Week 15: Same Area, New Compañero

I love Lordsburg, love love love it!  Everybody asks me why. I love it because I love the people.

Saturday night we got the transfer call and Elder Degrange is transferring to Safford, AZ, 3rd and 5th wards, on a bike. I'm taking over Lordsburg and my new companion will be Elder Rodriguez, transferring from Douglas.  He has only been out for three transfers - so it's going to be the blind leading the blind, lol.  He is Spanish speaking so he has to do language studies. Here's my chance to better my Spanish for a month and a half.  Everybody says he's pretty cool.

Anyways, time to start the weekly report:

Monday:  It was sad to hear about poor Finley, but it was nice hearing from you, as always. It gave me a sense of comfort with the whole situation.

Tuesday was an interesting day. In the morning, we were going to do service, but we ended up just doing individual studies instead. After lunch, we went over to H ___and C___’s and read from the Book of Mormon. We read five chapters that day. She loved it. We then had dinner at L___ P___’s house. He is the brother of Lordsburg’s bishop. He's an awesome guy. I look up to both of them. There just happened to be a member from out of town staying at his house. It was a cool situation. So we taught them the restoration for practice and it went very well.  We then went over to T___ F___’s house and taught him about enduring till the end. The spirit was defiantly there. 

It is sooo beautiful here

Wednesday - The Zone Leaders slept over Tuesday night, so we went on exchanges with them again today.  After that we all drove to our district meeting in Duncan, AZ. After district meeting we went out and ate at R and R Pizza – I bet you couldn't have guessed that, lol. We then drove back to Lordsburg and visited a few people. We tried to find some referrals, but no one answered their door, so we left our Easter message cards which have an offer of us doing service.  A lady called back later that night and offered us $200 to come clean her yard. Of course, being service we can't take money, but we were shocked at the offer. Hopefully we will get an investigator out of this contact. After this we drove all the way back to Duncan for a missionary stake meeting. It was a good meeting. We talked about who needs help and what not. Lordsburg is the busiest of the 3 areas included in the meeting.

Yet another beautiful sunset

Thursday morning, we had to set up tables for a senior center event at our Church’s pavilion (the Lordsburg ward building is too small to have a gym or cultural hall, so across the street from the church, they have a pavilion where they hold any activities we hold in cultural hall in Wisconsin) So, we did that for community service. One of the people running the event was a church member and asked us to stay for lunch. We did because we had to take down the tables shortly after. All the senior citizens loved the little Easter egg hunt and picnic. They all thanked us. It was well worth the effort. After that we went to H___ and C___’s and read the Book of Mormon. After we read with them a guy pulled up to H___’s mechanic shop with a blown out tire. We helped H___ patch the spare, mount it and balance the rest of tires. H___ made a quick $25, but he offered us the money since we did all the work and got our hands dirty, but then we said no to the money, I was just happy to learn how to do that.  H___ being H___ said, "SHUT UP AND TAKE IT. " He told us he loved us, lol.  He said, “Go buy yourself a sandwich.”  After that, we went and finished weeding B___ S___’s yard, remember we started working on it last week. Then we had dinner at Kranberry’s  and went home.

Friday was service day. We started off by doing service for the lady I told you about earlier. We ended up being there from 8:30 to 2:30. We had to hula-hoe her yard of weeds, rake them out of the dirt, then smooth it back out. We also weed-wacked all the tall weeds.  It took forever and my arms still hurt. After that, we used H___’s tire money to eat at a new diner in town.  It was very good. We both had a burger called the Big Juan.  It has 2 big patties, avocado, extra hot green chilies and cheese - it was very, very good.  After lunch we did studies and then drove to a dinner appointment in Animas with the C____s.

Elder Degrange meets the "Big Juan"

This is one serious burger! 

Saturday was full of driving, we woke up in Animas did our studies then drove to Rodeo saw some peeps.  We did our weekly planning in the canyon bottom river bed of the Chircahue Mountain Range in Portal, AZ. It was beautiful (check out Google Images of the Chircahue Mountains) Then we had dinner with Sis B___’s. She made curry, the kind my Dad makes.  She wants you to take a picture of the brand or curry Dad uses and maybe even send a sample so she can buy it. She had toppings like raisins, apples coconut and peanuts for it. Man, did they add a whole new dimension to the curry, it was amazing. Then we drove back to Lordsburg. 

Sunday - Happy Easter! We had to speak in sacrament meeting, but being so busy during the week I didn't get to write my talk until Sunday morning. We were asked to speak on Easter, but being a missionary, I talked on how Jesus Christ was the best missionary.  I talked about Easter combined with member missionary work. Everybody loved it for some reason. During my talk I told of some funny things speakers should do and everybody loved it, lol. It was only a 15 minute talk, but it was a good one. Then we drove to Animas, NM and went to Sunday School and Priesthood classes so Elder Degrange could say goodbye to everyone, it was sad. I was thinking that will be me in a month and a half - but that is just part of the mission. I actually almost cried watching Elder Degrange saying goodbye to the people, it made me so sad. I love these people soooo much.

Elder Degrange doing the "hula-hoe"

Nice work, right?

After all this, we drove back to Lordsburg and played cards with members at Bro. H___’s house until dinnertime. So, technically we had like 6 member visits in about 3 hours, so it all worked out. Bro. ___’s mom is 92 years old, we played a game called Books and Run.  At the end, when she lost by like 100 points, she exclaimed. "This is the most fun I've ever had with missionaries." it was the cutest thing!  We then drove to Bishop’s house for Easter dinner. We had ham and potatoes and all the good stuff.  We had homemade southern pecan pie and I about lost my mind it was so good… but Grandma's is still better.  After dinner we went and cleaned up the apartment like crazy and Elder Degrange packed up all his stuff and we drove to Duncan, AZ. Transfers are on Tuesday, but if we save the miles, we might just stay here. 

 Chircahue Mountain River bed is the perfect place for a planning meeting

Elder Degrange (DL) conducting our weekly planning meeting

But anyways that was our last week together, it was not only crazy productive, but it was a good week even though I was stressed out about Finley, I didn't let it show.  Hopefully, Finley keeps getting better. Keep the faith and keep praying. Poor pup.

Love you guys so much.  Until next week,

Elder Dickinson 

P.S. Check out the picture below (bittersweet memories)

Elder Dickinson and Elder Degrange's last ride