Oct 16th

      I forgot my old planner this week, so I don't remember everything that happened but I can go by my camera. So we had interviews with President Blatter this week, and what should we see outside the church doors but 4 goats nibbling on the lawn! We figured they were the neighbors so Sister Blatter had us go out and see if the neighbors were home so we could tell them their goats were out and somehow tie it into a gospel message to see if they'd be interested in learning. They weren't home, so we just let the goats be and took pictures with them.

For every segment of a missionary's time there's a burning ceremony if you have a place to do it and even care to. At 6 months mark the sisters burn a pair of tights, year mark it's a skirt, and 18 months mark is a suit jacket. Sister Walker and I weren't interested in doing it at first until one of the Mountain View sisters that's going home was planning on burning a jacket, so we decided to participate with our year mark burning. It was kind of hard to give up a skirt, but we chose ones we hardly ever wore, and mine was passed on from a sister leaving the area that was pretty old anyway. There's one family that does it for all the missionaries, so we went there and celebrated our year mark! November 4th will be the year mark for being in the mission field, and it's crazy how fast it's gone!!

We were invited to go to the Blatters for zone lunch yesterday (probably because it was Columbus day- they always have us over for Holidays, even the little ones). We watched a few sisters play basketball in the parkinglot or the elders at ping pong while eating pizza and chatting in the house. It was actually both the Tacoma zones, so it was fun to see people we don't see very often, and I have to say; even though we don't ever get transferred, at least we get to stay near President where we can participate in mission-home activities!

A lot of our work consists of tracting for people we generally don't end up teaching, but we've learned that if we give referrals, we usually get referrals from others. So even though it doesn't feel productive, we get to meet some interesting people and it's the interesting conversations I have with people that help inspires my personal study. It blows my mind to hear some of the things people can be content with believing in, but they have their agency to live life the way they want or receive guidance and support from an omniscient and loving Father in Heaven, and it's our job to help make them aware of that.

Sister Humphreys is doing well and even though we're two separate companionships now, we mesh really well and it's fun having four again. Sister Humphrys and I haven't had a sit-down lesson with an investigator or less-active speaking all Khmer yet, but it'll be interesting to see how well my Khmer will be after Sister Loy took the brunt of teaching and conversation the past few months. Otherwise, we're doing well and are excited for the coming transfer!

Sister Dunster

                                               1. We're allowed to give church tours right?

                                                                     2. Our year-mark skirts!

                                   1. They had a can of lighter fluid that really helped add to the flame.

                                                                         2. The celebration crew

                                            1. Tacoma East & West: Columbus day at the Blatters'.

1. Our last district photo for the transfer! (Sisters left to right: Lomu, me, Young, Walker, Frandsen, Loy and Muti. Front of elders: Durgin, Johnson, Shuler, Hansen, Bellows and Muirbrook.) 

                                                                  2. Gig Harbor harbor!

Oct 7th

A lot happened this past week, so I'll try to be quick - but starting from Thursday we went to Wallochet with the Sister Training Leaders which was a different, and fun exchange! Different because we went up in the morning, and instead of having a companionship work here in Tacoma, we had two companionships in their area, so it was more like a day off for us in doing English work in their area. It was a lot of fun as we went on Fox Island, and went to a nursing home where we visited those with dementia and chatted with others who don't get a lot of visitors. I got tons of pictures this time of Gig Harbor and wish I could send some, but I actually forgot my camera cord this time...... next week though!

One of the highlights of Friday was a tracting experience we had. We weren't having much luck as we went house to house, but this one lady walked by and as I said hello, she stopped, saw our nametags and said "You're mormons, aren't you?" As it turns out she was a less-active member who remembers growing up in the church, but for reasons she didn't explain, left and is currently working her way out of circumstances she found herself in due to desperation. She talked to us for a bit, and asked if we had a Book of Mormon. We didn't have one with us, so we walked to the car with her to give her one. Although we have no idea if she was able to get the help she needs (she wasn't Cambodian, so we gave her the number to the missionaries in her area), it's always inspiring to meet people who have struggled through life and turn back to God to seek that source of strength that some people believe doesn't even exist.

Conference was awesome! I wrote down some questions which were answered, and overall it was very inspiring. Unfortunately we didn't have any investigators watch it with us, but we had a couple less-actives express interest in seeing it, so we're going to wait for it to come out in Cambodian to watch it with them that way.

Some news-breaking developments - we're now two companionships!! Our new sister, Sister Humphreys just came in today from the MTC! What's funny is that we called President Saturdayafter we didn't get any expected transfer calls, and he said he hadn't even thought of putting us into companionships as he assumed we would just work together. We said it would be nice to work as a very flexible companionship, but that someone should still be designated to train Sister Humphreys. So after some interviews I was designated to be her trainer, but we can do "exchanges" without permission, and we'll report our numbers as one, instead of two companionships. So it's going to be different from our previous two companionships even, but exciting!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

Sep 30th

The church owns some campgrounds out here called "Zion's Camp" where for half a day, half the mission went over to do some group activities to help strengthen unity, and faith. It was the highlight of my week! We went through different courses with scriptural ties in order keep a spiritual perspective, and as cheesy as it was sometimes, it was a lot of fun! 

