Zuster Lilli

Hey Fam and Friends,

This has been a fun week, last Monday we went to a carnival.  We went on a lot of rides that went high and spun and jerked you around. It was great fun.

We also had exchanges this week and I was with Sister Gilbert who was in the MTC with me so we didn't really know what we were doing but we knocked doors and talked to people anyway.  We got to one door and said our thing and the lady was still listening so I asked if we could come in and talk more about the church and she let us in.  We taught her the restoration and gave her a baptism invitation... she said no but it was good to know that I can teach a lesson without my trainer.

Yesterday we spent the day with the Elders and their investigators Fijen and Yenny.  These are two Chinese sisters who are just golden! We met them when they came to church and they keep inviting us places and asking us so many questions about the gospel... I wish they were our investigators. the Elders keep accusing us of stealing them... maybe...

They are from the same place in China that I lived in when I was there, so it is fun to talk about it with them.

I am so sorry to hear that Katie is back in the hospital.  My prayers are with her and the whole family.

Heather, I am so sorry about your job! What a bummer, but it's cool that barbie is hiring... only if you get the job, please don't move to Canada. (also I thought you would like to know that the spider is still under the cup, we are too scared to look and see if it is dead yet (we may run out of cups soon))

Also for clarification, the relations that I found are already members, we were eating at their house when we found out we were family. sorry, I haven't found any family I can convert yet 

I love you all! I am praying for you all everyday.

Zuster Dixon

Elder Adam

I did have another fever last week, so the President's wife and the area doctor agreed on sending me back to Iquitos for a permanent transfer. So no more Pucallpa. :( As soon as I stepped off the plane though, the fever went away, just like the last time. I'm thinking that the Lord wanted me in Iquitos instead. This second round came with a bit of blood in some diarrhea, which got me rather worried about myself. (But it's all better now, I don't have it anymore). If another high fever pops up like the last few, it's possible that they might have to send me home, so let's pray that doesn't happen.

Right now, until transfers happen, I'm in a trio of missionaries, with one Elder who recently returned to the mission after being home for a health problem (he's from Lima. His name is Elder Asmad), and another Elder who's had a reputation of being the companion of elders that get sent home for health reasons (uh oh :P). But I'm not getting sent home. I've already decided I won't.

I had no idea that there was a new missionary dress code! A missionary here, at this precise moment, told me that whether the missionaries use the new dress code or not is up to the mission president and his wife, and I think they disapproved.

In my new area, we've been able to find a lot of new people, most of which are less-active members we didn't know existed. The Lord prepares those who need our help at the precise time in the precise location. :) The ward I'm in is actually doing very well, so we're keeping the missionary work train chugging.

I'm going to fast and pray especially hard for Katie this week. I know he can do anything, and I know that he loves all his children. I know that it's never too late for a miracle to happen. I've seen plenty of miracles here in this work and I know that with two family missionaries out working hard, my and Lilli's blessings are consecrated to Katie. 

Love,

Adam

Zuster Lilli and Elder Adam---May 16th Email

Zuster Lilli

Hallo Family and Friends

It has been a busy week with some pretty funny stories.

Last P-day Sister Harris and I went over to the Caldwells and watched Once I Was a Beehive. maybe it was the fact that I have not seen a movie in about 2 months but I thought it was soooo funny! I was crying laughing so hard from laughing. 

We found this lady while knocking doors and we talked to her for a little bit and she said that we would be welcomed back if we returned, so we were pretty excited.  This weekend we went over again and was planning on teaching the restoration, but every time we asked her a question she started about talking about something completely different.

example:

Us: "how would you feel if the gospel that Jesus established while he was on Earth was restored again today?"

Her: "dutch dutch dutch aliens dutch dutch dutch Hillary Clinton dutch Donald Trump dutch dutch dutch."

I didn't actually understand all but I did understand those things. 

We asked her to say the closing prayer and she stared to get out her book of prayers and read them out loud. We quickly taught her how to pray, that she needed to pray from her heart and end in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. then we bowed and waited.... and waited.... and waited... and waited... and waited.... and waited and then she said "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen"

... at least she prayed from her heart... our bad.

