As I look back on this week and what we accomplished -
number wise - I cringe. Yet, if I
look at the number of people we saw and spoke with (60+) it wasn’t so bad - and
we managed to find one new investigator.
So, I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks and you decide if it
was productive or not.
I was recently doing some study and pondering on something
Grandpa Collingwood once told me. He
said, “Just because you are working hard in your area, exercising faith to find
people and are coming up short doesn't mean your efforts are wasted. The Lord blesses any amount of work, but it
might not be in your area.” So, while we
are struggling here, who knows, maybe our faith is affecting others in
different areas. That thought makes all the rejection a little more
bearable.
Saturday was rough! We
woke up and did some service and it was hot. Even with drinking a gallon of
water, I still managed to get tagged with a degree of heat exhaustion. I ended up with a pretty bad upset stomach and
head ache – so, that was fun.
We also saw a cool miracle for the Butterfield Ward. The Butterfield Ward hasn't had a solid
investigator in month, but today a guy who has recently returned to activity
invited us to teach his non-member wife the lessons. It’s a big deal
for the Butterfield ward and I'm just shocked. We are like, “Is this really happening?” We have an appointment to meet with her and
start the lessons on Thursday. Hopefully
it will be successful.
This week we also had a lot of Zone meetings. The Zone focus is on improving the weekly
Ward Correlation, Missionary meetings, Ward Councils for each ward. We also had our interviews with the
Present. So, that took up a lot of time
as well.
My interviews with the mission president went really
well. We were talking about how this
coming transfer will end my time in the River Crossing and Butterfield Wards. While it’s always sad to say goodbyes, I am
excited to hopefully finish my mission in a rural area out in the boonies. But
who knows, I could end up transferring to the next ward over. But luckily there
is no need to stress about that for another 3 weeks or so.
Friday: We had the
unique opportunity to Skype into A__'s baptism in Virginia. He is from Virginia and came to Tucson to
visit his mom. After his visit, his mom is
now taking the lessons here in Tucson from us.
It all happened because A__ inspired her with his testimony, while he
was still taking the lessons. While
teaching A__’s mom, we also got to teach A___ the last lesson he needed before
being baptized. So, we got to watch the
talk portion of his baptism with his Mom. It was a wonderful and neat experience,
knowing I helped teach him also.
This week we also ended up going through area book and
cleaning it up. We visited the people
listed in our area book (prior investigators taught by prior missionaries in
the past) and decided whether to stop teaching them or to continue.
We also taught the O__ family about enduring trails by
sharing conference talks and a Mormon Message titled ‘Mountains to Climb.’ Every time I endure a loss or am down in the
dumps, I watch it. I'd like to invite
everyone to watch this short 5 minute message when you are feeling the same
way.
This week I have been studying in 1Nephi chapters 17-18. It is where Nephi breaks his bow and builds
the ship. I look at all the persecution
and faith defying trials he went through in just a short amount of time. While
I was reading about all of his Nephi’s trials, Philip. 4:13 came to mind -here
it says:
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens
me."
So whenever the ‘you-know-what’ hits the fan - remember
that.
So, like I said in the beginning of the email - If there is
one thing I have learned this week it is that no effort is wasted. That doesn't apply to just missionary
work. See how it can apply in your own life and I promise you will find
more comfort in doing so.
This is my simple testimony for the week. While it was kind of scattered around a bit,
I hope it made sense. I had an alright week and hoping for a better one to
come.
I love you all. Keep the faith
Love,
Elder Connor William Dickinson
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