Well family,
It's been awhile. How are you? And yeah, Craig told me a little bit about what he gave you. It sounds pretty awesome. Now whenever I get around to sending you my pictures you can see them all! Hey, I was thinking that I could just send you a CD with all the pictures on it. Then I can keep my memory card here. And also, what were your thoughts about a new camera? Should I buy a new one or should I wait for your approval?
But your Christmas sounds fun. Did Craig have a good time with his girlfriend's parents? And wow, you fixed dinner for branch members. What dedication! How many came? And what did you fix? It's funny because all the American boys here talk about cinnamon rolls and Spaniards just cannot comprehend the deliciousness which is a cinnamon roll. It's really too bad.
You are the Relief Society pianist? Ha. Well I laughed. Looks like you are going to grow quite a bit in your calling. I have had to play the piano before. And by playing the piano I mean playing the melody notes of a song because that's about the extent of what I refer to as skills.
And as for transfers, I am staying in Toledo. A missionary the group ahead of me that has 2 more transfers than me is still in his first area. So I may be serving in the Toledo Spain Mission for the first year or so of my mission. But it's okay because the Holidays here are way sick. Christmas wasn't ever celebrated here until recently and most Spaniards don't really celebrate it. Instead on the 6th of January they have Kings' day - like the wise men who brought gifts. So that is when the majority of gifts are given. Quite a bit different. And then on New Year's Eve they eat 12 grapes, one every second, starting at midnight. The Gomez family, the members below us, told us that the missionaries always go down at midnight to eat grapes with them. So in order to not disobey we are going to go to bed at 11 then wake up really early at 11:50. Ha. Obeying the letter of the law is way more fun than the spirit of it.
As for my lisp, I love it and I will not be getting rid of it. Really, it sounds better and it's not even that bad. I don't think someone who doesn't speak Spanish could even tell that someone from Spain has one. But tambien, keep in mind that in some parts of Spain the lisp is with every /s/ sound. Here it's just with z, ci, and ce. So it could be worse. Other fun things that are happening in Spain...we went out on the main plaza here and sang carols for 30 minutes on Christmas Day... in the rain. I don't know if anyone could hear us because it was raining so hard. Also, I tried escalator contacting. Where, on an escalator, I start talking to someone coming down as soon as they can hear me. Then when we pass I try and hand them something. If not I kind of toss it. It's was pretty awesome - ha, ha. I kind of gave myself a new level of boldness. I figure, hey, we already look as weird as possible, can't speak, and are only here for a limited amount of time, why not?
One more thing - our roof leaks. Now I feel a little more like a missionary. We currently have a bucket to catch falling drops of rain in our piso. Ha,ha. Our landlord, the members, are going to remodel our piso soon, but for now I like having these kinds of experiences. Oh, and mom, remember that one time you cut your finger really bad after you used the brand new knife because it was really sharp? I give testimony that new knives are sharp and should be handled with care. And as we strive to handle sharp knives carefully we will have more saftey. If not, you type your letters home with 9 fingers because one of them hurts. Ha,ha. Good!
Stay pretty,
Elder Dunn
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Still not an early riser!
Madrid Time
Okay Mom,
It's been awhile but really???? Have you already totally forgotten me? First of all, if I physically could, I am not sure if I would get up at 6:00 a.m. to talk. Second of all, my companion would never get up at 6:00 a.m. Third, I would be the least fun person to talk to at 6 in the morning, and 4th, that is borderline disobedience. So, I have no idea when you are going to call, but it will have to be when you guys wake up. Here is our schedule... 7-11 exercise and study, 11-2:30, weekly planning session in piso. Then 2:30 - 4:30, medio dia. The rest of the day is proselyting or talking to family time. But if you want to call earlier, we can push other stuff back later. I definitely will not be answering a call at 6 a.m. my time. So, I look forward to the Christmas surprise of when you call me. And FYI, 20 people have told me speaker phone is a bad idea, it is better just to talk one at a time, so probably count on that.
Residency appointments are where we go to be legal here. If you miss them, you pretty much get kicked out of the country. It's great for contacting though because everyone there is South American. It's a dream come true. Okay, other than that, my companion and I sang a duet for the ward activity in front of like 50 people. If you know my voice you know that it took quite a bit of courage for that to happen. It was pretty sick though. Now I tell those investigators, if I can sing out loud, you can pray out loud. Then, to follow up that performance, the mission had a talent show where I sang my version of Be a Missionary (Be a man from Mulan). The talent show was pretty hilarious and pretty apostate. I wonder now if the President has regrets about doing it. Ha, ha!