The last course we did was "the wall" where you get someone over the wall to a platform up top where they stand and help lift others up until everyone's been over the wall. Sister Walker went up first, and ended up staying up there the whole time (she might be small, but she's a lot stronger than she looks). I found myself up third, and as soon as you get down from the wall, you can't help anymore. At all. That was the hardest for me, because I wanted to help SO bad, but you can only have three people there at a time, and I'd already completed the course.

We happened to have all three Tongan sisters in our group, and we got two of them up, but we couldn't get the third, the largest, up the wall. We tried several times, but even with the two Tongans and Walker up top to help lift, she fell each time, and completely gave up. We kept helping others up the wall as she rested, but the time came when only three people were left on bottom, and three up top. At this point I realized we were probably too late, as, according to the rules of the scenario, that meant the rest of us couldn't do anything but watch. Technically we weren't allowed to speak either, but we gave up on that as those of us standing around did all we could to encourage her vocally. She'd requested a prayer earlier and didn't make it, so at this point it wasn't about getting her over the wall anymore as much as it was not letting her give up. After precious minutes of encouragement, we finally convinced her to try again, and as the three sisters - who'd also been there helping people up the whole time - struggled to lift her, we all surged forward and helped lift her up. What had started out as a simple activity, turned into a struggle of faith as we all sought to help her succeed, and we went wild when she finally made it over!! 

As simple as it was, I felt the Spirit so strongly during that activity, and re-learned, that with faith - all things are possible! Not only that, but it was torturous to see others struggle and not be able to help! But as we talked about it afterwards, I realized that's how it is for others watching us from the other side; they can't physically help us, or even offer words of support like we ended up doing, but we have friends and family on the other side that are cheering us on during our toughest trial! And it made me realize how important it is to remember that we're never alone! 

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." - Isaiah 41:10

Afterwards we came together in a building and got to see "Meet the Mormons" before it's come out in theaters!! It's really good, and I highly recommend referring friends to go see it, or going to see if yourself if it's in theaters near you.

Our investigator Kim, came to church on Sunday, but we were questioning whether or not we should bump his baptismal date back from this Saturday because we weren't sure how much he understood, or if he was even ready. Then, this morning when we went by, he asked if he could postpone for a little bit - so that answered our question! Now we just need to keep him on a date not too far away, but still give him enough time to gain a testimony of the gospel. The truth is real!

Sister Dunster

                                              1. Let's play a game; how many spiders can you count?....

                                                               2. Our Zion's Camp crew!

                                                                 3. Hogwarts! It's a high school?!

Sep 24th

Here's some highlights from the past week:

After email last week we went to our (slowly progressing) investigator's house to see if there was anything we could do to help her. As it was, she made a huge batch of egg roll stuffing that needed to be wrapped, so between the three of us, we got 100 egg rolls made! Can't say I don't know how to wrap eggrolls anymore. The best part was that she fried them as soon as we made a bunch, so we got to eat to our heart's delight. :)

Haha, Thursday. Thursday was Park Day, and we had a few appointments on opposite sides of our zones, so we walked a mile or so to the nearest appointment, Po Kim. The lesson went alright, but since he understood pretty good English, we taught mostly in that, and without having a lot of English practice, it was really awkward for Walker and I. But it gave us a renewed desire to practice teaching in English, not just Khmer (which is easier to do when you only have so many things you know how to say). He's now on date (for Walker's and my year mark!!), so we're excited to have someone progressing again.

Later we bused to the other side of Tacoma, and walked to our dinner appointment. As the day progressed, we still hadn't figured out how we were going to get a ride back home that night since most buses stop going around after six. So Sis. Walker then had the idea of biking back to our apartment! We have absolutely no bikes, but the first place we knew to start, was to ask the Mountain View elders (we knew they'd had an extra bike in the past). Somehow they were able to get three bikes for us, so by the time we finished our dinner and walked to the church where they'd put them, we could bike a mile or so down to our appointment with our recent convert, Visal, and after his lesson head home. It was dark, we'd never ridden bikes on our mission yet, and Walker led the way which meant we went as fast as possible, but somehow we made it home safely! (And completely out of breath!) We had so much fun riding we wondered why we didn't choose bikes over the car.... At least until the next day when we struggled to get out of bed. But it was totally worth it!

Friday we went on an exchange with the Sister Training Leaders again, and due to scheduled appointments, ended up going up to Gig Harbor afterwards to finish off by doing personal study together up there. In spite of the drive, I was happy for the chance to take some pictures of Wallochet and between the thick fog and the tall pine trees, it was perfect!

