What are you thankful for?
Here is a short list of the things I’m thankful for: My Parents, my late dog, my family (and family
in general), learning opportunities, the Church and the Book of Mormon.
I am indeed grateful to be serving a mission also. Why? So far, it has been tough being away from home, family and various other activates -
especially during the holidays. I am
grateful for the spiritual growth and maturing that come from serving a
mission. I must also say, while I miss
all of the stuff back home, I know I am where I need to be. In just a
short couple days, I will only have a year left before I return home - in early
December of next year😉. Oh, how time has flown by. Right?
Anyways, this week has been a good one; whether it was Thanksgiving
Day spent with Bishop and his family, or being thoroughly humbled by being able
to serve others this week.
That being said, here is what my week looked like:
Monday was a wonderful, even though we didn’t do much. I got to write home! That is and will always be the highlight of Mondays
- hands down! While we are not too sure
of our plans for this Monday, I am looking forward to hearing from all of you! If you are reading this, shoot me an email at
connor.dickinson@myldsmail.net,
I’d love to hear from you – yes YOU!
Tuesday was hectic!
We ended up putting together 1,200 boxes of food at the food bank,
instead of our usual 530 boxes. This being
the week of Thanksgiving, it was really busy! They were taking the boxes we
put together right out of our hands as soon as we filled them up, turned around and handed them to people in need I was blessed to be a part of the workers
on that day. It was a special opportunity.
Sadly, I got stuck on juice duty. I had to add a 3lb bottle of juice to each
box during the whole time we were at the food bank. If you do the math, one 3lb bottle of juice
per box X 1,200 boxes = 1.8 tons of juice! After the food bank, we headed out to contact
some referrals. We’ve been busy lately
and the referrals we receive have been piling up. We had seven referrals and we visited all of
them - without one bit of luck. Oh well,
time will tell if our visits will come to anything – and we can always try
again later. That night, we had dinner with
the C___ family. They are a very nice, young family. They had a super cool bathroom with a Roman
walk-in shower/tub thingy. It was a very
cool idea (from a construction management point of view). After dinner, we stopped by K___ to check in
with her, but she wasn’t home. As we
were leaving, she pulled into her driveway. She had a rough day and was just glad to have
someone to talk to. God works in mysterious
ways. I was glad we were able to stop by her place and help, even if it was
something simple, like listening to her.
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| They love their fires here in AZ! |
Wednesday was a good day.
We had our District Meeting at the Los Reales Ward Building, here in Tucson.
We learned about teaching the commandments.
After the District Meeting we went out
to eat at a Chinese buffet and almost ate ourselves to sleep. After that, we did some stop-by visits with
some active church members. Later, we
had dinner with the B__ family. We had
chicken, potatoes and broccoli – it was a great dinner! After that, we had a lesson with a relatively
recent convert. We talked to her for a
little bit and then that was a wrap for the day.
Turkey Day: Gobble
gobble, lol. As far as I am concerned, Thanksgiving
was an awesome day! It started off as a
normal day until linner (you know, the meal between lunch and dinner = linner).
We went over to Bishop’s house at 3:00
for linner and we ate an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. The best part was the candied yams and green
beans. Man, I am excited to be home for
Thanksgiving (2019, sigh) and eat those awesome green beans Mom makes! After eating dinner, we played tetherball, had
nerf wars and later played table tennis. After all of this we headed home with a ton of
food they boxed up for us. We made it
home and felt like we were going to die from how much we ate. I did miss being with family, huntin’ ‘up nort’
(No, that’s not a type-o, that’s how they say it in Wisconsin. Yeah, it’s weird
- if you’re not from there) – but that’s OK, because I have the rest of my life
for that kind of stuff. Man, it was the hottest
Thanksgiving I have ever seen. We have been breaking all kinds of temperature
records lately. This was the first time I have ever had a 94 degree Thanksgiving,
lol.
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| SOOOOOOO FULLLLL! |
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| Post Thanksgiving Linner Smiles |
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| Best way to work off linner....NERF WAR! |
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| Thats some serious competition! |
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| Leftovers! Thank you! |
Friday was an interesting day - for sure! First, we did our weekly planning while we recovered
from the day before. You would have thought we were hungover... nope just coming
out of a food coma, lol. It was rough! After planning, Elder Ikimau and I were
invited to go to a fireside in Topawa, AZ. Part of the O'Odham (the native American tribe
on the reservation we serve) culture is you can only tell stories in the
winter. So now that it had been cooling down, (call it winter if you want to,
but 94 degrees…not in Wisconsin, lol) after sunset, they can tell their folklore. They shared a story about the Great Flood - it
was comparable to the Noah’s Arc story. After
they shared their story, Elder Ikimau shared a story form his Niuean tribal
lore. It defiantly was special in the
fact that it was like a family reunion, where nobody has ever meet before. It was honestly one of the coolest things I’ve
experienced. After sharing his story
Elder Ikimau did a 'haka,' the war dance they do before well...war. It is a sacred dance. He is teaching me and
one other elder in the district the haka, so we can send him off next month
when he goes home. I can’t wait! It is going to be awesome. I will have someone record it when the time
comes. That being said, he has given every
one of his companions a lava-lava (look it up). Well, me being his dying (last)
companion, I will be receiving the lava-lava his mother gave him, the one his
mother wore to school in Fiji, the one he used his whole mission and the one he
wore growing up. I am so honored to
accept it! We have grown close over the
last couple of weeks.
Saturday was a very
humbling day for me. It was a normal day
until about 3 o’clock when Bro. Collingwood drove us to Sells to help a family
named the D__s, on the reservation. Sis.
D__ is from a tribe in North Carolina and her mother is sick, so she is in N.C.
taking care of her. Sis. D__’s husband is
60 and has been suffering from Parkinson’s since he was 40. It came on really fast. They were a normal family
until one day they were playing volleyball and he had a stroke, which basically
activated his Parkinson’s. He has had
batteries placed in his chest with a wire running to his brain, which has
helped stop the shaking. He can no
longer stand, eat or get into bed alone. He can hardly talk or do anything. It’s extremely sad. I was HONORED to be able to help watch over him for that night. We spent the night with him since he was
basically alone all day. So, we had a
tender mercy of watching football with him and talking with him for the night. We later help put him into bed and got
everything situated for him and for the person who would be there to help in
the morning. This was all super humbling
for me! It made me wonder why we
complain about what we have or don’t have?
Things we have to do – No – make that things we GET to do. Don’t take what
you have or what you do for granted because it can all change in the blink of
an eye!
I know I have been guilty of this and will probably be
again. It was such a humbling
experience.
Sells also has more than its fair share of crime. There were two shootings in Sells while we were
there, which resulted in one death. There was a big gang fight…with knives and
guns...the Crips from L.A. are really strong and active out there right now.
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| This happened across the street from my apartment! |
Anyways, Sunday was a long day for me. It included me doing the
following:
-
Attending Ward Council Meeting (Midvale Ward)
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Giving the Opening Prayer (Midvale Ward
Sacrament Meeting)
-
Blessing the Sacrament (Midvale Ward)
-
Driving to and from Sells, AZ. (150 miles round
trip)
-
Blessing the sacrament (Sells Branch)
-
Giving a Spur of the moment Sacrament Meeting talk
on charity (Sells Branch)
-
Eating only one meal all day
-
The saving of souls (aka missionary work)...Priceless
It was all worth it but I was wiped out.
I hope all of y’all’s week was as good and fruitful as mine
was.
I sure do love y’all!
🌵Elder Connor William
Dickinson🌵
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