Happy Walemtime's Day!

February 17, 2014

Hellooooo family!  Well I am feeling SO BLESSED as I sit here and e-mail today.  It has been an absolutely wonderful first week back at MSU.  I thought it might be weird to be back here with the same people again, but it feels so right.  I am having so much fun and we have seen so many miracles.

Here are the highlights from this week:

--Valentine's Day!  It was such a great day.  Sister Smith and I went out to lunch with Nono and Bruce, both recent converts.  Nono's boyfriend had broken up with her a few weeks before so she was kind of sulky about Valentine's Day . . . and also she can't say it right so she called it Walemtime's Day.  Basically the whole lunch consisted of her frowning and saying in the grumpiest voice, "I hate Walemtime's Day.  I hate this festival."  Sister Smith and I couldn't stop laughing.  After, we went finding and had a huge miracle (I'll share that later) and then some of the students in our ward had us and the other missionaries over for a Valentine's dinner.  It was so nice!  Everything was heart shaped and they made us goody bags too with flowers.  I was overwhelmed by the love from the students in this ward!  I have missed them and it feels so good to be back!

--Exchanges with Grand Ledge!  This past week we did our first exchanges of the transfer.  I went to the Grand Ledge area and worked with Sister Lynes and Sister McElvany.  They are wonderful sisters!!  I was so impressed with them.  Both of them have had difficult things happen in their pasts and I was just amazed at how diligent and converted they are despite those setbacks.  It was really fun to go on exchanges--I am excited for the rest of this transfer.

--Finding miracle!  Sister Smith and I were PC'ing on campus and we started talking to this boy from China.  He was semi-interested, but then we both felt prompted to ask him if he could meet right then for a lesson.  He said yes, and we went into a nearby dorm room and started teaching him about the Godhead.  It was amazing to see how much his countenance changed throughout the course of the lesson.  He was so interested in learning more about God and at the end we taught him how to pray and he said the prayer.  It was so precious.  He talked about how he moved here and didn't have any friends and how he hoped God would be able to help him with that.  We were so grateful to meet him!  We invited him to read Alma 32 at the end of the lesson and he said "Yes!  I love doing homework!"  His name is Qian, so keep him in your prayers.

--We have picked up a few other investigators throughout this week.  All of them are really amazing; I know this transfer will bring miracles!  I am really excited about the work right now!

I also heard from the Williamston sisters that Rita is going to get baptized on March 1.  She was taught about the Word of Wisdom and accepted it and she is progressing well!  We have been so blessed.

This week I was particularly touched by Moses 6:61, which reads,
"Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment."

I have been trying to study and learn more about the Holy Ghost, because I think the ability to recognize and follow the Holy Ghost will be one of the greatest things I can take away from my mission.  I really loved that it said the Comforter is a "record of heaven."  I looked up “record” in the dictionary and one of the entries said it means memory.  I love that--the Holy Ghost is a memory of heaven.  The Holy Ghost is what helps us to remember our Father's love so we desire to return to Him again, and it also helps us to know what eternal joy will be like so we can make choices now.  I am just so beyond grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and I hope I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands to help others receive it!

Sorry this e-mail is probably crazy, but I really am so happy to be back; I am loving the work so much!  Maybe I went overboard on the excitement, but sweet is the work!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Dixon

Saying goodbye

February 10, 2014

Well, family, get ready for the biggest shock of your life . . . I AM GOING BACK TO MSU!!!!!

Maybe this won't come as such a big shock to you, but I am still in a daze.  I seriously CANNOT believe it.  I thought for sure I would be staying in Williamston another transfer and finishing Sister Flora's training, but we got our calls on Friday and I am leaving--crazy! 

So I will explain what will be happening and answer mom's questions.  A sister training leader is basically like a zone leader, but for sisters.  There are 4 zones with sisters in our mission so there is a pair of sisters who cover each zone.  Sister Smith and I (yep, we are going to be reunited.  I am sosososoooo happy!) will cover the Lansing Zone.  We go on exchanges with the sisters in our zone weekly and report on the exchanges to President Hess.  Also, we, along with the zone leaders, teach the missionaries at zone trainings.  It should be really fun!  I am super excited for it.  I am nervous in a way because I don't feel adequate to train other missionaries, but I know the Spirit will direct my words.  Sister Richardson got transferred; this will be my first time on my mission with only one companion!  Crazy how things work out! 

