Jan 19

Week two of Rasmussen and Dunster! This past week was interesting as Friday pretty much every single appointment fell thru, & this week resulted in two solid investigators dropping us,  some potentials falling through as well, and no new investigators. We call it: weeding out the eternal investigators to find the elect. So this week we've been keeping our heads down to figure out what we can do to keep the work progressing and find those few people who are willing and ready to learn about the gospel but just haven't been found yet.

We went on an exchange with Sister Wilson and Harbaugh this past Tuesday. Sister Harbaugh came to Lacey with me, so I learned she does gymnastics and can be quiet at times, but she's not afraid of being herself and is really fun to be around! I love the chance I have to meet other sisters and get to know them better, and I've gotten used to exchanges so it doesn't stress me out as much as it used to.

This week we're preparing to go to the temple with two of our recent converts. Sister Rasmussen came from an area where they specialized in family history work, so it's perfect time for her to help them all get names and go so we can go with them. I didn't realize how little I knew about it until we helped a woman in the ward navigate the website and figure out what to do. There's so much to learn, but it's super simple once you get it down and Sister Rasmussen says it can become addicting, so I'm excited to be able to work on it some more post-mission.

That's one thing I didn't expect; how populated my thoughts would be about going home when I still have at least 2 and a half months left. I feel though like it's God preparing me for the future so it's not so hard, like little freak-out moments to help let-off pressure and become used to the idea. So far it's not distracting and I'd like to keep it that way, especially since I'll have to start planning what classes I'll need to register for soon, so it's a healthy pressure to help keep me focused and working as hard as possible for my last few months as well as accept the approaching future. My birthday this year will literally be a bitter-sweet birthday to remember!

One of the biggest lessons I've learned when facing the future, and I'm sure I've shared with you before but want to say it again, is gratitude. The closer I get to the end, the more grateful I am for the time I've had to serve and for every moment I have left. Not every day's a piece of cake, but knowing my mission is a very small portion of my life that I have to donate my full time and attention to God and cannot take it back or extend it helps me remember that it's by God's grace that I've been able to serve here and learn so much, and it's certainly not the end either!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

 1. At zone meeting after my exchange with Sister Harbaugh!; me, Sisters Rasmussen, Wilson and Harbaugh.

2. Gas prices at their cheapest in over 10 years! (Sorry if this is all old news to you, but we don't get to watch the news, so we just see it as we go!)

Jan 12th

Transferring in English was an adventure for me. We spent a majority of the last few days going from members' house to members' house saying goodbyes (or "see you on Sunday!"s) and giving away thank you cards as Sister Smith got ready to go. I saw what it's like to say goodbye after such a short time, and it hurts! They say if you're doing it right it feels like you're heart's getting ripped out. It hurts to love, but the relationships, memories and knowing you served your best make it so worth it!

I've started this new thing since I've gotten so behind on my journal where I may not be able to write the things we did for the day, but I can at least write the tender mercies I experienced each day before bed. So I've started this new little book I've realized will probably be one of my most treasured possessions from my mission that I wish I'd started earlier, but at least started at the beginning of this year, and it's a good way to remember the little tender mercies throughout my life.

So my new companion Sister Rasmussen is the curly haired one to my left in the picture I attached because we're both horrible at taking pictures, so we don't have one of us just yet, but we're going to change that! So until next week, this was a picture taken at a leadership meeting we had on Friday after transfers. She's awesome! Oddly for an older missionary I was a little nervous about "taking over" the area until Sister Rasmussen gets the hang of things, but considering I've only had one other area, it's a pretty rational thing. But Sister Rasmussen works super hard, and I love her! I've told her how much I appreciate her and I still don't think she quite understands just how much I've learned from her already.

The work was a little slow as we had a lot of appointments fall through this week right after transfers, but we checked a ton of potentials and upped the appointments for this coming week which will be nice. A little nice miracle we had is we're working on getting names ready for our recent converts to go to the temple with. We needed a place for Ian to use a computer, and at this point the only member Sister Rasmussen knows is a recent convert of a year, so she texted her asking if she'd like to learn more about family history. The sister calls back saying she'd just hit road block and was wondering how to move forward with her family history, and we texted! So not only do we have a place for Ian to get family names, but we can help this sister with hers, and of all things, Sister Rasmussen just came from a place where she specialized in family history, so she knows exactly how to do it!

