Zuster Lilli and Elder Adam

From Lilli:
Hey Family and Friends,

How is life? How is everything? Thank you to everyone who was involved in the package I received, It was soo cute! All the girls in my district were so jealous, and thank you for not sending me lots of food.  The cafeteria food here is so heavy that no matter how much you eat you leave feeling sick. I think that will be the best part about getting into the mission field.... I can make my own food and make it as healthy(or unhealthy) as I want.  The first Easter egg of the package that I opened was one from Mom saying that she loved me because I was potty trained  I love my family!  I haven't opened all the eggs yet, I am spreading them out during my stay here, but they raise my spirits with every egg I open.

I am so happy to hear that Katie will be getting her transplant.  I have been thinking about her all week, and I fasted for her yesterday.  I am so glad that we are seeing miracles in this trial.

So my companion has been having lots of pain in her ear ever since she got here, so we took her to the doctor and then the dentist and were worried that she might have to go home... long story short, her teeth don't match up together and that is putting a lot of stress on her jaw which is causing pain in her ear and she has to get braces when she gets home from her mission... she is totally against getting braces though, she swears that she won't get them.

On Monday evening last week we got and announcement that the Ambassador would not be coming because he was stuck in Detroit due to a really bad snow storm, so no European Nations Ambassador pictures.  He did, however, reschedule for Tuesday, so maybe you'll get some pictures next week.

Yesterday was an AWESOME day!  It was probably the best Easter I have every had.  Elder Ballard came to speak in the Easter Devotional and he spoke about learning from others who have a witness of the atonement of Christ and he told the story of when his grandfather saw Christ in a dream. It was super awesome and of course made me want to change my life.  You should all be jealous because I get to hear an apostle speak two weeks in a row!

I don't think that I have ever had such a strong testimony of Christ.  I kinda kick myself for not spending more time studying the scriptures and reading the words of the prophets. How much more would I know now if I had started earlier?

All the girls in my district are a little jealous of the English speaking missionaries because everyday for them is like a Sunday for us.  We have even done a scientific experiment and everything!  We ask everyone what they think of the MTC and all the english speaking missionaries say that they LOVE it and that it is the best place they have ever been, and all those who are learning a language.... they don't hate it but they ALL say that they can not wait to get out in the field... soooooo.....

The Dutch is coming... sorta... some days I feel like I am really getting the hand of it and can say what I want/mean to say and other days it is like I can only say two word sentences.  I can't wait till I can just speak without having to worry about whether I am saying it right or not.

I love you all and I know that I am doing the right thing by going on a mission

Love and Miss you!

Zuster Dixon

 

From Adam:

 

 Dear Family,

I kind of had a funny experience this week. In the mission, we've been
focusing a lot on visiting recent converts and less-actives in order
to retain them and get some good referrals from them. Due to some
negative experiences with some less-actives in the past, I haven't
been working as much with them as I should. We visit them every now
and then, but not enough to fulfill the expectations of the new
mission focus.

Usually, we have about 2 or 3 less actives come to church. This week,
we had 8, which was a TON. About 6 of them were people that we weren't
expecting to come to church. The down side is that they all came late.
So THIS week, we're going to be fixing up our game and visiting the
less actives a lot more.

How's the preparation for General Conference coming along? Is everyone
getting their questions ready? I'm rather pumped for this year. I have
a feeling it's going to be scrumptious. Unlike last time, there's
another American here in Nauta with me, so they can let us watch the
conference in English (I think), so to celebrate the occasion, I'm
going to make some gorp (but with South American stuff).

I had my first Leader Meeting of the mission this past week, and we
learned some fantastic things about goal-making! One of my favorite
parts was a video they showed about how important it is to make your
bed every morning, and my favorite quote in there was "If you can't do
the little things right, you probably won't be able to do the big
things right." It was pretty inspiring.

How is everyone? Katie's transplant is this Wednesday. I did a fast
for her this past Saturday-Sunday. Good luck, Katie! I love you!

Steven turned in his papers too! Just a couple of weeks! (Remember my
guess, Steve! Dominican Republic!)

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Adam

Elder Adam and Zuster Dixon

Dear Family,

Yesterday we had the chance to be part of the Provo City Center Temple dedication, what a wonderful opportunity! It made me think of what a blessing it is to be part of an eternal family. Dad and I love you all so very much and are so grateful that you all have the desire to stay close to the teachings of the prophets. You are the light of our lives! Thank you for the righteous desires of your hearts. I know that Heavenly Father sees your thoughts and actions and blesses you because of them.

