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