Checking out the new area

 

Hola Familia!

Que paso? No mas frijoles! Papas fritas en el cabeza, si? (Translation: What happened? No more beans! French fries in the head, right?)

 

So how y'all doing? How's life in good ole Utah? Is it hot? Is it cold? Is it yes? Is it no? It's been pretty cool here, with plenty of rain and lots of humidity lol so I have been sweating A LOT anyway...

So you saw Star Trek with Collin? That's fun, how'd that go? How is he; is he different, or is he the same criminal mastermind I remember lol?

 

My new area is okay; the ward is really nice, but the work is even slower here than it was in Conyers lol; oh well. Paper Mill ward is very close to John's Creek and Kennesaw, so I have seen a few familiar faces, which is fun; it's cool to be recognized by members; makes me feel like I made an impression on someone there... in Conyers no one really remembered me from last time lol... The ward is pretty big; maybe like 200 people come to church (a lot bigger than Conyers, but not quite as big as John's Creek...). The apartment is pretty good, it's just too small for three people lol; it's certainly the darkest apartment I have slept in, which is nice because I am a light sleeper (get it? Light? Ha!)...

 

It will be kinda fun to move back into my old house; there is nothing I would want to do more than to move a house with y'all and go through all my old stuff lol! Sounds like a blast and a half! Would that be before or after they release me lol...?

 

My week:

Monday I didn't get to e-mail very long because I didn't have a library card yet; you have to have a letter than proves you live in town, and I didn't get one til the other day; now I have 1 hour instead of 30 minutes lol so I gotta be quick!

Tuesday I lead our District to victory in a glorious district meeting, then had lunch at Chick-fil-A; then we went to help a lady who we asked if we could help with service. We ended up going over there pretty much every day this past week (she was the landlady trying to get this home repaired before she has to go back to work in Florida, so we figured she needed our help...) and we painted A TON! I gotta be a professional by now lol! We had pretty good religious conversations with them (the mom and daughter), and gave them both Book of Mormons before they left, and got their info so we could send the missionaries over; I hope it all works out! We invested a lot of time painting their house lol; we didn't paint their house with any motive or agenda other than being charitable, of course, and if that is all that comes of it, we have done our part; I just hope this will soften them up to missionaries in the future...

Wednesday we got in a small bash with this Russian Orthodox guy in Kroger; Elder Christensen's first bash in the mission lol how sweet! It's strange how people don't see the similarities of the scriptures in our day; Jesus and His prophets and apostles never went looking for a fight; they never tried to tear down someone else's faith; they shared and taught and helped, and rebuked on occasion (but only when it was very necessary), but they never tried to bash people; as I recall, it was the Pharisees that tried to bash on Jesus and His Disciples. I was reading Joseph Smith History this morning; he says that he felt like Paul before King Agrippa, trying to defend the vision he knew for a fact that he had, and that God was the author of it. It's so similar to Joesph's own story, and I don't know how people don't see that! This Russian guy wasn't being mean or anything; if fact, it was one of the more kind bashes I have been in. He came in with the intent to help us, so it's nice he was thinking of our eternal welfare; he just wasn't very good at trying to persuade us; more like argue with us...

I don't know why people put such little value in personal revelation; this guy wanted us to get the history books and get the leaders of our church and record an exciting debate to get to the point of the matter (an idea he was very excited about... us? Not so much lol...); we told him it wouldn't change anything, because we are both set in our ways about not believing the other party; they only thing that has the power to convert is the Holy Ghost. We told him he should pray to God and He would tell him; he showed us some obscure scripture in the Bible about how the heart can decieve, and we opened to Galatians 5:22-23 (my favorite verse to describe the spirit) and used the scripture he started with (when Jesus tells Peter that He will build his church upon the rock... a couple verses before that, we learn how to know whether Jesus is the Christ...), as well as Moroni 10:3-5, but I don't know if it helped. We politely ended our "debate" and got back to what we were doing. We'll see if he calls us and wants to debate again lol... he is a nice guy, don't get me wrong, and he has a sweet accent!

