The fairer half of Sister Dixon's district

July 15, 2013

Hello family!

First, all of us are still at MSU!  It is such a blessing to be together for another transfer.  We were pretty sure we would be, but sometimes we would speculate about the crazy things that could happen.  For a while I was convinced I would be training a visa waiter and opening a new area...just kidding, I didn't really think that, but I was expecting the most crazy thing so I wouldn't be disappointed.  We are so happy to be still here and still together though!  Thanks so much to everyone for writing.  We had such an amazing week.

Seriously, we were so blessed this week and I just saw miracle after miracle!  I'll share the highlights with you!

On Monday for P-day we went to a thrift store that just opened up by our apartment.  It was awesome.  You'll probably see some new clothes in pictures and stuff.  I got 5 skirts and 4 shirts for 21 dollars!!  Anyway, that was really fun for us and it was a good time to bond as a companionship.

On Wednesday we had our last district meeting.  I really loved my district and I will be sad to see some of them leave.  One of the elders in my district got his visa!  (Oh, and 3 people from my MTC district are flying to Brazil today.  Crazy!  I feel like my time is soon, but we will see.)  The other visa waiter in my district hasn't gotten anything, though, so he is starting his 3rd transfer in Lansing.  Our district leader is now one of our zone leaders and we have a new district leader named Elder Lyman.  I think it's going to be awesome with them!  I can feel this is going to be a terrific transfer.

I have some exciting news!  Yifan is getting baptized this Saturday.  And guess who is baptizing him?! Bruce!  It's going to be an amazing night.  Yifan progressed so well this week and he just loves everything about the gospel.  We are so excited for him.  (By the way, Bruce reads my blog so here is a shoutout to him.  HI BRUCE!)  

Yifan is the funniest guy ever so I thought I would include some quotes from him.

When the elders passed around their dinner calendar, he thought it was a sign-up to feed the elderLY.  He told us how confused he was because he was like "I thought they already had families and they probably don't even want to get up and come over for dinner."  Too good.

We are also helping him move on Saturday before his baptism.  He told us this is our second time helping him move--we already helped him move from the world to the kingdom of God! How great is that?!

Sacrament meeting was way awesome this past week.  All of the guys passing the sacrament were Chinese recent converts--Bruce included.  They did it with such reverence and joy.  One of them (Frank, he has been in pictures and he is a riot) would pass it to each row and say "Take one" before he passed it on.  It was too good.  Our ward is forming a priest’s quorum as well which has been wonderful to see!  You usually don't have that in a singles ward but we are making one in light of all the recent converts.  Bruce got called to be the 1st assistant.  We are so excited for him and it really is inspiring to see all of them growing in the gospel!

We had such a huge miracle this week.  We had been praying for referrals and for new investigators and on Saturday our prayers were answered!  We had invited all of the ward members to invite friends to the bbq. Well, we got a call from Lyons on Saturday morning and he said he invited 2 friends.  We were like "Lyons, that's so cool!  2 friends?  We are so excited!"  And then Lyons was like "no, 10 friends!"  And it really happened!  Lyons brought 10 friends to the bbq.  And some of his friends brought their friends as well!  We ended up having like 25 members and 40 nonmembers there.  It was so amazing.  We were able to talk to many new people and get return appointments up the wazoo.  They all loved the Slip and Slide too!  It was a success and I know we will see so much work progress from that event.  We are so grateful our prayers were answered!

One last thing:  This week, I just kept feeling like I should read over the family history stories you gave me, mom.  I ended up reading them one night and I especially loved Grandma Dixon's conversion story.  I had never heard it before but it was so powerful to me.  I love thinking I am around the same age as she was when she got baptized.  I am grateful for her strength and conviction.  I am so grateful I get to represent the Dixon name, too.  I hope I do you all proud! I just feel really grateful that we all have the gospel in our lives and that our ancestors worked so hard to have it as well.

I love you all!

Sister Dixon

I'm in love with the glove!

4th of July

July 8, 2013

Ok this title was a stretch but I had to think of something that compared to last week's title!

Thank you all for the letter!  I loved hearing from grandma and grandpa too and I can't believe you left on 4th of July so spur of the moment.  It sounds wonderful though, and I hope you are having fun!

