Week 7: "Does anyone have a handheld microphone in this hotel?"

 What is up friends and family! I hope you all had a great week, because I did too! I don't have a ton of updates on our progressing friends, but we are still working on teaching and loving them all, and hope to see some great miracles soon :) This week we had some exchanges, zone conference, and my brother got married on Saturday! Congrats to Braxton and Jane, I am so happy for you two!  It was fun to get permission to call them on their special day and congratulate them. And I am so grateful for the blessings of the holy temple, and the knowledge that families are eternal (sorry Jane, you're stuck with Brax and the rest of the Shoe Crew now!). Okay back to missionary work haha. This week was so amazing and full of fun and super spiritual experiences, every day I am grateful for this opportunity to be a servant of the Lord.

Things to know:

So like I said, we had more exchanges this week! I went with Sister Bachman (the other trainer in my apartment). It was a party and we got to have lessons with a lot of friends and meet some new people too. There was also another wedding this week haha! But this one was for a lady named Shelly that Sister Wilson and I were teaching. All I will say about it is that it was a very different environment than my siblings wedding haha. And then we had ZONE CONFERENCE! ZC is the best thing on the planet. Three zones meet up and get to hear our mission president and wife speak. It was super bittersweet because this is President and Sister Thompson's last transfer :'( (I'll talk more about this later). We ate lunch together, had trainings + spiritual experiences galore, and saw/met all the missionary friends. Since I'm new I really only know the missionaries in my zone, but I definitely made lots of new friends and also got to see my favorite sister... SISTER MADDY SUE CLARK! She is a friend from high school and had been waiting to see her again ever since I got my mission call! It was such a sweet reunion.

Stories of the week:

My subject line is a quote from President Thompson at zone conference haha. He asked if anyone had a microphone in the HOTEL instead of the chapel and it made us all laugh so hard haha. He is so funny. Another thing is that the weather here is SO HOT. These last couple of days and this next week will all be over 100 degrees... and of course our apartment has no AC haha. So President told anyone without an AC to go stay the night at a members (and also that all the missionaries from Arizona praying for heat need to knock it off haha) and my apartment got to have a sleepover at a cute old lady's house in the ward. It was very fun, and a miracle we got to stay somewhere with AC. BUT, then God decided to send us another miracle! Two of our other members literally bought an AC for us and came and installed it yesterday. Now our apartment is feeling nice and cool instead of like the inside of a toaster oven! Hopefully we will all survive the extreme heat now that we have AC; but prayers would still be greatly appreciated so we don't get heat stroke or melanoma :D

Spiritual Thought:

Since it was his and Sister Thompson's last zone conference, you know they had to make it really good. Meaning it was full of tons of spiritual experiences and TONS of tears. I have never felt the spirit so strong, and it truly testified to me that there is nothing better for me to be doing right now than be on a mission. I know that Jesus is my Savior, and I have felt his love through my mission presidents. I have only known my mission president and wife for one transfer, but they have loved me so much (almost more than my own parents if that gives you an idea haha) since the moment I got here. Having to say goodbye was hard for me (you already know I cried my eyes out lol), so I can't imagine how all the other missionaries who have spent more time with the Thompsons are feeling. They are truly angels on earth, and I have learned so much from them during this last transfer of theirs. I will miss them tons, but I am also so excited for President and Sister Lebaron to come this week! I know that these two sets of mission presidents are exactly what I needed in my life, and I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for sending me to be with them. God knows what we need, and he will place us exactly where we need to be, with the people we need most. So look around and be thankful for those around you and all that God has blessed you with! Because there is so much to be thankful for :) The end.

Alright that is all for my week! Sorry that this is kinda long, but thank you to anyone that read this far haha. I love and miss you all so much and hope you have an awesome week and 4th of July! 

Lots of love,

Sister Dickson

Exchanges!

Saying bye to my second parents :')

Sista Clark

Shelldog's Wedding

My cute roommates

Sister Wilson and I eat otterpops every day because it's 20358 degrees outside

The newlyweds! :) <3

Week 6: Free meal!

