August 10, 2015
So, last week, since I didn't get to
write, I got to fill you in briefly on what happened. As a mission we have
weekly standards that we are supposed to aim for, such as a baptism a week, 12
lessons with members present, stuff like that, and what happened was that the standard
of finding people went up from finding 6 new people to teach a week to finding
8, so, as a zone here in Valencia, we found an average of 10 per companionship,
which was mission history. We've never found so many people who have said they
want to hear our message, given us their address or phone number, and made a
return appointment. It's absolutely incredible, and because of it, the amount of
lessons we thought this week went up, the amount of people who have said they
want to get baptized has gone up, the number of non members in church was
incredible, and overall it's just really obvious that the Lord is hastening His
work.
As for this week, it was a miracle
filled week! There weren't any really big ones, but we were really blessed with
just little tiny ones all over the place. For example, we've just been finding
a lot of news, but the majority all come from the members. We go with them a lot,
and then if our visits fall through, we just have the members lead us to our
next visit, which usually ends up being their friend’s house, or a contact
that's absolutely incredible. It's been a ton of fun, and we've been working a
ton with the ward! The members here are incredible. The work is just exploding,
and everybody is really just getting involved in the work of salvation.
Another neat miracle was that we met
a less active member while we were at the church building and when I asked her
how long she had been in the church, she responded by saying that she had been
inactive, but that she was there in the church to reactivate herself. So that
kinda blew us away, and then she proceeded to invite us to eat. Good thing she
lives in our area! The Lord really is hastening his work!
Other than that, this week I also
had the marvelous opportunity to conduct two baptismal interviews, and it was
amazing. Nicolas and Philip are their names, and they are both so so prepared,
and they are really ready to make this covenant with the Lord. From what I hear
as well, the baptism went great, and they invited a lot of their friends, so
that was good. The hermanas from Valencia have done their job well, and really
helped them along the way.
So, the last thing I want to share from
this week comes from the talk bishop gave yesterday in Church. He talked about
the importance of not criticizing people, because we never know what the reason
is for why they are doing whatever we are criticizing. He gave the example of
when he was a child, and in the town where he lived was a man named Paco. He
was mentally and physically handicapped, but would walk through the town and
try to talk to the people, but as people usually are, they either avoided him,
or made fun of him. The bishop told about how he remembers being afraid of him.
He was horribly scarred from fire, and since he didn't function very well, he
was rejected quite often. When the bishop was about 15, he found out that Paco
had passed away, because one night it was cold and he crawled under a truck to
be warm. Well, the truck driver didn't
know, and so he drove away, and that is when the story of Paco was made know to
the people. He used to be a firefighter, big and strong, super smart, and a
great man. But because he saved a family from a house fire, he was left
disfigured and mentally handicapped, and in the end rejected and teased, and
never recognized for the hero he truly was. Sometimes, in our lives, we don't
realize the good in somebody, we can only see the horrible scarring on the
outside, and don't take the time to figure out the why behind it. This
story really touched me, and made me want to be better. I don't have much time
left to be a missionary, but with the time I do, I want to do my best to look
on the inside just as Christ would.
So, that was my week. It was a lot
of fun, and really humbling, and really made me want to be, and realize that I
can be, a better person. I hope that you all can do the same, and have an
amazing week.
Love, Elder Dixon