The Suite Life of Sister Dickson and Sister Burgoyne

 So, big changes. This Wednesday I was transferred to the Paonia area, which covers the towns of Paonia, Hotchkiss, Crawford, Somerset, Maher, Bowie, and Lazear. Our area is pretty big, especially considering we are staying at a hotel in Delta, which is forty five minutes away from Paonia. This means if we want to visit our area, it takes about an hour and a half of driving each day. Luckily, it's a pretty enough view. Delta is a small town where our hotel is, and once we leave town it's about twenty five minutes of desert and dunes with mountains in the distance, but then you hit the boarder of our area and it's green trees and farm land and pastures. These towns are in the middle of the mountains, so anywhere you turn a beautiful mountain will be towering above you. This is a beautiful area. It is the closest to Washington that I have felt in a long time. Green fields, trees, and mountains. All we need now is rain!

Sister Burgoyne is my new companion. She is fresh out of the online MTC. She was originally assigned to Argentina Santafe, but with everything that's been happening she is now here in Paonia, Colorado. She is energetic and so excited to be here. 

This are we are in is called Paonia two. Now that the number of missionaries has nearly doubled, many wards are now being served by two sets of missionaries. We are now serving the wonderful people of Paonia along side Elder Herrick and Elder Earl, two wonderful missionaries who have been faithfully serving this ward. Since we are technically opening this area, it's been a little slow trying to start to do work here, but we have already made so many wonderful friends here. It sounds like they haven't had Sister Missionaries here for over six years now, so everyone seems excited to hear that we are here to serve them as well! 

While exploring today, we discovered that Paonia is known as the creative town, and it is beautiful. On every street there is beautiful artwork on store walls. I included a few pictures of them in my weekly below;)

There have been a few hick-ups in this transfer, such as being forty-five minutes away from our area, packages being sent to wrong addresses, and losing signal so often while driving, but it is beautiful and exciting. New companion, new area, new possibilities, and I couldn't be happier to be here!

I am so grateful that I chose to serve a mission at this time!

Another transfer

 This has been a pretty fun week. Now that we share a car with Redlands, we have been doing more biking. Some days it can get up to about 100 degrees outside, so a LITTLE hotter then I'm used to. Luckily, it means I will hopefully be in shape and lose some mission weight. I just have to first survive the heat, haha. We did more service this week and had another fun picnic. One of the members from the Ward actually took us to an English Toffee Factory this week! She bought us ice cream, Toffee Lover flavor, and then she bought us a giant bar of Toffee, which is so rich and amazing. The members are so awesome. It will be sad to leave.

Yeah, we got transfer news this morning. In my last area I was there for six months. This area I've been in almost a month now, and it looks like I'll be leaving Monument area to go to the Payonia area. I will be leaving Thursday to drive an hour to our new area. My companion, Sister Makasini, will be staying here. I will be opening a new area in Payonia. This week we are getting 28 new missionaries, and one of these missionaries, Sister Borgoyne, will be joining me. I am in charge of showing her the ropes and helping her adjust, while trying to introduce ourselves to the ward. There are already Elders serving there, but with so many more missionaries coming in they will now have two companionships of missionaries serving. Sadly, the mission hasn't been able to find a lot of extra apartments for Missionaries to stay in, so we will be living in a hotel for the foreseeable future. It will be an exciting adventure to be sure. Before all of this happened, we had about 150 missionaries. Now, by the end of August, we should have 300 missionaries serving here. It is a crazy time to be serving, but it is so exciting and fulfilling. I have truly grown to love this ward and the friends I have made here. It will be so sad to leave, but I know this is where God needs me to be right now.

Hot Hot Hot!

 Wow, it is HOT here. Even as it started to rain a tiny bit, the sky was almost completely blue. Breezes aren't cold, they are like a hair dryer. Yet, God knew me enough to give me a swamp cooler and an air conditioned church building to work in. Haha, God will provide for our needs. 

I am doing really well. Oh, one exciting thing from this week is that we got four new Elders in our district, all reassigned from foreign mission, everywhere from Africa to Rio. Our mission has almost doubled in size. With the Monument ward, we are now sharing it with two Elders, meaning we take care of one half of the members and they take care of the other half. I've never served a ward with another companionship in it, so this is a VERY new experience, but it's a fun experience. We have almost no idea how to share a ward, none of us have had to do this in the past, but we are getting it figured out.

With the new Elders in the district, that means the Sisters over the Redlands ward had to give their car to them. Now Redlands and us carpool and share our car. Luckily, the Redlands Sisters are awesome and we don't mind sharing.

Oh, and this week we were able to do service and have picnics with members. We helped stain someone's fence, then we had dinner with them outside. On the 4th of July, we were invited to a small BBQ with a family from the ward. It was just them and two of their neighbors, so we were still within the rule of less then 10 people.  

Sorry, not much to report on this week. We are doing well, staying inside where it's cold. 

I am so grateful to be serving at such a time as this.

P.S. Today while shopping we found Herby the car😊

Rain!

 his has been another wonderful week. One exciting event is that IT RAINED!!!It started raining outside while we were at the church and I couldn't resist going and jumping and dancing in the puddles! Don't worry, I didn't get my shoes wet, haha. By the end I was a little soaked but I was VERY happy and excited. It felt like a personal gift God had sent me. It's funny, when it rains here it doesn't last very long, but the rain drops are huge globs of water coming down. The rain is surprisingly pretty warm, maybe bath temperature, and as soon as it stops raining everything dries so quickly. The cement will be bone dry only a few minutes later. But, while it rains, it's a joy and a pleasure to be able to go dancing in it. 

