The Sorrow for a Soul

Week #14

This last week has been one of trying experiences. Once again, most of our appointments have fallen through and we rarely get more than a "maybe" for rescheduling. We did have one woman whom we were very hopeful about, but that didn't turn out so well.

Leslie had been attending church in Lafayette for quite a while and most of the ward already knew her. We found out she wasn't a member and tried to set up a meeting with her. After a few weeks of a lot of scheduling issues, we finally got a meeting with her last Thursday. We learned that she had been investigating the Church for seven years and knew it was true, she just hadn't [committed to] baptism. That was my first doubt. She said she knew the Church was true, but had put forth no effort of her own to be baptized. We went over the baptismal interview questions just to see where she stood and found [that there were some obstacles]. We said that we would have to meet again to make sure she had been taught everything and set her with a baptismal date.

We met again Sunday morning. Elder Yarman had me address [the issues. After the discussion, it was clear that she was not ready for baptism.] She also accused us [unjustly]. . . and said . . . it felt like we didn't want her. She then decided to leave and didn't stay for Sacrament Meeting. I will admit I cried.

As horribly as the meeting went, I did reaffirm that I do have a testimony. As Alma and Nephi would weep for the people when they rejected the truth, I realized I wasn't crying because she had hurt me. I cried because we had presented her with truth and scripture in the most loving way we knew how and she rejected it. Though my body hasn't been changed like John's and the Three Nephites', it is incredible how the first real sorrow of my mission was for the [soul] of another. (3 Nephi 28:9)

The words of the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants are very much a comfort in this situation.

"If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations (...) and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." D&C 122:6-7

Though I don't exactly have all the problems listed in these verses, I feel the promise still stands. I get the feeling that after having such a difficulty over something so small, I think teaching larger issues such as the Law of Chastity will be easier. I know that seems backwards, but people seem to have a harder time giving up small things and will fight more for them. 

I'm trying to take more pictures. I really am. I just always forget I have my camera in my bag. I did get one of George Miller though. He drives a Harley, is a former drug addict, is a High Priest, Webelos Leader, Family history Consultant, the best cook in the ward and is preparing to [receive] his endowment in the next month or so. Basically, he's a wonderful example of what we should be.

Love you all,

Elder Dickson

Service and Study

Week #13

Yesterday was Labor Day and the libraries were closed. Sorry.

Last week was pretty good. We got a new investigator that we were supposed to teach today, but he just cancelled a little bit ago. The ward is getting more excited about missionary work and just today we met with the Ward Mission Leader to set up a ward mission plan. Make sure you know what your ward mission plan is. 

We are only allowed to write letters on P-day (Monday). I did write Katie and Emma. Hopefully they showed up last week.

Nothing really incredible happened this week. Elder Yarman is the District Leader now and I'm almost done with training. Our days are getting more difficult to fill with appointments and often we only get to teach at dinners. There are a few reasons for that. One is that I still have to do four hours of study and we have service to do. Most of what we do now is in T-shirts and jeans. Today we just trimmed the lawn for an inactive member and actually got a referral from her. Ammon served before preaching. I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. 

If you haven't already visit, biblevideos.org. They are powerful. We've actually started using them for some of our teaching. 

I forgot my camera again, but I do have some pictures to send. Not many, but a few. Maybe I'll take even more.

Bye for now,

Elder Dickson

No Time For The World

Week #12

Elder Dickson is working so hard that he doesn't have time to write emails! Here is part of his email that he wrote to his mother: 
You have a lot of questions and the line for computers here is getting long. To make things short. We've moved and now live in the Bishop's basement. Elder Yarman and I are actually pretty clean, but in the last place we had no closet or shelves, two drawers and one room. There simply weren't other places to put things. Things are much better in our new place. Just time to answer quesotions today.I'm in Lafayette. Loveland is the Mission Office. No, I don't print emails. Too much paper and I would have to carry them around. I don't get a lot of  time to play the piano.The temple attendance policy is not what you would call liberal and it takes most of P-day if you include travel.
Bye,

Sam

Henry B. Eyring

I Hope They Call Me On A Mission

Here are a few pictures from when Elder Dickson got to Colorado.

