Picture bomb!

Sadie sent home a ton of pictures this week, so enjoy!

Hola mi familia!!

Well, goodbye Bronx, hello Connecticut!! This has been one of the strangest weeks, but amazing nevertheless.  I am currently working in Norwalk, CT, and honestly I have no idea where it is in relation to the Bronx... But I do know it is far enough away that it is completely opposite than what I am used to!  There are no tall smelly buildings, hardly any buses, and everyone lives in these cute little houses.  I feel like I have been hit by culture shock a little bit, but this area is amazing and I am so grateful to be working here!

Sadie won't miss the dirtiness of the Bronx, but she will REALLY miss the people she loves!

The ward here in CT is amazing!! My heart will forever be in Concourse, but I am definitely willing to leave a little piece of my corazon here as well :) We have amazing members and leaders here, who help the work move along a TON.  We work with less actives and a good amount of investigators as well, and I will let you know more about them as I start to figure out who they are... Haha.

New area: Stamford, CT

The hardest thing about being outside the city is that we don't really talk to everybody. In the city you get on the bus, you walk on street, etc.  There are always people.  Here, we drive a car and every time I see somebody walking outside I just want to pull up to them and be like, "Hey, you want to learn about Jesus??"  Too bad that's a little creepy.  But it is hard to drive past people.  God has definitely been helping me to find love for others, which is what I am working on this cycle.  

"Guess what?  There is a doll replica of me in the New York History Museum!  Duuuude.  It is hilarious,

right?? It says it was created based off people who the artist saw in NYC. So basically I have a twin in NYC!"

Sister Tirado is my new comp, and she is AWESOME.  We have very similar personalities in that we just like to joke around, and she is basically like a little child. She loves Scooby Doo, all kind of candy, and stepping on the squeaky step outside our apartment because the noise makes her laugh.  She is from Los Angeles and Utah, and speaks fluent Spanish.  Funny story, she is not a really touchy feely person at all! She doesn't hug unless she reallllly likes you.  I'm not much of a hugger myself, but on the mission I swear we just hug people like every ten seconds.  So the first day before we head out the door I go to give her a hug (tradition).  She holds out her fist for a first bump, but before I notice I am hugging her, and it is probably the most awkward hug ever.  She then explains to me that maybe in time, as we become better friends, she might be able to hug me.  Hahaha.  After a rockin first day, I earned a hug on the way out the door the next morning.  BOOYA.

Sadie & her new companion, Hermana Tirado

Since both I and Sister Tirado are kind of new in the area (she has had 1 cycle here) we have been focusing on getting to know everybody in our area! Last Sunday night we were about 3 or so lessons behind on our goal for lessons taught to investigators.  So we felt super impressed that we should go check up on a potential investigator and see if she was still interested.  We stopped by her apartment at about 7:30 at night, only to find out she was really not interested… Feeling that we didn't really have much to do, we decided we would just tract the rest of the building! We ended up teaching multiple lessons, and getting 3 new investigators with return appointments!! The crazy concept, that as we are exactly obedient and happy, goal driven, and trusting in The Lord, that He will send us crazy blessings still works,  even up here in the boonies!! Sister Tirado hug attacked me and was like "I love you, Dodson!!"  I don't know what my purpose is here in CT yet, but I am so humbled that The Lord sent me here, and that we are already seeing a difference in the work in this area.

Sadie, John, and Sulenny. John cries when he goes to his own church cause he loves God so much. It's adorable.

Another Funny story from the week!  On Sunday we went to dinner at a member's house in Stamford. We went with the other sisters in the ward and also another set of elders (we have 10 missionaries in the ward!!).  The family is from Peru, and the Sister is hilarious.  She seriously laughs like every ten seconds.  Oh man, it is so fun. Anyway, I am talking to them in Spanish, and they just start making fun of my Dominican accent so bad!! They are laughing so hard that I am this white girl speaking like I came from DR.  (There are like no Dominicans up here, BTW.).  I try to explain to them that I came from the Bronx and that I'm not Dominican, but I ended up saying it in a suuuper thick Dominican way.  Anyway, I am now and probably will forever be the la Dominicana up here in Stamford.  Hahaha.  Man, I love Dominicans and their accents.  I'll wear that title with pride. (Shoutout to Sister Lancaster for training me Dominican :)) 

Sister Reyes, Diosfer's mom. She wears 3D glasses. :)

I LOVE working for The Lord, no matter where it is.  He always gives us trials and exciting times only because He loves us.  As we look with hope to Him during our hard times, we will only feel His love pushing us to endure to the end.