I attended a temple session in Spanish, no biggie, aced it. We spent like 2 hours on the metro this morning though because one train died one stop away from our switch. So we took the longest route ever to get around it, then we had to wait 30minutes in another train while something got fixed. We definitely love the metro. Alright, well missions are fun. Talk to you soon! Stay pretty
Elder Dunn
Okay Mom,
It's been awhile but really???? Have you already totally forgotten me? First of all, if I physically could, I am not sure if I would get up at 6:00 a.m. to talk. Second of all, my companion would never get up at 6:00 a.m. Third, I would be the least fun person to talk to at 6 in the morning, and 4th, that is borderline disobedience. So, I have no idea when you are going to call, but it will have to be when you guys wake up. Here is our schedule... 7-11 exercise and study, 11-2:30, weekly planning session in piso. Then 2:30 - 4:30, medio dia. The rest of the day is proselyting or talking to family time. But if you want to call earlier, we can push other stuff back later. I definitely will not be answering a call at 6 a.m. my time. So, I look forward to the Christmas surprise of when you call me. And FYI, 20 people have told me speaker phone is a bad idea, it is better just to talk one at a time, so probably count on that.
Residency appointments are where we go to be legal here. If you miss them, you pretty much get kicked out of the country. It's great for contacting though because everyone there is South American. It's a dream come true. Okay, other than that, my companion and I sang a duet for the ward activity in front of like 50 people. If you know my voice you know that it took quite a bit of courage for that to happen. It was pretty sick though. Now I tell those investigators, if I can sing out loud, you can pray out loud. Then, to follow up that performance, the mission had a talent show where I sang my version of Be a Missionary (Be a man from Mulan). The talent show was pretty hilarious and pretty apostate. I wonder now if the President has regrets about doing it. Ha, ha!
I attended a temple session in Spanish, no biggie, aced it. We spent like 2 hours on the metro this morning though because one train died one stop away from our switch. So we took the longest route ever to get around it, then we had to wait 30minutes in another train while something got fixed. We definitely love the metro. Alright, well missions are fun. Talk to you soon! Stay pretty
Elder Dunn
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Hey,
First of all our number is __________. I think the country code is 0034. But you will have to check it out. I think the best way to call is just with a calling card. I don't know what your plans are but you need to tell me by next Wednesday. My companion is going between 7-8:30 depending. So at 8:30 is my time or before works for me. I think there is an 8 hour time difference so let me know what works best for you. 6-7 or 8:30-9:30 works best for me but I can be flexible. Also, I have 8 minutes so be ready!
Ok, well last week was a little slow. We had residency appointments and we didn't teach a whole lot but we contacted a bunch, in the cold. But, it's okay because some members gave me some gloves which I lacked. And that's the missionary portion of this letter.
The 2nd week I was in Toledo two American students came up and asked us for help getting to their house in the worst American Spanish accents imaginable. We said yes we could help and then asked if they wanted us to speak Spanish or English. We helped them find their house because we had a map and then we explained who we were. They had never seen Mormon missionaries before. About 2 months later we saw them again and said hi and chatted. Then on Saturday I saw one of them again as we were waiting for the bus. I was talking to this sweet family from Peru so I just did the head nod thing at her. Well, she approached us and I was mid sentence talking to this Peruvian lady and the girl decided to hug me. Ha! I looked at my companion and he was trying not to laugh. So I gave her like a little pat on the back and yeah... That was probably the weirdest experience as a missionary so far. It was pretty funny though because my heart kept pounding for like 10 minutes. And then I realized why missionaries are so awkward when they get home. Ha, ha! But yeah, we ended up not getting that Peruvian lady's number because of it and it was just a way weird experience. But yeah... so I got hugged. Good story huh?
Alright, well I am out of time so I will tell you that it snowed here Saturday for 5 hours and it stuck for the day and it is still on some roofs. It reminded me of Utah a bit. This is suppose to be the worst winter in some number of years here in Toledo so I am excited.
Alright stay pretty town!
Elder Dunn
First of all our number is __________. I think the country code is 0034. But you will have to check it out. I think the best way to call is just with a calling card. I don't know what your plans are but you need to tell me by next Wednesday. My companion is going between 7-8:30 depending. So at 8:30 is my time or before works for me. I think there is an 8 hour time difference so let me know what works best for you. 6-7 or 8:30-9:30 works best for me but I can be flexible. Also, I have 8 minutes so be ready!
