May 10th

Happy mothers day today!!! In Mexico, Mothers Day is always celebrated on the 10th of May. It's like a holiday holiday too....No one does anything but celebrate all day. Everything is shut down etc. So we'll see if we get to teach anyone tonight! They might all be in Mexico with their moms. But Mother's day rocked cause I got to call home! woohoo! Then it made me feel trunky for a little while....but I got over it. haha.

Well really the only big news is that my companion had to go home :-(. Because of medical reasons. But the good news is that she will come back out when she gets better! Sister Jensen, we miss her. But President Donaldson said that she was doing good. It was kinda crazy though cause it was so last minute. She left Saturday within about 3 hours from when she talked with president. But she'll be back soon!

Ana, our investigator, is still progressing, but we found out that she doesn't feel ready this month to get baptized and that she's going to be in Mexico for like a month or something! oy! But that she wants to after she gets back, so that was a little sad to hear, but we still have strong faith in her and know that she will get baptized when she's ready! Which is good and what we want for everyone, to be ready.
Jose Luis is slowly progressing too. We taught him the word of wisdom and it went shockingly well! He didn't understand the no coffee and tea thing at first, but when we taught the doctrine and the "why" he understood and was like, "OH! Well I'm gonna get rid of it!" It was amazing! and he let us talk!!! haha We weren't there for even an hour! Ok, 55 mins but that's FAST for him! It was awesome!

It's weird that transfers will be in 2 weeks, since we just had some...sort of. Who knows what will happen and who will go where!

I thought I would share something cool that I read about today while studying. I was reading about the Plan of Salvation, which is the plan that Heavenly Father has for us to gain peace in this life and in the life to come. It answers the questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? and Where are we going? But I was reading in True to the Faith, on pg 117 about the blessings of knowing the plan! it say:

"A testimony of the plan of salvation can give you hope and purpose as you wrestle with the challenges of life. You can find reassurance in the knowledge that you are a child of God and that you lived in His presence before you were born on the earth. You can find meaning in your present life, knowing that your actions during mortality influence your eternal destiny. With this knowledge, you can base important decisions on eternal truths rather than on the changing circumstances of life." My favorite part is that last sentence! This gospel is the ETERNAL TRUTHS that have been restored to us. We can find security and know that we won't be lead down the wrong path when we Base our decisions on these ETERNAL TRUTHS, rather than on the ever changing of called "morals" and circumstances of the world. Eternity and God and Heaven are always going to be the same yesterday today and forever and it's going to go on for all eternity! This world we live in now is a split second compared with eternity. And I dunno about you but I've observed a lot of challenges in this life and had my own... But because of the plan of salvation...because of the restoration of the gospel...I know these eternal truths to actually be true! and I know that anything and everything can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ... through the ways that He has set! We can make our decisions, knowing that when we choose the right, we will be rewarded with the acceptance in to the presence of the Lord, in Heaven, forever living in a FULLNESS of Joy and Happiness with our families. That's why we follow the commandments. That's why we are in the world but not of the world. That's why we stand out. Because we know the truthfulness of the gospel. and THATs why we are so persistent in trying to help others come unto Christ, through faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the holy ghost...and enduring to the end. I know it's true. And I know you know it's true, or have known that, or will come to know that. I know that by reestablishing or reenforcing that knowledge and living it, will give you eternal happiness.

It later goes on to say in True to the faith on pg117 , "You can continually improve your relationship with family members, rejoicing in the promise that your family can be eternal. You can find joy in your testimony of the Atonement and the Lord's commandments, ordinances, covenants, and doctrines, knowing that 'He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come' (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23)' " .

It's everyone's choice to accept it or not though. Heavenly Father is definitely happy when we choose to follow it and accept it.

I love you all! And hope you are well and happy!

Love,

Hermana Dunn

May 17th Letter

HELLO!!! HOLA! Buenos Dias! Que tal? What up?! haha

I've got exciting news! My recent convert Albino.... you remember how it started with him and then we baptized his daughter Ana, and then His wife Susana got baptized in Mexicali.... We were teaching his son Tony whenever he was here in SD.... but he would go to Mexicali a lot. Well, HE GOT BAPTIZED down there 2 weeks ago!!! on mothers day! and he got confirmed this last Sunday!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! The whole family is following! Albino is super happy and now there's just one more son that hasn't gotten baptized. Some day. :-) It was so exciting to hear that he got baptized though.

We are actually going to be having a small Mission President's fireside again this month but in Calexico. My apartment and 4 other sisters and two cars full of elders will be going there to sing and do the special musical numbers. I will be playing my violin again on the same song. So hopefully I won't mess up again haha. But it'll be a two, two and a half hour drive out to the desert. I heard it's HOT HOT HOT out there! Like 95 degrees at night! It gets up to about 120 normally in the summer... Which sounds like what I was going to be dealing with if I had gone to Salta, Argentina. It should be fun! We're just going for the night and driving back right after the fireside. I will also be singing in a small group of sisters for one of the songs, plus the choral pieces. So that will be fun this weekend!

