Hola mi familia!

Hola mi familia!

Yay for p-days!! This week I took Sister Ramirez to the city for the very first time in her whole entire life!! I wish I could have filmed her expressions.  Haha.  I took her Times Square, and I swear her eyeballs were about to pop out of her face.  It was adorable.  She just keep shaking her head and saying that she felt like she was dreaming.  I think she is going to sleep well tonight ;)

Holy cannoli, this week I have learned A TON!  It truly has been a huge blessing, but also a big pain since almost everything I learned this week had to do with how I need to change myself!  Haha.  Training has been stressful and awesome, and has oddly enough exposed all my terrible qualities!  I have learned so much about how I still need to change into the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be.  I couldn't be more excited or nervous about the opportunity to change.

This week something was brought to my mind by our district leader, Elder Porter, and it has completely changed my perspective on the Bronx, my area, and  my mission.  He talked to members, random people, and other missionaries about what our district could do to help out the Bronx more.  Multiple people told him that there is a big depressing black could that ALWAYS hangs over the Bronx.  I sort of believed it, since really I have seen people struggling here, I have seen more depression here, and I have seen a real dirtiness here.  But I didn't think it was that bad, and I thought people were just exaggerating.  Then on Tuesday we stopped in Harlem to catch a certain train upstate.  I felt such a drastic change even though we were outside for literally five minutes.  There was a lightness in the air- like there was hope or something.  It kind of shocked me!  How can a borough only 30 minutes away have such a thick dark cloud constantly?!  It has flipped around everything for me!  We have been discussion light and the Holy Ghost, and have concluded that all the Bronx needs is light.  A whole heck of it, but still.  We are focusing on shining our lights more- finding the positive here in a negative place, and spreading that positivity.  I believe that with hard work and our uplifting message, we will truly change the Bronx. Millions of missionaries through the years have been working on this goal, and I am proud to join with them to hopefully accomplish it! Jesus Christ suffered the infirmities and depressions of every single person, and that includes the million or so that live in the Bronx.  We will teach and live the Atonement of Jesus Christ so powerfully that everything will change.  So this dark cloud best be watching it's back, cause we're about to chase it away.  Haha.

Funny stories from the week!

1. Sister Ramirez has been learning English, and I, Spanish.  Preach my Gospel says to try learning English in the home and Spanish on the street, so we have been trying to do that.  Anyways, so in learning at home, I have been teaching Sister Ramirez all these sayings that Americans say.  What's funny is that in reality, after teaching her what to say, I realize that I am probably the only person on the whole planet that says that phrase.  Who else says "Holy cannoli", "that's chill", "those are wrecked", "Oh my goodness, I am going to pee my pants", or "you wanna hear a funny story?"?? By the time we're done I don't know if she will be fluent in English, or in Sadie-ese. (I made that up too.  Haha.)

2.  While also learning English, Sister Ramirez has learned regular American/English phrases.  She has been trying to say "Sweet dreams" and other things like that before bed each night in English, and the other night she got confused with her phrases.  So as I was climbing into bed, she says, "Rest in Peace!" Hahaha.  Basically I've been telling her to Rest in Peace every night since then.  ; )

3.  No exciting Valentines Day stories!! Sorry!  After being called a vixen by Dad and other such things by family members this week (last week, not in her normal weekly letter, she had told us about an investigator who came to church, only wanted to sit by Sadie and after church asked her if she was going to the ward Valentines Party--and if she could go with him), I am proud to say that nothing happened Valentines Day! We went to the party, but it started super late and we had to leave early to get home, so I didn't even see our investigator. (Whew!)

4.  Funny thing about our investigator though!  So the first Sunday he came to church, we had no piano player.  Bishop always chooses the songs, but nobody can play the songs he chooses (as we have a limited repertoire of songs which we can actually play).  So we did everything a cappella... hahaha.  Oh goodness.  That was a little scary.  Anyway, our investigator who asked me on a date, Fernando, says, "Hey, I can play the piano."  So this week the bishopric hooked him up with a hymn book to practice with, and now hopefully we'll have an investigator playing the piano!!  I only pray that that will help him to find a testimony of the Savior and His true Restored Church upon the earth!

I LOVE you guys!!

Love,

Sister Dodson

First Week of Motherhood

Hola mi familia!!

