June 17

Hi Family!! I am still here in Brunswick, Georgia and am still in the Florida Jacksonville Mission. Transfer calls were crazy! President Barry does a conference call, so we put it on speaker and every missionary in the mission is on the same line as he reads off where everyone is being transferred to. Its a pretty cool thing to hear all the different changes being made. Anyone that got transferred to the Savannah Zone this transfer is now in the Georgia Macon Mission. South Carolina and Savannah aren't in my mission anymore :( Sister Divis and I crowded around our phone in anticipation on Monday night as transfers were going on. President Barry said, "In the Brunswick 1st ward, Sister Dodd will stay with Sister Johnson. Sister Dodd will be the senior companion." Sister Divis and I were freaking out. She got transferred to Waycross, which is still in my zone. As soon as we heard, my mind was going a million miles an hour and I had a hard time falling asleep that night, which never happens haha. On Tuesday, Sister Divis and I headed up to girls camp! It was SO fun to be at girls camp with these sweet girls in the Kingsland Georgia stake. We taught 6 classes that day to all the different age groups! We taught about why we serve missions and do missionary work, and about the missionary purpose. I loved doing that. I love connecting with young girls. There is something incredibly powerful about virtuous young women all gathered together. I felt so strongly that Heavenly Father loves His daughters. They are so precious to Him. In every class I kept saying that, over and over, because I felt it so strong. "You are a daughter of God. You are so precious, so valuable, so beautiful. Never forget that! Never let the world make you think that your virtue and purity is not of worth." I felt it burning inside me as I talked to them. I had the chance to sing the song "Send Me" from the EFY Album from 2003. It was awesome.. I felt so much conviction in singing that song to them, and I hope that they are thinking about missions. I think every girl should serve a mission, I really do. Why not? I know it is a sacrifice and some girls feel like they shouldn't go. But nothing but GOOD can come from serving. My understanding and love for the gospel has increased so much! Sister Johnson is my new companion. She is 23, from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a graduate from the University of Utah in Mass Communications and Journalism. Basically the same major as me! But she is more into the journalism aspect of it. She is about 5'2 and I love her haha. She is so...witty! She loves Doctor Who, and comic books, and hates twilight hahaha She is so funny.I made a comment the other day about how I needed to try harder to never complain, because Nephi never complained in the scriptures. She was like, "Ya well, he wrote it." hahaha This girl. My favorite part about Sister Johnson is how obedient she is. I was asked by Heavenly Father to train myself, so I did the very best that I could to be obedient. But Sister Johnson was trained by an experienced missionary and there are all these rules and little mission quirks that I had no idea existed. She is SO obedient to, never wavering. For the first day, I was so preoccupied with my pride.. In my mind, I was trying to defend the way that I had done things if they were a little different. But I quickly realized that Sister Johnson was sent to me for a reason, and I have been trying so hard to humble myself. Its not about being right, or leading the way. Its about doing things the way that Heavenly Father wants them to be done. I feel like in a lot of ways I am starting all over.. But Heavenly Father needs me to be humble to learn, and so I am trying. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, just thinking about yourself less. I am trying to think of myself less and think about those around me more. Jeneane.. I love her. We came to her house on Thursday and she told us about her soap opera for 15 minutes. Stephy is her favorite, and got in a motorcycle accident, so she can't have children. Liam doesn't want to be with her anymore because she can't have children, and all he wants is the family he never had. She was hoping Liam would run after Stephy when she left on the plane, but he didn't. She was crying real tears of sadness when she told us this, by the way. I love her so much!! I LOVE the aspect of my mission that I get to meet the most random people and to be a part of their lives for a period of time, whether that is for the rest of my life or just for an afternoon. Jeneane has been struggling so much in trying to decide if she should be baptized. She is the one that had that amazing experience with the plan of salvation. She loves Christ and has come so far in her life from where she was. But she has already been baptized and doesn't understand why she needs to be baptized again! We have talked about the gift of the holy ghost, how her pastor had the authority to baptize her into his church but not the authority to baptize her into God's kingdom.. Its making sense in her head, but she hadn't felt it in her heart. We had a lesson this week, first day with Sister Johnson. I could tell how frustrated she was and how she was talking about the bible. I asked her if she'd been praying and reading the Book of Mormon. She said she had been and been praying and praying so hard, and she wasn't getting an answer. I said, "Jeneane, if God told you right now to get baptized, would you do it?" She said and thought for a second and then responded (with a little attitude because she is sassy ;)) "I would pick up a snake if He asked me to.. But only if He asked me to. Yes I would get baptized if God told me to." Then, without us even asking her to, she opened up her Book of Mormon to a random page and started reading the first verse she came to. It was 2 Nephi 31: 11-13. "And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son. And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism - yea by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holly Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel." She turned and looked at us with the biggest eyes and just sat in silence. I was just staring at her with the spirit burning in my chest, wanting to laugh :) Heavenly Father truly waits for us show him that we have real intent, that we are willing to do whatever he asks us to do. Once we display that real intent and have faith in seeking the answers, He will answer us. Jeneane committed to be baptized on June 23rd. Please pray for her this week. I will give you someone every week that you can pray for ok? This wee it is Jeneane. I know that this is a long one :) But I love you family. I am so excited to hear about Hailee's wedding and Austin's farewell and get pictures. I know you are busy :) But please don't forget about me!! Remember that obedience is the source of every blessing. Heavenly Father is just WAITING to give us certain blessings, but He is bound by the law of justice. He can't bless us and be close to us until we draw close to Him through obedience. We have that amazing gift of agency!! With it, we can choose: God or the world. As we strive to be more and more obedient each day, we open the doors of heaven and can really have PEACE. I love ya'll :) Sister Dodd

