July 7, 2014
Helloooo family!
I hope all is well with you and I
hope your 4th of July was fantastic. I celebrated by wearing red, white,
and blue. Our zone leaders called us in
the morning and sang the national anthem. It was a great day!
Well let me start off by saying I
think one of the greatest lessons I have learned on my mission is PATIENCE.
I never thought I was an especially impatient person before my mission,
but time and time again on my mission my patience has been tested. It’s been so
hard at times, but I know patience is the key to truly accepting the will of
God and being humble enough to serve during the difficulties. At the
beginning of my mission, I had to learn PATIENCE with accepting the will of God
and serving where Heavenly Father wanted me to serve. It was so hard,
especially during the winter in Williamston, but I loved every minute of it and
I have such a strong testimony now that the plan of God is perfect. I had
to learn PATIENCE with other people many times throughout my mission,
especially when people rejected our message or when our investigators didn’t
progress like we wanted them to. I had to learn PATIENCE with myself when
I arrived in Brazil and I wanted to be fluent right away and be the same
missionary I was in Michigan. It truly is such a Christlike attribute.
Every time my patience is tested, I think of a quote from Elder Holland
that really has touched my heart:
´´Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.´´
Beautiful, right? And this
week was such a proof of this prophetic statement. I can’t even begin to
describe how wonderful our week was. Wyctor, our new investigator, is so
solid. We taught him a few times this week and he will be baptized on the
19th. He said he prayed about the Book
of Mormon and he knows it is true. At church he was asking us if he
could be baptized sooner but he has to come to church three times first.
Heavenly Father really is preparing people, we just have to have the
spiritual eyes to see.
Also, Celia, Leticia, Nickoly, and
David are progressing well. We picked a date for them as well for the
19th and they are so excited! For a while, they weren’t progressing like
I wanted them to. It was frustrating at times. However, we kept
doing all we could do and trusting in the Lord to provide and it’s made all the
difference. We have been visiting every day and reading the Book of Mormon with them little by
little from the beginning. Just imagine Sister Moscoso and I reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese to a
Brazilian family and trying to explain what is happening with our limited
vocabulary. Most of the time is spent with us looking up words in our
dictionaries, but despite this, the Spirit is always SO strong! Also we gave
them some old skirts we aren’t using and they wore them to church yesterday and
they said this Sunday was better than the others and they felt the Spirit
stronger. Cool miracles like that have been happening and I feel so
excited about the work here right now.
My time here has been filled with
little challenges and setbacks with the language and with investigators . . . however,
I can testify with PATIENCE, the blessings truly do come. Everything is coming
together so nicely and I am so so grateful for the hand of the Lord in my life
right now. Thanks for all of the prayers and advice--every little bit
helps!
Still can’t figure out how to send
pictures, but I have some good ones ready and waiting!
Love you all!!
Sister Dixon
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