WEEK 14- OUR PLAN OF SALVATION

I don't really know how to start this email. I guess I'll start with something that I do know; God lives and He loves His children. This morning in personal study I focused my studies on the Plan of Salvation. One scripture came to my mind fairly quickly. Alma 40:11 "Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life." I know that Grandpa is with God and that God has a plan for him in the eternities. For me everything sounds a lot better coming from a prophet. President Ezra Taft Benson said "sometimes the veil between this life and the life beyond becomes very thin. Our loved ones who have passed on are not far from us". It is such a blessing to have the knowledge not only that there is life after death, but that there is progression after death. Death is not an ending, it truly is a beginning. As missionaries we teach the Plan of Salvation all the time. Never before has it had such a personal meaning to me as it does now. I truly want to more fully understand and know where Grandpa is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us all the knowledge and information that we need to know exactly what happens to us after we leave this mortal life. In branch council this past Sunday we talked about the Plan of Salvation (coincidence....don't think so) and how each individual has their own personal "plan of salvation". I know that this is a perfect plan that only our Heavenly Father could have created. I also know that angels are a big part of missionary work. Now, Grandpa can be one of the angels that helps us along our mortal journey. I want everyone reading this email to know that I have a testimony of this gospel. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be the true church on the earth today. I also know that this church and the things we believe extend beyond this life, into the eternities. I know that God loves His children and has an individually perfect plan for every single person who has and ever will live on the earth.

Much love,

Sister Dixon     

WEEK 13- ANOTHER 6 WEEKS IN PARADISE

Well it looks like I'll be staying in the village another six weeks! Both me and Sister Deters are staying so we are excited. We've got some good things going here in Orleans. We had a pretty good week this week. I went on exchange with Sister Kotter again because her companion and my companion have a leadership meeting at the first of every month. It's pretty funny because every time me and sister Kotter are together we say "I can't believe we've been out a month" "I can't believe we've been out two months" "I can't believe we've been out three months" Ya time is FLYING by. It's a little crazy. It is kind of hard though because when we are on exchange Sister Deter's and my area gets neglected for a day, so we aren't able to get as much done during the week. It's surprising what you can do in a day! We got to do some fun service this week, picking apples and stacking wood! It was a lot of fun. We had a really awesome experience with one of the less active members in the branch this week. We've been meeting with Chris and Phil Wolf weekly for the past several weeks. Chris is very active in the branch and she was just recently called to be a branch missionary which is awesome. When we first met Phil he was pretty uneasy and a little anxious talking to us. It is so neat to see because now he is totally open to talking to us and is so much more relaxed. At the end of the lesson when the time came for the closing prayer, he offered to say it!!! I know that doesn't seem like a big deal....but it is! I just felt chills run through my body and seeing the look on Chris's face when he offered to pray was priceless. Those are the moments that make missions completely worth it. Sunday was really neat, there were so many people at church today. It was nice to see the chapel so much more full. Me and Sister Deters taught Sharing Time today so that was a lot of fun. The little kids are so cute! We weren't in Relief Society, but one of the members told us how incredible the spirit was in the meeting. What makes it even more neat is that we had a girl who had never been to church before there and she had quite a great experience. Something else that I found interesting about Sunday was that in Sacrament Meeting one of the speakers talked about the importance of journal writing, and in Sunday School, the lesson was on sacrifice. I don't think that was a coincidence! Both of those things are things I've been thinking about a lot lately and trying to improve on so it was really cool that to have my testimony in both those areas strengthened once again! We are teaching the Stop Smoking Program tonight which I hope will go well. It's a pretty cool program so I'm excited to see how it goes.

Again I'm going to bring you back to Alma 17. I just can't get enough of this chapter. I love what this chapter teaches about being a good example. As members of the church people watch us closely because of the standards we strive to live. It is through our examples that we can be missionaries no matter how old we are or where we are in the world. The phrase "actions speak louder than words" is true! By being good examples God will use us as an instrument. Verse 11 says it perfectly "..be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls" Although we may not recognize it, people do notice the way we live our lives, and it is through this example that we can be the means of bringing many souls unto Christ. You just never know who is going to accept the gospel, or who who come back to the church. I do know that God has prepared to use each and every one of his children as an instrument. It is usually through someone else that he meets the needs of others. Through our examples we can be the means of helping someone who is in need. "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father." Doctrine and Covenants 18:15

Sister Dixon

WEEK 12- TRADE IN

So this week has been pretty awesome! On Monday we went to the JSM. It was incredible. We had the grand tour and got to see the grounds and the memorial and then finished off with the Joseph Smith movie. It was wonderful! The Stevens treated us to dinner at a Chinese buffet. Don't worry Dad it still doesn't compare to that awesome buffet you took us to ;)

Wednesday we had a crazy busy day. We are extremely short on the amount of miles that we have so a wonderful member of our branch taxied us all day! She took us to district meeting and then took us to all our appointments. Talk about sacrifice.

