Hump Week!!!

Sadie is officially halfway done, y'all! If you can't tell, we are pretty excited about that around here. 

Hola mi familia!!

This week was crazy and exciting!  We were able to accomplish A TON this week.  Along with going to fun dinner appointments, having all our meetings, and doing a bunch of service, we were able to exceed our goal of 30 lessons, by teaching 31 lessons!! It was an incredible week of miracles.

"Look, Hermana Tirado's Mom found us at Deseret Book!!  You have no idea how badly I want to use the action figures I left at home whether I am teaching kids or not….haha"

On Saturday we had an amazing miracle as God showed us HIS plan for us.  As we have really been focusing on faith, I have seen this happen over and over again.  We had planned to see an investigator that has been coming to the church for the past 8 years, but we had never really met (or taught).  The week before she had said she would be free, so we planned her in for 5:30.  Earlier in the day we called her, only to find out that she had something she had to go to.  So instead, we went to a house-blessing party of our member's sister (Spanish people throw parties for every occasion.  BOOYA.).  After being at the party for a little bit helping cook and set up tables and such, at about 5:45 members of the ward and friends started showing up.  And guess who walked in the door?? Our 8-years-coming-to-church investigator!! It was crazy how God confirmed the plans we had made, just in a different way than we expected.  And it was an amazing experience because we just got to know her.  We didn't focus on forcing a lesson, we just focused on getting to know her more.  There is definitely trust between us now, and that will go a long way.  We are so blessed!! Later that night, we left the party and went to stop by and see Sandra and family.  We were able to contact them and see how they were doing, but they were headed out so we didn't get to teach a lesson.  By this time, it was 8 o clock at night, we were on a road that is a little sketchy when it gets dark (meaning we only had about 45 minutes on that road before sundown), and had a goal to teach 3 more lessons.  We prayed and then decided to just go walk up the other side of the street.  In those 45 minutes, we were able to teach 2 people.  One was just sitting on his porch, so we went and talked to him.  He didn't say anything that would implicate that he was searching or struggling, but as we taught him, I felt so impressed that he was looking for God in his life.  The next man we taught was fixing his fence, and after talking to him for a minute, we found out that most of his family is Mormon, and he wanted to know more!! We were really blessed to see God re-arranging our plans.

"I got my haircut (after 9 months) by a cute Venezuelan Lady.  It feel great because it's so light weight!"

We are seeing a lot of success as we are meeting and talking to new people every single day.  We still have very lofty goals for baptisms this month, and from a doubter's view, we would be in trouble.  But we know that with God's help, nothing is impossible.

Yesterday we had a really powerful first lesson with a new investigator, Mayra.  She has had the missionaries over before and she has a lot of really amazing questions about the Book of Mormon.  We were able to testify of the importance of the book, not only in supporting the Bible, but in giving us the fullness of the Gospel and testifying of Jesus Christ.  At the end of the lesson she was extremely excited to read and for us to come back to teach her more.  She is so prepared!!! I can't even handle it.  This place is BLOWING UP.

Love you all, thank you so much for all the prayers and support.

Love,

Sister Dodson

p.s. Funny story, yesterday we were street contacting and I went up to this man about our age and said "Hola! Como esta?"  Come to find out, he was Indonesian... hahaha

Mother's Day

Hola mi familia!!!

It was so amazing to get to talk to you all this Sunday!! It felt short for sure, but I am so grateful for every minute we had! Some missions only get 20-30 minutes, so I felt spoiled to have a whole hour.

Sadie was really excited to show off her Chia Willie during our Skype call!

This week was so crazy!  I have really been focusing lately on following promptings of the Spirit immediately, and really going with my first gut feeling.  As Tirado and I really worked hard for that, we definitely saw benefits.  Heavenly Father had this perfect plan laid out for us this past week.  On Saturday and Friday especially, we were able to see just how it worked.  Everything kind of organized itself, and we ended up teaching 8 lessons on Saturday!! It was a crazy day.

Saturday morning we had a finding activity in downtown Stamford where we focused on family history and familysearch.org.  We are super blessed here to have a senior couple, the Drapers, who are Family Search specialists (they are from Carmel, IN, but they don't know the infamous Dodson fam over in Danville).  We contacted people on the street and then would invite them inside the library where other missionaries and the Drapers would help them get started!  We were able to talk to a lot of people about their families, and were able to testify of the strength that comes from knowing your ancestors and their stories, especially if they are members of the Church (read this talk from conference: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/roots-and-branches?lang=eng&query=family+history).  It was a really fun activity.  Tons of people are interested in their families, which kind of surprised me.  But the Spirit of Elijah is real, and it touches everyone's hearts.

One of the biggest struggles this week has been the T family, since Wendi doesn't want to come to church (but hasn't told us that, and we haven't been able to meet with her), and Sandra got another job and she works basically all day.  It's been funny though, because these last two weeks it has been suuuuper rainy, and it is supposed to continue to be rainy this next week too.  Yesterday we went to go see Sandra, but she was headed to work so we couldn't come in.  She told us though that if it rains, she can't do her first job and she stays at home.  It hit me that as much as I don't like the rain, God is sending us the rain so that we can work with her!!  So sorry, to the rest of Norwalk/Stamford area, you are going to be getting a lot of rain these next few weeks!!! Haha.  The Lord works in mysterious ways, that is for sure.

"Tirado has this thing where she feels the need to pick up every cat in Norwalk….they may or may not like it!"