Here are some updates from this week:

This week was a little slow because lots of our investigators were out of town for the 4th of July.  It was a bummer for sure!  They are all getting back this week though so hopefully we get to see them soon.  We spent tons of time this week meeting with members and setting missionary goals with them.  I loved meeting with the members so much.  They are so cool and they have the strongest desires to be good missionaries.  They all set some really awesome goals, too, so hopefully they can start seeing the fruits of their labors.  We have a missionary bbq coming up this Saturday, the 13th, and we have been challenging lots of members to bring friends to it!  We are even having a Slip and Slide so hopefully that will bring lots of new people to teach!  Also, the Chinese people have no clue what a Slip and Slide is so I am really excited to see them do it for the first time.  They played football for the first time on 4th of July and it was too funny.  Ah I love them so much!

The 4th of July was a slow day, but it was an awesome day as well.  I loved being a missionary on a holiday.  So many people we saw commented they couldn't believe we were out working on a holiday so I told them the message is so important that we don't ever stop!  We started the day by doing some service for a girl in our ward.  We cleaned her kitchen and it was really fun to serve!  Then, it was time for us to go tracting because we didn't have any lessons that day.  We always have an interesting dilemma since we don't have a car.  We usually have periods of 2-3 hours between teaching our lessons where we can go finding.  However, most of the apartment complexes near campus take 45 minutes to 1 hour to walk to so we can't really go door knocking there.  So, usually, we go on campus and talk to people there.  However, it was empty this week for some reason.  We saw 1 person in 1 hour on one of the days.  Therefore, we were pretty nervous for 4th of July because we knew campus was going to be dead and most people wouldn't be in their apartments.  But, we thought of the brilliant plan to go bus finding!  We thought tons of people would be on the bus going to various parties and stuff.  We got to the bus stop and waited there for like 20 minutes and then someone told us the buses weren't running on 4th of July.  Haha.  We felt pretty stupid.  We had to change our plans and we ended up going door knocking somewhere else for a bit.  It wasn't the most fruitful day, but it was still enjoyable.  The night of the 4th was seriously the best, though!  We had a little ward BBQ (we really like those) and 2 of our investigators were able to come.  They absolutely loved it and I did as well.  I love this ward so much.  Later, we were able to teach Bruce another lesson.  Bruce has been doing AWESOME this week.  He comes out teaching with us and the elders almost every day.  He always bears the strongest testimony during our lessons and it is seriously so inspiring.  He got the Priesthood yesterday, too, and he was just so happy!    Bruce has also been Skyping with people in China and sharing the gospel with them.  He read his mom some verses from the Book of Mormon.  The Chinese people in our ward are the best missionaries ever.  I am just trying to be more like them. After, we finished planning and then had some free time.  We were allowed to stay out until 10:30 to watch fireworks and stuff.  We tried to find some but all of them were blocked by the tall campus buildings.  We ended up going outside and watching the fireflies fly around.  It was a fun time and I was overwhelmed by how much I love it here.  That night for sure I felt like I really am supposed to be here for however long.  I hope I can do the work I know I was sent here to do!  

We had exchanges on Friday with Sister Smith, the Sister Training Leader.   She is basically like a zone leader but for the sister missionaries.  She came to MSU with Sister Christiansen and me and Sister Probert went to Williamston.  We had an awesome day!  We went bus finding for a long time and talked to some amazing people!  I hope they turn into investigators.  Bus finding is one of my favorite things to do.  We meet some characters for sure.  Anyway, Sister Smith was really helpful and I learned some valuable tips from her.  Remind me when I get home from my mission to tell you about a crazy guy I met on the bus.  I would tell you now, but I just don't think it will do it justice.

I just got word Sister Cox from my MTC district got her visa.  I am so curious as to see when mine will come.  We get transfer calls this Friday too so we will see what happens.  Maybe I will be speaking Spanish like Hayley.  Just kidding, I am pretty sure I am staying where I am but as we all know, sometimes the Lord has different plans for us!

