Light the World - It's Christmas Time!!!

Well - We got to talk to James today as our "Christmas" call.  They are having a normal proselyting day on Christmas, so this was our opportunity to video chat and talk with him. 

Below are the notes from the conversation we had with him and pictures!

This past week went pretty well!! We had Christmas Zone conference and we were able to see a ton of missionaries because it was half of the mission there! We played games, had skits, delicious food and got new neck ties along with an Antipolo mission coin that we have all promised to carry with us for the rest of our life!  

One quote I remember from this week "Lingering on a problem never solves anything, solving the problem solves your and another's problems. So, figure out a solution to help you both".  Thinking about problems in a third person point of view is interesting, you are able to look at yourself and other things involved and find the best solution for you all!! Of course, it also involves prayer, and a lot of it, then listening to those promptings. I guess that is what it is.  

I have really been trying to understand what heavenly father needs me to do and learning how I can be ready for anything that he calls me to do!  

I learned a lot this week about The Holy Ghost, Ministering vs Administering, Charity and Love, connection of the gift of wisdom, love, and discernment, and also success.  The one I would love to share right now is Charity and also success. 

This week, almost all of our friends we were currently working with decided that they didn't wish to hear the message anymore and it breaks our hearts. We are taking it step by step and lighting the world one by one.

But what made up for it was the experiences that we were able to have with the ward and some less active members. We invited many of them to come to the Christmas party and a lot of them came. They expressed to us that they feel lonely and the ward doesn't care about them and that is a big reason why they don't come to church, and it meant so much for us to deliver a handmade invitation to each of them. 

Remember to reach out and love all of our friends, sometimes we may not see what happens, but they will always remember it!! If we are not showing out love for our neighbor, we don't love them at all. Be like the savior and do all you can to serve others.

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Elder James Dunyon

Shrimp heads on my fingers

FHE with some members 

Typhoons aren't so bad...

SO….the big typhoon here was next to nothing.  It didn't flood or anything near us and it was just raining and had a little bit of wind.  However, we still had to stay inside for most of the day, just to be safe. We did see on the news at a investigators house that it got really bad down in Bicol where it went straight through.  That’s where my companion is from, but all is good with his family.

When we finally were able to go out, it was about to be dark, so we ended up holding district council that ended up being really good for the district so it ended up being a really good day.
Then the next day we had trainer and trainee meeting with president Alder, and it was a great time!! Learned lots.  I had an interview with President and had a Boodle fight with the other missionaries (an all you can eat lunch where it is a TON of rice and you only eat with your hands). Then we had a good rest of the week!! 

A really fun story this past week…

We were able to make a new friend and investigator by playing chess with him, and we just talked the whole time, shared a small lesson during the game and this brother, Rod, just opened right up to us. At first, he said "I am good with my religion, I have tried many others and am not looking to change." But by the end of our time together he said "I am not looking to change my religion, but I am willing to listen and I am open to your teachings, I am just leaving it open right now".  Rod is mid 40s or 50s, he doesn't say his age because he "stopped counting at 25" But he is a great man and I can just see him as a future bishop!!

Then this is the story of the Santellises Family. 

Wednesday night we were redirected all night long trying to find a way to get that first down. Our previous ITAs that we were trying to visit were no home. Luckily, I followed a prompting before we left and I wrote down a bunch of part member names around a certain area, so we sent out trying to find them. We were trying to find house number on this Long Road but no one seemed to know where it was! We circled the area for 1-2 hours and we could not find anyone we had written down, and no one wanted to hear the Lords restored gospel (night time changes people). There came a point where I was just frustrated because I had been hit with garbage, chased by dogs, yelled at, and just had been walking in circles the whole time. I sat down on a curb with my companion, trying to be happy because I DO NOT WANT TO BE ANGRY, there is no reason to be angry, sad, or anything like that in the Lords work. So, I said a prayer asking for the Lords help to guide me and to allow my anger to wash away. A strong peaceful feeling came over me, and I felt better, but still didn't know what to do. After another minute I realized/heard a small thought pop into my head, "try the first road you went down again". So, I got up and told elder, let’s go try this road again. At first, he was like why? but we soon realized why. The first person on the street we met was this amazingly nice sister who tried to help us find this household, asking everyone around if they knew this house. We ended up still not finding the house, but as we talked about what we are doing here as missionaries, she said we could share a message with her, and gave us her address for a future date. When we go back to her, we taught her, her husband and her 19-year-old son who were all extremely receptive to the message.  Here is a picture of him and his litter sister.

