WEEK 16 (SEPT. 3O)- COME LISTEN TO A PROPHETS VOICE

Well this week has flown by! We went on an incredible hike last pday. The Stevens took us on a hike up Mt. Piscgah. It was phenomenal. It overlooks Lake Willoughby and the view is stunning. I'll have to send some pictures.

We started a 40-day fast in our branch in efforts to increase missionary opportunities in our area. We missionaries and our Branch Mission Leader took the first day to start off the fast and then members of the branch have been signing up the remainder of the days. At the end of the 40 days we're having a fireside. It's pretty incredible because just from this past Tuesday when we started the fast we have already started to see miracles happen in this area. They aren't all huge, but things are definitely starting to change.

We had tons of service opportunities this week which was awesome! We've done a lot of wood splitting/stacking in this area. This Friday was a pretty exciting day! We committed Danielle to be baptized and she accepted! We set a date and everything, but unfortunately she didn't come to church on Sunday so we had to drop the date. I still have faith though that she'll stick with her decision. It has been incredible to see the changes that she has made in her life. We have started teaching a new family, the Hacketts. They have three little kids who are adorable. We helped them move from Island Pond to Orleans so now they are just down the street from us!

We watched the Relief Society broadcast on Saturday which of course was amazing! I am sensing there to be a theme of a lot of talks lately on keeping our covenants....Repetition usually means that it's important. Watching the broadcast made me even more excited for General Conference this upcoming weekend! I can't wait!

This Sunday was incredible. Sister Simpson asked us to help her with her lesson in Relief Society because it was on missionary work. She did such an incredible job and the spirit was so strong. Sister Deters and I were able to bear our testimonies on the trials and blessings of missionary work. Sister Simpson told us how beneficial it was to the lesson to have us do that, but I felt that it was far more beneficial to us as missionaries to have that reminder of why we are serving a mission. I really grew to love the women in this branch even more that day! I just can't say enough about the incredible people I get to serve with.

I feel it appropriate since general conference is this weekend to encourage everyone to watch it! I don't think I've been as excited for conference as I am now! How lucky are we to have a prophet of God on the earth to give us guidance and direction in this crazy world? It's incredible!!! I hope you can feel my excitement through the computer! There is a pretty neat promise in Preach my Gospel in regards to listening to the prophet. "Those who listen to and follow the counsel of living prophets and apostles will not go astray." That is quite the promise! One thing that I am doing this week is evaluating my life and looking for the ways that I can improve and also thinking of questions that I want to have answered by watching conference. When we watch conference with questions in mind, chances are they'll be answered, even questions you didn't know you had! Preach my Gospel goes on to say that "The teachings of living prophets provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting values and help us avoid misery and sorrow. The confusion and strife of the world will not overwhelm us, and we can enjoy the assurance of being in harmony with God's will." (PMG pg. 75) I know that as we watch conference we will be blessed!

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

Much love,
Sister Dixon

WEEK 15 (SEPT. 23)- LOST AND FOUND

Fall is here! Happy first day of autumn (yesterday)! It is beautiful our here in Vermont. The leaves are GORGEOUS! It seems so unreal. Everything is just too beautiful, I love it.

This week has surprisingly been pretty good! We had a fun Relief Society activity and made 72 hour kits. One of our investigators came with us and she had a blast so that was a lot of fun having her there getting to know the ladies. We had an incredible lesson with another one of our investigators LeAnn. We invited Sister Wolf to come with us, and it was golden. Sister Wolf bore such a powerful testimony on what we were teaching. It brought the spirit so strong. It is so neat to see the change and progression that LeAnn has made. When we first started visiting her she said that she was doing it because she likes to learn about what other people believe. That has now changed to her praying to know what God needs her to do with her life. It's incredible how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can soften hearts and enable people to improve the quality of their lives. We had quite the adventure on Friday. We went to see if we could contact some potentials in Albany, which we haven't been to very frequently because it hasn't always been our area. As we were trying to find one of the people we had hoped to contact we went on an unintended adventure. We were following the directions from the GPS and we kept getting further and further into the woods and the road kept getting narrower. We drive on dirt roads all the time out here anyway, but this dirt road was beginning to look like a four-wheeler trail rather than a road. The story ends well though. We ended up finding a way to turn around and headed back where we came. As we were driving past where we came in, we noticed that one of the other people we tried to contact earlier was now home. We were able to talk to him and we will hopefully be doing service for him soon. Right after we talked to him, Marcellus and Mary Cubit drove by and talked to us and we scheduled a day to help them move, and they told us where one of the people we were hoping to visit lived. Moral of the story is; sometimes getting lost means finding. We were able to find a lot more people than we would have been able to if we hadn't got lost. That is what I want to focus my email on today! Matthew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

We are given talents and abilities so that we can share them with others. When we keep them to ourselves we lose them, but when we use them, then we are given more! I honestly don't know a better cure for feeling down than doing service. When you forget about yourself and the problems you are facing and serve someone else, not only are you helping someone in need, but you are helping yourself. 'It is usually through someone else that God meets the needs of his children.' (I can't remember who said that, but those are not my words). Just like it says in Mosiah 2:17 "I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." We don't have to be rich or talented or have a lot of spare time to qualify for being able to serve others. Service can be given in many different ways. It doesn't always need to be huge acts of service. It can be simple like calling someone that has been on your mind or comforting a friend. There are so many ways to serve. I promise that as you lose yourself in service that is when you will truly find yourself. Christ is the ultimate example of someone who lived a life devoted to serving others. It is because of His service that we are able to be here and have the opportunity to find ourselves, and our relationship with God. I encourage you to all look for ways to serve and "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."(1 Timothy 4:12) I know that doing this it will bring great blessings not only to those we serve but to us. I speak from experience! This gospel is true and I know that we can begin our journey of finding ourselves as we lose our lives and our cares in serving others.

Sister Dixon

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