Dec. 6,2010

Hola familia!

Thanks for sharing the experience about the baptism mom, it's a neat story. I'm sure that it was a graet experience. I've grown to learn that nothing really just happens out of coincidence in missionary work. The Lord is always guiding those prepared to recieve the gospel. We just have to be willing to listen and follow the spirit.

This week has gone by quickly. We were able to go to the temple on Sunday and go through a session in spanish. Our district rode down to Cardston with a member from the ward in the north named brother gillis. He's canadian but served a spanish speaking mission and his wife is from Nicaragua. They're definitely one of my favorite families. Cardston is about a 2.5 hour drive and on the way, it's basicallly like driving through kansas or nebraska. I always assumed for some reason that canada was all mountains and woods, but have quickly learned that most of alberta is just like the midwest united states, but just a little colder. Cardston is a neat town because it's about 95 percent members. The missionaries there pretty much have a list of everyone that isn't a member. There are several other southern alberta communities that are similar around there as well.

This week has been fun as we've I've been getting to know the area and the members. We don't have too many investigators, but several members have some friends that really seem prepared to begin meeting with us. Unfortunately, a member of our branch passed away this past week. He was 73 years old, but his wife is only 50 and so he left two daughters that are 17 and 20 that still lived at home. He was very lively and still worked, so it was a shock to everyone. We took him to several appointments when I aws in his area and visited him often. He always was the first every fast and testimony meeting to share his testimony and so it was a pretty spiritual testimony meeting at church yesterday as everyone testified of the plan of salvation. We were also abel to particpate in the blessing of a baby by a member that lives in our area so overall, it was a really good sunday.

I can't believe that christmas is already here and that we'll be talking in a couple weeks. I hadn't really thought abotu that until you mentioned it today mom. I'm not sure what the rules will be this year, but i'm sure pretty similar to last year. Just let me know if there's a specific time that you'd like me to try to call. It'll be on a saturday this year, so we probably should be free at any time.

Has anything else happened with teh school stuff? Were you able to talk tko wake forest about everythign?

Thank you for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap