn't have a prayer so we asked if we could pray and the Spirit was super strong! It was a really cool 

experience.

We had the Trunk or Treat Saturday night which was a blast. Adrian came and helped us with a carnival game involving glow sticks and we decorated our car with little hand made spiders and handed out pass along cards with jolly ranchers taped to them. So funny the looks on some of the kids faces but so worth it! Anything for the Savior!

We ran into this super sweet family the other night. They were actually a referral from other missionaries. We first met Laysha who is a teenage daughter and showed her a video about our divine identity and it was so cool :) Then we stopped by for our return appointment but the house was so dark. Just as we leave a car pulls up and this guy steps out. Turns out that it was Laysh's dad and his whole family stayed in the car, telling him to go talk to us. Haha he kept telling

us they were super tired and wanted to go to bed but we were able to chat with him a bit and eventually the whole family came out and we were able to teach them a bit about the plan of salvation and encourage them to pray as a family. So fun!

So we had some awesome visitors come on Saturday morning. Sister Renlund was in town for some sort of Lawyer Award Ceremony (she is a lawyer) and the Bishop of the MSA Ward knows her and asked her to come give a devotional to the MSA kids. So she agreed and did a little morning side. This wasn't really widely known so only about thirty kids showed up but we got to go and guess who else decided to join her?? Elder Renlund! 

Transfer news last but not least : I will be transferred to Azusa and am back with Sister Barney. We are super excited! We are still Sister Training Leaders :)

Love you all! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dunn

Lindsay - October 31, 2016

Our District!!!

Hello Everyone! Happy Halloween!!! :)

This week was awesome! On Monday we met with our investigator named James. He lives in Tucson, and he was in Pomerene for a couple of weeks, so we started teaching him. Now that he is back in Tucson, the other sisters will teach him. The Spirit is truly working on him, and he

knows it! He said that he used to be a bitter and hateful person, but now since he has embraced the gospel, he is happier, and more positive!!! It is so cool! I love the Holy Ghost! 

On Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Sierra Vista sisters, and Sister Ray came to

Pomerene with me. She was awesome! We had a great day of teaching! We met with Jayci again and we taught her about keeping the 10 commandments, and following the prophet. Then we invited her to church because she hadn't been in a few weeks. Later that night, we met with

a less active named Illa Mae. Brother Johnson didn't have a home teaching companion that night, and so he invited us to come with him! It was really cool! She hasn't let missionaries into her home, but she was comfortable with Brother Johnson, so she let us in! 

On Wednesday, we had a great district meeting! We talked about receiving revelation through church attendance, and we had a great discussion on it. We brought up concerns that we have been having about helping our less actives see the importance of consistent church attendance. 

We were also able to receive revelation on how we could help others to understand the importance of church attendance.

 On Thursday we went on another exchange. Sister Benson came with me in Pomerene, and we

taught a lot of people! Oh my goodness, Sister Benson is such a good teacher, and she adapts really well to teaching with a different sister for a day! During the day we decided to try a potential, and for some reason I got a prompting to go see this less active named Christa. We actually had a really good lesson with her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and we were able to see where her desires were, and what she wants for her family. We also had an amazing lesson with

our investigator Brittany. One of her best friends came to the lesson, and she related to Brittany so well! The Spirit was so strong, it was so powerful!

 On Saturday, we met with Justin and Amy. They are married, but they were struggling that day; relationship wise and so we talked about obedience, and their goals for the future. We were

pretty bold with them about helping each other to be able to attain the goal of going to the temple. We invited them to come to church, and they said that they would! That night we also saw Kelly, a less active.  She was struggling with her faith, and she didn't feel loved. We had a powerful discussion about prayer, and how we can know all things through God. We also talked about being positive, and how if we are grateful for the little things, and choose to be happy, we will be

blessed!

On Sunday our investigator James came to church!! Before, he refused to come to church, but the Spirit worked on him! Heck yeah!!! I love the Spirit! So Justin and Amy didn't come to church..... We were pretty bummed about that. We even called them before church, and Justin said he had to do some service project for this older lady, that he was supposed to do on Saturday. We were sad! But as missionaries we can't control their agency! That is definitely a hard thing about a mission. But I do know, that God loves each of his missionaries, and that he loves us for our efforts, and for our persistence. We will all be blessed in the end! We might not see the blessings now, but our hard work will pay off! I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Oh I forgot about transfer news! Sister Handy is going to Safford in my old area!!! And I will be getting Sister Beach! I will be training her to be an STL!! I am so excited!!

Sincerely,

Sister Dunn