Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Birthday

So to all who may not know....Seth's birthday is Friday, September 25th. Born at 8:00 am on the nose and weighing in at an even 8 lbs. We love you and miss you.

September 23, 2009

Hola!
Sorry that I didn't get to write much last week. A member in the ward likes to take the missionaries around to see the country and he took us to a town called Druemheller. It is famous for dinosaurs. We drove about an hour through farms to the city. The land has washed out there into shallow canyons and they have found all types of dinosaid bones and fossils there. There is a very impressive museum there and all types of tourist things to do in the city. I'm going to mail pictures today so they should be there next week sometime. It was nice to get to see some of the terrain and area around here. Transfers are coming up in 2 weeks, so he is probably going to take us to Banf next week, but we should be back in time to write an email next week.I can't believe it's almost transfers, I feel like I just got here. I really hope that I don't leave this area because we've got some really good investigators that we're teaching and the area has a lot of potential. I've been exposed to some interesting food recently. I think that the members try to gross out the missionaries sometimes, or make the food so hot and spicy that they themselves can't eat it, but it's fun. I ate some fried pig skin with fat called chichirron or something like that. They also like pigs feet, cow stomach, pig intestines, liver, heart. Basically any type of meat that's cheap to buy. I really like it because each country has their own speciality, type of food, or style of eating. We have a family from Nicaragua that we're teaching on friday and they're making lunch for us for my birthday. They kind of scared me though with some of their birthday traditions. They said they smash eggs or pies or cake on people's heads. The work in the area is progressing well. A lot of new investigators and we stay busy teaching. We've got some challenges, but we're slowly overcoming them. Over the last month, I've seen the most progression with the language in that I'm able to understand so much more than I could when I arrived. My testimony of the power of prayer continues to grow as specific prayers have been answered this week for my companion, investigators, and my own personal questions. Our mission tour from two weeks ago was centered around a talk given by elder bednar to ces institute teachers entitled: "Seek Learning by Faith." From the year 2006 delivered at the jordan institute of religion building. I spent several days reading and studying it and the doctrines it discusses. It specifically discusses that Joseph smith asked in his prayer which church he should join, not simply which church was true. He had full intention to act on the answer he recieved, and I think that's a key to personal revelation that i have learned this week and has been strengthened. We must be willing to do our part, all we can, and if we're asking for is truly the desires of our hearts, we will be willing to act. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and emails. My companion tells everyone we meet that it's my birthday friday, so i'm sure that I'll recieve lots of love here. Thank you for prayers and support!Con amorElder Dunlap

Thursday, September 17, 2009

NO LETTER....WHAT?????

I"m not going to have time to write an email this week. We went to Druemheller with some members today. It was about an hour away and we're running late to get to dinner adn have to email the president. I'll include details next week. SOrry, everything is well, thanks for the emails, love u Elder Dunlap

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Last word...

i forgot to remind that if anyone sends a package, write gift on it so there's not charges to accept it here.

Sept 9, 2009

Hola!This week has been another good week. Our investigators all seem to be doing well. Our two with a baptisimal date from Nicaragua had to push back the day because of work schedules, but they seem to still be doing very well. We pray for them all daily and I know that the Lord strengthens them and us as well as we try to help them progress towards baptism. We've had some very fortunate events this week that have brought us new investigators to begin teaching as well. A new investigator invited 2 friends over for a first lesson which we found out when we showed up. It was a very pleasant surprise and they all seemed super excited about the message. The mission president also has really stressed working with the members. We prayfully selected 3 member families to teach short lessons to and work with this week. We had planned on sharing a message with these familes as a dinner message and really emphasizing that the Lord wanted them to find someone for us to teach in their home in the next week. This is a new 7 day plan to work with the members that our mission president is emphasizing. When we went to two of them for dinner, they had already invited a non-member over to eat with us and after dinner, both the non-members agreed to begin the lessons in the homes of the members. We didn't even have to ask the members. This was our miracle for the week. We felt very aprehensive about beginning this program with members and asking them to specifically to find someone in the next 7 days for us. But, with 2 of the 3, they had already been prepared and been thinking about this and had someone ready. I know that our prayers are being answered and the Lord is preparing people for us to teach. Everyone from my district at the MTC seems to be doing very well. Several have already had baptisms in the short time they've been here. We have a mission tour with a general authority tomorrow. So we'll all be together except elder S.walker for the day. This should be a nice reunion. I'm excited to see them, as well as be counseled by a general authority. I dont remember who is coming but he's from the 1st quorum of the 70 i believe. The weather is starting to get cool. We wear suits now and I bought a wool and casmere jacket to wear for milder weather right now over my suit coat. During the day isn't bad but the morning and evenings get pretty windy and cold. mom asked abuot things for my birthday. i really don't need anything except winter clothes. snow gloves, wool socks, scarves, thermals really. i think it's really expensive to send packages though so i really wouldn't worry about sending anything. it would probably cost more to send the package them the items cost and there's a ton of thrift stores here. canadian people must like thrift stores.some nice information is that we were driving a 4 door chevy colorado truck, but we traded with the zone leaders a couple days ago because they had some packages to pick up. every transfer at interviews there's a car competition to see who has the cleanest. the cleanest in your zone gets to pick whatever car they want- which is the truck for everyone. we'll find out the results tomorrow at mission conference. we'll probably end up keeping the chevy malibu we have. hope all is well at home! thank you so much for the prayers and love! i'm doing great and am very happy to be serving here. i love the ward that i'm in. they asked elder chunn and i to bear our testimonies yesterday. i luckily don't think that i said anything i wasn't supposed to or got any words mixed up. i love everyone!elder dunlap