The Lord really does want to give all of us blessings, just make sure the you are always doing the right thing, and if you are not, REPENT as soon as you can to get those blessings, and you can gain His love again in your life!!

Updates on the other individuals we are working with –

John-drew can still make his date of December 28th for baptism, but he didn't come to church this last week which is cutting it really close, so we might have to push it to January. Rayden, has disappeared. He recently got a job and is now busy and we can only visit Saturdays or Sundays and sometimes he isn't there.  We are still working hard for them, trying to work really well with the members too, because we really do feel that is the way to help this area. We planned the Ward Mission Plan with the ward council and we are all really hoping to start out this next year great!!

That’s about it.  Love you all,
Elder James Dunyon

Here is a burger and a mango shake place we found!!!  It was sooo good!!!!

Typhoon or not Typhoon

This week, we weren't sure we would get to hear from James.  I'm sure many of you have heard of the super typhoon closing in on the Philippines.  We've received a couple letters from James' mission President.  The most recent below:   

Dear Parents,
The expected super typhoon over Antipolo has moved further South and we will not therefore experience the eye of the storm. We will however still experience heavy rain and strong winds. All our missionaries are well prepared with water, food and their 72 hour pack. They have been advised to stay indoors until given the all clear. Those missionaries in low lying areas are being moved to apartments which are safer. The safety of your missionaries is our top priority and we will do everything necessary to ensure they are taken care of.

We thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as we have prepared for this event. We will certainly keep you informed of any further developments.
The latest information and maps can be seen on:- weatherph.org

President Mark Alder
Philippines Antipolo Mission

However, we did hear from James! We were so excited.  He is doing well.  Here is what he was able to send.

I am doing alright, there is no rain here yet, it is still the calm before the storm, but we have been told there will be emergency plans and evacuations happening so to be ready for that. I don't think elder and I will need to go anywhere. Our house is higher up and it has two floors.  Our bishop doesn't think the storm is coming at all and he has a service project for us on Tuesday, but that is not happening, hahaha. Preparing for the storm really has not had any affect on anything, there hasn't been any rain yet.

John-drew is looking good for his baptism date of December 28th, and Rayden wasn't able to come to church this week, but we are still shooting for January 11. Next week we will go pick him up!! We have met tons of new FAMILIES that are excited to hear the gospel and readily accepting the Gospel and it is such a blessing!! 

We actually did have a real Thanksgiving dinner! Wednesday night we were all invited to a dinner that an American Family made for us in another Elders area. The whole zone went! It was a REALLY fun time and the members were so nice!! They made a whole thanksgiving feast!! They were so amazing, and some of their friends were visiting from the states who were in the Tabernacle choir, so we got to meet them too! The food was so delicious!! We all shared a big zone message afterward and it was good!!   Oh yeah, I cut the Turkey at thanksgiving. Just saying I was the best out of everyone else 😎.

 I ate 5 slices of pie..... 4 pumpkin and 1 apple

This is the Orlanda family (middle with the baby), and the Buban family (on the right). 
They invited us over for a FHE because the Buban family is a little less active and it was a great time

Spiritual thought:

This week my studies have been amazing thanks to promptings of the Lord!! As I was reading the book "Saints" this week, I was reading about Oliver Cowdery's experiences in wanting to learn moire and trying to develop gifts of the spirit when the aspect of revelation, prophecy and seer-ship came to mind. I then was prompted to read certain sections in the Doctrine and Covenants and other chapters in the Book of Mormon. 

