Week 16: Change. For the worse or better...quien sabe?

This week was…meh.

I was delighted to hear about my little pup being a little better.  Keep praying that everything will work out.

I'm going to warn you right now, this was not a good week for pictures. Sorry in advance.

Monday: P-Day is always awesome hearing from my beloved family and Sis. McBride!  It is always awesome getting to talk to you guys on Mondays.  It makes Monday so much better than before my mission.

Tuesday was my first transfer day that affected me directly.  It started out good. I met my new companion, Elder Rodriguez, who transferred in from Douglas AZ.  We picked him up in the Gila Valley We talked while he loaded his stuff into the car, then we picked up the other transferring Elders and started our hour and a half trip back to Lordsburg. At Lordsburg, we had time to get Elder Rodriguez unpacked before we went to dinner at B___ S___’s house.  We had pork roast, potatoes and corn. After diner, we walked around town street contacting. We found two people out of about 50 who would speak to us.  So it wasn't very successful, because nothing came out of it, but it's whatever. It’s part of the work.

A brown recluse spider we found in our apartment! :O

Wednesday: We had district meeting in Duncan, AZ, ate lunch and came right back to Lordsburg.  We did some service for M___.  We’ve worked with her before at the food bank, but today we helped her get her yard in shape. So, now it looks nice. By the time we were done with service, it was time to head down to Animas NM for dinner with the H____’s. C___ is one of P___ R___’s daughters. It was super cool, I talked with Z___ about construction management, general contacting, and civil engineering. It was a fun time.  After this we drove back to Lordsburg because we missed playing basketball. Elder Rodriguez is a super nice guy.

Thursday was a long day.  We ended up walking just under 7 miles, it was brutal.  We went street contacting/knocking doors and talked to 3 people for a while. Then we walked a mile to H___& C___’s only to find out they were out on a town.  That meant we had an hour to fill, so we did some more finding. After that, we went to the S___’s house. The story behind L__ S_  is he is a 87-year old non-member who has paid tithing and come to church for the last 76 years of his life.  Over the years, he had all these reasons of why he didn’t join the church. Now, he is 87 and his only excuse is "Well I don't want another job (calling), I've worked for 60 years." Mind you, he is now 87. So, I felt inspired to talk to the Bishop.  The Bishop said this has been his excuse for 10 years and no one bothered to ask Bishop about it. I felt prompted to ask bishop if he would give L___ a calling. Bishop said of course not, L___ can barely see, hear or walk.  He said this in a joking and loving manner.  He also told me to tell L___. So we shared a scripture with L___ and invited him to be baptized for what L___ said was the 27th time.  I told him what the bishop had said.  L___ then said, “Well I guess I will be baptized.  I just want to wait for my son to get back in the fall.”  I know I won't be here, but maybe I'll get to come back and see him get baptized - after 76 years of investigating the Church. We then had dinner with the B___s and we talked about his border patrol job. I love hearing his stories.

Baby birds just chillin'

 

Friday, we did service for P___ H___. We finished with that about 1:00, and then went home, ate lunch and did companion study and weekly planning until the Ward party.  We had to set up for the part by 5:00.  We were only expecting 30 or so people.  It was a bring your friend type of deal, so we could be introduced to some non-members. There ended up being 60 people who showed up. It was amazing! We had brisket made by Bishop and the rest was pot luck. After the party, we had to take down everything, then we had to drive to Animas. 

Saturday was interesting.  We had a plan to visit a lot of people, but not of them one of them answered their door.   We drove to Rodeo from Animas. In Rodeo, we tried to see some people and no one there answered their doors either. So, we then we went to Sister B___’s.  For reasons I won’t share here, the lesson didn’t go as planned and she did not receive it well at all.  Because the lesson ended early, we had a bunch of free time we didn’t plan on.  It wasn’t a good situation. Later we had a dinner appointment with the M___’s which was awesome. We got to talk for a while and I was surprised we were able to do that because of what happened with Sis. B___’s erlier in the day.  Then we spent the night in the ‘Man Cave.’

Elder Degrange saying goodbye to Sister R

Sunday:  I hate the time change at Arizona border!  Somehow, we ended up waking up at 5:00, which made us an hour and a half early for Church, it was a mess. We used the time for planning. We had talked about how things have been done in Lordsburg. We went to Church in Rodeo, then high-tailed it up to Lordsburg to teach the M___ brothers.  It went very well.  We are shooting for baptisms on May 6^th, and if that doesn’t work then May 13th. After that we talked to Bro. H__’s and ate dinner there, then we did more street contacting with Bro H___, it was pretty fun.

Elder Degrange and I after our "tie swap" tradition
(saying goodbye on transfer day)

I hope you had a better week than I did.

Love you lots

Elder Dickinson

Week 15: Same Area, New Compañero

I love Lordsburg, love love love it!  Everybody asks me why. I love it because I love the people.