Hey hey hey! Another week has come and gone and I am in awe at how fast time is already flying. I love being a missionary so much!!! Every day is something new and I have already had so many experiences seeing how much light Jesus Christ brings others. Also, I accidentally sent last weeks email out as a second "Week 4" instead of "Week 5"... oops haha. So just pretend that never happened, and we can be back on track with Week 6 :). Anyway, this week was so awesome and was filled with so many fun things and spiritual experiences. I wish I could tell everyone about everything, but I'll just have to pick my favorites so you don't have to read a super long email.

Things to know:

This week we had interviews with President and Sister Thompson! They are so amazing, and I am honestly so sad I only get to be with them for only a month :(. They have helped me feel so welcomed and loved, and already taught me so much. We have Zone Conference this Thursday and I'm super excited to get to hear from them before they go home! This week we also had another exchange (since my companion is a Sister Training Leader she has to exchange with all the sisters in the zone, which means I get to do the same!) and I went with Sister Anderson. She is the sweetest person on the planet, and we found out we have so much in common. I love her so much! And yesterday at church we had 6 friends there! It was so awesome! Cayden is there every week with his family, Amy came for her second week in a row, and our friend Randy I talked about last week came for his second week too. Sister Wilson and I started teaching him last week and his friend Janell this week, and she came to church with him! We are hoping to have some good lessons this week with Randy and Janell; and with Amy and Cayden as well so that we can get closer to putting them on date! Our other two friends are named Sandy and Shelly and they weren't able to make it to church to watch in person, but they were able to watch over zoom which is still so great!

Story of the week:

This week we went to Cafe Rio for lunch after interviews with President. Sister Wilson and I were making friends with one of the workers and he was super funny. After we ordered and ate our lunch he literally brought me over a Tres Leches cake and a gift card for a free meal?! I was like what is happening bahah. The other sisters and I were laughing so hard. So anyway, just be friends with people and they'll give you free meals haha! On a more spiritual note, when I was on exchanges with Sister Anderson I had the coolest experience teaching this lady named Jennie. She told me basically her whole life story about how she grew up in the church but has never believed in God. Her whole life she has prayed but never felt him because she has super bad nightmares and sees demons at night (I am literally not making this up!), and a couple months ago it was so bad that she literally wasn't sleeping for months. She wanted help and the only thing she could think of was to get a blessing from the bishop (She is 31 and hasn't gone to church since she was 13!), and she said that after she got the blessing she slept for a full 8 hours for the first time in years! She was crying her eyes out and so of course I was too. I couldn't believe all the hard things she had been through but that she has been able to be guided back to God. I told her that it wasn't a coincidence that this happened, and that God was really there and loves her and was answering her prayers. She gave me the biggest hug and just broke down crying in my arms. It was seriously such a cool experience and I wish I could put it all into words.

Spiritual thought:

My spiritual thought this week is a continuation of what happened with Jennie. I don't know why Jennie had to go through those things to be able to find out that God is real, but I know that He did answer her prayers. This experience with her taught me that it's not a matter of IF He answers our prayers, but WHEN. Sometimes you might have to hang on a little longer to be able to learn what God needs you to learn. Sometimes you might feel like there is no way you can keep going, that God has given up on you and that it is too hard to keep going. Please be like Jennie. Keep trying, keep having faith, and I know that in the end it will all work out. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can strengthen us if we rely on them. I know that they will always be there for us, even if it is hard for us to see it. When you feel like you can't go any further, find something that makes it worth it for you. Ask Heavenly Father for strength to continue. He won't give up on you so don't give up on Him. I promise that if you have faith and keep enduring, you will see those answers to your prayers come true. And please know that I love you so so much (and so do Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ hehe!) 

Helaman 5:12- "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Alright thats all for the week! I hope you are all having a fun summer so far and that you all had an awesome Father's Day yesterday! Thank you to all the great father figures in my life who have been such great examples to me. Have a great week this week, and don't forget about me ;)

So much love,

Sister Dickson 

Jennie <3

Sister Anderson! :)

Twinning with Sis Wis

My amazing sisters of the zone

Amy & Jody

Free meal woot woot

My favorite place

Silver Valley is the BEST 

Week 5: Milked my first goat!

