Christmas is coming.

Hey guys! Hey cool, so ya our Thanksgiving went well, it wasn’t like home, but it was good. We went over to an older couple’s apartment and had turkey dinner. It was good. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and salad. It was pretty good. lol Oh and they totally had the celery with cheese wiz on it. lol So that was cool, it totally reminded me of mom:)

But ya, I finished the Turkey Trot. I ran the whole time too! It was a four mile run and I did it in about 37 minutes, so ya not too shabby for an out
of shape missionary. lol But it was fun, I got a cool shirt and other stuff that has a cool turkey on it. Over 8000 people ran it! Pretty crazy huh! It was fun.

The work is going good here. Right now we have 3 really solid investigators, Sham, the man from Kashmir. He is doing good. He is moving slowly through the gospel but has been to church like 8 times in a row, so that is awesome. We have talked with him about baptism but he doesn’t have a date yet, but he is doing good.

Then we have Margarita and her daughter Margarita. lol They are like late forties and twenty one. We started teaching them about 3 weeks ago and they have been to church the last 3 weeks. They are Mexican, they moved here from Mexico about 2 years ago now, so they speak pretty good English and I get to practice up on my Spanish so that is cool. lol They are way solid and progressing wonderfully. We have taught them the first lesson about the restoration of the church, the second lesson, the plan of salvation, and pieces of the third, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Margarita’s son is 19 and was baptized about 1 1/2 years ago. He lives a few hours from Denver, so I have never met him, but they are doing good and we just last Thursday soft set them for baptism. Basically saying once you receive an answer to your prayers that this is Jesus Christ’s church will you be baptized and they both said yes, so that is cool. They are having us over for dinner on Christmas Eve so that will be awesome. They said they are going to make us a real Mexican dinner! I’m pretty excited. Lol

So ya, we have an appointment with Sham on Friday and with the Margaritas on Thursday. So yup, oh and on Sunday this older man in the ward Bro. Berry brought his granddaughter up to us. Her name is Mya, she is 10, and said this is Mya she wants to be baptized! Pretty cool so ya we have an appointment with her on Sat. So yup, it’s all looking good and I’m staying busy. The Lord has definitely blessed me and Elder Luce by preparing people here in the Crestmoor ward for us to teach. We are very blessed.

Ok, so for Christmas, we are going over to one of our kinda investigators house, the Plusses, for breakfast and stuff so we are going to be calling from there at like 11 or 12 Denver time, so 10 or 11 for you guys. I think that’s all you need to know. I guess I’ll just call the home phone, and I think Britt is going to be going over there so I can talk to her for a bit. Pretty exciting stuff :) So ya they are making us a big breakfast , so that will be fun. They are a cool family, I don’t think there will be any eggs benedict though! Sad day. lol But I think I will manage. :) Then we have a dinner at the Green’s house. They are recent converts, I think like 2 years or so. It will be good to have nice people and good conversations, so ya it will be fun.

Well let’s see, Friday I think it was, at night it got down to minus 18!!!!! Crazy huh? It was like minus 10 when we were still out, it was wicked cold. Pretty crazy stuff, but today it finally let up, it got up to like 40 I think. But the last few days have been brutal.

Oh I saw I had some money, so of course I had to spend it as soon as possible. lol Just kidding. But I did buy a bike yesterday, so thanks a bunch for the money. It’s basically my same bike but an upgrade, so it’s a little nicer. Mine was the GT Avalanche 3.0. lol Then Elder Bragg had to one up me, so he bought the one nicer model the 2.0 and I couldn’t let that happen. lol So I bought the 1.0 lol So ya pretty funny, but it’s nice, thanks a bunch!

Well I think that’s it guys, hope you’re all doing well. Love you all. I’ll talk to ya soon!

Elder Dunn

Snow

I know pretty lame huh! Ya that is what we...well my companion has started doing now bringing his bike up in the apartment at night. Well, Elder Anderson, the elder on the other side of my ward, actually bought a bike at Wal-Mart when he first came out. Then after riding it for 2 weeks, found out it is a piece of junk and worth it to buy a nice one, so he bought a nice bike and he is letting me use wall-e, the Wal-Mart bike. lol It’s pretty bad. lol But I think I will need one pretty soon cuz it snows here but then 3 days later it’s all gone, and we have been doing some walking but its really less effective. But I have been doing a little shopping around and found some really nice ones for some pretty good deals too, so I think it would just be best to transfer some money in my account.

But about calling home, I’m not exactly sure yet. We have a couple of places we will be going on Christmas, but not to sure about calling. So we will try to find out this week and I’ll let you know next p-day.

It did snow a lot on transfer day last week and just the other night we went into dinner and it had just barley started snowing but not sticking and came out of dinner and there was like 3 inches on the ground. It was pretty crazy. The snow here is so dry and fluffy, it’s awesome. It really makes me wanna go snowboarding. lol It’s tough! But ya its cool. I like the snow, ya hopefully they get enough snow there in Oregon to get up a few times. That’s cool that Dave is going up there, that will be fun.

Tell Nicole she is too young to be getting married! That’s way weird. lol Is the guy cool at least? Well sorry, I’m like way short on time today, so I better get going. But I hope your all doing well and I wish I could be there with you going to all the fun activities, but I know this is where I’m supposed to be, and I having fun too :) It’s all going good. Happy holidays and I will talk to you later! Love you allElder Dunn

Totally Stolen!!

