Four Miracles

Hola mi familia!

This week was kind of crazy and also awesome. We had a lot of miracles and were super busy.

Our first miracle happened on Thursday, but technically started about 6 weeks ago. Around that time, Sister Jensen and I started visiting Jasmine, our 14-year-old investigator. Her mom is less active and hasn't come to church in probably 11 years. Isabel, the mom, told us that her brother was interested in learning too, and one day after visiting Jasmine, we met Miguel, Isabel's brother, on the way out the door. He told us, "I wish I would have known you were here! I would have come listen!"  We were pretty pumped!  He said he would come sit in next time we saw Jasmine.  Anyway, things got CRAZY and we weren't able to visit anybody in the family for a while. Finally, a couple weeks ago, we were able to visit Isabel again, who told us that Miguel was super interested. We were able to set an appointment, which was last Thursday. Sister White and I taught one of the best first lessons I've ever had to one of the most prepared people I have EVER met. 

Art skills being put to good use! Hahaha. Marielos (my favorite person ever), needed help with Diego's art project!  He had to color  a life size doll of himself. Diego scribbled on it, made two dots for eyes, drew spiky crazy hair, and said it was his brother Michael. They don’t have a brother named Michael... Hahaha. 

Marielos asked us to come over and fix it. I love using some art skills!!   And I love Diego.  Isn’t this curly headed kid adorable?!?

 Miguel is in his early 20's, has been through a lot, and just wants to find God. He says all he wants is to feel the peace of God in his life and really understand who God is. Every single point we described to him (the first lesson for us, is always the How to Begin Teaching points in PMG on 179) seemed to apply to him directly.  Being able to find peace through the atonement in affliction, becoming completely healed from guilt and sin, etc. were answers to things he had toLd us he expected from our visits.  At one point we asked him if he had any questions, and he says, "yeah, what is the Book of Mormon?”   Yessss. Cue...Book of Mormon. Apparently his sister, Isabel, had dropped one off to him and told him to read it. She was also the reason that he decided to meet with us. In all his trials, she told him to talk to the missionaries and read the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for Isabel and her testimony, even if she hasn't been to church in forever.  When we invited Miguel to be baptized, he said he didn’t know.  He would have to think about and see as he learns more. We couldn't be happier with that response : )  Needless to say, Hermana White calls him Miracle Miguel.

One man band in NYC! I love this place.

Miracle number two happened on Saturday, when Hermana Blanca and I were able to go to the temple with our branch! And what made it even more fabulous was that we went to a Spanish session! I hadnt been to a Spanish session since Mexico. It was incredible and spiritual, even though we had to get up at 4:00 in the morning.

Miracle number three, one of our awesome less actives, Sandra, came to church on Sunday! She is busy a lot with school and such, and so we only get to teach her on Facebook, but even so, the Spirit is present during our lessons. She is about 22 ish yrs old, and has been wanting to come back to Church real bad. This week was the week!  All the members loved her and remembered her, and next week she is coming back and teaching Relief Society!

Miracle number four, we are going to the temple again today! BOOYA.

Other notable miracles:

With about five minutes left to work Saturday night, we decided to knock one door. We prayed, and felt led to a door.  We knocked, a man who was sleeping answered, we told him we were missionaries, and he asked why we had come to his door. We told him that we had prayed and then arrived there. He then told us how his dad had recently died, and the way he spoke of him, it sounded like he had regrets about their relationship. We testified of the eternal family, and are hoping to teach him this week!

Monday night, we had our usual FHE with Daisy, one of my favorite people. She is less active, but coming back. We watched Finding Faith in Christ, because her 8-year-old son, Estiben, has lots of questions about who Jesus is. Daisy's non-member mom is in town for a couple months and watched the movie with us. She said she felt something so strong in her heart and we were able to testify of the Holy Ghost. We asked Estiben about being baptized, to which he replied, "I don't really know what that means, but if God wants it, I'll do it." I LOVE this kid.  Cue...next Monday baptism themed FHE, with a double baptismal invite for Estiben and Grandma.

The work is progressing a ton here. We are working hard and trying to put in everything we have as we serve the Lord. He is blessing our efforts and we can feel His strength.

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

Another month bites the dust

Hola mi familia!

This week I hit 13 months... HOW IS TIME GOING BY SO FAST?? Sister White keeps telling me that the things we did a week ago feel like they happened two days ago. I couldn't agree more. We have had awesome days and are working hard, which just makes time fly.