Friday night Elder Bowers' family played a trick on him lol; we got a call from a member in Suwanee who knew Elder Bowers parents and sister and brother-in-law and wanted to take us out to eat; we already had a dinner that night with Sister Sutherlin, so we agreed hesitantly to go get some ice cream afterwards. After dinner we go to Bruster's ( the local expensive ice cream place lol), and as we are standing in line, a kid runs by Elder Bowers; Elda B turns and says to me, "That kid looks just like my nephew..." Someone behind us said, "Hey, Johnny!" We wheeled around to see that Elder Bowers' sister, brother-in-law (who was a lineman for the Falcons), and his nephews! Ahh! Elder Bowers jaw dropped to the ground and he turned bright red; I was pretty shocked too; they were just driving through and wanted to see him; he was both happy and upset to see them, but it all worked out... I would flip if y'all came here to see me lol, don't get any funny ideas...

Saturday we had a picnic with the ward, and Sunday we had a cool broadcast by the Twelve and First Presidency on Missionary Work. Running out of time! See ya!

 

Love,

Elder Casey Guy Dickson

Happy Father's Day! (Mind the tornado, though)

Elder Iron Man!

 

Hey, Howdy, Hey! Happy Father's day!

So we had an explosive first week here in Marietta (the ward and area is Paper Mill, but the town is Marietta...). A decent-sized tornado came through and tore up a lot of the area we were in. We have spent the past few days cutting down trees and chopping up logs and sweeping up debris; it has been a very unique opportunity to serve those around us. It wasn't a major disaster, but it did ruin a lot of people's trees and knocked down a lot of power lines; it was kinda exciting...

 

I guess I'll explain the whole week before I get to Thursday...

Monday we were at Waffle House when we got the call about transfers... so spent the day in Covington at a member's house for P-day to have a last hurrah! Then I packed Monday night and Tuesday night (I have way too much stuff; I gotta get rid of more than half of it before I fly home...). Tuesday we had Zone Meeting, which is always fun; I made sure I got a pic with all my homies here in the mish! Word! After lunch I went to go say goodbye to a few families: the Pynes, the Noldens, Sister Wallace, etc.

Wednesday we got up early and borrowed the zone leader's car so we could get to Lilburn; after dropping me off with Elder Bowers, and picking up Elder Meyers for Elder Moore, we drove to Lilburn to pick up a "visa waiter" named Elder Christensen. His call is to Australia, but he has to wait for his visa, so he is here with us; so technically Elder Bowers and I are co-training him... I finally have a son! The Dicksonian legacy will live on... in Australia lol! He's kinda quiet, but they all are until they get their bearings; he is a bit disappointed about not being in his mission, but he'll do good here, for however long that is. Means we are in a trio... again! Last time I was in a trio I was with Elder Bowers and Elder Youd (have any y'all seen him in Utah? He's been back since April...); I've never done a trio on a bike, so this should be interesting lol...

We have sisters in our distict, the first time in my mission: Sister Blaylock (the trainer), Sister Carrigan, and Sister Parker (both trainees) and we share the ward with them. They are pretty funny and really nice; some of them are the younger sisters (20 or just turned 21), so they are more bright and sunny than some of the older sisters... especially those who have been out of their missions a while lol...

When we got back to Paper Mill, we went shopping, then walked quite a ways to dinner with the Evans; after dinner we went to go teach our top investigators, Becky and Larry: their sons are members, and they have been investigating for a while... They have been reading, but they haven't come to church yet; apparently they don't hold up well if they feel like they are being pressured into doing something...

Thursday we biked A TON and tried to see some former gators who weren't home; what was cool was that we met some other people in those neighborhoods who invited us back! President Wolfert, when I first got here, told eveyone that after a failed appointment, talk to the next person you see; they are usually the reason you where sent there. That happened with Kent and a few other people who were taught and baptized in my past areas, so I'm excited! 

