Seth's Mission

June 20, 2011

2011-06-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hola!
All here is great. We have transfers next week, so i'll be emailing on tuesday. I'm pretty sure i'll be getting transfered. the next two preparation days are probably going to be a whole lot of eating. we're able to go all over the city on preparation day adn so we're visiting some of the members in the branch to say bye and things. next wednesday evening there's a farewell fro all the elders that leave in the mission with a slideshow and things and so i'm sure that most of our spanish ward and branch will be there to say bye and take pictures after since 6 of us are leaving.

yesterday at church, my most recent converts from the branch in the south showed up to get their patriarchal blessings. there's a spanish patriarch here in our ward in the north which is neat. they're doing great and estefania was telling me that she already spoken at church and given a testimony. the branch president really felt that they were ready to get their patriarchal blessings.

another investigator that i taught for 4.5 months from a previous area is getting baptized this sunday as well which will be neat for my last sunday.

One day during the week, we stopped on a street to knock on a contact address we had and while we got out of the car, I noticed a row of houses across the street and had the thought that we should knock on them. After the contact didn't answer, I asked Elder Nielsen where he thought we should knock, he mentioned one of the houses across the street as well and so we crossed and began knocking. No one answered until the last house. It was a member lady from an english ward and we found out that her husband speaks spanish because he is from Portugal and that their next door neighbor is a lady named Carolina from Mexico. It was a small miracle, but it strengthened our testimonies of the power of the spirit in guiding us during the day. We haven't yet found Carolina at home, but hope to work with the members to help her recieve the gospel.

thanks for everything! love u all. see u soon.

con amor,

elder dunlap

June 13, 2011

2011-06-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

i'm not goign to have time to write today. we rented a van as a zone and a member is driving us all to banff and some other places in the mountains and so we have to leave as soon as we can. here's a neat miracle that we had yesterday though.

We were able to teach Isabel yesterday. She has came to church for 3 weeks now, but has seemed less than interested in the messages and more interested in just making connections and trying to find a job. She was found by the Brintons after a 7 day challenge in downtown only a couple days after she arrived from El Salvador. She actually has been sleeping through most of church and has refused to really participate. But, she has continued to come and we knew that she was guided to the Brintons by a miracle. We decided to pray earnestly that she would have an experience with the spirit that would change her desires and spark more interest. We were able to finally have a teaching situation with her in which we taught the first lesson. The Brintons were able to testify that they felt God had placed her in their path and then she started to open up and tearily shared that she had been praying earnestly to find someone to help her out the weeks before coming to Canada. The spirit strongly bore witness as we taught the Restoration and especially the first vision and a change was very apparent by the end of the lesson. She teared up and told us that she knew it was true. To the firm, she expressed that she has been thinking about returning to El Salvador within the next 9 days if she doesn't find work or a place to live. We're praying with her for a miracle and hope to be able to follow the spirit to help her be baptized soon whether she stays or not.

talk to u next week!

con amor,

ELder dunlap

June 6, 2011

2011-06-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Everything is great here. There's still not too much new news. We continue to work and try to find new investigators. We wee able to see a couple of small miracles during the past week.

While stopping by english members during the week, we were able to recieve a reference for a neighbor of a member that spoke spanish. We stopped by his house and we realized while talking to him that he's a lost member from Chile. We were able to testify to him that God had sent us to him to come back to church and change his life. We can tell that he felt the spirit and expressed that he knows he needs to come back to church and accepted an appointment with us for the coming week. We were also able to be led to a lady from Ecuador that is good friends with an investigator that Elder Galloway and I taught over a year ago together. The investigator had came to church and was very interested in baptism, but then moved and dissapeared. Her friend that we met said that she is goign through a really hard time right now and is searching for spiritual help in her life. She's goign to talk to he friend for us and give us her information during the week. Hopefully, they'll both begin taking the lessons during the week. We've grown in our testimony this week of the power of the spirit in guiding us in small ways daily and hourly that can accomplish miracles in this work.

We're just trying to stay focused on the work. It's kind of hard because so many of the members know us well and want to talk about plans and things aftere the mission instead of missionay work when we visit them.

I heard that canada might be in a mail strike, or will soon be in one. So, I'm not sure if we'll be recieving letters for a while.

Con amor,

Elder dunlap

May 24, 2011

2011-05-26T17:06:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

I can't remember if I told you, but yesterday was victoria day in canada and so the libraries were closed and we weren't able to email.

all here continues to go great. we feel really good about our area and have seen several great miracles during the past week in finding new investigators and working with members. We have grown this past week in our testimony of the power and blessings that come from following the spirit. We felt inspired one day last week to walk a little bit while passing by some contacts and members that we had planned. While we were walking, we passed a lady with her grandson and daughter and contacted them. Through talking, we realized that she was an inactive member from Guatemala. She hadn't had contact with the church for several years and invited us to stop by her house anytime we liked and gave us her address. On Saturday morning, we felt like we should pass by. When we showed up, a man named Manuel answered the door to the house and let us in to teach him some of the principles from the first lesson. The original lady wasn't home, but Manuel really opened up and agreed to continue learning about the church. He has a lot of word of wisdom difficulties to overcome, but we were able to testify that we had been guided there to help him. We hope that the spirit will continue to guide us in working with him to help him progress towards baptism and come to know his Savior.

we aren't sure exactly what will happen next week yet, but we should still be emailing on monday. we're supposed to go to the temple on the 4th of june and so we won't have our normal preparation day next week, but should still email on the same day.

sorry the emails short, we just got a text from the assistants and have to be somewhere in 15 mins, we'll try to come back later and finish emailing.

thanks for everything,

con amor,

elder dunlap

May 16 Pics

2011-05-18T13:27:00.001-07:00

may 16, 2011

2011-05-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

We just recieved transfer emails and I'm going to be staying here in this area for the last transfer with elder nielsen. we're enjoying the area and the people and so i'm content to be here for the last 6 weeks of the mission. it's warming up here and becoming a little uncomfortable at times during the afternoon in the sun with our suit coats. i'm ready for june so that we don't have to wear suit coats anymore.

We have been able to see some miracles over the past week. We were blessed with a reference from the Sisters in Airdrie of a man from Chile that has accepted an invitation to recieve the lessons. His wife had previously accepted a baptismal date in the past, but then the sisters lost contact with her. She's currently in Peru on vacation, but through their persistence, have softened her husband to begin taking the lessons. We have been very grateful and recognize it as an answer to our prayers. We also visited with a somewhat less active that has been experiencing a lot of opposition from family members and friends and has been thinking about leaving the church even though he knows it's true because of how hard it has been for him. We found all of this information out as we sat down and started talking to him. The message that we had prepared for him fit perfectly with the doubts he had. We found him at a crossroads and the spirit had guided us before the lesson and guided us during the lesson to say the things that he needed to hear in that moment. It was a choice experience for both of us as we felt the love of Heavenly Father for him. We grew in our testimony of the importance of planning and following the spirit regarding our lessons.

all else is going well. we're goign to be writing emails next week on tuesday again because the libraries will be closed on monday. it's victoria day here, which i'm not too sure what that means, but it's a national holiday. we'er also going to be able to go to the temple on saturday june 4th which we're excited about. thanks for everything!

i haven't sent pictures in a while, so here's a picture from yesterday of my companion and i with an elder fromt he mandarin program that is going home tomorrow. also, we had a pizza party yesterday because we had the cleanest cars in the mission and it's a zone picture that we took after.

con amor,

Elder dunlap

May 8

2011-05-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

It was great to talk to everyone and hope that you all had a wondereful mother's day. I think that every organization at church made some type of treat to pass out to all of the mother's and as missionaries, we got to taste a lot of it.

Not too much has changed during the past week to report on.

We had somewhat of a tough week with canceled appointments and busy members, but we felt inspired to go by a certain member on Saturday and to seven day challenge him. He had just arrived home when we showed up and he told us about a friend that he met recently that was asking him questions about the church and wanted to come to church. He commited to invite him over and hopefully we'll begin teaching his friend this week!

We had zone conference this past week and it was all centered around revelation and the role of revelation in our missionary labors and daily lives. We studied the talk from general confernce by Elder Bednar about a light being turned on in a dark room and the light coming from a rising sun. I've found those examples so true during the mission.

Thanks for everthing! Miss yuo and love you all

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

May 2, 2011

2011-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

All here continues to go well. It was a fast week with some of the different trainings and things that we had going on. The weather has warmed up as well. Today is the hottest day of the year so far at 19 degrees. i think that's probably aroudn 60 or 65 but i'm not really sure. we're still not able to take our suit coats off though until it's consistently over 22 degrees. that probably won't be until about june.

We've been focusing on making our seven day challenges more effective and more spiritual. We were able to extend a challenge to an inactive member that is somewhat of a recent convert. It was a very spiritual lesson and we saw some immediate success in his personal spiritual development. He came to church this past Sunday and it's been a couple months since he came. He accepted the challenge willingly and is praying and trying to seek inspiration to find someone.

thanks. love u all!

con amor

elder dunlap

TRAVEL ITINERARY

2011-04-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Electronic ticket(s) have been issued and are ready for travel. See ETKT information below.

*We have 24 hours to void this ticket if changes need to be made.

CHURCH TRAVEL CWT DATE 19APRIL11

50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST AGENT VH/SM BOOKING REF 2I2LUF

SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150

TELEPHONE: 801 240-5111 DUNLAP/CLIFTON SETH 166628-R

FAX : 801-240-5115

MISSIONARY TRAVEL

CANADA CALGARY MISSION

SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE

_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______

AMERICAN AIRLINES 30JUN CALGARY AB DALLAS TX 700A 1140A

AA 1166 THURSDAY CALGARY DALLAS FORT

V ECONOMY TERMINAL D

NON SMOKING FOOD FOR PURCHASE NON STOP

RESERVATION CONFIRMED 3:40 DURATION

AIRCRAFT: BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-80 ALL SERIES

SEAT 26E NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

AMERICAN AIRLINES 30JUN DALLAS TX GREENSBORO/ NC 220P 550P

AA 2806 THURSDAY DALLAS FORT GREENSBORO

V ECONOMY TERMINAL B

NON SMOKING FOOD FOR PURCHASE NON STOP

RESERVATION CONFIRMED 2:30 DURATION

FLIGHT OPERATED BY AMERICAN EAGLE

AIRCRAFT: EMBRAER RJ140

SEAT 09A NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

RESERVATION NUMBER(S) AA/NGFPZA

DUNLAP/CLIFTON SETH 166628-R

April 19

2011-04-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Yesterday morning, we were able to have a meeting with Elder Richard G Scott and also elder brimhall of the seventy. It was a great meeting and i know that all of us learned a lot. i was especially impressed with the christlike attributes of love and compassion that just seemed to radiate from him. he talked a lot about our future after the mission which seems to be a theme that all of the apostles that have visited us seem to talk about. he was a very humorous person as well. sister archibald got up and started sharing many of the instances of the way that he had impacted people over the weekend during meetings that theyh had together. he then stated that it was starting to sound too much like a funeral service for him and that she should quit.

the work here is going great. We've seen several miracles in the area over the past week. We were able to teach a new investigater Alejandro twice over the past week and he seems to be searching for the truth. We also found two people from colombia that were on the sidewalk as we got out of our car that accepted to recieve the lessons. We met another Mexican man named Marcelo as we left a house of a contact that wasn't home. He accepted to meet with us this coming Saturday as well. All of these miracles have came as we followed our plans that we made by the spirit and sought where the Lord wanted us to be. My testimony this week has increased yet again of the importance of effective planning.

i hope that everyone has a great easter. we have a talent night in the ward this coming friday which has kind of caused an uproar. it's good friday which is a sacred day for the catholic church and so when we invite people, everything has thought that it was to a special religious activity associated with easter. members have also seemed reluctant to invite people because they don't want to offend their friends by inviting them to a celebration. but, it should be successful. the activities always help to find new people.

the weather has also been crazy. it snowed 27 centimeters one day this past week, but today, it's sunny and warm again. it sounds like the weather everywhere has been a little crazy.

thanks for everything!

con amor

elder dunlap

3/28/2011

2011-04-15T06:08:00.001-07:00

OPPS! Hi this is Sara, I must have forgot a letter from march and just found it in my email.

Hola familia!

We're excited because everything went great with the baptism yesterday. We got a little scared because on Saturday the 15 year old girl got a little scared about the baptismal interview and her mom showed up on saturday morning alone. But, we were able to talk to her and she had her interview as well on sunday morning before church. The baptism was very spiritual because of the way that the spirit has really worked in the lives of this family during the past two weeks and because several members had great experiences fellowshipping and helping out with the lessons. I ended up baptizing them both. Beatriz the mom had asked me to baptize and confirm her nad Elder SOlis was goign to baptize the daughter, but he had some troubles getting her under the water. After 5 failed attempts, I ended up doing it instead. Everyone felt pretty bad for him, but it turned up alright.

We again were able to experience a wonderful miracle this past week with the same family. We went to an appointment with Beatriz and Michelle this past Wednesday and were surprised when the other daughter named Estefania sat down to listen to the lesson. She had refused to listen the week before and was somewhat resistent to her mom and sister getting baptized. Her mom was a little upset about it, but told us that she was going to pray for a miracle. Estefania tearfully explained to us that on Tuesday evening she had decided to read the pamplets we had left with her mom and a little bit from the Gospel Principles book. As she read, the spirit very strongly testified to her of the truth and it totally changed her heart. After reading the pamplets, she gave her cigarettes to her friend the next day at work and told us that she was giving up alcohol. She told us that she wants to be baptized as soon as she can and after the baptism yesterday of her mom and sister, we were able to set a date with her for april 3. There will be a couple of hurdles because she works all day on Sundays at a restaurant and it's their busiest day, but we know that the Lord will keep providing miracles for this family. I've again increased in my testimony of the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion through this choice experience.

It's again snowing here, but the cold weather should soon be gone hopefully. Everything else seems to be going great.

Here's pictures from yesterday. Hopefully, there will be more soon on the 3rd of april. ALso, a picture of the current temple.

Thanks for evertyhing!

COn amor,

Elder Dunlap

April 11, 2011

2011-04-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Everything's going great in the new area. We saw a couple of miracles this past week in our first couple of days together. We were passing by the house of a potential investigator and another man that we weren't looking for answered the door and after some discussion, accepted a visit this evening to begin recieving the lessons. We were also at a member's house when a friend of theirs randomly stopped by. They had been thinking to invite the friend for a couple of weeks and we weren't able to begin teaching him, but the members bore their testimonies and invited him to meet with us this week. I know that planning by the spirit has helped us be in the right place and see these miracles.

Estefania was also baptized yesterday. She gave her own talk on baptism which was a great experience to be part of. She strongly bore testimony of the truthfulness of what she had felt and shared the miracles that have happened in her life over the past couple of weeks. She told everyone there that she has been studying preach my gospel and wants to serve a mission as soon as she is able to. Her mom and sister also participated by giving prayers and the talk on the Holy Ghost. Her mom tearfully bore testimony of the changes that have happened in their home since her baptism 3 weeks ago and how happy they are. Estefania is already sharing the gospel. She brought a friend to church yesterday and her friend came to the baptism and is going to start taking the lessons this week with Elder Solis and his new companion is my old area.

It was kind of a bitter sweet experience going to church here in the ward again in the north. I was able to see members and converts that I haven't seen for a long time. My first converts from the mission are in my area now and the dad taught the lesson in elders quorum yesterday. After church though, I went to the baptism and am really going to miss being there and seeing the people from the south branch. It was definitely a very spiritual day and it brought great joy.

Here's some pictures from the baptism yesterday.

Thanks for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

April 5, 2011

2011-04-07T07:33:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

I just found out that I'll be getting transfered back to the spanish ward in the north part of the city. I'm excited to go back and see some of the members that I began my mission with, but I've also been in the branch here for a year and am sad to leave the area. I'll be serving with Elder Nielsen again. We served together 2 transfers ago and he's a great elder. I'm excited to be back with him.

We've continued to see great miracles with Estefania. She is getting baptized this coming sunday the 10th after church. She quit her job because of the bad influence that it was on her and the fact that she wasn't able to attend church. She came to all four sessions of general conference and had 36 questions prepared to recieve and search for answers while listening. She has started writing a talk about baptism that she wants to give at her own baptism on Sunday and has set a goal to serve a mission as soon as she is able to. She even bought Preach my Gospel already and has been studying from it. It's neat to see the changes that she is making and how fully she has embraced the gospel. The spirit continues to prepare her for her baptism. She has continued to face some opposition, but the talks in conference really helped her understand well the purpose of opposition and why she's experiencing it.

There's not much other new news from here. I'm glad that everyone is well at home!

miss and love u all

Con amor

Elder Dunlap

March 17, 2011

2011-03-16T08:09:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

We have had a great week this past week. We're going to be having a baptism this coming Sunday the 20th! I don't remember if I told you, but a member in our branch was challenged by the missionaries to find someone to teach and the member found a lady from colombia the next day as they were both waiting in line to get their tires changed. The lady and her daughter came to church last sunday and loved it and we began teaching them on wednesday. It was a great appointment and they accepted a date to be baptized in the first lesson after a little bit of coaxing from the spirit. The daughter is 15 and named Michell and really is the one that has been pushing her mom. She told us that from the first sunday she didn't have doubts and because of how she felt, she knew it was all true. We taught the mom on Saturday again as the daughter was in a young women's activity and as she prayed at the end of the lesson, the spirit strongly testified to her of the truth of the message. There have been so many other miracles as well that have happened with them as they sincerely have desired to fin

d the truth. We were also able to attend a baptism for a child that turned 8 from the branch yesterday and they loved it. It will probably be a pretty busy week as we try to keep them on track and get in all of the rest of the teaching before Sunday. Here's a picture from yesterday after church. THey're the second and third from the left. Please keep them in your prayers during this week. Theeir names are Beatriz and Michell.

Everything else continues to go very well. We were also able to have a meeting with elder christofferson on saturday morning. It was a neat experience to be in the presence of an apostle. I'm always surprised with the gentleness and kindness that seems to radiate from the general authorities. He talked to us about preaching repentance and how we do that in these days as missionaries. We all left spiritually edified and I'm sure that it'll be a great boost to the mission in the coming weeks.

Thansk for your prayers and support!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

March 7

2011-03-10T18:12:00.001-08:00

ola familia!

Everything here continues to go very well. It's supposed to warm up during this week considerably which will be nice. It's been a pretty cold winter recently. I've been wearing two pairs of long johns underneath my suit pants. But when we do get in a door, it makes things a little hot. I think I'll probably them that i'll fly into greensboro and it should be sometime the 30th of june i assume. The new elders usually come in on the 29th and then there is an outgoing missionary fireside that night and the elders leave early the next morning.

We decided this past week to really have a good fast and to specifically pray and fast for the guidance to acheive our baptismal goal during this month. The Spanish Central extended a seven day challenge to a member family during this past week and the member called them the next day. She had found someone from Colombia while shopping at Canadian Tire that wanted to meet with the missionaries. They taught the lady and her daughter who is about 14 during the week and the two came to church on Sunday. We found out that they live in our area and were able to set up an appointment for this Wednesday. While talking at church, they seem to really be searching for the truth and are excited to keep learning. My testimony has increased of the power of an appropriate and consecrated fast and that our sincere prayers are answered. We also had the opportunity to get out of the city and visit a lady in a small town named High River. She was very schooled in the scriptures and other religions and she had even studied theology for 4 years in cuba. up until now in her life, she finds the baha'i faith as what brings her closest to god. they have some interesting beliefs but we really felt the spirit guide us to answer her doubts and really bring everything back to whether the book of mormon is true or not. she offered a heartfelt prayer at the end askng God to let her know if she should be baptized. we're going to go visit her every thursday and so hopefully she'll keep progressing.

all else is great. we're excited for the visit on saturday from elder christoffereson and elder real of the seventy. they're here to reorganize a stake in medicine hat, but are taking some time out to talk to us.

thanks for all u do and your support!

con amor,

elder dunlap

February 28,2011

2011-03-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

All here continues to go well. We woke up this morning to more snow and cold weather. The wind chill today is -33. The good thing is that the really cold weather is hopefully about gone, well probably another month. It's definitely been a colder winter than last year. Last year seemed to have more chinooks that came and melted some of the snow.

I was able to do a baptismal interview for a young man that's 26 named jesus fuentes that got baptized in our branch yesterday. He accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson and has been very prepared. It is always neat to have the opportunity to be in a one on one setting basically hearing the testimony of those that are getting baptized. There was a great turnout at the baptism, probably in part because they brought left over food from a branch party the night before for the refreshments. There was also a family of 3 that was baptized in the north spanish ward yesterday at the same time. So, the zone overall seems to be doing very well.

We just recieved an email that we are going to have a meeting on saturday march 12th at 8:00 with elder christofferson of the twelve apostles. i'm super excited. the time that we had last march with elder bednar is an experience that i'll never forget and we're excited to have the opportunity again. last march, elder bednars visit seemed to fuel the mission as a whole and it'll hopefully do the same again for us. the meeting is going to be here in calgary, but all of the missionaries outside of the city will be bused into calgary.

elder solis and i are excited becasue we got a reference for a colombian lady that lives outside of the city in a small town called high river. it's about 60 kilometers drive from calgary and we'll probably start going there once a week to teach her. we'll get to see a little bit of the country side on the way, even though there's really not much other than fields to look at.

we've had trouble scheduling appointments over the week with many of our investigators. part of the problem that we run into is to live in calgary and not be able to speak english, most of the people we work with have to work in low paying jobs for many hours to get by. with their busy schedules, it often makes scheduling appointments hard. we have high hopes for the family of 5 though that we began teaching last week. they seem very interested and seeking for the truth.

thanks for everything you do!

con amor,

elder dunlap

Feb. 14 2011

2011-02-18T12:45:00.001-08:00

Hola familia!