Ok, well let’s see where do I start? Well I guess I’ll start with my bike, IT TOTALLY GOT STOLEN!!!! I was so mad. Last Wednesday night I had it locked up behind our apartment and they just cut my lock and left it on the ground and took the bike! How lame huh? Sooooo ya, pretty crazy. So we have been walking alot this week. I guess all I want/need for Christmas is a bike. So if anyone wants to send me a Christmas present, just tell them to send me money so I can buy a bike.

Another sad thing, my companions girlfriend’s mom passed away the day after Thanksgiving, so that was pretty tough on him. So it has been a kinda rough week, but we found out both Elder Luce and I will be staying here in the Crestmoor ward, so my address will stay the same.

It has snowed here a bit, but where I am it has all melted. It was there two or three days though so it was fun, but today the high is supposed to be 34 and the low 13. Pretty crazy. So snow should be on its way again, uhh but ya I think I’m good on all the weather stuff. I’m a tough kid. lol I just need a bike. lol

But ya I’m glad I’ll be staying, we have some pretty awesome investigators that have really started progressing, so that is awesome. We have been doing alot of tracting lately. The standard of excellence has been raised here in our mission and they want us tracting 20 hours a week, but it is tough when you go tracting 4½ hours and only have like 3 or 4 quality gospel conversations. But when you find that one person who is really listening to us on the door step and wants to learn more it is way worth it! I love it!

Well, I better get going. I got to go to the temple today and saw Elder Bragg and Pond, so it was cool. But I will talk to you all soon.
Love you all!

Elder Dunn

Thanksgiving 2008

Well today is a short p-day just till 1:00, then tomorrow is a p-day, so ya its cool. In the morning me and the other 3 elders in our ward are running the Turkey Trot! It’s kinda like the Pear Blossom I think. We get a cool shirt and everything that has a little turkey on it. But it’s 4 miles! I don’t know if I can do that. We will see. It will be fun! An investigator signed us up and paid for it all for us. The whole Plus family is doing it, so they invited us to do it too. It will be fun. Then we have a dinner/lunch with an empty nester couple at 1:00, then going to another member family’s in the evening, so it should be a pretty good day. I hope the food is good. lol But I doubt it will be like home, but it should still be fun.

Oh man, so there was a Turkey Bowl last Saturday, it wasn’t on Thanksgiving, but ya and they announced it in priesthood and said, “Oh ya, and no missionaries allowed!!! Lame huh? We were way mad about it cuz I guess like 2 years ago a missionary got hurt at the Turkey Bowl, so ya I was pretty bummed. But after the Turkey Bowl they had a chili cook-off, so we went and watched them play then got a free lunch. So it was cool. There was some pretty good chili and some really, really hot chili too, it was cool. One guy just had a full habanero just sitting on the top on his chili, for looks, and his was pretty hot. Towards the end he told me to eat this raw habanero, and me being me…said uh ok. So he got everyone’s attention and was like, “Dunns gonna eat a habanero,” so ya that was fun! lol At first it wasn’t that hot then after like 45 secs it was burning! lol It was pretty intense. It was fun. Needless to say the rest of the day my stomach was mad at me! lol It was fun though.

Well I better get going we have a lesson with a member at two with these two single moms and their kids so it should be a good first lesson.

Love you all. Eat a turkey leg and tackle someone in the mud for me!

Elder Dunn

P-Day

Hey there! So ya my week was good, uhh let’s see, nothing too exciting that I can think of right now, just doing missionary work. lol Every time me and my companion, Elder Luce, finish an appointment or something and he asks what we are going to do now, I say uhh I don’t know I was thinking of doing some missionary work, then he hits me. lol It’s cool.

But lets see well today (P-Day) we played some early morning racket ball, that was cool. I think I could take you Dad! lol Then after study we went and played some ultimate Frisbee. It was cool and really really tiring. It was like seventy degrees today, it was crazy! Hey it snowed on Friday. Just a few inches but it was cool. Then we had haircut appts at this beauty school in downtown Denver that a member owns, so missionaries get free haircuts. But I guess we made reservations at the wrong place. lol So ya we went all the way downtown for nothing, so now we are getting them on Friday.

To answer your questions, I can view pics on here but not too sure if I can print them out. Some libraries I think I can and others I can’t, and yes I got the money thanks mom! Gma and Gpa wrote me and sent some pics of there new horses so that was cool and they threw in 40 bucks too!! Cool cuz lets see I have 21 dollars to last me the rest of the month. lol But I should be fine, all I need are the essentials Ramen and cereal. lol But all is well out here in Denver. Oh clothes, lets see I think I should be ok on shirts for the time being and I think you could send out that other suit, that would be cool, I guess I could use another pair of pants. I only really wear one pair right now, the ones that lady bought me my first transfer. lol But they’re 32's and way big so ya and ties are always awesome, you can never have enough ties. lol But on everything else I think I'm doing good :) Well I best get going. Love you all and hope you’re all doing well. ttyl

Elder Dunn

Dang

Dang, that’s pretty lame about the computer and stuff. Sounds like a big pain, but that’s good that you finally got it back though.

