October 15, 2018

Hola!

Where to even start I’m thinking this letter today it going to be everywhere so hold your horses. 

Okay, on the topic of horses there are horses and buggies everywhere and I thought they were like the ones in New York where you pay for a ride. Haha!  No.  They are what the people use to get around its actually pretty cool to see real horse power.  Haha!  

A family we have a fecha for baptism has so many questions about the gospel we spent 2 hours trying to explain them. We also got invited to the ward council.  This is huge!  At ward council we were able to get help for our progressing personas as well as know what families in the ward we can help.  It was really good. Also, we had a contact this week where we just talked about the church really briefly and he said he was going to go to church which is what people say then they forget to go but he went!! It was so exciting we had 2 people that we are teaching the gospel to at church! 

Okay really quick the weather here is crazy, and I mean that haha!  It’s so funny one day we are sweating and the other day we are so cold we have big coats on.  The best weather is when it rains because this means the tile outside is like an ice rink. Haha! Oh man it’s so slippery but it’s so fun. 

Also, some reasons why people can’t talk with us are the best my favorite so far has been I can’t talk my noodles are burning... I was quite concerned for this one. Haha! I don’t know how to burn noodles, but he seemed pretty concerned. Haha! But even if there are those who say no, we just think they are not ready to hear our message and we always get on the path of people to teach and serve. Like the other day there was a frail old lady I’m thinking in the 90s and she was trying to cross a road. Oh, my heavens! So, I ran over and held her hand across. I think missionary work isn’t just knocking at doors.  Its honestly helping the people in whatever way we can to make their life a little bit happier. 

I have been reading The Book of Mormon and have had the opportunity to mark where it mentions Christ.  The color I have chosen is yellow because Christ is the light in my life and we can share this light with others through kind works and deeds not just teaching a lesson.  

I’m going to challenge everyone who reads this to find someone they can serve it doesn’t have to be big or small or someone you know just help someone else feel the love our Savior has for us through charity because charity is the pure love of Christ.  

I also had an experience yesterday where we had a lesson with a lady who can’t read and her daughter about the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. and as we were explaining that we can have our family for forever through this great plan we asked the little girl 11 if she would pray to know it’s true.  She started to pray and I got this warm feeling and this feeling happens for her I think it was her first time ever talking to her Heavenly Father. It was very special. She and her mother started to cry it was just a really sweet moment. 

Okay, sorry my mind is everywhere my companion has a birthday tomorrow and so today we went to a park with other missionaries and had food and played games.  I found a tree I could hang from.  It was awesome.  Then I had to run here to email. Haha!  I ran like 10 blocks and that’s a lot of running after not running. Oh, how I miss running but that’s okay I will be good at cardio again! I am determined. Haha!

I hope everyone has a great week I will try to upload photos if not this week I will for next week! 

love you all!!

Have a great week!

Hermana Dunn

October 8, 2018

HOLA!

This week we had a lesson on the priesthood with a family that attending church. We talked about how the priesthood is authority from God and its importance when we are baptized. We also got a baptismal date. Whoot Whoot! I’m so excited to help others feel Christ love and be able to follow Christ in baptism! 

This week we had a Zone Conference it was way good. And then we watched General Conference this weekend. I was blessed to be able to watch it in English. It was awesome to hear the words of out Prophet and leaders in the church one of my favorite things that was said is David A. Bednar said, "Christ is the light and life of the world in Him we find Joy." I believe this to be true. There are times on a mission that are hard but there are times on a mission that are exciting like helping others draw closer to our Savior and our God but in all the events that happen whether sad or happy we can always find Joy in Christ. No matter young or old, educated or not there is always Joy in speaking of learning and talking about Christ and his life. 

This conference I was also able to make bread work and cooked zucchini bread for the missionaries for conference. Haha! Watching conference made me feel at home even if I am 1000 miles away. I also got a package from my parents for Halloween. I was so excited! My very hot Spring will still feel like Halloween! 

I love you all and hope everyone if having a good week!

Love you! 

Hermana Dunn

Link to David A. Bednar talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/gather-together-in-one-all-things-in-christ?lang=eng

October 1, 2018

BATS for October!

