New area and New Companion

Well, as for this week, everything has been going great. Before all the new elders and sisters came to the island me and Elder Smith planned a huge island dinner with all the missionaries. So I cooked the food and Elder Smith taught a lesson. I made those barbecue meat balls for all of the elders and sisters and some rice and also some juice! It went great. Everyone loved my meal. Well, really it was your meal mom but still. Thanks for the recipe!!

My new comp his name is Elder Taylor. He is so short lol. He is half Filipino  and is such a nice humble man. He is really quiet and just easy going! He loves to work out and work hard as well so I already know we are going to kill it. He looks like David Archileta! So i always tell him to sing to me lol haha

Second we found an awesome apartment. It has two big rooms, a big living room with couches and a nice kitchen as well. We are gonna be living in paradise here. Oh and also we have two queen beds in one room so we are gonna be living like kings out here. I am so blessed. Also our land lady is a nice grandma and gave us some ice tea. We then had to explain to her that we don't drink tea. I hope eventually we can convert her as well. 

Also on a typical day as a missionary we get like 3-4 lessons a day and about 4 new contacts, maybe like 1 or 2 new investigators. On Elder Taylor's and my first day in our area we had 7 lessons, 24 contacts, and 8 new investigators. Our new area is gonna be awesome and I am excited to work hard and turn this area around. 

Also it is so awesome because we do a ton of walking. And I love it so much more then riding in a car. We walk up steep hills all day long and I love it. It feels like we are working out all day. 

Anyway that's about it for this week!!

Love all of you guys!

Elder Dixon

First Baptism!! :)

Happy :) 

Well first off i am sorry i made a recording with my voice to send to you guys about this week but it is just a little too big!! dang haha well i will make a shorter version and send it next week! but i know how the recorder works now so hopefully i can send some stuff! 

So to first answer your questions.. yes a little speaker would be awesome! also an ipod that doesnt have wifi capabilities would be perfect! and i would love that. it would be really nice to have and listen too!!

Also i will definitely give kids candy for Halloween. we are gonna carve pumpkins with rostas!

And i am getting enough to eat so no worries! I made homeade meatballs and they were amazing we ate a whole bag of meat balls! Also i made Oreo cookies and they were amazing!!

Okay so there is so much i have to tell you guys. so i will tell you all that first and then sorry if i dont have time to email each of you individually! but just know that i love you all.

Beautiful Yuandia, Jania and Jake..

My first baptism was this last Saturday! I baptized Yuandia. She is in her 20s and has a little girl named Jania. she is so cool and has such a strong testimony. Yuandia loves to find answers for herself. So all we have to do is tell her where to look and lessons are so fun and easy. she truly is converted because she dumped her boy friend that she has had for a few years because he did not support her on her decision to be baptized. Well saturday was awesome. We baptized her in the morning and not a lot of people were there because a lot of her friends and family were working. So it was just the branch pres. and all the elders. But it was an awesome experience! The water was so warm in the ocean and the spirit was so strong. I cant wait to send you pictures. Another funny thing with the baptism some people on horses kept running up and down the beach so they got in some of the pictures haha. But to say the least the baptism was awesome and I cant wait for my next one!!

Okay next matter of business that was crazy!! so transfers were last week. and they were very awesome. so the President called me and told me that I am going to train a new elder... this is crazy because he told me that this very very rare. Because a typical missionary gets trained for 12 weeks and then typically does not train tell the end of the mission. but he said he feels i am ready for it so I will train. I have only been trained for 6 weeks now so it cuts my training in half.. crazy i know. Anyways so all I know about my new comp is that his name is Elder Taylor and he is from Arkansas and he is an electoral engineer. Also he has been in the elders quorum presidency!!  He sounds smart haha. Anyways we will pick them up on Wednesday.

The boys on the Island

Also another crazy thing to go a long with this is that there opening up a new area in St. Lucia. it is about 30 minutes south of where i am at now. and it is right in the main town of Castries. This new area will be a walking area. And there is only one member in my area - so It is a blank area. It hasn't had a baptism there in a year and a half. But I am excited about this opportunity that i have. I am DETERMINED i will turn this area around and make it the best area in the Caribbean. I am excited to train as well and I hope i can train elder Taylor well. This assignment makes me think of my patriarchal blessing. and how it says Assignments will be made so i can find this family i was for ordained to find. I know that by the help of the spirit and the lord that he will lead me to this family. and it might be in this new area!

