Sorry to any of you getting junk from my hotmail account. I really am not a financial success, so that should tip anyone off that the emails are not from me.:) I don't remember gambling either...anyway you should probably block that account. Hotmail is really not helpful in fixing the problem or even deleting the account.

Family!

It was so great to talk to you all on Christmas!! I miss you all so much! I feel like I'm missing out on your lives! But I have so much support for you all! Thank you so much! It made me want to work harder, because I have a home team rooting for me! Was that a cheesy thing to say? oh well. I like cheese. It's gouda

So it sounds like Christmas was awesome! I know mine was pretty great. Remember when I was telling you all that It hadn't snowed much here? Well, on Sunday they ended church early and sent all the missionaries home because we were in a huge blizzard! It lasted until last night (typical, we couldn't go out all p-day.) but in the end it was kinda fun. I woke up early to shovel because I thought it would be nice to have Sisters Stevens, Montiel, and Nagliati wake up to a nicely shoveled walk. And then I noticed some people desperately trying to shovel their car out so I went to help them and by the time I came back, they were all awake and made me come back inside. I had left a note just in case they did wake up, but they all wanted to come out and shovel with me (because none of them had shoveled snow before) and they didn't want to do it then. We did it right after the snow stopped at five last night. It was fun. I made a snow angel. And then I wrote "Don't blink" over it. No one got it.

Well, for Christmas I got a USB picture card reader for my XD card. YAY! so now I can send you all my fun pics

#1- Me in my Koala Hat. scary? you know it.
#2 all of us at Christmas (BTW, Tom, Sister Nagliati is from Brazil and says she grew up in your mission! cool!)
#3- Me happy
#4-Sister Stevens on Christmas
Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures! I love you all! I hope everything is going well! Thank you so much for your prayers!
Sarah
PS bum. I couldn't send as many pictures as I wanted because the stupid e-mail won't let me

Christmas 2010

Here are some Christmas and Christmas Eve images :)

Sarah's December 20th Email

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Family!

I hope you all got my Christmas cards. Sorry I wasn't able to get real presents for you all. Missionary budget. heh heh.

IT IS FREEZING HERE!!! I thought all my life, that scarves and hats and winter boots were just fashionable accessories, but here they are essential to survival! The wind will cut right through anything but a down jacket (which a member gave to me) and earmuffs have to be in style. Or else your ears freeze off. There is a new sister here from Kiribati, right on the equator and she brought one sweater and that was all, so we have all been pulling our resources together to get her some winter stuff.

I can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas! I will be calling between the hours of 5 to 8 n the evening, which is 3 to 6 your time. I don't know when we will actually call, but sometime in there. I figure that is when you will all be around. I'm so excited!

Nothing much is going on, except that people get a lot friendlier around Christmas time. At least in Boston. It's a great New England experience.

I love you all. I miss you! Merry Christmas

Talk to you on Christmas!
Sarah

What I do when I'm bored on Sunday afternoons.

"That was a very stupid thing you've done, Joe."








Two old guys drinking BBQ sauce straight out of the goblet. That sounds good!




Legos are fun!

A great holiday gift idea!

Hey all the women of the family. Are you not sure what to get for the man in your life yet? Here is a possible suggestion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Vb9SLkq5k&feature=player_embedded

Thanksgiving

I'm finally posting the Thanksgiving pictures! Good thing I have a patient family :)

Family arriving:

Mom takes out the turkey:
And EVERYONE is SO EXCITED TO EAT!!
Even the jell-o is excited!
These potatoes are so creamy.
Yum!
I have the best family ever!

