Wild flowers

Well what to say. I find myself sitting here so often and I just find myself awestruck at the work God has done in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have had the amazing opportunity to serve a mission and see imediate blessings. The grandest blessing has been that I have grown to have a personal relationship with God and understand his gospel and atonement in my personal life. The second most amazing blessing is that my brother and sister in law are going to be sealed for this life and the next.

The family is Gods most important creation. We can be reunited not just for this life, but also for the next. I am so grateful for that promise from God and I am so grateful because of the blessings we can recieve as his children. My companion and I have been thinking a lot about the family lately because we want to help the families here to be strengthened and flourish and I thought of this quote from Elder Quentin L. Cook,

"One of the remarkable characteristics of young wild sunflowers, in addition to growing in soil that is not hospitable, is how the young flower bud follows the sun across the sky. In doing so, it receives life-sustaining energy before bursting forth in its glorious yellow color.

Like the young sunflower, when we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us. He truly is our light and life.

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the Savior declared to His disciples that those who offend and do iniquity shall be gathered out of His kingdom.4 But speaking of the faithful, He said, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”5 As individuals, disciples of Christ, living in a hostile world that is literally in commotion, we can thrive and bloom if we are rooted in our love of the Savior and humbly follow His teachings."

so I hope you can all flourish like a wild sunflower. haha. Remember that it is imporant to keep on going even when we are growing in unhospitable soil. 

I love you all and here is my wild flower follwing the light of christ picture, with my daughter hermana Romero. Pure happiness

Con mucho amor de ambato,

Hermana Dunkley

Haz lo Justo

Well I would like to write you all starting with a story my amazing mission president told me.  One time he was traveling with President Eyring to BYU-IDAHO to see participate in some classes. They had gotten to campus early and instead of going to the devotional and having to make a presence and then speak to the audience, they decided to walk in randomly to some high school seminary classes. While entering President Eyring walked into a few rooms and would ask them what they were studying and would participate in the lesson sharing the witness from an apostle that Christ lives. They walked into one classroom and he asked what they were studying and the teacher told him that they were studying the Miracles of Christ. So then he asked the class what was the greatest miracle that Christ did? And I mean just like any class of students that is scared to answer an apostle, everyone was silent for a little bit, and then one girl in the back answered the atonement. Then President Eyring continued to give a personal witness of Christ and his atonement. My president continued to tell me..."The most important miracle of Christs ministry happened at the end of his ministry. If he would have ended his mission at 2 and a half years we would have never been able to witness such an amazing miracle. We would have never been saved from our sins. So just like Him the greatest miracles we can see as a missionary will happen to us as we finish."

I have thought about that a lot in this last week. As we worked really hard we saw a miracle. This sheet of paper with a name on it drew our attention so we called Gonzalo and he told us to come on over. We visited him and we felt the spirit and it was a great lesson, but then the next lesson as we went to see how they were doing Gonzalo told us that he knew he needed to be baptized because he had read in the book of mormon about how we shouldnt baptize little children. It was amazing because God literally gave him his reading assignment when he just randomly opened the book of mormon. Gonzalo and his wife will be baptized muy pronto!!! I am so excited and grateful for that miracle.

Even though we will have temptations and worries sometimes, we can always trust that if we choose the right God will help us. Just like when Adam was tempted, it was like he had the forbidden fruit in his hand and he said no. We can do the same. Even though sometimes the temptation is so strong and it is in our hands just waiting for us to take it, if we choose the right God will help us!

I am so grateful for you help and blessings, keep up the happiness....I always tell my comp hermana lopez where is your smile? and then we start laughing. The best way to choose the right is the happy way.

Con mucho amor de Ambato,

Hermana Dunkley

The hardest decisions He made‏

So I would like you all to just think for a moment and meditate on these things.

As He walked to the garden of getsemani He knew what He was going to have to do. As He asked for support from His friends He knew they were going to forget Him.  As He knelt down to pray He meet each and every one of us. He felt our sadness, our weaknesses, He suffered for our pains, our challenges, he struggled to make tough decisions with us.  Maybe throughout all the time that he suffered he was able to feel just for a couple of seconds what each and every one of us have felt throughout our lifetime.

Today I express to you all that there are two things I am extremely grateful to have been able to have learned throughout my mission.  The first thing is I have grown to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I now apply it in my life, I am not ignorant to things that I was ignorant of before and this Gospel that belongs to Him will help me throughout my entire life. The second and most important thing is I now have come to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ even more. I have felt some of the hard things He felt for others. I have seen the tough decisions we sometimes have to make, I have physically, mentally and spirtually suffered and I have felt the pain of other people, which is a pain that can be even greater than the personal pain we sometimes feel. I have changed and am happy to see the change I have made in my life. As I walked around this week looking to find people, trying to get to know a sector and people that I had never meet in my life. I felt these pains as I saw the suffurings of some who had felt like they had been tried and could not overcome there own trials. I meet so many who suffered, and just seeing us two new sister missionaries gave them faith to keep moving forward. To work harder in the work of the Lord. The people have opened up so much to us and I am so grateful for that. They love us and I love them. I cannot be more grateful for anything, but that. I leave you with these words hoping that you all can see the great work that God has done for you as he has done for me.

Con mucho amor de Quito,

Hermana Dunkley

Changes

Well I decided to write a little bit earlier today because my mom is mad that I don´t write you all a lot, like my old companion Hermana Pace would so here we go....I will make it long.

