Cincinnati, study session, birthday and Kentucky! March 10, 2014

Olá minha família! Eu amo vocês!

Not a lot of time, so I'm just gonna spew out words like crazy!

Well. Another trip to Cincinnati! FUN! We went to Sister White's doctor appointment. That was fun. I picked up a medical mask, so if ever the world goes through a zombie apocalypse and the disease is spread through the air and into my mouth, I'm prepared with my medical mask. Skyler should be proud of my super preparedness! (; Ha. But it was fun. We went to lunch afterwards, to Chili's and we got food and we even splurged and got dessert! I got one of those giant and super delicious chocolate molten lava cake with ice cream. AH! YUM! I ate it up like crazy!

Then, President Porter (our mission President) invited Sister White and I to his home on Thursday morning to have breakfast, a study session and then he gave Sister White a Priesthood blessing. Um. HONOR! Holy smokes! It's not every day the mission president invites you to his home for breakfast and studying! It was great! I'm sure you're all wondering, we had waffles, sausage and orange juice (: It was good. Then we went and had a study session! There was a set of elders as well, so it was 4 missionaries and President. And oh. my. goodness! Mind explosion! We learned about the importance of the Spirit in conversion. We spent like an hour on 2 verses! And in 1 Nephi 1! It like opened up so many doors! I have got to change the way I read! And I've gotta get a bit smarter (; President Porter is incredible. He just preaches the word, and I just want to yell out "amen!" or "hallelujah!" He's amazing! His insights are crazy, and everything makes so much sense, and it's just great. The Spirit was so strong and we were all just scribbling away in our study journals like crazy. I was super intimidated, but he really made us feel comfortable. He was even cracking jokes! Oh that President (: Then he gave Sister White a blessing. Let me tell you, Sister White was so calm and after the blessing she just bounced up and said thank you, and I was like sobbing! President Porter just brought the Spirit so quickly and so strongly, you could just tell that Heavenly Father was working through him, using his mouth to say the things that were needing to be said. It was an incredible experience! The revelation and inspiration just flowed. When we left his home he just said, "A lot was felt in that prayer, remember them." He's super wise. And I was so full with the Spirit I thought I was going to explode. I want to be able to do that for my investigators. I want to be able to just bring the Spirit into every lesson that strongly. As President often says, "We need to call down the powers of heaven and walk in the realm of the miraculous." It truly was a special honor. I also like that President knows each one of each missionaries, individually. He is over 250 missionaries, but he knows me, Sister Dunn, and the things I'm going through. I'm grateful for that.

Then I turned old! Yay! Hahah. It feels weird. Like mom said in her letter to me, "I'm all growed up!" Haha. I really am. I'm like a real real adult. None of that fake pretend adult stuff. But real. Crazy! So we woke up and went to the living room for exercise, at6:30am, and I have never heard Sister White speak before 7:30, and she came out and ever so softly mumbled the words, "Happy Birthday Sister Dunn." WHAT?! Wow! That was a big deal for her. Haha. It was so sweet. Then I kinda exercised for a bit, but couldn't contain myself and opened mom and dad's present to me (: And, um, PERFECT! Oh my gosh! Mom and Dad! CUTEST OUTFIT EVER! I felt SO pretty that day. It was seriously the happiest thing! I LOVE it. All of it. It was perfect. And it all fit. Gooodness, you guys are good gift givers. Thank you!

And I got a gift from Tina Westlund! That was happy (: Tina is so sweet, she always remembers me, and that means a great deal to me.

Then I got a gift from LUCY! CUTE! That was so Disney happy! (: Ah! It was perfect! I love it all. I wore the scarf the next day, and it is adorable! And I chuckled to myself cause a couple weeks ago Sydney sent a picture and asked if I recognized her scarf, and I said no and asked if I was supposed to. Then I didn't hear anything back. And then I opened my present and it was the scarf! Haha (: I was excited. It is SUper cute. And has Mickey's on it! (: I love it.

Thank you everyone for making my birthday happy. It means a great deal to me.

Sister White was so sweet. She did a lot for me too. She set a birthday alarm on our phone that went off, and she hid sticky notes all over the apartment, and then we went to IHOP for a birthday lunch (: She was so sweet to me. It all added up to happy!

