WEEK 19 (OCT 21)- FAITH OF A CHILD

Well I'm staying another six weeks in the village!!! I am pretty excited! Sister Deters is being transferred so that means I'll be getting a new companion Tuesday morning. I don't think I was supposed to know who it is, but I do. Her name is Sister Fuller. She was one of Sister Deters companions a while ago. I'm quite excited and kinda nervous! I'm sure I will learn a lot from her.

This week has been pretty great! We had some great lessons this week. On Tuesday we had a lesson with Chris and Phil. I know I've mentioned them before because we have been teaching them since we got to the area. Phil is less active and Chris, his wife, is a branch missionary. After our lesson with them we invited Phil to church. Well, we need to rewind a little bit. We have had 14 lessons now with Phil. The first time we tried to commit him to come to church, we couldn't even get the words out before he was telling us no. Back to Tuesday. So we committed him to come to church...especially because it was transfers and one of us was bound to leave....and he said he'd think about it, but don't plan on him coming the next week. So yesterday.....PHIL CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!! It was quite possibly the best experience of my mission so far. It was truly incredible. He didn't just stay for Sacrament meeting, he stayed for all three hours and he participated in class! WOW! We met with Bro. Cubit, our ward mission leader, after church and he said that Phil told him he'd be back next week. How incredible is that?!

Wednesday we had a really good district meeting. Our district hasn't seen a lot of changes since for the past four months so we were all expected things to get shaken up a little with this next transfer, and they did! We are switching out 3 missionaries in our district.

Thursday was quite the interesting day. Nothing was really going according to plan. But the day ended well! We had dinner with Mark and Sharmain Cubit. They were coming with us to our lesson with Danielle the next day, so we decided to teach and discuss with them what we'd be teaching. It was wonderful. The spirit was so strong and they had such powerful testimonies and insights to what we would be teaching. Just another testimony builder of how crucial member involvement in missionary work is!

Friday we were back at Mark and Sharmains to do some wood. They came with us to Danielles lesson after and it went well. We had dinner with the Boatwrights and it was awesome! Bro. Boatwrights mom was there because she had been watching the kids while Sis. Boatwright was visiting her mom in Brazil. It was so neat to see Bro. Boatwright bear his testimony to his mom. We told her about the stop smoking program and she said she'd love to do it! They are in the elders area so we called them and set up the appointment for them to teach it to her the very next day! The elders told us that they had an incredible lesson with her and the missionaries will continue seeing her when she goes back to Georgia!

Saturday I went a little stir crazy! Unfortunately Sister Deters got pretty sick and so we stayed in the apartment all day. I was able to get some good, long study time in, which is a plus!

Sunday, like I already mentioned before was INCREDIBLE!!! It was such a great day! I'm so happy this transfer ended off on such a happy note. It makes me even more excited for this upcoming transfer!

So generally when I type my emails I try and think of what type of invitation to leave at the end. The first thing that came to my mind was a scripture mentioned in the movie, On the Lord's Errand. The Life of Thomas S. Monson. (I would highly recommend watching it...it's on mormon.org). Mark 10:14 Suffer the little children unto come to me, and forbid them not: for such is the kingdom of God. Simply put, this scripture is what prompted President Monson to visit a child dying of cancer.(the whole talk regarding this story is called The Faith of a Child on LDS.org...I'd also highly recommend reading this) This little girl prayed President Monson there. God does hear our prayers and he answers them. He is especially sensitive to the prayers of children. I like the next verse in Mark 10:15 Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. The scriptures continually tell us to become as a child, "submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."(Mosiah 3:19) When we strive to obtain these childlike characteristics we can become more like our Savior Jesus Christ and we can better align our lives to his will. In the Bible Dictionary the definition of prayer is "the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them." I have seen far too many times my prayers being answered to ever deny that God answers prayers. Answers to prayers rarely come in the way or the time we would expect or even want, but they are answered in the Lord's time which is perfect time. I know this to be true! I want to invite each of you to find ways that you can become more like a child, because we are all Children of God. I know that as we do so we will become more like our Savior. As we pray to him with the faith of a child we will better recognize the answers to our prayers and gain greater faith in the Lords promised blessings.

I love this gospel and I love all of you!

Sister Dixon