June 10

Hey ya'll!!! 

Wow, this has been another busy week for the Dodd family :) We've done it again! I love hearing about Austin going through the temple.. That's amazing. I wish I could've been there, but obviously would not wish to be anywhere but Brunswick Georgia for now. 

Please tell Grandma thank you for her package she sent me this week. It was SO cute, it had a bag of cookies with a note attached that said, "for your tummy" and then a little lotion that said, "to make you smell yummy" and then a little lds book that said, "to start your day off sunny". Oh I love her :) 

So this week, we dropped Tiger, Quay, and Tracey. They were supposed to get baptized yesterday but have kind of dropped off the face of the earth. They've been avoiding appointments and haven't been home or don't text back.. We finally stopped by and Quay answered the door. It broke my heart.. The light that we had always seen in his eyes was gone.. It was like he was afraid to talk to us. I don't know what happened.. Anti-mormon influence is really strong here in the south with so many denominations all over the place. Its hard because you fall in love with these families, you see the joy in their eyes and they acknowledge that they feel the spirit, but then don't follow it.. Hopefully they will find the church again someday.. I prayed about it a lot and I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of them.

We are still teaching Miss Jeneane. She is so SASSY and I love it :) We had a miracle happen this week. Jeneane has always been Pentacostal. The pentacostal church believes in speaking in tongues, that it is the language that only God can hear and its so scary. When they "feel the spirit" they do whatever the spirit "prompts" them to do, like run up and down the isles, scream out loud, speak in tongues, dance around.. And so Jeneane really struggles with the reverence found in our church, or that we take the sacrament individually and not all together. I bore testimony that we take the sacrament individually because Christ died for us and suffered for us individually. He died for every single person's sins, and it was very personal, so the sacrament should be too. As I teach sometimes, I am praying and praying and praying and saying Heavenly Father, I don't know what to say or how to express myself.. and I have felt several times the impression come in my mind, "Open your mouth" like from D&C 60:2. As I just open my mouth and testify of the Savior and of my testimony, the spirit can be felt, even though I sometimes don't even remember what I said after the lesson. And that's what it is.. The spirit is the true teacher. If I am prepared and living worthily, the light in my eyes speaks louder than my voice. 

