Week 55

So this week we got news on Tuesday that President Robinson is changing the way we do transfers. From now on we will be getting our transfer news on Sunday, packing on Monday, and moving Tuesday morning. Which means I am still writing to you from Phoenix. I had this joke ready where I was going to be like, "well, I’m still in Phoenix!" and then be like, "but just for today!" Well, that bit me in the booty because we got our transfer news last night AND I AM STAYING IN MY AREA. I have already told people from the ward that I was probably leaving... awkward. We were so convinced I would leave, but we had a feeling there would be a curve ball so when our district leader called with our transfer news we put the phone on mute so he wouldn't hear our reactions. Lets just say I am so glad we did. There was a lot of shock and screaming. Not bad screaming, just like insane, ‘what even is life’ screaming. It was kind of fun though because we are in a trio and the other sisters were with us all huddled around the phone. We were all guessing where I would go... not IF I would go. But that being said, I am so excited. I LOVE this area and it feels so right to be staying. 

Last day as a trio!

Right now we are in a trio with Sister Pusey because her companion finished her mission and went to the mission home yesterday. And she just happens to be Sister Jackson’s next companion. Sister Jackson will be going to another branch in the same stake (still Phoenix) where she will be doing all Spanish work. Her companion, Sister Pusey, came out with her - so that is pretty fun. My companion’s name is Sister Garcia. A fluent Spanish speaker *praise*. I have heard great things about her and I am so excited for this next adventure. I think sometimes when I realize that I could be doing better I just say, "I will wait until my next area, (or next whatever) to fix that." I think this is Gods way of saying ‘Sister Doxey, you need to figure out how to improve yourself without changing your circumstances.’ So I’m excited. Plus, Downtown Phoenix is really the best place ever; there are so many people to talk to and so many people who need the chance to hear about the gospel. 

That was the main news of the week. Way different than what any of us were thinking, but it also just feels right. Fun fact, by the end of the transfer I will have been in the same apartment in central Phoenix for a year straight. Woohoo! The sisters we live with will also be switching up their companionship. The sister who came in with Sister Jackson is going to Mesa, and Sister Teniza (my old companion) will be training a new missionary. Sister Teniza and Sister Garcia have actually been companions before too, so it is going to be a blast to all live together. 

This week we had a lot of really good experiences. The members in our ward are getting so into missionary work and it is amazing to see. We have the best ward mission leader ever who gets people so pumped up about missionary work. We now have people coming up to us asking if they can go out with us! They really are such good examples to me about all we can be doing as "regular members" to help the work. 

We had a cool experience a few days ago. We went to go teach this woman who is a recent convert to the church. We just started teaching her after she was baptized. We went to her apartment and her roommate answered and said she wasn't home, but she was doing laundry. When we were going down the stairs we saw the laundry room and her inside so we just went and had a lesson in there. It was crazy because it was so loud with all of the machines running - and a few people came in and out - yet it was probably one of the most powerful lessons on the Atonement I have ever had. It was nice to feel the spirit in an unusual place and realize that God just wants us to feel at peace and be happy, no matter where we are or what our circumstances. 

A storm rolled through Phoenix - great
to have a little rain!

We had a really fun service activity this week. We came together as a zone and made cards that an organization will sell and give the money to a shelter. It was so relaxing to just make cards for an hour. But we’ll be back to real life next week when our service project is an outside yard clean up like normal.

Other than our normal lessons we have mostly just been contacting in 115-degree weather all week. It's the best! I love talking to people. And the good thing about Phoenix is that you rarely accidentally talk to the same person twice without recognizing that you have talked to them before (although that did happen to me once and it was a little awkward).

"Hey have you ever talked to missionaries before?"

"Yeah... you…"

“My bad!”

As crazy as it is that I am staying, I am so pumped to get to continue teaching these people and find new people to teach. Thank you for everything. I love you all - have a great continuation of summer! (I am a little confused about when school starts because kids go back to school next week here…)

Sister Doxey

Week 54

We had a zone party today in this giant skyscraper condo. It was...Interesting. We just ate and hung out together for a few hours. Everyone brought food (Holla at our otter pops - we still have about 200 in our freezer and another hundred at the church) and then we all crammed into the owner’s living room to take a picture. Sadly you can't see the view - we were on the 32nd floor, so you could see all of Phoenix. Way cool.