Hello from your newest mother!! Man, motherhood is hard! But I love it.  (In the mission, when they are training a brand new companion, they call it "having a baby")  Sister Ramirez is a trooper, that is for sure.  We have had one of the weirdest weeks in a while.  Last week, starting with Thursday, basically all our appointments decided to cancel.  On Saturday we ended up tracting for about 4 hours... Hahaha.  Oh man, welcome to missionary life, Sister Ramirez! No, just kidding, missionary life is a lot different than that.  It has been wonderful to introduce her to what missionary life really is like.  Part of me just wants to call missionary work Miracle work.  Because in reality, that is what it is! God is letting us see little miracles every day, and we get to be part of miracles for other people! I keep telling Sister Ramirez that God just throws miracles at us, and all we have to do catch them!  I don't think she understands that phrase... It has been pretty funny this week to realize that I say a lot of phrases that really make no sense, unless you are me, or if you know English pretty well.  I keep teaching her different Sadie phrases to say.  She is going be all set up with a pretty interesting English vocabulary by the time we are done together!  Haha.

It has been such a blessing to have Sister Ramirez.  She is from a small town in Central Mexico that I cannot say.  She actually attended school at the MTC, so that was pretty funny!  Her english is at the level my spanish was when I came out to NYC.  Basically, she can read english, we can talk in both languages, but when it comes to an appointment or a meeting in English, she struggles understanding.  I was the exact same when I came out.  I couldn't understand any Spanish in appointments or meetings, but could understand reading or just talking slowly.  We are both currently fluent in Spanish! We are really teaching each other so much.  She is also a FABULOUS teacher, and that is not only just because she can speak Spanish... haha.  She really knows how to bring the Spirit to a lesson and knows the doctrine so well.  She definitely knows it better than me.  She was baptized into the church when she was 11 with her mother and sister. 

She is also a huge jokester!  She is always laughing and playing little tricks.  For example the other day we went in the Subway, but needed to cross to the other side.  I said let's cross!  She starts heading right to the track, like she is going to jump down and run across the electrified rails!!  Haha.  I was like, "Uh, Hermana! WAIT!"  It was pretty hilarious.  Especially since before I yelled, some random man waiting for the train starting yelling at her.  I love her already.  I cannot wait to see what kinds of miracles we can accomplish! 

Yesterday we had a lesson with a former investigator, Irene!  She is AMAZING.  Her husband's side of the family are all members in the DR, and she has always loved our church.  I taught her once in December, and then she headed back to the DR.  FINALLY she came back!! It was super exciting to hear that she was finally back!  We had a really quick but spiritually strong lesson about the Restoration.  Her face just lit up when we talked about Joseph Smith.  You knew she felt something.  She told us that she always has felt something, like a big peace when we teach her, something that she doesn't feel at any other church.  At the end of the lesson we read with her in 2 Nephi 31, which talks about baptism.  After we read the verse, before we could say anything, she says, "How long does it take before someone can be baptized?"!! She is SO prepared to be baptized.  We are currently working on getting her a date for the end of March.  Irene is such a gem, and it is a blessing to teach her.  She loves the missionaries so much, and spoils us.  Plus she is one of the best Dominican cooks out there, and ya tu sabe how much I enjoy a good Dominican meal.  Haha.

We are also working with Gina, an investigator who is so prepared as well.  We had an amazing lesson with her yesterday as well, and you could see her just glow.  She talked about how she hates the feeling she gets when she does something wrong.  Gina is our investigator whose husband has been less active for years. (I don't remember if I have talked about her or not!) We looove teaching her! Back when I was with Sister Richardson, she told me something about myself that I didn't really quite believe, until the other day when Sister Ramirez said that exact same thing about me.  They both said that I have a real gift with the youth.  I LOVE working with the youth, and have always had good lessons with them, but I never thought it was a gift.  I just thought that the youth were awesome and we clicked easily. I will be honest though, I think this gift is genetic, and not just Spiritually genetic.  Mom and Dad have always had chances to work with youth, and they are practically worshipped at the YSA ward ;) I am finding that our Loving Heavenly Father gives us gifts, and whether we realize it or not (or whether we realize that we even have them or not), they are given for us to build up the Kingdom of God on the earth!

I love you guys tons!! Thank you all for your prayers and loves! I feel so spoiled here.  Happy Valentines Day!! We will be spreading love all around NYC :)

Love,

Sister Dodson

p.s. GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Death and a Baby

Hola familia!