LOVE YOU!!

Sister Dodson

Off to Connecticut!

Hola!

Not much time to write today! Things got kind of crazy! I have been transferred upstate to Stamford, Connecticut! BOOYA! God has a plan for me here instead of the Bronx. I was seriously shocked with the news, but super excited! Sister Ramirez is getting an amazing companion to follow up train her, so all will be okay with my baby :) I feel spoiled rotten to be here in Stamford. In my district is none other than Elders Gamble and Stephens, and also Elder Duvall. So basically I have half the same district as I did my first cycle! I am so excited to serve with these hooligans again! When I arrived they were excitedly, impatiently waiting to greet me!!  Also my companion, Sister Tirado is fluent and super amazing. She is funny and I think we are going to get along pretty well.  And we dress alike! : )

New area! Mama, we aren't in the Bronx anymore. Oh boy.

Her cute new companion--matching already! #photobombed

It was super hard to leave the Bronx and a piece of my heart will always be with those people. They taught me to love and to care. They taught me that you can't be afraid to be who you are or be afraid of  judgements. The world is a scary place, but the faithful will be blessed in all their efforts. This week I have been studying a ton about the life of Jesus Christ. I want to know the New Testament better so that I can come closer to Christ and come to recognize more His calling as our Savior. I have really been struck by the fact that He grew up and grew in testimony. He was born a perfect Son of God, but that doesn't mean that He was born as a babe with 100% knowledge of everything the Father had in store.  He grew as D&C 93:11-13 says, "grace for grace". What an amazing example He was in all things.  He put in the effort to study, to learn, to acknowledge His sacred calling, and was fully prepared when it came time to begin His ministry. I love my Savior and know He lives.

It's been crazy and awesome to see the change in me and in the Bronx since I arrived in the mission field. I think my first cycle we taught like 8 lessons a week, and between Monday and Tuesday this week we have already taught that many. Things are progressing.  This week, an inactive member who we've tried to help came to church on Sunday, the ward had a baptism, and we have been receiving referrals from members like crazy. The Lord really has provided for us here. My last night in the Bronx, Dorivee made me Dominican food (my favorite!). She made me a Dominican Classic, mongu! Basically it is mashed plantanos.  So mashed potatoes except with the Dominican staple. It's basically like a banana.  Holy cow. It was soooo good! I loved it! It's just boiled plantanos, and then as you mash you add a little bit of the hot water until it is the desired texture. And then that is it. Dorivee added olive oil and it was awesome. Then you add fried cheese or eggs.  I ate it so fast. Hahaha. I also ate it fast though because if it gets cold it gets nasty. It basically turns into a rock. Everyone had told me that it tastes good, but is a rock in your stomach all day. But I loved it. So yeah. When I get home I'm going to make you guys Dominican food.

Funny story about The Lord providing. Haha. So on Sunday the elders had the stake priesthood meeting at 7 am, and then we have missionary meetings in the morning and church. So they didn't get any food. One elder in my district, has been studying the Old Testament. That morning he prayed that God would provide them with manna from Heaven and he could receive water from a rock. That morning sister Ramirez and I felt bad they didn't get any food, and we happened to have exactly 6 bagels in the fridge, so we brought the 6 elders our bagels.  The Elder who had been prayerful was freaking out cause "manna" had come from Heaven. And then he got a drink out of the drinking fountain and called that good as far as water and rocks go.  Haha The Lord works in hilarious ways sometimes. 