 What is up my people! I am officially a month old as of June 12th. And this was my first full week in the field too! Crazy how fast its already flying by. This week was awesome and I want to tell all the awesome stuff. So I hope this won't be too long of an email haha.

Things to know:

First things first: I did indeed milk a goat and it was fun hahah but also really weird. I also got to hold baby goats and I drank the goat milk too and it honestly was pretty good. So you can call me a farm girl now. Sister Wilson and I eat subway almost every day and it is our new obsession hehe. We also got CPR certified on Tuesday so now we can save people spiritually and physically. We also had a sweet day of service on Saturday as a zone and we chopped some wood! Sister Gibby (one of the senior missionaries) came and had lunch with us and we got free minigolf at the pizza place and it was so fun! OH AND! WE HAD 3 OF OUR FRIENDS COME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! INCLUDING AMY! I was so happy. One of the others is a guy in his late 40s named Randy and we haven't even started teaching him yet and he asked to come to church. So that was dope. The other person is Cayden and his whole family was baptized before we got here but he has hesitations. So please pray for him! Also pray for Amy and her mom because she wants to get baptized but her mom doesn't want her to until she's 18. We need a miracle people!

Story of the week:

We had exchanges on Friday after our JDC (Joint-District Council) and I got to go with Hermana Tobias in her area in Hayden Lake. We had some hilarious experiences tracting there bahaha. One guy was seriously just trying to mess with us, and was saying all this weird stuff about how if nobody drove cars the pollution would look like Tokyo. And then we gave him a pass along card and he said "Yeah no don't ever come here again" and shut the door. So funny. The next guy we met was saying our church wasn't true because we don't teach the "real" Bible. Apparently his "real" Bible says that Jesus is Adam reincarnated, and that we live in a Binary solar system with a second sun called Nabiru and every time it orbits close to earth that's when "crazy things" happen (like Noah's flood, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Star of Bethlehem). So watch out guys, next time Nabiru comes around, apparently that's when the second coming will be. Lol. People are so interesting. Anyway, the exchanges were super fun and entertaining and Hermana Tobias is my twin and I love her! And those are all my crazy stories.

Spiritual thought:

My spiritual thought this week is on Obedience. I had to give a spiritual thought in JDC about obedience and I feel like I learned so much more about it after studying about it. Obedience means doing what is asked of us because we love God. God is waiting to give us blessings, and as we are obedient he pours them unto us. And even though we might not know why we are asked to follow the commandments and obey, we just have to trust in God and Jesus Christ because they know what will benefit us! And remember that exact obedience brings miracles! Mosiah 2:41- "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." 

Anyways sorry this email was a little longer but I hope it gave you all some good laughs. Don't forget to please pray for Amy and Cayden! Email me if you are bored! I love you all and miss you just as much!

Love,

Sister Dickson

Subway addiction

1 month old! Im Baby

Chopping wood

Goat milk

Mini golf

AMY AT CHURCH WOO

Hermana Tobias!

Baby goat

Exchanges with my cute zone sisters

Best zone ever!

Week 4: First week in... Idaho?!

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS! I am alive and well, and yes, if you read the subject line, I am in Idaho haha! I am in the Silver Valley area, living in a small town called Pinehurst (It looks like Bear Lake, but without the lake). I live about 45 minutes southeast of Coeur d'Alene. I'm definitely in the middle of nowhere, other missionaries refer to places like this as the boons lol. 

