October 28,2009

Hola!This transfer is already halfway over. Time really is passing quickly. This week was a very good week. I feel that the Lord is really blessing us with success right now. We were able to have 6 investigators at sacrament meeting last Sunday and with the other two companionships in the ward, we had 11 total. We're having a lot more success getting members to come to lessons with us as well. Probably because they see the investigators at church and activities and get to meet them. We've also set 5 baptisimal dates for November right now. We're putting together a daily schedule of things for the investigators to stay focused on these dates and feel the spirit everyday. We're goign to try to have short visits of 5 minutes by us or ward members leading up to their dates to get them excited and bring the spirit. The family of 3 that we met at the talent night absolutely loves the church adn all the teachings. Their date is november 22, but we will probably have it sooner. They've been converted since the first lesson and are excited about baptism and love attending church. We have been very grateful for this family and the member family that has been fellowshipping these investigators. It is the perfect example of member missionary work- and how much easier the work truly is. This family prayed about and found someone to invite to the talent night. The family they invited had been prepared. The spiritual level of these lessons is so much higher because the investigators are diligently searching, reading, and progressing. It's so exciting to feel and see the joy that the gospel is truly bringing into their lives. Monday night, we planned an FHE and made desserts as well. Yesterday was mission conference and it was all about commitment. The story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis was used a lot and there are great lessons in this story. They stayed true and dedicated to their covenants and commitment to the Lord even until death. In our zone, we all wrote a weakness we have on a piece of paper and then went and buried them in the flower bed outside of the chapel. I think we should've flushed them down the toilet. It has been flurrying a little almost every day, but we haven't had much of an accumulation again yet. I've been staying warm with the package that dad sent. I'll send pictures of the red long johns soon. I'm glad to hear that everyone seems to be doing well. I love everyone adn thanks for your love adn prayers. The Lord definetely is blessing me adn my companion and the investigators.Love Elder Dunlap

Seth forgot to mention...

I forgot to tell you in my email that I ate dinner two nights ago at the brother of Angelica Delgado's house. His name is Nefi Rodriguez and through conversation, I found out that he's from Guatemala and related to them. I thought it was pretty neat.

NOTE FROM MOM:
For those that don't know.....The Delgado family were our best friends when we lived in Coral Springs FL. We did Joy School (preschool program where the mom's rotate) and enjoyed them so much. Seth would have been about 3-4 years old when we moved to Florida. Also, while he was in the MTC he ran into one of their daughters (we called her Raquelita) in the mail room. They played together as children. It warms my heart to think of them and the connection to Seth now. How wonderfully small the chruch is sometimes.

October 22, 2009

Hola,This past week has been a pretty good week. We've had a lot of success in the area. We sponsored a ward talent show this past Saturday for a ward missionary activity and it went very well. The members loved it and the whole gym was packed with people. As missionaries, we sang the primary song We'll Bring the World His Truth while a member of the ward accompanied us on the Yukalalee. We wore lava-lavas with our white shirts and did a little choreography. I've got it on my camera and will try to send it soon along with some of the other funny acts fromt the Talent Show. We lacked practice, and actually forgot the words to the third verse, but we made it pretty cheesy and I think that everyone at least laughed because we were so bad. We were able to find a new family of three that we taught a first lesson to this week adn I believe that they have been prepared to accept the gospel and will progress to baptism very soon. We are planning a combined cultural night in november with the missionaries nad members of the spanish branch in the south of the city. This is goign to be at the 17th avenue chapel where deda and grandma served because they're planning for 500 people to attend. We're already inviting people and committing members to prayerfully find families to bring to the event and to meet with us. There's going to be food from all the different Hispanic countries and dances from the countries as well. As missionaries, we'll probably make something cheap like sloppy joes or chili to represent the united states. We're goign to plan some type of song as well for the event. In our weekly planning session this week, I felt inspired to review our ward list. We found a couple addresses that we hadn't visited yet with Less active members. The first one we tried to visit, the address was wrong, but we decided to try the house number at a different street with a similar name in the same area. At the address, we didn't find the person that we were looking for, but we found a less active member living with another less active member couple that just moved here from Peru. We invited the couple from Peru to come to church- and they did this past Sunday. In the basement, there is a family of 5 that are goign to start listening to the lessons as well. Afterwards, we felt great gratitude for being led to this hispanic house. I know it wasn't a coincidence that we had decided to review the member directory that we have.Overall, everything else is going well. I'm getting along well with my companion, we're almost halfway fininshed with this transfer already. Time definently is flying by. Our investigators are progressing slowly but surely, several of them have doubts that we're working hard to try and help them overcome. I really believe that there will be many baptisms very soon in the area. The weather is still cold, it's warmed up some to more of a fall type of weather. It's wet and foggy and windy just about every day right now. We have interviews every 6 weeks with the mission president, adn at this interview, there's a car competition. The companionship with the nicest car in the zone gets to drive the 4 door chevy truck for the next 6 weeks. We just had interviews and are hoping that we will get the truck. I'm doing very well- there's nothing really that I need rigth now. Thank you dad for sending the box, I probably should get it today. The zone gets together every Preparation day for sports at the stake center, so hopefully the zone leaders were able to pick it up. As we find more investigators, and work with more members, we are getting fed more and more. My suits are going to have to be dry cleaned soon because they smell like torillas and hispanic food. Sometimes we tell people that we've just eaten or that we're in a hurry, and they still try to feed us. I'm definetely not starving. The people have great respect for us here and are so loving to us.Thank you for everything!love you, elder dunlap