Thursday we had a really neat experience with having a member of the branch come to one of our teaching appointments. We had an appointment with Gertrude. She was raised Catholic, so we invited Sister Coburn to come with us to our appointment because she was also raised Catholic before she joined the church. On the way there we were telling Sister Coburn what we were going to teach and she said "I'm just going to sit and listen". We went to the appointment and Gertrude explained to us that everything is too overwhelming and that she doesn't want to continue having the lessons. Immediately Sister Coburn addressed her concerns and related to Gertrude perfectly because she had been exactly where Gertrude was. Coincidence...I THINK NOT! Sister Deters and I hardly said a word. Sister Coburn handled everything! It was really neat. Mo and Gertrude came to church on Sunday.

Friday we had a good lesson with Torre and David. They have the cutest little boy Karson who is about 20 months old. He is wild! So trying to get a message across can be a little difficult. We whipped out our little hymn books and decided to sing a hymn. Karson immediately quieted down and we were able to have a good discussion.

Saturday is a special day. We had inspections on our apartment and car....we passed, and I got a toaster oven! The missionary couple that did the inspections had a traveling "garage sale" and I scored the toaster oven. If that doesn't bring happiness, I don't know what would. We had dinner with the Cubits, which was awesome. Brother Cubit had been giving us a hard time because we have been in the branch for two months and we hadn't been to his house yet. So we called to see if we could visit them that day and they said to come for dinner! We played Jeopardy...Gospel style, which was a ton of fun. Their family is incredible and the spirit is very strong in their home.

Sunday was unbelievable. Danielle, who is one of the people we are teaching had her little girl Gabby blessed in Sacrament Meeting. She is about 18 months old and is absolutely adorable! She has the curliest, cutest hair that I have every seen. Testimony meeting was quite incredible. The spirit was so strong and we had so many great testimonies shared on missionary work. This branch is really getting into missionary mode and I love it!!! The Stevens had us over for dinner. They've basically become family out here! After dinner Dean Stevens and Heather Cubit came with us to some of the people we needed to see around their home. Dean had a friend at one of the places we went to visit so we went and saw his friend. He was 90 years old and hilarious! We talked to him for a bit and before we left he said he wanted a picture of all of us girls. So he hands Dean his camera and says "That's a good camera, it has four pickles in it" ... I think he meant pixels... We just about lost it. We were doing all we could not to lose control laughing. When we were leaving that area Dean saw a lady that he knew so we talked to them for a bit and ended up singing a hymn together. When we were singing a lady came by to listen and asked us about our church. The Lord works in mysterious ways....

Lately I've been thinking a lot about sacrifice. This is the first fall since I was in pre-school that I haven't gone to school. I honestly thought it would be a lot harder than it has been to not do what I normally love to do, especially with dance. Although I miss dancing everyday more than I can express, I feel that now I can give my callused feet a break and trade them in for some callused knees. I read in Genesis the story of Abraham and Isaac. He was asked to sacrifice his only son. Because he trusted in God he knew that God would provide a way. Abraham's faith was tested, but he passed the test. Because of his willingness to submit to God's will, he didn't have to sacrifice his son. In the book True to the Faith, sacrifice is defined as "to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth." I often wonder what I'm willing to sacrifice for this gospel. At first I thought of a mission as a sacrifice, and it is. But in all honesty I feel it to be much more of a blessing than a sacrifice. When else in my life will I be able to devote all my time and attention to serving the Lord? Being a missionary has brought me greater blessings and happiness than I have experienced in my life, and I'm only 3 months out! I can't even imagine what the Lord has in store for the next 15! The blessings I receive far outnumber the things I have given up. Apparently serving a mission isn't what we all need to do in order to show our devotion to Heavenly Father. There are many ways we can show our love by observing things in our lives that we can replace with things of greater worth. Whether it be spending the hour you would normally spend watching TV and instead doing service for someone in need, or calling someone you haven't talked to in a while......or writing a missionary who loves getting letters..... :) :) :) :) hint hint. I can promise you if you pray for ways to improve God will always give us the correction we need and the ways that we can better our lives. I know that when we have an eternal perspective, the things that we give up now will result in receiving blessings of much greater worth! I again want to bear my testimony that I know that this church is true. I love this gospel with all my heart and I absolutely love being able to share it all day every day. I love my family and have never been more grateful to know that we will be together forever! I share these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sister Dixon

WEEK11- JACOB 4

This email may be a little shorter than the others which may be a nice break because I tend to be long winded in my emails!  Time is just too short 

This week has been INCREDIBLE!  

