Half Way!

Kamusta mga pamilya kag mga abyan!

How was everyone's week? Mine was maayo gid (great) and crazy busy, as usual! But it's a good busy. :) Can't believe I'm half way until leaving for the Philippines!

Thursday after we finished p-day, we had TRC (Teaching Resource Center) where we teach people in Hiligaynon who come to the MTC as volunteers to help us practice teaching investigators. The woman my companions and I taught was Sister Konichi. And guess what...she's actually from the Philppines! From Bacolod! I was SO nervous before going in, but then once we got in there and started talking with her, all my fears left. She was the sweetest person ever! And I know all the other Filipinos will be just like her, so I have nothing to worry about. We just laughed and got to know her and she's actually going back to Bacolod next year! Hopefully I'll see her! She complemented us on our Hiligaynon and asked us what we were eating in order to learn so much in just two weeks---we told her the Spirit. She just laughed and laughed. haha She was the sweetest! oh, and guess what? She was mary ellen's companion during sister edmund's second mission to the philippines. cool, huh? I was excited to tell her about grandma. :) I was so happy we were able to teach her. Some of the others in our district didn't get the chance, so I hope they get the chance this week because seriously, after talking with her, I got SO excited to be in the PHilippines! I've been so blessed to be going somewhere where the people are so kind and sweet and happy. Heavenly Father definitely knew I needed that, instead of a lot of rejection from investigators (like poor sister welling was telling me about her TRC investigator.:(  so I'm so greateful!

Friday was a good learning day as far as teaching lessons goes. We were teaching our investigator,  Rochy, and our lesson was a total flop. We taught a lesson, not a person. At first i was upset with myself, but then I was grateful because I learned the most out of that bad lesson than i have in any good lesson we've had. The next time we taught Rochy, we taught our best according to his needs and it was SO much better. We have so much to still learn and improve on, but we're on to a good start!

Saturday we taught Juralyn about the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. I feel like we connected really well with her and that she could feel the importance of our message, even if she couldn't understand us that well. Sister Nielsen also did a part english fast this day. She's been struggling a lot with the language, and so she was trying really hard to get it down this day. She went from lunch to dinner without speaking any english, and not only did it help her a lot, but we as a companionship we forced to speak it and hear it too, which helped us as well! As a result, we're going to do english fasts more often to help us better SYL (speak your language--a district goal, and MTC goal, really).

Sunday, I think it's safe to say, Is my absolute favorite day. We start off with Music and the Spoken word, which I love! Definitely a highlight of my week. When I come home and hear the mormon tabernacle choir for the first time after 16 months, i'll probably bawl my eyes out. They are so wonderful and full of the Spirit in their music! For Relief Society (PS there are 1,200 sisters in the MTC! More than ever before! :) and history was made this week because they opened the new west campus MTC to accomodate more missionaires! This work is amazing!), Carole Stephens from the Relief Society General Presidency was supposed to speak to us. She never showed up, however, but we ended up having an amazing lesson from our MTC Presidency wives about Joseph and Emma Smith. I truly think the lesson was just for me. It hit me so hard and I was jotting things down the entire time. Maybe she didn't show up because I needed to hear their message about Joseph and Emma and their amazing examples. That night we had a devotional with Brother Stephen B. Allen. He does media stuff for the church. He was going to show us clips from things he's done, but after President Nally announced we'd be watching Sister Monson's funeral afterward, he changed his talk. He completely relied on the spirit for 50 minutes. It was one of the best devotionals I've ever been to. The Spirit was so incredibly strong as he prepared us for the somberness of sister monson's funeral. He had the tech people pull up Come, Come Ye Saints by teh Mormon Tabernacel choir, and we listened to it once, then sang along with it. I cannot explain the power of the spirit when you have the tabernacle choir plus a few thousand missionaries singing that hymn. I was close to sobbing. That Hymn is the perfect mission anthem. I wish I coudl just send the way I felt through this email. It was so powerful. Afterward we watched sister monson's funeral. I felt such comfort as I knew families are forever and presdient monson would see his sweet wife again someday, but I felt to saddened for Presdient Monson. He looked to grief stricken. I'm glad there are so many people praying for him. Wasn't sister monson amazing? I hope to be just like her someday. After the funeral, there were lots of heavy but spirit filled hearts. as a district we said an evening prayer together. The bond we have is incredible. i'm going to miss all of them so much when we all leave.