This week we taught an incredible lesson with Tita, and a rock-solid member, Hermana Olivo. We gave Tita the assignment to start reading the Book of Mormon, and we were SOOO happy when we came back with Hermana Olivo and she told us that she had read from the beginning up to 1 Nephi 3!  The pobresita though, she didn't understand any of it!  But it was incredible to see her continuing to progress. Hermana Olivo helped explain a few things of the Book, and Tita had a renewed desire to read again! I was so impressed and felt so grateful that even though she didn't understand much, she continued to read (good example for me, as I am currently reading in 2 Nephi and am trudging through the Isaiah chapters...haha). We love Tita so much. And Hermana Olivo.  Hermana White sings like an angel and felt like she should sing "Nearer my God, to Thee" at the end of the lesson.  The Spirit was so strong, and it was a testimony that music makes a HUGE difference.

Hermana White and I in NYC!  She’s so hilarious.  I love her.  She hates being touristy, but I told her we needed a pic! haha

Monday night we had a dinner with one of the best Mexican cooks EVER, the Rodriguez family. Hermana Rodriguez is an angel and I LOVE eating at her house. They were baptized a year ago and are working on getting sealed soon!!  Hermano Rodriguez is a huge jokester and it's fun to be with them. Their oldest son, Rodrigo, was not baptized with them (he is 20ish) and on Monday we had a treat as we were able to teach him, his friend, and their grandpa.  We were asked to teach them about testimonies since Hno and Hna are going to give their testimonies in sacrament meeting on Sunday (*tip: make sure the ward mission leader has already asked them to speak in sacrament meeting before you go and ask them if they are ready to speak on Sunday... Awkward!).  We talked about how a testimony is truth revealed by the Holy Ghost, parts of a testimony, why we have testimonies, and the power of testimonies. We finished the lesson with our testimonies and there was a really sweet spirit in the room. The power of a simple testimony can change lives.

Posterity Picture!

Smith, Ramirez, Me, White, Vicino, Newsom

I have now trained Ramirez, White & Vicino

Ramirez is training Hermana Smith and Vicino is training Hermana Newsom

So, in missionary lingo, these are my 3 children and 2 grandchildren : )

The elders are going to keep working with Rodrigo, so we are praying for them!  Funny story from the lesson: at the end, Hermana Rodriguez’s dad, a non-member and also a jokester, sat for a second and then decided to give his own testimony, "Bueno, yo se que ella aprenda español bien rápido (pointing to Hermana White), y que ousted es Dominicana." Translation: "I know that Sister White is learning Spanish quickly, and that you are Dominican." Definitely truths, I’m just not sure the Spirit revealed those things to him ; )

Other funny story from the week: Thursday night, while driving home in the dark, I saw a giant blob crossing the street. As it got closer to our car, it looked like a giant rat.  I slammed on the brakes and barely missed hitting an opossum! Welcome to the east coast.

Love you all, thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I can feel them every day and know that the people here in White Plains can feel them as well. 

Love,

Hermana Dodson

Week 9/7-9/13

Hola mi familia!

First week with baby number three has been a huge success! She is adjusting great and we are having tons of fun.  It has been hilarious seeing her go through similar things I went through like not understanding how to give unawkward besos (cheek kisses that the latin people love to share), and not understanding 50% of lessons.  Luckily though, she has not experienced any break-ins... Haha. Hermana White is from Gilbert, Arizona and she is incredible!  She is a get up and go missionary, and is just ready to work.  She is friendly and loving to everyone.  I love her already.  Plus, now I am definitely a more experienced trainer, so maybe this time I won't mess her up ; )

