Week 4

This was right before Elder Dickson entered the mission field:

I hope you don't mind but I would rather write everything in one email then you can just forward the emails to Grandma, Grandpa, Courtney, Britt, Lauren, Katherine, Connor, Shane, Zach, Kyle, Austin, Brook, and Josh so I don't have to repeat myself. Could you do that for me? I'm not sure if I can email friends or not so I'm choosing not to. Plus here in the library there is a timer and it shuts us out after 50 minutes.

I'm done with the MTC! I felt like I was in there forever! The days felt like weeks and the weeks felt like days. If that even makes sense. There was so many awesome devotionals and talks we had the last few days. I'm pumped and ready to DO WORK!!! One of our sister missionary's needed another suitcase because her wheel broke on hers. So she has it now. One of our sister missionary's has a problem with her knees and they bother her all the time. But they were especially bothering her this one day and we (my comp and I) told here that if she needed a blessing that there were 5 of us in the room that can give her one. She said ok. A few hours later when I was teaching an "investigator" "quotes" means fake, one of the other elders in my district came in and said sister Knowles needed a blessing. I went in and saw that she was on the floor in tears because she hurt so bad. We asked her who she wanted to give the blessing. She said anyone is fine. Our teacher (Brother Cope) told Elder Bennett that he was the district leader and to pick. He said he would do the anointing and if I would seal and give the blessing. I said yes. I can't remember to much except the fact that I was shaking a ton. I got a letter from here and opened it on the plane ride home. In it she said how I didn't even know her and I (the Lord) said something that her parents told her before she left. It was word for word what they said to her and everything I said she needed and were answers to her prayers. I know that the Lord told me what to say. I know that he will continue to tell me what to say if I will just muster up the guts to open my mouth and say something and rely on him completely... which I did during the blessing. I know that I will continue to have these awesome experiences.

Thanks for the note and pictures Courtney! I didn't find them tell I was packing to leave. Thank you. The temple is very beautiful here. Oranges in the trees. WAY good! Looks like I'm going to be eating a lot of fruits. I got a card that has money for me that should last the rest of the month. I get 115 a month but only have 86 on it right now. Will see how good I am at shopping and managing my money. :D I'm physically 100% emotionally maybe a little less. Yeah I'm a little home sick but who isn't. It was nice to be able to call some people at the airport. It was really good to hear all your voices..... especially Katherine's. Well out of time. Love you all so much!!!

Elder Dickson

This was his first week in Arizona:

Yeah Satan has been working on me quit a bit but I'm ok. That just means that I'm going to do tons of good and that I need to be extra careful and obedient in every way possible. I know if I do my part and try my hardest that the Lord will help me with the rest and that I just need to trust him.

Just me and Elder Lee in an apartment. 16 elders and 4 sisters came to Tempe. Sun is very nice right now. Suppose to be 86 today and I already have a weird tan line from my watch. Got a little pink one day but have been wearing sunscreen. They say that this is way they live here and its nice out right now. But wait a few months. Can't wait to ride my bike in 120 degree weather. I have been drinking 3 liters of water while on my bike everyday and several other water bottles while in my apartment and several glasses of water while at members houses for dinner so I'm staying well hydrated.

Not to be mean but the missionarys at home I never saw riding bikes. They were always trying to get rides. We ride an average of 25 miles a day. On a good day we road 36. Keep in mind that we are in the sun with black pants too. We only asked for rides on P-days to email plus the zone leaders that have the car live like 2 minutes away so its not a hassle for them. We even bike to church. Then have 8 hours of church and get to take the sacrament 3 times each Sunday which is awesome. 8 hours of church is relaxing compared to other days and its a nice break where we just get to sit and be filled with the spirit. But it is a little annoying when they repeat the same talks in the other wards and you have to listen to the same talks twice.

Nope no mail sense I have been here in Chandler. I didn't have time to write anybody back last Wednesday but I do today and will do that. GTG. Talk to you next week. Love you.

14.98!!! WHAT?! It said for long distance calls that it was 4 dollars for 12 minutes. Yeah please check that out because that doesn't make sense at all that it cost that much. Thats good. I had trouble sending them then they didn't send then they did then I sent some duplicates because I thought that they didn't send. Oh well. Only put the good ones up on Facebook. Yeah please forward these emails to all my friends especially Katherine. My companions name is Elder Lee. He is way awesome. Hard hard worker and good trainer but he isn't anal about stupid things and knows how to have fun. He is my district leader too. Yes my p-days are Wednesday right now but they are going to change to Mondays next transfer which is about 6 weeks. I get on around 10:30 every Wednesday if you would want to get on at the same time then we can email back and forth fast so I don't have to wait a whole week to get an answer back. Yes I got the box of bedding. Thanks for the turkey jerky. I was going to buy some before I opened my box but decided that it was too expensive so I didn't get any. Then to my surprise I came home and opened the box and there was 2 bags of it. You know me too well. Bike is doing good. It's pretty nice. It may need some new tires eventually which will cost like 40-50 bucks. I held off on that one. 40 bucks later I got lights for the front and back though. My lights are worth more then my bike is. It should hold up and I might even get a car later in my mission so its a good thing I did't buy that expensive one because this one works just fine. Like you said it was good that I had a bike right when I got here because we used it that day to ride around and contact people. As far as the address goes, Elder Lee said to just send it to the mission office because when we have transfers the mail gets sent to your old place or gets lost for a while and sometimes the people at your old place wont forward it to you. Plus it only takes 1 more day to get to me. So I would rather not take the chance.

Got the first door slammed in my face. Almost had a bible bash with a guy but we ended on a good note. I thought I would be teaching more then I have. I have only taught 2 lessons so far. Everything else has been contacting people that are less active or part member family's or what we call OYMs. Which means open your mouth. We stop and talk to random people on the street when we ride our bikes. We shoot for 10 everyday but one day I got 28. Its pretty awkward. We don't tract to much in our mission. I guess Kimball came to our mission and said that tracting wasn't a good use of our time in this mission that we should OYM at least 10 people a day and our baptisms would double. Almost everyone around here has heard of missionarys or has had lessons from them or is not interested at all. Then the rest of them are Spanish and I can't talk too. There are Spanish neighborhoods that we go into and just leave because they are all Spanish. Some places are pretty rough around here. They said if you have any problems with the guys across the street to come on over anytime and get in the back yard. They hear gun shots at night time sometimes and there is a gang leader 2 houses down. Plus I smell weed like 5 times a day. Sometimes I feel like I'm in mexico because everyone is speaking Spanish, playing Spanish music, and the houses look like they came straight from mexico. I'm in Chandler by the way. It must be crazy down in Yuma. I think it would be cool to go up in the mountains the last half of my mission and go on the Indian reservations. But will see.

We have 4 people on date for baptism and several investigators. I guess Chandler is a really slow area or has been and since Elder Lee has been here its sky rocketed. We cover 3 wards and in some of the wards we don't even have a ward mission leader or ward missionarys. He feels like the missionarys before never did anything. Dinners very a lot because our ward mission that we have is flaky and doesn't send around the sign up sheet and makes up excuses to not show up for splits then doesn't get someone else to show up instead. But yeah we are now leading our districts in stats when Chandler use to be one of the dry areas.

We asked for a referral from a member and they said to go next door. The girl was very interested and open, then one of her friends there was just baptized 3 months ago. So got a referral, and taught her with a member present, then she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and that we could come back Thursday and teach her more. It was basically a miracle. All week it has been hard and we haven't had too much success but this made it all worth it. I will continue to work hard and I hope that these experiences will keep happening.

Love you, Elder Dickson