Things to know:

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I know it hasn't even been a full week here but I love it. And I have the best trainer/companion in THE WORLD. Her name is Sister Wilson and she is from Farmington, Utah. She makes me laugh super hard and we get along so well! We live with two other sisters named Sister Bachman and Sister Bowman and they are so amazing too. We all have such a good time and quote movies nonstop. The sisters get a kick out of some of my voice impressions (like Gru, Nacho Libre, Megamind, etc) haha, and I love to make them laugh. I honestly love my area so much. The people are so nice and it is so easy to talk to everyone. The only thing that has been stressful is that my companion and I are both new to the area, so she has had to do something called "Sweep Training". This means that we just have to read the notes of the other two sisters that left the area and try and pick up where they left off. So now we both have so many ward members, friends, and converts to meet. But we are getting the hang of it now and having so much fun while we do it!

Story of the week:

So, the two sisters that were here before Sister Wilson and I had SIX BAPTISMS LAST WEEK! Holy cow, so awesome. Now Sis Wilson and I have been meeting with all the recent converts and they are so amazing. One of them is this guy named Jody and he is my favorite haha he loves star wars and is hilarious. *Little bit of background* Jody rents his house out to like 4 people: Walter (His friend who is the one who got baptized a couple of months ago and is the one that got him to meet with the missionaries. He is the one who baptized Jody too), and then his other friend Rindy and her two kids. *Back to the story* One of her kids is a 14 year old girl named Amy. She has never listened to the missionaries before, even when Walter and Jody were being taught. When we went over to meet Jody and Walter, she was there and we talked with all of them and got to know them. Amy told us how she believes her purpose is to help others like Private Doss from the movie Hacksaw ridge haha. We asked Amy if we could come back and teach her more about Jesus Christ, because he was super selfless like Private Doss. She totally agreed and we came back yesterday and taught her about Jesus Christ and the Atonement and it was such an awesome lesson! The spirit was so strong! We taught her how to pray and she wanted to say the closing prayer, and her exact words in her prayer were: "Please bless that I can stay in contact with the sisters for forever" and I just about cried. It was so sweet. She agreed to keep meeting with us and said we are so cool, so basically I am just HYPED and I love love love this work and teaching others more about My Savior.

Spiritual Thought:

This week my spiritual thought is on being friends with everyone! I have been working really hard on not being quick to judge others and I think the mission is already helping me out with that. I have met so many amazing people already who I probably would never have never talked to if it weren't for the mission. Everyone has a cool story and we have so much to learn from each other. It's seriously been 5 days and I've learned so much from the people here. So my invitation is to talk to somebody this week that you wouldn't normally talk to! Find something you have in common and make a new friend, and I promise that you will be blessed with increased happiness!

I love you all SO MUCH and miss you just as much too. Send me emails because I can't respond on messenger unless you're immediate family haha! God is good and I'll talk to you all next week!

Lots of love,

Sister Dickson

                                           

 Last Day of MTC with the best district in the universe

                                           

Finished the Book of Mormon as a fam and said bye to my older siblings

Said bye to my dad

Said bye to KK

Said bye to my family

Flying on the plane!

Meeting President & Sister Thompson and taking a picture at the Spokane Temple

Sister Wilson is my mom

Silver Valley woo woo!

Jody, Walter, and Amy

Sister Bachman and Bowman

Zone

Week 3: Peace out Utah!

Hey Everyone! My last full week of MTC has come and gone so fast. I have learned so much and I know that I was meant to be in the Home MTC. And I am so excited for all my friends who will get to go to the Provo MTC, now that it is opening in the end of July! My last day of MTC is Tuesday, and I fly out to Washington on Wednesday afternoon. I am so STOKED!! (I am also a bit nervous, but I’m pretty sure that’s normal hahahah).

Also thank you to everyone who came to my farewell! I am so grateful for all your love for me. It was so good to see everyone, and I can’t wait to see you all again in a quick 18 :)

Things to know:

Sister Bird and I had 3 TRC’s this week with our friend named Maddie (if you don’t remember a TRC is where members portray people interested in the missionary lessons to help us practice teaching). She was super nice and we taught her about prayer and how the Holy Ghost can speak to us. We got her to say the closing prayer and invited her to read the Book of Mormon so that was pretty legit! (Yes I know they are fake lessons but it was still awesome). 