This week we had a cool experience as we checked up on somebody the elders had street contacted into.  Her name is Maura, and after trying to contact her for about two weeks now, we finally got a hold of her!  Maura and Teo, her husband, are definitely going to look good in white. ; )  As we approached her door, a man came walking up behind us.  We turned around and told him we were looked for Maura and Teo.  He gave us the strangest face- like we had unicorn horns or something.  He walked in the house and yelled for Maura, who then came out and told us to come in and sit down.  His face looked even more confused.  Obviously at this point, we knew he was Teo... He walked out the room and we had an incredible lesson with Maura.  We're hoping next week to be able to teach him as well.  The  best part of this whole Maura story happened about 6 weeks ago.  SIster Jensen, Sister Sorensen (who was on a split with us), and I were walking to our car when we saw a cute mom and her two daughters playing outside.  We went and talked to them, and she told us she had been looking for a church.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and testified of it and then got her information.  Her name was Maura.  We went back the next week to check up on her, and her neighbors had told us that she had moved.  The only phone number she had given us was the shared home phone, so the likelihood of finding her felt about 0%.  4 weeks later, when the elders gave us the name of potentials named Maura and Teo, I thought nothing of it.  But then when Maura came walking out and invited us into her home, I knew I had seen her before.  Turns out it was the same Maura we met 6 weeks ago!  It is definitely evidence that she needs to hear our message at this time.  We are excited to teach her and her family!

Funny story from the week: After six long weeks in Mexico, Sister White was definitely excited to be back in the United States and to have a little bit of American food.  She was also super super excited to get some REAL Mexican food, not cafeteria stuff.  We had a dinner appointment almost every day, but here is the kicker: we had lunch meat sandwiches for EVERY SINGLE dinner appointment.  This began on Thursday (Sister White’s first day in the field), so by Monday, we were eating sandwich number 7 and 8! ... Strangest thing ever.

We have seen a lot of exciting things happen and are LOVING sharing the Book of Mormon with all our branch members.  The Spirit is strong and it will only get stronger as we continue to read the word of God together.

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

*Killing* Sydster Jensen

Hola mi familia!

Well, I can honestly say I think we ended Sister Jensen's mission with a big bang! We had an incredible week with a ton of miracles and a ton of fun.  We set a goal to teach 30 lessons last week, which was something on Sister Jensen's bucket list. We received a lot of prayers and help, and were able to teach 32, with 4 member present lessons! That was a mission record for the both of us. We were definitely blessed this week.

At transfer meeting we always close with “Each Heart that Touches ours for Good”  Singing it as I was sending Sister Jensen home had me bawling!  It’s an incredible song, and sister Jensen is an incredible person. I wrote her a note and wrote her name as Sydster Jensen, because her and I always her issues calling each other sister. Haha. I don't think I ever called her by her name when we were together because I was scared Syd would come out. Haha. Now it will forever be, "Syd...ster Jensen!" I'm gonna miss her lots. 

Last Sunday before church we went to go stop in and see a new investigator, Tita.  She is Dominican and incredible. She has been struggling to feel love and happiness in her life, especially since her son just went away to college, and it's hard for her to see her high schooler growing up. We taught an awesome lesson about the  Restoration and then invited her to be baptized on Sept. 27.  She thought for a second and then said, "Does that fall on a Sunday? Cause I can do it if it is a Sunday." So we set a baptismal date for Tita for Sept 28!!  We were freaking out, we were so excited!!  Tita is incredible and definitely prepared to accept the gospel.

This is the Yonkers Chapel.  It's hilarious to see the churches here and how they have been squished in some cities. The Yonkers chapel used to be a movie theater, and is squished between a bodega place and a Little Cesars.  Super funny. It doesn't look like a church at  all. Hahaha.

Later, on Monday, we went to go see another investigator, Banessa, (also Dominican), but she wasn't home.  So, we went to visit Olga who lives in the same building.  We had tracted their building about a month ago and found Olga, from the DR. (Fun fact from the last 6 weeks: our teaching pool is 500% more Dominican since I got here... Hahah.  We're not really sure how that happened…)  When we first talked to Olga (a month ago) she didn't seem super interested, but we decided to go back and see her anyway. She immediately let us in, and we had an INCREDIBLE lesson where we taught her about our purpose and how the message of the Restored gospel will bless her life. The Spirit was so strong, and we invited her to be baptized on Oct 18.  She said she would be baptized, but was hesitant to accept the date!! Neither Sister Jensen or I had ever invited somebody to be baptized on a specific date in the first lesson, but the Spirit was so strong and we just felt so prompted to throw it out there. It definitely paid off, even if she didn't accept it right now. Olga is also extremely prepared, and we are so excited to keep teaching her. She has such a sweet presence, and she has three kids, all baptism aged! BOOYA!

It is official, I will be training my third child, and will also be getting two grand kids!! This cycle is going to be CRAZY, but I am excited.

