Elder Connor W Dickinson: Week 13: My Favorite Birthday Cake (Chocolate Roll) & The Worst Night of My Life

This week was a good one for sure, but the missionary work is in a lull, again. It doesn't look like the M___ brothers will be baptized before Elder Degrange transfers out, but they will be baptized before the end of my time here. As long as they get baptized is the important part, it really doesn't matter who does it.

I saw some links and videos about Officer Weiland’s funeral in Wausau. It was sad and I cried watching those videos. It is truly sad, but I am so proud of our community for coming together to give Officer Weiland the sendoff he deserves. It was an amazing sendoff. He will be missed.

Anyways, here we go:

Monday: Getting to hear from you on P-Days is awesome! I know I say that every week, but it's true.

Tuesday, we did some service for a member in the ward. We weeded his yard with hoes. It took forever and my arms felt like jell-O afterwards, but it's service and I love serving others. After that, we hurried got changed, ate lunch and went to C___ and H____’s. We read the Book of Mormon, as we usually do with them. After doing this we tried seeing some people, which didn't turn out too well. No one answers their doors, a typical Lordsburg thing. Anyways, after this we drove to Clifton, AZ and played basketball with a lot of nonmembers. It's always a good time to play ball.

Elder Degrange & I
At one of our host families

Wednesday, we had our district meeting, then went out and ate at R and R Pizza and Wings, again. I'm doing so bad at this diet thing! Actually, I just gave up on it, lol. After this we went on exchanges. I split with Elder Jordan and we drove to Lordsburg and had dinner at Kranberrys. I had my usual brisket meal. I love brisket!! After dinner we went to Bro. H___’s house. I introduced Elder Jordan and we talked for a while.

Thursday, had some highs and some pretty low lows. The day started out a little late when our alarm clock didn't go off. It didn’t go off because it died. Anywho, we walked to the post office, and picked up my awesome General Conference package from Sis. Sell (my seminary teacher). Thanks you so much Sis Sell, you would be delighted to know I took 13 pages of notes and ate all the snacks. I love you, Sis. Sell.

After our walk, we ate lunch and then went to C___ and H___’s. To my surprise, Cindy gave me her Spanish copy of el Libro de Mormon (Book of Mormon) with a note written in the back cover. When we visit them we speak to each other in Spanish, sometimes (except for Elder Degrange – he doesn’t speak a word of Spanish). Being out of practice, speaking Spanish is hard, but I was so happy to receive this gift from her. She expressed her love for us missionaries. I was blushing, lol. That was the high point of my day. We returned home and packed for our return trip. Elder Jordan and I then headed down to Animas NM. Little did I know what this night would hold for us. We had dinner with the W___s. We had a great time. We ate pizza and talked about stuff like summer internship opportunities in Alaska. I super interested, to be honest. Anyways, after we spent the night with the R___’s. We slept in the camp trailer. This is where the ‘fun’ begins. In the evening, it was as calm as it could be in the Caliche Valley. The second we got into the trailer, a massive dust storm blew in from out of nowhere. It was blowing and upwards of 90 miles per hour. Just to let you know, they haven't had a night dust storm in 60 years. It was awful! The wind was blowing so hard I literally got seasick from laying down in the trailer. So at 2:30 AM with no sleep, we went inside. From the walk from the trailer to the house, I was caked in dirt. The wind was so loud we didn't get to bed until like 5:30, so we got an hour of sleep that night. That, no doubt, literally was the worst night of my life!

Anyways, on Friday morning, the dust storm was still blowing. So, by the time we needed to leave to pick up Elder Degrange in Clifton AZ, the interstate was closed. Perfect! I'm just ranting now, lol. It was a disaster. We did manage to drive back to Clifton and pick up Elder Degrange, the drove to Cotton City, NM to go to R___’s and the H___’s birthday dinner party. We had some amazing meatloaf, potatoes and carrots with chocolate roll to top things off. For a first time making chocolate roll, P____ did amazing. Everybody loved it. She made two chocolate rolls, and they were completely gone, lol. So, it was a huge success. She's going to teach me how to make chili rellanos. I'm pumped, they sound amazing.

They made Chocolate Roll (Grandma Dickinson's recipe) for ME!!!!!!

Saturday was the best. We rode with the R___’s to her parents’ house. We watched the first session of General Conference. I think the first session was my favorite. After the first session we went out and did some service for them. We mowed the lawn, weed-wacked and burned a bunch of tumble weeds. It was fun. In the picture, I have my pants rolled up because I didn’t want the weed-wacker to stain my slacks green with weed juice. Lunch was BBQ pork sammies with a bunch of sides. We then finished our service and watched the second session, which was super good, as well. When this was done we drove down to Cotton City, NM and ate dinner with their family and watched the Priesthood Session. It was sad to see Thomas S. Monson getting so old. Anyways, it was a very good day.