April 11, 2011

Hola familia!

Everything's going great in the new area. We saw a couple of miracles this past week in our first couple of days together. We were passing by the house of a potential investigator and another man that we weren't looking for answered the door and after some discussion, accepted a visit this evening to begin recieving the lessons. We were also at a member's house when a friend of theirs randomly stopped by. They had been thinking to invite the friend for a couple of weeks and we weren't able to begin teaching him, but the members bore their testimonies and invited him to meet with us this week. I know that planning by the spirit has helped us be in the right place and see these miracles.

Estefania was also baptized yesterday. She gave her own talk on baptism which was a great experience to be part of. She strongly bore testimony of the truthfulness of what she had felt and shared the miracles that have happened in her life over the past couple of weeks. She told everyone there that she has been studying preach my gospel and wants to serve a mission as soon as she is able to. Her mom and sister also participated by giving prayers and the talk on the Holy Ghost. Her mom tearfully bore testimony of the changes that have happened in their home since her baptism 3 weeks ago and how happy they are. Estefania is already sharing the gospel. She brought a friend to church yesterday and her friend came to the baptism and is going to start taking the lessons this week with Elder Solis and his new companion is my old area.

It was kind of a bitter sweet experience going to church here in the ward again in the north. I was able to see members and converts that I haven't seen for a long time. My first converts from the mission are in my area now and the dad taught the lesson in elders quorum yesterday. After church though, I went to the baptism and am really going to miss being there and seeing the people from the south branch. It was definitely a very spiritual day and it brought great joy.

Here's some pictures from the baptism yesterday.

Thanks for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

April 5, 2011

Hola familia!

I just found out that I'll be getting transfered back to the spanish ward in the north part of the city. I'm excited to go back and see some of the members that I began my mission with, but I've also been in the branch here for a year and am sad to leave the area. I'll be serving with Elder Nielsen again. We served together 2 transfers ago and he's a great elder. I'm excited to be back with him.

We've continued to see great miracles with Estefania. She is getting baptized this coming sunday the 10th after church. She quit her job because of the bad influence that it was on her and the fact that she wasn't able to attend church. She came to all four sessions of general conference and had 36 questions prepared to recieve and search for answers while listening. She has started writing a talk about baptism that she wants to give at her own baptism on Sunday and has set a goal to serve a mission as soon as she is able to. She even bought Preach my Gospel already and has been studying from it. It's neat to see the changes that she is making and how fully she has embraced the gospel. The spirit continues to prepare her for her baptism. She has continued to face some opposition, but the talks in conference really helped her understand well the purpose of opposition and why she's experiencing it.

There's not much other new news from here. I'm glad that everyone is well at home!

miss and love u all

Con amor

Elder Dunlap

March 17, 2011

Hola familia!

We have had a great week this past week. We're going to be having a baptism this coming Sunday the 20th! I don't remember if I told you, but a member in our branch was challenged by the missionaries to find someone to teach and the member found a lady from colombia the next day as they were both waiting in line to get their tires changed. The lady and her daughter came to church last sunday and loved it and we began teaching them on wednesday. It was a great appointment and they accepted a date to be baptized in the first lesson after a little bit of coaxing from the spirit. The daughter is 15 and named Michell and really is the one that has been pushing her mom. She told us that from the first sunday she didn't have doubts and because of how she felt, she knew it was all true. We taught the mom on Saturday again as the daughter was in a young women's activity and as she prayed at the end of the lesson, the spirit strongly testified to her of the truth of the message. There have been so many other miracles as well that have happened with them as they sincerely have desired to fin

d the truth. We were also able to attend a baptism for a child that turned 8 from the branch yesterday and they loved it. It will probably be a pretty busy week as we try to keep them on track and get in all of the rest of the teaching before Sunday. Here's a picture from yesterday after church. THey're the second and third from the left. Please keep them in your prayers during this week. Theeir names are Beatriz and Michell.

