August 27, 2013

Hello family.

 

It sounds like you guys had quiet the adventure this week, I'm glad that it wasn't the pump that failed, aren't those expensive to replace?

 

So we have been doing all of those things with our ward mission leader, even our zone leaders and mission president know about the problem, I think the problem is that we are getting so many baptisms with 3 sets of missionaries in the ward that it looks like he is doing a good job, but it's really just us missionaries and some members, pulling most of the weight, so we don't know what to do, just hope and pray that he changes and has more of a drive to do better.

 

So this week was good and kinda bad, we have a new investigator, his name is Jeff, he was brought to church by his friend, Mike who is a awesome member. We have taught him the first lesson and the second, he didn't come to church because he broke his foot about a week ago, so his pain was acting up on Sunday, typical, but he is way cool and is accepting things very well, and is open. He used to be catholic and then jumped around from church to church, and then he kind of went on the deep end. He wants to change all of that and become more like Mike, cause he sees all the good that he does and stands for. Mike is also a convert and has a similar back ground, so he helps out a lot when Jeff doesn't understand things.

 

Kinda sad news,  on Friday we where teaching Jeff and while we were there the phone goes off and someone leaves a voice mail, so after the lesson we listened to the message and it was from Leland. "He said that he wasn't coming to church no more, thanks for the baptism, it meant nothing to me, I don't want to hear anymore about Joseph Smith and all that bull crap (censured). Don't come looking for me, don't call me, if you do I'll hurt you". It didn't make me happy to hear when he said it meant nothing to him, I know he felt the spirit, and everything else. So that through us for a loop.

 

So as we are walking to dinner, we missed a call and a voice mail, guess who it was? If you guessed Leland, you where right. He apologized for the words he said and was telling us that he has been drinking and is drunk and didn't mean any of the words that he said, and that he still wants to come to church and everything.

 

He came to church but he left in the middle of sacrament meeting, I thought he was going to use the restroom or something, but he actually left the building, and we couldn't find him. We have tried calling him and knocking on his door, but no answer, and this is like the 5th time he as pulled something like this. For real, I haven't talked about it a whole lot because he always comes back, but this time I have a feeling he isn't, so I don't know what to do.  I feel like we've done all we can on our part to help him.  I'm also getting tired of him backstabbing us every time we extend our arms, I don't know if I can trust him anymore.

 

So that was the just of my week, there is more info in the letter I'm sending. Sorry that this email is a little bit late, we had a crazy morning that we didn't have time to do emailing, so we are just doing it really quickly.

Well got to go love you all,

 

-Elder Dixon

August 19, 2013

Hey family. Sounds like you guys had a busy week, picking up Roscoe, going to farewells and doing a lot of traveling, the pictures you sent look good, Roscoe looks really different in those pictures, and he looks like he is getting taller, how tall is he? I might have to cut his nee caps so he isn't taller than me, haha Jk.

So what do you mean by a shut in? when you went on team ups with the missionaries.

I'm glad to hear that Ashley is dating a good guy, she deserves someone that well treat her well.

So this week was pretty good, Leland gave us a scare this week too, so he was baptized on Saturday morning and he was super happy and excited, well later that day I called him to see if he had a ride to church, but he started to tell me that he wasn't coming back to church ever and that this whole thing was him putting on a show and that he had many reason not to become Mormon, and then he hanged up, so I was really down when I heard that come from him, because he has always been excited about every thing we taught him, and he said on multiple occasions that he knew this was true.  So come Sunday we get there early and we are still depressed about the whole thing with Leland, so we help hand out programs and greet people as they come in to church, and lo and behold we see Leland come walking in.  We went and talked to him in a class room to see whats up with him, and why the sudden change again, and it turns out that he had invited his family to come to the baptism and none of them showed up, so he was sad because of that, and he called them after the baptism and talked to them, and the just of it is his family has pretty much disowned him and told him that he is going to hell because of his decision to be baptized in the Mormon church, so he was just really angry and depressed when I called him, and he apologized for the way he acted and he still wanted to be confirmed a member and receive the gift of the holy ghost. so after talking to him for awhile we could tell that he still wanted to go through with this, so the bishop did the confirmation, and he was really happy after that. I just hope that nothing happens between yesterday and today, cause we are going to go to his house today to start teaching him the new member lessons, we are trying to teach all the recent converts the new member lessons, because there are about 30+ converts from 2011 to now, and we feel like the ward isn't supporting us, so we are getting worn out trying to maintain the missionary work with just 3 sets of missionaries. Our ward mission leader only meets with us after church for like 1 minute and then just leaves, so we don't get much of a chance to tell him our concerns and plans for the week. We spent the rest of the week trying to get in contact with the rest of our investigators, but we don't have a good size teaching pool any more cause most of them have been baptized. man I've never had this kind of problem before

