First of Many posts....

May 5, 2014 

This week was a great week, even though our numbers don't show it.  We had an amazing zone focus where we learned how to teach repentance, and that if we teach repentance we will have a ton more success in converting, and retaining and reactivation. Also, there is the promise from Elder Holland that if we teach baptism FOR THE REMISSION OF SIN, then we will quadruple our baptisms.  Incredible.  

We have also been doing a ton of service this week. (we painted two pisos, and cleaned up from a remodeling, and we also visited a menos activo who is the hospital twice) and to top it all off, yesterday we had fast Sunday.  I have been spiritually fed, and I know that we have seen miracles because of the work we have been doing.  One that we have seen already is that we had correlation with our ward mission leader for the first time in awhile, and its because we went and helped clean/paint his piso, and so he had more time to spend with us. (side note, I got to paint a huge picture of Bruce, the shark from Finding Nemo, on the wall of his sons room.  Seriously it is bigger than he is. I'll send pics :) I had a blast!!) I know that as we serve others as a much as we can, we can be blessed.  And beyond that, I also got to see Elder West be amazing like always with how caring he is and willing to serve however he can.  It was really great to see that, and I know that he is going to finish his mission super strong. Also, one cool thing that we have decided to start doing is trying to contact, either by calling or knocking on their doors, at least 10 members a day.  So far we have been averaging about 12 a day, and one day we even got up to 18.  It's crazy though, that even when we knock on 15 doors, and call each of them plus three more people, only 4 answer. but we are still trying!!! 

Anyway, I hope you all have a really great week, and also HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! Shout out to mine:) She's the best:)

Embrazo,

Elder Dixon

...once again, and we saw miracles!!!

April 28, 2014

This week was a good once again, and we saw miracles!!! The neatest one was that we have been meeting with a lady named Yahira, who was a reference from the hermanas of the other ward.  Well, we invited her to be baptized a week ago, but she said she wasn't ready, and since then we haven't been able to have a visit with her because she works a ton!  Well, this past week we got a phone call from the hermanas of the other ward, who told us they had an awesome reference for us, who they just barely had a visit with and who accepted a fetcha!!  And that's when we realized it was Yahira.  The hermanas had forgotten they passed her to us.  The lord works in mysterious ways, but those ways work!!!  We have also been working with a lady from Brazil named Neidi (pronounced Negie) and she is absolutely amazing, and super ready to hear the gospel.  It's incredible how prepared she is, and the best part is, she has invited one of her friends, Lele, to church, and a bunch more to English class!!  It's incredible!!!

 

Other than that, not much really has happened.  There are two missionaries leaving from our ward to Madrid, Peterson and Joselyn, so we got to go to their farewell last night, and that was good to see, but beyond that not much has happened.  We have some new investigators and we have been meeting a lot with recent converts and less active members, and overall we have just been having a blast.  One thing that's kinda funny, is since Elder West and Elder Sutton(one of the other elders in my piso) only have 2 months left of their mission, we have little signs up everywhere that say "finish like a man" it's pretty great:)

 

I hope you all are doing well.  Keep reading the scriptures, and praying and going to church, and if you have any friends who want to learn about the gospel, talk to the missionaries!!!

 

Love,

Elder Dixon

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!

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

"Funny story..."

February 18, 2014

Hello Home!

 

So, to start off, can I just say that when I don't e-mail on Mondays, it's probably because It's a transfer week....which usually means something changes for me.....and yup, true to form, I now have a new companion.  Elder West, and I will be working in his area now, which still happens to be the same ward and everything as before, and I still get to sleep in the same bed and everything.  I really just have to move everything from my old desk to my new desk, and start learning the streets...again.....oh well:) I also get to learn about all my new investigators and everything else, so, it's gonna be an adventure!  So I guess that was the biggest thing this week. Other than that though, this week I got to go on intercambios, (companionship exchanges in English), with Elder Hikola from Finland, who is finishing his mission in 12 days.  Oh, and Elder Bascopé who was Elder West's old companion and the Zone Leader is going home today.

 

Funny story actually is that we had been planning a good-bye dinner for him with some members, and one day we got a call from a guy, who actually turned out to be Elder Bascopes older brother, who informed us that his family was coming from Madrid to pick him up.....so we planned that his family would be there as a surprise for the dinner (that was on Saturday).

