Sept. 20, 2010

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

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

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

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