The Nativity in the Corner

Ciao Tutti!!

Buon Natale in about 2 days!! :D I hope everyone has the best

Christmas ever! Even though it has been so different not being home

for Christmas and around family, I have really loved this Christmas

season growing closer to Christ and thinking about Him ALL the time in

EVERYTHING that we do. Christmas season in the mission is so great. It

makes it so easy to talk to people and share a little christmas share

with everyone :)

I want to thank everyone for all the great birthday wishes I got!! I'm

so sorry if I'm not able to respond to everyone, but know that I loved

them all! You are all so sweet! It made my birthday that much greater!

Gelato for my birthday!

So last Friday we had a zone training which was great and then that

evening we had serata familiare in the church and our investigator

Chiara came. It was a good FHE where we talked a lot about the savior.

The spirit was strong.

Saturday we had a great day! It started well where we went out to the

park for about an hour before weekly planning and ended up being able

to show the Christmas video to some pepole and giving out pass along

cards. Little miracles! Later we were able to go to caroling in centro

with some members! That was fun :) So centro is such a busy place,

especially at this time of year. There are stores everywhere so people

are doing their Christmas shopping. And then on Saturday there just

happened to be lots of people in the palazzo by the duomo who were

playing music or doing different things.  There's the tree

The tree in Centro

with lights and other decorations up. It was pretty crazy. We were

trying to figure our where to sing. We decided to go in this area just

off from the main place and tucked away in a little corner is a

Nativity set up. I would've never known it was there if we hadn't have

decided to walk over there. There were some benches some ways off with

a few people sitting. It was a lot quieter there and we decided to

sing there by the nativity. It was actually pretty neat because people

would come in and take a look at the nativity and then stop to hear us

sing for a bit. There weren't as many people there as the other place

but we were still able to touch a few people. And then we went out and

we could hear the music again and there were lights and people

everywhere. It reminded me of how our Savior was born. In a

tiny stable that no one really knew about. Only the humble shepherds

and His parents were there. He wasn't in the center of everything and

didn't look for attention. It was kind of like he was tucked away in a

corner as we found him in Bologna.

The nativity in the corner

Then we headed to the church for the ward Christmas party! We ate good

food and listened to good music. Several members made lasagna.... mmmm

mmmm good. It was probably the best lasagna I've had! And of course

the bishop kept feeding us so much food! Then he told us that as a

tradition they have the missionaries go up and sing. So we just did a

little song and then some members dressed up as Santa and came in carrying

huge bags and boxes. I thought they were gifts they were giving out to

everyone but they just plopped them in front of us. What?! The ward

gave each companionship a HUGE bag of food and another gift that we

haven't opened yet in a big box. We were NOT expecting that! They were

sooo nice! Our cupboards and fridge are well stocked :) That was

pretty fun to carry home haha :)

"All the food we got from the ward. The big yellow box in the back is a sweet bread like treat called Pandoro.
On Sunday they didn't have Sacrament bread, so they used Pandoro left over from the ward Christmas party.
Only in Italy."

A miracle that I want to tell happened on Monday. It was the evening

and we were trying to do some less-active passbys. We tried one and

found out she didn't live there anymore so now we just needed to

figure out how to get to the next one. Sorella Russell had the map and

was leading us and somehow we just kept ending up on the EXACT street

that we needed to be on, without really realizing how we got there.

Everything was working out perfectly--even the bus that came just a

minute after we got to the bus stop even though it was supposed to

come in 10 minutes. So I just knew that there was a reason we needed

to go to this passby. So we get there and it reminds me of dorms or

something. There were a ton of apartments. We looked for the name of

the person on the citofino, but no luck. She didn't live there

anymore. So we start ringing other people. If she wasn't there, then

there was someone else we were supposed to talk to. We get let in the

building and start going to people's doors that we could tell were

home. Eventually we get to a door and the lady is sweeping the

doorstep. But she didn't want to talk. Then we get to another door and

a lady answers, but she wasn't interested. Then we get to another door

and a lady answers and says that she's busy but then we ask if we can

just show her a 2 minute video and she decides to let us in and gets

us chairs. And we end up sharing the Christmas video and teaching the

whole restoration! And they were so interested! So these people are

from Romania. There were a bunch of people there because they are

brothers and cousins married with babies. And they were just all

visiting each other. They love God and learning about Christ and

everything and had really good questions. It was such a miracle!!! We

should be able to see them again tonight (speriamo bene :)  We left

just in awe. We were definitely guided to these people. It was a great

miracle after not that much that has been going on lately. We have

talked to lots of people and have tried to find people, but really

it's God who guides us to those who are ready. Another part of this is

prayer. Pretty much every miracle I've seen on my mission comes AFTER

prayer. And this time it was after tiny little prayers of the heart on

the way there. I was saying little prayers asking for guidance to the

house we needed to go to and an opportunity to talk to someone who

needed the gospel and Heavenly Father sure answered those!

I know that if we pray for miracles and for little opportunities to

serve and help someone this Christmas season God will truly answer and

give us those opportunities.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and remembers the tiny babe born

in the humble manger two thousand years ago.

Buon Natale e Vi voglio bene :D

Sorella Dixon

"Stamping a bunch of Christmas pass along cards"

"Lights by our apartment"

Lights in Centro