¿que hago?

October 25, 2010

Welp, i´m here for my last transfer. I think its good. 

I was so scared the morning of Mateo´s baptism. I woke up at like six, really nervous and heard a little patter of rain on the roof and thought no no puede ser! [It cannot be!] (yes i am actually thinking siempre en español ahora, gracias a mi compañera [always in Spanish now, thanks to my partner])  Bueno, so i began to pray with fervor.  I don´t think i have ever prayed so hard in my life, that it wouldn´t rain and that everyone would arrive for the baptism.  As we got up and prayed together the rain began to worsen and it started raining pretty darn hard. I am quite sure that i have told you before that rain here equals bad news. people do not leave their houses and don't go to church.  at about 8:00 I called Mateo´s grandma to see if they were getting ready to go, she said, yes but that they could not leave (they live down a street that is all dirt, and bueno cuando haya lluvia no pueden salir por el barro [it is not good when it rains and they cannot get out in the mud]) i was like listen, you have to come, i don't care about the mud, this is Mateo´s baptism.  we will come get you if we have to.  she said, if the rain continues like this it will be impossible that we come. 

woooo. ¿que hago?  tengo que seguir orando.  llegamos a la capilla y no habían empezado a llenar la pileta bautismal tampoco [What should I do? I have to keep praying. I arrived at the chapel and had begun to fill the baptismal pool].  I felt really rushed and really scared.  luckily our ward mission leader came.  then we got the font going.  i was doubting that everyone was going to turn out, even though i was trying to have faith and believe. oops. 

we were outside waiting because the lady that was going to bring the white pants for mateo se enfermó y no pudo llegar tampoco para traerlos [became ill and was unable to bring them].  So we waited outside for her husband that was going to bring them. my comp gasped and looked over, i see beatriz and mateo with his aunt and little brother and sister, are getting out of a remis. i was so happy.

we went and prayed and thanked our Heavenly Father for the miracle that they could come.  the font filled perfectly. everyone arrived. many people stayed. he was dunked perfectly the first time. (hey my talk in sacrament meeting went well también!) it was really nice.  i wondered why all the worry in that morning because of the rain? well i think i just needed to be humbled a little and, well the road to happiness can be a little rocky. or a lot.

I am so grateful for the love of my Heavenly Father. I know He heard and hears my prayers.  I know that He knows everything and that I have to learn how to trust in Him. man, i have to learn a lot of things.

I know that this is the true and living church of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.  I know that a baptism with His authority of the priesthood is valid. It is the door to us entering in the path of Righteousness. If we follow correctly- reading the scriptures, listening to the prophets and obeying their words, and praying to be clean of our sins- we can reach heaven. we can have the great blessing of eternal life. and I know. 

I love you all and am grateful for your support and love and prayers. 

