It rained so much the river went up about 5 meters...

March 3, 2015

This week was a really good week, and we had a ton of fun, first with going to Vitoria for an amazing zone enfoque, and then with a really great intercambio with Elder Engen. Then, after having the transfer jitters all day Saturday, it was really neat to find out that Elder Carter is going to Gandia, and that Elder Engen is training. I’m super excited to be with Elder Noovao again too.

Oh ya, and it rained so much the river went up about 5 meters...flooded big time, so that was cool too. However, the best part of the whole week, was when Francisca, the mother of a member, accepted the invitation to be baptized this coming Saturday. It’s been a really hard time to get her to church, and her daughter has been really patient with her, and very encouraging. It’s been very obvious that the Lord has been helping and preparing her for the past two and a half years since her daughter’s baptism, and we are sure that her baptism will set the example and the rest of her family will soon follow. It’s been really neat to see her progress the past couple of weeks. The only possible hiccup is if she has to work on Saturday, so we’re praying for her to not have to. It’ll be pretty neat though, because the new missionary will get to see how a baptism is done in the Barcelona Spain mission his first week in the field. We are so excited.

So ya, this week was amazing. I hope you all have a great week too.

Love,

Elder Dixon

I hope you all see results!

February 23, 2015

This week was amazing.   We saw so much success, and had so many blessings, it’s incredible.  As a zone, we had the goal that every companionship could make the pautas this week, and so we set the goals this week to have 12 lessons with a member present, 6 people in church, and 6 new investigators, and ended with 12 member presents, 6 in church, and 9 new investigators, with another 21 lessons on top of that. 33 lessons this week, which is possibly the most I’ve ever had in a week. It was amazing. We sure cut it close though!  Our 12th member present lesson happened at 7:30 Sunday night. It was pretty amazing. The members have been helping out a ton, and we’ve been having a lot of fun.

 One neat thing about this week was that we were contacting a lot. Every day visit just kept firing on us, and so we just kept walking and talking with people. On Wednesday we ended up in the street for 5 hours, without a break. But we saw miracles, and at the end of the day my companion complimented me on my contacting "skills" and said it was a great strength that I had.  Well, the funny part is, I can remember in my last area praying to be better at it, and to not be so afraid of the people. And look! The Lord answered my prayers, and I can now say that I enjoy contacting, and it is one of my strengths. I just wished I had developed it sooner in my mission.

Other than that, nothing really exciting happened. We just worked a ton, and saw results. That’s really all there is to it. It may take some time to see the results, but they will come. I figure that applies to just about everything in life, really. Work hard, and see results.

I hope you all see results!

Love,

Elder Dixon

It just felt good to go out and do some manual labor

February 16, 2015

Well, this week was amazing. Obviously, the first thing is that we went on vacation. Literally, that’s what it was. We got a hotel, TV (only Mormon messages) and lots of friends, with two meetings, a little exploration of the city while we were talking to people, and we got to go to the movies. We saw Meet the Mormons. Of course though, the conference was a mazing.  I learned so much and got called to repentance a bit too.  But that’s ok, that’s how we improve!  So yup. One thing that was neat though, is that Sister Pace explained that as missionaries, we are as close as it gets to living the law of consecration, which helps us a lot in fulfilling our purpose, and so we really need to consecrate ourselves, and put up the things of the world on the altar of sacrifice, and the Lord will bless us.  It was really neat.

 Another great thing about this week was that on Saturday we went to help a member lay a cement floor in his house, with his nonmember brother.  We were working lifting heavy cement for almost 4 hours, and having a blast! It was really great to get to know the member and his brother a little better, and I also learned a new skill. Even though I’m still sore from working muscles I forgot I have, it just felt good to go out and do some manual labor. Actually, we’ll probably end up doing some more too, because today while we were buying food, we heard some people talking English, and so we started asking them where they were from, and come to find out, they have bought and are restoring one of the old catholic abbeys on the pilgrimage trail "Santiago".   It was kind of funny, because we were in the hardware section, looking for some Teflon tape to fix our sink, and we got talking and they asked if we would like to come help them, and explain a little more about what we do as missionaries. It was really neat. The best part was that we were from all parts of the world. My companion, New Zealand. Me, The U.S.A. The lady was from England, and the guy is from South Africa. It was quite the mix of accents.

 Overall, it was just a good week, and I feel like I’ve really grown spiritually a lot this week.

 I hope you all have a great week too!

Love,

Elder Dixon

I’m going to Bilbao today

February 9, 2015

Well, yesterday, we got a call....I’m going to Bilbao today. It’s really weird, because I’ve only been in Pamplona for 3 weeks. Oh well. It’s ok, I guess. All of the elders from my zone are going. It’s gonna be a huge conference...and then we will be coming back on Wednesday. It really will be like a vacation though. They are going to let us watch Meet the Mormons too. We even get to stay in a hotel!!! I’m super excited.
 Anyway, this week was great. We really started to gain some traction and find and teach some people. Some of the people we found this week are the parents of a member, so we really didn’t have to look all that far for them. Well, the member told us that she didn’t think they would come to church since they have said that a bunch of times, and didn’t even come to her confirmation, so she didn’t really think they would come this Sunday. But, the crazy part was that we invited them to church, and they accepted. .so, Sunday came, and what do you know but they did too! The member was so happy! I don’t think she could really believe that her parents were in church. She’s been trying to get them to go for 3 years, and they never had. It was a really neat experience, and the best part is that they said they are going to come next week too. So that was pretty great. It was a fun week. We made most of our goals and taught a bunch of fun lessons. I really enjoy it here in Pamplona

Well, I hope you all have a great week too.

