Hey friends.

I’m currently drinking hot apple cider and watching the last few autumn leaves on the trees outside our front window get blown away so if that’s not prep for the arrival of Old Man Winter, than idk what is. It’s going to be a cold one. I had to break out my hand warmers the other day because I couldn’t get warm to save my life #whatsnewdunlop. Things are good up here. I’ve been really sick the past week so that’s been fun and exciting. Not really. I hate being sick. Luckily, the Evans (a recent convert couple in our ward who are the bomb.com) have been taking good care of me with all these herbal potion something somethings and amazing pb cookies-which is just about all I’ve been eating for the past four days #noshame. And Sister Yeates is a trooper, so that’s been a huge blessing too. I don’t have a ton to tell y’all about because I’ve been down and dead most of the week, so this won’t be too long.

We tracted into this Russian mom and her daughter and they let us in (bless). We shared the message of the Restoration with them and everything was going awesome until we got to Joseph Smith. You guys, of course God would call prophets. We are His children and He loves us, He wouldn’t leave us in the dark without direction. Especially in the world today when there’s differing opinions and ideas all over the place. Shoutout to General Conference this weekend, good stuff. But yeah, prophets. What a blessing! We invited Braden (our 11 year old investigators whose mom and older sisters are recent converts) to be baptized at the end of October and he was really excited until we realized he was going to be out of state then. Awko taco. His mom told us they would look at the calendar and pick a day then let us know when works best for them. Stay tuned. That’s about all I’ve got, sorry kiddos. Happy October!

XOXO Sister Dunlop

 

Wasilla 9/25/17

Hello dearest people! Idk about you but, this week was insane.

Transfers.

On Monday, we threw Elder Rider and Elder Morley's funeral because they went home on Wednesday #rip and then Sister Pike and I drove down to Anchorage that night and stayed with Sister Johnson and Sister Willden in Jewel Lake. We all got up super early to take Sister Pike to the airport but after many failed attempts at the little computer self check in stand and needing to talk to an actual human at the desk for help (#adultingishard), we found out that Sister Pike's flight to Juneau was booked for Wednesday morning, not Tuesday. Joy. Thanks APs. Then Sister Pike and I were stuck in Anchorage for an extra day and Sister Willden got really sick and slept for almost ten hours. I played Nurse Dunlop for the day while Sister Pike and Sister Johnson went out and taught people. Let's just say, I read a lot of General Conference talks in ten hours #godunlop. Then (tender mercy of this transfer hot mess) the Oceanview sisters called and said they were going over to see the Heckels and invited us to come. I freaking ADORE the Heckels and it was so fun to see them and be with their cute family. We bounced over to the Oceanview sisters' apartment for a sleepover because we were scared of catching whatever Sister Willden had, the poor little kiddo. We got up super early (again) and took Sister Pike to the airport so she could for realzies go to Juneau this time. Then the Oceanview sisters dropped me off at the Jewel Lake apartment and I was with Sister Johnson and Sister Willden for the rest of the day. Sister Willden had come back to life and so we went out and did missionary work on Wednesday #yayayay! We went to the Anchorage Library and helped set up for this naturalization event where a bunch of people were becoming American citizens that day, it was pretty cool. And they had America cake, also a bonus. We were supposed to pick up my new companion, Sister Yeates, from the airport at 3pm and it gets to be 3:30pm and we still haven't seen her. We call the APs and figure out that her flight was delayed an hour so (another tender mercy of this transfer hot mess) we went to the Mission Office and got to see Sister Martinez and Sister Clawson before they drove back down to Soldotna. I love those girls. Then we go back to the airport-my fourth time in 24 hours-and Sister Yeates finally comes walking out to the curb #praises #canigobacktowasillanow. We took Sister Willden and Sister Johnson back to Jewel Lake, gave them hugs and mad shoutouts for being the best hosters ever, and finally headed home.

Wasilla.

