8 month mark!

Oy vey! I can't believe I will have been out for 8 months TOMORROW!!! Time has FLOWN by!

Well it happened!!!!! ANA GOT BAPTIZED on SATURDAY!!!! Feb. 19th, 2011! Her dad, Albino (who just got baptized in January) Baptized her!!! It was so awesome! I loved it! and I'm sure she did too! Then she received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday in church of course. She was just Beaming! We had a party after the baptism too and Hermana Salazar and Ana had made a big pot of chicken Mole!!! YUMMY!!! It was sooooooo good! Mole is my favorite.

Well something embarrassing happened the other day that I feel bad for. We were taking the other sisters to their apartment to drop them off from district meeting. We parked real fast.... cause when nature calls, ya gotta go!!!! Right?! Well we stopped for the bathroom break and were ready to start the day..... When we walked outside our car was being hooked on to the tow truck! AHHHHH! I know, I know! terrible! So we ran and talked to him thinking that by some miracle he could drop it for free. Well that didn't happen. I had to pay $89 on my debit card to drop it. BUT the good news is that we caught him because it would've cost like $400 or $500 to get it from the impound! Our wonderful, but maybe a little too nice of mission president doesn't make us pay for stupid mistakes like that.....I guess he pays for it?? I know! Crazy! So, I'm thankful....but sorry! But the funny part of the story is that I gave the guy a mormon.org card and said, "Well this is for you!!!" ..and he was like " Ah, now you're making me feel bad!" He didn't like his job, but we understood.....it's his job! So we invited him to go to the website and then he had to go.

Another "fun" story...oy! A week or so ago the whole district went over to eat at a member's house. It was goood! We are always grateful for those that share their food with us. Well turns out that the whole night, the whole district was wiped out and kept making trips to the bathroom!! No one felt good. But we lived! The many joys of new cultures and the mission life. I just thought it was funny though how the whole district was down and out.. oh well. It was GOOD food! I'm fully converted to spicy Mexican food! Anything else will be bland when I come home. Ok maybe not everything else.

Well I love you all and hope that I can get some pictures in the mail to you from the baptism. It really was just so amazing.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love ,
Hermana Dunn

Feb 8th Letter

From 70-80 degree weather!

HA! I know I like to rub it in, but it's just so warm. But when it's cold it's a little more humid cold which REALLY doesn't feel good and especially in a skirt!

Well let me just say that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days in the mission! I can't believe I've been on the mission for 7 going on 8 months! Let alone in Chula Vista for pretty much 6 months of that time! It's crazy! I absolutely love it though. I'm getting to know the members a lot more and I love love LOVE them so much! They feel like family and every once in a while it's nice to talk to people that are actually excited to see you and don't run away from you! People that actually want to listen to you haha. But I love everyone of course! We are still working with Ana. She was in Mexicali for a week or so, so we didn't get a chance to see her for a while....but she will hopefully be getting baptized this weekend! We haven't confirmed the date yet but YAY!!!!!! She's just so awesome and we love her so much. Oh and we added some people to the teaching pool. Elim is 17 and she's awesome! She's a foster child of a member. She's really interested and we are going to be meeting with her again tomorrow.

Other than that we've just been trying to find more people all the time. Sister Muir goes home on March 1st :-( She's definitely not too happy about that. None of us are....but the time just keeps FLYING by....holy cow it's so fast! Then the 2nd is when we have transfers. So yeah. Things are going pretty well though, other than the fact that people are just SOOOO busy all the time that we can't find anyone at home or on the phone... or my favorite is when people peek through the window and then come lock the door and don't answer... or when you can obviously hear them inside and they say SHHHHHH! really loud and fake they aren't home.

The past couple weeks I've really noticed and appreciated what an amazing family I have. The love and kindness and just the fact that we are just.....I dunno....a good family!!! How blessed we are, not that materialistic things matter at all! But we have a roof and food and heat and clothes. We are very privileged to have all these blessings. The greatest blessing I think we have is the gospel. The unity and happiness it brings to our family when we allow it to. The family is ordained of God and He has created this WHOLE plan of happiness and salvation for us and our families. To have unity, support, a sense of security and belonging, peace, love and happiness. I'm am so thankful to have the family I have, and I love you all ....and the friends that I have too!

Seeing the different situations of people here on the mission makes me really see the blessings of the gospel. Some families are broken or some have no family or hate their family. Some don't have much, but have everything in their family relationship! It makes me want to share the gospel even more to these families, because I know that the gospel will bring these blessings that I have. It will bring them hope. It's been said in the Proclamation to the World the Family by the church that "Happiness is most likely to be achieved when the family builds their foundation on the principles of the gospel, love, repentance, forgiveness, patience, etc" something like that. It's one of my favorite lines though. It is true! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! JUST TRY IT!!! LIVE IT! Love it! .... do it Because you love it and because you love the Lord! and "he shall direct thy paths for good".
Look up Heleman 5:12 It's an amazing promise! Also Mosiah 2:41, and Mosiah 4;9-10.

Today I'm going on the trolley to down town with a bunch of other missionaries, so that will be fun! I love you all!

Con Amor,
Hermana Tawny Nadene Dunn