Week 64

Advance warning: this is going to be a super short email. Sorry 'bout it.

This week was just packed full of lessons, service, and exchanges.

I was on exchanges on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Tuesday I was with Sister Demille in her area ON BIKE. The first hour and a half we were out and about on bike before lunch was so fun and I felt so good getting a little extra exercise - it made me weirdly happy. By the end of the day I literally thought my rear end was going to fall off. There are so many hills in Taylor that I thought I was going to die. Luckily, I didn’t fall too behind and made it up every hill without walking the bike. Pro. By the end of the night I was very happy to have my car back. Its funny how close everyone's areas are here in Taylor and how different they all are. They are all great though!

My second exchange was on Thursday and I was with Sister Gulley. She is so cute and she is from Rexburg, so she knows a lot of the people I went to BYU with. We were in her area, which is about 25 minutes away from Taylor in a town called Showlow. It was so windy and we ended up spending most of the day contacting people trying to find more people to teach. We had one cool experience where we were walking past this one door and we both stopped and said we needed to knock on it. When we did it was a family with a mom, dad, and four kids. They let us come in to share a message and then invited us back. It was such a blessing to find a new family to teach after a long day of contacting. I love Sister Gulley; she is so fun to be around. Plus we got to be in her truck, which was fun.

This week we did service twice. We got to help clean the church on Monday - that was really relaxing and we got to spend an hour with two people that we are teaching so it was even better. Then, later in the week, we did some yard clean up for someone who needed help. It brought back nice Phoenix memories (except for the fact that I was in a long sleeve shirt and a jacket). I also got to use the weed-whacker and it made me feel way cool.

As for awesome lessons, I really wouldn't even know where to start other than that I know we had them and I am so grateful for this time in my life where I get to spend all day everyday talking about Christ and his Atonement. Not everyone gets this opportunity, and I feel very blessed to be here.

I am still adjusting to Taylor and still miss Phoenix sometimes. But overall it is great here. The people are all just the nicest, most humble people and are all so willing to help out.

I hope you are all having a great week - I love you all! Stay safe,

Sister Doxey

Week 63

This week was jam packed with lessons. The members here are so good at telling us of people to go see, so we have been keeping VERY busy. I normally like to talk to my roommates at night, but this last week I have crashed like a half hour or more before I needed to go to sleep. My bed here is so much more comfortable than my last bed. I didn't realize how bad that mattress was until I got a new one. It's like sleeping on a cloud every night. A weird thing about serving in the mountains is that everything is a half hour earlier. So we wake up at 5:45 everyday to go exercise and are back to the house by 8:30 to plan. I honestly think my body likes this schedule better, which I was not expecting. I think it tricks itself into thinking I am getting more sleep because I go to bed earlier. So that's a positive.

This week we had a lot of good meetings. We had a district meeting where we talked about faith and that was really nice, and then we had another meeting on Friday where I got to see a bunch of my friends that are still serving in the valley. It was way nice to see them so soon after leaving! That meeting was in Payson, which is about a two and a half hour drive from Taylor (but only because we had to go the long way to pick up some other sisters). On the way there we saw that there was some smoke but we couldn't really tell what was going on. On the way back we could see a huge forest fire. There were a bunch of fire fighters and those helicopters that drop water. It was a little freaky! There were little burning bushes right next to the road and it was so smoky. Payson looks a lot like Oregon at the gorge so it was a little freaky to have a huge fire! So that's what those pictures were from.

The forest fire on our way home from Payson

This week my companion and I had a unique opportunity to go to an addiction recovery class to help someone that was struggling. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission, which probably sounds a little weird. It was just so cool to be in a room full of people who openly accepted that they needed help from a power that was beyond their own abilities. Everyone was so open with what they were struggling with and it was an honor to sit in and feel of Christ's love for every person in the room.

We had a lot of experiences this week where we would plan our whole day out in the morning and then when we’d pull up to someone’s driveway they would get home at the same time. It was nice to see how much God is in the work and how even the simple things, like timing, we can be helped with.

Me and Sister Israelsson

This isn't the longest email ever, but there isn't too much else to report on. We continue to get a ton of corn. It's getting colder but it's not too bad. Our apartment is probably the coldest place, which is ridiculous. The other day I was wearing a dress, sweater, fleece jacket, hoodie, fuzzy socks, and had my fuzzy blanket to study. But then I went outside and it was like 80 degrees. We should probs get our thermostat checked...

Hope you all are enjoying September! Have a great week,

Sister Doxey

Week 62

Well here I am in Taylor, Arizona. It is so far from what I was expecting - it’s all farmland! There are only 2,500 people in this town, and there are 7 wards. That should give you a good idea of how many members there are here. When contacting, I normally just ask if they are members within the first minute of talking to them if it didn't already come up. Just for your information, the address to send anything to is "PO Box 901 Taylor, Arizona 85939" This town is so small it doesn't deliver mail to your house, only to the post office. It's like adorable and insane at the same time. It is so different from Phoenix that it took a few days to adjust. I think I was just super home sick for Phoenix the first two days that I wasn't really myself. But it's all good! I really love it here it is just SO different.

