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My Testimony of Alaska

Tuesday, March 6, 2018


Hello hello fam + friends ๐Ÿ’•
My heart is all over the place.
This doesn’t even feel real, and it probably won’t feel real until I’m sitting on an airplane in a few days headed back home to you. And even then.
Before I leave, I wanted to leave with you my testimony of Alaska. It doesn’t even cover half of it all, but I figured I need to share.

There will always be a hole the size of Alaska - all 665,000 square miles of it - in my heart. I don’t think that I will ever be able to express what Alaska means to me. As I’ve worked to try and put into words what I have felt, what I have learned, and how I have grown over the past year and half; there are no words to adequately express it all. 

When in doubt, turn to the scriptures.
I’ll borrow the words of my good friend, Alma.
“Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel...Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people...I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.”

In deciding to serve a mission, I didn’t know how much I would learn about my Savior. Or about God’s endless and limitless love for every single one of His children. I didn’t think I’d learn so much about who Caitie Dunlop really is and who she could become. I didn’t know I could come to love the random strangers I met on their doorstep so much. Or that Heavenly Father wouldn’t just bless me with investigators and members of the Church that I would come to love so dearly, but that He would surround me with Elders and Sisters who would change my life.

I remember that my first day as a missionary in Alaska was amazing. It was so amazing that on our drive back to the apartment that night, I called President Robinson and told him that I loved it so much that I’d never go home and that he could go ahead and pass that info. along to my family #greenies ๐Ÿ™„☺️

And now, here we are.
My mission has been SO good. I could go on forever & ever talking to you about all of my Alaskan adventures. But at the end of the day, it’s all about Christ. “As you invite others to come unto Christ, you come unto Him yourselves”. I could just end it there and say amen - but I talk too much so hang in here with me for just a little longer. 

I could go back and pinpoint every place I've been called to serve, every missionary I've been privileged to know and serve with, both of my mission presidents & their wives, every lesson the Lord has taught me, and every miracle and tender mercy I've witnessed - they all have brought me closer to Christ. Spiritual truth I’ve learned over the past 18+ months: God blesses us with people. I was so excited to teach Alaskans but in all reality, they were the ones that taught me the most. They shaped me. I love these bearded, snowmachine riding, Xtra Tuf wearing, hunting + fishing + loving every day people. I love them with all my heart. They’ve taught me more than I ever could’ve taught them. Thank you. 

“I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.” - Alma 29:9
Want to know one of the reasons I know that God’s love is real? It’s because despite my flaws, mistakes, weaknesses, fears, and imperfections He allows me - Sister Caitie Dunlop - to be an instrument in His hands. That’s love. I’m not the sharpest instrument, but He still loves me and He still allows me to be a microscopic part of His great work and of His great plan. He sharpens me. He helps me to become. And I love Him for that.

There’s more, so much more. But I don’t have the words to write it and you most likely don’t have the time to read it. Here’s a last few things: I love Alaska because this is where I came to know without a shadow of a doubt that God loves us, He continues to speak to us, that the Book of Mormon is truth and will bring more light + love + joy into our lives as we study and apply it. We are children of God and because He loves us, He has created a plan that is centered on Jesus Christ that enables us to return to live with Him again. Joseph Smith is a prophet, he has to be - look at what he has done for us. God will never ask us to do something impossible because He gives us all the tools we need as we go & do. God. Loves. Us. Did you know that?! His love is amazing and powerful and inspiration and healing. He loves us more than we could ever imagine.
So much goodness.

I don’t know what else so... 
Thanks Alaska, it’s been real ๐Ÿ˜˜
Love, Sister Dunlop


Week #79 || Wasilla, AK

Tuesday, February 27, 2018


HELLO HELLO ๐Ÿ’• can you believe it’s already been another week?! Crazy. It dumped snow all week on us up here & it was amazing. Fresh white snow on the mountains? I mean COME ON ๐Ÿ˜ Alaska is the best.

Let’s jump in.
Last Monday night we went to check in on Joyce and see how she was doing. We get in there and sit on her couch chatting and catching up with her and then she’s like, “Sister Dunlop you look so exhausted and sick - are you okay? You look like you might need to go home and sleep for a few days or something,” and then she proceeded to stare into my soul for the next eternity and a half. Thanks. I’ve just been scarred for life exhausted ever since they had us get up at 2am from the MTC and fly up here forever ago and haven’t had time to catch up on sleep. I’ll sleep when I die.

