1/30

so this transfer is when i hit my year mark! so crazy.

so on Monday we went out mudding on a trike. guess i really haven’t changed much. we pulled this HUGE trike through the mud and i rode on the trike. it was awesome! than we picked up packages from elder and sister Delatore. than we saw the rodriguez family to finish out our night.

than on tuesday we had District Meeting as usual. than we spent the day finding more or less.

wednesday we did not have squash. instead we went to the worldwide missionary broadcast. 2 big things that happened. our missionary schedule in the morning and evening have been changed. we now plan in the morning, and do 60 minutes of personal study. than during the day we do our companionship study at any time. our lunch has also been shortened to 30 minutes. so no longer is there time for the lunch nap... sad. our key indicators have also been changed. we used to report Baptized, Confirmed, Sacrament meeting attendance of investigators, Investigators with a baptismal date, progressing investigators, lessons taught with a member present, all other lessons taught to investigators, less active members taught, and new investigators. but now we only report. baptized confirmed, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators at sacrament meeting, and new investigators. we saw Anita as well

thursday i was on exchange with Elder McLaws. we had a good day. in the morning we visited some inactive members of the church. than we did a lot of finding. we talked to a really nice guy named lee ray. he said that he is interested in coming to church. so that was really cool. it was fun to be with a past companion on exchange.

Friday we had our weekly planning day we went to Debbies baptism. it was cool. she played the piano at her own baptism. so that was crazy. than we had dinner with Rick he is a nonmember that we have built a healthy relationship with. he fed us spaghetti and told us that he wants to look into joining the church! we are so excited for him. he is best friends with a bishop down in Glendora, he is going to ask him some questions. than we had a coordination meeting with our zone leaders. we also saw anita today

saturday i was on exchange with Elder Nielson. in the morning we visited Miguel. we read the scriptures and he commited to come to church. we did a lot of service for the Lacomb family. we helped them move a lot of furniture around in the home. than we had dinner. after that we exchanged back. we also saw Ralph and Tiffany.

sunday we had church. our investigator anita brought her 3 grand daughters. and Ralph and Tiffany came as well (a part member family) so that was really cool!

monday we went hiking this morning! we started at 7:30 and finished at 1:45. we hiked up the side of a mountain until we got to the snow. and than we decided to keep hiking to the highest peak we could see. to get there we had to cross a river, rock climb for a bit. and make our own trails! the only real sketchy part was on the way down. the snow was frozen and so was the ground. so there was no way to have traction. so we started sliding from bush to bush,  grabbing tree branches as we went. it got sketchy when we ran out of branches all of a sudden and only found loose rocks! but we made it down safe. ;) i seriously doubt a mountain goat could of made it up the way we went down.

2/13

hey! so this week has been kinda... strange. this week makes 1 year. every single day from this point on will only be experienced the one time on the mission! no repeats! to crazy!

Monday: so we played broom hockey. it was super fun until all our $ store brooms broke! than it wasn't so fun. but it turned out to be ok.

Tuesday: we had district meeting as usual. it went really well. those that participated prepared really well and i was really happy with it. we also saw Anita. she is on fire! it is so much fun working with her.

Wednesday: we saw miguel, he has commited to a baptismal date on march 11th we are super excited for him. we did Squash for friends. just dug holes for like 2.5 hours... we also saw the Jasper family.

Thursday: on exchange with Elder Nielson. we had a super fun day. it was nostalgic in a strange way. this day marked 1 year for me! so we got sushi. WOHHOO!!

Friday: weekly planning day. we ended up at a lesson in the morning and saved our planning till later. we went to Anita in the evening. after we left it was lightly sprinkling so we biked home super fast. than Anita called us and asked for some more help with her TV. she was freaking out about it! so we biked back in what was now steady rain and fixed her TV than we biked home again to plan. totally soaked!

Saturday: we visited Miguel, markisha and lakisha, Rick, the rodriguez family, and we went to the ward party. it was crazy. it was a pinewood derby and we were the judges! Rick came to the Party too.

