"...Picture Perfect"

Hey family.

 

The temple looks so awesome, I cant wait to go inside someday. Hopefully it will be done by the time I come home, cause that's the first stop I want to make before I'm released. (he is talking about the Payson Temple. Angel Moroni was set in place last week)

 

That's a cool story about Kwok family, I hope they get baptized soon because that would be way cool. I'm glad that mom is fellow-shipping the mother, they all sound like cool people, it would be super cool if I get to meet them when
I get back. So have you guys had the opportunity to feed the missionaries lately?

 

This week was ok, we didn't teach MJ because she is in the process of moving and we haven't found any new investigators yet, but we are finding some potentials that might become investigators.

 

We taught mike on Saturday, it went well, we read from the book of Mormon, and we found out some bad news. He has a court date for the 22nd and it's 3 hours away from where we live, and we cant find a ride for him and he is having trouble finding one also. If he misses this court date, which is just a review, they are going to issue a warrant for his arrest and he is heading back to prison until next September, so to say the least we are praying a lot that the lord will provide.

 

Other than that all is going good, we are getting along, I'm just trying to be patient with his impatience, but we are still having a good time down here in the hood.

 

So I do have our cousin's blogs so you don't need to worry about sending me the emails.

I'm glad that Roscoe is doing a good job and leaving a good impression on his bosses that they are going to let him weld. (Roscoe now works at Goodfellow, same place Adam works.)

Yep so that was my week.

I hope you all have a great week too

 

Love Elder Dixon

P.S. I hope you enjoy the picture, it's postcard perfect

 

 

 

We saw this while we where waking past a parking lot

 

 

"... my favorite talks was by Elder Ulisses Soares, he talked about the attribute of meekness and how we can obtain it by living in the spirit. "

Dear Dixon family,

 

First off I'll answer your questions.

So the Elders that we replaced ended there missions in this area, so their time was up, and yes I'm out of journal paper. Thanks for the pictures of the Payson Temple, IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!! Do we know when it well be completed?

 

Crystal did tell me about Roscoe getting the job at Goodellow. I hope he enjoys it and from what I hear he is starting at a pretty good pay.

This week was pretty good, mostly because of conference, we watched it at the branch building. Me and Elder Rausch where the only ones there most of the time, and at priesthood meeting it was only us and the branch president. It was still great, I think one of my favorite talks was by Elder Ulisses Soares, he talked about the attribute of meekness and how we can obtain it by living in the spirit. How people who are meek are more often to receive the message of the gospel, because they are humble and can recognize there dependence on God.

 

I think the 3 main things that stuck out to me the most all together where the 1st and 2nd great commandments, the important roll of woman and mothers in the world and how the world is perverting the virtues that woman bring into this world. Then the importance of priesthood holders and what we need to do to stand up for what is right and stay steadfast in our morals.

We also taught a new investigator this week on Tuesday, her name is M.J, she is someone we tracked into and set up a return appointment, she is a single mother, and has a close relationship with God and knows that she can over come her trails that she is going through. She is interested to learn more about The Book of Mormon. The only problem that we see coming up is that we know that her uncle and cousin are pastors of another church, and most of the time when people ask the ministers or pastors about our beliefs they always say negative and false things about our beliefs.  That then scares our investigator so they don't want to meet with anymore, but we are praying that this doesn't happen with her.

Love you all,
-Elder Dixon

P.S. I liked Ricky's email, pretty cool.

"Nobody really gives us trouble because we are the "Jesus boys...."

Hey Everyone,

So East St. Louis is ok, it's not as bad as people make it out to be, in fact I think it's just as bad as my last area. It's ghetto but it's not as crowded like I thought it would be; there are allot of vacant houses and buildings. There are a couple of streets that we have to avoid, but for the most part we are safe. Nobody really gives us trouble because we are the "Jesus boys" so they know who we are and what we do.

 

My new companion is Elder Rausch ( not Roach, the zone leaders messed up with his name ). He is from Calgary Canada, he is pretty cool. We get along great so far, he has been out for 4 months, so I'm not training which I'm totally fine with.