Saturday night we got the transfer call and Elder Degrange is transferring to Safford, AZ, 3rd and 5th wards, on a bike. I'm taking over Lordsburg and my new companion will be Elder Rodriguez, transferring from Douglas.  He has only been out for three transfers - so it's going to be the blind leading the blind, lol.  He is Spanish speaking so he has to do language studies. Here's my chance to better my Spanish for a month and a half.  Everybody says he's pretty cool.

Anyways, time to start the weekly report:

Monday:  It was sad to hear about poor Finley, but it was nice hearing from you, as always. It gave me a sense of comfort with the whole situation.

Tuesday was an interesting day. In the morning, we were going to do service, but we ended up just doing individual studies instead. After lunch, we went over to H ___and C___’s and read from the Book of Mormon. We read five chapters that day. She loved it. We then had dinner at L___ P___’s house. He is the brother of Lordsburg’s bishop. He's an awesome guy. I look up to both of them. There just happened to be a member from out of town staying at his house. It was a cool situation. So we taught them the restoration for practice and it went very well.  We then went over to T___ F___’s house and taught him about enduring till the end. The spirit was defiantly there. 

It is sooo beautiful here

Wednesday - The Zone Leaders slept over Tuesday night, so we went on exchanges with them again today.  After that we all drove to our district meeting in Duncan, AZ. After district meeting we went out and ate at R and R Pizza – I bet you couldn't have guessed that, lol. We then drove back to Lordsburg and visited a few people. We tried to find some referrals, but no one answered their door, so we left our Easter message cards which have an offer of us doing service.  A lady called back later that night and offered us $200 to come clean her yard. Of course, being service we can't take money, but we were shocked at the offer. Hopefully we will get an investigator out of this contact. After this we drove all the way back to Duncan for a missionary stake meeting. It was a good meeting. We talked about who needs help and what not. Lordsburg is the busiest of the 3 areas included in the meeting.

Yet another beautiful sunset

Thursday morning, we had to set up tables for a senior center event at our Church’s pavilion (the Lordsburg ward building is too small to have a gym or cultural hall, so across the street from the church, they have a pavilion where they hold any activities we hold in cultural hall in Wisconsin) So, we did that for community service. One of the people running the event was a church member and asked us to stay for lunch. We did because we had to take down the tables shortly after. All the senior citizens loved the little Easter egg hunt and picnic. They all thanked us. It was well worth the effort. After that we went to H___ and C___’s and read the Book of Mormon. After we read with them a guy pulled up to H___’s mechanic shop with a blown out tire. We helped H___ patch the spare, mount it and balance the rest of tires. H___ made a quick $25, but he offered us the money since we did all the work and got our hands dirty, but then we said no to the money, I was just happy to learn how to do that.  H___ being H___ said, "SHUT UP AND TAKE IT. " He told us he loved us, lol.  He said, “Go buy yourself a sandwich.”  After that, we went and finished weeding B___ S___’s yard, remember we started working on it last week. Then we had dinner at Kranberry’s  and went home.

Friday was service day. We started off by doing service for the lady I told you about earlier. We ended up being there from 8:30 to 2:30. We had to hula-hoe her yard of weeds, rake them out of the dirt, then smooth it back out. We also weed-wacked all the tall weeds.  It took forever and my arms still hurt. After that, we used H___’s tire money to eat at a new diner in town.  It was very good. We both had a burger called the Big Juan.  It has 2 big patties, avocado, extra hot green chilies and cheese - it was very, very good.  After lunch we did studies and then drove to a dinner appointment in Animas with the C____s.

Elder Degrange meets the "Big Juan"

This is one serious burger! 

Saturday was full of driving, we woke up in Animas did our studies then drove to Rodeo saw some peeps.  We did our weekly planning in the canyon bottom river bed of the Chircahue Mountain Range in Portal, AZ. It was beautiful (check out Google Images of the Chircahue Mountains) Then we had dinner with Sis B___’s. She made curry, the kind my Dad makes.  She wants you to take a picture of the brand or curry Dad uses and maybe even send a sample so she can buy it. She had toppings like raisins, apples coconut and peanuts for it. Man, did they add a whole new dimension to the curry, it was amazing. Then we drove back to Lordsburg. 

Sunday - Happy Easter! We had to speak in sacrament meeting, but being so busy during the week I didn't get to write my talk until Sunday morning. We were asked to speak on Easter, but being a missionary, I talked on how Jesus Christ was the best missionary.  I talked about Easter combined with member missionary work. Everybody loved it for some reason. During my talk I told of some funny things speakers should do and everybody loved it, lol. It was only a 15 minute talk, but it was a good one. Then we drove to Animas, NM and went to Sunday School and Priesthood classes so Elder Degrange could say goodbye to everyone, it was sad. I was thinking that will be me in a month and a half - but that is just part of the mission. I actually almost cried watching Elder Degrange saying goodbye to the people, it made me so sad. I love these people soooo much.

Elder Degrange doing the "hula-hoe"

Nice work, right?

