Week 42: The Preciousness of Life

This week has been wild - in both good ways and bad.  This week has really opened my eyes to how precious life really is.  Not only how precious it is, but how life is too short to be upset.  I’ve come to the realization of how often our prayers are answered and we never know when or how.  For example: praying for safety on a trip home - I will go into more detail about that later on in this email.

Like I said before, this week was hectic. It all started on Monday – well, technically it started after Monday, because for me, Mondays are like Christmas to a little child. I literally can’t wait to hit send on my email to hear back from all of y’all. Mondays just downright get me through the week!

Tuesday:  We meet K__ for her baptismal interview, which she passed with flying colors! After her interview, we did some stop-by visits, including Sis. C__.  She’s the best, and I love her to death.  We visited for an hour or so until we had to head off to dinner.   We ended up eating on our own because we didn’t have a dinner appointment.  I made poor man’s curry. Dad would probably be insulted, lol.  It was just chicken and potatoes over rice mixed with curry powder. But it was all we had, lol.  After dinner, we meet with K__ at a church member’s house. It was a good lesson.

Wednesday was a blast! We had our Zone Conference.  We talked about a lot of stuff, but one thing in particular stuck out to me was about making the time you have left in your mission count, rather than counting the time you have left in your mission.  After this we had dinner with the Relief Society.  They had an activity called “Truth or Treat.’  We had to go to a lesson so we could only stay for the food part - impeccable timing, right?  We then sped off to our next lesson with A__ and J__.  We were able to set a baptismal date on November 25^th and a date for their wedding.  We are so excited to work with her, but it will take some work.

Thursday: We headed off to foodbank where we pre-opened stuff for 2 hours! After the food bank, we headed to Bro. Collingwood’s house and he drove us out to Three Points to visit people.  We stopped by and visited around 15 people.  I was basically Home Teaching, but we managed to generate two more teaching appointments for this week, which we hope will result in the setting of more baptismal dates!!!  It should be pretty interesting to see how it will all work out.  After this, we headed to Sells for our Book of Mormon class, which no one showed up for.  So, we visited people and invited them to come to church. It worked, because we had about 5x as many people come to church on Sunday!

Friday:  We had interviews with the Mission President and did our weekly planning. That was pretty much it for Friday. I did buy a new blanket, and I love it because the nights here are starting to get chilly.

Saturday:  I was running on no sleep (because I wasn’t used to my new blanket) we woke up at 5:00 am, picked up Bro. Collingwood and headed to Sells where we had a service project.  We poured a cement wheelchair ramp for someone. 

When it was complete it worked out well and it looked amazing!  And, I got to practice my construction skills. After this, we drove an hour and half to get to the church where it was time to FTF...fill the font, lol.  K__ was baptized on Saturday and I got the honor of preforming her baptism.  She is so happy and she said she will never forget or regret her decision. Those words were worth all of the trials an tribulation on my entire mission. After her baptism she had so many people welcoming her - she fits in so well.

Such a happy smile!

Sunday was a day to remember – for both good and bad.  We had a great Sacrament Meeting in Tucson (it was the Midvale Ward’s Conference). I fasted all day until dinner, so that turned out to be a defiantly a blessing. Bro. Collingwood drove us out to Sells, AZ and had sacrament out there, a lot of people showed up and it was a grand ole time. We were hurrying home to pick up my package from Mon and Dad from the front office of our apartment complex before it closed at 5:00.  However, we got stopped by the Border Patrol and Elder Ikimau forgot his passport. So, we were pulled over for 20 minutes while things got sorted out.  I wasn’t sure we were going to make it home by 5:00, so I suggested a different route to get home quicker (keep in mind, Bro. Collingwood was driving).  We ended up not taking the new route I suggested and at an intersection we were T-boned by a car that didn’t stop at the stop sign and turned into us. We were going about 55 mph at the time. It all happened so fast, I honestly don’t remember a lot, but thank goodness for Bro. Collingwood’s driving, because if he hadn’t done what he did, our vehicle would have defiantly rolled numerous times.  There was some damage done to Bro. Collingwood’s car that will have to be fixed and the other car was totaled.  Me being so tall and being in a small car I was in the back seat, leaning forward towards the center of the car and I hit my head on the window. To be honest, I was surprised it didn’t break. I have a nice goose egg on my head and I was slightly concussed and I wasn’t even sitting on the impact side.  It all happened so fast - everything was super confusing, but all-in-all we are all OK and resting. I do however feel like I got hit by a Mac truck. My neck down to my back is sore and of course my noggin.

