It doesn't matter where you serve, it matters HOW you serve!

Farewell MSU!

October 7, 2013

Hi family!

Thanks for the wonderful e-mail!  I did indeed get transferred.  I leave tomorrow morning for my new area at 6:40 am...but it's like a 10-minute drive haha so not too crazy.  I am now serving in the Williamston ward with Sister Anson and Sister Kaegi.  Sister Smith used to serve in Williamston and loved it so I am really excited!  Sister Anson is also from Colorado--I think Firestone?  We will be co-training Sister Kaegi.  She is on her second half of training and is already amazing--I think she will be training me.  I got to go on exchanges with her last transfer and I was blown away so it will be fun.  Plus she is a visa waiter too!  We will get to have language study together which will be otimo!  She was in the same MTC district as Brianna Vail.  Small world:-)

The ward boundaries of Williamston just changed so the ward is a ton smaller than it used to be.  I think it will be a really great opportunity to know the members really well and get them involved in the work.  I am going to miss MSU SO much but I am excited for the opportunity to learn and grow.  I know it's where God needs me.  I never would have guessed I would be here for at least 4 transfers but it feels right!  I love Michigan so much!

The highlight of this week was definitely General Conference.  We had some investigators and recent converts come and it was amazing.  The talks answered my questions as well as their questions and it was such a revelatory experience for all.  We got to watch it together in the institute and it was fun!  I loved being there with the people I have grown to love and getting to spend time together before I have to leave.  It was the best conference I have ever experienced.  Can you believe it's already been a year since they made the announcement?  Boy has my life changed a ton!  I am grateful  for the opportunity to be here and to be surrounded by many amazing people.  I love this gospel so much.  

Love,

Sister Dixon

1862 Hamilton Rd. Apt. E6

Okemos, MI 48864

Hu's baptism

September 30, 2013

Hello family!

We had an amazing week here!  Hu Wen Qi got baptized on Saturday and it was a great day.  He said what first attracted him to the Church was how serious we took sacrament meeting (there are a ton of churches in East Lansing that have rock bands and stuff that play during church) and the high standards of Latter-day Saints.  It's wonderful to have been able to see him grow and progress!  He truly has become so much happier because of the gospel in his life and I feel so blessed to have been able to be the one to share it with him!  I'll attach pictures.  Also he bought that suit for his baptism!  It was so precious to see him stroll in.  Oh and by the way his name is pronounced Who When Chee.  We sang another musical number so look for it on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajw0yQFAszQ) and I gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Mom--he wanted to sing “When Faith Endures” for the closing hymn so that was cool!  He was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday as well which was a really tender experience.

We have been blessed in so many ways!  We have been meeting incredible people.  There is one guy named Steven who walked up to us as we were talking to people on campus.  He was like "Are you Mormons?"  We started talking to him and it turned out he took missionary lessons over the summer in Troy, Michigan--that's in the Detroit mission.  He was hesitant about meeting again but he told us every time he wants to sell his soul to the devil, missionaries find him and so maybe he should take that as a sign.  We ended up meeting with him yesterday morning and he told us he already knows the Book of Mormon is true and so we committed him to baptism!  It was amazing!  He was so prepared and it was such a miracle to cross paths with him.  It was so funny at his lesson.  We finished teaching and then after he was like "Wait--I do have one question."  He is really smart and was asking really deep questions the whole lesson so I was pretty nervous.  Then he said "How does the church feel about polo?"  It was really unexpected and I still have no idea why he asked that but he is awesome and so prepared!  He ended up coming to church later which was such a blessing too.

Saturday was the best day of my mission!  We had Hu Wen Qi's baptism and after we went and got Tasty Twist together.  Then we had a ward BBQ which ended in cooking s’mores in the fire pit behind the Living Center.  It is sooo beautiful back there!  The trees are changing right now and East Lansing is seriously gorgeous.  I have heard it will get pretty cold soon though so hopefully I can find some cheap winter clothes.  After the party we went to the RS broadcast.  Wasn't it amazing?  I loved hearing them talk about covenants!  Covenant people are happy people.  I am grateful for the chance we have to make promises with God.  We were all so happy that day and felt so grateful to be missionaries!

Transfer calls are this week.  I really hope I get to stay with these wonderful companions.  I kinda have a feeling I will be transferred, but we will see!  

Also, mom, I have heard that visa website is pretty unreliable.  One guy in my district at the MTC got his visa and it said it hadn't even been received and then someone else said his was done and he didn't actually get it for like 2 transfers.  Who knows?!  I love the adventure and suspense behind waiting for my visa.  The good news is it's all working out like it's supposed to!

Have a great week everyone!  I love you all so much!

Sister Dixon

Matching missionaries!

September 23, 2013

Hey family!  

