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!