We had a great Relief Society dinner on Tuesday.  Torre one of our investigators came with us and it was a blast.  Sister Cubit put together a great evening of fun and food.  She had it set up as a school setting so we went through the 'lunch line' to get dinner and she had her daughters as the lunch ladies putting the food on our trays.  We did a lot of fun activities and she had a great lesson on journal writing.  A lot of the time I feel that my journal entries are just putting a list of things I did that day.  She gave great counsel to write the ways that we see God's hand in our lives.  I believe it was quoted in a talk from Elder Eyring....not completely sure though.  Anyways, keeping a journal is very important.  This morning when I was reading in the Book of Mormon, the importance of journal writing was again reiterated.  Jacob 4:3-5.  I encourage you to look that one up!

On Wednesday we had our Book of Mormon class and the chapter we studied was Alma 17, talk about a powerful chapter.  The moon that night was incredible it was full and RED!  It was absolutely beautiful!  I immediately thought of Grandma and I hope she looked at the moon that night too.  She always appreciates a beautiful moon!  

Thursday we got to do service for our new Relief Society President Sister Casey.  She is wonderful.  We went and helped her in her garden.  She has an incredible garden, it is huge!  She gave us some blackberries, cucumbers, peas and broccoli!  We are spoiled.  I just realized we are really short on time but missionary work is really moving forward in this area!!! I will give a better update next week!  My challenge for the week for all of you is to write in your journals!  I know that as you do so and focus specifically on the ways that you have seen the hand of the Lord in your life that you will be amazed by the many ways that God has helped you.

I love you all and wish you the best this next week!  

Sister Dixon    

WEEK 10- MISHIMERRIES

We had another great week here in the NEK (Northeast Kingdom)!  Tuesday night we had an incredible lesson with David and Torre.  We taught the Plan of Salvation; it was probably the best lesson we've had with them.  The spirit was very strong.  We got to paint a barn on Thursday!  Bro. Cubit's uncle has a barn up the road from us and so he asked us to come and help.  It was a lot of fun!  We had dinner with Sister Goodrich who is Brother Cubits sister and a lot of the Cubit clan came too.  This branch is very family oriented.  It felt like we were at a family reunion!  We had a good lesson on the Restoration with our new investigator LeAnn that night.  She is really open to learning more about the Gospel so we are loving being able to teach her.  Friday we had a really fun experience with Illene, who is a member that lives just down the road from us.  We normally see her on Wednesdays but we didn't have time this past week so we told her we would definitely come and see her, we just didn't know exactly what day.  A little background on Illene.  She is in her 70's and is the sweetest lady ever.  She isn't completely there mentally, but she loves the church and the missionaries.  So we walked up to their porch and she was so excited.  She was saying how she had just thought about us and was telling her son Norman that she thought we would show up today and as she was telling him that we walked up.  That just got her so excited so after our little lesson we asked her to say the prayer.  It was one of the best and happiest prayers I have ever heard.  I wish I could have her tone of voice in the email but you'll just have to do your best to imagine it.  She said "Thank you for the missionaries we just love them so much, they are so nice.  I was just thinking about them and WOW they just show up.  That just made my day!"  That prayer brought the biggest smile to my face.  She is so sweet.  Saturday we had another one of those days where you throw your original plans out the window and follow the spirit.  We were planning on going to Island Pond like we normally do but we felt like we needed to go to the Stevens(Craig and Geri) so this is Dean Stevens brothers family.  Craig fell off a roof on Wednesday and crushed his heel and broke three bones in his foot.  We went over to their home and were able to help around the house and also with building the wheelchair ramp they are putting in their home.  Angela one of their daughters who is about 5 years old and is adorable would call us the sister mishimerries.  If that doesn't melt your heart I don't know what would!  Before we went to the Stevens home we were able to see the Cerruttis.  They just moved up here from Montpelier and Gertrude had been taking the missionary discussions while she was there.  The Sandersons knew them so they came with us to visit them.  They are really great and we are going to start teaching her.  Mo, her husband is less active but he really wants to come back to church and knows he can't come back fully unless his wife is with him.  Sunday was incredible!  The Cerruttis and Danielle came to church so that was wonderful.  We got to teach the youngest primary class and it was a lot of fun.  We had dinner with the Stevens (Dean Stevens) Don't worry this is still confusing for me too!  He had invited his friend to come with his wife to have dinner with us and have a Gospel message, but those plans fell through.  We still had a very spiritual Gospel message along with a wonderful dinner and got to spend time with a wonderful family!  I had a really neat experience all day on Sunday.  It's really hard for me to explain through email how I felt but I'll do my best!  All day I had this burning desire inside me to serve the Lord and the people in this area and it filled me with joy that I can't explain.  I just felt complete happiness and joy being a missionary and being able to serve the Lord.  I know that this feeling came because of serving the Lord, and the great thing is is that you don't have to be a missionary to feel this way.  All you have to do is sincerely pray and serve the Lord and I can promise you that you will feel the same happiness.  My testimony of prayer has greatly increased this week.  I realized that I was just in the habit of praying...which isn't necessarily a bad habit to have, but I realized that they were losing sincerity.  I decided to change that this week and I can't even begin to describe the changes the have happened for me personally because I did so.  God is listening and waiting to pour His blessing upon us, all we have to do is sincerely ask. 

