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. 

She made it!

Hillary made it to Florida!

Dear family of Sister Dodd,

We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely
to the Florida Jacksonville Mission. What a great joy and privilege it is
to greet each missionary as they come off the plane in Jacksonville. The
smiles on their faces showed their excitement and readiness to be here.

Your daughter arrived with 24 other missionaries and they have enjoyed a
dinner together at the mission home, have been interviewed by President
Barry and were trained by the assistants. We have taken pictures and I have
attached a picture of her with President Barry and I. As you can see she is
well and happy although a little tired. 

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of
others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by
President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested
in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the
Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done to
prepare Sister Dodd to faithfully serve a mission. We look forward to
getting to know her as we serve our Heavenly Father here in the Florida
Jacksonville Mission.

Please accept our love and gratitude for trusting her to us and more
importantly to the Lord.

May God Bless You,

President James W. Barry and Sister Marilyn T. Barry