Sister Dunford

Getting Carmen Registered for Classes

Oct 2010
The past few weeks I (Susan) have been working to get everything in order to get Carmen registered for Classes at BYU for January (winter semester) 2011.  She and I have emailed back and forth about it, but mostly I have worked with the department head at BYU and received information/direction from him.  Carmen was accepted into the Print Journalism Program with a deferral - to start the semester after she gets home. She applied while she was attending winter 2009 before her mission.  I had to get a few things straightened out with holds on her account: Mary had received a parking ticket on BYU Campus while she was a student at Paul Mitchell and driving "Bruce" our green Nissan Sentra that was still registered with Carmen's info.  Of course BYU couldn't get ahold of Carmen about the ticket since she was in Argentina and not responding to that old email address they had on file.  Mary just threw the ticket away thinking they had nothing on her since she wasn't a BYU student.  It got sent to collections!  All that took a certain amount of sleuthing and paying and calling and ironing out.  Even after I had paid for everything there was still a hold on her account that I had to make a phone call about to get removed - good thing I checked back before trying to go on at midnight for her assigned registration time!  Well, anyway - I finally got everything lined up and figured out and registration completed.  Sort of.  When I went on at midnight, one of the class times that I had slotted had been changed.  Yikes! I had to do some quick arranging.  Luckily She is upper class and therefore had a pretty good chance of getting the classes she needed anyway.  Except for maybe the basketball!  I also had to sign her up for one one a "rain check" basis.  Once she is okayed by staff as qualifying to take it, they email her and she is allowed to officially add it.  So I contacted the lady responsible for that and gave her my email and explained the situation.  As it turned out, she still sent it to the wrong email and I had to call and get the OK and then add the class.  It was all quite complicated and time consuming, but all worked out okay in the end.  The dept head told me more than once to be sure she wasn't registered for more than 12 hours since it is such a demanding class load this semester - one of the classes includes a lab that is like a part time job with a journalistic "beat" - interviewing and writing assignments and deadlines for articles in the Daily Universe, the University Newspaper. Wow!  writing this in hindsight - Carmen got the assignment of human interest type stories and cultural event coverage.  She had dozens of articles published - many were front page!  She even had one that was so good the Deseret News (SLC Newspaper) publish it.  Very cool.
She also realized after school started that she needed to carry at least 14 credit hours to quailfy for her scholarship.  So she added a 3 hour Spanish class. Crazy.  Plus she was working at her warehouse job.  Crazy Busy.  And she did a great job and got great grades. Amazing.

Somewhere Only We Know

Tuesday Oct 19, 2010

SO this week was good, a little full of unnecessary drama once again. but it was fun.

we are still teaching mateo. he is such a little cutie and he will get baptized on sunday! we are very excited for him.  we also spent some time this week preparing for the ward activity (a lot of times unfortunately it is the responsilbility of the missionaries) but it was difficult too seeing that we had a rival acitivity- from someone in our own ward!!! i wont go in to more details on that, but basically there is a member of our ward that doesnt like and as such does not wish to see any kind of success on our part. we are honestly clueless as to why. (other sisters have told us that she is the best and nicest member- i dont know how i have incured her wrath on me)

so for the activity (the noche de postre, night of desserts) i made chocolate chip cookies. they were brown because they dont have brown sugar here just "black sugar" but they tasted pretty darn good. even though i was translating the mesasurements and mixing by hand and using less than par ingredients. i am proud to say my cookie "skills" haven´t disintegrated completely.

my comp made bon bons with smashed up cookies butter and dulce de leche rolled in coconut. for the finishing touch we drizzled chocolate on top. they were SO GOOD.

Luckily the activity was done with the other branch that shares the chapel. because VERY few members came to our activity due to them having been in another activity that lasted an hour too long.

But the branch is so cool! it was really fun and some menos activo came from our ward and set up a sound system so we had members singing with their guitars.  my bishop is so great and went a little crazy with the tambourine. then all the members wanted us english speaking missionaries to go and sing (the elders were there too) they went up and sang hotel california and more than words. then they were like hey hermana come on! i was like no i cant!! haha but i went up and they were all cheering quite wildly! i felt like i was famous or something. i sang a special song (refer to subject of email) and it turned out well! it was really fun too.  so for me the activity turned out well too. it was really nice because the next day in church we really got some great support from the bishop. he thanked us (in sacrament mtg) for putting on such an awesome activity and for being such good missionaries and for making such great desserts.  then the high councilor said that they should be more grateful to have sisters that cna play the piano and direct the music and should sing with more vigor. it was nice to see that someone supported us. 

