WEEK 4- 88 DEGREES

Interesting week in Vermont!  This week was not the typical week for us.  On Monday we headed down to a town called Lemoile.  Sister Deters had a training meeting on Tuesday in Manchester so I got to go on exchange with Sister Kotter who was one of my MTC companions!  It was so great to be back with her for the night and the next day.  Wednesday we had an appointment scheduled with our Girl Scout friend, and she wanted to meet us at the library.  So we sat there for a good half hour and then she called the library and said she felt bad for making us wait all the time, but that she didn't have time to meet with us.  So we're really hoping that we'll be able to get the chance to talk to her again.  Our other investigator wasn't home, so we were a little bummed!  But we had a great lesson with Sally who lives down the road from us.  She has had quite a few missionaries through the years, but we are the first Sisters, so I think we've got this in the bag.... ;)  She is great though and she has a very strong belief in God.  The fourth of July was HOT!  We spent a lot of the day at Bella and Sara's home helping them and doing service, and we got to watch the parade in Derby.  We stopped by the Stevens home later that night to see how they were doing.  They had all the family over and were singing and playing on their guitars so it was a lot of fun to be with them.  This family is absolutely incredible.  The mom has been fighting cancer for the last 9 years I think, and the past two weeks her condition deteriorated rapidly.  It has been really hard seeing her suffer and seeing how hard it is on her children.  I have never seen such a strong and loving family though.  On Friday we had a really neat experience with a less active member in the ward.  We stopped by their home and were able to have a really great discussion with him.  He has had a hard time feeling his purpose in life, but we bore strong testimony of how the gospel gives us purpose and how the Book of Mormon can help him overcome his challenges.  His wife (who is active in the church) was a great help in the lesson because she is very straight to the point with him.  We are having dinner with them this week and he is allowing us to teach him the lessons!  I am sure excited about that!  Saturday we went to Hanover for our meet and greet.  We got to meet the new mission president, President Stoker!  It was great!  He and his wife are incredible and I am very excited to have them leading this mission.  He basically said that we are getting rid of tracting, which is WONDERFUL!!!!  Knocking doors.....rarely successful.  We aren't getting rid of it completely, but he wants it to be an absolute last resort, which is great with me.  He is hoping with all the new technology advances in missionary work that we will be able to find people to teach much more effectively that way.  It will be exciting to see how missionary work changes!  We had a great lesson with Dale and Mariah and they came to church on Sunday so it was great.  They are so fun to be around and we love teaching them.  If they keep going the way they're going they will definitely make it to their goal of a temple sealing, which is AWESOME!  We've got a good week lined up here in the beautiful state of Vermont!  I hope all is well at home!  I love you all and I hope "You're all set" ...a common Vermont term....you'll be getting a lot of these, I'm catching on real well.    Oh um last thing!  I can't believe I forgot.  I"M GOING TO THE JOSEPH SMITH MEMORIAL!  So girls camp is this week and we got permission from the mission president to go for the last night, which is the testimony/devotional night.  Our Branch President is driving us down on Friday.  I AM SO EXCITED!  ...anywho that is what I have to look forward to this week!  oh I guess I forgot one other thing... ha ha ha the purpose behind the subject line.  So it's pretty humid out here and despite the rain it is still pretty hot.  We don't have AC in our apartment which is loads of fun.  My nifty alarm clock has a temperature thing on it and we were sitting and doing our nightly planning and we were both just sweating like crazy so I went and checked the clock and it said it was 88 degrees in our apartment!  WOHOO. 

I count my sweat as my showers and take Whitney's advice and just towel off ha ha ha...but seriously.  I think I'll buy a fan today :) 

I'm sharing the advice from the mission and encouraging you all to write down a miracle you see everyday!  I promise you it is great, and you see them a lot more frequently when you do!

I love you all!

Sister Dixon

WEEK 3- ON MY HONOR I WILL TRY...