We taught Jeneane the plan of Salvation this week. I used the little felt version that you sent me Mom! As we taught it, she started to gasp and say, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" She then told us about a dream that she had had the night before. In the dream there were three giant steps. She started at the bottom. She could see that there was a big white temple at the top step. She climbed up to the second step, and said there were good people there. She asked them to come with her to the temple and they didn't want to, they didn't know what she was talking about. She climbed to the top step and it was beautiful she said. The trees were so tall and the flowers were so bright. She saw the Savior, and the trees bowed down to him, she climbed to the temple but she couldn't get in and she was so frustrated. As we showed her the three degrees of glory and the picture of the temple that says COVENANTS, she knew it was truth. She kept touching it and saying, "this is truth.. this is truth.." The spirit is the TRUE teacher. God answers our prayers ALWAYS. 

We had dinner at the Greens last night and I love them. They are an old couple, They have such thick southern accents.. She told us a huge story about a baby squirrell that she raised and she had a big picture of it wearing a t-shirt in her house. She also had a christmas tree decorated for the 4th of July with red white and blue lights and big american flags sticking out. They have fiddler crabs in their yard and asked one of the elders from our ward that's getting transferred if he had gotten my home address. I high-tailed it out of there. hahaha ohhh the South, how I love it.

My scripture reading has consisted of Nephi this week. I love him.. He never complains. He just turns to the lord in trials and says, what can I do now? In 1 Nephi 19:1, he says "And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did." I love this. It is so important for us to be obedient. The Lord commanded me, wherefore I did. He knows better than we do, always. As we strive to be obedient, He will lead us and shape us. I love this gospel. 

Tonight we get transfer calls!! I am anxious to see what will happen. We are also teaching at girl's camp tomorrow, and I am so excited to teach these girls and to sing for them. I'm singing a song called Send Me, from the 2003 EFY cd. 

I love you family. Thank you for your support. Stay strong! Be obedient!

Love, Sister Dodd

June 3

Familia and Amigos,

 

Thank you for all your love and support this week! I have received so many letters and emails and it lifts me up so much! Its awesome that we have these rules not to call and email and write all the time, because it keeps me SO focused. I don't even think about home or life at home much at all, because Heavenly Father is helping me to trust Him, to focus on His children that need to know about the restored gospel! I love you all so much.

 

That brings me to my week. WOW. I have never experienced highs and lows like a mission. If the work is going well, you are so stoked! If it is slow, it gets rough. In regular life you have your family, friends, work, school, church, etc.. to focus your attention on. If one area is struggling on, you have those other things to look forward to. Not out here! You have one purpose and one purpose only, to help others come to Christ. But I love it! I am praying to love it and praying to learn how to be patient and I know God is answering my prayers, I can feel it. I don't know what I would do without prayer. Prayer is the key to our relationship with God. Will all of you try as hard as you can to have more meaningful personal prayers this week? Develop that relationship with your Heavenly Father more fully, and He will help you to feel the spirit, and know how you can improve and grow. 

 

One inactive member we worked with this week has to be given some time here today.. Her name is Justine and she is 65. She gave me two long dresses because she said they are too skinny for her, they are lime green and BRIGHT yellow. Can't wait to wear them ;) She tells the wildest stories, she has had one crazy life. She is this really tall black lady and is so sweet. We had an awesome lesson with her this week and she said she would start coming back to church. And she came! She comes into the chapel right before the sacrament starts wearing blue scrubs and has a huge plastic mug full of diet coke in her hand. I was leading the music in our ward and sister divis was playing the piano and I had to hide behind the piano, I was laughing so hard. I was so happy she was there!! I love the gospel.

 

Jeraldine is the one I told you about, the recent convert. She has all sorts of health problems, but it so sweet. We went over and read the book of mormon with her this week, she was really not feeling good though. She used to be a baptist, so I asked her if it would make her feel better if I sang a song and then she sang one of her favorite songs from her old church about Christ. We were out on their apartment complex's porch with me, Jeraldine, Sister Divis, and Kembrough, her friend that is about her same age, like 60ish. I sang I know that my redeemer lives and I stand all amazed. It was wonderful. She lit up. I have been trying to use my singing more often, in lessons and such, and it has really brought the spirit and opened people up. I know that I will use it even more as my mission progresses, I have been given that gift for a reason. She then sang one of her baptist songs called "Jesus oh Jesus". She has an awesome voice! Kembrough was singing the choir's part in the background, so she would sing, "Jesuuuuus" and Kembrough would do the little "Jesuuuus." in the background. I don't know how to describe it, but I was singing with them on the porch and I was wishing someone would video tape this moment of me singing gospel music with Jeraldine and Kembrough from Georgia :) These are the days.