Dang that’s pretty crazy about Daisy, Ya I've heard that’s what it sounds like when a bunny gets hurt, but I've never heard it myself. That’s good that she is doing ok now.

Oh that’s cool you got to talk to Elder Craft! I really like him, he is a nice guy. We did have alot of fun times together, he is a good kid. That’s cool you got some pics from Brittney. She told me she stopped by and that Elder Craft might get you some pics.

Yesterday or uh Monday, I sent you guys a letter and I put in a whole bunch of pictures I printed off, so ya, you should get them like tomorrow or so, and ya I got your package! Thanks for everything. I really needed stamps and I already had some Ovalteen and hot choc. Really cool thanks a bunch!

Well I'm running out of time so I better rap this up, but everything is going good we are having a good time me and Elder Luce are going on team-ups with the zone leaders tomorrow, so that will be fun. Just for the day so that’s cool.

Oh man, someone stole Elder Luce's bike seat yesterday, pretty crazy huh? So we went to the bike shop and the cheapest one was 70 bucks, pretty lame! Well I've got 40 seconds left on the comp so I better go love you all!

Elder Dunn

The Right Way To Do Things

Yup pretty crazy about Obama. I have no clue about him or McCain. I'm totally in the dark on their ideas.

So ya we have a mtg with our Ward Mission Leader each week and go to the first part of PEC and give our weekly progress report so that is cool. It’s hard to get our ward missionaries to come to a lesson. Our WML is a really good guy. He is fairly new, only a few months with the calling and he is like 24. I think pretty young and he is recently married going to law school and works. So he is always really busy. But between all of that he tries to fulfill his calling, but it’s hard. So not too much advice. lol Sorry.

Ya the weather here has been beautiful, sunny and high 60's. But today it dropped and this week it might snow. Finally, so that’s cool. I'm ready for it, the only bummer is when there is snow on the ground the bikes and cars are parked, so it’s really less affective to walk around. It takes forever, especially for dinner cuz it can be out of our half of the ward, so like 50-60 blocks away. We will see how it goes and it’s really tough, unfortunately to find a ride from members.

I'm still in the same area, Crestmoor West, and I'm liking it. I would like to stay another transfer after this. And ya, Elder Pond, I love that kid! Ya we roomed together in the MTC. He is hilarious. We went to the temple this morning and him and Elder Bragg were in my session. I'm kinda jealous lol they are having a blast together. Two really cool cats. lol

But ya all is well here in Denver and I'm having fun and definitely working hard. Got to show my greenie the right way to do things. I like training a lot, even though it’s a struggle sometimes, but it makes me be the best I can and really push myself to be a good example, so its cool. I like it, I wouldn’t mind training my whole mission. lol Well I gotta go, we are going to play some bball love you all!Elder Dunn

Ya, I know!

Alright, so let’s see, my greenies name is Elder Luce like luc-y. lol So he is from Las Vegas, Nevada. Pretty cool uh? Well let’s see, everything is going alright. His personality is a lot different then mine. He doesn’t like to play any sports, he is more of a gamer kinda sword liking Anime cartoon kinda guy. But it is going good. I'm always happy and hard to make angry (I hope) so everything is going pretty good. He is 21 and has done 2 years at BYU Provo. He is a good kid but he is kinda struggling without his family and girlfriend. So we had a long discussion and stuff and I guess he is feeling kina trunky. But everything is cool, we had a long talk and stuff. But I think its going pretty good, but I like training I think its fun.

That’s good that Britt seems to be doing good. Ya she sounds like she is having fun with school and stuff and staying busy, so that’s good. Ya she is pretty tough :) I'm not gonna lie I miss her too but I'm having a great time out here and not letting it distract me so that’s good, this is an "all day everyday mission" that’s our motto out here and mine is "work hard and have fun", so with the two of those everything is going good, and I know what you mean about spiritual growth too.

I will have to write Seth and see how things are going.

So, about 2 or 3 weeks ago my helmet got stolen! Can you believe that? I locked up the bikes but it was raining so I put my helmet on the seat the under side of my helmet wouldn’t get wet or my seat and came back later and it was gone! So I bought a new one yesterday and bought a lock because I was just using my companions. So ya, that’s what I used my debit card for if you saw the recent charges.

Everything is going good out here, just trying to find some more people we can bring unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Well I better get going we still need to go food shopping. We are way out, all we have is Ramen and instant oatmeal. It’s pretty sad. lol Well all is well here in Denver. Love you all!

Elder Dunn

I'm Training!

I'm gonna be a daddy!! Transfers are tomorrow and I’m training! Crazy huh I’m still new but I don’t know, I guess the Lord and Pres. Christenson know I can do it. So that’s pretty crazy. We are getting like 25 new elders and I’m the youngest one training, pretty crazy!

I’m excited, pretty cool about Seth. I’m excited for him, and Braden too. I didn’t hear that. So what did Britt say did she seem like she was doing good? Ya, sorry I ran out of stamps! But Britt should be sending me some tomorrow. So ya, I already have pics printed out and labeled for you to send so I’ll do it soon.

The weather here has been pretty good, kinda cool like 40's and sunny. Today it was suppose to snow but didn’t but we should get snow here soon. Its cold on a bike.

