May 25, 2015

Hey sweet family!!! 

Okay I am so bad when it comes to time management and writing!  So this week, I´m going to include some of my letter to president and then some updates about what´s going on! 

"I am doing great, just so great!  I feel happy here in Artigas Barrio 6, and I am absolutely LOVING sweet Hermana Salvatierra.  She is honestly a little Peruvian angel and has so many desires to help those around her...whether it be me as her companion, our investigators, the members, or just a random person in the street.  I am so excited to have her as a companion!

This week has been a crazy rollercoaster but has been the perfect week for me!  On Wednesday morning, it was hard for me to say goodbye to Hermana Ramirez, I felt incapable to show another companion our area, and I just kept thinking about all the mistakes I´ve made as a missionary.  But you know what?  Heavenly Father always gives us angels to help us out.  And do you know who happened to be my angel that morning?  SWEET HERMANA OSPINA!  She listened to me, comforted me, and just helped me out.  Thank you for putting such a special missionary in my path in Colonia AND Artigas.
But after an interesting start, Wednesday ended up being a swell day.  My studies helped me out so much!  I read an interesting talk by Brother Higbee, a professor of psychology at BYU (https://www.lds.org/ensign/1972/09/forgetting-those-things-which-are-behind?lang=eng).  The talk starts out with a little story:

‘A newspaper editor, speaking to a college graduating class asked, "How many of you have ever sawed wood?  Let´s see your hands."
Many hands went up.
Then he asked, "How many of you have ever sawed sawdust?"
No hands went up.
"Of course, you can´t saw sawdust!" he exclaimed.  "It´s already sawed!  And it´s the same with the past.  When you start worrying about things that are over and done with, you´re merely trying to saw sawdust."’

It´s so true, no???  On Wednesday, I realized I´ve spent so much of my life and so much of my mission sawing sawdust!  And with that little story, I realized how pointless it truly is.  As I continued my studies, I loved reading in Helaman 5!  In this chapter, 2 missionaries, Lehi and Nefi have a lot of success in Zarahemla, but when they head to the land of Nefi, they get captured and put into prison.  In verse 29 of this chapter, Heavenly Father talks to the inhabitants of Nefi.  It goes like this:

‘Y aconteció que llegó una voz como si hubiera provenido de encima de la nube de obscuridad, diciendo: Arrepentiós, arrepentiós, y no intentéis más destruir mis siervos, a quienes os he enviado para declarar buenas nuevas.’ (SORRY MOM, you´ll have to look this up in English.)

And in verse 32, we read something similar.

‘Y he aquí, nuevamente vino la voz diciendo: Arrepentíos, arrepentíos, porque el reino de los cielos ésta cerca; y no procuréis más destruir a mis siervos.  Y sucedió que la tierra tembló de nuevo y los muros se sacudieron.’

I felt like Heavenly Father was talking to ME.  When I worry about my past, when I dwell on my mistakes, in a sense, I am destroying a servant of the Lord.  Because I AM a servant of the Lord.  And what did these verses tell me to do?  Repent and then forgive and forget myself!  Repent and stop destroying a servant of the Lord!

I feel so much peace now!!!  I am so grateful for my mission and I am so grateful for the gift of repentance because it helps us saw wood, not sawdust!

Okay so now I´m going to jump into what Hermana Salvatierra and I did well this week, and what I can improve!  This first bit of the change, Hermana Salvatierra and I SAWED WOOD!  We lived in the present and worked hard!  I loved showing her around the area and we had some awesome experiences with the members.  The members are starting to give us more references and are excited to accompany us!  As for what I can do better, I am going to stop sawing sawdust.  In my prayers, I am going to repent fully and thoroughly and then get excited for what the future holds!  Because as Brother Higbee said, ‘No matter what our past is like, our future is spotless.’”

So yeah, I am so excited to SAW WOOD!!!  And this week has honestly been awesome.  We saw lots of little miracles.  The Familia Berneda is progressing and they´re starting to prepare to enter the temple! 

Well, I love you all so much, and have the best week ever!

Hermana Dixon