Sunday: rick came to church. than we saw some of our people for the rest of the day. we ended the say with our studies that got pumped due to church.

all in all it has been a fun week. kinda strange but fun at the same time!

3/13

uh. im not sure what you want to hear... but here goes.

sister lacomb got the ring out from around the neck in my white shirts! 

we had a member of the ward give us like 3 pies.

i might of stained my favorite pants... not sure yet though! 

i got like 5 pairs of new socks.

fixed my bike. 

ate some spetzel. 

my life is not that interesting... sorry i dont have anything for you. i love you mom!

so... a lot has happened this week!

1 this monday our cameras got stolen... so no pictures! some guy broke into the church building that we play sports at. he stole both our cameras... that was really irritating! 

2 He also stole our phone... so we had to get a new phone from the mission office! and get all our contacts from the sister missionaries in the ward! than we had to get all of the other numbers we had lost from different people! it was terrible! and turns out before we could cancel the phone he started calling people and texting people profanity! it was super crazy!

3 i was doing a bunny hop in the middle of the road over a chunk of asphalt and when i landed, my rear derailer  got stuck in my spokes and twisted itself all the way around the tire! this caused the bike to come to a skidding stop! i pulled the derailer out of the spokes and gingerly road home. i was luckily able to fix the bike derailer almost totally, it only skips 1 gear now. and only occasionally.

4 a bird pooped on me sunday...gross!

5 friday packing calls came out. i am now down in Rancho cucomanga in the Terra vista ward. i am serving with elder Welch. he is from Farr West UT. 

Rick was pretty bumped that we where leaving! but he is super awesome, we are going to be staying in contact.

Tiffany was really sad! she gave me a beanie animal. his name is Boo! that was super nice of her :)

Lon was pretty bumbed too! he gave us each Raspberry pies! they are a small computer similar to an arduino! they are so cool!

miguel is sad that he has to meet some new guys... but he said he would be ok! he gave us each a pair of socks. it was awesome!

i am excited for this ward! its guna be a blast! i am still in a biking area. but thats ok! i love biking!

2/27

this week has been off the wall!

so this week has been super fun! we spent a lot of time with our investigator Rick. he is a super awesome guy! i went over with Elder Law on Wednesday, and Rick connected with him very well. it was a cool experience to ​​​​​​​​get to know Rick better. than on Saturday there was a baptism and we asked Rick to come and give us a ride. well he showed up to give us a ride, but he had slept in and was in his PJs! so he gave us a ride to the baptism and was planning to wait in his car. we assured him that it would be ok for him to come in. so he came in and sat at the back with me. he loved it! during the service he began praying to God in gratitude. after he took us out to eat, and than back to his home to help him out with some stuff. we set up his internet, a royal pain! we had to call customer support after hours of banging our heads against the wall! that was finally set up. that we set up his smart TV. that was a lot easier. so finally at 4:45 he started taking us home, but than remembered something that he wanted to buy at the store for us! so he took us to Ross and bought a cushion for our bike! so we called dinner and asked if we could bring Rick. they graciously agreed and Rick came to dinner, than on the way home we got a call from the Sister missionaries, they needed a blessing. Sister Allred had some intense migraines. so Rick took us over to there apartment and we gave them a blessing. then he took us home after. we had spent from 9:30-9:00 with Rick. it was intense!

we also had a lesson with Anita this week. she told us that she feels that she is going to Hell. with the sharing of scriptures and bearing of testimony she has come to belive that she can make it to heaven! she is such fun to be around! we call her mamanita! she is so great!

we also had a lesson with miguel. we taught the Word of Wisdom. he commited to live it! after we got home he called and asked if we would come back. he just loves having us around a ton! so cool!

other than that we have just been doing a lot of finding!

love you all!

2/20

this was the most basic week of my life.

Monday: we had a beach party

Tuesday: no district meeting. we did squash for friends today and than helped out Pat in her front yard. We also saw Anita.