Transfers are on the 25th next week so we'll see what changes are made. I have to give the lesson in gospel principles this coming Sunday and then if I'm still here on the 29th I'll speak in sacrament on missionary work.

We got an awesome new investigator....actually a couple! that are really interested in learning more, so that's sweet! It's nice to actually talk to people that are happy to see you and want to see you and don't avoid you, run away or hide. One of the investigators might be a lil too happy to see us!! LOL ...so they might just go to the elders instead. We'll see though.

Lately a couple people have told me that I've lost weight which is GREAT! But I dunno I think it just might be my bangs that I just cut that makes my face look different, cause they do. I definitely don't really feel like I've lost weight haha. But hey! I'll take that compliment!
We had some exciting things happen at our apartment! One is that we found a kitten and her mom on our back porch and she is SOOOO CUTE!!!! But they are strays so it breaks my heart... We don't feed them but they just chill on the back porch sometimes. The other one is that the sister's bikes got STOLEN from the front porch the other day!!!!! AY!!!! They had forgotten to lock their bikes at night and when we opened the window we realized they were gone! ay! Sister Adams was using sister Kratzer's bike too and had just dropped $80 to repair it the day before!!!! So we went back to the bike shop and she bought the exact same bike and everything since sister Kratzer will be coming back soon to get it. Bummer!!

That's pretty much the news down here at the border! Hope all is well with work, health and school!

Love,

Hermana Dunn

April 25th Letter

TOMORROW!!!!! Yup tomorrow is the day that we go to the Carlsbad Mission to see L. Tom Perry. I'm super excited! Oh ....I'm giving the closing prayer too! I just remembered that ....guess I'll practice my prayers in English today haha.


So This week has been a little crazy, but last night topped it off. My comp and I went to see an investigator, Ana and we had a AMAZING LESSON!!!!!!!! It was totally the spirit teaching and directing what to say and ask. It was just so awesome we all almost started to cry. My heart was full afterwords. I just love these people so much! Especially when the spirit works through us to be able to help them come to know Christ and His Gospel and the truthfulness of it. She agreed to prepare herself to be baptized on mothers day May 8th. Which by the way will be the day that I call home again! Feels like yesterday that i just talked to the fam, but it's here again!

Anyways with Ana we were reviewing the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we hadn't had personal study that morning as church starts at 9AM. So I was feeling unprepared but said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me remember scriptures, or know what to say and what to ask. Then during the time when we were talking about her family and how this would bless her and her family I remembered two scriptures that I just happened to read in sacrament yesterday! They were PERFECT! Mosiah 2:22&41.. look them up. It's Heavenly Father's promise to his children that when we obey the commandments we are blessed in all things temporally and spiritually and that this promise never falters but is the same forever.... but we must do our part to act and exercise faith.

Random little tidbit! My roommate, sister Adam's, .....her great grandfather is Bruce R. McConkie! Pretty sweet huh. Now I want to read the Mormon Doctrine books that he wrote when I get home even more!

Well other than that we are just trying to find more people as always. That's the hard part. It sure is easier when members find know and/or find those that are truly searching for it. People will talk to us sure....but sometimes they just aren't interested! Story of my life, but there are those that really are and really do things to know it for themselves! That's where We come in! To help people know for themselves that the gospel is true, then showing them how to act on that knowledge. Knowledge without using it or doing anything is never going to benefit us at all. You've got to apply it!! Then that knowledge will turn into something even greater, which is wisdom!

My TEN MONTH MARK was on Saturday the 23rd. OY! Time is flyin and I only have 8 months of this amazing time left... scary!

Well I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!
Love ,
Hermana Dunn

Thanks to momma I GOT MY VIOLIN THE OTHER DAY!!!! I got it in the biggest box ever! It was pretty funny. But Sister Donaldson, my mission president's wife, asked me to play violin in the next fireside coming up this Sunday!!! I'm going to be playing with the choir "I am a child of God" in Spanish as this one will be a Spanish fireside. I'm definitely nervous because I haven't played in a LONG time so I've been practicing it....there's some harder parts in it that go into 3rd position, or the high part of the violin, which I'm nervous for and might just rewrite to a lower part. But it will still sound good. I'm still nervous though. My nerves always get the best of me and my hands get shaky and I can't do vibrato very well because it just goes crazy and isn't controlled. So any advice to kick the nerves? anyone? For next time I play. Man I'm shaken just thinking about it. haha. So pathetic! The part that gets me is that I've performed my WHOLE LIFE and I STILL get nervous and shaky! oy! I'm just going to pray a lot, do all I can and then the Lord will take the rest, so I can share my talent with those that need it at this fireside. But any other tips would be good too!!