We put two people on date for baptism this week! We solidified Emily’s date (see last weekly) and then invited another kid named Billy, a senior in high school who calls himself “Mormon” even though he’s not baptized [yet], to be baptized in March. God is good. We visited Barb this week (the lady we had been teaching 5ever who was actually a member) and Sister Parrish from Fairbanks 5th came down and took us to IHOP. When we were at IHOP, we met this guy named Dan and his little daughter there and asked them if they’d be interested in learning more about how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. HE SAID YES. He gave us his address and we found out that he lives in the Knik-Fairview boundaries so we called the elders to come with us to a pass off a few hours later and when we showed up at Dan’s house, he had an Alaska State Trooper truck in his driveway #convostarter. Dan was home AND let’s us in (a rare occurrence for missionaries - people both being home for return appointments + actually letting us in) and I asked him about his AST truck. He told us about how he was one of the original cops that inspired the idea for the Alaska State Trooper tv show #bigfan. Anyways, we shared the message of the Restoration with Dan and he ate it right up! He told us how “it makes sense” and the elders have another appointment with him this week. Sister Bentley and I are so tempted to drop in for it but...we’ll see. Other than that, we are knocking doors and tromping through the snow. I love it.

Sunday morning we were up too early to be living for a Ward Council meeting that everyone just talked trunky with me - good stuff. And then was followed by a three hour block of people either asking me where I’m getting transferred to or how soon I’m getting married. Listen, friends. I’m going home to see my fambam and then putting some comfy clothes on - that’s all I’ve got planned so far. Also, I have some mad respect for elders serving their mission for two years - I am so ready to hug my mom and they still have like five months to go #prayersforelders. I have so much stuff to wrap up in the next ten days #organizeyourself but I’ll see you on the other side.
Love you as big as Alaska.
XOXO Sister Dunlop


Here Comes the Sun || Wasilla, AK

Tuesday, February 20, 2018


Hey friends! Here we are again. I hit my eighteen month mark this week #gross. I haven’t hugged my mom in eighteen months #doublegross. IT WAS SO WARM THIS WEEK (*knock on wood). I didn’t even wear a coat for a few days. The sunlight is finally starting to be “normal” up here and it’s the best thing ever - I love sunshine ☀️. This week was insane & I loved it. Being so busy sometimes makes me forget that my timer is running down so quickly.

On Tuesday morning we had zone meeting and then Sister Bentley and I went to Joyce’s for lunch with her and Sister Rosendale (she’s a member in the Wasilla Ward). We talked about the Plan of Salvation and invited Joyce to be baptized. It started out pretty good and then turned awkward real quick when she told us that one of her best family friends was the pastor that baptized her and he recently passed away and she thought we were hating on him for not having priesthood authority. So we had to clear that up and explain priesthood more but she still wasn’t totally feeling it. She told us she wouldn’t be able to make it to church this Sunday because she was heading down to Anchorage this weekend to be with her granddaughter. IDK, stay tuned. We had dinner with the Musgrave Family (big fan, always a good time) and then went with some of the elders to help this random lady move. Sister Bentley and I got a call from this random lady about a week ago saying that the sisters had knocked on her door around Christmastime (go Sis. Dunlop+Melton) and said that if she ever needed help with anything, to call them. So she did. And we helped her move some stuff from a house on one end of Wasilla to the other. Moving. Oh man.

Wednesday was the best Valentine’s Day ever. Our Zone got to head down to Anchorage and meet up with the North Anchorage missionaries (aka Sister Pike ๐Ÿ˜) and help out with Iditarod prep all day. And it was hardcore snowing, like the kind of snowflakes that just fall in giant clumps, so that was good too. For the Iditarod, they had us in this huge warehouse in official yellow vests unloading trucks of dog+musher food, loading them onto pallets, wrapping them, and then they’re flown out to certain checkpoints along the trail. They had me up in the trucks unloading the bags and passing them down to the assembly line for weight and sorting #godunlop. Each of the bags weighed around 50 lbs. and so we were all hurting for a little while after, just a few weighted squats yanno ๐Ÿ™ƒ. Wednesday night we had dinner with the McGuire family and Brother McGuire told us all about his theory on Big Foot. Then we went and heart attacked a few houses but Alaskan doors in the wintertime have this curse where tape will not stick to them to save my life - it’s the worst! So we tried to organize the chaos of love on their doormats quick enough to ring the door bell and run before the wind blew everything away. Spread love everywhere you go.

Thursday morning we helped at the Wasilla Food Bank and then it was sunny and happy outside so we tracted all day before dinner and FHE with the Boothe Family. Then we had a lesson with the Olivera girls, who are some overage youth we’ve been working with.

On Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Fa’anunu in Colony across the valley in Palmer. For those of you who don’t know, Sister Fa’anunu is the BEST and that was a major blessing. We reminisced (big word) on our old days back in Fairbanks ๐Ÿ’•.

Saturday morning we met the Palmer Zone for Zone Tract over in Lazy Mountain’s area (#tbt) and Sister Fa’anunu and I talked to a ton of people which was super awesome. After lunch we exchanged back and Sister Bentley and I headed over to Rachael’s for a lesson. We talked about faith and read Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon and Sister Christensen (another Wasilla Ward member ❤️) came with us. Rachael is super awesome and has genuine questions about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We’re hoping to have her and her son, Maddox, start coming to activities and things so they can get to know the members in Wasilla. Love her.

Church on Sunday (duh) and then we went and had a lesson with Emily, an overage youth that we’ve been working with. We invited her to prepare to be baptized and long story short, it’s happening in April and we are super excited for her and her family. And Emily made us these rainbow unicorn cupcakes with glitter sprinkles #mybff.

This is getting too long and I know y’all have bigger and better things to do with your life so I’ll wrap this up and you can move on.
I love Alaska.
I love being a missionary.
I love the gospel.
“And I love you random citizen”

See you in 18.
XOXO Sister Dunlop


Limbo || Wasilla, AK

Monday, February 12, 2018


Hello hello my dear friends+people! I’m not even going to tell you how many days we’re at because it’s getting so bittersweet and I’m sure my family will tell you if you ask. It honestly just feels unreal. Who are all you people that read my emails every week? Are you even real? There’s life outside of Alaska? Weird. Also, I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve sent you a good+long Sis. Dunlop email, so hopefully this one makes up for the prior lameness. Photos included #goteam.
Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Glenn and Stephanie (the cutie newlywed granola couple that Sis. Melton and I tracted into back in January) about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to start attending Institute. They attend a non-denominational Christian church here in the Valley and have a lot of “deep doctrine” questions that we’ve been working through. They’re also on their way to Ireland this week for a little while so they’re on pause for a hot second. They’re great. Later that day, we went and saw Joyce (another lady that Sister Melton and I tracted into a while ago) and talked about the Restoration with her and she LOVED it. After our lesson, she wanted to feed us and so we had spaghetti and she told us about some of her life adventures - like living in India and then letting a homeless man come in and get warm at her apartment the other day and he left his dog there. I’m a Joyce fan. After dinner on Tuesday night, we went and had a Family Home Evening with some members in our ward and their less active son and his family. Sister Bentley and I taught them how to play Spoons and I CREAMED all of them. We’re going to have a tournament before I go home because they said they needed a few weeks to practice #sorrynotsorry.

We knocked and knocked and knocked on Wednesday and it wasn’t too cold (didn’t even need gloves), so that was a major blessing. We met a few people, and a lot of big and barking dogs. We treated ourselves to a visit with our friends over at Donut King that day because if you knock doors for more than six hours in a day, you’ve earned a good donut. Long story short: after a donut break (and once it was finally dark enough), we had to do a sketchy Book of Mormon box drop at a lady’s house but chickened our because her caretaker is terrifying so we dropped the box at the neighbor’s house hoping that the next day the neighbor would just think the FedEx guys didn’t know how to read house numbers or something and then would bring it over to the lady...worked like a miracle. I’ll give you more deets about that story if you want when I get home.

We helped at the Food Bank on Thursday morning then had to get the windshield fixed on our car that afternoon. Did you know that it takes like a hundred and five years to get your windshield fixed? Goodness gracious. Because we’re the only Sister Missionaries in the zone, none of the elders were able to come and pick us up and the car place isn’t in a residential area and we didn’t just want to just sit in the hard and cold waiting room chairs at the car place so we walked across (more like booked it across) the highway over to Wal-Mart and talked to people there. Sometimes I feel bad for cornering people, but also not bad enough to not do it because the gospel is so GOOD. There were a few times that we didn’t really know how to approach people so we just started talking about cereal (or whatever aisle we were in) and then tied it into the gospel or missionary work or something. I think we scared/annoyed just about every human being in Wal-Mart before our windshield was finally done. Sorry friends! We went and knocked some more doors but this time it was actually pretty cold and our hair turned frosty and white. After dinner, we went and met Glenn and Stephanie at Institute where Brother Shammy taught Helaman 7-11 like a BOSS. They said they really enjoyed it (same) and so hopefully they can come again when they get back up from  Ireland in a few weeks.

