20 Lessons in a Week!!

April 21, 2014

 

This week was really great!!! The work is picking up in our area a little, and it feels really great. Want to know why? Because we have turned our focus on the menos activos and conversos recientes. Because of that we got a new friend to teach!! We almost had three, because we went to visit a menos activa lady, and she had three friends she invited to come listen. Two of them had other stuff they had to do so they only stayed there for about 10 minutes, but we got a return visit with Jaime! Only bad part is, well, he is moving to Madrid in about a week....but he has come to church, and we are going to go eat at a members tonight, and he is going to come with us. It's really great. Visiting menos activos and conversos recientes is a really effective way to find new people to teach.

 

Also, this week one cool thing that I learned is that I need to stop focusing on what we haven't done, and instead realize what we HAVE done. Example: this week I was feeling bad because we only had 8 member present lessons. And then I realized we have had 10 with less actives/recent converts, and 2 Other lessons. That's a 20 lesson week! In Zaragoza, that was always our goal, was to have a 20 lesson week, and we did it this week!!! Even though we didn't hit the mission goal of 12 member presents, we still had great successes, and that is part of why this week was so great.

 

Also, I wanted to tell all of you that if you haven't already, go to mormon.org and watch the video on there..in Spanish its called "gracias a el", which means "Thanks to Him", but idk if that's the title in English. All I know is that yesterday if you went to the homepage of YouTube it was the first video on there, so that was pretty cool:) anyway, it is awesome!!!! Only 3 minutes, but incredible. Go watch it. Now. 

 

Anyway, that's pretty much it!!!

 

Love you all!!

 

Elder Dixon

the next installment....

April 14, 2014

This week was good, and we saw miracles, but really nothing extraordinary happened. One thing was just that we had been feeling we needed to go to arc de triumf, but since that is the boundary of our area we have been putting it off, and this week we finally went and we found a menos activo who was really happy to see us, so that was a small but simple miracle.  Our numbers this week are kind of low  unfortunately, but not because we weren't trying.  Our visits just keep failing on us!!  Satan does a really good job of making people forget they have appointments with us.  Another part of it too probably was that I had to put my foot down and make Elder West sign up for his classes, because up until Wednesday he still hadn't. That took a lot of time unfortunately, but Oscar was with us (he is a member who doesn't have a job so he is always with us, and if we don't call him to go on visits he gets mad.  He literally is with a companionship at least once a day) and so I was able to help him try and find his line of authority, and figure out how to use lds.org, so it was a good use of time, and then later that day we had a couple really good member present lessons with him helping us.

 

This week was also really difficult, because we had kind of a spiritual hiccup, where for my part at least, it was tough to feel the Spirit for a day or so, due to an argument we had with the other elders in our piso over a small little thing.  It's all better now, but it was super hard to break through.  But, fortunately I have an amazing companion, who holds the Priesthood and was able to give me a blessing.  I really needed it, and for him to have been there was great.  He is what I imagine having a brother is like.  Someone that can annoy you to no end, but as soon as anybody says anything against them, they are going down.  That's the kind of relationship we have.  Also, being able to fast helped out a ton.  I love fast Sunday.

 

Anyway, that was all that happened this week. Love you all!!!

 

Elder Dixon

 

Conference was Amazing!!

April 7, 2014

 

So, this week was a blast!!  We got caught in a huge rainstorm, had interviews with president, and to top it all off, conference was amazing!!!

 

One cool little experience we had, was that we had been at a visit, and our plan was to go to the office and drop off some stuff, and on the way pass out invitations for conference, inviting as many people as we could in the metro.  Well, in the excitement, we accidentally got off one stop too early , and so we waited for the next train, and once we got on, I contacted a man, who said he didn't believe in organized religion, just in his heart, and he refused the invitation. Well, we got off the next stop, and he went one way, to go out of the metro, while we went another to get on another train. About 3 minutes later, as we were going down the stairs, this same guy ran up to me and asked me for one of the invitations, then just ran back the other way. It was really neat, but at first I didn't know what had happened, until Elder West just said "Wow, that was a miracle".  It really was.  Unfortunately, I didn't see him at conference, but I hope he got to see it somehow, and wants to learn more.

