Week 9: Well, this week was definately interesting!

This week was defiantly interesting.  Lordsburg, NM has had only one baptism in the last year. This week we found two boys the age of 10 and 14 who's dad is less active, but they have been coming to church and want to be baptized.  So, on Sunday we taught them Lesson One. It went very well and we set a baptism date for April 1st. Hopefully things will work out.

The only good part of Monday last week was the fact that I got to trade emails with you and basketball was fun. We drove to Safford, AZ and played basketball with some of the Elders and Sisters there and then shopped at Walmart. That was the best part of Monday…and I still haven't figured out why shopping at Walmart is now so much better than it was before my mission.

After this photo we're going to bench this rock!

City of Rocks Poses!

Hiking in The City of Rocks State Park

City of Rocks State Park is in Fayette, NM

Tuesday was less than great, but we all have down days. Due to my companion, being the District Leader, he went to Duncan, AZ for the day to do splits with the Elders there, which gave me more time for personal study so I read 14 chapters in 2nd Nephi. I am now in Alma.  Once my split companion was here I was left to run Lordsburg as the ‘senior.’ I was excited to finally get to run the show, because Tuesdays are usually our busiest day.  However, all of our appointments fell through. Yes, ALL of them. It was rough but we made due, and were only 2 miles away from going over our mileage limit for the month - so we had to factor that into our plans as well. We ended up visiting with a few less actives so it turned out alright, I guess.

Oh, by the way, I've been losing some of my MTC weight.  I have lost 8 pounds over the last 2 weeks. As soon as I get back to 215, I can start building muscle again. Right now, I don't have the time to convert the fat to muscle so I got to do it step-by-step, lol)

On Wednesday, after a healthy breakfast and some push-ups and sit-ups, we had our district meeting, which was just alright. Afterwards we went to Hilda’s Restaurant and ate $1 tacos again. It's almost a tradition now, if you can't tell, lol. After Hilda’s we went back to the stake center and did some family history. After that, we had our standard 45 minute drive back to Lordsburg, NM .  We ate dinner at Kranberrys Restaurant, where a lovely part-member family from Colorado Springs asked us to eat with them. They were so nice and they bought our dinner.  We talked for almost 2 hours and now the non-member husband wants to join the church. I don't know what happened there, lol. He is the curriculum coordinator for construction management at Colorado State University. Because that the major I want to study after my mission, we got to talking and how if I took one more math class I can become a civil engineer and multiply my income. So, that is defiantly something to look into.

Thursday was a good day we got some exercise riding our bikes. We rode a total of 7 miles and did some less-active work for the afternoon. When we finished up for the afternoon, we drove to Animas, NM, where we visited with a less-active for an hour or so.  He had a pet snake. We had dinner with the M______s. They are amazing people. That's one thing I love down here - everybody is so nice and loving. After dinner we drove back to Lordsburg for the night, because we had apartment inspections the next morning.

SNAKE!

Friday was awesome! Usually it's not, because weekly planning takes forever, but we made it fun. After weekly planning, we drove to Animas, NM for dinner. Everything here is literally 45 minutes away from each other. We had dinner with the F____s and R____s again.  We talked about how we should always heed the prompting of the Spirit. I shared two stories I had heard in the MTC.  The R____s are a part-member family. In the past, the dad has said he would not be baptized. Well, after that lesson he finally started warming up to the idea of talking to us and it ended up being a great lesson! We had to cut it short because the Animas high school girls basketball team are going to state.  So, they had to get to their game. We then drove back to Lordsburg for the night because we had a lesson there - but once again, the people cancelled.

Clean Closet!!!

Lordsburg, NM apartment ready for inspection!

Saturday was weird. We had plans to go help Bro. P______ for a couple hours. However, during studies he called and said it was blowing 50+ MPH plus and didn't want to work in the wind.   So, we had nothing planned so we went tracking - for the first time on my mission. Nobody opened there doors, because most likely nobody was home. On the way back to our apartment for lunch, these people called us over to their house. It was legitimately like an episode of COPS. The woman was freaking out and her friend (or boyfriend, I don’t know) was trying to calm her down. They were both drunk, and the whole situation was so weird.  She went on and on about how her children had left her, how she used to be rich and now has no money and how 3 husbands have left her.  So, we snuck a lesson in on how God loves us and we shared Ether 12:27.  She was saying how we had to listen to these country songs (which I've already heard). We made her a deal: if she would read from the Book of Mormon - just a couple versus, because I knew it would help - then we would listen to those songs. So, it ended up being a pretty cool experience. After that, we drove to Rodeo, MN and had dinner with Sis B______, our investigator of 40 years. She had made pozole, a soup with hominy and pork. She had everything decked out for St. Patties Day. She is super cute, clocking in at 93 years old. She has been going to church for 40 years but she doesn't believe in Joseph Smith.  I respect her for not joining the church if she doesn't have a testimony. Elder Degrange asked her if she had prayed to know the truth. Well, it turns out she had given up 4+ years ago, because she didn't get an answer right away. So, I tied in the Book of Enos back to her.  For the first time in forever  she prayed to get an answer. We are finally making progress, which is exciting.

Sunday was an even better day. Church meetings were a good experience. The overarching theme was priesthood. I like the fact that I get to keep learning about the gospel.  After the meeting block, we found the two boys who want to be baptized I mentioned above.  We taught them first lesson: The Restoration, and we invited them to be baptized, in a little less than a month. They both said yes and we are super excited.  So it turns out diligence and obedience is finally paying off.  Like I said earlier, Lordsburg has had only two baptisms in the last like two years.

Overall, this week was pretty darn good. Weird, but good. I hope yours was just as good!

Love you Mom, Pops and others.

Love,

Elder Dickinson 

P.S. We are a pretty tight district so we had these T-shirts made. 

The DDD gang! (thats me on the bottom right)

THE Dirty Duncan District together for the last time...tomorrow is transfer day and one of us is leaving :(