MTC: Last week (eek!) O.o

Next time y'all hear from my I will be in another country. How weird is that? But I'm ready to be there. I don't know how people are in the MTC for 9 or 12 weeks... It sounds absolutely terrible. And I don't have the ability to do something like that. I was called to Cebu for a reason. Although I don't know the reason yet, we'll see.

So I guess I will start with what happened last week right after I wrote. I swear the coolest most exciting stuff happens Friday night right after P-Day, no fair is all I can say. I had to wait a whole week to tell everyone this. So I got my travel information last Friday night, and it is not ideal. There is no coastal layover like I was hoping (I don't get to see Seattle again D:). It is a straight 14 hour flight from Salt Lake City to Tokyo, and then a 4 hour flight from Tokyo to Manila. We leave on the morning of the 19th, and get to the Manila MTC around 11:00 PM on the 20th. Shoot me. Silly time differences, jet lag is going to be terrible.

On Saturday we helped Sister Williams and Sister Landvatter pack, because they left on Monday :( but I'll get to that in a second. Our room looked like a hurricane ripped through it. It was so bad.

Sunday was really bad, one of the Sisters in the zone woke up in extreme pain and had to go the hospital because she had a kidney stone... ouch. It was a very stressful morning. I curled Sister Ferguson's and Sister William's hair for them and they looked super fab. I also got a terrible nose bleed on Sunday, which has never happened to me before, it was awful. I am so mad, the air here is awful. It is ruining my skin, and my hair, and my face. My hair feels like straw now...

I heard some good quotes on Sunday though, I'll just share a few of them with you. "One only progresses as fast as he gains knowledge," and then something more inspirational "Do not hide your light, be a candle on a candlestick, astonish the world!" and a funny one "Satan steals, Jesus heals"

We watched the Joseph Smith Restoration movie, and it was really good. Basically every movie I have watched here is really good! So watch all of them. But the spirit was so strong in the room by the end of it I was just like "AHH THE CHURCH IS TRUE!" it's intense.

On Monday the Danes left and it was a day of mourning. We still miss them so much. I cried, because we got so close with them. One of the teachers showed us pictures of her mission and it got us even more excited to get out to the field.

Oh and I got three packages on Monday I was so thankful!! Jaimie sent me homemade cookies that all the girls in my hallway love! And Sawyer colored me a picture, and the Roger's sent me a really awesome card, I loved it! Oh and Debbie sent me tuna, which was awesome. So I smuggled bread out of the cafeteria and then on the second can of tuna the can opener broke and I was so sad. And everyone sent me Kit Kats although I think they were for Sister Soleta so I gave them to her. She loves them. All of it was a wonderful cornucopia and I am so grateful.

And Felicia sent me a really nice card with pictures of Taylor in it, I put them in my journal so I can always see her face.

Mom I loved your quote "It's good to know Sarah Harding is off the island and serving a mission." I laughed soooo hard when I read that! Word smith you are.

We totally ended up cleaning the room though, because it was just the two of us in there. And I took Sister Ferguson's bed because it is the best in the room.

One of the Elders sat on smeared chocolate this week and it looked like he pooped his pants, we were laughing soo hard! And then the next morning his tie dipped in the melted chocolate chip he had put in his oatmeal. He just couldn't catch a break.

Oh I found a Sister during service on Tuesday with the same last name as me! Although she's going to Albania so she is Motra Dunn, and she is FROM SEATTLE!!! How crazy is that? Her first name is Russian like mine too, it was crazy.

Great moment on Tuesday, Vono walked into our room and says "Come home with honor, not bana." and we all died laughing because bana means husband, it was just a beautiful quote that I will hold dear.

Mom I have found the stain remover gold. Sister Williams gave me a fells knaptha bar and it is the best thing in the world. I suggest you buy some and use them for stains. they come right out.

It also rained really hard on Tuesday, I was in love. I just watched it out the window and felt sad and a little bit homesick, but that's just cause it is SOOO DRY HERE! I can't survive any longer. I don't know how all these Mormon's do it.

Oh and I saw an Elder I met at EFY like 5 years ago here at the MTC, it was awkward, because i don't think he remembered who I was.. whoops...

During Tuesday night devotional review Brother Metcalfe said something that really hit me hard "The adversary is having a hey day with you. You are on the brink of helping so many people and receiving so many blessings. Satan knows you are weak and is exploiting it." Thought it was awesome, and so I wrote it down in my journal so I would remember that I am stronger than Satan. I'm not and never will be smarter than God, but I am stronger than Satan.

We have a stupid 15 pound weight limit for our carry on bags, and I hate it so much. Because my carry on was 30 pounds on my way to the MTC.... i don't think I can manage it.

