Oct 28, 2013 Hello to all from BRAZIL

Oi todo mundo!

What is going on everyone, hello from BRAZIL!!!!!!!! I still cant believe that I am in a completely different country right now, and brazil for that matter (oh, i should preface this with the fact that I am using a brazilian keyboard that is jank, so some spellings will be off. Don't hate, appreciate). This is probably the craziest thing i have ever done in y life, but I am having to rely more on the Lord than ever before. Ill explain more about that in a bit, for now I need to recap the past 2 weeks. 

Leaving Nebraska was one of the hardest things ever. I never thought it would be too. I got so attached to the people there and I felt such a love for them. I think the fact that most of them were farmers or had lived in Nebraska for all of their lives made them a very humble people and willing to listen, even if it was just a door approach. They were all kind and courteous and some of the best people i have ever met in my life live in that state. Nebraska will forever be a special and almost sacred place for me. 

All right, so now we get to Brazil. The first thing i want to say is, oh my living gracious what in the world am i doing here. okay, now that that is out of my system (I felt this way for about 5 days), there are some very different cultural observations i want to make. First of all, the people are super laid back, like nothing bothers them really. even if it is something super wrong, they could really not even care less. this is evident in the way they drive. Brazilians drive ridiculous! there are no lane lines, and it is totally okay to go 20 over (or under) the speed limit, and you can if you just so happen to feel like it cross over 3 lanes (if you can call them that) to turn onto another street, or rua. It is totally normal for motorbikes to drive between cars and it happens all the time. It is also totally normal to see 2 cars driving on a one lane road with the drivers talking to each other. Horses and dogs roam the streets, and people just throw their trash where they want. That being said, it is super dirty. Mosquitos are everywhere, and I think I counted 17 bites on my skin this morning.

We walk all the time. I don't even think i can explain how hard this is. Even for someone who is fit and walks fast, brazilians walk faster and they do it all in flip-flops. Yet somehow when we walk I'm able to keep a smile on my face. our area is huge and some days when we cant take a bus we have to walk the whole thing, which means we walk about 10-12 miles a day. 

The language is a royal pain. I thought I was going to be able to adjust decently well, but yea that didn't happen. It is very difficult o communicate and at times it can be very very frustrating. My companions name is Elder J. Sanchez, and he knows absolutely no english, so you can imagine how hard it is to communicate even with him. 

The work in our area is very slow. Not very many people here want to listen to our message and we are not really teaching anyone. This, combined with the fact that it is hard to speak and understand makes it very stressful. But, the lord always provides a way. In all the things the lord can help us and give us the strength to overcome. the past 2 days have been particularly stressful. For starters we had a huge rainstorm come through. it flooded streets for a time because the sewer lines are terrible. and well, we were out walking so we were soaked from head to toe. Yesterday was church and I understood jack squat. Members would ask me questions, and when i didn't understand they would get frustrated and walk away. all this being said, I received some great help from the Lord. In spite of all this terrible events taking place right now, I still managed to be optimistic. Walking in the rain I started to sing count your many blessings and I instantly felt the spirit and knew that heavenly Father was mindful of me. He knows all of us and he will not let us travel through tribulation alone! He has called me to this mission all the way in Brazil for who know why, and as such he will help me because it is his work. As President Monson says, who the lord calls, the Lord qualifies. Every missionary in the world was called of God, and he will not abandon his servants. During my study this morning i continued to receive what i know to be inspired revelation that helped me know what to do and that the Lord knows my struggle. I remembered the story of Gordon B. Hinkley when he was a missionary, and even he felt he couldn't do it it and wanted to give up. He then said his father wrote him and said, forget yourself and go to work. what a great hing to do. As King Benjamin says in the Book of Mormon when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your god. I also remembered a quote from somewhere that says, as a man thinketh so is he. That is so true! You reap what you sow, and if you sow seeds of despain and grumbling you will get that and see that in your life. When you count your blessings you see that god is merciful and you live optimistically. Living with a smile just makes you feel better, so live smiling on. I also remembered the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians, when he was struggling with he missionary work. he said he wanted God to take away his weakness, but our wise Savior and Advocate said, my grace is sufficient for thee. that is the key. The grace of Christ strengthens us and allows us to overcome our weakness. He doesn't take the away from us, but rather he allows us to endure through them so we can learn how to rely on him for strength and exercise faith in him.

Well, this is all I can say for now. Keep smiling on everyone, and live life with optimism and hope for the dawn of a new day!

Tchau tchau!

Elder Dimmick

Oct 21, 2013 On My Way to Brazil

Elder Andrew Dimmick's VISA finally came through. He is headed to Brazil.

Oct 14, 2013 Press Forward Having a Perfect Brightness of Hope

Ola todo mundo!