This week has been great!  So many wonderful miracles!  We'll start at the beginning.  So Monday night we ended our Pday early so we could go and see the Dicksons.  They are from St. George, but come out to VT every summer.  They wanted us to come and have dinner with them at their 'camp' on Lake Willoughby.  Her sister was coming that day, so she really wanted us to come out and have dinner with them because she is inactive.  We could tell that her sister wasn't too thrilled that we were there, but she was really nice and made a delicious dinner.  We had a lesson planned out, but time ran out really quickly and we only had about ten minutes until we had to go to our next appointment.  So we quickly changed our lesson plans and Sister Deters did a quick object lesson.  We then each shared a scripture and the spirit was really working on 'Aunt Blythe' .  You could see in her eyes how the spirit was touching her heart.  The atmosphere completely changed.  It was pretty neat to experience.  We then headed to Bella and Sara's home. Bella is less-active and Sara (who is 13) was baptized a year and a half ago.  We didn't know, but they were planning on eating with us too, so they had pizza for us!  Hooray for two dinners!!!  We talked to them for quite a while and just got to know them.  They are both so incredible and I love being around them.  They have been through a lot and are just trying to stay strong.  Again, we had a great spiritual experience.  We shared different insights and scriptures and the spirit was definitely present. 

Our district meeting this week was on the First Vision.  I have really come to love the account of the first vision.  Nothing brings the spirit as quickly and powerfully as quoting it directly in the words of Joseph Smith.  So later that day we were going to one of our teaching appointments and she was outside pushing her daughter in her stroller.  We started talking to her outside because she said her house was way too hot.  We got on the subject of Joseph Smith and of course that is the perfect transition to the first vision.  But because Satan knows the power of that account, he was doing everything he could to distract from us getting to share it.  Right before I was going to share the account a man pulled up in a truck and asked if she had any pliers....random.  So then he got back in his truck and drove away.  We got back on track and the moment I started to share the first vision, the entire atmosphere changed...like completely!  It was incredible.  Everything outside was silent and it was as if time stood still while I spoke.  I felt so strongly that the Lord was working through me.  I bore testimony of Joseph Smith and that he did see God the Father and Jesus Christ, and man it felt so good!  After she said 'so I just need to read the book' (referring to the Book of Mormon) and we were so excited we were like YES!  Everything is in this book!  We are meeting with her again this week!

A super nice lady from the ward had us over for dinner.  She has been widowed for a few years and she is just incredible, and has quite the conversion story.  She went all out with setting the table....like Grand America status, but so much better!  We talked and visited for hours.  She is a little lonely so I think it was good for her to be able to talk for a while.

One more fun miracle for the week.  We had spent ALL DAY doing weekly planning again, in efforts to try and get this area figured out.  So it was about 745 and we had not even been able to leave the apartment all day so we decided to go around town, which isn't very big, and do some tracting.  We weren't having much success.  It was almost time for us to be back in our apartment so we were making our way back and there was a lady standing on the corner with her dog.  It was kind of odd that she was just standing there.  We started to walk across the street to where she was standing....this is usually when people run away, but she stood there and waited.  It was pretty funny, the first thing she said to us was 'So are you Girl Scouts?'(the reason behind my subject line...Whitney will understand)  We thought that was pretty funny, then she confused us with the Jehovah's Witnesses, who are in full force here.  We got her all straightened out.  She had SO MANY great questions and was really curious and interested in what we had to say.  We also are meeting with her again this week!

The new mission president has arrived!  We have a lot to look forward to with how much the work is hastening.  I LOVE THIS WORK!  It truly is the Lord's work and He is the reason for our success here. 

Much love,
Sister Dixon

WEEK 2- ZOMBIE WEEK

Welcome to.........VERMONT!  Ya it's pretty great out here.  I live in Orleans, which is a little tiny itty bitty town...there isn't even a WalMart.  We are right by the Canadian border.  We got to NH on Monday later in the evening.  One of my suitcases...along with twelve other missionaries didn't quite make the second flight so we had to wait a little bit to get it figured out for them to send them to the mission home.  We went to the mission home for dinner and some orientation things.  I don't really remember anything that was said because I was SO TIRED.  But President and Sister Wilkey are so great!  I was able to meet with Pres. Wilkey for an interview and it was such an incredible experience. 

