Ricoooooo, Dioso (Bill?), and Angelica :)‏

Hey everyone!!!  So this week was pretty much awesome and full of some crazy times :)

First off the Taguig Zone had our zone activity last P-day which was pretty darn fun.  We spent a lot of time filling up water balloons and then played Dungeons and Dragons with them until it got too boring and everyone just started chucking water balloons at each other.  I hid safely inside of the chapel with my companion and Sister Faka'osi so our clothes remained dry :)  We then played hide-and-go-seek and ordered Pizza Hut Pizza (Ssooooo gooood!!:) 

The next day was our Zone Training so our whole zone was together again and yeah... that was about all the excitement that happened that day.

Last Wednesday we did service for some of the elders' investigators.  We cleared a huge field of weeds.  It was really hard work actually and my legs are still sore from it.  I was using a sickle to cut the weeds, and then I almost took out a plant with it.... haha, it was great.  

So the best part about our week was definitely our investigators.  First there's Rico... We met Rico on Saturday the 11th after teaching our investigator Dioso (Bill?).  He was waiting for us to finish our lesson with Dioso to meet with us.  He told us he was searching for the truth and honestly seemed like a golden investigator.  He went on to tell us a few things that made a red flag appear in Sis. Doucette's head: 1) He asked us about proxy baptisms (who knows about that outside of Mormon's?) and 2) He asked us if we were allowed to listen to other religions.  So he texted us over the next few days and we kind of ignored him because our phone is NOT for "fun texting" and then it all came out when we tried to set up an appointment with him... He said, and I quote (except it was sa tagalog), "Haven't you guessed by now?... Hahaha!... my religion is Inglesia ni Cristo!!"  Inglesia ni Cristo is a wonderful religion, I'm sure, that is very popular here in the Philippines and was actually formed by a man who used to be mormon.  Long story short, he wanted us to come and either debate with him over religion or be converted to his church.  Obviously we dropped him as a potential investigator and Sister Doucette is still trying to get over "Rico: Our Golden Investigator."  :)

  So then there's Dioso (Bill?)... Apparently his name is not Dioso... it's Bill.... or at least, that's how he introduced himself to our ward missionary Raymond.  Can't wait to see what this week has in store for us and "Bill."

Finally, there is Angelica. :)  After being so, so, so nervous for her baptismal interview she made it through and will be getting baptized this upcoming Saturday!!!  We're so excited for her!!!  It's perfect timing too, because I'm 99.9% positive I'm transferring out of this area in a week and a half.  I love Angelica so much!!!  She's been through so much with what happened in Tacloban and having to leave her family behind.  She's grown so much in the gospel and will be an awesome member of the church!  Sister Doucette and I will be bearing our testimonies with her after her baptism to help her not feel so nervous (did I mention she is really shy and get's nervous easily?)  :)  

Well... that's all for this week.  Until next week!!

Love, Sister Dickison

(P.S. I also ate chicken feet at a funeral last week... good times... )

5 Months in the Field :)

Wow... it's P-day again already.  So Sister Doucette and I have had a pretty awesome time during the last few days.  All of last week we had to do a lot of finding, but our efforts paid off and so did the fasting and prayers.  We found a ton of people who are interested in being taught and have return appointments with them this week.  We actually had four different, random people come up to us during the last two days and ask us if we can teach them...  Hallelujah!  We've also been trying to help establish visiting and home teaching in our ward.  I never realized how important visiting and home teaching was before my mission.  Everyone needs visiting/home teaching; active members as well as less-active members.  Our ward here in Pateros would probably have a lot less less-actives if they were being visiting every month by other members.  Since the focus of our mission is to find and baptize, we're really trying to help the ward visit less-actives and recent converts so that we can spend the majority of our time with investigators.  This was the first week that we had an even number of less-active/recent convert lessons and lessons with investigators.  It's a huge improvement, but we're working on having more lessons with investigators period.  

 

Something I may have mentioned before that Sister Doucette and I are trying to focus on is having hope.  We're both pretty realistic (ha! that's a nice word for pessimistic...) and so hope is an area we both recognized we needed to grow in.  It's been cool over the last transfer to watch as Heavenly Father has given us experiences to help us grow in this area.  I never realized how crucial it can be to have hope.  There is a scripture in Ether chapter 12, verse 32 I think, that talks about having hope and how it is crucial in order for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven again in the mansions prepared for us above.  That's pretty serious stuff when you think about it.  