Goodness gracious, I can not believe that it has already been one whole transfer out in the field. It just flew by so fast. Even for being in the MTC for the same amount of time felt much much longer than this. I think I'm beginning to see how everyone says that the 2 years of mission service just fly by. The days truly feel like weeks and the weeks most definitely feel like days. 

Even though time has flown by that doesn't change the fact that things have gotten very difficult, for one reason or another. Perhaps the biggest struggle is the struggle to find people to teach. With most of our teaching pool already baptized, and the rest of the people not very interested anymore, it has been a struggle to find new investigators. When we had a trainer/trainee meeting I talked to President Weston about it. I expressed to him that finding was tough and he said something pretty much to the effect of well of course Elder that is why it is called missionary WORK. we then talked about how we had been finding and then how I told him we had been trying to avoid tracting because of it is not super effective. He then said something that really changed the game I thought for me. He said that trying to avoid tracting was not a fulfillment of your purpose as a missionary. He said as a representative of Jesus Christ, you are supposed to go out as Christ did, sharing the gospel to everyone, not just the ones that came to him or were referred to you. Going door to door and house to house is what the Savior did and taught when he said, "Go ye therefore, and teach ALL". Our President told us that we have to do at least one hour of finding a week, and well what President says is inspire and what we need to do. 

With that has come added discouragement as well. Door after door of refusals can take a toll on someone's drive and energy. Basically the way my companion and I have been doing things is we schedule an appointment, have several backups in line, and even several lessactives to try and see, that way if something falls through we have a good list of people we can see. Sometimes though, everything falls through. Those times can be the worst and the biggest traps for laziness and ineffectiveness. You just have to keep working, and so when eveything that we could possibly do falls through, we then switch our focus to finding. Of the many and many doors we have tried we have only gotten 2 potential investigators and placed one Book of Mormon, and both of the potentials said that they were no longer interested when we came back at the time they asked us to. I remember after a particularly rough day just feeling super down. I felt that everything was working against us and I was slowly loosing the drive I had for the day, and it was only 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I had just lost all motivation to do anything because everything had fallen through, and no one was receptive to the message. My companion and I then read several scriptures that I had read before and understood, but really helped to turn the day around. We read Alma 26: 27 which says, 

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

and 2 Nephi 31: 20 which says, 

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

That is the key. when times are tough and things seem like they are just failing and not going the way you had planned you have to buckle down and drive through it all. There will always be opposition in life and times that do not go smoothly in our lives, but the true measure and test of character comes when we push though our trials and endure, with a hope and faith in Christ. That is when we are blessed and strengthened by the Lord. I believe it was Ezra Taft Benson who said the secret to missionary work is work! That is one of the truest statements ever said. Just work. Work, work, work. The best things, and most worthwhile things in life are the things that you have to work for and endure the heat of life for. The Savior puts it the best:

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be yourjoy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" (D&C 18:15)

Well everyone, that is all for now. As always, I don't have all the time I wish to say everything I wish I could, but I am loving every minute here in , yes of all places in this world, Nebraska. \

Tchau tchau!

Elder Dimmick

Oct 7, 2013 Apostles and Prophets and Others, Oh My!

Hello once again my wonderful family and dear friends!

I don't even know how much I can even begin to express how much I love the General Conference of the Church. Every year the speakers are so amazing. I am so glad that my amazing parents would always be faithful in watching General Conference each year and raising me to have the desire to hear from the Prophet and Apostles every 6 months. I just love it! When I was at BYU I had the chance to attend Conference in the Conference center, and boy that was a fantastic experience. I am so grateful to the God of Heaven for allowing me to listen to Conference once again in English! (being in the middle of nowheresvillle Nebraska has some very awesome perks) As always, Elder Russell M. Nelson was my favorite. I mean, I love all of them, and Elder Holland is one of my absolute favorites especially when he throws it down about the truthfulness of the Church, and so is Elder Bednar because of how direct he is, but Elder Nelson is just my favorite apostle. He's what I call my classic favorite, kind of like how everyone just has that fondness for Nintendo 64 yet loves the intensity as well of an HD PlayStation or X Box. 

