Weekly!

Hola mi familia!!

We had yet another crazy week! This week all of our crazy running around teaching people finally caught up with us and we were dead tired... Haha. But after a good nap, we’re hopefully ready for next week's adventures.

Friday was the mission CHRISTmas Devotional and it was INCREDIBLE! Our mission is full of so many talented people. I wish I would have recorded it because the music was so fabulous. Also, the Christmas party is the only time during the year that the whole mission is together.  I loved seeing all my friends! It was a little sad though, since I had to say a lot of goodbyes to many of my favorite missionaries who are going home in a couple weeks! Yikes!

On Sunday Juarina came to church! The Ward ate her up—it was so awesome. We didn't even get to sit by her because she had members on all sides. We are super excited to see her keep progressing.

 Yesterday I went on a member split with our awesome gospel principles teacher, Ruth. She taught a kick-butt lesson and I felt like I was her sidekick. I am so impressed at the knowledge and strength of testimony from our members. They live in such a loud environment in NYC, but they know the truth, and they cling to it.  I know that the gospel gives us a different perspective on life and is a protection from the world.

 I am just seriously so happy here! Tired, crazy, and stressed, but overall, happy! I love doing the Lord's work, and I love that He sent me here to the Heights.

Love you all,

Merry Christmas!

Hermana Dodson

Fun times at the Mission Christmas Party!

Christmas in the City

Hola mi familia!

Once again, we have had one of the craziest weeks I've ever seen in my whole mission.  We had miracles, big laughs, and Saturday kind of felt like the twilight zone. 

Last Wednesday we had a few lessons planned, but on our way out from the church at 7:30 to a lesson, we got a text from our zone leaders saying we needed to be in casa right away because of some riots going on downtown.  Boo for riots and protestors.  So we cancelled our lesson and headed directly for the train.  With Trader Joe's bags in tow, Sister Hall stepped onto the A train.  Right as her back foot stepped onto the train, the doors slid shut.  Sister Smart and I just looked at each other in shock.  Sister Hall was on the train, and we were still on the platform! We pressed our foreheads against the glass of the windows to see Sister Hall casually walking to a bench and taking a seat.  She turned around, saw us knocking and waving at her, and her jaw dropped.  The train started to move and Sister Hall's expression of anxiety turned into laughter. Did we really just get separated on the subway the same day that we were told it was dangerous to be walking around outside? At least we were underground.  As the train drove away, Sister Smart says, "Bye Buddy! Hope you find your dad!"  We just started busting up laughing and laughed about the situation for a straight 5 minutes.  We were convinced we were going to meet Sister Hall with a wet pair of pants and boots, because we were all laughing so hard. Hahhaaaa. We hopped on the next train and found our long last “dad", and headed home.

Friday was my first Mission Leadership Council meeting! We had some really incredible special guests join us, including Elder Perkins from the 70, and the head honcho of the mission department, Elder Allen, who brought along with him the creative design team for "He is the Gift". We had an incredible discussion about how the work is moving along. "He is the Gift" is all about action, and so Elder Allen talked to us about following through. We set a goal with the South Mission to have 100,000 views of the video through December. It's a HUGE feat, but I know we can accomplish it with the help of God.  It will really help us find the people who are elect.  Elder Perkins shared other exciting news about the “Meet the Mormons” movie.  The Church has been blessed in being able to acquire contracts with stores such as Walmart, Best Buy and Costco to sell the movie beginning in May.  Also, Netflix and Red Box are going to make the movie available to viewers!

In the City, you see some ironic signage….

Saturday, since we have the most talented stake in the whole world, we went to the Stake CHRISTmas concert in the temple. There I ran into tons of missionary friends, cousin Ashley, a friend from home-Shawnie Peterson, who is serving in the South mission, Nani and Papa, and Bishop Crawley and James. It was the weirdest day.  The music was incredible!!

Yesterday was a day of TONS of miracles. We started out the morning headed to go see Juarina. The rain was pouring, and we were soaked! When we were about halfway to the train station, Sister Hall realized she forgot her metro card at home... Ha. So we ran to grab it, then headed back. As we waited at the platform, a man walked up to us said, "Oh my goodness! You look like a couple of DIVAS!  Who did your makeovers this morning?" We laughed and said thank you, and then he looked down at our tags. "You are from the Church of a Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!?! I want to be baptized!"  Cue jaw drop... Wayde then explained to us how he had received all the lessons in Connecticut and was going to get baptized, but had to emergency move here a few days ago.  We exchanged information, and hopefully we will see Wayde baptized by the english elders soon!! It was definitely a miracle of perfect timing. 

Later, we got Juked by Juarina and so decided we would go tract a building. We went upstairs to floor 2, and Sister Smart started joking about "2B, or not 2B?" So we decided to knock. A young man named Junior, about our age, opened the door and invited us in. We showed him the "He is the Gift" video, and he loved it. He was so grateful that we stopped by and asked us a lot of questions about how to choose the right in a world where there is so much bad. We set up a return appointment, and are excited to see him progress! We will probably have the elders teach him, but how exciting is that?!  We had two huge miracles before 1:00 pm! 