I was a little worried about the drive all the way back to Wasilla because it's awkward to pick some random person up from the airport that you've never met before and then drive with them for two hours. Mission life is weird like that. I just figured Sister Yeates would be exhausted and fall asleep before we even got out of Anchorage. Nope. She talked the whole way home. Literally. She's been out for four months and I found out that she's actually from Ohio, not Idaho. Oops. We finally get to Wasilla around 7pm (we were supposed to be here at 4pm yesterday #lolzies) and our dinner was homies and packed it for us to go so we ran by the Hartvigson's, ran by our apartment because I was going to pee my pants, and then ran to the church to meet with Bishop Bowen. After that we came home and crashed. Nothing will make your semi-awesome missionary apartment mattress feel so amazing as two nights on a deflating air mattress #blessingsonblessings. Thursday morning we wake up ready to rock and roll. We went and saw Bobby D. (the blind tumbleweed bull rider), the Evans (my fav...shhh don’t tell), Sister Groff (still living in her sketchy shack but we just love her anyways), and had pizza at our Ward Mission Leader's house. On Friday we planned for the upcoming week and I think it exploded Sister Yeates' brain a little bit, she's a trooper though. She's this little greenie full of faith, I love it. We were setting goals for the transfer and I asked her what she wanted to accomplish this transfer and she was like, "make the elders look like they're the joke” haha okie dokie then. Side note: I'm the oldest missionary in our district. And just under the zone leaders, I'm the oldest in the Wasilla Zone #grandmadunlop. What the heck. Later that day we made invitations/reminders for General Women's Conference and went out delivering them to people and did some door knocking in the pouring rain #woooooo. On Saturday morning, our ward had planned a community service project out at the Birch Tree school but when we pulled into the parking lot, it was just us and Bishop Bowen. OKAY MEMORY LAKE THIS IS A TEAM EFFORT KIDS. So we said a prayer that more people would show up because there was a ton of work to do and literally within five minutes of saying "amen", loads of people starting showing up. Heavenly Father answers prayers you guys. We had to shovel a bunch of piles of gravel and spread them around the playground while we prepped it for snow. We shoveled for like three hours and then we started weeding the front gardens. Luckily, Sister Bowen brought everyone Donut King donuts or I would've quit hours ago. JK. We came home and put skirts on then headed to the Stake Center to watch the broadcast of General Women's Conference. Can I just tell you that Sister Eubank is like the coolest person ever?! Such a freaking fan. I love her. Go listen to her talk asap. We had soup with all of the women there after the meeting and then went and had a lesson with a returning less active and talked about Family History. Sunday was good. Your first Sunday in a new area is always overwhelming, but Sister Yeates handled it like a champ. I tried to make banana bread after church but we only had like half of the ingredients the recipe called for so I tried to be creative but it was an epic fail. Luckily, the Evans texted us right after I pulled the nasty bread mess out of the oven and invited us over for cranberry pineapple upside down cake and to have a lesson #Godlovesus. Then we had a Ward Missionary correlation meeting with Brother McQueen and the Hensons (our only ward missionaries) and hopefully we are going to get some member missionary work fire going in the Memory Lake ward in the next few weeks so Sister Yeates and  can have some people to teach.

That's about all I've got for you.

Have a super sparkly week.

Love, Sister Dunlop

Weekly from Wasilla 9/18/17

Hello beautiful people who I love so dearly. Hope you know how much I adore and appreciate you guys, I seriously have the greatest support crew in the whole world #beyondblessed. Today is insane because long story short, I have to drive Sister Pike down to Anchorage tonight and we are staying the night there and then I'm dropping her off early early early Tuesday morning at the airport to fly to Juneau and then I am trioing it up with Sister Johnson and her trainee, Sister Willden, in Jewel Lake for the day and then will pick up my new companion, Sister Yeates, from Juneau later that evening and then she and I will drive up to Wasilla that night and go to work! I guess that totally gave away transfer calls...oopsies. The Alaska Anchorage mission takes pride in it's transfer logistics of pure insanity I guess.

This week we had to take our Jeep (yeah, I'm still driving the mom car Jeep of the AAM #godunlop) (her name is Whitney) in to get an oil change and some repairs so we had to call the Colony sisters and let us ride around in their back seat with them for the day. Bless. I love those girls. We went tracting and found this awesome Christian family and the mom is the director of a hip hop dance crew and they're the sweetest people. Hopefully Colony can start teaching them! Then we went and helped one of their investigators with some yard work (in our skirts #classysisters) in the pouring rain so we got super muddy but luckily our Jeep was eventually done so we could drive back to Wasilla and change before dinner.