Everything here is great. Before i forget to tell you, next week will be transfers and so I'll be email on tuesday next week. I think that i'll probably be staying in this area one more transfer with elder solis, but we'll see what happens.

the weather has stayed fairly warm which has been nice. we've been getting out and walking some and talking to the people on the streets. the warm weather is pretty contagious and a lot of people seem to get out and around when the weather warms up a bit.

The area continues to grow. Elder Solis is doing an excellent job of extending seven day challenges and it's led to some great success that we hope to see soon. I at first was apprehensive from the rigidity of the invitation for the seven day challenge thinking that it might offend people, but have since repented and realized that it's led to some great success. Our seven day challenges have been more of expectations and less of invitations and it's been great.

Elder Solis is great. We're working on recieving and responding to personal revelation. I can tell that recieving personal direction and revelation and really just decicion making in general has been a little lacking in his life. The mission is a great opportunity to put that into practice. He continues to be an excellent example of dedication and probably has the purest heart of any missionary I've met.

One day this past week, we showed up for a dinner with some members and the father of the family had not yet arrived from work. He was supposed to arrive soon, and initially sat back in the car to wait, but then decided to knock on some doors in the complex that they live at. Our first impression was to go to a certain row of condos and after 3 doors, we found a colombian family that let us in for a moment to talk to them at the door. We taught some principles of the restoration and were able to leave them with pamplets and a Book of Mormon. They didn't accept a set return appointment, but said we could pass by next time we were close by. It was a neat experience for us both to feel guided by the spirit and an instrument in the work. We also are excited because one of the english speakers that we found last week for the english elders has accepted a baptismal date already and seems very prepared for the gospel.

thanks for everything and all you do!

con amor,

elder dunlap

Feb. 7, 2011

2011-02-07T14:11:00.001-08:00

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

January 31, 2011

2011-01-31T18:31:00.001-08:00

Hola familia!

Sorry, i think that i may have forgotten to send my email from last week. I opened my email today and saw that I had a draft saved from my email from last week. I deleted it thinking it was weird and then realized that for some reason it might not have ever been sent. So, sorry again if you didn't recieve it. We had a great week. There was a family of 3 plus a 2 year old that got baptized in the branch yesterday. Here are a couple pictures. I was able to do the baptismal interview and it was a great experience. I recieved several impressions of things to specifically talk to each individual about that I didn't think much of until they were confirmed and given strength and blessings about in their confirmations the next day from our branch president. The mother asked me to baptize her after the interview which was neat. I had to do it twice though because she stook her foot out of the water. The hot water heater had a problem at the chapel and so the water was very, very cold. They seemed happy though despite all the shivering.

We had a very interesting experience this past week with on of our investigators. After teaching for about 15 minutes, the Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on the door and saw we were there and pretty much let themselves in. They sat down beside the investigator and started talking and teaching as if we weren't present in the room. I could tell that the investigator was very uncomfortable and after about 15 mins, we had to excuse ourselves because we had another appointment to go to. Apart from it not being very courteous, my testimony was strengthened of the inspired teaching pattern that we're given in Preach My Gospel that comes from Jesus Christ himself. Although it was an experience that I hope we're not faced with again, I can say that I have more appreciation for the guidance that we have.

I hope that everything goes well with the sealing and baby blessing. I'm sure that it'll be a great experience.

The weather has been warmer. We have been a little bit over freezing during the day. I never thought I'd say that just above freezing is good weather, but after being used to -30, it feels like spring weather. I even saw some people outside in shorts. Everything else continues to go great. I'm trying to help Elder Solis realize that ice cream for breakfast isn't too healthy and he's been eating raw cabbage salads all week because he thought it was lettuce. We've had a couple close cooking disasters as well so I'm teaching him some different things. He's doing great though.

Thanks for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

January 12

2011-01-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

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.

January 3

2011-01-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!
Everything is going great here. I found out at the end of last week that I would be training the new elder coming into the spanish program. He lives in Toronto, but is from Argentina. I haven't met him yet, but he could possibly not speak much spanish at all. President really isn't sure how long he's been here in Canada. I'm excited to have a native companion that will be able to help me with SPanish even more. He's not able to leave the country because of immigrant laws and so he'll be coming straight here from Toronto. It'll probably be interesting because he won't have the MTC training that others have, but it should be fun. We are going to the mission home tonight to meet him and for a little testimony meeting with all the new elders. I'm goign to be staying in this area to train him as well.
We've seen quite a few neat miracles as I'm sure the Lord has helped us prepare the area for the new elder.
We had a goal all this month to reach the standard of excellence of one investigator from our own finding efforts. This past Tuesday, we were able to begin teaching Milagro. She's from Cuba and just arrived for a 3 month vacation to visit some of her family members. We taught her twice this past week and she has such a strong desire to soak up any religous knowledge that she can find because of some of the restrictions that still exist in Cuba. On Thursday, she told us that she knows everything we taught her about the Restoration and Book of Mormon is true and that she'll get baptized next time she returns to Calgary to visit. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and hopefully as she continues learning, her desire will continue to grow to follow the Savior.
We also started teaching a lady from Nicaragua that had been taught twice in the past, but they've been out of town for the holidays. We tried to ask her questions about how she felt and she really opened up and told us that she didn't think that the church was right for her and that baptism wasn't her goal. We felt our hearts sink a little, but tried hard to listen to the spirit to determine what she needed to hear. After more questions, we foudn out that she was really just upset because she had given her mother in law a bag of coffee and a cross for Christmas and was offended that she didn't accept or like the present. After explainging the word of wisdom and why we dont use crosses, she opened up even more and we both shared our testimonies and conversions. By the time we left, she said that she wanted to continue learning and that it was like they teach people on sesame street- you can't say that you don't like a food until you actually try it. We left humbled because we really knew that listening to her and then the spirit had really helped open up her heart. It's something that I've really tried to develop more recently and we've seen a big difference in our teaching.
I thought I'd send you a picture of our truck that I get to drive just in case it makes you jealous.
Everything else is good, we have stake conference and then branch conference the coming two weekends which is kind of a bummer. I really enjoy them, but it's hard to get investigators to come when everything is in english. I hope that you all enjoyed the holidays!
Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

dEC. 20

2010-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

I hope that everyone is preparing well for Christmas. We had our branch christmas program yesterday adn it went very well. It definitely helped to get me more in the christmas spirit. We have several traditional christmas meals planned for this week. On tueday and wednesday we're eating with chilean families that are making traditional christmas empanadas. Friday, our whole district is going to be with a venezuelan family adn on saturday, we're going to be with a mexican family. Every country has their own traditional meals. I'll try to take lots of pictures and send them next week.

The work is goign well, we were abel to find 2 new investigators this past week. An older member from Bolivia in our ward recently recieved her son and daughter in law from Bolivia as refugees. We were able to officially begin teaching them this past week. The branch president had told us that he had talked to them and they weren't interested in changing religions, but we helped them with some service on saturday morning and I feel like the spirit inspired us to ask some questions that revealed that they really are pretty open to learning. We were able to share a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the restoration and the daughter in law even revealed to us that she feels that something is lacking in her life. As we taught adn asked questions, thoughts came to say things and teach in a way that we hadn't really before and hadn't thought of. It was a reaffirmation that the spirit is what should guide our lessons.

I'm excited to talk tko everyone! Love and miss u!
Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

Dec. 6,2010

2010-12-06T12:45:00.002-08:00

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

nov. 30, 2010

2010-12-06T12:45:00.001-08:00

Hola familia!

I just foudn out that I'm getting transfered. I'm staying in the branch in the south of the city but switching stakes. I'm sad to leave teh investigators that we have, but it should be a new experience. I'm going to be serving as district leader with elder nielsen. He's been out for 2 transfers and is from salt lake. i've learned a lot serving as a zone leader and am glad that two new elders are going to get the opportunity to do it. We're excited to go to the temple this coming saturday with the ward and branch. They have a session in spanish every three months and the whole zone will be going.

I had a neat experience with a member while on spits this past week. We went to an appointment and the family we were going to visit wasn't home. A couple weeks ago, a member had mentioned that a mexican family lived on a street nearby, but I wasn't sure exactly which house. We planned to knock all the doors and while walking down the street, the mexican family drove into their driveway. It was a perfect opportunity to begin talking to them and meet them. We talked for about 30 minutes outside of their house and they invited us to return for an appointment tomorrow evening. We found out that they had previously met with missionaries before about 3 years ago and were close to getting baptized. My testimony of backup plans continues to grow. as we prayerfully make plans, the Lord knows where we'll be and puts those prepared in our paths.

sorry that the emails short, we are helping someone move today and have to be there soon.

i love u all!

con amor,

Elder dunlap

nov. 23, 2010

2010-11-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

This has been an interesting couple of days. On thursday evening, we got home and stopped by the senior couple that lives below us for a couple minutes to visit with them. While we were talking, President called us and Elder Galloway answered and walked to the hallway to talk to him. When he returned, he looked pretty pale and sick. He whispered that we needed to go plan. I was worried that something bad had happened, but President actually called him to be an assistant. He had to report to the mission office on Friday morning at 10 o clock. So, we both had to pack our stuff and I've moved in with another set of elders until transfers next week. It's been a little crazy trying to cover two areas between three of us, but we do have two cars which is kind of neat. We'll probably go on a lot of splits during this week. Elder Galloway definitely was shocked and all of us really were. As an assistant, he won't be serving in spanish for the next three transfers which will be hard for him. I think he really just didn't want to leave all of us spanish elders or to leave the members and investigators. I told sister archibald that I wasn't happy about it, kind of jokingly (but not really) adn she just pointed up and told me to talk to Him and smiled. So, I'll definitely be getting a new companion next week and possibly a new area. I'm hoping to stay though because it looks like we'll have a couple baptisms very, very soon.

Elder Galloway and I had a couple neat experiences this past Thursday evening. We had an appointment scheduled with Ole, but we showed up to his apartment complex and he wasn't home. We assumed that he might be arriving late on the bus because of the weather and decided to wait a couple minutes to see if he arrived. As we were waiting, a UPS man approached and was waiting to deliver a package to a resident. He happened to be from Colombia and after talking, we realized that he knew a couple members and that he even had a Book of Mormon in his house that he had never read. We were able to get his contact information and he accepted an invitation to meet with us in his home. We had a member with us, so we followed our back up plan to visit a single lady that we had met the week before. She's a member of an english ward and is from Peru. We stopped by her two weeks ago because she was on a list of spanish speakers in the stake, but couldn't visit with her and she invited us to return during this past week. She immediately let us in and through talking to her, we realized that she had an 11 year old son that isn't baptized. We taught about the sabbath day and she has desires to return to church after many years of inactivity. She wants her son to be baptized and he had desires to begin attending church even without his mom. While we were visiting, the door bell rang and her bishop and a home teacher showed up. They had just happened to try passing by her the same evening. We were able to fill them in and they were able to arrange a ride to church for the son for this past Sunday. We were able to give the referral to the english elders in the area. My testimony has grown this past week of the importance to plan by the spirit and the power that it can have in our activities and daily missionary lives.

The weather has been pretty bitter. It's been snowing off and on all week adn today the temperature is -20 C adn the wind chill is

-30. The cars were actually grounded on Tuesday for part of the day because the roads got so bad.

Everything else seems to be goign well though. We had another ward activity this past Saturday that went very,very well.

Thank you for all you do!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

11.15.10

2010-11-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!

I'm glad to hear that everything is great at home. We had another great week. It seems that some of our investigators are really progressing well and should be baptized very soon. Ole is a 24 year old mexican that we've been teaching and he's previously denied the invitation to be baptized because it was too soon. He's praying about he 28th of November and it looks like it'll probably happen. He really is keeping commitments well and understanding the doctrine very well too.

Our neat miracle from last week has worked out well too. She is named Carla and we had an FHE, a lesson, and then she came to church yesterday all during this past week.

We had another great experience with the 7-day challenge this past week. We have a former investigator named German that loves to meet with us, but really just wants to be friends. He has been somewhat resistant to commitments about being baptized and learning, but we knew that he had lots of friends and loves to help people out. We decided to 7-day challenge him and so we watched a mormon message and it really touched his heart. He said "that really touched my heart, I need to start praying more." I grew in my testimony through that simple comment that the spirit is what inspires us to act and to draw closer to Heavenly Father. In the presence of the spirit, we invited 7-day challenged him and he immediately called a lady that came to mind and we set up an appointment with her for the next day with the central elders. He then expressed to us that he doesn't know if he'll change religions anytime soon, but that he loves the way that our church teaches practical application of gospel principles. We hope that it'll inspire him to keep learning and start progressing.

Here's some recent pictures from a ward activity. The sign is for a band called Menudo that everyone says is basically the backstreet boys of latin america. The baptism is the coupel that I taught for a long time that got baptized this past week. In the picture, they're withthe bishop from the ward in the north.

Thank you for everytihng!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

11/8/10

2010-11-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

pic from zone leader conference at mission home this week

Hola familia!
Everything here is great. Not too much new has happened. We did have zone conference this past tuesday which is also inspiring and uplifting. The message was again centered around improving ourselves as individuals to be more effective missionaries. We learned alot about sacrifice, consecration, and the process of perfecting ourselves throughout our lives.
We also had a zone leader council meeting on friday where we talked a lot about plans for changing the culture of belief in the mission. President Archibald owned car dealerships in Utah and so he always had some neat stories about selling cars that he related to how we let our minds limit ourselves and what we're able to achieve in the missions and throughout our lives.
We had some neat experiences this past week that we're excited about.
My testimony was strengthened this week of the 7-day challenge. We extended a challenge to a young family that had recieved several 7-day challenges in the past, and had started to do small acts of missionary work from them, but hadn't been able to yet invite someone to their home. We decided to simply share a mormon message and ask some basic questions about their feelings. Afterwards, we extended the challenge in the presence of the spirit, and they both thought of the same person to invite. They recognized this as revelation and called her on the spot. They set up a family home evening for this evening, only 5 days after the challenge was extended. I've learned more about the purpose of the challenge and how to make if effective. We just stepped back and let the spirit animate and inspire the family as they testified of Gospel principles and then invited.
We also had an appointment cancel this week an hour before we were to have it and felt inspired to go to visit a member family. The father of the family had a friend from high school over and after a brief message with the family, the friend told us that he had always been interested in learning about our church and asked if he could start learning. The family and us were both excited and we were able to refer Andy to the wildwood elders to begin teaching him. I could tell that the family was very shocked and humbled by the interest that he showed in recieving the lessons. We're hoping that it'll help inspire them to keep doing missionary work.
We're excited for two baptisms in the zone this coming thursday. It's of a yougn family that i taugth for the first 7.5 months of the mission and they've always been some of the investigators that i've been the closest with. He called us this past week to invite us to the baptism and i asked him why they had decided to get baptized about so long. He said that they felt more and more that something was missing in their lives and so they knelt down as a couple and prayed and the things that we had shared with them and what they had felt kept coming back into their minds. They started coming back to church about 2 months ago and meeting with the elders again and are ready for the baptism! He told the elders that he's always felt like a fish that was hooked and knew he was goign to get reeled in, but was fighting it all this time.
Nothing else is really new other than the fact that another senior couple just arrived from Provo to work in the mission office and they also moved in the floor below us in our apartment building. We now have two senior couples directly below us and so I don't think we're goign to have to worry about being taken care of.
Thank you for all you do! I love and miss you!
Elder Dunlap

Nov. 11, 2010

2010-11-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Things continue to go well. We had a good week this past week and were able to find a new investigator.

We were able to teach an older man named Carlos yesterday. It's been a story that has evolved over the last 2 weeks. We were in the New Brighton/Copperfield area one night and had an appointment fall through at the last moment. We had been trying to step back and seek revelation in those moments and so we said a small prayer. We started driving towards a less-active's house down the street. On the way, we really were thinking hard about how we would be able to recognize a Spanish house in the area. The thought came to mind to look for signs and so we drove pondering on every house. A couple houses later, we saw a basketball hoop and the backboard was painted like a Colombian flag. That night, a boy who was 14 answered and was nice, but didn't seem to have too much interest. We had stopped by one other time since then and he again answered and said that his parents were busy. This past Wednesday, a similar situation happened. We had an appointment in the area that fell through and so we went by. We talked to Carlos for about 10 minutes at the door and he invited us back for a lesson yesterday. Wednesday night, we also went by a member that lived near by who let us in and volunteered to go to the appointment with us. We taught him yesterday and he was an interesting man. He wasn't totally accepting to the message, he was actually very honest about his thoughts. But, he firmly commited to keep meeting with us and to read the Book of Mormon. We hope that this will change his heart. When the lesson was winding down, he abruptly stood up and so we followed to the door. While standing near the door, the member and him were talking about English classes and we hadn't had an opportunity to extend a firm invitation to baptism. I thought to myself, how can we get this in adn it be positive? I looked at Elder Galloway told him we should invite him. Elder Galloway was able to extend the invitation which was declined, but accepted well. We then invited him to pray with us and he walked back into the living room and said a prayer. After the prayer, he embraced our hands with both of his to tell us goodbye and I could tell from his countenance that something had changed. He thanked us over and over with a sincerity that came from his heart. He previously had just given us a normal handshake.

Through this, there are a lot of ways that my testimony has been strengthened. The power of prayer and the spirit that it brings to investigators has especially stuck out. I also know that the Lord blesses us with those prepared as we listen to the promptings of the spirit. We're just trying hard to learn to recognize and act on them when they come. We're excited to continue working with Carlos and hopefully his entire family. We know that if he reads, the Book of Mormon will bare witness to him of the truthfulness of the Restoration.

We were pretty low on kilometers at the end of the month adn so we spent all of friday and saturday walking. I'm pretty sure that we walked a total of 25 miles or so in 2 days and were pretty sore getting home on Saturday night. I felt old trying to walk up the stairs.

This week we have zone conference tommorow and then zone leader council on friday. All day meetings seem to make the week go fast because we always have things to prepare. The theme of zone conference is centered aroudn Elder Scott's talk from conference about faith and its relationship to character building.

Nothing else too exciting is happening. We're planning a cultural competition for next preparation day with the mandarin elders in the mission. They're putting together some activities like hot sauce eating competitions for mexico and chop stick picking up jelly bean competitions and ping pong for asia. It should be fun. A lot of the elders are taking it pretty serious.

Thank you for the school preparations. Just keep me informed in there is anything that i need to do and i can get permission.

I've also been excited because a yougn family that I foudn and started teaching my first week in the mission called the elders and decided to get baptized on november 11th. I taught them off and on for the first 7 and a half months in the mission and they were originally going to get baptized last november. They had continued to read the book of mormon adn be involved with the friends they made. Over time, they eventually started coming back to church about 2 months ago and have decided to be baptized on the 11th. I'm pretty sure that theyh chose it because it was the day that they were supposed to be baptized last year. They will make great members. I've never seen someone read and understand the book of mormon as well as he does. He has a marking system for his reading and is making a geneology chart as he reads.

THanks for everything!

Con amor,

Elder DUnlap

Elder Zivic

2010-10-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Heres a pic of Seth with Elder Zivic of the seventy

Oct. 25,2010

2010-10-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

hello family!
like always, things continue to go very well. we were able to go to a baptism last night of a lady named ana lopez that got baptized in the north ward. she recently arrived here- about a month and a half ago from mexico and is working for a coffee and donut place called tim horton's. they sign working contracts with people from mexico to coem and work here for 2 years. the neat thing about her story is that she works with a recent convert that was baptized in march. one of their first days at work together, she was askign him about his religion and told him that was wanted to recieve the lessons with the missionaries. she accepted a baptism date in the first lesson and was very prepared. it was a very spiritual baptism and she invited 4 of her non-member friends from work that came. i love the bishop in the north, bishop ochoa. during his welcome to the ward comments, he talked mostly directly to her freinds about what they'd seen and felt and taught them some of the plan of salvation. he invited them to investigate the church and act on what they had felt. it was pretty neat. i was able to do her baptismal interview on saturday night which is always a neat experience to hear them directly share what they've felt and talk about the whole teaching and changing process.
saturday night, we also had a branch activity called La vina del mar. it's a music festival from chile. the gym was packed full and it went very, very well. there were tons of non-members and we're excited for many of the people that we were able to meet. the acts were mostly representations of famous latin singers and groups which really didn't mean much to us, but it was pretty funny to see and to watch.
we also have good news that our zone had the cleanest cars last transfer, so we won the car trophy and our reward is a pizza party tommorow after our district meetings. unfortunately, we're still driving a pontiac vibe though. it should come in handy with the winter coming though because it's all wheel drive.
the work with the investigators continues to go very well. we feel like we're pretty close to haveing a couple of baptisms. liliana's husband is a member adn she's been coming to church for 3 months or so straight now. she's very involved with the ward and has now told us that she knows the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith was a prophet. there's still a doubt there though that's holding her back that we're trying to overcome. preach my gospel says that sometimes people are like icebergs. 3/4ths of them are under the water and we only see the tip outside of the water sticking out. we're praying and trying to uncover what she's still worried about.
we're also workign with another part member couple. the husband has a date rigth now for the 15th of december and we're strugglign to get them both to come to church. we really feel strongly though that it's actually her that is holding them back adn we have plans to try and help them overcoem that as well. she hasn't been to church in several years and we feel like she's just a little embarassed to come back after all that has happened with her.
other than that, not much is new. the weather is officially cold, there's again a little bit of snwo this morning.
i'm glad to hear that all is well at home!
con amor,
Elder dunlap

October 19 2010

2010-10-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hola

Here are some pictures that I've recently taken. The leaves are pretty much off of the trees now, but they really were very pretty while they were changing. The snow is the view out of the back of our apartment this past friday. It was the first real snow of the year that stuck to the groudn. The weather has warmed up a little bit since though. The other picture is from last monday when elder galloway and I ate with a family that we taught the first time that we were together.

