Week # 11

Dear Family and Sunbeams :)

Yes there is expected changes at transfers and that would be this upcoming saturday.  What do I eat for breakfast ? Well Usually I will have either some Frosted Flakes or some toast, but somedays I forget to eat breakfast! What time do I go to bed ? The missionaries have to go back home by 9:30 and by 10:30 they have to be in bed. My favorite part of being a missionary is getting to see how happy the people become when they are taught the gospel. And yes, I definitely miss home but i know that i am getting blessing for being here.

   I am way excited for conference! I remember listening to conference in Vegas and how awesome it was. I am definitely looking forward to getting answers to my prayers.

  Some sad news.... I recieved an email from a friend who told me that a mutual friend had committed suicide earlier last week. Very sad.

 Elder Tienda and I had the most success this week that we have had since I got here. We taught a lot of lessons but we still fell below our goals. We are going to work super hard this last week of the transfer so that we can feel good.

Elder Okazaki got a weird rash this week and he is miserable. Poor Guy. He is very itchy all  over and has rd bumbs all over his body. he is going to the doctor today so hopefully they can figure something out. Anyways,

I love you all

-Elder Dutson

Week # 10

Dear Family-

  Hahaha six months dang!!! Elder Tienda and I both burned a tie the other day to celebrate :)  Thanks for sending the Gospel Principles Book.  It might be here. Friday I recieved a note from FedEx on my door since I was not home saying they attempted to deliver a package. They will try it again today. This week was pretty good.  We continue to find many people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. President Martin has been very pleased with our district and the turnaround it has had. Before we all got there it was the worst area in the mission, now it is one of the strongest. Elder Tienda and I are most likely going to split up this transfer. There are many other elders that are requesting him as a companion. We were very close to being split up last transfer. There is actually a pretty good chance that I will be training a brand new missionary next transfer. There is a bunch of new missionaries coming in and a shortage of capable missionaries here. My zone leaders, the presidents' assistants and even President Martin have told me that there is a big chance I will be called upon to train. That idea scares me haha. I just graduated from my "greenie status" so it is really fast.

   It is still pretty warm over here. It is still cooler than Arizona but its supposed to be like 90 all week over here. We are trying to work really hard with the ward over here because previous missionaries have lost their trust. If we could win the trust of teh members our work would be soo much easier.  It finally rained over here tooo. It was exciting ! 

   So what ever happened with Lucy ? Did Kurt pursue any legal things ? Did you give Lucy away or what the heck happened ? It sure seemed pretty weird to hear that she had attacked anything.

   Anyways, I hope all is well and I will hear from you all next week

 Love ya

Elder Dutson

Week # 9

Hey Family!!

 Sorry the email came late this week. It has been a really roller coaster type week. We had zone conference with a member of the quorum of the 70 yesterday so today is our P-DAY. Well, like I said, this week has been really crazy. Jenny who was our investigator that was to be baptized Sept 11 called us and said we cant come around anymore. It really broke mine and elder Tienda's hearts. :( We were pretty sad all day and we didnt feel like going out, but we went out anyways. We found like a bunch of new investigators that day and taught many lessons. That was a huge testimony that God loves us and is there. We were feeling pretty down about missionary work but we went out anyways and we were blessed :)

  Also we went to visit some other really good investigators the next day and when we showed up to their door, we could tell something had happened. We went to the door and realized that there had been an immigration sweep in that complex. We had several investigators in there they were all gone. Apartments empty drawers and cabinets open stuff pushed around. It was very scary. That bummed us out as well but once again God blessed us with more success.  Finally we got to have the zone conference with Elder Golden of the 70 from South Africa. It was very very uplifting :)  Everytime his wife talked, it reminded me of Princess Diaries because of her accent.  haha.  Well I hope all is well at home. Sorry for the short email again this week.. Im emailing at Bestbuy lol really awkward. I am starting to be a little nervous for transfers which is coming up in like 3 weeks. Everybody thinks I will be training... I feel way too new in the mission for thatt I know there will be change though because President wants to split Elder Tienda and I up.

  I am doing pretty good on finances right now thanks mom ! They just raised our monthly funds from 130 to 150$ so its preety sweet.  Thanks for the cookies grandma they were super yummy. I ate them pretty fast lol. Oh actually mom, could you get me a Gospel Principles book in spanish?? I have one in english but it doesnt help much. It would say Principios del Evangelio on th front. Thanks !!

 love Elder Dutson

Week # 8

Querido Familia -

 This week we got a lot more missionary work done. We tripled our lessons and had lots of success. Elder Tienda really likes soccer and there was a Mexico Soccer game on that he really wanted to watch. He had set up a time where we were going to go over to a members house and watch the game(this member unfortunately helps the missionaries break rules). I talked with Elder Tienda about sacrifice and blessings will come if he sacrifices the soccer games. He agreed and the Lord backed me up on my promise :)!! We had much success that dauy with several lessons taking place during the game. We had a bit of a scare this week though.  There was an earthquake here!! hahaha Grandmas don't be scared :P It was a smaller one registering at like a 3 or 4.0 but it was interesting. Sorry the email will be short this week. It is labor day so we could not go to the regular library today. we are emailing on there computers at the iTunes store and it feels very awkward. But I love you all and wish you all a good week!

- Elder Dutson