Oh and kinda cool story from the second plane ride.  So the first flight all these missionaries were just going to work talking to the people around them about the gospel and I was thinking to myself 'man why can't I do that?'  So I decided to push myself to do it on the second flight.  Our second plane was a lot smaller than the first one.  There were only two per row and one isle way thing, and more than half the plane was missionaries.  But...my seat wasn't next to another missionary, it was next to a man named Thomas.  He had his headphones in when I sat down so I was just thinkin that I was out of luck.  I prayed that I would just be able to talk to him.  A minute or two later he took out his headphones, and BAM the rest is history.  We were able to talk for a good half hour.  It was pretty neat.  He is a great guy and loves his family, so it was really easy to talk to him about the gospel and he was really open to listening.  I even gave him a Book of Mormon!  Ya the Lord definitely works in mysterious ways.  Who knows if he'll ever read it, but at least he has it.  Back to NH ha ha so after our orientation most of the missionaries stayed at the mission home but me and another sister went and stayed with missionaries in the Bedford area.  The next day was the transfer meeting.  I was beyond nervous and anxious to find out who my companion would be and where I would be serving.  I was assigned to serve with Sister Deters.  She is from Malta Idaho and has been out a little over 7 months.   We are opening the area of Newport.  There haven't been sisters in this area for MANY years, so we are pretty excited about that!  This week has been pretty crazy with organizing and getting everything put together for the area.  We are still just trying to figure out who everyone is.  I do have to say that our branch is AMAZING!!! I love all the members so much already.  They are very humble people and are just wonderful.  The members and the Elders who are also serving in this area got an apartment situated and furnished for us in the upstairs of a cute old home.  We haven't been able to do a lot of teaching yet since we are organizing and mapping out where everyone is.  We were able to meet with a less active member who lives down the road from us, her name is Illene.  She is a sweet old lady, but just doesn't have the ability to get out much so we had a nice little lesson with her.  She loves the missionaries.  On Thursday we left the apartment around 5pm to head to Manchester for our new missionary training.  We picked up sisters in Lyndon and dropped them off at another sisters apartment and then we drove to manchester.  We got in around 1030pm so it was a lot of driving.  The next morning we went to the training and it was awesome!  I'm really going to miss the Wilkeys but I am super excited to meet the Stockers.  That night we drove back to VT and stopped at McDonalds.  We went inside and one of the employees was on break and sitting at a table eating.  She asked if we were missionaries, and she told us she joined the church a year ago and just moved here and was wondering where a church building was that she could go to.  We got her number so we could let her know the closest church building in her area.  It's pretty cool how the Lord puts people in your path.  On Saturday we had our weekly planning which took ALL DAY! Finally I suggested we take a break and go and visit someone.  We saw on the branch directory that there was a member in a nursing home so we went and visited with her for a little while.  She was happy to see us.  Sunday was WONDERFUL.  We had church at ten and me, my companion, and the new elder in this area were asked to bear our testimony in Sacrament meeting.  This branch absolutely loves the missionaries and are so excited to have sisters serving here now.  The missionary broadcast was so great.  I am so motivated and excited to be a missionary.  This is definitely the hardest work I have done even though it's only been a week.  The Lord is in this work and is preparing people to hear the gospel.  I can't wait to get going on teaching!  There are so many people that are ready to accept the gospel, we just have to find them, and the members are the best way to do it.  We have 3 dinners set up this week so that will be great, and 3 lessons planned for today!  I hope all of them go through!  Many people have referred to the first week out here as zombie week, so hopefully I will be able to understand a little better what in the world I am doing ha ha ha.  I am so happy where I am and I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us!  I love you all!