 

Last time we saw Tracey, Quay, and Tiger, they were SO excited about getting baptized, to come to church, that they had found the true church on the earth.. This week, they have not been home for any of our appointments, they only respond to our calls and texts sometimes, and they didn't come to church.. I don't know what's going to happen. I am praying my heart out and hoping we can keep teaching them and that they still have the desire to be baptized. I don't know what happened to change how they feel.. Keep praying for them please :) Satan is SO real. I feel like we are going out in the world literally FIGHTING Satan for souls sometimes. He doesn't want our work to progress. He wants to drag us down, all of us, to be as unhappy as he is. I am so determined to grow closer to Heavenly Father and to have the spirit with me to be able to help this work progress. We are in the last days! I am working hard to spread the light of the gospel everywhere I go, to help people to feel a piece of God's love for them through me. LOVE is our most powerful tool. I can't hide the light of Christ in my eyes, and I would never want to.

 

I definitely see some STRANGE stuff here in the south. There are some STRANGE religions... Jeneane, who has a baptismal date, is Pentacostal. So she has been telling us all about speaking in tongues, how when you feel the holy spirit you can't help what your body does, whether that be running around in the church or laughing hysterically or dancing or screaming.. So she thought our church was a little different.. I pray to know what to say to people a majority of the time, cuz I sure don't have any idea what the heck to say at times. I am young and am not by any means a perfect teacher. I know that through Him I can do ANYTHING, if I have faith and make sure I am worthy and willing.

 

1 Nephi 3:7

 

We were not sent to this earth to fail. We were sent here to become like God, to choose GOOD over EVIL. Choose GOOD! :) Be righteous! I love the prophet! Read his talk from conference about obedience, it changed my life ;)

 

Love you all. Sorry this is so long.. Austin's emails will be like 3 sentences ;)

 

Love, Sister Hillary Dodd

May 27- we moved this week!

We moved this week! Our new house has lots of Cockroaches and spiders. Sister Divis has a really hard time with them, so I am the official bug killer. I kill them all day erry day. Our water heater doesn't work, so I take cold showers each morning! But its ok. I honestly really like our house.

 I GOT YOUR PACKAGE this week mom!! Thank you for sending all of that, my comforter is awesome. I LOVE YOU!! This week I experienced a lot of high high's and low low's! It gives me a lot of comfort to know that Heavenly Father knows my heart and He knows my mind. When I have faith in Him, He can help me bear any burden. Christ knows all my pains and my worries and everything!! I am not alone. Alma 7:11-12. I am realizing that I have relied a lot on Tonya, and on being able to call you Mom or call you Dad from Hawaii or Montana. Not having any contact with you all (especially when you don't write! ;) ) has made me really rely on God for strength. A mission isn't easy, but LIFE isn't easy! Just wait til I have 4 kids and my husband works long hours or whatever haha there are always going to be hard circumstances, but once we accept that God can help us get through those moments if we have patience and faith, we will be ok. We have to keep praying and keep relying on God because He is the only one that can give us strength and true personal peace as we strive to obey His commandments.

 Tracey and Quay and Tiger are getting baptized!!! AHHHHH! On June 16th :)
 We had a lesson with them and it was so amazing as she told her story. She has been homeless with her sons and worked her way up. Now she has a home, and 2 jobs. She keeps the boys so well dressed and well behaved. They know how to pray, they know that God loves them. As we taught the lesson, she told us that she knew our church was true when she came to church. I talked to her about the temple and she said how excited she was to go there. We taught about Joseph Smith and when we told her that he was answered that none of the churches were true, and that this was God's restored church, she said "ooooh my goodness, I feel like Joseph Smith." We taught her that this gospel will make her happier than she has ever been, it will give her TRUE peace like she can't find anywhere else.

