Week 68

This is going to be a very short weekly email. Just putting that out there. This week has been very mentally exhausting. At the beginning of the week, one of the sisters we live with got hurt. She is normally on bike so we had to share our car with them this week. The only problem is it is a 20-minute walk to get to the very closest part of our area and probably an hour and a half walk if we were going to try to get to our other ward boundaries. It made me very impressed by all the missionaries that walk their whole missions. I'm so ready to be fully in a car again! Scheduling the car exchanges is the worst part though because we already had set lessons that we have to figure out how to get to. It’s not like small town Taylor has public transportation.

This week we had no meetings because of transfers, which was really nice, but turns out I actually work better when my schedule is tighter. But it was good to be able to be busy with a lot of lessons and contacting this week. We found two new investigators and one of them is on date to be baptized. It makes me so excited.

Surprise visit from Sister Martinez

We were at a missionary fireside last night where a few recent converts shared their experiences and people preformed musical numbers. It was a great fireside and president Robinson was there. Him and Sister Robinson gave great talks. After the fireside it was 8:00 and we go inside by 8:30. Our district leader, with great intentions, said he was just going to have our weekly call ins right then. My companion and I decided to go out and [as my companion would excitedly say] "find a miracle." So we left and went to a little trailer park in our area for the last half hour. We normally don't go there at night just because it is hard to see - there are NO lights in Taylor. But we went to our recent convert’s house and they were going to sleep so we just set up an appointment. We were about to leave and their dog peed on my poor companion’s shoes. I was dying laughing telling her that that was our miracle for the night. She didn’t think that was as funny as I did.

But she is a trooper so she stuck it out for one more house. We ended up going to this part-member family’s house that we have been trying to contact for six weeks. THEY WERE HOME. And not just that, the mom had just gotten back from watching General Conference in Utah and said that she wanted to be baptized. We set a date with her right then. It was so cool that we had decided to work until the very end of the night and were blessed because of it. As a missionary actually getting to teach people is the best experience, so when you find someone new to teach it’s a happy day.

That’s basically it from this week that I can think of off the top of my head. Thank you for all of your support!

I love you all,

Sister Doxey

Week 67

This week was again packed full of meetings but it was actually really nice to learn from a lot of people. On Tuesday we got to go to the Snowflake temple and do a session. I have never been in one of the small temples before but it was so cute! I just love being in the temple - it is always so nice to just feel the spirit and regain your energy for the week. On Wednesday and Thursday we had zone training meetings. On Wednesday we went to the Showlow zone's meeting and then had the Snowflake zone meeting on Thursday. Both were great and taught exactly what the members of the zones needed to learn and grow for this upcoming transfer.

Speaking of transfers, transfers are today! Sister Cahoon and I are staying together in our same areas. We were more surprised that we stayed together than we would have been if we split up. Not that we want to split up - I love sister Cahoon. We are super excited for another transfer. We finally have a good idea of the people in our area and the area itself so this transfer is going to be super nice.

Sisters we go on exchanges with

Selfie

Right now we are working with a family and two of the kids are going to be baptized next month. We are also working with a woman who is a few years older than me who will also be getting baptized next month. It is so sweet to see how excited people are when they truly understand the gospel and what it can do for them. It is definitely a testimony builder when I see people who start living the teachings of Christ and they just become so much happier. Not that they weren't happy before, but they understand how much Christ really did for them and how that can affect our day to day lives. I am so grateful for the gospel in my own life and for the peace I get every time I read the Book of Mormon.

I don't have too much to write about this week, I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Sister Doxey

Week 66

This week was another week full of meetings. Which made it go by very quickly, but we had a lot less lessons than I would have liked.

The best part of my week by far was this morning. Two of the districts in our zone got to go and help clean and move furniture around in the Snowflake temple. It was such a cool experience! It was cool that even though we were just doing maintenance, the spirit and the peace of the temple was still there. It was just a nice way to start of my P-day. I wish we could go every week! It really helped me clear my mind and get ready for this upcoming week. This upcoming week is also going to be a week full of meetings. We get to go to the temple again tomorrow for an actual session. As much as I loved cleaning the temple, I am even more excited to do work in the temple! As a mission, we get to go to the temple quarterly.