Love, Elder Dixon

It snowed three days straight!

February 2, 2015

It snowed! For three days straight it snowed here in Pamplona, and it was a ton of fun, because it was Elder Noovaos first time ever seeing it fall, and so we were having a blast all week, and today for preparation day we had a snowball fight, and made Elder Noovaos first snowman, which he later tackled to the ground. It was a lot of fun. Apart from the fun however, we also used the snow as a tool, because we were able to stop by a lot of people and they let us in, mostly out of pity, but also because they were all home since it was so cold. On top of that, we had a ton of members pitch in and give us rides everywhere, and so we got to go a lot of places. It was a really great week.

One experience was that we knocked on the door of a menos activo JAS, who Elder Noovao said had only been there once in the thousands of times they passed by during the last two transfers, and he let us come in, and we had one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had. It was incredible, and he was really happy to see us because he had been going through a rough time, and he said that us coming was exactly what he needed, just so he could calm down and feel the spirit. It was really neat.

Another great thing was that after church on Sunday, the whole ward went outside and had a snowball fight, even some of the older members. It was a ton of fun, seeing all the ward laugh and play in the snow, just like normal people. (For some reason, all the primary kids ganged up against me and my companion...) We were all laughing and just having a really good time. The secretary of the ward got it the worst though. He was thrown by one of the bishopric and the elders quorum president into the snow, then pelted by his kids and wife. It was a blast.

Later, after church yesterday, we stopped by a family we visit often, because we didn’t see them in church, and since our other visit had fallen through, we stopped to see them. Well, right after we got in, took off our coats and sat down, the visiting teachers came, one of which is a recent convert who I still didn’t know, and so we got to know her a little. The other visiting teacher came with her boyfriend though, who happens to be the elders quorum president, and once he realized that we couldn’t get a word in edgewise because the three ladies were all talking, he had us go with him on a surprise visit to a menos activo lady, and we had a really great time getting to know him a bit more, and we also didn’t have to slog through the snow, because we were in his car. It’s really nice being in an area where most of the members have cars.

Well, I really didn’t mean to write so much just about the snow, but it really helped us out, and it was a blast seeing Elder Noovaos reaction to everything too. We also had zone enfoque this week, so that was fun to go see a different city and everything. It was just really a great week.

Thanks for all you do!

Love,

Elder Dixon

"Good thing I have a really good companion..."

January 26, 2015 

This week was really good. In my prayers I hardly have time to ask for anything because I just give thanks for letting me be here now, with Elder Noovao. It really has been an incredible week. I’ve never felt the Spirit as much as I have this past week. It was truly incredible.

We’ve been working a lot with part member families, and recent converts, and we have been so blessed in our work. On Friday, for example, we went to an eating visit with some members, and while we were there, we asked for references, and they asked us about a menos activo in our ward they haven’t seen for a while. Well, since we didn’t know them, we pulled out the ward list, and as the sister was going down the list, looking for the name, she kept stopping and asking about a bunch of other people, and telling us to go visit them. We ended up with a bunch of references, and instructions to ask bishop about a few more people. It was really great. I’ve never had anyone give me so many references at a time. The only bad part about that visit was that we asked for the references at the end then they took another 45 minutes giving them to us, so we were there for almost two hours...but I’m not really complaining. It was really neat though. It’s just been a ton of fun here so far, even though I’m still completely lost. Good thing I have a really good companion who knows where we are!

Oh another neat thing about Pamplona is the castles. They’re everywhere! It’s really neat. Still haven’t gone to one, but it’s in the plans for next week. Yay!

It also snows here, and was the first time my companion has ever seen snow fall. He loved it:)

Thank you all for your support!

Love,
Elder Dixon

 Ricky and Elder Noovao

 

I just got transferred to...PAMPLONA!!

January 21, 2015

Well, just so you all know......I just got transferred to...PAMPLONA!! I’m now companions with Elder Noovao, from New Zealand, and so far we have been having a blast. he’s only been in the mission a little while, but he is a spiritual beast, and, turns out, was one of the elders in Cornellá right before Elder Frederich and I, so that’s pretty neat...we stayed up late last night talking about all the people there and his converts and everything....I didn’t even ask him about himself ‘til this morning. He’s really great though, and rearing to work.

So ya. Oh, btw, Sorry this is late, my train got in last night to Pamplona a little late, so we didn’t have time to e-mail until now. But I made it safe and sound, and got two references while I was on the train, so all is well:) It was kinda hard to leave Cornellá, after working so much there, and getting to know so many people, but I am really excited to work with Elder Noovao. He is really great, and in the short time we’ve been together, I’ve been able to see that he is a really hard worker, and we are going to see a lot of blessings here for sure. I’m really looking forward to working with the people here. It’s a lot different from where I’ve been before, but so far, I like it.

I want to share with you a little of what Elder Frederich and I were able to do in Cornellá. Together, we made over 150 changes to the ward list, updating it. We found quite a few part-member families, and were working with them, and we also have been working really hard to try and make San Boi (a pueblo we worked in a lot) be a good place to put a branch in someday. While I was with Elder Frederich, I learned so much, and grew a ton. He is a really good missionary, and a really good friend of mine as well. It’s a good thing he is going to BYU after the mission, so we can hang out afterwards. It’s really weird to think that this is his last transfer.

It’s kinda weird to think, but 6 of the 10 companions I have had, are already home, and my trainer is about to get married... I still can’t wrap my brain around how fast the time has gone. The mission really is the best.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good week.

Love,

Elder Dixon