Also, here is a funny/crazy story that happened this week.  There is a guy named LeAndre who we met a while back and we have been trying to have a lesson with him.  We have called him a few times to schedule appointments and we always say "Let us know if there is something we can do to help!"  Well, the other day, we got a call from the East Lansing Prison.  LeAndre called us and tried to get us to bail him out of jail!  It was crazy.  He started the phone call with "You said you would do something to help me, so can you bail me out?"  That is something I never expected to happen as a missionary!  Every day is an adventure.  It's the best!

I love you all!  Keep being great!

Sister Dixon

I'm smitten with the mitten!

Bruce's baptism

July 1, 2013

Hi all!

Cute title, eh?  We have seen that phrase on a few t-shirts and I think it's pretty clever.

We had a GREAT week.  It was seriously so awesome and Bruce's baptism was the coolest experience ever.  I was so grateful to be able to take part in it.  But I'll get to that later.

Last week we got to spend lots of time with the other missionaries in the Lansing mission.  It was so cool and I feel such a spirit of camaraderie.  We got together with all of the sisters in our zone last P-day and played basketball which was really fun.  It made me feel like a true missionary!  We also had half-mission training last Thursday.  We got to drive to Mount Pleasant and Sister Christensen, Sister Probert, and I had the amazing opportunity of riding there with President and Sister Hess.  I loved hearing stories from them.  They told us about the process of getting their callings and I just know it was so inspired.  I love learning from them and hearing their wisdom and strong testimonies.  President Hess has an amazing testimony of Joseph Smith and it has strengthened mine so much.

The training on Thursday was so good.  It made me feel guilty, but the good kind of guilty.  Like more of a desire to do better and a hope it is possible.  The training gave me a ton of good ideas about different approaches to missionary work and we had some amazing practice teaching.  Also I saw an elder there who I had a class with at BYU so that was crazy!  He was pretty shocked to see me in Lansing because he knew I was going to Brazil.

Other than that, we just had lessons and finding throughout the week.  Our main focus was preparing Bruce for his baptism.  The baptism was AMAZING!!!  We were just so excited for it all week because it was the first baptism for all of us.  We had to ride the bus to his baptism Saturday night and it was crazy because one of our other investigators, Ashwini, was there so we got to meet with him on the way.  It's amazing how the Lord puts people in your path!  Ashwini ended up coming to the baptism along with one of our other investigators, Ray.  The other missionaries in the zone brought lots of investigators too.  The Relief Society room was packed.  It was about half members and then half investigators and missionaries.  People in our ward really came together to help us prepare and I was so grateful for their help.  Bruce had been a little nervous for his baptism all week but he texted us Saturday morning and said "I am not nervous anymore I am so excited!" so that was really awesome.  He walked into the baptism and we were all shocked because he was wearing a nice suit.  He has always worn jeans to church but he said he bought a suit for his baptism and it was just so sweet he did that and none of us even asked him to!

Brother Barnes, a member of the bishopric, baptized Bruce.  He came out of the water and looked so happy.  It was amazing to see.  Other than that, our companionship sang a rendition of “Come, Follow Me” for the musical number and we had some members of the ward give talks.   The highlight was definitely Bruce bearing his testimony though!  He bore such a strong testimony and I know it touched everyone in the room.  I felt the happiest I have ever been in my life!  I am just so grateful that God gave me the opportunity to be here doing this work.  I just have loved seeing Bruce grow closer to Christ.  Bruce got confirmed on Sunday by a member named Ben.  Ben went to Australia on his mission and spoke Chinese so he did the confirmation in Mandarin.  

This week we are trying to put an increased emphasis on working with the members because we really want to help get them motivated.  I hope it works because missionary work truly is about getting members and missionaries united!  We are excited for the increased emphasis that is being placed on member missionary work.  This is such an amazing time to be a missionary.  

Here’s a funny story from this week.  It was hilarious at the time so if you don't think it's funny I am sorry.  Yesterday we were meeting with Bruce in the library of our institute building.  They have a ton of books you can check out and use.  We were helping Bruce check out a book and Sister Christiansen started busting up laughing. She had checked out Jesus the Christ the week before because she forgot to bring her own copy.  Anyway, on the slot where you write the book title, she had written that she checked out "Jesus the Christiansen."  It was too good.  She had absentmindedly just written her full name!  

That's about it from me, though.  I am loving it so much and I am grateful for all your support. 

Love,

Sister Dixon

Holding birthday packages

June 24, 2013

Hi everyone!  

First of all, Thanks SO MUCH for the birthday packages!  I had the best day and I just felt so loved.  But I will get to that later. I am so glad to hear everyone is doing well!  I'll give a little description of my week.

We had such an amazing week again!  Monday and Tuesday were filled with finding and teaching.   I discovered I have a love for bus finding!  Talking to people on bus rides is the best.  Plus it's suspenseful because you never know when they are going to get off so you have to time the invitation to learn perfectly.  I love it!  I am still working on mastering the timing though.  The worst is when I don't get to ask for someone's number and we have to leave.  It's a fun challenge though.

We had district meeting on Wednesday and we got to go to Chipotle for lunch again.  We taught the rest of the day on Wednesday which I just love!  We saw so many miracles that day.  We taught 2 new investigators--one from India and one from Saudi Arabia.  So cool.  The one from India is named Ashwini.  He is a referral from one of our Chinese members named Lyons (Lyons is hilarious and is one of the best missionaries ever!) but we taught him and he came to church yesterday so we have high hopes for him.  Then we taught Thamer from Saudi Arabia.  That lesson was interesting because he is VERY hard to understand.  He was a miracle though.  He got our number from one of his friends who was a former investigator and randomly texted us that he wanted to meet.  That NEVER happens so we are excited.  We are meeting with him again this week so hopefully that goes well.  Bruce meets with us almost every day and on Wednesday he prayed the Miami Heat would win their next game hahaha it was so funny.  But they won!  And Bruce told us he has a strong testimony of the power of prayer.  Heavenly Father was definitely helping us out with that one.  On Wednesday night I went on exchanges!  Sister Christiansen and I went to Williamston with Sister Nuttall.  

Being on exchanges was an awesome experience because Williamston is a family ward.  It was interesting to see the different dynamics.  We started out the day doing service for a lady in the ward.  We pulled all of her weeds and I loved it!  We don't get too many opportunities to serve in our ward because the students are all super busy and they don't really have front lawns or anything we can help out with.  So the times we do get to serve are just amazing!  We had a picnic at the park with another member who was hilarious.  She is very old and said some very interesting things about the Church and men (she is divorced and very bitter!) so we enjoyed ourselves.  We got to go door knocking later in Williamston.  That was very different to knock on family doors!  Some people were very nice and open but some people were very set in their ways and not very polite.  It was still fun though and hopefully they will get return appointments.  There was one guy that really gave us an interesting experience.  He came out on his porch and we started talking but then he stopped us and lit a cigarette and then pointed to a tattoo on his hand.  He said "See this mark on my hand?  It means you’re not welcome here.  Bye now.  Don't get hit by a car or anything."  And then went back inside.  It was creepy but we were all dying laughing.  One thing that bugged me was how people kept saying they are comfortable where they are in their own church.  I decided I HATE that word!  I think the only time we can experience true joy is if we are striving and growing.  If we are comfortable and complacent, we are not learning or becoming better.  For the rest of the day, whenever we would feel uncomfortable or awkward or frustrated, we would look at each other and say "YES!  We are growing!"  I am glad I learned this because it's definitely something I want to strive for the rest of my life.

On Friday we had a sister training meeting.  It was with all of the sisters in our zone and it was awesome!  I seriously learned so much and it just made me so stoked to be a missionary in this time and in this place.  Later on we taught Bruce and went to Book of Mormon study.  All of the members sang an early Happy Birthday to me and it made me so happy.  Like the most joyful I have ever been.  I love these people so much and I was just so touched by their love.  