I also found family here! we were having dinner at a members home and the subject of my family came up and I told them that they came from Groningen and told them the names and sister Hooienge gets really excited and tells me to bring my family history to church. at church she takes a picture of my whole family tree and introduces me to a million old people in my ward that start asking me questions in dutch and I just smile and nod, knowing that it is probably important to know what they are saying but not getting any of it (it was quite scary). then later I got a phone call from Sis Hooienge saying:

"Hallo, Zuster Dixon.  U bent familie van Mij.............. wil graag van u hore."

roughly translated "Hello, sister dixon. you are family of mine....... will gladly hear from you."

and that was it.  Sister Harris and I had a good laugh over that.

I should go, we are going to a festival today, I'll try to get some pictures and send them next week

Love you all

Zuster Dixon 

Elder Adam

Dear Family,

Bet you loved that title, didn't you? :P Yeah, I'm feeling a bit feverous again. My temperature started going back up on Sunday. But this time, it's messing with the wrong person...again. (You think this illness would've learned, huh?)

We had a good amount of miracles this week! We've found some nice investigators that are extremely interested in what we have to teach! For one of them (whose name is Juana), we even got a date planned for her baptism! She loves what we teach. 

She eventually gained interest in the church because her daughter is a member, and her best friend is the mission leader of the ward. He gave us the referral to her, and she's already praying, reading, and attending church! 

Another person we found was a man named Wilmer. One day, we got a call from a mystery number saying that he wanted us to visit him. We were pretty psyched out (because a phone call like that doesn't just happen) and a bit confused too. He's a one-legged man who is also extremely interested. He hasn't come to church yet, but we'll help him out with that.

One last person is Marino (I think I told you about him the last time). This week, he told us straight out: "I don't know what you do, but you teach in a way that keeps me interested. Sometimes, the Jehova's Witness missionaries come to teach me and I fall asleep when they teach. But I'm interested when you teach. How do you do it?"

I dunno. But I like it. I think it has much to do with the Spirit and a little to do with a blonde, 19-year old kid teaching him. :P

What's everyone up to over there? I like the new car, Emily! Fanschy Shmanschy! Happy Birthday to all those that had birthdays or will have birthdays this week (there are so many May birthdays, I can't remember them all :S) Hope you feel better, Katie!

Love,

Adam 

Elder Adam and Zuster Lilli--May 9th Email

Elder Adam

Dear Family,

It was amazing to talk to you guys yesterday! It was great to see all of you (you're excused, Jim and Erin (Congratulations on the new baby!)) :D It was really awesome to see your faces again!

As you know, I was able to spring back into action this week! Due to my long recovery, we had to take the pace a little bit slower, so we didn't get as much work done as we usually do, but the Lord is still looking out for us.

My first week here, we found a man named Marino, who was working with a bit of wood outside of his house. We contacted him and he was extremely receptive and accepting. It kind of surprised us, but we were glad. We visited him that week, but only for a few minutes due to a weird jump in our schedule that day.

We visited him again this past week when I got back to Pucallpa. The reason he accepted us so willingly is because he accepted the missionaries before and even went to church a couple of times. 

Which church? Why, in my old area, Yarinacocha! I didn't teach him, but the companion I had did. He also mentioned that he's visted a ton of churches and felt nothing, right up until he visited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He felt that that was the right church.

I was pretty impressed. The Lord gave his guy a headstart! We invited him to baptism, and after thinking about it for a few minutes, he accepted. (Down here, when they think about it, it's usually a good sign that they're honestly listening and feeling the Spirit). I've got a really good feeling about him.

Hope you feel better Katie! I'll keep praying for you!

Love,

Adam

Zuster Lilli

Here are my addresses

Letters

zuster dixon

patrijspoort 131

9733 GS Groningen

Netherlands

Packages

Zuster Dixon

Schuttersveld 2
2316 ZA Leiden
Netherlands

Friends and Family

What a week! It was so great to skype with you yesterday! It was a great mothers day.