Monday was a fun day. We learned a new filipino game called, "Pagdakop sang Leon." "Catch the Lion." We also have a new teacher--Sister Tamang. She just got back from Bacolod two weeks ago! I'll bet if you looked through Presdient Lopez's pictures, you'd be able to find her. She's so cute! It was hilarious though because one day, when it was a bit chilly from the rain outside, she came in with a thick jacket, a scarf, and gloves. hahaha It wasn't THAT cold outside, but after being in the philippines, i'm sure it was freezing! I realized how doomed I'm going to be because I'm going to come home in november--right before winter. Better get a stock of blankets and warm clothes ready for when i come back! ;) anyway, she's super nice and i can't wait to learn more from her!

Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Zwick from the Seventy. I'm pretty sure all these devotionals are meant for me. I was having kind of a downer day with the language. Sister McDonald had done a practice teaching with me and I couldn't understand a single word she said. We only had 5 minutes previously to plan a lesson about the plan of salvation in Hiligaynon. yikes. I tried so hard to explain to her and let her know of heavenly father's love, but my language just isn't that capable yet. Afterward, however, in evalutation, she told me she could see in my eyes God's love. That was such a comfort to me--to know that even if they can't understand me, they'll still be able to feel God's love through my countenance. I didn't really make this connection, however, until Elder Zwick's devotional. He talked about obtaining Christ-like attributes and having Christ's countenance. It was seriously just what I needed to hear. And afterward, in our district devotional review, everyone got something they needed exactly, from his talk, yet they were all such different things. It's amazing how inspired these men are. I get goose bumps just thinking about it! I love our district reviews because everyone bears their testimony about what they got out of the devotional. It's very spiritually uplifting and the spirit is to tangible. There really is no place like the MTC, and my district is incredible. Oh, I almost forgot...Elder Morgan and Elder Templeton are our new Zone Leaders since we'll be the only remaining district in our zone after the 7 other districts leave on monday. we'll be getting 54 new missionaries on wednesday. Crazy! Sister Foster was called as our Sister Training Leader and there's no one more perrfect for that assignement than her. She's incredible. I pray for them every day becuase that's a lot of missionaries coming in! They'll be so so wonderful thought. And elder Winward is a fabulous district leader. He stresses i think a little too much for our sake, but he is very obedient and hard working. He catches on to the language quickly and wants to be the best missionary he can be. He's an amazing example, and so is everyone else in my district. My companions are amazing. Sister Nieslen is the most selfless person ever and is always serving others. Sister Smoot is so good about finding the happy things throughout the day and taking the time to laugh instead of stress about how much we have to learn. She's very smart as well, so she helps us a lot with the language.

I'm gonna be honest, missions are hard. I knew it would be, but just didn't know the extent to how hard. At the same time, I've never been so happy in my life. I know it's only going to get harder, but I also know things will get better and I'll be even happier than I've ever been. It's amazing! I love this gospel so much and know that it's true!! I feel so blessed to soon be serving the Filipino people. I love them so much already!
Thanks for all the support, love, and prayers. And happy birthday to Grandpa Dixon this past week on the 28th! I sure love you! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Palangga taka!! (I love you!!)

Sister Dixon
PS---the pictures show our district doing the "guapo" sign the filipinos do in their pictures, meaning beautiful. haha the "ano liwat" face the filipinos do instead of actually saying that which means, "what? repeat?"  temple walk, and other happenings through the week. Enjoy!