Sorry that I don't have much new from this week. It looks like there aren't any changes in the spanish program for this transfer. The mission as a whole is changing a lot with transfers, but we seem to all be staying in our areas.

We are excited because we have a ward activity that is coming up this weekend called la vina del mar. It's a famous festival that they have in Chile. We've got a lot of members that are bringing friends and we're always able to get some good references from the activities.

On exchanges, Elder Chunn and I set a goal to set up a new investigator appointment. We felt inspired to stop by a former investigator family that we have tried to contact for several weeks without any luck. They immediately answered the door and were initially cold in their response. After some awkward conversation, they opened up and after talkign for a while, the husband told us to call him during the week to set up an appointment to come visit them and talk about God. My testimony was strengthened of how the spirit guides and directs us to accomplish our prayerful goals.

I'm glad to hear that all is well at home! Love and miss you! Elder Dunlap

October 12

2010-10-14T18:01:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!
Sorry that I didn't inform you that I'd be writing today instead of yesterday. I think there were several mothers that called the mission office wondering if their sons were ok. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here and so the libraries were closed. The latin culture didn't really celebrate the thanksgiving holiday. Some of them did, but mostly they are the ones that are canadianized. It was preparation day, but Elder galloway and I went and ate a late brunch with a couple that we taught in the east and that got baptized in april. It was nice to see them again and that they're getting along well. Next week, I will be emailing on tuesday again. Next week is transfer week and we always switch preparation day to tuesday during transfer week. I'm hoping that I don't get transfered and don't really expect to be transfered, but we'll see what happens.
We're teaching a couple new people that we're consistently working with. They all seem to be progressing well and we're expecting to have some baptisms very soon. There are two baptisms this coming weekend in the branch of a Colombian couple and at least one baptism the following weekend. We're really excited for the success that we're being blessed with throughout all of the companionships in the spanish program.
This past week, we had an appointment that fell through even though we had called to confirm the night before. We got back into the car and Elder Galloway said that we should get back out and talk to a lady that was raking her leaves across the street. We were able to have a great conversation with her and share a Book of Mormon with her. She also accepted a return visit to learn more about the church. The lady was in her 70s and about 8 years ago, she started reading the Bible daily. Since then, she said that she has read it through 15-18 times and that it has absolutely changed the person that she is. Wednesdays are normally her baking day and she never leaves her house during that time. But, last Wednesday she was reading the Bible in the morning and felt inspired to change her normal schedule and rake the leaves outside. Her husband was going to rake them that evening after he got home from work, but she thought she'd do it for him. My testimony was strengthened this week that the Lord truly guides and directs this work in all aspects and we can be guided to those prepared in every hour of the day if we take a chance to ask and listen. This lady had baked every Wed. for who knows how long, but the Lord knew we'd be there and that she was prepared to hear our message.
The weather has stayed warm recently, but today has turned cold. I think that the last spurt of warm weather is probably gone. Everything else continues to go very well. Nothing too new has really happened.
Thank you for everything!
Con amor,
Elder Dunlap

Leadership Training

2010-10-03T04:04:00.000-07:00

Heres Leadership Training..

Seth is the one on the right side below the lady in the blue shirt.

Sept. 20, 2010

2010-09-20T14:07:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

We had a great week this week. Elder Claudio Zivic of the seventy was here on friday for a mission tour. We fasted as a mission and it led to a very spiritual experience for all of us. President Archibald was very excited about the level of spirituality and really feels the consecration level of the missionaries has been increasing recently. It was Elder Zivic's first mission tour in english. He has been assigned to the argentina region for 6 years and is originally from buenos aires argentina. He has recently been assigned to work out of salt lake. It was neat that we were able to speak with him in spanish, he definitely lit up when we spoke to him in spanish. him and his wife discussed a variety of topics. his wife spoke fairly good english because she was an english teacher for many years. his english wasn't too great though. he was able to get his points across though and it went very well. we were also able to have a zone leader training with them afterwards which was a neat experience. he talked alot about our goal to baptized a stake before the completion of the temple. he asked several times: what is your part in this goal? he really emphasized that we all need to make it our own if it's going to be accomplished.

we're excited about a couple of neat experiences from this past week. there's a couple that moved here from spain about a month or two ago and has came to church almost every sunday. the husband is a member and the wife isn't. they have two little kids as well. the wife has been resistant to invitations to receive the lessons, but has continued to come to church. we were finally able to have an fhe with some of their extended family members this past monday and the wife was present. the lesson went well and she tearfully expressed her doubts and feelings about coming to canada and bore her testimony about jesus christ. yesterday at church, her husband was super excited as she accepted an invitation to meet with us this week. her husband was behind her pumping his fists.

we also received a reference for a lady that owns a mexican/colombian restaurant in town. there's not many latino restaurants, so she already knows many of the members of the church. we heard from a member that she was interested adn stopped by at the end of last week. she was busy, but invited us back this morning. we decided to eat lunch there and while we were eating, we were able to talk to her about her family and her desires and goals. she has 5 children and 4 of them are of baptismal age. she wants them to be in a religious setting that will help them progress adn become good people. she feels a little stressed because she's forced to work so much. she even expressed that she wants her kids to serve missions like us. we've been super excited adn the best part is she lives in our area. she invited us back for a formal lesson on Wednesday morning. we're also excited because the food was super good.

the picture is from yesterday at church. unfortunately, this family is going back to mexico because their time here has ran out. they're a member family that i visited a lot in my last area.

this week is supposed to be a little warmer, but it snowed one morning this past week. winter is definitely here already.

elder galloway is getting along very well. he does a great job of staying focused and just keeping his mind occupied. i can tell it's hard sometimes, but he does a great job of not showing it. he knows that this is where he needs to be.

thank you for everything! i already have at least on birthday meal scheduled for saturday. a family has a son that is turning 14 or 15 on the 26th and they're going to make us tacos. his dad works for fedex here as well.

thanks for everything!

con amor,

elder dunlap

Pictures - Sept.13,2010

2010-09-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

here is a sunset off of our balcony. we live in a pretty nice apartment building. it's a 2 bedroom place. one room we use as an office.

also a rendering of the calgary temple.

also a picture with a lady that got baptized a couple weeks ago. elder galloway foudn and taught her together in the east for a while. she's the one in green. her husbadn is a member but hasn't been active since he was about 12.

9-7-10

2010-09-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!
We just got transfer emails and I'm staying in this area. I pretty much knew that's what was going to happen though. This has probably been one of the least exciting transfers just because I already knew what was happening. There's always something exciting about the possibility of moving areas and not knowing what is going to happen.
We're becoming more familiar with the area and have some great potential coming from english classes and member families. We just got to do a better job of getting the members to take that final step of faith to get their friends to recieve the gospel in their homes. There's a lot of families that are close and we're excited about it. We started workign with a Peruvian family as well. The problem is that the mother isn't very receptive at all.
About a month ago, we randomly met an older man from Guatemala while he was waiting for the bus. We always get really excited when we meet someone new that speaks Spanish. He was somewhat receptive, but didn't seem too interested in meeting with us. We got an address that day and invited him to church, but were never able to find where he lives. On Sunday, he was waiting at church when we showed up. He said that he had been waiting for us to come by and decided to just come to church. We found out that he was baptized 30 years ago and is looking for more peace and comfort in his life and decided to come to church. It was a great experience to know that we impacted him that day and he was placed in our path in the moment that he needed it. My testimony has been strengthened that through small and simple things, great things come to pass. In the moment a month ago, I didn't realize the impact that we had left with him. I've been extremely grateful for this opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
I continue to love serving with Elder Galloway. His father passed away this past week but he seems to be getting along really well. He has a strong testimony of the plan of salvation and I know that it's helped him to stay out here and continue to work hard. He has three yougner siblings that's he's worried about at home probably more than anything, so please continue to keep them in your prayers.

I'm glad to hear that all is well at home! The weather here continues to get cooler. We're in all suits now that September has started. Thanks for all you do!

Con amor,
Elder Dunlap

Aug. 30,2010

2010-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hola!

I'm glad to hear that the vacation went well. We had another great week. Last night, we had a combined missionary fireside with the ward in the north. President and sister archibald spoke and several recent converts also shared their conversion stories and testimonies. A good group of members came out and a couple non members and overall it was a good success. In true spanish form, we started about 20 minutes late because a family couple that was speaking arrived late and then we ended about 40 minutes over. I'm pretty sure that president expects it by now though. One couple shared their experience of how they lived in Mexico and weren't close to God at all. They were goign through some difficulties and the wife resorted to praying for help. She said that three times she felt the prompting to move to Canada and so she woke her husband up and they sold all they had and bought tickets within 2 weeks. They arrived to canada without any money at all and not knowing what to do. As they were walking through the airport in canada, a man came up to them and offered them a ride to a nearby town and work that began the next day. Shortly after that, they met the missionaries and after some struggles were baptized. Several other converts have similar stories that show the Lord's hand in their arrival and life here. It was neat to see many of the members go up and hug adn thank the archibalds after the fireside as well. The spanish people have such lovign and expressive personalities.

While returning home one night this past week, we were waiting to cross the road and saw a dad and son a ways off in their front yard. We felt like we should go talk to them and as we approached them, we realized that they spoke Spanish. We were able to share different aspects of the gospel with them and bare our testimonies. They didn't accept an invitation to learn more, but I know that they were placed in our path. I know we were at least able to plant a seed and it really lightened our spirits at the end of a hard day. It's such a blessing to have this calling and the opportunity to share our testimonies with anyone we meet.

This week is the last week of the transfer. We'll find out next Tuesday about transfers, but I'm pretty positive that I'l be staying in the area with elder Galloway. We'll be getting two new elders. One is from Utah and the other is from California. It seems to be a trend in this mission and especially in the spanish program. Preparation day next week will be on tuesday because of transfers.

I've already had to start using a light coat in the evenings and mornings. By the end of september, we'll probably be into the winter again. The summer overall has been fairly mild.

Recently, a lot of my studies have been centered aroudn recognizing and responding to the spirit, as relating to my lfie and also the role that it plays in the lives of members and investigators. Something that I've recognized recently in my life and that sister archibald shared in a conference recently is that: if it's something that's hard, or something that we don't want to do- it's probably from the spirit.

Thank you for all you do!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

Aug. 30, 2010

2010-09-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

August 23, 2010

2010-08-23T18:31:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!
I hope that everyone at home is great.
Last night, we were able have two baptisms in the branch. Two young mexicans named Jose and Elebit were baptized. Elder Chunn and I had begun teaching them and set a date with them before I left the downtown area. We had felt good about extending a commitment to find someone to recieve the blessing of the gospel in 7-days to an inactive member. We knew that he worked with several spanish speaking people. THe member was able to set up an appointment for us about a month and a half ago and they were baptized last night. It was neat to see how the experience has really helped the member grow in his faith and return to activity. We've really tried to focus on that truth. That this commitment is a way for the members to draw closer to Christ and recieve the blessings of sharing the gospel. Also, to help them experience the joy that comes from sharing the gospel. At first, I really thought the challenge was just a way for us to have someone to teach, but as we've focused more on the blessings and benefits of others, it's been more effective and also has brought a such stronger spirit. The baptism last week was a result of a similar challenge as well. These experiences have really helped both the ward in the north and our branch become even more excited about missionary work.
Elder Davies nad I had a neat experience on exchanges this week. We went by several contacts and while walking, we talked to everyone in our path. It was a small goal that we set when we started walking. We were able to give out a couple cards or pamplets, but didn't really see any immediate results. As we were returning to the apartment for dinner, we were approached by a young lady that asked if we were from Jesus Christ. She said that she needed help to quit smokign because she had recently found out she has asthma and needed God's help to overcome the addiction. We were able to teach her about prayer and the power of the scriptures and we said a prayer with her. She accepted an invitation to teach her in her house as well. Afterwards, Elder Davies pointed out how we had been blessed for being obedient and talkign to everyone. I know that's true and my testimony has been strengthened of obedience and that the Lord puts those prepared in our paths.
Not too much has changed over the past week. We continue to work hard to find some new people to teach.
I ask you to keep my companion Elder Galloway's family in your prayers. His dad has had very serious cancer ever since the time he left for the mission. He got special permission to talk to him this week on the phone because it doesn't look like he'll make it much longer. The doctors have taken him off of pretty much all treatment so he can have a peaceful time in the next while. He continues to stay positive and work hard though. We just try to stay extra busy to not think about it.
Thank you for everything. I love you all!
COn amor,
Elder Dunlap

August 23, 201014

2010-08-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

August 16,2010

2010-08-16T19:26:00.001-07:00

Hola!
It was another great week here.
Elder Galloway adn I were able to attend the interview adn baptism yesterday of a lady named penelope from Mexico. We had met her when we served together, but never really had the opportunity to teach her. elder harker and christenson had challenged a member family to find someone to be taught in their home and recieve the blessings of the gospel in the following week. The members invited her and she accepted a date in the 2nd lesson. the baptism was very spiritual. she shared a strong testimony about the changes and blessings that came to her life. she shared with us on saturday nigth at the interview that the missionaries had been inviting her to pray and know if the church was really true so that she could know for herself. she decided to do it that night, but got a super strong headache that stayed with her the rest of the day. that night she prayed, and while listening for an answer, she had the distinct question come to her head: is your headache real? and she thought, well yes. and then the thourght, the church is as real as your headache is right now. it's interesting how everyone comes to the same conclusion, but it always comes in different ways for everyone. she said that she opened her eyes to make sure no one was talking with her because the voice in her head seemed so real. the members were so happy to see her get baptized as well. it was a great experience for the whole ward and should really be great for the missionary work in the ward.
our area is progressing well. it's one of the harder areas really because it covers some of the nicer parts of teh city. we've got soem really great potencial investigators that we're working with member families to begin teaching. Even though teaching investigators has been slow recently, I've found great joy in working with the members recently in an abundance that I've never really felt before. Some members are really grasping the fact that the blessing of the atonement is something that all the children of our Heavenly Father really need. It has brought greater joy into their lives and seeing that happen, it has brought joy into mine as well. We've seen some great miracles meeting new people that live in other areas recently too. I've seen great joy in the work seeing others in the zone exceed. My testimony continues to grow of the happiness and joy we can feel in this work of the Lord.
the mission as a whole continues to focus on the 2 year baptismal goal. we have zone conference comign up next week and the theme is goign to be all about zion's camp. we've been studying in preparation adn there's a lot of great parallels and similarities that apply to missionary work and missionary life.
i was able to see the first family that elder zoltan adn i baptized last nigth at the baptism. i haven't seen them in several months because i've been down here in the branch. they continue to progress and grown. the father recieved the melchezidek priesthood a couple weeks ago and they're preparing for the temple at their year mark in november. we're able to take a temple trip every 6 months and i'm saving mine to hopefully be able to go with them. there is a chance though that they'll have to return to mexico in the beginning of october which will be very sad. the mom is also expecting a baby that should be born in one month. it's great to see them so active and happy.
the weather here has already started to turn chilly in the evenings again. starting september, we're back to suit coats unless it's above 22 degrees. i can't believe that it's already that time again.
thank you for the updates and encouragement. i love and miss you all.
con amor,
elder dunlap

August 3, 2010

2010-08-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

This past week has been an exciting and fast one. Elder Galloway and I have been in a companionship with two other missionaries that we're dropping off at the mission home tonight. Elders Krueger and Nelson have been showing us the ropes on some of the new responsibilities and also introducing us to soem of the people in the area. They're both going home, so we've done a lot of picture taking adn eating. It's been a lot of fun though. The members really loved them in this area and we'll have soem big shoes to fill. We've been able to split up some over the past week and really have had some great success. They've both worked really hard which makes coming into this area fun. It's been weird seeing them to prepare to leave. They were our trainers when we arrived, which seems like such a short time ago.

New things are happening in the mission. The MTC has came out with some new trainings and videos that we'll be learning more about soon. We previously had interviews once a transfer as well as zone conference, but they'll both rotate now and only be every other transfer each. We have our first zone leaders council this coming friday. It should really be a great learning experience.

We're excited for some of the missionary activities that are coming up as well. There's a picnic this saturday for the branch and the branch has really been pushing invitations. The members always do a great job of getting friends out. I think it's the hispanic culture that really makes it easy for them to invite. We hope to meet some new people and start some great teaching opportunities. Some members in the ward in the north are also planning a fireside with the mission president. They're making a short video with testimonies and conversion stories of several of the new converts set to music. We're hoping that it'll be a great success and tool in the future.

The mission and the stake presidents in calgary have came out with a new two year goal to baptize a stake- or about 2,500 baptisms before the completion of the temple. Some specific goals have been set and it continues to be an exciting time in the mission. President Archibald continues to have challenging expectations for our spanish program. It's interesting that he never lowers his expectations for us. I"m sure that Elder Galloway and I will be learning a lot and growing a lot as well over the next couple weeks. I couldn't be more excited to be serving with him again.

I'm glad that the babies are both doing very well. You'll have to email me some more pictures sometime soon. I love and miss you all!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

7/27/2010

2010-07-27T17:26:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

We really had a great week this past week. We were able to set two baptismal dates for August 14th. One is a girl from colombia that we've been working with for a while named natalia. It's been hard to get in contact with her over the past couple weeks, but she seems ready to be baptized. The other is a 20 year old frmo Mexico. He's a friend of a member adn we were able to begin teaching him this past week. He accepted a date in the first lesson for the 14th as well. He too seems ready.

I just got news though that I'm getting tranfered. I'm sad to leave the area and a lot of the people that we've been working with. My companion, Elder Chunn will be training one of the new elders in our area. Elder Rudd will be training the other in the ward in the north of the city. They're both excited to train and will be great for the new elders. It's going to be different having new elders in the mission. Several of the older elders will be leaving in the next week as well.

I'm getting transfered to cover the south stake, or the southeast corner of the city. Elder Galloway is going to be my companion again. I couldn't be happier! I loved serving with him and am really looking forward to it again. They created a new all-spanish zone for us with two districts. Elder Galloway and I are going to be the zone leaders. I'm sure that there's going to be soem new challenges and responsibilibities for us.

I'm glad to hear that all is going well with the babies. I can't believe that life continues to go on without me at home. The weather here continues to be great. THere's been a decent amount of rain recently, but I think that's probably common here in Calgary. I miss and love you all! Next week I'll have more details about the new area and things. It is a holiday here on Monday, and so we will be emailing on tuesday next week.

Com mucho amor,

Elder Dunlap

7/21/2010

2010-07-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

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

July 12th

2010-07-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Everything here continues to go well. We have spent a lot of the past week walking but it's been fun to get out and be amongst the people. It definitely makes me have a little more of a missionary spirit to feel like I'm suffering a little bit. I realized how spoiled we are being able to drive the rest of the year. With the stampede, everyone in towns seems to have transformed to cowboys. Everyone has on cowboy hats, flannel, and jeans. We've tried to avoid the stampede area near downtown but there has definitely been more people out in the streets.

We're excited because there's a baptism planned for this Saturday in our branch. It's a girl from Spain that a member brought to the English Classes that we had started. It'll be my first baptismal interview so it should be a neat experience. Hopefully, alot of the other students in the class will come to the baptism and feel the spirit.

We have been teaching a part member couple. The wife is a member adn the husbadn is Harry Krishner- or something like that. It's a unique religion is based on vegetarianism and reincarnation and some other things. We decided to visit a yougn single adult member that speaks spanish this week and through talking to him, he told us that his dad had converted from the same religion and it was the same situation- his mom was a member. It was a neat miracle to be able to find that out and we plan on bringing the couple to the appointment this week. I really hope that it'll help him get over soem of the doubts he has. I've learned to appreciate more during the mission to keep a broader perspective. Little daily miracles like this are what brings the ultimate success in the long run. Sometimes, it is frustrating to look back at a day and only have one lesson or not really see too much success. But looking back over weeks and months, and seeing the changes in the people we work with and how we've personally grown, success can be seen. We've helped to bring people unto Christ and have grown through our trials.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I love and miss you all!

Con Amor,

Elder Dunlap

July 5th

2010-07-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!
This past week went by quickly. It seemed like I just wrote. We were busy this past week contacting and beginning to teach some of the new references that we had recieved at the end of last week. We've really been blessed with new people from several different places.

This past thursday was canada day. With the nice weather, there were a lot of people out on the streets. We went downtown for an appointment and it looked like there was a celbration downtown. The city is getting ready for the stampede. I assume that it starts this week, or at least within the next couple of days. Almost every community center or church in the city has a free stampede breakfast. I guess it's a tradition that has developed. I'm not quite sure though what our rules are about attending them. We may be eating a gourmet breakfast every morning for the next week and a half. This month, we also can only drive 3/4 of our kilometer alotment, so I'm expecting to encounter some pretty interesting conversations downtown. I've heard that there is a lot of alcohol that is consumed during the stampede.

The Latinos have been very interested in the World Cup. I think it's the topic of conversation at almost every house we visit. There is definitely a strong sense of national pride amongst the different countries that are here in Calgary.

The weather continues to be excellent. I just wish that it would stay like this all year round.

Everything else is going great here. I miss you all, but am enjoying more and more the mission as I become more comfortable with stretching myself.

