The rights we have‏

Hey everyone! I AM AN AUNT!!! SOY TÍA!!!!

I am so happy. Well I don´t know what my nephew is called yet. So baby Dunks is here!!! haha.

So something I just wanted to tell you all is that we had changes. I am sad that Hermana Costa isn´t here, but now I will be able to be with Hermana Pace and she is awesome so that is fine. 

Well I have been thinking a lot about our agency lately and I wanted to share something with you all. When I was younger I got mad at God for a little while because he didn´t make everything in my  life work how I wanted it too. I only wanted to know why he had let others fall into long paths and i got mad at Him because my life wasn´t perfect like I had always wanted it to be. Then I thought recently about these thoughts and this was a major change in my conversion. I only could change because I was able to let go of those feelings and accept that God has given us the opportunity to choose what path we go down and it is what we do with that gift that can really bring us joy. My life has changed a lot since those days. I am so grateful for our right to choose even though sometimes I feel sad that others choose other paths,I must be grateful for agency because without it we would only be living a life without happiness. I am so grateful for these things he has given me and I hope you all understand that He will give us what we deserve, but if we give him our agency He will give us even more than we can imagine. I love you all and I am grateful to my Father for the right I have to choose.

Con mucho amor de Armenia,

Hermana Dunkley

El Espíritu Santo‏

well no baby dunks yet. so I am sad. but we had a baptism. So I am happy.

This 6 Junio 2015 we baptized Jennifer and Britney Bravo. They are so amazing and cute girls. They want to do everything they can to keep moving forward. I am happy!  well now we just have to keep finding people so we can continue with these great things that are going on here.

Now something spirtiual...um...you would think that I would have something super fast considering that my life is centered around the Spirit...

ok yeah. well the little girl we baptized this saturday shared something so amazing in her testimony. She said as she was being baptized that she felt like a warm feeling in her heart like it was the only thing that was dry as she was sumerged in the water. It was so sweet because that little explanation is so true for all of us as we feel the spirit. sometimes when it is raining outside and we have to go and work anyway, I feel like the only thing dry in my is the Spirit as well.  It can be felt so strongly and help us out when we feel like there isn´t any other hope. I am so grateful for the testimony of children because they can truly see things a whole lot simpler and like God wants us to see and do things.

I am so grateful to have the privilige to have known them and shared with them. Thank you all for all that you do.

Con mucho amor del cyber que está en el triangulo en San Rafael,

Hermana Dunkley

Feliz Día de Niño‏

Well happy kid day. As a kid today I celebrated going down lots of slides, through opticle courses and now I am going to make some bomb food!

I hope all of you remember what the scriptures say.

Matthew 18:3-4

 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

So I hope you all remeber that you need to become as little children. Especially today in the Day of the Child. haha

Well I just kind of felt that I needed to say thank you today. It isn´t thanksgiving, but that doesn´t matter. Sometimes I think that we forget all the times that we need to express our gratitude. I am so very grateful to God that I can be out here. He permitted me to come here and watch over his children so I must do all that I can to help them out. I also think that he has permitted everyone of us with responsabilities to take care of his spirit children. Even when our brothers and sisters bother us sometimes we must remember that they are our responsability to take care of, given to us by God.  I have found that I am very grateful for the love and care my family has given me. I feel there love each and every day and all the love from my friends at home as well. 

I wanted to remember one happy thought as a child in this great day. I thought of church and all the times I felt the love from my own family and from my extended family in my ward. I can truly say that thanks to all of them I have been changed to be a better person. I hope to be able to do the same for those here so that they can feel the love from me.

I am so grateful to all of you and hope that you all too can be grateful for the opportunities you all have had as children, because we are all children even now, and remeber that it is thanks to God that we were brought here to this earth.

les amo muchísimo

Con mucho de puente 8,

Hermana Dunkley

Sacrifices

First off.....I MIGHT BE AN AUNT NEXT WEEK!!!! AHHH. wow that is just all the excitement in side of me coming out. I am doing good everyone don´t worry. Hey I lost weight. It is possible everyone. oh and random thought. I ate something super good today oh and I had to eat cow foot again on Friday. Let me just tell you it is not always a pleasant experience. Just imagine eating your own snot, but it being hard and tough to chew. That is pata de caldo...

Well in the couple minutes that I have left I wanted to tell you all something that I have been contemplating. My sister told me of a story when I fell in the pool once and she heard a splash so she listened to the spirit and knew to look and follow that prompting. So I was thinking as she told me that and then told me that she is grateful for the sacrifice I have made and the prompting she recieved to look out the window that day so long ago.

