Tuesday, March 11, 2014

March 10, 2014

Greetings!!

I can't believe that it's already Monday. Where did the time go? I'm having a hard time recalling what happened because it literally FLEW BY. 

I LOVED MLC ON THURSDAY!! It was so amazing! I learned so much and received a lot of revelation. I actually took a lot of notes which is a rare thing! I learned so much about the Doctrine of Christ and the eternalness it has in everyone's life. I learned most that we are not just trying to get someone baptized, we are helping them receive eternal life like our mission statement says. That is our purpose as missionaries. Until this meeting I had never realized that I "get it" like Brother Packer (a member from the missionary department from Salt Lake who also happens to be the grandson of Elder Packer.....) kept saying. I get why we do the things we do and I get why the people we work with need to do certain things. I'm not teaching people to mark off one more check on the list of things to do. I'm literally helping someone become like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. This knowledge is so precious to me and I recognize that it is the driving force of why I'm a missionary. I want all of my brothers and sisters to come back! Now I take more time to think about a person's needs and I seek revelation to know what Heavenly Father would have us do to help this person. Planning means so much more to me now than ever and I want to make it powerful, effective, and a time to receive revelation. Brother Packer had us do an activity in the parking lot of the church. We stood at one end of the parking lot and when Brother Packer said something like "invited to read the Book of Mormon" we would have to decide how big of a step to take that would bring us to the other side of the parking lot which represented baptism. The activity in the parking lot made me really think about how big the little things like prayer and reading the Book of Mormon are in someone's journey to eternal life. I LOVED MLC!! I gained such a strong testimony of the Doctrine of Christ and everyday during my studies I seek earnestly to learn the doctrine more and to find way to make it apply to EVERYTHING and try and see the eternal perspective of everything. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!

The work in the ward is coming along. Our most promising investigator is Jackie. She and her boyfriend Don (who looks exactly like Johnny Depp....) are former investigators. Don was the main person being taught when they first starting investigating. We've gone by a few times to talk with them and we've attempted to teach the first lesson with no luck. But every time we've gone by we teach them about how God is our LOVING Heavenly Father. Don has his own beliefs and rolls his eyes at us (we'll keep working on him....) while Jackie is attentive and you can see that she listens and wants to know if God really loves her and is her Heavenly Father. Last night we taught that principle again and I felt like I needed to share a very special experience about how I came to know that God is my loving Heavenly Father. The spirit was there so strong and she was crying and I was crying and I'm sure if the Spirit could physically cry He would have been crying as well. It was so spiritual and peaceful and I KNOW that she felt the Spirit. We're not sure that Don was touched as much though... We're praying that his heart will be softened. We invited her to pray and she was more willing to do it. All the lessons we've taught them have been on their porch, but not the next one! A member offered to have the lesson in their home so our next lesson with be in a member's home where we know the Spirit can be there. Jackie is our most promising investigator that could really PROGRESS. Otherwise we have 3 less active families that are returning to activity! YAY! There's so much going on in our ward. We always have people to see and teach and we're doing what the Bishop has asked us to do... which is to help the members of the ward be more converted. We've seen the excitement level of the ward increase and the members willingness to come out with us, especially the sisters, has skyrocketed. There's a lot going on! Although we don't have a lot of investigators, that part of the work is starting to pick up now that the members are more on-board. So exciting!! 

I'm so excited for Zone Conference this week. The talk that the assistants asked everyone to read in preparation for Zone Conference is the talk "What's the Blueprint of the Church?" by Elder Callister. I study it all the time and I'm strengthening my testimony that this is Christ's church on the earth. Reading this talk, studying the scriptures and "Jesus the Christ," and even watching "The District" DVDs has really helped as well. This Zone Conference I'm determined to be the most prepared that I've ever been. I'm so ready for it!!

Oh, it was so cool seeing President and Sister Jenkins at our stake conference. Now our members have a face for the name. Many of our members were touched by the comments they made about families and how easy it is to talk about family. Many, many, many LOVED it. With a new stake presidency and after being fed spiritually and receiving encouragement for how to do missionary work, I know our members will blossom and grow. I hope that we can keep this excitement going! 

-Sister Dunn

The pictures are of the stage for the Easter Pageant. The structure is BIGGER than the Visitors' Center!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful flowering tree

Tree flower

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