Another transfer, another companion, same area! And here is the kicker, I AM TRAINING!! I guess since Sister Richardson died with me (NYC missionary lingo for the end of a mission), I now get to get to have a baby!! (NYC missionary lingo for getting a companion who is brand new to the mission)  I couldn't be more excited!  Sister Richardson accused me of nesting... I was totally cleaning like a madwoman and making this place look awesome for my baby... I'm just so excited!  I have actually known about it for over 2 weeks now, but President asked me to keep it secret.  That was the worst.  Sister Richardson on the other hand, has known about it for about 7 weeks now- President told her she was being sent down here to prep me to train…. Man, she is good.  I had no idea that was what was going on.  Haha.  Either way, I definitely feel more ready to train!  I AM SO EXCITED!! All I know about my baby is that she is from Mexico!  So she is fluent! BOOYA.  I am so excited for her to teach me real spanish.  I don't know anything else about her... She could speak english, she could not, I don't even know if she brought a coat with her from Mexico... But I hope she did, because the weather is terrible here.  Today transfers have been "postponed until further notice" due to the weather.  I could hear what I thought was rain all night long on the ceiling (it was super loud), but when we woke up this morning, there was about a foot more of snow! Part of me is convinced it was snowing ice because typically you can't hear it snowing... haha. Either way, I am ready for the snow to clear up, and the weather to get warm again.  Hopefully by the end of this next cycle it will be more warm.

Here is the other kicker to this transfers, HALF of my district is leaving!  Let's be honest, I have completely mixed feelings about all of this.  I am soooo sad to see them all go.  Elder Gamble and Elder Stephens are going to Stamford (they are going to be roommates.. hahahaha.  Oh goodness.  That is going to be hilarious!), Sister Richardson is going home, and Elder Wilkins is going to Harlem!  I am so excited for all of them.  Our district has practically stayed the same for 3 cycles now, so we have definitely become suuuper close.  BUT I am suuuper excited for new people!  We are going to have three Mexicans just in our district... President must have wanted to send in some real Spanish speakers to help us clean up our Dominican accents (I have got a pretty terrible Dominican accent...  Oh man I love it!)

Sister Richardson and I have definitely tried to finish out her mission strong.  We have been working very hard, and are still seeing the fruits of our labors.  Yesterday, we had 5 lessons, which is more than we have had in one day EVER!  It was the perfect way to end her mission.  Plus, our very last lesson was with Dori, so it really couldn't have ended on a better note!  Dorivee is progressing so much that she is able to take the temple prep class in two weeks!! I could not be more excited for her.  It is amazing to me to see the direct results of her making small changes in her life.  Her mother has been a member for over 30 years, but her father never joined the church.  This past week, out of the blue, her father decided to go to church!! He was participating and asking questions, and came out with a whole list of things he wants to learn!! I just started tearing up when Dorivee told us this.  What a miracle! There really is an infinite amount of blessings that our loving Heavenly Father will pour out upon us as we are obedient!  I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to hear her testimony every time I see her, and then to watch as the miracles just keep pouring in and pouring in.  She is AMAZING.

Luis was confirmed this week!! We are hoping that within the next week he can receive the Priesthood and go to the temple.  He is such a strong member already!  I know he is going to stay in the gospel, and it is just going to continue to bless his life.  I LOVE IT.

I love you all!! I have been blown away by the examples of people here.  It is a testimony to me of how much I am meant to be here with these specific people.  I have learned so much, and have made such amazing friends.  The Church is true, it always has been, and it always will be.

Con muchisisisisimo amor,

Hermana Dodson

P.S. My baby is so cute! Due to the weather, the only transfers that happened were to place the new missionaries in their areas.  Sister Ramirez speaks English pretty well, AND has a coat. I'm pumped! She is so cute and sweet :)  SHE IS AWESOME! And she has to put up with me.  Poor girl!  The second pic says it all.  Hahaha…..her face. I'm so excited!

Wearing my awesome Avenger leggings that Mom sent!  I didn't flash anybody on purpose… Haha (but I did wish I could show them off). But it was suuuper slushy that day so I had to keep hiking up my skirt to jump in the puddles.  Everyone was super jealous of them. THANK YOU! I am in love with them!

First Baptism!

Hola mi familia!

