Sister Dixon: Oh What Songs of the Heart

Hello everyone!

Here we are to the end of September. Where does time go? This week was great because Monday we had a super awesome family home evening at the Wenceslao's. We had a pretty powerful lesson on the Atonement and we had lots of people show up, which was great to help fellowship these new members. :) They are all officially members of the Church except for their son, Darwin. I met him for the second time this week. He only has one day off a week from work, so on Thursday, Sister Tangonan and I made sure we got the chance to meet him. He was hiding upstairs in his bedroom, but after talking to him for a bit about work, he seemed to warm up a bit more. He's still pretty shy and when we asked him if he wanted to join, just to listen, he said next time. Amat amat. We're working on it, so that one day this sweet family can be eternal. :)

Tuesday Sister Ve'ehala was with us since her companion went home and transfers were on Wednesday. We had some pretty great experiences serving cute little old ladies carry water to their homes and then sharing a message. One of them, Ramona (86), told us she often times goes to her 92 year old friend's house to chat about about life, Christ, and wonder where they go after this life. Perfect intro into Plan of Salvation! Only thing is that she loves to talk and we can't even get a sentence in without her interrupting with another story. haha she's such a sweet lady who lives all by herself, so I'm sure she just loved having someone to talk to, so we'll see how it goes next time we visit. :)

Wednesday we took Sister Ve'ehala to Galo to get her new companion, Sister Turtal, and then took Sister Reid and Sister Lazan back with us to the apartment because they are training and needed to stay the night close to the mission home to go there the next day. We went on exchanges, which was awesome, and I got to learn from the amazing Sister Lazan! She's super good at teaching people, not lessons, and just had a way of really helping our investigators understand how the gospel can really bless them. It was great learning from her.

Thursday the spirit guided us in such an awesome way. A few months ago, when I was with Sister Arcinas, we taught an investigator named James, and a lot of people would gather around and listen. One of the sisters name was Teresa, but for some reason we lost contact with her and weren't able to visit her. Well on this day, we were in a completely different area than when we first met her, and we were going to one of our investigator's house, when we happened to bump almost right into her! She was doing laundry, and immediately stopped and said, 'hi sisters!!" She was more than receptive to let us teach her, and after we had a powerful lesson on the restoration, she said that she felt exactly like Joseph Smith...so confused as to why there are so many religions. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she committed to read it and pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Her cute little 9 year old son, Goven was there too. He said, "Sisters, can I go to church with you on Sunday?" of course! "Can you come pick us up?" we'd love to. :) So Sunday we went and Goven was all set and ready to go, but his mom had to go to the tindahan, so hopefully next week Teresa will be able to come to church and we'll be able to meet the rest of the family this week. It was just neat to see the hand of the Lord preparing this family though and the timing of how we met them and how receptive they were. I know someday we'll be able to teach all of them and that they'll be baptized--all in the Lords timing. :)

Friday was a day of patience tested. Loud kids, stubborn less actives, investigators not progressing. But hey. That's how we grow in Christ-like attributes, right? :) But we had some pretty neat lessons as well....like helping clear up the doctrine of tithing with one of our recent converts. Poor woman...she thought she couldn't come to church if she didn't pay tithing, and that's why she hasn't come to church for a while. Glad we cleared that one up! In the moment, days like this aren't so fun, but when I look back, I realize it actually wasn't all that bad as I try to see what was good from the day and learn from the not so good so I can improve and be a better missionary. :)

Saturday we met with the Dela Cruz family, a family that Sister Tangonan met when she was with Sister Reid. Oh my goodness. This family has SO much potential, especially the father. I mean, yes, he was drunk, but I was somehow able to see past that and see him as a future leader in the church. It's amazing the love of God you can feel for His children as a missionary and see their divine potential. He has 6 adorable kids and you can tell they all love their dad and that he loves them. We haven't met the mom yet because she's been gone every time we've visited, but I just get so excited when I think about teaching and helping this family! There's just nothing quite as joyful as teaching a FAMILY about the gospel and how they can be together forever. :)

Sunday was awesome because Brother Thomas Buenaflor (his brother Joseph, who lives in Utah, is apparently somewhat famous in Utah) and his niece Mitzi worked with us. They have INCREDIBLE singing voices, so after each of our lessons, they offered to sing to our investigators. The power of music in bringing the Spirit to our lessons was amazing, and each of the investigators we visited commented on how much peace they felt. Oh how I love the power of music! Sister Rossini also had her baptismal interview and she's set to be baptized this Saturday! Elder Rokuro said she's the smartest kid he's ever interviewed. She's just that awesome! :)

Well, I better get going, but I just want to close by saying how much I love this work! It's been amazing to see the lives change in so many people as they accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no other work I'd rather be doing right now, and I know this is where I'm supposed to be. The message of the Restoration is truly the foundation of faith for us and I'm so grateful for the faith Joseph Smith had to pray to our Father in Heaven. I know he was a prophet of God. And I know God speaks to us today. He loves us, and I sure love Him.

I hope everyone has a great week! Welcome to October! Conference month! I'm pretty excited. :) Love you all so very much and I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Sister Dixon