After all this, we drove back to Lordsburg and played cards with members at Bro. H___’s house until dinnertime. So, technically we had like 6 member visits in about 3 hours, so it all worked out. Bro. ___’s mom is 92 years old, we played a game called Books and Run.  At the end, when she lost by like 100 points, she exclaimed. "This is the most fun I've ever had with missionaries." it was the cutest thing!  We then drove to Bishop’s house for Easter dinner. We had ham and potatoes and all the good stuff.  We had homemade southern pecan pie and I about lost my mind it was so good… but Grandma's is still better.  After dinner we went and cleaned up the apartment like crazy and Elder Degrange packed up all his stuff and we drove to Duncan, AZ. Transfers are on Tuesday, but if we save the miles, we might just stay here. 

 Chircahue Mountain River bed is the perfect place for a planning meeting

Elder Degrange (DL) conducting our weekly planning meeting

But anyways that was our last week together, it was not only crazy productive, but it was a good week even though I was stressed out about Finley, I didn't let it show.  Hopefully, Finley keeps getting better. Keep the faith and keep praying. Poor pup.

Love you guys so much.  Until next week,

Elder Dickinson 

P.S. Check out the picture below (bittersweet memories)

Elder Dickinson and Elder Degrange's last ride

Week 14: Big Spider and a Zone Conference

Hearing about Finley’s scary medical issues was probably one of the hardest things I had to hear.  I literally cried. No, I balled all the way to Duncan, AZ from Lordsburg. It's a 45-minute drive and now it's 10:15 at night and as I'm typing this out I'm still feeling shaken. Finley is my life, the only real friend I've had for the last 2 years. So, he has to be okay. I'm crying as I type this out now. I can't help it, he means so much to me, I hope he can be a tough little puppy. Give him some loves for me, please. He needs to be okay :(

This week was awesome, until I got the Finely news.

I don't know what my plans are now, we were going to go explore some wilderness place, but now I just want to sit here and email, nothing else. The place we were going to explore turned out not to be what we expected. It just hurts that I can't be there for him. 

I'm going to try to live up to my weekly email expectations, but can't promise anything because I'm just so worried about Finley.

A baby turtle one of our investigators let me hold

So, Monday (P-Day) was awesome getting to hear from you guys. Then we had a dinner and a short visit instead of a FHE. Then we played more basketball with a lot of nonmember youth in Duncan, AZ.

Tuesday, was good.  We did exchanges, so I was up Duncan AZ with Elder Lundell.  We visited some long-time investigators, and fellowshipped them and their children. After that we then went to a member’s house and played a couple games Skip Bo and talked.  Later, we drove home and had dinner, takeout from Kanoa’s, a Hawaiian restaurant in Safford AZ, which a member brought to us. We then drove to Clifton, AZ and played basketball, with the regular Tuesday night crowd.

A HUGE spider in our apartment

Wednesday was awesome, we woke up in Duncan AZ, super sore then Elder Degrange and I drove back to Lordsburg. We felt prompted to go visit T___ F___, even though we usually visit him on Tuesdays.  When we showed up there was a gal named S_____ that T____ is helping out.  She was interested in the church, so we taught a couple points from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So, we picked up a new investigator. I don't know where that will be going, because She and T___ had a disagreement.  Anyways, the spirit was strong. She started crying because of it. It was truly amazing. After this we went and visited a few more people but they weren't home. So, we had dinner in Animas NM and Then played ball with some youth down there and then drove back home and read our scriptures.

Thursday was rough, I was super sore, and kind of out of it.  After an early lunch, we went to see H___ and C____, but they weren't there right at the moment, so we went to the church and did our 12-week study program. We went back and only H___ was there. So, we talked to him about life and it was a good visit - interesting as always. We were going to zone conference on Friday so we did our weekly planning a little bit on Thursday.

"Missionary Habanero Stew" (has an entire bottle of Tobasco Habanero in it)
WE LOVE IT :O

Friday was zone conference. Man, what an amazing experience - Spirit filled and all! We talked about the difference between doctrine, principles, application of the gospel and also how to better involve members. It was a really good experience, and the spiritual up-lifter I needed. After ZC we went shopping at a Walmart, which was great because we haven't been to civilization in 6 weeks, lol.  We then went to dairy queen and then drove home.  Our dinner appointment cancelled on us, so we ate at Bro. H___’s house.

My Mission Family

Saturday was exhausting for some reason. We drove 200 miles trying out find people, none of which we found. We the visited with Sis. B____ in Rodeo NM, but she was busy so we made it quick. We didn't get to share a message.  We went to dinner with the P____s.  We didn't have to work for dinner this time.  We had Peruvian fast food, pollo con fritas, it was good. And then we drove an hour and a half home. 