I won't be training Sister Flora anymore.  I am kind of sad because she was such a blessing in my life.  I will miss Sister Flora and Sister Gonzales so very much!  We will still be in the same district, though.  I will still see everyone in the Williamston ward every Sunday at church so it was kind of a weird goodbye.

Also, they are opening an MSU3 area with more sisters.  So there will be 6 missionaries on MSU campus which will be really exciting.  We aren't exactly sure the logistics of it yet--Sister Smith and I will be in charge of introducing the new sisters to the area and splitting up proselyting areas--but it will be amazing! 

Hopefully I answered everything . . . I will miss Williamston a ton!  But if you can't tell, I am really excited for this next transfer!

I am most sad to leave teaching Rita behind.  She is progressing so well!  We invited her to a baptism on Saturday and she wants to be baptized SOON.  We are still working towards a solid date for her (she has to go to her grandmother's funeral on February 22), but she is really looking forward to her own baptism, which is a huge miracle.  I will send pictures when I get to go to her baptism!

I guess that's pretty much it from my end.  I'm sending some pictures.  I said goodbye to most of the less actives in the ward because I won't be seeing them on Sundays.  Hopefully I'll take some more pictures with members before I leave the area.

Sorry I don't have a ton of time to write individually because I am going to MSU soon, but I loved hearing from all of you!  Sounds like things are going well.  I love you so much!

Sister Dixon

You're a blizzard, Harry!

Companionship

February 3, 2014

Hellooooo everyone!  Wow did we have a great week here.  It snowed a ton (hence the subject line), it was so cold that they had to cancel school twice, and we had to push our van out of the snow a few times.  BUT, we had so much fun along the way and had miracles as well!  What a blessing!  People keep talking about how crazy this Michigan winter has been!  How lucky I am to be a part of it! 

Here are the miracles from this week:

1) RITA.  We were able to meet with her on Thursday.  She wanted to meet at the stake center so we gave her a church tour and taught her a lesson there.  She was taught a little by missionaries before when she lived in England so she knew about the Book of Mormon and such.  She had some family members who recently passed so we taught her about the plan of salvation.  It was kind of a bonkers lesson because she had so many questions but she absorbed everything and really took it to heart.  She told us at the end she needs the baptism of the Holy Ghost in her life so she will have to be baptized by water first.  We set a date in February with her and it was such a huge miracle.  I am grateful Heavenly Father directed her and us to the library so our paths would cross.  Rita is going through some hard times right now and is really loving the gospel.  She came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time.  Plus we found an awesome fellowshipper for her who made her feel so welcome.  Ah.  Sweet is the work!

2) Angie came to church!  Angie has been learning from missionaries for a couple months now and all of us have invited her to church many times.  Somehow, she hadn't come yet even though she goes church hopping and attends a different service pretty much every week--why not ours?  When Elder Golden came to the mission he talked about how the adversary will do ANYTHING in his power to keep people from coming to church because it is such a crucial step in their conversion process.   Angie is the perfect example--it seems like something would always come up on Sunday mornings!  She wasn't really progressing so we have been praying about how we could help her or if we should stop teaching her.  But then she came to church!  One of our amazing members texted and invited her and it was seriously such a miracle.  And it goes to show the power of member missionary work.  That's for all you at home!  Fellowship the missionaries' investigators!!!!

3)  Interviews with President Hess this week.  I am so grateful for his example.  Sometimes I get a tiny bit sulky about not being in Brazil but then I remember all President Hess has taught me and all is well with the world again.  I loved getting to talk with him and hear his insight on how important faith and positivity are.  How blessed I am to be serving in this place at this time.