 

 I also wanted to share some things that I learned from conference. One that I loved, but also confused me to no end was something I learned from President Eyring.   I learned that we can make more covenants with the Lord than just baptism, and the ones in the temple.   But then, the question is, How?  What are they?  How do I make them? How do I FIND them? I love the idea, I just have no idea how the idea works!!!  So, that's gonna be one of the things I'm gonna be studying for the next little while.  I also learned I need to repent and stop worrying about the little things, and just make sure I'm studying and praying.  Obviously, here on the mission that is easy, because we have time set apart for that, but after the mission is when this one will really come into play I think.  Also, I loved Elder Ballard's talk.  Every single one of you needs to read Preach My Gospel.   It will help you so much.   It really is a great book.  Anyway, those are just some thoughts I had.   I hope you liked conference as much as I did, and that you all have an amazing week.

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Dixon

MTC AMBASSADOR MISSION?!?! AWESOME!!!

April 1, 2014

This week was amazing!!! It started off well on Monday, preparation day, when we had a barbecue with an investigator, that quickly turned into a water fight, then got even better when Elder West and I had 3 news and 1 member present at the end of the day. It happened because as we were walking to a members house for a noche de hogar, we saw a couple loaded down with bags, and the guy dropped some, so we asked if we could help. Well, then it turned into a hour and a half lesson/service opportunity by helping this family move to their new piso, and at the end when we asked if we could come back and share a message, they said yes!!!! (only problem...they live in the hermanas area, so we get to pass them.....sniff...) but, they also live with a lady who is super interested, and she wants to come to English class too, and she wants to bring a friend too!!!! MIRACLE!!! (for the Hermanas.....) from there it just got better!

We found 2 more new people to teach through miracles just like that one as well. However, the biggest miracle this week was that we had a baptism.  It was absolutely amazing, and without the Lord's hand in it, it wouldn't have been done.  So, the person who got baptized is from Cameroon, Africa, and he only speaks French. I don't, and neither does Elder West.  So, we have been asking help from the members who do speak French to translate for us, which worked out pretty well.  But then, on Tuesday we had a lesson with him, and as we were about to go to the lesson, the member fired on us.  So, we tried to find somebody else, but instead we found out that not one of the members who spoke French could help us....for the whole week, and his baptism was scheduled for Saturday!!  So, we went to the lesson, and fortunately he has a French Book of Mormon, so we were finding verses and showing them to him in French, trying to teach him a lesson that way, when suddenly, Elder West remembered that Elder Clark went on his mission to France!  So we called him up, and asked if he could help this week, and he instead told us to go to the office with Jonas right then and he could help us, and in the end, Elder Clark was able to translate for another lesson with him, and he also did the interview for him.   Oh, and he taught the baptismal prayer to Elder West in French, so Jonas was baptized in his own language!!   It was so special, and very spiritual.   I loved it, and I loved being able to see the miracles that happened.  Oh, also this week, John was confirmed, with Jonas, so that was pretty neat too.  That was the first time I've given a blessing in front of a crowd of people, and the fact that it was in Spanish made it pretty nerve racking, but it was a very good experience.

 

Also, yesterday was Elder West's birthday, and so we had a lot of fun.  It's kinda weird though, I'm 18, and everybody else in the piso is 21, but I have been in the ward the longest.....I feel super young.  But Elder West is a amazing companion.  He had so much fun yesterday, and we found out it was also Archie's birthday, so we went to his party as well and had a blast.

 

Ok. so last thing.  Transfers were this week. so, this week, I'm actually emailing you from a computer in the Madrid MTC again...ya. It's actually really really neat.  All the missions the MTC empties into (so basically most of Europe) have a "ambassador" missionary - one from each mission, to help the new missionaries learn more about their missions and to help them be better prepared.  It's pretty neat.  So, I'm in a trio, with Elder Case, from the Madrid mission, and from Utah as well, (he's from Saint George and has about a year in the mission) and Elder Ochoa from the Malaga mission who was born in Ecuador, but lives in Hospitalet (which is right next to Barcelona and he only has 9 months in the mission) So, it's pretty crazy.  I got on a train super early this morning (5:46 to be exact) and now, I'm here in the MTC again...one good thing, I don't have to worry about buying food!!!!! Whoo!!!!  But ya, it's crazy.  Ok, well, I have to go now, so, I hope you all have a good week!!!

 

Thanks for your support! I love you all

 

Elder Dixon

 

Oh, and PS........

 

How many of you remembered it is April fools day? :P I'm still in Barce (that was just a transfer night mare I had:) love ya!