We had to be in Anchorage at 8am on Wednesday morning for that big six zone conference thing with Elder and Sister Foster that I told y’all about last week. We had to get up so freaking early and meet our zone at the Stake Center to caravan down there. There were SO many missionaries at that meeting in Anchorage. I mean like not really because our mission is only like 180 missionaries anyways and that’s not even that big and not even all of them were there but it's just been a hot sec since I've seen more that fourteen missionaries I guess. The meeting was really good #duh. Remember how I said that President Toone told us how he volunteered our mission to be a test mission for some of these new and big things coming to missionary work in the next six months? Yeah, well we are already starting it. That’s how much faith President Toone has in us. He tells us three weeks ago that something huge is coming in six months and three weeks later he has us doing it. We don't know all the details of it yet but he called it "online proselyting" and how it has to do with Facebook. Idk stay tuned because it should be really freaking amazing and awesome. After the meeting, they ordered pizza because everyone was hungry after sitting and listening forever (it was good, but sometimes missionary

meetings are hecka long) but then the AAM doctor pulled the Wasilla and Soldotna zones aside and made all of us go and get flu shots because we live so far out that this was going to be the only time for us to get them. So we wait a hundred and a half billion years in this Disneyland long line doing paper work and all this to get a shot (the guy doing the shots was a member from the Mt. Baldy Ward so that was awkward/funny/bonding) and then...they're out of pizza and all the other missionaries had left. What. Doesn't everyone know that like half the reason why these giant missionary meetings are so awesome is because you get to see your mission homies?! Dang it. But they ordered another few pizzas for us that we inhaled before getting back on the road and driving a thousand miles back to Wasilla. I made Sister Pike stop at the Yogurt Lounge (Sister McGee's and my guilty pleasure back in my Oceanview training days 1+ year ago) for some pistachio froyo #sorrynotsorry.

Zone leaders sent out a text Thursday morning calling for "dope Zone lunch" at noon so we got our favorite sandwiches from Freddie's and then headed over to the Wasilla Stake Center. The thing about being the only sisters in the zone is that whenever we get together as a zone, we just feel surrounded by a freshman football team. Y'all a bunch of crazies. Then they wanted to try that Human Knot thing and it took them forever and a day to figure it out and eventually Sister Pike and I had to coach the poor kiddos. We went and visited the Evans, a recent convert couple, who have the kindest hearts in the whole world. They made us these necklaces with healing stones (like jade and hematite) in them and are making us these raw diamond stud earrings #bigfan. Then we went and visited Bobby (a returning less active blind and deaf bull rider old man with a "tumbleweed heart”) and are helping him prepare to go to the temple so we are working on helping him do some family history work but he just chats our ears off so our efforts usually just end up in up sneaking in a little gospel here and there. Killer.

On Friday, the Willow elders called and asked us to come and help them with some service at this lady's house. I thought that nothing could ever top some of those things we did up in Fairbanks, but this one ranks pretty high up there. It was bad. This lady and her husband and their two year old daughter literally live in a dump. It's so gross but they don't even seem to care that much. The whole things reeks like soggy wet garbage that's been sitting there for a few years just waiting for the zombie apocalypse to happen some time soon. Like burning plastic and molding Big Macs and old gasoline and just garbage. Garbage. Don't stand downwind or you'll hate you life #wateringeyes. There's more than twenty one (yes, I counted) old cars just sitting around their lot also waiting for the zombie apocalypse apparently. They live in a little tin trailer surrounded by piles of random stuff. I don't understand hoarding but I've met a billion and a half hoarders in Alaska. So for "service" they had us move some of the piles from one end of the lot and put them over in another pile of stuff. The stuff we carried was dripping all over the place as we walked back and forth. So. Nast. We were there for almost three hours and we just shuffled piles of trash around. Probs never going back there again. They need some serious help. Or like a dump truck. Or to move. I would move.

