Christmas Week!

We are feeling very grateful for the opportunity to talk to Sadie yesterday! She is doing great, and just loves serving in New York City. Her email home this week was pretty short because of a change in P-day + we were going to talk soon anyways, but enjoy!

We got the mouse! HAHAHAHAHAHA. I was NOT going to clean it off that trap... The elders got the traps set up, and them we caught it like a few hours later! Yaya! Anyways, I tried to throw it using a spatula to the kittens that live in our yard, but missed... Hahaha.  Also I had to teach Sister Richardson all about selfies. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Also I'm cute. Deal with it.

I got some Christmas money from people, so yay! P.s. Tell Dana and the Jensens thank you! I will send thank you cards by next week. Also tell Drew thank you! I got five pounds of beef jerky!! Yessss.  Loved it. It was so legit.

This week was awesome though. It was a week of miracles. Taking over my area completely showed me what I really knew.  That moment that dad talks about where all the sudden you know the language happened this week. And I finally feel like I can really try to follow the spirit. Like I feel so guided about where to go. Like the best Christmas present ever.

Love you tons!

New Comp!

Hola mi familia!

Happy transfers y'all! I am still in the Bronx, but now Lancaster-less! The fact that she got transferred is CRAZY! She has been here for 8 months, and only has one cycle left before she leaves to go home.  But apparently she was needed in Connecticut! My new companion is Sister Richardson. She was actually MTC companions with Sister Lancaster, so she will also be going home in February. She is awesome. Everyone has told me she is a super hard worker, which is what I need right now- I need someone to kick my butt! She was an STL before, so it is going to be interesting to see how her work ethic affects my area. Also because she is leaving, most likely I will be staying here for at least two more cycles.  So my first 7 months will be spent in the Bronx! Does that make me a Bronxite? Hahaha. This week I have begun my search for my who-what-why.  Sister Lancaster and I always talk about how there are so many different types of missionaries, and I am in the process of finding out what kind of missionary I want to be, and how to become that missionary. During study time, I came across a talk by President Thomas S. Monson titled "That All May Hear". It is an oooold talk, but really felt relevant to my purpose! In it, he outlines three things that every missionary needs to do in order to become successful: Prepare with purpose, teach with testimony, and labor with love. These three things have become my motto! It's amazing to see how much those three topics show up EVERYWHERE in the scriptures!

Sadie's zone

Anyway, on Saturday I went on a split with Sister Stringam, one of our STLs! She taught me how to labor with love for sure. The Lord has been helping me discover why love is so important, and Sister Stringam is evidence of that. Love creates a desire. She brings love and service to everyone and is always there to help. If anybody needs a hug, she is there. I love her, and I especially love her example. Sister Stringham is amazing and has truly changed my mission life already. I want so bad to be a missionary like her. She loves, she is smart, she is direct, she knows, she listens, she is awesome. She doesn't like to waste time for anything, which is how I feel I want to be. She taught me how to be direct. How to just say what you're going to teach, then teach it. Don't be awkward about transitions to questions or anything.  Just go for it.  Because people like to talk anyway, so it will all work out, especially if the Spirit is there. I love that.  Anyways, we met with an awesome Dominican lady named Amparo when we were actually looking for her daughter, Cynthia. Cynthia is a less-active member, who we thought was going to be back here by November, but it looks like no. Amparo is not a member, but has been taught by missionaries in the past, I am sure. She knew so much about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and believed a lot of it. She also told us that she has read part of the Book of Mormon. While she was making us hot chocolate, we were sitting outside of her kitchen on chairs. She spoke Spanish about a million miles a minute. I understood maybe 40% of what she said. Luckily Sister Stringam was there to help me out. But our lesson was amazing. She told us that she had doubts about Joseph Smith. It was really the only thing she didn't completely understand. Sister Stringam looked at me and told me to tell about the Restoration. I nodded, then began. I felt like I could see the pamphlet in front of me in my head. I was so grateful for the time in the mtc that we spent memorizing the topics of the pamphlet. The words began flowing out of my mouth. I had a few mistakes, but the words just came. I felt so inspired. I felt like what I was saying was clear- like she understood. I began the story and then felt inspired to tell about the first vision. As I taught about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ coming to Joseph Smith in a humble grove of trees, the spirit was so strong. I felt like for the first time in a while this was God's lesson--not mine. I have been reading about how we have the amazing gift to not only have the Spirit with us, but literally through us. In that case, we say what the Spirit would say we are just His mouthpiece. That is amazing to me. In this experience, I really felt that!