My birthday was awesome!  I got your packages on Friday but I waited to open them until Saturday morning.  Thank you for everything!  I love it all and I already wore the shoes.  And my companions say thanks for the Starbursts!  Sister Probert made a scavenger hunt for me while I was in Williamston and she gave me some cute gifts.  One of them is a whiteboard for me to write on because I am doing an English fast tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  And Sister Christiansen wrote a hilarious comic for me.  I loved it all.  Later, Greg and Erin (some members) came by and gave me a chocolate croissant.  We worked the rest of the day and then went out to a pizza place for dinner.  Overall, it was an awesome day and I just felt so loved.  Oh and the best part of the day was our lesson with Bruce!  We committed him to get baptized on June 29th for sure!  He told us on Friday he was considering waiting because he had a crazy schedule but on my birthday he told us he got it all worked out!  So he is getting baptized this Saturday and we are all so excited for him.  I can't believe it though.  I mean we met him on June 6th, my first day, and he has just progressed so much!  He is the definition of being prepared by the Lord.  It's going to be an amazing experience.  

Sunday was good too!  We had some investigators at church and we got to teach Gospel Principles about the sacrament.  I am so grateful for the sacrament!   The broadcast too was UNREAL.  It was cool too because there were some missionaries I know in the choir.  We were sitting there with all of the missionaries in the district and President and Sister Hess were with us and you could just feel the energy from how excited everyone was.  All of us were just sooo pumped up after and we kept saying how lucky we are to be missionaries right now!  I feel so blessed!

I hope you all have a great week!

Sister Dixon

June 17, 2013

Hello everyone!

Michigan continues to be so good to me.  I don't know how I got so blessed to be here but it will definitely be a sad day when I have to go.  I am still so excited to go to Brazil, but Lansing is awesome!

I'll give you a lowdown of my week.  We had such a good week.

Monday--we went to FHE with one of our investigators, Brooke.  We haven't actually had a lesson with her yet because she lives super far away and neither of us have a car, which has been a bummer!  She was found by some elders in our district and given to us because she will go to the singles ward after she is baptized on June 29th.  That will be an awesome experience.  We got to talk to her a little bit at FHE and I am so excited to talk to her more!  One cool thing we learned is that people without landmarks wander in circles.  I guess there was a study done where they had people go to a place without any landmarks.  When they were told to walk in a straight line, they tried to, but they ended up just going in circles.  That was so cool for me to hear and it made me so grateful for the landmarks we have in our lives!  The Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost are such amazing landmarks that I am so grateful for.

Tuesday--Tuesday was the best day ever!  We had 5 lessons that day which is a record for us.  I loved teaching nonstop and meeting all these cool people.  Every single lesson was so great though!  We would always walk out so happy; our investigators are so cool.  I know it's the Spirit!  I feel so blessed to have it with me when we teach.  Two of our favorite investigators are Bruce and Yifan.  We had awesome lessons with them on Tuesday and they both came to church yesterday!  Both of them are from China and they are so great.  The best quote from that day came from teaching Bruce. Bruce is seriously a stud.  We were talking to him about the Book of Mormon and he was like "Wait, I have a question.  It keeps saying Nephi is obedient.  Does that mean he is fat?"  We were laughing so hard and we had to explain obedient is not a derivative of obese.  It was too good.

Wednesday--We had our first district meeting on Wednesday.  It was good and I learned some great tips.  I love seeing how inspired missionary leaders are.  They taught about seriously every little thing I have had questions about or we have been struggling with.  It's so amazing to me to see the power of prayer.  Whenever I ask Heavenly Father about something, He always sends me someone with the answer or whenever I am having a hard time, He always sends a tender mercy to cheer me up.  I love it so much.

Thursday--Thursday was hilarious.  We taught Yifan again and he just eats the gospel up.  He told us he feels we were sent to him for a reason and that was awesome.  He is progressing so well and we hope he will continue to come to church and be baptized soon!  We also had a lesson with a girl named Elizabeth.  Holy cow was that interesting.  We found her on campus a few days earlier and she told us she is becoming a nun soon but she was interested in how we are sisters too.  We gave her a card and got her number.  We were planning on calling her on Thursday but she called us on Wednesday night which NEVER happens.  We were way stoked.  We thought she had looked at mormon.org and wanted to learn more or something but we were way off base.  Basically her whole purpose was to try to get us to convert to Catholicism and save us!  Here is a direct quote "I admire that you are out here working, but it just makes me so sad it's not for the right church."  I have never wanted to Bible bash so hard!  That took some serious restraint.  But it ended on a good note.  We gave her a Book of Mormon so maybe something will come out of it but that was definitely a tense lesson.  We had dinner with a member that night too which was so nice!  I am always so grateful when that happens because our ward is a bunch of starving college students so it is very selfless of them to feed us.