Poor Bro. Collingwood! :(

So, this week I’ve learned life is precious. I’ve learned: When you pray for safe travel and you make it where you are going safely -be thankful!  I believe if I had been driving, I would not have reacted the same as Bro. Collingwood - because of his years of experience.  Or, if we would have been hit by a larger vehicle like a truck, we wouldn’t be here to tell the story. A Good Samaritan driving behind us that saw the whole thing and said it was gut-wrenching to watch, but yet we were all alright!  It was a miracle! I want to testify of divine happenings today. We had the Lord on our side, we were lucky to escape with little or no injuries. Life is too short and precious to be unhappy. So, smile and put one foot in front of the other and keep on trucking. Life can always be way worse than it seems. When it’s raining, don’t worry about getting wet, look for the rainbow and learn to dance in the rain. Life is beautiful. Enjoy what we have because evert day is a gift.

I love you guys so much!  Please email.

Love 

Elder Dickinson 

Week 41: Slow, but a Marvelous Week and .....my first "Hallow-Luau"

This week turned out to be pretty good, I must say! 

I honestly don’t know what else to start with, so I might as well jump right into my week:

Monday was a good day, even though we did jack-diddly.  We did nothing other than email, shoot hopes and play volleyball, which made for a chillaxing day.  Emailing home is always the highlight of the week - always is and always will be - for the next 13 months or so.  I want to let y’all know, I love each and every one of you guys! Hearing from everyone really makes my week – don’t be shy.  

Tuesday:  We started the day at the food bank.  After boxing 540 boxes of commodities we went home and got ready to meet with K__ at Bro. Collingwood’s home.  The lesson went well!  Lessons with K___ typically take 2 hours, but if that’s what it takes - you got to do what you got to do.  Good thing missionary schedules are flexible, lol!  We didn’t have a dinner appointment, so we worked through dinner, making stop-by visit – or at least trying to make stop-by visits.  We finally called it quits for the night and made dinner, which consisted of chicken and rice with various stuff thrown in.

Apparently this movie is popular?
Ohhhh, the streets of Tucson are not boring! :)

 Wednesday start off with us picking up some other Elders and driving to Sahuarita, AZ for our District Meeting.  We talked about how to invite people to commit to reading the Book of Mormon, being baptized and other things when we are teaching our investigators. Well, later that afternoon we had an opportunity to practice what we learned with K__.  After our lesson with her, we had a dinner appointment with the F___ family. We had pork, fries and baked beans -the all-American meal!  I loved it.  I got to share a message with them about a story titled  ‘Only $10’ I found in the 2013 Ensign (or Friend – I can’t remember which).  It was super powerful for some reason.  After that, we met C___, a less active recent convert and just talked about how things were going in her life.

Crazy Cactus

Thursday:  Back at the food bank, we completed almost 600 more boxes in just under 2 hours.  My arms where shot from tossing around 60lb bags of rice, lol.  After the food bank we met Bro. Collingwood and drove to Three Points.  We worked there until we had to go drive to Sells AZ for the Book of Mormon class we teach. After that, drove home and Bro. Collingwood took us out to McDonalds and I ate 2 Big Macs after a long hard day. 

Friday:  We did our weekly planning, which was boring, but afterwards we met up with a bunch of Elders and went to the Golden Corral and ate our hearts out! When a whole bunch of missionaries get together, especially at a buffet, nothing good happens!  It doesn’t take long before the eating contests starts. Needless to say, my stomach was wrecked for the rest of the day.  It wasn’t all that bad, because later that night we ate Panda Express for our dinner appointment with Bro, G__, lol.

Saturday: Yay! Bucky (Wisconsin Badger Football) won, #5 in the nation!  We had another meeting with K___, it went well.  Now, we only have two lessons left with her. We also finished our weekly planning and Elder Ikimau practiced a dance he would be doing at the Hallow-luau Ward Party we went to Saturday night (he is a Pacific Islander, you know). Man, that party a blast! We were only expecting around 45 people to show up. Well, 157 ended up showing up, it was standing room only!  It was soooo crazy!  We had dinner, a talent show and trunk-r-treat! Man, it was a blast - for sure! Because it was a luau, and we were required to wear missionary attire, I wore my Hawaiian shirt over my white shirt and tie, lol.  I got so many compliments. 