This was kind of an eventful week! We had my first baptism! Woohoo! It was such a tender moment in my mission.  I honestly wish I could do justice to the feelings that I felt and the things that I saw.  There was a powerful Spirit at the baptism.   Luis was so ready to be baptized, that nothing could have stopped him.  He showed up for his baptism so early, and was already grinning from ear to ear!  In total, we had 4 people who were baptized: Yahaira, Luis, Modesto, and Themis (an 8 year old little girl). While everyone was changing, I had the chance to spend some time with Yahaira's kids! She has 4 daughters and a couple sons, and the oldest is 9. Annie and Ashley are the two oldest, and they will be getting baptized next month once Ashley turns 8! They are seriously the most adorable little family.  The little girls just remind me of home.  They just love to tackle and play and love on you.  Every time they see me, they just all run up and give me super tight hugs.  They always make me feel so special and loved.  It was such a blessing to see this cute little family so excited for their mom to be baptized.  Their dad was inactive, and now their whole family dynamic has changed.  I have seen joy come into their lives as they have accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  The program was so beautiful.  Themis was the first to be baptized, and her little brother was the most adorable thing I have ever seen.  He is probably about 5 years old, and just hilarious.  When it was announced that Themis was going to be baptized first, he started cheering! "Yeah! That's my sister! Yeah Themis!" It was so cute, I almost died.  After she was baptized by Elder Stephens, he just goes, "WOW! That was so cool!!"  He was just precious.  It makes me rejoice when little kids are excited about baptism.  Even they can understand the significance of such an event.  

Luis's baptism!

Next was Yahaira, and there was just such a sweet spirit as Elder Wilkins baptized her.  Her girls were so entranced by it, and you could tell that they felt the Spirit. And then the big moment (for me) came as Luis was baptized.  At this point, I could not even wipe the smile off my face.  The Spirit is so tender at baptisms, and this one was so special.  Elder Gamble baptized him, and you could tell it was perfect moment!   Modesto was also baptized, which was an amazing moment for Elders Hurtado and Wilkins, I am sure. Modesto has been more active than a lot of our active members for over a year.  He just never got baptized. After the ordinances, we then watched the Restoration video while they changed.  The Spirit just stayed, and testified again to us how important it is to know for a surety that this Church is the true church on the earth.   Juan Carlos, the former-less-active husband of Yahaira was asked to the give the closing prayer.  Before he prayed though, he decided to bear his testimony.  It was such a sweet and simple testimony.  He bore testimony to his wife that this ordinance was going to change their lives.  He spoke about how they were going to sealed in the temple in a year, and how they were going to have a forever family.  All of a sudden tears were just flooding out of my eyes.  It was such a sentimental moment.  I felt the Spirit testifying to me of how special this family is.  I also felt the Spirit testifying of the power that comes from a family that is sealed together for time and all eternity in the temple.  I am so grateful for my parents, and that I have those blessings of the covenant.  I truly felt love for this family as they will have the same blessings. They have had opportunities to change so much and be blessed, and they have taken every single one of them.  I am so excited for the time when their children follow to be baptized, and are then sealed.   Luis was just glowing after the baptism.  He was seriously just glowing.  It was such an amazing vision.  I cannot wait for his future.  He said that all he wants to do is give back to God.  He wants to do maintenance for the church or algo mas (anything else) because he just feels so grateful.  He said that he is just rethinking so many things about work and life.  It is beautiful how just a simple ordinance brings so much power and influence.

All the sisters in our zone! I love them all.

LOOK AT THIS PUPPY WE SAW ON A PORCH!

On the more typical awkward- Sadie side of things, I went on a split with Sister Cole on Saturday, and we could not find a bathroom for the life of me!! I had to go to the bathroom so bad I couldn't even walk standing up straight.  We were down in Elder Gamble's area, so I only knew where a few members lived, and they weren't home.  We walked around, into a super market, looked into restaurants, even a movie theater, and found NOTHING.  After 45 minutes we finally found a Burger King! I ran in there only to discover that you had to buy something first in order for them to open the bathroom door for you to use.  I ran up the counter and told the girl working I wanted a cinnamon roll (it was the first thing in sight, literally right next to the cash register.  At this point, I really didn't care.)  She just spoke so slowly- relaxed and casual, which was definitely a stark contrast next to my impatient-I-am-going-to-wet-myself-right-here-voice.  "Okay, that's all you want?" "Yeah.  And the bathroom." "Okay.  Do you want it heated?" "Sure.  Just let me use the bathroom."  "Okay, let me get this for you."  I seriously was dying watching her take precise slow moves to grab the cinnamon role, put it in a box, then walk back and put it in the microwave.  Sister Cole was probably just laughing so hard.  The Burger King lady was moving slower that an old grandma, and I seriously thought that my bladder was going to explode at any moment.  Finally after a few agonizing minutes she came from around the counter and opened the bathroom door.  YAY!  I survived! Mostly I was just so scared that since it was so cold outside that if anything happened, it would just freeze to my leg.... haha.  Oh man.