Well we've had a good time! We've gotten a few new people which is exciting. The hard part is seeing anyone because NO ONE IS HOME! Everyone is soooo packed with working and other things all the time....which is understandable of life and the economy right now. But it's got to be hard when you pack your life so much that you hardly have time for family or just yourself. I've grown to love people so much more on the mission. I've been in this area of Otay Mesa (Chula Vista) for 7 almost 8 months now and I love love love the ward! I love the people and I love the people we meet teach and everyday. The thing that I've grown to notice and love a lot more is the fact that, here in the Church of Jesus Christ, His Church, we are all living the Same gospel and have the same purpose to work and in. No matter where you go throughout the world the gospel is the same! It is God's. It is universal.... It is the INFINITE atonement of Jesus Christ that we all teach throughout the whole world no matter what race, culture or background you come from. Here on the mission I especially love seeing, so many different people with different backgrounds and stories, but who are united in Love and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have the same "perfect brightness of Hope" (1Nephi 31:21ish) that we can live with our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ again, with our families.

I love how in General Conference last Sunday, Elder Jeffery R. Holland, one of the 12 Apostles, said that "this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It's not a huge fast food outlet!! You can't ALWAYS 'have it your way'!" which is my point. This isn't the gospel of men....to fit the preferences, pleasures, opinions or likes of men! It is not to fit what can be comfortable to men, but that it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan of our Heavenly Father which is tailored to help us, transform us into happier children of God, so that we can stand worthy in His sight once again. If God is the same yesterday today and forever, like it says in the scriptures, then His gospel is too. It is the same yesterday today and forever and can promise you that His Gospel has been restored to it's FULLNESS, (meaning, without lacking certain parts) today to bring us the saving ordinances of the gospel so that we can enter back into the presence of the Lord and become like him. So that when we live worthily and endure to the end, applying HIS Gospel in our lives, we will prove ourselves worthy to be rewarded with a FULLNESS of JOY.

Your Heavenly Father loves you. No matter who you are or what you do, He always has and always will love you with a perfect, infinite (meaning NO END) love. He knows you...really KNOWS you....and has tailored the gospel perfectly to help you become your true self, to reach your full potential of becoming worthy to enter into his rest. He loves the whole world. But it's only through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that we can do that. It is up to you, to choose what to do with the time that has been given to you (yes that is on Lord of the Rings but is SO true and awesome!). It is up to you to accept or reject the fullness of the gospel, because if any part of the gospel was missing then it wouldn't work. God would cease to be god, to be perfect and all knowing. That's in the scriptures somewhere.....I think around 2 Nephi or Alma? I don't remember.

I love the Lord and my Heavenly Father. I love their gospel. I love being a missionary. And I would like to invite all of you to Know for yourself, from God, to know that these things are true. If you have a sincere desire in your heart and you REALLY intend to do what God would want you to do and you ASK Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if these things are true, He will reveal into your heart, mind, feelings and thoughts by the power of the Holy Ghost, that what we know to be true, is true! Will you pray to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to it's fullness? If and when you do I can promise you that the Lord will bless your life, and help you with your struggles, and help you come to accept and receive the gospel.

Love,

Hermana Dunn

P.S. Please keep my companion Sister Bickley in your prayers, her Knees could send her home if they don't get better.

PSS. Transfers are on the 13th and I will find out the 12th if I get my area changed....who knows what will come.

I got Kissed!!!

By the sun......and by an investigator! Did I make you gasp when you read the email heading? lol yes I sorta got kissed by the sun that we've been getting. It has been nice and warm lately! It even got into the low 80s the other day, so it's been really nice. Then when we watched General Conference and saw that the trees outside the conference center had a fresh coat of snow, it sort of shocked me haha. I forget that it's winter everywhere else because it's so warm down here. And yes I got kissed.....on the cheek. Don't worry, by one of our investigators. Jose Luis Lopez! He's in about his 60's, so not too harmful. lol But it was a shock for sure because you just don't do that as a missionary! But it's normal in the Hispanic culture to do the "handshake, hug, kiss on the cheek greeting". He then tried to repeat it to my companion, but she just held her hand out and was like "no we can't do that" and he looked soooo sad and like he felt bad because he didn't know. I felt so bad....but better that he knows now. lol
A day in the life of the missionary!

3-29-11

Hello everyone from the Sunny San Diego California Mission!