 

After visiting a few less-actives, we went to dinner with the Hiltons, a fairly young family with three kids (two boys and a girl, like us!); they were very funny, and we had a good time! Brother Hilton was taking us home in his truck when the storm hit; it started to downpour, the wind got really intense, and it even started to hail! All are signs of a tornado (especially if the sky turns green, which it did); the traffic lights went out, trees were blown over, the power lines were dangling into the road, etc. It was really crazy, like an action movie; Brother Hilton said to us, "Sorry guys; I gotta get back to my family." He flipped the car around and drove like a pro around fallen trees and swerving around cars whose drivers were in panic; there was a huge tree that blocked the entrance to his neighborhood, so we drove up on the guy's lawn to get around it; it was nuts! I'll send photos when I get them. It was weird how calm we all were; we were worried about Brother Hilton's family, not to mention everyone around us, but we didn't think much about ourselves at that point. We got to his house and hunkered down in his basement with his family to ride the storm out. After about 40 minutes it let up. 

 

We went out to inspect the damage; Bother Hilton's house was fine, but his neighbors all had trees down in their yards. We spent an hour cutting trees and hauling the debris with the other men in the neighborhood who had risen to the call, then we went up to the top of the neighborhood to direct traffic around the downed power lines. It was interesting to see different people's reaction to a crisis; some praised God that nothing worse had happened, and it was a miracle; others cursed God and asked why he let this disaster happened. I'm on the praising God side; it was truly amazing how little damage the tornado truly caused; I think only two died in the county, and most of the homes with downed trees were spared horrific damage; thanks be to God for this opportunity to come closer to Him and to help others.

Because the power was out, and there was a lot of debris in the road still, we got permission to spend the night at the Hiltons; they took really good care of us, may God bless them for it.

 

Friday morning Brother Hilton took us back to our apartment. After showering (we had to sleep in our sweaty dirty white shirts lol...) and Elder Bower's doctor appointment, we got to work biking around to help those affected by the tornado; we must have done a total of 8 or so service projects Friday and Saturday, for members and non-members! What a wonderful and unique opportunity!

 

Saturday we get service for some recent move-ins in the ward, then we helped their neighbor; there may be a chance of getting in and talking to them, but for now we just wanted to help. Then we helped a sweet part-member lady of the ward, Sister Segey; she fed us a wonderful meal after we worked, and we had a tender discussion about not being weary in well-doing...

 

Sunday was nice; met a lot of nice people and had some good meetings (we were pretty exhausted from the work we did all week lol...). We weekly planned after church, then had dinner with and had a team-up with Brother Bergaust; a wise kinda cranky old man who knows everything about everything! We talked to a lady and volunteered to paint her house, so looks like we got more service to do!

 

That's my week; a lot of crazy running around and a lot of manual labor; not that I mind, but I'm a little tense still lol, and pretty tired. It was so cool to get to see who people's hearts softened when we offered to help instead of preaching to them. It's not like we are doing service just so they'll listen to us (even though that would be nice...); even if we never saw them again or got the chance to teach them, I think we did good just by caring. I love this church, and the one who leads this church, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I love the warm feeling we get when we help others, and I am trying to love all those around me. God Bless America! Let freedom ring! Take luck! 

 

Love,

Elder Casey Guy Dickson

Elder Kallon and Elder Dickson.

Elder Moore and Elder Dickson.

Elder Dickson says good-bye to the Noldens.

Elder Dickson and Sister Wallace.

Elder Dickson says good-bye to the Pynes.

 

The Last Transfer

"It's a trap!"

Howdy, y'all! Hope your day is GLORIOUS!

So transfer news are in; I'm getting transferred to Paper Mill (bike...), and my companion will be...(drum roll please)... ELDER BOWERS! He was my comp in Kennesaw with Elder Youd, and he is one of my favorite missionaries EVER! It'll be so great to have him as a companion again! Also, I'll be district leader up there, so it'll be an interesting last 6 weeks...