Elders are so awkwarddddd. 

Another exciting thing from Sunday, Sister Richardson and I got to teach Primary!  We have been waiting to hand out the CTR rings prepared by the Northfield 14th Ward Activity Days girls, and teaching Primary seemed like the perfect opportunity to share them!  We taught about following the Savior and leaving everything behind that would prevent us from to choosing the right.  My heart was so close to bursting teaching these kids.  They all have so much love for Jesus Christ, and such a grand understanding of who He is.  Every question we asked about Him, at least 5 little hands shot up, ready to give us answers. I felt the Spirit testify to me of how special little children are in the eyes of God.  At one point we asked them to give us examples of things we can do to follow Christ's example.  Themis, who was getting baptized later that day, was about to jump out of her seat.  I swear her hand was up so high that had she jumped out of her seat, she would have touched the ceiling.  We called on her, and she says, "I'm getting baptized today!!!!"  It was so enlightening to see everybody so excited about following our Savior's example!  After our lesson, we taught them about choosing the right and handed out the children's green CTR rings, each with a little note from one of the activity day girls from my home ward.  They LOVED them.  Every single little Primary kid swore to wear the ring every day!  I have been in this ward for long enough now that most of the kids know my name, and so for the kids who received notes from Emmy, it was really special.  Emmy is an example to me.  She knows the truth, and wasn't scared to share her experiences and her testimony of choosing the right!  So thank you NF 14th Activity Day girls for helping my kids here in NYC!  The testimony of a child is precious and pure, and when shared, it is impossible to not feel the Spirit.  

Sooo much snow! This is from last Tuesday when the policed lined off

our street.  

I hope everyone had as good of a week as I did!

Love you guys TONS,

Sister Dodson

THANKS

Hola mi familia!

This week was not nearly as eventful, but still awesome, nevertheless. My favorite missionary in Indiana, Sarah, sent me a talk by Elder Ballard about how to have success, and I have seen that the doctrines taught in that talk are so true.  He talks about how success and happiness in missionary work all depends on Attitude.  Essentially, if you can see it, you can achieve it.  As we have worked hard, visioned success, and MADE our situations happy, we have had awesome weeks.  I know that as we do everything in our power to look at things the way we want them to be, they will end up that way!  I have really been focusing on staying positive- on trying to make myself happy, and trying to make others happy.  I have seen my relationships grow with others, with missionaries, with members, with investigators. Definitely attitude is key to everything!

This week we reached the Standard of Excellence!  This standard is the ideal goal for the mission.  So it encompasses a goal for number of lessons, new investigators, baptisms, lessons with member presents, etc. that everybody in the mission should be striving for.  They are definitely difficult to achieve, but possible!  We worked SOO hard this past week, and reached 21 lessons, the standard for total number of lessons! I saw miracles continue to happen, as we found people on the street who we could teach, less actives who ended up being home so we could teach, etc.  When you set a goal with faith and you work hard, The Lord is going to provide for you.  I have seen that time and time again my whole mission!

Something I learned this week was the importance of Preach My Gospel! With the ipad, we have access to every single conference talk, teaching resource, and video available on the Gospel Library app.  It has been super easy to get sucked into the other things and forget about Preach My Gospel!  I was reminded on Monday that we have been called as Preach My Gospel missionaries.  The book wasn't written just for us to look at occasionally and then throw to the side as we study other things, essentially it has everything in it necessary to be the most successful missionaries possible.  I have been focusing on studying it more, and am seeing it help my focus as a missionary.