 

Sister Doucette and I have also been reflecting on how very different serving a mission is than we thought it would be.  There is a lot more that goes on in our missions than just knocking on doors and learning to speak a different language.  Over the last five months I've learned how to go apartment hunting in the Philippines, recover from floods and break-ins, and all about U.T.I.s.  I've also tried to help establish home/visiting teaching and help the church here in the Philippines become more established and run smoother.  I've found myself talking to the richest of the rich people here about our church, in English, with my whole ward watching my companion and I (that was terrifying) as well as made almost daily visits to a couple who didn't have enough money/food to feed themselves let alone their three-month old son.  I never expected to do half of these things let alone all the other stuff I didn't mention that has happened as well.  I feel so incredibly blessed that Heavenly Father has given me this opportunity.  I didn't really have a desire to go on a mission for any other reason than it sounded kind of fun and I knew it was God's plan for me.  I'm so grateful that this was part of His plan for me and I can't wait to see what else the mission has in store for me (haha... I'm knocking on wood right now...).  

 

Oh yeah!  If you are willing, please include my Grandpa Luke in your prayers.  He had a stroke last week and is doing much better, but still needs the prayers.  Thank you for your love and support always.  God bless!

Love, Sister Dickison

And all the Whos down in Whoville...‏

Wahoo!!  Temple days are the best!!  I'm seriously so blessed to have a temple not just in my mission boundaries, but literally just 15 minutes away from where I live... so awesome!  So yeah, we woke up around 4:00 this morning and left the house at 5:00 so we could make it to the first session and guess what... we didn't get into the first session.  Practically all of the elders from the Quezon City North mission were already there when we arrived at the temple and apparently got there at 4:45 in the morning... :/  Oh well, we just waited for a while and then attended the 8:00 session, which was wonderful too :)  We then went to eat at Banapple (American food!!) where I chose to get a salad over a honkin' huge slice of cheesecake because... I really miss green salad!!  Super delicious!!  Afterwards we hopped in a taxi and now I'm here emailing :)

 

Let see... other news... oh yeah!!!  Haha!!  New Years!!!  Pretty sure my expectations of what a New Years Eve should be like are ridiculously high now... It Was Amazing!!!!  So people started setting off fireworks like the day before, right?  But they were just a few here and there.  On the 31st they kind of became... more as soon as we woke up and Sister Doucette was kinda freaking out about going out and working.  We figured God would protect us though so we went out, taught, and then made it home by our early curfew in the evening.  It was pretty noisy by then, fireworks going off and kids blowing on noise-makers.  But the real deal started at 11:00... people went crazy!!  The only way I can describe it is it was like being there in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" when all of the Whos down in Whoville were banging on stuff and going crazy!!  People were laying on car horns, lighting fireworks like crazy, blowing on noise-makers, and the one that really got to me was whoever was revin' up their chainsaw (I'm not joking)... It was SO loud!!!!  Fireworks were going off everywhere!!  And not just baby ones either... but huge ones in the sky!  Man... it was the best birthday celebration ever.  :)  Times Square has got absolutely nothing on my Filipino New Years Eve. :)    

 

Great news... Angelica is still getting baptized!!  :)  I'm just a little bit more than excited :)  She's developing a testimony so quickly and has really settled into the ward and Young Women's.  We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her last week... she loved it.  We also taught her Word of Wisdom the other day which was fun since I haven't had an opportunity to teach that since back when I first got here... when I wasn't capable of saying anything.  I'm really, really enjoying teaching right now.  Sister Doucette and I have both noticed each other growing in leaps and bounds in the language every day.  Guess that's what happens when you both HAVE to speak in lessons because neither one of us is fluent (or close to being fluent) sa Tagalog.  It's a party :)  We also get to go finding for a few hours every day... probably for the rest of the transfer, to find more investigators again.  It's not exactly something either she or I loves doing... so, we've turned it into a game with bonus points and treats and stuff just to give us the courage to speak up to random people on the street.  And it's working :)  Yesterday we found/talked to seven different people and have return appointments with them.  :)  

 

Also, we had the opportunity to work with the Sister Training Leader's which was great!  Once we were all back in the apartment, it pretty much felt like a huge sleepover party.  Sister Campbell is awesome and obviously Sister Jones is as well, so it was fun.:)  

 

As always thank you for your prayers and your love and support!  It really means a lot to me!  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dickison

Happy New Year Everyone!!‏

Hello everyone!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year's celebration this week!  My first Christmas in the field was pretty fun, even if it didn't feel very much like Christmas due to the fact that is was insanely hot last week.  We spent most of Christmas trying to meet with people (it was a normal work day for us) and getting punted because everyone was out partying or had family over and didn't really want us to teach them.  We understood, but it was still kind of rough to spend Christmas walking around and getting punted.  However, we had a wonderful visit/lesson with the Sambo family.  They had invited us over to their house for Christmas dinner.  They had prepared a ton of food and even made us spaghetti and bought us some chicken from KFC just to make it feel a little more like an American Christmas. :)  So sweet!!! 