Sarah's email December 13th

Dear Family,

So for a Christmas present this year, our mission president and his wife took us to the temple for a session. It was the second time I've been through. It was really awesome. Afterward, they fed us lunch and we had a little Christmas program. Then the mission pres got up and told us that our families had sent us packages for Christmas and that we could go get them to put them under our tree. Then he turned to me and said "Sister Dixon, you may need a pushcart."
I had FOUR big beautiful packages!!!! Thank you all so much!!!!! I'm so blessed! And excited! I don't know if I can wait until Christmas. Only one of the packages says don't open until Christmas, so I've decided that if none of you e-mail me and tell me not to open the other packages before my hour at the library is up, I'm going to open them.

Things here are great. We have an investigator, Nickia who has a baptismal date set for Christmas Day. We are really excited for her. We also went and taught a deaf man named Jonathan (because Sister Stevens knows ASL) and his Mom, Julian. We taught her with some Elders because one of them knows a little ASL too. So he and Sister Stevens taught Jonathan, his companion and I taught his mother. So I got to be companions with an Elder. It was cool. Julian is set to be baptized on January 2. She is so wonderful! She won't even be going to my ward, but I still think of her as my investigator. The Lord blesses us.

I love working with Sister Stevens. I had forgotten how much fun she is! We share little MTC jokes. It's great. She is awesome.

Boston is the most Christmas--centric city in the world!!!! There are lights on every pole, and decorations on every street! It's so cool! I'm lucky I get to be here at this time of the year. Although it's getting really cold, and I have to walk around everywhere. I'm going to have to get warmer clothing.


So about the bedbugs...
I moved. I kept getting bitten. ew.
My new address (gee, deja vu) is:
22 Margret St,
Arlington, MA, 02476

We are living with the Spanish/Portuguese sisters, Sister Montiel and Sister Nagliati. They are so much fun! We have a blast.

I am sorry if I haven't been keeping you as updated lately. The end of last transfer was a little hard, but this transfer will be great. AND I WILL BE SENDING YOU ALL PICTURES!!!! I promise. They are going in the mail today. Right after I take them

I'm sorry to hear about Grandpa, I will pray for him! Feel better!!!

I love you all so much! thank you for all your support and your prayers. You are all so wonderful! I really do have the best family. I hope you all have a great week.
I love you!
Sarah

Christmas Eve

Dear Family,

Lilli and Emily want to do a family Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve. So all children who would like to participate will have that opportunity.

There will be a practice next Sunday at our house at 5:00. Please let us know as soon as you can, if you can do it so that we can get costumes made etc.

I'm looking forward to doing this. Maybe we could even record it.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait.........

Christmas Family Activities

Dear Family,
Can you believe that it is only 16 more days until Christmas? Time is flying. I just wanted to update everyone on what is happening as far as get together.

1- We will be having a light supper on Christmas Eve for anyone who would like to come. It will start at 5 and we will have a light supper, and then a little program. The plan is to only have it be about an hour, 'cause we know everyone wants go to bed uncharacteristically early on that night!

2- Then Santa comes on Christmas morning! What time works for your families? Is 9 a.m. too early for everyone to meet at our house. If that is too early, we know that travel is involved, let us know and we will work to find a time that will work for everyone.

3- I haven't heard about any Boekweg parties, but the extended Dixon family wants to meet on January 1st at 1 p.m. in Orem. The plans are for Subway sandwiches and watching football. If that works for you, just let me know what kind of Subway you want and I will pass the info along to the right person. That is all I know about that day.

4- Just FYI, Mary will be doing a flute concert I think on Temple Square. Mary could you fill us in on the details. I can't wait to go!

If you all could let me know if this schedule works for you I'd appreciate it. It's a wonderful, crazy time of the year!

I love you. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait......
Mom

Sarah's December 6th email

Dear Fam,

I'm in the Big City! Right in the center of Boston. My new address is:

530 Washington st #16

Brighton, MA 01235

And yes, I have said "I want to go to Brighton" at least ten times already.

forewarning:

I may be moving again. Reason being, we have bedbugs. I came into a apartment full of bedbugs.

