Sister Pullan on the Prairie: Dickinson, ND

October 10, 2016

Greetings, everyone!

I am writing from the Dickinson Area Public Library on P-Day #1 of my mission. It can't believe it has only been five days since I arrived. It has been quite the ride already!

Sister Harrington and I drove out to Dickinson last Thursday afternoon. We went to the apartment (pictures included) and got me mostly moved in, then we took off for dinner with the Banks family. They are some of the most selfless, missionary-minded people I know. They are busy trying to move into a new house. My first meal with a member family was pizza and cold cereal because that's all they had in all the chaos and they wanted to make sure we had something. They have two adorable kids, Ophelia and Virgil, with another coming in the next month or so.

Every day we get up at 6:30 and exercise. We then have an hour of personal study and an hour of companionship study. We then get out and do whatever we can--teaching lessons, making appointments, knocking doors, doing service.

I enjoy the service opportunities. We volunteer once every other week at the House of Manna, which is a donation-run thrift store where the homeless or poor can come get clothing and things for free. The ladies who run it are absolutely adorable. They love the sister missionaries and speak with some fantastic Midwestern accents (think the two moose from Brother Bear). We also volunteer at the food pantry, which is essentially a non-LDS version of the Bishop's storehouse. There are some fantastic ladies working there as well. I especially love Patty, a black lady with a smile as big as all outdoors who calls everybody "Sugar."

Dickinson is a whole new world to me. It's been interesting getting used to the work here. We have only a couple solid investigators and a good half a dozen potentials (that is, they seem really interested but aren't keeping commitments or haven't received the lessons yet). Our list of less actives, on the other hand, is about a mile long. So. Many. Less actives. The abbreviation we use for that category is LARC--less active/recent convert. A lot of our work is with LARCs. For example, last week we taught a woman from the ward who has been addicted to cigarettes for years and is trying to quit smoking. She's been clean for about a week and a half now. We went to a little pizza party in her honor with a family in the ward to celebrate her being off smoking for one week. We've been praying for her a lot. A lot of what we do is getting in with less actives and knocking on doors, sharing on the street, talking to anybody who will listen in the hope that we can find a potential investigator.

Outside the church, Dickinson is a medium size town with many smaller towns out and around it. The fields stretch for miles and miles in every direction (mission fields--ha ha!). :) A ton of the people who live here came for work on the oil fields, and the rest were born here. There is everything from trailer parks (and we tract and teach in a lot of those) all the way up to CEO business owners. There are people from all over the world, too. We have a potential investigator who is Muslim and speaks Arabic. We have tracted into Hispanics, Hatians, and people from every part of the United States. The diversity is staggering. The religious scene, however, is basically the same all the way across the board.

Good news: EVERYONE in North Dakota is Christian.

Bad news: EVERYONE in North Dakota is Christian.

That about sums it up, really. Essentially everyone we talk to says that they are not interested because they are [insert religion here]. We've met a good bunch of Catholics, at least one Muslim, and a TON of Lutherans. Very few of the Lutherans actually seem to know what Lutherans believe, however. Lutheran is another way of saying "Christian-not-Catholic." Everyone is very comfortable in the religion of their choosing, whatever it may be. My favorite response to our knock: "No thanks, I'm a Christian." (And your point is...?) :) It is a little discouraging having so many people shut the door on us, and it's been rough getting used to that. I am trying to have more faith that Heavenly Father will lead us to those who really need the gospel, even if it takes a hundred "Not interested" contacts to get there.

Thought of the week: MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK! Invite your friends! We can't do this work without you. I had no idea until now what a godsend member fellowshippers are. Help the missionaries!

Also, the sky is huge. I cannot believe the sunrises and sunsets. See the pictures below!

That is all this week. I love you all so much and miss you terribly.

Please keep writing! This is my street address:

2641 Dakota Blvd. Apt 302
Dickinson, ND 58601

Love,

Sister Pullan
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