Love,
Mom and Dad


Dear Family,

This week's been even better than the last! We've found a few awesome
families that learn really, really fast (which is fantastic, because
sometimes, the people don't understand the things we teach quite
easily). We ask them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and they
answer what they think it is, and they nail it right on the head. It's
been pretty awesome.

General Conference is coming up again! Are you all preparing your
questions? I can't believe it came up so fast! The first General
Conference, I was in the MTC. The Second, I was in Pucallpa. The
Third, I was in Nauta, and here comes my last one, and I'm still in
Nauta. Hopefully, the mission will let us to go Iquitos to watch it,
because the transmission didn't go quite smoothly last time.

After the conference, Peru's got elections coming up. Mom mentioned in
her email that people all around the states are buzzing about the
politics. Here, all we hear about now are politics and politics. It's
kind of an eye-roller. :P

I've kind of had a cold the past week and it's going away, leaving
some coughs in it's place. In one lesson with some converts (Luis and
Elena), Elena offered me some pure lemon juice to drink, to which I
said yes. She went in and came out with a small glass partly filled
with lemon juice. Afterwards, she mentioned that getting my head wet
in the shower would help. I found that rather odd, but shrugged it off
and told her that I'll take a shower that night.

She went back in. Our backs were faced to the door, so we couldn't see
her inside. We were talking a little more with Luis, and out of
nowhere, a towel is wrapped around my neck and Elena pours a glass of
lemon-water on my head.

"Gah! What's that?!" I asked, drying my head off with the towel that
was wrapped around my neck.

"Lemon-Water!" she replied. "It'll soak into your head and take down
that cough!"

...
...
...
...
...*cough cough*
...
...

"Ok, thanks."

Peruvians have got some really odd cures. :P


Love,
Adam


Hey Family and Friends!

What a week! It started out rough then got better. The days are getting faster here, they actually feel like days instead of weeks.

I totally forgot to tell you that I performed in sacrament meeting last week. I sang Consider the Lilies, everyone said that I did a really good job (although I know that I could have done better, they only asked me to do it the night before soooo I blame them)  One of the girls in my district played for me.  Sister De Souza was my accompanist and she is really good at the piano and we are going to audition for the musical numbers in the devotional.

How is Katie? She is done with the chemo and has started the actual transplant now, right?  I pray for her all the time.

I am learning an amazing amount of Dutch everyday, although it never seems to be enough.  Everyone(including myself) here chastises themselves because they are not fluent in the language yet, but when you think of it we have only been here 12 days and we can already have a full conversation and teach a few lessons (even if it is still caveman speak).  We always have to remind ourselves to be patient and that the language will come with time.

So remember the Belgium Ambassador? Remember how I told you how Ambassadors hardly ever come to the MTC?  Well the guy that came to give us training popped his head into our classroom, and we jokingly asked if there was another Ambassador was coming, and he said yes.  This Thursday the Ambassador of the European Nations will be visiting the MTC and we are the lucky class who gets to meet him!  We will probably get another picture with him, so you can anticipate that.

What did you all think of the temple dedication?  I loved it, I thought it was so good and spiritual. Although I not everyone thought that, the two guys sitting behind me totally fell asleep and started snoring   I guess some people just can't take the heat.  But for reals, it is sometimes soooo hard to stay awake in class or meetings

Every Sunday evening we get to watch a movie, and by movie I mean old devotional talks or church movies.  Well, this week we got to watch Meet the Mormons, it felt kinda weird to be sitting there watching a movie but it was great, by the end when they talk about the missionary mom everyone in the room was crying, I guess it is just a little too real for us.

The Gospel is true! The spirit testifies that to me every day I am here.  My testimony has grown leaps and bounds and it will just keep growing.

I love you all

Zuster Dixon

Zuster Lilli and Elder Adam, March 14th email

Dear Family,
Lilli has sent us the address she is staying at while in the MTC,

Sister Lillian Grace Dixon
APR26  BEL-NETH
2005 N 900 E Unit  43
Provo UT 84602

Hey Family

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope it is filled with pie and presents.

The first week at the MTC here has been crazy busy.  When you pushed me out the car door they pushed me into language classes, they don't waste any time here. I am already better at Dutch and I was at Italian after a year of studying, It is amazing how real the gift of tongues is.\

On our first full day we got to meet the ambassador from Belgium. This is something that almost never happens, the day before they gave us training on what to say and what not to do and how to act.  then when he came there were a million people in our too small classroom.

