Called to Serve Pictures

                                                    As Sisters in Zion at the Provo Temple

The Elders and Sisters that come and serve the world, bring families and individuals together in happiness.

SLC Temple

                                                                           Salt Lake City Temple

Picture #3

 This picture was taken the day before the old Thai's left. :( There are better photos of us sisters, but I need to request those photos from other people.

Picture #2

A district picture with our teacher Bro. Mickelson and the former mission president and his wife.

Picture #1

 A sister whose husband was one of the mission presidents in Cambodia who served with our teacher Bro Mickelson. She is from Cambodia but served in Tacoma!

Sara's 7th week in the MTC

Remember how I said we only get called to speak only once for Sacrament Meeting? Yeah, I got called on again this Sunday. Ironically my first topic was on Recognizing the Spirit, so when they called on me to talk about the Holy Ghost I was completely surprised. I had the thought I might be called again, but because the chances of being called again are extremely low, I kept pushing the thought away. Still, I decided I better study a little and I found a really good quote from the Teachings of the Living Prophets manual on Lorenzo Snow I had mom send me. It's not on the list of "approved books" which is why I didn't bring it initially (though it is a church manual), but I've learned so much from it that I had to request it. And, since we sustained a new counselor to our Branch Presidency, the 1st counselor to the MTC Presidency and his wife was there and didn't say anything about it except that I did a good job, so I guess I get to keep the manual. :) (Not that I was really that worried anyway.)

The weather lately has been super nice, so every day for gym we'll all go to the field to play kickball, Frisbee, Trackball (my new favorite sport), soccer or volleyball. I feel like a duck out of water when exercising by playing sports instead of dancing, but the bright side is I'm learning how to play. It took 4 outs while playing kickball before I finally got 2 home runs, but at least now I can sufficiently say I know how to play. To others that might seem really naive to not even know how to play kickball, but some people don't know the difference between clogging and tap dance, so I just don't worry about it too much. And in spite of incompetent players, we all manage to have fun anyway. :)

This past Sunday was really weird for me since Sister Walker was sick and had to stay at the residence hall with Sister Litchfield who was also sick, so I went to all the leadership meetings by myself and tagged along with Sister Choi; a solo sister going to Hong Kong speaking Cantonese and who is the sister to the Elder Choi in my district. It was a good day, but it wasn't the same without Sister Walker. Thankfully she's feeling better and although we missed a day of classes we're back to normal again.

I don't know how I missed adding this in my email last week, but I saw Aunt Arlene at the Provo temple!! I don't know what temple members from Manti go to, but I was completely surprised to see her there, though it was so nice to see family! Today I also saw an Elder Shelby Glenn from second ward back home as we left the temple. He's going to [something] California, English speaking so he'll be leaving next week.

Well, my times up, but I hope you have a great week!

- Sister Saralee Dunster

Sara's 6th Week in MTC

This week was definitely a week of change! First of all the Thais left on Monday so our zone has shrunk a third. On Sunday they all sang "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" in Thai as a musical number. I was doing so well until Elder Duffy from my district started crying, which made Elder Osborne who was singing start to cry, which made most everybody else start crying. And then Elder Sugihara went to wipe a tear from his eye and accidentally knocked the hymnbook out of his own hand with a whack so we ended in tearful smiles. I loved it.

Then Monday our zone moved our classrooms to a completely different building. You would think the change would lessen the absence of the Thais, but there are still empty rooms in the hallway which will be filled by the new Thais coming in today! Sister Walker and I were made the new Sister Training Leaders for the zone so we will greet the five new sisters and one elder into our zone tonight which I'm so excited for!

Yesterday Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke at the devotional which was broadcast to all the MTCs around the world. It was really good, and I got the chills when all the missionaries rose as he entered while we were singing "Come come ye saints". He spoke about some doctrinal difference between religions and why all churches couldn't be true which was really insightful. As good as it was, I would have to say the highlight of the day for me was when all the sisters of our zone got together with the only two Sister teachers. They teach the Vietnamese class, but they thought it would be good for all the sisters to get together to answer any questions about serving as a sister missionary. Somehow, they said exactly what I needed to hear I and left on a spiritual high for the rest of the day!

Another big moment of the week was when Elder Madsen (one of the Thais now in the mission field) and I got the envelopes in the mail assigning us to perform our musical number at the Sunday night devotional. We played an arrangement of "Our Savior's Love" for cello and piano at our Sacrament meeting musical number, and tried-out to perform for the campus but since it had been several weeks since we'd last heard from them, and he was leaving the following Monday we had decided they just didn't need us to perform. So when we got the letter we practiced a couple times and performed in front of about 600 people. It's fortunate for me that as the accompanist I don't have to face the hundreds of people before me, but I do have the projector screen within view, so I could tell when the camera switched its angle to me. I kept my nerves down pretty well though, as I'm learning it's not about how many people you're performing for, but how well they feel the Spirit and are uplifted because of your performance.

I can't believe I only have three weeks left here, and they will be different from any other week with the new missionaries and new calling. But I've learned so much since I've been here and I'm excited for what's coming. :)

Sister Saralee Dunster