WEEK 27 (DEC. 23) MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ME!

Merry Christmas from Maine!!!!

I can't even believe that Christmas is here already. Almost everyday my companion and I comment on how the Christmas season feels so different out here. The days pretty well blend together so it's hard to believe that Christmas is in two days! I'm so excited!

This week has been great! I went on exchange to Portland this past Monday. They live on a beach house so that was kind of a fun experience. When we went out on Tuesday morning there were people surfing!!!! CRAZY!!! There's like two feet of snow on the ground and they were surfing! We got another good snow storm on Tuesday night.

On Thursday we had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators named Eliza. She is 17 years old, and is great! We are having her pray about a baptism date, and she came to church yesterday, so she is progressing!!! It's so exciting.

We made Chicken Alfredo for our coordination meeting on Thursday so that was fun to bring a little taste of home to New England.

Friday we had another great lesson with another one of our amazing investigators Linda. We taught her the Stop Smoking Program and she is super excited to do it. She has wanted to quit for a long time, but was struggling to do it permanently. We have another lesson with her this Friday so we'll so how everything went!

We did some service on Saturday with continuing to help get Sally and Buffles (members who go to Florida for the winter) get their home cleaned out. So a little background on Sally and Buffles. Buffles is Sally's mom and is 104 years old. She joined the church when she was 98, went through the temple when she was 99 and is still an active member at 104! The church has to be true! Ha ha I could hardly believe it when I heard about their story.

Sunday was great! The cute primary kids made us stockings and filled them with little goodies! The ward members treat us so well.

Each and every day gets better and better. The longer I'm out here, the more I love being a missionary and the more I dislike how fast the time goes by.

This morning was pretty awesome because in my personal studies I finished the Book of Mormon! It was the first time I have read it all the way through as a missionary, and I do have to say it almost seemed like a completely different book. I absolutely love the Book of Mormon and the happiness and peace that comes from reading it everyday.

Since it is the Christmas Season I thought it would be appropriate to give a little Christmas invitation. Our mission president asked us missionaries to think of three gifts we could give to the Savior this Christmas. As I thought of this I realized that no matter what we give Him, He will always give us so much more in return. Everything that we have truly belongs to God. The only thing that is ours is our agency. So as we give our will to God and allow Him to help us become who He wants us to become that is a gift that can help us grow closer to Him and also help us reach our full potential. So my invitation to you is to also think of gifts you can give to the Savior this year so that we can all remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

I love you all and can't wait to see everyone through Skype! I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

Sister Dixon