Feeling like a mouthpiece for the Spirit happened again yesterday when we taught a member of our ward, Marta, who is about 70 years old and the sweetest, most hilarious Puerto Rican ever. We talked about her conversion story and I bore testimony that she should write it down for her future generations, and how I have the gospel because my ancestors received, shared, and wrote about their experiences of the Restored Gospel in their own time. I testified that her family would come to the knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ if she shared her testimony with them by writing it down.  This really is The Lord's work, because I would not be able to feel the way I do, be the missionary I want to be, or have experiences like this if He were not guiding me every step of the way. 

Mom, we do stick all our food in the fridge... Except those cookies had been out. And the mouse ate sister Lancaster's stocking too... She wasn't very happy. But she is going upstate where they have no mice or bugs, so that is a plus!  I am sooo spoiled!! Thank you so much for your packages and love. I also got packages from grandma and grandpa, nanny and papa, there is one coming from the chums, one coming from Sarah, and apparently a package with five pounds of meat from Drew!!!!!   Also funny story, Alexa is in Punxy, PA, the place where the groundhog is. She is terrified of groundhogs. Really she is terrified of a lot of stuff hahaha.  Here is am amazing story! The English ward had 9 people baptized on Saturday. Yeah. Nine! Two families! I missed the baptism, but heard it was amazing. 

It finally snowed!!

Not much else happened this week, except we got stuck in the EXACT SAME ELEVATOR.  Yeahhh.... Same time, same elevator, same exact people, just the next week. We weren't going to take the elevator, but I convinced Lancaster that we should just go with the elders. Next thing you know the door is not opening again... This time after pushing buttons, all the elders started yelling out their weight to see how close we were to the maximum weight allowance.  They looked at Sister Lancaster and I--we threw them a couple of sassy looks.  Yeah, they returned to pounding the door open button. Oh, and it snowed like crazy. That is really all that happened though.  Love you all!! Merry Christmas! Thank you to everyone participating in the Christmas challenge! 

I am excited to talk to you next week! 

Love you!

Hermana Sadie Dodson

Stuck, Stuck, Stuuuuuuccckkkk!!

Hola!

This week was awesome, a little chillier, and pretty funny!

Thursday we had the baptism of Alex, an 8 year old in our ward. This  baptism was a party. There were balloons, party favors, a HUGE cake bigger than any I'd seen at any wedding, and party favors. It was insane! We had basically half the ward show up, which was awesome. Alex is an awesome kid, but he has more sass than any child I've ever met.  Yes, more sass than me and Emmy. Combined. Hard to imagine, I know. Haha. But it was amazing to see the change in him after his baptism. I talked to him on Sunday, and he was a new kid. He told me how excited he was to get the Holy Ghost, and was extremely calm and awesome. It was crazy. Baptism really can change people if they let it. It is an ordinance of a God--a new birth. The chance to start over new. And I was blessed to see that change take place even in an 8 year old.

A baby shower for a ward member

On Friday was the mission Christmas party! It was outstanding! I loved every minute of it! We had all 261 missionaries in the mission there. Everyone made sure to arrive at least 1 1/2 hours early so we could have time to talk to everybody... Haha. But guess who I saw!? Sister Syd Jensen!! She is so cute, and it was awesome to see such a good friend from home. She keeps telling me to get transferred up to her area. Haha. We had a very spiritual musical program (my mission is so talented-- I think half my mission wants to study theater and/or music when they get back, go figure.), and then talks from both President and Sister Morgan. The spirit was strong, and testified of the real reason for the season: our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so thrilled to be able to spend this holiday giving Him the best gift I can think of: devoted service. He has given the greatest of all the gifts of God--eternal life with my family, and I couldn't be more happy to be spending all my time paying Him back.

Sunday we had an awesome lesson in Sunday school about exaltation-our ultimate goal of living with God. I heard a quote earlier in the week from Elder Russell M. Nelson, who said that, "While salvation is an individual matter, exaltation is a FAMILY matter". It was awesome to testify to new converts and investigators that the only way we CAN live with God is by completing the ordinances that He has instigated: baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, receiving the Priesthood for men, receiving your endowment in the temple, and being sealed to your family in the temple for eternity. I know that these things are special, and they are truly the only way to return. I feel so blessed to have been able to feel of the importance and receive of these events in my life. Now all I have to do is keep on trudging and making sure that every day I am worthy enough to be comfortable with God. It's like I have received the keys to open the door to the house.  But, I need to make sure I can feel like I belong, or like it is MY house.  I will be able to be with the ones I love there.