Overall this week went really well! I started off the week going on exchanges with a good friend in the mission. She was actually trained by Sister Martinez just like me. It was great to spend the day with her, but sadly it was just a very strange day to be on exchanges. We were in my area, and it was like every lesson we went to the person randomly wanted to talk wayyyy more than normal. But it all worked out in the end.

We finally got to bring our recent convert to the temple. Last week we tried to go but had to cancel last minute. This week we had four members lined up to go and they all backed out last minute, so we just went without them. It was such a good experience and the spirit was so sweet. Every time I go to the temple I realize how much I was craving to go, and now I just want to go back. He also passed the sacrament on Sunday so that was cool to get to see.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. We had some good lessons and found a few more people who we will hopefully get to start teaching soon. It was a week full of just talking to people (which is one of my favorite things to do). But sadly that makes for a pretty lame email.

This is the last week of the transfer so the next time I write I might (well, probably) will be in a new area. It’s weird to see people for the last time and realize it will most likely be a while until I get to see them again. I have grown to love this area so much. I feel like I went to my first area to learn how to be a missionary, and I came to this area to learn how to love being a missionary. These people have helped me grow and love and just be happy on my bad days. I am forever grateful for these people, not only those who I have taught, but for the members who are some of by biggest examples. I feel so blessed.

This week starts a new adventure and I can't wait to see where God puts me. I hope you are all having great week (especially the fam in Yosemite #shoutout - please don't die on Half Dome)!

Love,

Sister Doxey

Week 53

We met the new mission president this week. Well, officially we had our "meet the mission president" meeting. President Robinson is AMAZING. I feel so blessed to be in this mission and get to learn from him. He gave a training and his wife gave a little one too. They know the gospel so well and they are very good teachers. They know the right combination of how much to involve the group and how much to teach on their own. We have interviews at the beginning of August, which will be really cool.

I went on exchanges in Mesa this week. It was so...different. Being a missionary in Mesa is hard because everyone is either a member or has been talked to about the church 10000 times and is 100% not interested. It's a lot of less-active work, which has never been my strong suit, but it was a great experience. We also got to go on one of the Indian reservations for a YSA lesson, which was sweet. I have now been on an exchange (spent 24 hours) in every zone in the valley. I like them all, but let's just say I am very happy I have spent my whole mission in downtown Phoenix. There is nothing else like it. Which probably means I am jinxing myself and I will be leaving soon.

We got to go to the park on the Fourth of July and just talk to people for about two hours about the gospel. It was way fun. We also got to see some of the fireworks as we walked home. Other than that it was a normal p-day so we didn't do too much. We went and bought a TON of otter pops to give out as we talked to people and only like 100 of them froze on time (not to move the blame, but some people forgot to change the temperature on the freezer and it was on low...) so we have two church freezers just FULL of otter pops. Oops.

Miracle of the week. We try to talk to everyone we see, and probably 3% say we can come back. So we had one lady say we could come back before girl’s camp, but the day we went she wasn't home. So it was about a week and a half until we actually got to contact her again. She let us in and we had a great lesson about the restoration and she was super awesome. One of the youth from our ward gave a very sweet testimony and it was just so cool.

Last week we cleared our investigator pool, so we had no one to teach. We were just praying for miracles. This week we have an investigator with a baptismal date, a progressing investigator, and three other new investigators. The work is starting to move and I love it. Prayer and fasting works. God is always listening to us, we just have to ask for help.

I don't have any pictures from this week, but I sent the hike pictures from girl’s camp. My back was even more impressively sweaty in person. Love those girls who went with us!

Thanks for the emails, prayers, and encouragement! I love you all - have a great week!

Sister Doxey

Week 52

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

I am writing from the McDonald’s near our house because it's the only place with wifi that is open right now. We had a fantastic week this week! So, we went to girl’s camp. I ended up driving this big white van (those 12-seater creeper vans) and I was super freaked out but it ended up being totally fine. Well…sort of. We just followed the bus that had the girls in it and they ended up taking a rout that was twice as long as the one we were supposed to take. So the Elders that were waiting to take the van for us had to wait two hours at a Taco Bell. Oops. And then I got an email today saying my TIWI report came back yellow from aggressive driving (TIWI is the device installed in missionary cars to monitor our driving). Ha ha - my bad. But it's all good because sister Jackson is the designated driver anyway. So I guess that proves that I am really not a good driver. But to be fair, that huge van going over bumps is pretty easy to set TIWI off.

