Zuster Lilli

Dear Parents of Zuster Dixon

     We are very delighted to receive your daughter in the Belgium/ Ntherlands Mission. She arrived safely on Tuesday, the 26th of April with a great smile, an eagerness to serve and a little jet lagged!
     Thanks for preparing her to serve the Lord as she will perform a great work as a missionary.  We will do all we can to love and help her fulfill the call to be that valiant servant. She is loved and we will care for her as our own.
     Her companion is Zuster Harris  and they will be serving in Groningen, Netherlands. I am sending. Few pictures of her first crazy day. Enjoy!

Gratefully,
President and Sister Bunnell

President Bunnell
Belgium/Netherlands Mission

Email from Elder Dixon, And Lilli flew out to Amsterdam Monday morning!

From Adam

Dear Family,

This past week, I had transfers! I left Nauta and went back to Pucallpa! After having 9 months there, I'm most likely going to finish up the mission here, making more than half my mission spent in Pucallpa!

The area I'm in is really small, but the ward members here are true blue! They're pretty awesome here! I could get used to this place. The only problem is, I'm not sure if I will get used to it.

In Wednesday, my body just crumbled to pieces. I got myself a jungle fever, and so I've been stuck in the house for about 4 days. The fever can get up to temperatures such as 104 degrees. I've gone to the doctor multiple times to find out what's up, and they thought that I had that common jungle fever called Dengue.

However, one who has dengue will also have blood tests that come out with poor results. All my blood tests have come out amazingly, so the doctors have no idea what's going on. I've currently got a throat test in the process, but if that doesn't bring up results, I'll probably be transferred to Iquitos. If that doesn't work, they'll probably send me to Lima, and if that doesn't work, they'll probably send me home. I don't want that to happen, so can you guys be praying for me?

But don't worry about a thing. All will turn out fine!

Love,

Adam

April 18th Emails from Lilli and Adam

Zuster  Dixon

Friends and Family,

Nothing happened this week...

sincerely

Sister Dixon

But actually nothing really happened

The only thing I can think of is that I got my flight plans this week!

I will be leaving on Monday the 25th and we have a redeye straight to Amsterdam so I am pretty excited about that, layovers are the worst.

I was pretty excited to hear about Steven's mission call! what a fun place to go.  Sister De Souza in my district is from Canada and she was also very excited about his call.  She is so cute, she says eh and everything.

I am so glad that it sounds like Katie's bone marrow transplant is working.  God is really answering our prayers.

I am performing again today for the senior missionary welcome devotional, I will be singing Consider the Lilies... so I guess that is interesting. 

I'm not sure if I will be writing next week... It all depends on how hard it is to pack again.... so it may take a while.  I will however be able to call home at the airport, so mom be ready anywhere from about 1 to 4:30!

I love you all! I may or may not write next week!

Loves

Sister Dixon

Elder Dixon

Dear Family,

This week was normal, up until Sunday. As you've probably all heard,
there were earthquakes in Japan, Mexico, and Ecuador. I didn't feel
anything, but a member explained to me that by some kind of
scientific...event thing, that the movement of the tectonic plates
made it rain extremely hard all morning on Sunday morning.

When we got to the church, everything was flooded! Again! We spent
about an hour cleaning everything up, but the worst part was that out
of the 130-or-so people that come to church every week, only 43 showed
up that day...


...ouch...

I'm sure next week will turn out better (that is, if I'm here next
week. Transfers are today and it's very likely that I'm leaving
Nauta). The best things happen right when something big is around the
corner.

For example, from about four different people, we've recieved the same
referral. This name just popped out of nowhere in a place where about
0 active members live. They say that he really wants to talk to us and
that he really wants to come to church. We've swooped by there a
couple of times, but we haven't been able to find him (but we've found
his wife, who also says he's anxious to meet with us). I'm kind of
excited to meet this guy.