Through my studies I learned so much and still have much more to learn, but the process has been humbling. These gifts are only available through humility and wanting to act out of love for others and wanting to build up the Lord's kingdom. If there is any other reason that you have for developing these gifts, you will never receive them. True, pure humility and wanting to come closer to God is the key to any gift of the spirit and the solution to many if not all of life's problems. Always look for ways to feel God's love in your life!!

Love Elder James Dunyon

New Ward, new area, and Temple

Sorry I wasn't able to write yesterday, but yesterday was actually not our p-day. Today was because we were able to go to the temple and we also moved into a new house.  It's been a pretty busy day today. The new place is pretty nice, still no refrigerator, that comes tomorrow, but other than that it is newly painted and it is pretty nice!! The temple was really nice today!! I loved it!!

The new ward has some challenges, just like every ward, but they are really great!! There are some true highlights in the ward and it is amazing!!  The new area is going great!! We are having a ton of fun and are praying we can keep doing the right things!! We should have a baptism on Dec 29 for a part member boy who wasn't baptized, and one on January 11 for this amazing 21 year old the Lord blessed us to meet just last Saturday.  The boy's name is JD, and the 21 year old is Rayden.

We met Rayden going to this house of a former investigator from 6 months ago. He is not related to them but he is their tropa (friend group). We ended up sharing a little to him and he said he would try to go to the church the next day!! He ended up not being able to go, but we went back and shared a message with him about the restoration, and he was so grateful for it! He said that he has tried so many different churches, but feels that they are lacking something, and when we came and spoke to him, there was a little difference. We asked when we could come back, and he was like, "Tomorrow".

So we went back and share about the Plan Of Salvation, and the steps we take to get back to Heavenly Father, and he was pretty interested. At the end of the lesson, even though it was just the second lesson, we were prompted to ask him to be baptized, and he said YES! So we set his day for January 11 to make sure he understands everything before he is baptized!! We are so excited and are so thankful for the many blessings of the Lord and want to make sure we are always doing the right thing so we can keep receiving those!!

We also had a full mission conference this past week, and Elder Whitney Clayton came and spoke to us.  It was a really good meeting that was 3 hours of Elder Bangerter and Elder Clayton. It was go go go and no time to take a break or do anything. Here are some pictures:

That's about it for this week.  Still working hard and LOVING IT!!!  More pictures below.

Love Elder Dunyon

Transferred and Training

Hey, Hey Hey!!!  Both Elder Olivas and I are have been transferred from Taguig to become Trainers and opening brand new areas!! I'm so excited.  I am going to Pateros 1 ward in Pasig zone.  Elder Olivas is going to Kapitolyo in Pasig.  Different area on the other side of the zone, but we are still both training.

This week was a good week. President Alder ended up coming to our district council the week after MLC, then we had zone conference this last Thursday, and we finally had a stake correlation meeting (the first one I think the stake has ever had, so we influenced it!) So it was over all a pretty good week with a lot that happened and we are excited for more!! Of course I am sad to not be a Zone leader anymore but time and place.  The Lord needs me for something even more important than that!!

My new companion is Elder Yaba from Bicol, Philippines. It is actually just outside of the bottom right of San Pablo mission. He is 18 and so far we are having a good time opening the new area.  I've included a picture of him and me and then one with the Mission President and his wife as well. 















We have found a few people but not a ton, we have been settling in and understanding the area.
We have still been talking to everyone as we wander the area and figure it out but this week should be really good with teaching!! Members have given us a TON of part member referrals and we are so thankful for them!! We are excited for them!!! In the ward, this is the first time there has been Elders in the ward. We are being placed in here to prepare the area for the Ward split actually that should be coming up here soon!!  So we have been working crazy with the EQP and WML and they are amazing! We already have the ward loving us!!!