4) Amazing church members.  I don't know if I have ever expressed how much I love the members of the Williamston Ward, but I just wanted to take a moment and say how amazing they are.  They are seriously like a family, and they have helped me to feel like a member of their tight-knit bunch.  I am amazed at how willing they are to come out teaching with us and feed us every night.  Yesterday Sister Flora had a migraine at church and everyone was so worried.  Sister Hunter took Sister Flora out of the chapel and our bishop gave her a blessing before sacrament meeting started.  Everyone kept asking if she was ok and one of the members wrote her a prescription after church for migraine medicine.  We were all touched at how charitable the members were and I just love them so much.  Transfer calls are coming this Friday and I am kind of nervous about what will happen!  I can't believe it's already been a month since we picked Sister Flora up.  I don't want to leave Williamston quite yet but a change would be fun as well.  We will see!

Love you all!

Sister Dixon

January 27, 2014

Hi family!

This week was really good!  I continue to learn more and more every week and it's so crazy how fast the time flies.  Sister Gonzales and I both had our 9 month mark and I am so baffled about how I am at this point already.  I am really working to make every day count because it goes way, way too fast! 

The weather has been really cold this week and we didn't have a car.  Every day took a ton of faith and diligence to get out there and work, but the Lord definitely blesses us!  I have been listening to this talk lately from Elder Holland and it kind of puts things into perspective:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/10/called-to-serve?lang=eng

"We flew to our destination for a few hours in a modern jet airliner rather than sailing for weeks, even months, in the steerage of a ship. I did not leave suffering with chills and fever, cholera, or consumption, although I did have a cold and one leg of our flight was delayed an hour. I have hoped these hardships would qualify me to one day face Peter and Paul, Brigham and Wilford."

Sure, there are times when it is really hard to find new investigators and no one will talk to us because they don't want cold air in their houses, but we really are so blessed in our missionary work.  Our ward mission leader told us this week about his insight (I think he quoted Elder Bednar) on Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Faith is a principle of looking back and remembering the tender mercies of God, looking forward and choosing to work and be obedient, and acting in the present to accomplish the work of the Lord.  I really like this...the assurance of things hoped for=looking forward to the future and having an assurance things will work out.  The evidence of things not seen=the ability to look back and see the hand of the Lord in your life.  I thought about it a ton this week.  We have seen so many tender mercies that it is impossible to NOT have faith in Christ!  We are still struggling to find new people to teach and to have progressing investigators, but I know with our patience and diligence, we will be blessed.

I got a call this week asking me to give a talk in church on Sunday.  I was really excited for the opportunity and thought it was especially cool since dad was giving a talk in Colorado!  I was given the talk "The Lord's Way" by Stanley G. Ellis.  Boy oh boy, I LOVED this talk so much. I think the main reason is that we always hear people say "they are looking for a church that fits their lifestyle."  It drives me nuts, because the purpose of the church and the gospel are to fit us to live in heaven again.  We should be changing our lifestyles to fit God's standards!  I shared my thoughts and different examples of people in the scriptures who follow the Lord's way (especially found in 1 Nephi 18:1-4).  I also shared the devastating piano recital experience when I butchered “Moonlight Sonata” and started crying.  I related it to the piano teacher's way of practicing and memorizing music vs. my way of not practicing and hoping for the best and we all got to see what happened.  I think people liked it.  The ward here is so supportive and they even laughed at my corny jokes, so bless them.  I guess I was really excited to give my talk because my companions said I started reciting it in my sleep the night before.  The funniest part is that I started off the talk by saying "I would like to thank Brother Winder (our WML) for being here!"  We invited a ton of investigators and less-actives to come to the talk and then there was a huge snowstorm on Sunday morning so the sacrament meeting attendance was very sparse.  I was disappointed, as I thought it was a message they could use, but I know it wasn't anything we could have changed.

Probably the highlight of this week was teaching Sandy.  We know she has been having problems with her finances and health lately so we told her about priesthood blessings and she really wanted one.  Brother Winder came to the lesson and the spirit was very strong.  She told us of the things she is struggling with--namely, a crossroads at her faith.  She believes everything we are teaching her, but it is so hard for her to leave the church her daughter loves and has such a foundation in.  The blessing Brother Winder gave was so beautiful and we all felt so much love for Sandy from our Heavenly Father.  She is progressing, slowly but surely, but I know as she continues to read the Book of Mormon and pray, she will know what she needs to do.

