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

So this one time at St. Luke's Hospital...‏

Hello everyone!

 

That's it.  I've just decided my mission is never going to stop being so exciting and I might as well just get used to it.  :)  So yeah... spent sometime at the hospital last week because I had a bad kidney infection (upper UTI).  That was not fun.  The hospital was nice, don't get me wrong... it had air-con, they fed me, I had my first hot shower in months (I promise you it wasn't my first shower in months...), the view from the window in my room was beautiful of the city, but wow... being in the "normal" world is really boring if you are a missionary... no t.v., no internet, nothing really to do but sleep, especially since I hadn't brought my scriptures or study materials with me since that was kind of the last thing on my mind when we were on our way to the E.R.  I'm on antibiotics now so I'm not planning on going back to the hospital any time soon.  Sister Jones and I were very happy to get back to work on Sunday.  I'm so, so grateful for my companion!  She is so patient and handled everything so well while I was sick.  We had a pretty good time there together at the hospital just talking and doing a little bit of language study (thankfully she had brought some of her study materials) and I think she sang almost every song in the hymnbook... yeah... we had a lot of time to kill. :)  

We've had an awesome week already!  We found and taught a total of 7 new investigators in the last two days.  The work in our area really is just booming, it's incredible!  By the end of the week with all of the appointments we have scheduled, we should have around 20 or so new investigators... yeah, it's awesome.  :)  

 

We were able to attend the temple again this morning.  I love going to the temple!!  Seriously!  It's the best place to be.  :)  I also ate at Starbuck's for the first time ever.... took me going to the Philippine's before I finally gave in and tried it.  It was great.  Actually... I've eaten a lot of things that I never, ever would have before... especially when it comes to seafood.  Most of it hasn't been too bad too... it's just that darn coconut that I absolutely can't like and unfortunately... it's in everything here!  Oh well...  I still haven't tried balut yet, but I'm sure I will within the next 13 months.  :)  

 

The language is really coming along soooo much faster now.  I've made a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon sa Tagalog.  I've heard that, more than anything else, helps the language to come.  

Sister Jones and I had an awesome lesson with Sister Puri on Monday.  We had finished teaching her all of the principles about the Restoration but she just didn't seem to be getting it.  We spent the whole lesson reviewing with her and really focusing on the Holy Ghost and Baptism.  Something we hear a lot from the people we teach here is that our church is basically the same as any other church.  When Sister Puri brought this up, we explained to her again how it's different, how ours is the only true church here on the earth because it is the only church that has a living prophet who receives revelation and has the authority of the priesthood.  We invited  her to be baptized.  She thought about it for a good long while and then said (actually, she kind of asked) "yes?" but told us she had already been baptized before in some other religion.  We had to explain to her that that baptism wasn't really "valid" because it wasn't done with the proper authority.  Wow.  A few months ago, I never would have had the courage to tell someone that.  It was tough... but the Holy Ghost was testifying something strong.  She told us she knows that what we are teaching her is true... Hopefully she prays about it to find out for herself.  That's really what she needs to do at this point.  

 

 Well... that's all for now.  Hope everyone has a great week and doesn't have to spend any time in the hospital!  Love you all!

Love, Sister Dickison

Give it up for Miss Adele and Miss Avril Lavigne!!

Wow!!  We have had such an awesome week! 

We've had to drop several people who either weren't interested, weren't progressing, or hid inside of their houses as soon as they saw us (that was pretty funny) but we are finding a lot of new potential investigators so the work is really going well.

Last Tuesday we headed out to try to visit a few people and then to do a lot of finding.  Our first appointment fell through, so we went to try to contact the second person.  On our way there, we passed by the house of someone we met over a month ago and briefly spoke to.  We've been trying to contact him for the last month but haven't been able to make contact with him until last Tuesday.  We ended up teaching him, James, as well as his friend, Romel, a whole lesson.  It was awesome!  Both seem really interested and James especially kept bringing stuff up that he already believes in that is part of the gospel. We haven't been able to teach them since then yet, but hopefully we'll be able to teach them again this week.  :)