I love my comp a lot we are getting along quite well, and im nervous and anxious to see how my last transfer will be.  (we find out thursday).  anyway, i love this church, it is a church to help us grow and worship our Heavnely Father and Saviour. And yes, Jesus Christ established it and then restored it through His prophet Joseph Smith.  (phew that was hard to chug out in english.) We CAN receive exaltation and life eternal. It is our Heavenly Father´s goal for us. We should make it our goal too. and Yes He will help us!

i love you all.

lOve Sister Carmen Dunford

Look for Tender Mercies

Monday Oct 11, 2010

SO this week was a tough. ooh im already tired of saying that. haha. So for some reason a lot of the members have beef with us. I dont know what or why.  There has a been of lot of drama and gossip involving some members and us as missionaries. We have been earnestly seeking ways to serve them and to love them. even though its been really tough. my comp and i are learning that we also are a little proud. but we have both admitted many times we´d be dead if we didnt have each other. Yeah. my comp is really that awesome!

So amidst the tribulations, we have witnessed many ways that the Lord is blessing us.  We just look a little and see that there are miracles every day.  For example, a child of the family in the ward turned 8 and we were able to offer our help to fill the font. it filled perfectly.  We have also been able to plan with the enthusiasm of the bishop a ward activity for this saturday that should be hit.  (night of dessert, with prizes, and the invitations we made are good too- the only image we found was a stack of giant pancakes and two crepes that accompanied an article in The Friend titled ¨Pancake Parade¨ hee hee)

We have also been led to teach some families and some great people with desires to learn. -one man opened the door and said, oh wait let me get my wife she is the religious one, (she had been a previous contact) and he went back in to watch tv. but we invited him to come listen and he did. then the fourteen year old daughter showed up. i felt really happy to teach a full on family. they are married too! Our Heavenly Father truly is merciful.  Even if there isn´t progression ( which i have faith that there may be) it was a miracle that really saved us that day.

There are also some members willing to help us with lessons and to give us referrals phew! (even though im still finding many problems of false doctrine being taught...que va a hacer, por lo menos sus testimonios son muy fuertes) 

Our area is still huge and there are still millions of menos activos. However, one is trying to come back and her nine year old son wants to be baptized. he comes with her to church and all we have to do is teach him. yay! baptism! side note: mirian, the sister of Fabian, and her son were also baptized this last weekend. YAY!!!!!

I love the gospel. I love that even though a lot of times the majority of things seem smelly, we can look and uncover the tender mercies of the Lord and see that He is also willing to bless us, and that He loves us.

Love Hermana Dunford

I choose to be happy and grateful

Monday Oct 4, 2010

hey we are really short on time because of travel time in between here and santa fe where we went to get my money. so yeah i am going to just shoot you a note. she was only able to pull out a thousand so i guess i will just have to see my beloved kus another pday! haha. [talking here about getting 'extra' money to her via Hermana Kuselik via sending her mother a check- since Carmen's debit card was stolen and I can't deposit it to that anymore]

President told me that on a pday i can go and look at my schedules and get that worked out. so maybe next pday we can be in touch and i can look at classes and we can work it all out and then you can sign my up at midnight? i think that would be great. thanks for all your help. [and this is in reference to me getting her registered for the correct classes for BYU in January]

So yeah. this week we invited three people to be baptized, i dotn think they really understand but hey its what we got. we also invited billions of people to the conference. not one person came. sad. (not one person as in no investigators) we even had legit plans for people to come. this being the case we were able to attend only the sunday sessions. I loved them. I love this Church!! Many times this week my testimony has been strengthened especially about the book of mormon and about the authority only being in the church of Jesus Christ. We have had many discussions with testigos de jehovah, catholics, and well my comp doesnt say anything in these instances, she says its becuse she would get too angry. But they all expect like scriptures, and yeah i use them, but i mainly just try to stay calm and bear my testimony. its really frustrating though to see all the satan crap lies that people believe. I thought about all the lamanites and how they were taught wrong. But usually when they heard the truth they accepted it! what has happenend to today´s lamanites. they have no interest at all. My area is still tough. the members are rude. the organizations are really broken and hardly anyone goes. But i will follow the counsel of the Prophet of God. I am so grateful for my comp (she is so fun) I am grateful for the growth I have made here in the mission, I am so grateful for the love I feel from my Heavenly Father. Sometimes life is just really stinky. not all of the elders are going to be cool. Not all of the leaders will fulfill their callings. Not all of the people want to understand our message. But I choose to be happy and grateful. I still have millions of faults. But something here that i have learned on the mission is that i have really saved myself. and my future family.