Sunday had highs and lows.  We had fast and testimony meeting in Lordsburg, it was good, and then we drove to Animas just in time to teach 2 hours of primary. No joke I got mauled by an 8-year-old, not one part of me was left untouched.  It was something else, we taught about missionary work, and how Samuel Smith was the Church’s first missionary. Our high point of the day was our investigator family of 5 showed up to church, but his wife started a business in California and the moved there today. So, I'll never see them again. Sad, but that’s life. We drove all the way back to Lordsburg and taught the M___ brothers. They are now, for sure, getting baptized on the 22nd. Two more lessons to go, they will be ready and they are excited. Later, we ate dinner at Bro. H___’s house, and then I got the awful news about Finley. I'm still upset and crying about it. No one here will understand the bond I have with that dog, I hope it all works out OK.  I'll pray often for him these next couple days, it's so sad. 

Elder Pinson. The one standing up top. (My mission grandpa)

From Left to right:

Elder West the greenbean. I'm his uncle lol becuase he's being trained by my brother.

Elder Vansweeden(my brother... trained by Degrange also)

Elder Degrange my (Dad)

Elder Dickinson (Me)

Ps. This is our mission family. 

Elder Pinson is now a great grandfather. :)

Please keep me constantly updated on Finley these next couple days.

Love you guys lots, until next week, 

Elder Dickinson

Week 13: My Favorite Birthday Cake (Chocolate Roll) & The Worst Night of My Life

This week was a good one for sure, but the missionary work is in a lull, again. It doesn't look like the M___ brothers will be baptized before Elder Degrange transfers out, but they will be baptized before the end of my time here. As long as they get baptized is the important part, it really doesn't matter who does it. 

I saw some links and videos about Officer Weiland’s funeral in Wausau.  It was sad and I cried watching those videos. It is truly sad, but I am so proud of our community for coming together to give Officer Weiland the sendoff he deserves. It was an amazing sendoff.  He will be missed. 

Anyways, here we go:

Monday:  Getting to hear from you on P-Days is awesome! I know I say that every week, but it's true. 

Tuesday, we did some service for a member in the ward. We weeded his yard with hoes. It took forever and my arms felt like jell-O afterwards, but it's service and I love serving others. After that, we hurried got changed, ate lunch and went to C___ and H____’s. We read the Book of Mormon, as we usually do with them.  After doing this we tried seeing some people, which didn't turn out too well. No one answers their doors, a typical Lordsburg thing. Anyways, after this we drove to Clifton, AZ and played basketball with a lot of nonmembers. It's always a good time to play ball.

Elder Degrange & I
At one of our host families

Wednesday, we had our district meeting, then went out and ate at R and R Pizza and Wings, again.  I'm doing so bad at this diet thing!  Actually, I just gave up on it, lol. After this we went on exchanges. I split with Elder Jordan and we drove to Lordsburg and had dinner at Kranberrys. I had my usual brisket meal. I love brisket!!  After dinner we went to Bro. H___’s house. I introduced Elder Jordan and we talked for a while.

Thursday, had some highs and some pretty low lows.  The day started out a little late when our alarm clock didn't go off.  It didn’t go off because it died.  Anywho, we walked to the post office, and picked up my awesome General Conference package from Sis. Sell (my seminary teacher). Thanks you so much Sis Sell, you would be delighted to know I took 13 pages of notes and ate all the snacks. I love you, Sis. Sell.

After our walk, we ate lunch and then went to C___ and H___’s. To my surprise, Cindy gave me her Spanish copy of el Libro de Mormon (Book of Mormon) with a note written in the back cover. When we visit them we speak to each other in Spanish, sometimes (except for Elder Degrange – he doesn’t speak a word of Spanish). Being out of practice, speaking Spanish is hard, but I was so happy to receive this gift from her. She expressed her love for us missionaries. I was blushing, lol. That was the high point of my day. We returned home and packed for our return trip. Elder Jordan and I then headed down to Animas NM. Little did I know what this night would hold for us. We had dinner with the W___s.  We had a great time.  We ate pizza and talked about stuff like summer internship opportunities in Alaska.  I super interested, to be honest. Anyways, after we spent the night with the R___’s.  We slept in the camp trailer.  This is where the ‘fun’ begins. In the evening, it was as calm as it could be in the Caliche Valley. The second we got into the trailer, a massive dust storm blew in from out of nowhere. It was blowing and upwards of 90 miles per hour. Just to let you know, they haven't had a night dust storm in 60 years. It was awful!  The wind was blowing so hard I literally got seasick from laying down in the trailer. So at 2:30 AM with no sleep, we went inside. From the walk from the trailer to the house, I was caked in dirt.  The wind was so loud we didn't get to bed until like 5:30, so we got an hour of sleep that night. That, no doubt, literally was the worst night of my life!

Anyways, on Friday morning, the dust storm was still blowing. So, by the time we needed to leave to pick up Elder Degrange in Clifton AZ, the interstate was closed. Perfect! I'm just ranting now, lol.  It was a disaster.  We did manage to drive back to Clifton and pick up Elder Degrange, the drove to Cotton City, NM to go to R___’s and the H___’s birthday dinner party. We had some amazing meatloaf, potatoes and carrots with chocolate roll to top things off. For a first time making chocolate roll, P____ did amazing. Everybody loved it. She made two chocolate rolls, and they were completely gone, lol. So, it was a huge success. She's going to teach me how to make chili rellanos. I'm pumped, they sound amazing.

