WEEK 20 (OCT 28)- THE CHOSEN FROZEN

There is a reason why when I first got sent to this area that they told me I was being sent to the "chosen frozen". Up here in Northern Vermont, it's cold! We are just getting started!!! Oh boy oh boy! It's crazy. We went from playing baseball outside on Monday to snow flurries on Thursday! I'm being slightly dramatic, but life is more fun that way! My new companion, Sister Fuller is from Arizona so she is really loving this weather...not! Sister Deters and I had a great last pday and finished it off with dinner at the Cubits! We got up bright and early (minus the bright) at 4:00am so we could be ready to hit the road at 5:30. Mark Cubit and his mom took us to Hanover, picked up my new companion and sent Sister Deters on her way to transfer meeting. We had a good rest of the day, we had dinner with Chris and Phil Wolf. Chris is heading to Utah to see her new grandbaby. I was slightly jealous.

Wednesday we had our district meeting. Half our district changed companions so we had three new missionaries enter the district and we got a new district leader! Lots of changes going on in the mission! We had dinner with Sister Coburn and coordination meeting with the elders and branch missionaries. We have a fireside coming up this Saturday to conclude our forty-day fast so we are trying to finalize all the little details. It's going to be great!

From Thursday on we had a million and a half things fall through, but such is missionary life. We did have a great night with Sharmain on Thursday. She asked us if we could go visiting teaching with her so we made a date out of it. We did service around their home and then went to dinner and visiting teaching. It was awesome!

Friday, again everything fell through ha ha ha. They had a clothing swap in Derby so we went up to visit a member there and stopped by the clothing swap to see if we could find some winter clothes! It was great!

Saturday was similar to Thursday and Friday. Yep lots of things fell through. The highlight of the day was spending time with Sister Sanderson. We had dinner with her and she helped us fix some of the skirts we found at the clothing swap.

Luckily Sunday was a different story! It was awesome. Church was very good and we had a full day! After church we had a big list of people that we wanted to try to stop by and visit. We were able to stop by a less active members home who we hadn't been able to get in to see before. We had a great discussion with her and we were also able to stop by two other members and a less active members home. Such a solid day. It totally made up for the feeling of failure that resulted from the previous days! The Lord works in mysterious ways, that's for sure!

I have been having some pretty great studies in the Book of Mormon lately in my personal studies. So I thought I would invite all of you to read some of the chapters....they are good!!!! Alma 32-34. These chapters are golden! I love it when the scriptures give us advice, because it is truly some of the best advice we can receive. In chapter 34, frequently throughout the chapter Amulek "exhorts" which means to strongly encourage. He is encouraging us to go back to the basics, which we hear all the time, like praying and reading the scriptures. They are so simple, but so important. God doesn't expect us to be perfect, and He knows we won't be. "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." Alma 34:32 We have been given time to prepare to meet God! What better way to prepare than reading in the Book of Mormon to truly get to know who God is that we are preparing to return to. I truly love this gospel and the happiness, joy and strength it gives me. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it does testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and that Christ will come again. Thank you all for your love and support!

I love you all and pray for you!
Have a great week!...Stay warm. Peace and Blessings

Sister Dixon