September 23, 2009

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