I survived my last ever Zone Conference on Friday - just kidding, I love those things. After lunch and Wasilla Zone picture, we were folding up chairs and then President Toone was like, “Sister Dunlop, are you ready for your departing interview now?” I almost threw up. How did this get here so fast? Don’t get me wrong, at the beginning of my mission I never thought this day would come. But it did. Crazy. We had a good life chat, cried a little, laughed a lot, and then at the end he handed me a big white packet with my passport and flight itinerary in it and we wrapped it all up. Boom. Done. Then he asked me to say the closing prayer for our last little meeting together and let me tell you, there were tears. I’m a baby. Then we had to pull it together and go back into the rest of Zone Conference. AND THEN THERE WAS EXTRA TIME AT THE END AND I HAD TO DO A DEPARTING TESTIMONY *Kim K. cries ๐Ÿ˜ญ. Somehow survived that. It’s hard though because how do you summarize all that you’ve learned about life and God and people and the gospel and everything like that into words? You can’t. Now I feel like I’m in this weird limbo stage where I have my ticket home but also still have to go out and work like a missionary #sisterdunlopisnotdeadyet. Life is weird.

I felt dead sick+tired on Saturday. Rough stuff. Being sick as a missionary is the absolute WORST but sometimes you have to put your big girl pants on and deal. We went and contacted a few part-member families that morning and then had a return appointment with a lady named, Amanda, and her family that Sister Bentley and I tracted into on Wednesday. We talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He blesses us with families and prophets to lead and guide us. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and invited them to begin reading it. Amanda has two younger sons and her boyfriend has a younger daughter that lives with them too. They’re going down to Anchorage this week and so we are going to meet with them again next week. We contacted a few more families after meeting with Amanda and then had a lesson with Rachael. Sister Melton and I tracted into Rachael and her younger son, Maddox, around Christmastime and had shared a few messages with them since then but life is busy so Sister Bentley hadn’t met them yet. Rachael is the best #fangirling. She has lots of genuine questions about the gospel and we read 3 Nephi 11 with her and she loved it. We have another lesson with her this weekend and hope that she continues to progress so she and Maddox can have the joy of the gospel in their life.

We had early, early, early church meetings on Sunday - something I’m not going to miss when I get home. And it snowed! And then guess who came to church? Joyce! She showed up in the most colorful outfit I’ve ever seen and stayed for all three hours #realdeal. Love her. After church we came home and cranked out some weekly planning and set goals for the week/rest of the transfer...it’s going to be good.
I hope y’all are happy and spreading light and sharing love wherever you are and wherever you go. Have the bestest week ๐Ÿ’•
XOXO Sister Dunlop


This Too Shall Pass...Like a Kidney Stone || Wasilla, AK

Wednesday, February 7, 2018


Hey hey hey. WE ARE AT 31 DAYS PEOPLE ๐Ÿ™ƒ☹️๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜ซ๐Ÿคฏ๐Ÿคญ๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐Ÿคฎ๐Ÿ˜Š 
Can you believe it’s February?! I think it all started to set in for reals yesterday as we were sitting in the chapel for sacrament meeting and I looked around at all these people and families that I have come to know and love over the past few months and then I got to thinking about everyone else that I have come to know and love over the past even more few months and my heart wanted to burst because this adventure has been so good. To all of you who are thinking about going on a mission, in the wise words of Nike, “JUST DO IT”. It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also been the best thing I’ve ever done. Go & do.

Weather updates: the wind this week has been ridiculous - hurricane speed winds in the freezing cold making it around -20 outside. The wind blew all day, every day this week. But Alaskans are tough and they just keep on keeping on like it’s no biggie. I’m honestly impressed we didn’t get decapitated from tree limbs or someone’s roofing flying around while we were out tracting. It felt like we were knocking doors in a frozen wind tunnel. Also, the daylight is starting to get a little better up here! Each day is getting longer with more and more light ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ sunrise is around 9am and sunset is around 5pm. Still not quite “normal” but nothing is really “normal” in Alaska anyways.

Missionary updates: we’re continuing to do a lot of tracting and contact attempts and had a few people added to the “Forget Me Not List” this week. We’ve been visiting all of the part-member families and overage youth this week and met this goldmine family that has a few kids in high school that are wanting to take the discussions and get involved. Yayayay!