Also the work is still going well here. I should have a few more baptisms for the area I am in, now in the month of October. So I am excited for that. Also Alfred one of our investigator goes into surgery today for a hernia he has. it is the size of a football! he is 64 and is very close to god. It is always so spiritual when we go over there. I pray that surgery goes well so we can baptize him before he passes away.

All the missionaries on this island will be training. So we are a young island ready to boost the work forward. Pray that we will be able to do well in this new area!!

Well I love you all! 

Elder Dixon

 

Yuandia and her daughter

That view though... 

More of St. Lucia 

Elder Horne - the senior couple that always gives Jake his sports updates :) Obviously can't stay away too long.. 

Always supporting his Utes

Dolphins, Dogs, and Rainy Days

"Cheesers on Rainy Days because rainy days gets us more attractive wives!" :) 

Well its so good to hear the emails from you guys. So mom I got your first package with the granola bars and book and letter. it was nice. It was sent to the wrong address though. that is the address of the elders on the other side of the island about an hour and a half away. so don't send anything to that address. I was lucky I was down there this week for interviews with the president so I can pick it up. I know the address's are really weird here. it still confuses me. but send it to

Cp5608

Castries, St. Lucia

West indies

That is not my house but mail is not delivered to houses so that's where I go to pick up mail. the View fort address is on the other side of the island haha.

So for me this week has been crazy!! it started out that at the start of the week 2 companions got in a stupid argument about a hair cut last Monday. so one companion left the other one in town. we got a call from one of them telling us what happened. so we went to rescue them. it was so immature of them. and took us all night to find one of the elders. thank goodness he was safe. President wasn't so happy about that though. I am pretty sure next week they will be transferred to different islands. haha what a dumb move on there part.  

Also we had a lot of service this week I built a fence around this members house while my comp  Elder Smith stood there and handed me nails. It was fun I love building things. We also gimmy riged a gate for here. she didn't have the right supplies so we made work with what we got haha. also we helped another member move lots of wood and did a lot of lifting it was the bomb. she fed us lunch as well. when it came out I did not know what it was. it was a pile of rice with a big green slab of meat. so I asked her and she said it was dolphin. I actually really liked it a lot. I cant believe I can say I have eaten dolphin now.Also this week we went to a Chinese restaurant. and it was really good but I am almost 100 percent that the "chicken" that we ate was actually dog. haha because this meat had huge bones and It was common sense that chickens don't have that big of bones haha.

Well also we have been teaching Terry and Victoria this week a lot. they are so funny. Terry is a rasta and Victoria is his girlfriend. I have lots of pictures of them haha well good news. they commited to get married Oct. 12 and baptized that Saturday. We have been teaching them for a few weeks. And Terry stopped smoking weed and Victoria is excited to get married. That will be a cool experience to baptize a Rasta in October. Every time we go over to there house they feed us and give us little gifts. The say since we gave them the gift of the gospel they are gonna give us gifts. it is hard to tell them to stop but they wont so it is fun to go by and visit. Yesterday they gave us dominos pizza and chips with mangos. haha on Tuesday when we went to teach them he tried to give my comp a Kodak camera touch screen. it was like a 1,000 dollar camera. we told him we would just leave it on his counter.. he was like yeah you're right I will wrap it for next time haha we laughed and hope he doesn't give us this camera next time. but we are excited for them even though they are kinda strange. But they are progressing in the gospel so that is exciting.

Also this week it has rained a ton.. it is really cool though. I have never seen so much rain.

This Saturday I will have my first baptism with Yuandia. She is a solid investigator that we have been teaching for as long as I have been here. I cant wait to show you pictures next week of that!

Also this week we taught Alfred again and he gets surgery on the 21st  still so pray for him that he will be alive and healthy. He really wants to be baptized still so we teach him all the time on lessons. I feel so bad for him. he has nothing and cant walk but sits in his house all day waiting for surgery. we visit him often and usually bring him juice. and he loves it when we stop by. I can see the spirit inside of him and it is so strong. I really love this old man and hope the surgery goes well.

Also I love that book you gave me. I got the package the other day and I am half way through I will finish probably today. I cant get enough of the gospel. There is so much to learn and grow form it. I love to study and read the BOM it helps my life so much. everyday I learn so much from each lesson and investigator. Well that's about all for this week!  I love each and every one of you guys.  