I know this is the work of the Lord, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. 

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

The NYC lights and decorations this time of year are magical!  On the other hand, our missionary Christmas Tree is humble, yet beautiful!

Thanksgiving + He is the Gift

Hola mi familia!

This week has been INSANE! We have had so much fun and had so much work to do.  We are combining two areas into one because we are currently short on Spanish sisters, but that also means that we are teaching double the amount of lessons.  It is a good thing we are a trio! It has been crazy!  We have been trying to get out on member splits as much as possible because we keep ending up being double booked.. whoops! There have been TONS of miracles, and this place is just as magical as I imagined it. Here has been my week:

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!!

2:00-We started out our feasting with the new Senior sisters who live in our building.  They wanted all their "family" to come to dinner with them, and so we went and had a delicious traditional "Grandma Thanksgiving", with turkey, stuffing from a box, and pumpkin pie. Yum.

4:00- Sister Smart's less active brother lives down in Manhattan and President gave us permission to go have dinner with him!  A.K.A. we had a hipster young-and-single-in-the-city Thanksgiving dinner.  I can't even describe to you how incredible the food was. Everything was typical Thanksgiving food, but tweaked just a little.  For example we had sweet potatoes, but they were crusted with a pecan glaze; and an argula salad with sauteed onions, carrots, and parsnips (what even is that??).  Also included was organic turkey (I'm pretty sure it's the same as a regular one... Haha.)  We shoved our faces full at dinner number 2 because it was so incredible.

7:00- We finished up at our recent convert, Ylaura's house, with a typical Dominican Thanksgiving.  Basically it's Dominican food but in a bigger quantity... (our stomachs were not exactly happy about that. Haha.) 

At the end of the day I was so full I wobbled home.

Hipster Thanksgiving

Friday: 

We woke up with stomachs just as full as we went to bed with... Ewwww. We also woke up with a new determination to hit up the gym! 

That night as we were getting on the train, we passed a guy selling churros.  Sister Smart told us that she had never bought food from a street vendor, so we flipped around to go buy some churros. We ended up teaching the man selling churros an awesome lesson! He isn't quite ready to receive the missionaries yet, but we will definitely stop by and talk to him frequently when he's working. And stop by to get some churros. Mmm... Churros. 

Hermana Hall, Hermana Smart, Hermana Dodson enjoying their time on the Bus

Saturday: 

We had an INCREDIBLE Ward activity thrown by the missionaries. We had an MTC for the members to help them understand how to be member missionaries. President Morgan joined us, and luckily the activity was a big hit. We gave the members mission calls, name tags, and had break out sessions. Everyone looked so good in their missionary tags! 

Awesome Ward MTC Activity

Tuesday:

This was probably one of the craziest days of my mission. We had a meeting at the temple at 10 so Sister Smart could get Facebook set-up, then had lunch, then had a finding activity to try and get the word spread about He is the Gift. We started out handing out candy canes, but when that ran out we just tried to get people to watch the video. Even in the city that never sleeps, we had tons of people who were willing to take two minutes and feel the Spirit. It was AWESOME! We found new investigators and also the Mother of a less active who we have been trying to contact! (She was more than willing to help.)  God is blessing us so much with miracles. The video He is the Gift is changing lives. We have found so many people and are loving work. Today we are going to Times Square to see the billboard, so I will send pics soon. 

Amidst all the glitz and glamour of Manhattan, we are reminded HE IS THE GIFT!

The first gift of Christmas…was a gift of Love…and peace because…God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son.

After our lesson, we took out Eliza, a visiting member who is on medical release from her mission in Mexico. We went to one lesson together and then split! This is a benefit of having a trio!  Especially when you are slammed with work and are double booked multiple days in a week... Uh... In total, we ended up teaching 12 lesson in one day! In addition, Sister Hall and I found a GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR. 

We arrived a little early to our appointment so we decided to knock a couple doors before heading in. We found a JDubb and a gay man with fabulous hair, and then found Juarina. She opened the door and before we could finish saying that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her eyes got huge and she motioned us to come in.  She told us that years ago when she was living in the Dominican Republic she had a dream that Jesus came to her and carried her up. She then fell and landed in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was a sign to her that it was His church.  She started attending and really loved it, but was never able to keep going or be baptized. She was freaking out when we told her there was a church a few subway stops away from her home. We are SOOO EXCITED to teach Juarina. She is so ready to accept the gospel. She is going to look so good in white. 

I am LOVING my area and loving the Ward. I am loving my companions as well! I haven't laughed so much or so hard in a long time.  Every day is a new adventure. God is so good and so loving to spoil me like this. 

Love you all,

Hermana Dodson 

P.s. Being here in “The Heights”, my Dominican accent come back in full force... Haha. 

Final Transfer (we think...)!

Hola mi familia!