Yesterday we got hit by another snow storm!! I can't complain though, after reading emails and letters from Sarah in Indy, and Ryan in Ohio, I am so grateful to be in The City!  While others have been grounded, we can still work!  Yesterday it snowed for 14 hours straight, and we received about 2 feet of snow.  Let's be honest, it made me want to go skiing pretty bad…. Haha.  We live on a pretty steep hill, and while we were doing language study, we heard SO MANY cars struggle to get up the hill.  So at 10:30-ish we headed outside to go shovel our steps and help cars up the street.  At this point it had been snowing for about an hour.  We shoveled our steps, a little bit of the sidewalk, and dusted off some cars parked on the side.  We then saw this van struggling to get to the top of the hill.  So the two of us, Sister Richardson and I, went down and started to push him up the hill! Basically we felt like pioneers pushing giant handcarts in the snow. We were just praying for the help of angels.  We pushed it about a block--minus the last 15 feet.  We were SO close to the top of the hill when two men showed up out of nowhere.  Instead of coming to help us with the last haul, they went up the driver, told him he wasn't going to make it, and that he should back all the way back down the hill and go some other route.  And so what did the driver do??! HE BACKED UP ALL THE WAY DOWN THE HILL.  Even with the missionaries, representatives of Jesus Christ there at his side, when tempted to take the easy way by the whisperings of man, the driver followed man.  He totally could have made it to the top.  Boo.  Hahaha.  NEVER GIVE UP.  It's just ridiculous!! Hahahaha.

Love you all, stay warm! Thanks to my new boots, I am staying nice and dry and warm! ;) So THANK YOU!

LOVE YOU!

Hermana Dodson

Some pictures from last week's P-Day bowling activity:

Hermana Dodson's Top 10!

Hola mi familia!!

I wish I could once again explain how amazing this week was!  The Lord is continuing to bless us!! It has been amazing!!! Here is my Top 10 for the week:

10.  Today we went bowling with our zone!!! It was so much fun.  I love that we can all get together and just have good fun.  There are 5 sets of sisters and lots of elders.  We are lucky to be in the city so we get to be together to work and play a lot.  We are spoiled.

9. We have 3 new investigators!  LS, JB, and Amparo.  All 3 of them are AWESOME.  They will be mentioned later on.

Mundongo Soup from her birthday

8. The other night we were riding the bus to go visit some members in our ward.  We were sitting across from a young mother, her friend, and her 4-year-old son.  Sister Richardson sees the 4-year-old pointing at me and then whispering to his mom.  The mom giggles a little bit.  She looks up and catches glances with Sister Richardson.  She then says, "He thinks that she (pointing to me) is pretty, but is scared to tell her!"  I almost died!  It was the most adorable little thing!! We then talked to him and he told me I was pretty, and then we gave him a picture book (a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet).  Don't worry, all the 4 year-old-boys are in love with me.  Haha.

7.  Another bus experience!  The other day we were on the bus and I was standing next to this 35-ish guy sitting down.  He looks at me, and then sassily says, "Are you looking for something?"  I told him no, I was just looking out the window.  He then says, "Are you one of those Jesus people?"  I told him yes, then told him I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I then asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ.  He turned his head and got this really sassy look on his face.  He didn't say anything for about a minute.  I thought he had heard me say the name Jesus and decided to reject the message.  But after a while he turned back at me and replied, "I kind of have my own doctrine."  I then ask him what it was--what was he preaching.  He replied with some comment that really didn't make sense.  I asked him, "How is that working out for you?"  He told me it was okay, he guessed.  I then testified that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ betters the quality of people's lives.  He looked at me and sternly said, "My stop is next.  Do you have a card?"  I gladly handed him a card.  I told him my name and how to contact me.  He then told me his name was Jamal.  He said that he would call me after Sunday.  (This was Friday.)  He then left, and later so did we.  About two hours later we get a phone call from a random number.  It was Jamal!!  He told me that literally that morning he had bought his first ever copy of the Bible!! What are the chances of that?!  He then asked me who the picture was on the front of the card I gave him.  I told him it was Jesus Christ.  He said thank you, told us he would call again after Sunday, and hung up.  So far no word from him, but I have hope!!

Random Christmas pics

6. Last week we went to a recent convert's house who is inactive. Her and her 15-year-old son were baptized in April, and neither has come to church in months.  Unfortunately, missionaries haven't visited them either for months.  We stopped by and introduced ourselves, then had a quick lesson with them.  Ronald, the son, is such a sweet spirit.  He has such an inward desire to get to know the Savior.  It is really beautiful.  We asked him to say the closing prayer, and it was one of the sweetest prayers I have ever heard.  He thanked God for sending the missionaries to him again and for letting them know that they were not just part of his imagination, and for letting him know that we really hadn't forgotten about him.  It is moments like those that make me so happy to be a missionary.  We really have the opportunity to share a piece of God's love to people.