So I have officially been to all 3 states in our mission. I've been serving in Ohio, had a mission conference up in Indiana, and today we went down to Kentucky for a Mission Fun Day! (We call them 'fun days' when we as missionaries get together on a p-day). It was a lot of fun! There were tons a missionaries there! This was the first big one we had, usually it's just our zone. But there were about 4 zones there today. We played games. It was fun (: So that's why I'm emailing later today, because we had to be there in the morning and it took 45 minutes to drive there. We got to drive through the heart of Cincinnati, it was exciting! And it was fun to see other missionaries!

This transfer, we have probably 2 more missionaries leaving for Brasil because they got their visas! Yay for them! I will be the last sister waiting. And then there are 2 other elders as well. So it's just us! And they've started a new thing, where when visa waiters get their visas, they go to the MTC in Sao Paulo, Brasil for about 2 weeks to pick back up on the language and adjust to the culture, and then they go out to the field! That is such a relief to hear! Because I don't know Portuguese anymore! Haha (: But that's all so exciting! I'll get mine eventually! (:

That's about it for the week. It was pretty eventful! (: It's starting to warm up now, and that's really nice! But who knows how long it'll stay. Ha!

I love you all SO much! Really. Thank you for making my birthday as happy as it could be. It was my one and only birthday on my mission, and it's one I will always remember (: Thank you.

Love you so very much! Até próxima semana!
Sister Clara Kay Dunn


1. While in Cincinnati, we drove past the zoo entrance! Haha. One day I'll come back and actually go to the zoo! (:
2.Our little cute phone, and the happy alarm on it (: Sister White is so cute!
3.Sticky notes! One on my orange juice that says "weeee!" Haha!
4. In my mini hymnal. Ah! 21. Old (;
5. In my food cupboard! Ha.
6. On my coloring pencils!
7. And one on Sice (sock+rice. It's my homemade rice bag that I named), in the microwave. Who has been in there for about 2 days. Ha! I forgot about him..
8. Thumbs up to my super cute adorable new outfit of happiness!
9. Photo shoot in my outfit! Haha. Just posing (:
10. Being the awkward dork that I am. Ha! I was SO excited you guys. Really.
11. Best picture ever! Jumping for joy! (:
12. Hey! I'm a missionary! I've got a badge to prove it!
13. Oh my goodness! And so is my companion Sister White! What are the chances?! (We're goofs.)
14. Happy Birthday companionship!
15. My birthday celebration. We had dinner at a member's home, and this is what they got me. Ha!
16. Making a wish and blowing out my candle.And there it was. Yay! Whoa, just realized that I should have wished for my visa! But I didn't. Still hope my wish comes true! (:
17. Oh hey. I'm cool in my new DISNEY SCARF! CUTE!
18. I was super excited and happy about it (:
19. Sister White was getting artistic. Ha!
20. Alright, enough! Please, no more! (;
21. Oh you know, just Sister White doing a curtsey. The things we do (:
22. Haha! This is Sister White's sock monkey, we named him Guy. He's all buckled in and ready to go! We are so weird and do strange things. Ha!
23. Minnie in my pocket! Ready to go as well! Yay stuffies! Hahah.
24. They're in love. Seriously. We do strange things to keep us happy. I just thought you'd all like to see how odd we are.
25. Cincinnati!


Well there you have it. Lots of pictures! You don't have to post them all on my blog. I just thought you guys would like to see them (:


I love you all SO very much! You're in my prayers every day!

Oh! Hey family! Fancy seeing you here! (; March 3, 2014

Oh! Hey family! Fancy seeing you here! (;


Well. Warning! This email is going to be BORing! Not a lot happened. Ha!

