Week 51: Whiplash

 Sooo this was probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission. Hence why my weekly is titled whiplash: because there were some awesome times, and also some big unexpected news, so stay tuned.

Things to know:

- Our friends Latticia and Adora did not get baptized this weekend because neither of them are ready :(( But I know that they just need time, and its all in His timing.

- My birthday was one of the awesome parts, one of my members had us over for dinner and decorated her whole house for me. My roommates also made me a cake. I thought it was going to be weird just doing missionary work most of my bday but I absolutely loved it! 

- This week we also had a cool miracle: A lady called our Bishop and asked to meet with the missionaries. We called her and she said she was a non member and wanted us to come and teach her! We invited her to church and she wasn't able to come but said she wanted to next time. So cool!

Stories of the week + Spiritual thought: (SORRY THIS IS LONG BUT YOU GOTTA READ)

- Sooo it all went down on Friday. It started with us going to Chewelah for exchanges with our STLs. We get up there and they tell us that they feel like the Spirit is telling them there's a reason we shouldn't be exchanging. So we all prayed to see how we felt and we felt like we should leave after doing service together. We get to service and notice we have a missed call and a voicemail from one of our returning members named Michelle. Oh man was I unprepared for what happened next. Her voice was breaking and it sounded like she had been crying, and she asked us if we could send a blue heart to one of our members phones. My heart dropped and I knew immediately what that meant even without her saying it. Our member Brooke Ellefsen in the River Ridge ward has been battling stage 4 terminal lung cancer for 5 years, and her health had been declining very rapidly lately. I couldn't control the tears and sobbing that started erupting lol, and the sisters walked me back to the car. Brooke had passed away Friday morning and it was a quick painless death, but I was just so in shock because no one was ready for it to happen so soon. I had gotten very close to Brooke during both my times in North because she would fellowship for Michelle. Her and Michelle were friends in high school but hadn't seen each other since then because Michelle hadn't been active her entire life, and when we started helping her reactivate, they were able to reconnect (What a miracle that she just HAPPENED to be living in the same ward as her childhood friend). Those lessons held some of my strongest spiritual experiences on my mission, and I am so grateful that I got to know Sister Ellefsen on my mission and witness her doing what Heavenly Father needed her to do and help bring Michelle back. My heart aches for her sweet family, and seeing them at church this week just about broke my heart. It's times like these when I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and having faith that God is in control. I know that having faith in Him means trusting in His timing. 

- So for part two of crazy news on Friday. Trusting in His timing has definitely been the theme of this week. The STL's were definitely listening to the spirit because after that news we decided it would be best for us to just leave and drive home. While trying to drive home through tears and a massive migraine, we get a call from President. My heart dropped to the floor, because it was danger day (the day that missionaries get called into leadership or to train). We pulled the car over and answered the phone, and President called me to be an STL, and I was nottt happy. I feel bad hahaha because since I was already so emotional I just started crying on the phone with Him. I told him about the unexpected news I had just received and how this was all just very unexpected for me because I thought I was going to get to finish training Sister Skinner. We talked for a bit and I told Him I would be more than happy to accept the call and do what the Lord needed me to do. My heart was still broken because I really wanted to stay in my favorite area & keep training my sweet Sister Skinner. But President confided in me who her 2nd trainer would be and I immediately felt so much peace. We opened transfer calls yesterday morning and what he told me was confirmed, Sister Allen (my roommate) was going to be her 2nd trainer! And I found out I'll be going to Moscow. AGAIN! Crazy. I was feeling major deja vu because last time I left North I went to Moscow. This time I'll be in a different area, I'll be in Troy & Potlatch (which is super boonie, I'm hyped to be back in the boons) with Sister Hart! It should be a party, especially because we have the same first name. Kinda funny that my transfer goal was humility tho, because I have definitely had numerous very humbling experiences this transfer.

Anyway thanks for anyone who read all that, you're a real one. Excited to continue doing the Lord's will and finding those who He needs me to find, no matter where that is. Said a lot of hard goodbyes but honestly so grateful God let me come back to North and get more time in my home away from home. I'll never be able to put into words how much the experiences I've had in this area have impacted me, and I'm just glad I can come back and see all my favorite people and ward members after the mish.

Until next time...

In Moscow!

Love,

Sister Diggy

Pictures:

(Spam with lots of bday & bye pics)

Adora

Alma

Balloons

Bday Pickleball

Brooke

Bunnies

Bye baby

Floating away

For the fam

Hi

Janice + Katie

Manito Gardens last pday

Michelle

My child's adopted mom

Rip Norf zone

Sister Dunn

Spogang

Spoiled

The Bawdens

birthday

Re: Week 50: Filler content :)

 Hey y'all no time for a big one this week and its a good thing I have 0 updates. I love life and I am thriving even if there is no major "success"

Things to know:

- My step brother graduated from BYU. Congrats Schy you're a beast!