Sunday Ros and Visal got the Priesthood which we were ecstatic about, and afterwards translated our notes on their blessings into Khmer, so they could read it later. We also had a fireside for the Blatters' first time that night which I was asked to play the piano for the whole time. I'd never done the whole thing, and although didn't get to practice most of it except for right before the fireside, some I'd played before, like in Young Womens, so it wasn't too stressful. And it went really well! We heard the testimonies of 10 recent converts instead of missionary testimonies, and it was a lot shorter than usual, but it was neat to hear the raw testimonies of such great converts coming from all backgrounds.

That's just a bit of what's been going on here!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

                                                             1. The Cambodian Bike Sisters

                                             2. A view of the bay from the Wallochet sisters' "little blue shack".

                             3. Exchanges: Sisters Loy, me, Walker, Thompson, Johnston, and Biggley.

                                         4. I've never seen so many odd, but beautiful flowers in my life.

Sep 16th

Thursday was crazy. As Cambodian speaking, progress is really slow unless you have a native who does all the talking for you and you mostly bear testimony and teach a small principle here and there, if they understand you well enough. So when it comes to setting a baptismal date, it usually takes more than the first lesson, especially if you're taking the first lesson to explain who God is, and why He is not the same as Buddha. That said, you can better understand the predicament we were in when we visited this new referral that also speaks English really well.

The first sign of oddity when we went to go meet with him, was that he texted us to tell us he would have to postpone for an hour before meeting with us. Wow, that's pretty abnormal that he actually let us know he wasn't going to be on time! Then, when we met Adam, he sat us down and explained that his brother, who was really big into reading the bible and was someone that he really looked up to, had passed away not long ago, and he was wanting to know what it was that drew him so close to God when their parents were Buddhist. We thought, "Ok, wow, that's cool that he decided to listen to us, and that he's so willing to learn." 

Adam has little to no understanding about the bible except for what he got out of watching the Bible series on Netflix, and from reading the pamphlet the missionaries gave him before they referred him to us. Oh, that, and he speaks English really well, so he was going a hundred miles an hour! Everything we taught made sense to him, and although he would go off on slight tangents about what he learned from the bible series, he was making connections and taking the words out of our mouths. Near the end I thought "We need to put him on date" and in following the conversation tried to gear it towards the discussion of baptism, but he was going so fast it wasn't until we were out the door and mentally reeling that we realized we never got there. I honestly thought he was somehow a member pretending to be a golden investigator because it was too easy. He said he'd pray about the Book of Mormon that night and text us when he knows his schedule to meet with us again, so we're excited to see what comes of it - but wow!! Sister Walker and I looked at each other feeling like such greenies thinking "This guy's going to get baptized!" after our first meeting with him. That, and we've never taught in English like this before.

The rest of the week was slow, and Saturday was an hour-by-hour kind of day where all of the few appointments we had fell through and we were left to find on our own. But Sunday made up for that. We had Ros, a recent convert (slash recent-active member since we didn't find out he was already a member until weeks after his baptism) pick up our most recent convert Visal and oh!! It made my heart soar to see both of them chatting in the car together as they fellowshipped each other! This was the moment I'd been waiting for; to actually see a semblance of the future Cambodian branch where Cambodian members work together with fellow Cambodians! Then, to top it off, they sat next to each other in the chapel and read their Book of Mormons while waiting for the meeting to start. That was the cutest sight I've ever seen! (They're both in their 60's in case you wondered.)

Those were the highlights of the week, and we have some actual Cambodian member-with lessons lined up for next week, so we're making progress! (As an insightful side-note; most of our converts are men that are eligible for the Priesthood, which means, once we get enough coming we can actually start a branch! God's at the head of this work!)

I forgot to mention another big event that happened Sunday - we had a new investigator whom we've never talked with before except at his door step come to church!! He had a hard time finding the building, so right when the meeting started we had to go pick him up at a nearby Burger King, but he liked it and said he'd come next week! We'd gone by that morning to invite him we saw there was a birthday party going on and thought "Oh, he probably won't be coming today" - but in spite of it he said he'd come and he did! Afterwards he said he liked it and would come again next week. :)

Sister Dunster

                                                                                   The Trio!

                                                                           Kitten!

Sep 10

The first week of the transfer went so fast! But here're a few things that went on during that time:

Last District meeting we had one of the most influential meetings I've ever been to. Our district leader, had each of the companionships teach a part of the gospel, like faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. The sisters that taught baptism asked for the fittest person in the room to volunteer for their activity (which was our DL, Elder Shuler) and without telling him what he would have to do, asked how many push-ups he could do. He didn't want to dig himself in a hole, so he said twenty. Then, as the companionship offered doughnuts to everyone in the room - whether or not they accepted it - Elder Shuler had to do twenty push-ups per person. That was 200 push-ups! We didn't think he would make it, and although he had to take a few breathers here and there, he made it! Our zone leaders were also there, so half-way through, one volunteered to help lift Elder Shuler for a set, and for the last set took part as the devil's advocate in pushing him down (ever so slightly, he couldn't have taken much more). 