We had a Sisters Conference! That was special! It was for all the sisters in the mission. There are 90 of us. Out of 240 missionaries. So that's pretty good! It was so much fun to see everyone again! I saw Sister Clawson (my trainer), and Sister Sofele (who randomly left me!), and lots of other girls too who I saw and knew. Apparently people still ask about me and wonder if I've gotten my visa in my past two areas. Ha! Nope. Still waiting! But it's kind to know people remember and ask about me (: If I were to put a theme to what we learned in that conference, it would be "you are beautiful." Classic theme for girls. Also learned that Satan is dumb and not to listen to him (that I already knew, but learned more about how to recognize when it's Satan and how best to overcome his stupid lies). It was really fun. Sister White and I had bought matching shirts on Monday (for only $3! It was a STEAL!), and we wore them, so we were subtle twins (cause they were different colors). It was fun. Sister White is my friend. We took a giant picture of all of us at the end, and I was so lucky and was squished between my two best friends, Sister White and Sister Sofele (: It was a happy moment for me.

I realize that it's going to be really hard to leave this mission.. I love President and Sister Porter, and all the missionaries here. It's going to be so sad to leave them (if I ever leave)... (which I will!)... (eventually).. But I realize that I have friends here and have learned a whole bunch. I'm grateful for that.

All of our appointments with investigators and all our dinner appointments for this week cancelled. Yepp. You read that correct. ALL of them. It was the WORST! Seriously. This was probably one of the hardest weeks on my mission. It was disappointing. But I just believe that last week was so bad because this week is going to be so amazing! (: And besides, as long as I'm working hard and doing my best, that's all that matters!

I got to watch '17 Miracles' this week! I'd seen it at an FHE activity at college, but didn't get much out of it cause people were distracting and loud and so I didn't really pay attention. But I did this time! And it's so good! I was like bawling! If you haven't seen it, go watch it! It's incredible. I have so much respect and love for the pioneers. They went through so much for us. I'm grateful for them.

And I was thinking. This church is so true because there's no way it would have continued and prospered after Joseph Smith died. But it did. He died, and that was a terrible tragedy, but that didn't slow down the progression of this church! It's true and it's Christ church, so of course it continued. We are so organized. I love it. This church is true. And I'm grateful that we have a living prophet today! How blessed are we! Thomas S. Monson is truly a prophet of God. And I can't wait to get to hear from him and his apostles in General Conference. It's coming up! Yay! (:

Seriously. Boring email. I'm sorry. But I have like a gazillion pictures, so that'll make up for the lack of words (:

I love you all so much. Thank you for your support and love. Really. It means a lot.

With all my love,
Sister Clara Kay Dunn.

OH! I forgot! When we had dinner with the Garcia family, they were just so chaotic, it was hilarious. Well they were trying to get them to sit in their chair properly and I told them how dad would say, "one two, one two" and that meant we had to have our legs and feet down. Hahah! Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why we said one two twice.. As a kid I figured "one two" meant one leg, so of course it had to be repeated for the other leg. Haha! Well a little while later, I was sitting with one of my legs under myself, and the Garcia kids weren't sitting properly, and he says, "one two, one two!" And it like triggered this weird and automatic response and I just like put both my feet down cause that's what I learned! It was SO funny! I didn't even think about it, it just happened. We were all just cracking up! It was fun. I love you Dad.

1.It's a tradition that after District Meeting on Wednesdays, the zone goes out for lunch. To Wendys. Ha! It's fun! I wanted to be cool, so I wore Sister White's shades and was going to take a picture and then every one joined in (:

2.So this is just me being cool in borrowed shades in front of Wendys!

3.I was messing around on a white board at the church, and I decided to see if I could forge dad's signature. I think I did pretty good (;

4.Look what I found at the grocery store!!! I was SO excited! They were huge okras! Seriously. Huge!

5.No makeup. Comfy clothes. Eating delicousness.

6. This is at the Sisters Conference! They gave us all roses. They were super beautiful and smelled delicious.

7. Sister Sofele! Happy day to see her. We were freaking out. And super excited.

8. Hahah! Just taking pictures.

9. Squished between my friends! It was a happy moment.

10. Friendship! Yay sister missionaries!

11. We were standing on chairs for a long time waiting for the picture to be taken. This is our friendship (: We just love each other. And I just love this picture.

12 There we are. Standing on our chairs (:

13.Sister Clawson!

14. Sister White and I in our matching shirts (: Super cute.

15. We think this is how cool people pose during pictures. So we wanted to try it ourselves. Yep. We look cool (;

16.This is me, Clara, holding a cat whose name is Clara! Twins.

