Week 56

Happy August everybody!

This week I started my sixth transfer in my area and my ninth transfer in central Phoenix. I love it! Once the shock of staying in Phoenix wore off, I was just very grateful to be staying in this area. We really have the best members and a really fun area of people to talk to. It was a little funny to go to church on Sunday with a new companion, everyone was just like...what? But it was way good. 

Speaking of church, we had a really cool sacrament meeting this week. It was a bunch of the youth giving short talks of their experiences with their youth conference. It was about five youth talks, one adult talk, and a very beautiful musical number. It was so sweet to hear all of these young people talk about their experiences coming to know the Book of Mormon. It was one of my favorite sacrament meetings I have ever been to. 

Helping Sister Jackson move her stuff

My new companion, Sister Garcia, is AWESOME. I have never been so tired, and it’s probably because we have not stopped laughing since being put together. It’s a slight problem. She is way fun to be around and gets my humor, which is a blessing. She just came down from serving in the mountains so the heat is a big change for her, but my goal is to help her fall in love with Phoenix the way I have. I think I am doing an ok job at it; there is a lot to love here!

Our investigator got baptized on Saturday, which was an awesome experience. Sister Jackson got to come to the baptism because she is so close; it was nice to see her. We had so much ward support with this baptism. Every seat in the room was filled and then there were some people standing in the doorway. It was so sweet to see everyone come together to support him in his decision to come closer to Christ. A few days before his baptism we had invited our mission president and his wife to come out to a lesson with us. Well he - the newly baptized, but then investigator - accidentally slept through the lesson and never showed. So that was probably not the best first impression with the new mission president. 

We have our first interviews with the new mission president tomorrow and I am so excited. I love the few one on one visits we get with the mission president. It is always nice to get to know him a little better and to find out what we can be doing better to improve ourselves and our areas. 

For some reason I am having a really hard time thinking of what happened this week. In some ways it feels like it has been a month since transfers, and in some ways I can't believe it is already Monday. We did our first yard clean up of the summer this week. They gave us a few months off from doing them because it has been so hot, but it was nice to go back to it this week. It was still way hot though. After about an hour I was spent. 

We had some really awesome lessons this week - it makes them 100 times better when members come out with us. The members have been so great to come out with us this week. It gives the people we are teaching a friend, but it also gives us a way to get to know them a little better, and I love hearing about everyone’s lives and why they love the church and the gospel.

Not much else to report on, the rest of the week we were just outside trying to find new people to teach. I love being here, not just Phoenix but my mission in general. It is the best experience I could have asked for and I am so excited to start this transfer off with a great companion!

Hope you all have a great week!

Sister Doxey