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Dog bite after service project!

Glasses are called "Sun Catchers"

June 25

Hello

This has been a really great week! We have really focused our efforts on being accountable for our time. Elder Osgood and I set a goal to get thirty working hours this week. We were able to get that done which is super exciting! We were so happy! We didn't have too much success but we worked super hard and did a lot of inviting. This is however a week of Super Funny Things

1) Wednesday we got to our apartment at 9:20ish and we had gotten 11 working hours that day so I was tired. We walk up the stairs I put my key in the lock and start to turn. So I turn and turn and turn and turn and turn, it took me a while to realise that the lock wasn't working. So I go to pull my key out and....... The entire middle section of the dead bolt comes out. Oops!! I had seen that the manager was in the office when we went to get the mail so we walk over and knock on the door. The first thing that I did was apologise because I know that it is almost 9:30pm but the lock to our apartment is broken. She goes ok its no big deal I can get that fixed right away. She grabs a screw driver and comes over. She sees the lock and it wasn't what she thought it was going to be. She takes my key and puts it in and starts to turn and nithing happens so she pulls it out and the middle come out again but this time it comes with all the springs in the lock and you can hear all the tumblers falling out of it. So I tell her that we can probably just go over to another missionaries apartment and we can deal with it in the morning but that we just have to call and get it approved. Well President Morby is a realtor and apartment owner so he goes it is her job to get you in there tonight. So I go back over and tell her that we need to get in. So she calls a lock smith and he says that he should be here a little before 10:30. No big deal. So Elder Osgood and I do our planning in the car and then we just sit back and wait. And wait and wait and wait. At 10:50 I get a text from President asking if we are in yet. I tell him that the lock smith isn't even here yet. He seemed to be a little concerned because he asked where we were etc. Finally after 11 the guy showes up and then starts to try to get the manager to buy a new lock and door nob before he even works on the door. I finally just say I don't even care if the door locks tonight or not I just want to go to sleep. So we finally get in and go to bed at 11:30.

2) Then on Friday after we went tracting in Dayton as a district Elder Osgood and I went over to help a less active family move their washer out and bring a new one in. We get it in. I get it all hooked up life is good. We are outside and in true Oregonion fashion they have three dogs so I start to play with them. All of the sudden the one freeks out and jumps up and bites me on the chest. He rips through my shirt and my garment top, leaves a road rash kind of mark and makes a pretty big bruise. No blood:) We leave and then the humor of the entire thing hits. They said that they would feed us lunch, they didn't. We were going to have a lesson, didn't happen. I get bit by their dog, I say sorry. It was funny. But that is a picture of my chest as of this morning. It is tender:)

3) Yesterday Sister Smith took us to Safri Sams and we played mini golf and there were six missionaries and her plus her three kids and a friend. It was a lot of fun and there were so many funny moments.

All in all this was a great week and I am so greatful for the chance that I have to be a missionary and to work and labor here in Dayton. I hope that I don't get transferred but thy will be done right. I have a feeling that I am getting transferred because I had a really quick interview with President Morby and he was wanting to make sure that I was getting along ok with Elder Osgood. 

Thanks so much for who you are. I love all of you and miss you very much!!

Love Dustin

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Dustin with his new members!

Baptism days are great!

June 18

Hello once more!!

 

This has been a great week. Thanks for the package! I am guessing that the candy and socks are loot from Sweden. Please tell Ylva thanks!!!

 

1) Brandon Martin was baptized on Friday and then i got to confirm him in sacrament on Sunday. That was really cool! Then the Branch President did something very unconventional and gave him the priesthood right there in sacrament. That was the answer to many prayers of many people.

 

2) Nate Wilson also got the Priesthood in Sacrament. He is really growing his testimony strong. He got the job in Washington and will be moving this week.  :( I am just very grateful that he has a strong testimony and also a good brother to support him. He will do great in this life and in the life to come.

 

3) We visited one of our part member families.  His wife was up in Canada and we stopped in and we went out in the garage (man cave) and we talked for probably almost an hour and a half two hours!!! I guess the part of Canada that he is from there is a big feud between Catholics and Mormons. That feud has left a sour taste in his mouth about the church. He loves missionaries and has admitted that one day he will probably join the church but he doesn't want to feel forced into it. So we are working on getting a really good and positive relationship with him so that we can overcome the sour taste. 

I really can't wait to come back to Dayton as a non-missionary so that I can hang out with the entire Smith family. They are really cool!

 

Other than that nothing too exciting is currently happening. I guess the best part of what is going on right now is that I feel a great love for the work. I get really excited (much to the dismay of Elder Osgood because it usually involves my socker boppers which are inflatable boxing pillows that I got from the Smith's) when we are planning for our day. I love this work and the best part is because The gospel is true!!!