My cute sister Mikaela had given me a special gift for Christmas which was ang Aklat ni Mormon (Book of Mormon) that had her hand-written testimony in the front cover.  I had spent the last week carrying it around with me on our visits and waiting to feel prompted to give it to someone.  We were sitting there in the Sambo's home and I suddenly knew that they were the ones I needed to give it to.  At first I was hesitant since they are recent converts and I was really looking for an investigator to give it to, but as I started reading Mikaela's testimony to them (and bawling the entire time) I realized that it was the perfect gift I could give from my family at home to my family here in the Philippines.  It was a really sweet experience and something I will never forget.  As a side note, they gave me a Christmas card this last week that said that even though I was from a different culture, I'm still their child.  :)  I love them!!!!  Ah!  I'm going to bawl when I transfer and leave them...

Anyways, so yeah, Christmas was great besides getting punted and having everyone ask us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses because we were out working instead of celebrating Christmas... :) 

The last few days have been a little difficult work-wise as we continue to get punted because everyone's partying it up.  We figure things will be back to normal once the New Year's celebrations are over and everyone has to go back to school and work.  Our investigator Anjelica is still doing great and is on her way to being baptized the 25th of January!  We are so excited for her!!  We're once again in that process of dropping several of our investigators who aren't progressing and finding new ones which is always kind of frustrating, but I'm looking forward to finding more people who have been prepared to hear the gospel :) 

Being in a house full of people who are trying to learn how to speak Tagalog is actually extremely fun :)  We're all trying to help each other out and more than anything it's taught me how NOT to stress out about learning the language.  We're not fluent... not even close, but somehow the work moves on and the gospel continues to be preached to these people.  :)  I actually had a really cool experience the other day...  Sister Doucette and I went to go try to teach some of our recent converts who are now less-active.  It's been really frustrating, because we haven't been able to teach them since my first week last transfer, so almost two months now.  So were sitting there and talking to the mom and all of the sudden I'm remembering the last time I was there, and all the times I was there before that and how I had no clue what anyone was saying and I couldn't say anything and basically just felt mute.  As the sister was talking to us, I understood what she was saying and could have a normal, back-and-forth conversation with her, no problem... It was so awesome and so weird!!!!!  I hadn't realized how much I had grown in the language just over the last transfer with Sister Jones.  Yeah... we're talking drastic change!!!  Hallelujah!!  The gift of tongues is real!... It just requires a lot of patience, continued practice, and, surprisingly, not stressing out over learning the language.  :)

As a side note... Sister Doucette and I are having a fabulous time being companions with each other and right now we're just trying to work on not spending so much time talking to each other because we're, uh, having issues with time-management because we're always having these awesome conversations :)  Sister Strebel, the other new sister in our apartment is hilarious and I love her to death, and Sister Tereke is suddenly a lot more talkative (and sarcastic) then she was before. :)  They both are ridiculously funny and crack each other up, which cracks us up, and all-around we are just having a great time in our apartment :)

Well... that's all for this week!  Happy New Year again to everyone!!

Love you all tons!!

Love, Sister Dickison :)   

Transfer week again :)‏

Wow!  Happy Holidays everyone!  There is so much that's gone on in the last week...

First off, we got transfer announcements this morning.  Sister Jones has been called to be a Sister Training Leader (not surprised, she'll do great... but I'll miss her like crazy!), and I will be spending another transfer in the Pateros area.  My new companion is Sister Doucette, who I briefly met once at the Mission Office and seems like a sweetheart.  She went to the same school as my cousin Chase... crazy how people end up being connected here... I've run into two elders who went to Cedar High with me... but I had no clue who they were.  Their names are Elder Roy and Elder Robertson.  Anyways... I'm excited to have another transfer here, and that I don't have to leave my first ward right before the Christmas season!