  

Then it brought me to think that the only way we can be more like Christ is if we make sacrifices. If we are all like Christ then the world can be a better place. So we should make more sacrifices in our lives. That brought me to think about the promise I made to God when I was set apart as a missionary. I promised to be a representative of him at all times and in all things and in all places. I decided to obey the many rules we have as missionaries and decided to give up my own needs for that of others. Thanks to this sacrifice I have made and continue to make, my life is fuller and filled with the love of Christ. I feel like I have finally developed a lasting relationship with him that makes me want to just keep moving forward and changing my life. I know that the downfalls I have are my own and not from Him and so I have confidence that even when I fall he will alwyas help me to get back up.  The sacrifices we make in this life will help us out in the long run. I am so grateful for that and that I have been given this revelation.

as always I hope these few words that I have scrambled to put together are recieved well from all of you. 

wow I speak english like a spanish speaker now...whoops

Con mucho amor de Armenia,

Hermana Dunkley

oh and shout out on my blog para

la familia collantes. Les amo muchisimo...saludos a todos!!!!

A disciple of Christ‏

Well I thought I would just write everyone now and in general because I don´t have a lot of time. We had to come to Quito to renew visas today so that my companion can stay here in Ecuador for a while longer so that is what happened to me today and for that reason I can only say a little to respond to everyone.

alright breath. haha

okay so everyone has been asking me a lot about the work and everything and well I just wanted to respond to say that the work is hard, but I honestly love it.  I struggled a lot this week with my own dissapointment, but I learned a lot.  We talked about seeing the little miracles in our lives and really in every moment. We must have faith that we can see miracles and we must remember that faith is the opposite of fear and anger and impatience.  I felt more impatience this week with a desire to do good and be an example to others. Then I just remembered a scripture that just hit me,"3 Nephi 5:13  Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." Lots of times we are here to just declare his word and to help people to have everlasting life. We cannot force any person to recieve his gospel because it is their own choice, but we can help them to remember only through Christ can they recieve everlasting life. 

I am a disciple of Christ and all I want to do is help others to recieve that help and example. I am so grateful for all that Christ has done for me. 

I love you all and am so grateful for your examples.

Con mucho amor de Quito...por hoy...

Hermana Dunkley

A picture is a thousand words‏

Hi everyone. 

Well. I am at a loss of words this week. Sometimes I just get to this part and I think well what do I say. It is hard when everyone has lots of expectations for my emails. I try to keep them good, but then sometimes I get here and I am all out of ideas. Well anyways. I was thinking and they always say a picture is a thousand words so here is my picture to explain how I am doing. 

Soy feliz como misionera y solo quiero seguir como misionera. 

I hope that all the mothers in the world had a great day yesterday. I just wanted to tell of my mothers in Claremont 1 ward that I miss them and love them so much. I am so grateful for my own mother and all she does for me. My grandmothers and there examples for me and also just the hard work they do each and everyday for every single one of us. I am so grateful for your support out here and I hope that everything will continue well for all of you.  I love you all

oh ps...congrats to Jared Cicon and Dylan Wride on their mission calls!!! 

Con mucho amor de Armenia,

Hermana Dunkley

How can God permit that to happen?‏

Well we are going to stay together for another change. Hermana Costa and I are so happy and excited to keep going on!!!

Well this week was a hard one, but we learned a lot.  We were able to work hard and try the hardest that we could. That is what matters.

I have been thinking a lot about what Jesus Christ has done for us and as we heard some bad news about a sister missionary in Chile she told me something that her mother said. Even the things that seem the most ugly and hard to live through are just a small window into what Jesus felt for us as he paid for our sins. Lots of times we see the bad things in the world and we ask How can God permit that to happen? There is a simple answer to all of that we must suffer a little of what Christ suffered to be able to truly grow and change.  We may not understand the why of everything, but we do understand that we must have struggles to be able to become more like Christ.  As I was reading the scriptures I read a scripture that made me think even more in this. The scripture said that we must repent now because if we don´t we will have to suffer for all of our sins after this life.  One way or the other someone has to suffer. Christ suffered and gave us the chance to repent, but if we do not accept that gift we too must suffer as Him.  It is so great the gift he has given us and we can all continue to learn and grow if we leave our struggles behind and repent for what we have done.

I know it is true and that we can do all that we would like if we just trust in God and give him our burdens. I am so thankful to be able to serve Him.

Con mucho amor de Armenia,

Hermana Dunkley