July 25, 2018

Hola! 

This week has been pretty chill but fun as well. It’s crazy to think we are on the 5^th week at the CCM and next week is our last week then we are headed to Salta! 

Spiritual: 

This week we have had so many good devotionals some of my favorite include. "Faith is not only trust in the Lord its trust in his Love"- President Uchtdorf

"Pray like everything depends on the Lord then work like everything depends on you"- President Eves. In one of my favorite devotionals we talked about Either 12. And we were all asked to memorize Either 12:6 in Spanish. It says, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute not because you know not, for you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." I love this scripture I think it is so beautiful. I know this is true in my last email i was super stressed about Spanish and this week I have received multiple Spanish miracles. When we were working with those who are interested in the church I was able to share my testimony and help the person with their struggles in my very broken Spanish. After our practice lesson our instructor told me she felt the spirit so strong when I spoke and both of my companions where crying. I feel so blessed that I was able to have the gift of tongues during that lesson. 

Weather: 

MOM WE HAD OUR FIRST EARTH QUAKE! It was awesome! The earth didn’t crack open and we felt nothing but apparently it was a level 5 about an hour away from the CCM. WE did however have to evacuate the buildings and head out to the road where there are big green "safe circles". We also had a crazy storm the streets where flooded! my shoes disappeared in the roads it was like 5 inches deep! Perfect for a missionary swim haha jk. It was however really funny to watch people run and jump over large puddles in an attempt not to get wet. Other than that it is so beautiful here like a tropical paradise. 

Sports:

We have played so much volleyball its crazy. But my favorite sport is the weight room! I love the Olympic bar and squat rack! I also have been teaching yoga at 6am Saturday mornings and I guess the presidency at the CCM really likes how I run my yoga class she announced it during a devotional. lol. Our community Service was raking grass and putting it into a trailer. It was way fun! Dad! I stood on top of the grass and packed it down like how we do on the farm haha I was the only one haha and all the Elders where loading the piles in it felt like home on the farm!

Soaking up the good old grass!

Sister Trainers:

We have a district in our zone that is leaving and so the zone leaders and us made them a cute Piñata. Well the zone leaders bought all the supplies and we made it. It’s so cute we named him Buddy from the Movie Elf. We also decorated their room we can’t wait for them to see it! We were also asked to give a devotional to all the Sister Trainers. I think it want pretty well we talked about Attributes of Christ and how they all weave together like a tapestry. it was from the talk Becoming Disciples of Christ. 

Funny:

So, as a companionship we have a goal to follow all the rules closer and one of them is we are not allowed to eat in the class room and I really wanted to eat my Banana. So, my two companions sat in the doorway of the classroom and I sat in the hallway as we planned. I think exact obedience is great. I have also started a quote book where I write down all the funny things I hear throughout the week. Ex. Instructor Hermana Ochoa talking about how he is doing to a quencieñeta. "do you know what a quencinñta is?"... (us yes) "Well I hate them" it’s just funny with his broken English. 

Then one from today Elder Brown is showing us snacks in the Tindia and He pointing to some and says, " these ones aren’t bad, but I would never eat them again". IDK if these are as funny when you are not there but they sure where funny in the moment. 

Love you all,

CCM

Hermana Dunn

Parrots!!

CCM

CCM

Casa idk if I sent this one or not

July 18, 2018

Hola!

This week has been crazy and fun! 

Temple

We went to the Mexico Temple and it is absolutely gorgeous! It was so nice and peaceful inside I absolutely loved it and did not want to leave! 

Package

I also got a package and a letter from my mom and dad this week! Shout out to my awesome parents for the MEGA stuffed Oreos! They are sooo good! With my companions and my package, we made a mini pantry in our casa with the extra closet we have lol... we are praying that the cleaning lady who checks our room doesn’t find out ha-ha. Oh, I have also been converted.... to Nutella. to be honest I was not so sure then one day I decided to but peanut butter and Nutella on my toast and it is the best thing I have ever eaten in my whole life right under my mom’s cooking because nothing can beat that. 

