Feb. 7, 2011

Hola familia!

We woke up this morning to more snow. There was probably around 5 inches. The weather here really is kind of crazy. During the middle of the week, the temperature got just about freezing and sunny and so everything turned into slush and then froze again. We tried walking some on Saturday which was pretty impossible because all othe the snow that was sitting aroudn had started to melt and ran out of the front yards onto the sidewalks and fronze as ice. It's still snowing and aroudn -20 celcius. The truck makes it pretty easy for us to get around, but we have zone conference tommorow and if we didn't win the cleanliness competition, we'll probably end up with something else to drive.

The area is great. We've pretty much narrowed all of our former investigators and potential investigators from our area book to about 7 that are interested and have accepted visits. We're just trying to stay in contact and get in the doors with them to help them feel the spirit. Because we've pretty much went through the area book, we've been doing more personal contacting but have been trying to make it a revelatory experience and have seen some great success. We also have a solid first lesson finally scheduled for this Thursday that has been delayed the last two weeks with a member family and their friend that is interested in learning about the church.

We have tried to set specific goals over the last couple of weeks regarding personal contacting efforts. As we've prayerfully sought the guidance of the spirit, and then went out and completed our plans, we've been blessed with some great success. On Saturday morning, we knocked on the door of a young 25 year old that was very open to learning. We initially started talking a little about the restoration, but the thought came to mention how the restoration helps give us answers to questions about why we're here on earth and what happens after this life. He immediately seemed to change and said that he had been having those questions recently in his life. He eagerly set up an appointment for this week. He was surprisingly from Chile, but has been in Canada pretty much since birth and speaks perfect english, so he'll be taught by the yougn single adult missionaries. As we left the doorstep, we felt the spirit confirm that we were in the right place and had been instruments in the hands of the Lord. Moments like that bring the pure joy and happiness that are felt during the mission.

The mission overall is doing great. The overall success and miracles continues to increase and baptisms as well. The theme for our zone conference tomorrow is how the atonement changes our bahavior and nature. We've been studying it during the past week to be prepared and hope to have a great experience.

I hope all is well at home!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap