We finally have a fecha!!!

July 21, 2014

This week was a Miracle week!! Want to know why? We finally have a fecha (baptismal date)!!!  Her name is Margarita, and she is really great.  She even got up early and came to church yesterday!  We were on intercambios this week..sorta...Elder Jennings came out here to Menorca, so we didn't really do the cambio part, but while he was here we went to go visit a lady named Dolores, and her sister joined in the lesson this time, and so we invited her to be baptized, and she said yes!!  So, hopefully on the 2nd of August we will be filling up the font.  I'm super excited.  This is the first one here on the island.  

Also, there is a mom and her daughter that really like the activities we do, and so they always come to the church, but they never want us to come visit them in their house.  Well, last week they didn't come to any activities, and we didn't know why until we found out that the mom had had surgery!  So, we called her up and asked if we could bring her brownies, and she said yes!  So, we tried to make brownies....neither of us had done it before, but we had the recipe from Elder Jennings, but even so, they weren't good...at all...but hey, we tried!   So in the end, we went to the store and bought some cookies and took them over to her, and we found out that her daughter had fallen that morning and broken her foot.  We had a really good visit, and now we have to try the brownies again, and we can take them over to their house.  It was a huge blessing. 

Also this week, I had my first piso check, so that was interesting.  (we passed:) and we did a ton of service.  Did I ever say I'm learning how to restore a car?  That's one of the things we are doing for the service.  It's a ton of fun.  We also went to a recent  converts field again and got stung by some wasps.  But one thing I learned this week was that like it says in 1 Nephi 3:7 the Lord will never ask us to do something we aren't able to do.   Even though everyone and their dog knows that scripture, it's still one of my favorites, especially here on the islands.

 

Thanks for all your support and prayers.

 

Elder Dixon

 

Elder Dixon, Jonson and the McCrudden family

 

One success made it all worth it

This week was pretty great.  We did a ton of stuff and service and walking and well, basically missionary work:) one little story is that we were going to visit somebody, but they weren't home, and so we went into pass by mode where we go pass by all the addresses we have records of.   To give you an idea....I have stacks of papers with names, addresses, phone numbers and that's it....clear from 2006.  So, we've been going through those, trying to figure out who they are.  Well, to start with, no one was home, or they didn't live there anymore, or they didn't want anything.  Well, this went on for a while, until we knocked on the door of a man named Roman.  All we had was his address, his name, and that he had been contacted in 2007, and never had talked to us again.   Well, we rang his timbre, and the man who answered asked us which Roman we were trying to find, because there were three who lived there.  So we said that we were missionaries, and he immediately told us to try the next door over.  So we did, and this Roman was super open, and we have a visit set up for next week.  It was pretty neat to see that even though we had had so much disappointment, one success made it all worth it.

 

Another neat story is that we were going to go visit a lady who lives alone, and so we asked one of the recent converts named Rider if he could come.  He said yes, and then later that night, we saw him with one of his friends, and he asked if his friend could come too.  So we said sure, but we thought it was just a joke.  But then when we went to pick Rider up the next morning his friend was there!!  It was super neat, and even though the visit fired on us, we still had a member present lesson, and we ended up talking about missions and encouraging Rider to prepare to go, since he is 17.  It was a ton of fun.  Also this week, we helped restore a car, and cleaned up a field.   I found a  bunch of old rusty tools that are traditional to Menorca, so I asked if I could take them and clean them up...they are really neat, and weird looking.

 

Also, I gave a talk in church this past week. This time I had about a half hour warning, so that was nice:) overall, it was a great week:)

 

Well, I got to go. Love you all.

 

Cuidase!!

 

Elder Dixon

I lost count of the days here on the island.......

July 7, 2014

This week was crazy!!! We had so much going on, and we were running everywhere!! It was super fun though, and we saw a ton of miracles, and I went to bed early a couple of nights because I was so tired! With having all of Menorca to ourselves, if we plan any lessons on different sides of Maó, we have to book it to the visits, and so I'm getting really good at walking fast.  Unfortunately, since my legs are a bit longer than Elder Jonsons, he has been racing all over the place, because one of my strides literally is two of his. It's actually pretty funny.