I can't believe I am here e-mailing you again...the weeks are seriously flying by!  Tomorrow is my 5 month mark (and also Nick's birthday--happy birthday Nick!) and I can't believe it.  It's sad to me that the time is passing quickly.  There is still so much left to learn but I just have to work my hardest every day and hope for the best!

We had an amazing week here.  Hu Wen Qi's baptism didn't end up happening this past weekend because all of the ward was supposed to be gone for a YSA conference and there were some scheduling conflicts for the building.  But we are definitely having it this Saturday at 11 and he is sooo excited!  He came to church yesterday and had a great experience and we are just stoked for that day!  Saturday will be amazing.  We are also having a ward bbq that night and then we get to go to the Relief Society broadcast.  Hopefully we are going to get some investigators there as well but it will be amazing!  The broadcasts are all 2 hours later here so it will go from 8-10 which is kinda crazy.  We will be up late!  And sessions will be from 12-2 and from 4-6 on those days.  It will be different than watching it in Colorado and Utah!  All of us missionaries are SO excited for conference and Bruce and Yifan are really excited too.  Also Hu Wen Qi has started reading my blog as well hahaha all of the Asians just love my blog for some reason.  And we had a half mission training this week and there was a missionary named Sister Kane in Midland and she said one of her investigators is reading my blog as well.  I am starting to get really self conscious of what I put on it. Anyway...

Here are some updates!

-Sister Kaegi came to MSU for a day and it was a blast!  She is amazing and it was so fun to work with her and Sister Richardson.  We got to do language study together as well which was fun.  I did a door approach in Portuguese and I didn't forget everything yet so there is hope!  Speaking of, mom, I haven't heard anything about the police letter forms.  Hopefully they are safe with the consulate but maybe you can check with Veronica or something?

-We had half mission training last week on Thursday.  We went to Mt Pleasant for it and it was seriously incredible!  We learned so many things that will help our investigators progress and it was a very spiritually uplifting day.  The missionaries in this mission are amazing. They are all striving to be their best which I think is such a nice environment to be around.  We got to ride up and back with President and Sister Hess and we stopped by a cider mill on the way home.  It was a blast!  We got to watch a little factory make the apple cider and then we ate cider and donuts.  I love President and Sister Hess so much and I was blessed to be able to spend that time with them and learn from them.  Michigan is beautiful right now so it was fun to explore!

-The weather is getting chilly!  I haven't broken down and bought a jacket yet--so far cardigans have been sufficient--but I feel like I might need to soon!  Yesterday was really cold at church.  The weather was in the 50s.  You might remember around when Bruce got baptized, the church flooded.  They have been re-doing the gym floors so yesterday church was only sacrament meeting because of the fumes and they kept all the doors open.  It was pretty nippy in the chapel!  Sister Smith got snowboots; I am starting to get nervous about what to do if it snows...what an adventure!

-Sister Richardson and Sister Smith are so great.  I haven't really taken very much time to write about them but I feel like I would be ungrateful if I didn't say something about how amazing they are!  I have been blessed with companions so far.  Sister Smith is 23 and I am so glad she waited to come out until this time because I know there were things I needed to learn from her.  She is so poised and such a good teacher and so smart!  She already graduated with a teaching degree and she has taught me so much about how to be an elegant advocate of the gospel message.  She is also the most hilarious person ever and loves the sisters in the zone so much!  I have learned so much from her.  Sister Richardson is SO sweet.  She loves everyone she meets and the way she treats them reflects her testimony of Christ.  She has had some really hard times in her life but she doesn't let that stop her from being happy and positive.  She is so hard working as well.  I am just loving the opportunity to be companions with them.

We really think we have the best area and the best companionship!  We are loving the work so much.  This transfer has been such a grand adventure indeed.

Love,

Sister Dixon

p.s.  I can't believe how many missionaries there are from the stake right now.  You should post the video on my blog--I bet my readers would love to see it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cR3dM-xwGk).

The threesome with Bruce at the mid-autumn festival

September 16, 2013

Hi everyone!  

I am so glad to hear grandpa's funeral went well.  I read over grandma's history this week and I realized that he was a visa waiter too and that grandma joined the church in her early 20s! Those were both cool connections to make and I really feel like they are helping me with this work.

We had an amazing week!  It was so busy and full of miracles!  Ah I just can't describe how wonderful it is to be here and work with these people and these companions.  Heavenly Father really knows what He is doing.

