An Awesome Week

Hey family and friends,

Things have been going great the past week. I can officially say now that we are getting iPads in May! I am so excited for this big event in mission history. Bad news though for the mission. We are getting TIWI put in all of our cars. So TIWI, it is a module that is installed into the car and will monitor how fast, seatbelt usage, boundaries, and how aggressive you are while driving. So if a missionary is disobeying these “settings” it will alert the Mission President and the Vehicle Coordinator. So that is another big thing for the mission.

Last week we had MLC’s (Mission Leadership Council) while we were doing our trainings I got a phone call from Utah. This mans brother was working in Kansas City in a mine and had a big accident. He had a ¼ inch fitting blow off a 5,000 psi fitting and hit his arm. It tore the skin under his arm open and hydraulic fluid entered into him. So he was life flighted to the hospital near the office, St Francis hospital. So the man wanted us to go be there when the helicopter landed and give him a blessing. So we got there right before he was going into surgery. We were up in the pre-op room and gave him a blessing. (The missionaries are treated like gold at the hospital) So I gave him the blessing and when I got done I looked around and there were a ton of staff workers waiting for me to get done. It was so cool. They were all thanking me.

Last week we were out visiting people on the roster. In the meantime we found a New Investigator that moved here from Africa. His name is Raule. He was so interested in hearing about the Gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and explained to him and taught. As we were walking down the stairs he said “is this mine?” We said yes. He was so surprised. We have an appointment with him this week.

Love you all!!

Elder Dickson

A Big Snow Storm & We Weren't In It

Things have been great lately. Elder de Jong stayed at my apartment at transfers and he told me that his car was having problems. He has a 2011 Fusion. So we had to drive out to Garden City to pick up an extra car they had. So Elder Oakey and I took Elder de Jong the 2014 Corolla (back up camera, automatic climate, touch screen in the dash) So we were in the car for 13 hours that day! It was so much fun and a very long day. We covered half of Kansas! I will send screen shots of my GPS.

We did get a lot of snow Saturday. We left early that morning and drove out west. It was snowing but not enough to accumulate on the roads. So we kept getting texts from our zone leaders that they parked the cars. It was snowing so hard that they told us to park the cars but we weren’t where it was snowing. President even said that the missionaries were told to go do service that day. That was cool! As we got back into Wichita around 9pm we saw the evidence. There was tons of snow! We traveled half the state and did not see anything like it here in Wichita. Hopefully we will get more here soon!! We went out looking for people on our roster to see if they still lived at their houses. (We live near Wichita State University) Most have left by now.

I am so glad that Grandpa is doing good!! I wish that I could go see him. But I knew if I would see him I would break down and cry! Aunt Dell sent me this: I just wanted to let you know that I truly believe with all of my heart that your Grandpa Taylor is still alive today because of your faithful service. Missionaries truly bless others with their service and their families with their service. I started to tear up when I read what she said! I want to be able to see Grandpa when I get home!! I want him to be at the Airport when I come home.

Guess what? We are finally getting iPads! Wahoooo! In May we will be getting them! So excited to finally get them. So this week is going to be busy. Wednesday we have MLC’s. Which stands for Missionary Leadership Council. The Zone leaders and the Sister training leaders all come to the office and have trainings from 9-4pm. The ZL sent in supply orders for me to pull out for them so I have 9 zones that I have to fulfill orders for. And then fix a laptop that is not working right. Oh and some zone leaders want me to make cards that have the time and address for each of their churches so they can hand them out to people. So I have a lot of work ahead of me. So the one zone wants me to do that for them. I am going to try and make those cards for the whole mission!!! Do you know how much that could help people come to church? One missionary said that you are going to be so blessed for helping us do this! It reminded me of what my setting apart blessing said about the 100’s and even 1,000’s!! They are awesome!!

Things are going great on the mission. We had staff meeting this morning. President came up with some ideas for us to do and I told him “it’s all done” he was shocked. He kept naming things for us to do and I already did it. The whole office staff was happy and impressed.

It is the true Gospel. No matter what people say, all of our history is correct and accounts for its self.

Have a Wonderful week!!
Love, Elder Dickson