Con Amor,

Elder Dunlap

June 28th

2010-06-29T12:35:00.001-07:00

Hola!
I'm glad to hear that Hailey continues to grow and be healthy, that Nathan and Ashley are preparing for their baby, and that Monica was able to find a job. Maybe this is beginning of a future as a librarian for Monica.
We've had a great week this past week. We've lacked some solid investigators recently, but we've been flooded with blessings in this past week.
We extended a 7 day challenge to pray and invite someone to meet with us to a member family a week ago. THey brough someone to church yesterday and then we went and ate dinner with them last night. Their friend is going to be moving about a block away from them in the beginning of July. I taught her a little bit in my past area, but now she's going to have a perfect fellowshipping situation. She enjoyed church and is going to continue to attend.
A former investigator showed up at church 2 weeks ago and he wants us to start teaching him as soon as he moved to a new house at the end of the month of June. We're excited to begin working with him. He randomly came to church so we can tell that something has changed in his life.
A guatemalan guy went to church in the north ward yesterday and he wants to start meeting with the missionaries. He lives in our area and we're going to begin teaching him this week as well.
Another member found a less active lady that he works with. She's been inactive for a long time and recently moved to Calgary. She's married to a non-member but accepted an invitation from the member to begin listening to the missionaries again.
We also extended a 7 day challenge this past Saturday to a less active couple and they immediately thought of two people that they are going to talk to and invite this week.
President has been stressing the importance of being obedient and extending 7 day challenges in our areas. He's stressed that it's not about us, but that we leave strong commitments with ward members so that they can receieve the blessings of sharing the gospel and so that they can have a faith building experience. As we've been obedient, blessings seemed to pour in these past couple days. New investigators have came in all different forms. Maybe not exactly related to the 7-day challengein some cases, but blessings for being obedient to the will of the Lord and the mission president. We've really been filled with gratitude the last couple days for the things we've been blessed with. Thank you for your prayers and support.
The summer weather has finally arrived. It won't be here for long, but I think if the weather was like it is right now all year round, Calgary would be a town ten times the size it is.
The Calgary Stampede is coming up the beginning of July and I'll probably be right in the middle of it being in downtown. We'll definitely try to avoid it as much as we can.

Thanks again for everything! I love and miss you all.

Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

june 21

2010-06-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Sorry, I forgot to let you know that we were switching preparation day to Mondays. It's going to be on Monday from now on. I'm pretty sure that most missions have Monday preparation day. I'm really not sure why our mission was on Wednesdays. I think that we're really going to enjoy having it on Monday. We can work all week non-stop leading up to church on Sunday and then have a break before we start another week.

This past week has flown by. We saw a neat miracle yesterday as we were trying by some old contact addresses. We decided to stop by the address of an old convert from about 2 years ago. We knew that she had moved to Montreal shortly after her baptism, but felt that we should stop by and see if another latino family had moved in after she left. There was a lady named katalina from mexico in the front yard and we were able to talk to her for about 20 minutes and share the a little bit about the restauration with her. Small experiences like that always excite us and make us very grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes it is difficult to find new people to teach.

We also saw a neat miracle with a less-active couple that recently moved to Calgary and that we've been visiting. The husband had served a mission in Mexico but life choices had kind of led him astray after. We felt that sharing the gospel could really benefit them in their lives and testimony. As we shared the message, they expressed doubts that they were worthy to share the gospel because they hadn't been living it to the fullest. We tried to encourage them and gave some pamplets to the husband to share with some latinos at his work. He was excited to share with us yesterday the spirit he had felt as he shared his beliefs with his boss. He said that it really helped him in his personal conviction. He showed up at church yesterday for the first time in a white shirt and tie and seems to really be on track to get back on the right path.

In the mission, we're really focusing on Christlike attributes again for this transfer. We're going to be encouraging and talking about setting personal goals. I think it'll really help us grow and become better servants and experience the life long changes.

The baptism picture is from Sabrina Cruz and her husband. Elder Galloway is on the left and Elder Walker is next to me. Elder Walker was my MTC companion from Florida and Elder Galloway and I taught Sabrina before I was transfered. The member performing the baptism in Angelica Delgado's brother. Him and his family really helped them along the teaching process.

The other pictures are from last week in the mountains.

I'm glad to hear that all went well with Hailey and that she's doing well. Thank you for all your love and support. This week, I pass the hump mark. Time really has flown by!

Con Amor,

Elder Dunlap

06/09/2010

2010-06-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

It sounds like sara is in the process of having her baby, so I hope and pray that everything turns out well.

This week has been an exciting week. A couple that Elder Galloway and I found in my last area and began to teach were baptized this past Sunday. They asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost and so I was able to go to the baptism in the ward. It was good to see all of the members from the ward that I miss. It was a special experience because of the way that we were led to find her and her family. She had been praying specifically and earnestly for guidance in raising her children. She had recently felt overwhelmed about her responsibilities as a mother. Elder Galloway and I felt impressed to walk more and we met her in the street one afternoon near her house. We felt compelled to walk as we discussed some words from my setting apart by the stake president. It was neat because I was able to use the story in my talk to teach about the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

We've also been excited about the english classes that we teach on tuesday and thursdays. They continue to be successful in meeting new spanish speaking people. Last night there were two new people that were brought to the class by freinds. We had 13 students and only one of them was a member. Two of the students came to church last Sunday as well and we've began teaching them. We've been developing good relationships with the students and it really has been fun and enjoyable. The stkae is in the process of calling a full time teacher for the class and providing funding for materials and things.

The bed bugs seem to all be gone. As part of the spraying, we had to bag all of our clothes, bedding, and suits and load them into our car and was it all at the laundry mat and dry cleaner. All of our furniture had to be cleaned and moved around so that all the base boards were available. We had spent several hours preparing the apartment and were waiting for the exterminator last thursday morning. As the exterminator arrived, the city busted a main gas pipe a block from our house. We were immediately evacuated for 3 hours and couldn't start the car. The exterminator couldn't return until this past Monday, so we had to unload and do everything over again. It was a pretty funny situation.

Next week is transfer week already. We had a meeting this past week with President because some changes are coming up in our program with new missionaries coming in and some missionaries going home. By september, we'll be the oldest generation of spanish missionaries. Time flies. President is thinking about special training programs and possibly a spanish only zone to help us with smoe of the challenges we experience.

There's a chance that a member is taking us next preparation day to the mountains. We're pretty excited to get out and hopefully see a moose or mountain goat or something.

I love and miss you all!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

06/02/2010

2010-06-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hola!

This past week has been a good week. Francisco and Enrique were both baptized and confirmed on Sunday. It was a great spiritual baptism and we had another investigator named Natalia that was able to attend. We had made some cookies for the baptism and she was joking that she was going to contract us to make them for her baptism as well. She doesn't have a set date yet, but she should hopefully be getting baptized soon. She says that she wants to wait until August when the friend that initially invited her to come to church comes back from vacations. We're hoping though that the spirit will change her heart sooner so that she can recieve the blessings. Many members came to the baptism and like always, the refreshments turned into a fiesta. There was a wedding on Saturday and we ended up with all of the leftovers at the baptism. Another member showed up with tortillas and started frying flautas. Bishop has tried to emphasize that it's not a party, but the members haven't quite caught on yet.

Sunday was stake conference and there was a broadcast from Vancouver for all of Canada. President Uchtdorf, Elder Ballard, and Elder Pace of the seventy all spoke. They covered several different topics a lot was said of the history of Canada with the church adn the great contribution that the members here make to the growth and work. A lot was also addressed to the youth and to parents about preparing and teaching the youth to learn by faith and through the spirit to prepare themselves. My respect and love for this country definitely was strengthened through the messages shared.

I'm really am enjoying serving with Elder Chunn adn Walker. They're great elders and examples to me. We have some other investigators that we're working with and hope that they'll soon be ready for baptism. We extend invitations to everyone in every lesson and we're seeing great success with it in the mission. President has promised us as we do it in love that the investigators will realize that we offer because we love them and know that baptism is what they need for their eternal progression. I know that the Spirit guides us to offer the invitation in ways that won't offend or be overbearing. It has really helped us uncover the true doubts and concerns of investigators. Several investigators have went from no never, to maybe sometime, to probably as we've helped them along. My personal testimony that the Atonement is truly what all of the children of our Heavenly Father need in their lives has grown through this as well.

I have some bad news. We've caught a bed bug in our apartment. There's been a couple apartments in the mission that have had them recently and we probably got them from one of them. Don't worry, Sister Archibald has a son on a mission and is making sure we're taken care of. It's just been a lot of tedious work. Basically everything in the house has the be bagged up and washed at a laundry mat or dry cleaned.

I'm glad to hear that everything is still going well with the adoption adn the baby on the way. I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and support!

Con Amor,

Elder Dunlap

5/26/2010

2010-06-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

I'm glad to hear again that all seems to be going well with the babies.

I forgot to tell you last week about the temple ground breaking. It was two Saturdays ago. The temple is going to be built in the northwest part of calgary on a hill that overlooks the city. The groundbreaking had been delayed a little bit because of some resistance from the surrounding community, but they have worked everything out. Elder Hallstrom from the presidency of the 7 came and presided. We weren't able to attend the ceremony, but we were able to watch it from a live stream at the stake center. It was interesting to hear the history of the church here in calgary adn see the excitement of all the members. There were several representatives from the community in attendance and Elder Hallstrom's message was basically the Plan of Salvation. It was very simple, but is why we build and construct temples in the world.

I also have found out recently that we live about three houses down from the main Hell's Angels hangout in the city. They're fairly quiet apart from the occasional motorcycles that ride past our house. Our neighbor said that in the summer there's sometimes 20-30 bikes parked out in the street. A very large man with tattoos sometimes walks some pit bulls in the neighborhood. I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing. I assume it'll probably keep us pretty safe.

We've been excited for the baptism of at least Enrique this Sunday. We planned the baptismal program and hope and pray that everything goes smoothly for Sunday. Francisco has been out of town for 2 weeks working and hopefully he has been able to quit smoking. We are going to meet with him tonight and find out. I think the fact that Enrique is firm in his date it'll give Francisco the extra push that he needs as well to take the step. We visit them everynight just trying to keep the spirit in their lives and focused towards the steps they're making.

I think I told you last week but we've also started teaching an English class twice a week now. The same students are coming back every class and we've had between 8-12 students every class. We really think that this will soon lead to some very good opportunities to teach them. We're at least developing some good trust and friendships that will help when they begin listening about the gospel.

The winter just can't seem to go away. It is supposed to snow this Friday again.

This weekend is stake conference but it'll be a regional broadcast from Vancouver by President Uchtdorf. We're excited for what he has to say about the area. The Vancouver temple was just dedicated a couple weeks ago and with the groundbreaking here I assume it'll be missionary work/temple related.

There's 2 spanish elders leaving in two weeks or so and then a couple more over the next coulpe transfers after that. We're anticipating some changes coming up. We know that President is going to be forming an all Spanish zone. Currently, we are in English zones. I think it'll really help with having training in Spanish and working with the unique challenges in the program.

I hope all is well! Love and miss you!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

Apartment & Room 5/19/2010

2010-05-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

5/19/2010

2010-05-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!
It's good to hear that everyone is going well with the baby for Sara and adoption. I hope and pray that everything works out well. I've attached a picture of our bedroom and the house that we live in. The house is divided into 4 apartments and we live in the bottom right apartment. It's nice because we have a large park with a soccer field across the street. Our neighbor downstairs is a guy named Donnie. He's had trouble with alcohol and drugs and things in his life, but now he's cleaned up his life and reads everyday in the Book of Mormon. He's read it almost twice now all the way through. He hasn't been baptized, but the English elders come by and teach him every once in a while. He really takes care of us with anything we need. He's fun to live next to.
The work continues to progress well. Natalia wants to go to the single adult ward in the stake and she loves the activities there. She has some doubts about baptisms for the dead. She has had 3 non-member freinds already tell her untrue things about the church. She recognizes though that it's Satan trying to keep her from something good for her. She knows what she's felt at church and in answer to her prayers and she continues to stay strong. The freind that invited her to church is from Israel and is there for the summer. Natalia knows that she wants to be baptized but is telling us that she wants to wait until August when her freind can be at her baptism. We think with time these doubts will subside and there's probably something else holding her back right now.
Enrique and Francisco seem to still be progressing well. We've been able to meet with them both some individually which is better to help them each recieve what they need right now.
We're excited because we just got a new ward mission leader that is excited to start working with us. We have been without a ward mission leader for about a month now because he decided to start attending an English ward. Our new leader really seems to be on top of things.
We've started teaching an English class that we hope will lead to some new investigators soon. The last two weeks we've had about 8-9 people there. Teaching Enlgish is alot harder than I thought, but we've gotten the support and help of the stake. They are buying materials and calling teachers. Our stake president was a mission president in NYC and he said that 60percent of the baptisms in his mission came from the classes. We've already been able to establish some good freindships with the class members and I think it'll lead to some great things.
I love you all and thank you for your support!
Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

April 28th, 2010

2010-04-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hola!
It's good to hear that everything seems to be going well with Hailey. It's snowing here today. We're supposed to get between 10-15 centimeters of snow between today and this evening. Right now, it's a pretty annoying wet snow with a strong wind. I don't think we'll be spending much time for preparation day outdoors today. We'll probably play basketball of volleyball at the stake center. Our zone usually just gets together and we hang out at the church or at a park or something.
I got an email from the mission about our phone calls. They said that we can talk for 45 minutes sometime between 1pm-8pm our time. We have church from 1-4, so anytime probably between 5-8 would be best for us. I'll send you the phone number next week because there's a chance that I could be transferred. We'll get the transfer emails next Tuesday so preparation day will also be on tuesday next week. Time continues to fly by. This next transfer there will be two elders going home from the spanish program and end of july we'll get two more new ones. This past week I passed the 10 month mark which is hard to believe.
Our investigators continue to prepare for baptism. There's a chance that they will have to move the baptism because of work issues, but we're praying that all goes well for this Sunday.
Last Sunday was our first branch conference. President Spackman is our stake president and he spoke about Matt 6:33. That if we first seek the kingdom of God, everything else will work out in our lives. He is the grandson of a past apostle. I assume it's probably Elder Tanner because I've heard that he was from here. He said as a 10 year old, he knew that his grandpa was very wealthy and so he asked him what it takes to be rich. His grandpa responded with that scripture adn he said it's always stuck with him. He said that his grandpa shared the story in a general conference talk a short time after that. There are several people in the ward struggling, or looking for jobs and I think that it really benefited them. Elders Quorum was interesting because one of the Stake counselors taught it in English and it was a very interactive lesson. It was funny to hear the members that we always speak spanish to speak in english. I wondered what I sound like in spanish. It was a good lesson tough about the importance of home teaching for our branch. Our branch is interesting because there's probably about 170 members on the records and about 130 of those are fairly active. There's usually aroudn 100-110 every Sunday in church. There was more less active work in the ward in the North that we did so that makes the work a little different.
Thanks for all the sacrifice and support! I love you all! I hope you have a great week!
Con Amor
Elder Dunlap

April 21

2010-04-22T07:14:00.001-07:00

Hola familia!

It's been another great week. Our two baptismal dates continue to progress and come to church. Enrique and Francisco have been coming to church and know what they've been feeling in their lives. They've been hard to get to read on their own because of their schedules, but they continue to progress. We rescheduled their date with them last night for May 2nd because this Sunday is branch conference and the bishopric said they're going to have meetings. We try to have the baptisims after church on Sundays just because it's when most of the ward is willing to come. Because a lot of members don't have cars and things, it's hard to get a good turnout during the week.

I had the privilege to speak on Sunday during sacrament meeting about missionary work. I talked about doctrine and covenants 4 and what types of "hoces" or sickles i think in english that we can use to share the gospel. I also talked about how members can be led by the Holy Ghost to follow the same pattern that we as missionaries use in our work. To plan, pray, and go out and work and be led by the Holy Ghost. I think that it went well.

We had a zone conference yesterday and it was all about improving our teaching skills. They really emphasized role playing in the mornings our teaching situations that we will have during the day and how it really helps us to put ourselves in the shoes of our investigators and recieve revelations of the things that we can teach them and questions that we can ask them. We've been practicing our question asking to really help them learn by faith on their own by sharing their thoughts and feelings.

Time has been passing pretty fast. We're slowly starting to teach more in this area. We always try to talk to everyone on the streets as we're traveling to find those that the Lord puts in our paths. It was much easier in my old area because it was more residential areas. Every once in a while, someone would be getting out of their car, or standing outside their house. This area has a lot of apartment buildings and there's always people traveling in and out of downtown. Sometimes I'm lost at who we should talk to and people seem to always be in a hurry. It's been a struggle finding the right balance.

I don't know if I've shared it with you, but in my setting apart by the stake president, he counciled me in the blessing to talk to everyone on the streets because thte Lord would put those that are prepared in my path. As Spanish elders, we drive around most of the time because our areas are so large. Walking really just isn't very effective and that leaves little opportunity to talk to people in the streets. Even harder is finding Spanish speaking people in the streets. Elder Galloway and I in one of the last few weeks of my old area decided that we should drive to neighborhoods and then walk to all of the contacts and things we had in that neighborhood if we weren't in a hurry. It decided to do it as we discussed that part of my setting apart. We were walking one afternoon during the week and were a little lost but saw a lady a ways down a street as we passed it. She looked like she had darker skin and we contemplated whether to walk to talk to her. At that moment, she said something to her son in what sounded like spanish and so we went to talk to her. I was able to teach her one time before I left the area and she came to church. She's continued coming to church and should be baptized soon with her husband. She has told Elder Galloway that she had been specifically praying for something more in her life and more guidance for raising her kids. She was searching for more happiness. It really is great to hear that she is still progressing and see the Lord's hand in this work, to be able to be part of tender experiences like that.

For Preparation days, we just clean from 10-11, email from 11-12, go shopping for a while and then eat lunch. we then have 3-4 hours to usually just play sports. The zones all get together in every stake at the stake center or at a park now that the weather's nice. It's nothing really too exciting. There's some neat things here in this area like museums and chinatown adn things in downtown but we haven't been down there yet. I'm sure we will sometime soon.

I did get the package, thanks a lot it was great! I love everything you sent. No, I haven't really gained any weight at all, I still weigh about 155 like when I left. I think some of my muscle has converted to fat but overall I weigh the same. My companion and I have started running though. We have a community park right across from our house and it's not freezing in the mornings anymore.

Thanks for everything! I love you and miss you!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

April 14

2010-04-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

Thank you for the letters. I'm glad to hear that everything went well with nathan and ashley and the yard sale. I haven't recieved the box yet, but I'm sure that i'll probably get it today. The zone leaders pick up the mail from the office every week and wednesdays are when we usually are able to pick it up.

the week has went great. we have two baptisimal dates for the 25th that i really think are going to go through on that date or shortly after. we set the dates with two middle aged men named enrique and francisco on my first day in this area. they had been taught for several months on and off by missionaries. they initially rejected a baptisimal date, but we promised them if they set a goal that they'd recieved the help and strength that they needed from the Lord to be prepared. we knew they liked to drink adn were worried that they'd actually stop drinking. i really lacked the faith though that they'd actually keep any commitments when we set the date. they came to church 3 weeks ago for the first time and really felt something different. they've continued to come every week and told us this week that they feel a lot closer to God and happier in their lives with the changes that they are making. the Spirit is helping them personally learn the things that they need to give up and change to prepare for the baptism. we taught the word of wisdom two days ago and they accepted it well. i'm sure there will continue to be more challenges, but i've really grown in my testimony of the strength we can recieve from the Lord to live up to the tasks that we are faced with. they've been examples for me over the last couple of weeks. we meet with them pretty much every other night for short visits and i think it's helped them constantly be reminded of the things they are feeling.

the cold weather has unfortunately returned this week. there were a couple days of snow and cold rain. i thought that we had escaped it. i'm definetely excited for short sleeve weather.

president continues to help us out with changes. we previously ate dinner every night with someone in the ward and usually it would be all 6 or at least 4 of us in the ward at the dinner. we're now only able to eat in our specific areas with our companion and the members or investigators that live within our borders. our area is a little lacking in members and so we're definetely eating more at the house. we tried to get president to give us more allotment money but he didn't go for that idea. it's been good though. we're able to spend more time in our specific areas. it's also better because we get to work with the members in our individual areas more. president has been stressing that dinners aren't for us to be fed, but for us to have an opportunity to be in a members house and encourage and help them do missionary work.

i'll be praying for hailey. thank you for all the love and support! i feel like i'm running out of things to say. not too much changes week to week other than the people we work with. send me questions if there's specific things that anyone wants to know.

love you all!
elder dunlap

April 7th

2010-04-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

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

March 31,2010

2010-04-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!
This past week has been a week of changes and adjustments. It's interesting being in downtown. I went from an area that was all neighborhood houses and fairly calm to downtown. A lot of the area is apartment buildings and there's always people everywhere to talk to. It's been hard leaving the old area because it's really all I've known on the mission, but I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be. We were transferred on Wednesday and the ward had been planning another big talent night. We got permission to attend and invited some of our investigators from down here. It was fun and I was excited because 12 investigators from my old area showed up. It was good to see them there. Elder Galloway and I had worked hard inviting them and reminding them and it felt good to see them amongst ward members even though I won't be working with them anymore.
I love my new companion and new area. It's been a challenge because there's not too much going on in the area, but we've been blessed with several miracles. The first lesson that we taught together, we were able to set 2 baptisimal dates for April 25th. They are two middle aged men that had been recieving the missionaries for a while now named Francisco and Enrique. We were super excited because they came to church for the first time this past Sunday as well. I really don't feel like it was anything that we did. The spirit just touched them and their hearts and they accepted an invitation to begin preparing.
We also recieved a call a couple nights ago from a lady named Yovana that told us that she wanted to start meeting with us and she wanted to start coming to church with us. We stopped by the next day and visited a little with her at the door. She's a single lady so we had to set up a return appointment for tomorrow. She has two young kids and really just wants to come closer to God. Her neighbor is an English speaking member and has shared a little about the Gospel with her and gave her our number. She seemed very excited and we felt a great humble spirit as we were talking with her.
We're working hard and trusting that the Lord will provide us and the members with opportunities to share the Gospel with their friends and find some more people to begin working with.
The Branch is definetely different. There was 107 people at church on Sunday, but it's a bit smaller than the ward. There's a lot of new faces, but I'm excited to get to know them.
I was also able to attend a baptism here in the branch on Sunday of a lady named Fanny that I taught for about 3 transfers in my past area. Elder Galloway and I were able to help her get married and then she moved to the branch. After a couple more weeks, the elders were able to help her along to baptism. It really was a great blessing.
We're driving a new car too. It's a cool little Pontiac Vibe.
Our stake center is the 17th avenue chapel. It's a 2 story stake center that I remember hearing deda and grandma talk about. Our branch also meets in a chapel on Heritage Drive which I think is the building that Deda and Grandma served in. I met some people from an English ward this past Sunday that said Deda and Grandma attended their FHE group every week. They said that they miss them and think about them often and were interested to know how they were doing. One of them was named Grant Pilling.
I'm glad to hear from many of you! Thank you for the support, love, and sacrifice.
Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

