Elder Bunker and other Spanish speaking Elders in his area.

New Year

Dear Friends & Family,

Just a reminder that these emails are posted on elderdanielbunker.blogspot.com by my mom (thanks mom!), so if you are getting these as a forwarded email, you can also see it on my blog.

Anyway this has been a good week. We taught a lot of lessons, put a few people on date for baptism, and had a great Christmas. We visited a lot of families and spent time with them eating and playing games, etc. I got to call home, which was good. It was kind of weird, as I've only been gone 4 months. Still here in Utah waiting for my visa.

We got transfer calls last night. My companion, Elder Padrones, is getting transferred to Cedar City Spanish, where he will be a Zone Leader. I will be transferred to the St. George Central Zone, in Pine View Spanish, where I will be in a companionship of 3 again. Here in Price we were living with the English Elders, so it was hard to get 4 people through the shower with enough hot water. At least now we will be back down to 3. The cool thing about a threesome is that you can triple book your appointments for a night and go on 3-way splits with members. That is how we can teach a lot more lessons per day.

This new year will be interesting. We can watch It's a wonderful life or Toy story 3 on New Year's Eve. I'll be looking forward to that.

Well there's not a whole lot to write about with all of the festivities and stuff. I'll send another email with a few pictures.

I love you all!

Elder Bunker

Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been another good week. We were able to teach more lessons than in each of the past 3 weeks.

We have some interesting Christmas policies. We are allowed to spend 2 hours per family with members or investigators on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve from 5-9. On New Years Eve we are allowed to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Toy Story 3". It will be pretty cool I think.

The snow finally came to this forsaken land of Price, UT (forsaken because the weather is unpredictable--they can try North and South of here, but it never is accurate for Price). There were about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground, but it was a very long period of snowfall.

My companion, Elder Padrones from Spain, had a little accident a few months ago (before I got here), and they had to replace the front bumper. Then a few weeks ago we were at an intersection with a big ditch on both sides of the main road. As we were turning onto the main road, the bumper scraped on the ditch edge. Our vehicle manager for the mission, Elder Woolley, told us to go and get an estimate to fix the paint scratches, but it turns out that the bumper was bent a little, which caused the paint to flake off. It was a $300 fix, so Elder Woolley told us to go ahead and get it fixed. The next day, I was assigned as driver. It's so weird to be the junior companion and have all of this power in my hands (car keys, Stake center keys, house keys)! Anyway, it was pretty scary driving in the snow before the trucks could clean up the roads. We had to go to a 7am correlation meeting 30 minutes away. It's a good thing I learned to drive in the snow though!

I've met a few people here who have sons waiting for visas to Mexico City. Different missions, but still the same area. Some of them came out right before me (3 days ahead of me), so maybe when they get their visas the family can contact me and give me a heads up.

Well transfers were delayed another week (instead of this last week) so we can spend Christmas in an area with which we are familiar. This transfer has 7 weeks instead of 6, and next transfer will only have 5 weeks.

I had a pretty good birthday this last week. We kept really busy with lots of appointments, which is probably one of the best gifts I could receive. I got a package from DearElder.com with lots of candy & a picture of Christ. I think it's from family but not sure...there were no names attached to it. The return address wasadmin@dearelder.com, which is VERY generic. Thank you family.

At this Christmas time, I have lots more time to think about the birth of Christ. There in a stable one night, the very pivot of everything was born. Everything before that night looked forward to Him. Everything after that night looks back to Him. How humble the setting was! There was no pomp & circumstance. Everyone else just went on with their daily routines, having no news about the birth of the Savior of the World. This is the moment when the possibility of Salvation for every person began. Millions had exercised their faith on Jesus Christ through the Mosaic laws of sacrifice to gain a remission of sins, laws which were in similitude of the mission of the only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Now, millions will be able to exercise their faith in Jesus Christ by accepting his mission, life, and sacrifice, and applying the atoning blood of their savior to their debts--sins. We can now be clean. Clean of everything. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool. Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be white as snow." As mortal humans we are subject to sin. Its possibility is a natural consequence of the fall of Adam from God's presence & his transgression. But "as in Adam all die (as in the possibility of physical & spiritual death), even so in Christ shall all be made alive". What a marvelous gift--to be forgiven for any sin with true repentence, to be succored in any sickness, trial, or challenge in life, to have the empathetic ear & shoulder of someone who knows us personally & how we feel. Give the gift of Christ to someone this Christmas. Receive the gift of Christ as well. He has prepared, wrapped, and topped with a bow a wonderful gift for everyone personally. It's there sitting on your table. It's up to you to open it or to let it sit there. To put it to use or to ignore it. It will always be there. It doesn't expire. It doesn't have a limited-time-only policy. You can't deny it's presence--it's right there. Open it and love it and treasure it and then show other people how to open theirs.