My new companion!  Sister White from Gilbert, Arizona

Today is definitely a little sad saying bye to a Sister Jensen, but I couldn't be more grateful to Heavenly Father for letting me serve with my sister!  We had so much fun, and I learned so much from her. Sister Jensen is a fantastic missionary, who knows how to make people feel loved and knows how to care.  She showed me a lot of love and taught me a lot about being really aware of people' situations.  I'll miss her a lot, but also feel super blessed that she will be so close by once I get back home ; )

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

120 Day Book of Mormon Challenge

Hola mi familia!

This week was incredible, and we had a lot of awesome things happen!

Isn’t this sign hilarious?!?  Sister Ramirez is under the impression that the whole United States is like the Bronx, because it's all she knows…. haha. We keep trying to convince her otherwise.  Apparently, it’s an All-American City! ….even though the rest of America is NOT like the Bronx!

Friday we had an APF (a finding activity- I've never been able to figure out what it stands for...haha) It was the with our whole mission. Sister Ramirez and I went on a split! We were assigned to go tracting in Yonkers, which is basically an extension of the Bronx, so it definitely felt dejavu-ish... Haha. I love my first born : ) Anyway, we prayed before heading out to knock doors that God would lead us to the people who were prepared and ready to accept our message. We started heading to a house on the corner, and the door was unlocked so we walked in. (Don’t worry, houses here have split stories.) There were strange sounds coming out of the door downstairs, so we headed up, but no luck. Then we knocked the downstairs door and a shirtless Dominican man walked out. We told him we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he told us to wait a second. His wife, Randi, came out, and she told us all about how they had been looking for a church and she had taken all the Mormon lessons in the DR! We sent the elders over later, and they told us that Randi and her husband had been discussing which church they should go to and how they had been praying to know. Soon after, we showed up at their door! They took it as a sign from God that this is the Church they would join!! I know God answers prayers, and leads us to those who He has prepared.

Hermana Jensen & I in Bryant Park.  I’m going to miss her!

On Sunday we had an incredible ward activity, which I fully plan on instigating in every ward I am a part of when I return. It is so much fun! We call it "Dominion de las escrituras"-- basically "Scripture Domination". About three weeks before the activity, us four missionaries choose a few scripture stories from the Book of Mormon, we tell all the members which chapters to read, and then at the activity we ask trivia questions about the chapters. We hold it as a competition of men vs. women, and the team with the most points win. Examples of questions include: How many boats did the brother of Jared and his people construct? When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of who? Who were the brothers of Nephi? People get so competitive and it is super fun. The main purposes are to 1st) get people to study and read their scriptures, and 2nd) to show people how enjoyable it can be to read them.  Last month the men won, and this time the women won! BOOYA!  (We run the show, so we don't participate, but I can still cheer for the sisters ; )  It was a big success and we’re thinking about next time challenging the neighboring Spanish ward.

Here’s the Men getting beat during our “Scripture Domination” activity

Tonight is training calls, and it is likely I will be training again, and there's a pretty high chance Sister Ramirez (who has been one of our roommates this cycle) will be training as well.  So, if that is the case, then we will be a cute little Hispanic family- Grandma (me), living with daughters and grand baby.  Except it's a little more awkward on my side since I will be having a child and a grandchild on the same day... Haha. Mission genealogy is crazy.

We went to the Cake Boss Bakery! The original is in Jersey, but it was still super rad! They had a cake with canolis on top. Mmmm... Canolis.

Love you tons!

Sister Dodson

P.s. Thursday we had zone conference, where President invited all the missionaries to participate in the 120 day Book of Mormon reading challenge! So on Monday, Aug 25th, the 250 missionaries in our mission all started to read the Book of Mormon together!  We are suuuper pumped about this challenge. We are supposed to end on Christmas Eve (but I think someone counted wrong...), but what better Christmas gift to give to our Savior, than strong testimonies of His book?  I have started to go through and mark and make notes of every time it talks about Jesus Christ.  I have been blown away after I've looked at a chapter I’ve read and seen that it is almost completely marked. I know the Book of Mormon is a book from God, given to us to understand more about our Savior. We will sweep New York, New York with the Book of Mormon!  BOOYA! If you would like to participate, I am attaching the reading schedule. I know as you participate, you will feel the power of the book as it brings a new light and perspective to your life, giving you direction on how to live a more Christlike way. If you start on on September 1, you will end on my birthday! Or you can start later, or just catch up to where we are.  I love it!