17. This is Sister Macy, our Relief Society President. She's super hilarious and I love her and we matched on Sunday! So I had to get a picture.

18. It was snowing GIANT snowflakes yesterday, so after church, on our way to our car, we got super distracted and tried catching them on our tongues (:

19. We're goofs.

20. Licking my lips cause it kind of missed my mouth and landed on my face. Ha!

21. Friends.

22. This is Steven Garcia, he's 6, and he was licking down the whole entire ice cream carton. For about 10 minutes. Hahah! He was doing work on the lid. It was hilarious. He is so dang cute!

23. Sometimes I let my companion scrape off the ice while I wait inside the warm car. Haha! But only sometimes (:

Well that's all! Love you a whole bunch family! Vocês são os melhores!

Te Amo,
Sister Clara Kay Dunn.

Missionaries, 20 Questions, Sickness and Spiders! Oh my! (; February 24, 2014

FAMILY! Boy oh boy, do I love you all (:

So we had transfers this week. Sister White and I stayed. YAY! I love her. We're best friends and that's happy. But guess what?! Our little Milford Ward got ANOTHER set of missionaries! We now have 3 sets! 4 elders and 2 sisters to this one little ward. Cannot even believe it. We have a lot to be doing! And the members are really going to have to step up and help us out. Cause there is no way that all 6 of us will find enough work to be doing without the members. But we're excited! It's going to be a whole lot of fun!

Now, the sad news of transfers! So Sister Sofele and I have been in the same zone since the beginning of our mission. 7 months! We even hopped zones together, which was happy! Well this transfer they told S. Sofele that she would be staying, and her companion leaving. Well transfers happened, and I find out that S. Sofele LEFT ME! NOOOO!! I was SO upset! What is this? President must have changed her mind and S. Sofele left and her companion stayed. We didn't even get to say goodbye... Hah. It was sad, and I'm super bummed. We planned to stay together forever, even when I went to Brasil. She was positive that I was never going so I could stay with her, and I was positive that I was just going to put her in my suitcase and take her with me. But that was sad... Darnit.

So, as you may know, Sister White and I are together for 24/7. That's a lot of time. And so I feel it's a miracle when you can be best friends and want to spend all that time together. Anywho. We sometimes have to come up with clever things to do to fill up that time. Like when we're driving from appointment to appointment, or just walking around. And a game that a family played with me in my first area was "20 Questions: Scriptures Style." I don't know what they called it, but that's what I called it. And so we pick anything from the scriptures and the other has 20 questions to guess what it is. It was HILARIOUS! We were having so much fun! Some things that we came up with that the other had to guess were: King Benjamin's tower, Oliver Cowdery, the arms that Ammon cut off and took to the king, the Nauvoo temple, the daughter of Jairus, Esau, the Urim and Thummin, Moses, the Sea of Galilee, the plates of brass, the Liahona and Jesus. It was so much fun. We had to work hard to figure out what it was. We came up with some pretty clever things (: But it's a fun game, and missionary appropriate, so.. Love it! (:

I got reallyy sick feeling Saturday night. Real nauseous and light headed and dizzy. It was bad. So we came home and I just went to bed at 9. Yepp. At 9. I went asleep at NINE! EARLY! My life. Ha. But it was much needed. I was able to go to church (thank goodness, story to come), and then when I got home I just crashed for about 2 hours. It was much needed, and thankfully I'm feeling a lot better.

So story about church. I know I probably talk about it a lot, but at the moment it is the hardest challenge that I'm facing. The 'V' word.... VISA. Well during the sacrament, I just prayed. Asking Heavenly Father for His comfort. I don't need to understand or see when I'll be leaving, I just want to be comforted, and know that I'm doing good and am where I'm supposed to be. Well, I got my answer in Relief Society! It only took him an hour and a half to answer my prayer! He's good! Well our lesson was about accepting challenges in our life. They literally said, "We don't always understand why we go through certain things, but we have to learn to accept it." It was perfect. And everything said was an answer to my prayer. I just need to let it go. Turn it over to the Lord. And let Him take control. And I've known that this whole time, but I've never actually been able to do it. It's hard. It's hard to just let go, and move on, and accept it. But I'm going to. It's not worth the stress that it put me through when I held onto the problem tight. So I'm letting go. And letting the Lord take charge!