We have a lady, Linda, that is single with 5 kids that we found on our own. We have a date with her on Nov 8 but she has some WOW problems with smoking, so we are working with her through that. They only have to be clean for a week, did you know that? Kind of interesting, but ya so we are working towards that and have some other people we are working pretty closely with. Well I’m out of time. All is well. I love you all. I’ll send pics and a letter soon.

Elder Dunn

Cynthia

To answer some of your questions: Hey it would be cool if you sent that talk in CD and written, but that would be way cool.

For exercise we have a little weight set, a bench press thing and a curl bar, so I usually just do some reps of that and some sit ups. But we recently figured out that the elders that serve on the other side of our ward have a racket ball court! So yesterday for the first time, we got up at like 5:45! Gross! and rode our bikes about 3 miles in the dark and in the cold to their place and played racket ball. Then just stayed there at there place and studied and showered. They have a car, so they drove us to our area and then went to work. So that was really fun. We might start doing that more often!

No I didn’t do either baptism or confirmation at the baptism he had members from the ward do that.

Ya we do yard work and no, it has just confirmed my thoughts on having a rock yard. But I'm still trying to think if I want lava in the front and river in the back or if I should switch it lol:)

Well one thing that happen this week, we got a call from a lady a week or so ago that said we had talked to her one day while she was walking her dog and gave her a pass along card with our number on it. She said she needed some help cleaning out her garage so we did that for her. She said she had talked with some missionaries before. After looking at the area book we found out she had watched the restoration and was taught the first lesson, but she said she was now interested in learning more. She has it really rough. She is in her 60's and so is her husband, but her husband has a lot of medical problems. He worked on cars and got asbestos poisoning, he smokes a lot and has something with his legs where there are these sores all over them and water seeps out through them. They are always bandaged and the bandage has to be changed 5 times a day, and he sits in a chair. He hasn’t been out of the chair in almost a year now except when Cynthia, his wife, walks him to the bathroom and washes him and dresses him and shaves him. But he isn’t expected to live much longer. In the meantime she is left doing everything because he can’t get up. She is a pack rat there is stuff everywhere in here house! It’s crazy and she feels overwhelmed and sad because she doesn’t like to see her husband like this. So we went over and talked with her about what she knew and she pulled out her old Book of Mormon and we went over some scriptures and talked about opposition in life and Joseph Smith. The lesson went really well, she seem very sincere and interested in reading and praying about it, which is awesome! We have a appt with her next week, so that was really cool and we explained the priesthood to her and her husband and told him about blessings, so I had the opportunity to give him a blessing. That was a first for me, but it was a great experience. Cynthia is one tough lady for all the things she has to deal with. I feel bad for her. But ya that was a good experience.

But I'm running out of time so I gotta go. Hey I bought a jacket and gloves from Sports Authority last pday! I was just in time. It’s been getting cold the last few days. It was suppose to snow on Saturday but didn’t. But was definitely cold enough, it got down to 25 on Sunday! Crazy! Well love you all, and I like all the tenets there good!

Love
Elder Dunn

No Email

Hey guys what no email? What is this lol just kidding, but I have like no time blah! But everything is going good. Hopefully I can buy a jacket today cuz it’s starting to get cold. lol I will write you a letter today and say more and I got some pics developed so I will send you those to love you all!
Elder Dunn

Going Good

Hey, yup you made it on time. Ya Pres. Christensen challenged us to read the Book of Mormon for the new year, so that will be cool to do it as a mission.

I had a baptism yesterday so that was really awesome! I will have to send you guys some pics soon so you can see Lester and everyone else.

Everything is going good, I’m staying really busy as usual. Ya I’m really excited to listen to Conference, ya I will get to watch the priesthood session and we are asked to go to Stake Centers for the sessions, not at members houses. Hopefully we will be able to bring some of our investigators to some of it.

So, I kinda heard about all the bank stuff going on, crazy! lol I was wondering if I still had money in my account for a while, but that’s pretty crazy.

That’s cool that sis Brumble got her eyes fixed. So today it was awesome, I got two things of toaster strudels for 4 dollars! Awesome huh? lol I was pretty excited.

I got to go to the temple which is always awesome. I’m so blessed as a missionary to be able to go every month. I love being able to be reminded of those sacred covenants we make with our Father in Heaven and to be able to feel the spirit so strong.

Elder Bragg (I am still getting used to calling him that, sometimes like during b-ball it slips and I call him Colton lol) but that was fun and then we played some dodge ball. lol It was fun. Well I gotta go, times up, I love you all and hope all is well!

Elder Dunn

Baptism on Tuesday

Hey guys, it’s always great to hear from you every week. We just had zone conference on Monday, it was really good. I've only been to two but they are always a spiritual boost and pumps everyone up to work hard that transfer. Ya we always sing to the sisters that feed us too, usually we do “Called to Serve”, but this time we did the “Army of Helaman". So we sang “are the lords missionaries” like that and at the very end instead of "to bring the world his truth" we sang "and thank you for the food". It’s pretty cool. lol Ya most of the ladies cry too. So it's ok mom. lol I guess its normal.

Oh and I got a package from the priests so that was cool. Some Oreos and chili cheese Fritos lol yum. So that was exciting.

