Baptisms and Lost Keys

March 24, 2014

This week was super great, and we saw so many miracles. And the best part is, WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! John got baptized Saturday:) It was a really nice, small service, but it was super spiritual.  Unfortunately, he got locked inside his house and so he came to church too late to be confirmed, which was a really dirty trick of satan's, but he did talk to the bishop and the bishop has already assigned him home teachers!!!! He is really great. It really has been a great time being able to see the change in John leading up to his baptism. It was amazing. And on the topic of baptism, we have another baptismal date set up for this Saturday for a man named Jonas, who is from Cameroon, and therefore only speaks French. So, we have interpreters come help us, usually just people from the ward who speak French and Spanish. Lessons are super fun with lots of hand gestures, and when I don't know a word in Spanish it goes from me in English, to Elder West, in Spanish, to the interpreter to Jonas.

 

Other than that, this week was a real adventure, because we have been having way too many visits to handle. It's been incredible. It really seems that because of the 2 weeks we were sick, the Lord is giving us all the people we were supposed to teach all at once, and it is incredible. Actually though, that has led us to find something we need to repent of, and that is better managing our time. The reason we found this out was because on Tuesday, we found out that we had scheduled by accident two visits at 8 for that night, with two different menos activo families. Well, we figured we could just do splits, no problem, and we got it all set up with people Monday, and then, Monday night, we got a reference from the other elders, and they told us they set up a visit for us.....that was at 8:30, which also, coincidentally, overlapped our other visit we had set at nine. So, we ended up scrambling trying to make it work, in the end only one of the members showed up to do the splits, and so as we ran around to our visits, it ended up we got to piso at 10:35, and so we had to repent of that. But we had some really good visits, and we learned a lot, or at least I did.

 

One other thing we did this week that was amazing, is that for the last preparation day, we went into the Sagrada Familia. It is absolutely beautiful. I have been in a few cathedrals before, such as the Basilica de Pilar in Zaragoza, but nothing compares to the Sagrada Familia. It was so BRIGHT! and absolutely beautiful. It's all nature themed, and inside it looks like a forest, and it is really really really pretty. It really impressed me.

 

So, to finish this week off, two things happened, number one, Barcelona won against Madrid last night, 4-3, so that's really great.  We had a party in piso, because the three of us Americans are all for Barce, but Elder Ferrer was super mad and went to bed early cause he is for Madrid. It was a close game...no we didn't watch it, but we could tell when Barce scored because everybody would start screaming and letting off fireworks, and at Camp Nou (the Barce home field) they would fire off a cannon.

 

Number two, this morning we went to help somebody move stuff, and when we came back, we realized that all four of us had lost our keys, and so we are doing e-mail right now because the dueño (landlord) is coming to let us in in about 15 minutes. But that was my week!! crazy right?!

Also....I had to give a talk in church.....they told me about it about an hour before, so I had some time to prepare, but.....it was really crazy.

 

I Love you so much!! thanks for all your support!!!!!

 

Elder Dixon

 

 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!

March 17, 2014

THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING!!!!!  We had an amazing mission conference, an amazing miracle filled week, and best of all, this week we are gonna have a baptism!  Wahoo!!!  So, first...the conference…

 

President Kearon, from the UK came and talked to our mission (in only two sessions, and I went to the big one, so basically there were about 170 missionaries in one spot....powerful!) Anyway, he is absolutely amazing, and he has awesome stories.  He is actually a convert, and now is in the first quorum of the seventy, in the Europe area presidency and his testimony is absolutely through the roof!!!  I really can't explain how it was other than amazing.

 

We also have a baptism this week.....it's a guy from Australia, actually, and he is really great.   I'm so excited:)   He was a reference from the office.   It's gonna be great!!   We still need to teach him some stuff, but he will be great.   He is super shy though, and hates big crowds, but he still will come to church, which is really a miracle as well, because he walks everywhere… because he hates the busses and metro but,  he lives about 3 hours walking away from the church!!!!   He is amazing, and really wants the gospel in his life.