Guess Who Came to Sunday Devotional!...

Kamusta!!

 

How was everyone's week?! Good I hope! I can't believe it's already pday! That was a fast week---I'm 2 weeks in, 1/3 of my stay here at the MTC...now that's a crazy thought! Sorry my email last week was a little spazztic. I'm still trying to figure out how to effectively use all my time on pday, so hopefully this week's letter will be a bit more organized. Oh, and please ignore my spelling and grammar mistakes...I'm typing pretty fast to get everything in.  

 

First off, here's a schedule of a typical day, so you can refer to it if I ever mention a class or something...

 

Arise

Personal Study- 1 hour

Breakfast

Class Instruction with Brother Hong--3 hours

Lanugage study--1 1/2 hours

lunch

compaion study--1 hour

class instruction with brother oldroyd--3 hours

daily planning--1/2 hour

dinner

TALL (online lanugage study)--1 hour

gym- 50 minutes

prepare for bed

lights out at 10:30

 

So last week I told you that Elder Russell M. Nelson came to our Tuesday devotional! It was amazing!! I just wanted to say something that he said taht was super awesome. He said something to the effect of how missionariares are prayed for all over teh world, but that we're also being prayed for on the other side of the veil. Ancestors are just praying for us missionaries to find their posterity so their work can be done. So we have like a billion more prayers said on our behalf on the other side, PLUS all the prayers from everyone on the earth now! Such a neat thought! It seemed that the theme of, "ancestors praying for us and being on our side," was a common theme from other devotionals we've had as well. He also said that we can pray for our ancestors to help us and pray to have their attributes and strenght throughout our mission. so awesome!

On Thursday last week, (which is pday), I felt like my brain was everyone. It was without doubt the most hectic day so far. There was so much to do and so much to write, but so little time!! We went to the temple after writing our emails, and it took my brain a while to calm down, but it finally did. There is absolutely no place like the temple. I know only the temple could bring me the peace and calm my brain the way it did after such a hectic day. I love the temple!! We can choose to do either a session or initiatroy. last week we did a session and i think this week we'll be doing initiatory. It's defintely a highlight of my week. :)

After the temple, we had class and guess who our teacher was...marioneto!!! haha His real name is Brother Hong and he's our actual teacher. I figured this would be the case, but it was still a little werid at first to have our hiligaynon speaking investigator all of a sudden be our teacher. haha but he is so amazing! he served in Bacolod and he's hilarious. He is so spiritually in tune, and he tells a lot about the Philippines and their culture. We don't have culture classes like i thought we might, so i'm glad he tells us things. some things he's told us for example: ano liwat means, "what? repeat?" in Hiligaynon. But in the Philippines, they also just open their mouth really wide to mean the same thing. I'll attach a picure if i can so you can see. They also consider offering food to ANYONE, even if you don't know someone, to be a kind gesture. so you decline twice, and if they ask you a third time to eat with them, you know they're serious, and then you say yes. Also, as a sign of respect for the elderly, when you shake someone's hand, you keep holding it and put their hand to your forehead. Brother hong told the Elders to do it to brother oldroyd when he came later to teach. Elder Busselberg did so, and it was hiarious, cuz brother oldroyd had no idea we knew that so he was pretty suprised. Anyway, Brother Hong discussed with us the first night the importance of planning and studying for our investigators. EVERYTHING is based around our investigators. I've come to discover very quickly that missionary work is completely selfless. Everything we think about and do is to help our investigators with their needs and coming closer to Christ. Even my personal study isn't for me--it's studying for the needs of the investigator. and honestly, i don't think i have even 5 minutes in teh day to think about myself...which is a good thing becuase i think people my age are so self centerd, myself included, that it's no wonder they send us out at this age! It's awesome!