Transfer calls. Sisters usually get them Thursday night but President Toone was busy hosting Elder and Sister Foster this week so he called us on Friday night #thesuspensewaskiller. But like I said, Sister Pike is heading down to Juneau and Sister Yeates is coming up here (from Juneau lolzies) to serve in Memory Lake with me. I'm really excited to serve with her. She's from Idaho and is a new missionary and so that will be super fun. The curse of transfers is as soon as you hang up with President from calls, everything becomes a hot mess mad dash; packing, getting the apartment ready, saying goodbye to people, re-scheduling lessons and appointments, planning the week, cleaning out records, and all that stuff. But somehow it just all falls together #churchistrue. Also, it's insane that I only have three more transfers after this. Being a missionary just feels like normal and ordinary life now. It feels like this is what I'll be doing for the rest of my life, just cruising through Alaska knocking on random people's doors to tell them about how awesome Jesus Christ is and then

having a blind dinner dates every night and just being cold all the time; it's freaking fab. I love being a missionary!

A treasure trove moment of my mission: being able to go down to the Anchorage temple with Sister Fa'anunu and be there for the Luke family's sealing. Sister Fa'anunu and I taught Aaliyah back in February and then they invited us to come to their sealing on Saturday. I absolutely love the Luke family. It was so special you guys. I feel like I can't even adequately describe it. But it was such a blessing and tender mercy to be able to be there and feel of Heavenly Father's love and the Spirit there in that little Anchorage Alaska temple sealing room. Just being able to sit in that room…that is what the gospel is all about. It's about joy. This life is about so much more than just these little day to day things that we get ourselves all tangled up in sometimes. I'm so grateful for eternal families and for the gospel that allows us to grow and progress and learn and love together. God is so good.

Alaska moment for you: we pulled into Bishop Bowen's driveway for dinner on Sunday night and they were like, "hey sisters, look what’s in the garbage back in the back of our truck," da da da okie dokie maybe it's candy or something...IT WAS A GIANT BLOODY MOOSE HEAD! Sister Pike almost threw up haha. It stankkk. Remember how Elder Oaks talked about his cousin having the "road kill coordinator" calling in her ward up in Alaska at my farewell? That's still a legit calling in the Church up here. Parks and Rec has this list you can sign up on where if a moose or bear or some other game gets hit by a car and they have to let it go, they will call you and you have like twelve hours to come and pick it up #freedinner #normalalaskathings #skinninganimalsonthesideofthefreeway. So yep, there's a picture of me with a nasty moose head to finish out this weekly-you're welcome.

Actively be yourself. Lift where you stand. Spread love. Be sparkly, be grand. Kick butt and take names. Smile. Remember whose you are. You can do hard things. You're loved.

XOXO Sister Dunlop

Wasilla 9/11/17

This last week: It was Elder McGee's birthday last Monday and so our whole zone went out to lunch at the Trout House and Sister Pike and I (the STRAIGHT UP MOMS of this zone full of elders) planned this whole elaborate birthday celebration. It was freaking sick. We love parties, but mostly planning them. We made him this for realz birthday cake-not like a box cake but like a legit cake cake #gosisters-topped with nineteen trick candles. Trick candles are fun for like five candles, not nineteen but we didn't really realize that until it was too late. Oops. We smoked up the whole restaurant but in all reality, this restaurant was like a bar with fourteen missionaries, a bunch of old local dudes, and some tourists inside. No biggie. Everyone even sang "happy birthday" with us. Alaska man, I love it. We also made Elder McGee this birthday book with a ton of notes in it from the missionaries who have served around him and it had all these photos and quotes and things. It was pretty freaking fantastic, just saying. He loved it. Then all the elders wanted to go and play volleyball at the park...why the heck would you play volleyball when these mountains are like a ten minute drive away?! IDK. Whatever. Sis. Pike and I just went and hiked in the mountains by ourselves haha.

There's this less active lady we go and visit every Tuesday afternoon who lives in this shack thing full of black mold and it's dark and humid in there and she has all these little birds in a cage that just tweet and chirp our entire lesson with her and imma freakin lose my mind #dunloplearnspatience. She has this dog tied up outside and every time we walk by, it's barking it's head off and I'm just waiting for the day that it breaks free and bites my leg off. Stay tuned, it’s terrifying.