 

It's getting really toasty here though.   Also, we had a real 4th of July party!!  Ok, part of a party....there weren't any fireworks, they are illegal here, but, we had the little snaps things:) We were with the Clarks and our ward mission leader, Steve who actually is from Utah, he worked at Utah State, and we had American food,Steve's wife (from Uruguay) tried to make s'mores work out....but she forgot that we needed a fire to do it..it was alright though:) But that was great.

 

One of the things that has changed recently is that our sacrament meeting is now at 10, not at 12, and so to make sure that everybody in the ward knew, we went and passed by every ward member in Maó on Saturday. It was a crazy day, and we were all over the place, but in the end we did it, and the neatest part was we actually got a member present lesson out of it. It was pretty neat, because it reminded me of a phrase from Elder Jonson. "Have faith in the members" It's true. When we are in a slump, we just need to trust in the members that they will pull through.  And when we have that faith, they usually do.

 

Thank you all for your support!

 

Love,

 

Elder Dixon

50 days on the Island!

June 30, 2014

Dear friends and family,

 

So, this week was amazing...just saying.. we saw so many miracles...here's a neat little story that happened to us.

 

On Saturday night during daily planning, we had 10 member presents and 2 new investigators for the week, and as we were planning we decided that we were close enough we could get the pautas (the standards of excellence for our mission are that we have 12 lessons with a member present, 6 investigators come to church, 3 investigators have baptismal dates, we find 6 new people to teach, and that we have 1 baptism, every week), anyway, we set our daily goals for 3 member present lessons, and 4 new investigators....all in one day. And guess what?  We had 7 investigators in church, and during church we found 2 new investigators and taught a member present lesson. But then, the work just died. We had a bunch of pass by plans made up, and for 4 hours we were running around Maó trying to get another member present and find 2 new investigators.  Well, at about 8 we went to a park, and there we found some of the members with their kids, and one of their cousins who has been to an activity before that we taught. So we were talking to them and to the cousin, and we sent a appointment with her for this Thursday, and so we found our new investigator!!   By that time it was 8:30, and we had to turn in our numbers by 9.  We were on our way to a different lesson, trying to think of which members we could bring, and as we were thinking we passed by the house of a recent convert, and decided, why not?  So we went up, knocked on her door and asked if she could help, and she said yes!!!  So we went, had a great visit, and ended the week with pautas at 9:01.  And the best part?  This is my first week working with Elder Jonson.  It was such a great feeling, and I know that it is all thanks to the Lord for guiding us. The pautas aren't there just to be a number, but to make us work harder in the work of salvation.

 

The work here is going great.  Since we combined our areas we have had so much to do! For example...this morning we had a visit at 10 with a lady named Maria, and a member came with us to that, then we got a call from another member to see if we could go give a blessing to her grandfather in the hospital.  There is  so much work here that we are busy on preparation day! Even though they were kind of emergency situations, it's still amazing to see.

 

Also, working with Elder Jonson is a blast! He is a really great elder and he knows how to teach really well. I'm learning so much from him, and we are seeing miracles all over the place!!! It's really different here without the other elders, and our piso feels really big now, but overall its super great.   Ok, our area feels really big too...seeing as it's a whole island...:)

 

Love you all!!  Have a great week!

 

Elder Dixon

Day 44...truly exiled to the island

June 24, 2014

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok...got that out of the way...and so...before I tell you why in put that here's a little story:)

 

This week one of the miracles we saw was through a branch activity. We have been planning to do a Comidas del Mundo activity for a while since everyone in the branch is from a different country, and so we finally pulled it off and got it all organized, and spent some time decorating the church...we got everything ready, cleaned and perfect, and were done about 15 minutes before 6, when it was supposed to start. Well, at about 6:15 we decided to try calling some of the members to see if they were coming....but nobody answered......So we sat and waited. Finally, at about 7, Hermano Miguel showed up with two of the primary kids.  Well, when he saw nobody was there, he immediately started calling people, and by 8 there were about 25 people there (more than we have in church sometimes) and the tables were filled with food, and it was amazing!!!   We got to mingle, and I met a few new people, and it was amazing, all because one family helped us out and got people moving.  The members really have a power they don't understand, and that is why we have to work closely with them.