 

Friday:

We mainly studied today according to our schedule. Brotehr Oldroyd had us read from Alma 18. We read the hiligaynon book of mormon alongside the english one and had a good discussion about receiving revelations and how to meet the needs of the investigators through the book of mormon. Brother oldroyd is awesome. He's such a great teacher.

 

Saturday:

It rained and rained and I just thought about Sister Monson passing away on Friday and how the angels were just crying buckets of tears. It's awesome to think how many people are praying for him at this time aroudn the world--I know we as missionaries pray for him in almost all our prayers, and that's a lot of prayers in our day.

Brother Hong gave us a lesson about stress management. It was a much needed lesson--we are constantly in motion with so much to do, and I never feel like i'll have enough time to do it, so it was a good lesson for me. We also played a filipino game called Handa Giyo (ready, go). It's kind of like simon says only you DON'T want to match what the person is doing. And ther's only three options of what you can do--hands on hips, head, or one hand on your elbow. Hard to explain, but it was fun! We had some good laughs. Elder Morgan would do these funny moves when he got out. haha He's so funny...he's the one from Australia and he thinks our american/utah jokes are so cheesy (which, they are). haha He's also amazed at our accents. He's used to them now, but he said teh first few days he would turn to elder templeton (form new zealand), and just marvel with each other at our accents, especially during testimonies sine it was such a serious setting yet we sounded so different. I thought this was funny cuz i thought the same thing about them! Their accents totally mesmerized me the first little bit (they sound so proper! Especially Edler Templeton), but now i'm used to it. We call them Elders Kiwi. They tell us all about their culture and how it's similar/differnet from ours. I love it! Oh, it was funny cuz one day Elder Morgan asked Sister Van Slooten one day how many suitcases we had cuz we had so many clothes!! haha same number as you, elders! We can just mix and match more. :)

That night we had a lesson with brother oldroyd, and it was pretty overwhelming. We were assigned 2 new investigators, and we needed to plan and translate a lesson by monday morning. Well, Sunday we don't have the study time we do throughout the week, so I literally had no idea when we would plan and translate our lesson. I was also behind on my journal wriitng (somehting very importatnt to me), the language was difficutl that day, and other ilttle things just added to the pile of stress. I just wanted to cry. (but don't worry--I'll tell of teh tender mercies in a minute). Luckiy gym was after and teh headphones from uncle vance came that day (Thank you, Uncle Vance!! They came just in time :) ), so I was able to watch the jospeh smith movie while wroking out in 2M. i love that movie. plus emma smith is in it, and you know how much I love her! That was teh first tender mercy.

 

Sunday:

music and the spoken word was awesome!! the spirit is alwasy so strong when the choir sings, and it just gives me the chills. i miss hearing thier music so often but at least i get to hear them on sunday! I don't know what i'll do in teh philippines wehn we can't haev any music at all except our voices. haha

we sang, "the sisters of Zion," again...the song written by janice kapp perry to the tune of, 'as sisters in zion' that's about sister missionareis. tears welled in my eyes--there's something about singing that with so many sister missionareis in one room! I know it's going to be on her new cd, but i don't know when it'll come out. but when it does, check it out! it's wonderful!

oh, look up Savior, Redeemer, of My Soul. It's such a GORGEOUS song! And i think it's on 17 miracles...

Our companionship gave teh lesson in our district meeting on recognizing the spirit. i was a bit nervous because i've never really given a lesson before, and i usually have to have things written down word for word, so i was really doing as our lesson was teaching, and relying adn recognizing the spirit to know what to say and do. There was nothing to fret about though because our lesson flowed so well, we ended right on time, and there were such wonderful comments and the spirit was so strong. I know the spirit will guide and help us in everything we do if we just trust him! :)