Sister Oliver came on exchanges with me in Memory Lake and it was the first time I've driven since Fairbanks and we were just lost like all day. Alaskan road systems make literally zero sense making my Sister Dunlop life really freaking hard. It's fine. Sister Oliver is adorable. We went and tried to contact a few people then went and helped Bobby with his yard with Elder Morley and Elder Rider, good stuff then Bobby's neighbor, Peggy (a former), invited us over to her house for s'mores. She pulled these rock solid marshmallows out of the cupboard and started a fire in her fire pit full of garbage and had us roast these break your teeth marshmallows over it. For some weird reason, all our marshmallows caught on fire and fell in the fire...weird. The next morning, we got a frantic call from Sister Pike and Sister Jewel because we had a meeting for the sister missionaries serving in the Valley (Lazy Mtn., Colony, and Memory Lake) and it was Sister Anderson's birthday. The next hour and a half proceeded to be a hot mess scramble to pull a birthday together but like I said, love party planning, so it somehow all worked out. Cupcakes and party hats and everything. And twenty more trick candles. But this time, we were in the church building and as soon as she blew them all out, we realized how stupid we all were and opened all the windows and tried to fan all of the smoke away before the fire alarms went off. Sister Dunlop never learns.

Sister Pike and I were asked to teach the Young Women's class yesterday at church. There's only four young women in the Memory Lake Ward and they meet in this itty bitty corner classroom of the church building, way sad for those girls but they're the sweetest. We talked about words and how what we say has the power to either build others up or tear them down. We shared this really awesome video, I'll add it on here but words are so powerful. I think that sometimes we don’t really realize their impact but seriously, everything that comes out of your mouth makes a difference.

We magically convinced some of the elders to go up to Talkeetna with us for PDay today. It was sprinkling rain the whole time but I freaking love that little mountain hippie town. Their mayor is a cat. I'm serious. Google it. We didn't get to meet him though, he was probably busy with meetings or something today. That town is totally run by a cat. We ate good pizza at this little hut called Mountain High Pizza Pie (#tbtjhole) and then and played tourist at all the gift shops and walked down the train tracks to the river and took photos by the bridge. We were there when the train and the cruise ship busses dropped all the people off, and it was just like Jackson in July-people were swarming the little two street town. I love it.

Upcoming week: Remember how last week I raved about how President Toone just crazy believes in us and thinks we're amazing (and we are all still recovering from trizone where he challenged us to step it up)? Yeah okay well we are having this General Authority just like spontaneously come up to Alaska and so all the six zones-North & South Anchorage, Chugach, Palmer, Wasilla, and Soldotna-get to head down to Anchorage for an impulse conference with him and Fairbanks and Juneau will just Skype in. It's like when President Nelson came, except it’s not President Nelson and I actually get to be there in real life for it instead of just watching it on TV and missing the first hour of it because the connection isn't working. It's going to be awesome. TBH also way excited for it because I get to see a ton of my missionary people who I love with all my heart, not going to give any shoutouts though because it keeps them humble. They know who they are.

Transfer calls on Thursday night. Scary. But also not really because the Sisters in AAM are freaking dope and so I'm not too worried about it. In interviews a few weeks ago, President Toone dropped that Sister Pike and I are getting separated next transfer *tears. straight tears. I freaking love this chick. IDK why we got blessed enough for #roundtwo but I'm not mad. I'll probably be camping out in Memory Lake for another round but with the pattern that my mission has gone so far, I really have no idea and just don't even guess anymore #blessthismess. And the fact that I only have four transfers left is scary too. I probably will have one more area before going home but again, I really have no idea and just don't even guess anymore. Mission life is crazy, but I absolutely love it.

Anyways, hope life is happy and sparkly down there. Go be great.