I know Jesus Christ is my Saviour and that through His example we can be truly happy if we strive daily to follow it.

I love you a tons! booyah i am so down for mexico! and for losing weight! hahaha.

Love you

Hermana Dunford.

We all get wounded.

Monday Sept 27, 2010

so this week was another capacitacion [training] and Hermana Garcia and hermana Keller from La Paz came and stayed in our pench from Monday night to Friday morning. that was fun!! It was a little hectic though. I was a little relieved when they left so that I could just have normal schedule time and enough sleep. yes, we stayed up late talking. Hna Garcia told me she laughed when she found out i was with a Latina. (we used to always joke fight about talking in English and Spanish) she told me it served me right. but it was neat to get to know some other sisters a little better. we have a lot of hard working hermanas that really just kick butt. It was interesting to do divisions, because well it was a bunch of comp mayores. i kinda reeled back and let the sister i was with take the wheel. it was kind of nice. also a little embarrassing. a man talked to us through the door and said im sorry estoy solo y ciego, pueden pasar en otro momento? yo grité, o perdon, no me puede escuchar? he said he was blind and i said oh sorry, so you cant hear me very well? i got my words mixed up. Then we contacted this other guy that said sorry i have to go but i really want to listen, i will be back in 15 minutes. the hna i was doing divisions said yes we will be back, and i said yeah how about saturday at four? i didnt understand the whole fifteen minute part. ugh. i felt really dumb. but luckily the next house the lady let us in and we were able to teach a really good lesson. But man just when you think you´ve made it with the whole language thing something happens to just push you back in your place. que va a hacer.

So that was fun, but man this week was really tough. we literally have started from zero. The kid who wanted to get baptized i talked to his mom and she was like heck no! then just about all of the contacts we have made the people lied to us. Then we have visited a good number of menos activo familias who have treated us very rudely ( one was an rm, sealed to his family, who said no I dont need God) We left almost in tears. They just wanted hermanas to come and be their friends i think, and we wanted to help them make the necessary changes in their lives to be happy and on the path to the CK.

It was pretty frustrating. But hey. my whole mission has been a test of faith! just like our whole lives! in Alma it talks about the 2000 stripling warriors. They did not die, not one soul perished. but they all left wounded. I think life is like that. overcoming the trials and trying to save our souls while slowly healing with the Gospel because we all get wounded. And we all have scars. however, If we work right , and have faith in the Lord, the scars can be attributes of Christ, spiritual growth, or a determination to just be happy and obedient no matter what happens. Im grateful for the Saviour and that He knows me, and that He wants to help me. I love His gospel. I love the Book of Mormon that teaches it to us. I´m grateful for my family. I love you all very much!

Sister Dunford.

a billion streets

Monday Sept 20, 2010

first news first. Fabian got baptized on Saturday! yay!!! im so happy. i wasn t too worried cuz i know he has a testimony. but still, not being there to see it all through, can be a little nerveracking. (how do you even spell that word?) ok so my new comp is really a sweetheart. she is so little and pretty! i feel kind of like a giant next to her. She is from el salvador. we already get along great and have found some mutual loves- good food, good music (go motab! thats all we can listen to right now in the mission) saying how things really are, and of course the Gospel.

we arrived to 5 Esquinas in Paraná. It is so nutty! there are a billion streets with a billion names and a billion cortadas and pasajes. ugh. It also happens to be very large. huge! maybe that will help in my ¨getting ready to finally go home¨ diet. It was a little unfortunate to find the carpeta de area pretty out of date, and upon passing by all the investigadores that are ¨sooooo good¨ not really have much interest at all. bummer. it is a real whitewash. We have been walking a full and trying to navegate ourselves the best we can. THe members are nice, there just arent many that really understand the commandments of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and Taking THe sacrament weekly. I gave a talk and played the piano- back to full on involvement! i really took the Parque Independencia ward for granted. (It was so hard to say goodbye to the bishop there and his family, especially his wife. i really love her a lot)