There are 9 sisters and 2 elders in our district.  My companion is sister Thomas and we get along really well. Sister Thomas knows almost everyone who is in the MTC, we will be walking to class and I'll hear her squeal and she will run to meet someone she met once for two minutes five months ago.  Or her friends cousins dentists bishops therapist went to school together.  She has a great personality and it is no wonder that she is so popular.

I cannot believe we have only been here 5 days, it feels like 5 weeks.  I am so spiritually full.  We went to the temple this morning and it was one of the best times i've ever gone.

Also if any of you want to use DearElder to write me than I will get the letters that evening, a lot of the girls here get them... I'm not sure if they cost money, don't send them if they do.

I love you all! and I am having a great time, it is really hard but i think it will be worth it

till next week

Sister Dixon

 

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Dear Family,

This is the first time in a while that I've added a new email address
to my list! Welcome to the mission, Lilli! How have your few days been
so far? How was the first day (it was the longest day of your life,
wasn't it?) :P

Just like some changes happened in the family, there have been some
changes down here. The previous district leader, Elder Portocarrero,
was made a zone leader in Pucallpa, so now I'm the new district leader
in Nauta! I've had lots of other companions that were district leaders
when I was with them, so I kind of understood the gist of what to do
and how to do it, so that part was easy.

The hard part is that, here in Nauta, the district leader is
practically a mini-zone leader. Since Nauta is far away from Iquitos
and there aren't enough resources here to make an actual zone, the
district leader is given financial responsabilities too. I've got a
box filled with money for when a missionary needs a reimbursement or
when we have to go to Iquitos. There are lots of forms to fill out,
all of which confuse me a bit. But I'll get this down!

This past Sunday, three teenagers came to church because of an
invitation by their friend who lives next door to them. We went and
taught them that same evening and I realized something about myself
that I didn't know before. Out of all the kinds of people to teach, my
favorites are the youth. I'm not sure why, but they seem to listen
better, understand better, and sometimes even think better than the
adults. The three youth we taught are pretty golden!

How is everyone doing up there? Is the house even more quiet without
Lilli around? How's Katie doing at Huntsman?

Love,
Adam

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

Dear Family,

Lately, I've been noticing that everyone in Nauta has been having more funny dreams than usual. For example, just last night, I dreamed that we found a giant mansion in my area which was celebrating an "open house". We decided to explore it. Inside, we found a sacrament hall, so we asked the owners if they were LDS, and they said yes. They had the sacrament hall built because they didn't think the church existed in Nauta. And that's it. 

I don't think it means anything. The elders aren't the only one who have funny dreams either. The people here in the jungle have a greater capacity for having real, spiritual dreams (I think it's because of their circumstances). We often get people telling us some dreams they had about Jesus Christ. Most dreams really do seem like messages and revelations coming directly from heaven to them. Some other dreams are just plain out odd.

We found an old investigator that some other elders stopped visiting for lack of progression. We decided to visit her and start the lessons over. We taught her the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, like normal, and she promised to read and pray about it. When she did, she had a dream that night.

I wasn't too surprised when she told us that she had a dream. It happens a lot down here. But what DID surprise me is that it was a very clear dream. She dreamed that we were teaching her, and when she woke up, she had the best feeling she had ever felt. She took that to be an answer that the Book of Mormon is true! She wants to be baptized now!

Two days afterward, she had another dream. This second dream went against the first one. She dreamed of the elders telling her to drink and smoke and that we were assassins trying to kill her. She says that she woke up and thought, "Well THAT obviously didn't come from heaven..." We mentioned that it was Satan trying to discourage her, to which she said she already knew. She's a pretty smart person (and she still wants to be baptized!)

In that sense, it was a pretty good week. Good luck on your mission, Lilli! You're going to have the best 18 months of your entire life! (Pass me your email so I can write you!

Love,Adam

Lilli's setting apart

Dear Family,

Time is passing much too quickly. Lilli leaves on Wednesday!!  She will be set apart on Tuesday evening at 7:30 pm in the high council room at the Stake Center. She wanted you all to know that you were invited to come if you would like to be there. We know that there are a billion things going on that night, please don't feel like you have to come.

It is also Fast Sunday this Sunday and we hope that you will keep Katie in your prayers. It looks like she will be going in for the bone marrow transplant this coming week, although details are still pending. This is a scary procedure and she needs our prayers to the Lord in her behalf. It looks like Sarah won the lottery and is going to be the bone marrow donor! We know any of you would have been more than willing. We are so grateful for such a supportive and loving family.

Dad and I love you all so very much,
Mom