Ok, well last week was a little slow. We had residency appointments and we didn't teach a whole lot but we contacted a bunch, in the cold. But, it's okay because some members gave me some gloves which I lacked. And that's the missionary portion of this letter.
The 2nd week I was in Toledo two American students came up and asked us for help getting to their house in the worst American Spanish accents imaginable. We said yes we could help and then asked if they wanted us to speak Spanish or English. We helped them find their house because we had a map and then we explained who we were. They had never seen Mormon missionaries before. About 2 months later we saw them again and said hi and chatted. Then on Saturday I saw one of them again as we were waiting for the bus. I was talking to this sweet family from Peru so I just did the head nod thing at her. Well, she approached us and I was mid sentence talking to this Peruvian lady and the girl decided to hug me. Ha! I looked at my companion and he was trying not to laugh. So I gave her like a little pat on the back and yeah... That was probably the weirdest experience as a missionary so far. It was pretty funny though because my heart kept pounding for like 10 minutes. And then I realized why missionaries are so awkward when they get home. Ha, ha! But yeah, we ended up not getting that Peruvian lady's number because of it and it was just a way weird experience. But yeah... so I got hugged. Good story huh?
Alright, well I am out of time so I will tell you that it snowed here Saturday for 5 hours and it stuck for the day and it is still on some roofs. It reminded me of Utah a bit. This is suppose to be the worst winter in some number of years here in Toledo so I am excited.
Alright stay pretty town!
Elder Dunn
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Comida Rapida - Fast Food - Wahoo!
Alright,
Business items first. First of all, we don't call you. Sorry... but you get to call us. It's easier that way because you can just buy a calling card and stuff. Pretty much the rules are we have to call on the 25th, we have to be inside the piso, and not too long. I was thinking I could just send you a tape of my voice in place of calling.... then I could proselyte more on Christmas. How does that sound to you? Actually that is the only business item.
This last week was great. Like 6 people promised Saturday night to come to the capilla assuring us they didn't need us to stop by their piso in the morning or call them or anything. We definitely didn't have anyone. But, at least one texted us saying he had to work. Then I texted back. Did I tell you we have texting now? Pretty awesome. I am staying in practice so don't worry yourselves. We taught a Columbian the word of wisdom and it went horribly. In case you don't know, Columbians love coffee. The next day we tried again with this old Cuban guy who is way awesome and he bore his testimony and just rocked it. So yeah, he is converted pretty much.
Other than that, I got sick Saturday night, stayed in Sunday and Monday morning, then ate Burger King Monday night. We had to go to Madrid for a residency appointment and had some time to kill there. Oh, and I get to be a legal citizen on the 18! Sweet. And that day will be the Taco Bell day. Comida rapida! Woot!!!
But yeah, the working is progressing. I think your mission in SLC is more dangerous than our mission here. The scariest thing I have had happen to me was 6 drunk Romanians who were broke and drunk making jokes about how all Americans have money. We thought they were going to rob us. Then they didn't. Actually they are way nice people, but it was kind of frightening for a second. Anyway, I am going to write dad now rocking vosotros. You all ready? Estais listos? Ha. Alright great. Stay pretty Murray.
Elder Dunn
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Hello All,
A lot more of the same from Spain. Baptizing, ward activities, and references are kind of getting old. NO, I am kidding. I would kill for any of those three things!
Thanksgiving was pretty sweet. We had a pretty awesome weekly planning session then made salchy papas and some sort of stir fry thing. Salchy papas are hot dogs and french fries cooked in oil and put in a bowl or plate with ketchup and mayo over them. That's it. It's pretty fatty and delicious. The stir fry was pretty tasty. Seasonings make anything good. Last we ate some delicious store bought ice cream. When we finally got to proselyting, we got "fallared" for 2 lessons. (fallared is the Spanish/English word for they weren't home) We did teach a really awesome follow the prophet lesson with cups and a pyramid shape. All was well until Godzilla, aka 1 year old boy, decided to take out one of the cups which represented an apostle and the pyramid crumbled down. It was a good demonstration of why there are always twelve apostles. Then he decided to fall on the cups and crush them. So not sure exactly what that is a good representation of. Haha.