Wednesday: we had Zone conference. it was super cool our stake president spoke to us.]

thursday: we saw brother merchant. we saw lon. And we did a ton of service for Bishop too. 

Friday:  we had weekly planning today. and we saw Anita again. 

saturday: On exchange with elder Bradshaw. He ran into a cactus! IT WAS FUNNY! 

Sunday: no one came to church.

This week they called me fat! 

2/6

ok so this is the week that makes a year. this thursday will be exactly one year for me. that is crazy. this week has been awesome!

monday: just the normal stuff i promise!

Tuesday: we had district meeting. than after that i got super sick! we ended up being laid up for the rest of the day. i felt so bad!

Wednesday: we did squash for friends. than we did some service for a lady named Pat. she is super nice. we taught Miguel today and Anita. Anita is on fire! she is doing so well.

Thursday: we saw kieron today and passed him off to the YSA elders. we also went by to see Lon on our regular visit. and than we finished our night by seeing the Jasper family.

Friday: we weekly planned today. than we saw Brian, sister Calvin, Miguel, and Anita.

Saturday:  true day of service. at 10 we replaced Anita's Transimssion Speed Sensor. than at 1 we helped someone move in. than at 2:30 we helped the lacombs move furniture. in the evening we saw the rodriguez family. they fed us some super good mexican food. nothing like the stuff back at home. it is so fun being immersed in so many different cultures. i have learned how to be "proper" in so many fun ways! like using tortillas for utensils. its really fun. dont tell mom. all the hard work she has done to make me civilized is crashing down. when we woud go to a samoan house before in Barstow almost everything is finger food! and it is polite to eat until you can no longer eat. than eat a little more. if you do not they are offended and you are not a true friend.

sunday: Rick came to church! woohoo that was so cool!  than we studied and i took a quick nap. my usual all day headache was present due to fast sunday. this continued until 9:30 that night when i fell asleep.

1/9

so this week has been a crazy time!

Monday we did our normal sports. we played gator ball.

tuesday was district meeting. than we  helped rick clean out his backyard. iot is tottally filled with trash and we are helping him clean it out. than we had a super cool lesson with Charlie and Monique.

wednesday on exchange with elder Law. we did squash for friends than we did service for kathy. than we did some finding. we found 3 potentials and got a new investigator a killer day!

thursday we did some more service for Rick. his yard is looking pretty good now. just a little more to do.

friday weekly planning we met with Joseph and taught the restoration. he is super excited and wants to quite smoking.

saturday nothing to crazy happened.

sunday the real day of this week! so joseph came to church. he had received answers to prayers about everything we talked about at church. at the end of church he took out a pack of cigarettes broke them all in half and threw them away. he is so ready to quite smoking! he really wants us to help him out!

all in all a super cool week 

just so you know if you tried to send anything this week the mail was stoled from the mission office this week on Wednesday morning  they broke into the church building, broke into the bishops offices looking for money, and than stole the safe with all the

 pass ports in it. so any foreign missionaries are kinda messed up right now. they also took the huge mail pile. and a few packages.

i actually dont get to bad with being trunky. it being so easy now iwll probably amke it much harder close to the end. but i still have tons of time to work hard. i am loving this area, and loving the ward. 

1 squash is a no for profit farm that a man named jim runs. we do all the work that would normally need done at a farm. everywhwere from planting to maintenance. the farm is a little bigger than if you you went from the stream to highway 9 and from the hill to the swamp. its really all kinds of vegetables.

2 ummm, we area planning to visit all our investigators joseph, miguel, charlie and monique, john, anita, a few others. when it comes to picking a street sometimes we have a feeling of where to go. sometimes we just pick a street and go.

3 Gospel principles right now is mostly just us our ward mates our ward mission leader, sitser lacomb Recent convert and sister self a strong member there to support others. and anyone that we bring with us. :) 

1/2

this week was awesome!

monday: we played volley ball. at sushi at ninja sushi

tuesday: had district meeting, it was a super good district meeting. we had a really cool time connecting to each other as a district. as a district leader I really want the whole district to be a big family. the rest of the day was rough. it was bitter cold and we where on bike, and since everyone was out of town we decided to do some door to door work. it was cool that we found a few potentials! than in the evening we went to see Anita, we talked about the Plan of Salvation using some cool diagrams that I got for Christmas.

