July 20,2009

Hola!
This is about the halfway point here at the MTC. My estimated departure date is August 25th, but I won't recieve a flight plan until about 2 weeks before I leave. I'll be able to call at the airport and will probably buy a callign card here before I leave. Most of the flights are pretty early in the morning on either monday or tuesday. We'll be getting a new district leader this weekend and having midway interviews with our branch president, so we're officially halfway to the field.

Last Tuesday, the devotional was by President Steuer and his wife. They are President and Matron of the Ogden temple and he was recently released from the seventy. They talked about finding lasting conversions so that we can get investigators to the temple. Last night, the fireside was by the administrative director of the MTC and he talked about the power of prayer. He went through the entire book of mormon, pointing out examples of how prayer is the foundation of conversion and testimony. It was really good.

On Sunday nights, we get to watch a movie. they have 4 to choose from and so last night we watched the testaments. elder walker and I didn't get a new companionship in our room this week, and i'm not sure if we will. we are in the first floor on the building near the cafeteria and so they're transitioning that area into housing for some of the full time Referal center missionaries. some missionaries with health problems serve here for 2 years in the referal center. they have great success- teaching over the internet and over the phone. not only do we have the best hall to live on, but i am also in branch 1, district 1a, and our branch president is probably one of the best. he's been here for 4 years as a branch president and so he's very wise. he'll be released in one of the coming weeks because branch presidents serve for somewhere between 2-4 years. i wouldn't be surprised if he was called as a mission president in one of the coming years. a lot of the branch presidents are called. some of our goals for the week are to memorize d.c. 4 in spanish, to teach 10 lessons, and to have 45 contacts in our companionship. they encourage us to share messages and practice teaching alot. we've signed up for a progressive investigator starting on saturday. he plays a role, and we start from a door contact and keep teaching him until his baptism. so, we'll have a week to prepare him for baptism before we leave, and if he does accept, you even give baptism talks. it's pretty neat because a teacher is the investigator and gives you feedback after every lesson. we'll probably meet with him twice a week, so it'll push us to learn spanish for the next visit and to also see the whole proccess of conversion unfold. during the week, they also have a teaching evaluation center, so my companion and i go about every day and practice teaching with just us and a teacher. it helps out so much. i've seen elder fisher a couple times, he has my same lunch. i haven't had time to talk to him, i have just seen him across the cafeteria, but tell his mom he's eating everytime i see him, so that's probably a good thing. i'll try to see how he's doing today at lunch. thank you mom for the package, i recieved it a couple days ago, probably 2 days ago. i don't really need anything right now, thank you for the love and prayers! sometimes in class or studying, my thoughts will turn to one of you and i know you're praying for me and i'll feel your love.

con amor
elder dunlap