July 29th

For some reason all our investigators decided to get sick and cancel all our appointments. So it was a really slow week, but we did get to go to Transfer mtg this past Tuesday! We welcomed 15 new elders and 13 new sisters into the mission before 13 sisters and 10 elders gave their final testimonies over the pulpit. I really love how we do it in this mission, because as President Blatter stood up afterwards, having witnessed his very first Transfer mtg, he said there wasn't any better advice he could give than what was already given by those finishing their missions. I'll miss going to every Transfer meeting, because it's a boost for the next transfer, and keeps us focused on the long run.

Here's just a little note on surviving as a missionary: We had a member take us out to dinner this week which we love and dread at the same time. He takes us to a buffet that serves Asian and Samoan foods, so it's good, but he's also Samoan, so he makes sure we go through several plates and dessert before we go. It's exhausting, but we've learned to be creative in disguising our plates to look bigger than they really are, and he loves telling stories, so it helps to keep him distracted as we shuffle things around. But he does tell really good stories, so we always enjoy his company.

We have an eight-year old's getting baptized today! Technically she's a child of record since her dad's a member, but her dad wanted us to teach her, and we're teaching her mom as well during her days off work. Unfortunately she's really busy, so they weren't able to get baptized on the same day, but we tried, and the mom should be coming to the baptism tonight which we're excited about.

Sorry this week's email was short, and I forgot my camera cord so I couldn't insert pictures, but I'll have more time next week.

Love you, and thanks for the support!

Sister Dunster

July 23rd

Last Monday we were invited to join the Young Women play soccer (side note: I've never played so many sports in my life as I have on my mission, but I'm getting the hang of it) and gathered in a circle afterwards to hear from: the missionaries. We weren't given a heads-up, so the other sisters went first and Sister Walker and I just spoke briefly about why we came out on a mission and what we've learned from it so far. It was a really fun experience being able to address the youth and something I hope to do again as that was something I would have loved if I'd had sister missionaries in my ward growing up. 

The following Sunday the father of one of the girls at soccer pulled us aside and said his daughter asked him if it was too early to start preparing for a mission. He said it was the first time she'd ever mentioned it, and he just wanted to thank us for being a good example and encouraged that we continue working more with the youth. They have the English sisters for that, but we'll see if we can pop in every so often as well.

The other day after we taught a yiay (the word for grandma), Sister Loy began fishing around her bag for a nickel while yiay took off her shirt. We asked Sister Loy what was going on and she said she was going to coin her. So there's this thing in Cambodia, where if you take a coin and scratch lines into the persons back - not so that it bleeds, but until it turns very red - it releases "bad air" and makes the person feel better. We'd heard of it before and had heard stories of it from our fellow missionaries in the mother country, but had never seen it done ourselves. At first we had Sister Loy do it, but seeing it would take awhile, we pitched in to help. It looks painful, and it lasts several days, but apparently it does hurt and afterwards yiay said she felt a lot better. It's a mystery!

Sunday we had our part-member family come to church, as well as the active Cambodian father and his son from another ward who speak Cambodian. It made Sister Loy and I very self-conscious as we translated/taught a bit of related doctrine to keep the flow because the topic was on pioneers, and everything they went through from crossing frozen rivers to the speaker's friend who had surgery on her eye. Neither Sis. Loy nor I knew any vocabulary for that. But it worked out well, and we had four people at our Sunday school class (excluding us) so it was exciting to have a bigger than tiny group. It's never the same week to week, but we're making progress!

It's crazy how time flies and every day presents its own challenges, but it's rewarding to see a little change in people or to see a little more growth from our efforts. It's all the Lord's work and we're only here to bring the Spirit into the people's lives and guide them back to their Savior, but it's a precious work I have the privilege to be a part of, and I love it.

Sister Dunster

 cleaning moss off a member's roof. It's a lot harder than it looks. 

1. Some service projects we did last week. This is raking up a woman's back yard of old grass, and cutting the new. Before when the bin was full ... and after when we made more space. (below)

                                                    Coining Yiay's back. It looks worse than it is!

                                    Helping scrape/paint primer on a nonmember's home. We had fun. :)

                                                        Eating a chili pepper together.... bad idea.

July 15

We've had abnormally dry and warm weather in Tacoma lately, and we did a lot of service projects, so surprisingly I got a tan! But we got to rake and cut tall grass in this woman's back yard, scrape moss off the roof of a member's house, and scrape/paint primer on a non-member's house which was the most fun because it brought back memories of painting with dad, and most of the ward was there so it was really fun getting to know them better.

We were able to get an eight-year old (whose dad's a member) and her mom on date for later this month on Sister Walker's birthday, so we're working especially hard to make sure we set solid appointments in order to teach them so hopefully everything will go well! The only draw-back is that's the day of transfers, and we have a dinner that day, so it's going to be a little packed.

