The people that Elder Smart and I interact with regularly with have come into clearer focus as we've worked this week. I've met most of the Ward members and leaders as well as the majority of the people we are teaching. The people we are teaching include a woman that writes a horse periodical, a woman with a pet pig, two single-mom families with difficult pasts and a couple wacky/crazy (literally) old men. As I have prayed for, planned for and worked with these people daily, I have truly felt God's love for them. They are His precious children, and I hope that I can help guide them to the gospel, which will bring them greater happiness and peace in their lives.
This week I've had a couple good lessons in patience and persistence. Almost daily I've been out knocking doors trying to find those who are willing to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 99% of these attempts are met with some form of failure, ranging anywhere from getting yelled at to being handed a bottle of water and sent away. Interestingly, that 1% of people willing to listen almost always come at the very end of a long day of door knocking. Literally the last house we try. Had Elder Smart and I given up any sooner, we would have found no success. But persisting through to the very end of the time we have has made all the difference for us. This is a witness to me that God really is a good tutor, even if the journey of being taught is a hard one.
On Thursday, I got to go on my first exchange with one of my zone leaders, Elder Macy. Since I am still unfamiliar with my area and missionary work in general, I assumed that I would be traveling to the zone leader's area where I would just be tagging along for the ride. But instead, they decided to send off Elder Smart for the day, leaving me to try and lead my area with Elder Macy who knows nothing about Cave Creek. What followed was in essence a very embarrassing day in which I realized I still know very little about anything out here. :P I became the designated driver of our vehicle with Elder Smart gone, something I had been hoping to avoid. Not knowing the complex street systems well, I was relying almost completely on Elder Macy to navigate. Only afterwards did I discovered that Elder Macy is universally regarded as the worst navigator in the entire mission. :P Needless to say we spent more time lost than found, and discovered some very strange parts of Cave Creek that even Elder Smart didn't know existed. Ultimately, we did get some good finding done and made it to our scheduled lesson. There were just a few (dozen) hiccups along the way. Again, the Lord is trying hard to teach me patience.
Last night, we traveled to our zone leader's area and spent the night with them. Then, at a horrible, unspeakable hour of the morning, we woke up, packed into our little Toyota Rav4 and drove to the tallest mountains in the valley: "Four Peaks". Unlike the oddly named "Three Peaks" of Cedar City, we actually found four very distinctive and very tall peaks to hike up. After run-ins with rabbits, coyotes, rattlesnakes, quails and roadside puking, we finally made it to the trail head. The hike was beautiful with lots of overlooks and blessed pine trees to make me feel at home. :) Unfortunately, we ended up taking a wrong turn that lead us to a rather vertical cliff face. Like the mountain goat I wish I was, I quickly scrambled up to the top of the cliff and turned around to find my hiking-mates looking at me like I had just pulled a motorcycle out of my backpack. Despite my best persuasion, I couldn't convince any of them to follow me, so I had to climb back down and be content having almost made it to the top.
I hope you've had a wonderful week, and I will be praying that the Lord will bless you with what you need. If there is ever anything more specific that I can pray for for you, please let me know. Enjoy summer while it lasts!
Love, Elder Dickison.
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