Feb 18th

      Last Saturday we had a pivotal meeting with Say, our investigator 30 minutes away. We've been pushing back his baptismal date because of his Word of Wisdom issues, and the fact that President doesn't want us traveling so far so often, so we couldn't visit him as much as we'd expected. But this Saturday he told us he'll be leaving on a trip to Boston to see his mom and would be gone for three weeks but that he was willing to get baptized after that. We got quiet for a second as we realized what could happen in those three weeks and Sis. McQuivey expressed her worry that once he got back he would not be interested in baptism anymore. He said he had enough faith to wait until he got back, so she turned that around and asked if he had enough faith to get baptized before he left. He was quiet for a moment before his fellowship Sawine started bearing testimony to him. He thought for some more before he finally agreed that he would get baptized before he left! We asked him to say the closing prayer to that lesson which he accepted and finished with tears in his eyes. I asked him if he felt warm in his heart which he did, and pointed out it was the Spirit. He is the most elect person I have ever met in learning the gospel! President's still cutting down the frequency of our visits, but if we talk to him about our circumstances more fully he'll let us keep going twice a week.

The day after Valentines day the ward held a Valentine's dinner and asked us missionaries to do a musical number. Elder Rhodes had the sheet music for the song "Open Arms" by Journey, and I'd never seen it, but we decided that's what we would do. When we got there the whole building and parkinglot was dark. There were cars in the parkinglot, but the only thing we saw were a few people coming in and out of the building with bobbing flashlights. As it turns out the power randomly went out, so they had as many flashlights as people had (which was actually a fair amount) to light up the gym where they had just finished eating. I only got to practice the piece a couple times - not even the whole way through - before going to perform in front of the ward. But the best part was wearing the headlamp so I could see my music. My companion also held a flashlight to a part of the page that had the lyrics on it so the others could sing it. It went really well, and having the power out made it all the better. Dishes afterwards was quite the chore though since they'd used glass dishes for the dinner and the hot water was out for the first load so we were just rinsing until Bishop was able to turn it on and we could wash them all thoroughly.

We're still meeting with Mr. S, who turned out to be a less-active not an investigator, but we've been avoiding him a little bit recently.  During our first few visits he wrote Sister McQuivey a four page letter and said it also applied to me but not Sis. Walker, and goes off on this idea that we have STDs. I wish you could meet him to know that that's just the way he is, that he's totally non-threatening and the whole thing was so out of the blue it was comical. But needless to say, ever since he got our number and acquired a phone (he admits not in an honest way) we've screened most of his calls and texts. We'll see whether or not we drop him, but so far he's no longer considered in-active since he's come to church every week since the first day last transfer.

Our mission is doing what's called March Madness where every week we have an assignment we do and turn into the office so by the end of 6 weeks the zone with the most assignments accomplished will be treated by the President to an activity of their choice such as bowling, or laser tag, etc. This past week was our first and even though we were asked to study things from Preach My Gospel that I've studied multiple times before, I learned so much more! It's actually a part of our preparation for the one time we get to go to the temple which is coming up in April, and I am so stoked!

Love you!

Sister Dunster