Wasilla Stake had Women’s Conference on Saturday and this cute lady named Calee Reed came up for it and Sister Bentley and I now have major girl crushes on her and her inspirational speaking skills. Anyway, she spoke about how we all go through hard things (#icandohardthings) because that’s just part of life and at learning and growing and becoming. At one point she said, “this too shall pass...like a kidney stone”. AMEN. AMEN. AMEN. 
Life is tricky and rough sometimes, but it will all work out okay. Want to know why? Because God is in charge and we are His children. I feel like I could write a whole novel on how God gives us trials because of His love for us but I don’t have the energy and you probably don’t have the time to read it so I’ll just put that on my list of things to do when I get home. The moral of the story is that everything is going to work out. You can do hard things.

I should just let you know that on the rare chance that any of you decide to vacation up to Wasilla, there’s this ghetto little family run donut shop here called “Donut King” that is the only good food in Wasilla. Worth the whole trip. Sister Bentley and I go visit them on Fridays after weekly planning (other missionaries know how rough these can be sometimes) and celebrate life because donuts are good and so is God. Just wanted to include that little piece of travel advice in here from me and give Donut King a shoutout. PS we actually met THE Donut King this week and he was super nice and gave us free donut holes, that was a bonus. 

Another week of a pathetic photo assortment from Sister Dunlop - I'M SO SORRY! I’ll try and convince our Zone to go on a hike with me or something so this part of my weekly isn’t so sad next week. Although it’s highly unlikely that they will come with me, it’s worth a shot #yolo.
See you next month. 
Loves from Alaska+back. 
XOXO Sister Dunlop


Backpacking with God || Wasilla, AK

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Hello hello my fam+friends ๐Ÿ’• 
I have to start out with this: yesterday we had a regional broadcast and so the wards in Wasilla gathered together at the stake center to watch it and then afterwords we were helping fold up chairs and a bunch of people from Memory Lake were super impressed that I was still up here. Me too kids, me too.

Other fun and exciting things: the earthquake. Maybe your Facebook feed wasn’t as jam-packed with Alaska Gulf Earthquake updates like mine (I would be really surprised if it was) but there was a pretty big earthquake up here earlier this week that started in the Gulf and echoed up to Wasilla. Sister Melton and I slept right through it - most likely because I’ve never been so exhausted in my life than I’ve been as a missionary - but a bunch of people up here told us it shook their homes pretty bad. Nothing too insane. We’re all good ๐Ÿ‘Œ๐Ÿผ. Also, the wind this week has been crazy but that’s just another perk of being in the Valley.

Wednesday morning we drove down to the airport in Anchorage to pick up Sister Bentley and then headed back up to Eagle River to drop off Sister Melton with Sister Jewel. I maybe cried, it’s fine. Sister Melton is a rockstar and Alaska is going to look so good when she’s done with it. This week has been full of updating Sister Bentley on all the things going on in Wasilla so she feels comfortable and confident taking it over when I go home at the end of this transfer. Weird.

If my mission has taught me anything, it’s this: God will never give us a pack too heavy to carry up the mountain. At first, the backpack is heavy and it takes a little bit of time adjusting to its weight, but He knows how much you can pack and He knows that adding a little more weight each time makes you stronger - “God needs strong soldiers”. Jesus Christ knows what it’s like to carry that much weight because He has done it for all of us before and continues to do it with us as we ascend the mountain. It’s hard. But hard is good. Keep climbing.

You’d figure that I’ve written enough weeklies by now that I would remember to take good photos during the week to send home, but some weeks that just doesn’t happen. Sorry kiddos. Here’s a few. And sorry that this one has been pretty short and sweet, transfer weeks are insane.

XOXO Sister Dunlop

Getting ice cream with all the new sister missionaries
(ps I've been on a mission longer than the four kiddos in the back COMBINED)
Waiting in the missionary line up at the airport

What Do We Do With Sis. Dunlop? || Wasilla, AK

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

LIFE UPDATES - THE REAL REASON YOU’RE HERE
Hello hello family & friends! Can you believe I made it this far? I can’t. This is insane. I’m pretty sure you’re all just here for the photos+transfer news anyways so...I’m staying in WASILLA for the rest of my mission #ripsisdunlop. This is not a drill. When I came up here in the beginning of August, did I think I would stay here until the middle of March? No. When President Toone called us to tell me I would finish my mission in Wasilla and that Sister Bentley was going to be my last companion, did I think he was kidding? Yep. What’s six more weeks when you’ve already done six months? ๐Ÿ™ƒ it’s definitely bittersweet #sisdunlopcantbestopped. I’m pretty sure that President just didn’t know where to put me anymore because I’ve already served all over the mission and so he just left me up here in Wasilla. If I’ve learned anything about the transfers of my mission, it’s to trust in God’s timing and not my own #patienceishardsometimes. Sister Melton is heading down to Eagle River to be with Sister Jewel (lucky) before Sister Jewel and I head home in March. Mission life is crazy.