Congratulations, Steven, on your mission call to Canada! That's pretty
awesome to hear! I'm giddying with excitement for you, dude! You're
going to have to proselyte every day with a suit, di? ("Di" is the
Peruvian equivalent for the Canadian "eh". I've got the habit of
saying it. :P) Way to go, man!

Love,
Adam

P.S. I'm glad that letter got to you alright, Mom!

Elder Adam and Zuster Lilli

From Elder Adam

Dear Family,

This week was pretty good! The area is progressing (slowly, but definitely surely), and we've been able to find some new investigators. One investigator, whose name is Jercei, was actually dealing with a bit of turmoil and she didn't know why. When she saw us walking, she called for us, but we were out of earshot. We went by there another day and her neighbor mentioned that she wanted us to visit her.

We visited her and her family and taught the Plan of Salvation, which was just what they needed. I've got a good feeling about this family!

With another family we found, we had a very spiritual experience. We found the head of the family first, whose name is Ranulfo. We decided to teach him when we saw him sitting outside his house. The lesson went well, but when we asked him to say the closing prayer, he mentioned,

"I can't, Elder. I don't feel worthy enough. God doesn't listen to sinners."

Down here, there are lots of excuses I hear so people can get out of saying the prayer, but the Spirit told me that this wasn't an excuse to get out of it. He honestly felt that way.

I told him, "God, who is our loving Heavenly Father, listens to all his children, especially when they need his help like you do, or when they want to repent. I know, Brother Ranulfo, that he will listen to you, and that he will answer your questions and petitions."

The Spirit testified the same to him and he said the prayer. When he finished, he was close to tears. We had a second lesson with him, where we met the rest of his family, and he was especially more willing to say the prayer. I think we got a pretty good start with him.

This past Sunday, we didn't have church meetings. In Peru, it's illegal for any church to hold services during Voting Day. The streets were completely filled with people buzzing in and out of the schools (which are very close in proximity) and talking 24/7 of who'll be the next president of Peru. 

I thought it'd be tough to teach that day, and it was, but we were also able to find some pretty good examples about Voting Day to use to help the people understand the doctrine. Talk about finding good within the bad!

That's exciting to hear about Katie! Congratulations!

Love,

Adam

 

From Zuster Lilli

 

 Goede Dag Jullie!

How was this week? my week was pretty good, I feel like a lot happened but I can't really remember what happened....

Yesterday Sister Thomas and I were asked to be Sister Training Leaders, so basically we now have power we can abuse. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! jk, all we really do is welcome the new missionaries, but we get a phone so that is cool.

Yesterday I also sang a solo for the departure devotional. I sang 'How Can I Keep From Singing.'  That has become one of my favorite songs.  After we sang Sister De Souza and I were totally ready to sit through the devo then the conductor stood up and said "that was beautiful, since this is not your devotional.... you can leave." we sat for a bit before what she said sunk in then everyone watched as we gathered our music and walked out.... it was super awkward.  But they asked us to sing again next week so we must have done something right. 

The Hungarians in our zone left this morning for Hungary. Now we only have 13 missionaries in our zone... until Wednesday when we get more Hungarians

I have two more weeks here at the MTC, that is 14 days, one more P-day  and 48 more meals!..... but who is counting?

That is really all I have to say this week...

Ik hou van jullie!

Zuster Dixon

 

 

