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 😭. 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 💕
XOXO Sister Dunlop
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