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Canada 9-2-09

Hola!I don't know if I told you in the last emails, but wednesday is my Preparation day and is when I will be emailing. This has been overall a really good week. The people in this area of calgary are so diverse. I'm amazed at how many different cultures and languages there are. I assume that Alberta has good incentive programs for refugees, or it is easier to come here than the united states. A lot of the Hispanic people come here as refugees. I think that this helps with the work because they are searching for a new life adn new people to meet, for jobs, or meanign in their lives. We have a lot of investigators right now. Two committed to be baptized in two weeks and a couple more that are progressing. The biggest struggle right now is that the people love us and love our message adn believe that we're people of God who are bettering their lives, but they don't understand the need to keep committments. To read adn pray for themselves, and that their salvation is at stake. That baptism is essential for them adn will bring them closer to their Savior adn Heavenly Father. This is something that we're goign to try adn get better at over the next couple weeks. There's people from all types of Hispanic countries here and a great way to establish trust with them is by talking about their native country. We often knock on doors that have flags in the windows or stickers and flags on the cars. Theres a lot of clues that I'm learning to tell what country someone is from. We have two with a baptisimal date named Jose and Salena and they have an 11 month old baby. They're refugees from Nicaragua and are our "golden" investigators right now. They only real challenge is that he works on Sundays right now One other progressing investigator is Freddi from Columbia. He has a 4 year old son and his wife died a coupel years ago. We taught him the first lesson in his home where all he had was a bed and a tv. We sat on some fold out chairs. I felt such love for him as we taught and it was a spiritual experience. He said he needs a stronger testimony to accept a baptidate, but is progressing well. It was great to hear him pray out loud, probably for the first time after our lesson. These are our people that we ask for your help praying for this week. That they will grow strong in their testimonies and desire to follow the Savior. I understand about 70 percent of most conversation that people say, so I'm reasonably able to communicate and understand the context. But, my funny story for this week was something I didn't understand. A member invited us over to meet a friend of hers who has had a lot of health problems at her house. We got there adn it was an older man from Peru. She asked us to give him a blessing and we did adn taught about apostasy adn the priesthood adn restoration a little before the blessing. The spirit was strong adn Right after the blessing, she asked him how he felt. He said something and pointed to his arms adn rubbed down his arms adn his body. I thought that he said he felt tingles all through his body. I was excited adn wondered why my companion didn't start talkign about the spirit and helping him recognize that was what he felt. I almost started to, but decided not to. After the lesson, I found out that he said he had sweat all over his body frmo walking to the house adn was a little sore. He didn't understand that she was asking how he emotionally and sp=iritually felt, he thought she meant physically I guess. I laughed after I found out what really happened afterwards. The good news is that we're goign to continue teaching him at her house though. Thank you for all the love adn encouragement. I feel so loved by these people. They have such a charitable and open culture. They absolutely love the missionaries here, so they're taking care of me. Thank you also for the forwarded emails from those from the MTC. I love and respect your thought adn comments and you're in my prayers and dear to my heart. I'll send pictures next week, I honestly just haven't taken any here in Calgary yet. We're working hard adn I believe we're being blessed for our obedience. Even though my spanish isn't great, I feel that the people can understand the feelings of my heart from what I say. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well at home!
I love you all.
Elder Dunlap