Cool story of the week! Yesterday sister Ramirez and I were trying to get to an appointment. We were debating taking the bus or walking, but the walk was uphill so I said take the bus. We started to talk to this man at the bus stop. He told us he felt something different during our chat, and that he just felt super good inside. After sharing our testimonies of the Restored Gospel, he accepted the invitation to church.  Come to find out, yesterday was actually his birthday! None of his kids had called, but he felt incredibly special as God, our loving Heavenly Father, had sent him "two angels" for his birthday. AND he was planning on taking a different way home but decided to take that specific bus instead. God really knows each of us personally and loves us personally too!

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

A Golden Week!

Hola mi familia!

This week was full of huge ups and downs! It still shocks me how missionary work seriously is like a roller coaster... The good news is that I am a HUGE fan of crazy roller coasters! Haha. President told us one time that we come to love things more when we experience both the extreme ups and extreme downs. It reminds me of Adam and Eve while they were in the Garden of Eden. Things were good, and they were content, but they couldn't feel the stress from working extremely hard, and then the joy that comes from succeeding in that challenge. We work so hard here in the Bronx, experience devastating hardships, but also see huge successes. I LOVE THE BRONX! I'm such a ghetto girl now... Hahaha. It's going to be hard to leave this place! I think I have given it literally my all. Luckily though, I think I will be here for a while longer. Transfers are next Wednesday, and shot calls are on Saturday! I am pretty sure I will stay and finish training, but we will see!

You guys need to stop teasing me about the attention I seem to attract : )  It's actually a little sad and hilarious how many boyfriends I have here.... ; ) No i'm kidding.  But it is funny.  (see last week's post) We are getting cat called more now because it's warm, and poor Sister Ramirez is so confused.  She is like "Why do people keep doing that?"  And then I have to explain that we are two cute girls, we have the Spirit, and I am white. Haha….  

This is them with their "street cart" they use to transport laundry, groceries, etc.  She says everyone has them!  They are going to do their laundry.

As far as ups go, we had another good week at church and a REALLY good teaching week! The standard of excellence for the mission is a set of goals as far as numbers go that The Lord has revealed we should be aiming for. The standard of excellence here is 21 lessons. Last week after having a consecration talk, we were feeling really motivated and set goals for 21 lessons (7 active, 7 less active, and 7 investigator lessons), 4 new investigators, and 5 lessons with member presents.  Usually we are at about 15-17 lessons total, 2 new investigators, and 1 or 2 member present lessons. We worked really hard last week, prayed A TON and ended up teaching 23 LESSONS!!!! We also taught 5 member present lessons, and have 4 new investigators!! Things are crazy here!  We currently have about 14 investigators! It is a testimony to me that as we give our all, are exactly obedient, and really try to enjoy ourselves, that we will be blessed. I love it.

As far as downs go, last Sunday we tried to call one of my favorite active members ever, Marta, to set up an appointment. She was supposed to start temple prep class two weeks ago, but hasn't come to church for a few weeks now. She is old and scared to leave the house with ice, so we thought maybe that was why she hasn't been coming. But when we called her, she said "yo leí en la Biblia y algo no me cayo bien" (a phrase that means it didn't fall well with her, basically that she didn't agree with it) and "yo no quiero". I was hoping it was just a crazy misunderstanding and that she really was reading the Bible and literally fell out of her chair or something! She is an AMAZING old lady who was baptized over a year ago, and just loves like nobody else. She ended the conversation by saying thank you, and she loved us, so I was still confused if it was a miscommunication or not. We called her back a week later, after another week without church, and she totally turned down my suspicions. She said she doesn't want to talk about why, but she will never be coming back to the church, and it would not be possible for us to ever visit her. She said she loves the people, but some doctrine did not go well with her. I was heart broken!!! I was definitely on the verge of tears for a few days because of that.  It was a reminder that Satan is working just as hard as we are! But luckily for us, we are on the Lord's side, so like it says in 1 Nephi 7:8, we are going to kick his butt (that was not a direct quote, by the way... Hahaha)! ;)

Next Sunday my favorite family, the one with all the little girls (whose mom, Yahaira, got baptized with Luis--see post from January 30th) is having a special day!! The two oldest girls, Ashely and Annie, are getting baptized!!!!! And GUESS WHO IS GOING TO BAPTIZE THEM?! Their dad!!! I am she excited!!!! I will probably cry... Their journey has been amazing to watch and they are so special. On Sunday Ashely hugged me and said, "you're never leaving us, right?" I almost died inside!