JUST BECAUSE IT’S TRANSFERS DOESN’T MEAN WE STOP ๐Ÿ’ฅ
I went to the Colony Ward with Sister Fa’anunu on exchanges Tuesday & Wednesday and we celebrated my seventeen month mark on January 17th (ps happy birthday dad) by eating ice cream for lunch. Oops. Sometimes I forget that we were companions up in Fairbanks together for so long and then we go into teaching appointments together and say the exact same things haha. She’s a good one ๐Ÿ’•

This week Sister Melton and I have continued working our tails off trying to lay a strong foundation for future missionaries serving in the Wasilla Ward. Lots of tracting and contacting. Frozen hair and frosted eyelashes. Some return appointments but a lot of “we are not interested but stay warm out there” and a shut door in the face. Sister Melton is a champion though because she’s felt sick all week but still wanted to go out and work. I adore her #proudmom.

Our return appointment with the Cult book lady went well, I guess. She had cancelled our prior set lesson on Tuesday because she wasn’t feeling well (everyone and their mush dogs have the flu up here right now) but we stopped by on Friday to check in and see how she was doing and almost an entire century later, we popped back out of there alive. Patti (that’s her name) wanted to know how+why the Book of Mormon had made such a big difference in our lives and our personal testimonies of it. She had a lot of “deep questions” that we helped clear up for her using the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Things are starting to click for her. Conversion isn’t an overnight process but “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass”. It’s coming.

Because we’ve been tracting so much, we’ve met a lot of people who have potential to become more serious investigators. So we have been touching base with a lot of them and figuring out who’s really ready and willing to let us invite them closer to Christ and help them grow. I think that one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is that the message that we share in no way demeans or destroys the already standing testimony of those we meet, but it enhances and enlarges it. The gospel is so good. 

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE+SUPER GOOD
I don’t know if you remember me telling you this, but Sister Melton and I set a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon together this transfer. And we did it ๐ŸŽ‰
I absolutely love the Book of Mormon and am so grateful for the way that it has brought me closer to my Savior and to come to know Him better. People love to bash the Book of Mormon and tell us that “it’s replaces the Bible” or bring up the scripture in Revelations 22 - which is not relevant to the Book of Mormon - or whatever but that’s usually because they have no idea what it really is. In no way does the Book of Mormon replace the Bible, it supports it. It’s an additional witness. Here’s a really good chocolate chip cookie, don’t you want another one? Duh. Anyways, I wanted to share a scripture that I read and loved this week with you, it’s a classic ☺️
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.” - Moroni 10:32
I love this scripture because it invites us to “come unto Christ” and have total faith in Him. Total faith is scary sometimes but He always meets us where we are and helps us become more. “His grace is sufficient”. He loves you more than you know.

I’ll just be up here in Wasilla for the rest of my life if you ever need me.

XOXO Sister Dunlop the “Wicked Witch of Wasilla”

I'm Not Throwing Away My Shot || Wasilla, AK

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Hey friends. I’m still up in Wasilla fighting off Satan #godunlop and trying not to become a human Otter Pop in someone’s driveway and make sure Sister Melton survives being trained in Wasilla. It’s always an adventure, that’s for sure.

We’ve still been tracting a ton, despite the ridiculously cold wind and frozen solid ice snow. Our goal is to tract for at least two hours each day and then get at least one return appointment with someone. We’ve been doing pretty good so far and Heavenly Father always blesses us with some characters to write home about ☺️ and so here’s my favorite tracting experience from this week: the weather this week was slippery, dark, windy, rainy, grossness but we kept doing missionary work anyways #goteam #stopSatan2k18. We were out tracting this neighborhood of apartment complexes and the wind and rain was ripping so bad our faces stung and we were praying that someone would let us in so we could thaw out (not the first time on my mission that I’ve prayed for that). We get to the apartment on the corner and do our missionary thing and the lady at the door tells us that she’s not interested because she’s “already been saved” and all those fun excuses that we hear all of the time. But I was freezing and I was going to get in this door - I’m not throwing away my shot. So I asked her if there was anything that we could do to help her and she said “you can read the Bible” which then commenced Sister Melton and I spitting out the 8th Article of Faith (“we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God”) almost simultaneously and then testifying of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She stood there silently and then reluctantly invited us in after asking a few more probing questions. We sat down in her living room and she left to go get something and came back almost ten minutes later with a pile of books. I could tell that it was a bunch of anti-Mormon stuff and she was furiously trying to flip through the pages to find something to throw at us but couldn’t find it. Then she pulled out a little red book from her stack called “Cults” and started reading about Mormonism *eye roll. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that “Mormons are a cult”, I could end world hunger and then have leftovers to resolve world peace. It’s insane. She jumped right in and started to read it out loud spewing old and outdated myths about the Church that were just flat out false for about five minutes before Sister Melton and I got her to zip it in the politest way we could think (“this book sounds really interesting and there’s a lot of things we would love to come back and clear up for you, but would it be okay if we shared a quick message with you?”). No objection from her. We shared the message of the Restoration and testified of it’s power and truthfulness without a single interruption of anti from her. She felt it and something clicked inside her. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and we have a return appointment with her tomorrow...

