In the bishop's office

September 28, 2015

Well I have to say, this has been one of the most exciting and interesting weeks of my mission!!!  On Wednesday, we had changes!  I thought Hermana Marsh would be coming, but it turns out she´ll be coming THIS Wednesday.  So I had the chance to serve with two sweet Uruguayan corto plazos (AKA mini missionaries)!  My first corto plazo, Valentina, was with me Wednesday night until Saturday morning.  She´s from Montevideo and is sixteen years old!  And now I´m with Selene, a twenty year old from Dolores!  Selene will be with me until tomorrow.  And then tomorrow, I´ll be heading to Montevideo for a meeting.  After the meeting, I´ll hang out with the Smith family and sleep in their home.  And then on Wednesday morning, we´ll drive out to the airport together to pick up Hermana Marsh!  And then Hermana Marsh and I will head back to Mercedes together.  Phew!

Should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience--I am excited!  I don´t have much time, but here are a few miracles from this week:

I saw lots of little miracles with Hermana Valentina Mariño. For example, we visited a jovencita together named Cerrana. Cerrana had a lot of questions about our lifestyle as members of the church. She wanted to know if we can still go to dances or go out with our friends even though we´re members of the Church. And it was so awesome because Hermana Mariño (who is basically the same age as Cerrana) was able to bear her testimony that as members, we can still have fun!!! And she testified that the gospel helps us live standards to protect us and that there are so many ways to have fun within these standards. Now, Hermana Mariño (who lives in Montevideo) and Cerrana are facebook friends, and Hermana Mariño let me know she´s always chatting with Cerrana and wants to do all she can to help her out! How cool! 

And I am just loving my time with Hermana Selene Pereyra! My first week in the mission, I had the chance to serve in Dolores a bit with Hermana Ferrera. And we had a Noche de Hogar with Selene and her family so now, a year or so later, it´s been so fun to catch up with her! Yesterday was a day FULL of miracles. Wow! We loved our time in the chapel...our bishop is really doing his best to raise the level of spirituality in our ward when it comes to the Sabbath. And these past couple of weeks, I have really felt a different spirit in sacrament meeting! After church, as we were heading out of the chapel, a lady entered into the chapel gates and began talking to us outside. She found us first!!! She explained she´s a member of the Church but has been inactive for quite some time. The night before, she found a letter from a missionary and the missionary wrote that he really hoped she would always remain active. And this letter just touched her heart and she decided right then and there she wanted to return!!! She lives outside of our ward, but is ready to receive the elders serving in el Barrio Lavellejah. We had the chance to walk to her house with her, and as we were walking back to our house, we stopped and talked to a lady named Maria José. She was with her little son, and we had the chance to teach the restoration in five minutes! And she is also ready to receive the elders! 

And then in the afternoon, we visited an amazing lady named Vanessa! Our bishop´s wife, Hermana Susana, is good friends with Hermana Vanessa and let us know she was passing through a really hard time and wanted to receive the missionaries. We visited Hermana Vanessa with Hermana Susana yesterday, and Hermana Pereyra and I both felt the Spirit so strongly. Hermana Susana and Hermana Pereyra were both able to testify of the changes they´ve seen in their lives through the gospel, and at the end of the charla, Hermana Vanessa mentioned she felt so much peace and happiness in her heart! And what happened next is amazing! We started talking a bit about general conference, and our bishop´s wife had the idea to help Hermana Vanessa find the women´s meeting in her computer. We were able to show her how to use lds.org, and as we left, it was so fun to see Hermana Vanessa happily watching the conference. Our bishop and his wife are working so hard to share the gospel, I love it! 

I am loving Mercedes.  The people in Uruguay are the best!!!  My mini missionaries are awesome.  The gospel is so true and can give us peace in such a hard world.  Life is good--have the best week ever my fam!

Hermana Dixon