Another miracle happened last night as we dropped by a less-active on our street. They didn't answer their door, but I heard an Asian voice and caught a few words that sounded like Cambodian across the street, so looked around to see if they really were Asian (this is going to be a hard habit to break when I'm home). They were, but when they saw us walking over, they went inside and closed the door rather emphatically. I was positive I'd heard Cambodian, so I went up and knocked anyway. A guy answered and I greeted him in Cambodian to which he responded, and got his mother who speaks more fluent Khmer. She came out and as we talked I learned she's Buddhist, but is open to all religions, so I got to pray with her, and sent the referral over to the Cambodian sisters. I met maybe two Cambodians last transfer with sister Smith, but not once did I realize there were Cambodians just down the street! I plan on dropping by again sometime, but what got me was how easily Cambodian came to me even though I haven't conversed with anyone in it for a month and a half, and I know it was the Spirit helping me for doing my language study in spite of teaching in English.

I just love this work!

Sister Dunster

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

1. A somewhat candid photo of all the current Cambods in the WATAC, including the brand-new sister in the middle 

                            2.Me and my hometown buddy Sister Jones after the Christmas party!

January 5th 2015

My exchange this week took me to a small little town with a girl from Taiwan who has energy to match her voice! I told her she should go into Disney to become a voice for a Pixar character, she has such character and a strong voice for never having taken voice lessons! In spite of the bitter cold that night and a few bashes we tried to avoid but were caused by those at the door, I loved my exchange with her!

New Years Eve we went to some members' houses for dinners and had to be home by 8pm. Sis Smith & I adored the extra time we had to catch up in our journals or just get things done around the house that had to be done! She set a timer for midnight so just before 2015 we donned our "Property of Lacey" hoodies given us for Christmas, popped some poppers, tried to open a bottle of sparkling cider, but couldn't do it without the can open which we were too groggy to even think about, and went back to bed to boom of fireworks outside.

The holidays are really hard to work around with members being out of town or having guests over, and non-members busy or hung-over, so we did a lot of street contacting and finding activities for New Year's Day, but that night I found a Cambodian family! They're Muslim and speak Cham which is a dialect close to Cambodian, but because they're Muslim they're just not interested. I had a blast though as they still understood some of the Cambodian I said and they were so surprised to hear if from such a white girl!

Friday was another day of contacting, but I've learned even the tedious days when all appointments fall through are still good days! With the end drawing near I just love every minute I have to soak it all in. It stinks when we don't know what to do, but as Sis Smith says, sometimes it seems God lets that happen just to see what we'll do with our time. It definitely makes you rely on him to help direct us in what we need to get done.

Saturday on the other hand was packed! Not only was it the day of our transfer calls, but we had some really neat miracles. Our morning appointment fell through, so we went to go see a family we knocked into a month ago and said to come back in the mornings around eleven. We wrote it down, but they didn't seem very solid, so we never went to see them until now. It was spur of the moment, but they let us in and we taught them the whole Restoration! They've been looking for another church and haven't heard much about Mormons. SO golden, but I've had a lot of golden potentials slip through, so we're hoping and praying they don't fall into anti and stay receptive to the Spirit.

That night was transfer calls. In the beginning I anticipated staying with Sis Smith my two English transfers, but as it was, we weren't sure, and she was feeling rather split. So we were talking about it and she asked how I'd feel if I were companions with Sis Rasmussen. I liked the idea, but didn't know how valid it could be until two minutes later when the assistants to the president called and said Sis Smith would go to Silverdale and I was getting Sister Rasmussen!! There's so much going on it's hard to see Sis Smith leave just as the work is continually progressing, but she'll do well in Silverdale, and I'm excited to have Sis Rasmussen here to help the people that have been coming out of the woodwork like crazy! Our ward has a goal to have 50 baptisms this year which is insanely high, but we pretty much made our goal of 30, and with the help of members it can really explode if we work together. So even though I won't be here to witness it to the end, I'm excited to be a part of the work that is progressing so quickly and surely, as God's behind it all! And even if the work is slow, that's just the time we can be assured God's working on us. :)

Love you!