e-mail trouble 10-13-09

Thank you for the recipe. I don't know if you sent me the soup recipes, because the emails i recieved from last week- like the 6th or something were cut off. I only got a little bit of it. Your other emails I recieved though. The email program is messing up a little. I typed my weekly email and clicked send and then i got locked off, so I lost my email from this week after I had spent over half an hour on it. I'm going to start typing it in microsoft word so that i have it saved. So sorry, I don't have enough time to write it all again. But i'll write the basics. Yesterday was thanksgiving here in canada. We had two dinners- one with a less active family that we ran into from St. Vincent in the carribean. This was on Sunday and we had west indian food with them. The way we found these people was very cool- and at the dinner they shared their experience with praying for help when we arrived with everone adn it was very tuoching. Yesterday, we had a hispanic thanksgiving with three families from the ward. They made turkey with a hispanic salsa in it. They also had TONS of other hispanic foods. I think that I'll be full for a couple days. The work has been split in half because they divided my area, but we're working hard to find creative ways to inspire the members. There's a couple inches of snow this morning and so winter is officially here for probably another 7 months. dad- if you're sending a package- any long johns or wool socks that you have would help- i've picked up 5 pairs of wool socks and some gloves, but pretty soon i'll have to get some thermals to start wearing. sorry about the short email- i promise that i did have a good long one before it got deleted.love you all very much, elder dunlap

October 6, 2009

Hola!
Preparation day is today this week because tomorrow is transfers. We get an email on Tuesdays telling us where we are going so that people can prepare to leave on Wednesday. There aren't any changes in the Spanish other than the boundaries of my area are shifting a little bit. We're going to be sad to lose some of our investigators, but we're also picking up some new neighborhoods. There is a new missionary from the MTC that came yesterday so we now have 14 spanish elders. I assume that next transfer everyone will be moving around in the spanish program, but this transfer, everyone is staying with their trainers. Overall, the work is progressing well. We expect to reach some baptisms with progressing investigators this transfer, we have several that are very close, but just have one doubt to overcome. We hope that with the Lord's help, they can exercise their faith and take the essential step of baptism. I really enjoyed listening to conference. It was a good break from the norm and very inspiring for me. We have an investigator that has two young children and just moved here from Mexico. He is super excited about families and very concerned with raising his kids. We met with him the Friday before conference and he had lots of questions for us about the teachings of the Bible and scriptures about raising children. It was a great opportunity to invite him to conference and promised him guidance about these things. He came to the preisthood session and absolutely loved it. He took pages of notes, and I feel that this will be a key experience in his progression. He really felt how the Gospel can bless his family. The weather has quickly turned very cold. Fall lasted a very short 2 weeks, and there was snow on saturday and sunday. The worst part of the weather is the wind. It makes the weather seem a lot colder. I'm very glad that we have a car. Tell nathan, sara, ashley, shawn, and monica thank you for the package. I got it last wednesday. thank you for the trump tie, i now have the two that they've sent and i picked up an all red one as well, so i'm catching up on shawn's collection. everything is going well, i'm staying warm and being blessed daily. i think thanksgiving here is sometime next week, so i'll be eating a big feast a month earlier than yall.love u and miss uelder dunlap

September 30, 2009

HelloWe didn't end up going to Banff today. The member that was going to take us had something come up, so we're going to try for sometime in the next couple weeks before it becomes too cold to go. The weather is definetely becoming very cold already. I guess it is classified as Fall here right now, but to me it feels like winter in the mornings and evenings. It is very windy and that makes the cold weather worse. I believe that they are calling for 2 cm of snow this saturday. At certain parts in the city, you can see the mountains off in the distance and they're covered in white most of the time. I've been collecting some wool socks and gloves and things so Ive been staying pretty warm. This is the last week before transfers. I don't think that I will be moving areas, or switching companions, but it is possible. They're opening up a new area because one more spanish missionary is coming from the MTC, so everyone could also be moved around a lot as well. I hope that I stay in the area though, we've had a really good week and keep finding new people to teach. time has truly flown by, it seems like i just left the MTC. the biggest thing that has been holding our investigators back and that we've been struggling with is getting investigators to church. we've decided this week to start a program with the elders quorum to encourage enchanges and also we've been praticing a short lesson that we are sharing with a commitment to attend church to try and bring excitement and also invite the spirit for a direct commitment to come to church. we think that this will really pay off, and with the Lord's help, help them progress towards baptism. we've been praying hard about this, and your prayers would help as well. the language is still progressing. this week, i've had a couple dear experiences, when i know the words that came to my head and the words i said weren't from me. likewise, the countenance of the investigator changed, and their attitude as well. it's hard to express, or put into words, but i know i have been blessed this week with the gift of tongues when needed and this has been an answer to my prayers. thank you for the birthday gifts and your love and support. i haven't mailed the pictures, i was going to wait until i went to banff, but i will mail them today. con amor, elder dunlap