January 12

Hola familia!

I'm running a little short on time, so I copied you my email to president for the week at the end. I don't know why I haven't done it much before though. i basically type the same stuff over again. i hope that all is well at home. i got deda and grandma's box this past week and so thank you very much. it's been a week of new experiences, but it's been a good learning experience. recieving a new elder that didn't go to the MTC hasn't exactly been easy, but everything is going great. we have a first appointment tonight with a colombian family that seems very prepared to recieve the gospel. right now, we're probably seeing more success as far as finding that I've experienced so far on my mission. we have many other first lessons scheduled for this week as well. the weather has been almost unbearable. the temperature is about -15 with very strong wind and some snow. the wind chill has been aroudn

-30 which makes short trips to knock on a door pretty cold. we've gotten a lot of crazy looks and people telling us that we should take a break and stay inside. I love you all. thank you for your prayers and support.

con amor,

elder dunlap

Area- The area is great. We have been teaching the basic missionary lessons to our members so that we can get some good practice and it really has brought the spirit to our visits. We've also focused on really getting everything out of our area book with former investigators and potential investigators. We've been putting in the extra effort to frequently stop by them and make calls and it has led to several people accepting visits from us again. They are people that Elder Nielsen and I had tried by or called on occassion, but consistent effort during the last week has brought some great blessings.

Companion- Elder Solis is great. He's definitely an example of obedience and dedication. He studies diligently and is always excited to share the gospel. He often runs around me as we're walking up to a door so that he can talk to them. We're working a lot on understanding preach my gospel and especially the basic doctrine of the church.

Testimony- I fasted and prayed a lot leading up to the arrival of Elder Solis so that the area would be prepared and that he'd have a good experience to begin his mission. I've been trying to focus on following what the Lord wants us to do and say in all aspects of the work from planning to contacting and teaching. I've felt a greater love for the individuals that we meet and work with as I've simply focused on looking them in the eyes and trying hard to communicate the love that our Heavenly Father has for them. We've been able to see great success in setting up lessons with potential investigators during this past week by applying that principle.

We statistically had a hard week. We had 7 canceled investigator lessons during the past week. But, they all rescheduled for this coming week and so we're excited for the teaching opportunities that we will have. I'll admit that during the week it was pretty hard, but through some sincere prayer and contemplating I realized that our canceled appointments led to many other opportunities to be where the Lord wanted us to be. I'm very excited for what's going on in this area. We set a baptismal goal for three for this month and I'm just trying to feed off of Elder Solis's belief. He wanted to pack his baptismal clothes and carry them with him the first day in case we found someone.