Sister Dunster

                            1. My exchange with Sister Walker two weeks ago I didn't get pictures out of

                                  2. This week's exchange with Sisters Liao, me, Bigley and Smith!

                                                                          3. Bob, haha!

                                   4. Rainbow cake we were fed at a Samoan's house! Humongous!

After the Samoan dinner last night, Bro Patane said he learned how to hypnotize. So of course Elder Carder wanted to try it and prove him wrong. It was hilarious, but this is what happened!! It didn't really work the way he expected, but after Bro. Patane had the elder follow a few motions with his plate, Elder Carder had no idea what he was doing to his face!

Dec 29th

So much to write, so little time!

So for the mission Christmas party we had to come up with a skit. We had some ideas in the open, and Sis Smith and I were in charge, but since we had three musical numbers, exchanges and Christmas shopping to prep for, we were booked and couldn't get it together in time. So, seeing we have a Samoan from Australia with us.... we learned the Haka! It was simple, impressive, unique, and loads of fun! Out of the 13 zones in the mission, we were called to be first, so we scrambled to get everything ready (the elders found a smoke machine in their apartment, so we let out some nice fog for the second round of the haka) and it went really well! Due to the rush, none of us got a recording of it, but there were plenty in the audience who did, so I'll have to get it from them sometime.

The mission party consisted of a White Elephant Gift party where I acquired a glow stick, and Sis Smith an awesome N'Sync poster (still haven't hung it up though), singing as a whole mission (over 220 voices all at the top of their young lungs so it filled the gym really well), skits, Christmas dinner, and more skits! A lot of them were renditions of a missionary Christmas Carol, or spoofs off people who work in the mission - President Blatter had a representative in almost every skit, although he has a really good sense of humor (you need that as a mission president)! It went from9am-6pm, which was longer than they'd planned, but it was lots of fun to see everyone in the whole mission.

Christmas Eve we had district mtg, had dinner with some members, and went caroling with our district before we ran to the Olympia stake center where we got to play volleyball! It was weird playing on a day other than p-day, but President gave the elders in Lacey permission, so we sisters were allowed to do the same which we did with the other zone sisters as well.

Christmas was very packed with both food and company! We started off at a young family who let us Skype there before running to a Christmas dinner at our member friends' house. We stuffed ourselves there before running to a Samoan Christmas party where, naturally we had to eat some more and were given leftovers on the way out. Other than skyping with my family, that was one of the most special moments of the day as we watched the "He is the Gift" video with them and their 20 other family members that aren't Mormon, and Sis Smith and I sang a duet of Silent Night where the Samoans joined and sang the second verse in Samoan. You just have to love the Samoan culture of love, song, and family! It was amazing.

We then ran to our next dinner appointment which was less casual at a senior missionary couple's house. We had no idea, but the APs were there, so we just had a random dinner with the APs, the elders in the area who are in our district, and the AP's investigator. That was fun! We ran by another house on our way home that night where thankfully we weren't given any food but treats as our car was full of leftovers from every house we'd visited!

This Friday I went on an exchange to Olympia with none other than my favorite, long separated companion Sister Walker!! We were so excited, had a blast, and loved every minute of it. She's doing well in her new area, and it was hard to leave again, but who knows what will happen the next two transfers!

Apparently I'd been texted during the exchange, but the message didn't get to me that I was to give a talk in church Sunday, so as we walked into some meetings Sis Smith mentioned that I would be talking about Jesus Christ. After our meeting I had about 20 minutes to prepare, but fortunately it was only a 5 minute talk, so basically me baring my testimony. It went well and we finally got our investigator to church that kept saying she'd come and never did. She made it in time for my talk, and loved church, so she'll be coming back next week! :D

Love everyone, hope you have a great New Years, and I'll catch you next week with pictures!!

Sister Dunster 

Dec 22nd

The week of caroling! We won't be able to do it every night, but for the majority of this week we'll get to go caroling around as a zone or district which I'm excited for! We also have a lot of Christmas plans coming up; tomorrow's our mission-wide Christmas party where we'll be together from 9am-4pm. Seems really long, but with a lot of people to visit with and activities planned, it'll be good. AND that's where I'll get all my mail, so that will be Christmas for me right there! :)

We've been teaching the most adorable family I've ever seen. Both parents are members but less-active, and they have a daughter and son who are both just old enough to take the discussions, so we get to go over at least once a week and teach these kids who are so smart and remember everything they've learned from church! I don't have a picture of them yet, so I'll have to get a picture with them next time we're together so you can understand how loveable these kids are!