Friday--On Friday we went out to lunch with a member named Helen.  She is so solid.  She is from Troy, Michigan which is funny--Helen of Troy.  She is Chinese and she got baptized in January and she still hasn't told her parents she is Mormon...we are working on helping her tell them.  Anyway, she always helps us with rides and goes to lessons with us.  We went to Chipotle and then went to teach a recent convert named Nang.  Nang is from Burma and has a hard time speaking English.  It's crazy how diverse it is here!  We have taught people from Germany, Uganda, Iraq, Burma, China, and so many other places.  I love it.  On Friday night we had Book of Mormon study and Bruce was able to come.  He is so awesome!  We read 2 Nephi 2 and he loved how it focuses on happiness and joy.  He said "I like reading the Bible and I feel happy when I read it.  But I feel so much happier when I read the Book of Mormon."  It was such a wonderful experience.

Saturday--Saturday was a bit harder.  We didn't have any lessons scheduled,which was a bummer, so we had a busy day of finding! I am curious to see if my Sao Paulo mission is mainly teaching or finding.  I feel like we have a good balance here.  We took a bus and did some bus finding and then went to some apartments far away from where we live.  It was hard because it was a Saturday and most of the people there were really drunk and not very nice to us.  I also left my bus pass on the bus because I was talking to the girl next to me and I forgot to grab it on our way off (but I got her number! Silver lining?).  I was feeling pretty dejected but the Lord kept sending things to help me out.  It is amazing how that happens!

Sunday--Church was awesome!  The members here are so strong and work so hard to keep the ward running.  They are so good about helping the missionaries with their work.  I feel so blessed to be in such a missionary-oriented ward.  After church we visited with a less active and then had another lesson with Bruce.  Bruce and Yifan both came to church and they loved it.  Anyway, the lesson with Bruce was so good.  We read 2 Nephi 31 with him and talked about baptism and the priesthood.  We ended with challenging him to be baptized on June 29th!  He accepted, but he is nervous for it.  We reassured him we can always push it back, but it's good to have goals.  He said the closing prayer and said "Dear Heavenly Father, I am so nervous but so excited for this baptism date.  I already know it is true and that Mormon is good for everyone.  I love the Book of Mormon because it makes me feel like I have a torch in my hand when I am in the darkness."  Needless to say we were all trying to hide our tears when he finished his prayer but we are just so excited!  It's been amazing to see the blessings from Lansing.  Hopefully he continues to progress!  Both he and Yifan are coming to FHE tonight so we are excited.  

Anyway, there is the week wrap up.  I just love being a missionary and I am so grateful for all the amazing people I have been able to meet!

That's about it.  Thanks for your continued love and support and thanks for the birthday wishes!  I am excited to be in Lansing for it.  Also I am turning 20?  What?  I can't believe it.  

Love you all!

Sister Dixon

Hello from a Michigander!

Sisters Dixon, Probert, and Christiansen

June 10, 2013

Hi family!!!

GO SPARTANS is right because I am a campus missionary at MSU!  My new address is: 

4912 South Hagadorn #103

East Lansing, Michigan 48823  

Ok first of all let me start out by saying I absolutely love it here!  And people really are called Michiganders so that's kind of fun.  I will give you an overview of all that's happened so far... sorry if it's long but I have so much to say!

So we arrived at the Lansing airport on Wednesday afternoon.  We were greeted by President Hess and his wife, the assistants, and all of the missionaries going to Lansing (the visa waiters arrived an hour later than everyone else).  Overall, there were 27 new missionaries coming in to the mission.  We packed up all of our stuff and drove to the mission home.  The mission home is in the same city as MSU (East Lansing).  We spent the rest of the day doing training and we even got to go on campus for a bit and go finding just to see what it was like.  I had tons of fun.  I was exhausted, but it was awesome to finally be talking to real people instead of fake investigators.  I do miss the MTC though.  We had a nice home-cooked dinner at the mission home and then spent the night there.  They have so many beds!  They were so accommodating of everyone.  On Thursday, we woke up and had more training.  Then, we met our companions and trainers!  It was awesome.