My companion here Elder Moore is staying and he is getting Elder Meyers, and he is district leader as well, so we'll see each other at leadership meeting; Elder Schmidt is district leader as well, so it'll be good to see the old crowd again. Paper Mill is in the same zone as John's Creek, so maybe I'll see some people from there...

This certainly wasn't what I was expecting lol; I was pretty convinced I was going to end my mission here... I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm excited, of course; Elder Bowers is a boss! He'll help me stay focused and have fun at the same time! 

It's scary to think this is my last transfer... and it'll be in a new ward for 6 weeks lol... there is a reason for everything, and their is someone in Paper Mill I'm supposed to teach before I leave; Charles was the reason I was sent here, and now I'm moving on...

So this week: 

Last Monday we drove around with Sister Wallace (who is awesome!) and tried to see some less-actives... Sister Wallace is such a funny lady! We called her and asked, "Hey, is this Sister Wallace?" She sarcastically replied, "No, this is Brother Wallace's girlfriend! Who do you think it is?" We felt silly after that lol...

Tuesday we had district meeting, then I had an exchange with Elder Kallon, my old comp.; we saw a lot of people that he and I taught when he was here that are his friends but aren't really progressing, like Tony and Tasha and Sam and Shajuanda; we had good visits, but that's all those guys want out of us coming by...

Had an awesome dinner with the Pynes and their hysterical children; they usually feed us 5 or 6 times a month! Sister Pyne wants her kids fed on their missions, so she has made it her mission that we never starve; what a sweet lady! Her cooking is always amazing as well! 

Wednesday we saw Elder Kallon's friend Chris and played No Dice with him, then we taught a recent move-in's son about the 10 commandments with Sister Nolden; I always have a hard time trying to explain gospel stuff to children, and to make it exciting...

We saw Henry and Ashley, who are the same (not truly progressing...), then swapped companions back and had Dinner with the Noldens; the Noldens are the super stars in the ward; they do everything for everyone, especially us! We couldn't function without them lol! Sister Nolden is so sweet, and she has a bunch of rowdy children who give her a hard time; she needs more praise and appreciation then she gets...

That night we saw Sister Nti-ababio (don't even try to pronounce that lol), with Liz Joyner, and it was a great visit; she is a sweet lady whose husband decided to leave the church; now that they are divorced, she wants to make a come back! She is trying to get Sundays off, but she has great faith and reads and prays every day, and she has always known that this church is true, despite everything; I was looking forward to working with her, but she is in good hands with Elder Moore...

Thursday was very rainy, so we didn't get much done... we saw a new gator we picked up last week; she and her kids are pretty dang funny! We taught the first lesson, and it went fine; her only hang up was the three hours of church, no dancing or shouting during the service, and the fact that most people don't wear shorts or sandals to church there (not that we would turn her away if she did lol); still, she promised us that she would come not this week, but next to see for herself...

Friday we had weekly planning, and also an opportunity to participate in something called Quest; it's where the youth in the stake act out scenes from the Book of Mormon. They camped out on a member of Covington Ward's property and spent a few days there; the leaders were hoping they would have a spiritual experience that would help them understand better the worth of the Book of Mormon...

 So no one told the youth that all the missionaries in the zone were coming; we showed up during the Army of Helaman part, and we came down the hill singing 

 

"We have been born as Nephi of old, to goodly parents who love the Lord. We have been taught, and we understand, That we must do as the Lord commands. We are as the army of Helaman. We have been taught in our youth. And we will be the Lord’s missionaries to bring the world his truth." 

 

It was very cool; all the moms with missionaries serving and kids with siblings on missions were in tears; I almost cried as well, the spirit was so strong. The youth loved it! I even heard that there was a kid who wasn't sure if he was going on a mission who, after that event, is now determined to serve the Lord; how cool is that? It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we got to be there...