 

Well, now here's the catch....we weren't informed until Thursday that there would only be 3 of his siblings missing....ya, Elder Bascopé is the youngest of 10, and all of them are married........so we had an extra 19 people in a super small apartment for na amazing surprise.  It was so much fun, and the best part is that I was able to communicate a little with his family:)

 

Other than that not much really happened this week......we helped a lady move on valentine's day, and I got a little heart sticker for the back of my name tag, but that's about it. It was a crazy, but amazing week.

 

So....to end, here is a neat little quote from an Elder here from Germany, Elder Hachenberger. "The Book of Mormon is amazing.  It is just a book full of power."   I just want to second his thought and also tell you that it can answer any question you want.  Really!  Ask a question, such as, "what should I do today?" and then go look at 1 Nephi 13:22 :D

 

Love ya!!!

Hasta Pronto!

 

 

2/10/14

February 10, 2014

 

So this week was pretty uneventful, but that really was just because most of the week was spent planning, getting ready for and advertising a ward missionary activity, where we hiked up to Montserrat, which is a two hour hike that was absolutely amazing.  It was actually pretty crazy too, because we were at the back of the group to help people and make sure nobody got left behind, and we met up with a group of girls, and one of them was sick and super dehydrated, so we helped her, and it eventually got to the point where they called an ambulance, but we had to get her up to the top of the mountain, so we had a bunch of us helping and we also had the chance to use our priesthood, which was actually a really spiritual experience. 

 

Other than that though, there wasn't much that happened this week....oh, I guess one story was that we were going through the metro with a member who was helping us, and he was apparently using a metro card that wasn't his, and he got caught, so we had to pay 50 Euros or he would have gone to jail, because he is also here in Spain illegally... so that was fun.  It actually is a super funny experience in hindsight, but while we were there it was kind of nail biting for a minute :P

 

So, to end I just thought I would add in another spiritual thought, about the Book of Mormon, and this is actually basically what we teach to all our investigators, because it is super important.   The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion.  If it is true, then Joseph Smith translated it through the power of God, the priesthood, which is restored again on the earth today, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth, with the same organization that existed when Christ organized it when he was on the earth, with prophets, apostles, the 70, stakes, wards, deacons, teachers, priests, elders, high priests, all of it is the same, and all of it is true, if the Book of Mormon is true.  And if it is true, and we know it is true, then we are obligated to act on it, and follow the example of Christ, and have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end.  And if we do that then we can be guaranteed our Father in Heaven will look after us and protect us and guide us throughout all of our lives, no matter what circumstance we are in.  But the only way to know, is to read the Book of Mormon, and pray with a sincere heart and real intent, and then listen and feel the Spirit testify that it is true.

 

I love you all, and thank you for your support.

 

Elder Dixon

Laura Dixon

February 3, 2014

February 3, 2013

This week was pretty amazing, and extremely spiritually uplifting! We had so much happen this week, it was absolutely crazy!  Especially because of all the conferences.  We had  a specialized missionary conference for our zone that lasted two days, and stake conference with two meetings Saturday night, the leadership and the adult session, and to top it all off, Sunday was a special conference broadcast to all of Spain, Portugal, and Cape Verde, and Elder Ballard spoke (funny story, he actually came out and said playing or watching sports isn't a good Sabbath activity....no, he didn't emphasize it, he just mentioned it, but still.....Elder Ferrer was super upset cause all the Granada soccer games are usually on Sunday :P) !!  Anyway, it was super spiritual and I learned a ton!  So that was one reason this week was awesome, but also because of the miracles we saw.  If it's ok I want to share two with you from this week.

 

The first was on Tuesday, after the specialized conference, when Elder West and I went on splits because our companions are the Zone Leaders.  Anyway, what happened is we were working in my area, and when we went to the visit we had set up it back fired on us, so we decided to go back to his area and work there because it was closer to piso.  Only problem was that I'm still a little lost here, and so we got on the metro going the wrong way.  Well, that turned out to be ok, because I was thinking about who lived at the next metro stop, and I remembered a recent convert named Harrison who lived there, so we decided to visit him, and when we went into his house, he had a bunch of friends over and so we got to teach them all about the restoration and Harrison was amazing at helping us teach, and from that we got 3 news!  All because we got on the metro the wrong way.

 

The other miracle actually happened on the metro as well.  We were at one end of it, and were going to get off at the next stop, and Elder Ferrer was about to fall asleep on his feet, so we decided to walk to the other end.  Well, once we got there, a man came up to us and explained that he had been looking for missionaries to talk to because he was a member but had just barely come here from Honduras and wanted to know where the church was and what time and everything, and it turns out that he had followed us through the metro.  It was really neat, and he came to the stake conference and everything and is amazing.  That is one thing I really like about Elder Ferrer, is that he always can feel the Spirit and he follows the promptings even when he doesn't know they are promptings or why he needs to do them.  It's pretty great.