The area is ok as far as work wise, we white washed in so we replaced two elders who just went home, and to say the least they where slackers. They didn't really do anything, and they where super rebellious. We found a whole bunch of movies in our apartment that are from the flea market, so they are pirated. They had Iron Man 3, The Avengers, the new Batman, and couple of other movies. We also found out that they left the mission boundaries with a sister in the ward to go to the Nauvoo pageant! Everyday we keep on finding out how big of piles they where, so that was frustrating, oh but they cleaned most of the apartment before they left, except the bath room. It was pretty gross, there was mold in a lot of places and on the shower curtain...eek, so we throw that away real fast. They did leave us with some people to teach, one of them we met on Saturday, his name is Mike. He is a good person, he just got out of prison and is still on parole and house arrest and wont be off of it till next year He is going to be taught by missionaries for a long time.

 

Other than that we haven't met with anyone else since we were busy trying to get to know our area better.

 

We also met with the branch yesterday, boy it's a small branch, only 15-20 people come and including there are only 8 priesthood holders. So we got to help bless and pass the sacrament one thing for sure is that we got our work cut out for us.

 

Thanks for the video link of Dayan, man I can't believe they are getting married in November.

I'm super excited about general conference this week end. Oh, and that reminds me, I got to buy Orange rolls today :)

 

Love you all,

 

-Elder Dixon

 

It may be a good idea to send that info, for future purposes and you guys should be fine to send me packages and what not, we don't live in East St. Louis, but we live outside of it in a town called Belleville, its a way nicer town. So we won't have to worry about any thing.

My address is 109 N 74th St Apt #1

Belleville, IL 62223

 

 

Pictures of East St. Louis

Vacant building

  Vacant school

 

 Illinois, its so freaking flat, I'm going to go crazy!

 

09/23/2013

For those who do not know what White Washing is, it is when the missionaries in one area are replace by two new missionaries who have not been in the area before. All the two new missionaries know about the area are what they learn from it in a short meeting with the previous missionaries and the records given to them.

 

WOW Dayan and Ashley are getting married!! Man they where supposed to wait till I got back! JK.

So I would like the video that came along with the email, please.

Well we got transfer calls, I'm heading to East St.Louis and my companion well be Elder Roach ( not sure how to spell his name) and we are going to be white washing, I'm not sure if I fell countable with this new assignment. Tell you the truth I'm scared out of my mind more than I ever have, I hate to admit that but I am. I really hope that this will be a good experience and not a bad one. Well enough of that.

 

 So this week was pretty good, we taught Rachel, she was a referral that came to church last week and really enjoyed it, we taught her the restoration and it went great. She really liked the part when we talked about how God wants to hear from us just like how she would like to talk to her children, so that really hit home to her.

 

 We also taught Steven, he is a referral from a less active member, Steven is kinda interesting, we think he has a mental illness, but he is still accountable. We had a good talk with him and only taught the first half of the 1st lesson, cause he has a hard time grasping things when there is a lot of information out there, so hopefully Elder Jerome and my replacement well be able to get him to progress. The weather this week was really good, it was in the 70s and 60s for the most part, it also rained while we where out, so we got drenched when we went to get on the bus. so this week was good.

 Well I'll write you guys next week to tell you how it is.

Love Elder Dixon

 P.S. Here are some pictures when we went to the arch, a couple of us went in side of it

 

 The Missouri side

 The Illinois side

Story behind the spider, we found it at a members house while having dinner, it was on the wall.  It was pretty big!

09/16/13

Hey family.

 

Do we know why Cola had a fracture? Was it from Miss Piggy, I can't wait to get rid of her. Cola was a good goat, I'm going to miss her :(

 

Man the new "Star Trek" sounds awesome, some members where telling us about it, that's one more movie to put on the list, I also heard that they are making an "Enders Game" so that should be cool.

I'm so excited that dad is getting a job, (I told him that is look like I have a new job, there is nothing official yet, indicators are good) I hope you do a great job with everything.

 

So this week was ok, all of our appointments fell through, but it's ok cause we met a couple of cool people, we have another super solid potential that came to church with a member, and she wants us to teach her!!!!!! yay I'm so excited, her name is Rachel. Jeff also came to church, so that was a plus, and we should be meeting with him soon.