Oh, my heavens this week where to even begin! 

I guess to start I was cooking with my companion and I walk into our living room and I see a bat flying towards me I scream so loud and my companion is confused, and the bat hits the wall (I think from my scream I scared the bat haha) and falls to the floor. I’m yelling bat and my companion is like “What is bat?” and I point to it on the ground.  The next thing I hear is her screaming and running to get the broom. Then I open the door and my companion while screaming sweeps the bat into the hall.  Throwing the broom and the bat into the hall of the apartment and shuts the door. I’m laughing because this is a super condensed version of all the screaming. Oh man was it funny and scary at the same time. 

Oh, another animal experience from this week we went knocking at a house of an investigator and their grandma answers she opens the door to invite us in.  Then one of her dogs’ bolts and she runs after it my companion and I just look at each other like oh no. So, we stay and watch her other dog while she is chasing one. Don’t worry though the dog is safe in the cassa she caught it. Before the other dog could run off I picked him up. I guess if you pick up a dog in Argentina all of a sudden you are there best friend.  When we finally had a chance to sit down and talk to the grandmother the dog hopped on my lap haha. The grandma is way cool we were telling her about how we are talking with her grandson and he needs permission to be baptized because he is only 17 and that he also needs to go to church. She looked at us and said oh he’s going to go to church.  I’ll take him with me to your church. WOW okay awesome! 

On the same topic of Church we had the primary program and it was so cute! The family we have investigating the church came again.  This time instead of jeans to our surprise the husband was wearing a suit and the wife was wearing a dress with a jacket because that was modest. Their kids where in white shirts! Oh, my heavens it was soo cool! We met with this family earlier in the week and they told us they had a great experience with the church on Sunday. They said that they loved how when they were singing the hymns they felt good and they loved how the music wasn’t rock music. They also reassured us that they like rock music. Which I thought was cute but they said they like the hymns for church because it makes their heart feel different and they can feel Gods love for them! We also invited them to start reading the Book of Mormon every day. They were like yeah we are already doing that and they started quoting scriptures from 2 Nephi! Wowowow! It’s so good! This Sunday their son said he wanted to do FHE (Family Home Evening). This is where the family gets together, and you share a scripture as a family to discuss a gospel topic such as “Christ like love” or “kindness”. A member from the ward gave them a booklet and was really helping them out and told us he wants to come with us to the lessons we have with this family! Also during gospel principles we were talking about how we believe that families can be together forever and this is done in the temple and Family Abdala our investigators eyes lit up and they really wanted to know how they could have that blessing in their lives! Then our teacher hit all the points we did early in the week reemphasizing the importance or faith in Jesus Christ repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Oh, it was so good. 

Other thoughts for this week. We had lunch at a family’s house from the Ward and there little boy was so cute he had a shoe box he colored green for a soccer stadium and had a white cap for a soccer ball. Then he had mini erasers for the soccer players from Argentina.  Oh, it was so cute! He was cheering for his team and he had a little ref.  Then he turned on to YouTube and was watching clips from a soccer game in the past and was screaming and cheering.  It was so cute!  I think this 7 year old is the biggest soccer fan ever. 

Oh, my heavens this is really funny!  So my companion was wearing a long skirt and we were walking and this little girl says hi to me so I wave hi from across the street. Then she turns to her mom and says mom it’s a Gipsy pointing to my companion haha. It was so funny. Anyway, this week has been good I hope everyone is having a good week! 

Love you all! 

Hermana DUNN

September 24, 2018

Where to begin? This week has been crazy hot! Like sweating from being outside hot and it’s just the first day of spring! But after all this heat there have been huge blessings like having a nice breeze to cool us down in the heat! 