Okay, so here's teh best part of the day...we went to Sunday night devotional and guess who are guest speaker was.....MARY ELLEN EDMUNDS!!!! Can you belieive it?!! I was freaking out inside. okay, maybe a little outside too. I was exclaiming to my whole district how she was teh first sister missionary with grandma in the Phiippines!!! And it was so neat because she got up and told us that May 19th was her fist full day as a missionary (which was the exact same day she was speaking to us). She mentioned grandma by saying that 50 years ago, she and her companion were the first sister missionareis in teh philippines, and now there are 21 missions there. How awsome is that?! She was absolutely HILARIOUS the entire time...i don't know how you didn't die of laughter, grandma!! She talked about being selfless, and cultivating an attitude of happiness and being optimistic in our work. It was such a wonderful deviotional and i wish I could give you tons more detail about it! But she told a story and I hope you recognize it grandma... she said that you are her were teahcing a man in the philppines and were telling teh story about jospeh smith. he loved it so much he had you teach it aigan. and then again a thrid time. after the third time, he asked, "well what happened to him?" she said it was teh hardest and most painful thing to tell him that Jospeh Smith was murdered by people who hated him and teh gsopel. Then he explained, "I would protect him with my life if I was there." I get tears in my eyes just thinking of that story! Do you rmember that expereince at all grandma?? I loved everytime she said, "we" because I knew she was talking about YOU!! :)

After the devotional I booked it down to the front because i HAD to talk to her. When I came up to her, i said, "Sister Smithen is my Grandmother!!" She said, "OH! Oh my goodness, I love her! Tell her she owes me a letter!" So grandma, you better write her a letter! Cuz i told her you would! ;) She also asked who my mom/dad was, and I said Julie. She siad," I just love Julie!" I didn't have time to talk long with her cuz a lot of other people wanted to speak to her too, but i was so upset when i completelyt forgot to tell her i'm going to teh Philippines!!! That's like half the awesomeness! so grandma, be sure to tell her that in yourletter, okay? :)

So that was a pretty amazing tender mercy. I was elated the whole rest of the night. :)

 

Monday:

Service day! We cleaned the bathrooms in 2M, but I didn't see emily regis this week.

Tender mercy!! We had time to prepare before we taught our first of two investigator Rochy (bro. hong)! Our lesson went well and the spirit was present! We were also told that instead of teaching an investigator every day, it'd be every other day. this relieved my stress a lot because it takes so much to transltate our lessons! I know we'll have multiple investigators a day, but this was just too much for right now! It's hard becuase i can do everyting in english just fine. Just not in hiligaynon. I think Heavenly Father knew i wouldn't grow and rely on Him as much if I went english spekaing. This language is what is bringing me closer to Him becasuse I struggle and and need to rely completely on Him in order to know the needs of my investigators and how i can ehlp them, even if i don't know a thing they're tellling me. It's so hard to teach them that our message can help them wehn there's a language barrier! It's like relearning the gospel and starting from the basics agian. Only i know it, i just can't express it and help others come to Chirst like i feel like i'm capable of ! I just haev to tell myself that the language of the spirit is what does the true conversion, even if i don't understand a bit of the language and can't speak it yet. they learn from teh spirit anyway, not me.

Later in the day we started our lesson for Juralyn, our second investigator. I just have to say that inspiration is amazing during personal and companion study. even though we hadn't tuaght her yet to find our her needs and how we can help her come to Christ, we did have something prepared (thorugh the spirit adn inspiration) that helped answer the questions she did have. She wants to know how teh Atonement can help her and what we had prepared was a scriptue on prayer and how it can bring peace. Also, the spirit of testimony is so powerful! When I bore testimony I could feel the spirit so strong, and I knew she could, too, even if she couldn't completley understnad me. And I know she feels our genuine love and concern. We had her write down a few concerns or questions she had and what she wants to feel, know, and do, so that we can translate it and know how we can help her. Anyway, that's something i've really learned this week--that inspiration is so imporatnat and that comes through study and prayer. It is so amaizng. I love it!