This has been probably one of the most eventful weeks I've had in a long time! We had a ton of awesome lessons and moments.  Also today is transfers! BIG NEWS. I’M GOING TO WASHINGTON HEIGHTS!!! Heavenly Father is so good to me. He definitely knows my heart. I will come home singing like a Dominican. 

In other news, goodbyes are the worst, and I love the White Plains Branch. 

Along with being transferred to the Heights, I have been called as Sister training leader!  I am excited, and have had a ton of good example to look to as leaders. But here is other big news that comes with my area. So usually STLs come in pairs, as in both sisters on a companionship are STLs. In my case, I am being put down in a solo STL area.  This means that I will be the only sister training leader, which means that instead of having a companion to teach me the STL ropes, I am doing it completely on my own. It is a little nerve wracking, but exciting.  Also I am being put in a trio, I am super excited for that. My companions will be sister Hall, who was my roommate in white plains.. I love her!!! That will be AWESOME! My other companion has been out 2 cycles and her name is Sister Smart.  I’m excited to work with them : )

We had a couple big miracles happen this past week. The first has to do with our investigator M. I think I mentioned last week how we had an awesome lesson about prayer with her. On Thursday we went to go teach her and follow up.  We asked her if she had been praying, and she said she had!  When we asked how they were going, she told us that in those three days everything had been better. Usually in the mornings she has no desire to get up, much less to get her kids off to school or anything. Since she has started praying, she wakes up excited and happy to see her kids. In addition, she has been having struggles with her husband, but she had the urge to get up and make him coffee! I know prayer changes hearts and spirits. How incredible is that?!

It was sad to say Goodbye to the people I love from the White Plains Branch! 

On Friday, the Church is going to blow up with the new CHRISTmas initiative, He Is the Gift.  This is an incredible new video that exemplified Jesus Christ as the sacred gift of CHRISTmas, whom our Father gave out of love. Social media is going to go huge, billboards will be put up in Times Square (I live in the best mission ever!!!), and on Dec. 7, the YouTube home page will feature a 30 second long clip of this new incredible video. In addition, everybody who receives the December Ensign will be given a booklet containing pass along cards with the He is the Gift initiative. This video is AMAZING and I know this project came by inspiration. Watch it! Love it! Share it! I feel the Spirit so strongly as I view it. Jesus Christ is love, and this is the time to celebrate the marvelous gift that He is. For more information, check out CHRISTmas.mormon.org. 

Love you all,

Hermana Dodson

Zone Conference

Hola mi familia!

This past week was awesome! We had a ton of awesome miracles, super good lessons, and some really fun experiences. 

Last Thursday we had zone conference in the Bronx with President Morgan. He decided to mix things up a bit, (some missionaries complained about never having fun...??) So we had a movie making competition! We had tons of fun getting into groups and then making a video on our iPads about Why We Believe in Christ. My group decided to go out to the Bronx and ask people why they believed in Christ. Their answers were amazing! I will send home a couple : ) I love seeing why people believe in a Savior. Especially in a place like the Bronx, it is incredible to hear how He lifts them up, and they can't deny His existence because of that. Zone conference was really inspiring and definitely fun. We talked a lot about how if we want to receive inspiration like adults, we have to act like adults. We're trying to take that to heart and make better decisions.

Westchester Zone

On Friday, we planned to go see a potential investigator that was found about 5 months ago originally.  We had stopped by to try to see her on various occasions, but she has always been busy.  She told us to come back Friday in the morning, so of course we went! We knocked twice, no answer.  But the door was slightly open, which was evidence that someone was most likely inside.  We decided to knock one more time, and Maria came to the door! She let us in, brought in her adorable one-month-old baby and we began to talk.  Maria is awesome.  She is from Mexico, says she is catholic, but is not really practicing.  We had a good discussion about our purpose as missionaries and the hope that our message can bring into her life.  At the end, Sister Brower beautifully and powerfully invited her to be baptized. BUT, literally immediately after Sister Brower finished saying, "Seguiria el ejemplo de Jesucristo a ser bautizado?" BOOM BOOM BOOM.  There was a knock at the door.  Maria excused herself from the table to go answer the door.  Sister Brower and I waited anxiously to see what would happen, and to see what her answer would be to the million dollar question, while Maria attended to the visitors at the door (who had such impeccable timing).  We couldn't see them, but my first impression was a business person, since they asked for her husband, then started asking questions about if she was his wife, their address.  Next thing we know, we see two hands shoving a Bible through the door- JDUBBS. Dang those Jehovahs's Witnesses!  Our perfect Spirit guided baptismal invitation was interrupted by stinking JDubbs.  They taught her a whole lesson at the door, unbeknownst that we were waiting on the other side.  A few minutes later, when Maria returned to the table, she said, "It's been pretty cold outside, right?" Right, Maria.  It's been pretty cold outside... With our bap invite down the drain, we decided to pull out the big guns and show her Gracias A El.  The Spirit once again flooded the room, and we testified of the power to seal families for all eternity.  The good news is that we scheduled a return appointment! The bad news is, so did the JDubbs.   But in this battle, truth  will always prevail. We are pumped to see Maria progress and choose the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Monday night we were almost killed by a bulldog. Probably not really, but it kind of seemed like it a little bit. We went to go see a new investigator, Rosa, and had an awesome lesson about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with her.  She took us into a back sitting room in her house and shut the door so that we could have a more reverent environment. As Rosa is saying the closing prayer, we hear her 10 year old son screaming behind the door, "Brewster! Brewster! Brewster's oooouttt!" Rosa keeps praying through the screams, which were then closely followed by the most terrifying bark I've ever heard. Forget your cute little "Griffi-hi-lets-be-friends-bark", this was more of a hi-I'm-hungry-and-I-like-to-eat-people-bark. After saying amen, Rosa got up and opened the door a peak to see what was going on. Next thing you know, she was fighting against the door trying to keep it closed while Brewster the bulldog is lunging at it trying to get into the room.  It kind of felt like a movie scene where a monster is trying to break through the door (couldn't tell you which one, the veil is too thick...) Rosa looked at us and with a smile said, "Un momento", then with one last kick, she sneaked through the door to take care of the Brewster problem. Right after the door closed, Sister Brower and I just started laughing. Five minutes later, Rosa returned to let us out. We must have looked pretty tasty to the bulldog. 