This past week has been awesome! We really stepped it up and opened our mouths more and talked with a LOT of people! It was awesome! and because of our efforts to be more efficient in the work of the Lord, we were blessed! We added 5 new investigators!!!! YAY!!!! Well actually 6 but one was only here for the week and just went back to TJ. but what an amazing blessing! We have been needing new investigators so bad and we just boomed! Of course every mission and every area in the mission is different for finding and teaching but for us....6 new was a lot!!! We have a pretty white area so it's hard to find. So needless to say... I love being a missionary. I love this calling and everything that i learn each day, especially about leadership.

Something I learned in my studies today was from the book "Jesus the Christ" by James E Talmage....I think? is that when Christ taught the greatest commandment to his 12 apostles at the last supper to love one another as He loved them..... He was not only teaching them to love the Lord with all their heart might mind and strength but to love our neighbors. And with this love that they had they would let the world know that they were set apart to this calling as leaders because of that love. And that's just it! One of the keys to leadership, that we can see even in Christ's life, is that a leader should have and infinite love for those he serves. A leader should serve out of love for the people, and not out of love for himself or to get gain.

So I loved that.

Please keep my comp. sister Bickley in your prayers. Her knee problems have been kinda coming back and the next step basically, if it doesn't get better, is surgery which would end her mission. She's been having a real rough time with this especially yesterday at the Dr. and I know exactly how she feels! It was giving me MTC flashbacks.....but yea....she has what's called Patella Femoral Chondromalacia... or that her knee caps slid off to the side because her cartilage is softened or something. Basically a young persons arthritis but not necessarily at the same time meaning that she'll get that. So yeah.... Please keep her in your prayers so that she can heal and finish her 6-7 months left! Love you!

Love Hermana Dunn

Elder L. Tom Perry

So guess what!!!! I got a call yesterday morning from President Donaldson. He asked me to give the closing prayer for when Elder Perry comes to talk to the entire Carlsbad Mission and the entire San Diego Mission together on April 26th. !!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!! I was just like....OH! uhhhhh! SURE! he said "Make sure you work on your thee's and thou's real well."
Well, I"M nervous! but EXCITED!!! I dunno why I was the one picked but I'm pretty pumped, and am going to make sure I don't look homely that day and not do anything embarrassing, like call him someone else or burp in the middle of the prayer or something!! haha! Plus!! I need to practice praying in English because it's WAY weird to do that and I forget words because we always pray in Spanish! So pray for me!

Some more news! It's my HALFWAY mark TOMORROW!!!! 9 MONTHS! aHHHH!!! I cannot believe that it's gone by SO FAST! I feel like I just got here yesterday and I've spent 7-8 months here in Chula Vista. It's been awesome. I love being a missionary and I don't even want to think about when I come back to the normal life. It'll be hard and weird. Yes the mission life is definitely hard. It's physical mental and spiritual work. President said that mental work is definitely harder than physical work, and spiritual work is harder than mental and physical work combined. NO wonder we're sooooo drained each day! When we hit the pillow we are out! and it seems like we are always tired. .....because we are. But it's amazing the amount of energy and power that the Lord blesses us with, to carry on! Press forward! Seguir adelante! The things we have LEARNED alone, would generally take a lifetime for someone to learn!.... but thanks to the many blessings of being a missionary we have the privilege to learn from our experiences, studies and teachings from our mission president too. I love it! It's going to bless my life so much....well it already has, but even more after the mission! I've learned the power of prayer and of the Holy Ghost to even help me study! I'm learning how to set goals and make plans everyday! and to learn to rely completely on the Lord and trust that as long as I'm being a good girl, obeying the commandments, keeping my covenants, and following the spirit... that it will be FINE! It'll be ok! Heavenly Father will take care of the rest! My roommate, sister Gines, gave this awesome analogy the other day that I love. "Quit trying to knock over all the domino's yourself! All you need to do is knock over the "God" domino FIRST, and he'll knock over the rest!" Aka,....put Him first in all you do, and He will guide you and let everything else fall into place!

Yesterday was an awesome day! We talked with a lot of people! I know I've now been on my mission for 9 months, but I'm not a perfect teacher and never will be! One thing I'm definitely not perfect at is stepping out of my comfort zone and just TALKING to people. So we tried it yesterday and it ROCKED! We talked to SO many people. Some listened and talked forever and others didn't. Now it's just always having that fire to do it, which is the hard part. But I'm doing my best to follow the spirit and really help others come unto Christ through HIS restored gospel and to help lead them along the path that HE has set for us.

I love you all! I love my mission! and I hope all of you have a GREAT week! and that all of you have GREAT health too! Thanks for all the prayers!

Love, Hermana Dunn!

ps. Brenna! Ryan Wood is totally on the new Mormon.org cards! He's on the bottom right corner of the cards with the black strip in the middle and blue letters. These are the new color ones with tons of pics of people on them. I thought it was cool.