August 10, 2009

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