Wednesday: we went to squash for friends in the morning. than after we went and gave the village sisters a blessing. sister lamb was not feeling well and is still feeling sick. and even got me sick! than we did some finding and ended our night with the Rodriguez family.

Thursday; on exchange with Elder Carson. we where in his area. so we spent a lot of time in the YSA ward. it was super cool, I learned a ton from him.

Friday: we did not weakly plan today because we where going to be doing tomorrow to celebrate new years eve. by this time i was starting to feel a little sick. but we went out and worked anyways cuz im stubborn! we met with Brian and talked about Faith. we had 3 lessons planned today that all fell though... we finished our day with ward coordination

Saturday: i was super sick, so i slept for most of the day.

Sunday: we have 9:00 church now so we went to our first meeting at 7:00. that was tiring! than we went home and studied, did some finding, and had dinner with bishop Hume. he just got called as bishop 3 weeks ago, he is 29 years old! its crazy! we ended our night with family home evening with the lacombs.

answers

1 we are still doing squash for friends, it is a zone service project so as long as i am in the zone we will keep going there. we just help out on a farm for the poor and needy.

2 when i have snacks i will bring them, especially when boma sends me some. we almost always eat lunch at our apartment. top raman for dayz!
 

3 about 30% of our appointments end up being with less actives. we meet with Lon once a week, and we meet with the rodriguez family once or twice a week, and we meet with sister lacomb who is a recent convert and so fits under the recent convert less active category. 

12/26

the last time we laughed  was this morning when I found in abraham where it talks about how a lady found egypt and it was buried in water, than she raised her kids there. MERMAIDS CONFIRMED!!! it was funny. in my area i mostly laugh about the random things people say. heard a voicemail the other day "sorry i didnt get ahold of you guys, i just wanted to let you know that i am not interested in learning about your church. you guys are great and i love mormons, but i cant get over the fact that you guys are a cult. anyways i had a good mormon teacher once, he taught me a lot. but the rest where all turkeys, bible bible, gobble gobble. anyways even though you guys are a cult , and therefore going to hell. hegh hegh. merry christmas. by." we are still laughing at that one! well the way i stay light hearted is by enjoying the little things. and not letting the bad things get  to me. i am thoroughly determined that there is more happiness in this world than sorrow. so that is what i focus on.

the last miracle i witnessed was super cool! so i am not the best a memorization. but while on an exchange i was asked by the elder about personal revelation. i had scripture references come to mind and was able to help him out. that was super cool to be able to do. the last big time i had an answer to a prayer was 2 weeks ago. (not necessarily  the last time) i was praying really hard for a new companion, one that i would be able to get along with. and it was answered! i got elder petrie! woohoo!

i honeslty dont have very many scary stories. the scariest is probably walking around in barstow after dark. its SUPER sketchy, like people die walking those streets. but no one ever bothered us, and we even got a new investigator from it. don’t tell mom. she would kill me.

so yesterday after we skyped i cried. i allowed my self to cry for one minute than i pulled myself together and we went to dinner. after that we went caroling as a zone for and hour( i wanted to do it so we organized it) than went to bed.

bagpipes at the airport would be sweet!

i love you so much!

big things this week:

kieron is quiting smoking this tuesday

skyped home

had sushi!

love

elder dickson

12/19

this week has been cool. literally.

MOnday: elder petrie and i became companions. best day of my life!

tuesday: my first district meeting as a District leader

Wednesday: Squash, than more service we helped build a fence.

Thursday: we got kieron on a baptismal date for the 28th of janurary!

Thursday: we got a new investigator named jason

Friday: weekly planning

saturday:we got a new investigator named tyler, also went to paul paopaos baptism.

