Week 87: Breaking News: 94 Flies Killed at a Single Location. Culprits Were Wearing White Shirts and Ties

I know the subject line for this week’s email was a little long, but we worked our fair booth this week and the flies were terrible!  Earlier, we won a little red plastic fly swatter from the Valley Tellicom communication booth and we put it to good use.  We killed 94 flies.  The flies were bad and it was at least a million and one degrees in that building!   During our time at the fair, we talked to a lot of church members and maybe five or our investigators.   So, it could have been worse, right?  After all was said and done, we were only able to teach one person about family history. 

Family History is awesome people! (Just not the flies) UGH

On Friday, we worked the booth for 8 hours and on Saturday we worked it for 15 hours, including take down.  Because of that, we actually didn't get home before 11:00 pm, which made for a long, hot, sweaty day – and oh yeah, flies, lol. 

A long with serving in the booth, we served along-side a church member that owns a fudge shop.  The only thing I'll say about that is - they had like 21 different flavors and they took really good care of us, lol.  Other than working the booth, this week was relatively slow. We ended up having a couple of lessons cancel, so we just walked around and talked to people on the street.

Pictures from our 9-11 Hike to support our local responders.

This week I would like to share a little about the atonement of Jesus Christ and the final judgment, which was the topic of our Sacrament Meeting this week, which brought me great comfort.

While judgment day may seem like a scary thing, the outcome is something so beautiful we can't even comprehend it here in our mortal state.  Jesus Christ’s Atoning sacrifice (his suffering for our sins, pains and afflictions) is what makes it possible for us to return to our Loving Father in Heaven.  Each of us can have our own personal relationship with Him.  There is no sin or transgression that is outside the healing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It is actually selfish for us to think that the Son of God suffering and dying for us is not sufficient enough for our shortcomings. 

When the day comes when we are judged, it will be the most just judgment that we will ever endure. As a little word of caution:  As long as we are doing what we are supposed to do (i.e. read the scriptures, pray and repent) there is nothing to fear. 

Something else I learned our wonderful Sacrament Meeting this week is that no matter how many times we slip up, we can repent and hit the repeat button.  David A. Bednar stated "If we are just a little better today than we were yesterday - we have nothing to worry about."

I know that this is true doctrine and if we abide by its precepts we WILL be able to return to our maker.  Just remember that God loves you. 

And I love you guys and am really enjoying the last 12 weeks of my mission. While time may be short, it is of the utmost importance to me. I'm having fun! How about you ;)

Love you,

Elder C.W. Dickinson

Week 86: What a week! #GPG

What a week! This week was really, really good/happy.  Lately, I’ve been remembering and practicing one good thing that I learned from playing football.  That would be having a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) – and, man, has it worked.  I also received a care package from one of my favorite seminary teachers ever. Thanks Sis. Sell!  It was a ‘Don't Worry - Be Happy’ package and it was much needed! I've been doing just that – not worrying and just being happy and I’ll tell yah what, it has really worked.  We have been seeing a lot of success, too.  It makes for a really fun time.  I wish every week could be just like this last week.

I guess the best part of this week was our finding a part-member family to teach:  the R__s family.  The dad is a church member, but the two kids and mom are not.  Because our recent acts of service, they are now wanting follow the example of their dad and be a more Christ centered family, which is wonderful!  The dad has recently been reactivated and will hopefully one day baptize his family. Maybe during my time here or maybe not - who knows. Quien sabe.  This was definitely the best part of our week. 

Awesome Farewell Luau with the O's Family. I love them so much!

We spent a lot of time just walking around and talking to people who were out walking.  Being that Clifton is a company town – meaning the mining company owns all of the property – literally the entire town- because of this the company dictates the laws that say we cannot tract due to the different shift-work schedules.  So, we talked to over 60 people on the street this week!

We had an opportunity to help brother R___s in his taco shop.  We helped saw concrete and will eventually help him laying some pipe.  It was a fun project and I gained some good experience.  Some service is more fun than others, and this fun, plus it opened up the opportunity for us to teach his family.

I can't say much about Clifton and Morenci, other than you need to experience it yourselves. There is a kind of charm about this place that just can't be explained.  It has been proved that this is one of the best areas in the mission - next to Animas. So, I got super lucky in getting the opportunity to come back to the Duncan Stake/District. 