Even though Nelson is my favorite apostle (I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I met the man) President Uchtdorf always manages to touch my soul and give me an inspirational quote to take away. He said something so profound. He said, "Doubt your doubts but never doubt your faith" (or at least that is what I believe he said they haven't printed the talks yet) Regardless of the exact wording that is so true! Faith is a principle of action, and when we have doubts that come we should hold fast to the ground of faith that we have instead of worrying about how much faith we don't have or why such and such doesn't make perfect sense. God knows all things and he will reveal them to us "line upon line, precept on precept". God only reveals truth to us if we ask him, so we must ask! And then after asking, we must act! One thing I have come to see is the divine mercy that our Heavenly Father has for each of us as his children. Unless we are willing to act on promptings or answers, he will withhold them so we can exercise and develop that faith! Why would he reveal to his children greater light and knowledge if they are not willing to act on it? He protects us that way. We know that when we sin against a greater light we receive a greater condemnation, and God, I don;'t think, wants to condemn his children by giving them a witness of the truth of the restored gospel, or anything for that matter, if they do not have real intent. What mercy! The Savior demonstrated this principle perfectly in how he taught the Jews through parables. This protected those who were not sincere about his teachings from gaining a witness they were not willing to act upon and from learning of a Savior who they were not willing to follow. As Nephi says, the Jews were the only ones who would crucify their God, and surly their inability to act on spiritual witnesses is one of the many reasons for that. They could not recognize his role as their Messiah, and so now God has once again extended mercy to all his children. If we desire a witness that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true than we must be willing to act on the answer that comes. And that answer is that he was a Prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is nothing but pure truth. I know it, because I have received my witness of the truth. I know that God lives and that he is my Eternal Father. As Elder Cortez, my amazing companion, put it, you cannot have faith without doubts that come occasionally, because if you do not have doubts then there is no reason to walk by faith. The only way we can come to a perfect knowledge of things is by excising faith upon him who is mighty to save, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel. That is what the Brother of Jared did, and we must do the same until our faith grows to a perfect knowledge. 

Well everyone, time is short today but I am so grateful for your love. Send letters! I love to hear from you and read of your experiences! so many things have happened on this mission already and even in this past week, you will all just have to read my journal when I get back to find out. Oh, I guess one more thing I could say that happened is that I met a lady who has a flying squirrel. Well, a sugar glider is what it is called, but it is pretty much a miniature flying squirrel.

Tchau tchau!

Elder Dimmick

Sept 30,2013 Being Guided by the Spirit

Hello family and friends!

How is everything?! Tell me about what has been going on in your lives people, I love getting emails and letters! So if you have been sending some, keep doing so I really appreciate it. If you haven't and you want to, go for it! I love to hear how everyone is doing.

Well mission life is mission life here in Nebraska. The ward is just as awesome as ever, and has some of the coolest and greatest people. There were probably 75 kids in the primary program last week! Yea, talk about a mad house in the chapel when all the kids were getting up and down, but it was nice and the Spirit was definitely there as the children sang and bore testimony about gospel truths. 

As always, this week was super busy, tiring, and full of awesome experiences. There was perhaps a central message to it all though, and that was the importance of following the Spirit, and how to really recognize promptings. I'm pretty sure that knowing how to be guided by the Spirit and knowing when we receive promptings from the Holy Ghost is perhaps one of the hardest things to learn and to master in this life. Something I have come to know over the past week as well as things that were reminded to me was that whenever we are acting on good thoughts and impressions, we are always following the guidance of the Spirit! yes there can be times when the Spirit will direct us in a very direct way so that we know that it is a prompting, but oftentimes the voice of the Holy Ghost comes as quiet thoughts that as long as we are focusing on being, as Elder Bednar calls it, a good boy or a good girl, then we do not need to worry about whether a thought or impression is of the Spirit. Why? Because if our will is in line with that of the Lord's, and we have a desire to do good and to follow the promptings we receive, then naturally our thoughts well be directed by the Spirit of the Lord and we will not have to worry about if we followed our own thoughts or the Spirit, because they will be one in the same!

Stemming from this is the wonderful gift of agency. I have come to really understand and appreciate this great gift from our Heavenly Father. as human beings with the capacity and the potential to reach Godhood, we have to learn to choose good from evil and how to make these decisions on our own. Our all knowing Father in Heaven respects our agency, so naturally he will not tell us what to do with every decision we have to make. If he did, how would we grow? By making our own choices we learn how to exercise agency and exercise critical thinking. As long as we are in tune with the Spirit, we can receive confirmation that our choices are right. So, when we have to make decisions about careers, schooling, marriage or whatever the case may be that are big decisions in life, God allows us to choose. Repeatedly we find in the scriptures the witness someone receives comes after they exercise faith. Since faith is action, we must act and choose for ourselves, and then let the confirmation come from our Heavenly Father after we start to travel down that path that it is the correct thing for us to do. Obviously if it was not the path that is best for us, our Heavenly Father will straighten us out and help us get to where we need to be. This doesn't mean we were misguided by the Spirit, but rather that we have to learn how to correctly exercise agency. Of course this is different for everyone, but the principle is the same.

Goodness there is so much more I could say about things that have happened this week but I don't have to time finish writing them all if I started! That is why we have journals. that is another thing I have come to appreciate, journal writing. Taking the time each night to reflect on the day and the Lord's hand in my life is a blessing. I love seeing all that he has done for me and being able to see what I have learned throughout the day. Many prophets have told us to do that so... write in journals!

I wish everyone all of my love.

Tchau tchau!

Elder Dimmick