 

Something else interesting happened this week, Elder Jerome and I gave a blessing to one of the sister's investigator that just had a baby and is having some health issues, then she asked if we could bless the baby too, so that was the first time that we have given a baby a blessing, the spirit was really strong there and she said that she could feel it. She has really strong faith.

So that was the just of our week, it seems like it was yesterday that I sent out my last email.

 

So I've been drinking power-aid and stuff like that, but I don't have to worry about that this week since its going to be in the 70s and today it's 60 outside, and we are going to be playing some soccer under the arch today with some other missionaries in the mission. it might rain today to, not sure yet.

Well I hope this week goes well for you all.

 

Love you all-Elder Dixon

 

 P.S. We get trainer calls tomorrow and transfer calls on Saturday, so you should know by next Monday of whats happening

Mission Conferene, late email and the Zoo

Hey family,

It looks like every one had a adventure this week. Cars are really annoying some times, I'm sorry that you weren't able to make it to the funeral. Do you know if the rest of the family was able to attend? 

So sorry that this email is getting to you guys late, I'll tell you all the reason being. So last week we where told that we would be having a mission conference on Wednesday, so it wasn't going to interfere with our pday, but then they changed it to Tuesday and on Saturday they changed it to Monday, so we just moved our pday to today... I hope that makes sense. 

This week was really hot, it hit around 98 :p man it was hot, I got super dehydrated even though I was drinking allot of water, so I felt like crap for the rest of the week. Don't worry I'm feeling better now. It could drop to the high 70s on Friday and Saturday yay :D So some cool things are starting to happen, we have a solid potential that we help carry his groceries to his house, his name is "L" and he has been going through some rough times, he was mugged and robbed, his car got vandalized and totaled and his insurance company wouldn't pay for it. He lost his job and got evicted, so to say the least his is super humbly and honest, and is interested to meet with us. He used to meet with missionaries back in Arizona, so he is familiar with what we believe but that was 20+ years ago, so he doesn't remember much. "J" came to stake conference on Sunday, he really enjoyed it and he had some good questions. We should be meeting with him tomorrow so we are excited for that since we haven't taught any one for a while. You should be getting a letter soon, I haven't sent it yet because all of the stuff that has been happening, I have most of it written while we where riding the bus to the mission conference.  To say the least this week was better than last week.


Love you all-Elder Dixon 

Here are pictures from when Jacob went to the zoo.

He said this is one of the biggest snakes that he has EVER seen.

September 3, 2013-Labor Day and Zone Conference.

Hey Dixon Family and Friends,

This week was ok, but we didn't teach anyone. We where sweating our brains out the whole week too, it's high 90s with 60% and above for humidity.  So it felt like it was 107, :P I really don't like this weather. No wonder why the saints left :) JK

Still no word from "L", but his main fellow shippers in the ward see him every once and a while, they said that he is starting to turn to his old addictions again. Ugh we've worked so hard on him and he came so far too. I guess this is how God feels when we mess up on something. We also had zone conference with president Morgan, it was good. The theme was urgency, so a lot of the trainings where given on that. We also got some sad news to, we wont be able to go to the temple anymore, we are only allowed to go once in our missions now. So two weeks ago was my last time going, and they said that we where one of the only missions that allowed missionaries to attend to temple once a transfer. So I'm glad that I was able to attend the temple for most of my transfers.

We went to the St. Louis city museum as a zone, it was a blast! The city museum is like a giant play ground for kids and adults, they have obstacles and tunnels and a lot of other things, so it was way fun!  I forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures. :(

I hope that the Camry can get fixed, and stop having so many problems.

So I've been seeing and hearing some things about the whole Syria thing happening, and that the U.S might be deploying troops over there soon, Is this true? If so will it be effecting Jason, Roscoe and Adam with being deployed?

Well I don't have as much time to email today, since it was Labor Day yesterday, we are given a small window to do it this morning.

Love you all, I hope things work out the best for every one.

-Elder Dixon

p.s. If you see Dayan or Devin, tell them to email me when they have the time. thanks :)