Alright, so my funny quote of the week. We were contacting one night and it was pretty cold. This couple was in a hurry but I decided to try anyway. I started and they said we are in a hurry. I said, we just want one second of your time so they stopped and then absolutely nothing came to my mind, no words no anything. After about 3 seconds of silence I just said, "Well, how are you?" With quite a bit of enthusiasm. They laughed at me and walked away. Ha! Then I laughed at myself and my companion couldn't stop laughing at me. It was pretty funny.
Yesterday we had exchanges again, and I stayed in my area with a missionary with 2 weeks in the field. It was pretty awesome. We missed our bus back to Toledo from district meeting by 2 minutes so we waited. Then when the next bus came 30minutes later my companion realized he was out of money because it was the end of the month. All I had was a 50. Bus drivers don't accept 50s. So we missed that bus too. Then we walked for 10 minutes to find somewhere that sold bread and gave a 50 euro for .53 cent bread. Haha - Pretty awesome day. We taught 2 really good lessons though and made this shrimp stir fry thing that was really tasty. So all in all it was a good day.
That is way cool what you are doing with your branch back there in SLC with Thanksgiving. Members in Utah and members in Spain are are quite a bit different. OH man - definitely miss the church functions of Utah a little bit.
AND - wahoo BYU! It seems as though both teams haven't done very well this year, right? Dad kind of fell off the wagon keeping me updated. I did receive the Murray Boys newsletter. It is way fun to read about what is happening everywhere. I am excited for the Christmas packages. We aren't going to receive mail until the 22nd so it won't be a temptation to open them early. No worries.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
I am teaching English classes and I need some good ideas for activities or games to make them a bit more fun. Have suggestions? Are you familiar with the deep Spanish jota?
Que pase un buen día. Hasta luego. Stay pretty.
A lot more of the same from Spain. Baptizing, ward activities, and references are kind of getting old. NO, I am kidding. I would kill for any of those three things!
Thanksgiving was pretty sweet. We had a pretty awesome weekly planning session then made salchy papas and some sort of stir fry thing. Salchy papas are hot dogs and french fries cooked in oil and put in a bowl or plate with ketchup and mayo over them. That's it. It's pretty fatty and delicious. The stir fry was pretty tasty. Seasonings make anything good. Last we ate some delicious store bought ice cream. When we finally got to proselyting, we got "fallared" for 2 lessons. (fallared is the Spanish/English word for they weren't home) We did teach a really awesome follow the prophet lesson with cups and a pyramid shape. All was well until Godzilla, aka 1 year old boy, decided to take out one of the cups which represented an apostle and the pyramid crumbled down. It was a good demonstration of why there are always twelve apostles. Then he decided to fall on the cups and crush them. So not sure exactly what that is a good representation of. Haha.
Alright, so my funny quote of the week. We were contacting one night and it was pretty cold. This couple was in a hurry but I decided to try anyway. I started and they said we are in a hurry. I said, we just want one second of your time so they stopped and then absolutely nothing came to my mind, no words no anything. After about 3 seconds of silence I just said, "Well, how are you?" With quite a bit of enthusiasm. They laughed at me and walked away. Ha! Then I laughed at myself and my companion couldn't stop laughing at me. It was pretty funny.
Yesterday we had exchanges again, and I stayed in my area with a missionary with 2 weeks in the field. It was pretty awesome. We missed our bus back to Toledo from district meeting by 2 minutes so we waited. Then when the next bus came 30minutes later my companion realized he was out of money because it was the end of the month. All I had was a 50. Bus drivers don't accept 50s. So we missed that bus too. Then we walked for 10 minutes to find somewhere that sold bread and gave a 50 euro for .53 cent bread. Haha - Pretty awesome day. We taught 2 really good lessons though and made this shrimp stir fry thing that was really tasty. So all in all it was a good day.
That is way cool what you are doing with your branch back there in SLC with Thanksgiving. Members in Utah and members in Spain are are quite a bit different. OH man - definitely miss the church functions of Utah a little bit.
AND - wahoo BYU! It seems as though both teams haven't done very well this year, right? Dad kind of fell off the wagon keeping me updated. I did receive the Murray Boys newsletter. It is way fun to read about what is happening everywhere. I am excited for the Christmas packages. We aren't going to receive mail until the 22nd so it won't be a temptation to open them early. No worries.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
I am teaching English classes and I need some good ideas for activities or games to make them a bit more fun. Have suggestions? Are you familiar with the deep Spanish jota?
Que pase un buen día. Hasta luego. Stay pretty.
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