Elder Adam and Zuster Lilli

Elder Adam

Dear Family,
Another "in-mission" General Conference has come and gone (my last one
too (*sheds tear*)), and I'm happier than ever! All the talks were
amazing and they were all just what I needed. I realized that even
though we have some specific questions, there's at least one thing in
every single talk that can help us out greatly.
Some of my favorite talks were the ones from Uchdorf and Eyring in the
Priesthood Session, Robert D. Hales in the Sunday Morning, and Jeffery
R. Holland in the last session (he always gives the best talks,
doesn't he?) Their talks are where I had my questions answered.
Especially that talk from Holland. He's got quite the ability to plug
the Spirit right in.
What was everyone else's favorite talks?
What also makes me happy are the good news about Katie's surgery! I'm
glad she made it out alright! Down here, there was a member (the son
of my convert, Luis), who also recently had a bone marrow transplant.
He came out just fine! Luis and Elena were telling me that they had
been fasting to the best of their ability (which says a lot,
considering that Luis has some pretty bad diabetes). It reminds me of
what Holland says that the Lord can bless us and work miracles if we
try to do all we can.
We recently found some new investigators named Marlon and Elsa.
Marlon's very interested in it all, because he's grown up in a
Catholic family and noticed himself that some of the things they do in
that church aren't right. For example, we were teaching about
repentance. He stopped us and asked if we do the confession box thing.
We told him no, because repentance is between the person and the Lord.
After the lesson, he was actually very content, and he pointed out
that he likes what he hears and that we can be friends with him (yeah,
he said that :P). We'll be visiting our new friend much more
frequently!
Congratulations to Ammon for getting his mish call to England (is that
the same mission Peter went to?)
Love,
Adam

Zuster Lilli

 Dearest Family and Friends...

Let it hereby be known that I am an introvert.  I always thought that I was introverted to some extent but I never knew how bad it was.  I have been looking forward to times when I am alone... basically the times in the shower and on the toilet. Those have become some of my best times here.

Despite the need to be alone I count my self lucky that I get along with my district so well.  There are a few personalities here that do not mesh well with mine, but you all know how I am. I'm pretty chill and can take it.

General Conference here was good, although I think I would take sitting on the couch in my jeans over sitting on hard chairs over the span of 16 hours throughout the week, but the messages were good and the spirit was strong, so my sore fanny was compensated   I think my favorite talk was Elder Holland's at the end. It was so powerful, I couldn't even take notes because I was so engrossed in what he was saying.  I also enjoyed the woman's conference, and had a fun surprise when we saw the second video and recognized one of my friends from Footloose.  Toni, she was the one that made friends with the Muslim girl.  I think that the girls here were tired of me pointing out people I knew in the choir, there were about 10 that I was good friends with and about another 10 that I had met before.

The Dutch is coming every day, some days I wish that I was out in the field already, but then I realize that I do not know the language well enough yet. Although I keep hearing that you don't really learn the language until you are there.  In our zone we have the Hungarian and Turkish missionaries, they know how to push our buttons. Whenever they hear us speaking Dutch they say that it is just like speaking English with an accent. IT. IS. NOT! But I will admit that it is easier to lean than their languages.

I am so glad that Katie's transplant is going well, I have been thinking about her all week.  I miss you guys like crazy, I have been saving lots of the eggs from my package and opening them gradually through my stay here, they help a ton.

I love Dad's hat and I'm glad that he came home safely.  With the recent terrorist attack in Belgium we had our branch president and the MTC presidency come and talk to us and make sure that we weren't freaking out or anything, they didn't really tell us anything most of the information we got was from the family of other missionaries in my district.  Brussels is actually part of both the Paris, France mission and the Belgium/Netherlands mission The missionaries that got hurt were from the Paris, France mission, so the Ambassador of the European Nations came and visited the missionaries going to that mission instead of us 

On Thursday I sang "How Can I Keep From Singing" for the Queen (that is what we call the MTC president's wife), she loved us, although I probably won't sing for a week or two because she said that they like to give the missionaries leaving sooner a chance to perform but she said to expect to sing sometime.

Well I Love you all and hope that this is a great week for everyone

Tot Ziens

Zuster Dixon

Update on Opa, Katie and Conference

Opa is home from Oman.  These are the hats the men wear there:

Opa visited Katie Friday afternoon on his way home from the airport.  She is doing fairly well, but the next couple of weeks are critical and it is important her recovery goes well during this time.  We invite your faith, fasting and prayers during this time.

Because of the fire, there will not be the traditional conference Sunday dinner at Oma and Opa's house.  You are still invited to enjoy any of the sessions with us (there will be jellybeans).  We love having you but don't feel obligated.

Love,
Oma and Opa