Dayton, TN!
Hello! Hello!! Wow.. It's been a crazy week!! I am officailly settling into my new house in Dayton. I love my new companion Sister Yarrington! She is from Riverton, UT. She is such a sweetheart and we have had so much fun! Our goal for this transfer is to laugh everyday. So far we have accomplished that!
So last week was really hard for me... I didn't want to leave the people that I have come to love so much. Plus it was my birthplace in the mission.. that's always hard to go somewhere completely different... Tuesday was spent saying goodbye to all of my favorite people. Sister Stapleton and I went to see Bailey and it was hard to say goodbye to her. But I promised that I would write her and that we would stay in touch. We then went to go see Joel and Shirley and they were so sweet! They said that they would miss me and I told them that I will write them. I pray that someday they will be baptized.. They are basicallly dry Mormons. I am gonna really miss them! We said goodbye to David Craig a recent convert in our ward. He is about 50 and he is the funniest black man ever! He told me that he wants to marry me when I get home! HA!! He asked me how much longer I had left on my mission and so I told him and he said that he could wait... oh David... haha so awkwardly funny. Sister Stapleton and I took pictures with fake mustaches on and we showed him them and David said that I looked good even with a mustache. HAHA!! AH! I don't know if I have ever been hit on so much in my life! I told him it was the spirit that made me look so good. HAHa! Oh, good times! I was so sad to leave Christina...especially because I didn't get to see her before I left.. I think about her constantly. I worry about her so much. I hope that she is going to be ok... it was so hard to hear her cry and beg me not to go.. but know that I am needed here. I assured her that I would e-mail and that I would write her as often as I can. She said that she is gonna raodtrip it down here to see me! I just love her so much! I didn't want to leave the young women either. TaraLyn Jones, one of my absolute favorites, signed my journal and she said that I helped her so much and she said that she wants to be like me someday.. for some odd reason I don't know why..I'm crazy!.. But that meant the world to me! It was so good to see that me being there helped someone else feel of Christ's love for them. I really didn't want to leave Sister Stapleton at all! She is such a good friend to me and I will truly miss her. I am so grateful for the chance that I had to serve with her and I am so grateful for her positive outlook on life which has helped me through a lot of inner struggles sometimes.
I am so grateful to be here. I have learned so much about love. I have learned how to love people that are difficult to love. I have learned that little acts of love like a hand shake or a smile help lift people up. And I am so grateful for the love that I have been shown by all of the people in Watauga. I will forever remember how much I loved serving there and how much my life has been changed for the better. I am so grateful for all of you and for your love and support. I know that it is a sacrafice for all of you and I hope that you know that it means so much to me that you would sacrifice so much so that I can be here. I truly am so touched, almost to tears because of your support. Somedays it is just hard. But because I know that this is where I am supposed to be.. and becuase I know that I have people that love me so much.. I know that I can make it through anything. I am so grateful for YOU!
I am still getting to know the area here in Dayton..and we are in the process of finding people to teach... which is hard, but we have had good weather these last few days and that has helped so much!! I love the sunshine! We tracted on Sunday for 2 1/2 hours and I actually enjoyed it and wanted to stay out longer.. but we were fasting and we were starving so we needed to get something to eat.
I haven't met too many people here yet.. We are in a tiny branch.. more like a twig. We have about 30 active members in the branch. So we have a lot of work to do, but that just means that there is a lot of potential here in Dayton. There is a christian college here called Bryan... sadly it teaches a lot of anti. We tracted some houses up near there this past week and no one would talk to us. It makes it so hard when people openly teach false doctrine.. but what can you do right? We are teaching 2 people right now. Elizabeth, whom I haven't met.. she is having surgery to remove her gall bladder this week and Bill, who is pretty funny. We are hoping to have 2 baptisms this transfer. We are trying to work really hard on getting that goal. So please keep is in your prayers.
Well I love you all! Hope you have a wonderful week!
Sister C
P.S. Funny line of the week:
referring to chinese spicy mustard..
"it's like a bon fire party in your head!"
-Sister Dunn