Tomorrow, elder Whitney Clayton and Elder Bangerter are coming for a mission wide conference
We are looking forward to all the fun work we get to have with the ward!!

Spiritual thought:
Isaiah 55: 8-9

8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The Lord has a plan for each of us, it is not our place to tell him what to do. But what we can do is learn what he wants us to do through humility, prayer, study and honestly seeking. Learn how He speaks to you, listen to him. Learn what you need to do to become better, then do it. You can ask why he did something to understand it, but realize that he knows you and knows what will help you grow to your next level, so never question it. Show your trust and love for him by always following him.

This week I have loved studying about what the Holy Ghost is. Reading through the scriptures with thoughts about the holy ghost, really makes you think deeper about the scriptures. You have to study who and what the holy ghost is to be able to understand how big of a role he played in the Book of Mormon. I love the influence and direction he gives and encourage all to understand him so they can feel his presence more in their life! And that is a missionary promised blessing to you all!!!

Halloween - Day of the Dead

Halloween here isn't super big, here in the city it is a little bigger, I think, but not 100% sure. They celebrate the day of the dead though, just like in Hispanic cultures, at least they did back on Marinduque. 

We are doing alright now with teaching. We had exchanges this week with the assistants, which was fun, and then with our district leader. We have been trying to encourage the zone because everyone is down in the dumps and not really wanting to do a ton of work. It is like everyone has become depressed, so we have been coming up with ideas to got people going and getting them excited, and will be testing it out this week before we introduce it in MLC.

It is doing challenges like video games. Weekly/daily challenges that help get them to increase their key indicators, have some fun, and do something crazy (but still mission appropriate). Some examples are:  Invite 5 people in blue shirts; Get 5 girls phone numbers; Do jumping jacks with an investigator.  Just fun and random stuff to spice up their lives, because the WHOLE MISSION is kinda in the dumps right now. We did this on our exchanges and we had some much fun with our DL. We found so many new people to teach and it has been a great blessing!! We will be trying it with our district first then introduce it to the mission!

So far the people we've been teaching are doing well.  It is just talking time to get some people progressing to the point of baptism which is okay. They are reading and learning and growing that is more important. 

We did meet this brother, Richard who is in his 50's and is really nice. We just started talking to him one day while he was playing pool, and we started asking us questions about us as missionaries. He said that we could come back some time and share a message with him. So this last week, on exchanges, we were able to go back to him, and he had questions for us about our church. So we were nice and answering them. He was curious about aspects of the plan of salvation, so we testified, and left a Book Of Mormon with him, and he was more than happy to read it. He then brings us into his house, we meet his wife, and had some snacks with them. They were really interested and hoping that continues!! We will be going back on Thursday hopefully!

Spiritual thought for the week:

This week I have still had some amazing personal studies with questions being answered left and right!! Truly, I am blessed for the change that has taken place in my life! One topic that I prayed about while I was reading the scriptures was about honesty and accountability to the Lord. I don't want to say too much because I want you to study up on it too, but one thing that I have always loved, is the question "Do you fear God more than Man?" This is a serious question that we all need to evaluate sometime. Are we being 100% honest in all things, meaning we are letting them know 100% of the truth too, and not just 99% of it. Are we doing things to make us happy, make others happy, or are we doing things to make the lord happy? What is it that the Lord needs us to do? Once you receive that, you need to then act on it AND REPORT IT TO HIM. That is the key to true JOY!!! There is so much I would love to say, but I will leave that to you!!

Happy Halloween!!
Elder James Dunyon

Fun and interesting to say the least

Yesterday I got to leave mission boundaries and go on a special assignment to meet with president Wakolo for news about light the world!!  There will be the Giving Machines again like there was last year, but we were given fun insider information that hasn't been publicly announced yet, and we get to be part of taking care of the giving machines, which means people will be going out of the mission to Quezon City for it which is cool!!

Other than that, this week has been a good week. We have been dealing with almost all the area's struggling in the whole mission so we have been trying to figure things out. There are some particular struggles in our zone that we are prying about and trying to help to, it is just a work in progress.
This will be a little bit of a spiritual thought for this week.