Sunday: church than FHE with the lacombs

i love you all so much.

funny story:

elder petrie was practicing his bike jumping skills, so i laid down in the middle of a gap jump and let him jump over me. that was terrifying!

i love you all

Merry Christmas.

Elder Dickson

P.S. cant wait to see you all soon

12/12

hey so big news this week is that transfers happened! i am now in the ranchos ward in apple valley with elder Trippe. he has been out for 3 months. we will be together for at least 7 week. i am also now the district leader. 

monday: had a nerf fight with the berrys

Tuesday: we helped clean up sister foxs neighbors yard.

Woednesday: went on exchange with elder ludwig. we ate at nija sushi.

thursday: visited some members so that we could start some family mission plans

Friday: got the call that i am moving out of this ward.

Saturday: got the call that i am a district leader.

sunday: said goodbye to all the people i love. than found out that i am going to the ward next door.

i love you guys. will let you know about christmas skyping.

12/5

monday: we played gator ball.

tuesday: district meeting and than a bunch of crazy service.

wednesday: squash and than the garcias yard. and than we exchanged with grantie hills

Thursday: on exchange with elders petrie and pinter. super fun day.

Friday: we weekly planned and than tracted.

Saturday: literally a day of service.

Sunday: church and Christmas devotional 

11/28

hey mom,

this week was cool. we got fed a lot on thursday! 2 dinners.

monday: nothing of consequence

tuesday: we went to didstrict meeting and then down the hill to rancho for a doctors appointment

wednesday: we met with tammy, she was super cool. she has commited to come to shuirch next sunday so we are excited to see her there. :)

Thursday: thanksgiving 2 dinners. 

friday: today we saw sister loya she is a so cool. 98 and still kickin!

Saturday: we helped the berrys put up there tree. that was a lot of fun.

Sunday: we went to church and than had dinner than we visited the duncand to help them do missionary work. so much fun.

love you

elder dickson

11/21

hey mom,

congrats on being married for like EVER!

this week we had nothing special... it was kinda a boring week! but on the upside this saturday we where doing service for the library. and when we where done they said that we could have any books we wanted from the book drive. so i grabbed a few books that i wanted and then a few books that a less active member said that i needed to read. so that will be a fun one to send home :) other than that we don't have much else this week.

for thanksgiving we are eating with bishop Lacey.

11/14

monday: ended our day with service

Tuesday; had district meeting. than we spent the whole afternoon doing service

Wednesday: we spent the morning at squash for friends, than the afternoon until 5 laying path. than we ended the day by visiting members

Thursday: did more service. we finished up the path we where laying. than we visited a lot of members

Friday: we did more service. we stacked firewood for 2 hours. than we planned for the rest of the week. 

saturday: went on exchange to the granite hills ward with elder wigington. that was a lot of fun. 

Sunday: we went to church and than home to change. taught a less active sister. and than on the way to dinner we saw a stalled car on the side of the highway. so we got out and pushed him a quarter mile to the nearest exit.

love you all tons! 

11/7 email

hey mom,

sounds like luke gets into as much trouble as i do! hope he turns out to be the new and improved version. hope everything at home is going well.

monday: we stayed in all night for Halloween! we just played board games.

Tuesday: we had district meeting. this time i remembered my suit coat. than we went and picked up our temporary companion. elder van engelenhoven his companion got transferred a week early so that he could receive additional training. when he was finally done packing we went to dinner and than visited a few members and went home to unpack elder van.

Wednesday: my companion was having a really hard day, so he asked me to drive. than we got a phone call from our vehicle coordinator. he had gotten 2 speeding violations and an aggressive driving the day before. that is the time that i was assigned to be the designated driver. so now i am driving. we also helped brother white to put in new flooring in his home today. that was a lot of fun. than we read the book of mormon with him.

Thursday: we went back and taught ralph again he is super close to finishing the book of mormon.

Friday: we planned today and than worked in elder vans area.

Saturday: we met with ralph again and read the book of mormon. now he only has one chapter left. he committed to read it on his own.