March 23, 2010 TRANSFER

2010-03-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

hola familia!
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well! We just got our transfer emails and I'm going to be changing area. I'm going to be serving with another Elder that was in my district at the MTC. His name is Slade Walker from St. George Utah. I'm going to be moving south of the river, so I'm going to be in the branch now. My area is the downtown area, or spanish central. I'll be covering all of the downtown area, which should be fun. I don't know how much I'll actually work in downtown, but it should be pretty neat. I'm excited to serve with Elder Walker, but kind of bummed to leave the area right now. We've had some great experiences recently working with new investigators that should be getting baptized very soon.
Sunday, there were 3 baptisms in the ward. The ward came out to support it like always. My favorite part of the baptisms is hearing the testimonies of the recently baptized and what they feel and the changes that have taken place in their lives. A young couple that just had a baby from Mexico was baptized. The husband has really totally turned his life around from where he was before. Our bishop always talks about the temple in his welcome to the ward. He invites those that are baptized to prepare for that experience. He had all the recent converts stand and there were about 10-11 at the baptism that have been baptized in the last couple months. He again encouraged them all to continue preparing. I'm pretty sad to leave the area and the ward, but I know that I will enjoy the branch as well.
I've been learning a lot about teaching and helping others learn by the spirit. It's hard to not just teach doctrine, especially with the language barrier. We've been trying harder to listern, observe, and discern through the spirit the questions that we need to ask. That really is the only way that a lasting conversion and conviction can be developed.
I love you all!
Con amor,
Elder Dunlap

March 17, 2010

2010-03-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hola!
It's great to hear that everything is going well at home! We have had a great week.
We woke up at 3:00 on saturday morning because we had to leave on a bus at 430 from southern calgary to get to the conference with Elder Bednar. It was a wonderful experience. He was traveling with Elder Jay E. Jenson from the presidency of the seventy and so we got to hear a little from both of them. The meeting lasted from about 8 until 11 and then we loaded back on the buses and headed back to Calgary. It really ended up being a 3 hour question and answer session, with the questions and comments focused on the reading of the two talks that we had been assigned. He basically led a discussion that allowed us all to learn by faith and through the Holy Ghost. I know that I had several questions that I recieved personal answers to. The teaching setting was an example of what we needed to be doing with our investigators adn throughout our Gospel teaching in our lives. He talked some as well about how the teaching pattern that is established in Preach my Gospel should also be an example for our future homes and family home evenings. Overall, I left with a stronger determination to make my personal prayers more meaningful by praying for specific strength, help, and answers; and then going to work to do all I can. We were all able to shake Elder bednar and elder jenson's hands afterwards. As we began to get up and prelude music started, our mission president's wife couldn't stop crying. I know that president and sister archibald have had a little bit of a rough time with some of the missionaries over their first year. But, a special spirit could be felt in the meeting. The elders in the mission have really went through a change and I could tell that she really couldn't be any prouder of us after the meeting. Great things really are happening in the mission as we become more obedient and unified. Last I heard, we're on track to get 100 baptisms this month. Last month, there was 17 in the mission and I'm sure the growth will continue to happen. My companion was really the only one that got a hug from Elder Bednar. I don't know if i've mentioned, but elder galloway's dad is going throuhg chemotherapy and cancer treatment and was diagnosed not too long before he left to come on the mission. It's hard for him to find out in weekly emails how his dad is doing, but he's such a great example of a positive attitude and a dedicated servant. When we walked up, elder bednar said: elder, how is your dad doing. It was an emotional moment. We don't know how elder bednar found out, but just that simple question was something that i think he really needed and was a gift from a loving Heavenly Father that knows what he's going through.
i would tell you more about some of the stuff elder bednar said, but we're not supposed to. he said that sometimes things get mixed up through the grapevine and he'll get quoted online in a wrong context. it was a wonderfully spiritual experience to be in the presence of an ordained apostle.
he also used the words stupid and trunky, so i guess those words aren't bad.
the work continues to progress. transfers are next week and i think i'll probably get transfered because i've been here for 7.5 months. but, i love the area and we're working with some great new investigators that i'd love to stay and work with. it'll be hard to switch areas.
one of our miracles for this week is we decided to walk one afternoon that was a nice day so that we could get out and talk to more people. as we were walking, we met a couple getting out of their cars. the lady was a member that is inactive and was baptized a couple years ago. she told us that she had moved around a lot recently but was trying to get in contact with the missionaries again so that she could baptize her 9 year old son. she also wanted to start going back to church. they speak english, but i know that the Lord had placed us on that street at that moment. we were able to set up an appointment for the english elders to stop by the next day at noon.
we have a talent night coming up soon that should really be a great activity to meet new people. the stake president came and spoke last sunday and challenged each auxillary presidency to have a new non member at an activity every week whether it be church, a missionary lesson in their home, or a dinner. the stake presidency is going to be calling them to follow up with them. elder galloway and i couldn't help but give each other a little high five during church. the stuff that is going on really is great.
over the next two weekends, there's 8 baptisms rigth now in the ward scheduled. so, it should be an exciting time.
i love and miss you all!
con amor,
elder dunlap

March 10, 2010

2010-03-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

Hola!
This week was another great week. It was a wonderful experience to be able to go to the temple on Saturday. We road down to the temple with a member family that we love. There isn't much scenery on the way other than wheat fields. It was about a 2.25 hour drive south to Cardston. We were able to see some mountains from the temple that were in Montana. So, I can say that I saw U.S. soil this week. We were able to go through a session in Spanish which was a neat experience. I was worried that it would be hard to understand, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. There ended up being 117 people in the session which I heard afterwards was breaking fire code. So, we officially broke the law in the temple. The temple was very beautiful and it was great to be present with the members that we work with. A recent convert family was able to be sealed afterwards as well. The spirit carried into the fast and testimony meeting on Sunday at church as well which was great for many of the non members that were at church on Sunday.
The mission had 17 baptisms the first week of March, which was equal to how many we had total in the month of February. From past numbers and statistics, the Assistants just sent an email saying that we're projected at about 85 baptisms right now in the month. There's more baptisimal dates than that right now, but I assume it takes into account how many dates historically drop or something. But, it really is wonderful news. The member missionary work in the mission is really picking up and catching fire and the missionaries in the mission have never worked harder. I think the missionary department has decided to come and figure out what's going on because they are here this week as well going on exchanges and evaluating missionaries. There's a special training with the people from Salt Lake tomorrow with some of the mission too.
We've really been trying to focus our studies on the talks that we've been asked to study in anticipation for the meeting this Saturday with Elder Bednar. We have to meet at 4:30 AM to be in Lethbridge by 7:30 for the conference. I assume that it may be a once in a lifetime experience and so we have been trying to approach it in prayer and fasting. One of the talks is about asking in faith and the roal of faith in our daily prayers. He teaches that a faithful prayer leads to asking for strength and help but then continuing that prayer and putting it into action in our lives through consecrated work. He shares an example of how sometimes members may pray for the missionaries or ask the Lord to help the missionaries. But, if they really understood the principle of prayer, faith, and action, they'd pray for the strength to find people themselves for the missionaries and then go to work inviting people. Our prayers have taken on a different role as we apply that principle to our investigators as well. We've been trying to pray for more specific guidance of the things that we can specifically do to help the investigators progress and for the strength to carry those plans out.
The members continue to help us out. There were 3 people at church on Sunday that members had invited and brought to church that we weren't expecting. The weather has also gotten a little warmer and we've felt the need to get out and walk so that we could make ourselves available to talk to everyone on the streets. The Lord has put several people in our path. On afternoon, we were walking on a back street on the edge of a neighborhood and were a little lost, but we saw a lady with two children a ways off. I looked to Elder Galloway and asked him if we should go talk to her. At that time, she yelled something to her small son in spanish and we knew that we should go talk to her. We were able to schedule an appointment with her. She had attended church a couple years ago in Toronto and had met with missionaries before as well. It really was a wonderful miracle.
Right now, there's 6 baptisimal dates for March in the ward, and so the work continues to progress. Elder Galloway and I have pretty much all new investigators that we're really trying to help progress. Our current struggle is helping them see the need and benefit of meeting with us more than once a week. We've been praying hard for direction in what we can do to establish that with a lot of our new investigators.
I'm glad to hear that your lives are all going well! I love you all!
Con AMor,
Elder Dunlap

March 3, 2010

2010-03-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!

We had an all around tough week last week, but we continue to work hard. It seemed like we just had a lot of canceled and rescheduled appointments. I know that it was a trial of our faith to begin the excitement of this month though.
Our miracle for the week was one night as we were praying, a name of a past investigator came to mind. We decided to visit him the next day. The old investigator had moved, but we found other relatives of his that still lived in the house from Peru and were very open to us. We were able to schedule a time to return and teach them. We have great hope that they'll soon lead to some very promising investigators.
A member also brought a lady from Ecuador to church on Sunday unexpectedly. We have an appointment to begin teaching her as well this week. She told us that she loved church and wants to continue coming.
The last couple days, we've also been able to schedule appointments with several new people that we've met as well. We're really trying hard to focus on finding those that the Lord has prepared to hear us through the members.
The excitement is Canada has been that Canada beat the United States in the Olympics in hockey. After church on Sunday, there were lots of people in the streets screaming and shouting and waving Canadian flags. We made the mistake of telling on of our neighbors that we're from the United States. He wasn't very nice.
The weather has been warming up and it's been nice to be able to walk around some more. Being able to talk to people on the streets more really brings a more "missionary like" spirit to the work.
We just recieved an email that Elder Bednar is coming on March 13th to visit us in Lethbridge! The whole mission is getting together in Lethbridge from 8-11 on Saturday March 13th. We're soo excited for what he has to say. There's two talks that we're supposed to study. Ask in Faith and Seek Learning by Study and Faith. This is supposed to be the topic for his conference with us. I really couldn't be more excited!
This Saturday, we're also goign to the Cardston temple for the first time. We don't get a Preparation day today, we are taking it on Saturday so that we can go to the temple. The entire Spanish ward is going on a bus and we're riding with some members. I haven't been to the temple since the MTC and so we're excited for the opportunity. There's a recent convert family that was baptized a year ago that will also be getting sealed. It should be a wonderful experience.
My studies continue to be focused in the challenge to read the Book of Mormon focusing on Christ from Sister Archibald. I am loving the examples of christlike attributes that I continue to find daily. I think that it's really helping me in my life, as well as our mission to become more christlike and unified.
The entire mission including members are fasting on this Sunday for the baptisimal goal in March and you all are invited to participate as well. I know that the prayers and fasting are helping to strengthen us. I'm glad to hear that all is well at home!
Miss you all!
Con Amor,
Elder DUnlap

February 24, 2010

2010-02-25T20:29:00.000-08:00

Hola!
The time continues to pass by quickly. We had a mission tour this week with an Area Seventy that really elevated the spirits of the missionaries even more. He basically just held a question and answer session with us. A lot of missionaries asked questions about receieving and following promptings and being guided by the spirit. His overall message was to pray as hard as we can and act on our thoughts and impressions and just go to work. If we make a mistake, we'll learn from it and do better next time. If we're being obedient, the Lord will guide us and direct us in every aspect of the work and our lives. He talked about how recieving and following inspiration is a refining process that we'll develop throughout our missions, and throughout our lives. He taught us how it applied to faith as well. Every missionary that stood up testified of the goal for March.
President held a special meeting with us the next day as a Spanish program and commissioned us to be examples. He's planning on using us as a catalyst for the mission of miracles and baptisms. He said that our potential is 30 baptisms a month as a spanish program and that's 5 per companionship. We're really having to stretch out of our comfort zone and work even harder.
We continue to see miracles though. There were 6 new potential investigators that came with members to church last Sunday. Members had invited and brought their friends without us expecting. We have a dinner tonight with a member couple and their freinds for the first time. Last night, we visited a family from an English ward that speaks Spanish and felt impressed to share a message about Service. After the message, they told us that they had felt inspired in a recent church meeting about missionary work that service to their neighbors was the way that they could currently help out in the ward missionary work effort. They said that our message confirmed that and that their next door neighbors are two spanish speaking families that they've never really gotten to know too well. They commited to invite them today to have a dinner with us. Other members continue to help us out as well.
Last week, we walked out of our apartment and found a lady from Chile that we had met about a week prior and had been trying to get in contact with. She was waiting at the bus stop outside of our apartment. We were able to talk with her and have an appointment this Friday at the home of a member. The Lord continues to bless us with miracles which are really increasing our faith.
I'm glad that everyone seems to be doing well! Thank you for your support and prayers!
Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

Baptism

2010-02-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

2/9/2010

2010-02-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Hola!
We just got transfer emails and I'm staying in the same area with Elder Galloway. I'm super excited though. Two more Elders that I came out with are going to be serving in our District together as well. Elder Chunn and Elder Harker were companions at the MTC and are going to be serving together. This transfer has really flown by. It's already 6 months that I have been in Calgary and this area.
We had some great experiences this week. We had commited to extend baptismal invitations in every lesson and the first one we extended was accepted. We have a baptismal date scheduled for February 28th with a man that recently got here from Mexico named Daniel. We just took the step of faith in the President's program and he accepted. We read from 3 Nefi 11 about the coming of the Savior and then recognized the Spirit and he accepted a date. He really knew nothing about baptism at all, but he knew what he was feeling.
We also had a family home evening last night with a member family in our ward at the church. We taught the first lesson with different pictures in different rooms at the church. We ended in the chapel with the restuaration and had planned on commiting them to find someone for us to teach in a week when the spirit was strong at the end. Before we had the chance, the father stopped us and said that he wanted to commit to us that he would have someone prepared for us before the following Monday. It was a great experience because we were then able to tell him that the inspiration he had just recieved was from the Spirit because it was exactly the commitment that we had intended to leave with the family.
Both of these experiences have again strengthened my testimony of the role of the Holy Ghost in the work. Both of these programs have been instituted by our mission president and it also strengthens my testimony that he is an inspired man of God.
Sunday was Gustavo Martinez's baptism. Everything went great. All 12 spanish missionaries in the city came as well as two senior couples that work in the office. We also had the support of President and Sister Archibald there. We usually have the baptisms in the releif society room at the stake center, but we had to move it to the chapel. The chapel was pretty much full of members. It seemed like a normal Sunday sacrament meeting. I was pretty nervous to give a talk, but it ended up going well. I had been praying hard and my nerves pretty much went away once I started. Gustavo bore a testimony after his baptism that really touched the members as well. It was great to see the joy that he truly experienced at his baptism. He told everyone tha it was the best day of his life. He's already wanting to go out with us to appointments everyday as much as he can. I'm sure that he'll be a great support.
The picture is all of us before the baptism. Gustavo is in the middle back between elder Galloway and I.
All is still going great and I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well at home too! I love and miss you all!

Con amor,
Elder Dunlap

Feb. 3, 2010

2010-02-03T11:03:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia!The time continues to fly by. I realized this morning that there's only another week left in this transfer already. I'll be writing next week on Tuesday because transfers will be on Wednesday morning. I'm really hoping that I stay in this area. I know that it's been 6 months here, but I'm enjoying serving with Elder Galloway and love the area. I'm a little worried that I'm going to go to Lethbridge in the south.
Over this transfer, we've been trying more than anything to really help the members feel the spirit when we're with them in their homes. I think it's really starting to pay off. We were able to find 6 new investigators this past week that all seem very interested and excited. A former ward mission leader in the ward from years ago felt inspired to take us to visit a family that he had taught with the missionaries several years ago. The had experienced some recent health difficulties and wasn't home at the time, but we were able to meet and teach a lady from Chile named Rosa and another man from Peru named Warren. The both were very receptive and had past contact with the church through friends or family.
We also recieved a call on Sunday morning from a member who had met a man from Brazil at the gym and he was bringing him to church with him. The man is named Ulysses and he loved church and said he is goign to come every Sunday.
Gustavo continues to progress well. He works with another one of our investigators who told us that he brings his Book of Mormon to work every day and reads it during his free time. Gustavo has set a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism on Sunday. He has asked me to talk on the Holy Ghost and we really should have a big turn out at the baptism. The members really have embraced adn freindshipped him.
We have a meeting every monday as a zone and the zone leaders had a special program planned for this past monday. They had us fast on sunday and really tried to create an environment where we could feel the spirit strongly. President has set a goal for 100 baptisms in the mission for the month of march. He said that it's never been accomplished in the north east region but feels that obedience will be the key. We're all being recommited to be 100 percent obedient. The spiritual meeting really inspired the elders in our zone to step up. This is a huge step up from the amount of baptisms the mission usually has per month. I think we have averaged around 20 per month for the whole mission since I got here. He has some specific things that we're implimenting as well. We have all commited to extend a baptisimal date in every lesson that we teach to an investigator. We are to recognize the spirit in the lesson when we feel it and help the investigator recognize it as well and extend them an invitation to be baptized. It's going to be a big stretch for us as far as being bold, but the spirit was strong in our meetings and Elder Galloway and I know it's what we need to do.
I've realized more than anything this week the role that the spirit plays in motivating, teaching, and communicating to the heart to inspire the people we teach. We've seen the benefits with the members inspiring them to do member missionary work. We've also seen the effects in our zone this week as well. Missionaries that may have struggled to be dedicated before really have seemed to have a change of heart and the desire to be more commited as the whole mission tries to get on the same page with obedience and unity. President is really stressing the need for obedience and faith over the next two months to accomplish this goal. We're really excited about the changes taking place.
Canada has been excited about the Olympics. I'll try to send home some canadian quarters. They have olympic pictures on the back right now and are pretty cool. There's a view of downtown from our chapel and about a week or two ago we saw a huge flame on top of one of the skyscrapers in downtown. We thought the building was on fire but someone said that the olympic torch was here for a couple days in Calgary. Other than that, I really don't know much about the Olympics. All of the stores have cool Olympic clothing that's been pretty neat. I've thought about buying some by figured it would probably be on sale after the Olympics are over.
I don't know if I told you, but Elder Galloway and I are back in the Chevy Colorado truck. We had the cleanest car in our zone at interviews.
This week, just pray for our new investigators, that everything goes well with the baptism on Sunday, and that the investigators will feel the Spirit in their lives helping them change!
Thanks for the Love, letters, and support
Con amor,
Elder Dunlap

1/27/10

2010-01-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!I think I'm going to have a new email address. The church is shifting to an email program managed by Google. It should be clifton.dunlap@myldsmail.net. For now, you probably should send emails to both that and my old until it all gets worked out. There's still some kinks that aren't working too well. As far as news, we got a new spanish elder in the mission this week. He served in Mexico for about 6 months and then got sick. He then went home and kept working in his home mission for about 6 more months and recently got reassigned here. He's down in the branch but I was able to meet him at zone conference yesterday. He really seems like an amazing addition to the mission. I'm excited because he was very impressive. He'll be great for the work here. No, we haven't been able to go to the temple yet. We're really wanting to go adn hopefully will be able to in the beginning of march when the ward takes a bus to the temple.The weather has turned off cold. I think I said last week that the forecast was supposed to be warm, but it snowed the next day. Calgary weather is pretty much unpredictable. Miracles continue to happen in this area. We've started teaching a new investigator that's reading and is honestly searching. He had been a contact from several months ago that we had the impression to stop by when we were near his house. He immediately let us in to teach him a first lesson. He previously hadn't been very open to meeting with us, but some recent events had left him really searching.After some scheduling conflicts, we finally set an appointment with the Orozco family that we found about two weeks ago. We're teaching them for the first time tomorrow. We've been praying hard that they'll be prepared to hear our message. They had a great experience with the priesthood in Mexico several years ago and we really have a good feeling about them. When we met them, they were at the home of some investigators and were telling them about how someone had wrecked near their house in Mexico and two missionaries had walked by and given the person a blessing. THe person was miraculously healed very quickly. They were telling our investigators about the priesthood we have in our church. We hope that this experience has helped prepared them for the message of the Restauration. Fanni is an investigator that had been taught for several months adn finally decided to be married as well. Her and her husband both told a member family that they want to be baptized. We have plans to extend them a date hopefully tomorrow as well. They got married on Monday and the members put together a nice wedding at the chapel. It was great to see how happy they both were to take this step. We were eating dinner at their house and then taught a lesson afterwards. We asked when we'd be able to come back and visit them and they said they didn't know because they didn't know what day they would get married. Elder Galloway adn were so excited it was hard not to jump off the couch jump up and down.The ward also had a wedding adn three baptisms on Saturday. So, we were able to attend 2 weddings in 3 days. The baptism went very well and the ward really supported it. The investigators shared some very sincere and spiritual testimonies.Elder Galloway adn I have been blessed in so many ways together. My prayers have become very gratitude filled over the last could weeks and days. My testimony of the spirit and it's role in this work has really been strengthened. We can teach people all we can as hard as we can, but the spirit is really what does the teaching and the changing. The spirit touching people's hearts is really what provokes them to change adn draw closer to Christ. We've been trying hard to help our members and investigators feel the spirit more than anything else in our visits.Thank you for all the love ann support! I'm glad to hear that all is going well at home.Con amor,Elder Dunlap