Our current abode! :D

Just a few pictures from our P-day hike.

Doctrine wise, I do not have a teaching point this week, but remember what I said about having a PMA.  It really has made a difference in my life this week and hopefully yours too 😉.

My new companion is Elder Heiner.   He is the bomb.com.  He is super calm, friendly and always happy. He is just an awesome guy to be around. 

I miss the O__ family. That was a hard goodbye and leaving them was really tough on me, but I have been well accepted into this ward already.  Bishop McBride says he remembered me from 20 months ago – during exchanges, lol. So, that's already a foot in the door and the new stake President sat in on one of our lessons with us.  He said he is super proud of the Duncan District and it is on fire right now.  In this little remote area, the Dirty Duncan District has five baptismal dates as a stake and will be possibly adding 3-5 more in the next week or so!  Our companion set has one baptismal date set and we might be able to add 4 more soon.

Nothing but a positive report this week. I love y'all and can't wait to hear from you.

Love you,

Elder Connor William Dickinson

Week 85: Dirty Duncan District – Round Two :)

Well, well well.  Another week has come and gone here in the ATM (Arizona Tucson Mission).  With a new week comes a whole bunch of new things.  From a new area to a new companion, a new baptismal date and a new apartment and such.

Too much food + 8 straight hours of church = this disaster! UGH

You can probably read into in the first paragraph that I am getting transferred to my final resting place.... drumroll...... Clifton AZ.  I am super excited for the final leg if my mission. I get to finish in a small mining town about 45 minutes North East of Safford, AZ.  My new companion will be Elder Heiner. I don't know much about him, but he seems like a cool Elder.  I started my mission and will end it in the Duncan District (we call it the Dirty Duncan District because we do so much physical labor as service – I’m so excited).

Today, for P-day, we will be going over to my adopted Tongan family. Yes, you guessed it the O__s.  We will be having a mini luau again with a pig and everything!  I am super excited.

It has been storming here a lot these last two days - and I’m not complaining – it is nothing but pure gratefulness for some relief from the heat.  It’s really funny watching the reactions of Arizonians seeing rain.  It is the equivalent of a 6-year-old on Christmas morning.  It's actually super entertaining.

This week we met with a whole bunch of people – so, I’ll narrow down this week’s highlights to just one thing.  The highlight of my week was teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to M___.  I know I have talked about her before, but M__ is 85 and is a super cute Hispanic lady.  During this week's visit we helped her hang some pictures, playfully pick on my companion in Spanish (which he doesn’t speak), we FaceTime-ed with her recently baptized son A___ who participated in our lesson from his home in Virginia.  We shared our testimonies of the Gospel and how it has affected our lives. We asked A__ to invite her to be baptized if he felt he should do so. As the lesson went on he did just that and she set a baptismal date.  

Super awesome experience! Celebrating with her family! Love it.

I have never witnessed such a beautiful fervent testimony as A__’s during a ‘Mom & son’ discussion between the two pf them.  It was so sweet, it gave me goosebumps. Why? Well the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path way to an eternal family (like I talked about last week). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the blue print to happiness.  Not only that it is an essential process to obtain exaltation. So, the reason it gave me goosebumps was because I witnessed a vital step in that process, a tender change of M___’s heart, reaching out to take A___'s hand - through baptism - and join his eternal family. Just writing this gives me more goosebumps, lol.

Just like A___ and M___, this message is for everyone. It WILL bring you everlasting happiness. So next time you see two guys in a white shirt and black name badge with the large name of Jesus Christ on it ask them why they are so happy.  Ask them how you can feel God's love. I personally promise you that if you do so, it will not only change your life, but the lives of your friends and family as well.

I leave this humble testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace. my savior, Amen

I cannot wait to hear from y'all. I love each and every one of you guys.

