Greetings!
What a week! This has been a really great week because of transfers which means fresh starts and more! This is going to be a really good week and transfer! I live in apartments, but we hope to change that. I mean, these people have million dollar homes, they can spare a bedroom for a couple of sister missionaries. ;) Just kidding! I love being in apartments, but I wish they were closer to our area, but OH WELL! It could always be worse!
I feel really good about the area and my companions. It just feels right! It's hard to describe but I am really enjoying being in a trio. To be honest, when I found out I was going to be in yet another trio I was not happy. The last trio I was in was a disaster and I was scared to be in another one, but I quickly humbled myself, repented, and told the Lord I would do whatever He needed me to do. Ever since then I have felt really good about my companions. I feel that we work really well together... like soul sisters :) I haven't been this happy in a long time. I feel that I am actually enjoying the work. We all have different strengths to bring into this area and we are going to make miracles happen! I'm just afraid that because we are like best friends that we will slack a little in the work or the rules. I feel I have to be on my guard to be and do my best to be obedient and to be Christlike.
The area is hard. I can't think of anther word to describe it, but I love it and I know I'm supposed to be here. The members are great but they are struggling a lot. We've spent a lot of time getting to know our members and finding out what their needs are. The members need A LOT of love. They don't even love each other so why would the Lord trust them with a new convert? It's sad to see that they don't serve each other or reach out in love. They're in their own little bubble. We've spent a lot time praying, pondering, and discussing as to how we can help them come unto Christ. We've decided to do it through music! We are going to be teaching members the lessons but we all feel that the hymns will be able to reach a part of their hearts that the spoken word can't reach. We're putting together a medley of hymns that teach about the Savior's love. The progress of the members will be slow and I'm praying everyday that I will remain patient and accept the Lord's timing. These wards have the potential to be baptizing and I hope that we can help them reach that potential.
Crazy story. The bishop in the Stonebridge ward has an older brother who lives in Utah. That brother happens to be my stake president AND neighbor. It was weird seeing a picture of the stake president on the wall of the bishop in the area where I am serving. Crazy. I know. I keep finding all these random connections. Like, there was a returned missionary who served with my amazing cousin. These connections are everywhere! I love it!
We had some really awesome miracles this week. We have an investigator named Ed who is almost impossible to catch. It was actually yesterday. We were praying to know where we needed to be and Sister Krueger felt that we needed to see someone not on our list. We take a leap of faith and go to the home and no one is there. We all look at each other and we thought it was random, but oh well! We continue on our way and we feel like we need to go a certain way. This certain way was the long way to our investigators house, but we thought "what the heck" and we go the long way. We get to his house and as we're walking up to his door he drives up and we're able to have a great lesson with him. The Lord really does work in mysterious ways and it takes a lot of faith and courage to follow even the most seemingly random prompting. If we did not listen to the Spirit we would have missed Ed! Miracle!
We said goodbye to John Taylor last week. He's the investigator that lives in Gilbert. We lovingly let him know that we could no longer teach him and he needed to continue to be taught by the missionaries in the ward where he lives. He took it really hard but he could see that we didn't want to do it but we were doing it in love and obedience for the Lord. As far as I know he's taking the lessons there and will be baptized in a couple of weeks. That was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I'm writing blog post about it (with their permission of course) because there's too much to write in an email. I learned a lot about faith and the power of real Charity and love. Those Christlike attributes really do have the power to change hearts, we just have to be worthy for that power to work with us and through us.
I also had to say goodbye to Christian this week. The cute, sweet 9 year old broke into tears. It was tender to see pure love from a child. It made my heart swell and I am eternally grateful that I got to spend 6 months in Vista Peaks. They're like family to me. I thank God for that opportunity to serve in that area every single day.
I can't wait to see what lies ahead this next transfer! Time is going by so fast and I can truly feel the Lord hastening His work. I'm just trying to keep up because that rate that He's working at is fast!
-Sister Dunn
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