They made Chocolate Roll (Grandma Dickinson's recipe) for ME!!!!!! 

Saturday was the best. We rode with the R___’s to her parents’ house. We watched the first session of General Conference. I think the first session was my favorite. After the first session we went out and did some service for them. We mowed the lawn, weed-wacked and burned a bunch of tumble weeds. It was fun.  In the picture, I have my pants rolled up because I didn’t want the weed-wacker to stain my slacks green with weed juice. Lunch was BBQ pork sammies with a bunch of sides. We then finished our service and watched the second session, which was super good, as well. When this was done we drove down to Cotton City, NM and ate dinner with their family and watched the Priesthood Session. It was sad to see Thomas S. Monson getting so old. Anyways, it was a very good day.

This area is a service area---whenever, wherever, and whatever...we live and love to serve!

My attempt at a new fashion trend....on point?

Elder Jordan and I on exchanges

Sunday was also a good day watching General Conference. 

Until next week, Love you guys,

Elder Dickinson

Week 12: My first "Lingerlonger" and my second dust storm!!!

When you think of Wausau, WI, you don't think violence. It's sad to see that one of our Wausau police officers and 3 others were shot and killed last week over a divorce. I never thought I would hear Wausau making any headlines here in Lordsburg, NM. After the shootings in Wausau made the national news, one of the members here remembered where I was from and informed me of what had happened. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that something like this happened so close to home – literally, just a few blocks from my house. I feel so bad for the community. People won't feel safe there for a while and that’s sad too. I just flat out can't believe it. It's crazy. I knew that police officer personally. He would come work at my school once in a while. He would talk to me and my friends when we were just chillin’ at the high school. He was a very nice guy, can't believe it. It is so sad!

Anyways, this week in New Mexico has been alright.

Mondays are the best, because I get to talk to you guys.

Tuesday we worked at the food bank for a couple hours. They gave us a box of basic staples, things like beans and rice. It's nice to not having to buy those basic commodities. After the food bank, we made some weird but amazing chicken for lunch.  We mixed buffalo chicken seasoning with Italian dressing and marinated the chicken in it. It was amazing. After lunch, we headed over to H____ and C____’s and had a good Book of Mormon study session. H____ is fun guy, we love him to death.  Later we found out our diner appointment forgot about feeding us, so they just gave us money. So, we bought what we needed to make buffalo/Italian chicken, jalapeño potatoes corn bread and green chili chip dip with homemade chips. After cooking and eating dinner, we dropped in and visited a few people.  Then, just like that, the day was over. The APs slept over at our apartment.

Missionary Dinner

Wednesday, the APs checked our companion study, which went well. Then we drove to Clifton, AZ for our district meeting.  After the meeting, we all ate R & R pizza and wings, again. After lunch, we drove home to Lordsburg and tried visiting some people before our dinner appointment.  We ate dinner at a recent convert’s house and after that, we went over to Bishop’s house and reviewed the ward directory and talked about all the less-actives live. Now, we have a plan to set aside an entire day to visit like 50 people.

Thursday was a rough day.  We walked like 8 miles.  To start the day walked about a mile to the church for interviews with the Mission President. It’s always a good experience and fun

time seeing the Mission President.  After interviews we walked home for lunch. It was pouring rain, so we got soaked.  We were offered two rides within 200 feet of our apartment, at least people tried to be nice, lol. We had buffalo/Italian chicken again. It was amazing, again!!! We then walked to C___s house and helped him fix his flat bike tires that had been popped by all of the goat head thorns that literally grow everywhere. It was 3 miles there and 3 miles back.  That was a long walk. Later, we drove to Animas. On the way, a dust storm blew in we almost died.  We couldn't even see out of the truck, so we had to pull off of the road and shut off our lights so nobody would follow our tail lights and plow into us.  It was probably one of the scariest things I've done.  When we finally got to Animas, we had dinner with S____ and S_____. They were getting married at 5 o’clock so we had a wedding full of missionary opportunities. It was also her birthday.  She turned 77.  When the day was over, we slept in the trailer at the R____’s house they used when their daughter is home. So I got to sleep in a trailer with 2 queen sized beds with memory foam.  It was amazing. 

Watching the dust storm approach! :O B

Zero Visibility

The rainbow aftermath. Whew! What a scary experience!

Friday was fun and interesting at the same time.  We ate lunch and went to the church for our weekly planning. We planned for 2 hours and then played hide & seek. I won!  I hid in a boiler room that had to be 100 degrees. I had to give up, otherwise I would have passed out and died and Elder Degrange would have never found me, lol. After planning a little more and then went back to the R_____s for my belated birthday dinner and family game night. After that we had family prayer with them. They said we are their family. We love them and they love us. It turns out I'm like 7th cousins with P____ R___.

