April 14

Hola familia!

Thank you for the letters. I'm glad to hear that everything went well with nathan and ashley and the yard sale. I haven't recieved the box yet, but I'm sure that i'll probably get it today. The zone leaders pick up the mail from the office every week and wednesdays are when we usually are able to pick it up.

the week has went great. we have two baptisimal dates for the 25th that i really think are going to go through on that date or shortly after. we set the dates with two middle aged men named enrique and francisco on my first day in this area. they had been taught for several months on and off by missionaries. they initially rejected a baptisimal date, but we promised them if they set a goal that they'd recieved the help and strength that they needed from the Lord to be prepared. we knew they liked to drink adn were worried that they'd actually stop drinking. i really lacked the faith though that they'd actually keep any commitments when we set the date. they came to church 3 weeks ago for the first time and really felt something different. they've continued to come every week and told us this week that they feel a lot closer to God and happier in their lives with the changes that they are making. the Spirit is helping them personally learn the things that they need to give up and change to prepare for the baptism. we taught the word of wisdom two days ago and they accepted it well. i'm sure there will continue to be more challenges, but i've really grown in my testimony of the strength we can recieve from the Lord to live up to the tasks that we are faced with. they've been examples for me over the last couple of weeks. we meet with them pretty much every other night for short visits and i think it's helped them constantly be reminded of the things they are feeling.

the cold weather has unfortunately returned this week. there were a couple days of snow and cold rain. i thought that we had escaped it. i'm definetely excited for short sleeve weather.

president continues to help us out with changes. we previously ate dinner every night with someone in the ward and usually it would be all 6 or at least 4 of us in the ward at the dinner. we're now only able to eat in our specific areas with our companion and the members or investigators that live within our borders. our area is a little lacking in members and so we're definetely eating more at the house. we tried to get president to give us more allotment money but he didn't go for that idea. it's been good though. we're able to spend more time in our specific areas. it's also better because we get to work with the members in our individual areas more. president has been stressing that dinners aren't for us to be fed, but for us to have an opportunity to be in a members house and encourage and help them do missionary work.

i'll be praying for hailey. thank you for all the love and support! i feel like i'm running out of things to say. not too much changes week to week other than the people we work with. send me questions if there's specific things that anyone wants to know.

love you all!
elder dunlap