7/21/2010

Hola!

We had another great week this past week. Time continues to fly by.

Yesterday was the baptism of Alicia, a girl who is 22 and from Spain. She has two young kids that are still in Spain, but she came to canada on a 6 month visa to learn english. It's interesting how the Lord works. She came with her younger sister and her sister's boyfriend. They had all recieved permission and worked out plans to go to England to learn English, but for some reason were reassigned to calgary at the last minute. I guess that the governement there has connections with certain cities or countries, i'm not sure how it works. but, she was assigned to calgary. she met a member that was a recent convert over the internet somehow before she came. he started bringing her to our english classes and she began listening to the missionaries. her husband in spain is an atheist and she had developed throughout her life similar views. i was able to perform the baptismal interview and it was a wonderful experience. president archibald conducted part of the interview and i learned a lot from the way he answered some of her questions. i had the opportunity to translate between the two of them. the elders have done an excellent job preparing her and helping her along. it was great to be able to hear her testimony of each question and the different commandments. her family in spain was totally against her decision and her sister here as well. but, she knew what she had felt and that it was true. she asked me to confirm her and that was a spiritual experience as well.

we also received a call from an investigator that we haven't taught for about 5 weeks. we've stayed in contact with her fellowshippers and they've been helping her along although scheduling differences and some things that happened in the single adult ward that she was attending have kept us from having an appointment. we talked to her a couple days ago and she told us that she's been reading the book of mormon recently and has decided that she is going to get baptized. most likely before the end of the month. we have an appointment with her tomorrow and hope to work out all the details.

we also challenged a member to invite one of their freinds to learn about the gospel in 7 days. the member said that they have a friend that is a young mexican that told the member that he'd like to be baptized. the member said that he told him he has to learn a little bit first.

we've been excited about all of the new things that seem to be coming together and the blessings that we're receiving. it seems that things seem to always come together at the end of transfers. we have transfers next week, so preparation day will be on tuesday next week. the elders are all excited because this thursday is when we find out who will be training the 2 new elders that are coming from the mtc. i'm hoping to stay in this area at least one more transfer. we'll see what happens though. we've heard rumors that there's going to be some changes with several of the older elders going home from the spanish.

this past week, i also learned how to put down new sod. a member asked us to help him and through the service, we were able to meet two new spanish people. they're both younger guys that work for the member. they live in other areas of the city, but we were able to find two new references. i've been pretty sore ever since. we had to carry A LOT of dirt and grass to the back of the house where we were putting it down. it was a lot of fun though. most service opportunities here are usually helping people move.

i'm glad to hear that everything with the babies continues to go well. i love and miss you all.

con amor,

elder dunlap