Elder Ikimau in his natural habitat (notice the lava lava)

Sunday - fun day!!! Man, Sundays here are craaaazy! We woke up at 6:00 and got ready for Ward Counsel Meeting. It was 63 degrees and I was cold! Man, it’s going to be brutal when I come home to Wisconsin next winter!  After Sacrament Meeting, we went to Bro. Collingwood’s for breakfast, then, we drove to Sells for their Sacrament Meeting.  After that, we taught a lesson to a new investigator. It will be interesting to see what comes from that lesson.  After that, we drove home and had dinner (chicken and rice). After dinner we taught another lesson to K__ with the F__ family and Bro. Collingwood. During that time, we helped plan her baptismal program – and she chose me to baptize her. I am honored and a little surprised.

 Well, this week was awesome and I can’t wait to hear from y’all!

Love you,

🌡🌵🌴Elder Connor William Dickinson 🌴🌵🌡

Week 40: No drums, no electric guitar....no deal?

Well, this week has been one for the record books!  It was crazy, to say the least. It was another one of those weeks where we had a lot of busy work things, which all were time consuming ...catch my drift?  So, that is what I had to deal with this week and it went by fast - now, that I look back at it.

That being said, it was a beautiful week, we just need you guys to send some cooler weather our way. That would me much appreciated!

Monday:  We had a good P-Day, but I was pretty sick. So, I just laid in the same spot all day.  It sucked, but I got to email home all day – so, it wasn’t that bad after all.  That evening, I was still sick, so we came home and I slept, since we don’t have dinner appointments on Mondays anymore. Why? We are just too rushed for time. So, we just decided to eat on our own on Mondays, which is totally fine by me.

Tuesday:  We got to sleep in, because I was too darn sick and just felt like trash, so, I slept until 9:00 a.m. and then Elder Ikimau made me breakfast, which is a nice little thing he did for me.  He is such a good person! After all of this I mustered up enough courage to go to the foodbank. Later, we went to the library for an hour of family history and then went home so I could rest some more.  It was kind of funny; I got such good sleep during my nap, I woke up thinking it was the next morning, lol. In reality, it was 5:09 on a Tuesday evening, lol. We went to dinner with Sis L__ and the C___ family.  It was a blast!  We visited and shared stories while eating tacos! I guess that makes it Taco Tuesday, right?  Lol.

Wednesday was the beginning of the onslaught of some crazy days. First, we had District Meeting. It was fun, we played a scripture chase game with our district.  After that, we drove a good 45 minutes to our church building for a lesson with a new investigator we had never met with her before.  She is a super cool lady.  Her name is K__ S__.  She has really interesting views on how to connect the gospel. science and the bible.  So she believes it all, but with some additional features and details of her own, lol. The half hour trip to the church, a 2 hour lesson, then the half hour return trip took up our whole day. So, after that, we had dinner with the R__s, Sis. R___ made us chicken breaded in Capt’n Crunch. It was awesome! Then Bro. R___ started a fire and us boys just sat around the fire just relaxing and sharing mission and other stories.  It was a good wind down.

A FIRE in 100 degree Arizona, wierd huh? I LOVED it! :D

Thursday was day two of our four crazy days.  We started with two hours of service at the food bank. After that, we drove to the church and taught K___ the restoration. It was another 2 hour lesson…she talks a ton, but I was able to invite her to be baptized and she made a baptismal date for Oct 28th!  After her lesson, we drove to the C__’s for a dinner appointment. We shared the evening with them since they knew Elder Ikimau previously, so they caught up after a year and a half. 

Friday was day 3 of 4 of our crazy days.  Instead of doing our full weekly planning, we did half of our planning to make time for another 2 hour lesson with K___.  That sucked up a lot of time – with all of the driving.  We did manage to go out to Sushi Ten for lunch, but then we ate dinner with Sis. D___ at Chili’s! It was a blast getting to eat out and watch Clemson lose!

Saturday, we finished our planning and then taught K__ another lesson.  Yes, it was another 2 hour lesson and yes, she talked a lot, but how often do you find an investigator who wants to meet every day for 4 straight days?  After this, the people we had a dinner appointment with had a baptism to go to. So, they took us along and we ate with them afterwards… at the person who got baptized house.  We didn’t know any of the people there, but we got to meet new people and make new friends who I will never see again, lol - but it was a blast!

Sunday fun day,

Sunday was cool.  Our investigator K___ came to church for the first time! But, she was genuinely upset at the lack of drums and electric guitar...... so hopefully we don’t lose her over that!  That would be disappointing.  After Sacrament Meeting we headed to the newly returned Bro. Collingwood’s house for an awesome breakfast of apple cinnamon pancakes, and they were darn good!  After that, we drove out to Sells AZ and had church out there and then drove back and went to dinner with the C___’s again! It was nice and it was the first time I honestly enjoyed eating broccoli, or however you spell it, lol.