Spanish

Speaking along the lines of food our district started an English fast where we go 24 hours from not speaking English! They are exhausting and sometimes I feel like Arial (from The Little Mermaid) not being able to say what I want to and basically playing 24-hour long game of charades. But it has been good.  I also got really down on myself this week not being very good at Spanish and honestly, I was starting to think the gift of tongues was not a thing I was so stressed because I have prayed for it so many times, but I felt like I couldn’t improve. Then I turned to Alma 32:26 to 27 and it gave me so much comfort. Then my District Leaders Elder Blackburn and Elder Perkins asked if I wanted a blessing and I’m positive they were prompted by the Spirit. After that I now know I will receive the gift of tongues and I know God is watching over me and recognizing the work I am putting into learning Spanish. I am very thankful for the Elders in my district who are so in tune with the Spirit. Also, the Zone Leaders (Elder Heugly and Elder Tuipulotu) have been helping me learn Spanish and we have been going over the sounds of the letters and vowels. It has been really good and fun. 

New Hermanas

This week as Sister Training Leaders, we taught Relief Society it was way fun! We also received 5 new Hermana missionaries! So, the Zone Leaders and us bought them all notebooks as a welcoming gift and put our favorite scripture in it along with fun snacks and tips for new comers. We also had a devotional and in it I shared Mathew 4:20 I think (I could be wrong) thats where the lady had a blood illness for 12 years and had so much faith in the Savior that she knew when she touched his clothes that she would be healed. One of my favorite stories ever. Anyway, in the devotional we were talking about trials and I just shared that scripture along with my thoughts that I will share to you all. I am so grateful for the trials I have in my life and that might sound crazy, but my hardest trials are my biggest blessings because they have allowed me to grow closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior. 

Volleyball

One last fun comment Our district always plays Volleyball together!! It is so fun! The other day we played volleyball and I went up for the set and so did and Elder Tui and BOOM collision hahahahahahahahahah it was a hoot. Every time our district plays volleyball we are ROTFLing because everyone is sooo funny and joking around its a blast. I also started a quote book full of the funny things our district says to each other is sooo funny. Some of my favorites Hermana 8a says about his girlfriend’s name " her name is Ireland... why you have a normal name?... do not tell her I said that" it’s all in broken Spanish is so funny. 

YOGA

I forgot to talk about YOGA! I taught yoga at 6am Saturday morning it was a blast! It was really funny to watch the elders try to be flexible and one sister told me to make it really hard for next week because the elders from their district are coming haha. Also, the Mission CCM presidency comes too so its way fun doing yoga to some MOTAB lol!

That’s all for this week!

Love, Hermana Dunn

 Mexico outside the CCM they reselling food out of shopping carts but it looks really good.

July 11, 2018

Hello! 

This week has been so crazy and fun!

Spanish!

My Spanish is improving little by little and I think it might have to do with the 287 plus note cards I have been studying. I can finally pray in Spanish but it’s a generic prayer I am working on learning how to make more sentences, so I can personalize my prayers more. 

Big News! 

Hermana Jojola, Hermana Bitner and I have been assigned to be Sister training Leaders. In this assignment we are responsible for the sisters in our zone, making sure missionary rules are kept, loving the Hermana’s and Elders, and also conducting Sunday lessons. Also, our awesome district leaders are now zone leaders! Big changes!

Guess What!

Last Saturday we found out there is yoga class on Saturday mornings and we were planning on going to the class, but we missed it then Hermana Bennit our CCM mission president was looking for a new instructor for yoga since that was her last week... and well with my ACSM certificate I am the new yoga instructor on Saturday mornings 6 am sharp! I did a mock yoga class with my companions under a palm tree it was so magical! And when we played volleyball outside we are surrounded by palm trees. It’s beautiful!

Service Project!

We had a service project this week and our district weeded!!!!!!! I never thought I would be so excited to pull some weeds, but it was relaxing! lol I have never said that before. I also ended up pulling the most weeds out of everyone in our district ha-ha.

Blessings!