On Monday, along with Dad's birthday, it was Elder Gamble's, my super awesome district leader's birthday! To celebrate we threw him a surprise party at a member's house (Susy). Even preparing for the surprise party was eventful, so the night was bound to be a little dramatic. Normally Elder Gamble, Elder Geisel, Sister Lancaster, and I head to Susy's house to eat on Mondays, so we decided we would invite all the elders  and our ward mission leader to her house early to surprise him when he showed up. Two problems arose with this plan: we run on Dominican time, and Elders Gamble and Geisel ended up going on a split with Elders Stephens and Duvall.  (Luckily for us, Elder Gamble was planning on staying in his area, so he was still planning on coming to dinner.) On Sunday Elder Duvall showed Elder Gamble his and Stephen's schedule to prove that they actually had things planned for the day. Included in that plan was an event on Monday at 7 pm, conveniently named "Gamble surprise".  Haha, gotta love those elders... So after that Elder Gamble had a few suspicions.

Elder Gamble's "surprise" birthday party

On Monday, Hermana Lancaster and I were heading to Susy's after an appointment in our area when we get a text from Elders Wilkins and Hurtado telling us that Gamble is now under the impression that we were not going to make it to Susy's tonight and instead they were going to go, and that we should just "play along". Apparently earlier in the afternoon Elders Hurtado, Wilkins, Gamble, and Geisel all found themselves together in their apartment. As is missionary tradition, they decided to pray before they headed out the door. When Elder Wilkins said the prayer, he blessed that they would get to Sister Susy's house safely. This of course confused Elder Gamble, since Elder Wilkins was not supposed to be going to Susy's that night.  So Elder Wilkins threw in a quick cover up, saying that the sisters had called and they were trading places. These boys do not know how to keep a secret.  It ended up that Hermana Lancaster and I were the last ones at Susy's house since Dominican time means we're always running late. So when we walked in the door we yelled a huge "surprise!!", and then watched as Elder Gamble gave us a really lame reaction. Either way, it was still a fun party and we had a delicious dinner.

After the party was over, we all left the apartment at the same time then waited for the elevator to show up--8 missionaries plus one ward mission leader.  Diosfer was the last one to step in the elevator when it arrived, and like the boys that they are, a couple elders hockey shoved him into the door. Next thing I know, we're stuck in a tiny stinky elevator with a trash bag, a fly the size of a ring, eight missionaries, and one ward mission leader.  This elevator was not moving anywhere.  The first thing we do, freak out a little. Do some jumping and yelling, and then quickly push all the buttons as if they were about to diffuse bombs or something. With no luck there, we had Diosfer call Susy.  He calls, but the Spanish he grew up speaking in the DR has left his brain, and instead of saying we're stuck in the elevator, he tells her that the elevator touched us. She must have thought it was a prank call, because she hung up immediately after that. After a few minutes of laughing at the fact that us gringos have to correct a Dominican's Spanish, we decide to take the next step and press the emergency call button. It rings a couple time, them says "Hello, this is the elevator service..." Diosfer yells out, "yeah we're stuck in an elevator!" The response, "we're sorry, please call back during normal business hours, 9-5..." With our few logical ideas busted, we decide to do the thing we should have done in the first place: PRAY.  I know prayers are answered on my own, so with a group of 7 other stellar missionaries and a ward mission leader, our prayer was bound to be pretty loud up in Heaven. Elder Duvall said a really sweet prayer, using the correct Spanish word for stuck. After the prayer, the giant fly came and attacked Sister lancaster and I and the elders pushed the emergency call button again. "Hello this is the elevator service." We were all silent. The voice spoke again. "Hello? This is the elevator device? Hello?" SOMEONE ANSWERED!!!  We told him our location, then he hung up. After that we tried Susy. Guess who answered her phone, and guess who spoke correct Spanish?! Susy told us she would get the super.  PRAYER half-way ANSWERED! BOOYA! So now it was a waiting game.  Usually it takes the fire department about 3 hours to respond to elevator calls, and while Susy is awesome, who knows what her super could actually do. In the process of all of this, we thought we felt the elevator move, but even then, the door never opened.  So after about 10 minutes of taking pictures, and telling Elder Gamble he had the best birthday story ever, someone thought to push the door open button. Next thing we know, the door swings open on the fifth floor! (We started at the basement... Hahaha). We all rushed out, more willing than ever to take the stairs! Sister lancaster passed out against the wall (from laughing too hard) for about 2 minutes, and then we headed home! But I know that prayers are answered! God hears every one and is just waiting for us.