YUM, these when I get home please.... <3

This week was awesome, but tiring physically and spiritually to be honest! And I want to personally thank Sis. Sell for the Halloween package! I loved it!

I hope yall had an awesome week, love you

Elder Dickinson 

Week 39: Highs and Lows

This week was wonderful! 

However, Elder Bangerter was transferred out and that makes me sad.  He was made a District Leader in Clifton, AZ.  Elder Bang, if you read this, good luck with your next companion!  Also my mission Dad (my trainer, Elder Degrange) died (finished his mission and returned home).  It is so crazy to think he has been back to normal life for almost a week now!  Also, I hit my nine month mark this week and we had another baptism!

Saying Goodbye to my Dad (Elder Degrange) 

Even though this week was full of wonderful things, by the end of the week I started to get sick.  I don’t know if it is a cold or what, but I have also had endless stomach aches. Even though it is seems minor, prayers would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance ;)

Well, I might as well hop right into my week:

Monday was a good day.  After our P-Day activities and the fun stuff we went out to see Sis. C__,one last time with Elder Bangerter.  Then, we had dinner at Denny’s.  I had the salted caramel banana cream pancakes, they were very good! That was Monday, and of course emailing the wonderful people abroad!

Tuesday morning, I had to say good-bye to Elder Bangerter and Elder Degrange.  It was bittersweet, minus the sweet part.  It actually hurt to see my trainer leave to return home.  He was like family to me out here - because I have none out here - but that’s life, so I’ll roll with the punches.  After saying goodbye to those two, I was in a temporary trio companionship with Elders Lorensen and Wilko while I waited for my new companion to show up.  We had a dandy ole day - then Elder Ikimau showed up at four o’clock. After I picked him up, we had a dinner appointment with the C___ family, then returned home so Elder Ikimau could get unpacked and settled in.  Here is a little background on Elder Ikimau.  He is 26 years old and is from Nieu (pronounced New Way) an island 2,400 kilometers northeast of New Zealand. Nieu is about 100 square miles, a populaion around 1,600 people and is considered a self governing country in free association with New Zealand. He is a spiritual giant and will finish his mission in December.

Bye Bye Bang!

Wednesday was a long day.  We drove to Sahaurita, AZ for our District Meeting.  On the way, we had to pick up the Valencia Elders.  After District Meeting, we came home, had lunch and then did our studies until dinner.  Sadly, we didn’t have a dinner appointment and had dinner on our own, but that’s OK.  After dinner we drove to the Church for S__’s baptismal interview.  He is such a smart kid!  He passed his interview, lol.   He already knew all the stuff from Primary, so we basically just had him teach us the lessons - reverse psychology, lol.

Elder Ikimau's flag of Niue 

We started Thursday off at the food bank.  We were part of a group of Elders and Sisters and we did the same amount of crates in an hour that some groups can do in an entire day!  We assembled over 500 crates - so it was a job well done!  After the food bank, we went to the library for an hour and did family history, then we came home and ate lunch.  Later, we attempted some stop-by visits with no success.  We had to cancel a dinner appointment because of the Book of Mormon class we teach in Sells, but guess what.  No one showed up for the class, so we drove 100 miles and cancelled a perfectly good dinner appointment for nothing.  So, after a long day and a lot of driving we got home late and made ourselves some dinner and hit the hay.

Coconut Drink from Brother O! :) Literally, a COCONUT!!

Friday we did our weekly planning, wahoo!  Not really…it was just alright, but we had dinner with the K__ family before S__’s baptism the next morning.  So, Friday was comprised of two time consuming things.

Saturday was S__’s big day!   S__’s baptism was something special!  I think a huge part of it was because one of the speakers’ talk really set the tone for the Spirit!  It was a super awesome moment!  I can’t really describe it fully because it was all just kind of blurred together in happiness and joy! I performed the baptism and Bro. O__ confirmed him.  After his baptism, we headed home, ate lunch and I got lined up (got my hair cut). Uce (Elder Ikimau’s nick name) cut my hair.  He is an amazing hair cutter – which comes in handy! After that we went and visited Sis C___ and Sis P__.   It was awesome!  She surprised us with a strawberry and banana trifle she made, and man, is it delicioso!  So, Saturday was just an awesome day!

S's Baptism day! So proud of him!!

