Meet the Mormons

Hola mi familia!

Can you believe how quickly the time is passing?! It is a little frightning to look at the date and realize we are already at Oct. 15.  Sister Brower and I had a fabulous week this week and saw INCREDIBLE miracles.  The Lord definitely has His hand in His work here in White Plains.

On Friday we got together with all the upstate missionaries and watched Meet the Mormons!! Oh my goodness, the Church really hit it out of the ballpark on this one.  I encourage everyone to go see it if they haven't yet, and bring a nonmember friend (and tissues)! More than anything else, Mormons follow the example of Jesus Christ, and the movie clearly demonstrates our desires and abilities to do so. Love it.

About 2 weeks ago, Sister White and I received a referral from one of the most rock solid members, Sister Lopez.  It was of a woman who lives on her street, who is the mother of 7 children, and NEEDS God and direction in her life.  We heard rumors about how hard her family life was, and although we are not sure at all if they are true,  the gospel will bless her family!  We were so excited to go and meet her, but things fell through and it never happened.  A few days later we get a call from an excited Sister Lopez telling us we needed to get to her house in an hour and run over and teach Sandra (the mother of 7).  Okay, perfect.  Sister White and I ran over, taught an incredible first lesson and really felt the Spirit as Sister Lopez testified to her friend about the power of the Restored Gospel to bring us closer to our Savior.  We set up a return appointment, but Sandra got sick (like everybody and their dog in White Plains.. Boo.) and we haven't been able to teach her since.  On Sunday, Hermano and Hermana Lopez enter the chapel followed by a line of 7 children, and picking up the caboose, Sandra!! Sister Brower hadn't met this family yet, so she was a little confused at why I was jumping up and down and freaking out a little bit.  I was sooo excited to see Sandra and her kids at church!!!  AND to make it even better, they brought two friends with them! Our branch basically doubled in size on Sunday.  The family stayed all three hours and loved it.  Their two friends had to go after Sacrament meeting, but they loved it so much they said they wouldn't dare miss next week.  We have been so blessed with incredible people to teach, and families who are going to be strengthened and protected by the power of the Savior.  We know He will bless their lives.  4 of the kids are baptism age, and they will definitely all look good in white ; )

Yesterday was an incredibly strange day, but we definitely saw that God takes care of His missionaries.  After planning Monday night for Tuesday, we had about 9 lessons set up.  After working for 8 hours, we had barely taught one lesson and had ran all over every corner of White Plains with nobody home.  Dinner time finally arrived, and we had an appointment set up with the fabulous Fila.  We knocked on her door, nobody answered.  Juked.  Sister Brower felt like going to the mall to eat, so we decided to head out.  I got suuuuper lost driving on the way, and instead of taking 5 minutes to get there it took us 15.  When we entered the food court, there at KFC was Fila and her family!  We walked up to say hi, and she immediately turned around to the cashier and ordered us some chicken and biscuits.  Holy Cow, Heavenly Father loves us so much. He prompted Sister Brower to go to the mall, helped me get extremely lost, and planned everything out perfectly so that at the exact minute we walked in the food court there was Fila right in front of our eyes, finishing her order!  Miracles like that don't happen merely by chance, but by the grace of a loving God.

Funny story of the week:

Our investigator, Daniel, has a brother who is just as sassy and hilarious as Daniel is.  Last week when Sister White said goodbye, Daniel's brother said I couldn't come back unless I brought back his girlfriend, Sister White (whom he had met once BTW...).  Sister White didn't understand any of that though... haha.  Needless to say, Sister Brower and I have tried to stop by 4 or 5 times the past week, and each time Daniel has opened the door, sassily told me that his brother said I couldn't come in because I didn't bring his girlfriend, laughed really hard, and then told us to come back another time.. Hahahaha. Maria wasn't home any of those times either though, so we couldn't enter anyway.  Last night we passed by and luckily, Maria was home.  Daniel and his brother were out selling food.  As we walked out the back door at the end of the lesson, Daniel and his brother were at the bottom of the stairs.  They froze and just stared at us with bug eyes, shocked that we got in without bringing back Sister White.  After Maria came out behind us they just started busting up laughing. Hahaha, I love this stinking sassy family so much! 

I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has the power to change lives.  It is the only way through which we are capable of entering back into the presence of our Heavenly Father, and it is an amazing experience to see the power of the Atonement working in others as well as working in myself, and even more powerful to see it working within the family. If the Savior has the ability to heal our bruised and damaged souls, then why couldn't He have the ability to heal our bruised and damaged families? 