On Sunday it was way lame, I threw up like 10 times. So I was stuck in bed all day. It was kind of a bummer. I had to miss out on church. But the next day I was fine so idk if it was like food poisoning or what but ya crazy.

Oh and some exciting news!! Me and Elder Jensen have a baptism on Tuesday! Pretty cool huh? It’s Lester Fowler, he is a 42 year old black man with a bunch of tattoos that lives in the ghetto. He just got married to his wife, who is a member, like 2 months ago and has recently been taking the lessons. His wife Laurey has two kids already 6 and 4. Jojo and I can’t remember the little girls name lol dang, but ya they are way cool and very excited, so it’s going to be great and we have 3 other solid investigators that are close to a date, so the work here is busy and going very well.

My time is almost up. I love you guys very much and I'm loving being out here. It’s amazing how when you surround yourself with the gospel how much you can learn and be strong and how often you get to feel the spirit! It’s great! Well until next time, have a good week!

Elder Dunn

Hey ya I got your package last Wednesday after I emailed so ya! But the pan is awesome. lol I've had an egg for breakfast and lunch like every day this week. lol It’s awesome, but cool thanks for the money now I just need to find the stuff. It’s already starting to get cold some nights. Its weird here, one day will be way warm then the next rainy and cold. It’s going really well for me and Elder Jensen and I get along pretty good, and we are working really hard. There is alot of stuff to do and alot of people to talk to. The ward list has 600 people on it and only about 150 show up for church! It’s crazy and tons of people that have never even heard of Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon so its cool tons of work to do.

That sounds like fun your little adventure of a trip and camping sounds pretty fun too. Today a few of the elders played football in a park, it was fun. I had two touchdowns and an interception. lol It was fun, but ya all is well, today Elder Jensen and I are going to clean the apartment, it looks ok now but the bathroom is still way gross, so that is our project for today. I better get going, lots to do and so little time it feels like. Love you all!

Elder Dunn

PS Hey, make Seth write me!

Crestmoor

Hey there so yup I got transferred. I'm now in the Crestmoor Ward in Denver. I'm like in the city more now. Our ward is huge, so there are two sets of missionaries in the ward. Its split east and west, I'm the Crestmoor west ward. So ya its pretty exciting, my new companions name is Elder Jensen. He is a goofy hardworking diligent guy. He has been out about 6 months and is from Houston Texas, pretty cool! But ya he is a good guy, a really hardworking missionary. He doesn’t let one person walk by us or even within 100 yards of us without them hearing about the gospel. It is fun! There are like 4 pretty solid investigators so that is cool. Our ward is really weird, like there is a way ghetto part that is like all black people then the way way rich white people, its crazy how fast the neighborhoods can change like that. But we do most of our work in the poor spots, I really like it here, the people are really nice. It’s funny to see, we walk up to these gangster guys with there pants to there knees and like bling and grillz and stuff and start talking to them about Jesus Christ and most of them are way nice about it and let us talk to them, it is really cool. I'll have to send some pics of some of the rough neighborhoods and stuff. We live in a apartment just the two of us. It’s pretty trashy and dumpy and the inside is disgusting. I don’t think it has ever been cleaned. lol So that’s my goal today is to clean it up. But one investigator, Lester, told us he wanted to get baptized on Sept 30, so that was really crazy. So we are just getting him prepared for that, but the work here I guess has a reputation of being really hard. I guess the ward members are kinda slackers and flaky which is kind of annoying but it will all work out. I’m having fun here.

That's cool Mike Nielson is getting ready. I’m excited for him. Ya the missionaries that live in metro Denver get to go to the temple on the first Wednesday of each month, so I have gone twice now and will continue to get to go through this transfer :)

For numbers we set goals and our zone goal is just to have a baptism in every area, but ours this transfer is 4.....so we will see how that goes!

Ya and my bike is pretty sweet I really like it. I will send pics of it in a while it’s a GT 3.0. It’s a mountain bike. It’s really nice, I like riding alot.

Thanks to mom for sending me the comments to read. They are pretty funny. lol But ya I have like 30 mins on the computer for email but I have all pday to read and write letters so ya I do that stuff later:)

Well guys, all is well here in the mission field. Elder Bragg was just a couple computers down from me doing his email, so that’s cool, and we are all going to play bball in a bit so that is fun. I like my new area and companion I’ll email you in a week and let you know if I still feel the same way about everything. lol It’s still to early to tell but I’m sure I will love it. It’s great to be able to devote all my time my energy and my talents to the Lord, I love the gospel and feel blessed to have it in my life.
Love you all,
Elder Dunn

P.S.
My new address is:

1235 Albion St. #204
Denver, CO 80220

1st Transfer Coming Up

Hey guys how is good ol' Oregon treating you? It’s been really nice here in the Denver area, the weather is starting to cool down a little in the mornings and at night there is a nip in the air so that’s just how I like it.

How exciting the girls are heading back to school, the kids here have been in school a couple of weeks now so you’re lucky.

Dang that is such a bummer about my pictures, (Coop mailed home a memory card with all his pictures from the time he left until today and the card was lost en route) There were a lot on there that can’t be duplicated like all the ones from the MTC, lame. Well, I’ll take some more and figure a way to send them to you guys.

That’s cool about Seth and Kaden. Elder Bragg told me about it. That it’s pretty cool, they’re getting ready to head out. That’s pretty exciting.

Pretty much the only mail I get is from you guys and Britt, I got a letter from Derek and Britt’s family but that’s pretty much it.

That’s ways exciting that you are in charge of the family reunion. That will be way fun! Ya I think Sunriver would be a cool place to have it.

Getting up early is pretty hard, I'm not gonna lie, but we have a good system for it. Did I tell you already? I can’t remember. The alarm is on my night stand and when it goes off I immediately throw a pillow at Elder Craft cuz he is right next to the light. So that wakes him up cuz he is deaf when he sleeps. Then he turns on the light. lol It seems to work pretty good.

Right now we are going through PMG (Preach My Gospel) and studying each Christ like attribute, it’s pretty cool. The work is good here. Still just spending most of our day trying to find some new solid investigators. There are a few perspective investigators so that is cool.
BUT this just in, I'm getting transferred tomorrow! Crazy! So I made it through my first transfer, but I'm leaving already. I just got here! lol I was just getting to know the area and the members. lol But it’s all good, so don’t send any mail till I tell you my new address k? So ya, that’s pretty exciting. This will be my comp, Elder Craft’s, last transfer and he is training again so that’s cool. He was going through his ties (he has 108 of them) and was deciding which ones he was going to want to take home and which ones he didn’t really want/need anymore, so he decided on 58 that he is keeping and then let me go through the other 42 and take the ones I want, so that was cool. So I took 19 of them. So I have like 46 now lol. He signed all of the ones he gave me so that’s cool and there is one tie he gave me that has been in the mission like 5 or so years, something like 6 other elders in the Denver south mission have had it. lol It gets passed down from father to son (from the trainer to his greeny). So Elder Craft got it from his trainer, that got it from his trainer and ya all that. lol Kinda fun.

Well I gotta get going we are playing racket ball again today. E. Craft is obsessed. lol
Love you all and hope all is well.
Elder Dunn

Oooops!

Hey guys, so all is well here in Denver, that's cool dad that you went to Denver! The Denver airport is way sweet huh? Not sure if you had time to walk around but it's pretty cool.

So lets see, what is new here? The work is going really well. We went on splits with the zone leaders and did tracting on either side of the streets and just worked our way down 7 blocks, So it was a long time but we got alot of new potential investigators, so that's awesome! The ward helps out a lot, they are all doing really good and trying hard to find people for us to teach, so that is awesome.

On Monday and Tuesday we went over to a members place named the Thorpe's to help with a house they are fixing up and are going to rent. They are doing tons of work on it, its looking really good though, but they had a big Russian olive tree that they had cut out a little while ago and our job was to take the stump out. Wow, talk about hard work! It was pretty intense. I'm way sore, but we got it out it two days! That's way fast I guess for a big tree like that. It was kinda cool cuz on the second day the people that work for the Thorpes were saying it looks like a weeks worth of work and MAYBE you could get it out and another one said it looks like your bringing a knife to a gun fight, lol. So this just made us work harder and we got it out. It was way rewarding after all the hard work! It was way cool, but I'm way sore now! lol

Sooo, you know how I bike everywhere right? Well it's pretty fun, I'm getting good at biking, so that's cool, but uh lets see sooo on Friday me and Elder Craft had a BBQ thing we went to at the Stake Pres house and on our way back to our house we took these dirt trails that are all around town. The trails run along a canal and a creek so they go all through the town and it makes it easier to get places faster. But we were up on this little trail and on either side of us was a big steep hill, so we thought it would be way cool to go straight down it. On one side was a little dirt jump-course so we thought we would ride down there and then go through the course because you could cut through it and it would be faster. So my comp goes way fast without any breaks and comes up to the turns but is going too fast to control it and just eats it in the dirt. So I decide to go slow and I get down there and he is pretty messed up on his arm (I got pics) and just like way bloody. But he was OK. So then I go down this little hill and try to ride up this steep one and didn't have enough speed soooo, I started to roll backwards and just fall straight back on my butt/back! lol So that was cool but I ripped my good suit pants in the bottom. I was fine but I was kinda mad about that so that's one story.

Then on Saturday morning we were riding to a members house to do some yard work for them and we were crossing a pretty big busy street but where we were, there was a hill on the right so you couldn't really see the cars coming. On the left was a turn so we waited till we thought it was safe (and when I say waited I mean kept rolling and just went for it), so as we were going on the top of the hill, there was a big semi truck so we speeded up and when I got to the curb I didn't want to slam my back tire on the curb cuz it can pop, so usually I just pull on my front break a little and then do like a stoppy and get up the curb, BUT in this instance I was going a little fast and I was kinda excited so basically I just slammed on my front break and do a huge front flip off my bike. Ya it was pretty cool. My companion thought I was dead, but I wasn't hurt at all. Just hopped up and made sure there were no broken bones or blood so I was good! I just did a huge somersault thing. So I was good. It was really scary but really cool .

Then yesterday on Tuesday we were cruising down this pretty big hill, lol heading to a lady's house in the ward to take my pants to get fixed from the first crash, and my comp went on the little peice of cement between the street and the sidewalk, like it was kinda coned off but it was fine. But I guess the farther he went the cement became more and more fresh so basically he started riding in wet cement and there was a construction guy telling him to get off and while I was watching this I was going pretty fast without hands and I went down to grab my handle bars but I think I only grabbed one side and missed the handle bar in my right hand and that threw me off balance and basically got all wobbly and tipped over and landed on my left arm and back and just slid to a stop. So this time there was some blood, lol but not bad. I got my shirt all dirty and my pants a little scuffed but ya soo those are all my crashes. All three in like 5 days! lol So I am now trying to be more careful! lol But pretty exciting:)

So that's what I have been up to. I'm having a blast and loving it! It's amazing to be able be so absorbed in the gospel. I love it. I hope your all doing well and tell Lucy Happy B-day!

Love you all!

Elder Dunn

I Get To Feel The Spirit Everyday

The Olympics sound like they are way awesome, every members house we go to for dinner gives us a play by play update of like every event lol so that is way cool.

As we slowly start to get to know our ward better we realize how awesome they all are, there are a lot of families that are way cool and way into missionary work. It's awesome! They are always giving us referrals, the ward mission leader is a really good guy, Bro. Sabey. He was just released as the bishop like two months ago, but he and his family are really helpful with everything from all the missionary work or just giving us rides or food, they have like 6 kids, all home right now from like age 12 to 22, so they are all really cool. This morning actually we went and played racquetball at the ymca with the 22 year old named Bryan. He just got back from his mission in Brazil and is heading to BYU next week. His mom, Sis. Sabey, Bryan and my companion all love racquetball. It's his fav sport so every members house we go to he asks if they play. Its funny but the whole Sabey fam plays so that was cool lol. I stink at it though. Bryan and Elder Craft are way good, but I got pwned by Sis Sabey. But it was really fun we had some intense rallies.

After we are done emailing we are going to the church again to play bball with all the other elders so that should be fun. Scott Bullock, that kid that we have been teaching Lauren with are coming too, so that will be fun. But ya so Lauren, well she didn't make it to church cuz she had family stuff but we met with her on Tuesday. It went really well as usual. We taught her about the word of wisdom which she already lives so that's awesome, tithing and fasting, and she thought that was really cool and committed to doing those things. So it went really well. We also committed her to be baptized three weeks from now and she agreed to that so we were way excited, so but that will happen up at school and its a different mission. It's the Denver North so kinda lame we won't be able to go and all that. But still its way awesome cuz we did all the teaching and all that you know, lol So the missionaries up there are basically having a baptism handed to them. lol So ya its cool.

This next transfer of ours is kinda weird too because of all the elders going to school. They talked with Utah and got it approved to have a 5 week transfer instead of 6 just so those elders could get ready for school and all that. But the bad thing was the message didn't get relayed to the MTC, so they did'nt have the kids coming to our mission come in a week early so they could get here when the other elders leave, soooo we are sending out elders but not getting them for a week or so. There will be some threesomes and areas shut down for a while, kinda crazy. lol Oh ya and Pres. Christisen is going to be out of town. lol So that will be fun.

To answer your question we don't really pass off skills or anything. There are things we have to memorize like D&C 4 and stuff like that. I'm still working on that. I got some stuff like our purpose and the first vision and that so that's cool.

Well we are eating a good breakfast, we are making ourselves breakfast burritos with sausage egg and pepper jack cheese yum! I'm excited. lol Oh I don't know if I told you our diet. lol Basically all we eat is microwave burritos, corn dogs, mac cheese, top raman, Eggo's and otter pops lol That's our whole food supply. It's not to bad actually that's a lot :)

Well I love you guys alot. Hope you're all doing well. I'm still so excited to be out here serving the Lord and spreading the gospel. It's hard work but I love it. I get to feel the spirit everyday its amazing!

Love you all.

Elder Dunn

More Time Today

Hey there! ya I have more time today, ya last time I was rushed a lot, it seems like most days are busy, well its not to bad but you know kinda busy, ya but there is a library just a couple of miles away from our house so that is were we go, its pretty nice. My trainer is way cool. I like him. We get along really well, but he is kinda a little too chill. It seems like there are a few different types of missionaries, the "chill" kind that work hard, are good missionaries and love doing missionary work, but don't quite follow every single rule, then there are the missionaries that follow every rule, more directly then maybe was intended and kinda makes up their own rules. And there are the "less accountable" missionaries that are basically slackers and don't really care about any of the rules. So ya that's what I've figured out so far. But my trainer is good, he knows a lot about the gospel.

And uhh lets see, treats? uh idk like whatever really. Oreos are cool uhhh Gushers lol idk anything expensive that I can't afford that is not healthy lol. But hey in the next package could you send me a few things, I need more just t-shirts just like a couple maybe 2 or 3 would be cool cuz right now I wear like one all week. So ya that would be cool, and like all of my ties too, even the crazy ones. I can like trade lots of them and stuff so ya that would be way cool.

Sunriver sounds fun I bet Syd had fun with Hannah. Sounds like a blast. Ya I did get the email about Colton. That's way funny. I actually saw him today. We hung out at the church building and played b-ball with all the other elders so that was cool. We got to kinda fill each other in on all that's been going on.

But so the work around here is OK . I guess the elders before us were a little less accountable so their book was not up to date. So me and my comp have just been trying to meet all the members and all the other old investigators we know of.

