I LOVE MY MISSION

HI HI

Let me apologize in advance for the lengthiness of this one. I have so much to share and I can't even get it all out!! Aaand I probably have lots of misspelled words. But...ain't nobody got time to spell check!!

HELLO!! Wow sounds like life is awesome at home!!!

(But not as awesome as the NYNY North mish) :) I CANNOT believe that I got called here. I can't believe it. I love my mission... !! I love love love it. Sometimes I will just be thinking and I'm like wait woah I am so blessed to be here in the NYNY North Mission. Wowza I'm so grateful. haha Aaand mom don't worry about back to school shopping for McCall and Ellie just send me your credit card and I will head to the city on Pday and shop till I drop for ya!! but for reals you could send your credit card if you want. ;)

I am so jealous of all those cute Alex and Ani bracelets at the

store!!! People love those bracelets over here. My companion and I

were dying over all of those. So mom feel free to send some Alex and

Ani love :) ha! Teasin. But not really..

Okay. So let's see. First of all. Just let me be (missionary) for a
second here okay? Don't stop reading just because this looks real long and spiritual.. (Well you can if you want) but... I cannot even believe this gospel. My whole life I've been raised in the church and I don't think I ever REALLY understood just how awesome it is. I have been studying the Doctrine of Christ during my study time and it's amazing. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. My mind has been thinking about it nonstop. I've been thinking about FAITH a lot lately. And faith is the FIRST principle of this gospel. Right? So how important do you think faith is? ITS SO IMPORTANT. Faith drives us and motivates us. It promotes hope and trust and humility. Faith in Jesus Christ is probably the MOST IMPORTANT thing in this life. Think about our life here on earth.. Why are we here? We are here to learn and grow and gain faith. Right? And we are tested in life. A lot of people don't have faith because they want to see something to prove to them that there is a god, or that Christ is our savior or that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of god. WELL Nothing can be proved because the WHOLE purpose of being here is to have faith!! Okay now just bare with me because I am so excited about the doctrine of christ. I won't rant for much longer... But..  Having faith in Christ leads us to want to become better and more Christlike. When we want to become better (more Christlike) we start to see all our weaknesses. Ether 12:27 "if men COME UNTO ME (faith in Christ) I will show unto them their weakness..." If we are feeling weakness it means we are coming to Christ! Therefore you are headed straight for REPENTANCE, because you are wanting to change yeah? And then comes ..baptism/sacrament and then Holy Ghost and then enduring. And HENCE the doctrine of Christ. And I could talk about all of those for a long time but for the sake of your entertainment and time I will conclude this missionary talk. Hahah. I am loving my mission so so much. I'm realizing how happy it makes me. And the doctrine of Christ is so important in ALL of our lives. It is a pattern. It is our way of life. So have faith. Start with a little seed. And nourish it and water it and make it grow bigger!! And yes. Then repent then take the sacrament or be baptized and then listen to the Holy Ghost and gain more faith and endure to the end!! And repeat!!  I LOVE IT!!

I had an awesome week. On Thursday my companion and I and two other
elders went to dinner at this yummy restaurant. So good. And fun. My
companion and I then had to go teach Rick and Maria. That went well!! Their daughter was there! (She is a member) it was so good for them to hear their very own daughters testimony. Rick and Maria are awesome. Maria had a baptismal date for Saturday but her daughter just had a baby and it didnt work out.. So we rescheduled.
Well after that good lesson Sister Amorim and I decided we wanted ice cream. And the other sisters in our apartment wanted some as well. So we headed to the grocery store to get my FAVE Haagen Dazs ice cream. Woah so good. We went home and had a SLEEPOVER in the living room of our apartment. Party. Ha when we woke up the next morning the power was out! So we got ready in the dark. Then my companion and I headed to a meeting with all the new missionaries. President Morgan talked and my goodness it was so good. I left feeling motivated and ready to help others come unto Christ!! :) we had the best NY pizza for lunch there. The pieces were giant. The food is so good here it's not okay. Sister missionaries should not be allowed to eat. Ha!! Teasin. Anyways. Don't worry I am not gaining weight yet... I refuse.

Side note: Everyone here tells me I look like Elsa from Frozen! I'll take that. Thx haha

Yesterday my companion and I got a media referral. (A media referral
is where people go on Mormon.org and request to meet with someone tolearn more.) So we went to go look up this random person that
supposedly wanted to meet with the missionaries. And media referrals
are usually never legit. So we were expecting to knock on the door and have them tell us to leave and that they didn't request anything. Well we knocked and a mom answered. We were like hello! Are you kris? And she was like no that's my son. We said oh! Well did kris request to meet with the missionaries? And she looked at us like we were crazy!!! Then she was like I will go see... So like 5 minutes later kris came down the stairs. Kris is 18 years old. He plays rugby. And he is catholic. He told us that he has a friend that is LDS and that he is always so happy. His friend goes to BYU in Provo. He said his friend has a "light" with him. And then he said he wants that light. Kris has already read the whole Book of Mormon!!! He is coming to church on Sunday! And his mom agreed to listen in on the lessons!!! WOOOO. Like how cool!?! He requested to meet with us!!! He is amazing. Such an awesome boy. I'm so excited to teach more about what we believe!!

We had 2 baptisms scheduled for this Saturday... Toni. She is so cute. And Isis. She's awesome. We just found out that Toni is pregnant!!! Haha. So apparently we need to go over the law of chastity again.. :) it's okay tho. We have to be patient and keep helping our investigators. It's crazy to see people from complete different lifestyles coming to Christ. It's definitely a HUGE change for so many people to make. And Isis was SO close to being baptized this Saturday but we discussed some things that need to be taken care of before she is baptized. So yeah we are workin hard with Toni and Isis. They have so much faith and they are awesome.

Sister Dunford and Toni

I just arrived in Manhattan an hour ago! We drove here with a
member in my ward. Her name is Lynn Orn. She was a famous model in
Paris!!! She is so awesome. She is taking my companion and I to dinner tonight here in the city. Her friend is coming and he is a fashion photographer...So yessss. We are at the church in the Manhattan temple right now. And here's an embarrassing sorry. Hahahahah. My companion an I had to use the restroom and so went to go find the restroom.. Well... We were washing our hands and a man walks out of the stall... Then a man walks in. HAHA. We were in the men's bathroom. Hahahahah. I am still laughing. So. There's that!

I LOVE MY MISSION!!! I love it. I'm doing great. CTR. Love you all. Have an amazing week!!! I will send pics :) aaaand I apologize for the length of this email!! Super long. But there is so much to tell. I can't even get everything in here that I want to tell!! So anyways.
Love you!!



Love,

Sista Dunford