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.