BE STRONG AND OF GOOD COURAGE

"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:9

Another week come and gone. We had a pretty great week out here in Vermont!
Last Monday night we made the trek to New Hampshire for our New Missionaries and Trainers Meeting. Since we had missed the Saturday sessions of general conference we listened to it on the drive down and back. It was incredible! Conference this year was phenomenal! I loved every single part of it. Our training meeting on Tuesday was great too! We received a lot of great training on how to be better leaders and better missionaries, and it is always so much fun getting to be around a big group of missionaries.

Wednesday we had our district meeting which was also very spiritual, so by Thursday we were simply exhausted! Wednesday I got one of the best surprises ever! We had just had a Ward Council meeting at the church and we were going to grab something from our trunk. It was dark outside and a few of the young women were in the parking lot. One of them came running over to me, and it was Laura Stevens from the Newport Branch. I hadn't seen her for nearly a year! Just before I was transferred from Newport she and her family moved to Arizona. I didn't know if/when I would get to see her again. Her family came to Vermont for the week to visit so she came down to Lamoille to say hi! It made my week!

We had a neat opportunity arise from our service at the thrift store, Second Chance. On the day that we volunteer at the store, we can go to the hospital and we get a free lunch. We were walking up to the hospital after we did service and one of the other ladies that volunteers at the store pulled up right as we were getting there. We all ate lunch together and had a great conversation. She had just moved up from Connecticut and they are working on their house. We volunteered to help her paint. She called us this morning and we are going to do some service at her house this week! Pretty exciting!

To give a little report back on my week focusing on being more charitable. It didn't quite go as I was expecting.... I prayed extra hard to be more charitable and that I would be able to be filled with charity for the people here. I feel like it was one of those "praying for patience" experiences where right when you pray for it, many things try your patience. Not that people were driving me crazy this week, but I noticed that I needed to be a lot more aware of being kind, patient and charitable to the people that we meet with every day. I definitely feel that through this experience I was able to gain a greater respect, love and charity for my friends here in New England.

This weeks challenge is to focus on having courage, whatever form or shape that may come in.
"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" Psalms 27:14
Let me know how you showed courage throughout this week!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2221439363001

I love you all!
Peace and Blessings,
Love Sister Dixon