We also had a huge miracle with a less active family. The three youngest boys of this family are AWESOME and come to church even though their mom wanted nothing to do with it. Last week, the  youngest, who is 12, asked his mom why she expects them to do good things if she doesn't even do them herself. (Go Pedro!) That snarky comment changed her whole point of view, and Hermana Marian had her heart softened. She came to church on Sunday and plans on coming back in full force. She wants all her boys to serve missions and is going to do everything in her power to get them there! I love Hermana Marian and am so excited for her to make this change! She has been so prepared by the Lord.

One of our investigators, Modesta, is progressing so much!! Last week we went and after teaching the Restoration, she kindly told us she was Catholic, but still wanted us to come teach her. Upon visiting her yesterday, she told us that she feels something so different when we pray. She had a hard moment during the week, and tried to look online to find our prayers (Catholic tradition is memorized prayers for certain situations, so Modesta looked to find "Mormon prayers").  She said she was so happy to see us so that we could pray for her and bring her the peace she needed. We taught her how to pray and that it comes from the heart, and also about the power of the Holy Ghost. We then invited her to pray to know if our message was true. She responded saying that, of course, it was true. We were definitely freaking out a little inside. After asking her why she thought that, she said that she feels it when we teach and when we're there. THE SPIRIT IS WORKING IN HER!!! Modesta is definitely going to look good in white! : )

I know that this is the Church that contains all the truth. The truths I teach come from a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.  They have the power to make us into people that we could not naturally be on our own. 

Love you all,

Hermana Dodson

P.s. Transfers is next week! No idea what is going to happen...haha. 

Hanging out in the Bronx

Hola Mi familia!

This week was one of the fastest weeks in my whole mission! I am amazed at how time is still flying. This was made even more obvious to me on Monday when I found out my home girl Madi goes home next week. WHAAAAT.

This weekend was stake conference and it was held in the BRONX! I got to go back to my baby area and see all my friends Saturday AND Sunday! In addition to seeing all my favorite members from the Concourse Ward, I also got to see my missionary friends (who are almost all serving in the Bronx... Haha.) Highlights included: seeing Diosfer, the Perez family (a family of four little sassy girls, whose mom got baptized the same day as Luis), Neisy, Alicia (an INCREDIBLE young woman who used to go out with us), Elder Shurtleff, Elder Hunt, Sister Vicino, Sister Maw, Sister Amorim, and a few other members I love. Sadly I didn't get a chance to see tons of members because I didn't have much time to chat, but it made me feel like a million bucks to give big hugs and besos to those who became my family at the beginning of my mission (except no big hugs and besos to the elders ;)).

We were goofing off with the kids before a lesson

Conference was really incredible and the Spirit was strong as our members testified about the power of family history work and missionary work! President Morgan spoke on Sunday and passed on some advice Elder Perry gave him when they had a recent training: after every Church meeting we go to, we can never be the same.  We are receiving revelation every time we meet with the missionaries, we go to church, or feel the Spirit in general. We must always continue progressing with the sacred instruction we receive every week. I LOVE this point. I feel influence of the Spirit In my life every single day, and I know that I have to keep going. I can never be the same as I was the day before.