January 20, 2010

2010-01-20T11:13:00.001-08:00

Hola!I hope that all is well at home! The weather here has stayed fairly warm this week. The snow continues to slowly melt, but leads to pretty slippery evenings once it freezes again. The days have been around 40 probably and sunny most of the time. Someone said that this might stick around for a while longer and we probably won't get anymore snow until February. The weather here definetely is different. But, Calgary is known for its unpredictable weather. We had some pretty spiritual experiences with many of our investigators this week. We were able to find jobs for two couples from Mexico through a member. I think this opened up their hearts and they really felt we're there for them to help them and love them. We felt inspired to teach a family about eternal marriage and the blessings for their family and I think it really invited the spirit. They seemed commited to really read and pray with serious intent and hopefully their hearts will be softened. Gustavo is still progressing well. The spirit is teaching him and changing his heart. He has chosen to avoid friends from his past even though it's been hard for him. He's realized the need to be in good circumstances to keep himself free from temptation. He's having trouble finding a job and the Government is cutting off his support next month, but he still remains strong and recognizes that trials are for his benefit. He told us this week that before he could be at a party or with a bunch of people and still feel alone, but now he can be alone in his room all day and know that there's someone always with him-that he's not alone in the world. We also had a great miracle yesterday. We had recieved an address from a member in the southern part of the city for a house of some spanish speaking people. We decided to knock on the door last night and found 4 Mexicans that arrived on Friday to Calgary. THey let us right in when they opened the door- probably more because we were white guys speaking spanish than anything. We were able to then teach 3 of them a message about the restoration and they were so excited that we got a return appointment for tonight. We've arranged to bring a couple members who can hopefully be an immediate Latino support group and friends here in Calgary for them. We had set a goal this week for 3 new investigators this week and the Lord blessed us with this miracle. We were so excited and immediately said a prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father. Thank you for all the love and support. I know that these miracles are an answer to the prayers of all of you at home as well!This weekend in the ward, we have a wedding and then baptism for a couple and one of their friends. They have been coming to church for about 4 months and finally decided to take the step of baptism. We are praying that all goes well as we lead up to the weekend. We should be starting to do some volunteering at English classes soon and the ward has successfully started soccer games on Saturday morning in the gym at the stake center. We unfortunately aren't allowed to play sports at all unless it's Preparation Day anymore, but were able to stop by and there were 3 non-members there this past Saturday.With the help of the Lord, everything is going well. We feel very blessed for the success we're able to be a part of. Elder Galloway is great and it's been fun to work with him.Thank you again for all the love and encouragement!Con Amor,Elder Dunlap

January 13, 2010

2010-01-16T18:55:00.001-08:00

Hola familia,
I hope that all is well at home! Elder Galloway and I had a really good week. There's been 2 baptisms in the ward that last two Sundays and there is going to be 3 more the 23 of January. The work in the ward is really going forward the beginning of this year. We also set a date with the former atheist named Gustavo Martinez. He wants to wait until February 7th because he's overcoming an alcohol addiction. We've been trying to meet with him often to keep him strong. He hasn't drank since the beginning of the year but it's been very hard for him. He told us that he hardly sleeps at night. His mind races as he thinks about all the changes that are taking place in his life. He has a friend that's moving here from Mexico in the beginning of February, and he hopes that they'll get baptized with him here. It's amazing to really see the strength that he is recieving from the Lord as his heart has been humbled and he truly is trying to change his life and prepare for baptism. We've always been taught about the enabling power of the Atonement to overcome trials and temptations, but I can really see it in action in his life. He's had several strengthening spiritual experiences as he's went to the Lord in prayer during his times of need. We have been praying hard for him and can feel our prayers being answered as well. His conversion has been a testimony builder for me in many ways. More than anything, that the spirit is what converts people. It took awhile, but after weeks of prayer and simply trying to help him feel the spirit and recognize it, he has been humbled. I really feel that his baptism will be extra spiritual and special.
The mission is really focusing on effectively working with the members right now. More than anything, to help the members feel the spirit and to leave them with bold commitments to help us in the work to find people to teach. Right now, the mission is teaching about 1800 member lessons a month in the homes of members and only recieving about 140 references for people to visit. President's really trying to focus on improving these numbers, and so we're trying to implement that in our area. We've been trying to sing for members to bring the spirit into the lessons. It's been fun and seems to be helping. Hopefully, we'll see some fruits soon. We could use your prayers for the members as well, that they'll be able to help us find people that are prepared.
I'm really enjoying being companions with Elder Galloway. THere's just a different bond because we came out together and have been friends from the beginning. We're on an even playing field and have to lean on each other for support in lessons and with the language. It's been such a blessing to be able to serve together. Our whole district right now really is great. Our district leader is from California and is 26. He's probably the most Christlike person I've seen and has been a great example to me.
I'm going to try to send a picture card that is full today. It has some pictures and videos from the cultural night that we had a while ago.
The weather has been very warm recently. It's great. The snow is actually melting. I guess it's what they call a Shinook. The bad part is that we've gotten stuck a lot recently. On the back roads, the packed snow is melting and turning into 2 feet deep slush. Our malibu doesn't drive well in it right now. I've decided though that it's a great way to find people to teach. If anyone is stuck, everyone that drives by stops to help. I guess it's because everyone gets stuck eventually here and so everyone is willing to help. We've talked about getting ourselves stuck in some of the highly populated spanish areas this next week to see who comes out to help us so we can invite them to hear us. It's led to some good discussions over the past week.
Hope all is well! Love you all and miss you!
Elder Dunlap

1/6/2010

2010-01-09T09:06:00.001-08:00

Hola familia!I'm glad to hear that the holidays went well! This week has been a really good week. I'm so happy to be serving with Elder Galloway. It's been really challenging, but the Lord is strengthening us. I think that the ward had about 17-20 baptisms all last year and we should have 6 or 7 this month between the 3 companionships in the ward. We have seen all types of mirales in the ward. My companion and I had been teaching an Atheist all last transfer. He came to church every Sunday, but told us it really was for social reasons. He was reading the book of mormon as well, but always was looking for historical reasons why the book was full of lies. Although he was pretty resistant to what we taught, we just tried to promise him blessings and help him feel the spirit. We sensed that a change was slowly taking place in his heart. It was really frustrating at times. About two weeks ago, he told us that he wasn't going to pray because he didn't even want to know if God existed and he didn't see himself ever being baptized. We didn't schedule another apointment although we saw him at church the last two sundays. This past sunday, the gospel principles lesson was about our Heavenly Father. At the end of the lesson, the missionaries sang two hymns while the people in the class were asked to contemplate the words. After the hymn, the class was invited to share what they had thought about. Our atheist was the first to raise his hand and told the class that he had been a lifetime atheist, but things had happened in his life the past week that he couldn't deny the existence of god and that he wanted to be baptized. I almost jumped out of my seat it shocked me so much. I know that this was a miracle and answer to all of your prayers for me and the investigators that we're teaching.Other investigators in the ward have had similar changes of hearts this past week as well. President has been telling us for a while that he felt the work would take off in the ward soon, and it really has. We're so grateful that the Lord is blessing those we meet with spiritual experiences.The weather has been cold, but it's really not too bad. We're pretty used to the temperature by now.Not much else has changed here too much. The spanish is really progressing well, especially now that elder galloway and i are companions. we both speak about the same and have to help each other our understanding and teaching. with a more experienced companion, it was easier to rely on them to do all the talking. we've really felt blessed because even if we don't understand absolutely everything, we're given responses to questions and logical responses in the moment.thanks for the love and support! i hope all is well!loveelder dunlap

12/29/09

2010-01-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hola familia!I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! It was good to be able to talk to everyone for a short bit, although I wish that it could have been longer. We had a great Christmas. We are blessed to have many caring members that take care of us and we had many dinners and lunches for the holidays. It was great to be able to talk to everyone a short bit, although i wish that it could have been longer. It was good to hear that everyone seems to be doing well. I hope that the trip to California went well. I heard that a plane to Detroit had a terrorist and that the airlines are all getting even more strict. Hopefully, everything worked out well.Transfers are today and I’m staying in my area. I’m super excited though. I’m getting a new companion- Elder Galloway from Star Valley, Whyoming. He was in my district in the MTC. It’s going to be challenging because we’re both pretty new and fresh with the language. I’m going to admit that I’m kind of scared. With the current program, there’s 7 new elders and 7 old elders who have at least 15 months out. Elder Galloway and I are the first new ones to be put together. My current companion, Elder Krueger is becoming a zone leader with another senior spanish elder over an english zone in the south of the city. They are still goign to work in Spanish, but just cover an english zone. It’s a change because historically that’s never really happened in the mission. It should be fun, I’ll admit that I’m a little scared, but I have a ton of respect for Elder Galloway and I’m sure that we’ll get along well with the help of the Lord. The work this week has went well. We had started to really work hard with the investigators that we had. We were trying to initiate contact every day with all of them. Some of them, this really worked well with, and with others, it has led to them really being dropped for now. We’ve been working with the members to find new investigators. Saturday night, during our companionship prayer, I was praying for our investigators that they would be able to come to church adn felt inspired to pray that a member would bring someone that we didn’t know to church and we could start teaching them. The Lord answered our prayer on Sunday. A member brought a family member adn they approached us after sacrament meeting together said that they’d like to start the lessons with us. We have our first appointment tomorrow. This was our miracle for the week, and how thankful I am for the experience. Continue to pray that we find new investigators this week. I know that the Lord is answering your prayers for me and my companion. The weather warmed up around Christmas a little bit. It’s been around freezing the last couple of days which has been nice. But, the snow is probably here to stay for another 6 months or so I assume. All is well. Thank you so much for the packages and Christmas presents. I had a great Christmas! I love yo uall and hope that this week goes well!Con AMor,seth

Menjivar Family had a dinner for the Elders

2009-12-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Sister Dunlap!

Sunday's Christmas dinner was great! Thank you so much for emailing us pictures and letters for Elder Dunlap. We had all 12 spanish speaking missionaries gathered at our chapel with the permission of the Mission President. We invited my uncle and his family as well. My family and I decorated the stage while we waited for the south missionaries to get there. As soon as they did, we allowed them all to go in and we started with a small family home evening. Both district leaders shared Christmas messages which really brought the Christmas Spirit!After the family home evening, we served the food. As an appetizer, we gave tamales followed by the main course; "spanish" turkey with rice and vegetables. After dinner, we showed all the baby pictures and the elders had to guess who was who. Following that, we had showed them a slideshow we made of 2009 mission pictures (formal pictures and crazy mission pics which they enjoyed seeing). At the end of the mission pictures, we put the rest of the baby pictures we received and the missionaries found out who was who. Everyone recognized e. Dunlap! It was a lot of fun and we all had some good laughs! (Because of all the demand, we'll make a copy of the slideshow to give to the missionaries.)After the slideshow, Josh, my brother went to change into his Santa Suit. We had to stall in order to give him time. We told the missionaries that someone wanted to come see them and they were pretty clueless. The missionaries got to sit on Santa's lap and we gave them their family letters and a present from our family (all 12 elders got matching ties). And than we had dessert =)My family and I really enjoyed having them all together and sharing a little with them. Yet, we feel we received a lot from them. We're thankful for the missionaries we have and for their wonderful spirit! We hope you and your family have an amazing Christmas and a Happy New year! Thanks again for everything!--The Menjivar Family

12/16/09

2009-12-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

Hola!I hope all is well at home and that everyone is preparing for Christmas! The weather here has warmed up a bit. We had a couple days last week of negative 30s and 40s. Today and yesterday have both been around freezing or a couple degrees below. It has felt like summer in contrast. We had a Christmas dinner on Sunday after church with all of the Spanish missionaries. President gave us permission for the south elders to come up and be with us as well. We had a short christmas program and the family had prepared a Christmas dinner for us. They put together a slide slow of all of us and santa also came and gave us all matching ties and letters from our families. Thank you for all your letters of love. It's such a blessing to have members here that really love us and take care of us. We've already been invited over for christmas and christmas eve by many members, and so I'm sure that we'll be taken care of. We're still teaching a lot and our investigators are progressing well. We've felt like we were extending ourselves in too many areas. So, we've prayerfully selected several families that we're really concentrating on and really trying to make short daily visits to. We've challenged almost all of them to read all of 3 nefi before christmas, adn so that's given us a good excuse to stop by daily adn check up on them. Through this, we've had some very powerful lessons and really seen the spirit working in the lives of our investigators and their families. We've really learned the value of daily contact. The families feel our spirit while we're their, but the advesary works in their lives the rest of the week. Daily contact has also increased their daily accountability to us as we check up on their reading and prayers. The basic principles that fortify our lives are really fortifying and building the faith of our investigators.Often as missionaries, we go to appointments in the evening and are surprised with a second dinner that is already prepared. This happened last night. We had fasted all day adn then ate a big dinner at a member's house. We hurried to an appointment with a Columbian family and the bishop was meeting us at the appointment. We were surprised by a meal already on the table waiting for us. As missionaries, we've learned that we just have to say a prayer adn eat as much as we can. But, the bishop tried to talk his way out of eating- saying that he didn't know and was full, and that his plate had too much food on it. The family kind of shrugged him off and gave him the response we always get- that they're sure we have room to eat more. He looked scared, but managed to stuff down his whole plate. My companion and I thought it was pretty funny that he got a little taste of what it's like for us sometimes. I think for some people, they just show their love for us by making food. We've just came to accept that sometimes we just can't talk ourselves out of eating.As we focus on the Savior and emphasize that to those we teach, my testimony of the atonement and the mission of the savior has definetely grown. People seem to have a more loving and caring spirit at this time of year. A spirit that I wish could be carried with all of us always.I love you adn miss you all. I look forward to talkign to you on Christmas. I think that you'll probably be calling at around noon my time. I'll give you the number and specific details next wednesday in my email.
Con amor,Elder Dunlap

12/9/09

2009-12-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hola!This week has been a pretty cold one. We had a snow storm on thursday and friday. The roads turned out pretty bad and we weren't able to drive our car friday or saturday. This made working pretty hard, but we managed to walk to a couple of appointments both days. I'm not sure how much if snowed, but probably about a foot and a half and then with drifting it was a lot higher in places. The snow ended up canceling the temple trip that we were supposed to have on saturday. We were pretty bummed, but still got to take a preparacion day on saturday. The snow was bad enough to shut down some of the main roads and I heard that people slept in malls aroudn town because they weren't able to get home. Alot of people rely on buses for transportation and the buses were getting stuck. We heard though that this is one of the worst snows in a couple years. The work is still going well in the area. The snow was kind of frustrating because it made visiting people hard for a couple days. We're going to start volunteering at some english classes aroudn town. We had the idea yesterday during the day. Last night, we had an appointment with a less active who started talking about his wife taking a class nearby. We stopped by last night after the appointment to talk about volunteering, and met a former investigator in the lobby who wants to meet with us again. The Lord is already blessing us with people to teach from this.Yesterday was zone conference. It was very spiritual and centered aroudn the atonement. President talked about how people carry burdens at this time of year and how we can apply the atonement to their lives and teach the atonement to help them overcome these challenges. I learned a lot about the enabling power of the atonement in our lives. We often teach the redeeming power of the atonement- the ability to repent and be forgiven and redeemed of our sins. But, the conference was focused on the enabling power of the atonement. The strength that we can draw from the atonement to overcome our weaknesses,struggles, and burdens in our lives. Sometimes we pray for the Lord to lift our burdens, or to change our circumstances. But, the enabling power of the atonement is the understanding that the Lord can help us through our burdens. Can give us the strength to have hope and remain steadfast and have joy through our burdens. We also learned about how it applies to our lives as we try to become better. The BOM is a history of the teachings of prophets and of this struggle of man. The struggle to go from bad to good and good to better. To become saints and perfected through the enabling power of the atonement. I really love zone conference. We always find answers to our prayers about the people we're working with and ways to improve our teachings.The phone call rules have been changed. We're calling now on Christmas morning sometime between 10-2. I'll send yuo our cell phone number on the 23rd adn what time we're worked out for you to call. Members have alligned christmas dinners for us, so I'm sure we'll be recieving lots of love. Our christmas starts this sunday because a family in the ward is having a dinner for all the spanish elders in the mission at the church for us. It should be fun.I'm glad to hear that everything is going well! I love and miss you all and look forward to talking to you in a couple weeks! Love, Elder Dunlap

December 2, 2009

2009-12-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Hola!The weather has really turned off cold recently. I thought that winter was already here, but I guess that it hasn't. Calgary doesn't really plow the roads and there was a snow last friday that turned into pure ice. Wrecks were happening everywhere and it took us about 1.5 hours to make a normal 5-10 minute drive. But, the good thing is that people from canada said that it's the worst traffic that they've ever seen. We had to get out of the car and push people that were getting stuck at stop lights and couldn't get going again on relatively flat roads. I'm staying warm though. We've been staying busy with appointments so it keeps us out of the weather. The work is going well. We're actually teaching two Ateists right now. One is married to a member and the other is a single guy. Both are very nice and actually come to church practically every Sunday. It's been interesting teaching them. We have to take a different approach to presenting the lessons and the doctrine. It's been fun but also frustrating. We really just try to help them feel the spirit as much as we can and help them recognize it and the manifestations of God in their lives. We've had some great spiritual experiences and miracles this week. We got a referall from an english class that the church offers for 3 mexican guys who live together. We were told that they are home on Saturdays adn Sundays and gone during the week, so we decided to stop by and see them last saturday and try to catch them at home. When we walked up to the last, an old former investigator that had been lost was standing at the front door knocking as well. He ended up being freinds with the people we were trying to visit. Different things that day had came up and worked out so that we stopped by at the time we did. It really was a blessing of the Lord and a miracle to be able to find this guy again. He had been taught by my current companion several months ago in another part of the city and had left for Mexico. He returned to Calgary after several months and we were able to find him in our path. We're working with a lot of people that we feel are very close to baptism, but seem to have one hump, doubt, or problem to overcome. We're really emphasizing on praying hard so that the Lord will help them exercise their faith. President has exerted to me and my companion recently over the first couple weeks of this transfer his confidence and feelings that there's goign to be several baptisms in this area this transfer. So, when you pray for us, pray that our investigators can overcome their doubts and take that step. President has counseled us both to pray specifically for baptisms and they will come. The ward is taking a bus to the temple on saturday adn we've gotten permission to go. We get to email today, but our actual Preparation day this week will be on Saturday. I'm excited for the opportunity to go. I think that the other spanish elders in the branch in the south are goign as well- so it should be a fun trip. Mom asked about Christmas suggestions and calling. I think here we will talk to you guys on Christmas eve. We are supposed to be home at 6 in the apartment and I'll give you guys the cell phone number and you'll just call that number. So, I shouldn't need a calling card. If I do, I still have that one that deda and grandma sent. The mission office saves all the missionary packages that come in this month and then distributes them aroudn Christmas. We're supposed to save them and open them christmas morning. If you send anything, make sure you write gift on the outside and christmas presents as well so that they'll hang on to it at the office. I can't really think of much that I need. Music, sweaters- they have to be v-neck and can have a pattern as long as it's conservative, and every missionary loves new ties, stamps or stationary stuff. I'm doing pretty well with warm weather clothes right now. Mom also asked about my allergies adn health and stuff. I'm doing well. There's really nothing that's wrong. I've gained a little weight but I don't think too much. It's pretty unavoideable in this mission. The people really just love to feed us. We definetely don't have a problem finding food. We're actually given too much, but it's how everyone expresses their love for us so we like it. I ran a little with my last companion inside the stake center that's near us in the mornings so I've been kind of active. The current weather has inhibited it a little recently though. Thank you for the emails, love, support, and prayers. I hope that all is well!Con amor, Elder dunlap

Transfers THANKSGIVING- November 26, 2009

2009-11-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hola!This week has been another busy week. My area from my first transfer got split in half for the second transfer and now for this third transfer, the area has been combined again. So, it's been exciting to get to visit some of the people I taught from the first six weeks. I can't believe that it's been 5 months already. My new companion is Elder Krueger from Utah- near Provo. His dad is actually a branch president at the MTC right now. He's an excellent companion. I've learned so much from him already in this week. There's basically a group of 7 missionaries here that have about 9 months left and then 7 that have been out around 5 months. So, he has about 9 months left before he goes home. He's a really hard worker and I'm very excited to be with him. The biggest thing that I've learned from him so far is how to not only love the people, but express the love that you have for them in a way that relates to them and their culture. The hispanic culture is simply more animated about emotions and expressing them and that's something that I'm having to come out of my comfort zone a little bit with. I think that Elder Krueger was really what this area I am in needed. The Spanish is coming along well. Elder Krueger is helping me correct some of the habits with the language that I had developed over the first 3 months here. Right now I'm really trying to focus on appropriate grammar. I've picked up a decent vocabulary to be able to teach adn express my self and now I'm trying to refine the grammar. As far as the work, we're really teaching a lot of people. I've realized that I've been blessed to start out my first couple months in a very active area as far as investigators. We're trying to put together an active ward mission plan with the ward. Our ward's current plan is a little dead- so we're trying to excite the auxilary leaders- to set specific goals for their auxilaries concerning missionary work and make plans how to accomplish those goals. We really feel that if the ward all works together with excitement and defined plans- the work in this area will take off. Especially here in an English speaking country- the members really are our best tool and only real effective tool to find new people to teach. We just got a new Elder's Quorum president that is really making a lot of great changes concerning missionary work as well. I'm excited for what is to come in the ward.This past Sunday was the confirmation of the Salazar family. The father is a mechanic here in Calgary and took a test to become officially certified 8 months ago. He told us that he had been awiting for his results and certification to come- because it takes a while since he's here on a work permit from Mexico. He had recently talked to someone and didn't expect it to come for another couple of months- but it arrived the day after his baptism in the mail. He was so excited when we arrived the day after his baptism to tell us what his Heavenly Father had blessed him with. To see their happiness and joy about being members and finding the church brings a joy to me that's hard to describe. They're a choice family of our Heavenly Father.We're actually going to get a United States thanksgiving tomorrow. There's a member family that is making us all recipes from home. I hope that you all enjoy the food and family and spirit of thanksgiving. I miss you all and love you!Con amor, Elder Dunlap