GORGEOUS New York skyline

Love you all tons!! The Church is true, and I am blessed to be a part of this great work!

Love,

Hermana Dodson

For those of you that haven't seen the chalk art mural pictures at reachmygospel.blogspot.com, here are some Sadie took:

A New York Thanksgiving

Hola!

This thanksgiving was definitely an interesting one, but one I am definitely grateful for! Our downstairs neighbors, who are members in the English ward, invited us to dinner Wednesday night. We were so excited to possibly be having an Americans Thanksgiving! To our surprise, when we arrived, we discovered that the family we were eating dinner with was African! The wife came here from Sierra Leon only three years ago. So we had an African Thanksgiving! It was AMAZING! Africans love their food nice and spicy- my favorite.  Surprisingly, in general, we don't eat much spicy food here. Dominican food is not typically spicy, and we only ever eat at one Mexican member's house. We ate turkey, cous cous with shrimp and green beans, really spicy pork ribs, fruit and salad. Hermana Lancaster does not have a high tolerance for heat, so she was dying. When's she tasted the pork ribs I swear tears were coming out of her eyes. I didn't think they were that hot, just a little mild. The members told us that the ribs were actually really mild, because they were worried about what we could handle. The brother actually told us that he usually brings crushed red pepper with him everywhere because nothing is ever spicy enough. I have decided I was meant to be African. Haha. While we were eating the sister started telling us about a soup she makes. Listen to this: it is spicy peanut butter soup,with shrimp and chicken. I about fell off my chair when she said all those words together in one phrase. She said she would make some for me sometime, so fingers crossed!! That is like all my favorite things put together.  I was so grateful to be able to spend time with a family on thanksgiving! It was such a blessing!  They were so loving, kind, and hilarious. They have two girls, one who is

17, and the other is 2.  The two year old was sooo adorable. 

African Thanksgiving 

Dominican Thanksgiving

After our African extravaganza, I could not eat any more food, but we headed over to our ward mission leader's house for a Dominican dinner.  It was also delicious. The turkey had much more of a Latin flare, compared to the spicy African flare. Overall, it was a wonderful thanksgiving. We had opportunities to share the gospel with our neighbors, our friends, and also had the chance to had a relaxing day with friends. I am so grateful that we could celebrate this day.  I am so grateful that we can be grateful to our savior everyday! I am so grateful for you guys- my friends, and especially my family. Thank you so much for your sacrifices so that I can have this opportunity. It's been amazing to actually realize how much I not only need this mission, but also how much I actually want it. I have thought about how I never thought I would serve a mission, yet here I am, trying to follow God's plan for me. The more I try to do His will, the more I realize that I wanted this all along. I wanted to share, to serve, to love, to grow. I couldn't be more grateful for who I am becoming and for my Savior, who is giving me this opportunity!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we saw a lot of progress with a less active family, the Reynosas. The wife is sick with cancer and has not been able to come to church for a long time.  They are from the DR, and used to be really active members. We have seen a lot of progress with them! It has been really special to see.  A few weeks ago she was in the hospital for 12 days. I think this time in the hospital really hit her hard.  She is now home but has a hospice helper and has a hospital bed in her living room. When we come over, her face always lights up and she's always excited to see us come. Now that her health has really been waning, we like to call ourselves her spiritual hospice helpers.  It is really sad to see, and say, but we are literally sending her off to her Heavenly Father. This week, the ward made it possible for her to receive the sacrament at home! I think it really helped her feel pure joy. This truly is a gift from our Savior.  This Sunday we went to visit again, but she had a terrible headache. We ended up reading the Book of Mormon with Brother Reynosa. We read Helaman 13, which talks about the coming of the Savior and His purpose here. Bro. Reynosas contributed so much to the lesson. He was making comments about repentance, about Jesus Christ being born, about His Atonement, etc. The Spirit was strong.  At the end of the lesson, he says to us, "Me gustaría dar testimonio." We sat there in a tiny living room with a hospital bed, and listened to a man wearing a wife-beater and a gold chain with a diamond Jesus pendant give a sweet pure testimony. The Spirit bore witness to us, and I'm sure especially to him, that this church is the true church on the earth! It was beautiful.

