December 1, 2014

Greetings!

 

This week has been so good! I don't know what's about it, but it was good. "HE IS THE GIFT" HAS STARTED!!!!! I'm so excited!! This is going to be such a positive thing! We were just at Winco before emailing and this good christian couple and I started a conversation about delicious Tillamook food and ended up talking for a minute about Christ and inviting them to watch "He is the Gift" and invite the Spirit into their lives. It's the most genius thing the church has ever come out with. When we first got the cards we were so excited that we just went up to the first person we saw and said "Hey!! We have a gift for you!!!" and proceeded to talk about the initiative and gave these two gentlemen a pass-along card, an invitation to learn more (which they declined *sad face*), and an invitation to Christmas Lights. It's the perfect thing we need to start talking with people.

It was really cool because I got to talk to one of the cashiers that we see every week at Winco today as well! I asked him how his Thanksgiving went and he went on about his family. Then I asked him what other traditions his family has and he went on about Christmas and having his entire family get together. What a perfect segway into Christmas Lights! This man was so excited when he got his invitation and said he's going to bring his entire family Christmas night to hear us perform. The miracles that are coming from this Christmas season!

It truly is a season to celebrate Christ!!

 

So, get your Ensigns out and set goals and make plans to hand out the 9 pass-along cards that were given to you. I'm also pretty sure that not handing out these cards is not an option. We believe in keeping the commandments, right? We learn the commandments from the word of God, or scriptures (ensigns for modern day prophets). We get the scriptures from prophets who speak for God. So when God tells us to do something though his prophets it becomes a commandment. This "He is the Gift" initiative is from the first presidency, so it's basically a commandment. I promise that it isn't hard to hand them out. It's actually really easy to start a conversation when you say "I have a gift for you!" This is coming from a person who struggles to start conversations. It's easy. If I can do it, you can too! Especially if it's to a friend or someone you love. Why not wrap the card with one of your favorite things? Be creative and be sure to involve the Lord through prayer. I promise that as you make yourself available to be an instrument this Christmas season that you will become one... the one the Lord needs you to be. :)

 

Since we can't really contact in our area, as a district we decided to spread "He is the Gift" around in a super creative way. We set up a hot chocolate stand at the church building at the turkey trot (which was along the route of the race). We started at 7:30 and waved at people as they drove by. We had more success once the race was finished, but the racers saw our stand as well as the drivers! We didn't just hand out hot chocolate; we handed out gifts as well! We wrapped pass-along cards and pamphlets to hand out to people!

 

Seriously this was the best idea we ever had. Here's a small miracle. We had the idea Wednesday morning during district meeting and had everything together by evening. Miracles. Even though people were hurrying, I know that someone somewhere was touched and will be changed as a result. The elders were really good about handing out the gifts and we got a lot out to people. The real spirit of Christmas and the restored gospel are being spread in the Salt River stake!

 

We haven't been able to meet with any of our potential investigators this past week... They all left to be with family for Thanksgiving. I mean, it sucks because they're gone but it's also good because they're with family. But small little miracles happened throughout the week!  Especially on Tuesday. I had prayed and asked Heavenly Father if we could have a really good night of finding people. We didn't have any appointments and I did not want to be contacting empty doors all night. Well, Heavenly Father is good and answered my prayers. Every house that we went to was opened. One was a former investigator family and said we could come back after the craziness of Thanksgiving.  Another was a PMF that had never opened their door in the 5 months we've been here. We were an answer to an active member's prayers as we visited her and helped her feel the spirit. Many more wonderful things happened. PLUS! This all happened in Stonebridge. Miracles.

 

Transfer news....... I'm staying here for my last 6 weeks but Sister Krueger is leaving... :'( Well, I'm sad to see Sister Krueger leave but I'm not upset or super emotional. When I read my transfer news email I was a little sad but peaceful at the same time. The Spirit really speaks to me through peace and he wasn't allowing me to get upset. He was just telling me that this is from God and it's the way things need to be. I'm super excited to be with Sister Taylor from Idaho! I love her! One of my favorite exchanges I ever went on was with Sisters Taylor and Taylor. I'm excited to see what the Lord is going to have us do together.

 

Good news! We survived our 7 Thanksgiving dinners! I never want to eat a big meal again, but we survived!!!! We made a plan that we would only eat one or two things at each house. At one we only had potatoes and another only pie and so on. We started our feast at 9 am and went until 7 that evening.

 

I also have to share this small miracle that happened this morning.  Last night we discovered our phone with a broken screen. We have no idea how it happened, but Elder Preston has been the best and got us a new phone. We thought we lost all our contacts but Elder Preston said that we could take our phone to the nearest Sprint store and they could transfer all of our 450 contacts to the new phone. Talk about a blessing! We get there and waited for our turn when a worker named Brian Dunn (funny because my name is Brianna Dunn.... I guess I found my long lost brother!!) and as he worked to get our contacts over he said that it wasn't working. He had tried 2 times and the machine told him no. I start praying and asking for a miracle (Sister Krueger is doing the same) and MIRACLE! The machine just started to transfer our contacts without a command. Brian was shocked and could not believe it. This man just witnessed God answering prayers and we let him know that too! MIRACLES!!

 

-Sister Dunn

 

 

We were just lining up to start the race!

It's a turkey-tater

Food. :)