We had to let one of our investigators go this week and doing that always rips my heart up - that part of being a missionary sucks. She hasn’t been progressing for a while and hasn’t been keeping commitments either, and so sometimes we have to move on and invest our energy into others who are more ready (readier?) as we invite them to come to Christ. It’s hard. But shoutout to the Area Book app on our devices because in six months from now, her name will pop up again and send the missionaries that are here to go and check in on her - that’s a huge blessing. Missionary work is sometimes like planting seeds and as time goes on, those seeds will grow and eventually be ready for harvest later down the road ๐Ÿ…

Thursday was Sister Melton & I’s last Trainer Trainee Meeting together๐Ÿ’”I absolutely love Sister Melton and have learned so much from her. Alaska isn’t going to look the same when she’s done with it #proudmom. [my last] Transfer Calls come from President Toone this Thursday night and so it will be interesting to see where+how things are going to wrap up for Sister Dunlop in Alaska. Time has seriously flown by so fast - it’s a little scary. Stay tuned.

Church on Sunday was a struggle bus mess. Saturday was full of “ice rain”, which made the streets of Wasilla a giant ice rink and so zero people wanted to drive to church Sunday morning. Someone sent us a mass text that church was going to be cancelled because of the roads and then we woke up the next morning to another text saying that it was “uncancelled” thirty minutes before it was supposed to start - we boogied to church and made it there with the (maximum) seven other families that were there. The whole meeting was an impromptu/pull it together party because no one was really there, so that was exciting and adventurous. Go Wasilla.

“It’s in the DOING, not just DREAMING that our lives are blessed” - Thomas S. Monson
Just go & do it.
1 Nephi 3:7
XOXO Sister Dunlop 


PS super sorry about the most pathetic photo selection this week - here’s our Zone photo from Zone Conference last week ๐Ÿ™ƒ

I'm Honestly Impressed That I Haven't Frozen Solid Yet || Wasilla

Monday, January 8, 2018

Hello hello! Alaska continues to be my greatest adventure despite the fact time is flying by - it’s a love/hate relationship. I think one of the worst parts about people finding out that you’re on the homestretch is that they just automatically assume you have the next five years of your life planned out and ready to go. Yeah, nope.

Talkeetna Report: It was cold and windy and we didn’t get to see Mayor Stubbs, but a nice man bought our lunch at Subway and Mt. McKinley was so pretty on our drive in that I started to cry #worthit ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ”

Missionary Report: one of our Zone Leaders always says, “you can do missionary THINGS or missionary WORK,” and let me just tell you that Sister Melton and I have been putting in some serious missionary WORK these last two transfers. It’s awesome. We’ve been doing a ton of tracting and the other day it was so cold out and we had been tracting so long that our jaws started to freeze up and we couldn’t formulate words at the doorstep. We had a good long thaw out session in the car after that. We’ve also been going through lists of former investigators, which is always an eventful time. Lots of door slams and almost getting decked with a frying pan, but we are still alive. Wasilla Zone Conference was this week and all got our new smartphones - they are super weird. They’re Samsung smartphones and I have zero idea how to use them but luckily I’m surrounded in a zone of greenie missionaries that all have Samsung tablets so they just rock and roll with everything #grandmadunlop. Go team. 

There you go, short & sweet. 
I love you from Alaska and back. 