Saturday we biked plenty lol... We saw Kenny, a gator who is hard to get a hold of, and we promised to help him clean his yard up this next week; hopefully he'll scratch our back by coming to church...

We also talked to Charles on the phone; he is still looking for a job in North Dakota, and we asked if he would talk to the bishop and missionaries about getting the priesthood and the new member lessons. He did as we asked, and we also talked to the missionaries on the phone to make sure they take good care of him; we have friends in high places that will be watching lol ;) 

We had dinner with the younger Mitchell's (the son and daughter-in-law of our ward mission leader); they are super cool! Their kids get star wars figures when they are good, and the kids were awesome enough to let us have one; NICE! We didn't want to take the ones they had more than one of, so I got a boss-looking wookiee, and Elder Moore got Admiral Ackbar (for the past two weeks, for some reason, Ackbar's famous quote, "It's a trap!" has become our anthem lol); a picture is enclosed of the great fish and my name tag lol...

Sunday was pretty cool; we didn't have any gators come, but we had a good meeting; it's what happened that night that was cool...

So we had a good authentic Japanese meal at the Townsend's (which wasn't that bad, actually...), then we got picked up by Brother Buck to go see the grandma (who is a non-member) of a missionary serving from here, Revante Moore, at his request; it was very sweet and spiritual. See wasn't looking to convert, but we comforted her (she is in bad shape...) and gave her a blessing; she was very grateful. Brother Buck is a spiritual powerhouse; he was very tender and charitable with that little old woman. Before he dropped us off, he bore a powerful but soft-spoken testimony on the effect elders have on the people they teach, as well as the sacredness of the the Apostle's call to be special witnesses... it was just what I needed to hear. I haven't had too many baptisms, and it's not about the numbers, but I was struggling here with if I was making a difference, and if my mission was a success; he told us that he was the only convert the elders who taught him baptized; yet from Brother Buck gave a wonderful marriage in the temple and several children who have and will serve missions, who have kids of their own, and all the people Brother Buck has been able to help as bishop and Ward Mission Leader and as a friend and neighbor to a lot of people. That's potentially several thousand who have been affected by those elders teaching and baptizing Brother Buck; we see a similar story in the Book of Mormon, with Abinadi and Alma: Abinadi only convinced Alma, but Alma was then able to baptize 204 souls (Mosiah 18:16), not to mention potentially thousands more, through him and his son Alma. Was Alma a better missionary than Abinadi? Of course not; they both served faithfully; just cause Alma was there to reap doesn't mean Abinadi's planting was any less serviceable. I have had opportunity to be both a planter and a harvester (though I have planted A LOT more than I have reaped lol), and while one is more exciting, both are missionary work, and the Lord is pleased with those efforts. I love this church, and my Savior, Jesus Christ; I love my mission so much, and I want to go out like a champion! I'll see y'all in 6 glorious weeks! 

 

Love, 

Elder Casey Guy Dickson

 

The group at Quest 2013, where the youth act out stories from the Book of Mormon.

 

Elder Dickson at a monastery and the danger of dinner appointments

This is us at a monastery a few weeks ago: Elder Yates, Sister Mayes, Elder Kallon, Elder Diehl, Elder Free kneeling, yours truly, Elder Oblad, Elder Mayo, and Sister Worthington.

Hey, y'all!

Things are good in the glorious land of sun worship and poorly cooked soul food!

Let me explain lol...

So last Tuesday we had dinner with a wonderful sister who makes very terrible food... it takes all the charity I have to go over there and eat with her. I feel terrible for saying that, but not as terrible as the food made me feel; one elder who came on exchange got violently ill after eating there... not only that, but the house is like 100 degrees (she doesn't like the cold...), and this sweet daughter of God eats with her hands (most of the food is not finger foods...), which makes it difficult to look at her when we talk to her... not only that, but we ate with her twice this week! I repent for saying this, but it is certainly a test of patience and charity to go over there and eat with her...