My camera batteries ran out so I didn't get to send any pictures from my camera (thank goodness for companions who also take pictures) but I went on an exchange with Sister Jones from Missouri! Her parents just moved into my ward not too long ago, and she went to BYU-I the same year I was there and know the same people! So we spent a lot of our time reminiscing about ballroom dance and the people we knew in between missionary work.

We had another baptism this weekend!: Ian Furey. He's that guy I told you about earlier who has an energetic puppy and who is very philosophical. He'd make a very good psychologist except he said he likes being able to give advice for free, so it's probably a good thing it's not something he's planning on getting a degree in.

It was a joint baptism with one of the elders' investigators, a 9 yr old boy named Riley who's afraid of water. When he stepped into the font he told his dad he couldn't do it. They stood there for five minutes while the father talked to him (and every person there saying prayer in their hearts!), but he just kept saying he couldn't do it. A missionary who baptized Ian just before the Riley's turn, stood watching from the side and someone suggested he go into the water to stand next to Riley as reassurance, since he'd taught him before . It worked! And made for a very touching baptism.

We're making way on the work here as it's exploding, and I'm excited for the coming year!

Merry Christmas!

Sister Dunster

                                                                     1. Ian's baptism!

2. The Lacey 6th District Christmas photo (Me and Sis. Smith, L to R: Elders Olmstead, Carder, Piel, and Allred, Front: Elders Pierce and Brinkerhoff)

                                            3. Exchanges: Sisters Smith, Kramer, me and Jones!

              4. Our other Christmas tree (a paper one Sis Smith's parents sent up and we strung with lights.)

Dec 15th

I'm at that point in my mission where I can look around during a missionary meeting and realize I'm one of the oldest missionaries in the room and it's the weirdest sensation ever - so whenever anyone asks how much time I have left I just say "less than six months" and that works.

This past week we had an exchange (although it's a weekly occurrence nowadays) and I stayed in the area this time. I'd been fighting a cold recently and even though I was beyond the worst of it, I had to talk the most so it wiped out my voice. I expected it to come back the next day, but it wasn't until four days later I told Sis. Smith I diagnosed myself with a paralyzed vocal chord that it started making improvements. I sound normal now, except for when I try to hit a C, so it still has room for improvement, but it's comforting to know I'm no expert in self-diagnosis. :)

This week we had a crazy wind storm! The night of its peak a ward member told us people were advised to stay indoors, but we never got a text from President saying we shouldn't go out for 5-7s (our tracting hours), so we went out anyway. Everyone told us to be careful, and we felt a few stinging pine needles and a random pine cone, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. Our power went out that night so we propped our flashlights up to plan and a recent convert who lives downstairs from us came up with a lantern to me sure we were ok - she's a sweetheart! The next day it looked like a hurricane went through with so many branches across the grass and roads, but our power was back on by morning, so life was back to normal.

Saturday I got to go back up to Tacoma for the baptism of an older woman we've been teaching for a year!! I was SO excited, and probably because I got to see Sister Walker, Loy and Humphreys for the first time in three weeks! (Doesn't sound that long, but it feels like ages in companionship time!) It was a little different than I anticipated because a sister from the mission had to go home for medical problems, so Sister Walker got emergency transferred to an English area and came up with an English companion for the baptism as well. We caught up as much as possible as we could in that short span of time, I realized how much I miss hearing Cambodian, but most of all it soothed my worries about how well Sisters Loy and Humphreys would do in Cambodian work alone, and how well Sister Walker would adjust to English work! She's loving it already, said it would be a healthy challenge for the other sisters, and as it so happens she got transferred in an area Sis. Smith and I are STLs for, so we can go on exchanges with each other!!! Ha! I don't think President even knew that when he gave her the call, so God is good! :) It was an awesome baptism, and I'm so excited to hear about the progress they're making over there. There's no guarantee on anything, but I'm hoping to go back Cambodian for my last transfer, in less than six months or so. :) But I'm thoroughly enjoying the work where I am right now, so that'll come when it's time!