We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! :) So did Tiger and Quay. It was amazing!! Please pray for them that their baptismal date of June 16th will happen! Zone Conference was this week, it was really really good. I love President Barry and Sister Barry!! They are called to this mission for a reason. They are done in 5 weeks and then President Craig takes over!! I am scared to death that they are going to ask me to train someone and I am going to mess up their whole mission haha.
 Love you all, talk to you later.
 Love, Sister Dodd

MAY 6, 2013- First Week In The Field

MAY 6, 2013

FAMILIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,

Oh. My. Good. Ness.

What a CRAZY week this has been, I can't even describe. I am having anxiety just trying to make sure I include everything.

Picture this. We arrive in the Jacksonville Florida airport. There is jazz music blasting and an area of about a hundred rocking chairs, with people just sitting and waiting for their friends and family to arrive. We met President Barry and Sister Barry, who are both so kind and had a meeting at their house with all 25 of the new missionaries. Florida is GORGEOUS! So green, there is water everywhere, little ponds in every neighborhood. Sister Nunes and I stayed the night at a member's home and then we all met together again in the morning. My interview with President Barry was good, just got to know me and my testimony. Our trainers all arrived in the afternoon and President Barry named off who would be paired with who, which was a little nerve-wracking! My knees started shaking like they do when I get nervous ;) BUT, all the sisters and elders at the front of the room were paired off with their trainee's and there were still 4 of us new sisters sitting in the crowd with no trainers.

President Barry called us up and asked us all if we would accept the calling to be a trainer for our companions that were also fresh out of the MTC. So, I am a trainer and a trainee!

Yes, I know, you are thinking to yourself, that sounds like a nightmare come to fruition. And that's about along the lines of what I was thinking! I was SO scared, like I have never been scared in my entire life. I don't know how to be a missionary!Every missionary that we talk to starts to chuckle to themselves when we tell them that we're both new and training each other, which doesn't instill tons of confidence haha! The whole way home I just prayed and prayed and prayed. I have felt Heavenly Father's presence so strongly, leading us along. He is aware of EVERY SINGLE one of His children. He knows their thoughts and their desires. He knows me.. Because the Savior died for me, I can be like God someday. I can do this! I just have to keep telling myself that. We are also white-washing the area, which means that there's only been sisters here for 1 transfer before us. Sister Divis is my trainer. Oh I mean my Trainee. Oh, she's both :) She is from Spokane Washington, we were in the same zone in the MTC.

I have been called to serve in Brunswich, Georgia! We were driving the other day and saw some road kill up ahead, which turned out to be an armadillo. We are in the DEEP south. There are all sorts of fun people here, and although I didn't learn a language in the MTC, I am learning one now! Georgian!

Where to start about our experiences thus far.. We have been doing all we can to study the 12 week training program each morning. Sometimes we laugh because in the booklet for trainers, it says "during week two, let your companion lead the discussion for the first lesson of the restoration, and help them to evaluate." Every discussion we give, we are both leading and sometimes it feels like the blind leading the blind, but Heavenly Father sent us here for a purpose!

On thursday night, we went out to find someone. We went down this random road in a trailer park, saw some people that were outside and thought maybe we'd go talk to them. We were both kind of nervous and didn't know if that's what we should do. We pulled over in a parking lot and said a prayer, expressing to Heavenly Father that we had no idea what we were doing and asked if we should walk down this road. After we prayed, we paused and I felt a VERY distinct thought in my head to walk down the road, like I've never experienced before. We walked down this road and met Tre (pronounced Tray). He is probably about 30 years old, black guy from Georgia, and asked us all about who we were and what we were doing. We gave him a book of mormon and I just connected with him when he asked us questions. The spirit was guiding our conversation, for sure. We invited him to church and we scheduled a return appointment. It was definitely a miracle that we found him and that Heavenly Father helped me to answer his questions the way Tre needed them answered.