So yeah. Last Christmas zone conference a really cool family made this delicious food and then the dad played the coolest song i have ever heard!! about the restored gospel and about Jesus visiting the Americas. Anyway we were looking for an old investigador and she told us the lady that lived across the street was a member. we didnt really beleive her but we went to check anway. it was that same family!! it was so cool. i told him i remembered meeting him and that i loved that song. i sang a little part of it for him and he said well hey ill play it again. man, the spirit was so strong. im going to ask for a recording of it. they then invited us to lunch and sang some more songs for us. it was so tight! they arent too keen on many commandments though (hno farias has two dangling gold crosses in his ears) ayyayay.

that was a cool experience. then we had some pretty ridiculous lessons with people saying thank heavens when answering their question that yes, the lesson was over. and other people complaining on and on andon about the catholic church and how ridiculous it was, but then just being completely convinced its the only true church.

I love you all, and im excited to see what other adventures we will have here in Paraná.

Sister Dunford.

White Washing Parana

Tuesday Sept 14, 2010

well, chau to the grand ol city of rosario. I am going with la Hermana Espinoza to Parana en Entre Rios. We are doing a white wash. I am already getting tired of writing those two words. haha. Its a little sad though because we are getting whitewashed here as well. We finally had the time to really get the work going. I mean- Fabian is getting baptized on Saturday! but i think its due to the fact that i was robbed and all the nice parts were taken out in the ward limit change. i really hope that now that elders are coming it doesnt change any of that. it was tough to say goodbye to that family. they really are super great and we got really close with them. Fabian even cried! but he is definitely prepared to be baptized. Mirian unfortunately says she does not feel ready for this Saturday, but i know she will get there soon. On sunday lisandro, mirian, estefania, and fabian all came on their own! it was really tight. Lisandro still says there is no way he is going to get married but, i know their hearts will soften with time. I have already seen so many changes in this family. its been a big blessing for me to have been able to meet them.

well. This last week was the special sisters conference. It was just the day but it was really fun to see all the sisters. I really have learned to love so many people. I also love President and Hermana Villalba. I love being able to joke around with them. Its fun heehee. we watched errand of angels. it seemed a little fakey fakey to me. but hey, everybody, ive come to learn, has quite a different mission experience. so hey, maybe someone´s really was like that.

Ok. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. I know that, because I have personally seen the effects of the Atonement in my onw life. I also know that God is my Father in Heaven and that I can talk to Him and He hears me.

I love you all, I love this church. Bye!

Sister Dunford

good week at church

Monday Sept 6, 2010

hello! this week was really great at church. i was super stoked that mirian, fabian, lisandro and estefania all came!! for all three hours! (ok ok we got there a little late) but it was really great. Fabian in gospel doctirne even ansered a question. when they teacher said, why are we faithful to God? he said to enter into the kingdom of God. hmmm, guess i can teach pretty well. haha jk.

so in sacrament they made a pretty huge announcement. they split our ward! well they cut off a HUGE chunk and now its in the others hermanas ward. i felt really sad saying goodbye to some members. i thought this wasnt even a ward i felt like a was a big part of. but it affected me to hear that and i was like man. im sad. i love this ward.

so the weather here is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!! last night we went to the river and kind of just appreciated the beauty for a little while. I think God is ok with that. :)

Well i seguir adelante con firmeza en Cristo, esperando siempre que mi testimonio pueda llegar al corazon de alguna persona. muchas personas no dan ninguna importancia al mensaje que tenemos para compartir y me da pena. pero tengo la fe y sigo trabajando. yo creo un milagro que veo cada día es poder sentir el amor que Mi Padre Celestial tiene para mi.

bueno. chausito. y les amo mucho!!