XOXO Sister Dunlop

Whirlwinds

I first off need to start this weekly by attempting to briefly convey how simply fantastic and amazing President Toone is. I don't know what AAM did to be so blessed with such a loving and kind mission president, but we are seriously the luckiest mission in the world and I am forever grateful for him and his sweet wife. We had interviews with President Toone this week and I had just been feeling overwhelmed by the whirlwinds of being a missionary-investigators not keeping commitments or being too busy to meet with you, doors on doors on doors being shut in your face before you even have the chance to breathe just because you wear a little black badge, a ward of wonderful people who need a lot of love but feeling blank as to knowing what more you can do, being homesick for my people, not having a ward mission leader to help us homegirls out because we're feeling directionless and lost, the earth starting to turn brown and gray as the fresh snow settles in the mountain tops #freezin, families whose hurt would be healed by the gospel and through the Atonement because that solves everything but they're not willing to give it a chance, people thinking that missionaries are just a free labor moving company, and the weight of trying to be His heart and His ears and His eyes and His hands and be perfect at it and be a part of all these missionary miracles and just feeling really small. I went in and sat down with President Toone and he helped heal me. He pulled me right out of the whirlwind, planted my feet on the ground, and brought me back. Everything President Toone and I talked about and all that he said to me was exactly what I needed and my heart is so grateful for that. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and my AAM well enough to know that we needed President and Sister Toone with their love and zeal for the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is good. 

Here's how I am feeling...Mosiah 2:20-22

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another--

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

Other exciting things that have been happening: OH. We had this less active member that neither Sister Pike or I had ever met before, show up to church last Sunday and was asking all these deep and not related to the lesson strange [sketch] questions in class and the teacher suggested that he meet with us sometime this week and we could answer his questions...great. Sis. Pike and I were a little freaked out by this guy so we had the Knik elders come with us to his lesson #safety. We get in there and he starts explaining to us how the government writes Latin code words in the sky and if you were to cut a table in half or a wall in half, the Latin would come out. Latin is everywhere. And then he told us how he has these five military soldiers that follow him around because his father discovered a dark secret about his family in the past and now the military is out to get him/watch him to make sure he doesn't spill it. Also, according to our dear friend, the military hides symbols in the palms of your hands and Latin letters that spell out your destiny. I was so lost. We mostly just sat there in silence trying to figure out what to say while he rambled. It was like we got thrown into Inception or the Da Vinci Code or National Treasure or something #whirlwind. I guess he moved back to Virginia or something that day because Bishop Bowen told us he's gone now...bye friend, good luck out there. 

Apparently dizziness is contagious. Earlier this week, Sister Pike had been feeling really dizzy and nauseous and then she started feeling better on Thursday and then I started feeling dizzy and nauseous for the rest of the weekend. It's really weird because it's not like dehydration or something like that, it's just like that feeling you get when you stand up too quickly and see stars everywhere. But like, constantly #whirlwinds. There's not really anything we can do about it so we're just surviving. We've just been waiting for either of us to pass out during a lesson or while tracting on someone's porch, it hasn't happened yet but I'll keep you updated if it does-should be exciting.

We were our district tracting in the Wasilla elders' area on Saturday and we were heading up to a door and this cute mom stuck her head out the window and was like, "hey! Are you the LDS missionaries?! I was just reading a blog from this mom on the east coast who was talking about how much she loves the LDS missionaries coming over," ...we were speechless. Then she told us about she's a blogger and was working on a post right now so she couldn't chat but told us we could come back (you're welcome Elders) and then she said, "if everyone was as serious as you guys are about your faith, going door to door, it would heal the world,". Amen. Amen. Amen. The gospel solves everything. In missionary work we talk a lot about "the one". The one family that opens their door to you while you're out tracting, the one investigator that comes to church on Sunday, the one lesson where your investigator (who really become some of your greatest and sweetest friends through this whole thing) commits to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. At the end of the day, we do all of this for the one. 

Doctrine & Covenants 18:15-16

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Serving a mission has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. But I've never felt so much joy or peace or gratitude as I have serving a mission. It's tough, but amazing. It's a whirlwind. And it's all worth it. Idk, I'm just feeling really blessed and grateful up here and have seen tender mercy in tender mercy on tender mercy happen around me. Life is so good and I love being one of His missionaries. 