I had changes and now I am in Ambato with my new companion Hermana López. She is very sassy and different and she will probably kill me, (That means she will be my last companion...not that she will actually kill me)  We are going to be reopening a sector here in Ambato and we will be doing more divisions, but now with the Hermanas here in Ambato. President is trying to make me not trunky by making me do all this, but that is all right I wanted to do this, I am happy that it is now real. So we got a new house today, we had to put it all together and we have like 4 bedrooms so we are spacing everything out all nicely haha. Now I just need to get to know everything because I have no idea where anyone or anything is. That is the fun part about being in a new sector and reopening it. Someone brings to your house and then says alright go get to know everything and dont get lost. I am excited to be on my toes for the next few days hahaha.

So I think the worst part about having only one more change of city is when you have to leave another family behind. I had lived there for so long that I felt horrible having to say goodbye to everyone. The worst thing that could have ever happened to me. I think one thing that you don´t expect at home is loving people so much and then all of a sudden just having to leave them behind, without the reassurance that you will see them again.  I have done that too many times now and I hope that I will be able to come back to see them one day in this life, because if not, I would definately lose a part of my life that I have come to know so much. Some of the members in my old sector called me the latinga. They told me I had become latina by heart, it just didn´t work that I have a little bit of a gringa accent and really really white skin. So I really have embraced all of this, I mean everytime I hear latin music I get excited and all I want to do is salsa dance sometimes. haha.

Wow this is hard to focus for so much time with technology I get distracted like every 5 seconds. I think that is what happens when you go 15 months without it. 

Right now I am so thankful for the time I was able to have in my old sector, I was able to learn a lot of patience and see a lot of miracles. I am so grateful for that. Just being able to work hard with people you love and with a companions that want to work hard too. I am so grateful for the people who have helped me out and given me the chance to keep on working hard here in Ecuador I am grateful to my Savior and all that he has done for me. I hope you all have a great week!!!

Con mucho amor de Ambato,

Hermana Dunkley

Another Miracle

Well I am very happy today. We went to support an elder that has to go home for his health, and it was a great experience. I have never seen someone that just feels so broken down with the knowledge that he has to go home. I am grateful that I can finish my mission out and also have known him to help him out in these last days of his mission.  

  So I had a great experience helping in old lady down the stairs today. Let me just say random acts of service are amazing, especially when they say,"Dios le pague, muchísimas gracias" it makes me happy inside. So if you ever see a random way you can serve someone do it, you will honestly feel great!!!

  This last week we were able to have some amazing blessings. We had struggled to help people out and get into there houses and no body was planning on going to church which made us sad, then we just prayed that a miracle would happen and some investigator could go to church the next day. How quickly does God answer our prayers when we are in need let me just say. As we arrived to church we saw these twins and another boy, and sure enough twins from Guyaquil came to our ward and brought a new investigator their cousin. It was amazing and it made us really excited to work with him. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for answering my prayers!

May you all have a wonderful week,

Con Mucho amor de Quito,

Hermana Dunkley

10 minutos mas entonces debo ser rápida.‏

I always decide to put random titles when I have no idea what else to say. 

So the pope came last week. That was interesting. We all thought it was going to be hard to visit people, but it was actually pretty normal for us. Just one person refused to turn of the tv of the popes misa...I dont know what misa is english...hahaha So those are the interesting going ons of Ecuador.

All is well in Zion and I was thinking of doing something a little bit different this week because I am bored with the usual stuff.

So once upon a time there was this girl who had had a good life. She was happy, but didn´t know what to do with herself. She had dreams of a great future and lots of different things. She wanted to be so much, but never thought she would become the person she was. She was actually very surprised. Until one day she felt so lost that she wanted to know what she should do. So she fasted, prayed, and asked, and like a little calm feeling of happiness knew what she should do with her future. Even though it was only one answer to all of the questions she had she knew where she needed to go. So she recieved her call and she felt a connection to something so much deeper she had never known before. She went and worked and suffered and learned, and got up again. The great thing is that she is happy now, she has found her destiny and hopes to continue to find it. I am so grateful that she prayed that one day and that her father and mother helped her to get out and go as far as she could to reach the limits of her own abilities. The great thing is that she could only do it thanks to her Lord and Savior.

I am so grateful that God answers our prayers. I cannot wait to continue on forward and figure out the finish of that story. I hope you all have a great week, and remember to just keep moving forward!

Con mucho amor de Armenia,

Hermana Dunkley

ps i eat bananas now

Como sobrellevamos nuestras cargas‏

How to bare your burdens with ease. Well I think it is better as a question because I am still trying to figure that out. There are times where we just struggle to know how to continue onward, but the best thing to do is trust in God. I read a story in an Ensign once, or Liahona, I am not sure what they call it anymore, but I read a story about a man who felt like he received his trials and problems so much that he was like in a boat in the middle of a stormy ocean. That sometimes we aren´t sure how to get to safe land, but God will always put it into view and help us to get back up even when we fall. I feel like he has done that for me. He has shown me how to stay sailing and he has lightened my burdens everyday of my life. I thought the hard part was over so long ago, but we must go through trials to be able to learn.whoops i wasn't finished...haha. 

This may sound depressing, but I am not depressed. haha. I am truly happy and thankful for the gifts God has given me. I feel so much more stronger now than I ever had before in my life. I hope for a better tomorrow so that I can continue to grow and learn. 

I like what Elder Cicon said this week. Just remember that God does care. He worries about us and loves us so much.

Thank you all for your support and prayers, I can feel the strength from them.

Con mucho amor de Ecuador,

Hermana Dunkley