Week 7: I Might Have Tetnus?!

Well, hello there.  I hope you had a wonderful week, because I had a pretty decent week myself.

Last week, on P-Day Monday our P-Day was awesome. I got to drive in the snow on our way to Silver City, NM.  When I left Wisconsin, I thought I wouldn't see snow for 2 years. We played our weekly basketball and that was fun.

Good thing a Wisconsin boy was driving!

Silver city is pretty cool, I don't know why, maybe it’s just because there is a Walmart there, lol.  After basketball, we went to the institute building at Western New Mexico University where we played ping-pong and pool. It was a blast!  After that, we drove home to Lordsburg and ate at Denny’s with the other elders, then went our different ways and we then went to bed.

Tuesday was meh – well it was OK, I guess. We had made 3 appointments, but were only able to meet with two of them.  One of our appointments was busy during the time we were to meet, but that's okay. We stopped and talked with B____.    After that, we met with Bro. F_____.  He is a less active member who we meet with weekly and it went well.  He is a good guy with good intentions. After our visit with him we ate dinner and then drove to Clifton to play basketball the night before our district meeting. We play with nonmembers and 1 investigator. This week it was the missionaries vs. everyone else, lol.  There was one guy who was really good.  I guarded him and shut him down then I rained threes all game. We railed them.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting, it was an amazing spiritual experience - as it always is. We then went to the mine overlook and had an amazing time. It's the second largest copper mine in the world. You can see it and if you want to look it up look up Morenci, AZ.  The town is completely owned by the mining company. After that we drove home and ate dinner at Kranberrry’s, one of the two restaurants in Lordsburg. Then we drove to Safford, AZ, an hour and a half in direction we had just came from.  That was another long drive. We got to Safford at 9 o'clock and went to bed. We went to Safford because we had to meet other missionaries to leave for Tucson at 7 am.

Copper Mine in Morenci, AZ

Thursday, we met up with two other sets of missionaries and drove to Tucson for the trainer/trainee meeting. That was another good spiritual experience and after the meeting everyone went out for In-and-Out Burger. We then drove another 2 and a half hours home, which made for a long day of being in the car. We drove to Animas and ate dinner at the W___s.  We found out I am actually related to her and several people down here. We used Relative Finder to figure that out. After a good dinner of hamburgers we stayed in Animas for the night.

Friday was full of service, after completing our morning schedule we went to Sis. F_____’s house and helped her clean up her yard. She had just bought this house and the two previous owners were hoarders and had a bunch of junk laying around the yard. So, her father dug an 8 foot deep hole with his tractor and we collected junk all day and burned it in that massive hole. While we were working, I got hung upon some wire that cut my stomach pretty good. 

Service Work Battle wound! Mom, no worries.
I will watch for an infection. :)

All-in-all it was a fun time. For lunch, she made us eggplant parmigiana. At first, I was scared to try it, but it was amazing! And to my surprise, with the right dressing salad is quite yummy. Remember when I wouldn't let anything green pass my lips? Yeah, I ate asparagus last night too and kind of enjoyed it. Any ways, after service we went to dinner and then did our weekly planning.

The remains of our hard work

Tons of friendly little critters out here :O 

Saturday was also filled with service. If you can't tell I love doing service, lol. We helped out Bro. P_____ again, his house is making progress - but it's a slow process. Building an adobe has defiantly made me question being a construction management major when I go to BYU-Idaho, that's for sure. Honestly, I don't know what I want to do when I grow up, but construction management is still at the top of my list. Our bishop in Animas, the one I live with when we are in Animas, has his own really successful construction company. So, I'll have to ask him a bunch of questions.  Anyway, we worked almost all day until it started to rain.  So, we went to dinner soaking wet and ate meat loaf. Best darn meatloaf I've ever eaten, to be honest. We spent the night talking about racecars and dream cars. 

Sunday, I gave my first talk as a missionary!  It was on how we are all missionaries and how the key traits of being a missionary are having faith in Jesus Christ, building your own testimony, obedience, charity and love.  I had scriptures to tie everything together and it lasted about 17 minutes.  It was the best talk I have ever given, too bad there were only 15 people there to hear it, but Elder Degrange and I rocked that sacrament meeting. Everyone in the Rodeo Branch congratulated us, it was amazing!

I love this sign! It is so true...Animas, NM

Today, we have lots of stuff planned.  We took a long, brutal hike this morning, but it was fun.  Later, we are going bowling, then after that we are driving to Ducan AZ to a member’s house in to make some cool wooden pens.

That was my week - I hope yours was as good! 

Love you all,

Elder Dickinson