So we drove up to camp on Tuesday, and it was just a blast. We taught a class on nature and personal revelation which went well. I learned that I am horrible at making friendship bracelets. Literally the leader of crafts (who is like the best ever - I practically adopted them as my mission family and I am trying to get their daughter to marry Cooper) said that I should just stay on my mission because that's where my skill set is. On Wednesday we split up and went on hikes with the girls. Sister Teniza and I went on the third year hike, which is the hardest hike. We went on a hike called "switch back trail" so it was basically as good as it sounds. It took six hours to get up and down and my feet hurt SO bad afterward. But it was so pretty so it was worth it. There was this sweet young woman who was kind of struggling so we were sticking back with her and when we got to the top she looks at me and says, "Hey I figured out why my backpack was hurting me...I forgot to unpack my scriptures!" Hahaha so that was hilarious. But she made it and I was so proud of her!

My goal for girl’s camp was just to make sure all the girls had a friend and were having a good time. We had a few girls who were struggling at the beginning of the week, but we kind of played matchmaker and by the end of the week they were having a good time. It was so cute! And all of the girls went to church that Sunday so we were just so happy about that. The food was great. They even had fresh baked cookies made every day at 2pm, so that was sweet. It was a lot like our girl’s camp but a lot smaller. We had the same cabins as our camp in Oregon. We were in the staff cabin. It was kind of weird to be an adult.

Then I got picked up on the way home by the same big van and drove down to meet the new mission president. He is perfect for the mission. He is chill but wants us to work hard. He is so nice and his wife is just the sweetest. I am still going to miss the Sweeney's but the Robinsons are perfect for the mission right now. They came to the Elder’s baptism in the branch, so we got to meet him and he really is just so supportive. We have our official “meet the mission president” tour tomorrow. Plus we are doing a big contacting event tonight that he might go to. Basically I am not nervous about him at all. I just have such a testimony that the people that are put in our lives are there for a reason. I have yet to have a reason to think otherwise.

After camp, we had exchanges with the YSA sisters. I was with this really sweet sister, Sister Fukushima. She is from Japan and holy moly we had so many miracles! The biggest one was that we found a new investigator for them. We were studying and I looked at her Japanese Book of Mormon and I remembered a girl from my last area (who I haven't seen in over seven months) who lives right down the road who LOVES all things Japanese. She just graduated high school so she is now YSA age so we decided to stop by and meet her. We knocked on the door and she answered with her friend who is also really into Japan. So they let us in and we had a great little get to know you. She loved Sister Fukushima and all her japan-ness and she felt comfortable because we knew each other pretty well. Sister Fukushima invited her to church and to the YSA activities and she said she would love to go. I was pumped. It is just crazy that the spirit can put memories and names in your head right when you need them. We found quite a few new people for them to teach. I have such a testimony of just opening our mouths and inviting people to learn more. I think that’s a skill that I’ve learned I have on my mission. It doesn't bother me to just talk to any stranger about the gospel.

Actually, we had a cool experience like 20 minutes ago. We were standing in line for an ice cream at McDonald's (don't judge me its 111 degrees outside) and I started talking to the lady next to me. Turns out she used to meet with missionaries and wanted them to come by again. So we got to exchange information. Way cool!

Our area has been struggling in the investigator department. We just don't have enough people to share the great message that we have with. This week for fast Sunday I simply fasted for a miracle. THREE NON MEMBER PEOPLE came to church and came up and asked us if we could start teaching them. Like that just does not happen. I gained a testimony of fasting - that's for sure.

So I am basically just on a high from all the miracles we have seen this week. I love my mission. It is so weird to hear of people coming home so soon because it just brings up such mixed emotions. I love my family, but I have a new family here in Arizona too that I love to death. Our recent convert received the priesthood this week and that was a special moment to get to witness. He is dong great and is just so happy. I love when the gospel makes people's lives happier! Blessings.

Ok I feel like this email was just a little spazzy but I am just so happy. I really love my life and all the people in it. I love being so dedicated to one thing and being able to put all my energy into it. And man I am beat tired, but it is so worth it. I can literally fall asleep in the middle of a conversation but you just keep moving your feet and go forward and it works out ok.

Thanks for the emails and the pictures and the love! Sending it right back to you.

Have a great week!

Sister Doxey