In the spirit of the season, Sister Lancaster and I have been working on a nativity activity that we are going to do with people we teach! We really want to bring the spirit of Jesus Christ into their homes. I am working on drawing people for the nativity, and Sister Lancaster is working on making challenges for each day. Basically it is a countdown to Christmas, with things to do each day (such as read the story of Christ's birth in the Americas, etc.). Once an activity is completed, then they can put up the corresponding person. For example, Sunday the 15th, the challenge is to go to church, and the character is Mary. So if they go to church they put Mary on their scene! If not, then their nativity is going to be a little skewed... Haha. (Good thing we believe in repentance!) we are going to post pics on Facebook as we do it, and ask that whoever participates does as well. So look for pics on Facebook! Also it will be POSTED ON THE BLOG! So for whoever would like to join with us, print outs and information will be listed later this week. We are going to have a hashtag so people can follow it on Facebook, and then on our blogs, we are post our experiences of how we completed the day's challenge.  I am so excited. It is going to be amazing!!!

We decorated a member's Christmas tree!

We went and visited a less active family on Monday, the Pascuals, which we hadn't seen for a long time. They have four children.  We literally thought of the nativity scene idea on Monday morning, and then felt prompted to go see this family. So that night, we were running late, but still decided to go. We ran to the train, and right when we arrived, the train showed up! And then we got off the train, we ran to the bus stop, and the bus was there! This never happens. It was a miracle!  This bus NEVER ever shows up on time.  Generally we have to wait for 10 or 15 minutes. It was evidence to me that we really needed to get to this family! The bus ride was super fast, and next thing we knew we were crossing the bridge over to Manhattan! Oops... We were on the limited bus, not the regular one.  I leaned over to Sister Lancaster and said that they must not be quite ready for us... So we got off the bus in Washington Heights (this was a mistake I was kind of thrilled that it happened...) and waited for another bus to come back. When we finally arrived at the house, we were invited in. No more than two minutes later, the rest of the family walked in the door! God has perfect timing--that I know is true. Anyway, we spent some time with them, and felt like we NEED to do the Christmas countdown with them.  It was so cool. Truly The Lord works in mysterious ways. We are going back on Saturday to get them started!! It is definitely going to be a Christmas to remember!  I am so excited to help people really understand and FEEL the reason for the season.

Baptism for a for a man in the local English ward

Anyways, a couple other funny things:

My nickname here is "Sister Hipster"! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Everyone here thinks I am hipster. I know I dress really eccentric, but this is too hilarious. At zone meeting this week, I was asked to lead the discussion about online proselyting because I am "hipster". That was pretty funny.

I also made the pumpkin chocolate cookies from my other mother (Lori's recipe :) this week, and they were a big hit at our zone meeting. The comments we got were hilarious. I didn't have much time to cook them, so I made like two cookies for each person. I go to the bathroom, then come back to find out a couple elders had like 6. Every elder was telling me when their birthday was, trying to hint at me to make them more cookies. Another Elder told

Sister Lancaster that if his companion made cookies like that, he wouldn't let them be shared. I was laughing so hard! So thank you, mom (and Lori!)!

I saved you guys Mexican cookies! But our

little friend the mouse got to them.... Ugh.

Also Mom, THANK YOU for the December daily Christmas presents! They are so funny. We love opening one each morning.  The decorations and such help us to feel the spirit of Christmas.

Also this week we talked to Sulenny, a less active young woman. She is AMAZING! We love visiting her. She's super smart, and LOVES the gospel. She wanted to talk to us about the Second Coming, so we read with her the article in this month's New Era by Elder Holland. I was so uplifted. I really felt like I have finally really understood the importance of the Book of Mormon, and the reason for its creation. It was made for these latter days! I knew that before, but that day I felt it. I felt that truth and felt the Holy Ghost testify of that truth as I was praying. I know with my whole entire soul that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is true. It is important, and it is necessary. I know without a doubt in my mind that when I read that book, I am going to come closer to God. If the Second Coming is scary, it is because you don't fully understand the Book of Mormon. That book has the power to eliminate all fears, and will enlighten you as to the things that you need to do to prepare yourself for the time when Jesus Christ will reign on the earth. The Book of Mormon is powerful!! I am so grateful that prophets in the past sacrificed their own time with their own people and their own problems to write this book! They wrote it not because it would help their people, they wrote it so that we could have success. They knew their dispensation was eventually going to fail. They knew it. So they did all they could to make sure that our dispensation would not!

I love you all!! Have a wonderful week, and Happy Holidays!! Thank you so much for everything!

Love, Sister Dodson