The Snowflake temple we cleaned

This week our main meeting was when we had our mission tour. Elder Zeballos of the 70 came and talked to us about the role of the Holy Ghost, happiness, and missionary work in general. It was so good and I learned a lot about things that I could do better at - as a missionary and as a person. That was on Thursday, and then on Friday sister Ho Chee and I got to ride in a big 12-seater van with a bunch of missionaries to Scottsdale to hear Elder Zeballos talk for another hour and a half. And then right after we drove back up! So that was 8 hours of travel for that small meeting, but it was totally worth it. We talked about how our zones can improve with our teaching, and how to further the work.

Not gonna lie, the best part of that whole day trip was that when we got to Scottsdale, the Valley missionaries were all at the church next to the mission office eating lunch after their mission tour meeting so I got to see all the missionaries that I used to serve with and three of my previous companions. It was so nice to see and talk to them all for a few minutes. It did make me miss serving in the valley though. When I left Taylor it was 40 degrees and in Scottsdale it was 100. Weirdly the 100 degrees just felt SO good. It felt like home. Then we had to go back to the cold and it made me sad. But all is well; I am quite fond of sweaters so I am making it. Or at least faking it until I make it.

Crazy face of me opening the gate for the cattle
in the most rural part of our area

I also got to go on an exchange this week in Eager. Eager is a town a little over an hour away from Taylor and it is a little smaller than Taylor. I was with Sister Oldham. We went on an exchange forever ago when we were both serving in the valley. That was one of my favorite exchanges I have ever been on so it was so nice to be with her again. We’ll also go home together, so it was nice to be in the same place on the mission and have a lot of the same feelings and we just got to talk (and work of course) all day. I loved it. At dinner I had elk meat for the first time. It was...interesting. They made it into Americanized tacos. I cannot tell you how many times I have had American Mexican food lately. Apparently it is everyone's favorite and my body is not happy about it.

That’s it I think. This transfer has gone by so quickly! Next P-day is the last P-day of the transfer, so by the next time I write I will have my transfer news and it will be packing day for anyone who is leaving. I don't think I will leave, but Sister Cahoon and I have a bad feeling we are not going to get to stay together for a second transfer. We will see! She is so patient with my craziness - I don't know what I will do with a new companion!

Thank you all for your support and prayers! I love you all,

Sister Doxey

Week 65

This was a super weird week, which always makes it go by so much faster. We had zone conference on Wednesday, which is when the mission president and the assistants to the mission president come up and train us on what will help us become better missionaries. It was so good and I always love learning from them. At the end they gave us each a proselyting copy of the Book of Mormon with the challenge to read it in 65 days (the amount of time it took Joseph Smith to translate it) and to mark all of the times it talks about the doctrine of Christ. So any time it mentions faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, or enduring to the end, or examples of those things. It was really cool to then watch conference and hear how many times they emphasized the doctrine of Christ. It made me realize how much we need to know the basics of the gospel to retain our testimonies.

So for conference, we watched three of the four sessions at the stake center. We watched the last session with this adorable older couple from our ward. It was nice to watch a session on a couch - not gonna lie. I love conference. If I am being honest, this was my third conference on my mission and I still can’t tell if I like watching conference on or off my mission better. But I learned so much for myself and for the people I teach. My favorite story that was shared was when K. Brett Nattress shared the story of his mom reading the Book of Mormon to him every morning. It made me think about the converting power of the Book of Mormon and again how important it is to go back to the basics. I am in love with reading the Book of Mormon. I just finished day three of reading while highlighting the doctrine of Christ and it has been so nice to use a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon and to focus on a topic. It really changes what you get out of it.

The only picture I have from this week at the sisters' meeting

I had one exchange this week with Sister Fisher. She is so fun and it’s always so nice to get to learn from other missionaries. She came into my area (so my poor companion was on a bike on the rainiest day we have had so far – it poured buckets) and we got to have a lot of lessons. The elders called us about half way through the day and said that they had set up a Spanish lesson for us for that night. Luckily we didn’t have anything set and we were able to find a member to go with us last minute. But it was SO much harder to teach a Spanish lesson with no help from my companion. That was my first real “lesson lesson” with a Spanish investigator without help. The member was awesome - thank the heavens he could come! But I made it through and the family is awesome. Their little boy is the most polite 12-year-old I have ever met in my entire life. It is so cool how they got introduced - his teacher gave him a Book of Mormon as a Christmas gift and then he wanted to learn more about it so we got to teach him and his mom. I love them!

Other than that, we had some lessons with really awesome people. We are trying to get our ward to visit the less active members so we can focus on finding and teaching the people who are hearing about the gospel for the first time. It has been going pretty well because we are finding a lot more people to teach! #blessed

I hope you all had a great week. I pray for you alllll the time. Love you all!

Sister Doxey