November 17, 2009

2009-11-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

Hola!This past week has been a very good week. Saturday we had our Noche de paises or activity with the different countries. It went very well. The gym was full of people at the 17th ave stake center- which is a very, very large gym. I took some pictures and videos and will send you them soon. Each country set up a booth with food from their country and some authentic decorations. We ended up making chili, cheese hot dogs and president wanted us to sing a hymn. So, we sang the spirit of god in spanish. A lot of investigators and less actives went to the event and we met a lot of new people as well. It was a lot of fun to see the members and investigators having fun together and enjoying each others company. Sunday was the baptism. It went very well and I baptized the son. I think I put him a little too far under the water because he had trouble standing back up, but I just wanted to make sure we didn't have to do it again. They had been wearing jeans to church, but bought all new clothes for this past sunday and for the baptism. It's great to see a slow change happening in their lives. The members were all very supportive and a lot of them showed up for the baptism. President and sister archibald came as well which was a nice surprise. It meant a lot to see them there and surporting us. They brought a little gift for the family as well. There was an investigator that came to the baptism that is an atheist and the bishop during his welcoming specifically addressed this investigator and testified to him of the divinity and reality of our Heavenly Father. We thought it was pretty neat. Today is transfers, but I haven't yet recieved an email telling me where I'm headed. I hope to stay in my area, but I'm sure I'll be happy wherever president feels I should serve. I think the place I'd least like to go is to Lethbridge- just because it's about 2 hours south and you don't get to see the other spanish elders at all. I think in lethbridge there's about 30 spanish speaking members that attend an english ward. They're working to establish a branch, but there's just not many spanish speaking people there. The spanish work seems to be the slowest there. I think that you teach both in spanish and in english. Christmas is quickly approaching, I think that a member from the ward sent you something in the mail. I'm not sure what it is, but they asked me to see if you had recieved something. I know that they're planning a dinner for all of us one day in december as well. Mom asked what I want for christmas- and i really don't know. There's not much that I need right now. Maybe some nice church music. I really don't have much music. I just got the email and found out that I'm staying in the same apartment and area- which I'm excited about! I'm getting a new companion- Elder krueger from utah- which I'm excited about as well. he's in my district and i really like him.love you all and thanks for the love and support!Con amor,Elder Dunlap

November 10, 2009

2009-11-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

Hey, We are emailing today because tomorrow is rememberance day in canada and the library will be closed. I assume that it's like veterans day in the US. People here have been wearing red flowers no their shirts for a couple weeks now and I was told that it's for rememberance day. We don't really get to experience the canadian culture too much because all of our dinners adn the people we work with are solely from South american countries. I'm sure that I'll pick up some things though. My companion says Eh a lot. Before the mission, I joked about speaking spanish and saying Eh, but some of the members that have been in canada for a long time actually do that. I think that it's pretty funny. Next tuesday morning, I'll find out about transfers. The whole spanish program will most likely be switched around because we've all been with trainers for 3 months now. I really hope that I stay where I'm at, or at least in the ward that I'm in. I'll get an email on Tuesday morning telling me where I'm going. I think that we're moving aroudn the boundaries in the ward a little bit again, so I really have no clue what will happen. This week, we're preparing for the baptism of the family of 3 from mexico that we're having on sunday. The ward is preparing for the cultural day this saturday. I think as for the US, we've decided to make sloppy joes. It'll be us 12 spanish missionaries and we're trying to talk president and his wife into coming and doing a song or dance with us. There's been somewhat of a fun rivalry in the ward recently as each country prepares their food and dances for the activity. It kind of seems that Mexicans are discriminated a little in south america as well as north america. We had an investigator come to church for the first time on Sunday. A funny but somewhat inappropriate story is that . There is a new elders quorum presidency, and so at the beginning of priesthood, they asked everyone to stand up and introduce themselves and say something about them that no one else knows. Our investigator was the first to raise his hand and go. He told everyone his name and that he's had a vasectomy. After church, the mexicans had a meeting to discuss what everyone would bring for the cultural night. He had just heard the word of wisdom a couple days before and rose his hand and said he could bring the beer. I don't think some people appreciated his humor, but it was pretty funny. Everything really is going well. I've been blessed with how well the spanish seems to be progessing. I still have a ton to learn, but am getting more and more confident. I've read the BOM out loud for 30 mins a day since a couple weeks into my mission. I think there's power in the book not only for our lives, but learning a language. The investigators that truly grow and progress and accept the message are those that embrace the BOM. There truly is power in the words and guidance and protection for our lives. I just foudn out we're eating homemade sushi with a Guatemalan family tonight. I'm pretty scared for what we might eat. I assume we'll have to dip it in salsa or something. Love youElder Dunlap

11/4/09

2009-11-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

Hola!
This week has been another good week. We've been trying to keep in daily contact with our baptisimal dates so that we can help them stay strong and committed. Our "golden" family is still doing very well. We had another FHE with them this past Monday and they decided to move their baptisimal date up to November 15th. We're teaching the commandments tonight and are praying that they'll accept them well. They already have strong beliefs in the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon and so I feel that this will help them overcome any doubts that may arise from the word of wisdom or tithing tonight. The member family is very good too about sharing thier own experiences and testimonies and makes teaching a lot easier as well. We may have another baptism soon as well. We're teaching a man that's Columbian and is leaving for the winter. He spends every winter in Columbia and works in Calgary in the summers. He studies a lot and shares the gospel with all his friends and family. He's very excited to get to Columbia and share it with his parents. The problem is that he just wants to wait until next spring when he comes back to Calgary to be baptized. We've been working with him and I feel that he'll be baptized before he leaves. He watched a Special Witnessses of Christ video from the church. It is the testimonies of all 12 apostles and the first presidency about Jesus Christ. In this movie, there's a story of a current apostle leaving a book of mormon with a testimony in it and a signature with an investigator. He had us sign his BOM and write our testimonies for when we become apostles. He also read the proclamation to the world adn got worried that he hadn't taught his kids about Jesus Christ. So, he sat his kids down for an hour adn taught them the lessons from the pamplets. Then, he slapped his son really hard and told him that now he'll never forget it. He told us that the physical pain will make his kids remember the message and never forget it. We have another investigator who loved all the pictures of Christ in the pamplets that we hand out and so he cut them out and glued them in his BOM and made bookmarks out of some of them. It's interesting to see different people's excitement about the Gospel and how they express it. I feel like we have many weaknesses and things we can improve, but the people really have genuine respect and love for us. It's such a blessing to see the joy and excitement in those that really understand and embrace the message of the restauration and understand how it truly affects their lives.A great part of working with hispanic people from all different countries is that we get to experience diferrent foods and cultures. This week, we ate a traditional dish from Guatemala that they prepare for the 1st of November. It was all types of meats and sausages mixed with some vegetables and beets and cabbage. I've been trying to take some pictures of the food so you can see what I'm eating. The weather has warmed up a little bit. There's warm air fronts called Shinooks that randomly come during the winter. For a couple days, it'll be pretty warm and melt the snow. Then, all the water freezes and more snow comes on top of it. We're getting excited for the cultural day coming up. Partly because, all the Spanish elders will be there. All the countries are putting together a traditional song or dance. As missionaries, we're representing the United States and are going to put together something. Some elders are trying to get permission to do the Electric Slide or the chicken dance and get president and sister archibald to do it with us. If not, we'll probably end up singing the star spangled banner or a hymn in english. Can someone send me the mission office addresses for the Baltimore Maryland missiona and the Jacksonville FLorida mission. I've got some freinds that I want to write but don't really have a way to find those addresses. Also, my siblings should write me about what's going on in their lives.Love you all. Thanks. Elder Dunlap

October 28,2009

2009-10-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hola!This transfer is already halfway over. Time really is passing quickly. This week was a very good week. I feel that the Lord is really blessing us with success right now. We were able to have 6 investigators at sacrament meeting last Sunday and with the other two companionships in the ward, we had 11 total. We're having a lot more success getting members to come to lessons with us as well. Probably because they see the investigators at church and activities and get to meet them. We've also set 5 baptisimal dates for November right now. We're putting together a daily schedule of things for the investigators to stay focused on these dates and feel the spirit everyday. We're goign to try to have short visits of 5 minutes by us or ward members leading up to their dates to get them excited and bring the spirit. The family of 3 that we met at the talent night absolutely loves the church adn all the teachings. Their date is november 22, but we will probably have it sooner. They've been converted since the first lesson and are excited about baptism and love attending church. We have been very grateful for this family and the member family that has been fellowshipping these investigators. It is the perfect example of member missionary work- and how much easier the work truly is. This family prayed about and found someone to invite to the talent night. The family they invited had been prepared. The spiritual level of these lessons is so much higher because the investigators are diligently searching, reading, and progressing. It's so exciting to feel and see the joy that the gospel is truly bringing into their lives. Monday night, we planned an FHE and made desserts as well. Yesterday was mission conference and it was all about commitment. The story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis was used a lot and there are great lessons in this story. They stayed true and dedicated to their covenants and commitment to the Lord even until death. In our zone, we all wrote a weakness we have on a piece of paper and then went and buried them in the flower bed outside of the chapel. I think we should've flushed them down the toilet. It has been flurrying a little almost every day, but we haven't had much of an accumulation again yet. I've been staying warm with the package that dad sent. I'll send pictures of the red long johns soon. I'm glad to hear that everyone seems to be doing well. I love everyone adn thanks for your love adn prayers. The Lord definetely is blessing me adn my companion and the investigators.Love Elder Dunlap

Seth forgot to mention...

2009-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

I forgot to tell you in my email that I ate dinner two nights ago at the brother of Angelica Delgado's house. His name is Nefi Rodriguez and through conversation, I found out that he's from Guatemala and related to them. I thought it was pretty neat.

NOTE FROM MOM:
For those that don't know.....The Delgado family were our best friends when we lived in Coral Springs FL. We did Joy School (preschool program where the mom's rotate) and enjoyed them so much. Seth would have been about 3-4 years old when we moved to Florida. Also, while he was in the MTC he ran into one of their daughters (we called her Raquelita) in the mail room. They played together as children. It warms my heart to think of them and the connection to Seth now. How wonderfully small the chruch is sometimes.

October 22, 2009

2009-10-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hola,This past week has been a pretty good week. We've had a lot of success in the area. We sponsored a ward talent show this past Saturday for a ward missionary activity and it went very well. The members loved it and the whole gym was packed with people. As missionaries, we sang the primary song We'll Bring the World His Truth while a member of the ward accompanied us on the Yukalalee. We wore lava-lavas with our white shirts and did a little choreography. I've got it on my camera and will try to send it soon along with some of the other funny acts fromt the Talent Show. We lacked practice, and actually forgot the words to the third verse, but we made it pretty cheesy and I think that everyone at least laughed because we were so bad. We were able to find a new family of three that we taught a first lesson to this week adn I believe that they have been prepared to accept the gospel and will progress to baptism very soon. We are planning a combined cultural night in november with the missionaries nad members of the spanish branch in the south of the city. This is goign to be at the 17th avenue chapel where deda and grandma served because they're planning for 500 people to attend. We're already inviting people and committing members to prayerfully find families to bring to the event and to meet with us. There's going to be food from all the different Hispanic countries and dances from the countries as well. As missionaries, we'll probably make something cheap like sloppy joes or chili to represent the united states. We're goign to plan some type of song as well for the event. In our weekly planning session this week, I felt inspired to review our ward list. We found a couple addresses that we hadn't visited yet with Less active members. The first one we tried to visit, the address was wrong, but we decided to try the house number at a different street with a similar name in the same area. At the address, we didn't find the person that we were looking for, but we found a less active member living with another less active member couple that just moved here from Peru. We invited the couple from Peru to come to church- and they did this past Sunday. In the basement, there is a family of 5 that are goign to start listening to the lessons as well. Afterwards, we felt great gratitude for being led to this hispanic house. I know it wasn't a coincidence that we had decided to review the member directory that we have.Overall, everything else is going well. I'm getting along well with my companion, we're almost halfway fininshed with this transfer already. Time definently is flying by. Our investigators are progressing slowly but surely, several of them have doubts that we're working hard to try and help them overcome. I really believe that there will be many baptisms very soon in the area. The weather is still cold, it's warmed up some to more of a fall type of weather. It's wet and foggy and windy just about every day right now. We have interviews every 6 weeks with the mission president, adn at this interview, there's a car competition. The companionship with the nicest car in the zone gets to drive the 4 door chevy truck for the next 6 weeks. We just had interviews and are hoping that we will get the truck. I'm doing very well- there's nothing really that I need rigth now. Thank you dad for sending the box, I probably should get it today. The zone gets together every Preparation day for sports at the stake center, so hopefully the zone leaders were able to pick it up. As we find more investigators, and work with more members, we are getting fed more and more. My suits are going to have to be dry cleaned soon because they smell like torillas and hispanic food. Sometimes we tell people that we've just eaten or that we're in a hurry, and they still try to feed us. I'm definetely not starving. The people have great respect for us here and are so loving to us.Thank you for everything!love you, elder dunlap

e-mail trouble 10-13-09

2009-10-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the recipe. I don't know if you sent me the soup recipes, because the emails i recieved from last week- like the 6th or something were cut off. I only got a little bit of it. Your other emails I recieved though. The email program is messing up a little. I typed my weekly email and clicked send and then i got locked off, so I lost my email from this week after I had spent over half an hour on it. I'm going to start typing it in microsoft word so that i have it saved. So sorry, I don't have enough time to write it all again. But i'll write the basics. Yesterday was thanksgiving here in canada. We had two dinners- one with a less active family that we ran into from St. Vincent in the carribean. This was on Sunday and we had west indian food with them. The way we found these people was very cool- and at the dinner they shared their experience with praying for help when we arrived with everone adn it was very tuoching. Yesterday, we had a hispanic thanksgiving with three families from the ward. They made turkey with a hispanic salsa in it. They also had TONS of other hispanic foods. I think that I'll be full for a couple days. The work has been split in half because they divided my area, but we're working hard to find creative ways to inspire the members. There's a couple inches of snow this morning and so winter is officially here for probably another 7 months. dad- if you're sending a package- any long johns or wool socks that you have would help- i've picked up 5 pairs of wool socks and some gloves, but pretty soon i'll have to get some thermals to start wearing. sorry about the short email- i promise that i did have a good long one before it got deleted.love you all very much, elder dunlap

October 6, 2009

2009-10-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hola!
Preparation day is today this week because tomorrow is transfers. We get an email on Tuesdays telling us where we are going so that people can prepare to leave on Wednesday. There aren't any changes in the Spanish other than the boundaries of my area are shifting a little bit. We're going to be sad to lose some of our investigators, but we're also picking up some new neighborhoods. There is a new missionary from the MTC that came yesterday so we now have 14 spanish elders. I assume that next transfer everyone will be moving around in the spanish program, but this transfer, everyone is staying with their trainers. Overall, the work is progressing well. We expect to reach some baptisms with progressing investigators this transfer, we have several that are very close, but just have one doubt to overcome. We hope that with the Lord's help, they can exercise their faith and take the essential step of baptism. I really enjoyed listening to conference. It was a good break from the norm and very inspiring for me. We have an investigator that has two young children and just moved here from Mexico. He is super excited about families and very concerned with raising his kids. We met with him the Friday before conference and he had lots of questions for us about the teachings of the Bible and scriptures about raising children. It was a great opportunity to invite him to conference and promised him guidance about these things. He came to the preisthood session and absolutely loved it. He took pages of notes, and I feel that this will be a key experience in his progression. He really felt how the Gospel can bless his family. The weather has quickly turned very cold. Fall lasted a very short 2 weeks, and there was snow on saturday and sunday. The worst part of the weather is the wind. It makes the weather seem a lot colder. I'm very glad that we have a car. Tell nathan, sara, ashley, shawn, and monica thank you for the package. I got it last wednesday. thank you for the trump tie, i now have the two that they've sent and i picked up an all red one as well, so i'm catching up on shawn's collection. everything is going well, i'm staying warm and being blessed daily. i think thanksgiving here is sometime next week, so i'll be eating a big feast a month earlier than yall.love u and miss uelder dunlap

September 30, 2009

2009-10-07T09:39:00.001-07:00

HelloWe didn't end up going to Banff today. The member that was going to take us had something come up, so we're going to try for sometime in the next couple weeks before it becomes too cold to go. The weather is definetely becoming very cold already. I guess it is classified as Fall here right now, but to me it feels like winter in the mornings and evenings. It is very windy and that makes the cold weather worse. I believe that they are calling for 2 cm of snow this saturday. At certain parts in the city, you can see the mountains off in the distance and they're covered in white most of the time. I've been collecting some wool socks and gloves and things so Ive been staying pretty warm. This is the last week before transfers. I don't think that I will be moving areas, or switching companions, but it is possible. They're opening up a new area because one more spanish missionary is coming from the MTC, so everyone could also be moved around a lot as well. I hope that I stay in the area though, we've had a really good week and keep finding new people to teach. time has truly flown by, it seems like i just left the MTC. the biggest thing that has been holding our investigators back and that we've been struggling with is getting investigators to church. we've decided this week to start a program with the elders quorum to encourage enchanges and also we've been praticing a short lesson that we are sharing with a commitment to attend church to try and bring excitement and also invite the spirit for a direct commitment to come to church. we think that this will really pay off, and with the Lord's help, help them progress towards baptism. we've been praying hard about this, and your prayers would help as well. the language is still progressing. this week, i've had a couple dear experiences, when i know the words that came to my head and the words i said weren't from me. likewise, the countenance of the investigator changed, and their attitude as well. it's hard to express, or put into words, but i know i have been blessed this week with the gift of tongues when needed and this has been an answer to my prayers. thank you for the birthday gifts and your love and support. i haven't mailed the pictures, i was going to wait until i went to banff, but i will mail them today. con amor, elder dunlap

Birthday

2009-09-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

So to all who may not know....Seth's birthday is Friday, September 25th. Born at 8:00 am on the nose and weighing in at an even 8 lbs. We love you and miss you.

September 23, 2009

2009-09-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hola!
Sorry that I didn't get to write much last week. A member in the ward likes to take the missionaries around to see the country and he took us to a town called Druemheller. It is famous for dinosaurs. We drove about an hour through farms to the city. The land has washed out there into shallow canyons and they have found all types of dinosaid bones and fossils there. There is a very impressive museum there and all types of tourist things to do in the city. I'm going to mail pictures today so they should be there next week sometime. It was nice to get to see some of the terrain and area around here. Transfers are coming up in 2 weeks, so he is probably going to take us to Banf next week, but we should be back in time to write an email next week.I can't believe it's almost transfers, I feel like I just got here. I really hope that I don't leave this area because we've got some really good investigators that we're teaching and the area has a lot of potential. I've been exposed to some interesting food recently. I think that the members try to gross out the missionaries sometimes, or make the food so hot and spicy that they themselves can't eat it, but it's fun. I ate some fried pig skin with fat called chichirron or something like that. They also like pigs feet, cow stomach, pig intestines, liver, heart. Basically any type of meat that's cheap to buy. I really like it because each country has their own speciality, type of food, or style of eating. We have a family from Nicaragua that we're teaching on friday and they're making lunch for us for my birthday. They kind of scared me though with some of their birthday traditions. They said they smash eggs or pies or cake on people's heads. The work in the area is progressing well. A lot of new investigators and we stay busy teaching. We've got some challenges, but we're slowly overcoming them. Over the last month, I've seen the most progression with the language in that I'm able to understand so much more than I could when I arrived. My testimony of the power of prayer continues to grow as specific prayers have been answered this week for my companion, investigators, and my own personal questions. Our mission tour from two weeks ago was centered around a talk given by elder bednar to ces institute teachers entitled: "Seek Learning by Faith." From the year 2006 delivered at the jordan institute of religion building. I spent several days reading and studying it and the doctrines it discusses. It specifically discusses that Joseph smith asked in his prayer which church he should join, not simply which church was true. He had full intention to act on the answer he recieved, and I think that's a key to personal revelation that i have learned this week and has been strengthened. We must be willing to do our part, all we can, and if we're asking for is truly the desires of our hearts, we will be willing to act. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and emails. My companion tells everyone we meet that it's my birthday friday, so i'm sure that I'll recieve lots of love here. Thank you for prayers and support!Con amorElder Dunlap

NO LETTER....WHAT?????

2009-09-17T16:04:00.001-07:00

I"m not going to have time to write an email this week. We went to Druemheller with some members today. It was about an hour away and we're running late to get to dinner adn have to email the president. I'll include details next week. SOrry, everything is well, thanks for the emails, love u Elder Dunlap

Last word...

2009-09-09T15:47:00.001-07:00

i forgot to remind that if anyone sends a package, write gift on it so there's not charges to accept it here.