Yesterday I went on a split to the English Ward with Sister Randell. It was my first time in an English area, and it felt really strange. We had tons of fun and were able to be used as God's instruments to be part of a HUGE miracle. Sister Randell and I went to go help an elderly member move furniture in her apartment so it could be painted. Upon arriving, I discovered she was a bit of a hoarder, and it took us a lot longer than expected to move things around. This made us about 45 minutes late to our next appointment with an amazing active sister. Upon arriving, the sister was being a little slow, but she has type I diabetes and told us her blood sugar had been a little low that day. We asked if she wanted any food or anything, but she said she was fine. Within the next ten minutes, she started acting really strange and was not in an okay state of mind. She said she needed to rest, and not really knowing what to do, we sent her to bed.  Sister Randell then called a member who is really close with the sister, who told us we had done the complete opposite of what she needed, and that we needed to get her out of bed immediately and get sugar in her system. With a jar of jelly, lots of prayers, and help from her friend, we were able to get her sugar levels regular and she snapped back into her normal self. It was a testimony to me of God's timing. Had we been on time to the appointment, we would have left before she started having this diabetic episode.  In addition, the member we called just so happened to be in Grand Central Station, waiting for his train to arrive. If we had waited a few minutes to call him, he would have been uncontactable. God has perfect timing and knows exactly what we need when we need it. He is conscience of all of His children and I am so grateful to get to be His servant and be His hands here on earth.

The work is being hastened and it is progressing every day. I am grateful for all your prayers and support and I definitely feel them.

Love you lots,

Hermana Dodson

P.s. Please keep in your prayers Dorivee, who is having some more cancer complications.

Sleepy Hollow

Hola mi familia!

This week was definitely different but awesome! We had a lot of fun adventures and fabulous lessons. 

Halloween was definitely a highlight day of the week! We had to be home by six, so we took advantage of our break time and had girls night! We did nails, ate brownies, and just sat on the couch. Holy cow, it felt so good to sit down for a few hours and not feel any guilt ; ) This break time was a big tender mercy. 

Girl's night!!

Earlier in the day we had a lesson with our investigator, Paula.  She is INCREDIBLE. She is probably around the same age as us, but she has two kids, the oldest of which has Autism. In Preach my Gospel, it talks about how the Book of Mormon has the power to answer the questions of the soul. I have been waiting for about 2 months to be able to do a lesson where we use the Book to answer our investigators/member/whoever's questions of the soul. The idea is this: You explain that the Book of Mormon has the power to answer the questions of the soul because it is a book that comes directly from God.  Then you give your investigator/member a notecard and invite them to write down a few questions they may have about who God is, or what is their purpose in life, or how they can be a better parent.  Then, guided by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, we use the Book of Mormon to answer their question!  We decided to use this game plan with Paula.  After praying, we invited her to write down a question.  She doesn't have tons of knowledge about God, so I expected it to be something along the lines of "How do I know God exists?" or something like that. Paula sits and thinks for a little bit, then writes down her question and slides her notecard over to us.  Sister Brower and I glance at it: "Will there ever be a cure for autism?" We both have looks on our face that say, "What the heck have we gotten ourselves into?!?"  This was a little far from what we expected and really specific! We weren't dealing with finding a scripture about God's love or finding joy through repentance, we were dealing with a very serious question where the answer wasn't specifically written out as "the cure for autism is blankkity blank blank blank."

We decide to have Paula pray and ask God her question directly and ask for her (and us!!) to be guided through the Book of Mormon to an answer.  She prayed a sweet humble prayer, asking her question, and then we sat there just kind of waiting a bit for revelation.  Sister Brower tells Paula that sometimes when she wants an answer she just flips open the book and sometimes it is there.  So Paula flips open the book and starts reading.  Just our luck, Paula had found the chapter where the Lamanites swear vengeance on the Nephites and say they are going to spill their blood.  Loooovelyyy.  The Spirit takes over and the incredible Sister Brower explains how we can relate the war chapters to our lives and how we sometimes have hard challenges, but the Lord always provides.  The Spirit then brought to our minds Alma 11:40-45, which we had just read the week previous.  These verses talk about the power of the Resurrection, that it is a free gift to everyone, and that through the Resurrection we will have perfect bodies, without even a hair of our heads missing.  We read and testified to Paula that while her son may or may not have a perfect body here, in the life to come and for eternity after, he will be perfect, free from illness or disabilities.  The Spirit was soo powerful  as we expounded upon the scriptures.  WE JUST FREAKING FOUND THE CURE FOR AUTSIM IN THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! What the heck is that??!?!!  The Spirit was definitely our teacher and guide through God's words.  Paula said she felt "at peace" with the answer we had found.  I felt my testimony of revelation, and especially of the Book of Mormon strengthened.  It HAS to be a book from God, and it definitely has the power  to answer the questions of the soul. 

Later that day we went to Sleepy Hollow to do some Halloween APFs! (finding activity)  Sleepy Hollow is the home of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow/ The Headless Horseman, and the town goes all out for Halloween.  Just on normal days all their street signs and fire trucks are painted orange and black!  During October everything is amplified. We decided to do face painting and it was such a big success. We painted tons of faces and talked to tons of people from all over the Tri-state area who were all coming to town to see the Halloween Parade. (Which started right after our curfew :(     As it got later and later people started to dress up. I seriously felt like I was doing missionary work in the Disney Channel movie "Halloween Town". Hahaha. It was a really successful happy day. 