I've been bitten nigh unto six times upon my head. We had the exterminator come and we have wrapped our mattress in vinyl bed covers, but they somehow survive and chew their way through the bed covers. They are monster bedbugs. Anyway, it might be easier for everyone to send me packages and mail through to Natick so they can forward it to me wherever I end up. Sorry about the hassle.

My new companions are Sister Stevens, my MTC Companion, and Sister Porter, who is a Temple Square sister serving her outbound here. She's going back to Temple square on Wednesday though. You could probably go see her later, she'll be there for at lease three more months before she goes home. She's really sweet.

The city is very different. I'm having culture shock! The trains and buses are so crowded sometimes that you are right up against everyone. they just shove you all in. It's so cool! There are so many people! and people are lots nicer than you would think. I can always find someone who is willing to talk, even if they don't want to talk about religion.

I serve in two singles wards, Longfellow Park first and second wards. They are both singles wards, 25-30 years old. It is so different than family wards! I love the people here.

We are currently teaching a girl named Nickia, who is awesome. She is getting baptized on Christmas Day, so that will be a special day for us all. She is so sweet. She has been through a lot in her life, and now that she has found the church, she has recognized it as a great comfort.

Thank you all for all the support you give me! you are all so great. I love you so much and I miss you!

CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

Keep going.

Sarah

PS: It's freaking freezing out here!

Sarah's email week of December 1st

Dear Family,
Our internet has been out compliments of Quest. Our whole neighborhood has been effected. We have had one very grouchy neighborhood this past week! But joy of joys, it works again. I have never been so happy for technology in my whole life. Who knew I could miss it so much! Anyway, here is Sarah's letters.
Mom

Hey all!

That stinks about the Internet. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have no Internet! what a drag! You have to go somewhere else to send a simple e-mail...dang. I am so sorry.

So you may be wondering (since it is Transfer week,) why I am e-mailing on Monday instead of Wednesday. Well, we have some lessons on Wednesday, so it takes a chunk out of our p-day, we are e-mailing today to get it out of the way. Although, I will be sure to send you a little blip to tell you weather or not I'm getting transferred. I'm sad we won't be getting a complete p-day, but what do you do?

Yesterday this kid came to church and when we pulled him over, he said he had been taking missionary discussions with his foster parents in New York, and he had been trying to find missionaries here since he moved. YAY!!! Thank you all for praying for me. He is awesome! God loves us!

Thanksgiving was great. It turned out that the Hartman's wanted to take us to Rhode Island for turkey day, so we had to cancel with them. Luckily, President and Sister Evans invited us over. It was a lot of fun! They had the best squash I have ever tasted! It was amazing. The squash here is so good!!!!! I will have to get the recipe, because it was like eating heaven. I missed watching Miracle on 34th street, but I quoted the whole thing in my head, so I'm good.

I think you should add Tangled to the list of movies you all are going to show me when I get back. It looks awesome, and so far it has gotten thumbs up from all quarters.

Well, I should be getting back to missionary work, but I love you all and I miss you! Thank you so much for praying for me! I was reading in 2Kings and I came across the part where Elisha and his servant were up against the kings armies and the servant was all scared, but Elisha said: "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." and then the servant was able to see the army of the fiery hosts of heaven ready to pulverize the kings army.

anyway, the point of the story is, I have so many prayers going for me and the whole of the heavenly hosts to back me! YAY!!! I love missionary work.

I love you all! I hope this week goes well for you. Again, I will let you know on Wednesday if I'm getting transferred.

Sistah Dixon


Dear Family,

So I don't know if the internet is back up yet, so I will send this to both of you:
I am getting transferred! Again!
I'm kind of bummed, because things here are picking up again, but I think I know who my companion will be, and I think it's Sister Stevens, who I was with in the MTC, so that will all be good! And I am probably going to the heart of Boston to serve in a Singles Ward.
anyway, I'll e-mail my address on Monday, and give all of the details.
Love you all!
Sarah