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