XOXO 💕Sister Dunlop

Memory Lake, Wasilla, AK - 8/28/17

Hey friends! Sorry for being MIA last week, we got to go down to the temple and so it made our PDays all funky. Still not really sure why they do that, but it's okay because Wasilla to Anchorage is kinda a long haul (#tbttomissingmyflighttoFairbanks) anyways. Also, for those of you who know Anchorage, Sister Pike and I accidentally got lost on the back streets of Mountain View hahaha 

I don't really know where to start because a ton happens in the missionary world in two weeks, and let's be honest, these weekly email things are such a labor of love and take 5ever to write anyways. And y'all are probably just like me and only read them for the photos #guilty. Minus the fact that the Fireweeds are closing up and there’s already a dusty powder of snow on the mountain peaks, things are really good up here. We had an amazing trizone conference (#tbttowhenitrainedatonelastyear #daythreeofmymission #goreds) with the Palmer, Chugach, and Wasilla zones and President & Sister Toone this week that gave us a lot of things to grow with. President Toone came back from a mission president's conference and shared with us that Elder Oaks [#homie] has told them that "something big was on its way to missionary work". I AM SO EXCITED IDK WHAT IT IS BUT ITS PROBABLY REALLY DOPE SO I AM PUMPED FOR IT. And then President Toone being the fabulous mission president that he is, called Salt Lake and was like, "my AAM missionaries are ready for whatever this new thing is. We would love to be a test mission for it or whatever, we are ready, bring it on, let's go..." that dude has some serious faith in us, it's freaking awesome. And then Salt Lake was like, "well there’s ten things that your missionaries need to be doing first and then we can give t to you,". So now we have this list of ten things that we need to implement in our missionary work  to be ready for whatever this "something big" is. We have a lot of work to do and it's freaking awesome. President Toone (love him) also has this magic gift where he teaches so lovingly and amazing and you don’t even realize until after trizone that he was just hardcore calling all of us to step up our game and rise to our potential. It's freaking awesome but then we went home and just had a meltdown. But then we set a ton of breakthrough goals to help us be better. [From Laura: Slightly random thought process upcoming from Caitie..but if you know her well, you’ll understand] Being a missionary is a little like being Hannah Montana because right now it's concert time and so you have to be Hannah but in reality, you're Miley but you have to be Miley to be Hannah but you can't be like Miley right now because you’re Hannah. And you can't be just Miley because then everyone will know that Hannah is Miley and Hannah needs Miley to be Hannah but you’re Miley so you have to figure out how to be Hannah and Miley. You get the best of both worlds. Nobody’s perfect. We're pumping up the party now.

We are teaching this cute native couple, Mary and Barry, that live down the street from us. I know...Mary & Barry, too cute to be true, but it is #myheart. Barry came to church yesterday while Mary was out berry picking (Natives LIVE for berry season up here), so that was really awesome. We are hoping they continue to progress towards being baptized but there are a few holes we need to patch up first to help them. They're fabulous humans. We are teaching a boy named Braden, whose older sisters were baptized about a year ago. He doesn't feel quite ready to be baptized but we're working to help him feel more comfortable. His dad isn't a member of the Church yet either but is super kind and we would LOVE to teach him. We'll just keep praying and see what happens. Also, there's this less active family that we love and their dad works up in Barrow so Sister Pike and I haven't met him yet but they have a senior in high school, a freshman, and a little second grader (I think?) who really want to be baptized and so we are going to start teaching them the lessons. I'm so excited. We also got to go help a homegirl less active garden in her peony field in the sprinkling rain. Barefoot. I was so happy. We've also had a ton of opportunities to share and teach the Plan of Salvation, which I’m really grateful for because of how much the Plan testifies of God’s love for His children. I am so grateful to know that life is not over after death and that we can be with our families forever. I left my forever family for a little bit to go and help others have the opportunity to be with theirs forever too.

Last last week (not a typo) Bishop Bowen asked me to speak in sacrament. Usually missionaries get to just come up and share their testimonies and sit down but he had me like speak speak, gave me a conference talk to base it off and everything. And he did give me like a three day notice, so that was super kind. But still, Sister Pike and I are super busy and it was hard to find time to like sit down and write a talk. But I did it. And maybe I'll just save it for my homecoming [in a million and a half years] so I don't have to write another one. It was fun though. And it gave me an opportunity to announce to the whole world the right way to pronounce my name. I didn't think that would be such a big deal on my mission, but I can’t tell you the number of times I've been tempted to paint a white "e” on the end of my name tag. It's fine. Bishop asked me to base my thoughts off of Elder Holland's talk from last General Conference about “Songs Sung and Unsung". There's a part in there where he talks about how we all have an important part in the choir and how each of our roles is important and needed. If you're really super interested, Sister Pike recorded my talk and I could send it to you (I think...idk iPad technology is occasionally not my friend). But I could try #truelove.