Rita wasn't able to meet last week due to some health issues and her father-in-law’s passing, but we are excited to meet with her this week and teach her the plan of salvation! 

Jaszzameen has been going through some hard times recently--she found out she has to have another knee surgery.  That's #11 for her.  We love her so much but this recent health issue has caused her progression to come to a halt so we might have to wait to continue teaching her.  That's a brief update on people in the area.  I love them so very much and I feel so privileged to serve them!

Sister Dixon

January 20, 2014

Hi family!

Thanks for your e-mails.  We are able to e-mail from the Family History Center today which is a huge blessing because the libraries are closed here as well.  I am getting quite accustomed to the Family History Center because we have had some huge success with the family history approach!  It definitely softens people’s hearts and allows the spirit of temple work to touch them in a way that prepares for the restoration to be taught.  We feel very blessed with that and we have a few appointments with people to do family history with them this week so I hope it goes well. 

We have experienced some huge miracles.  It all started with going on exchanges earlier this week.  I got to go back to MSU and it was really amazing!  Sister Gonzales and I worked with Sister Richardson and I learned so much from her, namely about faith.  Sister Richardson showed me a talk by Elder Bednar that has seriously CHANGED MY LIFE and the way I think about faith!  http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18?lang=eng

True faith is accepting the will of the Lord, no matter what happens.  Sometimes I get in the mindset that if I have enough faith, miracle after miracle will happen.   When those huge miracles don't happen, I doubt my faith and often think "If only I had enough faith, this and this would have happened."  Sister Richardson taught me there is so much more to faith.  In this talk, Elder Bednar speaks of how he was going to give someone a blessing of healing and comfort.  Usually I think "Do I have enough faith to be healed?"  But here is an excerpt of the talk that really taught me a ton:  "[Elder Bednar] then posed questions I had not planned to ask and had never previously considered: ‘[John,] do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?’”

I learned that true faith is saying "Will I still have faith God is there even if I don't receive the blessings I have asked for?  Will I still have faith in God's plan for me?"  It really has changed my outlook and has helped me to learn how to really, fully trust in what God has in store for me.  I am still working on my faith, and I know faith does produce miracles, but this new and abiding sense of trust has helped me so much with the work.  This kind of faith makes me think of Alma and Amulek in Alma 14.  They had the deepest faith as they had to watch the women and children and scriptures in the fire.  They could have prevented it with their power from God, but they knew the most important kind of faith is to trust in God's plan. 

Here are a few miracles this week:

I don't remember if I told you about meeting Rita at the library.  I think I did.  But anyway, Rita came to church this last week!  It was really amazing.  Our bishop got up and started off by saying "I don't know if all of you know this, but the clergy of this church do not get paid.  We serve God without getting money in return.  We have other jobs, but we serve the members of this church to serve God."  Rita told us afterwards she has been looking for a church where the clergy do their jobs for free.  How cool!!!  We know that Rita was led to us at the library and that Bishop Bartlett was inspired.  It was really awesome.  The other talk in sacrament meeting was about the temple, and Rita told us she feels that is where she needs to go to work out some difficulties in her life right now.  We told her we can prepare her to go there and she is really excited to learn more about the gospel!  We are really excited and so blessed!

Brother Fowler gave a talk on Sunday and invited some of his friends to come and listen.  One of them is a man named Kevin and his wife,Yolanda.  They are both from China, and Kevin has met with missionaries before.  He had a baptismal date, but then he unexpectedly had to go to China and the missionary discussions discontinued.  We got to talk to him and his wife after sacrament meeting and they are interested in learning more!  What a huge blessing that is and it definitely shows the power of member missionary work!

