Jan 10, 2018 Stuck

Jan 10, 20187

Good morning to my loving family. First happy belated birthday to my wonderful father! I love you dad! Next this week has been absolutely insane. And true to the subject line, we got Stuck a lot this week. 

To start off on Thursday we got 16 inches of snow. It was coming down so hard that President Smith asked the car areas to stay home and not go out. So Thursday we were stuck inside all day. We did weekly planning and as many Facebook lessons as we could. Really just anything we could to stay busy and be productive.

Then on Friday we were driving to visit a member. All the small neighborhood roads are only snowplowed to have room for 1 and a half cars. We were trying to park when a big truck pulls in so I pulled over a little so he could get by. Then I tried to pull out and I can't. So we spent the next couple minutes digging ourselves out of the snow bank.

Then comes Saturday. We had just finished studies and were on our way out for the day. I go to turn on the car and it won't turn on. The battery was dead. So we called the other sisters to come and jump us. They found we let the car run for a while. Thinking we were fine and that the battery was charged enough we turned it off to go to an appointment. We come back and the car won’t turn on again. So the sisters come to save us again. So we ran it for even longer and thought for sure the battery wouldn't die on us again. So we park for dinner and come back and the car won't turn on again. So we called the senior couple that are in charge of cars. He told us just to not drive until Monday when we can take it in to the mechanic. So that whole night and all Sunday we couldn't go anywhere.  The sisters gave us a ride to church but other than that there was no where we could go.  If we could have walked we would have, but all the people we visit live 6-10 miles from us.

So we had all the Facebook lessons that we could set up. (I'm so thankful for the technology that allows us to do that) and then we felt like we should call our former investigators. We called as many as we could. Hardly any of them answered and most of those that did weren't very interested but we kept calling. By the end of the night we had found 2 new investigators. One of them asked us why we had stopped trying to contact him. His record said that he was dropped because he had moved. We told him that and he gave us his new address so that we can come by and see him and his family this week. The Lord is so aware of his children! Because we were stuck inside we had the roll to go through and call Formers. Only because of that were we able to re-find the people whose hearts have changed and are maybe ready to accept his gospel now.

And even though we felt like we were stuck all week. It was all so that we could further the Lords work in ways that we aren't used to. I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful Week!

Love, Hermana Dobson

Questions from Mom…

So how has this week as a trainer gone? Well this week has been crazy, I feel so bad that it was her first week and we stayed inside for 3 days. 

How is Sister Chachon adapting to missionary life?  She's actually doing really well. It helps that she already knows the language. She loves teaching and is really good at it.

How old is she? She just turned 20, 2 weeks ago. So about 6 months older than me which is weird. But it's working great. 

What has been your biggest challenge as a trainer? Having to make almost all of the judgements and taking charge all the time. At the end of my time with Sister Morales and with Sister Blad we both knew kinda what to do and everything and so we could decide together what to do. But with Sister Chacón she doesn't know the area, or the people or mission rules and expectations. And so I have to be in charge of taking care of all of that. 

Is Hermana Chacón more comfortable with Spanish or English? Spanish. But still speaks really good English. She talks mostly in English to help her practice. I talk to her in Spanish and English so our conversations are just a big mess of Spanglish but it's helping us both learn so that's good.  

How different is her Spanish (she’s from El Salvador)? Not too different just really fast. It's hard to process everything she says sometimes. 

How are your investigators? Good, they hit a couple of road blocks with getting good married but we are trying to figure out how to help them get around them.

 Do you have many people you’re working with? Our main ones are Reina and Jose the couple, and we just dropped a lot of people because they just weren't progressing. So that was a rough part of this week. But we are trying our best to find more investigators to teach. 

What is your primary method of finding new investigators? Tracting

How is driving? I hate it. The drivers are crazy and with all the snow piled on the sides the roads are narrow. But it's better than walking around all day and freezing like in the city. 

Do you get to watch President Monson's funeral?  We will get to watch President Monson's funeral. I’m looking forward to it. I’m so glad that they are broad casting it. President Monson has impacted so many people’s lives and it’s such a small and simple way to honor his life and all that he did for the church. I'm so excited to watch it. And though it's sad, times like these only make me so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and it’s so amazing to know that the vast majority of the people who will watch his funeral will also understand the plan of salvation and where President Monson really is.