I do not like spiders at all. And you know what?! They sure do like our apartment! We live in the basement apartment, so it's perfect for spiders to just come on in! But not little baby spiders. No. BIG ones! I'm talking the size of my palm! We found one a couple weeks ago. I can't remember if I told you about him. Well we were scared and I caught it in a cup, and then we took him outside to set him free, only we set him free on the snow... And he started running... then walking... then stumbling.. then he froze.. to death. It was terrible! I felt so bad! But that's what happened. Anyways! Sister White found another! And it was in our light cover in our kitchen! And it was HUGE! So we somehow mustered up the courage, and we worked the light cover off, and as we slowly lowered it down we both saw the giant spider and just screamed and jolted a little and the spider like bounced and we freaked out even more! Thankfully the light cover was like a cage, so he couldn't get out. So after we screamed for awhile, ha, we put a cup over him, and I maneuvered a paper plate under him, he was realllllllyyyyyy mad and was squirming and moving around like crazy! So we took him outside, and the snow had all melted, so we had to come up with another way to kill him. Cause he is wayy too big to squash. Gross. So we got some de-icer spray and sprayed him in the cup, but it did nothing. So we decided to.... drown him. So we got another cup of water and poured it into his and he did not like that! He was squirming and kicking. He was a fighter! He would not die! But I felt so bad watching this thing drown... Ugh. He would kinda go unconscious and float under water, and then jolt back awake and kick to the surface to breathe. Well, we waited for a couple of minutes, and he was STILL moving. So I finally had to get a stick and hold him under water... I'm a MURDERER! AH! He eventually stopped moving and slowly floated to the bottom of the cup. We said a couple of remarks for him, and then buried him. In the sewer drain. Ha! The next spider we find and kill, we're gonna burn him (: Coming up with clever ways to kill these demon "spiaders! Aracnus Deathacus!" We googled pictures to figure out what kind of spider it was, and it looked like a Wolf Spider, or.... A Brown Recluse... So. We may be in danger and we need to talk to our landlord. Cause I don't want to die.. But killed them! Wait. We just looked again. It's not a Brown Recluse. Thank heavens! Just a stupid Wolf Spider. So ya. YUCK!

So that was about it for my week! Not much. Oh wait! HAPPY 7 MONTHS TO ME! I did it. Hahah. 7 months. Crazy! This month went by quick! Next will be 8. And then 9, and that's my halfway mark! I can't believe it! Crazyyy! (:

Familia. You're the best. I'm glad you're mine! I'm doing a whole lot better. Thank you for the prayers, they are much needed and greatly appreciated. They truly help. I'm doing it. I'm a missionary! It's real life! I wear a name tag every day that proves it! And now my nametag is especially clean and shiny because it accidently went through the wash. Ha!

Love you! The church is true! We have the fullness of the gospel. We are truly blessed. Go out and share it! As Lucy told me last week, "teach all of the people the gospel! tell them its awesome and it will just make you happy. they'll understand." (: It's that easy! But really.

Sending all my love!
Sister Clara Kay Dunn.


1. Hahah! Trying to observe the situation! The chair didn't reach high enough, so I had to use the counter in our tiny kitchen (: The spider is in the corner furthest away from the camera and to the right.. AH!

2. We finally had removed the cover and placed it on the ground. Success! And bravery!

3. Got him in a cup! You guys, this was a big deal! We do not like spiders! And it took us about 30 minutes to finally get to this point. Ha!

4.He's huge! And he had like dusty cobwebs stuck to his leg.. eww..

5. I am so brave! As you can tell by my face. Ha!

6. Prepping. Getting it all ready!

7. Cute Sister White ready to attack!

8. There he is, in the cup. He didn't die from the spray. Gosh dangit!

9 .Then we drowned him.. He was a fighter!

Didn't take many pictures this week. Sorry! Just the spiader fiasco! Haha (:

Love you all so much!