Another week passed and gone February 10, 2014

Hi family! (:

Happy Valentine's Day! Well, in a couple of days. Just thought I'd wish it while I remembered it! I sure do love you all and will be thinking about you lots! (:

This week was an exciting week! It all started with Sister White's colored pencil. She had been using it, and when she would try sharpening it, it would get all messed up and hacked and choppy. We were desperate to fix it! So we problem solved with this solution: lets cut the sharpened end off and start over. Cause maybe if we cut passed the hacked part and start over, it will go smoother. Well. We started with scissors. That's not going to work. So we got out a serrated knife and started to saw at it. I would hold the two ends of the pencil and S. White would go back and forth, sawing at it. Well we made some progress, but it just wasn't getting deep enough to cut it off. So I stepped it up and went and got our cutting board and our big butcher knife, and I just put all my weight into it. It finally was making some progress, and we sawed at it a little more, and it snapped! We finally got it! It took us about 20 minutes, 3 different knives, 2 people, and all our effort, but we finally cut off the pointy end! She then begins to sharpen it and says, "I could have just sharpened the other end of the pencil..." AH! We just about died laughing! We felt super dumb after that. We worked so hard to get one end of the pencil looking all good and ready, while the other end was already that way! I'm sure I could use this as some sort of analogy, I just haven't thought of one yet. But it was SO funny, we died laughing! Silly us (: We were just determined.

We had a meeting on Wednesday. And on Thursday. And on Friday. And on Saturday we had exchanges. It was a busy and full week! Always doing something! It was crazy. But way good. My brain is full yet again, and I have so much I need to work on. So much I can improve on to be a better missionary (: It was about 12 hours of meetings throughout this week! Crazy! There was obviously something we all needed to learn this week!

It snowed. Again. Yuck. I'm tired of the snow. But this time, it actually just iced. We got about... (I'm bad at guessing measurements) 5 inches of ice snow. It was way tall, and you could walk on top of it. It was super weird. Well there was about 2 inches of solid ice on our car. We literally had to chisel it out. There was no way to scrape it, we had to take the corner of our ice scraper and just hit it against the ice to break off pieces. It was hilarious. We were having fun with it. In the evening, we still had some on the roof of our car, so we pried some off and decided it was a good idea to through giant chunks of ice in the air and watch them shatter in the street... (: It was so much fun! They exploded and make cool sounds. So that was exciting.

One evening I was writing in my journal, and not much happened that day, so I asked S. White if she could remember anything that happened and she responded with, "I took a nap and when I came out you were laying face down on the ground. That was different." Hahaha! I had finished studying Portuguese and my brain hurt so I decided to lay down and I happened to lay face down and she came out to see me that way. It was funny. To us. You guys probably aren't laughing.. But it was funny! Okay?!

GUESS WHAT?! Oh my gosh! Biggest announcement EVER! (It's not about my visa, don't get your hopes up, it's not that big). We can go to the temple! YAY! Our mission has 3 temples around us, but none in our mission. But they got special permission to allow missionaries the chance to go, because it's such an important thing to be doing! I am SO excited! When President told us I just about started crying. I cannot wait to go! It's going to be so great and so happy and just what I need! (: They're making a schedule now, and so I'm hoping we'll find out soon when we get to go. Big moment right here. Happy.

Now to visas. There were 11 visa waiters in this mission. 3 got their visas last transfer. 2 got theirs this transfer (they leave on the 17). So there are 6 of us left. The numbers are becoming fewer! There were only 3 on us sisters waiting, and Sister Jackson (she was my travel companion to get to the field from the MTC) got hers and is leaving in a week! So there are only 2 of us left, against 4 boys (; But visas are moving along. Hopefully we'll be getting them soon. I didn't get mine this transfer. By next transfer I'll be at 8 1/2 months.. That's almost half my mission.. So we'll see! But they're moving.