Last, a lady in our ward called us this week with a referral for her neighbor, Debi.  Debi has been going through some hard times recently and is really open to having us come and teach more about the gospel and help her sort things out.  We are going over later this week and I am just overwhelmed by how many people are being prepared and how many blessings we have been almost bombarded with.  The Lord truly is in this work!!

Our companionship is doing well.  We love each other, we love the work, and we love the Lord.  It makes for a pretty good time!  I love you all and you are in my thoughts and prayers!

Sister Dixon

Shoveling snow with Sisters Flora (left) and Gonzales (right)

January 13, 2014

Hi family!

Thanks for sending me wonderful letters, even when I didn't get the chance to write you back last week.  I am going to try to update you on everything from the last 2 weeks . . . hopefully I don't leave anything out!

What a whirlwind couple of weeks.  It has been amazing here.  Frigid, but amazing.  I love my new companions so much!  Sister Gonzales is my co-trainer.  She is from California and we have been out the same amount of time.  She has a very calming and peaceful attitude and I love working with her.  Sister Flora is our trainee.  Sister Flora is an absolute joy to work with.  She has the happiest bubbliest attitude and is truly on a mission for the right reasons!  She is from St. George, so the weather is a bit of a shock for both of my companions.  It's a shock to me too, so I can only imagine how freezing they must be.  Poor Sister Flora arrived here on like the worst weekend too!  But she has been really positive throughout the whole thing so I am really impressed. 

As far as the weather goes, it has been a little bit crazy.  We had a huge snowstorm last Sunday and then Monday morning it got down to -30 degrees with the wind chill.  Our P-day was "canceled" so we had to stay in the apartment for the day which was nice and relaxing.  We got a call at 4 that said we were allowed to go out and we had to get our P-day activities done before 6.  It was pretty stressful but we decided grocery shopping was more important than e-mailing so sorry I wasn't able to write last week.  Tuesday was pretty cold as well.  We weren't allowed to be out tracting that day.  Members kept sending us texts that said stuff like, "The life expectancy outside right now is 10 minutes!  Don't you dare go out!"  It made us pretty freaked out.  So we visited members and less-actives, but after that it's all been back to normal.  I did start noticing my toes were hurting pretty badly though and turning red and the skin was turning thick.  I had a member look at it and he said I had a mild case of trench foot.  If you want to be sick, you should Google pictures of it.  Mine isn't very bad at all and it's starting to get better because I caved and bought some winter boots (thanks grandma and grandpa for the Christmas money!) but it's kind of a fun battle wound from the cold weather.  It's started to warm up a little bit and we figure if we can survive last weekend, then we can survive the rest of winter easy-peasy.

The work has been good to us.  We are still trying to find new investigators, but I have faith it will happen this week!  Our mission president told us we should start using family history more in our area since it is a more wealthy area.  Our ward mission leader made these awesome pass-along cards with family history fan charts on them so we have been introducing those to people and offering to teach them how to make them and the doctrine behind family history.  People are much more open to that so we are excited to see the miracles that will come from it!  Also we may have found a Chinese family to teach, so you can only imagine how beyond excited I am for that. 

We had a little miracle happen that really showed how God's hand is in the work.  We got permission to go to the library later that week so Sister Flora could e-mail her mom and let her know she is alive!  As she was sitting at her computer, she asked to see Sister Gonzales's name tag so she could make sure she spelled her name correctly.  The lady sitting next to her asked about the name tag and said she took lessons from missionaries in Nigeria.  Sister Flora invited her to come to church and learn more and she accepted!  I was sitting in a chair close by and reading my scriptures as we were waiting for Sister Flora, and it was really amazing to watch the whole thing unfold! People are being prepared, and God prepares a way for us to find them and for them to find us. 

Our investigators are progressing slowly but surely.  Jaszzameen hasn't been able to come to church these past 2 weeks but hopefully this week she can.  The weather is really bad for her joints because she had double knee replacement surgery a while back.  We watched the Joseph Smith movie with her this week because she still doesn't know if Joseph Smith is a prophet.  She was amazed at how much opposition he faced.  It really made me think of how much I have taken Joseph Smith for granted.  He sacrificed so much.  His trials and sacrifices always make the work here seem a little easier.  I know that strengthened her testimony, but keep her in your prayers!