Everything else continues to go very well. We were also able to have a meeting with elder christofferson on saturday morning. It was a neat experience to be in the presence of an apostle. I'm always surprised with the gentleness and kindness that seems to radiate from the general authorities. He talked to us about preaching repentance and how we do that in these days as missionaries. We all left spiritually edified and I'm sure that it'll be a great boost to the mission in the coming weeks.

Thansk for your prayers and support!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

March 7

ola familia!

Everything here continues to go very well. It's supposed to warm up during this week considerably which will be nice. It's been a pretty cold winter recently. I've been wearing two pairs of long johns underneath my suit pants. But when we do get in a door, it makes things a little hot. I think I'll probably them that i'll fly into greensboro and it should be sometime the 30th of june i assume. The new elders usually come in on the 29th and then there is an outgoing missionary fireside that night and the elders leave early the next morning.

We decided this past week to really have a good fast and to specifically pray and fast for the guidance to acheive our baptismal goal during this month. The Spanish Central extended a seven day challenge to a member family during this past week and the member called them the next day. She had found someone from Colombia while shopping at Canadian Tire that wanted to meet with the missionaries. They taught the lady and her daughter who is about 14 during the week and the two came to church on Sunday. We found out that they live in our area and were able to set up an appointment for this Wednesday. While talking at church, they seem to really be searching for the truth and are excited to keep learning. My testimony has increased of the power of an appropriate and consecrated fast and that our sincere prayers are answered. We also had the opportunity to get out of the city and visit a lady in a small town named High River. She was very schooled in the scriptures and other religions and she had even studied theology for 4 years in cuba. up until now in her life, she finds the baha'i faith as what brings her closest to god. they have some interesting beliefs but we really felt the spirit guide us to answer her doubts and really bring everything back to whether the book of mormon is true or not. she offered a heartfelt prayer at the end askng God to let her know if she should be baptized. we're going to go visit her every thursday and so hopefully she'll keep progressing.

all else is great. we're excited for the visit on saturday from elder christoffereson and elder real of the seventy. they're here to reorganize a stake in medicine hat, but are taking some time out to talk to us.

thanks for all u do and your support!

con amor,

elder dunlap

February 28,2011

Hola familia!

All here continues to go well. We woke up this morning to more snow and cold weather. The wind chill today is -33. The good thing is that the really cold weather is hopefully about gone, well probably another month. It's definitely been a colder winter than last year. Last year seemed to have more chinooks that came and melted some of the snow.

I was able to do a baptismal interview for a young man that's 26 named jesus fuentes that got baptized in our branch yesterday. He accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson and has been very prepared. It is always neat to have the opportunity to be in a one on one setting basically hearing the testimony of those that are getting baptized. There was a great turnout at the baptism, probably in part because they brought left over food from a branch party the night before for the refreshments. There was also a family of 3 that was baptized in the north spanish ward yesterday at the same time. So, the zone overall seems to be doing very well.

We just recieved an email that we are going to have a meeting on saturday march 12th at 8:00 with elder christofferson of the twelve apostles. i'm super excited. the time that we had last march with elder bednar is an experience that i'll never forget and we're excited to have the opportunity again. last march, elder bednars visit seemed to fuel the mission as a whole and it'll hopefully do the same again for us. the meeting is going to be here in calgary, but all of the missionaries outside of the city will be bused into calgary.

elder solis and i are excited becasue we got a reference for a colombian lady that lives outside of the city in a small town called high river. it's about 60 kilometers drive from calgary and we'll probably start going there once a week to teach her. we'll get to see a little bit of the country side on the way, even though there's really not much other than fields to look at.

we've had trouble scheduling appointments over the week with many of our investigators. part of the problem that we run into is to live in calgary and not be able to speak english, most of the people we work with have to work in low paying jobs for many hours to get by. with their busy schedules, it often makes scheduling appointments hard. we have high hopes for the family of 5 though that we began teaching last week. they seem very interested and seeking for the truth.

thanks for everything you do!

con amor,

elder dunlap

Feb. 14 2011

Hola familia!