I was having a rough day earlier this week. then all of a sudden, the district leaders’ hand me 4 letters form my little brothers back home I couldn’t help but to get all teary eyed it was the sweetest thing. I love you BOYS! All their letters had some sort of joke and riddle it was so funny! Then later in the day we were talking about how good some chocolate chip cookies would be and I kept dreaming about Stephens cookies because they are the best ever! And that night for dinner we had chocolate chip cookies! Also this week we got out of lunch and there was a rainbow perfectly surrounding the sun. It was so cool I have never seen a rainbow circling the sun before!

Devotional!

We had the best devotional ever last night President and sister Bennit spoke! My favorite points are as follows. we come to know God through our trials, faith doesn’t prevent failure it makes it meaningful, this is a gospel of miracles and pure happiness only comes from the gospel. And my favorite "Do it the Lords Way" in everything we do the Lord’s way is always better than what we could have ever imagined. 

Scriptures!

Charity is the pure love of Christ! It is so important we have charity and love for others. In Moroni 7: 43-48 and I Corinthians 13: 1-8. There is a challenge I would like to extend. Please open the Book of Mormon to any page and start reading because I guarantee it is what you need to here we had a devotional on the power of the Book of Mormon and this experiment that was done where they took pages out of the Book of Mormon had people pick whatever page they wanted and in every page each person was uplifted and knew that the Book of Mormon is true. 

I love you all! Sorry we do not have any pictures today! We are going to the temple but I will definitely have some for next week!

Love,

Hermana Dunn

Happy 4th OF JULY!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!

Feelings:

This week has been crazy! the first day in the CCM we started speaking Spanish! I think my Spanish is hurting my teacher’s ears, I think it is very American sounding ha-ha. As soon as we got to the CCM we had a devotional it was so good we talked about Alma 57:19-20. For those who are not LDS Alma is in the Book of Mormon, and we believe it is another testament of Jesus Christ along with the Bible.  Alma were taking about the 2000 stripling warriors who were going up against great odds and how they took what they had learned from their parents and trusted in the Lord they were able to conquer and become great. They compared the warriors to us and how we are a few missionaries in number and we have been taught by our parents the truth and we are sacrificing our time to help others come unto Christ. It just really touched my heart.

Another experience I had it in a devotional with our district (or small church group) and I was feeling really discouraged about Spanish.  I am not very good at English because I'm dyslexic. An Elder said he felt like he needed to share the story of Moses and how God appeared to him in the burning bush and how Moses questioned why he was called to be a prophet of God. But he was able to lead the people. I feel like Moses, questioning why I need to speak Spanish, I am so far behind and struggling but as soon as the Elder shared this scripture It gave me so much comfort knowing that if Moses was bad at speech but was still able to lead the people in Egypt I can learn Spanish and teach those I meet in Argentina.

Laughter:

MIISSION KISSES

Our district leader is kind of uptight, but he is a good man. Anyway, our room was cleaned, and we received Hershey kisses on our beds. So my Companions and I decided to tell him I got a kiss last night. We let the other elders in our district in on it too. Oh, my heavens if I could only describe his face and his concern it was priceless. After his okay let me think we told him it was a chocolate kiss hahahahahahahahaha it was soo funny. 

Some of the rules here are funny too.  The Mexican who was over the gym said to Americans that we are not allowed to dunk because Americans 100% of the time get hurt. He said this rule does not apply to Mexicans because we cannot dunk. lol.

Miscellaneous:

The CCM is so pretty it’s like a tropical paradise. I love the weight room they have free weights!! We also play v-ball which is the bomb because there is a setter in my district!! Also today we played kickball and I am super competitive I slid into first base probably 4 times haha which made everyone scream in excitement lol. 

Oh another highlight of my week was our language teacher said you have permission to ruin my language. I feel like I have taken that to heart lol.  I poped a basketball I threw it at the rim then instantly it started deflating. I must be stronger in Mexico or they don't get their basketballs from Japan like Americans lol.  Everything feels like I am drinking out of a fire hose. 

Love you all

Hermana Dunn