Sept 9, 2009

2009-09-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hola!This week has been another good week. Our investigators all seem to be doing well. Our two with a baptisimal date from Nicaragua had to push back the day because of work schedules, but they seem to still be doing very well. We pray for them all daily and I know that the Lord strengthens them and us as well as we try to help them progress towards baptism. We've had some very fortunate events this week that have brought us new investigators to begin teaching as well. A new investigator invited 2 friends over for a first lesson which we found out when we showed up. It was a very pleasant surprise and they all seemed super excited about the message. The mission president also has really stressed working with the members. We prayfully selected 3 member families to teach short lessons to and work with this week. We had planned on sharing a message with these familes as a dinner message and really emphasizing that the Lord wanted them to find someone for us to teach in their home in the next week. This is a new 7 day plan to work with the members that our mission president is emphasizing. When we went to two of them for dinner, they had already invited a non-member over to eat with us and after dinner, both the non-members agreed to begin the lessons in the homes of the members. We didn't even have to ask the members. This was our miracle for the week. We felt very aprehensive about beginning this program with members and asking them to specifically to find someone in the next 7 days for us. But, with 2 of the 3, they had already been prepared and been thinking about this and had someone ready. I know that our prayers are being answered and the Lord is preparing people for us to teach. Everyone from my district at the MTC seems to be doing very well. Several have already had baptisms in the short time they've been here. We have a mission tour with a general authority tomorrow. So we'll all be together except elder S.walker for the day. This should be a nice reunion. I'm excited to see them, as well as be counseled by a general authority. I dont remember who is coming but he's from the 1st quorum of the 70 i believe. The weather is starting to get cool. We wear suits now and I bought a wool and casmere jacket to wear for milder weather right now over my suit coat. During the day isn't bad but the morning and evenings get pretty windy and cold. mom asked abuot things for my birthday. i really don't need anything except winter clothes. snow gloves, wool socks, scarves, thermals really. i think it's really expensive to send packages though so i really wouldn't worry about sending anything. it would probably cost more to send the package them the items cost and there's a ton of thrift stores here. canadian people must like thrift stores.some nice information is that we were driving a 4 door chevy colorado truck, but we traded with the zone leaders a couple days ago because they had some packages to pick up. every transfer at interviews there's a car competition to see who has the cleanest. the cleanest in your zone gets to pick whatever car they want- which is the truck for everyone. we'll find out the results tomorrow at mission conference. we'll probably end up keeping the chevy malibu we have. hope all is well at home! thank you so much for the prayers and love! i'm doing great and am very happy to be serving here. i love the ward that i'm in. they asked elder chunn and i to bear our testimonies yesterday. i luckily don't think that i said anything i wasn't supposed to or got any words mixed up. i love everyone!elder dunlap

Canada 9-2-09

2009-09-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hola!I don't know if I told you in the last emails, but wednesday is my Preparation day and is when I will be emailing. This has been overall a really good week. The people in this area of calgary are so diverse. I'm amazed at how many different cultures and languages there are. I assume that Alberta has good incentive programs for refugees, or it is easier to come here than the united states. A lot of the Hispanic people come here as refugees. I think that this helps with the work because they are searching for a new life adn new people to meet, for jobs, or meanign in their lives. We have a lot of investigators right now. Two committed to be baptized in two weeks and a couple more that are progressing. The biggest struggle right now is that the people love us and love our message adn believe that we're people of God who are bettering their lives, but they don't understand the need to keep committments. To read adn pray for themselves, and that their salvation is at stake. That baptism is essential for them adn will bring them closer to their Savior adn Heavenly Father. This is something that we're goign to try adn get better at over the next couple weeks. There's people from all types of Hispanic countries here and a great way to establish trust with them is by talking about their native country. We often knock on doors that have flags in the windows or stickers and flags on the cars. Theres a lot of clues that I'm learning to tell what country someone is from. We have two with a baptisimal date named Jose and Salena and they have an 11 month old baby. They're refugees from Nicaragua and are our "golden" investigators right now. They only real challenge is that he works on Sundays right now One other progressing investigator is Freddi from Columbia. He has a 4 year old son and his wife died a coupel years ago. We taught him the first lesson in his home where all he had was a bed and a tv. We sat on some fold out chairs. I felt such love for him as we taught and it was a spiritual experience. He said he needs a stronger testimony to accept a baptidate, but is progressing well. It was great to hear him pray out loud, probably for the first time after our lesson. These are our people that we ask for your help praying for this week. That they will grow strong in their testimonies and desire to follow the Savior. I understand about 70 percent of most conversation that people say, so I'm reasonably able to communicate and understand the context. But, my funny story for this week was something I didn't understand. A member invited us over to meet a friend of hers who has had a lot of health problems at her house. We got there adn it was an older man from Peru. She asked us to give him a blessing and we did adn taught about apostasy adn the priesthood adn restoration a little before the blessing. The spirit was strong adn Right after the blessing, she asked him how he felt. He said something and pointed to his arms adn rubbed down his arms adn his body. I thought that he said he felt tingles all through his body. I was excited adn wondered why my companion didn't start talkign about the spirit and helping him recognize that was what he felt. I almost started to, but decided not to. After the lesson, I found out that he said he had sweat all over his body frmo walking to the house adn was a little sore. He didn't understand that she was asking how he emotionally and sp=iritually felt, he thought she meant physically I guess. I laughed after I found out what really happened afterwards. The good news is that we're goign to continue teaching him at her house though. Thank you for all the love adn encouragement. I feel so loved by these people. They have such a charitable and open culture. They absolutely love the missionaries here, so they're taking care of me. Thank you also for the forwarded emails from those from the MTC. I love and respect your thought adn comments and you're in my prayers and dear to my heart. I'll send pictures next week, I honestly just haven't taken any here in Calgary yet. We're working hard adn I believe we're being blessed for our obedience. Even though my spanish isn't great, I feel that the people can understand the feelings of my heart from what I say. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well at home!
I love you all.
Elder Dunlap

First Day In Calgary

2009-08-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Hola!I made it safely to Calgary. We landed around 1 yesterday and the mission president and his wife met us at the airport. We went to the mission home and had some orientation meetings during the day. We had dinner together and then had a testimony meeting in the evening at a local chapel. The mission president and his wife are both very nice and have been very welcoming. There were 19 new elders that came from the MTC plus 5 more elders that are from canada and have been called to US missions, but are having trouble getting visas. They've decided to spend the first 6 weeks of their missions here in this mission while they wait. We all slept in the basement of the mission home last night on matresses and then woke up this morning and there was transfers for the missionaries. Everyone met in the parking lot of the church and talked for a while and then left their seperate ways. TOday I've just been unpacking and buying groceries. There are 13 spanish elders right now in the mission. All of them except 2 are in the areas aroudn the city. Two elders are in lethbridge, which is a couple hours south. Elder Walker from Saint George from my district is now in lethbridge. In lethbridge they translate at church for the members and in the city of calgary there's a chapel and a branch for spanish speakers. I'm in the Calgary East Stake adn we attend a spanish ward which has over 100 members. Elder Chunn from my district at the MTC is in the adjacent area and we attend the same ward on sundays. We also go to dinner with him and his companion i believe most of the time, so that will be good to see him often. The ward that Elder Chunn and our companions are in is supposed to be very strong which is graet. Pretty much all of our trainers have been out for about a year in the mission. My new companion is Elder zoltan from california. He has been in this area for 6 weeks and his last companion just finished his mission. He's still getting used to the area, but he seems liek a great missionary and I'm sure he'll be a great trainer for me. We met the other 7 spanish elders and President Archibald said that they're all strong and great elders. Everything is goign well. I'm excited to be here and start working with real people. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to serve.Thank you for the package from memaw and papa, I got it this mornign at the transfer meeting. All mail should be sent to the mission office because I'll be close and the zone leaders pick it up adn distribute it often. The address is: 7044 Farrell Rd SE Calgary, Alberta T2H 0T2CanadaI think it is around 1 dollar though to send a letter though- or 2 stamps should be good. We live very close to the library adn that's where I'll email every Wednesday, which is normally the preparation day. As far as the missionary work goes, we have a good number of investigators and I'll go to my first appointment tonight. We also have our first dinner appointment so hopefully the food won't be too spicy. The new mission president is really stressing member referrals, especially with us because we only teach spanish speakers, and so there are some programs that he's instituted and new ways that we go about obtaining those referrals and encouraging the members. I don't think we really will be doing any tracting at all unless we absolutely don't have anything else to do. THe members in the ward are supposed to be very active and engaged with finding people for us to teach. We live in a one bedroom apartment on the third floor, but it's pretty roomy and spacious. I don't really have any other news other than that everythings going well. I'm excited to teach my first lesson and that I'll have a lot of members to interact with and practice the language with. A cool experience was on the plane from salt lake there was 3 canadian olympic team hockey players. One is captain of the phoenix coyotes, one is captain of teh san jose sharks, and i forget who the other one played for. There were 45 seats on the plane adn 21 missionaries. Elder Chunn sat next to the one from the phoenix coyotes and taught him the first and second lessons and they discussed religion the entire flight. He gave him a BOM pass along card adn committed him to read it. Elder Chunn was probably the only elder who really knew anything about hockey on the flight and struck up conversation with him before introducing the gospel. I don't feel that it was a coincidence that Elder Chunn sat next to him and was able to establish a discussion with him about hocket and then progressing to religion. I know that there are no coincidences in this work. I really don't have much more news other than to pray for me and wish me luck. Over the next couple days we're goign to be meeting the investigators and since my companion is fairly new he wants to try to make contact with all the members in our area, active and non-active. Thank you for all of your love and support. How grateful I am to be here! Love, Elder Dunlap

August 17, 2009

2009-08-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hola!
One more week left! We went to the temple this morning for the last time as a district. It was a graet experience. Our two teachers came and went through the session with us and we were able to meet my teacher's wife. 6 of us leave for Calgary on Monday morning at 6 am. The flight leaves Salt Lake at 10or 1015ish and lands in Calgary around 1230. There are 20 of us going as a group. So I assume that there are 14 english speaking elders that will be going with us. There may be 2 or 4 mandarin speaking elders because the mission has some mandarin speaking elders assigned. I believe that we will be staying in the mission home on Monday night and then Tuesday is the preparation day for the mission. I'll probably meet my trainer on Tuesday and head off to where I am assigned. I've been praying for him for a couple weeks, so he better be good. This week we pretty much have the same schedule, we will have to say goodbyes this weekend to our teachers and then we get to see the temple dedication on sunday as a final treat. I am really going to miss my teachers and the elders going to baltimore. We've became really close as we've grown and progressed together. Not too much exciting has happened this week. We've been teaching a lot in spanish. I feel like I've kind of hit a plateua with the language rigth now. I'm getting comfortable with teaching and have to make a conscious effort to try and implement new words and phrases. We spent some time with our new branch president yesterday. He has changed some things and has different focuses as the old branch president, but I know that he was assigned in this branch. The new branch president and his wife seem like grandparents, the old branch president and his wife seemed like parents. They're both great, but just have different focuses on how they feel missionaries should be prepared during their time here. Mom- if you can please print out those emails I forwarded to you. They are letters from my old branch president that I would like for you to put in my book that you said you are keeping. He is a graet man and I really appreciated the opportunity to learn and grow from him. I also recieved the photo card in the mail a couple of days ago, so thank you.Our devotional last tuesday was by Elder Snow, he's in the second quorum of the 70 and was just assigned to the missionary department. He talked about commitment. He gave six statements that we need to accept and implement to be good missionaries. I don't remember what they are rigth now, but they were very good adn I took good notes. I've already filled up my journal and have bought two more with the 6.00 they give us a week. I forgot to say that President Clegg is in the mission presidency here and he served as the president of the dominican republic MTC for 3 years, so nathan may have had him and his wife for the 6 weeks he was there.I'm trying to stay focused over the last week. We've set some goals to keep us busy and try not to think about canada too much. Everyone is excited to eat real food at the airport. I'm just excited to be able to cook my own food and decide what I'm going to eat for at least 2 meals a day. Memaw- if you think that you can get my jackets and sweaters to Calgary before Monday, you can mail them to the mission office so that they're there when I arrive. The address is Elder CLifton Seth DunlapCanada Calgary Mission7044 Farrell Rd SECalgary Alberta T2H 0T2 the phone number is 1 403 252 1141 If it can't arrive in time, I should be able to send my address next Tuesday of my apartment. An elder said his mom mailed a small box and said it cost 30 dollars, so hopefully it won't cost too much. I love everyone and miss you! I'll send pictures soon after i get to Canada. Love you and miss you Elder DUnlap

Photos from the MTC

2009-08-12T05:12:00.000-07:00

MTC Roomates

2009-08-12T04:47:00.000-07:00

Seth Speaks

2009-08-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

Classroom at the MTC

2009-08-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

August 10, 2009

2009-08-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hola!
Two more weeks left! We will find out this Thursday our details about flying to Calgary. Time has passed quickly over the last couple of weeks.My branch president was released yesterday. He has been here at the MTC for 4 years and so it was really hard for him to leave. Him and his wife shed many tears. He really is a great man and became a dear friend as I met with him over the last 7 weeks. My district especially grew close to him. Him and his wife brought us donuts from KRISPY KREME on friday night which was very nice. There are 10 elders in the district 12 donuts. The last two had to be fought over. As a district we committed to set specific goals for the Referal Center last week. As companionships, we set specific goals and prayed about them and prepared all week. Last Sunday I felt inspired to challenge the district to do this during our planning meeting. The Lord definetely answered our prayers. Our district had more success in the referal center this week in placing book of mormons and scheduling missionary visits then we have had the 7 weeks here combined. It was a wonderful, unifying, and uplifting experience. My companion and I spent the whole hour and 45 minutes teaching and testifying over the phone it seemed like. Usually, about 70 percent of the time, you spend recieving answering machines. One of the expereinces that I had was with a lady who i was calling to confirm the delivery of a lamb of god DVD. For some reason, she had not recieved it. I asked her what she knew about our church and it led to a long discussion where she asked me all types of questions. She had been given a Book of Mormon years ago by a neighbor and happened to still have it. She just happened to have a couple of hours free rigth then when i called. She told me that she had been wondering what she was going to do with her time when I called adn I had sparked her interest and she was going to read it right then. She asked me if there was a certain section she should read. We read some verses together over the phone and she comitted to erad it right then adn pray about it when she was finished. She accepted the missionaries and seemed very excited to learn more. This lady was definetely prepared by the Lord. I know that these weren't coincidences. She asked me all the right questions, I felt like I really didn't have to do anything. All the companionships had similar experiences. I'm thankful that he Lord provided them for this district. It's nice to be able to do real missionary work and experience the joy here, it keeps us excited and focused. The Tuesday devotional was the Provo temple president. I forget his name right now, but he's a former seventy. He spoke on the power of the temple ordinances for us in our calling. It was very, very good, I really enjoyed it. I'm still hoping that an apostle comes this Tuesday or next, I know I've been saying this since like 3 weeks into my stay at the MTC, but there really should be one soon. Our last Sunday here, on August 23rd, we get to participate via broadcast in the temple dedication for Oaqure(Oacker) Mountain, i'm not sure how to spell it. Everyone will be getting interviewed and ready for that over the next couple weeks. We're finished with all the Spanish grammar, so classes now are review and teaching. I don't feel like my Spanish is improving as much as it was in the beginning. I feel comfortable teaching the lessons and people can understand. I'm not sure how grammatically correct they are, but I can express my feelings. Right now I'm really just focusing on memorizing vocab and scriptures for my language study. Sorry if I don't respond to questions from Dear Elders that were sent over the weekend. On Monday evening, we recieve all the Dear Elders for the entire weekend and most likely Friday as well. Last monday we recieved like 30 for the district at one time, so I don't read them until Monday evening after I email.Hope all is well.Love Elder Dunlap

Seth Saw a girl from Joyschool (Preschool) at the MTC August 3,2009

2009-08-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hola!This has been another good week. Thank you for the letters! Sara asked how teaching is going. It's pretty good, I feel pretty comfortable teaching the basics of the lessons and I think that I'm understood fairly well, at least by other missionaries and teachers. I sometimes feel like I know the definitions of more words than I use though. It's hard to think in English and translate in my head into a small vocably of spanish words that I know. My companion is doing well too. He has some basic phrases in Spanish and has struggled with the language, so sometimes it is hard because he'll get lost in the lessons and jump around some because he doesn't understand what is going on. He's worked hard though and has made some great progress in the language. We're starting to be able to make lessons personal to the investigators with our extended vocabulary. Preach My Gospel is about teaching to the needs of investigators and helping them come unto Christ. The biggest challenge is being able to do this on the spot when situations arise in lessons. We've memorized words and phrases to teach the basic doctrines, but good lessons apply those doctrines to the investigators lives and helps them understand how any problem they face can be solved or made easier to bare through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We get along very well though and are both pretty easy going people. Tonight the oldest district leaves and so for the next three weeks, we will be the oldest district in our zone. There is 4 districts in our zone or branch, so about 40 elders. Being the oldest district means that we will have 3 weeks in which it is very likely that we will speak in sacrament meeting. No one in my district has gave a talk yet, but I'm sure several of us will get the chance. Everyone writes a 3-5 minute talk and then the bishopric announces who is speaking every Sunday when the meeting starts. There is two speakers every sunday and then someone from the Bishopric or their family will give the large talk in sacrament meeting. I'm glad to hear that you recieved the pictures in the mail, I was worried that they were lost. Every fast Sunday we have mission conference, so instead of a branch priesthood meeting, we have a 2 hour meeting with all the elders at the MTC. The MTC presidency and their wives speak usually. Yesterday one of the wives gave us a check list of things to do to prepare for a baptism. One of them was to remind the new member to bring extra white underwear adn towels. It seems even at the MTC, the Presidency wives have a motherly attitude towards us, they always reminding us of the practical motherly type of things. The Tuesday devotional was by an emeritus member of the seventy- elder Dellenbach. He spoke on the Book of Mormon and it's role in conversion. I realized last Tuesday that we've had all former members of the seventy, because July is the month that the general authorities take vacation and rest. So, this next week we should start again with general authorities for the devotionals. I'm hoping that we get another apostle before I leave. I don't know yet when I depart. This should come in the mail about a week and a half before I leave, so I should recieve it one week from this Thursday. I have 3 more weeks here. My district will be hosting the new missionaries the next 2 Wednesdays, so showing them to their rooms. I'll be standing out in the hot sun all day conducting traffic in a suit since I'm the district leader, my branch president said this isn't something that I'm allowed to dellegate. We only have one more very tense to learn and then we're pretty much done with our language instruction here at the MTC. We'll be reviewing adn teaching a lot over the next couple of weeks. Saturday at the RC, I made a call in Spanish. I was confirming a book of mormon delivery. My teacher was listening on the line as well and translated what I couldn't understand for me, but I responded totally in Spanish and was able to bear my testimony. The lady said that she had a bible and book of mormon but didn't have time with work to read either right now, but she said that she wanted to read the book of mormon and would contact us when she did. I was just glad that she was able to understand my spanish and I could pick out bits of what she said. I recieved Sara's package. Thank you Sara and shawn. I love the tie. There's a missionary in my district who had been showing off his Trump ties and raving about them, so he liked the one that you sent to me.When I was picking up Sara's package, a girl in the mailroom asked me if i ever lived in Florida. I said yes a long time ago and she sadi she went to joyschool with me. It was raquel delgado. She recognized the last name. I didn't have time to talk to her any other than tell her where I was serving, but I thought you would find it interesting that I ran into her here. Everything is overall going well, I'm becoming closer to my district and will be sad to leave 4 of them in 3 weeks, but I'm ready for some real food. I don't need anymore snacks, I should have enough to last until I leave. Thanks for all the love, food, and prayersCon amorelder dunlap

Seth's Letter 7/27/09

2009-07-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hola!This week has been another good week. It has went by pretty fast.Our devotional last Tuesday was Jon Groeberg, he was the elder in the movie the other side of heaven. He was a member of the seventy and now is a temple president i believe. Him and his wife both spoke on the importance of making the temple the central focus for our investigators. This was two weeks in a row that our devotional was about the temple and the role it plays in missionary work in this life and in the past generations through geneology and returning to the temple and assisting in the missionary work on the other side of the veil, and through future generations and posterity. It must be pretty important to hear it twice in a row. I saw a quote in the medical office this week that had the definition of a missionary: someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that others can be with there's for eternity. This truly is our ultimate goal. The work and glory of this life is to bring about the salvation and eternal life of men and as missionaries and members of the church, we are his vessels to accomplish that for all of heavenly father's children.Yesterday, the branch president called me to be the district leader. I've immediately became either the most liked or most disliked person in my district. The district leader is in charge of getting the mail for the entire district and distributing it twice a day. So, If i have mail for someone they love me. I'm humbled that I would be called as the district leader, but it'll be a hard group of missionaries to lead. They're all very strong in their testimonies and capabilities and I would've supported any of them as the district leader. My responsibilities are to collect the mail, hold weekly interviews with everyone, and conduct all of our meetings and classes. We have a district meeting every sunday for an hour to set and plan goals and then on tuesday nights, we have our own testimony meeting after the devotional for an hour. I also have some additional meetings. I'm kind of selfishly bummed, because this will cut into my personal study time and free time and just make me busier, but I'm sure that I will grow from the experience. The branch president is a very wise man, and I've had some very spiritual discussions and moments with him. He's a very inspired that most importantly loves missionaries and loves people. The language is still progessing. We are officially teaching all in Spanish and all of class is in Spanish now. This week was the week that we were supposed to start, but our district is about a week of a week and a half ahead of the schedule we are supposed to be on. This will be neat because we'll probably finish the curriculum about a week and a half early that the teachers are going to teach us. We'll have basically all the grammar and will have our last week and a half to just review and practice and teach lessons with our instructors. We'll probably get extra personal study time too, which will be nice. Saturday night at the Referall Center, we had a nice chat with a teenage girl who signed on because she had been invited to church the next day with a friend and just was inquiring what it would be like before she went. My companion were able to have a nice discussion with her and teach her some principles and were going to ask her to follow up with us the next day after church but the system crashed and we got signed off and couldn't find her. I also called a lady who had requested a free item from the church and was able to bear testimony to her. She said she was struggling with a death at the current moment and hopefully it helped her, or she at least was able to be comforted a little bit by speaking with someone. I recieved Dad's package awhile ago and so thank you for that. I'm glad to hear that Dedas surgery went well,is he still recovering well? I've heard from all my siblings except monica, so tell her that she has to send me a dear elder and tell me what she is doing in her life and plans for byu.Were u able to recieve some of the pictures? I'll try to send more soon. We wear green ties on fridays(verdes viernes) and part our hair on tuesdays(martes partes) for unity i guess- and because they rhyme in spanish. It adds a little conservative fun to the week- and i have some district pictures of these. I miss everyone and love you all. Thank you for all the support!Con Amor, Elder Dunlap