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!

Merry Christmas

Well, this week was a blast!!  It's strange though because not that much happened, so this time this blog is probably gonna be super short.  Really, all that happened was.... Christmas!!!!!!!!  It was super fun, and we got so much food!!!!!!   It was really great.  However, nobody wants to meet with us until the 8th of January because of the festivities, so that's kind of a bummer.   Oh well.  We have been able to get a lot organized in our area and we have been able to visit menos activos a bunch.  

 

Christmas was also really great because I got to talk to my family through skype, which was awesome.  I can't believe I have been out for almost 4 months.   Where did all the time go????  It's crazy!!!  

 

The other thing that is crazy about this week is that Elder Gil is leaving to Barçe because of his visa stuff....I don't really understand it, but that's what's happening, so now our piso is back down to 4 elders again. Weird.  It feels really empty. Oh, the other thing I learned this week is that I can't find Sharpies, or duct tape.  Sad times....haha :)

 

I also was able to finish the Book of Mormon again this week.  I did the December challenge again!!  Whooo!!! Anyway, that was my week. 

 

Love you all!!

 

Elder Dixon