Happy to be a missionary!

I love being here! Missionary work rocks! I feel so blessed to have your support and the blessings and the opportunities that for 2000 years were not available to anybody! I thank my Heavenly Father for the restoration of His Son's divine and true gospel here upon the earth.

Love you!!

Sister Dodson

Weekly email

Hola mi familia!

I hope you are enjoying the nice warm weather back home, because here in the Bronx we got a nice little cold spell last week! We heard rumors it was going to get warm by March, but that was a lie apparently. We are now teaching the 10 commandments to everyone, with a focus on not bearing false witness ; ) haha. Luckily all my winter clothes are still in good shape, and I can handle another month if necessary. Although my coat and scarves all smell like project buildings... Haha. Tasty… ; ) Either way, I cannot get over how much I LOVE this place. People are amazing here, and we are still just catching those miracles every day!

On Sunday we had an AMAZING day at church! We had 3 investigators and two less actives at church, and reached almost all of our goals.  My favorite part was seeing the faces of people as they took more steps in faith and came to Church. Norris came to church for the first time in a long time, and she just glowed. The more we work with her, the more her walls break down, and the more her testimony grows. There is a different feeling in her home now! The Spirit is AMAZING!

This week was a week with just some hilarious and awkward stories... Haha.

At church on Sunday one of the young men from the other Spanish ward comes up to me with a whole posse of the other teachers and says, "Hey Sister!"  I turn around and reply, "Hey what's up?" He looks at the other young men and they just giggle. He turns back to me and with a huge grin on his face says, "I think you're cute!" Hahahaha, oh my goodness I think I turned bright red!!  I love the youth, and apparently they love me too ;)

We have new investigators, who are the grandkids of one of our active members! They are 8, 11, and 2 and probably the craziest most hilarious kids ever. They just came here from the DR like 3 or 4 weeks ago.  They have been coming to church with grandma since they got here and LOVE primary. We had a lesson with them on Monday and brought some of the elders. They were just dancing and playing around, and it was hilarious to see how kids are just born with the culture in them! Dominicans have a certain beat and dance moves, and these young kids just totally oozed Dominican. The best part about is this family is that the one boy's name is Si! YES, YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY. BOOYA!  All my Duck Dynasty friends will understand….We have the best investigators ever.

Before our lesson with Si and his Siblings we had dinner with the family and the elders and then played around with the kids.  Well…... that day I was wearing a button up blouse. We must have played around somewhat hard with the kids because in the middle of the lesson I realized the button in the middle of my blouse had come undone... I have no idea how long my shirt was gaping open! Oops... Hahaha.

All in all it was a good week. The Church is true, and always will be. We can always pray to know the truth, and that is the beauty of this Gospel!

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

Zone Conference

Hola mi familia!!

I totally forgot to tell you last week that P-day was moved to Thursday because yesterday was Zone Conference.. oops! But don't worry, I'm still very much alive and well.  I didn't get hit by a taxi or a bus or anything.

Zone Conference was amazing!  We focused a ton on consecration.  The goal here in NYNYN Mission is to be consecrated missionaries--missionaries who give everything to The Lord: their weaknesses, desires, disobedience, negativism, love, time, etc.  As we give our all, The Lord will magnify our talents and abilities, and we will see success.  President Morgan really focused on this last summer and fall before I came in.  The mission at that point was at a peak.  Almost every single companionship had a baptismal date for September!! As a reward for our consecration, we were given new tools--Facebook and Ipads.  Sadly, we got suuuper distracted, and now the call to consecration has once gain been issued! I was lucky enough last cycle to have Sister Richardson, who helped me to remember what consecration is.  We tried so hard to focus on it and to be consecrated missionaries.  I can see now that true consecration is the stuff that miracles are made of!  I know we were given Luis (recently baptized) and other miracles because we gave our all.  And honestly, even though I made huge sacrifices such as time, sarcasm, my laziness, and stuff, it was probably the funnest cycle I have had so far!  But, we still have plenty more.  So yeah!