I love you all and hope that all is well!

Peace and Blessings from the NEK

Sister Dixon      

WEEK 9- FIRST ZONE CONFERENCE

This was an exciting week!  I got to go on exchange with one of my MTC companions Sister Kotter.  She is in Lemoille, so that was a neat experience seeing how the work is going in that area.  One thing I love about the church is that no matter where you go, the church is the same.  Every ward or branch is filled with incredible members of the church!  I love it!  Thursday we had some pretty neat experiences.  We had quite a few plans for the day but quite a few of them fell through. Torre called and cancelled because she had hurt her foot, so that left a pretty big chunk of time to fill.  We went to Barton and a few other things fell through so we decided to go to Bella and Sara's house.  Sara was home so we asked if there was any service we could do at their home.  She called her mom and asked if there were things that they could use our help with so me and Sister Deters mowed the lawn and cleaned up the yard and did some dishes.  It's pretty awesome how the Lord always provides a way for us if we look for ways to serve.  We also got a new investigator today!  She was on the potential investigator list so we decided to stop by her home and see if she was interested.  She talked to us for a good half hour and we answered a lot of her questions.  She already basically believes everything we believe and so I really think that once we share with her the fullness of the gospel she will be solid!  We're going to start teaching her the lessons on Thursday!  Friday we had a pretty good lesson with Phil who is a less active member in the branch.  He seemed so much more relaxed and open to learning so that was wonderful!  We hadn't been able to get a hold of Danielle (one of our investigators) over the phone so we decided to stop by after seeing Phil.  She was home and we were able to talk to her and it was incredible.  She basically shared with us her desire to change so that she can have the gospel the center of her life.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ can work miracles on those who have desire to change.  She came to church on Sunday and we had a lesson with her last night and we have another one planned for Thursday so things are moving right along.  Saturday we were able to help Tammy again with getting her things unpacked and sorted out.  She fed us dinner and we were able to answer some more of her questions about the church.  We had our first zone conference on Monday!  It was at the Joseph Smith Memorial so that was incredible.  The spirit there is so strong there and I feel so lucky to be able to serve in the area where the Prophet who restored the gospel was born.  We learned some awesome things in the conference and I am extremely excited to see how things will change in our area as we make the changes that were taught.  I think the biggest thing is having a positive attitude!  Attitude is truly everything.  There are quite a few reasons that could make it easy for me to have a little bit of a negative attitude being in the area that I'm in because of the 'lack of success' this branch has felt they've had in the past, but God is hastening the work and this area is not excluded from that promise!  I've already witnessed so many miracles here in the past couple of months and I know that many more are in store!  I couldn't have been put in a better place to serve at this time.  I learn so much from the wonderful members here and I want to do everything that I can to help them see the miracles of missionary work.  

My companion had me read Doctrine and Covenants Sec. 11 this morning and I thought it to be very enlightening and motivating so I hope it can have the same effect on all of you, because we are ALL missionaries.

Verses 8-14 were the ones that really stood out to me.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you; and, if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.

Say nothing but repentance unto this generation.  Keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed.  

Behold, thou hast a gift, or thou shalt have a gift if thou wilt desire of me in faith, with an honest heart, believing in the power of Jesus Christ, or in my power which speaketh unto thee;

For, behold, it is I that speak; behold, I am the light which shineth in darkness, and by my power I give these words unto thee.

And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good-- yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy; 

And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive.

God has blessed us all with our own individual gifts, and with these gifts He has given us we can "be the means of doing much good" and our souls can be filled with joy!.  I know this to be true!  I invite you all to identify the gifts God has given you and when you do this God will bless you with even more gifts.  I send my love and prayers to all who are reading this.  I love you all and wish you the very best!  I hope you all have a wicked good week!