Weird things I've eaten this week:

Shepherd's Pie (didn't even know what that was until my mission) made by a blind and deaf cowboy, rainbow fruit swirl ice cream from Little Miller's, we asked the YSA elders to bring us ice cream post trizone

meltdown and they brought these freezer burned vanilla ice cream with two nasty globs of slimy peanut butter in it, a giant piece of apple pie as big as my fat head (idk why people think that as soon as we finish dinner, we are ready for dessert. NO.), some kind of peanut butter caramel fudge truffle Blizzard thing from DQ, and I don't think any road kill or bear or something but honestly you never know with the Alaskans.

Oh yeah, and I've been a missionary for 376 days now. That's insane. Insane. It feels like it's been that long, but it also feels like my parents dropped me on the MTC curb this morning. But then I realize that I'm becoming one of the old sister missionary hags around here and I'm like, "oh, I guess that I have been out for a while and now there are all these little greenie elders overtaking AAM,". Time is so weird. My mission has been the greatest adventure and it has been such a blessing time and time again to know that this is exactly what Heavenly Father wants me to be doing with my life right now. I love being a missionary. I love Alaska and these people have such good hearts. The gospel of Jesus Christ resolves any problem, heals any hurt, and lifts every burden. What a blessing! The mantle of a missionary isn't always easy. It's heavy, but it's good because it helps me be stronger. It all works out. Trust in the process. Let go and let God. Someone told me yesterday, "we are all here to smooth out each other's life trails". Truth. We are here to help and love and lift and build each other up. We're all just walking each other home.

Go be great. Hugs and loves.

Sis. Dunlop

All the spiders in Alaska are like this...WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?!

August 14 2017-Wasilla, AK

I feel like I have a lot to tell you about, but also not really. Last Monday, our zone had Sister Johnson's "funeral" (because she went home on Wednesday/"died"). We put her in a coffin (this huge cardboard box the zonies found for us) and all gave some parting words. On Tuesday morning Sister Johnson and I drove down to Anchorage and picked up Sister Kimball to be a trio for the day. Sister Kimball is a blessed soul who gets to go serve in Lazy Mountain (#tbt) and so we would drop her off in Palmer later that night when I was dropped off in Wasilla. Logistics of transfers are crazy. Our trio went up to Memory Lake because Sister Johnson wanted to say goodbye to some of the families she loved while she was up here. TBH it was a little awkward because I was their new missionary, Sister Johnson was their old missionary, and Sister Kimball was just there for the ride haha. Later that night, we met up with the Lazy Mountain and Memory Lake sisters (Andersen, Petersen, Willden, and Pike). I am so excited to serve with Sister Pike again. We don't have a ton of people to teach right now so we have been planning world [Wasilla] domination all week and we're so stoked for round 2 #bananaandstrawberrybackatitagain. Pretty sure all the elders (we are the only sisters in our zone) hate all our high energy fun but that's okay.

Tender mercy of awesome: my first full day in Memory Lake, we went to go and help at this "Back to School" project where they were handing out backpacks of school supplies, giving haircuts and shots, etc. and all of a sudden I hear, "SISTER DUNLOP!". And I look around like uh...I'm new...who knows me? And then a bunch of families that I love so dearly from Lazy Mountain-Beames, Rundells, Fetters-come running over and hug me. I died.

I had to break out my puffy and thermal tights this week...it's August my dear Alaska. Why are you freezing cold and pouring rain? Rude. Also, the fireweed is pretty tall up here. Alaskans believe that
however tall the fireweed is in the summer is how tall the snow piles are going to be in the winter. I believe it. Bring it on. My photo selection this week is pathetic. So sorry.
XOXO Sis. Dunlop