April 7th

Hola familia!

I'm glad to hear that all is well at home! I'm kind of bummed that Duke won the national championship, but i guess it's good for the ACC.

I extremely enjoyed conference this past weekend. It was a nice spiritual energizer. I really enjoyed the talk by President Uchtdorf from the priesthood session about patience. He really has a way of transforming a basic doctrine into something great and desireable. I liked how he said that part of patience is actively working towards the goal although things may not seem to be going exactly as planned. It also seemed that alot of the talks were on families. It's kind of scary and challenging to think of what is to come in the world and the attacks that will be placed on the family. But, I liked how Elder Packer said that the glorious thing is that we know we win in the end. We know that we have the strength to resist the adversary if we remain strong. Elder Bednar's talk was a short version of the basic topics and things that he discussed with us just a few weeks ago. We got a longer, more extended version. I thought it was interesting that he came to speak to 200 missionaries and focused a lot of his words on the importance of teaching our children one day in the same way that we try to teach our investigators. He emphasized that children must learn by the spirit for themselves to have lasting testimonies. I left conference with a greater appreciation for the counsel and words of our chosen leaders.

One of the pictures is of my new companion, Elder Walker, in front of our car that we ride around in.

THe other picture is of a lady that's Bolivian that we taught on Monday evening. She's here from Virginia visiting her family members that are members of the branch. We ate dinner with them and then began teaching her about the Restoration. Monday was probably one of our hardest days because no one really seemed to be home all day. We ended the night with the dinner and lesson. It was one of my favorite and most spiritual lessons that I've been able to experience in the mission. She had definetely been prepared and was teary as she expressed the feelings that she had felt and the changes that she wanted to make in her life. She leaves soon for Virginia and so we won't be able to teach her more, but, I know it was a blessing from the Lord to lift us and inspire us when we were feeling a little down. It is times like these when I truly feel the spirit working through us that I know we're being instruments in the Lord's hands and there's really no other place that I'd rather be. It really was a touching night. She had us take pictures with her and the Book of Mormon that we gave her and she had us sign it as well.

The weather continues to get warmer and there's more and more people on the streets near downtown. We've had some very interesting experiences this past week with drunk and homeless people that we have passed and seen. My past area was pretty tranquil and quiet. I'm sure that there will be many more experiences to come.

There's not much else that's new. We continue to work hard and search and pray for new investigators.

Thank you for all the love and prayers.

Con AMor,

Elder Dunlap