Last Tuesday we had our Christmas conference.  It was so much fun!!  Every zone had to perform a skit and a musical number.  Our zone was pretty average in both areas, but some zones had obviously spent hours if not days working on their skits, I swear!!  It was super fun to watch everyone perform.  I walked up to the floor where the party was being held and almost bumped into Sister Alailima.  It was so great to see her!!!  I kinda screamed and I think I scared her.  :)  We talked quite a bit during the conference and she is doing very well.  :)  I also saw several other members of my MTC district there which was as great as always. :)  Not going to lie, the highlight of the Christmas conference was definitely watching a movie... that's right, a real movie, not just "The District" or "The Restoration".  :)  We watched "Arthur Christmas" which was a super cute animated movie and was fun because I've never seen it before.  Watching it kind of left us all on "movie-withdrawal" for the next few days, but we got over it.  :)

Sister Jones and I have continued to be blessed in our work!  We had to drop a few investigators for one reason or another, but have been so blessed to find really strong potential investigators over the last few weeks as well!  We've specifically been praying to find investigators around our age and families and have been blessed to find both!  I wouldn't be surprised if we have several baptisms coming up in the next few months.  :) 

I'm so excited for Christmas!!!  Not that will be doing much of anything really crazy fun, but still... it's Christmas, right?  AND I get to skype with my family!!!  AAHHHH!!  I'm so excited to get to talk with them face-to-face (well, sort of face-to-face).
  

Merry Christmas to you all!  Until next week!

Lots of love, Sister Dickison

Malapit na sa Christmas...!!‏

Hello everyone!!

So Sister Jones and I had another awesome week!  Last Tuesday was our Zone Conference which was super fun!  I'm sending a pic of Sister Jones, Sister Wilson, and myself.  Sister Wilson lived in the same building as me during my first transfer and I love her to pieces.  She was also Sister Jones' companion in the MTC. It was great to see so many friends from previous districts and zones, especially Elder Schenk from my MTC district who I haven't seen since my first week in the field.  All of the speakers were really good and then there was Sister Jones' and my musical number... actually it went pretty darn well.  I don't know what happened.  She always sings amazingly of course, but I must have had some serious help from the other side or something.  :)  However, I've informed her to never volunteer us to sing in public again while I'm hooked up to an I.V. and on drugs and not thinking very clearly so I somehow end up agreeing to sing.  :)  I received my Christmas package after the zone conference, hallelujah!!  Thanks Mom!!  The shoes were so needed and I can't wait to open up my present and the letters... hopefully I can wait until Christmas. ;)  

 

We had a tougher week in some ways.  Almost none of our investigators are keeping their commitments and almost all of the less actives who have been coming back into activity did not attend church this week.  However, we've been continually getting better at teaching and are really going to try to focus on extending good commitments this week.  We have an exciting week ahead of us with our Christmas conference tomorrow and then our ward Christmas party on Saturday!  Even though it's sunny and hot and there are no pine trees, Christmastime is still here.  :)  

 

We have really been trying to be healthy this transfer and things have finally clicked for me health-wise.  I think it's since we both realized that word of wisdom was given to us not just as a list of things that are "bawal" (not allowed) but it talks about the healthy foods we should eat and getting enough sleep and yeah... it's just the first time I've really wanted to take care of my body for the right reasons.  So... I'm sending a picture of our food after our big grocery trip last week as well as a pic of a lunch meal we made.  We've switched out our white rice for brown... so much healthier and tastes better too. :) 

I'm so grateful for my mission and I know this is where I'm supposed to be.  :)  AND... we get to skype in two weeks!!  Probably on Christmas.  I'm so excited!!  I really, really am hoping that Sister Jones and I get one more transfer together!!  Sister Suminguit will almost for sure be leaving our area/apartment and I'm having a hard time with that... she's been such a good friend and we've lived together for the last four months... Man, I'm going to miss her!

 

Well, that's about all for this week.  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Dickison

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!‏

Well... Sister Jones and I may not have had a turkey to eat for Thanksgiving, but we did have a bounteous feast in terms of missionary work.  :)  We were able to find and teach a total of 22 investigators last week!  It was awesome.  11 of the less-active members we've been visiting attended church yesterday.  It was so great to see them there and a lot of them have attended several times in a row and are now back into "activity."  Probably the greatest blessing we received last week was to be able to feel the Spirit so strongly as we taught.  It helped us countless times to know what to teach including a few times where we had to change our plans last minute, whether or not to extend bap. invitations, where to go to find people, who to talk to, helped me a ton with the language, and overall just guided us in everything.  I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost!  It's such a powerful gift that anyone, if they are worthy, can receive and have with them always.

Besides feeling a little sad that we couldn't be with our families enjoying good food last week, we haven't had any major challenges this last week, Hallelujah!  The Mango Float I ate yesterday at some of our members' home makes up for missing out on Turkey and Mashed Potatoes. :)  This week we have Zone Conference tomorrow and Sister Jones and I will be singing a musical number for that... hopefully it goes well...  Health-wise I've felt back to normal, thank goodness.  I'm still keeping in eye out for anything weird though.  

 

I hope you have all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Have a great week!

Love, Sister Dickison