On Wednesday I found out some crazy stuff! So I was on FamilySearch going through family history and OH MY GOODNESS!!! I could trace our family line back to 5 BC on Dad's side of the family and we are related to a long line of kings from Finland, Norway, Denmark, etc... and I don't think y'all know this family, but we are related to Constantine the Great and Marcus Aurelius. Yea! Get excited about Genealogy. I have developed such a strong testimony of it this week, it is so important. It is soo coool!!!!!

We got 3 new roommates on Wednesday too. They are going to Thailand sooo Thai roommates! They seem pretty cool, and I made Sister Magbanua a tuna fish sandwich and after lights out we are all laying there trying to fall asleep and i just see her sitting up in bed so i asked her if she was okay and she was just like "yea, just eating my sandwich." I was laughing so hard, it was amazing. Tuna addict over here! Apparently in the night I sleep yelled, two of the new sisters heard me. I said "AMEN!" really loudly, i'm not sure what i was dreaming about. She said I sounded like a baptist preacher. when i apologized i said "sorry about that, i don't even know what i was dreaming about." and Sister Hayes just said "At least it was a righteous dream".

Yesterday was In-Field Orientation. Not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, but still not great. One of the elders from the show the District was our instructor in one of the segments, a bunch of the missionaries were weirdly star struck, and asked really stupid questions. At one point they used my companionship in a demonstration where I died of Ebola and went straight to the celestial kingdom. sweet right? That's the goal.

Sister Schultz's mom sent her a box of chocolate frogs for Valentines day and they were so good! She attached the quote "someday you'll find your prince charming." we died of the cute. She says she gets them every year. all the cuter. I wore my Ron Weasley sweatshirt while I ate them. I felt magnificent. Especially because I'm about to go on an excellent adventure, although I'm not going to Hogwarts.

This morning we did Sealings at the temple, which were soo cool, We did it as a district. UNITY! It was nice to be there together. I've started my packing today, I've discovered I do not have a talent for it.

When I was reading in Alma 48 this week I found something really interesting. in verse 23 it talks about "...they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God" and I was just thinking as I read that, they didn't want to go to war because they wanted a chance to teach them/ prepare them to meet God, but they couldn't let their families be killed.

I just thought it was cool, that even though they were being attacked by these people, they still felt sorrowful for them, and loved them, and wanted to help them come unto Christ by teaching them. And that's our job as members of the church. Remember that.

And remember the Lord's work will ALWAYS come through.

Love you guys, miss you all, let me know if anything earth shattering happens!

Lots of love,



Sister Dunn

MTC: 1 month down, 13 days to go

Kamusta! How is everyone doing? I hope good, because this week was one of the best so far. Pero, I am glad that i am getting out of here soon. It's surreal though, because i feel like i'm just going to be going home and not to another country.

So hmm, since my last letter what's been going on... Oh Friday night, we discovered that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam in danish is Et Solskinbarn which directly translates into Sunshine child which is absolutely adorable, so now every time i talk to someone who just brightens up my day i call them solskinbarn! Oh and I've discovered that my teacher Sister Henshaw and me are basically twins. Both blonde, 5'3", green eyes, serving/served in the Philippines. Although she is way nicer than me. She's the coolest ever. We got a new roommate this week because her comp was reassigned to Florida and she's going to Denmark like the rest of our roommates. We love her, it's Sister Williams, she is basically our mother. oh wait i can't remember if she moved in this week or last week, oh well. She told us that if you are a missionary in Italy you are basically set because the Mafia protects you, and then she told us this really crazy story from her dad's mission (because he served in Italy).

Sister Soleta is still addicted to Hot Cheetos but we're working on it. I keep playing volleyball with the Polynesians and it is SO MUCH FUN! Although they get really into it, and it's kind of every man for himself, and there are no rules. But i believe you haven't really played volleyball until you've played with the poly's. I'm still working on memorizing the first vision in Cebuano, but it's really difficult. Something that i have discovered though is that it's about 10 times easier to memorize something in English once you are learning a new language. It took me about 2 minutes to memorize the first vision in English.

I got in trouble on Sunday because I've been using Google+ to send photos to you guys, but apparently we can't use photo sharing sites till we are in the field, so I probably won't send any more pictures till I am in the Philippines. Sorry:/ We had our first fast sunday here too, and it wasn't as bad as i imagined. Every other day here when i dont get fed, or like i get to a meal late i'm always starving, but i was fine all day fasting. Tender mercies i'm telling you. When we did the temple walk there was a malamute puppy named Sarabi, CUTEST LITTLE THING! and i got to pet her and she was teething and super adorable and I JUST MISS ANIMALS!

This week personal scripture study was awesome. I made it halfway through Alma this week alone and I've decided that I agree with Sister Landvatter, I am thankful for the Anti-Nephi-Lehies! They were so righteous and set a killer example for everybody.