- Stake conference was yesterday and it was awesome! President didn't come tho, so that was sad. I love President.

- Gonna become an official adult on Saturday. Gotta put it out there tho since the AP's announced everyone else's except mine on a mission zoom.

- Everyone is ghosting us so pray for our friends.

Stories of the week:

- Sister Skinner and I went on a workshop for a training, and basically it was a very spiritual time and so yeah I was crying. Then Sister Skinner went off mute to ask a question and I didn't realize, and I totally said: "At least I still look cute" and the whole zoom heard. Last time I'm ever jokingly prideful haha, the Lord is definitely taking my transfer goal of becoming humble very literally.

Spiritual thought:

Here's how I'm feeling lately:)))

Alma 29:9 -

"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy"

Have a great week 

Love ya'll!

Sis Diggy

Garden life

Goofies

Happiest!

Hi Hermanas

Sister Bird fell off my shoulders

Spring time

The District

clown

Week 49: "It's not about the bunny, it's about the Lamb"

 What's poppin everyone, this was a great week! Hope you all enjoyed Easter and felt the love of the Savior, because I sure did.

Things to know:

- Zone Conference this week! Got to see all my favorite people and talked to almost everyone I wanted to... Probably one of the best zone conferences I've ever experienced tho, we got so many good trainings and I felt so hyped to apply them!

- Our friends keep canceling on us. So we didn't teach a ton of lessons this week sadly. We had 5 people at church (may or may not have only been teaching half of them haha) because of Easter tho!

- Had exchanges with Sister Woolston and I absolutely adore her. Had a tender experience with a member that showed me that God is always in the details :,)

- Also got to see my twin TALI this week! (formerly known as Sister Pardo). Her and Sam (formerly known as Elder Wiberg) came to visit and got invited by our members to the same dinner. So weird but so fun to see them haha. I love my friends

- Hit 11 months... what. Sister Bird and I celebrated by getting chicken fil a with everyone. Random side note, we also play mancala every night and its gangster.

Stories of the week:

- One of our friends that came to church was... JANICE! Anyway most of you won't know who that is, but anyone who has served in North knows my lady Janice Swagerty. She said she really enjoyed it, she took 2 pages of notes and shared her testimony in 2nd hour?! #blessingsfromthemissionariesdoingserviceforherforoverhalfayear

- Yesterday while contacting, someone opened the door and purred at me. No kizzy. Haha I said hello and asked how they were doing and this lady goes "Purrrrrfect" and 3 cats run out from behind her. Nice.

- President was talking about high love and high expectations at zone conference; and he related high expectations but no love to Scout camp, and high love but no expectations to girls camp... lol.

Spiritual thought:

- With Easter this week I was thinking a lot about the sacrifice of my Savior Jesus Christ and truly how much He did for me. I know that I will never ever be able to pay him back for what He did, but after lots of thought & prayer I decided I wanted to sacrifice a little more for Him this week. This is not a flex at all haha but I just have to explain some background: I was having a hard time coming up with something to sacrifice because there really aren't many things I haven't already given to Him. What I ended up sacrificing was something that would probably be considered silly in most people's eyes haha, but it was still a sacrifice nonetheless. I won't compare my sacrifice to anything near what the Savior went through, but it felt rewarding to give up something that I cared about for Him (especially after Satan tried to make me doubt what I did lol). I know that no matter what God is proud of me for giving up something for Him, and He knows where my heart was. I am so grateful He gave up something that meant a lot to Him; His Son; for me. And I am eternally grateful for Jesus Christ sacrificing His life so that I can live with Him again. 

Also go watch the churches new video #goodnews if you haven't, it's pretty bomb. I have yet to watch it with dry eyes.

I hope you all enjoy this next week, and think about what more you can give to the Savior :))

Love ya!

Sis Diggy

Pictures:

11 months

Beauty a friend posted

Caught a chicker

Discoball #iykyk

District p-day

Happy Easters

Hottest apartment

Janice!

Japan bound

Mike Virginia

Mommy daughter duo

Rip Elder Essig

Sam & Tali

Sprehny baby

Squatted Birdy

Wholesome

Woolstein

Week 48: Anotha one

 I have no creativity for subject lines sometimes. This was a great week as usual but not tons to update on, hence why I couldn't come up with a title:

Things to know:

-Our friend Latticia is the goat and reads the Book of Mormon every day, she said its comforting and she already knows its true! Imagine someone you teach having actual faith.

-We had a referral that requested a missionary visit and he came to church?! The coolest thing ever. It was the first time we met him and he said he loved it!

-We had a lot of lessons this week which was pretty lit, since that's always our main goal. Also this next week is zone conference and I am hyped lemme tell ya!

-An ice cream truck came down the street while we were tracting (#tendermercy) and so we of course got SpongeBob popsicles and talked to the man driving the truck.

