11/4/09

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