Much love, Sister Dixon

WEEK 8- TWO MONTH MISSIONVERSARY

I cannot even believe that two months have gone by this quickly!  I am blown away with how fast time has gone by.  It freaks me out a little!
Well this week has been quite exciting!  So to start things off right, me and my companion reached our goal of 4 member present lessons this week(which was only possible through many prayers and the Lord's help) this may sound like a small number, but for our area we consider it a huge success, so we are going to reward ourselves to Tim and Doug's ice cream!  Woot woot.  We constantly hear about this delicious ice cream and felt it a good reward if we reached our goal.   
We now have a branch mission leader!  So our struggle to get 4 member present lessons will not be such a struggle any more! 

We realigned the boundaries of what area we cover which was nice because we were using way too many unnecessary miles trying to hit every part of our area.  We have started up a Book of Mormon class that we do on Wednesdays which is really good.  So far only members have come, but we are hoping we can get some investigators there as time goes on.  Our new branch president called us on Tuesday and asked if he and his daughter Haily, who has been out teaching with us before, could come and go teaching with us...talk about an answer to our prayers!  We have been trying so hard to have members present at as many lessons as possible, so having them call and offer was a huge blessing!  We were able to visit a few less active members and then we had a really neat experience with our investigator Torre.  Torre's boyfriend was raised in the church but it wasn't extremely consistent so he hasn't been to church for a while.  President Pingree bore such a strong testimony and committed them both to come to church this Sunday.   We had an incredible lesson with our investigator Danielle on Thursday.  Her boyfriend is a member, but hasn't been active in the church for a very long time.  She wanted to have her little girl blessed this Sunday so we invited Bro. Cubit (one of the many Cubits in the branch) to come and talk to her about what a blessing was.  After he explained to her what a blessing was we taught about the Plan of Salvation.  The spirit was SO strong.  This Gospel has to be true!  I wish I could better explain the experience, but in short she felt the power of the Holy Ghost manifesting the truth of what we were teaching and it was undeniable! On Saturday we helped Tammy continue to move into her new apartment.  The Steven's family invited us to have dinner with them after church on Sunday and told us to invite Tammy so we did and she accepted!  Sunday morning we were waiting for Danielle to show up because she was planning on having her little girl blessed that day and we waited and waited and still no sign of her, so we checked our phone and she had called and left a voicemail.  Sadly her boyfriend was held up and would have missed the blessing so she is rescheduling to do it next month.  I was pretty sad that she wasn't going to be there, but everything does happen for a reason.  David and Torre came to church!!! It is seriously one of the greatest feelings when an investigator comes to church....and they stayed for all three meetings!  I was a little worried that day because I was having a terrible time focusing and I really wanted to be completely focused and ready because I wanted so badly to have a good first lesson with Tammy that night.  Through a lot of prayers we were able to turn the day around!  We had dinner with Tammy in the Steven's home which was great.  I know I talk about the Stevens family a lot, but they are just incredible, so having dinner and a lesson in their home is just the best way to go.  We had quiche for dinner which I'm pretty sure was a first for me!  It was super good!  We also had some homemade seafood chowder...talk about deliciousness.  Aside from the good food, we taught Tammy the Restoration and it was great.  I have found that there are few things that bring the spirit as strongly as the account of the first vision.  Saying the account word for word as the Prophet Joseph Smith described what he saw brings the spirit instantly.  It was really neat because right before we quoted the first vision the entire atmosphere changed and everything went silent, again it's hard to explain these experiences, but it is such a testimony builder to me that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, I have never had a stronger testimony than I do now of Joseph Smith's experience. And how lucky am I to be serving in the area of the world that he lived!  I can't believe how incredibly blessed I have been.  Everyday I see more and more the ways that God has blessed me; it is completely beyond my comprehension.  I know that this church is true, and I know that the joy that I have in my life is from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have the most incredible family in the world, and I am so grateful to them for the constant support that they give me.  I want to thank everyone for their prayers in my behalf.  I truly feel supported in all the trials and struggles that I have and I know that it is because of these prayers that I am able to make it through and to be happy while doing so! 

So there are a couple of scriptures I'd like to share that I can bear a personal testimony on from this week.

3 Nephi 18:20

And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

Mosiah 2:41

And moreover, I would desire that ye consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.  For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.  O remember remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

I know that God hears and answers all our prayers, even when it isn't in the way we expect, or the timing we would like, God keeps His promises.  I also know that happiness comes from keeping the commandments.  Although it isn't always easy, it is worth it and God blesses us for it!  I love you all and wish you a very wonderful week filled with happiness and joy and answered prayers!

Sister Dixon