I am in a trio as you have probably been able to see by the pictures you received from the Hesses (if you received them).  By the way, I probably look way tired in them so if you think I am sickly or anything, don't worry.  My trainer's name is Sister Probert.  She is from Oregon and she has been here since January.  She is AWESOME!  You were right, I didn't have to worry about my trainer.  She is the best example to me and has been so helpful with everything.  I am so grateful for her.  When we teach lessons, she just connects with the investigators so well.  It's so touching to watch. I am trying every day to be more like that!  She definitely teaches by the Spirit as well.  Our other companion's name is SIster Christiansen from San Francisco.  She is absolutely hilarious.  She has an incredible knowledge of the scriptures.  Also, she was on a Danish reality TV show that you should look up.  She said the episode of her getting eliminated was absolutely hilarious. Nick, I think you would enjoy it.  It's call Alt for Danmark or something along those lines but she has great stories.  She has been to Sweden too.  Oh and my zone leader is from Sweden!  I can't remember his last name though but he didn't know who you were.  Anyway, we all get along really well so that is such a blessing!  We are still trying to perfect the art of teaching in a trio but I know that will come.

Once we met each other, we dropped our stuff off at our apartment and got to work.  It turns out my new area is MSU!  I am a campus missionary and I couldn't be happier about it.  When we went finding on the first day I kept thinking how cool it would be to be serving there so I was way stoked to find that out.  I love working with the students.  It's been kind of hard to find people to teach because of summer break but we go door knocking a lot to try to find.  Sister Probert said it was almost harder when school was in session because the number of people was overwhelming.  You didn't know who you should talk to.  There is an institute building right across the street from campus and then our apartment is right in the same parking lot.  It's awesome.  We live in the "Living Center.”  It's actually a church building that is dedicated and everything.  Pretty much everyone who lives in the same complex as us is LDS so we have gotten to know the ward members really well.  We are serving in a student ward and the people are so solid.  The ward is small, but so strong.  We don't have a car which is a blessing and a curse.  We can only teach people really close to us (we usually teach people at the institute building) but I am glad we don't have to worry about a car.  We also get tons of mosquito bites.  Any remedies?  Also, you should look up about a Michigan left turn.  I don't know if you have ever heard about it, but it's this crazy traffic law I do not understand so I am grateful I don't have to drive here.  I absolutely love my area though!  We are about 5 minutes away from the mission home and the assistants also work on campus with us so we have great resources all around.  I just feel so blessed!

We went door knocking on Thursday in some apartments.  We didn't find a ton of people, but we found someone golden!  Like seriously a miracle.  His name is Bruce and he is from Shanghai (most of the people we teach are from China.  I guess a ton of Chinese people go to MSU for some reason.  Like 3/4 of the investigators we have are Chinese.  They are great and they always give us referrals (hard to understand, but so great).  He was so interested in all we had to say though.  We taught him on Saturday and then he came to our ward bbq right after and he hit it off with all of the members.  He came to church on Sunday too and really enjoyed it!  We are so grateful we were able to find him and hopefully he keeps progressing.

On Thursday night we went to a member’s house for dinner.  We don't get a ton of dinner appointments so I was really excited to have one on our first night.  Ashley had us over and get this--she served in Brazil!  So I got to speak a little Portuguese on my first night there.  There is one other member in our ward from Brazil so I try to falar com eles com frequencia.  It was so cool though!  And both of them have offered to help me with my language study.

On Friday we had weekly planning and then we taught some lessons.  Sister Probert found an investigator named Rooney a couple weeks ago and we have been teaching him almost every day.  He is from Iraq and he has a crazy story.  I can't even imagine some of the things he has gone through.  He is solid though.  He wants to be baptized but he wants a testimony of the Book of Mormon first.  We have been trying to help him with that but I love meeting with him.  He calls me Colorado instead of Sister Dixon because he said that's his favorite state even though he has never been there.  Whenever we ask him who should say the prayer he always points at me and says "Colorado." 