Also, I recited The First Vision to a person interested in the gospel this week! First time ever in Spanish! Then I invited them to be baptized and we have a date for baptism! My companion and I fasted for an opportunity to meet those who would be interested in learning more about the gospel and that our investigators would come to church. But none came... that’s okay though we kept working hard and we met a family that was an investigator 6 years ago. We invited them to a Culture Stake party that was on Saturday. AND THEY CAME! Not only that, after the party they turned to us and said we were going to come to church last week, but my husband had to work. MY companion and I where in shock! Wow! A couple min later we introduced them to the Bishop and they said to the Bishop they are going to go to church!!!!!!! Wow.  So Sunday my companion and I are waiting for them and we think they aren’t going to show up because we were already 30 min into Sacrament Meeting then we look behind us and the whole family is in church! Sitting by members! And the Gospel Principles class afterwards was so good the teacher wasn’t there so my companion and I taught, and the class was on eternal families and there were a lot of recent converts there who were answering questions the family had! AND during 3rd hour the other sisters in the ward where talking with the mom of the family and handed her a Liahona bc that’s what the class was on and our investigator read the whole thing! After church their 11 year old son came running up and said that he needed to be at church next Sunday (it’s the primary program and the primary leaders gave him a part) the mom said oh but you have scouts and he replied that’s okay I want to come here! Then a primary leader came over and explained the program has music and talks and that there is a practice Saturday. -Oh man it was so good so many members where so excited and helping by introducing themselves and making them feel involved and talking with them! Wow Oh man it was so good. Anywho the culture activity was each ward had a country assigned to them and the Wards talked about the cultures and there was fun food then dancing as well of the different cultures. 

This week we had lunch with family Gramaho and oh my heavens they are a hoot and a holler. They downloaded an English app and where saying things in Spanish into their phone and translating them to English then I would speak in English and they would translate it back it was so funny bc I already knew what they were asking. They are also recent converts of about a year and they said the first time thy had missionaries over they gave them wine. oops. Haha! And then they made us a really good cake. Don’t worry I got the recipe. But half way though eating it the father was whispering to the mom from across the table saying I think there is something in here the missionaries can’t have it was so funny I guess normally they add coffire to the cake but just a little... but because we came over they used Nesquik haha. And this part is the best they were trying to speak English and they said “Good Bless States United” and I was like “Oh it's America… God bless America” and they were like how sweet not just the USA but all of America including Mexico and Argentina.  I thought it was cute lol. 

Also another miracle this week we knocked on 29 houses yesterday and we got denied.. I know its 29 bc we have to keep track haha anywho we knock at one last house and this older lady opens the door and said are you here for ice cream. confused we say no we are missionaries and she lets us into her house/ parlor shop and she says she loves to read so we give her a Book of Mormon and she wants to pay us so we explain that we worked before we came out here so we don’t need any money and she says okay how about ice cream. So, she gave us ice cream!

WOW crazy week! I hope everyone is doing well love you all!

Hermana Dunn

September 17, 2018

HOLA!

Where to start... Haha! This week has been a little crazy! 

All the Missionaries in training went to Salta with their trainers. There we had a conference and played a bunch of games. That was really fun. We also got to talk to President and his wife about our experience as missionaries and how we are dealing with a new culture. It was good to hear that I wasn’t the only one feeling a little overwhelmed by the culture changes as well haha. After the conference we headed back to Tucuman but we had a couple hours at the bus station and I brought Uno so the time went by pretty fast. And then when we got bored of Uno for 2 hours we played PENS! It’s like spoons which is the best game on the planet, but we used Uno cards and pens because that is all we had haha. 

This week my companion and I helped out the Young Women in making paper flowers for their Stake activity. Also, all the missionaries in our zone put on a little skit for the Young Women in teaching them how they can introduce their friends to the church and inviting them to go to dances with them. 

After the Conference my companion and I went tracking and we were headed to an investigator who had a baptismal date. On our way my companion and I are talking about different Spanish concepts to help me learn then the next thing I know there is a drunk guy yelling “rubio” which means blonde in Spanish “Come here rubio” ... Oh man I was like "What?"  Then my companion was like "No English!" And we looked behind us and this drunk guy was following us, so we ran past the corner to the Liberia and hid there for 30 min before my companion made sure it was still safe to go outside. Then we headed on our way again and saw this man again! So, we look at each other and ran back to the church which is like 10 blocks away. Then I practiced piano for an hour before we had to go to our apartment. We are going to talk to President about letting us study at night on the weekends and track in the morning because it is safer. 