Robbery and new family to teach

Monday Aug 23, 2010

first off, congrats dad!! way to kick trash in the lawyering world, and then be a missionary in the process. not going to lie, got a little teary eyed when i read that you wore the tie i gifted you.

welp. Yes i was robbed. ok i´ll give the whole story with a little extra details. So my comp and I had about twenty minutes before our coordination meeting with the ward mission leader so we thought we would knock a street on the way over. the street is called Lord Kelvin. haha i laugh everytime cuz its just funny. Anyway. So i did a contact in the intercom box (everyone has them here- so it makes it harder to do like a legit contact when yoiu cant even see their face!) and this really creepy voice was like si.... i swear i was talking to voldemort. It gave me chills so bad, and i was just like uhh nos encantería pasar y compartir mas de este mensaje. and then i was like there is no way im entering that house. so i just like walked away as fast as i could. we stopped at the next house and i kept looking over especting like a ring wraith to leave and attack me! it was really weird how scary that voice was and that it just made my heart stop. luckily the next lady came out and was a super great contact. so we then realized we had to head over to the church by that point and had almost reached the main street Oroño when i heard a guy talking for like a sec before he was all up on me and yelling ¨quedate quieta quedate quieta!! which is keep quiet! i looked down at his fingers which were poking into my stomach and looked at him and instant reaction yelled no!! and was just trying to hold on to my bag, and he ripped it from me hopped on a running motocicleta and they jetted. we ran a little. these experiences are so crazy, cuz it just all happens so fast you cant think! anyway. unfortunately i had some important things in my bag, (debit cards, money, keys, my agenda, my fake passport) and it has complicated things bastante. I had gone to the doctor the day before and just forget to take things out. the money, hna villalba had given it to me, and well her and president basically think im an idiot now. but im just really grateful im safe. i was pretty upset though. haha i was crying and yelling a little. we went and waited at the church (couldnt get in for lack of keys) and the mission leader shows up late for the first time. when he shows im covering my face with my hands because since ive been sick i have had an insane amount of mucus and it was all down my face. anyway, the people have been concerned for our safety (well mainly just the members, all the missionaries are like, well you are on a mission....que va a hacer. i guess its true. but i personally dont want to get robbed!) we were even in a pretty safe part of town. its just that it was 8 at night and everyone here is SO SCARED of being in the streets that no one was outside. so i guess now i really dont blame them.

ok better story now! so the other day we found this family (ok a little disfunctional) but they are so great! there is mirian (the widowed mom) estefania (the 19 yr old daughter pregnant with her 2nd) lisandro (the boyfriend of estefania who sells vegetables) Jose (mirian´s dad, who does NOT STOP TALKING) and anyway. its fun to teach them. they have a lot of questions and are really into like superstitions, but they recognize the Spirit and are really eager to learn more. Estefania and mirian said that when we talked they felt a lot of peace. Lisandro and Estefania came to church on Sunday! they brought their 2 year old son Tiago and i had never been so grateful for all the other screaming kids in my whole life. I think it helped them feel super comfortable. They have a long journey ahead of them, as they aren't married and lisandro smokes un monton, but they are super great. It took us three hour to hour and a half lessons to just teach the restoration. im telling ya, jose really is a yapper. at the end, hna gibbons would just turn and listen to him so that i could teach the others. thats getting me a little excited. even though this last week we were really persecuted for our beliefs. ( haha i think it sounds so old fashioned to say persecuted, but its true, people say some really hideous things to us, even after they´ve asked for our help and its really hard and sad.)

i love this gospel and I love the truth that it brings us. ruego que siempre vivamos en una manera que las personas nos reconozcan como discipulos del Señor Jesucristo. May we always live our lives in a way the people can recognize us as followers of Christ.

i love you all!