I don't remember if I've said this already so I'll say it again, the book of mormon in Danish is called Mormon's Bog (pronounced Boe) but whenever I see it I just imagine like a marshy swamp monster/prophet rising out of the fog and mud and preaching the good word. I find it funnier than i should.

On Sunday night we watched Legacy and it was amazing! Everyone was cat calling every time there was a kiss though (hahaha) but i suggest everyone watch it, it was soo good! Oh and the testaments (mom & dad you were asking) is a movie that was made like 10 years ago about the lamanites right before the coming of Christ, if you can, watch it because it is real good.

Oh and all day Sunday all the talks were about marriage, it was really weird we were all just like "We just got to the MTC! We're not supposed to be thinking about marriage!" It was pretty entertaining though.

On Monday Elder May accidentally called a Sister from Bulgaria a chick and to cover it up he said the funniest thing "Bulgarian chicks man, they say duck not cluck what's with that? It's like a whole other bird! Poultry lore, it's strange, you don't want to get into that." My whole class is pretty much hilarious all the time.

This week Sister Williams regaled her worst date stories to us, and they take the cake. Although to spare her any additional humiliation (and because I don't have a lot of time) i won't say them. but I will tell you, that I have never heard of a worse date. Oh and Sister Ferguson wrote my name in Cyrillic for me!

Oh also I think I should let everyone know.... THERE WERE MINT BROWNIES AT DINNER ON TUESDAY NIGHT! It was incredible. Debbie has been asking about them since I came to the MTC. For Tuesday night devotional I sang in the Choir again and we sang 'Sweet hour of prayer' and it was magnificent. I just got chills so strongly, i could feel like a host of angels in the room. There was a violinist accompanying and it was beautifullllll...

All this week I've heard the reoccurring theme that everyone should work on prayers, we even taught a lesson about it, and really consider that you're speaking with God, so to work on praying more sincerely, at night I go into a utility closet on our floor where It's quiet and no one else is around and I speak out loud, and my prayers are so much more powerful, so I encourage everyone to try it at least once a day, praying out loud.

The Danes are packing up this week because they leave for the field on monday :( but our room is a mess, it looks like a hurricane went through there. We can't even walk without stepping on something. :/ I just keep telling myself "It's only for a few more days.." other than that I'm really sad that they're leaving because I love them.

We hosted again on Wednesday, and I hosted 3 sisters. One going to North Carolina, one going to Panama, and one going to Twin Falls, Idaho. They were all really nice, although i had to lug a 50 pound piece of luggage up 4 flights of stairs :/

OH MUM I HAVE THE FUNNIEST THING TO TELL YOU! Last night I forgot my journal in the classroom and so I took Sister Quinney back to the classroom so I could grab it and while we were there the carpet cleaning people were there and one of the girls she asked if we knew a Sister Harding speaking Tagalog and we told her no, but if we saw her we'd say hi for her. As a joke though i said "Is her first name Sarah?" and the girl looks at me weird and says "yes, how do you know her?" I WAS BLOWN AWAY! I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE FUNNY! Then I quoted Jurassic Park 2 "Sarah! Sarah Harding! How many Sarah's do you think are on this island?" So Mum!, there is a girl across the hall from me, named Sarah Harding. It was amazing. And i never would have known this if i hadn't forgot my journal.

We TRC'ed last night although this time it was a skype call and it was soo cool! She's in the Philippines right now and her name is Kirstie, she was so nice! We taught her a lesson about scripture study, and it was cool because it looked so sunny and beautiful there because it was 10:30 in the morning their time. She was so sweet! a solskinbarn! Also it's amazing how much English Filippinos actually use. Not a lot, but still some. I understand pretty much every thing she was saying! I am so blessed here!

This morning at the temple we did initiatory's and it was so amazing, the spirit was incredibly strong and i was so physically exhausted by the end of it. It was incredible. Nindot siya!
Well, this week during Personal study I read a lot in Alma, and there was a particular theme that i kept seeing and it was joy. Joy in Cebuano is amazing, it's hingpit kalipay which directly translates into perfect happiness so "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have perfect happiness" how magical does that sound?

there was one story that stood out to me though, in Alma 27. It's when Ammon is reunited with Alma, Aaron, Omner, and Himni and it talks in verse 17 about how Ammon is so happy to see his Brethren that he falls to the Earth! Isn't that amazing? He was so happy and completely swallowed up in joy that he literally fell to the Earth. It's my goal now, to work and strive for a happiness that complete. Also in Alma 28:8 the whole verse literally talks about what life is like, and how even with all the sufferings and sorrows and afflictions... we can have incomprehensible joy.

Anyways, I think that is pretty darn amazing. Hope everyone is having wonderful weeks!
Love, Sister Dunn