Love you all,

Sister Dodson

Conference Weekend

Hola Mi familia!

Big news happening this week! I'm not getting transferred! I will be staying at least 7 more weeks in White Plains! I couldn't be more excited!! But here is the kick in the pants: Sister White is being transferred to the BRONX! (Don't worry Livie, maybe she will have some exciting stories ;)) (Recently, Olivia was complaining that since Sadie has been out of the Bronx the stories haven’t been nearly as entertaining!)  We are honestly super sad and feel a little weird about her leaving, but if it is God's calling for her, than it is God's calling. She is excited and nervous. I am getting Sister Brower, who was in my ward up in Stamford! I am super excited to work with her. She works hard and is adorable. She actually read my blog before she came out and emailed me to see what the mission was like!

Yesterday we had kind of a crazy day, running to and fro trying to say goodbye to everybody, but other than that it has been a pretty normal week.

Thursday we received a referral from one of our INCREDIBLE members and were able to teach Sandra. She has a family of 7 kids! We only taught her this first time, but we are definitely planning on teaching her whole family. She is looking for God and ready to hear our message. We taught her to pray and are excited to see her progress.

Friday Nani and Papa came and visited us for lunch!  We had some really great Peruvian food and it was awesome to spend some time with them.

It was fun to see Nani & Papa.  Basically, it was the best lunch ever!!  Look at my plate!! (Rice, French Fries, Beef, Fried Eggs…) Yum!

Saturday and Sunday we had General Conference and it was INCREDIBLE. It was fantastic to listen to the words of our living prophet. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and has been called to serve us here at this time. It was really special to sit there and listen to his words. I felt promptings over and over again about the people we teach, and found that there was a special message for almost each of our focus people. We are excited for conference to be available on the iPad in Spanish!!  Haha. BTW, how LEGIT was it to have speakers in SPANISH! And also Portuguese and Cantonese!

After conference on Saturday we were finally able to get the elders to Maria and Daniel's house to FINALLY give her a much needed blessing. She has been super sick with back problems and a really bad cold. The elders gave her a super sweet blessing and the Spirit was really strong. We testified of the power of the priesthood as the power of God here on the earth. We emphasized that if this was the power of God, then Joseph Smith was a prophet and the true Church of Jesus Christ has been restored. She said she would pray and ask God for a sign of the Church was true. We are so excited for her and know she will receive an answer. She and Daniel are progressing slowly, but so surely.

Love you lots,

Hermana Dodson

Fall in NYC

Hola I'm familia!

Surprisingly, it is already the last week of the cycle! Time has gone by way too fast. Fall is here already, and this week the leaves started to change colors!! It is gorgeous and gives me motivation to paint all day... I will have to just save some mental images for some time in the future... Haha.

This week we were able to teach Miracle Miguel again, and he is still just so prepared.  We taught the Restoration and testified of a living prophet and Book of Mormon. The Spirit was so strong throughout the lesson, and especially as we knelt  for the closing prayer. We invited him to say the closing prayer, and you could tell that he felt like he was talking to Heavenly Father. He is so humble and we love helping him find greater peace and happiness in his life.

Yesterday we went to visit a less active, and on the way in, we passed a young girl on her porch.  We decided if she was out after our appointment we would go stop and talk to her. Heavenly Father loves us, and when we returned she was still there! We stopped to talk to her, and are now teaching Yemeleth! She is ADORABLE.  When we got back in the car, I just wanted to cry--she reminded me so much of Jasmin and Wendi. Those girls have a HUGE chunk of my heart : )  Yemeleth is 16 and just moved to the Unites States from Guatemala. She loves God, and told us she is ready for church. Last Sunday was the first time she had gone to a church in 5 months, and she was so happy to talk to us about Jesus.  I love her already.

Here is a gorgeous rainbow on Ferris!

If there is one thing I wish I could explain better in words, it would be the love that I have learned to feel here. The love of God is pure and perfect, and there is nothing so attaching as when you feel it for somebody else.  I feel like I am always saying how everybody is so great, or how much I love them, and as cliche as it may seem, it is absolutely true! God has opened up my heart and allowed me this opportunity to serve and come to see everybody as His children. When we finally can feel that love openly, we really begin to want to share His gospel, and see people for their true potential.  Dang, I just imagine so many people looking sooo good in white!

I love you all, HAVE AN INCREDIBLE GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND! Share something you loved or learned with your family, or with someone who may need the gospel more in their life.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dodson

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