We have been teaching this man named Mjad, he first called us asking us if we could help him with his Netherlands exam and we readily agreed. Then we hung up and realized that WE don't really know Netherlands..... so we asked one of the members to help us, so we would go over to her house and she would help him and then we would give a short lesson.  This Saturday the member had to cancel so we taught a full lesson instead and extended a baptism invitation and he said that he would like that. It probably helped that we were teaching in English... In fact our first 3 lessons for potential investigators are all in English.... God is going easy on me 

So I talked to those of you that I skyped about this wonderful time of the year but everyone else missed out.  Here in the Netherlands there is a magical time that everyone looks forward to.  this time is called spider season.... Yup, you heard me right, SPIDER SEASON! First of all- what sort of a place has spider season! and second of all- why haven't I heard of this before and why aren't there more people freaking out!?!?

WELL... last night right before Sister Harris and I went to bed, we were changing our laundry over and there on the floor was a spider the size of a dinner plate! We squealed and ran all throughout the house while it chased us. We covered it with a cup, shut the door and hid under our covers. I swear I did not sleep a wink last night.  This morning we left the cup right where it was ... but I swear it had moved during the night.

Spider season is real folks! It's coming for me! If you don't hear from me one week then look in the obituaries and there I will be. Death by spider season.

hoping the you will hear from be, but if not remember that I loved you all.

Sister Dixon

Groningen

Zuster Lilli

Goede Dag friends and family!

well, here I am in The Netherlands! I thought that it would never happen.  AND I am in Groningen, of all places! It is absolutely beautiful here.  Every time I talk to someone I have a Best Two Years moment where I think that's not the language they taught me in the MTC,  but I have been learning to listen, harder than I have ever listened in my life!

My new companion is Sister Harris, she has only been here 6 weeks.  So she is training me and we are white washing *which means that we are both new to this city and have absolutly no idea what we are doing*   But we have been so blessed so far, other than arriving 45 minutes late to our first appointment we have been somewhat on time. But we get better every day, I am starting to recognize the city more and more.

The other day we had dinner at a members house, her name was Karin and she is like our language coach, we come to her with questions every week and she will help us out. While we were there she was telling us about how we will have to bear our testimonies in church on sunday and the only tip she had for us was not to say that you are enthusiastic to be here, I guess that was one of her pet peeves.  But me in my poor broken dutch didn't understand what she was saying. So Sunday  comes and I get up there and the first thing I say was that I was enthusiastic to be there.... my companion did the full facepalm. Oh well, at least Karin wasn't at church that week.

There is a lot more to say but I´m running out of time

so I´ll just say totziens and I´ll see you all next week in the daily adventures of Zuster Dixon!

​this is me and Silvester (my bike) in Groningen.

​

Sister Harris and I with our Orange Kingsday hats.

Loves

Sister Dixon

 

From Adam

 

 Dear Family,

To start off, I just want to calm things down by saying that the sickness I've had has died down a good bit. Parts of it still remain (and I'm still chained to the house every day, darn it), but the fevers only get up to 101 if it's really bad now. 

To give an update, I was sent back to Iquitos because the doctors here are more trusted and they know a lot more stuff and take their job seriously. We've done another series of tests, but the doctors still aren't 100% sure as to what I've got, so we're doing a round 3 of tests.

BUT, the infection-expert has a hunch. He thinks I might have a parasite called "Toxoplasma" (which is a pretty awesome name, if you ask me), which is known by the less-awesome name of "Cat Parasite". It is, of course, passed by cats. About a month ago, in a service project, a kitten attacked my hand (right when I thought cats were OK after all). If it does turn out to be Toxoplasma, we would've known why.

But nothing is certain yet. The doctor himself says that he's only 33% sure about this. I'm sure that this time around, we'll be able to pinpoint what I've got and I'll be able to hop back into the fray!

Sorry for the short email this week, but being stuck inside the offices all day kind of leaves me without cool experiences. Glad to hear that everyone over there is doing alright!

Don't worry about me! I feel a lot better than I did last week! 

Love you all!