Saturday was a good day.  One of our appointments fell through, so we did some service for the P____s. We worked for 6 hours.  I rototilled for all 6 hours and.my arms are still like Jell-O. We had dinner with the M_____s. 

We dont have a church gym...we have a pavillion!

Sunday was cool, We went to church in Cotton City, NM for the missionary home coming of J__ K____. He's a cool guy. He spoke for 30 minutes without notes. There were about 150 people there to hear him speak. The normal Cotton City sacrament attendance is about 40 people, lol. After seeing that, I want all my family from all over the country to come to Wausau when I come home off of my mission. That would be awesome! Anyways, after church the two young brothers we have baptismal dates with were out of town so we stayed in Cotton City. After church, the ward had what the call a ‘linger longer’, or potluck as we a call them in Wisconsin. We ate lunch at the linger longer, then the K____’s invited us over after for fun and games.  We played cornhole and talked with their massive family. It was a blast!  They consider us family too, lol. We then drove home, ate dinner, did our studies then drove to Duncan, AZ for P-Day.

I taught our ward mission leader how to make pickled eggs Wisconsin-style! Haha!

Today for P-Day, we are going to go see some native American rock paintings. So I'll email you guys as much as possible

I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Dickinson

P.S. I need the chocolate roll recipe to share with the R_____s for my birthday cake since we had their favorite cake on my birthday lol. They are family, so no worries.

Week 11: Green Spagetti and the Stomach Flu

This week defiantly had its highs and lows - but hey, that’s life, right?  I’m typing this email with my new wireless key board. I love it!  Not only does it allow me to type faster, it allows me to have more room for my big hands.  (before, I had to use the typing function on my tablet.)

Not only do we hear about the big drug busts here in Lordsburg, we get to experience them close up - and it’s awesome!  This week, the Border Patrol pulled 3,600 pounds of ‘grass’ out of two cars that were covered with tarps and left in a wash. The illegals who drove the cars got away and stole horses then rode them 20 miles to I-10 –thinking they could catch a ride to Los Angeles or New York. That only happened like 2 miles away from our apartment!  On Sunday (yesterday) we had dinner with a Border Patrol agent who worked that bust and he told us all about it.  He also shared a ton of other stories, which was really cool.  Growing up, I always watched TV shows like Border Wars, and he was actually included in some of the cases on TV involving the Lordsburg Station. We talked about his career and the salary. Man, they make some good money and it is always something I was into. He said 7 years in the force and he has never been in harm’s way and is making six figures.  It’s a tempting occupation, that’s for sure.

Anyways, as previously stated this week had its high and low points. On Monday (P-Day). its always good getting to talk to you guys. I loved every minute of it. Later, we drove to Galeyville, AZ and explored a nearby cave.  The cave was big, and if you can’t tell by the picture, it was hot and humid and very tiring.  I was sweating super bad.  After the cave, we drove to Animas NM and played basketball. Later that afternoon, my companion got sick with flu-like symptoms, so we went home and he was in bed by 6 p.m.

Spelunking in AZ!

Tuesday (my Birthday), Elder Degrange still wasn’t feeling good, so while he slept away his sickness, I quietly cleaned around the house, did personal study, read some talks, and made lunch. We had tuna helper – it’s what he wanted - so I made that for him. After lunch we went and visited H______ and C______ and read the Book of Mormon with them.  After that Elder Degrange needed to rest a little bit.  While we were at the apartment my package arrived!!! I was soooo happy about it and I loved every little thing in it. That evening, we went to the Bishop’s house for dinner. We had softshell beef tacos. I also learned I have a new found love for avocados.  They are super good.

My 19th Birthday package just before unpacking! SO EXCITED!

Also, something I forgot to mention, New Mexico is the green chili state, and man, do they know how to use them. Green chilies are used in 90% of the meals down here. The largest green chili farm in the world (Hatch Green Chilies) is just on the other side of Deming NM.  Any green chilies in the US are probably from here. Pretty cool right?!?

After dinner at the Bishop’s we left and drove to Clifton, AZ to play basketball with the other elders and some non-members. It was a fun time as always, but we actually went up there for our district meeting the next day and to do laundry, since we didn't get a chance to on Monday.

Wednesday was a great day! First we had district meeting, which was probably the most spiritual meeting of my mission so far. For some reason it turned into almost a big intervention. First, we talked about each other’s weaknesses and what annoyed us about each other.  Then we said two things we loved about each person. After two hours, the spirit was so prevalent, we felt even closer than before. So, that was awesome. After this we went to an all you can eat chicken wing and pizza joint for $5 - with a missionary discount.  It was awesome! We then did exchanges. Elder Forté and I drove back to Cotton City and stayed the night there. 

Thursday Elder Forté tried to visit some people, but no one is ever home during the day, and as soon as it gets dark they don't answer the door. It was kind of of disheartening, but good practice, I guess. By the time we were done with this we had to drive to Duncan, AZ to pick up Elder Degrange and then drive back to Animas, NM for dinner.