So that was the summary of my week, other than that we are doing good, Elder Jerome and I are getting along well, no trouble yet. He is a good missionary from what I can tell, he is from Sacramento California and has been out for 4 months and this is his 2nd area.

We also went to the zoo in forest park on Monday, I'll sent some pictures next Monday, since I forgot my camera at the apartment.

Love you all and hope for the best

-Elder Dixon

P.S. Any more news on the interview you had a couple of weeks ago?

August 12, 2013-Baptism and Transfers

Hey family.

This week was Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we had two baptisms, Mohammed and Jessica, it was really cool, half of the ward showed up to support them, it was a great baptism.

We also taught Leland the word of wisdom, he accepted it really well, he was excited about it, and I've never seen that happen before, he was telling us that he was already working on quitting smoking and the other stuff, and he asked for a blessing afterwards to help him fight against his addictions.

He also came to church!!! He said he really liked it, and we are moving his date up to the 17th, so this Saturday.

 So time for some sad news, we got transfer calls on Saturday :.( I'm staying, but Elder Toki is leaving to MT Vernon, Illinois. I didn't wat him to leave, he is probably one of my top 3 companions that I have had, he is really cool, and a hard worker, we worked really hard, more than any other area or transfer.

My new companion well be Elder Jerom (pronounced Gerom) all I now is that he has been out for 4 months, so he is relatively new, I'm kinda scared, cause I don't have a big Tongan to intimidate people, now we are just two skinny white boys walking the streets, with man bags We have a new rule in the mission, we cant use backpacks anymore :/ not to happy about that, we have to carry satchels, but we don't have to get them right away, we just need to get them asap, so im going to be looking at some places today, or I'll just convert my back pack into a satchel.

 I'm excited to hear that dad had a great interview, I hope you get it.

It sounds like a lot is happening back home, Ricky has is farewell this week right?

and Dayan and Devin are coming home soon, wish I could be there.

so its not flooding where we are, we haven't had to much rain lately, but it might today. the weather is nice.

well I hope every one is doing great, love you all.

Elder Dixon

Cool cloud that I took a picture of

Back pack blessing at some church, really?

Jessica who was baptized by her boyfriend Preston

Left to right me, Elder Toki, Jessica, Preston and Mohammad

Our district left to right 

Sister Fisher, Sister Linton, Sister Minyard, Sister Collet,

Front row of elders: Elder Terrazas (zone leader) Elder Toki, Elder Gubler, Elder Muir and Elder Vincent, has his face cut off in that one, back row Elder Dahle, Elder Anderson(zone leader) and me, (I'm standing on something, so im not that tall)

"...the plan of salvation..."

8/5/2013
This week was good, we where able to confirm Dian and Amanda and Chris on sunday and they where way happy about it, I love seeing the gospel change peoples life's for the better, it s one of my favorite things about being on a mission. we also taught Leland and it went well we talked about the plan of salvation and he was asking really good questions, so we know that he is learning. we have also been teaching Mohammed( Furats brother) he was able to get permission to start teaching him, its like teaching someone who has been in the church for a long time, he know every thing that we are teaching him, and he is always asking awesome questions.

I'm probably  staying in this area for another transfer, but we will find out on Saturday. and by tomorrow ill be out for 14 months, Crazy.

 and they haven't let us get on Facebook yet to do proselyting, I'm guessing that by the time I go home they well have it up and running.