So for a spiritual thought in light of the wind storm, I would like to share a scripture, popularly quoted in General Conference; Helaman 5:12;

"And now, my sons, remember, remember, that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Song of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless woe, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

As we drove through the fallen branches strewn across the roads, I realized the wind just took out the weak or dead branches from the trees, so the trees are now clean, and stronger than they were before. I noted my thought process out loud to Sister Smith and how that's what happens to us in times of adversity; we are being put through a refiner's fire, and it's only through those experiences we are better able to put our priorities in line and focus on what truly matters in life in order to become stronger, and firmer in our foundation for life. In the words of the Twelve Apostles, "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His Divine Son"!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

                                            My first exchange with Sisters Graves and Geraldino!

                                                                    Hannah's baptism!

                                                              Yiay Rut Maorl's baptism!!

                                            Me and Sis Walker, marking our one year with Yiay!

                                                                        Larry's baptism!

                                                        Gingerbread house decorating at dinner :)

                                                                    Planning in the dark

                               

                                                       Our backyard during the blackout

                                       Second exchange: Sisters Harbough, Smith, Wilson and me

                              This is what happens when we run in the morning and it starts to rain...

Dec 8th

We were in such a rush to get to the library after shopping I left my planner in the car, so I'll just have to go by memory and hope that I get everything in! We had two baptisms this week; Larry, a 14 yr old boy, and Hannah, a 16 yr old girl. It's weird baptizing people I've only taught once or twice, but they were really good and Hannah's grandparents came and are interested in learning more about the church, so that's awesome! They'll only be in town for a short little while, but we can at least get them started.

Oh, I have to tell you about the other investigators we have right now. Ian's is such an interesting lesson - every time! He has this puppy (or furry ball of energy) called Princess that bounces around her cage as soon as we get there and has to stay on a leash the entire time else she WILL climb all over you! It's kind of hard to concentrate during the lesson when you have to keep her entertained else she'll bite you, chew on your shoe, or climb into your lap, but fortunately Sister Smith has a red laser in her flashlight that helps the puppy focus her energy elsewhere. Not only that, but in spite of everything Ian's been through, he's really intelligent, and the first time the elders came with us to team teach him, Elder Pierce commented "I feel like you're teaching us as much as we're teaching you, I've learned so much!" and I completely agreed! It seems our job is simply to ask an inspired question and he'll just talk himself through the lessons. His thought process is very logical, and he comes to the same conclusions that we're going for, so we just give him the gospel and he teaches us it seems.

Bob is an older guy that repeats himself a lot because of the drugs he's been on in the past, but he's so happy to be in remission an is proud of the fact that he's able to resist temptation with which we share his joy. He's such a character and loves to talk, so it takes a bit of effort to make sure whatever we teach him is simple enough we can get it in between long spouts of conversation, but he's come a long ways.

This past week I've learned a lot from my scriptures study, especially when it comes to the Atonement. I never fully understood how central the Atonement was until I came on my mission, and everything leads back to it. I was reading in 3 Nephi 9 where just before, Christ is crucified and many people die in the upheavals and natural disasters that occur. Then, in the next chapter the voice of Jesus Christ is heard saying:

 "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." (verses 13-14)

 

At first glance the invitation seems like so broad, and repentance can seem so demanding and harsh until you look into it more and understand where it's coming from and what it truly means. Imagine someone you admire and look up to, who you don't want to disappoint. This is like Jesus Christ, who is our older brother, and who loves us more than we can love him back. He gave his life not just for everyone, but for you personally so he's felt everything you have; the good times and the bad times. He knows what it takes to succeed and have happiness, so he's with you at all times, waiting to help if you let him. Elder Pierce (one of the elders we share a ward with) described the Atonement during one of Ian's lessons this way; "it's not like the light at the end of the tunnel, but the light all around us". It's there to give us strength, as well as peace during times of trial. It's not just there to lift you up when you fall, but to run even harder when you're on your feet. And so my challenge is to look for ways you can better use the Atonement in your life, which can be as simple as recognizing something you need to change for the better, looking beyond your own problems far enough to recognize the needs of others and helping them, or giving up a small habit that is holding you back. From an all knowing, all loving God who is the essence of love and happiness, all He asks is that we give up what we think we want, for what we need. I love this gospel, and the power it's given me to be happy. I'm not perfectly happy all the time, and that's now what life means, but discovering how to be grateful in all circumstances. Because like I said last week, no matter what we do or don't have in life; everyone has power to access the Atonement.

Love you, and hope you had a great week!

Sister Dunster