ALL MY LOVE
Sister Dixon

WEEK 1- Oh Happy Day

Oh man time is really flying by here at the MTC.  We are already half way through our MTC stay! CRAZY!  This week has by far been the hardest week of my life, in every sense of the word; but I know it won't be the hardest thing I do in life.  It's been an emotional roller coaster!  But oh man Heavenly Father loves us!  Every day when I feel discouraged, inadequate and that all hope is lost he blesses us with miracles.  I have not been here a single day without experiencing a miracle of some sort.  First off I'll tell you about my incredible district!!!  We have seven Sisters and five Elders in our district.  All the sisters are going to NH and all the Elders are going to Portland Oregon.  When we first got here everyone said that your district would become your family and that you would grow super close to them.  Not going to lie I had my doubts!  But I was wrong!  I LOVE MY DISTRICT.  We have had so many incredible, spiritual, learning experiences together and we all help build each other’s testimonies and encourage each other.  I know for a fact that I am in the best district here.  I'll give you all a little break down of life in the MTC.  Wake up at 6 for gym time!   Personal study for an hour, breakfast and then class for three hours.  We then usually do some sort of teaching for an hour or so and then have lunch.  Then back to class for three hours where we do A LOT of role playing...which I have grown to love.  Then we usually teach some more have some dinner, have companion study, and plan for the next day....Repeat.  Of course it varies a little everyday but that’s the general idea....  It took a lot of getting used to being inside a classroom all day, but I can't even explain how much I have learned already.  I'll tell you a little about my companions Sister Bowns and Sister Kotter.  Sister Bowns is from Orem and is 21 years old. Sister Kotter is our youngin from Layton and she is 19.  They are both incredible!!!! We have gotten along really well as companions and I am so grateful that I have been able to be in such a great companionship.  We also have some incredible teachers here at the MTC.  The thing I have learned the most this week is that you have to teach by the Spirit.  There is no way this work would be possible without it.  They focus so hard on teaching us to focus on the investigator and their needs and to love them, and to teach people rather than lessons.  This means that you basically go into a lesson with a lesson idea planned out, but then totally follow the Spirit and the direction that it leads you.  This is a little stressful for me because I kinda like to plan, and know how things are going to go, but that is not possible here ha ha ha.  We have had some really neat experiences when we follow the Spirit and our minds are enlightened to the things we should say and the way we should direct the lesson, but we have also had some not so great lessons where we just don't know where we're going.  We are teaching three investigators right now.  Melanie, John and Jose.  All three of them have very different needs and it has been really cool to see how they progress through the lessons.  We don't have much time to email, but I wanted to share a few of the 'miracles' I have seen throughout this week.  The first one was when we were role playing and me and Sister Bowns were the missionaries, and Sister Kotter was the investigator.  I don't even remember what they were having us role play, but I do remember how I was just scared out of my mind.  I had no idea what I was going to say and my mind was just racing.  Sister Bowns is an incredible teacher and just had the lesson flowing so well, then she paused and waited for me to chip in, and my mind was completely blank.  It felt like an eternity as I sat there trying to think of something to say!  Finally the thought popped into my head to open my mouth and it will be filled.  I had no idea what I was going to say, but I opened my mouth and started talking and in that very moment it was filled.  The Spirit was so strong, and my testimony of that principle grew so much.  One more quick kinda similar story.  So it was with one of the Elders in our district who is really great, but he also has a really hard time talking in lessons.  He just freezes up and doesn't know quite what to do.  The teacher asked him to be his companion for a role play, as they 'taught' Sister Kotter.  I'm pretty sure we, as a district, were all praying for this Elder.  Our teacher started off the role play and got the ball rolling.  Sister Kotter, who was Paula in the role play asked a question to the missionaries and our teacher left it up to the Elder to answer.  He sat there for a few seconds and then boldly he said "Because it's true!" BAM the Spirit filled the room so fast. What an incredible experience that was!  So moral of the story is, it doesn't matter the amout of teaching experience, confidence, level of ability you have to teach a lesson, it is ALL THE SPIRIT.  Well I really am running short on time and I wish I would have been able to grab my journal before we did emails because I had a lot more in there that I have been writing down, but we came straight from the temple.  Oh and the temple was GREAT.  I am really going to miss going for the next 18 months, but oh it will all be worth it!  I am so grateful to be here and to be a missionary.  I just want to bear my testimony that I know that this is where I am supposed to be.  I know that Heavenly Father is listening and answering my prayers.  He is completely and perfectly aware of our circumstances and our struggles, and he loves us unconditionally.  I know this church is true and I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had this week that has increased my testimony so much!  I love you all so so so so so much and miss you.  Onward and upward friends and family!  I love you all!

Sister Dixon!   :) :) :)

Sister Dixon update

Sister Dixon is still alive and doing very well. Not many would know this due to her slacker sister/ blog manager. I’m going to put up all of her letters to this point and then hopefully keep on top of things from now on. You will see from her letters what a wonderful missionary she is, but thought I should throw in a shout out to my amazing little sister. She is such a hard worker and so great at always doing what is right. I am so proud of her for throwing herself into the work and doing her very best to spread the gospel. She knows it is true and lives her life in a way that shows her beliefs.  She sees the best in everyone and is a friend to all. I love her so very much and I am happy to share her wonderful successes with anyone who reads her blog. 

Are You Kitten Me?

The time has finally arrived.....I'M A MISSIONARY!

Because my sweet sister will be the one managing this blog for me, I thought I would dedicate my first post as a missionary to her! She has been the greatest example to me all my life. She is my best friend and I have the privilege to call her my sister.
She is the most caring, supportive, smart, punny, wonderful, incredible, outstanding, beautiful sister that I have! I have never met a girl who is more spiritually.... and physically strong.
Whitney, I want you to know that I love you SO much and will miss you more than a blog post can express! I am excited for all the adventures we will have and get to share these next 18 months! Never ever ever forget how much I love you and how incredible you are.      Love you Stevie!