Enough about talking about someone behind their back...

That night we caught a lady whom the bishop asked us to see a while ago at home; she invited us to come back the next day...
Also saw Margret again since it's been a while since we have been over to see her, and introduced her to Elder Moore...

Wednesday we helped our ward mission leader build a deck and stairs for a less-active lady; it was pretty fun! I've never been that handy, but I can certainly hand someone screws like a champion! Then we had lunch and got cleaned up so we could go she Ruby Kay; she had to cancel on us, so we saw Henry and Ashley instead. They are the same... we hope they start making some progress soon...

We had dinner dropped off at the church, then we saw the lady who told us to come back; she and her husband joined the church the time that blacks couldn't have the priesthood. Her husband was upset about that, and made the decision that he and his family wouldn't go to church; even though this woman believed, she followed her husband's decision. Since then they have divorced, and she has been trying to change her work schedule so she could come back to church! It was pretty cool to see that her testimony withstood the years; we will see her again this coming Wednesday...

Thursday we helped Tinoah, a lady we helped move last week, finish moving in and lay down new carpet at her old place (again, I'm pretty good at handing people carpet lol); she agreed to have us over when she got settled so we could teach her! Nice!

We also had a good phone call with Charles, who is in North Dakota looking for work; people always seem to move from the ward, including most of the converts lol...

We had dinner with Sister Hanes at her new place, then we tried to see some referrals we have been given... Those usually take most of the day, since we bike there, and most of those streets are very narrow with no shoulder or sidewalk lol... Like a wise elder once said, "Georgia has the appearance of sidewalks, but they deny the power thereof."

Friday we weekly planned, then went to Zaxby's with Spanish Yellow River for lunch as usual lol; Ruby had to cancel on us again, so we saw Sister Huffman, a less-active older lady who doesn't get visited much by anyone (there is one in every ward...).

In the evening we played volleyball with the ward and with the Spanish branch; I'm still terrible at volleyball, but it's a lot of fun! A good stress reliever lol...
Saturday was very interesting... we were invited to a Seventh-day Adventist church; there was a lot of singing songs that only had one verse we repeated for hours, and some interesting doctrines were taught about the seven plagues in Revelations... We were taught that the plague about the sun scorching the earth symbolizes that those who worship the Sun (or Sunday, as she explained) will be burned, while those who worship on Saturday will escape the Sun's wrath. Not sure if I buy that lol...

We had an early dinner with a very nice Part-member family, then tried to follow up with those referrals we were given... when that was a no go, we went and played soccer with the branch

 (which I am still terrible at, by the way)...

Sunday we had a good meeting; it was my second to last Fast Sunday in the mission... I've had a lot of lasts recently, and despite my best efforts to not think about it, my mission is almost over... It makes me want to go out and testify without fear, since I won't be able to testify as a representative much longer...

It has been so great to be here in Georgia and serve these wonderful Christians; I complain about them sometimes, but these really are great people, and the Lord knows the time is soon when this place will be full of members and temples, as the Vision of the South declares...

I never thought I could know the scriptures like I do now; I still don't know nearly enough, but last night we played a card game involving scriptures; back home that would have bored me to death, but I was really getting into it! The gospel is awesome! I understand now why these things are important, and I wish I knew how to teach the youth about how exciting this all is! I know that when I was young it was hard to see the why and how, but I know that t.v. and video games and sports and such don't really matter, and that family, friends, the gospel, and eternal life do matter! I can't take my Game Boy with me, but I can take the knowledge and testimony I gain! This church is so true; how can it not be? I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He has the only way to be saved. I know the scriptures are the Word of God that in them we think we have eternal life (John 5:39). I know this church is true, and any honest seeker of truth will find it if they ask in faith, with sincerity and real intent (Moroni 10:4-5). In Christ's name, amen.

Have a glorious week! Love y'all! Take luck!

Love, Elder Casey Guy Dickson