5.  We are silk worms for lunch on Monday!! We had a competition in the zone to see which district could hand out the most Book of Mormons.  My district creamed everybody.  When the zone leaders gave us our treat, they handed over frozen cooked silk worms!!! It was SOOO NASTY.  Clearly we had to eat them.  We popped them like pills, because after disecting one with a pen we discovered it was basically like a Gusher... And we were not going to let bug juice explode in our mouths.... Anyways, they tasted like potatoes... Haha.

6.  We went to the Statue of Liberty last week!  One of the Elders we went with, Elder Gonzales, was hangry (Dodson speak for hungry to the point of being angry) and cold.  He grabbed a hot dog on the Ferry before getting off the boat.  After eating about half of it, he declared that it was the best hot dog he had ever eaten.  As we are walking along, all of the sudden this seagull floats in from the right side about 1 foot from my face.  It then, with perfect tact, manages to steal just the hotdog out of the bun in Elder G's hand!! I almost wet myself laughing.

5.  Lesson with Amparo: We had one lesson with Amparo right before Christmas.  We haven't been able to meet with her since then.  Her daughter is a convert, but inactive and lives in Dallas.  She knows like everything about the church already.  Last time, we invited Amparo to read about Joseph Smith and then pray to know if the Church is true.  In our lesson this week, she told us she was confused because she had a dream after praying.  In her dream she saw three beings:  Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (but he looked a little different.).  She was confused because Joseph Smith only saw TWO beings.  We then were able to testify to her about the nature of the Godhead: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bones, and the Holy Ghost is a spirit.  We also then testified that Joseph Smith physically SAW two beings, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but then FELT the Holy Ghost testifying that in reality They were there.  She then told us she understood and wants to continue learning with us.  She wasn't sure why, but she said she felt something.  She totally knows it's true!! I am so excited to teach her.  She is a sweetheart.

4.  We always have AMAZING lessons with Dori.  I LOVE TEACHING HER!

3.  This week it hit me so hard: I LOVE MY AREA.  I have really come to love the people, the weirdness, and the work.  The Bronx is so amazing.  It is such a good feeling when you realize that you just want the best for this area because you just LOVE it.

At White Castle and thinking of her daddy :)

2. MY PANTS ARE SO LOOSE!!!! Gym is paying off!!

1.  THIS IS THE BEST STORY EVER.  GET READY.  About 12 days ago, we did Former Investigator lookups.  We go knock on the door of a former investigator, LS, who was golden back in September.  He had a baptismal date and everything.  He even media referred HIMSELF to the missionaries (Mormon.org/missionaries), so he was GOLDEN.  At his baptismal interview, he said he wasn't ready to get baptized, because he was still having a hard time quitting alcohol.  I think this crushed his spirit.  After that, he wouldn't answer calls from members or missionaries, and wouldn't answer the door either. Sister Lancaster was devastated, since she had found and taught him, and he had just dropped off the face of the earth.  So 12 days ago, we knock on his door.  He opens, and says, "Oh, I wasn't expecting you. You can't come right now, I am drinking.  But you can come Friday." We were slightly devastated to see he still hadn't given up alcohol, but also extremely excited since we had a return appointment!!  So last Friday we went to go see him.  He told us that us knocking on his door was a sign from God that he should go back to church.  He said he wanted to go back slowly, but he was ready.  On Sunday, he came to church.  And not only that, he made half the comments in the meetings!! He was more involved in the lessons than our active members!!  On Monday, we received a call from him.  We were kind of freaking out.  This either meant that he wanted to be baptized, or was done forever with the missionaries.  To our surprise, and excitement, LS says, "Hola Hermanas, yo quiero bautizarme!!" WHAT??  THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN.  PEOPLE JUST DON'T CALL TO SAY THEY WANT TO BE BAPTIZED. We were dying.  I was doing a happy dance right in the middle of the sidewalk in the Bronx.  It is so exciting.  We met with him yesterday, and his smile was so huge.  He is so dedicated.  He said he is so done with alcohol, so ready for this new life.  He just knows it's right.  He has a baptism date for the 26th!!!!!

What's even more amazing about this story is the fact that at the beginning of the cycle we had a goal for each companionship in the district to have one baptism.  At that point, we had NO ONE.  Our ward has been a little dry on baptisms since September…..We had, maybe a few prospects, but meeting someone and getting them ready for baptism in 6 weeks is a scary feat.  Sadly, no one was progressing to be able to meet this goal.  I had fasted and prayed, and we were working hard, but no baptism prospects.  And then Heavenly Father just threw LS into our hands.  MIRACLES HAPPEN.

She takes so many selfies!!

