This week has
been amazing. We saw less-active members that have been away from the church for
more than 20 years come back to church this week. It is truly an amazing
feeling.
I am in deep
sorrow to learn of the passing of my life-long friend this last week. I cried
like a baby when I never thought I would. He will be greatly missed! The morning I received the news of his death,
during my morning studies. I felt prompted to read in Helaman instead of where I
had been reading in 2Nephi. I read Helaman 5:47:
47. Peace, peace be unto you, because of
faith in my beloved, who was the foundation of the world.
With faith in
Jesus Christ - not only our sins, but our pains can be wiped away. This scripture and my faith in Heavenly
Father and His plan for us instilled comfort unto my soul. We may not always
agree with what happens, but if we have faith that He has a plan for us, we can
experience comfort instead of sorrow and pain. Now, my friend Will is free of
pain and is in a better place. I am still sad but no longer upset that he is no
longer with us.
On to better
and brighter things. It is defiantly starting to warm up here and I love, love,
love it! Between doing service and
spreading the love and joy that the gospel brings to us, we had a full week.
I spent Monday
and Tuesday on exchanges in Clifton, AZ (about 65 miles from Lordsburg), the
location of the world's 2nd largest copper mine. All we did was service. We had
dinner with one of the members in Clifton who told us she had been adopted and
he birth family actually lives in Wausau, WI. Small world eh?
On Wednesday,
we had a very productive district meeting in Duncan, AZ. My district only has 6 elders. We are called
the DDD; the Dirty Duncan District. Dirty, because we do a lot of service and because
we are just awesome like that. Also,
this used to be the area where they banished missionaries too because it is…challenging.
But, now it's awesome. Lol! When
we were in Duncan went out to eat at Wanda’s Cafe. She has good chicken nuggets,
lol. The member who had fed us Sunday was there in Duncan, an hour away from
her home. She paid for all six of our meals. I wasn't joking when I said
everyone here is so nice. They really are! J
Anyways, Thursday
and Friday were really productive as well. Everybody who would not normally have
let us in did. So, in two days we taught 4 discussions.
There is one
investigator who we have been trying to meet with for a while, but she is
always busy. We were knocking on her door right as she pulled in her driveway.
She let us in and we were going to teach about the restoration, then invite her
to be baptized, but she got sidetracked. She was talking about how Lordsburg is
cursed. How there was a priest who took some kids swimming at Red Rock and they
found the priest face down in the water dead. Now, for the last 17 straight years
every priest that has lived here for a year or more has died. One in particular
died in a fiery car accident on their way to Silver City. Which is actually
true but then she started talking about how her old house was haunted. That’s just a little bit of local color, but
that's what people that live in Lordsburg think of their town.
Friday, we got
side tracked and instead of doing our weekly planning we painted - for a long
time. It was fun and also a good experience. It was just all around fun.
Saturday was
rough. We went back to the P_______s and
started to make adobe to build their house with. I have six blisters now. After doing service, we had dinner with the K______s,
who are super nice people who were begging for the missionaries to come over
for dinner, but since our dinner and lunch schedules are so full, we can only
go once a month. For dinner on Saturday a member who had served her
mission in Okinawa Japan made us curry. Good right? It was amazing! She then told us the meat she used in the
curry was goat. To be honest, it was better than beef - no lie.
 |
| My companion making adobe for an adobe house |
Sunday was
great. We woke up in the Man Cave in Rodeo (see pictures). The Man Cave has lots of deer mounts, antlers
and reloading equipment everywhere. Reloading equipment. It was just awesomeness everywhere, lol.
After waking up, I discovered I had lost my CTR ring somewhere when we were changing
clothes after doing service on Saturday. We had stopped to change on Stateline
Road, in the middle of nowhere. I literally changed while standing half in Arizona
and half in New Mexico, lol. Anyways, so
we went back there in the morning to look for my ring and found it! Like a
needle in a hay stack. Faith and prayer helps in anything.
 |
| The "Rodeo Man Cave" Yup, we sleep in here! |
We then went to
church in Rodeo. Just for a comparison
the entire Rodeo branch is the size of our Elders Quorum on a regular Sunday in
Wausau. We have to talk on the 19th about missionary work…any ideas? When I’m asked to introduce myself-introduction
at church, this is what I say:
“Hello, I'm Elder
Dickinson. I'm from Wausau Wisconsin. I like the outdoors, hunting, fishing and
ice fishing.” That’s when they all look
at me funny because they don't fish – period.
There’s no water here, lol. I then say, “I'm excited to be here and I
love the heat.” It's simple, but then I
use my charming smile, so it all works - hehe.
Everybody loves my accent. Before I say I’m from Wisconsin, they
all ask if I’m from Canada. They love the accent and I don't know why.
We had a good 3
hours of meetings in Rodeo, then drove to Animas for the last hour of meetings
there. Mainly, we went to see if any of
our less-active members showed up.
Sadly, no one did, but that just means we have some more work to do.
After that we drove to Lordsburg and broke our fast - with none other than the
glorious Spam and eggs.
In Lordsburg,
our apartment is small, compared to everyone else's houses, but it's a humbling
experience to be living in the ‘lack of luxury.’ Other than being small
It's not bad. It is an amazing area I wish I could serve out here the whole
time but I know it won't happen. I love how vast it is here. It takes an hour
to get anywhere and the extra time really lets you ponder what has happened and
gives you time to prepare for what's next…
As I'm writing
this we are now headed to Safford AZ (about 75 miles from Lordsburg). We
were invited by ‘Grandma,’ a member Elder Degrange knew in the Safford ward.
She invited us over for the super bowl, so I'm pumped, lol. I wish it was the Packers, but oh well.
And now that we
are in Safford we have P-Day sports again, yay!
Here is a
random fact. It's not unusual for dogs
and cats just to be wandering around, everywhere. Oh, and it is not uncommon for cows to just
to be walking around, where ever. It's honestly just a big zoo, lol.
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