I'm going there Tuesday!!!!!
SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!? So I know I asked you all to pray for iPads this past week, but I'm here to announce that in response to those prayers we got something much much MUCH better. We get to go to the TEMPLE!!!! Ever since President Stoker became our mission president he has been working on getting it approved for us missionaries to be able to go to the temple. It has now been approved and we get to go once every six months(if we are within two hours of the Boston Temple)! And Saco is! We are SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED!!! We are going next Tuesday with our Relief Society president, Sis. Courchene, so our pday will be Tuesday next week instead of Monday.
Well here is the update for some other fun and exciting things from the past week.
Wednesday we got a pretty big storm so our cars were grounded. We had an appointment with Bob and Karen, our new investigators. They live about 2.5 miles away from our apartment so we decided that we were going to keep the appointment regardless having no means of transportation other than our feet. We got all bundled up and made the trek to Bob and Karens. It was all fun and giggles on the way there, but coming home our hype and excitement for walking 2.5 miles in the cold dimmed a bit. All in all it was a lot of fun though. Not something that I think I'd like to do every day though. Thank goodness we have cars! We celebrated the snowy day by going to Mulligans for dinner.
Zone conference on Thursday was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is also a pretty cool story to go along with how we got there. So on Sunday when they announced that we needed a member to take us to Augusta on Thursday we didn't hear of anyone that could. We didn't hear from anyone throughout the week so on Wednesday we were frantically looking for someone that could drive us and the Elders to Augusta. Our prayers were answered. The Mitchell's offered their van and Bro. Jarry was available to drive. Bro. Jarry, has recently come back to activity in the church. It was so neat to see how much he loved going to zone conference. It was amazing to hear him talk about the experience he had and how it was an answer to his prayers being able to take us.
We had another incredible lesson with Abby on Saturday. She is practically a member already. She said the prayer in Relief Society and she signed up to come teaching with us. She is unreal! Well back to our lesson on Saturday. So we were talking about how she can receive personal revelation, and we had this great conversation about her life and where she sees herself going. We talked about baptism and the church and it is something that she wants. She said that she feels like learning about the gospel is starting a relationship. She feels that right now she is in the getting to know you/gaining trust stage. She feels that baptism is the engagement and receiving the Holy Ghost is the marriage. She just blows my mind. She is so much closer than she realizes.
With Valentines this week we, with the help of the Tippetts, are going to go around to the homes of the people in the ward council to let them know how much they are appreciated. We're going to make some chocolate covered strawberries and spread some love to the members who do so much for us. I don't know how we got so lucky to be in such a great ward out here. Not to mention, the Tippetts helping us in everything! They are so great!
Those are a few of the exceptionally exciting things that have gone on this past week. So to finish off I wanted to share a taste of what I learned at zone conference. I know this is a mouthful, but it is worth the read!....and this is just such a small small portion of the talk we read. So before conference they had us read a talk about 4 different missionaries and the way they served their missionaries. This completely applies to life and how we have to make the choice of what we want to come from it. In the mission you often hear "Your companion becomes what you think of them." I have applied that to many more things so right now I want to apply it to life. Your life becomes what you think of it. I often think that we have to do something drastic or incredibly hard to become something great, but it is so simple. It comes from making the choice. We have to decide what we want to become. Everything we have is God's other than our agency and our hearts. When we give our hearts and our wills to God He will make us into something extraordinary. The title of this talk is called The Fourth Missionary. I'm sure you could google it to find the whole story....and I would encourage you to do so because it is awesome and this is just a small portion of the incredible things that are in the talk. So here it goes!.....
Have you planned your greatest work? Have you envisioned who you will become? Do you plan for what kind of person you want to become? Can you see in your mind who you want to be? Do you know? The choices As you consider what kind of person you want to become, what choices do you have? The choices are more limited than what you might think. Here are most of the choices, but overall they are a choice between the qualities of light or the qualities of darkness: ' Do you want to be powerful or weak? Certain and confident, or afraid and insecure? Comfortable with your self or arrogant and abrasive? Do you want to be filled with light or darkness? Do you want to have peace or conflict within? Selfish or generous? Influential or inconsequential? Do you want to be free or be a slave? Happy or miserable? Do you want to be kind and loving, or mean and cruel? Honest or dishonest? Do you want to be forgiving or hard and unforgiving? Knowledgeable or ignorant? Do you want to be a person of faith or doubt and fear? Trustworthy or unreliable? Hardworking or lazy? Do you want to be cheerful or despondent? The first of each of these choices is an attribute of light. They are incorporated into your character as you choose to follow Christ. Dynamic process; always changing As you consider the question of what kind of person you will become, you must understand the dynamic process of life. You not only can change but you do change all of the time. Sometimes people do not believe this. They excuse their failures and weaknesses by saying: "That's just the way I am." "I am just short tempered, impatient person." I can't get up in the morning. That's just the way I am." "That's my nature." Or, "I'm just shy. That's all. That's just who I am." "I am not really a spiritual person." To believe that weaknesses and deficiencies in your character are unchangeable is to reject the central truth of the plan of salvation. You are not cast in stone. You not only can change but you do change all of the time. You are a dynamic, changing, evolving being. You are always changing. You never stay the same. You cannot stand still. You are right now the sum total of what you have thought, said, seen, heard and done. What you think, say, do, hear and see, cause you to change; to change for good or evil; to become either stronger or weaker; to either internalize the qualities of light or the qualities of darkness. You are responsible for who you are and you are responsible for who you will become. Do you know what kind of person you want to become? Do you see in your mind who you want to be? Do you know? What manner of men ought ye to be? Jesus asked a similar question. He said: "What manner of men ought ye to be?" On this particular occasion he was speaking to his Nephite disciples and so he spoke in the male gender, but the question applies to us all, and so, He asks of you: "What manner of men and women ought ye to be?" Then answering His own question he said, "Even as I am." Jesus Christ not only came to atone for our sins; He also came to show us the way. He is the Way. You not only may become like Him; everything is stacked in your favor to become like Him. Think of this life as a path on which you never stand still. As you move forward, you incorporate into your being the characteristics and qualities of God. As you move backward you assimilate the qualities of Satan. Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him. If you were never presented with some advantage to be gained by dishonesty, such as recognition, or money, or a better grade on a test or avoidance of punishment or embarrassment, you could never develop integrity. If no one ever offended you, you could never learn to forgive or internalize mercy. Were you never wearied by the annoying behavior of another or the repeated failures of someone else you could never become patient. Were you never subjected to the appetites and passions of the physical body for food, for water and for sexual fulfillment you could not develop self mastery. Without opposition the plan would be frustrated, you could not progress and the purpose of life would be unachievable. In short when you choose to follow Christ you move forward and assimilate attributes of light; when you do not, you move backward and acquire attributes of darkness. Can you see, have you seen, who you want to be? What will happen if you don't plan. What will happen if you have no vision of who you want to become? The purpose and central blessing of life is change. It is to be changed to become more like Jesus Christ. It is to incorporate into your character, the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree of intelligence and capacity to the next, and from there to the next, until you see God face to face and know Him as He knows you.
I know that we can truly come to know our Savior as we give everything to Him. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve Him as a missionary. Never have I felt so much happiness and joy as I have serving the people of New England. I love this Gospel and I love my Savior.
Have an amazing week everyone!
Sister Dixon
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