January 31, 2011

Hola familia!

Sorry, i think that i may have forgotten to send my email from last week. I opened my email today and saw that I had a draft saved from my email from last week. I deleted it thinking it was weird and then realized that for some reason it might not have ever been sent. So, sorry again if you didn't recieve it. We had a great week. There was a family of 3 plus a 2 year old that got baptized in the branch yesterday. Here are a couple pictures. I was able to do the baptismal interview and it was a great experience. I recieved several impressions of things to specifically talk to each individual about that I didn't think much of until they were confirmed and given strength and blessings about in their confirmations the next day from our branch president. The mother asked me to baptize her after the interview which was neat. I had to do it twice though because she stook her foot out of the water. The hot water heater had a problem at the chapel and so the water was very, very cold. They seemed happy though despite all the shivering.

We had a very interesting experience this past week with on of our investigators. After teaching for about 15 minutes, the Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on the door and saw we were there and pretty much let themselves in. They sat down beside the investigator and started talking and teaching as if we weren't present in the room. I could tell that the investigator was very uncomfortable and after about 15 mins, we had to excuse ourselves because we had another appointment to go to. Apart from it not being very courteous, my testimony was strengthened of the inspired teaching pattern that we're given in Preach My Gospel that comes from Jesus Christ himself. Although it was an experience that I hope we're not faced with again, I can say that I have more appreciation for the guidance that we have.

I hope that everything goes well with the sealing and baby blessing. I'm sure that it'll be a great experience.

The weather has been warmer. We have been a little bit over freezing during the day. I never thought I'd say that just above freezing is good weather, but after being used to -30, it feels like spring weather. I even saw some people outside in shorts. Everything else continues to go great. I'm trying to help Elder Solis realize that ice cream for breakfast isn't too healthy and he's been eating raw cabbage salads all week because he thought it was lettuce. We've had a couple close cooking disasters as well so I'm teaching him some different things. He's doing great though.

Thanks for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

January 12

Hola familia!

I'm running a little short on time, so I copied you my email to president for the week at the end. I don't know why I haven't done it much before though. i basically type the same stuff over again. i hope that all is well at home. i got deda and grandma's box this past week and so thank you very much. it's been a week of new experiences, but it's been a good learning experience. recieving a new elder that didn't go to the MTC hasn't exactly been easy, but everything is going great. we have a first appointment tonight with a colombian family that seems very prepared to recieve the gospel. right now, we're probably seeing more success as far as finding that I've experienced so far on my mission. we have many other first lessons scheduled for this week as well. the weather has been almost unbearable. the temperature is about -15 with very strong wind and some snow. the wind chill has been aroudn

-30 which makes short trips to knock on a door pretty cold. we've gotten a lot of crazy looks and people telling us that we should take a break and stay inside. I love you all. thank you for your prayers and support.

con amor,

elder dunlap

Area- The area is great. We have been teaching the basic missionary lessons to our members so that we can get some good practice and it really has brought the spirit to our visits. We've also focused on really getting everything out of our area book with former investigators and potential investigators. We've been putting in the extra effort to frequently stop by them and make calls and it has led to several people accepting visits from us again. They are people that Elder Nielsen and I had tried by or called on occassion, but consistent effort during the last week has brought some great blessings.

Companion- Elder Solis is great. He's definitely an example of obedience and dedication. He studies diligently and is always excited to share the gospel. He often runs around me as we're walking up to a door so that he can talk to them. We're working a lot on understanding preach my gospel and especially the basic doctrine of the church.

Testimony- I fasted and prayed a lot leading up to the arrival of Elder Solis so that the area would be prepared and that he'd have a good experience to begin his mission. I've been trying to focus on following what the Lord wants us to do and say in all aspects of the work from planning to contacting and teaching. I've felt a greater love for the individuals that we meet and work with as I've simply focused on looking them in the eyes and trying hard to communicate the love that our Heavenly Father has for them. We've been able to see great success in setting up lessons with potential investigators during this past week by applying that principle.

We statistically had a hard week. We had 7 canceled investigator lessons during the past week. But, they all rescheduled for this coming week and so we're excited for the teaching opportunities that we will have. I'll admit that during the week it was pretty hard, but through some sincere prayer and contemplating I realized that our canceled appointments led to many other opportunities to be where the Lord wanted us to be. I'm very excited for what's going on in this area. We set a baptismal goal for three for this month and I'm just trying to feed off of Elder Solis's belief. He wanted to pack his baptismal clothes and carry them with him the first day in case we found someone.

