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