Here is a recent letter from Sister Dixon:
January
20, 2014
Hi
family!
Thanks
for your e-mails. We are able to e-mail from the Family History Center
today which is a huge blessing because the libraries are closed here as
well. I am getting quite accustomed to the Family History Center because
we have had some huge success with the family history approach! It
definitely softens people’s hearts and allows the spirit of temple work to
touch them in a way that prepares for the restoration to be taught. We
feel very blessed with that and we have a few appointments with people to do
family history with them this week so I hope it goes well.
We have experienced some huge miracles. It all
started with going on exchanges earlier this week. I got to go back to
MSU and it was really amazing! Sister Gonzales and I worked with Sister
Richardson and I learned so much from her, namely about faith. Sister
Richardson showed me a talk by Elder Bednar that has seriously CHANGED MY LIFE
and the way I think about faith! http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18?lang=eng
True faith is accepting the will of the Lord, no matter
what happens. Sometimes I get in the mindset that if I have enough faith,
miracle after miracle will happen. When those huge miracles don't
happen, I doubt my faith and often think "If only I had enough faith, this
and this would have happened." Sister Richardson taught me there is
so much more to faith. In this talk, Elder Bednar speaks of how he was
going to give someone a blessing of healing and comfort. Usually I think
"Do I have enough faith to be healed?" But here is an excerpt
of the talk that really taught me a ton:
"[Elder Bednar] then posed questions I had not planned to ask and
had never previously considered: ‘[John,] do you have the faith not to be
healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by
death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have
the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?’”
I learned
that true faith is saying "Will I still have faith God is there even if I
don't receive the blessings I have asked for? Will I still have faith in
God's plan for me?" It really has changed my outlook and has helped
me to learn how to really, fully trust in what God has in store for me. I
am still working on my faith, and I know faith does produce miracles, but this
new and abiding sense of trust has helped me so much with the work. This
kind of faith makes me think of Alma and Amulek in Alma 14. They had the
deepest faith as they had to watch the women and children and scriptures in the
fire. They could have prevented it with their power from God, but they
knew the most important kind of faith is to trust in God's plan.
Here are
a few miracles this week:
I don't
remember if I told you about meeting Rita at the library. I think I
did. But anyway, Rita came to church this last week! It was really
amazing. Our bishop got up and started off by saying "I don't know
if all of you know this, but the clergy of this church do not get paid.
We serve God without getting money in return. We have other jobs, but we
serve the members of this church to serve God." Rita told us
afterwards she has been looking for a church where the clergy do their jobs for
free. How cool!!! We know that Rita was led to us at the library
and that Bishop Bartlett was inspired. It was really awesome. The
other talk in sacrament meeting was about the temple, and Rita told us she
feels that is where she needs to go to work out some difficulties in her life
right now. We told her we can prepare her to go there and she is really
excited to learn more about the gospel! We are really excited and so
blessed!
Brother
Fowler gave a talk on Sunday and invited some of his friends to come and
listen. One of them is a man named Kevin and his wife,Yolanda. They
are both from China, and Kevin has met with missionaries before. He had a
baptismal date, but then he unexpectedly had to go to China and the missionary
discussions discontinued. We got to talk to him and his wife after
sacrament meeting and they are interested in learning more! What a
huge blessing that is and it definitely shows the power of member missionary
work!
Last, a
lady in our ward called us this week with a referral for her neighbor, Debi.
Debi has been going through some hard times recently and is really open to
having us come and teach more about the gospel and help her sort things
out. We are going over later this week and I am just overwhelmed by how
many people are being prepared and how many blessings we have been almost
bombarded with. The Lord truly is in this work!!
Our
companionship is doing well. We love each other, we love the work, and we
love the Lord. It makes for a pretty good time! I love you all and you are in my thoughts and
prayers!
Sister
Dixon
Sister Dixon is serving from the Northridge Ward. She was called to serve in Sao Paulo Brazil, but is currently serving in Michigan while she waits for her visa to be finalized. You can read more about her adventures at sisterlindsaydixon.blogspot.com and e-mail her at lindsay.dixon@myldsmail.net.
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