Saying goodbye to Sisters Probert and Christiansen

August 26, 2013

So transfer calls came.....and I AM STAYING AT MSU!!!! I am sooo excited to still be here.  But the crazy news is that both Sister Probert and Sister Christiansen are leaving me :(  We definitely didn't expect that to happen.  We thought Sister Probert would be leaving but Sister Christiansen would stay.  It's exciting and we know everything works out for a reason!  Sister Probert is going to Kalamazoo zone to serve as a sister training leader at WMU. From one campus to another!  And Sister Christiansen is going to Holt area which she is really happy about because transfers there were so fun!  I am getting two new companions tomorrow.  I seriously couldn't be happier about who my new companions will be!  I have Sister Smith from New Mexico--she is the one I have been going on exchanges with and she is SOOO awesome.  She is absolutely hilarious and such a great missionary.  We were talking on the phone the night before about how much we would miss each other if I got my visa and, lo and behold, now we are companions!  The other one is Sister Richardson.  I only met her briefly my first day here but she is awesome.  She is soo passionate about missionary work and about everything in life!  She was in the MTC with Sister Probert and Sister Probert absolutely loved her so I am just so stoked about this transfer.  They are both the sister training leaders for our zone so that will be fun for me to work with them as well.  That means I will be going on exchanges probably every week.  I love change and I love the opportunity to work with others so I am excited.  I am a little nervous about having to be the one to introduce the area but I think it's going to be awesome.  Everyone in the ward was shocked that only "the visa-waiter” (as they have dubbed me) is staying.  I feel so blessed because I love these people so much!  The last couple days have had lots of goodbyes and we took so many pictures with the people, so get ready for a huge load of pictures.

School starts officially on Wednesday; we are way excited!  It's going to be crazy!  Plus they have their first football game this weekend...I am not really sure how much work we will be able to do during games but I am excited to experiment.  It's fun to see how missionary work is always changing in this area depending on the season.  I will really have to pray for the ability to know WHO to stop and talk to because there will be so many people.  Before we would just hound anyone we saw because the people were few and far between.  I am so excited for this week!

In other news:

-We got bikes this week!  It's so fun.  We haven't actually ridden them anywhere besides morning exercise so I don't know how they will work with a skirt.  Stay tuned.  I feel like such a missionary when I ride them.

-The elders had an awesome baptism yesterday!  Her name is Lina Wang and Yifan got to baptize her.  It was a really spiritual and amazing baptism and it was cool to see Yifan doing that!  As soon as she came out of the water Yifan patted her back and said "Welcome to the Kingdom of God."  Unreal.  Lina is adorable.  We helped her after she got out of the font and she kept saying "I can feel that God is smiling at me."  We sang at the baptism too so be looking out for a new YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvSfWpcoyM)!  (People keep saying they hope the new sisters can sing--it's tradition for us to sing at every baptism now)

-Both Yifan and Bruce have grown so much.  We saw them on Friday night and they ran up to us and they were like "Sisters! Sisters!  Something amazing just happened!"  And Yifan kept saying "I can feel the Holy Ghost so strong right now!"  Anyway, they went to IHOP for dinner and the waitress gave them complimentary cups of coffee.  They told her they didn't want them and they ended up talking to her about the church and Yifan gave her a pass-along card.  Yifan said they were singing hymns the whole rest of the way home because they were so excited!  And then they went back later and gave her a Book of Mormon.  How amazing are they?!  We went to dinner with them on Saturday night too as a last hurrah and they are just so funny and so happy from the message of the gospel.  I feel blessed to know them and to be a part of their lives!

-We have been blessed with opportunities to teach and we think we will have some baptismal candidates very soon!  It's an exciting time and I love these people so much.

-There is a member here named Jon Rose.  He moved into the ward on the same day we met Bruce.  They hit it off so we would have Jon come to all of the lessons with us and he was the perfect fellowshipper for Bruce.  Anyway, he came up to us yesterday and almost started crying and said he turned in his mission papers and we were the reason he chose to serve a mission.  He wasn't planning on going before he came to live here.  It was so powerful and so humbling!  I love that about missions-- my decision to serve doesn't only affect me and my family, but it changes the lives of the people I serve.  And that will change their families’ lives in turn.  It's so cool to know the gospel influences generations.  I love being a missionary and that moment made my decision to serve SO worth it.

Sorry if that was a bunch of rambling, but the moral of the story is:  I am SO HAPPY to be at MSU for a while longer!

Love,

Sister Dixon