Sorella Dixon: Put God First and Everything Else Falls in Place

Buongiorno!

This week was full of ups and downs! Some days are harder than others and I can feel the adversary working on me as I try to learn the language and teach according to the investigator's needs. But this is God's work and nothing can stop it from happening, so we just have to endure and not let Satan get to us. Even when days are tough it's amazing how looking for miracles and tender mercies at the end of the day really makes the day better.
So here are some miracles and tender mercies from the week:

Thursday: I'm really understanding the language a lot more. Fratello Gessel, our teacher, was telling this long story all in Italian and in the middle of it I realized that I was actually understanding everything he was saying!! Granted he was using a lot of hand gestures and kind of acting it out... but I could still pick up the words and understood what he said too! He speaks super fast, faster than our other teachers.... but I love it because it's a challenge and I feel accomplished when I can actually understand what he says. Sorella Pulli and I also taught Lydia, our investigator, for the last time. She asked us a question we weren't anticipating and all of a sudden words were just flowing from my mouth! It probably didn't make the most sense, but I was able to get something out and answer the question! The gift of tongues is real!

Friday: We have one elder in our district who has been having a hard time feeling accepted and getting along with everyone else. So Thursday night after he and his companion left and the rest of us were about to go back to our residence hall, we decided we would all pray for him and then try to help him feel more accepted. Our purpose as missionaries is to help others come unto Christ. Not only investigators, but everyone, including other missionaries. We decided we would play volleyball as a district on Friday morning during gym time because that's his favorite sport. We had a blast! And he's really grown closer with all of us. We have an amazing district. We all just feel like family!

Saturday:That evening Fratello Gessel, our teacher, changed the lesson plan so many times and then we couldn't get TALL to work. (the language study program on the computer). So he told us about Italy instead! We just got to ask him questions and he told us all about the areas he served in, the people he taught, and the experiences he had. It was the perfect thing for all of us. We all just needed a little break. It got us super excited for Italy and helped us want to work harder.

Sundays are always tender mercies. Just the whole day. It's great to get a spiritual re-boost. For our temple walk our district decided to match for pictures :) It's kind of sad that the only colors we could match with were black and white... So we all looked like we were going to a funeral. But it was still fun. We had a great devotional about companions, and how important it is to have a good relationship with our companion. I absolutely LOVE my companion. We get along so well and always have a great time together. When I'm having a hard day she lifts me up.She is so happy and Christ-like and loves me no matter what. We are so unified when we teach. Sometimes I feel like we can read each other's minds. We're definitely not perfect, but we try to teach the best we can.

Monday: So even though my district is amazing, sometimes we can still get off task and things get really distracting. It was one of those days, but then our district leader decided to set district goals to help us focus a little better and bring the spirit in. After that we could all feel the spirit a lot stronger. It's amazing to see the growth of each person after just 2 weeks. Missions truly are amazing. Sorella Pulli had a great lesson planned for our new investigator, but we got our first bidone!!! (dumpster). She told us to come back another time. It was because we were the last ones to teach and only had 5 minutes until 9:30, so we couldn't teach that night. But it's all good. Now we'll be super prepared for when we teach her tonight!

Tuesday: Sorella Pulli and I taught Fratello Gessel for the first time. It was a tough one. I figured he would be harder to teach than Lydia (our first investigator who turned out to be our new teacher!) We didn't do as well as we would've liked, but we did get him to pray at the end of the lesson! We also had a GREAT devotional Tuesday night. It was about developing Christ- like attributes. The way we do that is by keeping the commandments. As we willingly keep the commandments until they are WITHIN us then we become like Christ. We had a good district meeting after the devotional where we talked about it and everyone shared great experiences and testimonies.

Other blessings that happen everyday:1) EXERCISE!! It feels so good to exercise and actually exert energy everyday! It really helps focusing the rest of the day especially since we're literally in the classroom the rest of the day.

2) Studying first thing in the morning at 7 am. We actually didn't know about this rule until Sunday. We didn't know we were supposed to be in the classroom at 7, dressed, and studying until breakfast at 8, but after we figured that out and have done it, the blessings from it are amazing. the day goes so much better. A bouncy ball and beans will only fit completely in the jar if the bouncy ball is placed in first. Put God first and everything falls in place. Even though we do have personal, companion, and language study later in the day, something about that first study/planning really helps the day go so much better.

3) SYL- (speak your language) we try to speak as much as we can and it really helps us progress in the language! Some days are better than others, but when we actually focus and try our best we can see how much we learn!

Well I need to go! That hour goes so quickly!

Ciao! Vi amo!!
Sorella Dixon :)