One weird thing = Arizona doesn't observe day light savings time.  So, New Mexico is an hour ahead of Arizona.  Being so close to the state line - it is confusing. We leave NM drive an hour and get to Arizona – but we get there the same time we left New Mexico - it confusing, we end up having a 25-hour day.

We ate dinner with the M______’s, I had my first genuine chicken fried steak. Ugh, I was in heaven. We then played basketball with their priest-aged boy. It was fun, but I got super sweaty. Then shared a quick message and drove home.

Friday was not. I repeat NOT a good day. I woke up sick with a constant, severe stomach ache.  After I ate I would almost through up, every time.  Being sick, I slept most of the day until mid-afternoon.  We did do about an hour of weekly planning, then went to dinner at the R______s house. They had all of their grandchildren over for a St. Patrick’s Day party. We had green spaghetti, green Jell-O and green cupcakes. It was fun, but once again I felt like garbage after eating. So still being sick, we then returned home and went to bed. I’ve been using a fan to sleep, because it's so warm here. It has been in the 90s this last week. It was awesome.

Backyard Redneck Rollercoaster one member made for his children! :O

Saturday, I woke up - still sick – then rolled over and slept until lunch.  Finally, feeling better, we ate those Kings Hawaiian roll sandwiches you make in the oven (now that I have the recipe). I was so happy, lol. Later, we were finally able to contact some of our other investigators.  We had a planned to teach them, but they got caught up talking about other things. The good news is: they did come to church on Sunday. 

After this we drove to Rodeo, NM and tried finding some people we were told about. It took forever, but we finally found one of them out in the middle of the desert.  Holy cow, the was an experience that scared these two Mormon boys for life. We were supposed to find a woman in her 30s, but she actually ended up being in her 60’s.  When we finally located her house, she answered the door with no clothes on. I almost got sick again, LOLOL!!!!. After all this nonsense, we had dinner with the K______ family and had some sort of stew that was just flat out amazing! It was super fresh with lots of veggies, just awesome!  We had to drive all the way back to Lordsburg, because we had to give the prayers in sacrament meeting the next day.

Oh, I forgot to mention, earlier that morning, Sis R______ gave me a haircut. It doesn’t look bad at all, but you will have to wait until next week for me to send a picture from my missionary plaque.  I still need to practice how style my new haircut, lol.

Sunday was just an all-around good day. It was a beautiful morning so we walked to church where we greeted people, as always.  I always love seeing peoples’ smiles on Sunday mornings.  We have sacrament meeting, Sunday school and priesthood meetings all in the chapel, which makes for a sore back and a numb bum, only because you don’t get to stand up and walk around in between meetings and because the pews are the old wooden kind.

This Sunday was awesome for us and the Lordsburg Ward.  We had 5 investigators show up to sacrament meeting!!!!!!! It was insane – and we have 2 baptisms planned for April 15^th, rescheduled from the1st because of General Conference. It looks like Lordsburg is a hot spot for missionary work now.

I cant get enough of the NM sunsets!

After church, we had Ward Council, then we hurried over to teach the M____ boys. We taught them the second lesson: The Plan of Salvation. The lesson went really well and they understood everything.  The birthday gift you sent (the diagram of the Plan of Salvation) arrived just in time for me to use it in the lesion and it helped soooo much. I love it, lol.  We then went over to Bro. H_____ and fellowshipped his son.  Little-by-little, he is starting to warm up to the church.  We then had dinner with the B_____s, He is the Border Patrol agent I told you about earlier.  He is a super cool guy, and their family has seven kids, and the oldest is 12. To end the day, we went to our apartment and packed for P-Day then drove to Duncan, AZ.

For what it is worth, that was my week. I guess lol.

I love you guys so much. Soooooooooooo much!

Until next week,

Love,

Elder Dickinson

Week 10: Flat Tires & Deep Pits

This week was a busy week, but a fun one.  I can’t believe I turn 19 tomorrow!!! Insane right, lol. I haven't gotten my package yet, so it truly will be a birthday present – if it shows up tomorrow, lol.  Actually, we have a pretty full day planned for today, so I will have to pick up any packages at the post office tomorrow. I can’t wait!   

So, this week- in a nutshell:

Monday (P-Day) was so much fun, I loved trading emails with you guys. After P-Day we had family home evening with the L______s. There was a bunch of elderly members from our ward there playing cards, so we crashed their party with Bro. H_____, our ward mission leader, and ate some dessert.

Tuesday was rough that's for sure. After our morning schedule, we drove an hour south to Rodeo, NM and helped Bro. P_____.  This time we didn’t help with his adobe house, but helped dig a massive pit.   He had dug part of it and we helped finished it ;).  We helped by leveling out the bottom and had to throw all of the dirt and rock out of an 8 foot hole in the ground. The pit was huge! He's planning on using it for storage. I love his thought process. Let's just dig a hole and put all my stuff in it, lol. It took us about 5 hours and we still didn't finish. After working, we drove back to Lordsburg, NM and went to dinner with the P_____s. They are super cute old couple. We ate take-out pizza and talked about miracles. After a wonderful dinner, we had our weekly visit with T____ F____ and read from the Book of Mormon with him and talked for a while.