Sleepy Hollow

We have seen lots of miracles this week, including on Monday we had an FHE with Sandra and her husband and kids! Sandra and Leon had told us that their kids are really not interested and don't care for church or God, but as we taught them they really opened up and had tons and tons of questions for us.   We hope they will keep progressing and learning. 

I know this Gospel is a family based Gospel!  We have testified time and time again of the power that Jesus Christ and His teachings have to strengthen the family. I know that as we LIVE what we are taught, that He will amplify our abilities to love one another and have peace in our homes. 

Love you all,

Sister Dodson 

Weekly! This Week and Last...Oops!

Hola mi familia!

Lo siento for being such a slacker last week! In my mind I had written a weekly email, but all your emails were a good reminder that I hadn't... oops!  I will attempt to create a two week wrap-up : )

Saturday night, Oct 18, was our Branch Noche de Talentos (Talent Night), and it was incredible. Our branch may be few, but they are definitely few and talented. We already knew that though, since are always fed such fabulous food. We had a lot perform dances- the relief society did an Èl Salvadorian dance, the primary kids danced to the Happy song, invitees from the New Rochelle Ward did a Mexican dance, one of my favorite members Ludvin did a dance, and we did a dance! We probably could have just called it Noche de Bailes... Haha. But let's be honest, Hispanics are incredible dancers (Random side note, the other morning Sister Ramirez taught us how to dance typical Latin dances like Salsa, barchata, and merengue!! Best ever. (Random cultural note, Latinos are basically famous for dancing. When you go to parties and dances, unlike American dancing where we just do whatever unchoreographed move we feel like, typical Latin songs have a beat that match a certain dance, so people at parties dance that dance. It's legit.))

Anyways, we sort of did a dance with the elders. It was so fun and hilarious. We definitely got a little bit close with each other during this dance… ; ) (They performed a dance while doing the “dwarf skit—where one person is the head and legs and a 2nd person behind the curtain is the arms.  Sadie & Hermana Brower created 1 person, the Elders, another….)   The best part about the Noche de Talentos was that Daniel and Maria showed up!  She has been so sick and it has been a big struggle for her to get outside unless she is going to the doctors. But she is a woman of her word! Anytime she promises to do something, she does it right away, and she promised us that she would come.  The next hope is that we can get her to promise to come to church (and to be baptized.. ; D

Last Thursday, so almost two weeks ago, we met with a less active, Isabel.  She is the sister of Miracle Miguel and she is so fantastic.  She just wants to come back and receive all the blessings she has been missing.  We decided to show her Elder Scott's talk from conference that emphasizes the importance of getting up and exercising faith.  I LOVE this talk because he says that NOTHING is more important than your prayers and scripture study- not school, work, sleep, etc.  (Random side note, many hispanics LOVE IT when Elder Scott speaks because he translates talks into Spanish himself! So when you hear a talk by him in Spanish, you hear his sweet soothing voice.) We were planning on showing Isabel the full talk, but after Elder Scott spoke about prayer we felt like we needed to stop and talk about it.  We asked Isabel how her prayers were going.  She said she hasn't been praying because in the past when she has prayed she always had nightmares of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.  We taught and testified of the importance of prayer, reminded her HOW to pray, and then invited her to try again.  Isabel is so incredible and accepted with a willing heart.  Even though this is something really difficult for her, she knows that if God commands her to do it, she should probably do it.  She is a fabulous example.

As far as this past week goes, it was awesome.  We had interviews with President (don't worry, I passed.. phew!), a Halloween Party, and super great lessons.  The Halloween Party was definitely a highlight.  It was geared towards the Primary, and I can't even express to you how stinking cute everybody looked in their costumes.  Heavenly Father blessed us a lot, and we had two less active families and three investigator families show up!  We were definitely freaking out a little.  The party ended with a trunk-or-treat and so we popped open our trunk and joined in! When the older kids came around, we made them do a trick to get their candy.  One of my favorites included a 10 year old singing (more like screaming) the National Anthem at the top of his lungs.  

Saturday we had a pretty eventful night! At 8 o clock we went to go check one last investigator before heading to the Yonker's ward Talent Show.  As we pulled up to the curb, we heard a big giant thud. I have hit curbs before, but this one just sounded bad. We decided to pull up a little farther, and all of a sudden the flat tire alarm started yelling at us in the car... Whoops! But honestly, a flat tire is better that anything else that could have happened. Upon further inspection we noticed that the curb had a corner edge that stuck out about 4 inches farther than the rest due to a tree.  Lame. We couldn't remember how to change it ourselves, so we called the elders to come help us! They are lifesavers! They came and changed out the tire in like 20 minutes. We felt like such girls!  But hey, what would we do without the Elders??

Sunday was the baptism of Sheyla, the daughter of Fila, one of our incredible members. Sheyla is 8 years old and is sassy as all get out. I love her. Fila is best friends with one of our etern-igators, Oriana. Oriana and her whole family came to the baptism, including her less active sister-in-law, and her husband. Yay for miracles! 

