Well, simply put this week was a bit of a rollercoaster
ride. Sadly, there were a lot of dips
and negatives, but that’s part of life, right?
The only way to gain knowledge and grow is to go through the
refiner’s fire. Nobody said life would
be easy, but it’s all meant for the best. The best or strongest things in life likely
require more heat, stretching, and pounding to become stronger! Liken it to Damascus steel that must be folded,
heated and pounded flat hundreds of times, over and over again. This process makes the strongest steel one can
manufacture. Or, much like football, it is about seeing how hard you can get
hit, get up and hit back. Moving forward is a trying process.
That being said, I probably prefaced that a little more
intensely than I should have, lol. I was on my soap box. Maybe someone needed
that, who knows, lol.
Anyways, I want to jump right into the week to share what
happened:
Monday was a good day filled with volleyball, emailing home
and getting ready to receive my new companion.
Tuesday: What…A…Day! We woke up early for transfers. We got Elder Perry and Elder Lee’s stuff loaded
in the truck. We then took departing
pictures and drove to the Tucson Stake Center for transfers. We got to the transfer site and talked to a
bunch of other missionaries until we dropped Elder Perry off and got our new
companions. After receiving Elder Searles, we went home dropped
everything off and headed to foodbank for 2 hours of service. After that, we went shopping and returned home
to unpack. Being I had a very short
night of sleep the night before, he unpacked and I took a nice short nap.
 |
| Saying Goodbye to Elder Lee (A lowrider, Saint Mary and a UFO describes our area perfectly) |
After Elder Searles unpacked his stuff we drove 75 miles to Topawa,
AZ to teach the M___ family. They had set a bap date of February 17th. While we were teaching them, we got a call
from Mission President saying that after yesterday’s transfers he now had two
missionaries in a driving area who could not drive. He told me his plan initially had me transferring
to the Corona ward, but, with the issues I mentioned last week, I ended up
staying in Midvale and this caused a domino effect that required an emergency
transfer.
After that call, we had to haul home from Topawa. We left at 7:15pm and got home at 8:33pm. When we got home we realized that Elder Searles
had unpacked all of his stuff and had bought a bunch of food. So, we had to speed pack everything in 10
minutes and drive another 30 minutes to the transfer sight. We arrived at 9:30ish. Man, that day was a mess. But we got it
figured out. My new, new companion is Elder
Witzel from Draper, Utah he has been out for 18 months. He is awesome and hilarious so I’m excited.
Wednesday, was basically a PDay all over again because we
had to shop for Elder Witzel and he needed to unpack. So, as he unpacked I cleaned up a bit. After we finished, we didn’t have a
dinner appointment so I made wild rice and a chicken breast. Man, that was killer! After our dinner we had a lesson with Sister B__,
a returning member.
Thursday started with a work out and it felt Wonnnnnnderful!
Man, I’ve missed it. After that, we went
to foodbank where we packaged 1000+boxes of food! After the foodbank we went out to do some
street contacting. I don’t know if it
was because it was almost 90 degrees in February or if it was Armageddon or
something, but no one was out.... we walked 6 miles on what is usually a very
well trafficked road and only saw one person - who was not interested. So, we then had dinner appointment with the I___
family. We had some good cheese burgers!
After dinner we taught a returning
member. She’s currently gearing up to go
to the temple to take out her endowment so she can be there for her daughter’s wedding.
It is so awesome to be able to help her get to the temple!
 |
| Desert Sunset |
Friday, for the most part was mainly a planning day. We
planned out our upcoming week.
Saturday: We visited Sis.
C__ for an hour or two. Following that,
we went home and tidied up a little bit. We then had a dinner appointment with
one of my favorite families, the C___’s. We had breakfast for dinner and it was good! During dinner we got an urgent call to
give someone a blessing. So, we jump
into action and I texted the ward member who lived closest to the person needing
the blessing and asked if he could help.
He is a firefighter and little did I know he was already giving that
person a blessing. The person was having
a heart attack and I’m glad the firefighter was there to do it, because I would
have been scared out of my wits. They tried to persuaded the person to go to
the hospital, but they refused knowing they were dying. The person passed away about an hour later. I don’t know why I was prompted to text this
person to help, but I’m glad I did...the Lord works in mysterious ways, but now
this person is in a better place.
Sunday was a wonderful day.
We went on splits and I was with Bro. C___ and Bro O__. And Elder Witzel
went with Collingwood out to Sells. After we reconvened later in the
afternoon. We had a short lesson with sister B__ and then went home a did our
studies.
We learned this week that the tribe will not let the M__
kids get baptized. What a dagger to the
heart. I have grown to love those little
kids, but due to the tribe’s decision I can no longer help them. This was the
ultimate dip of my rollercoaster ride this week.
All in all, we need to learn, grow and live the most and
best we can! I’d like to invite you to
be meek and mild - willing to learn and to be coachable - because, you may just
learn something that could help you in the long run.
I will most likely be unable to email until the afternoon tomorrow.
We will be going to the gem show. Why? To say we went, lol. So, this being said I will email to the best
of my abilities until the afternoon. Once we get back, I will most likely be
free most of the afternoon.
Elder Dickinson
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