On a more funnier note, we are currently teaching Jorge, an 8-year-old member of our ward who is getting baptized at the end of the month. His parents are recently re-activated, and their family is AMAZING. Jorge is a typical 8-year-old: crazy, super smart, and hilarious.  I have learned so much about teaching kids through him... Haha.  Yesterday we taught him the Plan of Salvation using a picture diagram.  As part of the diagram, we use a little cut out picture of a boy.  We take the cut-out boy through the plan as part of the demonstration.  We asked Jorge to name the kid, and he decided on the name "Napkin".  Somehow, by the time Napkin made it through the plan, Jorge was convinced that we come down to the earth on jetpacks, his sister is going to go to the stars (if you know what that means...), and Jorge is going to go live on the sun.  But no worries, we cleared everything up--at least we hope so ; )  Also he has been reading every day at least one story from the Book of Mormon picture books and he loves it!  Even little kids can read and understand and feel joy that comes form learning about the Book of Mormon.  Parents shouldn't be nervous or afraid that they will not understand, because even if they don't understand, they will at least FEEL the power that comes from that book.

Love you tons!!

Sister Dodson

This Week

Hola mi familia!

This week has been an awesome, faith promoting, hard working week!  We are really putting our all into helping the Lord's work move along.

Saturday night our ward had a CRAZY Mother's Day party. It was so much fun. We have a couple of professional chefs in our ward so the food was amazing, and the entertainment was awesome. There is a member in our ward who sings better than Marc Anthony and Prince Royce combined, and he sang a few songs, plus the elders put together a pretty unique performance... They got permission to do the Hakka and it was HILARIOUS. They did an awesome job. Hope their mothers were proud! They wanted all us sisters to do it too, but it's not exactly the most feminine dance there is out there... Haha.  We respectfully declined. : )

At the ward Mother's Day party w/ some cute YW.

We have really been focusing on growing in faith and working on acting in our faith lately. We had the goal for a family baptism this month, and decided that meant three people. Yesterday we had an amazing interview with our awesome Sister Training Leaders (STLs) and they showed us Matt. 17:20. When we have faith even as a tiny mustard seed, we can move mountains.  Sister Tirado and I were so inspired after this we decided to double our goal and go for 6 baptisms. At this point our district has a goal of 20 baptisms altogether. It is so exciting and  also INSANE! We are working so hard. Hold your breath, people. This is going to be the most rockin' cycle yet.

At a member's house for lunch.

With that goal, we have been focusing on Sandra and family, who are progressing pretty well.  They are ready, but not quite aware of it. She knows she needs to repent and be completely willing to make the sacred covenants (yeah, she's so ready), and she feels like it's going to take a long time to get there. But I know The Lord will work with her and we will be having a baptism this month (plus 5 more!!)

Love you all! Can't wait to talk to all of y'all!

Love,

Sister Dodson

4/30/2014

Sorry, the blog posters were on vacation last week.

April 30, 2014

Hola mi familia!!

This week has been a CRAZY one!! We have had a lot of miracles happen, and the work is really catching fire.  I guess President's talk about faith last week really boosted us, and now as we've been relying more on the Lord's abilities, He is really making amazing things happen.

Anyway, here is my top 7 from the week!

7. We FINALLY were able to meet with Janet again!  Turns out she hasn't been avoiding us specifically, but she has been really stressed and depressed and hasn't wanted to talk to anybody.  We found her in the park and were able to teach her and her three sisters an awesome lesson about prayer and fasting.  Hopefully she can find the strength to let us in, because we share the only message that can truly heal and strengthen her!

6. We met with a less active who hasn't been visited in years!  We had an amazing lesson that the Spirit definitely led.  We taught the Restoration, and in the end she told us she felt just like Joseph Smith--she has no idea what the truth is and is completely confused about which church to go to. We felt so blessed that Heavenly Father helped us find and understand her needs!

5. Today is transfers!! Tirado and I are staying!! And thank goodness, because our area is blowing up, and we just have tons of fun all the time.

4. One of the sisters in our district, Sister Hansen, is leaving :( BUT GUESS WHO IS COMING IN??!  Sister Livingston!!!!!! (Sadie's MTC companion)  I am so excited!!

3. Monday was Hermana Tirado's birthday! I made her a waffle cake for breakfast, then we went to lunch and dinner at members' houses, who are both Mexican. It was delicious and felt like home for her. We basically only celebrated with food... Haha. We were also able to teach Wendi, Sandra's 17-year-old daughter, who is AMAZING.

2. WE MET A DOMINICAN FAMILY!!!! Oh man, I miss Dominicans. The mom is a less active, (referred to us by the ward) who hasn't been to church in probably 20+ years.  The 3 kids are between the ages of 8-14, and are not members.  The mom has decided that she wants to take her kids to different churches and let them learn and then choose for themselves what is right.  We are so excited to be able to teach this family! I know that if they put their hearts into it, they will feel the Spirit testify of the truth of our message.

1.  On Sunday we had the amazing opportunity to go with about 6 priesthood holders from our ward to go bless and dedicate the home of our investigator, Sandra.  The Spirit was so strong as our Elder's quorum president testified of the protection and peace that comes from a home built upon the Savior.  I felt so overwhelmed with love and gratitude to have grown up in a home where faith is a key factor, and where the Savior and His teachings are also taught and lived.  I LOVE this family!! They have been so prepared to receive the Restored Gospel.

I am so excited for this next cycle. By the grace of a God, He has helped us to know the specific needs of almost everybody we are teaching. I know this is The Lord's work. It softens hearts and changes lives for the better.

Love you all,

Sister Dodson