As miniscule as that was compared to the Atonement, it really helped put things into perspective how much Christ suffered for us, whether or not we accept His sacrifice. I felt tired as I watched Elder Shuler push himself to work for all ten of us, and it helped me see that no matter how much we want to give up at times, to remember, that Christ never gave up, in spite of everything He went through for us.

The rest of the week was slow as it's been rough in finding new investigators, and keeping the ones we do have. But we had a little miracle yesterday as we ran out of people to visit. It was8pm, which is one of the hardest hours to fill, especially since it's getting dark at the time, so most people don't appreciate surprise visits, and I'd spotted a new doughnut shop that we decided to go see if any Cambodians worked there. As we walked closer, who should we see but Rady!! To explain the utter surprise and joy at seeing her, here's what happened:

Remember how she lives in a trailer with her family and how one Sunday their trailer disappeared and they weren't answering their phone? She answered their phone the next day and told us where they were, so we found them and tried meeting with her, but she never answered, but we weren't too worried as we knew where she worked. Then, this past Sunday, we went by to see if she was home - and their trailer was gone again! Only this time, her work closed shop the next day, so we were down to the mercy of their answering their phone in order to find them. (Her husband's a member, but he's been avoiding us this whole time, so we're not sure exactly where he stands anymore.) So you can imagine how surprised we were to see Rady's smiling face as we entered this new doughnut shop at the time she just happened to be working up front! Unfortunately she's staying at her in-law's who are Buddhist and anti-Christian, so we still can't meet with her, but we're happy to know where she is. Miracles happen!

Sister Dunster

 1. Sister Noun - now Channika, though we still call her Noun, came by to visit before school starts in Idaho!!

                                                 2. A random picture of what's a common out here.

PS. I gave the opening prayer in Sacrament mtg on Sunday! :) Found out as the first counselor announced it at the pulpit...but that's actually not that uncommon here. 

Sep 4th

This week was pretty crazy as we had an exchange, and transfers! Fortunately transfers didn't really affect us, so it was just the STL (sister training leader) exchange that was the most different. But I actually left Tacoma!! And I've learned, at least in this mission, that Tacoma is one of the least attractive areas to be in. Don't get me wrong - there are still pretty views, and I love Stadium with its old, tall buildings and neat little town feel to it, but when I went to Gig Harbor - wow, I was blown away! The view from the STL's apartment looks out from near the hilltop to a view of the harbor and an expanse of gorgeous pine trees, and a few really nice houses. Tracting was my favorite as we got to walk by the bordering trees which smelled damp from the morning rain, and the sun shined intermittently from behind clouds... it was exactly what I'd imagined Washington to be! Sister Fowkes had been there for 6 months, so she acknowledged that she'd probably gotten adjusted to it as I kept commenting on how beautiful the area was, but when Sister Walker and Sister Loy came to make the switch, they were just as blown away. In all that was the most fun exchange I'd ever had as Sister Fowkes and I learned we surprisingly had a lot in common.

Friday, the day we changed back, we had a baptism!! Visal got baptized, and it was the perfect baptism for Sister Loy's first convert. We had over 10 people attend - not including us three, or Visal, we had all Cambodian speakers, and everything went smoothly. He's really excited to be going to church and we're hoping that he'll be able to get off work and come to Sunday school with us soon.

Monday, for Labor Day, we had a BBQ at President and Sister Blatters for three of the central zones. (Pictures will probably be up soon on: calledtoservewa-tac.blogspot.com) Once everyone finished eating, all the sister went out to the front lawn to play volleyball while the Elders stayed to chat, which was quite the switch, but super fun!

Quick note from personal study today: As I'm reading the Book of Mormon again while highlighting charity, I just finished 2 Nephi chapters 8-9, and realized a lot of my notes consisted of God's attributes. I realized then, that my first perspective was to learn ways God's love is made evident in our lives, and how I can integrate charity in my life. But when I saw that, I realized: God is love, and as I learn about charity; I learn about God. As I learn about God, He becomes more real and I draw closer to Him. As I draw closer to Him, I want to become more like Him, and that's when it begins to be possible for me to truly change and develop Christ-like attributes. And I realized how true Elder Packer's statement is, quoted in Preach My Gospel (pg 19): "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior." So true!

With love from the WA-TAC,

Sister Dunster

                                                                     1.   Visal's baptism!!                                                                                                              2.    Me and Sister Fowkes (yes, she modeled for a bit)