Sam with the Mission President and the Mission President's wife.

 The handsome Elder.

The group that came with him to Colorado.

The Power of A Simple Testimony

Week #11

Good Morning! And in case you read this later in the day, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

This week we had a missionary return to his home ward. He's come out once with us to teach and has given a lot of good advice. I've also been able to see how he teaches, which was incredibly helpful and I will definitely be making some changes in how I participate in lessons. I need to ask investigators many more questions. He also told us that he always loved the last week of a transfer because "that's when miracles happen." More on that later.

Anyway, on to the happenings.
This week was sparse on lessons. Most of our time was spent either planning or performing service projects and doing lots of studying. We never got to start teaching before 5. The limited time is frustrating, but we used it the best way we could.
This Saturday our whole district staffed a booth at the Lafayette Peach Festival. The Senior Center has called on the Lafayette missionaries many times before and asked us if we could help with their booth. We thought they meant they needed a few extra people to help keep things moving, but the man who was in charge had more of the idea that we plan, recruit volunteers for, and staff the entire thing. We had six companionships helping kids paint, build, and anything else they wanted to do. It was a fun day, but I am very glad it's over. The weeks leading up were very stressful as we planned and decided on activities. We did get to meet a few people who recognized us and saw a few investigators, so hopefully some spiritual work will arise from that service as well.

We have seen some incredible things happen in these last few days. My favorite involves one of the recent converts in the ward. M. was baptized at the end of June (right before I left the MTC) and has several medical issues that sometimes require some help. The woman who helps her is a former investigator who has a reputation for only inviting the missionaries over so that she could argue from the Bible. Apparently, it never worked because she's had to resort to lies, but I digress. Also, her name is C---. For these last couple weeks, C--- has been telling M. that we don't have the real Bible (she has been taught from it), that we were taking advantage of her brain injury, and accusing us of changing the Word(I would assume with a misuse of Revelation 22:18-19).

Michelle does have a very simple understanding and was getting very frustrated with Cindy's abrasive nature and the things she was saying. Her faith was unshaken, but she was getting afraid that she would lose control and blow up at Cindy. She asked us what to do and we pointed her to Alma 4:19 and promised that if she would simply bear testimony in the name of Jesus Christ of the truth of Lord's Gospel and His Church, that her simple testimony would have the power to confound the wise.

A couple days later she called us and started telling us very excitedly that she had tried it. She had called Cindy, told her that she was getting offended by the way she was being treated and (this is the best part) said that she knew this Church was true in her heart and closed with the very simple " in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." In Michelle's own words, "I never thought I would hear Cindy not know what to say." She has not heard a single word from her since.

Testimony is powerful and one of the things I've noticed in the scriptures and Church videos is that the prophets do not answer every question. Often, they simply state truth and invite people to learn for themselves. Preach My Gospel does say we are not obligated to answer every question and my MTC teacher, Irmão Buttars, told us that people will often have a list of questions about teachings or policies and that they want answers. He told us that we could answer every single one of them with logical well thought out answers, taking a great deal of time and making little progress or we can bring everything back to their testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the Church being restored.
The Gospel is not illogical, but logic does not convert. Seeing miracles does not convert. Alma saw an angel, but he was not converted until he remembered Christ and called upon Him to have mercy. Only after partaking of that gift did he become the great missionary and prophet to whom Mormon dedicated a large part of the Book of Mormon. We must seek our own spiritual witnesses.

Wow, got a little bit off topic there, but it was probably important. I guess I'll attach some pictures now. Sorry, I didn't have my camera at the Peach Festival.
 
Also, a couple people from my MTC district have their Visas. Maybe mine will come soon too! 

"Octuple stuff"

"Where I do everything else."

"Halo fridge"

"Elder Yarman's bedtime snack."

"Breakfast"

P.S. Sam wrote those captions. Promise.