After teaching them, we went to find some more people.  We were just walking and talking about something really random, when the lady who had been walking in front of us for awhile suddenly turned around and gave us the biggest smile.  "Are you Mormons?" she asked.  We both smiled and replied that we were.  She was all, "That's nice," and then turned around to walk away.  Obviously, we couldn't let her go so we started talking to her some more and discovered that she was taught by Elders over 30 years ago.  She invited us over to her house which is insanely nice by the way... it has air-con!!  We talked to her, Sister Puri, for quite awhile as well as her daughter Wendy, who is married and has two adorable little boys.  Wendy is a golden investigator!  She had so many really good, deep questions for us and is super interested in our church.  We can't wait to teach her again!  We had another really good lesson with Sister Puri last Friday and will be teaching her again this week as well.  :)  That whole day was just a testament to the two of us that if we go out and place our faith in God, He will help us find those people He has prepared for us to teach.  

So... funny story... on Friday Sister Jones and I were taking a short break (we're getting so tan from all of the sunlight we've been getting because we walk everywhere now) and eating some bananas in a small store on the side of the rode.  So we're talking to the owner and her co-worker and doing some "how to begin teaching" with them when all of the sudden I look over on the other side of the road and there is this obviously gay guy looking over at the two of us.  He gets the biggest grin on his face, holds up something in his hand, pops his foot and yells, "Promo!"  We both start giggling and then he comes over to us and begins to try to sell us laundry detergent.  :)  About five others join him, all "baklas," and they're trying so hard to speak in English, and doing really well I might add, and it was just super funny and you would've had to be there to understand.  They're in the middle of their spiel when they stop, and one of them looks at Sis. Jones and says, "You know... you look just like Miss Adele!"  We both start laughing and all of the other guys there are nodding there heads and then all of the sudden, this guy starts singing "Someone Like You" at the top of his lungs.  We were both dying of laughter and then awhile later they inform me that I look like Avril Lavigne... You can imagine my face at this point.  The whole experience was ridiculously funny and yeah... we totally bought the laundry detergent.  It was worth it for the entertainment.  :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  Until next P-day!

Love, Sister Dickison

The Blessings that come from Enduring :)‏

Hello everyone!

First off, just wanted to let everyone know that despite of the huge Typhoon or here it's called a "Bagyo"  that hit the Philippines I am alive and well and nothing major happened here in the Pasig City area.  There was rain, but no more than usual, and wind, but it was nothing compared to Cedar City wind.  :)  However, I've heard that the destruction that occurred because of the typhoon was really, really bad and it's been a time of mourning for everyone here in the Pines.  I'm so grateful that we were safe in spite of the typhoon.

Secondly... I feel so incredibly blessed right now and so excited about this new transfer.  My new companion, Sister Jones, is amazing!  We get along so, so well and she is such a blessing in my life and already in the lives of those we've been teaching.  We had better numbers this week than any other week since I've come here, even though my previous companion and I had no appointments on Monday or Tuesday, and we were only able to have one appointment on Friday because of the Typhoon (our Mission President told us to all return to our apartments and be safe:)) and while we're both exhausted and a little sunburnt from all of the walking we've been doing, seeing eight of the less-active members we visited and three of our investigators attend church was worth it. :)  Most of the less-actives have really struggled with attending church for months.  Sister Jones and I really felt impressed to talk about temples and family history work in our visits with them this last week.  The Spirit could be felt so strongly in these visits and I was touched to see how our message touched the people we taught.  Quite a few of them cried... the first time that has happened in awhile.  :)  We taught them about how our ultimate goal should be to be able to live with our family forever, both our earthly family, and our heavenly family, and how we can only do that through the blessings of the temple.

I'm both speaking and understanding the language at a much faster pace than I was and yeah... everything's just wonderful.  :)  

I learned a lot during my first two transfers in the field, and while I have absolutely no desire to go back and relive them, they taught me a lot about having faith and trusting God with everything you've got.  I'm so excited for another week of awesome missionary work! :)  

Love you all lots!  Thank you for all of your love and support!  I feel so blessed to have so many people who are supporting me while I'm out here :)  You truly are all a blessing in my life. 

Have a fantastic week! 

Love, Sister Dickison