I feel so blessed! Thank you for your love and your prayers!!

Love you ALL!!

Sister Dodson

Week of Miracles!!

Hola mi familia!

This week has literally been a week of miracles. I don't understand what we have been doing to deserve it, but whatever it is we will keep it up! The Lord is amazing and He is blessing us so much! I can't deny His existence at all!

Miracle 1:

Last Thursday we met with a less active referral from the elders. Her name is Dori. She is AMAZING!  She was baptized when she was eight, then went inactive at age 17.  She is now about 38.  In 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  It left and came back six times, and in the process she had a double mastectomy.  She was then cancer free for 5 years.  It now has come back as stage four terminal cancer.  Last year she was given three weeks to live!  In this past year her cancer has spread all down to her abdomen, and the tumors have developed a disease of some kind that makes them produce water.  Because of this, your system becomes flushed with water- your body swells and eventually your organs basically drown and you die.  She looked like she was about 9 months pregnant.  And then her miracle happened.  Her mom is incredible and EXTREMELY active in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is awesome and taught her kids in the Gospel and especially at this time has been pushing her daughter to pray and find The Lord again.  As the cancer became worse, Dori started to turn towards God a little bit.  She started to remember The Lord.  Her mom and her began praying intensely.  She said they would pray for hours just pleading. Two Sundays ago she came to church for the first time in 23 years!  The Tuesday after, she received a miracle.  She woke up with a six pack! Essentially ALL the water had left her body.  She went to the doctor that day and they just hugged her and rejoiced.  This has NEVER happened before!! (At least this doctor had never seen or heard of it happening).  It truly was a God given miracle.  She has completely devoted her life to serving Him.  I wish I could properly explain the light that was in her eyes.  it was beautiful.  She told us repeatedly that she never will leave this church again.  She knows the way, and she just wants to share her story with everyone.  She wants to go to the temple now to receive her endowment, and we are going to teach her to get her there.  She is a God send.  She knows who she is and Whose she is.  She used to be a model, and in connection with that, she has been working on an inspirational TV show about how she has dealt with cancer.  She told us that the costume people had outfits picked out for her, but that she is going to have to talk to them because of the turn-around in her values. She is an advocate for modesty now! I was amazed.  I cannot wait for her to go to the temple.  She is such an amazing example to me of dignity, divine worth, and growth, knowledge, goals, and especially faith.  She is going to be an AMAZING OUTSTANDING example for YW everywhere.  She is giving up the modeling life for God…..the world for God.  She has modeled for Michael Kors, and other amazing artists, has her own makeup lines, has modeled at fashion week, done the whole red carpet scenes, has her own spread and video in cover girl, etc.  BUT she left it. This is the most amazing thing about her: she told us that all she wants is for people to know and understand that "THE WAY OF THE WORLD OFFERS US NOTHING. IT IS EMPTY."  Imagine the example she will be! The light she will share! YW everywhere can see how amazing it is to give up everything the world has to offer, and follow Christ! They could understand from an amazing woman how to be modest and how to respect yourself!  I LOVE IT.  I LOVE HER.  I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father is allowing me to be part of her life at this time.

Miracle 2: This last week we have found 7 new investigators.  SEVEN!

Miracle 3: The most lessons I have taught in one week was 10. We have had between 1-7 lessons per week for over a month now. This week we had 14! On Monday we set a goal of getting 2 other lessons taught (lessons to investigators). At 8 at night, we had time to basically knock one more door.  We went to an address of a former investigator…knocked...and the door swung open. We taught one more lesson to this former investigator who told us all she wants to do is get baptized. WHAT?!?

Miracle 4: After doing Tours of the chapel yesterday, my iPad went missing.  Legit missing!  We were all convinced it was stolen!  Later that night, during our lesson, we get a call from some elders in our zone. THEY FOUND MY IPAD IN THEIR BACKPACK. I don't even think they were at the church yesterday!!!

We have had millions of other tiny miracles too! God loves us, you guys.  When we follow His instructions and are obedient, miracles happen.  He is our Father after all, and all He wants is our happiness.  I know He lives, and I love Him.  I know I am doing His work here on the earth, and I love it. He truly cares for His children, and I pray that as we feel His love and see His love in our lives, that we will SHARE it!

I would love to hear about the miracles you have seen in your life!  You can email them to me, put them on my Facebook, or comment here on the blog! Tell me how you have felt God's love and how you have gained a testimony that He is your Father!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Dodson