Everything here is great. Before i forget to tell you, next week will be transfers and so I'll be email on tuesday next week. I think that i'll probably be staying in this area one more transfer with elder solis, but we'll see what happens.

the weather has stayed fairly warm which has been nice. we've been getting out and walking some and talking to the people on the streets. the warm weather is pretty contagious and a lot of people seem to get out and around when the weather warms up a bit.

The area continues to grow. Elder Solis is doing an excellent job of extending seven day challenges and it's led to some great success that we hope to see soon. I at first was apprehensive from the rigidity of the invitation for the seven day challenge thinking that it might offend people, but have since repented and realized that it's led to some great success. Our seven day challenges have been more of expectations and less of invitations and it's been great.

Elder Solis is great. We're working on recieving and responding to personal revelation. I can tell that recieving personal direction and revelation and really just decicion making in general has been a little lacking in his life. The mission is a great opportunity to put that into practice. He continues to be an excellent example of dedication and probably has the purest heart of any missionary I've met.

One day this past week, we showed up for a dinner with some members and the father of the family had not yet arrived from work. He was supposed to arrive soon, and initially sat back in the car to wait, but then decided to knock on some doors in the complex that they live at. Our first impression was to go to a certain row of condos and after 3 doors, we found a colombian family that let us in for a moment to talk to them at the door. We taught some principles of the restoration and were able to leave them with pamplets and a Book of Mormon. They didn't accept a set return appointment, but said we could pass by next time we were close by. It was a neat experience for us both to feel guided by the spirit and an instrument in the work. We also are excited because one of the english speakers that we found last week for the english elders has accepted a baptismal date already and seems very prepared for the gospel.

thanks for everything and all you do!

con amor,

elder dunlap

Feb. 7, 2011

Hola familia!

We woke up this morning to more snow. There was probably around 5 inches. The weather here really is kind of crazy. During the middle of the week, the temperature got just about freezing and sunny and so everything turned into slush and then froze again. We tried walking some on Saturday which was pretty impossible because all othe the snow that was sitting aroudn had started to melt and ran out of the front yards onto the sidewalks and fronze as ice. It's still snowing and aroudn -20 celcius. The truck makes it pretty easy for us to get around, but we have zone conference tommorow and if we didn't win the cleanliness competition, we'll probably end up with something else to drive.

The area is great. We've pretty much narrowed all of our former investigators and potential investigators from our area book to about 7 that are interested and have accepted visits. We're just trying to stay in contact and get in the doors with them to help them feel the spirit. Because we've pretty much went through the area book, we've been doing more personal contacting but have been trying to make it a revelatory experience and have seen some great success. We also have a solid first lesson finally scheduled for this Thursday that has been delayed the last two weeks with a member family and their friend that is interested in learning about the church.

We have tried to set specific goals over the last couple of weeks regarding personal contacting efforts. As we've prayerfully sought the guidance of the spirit, and then went out and completed our plans, we've been blessed with some great success. On Saturday morning, we knocked on the door of a young 25 year old that was very open to learning. We initially started talking a little about the restoration, but the thought came to mention how the restoration helps give us answers to questions about why we're here on earth and what happens after this life. He immediately seemed to change and said that he had been having those questions recently in his life. He eagerly set up an appointment for this week. He was surprisingly from Chile, but has been in Canada pretty much since birth and speaks perfect english, so he'll be taught by the yougn single adult missionaries. As we left the doorstep, we felt the spirit confirm that we were in the right place and had been instruments in the hands of the Lord. Moments like that bring the pure joy and happiness that are felt during the mission.

The mission overall is doing great. The overall success and miracles continues to increase and baptisms as well. The theme for our zone conference tomorrow is how the atonement changes our bahavior and nature. We've been studying it during the past week to be prepared and hope to have a great experience.

I hope all is well at home!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap