Hello from Toledo

Hey!

Well Happy Thanksgiving. I will be holding a special weekly planning session in honor of Thanksgiving. It's not really special but we will be having a weekly planning session. In case you don't know what this is, we sit down for 3 hours and plan out our entire week. It's pretty awesome and not boring at all. (heh, heh)

Your Branch dinner sounds like it was fun. Was the guy who talked forever from Bolivia? We have one Bolivian investigator who loves talking too. He says "How pretty" about every 10 words too. It's quite entertaining. I am just happy that I can understand him now so I don't mind that he mostly talks. There are a lot of Spaniards that love to talk too. Maybe it's just a Spanish speaking thing. And also, I have this theory... when I was bored with friends we would like put in a movie or go get food or something. All youth do here is sit and talk and talk and talk. They are never doing anything. So, I think they just become accustomed at a young age to talk a lot. But who knows.

Anyway, so Toledo is awesome. Ha! I am pretty sure having had the car was both a curse and a blessing. With the car we taught a lot more and were able to teach some people that now we can't. But the members accustomed themselves to always having us come over whenever they could and not having to do anything. We asked 2 people if they could drive us to another pueblo 10 minutes away after a lesson with them and they said they didn't really have time. I guess cutting the lesson 10 minutes shorter wasn't really an idea of theirs but yup. I think eventually they will want to help out though. The investigators here are awesome. We are finding and teaching a lot of new people. And we have like 5 people that are spiritually ready and want to be baptized but can't because they either aren't married or can't come to church or something. And all the ones that can get baptized don't really want to. It's kind of a battle but it makes the mission fun.

My new companion is awesome. We are like best friends and teach really well together. So don't worry yourselves about that. Also mom you inspired me to start reading Preach my Gospel in Spanish. Actually, I understand almost everything now. I also started Our Legacy, in Spanish, and I can get about 50% of it. It's helping me with my grammar and all so good stuff. I definitely think my English is worse now than before. Wahoo missions!

I have to be going but hey, I want to read the talk you gave in your Spanish branch if that's fine. Maybe I will use it next month for mine! Ha,ha. I told you that we talk every 3rd Sunday in this ward. Yup. And I am definitely opening my package as soon as it gets here. Although we are going to buy a Christmas tree today. Maybe I will wait on like half of it. But sweet, thanks for the update on life and if you have time you should re-read my other email. You didn't answer like any of my questions. Stay Pretty.

Elder Dunn

Super Stomachs

Dear All,

The missionary parents dinner sounds like a lot of fun. I really like to hear the news. Are you guys ever going to have the missionary dinner at your home?

And wow, mom, you can read Preach My Gospel in Spanish? I am jealous. I can follow it along mostly but the grammar kills me. I have to reread the sentence before to remember what the direct object is or something. It's coming though. Really, the key to learning is speaking and asking others to correct you. I started that in lessons and with my new companion and I like it a lot. I am glad you speak better than dad. He needs to be humbled a little. (joke)

Okay, about my new companion. He is great, we get along well. I am really grateful to be able to area train. It is forcing me to speak more because I know the members and investigators an I love it. I also get to change some of the things that I didn't like with my other companion. Nothing big but a few things. To go back, we had a lesson last Friday with members and what happened before that appointment well............ we had eaten a giant meal with other members and our stomachs were making really crazy sounds. Well the guy was like 70 so he couldn't really hear, but Elder Jacobs and I both had our stomachs growl at the same time. We looked at each other and started laughing. For the next 5 minutes, we were like little girls. We were giggling and trying to hold it in but we couldn't. We felt so bad because we were laughing so hard and he had no idea. It turned out okay, and I learned how to make myself stop laughing. Next, missionaries are blessed with super stomachs. I don't know if you knew this but for year we have an extra one. Sunday, we ate with members at 3. Another full meal at 4:30, and then at 6 a little snack. Finally at 7:30 more members gave us another full meal and about half way through I was about to throw up so I had to say something. It's just way funny how members an even some investigators just keep giving us food. Sometimes I don't like it but I am grateful for their love for us.

We started English classes and they are going pretty well. But mom, I was wondering if you had any suggestions as a teacher. Really, I need some good activities or something. Really, we need some good ones that are fun.

I won't have to withdraw money for a long time now. I should hopefully be good. I may decide to buy a suit in January. In January everything goes on sale and a full suit, shirt and two pants costs $100. So I will probably have to load up. Hey, I need socks... bad. There are no Walmarts here and socks are expensive. Can you hook me up? If not, I will keep looking.
And actually I don't think I need glasses. If not being able to drive will keep me out of a position of leadership that would be awesome. (joke) But no, really, I need you to send me that prescription. And like I said, everything goes on sale in January, so I will probably be able to buy cheap glasses then.

Love to you all, stay pretty,
Elder Dunn

Accents Will Abound

Wow, everyone in the ward is just going to have the most ridiculous accents after their Spanish speaking missions. Those Argentines will be especially silly. I figured out what is going on with Europe exactly. Throughout Europe, there is a 75% reduction in the number of missionaries. And in Madrid we have a 50% cut. There are three reasons that I have been told. One, it's a slower area compared to the other Spain missions. Two, they need members to step up their efforts so it's kind of like a little motivation for them. And third, kind of, is the financial crisis. But yeah, lots more missionaries are going to South America now.

And yeah, definitely lost my glasses. I will just be blind my mission, no worries. As long as I don't ever have to drive, I should be OK.

To start off, I have to tell you about our awesome week. Our baptismal date, Daiana, had her date for the 15th. Her interview was yesterday, Tuesday. After our lesson last Monday, the 2nd, we weren't able to get in contact with her. To explain I have to go back about 3 weeks. Her husband is a less active member. One day he came to church with his wife, Daiana, and we set an appointment. She liked church, liked our message, he started getting active, it was going well. Then one day for work I guess, he had to go to Cuba out of the blue. So, we just started bringing a member with us to all the lessons, since a man has to be present in lessons. She was progressing well and was fine. Then her husband arrived home the 3rd, and that was the last day we had contact with her. Well, Monday night she finally answered her phone and said she needed time. We don't know if it was because of the interview, the husband, or what, but now she won't really talk to us. So... alright, GO missions!

We do have like 8 people that want to be baptized BUT aren't married or can't come to church. Alright Spain! But things are going good so I really can't complain. I am sure Daiana will be baptized soon.

Since we have a car we tried to visit all the members who don't live near buses. One of them is this old man who lives alone and never married. We think he was pretty lonely. We ended up visiting him twice a week and getting to know him pretty well. Since my companion was going, he gave him these really nice books of Don Quixote, which are famous over here. Maybe dad knows of him. And yeah, then I guess he wanted to give me something too so he gave me a really nice watch. Members here are just great. It was really hard accepting it because we don't know if he is struggling with money or not. But yeah, it was pretty neat.

Unfortunately I lose the car in 5 days. I am going to have to learn the bus system now...

Either my companion or I have been sick since Friday so this week has just been kind of rough. We had zone conference last Thursday and that was good. To review, the elders before us had a baptism like 1 week before we came. The member, named Ana, told us she wanted nothing to do with the church. So, once again we have no idea what happened. We saw her the day before zone conference and she just did not want to talk to us at all. So at zone conference, we asked the Elder who baptized her if he knew anything. He said no. The humor of this story is in what my companion said next. He asked, "Have you talked to Ana lately? We saw her yesterday and she does not look good, spiritually." I turned to my companion and told him he has been out waaaaaaay too long if he is making comments like that. I actually have a quote book of funny things that Elder Jacobs has said. It's pretty funny. Anyway, I am excited for transfers!
Stay pretty.

Elder Dunn

Force Fed Missionaries?!?

We went to the mission home today and it took 3 hours to get there because we didn't take the car. I am trying to type this as fast as possible to tell you as much as possible. About the car - there is one extra car in the mission so it usually rotates pueblos. But we have it because my companion is an ex-assistant and has his driver's license here. There aren't very many who have one. My companion leaves Nov 17. two weeks menos a day.
The whole missionary son dinner thing you go to sounds cool. Do you each have like ten minutes to talk about your son or is it more just like everyone goes and just talks to different people? The Rubens are the people who were at Lake Powell with us through that storm. You should ask them to see the pictures. They are pretty awesome.
I heard they found the vaccine for swine flu. But nope, we don't get it. And really missionaries have the worst health ever. Most missionaries get sick every 3 weeks. I usually have a sore throat once a week, a headache twice a week, and sore muscles once every 2 weeks. You learn to push through it though.
AND we are fed till we throw up. REALLY! Members don't get it that we only want to eat a little bit of food. I have now thrown up twice after members have fed us. They keep giving you food till it's gone. So if you ever feed missionaries don't force food at them. Give them some to take home if you don't want to have leftovers.
My address is something like Calle Pascuales in Toledo, Spain. I don't have the exact address but can give it to you later so you can find it on Google Earth. It's between a giant library and a giant cathedral if you can see that on Google maps.
I am losing weight. 45 minutes of running every morning! Wahoo! But it was way funny when I broke the chair. And actually I don't know the rule on uploading pictures, I just know we couldn't in the CCM. Maybe it is different out in the field. I will find out.
Missionaries talk in church every 3rd Sunday. It's great because I only have to talk for 5 minutes. It's not bad. And the meetings are awesome. An Argentine teaches priesthood and I can barely understand his accent, so mostly I just kind of space off or read scriptures. Also, there are only ever like 5 people there at the start of the meeting. Everyone comes late. I will have to write more next week. Time FLIES on preparation days. Update me on mission calls. I heard Caleb, Andrew and Ben have theirs? Maybe? Love you. Stay pretty.