Here are some highlights

-We had 2 exchanges last week.  Sister Smith and I spent a day in the Portland area with Sister Jackman. Sister Jackman is also a visa waiter so we got to do language study together which was really fun!  The Portland area was BEAUTIFUL!  Michigan is gorgeous.  I love being here.  We also had Sister Powell with us on Wednesday from the St. John's area.  She is such an awesome and hardworking missionary.  I love learning from all of the different sisters we get to meet.  Sister Smith and I really missed Sister Richardson though.  Our trio is doing great and we love each other so much!  This week Sister Richardson and I will be hosting Sister Kaegi at MSU.  Sister Kaegi is another visa waiter from the Williamston area.  She is going to Sao Paulo Interlagos.  She looked so familiar the first time I saw her and I realized it's because she did late summer honors! Such a small world.  She was also in Brianna Vail's MTC district and she told me Sister Vail said to say hi!  I am excited to get to work with her.

-Our investigator Hu Wen Qi is doing great!  He is on date for this Saturday--we are really excited for his baptism!  We had a Chinese party on Friday which he came to and loved.  He has been making so many friends in the ward which makes all the difference!  We also had a potluck on Sunday after stake conference and he brought this elaborate Chinese pork.  He made it in the morning and then put it in Tupperware and kept it in his backpack during conference haha.

-More about the Chinese party...it was a mid-autumn festival which is a holiday they celebrate in China.  It's focused on family I guess but it was so fun!  Bruce and Frank were in charge of planning it for the ward and they did a great job.  We ate moon cakes, did trivia questions (with wish lanterns as the prize), sang songs about families, and got serenaded by Frank on violin.  He was hilarious.  Sister Richardson has it on video but hopefully I can get it because it was too funny.  That party was such a hit, and I just felt grateful to be in this area.  I kept looking around the room and being so happy because I felt so lucky to know everyone there.  The Lord is blessing me!

-We had a cool experience about following the Holy Ghost the other day.  We prayed about where to go finding and we really felt like we should go to Service Road.  We walked there for nearly an hour and we didn't see a SINGLE person, which is especially bizarre because campus is so busy now!  I was feeling doubtful about if we should really be there and frustrated because we had like 30 minutes until our next lesson so we had to get back soon.  We kept walking, though, and we ended up seeing a person and we had an amazing conversation with him!  We have had 2 lessons with him since and he is coming to Hu Wen Qi's baptism this weekend.  It was a humbling experience because the Lord really does know best and we just need to trust in Him!  

-And last, but not least, stake conference was INCREDIBLE!  The whole thing was about missionary work. They had a special session right before the general session specifically for recent converts and investigators so that was pretty cool.  Then, they had 2 missionaries speak who are entering the field soon (including a girl named Michelle Page who is going to the Fort Collins mission!), a recently returned missionary, Bruce (It was incredible!  He has such a strong testimony and he made Sister Christiansen and me cry!  Sister Probert isn't in our stake anymore...we wish she could have seen it.  But it was amazing!), President and Sister Hess, and then the stake president.  Some other WMLs and such spoke as well and holy cow it was awesome!  Everyone focused on member missionary work and the spirit was so strong.  We ended the meeting with all of the missionaries in the zone singing “Called to Serve!”  I got to play piano which was a little nerve racking but it turned out really powerful.  The missionaries in this mission are amazing!  I feel blessed to know them and to learn from every single one of them!

Sister Hess said, "As members and missionaries, we are invited to participate in miracles."  I love that!  Missionary work truly is miraculous.  Thanks for all your support and love!  Have a great week,

Sister Dixon

Sitting by Sister Smith and below Sister Richardson

September 9, 2013

Oi family!

I hope the funeral goes well today.  Thank you for sending me the excerpts from the board and from the program.  I was touched!  That picture really is so special.

We had a great week here!  I was sad to hear the news about grandpa’s death, but I was comforted by reading D&C 138.  I know that grandma and grandpa are together now and that they are powerful missionaries in the spirit world.  It's cool to think they are doing the same work as I am up there--I can feel them rooting me on!

It's times like these that make me REALLY grateful for the gospel message.  I know death and sadness are still hard, but they would be so much harder if we didn't have the gospel and Christ in our lives.  And also, “Each Life That Touches Ours for Good” has become one of my favorite songs on my mission so I would love to hear your rendition when I get home!

Here were some highlights from this week:

-We had an amazing zone training!  We talked about becoming a consecrated missionary.  To consecrate means to devote yourself to a sacred purpose and I just love that we can fully commit ourselves to the work.  It's hard--giving up your time, thoughts, habits, and wants to missionary work is not the easiest thing to accomplish but it is amazing!  And I would also recommend reading the talk called "The Fourth Missionary" by Elder Corbridge.  Ah I love it so much!  Missionary work is about becoming someone and not doing something.  So great.  We also talked about a new key indicator we will use called ITBs.  It stands for Invitations to Baptize and we are trying to get at least 3 every week.  We are really stoked about this new standard and we think it will be a powerful tool to help others understand our purpose!  We set a goal to have 6 baptisms by the end of the year in our area and we feel like miracles will happen!