Sunday was hectic as we had to make sure we had a ride for an investigator we've been teaching for the past like 8 months, who FINALLY came to church!! She's really old, and blind in one eye, so it's taken a lot to get her to come to our church and not go to the Buddhist temple, but she decided to come this week. We also wanted to make sure the family with the two on-date were able to make it, and although they weren't ready when we dropped by their house before church, they got ready and we were able to get them a ride to church! So here we had three investigators, and two recent converts at church, and we were a little late, but Sister Loy and I got the station set up for translating, and did that throughout the meeting. I translated for a speaker leaving on her mission, so it was super easy and made me feel really good about my translation although I know it was help from the Spirit, and I still said a lot of things wrong. Not everyone was able to stay for the rest of church, but after getting them rides, we still had three people attend our Khmer Sunday school!

I'm out of time, and on the way to an exchange, but the church is true, and the work is moving forward!

-Sister Dunster

July 8th

I had a ton of emails today, so here's some of what went on this past week:

We met with the new mission president and his wife, had personal interviews with each of them, and I really like them. 

Three weeks into being the only sister missionaries in the ward, some sisters were transferred in so we're back to having 7 sisters in the zone! That's nice for weekly P-day activities, which we can only have with sisters except for twice a transfer.

For the 4th the Blatters had the nearby missionaries come to a BBQ at the mission home, so we went there for dinner before going home by 8pm. We heard a lot of fireworks beyond the trees and houses, and saw a few scattered behind leaves. Other than that is was a pretty laid-back Fourth.

The first few days of the week were very slow due to potentials and news dropping appointments. One of the worst things to hear from a great investigator is that they will call you when they have time. So we'll be making a lot of calls and drop-by visits to see if we can catch them and continue teaching them, otherwise most of them are still open to us coming - they just don't want to set an exact appointment.

Sunday we had two eligible priesthood men at our Sunday school!!! It was only two, and one can only speak a little bit of Cambodian (some other missionaries' recent Cambodian convert), but it was good to see more people together. We had a total of seven of us there (three of us missionaries), and even though the recent convert will probably not come for a little bit, it was encouraging to get a better picture of what it could be like soon!

Other than that, we finally got things moved around the apartment so we're settled into the trio arrangement now and are excited to have an official study room. We took Sis. Loy shopping at her three favorite Asian stores so we got a good look at the dried shrimp, fresh squid, chicken feet and pig legs. Went through withdrawals when we ran out of rice two days ago, so we were happy to get some more. Yep, we're going Asian.

Love,

Sister Dunster

July 1st

We checked a referral last week that we are really excited about. It's a young mother with an 8 yr old child and a husband, she works at home part time so she has time for us to come over and teach, and she's interested to be learning!! Our first lesson with her was amazing, and we're hoping the second she'll continue to be interested, but she's super sweet, and we're glad to have found someone that's interested that's Cambodian! It's truly amazing how God puts those people in our path because they move around so much, and one complex that doesn't have one Cambodian in it will be full of them three months later. And the majority of the time, if they're not less-actives, they're not interested, so we're really excited to be teaching her.

Last Tuesday after Sis. Loy I dropped off Sister Walker and Noun off to go check some referrals, Walker found out we were going into Tacoma West zone and said "You've been wanting to check where this one less-active is we visited with once months ago. I think she lives here." And found an intersection in the GPS. We checked our referrals in that area then went to go find this less-active I'd been thinking about for awhile and had wanted to check, but the address I'd had was wrong. So finally we go..... and I can't find her house. 

We stopped to say a prayer that if God wanted us to visit her that night that we would be able to, and at the risk of wasting miles I drove around the area in search of her house, searching the GPS for addresses or streets she might be on. Knowing Sis. Walker didn't know where else to look, I started to drive away when the farther away I drove, the more dragged down I felt. Finally I pulled over to call Walker to see if she had any more advice and she suggested trying a different, parallel street. We did, and to my relief we found her!! 

Her daughter answered the door and when we asked if Lay was there she said "Yes, she just walked through the back door from shopping." Lay was very tired, had a night shift, and wasn't sure when she'd have time to meet us, so I asked if we could say a prayer with her before we left. She said yes, and invited us in. We sat down, chatted for a bit, then Sister Loy offered the prayer. I couldn't understand most of what she was saying, but I felt the Spirit in the room, and after she finished Lay confessed they were about to move (outside the mission boundaries) in couple days. I asked if we could help them pack, but she said they were pretty much done and asked for our number, so I told her we could leave the mission upon appointment if she ever wanted us to visit or needed our service. There is no such things as a coincidence!

This week's been super busy as we now have President and Sister Blatter at the head of the mission now (whom we've now met a couple times now and really like), and Sister Noun left for California to visit her mom before returning to Cambodia yesterday, so we're now back to a trio. There's always so much more to say, and so much less time to say it, so, until next week!

IT'S MY HALFWAY MARK TODAY!!! Can you believe it?? I'm officially half-way through my mission! It's crazy how fast it goes!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

                                  My current zone after zone activity yesterday playing Ultimate Frisbee.

                                    #1 Sending Noun off with the President

                                                                  #2 At Zone Activity representing Cambodia!