Elder Dixon's Mission : First Week in St. Lucia!! :)

I don't have much time on the computer this week so i will only write this one email. but tell everyone i have read there emails and they sound amazing and i will write them all next week when I have more time ---

Oh man I am really crying hard right now. Hearing from you guys is just so touching. Man I haven't been able to talk to you guys forever. And so much has changed. Man where do i even start. holy cow. i miss you all so much! words cant describe how i feel right now. I feel your voices and your spirits as I read your emails.

Well its been a crazy ride. when i finally arrived in Barbados, I met pres. Herrington. He is so funny and goofy and just a stud. I already love him so much. the mission home is crazy big compared to all the other houses i have seen around here. But anyways back to the mission home. It is so big and nice. each morning we would wake up early and go for runs out on the beach. It is so beautiful and hot here. but i love it. well the first few days were long especially in Barbados a lot of learning and not enough time. But it was beautiful there. I went and bought a carry on because i could only take one bag and one carry on. so that was crazy trying to squeeze everything in. plus the flight we fly on is called liat. holy cow these guys run on there own time and do what ever they want. while we were in line they changed the carry on weight to only ten pounds so i was praying that it would go through bag checkage. we waited in line for 2 and a half hours to just get our bags checked. and they barely let mine pass i think it was because i was a missionary. but after that we ran as fast as we could out to the loading dock cuz we were 30 minutes late. that was so funny and stressful but we made it to the loading dock right before they closed the plane. A man had snuck on the plane in my spot so they almost didn't let me fly but they finally figured things out. then we waited forever before we flew to st. Lucia. that was a crazy experience. i have never been more sick in my life. the plane was like a roller coaster. and when we landed i thought we crashed because we hit the ground so hard. holy cow. but we made it.

That night we met our comps. mine is Elder Smith he is a funny dude. he used to play o-line for a team up by Woods Cross. so we bonded well. he is funny though we always do role plays for comp study and he dresses up and acts just like the people here. i will send some pics of that. He is chill though. I lucked out we got a car because he is a zone leader the only car on the island for elders. there is only 8 elders 2 sisters and a senior companion on the island so there are not many of us there. But it is fun. we can drive from one side to the other side of the island in about 45 minutes depending on traffic. I guess my comps only only flaw is that he drives so slow. oh my gosh i am learning to be christ like. lol because everyone here drives like maniacs. haha like there is no speeding law and no lights just curvey roads and these crazy round abouts that are at four way stops. Funny story so friday night we were driving and this mad man was driving so fast and the roads are so small and he was driving a bus and he basically ran us off the road. and my comp swerved and hit a tree and it blew the front tire. The front tire was done there was a huge hole in it. lol hahaha so funny. so that night i was able to change the tire on the side of the road. we didnt have flash lights so it was kinda rough but it was so fun. so we drove on a spare for a few days and then bought a new one. my comp just watched me cuz he knows nothing about cars lol.

Jake and Elder Smith

Anyways my apartment is pretty nice for what we see around here. i will send you pics. um for food we only eat one meal a day which is lunch. because we have to budget so we have a little bowl of cereal a big lunch and then a snack for dinner. i go to bed starving each night but ya know it really has changed my view on things. because people here get hardly a meal a day so i am blessed. i am loosing muscle fast cuz the lack of food but i try to do push ups at night but i just have no energy cuz of the hunger. but i am happy and so blessed to be out here. the weather is hot they are in a drought right now so its been like 95 degrees and like 100 percent humidity. it is so hot but we have air conditioning in our room so i look forward to when we get back to it.

Apartment

Also the people here are so so humble and nice. and they have literally nothing. it makes me cry and my heart aches for them. for example a girl odelya that we teach is about my age. and she wakes up and walks to school which takes her about an hour. on sundays she walks for 30 minutes then uses all the money she has saved for the whole week just to catch a bus to go to church. man it is crazy. it makes me realize how much i have. another family britnee and her mom moved so for service we moved her house. and we literally could fit everything they own into a small truck not bigger than a ford ranger. and we drove to their new house and it is this thing that is a small shack not bigger than our barn in our back yard. these people are so poor and humble. And they are always smiling. i wish i could give them everything i have.