Getting Down to Business

Week #10

Elder Dickson didn't have a lot of time to write today, so here is part of the email he sent to his mom:

I did get an email today from one of the sisters in my MTC district who said she just got her visa and is going to Fortaleza Brazil on the 19th. It sounds like they've started to send visas through, but remember that even temporary reassignments are done by an apostle.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese (I'm just a few chapters into 2 Nephi) and am in Zechariah in the Old Testament as of this morning. Isaiah is bad in English, but in Portuguese, I have to look up every other word. In the rest of the Book of Mormon, I only have to look up one or two words per verse. Isaiah is a pain to understand, but the poetry is beautiful.

The day starts at 6:30. I usually do some sort of excercise with the elastic band they gave me, but we've talked about starting to run this week. At 7, I shower and get ready and by 7:30, I have usually eaten something and have sat down to start studying. We are supposed to start at 8:00, but I like the extra half hour. At 9:00 I do language study (which consists of a lot of Book of Mormon reading) while Elder Y does more personal study/sleeps (It's okay. He got permission from the Assistants.) At 10 we usually have some sort of service project that will last a couple of hours and maybe an appointment shortly after. Then around 1 or 2, we come home, eat, and do companionship study if we didn't get to in the morning. That lasts two hours because I'm being trained. After that, the rest of the day is appointments, and contacting former/potential investigators. We usually get home at 9, plan for the next day, I write in my journal and then we go to bed.

Yes, I am only allowed to communicate home on P-day and today has been sort of a busy one. I'm not sure how much more I can write today, but this week hasn't been all that interesting. We just met with a lot of recent converts and less active members. Investigators are few and very difficult to meet with.

Sam

 

The Contrast of Rejection and Service

Week #9

I don't know what there is to say this week. Things were sort of slow, we had a lot of rain and a tornado warning, almost all of our appointments fell through and we've had a lot of difficulty working with the ward. Yesterday when the bishop asked who knew our names, the only person who raised her hand was one of the women who was just baptized a month ago. Bishop Poulson did encourage the ward to get to know us and start inviting people, so hopefully finding and teaching will be much more effective in the next transfer. 

I don't really have any special stories this week. We were going to a house when a guy came out and told us that his son-in-law whom we were going to visit wasn't interested and that we should just leave. He told us that they were Evangelical Christians and don't care about Mormonism. (His son-in-law, J---, has expressed interest, so of course we'll try again sometime.) After rather rudely telling us never to come back,  he told us he hopes that we get to heaven. It takes two to contend, so we left and hope that someday he finds a reason to be a bit more polite. I had never thought about it before, but I guess the easiest way to tell how badly somebody needs the Gospel is by how rudely they respond to you. It's a shame those people never let us say anything. 

I guess I lied. I just thought of another story. One night all of our appointments had been canceled and we still had to finish up some studying/update our area book, so we headed back toward home and on the way saw two women who were struggling to move mattresses and other large objects onto a truck. Of course, we offered to help. We worked with them until about 10:00 (with permission from the mission president of course) and during that time learned a lot about their own religious backgrounds. One was born and raised Catholic and had an impressive knowledge of Christian history and Catholic teachings and the other was a convert from Christianity to Islam. About the only way we could get any talking about our beliefs was to ask them about theirs and then talk about similarities and differences. Many of their beliefs were depressing. Especially the Muslim view of God not being the father of anybody because "He's not human." I wish she had been more willing to listen to us, but I'm sure she'll have other chances. 

When we finished moving everything, the Catholic woman, Penny, told us that she feels if more people knew that missionaries serve so much, they wouldn't be so afraid of us. I took that as a testimony of the story of Ammon and his approach to missionary work from the mouth of someone who had probably never heard of him. Everybody knows the Gospel, they just don't know that they know it. 

We have a busy day ahead of us today. Our phone decided to stop working yesterday. It's the only phone we have and all of our investigator, member, and other missionary contacts are in there. We are just a little bit crippled without it. Maybe President Brown will get us an iPhone. 

I am doing well. I've almost finished my first transfer and still feel like I just got here. Everything moves so quickly! I know I've said that before, but it's true and bears repeating. 

For now, I have food to buy and recreation to do. More next week. 

Elder Dickson