WEEK 12- TRADE IN

So this week has been pretty awesome! On Monday we went to the JSM. It was incredible. We had the grand tour and got to see the grounds and the memorial and then finished off with the Joseph Smith movie. It was wonderful! The Stevens treated us to dinner at a Chinese buffet. Don't worry Dad it still doesn't compare to that awesome buffet you took us to ;)

Wednesday we had a crazy busy day. We are extremely short on the amount of miles that we have so a wonderful member of our branch taxied us all day! She took us to district meeting and then took us to all our appointments. Talk about sacrifice.

Thursday we had a really neat experience with having a member of the branch come to one of our teaching appointments. We had an appointment with Gertrude. She was raised Catholic, so we invited Sister Coburn to come with us to our appointment because she was also raised Catholic before she joined the church. On the way there we were telling Sister Coburn what we were going to teach and she said "I'm just going to sit and listen". We went to the appointment and Gertrude explained to us that everything is too overwhelming and that she doesn't want to continue having the lessons. Immediately Sister Coburn addressed her concerns and related to Gertrude perfectly because she had been exactly where Gertrude was. Coincidence...I THINK NOT! Sister Deters and I hardly said a word. Sister Coburn handled everything! It was really neat. Mo and Gertrude came to church on Sunday.

Friday we had a good lesson with Torre and David. They have the cutest little boy Karson who is about 20 months old. He is wild! So trying to get a message across can be a little difficult. We whipped out our little hymn books and decided to sing a hymn. Karson immediately quieted down and we were able to have a good discussion.

Saturday is a special day. We had inspections on our apartment and car....we passed, and I got a toaster oven! The missionary couple that did the inspections had a traveling "garage sale" and I scored the toaster oven. If that doesn't bring happiness, I don't know what would. We had dinner with the Cubits, which was awesome. Brother Cubit had been giving us a hard time because we have been in the branch for two months and we hadn't been to his house yet. So we called to see if we could visit them that day and they said to come for dinner! We played Jeopardy...Gospel style, which was a ton of fun. Their family is incredible and the spirit is very strong in their home.

Sunday was unbelievable. Danielle, who is one of the people we are teaching had her little girl Gabby blessed in Sacrament Meeting. She is about 18 months old and is absolutely adorable! She has the curliest, cutest hair that I have every seen. Testimony meeting was quite incredible. The spirit was so strong and we had so many great testimonies shared on missionary work. This branch is really getting into missionary mode and I love it!!! The Stevens had us over for dinner. They've basically become family out here! After dinner Dean Stevens and Heather Cubit came with us to some of the people we needed to see around their home. Dean had a friend at one of the places we went to visit so we went and saw his friend. He was 90 years old and hilarious! We talked to him for a bit and before we left he said he wanted a picture of all of us girls. So he hands Dean his camera and says "That's a good camera, it has four pickles in it" ... I think he meant pixels... We just about lost it. We were doing all we could not to lose control laughing. When we were leaving that area Dean saw a lady that he knew so we talked to them for a bit and ended up singing a hymn together. When we were singing a lady came by to listen and asked us about our church. The Lord works in mysterious ways....

Lately I've been thinking a lot about sacrifice. This is the first fall since I was in pre-school that I haven't gone to school. I honestly thought it would be a lot harder than it has been to not do what I normally love to do, especially with dance. Although I miss dancing everyday more than I can express, I feel that now I can give my callused feet a break and trade them in for some callused knees. I read in Genesis the story of Abraham and Isaac. He was asked to sacrifice his only son. Because he trusted in God he knew that God would provide a way. Abraham's faith was tested, but he passed the test. Because of his willingness to submit to God's will, he didn't have to sacrifice his son. In the book True to the Faith, sacrifice is defined as "to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth." I often wonder what I'm willing to sacrifice for this gospel. At first I thought of a mission as a sacrifice, and it is. But in all honesty I feel it to be much more of a blessing than a sacrifice. When else in my life will I be able to devote all my time and attention to serving the Lord? Being a missionary has brought me greater blessings and happiness than I have experienced in my life, and I'm only 3 months out! I can't even imagine what the Lord has in store for the next 15! The blessings I receive far outnumber the things I have given up. Apparently serving a mission isn't what we all need to do in order to show our devotion to Heavenly Father. There are many ways we can show our love by observing things in our lives that we can replace with things of greater worth. Whether it be spending the hour you would normally spend watching TV and instead doing service for someone in need, or calling someone you haven't talked to in a while......or writing a missionary who loves getting letters..... :) :) :) :) hint hint. I can promise you if you pray for ways to improve God will always give us the correction we need and the ways that we can better our lives. I know that when we have an eternal perspective, the things that we give up now will result in receiving blessings of much greater worth! I again want to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true. I love this gospel with all my heart and I absolutely love being able to share it all day every day. I love my family and have never been more grateful to know that we will be together forever! I share these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sister Dixon