This week we got some exciting news from our Mission President. It sounds like this week we are getting another 28 reassigned missionaries joining us.  Plus, we were just given permission to be able to go on picnics and eat outside with people, as long as we wear masks for the most part (it's kind of difficult to wear it while eating, so it will be interesting to see how we manage that).

Sister Makasini and I have had so much fun this week in between lessons and appointments. She is so fun and bold and has a great sense of humor. She is very honest and is genuine with everyone. She's a great example to me. We are very different, but we work together well.

Oh, and another thing that happened. Last Sunday, to celebrate my birthday, I made hot pockets for the district. I have a tradition of making things for people on my birthday, and since I wasn't able to see them in person on my birthday I instead made them food for the next time I would see them, at district sacrament. I had sneakily figured out everyone's favorite favorite kind of pizza a few weeks before, haha. It was a hit:)

Then today while we were shopping a couple came up to us and said hi. We started chatting, and it turns out they are from Utah and they were down here to check on the business that they own down here, a Crumbl's bakery. They told us after we were done shopping that we should go over there and they would give us both free cookies for the service we've been doing. People here are so nice! Sister Makasini got a chocolate chip cookie and I got a s'more brownie cookie. It was delicious!

Overall, this was a good week.

I am so grateful everyday that I chose to serve a mission at this time.

I'm 20!

 Sorry but this will be brief...

This week went pretty well. We contacted a lot more members and we have made so many more wonderful friends. For my birthday, I everything from pajamas to portraits to piñatas

. It was such a fun birthday. It's crazy to think I'm 20 now. Crazy. 

We got to go to the track earlier this week to get a quick and fun workout. My companion is teaching me so much, such as basketball drills, fun exercises, and a lot about the gospel. It's amazing, with, with every new companion I learn so much from them. 

I am so grateful that I chose to serve a mission at this time. 

100 days of quarantine

 A few noteworthy events to mention:

This Friday will mark day 100 of quarantine! I am still alive, still doing the work, and I am so excited and grateful God trusted me enough to keep me here for this long. 

Last week Sister Beal, Makasini, and I were able to go on an early morning hike to Wedding Cannon. The view was great and I saw the coolest lizard at the end of the hike. 

The day I was transferred from Highlands Ranch, a package arrived for me from my Boma. Now, a few weeks later, I was finally able to receive that package after it was passed along from missionary to missionary over the mountains and to my doorstep. Inside she had a little taste of Washington for me. 

Yesterday Sister Makasini and I were a little late for sacrament. A half hour late to be exact. Luckily, I'm the one to make the sacrament bread so they couldn't start without us. Afterwards we began driving home when we saw we were almost completely out of gas. We drove to a nearby parking lot and called the Sisters to pick us up. The call didn't go through and we weren't able to get in contact with them for half an hour, then it took them a little while to turn back to pick us up. In the end we spent almost an hour in the parking lot. Below is a picture of us making the call to get a ride home. It was an adventure, and we are so grateful

to the Redlands Sisters for picking us up. The church we meet in is about half an hour drive from the house, so it would have taken a hot second to walk back. A very HOT second, since it's been clear skies and blazing hot the last few weeks. We are very blessed to have a car and two angel Sisters willing and ready to help us.

So tomorrow I turn 20. Wow, that's a big number. I'm kinda old now I guess... Since my birthday is on a Tuesday, we decided to celebrate it a day early that way I could open presents and celebrate with my family. It was so fun and I got such wonderful gifts, everything from food to pajamas and even crafts and art supplies to keep me busy. It's crazy that I'm going to be 20 tomorrow, but I can't imagine any way more worthwhile to celebrate then to be on a mission and doing the Lord's work. 

I am grateful everyday that I decided to serve a mission for the Lord at such a time as this.

Pics:

The food Boma sent

Us stranded in the car

The roses in the backyard are beginning to bloom

Wedding cannon

an awesome lizard.

82 days of quarantine, the miracle of the Sacrament

 This week has been really nice so far. I am beginning to love this area. We can see the monument from our house and the red cliffs as well. The roses in our yard are beginning to bloom. We were able to go on a hike to Devil's Kitchen, which has a beautiful view. 

Sister Makasini and I are both new to this area, and with Sister Beal leaving this Friday we were trying to think of some ways we could introduce ourselves to the ward when we don't go to church and never really talk to them face to face. We felt inspired to reach out to the youth, and one way we are going to try to do that is by making little friendship bracelets to send to them. No, I have never made a friendship bracelet before. Yes, I failed a few hundred times, but now I think I'm doing better. One of the things about missionary work that I am grateful for is that I get to learn so many new skills. I'm improving my cooking skills, learning how to do hair, sew masks, make friendship bracelets, I'm learning how to really study in depth, I'm working on my art skills, and so much more. I am so excited to see at the end of this marvelous experience how much I've been able to learn and how much I've grown. 

 

For the first time in ten weeks, I was able to take of the Sacrament. In preparation for having the sacrament with the district, I made a loaf of homemade bread, the same kind my mom makes for sacrament in our home ward. It was my first time making bread without a bread maker. It might have turned out looking a little strange, but it was so meaningful to me that the first time I am able to take the sacrament in so long and the bread was made by hand using my mom's recipe. It tasted like home.

After not being able to take the sacrament, it was such a sweet and memorable experience. We met as a district in the church, sang hymns, prayed, and the spirit was so strong we became speechless and some of us were even moved to tears. 

For the past few weeks I have been studying a lot about the sacrament and the teachings of Christ. I would read over the sacrament prayer and try to understand each phrase more fully then I had in the past. Because of this preparation, the sacrament is so much more meaningful to me now. I pray I will never forget this experience, so that I can always cherish

this amazing blessing God has given us.