Love,

Elder Connor William Dickinson 

1 this is what happens at a dinner when you eat too much. The catch you slacking.  This was also after 8 hours of church

Margie and I with Alex and family

Dickinson place - and no, I'll never live here lol. Its to darn hot

Week 84: Monsoons, Sushi and the Plan of Salvation

Well, I learned a lot this week and we were super busy.  A lot of our time this week was taken up with finding and lessons.  I would guess we taught about 10 lessons this week - 8 of which were about the Plan of Salvation

This week we were able to meet with M___ and K___, both of who are progressing towards baptism.  It is exciting to watch people grow and learn to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week we experienced some pretty different situations.   Sunday, we had to leave the River Crossing Ward’s meetings early to help a member of the Butterfield ward give a ride to a transgender person.  It was a fun and interesting time.  We talked about learning the guitar and other topics of interests with this lady named H__. It was a new experience for both of us and the member we helped said it was all preparing me for being Bishop.  Man, do I hope he is wrong, lol...but seriously though.

Whaaaat! Pretty awesome they named a street after me! :D

Saturday:  We had the opportunity to go out on splits with our Ward Mission Leader, Bro. R__ and we visited well over 20 people. 

Here is some fun news from the River Crossing Ward. During a meeting, I brought up the idea of implementing Bro. Collingwood’s program for less active members.  We have now been using that program for 2 weeks. They have not done anything like this in this ward before and it has turned out to be a gold mine.   In the last 2 weeks we have found 20 people that have moved into the ward and reactivated 7 people.  We, as a ward mission, with the help of our Heavenly Father were able to increase the attendance percentage of the River Crossing Ward by over 6 percent!!!! 

Friday night we had a diner appointment with Bro. O__ and guess where he took us.  He took us to an all-you-can-eat sushi place.  I was in heaven!  At $25 a person – we got our money back 10x over.  They were so happy to see us go, lol.  We did the math and the sushi we ate would be valued at just around $400.  I was hurting after wards though and ended up gaining 4 pounds - so much for a diet, lol.  Don’t worry, I’m back on track since then!

The Elder laying on the floor is going home soon!

Thursday:  We were able to play basketball.  We invited all the investigators we though would enjoy it, but none showed up.  We were still able to get a darn good work out. It was a good experience

Wednesday we had a heck of a monsoon! The storm knocked out the power and flooded the streets.  There was a massive lightning strike, which hit close to us and started a palm tree on fire. It was something else!

There was one day we had four lessons in one day.  That was intense and super stressful, but duties calls!

This week I would like to share something which I hold dearly. That would be the Plan of Salvation. Maybe there is a reason I taught it so many times this week. 

The Plan of Salvation teaches us how we can live with our families forever.  How?  Well, first off - my family means the world to me!  What would heaven be without our families?  That would not seem like heaven at all, would it?  However, to be able to live with the people that I love and cherish for eternity - there is no other gift greater than this.  It’s all made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

He died and suffered for our sins. So when the day of judgment comes, we can kneel before our heavenly King and say “I did my best.  I testified of and lived by your Son’s teachings.  The best part is, wherever we fell sort, Jesus Christ fills in any of the gaps.

This doctrine has brought me great peace after losing friends and loved ones during my mission.  Enduring loss and sharing these teachings with others has only strengthened my humble testimony of the God’s Plan.

I know this Plan to be true and it is for everyone.  No matter how far you may have strayed - God and his Son Jesus Christ are waiting with open arms. We just have to reach out to them. 

This is my testimony, and I say this in the name of our beloved Savior, the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, amen

I’m looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Love you.

Elder Connor William Dickinson 

Week 83: A long tiring week

There are two ways to look at the subject line if this email.

1)  From your perspective, a civilian’s perspective, a long tiring week could include getting yelled at by the boss, worked 20 hours of overtime or something else that was probably not fun, edifying or so on.

Or

2) From the view point of a missionary a long and tiring week means a week full of work that was worth all of the difficulty.   As I lay in my bed typing this up I know I have given it my all this week. This was one of those weeks that was tiring, but I can kneel before my Lord and say “I've done all I could.”

That being said, my week was the second kind.  We were uber busy with service, teaching and meetings.  From now on, instead of going through my week day-by-day, I will only share any highlights.

Monday:  What can I say?  I'm a simple man. We could have done all the fun things in the world, but nothing can hold a candle to talking to my family on PDay. You guys are my world. You guys keep me going - so thank you for that.

Tuesday was a long day filled with cancelled lessons, but the highlight was being able to attend a missionary dinner for the Youth and Young Adults hosted at the Butterfield Ward bishop’s house.  He talked a little about his mission and we got to share advice on filling out our mission papers and things we wish we would have known better or done more before our missions.  So, it was a fun opportunity to share a little of what we have experienced to help future missionaries.