We prepared for his lesson and were so excited to meet with him again! I was scared however, because I have never taught a REAL investigator, just people role-playing in the MTC. Oh and my trainer has never taught a real person either. hahahaha. Every day when I wake up I have to conciously say to myself that without having faith that God is helping me to grow, I will get nowhere. Our lesson was interesting.. We taught him on his front porch. Tre had all sorts of tangents he wanted to talk about, and has some very passionate religious beliefs. At the end, it felt like he had tried to teach US, which was frustrating, because we weren't able to fulfill our purpose as missionaries.  We told him we had to leave, and he asked when he could learn more. I said, "Tre, our purpose to help you build faith in Christ in order to repent of your sins and be baptized by the true priesthood authority so that you can have the holy ghost and be happy and return to God! I don't feel like we were able to do that today, and if you don't want us to teach you then we can't come back!" We challenged him to pray and to come to church and if he did that we could set up another appointment. And what do you know.. He was in church on Sunday with a purple dress shirt and tie. He said he had all sorts of questions about testimony meeting and wanted to know about Joseph Smith.. So we will be teaching him tomorrow with Brother Richardson, who is in the ward bishopric. I am excited and hope can humble himself in order to be taught by the spirit.

Sister Divis is really good piano player, so we asked the bishop if we could sing on Sunday before testimonies and he said it would be fine. I think that Tre and the ward felt the spirit as I sang I know that my redeemer lives. I didn't even cry at all. That's a first! We were given 5 referrals by members after the meeting!

I need to tell you about one more miracle with Jeraldine and Kembrough. Jeraldine is a recent convert and is the FUNNIEST HUMAN I HAVE EVER MET. She is a 50 year old black lady and I can't even understand half the things she says. Her testimony is SO strong, she loves the church with all her heart. We came over to read the book of mormon with her the other day and every time she reads something she likes, she mutters things like, "read it",  "praise Jesus", or "SAY it". When she talks about the church she calls it "my church of the Lattah day". We were reading with her and another member of the ward (who is an angel) named Juanita Green, when one of her neighbors popped his head in. He is probably about the same age as Jeraldine and she said "Get in here and read!" So he said he would listen and sat down with a book of mormon we gave him. He had all sorts of questions during the reading and wouldn't accept the answers we gave him without a scripture reference. It was awesome because when we talked about being baptized under the correct authority, you could feel the spirit so strong, that our church has the only true authority to perform priesthood ordinances on earth. My companion was leading the discussion, it was awesome! I felt the spirit prompt me so I said, "Kembrough, will you be baptized under correct priesthood authority?" The room went DEAD silent and my heart was beating 10,000,000,000 miles an hour. He said, "If I pray and I figure out its true, then ya I will." Works for me! He didn't come to church though, but I think he's just stubborn and scared. We have an appointment with him next week.

I am defintely having days where I am struggling with why I am here and if I am making any progress. I don't know how to evaluate how we are doing, so it frustrates me sometimes.. But I know that the key to EVERYTHING is obedience. If we exercise faith in being obedient to God, He will bless us every single time. He is making me into someone so much better than I have been. Sometimes those kind of growing pains are a little uncomfortable, but I know that whatever the reason I am here without a trainer is that Heavenly Father needs me to learn something so that is really internalizes.

I love you family. I miss you so bad! Please send me letters!! Send them to

273 Winding Trail, Brunswick, GA 31523

If you send them to the mission address, I won' tget it til zone conference. LOVE YOU FAMILY! So grateful we are sealed together in the temple!! Kiss tonya for me. I'll send pictures soon.

love, Sister Dodd

MAY 13, 2013

Well hey howdy hey my kin! (said in a deep southern accent)

How ya'll doing? Yes I do say ya'll now :) It was so good to see you all yesterday, holy cats. Mom, Happy mother's day. You seriously are the most wonderful mother I could ever ask for. Thank you for raising me in the gospel, and for making our home a place where the spirit can dwell. I have been into so many homes where the spirit is NOT present and you can physically feel the difference. Continue to have family scripture study and prayer ok? It is SOOOO important. Our families are the most important unit, they are a GIFT. THE most important. We can learn and grow so much within our families. SO grateful for our eternal family, I can't even describe. I don't know why I am so lucky.. I received your package today and it made my day! I love the shirts, they are totally ME :) I LOVE the CTR rings, I am going to give them to Tiger and Quay today, our 11 and 12 year old investigators. More about them in a minute :) Shirlene wrote me a letter this week, will you tell her how grateful I am for that? It was so uplifting and helpful. I love getting mail, it makes more of a difference than you know.