XOXO Sister Dunlop ๐Ÿ’•

2018 || Wasilla, AK

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Hello hello! HAPPY 2018 FRIENDS ๐ŸŽ‰๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ❤️
I can’t believe that another week has flown by and it’s already time for another one of these weeklies. Life is crazy, but also super good #nocomplaints. Also, I FINALLY convinced my Zone to actually do something fun on PDay instead of playing basketball all day so we’re going to Talkeetna ๐Ÿ˜
Side note: the mayor of Talkeetna is a literal cat #AK

Last Wednesday evening we had blocked out some time to go knock doors. We’ve set a goal in our mission right now to spend at least an hour each day finding new people to teach and then scheduling at least one return appointment with someone. It’s been really successful and has helped us grow our teaching pool a TON, but it also means that sometimes we have to put our big girl pants on and go tract in some ridiculously cold wind + weather, but it makes you tough #icandohardthings. Anyways, the sun had set a few hours ago and it was about four degrees outside with the glacier winds ripping through the Valley for an added bonus. It. Was. Cold. We had a quick dance party in the car (with the heat cranked all the way up), prayed that we would find someone whose heart was ready and open for the message of the gospel, and then made the polar plunge outside and started knocking. It started out with the usual: a few slams in the face, “we’ve already been saved but stay warm out there”, some conversations through a sliver of an opening in the front door and over loud barking dogs, “we’re JW”, etc. All that good stuff. We had been out for about an hour and still hadn’t set up a return appointment yet and everything from our nose to our toes felt like an ice cube. But let me just tell you that when you ACT IN FAITH, God ALWAYS provides. Faith + works = power. We have a few more doors to go and are hoping and praying our little hearts out that we can find someone to bring the joy of the gospel to, and then we met Glen. After we spit out our “we’re the cold little sister missionaries at the door trying to spread goodness” line, HE LET US IN ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ I will praise his name forever. He had questions, like real and genuine questions that didn’t come from a place of hate or trying to bash (like usual), that we answered and then shared the message of the Restoration with him and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He was all about it. We set up to meet with him again a few days later and brought a few members of the Wasilla Ward to come with us. We get there and Glen pulls out his computer and has an entire list of things he wanted to talk about, which was completely loaded with Bible and Doctrine and Covenants cross-references and General Conference talks and everything. This guy is a smart cookie who had some deep doctrine questions that we usually don’t go into with investigators but he asked, so we answered. It just about got to the level of talking about the body temperature of a translated being. Deep stuff. We eventually roped in all back in and challenged Glen to continue read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He said he would read the whole thing. Stay tuned people. 

Spoiler alert: when you find out that your investigator has already been baptized. 
There’s this lady that we’ve been meeting with since I came up to Wasilla in August - Barb. She lives in Wasilla Ward’s boundaries but had requested for sister missionaries to teach her, so I met her when I was serving in Memory Lake and then when they pinkwashed me into Wasilla, I just got to keep her. She’s this sweet old lady who has had some rough stuff in her life’s journey and has been going to another Christian church for a long time and loves it there. We had usually just stopped by off and on to check in on her and see if we could do anything to help her because she’d said that she wasn’t interested in having missionary discussions anymore. Sister Melton and I had decided that we would try to slip in a few lessons here or there and so on Thursday night we stopped by with one of our cute ward missionary ladies who had just moved into the ward. Let me just tell you, those two were a match made in Heaven. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and at the end of the lesson, we invited Barb to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority. She paused and said, “want to hear something funny?” then she goes on to tell us that she thinks she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when she lived in Washington like 60+ years ago. I died. 
We did some FBI missionary research and found her records. Yep, she’s a member ๐Ÿ™ƒ

We finished cleaning up the “Man Cave” (see photo evidence below), helped carry some giant drawers from the truck to back porch, and then fixed some welding tools in the garage #whenthesistersareasbossastheelders. 

We had a Zone Tract for the Memory Lake Elders on Saturday and went to this neighborhood that Sister Yeates and I had tracted out a few months ago. It hadn’t been super successful when Sis. Yeates and I were there but it was so interesting to see that just in that little amount of time, people’s hearts had been changed and we were able to set up return appointments and share the Book of Mormon with families. 
Go Memory Lake. 


We had to be back to our apartments early last night because of New Year’s Eve but spent the day after church having lunch with one family and then dinner at another. At dinner, one of the daughters’ boyfriend was there and he isn’t a member of the Church (yet) so the dad asked if we could share the first discussion with them about the Restoration. The Willow elders were there again too #quadsqaud. We invited the kid to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he said he would. He seemed genuinely interested, and not just because his girlfriend’s dad was sitting right next to him. So that’s good! We were going to turn our apartment into a blanket fort for New Year’s Eve but remembered that we had to give all of our extra blankets away to some sisters in Palmer so we didn’t have any extras. Plan failed. 

I hope you have a super sparkly 2018 and that you love & laugh every day. 
I love you. God loves you. Life’s a party. 

XOXO Sister Dunlop 

 
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