I love Jesus Christ. I love my Father in heaven. I'm ever grateful for what they do & have done for me.

Have a very Merry Christmas. Remember Christ.

Love you all!

Love Elder Bunker

ANOTHER WEEK IN PRICE

Hello Family & Friends,

The work is continuing. This transfer was extended another week so as to not change everyone up right before Christmas. I'm surprised I'm not getting Emergency Transferred this next week! In the past, I've always been in a new area the last week of a transfer.

The Assistants to the President are thinking about splitting off Huntington spanish from Price spanish and putting a set of Spanish Visa waiters there. That way when the visas come through, the waiters can just leave and Huntington will be rejoined to Price spanish. I don't know if that is set in stone yet, but we'll see. I wonder if it will be me.

We went to a Bishop's house to eat dinner one night and saw that they had all of their pictures wrapped with wrapping paper and re-hung on the wall. The pictures of Christ were partially opened so you could see his face through the paper. It was a really cool idea. I think I'll do that when I start my family. It really shows the meaning of Christmas.

It's amazing how fast time passes here in the mission field. It's hard to believe I've been out 3.5 months! That's a little over 1/8 the way done! I feel like I haven't been out that long. Life is really different when all of your days are spent involved with other people, their lives, their commitments, their struggles, their joys, etc. I see things I don't want in my future life. I see things I do. I get to hear people's concerns about life, why we are here, and how they are spending the time allotted on this earth. It's really amazing to not have to worry about myself for awhile. This is how we as missionaries start to love the people we serve. We forget ourselves and go to work. We serve them. I really like this work.

That's about it for this week. I'll try to keep track of things that happen so I can report them to you all. I love you and appreciate all you do for me.

Love Elder Bunker

Picadillo Ranchero

Hello Friends & Family!

Fasting works! We have a small spanish group in Huntington, UT. Last week, only 2 people came besides leadership and us missionaries. We had to combine with the English ward for Sacrament Meeting. We decided to fast Saturday night and yesterday for both our branch & group (Huntington & Price). Yesterday, about 20 people came! It was testimony meeting, and it was very spiritual. I'm really excited that our investigators came with their friends & family. Some things don't happen but by fasting and prayer I guess (as told in the bible).

We have one investigator named Melchor. He was with us in Huntington when we were at an investigator's house (family/friend of Melchor). We put on the movie "To this end was I born", which describes briefly the life of Jesus & his crucifixion and resurrection. At the end we were talking and suddenly he asked us "when can you baptize all of us?". The investigator that we were visiting couldn't get baptized yet because she has to get married first, but they are waiting on citizenship before they can marry (it would add like 10 years to the waiting time). The other person in the house was already a member. So we told him 'As soon as you're ready'. He said he wanted to talk with his wife (living in California with the kids while he is looking for work here) first, but that he wants to be baptized in the church. He's such a great person, and we're excited!

Well that about sums up the exciting events of this week!

Love you all,
Elder Bunker

GUAJOLOTES & SNOW

Yet another great week has passed here in Price. It's starting to get pretty cold, but being from Northern IL, it's manageable. There are little skiffs of snow here and there...they keep forecasting big storms, but the mountain range just to the west fools everyone. They say that the weather in Price can't be predicted. They can predict just north and just south of Price, but it's too crazy here. Typical Utah winters, I think.

We had a great thanksgiving. We were invited to 4 different places, but didn't have enough time to go to all of them. We settled with 3. And just about exploded because of the amount of food they were trying to give us. The first 2 places were buffet style, so we took small amounts and figured the third would be buffet too. Nope. They loaded our plates up to a mountain....

Turkey in spanish is Guajolote (in Mexico) or Pavo (everywhere else & Mexico too).

We were allowed to spend 2 hours at each member's house, but no more than 2 hours. We went to President Perez's house ( our branch president in Price) and ate and jammed with some music. He's a musician bigtime. His band/group performed several times in the Tabernacle & other places. He plays piano, flutes, guitar, banjo, and lots of other wind & string instruments & percussion instruments from around the world. He's really really cool & i'm grateful to know him.

We were discussing calls home and it turns out that here in the US, Mother's day is the second sunday in May. In Spain, it's the first sunday in May. In Mexico, it's May 10th. So I don't really know when in May I will be calling home, whether it be Mexico's or the US's mother's day. I'll have to wait and see and ask. Luckily Christmas is the same here & in Mexico, and I will be able to call then.

The work has been good but slow. With the holiday, many people were out of town & forgot to cancel our appts with them, so we spent a lot of time driving around and knocking on doors of empty houses.

I've been meeting a few people that have lived in Mexico City for a little while. They always tell me that I will love the food & especially the fruit there. It's all so rich in flavor and diversity. I can't wait for it. I think i can already taste some of it...

Anyhow, all is going well. I love and miss all of you!

Stay close to the Lord!

Elder Bunker