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 ;) )