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| With Elder Wiscombe, who is leaving Williamston |
November
18, 2013
Hello everyone!
I chose
this title because I am staying in Williamston with Sisters Anson and Kaegi.
And it's also symbolic because we raked leaves SO MUCH this week. It was
wonderful!
Well, we
are all super shocked we are staying together but really excited too.
Sister Anson trained Sister Kaegi and usually they separate trainees from
trainers after training is done but we are all staying together. It is
going to be a great transfer, I can feel it.
We had a
wonderful week here. The highlight was obvious--Elder Golden
coming. It was incredible. I was overwhelmed with gratitude I get
to be on a mission at this time and in this area to learn from such a great
man!
Our
mission spent time spiritually preparing for Elder Golden to come. We
fasted and prayed that it might be a revelatory experience and that we might ponder
the questions we need answers to. I wrote down questions about faith and
following the Holy Ghost, and lo and behold, he hit really hard on those
subjects. It's like this church is true or something! I really
loved what he said about faith. Faith is personal righteousness, and
personal righteousness comes from obeying God's commandments and laws.
Our church has many commandments and laws to keep--and missionaries have even
more rules to abide by! However, obeying those increases our faith, and
Elder Golden said our church is the ONLY church on the earth that helps its
members cultivate enough faith to enter back into the presence of God.
What a blessing it is for Latter-day Saints to know commandments are not restrictions,
they are opportunities! We are working hard to implement what Elder
Golden said into our missionary work. I am confident we will have
increased success.
Service
was kind of a theme for this week. We ended up doing 3 different service
projects of raking leaves which was amazing:
for a couple we met while we were door-knocking; for Kenneth, our
91-year-old investigator; and last, for a couple who was moving next door to
our ward mission leader. Each time it was amazing to see how touched
people were for the simple acts of service we rendered. Hopefully we
continue to be blessed with opportunities to serve! The Relief Society
lesson was about serving others as well. It really made me think about
something I heard once:
Trials
either make you BETTER or BITTER. The difference between those 2 words is
the letter "I.” When we experience difficult times and we focus on how
they impact ourselves, we become bitter and lose faith. On the other
hand, when we focus on others, we become better for it and we are able to bless
others in the process. This has been so true for me throughout my
mission. Missions can be terrible when you focus on yourself.
However, when you focus on helping and serving others, you find yourself lifted
and ennobled by the spirit of charity. The spirit of charity helps us to
become more like our Savior. I think Mosiah 5:13 says it best:
For how aknoweth a man the master whom he has not served,
and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his
heart? Our
ultimate goal on missions is to become as the Savior, and the way to do
that is to serve others selflessly. Loving the people is the key.
Here is a
quick weather update: Last P-day after
we left e-mailing it started snowing a bit! It melted the next day and
then it was pretty good weather for the rest of the week. Hopefully it
stays pretty nice because we lose our car this week. Yesterday afternoon
after church we were going door-knocking and then we got a text from our zone
leaders that there was a tornado watch!! The weather was CRAZY!!!
It was so much fun. It was pouring rain and there was so much wind.
People at the doors were so receptive because we kept telling them how
important this is to us! Tons of people lost power though and we taught a
lesson that night with flashlights in hand in case the lights went out--they
kept flickering throughout the lesson. It was such an adventure.
I know God
has a plan for each and every one of us. I hope I can serve my best in
this area and I am grateful to serve here!!
Love you
all!!!
Sister
Dixon
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