-We have a new investigator named Hu Wen Qi (pronounces Hoo When Chee) from China.  We have met with him a few times and this week we committed him to baptism at the end of September.  He came to church on Sunday too and absolutely loved it so we are really happy about that!  He is so hilarious.  Our stake president came to our ward on Sunday and when he got up to talk he said "good afternoon" and then paused for a while as he was getting his stuff all arranged and then Hu Wen Qi was like "awkward" in a Chinese accent.  Ah it was too good.  

-Our members are back and have been helping us out so much--they are amazing!  We have had dinner appointments every night this week and we have one every night next week too.  We feel so blessed for all they do for us.  It's fun to get to know them better as well.  I am attaching a picture from a dinner appointment we had this week with some cute girls in our ward!  Sister Smith is sitting next to me and Sister Richardson is above me.  They are both amazing!  This is not the best picture of all of us but hopefully we will get a new one soon.  We were going to take one this morning but we got drenched by rain on our way home from the bus stop with all our groceries!  The weather has been cooling down lots here.  I am loving it!  It's fall time and it's beautiful.  I love seeing all of the trees change colors.  Hopefully it doesn't start getting too cold though because I am not prepared for that at all!  

-The Gills sent me a package this week which was so nice!  It even had some Y-mountain honey in it.  Delicious!  I am going to write them a thank you note but it just made my day when I got that from them.

-We had exchanges this past week with the Lansing sisters.  I stayed in MSU with Sister Smith and Sister Webster came.  Sister Webster is also a visa waiter for Brazil.  She is going to the Sao Paulo Interlagos mission so it was fun to do language study together!  We had an awesome time.  Going on exchanges is so fun.  We have some lined up this week as well!  On Tuesday I'll be going to the Portland area and then on Wednesday we will have a different companion with us at MSU.  It should be exciting!  All of the sisters in our mission are amazing--it's so great to be able to work with them!

-We sang a song in sacrament meeting this past week.  It was called "This Is My Beloved Son" and I think it went pretty well.  Yifan recorded it again haha so look for it on YouTube.  He always calls himself "The Sister Missionary Choir's Number One Fan."  

-Jon Rose got his mission call this week to Nampa, Idaho!  He leaves in December and we are so excited for him!

-We have stake conference this next Sunday and the whole thing is focused on missionary work.  There will be a recent convert (Bruce) speaking, recently returned missionaries, and all of the missionaries in the stake are singing “Called to Serve.” I am so excited for it!  

-I saw Sister Hunter!  I don't know if you remember the Hunters when they lived in Highlands Ranch but I saw them at the church building on Sunday.  They just barely moved to the area because Brother Hunter got a job at MSU.  They were my Primary teachers when I was 10 so it was really cool to see her and both of us were shocked at what a small world it is!

We had such an amazing week!  I love working with these 2 sisters so much and we feel blessed to be in this area.

Sister Dixon

September 3, 2013

Hi family!

It was a crazy P-day yesterday and we didn't get to e-mail but we were allowed to come and e-mail for a bit today.  This will be super short but I wanted to send a little something! 

Dad, I am really happy you are doing well!  That's pretty scary but I am glad everything worked out for you.  Thanks everyone else for the updates as well.  It's always exciting to hear from you and I am excited for school to start for you all.

We had an INCREDIBLE week here.  I love my new companions SO much.  We get along really well and they are such hard workers.  Sister Richardson is from Salem, Utah and she is so sweet and has such a strong testimony.  Sister Smith is from Roswell, New Mexico and is absolutely hilarious.  I love spending every day with them and we have been blessed so much this past week.  Campus is amazing right now!  There are so many people and it is such a blast to be able to talk to people all the time.  We usually had big gaps in between invitations to learn because there was barely anybody on campus to talk to but now we go from person to person and it is fun.  I am loving it and the new sisters are awesome at personal contacting.  Sister Richardson served at WMU before so she is used to being on a campus.  They played MSU on Friday and MSU won...she's in the better place :)

I had the best day I have ever had on my mission on Thursday!  We had so many lessons and new investigators and everyone was amazing.  We all got home and we were so happy and we said, "The only thing that would make today better is if Katie made us empanadas again."  (Katie is our neighbor.  She just got home from her mission in Argentina and she made us empanadas on Wednesday night.)  Lo and behold, we said our prayer to begin planning and we got a text right after and she was like "Hey sisters!  I made more empanadas, do you want some?!"  It was seriously the best day ever.  And we have seen many miracles like that left and right.  It's amazing!  My companions are so positive and fun to be around and missionary work is awesome here.

That's pretty much it on my end.  Sorry I am rushed, but I will write more next week!

Hope you have a great week of school!  I love you all!  Stay healthy, safe, and happy!

Sister Dixon

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