January 3

Hola familia!
Everything is going great here. I found out at the end of last week that I would be training the new elder coming into the spanish program. He lives in Toronto, but is from Argentina. I haven't met him yet, but he could possibly not speak much spanish at all. President really isn't sure how long he's been here in Canada. I'm excited to have a native companion that will be able to help me with SPanish even more. He's not able to leave the country because of immigrant laws and so he'll be coming straight here from Toronto. It'll probably be interesting because he won't have the MTC training that others have, but it should be fun. We are going to the mission home tonight to meet him and for a little testimony meeting with all the new elders. I'm goign to be staying in this area to train him as well.
We've seen quite a few neat miracles as I'm sure the Lord has helped us prepare the area for the new elder.
We had a goal all this month to reach the standard of excellence of one investigator from our own finding efforts. This past Tuesday, we were able to begin teaching Milagro. She's from Cuba and just arrived for a 3 month vacation to visit some of her family members. We taught her twice this past week and she has such a strong desire to soak up any religous knowledge that she can find because of some of the restrictions that still exist in Cuba. On Thursday, she told us that she knows everything we taught her about the Restoration and Book of Mormon is true and that she'll get baptized next time she returns to Calgary to visit. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and hopefully as she continues learning, her desire will continue to grow to follow the Savior.
We also started teaching a lady from Nicaragua that had been taught twice in the past, but they've been out of town for the holidays. We tried to ask her questions about how she felt and she really opened up and told us that she didn't think that the church was right for her and that baptism wasn't her goal. We felt our hearts sink a little, but tried hard to listen to the spirit to determine what she needed to hear. After more questions, we foudn out that she was really just upset because she had given her mother in law a bag of coffee and a cross for Christmas and was offended that she didn't accept or like the present. After explainging the word of wisdom and why we dont use crosses, she opened up even more and we both shared our testimonies and conversions. By the time we left, she said that she wanted to continue learning and that it was like they teach people on sesame street- you can't say that you don't like a food until you actually try it. We left humbled because we really knew that listening to her and then the spirit had really helped open up her heart. It's something that I've really tried to develop more recently and we've seen a big difference in our teaching.
I thought I'd send you a picture of our truck that I get to drive just in case it makes you jealous.
Everything else is good, we have stake conference and then branch conference the coming two weekends which is kind of a bummer. I really enjoy them, but it's hard to get investigators to come when everything is in english. I hope that you all enjoyed the holidays!
Con Amor,
Elder Dunlap

dEC. 20

Hola familia!

I hope that everyone is preparing well for Christmas. We had our branch christmas program yesterday adn it went very well. It definitely helped to get me more in the christmas spirit. We have several traditional christmas meals planned for this week. On tueday and wednesday we're eating with chilean families that are making traditional christmas empanadas. Friday, our whole district is going to be with a venezuelan family adn on saturday, we're going to be with a mexican family. Every country has their own traditional meals. I'll try to take lots of pictures and send them next week.

The work is goign well, we were abel to find 2 new investigators this past week. An older member from Bolivia in our ward recently recieved her son and daughter in law from Bolivia as refugees. We were able to officially begin teaching them this past week. The branch president had told us that he had talked to them and they weren't interested in changing religions, but we helped them with some service on saturday morning and I feel like the spirit inspired us to ask some questions that revealed that they really are pretty open to learning. We were able to share a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the restoration and the daughter in law even revealed to us that she feels that something is lacking in her life. As we taught adn asked questions, thoughts came to say things and teach in a way that we hadn't really before and hadn't thought of. It was a reaffirmation that the spirit is what should guide our lessons.

I'm excited to talk tko everyone! Love and miss u!
Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

Dec. 6,2010

Hola familia!

Thanks for sharing the experience about the baptism mom, it's a neat story. I'm sure that it was a graet experience. I've grown to learn that nothing really just happens out of coincidence in missionary work. The Lord is always guiding those prepared to recieve the gospel. We just have to be willing to listen and follow the spirit.

This week has gone by quickly. We were able to go to the temple on Sunday and go through a session in spanish. Our district rode down to Cardston with a member from the ward in the north named brother gillis. He's canadian but served a spanish speaking mission and his wife is from Nicaragua. They're definitely one of my favorite families. Cardston is about a 2.5 hour drive and on the way, it's basicallly like driving through kansas or nebraska. I always assumed for some reason that canada was all mountains and woods, but have quickly learned that most of alberta is just like the midwest united states, but just a little colder. Cardston is a neat town because it's about 95 percent members. The missionaries there pretty much have a list of everyone that isn't a member. There are several other southern alberta communities that are similar around there as well.

This week has been fun as we've I've been getting to know the area and the members. We don't have too many investigators, but several members have some friends that really seem prepared to begin meeting with us. Unfortunately, a member of our branch passed away this past week. He was 73 years old, but his wife is only 50 and so he left two daughters that are 17 and 20 that still lived at home. He was very lively and still worked, so it was a shock to everyone. We took him to several appointments when I aws in his area and visited him often. He always was the first every fast and testimony meeting to share his testimony and so it was a pretty spiritual testimony meeting at church yesterday as everyone testified of the plan of salvation. We were also abel to particpate in the blessing of a baby by a member that lives in our area so overall, it was a really good sunday.