Anyway, each missionary was asked to prepare a 10 minute talk on consecration and then President was going to call on a few random people to speak at Zone Conference.  My talk was centered around how the Book of Mormon is the key to consecration.  Poor Sister Ramirez, she is so sick of me talking about the Book of Mormon.  Haha, but it is literally all I ever want to talk about.  "Sister Dodson, what should we teach?" "Let's teach the Book of Mormon." "Again?"  I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is the key for everything related to the gospel.  Through the Book of Mormon we become closer to Christ, we gain a testimony, we become better.  We literally learn everything we need for spiritual survival and happiness in the Book of Mormon.  I believe it is the key to less active work, investigators, active member work, etc.  It is kind of my theme here, I guess.  I will probably end up being that missionary who everyone knows as the crazy girl who is obsessed with the Book of Mormon.  BOOYA. Hahahaha. GOODNESS, I JUST LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON.  So sue me.  No, don't sue me ; )

ANYWAY, so my talk was centered around how the Book of Mormon is the key to consecration.  As we read and study the Book of Mormon, we will naturally have the desire to change and become better.  We will feel the Spirit, and want to do all we can to live worthy of it.  The end of my talk ended with a challenge to every missionary to read the Book of Mormon for at least 10 minutes a day.  SO then we go to Zone Conference.  As excited as I was for my talk, I wasn't chosen to speak!  But then, at the end, Sister Morgan got up to speak, and I realized why I wasn't chosen…. Haha.  Guess what she spoke about??! Yeaaaaah.  How the Book of Mormon is the key to consecration!! She ended with a challenge to read the Book of Mormon every day. It's all good, because I would have stolen her thunder ;)

So funny story, we had the mission doctor and his wife speak at Zone Conference too.  His wife spoke about my [least] favorite topic ever for about 15 minutes: FEET.  EWWWWWWWW.  It was soooo uncomfortable. She talked about how to care for stinky, smelly, sweaty, achy feet in the summer... EWWWWWW.  We were all giggling so hard as she told us all about how to put deodorant on our feet, etc.  Oh man.  I was DYING. She told us that feet are mentioned 63 times in the Standard Works.  I was thinking about Jesus and how Him washing the disciples feet is 100% a sign of true sacrifice.  Because ya tu sabe, I would not have been able to do that. Haha.

Anyways, The Lord has blessed us with miracles in His work this week!! Last Thursday during planning I told Sister Ramirez that we've got to find some more investigators or something, because we are DRY.  As of yesterday (so only three days into the week), we already have 3 new investigators and 4 potentials!  Every day this week our appointments have been canceling, for some reason or another, and we are left with absolutely nothing to do.  So Tuesday, after walking  around and calling everyone and their dog (and getting no replies), we just decided to go knock on one of our active member's door.  I expected her to be at work, but SHE WAS HOME! About two minutes after we come in, she gets another knock on the door, and one of her really close (non-member) friends walks in!! We taught him about the Book of Mormon (I couldn't help myself.... Haha.), and are going back to teach him this weekend!  He also has a couple sons who would really like to hear our message.  The best part is that his name is Salvador! (Savior in Spanish!)  Yesterday, we also had a whole bunch of cancelations.  We went and knocked on a less-active's door, but she wasn't home.  Sister Ramirez said we should knock on the door next door, so we did.  We ended up teaching an AMAZING lesson to a mother and her 16 year-old-son, who are prepared and extremely humble.  They are so willing to hear the message.  The Spirit was so strong as we testified of eternal families, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how building upon the Rock of our Redeemer guards us from temptation (Hel. 5:12).  We are so excited to teach them more!  Their names are Jesus and Rosemary.  SO essentially, we are now teaching a Mary, Jesus, and Savior.  BOOYA.

The Lord loves and guides His people.  He qualifies those who serve Him, and as we sacrifice the little things that are preventing us from coming closer to Him, He will bless us in ways that we will never be able to comprehend.

Love you all,

Sister Dodson