Brother P & I Diggin' Pits

The Infamous Pit....UGH

Man, did I wake up sore on Wednesday morning. I had to take some ibuprofen and stretch after a hot shower. We were asked by the Zone Leaders to study Preach My Gospel ch. 11 for a zone meeting today. Our zone meeting was pretty good, I guess. It was in Lordsburg, so we didn’t have to drive - for once - but everyone else did. We talked about how to have a more effective companion study. Good thing we've been following the outline they gave us already! We met our zone's goal of five baptisms for the month! We fell just short of our reactivation goal of 16, we had 15 - not too bad of a month. Our Mission President set a goal of 48 baptisms for the mission, and we had 42.   For reactivations the mission goal was 67, and we had 116!!!!! So our mission is doing pretty darn good, I must say.

After zone meeting we went out to eat at McDonald's, because there is nowhere better to eat in Lordsburg. Me being on a diet, I didn't eat at all, until we got home. I'm working on my self-control. Later in the day, we had Stake Missionary coordination meeting in Duncan, AZ.  We talked about our progress in all our areas. All 3 sets of our District's missionaries were together, so it was a pretty fun time. 

The New Mexico Zone

On Thursday, we walked a mile to visit with H____ and C_____. After this we went to visit with P_____ and X_____ but they were both busy. So, we fellowshipped them for 10 minutes, then walked the mile back to our apartment to packed for our weekly stay in Animas. We drove to Cotton City, NM and had dinner with Bro. and Sis. C_____. It started our kind of quiet, but they finally warmed up to us. We shared Mosiah 2:41 with them. I've learned while studying the scriptures, most verses will commanded you to do something, then in the same verse (or the one right after) gives you a promise if you are obedient to the commandment. I continued to point this out because it is important for people to understand.

Friday was a fun day! After our morning schedule, we drove to the church and did companion study. We are working on how to better teach the plan of salvation. Now that we have practiced, it is pretty simple, in my opinion. Later, we had dinner with the K_____s. We had honey teriyaki chicken with cauliflower and broccoli. It was pretty good. I guess I now have the mental capability to make myself eat anything (the cauliflower and broccoli), lol.

Saturday, Sister B____ (our 40 year investigator) invited us to the Portal St. Patrick’s Day parade.  We drove the 40 miles to get there and holy cow it was the shortest parade I’d ever seen. The population of Portal, AZ maybe 30 people – and they all participated, so it was cool in that sense.  As missionaries, we got some weird looks, lol. After the parade, we tried to stop in and visit couple people, but they weren't home. So, we went back to Portal and taught Sis  B_____.   Remember, the last time we asked her to pray to get an answer about Joseph Smith. She told us how four weird things happened and it was clear to us they were answers to her prayers.  I pointed out how they related and she was completely oblivious to them and denies they were answers. So, hopefully Heavenly Father will make it a little more obvious next time. Later, we had dinner with the K____s again. Bro K_______ and I talked about trucks for a while and then we shared a quick spiritual message because we had to get back to Animas, MM.

The Beauty of Portal, AZ

On the way home we popped a tire in the middle of nowhere - literally. Good thing we both know how to change a tire. Needless to say, after that our white shirts were pretty dirty and sweaty.   Don’t worry, we talked to the Mission Vehicle Coordinator and we are headed to Smith Ford today to replace the popped tire.

Flat out busted!!! :(

Sunday was so cool. We went to church in Animas for a senior missionary couple’s home coming.  The congregation nearly double what it usually is. It was insane to see that many people at church - in Animas.   During their talks, they picked on us young missionaries, in a loving way and got us to smile. Afterwards, they talked with us. Later, our appointment with the two boys with baptismal dates got rescheduled, because they went on vacation. So, we stayed in Animas and had lunch with the K____s, again. They love us so much. After lunch we drove back to Lordsburg, to Bro H____’s house.  We ate dinner and talked to and fellowshipped his son.

Today for P-Day, we are planning to drive be down to Portal, AZ to explore a cave and doing ranch things on the R____’s ranch then go to  Cotton City, NM for basketball and then probably drive to Animas, NM for volleyball later tonight.

I love Portal, AZ!  this was my view for the day !!!

If you were wondering, it's supposed to be 83 here today and I'm loving it! I'm getting pretty tan, but don’t worry I have a hat and I'm wearing my long sleeve shirt during service - so I’m doing what I can to avoid skin cancer.

I keep in touch with my MTC district every week.  We set up a big weekly group message and we share a picture and a, experience every week.  By the way, I heard from my MTC friend Connor D____   today.  Remember him?  He got super sick in the MTC and had to go home, bummer.

Until next week, love,

Elder Dickinson