I told several stories yesterday but I am going to tell a little more about them. I had a tough few days this week. Missions are so hard some days. There are days when you do not want to get out of bed at 6:30, where you do not want to focus on your studying, or try to find new investigators. There are days when I would rather be alone, or with my family! Its real life! And these are the moments where I do all those things anyway and PRAY harder than I have ever prayed before. Because there are also days where the spirit is so strong in a room as you and your companion bear testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and you see light fill someone's eyes. There was one experience that I had this week as I prayed that I will never forget. I have been striving to come closer to Savior for the last couple of weeks. He is the center of EVERYTHING. He is the reason that we are able to be with our Heavenly Father again, the reason that we are able to repent and to experience joy in this life and in eternity! Not only this, but He loves us. He TRULY loves us, for all of our faults and our mistakes. He understands us. I was praying this week and asking Heavenly Father to help me feel Christ in my life. And as soon as I said these words, I honestly could feel the Savior. I don't know how to describe it. Its like He was right next to me, but more than that, it felt like He was right there in my thoughts, completely present. It was amazing. I love Him. I want to be more like him. That is how we can develop our relationship with Jesus Christ, by trying to be like Him. Read 1 Nephi 19:9. I really got a lot out of that this week. 

 I have only been on a mission for a month! I am not here in Brunswick, Georgia for myself.. I am here for God's children that have not been blessed with the hope of the gospel. So I will keep going! I have a responsibility!

I mentioned Tiger and Quay yesterday, but I wanted to talk about them a little more. They live in the ghetto part of town. This part of town we don't go into at night, and even in the day we have to be careful where we walk. Sister Divis and I stick out like sore thumbs, two white girls in bright clothes. We teach Tiger and Quay in their front yard because their mom is never home. When she is home, she doesn't listen in to our lessons, but is fine with us teaching her boys. We have to get her involved with our teaching, but she isn't super interested. I am praying so hard for her heart to be softened. These boys are so SHARP. We teach them about the Godhead, that they are three seperate beings. We ask them to pray about it, to pray about if God loves them. They do it, and say that they feel warm, they feel really good. They can feel the spirit, and they recognize that what we are teaching them is right! I have asked several times, "Do you want us to come back, do you want to learn more?" and they both anxiously reply, "YES!" Their pure nature amazes me. When I pray for them, I can picture them as young men in the church, examples to all their friends. I can picture them as men, getting married in the temple and raising their own children in the gospel. It makes me cry because I feel like this is just a piece of how Heavenly Father sees them, and I am trying to do all I can to help them get there. They understand things so well and are so anxious to learn more about the gospel and to feel the spirit more. I think that is a key way that we learn to love people.. By trying to look at them and their potential the way that GOD does. No one is not of value to him.

Sister Divis and I are getting better at starting lessons and navigating people's needs. We definitely have our moments where it feels like we are just idiots trying to explain the restoration to someone at a doorstep hahaha but we are idiots with testimonies!! I can see that we are getting better each day though :) We are constantly evaluating every encounter and saying, ok, how can we do better? What did we do well? I am grateful for her. We are SO different and we are both learning how to compromise and to help each other better.

I told you a little about the Bishop's family. The ward here is hilarious, I have no idea what's happening sometimes. The bishop is born and raised in Georgia and has this THICK accent. Dinner at his house was a zoo. His two sons and him are like yelling at each other (not in a mad way but they are just loud!) in their Georgian accents. He like talks to people from the pulpit and calls people out, like when his sons were passing out mother's day flowers, Bishop Wilson was at the pulpit and saying "hurry up!" and his sons yell back and say, "I'm trying!" haha it is great.

Well.. I love you guys. Thanks for everything you do. Tell the boys I love them. I pray for you every day!