We also do this thing called Book of Mormon every Friday night where investigators and members can come and read The Book of Mormon and talk about it.  We brought one of our investigators named Kenzy.  She moved on Sunday though :(  so she isn't an investigator anymore but it was still an awesome experience.  There was an investigator there named Yassr and he is also from Iraq.  He is getting baptized soon and he is a hoot.  He definitely speaks his mind.  Nick, I told him the Arabic I know from Islam and the Gospel.  I guess that class was good for something!  

On Saturday we went finding with not too much luck but then we had the ward bbq.  Sunday was good too.  We taught Rooney again and found out some of the elders in a family ward are passing us one of their investigators because she will be in the singles ward.  Her name is Brooke and we are SO excited to teach her!  She has a baptismal date on June 29th so it looks like I will witness one baptism here.  It is such a miracle.  We get to meet with her the first time this week and I am really excited.  She has only been taking lessons for a week but she knows it is true and has such a solid testimony.  The people in Lansing are awesome!

Here are some general things about Lansing.  It is very green and so beautiful!  The MSU campus is really nice and pretty too.  We are up there almost every day and it is gorgeous.  The weather is pretty nice.  It hasn't been hot at all which I am really grateful for.  It rains or drizzles almost every day and it is pretty humid. Kirst, my hair hasn't really been wavy but when I straighten it, it flips out weird and stuff.  I need to experiment with some things though and see what happens with the humidity.  When it does get hot, though, the mosquitoes really attack.  I swear the mosquitoes here are like some crazy breed--the tracker jackers of mosquitoes!  I got around 20 bites the other night when we were tracting.  I have been trying to use that roll on repellant, mom, but they still go crazy.  And my bites have been getting HUGE!  It's disgusting.  I don't itch them either.  I know you probably don't believe me, but I figure if I can invite people to live the Word of Wisdom and challenge them with that then I should be able to restrain from itching.  I am trying to keep an eternal perspective and not go with the temporary satisfaction.  Anyway, I am trying to wear my longer skirts more often for protection and to hide my legs!  They have bites all over and it isn't a cute look.

Even writing that, though, I feel so blessed!  That is really the only thing I have found here to be remotely disappointed with.  It will be hard to leave.  I am already dreading the day.  It's weird though, because I am still so excited to go to Brazil.  I also have to keep reminding myself the living conditions will definitely not be so nice in Brazil.  I have to enjoy it while it lasts!

Well, that's about it.  I have unlimited e-mail time so tell me if my letters get long-winded.  I could talk for hours about the people here!  I hope everyone is doing well.  I pray for all of you.  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dixon

Sharing the Colorado flag with Sister Hargrove, who is currently serving in the Colorado Springs  mission

June 4, 2013

Hi all!!!

Thanks for e-mailing me from Texas.  It sounds like Dallas is treating you well!  I am glad you are all having fun and that the car trip was safe.

Honestly, I am SO EXCITED!  I can't believe I will be in the mission field tomorrow!  And Michigan is perfect.  I found out my mission president's name is President Hess.  I can't wait to meet him 

Ok here are some general things.  It will probably be short because I am pretty scattered right now and I get to talk to you tomorrow!!! YIPEE!!!

Here is my flight plan.  We are flying Delta.  I leave the MTC at 4 am and my flight leaves from SLC at 7.  I might have some time there to call.  (I am not sure what any of these times will be Texas time so I am sorry if it's really early or really late).  We arrive in MN at 10:29 for a layover and then I board the plane again at 1:05 so I will definitely call then.  I drop down in Lansing at 3:34 pm!  I can't wait to be there and see what it's like.  I can't wait to talk to you all.  I will call cell phones since you are gone.  Also, if you have any questions write them down because I would love to answer them! 

The devotionals here continue to be awesome.  We also had a lesson yesterday from a Brazilian native.  He is from Sao Paulo and told us so much about where we are going!  I am so excited to be there!  I can't wait to serve in both places.  Things like that make me realize how special the MTC is and how much I will miss it when I am gone. 

Sister Cox, Sister Empey, and I are the only ones from our district left now.  Things are kind of lonely but we are busy with preparations before we leave tomorrow.  I can't wait to be in the field. Sorry this was brief!

I love you!

Sister Dixon