Week 6: No more candy! :D

Wow these weeks actually go by pretty fast, well for me anyways. We had a pretty full week and next week will be the same.

It rained here for the first time in forever, and now it's cold and windy - super windy!  Yesterday (Sunday) the wind was blowing upwards of 50 MPH.  When it rains here, boy does it rain. Not only does it rain, it floods like crazy. All of this rain is better than getting a foot of snow, that's for sure. I’m not going to be missing Wisconsin’s snow anytime soon, lol.

Sunday's Rainstorm

 After I got done emailing on Monday we had an hour and a half trip home to Lordsburg.  Then we did our personal study and went to bed.

Tuesday was a pretty regular day.  We woke up and did our morning schedule stuff, like shower, eat, personal study, and companion study. After that we picked up my package from the post office.  I can't wait to put that flash drive to work, not to mention the boots. I love the treats you guys put in my packages, but I got some news to break to you - with all due respect, you guys are going to make me fat - but that’s okay, I love you anyway, lol.

After that we had our biweekly visit with H____ and C_____.  She is a less active member and he is a non-member.  She likes reading the book of Mormon with us, so we stop by and read a chapter with them, then H______ shares his hilarious stories with us. I always love meeting with them. After that visit we tried stopping by some other people, but nobody would answer their door.  From there, we helped Sis J_____ load up a treadmill she's taking to Phoenix. Since we didn't have a dinner appointment she gave us money and told us to go to Denny’s. After a decent meal at Denny’s we went and spent time at our ward mission leader’s house. He's an amazing guy that just loves everybody. He is super charitable and I love him to death. His son is less active, so we go over and fellowship him. He is a pretty cool kid and on one of our P-Days we are going to go hiking with him.  I can't wait for that.

Denny's x 2 LOL!

Wednesday, we went to the food bank to help put together boxes of food for people throughout southwest New Mexico. Going into it, we thought we would only work for 3 hours, because that's what we had scheduled.  But we worked for 6 hours and put together 500 boxes and still were not finished. They really appreciated our volunteering, so they took us to lunch. Yay, Denny’s two days in a row, lol.  After we finished at the food bank, we went and helped the Lordsburg youth (3 kids, lol) finish cleaning the ward Pavilion.  After that, had pancakes with the youth for dinner - it was all amazing.  Even though we had an appointment which fell through, it was a busy day of service - but "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

NM Food Bank with Elder Degrange

Thursday was a long day. First, we headed to Safford, AZ for our zone conference. Sadly, I didn't see anyone from my MTC district, but it was still a good experience. We talked about how the Atonement is the root of the gospel and how you can tie any principal of the gospel back to the Atonement. We also learned how to better teach the Word of Wisdom. After meetings and homemade chicken alfredo, we split into two districts, one was all New Mexico missionaries and the other was the Gila Valley Missionaries. We looked at data points like the number of baptisms and reactivation vs. population density and the number of missionaries. Our zone was the most successful in the mission. We had a goal of 8 baptisms and 16 reactivations and we achieved 3 baptisms and 19 reactivations. That's good for our zone covering so much land with very few people and missionaries.  Our zone had 3 out of the mission’s 33 baptisms for the month. This month's goals are 5 baptisms and 16 reactivations – and we already have 4 baptisms in February and will have our fifth on Saturday.  Not to mention my companion and I might have our family of 5 ready for baptism soon J J J.   I can't wait to see what will happen.

Friday, we had dinner with the Frailey’s and the R_____s. Bishop Frailey taught a good lesson to the R______s on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saturday was a good day as well.  We we drove to Rodeo from Animas and had dinner at a member’s café.  The food is super good there. We then drove to Portal AZ (Look it up!). It's probably one of the most beautiful areas in our district. It's a small town full of scientists sitting in a canyon and it's so green there.  It’s the only green I've seen in AZ or NM so far.

A famous sign in Portal, AZ

 We went to go do service for Sis. B_______, but here is the catch - she's not actually a member - but she hasn't missed church on Sunday for 40 years. She lives like a member, talks and acts like a member but won't be baptized because she's not quite sure about Joseph Smith.  Missionaries have been talking to her for 35 years now. Crazy, huh?  We arrived at 1:30 expecting to do about a half hour of service.  We ended up talking about basically everything for like 2 hours. Then she gave us some cookies and then we finally said we were there to do service and she was soooooooooooo happy.  We cut some mesquite for her. That stuff is literally evil!  It's worse than the thorn apple in Wisconsin.  After that, we cut up and ate a watermelon while we talked some more. I was sweating so bad because she keeps her house a constant 85 degrees.  So, our half hour visit took 4 hours, but she was lonely, so we just enjoyed the little break.

Cutting mesquite in the heat!

Sunday, church is always awesome and next week we get to speak and I haven't even started my talk yet.  Oh well, plenty of time to do that.  We had plans to meet with an investigator, but she was sick. We were about to start our 100 mile trip to Hachita, NM, but that family was sick or busy.  We rescheduled with them on Wednesday. That is the family of 5 that is super interested in the church, so I can't wait to see what happens there.

Today, for P-Day we are driving to Silver City for the day and going shopping at Walmart then hang with 4 other elders.  You know you are living the missionary life when you get excited to go to Walmart. After that, a member is taking 10 of us out for lunch somewhere, so that's exciting too.

Elder Degrange and I actually made a pledge to start eating healthier and running in the mornings. So, we can get in shape for the hunnies back home, lol. But in all reality, I just want to make sure my jeans don’t get to get to tight, hahaha.  So, when sending packages – no more candy, please. Send beef jerry and healthy stuff like dried fruit and things like that, lol.

I found out we get to go to the Tucson AZ Temple open house, but attending the dedication is still up in the air…

I hope you guys had an amazing week as well.  Love you guys! 

Love Elder Dickinson 

New Mexican Scenery