Love, Sister Dodd (or Dood as some people think my name is here ;) )

MAY 20, 2013

Hello :)

I am emailing very late today, we have had a very hectic P-day. We moved from the Cannons house to our new apartment. It was sad!! It felt like saying goodbye to my mom again haha. I love the Cannon family so much, they've been good to us. My new address is:

1321 Old Jesup Rd

Brunswick, GA 31525

Don't send mail to the old place!

Our new apartment is fun, it is kind of nice to have a place to ourselves. I got Grandma Jody's letter, and Tonya's, and mom's and madi's and Brandon's.  I LOVE LETTERS. Thank you so much. I sent replies, but seriously thank you, it lifts me so much.

This week has had amazing days and super hard days. There have been a couple of families that we were really excited to teach and had set appointments with, only to show up at their door and hear them inside telling each other to be quiet so we would go away, or just not answering the door. Ouch. If only they knew what they were missing out on!

Tiger, Quay, and their mom Miss Tracey all came to church this week!! Miss Tracey loved it :) We learned about obedience in Sunday school and she even participated. Then we learned about temples in Relief Society. I leaned over to her and said, "There's a lot of new information you're going to hear, and not all of it is going to make sense right away. That's ok though! It will all come with time and as we continue to teach you and Heavenly Father gives you answers to your prayers." I think that made her feel better. At the end of the lesson, she told us she wanted to go there so bad! She was talking about getting baptized again, although I don't think she fully understands the significance of getting baptized in our church yet but it definitely got me EXCITED to teach her about it!! After relief society she said, "That's the end? I was just getting started!" I don't want to jinx it but I think we will have 3 baptismal dates by the end of this week!! Pray for Tiger and Quay and Tracy please :)

We had a really cool experience during the week that was SO funny. So I think I have mentioned Kembrough before. A little background: He is this black guy that's probably about 65. we have taught him a couple of times, and I extended an invitation for him to be baptized our first week here! He said he would be baptized if God told him he should. He is very very religious and loves the bible.  He has seen a couple of different sets of missionaries and always dodges appointments for himself but will show up for his friend Jeraldine's appointments. He is so funny and is always joking and when he talks fast I can't understand him because of his southern/black accent.

So our appointments all fell through one day. And all our backup appointments then fell through. Sister Divis and I were both so frustrated and didn't want to waste gas and miles, so we pulled over and prayed that we would know where to go. When we opened our eyes, Kembrough is walking around the corner right in front of us. hahaha. Heavenly Father is so funny. He wants to help us so bad! but He waits until we ask for that help to give us those blessings, until we exert our faith. We jump out and yell, "Kembrough!" We told him that our appointments fell through and we didn't know who to talk to. Kembrough said, "Well, just go knock on these doors, tell the people the good word!" He then hid behind a tree as we knocked on doors. We kept looking back at him and he was waving his hand like, "go on!" haha. Then a lady came out on her front porch and Kembrough ran over to her and started talking to her. We were a couple houses away from him and as I looked down the street at him, he motioned his head at us to come over. Sister Divis and I were laughing so hard because he appointed himself to be our third companion. We talked to her on her porch for a second and Kembrough says, "These ladies want to teach you the good word of Jesus, can they come in and have a bible study with you?" hahahaha. He comes in with us, so its the four of us talking about Christ and her relationship with God. Kembrough basically shares his testimony about how the gospel can bring her peace and joy and how she can be with her sister who died again. I was elbowing Sister Divis so hard the whole lesson because I wanted to laugh my head off. Kembrough made a return appointment with her too, for next week. I'm not sure what WE did..

I think that this experience was more for Kembrough then it was for this lady that we talked to.. He came to church on Sunday and really seemed to enjoy himself, although he said that church was too long.. :) Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I know that we were inspired to see him so that he could learn and establish his testimony through teaching someone else. 

I love the Savior, and I want to really KNOW Him.  I am drawing near to Him every day and I know that He is drawing nearer and nearer to me. (D&C 88:63) Read it!

Onward, ever onward!! 

I love you family! Talk to you next week. 

Love, Sister Dodd

PS If you haven't already, get the new conference ensign!! It is so great, I have studied a lot of the talks already. Elder Eyring was one of my favorites.