Lastly, on Monday we had our usual FHE with Daisy and Estiben.  The last time we set a baptism date for Estiben who is 8-year- old, hoping that his baptism will give her and her family the drive to reactivate. When we came on Monday, Daisy told us she wanted to change the date because she wants to make sure Estiben really understands what is going on. She told us that she has thought and felt a lot this week about how he needs to be more prepared and how it is HER responsibility as his mom to get him ready.  She said she is going to start reading the Book of Mormon with Estiben every day for 15 minutes and focus more on family prayer! I was jumping out of my seat!! I was so excited!!! I know the Holy Ghost was speaking to her and prompting her to do more. We are so excited to see their whole family progressing! Side note, we introduced the Book of Mormon to Estiben and he said, "I am very intrigued by this book..."   Kids say the funniest things. 

Love you all, have a safe and happy Halloween!

Hermana Dodson

Meet the Mormons

Hola mi familia!

Can you believe how quickly the time is passing?! It is a little frightning to look at the date and realize we are already at Oct. 15.  Sister Brower and I had a fabulous week this week and saw INCREDIBLE miracles.  The Lord definitely has His hand in His work here in White Plains.

On Friday we got together with all the upstate missionaries and watched Meet the Mormons!! Oh my goodness, the Church really hit it out of the ballpark on this one.  I encourage everyone to go see it if they haven't yet, and bring a nonmember friend (and tissues)! More than anything else, Mormons follow the example of Jesus Christ, and the movie clearly demonstrates our desires and abilities to do so. Love it.

About 2 weeks ago, Sister White and I received a referral from one of the most rock solid members, Sister Lopez.  It was of a woman who lives on her street, who is the mother of 7 children, and NEEDS God and direction in her life.  We heard rumors about how hard her family life was, and although we are not sure at all if they are true,  the gospel will bless her family!  We were so excited to go and meet her, but things fell through and it never happened.  A few days later we get a call from an excited Sister Lopez telling us we needed to get to her house in an hour and run over and teach Sandra (the mother of 7).  Okay, perfect.  Sister White and I ran over, taught an incredible first lesson and really felt the Spirit as Sister Lopez testified to her friend about the power of the Restored Gospel to bring us closer to our Savior.  We set up a return appointment, but Sandra got sick (like everybody and their dog in White Plains.. Boo.) and we haven't been able to teach her since.  On Sunday, Hermano and Hermana Lopez enter the chapel followed by a line of 7 children, and picking up the caboose, Sandra!! Sister Brower hadn't met this family yet, so she was a little confused at why I was jumping up and down and freaking out a little bit.  I was sooo excited to see Sandra and her kids at church!!!  AND to make it even better, they brought two friends with them! Our branch basically doubled in size on Sunday.  The family stayed all three hours and loved it.  Their two friends had to go after Sacrament meeting, but they loved it so much they said they wouldn't dare miss next week.  We have been so blessed with incredible people to teach, and families who are going to be strengthened and protected by the power of the Savior.  We know He will bless their lives.  4 of the kids are baptism age, and they will definitely all look good in white ; )

Yesterday was an incredibly strange day, but we definitely saw that God takes care of His missionaries.  After planning Monday night for Tuesday, we had about 9 lessons set up.  After working for 8 hours, we had barely taught one lesson and had ran all over every corner of White Plains with nobody home.  Dinner time finally arrived, and we had an appointment set up with the fabulous Fila.  We knocked on her door, nobody answered.  Juked.  Sister Brower felt like going to the mall to eat, so we decided to head out.  I got suuuuper lost driving on the way, and instead of taking 5 minutes to get there it took us 15.  When we entered the food court, there at KFC was Fila and her family!  We walked up to say hi, and she immediately turned around to the cashier and ordered us some chicken and biscuits.  Holy Cow, Heavenly Father loves us so much. He prompted Sister Brower to go to the mall, helped me get extremely lost, and planned everything out perfectly so that at the exact minute we walked in the food court there was Fila right in front of our eyes, finishing her order!  Miracles like that don't happen merely by chance, but by the grace of a loving God.

Funny story of the week:

Our investigator, Daniel, has a brother who is just as sassy and hilarious as Daniel is.  Last week when Sister White said goodbye, Daniel's brother said I couldn't come back unless I brought back his girlfriend, Sister White (whom he had met once BTW...).  Sister White didn't understand any of that though... haha.  Needless to say, Sister Brower and I have tried to stop by 4 or 5 times the past week, and each time Daniel has opened the door, sassily told me that his brother said I couldn't come in because I didn't bring his girlfriend, laughed really hard, and then told us to come back another time.. Hahahaha. Maria wasn't home any of those times either though, so we couldn't enter anyway.  Last night we passed by and luckily, Maria was home.  Daniel and his brother were out selling food.  As we walked out the back door at the end of the lesson, Daniel and his brother were at the bottom of the stairs.  They froze and just stared at us with bug eyes, shocked that we got in without bringing back Sister White.  After Maria came out behind us they just started busting up laughing. Hahaha, I love this stinking sassy family so much! 