-Someone we are teaching gave us mochi and they said the first vision was super powerful after my trainee recited it from memory... #bars

-Forgot to mention last week we had interviews with President and that was good as always. My favorite is when he takes selfies with us after he makes us cry

Stories of the week:

-This week we taught someone the law of chastity and we said that we couldn't look at porn and our friend goes "oops". I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so my companion and I sat there in silence for like 10 seconds. Then our friend said: "Nah I'm just kidding". She got us pretty good.

-We went to Janice's and she needed help drawing blood from her goats... I was outta there. I was not about to pass out. Then later I was fixing a fence for her and she came and stood DIRECTLY behind me. And she tried to steady me by hugging me from behind. No such thing as personal space in Janice's book.

Spiritual thought:

- Just was thinking about what it means to truly declare repentance because I read a lot of scriptures about it this week. As we share about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we are declaring repentance because we are inviting people to change. And repentance really is just changing! It is turning to God. And that's one huge lesson I have learned on my mission! That it is all about change. That's all God is asking us to do! To give our mistakes and bad habits to Him, and He can help us become new & improved. It amazes me how many people we meet don't want to change... That they would rather stay in their unhappy ways than take a chance at something that could change their life. The gospel has truly changed my life, and I just want everyone to know what I know because of what I have learned on my mission! The end

Have a good week!!

Email me if you want :))

Love,

Sister Dickson

Pictures:

Hahah all of these are either of food, animals, or my favorite people. Enjoy

Baby bunnies

Birdy

COWS R US

Horsey

Latticia is the goat

Mochi

My cute fam

Nacho

Pink skies!

ice cream

what?

Week 47: Conference, Pranks, & Bee Stings. Oh my!

 Seems like p-day was yesterday! I hope you all enjoyed conference this weekend, this was definitely one of the best I've seen. Maybe that's because conference on the mission is next level, or because I actually listen to all 5 sessions now haha. Either way, it was amazing!! And so was the rest of my week:

Things to know:

-Last Saturday Sister Skinner and I went tracting and found a new friend Latticia. We went back and taught her this week and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and she expressed how she wanted to be baptized! We put her on date for April 30th (my birthday) and it was so awesome. Trainee miracles are real lemme tell ya!

- We had 10 friends "come to church" this week because they all watched conference! We got to be there with some of them in members homes and it was such a great experience! We watched with Carlane + Collin, Michelle and her son Skyler, and Alma and her boys!

-After the session with Alma and her boys, Sister Skinner and I felt prompted to ask Alma to pray about her and her boys being baptized in our church. She was crying and said she would think and pray about it and thanked me for listening to the spirit and being bold enough to ask her!

-Yeah so I got stung by a bee. It landed on my head in a lesson and I tried to swipe it off and it got me. Rip to never being stung in my life.

-Half of my family had birthdays these last two weeks, so birthday shoutout to Roman, Presley, Dad, and Paul! Love you all.

-Got a new camera tiwi installed and it is the bane of my existence. Our mission is piloting them and so they aren't exactly ready to go yet, and I get told I'm speeding when I go 5 under the speed limit. At one point I had a line of 7 cars behind me lol.

-Also saw some good friends this week at different occasions so that was pretty cool

Stories of the week:

-We pulled a good prank on the Elders in our district on April fools hahah, we made them believe Sister Bird was going home. The prank was Sister Skinners idea and it actually worked out so perfect because we had district service on Friday and the STL's were coming to exchange, and we said they were coming to pick up Sister Bird to take her. Sister Bird stayed in her dress to go up to their area instead of being in service clothes too so it really looked like she was ready to leave. We took her "goodbye pictures" and the poor Elders asked to take a last district photo and we said "1, 2, 3... say April fools!". I felt bad they actually believed it, they said they both thought it was the 31st and so they weren't even thinking about a prank.

Spiritual thought:

-It would be so hard to choose just ONE thought or talk I enjoyed from conference, but I absolutely loved the theme of the covenant path and the importance of staying on it. We need to stay with God and not give up on Him just because it gets hard. He is the one who can help us through those times. He will never turn His back on us, so we must not turn our back on Him because things are working out how we hope to. Sometimes the miracle is God taking away the storm yes, but other times the miracle is God strengthening us to endure the storm. The gospel is truly the main and only source of TRUE peace, joy, and strength in my life. I pray that it can be the same for you. If you have doubts or questions about the gospel, it is okay! But don't turn your back on Him who is the source of all answers. One of my favorite quotes from Elder Holland said: "Stay for the whole feast, even if you're unsure about the broccoli" hahaha so good. If you have doubts or concerns, turn to Him. He is waiting! And you can always talk to me too :) 

I love you!

Sister Dickson

Pictures:

:)

Alma

Bad tiwi

Bye bye Birdy

Conference round 2 in my fave ward

District menchies

Down by the river

Like mother like daughter

My child

Prettiest mission ever

trees

bee sting