Last night, when we pulled in for the evening, I got out of the car and heard a cat meowing! So me being me, I of coursed meowed back. And so we were talking to each other, and she sounded stressed, like something was wrong. So I made S. White listen and we decided she sounded like she needed help. So we followed her voice and after a bit we finally found her. She was stuck in a tree! What?! Cartoon status right there! You hardly ever see that! She was just stuck. We didn't know what to do.. I almost started climbing the tree to get her! But we just talked to her and encouraged her, and she slowly made her way down each branch and then scurry clawed down the trunk and just bolted away! It was so sad and funny! But we felt good that she had gotten down and we walked to the main door of our apartment and then got to our apartment door, and we looked back, and there was the kitty at the main door just looking and meowing at us. And it kind of looked like she wanted us to follow her.. So we decided an adventure might be fun (; So we went and followed her, and she took us to the back of our apartment and then she just hid under a van.. We finally coaxed her out to us and she was so desperate for some lovins! So we pet her and loved her and she was so cute! And then finally we decided we should feed her. Ha! We had her follow us back to our main door, and she waited outside while we got her some salami and string cheese (I knew that's what Peener likes, so I figured this kitty would like it too), well she loved it! She just gobbled it all up! She was cute. We finally had to go, and it was sad. She didn't want us to leave her. But we finally went back to our apartment. S. White peeked out our door about 10 minutes later, and she was still just sitting at the main door. But we aren't allowed pets (it says so in the white handbook), so we had to just leave her. About another 10 minutes later we just hear this loud meow... And it's too loud to be coming from the main door, and we have this little balcony thing. We are on the first floor, and so half our apartment is underground, so our balcony is set in the ground about eye level. Well we look out our blinds and there's kitty! She is down in our balcony at our sliding door! SHE FOUND US! How did she do that?! It actually freaked us out! She must have recognized our voice or something, but it was creepy. So she was doing that sad "let me in" meow, and being like Peener by putting her paws on the sliding door. It was adorable! Hahah. She was super cute and cunning and smart. We didn't know what to do. So we called our Relief Society President, Sister Macy, who loves animals, and she said to just leave her, and she'll go away eventually. Well we shut the blinds and she just kept meowing at us for awhile. But she wasn't there this morning. She went back home.

So that's my exciting story for the week (: Hahah! I just love cats. It was fun.

But besides that, I do want you all to know that I am working hard, I am helping others come closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ. And I know that Christ atoned for us, that He went through all He did so that we could receive forgiveness for our mistakes and become more like Him. I also know that we are never alone. That is something I've truly learned while on my mission. He always knows exactly how we feel. Even when we think that no one understands, He does. He went through what I did, what you did, personally. He can relate. And He did that for us. For each one of us personally. Can you imagine the love He has for us? It's perfect. He loves us perfectly. I read an article in the Ensign that was talking about the true power of the Atonement, and that we need to pray to have strength to change our circumstances, not pray to have our circumstances changed. Heavenly Father will always match us to the task ahead, and we don't have to walk it alone because Christ is right beside us, holding our hand, guiding us. And that is how we go through life. We grow. We learn. We come closer to Heavenly Father and Christ. We endure to the end. It's hard. And frustrating. And sad. But this mortal life is only a dot compared to the eternities. So we need to take our time and use it effectively. Christ never was lazy, or tired, or decided to do something He would rather do than help others. We need to do the same. We need to understand why we are here and where we are going. I want to become so much better, so much more like my Savior, and I know I can through His help and through His Atonement. This church really is the true church here on the Earth. Christ established it, He brought it back, He runs it. Joseph Smith was a prophet to help bring it back to us. We have the Book of Mormon for us, today, to help us through these terribly wicked and difficult times. I'm grateful to be serving the Lord every day. It's hard. I've never had to do a harder thing.

As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way. The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I believe that to be true, for missionaries and for every one out there. I am so very grateful for the Atonement and for the love I am shown every day through the strength that I receive. I could not do this without Him. I know this church is true. I know Christ lives and loves me. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all so very much! You truly are the best family in the world and I am so very grateful for you!

All my love!

Sister Clara Kay Dunn.

1.Hacking at ice early in the morning!

2.Seriously. It was SO thick!

3.I tried to get an angle where you could see how much taller it was on our window. It was CRAZY!

4.This window had a super thin layer that just shattered.

5.It was insane. Ice everywhere!

6. My battle wounds! Me vs. The Ice. I won! But I came out with cuts. They look clean now, but they were bad. Hah! They're healing now (:.

7. Sister White with a GIANT chunk of ice that fell off the hood of our car!

8. Me standing on a 3 foot pile of ice chunks!

9. Poses!

10.Chucking my chunk of ice!

11.The result.

12. Sister White's turn! I like her pose (;

13. Cincinnati East Zone! Represent!

14. Best goofy picture ever (: Oh missionaries.

15. The sisters!

16.The sunset was super pretty, and we were by railroad tracks, and I made S. White stop and pull over on a road that had no shoulder, so we were still just in the street, and I climbed up a 4 foot steep hill to get this picture! Hahah (: I wish I had my Cannon, but it turned out pretty good.

17. Selfie!

18. Sister Visa Waiters! Sister Beeson, me, and Sister Jackson. All going to the same mission in Brasil!

19. Kitty!

20. We were being so nice to her (:

21. Feeding her string cheese!

22.Look at how adorable!

23. Sometimes when we grocery shop and see pretty apples we want to reenact the cover of Twilight. We thought it came out pretty well (:

Haha!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love you all SO much!