I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has the power to change lives.  It is the only way through which we are capable of entering back into the presence of our Heavenly Father, and it is an amazing experience to see the power of the Atonement working in others as well as working in myself, and even more powerful to see it working within the family. If the Savior has the ability to heal our bruised and damaged souls, then why couldn't He have the ability to heal our bruised and damaged families? 

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

Conference Weekend

Hola Mi familia!

Big news happening this week! I'm not getting transferred! I will be staying at least 7 more weeks in White Plains! I couldn't be more excited!! But here is the kick in the pants: Sister White is being transferred to the BRONX! (Don't worry Livie, maybe she will have some exciting stories ;)) (Recently, Olivia was complaining that since Sadie has been out of the Bronx the stories haven’t been nearly as entertaining!)  We are honestly super sad and feel a little weird about her leaving, but if it is God's calling for her, than it is God's calling. She is excited and nervous. I am getting Sister Brower, who was in my ward up in Stamford! I am super excited to work with her. She works hard and is adorable. She actually read my blog before she came out and emailed me to see what the mission was like!

Yesterday we had kind of a crazy day, running to and fro trying to say goodbye to everybody, but other than that it has been a pretty normal week.

Thursday we received a referral from one of our INCREDIBLE members and were able to teach Sandra. She has a family of 7 kids! We only taught her this first time, but we are definitely planning on teaching her whole family. She is looking for God and ready to hear our message. We taught her to pray and are excited to see her progress.

Friday Nani and Papa came and visited us for lunch!  We had some really great Peruvian food and it was awesome to spend some time with them.

It was fun to see Nani & Papa.  Basically, it was the best lunch ever!!  Look at my plate!! (Rice, French Fries, Beef, Fried Eggs…) Yum!

Saturday and Sunday we had General Conference and it was INCREDIBLE. It was fantastic to listen to the words of our living prophet. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and has been called to serve us here at this time. It was really special to sit there and listen to his words. I felt promptings over and over again about the people we teach, and found that there was a special message for almost each of our focus people. We are excited for conference to be available on the iPad in Spanish!!  Haha. BTW, how LEGIT was it to have speakers in SPANISH! And also Portuguese and Cantonese!

After conference on Saturday we were finally able to get the elders to Maria and Daniel's house to FINALLY give her a much needed blessing. She has been super sick with back problems and a really bad cold. The elders gave her a super sweet blessing and the Spirit was really strong. We testified of the power of the priesthood as the power of God here on the earth. We emphasized that if this was the power of God, then Joseph Smith was a prophet and the true Church of Jesus Christ has been restored. She said she would pray and ask God for a sign of the Church was true. We are so excited for her and know she will receive an answer. She and Daniel are progressing slowly, but so surely.

Love you lots,

Hermana Dodson

Fall in NYC

Hola I'm familia!

Surprisingly, it is already the last week of the cycle! Time has gone by way too fast. Fall is here already, and this week the leaves started to change colors!! It is gorgeous and gives me motivation to paint all day... I will have to just save some mental images for some time in the future... Haha.

This week we were able to teach Miracle Miguel again, and he is still just so prepared.  We taught the Restoration and testified of a living prophet and Book of Mormon. The Spirit was so strong throughout the lesson, and especially as we knelt  for the closing prayer. We invited him to say the closing prayer, and you could tell that he felt like he was talking to Heavenly Father. He is so humble and we love helping him find greater peace and happiness in his life.

Yesterday we went to visit a less active, and on the way in, we passed a young girl on her porch.  We decided if she was out after our appointment we would go stop and talk to her. Heavenly Father loves us, and when we returned she was still there! We stopped to talk to her, and are now teaching Yemeleth! She is ADORABLE.  When we got back in the car, I just wanted to cry--she reminded me so much of Jasmin and Wendi. Those girls have a HUGE chunk of my heart : )  Yemeleth is 16 and just moved to the Unites States from Guatemala. She loves God, and told us she is ready for church. Last Sunday was the first time she had gone to a church in 5 months, and she was so happy to talk to us about Jesus.  I love her already.

Here is a gorgeous rainbow on Ferris!

If there is one thing I wish I could explain better in words, it would be the love that I have learned to feel here. The love of God is pure and perfect, and there is nothing so attaching as when you feel it for somebody else.  I feel like I am always saying how everybody is so great, or how much I love them, and as cliche as it may seem, it is absolutely true! God has opened up my heart and allowed me this opportunity to serve and come to see everybody as His children. When we finally can feel that love openly, we really begin to want to share His gospel, and see people for their true potential.  Dang, I just imagine so many people looking sooo good in white!

I love you all, HAVE AN INCREDIBLE GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND! Share something you loved or learned with your family, or with someone who may need the gospel more in their life.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dodson