So a couple weeks ago we talked with this Nanay through a Tindahan (a store) and she was willing to hear our message.  Over the last couple of weeks we have gone back to her and she has told us that past missionaries of other religions have come to her and tried to force her to join their church. So she was willing to hear our message, but didn't want to change her beliefs. She is the Bible reader at the Catholic church, and she goes out with the priests all the time and hears them speak on the bible.
So as we have been teaching her, we have been simply sharing restored truths and challenging her to pray and read but not forcing her. She didn't really do it at first but gradually started. As we continued to teach her she started to gain an understanding of the Plan of Salvation and started to get really curious. She started noticing things in the bible that don't match up with their beliefs and was expressing those to us. As we testified to her about baptism she started to get interested in the proper way of baptism. We Shared Mathew 3:13-17 with her then 2 Nephi 31: 1-12 about why and how Christ was baptized. This last lesson we shared about the changing effect the atonement of Jesus Christ can have on us if we repent. At the end of the lesson she looked like she had a question, so we turned the time over to her. So she asked "How can I be baptized? What do I need to do?" We testified about baptism and what she would need to do to get to that point, and she set the date herself for December 21, we are hoping to get her daughter ready to for that date who is in her 20s and loves our lessons too!

Thought for this week - I have really been praying for guidance for our area, district, and zone in what we need to do to help. As I have begun every single study in sincere prayer, a question comes to my mind, and that is what I ask and try to focus on as I open the scriptures, thinking about my question or concern, The Lord unfolds my answer to me through the whole chapter I read. I have really felt the changing effect of powerful studies. I have felt so much love and heard so many answers to prayers, I can not say them all! I have loved the change that I have made as well in my life, and how much more Christ like I have become, looking back, I am so happy now and I love it!!!

The baptism pictures - The one that is older is Florentina who was baptized Oct 5. And the other one is Diane who was baptized this last week.  Florentina is probably the most active member in the whole ward here and she just got baptized. The street with everyone was a bunch of teenagers we bonded with so we took a picture with them all and told them to contact us. Just some fun thing to do with them all.  The hair cut, hahaha, so I was getting my hair cut and he started it different than a normal haircut so my comp to a picture and we were laughing so much!! I did not leave my hair like that I promise!! The red thing is DRAGON FRUIT!!!!! The one in the street with a ton of stuff on a truck was us helping a member move to their new house 

Finally got to watch Conference

Just watched conference this weekend and WOW!! IT WAS AMAZING!! It went by too quick to be honest! We were at the church for 8 hours on Saturday for all the sessions but it felt like 2 hours!!
I WANT MORE!! There were so many that I loved but the over arching theme that I found was about Families/Temples, Conversion, and trust in the Lord. I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!

We had a good week to with some new investigators that were found. One family we are working with is a part member family that had moved to our area about 3 years ago, but don't really know where the church is. They approached us a couple of weeks ago asking if we were the missionaries, and we said YEAH WE ARE!! We received her number and have been able to go back to them a couple times. The husband wasn't super interested at first but then after we had shared about the restoration, he started to get more interested. We have also been able to share to their two nieces that live next door and they have been progressing well too! They also introduced us to their friends just around the corner who have been wanting to change, improve and help their family but didn't know what to do until we arrived at their door. They are all loving the messages, and this next week they should be all coming to church! So we are excited for them too!!!

It’s amazing what can happen with just one contact.  Then, on top of that, last night they introduced us to some other members who have gone to church once or twice, but haven't been in a LONG time. They don't really remember a whole lot as well (just like the first family), but we met and shared a lesson with all of them last night too!! Really hoping that this whole area become a progressing area and they can all support one another coming back and joining the church! Even though the members haven't gone to church, they are more missionary minded than most the members in our ward and it is so cool to see. They really do want to come back, they just lost their way.