 

That's about all i haev time for now, but overall it was a great week! I got letters from Sister Grover (last week), Brooke, Lindise, Shalona, Danny, Rosoce, and saw Emily Kime this week, as well as Emily Regis on the way to class! That always makes me happy. I see sister Welling every once in a while and she is just glowing like an angel! She is beatiful! Thank you for all the letters and support and prayers. I can definitely feel them! I love you all so much! Palangga taka! (I love you!)

 

Love,

Sister Dixon

 

PS They serve french toast here! :)

PPS the computer i'm on can't recognize pictures...i'll send them next week!!

I Love the MTC!

Kamusta mga pamilya kag mga abyan?! (Hello/How are you family and friends?!

Oh my goodness, the MTC is so so wonderful! The Spirit here is so strong, and I'm happy, ALL the time! I can't believe I've been here more than a week. Sister Nally said the first day we were here that missionary time works like this...the days seem slow, but the weeks are fast, the weeks seem slow, but the months are fast, the months seem slow, but pretty soon that year and a half will be over before you know it. I already feel like that's happening! I'm one week in, and feel sad that that week is already gone!
Anyway, here's a rundown of how the week went:

Wednesday--after you dropped me off, I was escorted by a very nice sister to get my missionary badge and beginning packet. It felt so official when the lady showed me how to put on my badge. Eeek! Can't believe I'm actually a missionary! After that, we took my luggage to my room and she took me to my classroom. Two of my teachers, Brother Oldroyd and Sister McDonald, were there and spoke ONLY in Hiligaynon. We learned how to introduce ourselves, say where we're from, and other 'get to know you' phrases. It was crazy but so fun! After everyone arrived, we met our companions. I have two companions: Sister Nielsen, from Mapleton, and Sister Smoot, from Highland. I was friends with both of them on Facebook before entering the MTC so it was fun to actually meet them! So far the three of us have gotten along really well. We are so different from each other, but we work together very nicely and we laugh a lot together. I already love them so much! We found out we all have just sisters in our family, so that was pretty neat! After we met each other, we went to a "Welcome" meeting by Brother and Sister Nally, then had dinner. It's so cool because in the MTC, everyone bows their head in prayer before eating. You don't normally see that in a public cafeteria, but in the MTC everyone does it! It's so awesome! :) After dinner we had a teaching experience where we had three investigators and they would randomly come up to a missionary (there were maybe 75-100 in the room) and ask questions. The point of this activity was to understand that we must love the investigator, not just teach them. We teach people, not lessons. It was great! We met our Zone Leaders that night and our Sister Training Leaders. Sister Palmer is going to Hong Kong, and Sister Brown (fellow Aggie!! There aren't too many of them around here) is going to Cebu. They are seriously SO awesome and have really helped us get adjusted to the MTC and helped us feel loved. When the day ended, I was exhausted. It was like drinking out of a firehouse the whole day!

Thrusday: Okay, first off...if you're a sister in the MTC, DON'T shower in the morning, do it at night. I learned this fast. haha This day was nice because we were able to have a lot of personal and additional study time (probably to get a grip of everything that happened the day before). We had a few orientations this day, and I saw Sister Welling!! I was so excited to see her! :) She is doing well. In our Classroom Instruction, we were told that we'd have an investigator the next day, and we'd need to speak to him in Hiligaynon because that's all he knows. Uh...say wha? We only knew how to say, kamusta!! ha We just prayed and prayed as a companionship and personally that the Spirit would be there, because we had no clue what we were doing. We had a Branch Presidency meeting that night and met President Capik and his counselors. They are all so nice! I got to know my district a bit better during this because we all bore our testimonies and told about ourselves. Our district is huge...we have 13 missionaries, and we're the only one in the MTC speaking Hiligaynon. Our District Leader is Elder Winward. He is awesome, and is really good about making sure we're staying obedient. He also has a hilarious laugh. His companion is Elder Busselberg. He's pretty tall and was adopted when he was younger. He's super nice. Elder Schow (pronounced scow) is a hard worker and catches onto the language quickly. His companions is Elder Manu, and he's from Tonga!! He has an awesome accent and the love those two have for each other is awesome. Elder Manu will give Elder Schow a reaffirming pat on the arm all the time, and he hums Hymns all the time. :) Elder Templeton is from New Zealand and Elder Morgan is from Australia. They are super nice and Elder Morgan has a powerhouse testimony. Sister Van Slooten knows EVERYONE! Seriously, everywhere we go, and everyone we talk to on campus, she has some connection. It's a gift. She was adopted from Russia when she was a baby, and is the oldest of 54 grandkids or something like that. Her companion is Sister Livingston. She's the youngest sister, 19, and is tiny and chipper all the time. Sister Foster has the funniest dry sense of humor and has an awesome, quirky personality. Her comp is Sister Winward, who's going into El Ed at Utah State. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my district!! We get along so well and I can tell it's going to be hard to leave everyone in 5 weeks. :(