Maybe it was supposed to happen because the next day we went back and the family we have been trying to meet was home and they want to get married and have their daughter baptized! They also have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. They said, "We know its true we just want to get married before we go to church."  We also did a lot of contacting this week we had a lesson about the Plan of Happiness and where we go after this life with this lady and her eyes lit up when we told her we believe that you can have your family for eternity! I also made a Plan of Happiness diagram out of magazines because a lot of the people we teach can’t read so we think visuals will help! 

I hope everyone Is having a great week! 

Oh yeah, before I forget ... Dog update: We saw a dog that looked like Chewbacca from Star Wars... huge haha!  And we ate lunch with a lady who had 7 dogs and contacted someone who had 10! I’m trying to find the lady with 101 Dalmatians haha!

Love you all!

Hermana Dunn

September 10, 2018

Hola!

This week has been a little Crazy. First off, we were doing the regular tracking in the street and this lady comes bursting out of her house with a crutch in her hand and in the air. yelling who knows what in Spanish to this dog. This poor dog gets chased by this old lady for like 2 blocks. And when she’s done she puts her crutch down from the air and starts limping back to her house lol it was quite a sight. 

We also had a meal this week and it was quite interesting this lady had 7 dogs...7... I counted twice. there were everywhere on the table in the yard on our lap. One even caught a mouse lol it was a very eventful afternoon. 

We also had interviews with the Mission President he came to our casa and said out washer is way old, and we can get a new one! It’s so exciting haha. His assistants also came, and I offered them some Puppy Chow that I made earlier in the day and those poor Elders ate the whole thing they were just so hungry. OH, and we got our oven fixed!!!!! The only thing we have to do now to get it to work is put a match under the oven to get it started! I have made cinnamon roles and pizza Bread! and Steve’s cookies! Yum! I love the oven!  

Despite all of this fun this week we had a rough day we were getting rejected at every house we had multiple people say they couldn’t understand my Spanish and then a parrot tried to bite me an investigator we invited for baptism went to jail. It was a rough night, so my companion and I headed to Vea and we each bought off brand Oreos and a carton of milk.  Then we went to the apartment and I poured a bowl full of milk and dumped all three sleeves in the bowl... the personal trainer in me was very disappointed but the kid in me was really excited. Then we went to bed. And had a miracle the next day we met a guy and he was way excited to hear the Gospel and he started reading the Book of Mormon right in front of us, so we gave him a pamphlet and he read that and now we have a meeting with him for baptism! 

Also, fun fact I am going to be playing the piano for the primary in two Sundays, so I have been practicing playing the piano every night after tracking with both hands haha. And before district meetings I was practicing the piano and these two Elders was helping a Hermana learn English she is from Chili and they were teaching he teach and teached and I was playing the piano and laughing and then she was asking how do you say the difference and one Elder is like hold on let me ask he get another Elder and asks how do you say the difference and they are talking about it for a good 3 min and I’m just by the piano laughing really hard then I’m like okay teached is not a word its taught hahahahahahahahahahaha. idk in the moment it was a hoot. I hope you all are doing well!

Love 

Hermana Dunn

September 3, 2018

HOLA!

This week I traveled up to Salta to sign some papers for a visa and I met up with my old CCM companions and district it was so fun! Then they fed us all you can eat Empanadas and man where they good I ate like 10. But then I was suffering the consequences from that for the last 5 days I’ve been on a BRAT diet lol but I heard all the Americans get super sick just because the food here is so different and not regulated in any way. I have started singing “Forever Sick” to the toon of “Forever Young” haha it’s so funny. Yikes. But now I don’t think I ever want another empanada again or a stick roll (they also had all you could eat of those too). 

Other than the illness tracking this week has been okay we did have a cool experience with a lady where we knocked on her door and she let us in told we asked if we could pray with her after some small talk and after the prayer she started crying saying she felt so much peace and she has been having heath problems and her son hasn’t been very kind to her. Then we gave her a Book of Mormon, but she can’t read so we are going to start reading it with her this week and she is excited to have us come back!

I hope everyone is having a great week! 

Love you ALL

Hermana Dunn

Pictures from Salta

Pictures from this week!

Pictures from last week