WEEK 7- LAST OF THE FIRST

So yesterday I finished up the last day of my first transfer!  Talk about CRAZY!  I can't believe how fast time is going by.  It makes me a little sad.  I don't want my mission to go by this fast!  Although some days are longer and harder than others, these past six weeks have been so beyond incredible.  I am happy to report that my companion and I are staying in Orleans!  I would have been pretty sad if I got transferred out right as we are finally getting things rolling in this new area.  I am really looking forward to the next six weeks!  Here is the breakdown of this past week.  First off the weather has been fabulous!  So much cooler and less humid than weeks past.  Monday night we went on exchange again.  This time I got Sister Cowley for my companion.  We worked together all day Tuesday.  I just have to say right now that Tuesday was INCREDIBLE!  We had so many neat experiences. Haley, a girl from the branch came teaching with us all afternoon.  We taught one of our investigators Kenneth and the lesson went extremely well.  We had taught him once before and didn't know if he was grasping everything we were teaching.  This time around he completely opened up and seemed to understand much better.  The Spirit was really strong and Haley did an incredible job bearing her testimony.  It is always nice to have members be involved in missionary work.  Sadly our appointments with Danielle and Torre both fell through.  That night we had dinner with Haley's family; it was wonderful!  Her whole family is solid.  We played Restoration Jeopardy and it was such a neat experience.  Who would've thought that a game could bring the Spirit so powerfully?  When we got home we went to visit Ray, a less active that lives down the street.  He was outside on a walk so he just walked with us back to his porch where we do all our visits.  We watched Finding Faith in Christ and had a really great and spiritual discussion.  I was just blown away with all the great experiences we had in one short day.  Wednesday we had our last district meeting before transfer calls.  We had district eat out and went to a Chinese buffet....Dad it wasn't nearly as good as the one you took us to. ;)  We started up our Book of Mormon class.  Two of the Cubit's came which was really nice.  We were hoping so badly that Ray would come because he seemed so determined and set on being there, but sadly he didn't show.  Thursday just about everything was falling through.  We decided to head to Island Pond a little early because we had a dinner appointment with a member scheduled.  We thought we'd stop by and see Tammy.  She is the one we helped move in a few weeks ago.  Boy was she happy to see us.  She is so incredible!  I know without a doubt that we were supposed to stop by her house that night.  We ended up staying way longer than we expected but it was such a great visit.  She has been having quite the struggle in this new home so we're hoping that we can help her as much as we can.  She is super open to discussing religion and says she wants to come to church, so we are way excited.  We got to do some service on Saturday.  We helped Chris, a member of the branch, in her garden.  She gave us some zucchinis so I'm excited to fry em up! We then went to the Stevens and were able to have a great time there with their family.  I still can't believe how strong they are through all that they have been through these past few weeks.  We had to be in a little early Saturday night for transfer calls.  Talk about torture.  Luckily I'm staying right where I am!  The only person in our district being transferred is Sister Cowley. 
Sunday was pretty exciting!  Our new branch presidency was called.  President Pingree is our new branch president which is AWESOME!  He was the one that we had dinner with this past week.  I really feel that we can get missionary work rolling in the branch now.  I hope that this change can bring a little more stability to the branch.  Oh and probably the greatest news of all, our investigator Danielle came to church!!!!  Talk about Christmas in July!  It was the most exciting thing to see her there!  I can't wait to meet with her again this week.  I'm really looking forward to another great transfer in the Green Mountain State of Vermont!  Best wishes to all you fishes!  Here are some words of wisdom from my recent readings in the Book of Mormon.  1 Nephi 15:24-25   
24...whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

25....give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments in all things.

HOLD TO THE ROD!  I love you all and wish you the very very best! 

Sister Dixon