 |
| Outside the CCM |
June 5,
2014
Hola familia!
First
off, I will finish up with my miracles!
6) “A
POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF”--Each day, we have an hour to learn Spanish on the
computer. The other week, I discovered my computer has church
music! The first song I listened to was “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”
by Jon Schmidt, and it totally reminded me of mom and Linds. I am so
grateful our home has always been full of music!
5) PROSELYTING
(FIRST WEEK)--As you know, I´m a person who loves to plan for the future, so
being able to proselyte has been a huge MIRACLE. Our first week of proselyting
was amazing. We went to this beautiful area (it´s about forty minutes
away from the CCM and honestly has some Highwoods status houses) and talked to
the COOLEST guy ever. His name is Eric, and we caught him as he was
heading to his Catholic church for an activity of some sorts. He was
carrying this huge drum thing, so we asked him if he needed any help in
broken Spanish. I´m pretty sure it didn´t make sense, but it was good
because he realized we were English speakers! Eric is studying
linguistics at a nearby university, so he knows English AND Italian in addition
to Spanish. He started talking to us in English, and it was so cool
how open he was. Even though he´s Catholic, he is open to learning about
the church and kept saying, "I have nothing to lose by learning
more!" So we got his contact information for the missionaries who
are actually serving in Buenos Aires and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We told him
he should read and then pray to know if it is true, and as we left, he
said, "I really hope it is true!" Hermana Simmons and
I just had the biggest smiles for the rest of the day because we were
so happy!
4) PROSELYTING
(SECOND WEEK)--My second week was a little more . . . rough. We
talked to SO many people, but they were more interested in talking to
North Americans than learning about the Church. Oh yeah, and
understanding and communicating with people in Spanish is so hard. I have
this problem where I nod my head and say "si!" even if I don´t
understand, and it´s gotten me into a couple of interesting
situations. The word for "better" and "woman"
sound REALLY similar in Spanish. This one guy we talked to apparently
kept on talking about how he really needed a woman in his life, but I
thought he was talking about becoming better or something. So I just
kept nodding my head and saying "si!" Anyways, after we
talked to him, my companions (we had an extra hermana come along for the day)
gave me the lowdown, and I was just a bit embarrassed. Thank goodness
life is all about making mistakes and learning! But even though my second
week was harder, I´m glad it was. The CCM is a little haven, but
I now know what kind of work it´s going to take to be a successful
missionary in the field. So I am just trying to mentally prepare
myself a bit every day!
3)
TECHNOLOGY--Man oh man! I just love how I get to see cute pictures of you
guys and hear about your lives each and every week. I love technology and
it is a miracle!
2) EL LIBRO DE MORMON--Like Sister Grover
mentioned, one of the biggest blessings of being a missionary is being
able to study! President Willis gave a really cool fireside about
the Book of Mormon the
other Sunday, and talked about how most members of the Church take it for
granted. And unfortunately, my entire life, I think I´ve been one of
those people. Luckily, it was the kick in the pants I needed, so I´ve
been trying to focus on the Book of
Mormon a little more. It is an amazing book, and I just barely
read the part about Nephi talking about why he was unsure why he needed to make
extra plates. I just think it´s amazing God knew some pages were going to
get lost so he created a back-up plan! So I guess what I´m trying to
say is the Book of Mormon is
definitely a miracle!
1) JESUS
CHRIST--When I write emails and look back on my week, I mostly remember
the good things, so that is a huge blessing! But in all honesty,
there definitely have been some hard times. Learning Spanish is
tiring. Eating lots of meat is way outside of my comfort zone.
Missing you guys is inevitable. Making good friends but then
watching them leave (the North Americans we were with for four weeks just
barely left on Tuesday) is really difficult. And realizing God trusts you
to teach ACTUAL people about the gospel in a different language is super
intimidating. I can´t just get by nodding my head and saying
"si!" my whole mission. Luckily, there are pictures of
Jesus Christ all around the CCM. It reminds me Jesus Christ knows exactly
what I´m going through and will help me survive and eventually THRIVE out here!
Another cool thing is Jesus Christ doesn´t just support me, but every
other single missionary and every other single PERSON. The ATONEMENT
is truly incredible.
Okay, now
that I´m done with my seventeen miracles, I´ll tell you a bit more about my
week! I´m still loving it here, but at the same time, I´m starting to
itch to go to Uruguay. I can´t believe I´ve been here for a month
already! I´m already 1/18 of the way through my mission, and honestly,
it´s gone by WAY too fast! But anyway, this week has been super
interesting. Lots of missionaries left on Tuesday and more didn´t come until
today, so there were only twelve missionaries in the ENTIRE CCM! Crazy,
no? We had the whole place to ourselves so that was nice, but I am glad
more missionaries are here!
Oh and
another random sidenote, both of my companions are really good at doing
handstands! So when we had a bit of downtime the other day, I put on some
sweats underneath my skirt and we practiced our handstands in the hall
outside our rooms. I´m still not a prime handstander, but I´m
getting better!
Anyway, I
love you all SO MUCH! Thank you for your prayers, for writing to me, and
for supporting me my entire life. I´ve got a picture of our fam taped in
the front of my scriptures, and every time I look at it, I realize how
lucky I am to have you guys. Have a stellar week!
Love,
Hermana Dixon