Friday: We taught our investigator, Marioneto Mancha, for the first time. We prayed with all our hearts that the Spirit would be there, and did our best with the language. As we taught, the Spirit was so strong, and we knew he could feel our love and Heavenly Father's love for him. As I gave a prayer of thanks afterward, I couldn't help but tear up with gratitude for the Spirit and guidance from Heavenly Father to help us communicate to Marioneto with the Spirit and with helping us with the language. Later we did TALL, which is where we heard words in Hiligaynon the way the natives say it. It's very helpful. Classroom language intstruction was a bit stressful this day, but I know it will come eventually! Luckily we had gym time afterward, which relieved my stress a TON!

Saturday: We taught Marioneto again today in Hiligaynon and I am amazed at how much Heavenly Father guides us as missionaries. Miracles really do happen! The language wasn't as hard today and I could bear my testimony a little bit and say part of a prayer! Oh, we ALWAYS say our prayers in Hiligaynon, and we start each class by singing in Hiligaynon, too. It's so neat! I saw Sister Natalia Fisi'inaua today, so that was a tender mercy.

Sunday: Happy Mother's Day!! I thought about you all day long, Mom. :) And I'm glad you had a wonderful day. I love you! And Happy Mother's day to all my grandmas, aunts, cousins, neighbors, teachers, etc. I love you all! We got to watch Music and the Spoken word and since it was the first time I heard music since Wednesday, it was all I could do not to sob. The spirit was SO strong as the Mormon Tabernacle choir touched my heart so deeply. Plus it was about mothers, so that made my cry harder. Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us for Relief Society, and she spoke about the power of music, so of course that made me cry harder. The spirit was so strong and I think Heavenly Father was looking out for me because he knows how much I love music, so it was a huge tender mercy. We sang, "The Sisters of ZIon," a new song to the tune of "As Sisters in Zion," that she wrote. We were teh first ones to sing it so that was neat!! We had a temple walk with our district, which was wondreful.

Oh my goodness, I have like a minute left, so here we go...

Read the Chracter of Christ by Elder Bendar. It will change your life. 

Elder Nelson came to our Tuesday devotional!! SO AWESOME!!

I saw Emily Regis and Nick Fowers.. tender mercies!

We truly learned our purpose as missionaries. The spirit was so strong!! Brother Oldroyd is an amazing teacher. 

Marioneto committed to baptism!!!! Oh my gosh, we were SO excited! The Lord definitely helped us there! I have come to really rely on Him.

Mom, will you send me my crappy pair of headphones? We can use them in the 2M gym to watch mormon messages. Will you also send my little Hymn book?
If I can, I'll write more later!
Will you tell Grandma her Dear Elder didn't work? Thanks.
My goal was to write my testimony in Hiligaynon without looking, but I literally have no time so I'll do it next week. 

I love you all sooooo much and pray for you all day, every day! You are the best! Thanks for all the prayers and support! I love you!!

Palangga (love), 

Sister Dixon :)