Sorella Dixon: We are Trying to be Consecrated Missionaries

Cari Famiglia e Amici!

Buongiorno! I hope you all had a great week! This week was just FULL of miracles! Too many to tell you! First off, last Thursday we had a zone training and that was amazing. As usual. and then after we had scambio! (or exchange). My first one! It was with Sorella Curtis from West Valley, Utah. She leaves in July. She is a SYL(Sister training leader) and super sweet. She actually knew Elder Dixon(Savanna's cousin who is serving in Spain) from EFY a few years ago. It was weird to talk to someone who knows someone I know from home! I learned so much from her and we had a great scambio. She is so happy all the time and we saw so many little miracles! One was on the first metro we got on. We started talking to the first lady we saw and she ended up becoming a new investigator. Wow! All within 15 minutes of starting our scambio. We had a great time serving in Navigli. This scambio came at the perfect time for Sorella Nedelkov and me. We both learned so much and are rejuvenated to do missionary work!

On Friday after we got back with our companions, Sorella Nedelkov and tried to do some pass-bys. But they weren't home. So we decided to try to see a less active family we have visited a few times. We got on the bus and saw the cutest family. The little boy would wave to me when I smiled at him. We wanted to talk to the mom but she got 2 or 3 phone calls. FINALLY she got off the phone and Sorella Nedelkov started talking to her. I wasn't in the right spot to talk to her too, so I started talking to the little boy. They were just so cute! Hopefully we'll be able to see them again. After they got off we were talking about them and then realized that we didn't really know where we were going! We went WAY past our stop since we were talking to them. So we just decided to stay on until the end of the line. After a few stops another family got on, and I started talking to them. We invited them to the English class we have on Thursdays and they were super interested. We are hoping they will come! Amazing! 2 families on one bus! This bus is a miracle bus. We need to ride it more often. Its actually the same one we found Romolo on! Who is still doing awesome! The Anziani are teaching him and he is progressing really well.! They say to dig where the gold is. :) I think this bus brings people who are prepared for the gospel!

Its so interesting how some days are FULL of miracles and some days hardly anything happens... Like Saturday. It was a hard day. We tried to visit several people who weren't home. and we ended up waiting for buses and metros for quite some time. They were slower than usual. Some days are just slow, but Sunday made up for it because too many things happened to count!

First off in church a lady named Francesca came in. She actually grew up in the church but hadn't been there for awhile. She's from New York but when she came to Italy as a model she got married and has lived here ever since. She had 3 kids and is Christian. She loves the Bible and is a faithful church attender. Just in different churches. She feels though that she should return to this church now. We're going to work with her and her family. Her kids are actually all members and her husband. They just never come to church. Also a lady and her 2 little girls just randomly walked in the church. They speak English and the Italians had no idea what to do with them. She just came in and asked if there was place she could pray. We brought her in the gospel principles class where we were talking about prophets. She loved it! We are going to teach her more! She is so cute!

After church we visited a member, Rita Dal Zotto, and had lunch with her. She is so amazing. She loves genealogy. She lives in a little town outside of Milano. So it took us almost an hour to get there. But its ok because we got to go past a canal and see the country side a little bit! I love it! There was a bike path and so many people were out riding their bikes. I hope someday I can be in a biking area! :) We are trying to visit a lot of members because when we call them they ask "you want to visit ME?" and we're like YES! of course! She wants to start a family history thing at the library by her house and then will have us teach the people who she becomes friends with through that. We saw her last night at the church because we were there for FHE and she was there for family history stuff and she was just so happy to see us!

Later that day we were able to visit other people and talk to other people on the street. Other small miracles that I'll have to tell you about another day. But that night as we were waiting for the bus we were trying to remember all the great things that happened that day. We couldn't believe how blessed we were. We got on the bus and were sitting there. Then these guys got on and sat at the back of the bus kind of behind us. And they just smelled of cigarettes and alcohol.. We felt to move to different seats at the front of the bus. There was only one other guy on the bus besides the ones in the back. He was in a seat in front of us. At a stop he moved past us and I thought he got off. Sorella Nedelkov looked back and said, "Phew he didn't get off!" She didn't want to be alone with the men at the back of the bus. I was like, that's weird. Why did he just move seats? Then he came up to us and asked if we were associated with the guys with tags, white shirts, and ties. And we said yes! Then we had a great conversation with him! He said he was atheist and that he lost his grandma when he was 13. We taught him about the plan of salvation and gave him a pamphlet. He was interested and we were able to pray with him and got his number. We are going to see him again this week! As we were leaving he even told us he doesn't smoke or drink or anything. Wow. That's great! It's amazing how God puts people right in our path who are prepared!

That also happened yesterday as we came up to a bus stop. Another lady just started talking to us and wants to meet with us! I know this is God's work and He truly loves His children. We are trying to be consecrated missionaries to prepare for Anziano Bednar and we can see the miracles because of that. I love it!

Well I hope you have a great week! I will be staying here for another transfer with Sorella Nedelkov! We love it here! I can't believe a whole transfer has already gone by here! We're not the youngest batch anymore!

Vi Voglio un mondo di bene!

Sorella Dixon

Other small tidbits about Italy:

Pizza delivery cars are actually pizza delivery motorcycles with a box on the back.

There are just about as many men's fashion stores as there are women's

Sometimes accordion and trumpet players will just get on the metro and play. And they are good! I love it!

To say sweet dreams say "Sogni d'oro!" which actually means "dreams of gold!"

Zone Training

"This is called the Bone Church.

YES, those are real bones".

This is the description of the Bone Chapel.

"The church of medieval origin stands on the site of an ancient cemetery, which occupied the Garden known as the Brolo. Rebuilt several times (it was destroyed by the collapse of

The old bell tower of Santo Stefano in 1642 and by fire in 1712), the building, designed by

Carol Gineseppe Merlo, was finished in 1754. It has a central floor plan and dome with

Elliptical oculi. The imposing octagonal lantern dominates the square. An atrium leads

To the Ossuary Chapel, a square chamber with frescoed ceiling whose very architectural

Detail is clad in human bones. Reconstructed in the late 17^th century to the original medievalDesign, the chapel has its own front, built in 1776, which faces onto the narrow Vivolo di SanBernardino, formerly known as Dead Man’s Alley (a reminder of the cemetery that once occupied the site)."