 

As it turned out, the activity was really great, and as a result, Sunday we had 35 people in church, more than we have had in the past 6 weeks, maybe more. The members are really great.

 

 

So.....what happened after that activity? Well, we cleaned up, went home, and anxiously awaited the transfer calls....well, yup...things changed....I'm still on the island, but I HAVE A NEW COMPANION!!   Elder Jonson, from Lehi, plays soccer like a beast, in his fifth month in the mission, is amazing.  Another crazy thing? Well..our piso is HUGE! But...not as big as our area, which, wouldn't you know it, is now a whole island.  Yup. Two missionaries, one island. MIRACLES HERE WE COME! I'm super excited, and today we start the work!!

 

Well, I love you all, but I have to go.  Have a great week!! And read 2 nephi10:20-21. it's pretty great:) love you!!!

 

Ricky

Day 34 on the island

June 16, 2014

This week was pretty good...it wasn't all that exciting, although I did get a cake Wednesday, so that was good.   Also this week we saw a miracle happen in that we had one of the best activities ever!  One of the recent converts, Manuel, has recently been called to be in charge of the activities, and so he put together a karaoke night, and we had a bunch of people there, including some menos activos who haven't stepped foot in the church building for a very long time.  It was amazing, and the Clarks made treats, and it just turned out really well. Recent converts are amazing.

 

Also, the weather here is crazy!! For example, this morning, it was clear, and during the time of about 2 minutes, we got hit by a wall of rain.  Literally, it was clear, two drops, and then a tidal wave.  Then, less than ten minutes later, clear again, and now it is sunny and cool.  For the past week though it has been super humid, and since we are in long pants all day, it's been super hot.  Crazy.

 

Keep strong!!

Love ya,

Elder Dixon.

It's super weird...I've been in a car more times in the past 4 weeks than in the past 9 months!

June 9, 2014

This week was super great. The work kind of exploded a little here in Menorca, which is great!! This week we saw a ton of miracles, and were really blessed. The neatest one is that we got 8 references from Elder Grau, who is in Mallorca. The references are actually his family members, and the greatest part is that we have started to teach some of them and they have a ton more family members here on the island too!!! It's amazing! Also, having the Clarks here (the senior couple who used to be in the office - Elder Clark speaks French, so he is the elder who helped Elder West and I teach Jonas in Barcelona) is a huge blessing as well, and they have been so great to help us get around to the different pueblos and visit the people here.  It's super weird...I've been in a car more times in the past 4 weeks than in the past 9 months!

 

Also this week we got a visit from the doctor in charge of all the medical stuff for the missionaries in Europe, Elder Greenwood. It was a lot of fun, and he and his wife took us out to eat at a super expensive restaurant (I don't know how to order anymore) and later to ice cream. It was interesting to hear his stories and learn a bit more about just how organized the church really is. It's actually really impressive.

To close, one neat story that happened to us this past week was that we went to go visit a less active member. She's has been going through some really hard times with her family, and is going through a divorce right now too, and works way too much, and so she can't ever come to church, but in the lesson we had with her she showed a powerful testimony. We taught the plan of salvation, and put a special emphasis on the Atonement, and the spirit just flowed into the lesson. My companion shared a personal story and we taught what was probably one of the best lessons I've ever been in. It was amazing to see how powerful the Atonement is, and I realized that I will never understand it completely, simply because it is such a huge thing that I can't grasp the idea.

 

I know that Heavenly Father loves me and that Jesus Christ suffered and died for me, and that He also rose again so that I can as well. What a huge blessing it is to have this knowledge!! I feel so blessed to be here in this mission to share it.

 

I know this church is true.

 

Love,

Elder Dixon