Week 18: The Importance of Family History & Temples

 Long time no talk.

This week has been lack luster and an emotional roller coaster. It had its ups (mostly right before bed) and it had its downs - which I don’t really want to go into detail, because I will just get angry when I don’t need to. 

So, Monday was fantastic.  It was just what I needed. You saw the videos and pictures I sent, so you know what I’m talking about. And, I always enjoy getting to talking to you guys. Mondays are literally what I live for.  Before my mission, I hated Mondays. Now I long for them.

Tuesday. We went to H___ and C___’s. It was a good experience, as always. It was a fun time and H___ is hilarious. Then, we did a whole lot of walking around with no success in finding anyone to teach.  No effort was wasted, but that really summed up our Tuesday.  We walked 8.3 miles which made for a sore back.

Wednesday we drove to Duncan, AZ for interviews with the Mission President, followed by our District Meeting.  My interview went good, we talked about my companionship and turns out my companion didn’t listen to his trainer either.  For the last 3 weeks we have done everything he wants and has never followed any of my suggestions. So, I’m straight up just going to try to do as much service as possible during the 23 days left until transfers.

Me and the girls (Angie & Iris) just chillin' after a hard days work!

During our District Meeting, we talked about the importance of family history and temples. (Sorry in advance to Grandma and possibly others, but before my mission, I wasn’t big on family history – until this week.) Now, over the course of my mission I have found 66 ordinances to perform. An elder in our district made it super personal. He told us all to, "imagine your ancestors or relatives are watching down over you from the Spirit World.  If you were one of those people and you were ready to accept the gospel, but none of your living family members where doing family history, finding and doing the ordinances…How sad or frustrated do you think you would be?”  He said some other things, but that is the best I can remember.

The Mission President also announced - instead being limited to attending the temple 3 times a year, we now get to go to the temple every other transfer, about 6 to 7 times a year.  So, before I get transferred on Memorial Day, I will get to go to the Gila Valley Temple on Stake Temple day. Most importantly, I’ll get to go with Scott and Paralee Richins, my ‘mission family’ down here. I can’t wait!  It will be one of the best days of my mission, so far.

The J's family goats

Anyways, after our district meeting we went out to lunch at Wanda’s and I had chicken nuggets, which were tasty, as always.  Then we drove back to Lordsburg, then drove to Granite Gap, NM where the YM/YW had a repelling activity.  It was pretty cool, but we weren’t allowed to climb, but it would have been so awesome though, right? I made the most out of my time and had good talks with Sis Kerr and Sis McDougal

Thursday was a good day, but not really productive.  We walked around Lordsburg doing street contacting while we walked to our appointments, but they all fell through. No appointment held. So it was a bummer, but we did get to teach J___ in Spanish again. Then we drove 70 miles to Windmill NM for dinner with the J___s. Man, I can’t wait to haven our family ranch!  The J___s are living in paradise! They are growing an amazing garden, have an orchard of pecan, peaches, cherries, apples and apricots. They have goats, chickens, rabbits, dogs, everything. Their family ranch has 20 out of the 60 people who live in Windmill.  After dinner we drove 30 miles northwest to Cotton City and stayed the night there.

Friday was awful.  My previous companion, Elder Degrange and I were able to do weekly planning in about 2 hours.  Now it takes us six. I don’t understand.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been trying my hardest, but I just don’t understand - let alone comprehend - his train of thought. Anyways, after planning, we did family history with Scott and Paralee, got some family names for us to take to the temple. Then, I literally got the shortest hair cut in my life and I love it! Marine or missionary, good luck guessing, lol.

My crazy SHORT haircut! I love it! :)

Saturday we did service at this bike race in Duncan, then we drove an hour to Animas and did service at the H___s.  We will be doing a lot of service for them coming up. We were supposed to paint at Z___ H___’s, but I ended up digging a hole for 4 hours to fix a water main break.  It was a good experience, in general and it was a fun. But there is still a ton of service to do. The water main break happened while we were there, so it was a good thing it happened then. Afterwards, we were all super sore so we watched conference talks for an hour and headed to bed. 

The hole we dug to fix the water line

Me holding the valve and broken hose part

Sunday was a good day.  We woke in Animas and went to ward council, Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School, then drove to Lordsburg and taught the M___ brothers their last lesson along with practicing the interview questions. They passed. So we have scheduled their baptism for May 13th, and I will get to baptize them…hopefully. After this, we went to Bro H___’s house and wished him a happy birthday. Then we planned out the M___’s baptism and then drove to Cotton City again for dinner with the K___’s then we drove to Lordsburg and talked to the Bishop, and this was my week, not exciting except for the baptisms, lol 

Anyways, I love you all,

Elder Dickinson