 

I just have one more thing I wanted to share with you about this week.  Elder West is absolutely hilarious, and he is so well meaning, but sometimes the statement "no good deed goes unpunished" applies to him too much.   We were in a elevator with a member, leaving from a visit, and Elder West noticed a hair that was sticking to this members chin, and so, being the good person he is, he tried to pull it off.   Well....it happened to be attached, and as a result the member just yelled and needless to say, I died laughing, and Elder West was apologizing as much as he could and the member was laughing almost as hard as I was.   It was pretty good, but it also made me realize how good of a person Elder West really is, and how blessed I am to be his companion. he is so great, and we have so much fun:)

 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!  Love ya!

  

Elder Dixon

a week full of messes!

March 10, 2014

This week was a little bit better of a week than last, but still we hardly got out of piso, because, a) Elder West (my companion) was sick until Wednesday, and b) I got sick Friday and most of Saturday.  So, this week was a hard one again. We did contact a lot of people though, so that was good, and we went out and worked Wednesday a little and Thursday was a full normal day.  We saw a few big miracles too.  The one that effected me the most was when I was sick Friday, Elder West told me about something he had been prompted to study that morning, which was on adversity.  He explained that adversity comes to help us grow, and learn, and that sometime what happens to us is for a reason, even if we can´t see it yet.  Then he said that adversities such as sickness isn't our fault, and that it sometimes comes to help us be humble. When I heard and thought about that, I realized that I really did need to work on being humble enough to accept help, and accept that sometimes I am too weak to accomplish what needs to be done.

 

Friday morning, when I woke up, I wasn't feeling well and I was really warm, so I checked my temperature and saw I had a fever, but I didn't want to tell Elder West, and I was just going to go on with my day, but I wasn't able to especially since later that night when I checked my temperature again it was 100.1, so...ya.. I had to learn humility to consent to staying inside, even though I have had way too much time inside recently. But Elder West really helped me a lot to understand that.  He is a really great companion.  Even with us being sick, we still had good experiences and saw miracles.  I am almost all better now, fortunately but, still a little sniffly and I have a cough.

 

Other than that, though, this week was just full of messes.  First thing that happened....Elder McMahon put his hand through our kitchen window, which sprayed glass all over me and Elder West, and yes, all three of us got cut.  Elder West got the least of it, I got a big one on my arm, and on my neck, and a bunch of little speckles on my other arm (there were at least 25 little cuts) but Elder McMahon has cuts all over his arm....at first, right after he put his arm through we thought we were all safe, and it was kinda funny...then I looked down at my arm and saw a nice line of blood, then I looked at Elder McMahon and he was bleeding like crazy...so we had a fun time cleaning that one up. No stitches or anything though, we are all good.   

 

Other than that, there was the pillow fight that we ripped the pillow....pooooofffff....foam was everywhere, and the birthday party for Elder Ferrer.....confetti was everywhere. So, all in all, a pretty good week:)

 

Love ya!   Thank you so much for your prayers and support:)

 

Elder Dixon

 

 

Ricky and a photo

March 3, 2014

So, this week was a very interesting week.  It started out amazing on Sunday when we met the lady I told you about last week, the one who just showed up to church without us knowing.  Then we had a great lesson with her after church, but that's when the week started to turn crazy.

 