 

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all very much!!

 

June 11

Hello once more!

 

So as you have all ready heard from Sister Perez I didn't get transferred and am still with Elder Osgood. This week we have set some really high goals for the area and to be completely honest I really don't know how we are going to accomplish them but we are going to set out and attack them with full force!!!

 

This last week was a little crazy. Put into a trio for a day because of a missionary going for his exit interview. Going up to the temple to teach a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Getting the flu (I am not sure if it was the flu or possibly food poisoning).

 

Nothing really too cool to report. I know that to you it isn't just "day to day" stuff but really that is all that happened this week.

 

This coming Friday we have another baptism for Brandon Martin. That should be really cool. He has asked me to be the one to confirm him so that is exciting.  I will let you know how that goes.

 

Thanks for all the love and the prayers. I am really glad to hear that things are going well at home.

 

Love you all so much

June 4

Howdy!

 

Sounds like a really good week. You know that things are really busy when the letter is broken down by day. I love the family activities that we have and really miss them. On Sunday we had to stop by the Smith's for a few minutes and Brother Smith and Brother Oliviera (Sis Smith's brother) were watching the hunting channel and making fun of the red necks who were being stupid. I couldn't help but think of our family while that was going on.The Smith/Oliviera family is much like ours. Sister Oliviera (the older) has all ready offered her house to our family when we come back to visit. We get along really well because they are so similar to our family.

 

The baptism was really good! The Spirit in the room was really strong! Nate asked me to baptise him which was exciting to me. We are really supposed to encourage them to use members but when he asked I didn't say no. It was a really great experience and I am greatful that I had the opportunity to be a part of that.. Nate is so AWESOME! On Sunday he said that he hadn't stopped smiling since his baptism which I think is true because he was smiling all day on Sunday and then again last night. President and Sister Morby were also able to make it to the baptism which was really cool. They are so great! they basically dedicate their Saturdays to going to baptisms because they feel that it is really important to show as much support as they can to those who are getting baptized. They really are amazing people and I am constantly impressed with them. We were able to get pictures with them and Nate so I will send those home soon. I was going to send them today but I don't know what I did with my camera cable so I can't send them today.

 

That really is the most exciting thing that happened this week. Nate is at a job interview up by Seattle today. I hope that he gets it but at the same time not. I am a little selfish and don't want him to move.

 

Transfers are coming up this next week but I am almost certain that I won't be transferred but that is also what I said when I got transferred out of Gresham. But Elder Osgood and I have only been companions for six weeks so I don't think that will change.

 

Thanks for all that you do for me. You are really the best family that I could ask for. Elder Osgood and I were talking about our hopes and dreams for the future and I couldn't help but think that I hope that my own family turns out basically the same as the family that I all ready have. I love you all!

 

Dustin

May 28

This was a fantastic week!!! I don't remember if I told you about Nate or not but he is a new investigator that we got this week and he is SO ready to accept the gospel into his life. We met him for the first time on Wednesday this week (May 23rd) and he had three questions for us:

1) What do I need to do to get baptized and how soon can it happen?

2) What are the requirements to go on a mission?

3) How do I join the singles branch?

 

UMMM.... HELLO!!!!!!!!! SO HAPPY!!! So Nate is going to get baptized on Saturday. WE have met with him everyday this week and at our second meeting with him we taught him the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom because he had to live the WOW for one week prior to his baptism. He said that wasn't going to be a problem and that all he was going to need were some toothpicks to overcome the oral fixation. I told him that I would gladly buy him toothpicks if he would stop smoking:) So from that day on he has been smoke free and living the Law of Chastity (we taught him that on Friday). He is so amazing to me. He has so much faith!!! His interview is today so that Saturday can become official but I am not worried about that at all. We went through the questions with him on Sunday and he shared his testiomony with us about everything that we asked him. I am really excited because we get to go to the Temple with him on Thursday. The First Presidency approved a Visitors Center for the Portland Temple that just opened in February so we get to use that as a missionary tool. I am way excited for that. I haven't been with an investigator (you have to have them before you can take them) but I hear that it is a fantastic tool!! Nate is such an answer to fasting and prayer.

 

Things otherwise are also really good. Yesterday we went to the air museum again and saw two movies Air Racers about the air race in Reno (Dad would have loved that one) and then Rescue which was about the rescue efforts in Haite after the Earthquackes. We then went to the Oliveria's (Sister Smith's family) for a Memorial Day BBQ. It was a lot of fun.

 

Thanks for all that you do for me.

 

Love ya'll so much