This week for me will be a pretty none crazy event filled week, nothing planned except for special exchanges with an area that is struggling. OH AND A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!

Thought for the week:

I reflected this week on how much I have changed from the beginning of my mission and it is unbelievable! One thing that has really stood out to me is how much more receptive I am to spiritual things, and how much more love I can feel from the savior. I remember before the mission, I never understood anything the Prophets were talking about, now I can pick out their topic, motivation, emotions, and love they have for all of us! I have looked back on my personality and what it was a year ago, and I love what has happened. All of it I know is thanks to the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He has allowed me to become a better persona and still keep growing each and everyday! It reminds me of one of my favorite activities, WORKING OUT!! At first, we may feel like we aren't doing a whole lot, or not making a whole lot of progression, and that can discourage us, but if we look back and realize all the things that have happened, we see that amazing progress that we have made and want to keep going and working even more. You look back and your progress inspires you to make even more progress!! I hope that I can continue to make progress through my whole mission and make those right decisions!

Sorry - no new pictures this week...maybe next week.

Love, Elder James Dunyon

Baptism and Talking with Everyone

We have been having a great week. There was this one story to a picture that I have that you will love!! but I will do that later.

We are still working with El John and Mary lou but they are taking a bit of time. Diana will be baptized on the 19th only because there is general conference on the 12, and we are working with a referral from my former AP in San Pablo who should be baptized at the end of October or beginning of November. We are in the works for weekly baptisms here and we are so excited for all these people. I don't want to leave, I want to keep working with these people and there are so many new up coming potentials and tons of new stories. Oh we are so excited for them. We are really embracing talking with everyone and we are seeing so many miracles and great upcoming potential!!

There was this one group on men, all around 25, and elder and I look at them and say "lets have some  fun".  So elder Olivas is from Hawaii and is parents are Filipino so he looks Filipino ,though he is really English. So we go up to them and elder just start speaking straight English to them and I am the one doing translating. We are acting like he doesn't know Tagalog at all and so they start trying to speak in English to him. After a few minutes of playing around with them and laughing a lot they ask elder a question and he speaks straight Tagalog to them and they are all WOWED!! It was so Funny!! That is when we share that we are missionaries with a message about the word of God. "Ah yeah the word of God". That is when I made like the "west side" sign on my hand and they went crazy!! " YEAH THE WORD OF GOD!! LETS TAKE A PICTURE!!" So we took a picture with them and shared about the Book of Mormon and should be going back to them again Tuesday night to share more with them!!

 Another fun story was where we built trust and relationship with one seller on the street.

I was with elder Newswander when we were walking along the street and he wanted to talk to this nanay selling booty shorts. At first I was confused but I told him for his practice to talk to everyone he felt like he should talk to and I will back him up. I won't start a single conversation unless he starts ones first. So he starts and this nanay is confused and a little weirded out. Two tall white Americans are talking to me selling short shorts. So to break the ice I get her laughing by saying that Elder would look really pretty in those short shorts and she just started busting up!! 

Also, this week as well we were trying to find a new house/apartment because there will be a second set of missionaries here next cycle in my area so we have to find them their own house. We had a lot of fun house finding. And I am doing it all in Tagalog, will be interesting eventually doing it in English hahaha. This is actually my second time in the mission finding and renting a new house, I am a pro at this now!! 

We did get a little sick on Sunday because we had unlimited wings on Saturday night and it didn't like our stomach....

This week we also went to a Philippines WW2 museum and it was super cool!! Here are some pictures:

We are really busy this week, work is picking up like crazy and we love it so much!! We are now teaching our Kapitbahay or our neighbor.  We had an amazing baptismal service for Florentina Alvarez and she was confirmed on Sunday and is probably the most active person in the church now!! HAHAHA she is amazing!!

We should have another one in two weeks for Diane Libre which we are excited for!!

Future people we are hoping for in November are
Gracelle Cinco
Krizza Anuelo
Fernandez family
Elsa and Elma
So we are excited for them too!!