Story of the week:

Not really a story, but Sister Bird came to stay the night this week! We had a ton of fun together, and we got to watch our district devotional and do one of our TRC’s together! It was so fun getting to finally teach and study in person. I felt more like a real missionary! I’m so grateful for my companion. I love that we can teach and be serious, but have a good time too. She makes me laugh so hard haha. #rip

Spiritual Thought:

My spiritual thought this week is on faith. I had some hard days, but as I relied on the Lord and had faith that He would help turn my weaknesses into strengths, I started to see my confidence and my teaching skills improve. It is so easy to put ourselves down and get stuck comparing, but as we bring our doubts and struggles to the Lord and trust in Him, we will be so blessed! Sometimes those blessings don’t come right when we want them to, BUT: they always come. We just first have to believe in Him! Like it says in Ether chapter 12 verse 18- “And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God”. 

I love you all so much and miss you all already. Next time you hear from me I will be in Spokane (or some area near there haha). I am so excited to see what the next year and a half will bring. :) Peace out Utah!

Love,

Sister Dickson

(Also so sorry there are tons of pictures because I said so many goodbyes this week!)

Pictures:

1-5: Lots of Farewell pics! (so sorry if i didn’t include one you were in! i could only attach 12 pictures total, but i love you all so much!)

Said bye to my friend Jordy :’)

 Another pajama party district devotional!

Went to lunch and shopping with my aunt Jill and cousin Kelsey and said goodbye

Swag Sisters (& clout goggles for life)

I heart Sister Bird!!!! Such a cutie head

Last class altogether with Sister Millich :(

Bdubs and saying bye to the besties

Week 2- I love Home MTC!

 Hello family and friends! :)

I miss you all so much! I cannot believe it’s already another P-day. Home MTC has been flying by and it has been the best experience ever!! I learn so much every day and it just makes me more excited to get out into the field! 

Things to Know:

Tomorrow at 10:30 Utah time I will be giving my farewell talk! Here is the link for anyone that would like to watch over zoom 

https://zoom.us/j/94682566438

Anyway, I had tons of awesome classes this week that helped me learn how to become a better teacher and missionary! My comp and I had some awesome TRC’s (where members portray people interested in the missionary lessons) over zoom. We were able to have 3 lessons and teach Cydney more about the nature of God and she said she felt so loved in our meetings! I had some fun things too! I went to dinner last p-day for my friend Tristan’s birthday, and I went to lunch with my pal Kennedi Hancey so we could catch up before we both leave on our missions! I also went to Jane’s bridal shower (my soon to be sister-in-law), and today for p-day I met my companion in person for lunch! It was so fun to finally meet her! Sister Bird makes me laugh SO hard you guys. I’m gonna be sad when we can’t be companions in Spokane, because we work so great together I also got to do baptisms with my family today as well! It was so cool getting to go to the temple as a missionary.

Story of the Week:

Last p-day I saw my future mission presidents at Walmart! I’m so excited to see them in Spokane in July! They make me so excited to get to serve with them in Spokane. We also had a district devotional this week on Tuesday and heard some awesome things about missionary work (no surprises there) and had a pajama watch party over zoom haha! We had some good laughs after the devotional was over, and I’m just so grateful for a district that helps me learn so much and have fun while doing it! :)

Thought:

My spiritual thought for this week is on prayer. Prayer is such a great way to communicate to God and feel His love. And He wants to guide us and answer our prayers so badly! He is just waiting for us to ask Him. If you are ever wanting to feel closer to Him or get some guidance, all you have to do is get on your knees! My teacher Sister Paul challenged us to pray aloud at least once this week and let me just say it was an awesome experience! I invite you all to try it and see how much love you feel from God after!

And keep in mind: 3 Nephi 18:20 - “And ​​​whatsoever​ ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you”.

I hope you all had a great week, and have a great one this week too. And send me an email because I would love to hear from you! 

Love,

Sister Dickson

Pajama Party

My mini me... literally

SO EXCITED TO HAVE JANE AS MY SIS!

Another bridal shower pic

P-day lunch with my favorite comp ever!

Baptisms with my family

Tristan’s birthday dinner last p-day!