The word "truth" has been on my mind this week.  It all sparked from reading John 8. 

32 And ye shall ^aknow the ^btruth, and the ^ctruth shall make you^dfree.

Ultimately, everyone on earth is searching for the truth.  Every person in this world, whether they realize it or not, is searching for that thing that will set them free from the trials and the burdens of this mortal life.  This led me to another scripture in Alma 9. 

26 And ^anot many days hence the Son of God shall come in his^bglory; and his glory shall be the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of ^cgrace, equity, and truth, full of patience, ^dmercy, and long-suffering, quick to ^ehear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers.

Christ is FULL of TRUTH.  His is the message every person is searching for.  Christ is the only person who is able to set us free.  When we know Christ, we have a chance at liberty in this life as well as eternal life in the world to come (John 17:3).  I am really grateful for leaders in the Church who have encouraged me to find truth for myself.  I know the search for truth is the most important quest we can be on in this life.  I know my search for truth has led me to know this is the only true and living church upon the face of this earth.  I know the Book of Mormon is true as well.  Finding these bits of truth truly has made me free! 

    

Sorry this is probably all over the place, but I love you all!  Have a wonderful week!

Sister Dixon

Holding Br. Ericson's copy of her grandpa's book

December 30, 2013

Helloooo family!

Dang I am sad President Hess already told you I am training.  I wanted to be the first to break the news that I am "pregnant" as they say here, but the cat’s out of the bag already.  I am really excited for this opportunity!  So Sister Gonzales and I will be co-training the new sister--I am staying in a trio this next transfer!  That makes 8 companions and I am not even halfway through my mission!  Crazy!  I love getting to serve with new people, though.  I know I will learn a ton from Sister Gonzales and the new sister.  Sister Gonzales and I came out together.  She is a visa waiter as well and we are going to the same mission in Brazil.  We were in different districts at the MTC so I don't know her super well but we got to talk a little bit on the plane ride over here.  She has been at Battle Creek her whole mission so this will be a change for her but I think it will be tons of fun.  I am dropping off Sister Kaegi (she is going to St. Joseph's) and Sister Anson (she is going to Battle Creek) this afternoon, spending the rest of P-day with the MSU sisters, and then picking up Sister Gonzales tonight.  We will pick up our greenie on Thursday. 

It was so good to talk to you all this week.  I loved Christmas time SO much.  I loved getting to visit those who were lonely and sad around this season.  It surprised me how many people are all alone during the holidays--it was heartbreaking.  Our thoughts were often turned to Christ, as He is one person who knows what it feels like to be alone.  Even in the darkest moments of loneliness and grief, we can turn to our Lord and Savior who is there to console us and be by our side.  We sang Christmas hymns to people and talked about the birth of Christ.  It was all very uplifting and I was so grateful for the opportunity to be a disciple of Christ at this time of year. 

One miracle that happened this week is we finally set a date with Jaszzameen!!!  We have been trying and trying because she knows all of it is true, but each time she gets very defensive and tells us not to push her.  It was such a miracle we were able to set a goal this time, but I know it was because the Spirit was so strong.  The member who was at the lesson with us bore the most powerful testimony of how her baptism has blessed her life and how she knows the Book of Mormon is true.  It was so beautiful!  We set a date of February 8, which is the last Saturday of this transfer, so I am excited to get her ready for that day. 

The ice is pretty much gone now.  But it's supposed to get really cold this week and we lose our car on Wednesday.  It might be a rough couple of first days for the new missionary.  Poor girl.  Power is almost back—there are still a few people without it.  They said headlamps have been lifesavers--but hard to have conversations with each other, haha.

Other than that there isn't too much more to report on.  Thanks for giving me the most uplifting Christmas phone call and for being the most wonderful family!  I am so grateful to spend eternity with you all!  Keep me in your prayers this week that training will go well and that we can find new families to teach.  If you could fast for us to find new investigators as well that would be so amazing!

Have a great new year!  Love you all!

Sister Dixon