D.C. North Week 5 "We look up to Elder Summit!"

Monday, August 24, 2015

This week has been great! I was transferred to a different zone in the English program. The zone is called Suitland and my area/ward is called White Plains 1. There are 2 wards in our building. Its half of the peninsula on the D.C. side of the Chesapeake bay. Its a biiiiiiig area! It takes about an hour to get from one side to another. I am still getting fed too well! I get fed every night and have left overs alll the time!!  But I do get to save a lot of money every month. My companion is now Elder Summit, and his name fits super well because we all look up to him because he is 6'7" and he reminds me a tooon of Daniel and his first name is Daniel as well. I also have roommates who are Elder Coombs and Elder Carroll all three of them are from Utah and act just like Utah boys. Elder Coombs reminds me a whole toooon of Ben and its kinda freaky. haha

THAT IS SO CRAZY THAT YOU MET HER**[See picture and story below]! hahaha When we skyped with her and her Angolan friend it was super fun and it made me super excited to go to Angola.

So about my week! 

Monday: Just a normal P-day, I got laundry done, emailing, played games, an then went to eat dinner at the Prices! Whoohoo!! The dude is Loaded. He invented a vaccine for a important disease so he gets a huge check each year and lives in a 15 million dollar house. His wife runs a non-profit organization for Autistics, and people with PTSD. (The farm that I worked at). He has a 10,000 volume library, and all of David O. McKay's personal journals, and a lot of other books, and statues that the church doesn't have or are very rare. Needless to say I felt very out of place there but he is a super cool person. 

Tuesday: I pretty much got packed that day after Zone/District meeting and then we went to a members house a had Tacos!!! We had El Pastor and Lingua tacos! They were soooo goooood! 

Wednesday: TRANSFERRSSSSSSSS!!! It took a while and it was good. President and Sister Cooke talked, and all the Missionaries who who leaving bore their testimonies, and then we got told who we were going with and where! It was a good time. We then went to our apartment, Elder Summit and I. It was about an hour and a half drive away and then got myself set up in the apartment and went out tracting! (We don't really have any investigators so its a lot of tracting). We had a member meal that night and then we went and checked up an less actives!

Thursday: Zone/District meeting! That took till about 1, and we pretty much just introduced ourselves and got to know everybody. We then went to Cafe Rio where Elder and Sister Rose bought us lunch!! Whoohoo! We have all of the Older Couples and Sisters in our zone and it is great! We then went tracting after, had a meal appointment, and checked up on less actives!

Friday: We had studies, and lunch and 12 week till about 2:30 and then we went and helped a brother out in the ward put up storm windows. And then we went back home and ate dinner cause our dinner appointment cancelled, and we went tracting for the rest of the night! I placed my first Book of Mormon, and we also had a great discussion with a couple of black ladies about our beliefs and what makes us different from other churches and everything. They wouldnt accept the Book of Mormon which was a bummer but they did say they would check out Mormon.org so it was pretty great! 

Saturday: We had studies, lunch and 12 week! Then we went and checked up and less actives and got to talk to both of them! Super great! And then we ate dinner with the Amoah's. They are from Ghana, and we had peanut butter soup! It was actually really good, and kinda spicy. We then went to a wedding reception because they asked us to be there in case their non-member friends show up, but they didn't so we got outta there pretty quick cause it was super awkward. We then went to a members house and fellowshipped with them and she played her piano for us. She is super good! Their names are the Beals. 

Sunday: Church! Ours starts at 9 and we had ward council at 7:30. President and Sister Cooke spoke and so did the bishops daughter who leaves this week on her mission. President cook called me and Elder Summit out. He said that I was forgetting my language while I am here visa waiting, and we all look up to Elder Summit. haha He is a super chill funny guy but strong in the Gospel. We then went and took a nap during lunch and then planned and did 12 week and some studies. We went and checked up on some less active in the farther away places of  our area. And then had dinner with the Slaughter family. They are super cool and really funny. They are a younger couple kinda. haha They have 4 kids and he works on C-5 planes for the military! It was super cool! We then went and tried to have a "surprise visit" to a less active. His dad's a member but his son is less active; but his son wasnt there so we visited with him and watched part of Meet the Mormons cause he hasn't seen it. 

So yeah! Thats my week!

I love being a missionary and am super excited to continue serving the Lord and growing in His Gospel and in turn helping other Come unto Christ!

I am going to get so fat here...

I miss you guys a ton.

Amo voces muito!

Ate mais!

Elder Dawson

Vanessa and Mom selfie

**Written to Andrew:  Sunday 8/23, there was a sister from the Atlanta area visiting with some new members of our ward...who found mom at church that knows who you are. Her name is Vanessa. She said you would know her as the random American in Angola along with some members who you skyped with just before you left the MTC in July. She wanted to let us know what a fine young man you are and that you really did a good job speaking Portuguese. She said you will want to get some money exchanged to Kwanzas before you leave and also to have some American money with you that some of the members might want to exchange with you. (You might want to check if that's okay with the mission president first). She did say how expensive things are there, and that if you want to buy a meal at McDonald’s it’s about $26.  She said that you will be eating a lot of beans! (yum) And they usually serve them with other food items. She said there were about 120 people in the branch she attended… that you will love it there and will love the people.