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 🌴🌵🌡