Love Elder Dixon

This is the Rasta man Terry and his girlfriend Victoria. Jake told him he only needed one picture with him but that Terry said they need more. Jake loves these two. 

Terry and Victoria's Wedding Invitation

Fruit Stands are all over! 

View Fort Beach 

Fat Sunday to Skinny Sunday!

So this week was fun and spiritual. The first Sunday we were very lucky because Angie (the one who pranked me) she loves Elder Smith and me, and so she told us she would feed us. So after church we went back to the apartment and I ate a bunch of snacks thinking that Angie wouldn't feed us a lot because I wanted to show manners and not pig out on her. Well come to find out she is a cook and does that for a job, and she made us a plate of food that was pilled like a mountain. I was like oh no.... haha. But the food was amazing. But now the challenge was to finish this plate all gone. I went to town. I started with the macaroni, continued to the chicken and beef, then went on to the rice and beans, and slid in the salad. Half way through I was stuffed, but I didn't want it to go to waste so I downed the whole plate. My stomach was gonna explode but it was a funny experience. 

So you asked what I typically eat. Well Monday we eat out at like subway or this weird Chinese place that we don't know what kind of food it is. We just know it tastes good haha. Tuesday is district meeting, so we usually go eat as a district at a pizza place or KFC. Wednesday we always eat wings with rice and some sort of great fruit. Thursday is chili day and we eat that with fritos. Friday we cook up steak (the cheap kind) or chicken with rice. That night we have french fries because its French fry Friday. Saturday and Sunday we eat whatever we feel like. The fruit is amazing. My favorite is to get a pineapple from this rasta dude and I cook it in the oven for like 10 minutes. Hot pineapple is the wicked mad boii. The locals are way poor and never feed us. They want us to feed them. It's really sad to be honest. I wish I could give them all my money. We even found a bunch of people to teach. Yuandia still wants to get baptized! Her date is on the19 of September. so i hope to get a baptism soon. That will be good. she is a cool girl and really has a testimony of what we teach. 

Jake And John Paul 

Also this week I met with john paul. He is the only guy from St. Lucia to ever get drafted to the NBA. He is 7 foot and is a stud. He is going to the states to play a year of college in Texas then is going to the Toronto Raptors. he has already signed with them. It was awesome to teach him and to meet him. The picture I have with him makes me look like a midget. I will be looking forward to how he does in the NBA and how he turns out in the gospel. 

The next great thing that happened was that my comp left to go to Barbados  for a mission leadership conference because he is the Zone Leader. So i got to go on a split with Elder Odhiombo who is from Kenya and Elder Rumbaoa from the Philippians. The few short days I had with them passed fast. I have never laughed so much in my life. Elder Odhi thinks he is a lion and carries around a picture of one to lessons. It was great. haha. It was also great to have a break from my comp because being around the same person all day every day gets long and tough. So this week was fun and good. 

Jake, Elder Odhiombo and Elder Rumbaoa

Now to skinny Sunday. This last Sunday was fast Sunday. It was tough not gonna lie. Especially because the mission pres. and Elder Cornish, a member of the 70, came to do Zone conference that day. We forgot that we had a bunch of extra meetings after church.. so we started our fast at 1 on sat. and were supposed to eat at 1 on Sunday. but we had meetings starting right after church tell 6. so we fasted way longer then we should have... Which is great and I gained a lot spiritually, but physically it almost killed me.

But Zone Conference was so good.  The Mission president was so nice to us and he taught us how to teach with Christ like attributes. Then elder Cornish taught us how to get members involved and how they will be the success for our mission and so we learned a lot. We can totally tell how he is a member of the 70 just from how he acts and teaches us. I am really excited for general conference coming up as well. 

I fasted for all of you guys and I love you all so much. I could feel all of your presence in the meeting as I fasted and learned more spiritually. I hope everything is great at home and I miss every one of you guys. I am growing closer to you every day through the Lord's work. 

One of my favorite quotes from zone conference was 

"A testimony strengthens who you are, but conversion changes who you are."

I encourage all reading this to pray and learn to listen to the spirit. And not only try to build your testimony but to become converted to the gospel. Share the gospel with everyone you come in contact with and make it who you are so you have that glowing light and that people will see the conversion in you. Be an example and live the standards of the church and not only will you be an example to all, but you will grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Love you all, 

Elder Dixon