So funny story. first day i was here Elder Smith said we were going to go tracting and find new people. so he drives up the island to a spot and says lets start here. so he said the first house i had to do all the talking to get practice. so we went up i was nervous. this woman answered and made me feel stupid. and then ran us out of here yard. elder smith started laughing so hard because i was in shock. then the girl that ran us to the curb started laughing. and elder smith went and gave her a high five. and i was so confused. but then they explained to me that she was a member and it was all a prank haha. so i felt so stupid. Elder smith got me good. he planned it all out before i came. so i got elder smith back by making him run an extra mile the next day. cuz elder smith is fat so he makes me work him out in the morning so he can loose weight. so i act like Bob off the biggest loser and make him run and do work outs haha. well anyways that was a great story and everyone laughed at me at church the next day.

The church is so small!! the people are so humble though and so funny. Not gonna lie i don't understand what any of them are saying though. today i can kinda picked out bits and pieces so thats good. there english is so so so different. and it made me really discouraged at the start. but i have been praying to be able to understand them and i get better each and every day. But also cool story we knocked on a woman's home she answered and she said she would listen to us. so i explained the restoration and about the book of mormon. and was able to answer every question she had. She is a jehovah witness and elder smith said through out his whole mission he has never seen a jehovah witness been more excepting of the gospel. He says though that he thinks she will be to stubborn to join our church. But i am determined to baptize this woman i ain't worried what religion she is. I am gonna convert the whole island. we already have 2 baptism dates and i hope the people stay committed. if they do i will get 2 in September.

The Church

Also the people here live in little shacks for houses because they are all so poor. so be thankful for even the clothes on your back and for every meal you eat. also i feel bad for one family especially because everyone in the fam are members except for the dad. one night they were our last appointment so we hiked a mountain to get to there house and then when we were teaching them some more about the church there father showed up. he was holding a beer and was smoking weed. he was so high. he didn't even bother saying hi to his kids or wife. and went in the house. we told him we wanted to share a message so he came back out. i was bold with him. i told him that his family doesn't deserve a father like that and that he should start changing his ways. and i read him a scripture and it was bold i cant remember what scripture because at the moment the spirit told me what scripture to read. but after he promised to drink and he said he will try to stop the weed. the family was shocked. it was a really cool experience. but at the same time so sad. dad i love you man and want you to know i am so thankful for working hard for us and for being a leader in the church. everyone at home i hope you tell your dads how much you love them. because man people here most of the time there is no father figure ever present. Um.. also everyone here especially at night are just all out on the road smoking pot and drinking. it is sad but at the same time its just the culture around here. the rasta men are funny they like us but we don't teach them cuz they are usually high or drunk so they wouldn't except the word of wisdom. also i am learning a whole new vocabulary. like Irie (whats up/good vibes) whagon (whats goin on) lime (chill or hang out) trunky (home sick) and many more. its fun though i try to use the new words through out the day. also sunday nights are fun me and my comp have pday eves where we go and sit on the roof and eat something and drink good drinks. we call it our liming time. my comp is funny we have funny sayings and things we do each day. like wing wednesday where we only eat wings for lunch. or french fri friday where we eat a plate of fries on that night. or like salad sunday. its pretty fun lol. but anways i hope i got everything in there i will have so much more to tell you next week. but for now just know i love you guys so much. I miss you all more than you can know. i get real trunky (home sick) all the time. but as i focus on the work i loose all the home sickness. i am so blessed to be here. I am so blessed to know the gospel. we have some amazing times teaching and sharing our testimony to people. church is fun me and elder smith do primary so we run that lol. we have so much fun with these special kids. but I am about out of time. so i will send you pictures in about an hour when i get to the church. But i love hearing all your stories and whats going on around home. I miss you guys so much and love you all. be thankful for everything you have and dont forget to read and pray.

love elder dixon!!