September 2, 2013

Hello!

This week has been a week of new things! First off, my transfer went great! I love my new companion Sister Clemons. She is so dedicated to the work and does everything she can to work long and hard to serve the people in our area. We serve in the Citrus Heights Stake and we work with Northpoint and Estate Groves wards. These wards are awesome and the members are very active and many are missionary minded and there's like 20 families who have missionaries out serving! This area is crazy! There's a lot of work to be done here.

Right now we don't have any investigators and it's hard determining where we need to go. We are trying to gain the trust of the members to let us go and visit their referrals. Many members give us referrals but tell us not to go over until they've talked to them. We want to let them know that we can be trusted and we can go together to see their friends. We want them to exercise their faith in us and know that the Lord will make something happen. 

We do teach a lot of members though! One of our focuses is to help everyone go to the temple and receive exalting ordinances and to remember them. So we teach members and help them come closer to Christ. And by being in their homes, we hope that they will want and have a desire to give us referrals. We're exercising our faith a lot right now. But this month's theme is also finding with FAITH. This is going to be a great month to find people to teach.

We taught part of a lesson in Relief Society in Northpoint about what we can do to help the work progress in the ward. We talked a lot about faith and being a friend first. We used the story in John 21 where Peter and two apostles were fishing after the Savior's ascension to heaven and were having no success. The Lord happened to be on the shore and instructed the men to put the nets on the other side of the boat. They did as they were told and got so many fish the boats began to sink! It was then that Peter realized that it was the Savior and literally swam to the shore to greet him. When everyone arrived there was a fire there and the Savior provided a meal for his disciples before he began teaching them. There's a power lesson taught here. I learned that becoming a friend is so important when we want to introduce people to the gospel. Friendships are one of the things we take with us to the next life. If we establish a friendship first, then sharing the gospel becomes more natural because we want our friends to know about what makes us happy! I think the sisters learned that too and I can't wait to see what happens!

So the Saturday before I got here Northpoint had a baptism. A 66 year old man named Harry joined the church. Sister Clemons and I are teaching him new member lessons and each time I meet with him I'm amazed at his spiritual knowledge. Heavenly Father knew that he was ready and is blessing him with knowledge and strength. He has a son we were going to teach because he showed some interest but now he's asked us to delete his number from our phones and to never contact him again. I really believe that each person who is taught the gospel is prepared by God. Harry and his son Shawn are living proof! Harry was prepared and welcomed the gospel into his life while Shawn isn't ready and God knows that. 

 

Even though it's difficult not having a lot of people to teach, being able to study the Book of Mormon everyday has blessed my life immensely. I've been studying a lot about faith looking for patterns of strength received when faith was acted upon. Right now I'm studying Mormon and Mormon is such a role model to me! Even though Mormon was working with extremely wicked people, he never gave up on them. He had faith that one day their hearts might be softened and remember the teachings of the Savior. And even though that never happened, his faith made him stronger and he grew closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I feel the same way right now.

I'm grateful to be in the area I'm serving in and I know the Lord wants me here right now :)

Love, Sister Dunn



Lazona Ward Party