I hope everybody had a fantastic week. I know I did.
Last week’s P-Day was pretty great! It was fun to go bowling and make wooden pens
- which I hope made it home okay. When I mailed it home, I didn't have bubble
wrap so I packed it plastic shopping bags. Anyways, after we did all of that,
we drove home and did personal study and since we didn't have a meal, we ate at
home and then went to bed.
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| The DDD making wooden pens on P-day! |
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| My second attempt. The first pen made of honey mesquite broke! |
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| The masterpeice: made from China Berry Mahogany |
Tuesday was a good day, but a busy one at that. We worked at
the food bank from 9:00 until noon, handing out food items and filling carts.
This is always a humbling experience. I try to make it as fun as possible to
put a smile on people's faces, but it's hard seeing people struggle to provide
for their families. After the food bank we hustled across the street to our
apartment, changed and ate lunch. After lunch, we visited H____ and C____ to
read the Book of Mormon with them. They didn't come to church this week but
hopefully they will this next week. H____ went off on a story telling binge. We
got there at 1:00 and left at 4:00. He tells good stories, but holy cow. Anyways
you’ve gotta love H____ and C_____ they are so kind. After that we went to see
another investigator but he wasn't home, so we at dinner and then went to Bro.
H____’s house. He is our ward mission leader. He says we are like his sons, and
love him to bits.
After this, we went home and meet the Zone Leaders who slept
over in order to go on splits with us.
Wednesday was good. Once
we were ready for the day and completed our personal study, we drove to Duncan,
AZ for our District Meeting. District Meeting was good, we talked about none
other than the wonderful Book of Mormon and practiced on how to teach
better. I learn a lot from role playing.
After District Meeting we went to Hilda’s Market and Restaurant and ate $1
tacos. I ate eight of them – whoops, lol. They are soooo good. After lunch we
did exchanges and some family history. We then drove back to Lordsburg and
visited with B____. I shared what would help with his problems he was facing
and we extended an invitation to have him reread the Book of Mormon - with
humility in mind. If you search and read the Book of Mormon with a question in
mind, I guarantee you will find an answer to your questions. After that, we visited T____ F_____ and read
with him. Our dinner appointment had sick kids, so they dropped dinner
off at our apartment. I think I have
eaten more spaghetti and lasagna in the last two months than I have in my
entire life before my mission - seriously. After dinner Elder Degrange, Elder Day,
and I went with Bro. H_____ to see Hermana C_____. He didn't tell us until we
got to the door that she only speaks Spanish. I was ecstatic! Bro. H_____
speaks fluent Spanish and I spoke quite a bit, but was rusty. Elder Degrange
doesn’t speak Spanish at all, so I translated for him.
It was a sweet experience. Next time, I am assigned to pray
in Spanish so that shall be quite interesting. It was so fun. After that we
drove to Duncan, AZ and picked up the other Zone Leader and drove back to Lordsburg
and went to bed.
Thursday was a long day. We woke up and got ready super-fast
and then drove 40 miles to Bro M____'s ranch to help with service. We helped mix
and pour concrete around big truck tires to make a watering trough for their
cattle. That was fun but a lot of work. We worked from 7:30 to 3:00. During
that time, I guess the windy season decided to begin. It was blowing a constant
30 MPH with gusts up to 60 MPH and caused five traffic accidents. One accident
not wind related, but shut down I-10 for 5 hours between Lordsburg and Deming,
NM. I-10 connects Florida to California and has a ton of semi-truck traffic. So needless to say, when a car full of
illegals chased by border patrol flips and three are ejected from the car and
die – I-10 gets shut down for 5 hours. A second accident was a 7 car pile with
3 more fatalities, which closed a different segment of I-10 down for 3 hours.
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| The beginning of the water trough |
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| Somehere in the middle of the water trough...LOL |
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| The FINISHED water trough...whew! |
I also saw my first couple dust storms, which were pretty
cool, I must say.
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| Small dust storm in the distance |
We had dinner at the ____’s. We ate pizza and talked about
trucks for a while. It was fun. After that we went home and did studies and
went to bed.
Friday was an interesting day. First,
we helped pack Bro G____’s stuff so he was ready to move on Saturday morning.
After that we decided to do our weekly planning while we were driving to the
M____’s for dinner. Man, do I love the M___s! They love having us and they feed
us well. For Valentine's Day they gave us 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies as a surprise.
They are amazing people. Afterwards, we visited with the W_____s and he
shared more stories and made me laugh so hard. Bro. W______ is hilarious. After
that, we went to bed. If you can't tell
I love saying “go to bed” because after a long day it's much needed. However, I do find myself sneaking in a nap
whenever I can. As a missionary, you find that if you eat lunch super-fast you
can take about a 30 minutes nap which helps you get through your day.
Saturday, we were supposed to go cut wood in the Whitetail
Valley with some investigators but he got called into work so we finished
helping Bro. G_____ move.
Funny story: The movers show up with the moving truck today and
we were ready to load and be done in an hour or so. There was plenty of room for everything in
the truck, but the movers insist on making the whole thing a puzzle and did all
of the moving themselves. The movers yelled
at us for not helping. The Bishop said, “Well
they’re obviously not in the Elders Quorum.”
They were non-members lol. It
took them five hours to do what we could have done in less than three.
‘Small World’ story: When I was in someone’s house I saw people
were talking on the news and in the background was the Dudley tower in downtown
Wausau. It was pretty neat seeing home so
far away from home lol.
After moving, we drove to Rodeo and visited with our investigator
of 40 years. Sis B_______. She is a tough cookie to teach, that's for sure.
Sadly, she is stuck in her ways, but she is having us over for dinner sometime
next week. After that lesson, we had
dinner with the K_____s. It was good. They tell great stories - and I heard
from a little birdie that BYU knocked off Gonzaga!!!!!
Sunday was a great day.
We went to church in Lordsburg and hustled out to go to church in Animas,
so I got 4 hours of church! One of the High Councilmen was talking about Nintendo
Game Boys and Sony Play Stations and he accidentally ran them together and said
Playboy's. That got everybody laughing
in sacrament meeting, it was pretty funny, if you ask me. After that we had
dinner at the K___’s and F____’s. We ended up talking and then they said we had
to stay and play Farkle so we did and enjoyed it. Now we are driving to Duncan, AZ to stay the
night because we are going to the Gila Valley to play P-Day sports and shop at
Walmart for food, a watch, and cheap sunglasses.
.
I love you guys soooooooooooo much. I miss you, but I love
what I’m doing. I love you guys to Wisconsin and back.
P.S . The more I type these emails the more and more I want
a blue tooth key board, lol Oh, I need more T-shirts for P-Day and service.
Elder Dickinson
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| Beautiful dust storm at dusk Good Night from New Mexico! |
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