 

This week we also have a fecha (baptismal date) for a lady named Rocio, whose two kids have already been baptized. The only reason she isn't is because she wants to wait for her husband to get home from her pies (I think its Peru....) but we have been talking to her and she really wants to get baptized, and since she has no idea when he will get home, we asked her if she would pray and see if she should wait or get baptized this week. We are going to visit with her this week to find out her answer, but I feel like she needs to be baptized this week.

 

Also, we have another fecha, sort of. His name is Luke and he is from England, but he is just doing a study abroad so he isn't sure if he wants to be baptized here or wait till he goes home so his family can be there for it. The only thing is that he will be here for 5 months, so I don't know what will happen there.

 

ok, well, I just want to end with one thought I learned in the conference. We read in Ether 3 about how the Lord touched the stones and they shone.  Well, whenever we feel the Spirit telling us to do something or that we did something right, the Lord is touching us so we can shine too :)

 

Thank you so much for your support!!

 

Un Embrazo,

 

Elder Dixon

January 27, 2014

January 27, 2014

Well, this week was really good!!  But, I have no idea why.........honestly!  When I look at my planner it was a super boring week...but when I think about it, it was really good, and a ton of fun stuff happened...ok, I guess the airsoft wars in our piso weren't boring, but other than that not much happened.  The only thing I can figure is that when you work hard the time flies and it feels good :) I love the gospel :) So, since I don't have anything really to share from the week, how about a spiritual thought?  I was just reading through my study journal a couple of days ago, and read about the brass plates, and the gold plates, and it hit me.....the gold plates were made of gold so they wouldn't tarnish, but the brass plates would have tarnished and worn super bad, and so to be able to read them they would have had to have been polished and shined.....they would have to had taken really good care of them, and so I thought, why don't we do that with ours in this day and age?  Just because they are paper, and easily replaceable doesn't mean that we can just throw them around and treat them like a normal book. They contain everything we need to live with our Father in Heaven again, and we need to respect them. 

 

Thank you so much for all your support and love.

 

Un Embrazo,

 

Elder Dixon

"..we had a BAPTISM!!!!!!"

This week was absolutely amazing and full of miracles! And the best part? WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was super crazy how it all worked out, but it was a huge blessing. Wednesday we were at piso for medio dia/language study, and while we were there the phone rang, and Elder Ferrer answered it, and it was a lady who said she was a menos activo, but she had a friend who wanted to be baptized this week, and she asked if we could go talk with him right then.  So Elder Ferrer said yes, but when we found out the address it wasn't in our area, and he told her to call the other missionaries.  But then she asked if he knew Elder Cerqueda, who happened to be his companion earlier in the mission, and when Elder Ferrer told the lady that, she said that she wanted us to teach him, not the other missionaries.  From there we called the Hermanas because it was their area, and made sure we could teach him, then went to the visit, where we found out that he had been taught everything, but before hadn't wanted to be baptized, but that he did now because he is leaving to Ecuador Thursday and wanted to be baptized before he left.  So we told him that he could be baptized Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and then as a joke Elder Ferrer said he could be baptized Sunday at 8 in the morning.  Yup.  He wanted to be baptized at 8 in the morning on Sunday. So on Sunday we woke up at 3 in the morning to go fill the font and get everything set up, and after making sure everything was good we went into the chapel and slept on the benches, with an alarm set for 7 so we could turn off the font and be ready for when everybody came to the baptism.  However, I woke up at 6:30 because I had to go to the bathroom, and just as a thought I went to check on the font, which somehow, didn't have any water in it.  The plug in the font doesn't work!  For the next hour and a half we made a new plug with a plastic bag and a bunch of rocks, then we put the water on as high as it could go, which means it was freezing cold water, and we were filing buckets and dumping those in just so it would go fast enough.  It was absolutely insane!  In the end though, the baptism was amazing, and somehow the water wasn't cold.  It was so much fun, and there were so many miracles, and being with Elder Ferrer is so much fun....when I can understand him.  His southern Spanish accent really throws me for a loop and its super hard to understand. But, slowly I'm learning.

 

Also, it was pretty crazy this week with a bunch of other stuff...such as the fact that elders Ferrer and Bascope bought airsoft guns and we have been having wars in our piso....it has been crazy.  Also, at the beginning of the week elder West was sick, and I was chosen to stay in piso with him all of Tuesday.   I cleaned a lot, read a lot, and slept a little too.   It was pretty boring though.  Oh well.

