Jan 26

Amidst the finding activities for the week, we were able to go on an exchange with Olympia 3rd again, and without my input, Sister Rasmussen suggested that Sister Walker would benefit best by me going on an exchange with her. I couldn't argue, so Walker came to Lacey with me!! Haha!

I'm terrible at taking pictures, so you'll just have to imagine how happy we were romping the streets of Lacey, checking on all the potentials and part-member families (because all but one appointment fell through that day), and talking up a storm! I learned how to find my own names for Family History with Sister Rasmussen this week, so just like going through a family tree, every time we brought up a topic of conversation, I felt like it brought up five more points we needed to touch on, and once we caught one of those it brought up another seven!

(Side note; We were prepping to go to the temple with our recent converts, and I'd heard it said before, but I didn't realize it until Sister Rasmussen showed me how to click through my ancestors to find temple work for them how easy it can be to find names - we found 63 in 40 minutes!)

Sister Walker's had a challenging transfer so far, so it was good for her to get a break and as always it was hard to say goodbye, although it's somehow getting easier, and of course we took pictures at the end. :)

It was quite the hassle trying to get our recent converts to the temple. One of them didn't get permission from his parents, and on the last day our only hope said she had chores to do and her dad wasn't home so we couldn't go over. Chances were slim, but we kept pushing and told her we couldn't go to the temple unless she had family names! Thank goodness Sister Rasmussen worked in Lakewood where the sisters there specialize in family history so she knew the ins and outs of Familysearch.org. Two hours before we were to leave for the temple all we had was her grandmother's name and her mother's name, and we had to call her grandmother for permission - but it was granted!! So she was baptized in behalf of her great-grandmother who now has the opportunity to accept or reject the offer, and our recent convert had a great time! It was also my first time doing family names at the temple and although the Dutch really tripped the workers up, it was a neat experience and only my second time to attend the Seattle temple.

And then, of course, I've never served in such a sports faithful state! In Gospel Doctrine on Sunday we were discussing prayer and naturally the topic of the Seahawks popped up and went on for over 10 minutes about how some said a prayer that the Seahawks would win against the Green Bay Packers, but how we can't pray for God to override someone else's agency. Then the Stake President stood up to explain how it's a personal decision whether or not we should watch sports on the Sabbath (unless you're a missionary and can't watch it at all), while Sister Rasmussen and I just laughed amongst ourselves. I have yet to buy a Seahawks T-shirt, but I think I'll wait until they win the second Superbowl in a row. :)

Love you all!!

Sister Dunster

"Courage is... the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C.S. Lewis (quoted from "Which Way Do You Face" By Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Oct 2014)

 As a kid I told my mom I wanted to be two things; a peacemaker, and a twin. She told me I could be a peacemaker, but that I couldn't really do anything about the twin part. Well, apparently there's more to a twin than being biological as we were "born" into the mission field at the same time, and as different as we are, we are known in the mission as "the twins"!

                                     Exchanges! Me, Sister Walker, Rasmussen and Jensen