I can't believe that christmas is already here and that we'll be talking in a couple weeks. I hadn't really thought abotu that until you mentioned it today mom. I'm not sure what the rules will be this year, but i'm sure pretty similar to last year. Just let me know if there's a specific time that you'd like me to try to call. It'll be on a saturday this year, so we probably should be free at any time.

Has anything else happened with teh school stuff? Were you able to talk tko wake forest about everythign?

Thank you for everything!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap

nov. 30, 2010

Hola familia!

I just foudn out that I'm getting transfered. I'm staying in the branch in the south of the city but switching stakes. I'm sad to leave teh investigators that we have, but it should be a new experience. I'm going to be serving as district leader with elder nielsen. He's been out for 2 transfers and is from salt lake. i've learned a lot serving as a zone leader and am glad that two new elders are going to get the opportunity to do it. We're excited to go to the temple this coming saturday with the ward and branch. They have a session in spanish every three months and the whole zone will be going.

I had a neat experience with a member while on spits this past week. We went to an appointment and the family we were going to visit wasn't home. A couple weeks ago, a member had mentioned that a mexican family lived on a street nearby, but I wasn't sure exactly which house. We planned to knock all the doors and while walking down the street, the mexican family drove into their driveway. It was a perfect opportunity to begin talking to them and meet them. We talked for about 30 minutes outside of their house and they invited us to return for an appointment tomorrow evening. We found out that they had previously met with missionaries before about 3 years ago and were close to getting baptized. My testimony of backup plans continues to grow. as we prayerfully make plans, the Lord knows where we'll be and puts those prepared in our paths.

sorry that the emails short, we are helping someone move today and have to be there soon.

i love u all!

con amor,

Elder dunlap

nov. 23, 2010

Hola familia!

This has been an interesting couple of days. On thursday evening, we got home and stopped by the senior couple that lives below us for a couple minutes to visit with them. While we were talking, President called us and Elder Galloway answered and walked to the hallway to talk to him. When he returned, he looked pretty pale and sick. He whispered that we needed to go plan. I was worried that something bad had happened, but President actually called him to be an assistant. He had to report to the mission office on Friday morning at 10 o clock. So, we both had to pack our stuff and I've moved in with another set of elders until transfers next week. It's been a little crazy trying to cover two areas between three of us, but we do have two cars which is kind of neat. We'll probably go on a lot of splits during this week. Elder Galloway definitely was shocked and all of us really were. As an assistant, he won't be serving in spanish for the next three transfers which will be hard for him. I think he really just didn't want to leave all of us spanish elders or to leave the members and investigators. I told sister archibald that I wasn't happy about it, kind of jokingly (but not really) adn she just pointed up and told me to talk to Him and smiled. So, I'll definitely be getting a new companion next week and possibly a new area. I'm hoping to stay though because it looks like we'll have a couple baptisms very, very soon.

Elder Galloway and I had a couple neat experiences this past Thursday evening. We had an appointment scheduled with Ole, but we showed up to his apartment complex and he wasn't home. We assumed that he might be arriving late on the bus because of the weather and decided to wait a couple minutes to see if he arrived. As we were waiting, a UPS man approached and was waiting to deliver a package to a resident. He happened to be from Colombia and after talking, we realized that he knew a couple members and that he even had a Book of Mormon in his house that he had never read. We were able to get his contact information and he accepted an invitation to meet with us in his home. We had a member with us, so we followed our back up plan to visit a single lady that we had met the week before. She's a member of an english ward and is from Peru. We stopped by her two weeks ago because she was on a list of spanish speakers in the stake, but couldn't visit with her and she invited us to return during this past week. She immediately let us in and through talking to her, we realized that she had an 11 year old son that isn't baptized. We taught about the sabbath day and she has desires to return to church after many years of inactivity. She wants her son to be baptized and he had desires to begin attending church even without his mom. While we were visiting, the door bell rang and her bishop and a home teacher showed up. They had just happened to try passing by her the same evening. We were able to fill them in and they were able to arrange a ride to church for the son for this past Sunday. We were able to give the referral to the english elders in the area. My testimony has grown this past week of the importance to plan by the spirit and the power that it can have in our activities and daily missionary lives.

The weather has been pretty bitter. It's been snowing off and on all week adn today the temperature is -20 C adn the wind chill is

-30. The cars were actually grounded on Tuesday for part of the day because the roads got so bad.

Everything else seems to be goign well though. We had another ward activity this past Saturday that went very,very well.

Thank you for all you do!

Con amor,

Elder Dunlap