Sinday: ralph cam to church today! we where there from 7-4! that was rough! such a tiring day... we met with ralph tonight for the last time. we finished the book of mormon with him. he wants to know if the book of mormon is true. so we knelt in prayer with him and he prayed that he would know that it is true. such a cool experience. i love being a missionary!

10/31 email

this week

Tuesday: we had district meeting, i gave a training on extending commitments and promising blessings. but i forgot to wear my suit coat, and i didnt shave! so i was a real mess. than we went of to pep boys to get a low tire fixed. we spent 3 hours wandering around goodwill across the street. and that ended up being most of our day. we went to dinner visited a couple of members and than went home

Wednesday: so we went back to pep boys, another flat tire... we spent 4 hours this time... that was rough. after that we went and had dinner and did the same as the night before.

Thursday: we where on exchange, so i was with elder petrie. we did a lot of biking this day. got fed lunch, and then dinner as well. we drove out to the granite hills ward, and than i got elder mclaws back. and that was our night.

Friday: weekly planning today, and than we got back on the bikes. a member saw us biking around after dark and was horrified. so they sternly told us to meet them at there house. we met them there and they proceeded to take us back to our apartment! so after that we walked to walmart and bought some wheel brights they are super useful at night, we look like tron bikes now. i got green and elder mclaws got blue.

Saturday: we biked all day, that evening we went to see sister giron, and than her next door neighbor tried to bible bash with us for 1.5 hours! i was finally so fed up with how ridiculous this was getting that i just said "by jeff" and left. that finished our night out.

Sunday: we went to church. and than afterwards we biked down to the Johnsons for dinner. they where awesome! they fed us biscuits and gravy. anfterwards we where all so stuffed that we went into the living room and watched a church movie/napped. so that was a lot of fun. afterwards brother johnson gave us a ride back up to our apartmant.

hope this is enough details.

i love you mom

10/24 email

this weeks highlight is that we got to make jam! we went over to the ebmeyers and helped them make pear pineapple raspberry jam! i thought it turned out well, but i guess they didn't like the overall flavor. it was a lot of fun to do! but other than that this week was very slow. but the niggest news this week is that it RAINED! THERE WAS WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!! I FORCED ELDER MCLAWS TO WALK AROUND IN IT WITH ME FOR AN HOUR! WE WHERE WOAKING WET BY THE END OF IT, BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! sounds crazy, but i have missed the rain so badly. my hair got wet and i was a happy goober :) i love you all. please pray that it rains again before 2018! 

With love

Elder Dickson

10/17 email

wow! you always have so much to say than i do! natalie says that it is because i am a guy. everyone that i know always talk about how huge my leg muscles are... i think it is kinda funny. if i was taller it wouldnt be as noticable. but i am pretty short... so it is funny! the exciting thing that happened this week was that we went to big bear! it is the coldest part of the mission. it is basically a resort town in the mountains. so we went and played around on some rock formations, and than went on a hike. everything cost a TON up there. but i had a lot of fun :) i also ripped a huge hole in my pants below the knee. so now i am sporting some shorts ;) other than that it has been a pretty average week.

i emailed millie to say congrats last week on her baby, but i managed to catch her after the loss... she emailed me and told me what had happened, she said that i was the first that she had told. i was sad to hear that it had happened. but she expressed to me that she knew that this was Gods plan for her. i assured her that it was. 

i am happy that isaac is working so hard. he has a pretty big motivation! he told me that he is in debt and that he is trying to work it off. hope everything with luke went well today at the library. 

ummm, im outa stuff to say... sorry. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

10/10 email

hey mom,this week was cool. on staurday we had the oppurtunity to volunteer at an air show. that was a blast! we got to wonder around afterwards it was really cool! i also got a sunburn. so that was cool too. we have been working with members this week as well and it has been really cool to see how exited they are to do missionary work. which is a blessing because we recently stopped teaching the only person that would meet with us. so we are hoping that this will work out well. this week i am excited to  be able to be here in apple valley. i hope you all have  the best week ever!