This last week at church there is this kid Scott Bullock (his parents are now the mission pres. in the Manchester England mission as of the beginning of July, so just barely missed Derek pretty crazy though) brought a friend to church. He is a cool kid. We have got to know him pretty well. He just graduated high school and is leaving for BYU for a bit then on his mission. But he brought this girl named Lauren and so we talked to her after church (oh ya and I gave a talk in sacrament this last Sunday. It was on Dispensations. It was fun. It went really well) and she wanted to know more and had lots of questions. So we gave her a book of Mormon and wrote down some good chapters to read and all that and made an appt. to meet with her on the next day, that Monday. So we went over to Scott's house and she read all of the chapters we gave her and had a whole bunch of questions written down and stuff. So it was awesome you could tell she was way interested. So we answered all her questions and gave her the first lesson. It went really well and she wanted to know more and had lots of questions on the plan of salvation. So we said we could teach her more, so she said how about tomorrow so we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet to read and ya then met with her Tuesday and she read the whole pamphlet and all the references to the BOM we gave her and had a whole list of questions. It was way awesome. So we gave the 2nd lesson and she said her first prayer at the end of the lesson and we commit ed her to pray to know if she should be baptized. It was really cool. She seems really open and understanding about everything, BUT the one thing is she is going to college on like Wednesday! sooooo I'm not to sure. We are meeting with her on Saturday so like if she is OK with everything it would be possible to baptize her like Sunday or Monday. But its all up to her and how she feels. But it has been awesome! We will just have to see, she might go up there and be baptized, but still its cool being able to get her started. Well I gotta go. Love you all!
Elder Dunn

So I made it to Denver!

7/30/08
Hey family!

So I made it to Denver! How exciting! The flight went well, it was really short, only 54 minutes, but it went well. Right now we are just getting all the info about everything. So transfers are on Thursday, so tonight we are staying at the Mission Home. But when we got off the plane our mission pres. and the assistants were there and we had to walk around the airport and try to give out a Book of Mormon. So, that was fun LOL. Some people are mean! But ya, all is well here in Denver. I love you all. I'll write more soon.
Love ya, Elder Dunn

I cant believe I only have one week left! Wednesday, July 23, 2008

wow sounds like you guys are all staying busy thats really cool, well ya the MTC is great i cant believe i only have one week left i leave wed. at 6:50 so thats cool im kinda nervousish lol but more excited. i got to go to the temple today that was awesome the temple is really pretty, it was wierd cuz we stayed in the same room the whole time so that was diff. but ya im learning so much soo fast its awesome well i guess when all you do is eat sleep and study the gospel you really start learning lol i took some really cool pictures ill send them today soo you will prob get them in like 4 or 5 days they are pretty cool lol we are having fun so thats good but ya i taught the second lesson the other day it was a little scketchy but after you do it for a while it gets a lot easier well ill write you soon i love you and im so excited to be here serving the lord!
Elder Dunn

Its great I'm learning so much. July 23, 2008 MTC

ya i heard you listened to Brittney's talk lol and she said it was embarrassing lol but ya she said she really enjoyed it so thats good. well right now i have a district of 7 and 6 of us are headed to denver, the other is going to toronto canada his name is elder wright im bummed cuz i really like him but its all good and we're all elders so ya but one elder in our district already went home, its a bummer he was supposed to go to toronto too. he said he was recieving "promptings" from the spirit that he needed to go home to his girlfriend so ya idk. but its better for him to go home then to not doing anything here. he was holding is companion down so its good for elder wright that he left. but its still a bummer. lol ya one kid in my district is from san antonio so thats cool lol and yes the food is good, but im pretty sure there are only like three different meals lol it feels like i eat the same thing everyday but its good food
well ya im just doing laundry right now its pretty cool but i only have one week left in here i got my flight plan my flight leaves 650 on wednesday so thats pretty crazy this is my last p-day! it seems like ive been here for sooooo long but at the same time it feels way short the mtc is like a time warp i swear, but i love it i have gotten close with alot of elders here. the spirit has been so strong in all of our lessons and devotionals its great im learning soo much. its basically my life now its all i do lol its great well i gottta get going love you and ill write you next week :)
Elder Dunn

WO IM HERE

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

hey guys its my first p-day so i finally had a chance to set up my email! right now im in the laundry room waiting for my clothes and they have computers set up its pretty cool. so lets see where to start. ive made it a week and so far it has been way awesome im loving it they really do keep you busy allllll day. its great though ive already learned alot, me and my companion Elder Bevans can teach the first lesson its awesome, there is a place called the TRC the teaching resorce center and there are volunteers that come like all the time so its cool they pretend to be investigators and we taught them it was fun we got it down, we also got to go to the RC refferal center and recieve calls from poeple that like see our commercial and call in for a free book of morman or dvd that was really fun cuz we actually get to talk to real people, but mostly ever day we spend like 10 hours in this one classroom and we have two teachers and when they arent teaching we just have companion study and personal study, but i have having lots of fun i got your package yesterday :) it made me happy! but ya we are having fun we have taken some cool pictures they have a computer here so i can print them out from my camera so i will send you some soon, well i gotta get going my time is almost up, i love you all so much and i love it here i really do have a testimony of the church and cant wait to get out there and do the lords work!
Elder Dunn