So we cover two wards: Taylor 3rd and Taylor 6th. Taylor 3rd is on the outskirts of town, so it is a LOT of farmland, and takes a good 15 minutes to drive out to (that's a long drive for Taylor). The people are all so nice, and even when they really don't want to talk to you they will still say, "but stop in if you ever need anything, we are happy to feed you anytime!" Taylor 6th Ward covers a good sized neighborhood and a cute trailer park. The people are all so sweet there too. My companion was called English speaking, so I cover all of the Spanish work in Taylor, and the nearby city called Snowflake, all by myself. It's kind of weird but it's super fun! The 6th Ward is the magnet ward for Spanish. There isn't enough work to be a real branch, but we have translation for anyone who comes.

My awesome new companion

The leaders of the wards - the bishops and ward mission leaders - are

AWESOME. The day after we got into town, one of the bishops took us on a tour of the Ward and told us who lived in almost every house and what the likelihood of being able to teach them was. It was so nice, especially because no one has a real address here! And even if they do, the GPS can only get us to it 75% of the time. We got to go to PEC (leadership meeting) in both wards this last week and both wards turned the time over to us first to talk about the missionary work and how they could help. It’s like a dream! It makes our lives so much easier when the ward is involved and wants to help!

So the elders who we are taking over for had agreed to talk in sacrament meeting, so when we got into the area the Bishop asked if we could speak instead. Of course we said yes (even if I didn't really want to), so we gave talks about service yesterday. They went pretty well. It was a good way for the members to get to know us a little bit more. Plus service is awesome, so it wasn't that hard to talk about for 10 minutes. Our Sundays are packed with meetings. We have our first meeting at 7am and they don't stop until 4pm. That is going to be my life every Sunday. We have to pack a lunch so we don't forget to eat on our way from meeting to meeting. One of our meetings overlaps with the ward's regular church meetings, so we have to leave early, which is a real bummer.

Culture shock

I just finished unpacking my bags today. Turns out I have way too much stuff. Not really, but it was hard to pack and unpack everything! I'm starting to feel at home here. We live in a little duplex with members living next to us. We live at the top of a little hill and the view is awesome with all the farmland and animals. It was a little weird when we had a lesson our first full day in the area and a cows mooing kept interrupting us. There are a ton of horses and cows everywhere and there is even an emu down the street from us. We went to visit a family from the ward and they were just going out to feed all their animals so we got to see their horses and sheep. They also have pigs and goats and stuff but we didn't venture to that side of the farm - we weren’t wearing the right shoes for it. Oh, and I checked off another item of my missionary bucket list, I got bit by a dog! Not hard enough to break the skin or anything, but the little devil just ran up to me and chowed down on my wrist. I’m not a huge fan of animals, so I hope I can just fake it till I make it over here.

The people here are so incredible and I just love being here. I haven’t fully gotten out of the feeling like I am going back to Phoenix at the end of the week, but hopefully that will wear off soon. The weather is another huge change from Phoenix. I have been wearing long sleeves, a sweatshirt, fuzzy socks, and a fuzzy blanket to study and sleep in because our apartment gets so cold! It's pretty nice outside, like 70s-80s, it just feels SO COLD coming from Phoenix! I keep asking the members what the winter is like here. They said we have like 4 more weeks of ok weather and then it will get really cold. Some years it snows, some years it doesn't. But it does get down to freezing temperature every year. I'm actually pretty excited, because it is way more comfortable to wear cold weather clothes than warm weather clothes.

I love you all and hope you have the best week ever, I will be living the dream over here in Taylor!

Sister Doxey

Week 61

Wow, this has been a week of shockers and I really am just a little frazzled to be honest. We got our transfer news yesterday and I am leaving. My heart is breaking a little to leave this home that I have grown to love more than anything. That being said, I am also way excited to start this new adventure! My next area is in the Snowflake area (so up in the White Mountains). I am leaving the heat just in time to get the cold season up there. It is a completely different culture on that side of the mission. There are a lot less non-members so it changes the way you do missionary work. I am way pumped for the chance to try it out and learn how to become a better missionary!

Saying goodbye

This week we got to have zone training meeting (I have been in this zone for over a year, so it’s weird to think that that was my last one here) and it was SO good. We made a conscious decision to change the way we did our meeting so that it would be about building the faith of the members of our zone, and not just about giving trainings and getting commitments. It was the best ZTM I have ever been in. The spirit was so strong and I learned so much about how I can become a better person. I loved it so much.

This week we also got to go to the Mesa temple visitor’s center with a less active family in the branch. They were a very active family, but they didn’t come to church for about two months, so we went over to figure out what was going on. They said they had just fallen out of the habit of going to church. We invited them back and they came the next week. Then when we took them to the temple it was the craziest change in the father’s attitude. We walked around and he was just so excited to be back and to reset his goal on the temple. He was singing hymns the whole ride home. So presh. 

At the Temple

Our investigator came to church again this week and it was so awesome to have him there. By that point, I knew I was leaving so I said goodbye. It was so bitter sweet! Saying goodbye is so hard, so I just say see you later.

Not much else to report over here. I had some awesome lessons with some awesome people, but I have never found a good way to express how I feel when I teach these people. Hopefully I will have more to report on next week with my new area and new companion! I meet her tomorrow and I am so pumped!

Love you all so much!

Sister Doxey