-Elder Dixon

"...one of the best weeks I've hand..."

7/29/2013
This week was awesome, because we had 3 baptisms Dian, Amanda and Chris got baptized, ill sent you a pic, I baptized Chris and Elder Toki baptized Dain and Amanda, and a member gave a great talk and most of the people that where there where crying, the spirit was really strong there, they are an awesome family. but there weren't able to get confirmed because Satan is real and is a jerk wad, there car broke down on Sunday and they where really stressed with a couple of other things, so they didn't make it to church, so we are kinda sad about that, but they are going to be confirmed next Sunday and we are seeing them through out the week so that they don't slip through the cracks.

 we also where able to get back  in contact with  some of our investigators that seemed to fall of the face of the planet. and we are going to be seeing them this week sometime.

  yeah this week was one of the best that I've had on my mission.

and today we are going to make shirts for the next zone p-day which is next week and its going to be 3 zones playing capture the flag in forest park, its going to be Awesome ill send a picture next week of what the shirts look like.

-Elder Dixon

"...change in his heart and it was softened..."

7/22/2013

We found two new investigators, the first is a referral from a member, his name is Leland, he is really cool and wants to come closer to Christ, he grew up Pentecostal but something happened and the church turned there back on him and his family kind of disowned him, so he has had it pretty rough, he is really open and has questions when we are teaching him, so that means that he is listening, and he is super excited to be baptized, and when we asked him what day we could come back, he responded and said the following day, that rarely happens, its probably one of the first times, so we go over there the next day and something was different about him, he wasn't as happy when we met with him the day prior, so we sit down and start talking, and he starts telling us that he had spoken to his father ( when I heard him say that, my heart sunk ,cause I knew why he wasn't as happy, cause his father told him some anti-Mormon stuff, I really hate that more than getting doors slammed in my face). His father had told him that we put man before God, so we cleared that up, but he had hardened his heart and wasn't going to listen to things we had to say, so Elder Toki and I both shared some really personal and sacred things and bore our testimony, and guess what? it worked, the lord was able to bring a change in his heart and it was softened, now we will be having another baptism soon, he is now really excited about it and he has prayed about it and knows that it is true, so it was a very close call, bearing your testimony is very vital to missionary work, it allows the spirit to bear witness of the truth that we have.

 

 Our other investigator is Furat, she is the daughter of a member who used to be married to a muslim man but is now divorced from her, and furat has been coming to church for a long time know and is actively engaged in the young women's, so she already knows allot and she got permission from her father to be baptized, so we just reviewed all the lessons and she was baptized on Saturday, along with another women who the other elders in our ward where teaching.

 

-Elder Dixon

"...time for the Awesome news..."

7/15/2013

Hey Family,

 I'm pretty sad to hear about about Grandma Davis, but I'm comforted to know that what ever happens that it isn't the end. I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation and the blessings that Heavenly father gives us.

So time for the Awesome news of the week, Dain,Chris and Amanda all came to church!!!!  they all loved it, Dain and Amanda said that they where crying when they where in relief society and the members came up to us and told us the same thing, and Chris loves young men, so we are super excited about that. but when they got home from church they found out that the land lord is going to evict them today because they where behind one there rent, and there electric and gas, so they let us know, and they have been having hard times with finances, and we told them in the past that we can't really help them out with that, but we told them that we can provide spiritual help, so they have been coming to church because of the spiritual hunger, but when we found out what was going to happen we meet with the bishop after church and told him the situation and we went over with the 1st counseled and the ward clerk and they talked to them and said that they would try to see what they can do, and the bishop called us today and said that he talked to the land lord and is going to help Dain and family get back on there feet, so to say the least we where truly grateful for that and Dain was also happy to hear that as well. and guess what?  THEY HAVE A BAPTISM DATE FOR THE 27TH OF THIS MONTH!!!!!!!  me and Elder Toki are so excited about it, we cant wait and neither can we.

Elder Dixon