Sunday - fun day:  Man this Sunday was brutal!!! We woke up and attended Sacrament Meeting in the Midvale Ward, then we drove home, ate breakfast and drove to the Sells Branch for their Sacrament Meeting.  Just like Thursday’s Book of Mormon class, almost no one showed up.  Everyone must have been all thrown off by General Conference last week.  Anyways, after our block of meetings in Sells, we had to drive back to Tucson and pick up some food that had been prepared by Midvale ward members and then drive all the way out to Three Points to deliver it to two families in need.  After that, we headed back to Midvale for Ward Correlation Meeting.  We wore our suits all day, so it was hot!

Ugh what a week it was!  I can’t wait to hear from y’all! I hope y’all have a wonderful week!

Love dearly,

Elder Dickinson 

Week 38: R.I.P. Dad (trainer)

Well beloved family and friends, another week has passed and that means I’ve already been in Midvale for 6 weeks, which that means its transfer time again.  I have two items of sad news.  First, my mission Dad (the Elder who trained me - Elder Degrange) is dying on Tuesday (finishing his mission and returning home to his family).  Second, Elder Bangerter is getting transferred to Clifton, AZ.  We thought we would be together for a while, but President Browning had something else in mind.   My new companion will be Elder Ikimau. He is from Samoa! I’m excited to learn from him, he is a great guy!  I’m pretty positive that after this next transfer he is headed home, too.

Man, I'm going to miss Elder Bangerter!!

So, last week didn’t end as planned, but that’s life.  You’ve got to roll with the punches!

Anyways, I would love to hear from y‘all!  Feel free to email me and I will reply back!

Other than transfer news, this week was just like any other here in Midvale! 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) marks the start of my 7th transfer and Thursday (Oct 4^th) will by my 9 month mark!  Brother Collingwood is still on vacation for another 2 weeks.  We miss him and the great work he does.

Monday:  I know I say this every week, but it rings true – every time!  I love talking to you guys - especially Mom and Dad.  Seeing what I see out here every day, makes me grateful for the family I have.  I’m not sure if I could do this if it wasn’t for talking to you guys on Mondays! That’s how much of an impact a simple email on Monday has on me. After we finished emailing on Monday we had a dinner appointment with Sis. G___ at Whataburger. Its one of the burger chains you need to eat at, just so you can cross it off your bucket list, it was a fun time!

Tuesday we helped out at the food bank for a while then stopped at the library to do an hour of family history.  After all this fun stuff we came home, did studies and ate lunch.  Later, we headed out to see some people (referrals). They always seem to be working, lol.  We had dinner with the G__ family, but they were super busy.  They gave us a $20 to split and we ate on our own.

Wednesday was a pretty good day.  We had Zone Conference. The subject of this conference was using Facebook for proselyting and how to iron clothes. It was kind of a weird combination of topics, but was very informative. We had chicken taco salad for lunch and it was super good. After Zone Conference, we had an hour before dinner so we ran home, freshened up and headed out to a dinner appointment with the M___ family.  We ate at some Mexican restaurant…I swear after my mission, it might be a sloid year before I eat Mexican food again!!!!!!! Anyways, it was good, but we were so full from lunch, ugh.  After dinner we had a Ward Correlation Meeting and talked about the ward. That was about it for the night.

Our totally serious faces!

Yes, that is Elder Bangerter on my shoulders! LOL :O

#wehadthebestposeatzoneconference

Thursday was basically the same as Tuesday, except our dinner appointment cancelled, so we ended up eating at our apartment and then doing some stop-by visits. Oh, I did receive my package!!!!! Thank you so much Grandma for the gifts and Mom and Dad, thank you. I love packages and am looking forward to more to come! 

I LOVE care packages!

 Japanese candy my Dad had on his mission! Its surprisingly good!

Friday was our planning day and of course we taught S__ K__.  I will probably end up baptizing him - who knows though.  We taught a simple lesson on Tithing and the Word of Wisdom!  He is still on track for baptism this upcoming Saturday!

Saturday consisted of driving to and from church 3 times! Church is 30 minutes one way, lol. Why? We had General Conference = 3 sessions on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. It was hard to pay attention because the A/C went and it was 95 degrees in the church!  I sweat through my shirt, lol. We also visited Sis. C__ in between sessions. Later, we got Elder Bangerter’s transfer call. :(

Tahono O'Odham maze man theory 

Sunday - fun day! Luckily, we were able to watch General Confine at the P___ family’s house – were it was nice a cool. They live in Sahaurita, but we got permission to go down there to watch it with them.  They made us some awesome French toast and eggs for breakfast and then for lunch they made us some baked Italian sandwiches! It was a fun time with a house full of people enjoying conference shenanigans!

This week here in Tucson was pretty darn good!  I hope y’all had the same!

Love you,

Elder Dickinson