WEEK 15 (SEPT. 23)- LOST AND FOUND

Fall is here! Happy first day of autumn (yesterday)! It is beautiful our here in Vermont. The leaves are GORGEOUS! It seems so unreal. Everything is just too beautiful, I love it.

This week has surprisingly been pretty good! We had a fun Relief Society activity and made 72 hour kits. One of our investigators came with us and she had a blast so that was a lot of fun having her there getting to know the ladies. We had an incredible lesson with another one of our investigators LeAnn. We invited Sister Wolf to come with us, and it was golden. Sister Wolf bore such a powerful testimony on what we were teaching. It brought the spirit so strong. It is so neat to see the change and progression that LeAnn has made. When we first started visiting her she said that she was doing it because she likes to learn about what other people believe. That has now changed to her praying to know what God needs her to do with her life. It's incredible how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can soften hearts and enable people to improve the quality of their lives. We had quite the adventure on Friday. We went to see if we could contact some potentials in Albany, which we haven't been to very frequently because it hasn't always been our area. As we were trying to find one of the people we had hoped to contact we went on an unintended adventure. We were following the directions from the GPS and we kept getting further and further into the woods and the road kept getting narrower. We drive on dirt roads all the time out here anyway, but this dirt road was beginning to look like a four-wheeler trail rather than a road. The story ends well though. We ended up finding a way to turn around and headed back where we came. As we were driving past where we came in, we noticed that one of the other people we tried to contact earlier was now home. We were able to talk to him and we will hopefully be doing service for him soon. Right after we talked to him, Marcellus and Mary Cubit drove by and talked to us and we scheduled a day to help them move, and they told us where one of the people we were hoping to visit lived. Moral of the story is; sometimes getting lost means finding. We were able to find a lot more people than we would have been able to if we hadn't got lost. That is what I want to focus my email on today! Matthew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

We are given talents and abilities so that we can share them with others. When we keep them to ourselves we lose them, but when we use them, then we are given more! I honestly don't know a better cure for feeling down than doing service. When you forget about yourself and the problems you are facing and serve someone else, not only are you helping someone in need, but you are helping yourself. 'It is usually through someone else that God meets the needs of his children.' (I can't remember who said that, but those are not my words). Just like it says in Mosiah 2:17 "I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." We don't have to be rich or talented or have a lot of spare time to qualify for being able to serve others. Service can be given in many different ways. It doesn't always need to be huge acts of service. It can be simple like calling someone that has been on your mind or comforting a friend. There are so many ways to serve. I promise that as you lose yourself in service that is when you will truly find yourself. Christ is the ultimate example of someone who lived a life devoted to serving others. It is because of His service that we are able to be here and have the opportunity to find ourselves, and our relationship with God. I encourage you to all look for ways to serve and "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."(1 Timothy 4:12) I know that doing this it will bring great blessings not only to those we serve but to us. I speak from experience! This gospel is true and I know that we can begin our journey of finding ourselves as we lose our lives and our cares in serving others.

Sister Dixon