A beautiful desert sunset

Wednesday’s highlight was zone conference.  The West zone and North zones combined for a daylong conference to talk about numerous spiritual things ranging from technology safeguards to extending invitations and commitments.  It was defiantly an edifying and all-around spiritually enlightening time. 

Thursday was a day to remember, my goodness!  We woke up and went to do service at the C___s.  Due to some circumstances, they needed to move a shed off of one property and onto another - before the day was over.  We spent the morning using screw jacks to jack up the shed to a height that we would be able to get a trailer underneath it.  The screw jacks are exactly what they sound like.  Basically we had to spin a handle to wind the screw jack forever until they lifted the shed high enough. I have blisters on both palms, one of which got infected. Fun right?  Well we finally got the shed to the other property.  I was the traffic flagger and directed traffic and such.   After a tight squeeze and some on the fly engineering, we landed the shed on its final resting place. It ended up taking all day, but it was well worth it - not to mention I gained some valuable knowledge from doing it.

Challenge Accepted! :)

Friday consisted of weekly planning, lessons, correlation meeting and other business. Need I say more?

Saturday was a good day. We helped the O__ family (an entirely different O__ family that I’ve written about before) work in their back yard and completely change the look of it by 180 degrees.  We moved a dirt pile, weed wacked, removing stakes and did a lot of good old fashioned cleaning up.  Now, it looks wonderful.  It was darn hot, too.

Here is something cool:  I introduced our ward mission leader to Grandpa Collingwood.   We are now starting to use the program that Grandpa Collingwood developed in Midvale.  We just implemented it here and I'm looking forward to seeing it in use, because I know it works.  So we went out on splits with Bro. R___ and visited some new move ins and other less active members. It was time well spent.

Sunday:  My goodness!  We had meetings from 6:00AM until out 8:30PM dinner appointment. It was a brutally long day, but again – it was worth it.

That was my week.  I am looking forward you hearing from y'all.  I love you.

Love,

Elder Connor William Dickinson 

I will send pictures in another email.

Week 82: Four Months and Not Counting

Man, this week just flew buy.  I guess that happens when your busy getting rejected, lol.

But in all seriousness, this week, for some odd reason, had a copious amount of meetings (again) and a lot of empty appointments and stop-by visits. On Monday (P-day) our zone played indoor golf at a place called Top Golf. It was a video golf range it so much fun!! I will keep it to myself who won. :D

Zone at TOP GOLF

When, I look back on the lessons we taught this week, we only really taught one solid lesson. It was with Bro. H__’s wife. She is a non-member.  She grew up Baptist and then practiced Buddhism.  She started coming to church with her husband and decided, “Well if I'm going to their church, I might as well figure out what they believe.”  So, we taught a solid first lesson, which went really well and she accepted all of the invitations we extended.  The next lesson will be in two weeks, due to their being on vacation this week.  We plan to invite her to be baptized then.  So that’s super exciting.  That is the main highlight of this week. 

We also had exchanged with the Zone Leaders, which went well - as always.  I went to the Young Single Adult Ward.  We didn't really teach any lessons, but we do some stop-by visits and had some good conversations. 

The last highlight of this week happened Sunday night.  I was able to go on a split with Elder Bowcut.  We are super good friends.  So, that was fun.  We taught a lesson in Spanish.  It was so cool to be able to use what little I know. I can't speak Spanish all that well, but I can translate it fluently. The Mission President said he was impressed that I know so much Spanish, lol.

I really can't remember much more that happened this week because we spent days at a time just contacting people, clearing up ward lists and refining our area book. So, that filled up a massive amount of our time.

Because this was a shorter email feel free to ask a lot of questions.  I'll leave you with my simple testimony.

That I know God lives.  Not only does He live, but He loves each and every one of us.  No matter what we do, through the atoning sacrifice of His only begotten son we can return back with him.  Christ is standing there with his arms open, but we have to make the choice to reach out to him.  I don't know who I'm saying this to or for what reason, but God does love you, don't quit…keep the faith! 

P.S. Mom and Dad I sold my blender for chicken.

I love y'all. 

Elder Dickinson 

Week 81: Looking Back

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