 

I also got to play guitar this week!!!!  We were eating at a members house, and one of the kids mentioned that they were learning to play guitar, and when I said I played, they forced me to play some songs for them.....ok, they really didn't have to force me, they just asked if I wanted to and I may or may not have gotten a little too excited about it....anyway, it turned into a really good lesson about music and the importance of it, and we used the D&C scripture the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, ect.  It was super great.  Oh, and the food was really good too:) so, that was pretty much my week. Crazy!!!!

 

love you all,

 

Elder Dixon

New address

Well, this week was pretty crazy!!!  I'm still trying to figure out where I am and who everybody is and what's going on exactly, but it has been a blast, and the best part is we already had a baptism:)  yup:)  her name is Isela, and she is from Peru, and the funny part about it is,  she thought she was a member before since she got baptized in 1993.  It turns out that she has no records or anything, so on paper she never got baptized, and we talked to President and everything and he said she needed to do it again.  Elder Ferrer said that it was a present for us, because she already knows everything and it was super easy for her to pass the interview.  

 

During the whole baptism service (which was secret because she didn't want the ward to know she wasn't really a member)  I was thinking about why she had to be baptized again, because obviously Heavenly Father knows everything and so I wondered why this couldn't all be worked out up there, but then it hit me.   Her sisters are inactive, and they were there, and the
Spirit was so strong.  I think that's the reason Heavenly Father let this happen. I really think it was so that her sisters would want to start coming back to the truth. It was really touching to be able to watch her be baptized, and she afterwards gave her sisters a huge hug and all three of them were bawling.  It was super neat.  

 

I know that this church is true, because I can feel the Spirit, and because it is so strong. That's why I am here in Spain for two years, with nothing except my scriptures and a suit.  Ok, I have a bit more than that, but still….  I left a ton of stuff and people back home that,  ya,  I miss them. but I am here now doing this work for a purpose and yesterday during the baptism it really hit me again exactly what that purpose was.

 

I love this gospel with all my heart. Thank you all for your support. It really means a lot to me.

 

Love,

 

Elder Dixon

 

 

here is the new address:

C/ Padilla 204 esc 3 atico 3

08013 Barcelona

Spain

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so this week was absolutely crazy!!!!!! It was crazy Monday with Elder Gil about to leave, because then we found out he couldn't until Thursday because he was waiting for a package from his mom that only he could pick up. So that was crazy trying to figure out.  Then Tuesday was crazy because it was New Years, and it was super fun too because we went to eat at Maria Angleses house and she is an amazing cook.  Then Wednesday is where the fun begins.

So, every month we have a Zone Focus in Llerida, and I was going to do a intercambio with the zone leaders (I don't know how to say that in English, but it's like a split with other missionaries) and so after the Zone Focus I went with the Zone Leader to Dominos to eat pizza.

While we were there, Elder Carrigan, the Zone Leader, got a call, handed it to me and said, it's the President. Well, I answered, and with a piece of pizza in my hand and a super shocked look on my face, President said that I was going to Barcelona instead of Elder Gil and that I needed to be on a train back to Zaragoza that night to pack, then get on a train the next morning at 9:45 to Barce.  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so there was that crazy stuff on Wednesday cause then I didn't get back to Zaragoza until nine, where I only had time to say goodbye to Maria Angles because Elder Coombs already had a visit with her, then only an hour that night to pack, and two more the next morning. Holy cow I was so stressed. It was crazy!

Thursday I arrived in Barce, and my new companion is Elder Ferrer. He is super great, but I can't understand him, because he is native and from Granada - which is the hardest accent to understand. I honestly cannot understand him at all, but he tries to speak without the accent for me so that is nice. He lived in the states for 8 months so he speaks English too which is a plus. Anyway, he is great.

I'm still adjusting to the change, its super weird, and Barce is huge, but it's really great.  Oh, and we live about 3 blocks away from the Sagrada Familia, (a Basilica Cathedral you should Google) so that's pretty neat too.  (Sorry I don't know my new address yet.....)

So, that was the story of my crazy week.  It's been really fun here so far though.  Oh, and I forgot that this week was transfers week, so that was interesting too...haha:) the crazy life of Elder Dixon!!

So, I just want to throw in one little spiritual thought.  If you go read the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:25 that says Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy….well, if you look at the footnote for joy, it just may knock your socks off :) 

Well, I hope you all had a great holiday season, 'cuz I sure did!

Con Amor,

Elder Dixon

Here are a couple of picture of Ricky!