It started Sunday, with Elder West mentioning to me that his ear was bugging him a little, and that his stomach was a little upset, but I didn't think anything of it, and he didn't say anymore, until Monday when we were going to a noche de hogar with a recent convert family, and he said his ear was bugging him again, and again, I really didn't think anything of it, until we started to eat.  I noticed he wasn't eating very fast, because he usually can down food (and does) and one of the members we were with noticed as well, and asked if he was all right, at which point he explained that it hurt him to chew and swallow.   So that's when I started to get worried.   Then, the next day, we had a few appointments in the morning with 2 of our investigators, and they went well, and we started to go to a eating visit, and while we were on the metro Elder West said his stomach was really hurting him and his ear was bugging him again, so I told him that we would go eat then go to piso and he could take a pill or something.   Well, once we got into the visit, I was helping the member cook, and Elder West went to the bathroom, and when he came out he let me know that he thought he had diarrhea, and he told the member he probably wouldn't be able to eat that much because of his ear.  Fortunately the member we were with is super nice, and he put the food in a box for Elder West to take home, but during the time we were at his house Elder West had to go to the bathroom about 3 times more, so after that we went to piso, and he has been confined to piso since then.   The only time he has been able to leave was when we went to the office to go to the doctor, and he felt well enough just to go to sacrament meeting, but other than that we have been in piso for the past 6 days, during which time I have been able to organize our area book and call a bunch of people, clean the piso, read a lot of the mission library, and sleep.  

 

But honestly, Elder West is an amazing missionary, one of the best.  I have not once heard him really complain, other than that he feels bad that he is making me stay in piso.  His attitude is absolutely amazing, and even though I can tell his ear really hurts him, and he has visibly lost a lot of weight because he can't eat, he still wants to go out and work, and if it weren't for Hermana Pace´s orders he would be working still, I think.

 

He was talking to me and said that he really just wants to soldier on and work, but he knows that if he does he will make it worse.   I feel really bad for him, because he really feels super bad, even if he won't say it. But I can't say enough of how amazing of an example he is to me, because he still is making jokes when he is awake and trying to help me.  He is awesome.  I feel really bad for him.   Fortunately for me, the members here are really great, so I am with one right now so I can have a normal preparation day, while Elder West is at the mission office with the elders there, since they have a different preparation day.

 

So today we went to go play volleyball on the beach, and it was absolutely beautiful. That though was basically my week.

 

Thanks for all your support,

Elder Dixon

 

 

An 82 year old man who has had a crazy life

February 24, 2014

Well, this week was amazing.....in a good way, and in a very strange way as well....but it was still good.  We had a bunch of lessons, we had 7investiagors in church, we found 6 new people who want to learn more, and we have been having a ton of fun.  The funnest lesson we had though was with an 82 year old man who has had a crazy life and likes to talk and talk and debate and then talk some more.  He is from here, Cataluña, and he was in a concentration camp when he was 12 because he was helping the French resistance cut some wires, and it was really sad because the Nazis decided to do tests on how much pain a 12 year old could take.  Fortunately one of the doctors had mercy and would give him ibuprofen and stuff.   He has written a whole autobiography, which I want, but it is HUGE!!!  So I can't take it around with me.   He is absolutely amazing.  Crazy thing though, he met a member while in the camp, and since then he has always had contact with the church, but he is still not a member because he has a ton of questions, mostly just why God would let that happen in the world.   He did tell us though that we are the only missionaries he will allow to talk to him, and he knows everything so well he has helped the missionaries in lessons on the streets before and stuff like that.   He is super amazing.

 

Another fun thing is that we have an investigator from Cameroon, and he only speaks French.   He is trying to learn English and Spanish, but nobody really can help him, so lessons with him are lots of hand gestures and laughing at how stupid we all feel that we can't understand each other.  He loves the feeling at the church though.....at least I think that's what he was saying...anyway, he is super nice and likes to come play basketball with us.   

 

On the strange side of life, we have an investigator who has some really interesting ideas about our church and stuff that we have been trying to smooth out, and there is another investigator who has been asking us for money, and went and talked to the Bishop for an hour while his wife was outside talking to us....well, she was more sobbing and telling us her problems because her kids are in Honduras and they are trying to get them here, but they can't because they don't have money to get married and then a bunch of other stuff I don't understand, but ya....that was interesting.

 

Then there was apparently a problem with the youth of the other ward being accused of being too..."friendly" with one of the missionaries who just got transferred and I'ts affecting the youth in our ward and it's a big mess the missionaries are halfway in.

 

So, this week has been insane!  And to make it even weirder, I'm almost at my 6 month mark....wow!

 

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week, and as always, thank you for your support. 

 

Love ya!

 

Elder Dixon